Coming out onto the pitch for their first lesson on flying brooms, Harry was excited, from the near nonstop chatter Oliver spoke of the game, it had to be the greatest sport in the world. Of course that came after the man was giving him fashion and grooming tips, which was a little weird in his opinion but Harry didn't put up much argument as Oliver had been wearing robes longer than him so he must know the style better.
But still, Harry was soon to be flying in the air. Or he would have if Norine Longbottom hadn't fallen from her broom after losing control of it. She sounded really hurt from the fall, and Harry hoped that she would be okay but it would seem that after the teacher left one of the girls didn't hesitate to try to show off.
Dracaena moved over to pick up something from the ground and Harry recalled it was a gift Norine's grandmother had sent her this morning, a Remembrall. "Hey Dracaena, you should really give that back to Norine," Harry suggested because even if the blonde girl had been a bit much in their first meeting he was willing to give her the benefit of the doubt that social interactions were just weird.
"Oh really," Dracaena faltered for a moment and looked ready to do what Harry was telling her to, but then she saw how everyone else was looking at her so gripped the Remembrall tighter and flew up into the air. "If you think you're so special, why don't you just get it."
"Don't Harry, you'll get in trouble," a Gryffindor girl he hadn't had a chance to be introduced to stopped him by grabbing his arm. "Madam Hooch said we were to stay on the ground."
Wanting to not get in trouble, Harry was ready to give it up but he wanted to do something nice for at least one girl because of how welcoming they had all been towards him. "I'm sorry," Harry shrugged as he mounted his broom to match Dracaena's level. He wobbled in the air before he started to get a feel for the controls.
Dracaena was looking less assured of herself now that Harry had come after her. "You think you can tell me, what to do?" she shouted at the wizard.
"Just give it here Dracaena," Harry reached out for the Remembrall.
Gritting her teeth, Dracaena hurled the glass orb towards the castle walls because Harry Potter was making her look like a fool.
Rocketing off, Harry pushed the school broom to the limits of its speed to catch up to the ball before it shattered. He knew that he if he caught the ball now, he'd crash into the wall and end up in worse shape than Norine, so he had to act quickly. Once the ball was in his fingers, he spun like a corkscrew to shed the momentum he had been building and managed to not hit the glass.
Coming down to the grass, the girls were cheering for his actions but they all got quiet quickly and Harry turned to see Professor McGonagall striding towards him. That she didn't look happy had Harry a tad concerned that he was going to be getting in trouble.
As his head of house led him through the halls, they stopped at a classroom, it was Professor Quirrel's Defense class. "Might I have Mister Wood for a moment," Minerva asked her colleague who nodded.
Oliver was surprised to see Professor McGonagall in the hall, with Harry as well. "Is there a problem ma'am, Harry's not having any troubles is he?"
"I don't believe so, but I know that I have found you a seeker," Minerva smiled as what she saw of Harry, if the raw talent he held could be refined he'd help win them the quidditch trophy this year from Hufflepuff.
"Oh really now," Oliver put his hands on his hips. "Well you've been holding out on me Harry, let's go out to the pitch right now to see what you can do."
Minerva was going to remind Oliver that he still had class to attend to but the young lad was always bit fixated on the sport, she wondered just how the other professors would take to her having not just one but two wizards on her quidditch team, compared to Hufflepuff's one Cedric Diggory. But she would simply state that the Quidditch team captains were the ones who decided who joined the team and as head of house she could only reject based on academic performance, to which Harry in his first week seemed capable. It was a bit of a rush judgment as not even a full month had gone by yet.
On the quidditch pitch, Oliver had dragged out a trunk. "Alright let's run through the basics," the older wizard excitedly said as he opened the lid to show off the contents. One large, oddly shaped red ball, two wooden bats, two violently shaking metal balls that had to be chained down and one little golden orb.
