Fake spell Fa Tratyeh Low = fat rat yellow

For the benefit of readers who do not speak English as their first language—

Fleecer (noun) (made-up word): one who fleeces; defrauder

(To) fleece (verb transitive): to strip of money or property by fraud

Chapter 12
First Day of Classes

The next morning
Monday, 2nd September, after breakfast
The second day of term

Professor Flitwick just had passed out timetables for the Ravenclaws when owls descended with owl-mail. Harry was surprised when an owl delivered a letter from Andromeda Tonks to him.

"You got a letter, Harry?" asked Hermione. Her face looked like she was bursting with curiosity. "After less than twenty-four hours here? Who's it from?"

"Remember Auror Cadet Tonks? With the pink hair? Remember that I'm related to her? This letter is from her mum, Andromeda Tonks."

Cho Chang said, "You're related to Tonks, the mad metamorphmagus Hufflepuff? I've heard many rumours about her. But she won't be boring, I guarantee you."

A Ravenclaw boy asked Harry, "If Andromeda Black Tonks mentions anything about teaching Baby Potions, will you please share—?"

"RONALD BILIUS WEASLEY!" A Howler was screaming its paper lungs out at the very end of the Slytherin table. "WE RAISED YOU BETTER THAN THIS! HOW CAN YOU BE PUT IN THE EVIL HOUSE—?"

Snape had run from the High Table to the end of the Slytherin table. Now, even before his feet stopped moving, he pointed his wand at the Howler. "Incendio." The Howler burnt to ash.

With Ron Weasley's Howler cremated, everyone in the Great Hall could clearly hear the other yelling Howler: "—CALL YOURSELF A HEADMASTER? POOR RONALD HAS BEEN OBVIOUSLY MISSORTED, PROBABLY AS A PRANK, BUT YOU HAVE DONE NOTHING! NOTHING! FIX THIS AND PUT RONALD IN GRYFFINDOR WHERE HE BELONGS!"

Dumbledore waited for the Howler's entire message to play out, then he calmly vanished the exploded bits of the Howler. His eyes were twinkling; clearly he found the entire incident to be funny.

Or more likely, he wanted everyone to think he found the whole episode funny.

Snape, who was walking back to the Head Table, declared, "Gryffindors permit a mother to publicly humiliate her child, but in Slytherin, this shall not be tolerated."

McGonagall made no reply, but pressed her lips together in anger.

After Snape sat down, Hermione blurted, "What just happened?"

A second-year Ravenclaw boy answered, "The screaming red thing was a Howler, a specialised sort of owl-mail. Hope that you never get one! The foghorn voice you heard—twice!—is Mrs Weasley. Last year she sent the Twins a Howler about once a month."

Hermione asked, "The headmaster allows this? It's bullying!"

Harry said, "The headmaster allows many things, including bullying. I should know."

The Ravenclaw firsties, except for Hermione, pressed Harry to explain his statement, but he refused. Instead of pushing Harry with words, Hermione gave him a piercing look.

After breakfast was Charms—the Ravenclaw first-years' first-ever class in magic. For Harry, the class was revision (review); but Hermione was trembling, she was so excited.

As Harry sat in Charms class, bored but not showing it, his mind wandered. The thought came to him, It's been six weeks since I Summoned the Invisibility Cloak by the authority of Thanatos. I wonder if Mr Twinkle-Eyes has discovered that his stolen Deathly Hallows is missing?

Meanwhile, in the headmaster's office

Albus was deeply disappointed in Severus. With no advance notice, Severus had sacked himself as teacher of the first four years of Potions.

When Albus this morning had tried to persuade Severus to reconsider, the usually reliable Potions Master had showed his "You are a moron" sneer to the headmaster. "If I announced I changed my mind and would teach Baby Potions after all, the fourth-year students from three Houses would AK me then and there. Meanwhile, every hour you delay hiring Andromeda Tonks means that her salary demands go up a hundred galleons a year."

"You disappoint me, Severus."

The Potions Master had shrugged. "I thwarted some secret scheme of yours, you mean. But my conscience is clear now—can you say the same?"

"Everything I've done, I've done for the Greater Good."

"I did not hear a 'yes,' I note." Not waiting to be dismissed, Severus had walked away and had returned to his meal.

