HP 2

The next day Carl met up with Harry outside Diagon Alley, and the two boys, with no parental or teacher oversight, explored to see what they could find.

Diagon Alley, despite being named an alley, wasn't just a straight street with stores on either side. It was a shopping center/bazaar that had grown organically over hundreds of years as the wizards and witches added more space expanded shops and building as it grew, until it was finally bound in place by the muggle city that grew up around it.

As a result, there were many nooks and crannies in a messy warren that led to fascinating stores, and Carl and Harry were having a fun time exploring it. There were many stores set up to sell different magical sweets. There were junk stores that held a plethora of enchanted muggle items. There were even some stores that held magical art, which was absolutely fascinating and beautiful. Some of the things they could make with an ingenious application of magic were amazing.

Then there were the quidditch focused stores that had expanded space inside to test different brooms. Harry found out early that he had a talent for flying that was incredible. Carl didn't have his sheer talent, but his spatial awareness allowed him to pull some stunts without crashing that were just as impressive.

Carl was happy he got to learn to fly with Harry who had an obvious joy in the subject that was infectious, rather than with a bunch of nervous first years while Malfoy sneered and bragged about out flying a muggle helicopter.

There were shops set up for specific services, like enchanting clothing or items, raising and training exotic pets for the owners, gambling, legal services, and many others. The sheer variety and magic of it all was amazing.

After some persuasion, Carl managed to convince Harry that it was a good idea to visit a healer that had set up shop in the alley so Harry could get started on the nutrition and growth potions that would make sure he wouldn't end up a shrimp. They got him a decent pair of glasses with charms to remain on his face and stay clean so he wasn't dependant on thick, ill suited glasses. He got his magical inoculations, and other such medical checkups.

Carl was relieved to find Harry didn't end up having any magical blocks, so Carl hadn't ended up in an Evil!Manipulative!Dumbledore world. The old man probably meant well, but since he had so much on his plate, a lot probably ended up neglected and fell by the wayside. There was only so much one man can do without clones or time travel, after all.

After interacting with Harry for a few days, Carl was happy to call him a friend. After Harry finally got over his fear of chasing off the first friend he ever had if he said the wrong thing, Carl found that Harry had an amusing wit and confidence about him. Carl figured it came from surviving unbroken around his relatives, and now that he finally was able to let out his humor without being punished, Harry was more than happy to let himself go.

Carl himself was happy to see all the things wizards and witches did with their magic, and started making note of the things they didn't do. He could see many possibilities where a magical/muggle tech solution could be used to improve the lives of muggles and magicals alike.

Over the month that was left of the summer, along with spending time hanging out with Harry every few days, Carl spent time practicing his Occlumency and reading his schoolbooks to get ahead and be prepared. He knew of at least one teacher that would expect students to teach themselves.

While he had gotten a perfect memory from his perks, Carl marveled at the difference having Occlumency made to how his mind ran. If his mind were to be compared to a computer, then his mind prior to organizing his memories would be like a computer that was incredibly inefficient. A lot of time and energy was wasted on running unnecessary programs and having the memory stored all over the place that caused the memory recall and programs running to be bogged down and slow.

After Carl cleaned up his memory and organized it, his mind felt like it hummed with efficiency. His organized mind let him recall things quicker and clearer than ever before. He was no longer distracted by random unrelated and unneeded thoughts popping in his head, distracting him from what he was doing.

Beyond just protecting his mind from attack, even just the organization of his mind made the cp he spent on it so worth it. Even if Occlumency was the only thing he got out of this world, it would be well worth the trip.

With only a week left until school started up, Rover had finally stopped maturing, so Carl got him to donate a feather so Carl could have Ollivander make him nicely matched wand. It was a beautiful 12" Pine and Phoenix Feather wand. It felt great when Carl gave it a wave. His magic sang with joy when his wand bonded to him.

"Excellent." Ollivander beamed at how well the wand matched Carl. "Pine wands usually choose an independent minded wizard. Your wand will likely enjoy being used creatively and will easily adapt to new methods and spells. Pine wands also seem to adapt to non-verbal magic easily." Ollivander waxed lyrical about Carl's wand. "Those wands with Phoenix cores tend to be adaptable to the greatest variety of magic. I would say you have an excellent partner there, young Mr. Edwards. I believe we can expect great thing from you."

"Thank you, Mr. Ollivander. How much for this amazing wand and another wrist holster?" Carl settled the account before exiting the store, absently caressing where his new wand was stored on his wrist.

