Hello! No need to worry, I'm not dead or vanished from the face of the earth, just busy and just starting college. I sat down to write a little bit and ended up with this so here you go! Enjoy!
The next day dawned bright and early to find Neville desperately trying to stop Ron from disturbing Harry. Luckily, Tom had spelled Harry's curtains shut tight the night before for exactly this reason. All Ron got for his efforts was a head of bright green hair. Behind the curtains, Harry and Tom finally began to stir at the sounds of rage coming from the dorm room. Blinking the sleep from his eyes, Harry peered through his curtains cautiously as Tom disappeared silently.
Upon being faced with Ron's puce visage topped with a mound of green hair, Harry burst out laughing along with the rest of their dorm mates. Ron, at this point, was incoherent with rage, thus allowing everyone else a short reprieve from his yelling. They all exploited this opportunity to the fullest and escaped his presence as soon as was humanly possible. Still laughing, Harry and Neville joined up with Fred and George in the common room before heading down to breakfast, Dean and Seamus following their lead. Hermione and Ginny being left to deal with a spluttering, red-faced Ron while both stared wistfully after the happy group of students.
Breakfast went surprisingly well, with Harry's newer, more emotionally understanding friends taking over the task of fielding Ron and Hermione's attempts to interrupt their peace. Sooner than seemed right, Professor McGonagall was handing out their timetables. Today was very full for the Gryffindors, they had Herbology first with the Hufflepuffs followed by Transfiguration with the Slytherins. Their afternoon class would be their first class with the idiot who had somehow conned the whole wizarding world.
Tom had been very unimpressed by the books and Harry had shared Tom's view with his three closest friends. Neville had promised to let Harry share his set of books while Fred and George were already planning to dupe Lockhart into signing theirs so that they could sell them in the future. Tom and Harry had perked up at that and both were planning to keep an eye on the pair in case they ever decided to open a business. They had a lot of instinctual business and marketing sense and the pair believed that the two mad inventors should exploit this skill in the future. Harry was convinced that the ingenious duo wouldn't take much persuading on this point, he had often heard them talking about selling their creations once they left Hogwarts.
Harry was jolted out of his silent musings by Neville shaking him so that they could go to Herbology. Quickly, Harry scrambled out of his seat before following the taller boy towards the Greenhouses. However, Harry was horrified to see Lockhart standing outside next to their teacher while obviously scanning the class for Harry's face. Acting on instinct and fuelled by Tom's mama bear tendencies, Harry slipped his wand out and silently cast a strong notice-me-not around himself before hastily informing Neville about what he had done and why. Happily, this easily worked against the stuck-up fraud and Harry easily bypassed him on his way into class, only removing the charm from his form when the annoyance had left. Professor Sprout seemed to notice his actions but only smirked in amusement and commiseration and awarded him five points for, "Showing commitment to his education by using advanced spell work to escape distractions."
Harry had almost laughed at her not so subtle dig at her colleague, though he caught himself just in time. After that piece of drama, the class passed smoothly as Harry and Neville worked together to re-pot the shrieking baby mandrakes. Both were mildly bored by the whole ordeal as not only was Harry advanced in most subjects, but Neville was a genius with plants. He even got one mandrake to shut up for a whole ten seconds! Professor Sprout had beamed at the pair and pulled them aside to inform them that now that Neville had a partner able to keep up with him she could finally move him on to more advanced material. Neville was ecstatic at the news and talked rapturously on the subject all the way to Transfiguration.
Harry and Neville of course paired up again in this class and the marked difference in Neville's casting was noticed by all. His spells now came easily, with him completing the spells soon after Harry every time. His confidence had grown as well, making his moves precise and elegant. Hermione had sulked all lesson after being shown up by the person previously considered a near-squib in power levels. Again, Harry and Neville were pulled aside, praised, and asked about what had changed. Neville went first, hastily explaining about his old wand and the troubles it had caused. McGonagall had looked horrified that such a handicap had been missed by herself and the rest of the class. Once she'd apologised for their blunders on the matter, she turned to Harry, eyebrows raised, waiting. Shrugging, Harry casually revealed the truth, "This summer, a really close friend pointed out that my relatives don't care about my magical grades so I can excel without worrying about being attacked and locked up for days on end. It rekindled my love for learning so I spent my summer sneaking my old course texts out of where they'd been locked up and reviewing everything. My friend helped and even taught me some of the more advanced material. That's it really, nothing serious."
