Tanya’s Hogwarts Adventures (Youjo Senki, Harry Potter)

[Half_Baked_cat]

Book 1: Tanya Degurechaff and the Philosopher's Stone

Chapter 1: Ladies and gents! This is the moment you've waited for!

Tanya Degurechaff

Finding oneself reincarnated with memories of a past life is supposedly an uncommon situation. Finding oneself reincarnated twice with the memories of both previous lives makes one question just how common reincarnation really is.

Not that I spend much time dwelling on such pointless philosophical issues when there are far more immediate and pressing concerns. Concerns including the fact I am once again in an orphanage. Thankfully the situation is not nearly as dire as my previous life. The nuns were not much different from my previous experience, but the building was an improvement. A bit drafty in the winter, but electric lights and central, if not efficient, heating was a welcomed improvement.

The food was also a small step up. While not the nearly putrid excess of sausages, the bland fair suited me a bit better. If only I had been born to a country that understood the value of proper seasoning or how to correctly prepare a dish. Both my current and my most recent life have had to deal with an abundance of boiled, bland food. At least this one uses condiments, even if their favorite is vinegar.

On a much brighter side, I was born in a modern nation during a time of relative peace, and if the history I am seeing correlates as well to my first life as it appears, the relative peace will become actual peace in less than a year when the Soviets' Communist nation collapses under the weight of an untenable economic policy.

A live free from war, in a respectable nation was a life I could find satisfaction with. I just needed to find a way to use my advantages to overcome my disadvantage of being an orphan. Two lifetimes of experience has given me enough of a leg up that many around me consider me a prodigy, a genius, a future leader. While I know from experience that I am not any of those things, I also know that perceptions of others is important and that playing the role of a highly gifted individual should enable many doors locked to those in my socio-economic class to be opened.

Before I could fully grasp my future though, I needed to figure out if the magic I had was a hold over from my previous life or if I needed to be concerned that I was not the only magical individual in the world. I could feel the mana flowing through my body and while shaping it into something useful was difficult without an orb, it was not impossible. Reflex and body enhancement in such a crude manner would be unsafe as would any of the combat spells I knew. The only safe spell I could utilize was illusion casting, a speciality that I used to great effect in my last life if I do say so.

A small ball of light in the palm of my hands was all the proof I needed that I still had magic. For now I needed to keep my power secret, until I was sure it was safe to find a way to profit off of it.

—-

It was several months after I first managed to prove to myself that the mana I felt was indeed magic and not a phantom itch that the orphanage had a visitor. A visitor that asked for me by name. The head matriarch of the orphanage stayed for the meeting and the pair made an unusual sight. The head matriarch was an older lady in a nun's habit with a severe demeanor, though I knew she put a lot of effort in keeping the orphanage going. The other woman was far more brightly dressed. I was reminded of the hippy movement that she would have been a child for looking at the woman who introduced herself as Professor Burbage.

"What institute are you a professor at?" The head matriarch asked.

"Before I answer that, I have question for the two of you. Has any unexplained events happened around young Ms Degurechaff? Thing moving around, items seemingly change colors? Anything at all?"

"Are you suggesting magic is real and that is why you are here?" I asked, reading the unspoken message in between her words. The technology to detect magical capacity must be more advanced in this world compared to my previous, despite at initial glance to being as unmagical as my first.

"Yes. I am the Muggle Studies Professor at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry."

"You mean to take Tanya to some special heathen school to learn sorceries?"

"I promise you that we are not a heathen school. We provide the finest magical education available. And Ms Degurechaff has been selected to join our facilities."

"Is there a scholarship to go along with this offer? I would hate for my education to put an unnecessary burden onto the the orphanage that had spent so much time caring for me." It is unwise to leave my scholastic finances in the hands of a financially struggling institute, no matter the intentions.

"As you are an orphan with no living relative to help with the financial costs of your education, your tuition and educational materials will be covered by the orphan fund. Though you will not be allowed to board at the school over the summer breaks and will need to return here."

The matriarch looked at me before nodding her head. "That will not be an issue. Please give us some notice so we can insure a bed is made available for Tanya."

"Now then, Ms Degurechaff, we have your school items to gather up. Here is your acceptance letter and within is a list of supplies we will be getting today."

The envelope I was handed was thick and made out of parchment instead of the more standard paper. Inside was several pages. One was a form letter signed by the Deputy Headmaster. Nothing particularly noteworthy on it. The next was a standardized list for first year students. Looking the list over I saw that our education appeared to be primarily focused on magic and not deal with other subjects much. The mention of a wand was interesting as that appeared to replace the orb of my last life as the magical conduit of choice.

Well, if it can calculate spells, what did I care about what it was called.

—-

Charity Burbage

Every year a number of muggle born or raised students would be selected to join Hogwarts and it was the job of the teachers to collect and introduce the students to the Wizarding World. Most of the effort would typically be placed on the four Heads of House as well as the other teachers of the first year students.

Unfortunately the number of first year teachers capable of doing the task was far fewer than what it appeared on paper to be. Professor McGonagall in addition to being the Head of Gryffindor house was also the Deputy Headmistress and had other responsibilities. Professor Binns was a ghost. Professor Quirrell only recently changed posts to being the Defense Against the Dark Arts and needed time to work on his lesson plan.

Even though Professor Burbage was in a new position as well, taking up Quirrell's former post, she already had her lesson plan ready, having been putting in applications for the position for several years already, and happily volunteered to go into the Muggle world to collect the orphan Tanya Degurechaff and introduce her to the Wizarding World.

The walk to the nearby subway station gave Burbage a chance to look at the latest Muggle creations and fashion. Looking down at her young companion, Burbage noticed Tanya's eyes were scanning the surroundings, her stride was rigid, and she seemed to have a tight control over her young energy.

"We will be taking the Underground to Central London and from there we will go to Diagon Alley, the primary shopping district for the British magical community," Burbage explained to the girl.

"I am not familiar with Diagon Alley…"

"I would imagine not. The Muggle and Wizarding worlds are kept separate on purpose."

"You mentioned Muggle before, that you are the Muggle Studies teacher. What does that mean?"

"Muggle is our term for people without magic. In the Muggle Studies class, we teach students from purely magical backgrounds about what has occurred in the Muggle world and how to blend in."

Tanya's head turned to look at Burbage and her brightly colored sundress and rose tinted glasses with a raised eyebrow.

"I am aware that my outfit is not what the Muggle children of the day may describe as 'hip', but I rather enjoy the Muggle cultural scene of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Besides, fashion is cyclical and it is coming back in style."

"Right," Tanya said before looking down at her second hand clothes. "Not like I have much room to talk myself."

"The Orphan fund will include a small amount for clothing. It won't be anything special, but it will be in better condition. There is also a little room for a few other extra items, but we will get those last."

Pulling out the equipment list, Tanya looked it over. "How are we to carry all these items? Even if thin, eight books quickly adds up in weight, plus brass scales and a telescope are not the easiest to carry items."

"Our first stop after the bank will be to a second hand luggage shop. We will get your school trunk there and pack up the rest of your items into it as we go."

Tanya nodded as she looked over the list again. "How much of the list can be acquired second hand? And what do I need to have new?"

"The books, telescope, and scale can be gotten second hand without issue. The cauldron and phials we will have to examine closely to ensure they are in good condition before getting second hand. Your robes will need to be new for a few reasons and never trust a second hand pair of protective gloves. And there is only one trustworthy place to get a wand."

Tanya fell silent as she seemed to think on the matter. "How much will all this cost and how much does the Orphan Fund give each year?"

"I can't answer for each year. When you get your letter with the equipment list next year, you will also get a voucher you will use to get the funds you will need to pay for your equipment next year, but this year should be the most expensive.

"Several of the books you are getting should last through your seven years at Hogwarts, the robes should last two years unless you get a big growth spurt and could be tailored a bit to work for an extra year or two depending on how quickly you grow, your wand and other equipment should be good for your entire time unless something goes wrong.

"This year, it should be around fifty Galleons, if my estimation is right."

"I'm sorry, but I thought the British currency was the Pound Sterling. What is a Galleon?"

Burbage reached into her satchel and pulled out a few coins and handed a silver, gold, and copper one to Tanya to look at. "The gold one is a Galleon, the silver is a Sickle, and the copper is a Knut. 29 Knuts to a Sickle, 17 Sickles to a Galleon. And it is about five pounds to a Galleon, depending on the current exchange rate."

Tanya weighed the coins in her hands before returning them to Burbage. "I take it that they are not actually made of those metals because that much gold would be worth much more than five pounds nowadays."

"I don't know how the goblins make the coins, but you are probably right. An ex-boyfriend of mine use to go looking for lost treasure and when he traded the gold coins he found he got several Gallons per coin."

The two continued their trip in silence, Burbage paying for the Subway tickets for the two of them and ignoring the looks some cast the pair's way until they reached a run down looking pub in between two other businesses that most people seemed to ignore as they walked past.

"The Leaky Caudron is the primary entrance from the Muggle World to Diagon Alley, concealed by a charm that prevents Muggles from seeing it," Burbage explained as she lead Tanya into the building. "Hello Tom."

"Ah, Ms Burbage. Good to see you," the old barman responded. "And who is this?"

"A new student, Tanya Degurechaff. Ms Degurechaff will be starting at Hogwarts in the autumn and we are just stopping by to gather her equipment."

"Oh, a student you say? So they finally gave you that job? Good for you."

"Thank you, but I really should not stick around and chit chat."

"Of course, of course. You know the way. And Ms Degurechaff, if you ever need a room to stay, do remember the Leaky Cauldron."

Tanya gave a short bow to Tom. "Thank you Mr Tom. I will be sure to keep it mind."

With that, the pair went through a back door to a small area behind the bar with a brick wall on all sides and a single trash can.

"Pay attention to what I do to open the way into Diagon Alley. Once you have your wand, you will be able to as well. From the rubbish bin, it is three bricks up, and two over. Tap with your wand and…" Burbage allowed the moving of the bricks into a large archway to finish her sentence for her. "Welcome to Diagon Alley."

Tanya's eyes scanned the colorful, busy Alleyway, closer to a street in her opinion of the width of the walkway, before looking up at Burbage, her expression lacking the wonder Burbage was expecting.

"You said we are to go to the bank first, correct?"

"Yes," Burbage said, leading the way to the large marble structure of Gringotts. "Gringotts Bank is the primary financial institute, run by goblins. As long as you follow the rules, there should not be any trouble."

Burbage pointed Tanya towards a large poem written on the entrance of the bank. "Basically, don't steal. Got it."

Tanya made eye contact with the goblin guards standing at the entrance and the guards stared back. A small nod was passed between the three that Burbage missed as she led the young girl inside and got into the queue to see a teller.

Getting to the front of the line, Burbage pulled out a note and a wooden key* that she handed to the teller. After reading the note and looking down at Tanya, the teller directed his gaze back to Burbage. "The child is joining the first year class and needs funds from the Orphanage Funds?"

"Yes," Burbage answered with no hesitation.

"Wait there." The goblin got down from his seat and went to the back with the note and key.

After a few minutes, the goblin returned with a small sack of coins and a form. "You sign here, you here."

Two signatures later the goblin placed the wooden key onto a corner of the form and stamped over it before handing the coins over. "Next!"

Leaving the bank, the two headed down the alley till they got to an older shop full of well used furniture.

"Let's check here first for a trunk," Burbage said as they entered. Looking around they found several options. A couple with paint beginning to flake off, one that had a few questionable stains, and a few in good condition.

Looking them over, Tanya took a deep breath before looking at the person running the shop, squaring her shoulders and trying to look so adult. "How much for this one?" Tanya asked in an adorably firm voice indicating one with a lock.

The clerk gave a smile at the effort to appear adult. "Five galleons."

A sour look crossed Tanya's face even as Burbage was about to pull out the money. "Five galleons? What, does this trunk have some enchantments on it? Maybe something to make or light weight or shrink it down? That is far too much for a plain chest. One galleons and eight sickles."

The clerk's eyes narrowed and a shark like grin spread across her face. Burbage closed her eyes as she saw where this was going.

"One galleon and eight sickles? Why that is robbery. Far too low. You might as well just take my shop too. No that is a finely built trunk with a good lock and the keys are solidly built. Four galleons five sickles."

"Good lock? I could pick that lock easily…"

Burbage tuned out the haggling. She supposed she should have seen something like this coming, the orphanage likely did not have much money and Tanya probably saw the nuns haggle for supplies a few times. Knowing how this was likely going to happen all day and that Tanya was just trying to make the budget go as far as possible, Burbage planned on the non-negotiable items towards the end. The wand and robes had flat costs attached to them.

—-

Several hours of negotiations at multiple shops later Burbage and Tanya had nearly completed the shipping with a significant amount of coinage remaining, the coins now firmly in Tanya's possession as Burbage did not wish to continue ending in the bartering. Now at Madam Malkin's getting measured for her robes, Tanya was able to spend a few moments not arguing over every little detail of the items being purchased. The school robes had a set price, Tanya was told that haggling here would not work, and that the wand shop next would also have a set price for the wand.

Burbage sat next to the trunk that was filled with purchases, taking a moment to relax and reflect on how this must be similar to the feeling her exes felt when she took them shopping. After several minutes enjoying the blissful silence Madam Malkin finished her measurements and asked Tanya to step down and that the finished robes would be owled later.

"So, it is time for the wand?" Tanya asked as Burbage stood up and tapped the trunk with her own wand so it would float behind the two.

"Yes. We will be going to Ollivanders. His shop is about the only reputable store for getting wands. You do not want to be getting your wand second hand because it is rare to find one that is a good match."

"So wands are not a standardized item?"

"If you mean that each one is the same? No. Each wand is different. I don't know all the details, but apparently the wood and core all go into how well they fit with a given user."

Stepping into the dark, dusty store, Tanya's nose scrunched up at the smell before a voice spoke behind the two. "Now who do we hav-"

Tanya's reaction was quick, her spine straightened before her elbow found purchase in the old proprietor of the shop's groin. A moment later, he was flipped onto his back in front of the two ladies.

"Tanya! What in the world was that?" Burbage asked in shock.

Tanya took a deep breath and calmed herself before giving a bow and reaching out to help the old man up. "I apologize. You startled me and I don't know what came over me."

Ollivander gave Tanya a smile as he was helped up. "So I did. Those are some quick reflexes little one. Now tell me, what is the name of my new customer."

"Tanya Degurechaff, sir."

"I will remember that, Ms Degurechaff. Now, I suppose you are here for a wand. Let's see if we can find you a match." Ollivander went to his shelf full of boxes and pulled one down. "Blackthorn, unicorn core, ten and three quarters inches, firm. Give that a wave."

Tanya took a hold of the wand and with a flick a gout of flames came out.

"No. Not that one," Ollivander took the wand away and handed Tanya a different one, the cycle going on for a few minutes until. "Hm, yes. I think I know just the one." Ollivander went to the far side of his counter and pulled a box out from underneath. "Fir. Phoenix feather core. Twelve and a quarter inches. Reasonably springy. Try this one."

Grasping the wand, a small smirk appeared on Tanya's face as she gave it a flick and a stream of sparks came out.

"Yes. That is the wand for you. A somewhat unusual wand." Ollivander's demeanor became serious. "I expect to see some extraordinary things from you. The wand chooses the wizard, or witch in your case. And that wood is the survivor's wood. It is a poor choice for those indecisive and favors those who are focused and strong willed." Ollivander then gave a smile. "But I think you already know that about yourself, hmm? That'll be seven galleons."

After paying the two ladies left the store with Tanya carefully putting her wand away in the trunk. "Tanya, do I need to tell you not to hit the other students while you are at Hogwarts?" Burbage asked giving Tanya a serious look.

"No ma'am. I know I should not have done that, I was just not expecting anyone to appear behind us."

Burbage gave a nod. "Well, I cannot exactly give you detention right now for what you did as you haven't even started school yet, but if you do something like that again, I will be strict with you, understand?"

"Yes ma'am."

"Good. Now, you still have some money left and we have time before we need to take you back to the orphanage, so how about we get you some outfits for when you are out of class?"

Tanya gave a simple nod and the two headed towards one of the second hand clothing stores with some nicer options.

—-

* The wooden key is a special one time use key. Certain vaults and accounts have access to special extra features like granting one time passes to the account for a withdrawal, often with limitations. In this case, the Orphan Fund can be accessed by a given orphan seven times for their educational expenses so long as they have one of the single use keys and a note explaining what materials they are meant to purchase. This is not a canon thing, but seems a reasonable detail to add seeing as it adds to the world without just giving anyone a bunch of money for no reason.

** The logic behind the wand: for the core the Unicorn hair would fit the Salaryman the best, but as Tanya has died twice the Phoenix Feather seemed most appropriate. The wide magic range capable of Phoenix and the independent, detached personalities of Phoenix fits well with Tanya as she is an advocate for personal freedom and looks at the world in a slightly detached manner. For the wood: I narrowed it down to Cherry, Yew, Holly, Fir, Red Oak, Elm, and Blackthorn. I knocked Holly and Yew out quickly because of Harry Potter and Voldemort already having the combination and knocked Elm out because the Pureblood plot line that I could follow with that one did not interest me. Next I knocked out Blackthorn because after dealing with combat it supposedly gets better and I didn't want to deal with that thread of plot. Cherry works for Tanya's first life as Japanese Salaryman, but that seemed a bit too obvious. I ended up choosing Fir out of the remaining because surviving with a focused, strong minded, and intimidating demeanor fits Tanya well. For length: Short wands are a sign of something missing in a person's personality while long wands often belong to those with big personalities. 9 - 14 inches is the average range of wands with 11.5 being the middle point. I went with 12.25 because Tanya is a bigger personality than average, but not massively so. For flexibility, Tanya likes being a social chameleon, adapting to new situations so I went with 'reasonably springy' as the descriptor.

—-

AN: Someone suggested I post this story here. I have a Patreon as well where in progress chapters are posted as I work on them. https://www.patreon.com/Half_baked_cat

 

[Half_Baked_cat]

Tanya Degurechaff

Clothes shopping was not an activity I ever derived much joy from. In my first life I had purchased quality items that needed replacing infrequently with traditional cuts that would not go out of fashion quickly. During my second life, I wore uniforms and while for a time that meant I needed to have them tailored due to being very small, eventually I was able to just purchase standard uniform items. Even after leaving the military, I found myself regularly employed in positions with specific requirements that made my choices simple with little consideration to looks.

For the first years of this life, I had little choice in my outfit due to the limits of the orphanage's funds and the generosity of donated clothing. For the first time in multiple lives, I was given a chance to build my wardrobe to my preferences and I found the experience exhausting. Asking Professor Burbage why there was no standardized sizing to the clothes that would help me find clothes appropriately sized, she explained that most of the magic users had spells for minor alterations and that most clothing made in the Magical World was made to order.

Which meant I had to try on every article of clothing that caught my eye. Thankfully my day uniform for classes was already included with the robes we would be wearing, but for casual wear outside is classes and the weekends I was left to my own devices with only a few general guidelines from the Professor. Reasonable restrictions like not being too short or showing too much skin. Restrictions that I was comfortable following because I did not have to conform to gender outfits.

Was it too much for clothes designed for women to include pockets? To include a place to hold house keys, a wallet, maybe a bag of candy coated chocolates. While bags, purses, and satchels have their uses, a casual exertion to get a coffee at the corner shop or a regular day at a job should not require such a bulky object to hold a few items. Especially with how easy such bags were to steal or lose somewhere.

