Harry thought that once the food had arrived, and their meals were consumed, that he'd be led to the Ravenclaw dorms, where he'd find sanctuary and rest. After all, barely anyone recognized that that Ron kid was missing, even if the headmaster sent a curious tennis ball eyed creature to find him. Harry heard something from the twins about it being a house elf, and not being able to stop it from finding him. But he was distracted when food appeared on the table.

To be honest, the candy on the train had been a mistake, especially since he hadn't eaten anything for nearly a day at that point. The dry toast and cold soup he'd gotten for lunch hadn't been all that filling to begin with, but it was enough for him to get by on. Instead of pigging out like most of the others around him, he only took a small portion and ate it slowly, careful to not overeat. He knew he'd only end up in the infirmary if he did.

His dessert had consisted of a single cookie, which was warm, moist, and far less burnt than any he'd had before. It was for this reason that when the desserts disappeared, and Dumbledore stood up, that he was one of the few not complaining. Next to him, Hermione was also silent, but her eyes didn't turn to the headmaster, instead they remained fixed on Harry.

"Welcome students to another year at Hogwarts. I would like to warn that the west corridor on the third floor is forbidden on the pain of death..." at this Harry's eyes widened, and Hermione's switched targets with a speed that Harry worried hurt her neck. "Also, a reminder that the Forbidden Forest is just that... forbidden. And I would like to stress that students should not wander in it without supervision..."

Harry couldn't tell, but he swore that Dumbledore was glaring straight at the twins, who seemed to be trying to be as angelic as possible. Harry figured that last statement was targeted at them in particular.

"Now, let us welcome our new Defense Against Dark Arts teacher, Professor Quirrell," the aged headmaster continued before leading the entire school in a rather lackluster applause. Harry watched as the nervous turban wearing professor stood up slightly and waved with a worried, sickly smile.

"And finally, I would ask that students refrain from putting on such productions as earlier in the future..." he concluded before letting the students resume their feasting. The food returning precisely as it had left, down to the last bite-mark and crumb.

Shortly after desserts were finished, the first years were gathered up, and escorted up a flight of stairs, down a hallway, and up another flight of stairs, to a door with a bronze eagle shaped knocker on its front. One of the prefects who had been guiding them stepped up and indicated the door. "This is the entrance to our dorm's common room. When you get to it, it will ask you a riddle which you must solve in order to enter... I would like a volunteer from the first years for the first one of the year."

Several hands were raised, and pointed to Hermione. "Miss Granger, if you wouldn't mind..." As Hermione walked to the front of the group, Harry overheard the twins talking behind him. "Amazing that she was able to bend the rules like that during the feast Gred..."

"Indeed it is Forge... and our widdle Harrykins running gave us enough time to play out most of the song..." George answered while rubbing his chin. "I thought for certain we were going to be docked points for that one..."

"Ah, but we broke no rules, and even if we did, there was no trace to Ravenclaw itself..." Fred countered with a pleased smile to his face. "The only issue was the... performance... of the Slytherin house... completely off-key and poorly performed... And their song absolutely did not fit in with our lovely theme..."

"Always the center of attention that lot..." George supplied with shake of his head. "Think we should use the map to see what's so special about the corridor?"

"Absolutely we should... and our junior partners should join us in the looking..."

Harry didn't have time to ask about what they meant, instead he was dragged in by the current of the first years, as they entered he got to look around the room, finding a blue and silver striped motif to the walls and furniture of the common room. The prefect that had pulled Hermione aside stood in front of two stairways. "Boys, you are down the stairs to my left, first years are the lowest rooms, so make sure you wake up early enough. Girls, you are at the top of the stairs going up on my right, like the boys you'll want to make sure you're awake early enough, as you're the top most floor. Curfew is in another hour, but I recommend staying to the common room."

