To anyone who might be returning, i know its been literally a year since the last chapter, and i am sorry. the only thing i can say to defend myself is that my life situation changed quite dramatically and i was not in a position i could write.

Im starting up a new story or two pretty soon, so updates will still be slow, but at the very least i am now in a situation that i can actually write and post.

leave a comment if there is anything you liked, or hated, or you just want to call me cuck. Its always good to hear peoples opinions on my writing so i can get better.

Horcruxes. Interesting bits of magic from an age long forgotten. Godric Gryffindor had never spent much time pondering any great mysteries of magic, but he knew that Rowena and Salazar had done so in spades. Even Helga had spent her fair share questioning the world around them and the magic that invisibly binded it. Godric supposed he'd always been different from them in that aspect. (And a great many more, but that was never a bother to him)

A horcrux was a simple thing once upon a time. Simply an object that a Human had implanted a soul into, be it their own, or in many a case their lost child's, or any other soul. For more time than was ever bothered to be remembered a horcrux was always made with all of a person's soul. There was nothing dark or impure about it, it was simply a means to stick around on earth after your body failed you.

And then along came Herpo the Foul. Truly a monster deserving of that title, so many of the things he did were looked down upon with contempt by history, it was hard to imagine there ever being a more hated wizard. And the public didn't even know half the things he'd done.

They knew he'd been the first to breed a basilisk. They knew he was a parseltongue, possibly the first. Those two things were enough to damn him forever in most minds.

Something they didn't know is how many curses that he'd put on the entire human race, magical and mundane alike. Like the one he put to make them sometimes forget what they were doing when they passed over a threshold like a doorway. Or his personal favorite one that made people randomly get itchy in places that they could never hope to scratch. Or the one that made people throw up when they are too much, or too little food. The list went on and on.

But the most foul act he ever made, was his corruption of the horcrux. He realized that through a truly heinous, evil act, ones soul could be split. Forever sacrificing their right to whatever afterlife they might have been granted. And why would he do this? Because if one piece of your soul was no longer attached to your body, your soul would never truly be able to pass on. Once again the path to immortality had led man to do horrible things.

And so the wonderful magic that was a horcrux, that used to bring relief and happiness, went down in history as a 'creation' of Herpo the Foul, one of the darkest and most vile creations in history.

When Salazar came to him about his findings on Herpo Godric was scared. Sal had always had a bit of a fascination with the dark arts, and while he'd never personally delved beyond the creation of the Basilisk he now called his familiar, he always jumped at occasions to see the effects of dark magic. Godric could never say he was a paragon of light, he'd done his fair share of questionable acts, but he had always drawn a line that sal just hadn't.

And when Rowena came to them with her own findings on horcruxes, what they once were, Godric knew that all four of their minds were made up in an instant.

When they passed, each of them was made into a horcrux.

Rowena was first. And her soul was placed in the Hogwarts leystone, the anchor point of all the enchantments, wards and all manor of other spells upon the school. Everywhere a student could go, Rowena lived on guiding them. She lived on with control of the wards, with control of everything. Godric knew she would be happy with that, she was the one who designed and placed most of those wards and enchantments anyway.

Salazar was second. When he grew sick, he began to lash out, and after a particularly vicious fight between them he receded into his chamber with his familiar, and was never seen by anyone again. Except Godric. Godric remembered the day Salazar called him down to his chamber, and asked him to place his soul there, and in the tunnels that connect all of Hogwarts, so that Salazar could watch over them from the shadows. No one needed to know how much Salazar truly cared for the students. Godric fulfilled his request with tears in his eyes and a growing sadness in his heart.

Helga was third, dying surrounded by all of her kids, all of her husbands and wives, all of her favorite students, and Godric. She had truly been full of more love than he had ever thought possible to come from only one woman. She asked him to place her in her favorite room in the castle, which would become the room of requirement with her influence. Godric chuckled once again(he could never begin to count how many times he had before) at that. Only Helga could die and still find a way to give people anything they ever wanted. Godric spent more time in that room in his final years without them than he would ever be proud to admit.

And then it came time for him to pass, and he asked the young woman who would become the first headmaster after all their passing to place him in his favorite hat. He'd had the hat practically his entire life, and it'd been torn and patched back together so many times it practically couldn't even be called the same. And he loved it.

The thing history had forgotten about Godric Gryffindor was truly how different he was to his fellow founders.

Helga bless her loving heart was one of the most single-minded and simple witches in history. Everything was family and loyalty to her. She learned all she did to protect and care for everyone she could. And she was brilliant, with a wand or a sword. But it was all for family. She married more than a hundred men and woman in her time, and either had children or adopted children with all of them. She would have never been the one a student would go to when they were being bullied or having trouble because Helga Hufflepuff was incapable of seeing any wrongdoing or fault in a person she truly cared for. He had never met a person who didn't love being around Helga, but he also knew for a fact she had never been anyone's confidante in anything more secretive or truly important. Her single greatest strength, and single worst flaw were simultaneously her love for everyone in the world around her.

Rowena was… different. Godric knew the Mundanes had a word for her condition now, he thought it might start with an a…? Bah, that doesn't matter. Rowena was a very difficult person to be around until you learned how to. By her own words she didn't understand other people. She understood words. She understood maths.

She understood magic.

Better than anyone else Rowena knew magic. She could go into detailed talks of theory and practice that even made other experts of their caliber confused and feel stupid. And that was the thing. She was truly the most brilliant witch of her time when it came to anything academic. But she was so hopefully lost when it came to people that it broke his heart. He remembered periods of months at a time where someone had reacted badly to something she said, and she had no idea even how to grasp what they were feeling, let alone why or how to fix it, and she had just shut down, because she couldn't understand. She had her own way for everything. That included showing that she cared, and Godric honestly thought that he Helga and Salazar were the only people to ever truly learn what they were.

And Salazar. Godric could honestly say he'd never had a better friend in his life than Salazar. They were brothers, in all but blood. It was true that Salazar drove him insane, that Godric hated how much Salazar loved the dark arts. It was true that Salazar was in most people's eyes a bigoted hateful man. Godric would be a fool to say that those things weren't true. But it was also true that Godric saw a part of Salazar only two other people had ever seen. And he loved that side of him. The side that would willingly die for a student, even a Mundane-born. The side that looked around the world with wonder and saw secrets to be unveiled and treasures to be found everywhere. The side Godric had briefly thought he was in love with.

But that was a story for another time. Not something he should let himself get into thinking about the day the new term started. He still had to decide on the finishing touches to his song this year.

Godric was a simple man. He could fight and cast spells with a fierceness and ability that would bring down anyone. He was damn proud to admit despite his vastly lacking knowledge in comparison he could win a 3 on 1 fight of all three of his fellow founders together against him and him alone. When Salazar revealed to them his familiar he stared its closed eyes down with no visible fear. (he was fighting pissing himself inside, but they didn't need to know that) He was no academic. He was bored out of his mind even just reading for a few minutes. And he didn't know magic even close to the way his fellow founders knew it.

He knew people.

Godric knew people like he knew how to breath. He knew how to talk to them. He knew how to tell what they needed, he knew how to give it to them.

He was the one who had always sorted the students.

And he loved that role.

He didn't care that no one knew how the sorting truly worked.

Where should a child who always had their nose in a book and was inwardly afraid of confrontation go? Gryffindor of course!

He sorted the children by where they needed to go. Not by what kind of person they were at that moment, they were children for christs-sake! It also wasn't by what the child valued like some thought.

Hogwarts was a school. Every facet of its being was meant to teach. Including the houses. People who went into Gryffindor were not brash idiots that jumped into situations with no regard for danger, they were the shy, nervous kids with troubled lives that needed to learn how to be brave, how to put on a strong face and push through their fear. Hufflepuff wasn't full of the 'leftovers' it was full of the people who needed to learn the value of hardwork, that needed to learn that there were more important things than just themselves, and that loyalty and companionship were very important things. Ravenclaw wasn't for the kids who never stopped reading, it was for the kids who didn't want to read, it was to teach them the importance of knowledge, that unfortunately it was important to recognize that knowledge was something everyone needed. And slytherin was not for the evil bastards or the back stabbers, it is for the children who need to learn that it's important to have goals, things to work towards, and it's okay to work towards them in just about any manner, provided that certain moral boundaries were not crossed.

Of course there were exceptions, students who didn't learn what he'd placed them to learn. Or students who were already complete enough people that it didn't really matter where he put them. Or his favorite the students who could be the perfect teachers, showing the rest of their house exactly how Godric thought they should be.

But for the most part the system worked.

Not even his fellow founders had truly understood what he was trying to do with the house system when he'd suggested it.

Godric knew when his time came that the house system could only continue to work if he continued to sort the students himself. So his soul was placed in his hat, and the hat sorted the students upon coming to the school.

Godric didn't care that the sorting hat just sat on a shelf in the Headmasters office the rest of the year. He was a hat now what else was he going to do? He also didn't care that no one knew what his hat truly was, all he cared was that Hogwarts stood proud at the end of the day. That the students were learning and happy.

"Tell me Albus, what sort of students should we be expecting tonight?" The hat rasped. Godric liked Albus, he still remembered sorting him. He remembered a lot of his adventures with Albus Dumbledore over the years. But again, a story for another time.

"Another Weasley," Albus said, a teasing tone in his voice. "My lord, that man needs to keep it in his pants. He must have started having children the day he left!" There had been way too many Weasleys under his brim, and with how many were boys there would prove to be a great many more in the coming decades. Godric tried not to let those thoughts scare him.

"Indeed old friend." Albus chuckled remembering all the times the hat had lamented having to sort another Weasley. He chose not to mention there was at least one more coming.

"Nothing else? No noteworthy new students?" One of a great many things Godric always liked about Albus was how he looked into every student. He liked to know who was in his school, and he liked to make them feel as welcome as possible.

"A new Malfoy will be joining us, Minerva says several of the mundane-born children show potential, and of course Harry Potter will be starting this year." Albus went down the list, mentally checking if there was anyone else the hat might want to be warned about.

Godric groaned at the mention of a Malfoy, "Very well, I look forward to tonight then."

"As do I." Knowing that was the end of things until the feast, Albus went back to his last minute paperwork, and Godric went back to his reminiscing.

Wasn't much else for a sorting hat to do really.

Harry was almost an hour early getting on the train, so he wasn't surprised at the empty compartments. He walked down the aisles for a little while, hoping to find one that was maybe a little bit bigger. Three train cars later he just chose the first one he saw after giving up on finding a bigger one.

Settling into the bench, he pulled his new favorite book out of his backpack and got back to reading. He'd read through all of his school texts, twice, wishin the first week of having them. He was glad he took Ollivanders advice to get extra books, and he was glad he went with his gut on getting bigger books.

He hadn't even made a dent in all of his extra books. And the one he was reading was by far his favorite so far. It was a book about rituals, when he pulled it he was hoping for something like summoning rituals or rituals that could tell him the future. The first paragraph squashed those hopes. Rituals were sorted into a class system, class 1 being the lowest type, and anything above a class 1 ritual was highly illegal.

And even still he was fascinated. He was probably 200 pages in and yet he'd only read about four rituals. Every ritual had so many forwards and warnings, and the instructions were so detailed they very well could have been their own book. The first one was a ritual that would grow hair. It didn't sound impressive but what was impressive is while the ritual was active the caster could focus on any hair on their body, and grow or shrink it to any length they wanted. It could be as simple as one arm hair to the length of a football field, or as detailed as shrinking all the hair on his body into nothing, as if they weren't there. And it locked that length. Harry's hair went down to just below his shoulders, and it was the wildest mane of curls spikes and flared ends he'd ever seen. But he'd always wanted longer, and now he could get his hair to wherever he wanted, and keep it that way. Unfortunately the ritual did nothing for the way that hair acted or its color, just the length.

Harry knew he wanted to try that one. Soon.

And then there was a ritual fo-

"Excuse me can I joi- Bloody hell what's wrong with your skin!" He was cut off from his train of thought by the door sliding open and a tall, gangly ginger coming in, cutting his own question off with another one Harry had heard more times than he could count.

"I had a mishap with some paint, what do you want?" Harry didn't think he liked this guy. He was staring at him with open fear and just barged into his compartment without knocking or even so much as a hello.

"What kind of mental paints their whole body green!" He shouted, not noticing Harry's eyes rolling 'and he doesn't know what sarcasm is either. Great.'

"If you're just gonna shout at me could you please go find another place to sit? I'd like to read." He didn't bother to wait for the other person to reply, returning to his book pointedly turning the page.

He heard the door slam closed. 'Good riddance' he grumbled, he could handle people being rude about his skin to a point but so far he'd only met three new magical people and two of them yelled at him.

He tried to read on for a time, finding it pretty hard to focus. Just as he decided to give up reading he heard a short knock, that sounded like two people knocking at the same time, before the door opened and two identical ginger teens coming in, with a teen with dark dreadlocks behind them. 'They're multiplying' he thought, looking at them.

"Excuse us-"

"You wouldn't happen-"

"To be willing-"

"To allow us-"

"Three fellows-"

"To join you-"

"Now would you?" The two identical ones spoke in turns, finishing their sentence together, and looking at Harry with an expectant look in their eye, obviously looking for a specific reaction. 'No way' Harry thought grinning.

"Why of course, three extinguished gentleman such as yourselfs would be more than welcome to join me." He spoke with a grandiose manner, exaggerating syllables and finishing with a grand flourish, presenting them to the compartment with bowed head and open arms.

"Why thank you sir."

"We greatly appreciate the gesture." The twins spoke together, grinning like lions at Harry's willingness to play along.

When they sat Harry turned a curious look to the third one behind them.

"I'm not gonna make as big a deal as them, but thanks man." He said, rolling his eyes as he flopped into the seat next to Harry.

"Don't mind Lee sir-"

"He's not fully trained yet-"

"Nor does he appreciate-"

"The subtle ways-"

"Of a prankster-"

"Which you so-"

"Obviously do." They held a mournful look as they stared at lee like one would a toddler that wasn't taking to its potty training.

"Not at all, not everyone can see the beauty in a finely held gag." Harry replied nonchalantly, putting his book back in his bag and turning to them.

"I'm Harry, and you are?" He'd dropped the joking tone, having had his fun.

"Fred." "George." The twins spoke over each other, also dropping the joking tone. Harry thought they sounded happy.

"Lee." The one next to Harry said, shooting him a thankful look.

