Chapter 2: What? We Can't Jog?

Thanks to my betas, darrelldeam and LadyLini, for all their help in making this easier to read for you, my readers. All mistakes are still my own.

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It was a few days later and Harry was walking to the Great Hall. He had been up earlier and wanted to go jogging or something. Any exercise to get into shape. It wouldn't do to get out of shape and have Dudley catch him off guard when he went home during summer break. From what he noticed most wizards didn't work out.

There weren't any gym classes and the only form of exercise they got was from climbing the stairs and the occasional flying lesson. Those didn't get you into cardio often enough to stay in shape. Sure, they were tedious, but they were strenuous.

He had looked out a window and glanced at the lake, but didn't see anyone, so he figured that the students just let themselves go.

'Maybe I'll go jogging by the lake. It's really far from the castle, though. It might get really cold during the winter,' he thought as he looked at the Black Lake's picture perfect scene.

He continued down the hallway thinking of what he could do to work out. It was then that Harry heard a group of people headed his way. They were chattering merrily and didn't seem to be any trouble, so he continued down the stairs. As the voices got closer, he noticed a large group of people wearing jogging suits coming his way. He recognized one of the girls; it was his friend Millie

"Morning, Millie," he called to her to get her attention. "What's going on?" he asked, hoping she was going to answer in the positive. He really wanted to join whatever group she was part of. It looked like what he was just searching for.

She turned to Harry her red face, shining with sweat and then a smile broke across it as she recognized the firsties. "Oh! Hey, Harry! We're just finishing up our morning exercises and now we're going to take a shower. I'll see you at breakfast, yeah?" she greeted and was just about to turn away when Harry's voice stopped her.

"Oh, I was just thinking I might do that. I didn't see anyone around the lake, so I figured no one did," Harry replied with a shrug and shuffled his feet a little. He still wasn't used to talking to upper years, even Millie. She was so nice to him and Hermione the other day, but they had had little inaction since. Sure, she said she'd tutor him this summer, but she was so much older than him.

"The lake? Why would we go to the lake when we have a courtyard here in the castle? It's still cold in the winter, but it's inside so it is not as windy," she asked in confusion as she wiped her face off with the towel hanging around her neck. "You silly firsties are always thinking that you're the first to think of something." She reached over and ruffled his hair.

"Oi! Get off!" Harry said as he pushed her hand away and tried vainly to right his hair. "It's messy enough without your help. And I didn't think I was the first. Remember, I told you I checked for other people. It's not like they give tours of the castle, so how would I know there are courtyards?" he asked indignantly. "So, what's this courtyard like, and where is it?"

Millie waved at her friends to tell them to go on without her. Harry noticed that some of her friends were in different Houses, and he was pretty sure he saw a few from Slytherin. He looked to Millie with his face scrunched up in concern and confusion. He knew she said she studied with other Houses, but not Slytherin. He had been warned not to make friends with them. He was told that the upper year snakes would hurt him for being in Gryffindor.

"Noticed that did ya?" Millie asked amusement etched on her face. "Don't worry, these guys have been working out with me for years. We just make sure that no one bothers them or us." She settled against the wall, arms folded, and ankles crossed.

"Oh," was all he could say to that. He would have to think on that. According to Ron and Hagrid, Slytherins were bad news. He leaned against the wall, mimicking her pose.

"Now about your question on the courtyard," she continued. "It's called the Middle or Transfiguration courtyard. It's off the Transfiguration classroom; about two doors down you can see an arch. You probably haven't gone that far down the hall. Anyway, this courtyard has grass in the open area, centuries old tree. There is one massive iron Armillary Sphere that stands in the center. It's not as big around as the lake, but we just jog around it a bit more to make up for it, yeah. Near the center is a nice spot to do jumping jacks and the like. And like I said, it's inside and not far from the Great Hall, though we have to trudge up the stairs to get clean afterwards. We just call it the cooling down part of our work out."

"Oh. Do you think I can join you? And can I ask my friends and bunkmates?" Harry asked, pushing away from the wall, and practically jumping in place, getting excited. "Do you think I can meet more people from different Houses? Maybe while were working out we could get them interested in that study group. You guys should ask the other first years if they want to join so they don't have to feel left out," he chastised a mocking gleam in his emerald eyes. She was just so easy to talk to.

