Hermione and Luna lowered their wands, but Ginny and the boys kept them up.
"What are you two doing here?" Ron asked harshly.
"Ron, they're kids." Hermione said.
Alex jumped down from a tree and grinned at the two boys.
"Hey Alex!"
"Shoe-er"
"Yeah, Stewart! Hey, Malcolm, he remembered me!"
Malcolm nodded, not taking his eyes off the older teens.
Stewart put his wand in his robes. He nudged Malcolm who rolled his eyes and followed suit.
"Alright, we're unarmed. You can stop pointing those at us." Malcolm said.
"Please." Stewart added.
"Hello, Stewart. How are you?" Luna asked.
"Hi Luna, I'm doing alright, how about yourself?"
"Reasonably well, what brings you here?"
"I think we'd all like to know that." Harry said. He lowered his wand, but kept an eye on Malcolm. Ginny put her wand away, but Ron had his up and pointed at the Slytherin.
"I barely know enough magic to give you a nosebleed." Malcolm said dryly. "And even if I wanted to, I wouldn't. If you don't mind, I would appreciate if you would honor the silent agreement of both parties to put away our wands."
"Please." Stewart added.
Everyone else had put their wands away. Ron reluctantly lowered it, but kept it out and firmly gripped in his hand as if daring the younger boy to try anything.
Stewart began to explain how the two of them were just tired of the surrounding noise and decided to get away. He said that since the two of them liked forests, they wanted to be surrounded by peaceful trees. The two of them had been friends since they met on the train, sharing an abundance of sweets together and stories about their childhoods. They were then separated by Houses and ever since, Malcolm had been belittled by those in other houses.
This year, especially, was difficult for the boy in Slytherin. The only other people in his year who didn't think him a junior Death Eater in training were Dennis Creevey and a Hufflepuff girl named Laura Madley. Someone had actually called Malcolm a Death Eater. He didn't even know what that meant until he approached the Headmaster for the fifth time in one term and received a simple answer with the assurance that he wasn't one and that he could be anything he set his mind to.
That didn't stop the mocking, jeering, or put downs. Every time he tried to smile or make a friend, they turned him away. He tried offering compliments, but they always had snarky responses that cut deeply.
Malcolm turned pink during Stewart's explanation. It had started turning into a story about him. He cleared his throat to bring it back to the wild boy.
"Sorry." Stewart said sheepishly. "Alex approached us and we made friends. We helped him get a bath and I donated my clothes. He's the same size as me except for shoes. He needs about a size and a half bigger than mine and one size up from Malcolm's."
"Why do you admit I have small feet?"
"Sorry."
"Thank you for taking care of him." Hermione said. "Harry, maybe we can invite Dennis and Laura to visit him. I mean, he does need to be around kids his own age. These guys are third years and he's supposed to be a second year."
Alex began scratching Ron's head, looking for something. Ginny and Luna giggled.
"Stop it!" Ron said, swatting him away.
Alex smacked Ron back with surprising strength, knocking the redhead onto the floor.
The others laughed.
"I still say we don't trust a Slytherin." Ron grumbled.
"What about inter-house unity?" Hermione said. "I personally think we can help loads of people if we just think of them as people not Houses."
"What?" Ron sat up and stared at the bushy haired girl.
"She means don't judge them by where they are sorted." Luna explained. "We should learn about who they are as people."
"I met Malfoy before sorting and I thought he was a git." Harry said. "Ron, what if I had been a Slytherin? Would you still have been my friend?"
Ron's ears turned red. "Erm…of course, Harry."
"You hesitated." Luna commented.
Ron glared at her.
"Stewart and I promised to keep our friendship no matter what house we ended up in." Malcolm said. "He's respected that promise for over a year now."
"Yeah, well I bet you just have tons of support." Ron grumbled. Alex noticed Malcolm's offended expression and smacked Ron again. "OUCH! Stop it!" Alex looked quite pleased.
"Alex, no." Ginny said firmly. "We don't hit."
Alex pouted.
"She's right." Stewart said. "Hitting is not nice."
"So are we accepting these two into our group?" Luna asked.
"Let's take a vote." Harry said. "Who wants Stewart and Malcolm in the group?" He raised his hand.
Alex happily raised both arms in the air and grinned at Ron. Ginny, Hermione, and Luna raised their hands as well.
A minute later, Ron raised his hand. He had given in to the harsh stares of his little sister and Hermione.
...
When bumping into Neville on their way out, it seemed a bit rude not to invite him. He was glad to have the chance to help someone out. Everyone agreed that he could teach Alex about Herbology.
They decided to let Colin, Dennis, and Laura into the group as well. The Creevey brothers were happy to oblige. Laura Madley was a bit more difficult to find. Apparently, the girl had more hiding places than Harry could think of in the castle. He finally resorted to taking out the Marauder's Map, away from the others, and searching the hundreds of dots.