"So you're a first year?" Fred asked, settling back into his seat.

"Yeah, that easy to tell?"

"I think we would have remembered seeing someone with green skin now wouldn't we Fred?" George said, looking to his twin

"Right you are George, though I do admit that this inspires a great few good ideas for pranks." Fred answered sharing a quick look before turning back to Harry.

"Yeah I guess that's true. Suppose you're curious?" Harry asked, not at all minding the nods all three of them gave him.

"Yeah I figured. I got sick when I was real young, and an awesome side effect of the cure was my skin. And the scars." He said, pointing to the multiple patterns on his neck and wrists.

"Our deepest apologies for your unfortunate ailments, young Harry." Both twins spoke as one

"No apologies necessary, as you can see I am in perfect health now." Harry liked these guys.

The four of them quickly lapsed into pleasant conversation, the three older students sharing some tips for how to survive the early days of school. Lee warned him that making friends with the twins was guaranteeing he'd be made into a prank guinea pig. To which Harry made direct eye contact and said boldly "Bring it on."

The twins liked him even more after that. Harry learned that they didn't just look like the rude ginger boy from earlier, he was in fact their little brother. Harry chose not to mention that he didn't like their brother.

The twins shared some stories of their siblings, having five of them. Harry returned in kind with stories of his own brother and sister. Lee unfortunately was an only child, but he tried to share some decent stories of his time with his parents, and his time at hogwarts.

Harry didn't even notice when the train began to move, fully engrossed in a story from Lee about the time his mother got hit by a prank from the twins in the mail meant for Lee. Her hair was apparently pink for weeks, and she was still finding glitter on parts of her body.

When the snack trolley came by, Harry offered to buy his new friends some. The twins jokingly suggested he buy all of it. Meeting them blow for blow Harry pulled several handfuls of galleons from his pouch he'd begun to keep around his waist. Minutes later he was staring smugly over a mountain of candy on the pull out table every compartment had. The twins both conceded defeat as they picked out a chocolate frog, both pocketing the card as it was one they didn't have yet.

A few hours into the ride they were interrupted in the middle of a retelling of the twins' favorite prank by the door being flung open and the boy Harry remembered from Madame Malkins sweeping in flanked by two houses wearing human skin.

"Oh it's you." He said, sneering at Harry, who just shot him a playful grin and a wink.

After a snort of disgust he continued "I had heard that Harry Potter was somewhere on the train but he's obviously not here." He sent a short glare at lee and the twins, before making to turn out and leave.

"It's Potter-Dursley now, actually. But I just go by Harry." Harry was in the process of tying his hair back into a ponytail as he said this, revealing the faded lightning bolt shaped scar he'd learned he was famous for.

All six of the other occupants of the room gasped, before the twins both got passed their shock and grinned.

"Why, ickle Harrykins, you never told us you were THE Harry Potter."

"The defeater of you-know-who."

"Savior of the Magical world."

"The boy who lived?" They spoke in turns, sending Harry the same looks he'd seen when they first entered, and the few times they'd lapsed into it during the train ride.

Harry met them grin for grin. "You never asked." He stated simply. Grinning a bit wider at Lees snort.

"I suppose we didn't, did we Fred?"

"That we didn't George. I believe the mistake here was ours."

"That it was Fred, that it was." They went back and forth, grinning back at Harry at the end, immensely happy they'd finally found another person who truly appreciated a good prank.

"You are Harry Potter?" The pale haired boy said, shock still evident on his face.

"I just said that didn't I? Do you need a moment to sit? Maybe something to get the taste of flies out of your mouth? It has been open for quite a while." Harry ignored the chuckles from the other three in the compartment this time, smiling pleasantly at the intruders.

The kid huffed, before straightening up and holding his hand out. "My name is Draco Malfoy. The two behind me are Crabbe, and Goyle. I would like to offer my hand in friendship, as I grew up in this world and I would love to help you find the… right sort to associate with." At that Harry's smile sharpened just a bit. He could already tell exactly what kind of person he was dealing with.

He reached out and shook Draco's hand "I appreciate the offer of friendship, and the offer of help, but I prefer to form my own opinions if it's all the same to you. If you wanted to study together when term starts I would sure appreciate the help of someone who grew up around magic." He met Draco's eyes, a hard look telling him exactly what he really thought.

"Yes well, that sounds reasonable. We shall speak again at Hogwarts." Draco was glaring at him. Obviously he didn't like Harry more or less tossing away his offer. Harry hid a smug grin when he saw Draco try to discreetly shake the pain from his hand. He'd gripped just a bit too hard during that hand shake.

At that Draco left, Crabbe and Goyle with him, shutting the door a little too forcefully behind them. "Well he was pleasant." Harry said jokingly, dropping back in his seat and looking around the room.

"At least he seemed slightly better than his father." George muttered, looking to the door.

"Our father has known his for years, and that man is a truly nasty piece of work." Fred answered Harry's questioning look.

All spoiled on conversation for a little bit they each busied themselves. Harry pulled back out his book of rituals, lee pulled out an essay and reread it, looking for any errors or mistakes, and the twins both began writing in notebooks they apparently kept on their person. Harry chuckled whenever he saw one of them glance over and write something in the others book, occasionally whispering things Harry couldn't hear.

Most of the ride passed in relative silence after that, only broken by the occasional page turn or short scribbling of a quill on parchment.

A few hours later their peace was yet again interrupted by the sound of a door opening once again. Behind it stood a girl with hair even bushier and frizzier than Harry's, and a pudgy boy with a cowed look about him.

"I don't suppose any of you have seen a toad? Nevilles lost his." The girls eyes lingered on Harry for a moment as she spoke, before continuing to look around the compartment.

"Can't say we have, though we'll surely keep an eye open." Fred and George spoke as one, grinning at the unnerved look they both sent them.

"Thank you. And you might want to change into your school robes soon, it won't be long before we're there." She said again, before softly closing the door and moving on.

All four of them rolled their eyes before getting up and changing. The twins did admit they were about an hour out.

"I suppose this might be a little late, but what house do you think you'll be getting into?" Lee questioned, quickly checking the collar on his robes.

"Why that should be obvious enough my dear Lee."

"Yes, what kind of question is that even."

"As if Harry Potter would ever be in any other house-"

"Than the house of the Brave and the Strong-"

"Gryffindor."

Harry rolled his eyes at Fred and George's antics yet again. "Honestly I really don't care. I feel like all four of the houses would probably help me in the long run." He said, looking back down to his book.

"You keep thinking that my dear Harry, we'll be saving you a spot at the Gryffindor table." George stated matter-of-factly. Fred nodding sagely beside him.

Harry just shook his head and tried to find his place on the page. He'd read about the four houses and honestly couldn't find it in himself to care enough about which house he might be in. As far as he was concerned he could fit in to all four.

A short time later the four of them were filing off the train. With a quick goodbye and a promise from Lee to keep in touch if Harry didn't join them in Gryffindor, Harry was walking towards the massive tower of a man calling out for the first years.

Once a sizable group of kids were gathered at the mans feet, he pushed off shaking the ground with every step he took towards a large gathering of Wooden boats.

"Hop in! No more'n three to a boat!" The great man shouted, climbing into his own. 'That boat is at least three times bigger than any of the others, why is it still sinking under his weight?' Harry thought to himself as he climbed into his own, being lucky to be the first one on.

A familiar pair climbed in behind him, making him chuckle. "You find your missing toad Neville?" Harry asked, frowning at the slouched shoulders and fearful look in the pudgy boys eyes.

"No. Thank you for asking." He muttered, close to a whisper and looking to the water below them.

Harry frowned a little harder, glancing at the girl with him "Don't worry mate, I'm sure he'll turn up eventually." He tried to sound reassuring but it didn't exactly sound right, even to him.

"I never introduced myself on the train did I? I'm Hermione Granger, and as you remember this is Neville, Neville Longbottom." The girl, Hermione as he now knew, introduced herself.

"Harry Dursley." He said, holding back a scoff when Hermione launched into a tirade about what she'd read in 'Hogwarts: A History'. Turning his gaze to the water he watched it pass by as he boats set off. The waters were calm.

"Don't mind the giant squid. You don't bother him he won't bother you." The large man in the lead boat bellowed. Harry heard him bark out a laugh when there were multiple screams at the massive tentacle waving at them from farther out in the lake. Harry was the only one to wave back, smiling when he saw its waving speed up just a tad.

And then the boats rounded a corner. Harry'd been having his breath taken away more times than he cared to admit since he'd been introduced to the magical world. He hoped that would never stop. Hogwarts towered high into the sky, warm orange lights peeking from more windows than Harry could count. It appeared to sit atop a huge outcropping of dirt and stone, rising up from the lake to perfectly perch up the castle. 'Okay maybe not perfectly' Harry thought seeing the large hall that hung off the side, held up by a clutter of trees so dense not even bugs could slip through.

Harry stared and stared, taking in every inch he could as the boats creeped towards a cave opening at the base of the cliff. "Watch yer 'eads!" The man bellowed, leaning down to duck below the cave ceiling. "You're the only one tall enough to worry!" Harry shouted back, chuckling when the man looked up and suddenly looked more bashful - under a truly massive beard and moustache - than he'd ever seen.

The boats pulled up to a small underground harbor, and after struggling off the boats the kids all filed after Hagrid as he took the steps up to a large doorway 13 at a time. Looking at the doorway Harry knew it had to have been enlarged for Hagrid, cause there was no way the school was originally built with a door that perfectly sized.

Hagrid punched the door in what Harry thought might have been a knock, and took a minor step back when it swung forward and revealed a stern looking woman in dark green robes.

"The firs' years Professor McGonagal." Said the man.

"Thank you, Hagrid. I will take them from here." Hagrid stepped aside, letting the kids follow the Professor through the door, into what looked like an entrance hall. If the outside looked amazing then the inside was just fascinating. Three of the walls each had doorways, one being the one he just came through. And the fourth lead into a massive room with the bottoms of what Harry could tell was probably the most intricate system of staircases in the world. But above the doors and the open arch Harry could see looking up thousands upon thousands of stone armored soldiers each standing vigil over the hall in their own little alcove. Far above them Harry thought he could see the parts of a clocktower he could remember seeing from outside.

"In just a moment you will be brought into the Great Hall, where you will each be sorted into one of the four houses. Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. Upon sorting you will join your house at one of the tables. The only times you are required to sit at your house table are during the opening and closing feasts every year. Your house is going to be like your family for the next seven years, guiding and supporting each other as you continue your education here."

Before McGonagall could continue multiple screams rang out from the crowd as a group of pale, faded images of people floated passed them and through the wall into the great hall. Apparently he books weren't lying when they wrote about Hogwarts having ghosts.

"If you will wait here, I will step in to make sure they are ready for you." Professor McGonagall walked through the door leaving the large group of kids alone. Nervous whispering and muttering spread its way through the crowd. The young teens were all wondering how the sorting would work. Harry snorted at the mention of 1000 question written tests, and laughed out loud at the mention of wrestling a troll from Fred and George's brother. Of course those two would tell him that.

"What say you Potter, how do you expect they will be sorting us." Harry didn't realize Draco had sidled up next to him until he spoke up in question, silencing the rest of the teens and turning shocked and curious looks his way.

Harry rolled his eyes"I don't really think it ma-" But he was cut off before he could finish.

"You didn't tell me you were Harry bloody Potter mate!?" The twins brother, Ron, Harry thought, shouted roughly pushing his way through the crowd to Harry and Draco.

"A. You didn't ask. And B. I'm not Harry Potter, I'm Harry Potter-Dursley, and I prefer people just call me Dursley." Harry said, trying to give as many people as he could a pointed look. He scoffed when he could see that none of them took the hint.

"What's the matter Weasley? Are you surprised?" Draco asked, one of the snuggest looks Harry'd ever seen on his face.

"What do you sound so superior for Draco you didn't know either until I told you on the train."

"What are you doing talking to Draco Malfoy?" Ron spat out, glaring with pure hatred at Draco.

"I can talk to whoever I want."

"But you're Harry bloody Potter. You're supposed to be the one who defeats people like Malfoy, not friends with him!" Ron shouted. Harry was hoping to give this guy a chance when he got to know the twins a little better, but that chance was quickly flying out the door.

Before any of them could continue McGonagall returned, silencing the entire crowd. Though Ron was still glaring at Draco, and Draco was still smugly glancing between them as if he were an aristocrat that owned both of them and the squabbles between them were nothing but amusing.

"Please follow me, the sorting will begin shortly." At that she turned on her heel and lead the entire crowd into the Great Hall.

And Harry was in a good mood again. There were candles floating in the air over four long ornate tables stretching the whole length of the hall. The walls were all filled with windows of stained glass depicting scenes of the four founders, and the ceiling mirrored the night sky perfectly. It was all so amazing and Harry could no longer care about the petty argument from moments before. Nor did he even mind the whispering about or staring directed at him.

At the end of the hall on a raised portion there was another table perpendicular to the rest that sat all the people Harry assumed to be the teachers. In the center smiling with one of the largest smiles harry had ever seen him smile sat Albus. Their eyes met briefly as the group of first years cam to a stop at the bottom of the small staircase leading to the staff table. Albus flashed him brief twinkly-eyed grin and a discreet wink before turning to look at the rest of the students.

As this was happening mcgonagall hopped up the few small steps and placed down a small four-legged stool. On top of the stool she put a pointed wizard's hat. It looked like it had been destroyed and fixed possibly hundreds of times, each with a slightly different and newer material.

After a few seconds of silence, in which everyone stared at the hat, a rip near the brim opened wide like a mouth - and the hat began to sing:

'Oh you may not think I'm pretty,

But don't judge on what you see,

I'll eat myself if you can find

A smarter hat than me.

You can keep your bowlers black,

Your top hats sleek and tall,

For I'm the Hogwarts sorting hat

And I can cap them all.

There's nothing hidden in your head

The sorting hat can't see,

So try me on and I will tell you

Where you ought to be.

You might belong in Gryffindor,

Where dwell the brave at heart,

Their daring, nerve and chivalry

Set Gryffindor apart;

You might belong in Hufflepuff,

Where they are just and loyal,

Those patient Hufflepuffs are true

And unafraid of toil;

Or yet in wise old Ravenclaw,

If you're a ready mind,

Where those of wit and learning,

Will always find their kind;

Or perhaps in Slytherin,

You'll make your real friends,

Those cunning folk use any means

To achieve their ends.

So put me on! Don't be afraid!

