AN: I've created a forum for readers of this story because of an idea a friend had. Use it to debate what you guys think I'll do with this crazy series and what you think of everything so far. I guess I should also explain the whole Luna thing. I decided to age her up a bit so she'd be in the same year as the rest of the group because, admittedly, she's one of my favorite characters and she's such a kick to write.
Joker: "I thought you did that for other reasons."
Like what?
Harley: "To have someone crazy around so Harry doesn't get too homesick."
He has Jin…
Harry: "Jin can't talk!"
Jin: "Just because you don't listen to me, doesn't mean I can't talk!"
Everyone: "Holy shit!"
It was quickly learned by everyone in his dorm room, and filtered out to the rest of the house, that Harry was not a morning person by any stretch of the imagination. The day after the welcoming feast resulting in a few torn sets of pajamas by those who attempted to wake up the slightly insane boy as well as an amused Harry and happy Jin, who had fended off the 'intruders'.
"You guys should've listened to what I said last night and knocked," Harry laughed at his roommates when they remembered that Jin sleeps in the same bed as Harry as a protective and comforting measure.
"S-sure," a boy, Terry Boot, stammered before he and the other boys quickly changed and left the room.
As the week went on it was also quickly learned that if you wanted to wake up Harry in the mornings without being torn to shreds, you asked either Hermione Granger or Luna Lovegood to do the job.
Monday
"That's him right there!"
"Yeah, can you see his face?"
"What about his scar?"
"He's the one with the purple hair, right?"
Harry grew quickly annoyed at the number of people staring at him and whispering, some quiet some not, which had him as the main topic. People who were lined up outside classrooms stood on tiptoes to get a better look at him and some people even double back to get a second glance.
"It's a magical school, how odd is it to have someone walking around with purple hair?!" Harry muttered under his breath as he heard someone else comment on his look, "As soon as I get that dye…"
"You dye your hair?" Hermione asked.
"Does this look natural?" Harry remarked while holding up a purple lock, "Also, I want to show off my house pride."
"But dying your hair?" Hermione responded, "Isn't that a bit much?"
"A bit much would be me walking around with my robes turned to my house colors with the animal tattooed on me somewhere," Harry laughed.
"What about wearing a very realistic hat?" Luna inquired, sitting down.
"That'd be pretty cool," Harry answered, "Wanna help me make one?"
"Love to," Luna responded.
"I can't believe your parents allow you to dye your hair at your age," Hermione sighed.
"We're all free spirits," Harry responded, "Back in a minute, gonna say 'hi' to Nev."
"You have a nickname for everyone already?" Luna asked.
"Not you, yet; I guess it's a habit I picked up from my mum," Harry answered before heading over to the Hufflepuff table, "Hey there, Nev."
"Uh, hello Harry," Neville spoke, "Doing okay?"
"Never been better, though I could do without the stares and whispers," Harry remarked, ignoring some of Neville's housemates who were doing so.
Jin made a quiet sound, nudging Harry and looking at the table longingly.
"What's wrong with him?" Neville asked.
"He's just hungry," Harry answered, reaching pass Neville to grab a piece of bacon to feed Jin, "I really need to get him some raw stuff, though, the cooked meat doesn't agree with him after a while."
"He's not going to eat us, will he?" someone asked.
"I'll tell him to if you keep staring at me," Harry remarked, smirking in amusement and grabbing a banana.
"…does he have to follow you around?" Neville inquired.
"No, he just chooses to," Harry responded, petting Jin on the head and before going on to devour a banana without removing its skin.
"You're supposed to remove the peel," someone remarked.
"I know," Harry mumbled, mouth full before abruptly swallowing, "But my Aunt Ivy taught me to never waste anything that's been grown from the earth…to a point at least. Besides, the outside doesn't taste so bad; you want a bad tasting peel, you should check out oranges, those things taste terrible!"
"I'm guessing your Aunt likes plants?" Neville asked.
"That's a massive understatement," Harry laughed, "I'm pretty good with them too because of a few things I've learned from her…and other places."
"Guess that means you'll do well in Herbology," Neville presumed.
"You never know until it happens," Harry responded, finishing his fruit quickly and grabbing an apple before he headed back to his table, Jin trailing behind.
"What were you doing over there?" Penelope asked.
"Is it against the rules to visit your friends' table?" Harry retorted.
"No, but it's just a bit odd," Penelope responded.
"Trust me, that's most likely the least oddest thing you'll see me do…no Jin, your breath smells like bacon and I don't want my hair smelling like it for the rest of the day," Harry remarked, pushing away the pet and feeding him a bit of sausage.
"What's he trying to do?" Hermione asked, looking at the disappointed creature.
"He wants to groom my hair but, like I said, he has bacon-breath and my hair will smell all day if he does that," Harry answered.
