Chapter 8 Making Friends
The following morning, when Harry rose from his bed, he seemed to wake at precisely the moment that his roommate Ron did. The two boys blearily pulled back their blinds and trudged into the bathroom with lead-laden feet ready to start their day bright and early. After getting showered, brushing their teeth and getting dressed in their smart, black robes for the day, Harry and his newest friend made their way down from their dorm into the common room. They bumped into Ron's fifth year brother, Percy the Prefect, who was kind enough to point them in the right direction of the Great Hall; not that Harry needed it though, he was quite familiar with the layout of the castle by now.
"Wonder what we'll have today," Ron thought out loud as they pushed aside the Fat Lady and started making their way towards the likely-empty Great Hall. The castle was still quiet and hardly anyone living or dead had risen to disturb the tranquil calm of the morning, with the exception of Ron, Harry might've even thought it to have still been the summer holiday when the castle was only occupied by the Ghosts, Dumbledore, Severus and Lily.
"We'll get our schedules at breakfast, Ron," Harry said quietly.
Ron's stomach gurgled, cuing Harry in to his friend's hungry state. Harry couldn't blame him, he was hungry too, so the two boys hastened their pace.
The two First Year Gryffindor boys were walking quickly down the Great Staircase when Ron asked; "Has Dumbledore told you much about the ghosts?"
Harry nodded, his eyes remaining fixed to the moving staircases ahead and finding the route that would take them to the Ground Floor. "He has. You already met St. Nick last night, but they're mostly alright. The Baron and Peeves are the two we've gotta look out for."
"Oh," Ron said quietly. "Fred and George say they get along alright with Peeves, but I guess that comes with them being Pranksters and all, Peeves probably appreciates that."
"I wouldn't be surprised," Harry agreed.
"Say…two of those three, that boy and the girl with the red hair, they're your friends, aren't they?" Ron asked. Harry followed his friend's gaze, and found a familiar head of red hair belonging to Lily, and the tall frame of Severus walking alongside her. There was another Ravenclaw there as well, a girl from the looks of things who had shoulder-length chestnut brown hair. Harry didn't know who she was, neither did Ron.
"Yeah, that's them alright," Harry said, smiling. "C'mon over, I'll introduce you to them."
Ron's smile widened at the prospect of making new friends. "Sounds good Harry."
Harry and Ron caught up to the trio of Ravenclaws just when they were a few steps away from the Great Hall and on the verge of prying open the doors. The identity of the mystery third Ravenclaw still escaped Harry and Ron, she looked like a fellow first year, but beyond that they didn't know.
"Severus! Lily! Wait up!" Harry hollered from the end of the corridor.
Severus withdrew his hand from the door and turned around to face the familiar sound.
"Harry!" Lily exclaimed, rushing forward to hug her friend.
The brunette girl's eyes widened in recognition, and a quiet gasp passed through her lips as Lily embraced Harry. "You're Harry Potter?" she couldn't help but ask.
Harry pulled away from Lily's hug and nodded. "I am. I'm sorry…but I don't think I've caught your name."
"Oh I'm Mandy. Mandy Brocklehurst. It's a pleasure to meet you!"
"It's nice to meet you too. This is my friend Ron. He's a roommate of mine in Gryffindor," Harry said, gesturing to the tall boy with flaming red hair stood beside him.
Ron gave a nervous, tentative smile before waving at Mandy, who then returned the gesture herself. "Hullo. It's good to meet you," Ron greeted.
"Likewise, Weasley," Mandy offered sincerely.
The five of them made their way into the Great Hall—when the group made a split second decision for them to share their first breakfast together at the Ravenclaw table. They couldn't help but notice that the Hall was remarkably empty. The fifth year Prefects Tegan and Brandon were awake though, and they gave the three Ravenclaws and two Gryffindors a friendly wave as they found their seats.
No sooner had they claimed their seats at the end of the table, when hearty platters of breakfast and pitchers of juice, milk and tea popped into existence in front of them. Flitwick and McGonagall were also converging on their table, with the diminutive charms professor racing along to keep pace with his taller colleague.
