It has been a month since Harry started attending Hogwarts and he had to admit, he liked the school. It was a hundred times better than his previous one, for numerous reasons.

He was learning magic! Something that he thought impossible, stuff from fantasy and dreams. But it was real, and he could enjoy it as much as he wanted, without his cousin, aunt or uncle being there to spoil it or badmouth it. He was free of them, so, he dove into learning with everything he had and absorbed everything he was taught. And his housemates encouraged it, happily answering any questions about subjects he didn´t understand, particularly after they found out he was muggle-raised.

He finally made some friends. Before, because of his cousin, he was mostly alone, but since there was nobody to chase them away, he had people to spend time with. There was Ron, of course, with whom he arranged regular study times to help him with things he didn´t understand. Other than that, they spend a lot of time exploring the castle, especially the secret passages, after Harry shared his knowledge about their existence with the other boy. Then there was a shy boy from Gryffindor, named Neville Longbottom, that reminded Harry of a small, scared puppy. They became friends after the raven-haired wizard returned Trevor the toad to the blonde boy, which resulted in a talk about the proper way to take care of a toad and later turned into a debate about the difference between the muggle and magical plant care. He joined the study sessions and later, Neville would hang out with him when both boys wanted some peace and quiet. Harry was glad for both boys since they both saw him for who he was and never treated him like the rest of the school – with stares, whispers and following him around.

He was in the presence of the animals, which made his stay in the castle enjoyable. After figuring out the teachers´ schedules and movements, Hedwig and Colonel accompanied him everywhere, save for the classrooms. It was great because they made exploring the castle even more fun, though they hid, whenever a teacher approached and reappeared when the teachers were gone. The rest of the school was at first surprised by the presence of the two birds, but not as much as when the rest animals in the castle decided to join in. Cats would come up to Harry at random, demanding cuddles or just following him around. Owls would land to perch on his shoulder to play with his hair or fly above him wherever he went. Some toads would randomly jump into his pockets or land on his hair, to rest and nap for a while.

The young wizard took it as fun and he and his friends were amused when Hedwig and Colonel, in reaction to this, laid down some ground rules for the other animals. In their words, Harry was their human, so they have more rights for his time and the others had to respect this and obey the two birds. If not, Hedwig was happy to demonstrate the sharpness of her claws, and Colonel was ready to show off his toys. Because, as it turned out, the penguin wasn´t armed only by a blowpipe, but also by knives, baseball bats, and other weapons. Harry decided that he didn´t want to know about what Colonel had in his arsenal, though he was curious about where the penguin pulled all the stuff from. He only asked the two birds not to kill the other animals, unless they attacked them first. Thankfully, all the animals around Harry were behaving, so there was no need for drastic measurements.

Though, true to the Sorting hat´s words, the Ravenclaw students, especially the older ones, took on Colonel as a challenge to solve. They accepted the odd bird, but they also wanted to solve how could a normal muggle animal pull out some of the stuff the penguin did so easily. And when they learned that Harry attracted animals like flame did moths and that he could easily understand all animals he came across and they understood him back, the students went nuts with research. They were determined to find out, what was causing this reaction. Thankfully, they seemed to know to restrain themselves… or at least learned to restrain themselves, after they found out that one of the cats that liked and sought out Harry regularly was none other than Mrs Norris! That seemed to be a good motivation to be respectful, at least they wanted to anger the cat. Even though Harry had a hard time understanding why everyone was afraid of her. He thought she was a nice, polite, and well-behaved cat.

Nevertheless, not everything was ideal for the boy who lived in his new school. There was one big obstacle that kept trying to make his time miserable and that was Draco Malfoy. Harry knew that they started off on the bad side, but that was mostly because the boy was rude first and didn't even apologize for it. And at school, the boy seemed to go out of his way to harass the raven boy, while trying to make himself look better. The Slytherin would comment about how, since Harry was sorted in Ravenclaw, he was not a lost cause, and he can still be salvaged by the right company. The blonde even went so far as to criticize Harry´s human friends, be it by commenting on Ron´s hand-me-down clothes and things, or by putting down Neville for being such a horrible and useless wizard. He also often commented about being the better company compared to them, but Harry was less than impressed by the blonde. Honestly, if the blonde was attempting to befriend him again, it was having the opposite effect, since Harry didn't want to have anything to do with the other boy.

Outside of class, Colonel acted as a good Malfoy-repellent. Whenever the blonde would appear, the penguin would hide, then jump out, holding one of his weapons, usually a baseball bat. The sight of the armed bird never failed to send the blonde and his bodyguards running.

Unfortunately, the Ravenclaws had a History of Magic, Astronomy and Herbology with the Slytherins, so avoiding the boy was not an option. So, Harry got creative. In History, he always arrived early and took a strategic place near the front. And for Astronomy and Herbology, he always managed to snag someone as his partner and kept as much distance from the boy as possible.

So far, he was lucky.

Then came the time for the flying lessons to start. The Ravenclaw first years had the class on Friday afternoon, along with Hufflepuffs, and Harry was kind of looking forward to it. It meant that he might be later able to fly through the sky along with Hedwig. Maybe he would be able to take Colonel with them! He couldn´t wait! But when he shared this with his friends, they didn´t share his enthusiasm. Because as Harry found out, the Gryffindors had the flying class with the Slytherins on Thursday afternoon.

