The following day was the first flying lesson. And it was with the Gryffindors, again.

Unsurprisingly, Draco and Ron Weasley started arguing as soon as they laid eyes on each other. Even once Madam Hooch called the class to order they continued whispering jibes at each other whenever her back was turned, causing their friends to snicker when one of them scored a point.

Harry rolled his eyes. Why couldn't they have class with the Hufflepuffs? Why was it always the Gryffindorks?

Finally, Madam Hooch had everybody squared away: in the proper stance, with their hand out correctly. "Ok class, everybody say 'up'!"

"Up!" Rang out a cacophony of voices. Harry's broom quivered for a moment and then leaped up, smacking into the palm of his hand. Just like it was supposed to.

"Oww!" Seamus collapsed to the ground, his hands over his crotch.

"Mr. Finnegan! I told you to have the broom leap into your hand, not up between your legs!" When Seamus didn't respond except to groan, Madam Hooch sighed. "I am going to take Mr. Finnegan to the nurse. I will be back in two minutes. Nobody touch their brooms during that time!" The beefy women picked up Seamus like a sack of potatoes and carried him off at a quick pace.

"Hey, Longbottom, You're not supposed to be touching your broom!" Draco called out.

"I'm not," replied Neville turning to glance down at his broom. Which wasn't there! "Hey, where is"

WHAP

A broom whacked into his rear.

"Hey! Give that back!" Ron roared, stepping up to defend his Housemate from Draco.

"Or, what, Ronnie-kins?" Draco tried to imitate Mrs. Weasley's voice.

Ron looked like he was about to launch himself at the Slytherin but a couple of his friends held him back.

Harry surreptitiously edged away, not wanting to be caught in the altercation. Both Ron and Draco were dunderheads. He didn't understand how he had thought he could be friends with either one.

*UHD*

Harry was sitting at his usual spot in the library, reading another fantastical (yet non-fiction!) book – 'Flame Alchemy', which was about all the different sorts of techniques that the author had tried for transfiguring fire. They had all failed but the author was not daunted by his lack of success (or repeated injuries, which he had photographed and included in the book for some odd reason) - when another first year sat down opposite him.

"What are you reading, Dursley?" It was Theo Nott.

Harry shrugged, "a little of this, a little of that. What's up?"

"Some of the guys have noticed that you don't socialize with the rest of the house. I don't want to be telling you what to do, but they are starting to talk, saying that you aren't loyal to the House. I'm just telling you, because I don't want to you to get into any trouble," Nott looked uncomfortable, like he had been drafted into delivering the message.

Harry shrugged nervously, "I'm not much of a people person, I like being on my own." Especially when the alternative was trying to suck up to the likes of Draco or Zambini.

"Look, I get that. Zambini can be an ass. But thing is.." Nott paused, thinking, "Draco has a wizarding duel with Weasley tonight. If you help him out with that, we'll be square."

Harry nodded slowly, "What do I have to do?"

"You just have to get Filch's attention and get him to head for the Trophy room at midnight."

Harry nodded, "I can do that." So Draco's plan for his 'duel' was to get Ron into trouble. Which was fair. Ron could be a pompous ass, so there were times even Harry wanted him to just shut up.

And Draco was a Slytherin, not a Gryffindor, so if Ron thought that Draco would fight and square he was more of an idiot than… No, he was just as much of an idiot as he appeared.

'I'm going to have a busy evening,' Harry put his book down and pulled out his homework as Nott patted his back, "Good man", and walked off.

*UHD*

That night, Harry slipped stealthily over towards Filch's office and hid behind one of the ubiquitous suits of armor as he waited for the appointed time. He kept glancing at his watch every few minutes.

10:59

11:04

Harry had arrived early, in case he had to search for the caretaker, but he could hear him moving about his office, humming something off-key.

