The opening and closing of a random door well after curfew would have been gloomy in a muggle context. In magical context, experimented wizards and witches will soon cast detection charms to identify a possible intruder. Only Alice Potter would throw a stinging hex.

"Oi!"

The terrible black hair of the Potter heir seemingly materialized out of thin air, the rest of his body following soon after. "What's was that!"

The younger one shrugged. "I should have the cloak. Your disillusionment charm is way better than mine."

Harry passed his hand through his hair, a bit ashamed. "You know that it's supposed to go to the heir of the house Al, I'm sorry, maybe…"

He never got to complete the phrase because his sister embraced him really tightly and really quickly, closing the gap between the two.

"I miss you" said Alice, a small thing of sadness lingering in her voice. "I want to go read to your bed each Saturday morning like before."

Harry tightened the embrace around his sister. "In holidays sis. We will be all weekend in bed with two bags of popcorn and one of those milkshakes you liked in Fortescue, I promise."

Alice giggled a little bit before straightening herself and taking seat in one dusty bench. "I can't believe we are barely a month in. If it wasn't for the mirrors, I don't think I could handle it"

"Come on" answered her brother with a smile. "At least you are enjoying your classes innit?"

The young girl snorted. "I mean, yeah, a couple"

Harry laughed. "A couple? McGonagall is a master in the subject and Flitwick´s wand work is almost artsy!" He was interrupted by the laugh of his sister. "Only you would watch someone wand movements and call it art"

The both laughed a bit before Harry returned to his tirade. "Seriously though. Flitwick was a professional dueller. I would love to have him tutor me."

Alice shrugged lightly. "I don't know. It seems that competitiveness is reserved to quidditch in this school".

Her brother deflated a bit. "Yeah, I might try chaser next year. For now, it would look suspicious if dad were to send me a broom."

Alice quickly tried to shift the conversation away to the farce they were doing. "I'm annoyed that they don't give runes to second years. I didn't want to wait another year to start with it."

Her stratagem worked, as Harry took the bait. "Beside Runes, what are you taking next year?"

"Probably Care, I would like to try and study wards against magical creatures and some base knowledge could be useful."

Harry nodded. "Seems like the better choice. Mum could teach you the basics of Arythmancy if you need it and everyone says the Divination and Muggles Studies are a fraud." He stopped for a moment before complementing. "Although that last one may be Slytherin bias.

Alice could no longer avoid the subject. "How is the snake den by the way?"

She saw his brother ponder a bit before answering. "Fairly normal I would say. Once you get over with the formalities it's like a normal school if I'm being honest. Some people like Malfoy like to make a big show out of every single thing they do, but for the most part they don't really care that much."

"So, is true then? Does Malfoy control Slytherin" asked Alice

Harry snorted. "He likes to believe so. He has his two book ends with lots of muscle and not a lot of brains, and a girl that is a bit of a fangirl. Other than that, he summons his father whenever anything goes south for him"

Alice giggled. "His power is yelling "Daddy"? How in the world he rules over a house of teens? He should be bullied just for that"

"As I said, he just likes to believe so." answered her brother. "Outside of a couple of students whose families depend on the Malfoys the majority of people simply doesn't care. As long as he doesn't try anything too radical it's not worthy to oppose the Malfoys."

He paused a bit before turning to his sister. "How is the big bright lion tower?"

Alice answered immediately. "Noisy. I don't know how anyone can study there. Everyone has so much energy it's a bit unsufferable. I have to finish my homework in the library if I want to get some job done."

"Are you okay there?"

Harrys words were so filled with concern that she felt the need to sooth his worries as soon as possible. "Yeah, I'm fine. Romilda is a bit annoying but she is friendly. In general, they are all really friendly with poor little old me with my evil snake brother" finished Alice with a smirk.

Harry laughed, and Alice use the pause to continue with important stuff. "By the way, I have been researching Longbottom as I told you." At Harrys clear interest, she continued. "He's fairly popular, I think he's friends with his whole year." She unwrinkled a parchment before she continuing, allowing him to catch a glimpse of her usual chaotic writing.

"The only one who's not close to the group is Fay Dunbar, and that's because she hangs out with her cousin, who is one year older. Hermione Granger is closer, but not by much. She's smart, like scary smart, but is a bit blunt so she doesn't really have that many close friends, although sometimes she hangs out with the others." She eyed the parchment. "The other two are closer though. Lavender Brown and Parvati Patil are best friends and gossip queens. They hang out a lot with the boys and I actually think Patil has a crush with Longbottom, but I'm not sure."