Albus had expected Minerva to loudly rebuke Severus for his disrespect, but she had said nothing. Indeed, in a thousand small ways, Minerva had demonstrated her own disrespect for Albus during this past month. The essay that Harry Potter had written for the Daily Prophet really had hurt Albus's sterling reputation with all the Hogwarts faculty.

Now Albus realised that, for many reasons, he needed to bring Harry Potter to heel, in order for Albus to achieve his plans for the Greater Good. The best way to capture Harry? An unexpected gift. As soon as breakfast would end, Albus decided, he would go into the rat's-nest of his office and track down the Invisibility Cloak that he had "persuaded" James Potter to loan to Albus "temporarily."

A half-hour later

Albus was panicky. The Invisibility Cloak was gone! He had searched everywhere.

But then Albus remembered that he had thought of a way to put a tracking charm on the supposedly untrackable Cloak. Albus smiled in relief as he pulled the Elder Wand from his pocket, cast the tracker-location charm—

—and got nothing. Not only was the Invisibility Cloak now gone, but it was untrackable again.

Albus's panic was twice what it had been seconds before. He knew that no spell would reveal the Invisibility Cloak, or would reveal a person hidden under the Cloak. The Summoning Charm (Accio) did not work on the Cloak, and so would not remove the Cloak's protection from someone.

Albus suspected Lucius Malfoy of the Cloak's theft. Albus suspected the goblins. Albus did not, for one second, suspect Harry Potter, and would have laughed if someone had suggested Harry Potter as the culprit.

As if his life was not difficult enough now, Albus remembered that Sirius Black's petition for guardianship of Harry would be heard by the Wizengamot in four days. A month ago, Albus would have laughed at the idea that a former Azkaban prisoner would be awarded custody of Harry Potter instead of "the Leader of the Light." But now? It just might happen. And if that did happen—

Albus would lose his access to Harry Potter's annually refilling trust vault!

There was no time to lose! Albus Portkeyed to the steps of Gringotts, to make his possibly last withdrawal from Harry's trust vault—then Albus remembered that he had given the key to Severus, who had given the key to Harry instead of giving the key back to Albus.

Albus spun around and hurried from the steps of Gringotts—not into the bank, but towards the Leaky Cauldron. In so doing, Albus missed seeing the goblin skull that was mounted on a tall pole.

Albus walked into the Leaky Cauldron. As he walked, he Accio'd a random customer's dinner fork. His studies of Occlumency had given Albus a perfect memory when he wished; Albus now used his perfect memory to transfigure the metal dinner fork into a gold Gringotts key of the right shape and dimensions. (The magical signature of the key would be all wrong, of course, but Albus was sure he could charm his way out of any problems the goblins might cause.)

With the transfigured dinner fork in his hand, Albus strode purposefully from the Leaky Cauldron, back towards the steps of Gringotts. Albus purposefully climbed the stairs of Gringotts.

Then Albus saw the goblin skull on a pole.

The goblin skull had two pointed teeth broken off in front. Bronzedagger had had two broken teeth in front. This is Bronzedagger, Albus realised, and he has been dead for a while. If the goblins knew that Albus Dumbledore and Bronzedagger had been plotting together, and today Albus walked into the Gringotts lobby with a dodgy key, he would be dead before sundown!

Panicked Albus vanished the former dinner fork (since it was now magical evidence of his intended theft), then he Portkeyed directly back to the headmaster's office from the steps of Gringotts.

This was not Albus's day!

Meanwhile with Harry

Morning classes kept Harry busy—or rather, Harry pretending to be a completely ignorant first-year kept him busy. He was not able to read Andromeda Tonks's letter till lunchtime.

.

Dear Mr Potter (or do you wish to be called Harry?)

I'm relieved beyond words that I'm able to write to you. For the last ten years, only Professor Dumbledore knew how to contact you. To everyone else in Wizarding Britain, your whereabouts were a complete mystery. Professor Dumbledore assured me, whenever I asked about you, "Harry is safe and loved." I hope this is the case.

It's unclear to me how much Nymphadora told you about your family, so let me write as if you were told nothing. Your parents are James Potter and Lily Evans Potter. Lily is what we call a "Muggle-born"—the child of two nonmagical people (called "Muggles") who somehow was born magical. As I understand it, none of Lily's relatives were magical, only she herself was. Your father, James, came from a distinguished wizarding family—the House of Potter is an Ancient and Noble House.