'Yeah, if anyone snapped my wand, I would likely want to murder them.' Carl thought as he enjoyed the feel of his new wand. He could totally understand why wizards got attached to their first wand.

Carl and Harry didn't only explore Diagon Alley during their summer excursions. They also spent time touring around the English touristy spots. For Carl, he had grown up in the U.S., so he'd never been to England before. For Harry, being trapped in a cupboard while growing up had seriously limited his exposure to the muggle world. So they both enjoyed the novelty of doing the touristy thing.

They also spent a couple days at a beach, and spent a day at an amusement park, where Harry finally got to enjoy some of the things that his cousin Dudley had told him about to make him feel jealous.

Carl also got to meet the dignified Lady Hedwig. She seemed to tolerate the presence of Rover when he introduced his Phoenix to Harry and Hedwig. Rover did have quite a bit of the canine disposition in him still, so he was a very friendly bird. He seemed to finally be getting the hang of his wings and fire flashing abilities, which made one more method Carl had available to get around.

Finally, it was time to go to school.

XX

Carl arrived at platform 9 ¾ at 10:30 in the morning. He boarded the train and looked through each of the compartments to see who was already there. He saw a bushy brown haired girl reading in one compartment by herself.

Since he recognized who the girl likely was and had the opportunity, he made a snap decision to make some more changes. Hopefully for the better. He opened the door and introduced himself. "Hey there, first year too? I'm Carl Edwards. Nice to meet you."

"Hermione Granger. It's good to meet you! I'm ever so excited about going to Hogwarts to learn magic. When I found out I was the first in the family to have magic, it was ever so exciting. I spent all the last month trying to learn all I can about the magical world. This is going to be so great!"

Carl couldn't help but smile along at the young girl's excitement. She was absolutely right, this was going to be fun. He chatted with the girl for a few minutes before excusing himself to go look for his friend. "But I promise to come back to chat some more in a bit after I grab my friend." Carl promised when he saw her crestfallen face when he said he was leaving.

Seeing her perk back up in hope when he promised to come back made Carl hyper aware of just how desperate young Hermione was to find a place and friends to belong to. He vowed to himself that he would be a good friend to her, just like he'd already made a good impact on Harry's life.

Carl continued on down the train until he found Harry, sitting by himself in a compartment. "Hey, Harry, glad to see you found the platform just fine." Carl greeted him after opening the door.

"Hi, Carl. Yeah. Beat the rush and all that by taking the knight bus." Harry commented, motioning outside the window at the large, rowdy crowd of students and families. "Have a seat."

"I've got a better idea. I met a nice first year girl who seems just as excited about learning magic as us. How about we go join her and make some more friends?" Carl suggested.

Harry only hesitated a moment to think about it. "Yeah, sure. That sounds good." Harry packed away his book and picked up his trunk, shrunk it, and put it in his pocket. He then picked up Hedwig's cage.

"Have you thought about asking Hedwig if she'd rather fly to Hogwarts on her own, rather than be stuck in her cage all day?" Carl asked.

"Huh, hadn't thought of that. But yeah, good point. How 'bout it, Hedwig? Would you rather fly on your own?" Hedwig bobbed her head up and down in obvious agreement. "Sorry about that girl. I'll see you at Hogwarts then, alright?" Harry said as he let her out of her cage and opened a window for her to fly out of.

After he put the cage in his trunk, Harry followed along with Carl as they wandered back to where he had left Hermione.

When they arrived at the compartment, Carl found that there were four Slytherin upper years in the room instead of Hermione. Frowning at the boisterously noisy guys, Carl motioned Harry away from the door.

"It's looking like Hermione got chased out by those jerks. So, we've definitely got to find her and make sure she's alright." At Harry's sober nod, the duo started searching the train.

It took a while, but Carl and Harry found Hermione's new compartment. She was sharing it with a chubby looking brown haired boy who looked really uneasy and unsure what to do or say. Carl could guess that the boy was Neville Longbottom, and he really was shy at this young age, and unsure how to handle an upset girl.

Carl burst into the compartment. "Hermione! We found you! Try to hide from me, girl! Hah!" Carl started laughing at her face frozen in shock. He poked her shoulder. "Hey, you okay there Hermione?"