11:12

11:24

"Meow!" A loud yowl sounded by his foot as Filch's cat approached his hiding spot. Harry quickly pulled out the piece of chicken he had stashed in his pocket for just this purpose during dinner and tossed it towards her. He had at least another 10 minutes to wait before drawing the caretaker out of his office.

"Meow," Mrs Norris wasn't placated by the food. If a cat could sneer, she would be sneering at Harry's paltry attempt at bribery.

"What's going on out there, Mrs Norris? Did you find find a truant child?" Filch's voice echoed from his office, followed by the sound of the door opening and the approach of footsteps.

It was too early – to keep to Draco's schedule Harry would have to lead him on a wild goose chase around the castle before heading for the trophy room. And then… Harry sighed, 'This is so stupid.'

"Who's there?" Filch called out as he swept his lantern across the darkened hallway.

"It's me sir," Harry stepped out into the light, "I was.. I like cats, so I came to see if I could play with Mrs. Norris."

Filch scowled, "A likely story! That will be a detention! And don't think I won't remember, Mr. Dursley! Now get back to your dorm!" He turned to his cat, "Come along, Mrs. Norris. I bet he's here to distract us, so we'll set out on our rounds and catch his cohorts!" And even if he wasn't, how dare he play with Mrs. Norris! Mrs Norris was his and his alone!

*UHD*

The following morning, as Harry came down to breakfast Draco sat down next to him. "So what happened last night? Why didn't you get Filch to the Trophy room?" He demanded.

Harry shrugged, embarrassed, "He caught me."

Draco looked exasperated, "He's a hundred years old! How did you let the old wreck catch you?"

"His cat found me."

Draco snagged a glass of pumpkin juice and shook his head, "Dursley, you're useless!" He got up and went back to sit down next to Nott.

Harry smiled, 'Now he won't try to rope me into any more of his schemes.'

*UHD*

Later, as Harry was leaving the Hall for his first class, Ron came up to him "I hear you got a detention for trying to feed Filch's cat. That's a pretty stupid thing to do." Ron wasn't certain how Harry fit in with his rivalry with Draco. On the one hand, he was a Slytherin, but on the other, he had never obviously supported Draco, and they had gotten along pretty well on the train ride up...

"You should be happy – it was supposed to be you."

"Wait, what do you mean?" Ron frowned, trying to puzzle that statement out.

"The 'Wizarding duel' last night? It was a set up. Draco had no intention of showing up. He was going to set Filch on you. If I hadn't distracted him, he would have caught you & given you the detention." Harry decided to gloss over his roll in all this.

"Wait! You mean..."

"Shh! Don't say anything, or I'll get into trouble with Draco."

Ron nodded, as he slowly put the pieces together. "Ok. And thanks. So does that mean.." He began. Maybe he had an ally in Slytherin! He began to smile.

"It means that you owe me."

"Oh. Right. Ok." Ron's grand, half-conceived plans came tumbling down.

*UHD*

That afternoon, after lunch, was potions again. It wasn't Harry's favorite class, but watching Snape verbally abuse the Gryffindors was entertaining (though terribly, terribly wrong. He made sure not to smile). And it wasn't hard, as long as Draco or Ron didn't knock something over during their feud. Last class Weasley's cauldron had spewed vile-smelling purple goop all over Draco as the Slytherin had been passing by. Ron swore that it was because Draco dropped something into it, but Snape docked him ten points on the assumption that he had messed something up (both were reasonable assumptions, though of course Snape always took the Slytherins side).

"Uh. I hate this class," Hermione muttered under her breath, making Harry look up. They didn't usually talk as they worked. "It's all this fighting all the time. I hate it!" She explained, seeing his curious look.

"Yeah, I guess it would be better if our two houses got along." Though it would be much more boring.

"Oh, speaking of, I hear I have you to thank for Ron not getting a detention."

"Just doing my part for inter-house unity," Harry made a saluting motion with his paring knife as he lied through his teeth.

