A/N: This is just an idea I had this morning and just had to put it down. I wasn't expecting it to go the whole of year 1 and am unsure if I will do a follow up (though it's now looking like I probably will). It's fanfiction, I don't own any of it and I am not planning on becoming an author.
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Harry sat in his cupboard and sobbed quietly. Even though he was huddled into a tiny ball, his thin arms wrapped around bony legs, it was still very crowded in the cupboard. He was scared, but not of the spiders nor the dark, no he was afraid of what was outside the cupboard.
Soon he heard the sound that told him his worst fears were about to be realised. Heavy slow footsteps thudding closer and closer. Each thud a promise of what was to come. His whole body began to tremble and he started to chant over and over in a faint whisper "Please just ignore me. Just walk past. Ignore me. Please just let me be."
Then surprisingly the footsteps paused before they had completed their journey to the cupboard. His eyes sprung open and he peered at the gap that let light in under the door. There was no shadow and he wondered what new torture this might be. He continued his chant but now so quietly that he could barely hear it himself. "Just walk on past. Ignore me. Pretend I'm not here. Just leave me alone."
Then the thudding footsteps started up again, but quieter as they moved away from the cupboard.
In was many hours later before Harry snuck out to go to the toilet. It was a risk but he had no choice. His relief was short lived as when he left the toilet he found his uncle striding down the hallways. He lifted his hands to his cover his face, feet frozen to the floor and body shaking. However his uncle didn't even glance at him. Just strode on past muttering about useless politicians. It was a minute before a very confused Harry returned to his cupboard.
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By dinner time he was starving worse than ever before. He had only had a piece of toast for breakfast, no lunch for two days and dinner last night was smaller than usual. He hoped they would let him have a little something tonight. Aunt Petunia usually prepared a tiny plate for him even when he had been really bad so he crept out and huddled in the corner of the dining room waiting and hoping.
His confusion returned when neither his Uncle nor his Aunt paid him any attention. There was none of the usual sneering, nasty comments about or to him. He was concerned when his cousin entered the room and glanced his way once but instead of the normal sneer Dudley's face took on a slightly confused look as if he had just been asked a question at school. Harry imagined it would have been a mirror of his own expression if he weighed three times as much and rubbed his face with stinging nettle. He giggled softly and then froze in fear, that had been a mistake and was likely to be punished, however his Aunt and Uncle just continued talking. Dudley took a hesitant step towards him and Harry whispered, "Please just leave me alone." Maybe it's what he asked for but he was still rather shocked when that was exactly what Dudley did. The big boy turned and left, slumping heavily into his chair.
Dinner was served and the table set for four. Harry thought he saw Petunia look a little confused when she put out his plate but a moment later she had returned to her talking about what she saw the neighbours doing to their garden earlier in the day.
Harry quietly sat down and waited for Petunia to dish out his serving, and waited, and waited. Dudley and his uncle piled their plates high whilst his Aunt picked at the vegies. Still Harry waited. He knew better than to say anything at the table until he was address so he remained quiet.
By the time Dudley was on his third helping of potatoes Harry was panicking. If he didn't get some food soon it'd be all gone. Taking a deep breath he reached out his fork and held it above a potato waiting for his Uncle or Aunt to slap it away. When nothing happen he hesitantly speared the potato and moved it to his plate. He ate it and they did nothing. He took a piece of meat and ate it. Then a piece of broccoli. Then another potato. Now he had already eaten more than ever before. He just knew that he'd be punished later but he couldn't stop himself. He ate another potato, another piece of meat and two more pieces of broccoli before he started feeling rather unwell. He guessed his stomach wasn't used to so much food.
He wasn't going to risk touching Dudley's coke so he poured himself a glass of water and drank that before entering the kitchen and waiting to do the dishes. He was surprised again when Aunt Petunia brought the dishes in and then washed and dryed them herself.
Confused Harry visited the bathroom before heading back to his cupboard and having the best night's sleep he could remember.
Sunday passed is a similar fashion. Harry served himself three pancakes and drank fruit juice. He was given no chores so sat outside at the garden table. He ate so much of the roast at lunch that he found himself regretting it for an hour afterwards. At dinner time he even took a helping of the pudding. He thought it was divine.
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School was strange as well. Again he found himself ignored by nearly everyone, when one of Dudley's friends approached him with a confused look Harry's whispered, "Please let me be." had the boy turning away to find another boy to torment. In class the teachers didn't seem to look at him though they did collect his homework and return his assignments though without comment or eye contact.
