A/N Most characters and plot belong to J.K Rowling
Chapter 6: Starting Anew
Harry had woken up to the chirping of the birds outside. He looked around the room, seeing his roommates still sleeping. He quietly got out of bed, grabbed his books for the day and headed out for the new common room they had to share with Slytherin. The thought always seemed to piss him off; how could he of been so dumb and been partly responsible for the new situation they found themselves in. No use whining; it won't do any good now. He thought, leaving the dormitory; in the Common room were two Slytherin girls, Tracey Davis and Pansy Parkinson. Pansy ignored Harry as he walked in, but Tracey looked his way, not with the disgust he was attuned to seeing but a face that said she wished to say hello.
Harry found a group of desks on the opposite side of the room; he opened his Astronomy book and started on the homework. It wasn't due till Tuesday next week, but Harry needed to do something. He slowly got to work as the sun rose and the common room filled; two lines seemed to have been drawn in the sand, Ravenclaw on one side and Slytherin on the other. Once the sun had finally broken from the horizon, they slowly moved for the Great Hall.
Harry joined the Hufflepuff table with Susan and Neville; they both waved, smiling as he approached; he sat beside Susan and asked not to discuss the newest punishment. Harry sat and listened as Susan talked about her classes and how Professor Snape would fail her essay; they continued to bad-mouth Snape until the bell rang for the first period. Harry looked at his timetable, which had changed overnight; today's first class was Herbology, followed by Potions, and after lunch were double charms, all with the Slytherins. Harry groaned as he got up and started for the Greenhouses.
He reached the greenhouse, finding everyone waiting outside as Professor Sprout had yet to reach her classroom. Five minutes later, she showed up to her class, spouting, "Sorry about the wait, kids." Unlocking her class with a flick of her wand, she said, "I forgot the seating arrangements in my office." Everyone internally groaned, knowing they couldn't sit where they wanted. They all entered the greenhouse and didn't even want to sit, knowing they would all be broken up. "Sitting at table one: Hermione Granger, Pansy Parkinson, Vincent Crabbe. Table two is Harry Potter, Tracey Davis, Daphne Greengrass." Harry heard nothing else as he moved towards the table labelled 'two.' he sat on the right side of the table, Tracey taking the middle seat and Daphne taking the far left seat. Tracey sat down, looked at Daphne and turned to Harry, "Hello, my name is Tracey, and this is Daphne." nodding towards the girl behind her, Harry gave a fake smile and said hello back.
Harry sat back in his chair as Sprout started to talk about the basic Fire-Making Spell, which would be the focus of the following classes. Sprout conjured a chalkboard and started the class; Harry was thankful he didn't sit with Draco. He looked over and saw Draco sitting with Terry Boot and Padma Patil; he looked furious, sitting with two Ravenclaw students. Harry started to enjoy sitting with Tracey and Daphne; Tracey had to be the most outgoing person Harry had ever met; his saying hello opened the floodgates for Tracey; after class, she walked with Harry as they walked to Potions, asking him about life outside the wizarding world as he grew up in a muggle suburb and had lots of muggle friends. Daphne didn't seem to have much to say; no wonder her nickname was 'The Ice Queen' or 'Queenie' to Tracey. Harry chuckled the first time Tracey had called her Queenie; he quickly stopped after the glare he got.
They arrived at Potions, where everyone handed in their essays; once class started, Snape seemed to have a second tone towards the Slytherin students. To the joy of everyone, Snape didn't have any assigned seats, which caused a line inside the classroom to which Snape either didn't notice or didn't care. Today, they were brewing basic poison cures; Harry decided to group with Hermione as she was probably the only person in class who knew what to do. When the class ended, Harry took the potion vial up to Snape. "Two pages on the use of poisons in other potions and the risks on my desk for Monday," Snape barked as they left the dungeon.