Before James and Lily were killed by the Dark Lord, James' parents, Charlus Potter and Dorea Black Potter, were killed in the Blood War by Death Eaters (minions of the Dark Lord). Thus you, Harry James Potter, are the last of the Potter line.

Did Nymphadora tell you that you and I are related? My birth House is the House of Black, which also is Ancient and Noble. Your grandmother, Dorea Black Potter, is the sister of my grandfather, Pollux Black. I've two sisters, Bellatrix Black Lestrange and Narcissa Black Malfoy. Bellatrix, alas, is notorious as an enthusiastic follower of the Dark Lord. Narcissa is the mother of your year-mate Draco Malfoy. My cousin, Sirius Black, was a close friend of your father.

You need to know now that I did a "disgraceful" thing that I don't think is disgraceful. My father wanted to arrange a marriage for me with Lucius Malfoy, but instead I married Edward ("Ted") Tonks, a Muggle-born with whom I fell in love. For this act, I was disowned from the Black family. If I'm hired as a Potions professor at Hogwarts, I expect that some of the students from traditional families to say bad things behind my back; they'll call me a "blood traitor."

My daughter Nymphadora is a metamorphmagus (the Muggle term is "shape-shifter"). Normally she does nothing to change her appearance except to make her hair short and pink. A fun fact: When her hair is set to pink and she feels a strong emotion, her hair spontaneously changes colour.

My husband Ted is a law-wizard; he's licensed to practise law in both Muggle Britain and Wizarding Britain. Enclosed with this letter is a lawyer-client contract for you to sign. (If you aren't yet Heir Potter, your guardian needs to sign the contract for you.) Be assured that whatever legal business you are involved in with Edward, he won't tell me or Nymphadora; he's scrupulous about client confidentiality.

Welcome back to the wizarding world, Harry Potter, and welcome back to your family!

Andromeda Black Tonks (call me Andi)

.

Harry smiled after he read the letter. In his previous lifetime, he had no magical family till he met Tonks in his fifth year. Thinking back on this, it was obvious that once again, Dumbledore had worked to keep Harry feeling isolated and alone. But now Harry had Tonks and her parents as family; and soon his godfather Sirius would be his guardian!

In the Great Hall, after lunch

Hermione gathered up her things—though with difficulty; Hermione truly needed her feather-light, bottomless handbag that she would invent in a few years. No surprise to Harry, Hermione was headed to the library.

Harry told her, "I'll catch up in an hour or less. I have some things I need to do first." Hermione looked at Harry curiously, then left.

When the doors shut behind departed Hermione—

"Where are you going, Harry?" Cho Chang asked seductively (or as seductively as a twelve-year-old can act). "Would you like company?"

Fellow Ravenclaw second-year student Marietta Edgecombe, Harry noticed, was paying close attention.

Harry replied, "I'm good, Miss Chang. But thanks for offering." Cho frowned.

As Harry walked out of the Great Hall, he thought about what just had happened. He decided Cho might be a problem in the future.

Minutes later, in the Room of Requirement

Nervous Harry said, "I call upon the Spirit of Hogwarts."

This was entirely outside Harry's experience in his previous lifetime; he had no idea what to expect.

The Spirit of Hogwarts, when she appeared, looked like a marble statue of a young woman—a statue which could move and talk, and which was wearing four-colour robes that displayed the Hogwarts crest.

The Spirit said, "Designated Secret Substitute Potter, how can Hogwarts help you?"

Harry felt relief then; now he could skip over the explanations (and the scepticism). "Please, call me Harry," he said.

"As you wish, Harry."

"Just so I'm sure I completely understand: I've authority to do anything and everything that a founder could do. I could change the Parseltongue password on the Chamber of Secrets, which Salazar Slytherin set."

"Exactly."

"More importantly, I can override anything that Headmaster Dumbledore says or does."

"Yes."

Harry pumped his fist. "Yes!" Seeing the Spirit's puzzled expression on her marble face, Harry said, "Now I can start fixing the problems in this school that Noxious Stumblebum has caused."

Then Harry said, "Tell me about house-elves. Hogwarts has its own house-elves. What other house-elves can be brought in or can be sent in?"

"Other than the Hogwarts house-elves, a house-elf can enter Hogwarts only when the human magical with whom the house-elf is bonded, may enter Hogwarts."

