AN: A big Thank You to my two Beta-Readers for their help with the final version of this!

And to my other readers: I'm back!

Almost half a year later... *ahem*.

Originally I wanted to have a new chapter up sometime mid-March (as some of you who have asked know), buuuuuuut - it took longer.

I have more already written for Year One, but this is everything that's publishable for now.

In case some people didn't see it, I made some edits to the earlier chapters - added a few scenes for one, and fixed some mistakes.

I plan on getting another chapter up this month (but in case I don't manage to do that, let's pretend this was an april-joke in poor taste).

Sooo... enjoy this chapter!

There is no opportunity for Tobirama to speak with Harry after the Sorting. During the Feast, they can only exchange the occasional look, and there is no time for a quick talk when the First Years get lead into their dormitories by the prefects of their houses.

The Hufflepuff common room is a circular chamber, the furniture made of honey-coloured wood; round doors lead to the dormitories. Plants are distributed around the room, and the dominating colours of the interior are a warm yellow and a deep black.

The introduction speech the prefects give to the new First Years includes breakfast, lunch and dinner times, curfew, the meeting schedule of the official House Study Group (manned by older students who are open to questions from the lower years about particular subjects) and the schedule of laundry days.

Each year has their own two dormitories – one for boys, one for girls, all of them with attached bathrooms with several shower stalls, sinks, and separate toilets. Tobirama sleeps in a room with three other boys: Ernie McMillan, son of the pureblood McMillan family; Justin Finch-Fletchley, muggleborn, and either gifted or rich enough to get a place in Eton from what he has told during the Feast; and Wayne Hopkins, whose parents are both halfblooded.

They get their regular class schedules the next morning at breakfast (apparently students get a few days to (re-)acclimate themselves with the castle and the subjects, and therefore the regular schedule applies only from the second week onward). For the First Years, Hufflepuff has two subjects together with Gryffindor: History of Magic, and Defense Against the Dark Arts.

Harry looks okay; the unease from the aftermath of the Sorting ceremony has obviously diminished. They talk shortly, and decide to meet again after lunch.

The Hogwarts Owlery is home to every owl in the castle – those that belong to the school and those that come with the students. Hedwig, as Tobirama and Harry find out when they visit her in the afternoon, has secured her own sleeping place, and appears to be quite happy where she is.

While all other ghosts (except the Bloody Baron) are nice enough, and always willing to help out some lost First Years, Peeves is an annoyance and a safety hazard. Tobirama cannot fathom how he has not already been evicted from the castle.

(He puts this and the origin of ghosts in general on his increasingly long mental list of topics to research.)

Tobirama decides after the first lessons of History of Magic and Defense Against the Dark Arts to fall back on self-study for those particular subjects.

Quirrel and Binns are terrible teachers.

Binns is competent in regards to his chosen subject, but his teaching skills are abysmal – he doesn't even pays attention to his students (who don't pay attention to his lectures in return), he just monotonously drones on about Goblin rebellions and Giant Wars, and if the ghost actually addresses a student, it's always with the wrong name (occasionally even with the wrong gender).

Quirrel's permanent stuttering and nervousness, the inconsistent backstory, the persistent smell in his classroom – an Inuzuka would have already been sick from it – it all adds up to an almost insufferable class. And this in the only available subject whose syllabus seems to contain something like magical combat skills. It's a shame. And if the rumours about a "DADA curse" have an even slightly true core, the other six years might not be much better. No, Tobirama will have to take instruction in those particular subjects for Harry and himself in his own hands.

Potions.

Well.

Tobirama does NOT approve of Professor Snape's attitude (he has had students of his own, he knows a thing or two about teaching).

The man is a more captivating teacher than Binns (not that that would be difficult), and he appears way more competent than Quirrell, but Snape's obvious dislike for teaching in general (and apparently most of his students) makes Tobirama wonder why he works in a teaching profession at all.

Severus Snape is still barely more likable than Argus Filch, the caretaker. If only because Snape doesn't threaten students with bodily harm over minor infractions (as of yet).

Mrs. Norris reminds Tobirama and Harry of Mrs. Figg's cats. The only difference, besides overall looks, is, in Harry's words, the fact that Filch's cat is "way creepier" than Mr. Tibbles and Co. could ever be.

On Friday morning, Harry and Tobirama receive a note from Hagrid, in which he invites them to visit him in his hut at the edge of the Forbidden Forest. Of course they accept.

Ron comes with them; he and Harry have been inseparable the whole week now. It turns out Hagrid has a large, overly friendly boarhound with the tendency to slobber over everything and everyone he seems to be even slightly fond of.

They introduce Ron, and spend the afternoon having tea with Hagrid; unfortunately his tea pastries could be used as a bludgering weapon. Hagrid himself makes up for it though; his company is pleasant enough.

The visit itself is informative too. Tobirama catches sight of an article in the Daily Prophet about the Gringotts-Break-In; their short visit of vault 713 seems to have happened just right on time. Still, this is not their concern.

