Chapter 7: Getting Settled

After Harry sat down at the table he was immediately accosted by his new friends.

"Why didn't you tell us you were Harry Potter?" Hermione asked.

Harry rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment, "Well, after I told Tonks, she acted kind of strange because of my name, so I figured it would be best if I just kept it to myself. I didn't want to make anyone feel uncomfortable just because I'm famous for something I don't remember," he finished modestly.

Before either of his friends could speak up in response, Professor McGonagall called out another name, "Dean Thomas!" The dark-skinned boy nervously made his way to the stool and was sorted into Gryffindor in no time. Between congratulating the new Gryffindor and Professor McGonagall announcing the next person to be sorted, neither Hermione nor Neville could talk to Harry much, to his great relief. He hoped his friends weren't mad at him for technically lying to them (omitting the truth).

The person after Dean, Lisa Turpin, became a Ravenclaw, much to the house's cheers. It was now down to two boys. A Ronald Weasley was called soon after Lisa; he went to Gryffindor nearly as fast as Draco had gone to Slytherin. He sat down next to Dean to what appeared to be his older twin brothers' cheers. Harry vaguely remembered seeing such a family of red-heads at the station. They all seemed pretty happy that they were all together.

Finally, Blaise Zambini was sorted into Slythern; immediately afterward, whispers started to break out among all of the students, all of them excited for the start of term feast. Harry looked up to the staff table to seen an old man stand up from a really nice chair and the chatter from the students simmered down. Harry assumed that this man was the Headmaster that was named in the Hogwarts letter that he had received: Albus Dumbledore. His Aunt had warned him of this man too. So he watched warily expecting something dramatic from such a respectable person in magical society.

The man cleared his throat and proceeded to say, "Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak! Thank you!" He sat back down and everyone clapped; Harry followed along a second afterward, not wanting to appear rude to the school's headmaster…despite his obvious eccentrics. He turned back around to see a gigantic selection of food and what felt like everyone staring at him. He shifted nervously under the stare of all of their eyes.

Breaking out from his own stare one of the red-headed boys spoke up, "How do you do Harry? My name is Percy Weasley and I am a prefect here at Hogwarts so feel free to come to me if you ever have any questions," he said slightly pompously. He was very proud of his newly obtained title.

"Thanks Percy," Harry said, "I really appreciate it. I'll probably need a lot of help getting around the school for the first few days. This place is so big!" He gestured slightly with his arms to get try to get across the sheer enormity that is Hogwarts. The girls from the upper year began to giggle at Harry's antics; he blushed which made them giggle even more.

Looking to Hermione sitting across from him, she offered him a bowl, "Chicken, Harry?" He smiled and gratefully accepted a piece of chicken, "Thanks Hermione." Looking around at the selection of food, he managed to ask around for various dishes to be passed to him, so he could get a bit of everything. He had a few pieces of the roast beef, some mashed potatoes, along with some peas and carrots. Harry turned his gaze toward the other first years around him and noticed Ron chowing down like a mad man; he must not have had a great breakfast if he was eating so fast Harry thought.

Harry dug into his food while silently listening to the conversations around him. One by named Seamus Finnigan was telling a story of how his mother and father met. He didn't really get to hear much of it over Hermione talking enthusiastically with Percy about the upcoming classes and Neville sharing his first experiences of accidental magic to those around him, but whatever Seamus said must have been pretty funny to get everyone around him to laugh.

Turning away from his meal and the conversations around him, Harry started to examine his future teachers. Hagrid was one of the ones that he noticed immediately, his large size making him easily distinguishable from everyone around him. There was also a man that had a turban around his head talking to a teacher with shoulder length black hair; he didn't seem really all that interested in what the man in the turban had to say. Suddenly, the black-haired man turned Harry's direction and looked him directly in the eyes. A sharp pain seared through his head but it went away as quickly as it came; the man was rubbing his temples when Harry looked back up at him. He didn't seem all that happy to be listening to the man in the turban anymore.

"Hey Percy," Harry called. The prefect in question looked up from his meal at Harry, "Who are those two men up there? The one with the turban talking to the black-haired guy."

"Oh. The one in the turban is Professor Quirrell and the other is Professor Snape. They each teach Defense Against the Dark Arts and Potions, respectively. Professor Quirrell just took over this year in fact so I don't really know much about him. Professor Snape has been here for quite a few years; a warning for you: don't misbehave in Professor Snape's classroom. He is very…strict in the way that he runs his classroom. Pay attention and follow directions and I'm sure you'll be fine."