"Good morning children," McGonagall said, smiling through pursed lips at the quintet. "Mister Potter, Mister Weasley, here are your schedules—" McGonagall produced two rolls of parchment from her pocket and handed them to Harry and Ron.
"Thank you Professor!" Harry said sincerely, as he accepted the scroll.
"Thanks," Ron added, accepting his scroll too and poring over it hungrily.
McGonagall nodded at the two boys curtly, then turned away from the group in a swirl of green cloak.
"G'Morning Professor Flitwick!" Lily greeted cheerily as Flitwick waddled up to the table, three pieces of parchment in his hands.
"Good morning Miss Bergman," Flitwick greeted kindly, smiling at the girl. "And good morning to you too, Miss Brocklehurst, Mister Sn—erm, Prince!"
Severus' eyes widened in surprise, an alarmed look supplanting his previously impassive expression. Flitwick played it off as though nothing had happened though, and pressed a schedule into his hands.
"Oh! We've got Charms with you today, sir!" Lily said happily.
"That's correct, and on Thursday as well," Flitwick replied. "Well, I'd best be along, have a good day of classes."
The widely-smiling, short Professor sauntered off further down the table, making for a group of second years.
"So what class have you guys got first?" Mandy asked as she helped herself to a plate-full of food.
"Hmm…it looks like me 'n Ron'll have Charms first, with your Head of—"
Lily inhaled sharply, and her irises appeared to double in width. "Oh, that's the same as us then! That's great, our first class of the year will be all of us together!"
Harry leaned over, his green eyes widening as he glanced over Severus' parchment. "Not only that," Harry said to Severus, "but we'll have Herbology, Astronomy and History of Magic together as well, it seems."
"So it would seem," Severus agreed.
They ate breakfast fairly quickly, the five first years splitting their time between eating their food and exchanging their thoughts on what they hoped the day would be like. As they ate their meals and chatted, the hall began to fill up with more and more of their fellow students and their teachers as well. Percy and Ron's twin brothers came over to the Ravenclaw table briefly to say hi to Ron and Harry, but quickly headed off to their friends at the Gryffindor table.
When Severus—who had taken the longest to eat—had finally finished his bowl of oatmeal, the fivesome clambered to their feet and exited the hall towards their charms class. Their Charms class was just off of the third floor corridor Dumbledore had warned the students to Severus' Lily's and Harry's knowledge of the school's layout, they easily made their way to Classroom 2E without getting lost—something Ron and Mandy were grateful for. Upon arriving, they entered the room, and claimed their seats in the second row of desks on the left side. The room wasn't large by any stretch of the imagination, but there was ample sunlight and space for all the students to practice their charmwork.
No sooner had they claimed their seat when a few more Ravenclaws and Gryffindors came into the room. Gryffindors Hermione Granger and Fay Dunbar stuck together and sat down on the first row of desks directly beneath them and quite close to Professor Flitwick's desk. Ravenclaws Padma Patil, Michael Corner and Anthony Goldstein entered the class soon after. Anthony made a bee-line for Severus and their group, plopping himself down in the vacant seat to Severus' side.
"Come on you lot, let's get our books ready," Lily ordered in a no-nonsense tone of voice.
"Yes ma'am," Harry and Severus said dutifully, both sporting small grins. Lily's faux-drill sergeant voice had never failed to amuse them. Lily shot her two friends an indignant look, on which she quickly directed to Mandy as well when the Brunette tried in vain to stifle a laugh.
They had only just taken out their texts when the door swung open, and in walked Professor Flitwick. Whatever words Lily had wanted to say would have to wait, as the Charms Professor introduced himself to the class and began to take attendance. And so began their careers as Hogwarts students.
For the most part, their first day of classes went quite well all in all. Charms had flown by, and Lily had asserted herself at the top of Flitwick's class fairly quickly. Terry Boot, Hermione Granger and Padma Patil were also quite capable, as were Severus and Mandy. Harry and Ron seemed a little out of their depth at first, but quickly caught on with some guidance from Professor Flitwick. In Herbology, this time it was Lily who didn't fare too well at the start, Severus and Ron were the two most capable of the group, with Harry and Mandy falling somewhere in-between them and Lily. Their other classes were rather exciting as well—save for History of Magic that is, which was more of a bore-fest than watching paint dry. All in all though, their first day was great as far as first days could go.