"Hey, careful. You almost sprayed me."

"Sorry."

"So… You spend a lot of time in the library? I saw you there when I was researching a paper for Transfiguration."

Harry was puzzled what brought out this chatty side of Hermione. Her usual two modes were either silent or full-on lecture.

"Yeah. Everything here is so different that it doesn't matter what book I pick up – it's all interesting."

"Oh, me to! I love reading about the history of charms, we can compare books sometime."

"Hermione – the fire is getting too high!"

"Sorry," she quickly changed her attention to their work. The rest of the class passed in more normal silence. But as class ended, she asked, "Are you going to the library now?"

"No, Defense, with professor Stutter."

"Harry, don't tease Professor Quirrel. It's not his fault that he has a speech disability."

Harry gave her a sidelong look, "How about this – I'll stop teasing him if he starts teaching us."

Hermione opened her mouth and then closed it without saying anything. "Honestly!" She picked up her book bag.

"I'll be at the library an hour before dinner," Harry called after her, by way of apology.

*UHD*

Meeting up in the library before dinner became a regular event for them. Usually they did homework, or sometimes read for fun. They rarely talked, though when they did it was Hermione who initiated it.

"You know, I still don't have any friends in Gryffindor." She sighed, putting her book down as she over-shared. She had tried to make friends – she had several times approached Parvati and explained mistakes that she was making in Charms, and she had helped Lavender with grammatical errors in her paper (that girl couldn't even spell!). But it was just like Primary school all over again. And to make it worse, that Ron Weasley had started teasing her for no reason. If she didn't have Harry to talk to, she would have ended up like Moaning Myrtle, crying in the bathroom. Not that she would ever admit it. "I sometimes think that I should have asked the hat to put me into Ravenclaw. You can do that, you know – if you really want to go to a particular house, it will let you."

"Why, you think they would have accepted you there?" Harry sneered.

"Why would they not? Ravenclaw is the house of the inquisitive. I think I would have fit in better there."

Harry opened his mouth before pausing. He had originally intended his comment as an insult, but he found he couldn't bring himself to be that cruel. "They're all nerds there. I don't know if you remember from muggle school, but nerds don't have the best social graces. I have Transfiguration with them, and they don't really talk to each other. Not even the girls"

"Maybe they're just studious."

"And you can be 'studious' in that same way in Gryffindor just as easily, and not miss out on anything."

"You know, you're pretty smart for a Slytherin."

Harry shrugged, "The hat did offer to put me into Ravenclaw. But I hadn't yet realized how much of an ass hat Draco was, so I asked for Slytherin."

"Aren't you sorry now," chortled Hermione, forgetting to chide Harry for his language.

"Actually, no. I like it here."

"Because you can be studious in Slytherin just as easily as Ravenclaw?"

"Ten points to the smartest Gryffindor!"

*UHD*

"Oh, excuse me, Professor Sprout!" Harry apologized as he almost walked into the Herbology professor as he entered the greenhouse for class.

Pomona watched as Harry Dursley made his way to workstation towards the back of the class area. As usual, he had came in alone, and sat away from his peers. 'Poor boy'. She knew half-bloods didn't do well socially in Slytherin, and Snape was almost as emotionally stunted as Flitwick (who, despite being friendly and cheerful, was still goblin enough to only care about academic performance) so he never checked on his charges' well being.

She sighed. She knew what it was like to go through school without any friends, but as a professor there wasn't much she could do. But she still felt obligated to help – she had been the one to introduce him to the wizarding world, after all.'I'll talk to Albus. Maybe he can arrange something for over the summer'. But now she had to concentrate – she always hated covering wand related material. "Ok, children, pick up your wands. Today we will be covering the severing charm."

*UHD*

Fall slipped into winter, and before Harry knew it, it was winter break. When Harry learned that he could stay at Hogwarts instead of going home for the holiday, he seized the opportunity to avoid his family. Waking up on Christmas morning, Harry was surprised to find three presents at the foot of his bed – the Dursleys almost never gave him a present, and when they did it was some cast-offs from Dudley.

