Harry's first Gryffindor
Walking out into the middle of the quidditch pitch for his first flying lesson Harry noticed a few of the students he thought might have been on the Slytherin quidditch team in the stands. He was surprised he hadn’t thought of that himself when he’d been the Gryffindor captain. It made sense to see who should be watched and possibly trained up as a future player by watching the first year flying lessons. He just hoped that not being in the same group as Neville, and having new brooms, his friend wouldn’t end up in the hospital wing.
Madam Hooch stalked out as the students began lining up, Gryffindor on one side and Slytherin on the other. She questioned Dumbledore on the sensibility of mixing these two houses together but got some sodding speech about it being good for the children to mix outside of the classroom. Utter rubbish but maybe the new brooms would help. ‘Well.’ She barked out. ‘What are you waiting for, step up to the broom. Hold your hand out and command the broom by saying. Up.’
Harry grinned as he noticed how pristine this broom was compared to the school broom last time with it’s bent and broken twigs. The old shooting stars had pulled to the left so he was looking forward to trying the Comet. Hand over the broom he wasn’t surprised when it jumped straight into his hand. Mounting the broom when given the instruction he kept his grin to himself when Hooch corrected Malfoy’s grip. When the whistle blew he kicked off, hovered as instructed and came back down again. Soon he was flying lazy laps around the field with his classmates. There was freedom being on a broom. The Comet didn’t have the speed or maneuverability of his Firebolt but that was a broom that didn’t exist yet. He had instructed the goblins it was one of the companies he wanted to invest in. Having inside knowledge that all the professional quidditch teams were going to be fighting tooth and nail for the boom in a few years had some perks. So did buying shares in the Holyhead Harpies. It was tempting to buy the Chudley Cannons and sort out some of their terrible hiring decisions but he’d save that for if he got bored once he’d dealt with Riddle and Dumbledore. Might make a nice gift for Ron if they stayed friends, he still had plenty of money in the Black Heir vault that needed spending.
It didn’t take Hooch long to look over the first years flying around her to see which ones had talent and who had clearly been on a broom before. Potter, she knew had been muggle raised but flew with the natural grace of someone who had been on a broom before he could walk. Remembering his father it wouldn’t surprise her if James Potter had stuck his son on a broom before his unfortunate death. It was a shame he would have to wait a year before trying out for quidditch. She blew her whistle and watched the children come in to land.
‘Alright you lot, not bad. Some of you need to work on your balance and posture. I want the brooms put away in the broom shed and next week I’ll set out an obstacle course for you to practice your agility.’ She pulled a notebook from her robes and a pencil to start catching her observations as the brooms were put away.
Harry put the broom in the shed and found himself next to Ron Weasley. ‘Hi there.’
‘Oh hay, guess you were right about ending up with the snakes then.’
‘Is that going to be a problem?’
‘Well, would have been better if you’d been a Gryffindor, I mean, your parents were Gryffindors.’
Harry shrugged. ‘My father’s parents where a Ravenclaw and a Slytherin.’
‘My whole family are Gryffindors.’
Harry smiled. ‘Your grandmother on your father’s side wasn’t.’
Ron flushed red, matching his hair.
‘Like I said on the train, my grandmother and your grandmother were cousins, and they both wore green and silver.’
Ron perked up as they began walking back to the castle. ‘That’s right, we’re like, cousins too then.’
‘Yeah, I mean, if we were both traditional pure bloods we’d already be engaged to be married if one of us was a girl. Isn’t that what happens with pure blood cousins?’
Ron looked at him sideways and saw Harry was laughing. He also watched him shrug off a shove from one of his Slytherin house mates as she stormed passed.
‘Oi, what’s that about then?’
‘I’ve been commenting on the pure blood fascination for marrying cousins. Inbreeding is weakening magical blood lines, they don’t like me pointing it out.’