Overall, the first week of school for the incoming class of first years was all rather relaxed. Harry, Lily, Severus and their new friends spent a lot of their time together outside of classes, and had even arranged to meet with Hagrid on Friday. Unfortunately, Ron, Mandy and Anthony would have to miss out, but Hagrid promised to invite them next time. For the most part, all their classes seemed entertaining enough, and all three of them were glad to share so many classes with one another. Between their exciting classes, their new friends in Mandy Brocklehurst, Ron Weasley and Anthony Goldstein; Harry, Severus and Lily felt as though the start to their time at Hogwarts couldn't have gone much better.
Later in the week Thursday afternoon after their class of the day, Severus and Lily were making their way up from the dungeons after having finished their lesson with Professor Snape. Predictably, Professor Snape had been harsh and strict, he'd grilled the Hufflepuffs and their fellow Ravenclaws quite harshly on their potions knowledge, but Lily and Severus at least had been more than up to the task. They'd even bagged ten points apiece for their house thanks to their swift and polite answers to the Professor's questions. Lily even owned a bit of bragging rights over Severus owing to the fact that the dark Professor had even smiled slightly when Lily correctly informed him of where one might find a Bezoar.
As they neared the library, a familiar head of blonde hair, belonging to one Draco Malfoy approached them. Only he wasn't alone, he was flanked by two hulking boys named Goyle and Crabbe.
"Bergman! Prince!" Malfoy called out, causing the two of them to halt in their step and whirl around.
"What is it Malfoy?" Lily said tiredly, while Severus just glared.
"You haven't seen Potter around, have you?" he drawled, as he strutted towards them. "I haven't had a chance to introduce myself to him yet."
"And why would you want to do that?" Lily asked, glaring at the boy.
"Well isn't it rather obvious?" Malfoy drawled sneeringly. "He's the 'savior of our world' who vanquished the Dark Lord, of course Id want to thank him for what he's done. It's a pity that I didn't get the chance to talk to Potter that day in Madam Malkin's and instead had to settle for a mudblood like you for company. It would've been much better if—"
"Take that back!" Severus snarled, drawing his wand and jabbing it threateningly towards Malfoy's face.
Crabbe and Goyle stood dumbfounded by Malfoy's side. Neither knew how to use their wand at all yet, and frankly, Severus and Lily had hardly learnt any hexes themselves, but these clowns didn't know that.
"What in Salazar's name is wrong with you?" Malfoy spluttered indignantly, back away from the irate Severus whose arm was trembling—not from fear, but from abject rage. A vein throbbed in the pale boy's face, but he wisely made no move for his wand.
"Considering Potter associates with the likes of stupid riff-raff and blood traitors like that Weasley boy and you, Prince, not to mention befriending a filthy—"
"Say that word one more time and I'll hex your bollocks off!" Severus snarled, taking a menacing step closer to Malfoy.
"You'll pay for this," Malfoy muttered menacingly before storming off down the corridor the way he came.
Severus heard him yammering to his two goons about how 'Potter must be as bad and uncivilized as those two ingrates, considering they were friends.' He was tempted to use a hex he'd recently learned on him just for that insult alone, but Lily's fingers curling around his wrist gave him pause.
Once Malfoy was out of sight, and earshot, Lily hugged Severus tightly, shocking the boy with her forward display of affection. She rarely hugged him, knowing how poorly he often reacted resulting from Tobias' abuse, but she didn't let it stop her this time as she conveyed her gratitude through her hug. Severus recovered soon after and returned her hug with a one-armed hug of his own.
"Thanks Sev," Lily muttered, speaking into the thick fabric of his outer cloak. "I didn't know you'd been practicing how to cast spells yet," she said honestly.
"I didn't," Severus said, chuckling wryly to himself. Lily stepped back from his hug in shock, with a hint of a smile tugging at the corners of her lips. "But Malfoy and his two baboons didn't need to know that, did they?"
"Well I must admit that was rather well played Sev," Lily commended him with a broad, genuine smile. "I was fooled too and thought you'd actually learned some proper hexes."
"I only know a handful, but in time I'll learn some more," Severus replied, smiling back at her.
