Harry woke the next morning to the unfamiliar sound of four other boys banging around to get ready. It took a moment for him to realize why there were people in his bed room this early.
He sat straight up in bed as the events from yesterday caught up with him. He was at Hogwarts and the 'banging around' was his dorm mates getting ready for classes. By the sounds of it they had already been up for a while, but hadn't woken him up yet. He'd over slept on the first day of his formal education.
'Mum'll kill me if I'm late' he thought to himself as he jumped out of bed and pulled back his bed curtains.
As he thought there were four other boys up and about, but they like him weren't dressed or showered yet. Ron was digging through his trunk frantically looking for all of his books while you could only see Neville's legs as he looked under the bed for something he'd already lost.
The other two boys were also in various states of panic and half dress. "Good morning." he said politely as he walked to the end of his bed and opened his trunk.
"Mornin'" a sandy haired blonde said. "I'm Seamus and this is Dean." The other boy nodded through a yawn.
"Harry Potter." he said. Both boys did the now customary look to his forehead before going back to getting ready.
Harry tapped his wand on the lid of the trunk and whispered the password, 'carus', it meant beloved in Latin. His mother had set it after they bought the trunk. The trunk grew in size until it was the size of a moderately sized chest of drawers that came up to his middle.
Harry rubbed his still tired eyes and opened the trunk. Inside it looked even bigger than outside. It was the size of a large closet and held all of his robes and day clothes neatly. The more important the garments were hung up, like his school uniform and his dressier clothes. The rest of his clothing was put in drawers and there was even a shelf near the bottom that held his shoes.
To most purebloods or wealthier families this trunk wouldn't have caused much of a fuss. It was usual for a family to send their child out into the world fully equip.
"You've got yourself one of those." Seamus said casually. "Me cousin had one, she's older and goes to school in France."
"My guardian was actually going to but me an auror trunk; you know the one with the five compartments and a room. But then we went on holiday in France right after my letter showed up and saw these. Apparently their very popular for school children in France. Or at least that's what the shop keeper said." Harry said with a grin.
Seamus laughed and Neville cracked a smile, but Dean was lost, and Ron was looking down with red ears. Harry winced slightly as he now looked at the battered books and trunk the red head kneeled in front of. He must have just sounded like a prat to someone who didn't have a lot of money.
Harry to the showers and washed quickly before getting dressed. He felt, to put it simply, like an ass. He knew he was very privileged, with almost anything he could ever ask for available for him. He knew his parents were beyond the normal scale of wealth. Both had been the last of their lines and heads of ancient and Noble Families. Harry and Nathan had once over heard them talking about how they'd never gotten paid for working at Hogwarts. They did everything for free.
He also knew he would one day become the head of the Potter family as he was the last remaining heir. The Potters were an old family that could trace its roots back past the founding of Hogwarts. The family also had a lot of political sway and was involved in a lot of business transactions.
As he straightened his tie he promised to himself that he would be more aware of other people's feelings in the future. He'd try not to make it look like he was flashing his wealth. He knew that even if he didn't care if he had enough gold to buy a quidditch team or not some people were more sensitive.
He walked out of the bathroom five minutes later with a smile on his face. The other boys were just heading to the showers but they had already packed their bags. He used his spare time to look over his trunk and make sure he had all of his school supplies, which he did. Not knowing what else to do he took out a school book and started to review.
He was going over the first chapter synapses of beginner's potions when Neville walked into the room dressed and looking even more nervous than he had the night before.
"Hello Neville." Harry said putting his book down on his bed.
"H..hello." the boy stuttered with a pink stain on his cheeks.
"Are you happy about getting sorted into Gryffindor?" Harry asked making conversation.
"My parents were in Gryffindor." he stated.
"Ohh." Harry said not knowing how to respond to such an answer.
He was saved from making any further conversation when the rest of the boys entered the room talking about the up and coming studies.
The five boys soon after decided to go down to breakfast in the Great Hall with a pompous prefect named Percy Weasley as their guide. He was Ron's older brother but that didn't stop Ron from making faces behind his brothers back when he would go on and on about the school's history. Things the eleven year old boys didn't care about or Harry already knew.
As they arrived in the Great Hall Harry resisted the urge to look up at the staff table and wave at his mum or dad. He sat with the other boys occasionally joining in the light conversation. It wasn't until he had loaded his plate with as much bacon, eggs, and sausage as it could hold that he looked up.
His dad had a devilish smile on his face as he dumped spoonful after spoonful of powdered sugar onto his already syrup lathered pancakes. His mum was talking to Rolanda Hooch or Aunt Ro, for him and his siblings, over a bowl of cereal. Though he should get in the habit of calling her Madam Hooch like the rest of the students.
She was one of the two other people in the castle who knew about his parents relationship and their children's existence. She was his mother best friend and she had known about them since each was born. She was more of a fun aunt who came over once a month just to play with the kids. She would even join in playing hide and seek when they were younger. Nate once commented that she was more of a child the he was. Of course he'd promptly been tackled to the ground and tickled till he cried, by said aunt.