And don't get in a flap!

You're in safe hands (though I have none)

For I'm a thinking cap!"

Harry didn't think he would ever understand the word 'Bewildered' more than he did at that moment as everyone else applauded the hats song. 'Seems a little boring that all we really have to do is put on a hat' Harry thought. He wasn't disappointed, he was just expecting something a little more...magical?

Professor McGonagall stepped up behind the stool "when I call your name you will come forward, sit and I will place the hat upon your head. When it calls out your house please move to join them at whatever table."

There was a brief pause as she made sure every first year heard her, before calling out "Abbot, Hannah."

Harry tuned out after her, not bothering to pay attention until he heard a name he recognized.

"Granger, Hermione." McGonagall called, and the bushy haired girl scampered up the stool, letting the hat come to rest on her head.

It was a tense few moments before the hat called out "Gryffindor!"

A flush came to the girls dark skin at the loud applause from the Gryffindor table. She removed the hat and the sorting continued.

A little while later Harry's thoughts were interrupted once again by "Longbottom, Neville." The pudgy boy from earlier trudged his way to the stool. Harry frowned at how nervous and downtrodden he looked.

Harry didn't know what the average for sortings was, he hadn't been paying attention, but it was only the briefest few seconds before the hat bellowed "Gryffindor!" 'Is it just me or did the hat sound angry' Harry thought, watching the boy trudge over to the red table and sit next to Hermione.

It wasn't long after that before Harry's thoughts were once again interrupted by McGonagall. "Malfoy, Draco."

The pale blonde strode forward. The hat barely touched his head before it shouted "Slytherin!" And he was striding towards the green table.

Harry tuned out once again, waiting for his name. He'd been hoping Albus would list him under Dursley, but he supposed since his parents hyphenated his last names that's how it would likely be.

"Potter-Dursley, Harry." The professor finally called, setting a hush about the hall in an instant. Harry sighed and stepped forward, ignoring the collective gasp and sending a quick look of frustration to Albus, growling slightly when Albus just grinned and winked once again.

Butt on stool, Harry closed his eyes and waited for the hat. 'Well well, it's been a little while since I was placed on someone as interesting as you.' Harry heard in his mind, as if he'd thought it himself. 'Now lets see here. Confidence and bravery in spades, a champion boxer I see. Not too cunning unfortunately, I can see a directness about you. Nor is there much ambition, though it is rather bold of you to assume you can keep your title being away for so long. Intelligent, a love of reading, but for the joy of it, and not for any true desire to learn. Ah there it is. Loyal to those deserving and hardworking to a fault. I don't suppose I've seen more of either in one student.' The hat paused at that, probably expecting him to say something. 'Put me wherever you like, doesn't matter much to me. Though you probably saw that rooting through my head.' 'Indeed I did, I merely wanted to confirm. I expect many a great thing from you Mr. Dursley, and I can think of no house that would accept you better than…'

"Hufflepuff!"

Dead silence pierced the hall as Harry stood removing the hat, before moving towards the yellow table.

And then there was cheering. The entire table he was moving towards erupted into cheers and applause, a lot of them standing on the benches. The other three tables were clapping politely, but Harry could see the red ones were clearly confused. He sent a smug grin the way of the twins, both sitting there with gobsmacked expressions.

Sitting next to a rather excited young woman with pink hair, Harry watched McGonagall settle the cheers back down and continue with the sorting.

"Who would have guessed that not only would there be another Metamorphmagus at Hogwarts, but they would be Harry Bleeding Potter!" The woman next to him said, slinging an arm around his shoulders and sending him a playful grin.

"Metamorphmagus?" Harry couldn't remember if he'd read that term anywhere.

"Yeah, a witch or wizard that can change their appearance, like we can?" She said, changing her hair between every color imaginable and even changing her skin to match his pale green.

"I can't change my appearance. This is just my skin." Harry said, stunning everyone around him.

"Oh. Well that's cool, I guess…" the young woman beside him sounded nervous now, obviously embarrassed about her mistake.

Harry repressed a chuckle "Can you change any part of your body?" Harry asked, grinning when she perked up in an instant and began to show off every part about her she could change.

"So why exactly did you wake me up so early the Great Hall isn't even open yet?" Harry spoke through a yawn, tiredly slouched on the wall next to a large group of his new classmates.

"Aren't you excited to get started? Classes start today!" Justin finch-fletchley, another first year Hufflepuff , cheered with entirely too much enthusiasm for how early it was.

"Of course I'm excited, but waiting outside a closed door for breakfast for 30 minutes is not what I was excited for."

The chuckles of several upper class men rang out next to him "Don't worry Harry, being in Hufflepuff you get pretty used to waking up early. Our entire house will be done with breakfast and ready for classes before even half of the rest the school is awake." Harry groaned at that. Cedric Diggory had introduced himself last night, and Harry could honestly say he liked the fourth year, but that was well fed and rested Harry. Tired Harry is a different matter.

"Cedric, I like ya man, but you're not pleading a very good case here." Harry mumbled, slapping his cheeks a few times and hoping the doors would open soon so he could get some food in his stomach.

Not too much later the entire entrance hall was a sea of yellow trimmed robes. The pink haired 7th year from last night, Tonks, plopped herself on the wall next to Harry. At least he wasn't the only one tired here.

Just a short few minutes later Albus, 'Professor Dumbledore' Harry had to correct himself again, came walking down the stairs. "Good morning all, shall we get Breakfast underway?" He sounded just as jovial as always, making Harry roll his eyes as he stood and followed everyone else through the now open doors to the great hall.

Quickly glancing up at the head table, Harry was surprised to see most of the teachers were already there. Professor Sprout, Harry's head of house, and Hagrid were both sending polite waves to the flood of hufflepuffs.

Harry stifled a chuckle seeing that Hagrid was sitting cross-legged on a lowered section of the floor and still towered above the table.

Turning to the mounds of breakfast Harry piled up his own mountain of food on his plate. He sent a quick thank you to teenage metabolism, and dug in. And after a quick bout of begging whatever made the food appear to give him something else to drink beside that god-awful pumpkin juice. He gave a quick thank you when it was replaced with a pitcher of orange juice.

"What class are you most excited for Harry?" Susan bones, another fellow first year, asked him. She and Hannah Abbott hadn't left each other's side since they'd joined each other last night. They'd even decided to room together instead of taking a single room like Harry had.

"Transfiguration probably, though I'm really excited for third year when we get to start the cooler classes."

"Yeah that makes sense, Hannah and I are both most excited for Charms. Professor Flitwick was a master Duelist before he came to teach here!" Hannah nodded along, silently agreeing with Susan's words.

"Didn't know that. Might make that class a little more interesting." Harry agreed.

Just like Cedric said Harry and the rest of the Hufflepuffs were already done and the first years were going over their class schedules by the time the rest of the houses were all together.

"Hey Harry, we've got herbology first, you wanna head over there now since we're already done?" Wayne Hopkins asked, gesturing to the rest of the first years. Harry agreed with a nod of his head, they packed up and made their way to the door. Harry said a quick hello to the twins, Hermione and Neville as he passed.

"Hey Ernie, you wanna explain what the heck quidditch is? I keep hearing people talk about it." Harry was curious, he'd overheard people talking about it all morning.

He was subjected to three other boys yelling about, in their words, "the best sport ever played!" For the rest of the walk to the greenhouses and the wait for class to start. He could honestly say he was excited to watch a game.

The first week of school passed by mostly uneventful for Harry. He'd been to all of his classes by the end of the week, and while most of them were fantastic, a good few seemed they would be a bit of a slog this year. 'Here's to hoping they get better in the later years.' Harry found himself thinking more often than not.

His first class of the year was Herbology, and Harry rather enjoyed it. He'd occasionally helped his mum with the gardening for a few years, and gardening seemed to be most of what they did. Every class started with professor Sprout explaining what plant they would be working with, then a short lecture about the proper method. (and dangers, as most Magical plants had some air of danger to them) and then they got to work tending to a sample of whatever plant they were working with that day.

History of Magic was a colossal disappointment. The first chapter in the textbook described the founding of the first ever recorded Coven. Every chapter was fascinating and Harry had already read through the text five times by the first class. But the teacher, a ghost named Professor Binns, was so monotone boring it even put Harry to sleep. He just droned on and on, demanding they write down names and dates and practically nothing else. And he'd even been getting people mixed up!

Astronomy was fun, they got to sit in the tallest tower and look through special telescopes, occasionally taking notes when they felt necessary. Harry didn't know how he was possibly expected to get a good night's sleep, but he could get used to it. Eventually.

Charms was lively. Professor Flitwick really did prove himself, tasking everyone with a simple color changing charm for their clothes for the first class. With the best practical instruction Harry had ever experienced, every single student left class that first day excited that they'd managed to get the spell to work. Professor Flitwick spent very little time with the theory (comparatively speaking) but practically speaking he was a genius.

Transfiguration was almost his favorite. Professor McGonagall was exactly the kind of teacher he loved, giving detailed instruction and answering questions exactly. She took command of the class from the very beginning, showing off exactly what made her qualified to teach by turning her desk into a large jungle-cat and back. Harry knew he would have a lot of fun with that class, especially once he figured out if the rumors of professor McGonagall being able to turn into a cat were true. Harry's mouth was watering at the idea of being able to turn into an animal.

Defense against the dark arts was just a joke. Professor Quirrel was a nervous stuttering tool. He couldn't get through one sentence, he spent more time fearfully glancing around the room than he did teaching, and his classroom reeked of garlic. Harry decided before the end of the first day he would use that class to just read from his book and practice on his own time.

And then his double-potions on Friday came around. Harry knew he would love the subject just from reading his textbook - and the several extra books he'd also gotten on the subject, he was excited damnit potions could do damn near anything! - and he was probably the only one that wasn't unnerved by the classroom in the dungeons. He was sitting near the front of the class with the same excited grin that had been on his face before every class all week.

Professor Snape swept into the room moments after everyone was seated. And calmly began to take roll call. Just like every other teacher at his name Professor Snape briefly paused, meeting his eyes. Harry decided to ignore the contempt in the professor's voice, and look in his eyes when they briefly made contact.

"You are here to learn the subtle and exact art of Potion-Making," he began. He spoke in barely more than a whisper, but they caught every word. Like professor McGonagall, Professor Snape had the gift of keeping a class silent without effort. "As there is little foolish wand-waving here, many of you will hardly believe this is magic. I don't expect you will really understand the beauty of the softly simmering cauldron with its shimmering fumes, the delicate power of liquids that creep through human veins, bewitching the mind, ensnaring the senses… I can teach you how to bottle fame, brew glory, even stopper death - if you only have the talent and mindset to learn them."

There was silence in the room as Professor Snape walked towards a small blackboard, flipping it over to reveal a handful of questions. "Before we begin let's test whether any of you have the forethought to read your texts before your first assignments. What would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?"

Harry glanced around the room, rolling his eyes at the looks of fear and confusion in every other students eyes. Looking back to Professor Snape he saw the same disappointment in his eyes as what Harry felt. 'Might as well' Harry thought, raising his hand.

"Mr Potter?"

"I think that was the Draught of Living Death?" He answered, hoping he said draught correctly, he was unsure of the pronunciation of that word.

"That is correct. Though it is pronounced 'dra-ft' Mr Potter." Harry tried not to let his embarrassment at not knowing the word show.

"Perhaps a simpler question is in order, since only one of you seemed to know the first one. Where would you look if I told you to find me a bezoar?" Harry chose not to raise his hand for this one. It was literally a first chapter answer. He remembered that from somewhere in the first ten pages. Though when a full minute of Professor Snape glaring around the class elapsed, he reluctantly raised his hand.

"In the stomach of a goat sir." He answered at Professor Snape's expectant look.

"Once again correct Mr Potter. Though it is worrying to see that you are apparently the only one to read even the littlest bit of the required texts. Perhaps I should be testing you instead. Tell me Mr Potter, what is the difference between monkshood and wolfsbane?"

Harry blanched for a few moments, wracking his brain. He couldn't remember what the difference was. Wait "they're the same thing, aren't they?" He asked, hoping he wasn't confusing them with something else from the book. There were far too many ingredients with multiple names.

"They are indeed Mr Potter. Five points to Hufflepuff for bothering to prepare for classes. As for the rest of you, I should hope you had the presence of mind to write down those answers." At that Professor Snape swept to his desk, while the rest of the class scrambled to retrieve quills and parchment, scratching down their notes.

The class was perfect. Professor Snape told them they would be brewing a simple Boil curing potion, and after a short explanation of the instructions, ingredients and proper method, set them into pairs and they got to work. Professor Snape swept around the room silently, peering over shoulders and correcting any mistakes he saw. He saw a lot.

"Stir slower Mrs Bones. I do not want to have to tell you again."

"Mr Boot, if you were hoping to give your patient more boils, then continue to add those snake fangs whole, instead of crushing them as I instructed mere minutes ago."

"Mrs Brocklehurst, you would do well to spend more time stewing your horned slugs."

"Mr's Potter and Finch-Fletchley, I should hope you don't think you are done. That potion has not had nearly enough time on the fire for the correct consistency, nor has it settled into the correct color." Harry's cheeks darkened along with his partner Justin as they both tried to hide the porcupine quills and vials they had been getting out.

The class was tense, quiet, and Snape's presence unnerved everyone. Harry loved every second. Professor Snape somehow managed to be the best teacher he'd ever had. Before he'd even let them think about starting their potions he'd drilled into them every aspect of the process, and while it was unnerving he somehow managed to key into every even tiny mistake anyone made, correcting them until every student was turning in a near perfect potion at the end. Professor Snape glared at everyone and spoke with more contempt than Harry had ever heard, yet Harry could tell he had a true passion for the subject. Harry didn't expect he'd be getting along too well with the professor, but the class was quickly declared his favorite.

Two weeks into school Harry was in love. He'd spent every day scurrying between classes, absorbing every bit of knowledge he could. He'd been focusing on his colors as much as he could, exploring every inch of the castle, watching the way every single thing in the castle swirled with colors and patterns he'd never seen.

Harry was honestly in love with magic.

"You excited for your first day of flying Harry?" Lee asked through a mouthful of eggs and sausage. Harry had been eating most of his breakfasts with his friends in Gryffindor since the Hufflepuffs and Gryffindor's only shared one class together, and the twins and Lee were two years above him. He had classes and ate lunch with his fellow Hufflepuffs so it was fine.