"I'm sorry?"

"One-time visitors to the castle, member of the faculty, members of the Board of Governors and seventh-year students who are Head of House—any of them who have house-elves bonded to them personally, whenever these people may enter Hogwarts, their house-elves can enter Hogwarts."

"And the same for first-year students who are Heir to their House and last of their line?"

The Spirit of Hogwarts smiled at Harry. "Yes, them too."

"So I don't need special DSS privileges to summon the head Potter house-elf here."

"This is correct."

"Lucius Malfoy, since he's on the Board of Governors, can send any of his house-elves to anywhere in Hogwarts at any time?"

"Yes."

"Nope, not happening now. New rule: Members of the Board of Governors no longer can send a house-elf to Hogwarts; and a Board of Governors member can summon a house-elf to Hogwarts only when the member of the Board of Governors is in the presence of the headmaster."

"Change made," the Spirit replied.

"Now explain to me how the headmaster knows exactly where in the castle I am, and how the Twins' 'Marauder's Map' knows."

The Spirit's explanation was technical, and Harry got lost at times—although he was sure that 1998-Hermione could have understood everything. The important thing was that except for the Chamber of Secrets (Salazar's long-ago personal space) and the Room of Requirement (the founders' long-ago research and recreation room), every inch of the floors of Hogwarts Castle detected who was where.

Harry said, "So even when I'm in a corridor with no portraits, no ghosts and no invisible house-elves, the headmaster knows I'm there if he wants to know?"

"Exactly."

Harry nodded. This explained why the Marauder's Map had only the Chamber of Secrets and the Room of Requirement as blind spots; for no place else in Hogwarts did students suddenly "disappear" off the map.

But what this also meant, Harry realised, is that when bullying students took a victim someplace where they thought they were free of surveillance (because no portraits were nearby), in fact they were discoverable by the headmaster whilst they were bullying the student-victim. So why did Dumbledore never stop the bullying?

Harry said, "New rule: When three or more students go to any part of the castle with no portraits, and the students remain there for more than two minutes, inform the headmaster of the students' names and where they are. For as long as I'm attending Hogwarts, also inform me by sending a Hogwarts elf."

"Change made."

"Just so I'm clear: If the headmaster asks the Hogwarts magic where I am, I can get you to lie for me; but anytime I want, I can ask you to precisely locate Dumbledore for me."

"Both parts of your statement are true."

Harry rubbed his hands together and cackled. "Guess what, Fleecer of the Light? You and I soon will be having so much fun!"

"Do you have anything else to ask me or to tell me?" the Spirit of Hogwarts asked.

"Yes," said Harry. "Doors and locks. No locking spell, even if the spell is in a foreign language or in Parseltongue, can work in Hogwarts if it would lock me in; not even if the headmaster casts the spell. When I speak the fake spell Fa Tratyeh Low, the door will immediately unlock. However, if I use a locking spell on a door within Hogwarts, only my unlock-spell can cancel my locking spell; nobody else's unlock-spell shall work."

"Change made."

Harry smiled—he had plans for this particular change to the castle's magic. Not to mention, it would be just like Dumbles to summon Harry to the headmaster's office, then to magically lock the door till Harry agreed to the headmaster's demands. So why not prevent this now?

"Thank you for your help, Spirit of Hogwarts," Harry said to the robed statue. She curtseyed, then vanished.

Harry then called for Greyclay.

Seconds later

Pop. Harry, holding Greyclay's hand, appeared on the steps of Gringotts. Harry dismissed Greyclay, then climbed the steps to enter the bank. During the stairs-climb, Harry stared at the hoisted fleshless skull of Bronzedagger; Harry's smile was bloodthirsty.

In Gringotts, Harry asked to visit the goblin healers.

When Harry had been a toddler, Dumbledore had placed an owl-mail-redirect ward on him. Harry came today not to ask the goblin healers to remove this ward; rather, he wanted the mail-redirect ward redirected to Potter Manor.

Which the goblin healers did. This cost Harry ten minutes of his life, and a hundred galleons.

Harry then summoned Greyclay. After Greyclay elf-popped Harry back to the Room of Requirement, Harry warned the head Potter elf that Potter Manor would be getting owl mail from now on. Harry told Greyclay that he wanted the Potter house-elves to get rid of dangerous mail, and to elf-pop the rest of the mail to Harry once a week.