"Yes. No, not really." She immediately changed what she was saying. "I was just minding my own business, when those upper years dressed in green chased me out of my compartment. They were so rude! I didn't understand why they were calling me mudblood, but I could tell it was bad."

Neville sucked in his breath in shock at the rudeness of the upper year students.

Carl sat down next to Hermione and put an arm around her in comfort. "Well, now you're among friends. So you don't have to worry about those jerks anymore." After a bit Hermione had calmed down and seemed to be feeling better.

"So, introductions. I'm Carl Edwards. This is my friend, Harry Potter." Carl pointed at Harry." This lovely lady by my side is Hermione Granger." Carl grinned at the small blush that appeared on her face. "And I'm afraid I'm at a total loss. Much to my dismay I have yet to be introduced to the other young man in our troupe." Carl said while looking over at Neville.

"N-Neville Longbottom."

"Pleasure."

"Nice to meet you."

Out of the corner of his eye, Carl noticed motion on the floor by the door. He swifty reached down and snagged a daring toad trying to make his escape.

"Trevor! Thanks for stopping him. He's forever trying to escape." Neville abashedly explained.

"No problem. Got yourself an adventurous toad then, huh?"

"Yeah. He was a gift." Neville embarrassedly explained.

"He seems like a healthy specimen of a toad. Does he eat a lot?" Carl asked.

"Oh, yeah, probably. I mostly leave him in my greenhouses. He hangs out with me when I'm taking care of my plants. That's probably why he's so used to wandering around."

Hermione seemed to perk up at the mention of his plants.

"So, you have your own greenhouses? You have experience in Herbology then? Cause I read our first year book, One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi, but I haven't been able to actually see any magical plants so I'm ever so excited to learn about them when we start up class." Hermione rambled on, before suddenly realizing she'd hijacked the conversation and snapped her mouth shut. In her experience, this was when her fellow students would get upset at her and snap at her to shut up.

Carl just chuckled a little. "Well, I don't know about Harry, but I've got no experience at Herbology myself."

Harry chimed in with a "Me neither. Just Rose bushes."

"So it looks like we accidently struck gold to end up in the same compartment with Neville. So tell us Neville, what kind of plants have you been raising?" Carl could see the happiness on Hermione's face when she wasn't snapped at and that Carl helped her ease into the social interaction. He also noticed the hope rise up in Neville's eyes that they were actually being nice and interested in his favorite topic, instead of mocking him for being a squib.

The group of four hardly noticed when the train left the station, as they were enjoying each other's company and conversation so much.

When the lady selling snacks came by, Carl and Harry bought up some of their favorites, and shared the treats around. It took some fast talking from all three boys before Hermione agreed to try some of the sweets. Her parents being dentists, they had indoctrinated her into avoiding the delicious tasting morsels.

It was only when Neville explained to her how easy it was for the healers in the magical world to fix, repair, or replace teeth altogether that she finally gave in and started to enjoy the sweets. And Carl could see she got the idea in her head to visit the healer to fix her teeth from their talk. If it helped her feel more confident in herself, Carl was happy that she got the idea four years early and didn't have to wait until a snide blonde accidently cursed her teeth and a professor insult her before she would do something about it.

Eventually the train ride ended and they followed Hagrid to the boats that took them the scenic route to Hogwarts. Carl idly wondered what the area would have looked like if the founders had extended the lake around Hogwarts so it had a moat for extra defense. They probably would have had to shore up the foundations with magic to prevent the eventual erosion. What would he design his magical castle to be like?

Carl was jolted from his musing when they arrived at the entryway and met Professor McGonagall. She gave them the "Your house is your family" speech, and after an encounter with the ghosts, they were ushered into the Great Hall where everyone else at school was waiting for their sorting ceremony to finally end so they could eat.

Carl suddenly thought that, strangely enough, the scene where Draco Malfoy offers Harry Potter friendship and "help finding the right sort" of company didn't happen.

'Come to think of it, Ron Weasley didn't show up asking for a place to sit, either. Maybe not running into the Weasley family had a butterfly effect? Since Harry didn't meet the Weasleys, the twins didn't spread the word all over the train that the Boy-Who-Lived was on the train, and Ron didn't seek him out to befriend him. So Malfoy didn't hear all the people talking about Harry and try to seek him out for social gain. Guess there is some basic Slytherin instinct in Malfoy after all, if he was looking for social advantages by befriending a celebrity. Either that or Malfoy just wants to be popular.'