Ron shrugged. ‘Whatever, I saw you on the broom though, you were a natural out there.’ He watched the grin grow on the other boys face.
‘Yeah, that was pretty awesome.’
‘Fred and George where complaining about the school brooms but the ones we had today looked brand new.’
‘Your family able to recognise something brand new are they?’ Malfoy spat as he stalked past.
Harry grabbed Ron’s arm. ‘Ignore him, he’s just angry I didn’t fall and break my neck.’
‘That’s not very nice.’
‘You’ve met Malfoy.’
‘Fair.’ Ron nodded.
They were laughing as they reached the castle. ‘You aren’t so bad for a snake, you know.’
Harry shrugged. ‘Told you that on the train.’
‘True. What are you planning to do between now and dinner?’
‘I was going to see if I could pry Hermione out of the library and find Neville and explore the castle if you want to join us.’
‘Sure, I can find Neville if you want to meet somewhere.’
‘How about, be at the main staircase in ten minutes, actually, better make it fifteen if I have to get her out of the Library.’
‘Yeah alright mate.’
It took twenty minutes and Ron just laughed at him when they finally met back at the main staircase.
‘Oh, hello Neville. Ron.’ She glared at the redhaired boy a moment after smiling at Neville.
‘Right, so we all know each other’s names then.’ Harry muttered. ‘Come on, Hermione and I found a room that I think you guys will want to explore.’ He led them to the seventh floor.
Standing before the tapestry Ron shook his head. ‘Some wizards are just daft, you know. Who would want to teach trolls to do.’ He tilted his head. ‘Whatever that is.’
‘It’s ballet.’
‘Whatever, whoa.’ He turned around and saw the door appear in the wall. ‘That’s wicked that is.’
Hermione watched Harry push the door open and followed him inside, looking around. ‘It doesn’t look the same as yesterday.’
‘I asked the room to sort the stuff in here a bit this time.’
‘What is this?’ Neville asked, as he began moving towards a collection of plants in the corner to their right.
‘It’s called the come and go room, or room of requirement.’ Harry pulled the door closed once they were all inside. ‘You have to walk past the wall a couple of times asking for what you want and it appears.’
‘So if I needed the loo?’ Ron asked, looking around the room.
‘Probably but this is way cooler than a toilet. Just be careful, people have been putting all sorts of stuff here over the years. Not everything is going to be friendly.’
He watched as a fanged frisbee bounced along hitting the ceiling. He looked back to Neville and saw him clutching a potted plant to his chest.
‘You right there Nev?’
‘Oh, yes, I’m fine thank you Harry. Did you know what this is?’ He held the pot out. ‘It’s a singing orchard from the Himalaya’s, they are supposed to be extinct.’
‘What does it sing?’
‘I don’t know yet, but when I find out I’ll let you know. This is an incredible find.’
Hermione was sitting on the floor at the book case, it held even more books now Harry had asked the room to be a bit more organised. ‘You didn’t see some of the books I found yesterday.’
‘I asked the room to put all the really dark stuff at the back but that doesn’t mean everything in here is safe.’ He looked around and saw Ron stuffing a handful of coins in his pocket.
‘And we can take whatever we want?’ Neville asked.
‘I don’t see why not, the room wouldn’t have let us in if we couldn’t.’ Harry reasoned. ‘Besides, you want to be the one telling her to put the books back?’
‘Good point.’
‘Hay Neville.’ Hermione called out. ‘There are a couple of books on plants here if you wanted to have a look.’
Harry watched as he scurried over and began exclaiming in excitement at the book she handed him.
‘Guess it’s a good book.’ Ron stood next to Harry. ‘Come on, I found some swords.’
Harry had set an alarm using his wand and it chimed. ‘Alright everyone, time to get out of here and clean up before dinner.’
‘Ah, Harry?’
‘Yes Ron.’
‘Are we, like, telling anyone about this room then?’
‘I duno, can you keep a secret Ron?’ Knowing the answer was a solid not really.