As Harry exited the dungeon, Tracey caught up with him and Hermione; she asked if Harry could hang back for a second, which he agreed to. Hermione stayed with him, not wanting to leave Harry alone with her. "I just wanted you to know both Queenie and I side with you; what Draco did was uncalled for and rude." Harry was shocked by this revelation that someone else called Draco out for his bullshit, and second, it was two people from Slytherin. "Thanks, Tracey, that means a lot." Harry smiled; Hermione was suspicious but didn't say anything to Harry, letting him soak in the moment.
Once they reached the Great Hall, instead of Tracey going to the Slytherin table, she followed Harry and Hermione to the Ravenclaw table; Harry noticed but had no objections. Once they sat down, Tracey got dirty looks from the Slytherin table and the people sitting at Ravenclaw. The worst face, though, was from Daphne, who looked betrayed. Harry didn't notice this look, but Hermione and Tracey noticed it. Daphne seemed to be getting a lot of questions from the others at Slytherin, probably about her friend sitting with the enemy. The lunch passed without disturbance, which was the first of the year. The bell rang to commence classes; tables started to scrape the ground as everyone got up. Daphne came over and scolded Tracey; Harry stood up and said, "Hey, is that any way to treat your friend? She only wanted to talk with us; no need to chew off her head."
The walk to Charms was depressing; Tracey and Daphne walked ahead of Harry and Hermione. Tracey had lost the bounce in her step, and you could almost see the smoke coming out of Daphne's head after being told off by Harry. They reached the Charms classroom, but they saw their classmates all standing in the middle of the room. "Cutting it a bit close, are we," Flitwick said as he looked at the four of them; they all apologized and joined everyone in the middle. "As I was saying, I have made a seating plan for this class; please listen for your name, Potter Harry and Greengrass Daphne; please take seats five and six." Daphne turned her head, staring at Harry as if it was his fault for the seating; they both moved up as more names were called. "Granger Hermione and Malfoy Draco seats ten and eleven, Crabbe Goyle and Terry Boot seats twelve and thirteen." Finally the last two were called "Patil Padma and Parkinson Pansy, seats one and two."
Everyone had taken their seats as Flitwick started the class. It was wand movements again, as Slytherin had not been in Charms yet this year. This didn't bother Harry at all cause he and Daphne had no reason to talk or look at each other. Her look could turn anyone to stone if you looked too long, Harry thought, not paying attention to class. "Harry Potter, are you with us?" Flitwick said. "Yes sorry, Professor," Flitwick huffed and asked again. "Do you know the incantation for turning your wand into a sort of Muggle flashlight?" Harry thought briefly and replied, "Lumos, I believe, Professor." Harry had hoped it was correct; making a fool of himself in class was the last thing he needed. "Correct, now can you please try it for me? Just hold out your wand and say Lumos very clearly."
Harry held out his wand and closed his eyes, repeating Lumos in his head, not wanting to fail the incantation. Opening his eyes, he noticed his wand sparkling with light coming from the tip without even saying the incantation. "Ten points to Ravenclaw for your show of excellent control Mr. Potter." Harry had not heard the praise from Flitwick as he was puzzled about how he possibly lit his wand with no incantation. Daphne was looking at Harry; knowing what had happened, she was surprised that Harry could accomplish non-verbal magic at such a young age and without training. She looked over at Harry, who looked puzzled, which confused Daphne. Did he possibly perform non-verbal magic without knowing how? She thought to herself, looking at Harry's continually puzzled face. The rest of the class was everyone trying to light their wands. Harry also learned nox and lit his wand three times, earning him another five points for his house.
The bell finally rang for dinner; everyone got up and left the class, leaving Daphne and Tracey with Harry, who was still lighting and dimming his wand, to the complete irritation of Daphne. "Can you please stop?" Daphne asked Harry, who quickly put out his wand and apologized, "Sorry, I'm just trying to figure out how I lit my wand earlier without saying the incantation." Harry confirmed Daphne's thoughts and decided to inform him. "You performed non-verbal magic; it's where you just think of the incantation, and the wand does the magic; it's normally challenging and takes months of practice."
