Chapter 2
Harry and the girls had spent most of the last three years working in the trunk network and at Harry's properties after Harry figured out how to connect the satellite trunks to the central one. Harry had placed a satellite trunk at each property. All of the books purchased from Diagon Alley and found in the various libraries were carefully sorted and organized in the library, where many of the girls could be found reading up on various subjects. Many also spent their time in the developing greenhouse, the gardens, or the potions lab.
Since potions brewing was one of the most impressive branches of magic that Squibs could readily use, Harry soon had a rather impressive stockpile of beginner-level potions. And the girls had thigh holsters containing vials of the potions that had defensive value. This of course necessitated wearing skirts, which Harry approved of wholeheartedly. He was a leg man.
Compounds that were more difficult to brew were being added daily, as more successful potions and fewer explosions were produced. Taking a page out of Muggle books, Harry's potion lab included such safety features as a ventilation hood, Dragonhide aprons, impervious goggles, and charmed glass barriers. As a result, very few potion "failures" needed magical healing or countermeasures.
Harry had, however, gotten a semi-retired mediwitch on retainer, and she could be trusted not to talk as Harry had applied one of those odd don't-talk-about-Harry magics to her.
The trunks transportation system penetrated the Hogwarts wards, and several fifth year witches, each carefully selected by Ella and vetted by Harry, had joined the group and been given trunks last year, one in each House. Harry was already famous amongst the Hogwarts female students for providing a refuge for witches who were pursued too hotly by wizards, but he was furious at the wizards, especially the Slytherins.
A few of the more advanced girls had also begun to delve into the worlds of Arithmancy and Ancient Runes with the help of the fifth years. Although they could not cast spells or empower runes themselves, they were fully able to research the theories behind their working and design new arrangements for Harry to test out. Once they had finished their calculations, they bribed him to come implement their creations. (The bribes usually involved either kisses or Mars bars.)
Harry actually learned a great deal about casting spells through this rather unique learning method. By first going over the arithmetical mechanics behind a given spell, he was able to figure out not only what a spell was supposed to do but also how and why it worked. Though he wouldn't find out until he reached Hogwarts, his spells were much more focused and powerful than was normal for his age group.
During the end of July and all through August of each year, several additional trips were made into Diagon Alley. Besides the need for additional furniture and the like for each girl's trunk/apartment, the researching children found that they needed additional reference materials, potions ingredients, and magical artifacts to study. Sometimes such artifacts were deconstructed and reverse-engineered in order to find out how they worked, or just to improve the original design.
The girls were delighted to learn that while they couldn't cast spells (even borrowing one of Harry's wands), they were perfectly capable of using magical artifacts. This included items from wizarding joke products all the way up to such items as Pensieves, broomsticks, and Sneakoscopes. Some items, like Pensieves, required Harry to perform certain steps such as actually moving memories into the basin, after which they could work on their own.
Within months, several of the previously empty workshops resembled the junk shops in Diagon Alley. They contained various disassembled items including watches, clocks, Dark magic detectors, omnioculars, moving Quidditch action figures, a wizard's chess set, half a dozen Bludgers, several Snitches, two lunascopes, a Put-Outer, a box of Remembralls, a wizarding tent, a regular multiple-compartment trunk, five sets of Gobstones, several decks of Exploding Snap cards, a Secrecy Sensor, and a collection of wizarding wireless receivers. If it used magic, the girls wanted at least one to examine.
Another workshop was set up with every type of magical detector, measuring device, and spell decoder they could find. If you could use it to analyze an enchanted object without a wand, they had it in the reverse-engineering lab. Some of their instruments were modified medical tools, similar to what mediwitches and mediwizards used over at St. Mungo's Hospital.
The Squib girls were not restricted to those items they could find in the Alley. At practically every store they asked for and often obtained owl-order catalogs. Hedwig was kept quite busy delivering orders and returning with shrunken purchases. They even had open accounts in many shops in Knockturn Alley.
Harry was glad to find some house-elves at several of the properties; they now roamed the trunks and the properties, cleaning and cooking. They seemed happy creatures and when they had asked, Harry had told them of course it was fine to have children. He had been amazed they would ask, and this had led them to delve into the world of house-elves.
Harry had also learned a lot of his family's history and spent hours with the paintings in the Potter Manor. His mother and father had told him of the end of the war and what had happened at the Longbottom house. Between them they figured that Harry might be the real Boy-Who-Lived. Whatever the case truly was, Harry was certain that Neville Longbottom wasn't the Boy-Who- Lived. He had met Neville several times in Knockturn Alley and he acted just like the other pure- blood prats, maybe even worse.
Finally, September 1, 1991, rolled around. Harry had made his "family" rather happy, for not only had he informed them that he would be making his own way to King's Cross station, he had hardly been seen at the Dursley residence for three years. Ever since his girls had started coming to the Dursley house to find him if he wasn't let out, the Dursleys had adopted a policy of pretending that he didn't exist. At the very least they acted as if he was a common boarder. They no longer asked where he went, and he did his best to be gone more often that he was present. They were a prime example of a dysfunctional family, but somehow they managed to go on. Remembering that touching Harry equaled a trip to the hospital helped.
Harry had received his letter and train ticket by owl, along with the vaguest of instructions on how to reach the magical train platform, after sending Hedwig off with his acceptance letter back in July. Luckily Ella was there; she gave him much more detailed instructions on how to find Platform Nine and Three-Quarters. Harry really had to wonder yet again about how the average witch or wizard's mind worked. A fractional number for a train platform? Who came up with these things?
He made the rounds to all the girls, giving the "public" goodbye before heading off for a year of
boarding school. Despite his uncle's desire to spread the story that he was going to an institute for criminally insane boys, Harry told his girls' parents that he had a scholarship to a school for the "gifted". (That cover story still made him chuckle when he pondered the irony of it. Gifted, indeed!)
