Hogwarts was as he always remembered it, save that he was looking through thunderbird eyes.
The true marvel was watching Rose, Susan, and Hannah see it for the first time.
They were in awe, and Rose could feel the place welcome her home like a daughter. Warmth and magic abound.
They rode small boats across the lake, Harry obstinately taking their fourth seat without hesitation, and the three continued to ogle the castle in wonder.
Before too long, they were in the Great Hall.
The sorting went as it almost always did, until Rose was called. With a strange bird on her shoulder, black as night, she confidently walked up to the sorting hat and took a seat.
Harry sat still on her shoulder for nearly five minutes before the hat called, "Better be... Hufflepuff!"
Rose cheerfully joined her new friends, Harry bouncing on her shoulder as she scampered away.
Harry ate some ham with everyone else, and waited patiently for the speech after the food.
Rose was asked several questions about him which she dutifully answered, though when a Zachariah Smith tried to pet him he glared and cawed warningly.
It was actually amusing, as he quickly became seen in a bad light, everyone trusting Thunderbirds to be some kind of moral compass.
Finally, dinner was done and Dumbledore stood to talk.
With a little bit of focus more than necessary, one to make the spell follow him and two to make it seem to come from nowhere, Harry cast his favorite Horcrux defying curse.
A golden light smacked into the back of Quirrel's head, where screaming interrupted Dumbledore's speech.
A black mist floated out of Quirrel's turban and screeched, vehemently cursing just about everyone's parents and describing gruesome acts of defilement before he screeched again, and vanished.
Rose cringed and grabbed her head, holding her scar as a similar black mist disappeared from it too, though it went quietly.
After the dark magic was cleared away, Dumbledore finally went back to speaking. "Ah, well. It seems that our Defense teacher has succumbed to the curse quite a bit earlier this term. We will reschedule those classes when a repacement is found and... forget about what I was saying about the third floor."
Harry puffed his chest proudly, while most of the school looked bewildered indeed.
Thankfully, a Prefect came to escort them to their beds, and thoughts moved on.
Harry allowed his curiosity to get the better of him. He never visited the Hufflepuff common room as much as any of the others, so he curiously watched the Prefect come up to a pile of old barrels by the kitchens.
He described the entrance and how to enter, and then showed the first years. The barrels faded intangible, and they walked into the common room.
It was as he remembered from his few visits, honey yellow tables and soft black couches. There was a portrait of Hufflepuff over a warm hearth.
The Prefect was introducing the first years to the common room and giving directions to the dorms, but Harry just gently leaned into Rose's side. She was very much like him, and he knew that he had been overwhelmed when he first saw the Gryffindor common room.
She smiled and pet his head.
He sang a little. Unlike a Phoenix, Thunderbirds didn't have an emotional effect or some kind of Light vs. Dark compass. They just sang beautifully, and their voice could rumble like thunder.
Rose smiled anyway. "You sound majestic, Harry." she complimented him.
Susan and Hannah were silent as they watched one of the most powerful creatures in the world act like a friendly owl with the Girl-Who-Lived.
They retired for the night, and to Rose's delight, Susan and Hannah were her roommates.
Line Break
The next morning, Harry decided to start the day off with a little flight around Hogwarts. The sky was clear, and the weather decent, so he glided around the stone towers and through the grounds.
It was peaceful, and he already felt the inexplicable joy of being around Hogwarts that he always did. Hogwarts would always be his home.
'Harry? Where are you?' he heard.
He smiled and reappeared in a flash of static on Rose's headboard.
'Just went flying.'
She smiled. "I guess it would get boring staying cooped up with me all day."
Harry flapped his wing and messed up her hair. 'Don't be so pessimistic.'
"What's pessimistic?" she asked.
Hannah interrupted. "It means that your thoughts are usually negative or that you expect the worst in things."
Rose huffed and crossed her arms. "I'm not pessimistic."
"The thunderbird is always right." Susan chimed in, and Rose pouted at her.
"Don't let him hear you, he'll get a big head." Rose complained with a smile.
Harry laughed as best he could, which meant that Rose was well aware of what he was doing thanks to their link.
"Why do you have to be so good-natured?" Rose whined at him.
Hannah giggled. "You want a thunderbird to get offended?" she asked.
Rose grumbled as the three girls and overgrown bird left the dorm and headed to breakfast.
"What do you think classes will be like?" Rose asked.
"It depends. Most of the teachers are pretty good except the Potions professor, and the Defense professor is usually sort of bad." Susan answered.
"Not that we have a Defense professor." Rose reminded them.
"What do you think happened?" Hannah asked.
"My uncle used to be a curse breaker. It looked like Quirrel might have been possessed." Susan said.