Harry gulped at the warning and looked back to the man, who was staring at him again, making Harry quickly turn away. He spotted Professor McGonagall chatting with Headmaster Dumbledore; they both seemed to be having a good time. Eventually, the meal came to an end, much to Ron's disappointment. He had been about to bite into a cherry pie before it disappeared from his hands and clean dishes were in place of all of the piles of food. Harry had just had a piece of cake with strawberries on top. He never got to eat sweets often but always enjoyed them whenever he got the chance to have them.

After the plates had cleared away, Headmaster Dumbledore stood to address the students. He spread his arms wide in welcome, "Welcome to Hogwarts! For those who have just joined us, welcome. For those that have returned, welcome back. Whether you are a first year or a seventh year, your time spent here at Hogwarts will be some of the best years of your lives. I encourage all of you to do your best in all of your classes and perhaps even become part of the many different clubs that are available during your time here."

Harry couldn't help but overhear Percy whisper to one of his brothers, "We have clubs here?" The other red-head just shrugged.

"Now I realize that you are all probably weary from your journey here and so I will keep my notices brief. I have been asked by our generous caretaker, Mr. Filch," he gestured to a man behind the staff table, "to remind you all to be sure to check on the list of contraband items that can be found on his office door. If seen all such items will be confiscated," he winked, smiling broadly.

"I should also like to mention that the Forbidden Forest is forbidden for a reason. Do not go there unless you want to suffer a rather untimely demise," he stared at all of them seriously before smiling, "Finally, the Third-Floor Corridor on the right hand side is also out of bounds due to repairs. Due to the wild magics in the area, I ask that you do not go there should you wish to die before your time. Now, off you all trot. You have lessons in the morning!" Dumbledore made a sweeping motion with his arms and the Great Hall doors flew open to allow the students to head off to their dormitories.

"Alright you lot!" Percy called from the end of the table, "First years please follow me. I will show you where your first classes in the morning are then we will head back to the common room."

The first-years, tired and full, groaned slightly before following the Prefect through the castle.

"Alright, your first class tomorrow morning will be History of Magic with Professor Binns in the morning then you will have Professor McGonagall in the afternoon after lunch. Later, you'll have Herbology with Professor Sprout," Percy made sure to tell the first years to always be respectful to their teachers and to represent Gryffindor with pride or Professor McGonagall would have their hides.

Harry cringed. He did not want to have that woman mad at him. She was slightly scary just being normal if he was completely honest. Well, maybe not scary, just very intimidating he corrected to himself. The tour through the castle was a great refresher for Harry. While he didn't get to see everything he saw the first time around, he got to try to make a few landmarks to find his way back to at least the Great Hall the next morning; though landmarks were made difficult to establish by the constantly moving portraits and staircases (all 142 of them) and wall that pretended to be doors – Percy had actually made the mistake of walking into one, much to his chagrin – and doors that pretended to be walls (they were flat so you had to tickle the doorknob with your finger to get it to open).

After the tour, Harry was quite exhausted. They had gone up and down at least ten different staircases and he just really wanted to fall over into a bed at that point. Even the cobblestone floor looked relatively comfortable to the young boy at that point. Thankfully, they made it to the entrance to the Gryffindor common room – a portrait that was lovingly dubbed "The Fat Lady" – and Percy called out the password. He told the first years that the password is subject to change once a month and that they would be notified on the Announcement Board within the Common Room whenever it changed.

Harry made a mental note to check the board at least once a week.

"Well, that is the end of the tour. The girls' dormitory is to the left and the boys' dormitory is on the right," he gestured to each staircase, "Your names will be marked on your door; this will be the dorm that you have for all seven years here. Do make sure that you get a decent amount rest for classes tomorrow; you wouldn't want to be sleepy during classes tomorrow," he grinned mischievously, "Welcome to Hogwarts and Gryffindor House! Goodnight all." The Prefect then made his way up the boys' dormitory staircase, yawning.

Seeing the yawn, Harry could help but yawn himself, the weight of the entire day really start to weigh on him. His hair was a bit disheveled from the sorting hat and his eyes were watery from the huge yawn. He made for quite the sight, certainly looking his age. Harry rubbed at his eyes after taking off his glasses to clear his vision. Looking up to his bushy-haired friend, Harry said, "Night Hermione," as he started to make his way to the boys' dormitories.

"Goodnight Harry," Hermione called, walking up the staircase to the girls' dormitory.