He tried asking the map to locate Laura, it responded by showing a single yellow dot among the sea of black dots. He humored himself for a moment, wondering what would happen if he had just said her first name. He might have gotten more than one dot.
She was currently on the fourth floor, the dot wasn't moving so Harry assumed she might be sitting. People seemed to be moving past her, none of the dots stopped by hers. He found that odd and decided to look for her with Luna, Ginny, and Stewart.
Ron, Neville, Colin, and Dennis stayed in the Room of Requirement with Alex while Hermione and Malcolm went to notify Professor Dumbledore of the current progress. The Headmaster was surprised that Alex was already comfortable with the teens. Hermione notified him that Alex seemed more attached to her, Harry, and Malcolm. Alex was still nervous being around the Weasleys, Creeveys and Stewart. She wasn't sure about Neville since she missed the introductions.
Luna was talking animatedly to Stewart about Nargles while Harry hoped Laura hadn't moved since he last checked the map. He snuck a look at it when Luna and Stewart were examining a classroom on the fourth floor. The Hufflepuff girl hadn't moved from her spot, but they couldn't find her. Stewart mentioned that she wasn't that hard to notice when you did see her. She always had an odd hat on or very colorful clothing. Luna pointed out that the girl sounded a lot like her. Stewart didn't know whether to agree or not because he didn't know Luna that well.
They entered an area near classrooms where Harry had seen the dot. There were a few bookcases lined up near the walls and a suit of armor close by. There was also a potted plant between the bookcases.
Luna pointed out a classroom that hadn't been used in years near the end of the hall.
They entered, but discovered no one was in there. Stewart turned around and gasped loudly.
The other two drew their wands, looking around for what he had seen. A young girl was seated between the bookcase and the wall, reading a book. Only her lower legs and her feet were visible. The plant had been pushed away from the wall and apparently the girl fit.
The older teens put away their wands and approached the girl. She had a pair of headphones on and a hat on top of that. The hat was made of straw and had a string of beads around it. There was also a pair of goggles around the hat and a couple of feathers had been stuck at the top. Her brown hair was tied in a loose ponytail. She wore a pair of overalls and what looked like ballet shoes.
She looked up from what looked like a book of comic strips. She saw Stewart move his mouth and gave him a quizzical look. She took off the hat to remove her headphones, hanging them around her neck while she replaced the hat. The headphones didn't have any wire on it, not that it would have worked anyway.
"Hello." Stewart said. "How're you doing?"
"Are you Laura Madley?" Harry asked.
The girl nodded slowly. She closed her book and stood up. Her eyes were a dark blue. She had a strange air about her that was not dreamy like Luna, but very cautious and somewhat lonely. She had a necklace with a stegosaurus on it.
"Hi, my name is Harry. This is Luna, and Stewart."
Laura nodded again.
"Can you speak?"
"Yes." The girl said in a low whisper.
"We were hoping for your help with something." Harry said. "Would you be okay working with a group?"
"I prefer individual projects."
"Well, this is about helping a boy become a student." Stewart said. "Wait…that came out wrong…"
"Harry found a wild boy living in the forest." Luna said.
Laura moved her gaze to her. "I read the article." She said.
"It's true. He's in the castle now and we're going to help him."
"How many?"
"I believe eleven people will be in the Room of Requirement in total. Twelve if you want to come."
Laura pondered this. "Who?"
"Harry's friends, Hermione and Ron." Luna said.
"And Neville Longbottom, Ginny Weasley, Colin and Dennis Creevey, Luna, me, Stewart, and Malcolm Baddock."
Laura smiled slightly. "He's nice." She said. "Who's the eleventh person?"
"Alexander Everett." Luna said.
"The boy from the forest." Harry added.
"Why ask me?" Laura asked.
"Because he's a year younger than you and we were hoping for people who were closer in age to him and we found you three." Harry said.
"You, Malcolm, and Stewart are in the same year." Luna said. "What do you think?"
"Positively mad." Laura said with a smile. "Alright."
"Thanks!" Stewart said. "Why do you hide here?"
Laura didn't answer. Stewart realized he must have hit a sore spot and didn't ask any more questions. They brought her up to the Room of Requirement and entered to find Ron trying to avoid having things thrown at him.
"I was kidding!" He complained. He looked around and saw Harry. "HELP ME!" He shouted, rushing towards his best friend. Luna scooted the younger kids out of the way.
"Ronald Weasley!" Hermione yelled. "You don't just SAY that to people!"
She held Ginny's arm down. The younger redhead was glaring at her brother with her wand in hand. Neville and the Creevey brothers shook their heads. Neville had managed to get Alex to stop throwing things. The wild boy jumped into a tree.
"What happened in here?" Harry asked.