"Possessed? People can possess people?" Rose asked.
Susan shook her head. "Not really. It's spirits that possess people, and they aren't very common, from what he said."
"Wonder what it was doing at Hogwarts?" Rose asked curiously. "And how it got kicked out."
Harry trilled, distracting them from their conversation. Rose absently pet his head again.
"Harry knows everything, why don't we ask him?" Rose asked sarcastically.
Susan and Hannah looked at the thunderbird expectantly.
Harry shifted and turned his head.
"Wait, you really do know?" Rose asked incredulously.
'No.' Harry lied.
"You do, don't you! What happened?"
Harry turned his head defiantly. Eleven year olds couldn't make him squeal.
"Please tell me?" she asked.
Fuck, he thought. 'I got rid of him.' he told her. 'He was Voldemort, and now he's gone forever.'
Rose stopped walking completely, and her friends stopped as well to listen to the one sided conversation.
"What do you mean, he was Voldemort?" she asked.
Susan and Hannah gasped. "What? What is he saying?" Susan demanded.
"He said the spirit was Voldemort, and that he got rid of him. For good." Rose conveyed. "He's never lied to me." she said firmly.
"He wasn't dead until yesterday?" Susan asked, disbelieving. "And he was possessing a Professor..."
Harry fluffed his feathers. 'Well, he's gone now. Did you want to meet your godfather?' Harry thought to Rose.
"A godfather?" she asked.
'He's wrongfully imprisoned.' Harry admitted. 'We could get him out really quick if you talk to Susan's aunt.'
"Susan, what does your aunt do?" Rose asked.
"She's the Head of the DMLE."
"What does that stand for?"
"The Department of Magical Law Enforcement." Hannah helpfully supplied.
"Ah. I see." Rose said lightly. "I've been at Hogwarts one night and everything is happening."
"Why did you ask about my aunt?" Susan asked hesitantly.
"Harry says that my godfather is in jail for something he didn't do." Rose said.
"You mean Azkaban?" Susan asked, horror in her eyes.
Harry nodded for her.
"I'll write her." Susan offered, but Harry trilled.
'I can do this, if you like.' Harry thought to Rose.
"O-okay." Rose agreed. "You'll come back?"
Harry nodded, and leapt lightly from her shoulder. In a flash, he vanished.
He reappeared in the Gryffindor boys' dorm for first years, and snatched a sleeping rat from a small table, and vanished again.
He appeared in the Headmaster's office, on his desk.
"Oh, my. You're Ms. Potter's thunderbird, I believe?" Dumbledore asked, after jerking back in his seat.
Harry nodded and grabbed his shoulder.
"An adventure? I suppose I am dressed."
Harry glanced at his clothes, which could have been anything from pajamas to his finest robes, and flashed them away.
"Ah. Good morning Amelia." Dumbledore greeted cheerfully.
"Dumbledore?" the stern looking woman asked, one brow raised. "What are you doing in my office?"
"I'm afraid I am unaware. Miss Potter has a thunderbird who seems to have gotten us together for some reason."
Harry nodded and hopped onto her desk.
"Well?" Amelia Bones asked the... bird.
He held out the rat and glared at it.
"A rat." she deadpanned. "I'm glad you found yourself some breakfast."
Harry shook his head. He sighed and held it out to the headmaster with a warning look, which he took as a warning not to lose it.
Harry stole a quill and took it in his beaks and wrote quite clearly.
"Rat Animagus." Dumbledore read. "How marvelous, I didn't know thunderbirds could write." he marvelled. "It seems he wants us to investigate this man, once we change him back."
Amelia nodded, her curiosity peaked.
Dumbledore waved his wand, and the rat swelled, features changing until a short, dirty man was left.
"Peter Pettigrew?" Albus gasped.
"I'll send for some veritaserum." Amelia said, tapping a memo with her wand.
Harry cawed and flashed away.
"Hmm. I wonder where he's go-"
Harry reappeared with Sirius Black.
"Merlin's beard! That's a murderer!" Amelia declared angrily.
Harry shook his head and glared at Pettigrew.
Sirius was disoriented. "Amy?" he said weakly. "Dumbledore?"
They pulled their wands.
Sirius' head lolled as he turned to survey the office. His face snarled in twisted rage. "Peter!" he spat. "You filthy rat TRAITOR!"
Amelia petrified him with a wave of her wand.
"I guess we have a story to investigate." she said with a sigh.
Harry trilled and again nodded at Sirius. Then he hissed at Pettigrew and scratched him with a talon.
Dumbledore sighed. "I think we understand well enough."
Harry nodded and vanished in a crack of lightning. It singed some of Peter's clothing.