Harry first wondered if he had turned invisible but soon ruled it out because people didn't walk into him. They just ignored him. By the end of the week he was smiling and laughing as he climbed and swung on the playground equipment. A pleasure that had before been denied him.
He handed in one piece of homework with all the wrong answers and even though it had been marked as a fail nothing was said. He handed in another with everything correct, well except one little mistake, but still so much better than Dudley's. It received an A and still nothing was said.
He tried joining in on games with other kids. But that didn't work. If he lined up to be chosen for a team he was always left standing there. Though at least they didn't tease and laugh at him like they used to do. If he just tried running around with them they just avoided him and seemed surprised and confused if he touched them. He gave up after a few tries and borrowed a book from the library and read that instead.
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His parent teacher interview was extremely strange. A letter was handed out with the schedule for his and Dudley's appointments back to back. He was first so he followed Aunt Petunia in whilst she asked Dudley to wait in the hall. He sat down next to his Aunt and watched as the teacher pulled out his file and then leaving it closed chatted about the weather, changes in school fees and what had happened to the senior art teacher whilst he was on holiday. After a while the teacher indicated that it was time to talk about Dudley and he was called in. Dudley came in and stood by Harry with a look on confusion on his face as Harry waited to be dismissed. After a few minutes of the teacher talking about Dudley's problems with maths Harry hesitantly stood. As soon as he was out of the chair Dudley sat down in it and the confusion was replaced with boredom.
Harry listened to them for a bit before wandering into the hall to wait.
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The award ceremony at the end of his fifth grade was surreal. Harry had come top of his year but somehow they forgot to call him up. At the end of all the speeches Harry had had to make his own way onto the stage to pick up the certificate and small trophy left on the table. There was nothing said and no applause. The same thing happened at the end of sixth grade.
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Harry had no idea what he was supposed to do about high school. He was wondering if he was going to have to enrol himself when a letter from Hogwarts arrived. Suddenly it all made sense. It was magic making everyone ignore him. With excitement he wrote that he accepted and asked a few questions about how to purchase his school supplies and get to the school.
The visit from Hagrid was amazing. Hagrid had no trouble seeing him and chatted about his parents, strange creatures and Hogwarts as he took him to the most amazing street ever to buy his school supplies. He was a little bit concerned when Hagrid said he was famous because of what had happened when his was just a baby but was glad to find that no one seemed to pay him any more attention than anyone else.
Watching the spoilt blonde kid get fitted out for his robes he realised that wizards and witches didn't seem to be that much different from normal folks. He was glad when the blonde boy finished and left without saying a word to him.
Over the remainder of the summer Harry returned to Diagon Alley many times to explore, purchase magical toys and more books. He spent many a day sitting at the ice cream shop reading and watching the wizards doing their shopping and banking. He saw many other kids buying their school supplies but was glad to just be left alone.
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September 1st came and Harry followed an obviously wizard family onto the platform to catch the Hogwarts Express. It was all very exciting and he wandered around the platform for a few minutes before climbing onto the train.
He found an empty carriage and opened a book to read whilst he waited. After a while a red headed boy entered the carriage and that now familiar confused look crossed his face as his eyes passed over Harry. Harry just smiled and watched as the boy opened his mouth a few times as if to speak then just sat down and frowned. A bit later the boy's brothers came by to say hello to him and lightly tease the boy about a spider before moving on. Harry picked up that his name was Ron and his brothers were Fred and George. Neither of them noticed him.
When Harry later bought some sweets from the trolley he gave a few to Ron. Ron's confusion of suddenly finding himself holding lollies was amusing but soon disappeared as he started almost breathing in the chocolate. Harry just giggled.
The blonde boy from the clothing store came back with a couple of goons and teased Ron about being poor and a blood traitor. Harry frowned and after a few moments got up and shoved the boy out of the compartment. The shocked boy stumbled backwards and fell on his bum. He stared at Ron and a look of fear came over his face and he stuttered something about staying away from him or he'd tell his father before dashing away his goons on his heels.
The sorting was another of those strange times when he almost got skipped. But Harry was ready and when it got up to the P's he just stepped forward as soon as the previous student was sorted. Professor McGonagall looked faintly bemused as Harry strode forward and plonked the hat on his head. A few minutes later he was in Gryffindor and to scattered applause from amongst all the tables went and sat down next to a bushy haired girl. She blinked at him a couple of times before turning back to watch the rest of the sorting.