"You and me both," Lily agreed. She extended her pinky outward and Severus quickly did the same, they curled around each other in a silent promise. "I can't stand gits like Malfoy. He reminds me a lot of Todd and William back home, all arsehole gits."
"Uh-huh. Anyways we should get going, Harry'll be wondering what's keeping us."
They entered the library and waved good afternoon/evening to Madam Pince, who returned the gesture and headed through the stacks to their usual table. As they neared their table—Harry was waving them over in the distance, they spotted a bushy-haired girl, Hermione Granger if Lily could remember her name correctly, who was currently sitting alone and scribbling furiously into a piece of parchment.
"You go on Sev, I'll be there in just a mo'," Lily muttered.
"Lily, wha—? What for?"
"Just go on without me, I'm gonna go talk to that girl over there," Lily said, pointing discreetly at who she presumed was Hermione.
Severus looked over Lily's shoulder at the girl, then back into the resolute eyes of his eyes best friend. He gave a subdued nod. "Alright Lily. You do whatever, I'll be over with Harry and Ron."
"See you in a bit Sev," Lily said. Severus wandered off and Lily spotted Mandy and Anthony entering the library moments later. She gave the pair of them a discreet wave as she crossed the stacks to Hermione's table.
"It's Hermione right?" Lily asked, sitting down across from the girl. She was so engrossed with the text propped open in her lap—entirely in her own little world that she'd hardly noticed Lily approach her.
"What?" presumed-Hermione said, glancing up from her book, brown eyes narrowing on the girl across from her.
"You're Hermione, right?" Lily repeated, and the girl nodded.
"I'm Lily, Lily Bergman. It's nice to meet you—" she extended her hand across the table. Hermione shook it.
"It's nice to meet you too Berg—"
"Just Lily, please," Lily said with a smile.
"Alright…Lily, then," Hermione replied, smiling back. "Can I help you with something?"
"Oh not really, I was just wondering if you'd wanna come join me and some of my friends at another table to study together," Lily suggested. "It sure beats studying alone if you ask me, so d'you wanna come?"
"Who are your friends?" Hermione asked. She'd shut her book and placed it back on the desk, all her attention fixed on Lily.
"Harry and Severus. Although we've recently made friends with Mandy, Anthony and Ron. Ron's in your house."
"Weasley?" Hermione asked, her nose wrinkled in distaste.
"Mhmm. He's alright for the most part, can be a bit of a knucklehead though, at times."
"At times?" Hermione scoffed.
"Alright. More like most of the time," Lily amended, grinning.
"So what do you say? D'you wanna join us? We could always use another voice of reason amidst the madness that's Ron, Severus and Harry."
Hermione's brown eyes glanced past Lily at the table in the distance and sighed quietly—almost inaudibly—then looked back at Lily and nodded. "Sure. It probably does beat studying alone."
"Great!" Lily exclaimed, only to be reprimanded by Madam Pince with a harsh glare and a loud 'shh!' from the old librarian. Lily mouthed 'sorry' to the sour-faced woman quickly. Lily helped Hermione pack up her writing things and books into her bag and the two girls wandered over to the other table.
"Hello Lily," Harry greeted, smiling at her. "What's Granger doing with—"
"I told you five minutes ago, Lily wanted to go talk to her to invite her over," Severus muttered.
"Granger?" Anthony asked, glancing over at them. "Oh, you! You were the first to spot Vega and Fomalhaut in Astronomy, weren't you?"
Hermione nodded eagerly, happy to have received at least someone's recognition. "I did! And you were the first to see Procyon, right?"
"Yep, that was me," Anthony said proudly, bearing what he hoped looked like a confident grin.
From there, conversation flowed freely between Hermione and Anthony, with Mandy occasionally chiming in with her own 2 knuts. All in all, they mostly seemed receptive of Hermione's presence in their study group, all that is, except for one Ron Weasley. Lily was hard at work on her Charms essay, writing about the history behind the levitation charm and how it came to be, when Ron tapped her on the arm prompting her to look up.
"Err, Lily? Can we have a chat?" he asked, looking distinctly uncomfortable.