While I did not know how much I would need pockets during the weekends, it was better to have and not need than need and have a bulky bag getting in my way. To that end, I needed to go back to Diagon Alley to see if a few items were available. Briefly looking through my schoolbooks, it was clear wand work was a major part of most of the lessons. While the foci was different and the methods unusual, the analogue to the orbs from my second life was an apt comparison. Magic could be performed without an intermediary, but the output was significantly lessened to the point certain spells were rendered unusable. As such, my wand was an important equipment item that needed care and maintenance. Care and maintenance that I did not have supplies or training for. Perhaps these items would be provided and plentiful at the school, but I did not survive my second life by being unprepared and with equipment in poor shape. I would not let it occur in this life either.

Asking for permission to leave because some items were forgotten was a simple endeavor. Particularly as I was left with the remainder of my first year orphan funds, the point was simplified that I would not require any funds from donations and my meals for the day could go to the other children who would not be able to purchase a meal out of their own pocket. I was made to promise that I would be careful, but a smile and some assurances that I would be fine saw to it that the Head Matriarch aloud me to leave on my own.

The trip over was just as uneventful, though I had to walk as I did not have a pass this time for the underground and had no pounds to purchase one. I would see to it that a few galleons were exchanged just in case something turned up while I was in the 'Muggle' world as Professor Burbage called it.

After a quick meal at the Leaky Cauldron, I began wandering my way through Diagon Alley, looking for a shop that might have the items I was looking for. Spotting a household cleaning supply shop, I decided to check in there first. At the very least, one cleaning shop would likely be able to point me towards a different one that has the goods I needed.

"Hello Deary," the elderly lady running the counter greeted me as I stepped in. "Did your mother send you in to get her some supplies?"

"Mom is dead," I answered crisply, correcting an incorrect assumption. "I was actually just coming in to see if you could direct me to where I might find a kit or supplies to take care of the wand I just got."

I ignored the expression on the lady's face and the apology she gave. Not having a mother was nothing new for me. After her apology was made she gave me the directions I needed and I thanked her.

Following the instructions, I found the shop and was able to procure a wand servicing kit, which amounted to items to clean and polish the wand as if was just a fancy wooden decoration, but was surely more useful than just keeping the wand looking pretty. They also had a few holsters marketed as a way to not blow a buttock off in case of misfiring while in a back pocket. A sensible reason for purchasing one. The salesperson tried up selling me on all sorts charms that could be included for only minimal fees, but I was able to avoid all that by explaining I was only looking for a basic model for my time at school and whatever was cheapest would be fine. I did make mention of returning at a later time when I was prepared for an upgrade, which seemed to perk the man up some.

Having achieved my shopping goal, and spotting a cafe, I decided that I could afford a treat before returning to the Orphanage and preparing for my trip to school. The nuns don't need to know about one little cup of coffee.

—-

On September 1st, bright and early, the Head Matriarch drove me to King's Cross Station where I followed Professor Burbage's instructions for locating Platform 9 3/4, where a large red train was waiting.

—-

Harry Potter *

Having made it to the platform, Harry Potter began to make his way down looking for an empty seat. Getting towards the back, he spotted a cabin that only had a single girl that looked to be his age in it.

"Um, excuse me, would it be ok if I took one of those seats?" Harry asked the girl.

A pair of bright blue eyes stared down at him. Harry felt like a mouse in front of a snake, the hairs on the back of his neck raising. With a nod of her head, the tension broke.

"You going to need some help getting your trunk up?" She asked.

Harry gave her a smile. "Yes. Thank you."

The girl stood and met him at the back of the carriage. With her help the trunk was put up into the storage rack and Hedwig was safely secured.

"Thank you. I am Harry."

"Tanya," the girl said as she took up her seat again. Harry did not feel she was simply looking out the window, her gaze seeming to sweep the platform. "We should be leaving shortly."

"Are your family full of wizards?" Harry asked, curious about his traveling companion.

"Don't know. Dead as far as I know. You?"

Harry looked at his hands, his cheeks reddening as he knew how hard it could be dealing with dead parents. "My parents are dead. Both were apparently magical, but my aunt and uncle are not."

A sardonic smile appeared on Tanya's face. "A pair of orphans, huh? I take it you live with your relatives though?"

Harry frowned as he thought about his relatives, and the mutual dislike they all shared. "I wish I didn't. They are horrible."

Tanya looked at Harry again, the hairs on his neck raising again. Looking back, Harry refused to break eye contact.

"Perhaps we should drop this topic," Tanya said.

"Yes," Harry agreed after a moment.

The staring match was broken when the train started moving.

"Do you know how long the ride will be?" Tanya asked.

Harry shook his head, trying to think of Hagrid had mentioned anything.

"We should probably go ahead and put on our uniforms then. Best to make a good first impression with the faculty."

Tanya got up and began to dig through her trunk, quickly grabbing her clothes. As she was closing her trunk, the door opened up.

A young redheaded boy, the youngest boy of the family that helped Harry into the platform, was looking in. "Is anyone sitting there? Everywhere else is full."

"You can have it, but first the two of you need to wait outside while I change."

Harry's face flushed red as he pushed the other boy out and closed the door behind himself.

"Hey Ron," an older redhead, one of the twins of the family, called out.

"Listen, we're going down the middle of the train," the other said.

"Lee Jordan's got a giant tarantula down there."

"Right," Ron mumbled.

Harry kept his head down, staying close to the door.

"What are the two of you doing outside that cabin?" One of the twins asked.

"A girl is changing in there, so we are waiting until she is done," Harry said, his cheeks flushed. The twins looked at each other with grins beginning to grow. As one was about to open his mouth, the door slid open and Tanya wearing her black school robes strode out, her hat sitting neatly in her spot.

"Your turn," she said as she traded places with Harry.

"I'll need to get my uniform," Ron said with a blush.

Tanya rolled her eyes. "Go." Her voice came out like an order. Full of confidence that she will be obeyed without question.

"You heard the little lady little Ronnikens," One of the twins said, putting an arm around his brother.

The other did the same and began dragging the young boy away. "Indeed. We have to get you all dressed up right."

With the redheads heading off, Harry went into the cabin alone, dug out his uniform, and got dressed. Opening the door, he let Tanya back into the cabin. Following her gaze, he saw that they were out of London now and beginning to pass through the hillside of the country.

"This is my first train ride. Did you get much chance?" Harry asked, breaking the silence.

Tanya's hand balled into a fist that she placed on the window. Harry did not think she didn't hear him, but the silence dragged on for a moment before she turned to look at him.

"I've been on a few trains. It was always the best part of the trip."

"Really? Why?"

Tanya looked out the window again, her eyes looking unfocused. "Peace."

Harry could understand why someone would enjoy a bit of peace. His family rarely gave him any, but those quiet moments where they left him alone was better than when they gave him a lot of attention. A little depressing at times, but still better in a way.

Harry joined her in watching the scenery pass by until the door opened again and the Ron came back. His eyes were a bit watery.

"Are you alright?" Tanya asked, her eyes focused again. Harry's arm hairs closest to Ron raising.

"I don't like spiders," Ron answered with a shiver. Shaking his head, Ron snapped himself out of his funk. "Anyways, I'm Ron. Ron Weasley."

"Tanya Degurechaff."

"Harry. Uh, Harry Potter." Ron's eyes grew wide at hearing Harry's name. Tanya's eyes narrowed at Ron's reaction.

"No way. You're him? Do you, do you have the…?" Ron trailed off as he indicated his forehead. Harry lifted the bangs of his hair, showing the lightning bolt scar on his forehead.

"Pardon me for interrupting whatever this is, but how do you know Harry and that he has a scar if you have never met before?" Tanya asked, her glare at Ron causing all of Harry's hairs to stand on end.

"You don't know who Harry Potter is?" Ron asked with glee in his voice.

"I am an orphan and have not exactly had a chance to keep up with the news in the Magical World."

"Oh." All the excitement left Ron as he realized he seemed to have made a mistake. Looking over at Harry he flinched slightly as he seemed to piece together he was the only one in the compartment with a family. "Well, Harry defeated You-Know-Who."

"Who?"

"Voldemort," Harry answered Tanya's question.

"And who is Voldemort?"

Harry could see Ron was gaping and was not ready to answer. "A dark wizard who killed my parents when I was a baby. Apparently I defeated him when he tried to kill me and got left this scar."

Tanya scoffed at Harry's story. "More likely your parents and this Voldemort person killed each other and you got hit by shrapnel."

Harry raised his hands, acknowledging the point. "You are probably right. I don't remember anything of it other than a green light."

After a moment of silence Ron spoke up. "You two said his name."

"I'm not trying to be brave saying Vold- You-Know-Who's name. I just never know you shouldn't," Harry explained, shifting in mid-sentence at Ron's gasp.

"Why shouldn't we say Voldemort's name?"

Ron flinched at the use of the name. "It is bad luck."

Tanya took on a thoughtful pose. "Normally I would write such superstitions off as an illogical flight of fancy, but considering our textbooks not only mention, but will teach us curses, I suppose there could be a curse tied to the name." Tanya looked at Harry and the hairs on the back of good neck raised again. "It would be wise of us to take caution and follow the social norms until such time we are certain about the validity of such superstitions."

Harry nodded in agreement as he adjusted himself in the seat.

The three children took a moment to sit in silence until Harry started asking about Ron's family, the conversation beginning to meander around various topics as Tanya asked a few questions about various things Ron brought up.

At a bit past noon, the clattering of a cart coming down the corridor heralded the arrival of an elderly lady pushing a food cart. "Anything off the cart dears?"

Ron's ears went pink and he muttered he had sandwiches. Harry had not had breakfast and leapt to his feet. Tanya stood up and looked over the options briefly before asking about coffee, getting a shake off the head.

Harry was not used to having any pocket money and not seeing any candies he recognized, decided to buy some of each. Harry dumped the lot onto an empty seat as Ron pulled out a lumpy bag that had several sandwiches and Tanya pulled out a wrapped sandwich of her own.

"She always forgets I don't like corned beef." Ron complained.

"How do you feel about turkey?" Tanya asked showing her sandwich off.

"I like it better. You want to trade?"

"Yes."

"I'll trade for one too," Harry said, offering a pasty he had just bought.

"You sure?" Ron seemed skeptical. Harry has never had anything to share or anyone to share with and was enjoying the feeling.

"Yeah, take one. You too," Harry tossed both of his traveling companions pasties as he bit into one of his own.

"Thank you," Tanya said. Her eyes watching Harry carefully as she bit into the pasty. Again, her focus raised the hairs on the back of Harry's neck as he was being studied.

Harry waved the thanks off and the three of them got to work eating Harry's pile of snacks, Ron explaining what all the different snacks were.

After some time and a large dent made into the pile of treats, a round faced boy opened the compartment door.

"Sorry, but have you seen a toad at all?" He asked.

When the three shook their heads, he wailed, "I've lost him! He keeps getting away from me!"

"Didn't you say your brother is a perfect?" Tanya asked Ron.

"Uh, yeah. Why?"

"Come along, your brother should be able to help. It is one of his responsibilities," Tanya said, bringing the two other boys along with her, leaving Harry alone in the compartment.

He looked out a window, watching the scenery that was forests and rivers now. A smile appeared on his lips as he thought that he had made his first two friends and there was no Dudley around to scare them away.

As he was thinking on that, a bushy haired girl opened the compartment door. "Have you seen a toad? Neville has lost one."

"No, but Tanya and Ron went with him to find Ron's brother. He's a prefect and should be able to help."

The girl bit her lip with her slightly oversized teeth. "I should have thought of that," she said angrily to herself as she closed the door and wandered off.

Harry went back to watching the scenery go by until Ron and Tanya returned, having successfully helped Neville get his toad back through Ron's brother. They went back to talking, mostly Ron explaining things about the Wizarding World with Tanya and Harry mostly just asking questions about things Ron mentioned.

The sun was nearly set when the announcement they were five minutes from arriving came into the intercom system and that all students should leave their belongings on the train. With that warning, the three students began putting away Harry's leftover snacks into pockets.

* Read the first book up to Harry arrives at the platform. I am not recapping all of that when nothing important changes.

 

[Half_Baked_cat]

Tanya Degurechaff

It was dark by the time we arrived at the station and shuffled our way out of the train. As we were beginning to try to figure out where to go, a loud voice called out for first year students. A loud voice belonging to what looked like a large bear dressed in human clothes. One of the acquaintances I had made on the train ride, a nice young boy named Harry, apparently knew the half bear man.

Following him, we were lead down a dark and slightly slippery path to boats that would take us to Hogwarts. I could not see what was propelling the boats, but chose not to concern myself overly much with the detail. This was supposedly a prestigious learning institute, there was no way they would put the students in unnecessary danger, especially untrained first years.

When the castle we would be learning and living in came to view, I felt my confidence in our safety was validated. While evaluating the security of the castle would be difficult in the dark of the night, I could see it had large walls that would be difficult for a grounded force to scale and the construction appeared to be out of sturdy, thick stone. I could better evaluate the defensibility at a later time when the light was better, but castles were a standard military structure for hundreds of years. While the reasons for their phasing out were still valid concerns, for a learning institute it would be perfectly adequate for a non-militarized defense against local fauna and perhaps the occasional drunken fool.

Passing into a grotto we arrived at what I assumed to be some form of servant's entrance as it was clearly not the primary entrance. Likely it was the entrance that shipments were taken to, or that was its primary function when this castle was used for actual military purposes.

Regardless, the humanoid bear gave the door a knock that was swiftly answered by an older woman in green. A Professor McGonagall going by what our guide here said. This was supposedly our Deputy Headmistress according to the acceptance letter I was given. She had an appropriately stern expression on her face and carried her age with dignity befitting our superior.

She lead us down a short path to a large set of doors that had a lot of chattering coming from it. The primary hall if I was to make a guess where all the students were gathered for opening ceremonies.

"Welcome to Hogwarts," said Professor McGonagall. "The start-of-term banquet will begin shortly, but before you take your seats in the Great Hall, you will be sorted into your houses."

Taking care of formalities before eating was reasonable. Hopefully it was not overly involved and would go swiftly.

"The Sorting is a very important ceremony because, while you are here, your house will be something like your family within Hogwarts. You will have classes with the rest of your house, sleep in your house dormitory, and spend free time in your house common room."

Build a camaraderie among the students and a sense of unit cohesion. It almost took me back to my time in office school.

"The four houses are called Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. Each house has its own noble history and each has produced outstanding witches and wizards. While you are at Hogwarts, your triumphs will earn your house points, while any rulebreaking will lose house points. At the end of the year, the house with the most points is awarded the house cup, a great honor. I hope each of you will be a credit to whichever house becomes yours."

Ah, group punishment. Potentially effective method of using peer pressure to keep the more troublesome students in line. Elegant method of encouraging the students in each house to work together. And if each individual student's triumph earns house points, that is excellent motivation for the best students to help the ones in their house who are struggling the most.

"The Sorting Ceremony will take place in a few minutes in front of the rest of the school. I suggest you all smarten yourselves up as much as you can while you are waiting."

It was a reasonable request considering the state a few of my fellow first years were in.

"I shall return when we are ready for you," said Professor McGonagall. "Please wait quietly."

As soon as the professor was through the door, my fellow students showed how they were all still immature children that I would need to help by beginning to chatter and speculate what the sorting was going to be like.

Tests? Challenges? How foolish. The staff would obviously want the students divided evenly between the houses and would clearly use some form of lottery system. Random chance would be the deciding factor of where everyone went. Considering Ron's earlier statement that his whole family was sorted into Gryffindor, the random chance might be rigged slightly, but that was the purview of the faculty.

A gasp broke me from my thoughts as several silver figures came through the wall above our heads. Illusion? Projection? One mentioned something about an annoyance not be a ghost. Was that what these were? Spirits of the dead trapped here?

Professor McGonagall returning and shooing the spectres away and the ghosts obeying readily was suspicious. This was theater and a lesson. The castle was haunted, but we were not to be concerned about the spirits wandering the halls and not everything we would be taught would be in the classroom.

Lining up in the manner of the Professor's instructions and following her out of the waiting area into the Great Hall, a large space with several long tables the older students were at and a table the staff was sitting at that was easily visible to and had good line of sight over all the students. The floating candles above the tables was a lovely touch that added to the magical charm of the room, but the real star of the decor was the ceiling, decorated to look like the night sky. I suspected some form of illusion work as I could see a few clouds moving across and the constellations appeared right for this time of year.

My mind began trying to crunch the numbers on how I would recreate such an effect, but the sticking point was how to keep it going. One of the limiting factors of my previous life's magic was the need for active casting for any effect. I had made rooms appear a different size, hiding behind an illusionary wall, in my last life tricking people into believing I was not there, but to keep the illusion going required me to be in the room the entire time casting the spell. While it was conceivable that one of the staff members, or someone hidden from view, was casting the sky illusion, the practicality of doing some seemed wasteful. No, it would seem that in addition to using a form of magic my last life has dropped as inefficient and illogical, they had ways to create permanent effects.

If I was to make an analogy, I might compare my previous life's computation orb based system to the early mechanical computers, able to calculate and produce results quickly and far more robust and sturdy. This wand waving spell speaking method might be more equivalent to transistor based, digital computing, able to achieve a wider arrange of effects with increased longevity at the cost of being slower initially to get the spells going. Or perhaps the computation orb is the digital analogue. The analogy is not perfect, but the point was that they were two methods to the same end result with pros and cons and this world chose to stick with the more traditional magic system for reasons they found valid.

A hat beginning to sing brought me out of my thoughts. A ratty old pointed hat was singing. Singing about the virtues of the different houses. So not entirely random, but based upon vague personality values then. That would explain Ron's family as values are often taught down generations, so a family tradition of teaching their sons to be chivalrous would result in the sons tending to go to the same house. His parents must be excellent in their parental role to instill values across so many children so consistently.

Each of the personality values listed for each house were admirable in their own ways and none of them would be particularly distasteful to me should I need to signal to my fellows that I fit in appropriately. Though I was curious how our personalities would be judged. We have not been here long enough for any of the faculty to get an understanding of who we are.

The first to be sorted was up, a Hannah Abbot. Looking like we will be sorted alphabetically by last name. The hat was placed on Ms Abbot's head and after a moment the hat called out that she was to be sorted to Hufflepuff.

So the hat was some sort of personality test or gave one when placed on the head. Would it ask the questions? Was it going to invade the privacy of my mind? It looked really old, how do we know it was still functioning as intended and didn't need replacing?

Ms Abbot a was apparently the only A name as we went straight into B names. After five students were sorted, C was skipped and it was suddenly my turn. Sitting onto a stool and having the hat placed onto my head, I could almost feel the way the magic of the hat tried entering my mind.

'I am Tanya von Degurechaff. My mind is my own and my privacy will not be violated.' I thought as I instinctively attempted to stop the incursion. Being X violating the privacy of my mind was bad enough, I refused to let that happen again if I could avoid it.

"Oh, a secretive one?" The hat muttered into my ear. "Relax, I'm just going to take a quick peak into your head and sort you. I am bound to not share anything I find. Though whatever it is that makes you reluctant to show, you should probably tell someone about."

The hat is not an enemy. I can loosen my hold. It is not Being X and it is bound not to share. I just needed to relax.

'I find out you did share anything, I will burn you and piss on your ashes.'

"Sheesh. No need to get violent, I can't even if I wanted to. Now open up."

I relaxed myself and felt the haze of magic come into my head. Subtle even with me expecting something it felt like the buzz after a few sips of hard liquor beginning to settle in.

