Quiet Holidays
There were only a dozen or so students staying at Hogwarts over the holidays. The Weasley siblings in Gryffindor, he knew from Penny, who was friends with Percy Weasley, that their parents would visit their second oldest brother Charlie at his work in a dragon preserve in Romania. Then there was Neville, who had looked relieved to not have to return home over the holidays.
Two older Hufflepuffs and three fifth year Ravenclaws were staying and one Slytherin third year. Harry mostly spent his time with Neville, showing him how to play Monopoly. Once the Weasley twins found out that he had a game they didn't know they asked if they could play a game as well. Harry agreed as the twins were decent enough chaps, even if they mostly were only interested in their pranks. They had a fun time. When Sirius arrived on Christmas Eve, he and Snape were called into Dumbledore's office. Obviously Dumbledore didn't want to risk anything with those two. To Harry's big surprise, both men really acted civilly around each other. Sirius later told Harry that he had taken a prank way too far and had endangered Snape's life in the past. He had sincerely apologized to Snape for that and both men had closed a cease fire. They would never get along, but they could try to stay away from each other and that was enough.
The twins invited Harry and Sirius to a big snowball fight, where Ron, Neville and the two Hufflepuffs were also included. I was a great and funny match where in the end everybody was trying to get everybody. Wet, red and happy the fighters returned to the school, Sirius performing a drying charm on all their clothes. Harry led Sirius to his common room and showed him his room. Sirius was impressed with the niceties the room had compared to the Gryffindor boy's dorm. Harry opened the window to let a bit of fresh air in and they sat down on his bed.
"Well, as Ravenclaw stresses learning success, we get rooms with fewer roommates. From third year on we get single rooms. I think that is because many Ravenclaws have strange study habits and to not disturb others we get space to just do our thing when we need to. The rooms we can improve by doing things that are on a list Professor Flitwick gave us at the start of the year. Like learning certain spells, writing potions essays that have to be up to a certain standard and the like. We also got some improvements if we managed to get our grades to the equivalent of O's until Christmas. That's where most of my room improvements came from. I only had two other things from my list done so far as I wanted to wait until first term was over for the essays and the star chart. I don't like not achieving something I set my mind upon." Harry explained.
"So you got some O's after just one term, that's very impressive. I hope you don't forget to have fun though." Sirius said. "While being good at school is important, you can't forget to live in the meantime."
"Don't worry. I'm really good at time management. I had already read all my school books before the term started as I had much time on my hands while I stayed in the Leaky Cauldron. With a bit over a month of time on your hands, it's simply not possible to spend it all in Diagon Alley looking around. So I had much time to read. I also decided to not give up my muggle education. I've found out how to take my tests at the end of the year respectively and how they will be filed with the educational departments. I'm not sure if I want to go to university after school, so I want to at least keep the possibility open." Harry said. "The best part is that thanks to Professor Dumbledore and the important people in this country desperately wanting me to come to Hogwarts they bent over backwards to start up a real 'Muggle Studies' course which takes place every second weekend. We have Maths, English Literature, Science, Politics, History and Economics. I am taking all of them and I am really content with the two teachers we have. I have heard that they have also taken over the former elective Muggle Studies that was offered from third year on and have completely reversed what was taught."
"Yeah, Lily was the same. She didn't want to give up on her muggle education and learned next to her normal wizarding studies. Though she concentrated on three subjects she especially liked to get the workload done. How are you managing it?" Sirius asked.
"I'm well ahead of my age group in my studies. I told you the library was my refuge, so I read what I could get into my hands. As there were only so many books that kept my interest in the primary school library, I took to the public library of Little Whinging. And Mrs Jannison also managed to get me more interesting books once she noticed what kind of books I was reading. And most of the muggle exams are easy and include multiple choice questions. Not all of them, in English Literature, Maths and Politics they normally have you write essays, solve mathematical problems or write summaries to books. But Science was mostly multiple choice or answering easy questions with short answers." Harry explained.
"So, what is your favourite subject?" Sirius asked.
"I think Transfiguration and then Potions, even if Professor Snape is really picky and strict. But I always liked subjects that demanded my full concentration. And my 90 % in Potions are a really good result. I don't think anybody but Draco Malfoy got over 95 % in our year." Harry said.
"That's Narcissa's son." Sirius commented thoughtfully.
"Narcissa?" Harry asked.
"My cousin, how is Draco like?" Sirius asked.
"After I put a few ideas into his head on the train, it's okay. He isn't the most likeable guy, keeps mostly to the pureblood students in his closer circle of acquaintances and friends, but he seems to have realized that with his arrogant attitude he hindered himself more than he achieved things. The thing that started it was him barging into the compartment I shared with Terry, Susan and Hannah and demanded to know if I was really Harry Potter. He offered me to help me with making friends with the right people. While I don't like arrogant ponces, I know better than to make an enemy of somebody whose family is influential. So I shook his hand, but told him that I didn't accept anybody as a closer acquaintance or friend until I knew them better. After all I wouldn't want to risk my own reputation by being connected to somebody who didn't know how to at least keep to a proper code of conduct.
"I took apart his way to approach me, the faux pas he had committed by completely ignoring my companions, two of them girls, which you never do in polite society, and gave him a few hints to do better in the future. I planted the idea of making a name of his own instead of only being known as his father's son in his head. It seems to have worked. He treats halfbloods politely and mostly just ignores the muggleborns. From what I have heard about his father, that is a massive improvement." Harry told Sirius.
"That indeed it is. Wow, to have manipulated a Malfoy like that. Are you sure you shouldn't have been a Slytherin?" Sirius joked.
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