Disclaimer: I have a bunch of work that I have to do which should be enough proof that I do not own Harry Potter.
Also, yes, Draco's a dick atm but he will grow up at some point (character development and all)
Harry had no clue how to start the letter to Luke. It wasn't exactly easy to just say that 'hey, so turns out I'm kind of really famous in the wizarding world, because I defeated this dark wizard who was trying to destroy the world when I was a baby. Also my parents, turns out Vernon was lying when he said that they were drunkards... honestly I have no idea why I believed him in the first place... apparently they were great wizards who fought against this dark wizard until he murdered them. Oh and yeah, so the entire wizarding world is extremely worried because their "saviour", the boy-who-lived - aka me - is missing. Except that I'm right here at Hogwarts. But they're all scared he's been kidnapped by Death Eaters - who are basically just really bad guys. So that's my news, what about you, how is everything? Miss you. Harry.'
So that's why Harry was procrastinating writing to his adopted father. He was still reeling from the information that he was this famous icon in the wizarding world who'd ended an eleven year long war when he was a baby.
He was also still trying to process the information that his parents were good people and good parents. He felt so stupid for believing the Dursleys' lies, and so guilty for how he continually slandered his parents for abandoning him, and being drunk-nobodies. It apparently wasn't even their fault that he ended up with the Dursleys in the first place, - that responsibility fell on his headmaster, Dumbledore, who Harry now officially despised.
Harry had spent the last week trying to read up on everything he could find out about, well, about him, and He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named (who Harry literally couldn't say his name as nobody dared to speak it out loud, so he had no clue what the name of the person who'd murdered his parents and tried to murder him, was) and the war, and his parents.
James and Lily Potter. Apparently they'd only be 18 when they were married, they were 20 when they had Harry and had died only a little more than a year later when they were only 21. Apparently they'd been good people, James was head-boy and a chaser on the Gryffindor quidditch team, and Lily had been head-girl. Harry couldn't help but mourn these parents that he should have had, his parents that had died for him, to protect him. Instead he'd been raised by people who'd nearly killed him, and had made Harry believe that his parents were worthless scum.
Harry used to think he couldn't ever be angrier at Vernon and Petunia than he already was. He was wrong.
He didn't know what to do either. He didn't know whether he should reveal who he was, or just keep hiding. He didn't want to be this famous symbol for hope, he didn't need those expectations nor did he need everyone to stare at him in the hallways. He just wanted to be normal. Normal was all he'd ever wanted to be.
And with that Harry decided, he'd be normal, he'd live the life he wanted instead of doing what everyone else wanted him to do. He'd keep his secret from everyone. He smirked slightly at the thought of Dumbledore - the man who'd left him with his abusive relatives - running around trying to find Harry Potter without realising that he was under his nose the entire time.
Its going to give me so much enjoyment this year seeing Dumbles trying to figure out where Harry Potter is,
Then realise he was right under his nose all along.
That's what the sorting hat had told him on his first night at Hogwarts, and two months later Harry finally understood what that mean, and he couldn't help but agree with the hat.
"Hey!" Harry called across the corridor as he caught sight of the bushy-haired witch. He'd just had potions with Snape, and whilst he decided he did not like the man at all, he still loved potions. All of the cooking practice he had from being the Dursleys' slave was useful, and Harry was still surprised at how simple the subject was. It didn't require skill like charms did, or just general magical power like transfiguration, all it really required was common sense and concentration. Harry couldn't help but agree with Snape when he'd predicted most of them would be 'dunderheads' - he had a lot of trouble figuring out why everyone else found potions so much harder than him, apparently Neville had even melted a cauldron the other day - Harry had no clue how that was possible.
Neville was walking behind Hermione with Seamus - the Irish boy who always seemed to have soot on his face as though he'd just blown something up (considering what Harry had seen of him in Charms, he wouldn't be that surprised if that was true) - and Hermione was walking on her own like usual. The girl hadn't seemed to fit in to any group in Gryffindor - Lavender and Parvati more or less kept to themselves, always gossiping about some celebrity quidditch player or new clothing line at Gladrags, and the boys all stuck together in a tight group (though Harry wasn't sure how close Neville really was to them).
The situation had always been a bit of a problem, Harry hated seeing anyone be excluded or upset but he also understood that Hermione didn't have an easy-going personality, and she seemed to clash with almost every other Gryffindor in her year (even Neville and her didn't get along well, something about her telling him off for messing up a potion - as though he'd done it on purpose). That's why before Halloween he'd more or less ignored the situation, hoping that it would eventually work out.