"Well, well, an old one I see. Not too often someone who has lived a full life, make that a life and a half, puts me on to get sorted. Normally I would just look at potential personality traits and place you somewhere appropriate, but you have a lot of experience to judge who are with. Now let's see. Well read, with a willingness to follow your scholarly passions. A bit of practicality in what you choose to learn about, but still a good head for learning. A very good work ethic and while you might lie to yourself, you do care about the men you had under your command. A good mind for politics and you know how to navigate situations to gain favor with others in an attempt to reach a goal. But no, I believe there is one house that fits you best. You may lie to yourself about why you kept going back, tried to pass out off as someone else's fault, but your bravery and warrior spirit truly makes you a GRYFFINDOR!*"

The hat didn't have to yell in my ear. Placing the hat back on the stool, I went to the table giving me polite applause for being sorted into their house. Sitting down at an empty place I watched the sorting go on, clapping politely along with the rest of the table wherever someone was sorted into Gryffindor. Along with Ms Brown who was already sorted, all the Gryffindor first years were grouped together near the middle of the table, the older students scooting over to make room as each new Gryffindor was sorted.

A hush came across the Great Hall when Harry was called to be sorted. Did everyone here really believe he somehow defeated a powerful dark wizard as a babe? How foolish to think an unarmed, unprepared baby could defeat an adult that could have easily smothered the child to death with no fuss. It was obvious that his parents were the real heroes and he is little more than one of many war orphans that have been produced throughout history. After a while of him sitting under the hat he was finally sorted into Gryffindor where the table exploded in loud cheers. I gave a polite applaud and scooted over to make room for him.

"Seems our new house is happy to have you," I greeted him as he took the place next to me.

"Thanks. I'm just glad I'm in a house with a friendly face I already know."

With the pleasantries out of the way and trying to ignore the silly celebration going on, I went back to watching the sorting. It was a good way to learn my fellow first years' names, especially those in my house where we would be spending a lot of time together. Eventually Ron joined Harry and myself at the table to the celebration of his family and the rest of the house before the last student was sorted into Slytherin.

With Professor McGonagall putting away the hat, the archetypal wise old wizard that was our Headmaster, Professor Dumbledore stood up to give a speech.

"Welcome," he said. "Welcome to a new year at Hogwarts! Before we begin our banquet, I would like to say a few words. And here they are: Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak! Thank you."

I joined the polite clapping as the food appeared on the table. I heard Harry question the sanity of our Headmaster as I was reaching for some of the chicken.

"Isn't it obvious?" I found myself asking. "He is taking this moment to give us a lesson to think on while we eat. We are at a school after all and our days are suppose to be filled with education."

Ron's prefect brother gave me a smile, clearly having seen the lesson as well, and asked me to explain what the lesson was.

Leaning back a bit, I gave it some thought as I chewed on the piece of chicken I had grabbed. "Nitwit is obviously him calling us all fools, Fir we are here to learn and are this not the knowledgeable scholar our teachers are yet. A reminder that there is still more, even for the older students, to learn. Blubber is likely referring to someone blubbering and not whale fat. Oddment is an odd term for scraps. So he probably is telling us to talk about the odd scraps we learn with each other, the other nitwits."

"And Tweak?" Percy asked.

"That is the most obvious one. Take what we learn from each other and improve and modify on it. He is basically telling us that we have much to learn from each other, even outside what we learn in and for our classes."

"You sure you shouldn't be in Ravenclaw?" Ron asked me, a few of the other students around me nodding their agreement with his question.

I suppose I needed to prove myself as belonging to the house now that my personality has been questioned.

Giving Ron a playful smile, I told him, "I am very sure that the hat placed me appropriately, but I can always show you what I got later." That bit of bravado played well with those sitting nearby and I could return to my food, engaging in the conversation when asked a question. Most of the conversations were getting to know each other, family life, interests, the standard fair. I mentioned I was an orphan and that when given a chance I enjoyed reading, but the selection at the Orphanage was not great. I filed away what I learned about my house mates as best as I could. We would be living in close proximity for years, it would be best to be in good terms with all of them.

After dinner, dessert was laid out leading to a second round of excited eating before that too was magically cleared up and the Headmaster again stood to speak. A few rules and warnings were given along with several other notices. While the warning about the third floor corridor on the right hand side was dramatic, it was reasonable. The castle was old and repair work was dangerous. Renovating that area would likely take time and we would be informed when it was safe to use that section of the castle.

The singing of the school song was a chaotic mess, but following the lyrics as they appeared was easy enough. The somber way Ron's twin brothers sang the last few lines was rather touching and showed the pair to be a rather serious duo.

With the school song done, Ron's Prefect brother lead the first year Gryffindors away from the Great Hall to where we would be sleeping for the next seven years.

* As mentioned by the hat, Tanya would, in my opinion, fit into any of the houses and without any other influences on her choice she would find all of them reasonably acceptable. Depending on a few factors she might slightly prefer one over another, but I as an author needed her in Gryffindor so I made her completely neutral and have the hat be influenced by how Tanya is actually a battle junkie to place her in Gryffindor.

 

[Half_Baked_cat]

Hermione Granger

Finding out she was a witch was one of the most magical days of Hermione's young life. Validation that she was special and not just some buck toothed freak. And she was getting to go to a school full of people just like her, a chance to make friends with peers and not be made fun of just because she liked books or odd things occasionally happened around her.

Hermione was so excited about the chance to learn magic and coming to a boarding school full of people like herself that she practically devoured her school books and the other books her parents bought her for extra reading. And here she was, being lead up to where she and the other girls sorted into Gryffindor would be sharing a dorm room together. It would be like a sleep over!

As soon as the five of them got to their room and they started to go to the beds with their trunks, the blonde girl, Tanya, came up to Hermione.

"Would you be willing to trade places with me? I sleep better with a wall to my back."

Tanya's eyes seemed to pierce through Hermione. She wanted to make a good impression on her new roommates, so Hermione nodded her head. "That's fine. Do you need help moving your trunk?"

"I got it," Tanya answered picking up her trunk and moving it next to the wall before also pushing the four poster bed against the wall as well.

"How did you do that?" The sleek brunette, Lavender, asked.

"Magic," was Tanya's answer before she pointed to Hermione's trunk. "Do you need help moving your trunk?"

Hermione gave a nod and watched as Tanya picked up and set her trunk down at the foot of her bed. "Thank you."

"Anyways, I'm Lavender Brown. Both of my parents are magical, what about you?" Lavender was sitting on her bed, opening the conversation up, trying to learn about her roommates.

"I'm Parvati Patil. My twin is in Ravenclaw and our parents are both magical." Parvati was pulling out her pajamas from her trunk.

"I am Hermione Granger. Neither one of my parents are magical so all of this is so new to me." Hermione had a nervous smile on her face as she introduced herself.

"Lily Moon. My dad is magical. My mum is a muggle." Lily was bouncing on her bed giggling.

"Tanya Degurechaff. Orphan." Tanya was looking at her uniform's tie for some reason. "I'm going to get washed up." Tanya stood up stiffly she went about mechanically removing her robe, folding it up with care and precision, before pulling out a set of night clothes that were well folded.

After Tanya left to the dorm's shower room, Lavender spoke up. "She seems a bit stuck up."

Lily and Parvati nodded in agreement, but Hermione felt a bit differently. "You shouldn't talk about others like that."

"Oh whatever. If she removes that stick she might be fun."

"She said she was an orphan," Lily said, lying back and staring at the canopy of her bed. "Maybe she's not comfortable talking about that?"

Lavender's cheeks dusted red and she crossed her arms. "Maybe. She didn't have to be so stuck up about it. A lot of people lost family."

"What if she doesn't know?" Parvati asked. "All she said was that she was an orphan, maybe she doesn't know anything about her parents."

Lily rolled into her side with a big grin. "Or maybe it happened recently and their tragic death at the hands of some dastardly spy is still fresh in her memory and she is thinking of ways to sneak out of the school to fight the spy?"

The other girls looked at Lily for a moment before Lavender beginning to giggle started the rest to giggle as well. "Maybe her parents were fighting a dragon and got eaten and now she wants to hunt the dragon down and eat it as vengeance?" Lavender suggested getting another round of giggles going.

Before any more guesses could be made, Tanya returned dressed in her night clothes.

"I thought you said you were going to take a shower," Parvati asked.

"I did. The water is still hot if any of you wish to have one as well." Tanya went over to her bed and turned down the sheets neatly before getting in. "Best be quick though. Tomorrow will be our first full day of here and it would be best to get an early start on the day."

"Yes. Your right," Hermione agreed, grabbing her stuff for brushing her teeth and changing into her night clothes before scuttling off to ready herself, the rest of the girls doing so as well while chatting, Tanya laying down quietly.

—-

Lavender Brown

The first day of school was here. The thought led to Lavender waking up early, rising with the sun and ready for the day.

Though she apparently was not the most excited one. "What are you doing?" Lavender asked, looking over to where Tanya was moving in odd ways.

"Stretching. Daily exercise is important for a healthy life and a basic stretch routine and maybe some light cardio are the exercises safe for our age without causing any growth stunting or other issues."

"It looks like yoga," Parvati said around a yawn. "Mom did it all time at home."

"I suppose it is similar. Do you remember your mother's routine?" Tanya asked, finishing up her routine.

Parvati gave it some thought. "No, but mom did say a healthy body leads to a healthy mind and that yoga is what helped her attract dad. She said yoga was her secret to her beauty."

Lavender perked up at that. "Really? Maybe I could join you in your yoga." Lavender suggested before yawning. "Tomorrow. Today, I'm taking a shower."

"I'll owl mom if she can help," Parvati said, getting up and preparing to take a shower as well.

"That would be appreciated," Tanya said as she began her morning routine, preparing for the day ahead.

Lavender was happy to see that there were several shower stalls, though she would have liked to also have seen a bath available for use. Each stall had several nozzles that she played with finding two were to control the temperature, one made the water soapy, and the last made the water feel sick. Hot and cold water, soap, and some sort of moisturizer.

"These aren't scented," Lavender complained.

"I have some scented soaps in my trunk you can borrow until you can get your own," Parvati said from the next stall over.

"Thank you Parv," Lavender said, giving Parvati a nickname.

"Parv?"

"Yeah, Parv. Do you not like it?"

"I wasn't expecting it. Would it be alright if I called you Lav?"

"Sure," Lavender said before sticking her head around and into Parvati's stall. "Friends?"

Parvati gave a smile and nodded. "Friends."

The two finished up and returned to the dormroom where Hermione and Lily were now getting dressed and Tanya was looking through one of the schoolbooks.

"Morning everyone!" Lavender greeted.

She got mornings in return before Tanya spoke up without taking her eyes off her book. "Please be quick in preparing for the day. We were told we would be having classes together yesterday and it would be in our best interest to stick together going to classes until we all have learned the castle layout." Tanya then closed her book and stood up. "I will wait for you in the common room and try to catch the boys before they leave without us."

Lavender was not sure why Tanya seemed to act so mature and boring, but she didn't like it.

"She's right," Hermione said, hurrying up her own dressing. "It is a rather large castle." Hermione seemed to be bouncing in place, a smile on her lips.

"Maybe," Lavender agreed while flipping her hair. "Let's just get ready and get some breakfast."

"Woo! Breakfast!" Lily jumped up before tossing on her shoes and running down the stairs to the common room.

"She is a bit energetic," Parvati commented as she finished getting dressed.

Lavender began heading to the common room as well and stopped at the door. Looking back she nodded. "She is, but this is kinda exciting. Being away from home, actually getting a chance to learn magic. This should be fun. Hermione, leave your bag. We don't know what classes we have today. Once we know we'll come back and get our things for class."

"Uh, right." Hermione put her bag back onto her bed and followed Parvati and Lavender down to the common room where Tanya was talking to Percy Weasley, the Prefect that had guided the first year Gryffindors the previous night and seemed to be going to help them back down to the Great Hall.

Next to Tanya was Neville Longbottom, a doughy looking boy Lavender had met before they came to Hogwarts. Neville was a nice enough boy, but not someone Lavender planned on spending much time with. He was just too boring and the other boys were cuter.

Shortly after all the girls were down, the rest of the boys came down and the first years went down to breakfast.

—-

Harry Potter

The first breakfast at Hogwarts was an exciting experience for Harry. No preparing the bacon or being given a few scraps. He could eat as much as he wanted to. And he was eating it with his new friends, Ron to one side and Tanya to the other. Ron was even more enthusiastic about eating than Harry was while Tanya was more poised in her eating habits. Though Harry was not sure which one was actually eating faster because each time he looked at Tanya's plate another section was cleared. The rest of the Gryffindor first years were also nearby chatting to each other, speculating about what classes would be like and making jokes.

Harry wasn't comfortable with the way most of the other students seemed to stare at him and go out of their way to look at him. It was weird how everyone knew who he was and just… stared. So far, only Tanya has treated him as just Harry the entire time. No hero worship, no staring, just Tanya being his friend. Ron was not bad now that he got it out of his system and Harry hoped the rest of the school would get it out of their system soon too.

As they ate their fill, Professor McGonagall stopped by the table and handed out class schedules, introducing herself as their head of house and if they needed anything they could go to her office. The schedule looked a bit confusing to Harry and he was worried he would get lost getting to and from class, but it also had a lot of free time in it.

"Hm, looks like they do expect us to do a lot of self directed study," Tanya said to herself.

"What do you mean?" Ron asked, ignoring Hermione telling him not to talk with food in his mouth.

Tanya pointed to all the empty areas of the schedule. "We have breaks where normally a class would be. That is when we are meant to fill time with self directed study to prepare us for our post school life by building good research and study habits when we need to learn a new spell to deal with a situation we have not dealt with or been prepared for in class."

"Perhaps we should use a few of them for a group study session to do homework and help each other on our self study projects," Hermione suggested.

"You two get that setup and I suppose I'll show up," Lavender said, having listened in before going back to talking with Parvati and Lily.

"Very well," Tanya agreed before looking to Hermione. "We will work out the details during the free time Friday after potions once we have a better understanding of what the actual classes are like."

"But when will we have fun time if we are just studying all the time?" Ron asked.

"There are plenty of other hours in the day for fun and games, you can play during those," Tanya answered. "Anyways, we have History of Magic and Charms, so once you are done with breakfast, head back to the dorm, grab your books, and meet in the Common Room. We'll go to the classes as a group."

With that, Tanya stood up and started heading towards the main stairwell. Harry got up to follow, telling Ron he would see him once he was done with breakfast.

As they were getting close to the Great Hall doors, the boy Harry met when he was getting his robes fitted walked up to the pair flanked with a pair of boys that reminded Harry of his fat cousin.

"So, the boy-who-lived got sorted into Gryffindor. I suppose you are not good enough to have been sorted into a real house," Draco said with a sneer.

"I'm sorry that you are jealous that we got sorted into the house of the brave and you didn't," Tanya responded, staring at the blonde boy. Every hair on Harry's body was standing on end as she evaluated the three Slytherin first years. "I could help you develop a spine if you ever needed it."

Draco's eyes turned to Tanya and his jaw was clenched. "And who are you suppose to be?"

"My oh my. I suppose before I teach you what having a spine is like, I will need to correct your manners. Lesson one, before asking the name of a girl you are interested in, you introduce yourself and your companions first."

"I'm Draco Malfoy. This is Crabbe and Goyle."

"Good to make your acquaintance Mr. Malfoy, I am Tanya Degurechaff, and I am not interested in you that way. Now if you don't mind, we need to get ready for class. Have a good day."

Tanya strode past the sputtering Draco with Harry on her heels.

"My father will hear of this!"

"Will not change my mind. I do not date weak little boys," Tanya called out over her shoulder.

After a few moments to get away from Malfoy, Harry broke out in laughter. "That was awesome."

"Professor McGonagall made it clear that we are meant to have unit cohesion within our houses. As part of that is developing a sense of House Loyalty and Honor. Letting someone from a different house to insult our house would be counter to that."

"Uh, ok?"

Tanya sighed before giving Harry a big smile that reminded Harry of the look the people behind the counter at stores would give his aunt when they went shopping. "Gryffindor first. Gryffindor forever."

Harry nodded. "Gryffindor first. Gryffindor forever," he agreed.

—-

Tanya Degurechaff

The classes of the first week went as expected; introduction to what the class would cover, safety rules for the classes with wand usage, and an introductory lesson with an easy homework assignment to get us students into the correct mindset.

Professor McGonagall was a clear professional and strict taskmaster, but her first lesson was given in a clear, concise manner before giving us students a lot of time to practice and correct any errors in technique and methodology. The ability to transform objects from one form into another was impressive and I had no idea how to begin translating the work into the spell formulas I was more used to. Despite that, Hermione and myself were both able to complete the task of turning a matchstick into a needle by the end of class.

Magic performed with a wand was very different than orb casting. I had previously thought of the difference as the difference between computing technology, but differences were much greater than that. Now that I have actually gotten a chance to perform magic in both methods, it is more akin to playing music. With the orb, it is selecting a song and following the notes to the beat of a metronome. You can vary the song by changing the metronome's speed or the way a note is played, but the song overall will be the same each time. Wand magic was more akin to learning jazz, knowing certain key features and improvising while playing the song. Each time the song is a bit different depending on many more variables, but when it works it is one of the best styles. When it doesn't, the results are smooth jazz.

Professor Flitwick seemed to fully embrace this point, being a much more excitable teacher whose style appeared to be more free form and willing to follow students' tangential questions. He was clearly encouraging a curiosity in the students to balance the discipline Professor McGonagal was trying to instill.

Professor Quirrell needed speech classes. His stutter was atrocious, slowed down the lessons to a crawl, and was a pain to listen to for long stretches of time. Defense Against the Dark Arts was likely going to require the most out of classroom study just to ensure I was at an acceptable level of proficiency.

Herbology with Professor Sprout was an interesting and very practically minded class. While we had a text book for the class, the actual class work was done in the greenhouse getting up close and personal to some of the plants and fungi we were learning about. Her methods I could appreciate as being very effective on getting the relevant lessons across, though I was concerned about my grades. In both of my previous lives I had been gifted potted plants for my living space. Both times the plant died a surprisingly swift death and I am unsure what I had done wrong. Neville seemed like he knew what he was doing already in the class, so I might need to place him as the lead in the Herbology side sessions.

Professor Binns was teaching History of Magic as a clever cost savings measure. His effectiveness of teaching was as dead as he was and I wondered what we would actually need to learn for history for our upper year testings.

Professor Sinistra taught Astronomy in the middle of the night. While practical for being able to actually look at the night sky and mapping the current sky, I would rather be in bed. She has a rather technical method of teaching, explaining what she is teaching us in a very precise manner.

That left our final class, potions and Professor Snape. If I was a colleague of his, I might call him a drama queen. Sitting in on his lesson reminded me of watching a Shakespearean play, full of dramatic movements and pauses in speech to emphasize a point. Harry did not like the way Professor Snape used him as an example that natural talent or rumors of being some Dark Lord slayer at the age of one would not be enough to excel in his class. That it would take hard work and dedication.

I attempted to calm Harry down by explaining the Professor's actual point and that we would need to put in a lot of effort to ensure good grades. That his methods might be unorthodox, but he would not be a professor if he couldn't teach a class. Unfortunately, I was not able to fully get Harry out of his funk before he went to have tea with the bear by the woods called Hagrid and my meeting with Hermione to setup the group study sessions for the Gryffindor first years. My comment about Hagrid's physical appearance did get a laugh out of Harry and he promised to tell Hagrid I called him a bear man.

 

[Half_Baked_cat]

Lily Moon

Hermione and Tanya were in the Gryffindor Common Room when Lily got back from doing a bit of exploring of the castle. The building was just so big that Lily knew she couldn't explore it all at once, but she had found a hidden room. It was a dark dusty room behind a wall that wasn't a wall but looked like a wall and it would be a useful room to hide in whenever they decided to play hide and seek. Although the wall that wasn't a wall but looked like a wall was only a half of a wall that wasn't a wall but looked like a wall and she had to climb up over the wall that was actually a wall underneath the wall that wasn't a wall but looked like a wall.