Harry actually giggled. "I wasn't expecting an FBI dossier"

Rolling her eyes, Alice ignored her brother. "The boys are fairly simple. Dean Thomas. muggleborn, dark skinned and fairly smart. I heard he became friends with them because Malfoy was becoming too annoying towards him and they stopped him. Seamus Finnegan. Loud. I don't like him so I don't know much about him. And the young Weasley. There are too many of them so I think his name is Ronald but I'm not sure. He is also really loud."

She rolled the parchment before looking at Harry. "Longbottom doesn't really socialize, and usually he walks with one or two of them so he doesn't have to. He is polite when he talks to you but it's clear that he has had enough with fans and prefers to be left alone. A closer circle is the best he could find I think."

"Sometimes is a bit scary how smart you are sis."

Alice shrugged once again, clearly pleased with the praise. "Anyway. Are you going to Slughorn´s party?"

Harry nodded. "Yeah. Blaise has three female friends so I will be one of two handsome escorts to those ladies."

His sister laughed. "Don't make out with any of them in public. There are already some rumours about you"

Her brother quirked a smirk. "Who are you going with?"

"Colin Creevey. He is nice and he has never gotten an invite. I would be delighted to introduce him to the horrors of high-end society."

"Should I have some words with him?" said Harry, only half joking.

"Maybe later." Answered a smirking Alice. "I have to see if he annoys me too much"

*Really discrete scene break.

Nobody could say that Horace Slughorn wasn't a great planner. His decision to delay his first soiree to November was an extremely theatrical decision, designed to have between his guests the Hogwarts champion. He invited in advance all of the likely candidates (Diggory, Johnson, Warrington) beforehand, so that they would confirm their assistance before even being named champion. The extra nomination of young Longbottom made the reunion slightly tenser, but that wasn't something a low powered aerial amortentia couldn't fix.

Said Longbottom was not in a good mood. If he could choose, he would totally have ditched the reunion, Slughorn be damned, but grandmother had been adamant. Even if his selection wasn't his fault, he still needed to maintain his public figure in the good graces of the public. Sighing, he turned to see his companion, who was expertly differing attention from him. Both Parvati and Lavender had become excellent at this, after three years being her companions to the limited social events that happened in Hogwarts, even if recently the blonde girl had delegated these events to Parvati more and more often. When Neville was feeling slightly vindicative, Hermione was the chosen one, often overwhelming the guests with her incessant curiosity.

Comfortable knowing his conversation was being taken care of, Neville let his gaze travel to the room. As always, after the initial excitement of the guests was diminishing, the students tended to gather in clutches towards their friends. He saw Malfoy talking animatedly with Cedric, even if the Hogwarts champion (the other Hogwarts champion, he forced himself to remember) looked slightly annoyed. He ignored both the curious and the angry looks of the other students until he found the tiny group that apparently were not paying attention to anything.

He had nothing against Zabini by himself. The dark-skinned boy was as arrogant he could get, but in all fairness the majority of his house were. The two brunettes linked to each of his arms he barely knew, other that the fact that they responded to Davis and Roper, and the only other detail he could remember about them, after three years of school together was that they sometimes hanged out with Parkinson. It was the other two people in the group the ones who were actually interesting for him, both in different ways.

The biggest gossip of the start of term was actually Heir Potters falling of grace with his family after being sorted in Slytherin, conflict that he knew had affected his younger sister. The twins were looking after her with their usual secret methods, and he was quite calm to see her in attendance with Colin. He knew trough his grandmother that his own parents used to be close with the Potters, until they had fled England close to Voldemort's attack near Christmas.

The last person however, didn't trigger Neville's curiosity, but instead a deep pang of sadness. He hadn't lacked friends to play when he was a kid, but the Weasley clan was loud and overly obsessed with Quidditch, and Ernie was really stiff and only wanted to play lords and politics. Daphne however, has been a completely different story.