"Sure, kid, no problem. You can ask anyone you want. It's no secret. You're right, though, we did sort of forget to ask you guys. Well, I'm off. I'm starting to reek." And with that she straightened up and jogged up the stairs to get cleaned up before breakfast.

Harry finished making his way to the Great Hall. He sat at the table and thought about what he had just learned. This would be great, especially if he could get Ron and Hermione to join in. It would also help him clear his mind. He always felt better after he got over the adrenalin rush caused by Dudley chasing him. Maybe he was an adrenalin junkie? Maybe?

The food appeared on the table, but Harry just pulled out a potions book and waited for his friends. After a while, Hermione joined him.

"Good morning, Harry! What are you doing up so early? You're usually still in bed," she said, sitting to his right, and serving herself some bacon and eggs. She too pulled out a book and propped it on a juice jug.

"Oh," Harry said, putting his book beside his plate. "Morning, Hermione. I was thinking about getting some exercise, so I won't get out of shape. I didn't see anyone by the lake, so I didn't know there was a group of people that got up before breakfast and went to the courtyard by the Transfiguration classroom. Which is good, 'cause I really didn't want to go to the lake. I ran into Millie, and she said we could join her. Damn," he said, snapping his fingers — ignoring Hermione's "language, Harry."— "I forgot to ask her what time. Do you want to join?" he asked turning imploring eyes once again to his friend.

"Well, I'm not really an exercise person, but I suppose I can walk around the courtyard while you run," she said, not wanting to abandon her friend. The fresh air would do her good. Her parents were always going on about her not getting enough.

"Yeah, that'd be good. Maybe if you like that you could work your way up to jogging. I know I think better when I get some running in. Millie's group is from all the different Houses. She said they were going to talk to the first years, and get some of them to join in. Maybe we can meet people there for our study group."

Hermione hummed thoughtfully at that, her mind already revising her study guide for the different groups of people.

They were soon joined by Ron, Neville, and the other boys from first year. The first-year girls didn't seem to be down yet. They were probably still getting ready or something silly like that. Everyone started loading their plates.

"Wat 'ere you 'alkin about?" came the garbled voice of Ron as he shoved food in his mouth and spoke.

"Really, Ronald, is it too much to ask to swallow before you talk? How are we supposed to understand you?" Hermione huffed. It wasn't like it was the first time she asked. The boy had no manners.

Ron swallowed. "Whatever. I said, 'what were you talking about?'" He took another bite of his eggs while he waited for them to answer.

"Well, I was asking Hermione if she wanted to go to the Transfiguration Courtyard with me and some others early in the mornings so we can do some exercise," Harry said, taking a bite of his breakfast. After a week and a half his tummy was taking food better and the greasy eggs didn't make him as queasy.

"Really?" asked Dean, getting excited. "That'd be great. I'm getting all flabby what with all this lazing around." He grabbed his not-flabby tummy and tried to wiggle it. "My coach would've killed me if he'd known. Did ya say others were there? Can I come too?" he inquired, bouncing in his seat. He too had been wondering where to go to get some jogging in. He, like Harry, had been eyeballing the lake.

The wizard-raised boys were looking on with something akin to horror.

"What's jogging?" Neville asked, interested. If Dean said it keeps him from being flabby, then maybe he could start and lose some of this baby fat. It certainly did sound better than lying in his bed every morning while he waited for the others to get up. He didn't like going anywhere alone yet. He hadn't heard Harry leave this morning so he must have gotten up earlier than Neville had.

"Get up early," Ron said in disbelief at the same time as Neville. "Are you mental? Why would you want to get up any earlier than we already do?" he asked. He was of the firm belief that one should stay in bed until the very last minute.

Hermione turned to Neville and ignored Ron, then went about explaining to him what a normal morning workout consisted of. Arms mimicking each exercise as she went over them. Poor Neville trying vainly to understand. He got the gist, but she was going into far more detail that he could keep up with.

Harry turned to Dean. "I ran into my friend Millie, she's in seventh year," he said, looking around but not seeing her yet, "and she and a group of people from all of the houses get up and work out. You can join if you like. When she gets down here, I'm gonna ask what time." Then he turned to Ron and said, "You don't have to join if you don't want to, but I'm not going to get lazy during the school year and let my fat cousin catch me and beat me up during the summer, just because I didn't work out here." He turned back to his meal.