Lily moved quietly to get behind Tanya and was about to make her presence known.

"Lily, mind letting the other girls know that we will be having a study session tomorrow morning? And the boys if you see them as well?" Tanya asked without looking up from the schedule between her and Hermione.

Lily deflated. "Ah, how'd you know it was me?"

"Your breathing gets loud and quick when you are excited," Tanya answered. "You mind letting the others know? We are almost done here."

"Fine," Lily agreed, leaving the two alone and heading up to the first year girl's dorm room where Lavender and Parvati were looking at a magazine while laying on Lavender's bed.

"Hey hey!" Lily greeted the two. "Tanya told me to tell you that we are all having a study session tomorrow morning. Whatcha readin'?

Lily hopped onto the bed next to Lavender to look at what the two were looking at so that all three knew what each other was looking at.

"Witch Weekly. They have an article about how to flirt with boys," Lavender said, showing the article to Lily.

"Oh, that reminds me. Tanya asked me to find the boys and tell them that she told me to tell them that we are having a study session. I should go do that." Lily hopped off the bed. "I'll see you two later after I find the boys."

Lily didn't wait for Lavender or Parvati to say bye before she was bouncing down the stairs back to the common room. Not seeing any of the boys there, she bounced up the staircase to the boy side of the dorms and let herself in.

Neville was by himself looking through a book using the light coming in from the window.

"Hey hey!" Lily greeted before taking a seat next to Neville and looking at what he was reading so she could see what Neville was looking at so that they were both looking at the same thing. "Whatcha readin'?"

"I was, uh, looking up information about wolfsbane. Professor Snape was really scary that none of us knew anything about it," Neville said, showing the page with a well drawn and labeled image of the plant in question.

"Oh, speaking of Snape, Tanya wanted me to tell you and the others that we are having a study session tomorrow morning. And now I need to find the other boys. I thought they would be here, but they aren't so I need to go forth and find them!" Lily stood up and dramatically brandished her wand as if it was a sword.

"Dean and Seamus are by the lake. Harry and Ron went down to the gamekeeper's hut," Neville said, pointing out the window where Dean and Seamus could be seen.

"You're no fun," Lily pouted before perking up. "But you were just helping so I won't hold it against you. Anyways, I'll see you later." Lily rushed off leaving Neville behind and running past Hermione and Tanya and out into the halls of Hogwarts.

"Ms. Moon, stop," Professor McGonagall's voice snapped out causing Lily to skip to a stop. "Mind telling me where you are going in such a rush?"

"Sure Professor!" Lily agreed with a big grin. "I went to the Gryffindor Common Room after finding this neat hiding room behind a wall that looks like a wall but isn't a wall even though it looks like the wall under it that looks like a wall because it is a wall and Hermione and Tanya were working on a study schedule so I tried sneaking up on them but Tanya heard me preventing me from surprising them then she asked me to tell the other Gryffindor first years we are going to have a session tomorrow morning so I went up to the girl's dorm room where Lavender and Parvati were reading a magazine with an article about flirting and I told them about the study session and when they told me they were learning tips to flirt that reminded me that I needed to tell the boys because now all the girls knew but none of the boys did so I went up to the boy's dorm room where Neville was reading about plants and complaining about how Snape is scary so I told him about the study session and then I needed to find the other boys so Neville told me where to find them so I left the Common Room and while I was going to tell the other boys you stopped me and asked me what I was doing so I told you."

Professor McGonagall took a moment to process the rush of information Lily just gave her before responding. "Alright, that is reasonable, but don't run in the halls. And let Tanya and Hermione know I will stop by the Common Room tomorrow morning to check in on your little study session."

"Ok. Thanks Professor, I'll let them know," Lily said before walking away at a more sedate pace.

"And remember to breathe when you talk," the Professor added before continuing on her own path.

Getting outside, Lily saw that Dean and Seamus were kicking a ball back and forth while chatting. Rushing over to them, Lily called out, "Hey hey!"

"Hey Lily."

"Hello Lily."

"I got something I need to tell you!" Lily said as she got near.

"What's that?" Dean asked, stopping the ball under his foot before kicking it up into his hands.

"Tanya and Hermione wanted me to let you know we are having a study session tomorrow morning!"

"Alright," Seamus shrugged. "Thanks for letting us know."

"Yeah, thanks. Hey Seamus, it is probably time we called it anyways."

"Yeah alright. See you later Lily."

"Bye," Lily said, beginning to rush off to the gamekeeper's hut.

"Later," Dean called out to her retreating form.

When Lily arrived at the hut, she gave the door several knocks that set a dog barking and a strong voice telling the dog to stay back before Hagrid's hairy face appeared in the doorway.

"And who might you be?" he asked gently.

"I'm Lily. I was told Harry and Ron are here and Tanya asked me to tell them something."

Hagrid barked out a laugh and opened the door up to let her in. "The girl that called me a bear asked you to find Harry and Ron, well come on in, though I think this little tea party was just finishing up."

"Thank you Mr Gamekeeper, sir."

"Well aren't you a polite one, but call me Hagrid."

"Alrighty, oh there you are," Lily said as she saw Harry and Ron. "Tanya and Hermione told me to tell you we are having a study session tomorrow morning!"

"On a Saturday?" Ron groused. "Saturdays are suppose to be fun."

"I'm sure you will have the afternoon free," Hagrid laughed at Ron's concern.

"Hagrid's right. It is probably just going to be a quick session and then we'll have the rest of the day free."

"Oh, that reminds me, Professor McGonagall said she is going to be there too to see how it is going."

Harry smiled at Ron's groan of defeat.

"Anyways, you were the last ones I needed to tell and now I've told you so I'm going to go back to Common Room. Bye!" Lily was out of earshot before Hagrid could comment on how excitable she was.

—-

That night, Lily's dreams were filled with her sneaking into a secure Gringott's Vault guarded by a giant made of candy to steal the legendary treasure chest of chickens.

—-

The next morning began as each morning in the girl's dorm did, everyone being woken up to do their morning yoga stretches lead by either Parvati or Tanya. Lily preferred Tanya's lead because she used the more advanced positions that made Lily feel muscles she didn't know she had, but Lavender and Hermione liked Parvati's lead because it was over faster but that is silly. The point to the yoga is to exercise to improve health and if you are just doing it quickly to get through it then you weren't getting your exercise done right and then you won't be as healthy as you could be and the magazines Lavender and Parvati read said it was important to stay trim and fit to attract boys not that Lily really cared what the boys thought of her but the point was that if they were going to exercise they should do it right and Tanya understood that.

After their morning yoga, Lily took a shower to freshen up before going down to breakfast. She didn't need to wait for the others because they were all meeting up in the common room after breakfast for the study session and she knew how to find the Great Hall and Common Room by herself now, though she did enjoy the traveling in groups thing they did during the week but that wasn't necessary today. Besides if she got to breakfast early she could take her time eating without delaying the others.

Professor McGonagall and Professor Flitwick were already there talking to each other at the head table so Lily waved at them before sitting down and grabbing a bacon sandwich, pouring pumpkin juice over it and cutting up some boiled egg to top her breakfast before digging in, washing it down with a nice cuppa tea.

Soon Tanya came down and sat next to Lily, a cup of coffee appearing like it did every morning since she complained about a lack of coffee and she made herself a bowl of oatmeal with some fresh fruit.

"How's the coffee this time?" Lily asked with a smile.

"Better. I can almost taste the roast characteristics, but it is still a bit ashy. Whoever roasted these beans I think is the problem. The actual brew seem right."

"Wow, you know a lot about coffee don't you?"

Tanya stared Lily down. "I take coffee very seriously. I use to know someone that could make a very, very good cup of coffee."

"Oh? What happened to them?"

Tanya turned away from Lily's smiling face and stared into the dark depths of her coffee. "Dead."

Lily frowned at having upset Tanya and gave the other girl a hug. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make you sad."

Tanya carefully pushed Lily off of her. "I have made peace with it. I will not get to see the people I have lost again and there is no point in mourning their loss any further. There are more important concerns I need to focus on."

"Like why is the knight in chess so drunk on the battlefield that he is staggering around?"

Tanya looked back at Lily and her hopeful face before rolling her eyes. "Sure, I suppose that is a concern."

"Everyone else is being responsible and not drinking and then you have the knights who think they are so special that they can just get drunk anywhere when they should be focused in case they need to suddenly go off and fight a dragon that has kidnapped a princess. And alcohol is flammable so the drunk knight is just putting themselves at greater risk of being burned alive than if they were sober."

"Right. You should probably go ahead and finish your… breakfast." Tanya looked at the disaster on Lily's plate and chose to not question what she was seeing.

"Oh yeah, thanks!" Lily went back to munching on her food and humming to herself while Tanya ate in silence as everyone else trickled down for breakfast.

Malfoy stopped by to say something to Harry, but Tanya interrupted before he could say anything and told him to stop bothering her. She was not interested in dating him and that his insistence was a form of harassment. Before he could get a word in, Tanya stood up and walked away from the table, causing the first years to laugh at Malfoy's sputtering.

Lily didn't think Malfoy liked Tanya. She thought Malfoy needed more fiber in his diet because he seemed irritable and Lily's dad got irritable when he was constipated. Lily realized after a moment that the newest round of laughter was because she had speculated about Malfoy's bowel condition out loud.

"My father will hear about this!" Malfoy angrily said.

"Maybe he can send you some laxatives," Dean called after Malfoy's retreating form, causing the table to break down in laughter again.

After that and conversion switched to general chatter as the first years ate until they got up as a group to head back to the common room. Everyone scattered to grab their books and writing materials before gathering to sit in a circle on the floor.

"Alright everyone, Hermione and I have drafted up a schedule," Tanya started off. "If everything is going well, this should be the only time we have a study session on a Saturday."

That got cheers from the first years.

"That is if everything is going well. Adjustments may need to be made to the schedule should it prove necessary. As it stands, as we have a lot of free time after classes, the plan is we will gather together to work on our homework that was just assigned for a few hours each day. As we have a large free period Friday afternoons, in addition to the Potions homework we will be getting that day, we will be going back over the other assignments to ensure everyone has finished. Saturdays, as I said are free, but if any of you are slacking or getting bad marks, I will institute a tutoring session on Saturdays. Sundays we will meet briefly after breakfast to review our homework one last time before we have to turn it in during the following week's classes. Any questions?"

With no one having any, they began with the potions assignment, to the groans of most of the first years. Which Lily understood because Professor Snape was a meanie, but potion making was fun. They got to use knives which Lily's parents said she shouldn't play with because they were sharp ouchie makers but they were so shiny and Lily wanted to help in the kitchen because that was where biscuits were made.

Professor McGonagall came into the Common Room as they were moving onto the Astronomy homework, causing one of the older boys to hurry upstairs for some reason.

"Ms. Moon informed me that you were starting up a study group on the suggestion of Misses Granger and Degurechaff. Is this correct?" She asked getting nods all around. Professor McGonagall held her gaze on the group before she gave them a smile. "Normally we begin posting about study groups the second week. For getting ahead of the curve, one point to Gryffindor each. And a further one point to both Ms Granger and Ms Degurechaff for organizing this."

There were a few cheers at that announcement. "I must say, I was not expecting the first group study among the first years to be in my house. Usually it is either Flitwick or Sprout who gets that privilege. Now, you said there is a schedule, may I take a look at it?"

Hermione easily agreed, handing the schedule over with a smile. After a few moments, the professor handed it back. "Looks like you have a reasonable schedule setup. I hope you keep it up. Just because you are in my house does not mean I will be generous with your grades. Before I leave, do any of you have any questions?"

Lily raised her hand with a smile on her lips.

"Yes, Ms. Moon?"

"If you can turn into a cat, have you ever snuck into the Gryffindor Common Room to see how we are doing? And are there any secret passages on the ceiling?"

"I am unaware of any passageways that enter or exit at a ceiling level. And please do not go looking for any. We do not need you injuring yourself. That goes for the rest of you." With the question answered, Professor McGonagall left the Common Room.

Lily frowned as she realized something.

"She never answered if she is a guard kitty for the dorm."

 

[Half_Baked_cat]

Harry Potter

The first three weeks at Hogwarts had has seemingly flown by in a flash. Friends were made, classes were attended, and so much studying was done. Everyone got the homework done during the study sessions, though Ron could probably finish his quicker if he complained about it less.

About the only thing that was ruining Harry's time at Hogwarts was Malfoy who regularly attempted to bother Harry about one thing or another, bragging about how great he supposedly was or trying to insult Harry and his friends. It was particularly annoying that Malfoy seemed to wait till Tanya was gone now because her verbal barbs against Malfoy seemed to infuriate the boy so much.

And now Malfoy's presence was going to ruin the class Harry has been looking forward to the most. Flying lessons were announced to begin Thursday with the Slytherin House.

"Just what I wanted," Harry complained to Ron while Tanya was reading a book. It was difficult to read her emotions, but Harry felt he had a good grasp that she was feeling happy currently. "To make a fool of myself in front of Malfoy."

"You don't know that you'll make a fool of yourself," said Ron reasonably. "Anyway, I know Malfoy's always going on about how good he is at Quidditch, but I bet that's all talk."

Harry was not as sure about that as Ron was. While it was true Malfoy exaggerated his stories by talking about narrowly escaping muggle helicopters, all the kids from magical families talked about how they had flown and played pick up games of quidditch as kids. The only exception was Neville who's grams refused to let him on a broom. Considering the accidents Neville has had with both feet on the ground, Harry thought it was a sensible decision.

Where almost all the kids from magical households were confident, the ones from non magical ones were more nervous. Harry was excited, but there was a nervous fluttering feeling in his gut about his feet being off the ground for the first time. Hermione was attempting the impossible and trying to learn to fly from books. Even Dean seemed a bit unsure of himself. The only one who was relaxed about flying for the first time was Tanya.

Harry didn't know too much about his friend, Tanya seeming to be a rather private individual, but he did manage to find out she grew up in a non magical orphanage. It took work to get her to open that much with him, but Harry just wanted to talk to someone else about being without parents. None of the other first years really understood. Neville seemed the closest, having only ever mentioned his grams, but even she was more of a parent than the Dursley's ever were to Harry. Tanya, however, could understand. She had no real family, even a hated one like Harry did, and that was something Harry wanted to talk about. To see if some of his childhood wishes to not even have the Dursley's would have been better.

Harry was not sure of what the answer was yet, but he knew Tanya and he agreed that it was better being at Hogwarts where the food was plentiful and they had people who liked them nearby. Even if it sometimes seemed like he was the only one that did like her.

—-

Tanya Degurechaff

In my previous life, flying was one of my greatest joys. Even with bullets flying by, shrapnel pelting my shield, and enemies seeking to end my life in a bloody manner, flying itself never lost its charm. The wind in my face, the weightlessness of hovering hundreds or thousands of meters in the air, and the sight of the ground so far below me, knowing that I was in control of when it got closer. It was exhilarating and was one of the few things I mourn about leaving that life behind.

This life has methods of flight as well with the use of broomsticks. I could likely adapt the flight spell to this life, casting with my wand, but the tried and tested broomstick in use here would be far safer than me attempting an experimental spell that I was not entirely sure would work how I wanted. Perhaps something to work on in the future once I had a better understanding of the spell craft we were being taught.

Ms. Granger was a nervous wreck at the thought of flying and was pushing that nervous energy into telling all the Gryffindor First Years about tips she read in some quidditch book as if this was one of our study sessions and she was helping Lily understand the lesson. The only one really paying attention to the babbling was the one that was nearly as nervous as her, Mr. Longbottom.

Thankfully the torrent of random information was ended by the arrival of the mail swarm. Carrier pigeons were a time honored and reliable method of message sending from history. To see it modified to use a larger bird with a bit of magic to give the owls the ability to find whoever it was they were sent to deliver a message to was a fascinating cultural artifact of the magical world. I vaguely recall some talk about the use of flying robots in my first life as a possible future method of package delivery, and here were wizards using such an idea for hundreds of years already by using birds magically bred and trained for such operations.

As orphans, neither Harry nor myself got much in the way of mail, though his gorgeous snowy owl would stop by occasionally just to show off and get attention. Hedwig, as Harry had named her, was picky about who she allowed to stroke her feathers, but a piece of bacon and a few compliments at how pretty she was managed to get me on her good side. Her feathers were surprisingly soft and she would occasionally purr at the petting.

While I was paying attention to the white bird near myself, Neville received a package containing a marble looking thing that turned red in his hand. Apparently that occurred when the one holding it has forgotten something.

"Did you bring your robes in your bag, or were you planning on going to class like that?" I asked him, seeing that he was the only one not wearing his school robes.

The red receded as Neville looked himself over. "Oh. Thank you Tanya."

I waved the thanks off as I went back to my breakfast. It was only right that I prevent my house from losing unnecessary points because someone was not dressed appropriately for class.

As Neville was about to get up to get his robe, Malfoy and his pets arrived for whatever power play he was attempting. I know that dividing up people into groups would foster competition between the groups, but Malfoy was taking it too far. The House Cup competition should be entirely based upon our scholastic achievements and how well we mold ourselves to fit within the school society we found ourselves in. Openly antagonizing others was at best a waste of time and effort and at worst was sabotaging his own house's chances to win.

"Mr. Malfoy, I fail to see how stealing from Mr. Longbottom is suppose to help you woo me," I said, falling back onto the line of insult that so far appeared to work on him the best. "Unless you have realized I am too much for you and you would rather admit to your secret desires of being with Mr. Longbottom."

The flustered expression on Malfoy's face and the laughter from my fellow house mates told me I was successful in defending Gryffindor Pride verbally.

"That is not what this is about," Malfoy said. His voice was raised. My hand fell to my side. He was unarmed currently and I was confident I could draw my wand faster than he could. If it came to a physical confrontation, I was in a better position to cause him significant pain than he was to do to me, the male weak spot within easy reach. His pet muscles would be slow enough that I could be on them, bringing them to the ground before they could respond.

"What's going on?" Professor McGonagall asked, having arrived before anything occurred. I relaxed my hand.

"Malfoy's got my Remembrall, Professor."

Scowling, Malfoy quickly dropped the marble onto the table. "Just looking," he said, before slinking off with his pets.

—-

After Transfiguration in the morning where Professor McGonagall had us focus on increasing our speed at transfiguring a match stick into a needle and back repeatedly, we gathered together to quickly work on her homework assignment. The study session was cut short because everyone was anticipating our first flying lesson. Really the only reason we were even having this one was to keep the schedule consistent until we were sure it needed to be modified to fit around the flying lessons and so everyone was together to head down to the grounds of Hogwarts for the lesson.

Heading down a few minutes early, we saw that the Slytherins were already there along with two rows of brooms on the ground. Not seeing the teacher yet, I went to stand by one of the brooms and awaited further instructions. Everyone seemed to follow my lead in standing next to a broom, some scattered conversations going on between those standing next to each other.

Madam Hooch, our instructor, arrived shortly and gave us a nod in approval. "Good, you are all in position. Now stick your hand out and say 'Up!'"

We did as instructed, my broom coming to rest in my hand with ease. There was mixed success as far as who managed to get their broom into hand and I wondered how much saying the word had to do with it and how much was just confidence and the will for the broom to obey. I suspected the latter had more to do with it as the two having the most issues were Neville and Hermione, the two showing the most signs of being nervous outwardly.

Once we all had the broom in hand, we were instructed on how to mount the broom in a manner that would prevent us sliding off while in the air. I was satisfied when she informed me that I had followed her instructions on how to grip the handle correctly and moved onto correcting Malfoy's grip.