After their short encounter with the ghosts, the group was lined up and ushered into the Great Hall. Carl watched as the hordes of eyes watching the group of first years made nearly all of them at least self conscious.

Professor McGonagall began calling out the names for the sorting, which seemed to follow canon as far as Carl could tell. Until it got to him.

"Edwards, Carl."

Carl moved up when he heard his name and sat on the seat. The hat had no sooner touched his head, when it called out, "Ravenclaw."

He had selected the Ravenclaw house on the Jump Documents because it gave him the Wit Beyond Measure perk for free. It would give him a boost to intelligence, giving him a naturally quick wit, preeminent puzzling skills, and able to grasp theoretical principles with the best of them.

If he was going to focus on outing magic to the muggles and be able to merge magic and technology, he wanted all the help he could get in his endeavor to create a new mad science. The cunning, bravery, or loyalty perks offered by the other houses just couldn't compare in helping him attain his goals like adding on more intelligence and puzzle solving skills could.

Carl smiled encouragingly at his three new friends as he made his way to the Ravenclaw table. He then prepared to wait out the rest of the sorting, although he got a little shock a few minutes later. Hermione joined him at the Ravenclaw table after her turn. Apparently having already made a friend influenced her to join him in the house, rather than force the hat to put her in the more social Gryffindor house.

"Congratulations there, Hermione. Glad you could join me." Carl greeted her as she sat down next to him.

"Thanks." Hermione and Carl's conversation was cut short as Professor McGonagall continued calling the first years to be sorted.

Carl politely clapped for each student's sorting. Neville managed to get himself sorted into his parent's old house of Gryffindor. On the train ride he had shared some of his nervousness about not being able to fulfill his Grandmother's expectations. Harry, Hermione, and Carl had tried to build up his confidence a bit, and encourage him to go for the house he wanted.

A short time later, Harry joined Neville in Gryffindor. Seeing the two boys sitting next to each other, Carl gave them a big smile and a thumbs up. They grinned back at him, waving cheerfully from where they sat.

Once the sorting was over, Dumbledore stood up to say his few words. "Nitwit, Blubber, Oddment, Tweak." And then he started the feast.

Carl dug into the food, and was pleasantly surprised. The food was good. He wondered if magic was the reason the food was so tasty, or it was the House Elves that made it so good. Right as he was about to voice this question to some of the upper year students, he paused. He then swallowed the question and buried it deep.

He didn't want to introduce Hermione, who was sitting next to him, to House Elves anytime soon. The longer before Spew made its appearance, the easier Carl would rest. And he had some research to do about elves first. He wasn't sure what was true in this world, if they needed to bond with a place of power or family to survive, or if they had been cruelly enslaved against their will. Until he found an answer, he decided he would leave the topic alone.

After the feast was finished, Dumbledore had a few more announcements concerning the Forbidden Forest and the third floor corridor on the right hand side leading to a most painful death.

Carl turned to Hermione, "Surely death being kept in a corridor in school isn't common in the wizarding world?"

Hermione looked unsure, having no answer. "Maybe it's just somewhere they need to repair and don't want anyone to wander where it's unstable?" She theorized.

Carl shrugged. "Well, either way, I'm not going to go find out." Carl lied through his teeth.

Nodding her agreement, Hermione joined Carl and the rest of the first years as they lined up for the 5th year prefects Penelope Clearwater and Chester Enfield as they guided them up to the Ravenclaw tower.

They were introduced to the door knocker that gave out a riddle before letting them inside.

"Don't worry if you can't get it, though. If you fail to guess the riddle, it will sound a bell to alert someone inside to come let you in. The professors couldn't let the students' failure to answer a riddle come between them and attending class, after all. You may or may not get teased for not remembering the answer to the riddle though, since the riddles and answers are posted on the board there." Penelope told them as they entered the common room, while pointing at a corkboard hanging on one of the walls.

"The boys dorms are on the left, while the girls are on the right. Be aware that boys are not allowed up in the girls' dorms, and there are measures to make sure you stay out." Chester continued the introduction. "Breakfast in the mornings starts at 7:30. We'll be available to escort you to the Great Hall at 8, where you will get your schedule for the year."

"Any questions?"

Carl looked around and saw that all the first years looked dead on their feet, and none of them seemed interested in questions at the moment. He too didn't have anything to ask them at the moment.

"Okay, if you have any questions at any time, just come find one of us prefects and we'll help you as best we can." Penelope finished up. "Now, off to bed the lot of you."