"Yeah, sounds like it'll be fun." Harry spoke once he'd swallowed, once again earning an appreciative look from Hermione for not talking with his mouth full.

" 'Fun' he says."

"As if the son of the greatest seeker to ever grace the halls of Hogwarts."

"Could ever be anything but a savant in the art of flying."

"That's all well and good guys but it is good to remember I've never flown before today." Harry didn't think he'd ever grow tired of the twins antics. He knew it wasn't for everyone, hermione especially seemed to be rolling her eyes a lot. (Though he was pretty sure she loved it almost as much as he did, she just refused to admit it.)

"Don't forget you promised to help Neville and I with our potions assignment." Hermione piped up. Harry rolled his eyes at her, she'd been reminding him all morning. He liked hermione but even he could admit she was maybe just a little bit too studious for her own good.

"I'm not gonna forget hermione, don't worry about it. I'm already done with mine, we'll head to the library as soon as flying lessons are done."

"It's Saturday! Why are you talking about doing homework for a class we don't have until the end of next week!" Ron yelled, shooting nasty glares at Harry and Hermione.

"Because when you do your work early you don't have to worry about it anymore." Was it pathetic that Harry had gotten used to Ron's terrible attitude and incessant bothering after only two weeks?

"But it's Saturday!"

"That it is, and I'll be enjoying my Saturday with my friends when our class work is done and we don't have to worry about it anymore." Harry didn't even bother looking at Ron anymore.

"What's that you got there Neville?" Lee asked, once again being the one who had to divert attention from the annoyance that was Ron Weasley.

"My gran sent it to me."

"Is that a remembrall?" Hermione cut him off.

"Yeah, it's supposed to help you know when you've forgotten something… oh." He muttered, seeing the fog on the inside turn red.

"Well that's pretty useless, isn't it? How's it supposed to help if it doesn't also tell you what you've forgotten?" Fred asked, eyeing the glass orb.

"Yeah, its not exactly helpful." Neville muttered, staring at the orb in his hands.

"Well now you know you've forgotten something, maybe you'll remember on our way to lessons." Harry said, patting Neville on the back as the first years all stood up.

They met up with Susan Bones and Hannah Abbott on their way out the hall, and the five of them made their way out to the courtyard.

"Draco you don't even know what a Helicopter is!" Harry shouted across the courtyard, finally getting tired of Dracos bragging about how good a flyer he was.

"Alright everyone line up! Stand next to a broom, come on!" Madame Hooch yelled out, saving everyone from whatever petulant reply he was planning to give Harry.

When everyone was next to a broom she continued. "Alright everyone, reach out with your dominant hand and firmly say 'UP' nice and clear!"

Harry chuckled watching 30 first years all shouting "UP" at a broom, stifling actual laughter seeing that Dracos broom wasn't coming up.

"UP" Harry stated, a little surprised when the broom immediately slammed up into his hand.

"Now that all of you have your brooms I want you to mount them like so," she said, waiting briefly for all of them to get their brooms ready. "Now when I say, kick off the ground and allow yourself to hover just slightly off the ground. I don't want to see any of you flying off!"

Harry was about to kick off when he heard screaming a few people down from him.

"Mr longbottom! What did I say?" Madame hooch shouted, watching Neville shoot into the air and rocket off in the direction of the castle.

He flew forward, screaming his lungs dry and trying desperately to steer around the castle. Harry watched terrified as he somehow managed to pull himself up from not planting directly into the castle wall, only to smash into the lip on the roof, falling down and catching his sweater vest on the sword of a statue, only for it to tear and fall feet first to the ground.

"All of you stay on the ground! I don't want to see any of you in the air when I return from taking Mr Longbottom to the infirmary." Madame Hooch called out, rushing to Neville's side, waving her wand a few times and pulling Nevilles now floating body into the castle.

"Serves him right! That's why they shouldn't let squibs like him into Hogwarts." Pansy parkinson snickered, getting a chuckle from most of the rest of the slytherins.

"Shut it Parkinson!" Parvati Patil hissed out. Sending a vicious glare in that direction.

"Look!" Draco called out, darting forward and snatching something from out of the grass. "It's that stupid thing the pathetic Squibs gran sent him."

"Give that here, Draco!" Harry shouted, stalking towards him.

"You want it do you Potter? Then go get it!" He shouted, before rearing back and throwing the remembrall as far as he could. Which was apparently pretty far, as it glinted in the sun still somehow going up.

"This is the last time I'll say it Draco, my name is Dursley!" Harry said, rearing back striking his arm forward, connecting with the satisfying crunch of a broken nose Harry knew so well. After that he quickly mounted his broom, ignoring hermione screaming about getting everyone in trouble, and shot off after the glint of light he could see the remembrall was making off the sun.

Harry didn't count how long it took him to reach the orb, grabbing it out of the sky, and rear back to the ground. He knew it had to have been fast, because when he landed he saw shocked faces all around him.

"MR DURSLEY!" Harry winced. Slowly turning to see Professors McGonagall and Sprout running into the courtyard.

The next few minutes were a blur as Harry was dragged from the courtyard, he was glad to hear multiple people - even Ron - try to defend him, and carted off to the headmasters office. Where he was promptly sat on a small bench just outside the door and told to wait while Professor Sprout talked to Dumbledore.

Professor McGonagall stood next to him, anger and disappointment coming off her in waves. She didn't say anything, which was honestly worse in Harry's opinion. They just waited together as professors Sprout and Dumbledore had their talk on the other side of the door.

What seemed like hours later, 'why aren't there any clocks?' Harry thought not for the first time, the door finally opened and Dumbledore's elderly face was revealed. "Thank you for keeping Mr Dursley company Minerva, but that will be all. If you could make your way to the infirmary to check on Mr Malfoy?" McGonagall nodded, making to walk back down the stairs.

"Professor wait! If you're going to the infirmary could you give this to Neville? Harry asked, pulling the remembrall from his pocket and handing it to the still glaring Professor. She took it from his hand without a word and walked off.

Turning back to the door Harry saw a smile on Dumbledore's face as he ushered him into the office.

Harry took a seat next to Professor Sprout, waiting for Dumbledore to take his seat and say something.

"Now Harry, while I am quite proud of your actions defending another student, as well as the significant talent you showed retrieving Mr Longbottom's Remembrall, I am quite disappointed in you for striking Mr Malfoy as you did." He gave Harry that same disappointed look Harry had always hated, making him squirm the littlest bit.

"I don't tolerate bullies Professor, and Draco has proven he won't listen to words. Hopefully actions will speak a little louder here." Harry said, pointedly refusing to make eye contact.

"Yes I am aware you have had previous altercations with Mr Malfoy, but we cannot let your actions stand. Violence is not accepted here at Hogwarts. For your Punishment you will be serving Detention every night for the next week with Hagrid helping him perform his duties as groundskeeper."

"Yes sir." Harry muttered, at least glad it wasn't anything worse. Filch had been eyeing him dirty ever since he'd seen Harry with the twins checking out a few of the secret passages.

"Now as for your other actions in retrieving Mr Longbottom's Remembrall. Starting next week I want you to report to practice with the Hufflepuff Quidditch team. Before you get excited you will not be joining the team, had you not explicitly ignored your professors instructions and decided to punch Mr Malfoy that might be different, but I am not letting someone with your natural talent get away, you will practice with the team for the next year where at that point you may be allowed to join." Harry knew it wouldn't be a good idea to let his excitement at that prospect show, instead glancing between professors.

"That is all, Harry, you may return to your day. Though I ask that you refrain from visiting the infirmary, it would do you good to stay away from Mr Malfoy for a while." Harry nodded, getting up to leave and head to the library.

Harry knew he was a pretty tall person. He'd shot up pretty quickly when he turned 12, in the span of a year growing over a foot. A fourteen year old who was just under six foot was nothing to sneeze at.

He didn't even reach Hagrids waist. The man was a giant. 'Half-giant' he corrected himself.

"So what can I help you with Hagrid? We're stuck with each other for the next week." Harry asked, straining his neck to try to look up at hagrids face.

"Professor Sprout finally finished growin up a batch of her special pumpkins for Halloween. We're gonna prepare me field for plantin." Hagrid replied, nodding towards the moderately sized crop field wedged between the back wall of Hagrids "hut" (it was really more like a small mansion, but a man his size needed a lot more room.) and the edge of the forbidden forest.

"So what do you want me to do?" Harry asked, hoping Hagrid wasn't gonna make him pull the huge plow set in one corner of the field.

"Yer gonna follow me with a trowel as I pull that there plow and make sure me lines er strait." Hagrid leaned down to hand Harry a trowel, roughly shoving it into his chest in what must have been gentle for the man.

"Sorry, little hard to control me strength sometimes." He said, giving Harry a sheepish smile from his crouched position.

"No problem Hagrid." Hagrid nodded at him quickly, tromping over to strap himself into his plow.

Harry was actually kind of looking forward to this. The short amount of time he'd spent with Hagrid walking down to his "hut" proved him to be excellent company, and Hagrid was definitely the talkative type. Harry thought he might almost have fun with this!

'That was fun!' Harry thought to himself, walking through the entrance hall towards the Hufflepuff dormitories. He'd placed himself behind Hagrid to follow him for efficiency's sake, and promptly laughed himself silly at the tidal wave of dirt and mud that practically drowned him when Hagrid surged forward. He'd quickly made a game out of it. Trying to see how well he could dodge the waves, dragging his trowel along behind him to make sure he was still doing what Hagrid asked him to do. A few rows in Hagrid caught on to what he was doing, joining in by trying to change up the speed at which he moved, sometimes slowing to a stop before bursting forward in a ground-shaking leap. It took way longer than it should have, but three hours later a thoroughly dirty Hagrid and Harry looked in pride at the perfect rows of their soon to be pumpkin patch.

Hagrids lower body was completely covered, but other than some dirt clods in his hair and some mud on his frame his upper body was mostly clean. Harry on the other hand was completely covered. Not a single inch of him was visible under a thick layer of brown. Both of them had huge infectious grins on their face.

Hagrid happily escorted Harry up to the castle, explains to Mr filch why he was so late after curfew, and waved Harry off as he moved to his dorm.

Or at least that's where he had intended to go.

'Was that Fred?' Harry asked to himself, carefully following up one of the staircases, turning down a corridor to catch a glimpse of both twins sneaking into an unused classroom next to the library. He carefully followed, hoping he was the only one that heard the gentle crunching he made whenever me moved.

"What are you two doing in here?" He asked, silently closing the door behind him. Grinning as both twins jumped at the sound of his voice, before cringing away at the sight of him.

"Monster!"

"We're sorry Mr monster!"

"We won't go out after curfew again!"

"Don't eat us!" They both cried at once. On their knees begging.

"Guys, as amusing as this is, it's me. Harry." He said, grinning at the looks of confusion on both their faces.

They both inspected him for a moment, before standing up with hunched shoulders and both letting out sighs of relief. "Harry mate you can't scare us like that."

"Your appearance at this moment borders on the terrifying."

"And why are you looking so particularly monstrous this late evening?"

Harry rolled his eyes, even when recovering from legitimate fear these two never let up.

"Had detention with Hagrid, this is the result of a night of Half-Giant gardening." Harry said, striking a pose to show off just how covered he was.

"Inter-"

"Guys normally I love your whole Schtick but just this once can we cool it? I'm tired and obviously in need of a shower...or five." Harry cut Fred off from whatever they were about to start in on. Both twins glanced at each other, before turning back to him with more genuine smiles.

"Sure thing Harry. We can admit that does get pretty tiring sometimes." George said, walking towards the door.

"Come on then, let's get your dirty young self to a shower." Fred said, clapping Harry on the back and directing Harry towards the door.

George swung the door open, only to immediately come face to face with a shocked and scared looking Hermione.

The four of them stared at each other, Harry and the twins confused why hermione of all people would be out after curfew.

"What are you three doing here?" She whisper shouted, nervously glancing around like she was expecting the whole staff to come around the corner.

"I was returning from my detention with Hagrid when I noticed these two returning from what I'm assuming was some kind of Prank." Harry shot the twins a look, 'now is not the time' he tried to tell them wordlessly. They seemed to get the message.

"What are you doing here?" George asked, he too glancing in the direction he remembered last seeing Filch.

"I… might have fallen asleep in the library…" hermione muttered, refusing to meet the exasperated looks on all three of their faces.

"Well come on then, three of us happen to be going to the same place, and the Hufflepuff dorms are on the way." Fred whispered, leading the four of them down the hall, and onto a stairway that immediately started moving upon all four of them stepping on.

"Who's there!?" They heard shout from another staircase. A little known secret only Argus filch had ever bothered to notice was that the stairs only moved when someone or something was on them. Sure something like a bug could trigger them, but late at night the stair went mostly inactive unless there happened to be students around.

"Run!" Harry whisper-screamed to the three others, all four of them breaking into as close to sprints as they could get into the hallway the staircase lead them to.

"I will find you!"

"We need to hide, now!" Hermione whispered in a desperate voice, clinging to Harry's hand as all four of them looked around for anywhere to hide.

"There!" Fred pointed out, rushing towards a door in the left wall, his wand whipping out to cast a quick spell when it didn't immediately open upon desperate attempts at the knob.

When the four of them were all piled inside, breathing ragged as they tried to keep quiet, they all let out a sigh of relief when they saw a light and shadow pass under the door. Listening to Mr Filch trudge down the hall.

"That was close." Fred muttered, collapsing against the wall.

"Eep!" They heard hermione squeak out.

Harry turned around, finally looking Into the room.

'Well that's certainly unexpected.' Harry thought, staring forward at the massive three-headed dog sleeping in the room.

Both the twins turned around as well, stiffening at the sight. And then it began to stir. Letting out the most deceptively adorable little yaps and mewls as it roused itself awake.

And then it realized it had company. And it began to growl. And slowly stalk forward towards them.

*SMACK* *yelp*

"Bad doggy!" Harry shouted, hand still outstretched into a fist where the middle head had been.

The three-headed dog let out the most pathetic little whimper as it tried to hide its middle head behind its two side heads.

Harry moved forward and reached towards the closest head to him, gently petting its head, before transitioning into a vigorous scratch when the dog leaned into his touch.

"Who's a good puppy? You are! Yes you are!" Harry cooed, happily scratching every inch of the wall of fur and dog in front of him.

The twins and Hermione watched in shocked horror as the three-headed dog rolled onto its back, and Harry leaped up onto its belly to scratch and rub as vigorously as he could. Cooing at it all the while.