Once she was satisfied everyone was situated correctly, Madam Hooch went to stand where she could see all of us with ease.

"Now, when I blow my whistle, you kick off from the ground, hard. Keep your brooms steady, rise a few feet, and then come straight back down by leaning forward slightly. On my whistle. Three … Two …!"

Neville jumped the gun and was in the air. Madam Hooch was telling him to get back on the ground.

He was losing control. I could see his grip slipping. He was going to call and he had no shield to lessen the impact. I will not lose another!

I was in the air, moving towards where he would begin to fall. He was off the broom. I put mine into a tail spin to give me a better jumping off point.

I got him! Now to twist my body and get us the roll the momentum away. I was on my feet in a flash and hurrying to check my downed comrade. My CO was coming along as I was checking for wounds. No holes found. Check for concussion. Eyes are dilating correctly. CO is here.

No. Not CO. Teacher. My breathing is heavy. I need to slow my breathing. Deep breaths. Calm down and stand at attention. I just broke her instruction and needed to take responsibility for my actions.

"Nothing seems broken," Madam Hooch said as she checked Neville over. "Let's get you to Pomfrey just to be sure."

Standing up, she looked me over. "You should come along as well." I just gave a nod in agreement. Private punishment was less embarrassing, though often harsher. If that was what she wanted, I would accept her decision.

Turning to the rest of the class who were staring at us, Madam Hooch said, "None of you is to move while I take this boy to the hospital wing! You leave those brooms where they are or you'll be out of Hogwarts before you can say 'Quidditch.' Come on, dears."

Following quietly, we began winding our way through the castle.

"Tell me, was that your first time flying a broom?" I was asked.

"Yes ma'am," I answered promptly, though I was not sure I could call what I did flying. Yes I got in the air, but it was towards a specific target before aborting the action. It was closer to a launch than a flight.

"Well, then we will have to see your Head of House then."

I did not know how punishments worked or with instructors could give out what punishments, so perhaps Madam Hooch needed permission to give me the punishment she wanted to give me.

We spent a brief moment dropping Neville off at the Hospital Wing before Madam Hooch began leading me elsewhere in the castle. Eventually we came across Professor McGonagall, Harry, and an older Gryffindor boy.

"Professor McGonagall," Madam Hooch began with a smile. "I think I may have found you an excellent choice for the quidditch team."

Professor McGonagall looked at me with a smile. "I was actually just about to introduce Wood to who I thought was going to be our newest seeker."

Madam Hooch gave Harry a critical look. "Oh? And how did Mr Potter come to your attention for the role?"

"I saw him make a fifty foot dive and catch Mr. Longbottom's remembrall. What did Ms. Degurechaff do?"

"She caught Mr Longbottom out of a fifty foot drop." Madam Hooch looked towards Harry with a stern expression. "Why were you catching something out of a drop? I thought I told you to stay on the ground."

"I'm sorry," Harry began. "Malfoy had taken Neville's remembrall and was threatening to toss it into a tree, so I was trying to get it back for him."

"And how did Mr. Malfoy plan on getting this remembrall into a tree?"

"He started flying one of the brooms and was moving towards the trees," Harry said, his eyes away from Madam Hooch, not wanting to take responsibility for his actions.

"I will be needing to speak with Mr. Malfoy it seems," Madam Hooch said. "I will leave it to you to figure out your quidditch team then."

With that, I was left with Professor McGonagall. And it seemed Harry and my punishments for the rule breaking we did was forceful conscription into the sports team.

"Guess we will have to test to see which of you gets seeker and which gets the bench," Wood said with a grin.

—-

Dinner was interrupted by Malfoy again. I was not up to dealing with him this time as I tried to figure out how the training for quidditch was going to affect my studying and free time. Currently there was no set training schedule, the problem with leaving children in charge of creating a schedule was a lack luster approach and no respect for proper order of things.

I was brought out of my contemplation as I registered Ron doing something stupid on Harry's behalf. Accepting a duel with no prep time? And after curfew when it is clear that this was not going to be a properly sanctioned and refereed duel. I was about to voice my complaints when Hermione began voicing hers instead.

I just stared at Ron and Harry as they dismissed Hermione's concerns.

"She is right. Gryffindor First. Gryffindor Forever. Which means that the pride and points of Gryffindor should be your concern. If you get caught, you will tarnish both. Besides, you need a referee for a duel."

"Oh? You're on Granger's side now?" Ron asked with a roll of his eyes.

"I am on Gryffindor's side. Which means we let a teacher know Malfoy challenged Harry to a duel and that we are willing to accept if an appropriate time and place can be arranged."

I stood up and turned towards the head table where I could see Professor McGonagall talking to Professor Snape. A perfect situation as the two Heads of Houses would likely need to be informed regardless. I ignored Ron's insistence I stop and walked up to the table.

"Professor McGonagall. Professor Snape. A moment of your time, please."

"And how can we be of service to you, Ms Degurechaff?" Professor Snape asked, continuing to play up his dramatic mannerisms.

"Mr. Malfoy has challenged Mr. Potter to a wizard duel. Mr. Weasley accepted on his behalf as a second. I have come so that an appropriate time and place could be arranged for the match and to ask for a neutral referee to be chosen."

Professor Snape's eyes narrowed as I described the events that had just taken place.

"Thank you-" Professor McGonagall began.

"I will ensure this little match is setup," Professor Snape cut off Professor McGonagall, who gave him a harsh look. "Thank you for informing me. Now if you don't mind, I have a foolish child to find."

Professor Snape got up and left, his robes blowing in a manner I suspected involved magic to add to his dramatic methods. I might need to look out for his drama class in a few years if I decided to get into theater.

Returning to the table, I informed Ron and Harry that Professor Snape would be arranging the duel. I could not understand their worries about that as it promised to be a good show in spite of the barely trained contestants.

 

[Half_Baked_cat]

Harry Potter

Harry was unsure how to feel about Tanya going to the teachers about the Wizarding Duel he had been challenged to. On the one hand, she had been looking out for him and Ron, preventing them from getting in trouble. On the other, she had made the entire thing a much bigger event than he wanted it to be. Ron, by contrast, had no issues expressing his displeasure at 'that stuck up and bossy girl' getting in the way of showing Malfoy exactly what they thought of him.

Regardless, the match had been rescheduled to the following Saturday as part of the first meeting of a dueling club that had been inactive for several years. All years were invited to attend and depending on how the first years this year behaved would determine if the first years the next year would be allowed to join or if it will be kept to older year students.

Malfoy was being annoyingly smug about the whole thing, though he was thankfully keeping his distance during the following week where Professor Flitwick announced he and Snape would be the ones running the club jointly and that the first meeting would be having several exhibition duels, including one between Harry and Malfoy, Snape and Professor McGonagall, and a secret third one. The attention on Harry after that was embarrassing, but Flitwick gave Harry a pamphlet with a couple of spells for him to practice.

Professor McGonagall was an even bigger help, pulling Harry aside after class to help Harry, in her words, not embarrass Gryffindor House by only being able to spray a few sparks at Malfoy. Her advice was to use the light spell, Lumos, to blind Malfoy before using the disarm charm, Expelliarmus, to leave Malfoy without his wand. If they didn't work, he was to spray sparks at Malfoy in a hopes that Malfoy either fell out of bounds or Harry could try disarming him again.

During the practice, McGonagall also mentioned that packages would be arriving for Tanya and him and that they were not to open them in the Great Hall, but to take the packages straight to their rooms and that their first quidditch practice would be Thursday evening at seven with Wood. Harry agreed to let Tanya know that.

When Thursday did roll around, neither Harry nor Tanya were surprised that a pair of packages landed in front of them, though the dozen owls carrying two suspiciously broom shaped packages did cause a stir around the Great Hall. Not wanting to upset Professor McGonagall and promising to explain later, the pair took their packages up to their dorm rooms and got ready for classes. Harry wanted so badly to open it and look at what he got, but Tanya calmly reminded him that even if he did, he would not get a chance to test it out until that evening regardless.

Despite the reassurances, Harry was distracted all day thinking about the package sitting on his bed or that he was going to learn how to play quidditch that night. Tanya, however, seemed perfectly able to focus on her work with no issue. She showed no glee or excitement or that anything about the day was special or unusual. When Harry tried to bring it up with her, she just told him there was no point letting the excitement get to them, that they would have a chance to open the packages in a few hours.

Those hours seemed to drag on forever to Harry until he was shoveling food into his mouth without paying attention to what he was eating so he could get back to the dorm room as quickly as possible. Ron followed close behind, wanting to see what it was as well.

Getting to the package sitting on the bed, Harry tore open the wrapping to the gasp of Ron.

"A Nimbus 2000! I've never even touched one."

Harry looked over to his friend as he continued pulling the wrapping off and admiring the beauty of the broom. "Is it good?" Harry asked.

"The best. It is what the professional quidditch teams have been using for the past few years, though I have heard they got a new model coming soon."

Harry didn't know much about brooms, but he and Ron marveled at it. It was gorgeous in Harry's opinion, a sleek, shiny, deep mahogany handle that had golden letter declaring it was a Nimbus 2000 at one end and went down to a long tail of straight twigs aligned neatly.

"You have got to give that a ride," Ron said after a while of admiring the broom.

Harry agreed and headed down to the common room where Tanya was waiting with her own Nimbus by her side surrounded by several other students asking about her broom. Seeing Harry coming down the stairs, Tanya stood up and grabbed her broom.

"Let's get down to the field and test these out before practice," Tanya said. She did not look overly excited, but Harry thought he could see a sparkle of excitement in her eyes.

"Yeah, let's go," Harry said with a smile.

—

Tanya Degurechaff

Flying with a broom was rather different than orb based flight. With an orb I would have applied vectors to my body and the strength of the vectors were completely disconnected from my orientation within three dimensional space. With a broom, vectors of force could be applied in any direction, but the strongest vectors were in the direction the broom was facing and to change the facing of the broom. For what is classified as a racing broom, this was a beneficial decision as getting from point A to point B as quickly as possible was the only concern, but for overwatch situations the lessened ability to strafe was a disadvantage.

While judging the precise difference in speed was difficult, I estimated the broom I had was able to achieve about half the speed I was able to as an aerial mage in my previous life. Despite that, the tighter area of operation of the stadium and impromptu obstacles of the stands and goals made the test flight a rather enjoyable affair. Having Harry nearby to compare myself and challenge in maneuvers certainly made the endeavor into an activity I would enjoy engaging in again.

After some time of flying around, we were called down by Oliver, who had a wooden crate under an arm. Coming down for a landing, Harry and I got ready for our lesson. Wood's wide grin and laughter showed he has a relaxed, easygoing captain. I had met several individuals that were capable and effective leaders with similar personalities, though it was a personality I often found I needed to pound out of soldiers as it often came along with a negligent work ethic that negatively impacted the abilities of those around them. I would need to take a wait and see approach on how effective Wood was as a captain.

"I see what Hooch and McGonagall were saying," Wood said when we got to the ground. "You two are naturals! Alright, I'm going to go over the rules now and we will decide which of you is the seeker and which is on reserves later after we start team practice. We will be practicing three times a week."

It had been a long time since I was in school last, particularly a school outside of an active war situation with a truncated curriculum, but if I remembered right the sports clubs in my first life typically met twice a week. Then again, with a boarding school where there was no worries about commutes, or familiar responsibility to interfere, it made sense to increase the number of meetings.

Wood opened up the crate and pulled out a red ball that was about the size of a soccer ball. "So, quidditch is pretty easy to understand, but can be a bit difficult to play. Seven players a side. The first three are called chasers." Wood indicated the ball. "This ball is the quaffle. It is the chasers' roles to get this ball through the goals. 10 points for each time the quaffle gets through. Follow me?"

I nodded as Harry repeated out loud the main points.

"The chasers throw the quaffle through the hoops trying to score. Sort of like basketball on broomsticks and with six goals is it?"

"What's basketball?"

"Muggle sport," I answered. "Similar goal of trying to get a ball through a hoop. A question, please."

"Go for it."

"You mentioned that there are seven players, but only three are chasers. Does that mean only chasers can score? And if the chasers are in an offensive role of attempting to score, does that mean the other players are defensive?"

"Bingo," Wood tossed the quaffle at me. It was a fairly light, but sturdy feeling ball. "Yes, if one of the other players does manage to toss the quaffle through a goal it is considered a technical foul with one exception. That exception is my role in the team, the keeper. My job is to fly near our goal posts and prevent the quaffle getting through. By the rules, I am a specialized chaser in that if I manage to get the quaffle through the other team's goal it does count as a goal."

"Three chasers and a keeper who play with quaffle," Harry said, confirming his knowledge out loud, a useful technique for studying. "They are the only four that can score a goal or it is a foul. What about those other balls?"

Looking into the chest, I could see three remaining balls, two identical ones chained in place that looked like black medicine balls.

"I'll show you now," Wood said handing Harry a club that looked like a shortened cricket bat. "Take this." Once Wood was in position he gave us a smile. "These are bludgers, and I'm going to show you what they do. Stand back."

After Harry and I backed up a few paces, Wood flicked the release on the restraint and the bludger went shooting off into the air before turning around and coming at Harry. With a panicked swing that surprisingly found its mark, Harry sent the ball off in another direction before it turned and came towards me. I braced myself and caught it as it was coming to hit me in the chest. My earlier thoughts of it looking like a medicine ball seemed correct. It seemed to be a heavy metal ball about the size of a cannonball wrapped in black leather. Wood gave me directions to put it back in the chest and helped me lock it back into place.

"Blimey, how'd you stop the bludger like that?" Wood asked.

"Magic," I said as I looked at the club Harry was holding. "I take it someone uses that to knock the bludgers around."

"Yes. The bludgers rocket around the field trying to knock players off their brooms. Each team has two beaters to defend their team and knock the bludgers towards the other team."

"Three chasers, one keeper, two beaters. That is six out of seven players. You already mentioned seeker earlier as the role you are trying to fill. Is that what the last little ball is for?"

"You are a sharp one," Wood told me as he pulled out the little golden ball. A tiny thing that sprouted wings and was about the size of an eye knocked out of someone's skull. "This is the golden snitch. It is the seeker's job to find and catch it, a tricky thing because of how small and fast it is, weaving through all the other players in a dash to get it first. The first seeker to catch it ends the game and scores their team 150 points, nearly always winning their team the game. I think the record was three months, they had to keep finding substitutes just so the players could get some sleep. Any questions?"

Harry shook his head. I agreed that the basics were simple enough, but that behind that was a lot more to it than met the eye. I was not one much for sports ever since I was shown to only be of averaging ability in my school days back in my first life, so long ago, but I would do my best while I was required to be on the team in the mean time.

"So, 15 goals with the quaffle equals one catching of the snitch. If I did not know better, I would almost say this was two games stitched together."

"Not this again," Wood said with a roll of his eyes. "I don't see why muggle raised kids think that."

I have Wood a look. "I said if I did not know better. I can definitely see how that is the case in an amateur level of play because the level of coordination and situational awareness would be a strain to integrate the seeker's hunt with the chasers' scoring, but at higher levels of play, the seeker and snitch becomes a bit like a hybrid of the queen and king in chess. The most powerful and valuable piece on the board, but one that can be mitigated with the other players by preventing the seeker from getting into a position to properly engage the snitch to win the game. With enough distractions from the beaters and bludgers and the chasers finding ways to effectively rack up the score, then advantage the seeker gives is entirely eliminated."

Wood was grinning at me again. "I think we are going to get along great," he said before roping me into a discussion on different tactics and plays that have been used in professional quidditch that unfortunately do not work in their school level games.

—-

Harry Potter

Harry did not understand all the talk Tanya and Oliver did after they were taught the rules to quidditch. He knew it had to do with how players were meant to be positioned during certain times or something in order help or hinder the seeker from getting the snitch. Harry thought he would be a rather bad chaser or beater if he had to keep all that in mind, but when they were done talking Oliver pulled out a bag of golf balls and said they were going to see which of them would be the better seeker with a test.

Harry came out ahead, not letting any of the ones thrown at him hit the ground, and even managing to catch a few tossed at Tanya. Tanya did very good as well, but from what Tanya said, his eyes were better than hers at following the little balls. Harry wasn't so sure and thought Tanya might have been holding back a bit, letting Harry take the lead, but it was so hard to tell for sure.

Regardless, Oliver Wood seemed excited for their chances at the quidditch cup this year, certain that it would be in Gryffindor House this time. His excitement was so great that Harry almost forgot to be worried for his duel in two days.

 

[Half_Baked_cat]

Parvati Patil

Parvati was not sure about being separated from her twin initially when she was sorted into Gryffindor after her sister was sorted into Ravenclaw. They had spent their entire lives together, doing everything together as twins and the thought of being separated was a little scary, but she was not going to be alone. She had dormmates to get to know and distract her. Especially Lavender.

Lavender was great. Outgoing, confident, and full of so much advice and gossip. They could spend hours chatting away without any issues.

Lily could also chat for hours, but the girl was so energetic that Parvati felt exhausted after being in her presence for too long. Blessedly, Lily was easy to silence by distracting her with something.

Hermione was not so easy to shut up when she got rolling on a topic, and all the topics Hermione wanted to talk about were so boring. Who cared who invented the spell they were using or what all the different uses of some potion ingredient was?

Despite that, Parvati was willing to still call Hermione a friend. At least Hermione didn't scare Parvati.

Tanya terrified Parvati. She didn't talk much and kept what she did say short. And Tanya's eyes. Parvati and Padma went on a trip to India when they were younger to visit their extended family and while there a tiger got close to the property they were staying at. Tanya's eyes reminded Parvati of the look the tiger gave her and her Papi when they stumbled upon the tiger. So confident in its strength that it did not need to threaten. And Tanya was strong. Parvati knew how difficult it was to lift the school trunks and the beds they had did not look light either, and Tanya was able to push and lift them with seeming no issue.

And then there was Tanya's sleep schedule. Or lack there of. Parvati has yet to see Tanya actually fall asleep. Oh, Tanya would lie down and be still, but she didn't go into the deep breathing the other girls did. Parvati was certain Tanya was not sleeping and was just waiting till it was acceptable for her to get back up.

Even the way she saved Neville scared Parvati. The way she seemed to pounce off the broom and attack Neville's form before twisting them around to land. And then she was on her feet, pouncing onto Neville again looking for something.

The only thing about Tanya that allowed Parvati to sleep peacefully was that Tanya seemed to have decided that the Gryffindor First Years were hers to protect. Parvati was afraid to find out what would happen to her if she ever ended up on Tanya's bad side. If Tanya wanted yoga, Parvati would go along with it. And so far it seemed leading a simplified version for the other girls less used to the positions did not seem to anger Tanya. Parvati was not sure how long this would last, but hoped Tanya would at least give some warning before it was no longer enough.

On the bright side, a dueling club was starting up and Harry Potter was going to be there participating. So far he was not as impressive or interesting as the stories made him out to be, but he was still a rather cute boy. One who frustratingly spent a lot of time near Tanya, preventing Parvati from getting close to him, but the dueling club seemed a great way to maybe spend a few moments with him without Tanya's presence.

The morning of the dueling club started rather normal for a Saturday, yoga, shower, then breakfast. Malfoy could be heard bragging about something across the hall, likely saying how he was going to beat Harry. Harry was looking nervous until Ron said something to him, followed by something from Tanya that seemed to firm up Harry's confidence. After breakfast, everyone went to do their own things until the club was scheduled to begin, with Parvati stumbling on Lily with her arm in the vanishing step.

"What are you doing?" Parvati asked.

"Looking for treasure! People are constantly stumbling and jumping over this step, so they might have lost something."

"Find anything?"

"A galleon, two sickles, and a couple of broken quills!"

