A wild chapter appears.

Molten Thunder uses Procrastinate.

It's not very effective…

Chapter 13- A New Beginning

Monday, September 2nd 1991

When Harry awoke the next morning, he felt an awfully peculiar sensation. It was as if there was a great weight on his stomach, crushing him. Then, that feeling of pressure began to move. Just after it reached his chest, he felt something wet and warm touch his nose. Opening his eyes, he found himself nose-to-nose with a very odd, and utterly adorable, creature. It was licking his face. A minute later his brain finally came online and he remembered where (and what) that creature was. Primmy. Primate Murder. The Great Fuzzy. And apparently a girl.

Seeing that he was now awake, it yipped (a rather odd sound, more of a "fou" than a "yip"), jumped off his chest, and curled up on the end of Harry's bed and went to sleep. He stared at the now adorable murder beast and wondered how exactly it was a girl. Primate Murder was a one-of-a-kind monster right? There was no point to it having a gender (Harry carefully ignored the fact that he believed his wand to be male despite most of its components coming from females and it being a wand). Alt certainly hadn't bothered using a gender-specific pronoun on the cute monstrosity before the previous night. Maybe it had something to do with its new form?

What, exactly, was that form anyway? At least when taking the form of the monstrous Primate Murder it was easy to tell that his fuzzy companion was an enormous elephant-sized wolf. But now? He felt that his original assessment of its appearance- some sort of eevee/poodle cross- was correct. But this brought about a new problem. It was now much too cute to remain "Primate Murder". It didn't look like it could murder a fly! (Harry, however, had no doubts that despite its appearance, it was just as deadly as before).

So what should it be called? Prim, perhaps? Or maybe Fou? If it were a Pokémon, then it would stand to reason that the odd "fou" sound it made would be its name, but it wasn't. What exactly was it anyway? Alt had mentioned that Primmy was in this form when they first met. What was with its current form? Why was it so different than the one he knew so well? How long ago did they meet anyway? How old was Primmy?

Harry froze, a feeling of existential dread and certain death descended upon him. Glancing up, he found the cutified Primate Murder standing on his chest once more (how did he not notice?) and glaring at him. Oops. He must have accidentally said that last thought aloud.

Looking into its, no her, eyes, he sincerely said: "I'm very sorry for questioning your age and gender. It is clear to me that you are a lady deserving of respect. Please forgive me."

The terrifying creature looked satisfied at his words and returned to the foot of his bed to sleep. Harry let out a shaky breath. He was glad that Altrouge had taught him about the difference between a girl and a lady (one can be asked their age, while the other must never be asked that question), he might not have made it through that trial unscathed without that particular nugget of wisdom.

But, that still left him with the question of her name. Prim, Prim sounded good. It could be short for Primate Murder, but wasn't sufficiently cute. Hmm… Prim… Prime? No. Primer? No. Primness? Maybe. Primeval? He shivered, absolutely not. Primordial? No for the same reason. No referencing her age. Primrose? Huh, that one was decent. A pretty flower, suitable for such an adorable creature.

Problem solved, Harry got up. Looking at his bedside mechanical alarm clock, he saw the time to be 7:10. It was awfully light for such an early hour, then again he was pretty far north. Plenty of time to shower and prepare for the coming day.

"Hey Neville, it's time to get up."

Upon exiting the passage from the common room forty minutes later, Harry and his fellow first-year boys found themselves exiting a closet in an entirely unfamiliar place.

"Well that's new," Alan (a fourth year) said. "I haven't seen the exit lead anywhere outside the ground floor before."

"Where are we?" A boy who had introduced himself as Ernest Macmillian a little earlier asked.

"We appear to be on the first floor, not far from the main staircase. Come along this way."

A minute later they were walking down the marble grand staircase into the entrance hall and entering the great hall. There were already a surprising number of students eating breakfast, considering the fact that classes did not start for more than an hour. Looking around, Harry saw that most of the students were at their house tables, but a few were not.

"Are there any rules about what table you can eat at?" Harry asked.

"Well, it's strongly suggested that you eat at your own table during dinner time, and during feasts you need to stay at your house table," Cedric responded. "But other than that, no. Does that answer your question?"