Harry was quickly put through his paces on the importance of each individual ball, it was the snitch that he was told would be his main priority. The fast flying golden ball seemed to flicker out of existence as it zipped around but Harry found that wasn't all that hard to keep track of as Oliver had him chase it around catching it before releasing it at a different location. That each time he caught it garnered a bigger and bigger smile on his new captain's face was slightly worrying. But it felt nice to be praised for his skill at a sport, much better than being picked last back at his old school.
That night the common room threw a large party for having gotten a new seeker, so Harry was surrounded by more girls who were celebrating him and he hadn't even won a game yet. Of course Oliver had to introduce him to the rest of the team. Angelin Johnson and Alicia Spinnet were two of three chasers with tryouts starting next week for a third, they were both third years and the two beaters which were the witches who had the bats to hit the bludgers around, Frieda and Georgina Weasley, they were redheads that seemed a bit mischievous as he was pretty sure they were trying to trick him into thinking they were each other, but Harry mentally noted it wasn't difficult to differentiate them because and he blushed when he realized this Frieda had wider hips but Georgina had a larger chest.
He would never utter that willingly because he didn't want to seem weird even though now that he was spending so much time around girls he was noticing them in greater detail and that they came in a variety of shapes, sizes and other aspects that he quickly shoved out of his mind.
Now his time between classes was taken up by studying to keep up on the school work because he really wanted to do well in class, between wanting to be worthy of all the praise the girls were heaping onto him, he had been doing what he could to learn more about his mother. Lily Evans had been a brilliant witch and nearly top of her class since she arrived at Hogwarts, from what little he could gather she was an amazing woman who had elevated hopes and dreams about a wonderful life after Hogwarts so for Harry he just didn't want to be a disappointment if somehow, someway she could see him.
"Hey Tonks," Harry called out as he noticed the pink haired girl in the crowd of students. It was a Sunday so there weren't any classes for him to attend and now that he had finished up his homework he wanted to see more of what the castle had to offer.
Coming to a halt, the older witch turned around. "Hello mesir, is there something I can help you with?" Tonks asked while looking at the other girls who seemed to not like her interacting with the young wizard.
"I was just hoping," Harry scuffed his foot on the floor. "Maybe you could show me more of the castle, last time was really fun. I bet you know about all the places that are out of the way we could spend time in."
Nymphadora nervously laughed and began to sweat from the way that the girls had been eyeing her suspiciously and were now outright glaring. "Oh well, there are but, aren't…"
"Please Tonks," Harry asked again. "I really want to see everything with you."
Now her face was bright red before she slowly nodded and let Harry pull her away from the crowd. Mentally she was screaming because Harry was doing this so publicly, and now all the other girls would think all kinds of things about them. She lamented that Harry was so damn polite and innocent for just wanting to explore the castle.
It didn't help that throughout their little excursion when she mentioned that some closets connected to each other which would allow for faster travel through the school Harry was insistent on checking some of them out. So when Tonks looked over her shoulder to find that she'd been followed by other girls and the talk of going into broom closets together it was enough that she was wishing for the end of year exams to come sooner.
"I had such a great time with you Tonks," Harry said with a happy smile and a bit of tiredness as they ran all over the school. Which garnered a lot of attention from the other students. "I hope we can do that again and again."
Forcing a smile Tonks just tried to think of a way out of this that didn't make her look as though she was trying to snag the first wizard to come to the castle in like three years. "But you know I'm graduating soon, we uh… it not going to give us a lot of time," Tonks hoped that would be enough to let him down.
The smile started to fall from Harry's face as he thought about that and knew she was right, they only had this year and maybe they could see each other over the summer breaks. But he wasn't just going to leave his first friend behind. Looking up to her with a newly created determination. "Don't worry Tonks, I promise, I'll wait for you," Harry declared prominently.
Tonks' lip quivered in defeat, it seemed to her that Harry was intent to maintain the relationship so she eventually relented. "Okay Harry, I promise too."
She didn't try to get out of the hug as Harry wrapped his arms around her torso, Tonks simply accepted her fate.
Sitting in charms class Harry was listening intently to what Professor Flitwick was telling the class, the levitation charm was going to be beneficial, he just knew it, being able to pick up objects without touching them had a million and one uses.
