[CHAPTER 2 - FIRST YEAR]
1 Sept
[REMINDER: HEAD FOR PLATFORM 9 ¾ FOR THE HOGWARTS EXPRESS BY 10:00]
Harry blinked away the reminder, like she could ever forget! The past month living at the Wolf's Den with Remus had been the best month of her life, which is one of the many reasons she was not looking forward to leaving today. Not only would she be leaving behind her garden and the library half full of books she hadn't gotten to yet (the other half she had), but she would have to leave Remus behind as well. Last night had been her first transformation with him and he had explained to her how the Wolfsbane potion worked. He still insisted on locking himself in his cage in the basement just in case, but Harry sat outside of the cage and read outloud from her textbooks in an effort to keep him company and to prepare for school.
She had also gained a few levels and learned some new skills from Remus during her stay. He had also told her to check her Status upon waking every morning, it was a good habit to be in.
"Stats, please?"
HARRIET POTTER
SPECIES: Witch
SUBCLASS: N/A TBD
LEVEL: 3
HP: 115/115
MP: 100/100
STATUS: Content
SKILLS:
IDENTIFY LVL 1
PERCEPTION LVL 1
GARDENING LVL 5
COOKING LVL 5
SPEED READING LVL 7
Harry was rather surprised on her first full day with Remus that he helped her to unlock level 3 on both Cooking and Gardening, and Speed Reading at level 5. Remus explained that if you had skills to transfer from your life pre-species acceptance that it has you start at a higher level to account for your already gained skills. In her free time over the past month she had even upped all of those skills by 2 more levels, each! She was quite proud of herself. She had also gained 2 levels to her main class from gaining various experience doing things around the house and from the lessons that Remus had been teaching her. The past month had been enlightening for the young witchling, to say the very least. Remus taught her not only what to expect and how things are different now for her as compared to a life of a muggle, but about her family as well. He had even gifted her some magical photographs of her parents that now had a permanent spot on her nightstand so she could say goodnight to them each evening.
She noticed she gained 5 health points per level, but that her magic points had not yet moved. After asking, Remus explained that she hadn't actually used any magic yet, but once she did that level would go up quickly. Each subject taught at Hogwarts was a new Skill for her to unlock, and that was just the beginning.
The lessons he gave her featured the wizarding world and the guidance system and how to use them the best that she could at her levels. She now knew that she had a map she could reference for places that she had been previously and that it would come in handy once she got to Hogwarts. Apparently, he and her father and their friends had based a tangible map off of the guidance map, and had even added more to it. He was disappointed to tell her they had lost it their seventh year though. They had also practised using their party chat, and Harry had promised to reach out once a week to let Remus know how she was adjusting and if she needed anything. They could have gotten an owl, but with Harry's unease at heading out into wizarding public again, they had opted out for now.
Remus had also told Harry the story of her parents and the fates of their two friends Peter and Sirius. And of Lord Voldemort. He had also spoken briefly about Albus Dumbledore, the headmaster of her new school, and told her to expect him to ask to speak to her after she arrived. Harry nearly had a panic attack at first, a visit to the headmaster and she hadn't even arrived yet! But Remus calmed her and explained a little bit more in depth to his role in her life. While upset, Harry supposed she could understand the thoughts behind him placing her with her aunt. All parties were very happy to discover that Dumbledore was able to transfer the wards to the Den that first night she stayed. While Remus was not her mother's blood relative, he was in fact a "blood" brother to James (oh the silly things teenage boys do unsupervised) and the blood wards accepted this with the fact that Harry now considered the cottage her home instead of Privet Drive.
Harry sat up and took a look around her bedroom doing a mental checklist of all she wanted to bring and that she had indeed packed it all. At the foot of her bed sat a large, very well made yet feminine, trunk. Harry and Remus had made that trip back to Gringott's the following week after her arrival and Harry had gotten the trunk from the Potter vault. Remus had told her that it had belonged to her mother; while a worn, more masculine style one with some obvious spell scorch marks behind it had been her father's. With Bloodaxe's assistance, she and Remus were able to sort through the books and diaries in both and made use of the expansion charms inside of Lily's trunk to fit anything useful for Harry to take with her. Bloodaxe had also given her a complete inventory of everything in the vault. It wasn't something she had taken a look at quite yet, but she would soon. When she was ready.