"Malcolm and I just got back from Professor Dumbledore's office when this idiot-" Hermione jabbed her thumb towards Ron. "-started talking about Malcolm and clearly insulted him."
"I'm fine." Malcolm said, half hidden behind a tree. "You should be concerned about Alex. He doesn't want to keep his clothes on."
As if to prove this, a shirt came down on Malcolm's head.
"Alex, no! Please keep that on!" Hermione said. "We don't walk around half naked."
Alex seemed to take this as 'why not fully naked?' and stripped his bottoms. He stood proudly before them.
"Ah, my eyes!" Ron said.
Ginny and Hermione looked away in disgust. Colin slapped his hands over Dennis's eyes. Neville did the same with Malcolm. Harry put a hand over Stewart's eyes.
"Put it back on!" Ron complained.
Luna walked over to a pair of boxers and held them up.
"At least put these on, please." She said.
Alex pouted, but jumped down and took the boxers from Luna. He pulled them up and grinned.
"Thank you." Luna said.
"HIYA!" He kicked the air, barely missing Malcolm.
"Alex!" Hermione said exasperatedly.
The others deemed it safe to look and waited for someone to say something.
"Alright, this is Laura and she'll be joining us. Laura-hey, where'd she go?" Harry looked around, but the girl was nowhere to be seen.
"I didn't see her leave." Neville said.
"Laura?"
"Laura? Where are you?"
"Hey, are you still here?"
Luna, Harry, and Stewart waited for an answer, but it didn't come.
"Oh great, you scared her off!" Ginny said, glaring accusingly at Ron.
"Wh-? What did I do?!" Ron asked.
Ginny rolled her eyes. The group searched for Laura. The room certainly looked like a genuine forest. They pushed through bushes, hoping to find her.
Alex seemed to find the search quite fascinating, not that he knew what they were looking for. He ran through the room as if it was really the forest, cheering loudly.
Alexander stopped being able to hear the group as he went deeper into the room. He looked around.
"Ha-e?" He called. "Raw-n? Hermanienie?"
He saw something shining from a bush. He pounced at it and ended up tumbling through a bush and into a small clearing surrounded by high bushes. He growled at the bush, but the shining thing distracted him. It was a pair of gray headphones. He froze as he realized the headphones were on a person. Someone he hadn't been introduced to yet.
He sniffed the air as if attempting to detect danger. He scratched his head and proceeded. Slowly, he approached the girl, crawling on all fours. The girl seemed immersed in a book. He growled slightly. She raised an eyebrow as she glanced at him, and returned to her book. He growled louder and pounced at her.
She backed away, startled, but he managed to snatch the book. He eyed her warily as he held the book to his chest. The girl had a slightly put out expression, but remained silent. He looked through the book, holding it upside down. He put it right side up and stared at the pictures.
Something stirred in his head. Why did this seem familiar? There was a human child and an orange tiger. He put his hands over the still pictures. He had become scared the previous day by seeing a moving portrait, but these characters were frozen in the pages. He closed it and shook it…nothing happened. He sniffed it and then put out his tongue to lick it. It was swiped from his hands before his tongue could touch it.
He blinked slowly, and then stared at the girl who clutched it in her hands. She stood over him with a blank expression, and then offered a hand. He took it and stood up. He put his hand out for the book, but she wouldn't give it to him.
"Laura?" Hermione's voice got closer.
"Hermanie!" Alex said happily. He dragged his new friend through the bush to see Hermione and Neville with relieved expressions.
"Guys! They're over here!" Neville called.
Laura remained silent.
"Hermanie!" Alex pointed to the book. "Alex?"
"That's not yours, you can't have it." Hermione said. "Laura, are you alright?"
Laura nodded. She gave Alex the same look she'd given Stewart earlier. Alex was still holding her wrist, but he either hadn't noticed or didn't care. She tried to tug her wrist away, but the boy didn't let go.
"Hermanie?"
"Laura." Hermione said. "Her name is Laura."
"I'm Neville!" Neville said.
"Nell? Lu-a?"
The group gathered again, then Alex finally let go of Laura. They all introduced themselves while Alex tried to get their names.
"Harry."
"Ha-e."
"Ron."
"Raw-n"
"Hermione."
"Hermanie."
"Neville."
"Nell."
"Ginny."
"Inny."
"Luna"
"Lu-a"
"Colin."
"Colon."
Colin turned pink. "N-no. Colin. Call-in."
"Colon…Coleen…Cole-"
"Cole's fine for now." Colin said before the boy could continue.
"I'm Dennis."
"Denny…Den-knees…Dennis."
"Stewart."
"Shoe-er"
"Malcolm."
"Mal-um"
"Laura."
"Lu-a"
Hermione suddenly gasped loudly, causing the older teens to begin drawing their wands.