Looking around, Harry saw a rather large fireplace with mantel against an outer wall, with a large portrait of the Rowena Ravenclaw hung dead center. On either side of the fireplace were large windows, that gave a beautiful view of the horizon, and if he wasn't too mistaken, would be idle for watching the Sun rise. To the left as he went around there were the two set of stairs for the dorms, a door that had Professor Flitwick written on it in bold print, and then came the bookshelves. He could already feel the draw to the tomes of knowledge just waiting for eager young minds to peruse their depths and glean just that little bit more about the secrets of the universe from them.

It was easy to say he was going to like it, especially if those novels he saw at one end of the bookshelves were as interesting as he'd heard. After that came the entrance they'd just came in. Nothing too noticeable to the door, save for the raven sitting on the bust over the door. If he heard it say Nevermore, he was out of there so fast he'd leave a smoking trail.

There was another set of bookshelves on the other side of the door, but this one held many awards and accomplishments in both academia and athletics throughout the year. He even caught sight of a few portraits and clippings of famous alumni in the background. And then he was back to the windows and the fireplace. All together it was a cozy room, that he felt he could enjoy spending time in. There was plenty of room, and tables for reading, studying, or maybe even some games. Lots of comfortable looking chairs and couches, and even as he watched, little sconces began lighting, illuminating the furniture in an almost natural light.

Harry caught sight of the twins leaning against one of the couches on the opposite side of the flood of first years heading to the stairs, and saw them subtly pointing to the fireplace, while the other raised up a full spread of fingers on one hand. He guessed that meant a meeting over there in five minutes, or it might mean five minutes after everyone was gone. Instead of asking for clarification he meandered over to the bookshelves, and began looking through them. To his immense relief, he wasn't the only one checking out the books.

Leaning in to check out one of the titles, he almost let out a groan of dismay. The first book he ever looked at in the place and it was pure fiction, "The Life and Times of The-Boy-Who-Lived" he had to wonder why he got the dubious honor of such a wonderful hyphenated name. Maybe next they'd just stick his nose in a door and slam it shut. It'd be a lot less painful.

"I see that you don't like the fame Harry..." Hermione stated from beside him, with hints of shame and nervousness in her voice. "But... I couldn't resist the challenge and..." she trailed off as he looked at her curiously. "I'm sorry... please don't be mad..."

Now Harry had been planning a slaughter of his new so-called friends, but seeing Hermione nervously rubbing her arm, while nibbling her lower lip with her slight buck tooth as her frizzy brown hair cascaded over her shoulders did something he couldn't figure out. It made him want to apologize for his actions, to beg forgiveness for something he couldn't figure out what.

"Huh? Oh... uh... no it's okay... I..." Harry stammered out while blushing and looking away. "I don't mind it... let's just leave it as over and done with, and move on. Alright Hermione?"

"You... you mean you still want to be friends?" the girl asked, as though hardly able to believe it. The burning look of hope in her eyes made Harry want to kneel down in front of her, and pledge his eternal friendship, instead he just smiled nervously and nodded.

"Yeah... I mean you didn't know, and I guess it was more of the twin's fault..." Harry started before something struck him. Looking around he noticed the room was now empty, save the twins over by the fireplace, waving them over. "Let's go see what mischief we're up to... friend...."

Harry offered his hand, which she shyly shook, and together they walked over to the fireplace. "Well, well, well, lookie here Fred... it seems our little first years are moving fast..."

Fred looked up from the piece of paper he'd pulled out, and smiled widely when he saw what his twin was talking about. Harry followed his gaze, and found it was locked on where he and Hermione were still holding hands from the shake. A burning blush burst out on his face, as the two of them snapped their hands away and turned away from each other, but he did manage to catch a similar blush on Hermione's face, as well as a small smile.

Picking up his dignity, and a little courage, he broke the embarrassed silence. "What's up? I heard you two talking about a..." Harry started, before looking around curiously, he couldn't tell why, but he felt like someone was watching them. "Research project to check out... maybe in cartography?"