"Yeah it does thanks. Hey Neville, what do you say we go and sit with Hermione? I'm interested to hear what Ravenclaw is like." The girl Harry had indicated wasn't sitting near any of her housemates and had her head buried in a book. They started walking over, but before they reached the table they were intercepted by a rather chipper Tracey who grabbed them both by the arm and dragged them over to the Slytherin table.

"Mission accomplished captain!" she announced to a rather grumpy-looking Daphne with a swift salute.

"Tracey, what have I said about raising your voice before I've had my morning tea?"

"Not to do it, sir!"

"And what are you doing right now?"

"Reporting in as instructed, sir!"

Daphne released a long drawn-out sigh and buried her head in her hands. "Why," she mumbled, "did I have to be friends with a morning person like you?"

"Because you love me, sir!"

The bedraggled witch made a few half-hearted attempts to hit her friend before giving up and admitting defeat with yet another sigh.

"So," said Harry, "why did you drag us over here?"

"We tried the same thing you were about to, but she's fully absorbed by her book and completely ignored us," Daphne responded.

"So," Tracey continued, "being such good friends, cap'n here decided that it would be best to spare you the pain of rejection."

"A-are you sure that sh-she didn't just want a buffer?" Neville said softly.

"Ouch, that hurts! I've been dealt a fatal wound! The HMS Tracey is going down. Abandon ship! Abandon ship!" Tracey responded as she slowly, and dramatically, slid beneath the table. A Slytherin girl a few years older than them scoffed quietly at her actions and scooted down the bench away from the undignified Tracey. Neville, meanwhile, was flabbergasted.

"Don't worry about Tracey, she does that sometimes. Her father's an admiral in the navy and she likes to reference it." A hand snuck up from beneath the table, blindly groped around until it landed upon a piece of toast, grabbed it, then withdrew back into darkness.

"So," Harry began a moment later after taking a piece of toast for himself, "what's it like in Slytherin?"

The HMS Tracey surfaced briefly to answer his question: "a little bit cold and damp, very very green, and quite political."

"The common room and dorms are located down in the dungeon, quite far down as some of the windows look out into the lake."

"Into, as in into the waters beneath the surface of the lake. We get to watch the fish swimming around and I think I got a glimpse of the giant squid last night," Tracey interrupted from her dark domain.

Daphne ignored her and continued. "This makes it a bit cool and wet, but it is also quite cozy as there are fires burning at all times, although those fires have been spelled an emerald color so the lighting is a bit strange. As for the politics, from what I have been told the members of Slytherin arrange themselves into 'parties' composed of those with similar interests as the majority of the house goes into politics or business or government. What's Hufflepuff like?"

"Well, it's nice and cozy and our housemates are cool, but I'm afraid I can't tell you much more than that."

Tracey resurfaced, leaned in conspiratorially, and asked "why not?" in a whisper.

Surprisingly, it was Neville that responded: "I'm afraid that we had to make an unbreakable vow on the subject, sorry."

"Wha… What!? An unbreakable vow? Really?" Tracey reeled back as if struck.

Harry and Neville looked at each other for a moment before breaking out in laughter. When they had gotten control of themselves, Harry responded: "We didn't take any vows, but were told in no uncertain terms not to talk about the house as it would, to paraphrase a long-winded rant on the subject, 'make you jealous because of the awesomeness of Hufflepuff and lack of awesomeness of other houses', so we aren't allowed to talk about the house."

"Seriously? Now I need to know!"

Harry mimed zipping his lips, and throwing away the key. You could almost feel the amusement wafting off of him.

"Noooooooooooooo, don't do that! You must tell me! Tell meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!"

The first class of the year took place near the end of a corridor on the 4th floor. Their trip took several minutes as they had to traverse a large central chamber with numerous staircases that often changed positions. It was a serious safety hazard.

Entering the room and sitting at a desk was a novel experience for Harry. He had mostly been taught in one-on-one situations, generally in a lab. When he attended lectures, they took place in large rooms with stadium seating and students of all ages (but most older than him). Having a class in rectangular room with desks arranged in neat rows on a level floor (how would the students in the back see?) with everyone being about the same age was just weird.