"What's wrong with bacon hair?" Luna remarked, scratching Jin behind his ears.
"The smell tends to annoy others," Harry answered as the class schedules were passed out, "We have Herbology up first; plants, great!"
"You like plants," Hermione stated sarcastically.
"You should see some of the ones I take care of back home, granted they're my Aunts, but you'd be surprised at some of them," Harry responded.
"How bad could some muggle plants be?" someone remarked.
Harry simply gave a very wide grin which scared some people for reasons they could not explain.
Herbology started off fairly routinely, with Professor Sprout pointing out some of the plants they would be working on that year. Things took a turn for the odd when one of the plants suddenly wrapped up Harry in its vines and lifted him off the floor.
"Don't worry, I'm perfectly fine," Harry remarked, despite being held in a tight grip by the plant, "Plants really like me a lot."
Eventually, they were able to pry the plant off Harry but only after he promised it that he would be back before his next Herbology class to visit. The rest of the day was fairly uneventful, if you ignored the repeated cases of Jin chasing after Mrs. Norris throughout the school, which quickly earned him a spot of admiration among the students.
Tuesday
"What's up first?" Harry asked.
"Charms," Luna answered.
"Read your schedule, Harry, stop asking us," Hermione sighed.
"I don't memorize things I don't like, so I've got you guys to tell me," Harry responded.
"What if we're not here?" Hermione pointed out.
"I guess I'm not going to my classes then," Harry laughed at seeing the horrified look on Hermione's face.
The class itself was fairly interesting, especially since it opened on the note of Professor Flitwick falling off his stack of books in excitement when he read Harry's name out loud.
"He's my head of house, so he shouldn't have done that…but that was fairly amusing," Harry remarked, as they were given the basics before starting off on a simple spell, which had some unexpected results with Harry's attempts.
"As much as I like explosions, this is getting really annoying," Harry retorted, wiping soot off his glasses once again, "At least class is over…"
"Mr. Potter, mind staying a moment?" Professor Flitwick called.
"See you guys in a bit," Harry said as stayed behind, "Sorry about the explosion, they were unintentional I swear!"
"I know they were, but I think it's an indicator of a problem," the diminutive Professor reasoned.
"So what do you think my problem is?" Harry asked.
"Most people have magic but need a wand acting as a focus to make it useable, but you are different," Professor Flitwick spoke, "You are easily capable of using spells, given the right push or incentive, without a wand but it tends to not work how you want it to. It seems like you will something to happen more so than say a spell, as evidenced by what happened during class."
"Again, I'm really sorry about that," Harry apologized.
"No harm done," Professor Flitwick responded, "I believe what the problem is the fact your magic seems to be extremely chaotic even though it should be balancing out now that you're learning to control it. Did you do a lot of accidental magic before arriving here? Constantly using magic then going to almost not using it at all might be what's occurring, a backlog of your magic."
"Well…not accidental magic, so to say," Harry answered, uncomfortable, "I'd rather it not get out I can do this…"
"You have my honor as your teacher, your head of house, and a wizard that nothing you say will leave this room," Professor Flitwick assured.
Harry bit his lip for a moment before having his hair shift to black and shuffle through several different colors and styles before going back to what he had before.
"You're a Metamorphmagi," the Professor remarked.
"Yeah, I'd rather it not get out…people stare at me enough as it is," Harry responded.
"I understand, but it's an odd coincidence, we had one graduate just last year," the Professor stated, "I presume you change your hair color often back home?"
"Yep; several times a day usually," Harry answered.
"That might be the core of the problem then. It may be that the amount of magic used, while small on its own, to change your appearance is enough to release excess magic so it doesn't burst out at odd or inconvenient times," Flitwick reasoned, "But since you can't do it now, without revealing your ability, your magic reacts in odd ways. With some practice, you should have it under control but a problem might arise when you get older."
"What sort of problems?" Harry inquired.
"As a wizard gets older, their magic grows and becomes stronger with them," Professor Flitwick informed, "But with you, it seems that your magic may increase to the point where using a wand would actually hinder your magical abilities…I worry that point might come while you're still at Hogwarts, judging by how strong it is already, and that would make things a bit difficult for you here."
"…I'll burn that bridge when I get to it," Harry stated, "But in the meantime, got any advice?"
"You could practice your magic in the common room, since it's usually a regular occurrence no one would think twice about it," Flitwick offered, "You'd be letting off your extra magic while also getting valuable experience on how to do your spell work."
"Sounds like a plan," Harry remarked before leaving the room, heading to his next class in no hurry since it was History of Magic and he doubted that Professor Bins would notice him walking in late.
Wednesday
"What we got up first?" Harry asked, eating a piece of toast.
"Potions," Hermione answered, "With the Hufflepuffs."