"No, sorry!" She said as Ron turned his wand on Malcolm. "Ron, stop that."
Ron avoided eye contact with the Slytherin, the latter doing the same. The others put their wands away.
"I just realized that Luna and Laura are both 'Lu-a' to him so we have to try to distinguish them." Hermione explained. "Alex, this is Laura. Lo-ra."
"Lo-ah?"
"Laura, is that acceptable?" Ginny asked.
Laura nodded.
"Yes, she's Laura, I'm Luna." Luna said.
Alex looked at Laura. "Lo-a" Then he turned to Luna happily. "Lu-a!"
Luna smiled. "This is quite fascinating." She said softly.
The group was in silence except for a slight scuffle when Alexander tried to search Ron's hair for bugs.
"What are you reading?" Colin asked, trying to break the ice. He smiled at Laura.
She flashed the title.
"Wow! I haven't seen that in ages!" Dennis said.
"Me neither." Hermione said.
"Pretty cool!" Colin agreed.
"What's so fascinating?" Ron asked, looking at the book. "Is it a moving picture book?"
Laura shook her said.
"It's a comic strip book." Dennis said.
Ron snickered. "Gee, never knew you were into stripping, Hermione."
Hermione turned pink and slapped him. "Not that kind of strip!"
"It's basically like a comic book." Ginny said. "Dad was curious about Muggle newspaper strips for a while, remember? I saw this when- nothing." She flushed and didn't continue.
"What?" Ron asked, alarmed.
"Since I broke into the shed and used your brooms when you weren't paying attention. Mum and Dad let me ride the brooms once you went to school."
Ron sighed. "I suppose it's revenge against your brothers, isn't it?"
"Aren't I sweet?" Ginny batted her eyes.
"What's the comic about?" Neville asked.
"It's about a boy named Calvin and his tiger, Hobbes." Colin said. "I used to call Dennis 'Calvin' because he was a troublemaker for a while."
Dennis grinned. "And I had a stuffed tiger."
"What happened to it?" Stewart asked
"Colin ate it."
Colin stifled a snicker. "Mate, I told you what really happened six months later."
Dennis blinked. "Oh, I forgot…"
"We lost it in the zoo when Mum and Dad freaked out."
"Why did they freak out again?"
"Because a huge snake was escaping and they didn't want their nine and seven year olds being crushed by a huge Burmese python."
"I thought it was a boa constrictor."
"Whatever! It was huge, potentially dangerous, and escaping. They scooped us up so fast, I've never seen dad run so fast."
It was Harry's turn to become pink. If Colin had been around the age of nine, he had been ten…which meant…
"Hey…" Ron said.
Harry flashed Ron a dangerous look, but he didn't see it.
"Didn't you say you set a snake on your cousin once?"
Harry's face turned five more shades of pink and into a fine red.
The Creevey brothers laughed.
"You set a snake on your cousin?" Malcolm said. "You couldn't find more subtle ways of communicating? Maybe something like 'I don't particularly like you'"
"He elbowed me to the ground!" Harry tried to defend himself. "And he's a pig so…he deserved it! It didn't hurt anybody."
"Well, as long as he got the message." Malcolm said with a huge grin.
"So you owe me a new tiger." Dennis said, snickering.
"It's not funny!" Hermione scolded. "Someone could seriously have been hurt!"
"Don't be a killjoy, Hermione!" Ron said.
"Don't worry Hermione; I was in plenty of trouble." Harry said.
"What happened? Were you forced to do lines? 'I will talk to people instead of setting pythons on them'. Or did you have dish duty for a month?" Colin said.
"Does it matter?" Harry asked. "If you must know I was grounded until summer holidays started."
"Bummer." Stewart said.
"Hey, at least he didn't have to spend the entire summer stuck inside." Malcolm said. "I had to spend nearly the whole vacation when I was six because I got really sick and then my mum did. She didn't want to spread anything so we couldn't leave until she was absolutely certain that we weren't contagious."
"Wow. So your dad did all the shopping and everythi-OUCH!" Ginny twisted around to look at Alex. He had been trying to pick bugs out of her hair.
"Alex, we don't do that." Neville said.
"The answer to your question, Ginny, was yes." Malcolm said quickly. "So, how do we start teaching him? And are we going to be using this room for the rest of the year?"
"We can start teaching him how to properly interact with people and how to speak." Hermione said.
"Let's do it." Harry said.
Alex blinked in confusion as they all stared at him.
A/N: The group consists of: Harry, Ron, Hermione, Neville, Ginny, Luna, Colin, Dennis, Malcolm, Stewart, Laura, and Alexander of course! I do not own any of these people except for Alexander Everett. I just gave personalities and backgrounds to Malcolm, Stewart, and Laura. I also made up that the Creevey family was at the Zoo at the time of the snake incident (first book). They could have been for all we know…