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Harry enjoyed most of his classes. Whilst he didn't earn any points he never lost any either. He always worked by himself even when the rest were paired up. He knew from past experience that teaming up with others just caused problems and usually wasn't worth the effort.
The only class he really didn't like was Defence Against the Dark Arts. He always got strange headaches in that class so after a few weeks for that class and History of Magic he would only go in at the beginning of the class to hand in his homework and find out what was being taught before leaving to find a place to study. Near the end of the classes he would return to see if there was any new homework. No one ever said anything and he found he learnt a lot more that way.
He practiced spells whenever he felt like it and no one said anything. After casting a few minor jinx's on unsuspecting students he felt guilty so from then on he only cast them on the bullies. Occasionally a teacher or a student seemed to be almost able to notice him so he returned to his chant and soon everything was back to normal.
He found that he loved flying. He imagined he would probably make a decent quidditch player but since he couldn't exactly participate in team activities he just stuck to racing around on a school broom. One weekend he took the floo to Diagon alley and bought himself the fastest broom he could find. First years weren't meant to own brooms and they certainly weren't meant to leave the castle on the weekends without permission but Harry had long since realised that most rules didn't apply to people that no one noticed.
He tried to visit Hagrid at least once every week. Hagrid seemed to be the only one apart from his owl that had no problem seeing him. He always enjoyed his visits with Hagrid as long as he remembered not to eat anything there. Hagrid often asked how his classes were and never seemed to pick up on the fact that no else noticed him.
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He was in the common room reading when Ron and Neville tried sneaking out late at night and were spotted by an angry Hermione. As they crept out and then along the hallways Harry tagged along. Unlike the others he didn't bother trying to sneak, he didn't need to. Listening to their conversation he discovered that Ron had been challenged to a duel by Draco for sticking up for Neville.
Harry had to jog to keep up with them as they fled the trap Draco had set for them using Filch and he was as shocked as the rest of them to discover the Cerberus. He came back later and discovered that the Cerberus could actually see him but turned out to be rather friendly. Harry came back at least once a week to pat the great beast and bring it snacks from the kitchen. He soon discovered from Hagrid that its name was Fluffy. Fluffy didn't seem to want Harry to enter the trapdoor and since Harry wasn't all that curious he didn't try.
At Halloween Harry jinxed Ron with purple hair and itchy orange spots after he upset Hermione with a few cruel words. Then midway through dinner everyone got sent back to their common rooms when Professor Quirrell reported a troll in the dungeons. Harry rushed to find Hermione to discover the Troll had found her first. He used his well practiced tripping jinx to take it down before smashing it over the head with its own club. Harry then found himself with an armful of sobbing girl. He stood frozen unsure what to do. He hadn't been touched by anyone for as long as he could remember. After awhile he decided it was nice and tried to comfort her. Soon after a few teachers entered the room and Hermione let go of him and got all confused when she noticed the teachers were only looking at her and the troll. When one of the teachers sneered that obviously she wasn't powerful enough to defeat the troll that it must have slipped on the wet floor and smashed it's own head in when it fell Hermione nodded and said yes that was exactly what had happened.
As Hermione left the room to head back to the common room she grabbed Harry's hand and dragged him after her. "Why couldn't they see you? I.. I remember you getting sorted at the beginning of the year and I think I remember seeing you in some of our classes. But.. no one else does do they?"
Harry smiled and nodded.
Hermione pulled him into an empty classroom, "You're in Gryffindor so you must be in all my classes but I just don't remember seeing you in them. How do you do that?"
Harry shrugged.
"Ehh.. can you speak?"
Harry thought about it for a little bit. He realised that apart from his little chant he hasn't said anything whilst he had been in the castle. He hadn't needed to answers any questions or ask for anything here so he just hadn't said anything. He only ever spoke to Hagrid in the privacy of his hut.
"Yes." He eventually answered with a small smile and a shrug.
Hermione smiled, "Well you certainly don't say a lot I guess that's okay because most people say I speak too much. Thanks for saving my life. I was.. upset." Her smile turned upside down.
Harry nodded, "I changed the colour of Ron's hair and gave him itchy spots."
Hermione giggled, "You did? Thanks! Hey, it's been you doing all the pranks. Fred and George have been trying to work out who has been outdoing their pranks."
"I like them. They are fun. I often follow them to see what they do."
Hermione grinned and gave Harry another quick hug before grabbing his hands with hers, "Hey I don't remember your name. I suppose they called it out at the sorting ceremony but I must have missed it. I don't normally forget things. It's called an eidetic memory. I think it's wonderful. So what is your name? Mine's Hermione Granger."