Loosely related, the pretty blonde was the only one who used to agree to play with him in the greenhouses. She never got dirty, of course, but the amount of knowledge she had on the uses of plants made for a lot of enjoyable afternoon in the Longbottom states. Two years before Hogwarts however, her father and his grandmother had a terrible discussion over a Wizengamot bill, and Daphne stopped coming to his house. He had entered Hogwarts with the hope of reencountering with his childhood friend and resume their friendship, but that hadn't happened. The prissy but giggly girl he used to play with had transformed into the perfect pureblood princess that was standing there, barely touching Potter arm in perfect posture. He couldn't find anything of his childhood friend in the terrifying Ice-Queen, as he had heard Seamus and Ron call her.

Parvati leaned to his arm, making him know that the conversation was over. "There is a lot of rumours about Potter you know?"

Neville was not exactly fond of gossip, but he had learned really early to at least hear the news that reached Parvati's and Lavender's ears. "Really? Which kind of rumours?"

Parvati just shook her head. "I'm not sure yet. I want to get more evidence first. Maybe I have to ask Sophie about it"

At Neville completely blank stare, she continued. "Sophie? Sophie Roper? Slytherin brunette in our year? The one with the barely decent cleavage?"

Neville just nodded, and started to head towards the exit, a bit overwhelmed. Parvati, used to these abrupt departures, just followed. "I heard that the gossips she founds with us or with Hannah she resells them to the Slytherins, dramatic snobs all of them…"

Parvati's tirade was interrupted as they bumped into said group of Slytherins, fortunately not forcefully enough to actually made any of them fall. Potter and Zabini received the brunt of the impact, and as while the Italian boy sneered at them, rather annoyed, the raven-haired one just looked slightly shaken.

Their return to the Gryffindor tower was fairly uneventful, smoothed up by Parvati's skill in small talk. Right before the Fat Lady however, there was a dark figure standing next to the frame, a figure that would be extremely scary, if Neville hadn't grown up learning everything he knew about magic with that same figure. "Uncle Algie!"

After the two Longbottom embraced, the elder one turned towards Parvati. "While I'm sure my nephew provided a delightful evening miss, I'm afraid I have to take his attention from you."

Parvati giggled and embraced Neville goodnight, leaving him to talk with his uncle. "Delightful young lady Neville. Is she daughter of Naitik Patil by any chance?"

Neville stammered. "I think so. I'm not sure."

Algernon Longbottom nodded. "Well, I'm sorry to interrupt your date wiggle-worm, but I really need to talk to you."

"It's not a date!" Neville answered, ignoring his childhood nickname. "We went just as friends"

His uncle looked with the same look grandmother used when she thought Neville was being dumb. "I have seen that kind of look before son, and that girl doesn't agree with your assessment. What you do with that information is up to you. Just remember to be the gentleman me and Augusta educated you to be."

Before Neville could ponder the ground breaking news, Algernon resumed. "There are more urgent subjects however. Officially, the Department of Mysteries cannot confirm nor deny that Alastor Moody evaluation of the Goblet subject is correct."

The young lion nodded, used to the convoluted way his uncle had to communicate something of his work. So the Goblet HAD been tampered with. "You have to stay vigilant at all times wormie. Whoever put you in this predicament wants you hurt at best and dead at worst." Taking a breath, the unspeakable continued. "Train, and get as much information on the tasks as you can. I want to give the Frenchs the benefit of the doubt, but I'm certain Karkaroff will actively cheat in this competition."

Neville nodded. "I can't give you any information even remotely vague regarding the tournament, so I'm afraid I'm of no help." He could see his uncle´s fist clenched, frustrated and filled with impotence. "The only way I can think of helping you right now is if you ask me for specific books, but that revolves around you knowing what are you against too"

Not knowing what to say, the young man embraced his uncle, trying to comfort him as much as himself. After a couple of seconds, he returned to hug.

"Remember Neville, don't play to win. Play to stay alive."

Straightening his robes, the man got ready to depart. "Also take care of yourself. You have a note in your pocket that has a small feint of another's magic. You are lucky that its completely harmless"

At that, Algernon left, leaving behind a baffled Neville who now had a crushing friend, a mysterious note and a bloody tournament to prepare to. Worst Halloween ever.

AN1: An update. Less than half a year later. Yei…

AN2: Hogwarts at last! We will be moving faster from now on. More introductions and we get to taste some of the secondary characters in this story.

AN3: You may recognize the concept of aerial spread amortentia from Petrificus Somewhatus story "Hermione Granger and the Paradigm Shift", a delightful Harmony fluff tale. I would recommend "Daphne Greengrass and the Importance of Intent", but let's be honest, if you like the Harry/Daphne ship, you've already read it.