Looking around at the piles of what was mostly junk with the occasional treasure Ron nodded. ‘I can keep this secret.’
‘How will we explain what we’ve found?’ Neville asked, clutching several books and his plant.
‘You could say you found a weird room when you were lost but can’t remember how to find it again.’ Harry watched his new (old) friends nod their agreement. ‘Come on, it’s dinner time.’
---
Harry yawned and wondered if eleven was too young to start drinking coffee as he reached for the bacon to go with his toast and eggs. He nodded to Blaise sitting opposite him.
‘We are wizards, studying magic in a magical castle.’
‘Yes Blaise, I had noticed. The moving staircases were a big hint.’
‘So tell me why we need to have astronomy at night.’
‘Maybe you should get Malfoy to write his father and ask.’ Harry tried to drown his yawn with a cup of tea. It was unsuccessful.
He watched the lanky form of Theodore Nott sit next to Blaise, setting a pile of books on the table before reaching for the pot of tea.
‘Pass the sugar please.’
Harry slid the bowl towards him and nodded a greeting. He wondered if wizards worried about things like diabetes as the boy put four cubes of sugar in his tea.
‘Who do we have defense with this morning?’
‘Gryffindor.’
‘But we spent yesterday flying with them, wasn’t that enough torture, never mind that they are also in our astronomy class last night.’
Harry shrugged. ‘Beats me, it’s almost like someone sat down and tried to come up with the best way to trash any possible friendly inter house relations by putting us with them for Defense and Potions, flying lessons and Astronomy.’
Putting his tea cup down Nott tilted his head and looked at their unexpected house mate. ‘You have a darkly cynical point of view.’
‘Was that a question?’
‘More of a statement. But it does beg the question, of perhaps, if you aren’t, in fact, right.’
‘The hat put me in this house for a reason. And it wasn’t just to amuse Zabini.’
‘True, that is more of a happy coincidence.’ Blaise nodded, passing the toast to Nott.
If pushed to pick the one reason above all others, that Harry didn’t object to sorting Slytherin, it was the improved table manners of his house mates. He did not miss watching Ron eat. But a close second would be the surprising humour, albeit a very dark sense of humour, he found in Blaise Zabini. He was just waiting for Malfoy to pull too and get their inevitable confrontation out of the way. Not that he wasn’t taking some measure of enjoyment out of tormenting the blonde. But Blaise had been right, eventually they would get to the point of exchanging curses, jinxes and hexes. And there was the shade of Riddle possessing Quirrell. That and the diary were the only two fragments left to collect since the goblins had managed to take care of the other horcruxes. Messing with the pure blood’s and their narrow world view wasn’t going to be enough to amuse him for the entire school year. And Dumbledore hadn’t tried to meet with him, but he wasn’t about to borrow trouble by worrying about the headmaster.
It was sitting in the garlic infused defense classroom when he remembered how annoying Quirrell’s stutter was. He could see the darkness surrounding him and realised it wouldn’t matter when he could get the shade of Riddle, it was already too late to save Quirrell. If the man would stop stuttering, he wasn’t a bad teacher. Although the irony wasn’t lost on Harry that this was Riddle’s chance to actually teach defense and was wasting it. It occurred to him that a great deal of his plans to change what was once his past and now future relied on waiting. Waiting for Dumbledore to give him back his father’s invisibility cloak or the goblins to retrieve it. To possibly catch him with the mirror so he could drop cryptic clues. Waiting for Lucius Malfoy to drop the diary into the cauldron of Ginny Weasley. Waiting until the end of the school year to trap the shade of Riddle. But he had managed to get Sirius out of Azkaban and the reading of his parent's wills had gotten Lupin a place that belonged to him. Umbridge was stripped of her Ministry position for lying about her blood status. All bills she had put to the Wizengamot were being reviewed and he was hoping with her gone that would make things better for the creatures she had campaigned against. Not to mention he wasn’t going to wind up with I Must Not Tell Lies carved into his hand with her blood quill. Nor would she be torturing any other students. He’d count that a win any day.