The girls would see him nearly every evening and on the weekends, thanks to the trunk network, but the adults didn't need to know about that. Their cover was a newly formed center for young girls - sort of a private female-only youth center set up with Harry's money in a house on Wisteria Lane, with a bona-fide social worker who worked with anyone who showed up (anyone female, anyway), where they could spend their evenings and weekends in independent study. Harry would just have to bully them into maintaining top grades so that the adults would buy the story.
Having made his farewells, he took a taxi to the train station, all his school gear safely stowed away in his trunk, which was shrunken down to fit into his pocket. He had left Hedwig free to find her own way to Hogwarts. When he asked her how she wanted to travel, she had hooted when the flying option was given. So it was just Harry exiting the cab: wands hidden in the wrist sheath concealed beneath his shirt sleeve, school supplies tucked away in a hidden trunk, his ticket in his shirt pocket, wallet in the left jeans pocket, and coin purse in the right.
"Wonderful," he murmured to himself, looking at the station's prominent clock. Although he had left early just to be safe, the heavy traffic had gotten him there with only fifteen minutes to find and board his train. And he had been hoping for a bit of time to explore! "Oh well," he sighed, walking to the barrier between platforms nine and ten. Apparently he wasn't the only one to arrive a bit behind schedule.
The other tardy group was a party made up entirely of redheads. There was an adult woman who just had to be the mother of all the children. The eldest child was a somewhat stuffy-looking young man with horn-rim glasses and a shiny badge on his chest. He was also the only one with an owl on his trolley. Next in age came a pair of twin boys who had a certain air of mischief about them. Third came a boy about Harry's age who was tall and thin. Lastly was the only female child. Harry could hear her complaining about having to stay behind while her brothers all went off to school.
From the look of her she would be joining them next year. He judged her age to be no more than a year behind the youngest boy. She was very cute, but what really drew Harry's attention to her was her mane of deep red hair, falling down her back like a waterfall at sunset. Taking the bull by the horns, so to speak, he walked up to the first magical family he would ever meet.
"Hello, beautiful," he practically purred into the girl's ear, leaning in from behind to ensure that only she heard this greeting. She, in turn, squeaked and jumped around to face him. "Hello. My name is Harry. I'm going to be starting my first year at Hogwarts. Will you be joining me on the train?" he asked, knowing full well that she wouldn't. As he spoke he used the training his girls had given him to send out dozens of subtle body language signals to calm and reassure the startled girl.
"Oh, no. I won't be going to school this year," she replied shyly. "My brother Ron is starting this year, but I don't get to go until next year." She practically pouted as she said this, and he thought she looked adorable while pouting. "My name is Ginevra Weasley, but everybody calls me Ginny."
"A pleasure to make your acquaintance, o beautiful Ginevra." She blushed at the compliment but was smiling widely at his antics. "My full name is...now, please don't laugh or scream or anything...Harry James Potter." Despite his warning she flushed pink, then paled, then blushed a bright red. "Are you all right, Ginevra? Uh...Ginny?" The poor girl appeared to be in shock. Well, he knew a sure-fire way to snap her out of it, but would he be thanked or slapped for the
presumption? Oh well, nothing ventured....
Harry leaned in and gently kissed the stunned girl. Unfortunately it was just at that moment that her mother happened to turn to see who her daughter was talking with. "Ginevra Weasley!" bellowed a voice like a force of nature. "What do you think you are doing, young lady!" The fiery matron then focused her rather impressive stern glare upon him. "And just who might you be?"
"Mum!" gasped Ginny. "I--I--"
"I'm terribly sorry about that, ma'am," interrupted Harry. "This was entirely my fault. I knew that I was risking a slap in the face - or worse - but how can mortal man resist such beauty?" Yeah, he was really laying it on thick. "My apologies, ma'am. I didn't intend to take liberties with your daughter." Both he and Ginny managed to blush at that point.
Harry looked at the station clock and was shocked to see how much time he had spent observing and meeting Ginny. "Er...I really have to go right now. The train and all that." He took Ginny's hand in his, raising the back of it to his lips. "Until we meet again, fair flower." She blushed again, while her mother frowned her disapproval. Harry darted through the barrier and onto the magical platform. His pack of girls followed him, shaking their heads and smiling.
As he crossed he could hear Ginny saying, "...but he's Harry Potter!" Boy, would he like to have heard the rest of that conversation!
The platform was just as Ella had described: the bright red steam engine, the owls flying all over and cats running here and there, not to mention the chaos of students saying farewell to their families. It was a scene unlike anything he had ever seen in the Muggle world, yet somehow it had a feeling of familiarity.
Harry kissed his girls goodbye and Ella ran off to find the Hogwarts crew. As Harry approached the train he saw a young girl struggling to drag an oversized trunk on board. Several older students wearing green-trimmed school robes were making fun of her bushy hair, large front teeth, and her general inability to move her own trunk. They were needlessly cruel, and the poor girl was on the verge of tears. At a glance Harry had her pegged as the scholastic, brainy type - the kind of girl who spent all her time with books, blew the bell curve in all her classes, and had no real friends.
She was also the type of quiet girl who could become a rather passionate woman. He had no interest in such things yet, but he was aware that that would change in a few years. Other than the teeth, she was a rather cute girl - and oversized teeth could easily be fixed with a simple potion. Now, if only her personality was as attractive as the rest of her....