"Right, have fun I guess." Parvati moved past the other girl to meet her sister at the library before heading back down to the Great Hall together. Once they arrived, they saw the tables had been pushed to the side and a platform was in the middle of the room, on the platform was a white line that lead to two circles at the ends and a small mark halfway between the two circles. Professor Flitwick was standing in the middle of platform with Harry, Malfoy, Snape, McGonagall, and Dumbledore behind him.

There was only a small gathering of students that were in the Great Hall, the rest of the students in the castle seemingly having decided to do other things on their Saturday. Parvati and her sister got good positions at the middle of the platform to see what was about to occur.

"Alright, I do believe that is about everyone who will be showing up," the squeaky voice of Flitwick called out as he waved at the students. "There has been some interest by certain students in starting the dueling club back up, and I am rather happy to lead this club. As some of you may already know, before I started teaching here, I was on the professional dueling circuit and even managed to win a few tournaments back in my prime. It is with great honor that I lead this club and help share my passion with all of you who choose to join. Today, we will be just showing off a few exhibition matches and going over a few of the basic rules, if you are interested in actually joining up, sign up sheets with the location of the dueling room will be posted in each of the common rooms."

Professor Flitwick backed up onto another platform behind the main platform so the diminutive teacher could still be seen as he motioned for Harry and Malfoy to get onto the platform.

"So, for the first match, we have Mr. Potter and Mr. Malfoy. Neither of them had participated in a duel before, so I expect both of you to pay attention as I give instructions." Professor Flitwick looked at the two boys until they gave a nod of acknowledgement. "Good. Now in dueling, only magic is allowed to be used, no physically hitting each other. Secondly, you are to start with one foot within the circle and if you fall off the platform, that counts as a point for the opponent. Disarming counts as three. Any solid strike with a spell counts as one point. For this first match, we will be going to three points only, though a traditional match is to fifteen."

The professor made sure both Harry and Malfoy understood before continuing.

"Now, tradition dictates the duelists bow to each other to show respect. That's it."

Parvati thought the bows were rather stiff looking and the two boys did not let their eyes leave the other.

"Now take your starting stances. We will discuss proper form during the first meeting, so don't worry if your form isn't great right now. Just make sure one foot is in the circle. Very good. When I give the instruction, begin the duel. And when I tell you to stop, you will stop. Am I clear?"

With a pair of nods, Flitwick raised one arm and began a count down. "Three. Two. One. Duel!"

Harry started off whipping his wand forward while shielding his eyes with his other arm. "Lumos!" He yelled, causing a bright light to shine.

At that same moment, Malfoy also snapped out a spell, but his casting was quieter and Parvati couldn't hear his spell being cast and by the time her vision cleared the, she couldn't tell Malfoy had cast a spell at all.

Harry uncovered his eyes and cast another spell that went wide over the red spell Malfoy sent out. The boys were moving closer on the platform. Malfoy attempted to cast another spell, but Harry responded by sending sparks at Malfoy. Malfoy tried to get out the way and Harry sent another spell at Malfoy, knocking Malfoy's wand out of his hand as Malfoy fell off the platform.

"Winner! Potter!" Flitwick called out. Snape had gathered Malfoy's wand and was helping the boy up while McGonagall gave Harry a small smile. Parvati and the Gryffindors in attendance were giving Harry cheers for winning that died down with Flitwick's instructions. "Settle down, settle down. To end the duel as both contestants are able to, it is traditional for them to bow to each other again. There we go. Now, Mr. Potter did an admirable job on getting the first point in Mr. Malfoy. And a winning point at that, but as that was a shorten duel, there was little chance for either one to get the measure of their opponent's dueling style. Not that either Mr. Potter or Mr. Malfoy have much of a style yet. Now, how about something a little more exciting?"

There were cheers across the hall as McGonagall and Snape took their places across from each other and bowed to the other with more confidence and grace. Flitwick counted them down and the spells began flying.

Few incantations were said at all, the spells seeming to fly out of the wands with only the smallest flicks of the wrist. McGonagall transformed the platform as she blocked and dodged Snape's spells and sending her own across the platform.

"Point McGonagall!" Flitwick called out as Snape was hit with a stream of water, the first hit of the match. Snape looked rather annoyed as he was dripping wet while McGonagall was smirking. Without saying a word, the spells began flying again. Colorful bolts crossing the platform, either being dodged or splashing against rapidly raised shields or bits of transfigured platform. The display of skill was dazzling as the two professors dueled.

"Point McGonagall! Match Snape!" The last exchange went so fast, but Snape was on the ground with the jelly legged curse, but he managed to slip a disarming charm through McGonagall's protections. With a few flicks of his wand, Snape had undone the jelly legs and dried himself off while McGonagall had her wand returned. The two professors bowed before beginning to repair the dueling platform. As the platform was transformed back into its normal shape, Dumbledore took position at one end of the platform with Flitwick taking position at the other end.

Snape took center stage as the referee. "And now students, the final match of the day before you go off and fill the rest of the day with whatever inane activities you do outside of class."

Dumbledore gave a graceful bow, his long white beard touching the floor before taking his stance. "Go easy on this old man. It has been a while since I last fought." There was a smile on the Headmaster's lips as he brandished his wand.

"Not on your life. I haven't had a good duel in ages," Flitwick replied with his own bow before readying his stance.

"If you are quite done," Snape drawled, rolling his eyes at the theatrics Flitwick and Dumbledore were doing before the match even properly began. "Three. Two. One. Duel."

With that Flitwick sent a flock of small birds down the platform that were whipped out of the air by a flaming whip coming out of the end of Dumbledore's wand before he turned his whip into a shower of burning flower petals swirling back and turned to steam by shouts of water out of Flitwick's wand. Flitwick disappeared into the steam momentarily until it condensed down into icy blades sent back to Dumbledore before being blasted into a fine, snowy mist.

Where the duel between Harry and Malfoy was nearly pathetic in the spells used and the duel between Snape and McGonagall a fierce back and forth, the duel between Flitwick and Dumbledore was beautiful in a way. The way the colors of the spells reflected through the mists, crystals, and smoke they were creating was a light show on par with, or perhaps Parvarti would even say surpassing, any fireworks show she had seen.

The show, the spectacle, the performance. It was so beautiful. Like a combative belly dance. A thought crossed Parvati's mind. A stage outfit of hers plastered on the front of Witch Weekly as she toured the dueling circuits. A smile on her face as she watched the duel unfold.

—-

After spending some more time with her sister and giving Padma a hug before they separated, Parvati found a relatively quiet corner of the Common Room and began sketching her ideas for dueling outfits. She was so lost in thought that she didn't even notice when one of her drawings was picked up.

"Hmm, clean line work. Proportions look good."

Parvati looked up and squeaked seeing it was Tanya. Tanya carefully put the image she was looking at down before picking up another.

"The outfits look like they are able to actually be worn by a person, though I would defer to others on the fashionableness of them."

"They are suppose to be dueling outfits," Parvati said, not sure what she was defending her drawings from.

"In that case, you will want to lift the hem up. And this dangling sash bit should be brought in closer to the body. You don't want anything getting in the way of maneuverability or that can easily get caught."

"Like this?" Parvati asked, making the adjustments.

"Yes," Tanya said before making other minor suggestions. A tightening here or there, perhaps padding there for protection. Parvati would not say it was a friendly interaction with Tanya, but if one was going to step into a dangerous field, one needed to heed the advice of a dangerous being.

 

[Half_Baked_cat]

Harry Potter

Two months seemed to have flown by so quickly when Harry realized it was already Halloween. The regular study sessions, quidditch three times a week, and dueling club weekly filled up his time to the point Harry was having difficulty telling how much time was even passing. Harry was slightly upset his two best friends couldn't share the extracurricular activities with him. Ron couldn't participate in the quidditch practice because he wasn't on the team and Tanya refused to join the dueling club. When Harry had asked why she didn't show for his duel or join the club, she told him that she wanted a peaceful life away from unnecessary violence.

The way she said that made Harry think she had a bad experience before she arrived at Hogwarts and was trying to make a fresh start at her new home. Something Harry fully understood as Hogwarts felt more like home than the Dursley's ever did. Harry hoped that Tanya was feeling as at home as he was.

As the first years traveled through the corridors towards breakfast, it certainly smelled homey with the sweet-spicy smell of pumpkins baking filling the castle. Even better than that, when they arrived for charms class, Professor Flitwick announced that he believed the class was ready to make objects fly, something everyone had been looking forwards to since the professor made Neville's toad fly around the room.

The class was divided into pairs with Flitwick selecting the partners. Harry was with Seamus, Tanya was with Lily, and Ron was with Hermione. It was hard to tell what Tanya thought of her partner, but Lily seemed happy about the situation. It was harder to tell between Ron and Hermione who was more upset about their partner. The two had been butting heads constantly during the study sessions over Ron's attitude to the sessions and doing the homework right away when they could push it off till later and play some chess or something. They never got to the point of yelling at each other, but the tension between the two was thick.

The spell was difficult. You had to do the swish and flick of the wand just right while pronouncing the words. Neither Harry nor Seamus had much luck and out of frustration, Seamus poked the feather, lighting it on fire. Harry managed to put out the fire with his hat. Out of the corner of his eye, Harry could see Tanya was helping Lily with her wand movement as they said the spell repeatedly, slowly and deliberately.

Out of the other corner of his eye, Harry saw Ron was having about as much luck as Seamus and him, only Ron seemed to be taking it worse with Hermione's attempts to help him.

"Wingardium Leviosa!" Ron shouted, waving his long arms like a windmill.

"You're saying it wrong," Harry heard Hermione snap. "It's Wing-gar-dium Levi-o-sa, make the 'gar' nice and long."

"You do it, then, if you're so clever," Ron snarled.

Hermione rolled up the sleeves of her gown, flicked her wand, and said, "Wingardium Leviosa!"

Their feather rose off the desk and hovered about four feet above their heads.

"Oh, well done!" cried Professor Flitwick, clapping. "Everyone see here, Ms. Granger's done it!"

Ron was in a very sour mood by the end of the class. "It's no wonder no one can stand her," he said to Harry as they pushed their way into the crowded corridor, "she's a nightmare, honestly."

Hermione ran past, bumping into Harry with tears in her eyes. Before Harry could say anything, he felt every hair in his body raise suddenly.

"Ron. We will be having a discussion later," Tanya said. That tone scared Harry on Ron's behalf and he could not explain why.

"Why does she want that?" Ron asked as Tanya followed after Hermione.

"I think they both heard you."

"So?" Ron said, trying to brush it off, but looking uncomfortable. "They must have noticed Hermione has no friends."

Harry shook his head as they continued their day.

Neither Hermione nor Tanya were seen during their next class or the rest of the afternoon. On their way down to the Great Hall for the Halloween feast, Harry and Ron overheard Parvati telling Lavender that Hermione was crying in the girls' bathroom and Tanya was trying to calm her down despite Hermione's repeated requests to be left alone. Ron looked rather guilty at this, but a moment later they had entered the Great Hall, where the Halloween decorations put Hermione's problems out of their minds.

A thousand live bats fluttered from the walls and ceiling while a thousand more swooped over the tables in low black clouds, making the candles in the pumpkins stutter. The feast appeared suddenly on the golden plates, as it had at the start-of-term banquet. Harry was just helping himself to a baked potato when Professor Quirrell came sprinting into the hall, his turban askew and terror on his face.

Everyone stared as he reached Professor Dumbledore's chair, slumped against the table, and gasped, "Troll, in the dungeons… Thought you ought to know."

He then sank to the floor in a dead faint.

The hall broke out into an uproar. It took several purple firecrackers exploding from the end of Professor Dumbledore's wand to bring silence.

"Prefects," he rumbled, "lead your Houses back to the dormitories immediately!"

Ron's brother Percy was in his element as he directed the first years to follow him up the stairs to the Common Room.

"How could a troll get in?" Harry asked as they climbed the stairs.

"Don't ask me, they're supposed to be really stupid," said Ron. "Maybe Peeves let it in for a Halloween joke."

They passed different groups of people hurrying in different directions. As they jostled their way through a crowd of confused Hufflepuffs, Harry suddenly grabbed Ron's arm.

"I've just thought, Tanya and Hermione."

"What about them?"

"They don't know about the troll."

Ron bit his lip. "Oh, all right," he agreed. "But Percy'd better not see us."

Ducking down, they joined the Hufflepuffs going the other way, slipped down a deserted side corridor, and hurried off toward the girls' bathroom. They had just turned the corner when they heard quick footsteps behind them.

"Percy!" hissed Ron, pulling Harry behind a large stone griffin.

Peering around it, however, they saw not Percy but Snape. He crossed the corridor and
disappeared from view.

"What's he doing?" Harry whispered. "Why isn't he down in the dungeons with the rest of the teachers?"

"Search me."

Quietly as possible, they crept along the next corridor after Snape's footsteps faded in the distance. Harry could feel the hairs on his neck beginning to raise as they got closer to the girls' room.

They were about to turn the corner when they heard a loud crashing sound followed by a roar and a bang before the roar was abruptly cut off. The two boys snuck up to the corner and peaked around.

"Bloody hell," Ron wheezed out as the smell caught them full force. A smell that was a horrendous as the scene they stumbled upon. The troll was dead.

It was missing its leg, a large tree trunk stuck in the floor where the missing limb sat.

It was missing its heart, a messy hole oozing blood in the center of its chest.

It was missing its head. Its head was being held in Tanya's hand, looking at its corpse, before she dropped it to the ground with a moist splatter.

Tanya was soaked in blood, her robes wet and drips falling from her hat. Even her wand, gripped in hand, was dripping blood.

A whimper caught the boys' attention, showing a cowering Hermione that Tanya was moving towards.

"The fight is over," Tanya said in a soft voice. Harry was tempted to call it soothing if not for the grisly sight behind the girls.

Footsteps suddenly came up from behind the boys and they turned to see McGonagall followed shortly by Snape.

"What on earth are you two doing here? Why aren't you in your dormitory?" McGonagall's lips were pressed tight and white while her eyes were burning fire.

Harry tried to move his mouth to answer while Ron gulped.

"Well?"

"Hello professors," Tanya said as she came around the corner, helping Hermione who looked shaken. One look at Tanya and all the color drained out of McGonagall's face and the fire in her eyes died as she rushed to check Tanya over.

"What happened? Oh dear, are you alright?"

"I'm fine. None of the blood is mine. Some creature was making a ruckus and it was a bit harder to deal with it than I initially thought."

Harry did not think Snape could get any paler, but when the professor look around the corner and saw the troll the little color he had drained out of his face.

"Ms. Degurechaff, are you saying you took out the troll?" Snape asked, still looking at the mess.

"Is that what that was?"

"Why were you out of your dormitory?" McGonagall asked.

"Ron made a comment that upset Hermione off during a … sensitive time of the month. I felt that I should keep her company and try to help her calm down. I am sorry for losing track of time, I had not realized we were in there so long that curfew came into effect."

Harry didn't know why Hermione was suddenly blushing, but the professor was nodding as if she understood and gave Hermione a sympathetic look. "You did not miss curfew, but you did miss the start of the feast and the announcement that a troll had managed to get into the castle and that all students were to go back to their dorms."

"Good. I could use a good shower," Tanya said with a smile.

"And what about you two? Why were the two of you not in your dorms?" Professor Snape asked as he looked towards Harry and Ron.

Having had a chance to calm down, Harry was able to answer, "We knew Tanya and Hermione weren't at the feast, so after the troll was announced, we went to find them and warn them."

"A bit late to do that it would seem," Snape scowled at the boys.

"Indeed. And you boys should have told a teacher or prefect about the issue and not wandered off on your own. Five points each from Gryffindor for irresponsible behavior. As for you Ms. Degurechaff, twenty points to Gryffindor for helping your housemate in a difficult time and for sheer blind luck."

Tanya cocked her head and Harry felt the hairs on the back of his neck raise.

"What luck? I was never at any risk and I ensured Hermione was at a safe distance."

"For taking out the troll with whatever, what is it?" McGonagall asked Snape as he shook his head.

"I can tell from the remains, Ms. Degurechaff was rather deliberate in her methods. Messy, but deliberate."

"I'm sorry Professor, but normally creatures die if they no longer have a heart to pump blood."

McGonagall's face grew ashen as she finally looked around the corner.

"But it would appear showing it its missing heart did the trick."

"Ms. Degurechaff, I will be letting Dumbledore know about this. For now, all of you return to your dorms. The students are finishing the feast there."

"Thank you Professor."

The wet squelching of Tanya's shoes followed them as they walked back to the Gryffindor Tower.

—-

Hermione Granger

The first two months at Hogwarts had been awful. While she got to spend plenty of time with her classmates outside of class thanks to the study groups that Tanya helped setup, Hermione was still without any friends. No one really seemed to want her around. She was trying so hard to fit in with the other girls and she could tell she was only being tolerated.

The idea of writing home asking to leave had been crossing her mind and Ron's insensitive comment just snapped something in her and Hermione had to go find a place to cry. She just wanted to be left alone and Tanya refused to do so. Hermione didn't know why Tanya stayed and talked while Hermione cried, but it was appreciated, even though Hermione tried to push her away.

Eventually, Tanya convinced Hermione it was going to be fine and they left the bathroom together, only to be confronted by a horrible smell akin to raw sewage. Around the corner came a troll, swinging its club. Tanya attempted to talk to it, but the troll just attacked.

The next thing Hermione knew, she has been pushed out of the way and Tanya was fighting the troll. Tanya was putting herself in harm's way on Hermione's behalf and all Hermione could do was freeze up. Hermione was frozen up and Tanya seemed a bit excited as she dismantled the troll piece by piece until it stopped moving. Then the fighting was over so quickly and Tanya was helping Hermione, helping like she had been trying to all day. Helping even when Hermione was trying to push her away.

Helped Hermione find a seat in the Common Room even though all eyes were on them in the packed room.

"What happened to Tanya?" Deans voice called out from the crowd.

"She killed a troll," Hermione answered.

"How'd the little firstie kill a troll?" One of the older students Hermione had not gotten to know yet asked.

"She ripped out its heart, but that only made the troll angry, but when the troll tried to hit her with its club, she pulled the club out of its hands and crushed its leg. Then she used her wand to cut off its head."

"Cutting charms do not work on trolls," Percy said. "They are magically resistant."

Hermione shook her head. "No. She didn't use a spell, she took out her wand and used it to cut off its head."

The Common Room was silent for a moment before Hermione got bombarded with questions that she did her best to answer. At some point, Harry handed a plate of food to her and told everyone that she was probably hungry and needed to eat.

Hermione gave Harry a grateful smile before digging in.

The conversation drifted for a bit after that until Tanya came down wearing clean, casual clothes and her hair wrapped in a towel, her wand and wand polishing kit with her. As soon as she was spotted, a voice called out asking how she managed to cut off the troll's head.

"Magic." Tanya moved to begin making a plate of food.

"You use that excuse all the time," Lavender yelled out. "How'd you do it?"

"Emit mana at a waveform of three hundred hertz with an amplitude of five cenna within a flattened ellipsoid with a sharpen great ellipse of less than point one two millimeters in thickness with point zero zero two being a more preferable upper bound."

The entire house was silent at that explanation. Hermione barely understood what Tanya said and could not figure out how that translated into what she did.

After a moment, Tanya looked up and saw the confused looks she was getting. "Like I said, magic."

"If you hadn't just killed a troll, I would think you should be in Ravenclaw," someone said.

"The Hat said I would fit well into any of the houses. It chose to place me here."