"What's your name boy?" Harry asked, looking to its neck and being happy to see there was a giant collar wrapped around its neck.

"Fluffy, is that your name boy?"

*ARF* the three heads barked together, tongues lolling out in heavy pants.

"Harry we need to go!" Hermione shouted, still terrified of the giant three headed dog laying prone on its back.

"But… Puppy?!" Harry shouted back, gesturing wildly to the dog he was sitting on.

"Harry mate, I hate to spoil your fun but we're still out after curfew…" Fred muttered, still looking on dazed as Harry scratched and pet the giant dog.

Harry pouted for a bit, before sighing and crawling off Fluffys stomach. He reached out to scratch behind its now confused looking head, only the left since it was the closest one to him.

"I'll be back another time Fluffy." Harry muttered sadly, heart breaking at the sad little whine Fluffy let out.

The Cerberus hauled itself up onto its haunches, heads dipped sadly as it watched Harry leave. Harry let out a little whimper of his own as he followed the twins and hermione out the door.

"You guys… this is the third floor corridor. Why is there a Cerberus in the third floor corridor?" Hermione asked, dazedly staring down the hall with a shocked look on her face.

"I don't know. What I do know is that I'll be coming back." Harry had always wanted a dog. And this one was three in one!

"I don't care if he was sitting on top of a trap door Hermione! Who cares about whatever he might be protecting he's a giant dog!"

"Harry what's wrong." Lee asked, confused.

"I don't have enough hands." Harry whined, tears streaming down his face while he scratched two of fluffy's massive heads.

"Hey Hagrid, do you know what would be good to feed a giant dog for treats?" Harry asked, walking in front of Hagrid throwing seeds Into the dug up lines, while Hagrid pushed the dirt back into them over the seeds.

"Now why would yeh want to know that Harry? Yeh haven't been pokin around where yeh aren't suppose to have yeh?" Hagrid asked, sweating nervously.

"Yeah, accidentally ended up in that room the other night with Fluffy."

"Harry you need to forget abou-"

"Don't worry Hagrid I don't care about whatever it is Fluffy is supposed to be guarding. I just want to play with the puppy."

"Ah. Well if yeh promise yeh won't be pokin around any further I can tell yeh a few things about takin care of him. Be good for him to get some company." Harry grinned and listened closely as Hagrid launched into an explanation on proper Cerberus care.

"So do you know anything about quidditch Harry?" Cedric asked him. He and Tonks were leading him down to the quidditch pitch for his first practice.

"My classmates tried to explain the rules to me a few weeks ago, but I didn't really listen to most of it."

"Alright well there are seven players on a team, and three positions to play, keeper, chaser and seeker. On any team there's only one keeper, and one seeker. The other five all play chaser. It's the chasers and the seekers job to score goals, and it's the keepers job to block goals. The seeker also has the additional goal of being the one to end the game, but the vast majority of gameplay is spent scoring goals." Cedric paused, making sure Harry was keeping up.

"I'm following so far, please continue."

"Right. There are two balls in play at any given time in the game, the quaffle, and the snitch. Once again the quaffle is the only one you need to worry about for the most part. The chasers and seeker play with the quaffle, trying to score goals by throwing it through one of the three rings at both ends of the field."

"Let me guess the keeper blocks the shots made at the rings?" Harry asked, mostly just to let them know he was actually listening.

"Exactly." Tonks said, shooting him a smile.

"So why the three rings?" Harry asked, having a guess but wanting confirmation.

"All three rings are different sizes, the lowest on the left is the biggest. The mid height one on the right is middle sized, and the middle ring is the tallest and smallest ring."

"And they're all worth different points?"

"Correct. The largest ring is worth 10, the middle worth 20, and the smallest is worth 30."

"Why are the points so high? Why not just one two and three?"

"Honestly? No idea. Best guess is that it's just for flair. Bigger numbers look more exciting I guess." Cedric answered. "Though here in school each ring is only worth 10 points, so as to make the games a little more fair for us."

"Makes sense, we only played half games in football during the junior league, and in boxing we only fought three rounds instead of 9."

"Yep, same thing." Tonks replied, since Cedric didn't know what Football or boxing were.

"So when do the seeker and the snitch come into play? I'm assuming those two are together since you haven't talked about what the snitch does or the seekers second objective."

"The snitch is put into play at the start of the game, just like the quaffle, but the snitch is charmed to hide from the players. The seeker is the only one allowed to catch the snitch. When the snitch is caught the player who caught its team gets 50 points and ends the game. For the vast majority of the game the seeker plays just like any other chaser scoring goals, but they also have the secondary objective of keeping an eye out for the snitch, as well as paying attention to their teams points so that they can use the snitch to end the game and put their team in the lead for the win."

"Usually during school games whichever team catches the snitch is the winner. But professional games it can go either way." Tonks continued for Cedric, explains what Harry thought must be an unfortunate truth for the school games.

"Are the players allowed to do anything to each other? Cause otherwise this just sounds like more complicated Football on broomsticks." Harry asked in an unimpressed tone of voice.

Both Cedric and Tonks grinned at each other. "Have you heard anything about the quidditch branch of magic Harry?" Cedric asked, turning their Maniacal grins his direction.

Harry gulped with a shake of his head.

"It's a special branch of magic focusing mostly on illusions and minor annoyances that quidditch players are allowed to use on each other. You're allowed to use just about any spell that the referee deems acceptable. If you get called the opposing team earns a penalty shot, almost always resulting in 30 points. In professional games you'll see players engulfed in dragons of flame and shooting mundane skyscrapers at each other, only to see that it was actually another player disguised and now that team has scored and you have no idea why that other player wasn't crushed under millions of tonnes of building." Harry met their grin with his own maniacal look of glee. He knew he would have fun with that.

"Madame hooch teaches a class specifically for the people on the quidditch team." Tonks answered his question before he could ask it.

"I think… I'm going to enjoy this game." Harry grinned, an evil look in his eye as they walked onto the quidditch pitch where the rest of the Hufflepuff team was waiting.

"Today class, we'll be working on the levitation charm. One of the simplest and most useful charms in any skilled wizards arsenal." Professor Flitwick squeaked from his place standing on the desk at the front of the class.

"The incantation is 'Wingardium Leviosa' speak clearly like always, and move your wand with a simple swish, and flick. Get to work now, I'd like to see everyone lifting their feathers by the end." Harry turned his eye towards his desk, performing the spell first try.

He said a pleasant thank you when professor Flitwick congratulated him and turned to his book on rituals. He'd finally gotten to the last ritual in the book, and it was by far his favorite. It allowed you to lock the physical growth of your pet or familiar indefinitely. If you wanted your cat to stay a kitten forever it would. The pet still aged, it would still die at a normal age, it would just never physically show its aging process beyond what it was at when last you performed the ritual. Harry didn't have a pet yet, but he knew when he did get one he would definitely be using that ritual.

"You're saying it wrong," Harry heard from the table next to his, glancing over to see Hermione and Ron glaring at each other from their table where they were forced to sit together.

Harry glanced to his own partner Susan, both of them rolling their eyes once again at those twos antics. Charms was the only class the Hufflepuffs shared with the Gryffindors, and Harry had been trying to make sure he sat with his friends in his own house as much as his friends in Gryffindor. Neville practically refused to pair with him, claiming that he'd just drag Harry down, but hermione practically begged him to partner with her. Today just happened to be a day he'd already promised to partner with Susan, so of course it would also be the day Hermione and Ron were forced to work together by virtue of everyone else was already taken.

Ron had continued to be the same petulant little jerk the entire two months they'd been at Hogwarts. While Harry could mostly ignore him, Harry knew Hermione and Neville had it bad, especially Neville who had to share a room with him.

The twins apologized for their younger brother practically every day, but it was still a daily annoyance.

"You do it, then, if you're so clever." Ron snarled.

Hermione rolled up her sleeves, flicked her wand and recited the incantation perfectly.

"Oh, well done!" Professor Flitwick cheered, seeing Hermione's gently floating feather.

Harry grabbed Hermione and pulled her to walk with him and Susan, trying to ignore Ron furiously bumbling his way out the class.

"No wonder she hasn't got any real friends, the bints a bloody nightmare!" Ron grumbled (read shouted) to Seamus and dean next to him.

Harry watched in growing anger as Hermione wiped blooming tears from her eyes and rushed forward, passed Ron and into the castle. Susan rushed after her, but Harry was seeing red.

He stalked forward with a look of cold fury on his face, grabbing Ron by the shoulder and spinning him around.

"What the hell is your problem?" He growled out making Seamus and Dean both glance at each other nervously. Ron didn't seem to get the message.

"What's it to you, Potter?" Harry growled again at that. Ron knew full well by now that he preferred being called Dursley.

"What makes you think you can insult people like that Weasley?"

"The dumb bint had it coming. It's pretty pathetic when you're only friend is a freak with green skin, eh Potter?" Ron had the smarmiest, most shit-eating grin Harry had ever seen.

Next Ron knew he was listening to his own nose shatter, briefly seeing stars in his right eye before losing all vision, and falling ass-over-teakettle onto the cold October ground.

Seamus and dean both backed off as Harry stalked into the castle, hoping to find Hermione. He briefly stopped at the bathroom to clean the blood off of his knuckles, only to hear muffled crying and talking coming from the girls restroom.

He glanced around, making sure no-one was coming, before pushing his way into the bathroom.

He saw legs in the back stall, and could hear Susan trying to console a clearly crying Hermione.

"Hermione?" He asked softly from the other side of the door. He heard the crying stifle slightly and Susan stop talking, before he heard Hermione quietly whimpering "Harry?"

"Can I come in?" He asked softly.

It was quiet a few seconds before the stall clicked and Susan held it open for him.

Hermione looked like a mess, her already bushy hair an even wilder mane of curls and frizz. Tears streaking down her cheeks and eyes redder than he'd ever seen. She was curled into a ball on the toilet, shivering in the cold of the unheated bathroom.

"Hermione, you can't listen to that idiot." He said gently, kneeling down next to her and Susan.

"But he's right! I don't have any friends!" She cried out through the mess of hair, arms, and clothes she'd burrowed herself behind.

"Don't have any friends? Hermione you have lots of friends! You have me and Neville, the twins, Cedric likes you well enough, Hagrid and Fluffy-"

"Fluffy doesn't count!" She interrupted him.

Susan mouthed to him "who's Fluffy?"

"Later." He replied, turning back to Hermione.

"Okay, well you have Parvati and Lavender, you told me they'd been warming up to you. And Susan here likes you. I'm sure she'd be your friend on top of that huge list already."

"Of course. Now that I've gotten to know you a little bit you're pretty great to be around when you're not stressing out over homework or a test. I'd love to really get to know you." Susan said gently.

"Rons the one who has no friends. Not you. You're awesome." Harry stated, rubbing her back gently like he knew Marjorie liked when she was sad.

A few seconds later a still sniffling hermione slammed into both Hufflepuffs, pulling them both into the tightest hug they'd ever felt.

When Hermione finally let them both go she looked at them with a happy little smile. Harry excused himself to wait outside while Susan helped Hermione clean up.

When they both came out Harry had a moments warning before he was thrown to the ground by a projectile Hermione, once more launching herself into another hug with him.

"Shut it Susan." He grumbled when he heard Susan chuckling from her place in the doorway next to them.

"Mr Dursley." Harry felt Hermione tense against him, looking up to see Professor Dumbledore looking down at them. Once again with that disappointed look in his eye that Harry still hated.

"Follow you to your office?" Harry asked with a sigh, groaning when Dumbledore gave him a curt nod.

"Alright. Hermione why don't you and Susan go on ahead, I'll meet up with you at the feast tonight.

Hermione looked like she wanted to say something, but a soft tug on her sleeve from Susan had them both walking away.

"Lead the way Professor." Harry said turning to Dumbledore.

The walk up to Dumbledore's office was quiet. Harry wanting to keep from saying something to make his situation worse and Dumbledore keeping quiet in a classic teachers intimidation tactic.

Upon entering the headmasters office, Harry visibly flinched. Professor Mcgonagall was sitting in front of the desk and she did not look happy.

"Take a seat Mr Dursley." Dumbledore spoke behind him. He didn't sound very happy either.

"This is not the first time you have had to sit in this office for laying your hands on another student. Would you like to speak in your own defense? Or would you like to skip to your punishment?"

"I don't tolerate bullies Professor." Harry said simply, ignoring the heated glare from Professor McGonagall.

"Very well. You will be serving three weeks of detention with myself. Obviously physical labor was not enough, you seem to have even come out of that experience with a friend. On top of that you will also be required to apolo-"

"No." Harry cut him off firmly.

"Excuse me?" Professor McGonagall barked, Dumbledore looking on with a serious frown.

"I'll gladly serve the detention, but I'm not apologizing to him."

"And why won't you apologize to the boy you assaulted?" McGonagall spat, sounding very much like she wanted to claw his eyes out.

"Because you have to feel sorry to apologize. And I'm not sorry." Harry said simply.

"You broke his nose, gave him a concussion and burst several veins in his right eye!" McGonagall yelled, standing up to tower over him.

"I've been telling you since day one how obnoxious and awful he is, the kinds of things he says about my friends and I. You did nothing. I told Professor Dumbledore. You did nothing. I told Ron to stop firmly for two months. He didn't. Actions speak louder than words, and when my words proved they weren't working I stopped trying to use them." Harry was returning McGonagall's glare with his own.

"I can understand frustration with a bully Harry but that doesn't mean you can act above the rules."

"I followed the rules. For two months I watched my friends get bullied by a member of their own house while I tried to stop it following the rules. And the rules did nothing. If he gets to ignore the rules and terrorize fellow students then I get to ignore the rules and put a stop to it." Harry bit with an air of finality. As far as he was concerned this argument was done.

"Very well then. If you will not apologize to Mr Weasley then you will at least apologize to his family. And that will be four weeks of detention." Harry nodded. At a look from Dumbledore he stood up and left the office, making his way to the great hall.

"Harry mate, there you are!"

"When Hermione told us about your little event with our brother this afternoon we were scared you might not be staying here."

"And don't worry mate, we know how much of a right git Rons been. Madame Pomfrey will have him up to his normal nasty self in no time."

Harry gave a tired grin, plopping down in between Hermione and Lee. "Good to know guys, but it's not you two I'm worrying led about."