As Harry climbed the stairs, he made sure to look for his name on one of the doors. He slowly climbed the spiral staircase until he found his own room after passing four doors. Harry reached up and turned the doorknob to reveal a circular room with five four-poster beds set equidistance apart around the room. Next to each bed was a small desk to store their schoolbooks and to do their homework. On the other side of the bed was small nightstand with a glass and a pitcher of water sitting on it. Off to the side of the room led to a bathroom with shower stalls. Finally, in the center of the room was a hardworking furnace burning to warm up the room.

Neville Longbottom, Ron Weasley, Dean Thomas, and Seamus Finnigan followed in behind him. Harry noticed one bed the furthest from the door without a trunk sitting on the end and assumed that it was his since he still had his trunk shrunk in his pocket. Harry walked to the end of his bed and placed his trunk at the end of the bed before enlarging it with a touch of his wand. He opened his wardrobe to change out of his robes into a pair of pajamas.

He stripped down to his underwear and shivered from the slight chill still left in the room, before pulling on his pajamas. Harry did his best to ignore his roommates' stares; he had honestly never had to change in front of others before having been homeschooled for the majority of his life. He blushed to himself but when he looked up he noticed that no one had been staring a felt a little better. Perhaps living with other people wouldn't be so bad.

Yawning again, Harry searched through his trunk for his toothbrush and toothpaste before making his way over to the bathroom to prepare for bed. Thankfully, the magic step stool that seemed to follow him around the castle appeared yet again for him when he needed to reach the sink, else he would have been in for an awkward situation every time he wanted to wash his hands or brush his teeth. His mouth feeling minty fresh, Harry made his way back into his dormitory where Neville was waiting for him.

"I…I just thought to let you know that I don't care how tall you are or what your name is, I'm happy to just be your friend. If you'll have me that is?" the round-faced boy smiled a bit awkwardly.

Harry hugged as much of Neville that he could reach as hard as he could, happy that he didn't lose one of his friends because of a silly reason like fame.

"Thanks Neville; I'm happy to be your friend, too," Harry grinned brilliantly and Neville grinned right back. Harry stepped around Neville to climb into his bed, only to have the other boy pick him up when he realized that his friend was having trouble climbing onto a bed that was as tall as he was. Harry thanked his friend while blushing heavily. He was eleven years old! He shouldn't have a problem getting into his own bed!

"No problem Harry," Neville said. Having nothing else to really talk about with his friend, he made his way over to his own bed to prepare for to go to sleep. Thankfully, Trevor the Toad had not made his grand escape just yet and was placed into an enclosed tank on his night stand next to his bed.

After bidding his new roommates goodnight, Harry closed the curtains surrounding his bed, pulled the covers up, and tried to fall asleep. It certainly helped that it was the softest bed he had ever slept in; he was out like a light within minutes.

-Line Break-

Harry woke up to morning rays of sunshine filtering through the curtains surrounding his bed. He was a bit groggy from just waking up until he realized that classes started today! His first magic classes; he couldn't wait. He climbed out of bed, sliding down the side until his feet could touch the floor. He did his best to be as quiet as he could since he could hear the snores of his four other roommates. He tiptoed around to the end of his bed to get some clean clothes to change into after his shower.

He made his way to the bathroom and turned on the hot water. Only after walking in did he realize that there wasn't any soap or shampoo anywhere in the shower stall. He looked around and discovered that there was a small button to the left of the knobs. It was the only thing that he hadn't touched so decided to give it a try. He pushed the button and he was immediately bombarded with bubbles and soap from all sides. He was completely covered from head-to-toe in warm pink suds that smelled like strawberries. He couldn't help but laugh.

After showering, he made his way down to the common room with his schoolbag in tow. He only had the book for History of Magic since he didn't have any other classes until after Lunch. As soon as he had stepped off the last step and into the common room, many of the students in the room turned to stare at him. He waved back nervously. As if they were drawn in from his nervousness, the Weasley Twins came to his rescue.

"How ya doin' Harry ma boy! I'm Fred," he rubbed Harry's hair and then gestured to his twin.

"And I'm George…no wait, I'm Fred and he's George."

"How can you get that wrong brother o' mine? It's obvious I'm the handsome one so I must be Fred."

"I think you have it wrong. You can't be Fred because I'm Fred."

"Fine. You be Fred. I'll be George, the smart one."

Harry eyed the twins going back and forth in their speech. He had no idea who was who but he guessed they liked it like that.

"Nice to meet you both," he smiled. After their riveting introduction they led him over to the couches near the small, burning fireplace. He climbed into a comfy looking armchair which had its armrests immediately occupied by the twins on either side of Harry.

"So Harry, we'd like to welcome you to Hogwarts,"

"And hope you enjoy your stay."

