In the Cupboard
In the Cupboard
By HarryDude85
I don't own the characters.
When Harry woke the next morning, he couldn't wait for his classes to start.
He got dressed in a hurry and put all of his school books, parchment, ink and some quills in his bag, put his wand in one of his pockets and headed down to the common room to wait for Hermione and Parvati.
Seeing that a few of the older students were already in the common room, Harry said good morning to them and sat down to wait. He could feel the students watching him, as if waiting for him to do something.
Not comfortable just sitting there being watched, Harry pulled out one of his school books, not caring which one, and started to read.
It was a few minutes before someone Harry knew descended from one of the staircases. Neville Longbottom appeared looking rather apprehensive.
"Morning, Neville," said Harry.
"Oh, good morning Harry," said Neville. "Aren't you going down for breakfast?"
"Yes, but I told Hermione and Parvati that I would go down with them."
"Oh," said Neville. Then, "Do you mind if I join you? I don't want to go by myself."
"Sure. I'll have to ask the girls, but I doubt they'll say no," said Harry, glad to see that Neville was trying to get over his nerves.
"What are you reading?" asked Neville as he sat down on the couch.
"Our potions book. I just wanted to have something to do, you know. I didn't want to just sit here having people look at me," said Harry.
"Are people watching you?" asked Neville, looking around to see that the few other people in the common room were staring at Harry. "I guess they're just not used to you being a person and not just a story."
"Then they're just going to have to get used to it," said Harry. Wanting to get on a more comfortable subject, Harry said, "So tell me about yourself, Neville. What do like doing? What do your parents do?"
Harry could instantly tell that he had said the wrong thing. At the mention of his parents, Neville became very quiet and avoided Harry's eyes at all costs.
"What did I do?" Harry asked, very concerned. "Whatever it was, I'm sorry."
"It's not your fault," said Neville, although his voice seemed to be hollow and he still wouldn't look at Harry, preferring to play with one of the tassels on the couch. "You didn't know."
"Is it about your parents?" whispered Harry, not wanting anyone to overhear.
Neville just nodded very small.
"I know what it's like, Neville. My parents are dead too, remember. When did they die?"
Before Neville could say anything, Hermione and Parvati came down the stairs. They were followed by Lavender Brown.
"Morning, Harry. Morning, Neville. Ready to start classes," said Parvati brightly. But Hermione could see that Neville was upset about something and asked, "Are you alright Neville."
"I'm fine," Neville said quickly, standing up awkwardly. "Should we head down? I mean, if it's alright for me to join you. Harry said that I could, but told me I would have to ask you guys."
"Of course you can," said Hermione.
"And Lavender will be joining us as well," said Parvati.
Lavender smiled and said, "I didn't want to go down by myself."
"Well, why are we just standing here?" asked Harry. "Let's go."
As the five first years left the common room, Harry found himself marveling at how far he had come in such a short amount of time. 'Yesterday I was a scared lonely kid. Now I'm walking down to a full breakfast with four friends. I really think I'm going to like it here.'
Harry spent the walk to the Great Hall chatting with Lavender Brown, having not gotten a chance to speak to her at dinner. Hermione and Parvati were talking ahead of them, bringing Neville in on the conversations, trying to not make him the odd man out.
When the group entered the Great Hall, Harry noticed that the ceiling was now covered in a bright blue sky full of fluffy white clouds. As they sat down at the Gryffindor table, Harry saw Ernie wave at them from the Hufflepuff table.
Harry waved back, before helping himself to some waffles and toast.
"So when do we you think we'll get our course schedules?" asked Parvati.
"Probably sometime this morning," said Hermione.
"Do you think we'll all have the same classes?" asked Neville.
"I think so. Were all first years, so we all probably take the same courses in the beginning," said Lavender.
"Morning, Parvati," said Padma, who had just come over from the Ravenclaw table.
"Padma!" Parvati squealed, hugging her sister when she sat down. "I'm so upset that we aren't in the same house."
"I was too, at first," admitted Padma. "But maybe it's a good thing."
"What do you mean?" asked Parvati.
"Well, this way we get to do our own things, you know. Make our own friends and find out we like to do separately, not just what we like to do together."
"That's a very smart way at looking at this," said Hermione impressed. "No wonder you're in Ravenclaw."
"Thanks," said Padma, before looking back at her sister. "We can still do things together, but now we can do things with out each other. You know what I mean."
"Yeah," said Parvati. "I do. I guess I never thought of it that way." Looking unsurely at Padma, she than said, "Are you sure we will be able to hang out like we did before? It will be harder now, since we're in different houses."
"Yes, I'm sure. And about that, I asked a Ravenclaw prefect if we were allowed to have friends from other houses come over, and she said that it was perfectly fine."
"Cool!" said Parvati, really excited now.
Padma looked at the rest of her friends and said, "That doesn't apply to just her, you know. You all have to come by as well. I'm going to see Ernie and tell him the same."
"Thanks, Padma," said Harry. "But we're going to need directions to your common room and your password if we have any hope at getting in."
"Password? We don't use passwords," said Padma.
"What do you use?" asked Neville.
"Our door asks us riddles. If we answer wrong, we have to wait for some body else to come and give the right answer, so that way we learn."