Heading from Defense to History of Magic he tried to work out how he had gotten so good at defense in the first place, what with Quirrell then Lockhart as professors. He tuned out Malfoy in the background whining about telling his father about the poor standards of teachers. He really wasn’t going to enjoy Lockhart. Considering the powdered fraud, Harry made a note to order the man’s books so he could start writing down the inconsistencies. After all, it wasn’t possible for him to have spent a year with Yetti’s at the same time he was taking walks with werewolves. The only decent book that may have actually been his own work was his Guide to Household Pests. That one at least seemed to be accurate. And working through the books would give him a much needed hobby for the year. It was that or get Hermione to teach him to knit.
Taking his seat Harry pulled out the parseltongue book he had started reading. Setting parsel passwords wasn’t the only thing he could do. And it did leave him wondering what else was in the Chamber of Secrets. Salazar Slytherin must have left his heirs more than just a giant snake. He looked up as someone sat beside him, surprised to see it was Nott.
‘You not paying attention Lord Potter?’
‘Nope, Binns is just going to waffle on about Goblin wars and I have to ask myself if this isn’t just some elaborate cosmic prank.’
‘Prank?’
‘Well sure, I mean, if the goblins are so bad, why do we let them manage our gold?’
‘You do raise some interesting questions.’
Harry nodded. ‘I know. And sometimes I ask myself if I too, am a cosmic prank.’
Class finally over Harry packed his things away and smiled as Hermione stood at his side.
‘You weren’t paying attention to the professor.’
‘No Hermione, I wasn’t. Have you met Nott? He likes books almost as much as you do.’
Nott’s head snapped up at the mention of his name. ‘What?’
‘The pile you had at breakfast was a bit of a giveaway. Hermione Granger, Heir Theodore Nott, but please don’t use his first name. It’s one of those things they don’t teach us when we come from the muggle world. Almost like someone doesn’t actually want us to integrate into the world we have been shoved into.’
‘What are you on about?’ Nott collected his books with a frown. ‘Is this another of those challenging questions of yours?’
‘Well, you’ve no doubt read your copy of Hogwarts, a History, more than once. So like Hermione, you can probably tell me about the classes that have been cancelled in the last forty or fifty years. Classes that were previously designed to help witches and wizards like myself and Hermione blend in with everyone else.’ Harry picked his satchel up and slung it over his shoulder. ‘If I was a darkly cynical person, I might suspect that the classes were cancelled on purpose. To create a greater divide between muggle born and or raised witches and wizards, and the children raised by magical parents.’
‘That is a very cynical way to look at it Harry.’
‘She’s right, it is very cynical, but I do have to wonder if you don’t have a point, Lord Potter.’
‘Whatever do you mean?’ Hermione asked as they headed out of the classroom and began making their way towards the great hall for lunch.
‘They used to have a Wizarding Traditions class for all students not raised in our world. It went through things like how to write with a quill and explained the seasonal observances.’
‘Seasonal observances?’
‘Why we celebrate Yule rather than Christmas. The solstices and equinoxes. It’s part of how the Dark Lord was able to bring many of the Pure Blood’s into his fold, because of the ignoring of our traditions in favour of muggle ones.’
‘But you can’t blame that on Christmas.’
‘Not totally no, but it didn’t help. Perhaps you would join us for lunch and we can discuss this further.’
Blaise stepped up beside Harry as Nott opened the door into the great hall for Hermione.
‘Did that actually just happen?’
‘You mean did our pure blood house mate invite a muggle born witch to join us at the Slytherin table.’ Harry nodded. ‘Apparently it did.’
‘That’s what I thought. Are you sure you aren’t an agent of Chaos, Lord Potter?’
