Harry dashed off a quick letter to his family the next morning, telling them about his new friends, the sorting, and how he'd slept, and finished by saying that he would write more at the end of the week.
(He made no mention of the truly odd looks he got from several people when he sat with Draco at breakfast, and waved Ron and Neville over to join them. One of the looks came from a man Draco identified as Severus Snape, the potions professor and Head of Slytherin House. He looked pained, almost wistful, when he saw them all sitting together.)
The rest of the week was largely uneventful, despite his flocks of admirers. He ignored them for the most part, content with the friends he had already made and a few people he knew in passing from introductions from said friends – the Slytherins from the train, the other Weasley siblings, a few Hufflepuffs, and a Ravenclaw year mate named Anthony Goldstein.
Most of his classes were with Neville and the Hufflepuffs, which was good because the other boy needed all the help he could get in Potions. The rest of his classes he did all right in – not failing, but nothing exceptional either – but the very first time they went down the steps to the dungeons for class, Neville paled and swallowed thickly before following Harry down the steps.
"It'll be all right, Neville," he said as they approached the classroom, "We can work together since we're in the same class. I'll help you."
Everything about Professor Snape seemed calculated to intimidate, however, from the darkness of the classroom to the way his robes billowed behind him when he walked to the speech he gave them when he entered. When he called attendance, he lingered over Harry's name, but with distain rather than admiration like the other professors.
Harry braced himself in preparation for some sort of quiz or attack, but surprisingly Snape went for the rest of the class before coming for him. "Potter! Where would I find a bezoar?"
"The stomach of a goat, sir," Harry answered right away. He'd seen that bit of trivia in his textbook and remembered thinking it was very odd, so the information stuck in his mind.
Snape's eyebrows briefly flicked up in surprise. "And the difference between monkshood and wolfsbane?"
"None, sir. They're the same plant." That he knew from his herbology textbook, but he'd learned it first from wilderness survival training with Abigail and his dad. "I think it also goes by aconite?"
Snape's eyes narrowed slightly. "Indeed it does. Why haven't the rest of you been writing all of this down?"
The rest of the class passed in relative ease, Harry quietly helping Neville with his potion while Snape watched him with a different odd expression on his face. Despite that, Harry and Neville brewed their potions successfully, with Snape declaring them both "acceptable" when class was over.
Snape's odd look followed him until the door shut behind him.
"According to my father, who went to school with Uncle Severus and your parents," said Draco a few days later, speed-reading the letter the man had sent in response to Harry's question, their group ambling out of the Great Hall, "Uncle Severus was sweet on your mother even before school started, but something happened and they parted ways, though he never forgot her. Your father bullied him – and most of Slytherin House, actually – so they hated each other."
"Sounds like he and I are going to have a love-hate relationship for the rest of my schooling," said Harry, chewing thoughtfully on his last slice of toast, "Probably leaning more towards hate. I've heard from people who knew my parents that I look like my father, but with my mother's eyes."
"I could talk to him," the Slytherin offered, but Harry shook his head.
"Thanks for offering, but it's all right. He has to figure out that I'm not James Potter on his own. Anyone telling him that'll probably just make him dig his heels in to prove that I am."
"That sounds like the voice of experience talking, Mr Potter."
They all jumped and whirled around to see that Professor Snape had come up out of the dungeons just as they left the Great Hall. Harry swallowed a little, wondering how explicit he could be, then said, "Back when they lived in the States, my – current fathers, were involved in a similar but much more complex situation. My father tried to force my dad to make a certain decision and take a certain position, but my dad fought back and it very nearly ended badly for everyone involved. They wanted to make sure I would learn from their mistake, so I didn't have to learn that for myself the hard way."
"Mm. Get to class. I'm not going to excuse you if you're late."
"Yes, sir."
"His fathers? Albus! You told us he was living with blood relatives!"
"He was," McGonagall said to Sprout, "I was there when he was dropped off with his aunt and uncle."
"With Tuney?!" Snape said sharply, bolting upright, before whirling on Dumbledore, "You left him with Lily's magic-hating sister?! Even Black would have been a better option than her!"
The potions professor's words caused an uproar in the staff room, much to the bemusement of passing prefects. Dumbledore eventually calmed everyone and informed them about the blood wards, which was why he had sent Harry to her. "Then what happened?" Snape demanded icily, "I say Tuney's husband once, years ago – he had no interest in other men and hated magic as much as she did, so clearly Potter is no longer living with them. Do we know how long this has been the case? Did you even check on the boy?"
"Yes, last when he was four, and I spoke to Petunia; she assured me he was doing well."
"When he was FOUR?!"
That caused another uproar that ended in Snape storming out in a swirl of black robes.
All the while, Quirrell sat quietly in the corner, dark eyes glinting.
Halloween. One of Harry's favorite holidays, since it meant he could wander around holding the hand of a fully-transformed High Wendigo and snicker behind his hand when they got nothing more than an "Awesome costume!" Hannibal enjoyed hiding in plain sight like that. Will did too, now.