He opened the first to find it was chocolate from Hermione. There was a note saying that she had asked one of the older students to pick it up for her from Hogsmeade. Harry smiled – he had guessed that she might get him something. 'Good thing I got her that self-inking quill'. It wouldn't do to be indebted to her.

The next had no card. Inside the box was a cloak, which Harry quickly realized would render him invisible. He was incredibly grateful that none of the other first year Slytherin boys had stayed in school over break, because this was not something he wanted them (or anybody else) to know that he possessed.

And the last was a self-inking quill, like he got Hermione, except with a fancier box. The note had a tiny scribble in one corner, saying 'from your friend', but the rest of the parchment was suspiciously blank. Harry tried several of the secret revealing charms that he had read about, but the rest of the page remained blank. He put it away with a shrug, in case there was some secret message that he hadn't figures out how to decode yet.

Meals were quiet affairs during the break as there were few students left at the school, and Dumbledore encouraged them to all sit at the same table. "Think of it as an opportunity to get to know people you wouldn't normally meet, away from the pressures of the school." His eyes twinkled. He seemed to be looking specifically at Harry as he spoke.

Harry wasn't terribly interested in 'meeting' older students from other Houses. Fortunately, they shared the same disinclination to socialize with a Slytherin Firsty.

Instead, Harry spent the rest of the vacation week exploring Hogwarts, wandering down the rarely traveled corridors. He even snuck into the 3rd floor corridor that Dumbledore had warned them to stay away from, but here was nothing interesting there.

But it was in a basement-level room, not far from the Slytherin dorms, that he found a curious mirror. When he looked into it he did not see his own reflection. Or, not only his own. He saw himself surrounded by a group of friends, they were all talking cheerfully, and they all seemed to be happy to be with Harry (Not that Hermione wasn't a friend, but she was a study-partner – she liked him because of what he could do, not because of who he was). The mirror was very gratifying to watch, like the 'happily ever after' from the last pages of a novel. Harry spent all afternoon watching it, and barely managed to drag himself to dinner.

The following morning, as soon as he woke up he felt an itch to watch the mirror some more. 'No' Harry locked himself in his room and revised his charms work, going over all of the spells that he had learned in the first half of the year. Anything that felt as good as that mirror was suspicious – life wasn't like that. Life was about keeping your head down and working hard to avoid trouble. Not being miserable was the best a normal person could hope for.

He spent the rest of the week the same way, reviewing spells when he wasn't at meals or asleep. By the time the rest of the students came back, he had forgotten about the Mirror.

*UHD*

At the end of the first week of the second term, Terry approached Harry after Transfiguration class. "You're Flintifors is pretty good." Harry's desk was littered with matchboxes – in addition to the rock provided by McGonagall as raw material, he had tried the Flintifors spell on a spare quill, the inkwell and even a lock hair. All of them had been transfigured into little wooden boxes.

Harry shrugged, "I read ahead in the textbook."

"Yeah, I noticed you spend a lot of time working in the library. Do you mind if I join you? We can share ideas for the transfiguration paper." McGonagall had assigned them two feet of parchment, due by the end of next week.

"Sure, as long as you're quiet."

"It's a library!" Terry looked at him in horror, as if he had grown a second head.

*UHD*

That evening after diner Harry and Hermione were at their usual table, halfway into the stacks, when Terry came up. "Hey, mind if we join you?" Padma Patil was also with him, holding her textbooks clutched to her chest with one hand like a shield and her book-bag in the other.

Hermione shot Harry a questioning look.

"Oh, yeah. I forgot to ask you - Terry wanted to study with us."

Hermione smiled, "Sure, pull up a chair," As the two sat down, she asked Padma, "so you're Parvati's twin sister."