"Just what I needed," moaned Neville sadly. "Another opportunity for Malfoy to make fun of me! As if Potions weren´t enough in themselves!"

The blonde was honestly afraid of the flying lessons, mainly since most of his practical classes ended up in disaster.

"I don´t think it will be that bad!" Harry tried to reassure his friend. "If anything, I bet that Malfoy will make a big fool of himself. I know for a fact that his stories about flying are all rubbish!"

But that didn´t seem to help the boy and Harry was left wondering about what he should do. The truth was, he was worried about his friend, both because of the possibility of an incident and because the raven suspected that Malfoy would try to do something to sabotage his friend.

Thankfully, Neville wasn´t the only person nervous about flying. His housemate, Hermione Granger, seemed to be nervous too. Harry wasn´t surprised, since the witch seemed to base a lot of her abilities on what she read. Flying clearly wasn´t something one could learn from reading, though the young witch made effort to do it. At breakfast on Thursday, Harry could hear all the way to his table, how she recited every flying tip she found on her quest in the library, from a book called Quidditch Through the Ages. If the black-haired wizard understood, Quidditch was a sport played on brooms and was a big deal in the wizarding world. Personally, Harry reserved his judgement, until he saw the first match between the school teams. Anyway, both he and the rest of the school was happy when Hermione´s talk was interrupted by the arrival of the mail.

Harry noticed how a barn owl brought Neville a small package, probably from his grandmother. The blonde seemed excited by it, which made Harry curious. He got up from his seat and walked around the tables until he reached his friend, who now held a glass ball the size of a large marble, which seemed to be full of white smoke.

"What is that?" Harry inquired curiously.

"It´s a Remembrall!" Neville explained. "Gran knows I forget things, so she sent me something to help. This tells you if you forgot to do something. You hold it like this and if it turns red…" the boy trailed off and his face fell, as the Remembrall suddenly glowed a bright scarlet red. "…I must have forgotten something."

Both Harry and Neville tried to think, about anything the blonde could have forgotten to do. At that moment, Neville´s frog Trevor climbed out of the boy´s pocket, then decided to greet his second favourite human and jumped on Harry´s head.

"Croak. Croooaaaak croak crooaak croak."

Hearing the toad's words, the Ravenclaw turned to his friend. "Didn´t you want to write to your grandma about that portable terrarium for Trevor? The one that adjusts its own temperature, so the poor toad could rest comfortably in your dorm room?"

The Gryffindor´s eyes lit up at this. "That´s it! I´ll do it before lunch!"

"Croak. Croooaak croak."

"If you forget, Trevor says he will remind you. Don´t ask how."

"Noted," replied Neville with a chuckle.

Just then Draco Malfoy, who was passing the Gryffindor table, snatched the Remembrall out of Neville´s hand.

Harry´s face turned into a grimace, but just as he opened his mouth to say something to the Slytherin, Trevor decided to act. He opened his mouth and his tongue shot out, aiming for the glass ball. However, Malfoy moved the ball to the side and since he was holding the ball in front of his face, the toad´s tongue landed on the boy´s face and attached itself to it.

The Ravenclaw barely had time to register the weight leaving his head before he saw Trevor sailing through the air. He and the people sitting by the table watched with wide eyes as the toad landed sprawled out on the blonde´s face.

Malfoy seemed to freeze in place for a few minutes, and then a high-pitched scream was heard. All present winced, but Harry was more focused on Trevor, since the Slytherin dropped the Remembrall, grabbed the toad and flung it away from himself before high tailing from the Great Hall. So, while Neville caught the glass ball, Harry ran backwards and managed to safely catch the toad in his arms.

"Crooaak."

"Yeah, no more flying for you," Harry stated firmly, making the stunned students look at him.

"Crooooaaaak. Croaaak croooak."

"I know you were aiming for the ball and not his face, but you should have just let us handle it. You could have gotten hurt."

"Crooaak croak crooooaaaak. Crooooaaaaak."

"I know he was annoying, but… did you just say he tastes like slugs?" At Harry´s question, several people choked, some from disbelief, others, like Ron, from holding back their laughter at the image.

"Croak. Croooaaak crooaak…"

"Don´t even think about it."

"Croak!"

"No! You will not cover Malfoy in garlic butter to recreate that French dish!"

"Croak?"

"Because you don´t know where Malfoy had been before! What if he gives you stomach problems? And have you seen how much gel he uses on his hair? That would give you food poisoning, at least!"

The rest of the talk between Harry and Trevor was drowned out when the students broke out laughing at these words. And it wasn´t just the Gryffindors and the Hufflepuffs, but the Ravenclaws and Slytherins too since everyone found the whole incident hilarious. Though the snakes were more secretive in their amusement.