"How do you know so much?" Harry asked in surprise. Tracey had heard the question and responded quickly, "She has grown up in a house of very talented wizards; it's very normal for most wizarding families." Now that Harry thinks about it, Remus performs magic without saying anything. Harry had just never noticed till now. Harry had gotten up and left, leaving Tracey and Daphne in the classroom; as he walked down the Halls, he continued to think about non-verbal magic and how he performed it without ever knowing.
"Ah, Mr. Potter is heading for dinner." Harry turned to the speaker and recognized Professor Dumbledore. "Yes, I am professor, just left charms," Harry told him. "I heard about your very powerful Lumos, and on your third day of classes, very impressive." Albus smiled as he talked to Harry, though Harry did feel as if he was getting an x-ray from the Head Master. He thanked the Head Master for the compliment as they walked down the steps to the Great Hall, "Professor, have you ever heard of a first-year student performing non-verbal magic before?" Harry asked as they reached the Great Hall. Albus smiled at Harry and replied, "Only one, Myself."
He laughed and continued towards the seat behind the staff table; though Albus was not laughing inside, could he perform non-verbal magic? I might have forgotten something when I removed the curse on his body as a boy. The headmaster continued to study Harry as he ate. Hoping for the boy's sake, he didn't mess up.
After dinner, Harry and the other Ravenclaws returned to the common room and started doing their homework from the day. Harry began the essay from Snape, knowing it would take the longest, but he also had reading for Transfiguration and the star chart for Astronomy. Harry was already starting to feel flooded by the homework he already had. Not knowing the following years only got worse. It was midnight before Harry finally decided to go to bed; only Hermione had still been out; he suspected she was sleeping, hearing the snoring from her desk. He lightly shook her awake, telling her she fell asleep on her Star chart. He smiled and said goodnight.
Harry again had the strangest dream; he was in Hogwarts but not today's Hogwarts; he walked the floors telling students to return to their common rooms as it was almost time for lights out. He looked into a mirror, saw he was wearing Slytherin robes, and looked about sixteen. He continued to walk in this foreign body, past the Potions classroom; he moved up the stairs towards the Great Hall and saw the younger Albus Dumbledore on the top step. "What are you doing out so late, Tom? You better head back to your common room. Don't want to be caught out after dark." The young Albus told the person Harry seemed to be inside. "Of course, Professor was just looking for the First-year student rumoured to be sneaking around after dark," Tom replied. "He has already been caught and punished; now, please return to your common room," Albus said sternly. "Yes, Professor." Tom bowed and walked back down the stairs towards the Slytherin common room.
A loud bang woke Harry and his roommates; they quickly ran out, looking for the source. Harry had walked into the Common room, which now had a makeover. All over the walls was a black residue from someone's failed spell; the Slytherin students seemed to be forming a circle around Tracey Davis, who was covered head to toe with the same black residue. Harry returned to the dormitory, not wanting to be involved with whatever was happening.
Harry returned a couple of minutes later to find Professor Flitwick and Professor Snape standing in front of the portrait hole. "Ah, Potter," said Flitwick, can you please fetch the other boys and ask them to come out? We want to have a chat with everyone. Harry went back and fetched Terry, Michael and Anthony. Hermione came with the girls moments later. They all sat in the newly cleaned chairs, waiting for the Professors to start talking.
The look on Snape's face told Harry whatever was about to happen wouldn't be good. "Now that we are all here," Flitwick started, "Who set up the boobytrap for Tracey Davis?" all the Ravenclaws looked at each other, in utter shock. How could Flitwick believe they had set a trap for one of the Slytherins? Both Professors looked at the shocked first years. "We know one of you set the trap," Snape said, "Who was left the Common room after everyone else last night? Harry and Hermione seemed to catch each other's looks and stared at each other. Harry didn't say anything, not believing Hermione would do such a thing. "If no one fesses up, then everyone will be serving detentions until we find out who set the trap," Flitwick informed the stunned students. This comment had caused an uproar of "Unfair" and "But I didn't do anything." Snape raised his hand, silencing them. "Ms. Davis is in the medical wing with burning and may have scars from this trick, and this is grounds for suspension or even expulsion."