Padma rolled her eyes. "Don't say that. Twins implies that we are the same, and we're nothing alike. I inherited all the good genes, and she inherited the good jeans." She made a motion as if pulling on a pair of pants.

Terry giggled at the joke, though Hermione only managed a bemuse smile as she glanced at Harry, who shrugged as if to say 'What can you do? They're Ravenclaws.'

"Not all twins are identical. Many are fraternal."

"They're not fraternal – they're fratricidal." Terry interrupted. When Padma shot him an offended look, he added, "You complain about her. All. The. Time!"

"Parvati is kind of an airhead, but she's nice." Hermione tried to play peacemaker.

"You wouldn't understand unless you had to grow up with her," Padma made a dismissive gesture. "Have you finished the History of Magic homework yet? It's dreadfully dull." She changed the topic to something more interesting.

*UHD*

A few weeks later, the foursome – the 'library gang' as Harry came to call them - were working quietly as usual when suddenly Padma put her book down and leaned over towards Harry. "You need to do something about Malfoy!" She growled angrily, "did you see what he did in Transfiguration today?" Ravenclaws had double Transfigurations with Slytherins.

"Even the Gryffindors were talking about it," Hermione nodded, even though she (like the rest of Gryffindor) hadn't even been there.

As a matter of fact, everybody in the class had seen Draco release the birds that he had transfigured with the Avifors spell and then chase them all over the classroom, causing them to panic so that it took McGonagall 10 minutes to Finate Incatatem them. The Draco's cronies (ie most of the Slytherins) thought it was hilarious, but McGonagall was furious.

Unfortunately it had happened while her back was turned, and Draco claimed that he hadn't been the one to cast the spell, and that he had just been chasing after them to catch them.

"What makes you think I have any control over that ponce? His daddy owns half the school."

"Sometimes, I hate Slytherins. Present company excluded," Parvati vented.

"This is blatant corruption. Maybe after we graduate, we can get the Ministry to pass some reforms," Hermione mused.

Parvati just snorted. She wasn't going to spend her life tilting at windmills. "Yeah, good luck with that, Don Quixote."

Hermione drooped, looking hurt. She glanced to Terry for support, but he just kept working on his homework. When she looked up at Harry, he replied with a shrug, "If you think that's bad, you should see him when there are only Slytherins around – he holds court in the common room like he's some sort of king. Nobody actually likes him (except maybe Crabbe and Goyle) but nobody says anything. They are all are worried if they say anything against him now then they won't be able to get a job once they graduate."

"That's true for the seventh years, but what about the younger students?"

"Slytherins aren't like Gryffindors – we're always planning ahead. Even the first years talk about what they will do after Hogwarts."

"Huh. You make the snakes sound surprisingly studious." Padma interrupted.

Harry shrugged again. "When it comes to certain things, we are. Other times.. meh." Though in Harry's case, it was intentional – he had learned from an early age not to stand out, so he put in extra effort so that his grades would always come in the middle of the class. The Dursleys' greatest desire was to be average, after all. While he didn't share that goal, he had learned how to navigate it. "Not that Gryffindorks are any different – the Weasley twins have to be geniuses at potions to make their skiving snack boxes and stuff, but I bet their grades don't show that."

*UHD*

The rest of the year passed in a like manner. Harry learned a lot in Charms and Transfiguration, some in Potions and History of Magic, and almost nothing in Defense Against the Dark arts (except what he read on his own from the text book).

The only excitement happened towards the end of April, when he had just returned from the library. He was putting his book-bag down in the corner of the Slytherin common common room reserved for first years (it was towards the back, and didn't have any of the nice couches) when Malfoy charged in, "Guess what I found out: Hagrid – the half-troll groundskeeper – is keeping a dragon in his cottage! Wait until that little monster sets it on fire – I bet he's going to get sacked then!"