"N-nothing serious?" Spluttered McGonagall, face ashen, "Why did you never say anything about how your guardians treated you? You obviously know that what they are doing is wrong!"
Harry looked at her strangely, face a mask of innocent confusion, "Professor… I thought you all already knew."
"What on earth gave you that idea?!" McGonagall, whisper-yelled, face anxious.
"Well…" Harry replied slowly, "My Hogwarts letter was addressed to the Cupboard under the Stairs! Surely that being labelled as my permanent residence should have caused at least some alarm?!"
McGonagall looked ready to faint at this latest revelation and actually swayed slightly where she stood.
"Mr. Potter. Harry…" She croaked, "I can assure you I had no idea. The letters are addressed by a magical quill and the only person with the opportunity to see the envelopes is the Headmaster."
As soon as those words left her mouth her face became thunderous and she swiftly stalked from the classroom, muttering curses and calling Dumbledore every derogatory term under the sun and more. The two boys were impressed by her imagination and creativity on the subject. Tom was too busy scolding Harry for listening to such things and ranting about McGonagall's 'Unprofessional conduct' to really listen to the threats and growls growing fainter as McGonagall stalked towards Dumbledore's office. Grinning, the pair of second years jogged down to the Great Hall for lunch. Over lunch, Harry was informed on Fred and George's success in their task of getting Colin Creevey to stop his obsessive stalking of Harry with a camera. They'd even done it without threatening the poor kid with bodily harm. They admitted that it had taken a lot of convincing and Colin was only convinced when George asked how he would feel if someone followed him around and invaded his space as much as he had been doing to Harry. That had shut the hyperactive kid up. Harry could have kissed the pair of them, the kid had been getting on his nerves constantly since this morning. Fred and George had interfered before anything could happen though, which was better for everyone involved. After all, Harry would be responding with two people's anger, not just his own.
The afternoon class was Lockhart. Harry was honestly dreading it, hence the subtle notice-me-not charms cast over their entire desk at the back of the room, as far away from the creep who seemed obsessed with Harry as they could get. A couple of the Slytherins noticed what Harry had done and sat near the pair, as if trying to benefit from the notice-me-nots and avoid Lockhart's egotism as much as possible. Soon the seats closest to the two Gryffindors were filled by Daphne Greengrass, Tracey Davis, Theodore Nott and Blaise Zabini. Tom was quick to remind Harry that Zabini and Greengrass were two of the leading Grey families with the Davis family being a long-time supporter of the Greengrasses while Nott was the last Heir of one of the original Dark council. Sending a wave of understanding at his overprotective body-mate, Harry hastily expanded his notice-me-not to include the four Slytherins, earning him confused or calculating gazes from all. Deciding to ignore that for now, Harry threw up a silencing charm as Lockhart swept into the classroom and addressed his new potential friends, "Hi, I'm Harry, last heir of the Ancient and Noble House of Potter if you want to be fancy but just Harry to my friends."
This drew more calculating looks from the other four as they introduced themselves before Daphne, their apparent spokesperson, chose to start the questions going, "No offence, Harry, but why are you only now doing these things, and why us? You must know our individual families' magical affinities."
Harry nodded quietly through her speech and, once she finished, took a moment to formulate his answer, "I didn't know about my true heritage and what it entailed until this summer as it was deliberately kept from me…"
Shushing their noises of outrage, he continued, "As for your affinities, yes I know them. However, I don't judge possible friends and allies on this. Neville and I may be Light wizards, but Fred and George are Grey- "
Again, he had to stop as the group shifted and muttered in disbelief, "Yes, they really are Grey. Would have been in Slytherin too if it hadn't been a sure path to familial rejection. Anyway, another thing is that I have a friend-"
"Guardian angel more like." Neville snorted quietly, earning a glare from Harry,
"As I was saying," Harry hissed, frustrated, "My friend or guardian or whatever used to be incredibly Dark but through a series of truly incredible events and coincidences his affinity shifted to a darkish grey. He is the only person to ever look out for my wellbeing above anything else and I trust him completely. With him as an example, why would I exclude people with other magical affinities without getting to know them first?"