During that trip to Gringott's, they had also read the Potter's will. It had been sealed and never opened. Imagine her surprise when it explicitly stated for her not to go to "her rotten sister Petunia and her whale of a husband" and instead gave a list of people in order who were to care for her in the event of their deaths.
"Number one on the list is Alice Longbottom and her husband Frank. Alice is listed as your godmother. Unfortunately, they were attacked a few days after your parents and now lie catatonic in Saint Mungo's. Moving to number two, it is listed as Sirius Black and Remus Lupin. Apparently, 'Sirius can't be trusted alone to raise our little Harriet, so Remus must be included to keep him from letting her run wild.' The third person on the list was scratched out a few times and rewritten, but it appears to read 'Severus Snape.'" Remus had made a face that he smelled something rather foul to that name. Harry made a mental note to ask him about it later. "Well, I am here now and I am staking my claim to raise Harriet as her parents decreed in their will."
They had also found out that Harry owned several properties including the house in Godric's Hollow and the Pottery, the family manor, on the Cornish coastline. Remus told her it is where her paternal grandparents lived and where James had grown up. Once he had married Lily, they had wanted a smaller place to start before they moved to the Pottery. Unfortunately, history did not have this come to be and the Pottery has sat uninhabited for the past ten years. They made plans to visit it together next summer. To Remus' not so surprise, the Potter's had not only left him the house he was currently living in but also a large sum of galleons to "help take care of Harriet, since you won't take anything for yourself".
With one last look around her modest bedroom that she was slowly making her own, she tapped her newly acquired trunk with her wand.
[WOULD YOU LIKE TO PUT YOUR KEY ITEM: SCHOOL TRUNK INTO YOUR INVENTORY?]
One more tap had it disappear with a puff of glitter.
Harry giggled as she walked out of her room to get some breakfast.
"I hope I never get used to that."
_HP&DQ_
It was on this morning that Harry decided that so far, she was not a fan of wizarding modes of transportation. She had side-along apparated and nearly lost her dinner as well as fallen flat on her face being spit out of the floo at the Leaky on their trip to Gringotts. This morning Remus gave her a few choices and they decided to give the Knight Bus a call. Boy, did Harry quickly regret that decision.
Ten horrifying and death defying minutes later, the two of them escaped from the Knight Bus, and headed to the train station. Harriet adjusted her newly transfigured sunhat (it was now black and new looking with a new witch-like look) and the nondescript pair of black wizarding robes with her Hogwarts uniform already underneath and reached for Remus' hand. He squeezed it in return and pulled her towards the platform divider of 9 and 10.
"Now, the trick here is Harry, that we've got to go at it at a run. You'll have to do it by yourself, the wall just isn't wide enough for the both of us at once. I'll go first to show you, and then you follow right after okay? Make sure you move once you cross over so the next person in doesn't bump into you."
Harry watched as Remus nonchalantly jogged to the barrier and with the blink of her eyes he was gone. She stepped a bit closer to the wall and nervously glanced around herself. Closing her eyes, she took off running.
The expected SPLAT never happened and instead she is awashed with the warm hug of magic and the feeling of the air around her had become different. Opening her eyes, she couldn't help the uncharacteristic (although it was becoming more so this past month) huge grin.
[WELCOME TO PLATFORM 9 ¾ USER! PLEASE HEAD ABOARD AND FIND A COMPARTMENT. THE TRIP TO HOGWARTS IN NORTHERN SCOTLAND WILL TAKE APPROX. 0600HR. SNACKS WILL BE AVAILABLE AT HALF TRIP.]
[USERS ARE REMINDED SPELLCASTING ON THE PLATFORM OR ON THE TRAIN IS NOT PERMITTED FOR STUDENTS.]
