Kapitel 1544: 6
Chapter 6: The first week at Hogwarts - againNotes:
Hey again,
sorry for the cliffhanger last time, but that one was just to good to not write it.
Have fun reading.
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Well, Mr. Potter, the others are slowly getting impatient. As much as I like our chat and that glimpse into your mind, it's time to make a decision now. Your house for your whole new life at Hogwarts will be…
GRYFFINDOR!
As always, only the last word of that conversation had been spoken aloud and the crowd instantly reacted. The Gryffindor table cheered extremely loud and the Weasley twins were basically jumping around, yelling "We got Potter, we got Potter!" over and over again. Percy then shook his hand as soon as he had reached the table, taking his place between Neville and Hermione. From afar he was able to see Ronald's surprised look as he realised that he had met Potter and didn't recognise him. But that was something that Harry didn't care about, because he sat next to Hermione and it seemed like no one was the slightest bit suspicious.
During the rest of the sorting Harry hardly paid attention and silently chatted with Hermione and Neville, telling them that Dumbledore had tried to use Legilimency on him. Despite the fact that Neville had no idea about them being from the future, they had told him all about the headmaster's manipulations during the past decade to gain another ally.
Once all the Weasleys started clapping, they knew that Ronald had been sorted and they expected him to show up next to them instantly. Sadly, exactly that happened.
"Harry, mate, why didn't you say something earlier on the train. Could have rescued you from those reading geeks. Oi Longbottom, move over!"
Unbelievable. Ronald really tried to get Neville to move over so he could sit next to Harry, but the future Lord Longbottom was no longer the scared little boy with way too little self-confidence.
"I beg your pardon. What do you think you're doing? Harry has made it absolutely clear that he wanted to sit between Hermione and me and correct me if I'm wrong but you've never even met him and yet claim to be his friend. So the answer is no, I won't move over."
With that he just turned away and continued to talk to Harry, completely ignoring Ronald's attempts to provoke him. What they did see was the blush and anger on Percy's face, afraid that his younger brother would ruin his family's name and by that his future through simply stupid interactions with two future Lords. Both House Potter and Longbottom were among the most powerful families in the Wizengamot. Because of that he tried to intervene and reprimand his brother but he was too late. Just after Blaise Zabini got sorted into Slytherin, Professor McGonagall spoke up:
"Mr. Weasley! No, not you two, your little brother. You've clearly tried the patience of both Mr. Potter and Mr. Longbottom. Take a seat and leave those two and Miss Granger alone, before you'll set a record for the fastest assigned detention in the history of Hogwarts."
With that, Ron backed down and took a seat between Seamus and one of the twins, Harry suspected it to be Fred but wasn't entirely sure. Now Dumbledore held the same - absolutely pointless - speech: "Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak!" And then, finally, the food started to appear.
Soon the usual chatter started. The Start-of-Term Feasts tended to be very joyful, with people chatting about their holidays, and it ranked among the top occasions food-wise. Only Halloween, Yule and the Leaving Feast were able to rival this one. In addition to the amount of food on the tables there were dozens of the castle's ghosts, floating through the air and the tables, frightening the little firsties. Truth be told, Harry had waited for that, just to have another laugh about some other time-travel insider. Soon Nick appeared and introduced himself, which led to Ron shouting: "I know who you are! My brothers told me about you - you're Nearly Headless Nick!"
As expected, he was not amused with being called that name and replied with the "I would prefer you to call me Sir Nicholas de…" but before he could finish that and even before Seamus was able to interrupt him, both Harry and Hermione spoke up:
"Nearly Headless? How can you be nearly headless?"
Describing Seamus' facial expression as "startled" would have been an understatement, but the stunned looks on the twins' faces was even better. Just like Harry and Hermione they started speaking unisono:
"Look at that, just at Hogwarts for a few minutes and already stealing our number! May we introduce ourselves:"
"We are the castle's biggest pranksters…"
"...feared by everyone…"
"... we are the Weasley twins…"
"...Gred and Forge, to your service."
They would never admit it, but the two of them had actually missed the twinspeak, something that had faded over the years. It was a beautiful sign that everyone was still carefree. No Dark Lord in sight, no war or fear of Death Eater attack.
"The castle's biggest pranksters? I highly doubt that, I've heard about a group of gentlemen that really managed their mischief. But well, we'll see."
With that, Hermione was able to utterly shock the twins, who did understand her reference to the Marauder's Map's password. But instead of explaining she just grinned at them and continued talking to Neville and Harry, ignoring the twins for the rest of the feast.
When the last of the desserts finally started to disappear, Dumbledore stood up and gave his notices to the students, the usual speech about the forest, magic in the corridors, the quidditch trials and last but not least the third-floor corridor on the right hand side.