At their questioning looks Harry explained "Professor Dumbledore tasked me with apologizing to your family. I'm assuming he's planning on bringing your parents here sometime in the next few nights." Both twins winced at that.

"I do not envy you for that mate."

"Our mother is a fantastic woman but-"

"She can be an awful pain when she's angry."

"Just hope you don't get a howler."

"And we'll try to put in a good word for you."

"At least a better one, we have told her a little bit about you in our letters home." The twins sounded more serious than he'd ever heard them. If Harry wasn't excited about confronting their parents before, he definitely wasn't excited now.

"Harry I appreciate you standing up for me but… you shouldn't have hit him like that." Hermione muttered next to him, looking down at the table.

"I tried dealing with him the civil way. Ron didn't respond to civility, so I introduced him to his second option."

"Bu-"

"Hermione I can promise you that I will always exhaust all other options before I resort to violence, but if you want me to promise not to use violence I can't. It will always be my last resort when all other options have failed." Harry cut her off before she could get into some long rant he knew was probably coming.

Hermione frowned at that. Looking back to the table for a while before nodding. "Okay. I can live with that."

Conversation settled pretty comfortably after that. Lee asked them something about their classwork, and the twins asked Harry when they should be expecting to meet Harry on the Quidditch pitch.

Dinner was pretty good, Harry still hated pumpkin but whatever was bringing the food to the table had finally stopped putting pumpkin stuff within arms reach of wherever he was sitting. Harry wasn't exactly sure what the Hallowe'en feast was supposed to be celebrating, but it was at least fun.

"Troll - in the dungeon - thought you'd like to know." And it was all ruined by Professor Quirrell.

The great hall descended into madness pretty quickly, screaming and panicking teenagers standing from their tables and spreading Chaos.

"Quiet!" Dumbledore's voice boomed through the hall, shushing everyone. There was an air of fear through the hall, but the students all trusted Dumbledore.

"Prefects, please lead houses Gryffindor and Ravenclaw to their dormitories. Hufflepuff and Slytherin you will remain here in the great hall. Professors, you will join me in looking for this troll. Hagrid I am leaving the students in your hands." He spoke calmly, immediately ushering the two houses that slept in the towers out of the hall, before sealing it with a series of intricate wand waves.

It was a tense few hours before the Professors returned to usher the students to their dorms, putting an end to the night. Harry fell asleep that night reading a copy of "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" by Newt Scamander. Specifically the several chapters on trolls.

"So what do you want me to do?" Harry asked, standing in Dumbledore's office the night after Hallowe'en, glancing nervously at the massive pile of parchment and letters in a stray corner.

"Your task for the next few weeks will be to sort and file this paperwork I've managed to scrounge up. My office in the Ministry is seldom used, and quite a bit of files have been allowed to pile up." Dumbledore told him with a gesture towards the pile, more specifically the small chair and desk next to it, and a look that said 'get started'

"How am I supposed to sort this?" Harry asked, sitting down and turning to stare at the pile.

"On the desk you will find a list of names and types of files you should expect to find, and which bin to place them in." Dumbledore replied, turning back to a large book on his desk. He apparently deemed the matter finished.

A few hours and many a paper cut into the pile, 'Im barely making a freaking dent!' Harry mentally shouted, Harry came across a series of letters dated the few days before his birthday, with a name he didn't recognize.

"Professor?"

"Yes Harry?" Dumbledore asked, lifting his eyes from his book for the first time in hours.

"I found a name that's not on the list. Which bin do letters from Nicholas Flamel go into?" Harry asked, glancing at the top letter curiously. The few sentences he managed to read before Dumbledore took the letter from his hand spoke about retrieving some package from a vault 713 at Gringotts.

"I will file that myself, Harry. It is almost curfew, come along and I will escort you back to your dorm." Dumbledore quickly placed the letter into one of the many drawers in his desk, before taking his shoulder and leading Harry from the office.

'Interesting' Harry thought to himself, resolving to look up who this Nicholas Flamel was.

"Hey Fred, you recognize the name Nicholas Flamel?" Harry asked, absentmindedly rubbing fluffy behind the middle ears from his favored spot sat on his back. He'd been keeping an eye on Susan and Hannah for a little while, but they seemed to warm up to Fluffy a lot faster than Hermione had.

"Nicholas Flamel?"

"The legendary Alchemist?"

"The peerless Potioneer?"

"The creator and originator of the one-"

"The only-"

"Philosopher's stone?"

"Yeah that one. And now I've figured out what it is Fluffy is supposed to be protecting." Harry said, giving the massive dog a good deep scratch, making him pant happily.

The other five occupants of the room all looked confused for a second.

"Harry, what could possibly make you think that the Philosopher's stone is hidden in Hogwarts?" Hermione asked, obviously curious despite her disbelief.

"You guys know how I have detention with Professor Dumbledore for the next few weeks?" The girls all nodded, while the twins shook their heads in a disapproving manner.

"Well he has me sorting his letters and paperwork. The pile of parchment in his office has got to be heavier than Fluffy here. One of the letters I found was written from Nicholas Flamel."

"Makes sense, Nicholas Flamel and Dumbledore have worked together before, and Dumbledore says they're still friends." George piped in, the gears turning in his head.

"I didn't get to read much of it before Dumbledore took it from me, but it said something about retrieving a 'special package' from vault 713 at Gringotts. And it just so happens that I was there with him when he retrieved said package. It all lines up really. Part of the castle is off limits, hiding a Cerberus to protect a suspicious trap door, Nicholas Flamel is writing about picking up a 'package' that is small enough to fit in a person's pocket, and when I briefly spoke with Hagrid he basically confirmed our suspicions that the trap door is hiding something specifically. If it's not the Philosopher's stone then it has to be something else related to Flamel." Harry explained, loving that everyone seemed to be thinking it over themselves.

"So… what do we do with that?" Hannah asked, looking around at everyone else.

"What do you mean?" Harry asked, genuinely confused.

"You just said we're probably sitting right on top of the Philosophers stone. You don't think we should do anything with that information?" Hannah sounded frustrated at Harry's confusion.

"I don't care about any fancy stone. Like I've said every time this subject is brought up I just want to play with the puppy." Harry stated firmly, planting his face into the fur around Fluffys neck.

"So we're not going to do anything about the immortality rock below us?" Hermione asked, looking around at everyone else.

"Eh, not like we really care. If not even Harry wants to go after it then we might as well leave it alone." Fred nodded along safely to George's words.

"Plus there's probably more protections beyond the door." Susan supplied, more than happy most of them seemed to share the same opinion in this.

Conversation lulled back into silence after that, occasionally broken by a page turn from Hermione reading or Harry cooing at Fluffy.

"You ready for this Harry?" Fred asked, a nervous look on both he and his twins face.

Harry looked at them flatly, before pulling the infirmary door open just a crack.

"I WANT THE MONSTER WHO DID THIS TO MY RON EXPELLED! I W-" and Harry closed the door again, still looking pointedly at the twins.

"Point taken." They both said at once, mirroring Harry's look.

At that Harry braced himself, and yanked the door open, silencing everyone in the room.

When Harry was standing in front of the two elder weasleys, next to a now nervous looking mostly healed Ron, he started "Mr and Mrs Weasley? I apologize for causing you to worry. I didn't intend to hit your son as hard as I did, I unfortunately allowed my anger to cloud my actions." Harry was being honest that he was sorry he'd hurt Ron as bad as he did. Professor Dumbledore had informed him his third and last punch to Ron's eye had been a bit more damaging. Were it not for magic he would be permanently blind in that eye.

"SORRY?! You blinded him! You hurt my baby, and all you have to say is Sorry?! You should be on the first train home!" Molly Weasley Shrieked, anger flowing off her in waves.

"Ma'am. I'm truly sorry I hurt your son as bad as I did. But I'm not sorry I hit him. I don't know if you know why I hit him, but your son has been bullying my friends and I for months. Technically he's been rude to me since before we even got to Hogwarts. I told him on more than one occasion to leave us alone. He refused, so I retaliated." Mollys face was red, and it looked like she was about to lay into Harry again before the twins cut her off again.

"He's telling the truth mum. Ron's been nothing but nasty to them all year. He called our friend a bint, practically to her face." Molly gasped at that, before turning her furious look to her now sweating youngest son.

"That had better not be true Ronald!" She screamed, before cuffing him over the head when he just shrunk into himself.

"I told your son multiple times to leave us alone. He decided to ignore me. I told him a grand total of once to stop or I would be retaliating. He decided to ignore me once again. That wasn't a warning, it was a promise. Ron, I am honestly sorry I hit you as hard as I did. I'm sorry for damaging your eye. But I'm not sorry for hitting you, and if you don't leave my friends alone, I will do it again." Harry warned, dropping his glare when Ron nodded.

"Mrs Weasley?" He said, turning to Molly, who looked back at him. She was obviously still mad, but her glare was a little less heated looking at him. She obviously didn't find it comforting that her son had been bullying his classmates.

"Fred and George have become two of my best friends. I had hoped to make a better impression than this when I finally got to meet you. For what it's worth I really am sorry for making you worry." Harry was happy to see her frown soften a tad bit.

"I suppose I can't blame you, I've told my boys to fight back when someone is bullying them or one of their siblings. Fred and George have been writing home about how much they like you. Don't worry Harry, knowing Ron isn't innocent in all this, while I can't immediately forgive you for hurting him I can say I'll warm up. Ron and I will be having a little talk about his behavior here." Harry decided to let it end there, taking what he could get. After a polite goodbye he excused himself to go finish his charms essay.

"Haaahh… I'm finally done." Harry moaned, hunched over with his hands on his knees. He was standing in front of what used to be a massive pile of parchment, but was now a pile of bins and files.

"Well done Harry. And with only one week left In your detentions." Dumbledore clapped beside him, twinkle in his eye and a pleased grin on his face.

"Another week? I thought I'd be done with this." Harry moaned desperation leaking into his voice.

"Of course not Harry, I assigned you four weeks. Just because you finished your task early does not mean you no longer have to finish that time. Come along, I'll lead you to your next task." He motioned Harry to follow him, trotting off towards a large painting of a former headmaster behind his desk.

The portrait eyed Harry for a moment, before swinging open revealing a hidden room behind it.

Inside Harry found walls lined with empty shelves, and another massive pile of parchment. This time sealed in book form.

"This, Harry, is my own personal library. These books are collected from a lifetime of study, as well as quite a few of my own books I've written on my own time. It would seem that they need sorting, as a particularly vindictive Poltergeist has decided to remove them from their shelves. And if you happen to read from a few of them, or one or two manages to disappear from my less than watchful gaze, then I suppose it cannot be helped." Dumbledore smiled at Harry's shocked look, before excusing himself.

Harry took a moment to give a shocked look back towards the now closed portrait, before a grin spread across his face. This was going to be a fun week.

"You staying at the castle for the holidays Harry?" Lee asked, shaking his essay in the air to get the ink to dry.

"Nope. Promised my brother I'd be back for Christmas. Plus Christmas is my baby sisters birthday." Harry said distractedly, pulling splinters from a whimpering Fluffys paws. Apparently he'd been trying to paw at the door.

"Your sister was born on Christmas? She must get absolutely spoiled on presents every year."

"Oh she does, but it's fine."

"Well you better enjoy yourself. The rest of us will be living it up here at the castle." Fred called from the other side of the room, idly checking their notes while George stirs at some potion they're making. Harry didn't bother asking, choosing to stay out of whatever this particular prank would be.

"What did you get your sister Harry?" Harry grinned at that, pulling a stuffed unicorn from the backpack at his side. Immediately upon it setting upon the floor, it began to gallop around the room.

"Found a charm that permanently animates objects to act like living versions of whatever their shaped as. Then I also found a charm that coincides, bonding the object like a familiar when activated." Harry watched it trounce around the room, before settling down in front of the girls.

"That's amazing. But did you test it beforehand, what if it failed? What if-"

"Gonna stop you right there Hermione. Of course I tested it." Harry reached into his bag, tapping his stuffed Green Mamba on the head.

Everyone watched as a long stuffed green snake slithered out of his bag, wrapping itself around Harry's shoulders, nudging him in the cheeks affectionately.

"That settles that then. Good work Harry, don't suppose you could give us that spell?" George reached up to catch a small wad of paper Harry threw at him.

"Cheers mate."

All three girls rolled their eyes, turning back to their books.

"I love it I love it I love it! Thank you Harry!" A delighted young Marjorie Dursley screamed, hugging Harry and her new living stuffed Unicorn like her life depended on it.

Harry chuckled to himself, returning the hug proudly.

Christmas had gone fantastically, everyone watching as the little girl happily tore into her mountain of presents. Dudley was happily testing his new gloves, charmed to cushion all force. No more bruised knuckles.

Both elder Dursleys and Mrs Figg sat watching with patient smiles on their face. They'd been a little hesitant about what to get Harry, what do you get someone who spends all day learning magic? But it didn't matter as it turns out, Harry thanking them with the same exuberance he'd used every year. Immediately donning the new jacket, and glancing through the books, before putting them to the side.

"Good afternoon all. Happy Christmas. And a very special Happy birthday to you Marjorie." Albus said, stepping out of the fireplace.

"Happy Christmas Professor."

"Please Harry, it's Albus when we are away from school." Harry grinned, matching Albus.

"Marjorie, this is for you." Albus said, placing a large package wrapped in sparkly paper in front of the cheering young girl. "And for you Dudley." He said, placing a much smaller bundle in front of a surprised Dudley.

"And a very special gift for you Harry." He said, handing Harry the last of his packages.

"Thank you Uncle Albus." Harry mumbled, unwrapping the soft bundle in his lap.

Inside he found a long cloak, made of some smooth silvery material. He held it up, wondering what was so special about it, noticing it was really more like a giant sheet than an article of clothes. He shrugged to himself when he couldn't see anything special about it, wrapping it around himself.

"Well that's interesting." He heard Dudley mutter, staring at him.

"What's wrong?" He asked, looking down at his chest.

"Well that's interesting." He muttered. Staring at the empty space that used to be him.

Petunia and Vernon were both looking at Harry shocked.

"That, Harry, is an invisibility cloak. It belonged to your father, your birth father that is. He asked me to hold onto it when you went into hiding, and I felt it was finally time to give it to you. I had intended to give it to you earlier in the year, but after your multiple incidents with your classmates," Albus gave Harry a look at that, nodding at the sheepish look Harry gave. "I decided to wait and give it to you for Christmas." Albus finished, pinning Harry with a look that told him not to be using it for anything "irresponsible".