Harry did a U turn and immediately left the common room, using the commotion as everybody converged on Draco for a distraction. It was almost curfew, so as soon as he stepped out into the hallway he swept the Cloak over himself and jogged for Hagrid's hut. He didn't particularly like Hagrid, but Hermione had a soft spot for the giant thick-headed man. If he warned him, Hagrid would owe him, Hermione would (maybe) owe him, and Draco would be stymied. It was a win-win-win.

He was just turning into the corridor leading to the side gate when he literally slammed into Hermione coming the other way, sending them both staggering backwards and the cloak sliding to the ground.

"Harry? Where did you come from?" She looked around in surprise. This corridor was poorly lit, so the fact that half of Harry's body appeared to be missing was not immediately noticeable. Harry quickly stepped away from the cloak. "Hagrid is in big trouble!" He whispered urgently as he quickly rolled up the Cloak and shoved it into his pocket.

"Is that.." Hermione's gaze trailed to the garment that Harry was too-casually shoving into a bulging pants pocket.

"Malfoy knows about his dragon – he's going around telling everybody!"

"That little… Malfoy must have followed me! We need to convince Hagrid to get rid of the egg!"

"You think?" Harry turned and jogged for the door.

Hermione sighed, "Don't give me that, Dursley – I tried! But he's stubborn, and refuses to acknowledge that dragons are dangerous."

"He might not be scared of dragons, but I bet he's scared of irate parent. Especially rich, entitled ones."

They arrived at the cottage to find Hagrid excited and anxious at the same time. "The egg, she's hatching!"

"How do you know that it's a girl dragon?" Hermione couldn't help asking. Despite the gravity of the situation, her natural curiosity muscled its way to the front of her thoughts.

"Because of the swirls on the egg. See, right there, and going over to… Ooh!," Hagrid made a sappy face as he watched the egg crack some more.

"Hagrid, I know you love animals, and I understand that you think you can keep the dragon from causing any trouble, but if the students tell their parents about it, the parents are going to get very worried. They might even pull their kids out of school."

"They wouldn't do that!" Hagrid replied without taking his eyes off of the egg.

"They don't know you like we do," Harry continued, "They will just see that there is a dragon on the school grounds. They won't understand that you can take care of it." Harry maneuvered the conversation around Hagrid's pride in his ability to take care of animals.

"But…" Hagrid pondered. He wanted to say that Dumbledore would explain it all to them, but he knew how cruel and judgmental some people could be. He went to school with some of the current children's parents, after all. "We'll just have to keep them from learning about Norbert."

"Norbert?" Hermione asked, nonplussed.

"Yes, that's her name."

"Hagrid, the students already know," Harry plowed on, "Malfoy saw the egg & is telling everybody. By morning the school board will know about it."

Hagrid put his head into his huge hands, "So what now?"

"Now we go ask Dumbledore to find someplace where the dragon can go & stay safely."

Hagrid considered before nodding. "Dumbledore is a great man. He will know. And once the egg hatches, in about an hour, it will be safe to move her." He sighed in resignation, "Ok, go tell the Headmaster."

As Hermione and Harry ran towards the castle, Hermione asked, "what time is it?"

Harry glanced at his watch, "You're right – it's after curfew. We'll have to sneak up to Dumbledore's office."

Hermione was scandalized at the idea of breaking the rules, 'Maybe Hagrid is a bad influence on me', but it was in the name of helping a friend so what could you do? She looked over as Harry pulled something out of his pocket. "Is that an invisibility cloak? I knew I say you wearing one!"

"Yes, it's an invisibility cloak. No, you didn't see me wearing it," Harry swept it over the both of them, "this will let us sneak past the prefects and Filch. And please don't tell anybody that I have it?"

"Only if you promise not to break any rules or otherwise do anything bad with it."

"Hermione, I'm a Slytherin." Harry sighed in exasperation. Why would she think she could trust his promise?

