The second day
Harry woke up to the usual darkness - the darkness he had expected to be in every night he slept in Dudley’s second bedroom - and went to grab his clothes from under his cot to dress the usual way (where he always keeps one article of clothing on while maneuvering the other because he can feel his aunt’s eyes on him), only the clothes weren’t under his bed. He sat up, confused, and a torch lit up the space. He was not in his cupboard? Where was he? Had Uncle Vernon finally sold him into slavery or an orphanage?
”Oh, Harry, you’re up! I never got to introduce myself to you yesterday but I’m Anthony, Anthony Goldstein. Do you want to go to breakfast together?” A white face peered around the curtains separating the beds from one another. Hogwarts. Right.
”Er - yessir - only - clothes?” Harry’s habit of using short phrases in the morning had yet to abandon him. His uncle had always been angrier before his day at work, and his aunt touchiest then. Harry felt like a wall of glass separated himself from the other the normal people. The feeling stayed as Anthony gave Harry privacy and the brown body began dressing itself as Harry watched, removed. Harry’s body followed Anthony and the first year Ravenclaw girls to the Great Hall, in yet another trip the boy would never be able to remember for use navigating the castle.
“Er - sorry - I’m not myself before breakfast.” Harry apologized, having set up the same plates he served to his family relatives and unthinkingly ate the food before his dissociated state was gone.
”Me neither, mate. You’ll see me on Yom Kippur - the Jewish day of atonement that involves fasting - I will likely not say a word all day then. If I’m even here. I don’t know how Jewish holidays work at Hogwarts. Hey...” Anthony saw another Ravenclaw wearing a yarmulke, one who looked like they were older, and asked his question. Harry felt like the stupidest person in the room, a novelty considering his upbringing.
And that was another thing that surprised Harry to no end: Ravenclaw, along with being the house for wisdom and knowledge, was the house of questions. Not a single person appeared to anger as the younger students peppered the older with questions about Hogwarts. Some, like the Grey Lady - a ghost! - and the Prefect Penelope, welcomed questions.
Harry, who had grown up under a mantra of “No questions!”, wouldn’t indulge in his curiosity with any other people yet, but knowing he could if he wanted to loosened a muscle in his chest he had never noticed had been contracted his entire life.
The first day was a day of orientation for first years, with the Arithmancy Professor acting as the Charms Professor so Professor Flitwick could get to know his young eagles as they got to know the castle.
Harry was good at memorizing his whereabouts when he wasn’t dissociated. He had never been in a magic castle, but the magic of Hogwarts appeared to contain a rhythm to it, the way his relatives’ routines or his peers’ games of Harry Hunting did. Harry Potter had the way to the greenhouses from the castle doors mentally mapped, and in the afternoon he was able to make his way from the Great Hall to the library without asking questions (although he did surreptitiously glance at the students he had heard discussing their study plans to learn if he was going in the right direction).
The only words Harry Potter exchanged with his Head of House that first day were the responses to the short Professor’s many attendance checks. When Professor Flitwick entered the first year boys’ dormitory to lead the boys to the Hospital Wing, Harry had fallen asleep, on top of the bed rather than in it, with his trainers still on his feet. The half-goblin took pity on the first year who had been the child of his prodigy, and figured he would escort Harry to the Hospital Wing after classes the day after their first day of classes.
Then Michael Corner was diagnosed with early-stage dragon pox, and Flitwick had to help Madam Pomfrey vaccinate the Muggleborns, and the boy who lived escaped from the half-goblin’s thoughts for a while.
When Harry woke up the second day, there was no Anthony Goldstein to remind him of where he was. That was left to a rather irritated second year, Cho Chang, who walked in on Harry cleaning the windows of the empty common room.