sooooo... yes i shall continue this story. maybe it's because of all the reviews and nice things you said. or maybe it's because of harvey the invisible rabbit singing journey and old show tunes at all hours of the night until i finished writing this chapter. or maybe it's the brain damage from him hitting me in the head with the cowbell...he seems to think it'll make me work faster, where in the heck did he get that idea? And now he's fighting the evil raccoon in a kung-fu death-match over who gets the last bowl of raisin bran, oops the cat gremlin got it while they were busy...by the way if the nice men in white coats come by asking for me, I was never here...oh crap he brought out the chainsaw, gotta go!

i definitely don't own harry potter, but the story prompt is definitely mine, i haven't found any stories like this anywhere, if anybody has let me know cuz i'd like to read them...ok fine on with the story, see if i ever try to be sociable to an invisible and massively theoretically assumed audience ever again.

On the Boats sailing across the black lake

Susan sat in the boat with Harry and two kids who had introduced themselves earlier as Hermione and Neville, they had met on the train ride when Hermione and Neville entered their compartment looking for the boy's toad. Neither Harry or Susan had seen a toad but Susan suggested that Hermione have a friendly upper year summon it for them rather than traipse up and down the train searching for something that obviously didn't want to be found. Judging from the fact that Neville was now struggling to hold on to said amphibian the two of them had taken her advice. Susan had no idea why the boy didn't have a cage for the thing, it really would save a lot of time spent looking for it that could be used for other things.

A commotion in one of the boats behind them drew her attention away from the merits of caging certain types of pets. Apparently Ron Weasley had somehow ended up in the same boat as Draco Malfoy, they were now wrestling in the bow of the small boat, which was swaying dangerously from side to side in the water. Susan had of course known of the two boys for quite awhile, since they were all from pure blood families and were the same age it was nearly impossible for her not to know of them, but she had never officially met them until this afternoon on the train. Her auntie had protected her from the light/dark prejudices as long as possible, because she wanted to let her form her own opinions in that area rather than brainwashing her into believing one way or the other like the other pure-bloods did to their children.

Ron showed up first, asking if he could sit in their compartment citing the fact that everywhere else was full, something that was in fact a lie. Very few people would have caught him in such a lie because few knew much about the Hogwarts express other than the fact that it was a train that took the students back and forth from school.

Sadly for Ron, he just happened to tell this lie in the presence of the one student whose aunt controlled the security arrangements for the train, and in fact the train itself, which obviously meant that she knew enough to know that the boy was lying. For Susan the question then became why he was lying. So when Harry looked to her to see if she minded whether or not Ron sat in the compartment she nodded, if only to find out why he was so desperate to sit with Harry that he would resort to lying about it.

After Ron's arrival the conversation settled into a slightly awkward mix of impersonal information and Ron's ranting and boasting about Quidditch. Everything was fine until Ron asked about Harry's scar, which Susan could already tell made Harry uncomfortable and so had refrained from asking about it. Ron's question caused an awkward silence to develop, it was this awkward silence into which barged Draco Malfoy, who proceeded to make a pompous fool of himself and thoroughly piss off Ron. After they had gotten rid of Malfoy, Ron proceeded to do the same thing Malfoy had just done, which got him dragged off by his twin brothers who just happened to be nearby, amidst apologies and promises to make sure he wouldn't be repeating the same mistake again. Neither of them had any idea what Ron's brothers had done with him after they dragged him off, but somehow Ron had ended up in the same boat as Draco and their argument apparently continued where it had left off, and obviously escalated into a physical altercation.

Susan and Harry watched as the two boys' rather foolish fight caused their small and ridiculously easy to capsize boat to rock back and forth dangerously until one wrong move by the both of them caused the whole thing to tip over, dumping them, and Draco's ever present shadows Crabbe and Goyle, into the water. Suddenly tentacles grabbed the four of them, causing them to scream in fright, with the only apt comparison being a five year old girl. Meanwhile,Unnoticed by the four screaming boys, the tentacles had righted their swamped boat and placed them in it. They continued screaming for a few seconds until one of them noticed the fact that they were now in their boat again, a fact that gradually stopped their screaming until Draco was the only one left. Hagrid chuckled at their reactions, "Don't worry that was only Harvey, the giant squid, he follows the boats every year to make sure all the firs' years make it across the lake to the castle."

Hermione apparently couldn't resist asking a question, "but why is it called 'Harvey'?"

"I don't rightly know myself. A muggleborn student in the fifties started calling him that as some sort of joke, and I guess the name stuck."

Nobody said anything else until they arrived at the castle.

When they got there the students were met by Professor Mcgonagal who proceeded to explain the different houses to those students who didn't already know. She left for a short time to check that the rest of the school was ready for them. Many conversations sprang up the minute the door closed behind her, despite her warnings to be quiet. During this time Harry and Susan mostly kept to themselves in order to avoid more confrontations like those they had on the train.

Susan's sorting

As soon as the sorting hat went down on her head she heard the voice speaking to her in her mind.

Ah yes, Susan Bones...you'd make a fine Hufflepuff, but I sense you belong somewhere else. Your actions on the train in befriending the young Potter boy speak of a bravery deep within. You've made yourself a very loyal friend in Mr. Potter he will stay beside you through thick and thin. He'll even likely try to follow you into whatever house you end up in. By befriending him on the train you've entwined your destiny with his, hopefully you are up to the task. I know just where to put you. And it'll mess up Albus' plans without him even noticing! Always a fun thing to see, and something that will turn out very well for Mr. Potter in the long run. However, it would be best if you didn't tell young Mr. Potter of Albus' misguided plans or your newly entwined destiny just yet. But you can be sure it will happen in Gryffindor!

That night

Just before lights out Susan crept out of her dormitory, feigning a trip to the bathroom. Once the common room was empty she quickly penned a letter to her aunt.