In the course of the next few weeks it becomes clear that Professor Severus Snape very obviously and very passionately does not like the Potter twins. Tobirama has no clue why, but from the second week onward it becomes clear that this circumstance is on its best way to seriously interfere with their potion grades. He is not quite sure what the best way of action is to solve this problem, though. From what he has heard from older students and from Hagrid, the man's general attitude towards students not in his House is less than stellar, and he has teached for years already.

At least the teachers that Tobirama pegged as competent in the first week confirm his first impression of them.

The Hogwarts Library is a true well of information. Tobirama spends most of his free time there, dragging Harry (and therefore Ron) with him to catch up on History of Magic and DADA. Naturally, Harry and Ron are fonder of the books about the latter subject, though even they admit grudgingly that some of the History books are more capturing than Binns' lectures.

Another frequent visitor of the library is Hermione Granger. The girl truly is a bookworm, reading trough most tomes at a speed her peers are hard-pressed to match. She often ends up accompanying them at a table while they're revising the content of the last History class on their own: neither Harry nor Ron truly follow in class, though Harry manages to at least remember the key points of the day's lecture – something Ron generally fails to do completely. The boy might be a budding chess talent, but outside of this and Quidditch he has a slight focus problem. Hermione on the other hand takes notes with an almost religious fervour.

Her bossy demeanor is sometimes annoying, but it could be worse. And the company of someone who understands the need to actively research customs and past of a completely new culture (Harry's lack of curiosity wasn't unexpected, but is still disappointing), proves to be a nice change from time to time.

Once people start to notice him coming late to dinner after having spend most of his day in the library (only spending the least possible amount of time on eating his necessary share of food), some Third-Years take pity on him, and show him the entrance to the Hogwarts kitchen.

The room with its long tables, reminiscent of those above in the Great Hall, and with all the House elves scurrying around, hasn't changed much from what Tobirama can recall. From now on, whenever he returns late from the library, he makes a short trip down into the kitchens, to get his dinner.

What he learns about House Elves is - somewhat disturbing.

There are certain parallels to his own jutsu, Edo Tensei: Overriding the will of the person subjected to it is the second thing his own technique was about.

Of course, unlike the people which were subjected to his technique, house elves are very much alive.

And therefore born into de facto being magically bound slaves.

If Hashirama was here, he wouldn't be any happier about this than he was about Edo Tensei.

Flying lessons are for the most part enjoyable. While Broomsticks are certainly not the most dignified way of travel, the skill of being able to fly one is useful enough for Tobirama to not mind this. And flying, in on itself, is not something that can be called dull in any way, even if Tobirama does not share Harry's enthusiasm or aptitude for it; contrary to his brother he has no desire to join his House's Quidditch team. Not like he would have an opportunity to do so: Minerva McGonagall's decision to give Harry a spot on the Gryffindor-Team is highly irregular, and something Tobirama himself thinks of as more than just a little subversion of the rules; a step he would not have expected from the usually stern and strict witch.

Subsequently, Tobirama (with occasional contribution from Hermione) is the one to berate Harry on his reckless actions during the joint Slytherin/Gryffindor-Flying-lesson (and who even came up with this particularly brilliant match up?) at dinner, blowing off Malfoys ridiculous attempt at provoking Ron and Harry to do something stupid while doing so - a wizard duel at midnight, of course, because the Slytherin student obviously intended to follow through with this, instead of, say, to anonymously inform the student-hating Mr. Filch about two curfew-breaking Gryffindor-first-years.

But really, for having grown up alongside Fred and George Weasley, Ron is surprisingly naïve at times.

Tobirama is decades ahead of his fellow Hufflepuff-first-years, and it shows. While he is hiding the whole extent of his intellectual abilities during class and homework assignments, Tobirama is not inclined to put a damper on them during every conversation for the next five years – creating and feigning a new personality for infiltration missions was never a strong suit of his – and the faster people stop treating him like a clueless child, the better.

For better or worse, this means that any potential attempts of connecting to his "peers" are doomed to failure. While his social standing in Hufflepuff is better than Hermione's in Gryffindor, Tobirama is still far from being popular. If not in the library either learning with Harry and Ron or researching what often amounts to common knowledge for children raised in the Wizarding World (sometimes accompanied by Hermione Granger), he usually spends his time reading library books or doing his homework in the Hufflepuff Common room. There are no real mutual hobbies that he shares with his year-mates (barring the occasional chess-game with Ron), Quidditch doesn't capture his interest above knowing its basic rules and what facts are common knowledge even for uninterested wizards, and so interaction with his dorm-mates and house-mates in general is mostly restricted to class, a little conversation during meals, questions about homework, and topics that simply appear if one shares a room with four other boys.

Since he has never been very socially inclined, Tobirama is perfectly fine with this.

His fellow Hufflepuffs don't know what to think of him at first. Timothy Potter, the twin of the famous Boy-Who-Lived, is quiet, unusually calm, and very, very studious – in the latter he even surpasses Hermione Granger from Gryffindor. Heck, not even after the first week people start to joke that the Sorting Hat has made a mistake – surely someone who spends that much time on books and research belongs into Ravenclaw instead.