[KEY LOCATION ON MAP UNLOCKED: PLATFORM 9 ¾. YOU CAN NOW CHOOSE TO FAST TRAVEL TO THIS LOCATION FOR EASY PICK UP AND RETURN FROM HOLIDAY BREAKS SUCH AS CHRISTMAS AND EASTER. THIS FUNCTION IS ONLY AVAILABLE TO STUDENTS WHO REQUEST PERMISSION FROM THEIR HEADS OF HOUSE.]
After a moment of reading to the side of the barrier, Harry dismissed her message windows and joined Remus once more. Together they walked towards the crimson steam engine and found Harry an empty compartment where she unloaded her trunk from her key items. Harry walked back to the platform to say goodbye to Remus. Unfamiliar with the feelings swirling through her, she threw herself into his arms and gave him a bone crushing hug. She had never missed anyone before, and she would miss her wolfy uncle very much until she saw him again at Christmas. He had made such a wonderful change in her life in such a short time.
As they were saying their tearful goodbyes, Remus suddenly jerked his head towards the barrier back to the muggle platforms. There, a large redheaded family was filing through before they all walked over as a group. Harry spotted a young girl holding her mothers hand tightly, plus a set of twins older than Harry whispering to each other rather deviously, a lost looking boy about Harry's age, and the eldest brother with them talking to a man who had to be their father.
Clear as day, a large fat rat popped out of the lost looking boy's front shirt pocket, and Remus' nostrils flared.
"Harry, go ahead and head on to the compartment we found for you earlier. I need to have a quick chat with Arthur Weasley. If I see Hermione I'll tell her where you are, okay?" Harry could sense something wasn't quite right, but she trusted Remus to tell her if it was important. So, she gave him one last hug and went back to the train.
_HP&DQ_
Whilst saying goodbye to Harry, Remus was suddenly hit by a scent he had not smelled in over 10 years. One he didn't expect to smell again. There were only so many reasons why he could possibly….
"Arthur! Can I borrow you for a moment? Before you send the kids off?" Remus had quickly come up behind the balding man and made sure to stay out of sight of the children.
"Remus Lupin, isn't it? What can I help you with?"
Remus flicked his wand out and sent a few nonverbal spells to the rat in the youngest boy's hands. It flashed yellow, started to panic, and then froze solid. The boy, whose name turned out to be Ronald, dropped the rat in his shock. Remus lunged and grabbed it tightly, staring at it's missing toe. He then sent out a messenger patronus that bounced off to the ministry in downtown.
"Identify!" The sheer force of Remus's desperate shout burst him through to level 5 of the skill, previously level 3.
[+1 IDENTIFY SKILL LEVEL UP! +1 IDENTIFY SKILL LEVEL UP! NEW LEVEL - 5 (HIGH). YOU CAN NOW SEE ALL AVAILABLE INFORMATION UPON REQUEST. USE CAREFULLY.]
PETER PETTIGREW
SPECIES: Wizard LVL 23
SUBCLASS: TRAITOR (LOCKED) (ACHIEVED BY QUEST UNLOCK)
ANIMAGUS: Brown Rat LVL 12
STATUS: Petrified (Spell), Malnutrition (Chronic), Absolute Panic
"Arthur, I'm afraid there is a bit of a problem with your son's rat…"
_HP&DQ_
As it turned out, Hermione had gotten on the train on the other side at the same time as Harry. Harry showed her to her reserved compartment and the two settled in to talk about the books they had sent back and forth via post the last month of the summer. Neither girl paid attention to the platform they had just left or they would have noticed quite a commotion going on by the floos.
About twenty minutes into the trip, the compartment door opened. A slightly pudgy, round faced boy peered inside.
"Do you mind if I sit with you two? Everywhere else is full," he kept his blonde head tilted down while he spoke, Harry felt that perhaps he was even shier than she was.
Hermione eagerly nodded her head and pointed to the seats across from them.
"I'm Hermione Granger and this is my friend Harry Potter, what is your name?"