This impassioned rant actually left the usually collected quartet gaping in shock and wonder. Changing magical affinities like that was unheard of, it was possible for a baby to be born with one affinity and grow to have a different one. For an older child or adult's affinity to change was thought to be impossible, yet here was Harry telling them that not only was it possible, it had occurred. When they finally emerged from their shock, they launched into a fierce debate on politics and social structure in wizarding Britain compared to the rest of the world. It took up the rest of Lockhart's useless lesson and the group found themselves agreeing on many of the points discussed. Thus, a tentative alliance and friendship was born and they promised to not only continue this every DADA lesson, but to also meet up in the library and study DADA together properly, without Lockhart's pathetic teaching methods. They had only paid attention to the quack long enough to discover what their homework would be before hurriedly leaving the classroom as soon as the bell rang.
Harry and Neville then spent the rest of their afternoon hidden away in the Room of Requirement with Fred and George, alternating between experimenting with their own potions and teaching Neville potions in a way that he understood and didn't leave him a nervous wreck. Snape was in for a shock this Friday that was for sure. After all, not only was Harry a budding genius in the subject, but the twins had been convinced to try their best in all their classes. Now Neville was full of confidence and well-versed in any potion Snape might throw at them. Harry wondered what the man's reaction would be to his lack of glasses, it would certainly be an interesting experiment. Tom chuckled at that, amusement overflowing as he materialised next to Harry while commenting, "I've corrupted you, dear Harry. Your Slytherin side is starting to rear its head."
Harry snorted, "About time." He commented lightly, "I'll need it with the friends I'm currently making. I rather like snakes anyway, so it's not that bad."
Laughing incredulously, Tom pulled Harry close and proceeded to tickle him into submission. Harry's indignant shrieks echoed through the temporary potions lab as the others guffawed loudly at his plight.
Dinner was a bit of an anti-climax after that, nothing exciting happened apart from the group receiving glares from Hermione, Ron, Draco and Snape while Dumbledore watched Harry worriedly. They ignored it all as much as they could while Fred and George fell to plotting Dumbledore's imminent humiliation. They knew it would be a real sight to behold and worth any punishment they may suffer for it. The common room was equally uneventful as Harry was quick to escape up to the dorms and the relative safety of his bed, letting Neville in before spelling the curtains closed. That done, Tom appeared and summoned a floating ball of light and they spent the next hour chatting quietly about their lives and their plans for the future. At some point, they managed to fall asleep in a tangle of limbs, Neville ended up with his head cushioned on Tom's arm as the two bigger males sprawled on their backs while Harry lay spread-eagled over the both of them, head on Neville's chest. All were relaxed, dreams undisturbed by the usual nightmares that plagued all three.
Far away, a skeletal figure with long, straggly black hair stared out of his narrow window and towards Hogwarts, wondering about his Godson. The chill that permeated the air took a sharp dive and the man instinctively shifted into his Animagus form. The Grim was just as clearly malnourished as its human counterpart, though at least in this form he had his thick, wiry fur to ward off the freezing climate. Huffing, the magical dog settled down to sleep, turning over the strange conviction he now had that his Godson-his Harry-needed him. Desperately. Growling discontentedly, the Animagus curled up even further, mind churning with escape plans, discarding most of them instantly. He would escape before the year was out. He should have escaped years ago so that he could watch over his little Prongslet. Wizarding world bedamned, all that mattered was Harry. So what if no one had ever escaped from Azkaban? He was a Marauder, and Marauders were experts at doing the impossible. Sighing gently, Sirius Black drifted off into a restless slumber, mind still full of half-finished plans.