A picture

Harry stared at the girl standing behind him, in front of the Slytherin table; a first year Ravenclaw with dazed blue eyes and dishwater blonde hair.

"You're...remarkably wrackspurt-free," she was saying in a soft, sparrow-like voice.

Despite her mellifluous tone, he had to frown at that - he really had no idea what it meant. "Is that...a good thing?"

"Oh, yes, quite."

Well, that was a relief.

"Oh, alright then. Thank you very much."

"You're very welcome. I'm Luna, by the way, Luna Lovegood."

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Luna. I'm Harry Potter."

"Oh, I know."

He blinked. "Oh."

"Farewell, Harry Potter. May we meet again."

He blinked again. "Well, seeing as we're both Hogwarts students, I'd say that's pretty likely."

"Quite."

And with that, the girl skipped off, a dreamy smile on her face.

"Well," Theo said, swallowing a piece of bacon, "That one makes you look sane."

Harry frowned. "I am sane."

He was, wasn't he?

In response, Theo patted him on the back. "You keep telling yourself that."

Harry sighed as he placed some apple slices on his plate.

For less than two minutes was he allowed to eat in peace.

"Er, Harry?" Theo said, "You've got another one."

Curiously, Harry turned around and saw a tiny, mousey-haired boy who he'd seen trying on the Sorting Hat the night before, staring at him as though transfixed by his very presence. He was clutching what looked to be a muggle camera in his trembling hands, and the moment Harry looked at him, his face went bright red.

"A-all right, Harry? I'm – I'm Colin Creevey," he said breathlessly, taking a tentative step forward. "I'm in Gryffindor – it's my first year. D'you think – would it be alright if – can I have a picture?" he said, raising the camera hopefully.

"A picture?" Harry echoed blankly.

"So I can prove I've met you," Creevey eagerly explained, edging further forwards as he gained some confidence from Harry's acknowledgement of his presence. "I know all about you. Everyone's told me. About how you survived when You Know Who tried to kill you and how he disappeared and everything and how you've still got a lightning scar on your forehead -" his eyes shamelessly swept across Harry's hairline "- and a boy in my dormitory said if I develop the film in the right potion, the pictures'll move." Creevy then drew a shuddering breath of excitement as a shiver racked his frame, and kept on going, "It's brilliant here, isn't it? I never knew all the odd stuff I could do was magic till I got the letter from Hogwarts. My dad's a milkman, he couldn't believe it either. So I'm taking loads of pictures to send home to him. And it'd be really good if I had one of you -" he looked imploringly at Harry, "- maybe your friend could take it and I could stand next to you? And then, could you sign it?"

Harry glanced at Theo, who stuck his nose up in the air. "Not a chance."

Meanwhile, the girls were doing a very poor job of covertly scoffing at the boy. Parkinson might have coughed "mudblood" under her breath.

Harry sighed. "I'm afraid, Creevy, that there's been a misunderstanding. There's nothing particularly special about me. Not yet, anyway."

"Your scar -"

"Was given to me when my parents were murdered. I don't particularly like it."

Creevy's face fell, at that.

"If you want a picture of someone, why don't you try Professor Dumbledore? He's got his own chocolate frog card, you know."

Creevy's eyes went wide. "Really?"

"Or..." he smiled mischievously, "You know...Professor Snape has actually invented quite a few potions. He's rather famous in his own right."

Creevy's eyes went even wider. "Really?"

Harry nodded with a smile. "Don't tell him I said that, though. I'm afraid he'll be very embarrassed."

"Ok, thanks Harry!"

Harry blinked as the tiny boy ran off toward the staff table.

He turned back to the table to see a number of wicked grins. Greengrass was nearly cackling.

"You're evil," she breathed.

Davis snickered beside her. "Honestly, you're a terrible person."

Harry scowled. "Just this once...someone else can suffer for bothering me."

He looked over his shoulder to find Creevy being shooed away from the staff table by an irate Professor McGonagall. Professor Snape, in the meantime, was boring holes into the boy with his trademark death glare.

"Better be careful, Potter," Parkinson snarked, "You're starting to act like a Slytherin."

He frowned. "I am a Slytherin."

"That's what you think. I think this is the first time I've seen you screw with anyone, Potter."

Harry pursed his lips. "Yes, and I'm starting to feel a bit bad about it."

Parkinson made a great show of rolling her eyes, and Greengrass looked at him fiercely.

"He had it coming to him, Harry, the little twit."

Theo nodded absently "He makes you look sane too," he pointed out. "I guess this year got all the crazies."

Harry's frown deepened. "Do you really think I'm crazy?"

Theo sobered a bit, at that. "No...I'm just teasing you. You're not crazy...you're just a little...odd."

"Well I think you're crazy," Parkinson said from across the table.

Theo scowled at her. "Nobody asked you, Parkinson."

"Hmph!" she said daintily, sticking her nose in the air.

Harry plopped one last grape in his mouth. "We should get going, or we'll be late for Herbology."

Greengrass scowled darkly as she rose to her feet. "I swear, if I break a nail my first day again..."

Harry frowned. "If you don't want them to break then you should trim them shorter, Greengrass."

Greengrass's expression did a 180 and she smiled sweetly at Harry. "Call me Daphne, Harry."

Right, she'd said that before, he just kept forgetting.

Theo smirked. "Yeah, Daphne, maybe you should just trim your nails."

She scoffed at him. "That's Greengrass to you, Theo, if you're going to be an ass."

"Whatever you say, Daphne."

Daphne Greengrass hated Herbology, and was very vocal about it. Herbology wasn't Harry's favourite subject, either. Not even close, actually. Professor Sprout was a lovely woman, of course, but the subject reminded Harry a bit too much of gardening, which was fine at the Dursleys', but he wasn't too keen on doing it at Hogwarts. He had better things to do. And at least Aunt Petunia's plants never screamed at him. Still, the mandrake roots were kind of cute, in their own frightening way.

Predictably, though, the lesson ended with points lost for Slytherin.

"Seven hells! My fucking nail!"

"Miss Greengrass! I will not have language like that in my class! Five points from Slytherin."

Yeah, suffice it to say Herbology wasn't what he'd been looking forward to all summer.

No, what Harry was really looking forward to was Transfiguration – the single most challenging subject taught at Hogwarts, second perhaps only to Potions.

Harry loved Transfiguration – Professor McGonagall had a lot to do with this. The woman was stern, tough, and did not tolerate nonsense, but Harry appreciated that, and he thought the Scottish transfiguration professor had a soft spot for him.

"...the theory behind this exercise is exceedingly complex – I will not be testing you on it, but I do expect you to do the readings. And speaking of complex theory, I trust you have all had the chance to look over the readings I assigned at the beginning of the summer. The first spell we are learning is a direct consequence of Thrivver's Theory of Base Animate Transfiguration and the related methods outlined in section for 4 of chapter 1. This spell, simply put, transforms beetles into buttons. Now, perhaps a demonstration is in order. Mr. Potter, I trust you have already attempted this spell?"

Harry stifled a grin. "Yes professor."

"Excellent. Why don't you demonstrate for the class?"

.....

Want to read ahead by 60+ chapters then join my p*atreon right now.

Free members an get up to 6 free chapters if you join my pa*treon as a free member right now.

Join now before it's too late.

Link: pa*treon.com/GalaxyWonder (Remove the *)