"Say, did you all forget how to cast a Feather-Light Charm over the summer holidays?" he asked of the girl's tormentors, using a simple question to mock them. "Not to worry! I read about it just last week!" With a flick of his wrist, the holly wand shot out of the holster and into his hand. After a gentle wave of that wand, the girl suddenly lifted her near weightless trunk with ease. "I'm rather surprised that even if you couldn't remember the charm, none of you would simply lift it for this gentle maiden." The obviously Slytherin students just glared at him. "Of course, I guess I shouldn't expect so much from children who lack a respectable family background."
"I'll have you know, little boy, that my family is one of the oldest, most noble pure-blood lines," snorted the leader of this little gang.
"You descend from a noble family? With piss-poor manners like that?" Harry feigned surprise. "Manners are something inferiors use to show respect to their betters," retorted the leader. "When
you are from an obviously superior pure-blood family, you don't humble yourself to your social inferiors."
"Really?" asked Harry, pretending to be interested in what the older boy said. "No manners toward your inferiors? Huh! Well, if that's how things work in the wizarding world...." He shrugged, then whipped his wand at the Slytherin students and blasted them off their feet. "Out of my way, inferior scum!" He stepped over the sprawled students, relieved the girl of her trunk, and guided her into the train's corridor. Upon finding an open compartment he guided her inside, setting her luggage into one of the overhead racks. He then retrieved a handkerchief and handed it to his companion.
"Oh, thank you ever so much!" she said. "Those boys were just...just awful! I hope most of the students are nothing like them."
"So tell me, fair maiden," Harry began, making her blush, "do you think any of them will comprehend the irony in what I just did?"
"You mean how they told you how to treat inferiors, then you treating them in that manner? No, probably not." She grinned at him. As he had noted before, only her over-sized front teeth detracted from her looks. The bushy hair should, but somehow on her it just worked. And it's not like he didn't understand wild hair! Still, she was very pretty when she smiled. Her whole face lit up. "I'm Hermione Granger, first witch in the family," she introduced herself.
"Muggle-born? How wonderful! My parents were magical; Mum was a Muggle-born, but events led to me being raised as a Muggle by my relatives. My name's Potter. Harry Potter."
"Watch James Bond movies much?" she giggled.
"Why Moneypenny, whatever do you mean by that?" he teased. She giggled even more. "My girlfriends made me watch them originally. They claimed that I should be able to relate to the main character, given my manner with the ladies."
"You have a girlfriend?" frowned Hermione.
"Actually, that was girlfriends, as in plural," he argued. "I just couldn't decide on one of them, and they decided to share me. They all claim I'm too much trouble for one girl to handle...do you think I should take offense at that?" Hermione looked a bit confused. "Oh, don't worry. There's always room for one more girl on my dance card." He gave her a wink, and she blushed a very pretty pink. "So, since I played the valiant knight, saving the fair maiden from the vicious trolls--" she giggled- - "will I be receiving the standard reward?" Hermione blushed past pink and into the crimson ranges, but still leaned over and placed a chaste kiss on his cheek.
Harry didn't really do chaste very well, however. Before she could pull back, he turned his head until her lips were on his. She tried to jump back, but he had strategically wrapped his arms around her back and was able to keep her captive for a few more moments. His considerable kissing experience came into play, and Hermione found herself relaxing into her very first kiss (outside of family). She relaxed against him while he taught by example the basics of kissing.
"Thank you, fair - or should I say sweet? - Hermione," he stated after ending their first kiss. "Wow!" she blurted. "That was - and you - we just - I feel - wow!"
"Will you be my first first year girlfriend at Hogwarts?" That pulled her out of her shocked babbling. "I'm starting to really like you. I sense that you and I could be really great together. But I
must warn you that if you say yes, you'll have to share me with my other girls...and probably with a few more once we get to school. If you want me, you'll have to learn to share."
"What - at the same time?" she gasped, broaching a possibility that he had not yet considered. "Well, I hadn't really thought of it that way, but in a few years...it might be fun!" he laughed.
"You're so bad!" she scolded. Reading her posture and expressions like a book, Harry could tell that this normally reserved girl was deciding to do something wild and impulsive. He guessed that what she felt during their kiss was making her curious, confused, and just a bit wild. "Um...I can't believe I'm doing this, but...okay, I'll be your girl - even if I do have to share you!"
There was a sudden change in her expression, and he could tell that her mind had suddenly kicked into high gear. "Wait a minute! You're the Harry Potter! I've read all about you! You're in Modern Magical History as well as The Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts, and Great Wizarding Events of the Twentieth Century! You and Neville Longbottom."
"I'm that Harry Potter? Thanks for telling me," he teased. "I thought I was the other one." She gave him an appropriate look, then rolled her eyes theatrically. "See, that's what I like about you. You don't take any of my bull, but you still find it amusing. Somehow I just know you'll rein in my wilder impulses. Without my other girls here to keep me grounded, I'll need your help to toe the line."
"Do you only like me because you think I can help you?" He could see the worry in her eyes that he would be like the kids in grade school. They only wanted to be her friends right before exams, or when participation in the science fair became mandatory. Hermione was "that" type of girl.
"Actually, I first wanted to get to know you after seeing your cute bum when you were trying to lift your trunk." She blushed. "What do you have in there, anyway? No, never mind. So after spotting your cute tush, I got a look at your face. Other than those front teeth - which can be adjusted easily with a reduction potion - you're an incredibly cute girl. Then, after I popped my eyes back into my head--" she giggled again-- "I was able to take note of your determination in the face of adversity. And now I'm getting to know you. I like what I've learned so far."
"Oh. Well, that's good then," she said. "For a moment there, I was afraid...."
"...that I only wanted a smart friend?" he finished. She blanched, then blushed a light pink. "I'll admit that I do like smart girls," he admitted, "but I assure you I'm more than capable of doing my own homework. I just find smart girls...attractive."
"That's good, because I'm really smart," she said, then blushed as her words registered.