"To be honest, now that I hear that again, he really provoked students to break the rules and make them go there. "Don't go there, it's dangerous" is basically an invitation. Besides, the whole "painful death awaits you" is pretty careless in a school, don't you think?"
Harry couldn't really do anything else than nod at Mione's statement. The old fool claiming to be the Leader of the Light was in truth a cold and calculating man, or entirely stupid.
After the school hymn Harry had a last glance at the old headmaster before they started following Percy. They were able to remember that last time they both were way too tired to really pay attention to the beauty of the castle, but not now. After many years of walking through the castle and the months in the tent they were much more in shape, even if their bodies were back to the young and untrained form. Their mindset had changed, and that was all that mattered.
Just how wary they were of their surroundings showed when the flying walking sticks appeared in front of them. Both of them had their wands ready before Percy whispered to them that it was Peeves, the poltergeist, ready to deflect his attacks, but it was unnecessary. The prefect's threat to call the Baron worked just fine and so they reached the picture of the fat lady unharmed. After saying the password (Hermione did obviously recall that one, just as every other password, it was Caput Draconis), Percy led them into the common room and directed them to their dorm rooms. Harry hardly had found the time to wish Mione a good night before they got shooed away. The only lucky thing was that Ronald had eaten so much that he basically fell asleep the moment he saw his new bed, not being able to annoy Harry with questions and attempts to create a friendship. That gave the young wizard the possibility to use a new spell from the Grimoire he had learned, an untraceable tracking spell. He had disillusioned his second wand and in a moment where he was sure that Scabbers looked into the opposite direction, he hit him with it. Just in case the whole "keeping the timeline so steady that Riddle gets reborn for killing him" failed and he went for the "damage control", as Salazar Slytherin had put it.
"Playing around with the timeline is dangerous. Even the most minor differences can change everything and in the end you won't be able to contain the changes. Avoid that!"
"And if it happens? What should I do?"
"That's simple. I would call it "damage control". Use all your future knowledge to make positive changes before it gets all moot. In that case I would say capture the rat, free Sirius, announce all your titles and emancipation, use both your and your godfather's political power to topple Fudge. Take Dumbledore apart with everything you've got and go after the free and loyal Death Eaters, either with politics or stealthy assassinations."
After that a vivid discussion about the ethical standpoint of assassinating the Death Eaters had started, of which Harry had no intention of ever reliving. His mother truly had been one hell of a scary witch. In the end they came to the conclusion that he should avoid it but not rule it out entirely. But let's just hope it would never come to damage control. With that thought he dozed off, into a deep and dreamless sleep.
Not everyone had been that happy with how the day went down, because just after McGonagall came back up to the staff table and Albus held his short speech, he quietly confronted her for her actions.
"Oh Minerva, was that truly necessary? Why did you have to reprimand the young Weasley boy and shoo him away? Young Harry needs the best company he can get and I don't think that the timid Longbottom boy and a muggleborn are the best he could get. I'm sure they must be imposing themselves on Harry. I believe to have heard that the Weasleys met Harry at King's Cross and the two of them shared a compartment. Don't tell me you want to overwhelm him, he should stick to one good friend from a good family."
For a fraction of a second, Minerva's facial expression basically screamed "Unbelievable Albus, do you ever listen to yourself?" but since he continued to stare at young Harry, only Severus Snape saw that. Taking a deep breath, she started phrasing an answer in her head and then replying to the headmaster:
"Seriously, Albus? First of all that's all bloody wrong, those three shared a compartment and it would surprise me if he met the Weasleys on the platform. Doesn't seem like either of the older one's know Mr. Potter. Second of all, he did meet Miss Granger in Diagon Alley. I was there with her and her family when Hagrid brought him there. As he surely told you, I found myself more suitable to introduce him to our world than him. Potter and Granger have become friends even before Hogwarts and I believe they even met up in the muggle world beforehand. And the young Mr. Longbottom ran into us when we revisited Ollivanders to satisfy Miss Granger's curiosity and never ending wish to study and learn. Augusta finally got him a proper wand and stopped having the illusion that he would have to use Frank's. Oh and by the way, it's anything but appropriate if you call Mr. Potter by his first name. We surely don't want it to look like you have your favourites."