A few minutes later, the rest of the class started finding their way in. The red on their robes identified them as Gryffindors, and given the fact that they were finding their way to the room in small groups meant that no one had helped to guide them to class. Not every chair had been filled by the time the professor entered from a door at the back of the classroom at exactly 9-o-clock.

"Good morning class, I am professor S. Shakespeare and I will be teaching you writing, grammar, and literature over the next five years we have together. In muggle schools this class tends to be labeled 'English'. As we are still waiting on a few stragglers, I'll only ask that you take out your quill and a piece of parchment for now."

The professor was tall, thin, and immaculately dressed. He was wearing a plum suit over a forest green shirt with light purple trousers. His eyes were a brilliant green that seemed to sparkle and he wore a golden monocle. His short black hair somehow formed spikes that stuck out from his head in all directions. It felt like this should have ruined the image he was presenting, but somehow it complemented the whole as it simply fit. He seemed strangely familiar to Harry.

A minute later the classroom door opened and four Gryffindor students sheepishly walked in. Harry recognized one of them to be that Ron kid he had briefly met on the train. They took seats at the back of the room.

"I will excuse tardiness this week as it can take some time to learn to navigate the castle, but do be sure to be here on time. Now, we will begin with the fundamentals. How many of you know how to write with a quill on parchment?"

Two-thirds of the class raised their hands.

"How many of you have done so before last week?"

Several students put their hands down.

"Thus, we shall begin with the art of writing on parchment with a quill. We'll worry about subjects like grammar and composition once you can actually write. Notes do no good to anyone if you cannot read your own writing, the same goes for your homework. If I cannot read it, you automatically get the grade of Troll and the same is true for the other professors. Now," the professor rapped his knuckle against the blackboard causing several paragraphs to appear, "you will start by copying these down upon your parchment while I walk around and assist. Once everyone is able to write to an acceptable level, hopefully by the end of the month, we will move on. Much of your homework is to be done in short-essay format so we will be working on that next."

A Gryffindor student raised her hand.

"Yes, that is Hamlet I'm having you copy. Any other questions?"

The hand lowered.

"Then let us begin."

After class ended, Cedric and a girl named Mandy met them in the hallway. This was quite fortuitous for the Gryffindor students who had been left to fend for themselves by their own prefects as they also had the next class together. The second class of the day was Maths, which two floors down on a hallway that could only be reached by taking the staircase at the end of the charms corridor (which happened to be on the third floor and connected to that forbidden corridor Dumbledore had mentioned, Harry vowed to visit soon). This area, they were informed, was known as "the department of mathemagics" and was practically labyrinthine in design. It was full of odd angles and directions to various rooms that could only be obtained by solving equations of varying difficulty. They were informed that the equations changed often, as did the location of the various rooms. Fortunately, the class they were heading for was right by the staircase. It was the more advanced classes that were trouble to locate.

Cedric and Mandy had guided them well- they had a full 10 minutes before class began so Mandy, who focused on the mathemagical arts, gave the first years a bit of a tour.

"Down there we have the arithmancy class which you can begin starting 3rd year. It focuses on the magical properties of numbers which lead to a lot of other interesting places. Solving this equation here, hmm…. Ok looks like we make a right here followed by four lefts and then through the underpass- that will take you to the malgebra class which is a bit more advanced and leads into warding. To the left, two-thirds of the way through the triangle then across the dodecahedron is the geomagimetry room. It looks into the magical properties of shapes and is necessary for alchemy. If instead we go straight, follow the curve to the left- which should eventually cross over the previous path- and then integrate the downward passage you should find your way to the calculazam room, it's one of the newer additions to the department and is useful in advanced spell crafting and number-based divination. Do be careful not to wander too much if you don't have the requisite math to find your way around. A few years back a student was lost in the non-Euclidian realm for several days. After he was recovered, he had to spend several months in the mind healing ward of Saint Mungo's as he kept having these horrible dreams of a twisted city rising from the depths of the ocean. He's better now, but we don't want a repeat of that incident."