Hidden from sight, Daphne was listening in on the professors; she cried at the notice of Tracey being in such dire straights; she got up and started to walk up the stairs; both Flitwick and Snape turned their heads, surprised Daphne was still in the Common Room, "Ms. Greengrass why are you not at breakfast?" Asked Snape. Daphne looked away, gathering courage, then spoke, "I know who set the trap." Snape and Flitwick looked at her, shocked; Harry looked at her and felt relief that she was standing up.
Snape was angry as he went down to the Slytherin table looking for, "Mr. GOYLE, WHERE IS GREGORY GOYLE!? Snape shouted to the room at large. He found him trying to hide under the table; Snape grabbed his robe and dragged him out of the Great Hall, which was full of people whispering and murmuring about Snape's outburst. Snape didn't let go of Goyle until they were in the Headmaster's office; Daphne was finishing her story of how Draco, Crabbe and Goyle had planned to plant the trap for Harry Potter, but Tracey had run into it before Harry and got hit instead. Also stating, Goyle is the one who sets the trap without the knowledge of Draco or Crabbe.
The anger on Dumbledore's face was almost as pronounced as Snape's. He looked over to Goyle, who was trying his best to hide in his robes, knowing he was going to be in a lot of trouble, "I understand tripping jinxes and light hexing, but when someone tries to maim or kill another student, is where I need to draw a line." Albus started heated, "Goyle, I expel you and banish you from the grounds of Hogwarts; your parents have been notified, and your stuff has been collected; Professor Snape will show you out." He said with a tone that made Goyle know he couldn't petition for a lighter sentence. "Hope Tracey Davis doesn't press charges against you; I have also sent a letter to the Ministry of Magic informing them of your expulsion. Dumbledore waved his hand, signalling Professor Snape to remove Goyle.
The news of Gregory Goyles' expulsion was the talk of the school for weeks; Harry had heard from the Ravenclaw prefect that someone hadn't been expelled for almost fifty years. Once Gregory had gotten home, the Ministry had visited and snapped his wand. Tracey didn't press charges, believing the punishment was already sufficient and just wanted to get on with life. Tracey left the hospital four days after the incident, scar-free thanks to Madame Pomfrey; she also hadn't been to the Slytherin table since believing they were all scum for even planning this kind of trap. The Slytherins had also shunned Daphne for blowing the whistle on Goyle; not everyone ignored her, but Draco's influence was enough to make it seem like everyone agreed with him.
All the Professors decided to put Magic limiting wards on all of the Common rooms so this couldn't happen again; everyone was glad for this change except the Slytherins, who wanted revenge.
Classes were starting to improve as they moved into using spells and not just learning theory and copying off the board, except for History of Magic, which got more boring. Hermione was the only student who stayed awake all class, writing notes on everything; Hermione had also started to warm up to Tracey as she sat with Harry and Hermione during any classes that didn't have a set seating arrangement.
Harry had woken up to crows cawing. It was Halloween, the anniversary of his parent's deaths; he didn't tell anyone as he didn't want to talk about it, but he felt depressed all day; he wasn't able to pay attention in class, not even the feast could cheer him up. He did notice Tracey looking around, worried about Daphne; he just shrugged it off, saying, "Daphne probably isn't hungry, and she's sitting in the library studying." Tracey smiled but didn't seem any less worried and spent dinner looking around and didn't eat a bite. Near the middle of the feast, Quirrel came running into the hall screaming, "TROLL IN THE DUNGEON, THERE'S A TROLL IN THE DUNGEON! THOUGHT YOU WOULD WANT TO KNOW." He fainted in the middle of the hall; students started screaming and running out of the hall. Fireworks exploded, grabbing the attention of the fleeing students, "SILENCE!" Dumbledore announced from the staff table, "Now, prefects, lead your house back to the common rooms, Mr. Flitwick; please lead the first-year Slytherins and Ravenclaws back to their shared room. The rest of the teachers follow me to the dungeons."