"You notice we haven't had any classes with Gryffindor or Slytherin?" Harry remarked.
"A little strange, I guess," Hermione responded.
"Not that I'm complaining, a class with Snape's own house might be a disaster, especially if it's in his own class," Harry reasoned, finishing off his toast and popping a cherry tomato into his mouth.
"You may not care about your schedule, but at least you're taking to your spell work just fine," Hermione remarked, "I was surprised that you were practicing already."
"I like doing things more than hearing about them," Harry reasoned.
Harry felt quite at home in the dungeons where the class was held, it made him think of some of the hideouts back home but without the comforting feeling and the fact it was fairly cold down there; he wondered if it was the gloomy atmosphere or the jars of pickled animals that lined the walls that made him feel slightly homesick. He half listened to when Snape talked, only noting that the man had a gift of instilling a sense of control over the classroom without much effort.
"Potter!" Snape said suddenly, "What would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?"
"A sleeping potion called the Drought of Living Death," Harry answered casually, inwardly smirking at the look on Snape's face knowing that he was right.
"Where would you look if I told you to find a bezoar?"
"The stomach of a goat or a similar animal, it can save you from most poisons," Harry fired back.
"What is the difference between monkshood and wolfsbane?"
"There's none, they're the same plant and also goes by the name aconite," Harry could not help but grin at the frustrated look on Snape's face.
Snape quietly glared before putting up instructions for their potion and stalking about the classroom, criticizing everyone's attempts. When he approached Harry, who was working with a look of serenity on his face, he gritted his teeth before inwardly smirking. 'Let's see what you've got stowed away in your mind…' he thought before making eye contact with Harry.
Snape found himself in a contradictory mindscape, a part of it was an open field decorated with a tree here and there while another part looked like a towering, ominous building which bore the name Arkham on the front.
"What're you doing here?" a voice demanded.
Snape turned to see a version of Potter standing before him, sporting green hair.
"You tried to take Harry away from his home…why're you in our head?!" Prank demanded, he growled in anger before declaring, "Stay out of his head or I'll show you that our mind is never a good place to be."
In the real world, Snape took a small step back as he was forcibly ejected and tried to ignore the burning on his arm.
Harry nearly dropped a vial as he held his head with one hand, glaring at the older man through his fingers.
"Harry, are you okay?" Neville asked.
"I'm fine," Harry responded, glancing sideways and seeing the ingredients in his friend's hand, "Take the cauldron off the fire before putting in the porcupine quills."
"Oh, thanks," Neville set the ingredients down and did as Harry instructed.
'What was he up to?' "He was in your mind; I got him out before he did anything." Harry clenched his teeth in anger. 'No one messes with my head…'
"Are you sure you're alright?" Neville pressed.
"I'll be fine," Harry answered before grinning, "I think we're a bit short on a few ingredients…mind getting them Nev?"
"But we have everything…" Neville trailed off when he saw the manic glint in Harry's eyes, "But it couldn't hurt to have a bit extra."
Harry grinned as Neville walked away from their table and he carefully withdrew a small bottle from his robe. After making sure that Snape was not watching him, Harry added a few drops to the potion and hiding the bottle in time for the mixture to start emitting a purple smoke.
"POTTER!" Snape yelled, seeing the reaction.
"Don't mess with my head," Harry stated as he got up from the table and walked away from it, plugging his ears before the cauldron exploded.
The classroom was quickly evacuated as everyone ran for their lives, Harry bringing up the rear at a leisurely pace.
"I can't believe you deliberately botched the potion so it would blow up," Neville remarked.
"I didn't like the way he was bugging me and if you haven't figured it out by now, I love explosions!" Harry laughed, brushing off some soot from his robes. 'Can't tell them it was really payback against Snape for trying to get into my head, I'd have to explain Prank too.'
"That was very dangerous," Hermione warned.
"Not if you know what you're doing," Harry responded, setting off down the hall with a slight skip to his step.
"What has he been doing in his life to be like that?" Hermione asked to no one in particular.
At dinner, Harry came up to the table still with a slight skip to his step, proclaiming, "No Potions for the rest of the week."
"But most likely you'll have detention for that amount of time," Hermione pointed out.
"It'll be a piece of cake, compared to what goes on at home," Harry responded.
"What do you do that would make detention with Snape seem so easy?" Hermione asked, also hoping for a clue to where Harry lived.
"It's more of what I see," Harry answered, knowing what Hermione was doing.
"Like what?" Luna asked.
"Adults running around in colorful costumes," Harry answered, knowing that there were quite a few cities in America with that description. Hermione seemed to know this bit of information too, judging from the irritated look on her face, "If you don't figure out where I live by the end of the school year, I'll tell you, okay?"
"Why do you tease her?" a voice asked.