The boy came inside and sat down, "I'm Neville Longbottom," after a moment he seemed to register the second name she said, and his brown eyes flicked up to Harry's for a moment. She saw his eyes glance to her scarred forehead before they met her emerald eyes again. She had pulled her sunhat off once she and Hermione had gotten settled in. She hadn't the nerves to talk to Hermione about them, but they had briefly discussed her past when Hermione realised she was THAT Harriet Potter.
One of the many good things that stemmed from staying with Remus was that he happened to have a hoard of scar cream on hand. It removed the majority of the small scars from her body, but some of the larger ones on her back remained. For the first time in a long time she could expose her arms and legs without people staring.
"There was a commotion going on by the floo arrivals when my Gran and I arrived, it slowed us down to the train," Neville said by way of explanation.
"It's alright! I noticed you are already in your plain school robes, does that mean you are going to be a First Year too?" Hermione asked him excitedly.
Neville nods.
"My family thought I was a squib for the longest time, I didn't show any accidental magic until my great Uncle Algie accidently dropped me out of the third story window. I bounced, thankfully. My uncle Algie was so happy he even gave me this old toad to take with me." At his words he pulled a warty toad out of his robe pocket. It gave a gurgle.
'Identify.' Harry thought to herself. Remus had told her a good way to level up her Identify Skill was to use it on magical creatures that wouldn't notice, or be offended.
TREVOR THE TOAD
SPECIES: Rhaebo Guttatus
AKA: Smooth Sided Toad
FAMILIAR BOND LVL 2 - Neville Longbottom
Harry gave the toad a soft pat. "He's kind of cute I guess?" Hermione giggled, which helped settle some of the nerves in the compartment and Neville smiled at the two girls.
"Do you know which house you want to go to?" Hermione asked him.
"Well, my mum was in Hufflepuff and my dad was in Gryffindor. Honestly I'll take any house as long as they would have me," he informed them. This made Harry think back to her parent's will.
"They wouldn't happen to be Alice and Frank Longbottom, would they?"
Neville looked startled and then a bit sad.
"Yeah. I live with my gran now though," he didn't elaborate as to why, and while Harry knew thanks to Bloodeaxe she decided not to say anything. It was his choice if he ever decided to share.
"Well, I just found out that your mum was my godmother. We could have grown up together, that would have been neat," she told him and gave him a sad smile. He looked back up at her in surprise, but returned that smile with gusto.
"I think I'd like to be in Gryffindor, Albus Dumbledore was in there you know and he is the greatest wizard alive!" Hermione announced with conviction.
Harry contemplated that for a moment.
"My uncle Moony told me there is no good or bad house, but instead there were good and bad people in each one of them."
Hermione and Neville both sat with her in a companionable silence for a moment.
"I think I would also be happy in a house with either of my new friends," she added after some thought.
Both Hermione and Neville turned and gave her beaming smiles.
_HP&DQ_
Neville had brought a game of exploding snap with him and he taught the two girls how to play. Halfway through the trip, the snack trolley stopped by and the three used some loose galleons to buy one of everything on the cart. Hermione's parents were dentists apparently, so her exposure to sugar of any kind was lower than even Harry's. Needless to say, once the scarlett engine had pulled up at the Hogsmeade station the three pre-teens were dressed and bouncing with energy for the sorting feast.
[WELCOME TO THE HOGSMEADE STATION USER. HOGSMEADE VILLAGE IS OFF LIMITS TO ALL STUDENTS UNDER YEAR THREE. PLEASE PROCEED FORWARD TO THE CASTLE. KEY LOCATION UNLOCKED ON MAP: HOGSMEADE VILLAGE.]
The three stuck together as they moved forward, following the crowd of older students towards what they could only assume would be the castle. It was a little hard to tell now that the sun had gone down.
"FIRS' YEARS THIS WAY! NO MORE THAN FOUR TO A BOAT!" Came a booming voice from the largest man Harry had ever seen. He had one of the same floating orbs above him that the barkeep in the Leaky did. She blinked her eyes owlishly at him and he gave her what was probably a smile, the beard made it hard to tell. She smiled back and shook her head as they continued onwards to the boats ahead. The three of them slid in and at the last minute another boy joined them. He had long hair like Neville that was pulled back in a low bunch, but where Neville's was blonde and straight, this boy's hair was in thick braids that hit just below his shoulders.