But it was a bit more difficult of a spell because of how he had to make sure he was getting everything right from the movements, the words and not doing or saying one too fast or slow. Thankfully the girl next to him, Hermione Granger, was there to help him with the pronunciation and that he had been flicking too hard. That helped him get the spell done at least once before the class had ended.
Walking back to the main building so he could wash up before going to the Halloween feast, Harry started to overhear a conversation behind him. It was Ronalda, the redheaded girl he met on the boats and she sounded quite irritated.
"Can you believe her, a witch, trying to 'help' a wizard," Ronalda laughed with some of the other girls, like Siobhan Finnigan and Denice Thomas. "Honestly Harry was probably humoring her too much, I couldn't imagine how embarrassing it would be to do that in class."
Harry was going to turn back and say that he was glad Hermione had helped him when the subject of the conversation pushed her way past him, sniffling loudly. That was probably the meanest thing he'd heard so far in the castle, turning to Ronalda, that he looked displeased must have been apparent because the redheaded girl shrank away.
"I think she heard you," he said before hurrying in the hopes to find Hermione and see if she was okay because it was what he expected any of the other nice people in the castle to do for him, but he had no luck and if she had gone up to the girls side of the dormitory then he wouldn't even try, recalling Professor McGonagall's speech from the start of the year. But misremembering that she had warned the girls about going up to his dorm and not the other way around.
Letting out a sigh, Harry just hoped that at dinner he'd see her.
When he didn't, Harry looked up and down the table. "Hey um," he cleared his throat and got the attention of the girl next to him, he believed that she was a fourth year. "I'm sorry but have you seen Hermione Granger, she's a girl in my year and another student said some things that upset her and I was just wanting to know if she was okay?"
"I'm sorry I don't know, maybe someone else does," the girl answered but wasn't happy she didn't give him what he wanted.
"Thanks anyway," Harry said as he moved down to see if any of the girls in the same year as him knew where she was.
"Oh her," a hufflepuff girl said after he asked her the same question.
"I heard she's been in the third-floor lavatory, crying over something about a wizar-," cutting herself off because this was the only wizard in their year and Susan couldn't imagine any first-year girl being brave enough to approach the older wizards, they wouldn't have made it past the covens. So she didn't want to make the same mistake this Granger girl might have.
Harry ignored the way the girl cut herself off because at least he was given an answer. "Thank you for telling me that. And I'm sorry I don't remember your name. What was it?"
"Su-Susan Bones," the little red haired girl gulped because this same wizard was clearly showing interest in her, quickly remembering what her aunt had told her. "And this is Hannah Abbott, you can come to us anytime you need anything, anything at all."
"Oh well that's very nice of you, Susan, Hannah," Harry nodded with a smile before returning to his seat, missing that Hannah was thanking her friend profusely for adding her name in there.
He decided that once the feast was over, he'd gather a plate up and find Hermione to talk to her and make sure that she ate when the door's to the Great Hall burst open and Professor Quirrel came running in screaming about a troll she saw in the dungeons before passing out on the floor.
The girls around the table fell into a panic, with Harry being bumped around by the witches trying to get out of the hall, had that not been the case he might have noticed how some girls went and moved closer to the wizards, like the girls on his house quidditch team going toward Oliver or some other girls coming to the likes of Cedric and the few other wizards in the school. But thankfully the chaos was settled when the headmaster drew everyone's attention. Harry was grateful for the man who seemed to know exactly how to handle every situation, but he figured that must be a given as he was supposedly over a hundred years old and running the school since the forties, there probably wasn't a lot he hadn't seen yet.
The prefects coming to escort them all back to the dorm rooms had Harry following until he realized that Hermione didn't know about the troll. Slipping away from the group, he considered telling Peri Weasley about it, but he was worried that she'd get in trouble since she hadn't even shown up to the feast. If he was fast enough then he'd be back before anyone noticed.
"Where's he going?" Soibhan whispered to Ronalda as they noticed Harry break off from the pack.