Truth be told, it was only thanks to Dumbledore's Occlumency skill that he was able to stay calm - or at least appear to be calm. He was both furious and confused, afraid of losing control. There was no real way for him to assess the damages Minerva had done to his plans without gaining too much attention, no way to find out what she had told him. And how on earth did Augusta break the confundus charm he had placed on her with the elder wand? Yes, it had been nearly a decade but still, that should have worked and kept the young Longbottom weak and timid. Instead he was now self-confident and a true Gryffindor. Albus had hoped that he'd be sorted into Hufflepuff. Now he could only wait and hope that everything would still fall into place. All sorts of mental manipulation charms would be dangerous, Minerva had been an elite auror and she was certainly interested in keeping the young Harry safe. If she'd only known that legally she could have taken him in she would probably challenge him to a duel to the death and even with him having the elder wand Minerva still was one hell of a scary witch. And for him that meant that he just gave her the "disappointed old grandfather" look and continued eating in silence, deep down inside raging. Even though he hid his anger, both Minerva and Severus knew it was there and that's why the potions professor approached McGonagall after the feast when he was sure that no one saw them.
"Minerva, whatever game you're playing, look after yourself. The old man won't like it. Believe me when I tell you that I know Petunia Dursley, though back then she only was little Tuney Evans. I trust your judgement when you say they mistreated him and I damn well know that he doesn't look like a freshly abused kid to me. Whatever you do, it's working. But don't tell me!"
Severus had his suspicions but since he wasn't the only master Legilimens in the castle he really didn't want to know the specifics.
"He may look like James Potter to me, but if I'm right then he and I share similar experiences. You had me as a student, you know what I mean. I guarantee you that I won't treat him like he was just the spawn of James Potter. A thought that Dumbledore had tried to implant in my head, just for the record."
And without waiting for a response or any kind of reaction at all, he was gone. Within seconds he had disappeared behind a corner and made his way down to the Slytherin common rooms to check if his prefects were able to manage all the new firsties.
Minerva was stunned. She had seen the future and knew what had happened, how he had behaved, and all this was a sign for a changing timeline. Very interesting.
The next morning Harry woke quite early, partly because he couldn't stand Ronald's snoring anymore, but getting up early had become a habit in the tent. After having a short shower he went down into the common room, his bag filled with today's school books with him. Since he was alone down here, he started revising some of the runic alphabets he had begun to learn, when after less than twenty minutes Hermione came down as well, grinning at the sight of a studying Harry. That didn't mean though that she had nothing to criticise:
"You might wanna put those books back, Harry. We didn't get our timetable yet."
Fair point, he hadn't thought about that. He went back up into their dorm, placed the books in his trunk again and wanted to walk down again when he ran into Neville, who had just finished dressing. That led to the three of them walking down to the great hall for breakfast together, but not the same way they went up to the tower yesterday. Obviously Neville had heard stories about the Marauders and Harry had even shown him his own map but that didn't mean he wasn't stunned by Harry's casual use of the many secret passages. They did need less than half the normal time to reach the hall, which by the way was pretty empty at that time of day.
Luckily for Minerva, Dumbledore hadn't come down yet, only Severus, Quirinius and Bathsheda were sitting at the staff table with her. Using that opportunity she got up as soon as she saw the trio enter, handed them their timetable and asked for a private word with Harry. She took his aside and started telling him what she had discovered the day before.
"From what I could gather he orchestrated the Weasley meeting, he told me he was pretty certain you met and shared a compartment, complaining about the fact that we overwhelm you with too many people and you should "stick to one good friend from a good family". Oh, and it might interest you that Severus approached me after I shouted at Albus. He's losing his trust in the headmaster and made pretty precise assumptions about your childhood. Severus is not unfamiliar with "Tuney Evans", as he called her. Let's hope that's good and not destroying your timeline plans. I doubt they're already planning the tournament. If I had to take a guess, the end of your second year should be the earliest time to consider "damage control" if unavoidable. By then plans should already be in motion."
Harry nodded. The only important thing was to make the tournament happen and eliminate all the horcruxes before that to kill Riddle in the graveyard. Otherwise he'd be floating around without a body somewhere, no one knowing when and where he'd strike. If they were able to keep the timeline stable was probably the biggest uncertainty, but he did prepare for all hell breaking loose too. Not that he'd want that, but still.
After breakfast they all hurried back into the tower to get their stuff for classes. Just as they left they ran into Dean and Ronald, both looking exhausted, and Dean told them that they'd get lost and at some point they were trying to force their way through a door and Filch promised them all sorts of detention because it was the door to the forbidden floor, but Quirrell luckily saved them from being locked up in the dungeons or something like that. Harry had to try really hard to not burst out laughing, the same thing had happened to Ron and him last time around, but it had been on their way to class, not to breakfast. Seemed like some things never change.
Now the trio made their way into the classroom for Theory of Magic, basically a short introduction into magic, usage of wands and a bit about power levels and exhaustion of the magical core. This class was only being held during the first few weeks of first year, but nonetheless it was fascinating. Well, if it had been unknown to them, then it would have been fascinating, but that was obviously not the case here. What they did realise was that Neville now was able to use his core completely, no longer having a wand that rejected him. If Hermione would push him into studying like she did with Ron and him he would certainly be among the top of the class in both theory and practical use.