"Yes, you certainly are, Hermione," agreed Harry. "Now why don't you come over here beside me and tell me all about yourself?" He held out an arm and she settled herself beside him. Harry wrapped that arm around her shoulder, and after a momentary hesitation she settled into his side.
"Well, both of my parents are dentists...."
Harry and Hermione were happily cuddling when the compartment door opened. Several young girls who looked to be fellow first years peeked inside. "Hi. Do you mind if we join you?" asked one. "All the other cars are full, and some of the older students are getting rather noisy. Longbottom is holding forth on his greatness and Malfoy is being a prat."
"Of course we don't mind!" grinned Harry. "Come right in! Join us! There's always more room for beautiful girls!" They blushed but came in to sit. Hermione elbowed him in the stomach gently,
then rolled her eyes at his blatant flirting. "I'm Harry, and this sweet little thing is my newest girlfriend, Hermione."
"I'm Padma," said a girl who looked to be of Indian descent. She had an exotic beauty.
"Susan," stated a slightly plump girl with strawberry blond hair, currently pulled into a long braid. This one would have a killer figure once she grew into her figure.
"My name is Daphne," added a pale-skinned, dark-haired beauty with vivid violet eyes. When this one got older she would be dangerous. Even at this young age she possessed a body language that seemed to challenge any male she met. Of course, Harry loved it.
"So would any or all of you ladies be interested in becoming my girlfriends?" Harry grunted when Hermione slapped him in the gut. "Oh, you'll have to share me with my current girlfriends, who include Hermione here."
"You don't know the meaning of tact, do you, Harry?" asked the bushy-haired girlfriend.
"Hey, if they're going to take offense this early in our relationship it would probably be a bad idea for us to get involved."
"Why would we want a boyfriend?" asked Daphne. "Boys are stupid, immature jerks."
"Let me guess...pure-blood?" queried Harry. Daphne nodded. "I've met a few pure-blood boys already, so I can understand your sentiments. However, I think you'll find that I'm not like them."
"If we agree to let you be our boyfriend, will you kiss us?" blushed Padma.
"Yeah," agreed Susan. "I'd like to learn how to kiss."
"Of course!" he was quick to reply. "Who wants to go first?"
"You can start with me, Casanova," mock-pouted Hermione. "After we show them how it's supposed to work, you can show them in a more personal manner."
Harry spent several minutes snogging Hermione. When she was a melted mass of witch, he moved on to Susan, whom he also reduced to a gelatinous state. Next came Padma, and finally the doubtful Daphne. She had a rather drastic change in her attitude toward boys - at least toward one special boy.
Once everyone had received their kisses, the five first years sat around talking about the wizarding world, whatever magic they had already learned, and guessing as to what Hogwarts would be like. Padma turned out to be rather quiet and shy; she told them that her twin sister was the bubbly, outgoing one. Daphne was rather cool and reserved. Her attitude was a byproduct of her upbringing as a "noble" daughter. Susan proved to be nearly as shy as Padma until she felt comfortable with her companions. After gaining confidence she became very talkative.
Then there was Hermione.... Harry's first first year Hogwarts girl was rather bossy, liking to do things "her" way. They would have to work on that. Such an attitude could be an asset, so long as it wasn't taken too far. Past a certain point, it became annoying...a form of arrogant bullying. Hermione could be the leader of the girls - witch and Squib - if she avoided alienating them. Like Harry, she had an alpha-type personality.
Harry told them about his rather extensive preliminary studies and promised each of them access to his growing private library. Hermione, Padma, and Daphne were very interested in this; upon
seeing their enthusiasm, Susan began to warm to it a bit more. When he mentioned the study books he was compiling, all the girls begged him for copies.
Harry's study guides were a sort of "idiots' guide" to magic, filling in the many gaps and loopholes he found in their school textbooks. He sought to explain the theory behind each bit of magic so as to make the actual casting (or in the case of potions, brewing) much easier when first attempted. He was even working on a way to understand and harness the so-called "accidental" magic.
Part of his rather unique approach involved introducing arithmancy right from the start, rather than waiting until the third year of study. He had broken down the basics of this branch of magic and applied it to a scientific formula that most Muggle-borns could more easily understand and explain, not to mention incorporate into their own spell work. A large part of his method was a series of short-cuts not commonly known or utilized.
The train ride continued smoothly, with no one bothering the Boy-Who-Lived and his travelling companions. A part of this was because those students who both knew who he was and that he was on the train were already sitting in his compartment. When the witch with the snack trolley came by, the three magic-born girls gave Harry and Hermione a crash course on wizarding sweets. They were surprised when Harry insisted on paying for everything, telling them, "I takes care of my womens," in an exaggerated accent. Not much for sweets himself (his girls had adapted him to a more nutritional diet), he preferred to eat some fresh fruit he retrieved from his trunk with the pumpkin juice offered from the trolley.
All four girls expressed envy when he whipped out his school trunk (a.k.a. the "hub" trunk). He promised to tell them all about the self-enlarging charms on his trunk at a later date. And they didn't even realize that it had multiple compartments, some of which were greatly expanded on the inside!
By the time they arrived at Hogsmeade station, the five first year students had laid the foundations for deep friendship...and a deeper commitment for later years. Leaving their luggage on the train as instructed - except for Harry, who carried his shrunken trunk in his pocket - they joined the other first years heading toward the giant of a man who was calling to them. He was the largest person any of them had ever seen; Hermione compared him to wrestlers she had seen on an American telly program. He stood as high above regular adults as those same adults stood above the first years. Harry idly wondered what a woman of similar size would look like, as they climbed down to the lake and boarded the small boats waiting for them.