Ronalda let out a gasp. "He's going to fight the troll, of course."
Denice nodded her head because that made sense, he was a famous and powerful wizard, a troll wouldn't be a challenge for him.
Harry came around a corner to the only bathroom he knew of on the third floor when he stopped and ducked back because while he didn't know what a troll was, the twelve foot tall mass of gray flesh with a tree sized club had to be it. Letting out a grumble because now he should have gotten an older student to come with him, he was going to run back for help when he heard a loud scream coming from the room the troll had just entered. Bursting in, Harry could see Hermione crawling along the floor, ducking the swings by staying under the sinks but she was moving away from the door, not towards it.
"Hey, over here," Harry shouted and only managed to get Hermione's attention. Frowning Harry picked up a loose piece of wood and lobbed it at the troll's head which bounced off of it and made it pause in the swing that was going to pulp Hermione against the floor. "I'm right here," waving his arms around to be as loud and noticeable as possible.
The troll figuring that the little human had been the one to throw something at it, started lumbering over. This was the moment Harry realized he only thought this far into his plan. "Umm…" he stammered while drawing his wand when Hermione did the same, she was quicker to come to words and used a spell from their defense against the dark arts class.
"Locomotor Mortis," Hermione shouted as she aimed her wand at the troll's legs. However, while the creature was too big to lock the limbs together it did serve to make the troll stumble.
Harry caught onto this quickly and pointed his wand at the troll that was unbalanced now. "Flipendo," striking the torso of the troll, further sending it off balance.
The two kept firing the same spells until the troll fell flat on its back, the club was released with a clatter and Harry had an idea to stop the troll from chasing them, "Wingardium Leviosa," Harry said as he used the spell Hermione helped him with earlier and lifted up the club to drop it on the troll's head, knocking it out.
Now the two children, standing in a destroyed bathroom, feeling quite exhausted were startled when the door burst open to a number of professors and prefects who looked a mixture of terrified and angry. Rightly so, as up in the Gryffindor common room, the prefects were taking a headcount, and it became obvious right away that Harry Potter was not there.
That they lost the only other wizard in their dorm, while a troll was on the loose in the castle meant the prefect ran out of the room to find a professor, piecing together that Harry must have gone off to fight the monster.
When Minerva was told that they had lost the youngest wizard in the castle, she grabbed the nearest professor which had been Severia who had been heading for the third floor already, even if it had been in the opposite direction. The group sprinted to find out where Harry had gone off too.
Entering the destroyed girl's lavatory to see two young students standing next to an unconscious troll, Minerva's first instinct was to put both of them in detention for so long they'd still be there after they graduated, but it was Severia that spoke first.
"So Potter, you run off to play hero?" frowning down at the wizard who looked away from her gaze. "Just had to try and show off?"
"No ma'am, I just… Hermione was-," Harry tried to formulate an answer but he was still running on the adrenaline from the fight, and he felt intimidated by the potion's professor that he couldn't get the words right to explain himself.
Hermione not wanting the boy who came to her rescue to get in trouble quickly thought up a lie, for whatever reason wizards were well regarded in the castle, she still hadn't figured out why that was in the two months of her learning about the magical community, but she'd use that to her advantage now and hope nobody called her on it. "It's my fault professor, I had come looking for the troll and got in over my head, I was lucky that Harry was here to save me."
"Is this true?" Minerva narrowed her eyes because something didn't sit right with her about that because her prefects only mentioned that Harry was missing, not Ms. Granger as well. But before she could delve further, said prefects hurried into the room to escort the first years out and promised this would never happen again.
Once back in the common room, the word was quickly spread by the prefects that Harry had slain a troll single-handedly. This was cause for another celebration about what an amazing wizard he was and that he was a hero for protecting a witch from danger. He tried to tell them that Hermione was a great help but it was dismissed as him being modest which only furthered the amount of praise being heaped onto him.
It was nice that they were this happy for him and he felt good knowing that he had done the right thing trying to save Hermione, but it tickled at him that something was wrong about them dismissing Hermione's role in its entirety.