I do not own Harry Potter, the Wizarding World, or any canon characters.
Harry Potter waves to Hogwarts, he's pretty sure the curtains Waved back.
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Tsukumogami - A Japanese folklore where treasured tools become alive after a long time of use.
Hogwarts has existed for centuries.
Originally built as a castle to defend the inhabitants from invaders and aggressors, four magicals took possession of it and built on top of it. They created rooms for learning and living. They made kitchens to feed those hungry of body, classrooms for those hungry of mind. Each of the Four poured their magic, their will, their beliefs, all of their being into the castle that would be a school.
Time passed. Witches and Wizards came and went. Those that stayed to teach and educate and protect shared their magic with the castle too. Eventually, with enough magic and time, Hogwarts was no longer just a place, it was something more. Hogwarts, having felt the magic of so many, learned. Hogwarts could feel. It could think, and it could speak, but in ways beyond words.
Hogwarts felt him the moment he stepped off the boat and onto the docks. Hogwarts could not read minds, but it could feel feelings, gather impressions off the people within. The school loved the first day of the school year, loved to feel the awe and wonder of the incoming first years.
This time, however, the school felt something different. It felt pure joy radiate off the boy, it felt a sincere appreciation and wonder. It felt such intense relief from the boy, a sensation the school had never felt before. Hogwarts noticed the small boy, and the school loved him as much as the boy loved the school.
That night, when Harry Potter whispered a small prayer of thanks, thanking the school for being real, for not being a dream, he imagined that the covers slid a little higher around his shoulders. He imagined the curtains drawn a little tighter around his four-post bed. The air felt warmer, not stifling, cozier. He fell asleep easily, the most comfortably he had ever had before.
He did not imagine those things.
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Harry felt his stomach rumble. He had tried to hold back from eating too much but he overdid it, a consequence of his upbringing. He looked at the giant clock in the main foyer and sighed softly, seeing that dinner time was still a few hours away.
He stopped. The lamp down a passage suddenly burst into life. It was still day so they usually were not lit. He blinked. Are the flames waving at me? He decided to follow the gesture. As he walked, the lamplight jumped from lamp to lamp and he smiled with wonder at the pure magic of it all.
The lamplight led him to a large painting of a bowl of fruit. The light focused on the pear. He reached out and touched it and the pear giggled, making him laugh too. He jumped aside when the painting moved and he gasped, seeing the gigantic kitchen filled with House Elves.
"Hello!" a small House Elf squeaked. "Is you wanting something to eat?"
"Yes please," Harry said gratefully. Later, he sat beneath a lamp in the kitchen, happily eating a sandwich that the House Elves made for him. "Thank you," he said to the lamp, feeling a little sheepish. He no longer felt that way when the lamplight danced back and forth, dimming and flaring like a wink.
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"Mister Potter, how on earth did you find the Chamber?" Albus Dumbledore, venerable Headmaster of Hogwarts gasped. "Even I had no knowledge of this place!"
Harry leaned against the wall and felt the stones warm at his touch. "Someone showed me."
"Who?"
"Hogwarts."
Dumbledore blinked. "I see."
He did not. Not like Harry did.
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"Malfoy has the worst luck with the moving staircases," Ronald Weasley laughed with unhidden glee. He, Harry, and Hermione Granger watched as the staircases kept moving back and forth, trapping the unpleasant Draco Malfoy in the middle.
"It does seem to target him somehow," Hermione smiled. "I wonder how."
Harry grinned and gently high-fived a suit of armor as he passed. If one listened closely, the grinding stone of the moving staircases sounded suspiciously like giggling.
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Harry sat in the alcove, shaken yet relieved. He had almost been forced into the Triwizard tournament. An imposter had tried to enter his name into the Goblet of Fire but somehow, he was prevented from doing so. He had tried to approach the Goblet but claimed the stone floor kept shifting, keeping him away before throwing him bodily into the wall, knocking him unconscious to be found by passing ghosts who alerted the Headmaster.
"Thank you," Harry whispered, resting his forehead against the cold stones. No one else had any idea what happened but Harry did.
The stones softened slightly and warmed against him.
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The doors flew open before he could touch them. The lamps within burst into light without a spell. The curtains drew back and let in the sunlight, the windows cracked to let in the breeze.
Harry smiled broadly as he walked into his new office. "It's so good to be back," he said gustily. His smile grew when the curtains danced without the aid of the wind. He stumbled a little as he began to sit and the chair skidded slightly out from under him but the stones pushed him up so he did not fall, and the chair came flying back for him to land in neatly.
"Okay, I guess I deserve that for being away for a while," Harry laughed brightly. "But I had to get my teaching certifications and finalize my mastery." He patted the pillar. "I'm back to stay though."
The air within the office warmed and Harry sighed happily, utterly comfortable.