Ron's ears turned red. He knew a little about Harry's home life from the discussions that Harry and Hermione had about how they were going to try and make it better. 'Mental, the both of them, wanting to do schoolwork in the summer—and now wanting to get up early! I'm not going to join in that. I'm going to stay in my nice warm bed until I have to get up.' And with a firm nod of his head, he went back to eating.

"Well, I'm in. Just let me know what time, okay, Harry?" Dean said, and then he turned to Seamus and started telling him what they were talking about and trying to convince him to join in.

"Sure, Dean," Harry said to the back of his bunkmate's head with an indulgent smile, used to his inattentive ways. He was glad those two got on so well. Maybe he would put in more effort with Neville. He can't have too many friends after all. Besides, it would do Neville some good too. Merlin knows Ron wasn't really trying and Neville seemed to know more about the wizarding world than Ron. Harry really needed to know what was going on in the wizarding world. That and Neville looked like he could really use a friend.

Not that Harry was going to stop being friends with Ron, but he wanted to know more about the world he lived in now and Neville would have a different point of view. Harry hoped to make more friends from this expedition into merging his culture with the wizarding one.

Millie joined them and told Harry that she was going to talk to her workout partners and let them know to ask the other firsties. She told all the people that wanted to join the workout group that they got up at 6 a.m. and gathered in the entrance hall. She smirked at some of the groans and told them they'd get used to it. She told them to just wear their most comfortable clothes until they could write home for a jogging suit. She would write to her parents about getting a set for Harry, because she knew his relatives wouldn't get it for him, even if he asked, which he probably wouldn't.

The group of five first years joined Millie and her mates the next morning and when they got to the entrance hall the group looked like it had more than fifteen first years. All the upper-years Harry had seen yesterday and to Harry's great surprise Professor Flitwick, though that made sense since he had heard the half-goblin was a dueling champion. This was going to be fun.

"Hey, guys welcome to the morning workout," Millie greeted all the first years. "These are all my friends. You should know Professor Flitwick by now. This group meets up every morning. You're under no obligation to stay if you don't like it, this isn't an official club, yeah," she said and then introduced all the people she had been working out with for years and noted some of the firsties from other Houses shy away from the group of Slytherins. "We do however expect you to be polite to everyone," she said firmly as she also noted the sneer on some of the kids from the snake house.

"Morning Millie," came the response from the regulars, and shockingly the professor, as greetings were given all around. They started moving and soon made their way to the courtyard and Harry noted that Millie had been right it wasn't as cold in here and there was very little wind. Someone had told him yesterday that they held flying lessons here.

So, he would have known about it eventually, but he doubted he would have thought of it as a place to run. There was a worn path around the edge, where you could tell people had been jogging for years. He was just glad that there was a place that was mostly protected from the weather. He wondered what they did when it rained, but that was for another day.

They went to the center and did stretches and calisthenics for warm up, even Hermione knew that these were important. Harry outlasted the other first years. Except Dean, who was quite athletic. He did his best to keep up with the other boy, but Dean beat him today. He'd do his best to get to where he'd best the other boy someday. For now, they had a great time racing each other.

Soon enough, it was time to go and get ready for breakfast. Hermione could be seen talking to the other kids that had stopped jogging, mostly because they weren't used to it. She seemed to have procured a piece of parchment and a quill from somewhere and was writing down names. When she was done and noticed that Harry was waiting for her, she blushed and headed his way.

"I was getting names and schedules for our group," she explained when she caught up with him, tucking the list in her pocket.

"I figured as much. Come on it's a long way back to the dorm," he said still trying to get his breathing under control. He may have pushed himself a little too hard with that last lap. As they went up the stairs, which he was using for his cooldown, Hermione started going on and on about the kids she had signed up, even a few from Slytherin. She was just so happy that Harry didn't stop her.

Millie was behind them talking to one of her older friends. However, she was keeping an eye on her little firsties, making sure they got up the stairs okay. She smiled at the resident bookworm and noted Harry doing the same. She hadn't planned on it, but she was going to mentor these two until she graduated. And after too it seemed.