"Are there any other ways to this department besides the staircase from the charms corridor?"

"I imagine that there are several secret passages that lead to other parts of the castle, but locating them requires strong skills in mathemagics and many believe that they can only be accessed from what the muggle-born students have dubbed the 'Cthulu Corridor'. We think that Mark was attempting to find one when he became lost, but he can't remember," Cedric answered. "Anyway, class starts in a minute and Professor V does not excuse tardiness. Don't wait up for us after class ends, you should be able to find your way down to lunch without too much trouble."

Then they took off down one of the many branching corridors, Mandy holding her wand aloft as it spewed a trail of glowing numbers. They entered the room and found it to be semi-circular with desks arrayed in a sort of spiraling pattern similar to how you would find seeds arranged in a sunflower. The professor was at her desk at the front- the exact middle of the pattern. There was a soft chime, it was 10:35 and class had begun.

"Good morning class, I am professor Verrick- or professor V for short- and I will be teaching you maths for the next two years." She was a severe looking bespectacled woman with short brown hair tied back and a stern face.

A groan came from a number of the room's occupants. Professor Verrick glanced at the students sharply. "Maths is very important for the wellbeing of your future. You do not need to proceed into the intricacies of mathemagics, but you do need a solid basis if you are ever to become functioning members of society. How do you expect to manage your money or pay off a loan or even go shopping if you have no idea how numbers work? We will be drilling the basics of math into your skulls until you can do it in your sleep, and I will not tolerate any slacking off! Hate me if you want, despise me even! I don't care. You will learn in this class whether you want to or not."

True to their word, there were no older students to help the first years find their way to lunch. It was easy enough to make it back to the charms corridor, but that is where things started to become… difficult. It should have been a straight shot back to the chamber with all the staircases, and yet Harry found himself turned around and stepping into the forbidden corridor not once but three times while traversing the seemingly straight passage. Then, when he had finally made it back to the staircases that would take him down he found that every staircase he tried to take, even if he walked down it, lead him to a higher floor.

Twenty minutes later Harry found himself at the top of a tower with no idea how he managed that feat. He was also alone and had not seen another student since he had passed the 4th floor. There were now only 30 minutes of lunch left, and he was farther from the great hall than ever before. It would probably be faster to climb down the side of the castle than to try to find his way down when every staircase heading the direction he desired to travel somehow ended up sending him somewhere completely different. Unfortunately, his magecraft studies had not granted him the ability to fly- yet- and while he was an accomplished climber he wasn't sure if climbing down a magical castle that had somehow confounded his sense of direction would help. He'd probably end up on top of the tallest tower he could see instead of reaching the ground if he tried climbing.

But he decided to try his luck. It probably wouldn't be that much of a problem, all he had to do was climb one more set of stairs so he could reach the battlements and the castle would not be able to interfere in his quest for lunch any longer. Sure, it could try to mess with his sense of direction, but as long as he could see the ground he'd be fine. Harry climbed the flight of winding stairs and opened the door to find himself in the entrance hall. He walked across it and through the open door to the great hall and found himself at his destination.

Bewildered, he picked the closest open seat, put his head in his hands, and moaned "This doesn't make any sense!"

The girl next to him chuckled. She was a tall Asian girl several years older than him with long black hair and three large red feathers of a type he could not identify in her hair. Turning to him she said with a grin "First time trying to navigate the castle on your own?"

His groan was all the answer she needed and her grin grew wider. "So," she asked Harry leaning in conspiratorially as she did, "where did you end up?"

"The top of one of the towers, not sure which one, then when I went to open the door to the roof so I could try to climb my way down, I was back in the entrance hall."

She looked at him for a moment before bursting out in laughter. When she had gotten control of herself a moment later she turned back to him with a grin and punched him lightly on the shoulder. "Climb down the castle? You've got guts, I like you! Ah, I remember that first attempt to reach lunch. I was coming from transfiguration and ended up in the mathemagics department. Being pants at math I became very very lost. I even tried to punch my way out of the corridor, but only managed to bruise my knuckles. A teacher found me there an hour later glaring angrily at the wall. Ah, good times."