Carl looked over at Hermione. "Hey, get some good sleep. See you in the morning."

"Yeah, g'night." Hermione agreed before a yawn shut down her ability to speak.

Carl trooped up to his room and found his bed. Carl was pleased that each of the Ravenclaws got their own room. With space expansion charms, there really was no reason they couldn't all have their own room, unless the professors thought they needed to be "social". As if they weren't getting enough socializing time by spending nearly 10 months of the year at a boarding school.

Setting up his trunk, he moved his Warehouse portal on the wall and entered to change and have his evening workout at his dojo.

After showering and getting ready for bed, he did his daily meditation to sort his memories. Occlumency was an ongoing exercise. Each day as he made new memories, he organized them to keep his mind running at peak efficiency. It also kept his defenses from turning into a jumbled mess.

Burrowing into his bed in his dorm room, Carl drifted off into sleep. It was nice to occasionally actually sleep, and tonight was one of those nights. For the experience if for nothing else.

XX

Carl woke up early the next morning, not needing nearly as much sleep as a normal boy his age did. With a few hours until breakfast to spend, Carl entered his Warehouse. He saw Rover snoozing on his new perch that was set up over his old bed.

Ever since Rover had gained his full Phoenix growth, he'd mastered the use of his wings to fly, and learned how to flash teleport around. With his new mobility, Rover lived up to his name and started traveling around the country, or the world, doing whatever a pewter-dog-turned-Phoenix did with their time.

Carl would occasionally still cook dinner for him and Rover, but otherwise the Phoenix had access to the produce of his farm to forage at all day, as well as whatever he found around the world.

After petting his snoozing familiar, Carl started his workout in his dojo. He was beginning to see just why the description of the dojo had said that it would serve him for a "light workout". It was designed for those at the disciple class, not those at the master class level.

Carl idly wondered if the Room of Requirement could simulate a better workout dojo for him. Maybe a gravity chamber? He would have to test it sometime this week.

Once Carl had finished his workout, he showered and prepared for the day. Once he arrived at the Ravenclaw common room, he saw Hermione already sitting down, reading one of their school books in anticipation of their classes beginning.

Carl snuck up behind the brown haired girl, and covered her eyes. "Guess who?"

"Not funny, Carl!"

The annoyed tone of voice caused Carl to chuckle as she slapped his hands away. He shrugged in response to her glare. "Good morning, Hermione. Not a morning person? How did you sleep?"

"Just fine." She huffed while picking up her bag stuffed full of books.

Carl eyed the heavy backpack full of books. "You know, we're not going to have every class this morning. You don't have to bring the lot of them?"

Hermione gave him a supercilious look. "Just because some of us don't believe in being prepared, is no reason for the rest of us to be so lackadaisical."

"Well, as long as you don't hold my foibles against me, who am I to complain?" Carl grinned at the girl as he opened the door for them to make their way to breakfast. He too had all his books with him, in a mokeskin pouch he had purchased. He was just concerned that the little 11 year old girl was going to be worn out from lugging her books around the castle all day. But it was her decision, after all.

They continued chatting as they made their way to breakfast. Upon arriving, Carl saw that there were few students so early in the morning. He and Hermione sat down at their table and began to eat.

A short time later, more students began entering the hall. Some of them were bright eyed and bushy tailed, and some others had to drag themselves around so early in the morning.

When Harry and Neville entered, Carl waved at them.

"Over here, Harry, Neville. Come, have a seat!"

Harry and Neville exchanged glances, and then looked around the hall for a moment, before shrugging and joining Carl and Hermione at the Ravenclaw table.

"So, why are we joining you at the Ravenclaw table for breakfast?" Harry asked, having gotten used to Carl over the summer, while Neville had only met him yesterday and was the more timid of the two.

"Because you two didn't get up early enough to make it to the Gryffindor table before we got here, of course. Otherwise Hermione and I would join you there. If you want to sit there for breakfast, you'll have to beat us to breakfast, and we'll join you."

"We will?" / "You will?" / "You will?"

Three voices questioned Carl at once. Carl spent a moment to sweep a mock serious glance at his three friends. "But of course. That's just how these kinds of things with friends work. Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor-"

"We're not mailmen!" Hermione interrupted.