With this necessary but boring task out of the way, Harry headed for the library. Now that Hermione had made her first-ever trip to the Hogwarts Library, Harry was sure she was now happier than a seven-year-old on Christmas morning.

In the Hogwarts Library

Harry found Hermione working her first-ever Transfiguration essay, amidst two tall stacks of library books. She was radiant.

Harry set up at the same table as Hermione, near her, and began his own work. Like Hermione, Harry had a Charms essay and a Transfiguration essay to write—but even with Hermione having a thirty-minute head start, Harry finished his essays first.

Meanwhile, some other firsties approached and asked if they could sit with Harry and Hermione; as none of them were in Ravenclaw, they all were hesitant. But smiling Harry always waved them to the table.

Daphne Greengrass remarked on this, mid-afternoon. "Look at us! We've got you two from Ravenclaw, Neville from Gryffindor, Tracey and me from Slytherin, and Susan and Hannah from Hufflepuff—"

"Why is our House last?" Susan Bones asked with a grin.

Harry shrugged. "With one exception, I like all the first-years I met on the train—"

"Bilious, right?" asked Daphne. "Ugh, you are so right."

Harry continued, "So long as there's room at the table, I'll let anyone but Bilious sit with me. Your House doesn't matter. But you should know that in the future, if I'm sitting at a table by myself and a horde descends, I'll always save a place for Hermione. Even when this means turning away somebody who came here before Hermione did."

"Oh, Harry!" Hermione said. She jumped out of her chair and hugged the seated Harry from behind him.

As Hermione was retaking her seat, Daphne asked Harry, "Does she often do this? Hug you?"

Harry replied, "Her parents are huggers too, which is where Hermione learnt it." Turning to Hermione, Harry said, "I can never get enough of your hugs. Don't ever stop them."

Neville said, "So the only remaining question is, Where will their wedding be?" Everyone at the table laughed.

Daphne said, "Millie wants to know if you have a brother—ideally, a twin brother. She told me today, she wants the man she marries to be like you."

"I have a cousin, but"—Harry had to work to keep his tone light—"I'm sure Millicent would not want to marry him."

Then Harry added, "Nor do I have a brother. Which is just as well. With my luck, he would get the undeserved title of the 'Boy Who Lived,' and get all the love and fame and glory, whilst I'd get the same sucky parts of my life that I get now."

Hermione gave Harry a sharp look; so did Susan Bones.

Whilst the other six first-years at the table worked on homework essays, chatted lowly or—in Hermione's case—read library books for fun, Harry wrote a letter to Sirius.

.

Dear Sirius Black, my godfather,

I need to confess right now that I don't remember you at all. I was fifteen months old when that part of my life ended.

Just about everything I know about you comes from reading my mum's Hogwarts diaries. You and my dad made friends quickly (on the firstie train?), then Peter and Remus became friends later. You four boys called yourself "the Marauders," and became famous at Hogwarts for pulling pranks, mainly on the Slytherins. You favourite Slytherin target was my mum's friend, Severus Snape. (More about him later.) Whilst you four pranked Severus more often than he pranked you, he once got all four of you to stand up in the Great Hall and shout, "WE WANT TO BE SLYTHERINS! WE'RE SAD WE'RE NOT SLYTHERINS! PLEASE LET US BE SLYTHERINS!"

Anyway, now I'm at Hogwarts, after refusing to come to Hogwarts whilst Dumbledore was headmaster. (More about Dumbledore later.) I was Sorted into Ravenclaw, along with my genius Muggle-born friend Hermione. (More about her later.) We've had one day of class. We Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff firsties walked into Transfiguration today and found a cat staring at us from atop the professor's desk—then the cat turned into Professor McGonnagill (sp?) We all were amazed.

Re Professor Snape—when I got my Hogwarts letter, I wrote back to tell them, "I refuse to go to Hogwarts." (Because Dumbledore is in charge there, and Dumbledore has ruined my life.) But I also said in the letter, "If Sirius, Remus, Peter or Severus is at Hogwarts, I ask him to write to me." Within hours, Professor Snape showed up at Aunt Petunia's front door, with orders from Dumbledore to persuade me to go to Hogwarts. (By the way, Professor Snape and Aunt Petunia still hate each other.)