The only other person who knew about the relationship and their lives was Madame Pomphrey. She only knew because as a Healer she took a vow of confidentiality about her patient's identities. She was also the healer in charge of each of mums pregnancies and all of the children's well being.
He hadn't even noticed that he'd been staring at his plate until someone shook his shoulder. He blinked rapidly and looked up. Ron, Dean, and Neville who were sitting across from his were looking behind him fearfully. He turned slowly and froze. Behind him stood his mum and she had that annoyed look and he knew he'd been ignoring her for the past few minutes.
"Your schedule, Mr. Potter." She said. Harry took the parchment without really looking at it. Instead he stared at his mum right in the eye. "I will see you in class boys" she said but didn't look at anyone them. "Let us hope Mr. Potter that you can pay more attention in class then you can here."
Harry bit back a sarcastic comment that would have normally flown from his mouth. "I shall try, Professor." he said dryly much to the horror of the surrounding students.
Minerva bit down a smile and instead nodded stiffly at her cheeky son and walked away.
Harry grinned happily to himself and turned back to look at his schedule. It went as following.
Monday
Charms- 9:00-10:30
History- 11:00-12:30
Lunch- 12:30-1:30
Transfiguration- 2:00-3:30
Tuesday
D.A.D.A- 9:00-10:30
Potions- 11:00-12:30
Lunch- 12:30- 1:30
Herbology- 2:15-3:45
Wednesday
Charms- 9:00-10:30
History- 11:00-12:30
Lunch- 12:30-1:30
Transfiguration- 2:00-3:30
Astronomy- 10:30-11:30
Thursday
D.A.D.A- 9:00-10:30
Potions- 11:00-12:30
Lunch- 12:30-1:30
Herbology- 2:15-3:45
Friday
Charms- 9:00-10:30
History- 11:00-12:30
Lunch- 12:30-1:30
Transfiguration- 2:00-3:30
All in all not such a bad deal. Only three classes each day four on Wednesday. It would be a most easy schedule for Harry to keep. Most of his days at the community center were longer than his school day.
He looked up from his schedule to see the four boys surrounding him and quite a few others staring at him in awe and fear.
"Is there something on my face?" he asked stupidly.
"Bloody hell mate. You just made a joke to McGonagall." Harry didn't understand so he said as much.
"She never puts up with that from anyone." yet another red headed boy said looking speculatively at Harry.
"Not even the headmaster." another boy said from beside him. Harry had to look twice because they looked exactly the same. They were twins. Identical twins. He could have had so much fun with an identical twin. The pranks he could pull.
"I think she likes me." he said simply then went back to looking at his schedule. Everyone else just stared at him like he was mad before going back to their breakfast.
"I think I'm going to find the Tower again, and then my first class." he said. The other boys were still eating so they only nodded vaguely. He walked quickly out of the hall and looked around to see if his mum was still around. He didn't see her anywhere and didn't know where she might have gone so he went to his dorm to grab his things.
--
Harry liked almost all of his classes. Charms were fun and he found that even after only a week of classes that he excelled at the subject. He also liked the professor, Professor Flitwick who was a short cheery fellow, who seemed to never stop smiling. In class they were learning the levitation charm and how to master it. Harry was proud to say that he was the second person to do the charm and the first to be able to make it fly in patterns, showing his control of the spell.
History was a complete bore. After the first two lessons Harry resolved to not even try and listen to the ghost professor. All the ghost, Professor Binns, droned about were Goblin rebellions, things that were not only uninteresting, but useless for the most part as well. Harry decided to bring his own history books to class and to study them instead. He, of course, didn't tell his parents but did tell his siblings in strict confidence.
Transfiguration was odd, to say the least. His mother had a way of silencing a class room that Harry had never seen before. She didn't yell, glare, or even tell the children to be quiet. There was a presence about her that demanded their attention. Her class was challenging and interesting, to those who tried to learn. It was this class that Harry had tried hardest at. Not only because his mother was teaching, though that was a big part of it, but also because his birth father, his father, and his mother were all masters in transfiguration. It was something he knew he had genes for and he wanted to master it too. His hard work and studying had paid off in the end. By the end of the first class he was the only one who could change his match completely into a needle. Not even Hermione Granger, one of the smartest children in the year had managed it.
Potions with Professor Snape was a complete and utter disaster. It was one of the only classes he had with the Slytherins so he partnered up with Daphne, she looked as surprises as everyone else. Snape, he refused to call the man a professor if he wasn't going to teach him or anyone else anything, had strode into the classroom with his black robes billowing and a sneer firmly on his face. He then continued to criticize the Gryffindors and praise the Slytherins. Then he asked Harry questions that Harry knew weren't in this year's text and when he got them right he took points from him. Harry knew the only reason his potion was sabotaged, like the rest of the Gryffindors, was because he was partnered with a Slytherin. He'd left the class disgusted and with a detention with Filtch for breathing to loudly.