"That's kind of complicated," said Lavender.
Padma shrugged. "That's Ravenclaw. Look, I've got to go. I'll see you guys later." With a final good-bye, Padma left.
"Feel better?" Harry asked Parvati.
"Much," she smiled before continuing eating and getting into a conversation with Lavender.
By now, Ron, Dean, and Seamus had joined them. 'The three of them seem to be getting along rather well,' thought Harry.
And then Harry saw Draco Malfoy enter with Crabbe and Goyle. Malfoy looked around the hall before going over to the Slytherin table.
Thinking this was the best opportunity to get to speak to Malfoy, Harry excused himself.
"Where are you going, Harry? Classes will be starting soon," a surprised Hermione said.
"I know, and I'll be back. There's just something I want to do first," said Harry as he made his way for the Slytherin table.
Malfoy had his back to Harry, so he couldn't see his approach, but Crabbe was sitting across from him and could see Harry coming. He nudged Malfoy and gestured in Harry's direction.
Looking up, Malfoy saw Harry and, turning back to his friends, said, "This should be good."
Harry sat next to Malfoy and said, "Good morning, Draco."
"Morning, Harry," said Malfoy.
"Congratulations on making Slytherin. I remember you said that it's where you wanted to go," said Harry.
"It is. It's really the only place I would have gone," said Malfoy rather smugly. "I mean, if the hat had tried to put me somewhere else, no offence to you, but I might have just left."
"Why?" asked Harry.
"Because Hufflepuff's a bunch of duffer, Ravenclaw has the bookworms and Gryffindor's tend to think with their muscles, not there brains," said Malfoy. "At least that's what I've been told."
"Oh," said Harry, not knowing what to say to that. Then, "Well, if it makes you feel better, I was almost out in Slytherin." Harry decided to keep the fact that he was almost chosen for Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw to himself.
This peaked Malfoy's interest.
"Really?" he drawled. "The famous Harry Potter in Slytherin? How could that have happened?'
"Well, the hat told me I had traits for the house. It told me I was cunning and ambitious, which were very key parts of being a Slytherin."
"So how did you wind up in Gryffindor, home of the brainless wonders?" asked Malfoy.
"I just found out that Voldemort," Malfoy and surrounding Slytherin's flinched. "I'm sorry, I found out that You-Know-Who was in Slytherin, and I didn't know if I could stand being in the same house that he was in."
"I see," said Malfoy, who looked to be thinking rather hard rather fast. In that moment Draco Malfoy had come to the decision that in order to gain Harry Potter's trust, he was going to have to fight off his natural instincts and not harass the people who deserved to be stepped on. And there were a lot of mudblood's in the Great Hall who needed to be stepped on. But Harry seemed to be close to some of them, so that might not come off great. Finally, he said "Well, just because one guy was a bastard doesn't mean the rest of us are. None of us here would go on a killing spree or anything, right," he said to Crabbe and Goyle, who had been watching the conversation with mouths open dumbly. When Malfoy glared at them, they responded with positive grunts.
"See," said Malfoy, as if proving his point. "We're not all bad. Sure there are some rotten apples among us, but there's always one in every family."
Harry laughed thinking about the three rotten apples he has for a family. "I guess you're right. Sorry for doubting you guys," said Harry.
"Not a problem. It's understandable for you to think that after what you found out," Malfoy said, trying to sound sincere and understanding.
"So are we good? Are we still friends?" Harry didn't want to alienate Draco just because he was in Slytherin.
"Of course," said Malfoy, sounding as friendly as possible. "Just because we wear different colors, doesn't mean we have to hate each other."
"That's great!" said Harry. He saw Parvati waving at him, turned and saw her pointing at her watch. "Oops. Look, Draco, I've got to go. Class and all."
"Of course," said Draco. "Don't want to get detention on the first day."
Harry smiled, got up, said to his friend and said, "I'll see you later." Draco nodded in answer, and Harry left to join his friends.
Malfoy turned to Crabbe and Goyle and said, "Hogwarts is going to be fun with suckers like that around."
As Harry was walking back to his friends, he had a strange feeling, as if someone was watching him. Trying to see if anybody was looking at him, Harry once again caught eyes with the hooked-nosed professor who sneered at Harry last night. Now, however, he was giving Harry of look as if he were a giant puzzle the man couldn't figure out.
A little freaked out, Harry ran to join Hermione and Pavarti up the marble staircase.
"Where did everyone else go?" asked Harry as he caught up to his friends.
"They had already left. We wanted to wait for you," said Hermione.
"Wow, that's really nice guys. Thanks," said a grateful Harry.
"It's what friends do Harry," said Parvati. "You don't have to thank us."
"I know, but still," said Harry. "I have no idea what or where our first class is, so if you hadn't waited, I would be in trouble."
"Well," said Hermione, "if we keep walking this slow, we will still be late and still be in trouble. Let's go."
The three rushed off to their first ever Hogwarts lessons together.
Sorry it's taken me longer than usual to update. I had a hard time trying to figure out what all the different conversations were going to consist of, so that took up most of my time. Plus I had another story, Heads of House, I was working on.
Not much else to say except keep reading.
Later.