"This is amazing." Harry whispered, slipping the cloak over his face, seeing that the cloak acted like a two-way mirror, letting him see out but no one could see him.

The twins were going to love this.

"This is fantastic." Both twins said at once, looking down at their missing bodies.

Fluffy was watching curiously, all three heads tilted staring as the two orange headed humans disappeared and reappeared.

"You said this belonged to your birth father?" Lee asked, poking the air where Fred and George should have been, apologizing when his finger jabbed George's stomach.

"Yup. Keep quiet about it yeah? This is going to be quite useful." Harry was grinning like a loon, he couldn't wait to see what kind of mischief they could get into with an invisibility cloak.

"Oh my dear Harry."

"This?"

"This is going to be much more than just useful."

"This is a pranksters dream." The twins matched his grin, plans running through their heads a mile a minute.

Lee just rolled his eyes with a patient smile.

Harry silently made his way through the castle, his cloak hiding him from view. It was only a few minutes after curfew, he'd just gotten caught up reading in the library. He figured if a prefect or professor saw him he could just tell them and he'd be all clear, but just to be safe he decided to use the cloak.

Moving down another corridor, Harry came to a stop next to an unused classroom. The door was open. Unless someone had used it recently doors in Hogwarts were never open. This one had just been left open by a crack, and Harry had no idea why because he'd never seen anyone go in there before. He just assumed that door was an empty room no longer in use.

Deciding to do some investigation, Harry pushed his way in, closing the door softly behind him. He was right, it was in fact an unused classroom, desks and chairs were piled up against one room, and there was another door on the other side of the room he knew would lead to an office.

What was unusual was the mirror. It was standing in the middle of the room, and it was huge. Easily nine feet tall, and probably three feet wide. Harry slipped out of his cloak, walking up to the mirror, wondering what could be so special about it to warrant hiding it in an empty classroom no one used.

When Harry was stood in front of it, he saw himself staring back, the same confused look on his face he knew he had. He glanced up to the top of the mirror, noticing some kind of engraving, before letting it be. His gaze turned back to his reflection, before he let out a shocked little gasp.

He wasn't alone, standing around him he could see his family, his parents standing behind him, his brother next to him and his little sister in his hands. But there were more people too, Albus and Arabella stood next to his parents, behind his mom he could see the grinning face of doctor Howard, and next to Arabella stood two people he'd only ever seen in pictures. He choked up a little, seeing the faces of his birth parents. The last person was someone he'd never seen though. He was standing next to Albus, and they were holding hands. He was young, he had short blonde hair. In an exposed holster on his wrist he had a wand that looked exactly like Albus's now. Harry assumed this must have been Albus's husband he'd been told about. Ever since Harry learned about Albus's dead husband Harry had wished he'd never passed, he knew how unhappy it made Albus.

Everyone was just standing together, looking at him with happy smiles or grins on their faces. Harry found it really hard to look away, this was everything he'd ever secretly wanted. Harry never got to know his birth parents, but he knew how much his mom and Albus missed them.

He just stood there and stared, committing to memory the scene. Every now and then someone would do something, at some point his mom and birth mom had ended up hugging, and marjorie was now sitting on reflection him's shoulders.

"I see like many others before you the mirror of erised has ensnared your attention." Harry heard from next to him. He looked away from the mirror to see Albus stood next to him with a sad smile on his face.

"This isn't real is it?" Harry asked, looking back to the mirror, seeing the reflection version of Albus saying something to the person he'd never seen before. 'Gellert' he thought, remembering Albus's husbands name.

"No harry, as much as we may wish it, the mirror of erised does not show a simple reflection of reality. It shows us what we desire most in this world. For example I see myself holding a very nice pair of socks. I imagine you must see your family, including your birth parents, correct?"

"Yeah, but it's not really cause I want them. I never really knew them, it's hard to miss someone you don't know. But I know how much it breaks my moms heart that my biological parents are gone. I guess I would want them there for my parents sake. I don't like when people I care about are unhappy." Harry glances to his parents, smiling a bit when the reflections nodded at his explanation, it seemed they agreed.

"Well said Harry. I hope I don't have to tell you not to let this mirror consume you. Too many good wizards and witches have wasted away staring at the image of their desires." Albus told him, placing a hand on his shoulder.

"Don't worry professor, it's nice seeing this and all, but it won't consume me or anything like that." Harry didn't even have to look to know that Albus had a proud look on his face.

"Very good. Do not try to find this mirror again Harry, I had already planned on moving it to a new home tonight, and it would do you no good focusing on matters beyond your reach."

"Of course professor. I think I'll go on to bed." Harry said, turning away from the mirror, and slipping his cloak over his shoulders. He stopped before he put the hood over his face though.

"Albus. If you don't mind me asking, what do you really see?" He asked quietly, staring at Albus's back.

Albus was silent for a while, and Harry thought for a moment he might not answer, but then he heard a quiet "A life I never got to live."

Harry nodded, thinking he understood. "Have a good night Albus." He said quietly, slipping the hood over his face and disappearing. The door closing behind him masked the sound of several teardrops hitting the stone floor.

"Hey Hagrid, what're you doing in the library?" Harry asked from his place in between Fred and Hermione. Hermione had basically demanded that their time be spent in the Library when she had the startling realization that final exams were in ten weeks.

Harry tried to explain she didn't need to study this hard when it's 2 months away, but other than a promise to take it a little bit easier (which Harry didn't think she'd really kept) she had been adamant about reviewing.

"Jus' lookin." Hagrid replied in a shifty voice, glancing around with an arm behind his back.

"You seem nervous Hagrid, everything alright?" The twins asked together, unnerving Hagrid even more.

"Jus' getting a book, nothing to bother yerselves about." He mumbled, refusing to meet their eyes.

"You wouldn't be getting up to anything you shouldn't be, would you Hagrid?" George asked in a teasing voice, grinning when large beads of sweat began to drop from Hagrids forehead.

He glanced around the library, before bending down to their level to whisper - to everyone else it was a normal speaking voice, but they didn't have the heart to break it to Hagrid - "can't talk about it here, you lot come down to me hut after supper, I'll show you." He said, before standing back up and rushing off.

"Guess we're breaking curfew." Harry stated, turning back to his own book.

"No." The twins, lee and Hermione all state at once. The moment they walked into the "hut" and saw the egg they knew exactly what was coming. Harry didn't even get to finish his first word.

"But-"

"No."

"Come on its-"

"No."

"Hermione you can't-"

"No!"

"But… Dragon egg!"

"You can't have a dragon Harry!" Four voices cry out together, confusing their gargantuan host.

"Can I at least watch it hatch?" Harry asked, trying his best to look cute with his begging.

"Fine, but you're lucky I'm even agreeing to this. You already somehow convinced a Cerberus into basically being your pet, you don't need a dragon too." Hermione was glaring pointedly at him, conveying just what she thought of that particular development.

"Hermione just because I want to see a dragon doesn't mean I have any intention of making it my pet." Harry said, staring at the egg in the fire, with his fingers crossed under the table.

There was no way he was letting an opportunity like this pass him up.

The next few weeks, if he wasn't in class or at practice, Harry could be found in the library.

If anyone happened to ask him why he was reading various books on magical creatures, dragons, and the occasional raising a dangerous pet manual, well teenage boys could sometimes be a bit too curious for their own good right?

"Hey there Hagrid!" Harry shouted as he let himself into Hagrids hut, plopping down on a seat at the table. Harry had been over to "visit" almost every night since Hagrid had shown him the dragon egg. Hagrid thought nothing of it, enjoying the company, and Harry had proven to be a delightful new friend, sharing interests in all kinds of topics and hobbies.

"Evnin' Harry! Yer jus in time, think tonight might be the night!" Hagrid was just as jovial as always, slipping on some giant sized mittens to grab the egg out of its place on the fire and place it on his table.

Harry couldn't hide his excitement seeing the egg wibble wobble in every direction. Some parts of it were even bulging out as if something were trying to get out. His chair unconsciously scooted closer.

"Book says should be about another hour before the eggs cool enough for the little guy on the inside to get out. I'll put on a pot of tea while we wait." Hagrid said, walking around Harry to the small area he used as his kitchen, missing the large bag Harry had brought with him.

Now the bag itself was not out of the ordinary, it was just Harry's book bag, he had it with him practically everywhere in the castle. What was curious about the bag on this night was just how much it was bulging outwards. It had obviously been overstuffed.

Now Harry had been preparing the contents of this bag for quite a while. Inside were two different books on rituals, one of them about familiars which he got at Diagon Alley when he picked up his school supplies, and the other a book he borrowed from Albus's personal collection with a very particular page bookmarked. The rest of the bags contents though, that was the truly unusual part.

Two bags of items, each labeled with a number, one and two, filled to the max with various herbs, little trinkets and objects, and both with various kinds of chalk. To anyone who knew what that particular kind of chalk was meant for, the bags contents would look quite suspect.

To put it simply, Harry had a plan for tonight, and from the moment he sat down he was executing it. The particular chair he chose this night was the critical first step. The quick levitation charm he cast on the egg to turn the part of the egg he knew the dragons head and forelegs would be toward him was the second. Hagrid was none the wiser to these steps, happily making his tea and conversing with Harry.

Part of Harry get bad for using Hagrid like he was, but he made peace with that part weeks ago. He'd made up his mind.

A little over an hour of friendly conversation later, both Hagrid and Harry were interrupted from their discussion of quidditch by a sharp crack from in between them. They both stopped talking, and Harry held his breath. This was the most critical part of the plan, if the dragon didn't see him first, all his prep would be for nothing.

Both Harry and Hagrid watched in awe as the tiny little creature inside slowly pushed its way out, its tiny little claws coming first, before its head came out as well. It's eyes were not open yet, it took a few minutes for a newly hatched dragon to open their eyes for the first time. When it had finally shoved its way out of the egg, it pulled itself onto shaky front claws, slowly swung its adorably tiny little head up, and slowly opened its eyes, fluttering them a bit to adjust to the new light it was seeing for the first time. And then it looked directly at Harry. Harry could feel it instantly, the moment he made eye contact with the newborn he could feel the connection it made with his magic. It had imprinted on him.

Mission success.

Hagrid across the table could tell instantly. He'd spent a lot of time around magical creatures, and he could tell when one imprinted on something. He felt a brief moment of disappointment, but it washed away the moment the little newborn dragon shakily crawled itself into Harry's lap. The two looked absolutely adorable together.

"Well would yeh look at that. Looks like you got herself a new friend there Harry." Hagrid grinned. He'd always loved dragons, and seeing Harry cradle the newborn was one of the most heartwarming scenes he'd ever seen.

"We need to get him something to eat." Harry muttered, his eyes never leaving the dragon playfully nipping at his arms. It hurt like hell, but he sure wasn't going to be the one to make it stop.

"Course. Got some specially made biscuits right here, should get him all big and strong in no time." Hagrid said with a chuckle, grabbing the food and sliding it over to Harry. The book he'd read stressed that dragons needed to eat upon hatching, so their bones could harden and they could get their first bit of growth in. Little known fact dragons reached maturity within hours of hatching. Meaning they could fly, breath fire, and their claws and teeth were razor sharp. They still needed time to grow, but even a day old they were still some of the most dangerous predators in the world.

A few hours later Harry and Hagrid were watching a dragon the size of an average corgi swooping around breathing little bouts of fire at everything it saw. Hagrid was glad he'd taken Harry's suggestion to layer his hut in fire protection wards, otherwise he'd be standing in a pile of ashes and in need of a new home.

Over that time Harry came clean and explained to Hagrid what he was planning to do. What he'd already done. Hagrid couldn't really find it within him to be mad, he knew he didn't really have the time to raise a dragon anyway, and with Harry's plan he would be able to see the little guy anytime anyway. One thing Harry did to try to make it up to him, he let Hagrid name the newborn. Harry felt he at least owed Hagrid that.

Hagrid was touched, and after dubbing the little dragon Norbert, he gladly turned over responsibility to Harry.

The first ritual Harry performed that night was the familiar bond ritual. Familiar bonds could be formed in quite a few ways, but the fastest was the ritual, and while Harry would love to let the bond form naturally he needed the full bond for the second ritual he wanted to perform that night. Placing Norbert down in the center of the runes he'd drawn in chalk on the floor, he quickly activated the ritual circle. It had taken way too long to catch the excitable little baby, and he was not wanting to have to do that again.

The markings on the floor flashed a blinding blue, before a golden light shot from Harry's chest into Norbert's, and suddenly Harry felt an undeniable connection to Norbert. It was like a part of each of them was removed, and a part of him was left in the dragon, and part of Norbert was left in him. He could feel part of what Norbert was feeling, the confusion and excitement that only a newborn could feel. And he knew Norbert could feel the connection too. The golden light connecting the two grew stronger and stronger, seeming to practically become a physical link between the two, before flashing a blinding white, and disappearing. They could still feel it though. Norbert was now Harry's familiar.

The second ritual wasn't even close to as eventful. It was a simple one, all it did was lock a familiars age. Preventing them from physically growing beyond what they were when the ritual was performed. With a quick flash of light the components and the chalk on the ground disappeared, and Norbert was left sitting patiently on the ground. Getting him to sit there was a lot easier the second time around, now that Norbert could understand him.

Probably the best benefit of the familiar bond, both parties could understand each other after it was formed. And no that didn't mean Harry could speak dragon, or Norbert could speak English. It was more like, they just understood what each other wanted behind the words. Norbert didn't know what the word sit or stay meant, but he could feel through the connection what Harry meant, so he complied.

After another hour of visiting with Hagrid, and getting used to the feeling of the familiar bond, Harry said goodnight. Norbert latched himself onto Harry's back, his head coming up to gaze around next to Harry's own. Harry pushes them both under his invisibility cloak and made his way back up to the castle. Harry did not get far into the entrance hall before he saw Albus standing patiently.

"Please come with me Harry, I feel we need to have a discussion about your new friend." Albus said pleasantly, stepping off in the direction of his office. He stifled a chuckle when he heard soft footsteps start to follow him.

A short few moments of walking in silence later Harry was sitting in a chair across from Albus at his desk.

"Would you care to introduce me to your new friend Harry?" Albus asked with playful twinkle in his eye.

"This is Norbert, Hagrid let me have him. And don't worry, I already took the necessary precautions to keep him from getting too dangerous." Harry held Norbert up in his arms, the little dragon curiously studying the elderly man across from him.