Carl laughed that she got the reference. "Well, no. But house divides that everyone else lives by shall not affect us." Carl grandly gestured around the hall. "I mean look at that. Even Padma and Parvati Patil are too afraid to buck the 'unspoken tradition'" Carl made sure to air quote in an exaggerated manner, "to chance sitting at a different house with their twin."

Padma Patil, who had been sitting close enough to hear Carl, looked over at her twin at the Gryffindor table sitting with the wittering Lavender Brown, firmed her jaw in decision, and got up to go sit with her sister.

Carl watched Padma go over to the Gryffindor table with a smile of satisfaction. The house system of Hogwarts wasn't a bad idea, but like many traditions it had gotten carried away over the years. When great friends and even siblings were afraid to interact with each other publicly at Hogwarts, there was definitely something wrong with the system.

"10 points to both Ravenclaw and Gryffindor for helping to promote house unity." A voice that Carl recognized as Professor Flitwick sounded out from behind him.

Carl turned around and saw Professors Flitwick and McGonagall standing behind him. He hadn't heard them coming up behind him, so he assumed they had been using some kind of silencing charm on their feet. Sneaky professors!

"Thank you professors." Carl smiled at their Heads of House. From the corner of his eye, Carl looked at the head table to see what reaction the other professors had. Dumbledore was beaming happily in their directions, while Snape was glaring, presumably at Harry.

"Apart from the official feasts where every student is required to sit at their table, there is no rule keeping students apart. It's good to see the students of different houses getting along so well." Professor McGonagall said with the faint hint of a smile gracing her features. "Here is your schedule Mr. Potter, Mr. Longbottom. Be sure to not be late."

"Thank you professor." The two boys responded.

"And a schedule, each, for you Ms. Granger and Mr. Edwards." Professor Flitwick handed over Carl's schedule. "I hope to continue to see good things from you two." He cheerily commented.

"Yes, professor." Hermione dutifully responded.

"We'll do our best to not disappoint, professor." Carl commented with a smile.

"See that you do." Professor McGonagall gave one more look at the four students before moving off to the Gryffindor table to pass out schedules while Professor Flitwick did the same for his house.

Once the professor's backs were turned, Hermione reached across the table and snatched Neville's schedule from him to compare to her own. Carl gave Neville a shrug and a smile to let him know that she didn't mean anything by being so abrupt. Neville smiled back at Carl to indicate that he didn't take it to heart, and simply leaned over so he could look at Harry's schedule until he got his back.

"So, what's first up on our schedule, Hermione?" Carl asked after she had a chance to copy out Neville's schedule onto her own.

"We have Transfiguration first thing with the Gryffindors this morning with Professor McGonagall." The studious girl stated, handing Neville's schedule back to him with a thanks.

"Hence why Professor McGonagall told us not to be late." Carl chuckled.

"It would be a shame to lose the points we just earned." Harry pointed out. "Wonder what we'll be doing in our first class?"

"I just hope I do okay in the class." Neville ventured.

"I'm sure you'll do fine, Neville." Harry offered.

"Harry's right, Neville. You just need to be confident with your magic. It's all about using your will and that Gryffindor stubbornness I know you've got to tell it what you want to do." Carl also tried to help bolster Neville's confidence.

"Hah! You think a squib like Longbottom is going to do good? Everyone knows he never showed any accidental magic growing up. I don't know how he got into Hogwarts, but he really doesn't belong here." An annoyingly high pitched voice came from behind Carl.

Carl had heard the three people move up behind him, but he hadn't worried about students attacking him. Turning around, he saw the pale face of Draco Malfoy sneering at Neville, Hermione, and him.

"I'm Malfoy. Draco Malfoy." The blonde Slytherin introduced himself once he saw he'd gotten Harry's attention. "Hanging out with a squib and two mudbloods won't do your social standing any good, Potter. But I can help you find the right sort, if you ally yourself with me." Draco arrogantly offered.

Carl was somewhat amused to be labeled a 'mudblood' by a mewling brat. Even before he'd started the jump chain he had already been three times Malfoy's age. And now that he had 50 years of experience in different worlds, fighting against demons, vampires, martial artists, and various virtual monsters that could have killed him, the result of being called names by a schoolyard bully just didn't have much impact, other than mild annoyance.

Harry on the other hand, clenched his jaw in anger at Malfoy's insults directed at his friends. "I think I can tell the right sort for myself, thanks." Harry subtly turned the insult back onto Malfoy, implying that Malfoy was the wrong sort. Malfoy flushed in anger at having his verbal jabs turned back on him.