Then Halloween came and along with it came a troll. The problem had reached its climax when all the Gryffindors went up to their common room, and none of them had realised that Hermione Granger wasn't there. Instead the girl had been crying in a bathroom, still upset about Ron's cruel words from earlier in the day (whilst she was thankful for what Harry said, it didn't cancel out what Ron had said), and, unfortunately for Hermione, she'd been found in the bathroom by the troll.
Only by the quick thinking and excellent spell-work of some of the Hogwarts professors, was Hermione saved from what would have other wise been an almost certain death, and not a nice one by that (Harry couldn't think of many worse then being bludgeoned to death by a troll).
The lone-Gryffindor had been rather shaken up by the ordeal, so after that (partially in attempts to distracting himself from finding out he was The Harry Potter) Harry had made an effort to be friends with the girl - which wasn't always easy when she acted like she was superior than him. Harry would be the first to admit that Hermione was very clever, but the girl didn't seem to realise that she wasn't the only one with brains who could read a book and do well in class.
Terry had agreed to help him with his plan to befriend Hermione (and to help her realise that her overbearing attitude wasn't very friendly) so the two caught up to her as they walked to charms - one of the classes they shared with the Gryffindors.
Harry had quickly decided that charms was one of his favourite classes - though he was a lot better in other classes such as transfiguration and defence against the dark arts - he liked the quick natured aspect to the class, and he liked how practical it was, he also really liked Professor Flitwick - but above all he liked not sharing the class with Slytherin.
Draco Malfoy had become a thorn up Harry's backside. Whilst the latter wasn't too fussed about Harry in general - the (in Malfoy's mind) muggleborn not being worthy enough of his attention - his general attitude was so pompous and up himself. The boy had clearly been spoiled, and if Harry got a knut every time that boy said 'My father will hear about this' or 'Do you know who my father is?' then Harry would be extremely rich - well... he was already rich according to his vaults in Gringotts, but he'd be richer.
Harry also got extremely angry by the casual racism that the blonde seemed to throw it them but after Terry had laughed one time when Malfoy had gone off on an anti-muggleborn rant Harry and the other Ravenclaws realised that the best way to mess with Malfoy was to not give him any attention. The spoiled brat couldn't bare anyone thinking he wasn't the most important thing in the world.
Now every time Malfoy said anything offensive in front of them the Ravenclaws would either ignore him or laugh at what he said, effectively rattling the self-proclaimed Slytherin prince. This had led to Malfoy backing off, and choosing easier targets in the form of the hot-headed Gryffindors, and the Hufflepuffs who were too nice to properly defend themselves (though Harry had noticed Ernie Macmillan starting to get more and more pissed off at Malfoy, so perhaps that niceness wouldn't last long).
Neville, however, was still Malfoy's biggest target. The Gryffindor (though Harry really liked him and considered him one of his best-friends), was a bit of a coward (ironic considering 'brave' was one of Gryffindor's most important traits) and Malfoy saw him as easy pickings. Though Harry tried to help Neville, he wasn't in his house, and wasn't around enough to always be there.
"Hey, Harry, Terry." Hermione greeted in an uncharacteristically meek voice pulling Harry out of his train of thoughts.
"Hermione." Terry nodded.
"Looking forwards to charms?" Harry asked Hermione, as they started walking towards the classroom, which was in the South tower, a bit of a trek from the dungeons. The bustling hallway crowds made it difficult for the first years to have a conversation, the older kids always walked along the middle, having no care in the world as they broke up groups of the younger kids, leaving Harry, Terry and Hermione weaving in between the older students whilst still trying to maintain some form of communication.
"Very much so." The brunette started nodding fervently, clearly eager to go the class. "The syllabus dictates that we should be learning the Wand-Lighting Charm, Lumos," Hermione rambled quickly, and Harry struggled to not send a look in Terry's direction at the overly enthusiastic nature of the girl. "It sounds pretty simple - I read up on it of course - but it should be really useful, especially when I want to read at night when the others have gone to bed and the lights are off."
Soon they managed to get to the classroom, as Hermione gave them a history about the spell, raving about the inventor of the spell was disputed over whether it was a worker at the ministry of magic in Britain, or a German wizard. She also then told them how the German inventor had later been proven to be lying, and had confessed it.
After they got into class and sat down Flitwick started giving them a similar speech about the spell (without the unnecessary history and politics surrounding its invention).
"The charm is simple." The professor told them, "But like all it requires your uttermost concentration. Take care not to accidentally set your wand alight otherwise you'll have to find your way back to Ollivander's to be getting a new one." Harry tried to resist himself from looking back at Seamus at those words, knowing that if anyone was going to accidentally burn their wand it would be the fiery Gryffindor.