‘I’m starting to wonder.’ Harry followed him to the table.
They sat with Nott and Hermione on the end of the table so they were between them and the rest of their house mates, just in case. Looking around the room Harry saw the shock on more than one face as Nott and Hermione fitted lunch in around their discussion of the removed classes and the different editions of Hogwarts, a History. Including the first edition copy Hermione had acquired from the Room of Requirement that she pulled out to show him. Carefully wrapped in cloth as it was placed on the table between them like a holy relic.
Blaise was also smirking at the look of horror on the faces of Slytherin’s around then and wondered when someone was going to issue an actual challenge to Harry Potter. Malfoy had been banging about the edges of one but it hadn’t gone anywhere yet. Even after Potter called him out in the common room. He was optimistic that it would be sooner rather than later or he was going to deal to Malfoy himself if he had to listen to much more of his dorm mate’s whining. One more “My Father Will Hear Of This” was going to get the blonde hexed if he wasn’t careful. And, as he reflected on the idea, it was more his style to be on the outside than to be the one caught holding the wand. But, Potter did amuse him, so he would continue to watch and see what would happen.
‘Your little raven seems to have captured his attention.’ Blaise commented, catching Harry’s eye over the rim of his goblet.
‘I know.’ Harry reached for the plate of bite sized treacle tarts that always ended up by him and placed several on his plate. ‘I can feel Salazar Slytherin rolling in his grave as we speak.’
‘He’s not the one you need to watch out for.’
‘You’re not, actually concerned, are you?’
‘Not at all, I would merely hate to lose the entertainment value you provide.’
‘If you say so. Did you manage to complete your transfiguration homework?’
‘Oh yes, if I don’t decide to take over managing the family estates in Italy, I plan to make a career out of turning matches into needles.’
Harry waited for Hermione to leave the Slytherin table before looking towards Hufflepuff where he saw Neville talking with two of his house mates, Susan Bones and Hannah Abbot. He was pleased to see his friend so much more sure of himself this time around. He felt the soft warmth he associated with Lady Magic’s presence circle around him and thought perhaps she agreed. Swinging his satchel over his shoulder he smiled at the soft grunt of the Slytherin beside him.
‘You hit me with your bag Potter.’
Harry turned towards Parkinson who was rubbing her elbow next to him. ‘Not something that would have happened if you had maintained a polite distance.’
‘I expect an apology.’
He raised an eyebrow. ‘I am sorry I apparently hit you with my bag because you were standing too close to me.’
‘That’s not an apology.’ She hissed.
‘It contained the words I am and sorry.’ Nott pointed out to her as he collected his pile of books. ‘And you were clearly standing too close to him, which makes me wonder why.’ He peered at her over his books. ‘Why would you be close enough that he could hit you with his bag? You normally only get that close to Malfoy.’
‘Draco needs to hurry up and deal with you Potter.’ She spat, spinning in place to stalk off towards the blonde in question.
‘As long as he remembers that personal space is very important to me.’ Harry called after her before heading for the Hufflepuff table to try and catch up with Neville.
‘What.’ Susan Bones asked her friend. ‘Do you think that was all about?’
Hannah shrugged. ‘Beats me, but he’s headed this way if you want to ask him.’
Susan grabbed her arm. ‘Not likely, come on, I need to grab my book.’
Harry stepped next to Neville. ‘Hope it wasn’t anything I did.’
‘Who knows, they’re girls, I don’t even try to understand them. Give me a venomous tentacula over trying to work out what they are on about any day.’
‘You are young to be so wise my friend.’
He sorted. ‘You’ve met my gran.’
‘True. Come on, we’ve got McGonagall and she’s not a professor I want to be late for.’
Neville giggled. ‘Heard that Weasley was late to his transfiguration class and she threatened to turn him into a watch so he could be on time.’
‘Oh I would have liked to see that.’ Harry laughed, remembering when that had been him next to the redhaired boy the first time around.