"We'd like to request,"

"That you keep an eye on our younger brother, Ron,"

"He's one of your roommates,"

"We just want to make sure he's happy,"

"And request you to tell us if he's not."

"We'll owe you one, alright?"

"Sure I can do that," Harry said, "But why did you chose me? Why not one of the others in my dormitory?"

"Harry, Harry, Harry," the twin on his right said.

"We had to rescue you from those cougars," he whispered, gesturing to the fourth year girls that were staring at them from the corner of the Common Room.

"Or else they would have pounced on you."

"And who know what would have happened to the Boy-Who-Lived then."

"He would have surely been lost forever if they had gotten their hands on your cute face ickle-Harry," he pinched his cheek jokingly.

"We just needed to get one of you anyway and you were the first one we saw."

Looking at his watch, he noticed that it was nearly eight o'clock. He needed to find Hermione so that they could go down to breakfast together with Neville. He looked to the twins and thanked them for their "rescue" and the he'd keep an eye on their brother for them before getting up.

"Oh and Harry, before you go, don't tell Ron about this conversation."

"Or you won't like the consequences," they finished in chorus. Harry nodded solemnly, "Right. I won't tell."

Harry walked over to the girl's staircase to their dormitory to make his way up. Realized where he was going the twins tried to stop him before he stepped on the stairs but they were too late. They waited in anticipation for the inevitable slide and fall to happen. Nothing happened. Harry was just casually making his way up the stairs and disappeared as he searched for Hermione's dormitory. Whispers broke out between the boys and girls of Gryffindor about this unusual circumstance. It had never happened before.

The green-eyed boy searched each and every door and eventually found it at the top of the tower. He knocked on the door, which was soon opened by none other than Hermione Granger. The bushy haired girl looked quite surprised to see him and quickly expressed that sentiment.

"Harry! What are you doing in the girl's dormitory!?"

The boy in question looked every bit confused as he felt, "I'm just here to see if you were ready to go to breakfast yet…I could go down by myself if you didn't want to," he looked downcast at the thought.

"No, no it's not that. It's just how did you get up the stairs?"

"I walked," Harry deadpanned, "Are you okay Hermione? Did you get enough sleep last night?"

Hermione stared at him before saying, "Stay here. I'll be ready in a few minutes. Don't move."

Not five minutes later, Hermione was out the door with her bag nearly overflowing with books. She started to make her way down the stairs before she remembered the reason that she rushed out of her room in the first place. She turned around and said, "Come on Harry. We don't want to miss out on breakfast." The boy got up from his crouched position and ran over to her before they made their way down the many stairs to the Common Room.

When they reached the bottom of the stairs, Harry was immediately grabbed by one of the Weasley twins from behind and lifted off of his feet while the other twin checked him over.

"He doesn't look maimed to me Fred."

"Put me down," the twins ignored him.

"He looks perfectly normal to me Gorge. Though it doesn't explain how he managed to make it up the girl's staircase."

Harry was getting slightly frustrated at being manhandled, "I just walked up the stairs. It's nothing special. Now put me down," he looked beseechingly toward Hermione.

Catching his eye, she spoke up immediately, "Put my friend down. He's not some doll you can just pick up whenever you want to!"

Seeing the raging first year and the kicking toddler-like boy in his arms, Fred put Harry back down on his feet.

"Sorry Harry."

"We were just surprised."

"That you managed to make it up the staircase."

"Without looking like this," George started to climb the staircase to the girl's dormitory, but he only managed to make it up a few steps before the rails receded and the stairs turned into a slide that forced George off the staircase. He landed at the bottom of the steps before he sprang up as if to say "Ta-da."

"I guess the castle just likes me," Harry grinned and the twins just shrugged and walked out to the Great Hall for breakfast.

Harry and Hermione followed them out but where stopped by a gasping Neville, "Wait for me!" He caught up with them just as they were making their way out of the portrait hole.

-Line Break-

A/N: I don't really know what else to say, other than I'm sorry. I hadn't realized the amount of time that has passed; I've been suffering an extreme case of writer's block and can't seem to get past it just yet. This chapter was supposed to be much longer including a lot of what was going on in classes and such abut I haven't really been inspired to write much with my boatload of homework and assignments that I have for my newly restarted classes; not to mention the job that I'm going to be staring soon.

I don't have an estimate for the next chapter as I'll be very busy the coming weeks. I just couldn't bring myself to try to make this any longer at the cost of making you guys wait. Hopefully I'll get past this bit of stagnation and update sooner than we all expect.

Thank you for your time and best wishes to you all,

Michael