Following the large man's instructions - no more than four to a boat - Harry's new girls all shared one boat. That left Harry to slip into another boat which already held a rather prissy-looking blond boy and what looked to be Dudley's long-lost brothers. Privately he had to wonder if this boat was more heavily loaded than the girls' boat would be if he had pushed the four-person rule.
Just by looking at the blond Harry was certain this was one spoiled little brat. He wore fine looking clothing, but the many stains on the front let everyone know he didn't properly care for them. While everyone else was looking at their new school with awe and amazement, blondie managed to find fault with nearly everything around him. He complained that his family home was nicer, that the boat leaked, the lake smelled funny, and his boat was too close to the Muggle-borns. The way he kept glancing at his companions led Harry to believe that they were bodyguards and that blondie wouldn't be so vocal if they strayed from his side. Great, he thought, a spoiled, rich coward of a bully. Blondie just had to be among the purest of the pure-bloods. Harry irritated the hell out of him by completely ignoring him for the entire trip.
"Who are you?" blondie finally asked. He had restrained his curiosity until they were exiting onto
the docks. "What's your family name?" Man, this kid was like a parody of a stereotypical snob!
"Someone who doesn't care to respond to rude little albino arseholes like yourself," countered Harry, not bothering to look at blondie when he replied.
"How dare you! Do you have any idea who my father is?" raged blondie.
"The only arsehole bigger than you?" Most of the children around them easily heard that response and laughed at blondie's flushed expression. Deciding to push the envelope a bit, Harry adopted a tone of false concern. "Oh, I'm terribly sorry! Were you seriously trying to find out who your father actually is? Have you been searching for years for the stupid git who sired you into this world? I hadn't realized you were literally a bastard." The others could barely keep the grins off their faces.
"I know who my father is!" shrieked the boy. "His name is Lucius Malfoy!" The other students sniggered with mirth. Blondie had throbbing veins on his forehead.
"Then why the bloody hell are you asking me who he is?" scoffed Harry. "Wait a sec...are you a bit slow in the head? Is that why Tweedledee and Tweedledum here are escorting you everywhere? Did your father pay them to help keep an eye on you?" Most of the first years were now laughing so hard they were in tears.
"I am not slow in the head!" Blondie's voice became shriller and shriller as he got worked up. "You yell like a girl, blondie," Harry stated quietly. "Oh! Now I see where this is going. Sorry, but I
don't go that way. I like girls." Blondie's head was seconds away from exploding. "I'M NOT GAY!"
"Come now, denial isn't good for anybody. There's no shame in being gay, blondie. It's all cool. I don't swing that way myself, but I'm sure someday you'll find your perfect guy. Just hang in there." The pseudo-bodyguards began to slowly back away from the furious albino, while the onlookers continued to laugh so hard several fell over.
"I'M NOT GAY! YOU HEAR ME? I'M NOT!"
"Like any straight guy spends that much time on his hair and clothes!" smirked Harry. "Well, maybe for a hot date, but you've been with the twins there ever since I first saw you. Do you like the big, strapping lads? Face it, the writing's on the wall, blondie. Hide in the closet all you want, but sooner or later you'll have to come out and face yourself."
"I AM NOT A HOMOSEXUAL, YOU STUPID BLOODY GIT!"
"What is going on out here?" asked the rather severe-faced witch who had opened the castle doors behind blondie's back. "Why are you yelling, young man? If you had already been sorted into your House I would be deducting points for this unseemly behavior! Now, all you first years follow me."
The Sorting
The students followed the Professor, Deputy Headmistress McGonagall, as she led them from the docks and up into the castle proper. Most were still giggling over blondie's performance. McGonagall seemed fairly angry over the blond boy's behavior. Harry was thinking while he walked, but his new girls were talking quietly amongst themselves.
"Do any of you find it odd?" asked Hermione. "How quickly he got us to agree to be his
girlfriends?"
"Actually I did worry about that a bit," admitted Susan. "I mean, I don't want to get a reputation or anything like that. Plus I never wanted to kiss a boy before. Then here comes Harry, and we're kissing, and it's like...."
"So good!" giggled the other three girls. "Yeah, he's a great kisser," agreed Susan.
"There's more to him than that, though," said Daphne. "I've grown up among pure-blood nobles. Most of them are smooth, debonair operators. Pure-blood males are trained to know their way around women. I've seen them work...felt their charm in action. Harry puts all of them to shame. He's good. He's very good."
"Tell me about it," agreed Padma. "I always thought father had a way with the ladies. After all, he has a wife and two concubines." At their looks, she added, "Hey! It's our custom. So the idea of sharing a man isn't that unusual for me. Still, I believe even Daddy would find Harry to be a gifted ladies' man."
"The question is, can we trust Harry's motives?" asked Hermione. "Is he for real? I mean, he is rather famous...is he with all of us just to build on that reputation, or does he really care about us?" They all stopped to think about that. "He seems sincere, but I just wonder if he is. I hope he is."
"Well, I think--" Daphne was cut off when a bunch of the other kids began to scream. The girls all turned to see a bunch of ghosts. Hermione was the only one not familiar with such quirks of the wizarding world, but after a moment of gawking at their translucent silver images she turned back to her new friends. "As I was saying, I think he's sincere. Something just tells me that he can be trusted."
"And he's cute," commented Susan.
"Yes, he's really cute," agreed Padma. "That messy hair, those emerald eyes...."
"Hey, do you think he's worried about us too?" Daphne suddenly wondered.
"What do you mean?" queried Hermione.
"Well, he is one of the Boys-Who-Lived, you know. It's quite possible that he could come to see us as...what's that Muggle word for people who follow those rock-star people?"
"Groupies?" supplied Hermione. "Yeah, groupies!" agreed Daphne. "What if Harry thinks we're just a bunch of Potter groupies?"