After a moment, Hermione added, "You're right. But you only break minor rules, to help your friends, so guess it's ok."

'We aren't having the same conversation.' Harry opened his mouth and then closed it without saying anything. 'But maybe that's for the best. Now I can honestly say that I warned her.'

They had to walk close together so that the cloak would cover both of them, and it was a little awkward, but they finally made it to the gargoyle guarding the stairs to the Headmaster's office. Hermione stepped out from underneath the cloak and knocked, "Professor Dumbledore? Headmaster? Hagrid is in trouble." After several repetitions, the gargoyle swung aside, letting them spill into Dumbledore's office where they took turns recounting Hagrid's troubles, sometimes talking over each other in their excitement.

"Dear, dear. This is definitely a situation that I need to deal with before it blows up into something unfortunate," Dumbledore smiled at the two children. He was mildly surprised to see Harry there with Hermione, but pleased. 'Pomona was worried over nothing.' His plans for Harry had all turned out for the best – he was talented that way. "I will see to it that the dragon has a place to go where it will be safe and well cared for. Hmm, yes. I know just the person to call."

*UHD*

The following morning, Harry was exhausted as he stumbled down to breakfast. Thankfully, Hagrid's problem was resolved, but he had gone to bed very late. He had waited up with Hermione until Ron Weasley's older brother flu-ed over to help take away the dragon. And then it had taken another half hour to set up the port-key to take Charlie and the dragon to wherever the dragon preserve was (he was so tired by that point that hadn't really been paying attention). And then Hermione had insisted that they have tea with Hagrid while he cried himself out (and had that ever been awkward!)

"Just wait until my dad gets here!" Draco chortled.

"Oh, what's going on?" Harry asked groggily as he poured himself some black tea.

"That half-breed, Hagrid, is going to get fired today for keeping a dangerous animal!"

Harry nodded and and slid two pieces of toast onto his plate before slumping down to chew his way through breakfast. "Let me know how that goes."

*UHD*

After all the excitement was over (And Draco had been humiliated), the semester drew to a close and Harry had to suffer through the end of year exams. Without Dudley around, he didn't know if he needed to keep his grades 'average', but he discovered that he didn't have as much of a choice as he had thought – the tests were harder than he expected, and he muddled through only with difficulty. 'Next year, more studying, and less fun reading.'

As Harry was riding back to London on the Hogwarts express, he sat in a compartment with the rest of the library gang, with his feet up on the opposite bench and a book in front of his face, to all appearances at ease. Or at least pretending to be. Instead he was thinking about Hogwarts. Despite Draco, the lack of fantasy books and some truly awful teachers (Quirrel didn't even stay to administer the final – he disappeared two days before, and Professor Dumbledore had had to do that), he had still enjoyed his year, and he wasn't looking forwards to spending the summer with the Dursleys. But it wasn't just that. He liked magic. As in really, really liked it. The more he learned, the more cool things he discovered. And the other kids were actually nice without a Dudley to incite them against him. He looked up at his companions in the compartment. All of them were reading and ignoring each other, but in a comfortable sort of way.

Terry whispered something to Padma and then turned to Harry and Hermione, "Hey guys, the train's almost to London, so we're going to go say goodbye to some of our housemates. We'll see you next year."

After they left, Hermione glanced up at Harry and bit her lip, like she was thinking hard on something. "Um, Harry?"

"Yeah?" He glanced up.

"It's nothing," She quickly looked back to her book.

"So how was your first year with Harry?" Albus asked as he joined Severus in the Potions classroom.

Snape's face automatically pulled into a sneer before relaxing back into his typical 'RBF'. "It was surprisingly.. tolerable. He did not participate in any hooliganism or petty social one-upmanship. He was studious and quiet. And his potions turned out surprisingly well, though that could in part be that he partnered with Granger." Despite his fears, that boy might actually be no worse than any other child his age – tolerably unpleasant, but with a solid chance of growing into a functional adult.