"Careful, Potter." Malfoy spat in anger. "If you don't respect your betters, you'll go the same way as your parents."

'Yup, the idiot went there.' Carl thought. 'It's time to stop this confrontation. And teach Malfoy a little lesson.' Quick as a snake, Carl struck. His hand in the shape of a snake head buried itself in Malfoys gut and returned before anyone could see him move. Who asked Malfoy to get that close to a Martial Arts Master?

Malfoy opened his mouth as if he was going to speak again, but then he turned green and bent over like a prawn, puking his guts out onto his feet.

"Wow, I've heard the phrase 'spewing bile' to describe the kind of disgusting words and threats that just came out of your mouth, Malfoy, but I've never seen someone take it so literally." Carl laughed.

"25 points from Gryffindor and Ravenclaw each. And detention all this weekend." The angry, oily voice of Professor Snape snapped out as he stormed up to the group.

Harry muttered angrily at Snape's unfair punishment. Neville shut down and went quiet and still. Hermione turned pale at being punished so harshly by a teacher. Snape eyed them angrily, hoping they would say something so he could up the punishment even more.

Carl narrowed his eyes at the greasy man, then stood up and waved at Professors McGonagall and Flitwick. "Could I have the adjudication of our Heads of House and the Deputy Headmistress in this unfair assignment of punishment?" Carl loudly called out.

"That will be another 25 points from Ravenclaw and another detention." Snape ground out through his teeth.

By that time Professors McGonagall and Flitwick had arrived.

"What is going on here?" Professor McGonagall asked sternly.

"The problem is that these Gryffindors and Ravenclaws assaulted my Slytherin, and so I'm punishing them." Snape quickly said.

'He must have a lot of practice with jumping in and spewing out rationales for his biased behavior.' Carl thought.

"Professor McGonagall, Professor Snape levied unfair punishment on the four of us when we did nothing wrong. None of us even touched Malfoy despite his despicable words and taunts. When he suddenly upchucked, Professor Snape, without even asking questions about what happened, took 25 points from each of us and assigned detention all weekend. When I asked for the adjudication of our Heads of house and the Deputy Headmistress, as is my right as a student here at Hogwarts, he took another 25 points and assigned another detention."

Professor McGonagall glared at Snape for his unfair and overly harsh punishment, before turning her attention back to Carl. During his explanation, Dumbledore and the other Professors had made their way over to the group, but Dumbledore refrained from saying anything for the moment, content to let his Deputy Headmistress handle things.

"Why don't you start at the beginning and explain everything clearly." Professor McGonagall said.

Carl nodded agreeably. "We were just eating breakfast, minding our own business, when Malfoy here came up to us." Malfoy was still wheezing on the ground, so he couldn't jump up in his own defense. And Crabbe and Goyle were just standing there stupidly.

"The first words out of his mouth was to call Neville here a squib and Hermione and I mudbloods." Carl watched Professor McGonagall's mouth firm even more and Professor Flitwick's usual cheerful demeanor was nowhere in evidence. "After which he offered Harry here to show him the 'right sort' which presumably didn't include us. Harry rejected his offer because Malfoy just insulted his friends. Then Malfoy said, and I quote, 'If you don't respect your betters, you'll go the same way as your parents'. So Malfoy insulted all of us at the table, and mocked Harry's orphan status, and threatened him with death."

Carl watched in satisfaction as the students listening in who hadn't heard Malfoy and the professors gasped at the sheer despicableness of what Malfoy said.

"We were just about to yell back at Malfoy, when Malfoy suddenly turned green and puked." Carl continued. He could see Snape really wanted to blow up at him, but was held in check by the other Professors. "We have no idea how that happened, since we didn't even do anything to him. But Professor Snape was there real quick and assigning us punishment and taking points without even asking what happened. I mean, we haven't even learned any spells yet, how could we have done that to Malfoy? So we wanted you to adjudicate this mess, because Professor Snape was being unfair to us. And he didn't even punish Malfoy for what he said, either." Carl finished his explanation.

Professor McGonagall and Flitwick then questioned all the students involved, and those who witnessed the confrontation. The Professor's then erected a silencing charm so they could talk it out with each other without the students overhearing.

Carl watched the byplay with interest. It looked like Dumbledore made a decision that Professor's McGonagall, Flitwick, and Sprout didn't like, while Snape looked on derisively.