"I never thought about that before," admitted Susan. "I bet there are people who would flock to him just because he's famous. People like that blond kid who claims he's not gay."
"That was Malfoy," supplied Daphne. "My parents are friends with his. He's a pompous little git, just like his old man. Longbottom, the fat kid with the mousy brown hair over there, is just as bad, but that's Dumbledore's fault, I think. I mean, really, proclaiming him the Boy Who Lived and losing Harry amongst Muggles? I hear Longbottom is nearly a Squib." McGonagall had returned, and the first years were beginning to file into the Great Hall. "It looks like it's Sorting time." They began to move forward.
The girls moved up to walk behind Harry as they entered the Great Hall. Even for the magic-born children, the sight was one to inspire awe. Hundreds of candles floated above the five great tables.
Four tables ran the length of the room and were filled with the returning students. At the far end of the enormous room the fifth table lay perpendicular to the others on a raised platform. The teachers and staff sat here.
Harry noticed the magical wonders, but having spent some time in the magical world he was less than amazed. Rather than gazing at the wonders he was looking at all the girls around him. For some reason his reactions seemed to puzzle Dumbledore. Harry noticed the Headmaster's reactions almost immediately, mainly due to the rather intense gaze Dumbledore had focused on him. Plus there was a certain...vibe...coming off the old man. Dumbledore was very interested in Harry, and the boy in question was discomfited by said interest. He almost felt like it was when Uncle Vernon was looking at the new model sports cars. Creepy! Thankfully the old man moved his gaze along to that pompus git Longbottom. Another "pure-blood" prat, if Harry's experiences with him were any measure.
"Wow!" said Susan, drawing his attention away from the staff table. "Look at the ceiling!" "It's enchanted to look like the night sky," supplied Hermione. "I read about it in--" "Hogwarts, a History," chorused everyone in the budding group.
Harry sighed; it was time. He hoped this went well. "Hermione, you really need to quit with the know-it-all routine," he scolded. He tried to be gentle, but he'd dealt with girls like her before. This was for her own good. "We know you're a fount of knowledge, but you shouldn't shove it in everyone's face. I'm not saying you shouldn't answer questions or help those who ask. All I'm saying is that you shouldn't volunteer quite so much information. It can be a little bit...."
"Snobbish." They turned to look at Padma. "Well, it is. Brain snob," she teased the brunette.
"All right, I get your point," sighed the Muggle-born. Deep down, Hermione knew that her lack of people skills drove others away. She either tried too hard to impress them or remained too far in the background to be noticed. "I'll try to restrain myself. Oh, look! I think we're starting!"
"Attention, please!" called McGonagall. She stood before the teacher's table holding a scroll that bore the names of the first year students; beside her was a stool with an old hat on it. "First years! When I call your name, you will come up to me, place the Sorting Hat on your head, and be Sorted into your House. After you have been Sorted, place the Hat back on the stool and join your Housemates at your new House table."
They were quiet as McGonagall began to read from her list. "Abbot, Hannah," was the first name on the list. Hannah put the hat on her head, and after a moment a tear formed in the brim. It opened like a mouth, and the hat yelled out, "Hufflepuff!" The next name called was "Bones, Susan."
"Here I go," said Susan. She went up and put on the Hat. This time there was a significant pause before the "mouth" opened and called out, "Hufflepuff!" As with Hannah, the farthest right table began to cheer as Susan walked over to join her new house.
There were more Sortings, most of which the four remaining companions ignored. Well, that wasn't exactly true. They noted names and Houses, but since these were students they didn't yet know there was no reason to focus on them.
Then the professor called, "Granger, Hermione!" The brainy girl went into Gryffindor after a long pause, much as had happened with Susan. Shortly afterward, Longbottom went to Gryffindor amidst cheering and Harry's pal blondie went up after "Malfoy, Draco!" was called. The hat didn't even touch his head before it called out "Slytherin!" Somehow, no one was surprised by that
decision. A few more people were called, and then she read out "Patil, Padma!"
The first Patil twin went into Ravenclaw after a lengthy pause. The second twin, Pavarti, went into Gryffindor almost immediately. And then she called out "Potter, Harry!"
Suddenly, all the students were muttering. As he walked up to the stool he could hear students muttering, "Potter?" "The other Boy Who Lived?" "Harry Potter's come to Hogwarts too - I though he was lost!" Dumbledore was once again giving Harry that creepy, intense look. What was with that man? Most of the observers grew silent as the Hat descended upon Harry's head.
*Ah, another difficult one!* he heard in his head. *So you are the one influencing all those girls, with their remarkable minds. I think you will stir things up a bit. You are not quite what He has expected. You will disrupt a great many of His plans. Quite a past you have there, Potter.*
Thanks, I think, Harry thought back. Whose plans will I be disrupting? Voldemort's?
*Oh, his plans will be disrupted, too,* chuckled the Hat. *You will be rather difficult to place, Mr. Potter, especially now that you know about your rather unique heritage. He had planned to keep you ignorant of that until you were much older. Now, any of the Houses would do well for you, but which would be the best, I wonder?* mused the Hat. *You can be incredibly loyal to your chosen friends, but you also have an outstanding drive to learn. There's bravery here...oh my, yes, but also cunning, and a thirst to prove yourself. But where to put you?*
Where does the old man want me? thought Harry, picturing Dumbledore as the placer. I've noticed the looks he's been giving me ever since I entered the Hall. He's a meddler, I can tell. The Headmaster is the other "He" you mentioned, am I correct?