The halls were quiet as everyone watched for movement; Harry followed behind when Tracey grabbed him, "Daphne, she doesn't know about the troll." Harry looked scared, following where the train of thought went; Harry nodded and followed Tracey as they returned to where Tracey had last seen Daphne in the girl's bathroom. Harry followed behind Tracey, ensuring they weren't seen as they walked the Halls towards the toilet. They reached the doors; after a couple of minutes of walking, Harry noticed the door had been boarded using brooms, stopping anyone from opening the doors. He and Tracey both started to remove the brooms. They were trying not to make noise and alert anyone of their presence. They finally pulled the last broom and opened the door when they heard heavy footsteps and grunting coming down from the hall.
Harry and Tracey ran into the bathroom and shut the door; they were greeted by Daphne, who said she had been stuck there for the past couple of hours. She was about to leave when the door swung open. Framed by the door was an eleven-foot-tall Troll. Daphne slowly backed away from the door; the Troll noticed her, screamed, and swung its giant club. She narrowly dodged the swing and ran to Harry and Tracey, who were on the room's opposite side. They all backed up into the wall, watching the Troll walk closer. Swinging the club as it walked.
Harry stood there watching his life flash before his eyes before he had an idea. "Listen to me; I am going to light my wand as bright as possible to blind the troll, and while it's blind, you need to run past it and get help," Harry said, looking at both girls. They both looked at him in disbelief but nodded. "LUMOS!" Harry screamed as his wand blinded the troll. Daphne and Tracey shielded their eyes as they passed the troll; both the girls ran out of the bathroom, yelling for help as they did. Now Harry stood there on his own with nowhere to go. The troll recovered from the shock and kept moving at Harry, who pointed his wand at the Troll again, but he could see if it finally worked this time. The troll kept moving toward Harry; before reaching Harry, the troll noticed it had lost its club. Looking back, the club was floating in the air behind the troll; it began swiping at the air, trying to reclaim its club; Harry kept moving his wand, keeping the club out of reach. Finally, Albus Dumbledore ran into the bathroom, hearing the roaring and stomping from the floor below. "Incarcerous," Albus yelled, trapping the Troll in ropes and toppling the giant. Harry lost his concentration, and the club dropped out of the air, falling onto the Troll and knocking it out. "Mr. Potter, exactly what were you thinking? You could have died!" Dumbledore exclaimed to the young boy.
Daphne and Tracey returned, followed by Snape and Quirell, who they found on the third floor. They both looked at the monster and back to Harry, who was trying to explain what happened to Albus, "Daphne hadn't been to Dinner and Tracey and I were both worried and came looking for her. We found this bathroom barricaded with brooms, stopping her from leaving. Once we finally got the door open, the Troll went around the corner, and we had to try to hide. Sadly, the Troll came in." Harry said, catching the looks from Daphne. Albus turned around and looked at the girls, who confirmed his story, adding, "Harry also saved our lives; he blinded the Troll, letting us escape and try to find help; without Harry, we might have been killed." Albus looked at the girls, "Twenty-five points will be taken from your houses each for your serious lack of judgement." Then he looked at Harry. "You will be awarded ten points for quick thinking under duress. All three of you will be serving detention for disobeying my orders." Albus said sternly. "Now, return to your common room; everyone is finishing their dinners there."
In Harry's case, the three of them left the bathroom, dirty and scraped. There were too many close swings from that club. They had turned the corner when Tracey surprised Harry with a hug. "Thank you, Harry. I wasn't ready to die tonight." Harry was at a loss for words; never had he been hugged by a girl; he slowly returned the hug, unsure it was okay. Tracey let go and stepped back from Harry, trying to hide the tears running down her face, "Thank you, Harry, for helping Tracey find me. I would have never forgiven myself if she had gotten hurt," Daphne said to Harry, raising her hand to shake; after Harry had shaken her hand, they continued to walk silently.