The twins looked momentarily confused before letting out a hearty laugh. "Oh that's rich Harry, good senses though... Let us introduce you to our co-founder, and supervisor... Rowena Ravenclaw."

Harry followed the both twin's hand leading to the portrait over the fireplace, who was waving at them with a brilliant smile on her face. "Hello dearies, don't mind me, I love a good laugh. And if what I saw in the Great Hall is any indication, I am going to get several out of you lot."

Harry noticed two very distinct things at that precise moment, Hermione squeaked when startled, and Rowena was smiling weirdly at him. As he squirmed under her gaze, he gave her a slightly nervous smile in return. "Oh this is wonderful!" the portrait exclaimed while clapping her hands and seemingly leaning in closer to them. "You're muggle raised are you not? Oh that is wonderful, it is so delightful seeing the changes that you bring to this mundane world of Wizards and Witches... I expect great things of my Rebels, and even greater of you two..."

"Right then, Professor Ravenclaw, this is Harry Potter and Hermione Granger... we met them on the train this year and recruited them," Fred explained while indicating the two first years in order. "Now that introductions are done, let's get to business..."

"This my dear younglings, is the secret of our success," Fred explained while holding out the plain piece of paper to the two first years. "The Marauder's Map. The Lovely and Talented Lady Rowena mentioned to us Filch had it last year, during one of our detentions... and we just happened to get it knocked into our robes. Took a bit of doing finding the password..."

"We tried everything we could think of, until Lady Rowena mentioned she saw a group of students tap it with their wands and say 'I solemnly swear I'm up to no good'" George continued, putting action to word, revealing the map as it slowly filled the parchment, even splitting down the center to show multiple levels. "And thus we find the entirety of Hogwarts revealed to us..."

The foursome all looked at the map with various levels of curiosity, pinpointing the various areas that they recognized as the houses. Until finally they came to the third floor corridor on the west side of the building, and noticed that there were people there. "Quirinus Quirrel and Tom Riddle... they'd have to be right on top of each other for that overlap..." Fred pointed out, looking slightly uneasy.

"That doesn't make any sense..." Hermione stated with a frown, "Why would he and another guy be right on top of... each..."

As light dawned on Hermione, the twins looked to their silent fourth member who had pulled back from the group with a deepening frown on his face. "If that is supposed to be forbidden on pain of death... I don't know if they'd use it for that... but maybe we should keep an eye on him... I have a bad feeling..."

"Oh? A bad feeling is it? Well deary, let me tell you, I used to get them all the time. I learned the folly of not listening to them..." Rowena spoke up quietly, her eyes downcast and saddened as she fidgeted with the flowers in her hands. "If you have a bad feeling, then trust it lad... it may just save a life."

The Rebels all looked at each other nervously, before George folded up the map and tapped it again. "Mischief Managed..." The map was replaced again with the blank piece of parchment, before it was tucked away in his robes. "I think we should all go to bed, and meet up in the morning..."

With a nod from the others, they parted and walked off to their beds. Harry had a little extra to walk than the twins, but he found it was somewhat relaxing. It was nice to be able to get away from the others for a while, even it was only for a moment. Finally he got to the first years door, and let himself in, to find another hallway. His door was the first one on the right, so he went in and found a cozy room that he knew was far too large to fit before the next door marking the next room.

Entering his room, he found his trunk sitting at the end of what he assumed was his four poster bed, decked out in blue and silver. To one side was a large vanity with dresser drawers on either side of the bench, he could see a door to a closet, one marked bathroom, and another bookshelf, with his books all neatly grouped by subject matter, on one shelf. Maybe he should pick up some more to fill it up. Opening a drawer, he found a set of silken pajamas waiting for him, with his embroidered name on top.

Rather than question the extravagance of his new quarters, he changed into the pajamas and crawled into the bed, finding it nice and firm. Within moments of his head finding the pillows he was asleep. Free of fear, free of pain, free of embarrassment at the hands of his friends. He was safe, content, and subconscious. Life was definitely looking up for Harry Potter.