*The Headmaster?* asked the Hat, the capital letter clearly audible in Harry's mind. *He cannot influence my decisions! But I do know how he would like to influence my Sorting. He hopes to have you in Gryffindor at best, and out of Slytherin at worst.*
I'm almost tempted to say put me in Slytherin just to piss him off. The Hat chuckled. Creepy old man is starting to annoy me...particularly if he'll meddle as much as you say. However, he'll be more likely to underestimate me if I'm placed according to his plan. I won't be his pawn, but he doesn't need to know that right now. So I suppose you should just put me where he wants me to be.
*If you're sure?* asked the Hat. "Well then, it better be...GRYFFINDOR!"
The Gryffindor table erupted into a chorus of cheers. The Weasley twins started doing a silly little dance, chanting, "We got Potter too! We got both of them!" Dumbledore looked like Dudley on his birthday. The other tables looked a bit disappointed, and the Slytherins seemed a bit angry. Funniest of all, blondie appeared to have swallowed a bug.
A little while later, McGonagall called up "Weasley, Ronald!" who joined his brothers with the Lions. Finally the Sorting ended with, "Zabini, Blaise," who went to Slytherin.
Harry had another girl in each House. Was fate messing with him, or did his unique heritage just draw him to the qualities of each House? He would have to think about that further.
With the last student Sorted, the Headmaster rose to speak. "Welcome to all our new students, and welcome back to all our returning students. I know that you are all hungry, so I will hold all announcements until after the feast. Let me just say a few words for now, and they are: nitwit, blubber, oddment, and tweak! Now, tuck in."
The meal was excellent, from the moment the food first appeared at the tables until the moment
when the remains all vanished. Harry sat next to Hermione (his Gryffindor girl), and they wound up holding hands for most of the feast. Some of the other children ventured to talk to him, but the ones who were seeking the Boy-Who-Lived legend were pushed, or rather pulled, to Longbottom by his relentless self-aggrandizement. Most were content to stare and whisper amongst themselves.
He was able to meet his fellow first years (other than Hermione) in the House of Red. He met two other girls that night, Lavender Brown and Pavarti Patil, Padma's twin sister. Then there were the boys. There were four other boys in his year: Neville Longbottom, Seamus Finnigan, Dean Thomas, and Ronald Weasley. Pavarti and Lavender were the typical popular clique type: pretty, bubbly, and a bit shallow - your basic pre-teen girls. Neville was somewhat shy and clumsy, but Seamus and Dean were more normal. Then there was Ronald.
Harry had an interest in Ronald's younger sister, Ginny, who he'd met at the train station. Ronald had three older brothers still at school: a fifth year who was the male Prefect for Gryffindor, and a set of twins who were the resident pranksters. Ronald, however, had a boatload of issues to deal with. Almost immediately he had ogled Harry like he was a two-headed goat. With eyes as round as a kid at a freak show, he had asked to see the famous scar. When Harry refused, Ronald got all prissy and started pouting. Soon after, he began to make snide remarks about wizards riding on their fame.
Harry was guessing that ickle Ronnie had a plethora of jealousies, mostly involving his elder siblings. When he asked the twins he found out that they had two more brothers who were already out of school. One had been Head Boy, the other Quidditch Captain. As the youngest male child, Ronald received all the hand-me-downs at the end of the hand-me-down line. Since the family wasn't financially solvent, everything he owned was a hand-me-down. So, like Harry had thought, young Ronald had many Issues.
After dinner the Headmaster made some announcements, which included a list of prohibited items (mostly pranks), several general restrictions, and a warning about a certain third-floor corridor that contained a horrible, painful death for all trespassers. A few students laughed, but most took his words very seriously.
Harry was beginning to wonder about the sanity of witches and wizards. This was a school, for heaven's sake! Why was there a hallway that could dish out a painful death to trespassers? In a school with eleven-year-old children, no less! What exactly was wrong with these people? You couldn't just tell children not to go somewhere. At least a few of them would push the envelope. By forbidding them the Headmaster had practically guaranteed that someone would sneak in, just to break the rule! The Headmaster was starting to worry Harry. Hell, the wizarding world was starting to worry him!
Just before the children were dismissed Harry heard a voice whispering, "Pssst! Harry!" He turned to find Daphne waving him over.
"Let's go see what she wants," said Hermione. They moved over toward the Slytherin table to find that Padma and Susan had come over to join them. "What's up?"
"Can we all come down early for breakfast?" asked Daphne. "It will give us time to talk and stuff before the others come down. We can have a little alone time with our boyfriend."
"That's an excellent idea!" Susan grinned. "And during the day we should all keep an eye out for places where we can hang out."
"Oh! I hear that the Library is rather extensive," said Hermione. "We could meet there."
"There are also the grounds," countered Padma. "They might be pleasant during the fall and spring months."
"First years!" came the call. "Follow your Prefects to your dormitories!" ordered the Headmaster. "Hurry up and give me a kiss!" squealed Daphne. "Me too!" said Susan. "And me!" agreed Padma.
"I can wait until we get to the dormitories," said Hermione, looking smug. "Ha! I get extra Harry time!"
"We know," growled Daphne. "Don't rub it in. Now, kiss me!" She grabbed Harry by the shirt and pulled him into a hot kiss. Well, hot for an eleven-year-old girl. Some of the older students began to giggle at the display, and it only got worse after Susan and Padma snogged him before dashing off to follow their Prefects and Housemates.
"Come on, Harry, time to go," Hermione said, grabbing his hand and racing off after the Gryffindor Prefect...who just happened to be another Weasley. Hopefully this one was less like Ron and more like the twins. Harry liked the twins. They were funny, laid-back, and believed that the school rules were more of a set of general guidelines than absolute law.
The Weasley Prefect, Percy, led them through corridors, up stairways, and past the moving portraits. Looking around as they walked, Harry marveled at the somewhat frivolous uses to which magic was put by the magical community. Moving, talking portraits were all well and good, but why in the world did the staircases move? Not escalator moving, but more of a random swinging from one place to another. If it was on command, he could see it - but random movement? Why? Then there were the trick stairs, doors that required passwords or touches in the right places, and even patches of wall that only pretended to be doorways.