"Wait, you missed lunch entirely and had to have a teacher find you and are laughing at that?" Harry exclaimed indignantly.

"Well, the first time is always the worst but it gets better after that. Unfortunately, I never managed to get that lost again- as long as I avoided maths I was fine. And yes, it was a rather silly situation I found myself in, so why not laugh now that it is over? Anyway, I believe I forgot to introduce myself. I'm Yuri Ha," she tapped a gleaming badge on her chest then offered her hand, "6th year Gryffindor prefect."

"I'm Harry Brunestud," he replied taking the hand she offered and shaking it. "Gryffindor?" He looked around, it seemed that in his disorientation he found his way to the wrong table. "And I was sure that I sat down at correct table."

"It happens, but who is to say that this was the wrong table to sit at? You may have never met my magnificent self if you had sat at the 'correct' table."

"I suppose…"

"Hey! What's with that lackluster response? I'm the most magnificent person you'll ever have the pleasure of meeting!"

"Moving on, why did I get so lost? I'm usually good with directions and knew which way should have taken me back but didn't."

"You must remember that Hogwarts is a castle, a magical castle. It was built as a fortress to stop invaders and protect its inhabitants. There are who knows how many thousands of wards and enchantments layered upon the building drawing power from the ley-lines that converge beneath the lake. Having so much magic concentrated in a small space can have unpredictable results. Some people think it has given the castle some limited amount of sentience, if it did then you firsties becoming so lost would be proof that the castle is a prankster. Others are of the opinion that it takes some time for the wards to recognize new students and so some of the defenses are active against you guys leading to disorientation and confusion. I think it may be something entirely different and you just gotta learn the trick to properly navigating the castle, it's something of an art. The faster you learn by becoming lost and then finding your again, the easier your time here will be. Anyways, lunch is wrapping up and you need to head off to your next class, here comes Mandy to collect you now."

Sure enough, a Hufflepuff girl with curly brown hair and glasses was making her way over towards them. Harry recognized her as the girl who had guided his class to maths.

"Ah good, you made it to lunch Harry. That leaves just four unaccounted for. We'll be meeting in the entrance hall in five minutes to take you to your next class."

The next class, as it turned out, was Charms. It also turned out that the missing Hufflepuff students- Neville, Justin, and two girls he had not yet met- were not as lost as Molly had believed. The four of them were already in the classroom sitting at a desk and eating sandwiches. Harry walked over with another boy.

"I heard you four were lost and was afraid you had missed lunch."

"We were lost, so lost we never made it out of the corridor!" Neville responded after finishing a bite of ham and cheese sandwich.

"Yeah, the professor saw us being continually turned around, took pity on us, and gave us lunch here in the classroom," the somewhat pudgy girl with auburn hair said.

"He's quite nice," the other girl, a tall girl with blond hair in pig tails, added between bites.

"Glad to hear it. I'm certain I would have starved to death had I missed lunch," the other boy who had walked over- a blond-haired boy with grey eyes and far too many freckles- said. "I'm Edward by the way," he continued, "didn't get the chance to introduce myself to everyone last night."

"I'm Susan and this," the auburn-haired girl said placing her hand on the other girl's shoulder, "is my friend Hannah."

"It's nice to meet you," Harry responded, "I'm Harry and I managed to lose myself so well I ended up eating lunch with the Gryffindors!"

A few minutes and several introductions later, the second half of the class was herded in by a diminutive wizard. He walked up to the front of the room, took a ponderous leap that looked like it should have occurred on the moon instead of Earth, and addressed the class from atop his desk in a somewhat high-pitched and squeaky voice: "Take a seat everyone and we will begin."

A minute later Harry found himself seated in the front between a Ravenclaw boy with dark hair and Hermione. The professor took roll while the students settled themselves, then began to speak.

"Welcome to charms. I am professor Filius Flitwick, head of House Ravenclaw, and mentor of the dueling club. In this class we will be covering the subject of charms, a rather diverse subject composed of many different fields of study. In general terms, charms tend to be spells that alter an object's properties as opposed to altering an object's form as with transfiguration. Offensively natured charms, sometimes called dark charms, are more commonly known as hexes, jinxes, and curses. The term 'charm' can cover anything from your most basic levitation or unlocking spell to some of the most powerful spells in existence.