Lily dried her quill and set it down atop her nearly-finished 8-inch essay. "Sure Ron, d'you need help with—"
"No, not that," Ron muttered, shaking his head. "I meant can we talk, alone, redhead to redhead."
Lily looked around at the group, they were all at varying stages of completion on their assignments. Severus had just finished His Herbology assignment and was now getting started on finishing Professor Snape's extra credit assignment he'd given him and Lily. Harry was making up solid ground on Professor McGonagall's transfiguration assignment. Mandy was only a little further behind Lily in her Charms assignment. Anthony and Hermione were locked in the middle of a heated, yet hushed debate on the merits of Muggle Studies.
"I guess so," Lily shrugged. "Don't wait for Ron and I, we need to discuss something in private," Lily said. The rest of the group nodded and carried on with their work, while Anthony and Hermione resumed their spirited debate. Lily and Ron stood from their chairs and wandered off further into the stacks, before finding a quiet alcove to talk.
"So what did you want to discuss?" Lily asked, her arms folded across her chest. "'Cus I was making a good start on my assignment, so it'd better be something important if you're gonna—"
"It's about Granger," Ron said bluntly. "She's…well, she's really annoying is what she is, and for the life of me I can't see why you'd want to befriend her."
"What makes you think she's annoying?" Lily hissed back, in defense of the Gryffindor girl.
"Well she's always giving answers in class even though no one calls on her, she's always volunteering things and blurting out facts and stuff when no one even asks, she's just…she's a know-it-all is what she is!"
"I hardly think that's a crime Ron," Lily sniped back. "Sure, Hermione's talkative and likes to volunteer stuff but—"
"That's not all," Ron insisted, huffing in frustration. "She was giving you the stink-eye too when you outperformed her in charms, she was upset or something that you answered Flitwick's question before she did. It's like she couldn't stand losing to you."
"Well I wouldn't sweat it," Lily said nonchalantly. She drew her wand from her pocket and fiddled with the piece of wood in her palm. "After all, this wand is supposedly really good for charmwork, at least thats' what Dum—I mean, Olivander said. But a little friendly competition is hardly a bad thing, Ron."
"I don't care about friendly competition," Ron growled, "Granger's just…she just thinks she knows better than us for some reason and I don't like it. It's like she's got a superiority metroplex."
Lily's loud snort and giggle drew a few angry stares from the nearby tables, which she quickly quietened up. A few murmured 'sorry's' later towards the angry-looking upperclassmen, Lily turned her attention back to the stony-faced Ron, who, like the other students around them looked anything but amused. "I believe you mean superiority complex, not metroplex," Lily chuckled. "But I get what you mean."
"She's just…" Ron sighed, shaking his head. "You'll see what I mean. I don't like her."
"Tell me something I don't know," Lily mumbled under her breath.
Ron's grievances aired, they both rejoined the table and Lily was able to add the finishing touches on her charms assignment, Ron meanwhile had only just gotten started on his Transfiguration one. To his horror, he found his paper marked up with amendments and suggestions courtesy of Hermione; Ron flushed an angry shade of red and barked the bushy, brown-haired girl to leave his papers alone and stormed out of the library before anyone could stop him. Harry tried to console his angry friend, but Ron wasn't having any of it and stomped off in long-strides before Harry could catch him. Ron's gripes about Hermione, and Malfoy's general presence in the castle aside though, Lily, Severus and Harry could generally agree that their first week couldn't have gone much better.
A/N: JSYK, POV for this fic will primarily remain with Harry, both Severus', Albus, and Lily. Once in a while, there might be a few scenes where POV shifts to Hermione, Ron, Mandy, Anthony, or any other of the more minor/supporting characters, but those scenes will be far and few between. Primarily, this story centers around Harry, so while there will be significant emphasis on the two time-travelers who most certainly are gonna shake things up a bit, this fic is meant to explore how Lily's and Severus' presence in this time will affect canon and how they affect Harry. That being said, I do want to build up the characterizations of both the returning/familiar faces in Ron and Hermione, as well as new faces like Mandy, Anthony and potentially others further down the line.
Year 1 should be about 10 chapters in total, and I intend to upload them once every two weeks before going on hiatus(with this fic only), to plan out Year 2. I hope you all enjoyed the chapter!