—-

Albus Dumbledore

Albus knew he should have gone to see to the student from the orphanage himself. While not always as bad as Tom was, they were almost always the young witches and wizards with the most unusual paths through Hogwarts. He could have gotten a look at her. Seen early on if she was going to be another Tom before something happened. She was sorted into Gryffindor, which put Albus's mind at ease. And she was friends with young Mr. Potter which filled his heart with joy that they had both found a friend.

And then she kills something in a horrifically brutal manner. Thankfully this time it was only a troll, but there might be other creatures she killed at the orphanage that Charity had missed noticing. The situation was concerning and he needed to talk to the young witch to hopefully head her off from going down a dark path.

The morning after during breakfast, Albus made a simple announcement. "The corridor on the second floor near the girl's room is closed until it is cleaned and repaired unless you wish to meet a most horrible stench."

Afterwards, McGonagall informed Ms Degurechaff to meet him in his office. Her arrival was rather swift and Albus welcomed her into his office with a kind smile. He wanted to encourage she stayed on the path of the light, not frighten her into anything drastic.

"Welcome. Lemon sherbet?" Albus offered up his bowl of sweets to her.

"No thank you, sir. I am not a fan of sour sweets." Albus nodded to himself. He knew his fondness of sour was not as widely shared as he would have liked.

"Quite alright. What sort of sweets do you prefer then?" Dumbledore motioned for Ms. Degurechaff to take a seat which she gracefully did.

"Sweet and bitter."

"Oh? Not too many kids your age enjoy bitter sweets." Indeed, it was not popular among most people Albus knew to enjoy bitter flavors.

Ms. Degurechaff smiled as she thought of something. "A good dark chocolate can be rather divine. Particularly with a good cup of coffee."

Albus gave a chuckle. The elves had been at work making coffee lately and trying to improve at it. Dumbledore had thought one of the fifth or sixth years had gotten a taste for it over the summer and were trying to seem cool for bucking the trend of enjoying a nice cuppa tea. "I'm sure. I'll keep that in mind the next time I invite you up to my office. Now, do you know why I called you here?"

Ms. Degurechaff gave a nod, a smile on her lips that Albus had seen on several politicians trying to get something out of him. "Is it about the troll, sir?"

Albus removed the smile from his face and steepled his hands as he looked at the young lady across from him. "Yes, and how you are feeling about killing it."

"I am fine sir."

That was what Dumbledore feared. No one should be so casual about killing.

"Are you sure? No regrets about it?"

Tanya shook her head and gave Dumbledore another smile. A different one he couldn't read.

"No sir. I did what was needed to protect Hermione."

There was no deception. Albus could read surface thoughts easily enough to know when someone was being honest or lying without actively digging deep into their minds and Ms. Degurechaff honestly felt no regret for protecting another. Dumbledore felt a huge relief that there was still light within her.

"Protect Hermione, but not yourself?"

Dumbledore needed to see how much light was in there and if it could be fanned to help prevent another promising student from pursuing dark aims.

"I was never at any risk, sir."

A rather fair point that she demonstrated she was fully capable of taking on a troll by herself without any harm coming to her or Ms. Granger.

"No, I suppose you were not. And if she was not there, would you regret killing the troll?"

Perhaps a hypothetical would get the answers Albus wanted.

"No sir. If a dangerous beast breaks in and is a danger to the children here, I would not regret putting the creature down. Losing any human life would be far more regrettable than losing the life of some beast that cannot properly communicate with us."

Albus smiled. No deception at all. Her wording was a little funny, but it was good to know she was following the knightly conduct Godric Gryffindor wanted out of his namesake house.

"Very well. It is good to know you are doing well. If you ever need to talk about this or any other issue, know that my office door is always open."

It was unfortunate that none of the students ever seemed to take him up on his open door policy, but Albus supposed his legend and position did make him difficult to approach over minor details that the other faculty members could take care of.

"Thank you sir."

—-

Tanya Degurechaff

The Headmaster doubling as the school counselor made a surprising amount of sense considering the small population of students and how he likely had plenty of time during regular class time to conclude what administrative duties he needed to perform. It also gave off a very caring image that he wanted to speak immediately after what would normally be a rather traumatizing event for the less capable individuals.

 

[Half_Baked_cat]

Lavender Brown

A troll breaking into the school was frightening, and a like bit exciting. Knowing that at any moment it might break through the portrait or that it might have shown up while they were going through the corridors to the Gryffindor Tower sent a shiver of excitement down Lavender's spine. That everyone made it to the house safely did not dull that excitement, even as the house continued the feast among themselves. It was after a while that Parvati asked Lavender about where Harry was.

Looking around, Lavender saw that Ron wasn't there either. Spotting Lily, Lavender asked her if she knew where they were.

"Last I saw they were sneaking off at the second floor towards the girl's room that Ron made Hermione run to when he made her cry."

"And you didn't tell the prefect they left because?" Lavender asked.

"They were sneaking, which means they were trying to be stealthy and me pointing out they were sneaking off would have ruined their stealth. Though I suppose Tanya does say we need to be learning from each other as much as possible so me pointing out they weren't doing a good job would help them be sneakier in the future and I would be teaching them a lesson on how to sneak away."

Lavender bit her lip as she looked around the Common Room. No one else seemed to have noticed they were missing yet. "Parv, should we let the prefects know," Lavender asked unsure.

Parvati fidgeted nervously. "Yeah. I think we should," she said after a moment. Before they could get to Percy though, the entrance swung open and the two boys stepped in looking a little green. Everyone turned to the entrance then and the ending of conversations let them hear the wet sounds of footsteps coming behind Harry and Ron. In came Hermione, being helped by the grisly sight of Tanya.

Lavender could see the dark brown-red splatters on Tanya's face and the same staining her shirt so completely that if Lavender didn't know she had been wearing a white shirt this morning, she might think that was the shirt color. The black color of Tanya's robes and hat hid the color, but it was still clear both were wet with something.

The thing that bothered Lavender the most about Tanya at that moment was her expression. Tanya did not seem concerned she was covered in some thick, disgusting liquid. All she did was lead Hermione to a spot on the couch that was quickly vacated before excusing herself to wash up. Harry and Ron immediately placed themselves around Hermione.

"What happened to Tanya?" Dean asked.

"She killed a troll." That answer put all attention on Hermione as she was asked a number of questions until Harry got her a plate of food and told everyone that Hermione hadn't eaten yet.

Lavender's roommate killed a troll. There was something terrifying about that. Something terrifying about the roommate she had been the least friendly with killing a troll and walking around in its blood as though it was a perfectly normal thing to do. Lavender's eyes were drawn to the splatters that formed the path Tanya took.

"She can't be fully human," Parvati said next to Lavender, forcing a bark of laughter out of Lavender.

"What do you think she is then?"

Parvati shrugged. "I don't know. I don't know if I want to know. What I do know, whatever she is, she is helping us."

A shiver went down Lavender's spine. "Yeah. You're right."

Whatever she was, Lavender wanted to be on her good side.

When Tanya did come down, wearing what Tanya called her casual clothes, a loose button-down shirt and a pair of loose pants with a bunch of pockets in a swirling pattern of colors, she immediately became the center of attention again. Before this, Tanya was mostly ignored by the older students, but killing a troll did a lot for a person's popularity.

Someone asked Tanya how she managed to cut off the troll's head.

"Magic."

The same excuse she used the first night when she moved the bed and trunks so easily. They were here to learn magic and she wasn't explaining what magic she was using.

"You use that excuse all the time," Lavender yelled out. "How'd you do it?"

It couldn't be that difficult if Tanya was doing it the first night they were here.

"Emit mana at a waveform of three hundred hertz with an amplitude of five cenna within a flattened ellipsoid with a sharpen great ellipse of less than point one two millimeters in thickness with point zero zero two being a more preferable upper bound."

Lavender was not expecting such an answer and was left speechless, along with the rest of the house. None of it made any sense to her. Magic was waving a wand and saying words and getting something to happen. It wasn't whatever Tanya just spouted out. Was it?

Lavender's head hurt trying to figure out what Tanya had said and just went back to the food and talking to Parvati about things very carefully not related to their roommate before heading up to the room for bed after the food was mostly eaten and the night was dragging on.

—-

The following morning began as it always did with some yoga, blissfully lead by Parvati, before they went down to the Great Hall for breakfast. There things went a bit different with Dumbledore announcing that the corridor Tanya killed the troll was out of bounds for now, which leads to much muttering from three of the tables. Lavender knew her house was the only ones that had the story and that the gossip vines would be filled with all sorts of versions of how Tanya killed the troll with all sorts of embellishments, and hearing the different versions should prove rather delightful.

After Dumbledore's announcement, Tanya was told to see the headmaster as soon as possible. Hermione promised to bring Tanya's school supplies along to potions.

Lavender was not sure if Potions or History of Magic was her least favorite class, but both were not particularly fun. Professor Binns sucked all the life out of the room while Professor Snape seemed to just smother the joy out of the Gryffindors. The only one that seemed to still like potions in Gryffindor seemed to be Hermione. Lavender might have been tempted to put Tanya into that camp as well if she expressed any preference for anything. The closest thing Lavender got out of Tanya was that she liked clothes with pockets.

Which, is like, fine, but pockets were not the only part of fashion that was important. Colors and cuts and styles were also important to making a cute outfit.

Not that it mattered when going to class thanks to the uniform everyone wore.

Tanya arrived to Potions last, but still before Snape began the lesson.

"Ah, Ms. Degurechaff. So good of you to join us. I trust there were no other creatures that got in your way to class."

Tanya shook her head as she took the empty seat next to Hermione. "No, sir. Actually, sir, I had a question if there is still time before class."

"I suppose I can allow it."

"When are you going to announce the sign up for the theater club?"

The few muted conversations that had been going on stopped at Tanya's question as everyone turned to look at the spectacle about to unfold.

"The theater club?" Snape asked with an odd smile.

Tanya just nodded her head. "Or whatever it would be called. You are the drama teacher, right? And I have not seen anything about drama being an elective or any sign ups for a school play, so I was wondering if I might have missed the notice or if it has simply not been announced yet."

Lavender and several of the other students couldn't help but giggle at the idea of Snape being the drama teacher. Giggles that were swiftly ended by his glare.

"There is no theater or drama club currently due to a lack of interest. If you could get enough students to agree to join, I will see what I can do about setting one up, but I must ask why someone with your destructive tendencies would want to join a drama club."

"I have not attempted acting before and thought it might be enjoyable to give it a try."

"Riiight," Snape dragged the word out before sweeping his robes around him as he strolled to his chalk board and with a wave of his wand a recipe appeared on the board. "If there is no more questions, we will begin today's lesson."

Lavender had several giggle fits during the lesson as Snape moved around the classroom and she attempted to picture him on stage doing the same moves.

—-

Tanya Degurechaff

Creating a flyer and sign up sheet for students interested in joining Professor Snape's Theater Club was a rather simple affair. I did something similar on my last life on several occasions. Just clearly lay out the details with flowery language to provoke interest and get the word out to the people who would be interested. It was typically the last part that was the most difficult, but I was in a position to utilize the rapport I had cultivated with my teammates.

Fred and George Weasley were model students in practically every manner. Serious and studious enough to maintain the grades necessary to remain on the quidditch team with no issues, yet able to make others laugh with an ease that left them highly popular among the student body. They would likely be my best choice in gaining enough sign ups to allow Professor Snape the chance to put on a performance this year.

The twins were not difficult to find, the pair of them clustered together over a parchment in the Common Room, some bit of homework undoubtedly. As I approached them, they quickly put away the assignment and turned to me.

"How may we help you?" One of the twins asked.

"Yes, what does our favorite little troll crusher need from the two of us?"

So helpful right away, another model example they provided. One of them would surely become prefect, unless the teachers thought awarding it to only one of the twins unfair to the other and politely offered it to one of the other boys in their year.

"I was hoping you would help me get sign ups for theater. I am sure I am not the only one interested, but the two of you are far more popular than me and should be able to gain the ear of a larger portion of the students than I could." A bit of flattery never hurt when asking for help. The pair puffed up their chests a bit and graciously took the fliers I had and the sign up sheets to look them over.

"Well, let's see what you have," One said as they began to read. I was rather proud of what I had come up with.

'Bright lights and standing ovations,
Those with passion and glorious purpose wanted.
Voices clear and movements grand,
Everything we do, we do for the crowds.
Join us on the stage,
Sign up for the theater club today.'

"This seems pretty good."

"Why us?"

"Quite right, why not just ask a professor or prefect to put these in the other Common Rooms?"

A clear attempt at fishing for more compliments. An easy trade to make for their cooperation. "The professors and prefects would likely just post it. You two are able to actually gather a crowd to yourselves and announce it."

"And who is the professor running your little theater club?"

What a silly question. There was only one professor appropriate for the role. "Professor Snape. He is the drama teacher after all, such a shame there was too little interest and he has only been able to teach potions."

The twins looked at each other and smiled.

"Are you thinking..?"

"I believe I am."

"Shall we?"

"It would cut into our time."

"But the possibilities this opens up."

"It is rather tempting."

"I think we should."

"We shall."

The twins pulled out quills to sign on the sign up sheet just below my name already on it. So nice to see them willing to set aside time from their busy schedule to help a favored teacher.

They then put their arms around me.

"Little Troll Crusher, I think this is going to be the beginning of a beautiful friendship."

"Indeed, my dear brother. You were already our favorite little firstie."

"Don't tell Harry. He is going to be an excellent seeker."

"But he is a bit on the boring side."

"However, feel free to tell Ron."

"He's our brother and it is our duty to mess with him."

"Just so. Now, how about you tell us more about what you expect this theater club to be like."

Being on friendly terms with the popular students was an excellent result that would help make my time at Hogwarts smoother. Very similar to getting cozy with a senior coworker in my first life or the brass in my second. I did not need to be a popular kid so long as people associate me with the popular kids.

—-

Lavender Brown

Getting ready for bed had a bit of a routine to it, just as getting up in the mornings did. Lavender and Parvati would take showers at the same time, gossiping or generally chatting freely. Lavender had gotten her parents to send scented soaps, so she no longer needed to borrow Parvati's. After the shower and drying off, the two would brush their teeth in order to avoid Hermione's lecture on the importance of proper dental care.

Tonight, the routine was interrupted by Tanya speaking up from her bed.

"Would any of you be interested in joining me in the theater club?"

Lavender bit her lip. It sounded like fun, but it was Tanya who was asking for a club headed by Professor Snape. Spending more time with Professor Snape outside of class was not high on Lavender's list of things she wanted to do and she just did not like Tanya.

If she thought about it though, Tanya was currently popular. Being on her side meant that Lavender could steal some of that popularity for herself. Getting on stage in front of the entire school had a thrill to it. There was just one thing Lavender had to know.

"Why do you want to be in theater?" Tanya was so private about everything and rarely spent much time with others outside of the group study or when she went down to quidditch practice. She did not seem like the type that would want a lot of attention on her, but here she was wanting to be a part of what should be the most social activity in the school.

"I never tried it." Tanya seemed to be looking on the distance as she answered. "I never tried acting before and I want to get away from what I have done. To actually get away from the fighting."

Lavender's grandfather was involved in the Global Wizarding War, having fought in the conflict. The way he talked about the fighting and what he did afterwards was very similar to how Tanya was talking about… her past? Lavender was missing something, but Tanya seemed to have had a violent past. How? They were all eleven and thanks to Harry everything had been peaceful.

"I'll join," Hermione volunteered, not sounding too sure about herself.

The two least social people were joining the most social club?

"I will too," Parvati said, giving Lavender a nervous look. "If nothing else, the costuming will be fun."

"Yeah, I'll look as well," Lavender decided. "You'll need a leading lady after all." A flip of the hair along with a confident smile helped hide the nervousness Lavender was feeling.

The only one who hadn't agreed yet was Lily. Lavender turned to look at the grinning loon along with the other girls.

"What about you Lily?" Hermione asked.

"I can't agree now," Lily said with a shrug. "I already put my name on the sign up sheet next to Fred's to help Tanya because she seemed to really want to do this and she has been so helpful that the least I could do was help her in return. Which means I already agreed to join when it gets started so I would have to unagree first in order to reagree now and if I unagreed that would make Tanya sad even though I was only doing it to agree at the same time everyone else was agreeing to help her."

"Thank you Lily," Tanya said. "Thank you everyone. Hopefully it will be a good experience."

Lavender nodded her head in agreement. Hopefully it would be a good experience.

—-

Minerva McGonagall

Being handed a stack of papers by the Weasley twins that did not involve an assignment she had assigned them caused Professor McGonagall to raise an eyebrow with suspicion.

"And what is this you are giving me?" She asked the pair, looking over her glasses at the two boys.

"Sign up sheets," One said.

"For Snape's Theater Club."

"One of the firsties asked us to help her get it going."

"So we found a bunch of students interested and got them to sign up."

"We even double checked to make sure we had more than enough students interested for such a club before taking the sign up sheets to you."

"As the Deputy Headmistress, you are the one with the most say in which clubs can get started."

"Other than Dumbledore of course, but as our Head of House, we could get a hold of you much easier."

"Certainly easier than finding Snape."

"So, how about you go ahead and approve that and we'll let the little firstie know her club is started."

"And which first year did you day asked you for help?" McGonagall continued to look at the pair suspiciously.

"Tanya."

"Just came up to us with the forms drawn up."

"Even had her name right at the top."

McGonagall carefully looked through the papers before nodding. "Everything appears to be in order. I will let Professor Snape know his club can begin its meetings. Now you two, go run along. And do stay out of trouble, please."

""Us? Trouble? Never,"" both twins said at the same time before heading off. As they walked away, behind their backs, McGonagall allowed a smile to appear. She then moved swiftly through the corridors of the castle down to the dungeons where she found Snape working on a potion.

"I hope I am not interrupting anything," she said as she watched him work.

"Of course not," Snape drawled out as he adjusted the flame and wrote down some notes. "What can I do for you?"

"Nothing Severus. I was just stopping by to let you know that your theater club has been approved and to hand you the list of interested students."

"Did our little troll slayer go behind my back and tell you?"

"Oh no. It was the Weasley twins who informed me of this. I must say, I was not expecting you to want to start up a Theater Club."

Snape scowled. "I didn't. But she surprised me by saying I was the drama teacher."

McGonagall laughed a little. "Oh my. Is that what she thinks of you?"

"Oh very funny. Laugh it up." Snape rolled his eyes.

"I suppose she is not wrong, Severus. Although I do not think any other student would see it as dramatic. Moody, maybe." McGonagall set the papers on Snape's desk. "I do look forward to the performance."

 

[Half_Baked_cat]

Tanya Degurechaff

Professor Snape swiftly arranged the first meeting of the theater club in an otherwise unused classroom in the basement, not far from the Potion's Classroom where the Weasley Twins helped him give a wonderfully dramatic welcoming speech about bewitching the mind, perfecting mimicry, melting cold hearts, and how we would, for a brief moment, turn fantasy into reality. Snape must have seen the natural talent the two had for the stage and when he saw they had signed up he tapped them for help making this club a success.

After the welcome speech, Snape told us it would be our responsibility, with his approval of course, to select a production we would like to put on in front of the rest of the school. A few of the other students had suggestions for plays or musicals they would like to do. I was asked for my opinion and I had to admit that I did not have much knowledge about any of this and had no preference.

Everyone seems to be confused about why I want to be in the Theater Club if I did not already have a love of stage productions. I have to tell them only part of the truth because the full truth includes some elements even the magi of this world would likely find fantastic. It is true that I had never gone into acting and that I thought doing so within this school setting would be an enjoyable way to spend my time.

The full truth was that I am old. Really old. Physically, I may be eleven, but spiritually I have lived over a hundred years of life. I made it to a point in my life that I was able to look back on my history and I realized that I had focused too much on financial stability that I was not able to enjoy life while my body was able to. The thrill rides at amusement parks would be too risky for my old heart, most games were the realm of the youth, and I allowed the chance of a life partner slip me by. I let myself grow old before I allowed myself to enjoy life and I did not want to repeat that mistake.