"Because this class is so generalized, you are expected to pick a specialization in your 6th year, should you prove adept at charms and pass your O.W.L. These classes are abjuration which focuses on charms that are protective in nature, enchantment which explores charms that affect the mind- which is not the same as enchanting or the creation of magical items as that has more to do with the use of runes- alteration which changes an object's conceptual properties, and evocation which unleashes blasts of elemental fury. Now I'm sure you are all wondering why I'm talking about something so far off. First, it's not as far away as you may believe. And second, it's to give you motivation- something to strive for, a goal to attain." Seeing that he was beginning to lose his students, Flitwick changed gears.

"All right, wands out everyone!" The students gave a start, before scrambling beneath their desks searching for bags that had fallen out of reach. "Today we will be working on learning the basic forms and wand movements. Charms tend to be precise and finicky. If you mispronounce the spell or are not exact with your wand motions your spell could backfire to devastating effect! We will be learning and drilling forms and motions until I deem your motions acceptable. Then, and only then, will you start to learn actual spells. Magic is fun, but magic is dangerous. Never forget that."

Harry's next class, again with the Ravenclaws, was defense against the dark arts. It was taught by a man in a turban who seemed to have an unfortunate lack of confidence as well as (to Harry's great amusement) a debilitating and irrational fear of vampires if the mirrors, garlic, and holy symbols lining the classroom's walls were any indication. The teacher, a professor Quirrinus Quirrel, stuttered his way through the lesson. From what Harry could gather, the class focused on how to deal with dangerous magical creatures as well as various useful jinxes and counter-jinxes.

Being a studious person (absolutely no slacking was allowed by Lorelei, a habit that stuck even now that he was not under her direct tutelage), Harry found that he already knew the material that Quirrel was struggling to lay out and was utterly bored. His other teachers that day took the material he had already read and reiterated it with an intriguing twist, an approach he had not thought of, or put it to practical use. But Quirrel almost seemed to be reading straight from the book, and not doing a good job at that. Harry pitied the poor fellow and wondered what could have possibly happened to make him turn out that way.

Following defense, Harry and his classmates were brought to their final class of the day: magical art. It was located at the base of one of Hogwarts' many towers in a large circular room. In the center of the room, sitting upon the ceiling as if gravity had been reversed, was a young witch with spectacular multicolored hair that couldn't seem to decide if it was aqua, green, purple, magenta, or black.

"Young artlings, welcome to my class. I am professor Elise Ross and I will be teaching you about the magic of color and the color of magic. You will find around the room a number of easels with a variety of different types of paper and canvas. Find one that suits you and we will begin with an exploration of magical paints."

The professor drifted down from the ceiling, righted herself shortly before reaching the floor, and landed in a heavily cushioned armchair that spontaneously appeared beneath her. She plucked a steaming mug of coffee from thin air, breathed in its aroma, and continued.

"In this class I do not expect you to be amazing and create masterpieces worthy of the Louvre, I will not be grading you on how good your art is." At this declaration, most of the Ravenclaw students began muttering to each other and the phrase "well I never!" was clearly audible as were several loud gasps. They all looked scandalized upon hearing that their grades would not be based upon the quality of their work, a novel concept to be sure.

Professor Ross took a sip of her coffee, surveyed her artlings, waited for the Ravenclaws to settle down, the continued. "What I will be grading you on is the effort you make in my class and your willingness to learn and improve. If you make an honest effort you will most likely receive an Outstanding. If your focus is instead on messing around with your friends then slapping a couple of layers of paint on your canvas when there are only 5 minutes left in class and calling it done, you will fail. If you decide to continue with this class after the year is up then you can expect to have a painting or portrait of your creation hung upon the walls of Hogwarts before you graduate in seven years. Now," she declared standing suddenly, "we have 100 minutes left together this week so let us begin!"

It was just after six in the evening, half an hour before dinner began, when the paint-speckled Hufflepuff first years were escorted back into their common room to wash before eating. The boys were significantly more colorful than the girls.