In the afternoon they had their first transfiguration class, which was something they were looking forward to and being afraid of at the same time. Could they downplay their skill level or not? Luckily Minerva knew about them and could help them.
Both Harry and Hermione had mastered the matches into needles transfiguration long ago and could probably pass their OWLs if not NEWTs right now, but they had to act like they were unable to perform the spell properly. At one point though Minerva came up to them, silently put up a notice-me-not charm and looked at them, expecting to see their true skill level. First Harry and then Hermione performed flawlessly, which made Minerva smile. After Mione reversed her transfiguration, McGonagall dropped the notice-me-not.
"Great work, Potter. Seems like you inherited your father's talent for transfiguration. And now Miss Granger, don't hold back, I've seen you succeed. Five points for not bragging with your success. And now, please."
Hermione smiled and did as Minerva asked, though she purposefully put less power into the spell so it took a second longer to complete the transfiguration.
"Bravo! Ten points each for Gryffindor."
By the end of the lesson Neville too gained points because his match did transfigure into metal, though not remotely as pointy as it should have been. Only a small success, but for someone who was believed to be a squib for most of his life this was more than satisfying.
Talking about something being satisfying, DADA did not count to one of those things. Yes, Harry lacked his horrible headache since the soul fragment was gone, but knowing that Tom Riddle was in the classroom did create some discomfort. That, and he was still able to feel him, but without all the pain. He might even still be able to use that as a horcrux detector.
Aside from having Tom Riddle as a DADA teacher, ironic if you knew that he once wanted to have that position, the first week of term was pretty comfortable, aside from Weasley's horrible attempts at forming a friendship with Harry. The trio was on the right track with their essays and classes too were manageable. By now they managed to downplay their skill after training to cast silent notice-me-not's and acting clumsy in charms. They still managed to make Flitwick very happy with their performance, even with a dialled-back power. Said power seemed to be quite the topic amongst the professors, they all felt his strong core that could arguably be stronger than Dumbledore's. From what Minerva told them it seemed like Flitwick was very enthusiastic. He must have said something like "the talent for charmes like Lily Evans, for transfiguration and DADA like James Potter, very literate and power levels that are off the charts. What a potential that boy has."
The day Harry had been looking forward to most was Friday. They would have their first potions lesson, together with the Slytherins, which should be very interesting. But before that he did get a message via Hedwig in the morning, and again the timeline did seem to be intact because Hagrid had invited him for tea this afternoon. Just like last time he scribbled a "yes, please" on the letter and gave it back to his owl.
After they finished eating, the trio made their way down to the dungeons. On the way they were able to overhear Ronald's complaints about Snape, while Dean, Seamus and Lavender all closely listened to him. His brothers had told him a lot, and most of it was actually true, which made most of the Gryffindors averse to potions before even having it once. Harry on the other hand was looking forward to it, because Lily and he had made plans for the Snape interactions, combined with Minerva's statements about Snape doubting Dumbledore, this was bound to be fun.
The memory of the conversation with his mother made him remember the last missing thing for his plan. He'd been carrying it in one of his pockets for way too long.
"Mione, we still have enough time to be at least five minutes early. Can I speak to you alone for a moment?"
She nodded and both of them went around the next corner, making Neville wait in the corridor. With a flick of his wand Harry cast a Muffliato and pulled something out of his pocket. Hermione blushed and started smiling shyly, especially when Harry carefully put it on her. Her response was hugging him fiercely, and as she looked at him, seeing him grin, she couldn't help herself and planted a soft kiss on his cheek.
Once they ended their hug, both were as scarlet red as the walls in the Gryffindor common room. Oh yes, without any Weasley interference and love potions the whole soulmate thing was quite obvious. Smiling brightly they walked back around the corner and together with Neville completed the trip down to the potions classroom. What they didn't see, thanks to being absolutely mentally absent, was Neville's cheeky grin. Nothing and no one would be able to change his opinion, those two were so destined to be. And if he only knew that they were soulmates and quite literally destined to be he'd just say something like "don't you dare to act surprised, you already share a brain from time to time, not a big leap to sharing your soul."
And now, as they reached their destination, Harry became nervous. After all, Snape had killed Dumbledore, but Slytherin was pretty sure that this had been a gigantic ruse by the old fool himself. The ring's curse had certainly been deadly and they did consider this killing as mercy delivered by the potions master.
Now Harry would have to face HIM again.
Severus Snape.
Notes:
Well, you all know what will be coming next week - the first encounter with Snape.
Until then, I'm always looking forward to your comments and reviews.
See ya
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