They reached the portrait to find Flitwick standing guard outside; he noticed the trio approaching him and started scolding them. "How dare you split off the group; you could have died. Now get in and don't leave." He finished standing aside and letting them enter the common room. They entered the common room with stares and whispers; this didn't bother Daphne as she grabbed her plate and stacked food. Harry and Tracey missed a beat but followed suit. Finding seats beside Terry Boot, the girls sat down with Harry in the middle; "what happened to you three?" Padma Patil asked. Harry explained what happened to the table after glazing at the girls, who didn't seem like retelling the story. You couldn't have asked for a better audience; they gasped at all the right times, and silence followed the end of the story as they sat in disbelief.
The next day, the Halls were filled with whispering and rumours about Harry fighting a fully grown troll on his own. Harry's favourite was heard from a second-year Gryffindor, telling her friend she heard Harry had shot a stunning spell up the nostrils of the troll. Daphne also seemed to have melted her icy exterior; she talked to Harry like they had been friends all year.
One thing seemed off about Daphne and Tracey's stories, though; they kept telling Harry they found Snape and Quirell coming out from the third-floor corridor when they should have been in the dungeons looking for the Troll with everyone else. Harry would get to the bottom of this later as he would be late for the final class flying lesson. The last lesson wasn't mandatory but was shared by all the first years. Fifteen students ended up showing up. Madam Hootch had them play a friendly game of Quidditch; it was fun until Draco took the game too seriously and tried to knock people off their brooms, which got him thrown out and sent to Snape's office. The game ended before the snitch was caught once the bell rang. No one kept score, which was welcome since they were all pretty terrible on brooms; Harry hoped it had more to do with the brooms as he wanted to try out next year for the Ravenclaw team.
The weeks blurred by Harry; he was getting set into the routine of heading to breakfast with Hermione, Padma, Tracey and Daphne; even Neville or Susan came to join them in the mornings, which always ended in laughs and not much eating. Then, classes where Harry was getting a lot better; he had been learning to control his magic, and he was now practicing non-verbal magic everywhere he could; these places were far between, and teachers seemed to lurk by every corner.
It wasn't until November that Harry remembered he wanted to look at the third-floor corridor where Tracey and Daphne found Snape and Quirell. He pitched the idea to his friends at lunch that day; Susan and Neville were both at the table and agreed it was probably just a coincidence and not to worry about it, a sentiment Tracey agreed with. Hermione and Daphne were another story; they both agreed with Harry, and they made plans to check out the corridor during the free period later today.
After potions, they said goodbye to Tracey, who didn't want any part of the plan. The Trio moved up the stairs, blending into the crowd; they waited for everyone to be in class before opening the door leading to the third floor. It was dark and full of cobwebs; the floor was full of dirt and grime. Mr. Flitch must not clean here as it's forbidden anyway; they continued down the dark hole with their wands alight, looking for any reason why Snape and Quirell would be up here. They came upon a locked door; with a quick flick of his wand, he heard the lock click and opened the door, heading inside. He saw a giant three-headed dog, each head looking in different directions, but Harry looked at the top head, knowing it had seen him come in; he looked down and saw the creature standing on a trapdoor. Harry didn't have much time to look around after that. It started barking and trying to grab at Harry, who turned and left, screaming at the girls to do the same.
"What did you see, Harry?" Daphne gasped as they ran out of the forbidden corridor. It wasn't until they were outside the castle that Harry finally explained about the Three-Headed dog and the trapdoor it was guarding, "How do you know about Fluffy?" Hagrid came out of the castle after hearing the last part of Harry's story; they all froze, knowing they were caught. Harry quickly lied, saying they had heard noises from the corridor and went to investigate. Hagrid seemed to think and warned the kids, "Well, you best forget about the dog; what it's guarding is the business of Albus Dumbledore and Nicolas Flamel." Harry looked at his two friends, who also caught the name. They walked back into the castle, heading for the library to tell Tracey everything they had discovered.
A/N Thanks to everyone who left good wishes. Thanks, everyone, for the reviews and questions on the last story; please keep them coming. I can't wait to hear what everyone says; it makes me enjoy writing even more when I can add more ideas.
Next time: It's finally Christmas; what will our hero receive from all his new friends this year? Also, Draco tries to figure out Harry's new secret.