Harry smiled and tightened his own hands around Hermione's. He discovered he also liked holding hands. "I know. Mine's Harry Potter"
Hermione's jaw dropped. "You're Harry Potter? Wow. So many people have been looking for you. Everyone said that you were supposed to start school this year. No one knows that you did. I read lots about you, you are in so many books."
Harry's smile vanished and his grip on Hermione's hands faltered. "They're wrong. I read them too. They're all wrong."
A quick frown crossed Hermione's face before she pulled Harry into another hug, "Oh I'm so sorry. Those liars. If you want to tell me about it I'll listen or if you don't want to talk about it I promise I won't ask you questions. You saved my life after all."
Harry's face lit up with a brilliant smile and he returned Hermione's hug and they became friends.
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Harry spent most of his time with Hermione after that. He never hid from her and she never ignored or missed spotting him. Since Hermione hadn't had any fiends before it was very easy for the two of them to be together and not have anyone notice anything out of the ordinary.
After a few weeks Harry discovered that he could change his chant a little and both he and Hermione could remain unnoticed, although the effect would only last on Hermione for an hour or so.
It didn't take him long to convince Hermione to come exploring the castle with him. Hermione had been resistant to the idea of breaking any rule but Harry turned out to be rather stubborn when he wanted to be. He had already seen a great deal of it but he enjoyed showing all sorts of hidden areas to Hermione and discovering more.
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It became very cold as it got closer to Christmas. Hermione had spent a lot of time thinking things through and had eventually asked Harry if he wanted to stay with her over the holiday. It took quite a few letters as she tried to convince her parents that Harry's guardians were just happy that he had made a friend as he was such a quiet boy. She hadn't thought it was going to work until Harry had put his hand on her last letter and tried a little chant, "Please don't worry about me. Everything is fine." The next letter from her parents was all positive and there were no more objections.
Hermione had done a lot of research and couldn't find anything about magic working like that. To her this with the second strike against books being all knowing.
Harry had the best Christmas ever. He gave and got presents for the first time. Just from Hermione and her family. Her parents had set up the guest bedroom for Harry but mostly he slept in Hermione's room on her reading couch. It happened by accident a few times and Hermione just let it go. She knew she was a lot more mature than Harry and pegged him correctly as a true innocent in regard to many things. Her parents never noticed and in fact both she and Harry had to occasionally remind them that he was even there.
Harry took Hermione shopping in Diagon Alley. She was a little concerned about going without permission but Harry was insistent and with his chant she was pretty sure they would have no trouble. Harry grabbed a handful of galleons from his vault and insisted that Hermione buy a bunch of books. He had never had a friends before and knew that she liked to read so couldn't think of a better gift for his bestest friend. Once again Hermione discovered just how stubborn Harry could be and once she entered the bookshop she was soon lost in the excitement of discovering new knowledge.
Harry decided he wanted to spend all his Christmases with Hermione as it had been the best time ever. Hermione had blushed a lot when he had told her that.
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Back at school Hermione discovered that school was a lot more pleasant. Whilst she was never ignored quite like Harry she was now hardly ever picked on by the other students nor even Professor Snape. She thought some of it may be due to Harry really letting loose with the jinx's and pranks on anyone who dared be rude or nasty to her.
She also had toned down her question answering habits in class. Noticing that Harry was just as good a student as she was and yet had never answered a single question in class probably had a lot to do with it. She had considered herself the best student in her year but now wasn't so sure. Harry's marks were always just as good as hers and he never wrote more than he was supposed to. He had told her how he had had to go up and get his awards in primary school and she wondered if the same thing would happen here. The thing that surprised her the most was that she found she really didn't mind the thought that he may be better than her.
Harry introduced her to Hagrid and she found herself now with two friends. She enjoyed Hagrid's company even though many of his ideas were way out there and he seemed to have a strange idea about how safe certain creatures were.
She no longer cared much about the rules and nearly every night wandered the castle chatting with Harry. One night they even helped Ron and Neville smuggle Hagrid's dragon to the top of the Astronomy Tower. They had been having a whole lot of trouble since Ron had already escaped from the infirmary and was trying to carry it with a bandaged hand. The dragon had been banging around inside the box making it difficult to hold until Harry had walked up and soothed the creature. Hermione and Neville had carried it the rest of the way whilst Ron had wondered why the dragon had suddenly gone so quiet. Harry had also made sure that they all avoided Filch and used a tripping Jinx to have a suit of armor fall over on Draco.