The incident also seemed like a good distraction for those afraid of the flying lessons. Neville, in particular, because during the lesson he somehow ended up standing right across from Malfoy. So, the whole time, he couldn´t focus on his fear of flying, since his mind kept wandering back to the incident and he had a hard time fighting back his laughter. As a side effect of this, his first attempt to fly on a broom ended well. True, he was far from the best flyer, but he didn´t fall off the broom nor did he hurt himself in any other way. Neville counted that as a win.

Harry was happy for his friend and since he didn´t have to worry about him anymore, he could fully enjoy his lessons the next day. After lunch, he and his fellow Ravenclaws, along with the Hufflepuffs hurried down the front steps onto the grounds for their first flying lesson. It was clear, if a bit windy day, as they hurried towards a smooth, flat lawn, right across the forbidden forest. There, twenty broomsticks were lying in neat lines on the ground. Harry remembered some of the Ravenclaw quidditch team members complain that some of the school brooms have some weird ticks like some would start to vibrate above a certain height or tilt of course. Hopefully, it would turn out alright.

As they waited for the teacher to arrive, green eyes trailed towards the forbidden forest. Harry watched the dark trees swaying in the distance and not for the first time, wondered what sort of creatures lived there. From the talk he had with Hagrid, during his second week here, he learned that there was a herd of unicorns and even a centaur herd living there. Both were creatures Harry would like to see one day, but from what he read in the books he found, that was unlikely. Unicorns were usually too shy around unknown people and centaurs generally disliked humans and so they avoided them like plague.

Too bad then, sighed the young wizard.

Their teacher, Madam Hooch, soon arrived. She had short, grey hair, and yellow eyes that reminded Harry of a hawk.

"Well, what are you all waiting for?" she barked at them, instead of greeting them. "Everyone, take a stand, by a broomstick. Come on, hurry up."

Harry took his place while glancing at his broom. It was an old thing, with some twigs sticking out at odd angles.

"Stick out your right hand over your broom," instructed them Madam hooch at the front "and say ´UP´!"

The class did so, and the moment Harry uttered the word, the broom jumped into his hand at once. Several others had the same reaction, while the rest had to try again a few more times until the broom jumped up. Once everybody held it in their hand, Madam Hooch showed them how to mount their brooms without sliding off the end and walked up and down the rows to correct their grips.

When she was satisfied, she returned to the front. "Now, when I blow my whistle, you kick off from the ground, hard," she said. "Keep your brooms steady, rise a few feet, and then come straight back down by leaning slightly forward. On my whistle… three… two… one…" She whistled and they followed her instructions.

For the next half an hour, they did all sorts of small exercises to familiarize themselves with the brooms, before Madam Hooch allowed them to try flying around. During the whole time, she was watching them like a hawk, calling out any mistake she might have noticed. Harry was absently listening to her while doing circles.

A flapping of wings caught his attention. He stopped in the air and looked towards the sound before a smile appeared on his face.

"Hedwig!" he shouted happily as his snow owl flew closer until she landed on the tip of his broom. "Came to watch my first lesson?"

"Preck. Preck preck preck preck," replied the owl. "Preck preck preck?"

"Sure! You can ride with me!"

"Preck."

With that, they continued their flying. Hedwig reminded sitting on the front, facing forward, with her wings spread out. Sometimes the owl would tilt her wings to the side, which Harry took as a sign to turn, or when she leaned back, he made the broom go higher. It was fun!

Unknown to him, but not to his friends and the animals around him, there was another reason why the owl and penguin were happy to commit violence on his behalf. The presence of the animals had the side effect of making the students attracted to Harry. No matter what animal was around him, Harry would completely relax, smile more, and even blush a bit, and that made him look cute. Add to it his fluffy, black hair and big green eyes, and his schoolmates stood no chance. Half of the following, staring, and whispering around him was on how adorable and irresistible he looked. And when he cuddled a cat or let an owl play with his hair, more than a half wanted to join in, if only to cuddle and pet Harry too…maybe even do a little more than that…

However, the combined glares of protective Ron, Neville, Hedwig, and Colonel, added to Hedwig meaningfully ripping apart a few mice and Colonel swinging a battle axe around, usually discouraging anybody from making a move to approach the boy. At least, from directly approaching as some individuals were trying to come up with different tactics to make the boy come to them. Most of those were from the older years, but a few were first years too, and since they had access to Harry´s classes they tried their chance there. But usually, they were stopped by either Ron, Neville, in the Ravenclaw/Gryffindor classes, or, in the Slytherin/Ravenclaw classes by a Slytherin named Blaise Zabini, who always snatched a seat next to Harry or the boy himself as a partner for the class. There was an opening in the Hufflepuff/Ravenclaw classes in DADA, but Harry usually didn´t seem to be in the mood to talk, too focused on the class.

And Potions with Snape was a big NO! It was frustrating!

And now, seeing the Ravenclaw boy fly around on the broom with his owl, laughing and smiling, his classmates and even the secret observers in the castle couldn´t help but fall for the boy harder.

All the while Harry remained blissfully unaware of this. And probably will remain unaware for a few more years…

Important!

A poll has been posted about this fic on my profile - I m thinking about making this a crossover.

Please take a look and vote if you want!

Love,

Lady Midnight07

PS: I also take suggestions for pairings for Harry! But be warned - it will probably be an m/m one.