"You guys say something?" Harry inquired, confused since the voice did not sound like Hermione or Luna.
"No…are you okay?" Hermione appeared a bit worried.
"I guess it was just my imagination," Harry responded.
"Hope no one knows what goes on in there…"
"Okay, seriously, cut that out!" Harry exclaimed, a bit ticked off.
"…this place is causing brother to lose his mind…where's that funny looking cat, I want to chase it again."
"…'brother'…chasing a cat?" Harry muttered quietly before looking down at Jin, who was grooming himself.
"…why's brother staring at me? …am I doing something weird?"
Harry finally realized what was going on; he was hearing Jin's thoughts. The revelation caused him to stare at his pet for a few minutes before passing out in shock.
Thursday
"What's the schedule for today?" Harry inquired, once again eating a banana with its peel still on.
Hermione had given up on telling Harry to peel it first; it just made him eat the fruit more often that way to irritate her, and answered his question, "Transfiguration first up, then Defense Against the Dark Arts, and I think we have Herbology too, but I'm not sure if that's before or after lunch…also, we have Astrology tonight. By the way, are you feeling okay from yesterday?"
"Yeah, I'm fine…just a little shocked that I could actually hear Jin," Harry responded.
"You two are bonded," Luna reminded, "Maybe Hogwarts wanted you two to understand each other better."
"That's an interesting thought, even though a building can't be sentient," Hermione replied.
"What makes you think a building can't be aware?" Harry spoke.
"It's an inanimate object," Hermione reasoned.
"So are the suits of armors but they move," Harry pointed out.
"Because of magic," Hermione retorted.
"…you're upset about something," Harry stated.
"What're you talking about?" Hermione responded.
"You're more argumentative then usual and that combined with the fact Jin told me that you've been, and I quote, 'smelling sad' lately," Harry informed, "I'm your friend, 'Mione, tell me what's on your mind."
"I guess it's because my birthday is coming up soon and it'll be the first one not spending it with my parents," Hermione answered.
"Guess I'll have to fix that, then," Harry remarked, "When's your birthday then?"
"It's September 19th, what're you planning?" Hermione asked.
"You'll see," Harry grinned, "C'mon, we'll be late for class."
Transfiguration was interesting, but Harry was disappointed that they would have to start small first before doing anything big. By the time the class was over, Hermione and Harry were the only ones to do any changes to their matches; Hermione's actually looking similar to a needle while Harry's had simply turned silver.
Friday
Friday was a half day for classes and when they were over, Harry proceeded to drag all his friends to the top of the massive collection of staircases and proclaim his intention, which was met with disbelief, shock or, in the case of Luna, mild interest.
"A Galleon says I can do it," Harry challenged.
"You're on!" Fred and George responded.
"Don't even think about it," Hermione warned but it was too late.
Harry climbed onto the ledge and slid down the banister; when he neared the end of it, he jumped off and landed on another, sliding down that one and again jumping off onto another when he reached its end; he continued like this all the way to the bottom of the staircase where he dismounted with a flip.
"Are you completely insane?!" Hermione screamed, unable to believe what she had just seen.
"The doctors say I am," Harry replied with a laugh, "I told you I could do it, so pay up!" Fred and George grumbled before digging into their pockets and flipping a coin down to Harry, which he caught easily.
"You're very athletic," Luna remarked as she and the others made their way down.
"Flexible and pretty strong too," Harry proceeded to demonstrate by bending over backwards and placing his palms flat on the ground while still keeping his feet firmly planted; he arched his back slightly, before pushing off with his feet so that he was standing upright on his hands, did a few pushups while in this position before pushing off with his hands and landing upright, "I bet not a lot of people here can do that."
"Some people can't do that in the muggle world," Hermione retorted.
"Just shows that wizards can be a bit slow," Harry responded before dropping to his hands and starting to do pushups, "honestly, it surprised me how different things are here and back home."
"What do you mean?" Luna inquired.
"Back home, muggle and magical things are sorta combined," Harry answered, "For example, I've seen wizards use specially made electronic devices that are protected against magic since they're more convenient than most wizarding options."
"I've never even heard of anything like that," Hermione replied.
"That's because it seems that British wizards tend to live in the past," Harry replied before speaking to Luna, "No offense."
"None taken, I can see what you mean," Luna responded, glancing at the torches, "Can you do anything else?"
"There's this," Harry proceeded to stick his tongue up his nose.
"That is gross," Hermione deadpanned.
"I'm an eleven year old boy, gross is what I do!"
"I can vouch for that," Jin remarked with a sigh.
"No one else would understand you though," Harry teased, drawing looks from anyone who did not know his latest secret.
AN: If anyone is going ask, Harry uses his holly and phoenix feather wand during classes and in public and uses the other wand for less 'legal' things.