After taking down the silencing ward, Professor McGonagall turned to Dumbledore. "Since this is your judgment, you give the announcement." She tersely stated.

"Ahh, yes. The detentions have been waived. But the point deductions by Professor Snape will stand. It's important for you to respect the judgment and authority of the professors." Dumbledore announced while smiling in his Grandfatherly manner. "Now that the matter is concluded, let's be about our day."

Carl shook his head. Was the old coot willfully covering for Snape and his bullies, or did he really believe that settled everything? "But what about Malfoy's punishment for what he said, Professor Dumbledore? I mean, threatening a fellow student like he did, shouldn't he be punished?"

Dumbledore looked down his nose at Carl. "Mr….?"

"Edwards, Professor. Carl Edwards." Carl wasn't sure if Dumbledore genuinely didn't remember his name from the sorting just the night before, or if it was some kind of subtle power play of reminding him where he stood. Either way, his opinion of Dumbledore couldn't get much lower at the moment.

"Mr. Edwards, it's important to be magnanimous and forgive the words of a fellow student said in a moment of anger. I'm sure Mr. Malfoy didn't mean it. And as you can see, he's already suffered a punishment for his words." Dumbledore waved at Malfoy that was still curled up on the ground.

Carl knew exactly how hard he had hit Malfoy, and he knew Malfoy was fine now, he was just playing up his "injury" for sympathy. He didn't see how Malfoy puking was related to the administration of the school punishing a student.

Carl debated whether he wanted to try one more argument. He was pretty sure Dumbledore wasn't going to be swayed, but maybe there would be more receptive ears? At the very least he could get some of the other people in the room thinking about why leaving it at that was unfair and wrong.

"But professor, I'm a little confused here. There's quite a big difference between someone receiving karmic justice for being a thoroughly unpleasant individual, and this institute of learning levying a punishment in order to get the message across that those kinds of threats and attitudes won't be tolerated. Don't you think, as the head of this institute, that you should send that message to Malfoy here?"

"Now, now, Mr. Edwad." Dumbledore began patronizingly. "I've been an educator for a number of years. You'll just have to trust my judgment. I believe that Mr. Malfoy has learned his lesson."

'Huh, apparently this Dumbledore was playing dominance games. Mangling my name? How petty and childish can you get?' Carl derisively thought while keeping his feelings from showing on his face.

"Okay, then Professor." Carl gave in. The stubborn old coot obviously wasn't going to be changing his mind, but he could tell that his words and ideas had hit home with the other professors, and they weren't happy with the result of Dumbledore's verdict either.

Carl looked over at his friends, and saw that Hermione was on the verge of exploding. Catching Harry and Neville's eyes, he motioned towards Hermione, and then the doors. Looking at her, they got the message, and all three grabbed their bags and hustled Hermione out of the Great Hall as the rest of the students were dispersing.

Carl led them into the first empty classroom he found, just in time for Hermione to explode in anger.

"I can't believe the absolute unfair, unreasonable…Teachers shouldn't be like that, they should be impartial and fair…" Hermione ranted on for a while.

When she finally got it out of her system and calmed down Carl put a hand on her shoulder in comfort. Harry and Neville decided to just stand by, since they otherwise had no idea how to handle themselves in the face of an angry girl.

"Yeah, you're absolutely right Hermione about what the ideal teacher should be. Unfortunately we've got Snape and Dumbledore." Carl joked. "If it makes you feel any better, all the other teachers seemed to be angry about the results too. It's not a lot, but at least we've got some help around here. Just as long as we steer clear of those two, we should be alright."

Hermione snorted in angry amusement. "Oh, yes. Only two bad teachers in the lot." Looking over the three boys in front of her, she cracked a smile at last. "Well, at least I've actually got friends to make it better." Which caused Harry and Neville to blush.

Carl smiled back at the three. "Indeed. It's like the Three Musketeers!"

"But, there's four of us." Neville said blankly, unsure just what a Musketeer was.

"You're right, Neville. The Four Musketeers. We'll tell you more about them later. The important thing is their motto. One for all, and all for one. We're friends, and we're here for each other." Carl enjoyed seeing the realization coming over each of his three friends that they were now something more than just four people. They were a band of brothers (and sister).

"Now, I think we'd best get to class." Carl said, dispelling the touching moment.

Hermione nearly squawked at the realization that they might be late to class, and started chivying them on their way to class.

They barely made it on time to the Transfiguration class, rushing in just as the bell rang.