What historians would later designate as the opening salvo of the Hufflepuff-Ravenclaw Paint War was a short but brutal conflict. Historians believe that it began when the Hufflepuff captain Ernie MacMillan snatched the last of the Reticulated Red paint from Ravenclaw general Terry Boot's stockpile. Retaliation was swift, and retaliation was pink. The injured captain fled behind Hufflepuff lines with his prize and ordered an artillery strike of Sunlit Black upon the enemy's supply lines. Having successfully driven off their foes, general Longbottom ordered the capture of the enemy supply camp to ensure a steady supply of Oolong Orange for their countrymen. They were met by an opposing sortie headed by lieutenant Andrew Wilson and their skirmish soon escalated into open battle. Colonel Harry Brunestud was just beginning to draw up plans to strike at the heart of the enemy forces using deception and their entire stock of starburst indigo when the Grand Empress Elise dealt a decisive blow to both armies after a careless shot of panther purple struck her as she was reclining. She immediately confiscated their ammunition and denounced their conflict as a "terrible waste of paint!" Temporary truce now in effect, both sides began planning next week's conflict, broad smiles all around.

Dinner that night was a boisterous affair. Each telling of the conflict saw additional embellishment and exaggeration until fact had been twisted into fiction. Every battle scar was displayed and the cause of injury carefully acted out. Between bites of dinner and expounding on their exploits, the boys of Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw glared at each other promising just vengeance and righteous retribution.

After dinner the first years found themselves at a loss. They still had nearly three hours until bed, had not been assigned any homework, and the clubs which would normally be held at this time were not beginning until next week. Several games were suggested but no consensus was reached until professor Sprout arrived, complemented them on their victory over the Ravenclaws, and suggested that they join the upper years for a session of Wyrms & Wizards where they could put their tactical brilliance to practical use. There were no objections, so they marched off to the game room to do battle with the forces of evil (controlled by several members of the 6th year class).

The first-year boys were crushed, utterly and completely in the ensuing melee. Their tactical brilliance was torn to shreds as the evil warlock ran circles around them and dragged them through every obstacle. Their power was not enough to save Neville and Justin from the swamp troll. Their cunning did not foresee the spike trap located on the ceiling that triggered when the Gem of Power was removed from its pedestal. Their tactical brilliance was rendered useless against the undead horde the warlock raised as he taunted the battered heroes from his dark throne. As they trooped off to bed, exhausted and defeated with their egos thoroughly deflated, they swore eternal vengeance against their game masters.

Tuesday morning began much the same as Monday had, with the exception of the Glare of Certain Doom™. In fact, Harry didn't see Prim anywhere in his room which was strange as he was certain she had been sleeping on his bed when he and Neville dragged themselves into the room after being mercilessly crushed by several sadistic seniors. Oh well. What was the worst that could happen?

Harry found that the great hall was rather devoid of intelligent life that morning. Many students had not yet woken, and most of those that had seemed to be in need of several strong cups of coffee. Shortly after sitting down at the Hufflepuff table, Harry found a certain ball of fluff in his lap begging him for treats. There was plenty of bacon so Harry pampered his pet monstrosity.

"She really likes you, you know," Altrouge was beside him buttering a piece of toast. "She usually hates humans, used to kill them on sight. It was rather hard to make friends with her like that. I find someone interesting and," she drew a finger across her throat, "dead. But now, to see her here surrounded by humans and not doing a single thing… This change you have caused is nothing short of miraculous."

"But I didn't do anything special!"

"You didn't have to. You were you, and that was enough. Centuries of antagonistic behavior erased in under a decade."

Harry wasn't sure how to respond to her words, it wasn't often that Altrouge acted like this. She was capricious and her mood generally swung between calm and whimsical. She was often kind and caring towards him, sometimes serious or melancholy, but only very rarely nostalgic. His guardian, his mother, dwelled in the present and looked toward the future. Reminiscing was not something she ever did. Harry suspected she had few happy memories to remember, and so tended to avoid the subject. All of this is to say that Altrouge was acting quite unlike herself, and so Harry simply remained quiet.