Slytherin had lost a lot of points that night.
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Apart from that night though Hermione still didn't have much to do with Ron or Neville though the did occasionally meet up at Hagrids.
By the end of the school year Gryffindor and Slytherin were neck and neck for the cup. Hermione no longer got as many points for answering questions but she got even more for getting ever spell correct first. The fact that she and Harry always worked together had helped her do even better. Also all the practising, or playing, with spells in the corridors with Harry helped.
The both found exams very easy and Hermione even convinced Harry to do them properly since though he could easily cheat he really didn't need to. They were coming back from a celebratory dinner for two in the kitchens when they came across Ron and Neville rushing to the third floor.
Worried they followed as the two boys talked to each other about how Professor Snape was going to steal the Philosopher's Stone tonight, how Professor McGonagall had been no help and how suspicious it was that the headmaster had been called away to the Ministry.
Hermione and Harry weren't so convinced by their reasoning but decided to tag along just in case the two boys got in trouble. They found Fluffy already asleep with an enchanted instrument playing music. Ron almost got bitten when the music stopped and it was only Harry's quick actions to calm Fluffy that he got past with barely a scratch. Hermione apologised to Fluffy and restarted the music and they both climbed down to discover that Neville had already helped Ron get past some Devil's Snare.
Next they discovered a bruised and battered Ron clutching a key with his left hand. His right arm being dislocated from a fall from a broom. Sighing Hermione cast a silent healing spell on Ron and fixed most of the damage. Next they watched from the far side of the room as Ron handily defeated a massive Wizard's Chess Set.
Passing by an unconscious troll they followed Ron and Neville into a fire and puzzle trap obviously set by Professor Snape. Ron was about to drink from one of the poisoned bottles when Hermione and Harry send a pair of silent compulsion spells into the pair and the two boys decided they should sit down and take a nap before continuing on.
With Neville and Ron asleep the walls of fire faded away and Harry and Hermione continued forward to find Professor Quirrell in front of a large mirror trying to discover how to retrieve a magical stone. Even Harry's chanting didn't prevent the Professor spotting Hermione and with quick spell work he had her tied up. Later when the back of Quirrell's head turned out to be possessed by the spirit of Voldemort she almost fainted and Harry froze solid with fear. But when Quirrell grabbed her and started dragging her towards the mirror he lost himself to anger and panic and leapt on a very confused Quirrell. As seemingly invisible fists beat down on Quirrell's head he started burning up and was soon reduced to ash leaving Harry to worry over Hermione who had fallen to the floor hard. He was very pleased to find that she was just dazed and they ended up hugging for a very long time. They only released each other when an equally confused and slightly bemused Professor Dumbledore turned up. After muttering to himself for a while, examining Quirrell's robes and turban and discovering the stone missing he left disarming the traps, and taking the Ron and Neville to the infirmary.
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Harry joined Hermione in the common room after finishing his packing, "What's wrong Hermione? You look worried."
Hermione gave Harry a small smile, "Oh Harry. I'm just worried about Voldemort. He's still out there and probably getting more powerful."
Harry frowned and nodded, "Maybe but we hurt him and made him run away. It's probably be a long time before he can find someone else to possess. I'm sure Professor Dumbledore will be more careful about letting a possessed person into Hogwarts."
"But now he has the stone he'll probably be able to make himself a body."
Harry cocked his head to the side in thought, "Ohh.. I thought I told you." He pulled out a blood-red stone and handed it to Hermione. "After he tied you up and was talking I walked around to get behind him and passed the mirror. When I glanced at it I saw myself put the stone in my pocket and it appeared there."
Hermione giggled and playfully swatted Harry on the arm, "You had it all along and I've been so worried that Voldemort had it."
"I'm so sorry. I really thought I had told you. No wonder you have been so quiet. I thought it was because we met Voldemort."
Hermione nodded, "There was that too but mostly it was because I thought he had won and was going to come back soon."
Harry moved to stand in front of her and took her hands in his, "Even if he does come back I'll protect you Hermione. I know he's still out there so I'm going to work even harder next year to become stronger so I can beat him."
Hermione's arms wrapped around Harry and she whispered in his ear, "Thank you so much Harry. You are the best friend I could ever imagine."
After a few minutes they broke apart and she smiled at Harry, "Come on let's get to the carriages. We don't want to miss our train. We have all of summer and a trip to France to look forward to."