It turns out—I didn't know this before—Professor Snape is famous at Hogwarts for bullying students, especially students from Gryffindor. When he was in the Dursley house, I asked him, "If Lily Evans from fifth year" (back when Mum and Professor Snape still were friends) "could watch you teach classes now, would she say you were a good teacher or a bully?" You should have seen his face then, it was as if someone had told him his dog had died. He said "A bully," then he pointed his wand straight up and made a promise to not be a bully anymore, then there was a flash of light. Right afterwards, Professor Snape made another "wand up and flash of light" promise, to be my ally against Dumbledore, even if Dumbledore threatened to sack Professor Snape.

When Professor Snape made those two promises, he meant them. Last night, after the "Welcome to Hogwarts" feast, he apologised to the students for being a bad teacher to them (they were shocked), and he resigned as Potions professor for the first four years. (This brought cheers.) He recommended Andromeda Black Tonks (see below) as the replacement professor for Baby Potions.

What I'm trying to say: Having spent time near Professor Snape, I can understand why Mum called eleven-year-old Sev "grumpy." But both Hermione and I deeply respect Professor Snape, and I ask that you do too.

I keep writing about Dumbledore. The simple truth is, I have good reason to hate him and to avoid any place he is at.

.

Harry then wrote another foot of parchment, all of it writing bad things about Dumbledore and the Dursleys. "Also, somebody has stolen G107 000 from my family vault, and I suspect Dumbledore."

.

I've known Hermione (her-MY-oh-knee) Granger for only a bit over a month, but already we're close friends. Professor Snape and I met Hermione in Flourish and Blotts, on the day Professor Snape took me to buy my school supplies. This was my first trip to F&B, but it was Hermione's fourth. (Professor McGonnagill (sp?) handed Hermione her Hogwarts Letter last September.) Hermione loves to read and she's much smarter than I am. Hermione is determined to catch up with the wizard-raised first-years, in terms of knowing magic, as quickly as she can.

Re Andromeda Black Tonks—Hermione's parents drove Hermione and me to King's Cross Station, so Hermione and I went through the portal ten seconds apart. Walking towards the train, we talked to an Auror and a pink-haired Auror Cadet. The Auror Cadet was named Nymphadora Tonks (but she hates her first name). She said her mother is Andromeda Black Tonks, and that Dora and her mum are related to Dorea Black Potter, my grandmother. Andromeda Tonks owled me today, and told me she's been looking for me for the past ten years. (But Dumbledore blocked her and lied to her.) She also told me that I'm related to Draco Malfoy through Narcissa Black Malfoy. So less than two days after Hermione and I went to King's Cross, I have a magical godfather in my life and four magical relatives!

Can you tell I'm happy?

Your trial to become my guardian is set for 6th September. I really, really, really hope you win, so that I don't ever have to see Vernon, Petunia and Dudley Dursley again. I also want you to win so Dumbledore can't pull any more stunts (or steal any more money) as my supposed magical guardian.

Harry

Almost dinnertime

The seven first-years who had studied together, were walking from the library to the Great Hall. Daphne Greengrass looked sad.

"I've enjoyed this," she said, "four different Houses studying together. Too bad kids from different Houses can talk to each other, not counting class, only on the train and in the library. But we couldn't talk normally in the library."

"Actually," said Harry, "I know of one other way. In the Great Hall, the only time we must sit with our Houses is during official Feasts—the Welcoming Feast, the Yule Feast, and the Closing Feast."

"Really?" said Hannah Abbott. "So I could eat dinner with—?" She glanced at Neville, then looked down at the floor as she blushed.

"Are you sure about this, Harry?" Hermione asked.

"Yes, it's buried in the rules somewhere." Not to mention, the founders told me they want kids in different Houses to mingle. "So the seven of us, let's have dinner at the end of the Ravenclaw table."

"Just so long as it isn't at the end of the Gryffindor table," Tracey Davis said. "No offence, Neville."

When the seven studious sprogs walked into the Great Hall, six of them walked to the end of the Ravenclaw table and sat on the benches, which startled everyone else in the room. Harry said to Hermione, "Save me a seat," then he walked to the Gryffindor table.

Harry walked to the first-years section of the Gryffindor table, and invited those firsties to join his dinner group at the end of the Ravenclaw table. Harry then walked to the Ravenclaw table and the Hufflepuff table, giving the same invitation to those tables' first-years. At the Slytherin table, the process got a bit more complicated—

"...end of the Ravenclaw table," Harry said, as he waved a hand to show where he meant.