Dear Aunt Amelia,

I've arrived safely at Hogwarts, and been sorted into Gryffindor.

Sincerely,

Susan Bones

P.S. Thank-you so very much for teaching me that warming charm before sending me here. It really it drafty in this tower.

Now to any person who intercepted this letter it would seem to be just a normal correspondence between family members. But several key words hidden within the short missive would indicate to her aunt that she had more to say but had magically disguised the rest of the letter. Something taught to her by her "Grandpa" Mad-eye Moody, who had been her aunt's instructor in auror training and had helped Amelia to raise Susan after her parents died, teaching the young girl several spells she shouldn't know but could still perform despite her young age due to their low magic requirement.

Here is what the letter really said:

Dear Aunt Amelia,

We made it safely to Hogwarts and as usual the security was unnecessary. I met a boy on the train who I sat with, I'm pretty sure we're friends now, but I won't know until tomorrow whether we'll stay friends or not. I hope we will, he's really nice, and REALLY cute. No I'm not thinking of him like that...Yet. I don't think of boys that way, but when I do, he's at the top of the list. The peculiar thing is exactly who he is, His name is Harry Potter, Yes He's the Boy-Who-Lived, but he's nothing like most people would think he'd be. He was Humble for one and he didn't dress like a snooty rich boy, after his first introduction in James Bond style he was suddenly down to earth, apparently I passed his test. We talked about our parents and how we're both orphans, I even told him about the day you told me about my parents, and how we saw him that day. Aunty I think there's something bad going on at his house, he talked about living in a cupboard, he accidentally told me that his relatives locked him in there once. I'm betting it wasn't a one time thing, he was way too casual about it for that. I'm worried about what will happen to him if he has to go back there. Can you please look into it for me? I want my best friend to be safe when I can't be there to help him.

Oh and guess what? I was sorted into Gryffindor! The sorting hat said I was a perfect Hufflepuff except that I befriended Harry on the train. Apparently sitting with him caused our destinies to intertwine, whatever that means. The sorting hat said that someone named Albus had plans for Harry, misguided plans that won't turn out well for Harry. I know I only just met him today but I feel as if I've known him my whole life, is that bad? I think that the Albus person who was mentioned is probably the headmaster, so please be careful about investigating this, maybe Get Grandpa Mad-eye to do it since he will anyway just cause Harry's my friend, just have him be quiet about it, the sorting hat said something about messing with the plans without anyone noticing we should probably follow it's advice about that. I know I should be concentrating on school instead of this so I'll have to trust you to handle it.

Your loving niece,

Susan Bones

Susan hadn't meant to write such a long letter to her auntie, just a quick message to let her know she got to Hogwarts safely and which house she'd been sorted into and to request an investigation into Harry's home life, since she was sure that he would never willingly admit to it. The length of her letter to her aunt came from her knowledge of reports in the auror office, her auntie was always telling her that the little details were often the most important details to remember and report back to superiors, the smallest clue could lead to a breakthrough in a case. So Susan had ended up with what amounted to an action report disguised as a letter, her "grandfather" would be proud.

Smiling wryly, Susan activated the security charm that disguised the letter and slid the whole thing into an envelope. She then put on her disillusionment cloak that her "Grandfather" had insisted on making for her, (it was basically an old cloak with a semi-permanent disillusionment charm on it and was the closest she was likely to ever come to having an actual invisibility cloak) and after once again making sure she was alone, left the common room to go send her letter, following a map drawn up for her by a fourth year. Unkown to her she had once again changed the world, this time with her choice to tell her aunt about her suspicions of Harry's situation. As soon as her aunt read her letter several chains of events would be set into motion setting the stage for massive changes to come.

A/N:yes i am going to continue, but the updates will not be consistent, they may come fast at first but they will slow down once the semester starts. i've got a couple of difficult classes this semester and i'll really have to concentrate on them to pass. i have plans through at least fourth year for this fic, the only question is how often i'll have time to write.

A/N 2: the reason it took so long this time is because i couldn't decide between gryffindor and hufflepuff. i finally just looked at how my first chapter had set up the story and characters and what changes were made from canon, sadly for those hoping for a hufflepuff harry story the only character that has really changes tremendously from canon was susan, and her actions pushed her into gryffindor.

(Ron's behavior): Ron may seem slightly O/C but he isn't really, if he could so easily abandon his friendships later over a fight then he had to start somewhere, and harry didn't see him as his first friend so he won't allow him to walk all over him and his opinions or follow ron around like a little puppy,which is what the dursleys pretty much tried to turn him into for dumbledore (see below for explanation). Ron has a temper and doesn't know how to control it as well as he should. canon doesn't show it, but i'm pretty sure his comment at halloween of their first year wasn't the first time he said something like that too or about hermione. ron's character seemingly had no flaws until fourth year, probably because the author didn't notice until then, but all i did was insert that flaw he had right at the beginning.

the dursleys: the dursleys tried to turn harry into a puppy for dumbledore, no matter the level of abuse written into the story (in my story they created abandonment issues and locked the kid into a cupboard, no hitting him, they emotionally abandoned him and pretty much ignored him if they had no chores for him to do enough to be major or evident to any teachers who don't go digging but still enough to make any self respecting and compassionate social worker remove the child from the home), one thing is usually present, harry follows other's opinions rather than his own, usually whomever he meets and befriends first. In this story it's going to start out the same except susan is going to MAKE him form his own opinions because she doesn't want a sidekick disguised as a hero to follow her around and do whatever she says, she wants a best friend, who looks to her for friendship and sometimes advice on things he doesn't understand.

this is a manipulative dumbledore story but i haven' t decided how far gone the man is, he is definitely not as good as everyone thinks he is though.