Defense against the Dark arts was also another useless class. He, for one, couldn't even understand the professor through his heavy and constant stuttering. There was also the fact that the man, Professor Quirrell, seemed to be afraid of everything, including his shadow and his students. He was resolved to only doing boring book work for the rest of the year in class and practicing spells on his own time.
Herbology was ok. He wasn't good with plants, he'd never been patient enough to grow anything, and even his cactus had died from neglect. The thing that made the class fun was that it was with the Slytherins and while Malfoy and his cronies were horrible the rest of the year was pleasant enough. He had partnered with Daphne and would be his partner for the rest of the year which had Harry pleased as he was really starting to like the pretty girl who rarely ever smiled. It had become his daily goal to make her lips twitch and her eyes sparkle. He still hadn't gotten a full blow smile from the girl but he knew it was coming.
The rest of his house didn't approve of his mingling with Slytherins, especially Ron. They all warned him to stay away from the snakes and that he couldn't trust them. Harry disregarded them and followed his father's advice. He would be himself and he would make his own choices. He didn't rightly care what the rest of the world thought.
While in the common room he usually hung out with Ron, Seamus and Dean. They would play games or do homework. Sometimes they would even study ahead. Out of the Gryffindor boys in his year he liked Seamus the most. He was fun and bright and didn't talk bad about his Slytherin friends. If Ron wasn't so prejudiced he knew he would like him lot more too, but nothing Harry had said would convince the red head that all Slytherins were not evil. It was quickly getting on his nerves.
He hadn't really talked to the girl Gryffindors yet. There was Lavendor Brown and Parvati Patil who seemed to be best friends. They would sit in the common room giggling over magazines or talking in hushed whispers. The only other girl in his year was the bushy haired Hermione Granger. She seemed to be really smart in class, but that may have been because she never had her nose out of a book. At first he was going to approach her about studying together but then he noticed the glares she gave him whenever he did better than her in class. He didn't want to be friends with someone who couldn't take a little competition. He was a very competitive person and he wasn't going to stop doing his best in class to let her be happy.
Today was Saturday and he and Daphne had plans for studying in the Library with a dark skinned Italian boy named Blaise Zabani, and he was bringing Neville Longbottom, who Harry had offered to help with his Transfiguration essay.
He bid goodbye to his year mates and grabbed Neville and practically ran to the library. Completely forgetting that he wasn't supposed to know his way around the school yet. He was running ten minutes late and he knew his Slytherin friends wouldn't be too happy about his tardiness.
The two boys got into the library and stopped running. Neville was red faced from running but Harry looked normal, with the exception of his hair being even messier than before.
Daphne and Blaise were sitting at a table in a secluded corner away from the majority of the population.
"Hi guys and girl." he added at Daphne's glare. Blaise was somewhat of an anomaly. He was quiet and rarely spoke out in class or in the company of others. When he did speak though it was always something worth saying or very intelligent.
Blaise was shorter than Harry by two or so inches, but taller than Daphne who was still and inch shorter than him. He had fair brownish skin and silvery blue eyes. His hair was odd to Harry who had never seen anything like it. It was a deep and dark grey, almost but not quite black. He was always very well dressed and held his head up high like someone who learned how to stand on their own two feet early on in life.
"Hello Harry, Neville." Blaise said nodded to each of them in turn. Harry smiled at him and Neville nodded tentatively back.
"You're late." was all Daphne said not putting the book down that she was reading.
"Sorry about that." Harry said not sounding sorry at all as he sat down at the table. Neville followed his lead though he looked nervous. "My house mates were trying to save me from the big bad Slytherins and tried to stop me from coming."
Daphne's lips twitched and Blaise snorted. Harry leaned forward and looked about in a secretive way. "You're not going to murder me or cut off my bits, are you?" he asked trying and failing at keeping his face straight.
The entire table paused in what they were doing, eyes wide. Then the table collapsed into laughter. Daphne who was normally the epitome of propriety laughed with them. Harry starred at her. He'd made her laugh. Instantly he knew that he was going make her laugh every day. If it was possible she looked even prettier when she laughed.
The moment as great as it was, was short lived when Madam Pince the librarian yelled at them to shush. With silent giggles and small smiles they started to do their transfiguration homework. Offering each other help when they needed it.
Harry thought he would bring Neville along more often, because after he got over his initial shyness he was actually nice to talk to and had a way of looking at the question that you wouldn't normally considered before. Something that Evan always did, that's why his pranks were so successful.
They finished their work right before lunch and Harry excused himself saying he wasn't hungry and that he was going to go exploring. He said goodbye to his friends and walked back to his dorm to drop off his things then started making his way to his dad's office for lunch.
He was going through a dark passage way that was rarely known or used when he bumped into someone and feel down. 'oh no' he thought. He wasn't supposed to know about any hidden passage ways. How would he explain being in on after only a week of school.
A wand lit and two identical red head faces came into view, the Weasley twins. At first they looked shocked he was there then they both got serious faces.
"Harry Potter" the one on the right said.
"Or should we say Harry McGonagall." the other said.
"Or even Harry Dumbledore." the first finished.