"I had no doubt you would Harry, I merely brought you here to fill out the necessary paperwork. Students that want a familiar other than a cat toad or rat must sign a few forms for documentation purposes. Simply sign these and you and your familiar may continue on to bed."

Harry signed where he was asked to sign, apologizing profusely when Norbert torched the first set in an accidental cough of flame. Albus let out a hearty laugh at that, gaining way more amusement than Harry thought he should.

As Harry said goodnight and made his way towards the door, Albus called after him "Oh and Harry, 50 points from Hufflepuff for sneaking out after dark for the last month and a half. Have a good night."

Harry had to stifle his own chuckle as he made his way back to the Hufflepuff dormitory.

"I really should not even be surprised." Hermione muttered in disbelief as Harry made his way to the Gryffindor table with Norbert perched on his shoulders the next morning.

"No, you really shouldn't." Lee stated smugly, holding his hand out to the twins, grinning when they both slapped a handful of sickles and galleons in his hand.

"This is Norbert." Harry said smugly, gesturing to the Dragon sitting on his shoulder.

"Hi Norbert." Hermione groaned out, turning back to her food to ignore the self satisfied grin on Harry's face.

"Harry is that a dragon?" Susan asked.

"It is."

"Should we be concerned that you have a dragon?" Hannah followed up.

"Not particularly.'

"Will you be telling us how you acquired this dragon?" Justin continued.

"Wasn't planning on it."

"Can i pet your dragon?' Tonks finished.

"Of course."

And that was it.

"Hey, play nice you two!" Harry shouted, seeing Norbert and Fluffy snapping at each other. The two seemed to be friendly, considering they were both young, but Fluffy was clearly scared of Norbert. That didn't mean the Cerberus wasn't going to get mad when the dragon ate his treats.

Norbert took to the air and swooped over to him, crawling under his shirt and pouting. Fluffy let out a few chuffs and padded over to his trap door, plopping down with his heads turned away from Harry and closing his eyes, pouting in his own way.

Harry just chuckled and went back to reading. The twins had something big planned in the next few days, so they were off preparing, his classmates were off celebrating finishing their last final, and Hermione was busy cramming for her last one tomorrow. The girl could probably pass the test in her sleep, but hey who was he to stop her.

He was alone tonight, so he decided to spend his time with fluffy, and get some personal reading in.

At some point he had zoned out, becoming so engrossed in his reading he completely forgot the world around him. He didn't notice Robert fell asleep on his back, nor did he notice fluffy fall asleep, nor did he pay any attention to the time. The sun had long since set, and curfew had long since passed.

He didn't notice when the door opened, but he definitely noticed when he heard music start to play. He looked up from his book confused, and saw professor Quirrel levitating a sleeping Fluffy away from the trap door.

"Hey! What are you doing!" Harry shouted, in what he realized was a bad idea very quickly when quirrel spun to him wand in hand.

"Potter! What, are you doing here?" Quirrel yelled, wand tip glowing in an Uncast spell.

"I-" "Bring the boy!" He heard someone interrupt in a disgusting whisper. He had no idea who said it, but he knew he didn't like it.

"Yes master." He heard Quirrel say, before suddenly he was wrenched from his sitting position and in front of Quirrel. He felt a wand jab into his chest, and then heard the trapdoor fly open.

"After you, Potter." Quirrel spat out, and Harry gulped. It seemed like he was going after the Philosopher's stone after all.

Harry considered arguing, but decided against it, instead bracing himself and dropping into the dark hole. A few seconds later he felt his feet sink into something soft but firm. And then he began to panic. He couldn't see, but from what he could feel of the things wrapping around his lower body he knew what this was. Devils snare, an incredibly dangerous plant they learned about in Herbology. Harry didn't know any fire spells, and Norbert was sleeping. He knew from experience it was practically impossible to wake the little dragon when it didn't want to be.

He heard a thump, and knew Quirrel had dropped in after him.

"Oh Pomona really? Something as simple as devils snare? I truly am disappointed ." He heard Quirrel bite out, before his vision was filled with fire.

Suddenly the devils snare released him, and he was falling again. He landed hard a few seconds later, groaning as he felt his legs and sides bruising.

"Get up Potter." He heard above him, and slowly pulled himself up. He wanted to ask Quirrel something, but he was interrupted by a wand jabbing into his chest and being pushed toward a door he hadn't noticed yet.

On the other side he saw a room filled with thousands of keys, all charmed to have wings and fly around the room. Quirrel made a gesture with his wand and suddenly a key shot out of the crowd towards him. Quirrel caught it with a laugh.

"Really Flitwick? You would build a defense that wasn't protected from a simple summoning charm. Yet again I find myself disappointed." The key was used to open the door and quickly pocketed. Harry guesses Quirrel didn't want anyone following them, and this was a pretty smart way of going about it, even if that wasn't exactly a good thing for him.

The next room was a giant chess board. Harry found himself extremely confused why this is what was even here, and then deadpanned when a gesture from Quirrels wand had the opposing king blow up in a shower of rubble. The pawns, who had been spreading their swords out in a line to block anyone from getting through, all sheathed their swords and bowed.

"Even you McGonagall. Does no one understand what they were meant to be protecting?" Quirrel sounded angry, which was definitely not good for Harry.

They walked across the board, and as soon as the door was open and the black king reformed and the pawns moved back to their beginning stance. 'Why play chess instead of just animating a bunch of soldiers to attack?' Harry asked himself, before his mind went blank.

Standing in the middle of the next room, was a troll. It was huge, and ugly, and smelled like a landfill, and was lumbering towards them with a massive club in its hands. Harry has about to turn and run, Quirrel be damned, when he felt Quirrels wand pull away from him.

"Avada Kadavra!" Quirrel hissed, and a bolt of disgustingly green energy shot from his wand. It struck the troll on the chest, and the troll immediately stumbled and collapsed. Dead in an instant. Harry decided it was a very bad idea to try and run.

He felt Quirrels wand press into his back yet again, slowly made his way forward to the next door. As Harry walked passed the troll he felt true terror. One of the most dangerous magical creatures in the world, killed in an instant by one spell.

As they entered the next room flames burst to life in the doorway behind them. Looking ahead there were flames blazing in the doorway in front of them too. The only thing in the room other than them was a small table with several potions perched on it. Harry felt a small pinch in his shoulder, and then he couldn't move. Quirrel stepped away from him and walked to the table, he read a note on it, before grabbing one of the bottles and drinking about half in one gulp. He stomped back over to Harry, and forced the rest of it down his throat, Harry couldn't swallow, so the potion kind of just oozed back into his throat, and down into his stomach. Then he felt another pinch in his shoulder, and suddenly he could move again.

A jab in the shoulder and they were moving towards the door.

Looking around the next room Harry felt his stomach drop. There were no more doors, this was the last room. And in the center of the circular room, stood the mirror of Erised. He fought away any panic he felt at seeing no stone. The mirror was definitely not what Quirrel was after.

"What is this?" Quirrel hissed, pushing Harry up to the mirror. As soon as he was in front of the mirror he saw himself standing with all his family, no Quirrel, just him and all of them.

"I see myself, I'm presenting the stone to my master, but where is it?" Quirrel screamed out. He reached forward to grab at the mirror, probably trying to grab the stone. But he couldn't, it was just a reflection.

"Where is the stone Potter? You must know something!" Quirrel gelled, spinning him around to look at him.

"I-I don't kn-know!" Harry stuttered out. He was beyond caring about how scared he sounded.

"He's lying! Get him to tell us where the stone is." Harry heard the same voice from earlier hiss out, and he unconsciously backed up, his back hitting the mirror.

"Where is it Potter! Tell us now!"

"I don't know!" Harry screamed.

"Liar! Show him to me! I want him to see just who I am." The voice yelled as loud as it could. It was still muffled but Harry could definitely still make out a hiss like rasp.

"Yes master." Quirrel reaches up to his turban, unwrapping it slowly, before turning around and presenting Harry it's the back of his head.

But it wasn't his head. There was a face growing out of it, ugly and deformed and absolutely terrifying.

"A disgusting sight I know, but this is what you left me to Harry. Somehow a pathetic, weak little infant left me, the greatest wizard who ever lived, to this. Are you surprised to see me again?" The face growled out, and all the fear Harry felt was multiplied. This was… this was Voldemort. He was still alive. Kind of?

And then his fear was replaced with something else. Enter. And then fury. And then pure, unadulterated rage. This was the monster that nearly destroyed the magical world and murdered his birth parents.

"That's why you want the stone. You want it to come back to life." Harry ground out, all hints of fear leaving him as his fists clenched and his body tensed.

"Yes, and when you give me my stone I will finally be able to finish what I started. Now tell me where it is! I know you know." Voldemort did not notice the change in his hostage, all he paid attention to was his own wand in his hand and Harry's not being in his.

Harry lost control for a moment, his vision changing to his colors. In the room around him he saw the same beautiful living mix of colors he saw everywhere in Hogwarts, but in front of him he only saw red. The darkest, most horrible red he'd ever seen.

"No." He stated. And before Quirrel/Voldemort could react, he lashed forward, his fist connecting with Voldemort's twisted grotesque face. And then he heard screaming, and Voldemort's face looked third degree burned right where he'd touched it. He didn't even stop to think about that, deciding instead he wanted to do it again.

He lashed out at the screaming Quirrel and grabbed him by the neck, smoke billowing out from below his hands. Quirrel was writhing under him, trying to get away, but Harry kicked out and smashed his knees, sending the abomination to the ground in a screaming mess.

Harry wasted no time, slamming one hand on its forehead, and the other right above his heart.

The screaming just got worse. Until with a burst of light and heat Quirrel burst into a cloud of ash and dust.

Harry stood there a moment, letting what he'd just done sink in, before he heard a loud shriek. Looking down he saw a black cloud like mass swirl up from the pile of ash, before rushing towards him with a scream. It collided with his chest and with a rush of pain he collapsed, out cold.

"Uncle Albus?" Harry asked from his spot on the floor in he and his brothers bedroom. He'd managed to convince Albus to come upstairs and play with him for a little while, but Harry was curious about something.

"Yes Harry?" Albus replied with a patient smile on his face.

"Do you have any brothers or sisters? Like I have Dudley and Marjorie?" Harry asked, putting his toys down and looking up to Albus.

"I do indeed Harry. I have two brothers, and a little sister. And I love them very much." Harry could tell Albus was really happy. He wanted to hear more, so he walked over and sat down next to Albus.

"Can you tell me about them?" He asked, looking up at Albus.

"Of course I can! I have my brother Aberforth, my little sister Ariana, and my youngest brother Credence. Aberforth works a…"

Harry woke up slowly, his head aching like he'd just gotten out of the most intense boxing match ever. He groaned to himself. As he laid back down to try to relieve some of the pain, he thought back to the dream he'd had. He still remembered vividly all the wonderful things Albus had said about his siblings. It always made Harry happy thinking back, that was probably the most excited he'd ever seen Albus. The man really loved his family. Harry still looked forward to the day he got to meet them.

A few minutes later he felt better enough to at least start paying attention to the world around him. He opened his eyes, slowly pulling himself into a sitting position.

"HARRY!" And now his head was ringing again, and there was a teenage girl crushing his ribcage.

"Hermione…can't… breathe." Harry wheezed out, trying to pull the girl off of him, without much success. Luckily she let go quickly after, shooting out apologies and questions about his well being.

"Hermione please slow down." He whimpered our, clutching his throbbing head.

"Ms Granger please control yourself or you'll be asked to leave." The school mediwitch, Madam Pomfrey, spike up from near Harry. He hadn't even noticed she was there.

"Here Mr Potter, drink this, it'll help with the headache." Harry cracked his eyes open a pinch, seeing a cup held out in front of him. He quickly snatched it and gulped down the potion. It tasted like he imagined vomit tastes, but already his head was feeling better.

A few moments later he finally opened his eyes and was able to focus clearly on the world around him. The first thing he noticed was the baby dragon perched on the door of his bed, head swiveling around like he was keeping watch.

The second thing he noticed was the amount of people he did not realize were surrounding him. The twins, Lee, Hermione and Neville, pretty much all of Hufflepuff house, and Albus and Madam Pomfrey.

"How long was I out, and what did those two try to do to me while I was?" That sent a wave of laughter through the whole crowd. Harry grinned. He chose to ignore the fact that some undetermined amount of time ago he murdered a man in cold blood.

"Then I punched him, and he just burnt up. It was like just touching me was enough to kill him. After that I kind of just passed out, and then woke up this morning." Harry finished, looking at Albus sat next to his bed.

"You did very well Harry, I'm just sorry you had to go through that at all." Albus was smiling at him like a proud grandfather, with maybe just a touch of pity, but Harry didn't really care about that.

"Something I don't get professor? Where was the stone, was it hidden in the mirror or something?" Albus chuckled at that, and a mischievous sparkle flickered in his eye.

"I had considered placing it in the mirror, with a rather ingenious charm that would make it impossible to retrieve the stone if one had any desire to use it, but I decided ultimately on a more diabolical hiding place." He was grinning, and Harry had no idea whether to grin with him or be scared.

"Where?" Harry asked, trying to think of all the places it could have been. 'Did he make the troll swallow it?' He thought, shuddering at the idea.

Albus's grin widened, before he reached into his pocket, and pulled out a large red gemstone, emitting a faint glow.

Harry was stunned. "Has that been in your pocket the whole time?" He asked, staring at it.

"Of course Harry. Why would I ever be so irresponsible as to leave one of the most powerful magical artifacts in existence where any old person could find it?" He teased.

A lightbulb clicked in Harry's head. It was brilliant really, make a person go through all of that, think they had it, when in reality it was actually even safer, in the custody of the greatest wizard who ever lived.

"The trials were just for show." Harry said, the puzzle pieces all clicking together.

"Of course Harry, those trials were easy enough for a group of 11 year olds to get passed, I would never leave something as important as the stone defended by them. It was all a clever act. A ruse. A trap. I only wish you hadn't been swept up in it."

"Don't worry about it professor, I came out of it no worse for wear, minus the wicked headache." Harry smiled, trying to reassure him.

They talked for a little bit longer after that, Harry asked what would happen to the stone, and was not surprised to find out it would be going back to its rightful owner.

Shortly after Albus left Harry dozed off to sleep. He'd be cleared to leave the hospital wing in the morning, and then he'd be going home the day after that.

He couldn't wait to see his family again.