After Flitwick showed them the incantation and wand movement Harry started to focus on the spell. Unlike with the spell from the week before, (Wingardium Leviosa), Harry wanted to ace this one and prove to himself that he was good at charms, whilst also remembering Terry's advice of 'concentration' from the week before. That's how he'd managed to levitate his feather, so Harry figured if he tried really hard he might be able to get his wand to illuminate on his first try (and maybe earn some points for Ravenclaw in the process - that would help in the competition him and Terry made over who could get the most points before Christmas).
Harry made sure to concentrate, closing his eyes and focussing on the image of his wand light up, repeating the spell in his head over and over again when all of a sudden he heard a gasp. He open his eyes and whipped his head round in the direction of the gasp (also known as Terry), fully expecting to see his wand lit up and a proud (but slightly smug) smile on his face. He looked at Terry's wand in confusion, it wasn't lit up, with that information he came to his second conclusion - that Hermione had completed the spell. He turned around but was again met with only confusion as he saw her wand, not lit up, he made eye-contact with her, only to see her looking back at him, her eyes flickering between his face and his wand, full of surprise (and maybe jealousy?).
"Mr Reynolds," Harry turned around at the sound of Professor Flitwick's voice. "Did you say the spell out loud?" The professor asked, looking at his wand. Harry gasped as he realised his wand was lit and besides him Terry shook his head.
"He didn't say anything, sir." Terry replied for him, and Harry blushed as he realised that the entire class was now staring at him.
"A non-verbal incantation." Flitwick said, almost jumping up and down as his eyes lit up in glee. "Quite incredible! Very impressive Mr Reynolds!" Harry couldn't help but smile as Flitwick praised him, though he was still slightly confused as to what happened - a non verbal incantation Flitwick had said, Harry hadn't even known that was a thing; wasn't the point of spells the fact that they were spoken out loud? Otherwise why do you have to say different things out loud for each of them if it is about the intention and not about the words? "Fifty points to Ravenclaw for an excellent display of magic of sixth year level magic."
Sixth year? Harry's eyes nearly bulged out of his head at that.
"It was just an accident sir." Harry tried to explain as Terry let out a low impressed whistle, and the rest of the class started whispering to each other.
"A fluke or not, that is a very difficult piece of magic. It requires incredible mental discipline and concentration, as well as an immense amount of power, Mr Reynolds. Very impressive indeed." Flitwick continued. "The last first year to perform nonverbal magic," The half-goblin let out a toothy grin, "Was Albus Dumbledore." He said, and the whispers only seemed to get louder.
The entire class seemed to stall for a second as Flitwick compared Harry to Dumbledore, but Harry couldn't help but let out a small scowl as he was compared to the man - having already decided that he would hate him - but luckily for Harry, Flitwick had already turned around and resumed walking around the classroom, though noticeably grinning widely and reiterating how incredible it was under his breath.
"Sixth year... Dumbledore... Wow Harry." Terry rambled.
"It was only an accident." Harry replied adamantly.
"Still... That's so awesome."
"Everyone's looking at me." Harry complained in a hushed voice so only Terry could hear him.
"Because they're in awe of you - like me." Terry responded. "Probably jealous too, I certainly am." Terry continued with a wistful smile.
"It was an accident." Harry repeated and the two fell into silence, Terry realising how uncomfortable Harry was with the situation, and trying to respect that by not continuing to talk about it.
"Fifty points." Terry broke the silence, sighing disappointedly, trying to change the topic to one Harry would be more comfortable with. "I've definitely lost the competition now." The boy groaned, and with that the tension Harry felt from being the focus of so much attention seemed to. (Terry let out a subtle smile as he saw Harry relax again).
"I win!" Harry exclaimed as he let out a fake-maniacal laugh and Terry shoved him playfully, before returning to his wand with a renewed vigour, concentration clear on his face as he performed the spell.
The conversation was not over. In reality it had only just begun, and Hogwarts was buzzing with the news that a first year had performed a nonverbal spell. The Ravenclaws kept talking to Harry and praising him, as well as boasting about how they were sure to break Slytherin's seven year streak and finally win the house cup again. Some of the Hufflepuffs stopped him to congratulate him in the corridors between class - the Slytherins and Gryffindors completely ignored him (but to be honest Harry preferred that as opposed to the extra attention he was getting).
The teachers started treating him slightly differently as well. McGonagall started expecting a lot more from him in class, Quirrell would nervously stutter around him whilst trying to make light conversation and Snape would make little jibes about Harry being a show-off. Harry even caught Albus Dumbledore staring at him inquisitively at dinner, he quickly turned away as he made eye contact with the headmaster,
Though his plan to be normal had failed, Harry certainly preferred to be famous (well, Hogwarts-famous at least) in this way then by being for surviving when his parents had died.