Ron Weasley stood up from where he was sitting (again at the end of the Slytherin table).

"Sit down, Bilious!" Harry snapped. "You are not invited."

"Oh, please take him," Pansy said, "so we don't have to watch him eat."

"Why am I not invited?" Ron demanded. "Because I'm not famous? Because my family is poor?"

Harry stared down Ron. "You aren't invited, Bilious, because you're annoying, disgusting and disturbed. I don't care if your mother sends me a hundred Howlers for saying these things and for not inviting you."

Ron neither was moving towards the Ravenclaw table now, nor was he sitting back down. A Slytherin prefect walked over. "Sit down, Bilious. Remember what Professor Snape said about Potter."

Red-eared, scowling Ron sat back down on his bench.

"What Slytherins are there already, at your Ravenclaw dinner?" Draco asked Harry.

"Daphne and Tracey," Harry answered.

Up the table, Sam Flint sneered. "Is the mudblood there?"

Harry stared Flint in the eyes and said, "My Muggle-born friend Hermione was the first one there."

Draco stood up from his bench. "This sounds like a good way to make connexions. Thank you for the invitation, Heir Potter."

Millicent Bulstrode stood up. "I'm going too." She curtseyed towards Harry.

A minute later, when Harry took his seat at the end of the Ravenclaw table (sitting across from Hermione), he discovered that the six other first-years from the library, plus new arrivals Draco and Millicent, were joined by Justin Finch-Fletchley of Hufflepuff, Parvati Patil of Gryffindor and Su Li and Padma Patil of Ravenclaw.

Albus was watching as first-year students from four Houses sat down at the end of the Ravenclaw table. The fact that Harry Potter was masterminding this gathering, much annoyed Albus. The Greater Good demanded that Harry Potter be pathetically grateful to be accepted into any group, not creating a group where such a group could not exist otherwise.

When Harry, Draco and Millicent left the Slytherin table for the Ravenclaw table, Albus looked across the High Table to Severus. "This seems like something that James Potter would do if he'd thought of it."

What Albus expected to happen: For Severus to jump up, to loudly order all the children back to their places, and to issue nasty detentions to Harry Potter.

What instead happened: Severus said, "No, this is entirely Lily's sort of plan." Then Severus went back to his eating.

During dessert, at the end of the Ravenclaw table

At the High Table, Dumbledore briefly spoke to McGonagall, who frowned.

Then Dumbledore left the table for his office. McGonagall left the High Table right afterwards, to walk between the Ravenclaw and Gryffindor tables.

At the Slytherin table, Sam Flint laughed. "The Twins are in trouble!"

But the Deputy Headmistress's intended victim was not a Gryffindor. McGonagall walked to the end of the Ravenclaw table, and up to Hermione.

"Miss Granger," McGonagall said in her Scottish accent, "the headmaster wishes to speak to you in his office."

Su Li asked, "Hermione, what did you do?"

"I haven't done anything!" Hermione said, looking panicky.

Then Hermione said to the old witch, "Please, professor, do you know what this is about?"

"No, and you'd best be going. The headmaster doesn't like to be kept waiting."

Harry snapped, "And I don't like to live with Muggle relatives who hate me. But we can't always get what we want."

McGonagall looked pained. Good, Harry thought.

Harry leant over towards Hermione, who leant over towards him. He murmured, "Remember what I told you on the train platform, what to say when he speaks his pretty words."

At regular volume, Harry said, "You'd better go. I'll be waiting for you in our common room."

As old Professor McGonagall walked with tiny Hermione to the Great Hall double doors that led to the headmaster's staircase, conversations broke out amongst students.

Those conversations got louder when Harry stood up and said, loudly enough to be heard in the entire Great Hall—

"Professor Flitwick, you are Hermione's Head of House, and I deeply distrust Dumbledore's motives for summoning my friend. Anything from tricky word-games to mind-control spells"—students gasped, hearing this—"could happen to Hermione if those two are alone. I ask that you're there with Hermione when Hermione is with Dumbledore."

Flitwick jumped down from his chair at the High Table, and ran after McGonagall and Hermione.

Harry hoped Flitwick's presence would be enough.