Just because a person could do something, that wasn't a reason to do it. Magic folk seemed to worry more about whether or not something could be done and less about why anyone would bother in the first place. Hogwarts was so weird!
Eventually they reached a portrait of a somewhat overweight woman in a pink dress. Percy stopped in front of her and she calmly asked, "Password, please?" Well, apparently there were practical uses for talking portraits.
"Caput Draconis," replied Percy, upon which the woman bowed. The painting then swung out from the wall like a door, revealing a hole in the wall. Apparently this was the entrance to Gryffindor tower, and the painting was their gatekeeper. The students filed in and encountered a veritable ocean of crimson and gold.
"Hey, Ne," chuckled Harry, using his own nickname for her, "you ever see that Nicholson movie, The Shining?"
Students near them jumped back when she snorted out in laughter. "Well, the color scheme's here, and we have a set of twins who can talk in unison..." Hermione replied
"Did someone mention us?" chorused the Weasley twins. "See what I mean?" she said. Both she and Harry laughed some more. "What did we do?" asked the twins.
"Hermione here was just making an observation, comparing the common room to a Muggle movie," explained Harry. "In the movie there was a scene where elevator doors opened to release a
surge of blood, and there were these twins who appeared and talked in unison."
"Muggles watch these...movies...for fun, right?" asked one of the twins.
"What kind of people would watch one about blood?" asked the other.
"It was a horror movie," stated Hermione. "Something we watch to scare us. It's a thrill sort of thing."
"Muggles are--" "--so weird," said the twins.
"Oh, and walls that pretend to be doors and moving staircases make perfect sense," retorted Harry.
"Well, no--" "--but they are fun," they replied in twinspeak.
"Harry," said Hermione, "I'm going to go check out my dorm, maybe find a book to read. Meet you back down here in about half an hour?" she asked.
"Sure thing, Ne."
Harry went up the stairs to the boys' dormitories and found the room for first years at the very top of the tower. Inside were five beds, four of which already had trunks in front of them. Taking a wild guess, he claimed the fifth bed for himself. Standing by the foot of the four-poster bed he retrieved his trunk from his pocket and enlarged it. Once he placed his hand on the scanning plate, the trunk's security features verified his access rights and he began to unpack the "public" items.
He filled the wardrobe with his school clothes and robes. Shoes were placed under the bed along with a set of dumbbells he used to exercise. As a final touch to his decorating scheme he placed pictures of each of the Squib girls up around his bed. As soon as possible he had to get pictures of the four new girls to add to the collection. Just as he was finishing up, some of the other boys came into the room.
"Hi, Harry," one of them said, an Irish lad named Seamus. "Those pictures of your family?"
"Not really. They're my girls," Harry replied proudly. "We're not related, but we're kind of a family."
"So, they're all your girlfriends?" asked another roommate. Dean, if memory served. "How do you manage to juggle that many girls?" he asked.
"Oh, they all know about each other. It's so much easier to have them share."
"Bloody hell," uttered his third roommate, Neville, the other Boy Who Lived. "He's lying. He cut them out of magazines or something."
"Well, what would you expect from the great Harry Potter?" snorted the final roommate, Ronald Weasley. This particular Weasley brother had been giving Harry dirty looks all throughout the welcoming feast. Well, not from the start. First he had asked to see the famous scar, but after Harry refused - he didn't want to become the local freak show - Ronald had gotten all teed off about it. Now, to Harry's utter joy, the bit dumb prat was in what appeared to be a jealous rage. More accurately, another jealous rage, in what was sure to be a long history of jealous rages.
"What's your damage, Weasley?" demanded Harry. "Oh, pardon me. Far be it from me to question the great Harry Potter." With that, Ronald stormed
off to the bathroom. "Man, what a prat!" exclaimed Seamus. "That boy has problems," agreed Dean. "Maybe it's Potter with the problem," stuttered Neville. "Lying wanker."
"Beg pardon?" Harry asked. "He hasn't even know me for five hours yet. How can he be jealous already? And don't transpose what you'd do onto me, Fatbottom." Harry turned and left, pulling the door firmly closed behind him.
"Oh, there you are," Hermione said when Harry came back down from his room. She was sitting on one of the Shining couches, dressed in a nightgown and her robe. Resting in her lap was a rather large book on charms. "Sit with me?"
"Of course," he replied, sitting beside her. He too had changed into his pajamas and donned a robe. "What are you reading?" he looked at her book. "Mmm...that's a good one. As luck would have it, the volume I brought down for you is also on charms. Here." What he handed her was the slim volume on charms that he had compiled through his work with the Squib girls. Hermione eagerly began to read it.
"This is a very good book, Harry!" she enthused. "It really explains how everything works. I'm surprised the school doesn't use it to teach us. Where did you find it?"
"Read the cover," he replied softly.
Hermione flipped the book closed, taking note of the title. " A Guide to Charms, by Harry Potter and the Squib Squad. Wow, you actually wrote this? I'm impressed."
"Well, it was a collaboration of effort, really. I couldn't have done it without my girls. Over the summer we went through thousands of books on a variety of subjects. This volume is our interpretation of the magical theory behind basic and intermediate charms casting."
"If your other interpretations are as good as this one, I think I'll have a real advantage over the other students! We have to get copies of your works to the others as soon as possible."
"I'll drop a note to the Squib girls tonight and ask them to copy our compiled works for each of you."
"Thanks, Harry! You're the best boyfriend ever," Hermione giggled. He finally got his goodnight kiss from Hermione.