A sip of tea, a bite of toast with egg and bacon, a moment of silent reflection. "You know," she continued, turning her garnet eyes on him, "I never even considered the possible consequences of taking you in. That in all likelihood the second Primate Murder spotted you when I returned home it would kill you. It wasn't until I was standing on the lawn with the monster plodding towards me that the thought even crossed my mind. I fully expected for you to be killed then and there. I wouldn't even have lost any sleep over it, it would simply be another diversion, another attempt to end my boredom," Altrouge spat out this last word as if it were a curse, "destroyed before it could even start. And then," she stared up at the enchanted ceiling, it looked to be a beautiful day with lots of little puffy cumulus clouds drifting in an azure ocean. She stared up at it and her eyes lost focus as she remembered the moment when it all changed. "And then Primmy just padded up, took a great big sniff of the bundle I carried, gently plucked you from my arms, and lay herself down around you like a great fuzzy blanket. At that moment you became irreplaceable family." Altrouge wrapped her arms around Harry and drew him into a gentle hug.

"And now," Altrouge continued, "now Prim has taken a completely different form. A human-friendly form. I'm not sure you understand the magnitude of what you've made happen Harry. I'm not completely aware of it myself."

A minute later Altrouge released the now fidgeting Harry. There was a brilliant blush on his cheeks.

"So," she spoke in a suddenly cheerful tone, turning back to him with a grin, "how was your first day? Did you make any friends? What happened?"

The moment was over, her mood suddenly shifting as it so often did with no evidence of her previous nostalgia. Accepting the jarring transition with the ease of long practice, Harry embarked upon his tale of the previous day's events, of friends met and battles fought.

-End chapter 13-

Omake: Why Altrouge is ignored by the school or Altrouge is a nerd who reads too much

"Altrouge, I've been wondering. Why doesn't anyone seem to react to your presence when you show up? You are very obviously not a student or a member of the staff here at Hogwarts."

"I have an SEP field."

"A what?"

She grabbed a silver chain that hung around her neck. Harry hadn't noticed it before. Dangling on the end of the chain was a small ruby. It, and the silver inset, were carved with numerous runes and symbols.

"This is a mystic code that generates a SEP field- a Somebody Else's Problem field. It more or less makes people feel that my presence isn't an issue- if it was someone else would deal with it. It's someone else's problem. So no one does or says anything, or even notices anything out of the ordinary. It's quite a lovely little trinket."

Author's Note:

This chapter was brought to you in part by: Hurricane Florence. It cancelled half of my classes this week giving me enough free time to actually work on my story some. Hopefully my power stays on this weekend so that I can keep writing.

This chapter was originally supposed to cover the first half of Harry's week. Then I actually wrote it and it. Just. Kept. Growing. Bigger. When it hit 6k words for one day, I decided that was enough and turned it into a chapter of its own. It was also mostly written while on vacation in Greece. What? That was July and it's now September, why didn't I publish it earlier you say? Mostly because I wanted to finish off Harry's first week at school first (so I could know how many chapters to make it and where to end each one) and I became incredibly busy with moving and starting graduate school so finishing off the week took much longer than expected. On the plus side that means I have 4 chapters to give you all instead of just one (3 are complete and #4 is at about 20% and will hopefully be done this month). Chapter 14 will be posted on the 21st, Chapter 15 on the 28th, and hopefully I'll be done with Chapter 16 in time to post it on October 5th. After that I probably won't have any new chapters until Christmas.

This chapter was also supposed to end with Harry talking to Hermione, but Altrouge decided to show up and be emotional. There will be plenty of Hermione in later chapters. As for the omake, for those of you who have no knowledge of amazing British literature- it's a reference to Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (book 3 I think- if you haven't read the series, please do. It's hilarious in a very British way. Ignore the movie.).

As for the OC teachers, I'm sure you can all guess the identity of Mr. S. Shakespeare. The math teacher is based loosely upon a very strict teacher I had in 3rd grade (who later on had people call her by just the first letter of her last name for some reason). Meanwhile the art teacher is basically what my sister would be like if she was magical.