The feast made up for the fact that he wasn't home, with floating jack o'lanterns above the tables and swarms of real bats darting around. Harry and his friends were sitting at the Gryffindor table for the feast. As they took their seats, they all overheard Parvati Patil saying that a Gryffindor girl – Hermione Granger – was hiding in the girls' bathroom, crying over something Ron said to her after Charms.
Harry shot the other boy a look, and Ron looked away, turning nearly as red as his hair. But then The food appeared on the tables, and Harry didn't think anything further of it until Professor Quirrell burst through the hall doors, shouting, "TROLL IN THE DUNGEONS! Troll in the dungeons!" He staggered to a stop between the Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw tables. "Thought you ought to know," he managed, and then fell to the floor in a dead faint.
Chaos reigned in the hall until several bangs from the Headmaster's wand silenced the cries. He called for the teachers to follow him while the prefects led their houses back to their dormitories.
Harry saw the flaw with that plan very quickly, sitting face to face with a Slytherin as he was. Their dorm was in the dungeons.
With the troll.
He shot to his feet and shouted, "Prefect Clearwater! The Slytherin dormitory is in the dungeons! Can they come to Ravenclaw Tower with us?!"
The prefects of both houses looked at each other, all of them realizing that he was right. "All right!" she shouted, "Slytherin House, follow us! Stay close – let's go!"
"Come on," he said to his friends, "We're going to look for Hermione. She doesn't know!"
Draco cursed his Gryffindor tendencies aloud, but they all followed him out of the hall towards the nearest and most likely girls' bathroom, hiding behind statues and suits of armor to evade discovery by prefects – and Snape, of all people. Draco stared after him with a confused expression, but turned back to follow Harry.
The troll beat them there, slouching into the girls' bathroom with its club scraping along the floor behind it.
There was a scream from within, and all of them sprinted for the door. The four boys entered the bathroom to see the troll advancing on Hermione, knocking sinks off the wall with its club as it went.
None of them had very long, Harry knew; they were just kids, and couldn't hope to stand up against a fully grown mountain troll so he tried to think fast. He had read ahead in all his books, but first-years didn't know any spells with enough power behind them-
His eyes fell on the wet floor.
…But maybe he didn't need one.
He focused on the image of the water on the floor freezing solid, becoming smooth and slippery, the temperature of the room dropping sharply and his breath coming in clouds. Then he pointed his wand at the water and pushed the power through.
Just as he had willed, the water solidified and chilled, fresh water spraying from the broken taps and coating the ice, making for extremely slippery ground. The troll started wobbling almost immediately, windmilling its arms in an attempt to keep its feet.
"Granger, come on!" Draco cried, waving her towards them, and Hermione started crawling in their direction.
The troll spotted her, and flailed its club in her direction – only to have Ron cry, "Wingardium leviosa!" The spell caught the club mid-swing and yanked it out of the troll's hand, causing it to overbalance. It fell back, and cracked its skull against the stone floor, rendering it immediately unconscious. When it didn't move, Ron released his spell, letting the club hit the ground with another tremendous crash.
The sound of running feet made them all pull together, Draco and Neville sheltering Hermione between them while Harry and Ron leaped in front of them, wands raised, only to lower them almost immediately. It was the teachers – Professors Snape, McGonagall, and Quirrell.
McGonagall's eyes swept the room, took everything in, and then locked on them with cold fury. "What were you all thinking?!" she demanded, "You all could have been killed! Why aren't you in your dormitories?!"
Harry was about to explain about overhearing Hermione being missing, leaving Ron's part out, when the boy himself stepped up and said, "I-It was my fault, Professor." He shuddered when she turned the full force of her stony gaze on him, but forged ahead anyway. "Earlier today, I… said some very unkind things about Hermione, which she overheard. That ended up with her not being at the feast, so she didn't know about the troll. We all came to look for her, and, well.." He gestured to the troll and the destroyed bathroom.
"Is this true?" McGonagall asked the others, who nodded. The professor let out an angry yet relieved sigh and said, "Very well. Ten points from Gryffindor, Mr Weasley, and apologize to Miss Granger."
Ron turned and briefly met the girl's gaze before his eyes fell to his feet. "I'm sorry, Hermione," he said glumly, "I was jealous, 'cause I've known about magic all my life, but you're already so much better then I am."
Draco and Neville stepped back when Hermione straightened. "I accept your apology," she said, still sounding a little shaky, "and maybe we should practice together."
Ron looked up, and beamed.
McGonagall had a tiny smile on her lips, though she was still a mix of angry and relieved. "And fifteen points will be awarded to each of you – for sheer dumb luck. But I trust none of you will try anything like this again. Next time, get a teacher. Return to your dormitories."
"Yes, professor," they all chorused, and left the bathrooms grinning at each other.
Harry and Draco got scoldings from their respective prefects when they finally entered Ravenclaw Tower, but when they were told the troll had been taken care of, a pair of Slytherin prefects went in search of their Head of House.
The rest of the Slytherins and a number of Ravenclaws were sitting in the common room, eating the leftovers of the feast and talking in low tones. The two of them went over to sit near Blaise and a girl Draco said was Daphne Greengrass, Crabbe and Goyle taking up their positions at Draco's shoulders.
Neither he nor Harry could stop smiling.