"Sorry! Hope you don't mind, all the others look full," he turned and gave them all a rather debonair smile, "Blaise Zabini at your service."
"I'm Hermione Granger, this is Neville Longbottom, and Harry Potter."
Blaise did a double take at Harry but just smiled at them all again.
"I don't know about you guys, but I am so excited!"
_HP&DQ_
Having all the first years wait outside for a mysterious amount of time seemed like an odd way to do things to Harry, but then again she was still new to all of this. While they were waiting, two boys near the back started arguing.
"Think you're special do you? Coming to the castle by floo instead of the train. Red hair, freckles, and hand me down clothes? You must be a Weasley. My father has always said you people have too many kids than you can pay for," drawled a rather pompous looking blonde boy with slicked back hair. He held his head at an angle that made it clear he thought something nearby smelled.
The redheaded boy across from him turned even redder than his hair. He was taller than the blonde and took a threatening step forward.
"Listen here Malfoy…."
At just that minute, a rather stern older witch in bottle green robes opened the large door they were standing near.
"I hope no one is causing trouble before they can even be sorted. Now, come come. This way please, single file." And she led them through to the next room.
Harry couldn't help but look around like a bit of an idiot with her mouth open. The enchanted ceiling was beautiful and Hermione took the moment to talk about it to her and Neville.
The stern witch from before led them to a small stool with a worn out hat. It then began to sing.
Harry blinked. Well, that was new. She wondered if it was rude to Identify the hat? At the end of the song, the stern witch who introduced herself as Deputy Headmistress McGonagall began to call them all one by one alphabetically by last name to be sorted by this….hat.
The first name, Abbott, Hannah, took a mere thirty seconds before the hat let out a bellow of HUFFLEPUFF!
Harry became a bit nervous, she wasn't sure how she felt about a hat that could apparently read her mind. The first one of their group to go was Hermione. She eagerly ran to the stool and jammed it down onto her head.
Several minutes later, and the hat still hadn't decried a house for her. It was obvious her and the hat were in an intense discussion, and finally it ripped open and called out,
"GRYFFINDOR!"
The next of the trio was Neville. He too, is almost a hat stall. But eventually it bellows,
"GRYFFINDOR!"
Neville looks incredibly surprised but rather pleased with himself as heads to the table with all the red and sits across from Hermione near the end.
The next name she recognized was the blonde boy from the hall earlier, Malfoy, Draco. The hat didn't even touch his head fully before it shouted Slytherin. Harry was very intrigued as to why some took longer to sort than others. Perhaps some had multiple qualities from different houses? How does the hat choose then? Harry is lost in her speculation for a moment, when suddenly,
"Potter, Harriet."
The whispering began softly, but as she moved up to the stool they increased in volume. Embarrassed by the attention, Harry quickly pulled the hat down on her head again.
"Ah, the Potter heir. What a lovely mind you have here child. It pains me to see the way you were treated, oh don't fret I am bound by secrecy - I cannot share what I see in your mind. You could be great in Gryffindor, brave like your parents. I see that path before you. I also see that you are cunning as well, and Slytherin would do you well to nurture that. You strive to learn, that much is clear as well. You also have a burning desire to be accepted. Truly I believe you could do great things in any of the four houses…"
"Can I be with my friends please?"
"Well, it was the house I was going to put you in anyway so…
GRYFFINDOR!" The last word was shouted out to the room. Her new housemates leapt to their feet and cheered for Harry. She walked quickly to take the open seat next to Hermione.
The three of them talked softly to their new housemates as the sorting continued.
"Weasley, Ronald!" Joined what were probably his brothers in Gryffindor with them as well, and their newest acquaintance "Zabini, Blaise!" was eventually sorted to Slytherin.
With a few words, "Hip, Bip, Pop, and Blop" the headmaster started the welcome feast for Harry's first year at Hogwarts.
[WELCOME TO HOGWARTS AND TO GRYFFINDOR HOUSE, USER!]
_HP&DQ_
