Chapter 11: Apologies and New Friendships

Being an adult in a child's body had many advantages. Foresight, wisdom, and experience to name a few. One amazing advantage is how easy everything was after you compare it to college. Five inches of writing was quite literally nothing, just a few sentences. As such, I finished it before anyone else and simply waited. I didn't even have to crack open the book as I had already read ahead in History of Magic, knowing how bad Binns would be.

While I got out a book to read as my friends were completing their homework, I saw a shadow fall over me. Turning around I saw Hermione and Harry standing awkwardly, Hermione with a nervous look and Harry with a guilty one.

"Can I help you?" I asked with an eyebrow raised.

They both shifted awkwardly for a second, albeit for different reasons, before Harry spoke up.

"Your name is Orion, right?" I nodded. On the outside I seemed indifferent, but on the inside I was confused. After some more nervous squirming, Harry continued.

"I'm Harry, Harry Potter." Seeing me not react to his name, he continued with a smile. "I just wanted to apologize for what I did in class, but more than that I wanted to thank you for calling me out. You were right, I did nothing while Ron was saying those things to Hermione. By not standing up for her I was just as guilty. Thank you for opening my eyes to that. I'm not going to stop hanging out with Ron but I also won't tolerate things like that anymore. I already apologized to Hermione on the way over here and we thought we would come to thank you together." His bright green eyes shined with determination. I could tell he was serious about doing better.

I suddenly remembered how Harry was bullied by Dudley. I realized how he must have drawn a parallel from Ron to Dudley and saw himself in Hermione. After all that he went through, Harry was mature, jaded, and was extremely empathetic. Even though his loyalty to his first friend outweighed his empathy for Hermione based on one interaction, Harry was beginning to see what type of person Ron was.

Before I could respond, Hermione spoke up. "I wanted to thank you too, Orion. It was really cool how you stood up for me. I thought if I just ignored him he would stop but it only made things worse. You showed me the only way to stop people like Ron is to stand up for myself."

She got heated as she was talking, speeding up from an apology into a rant.

"I honestly don't know what his problem was. He doesn't even know me and we've only been here for one day. He's probably only mad because he knows I'm going to get better grades than him. I've dealt with people like him before and my mom just says they're all jealous."

Her cheeks flushed when she realized she was going off on a tangent. She stopped herself and collected her thoughts.

"Also, I was wondering if- maybe- you'd like to be my friend." She got quieter and quieter as she asked me that until the last word was nothing but a whisper. I considered asking her to repeat herself just to see her blush some more, but I figured that was needlessly cruel. Instead I simply put a smile on my face and responded to both of them.

"Of course I'll be your friend. You seem like a nice girl. You too, Harry. I was a little mean back in History so I'm sorry as well. I understand why you didn't stand up against Ron, and like Hermione said it's only the first day. I may have overreacted but I could tell he was the type to continue bullying Hermione if left alone."

And I wasn't even lying. Back in the orphanage I had been the target of more than one bully because of my secluded nature and lack of friends. That on top of experiences in my past life made it easy to tell when someone would be an issue.

"If you'd like both of you can join us," I said, gesturing to Tony and the others who were pretending to be reading instead of listening in. "We're just working on our History of Magic homework. Most of us are a little over halfway so we could all help each other out. You both seem to have a good head on your shoulders so we'd love your help."

"Yeah," Tony continued, "pull up a chair. We haven't done too much and I'm always happy to meet new people. I'm Anthony Goldstein, but you can call me Tony." He stood up and offered his hand which Hermione and Harry both took. The rest of the table quickly followed Tony's lead and introduced themselves. Soon the table was filled with soft whispers as the group got to know each other.

The homework laid forgotten until Madam Pince came over and shushed the whole table after one too many laughing fits.

Once everyone was done we made our way to the Great Hall for dinner. As we went through the doors, Harry and Hermione said their goodbyes and promised to continue the impromptu study group again. They went off to the Gryffindor table as the ravens and I went to our own table. Dinner was filled with laughing, talking, and eating. As the other ravens were talking about how their first day was, I was deep in thought. Having Harry and Hermione approach me and even becoming friends with me and the other ravens was an interesting series of events.

No matter what, the plot had changed, so I couldn't sit idly by and let things play out. This only reinforced my decision to get strong enough to protect myself and my friends. First up was the troll attack, and I couldn't rely on dumb luck to save me like it did the trio in the originals. Trolls were as powerful as they were dumb, so in order to win I'd have to train.

Today was for friends, tomorrow would come the Room of Requirements.