As I was nearing the end of my life, a popular film genre was of high school aged children engaging in drama and theater classes and clubs. I would not normally have watched such films, my preference having always been for historical and military pieces instead, but one was on the television during a stay in the hospital. The energy and joy the actors were showing during the performance on the screen felt so real, so visceral that I cried realizing I had chosen to write such frivolousness off as unproductive. That I had skipped out on having fun just for the sake of having fun.

I am far too embarrassed to ever acknowledge, even to myself, how many times I watched those movies in my final days before I slipped the mortal coil of that life and entered into this life.

—-

After that first meeting, I remembered I had not discussed with Ron his behavior towards his fellow Gryffindor. Pulling him aside for the discussion was a rather simple affair, using the words that always seem to make men nervous.

"Ron, we need to have a talk."

Harry vacated Ron's side swiftly at that and Ron himself looked nervous. Good. His behavior was inexcusable.

"What about?" His voice wavered as he looked around the Common Room and unable to see whatever it was he was looking for.

"Your behavior. You said several things that hurt Hermione's feelings severely and nearly got her killed."

"I didn-"

"I know. You had no way to know she was being put into danger and that is exactly the problem. All of our actions have consequences and if I wasn't there, she very well could be dead now."

"I'm sorry."

I gave a less than kind huff. "I am not the one who nearly died. You will beg Hermione for her forgiveness after I am done with you. What I want to know is what were you thinking? Why would you say something like that, especially in a public place where anyone could hear you?"

Ron started to look down.

"Eyes on me," I reflectively ordered. Decades later and when I am dressing someone down I still expect them to maintain eye contact. It is basic respect.

Ron looked back at me and flinched. "I was upset. She is such a bossy know it all and I was just talking."

"You were upset? You often get upset?"

"Uh, well."

"Do you often get upset?" The desire to call Ron a soldier was stamped down ruthlessly as I gave Ron no room to wiggle out of answering me.

"Yes! Sometimes maybe." Ron took a step back as he answered me.

I took a step towards him and looked him directly in the face. "You are going to apologize to Ms. Granger. You will then be joining me regularly for lessons on controlling your emotions. Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes," Ron squeaked, his eyes wide open.

"Then go!" I watched as Ron hurried off to apologize before grabbing my bag to see if the library had any copies of the plays mentioned at the Theater Club to develop an opinion on the options.

—-

November began the quidditch season properly with the first game being Gryffindor versus Slytherin. When it came to the matter of sports, this was evidently the primary rivalry in the school. To a degree, there was rivalry between all the houses in order to extract the best performance out of the students, but the rivalry between Slytherin and Gryffindor was the fiercest on the quidditch pitch.

The morning of the match promised to be a chilly affair with the windows frosted around the edges. The atmosphere around the Great Hall seemed particularly energetic as the student body waited in anticipation for the match. Harry, however, seemed to be rather nervous, refusing to eat and claiming he was not hungry.

Not wanting my teammate suffering from a lack of energy on the field, I took it upon myself to ensure he ate by preparing him a plate of toast and the less greasy looking sections of eggs and set the plate in front of him. The fatty meats of the sausages would only further upset his stomach if the nerves were getting to him, but he needed energy.

"Eat this. I don't want to see you flying on an empty stomach. Have some pumpkin juice as well."

Looking him in the eyes, I could see Harry made the decision to follow my instructions with no further complaints.

"And relax, I will be there to ensure nothing too bad happens to you."

After breakfast, the team met in the locker room and put on the team uniforms, a surprisingly warm robe in red with our names on the back. Well, they would have had our names on them, if someone had not decided to put nicknames on them instead. Beat the nicknames and call signs I had in my last life, so I was not going to complain.

—-

Lee Jordan

"Hello Hogwarts! Welcome to the first game of the year between Slytherin and Gryffindor. It should be a spectacular game today. And here comes the teams. Slithering out in green we have Captain Flint playing chaser along with Pucey and Montague followed by keeper Bletchley. After him we have beaters Bole and Derrick and dragging in the rear is the seeker Higgs.

"And coming out on the other side in scarlet, we have Captain Wood playing keeper followed by the bevy of beautiful babes-"

"Jordan!"

"Sorry Professor. Following Wood is the chasers; Johnson, Spinnet, and Bell. Then we have the troublesome twins, Fred and George Weasleys as beaters. Following them is the boy-who-lived, Potter, as Seeker. And bringing up the read we have the reserve member, Troll Crusher!"

"Jordan!"

"What? It is what her uniform says."

"It does no- whoever did this has lost their house 20 points."

"You hear that audience, best make sure no one finds out who changed the Gryffindor's reserve member's uniform to say Troll Crusher, even if she was the one to crush that troll last week."

"Jordan."

"Sorry Professor. Just adding some light commentary as the players get in position. And Madam Hooch has released the balls. The game has begun and Johnson has taken control of the quaffle first. Pass to Bell, back to Johnson, over to Spinnet, and oh it has been stolen by Flint who is rocketing back, flying like an eagle. He is going to sc- excellent save by Wood who sends the quaffle to Johnson. Pass to Bell who dives around Flint. Heading down field and - ouch. Bludger to the back of the head and Bell is down. Troll Crusher-"

"Jordan, her name is Degurechaff."

"That is not what her uniform says."

"Regardless of what her uniform says, you will call her by her name and not some silly nickname."

"Yes Professor. Back to the action Slytherin had control of the ball, but it is back in Johnson's control. Clear field ahead of her as she heads down field flanked by her fellow chasers. In comes a bludger and it… is kicked… by Degurechaff? Well, I think we can see how she was able to beat the troll."

"Jordan…"

"Sorry Professor. Anyways, Johnson shoots. Bletchley dives. Misses! Gryffindor Scores! First point of season! Pucey gains control of the quaffle and is traveling down field, but here comes Degurechaff! A rolling steal out from under Pucey's arm. Nicely done! And we have a double bludger strike at Degurechaff. A flip to avoid the first. And slaps the second one to the ground. Remind me to never get on her bad side.

"Pass to Spinnet. Over to Johnson. Johnson shoots! Gryffindor Scores! Kick by Degurechaff! Double point Gryffindor! Flint takes control of the quaffle, but it is not looking good for the snakes, already down three goals. Flint passes to Pucey. Pucey dodges two bludgers from the Weasley Twins and is speeding towards- was that the snitch? Yes! And the seekers are off. Potter in the lead. Watch it folks, the game might be- oh! And Hooch has called a foul on Flint for purposely moving to block a seeker chasing a snitch.

"After that obvious and disgusting bit of cheating-"

"Jordan!"

"I mean after that open and revolting foul-"

"Jordan, I'm warning you."

"All right, all right. Flint nearly kills the Gryffindor Seeker, which could happen to anyone, I'm sure, so a penalty to Gryffindor, taken by Spinnet, who puts it away, no trouble, and we continue play, Gryffindor still in possession. Wood motions for Spinnet and the now recovered Bell to switch places. Johnson drop passes the quaffle to Degurechaff who hands off to Bell. Looks like the snakes saw this coming and have placed Bell in a pincher maneuver. Montague takes the quaffle and eats a bludger to the face for his troubles. Hope that broke his nose. Kidding Professor. And Slytherin scores. Oh no.

"Forty to ten, Gryffindor's favor. And Bell- wait. Something is going on with the Gryffindor Seeker. It looks as though his broom is out of control. And the players have noticed. Degurechaff coming in hot, and pulls Potter off his broom. Flint is telling something at Hooch as Degurechaff sets Harry onto the ground, Spinnet joining the rise into the air. Degurechaff has switched to seeker position as she goes to searching altitude.

"Johnson has the quaffle. Toss to Spinnet who moves into scoring range. Higgs has begun a chase with Degurechaff hot on his heels. I can see the snitch. Degurechaff takes the lead. Flint takes a shot at the goal, blocked by Wood. Degurechaff catches the snitch! Gryffindor Wins! One ninety to ten! And absolute smashing success.

"Looks like Flint is arguing with Hooch. Hooch has announced the official results. Gryffindor Wins! Fair and square! Woo!"

—-

Albus Dumbledore

Dumbledore had watched a large number of quidditch matches over his many years at all levels of play. In all that time, he has never seen, to use a Muggle phrase, a person tank a bludger as well as Degurechaff managed to. To kick a bludger into going the opposite direction required an intense amount of force.

Flints accusations of possible cheating had to be investigated to uncover if any out of match potions were being used or other underhanded tactics. Meeting with Hooch on the field, Dumbledore looked down at the small girl. So tiny, yet something about the way she was looking around at those around her gave Dumbledore the impression that she was only physically the smallest person there.

"Ms. Degurechaff, would you mind explaining how you managed to kick that bludger?" Dumbledore asked as kindly as he could. Tanya turned to look at him and gave a nod.

"Strengthening and reinforcement spells."

"See, she cheated!" Flint yelled. "You can't cast spells like that during a game!"

"Wanded spells are prohibited as are equipment charmed in a manner that gives an unfair advantage. I did neither."

Dumbledore believed her. The confidence that she did nothing wrong and her surface thoughts showing she believed what she said fully was enough.

And yet… "If not equipment or a wanded spell, are you saying that you performed wandless magic then," Dumbledore asked.

"I suppose one could say that, but to do so implies I was using a proper spell which provides a specific effect on the target. What I was doing was more of a constantly in flux event where I am infusing my muscles and bones with mana in a manner meant to protect said structures from damage which has the secondary effect of increasing the safe level of expressed strength I am capable of providing."

Dumbledore smiled at the explanation. It has been so long since he was able to talk about advanced spell work in such a manner with someone.

"Mana is not a term often used in describing magical effects," Dumbledore commented.

"I am sorry sir, but it was the only term I had available for the magical energy that produces spell effects."

"Oh it is quite alright. I understood what you meant. Though I am curious how one would go about recreating such an effect."

"Is the results of the match getting over turned or what?" Flint asked. Dumbledore looked around and realized most that only he, Snape, and McGonagall had been able to follow what Degurechaff had said well enough to know the results of the match for sure.

"Oh no. What Ms. Degurechaff did was not against the rules of quidditch, though it is a rather advanced technique. Five points to Gryffindor, Ms. Degurechaff. Most impressive. We should setup a time to discuss this more, perhaps over some tea? I'll be sure the elves have some coffee prepared for you."

"Thank you sir. I think I would enjoy that."

"Excellent. Now if you all don't mind me, I do believe I have a few forms on my desk needing my eyes on them."

—-

Tanya Degurechaff

The victory from the first game was well celebrated in the Common Room that evening. After a few hours for my house mates to get the joy out of their systems, I was able to locate Ron and begin his lessons on emotional control. Moving to a somewhat quieter area of the Common Room, I had him join me in sitting down on the floor.

"Hands in knees. And close your eyes."

"Why am-"

"Silence. You will do as I say. Now close your eyes. Deep breath in. Deep breath out. In, two, three, four. Out, two, three, four. In, two, three, four. Out, two, three, four. Good. Now clear your mind. Focus only on your breathing. In, two, three, four. Out, two, three, four. The first step in controlling your emotions is being able to identify them. In, two, three, four. Out, two, three, four. To identify your emotions, you must…"

Ron fell over, his breathing deep and even. Tanya have the sleeping boy a glare.

"We will need to work on that."

 

[Half_Baked_cat]

Harry Potter

Losing control of his broom was a rather troublesome situation for Harry. The way it bucked and bounced under him, attempting to knock him off while Harry slowly went higher and higher into the air until Tanya pulled him off and brought him safely down to the ground before taking to skies again as the seeker. After the match, he had retrieved his broom from where it had landed just outside the stadium. He could not see anything wrong with it, the condition of the broom was exactly the same visually as before the match when it was working fine.

As he was looking his broom over, Tanya joined him with her own broom. They quietly looked the two brooms over before Tanya shook her head.

"They look the same," she said, standing up. "We should go ask Professor McGonagall to send these back to the manufacturer. Something is wrong with your broom and mine is likely from the same batch."

Harry did not want to hear that and groaned his disappointment loudly.

"I'm not happy about it either, but some silly game is not worth you getting seriously injured."

"I know," Harry grumbled as he grabbed his broom and stood to join her in looking for their Head of House.

As they wandered the halls looking for the Professor, Malfoy happened upon them.

"Being escorted by your girlfriend, Potter?"

"Are you finally giving up on me?" Tanya asked in a far too innocent voice for Harry's liking.

"I was never interested in you."

Tanya placed a hand over her heart and staggered. "You wound me."

"What are you doing?" Malfoy asked with a roll of his eyes.

Tanya stood upright again and returned to her neutral expression. "Acting. You know, the thing we are learning to do in theater?"

"Whatever. Where are you going with those brooms?"

"Taking then to McGonagall. There is something wrong with Harry's and mine is likely to have the same defect if it is a manufacturing issue."

"You don't know how to check yourselves?"

Harry shook his head. "Everything looks the same as when I got it."

"Then it is probably the rider," Malfoy suggested with a smirk.

"At least I am good enough on the broom that I didn't need correction about my hand position by Madam Hooch."

"At least my parents are around to have taught me to fly a broom-" Harry felt the hairs on his body raise and his pupils dilate.

"Malfoy," Tanya's tone was ice cold and sent a shiver down Harry's spine. "You do know that both of us are orphans, correct?"

Harry could see a hint of fear appear on Malfoy's face. Harry could not see Tanya's face and was not confident he wanted to turn to look.

"Y-yeah. What about it?" Malfoy tried to hide his nerves with bravado, but Harry could see the cracks.

"Then you are aware that you are close to speaking ill of the dead, correct? I would advise you choose your next words very carefully."

Harry saw Malfoy struggle to gather his confidence until Crabbe and Goyle stepped out of the bathroom and took up their positions on either side of him.

"Whatever," Malfoy scoffed and turned to walk away. "If your parents weren't good enough to live, then good riddance."

"Your father will hear of this."

Harry could practically see the hallway frosting over with Tanya's declaration. Malfoy's confused expression might have given Harry some joy if not for Tanya's reaction to Malfoy's words.

Following closely behind Tanya, Harry did his best to not let the panic scratching at the back of his mind take over. His friend might be scary at times, but she was still his friend. He thought he knew her well enough to know that she would not do anything overly reckless. Though what constituted as reckless to Tanya was a question Harry could not answer, but he was sure she would be fine.

It took them a while longer to find McGonagall. She was talking with the Weasley Twins and looking annoyed about something while the twins were grinning.

"Hey Troll Crusher," one of the twins called out.

"We will continue this later," McGonagall said before turning to Harry and Tanya. "Anything I can help you with?"

"Yes," Tanya said, offering her broom to the Professor. "The malfunction of Harry's broom during the recent match is rather concerning. We cannot find any issues with the broom that would explain it."

"So you are both giving up your brooms?" a twin asked.

"No. We just need to have them looked over by a professional," Tanya answered before turning to the Professor. "Would you please send these back to be checked for defects?"

"Of course. I'll get that taken care of right away."

"Well, good thing we don't have another game until after the holidays," one of the twins said.

"Though it would be nice to play a pickup during the hols," the other twin said.

"I would much rather not fly in the cold," Tanya said, waving off suggestion. "Keeping up a climate control formulae suite in flight for the purpose of a game does not appeal to me and I would rather not play in the snow without such."

Harry could guess that Tanya was talking about some sort of heating charm. Hermione had learned to create a blue flame that was able to keep them warm, but what Tanya was describing sounded better.

"Anyways, I have a letter to write," Tanya said before giving a small bow to the Twins and McGonagall. "Speaking of, would you mind if I borrowed your owl to deliver it?"

"Not at all," Harry said with a grin. "I'm sure Hedwig would love the chance to stretch her wings."

"Thank you," Tanya said as they headed back to the Gryffindor Common Room.

—-

Letter

Dear Mr. Malfoy,

While I regret that my initial contact with your person must be on such unpleasant business, I am afraid that it falls upon myself to inform you of news that your son, Draco Malfoy, has been acting in such a manner as to bring upon himself and your house a most ill reputation through his discourteous actions and words. It would be a disservice to your family if you were left unaware of the events in question to correct these grievances and guide your child properly into a productive member of society.

While his early discourtesy, mostly taking the form of repeated attempts to engage his Gryffindor classmates in a childish fracas, was the sort of minor boyhood nonsense which might be expected from a young man of high standing, whenever these attempts were rebuffed through gentle teasing, Young Malfoy has attempted to call upon your specter as protection, rather than stand upon his own merits in the face of a conflict he himself began. Indeed, his cries of "When my father hears of this" have become a rather predictable rejoinder that leaves Young Draco seemingly having few convictions and limited abilities of his own and a desire to ride the coattails of those who came before him.

It is however his most recent insult given to a pair of orphaned individuals within his year that moves my hand. His precise wording was, "If your parents weren't good enough to live, then good riddance."

I believe that explaining precisely how such words would, in a more barbaric time, have resulted in an honor duel that would see your offspring left bereft of his life is unnecessary. This insult is made all the worse for the parents of one of the orphaned individuals died an honorable, soldier's death protecting their child and taking their murderer with them into death's embrace. To disrespect the dead shows contempt for the dead. To show disrespect to those who died fighting is to show contempt for every service person who puts their life on the line every day to keep society going and civilians safe.

I choose not to believe that this behavior is the result of your parental guidance as it is clear that Young Malfoy respects you as his father greatly. Instead it is likely that his first time out from under your guidance has left the child adrift in an unfamiliar location and his actions are the results of an uncertain boy exploring a new situation and erring.

I am not one to offer advice on how one should rear their child and will instead leave you with the hope that such behaviors can be corrected for and that Young Draco Malfoy may yet grow to be a responsible member of society.

Sincerely,
Tanya Degurechaff

—-

Hermione Granger

Hermione watched as Harry and Tanya looked over their brooms before deciding to take them to Professor McGonagall. A small smile crossed Hermione's lips as they made that responsible decision. Hermione suspected that some form of foul play was at foot with Harry losing control of his broom. After Hagrid pointed out Harry's erratic movement, Hermione had attempted to borrow his binoculars and scan the crowd, but, by the time she had found Snape, Tanya had begun helping Harry to the ground. The smile Snape had concerned Hermione, but she had no evidence that he had done anything wrong.

Having some free time to herself, Hermione decided to go to the library. Tanya seemed to have an advanced understanding of magical theory that allowed her to pull off feats that they should not be able to accomplish as first years. One of the books in the library must have the information that Tanya is using, but nothing Hermione had read have been useful for understanding what Tanya meant when she described the spells she used that were not a part of the curriculum.

After another fruitless research binge, Hermione returned to the Common Room with a rough plan of curling up in a warm corner with 'Hogwarts: A History' for some light reading when she saw Tanya writing something down while Harry Harry gave his beautiful snowy owl some attention. Going over to the two, Hermione sat down and gave Hedwig some scratches under the neck. Hedwig leaned into the attention and gave a soft whistle while closing her eyes.

"What are you working on?" Hermione asked Tanya.

"A letter," Tanya answered before scribbling her signature at the bottom of the page and folding in a rather intricate manner into being its own letter. "Do I need to put an address or anything on this?" Tanya asked Hedwig.

Hedwig gave a huff and turned her head as if insulted that such a thing was necessary for her.

"I am sorry. I did not mean to insult your capabilities. This is just the first time I have sent a letter by owl and I do not know the correct norms I need to follow."

Hedwig looked at Tanya and gave a nod, appearing to accept the apology before sticking her leg out to allow the letter to be tied on. Once the letter was secured, Hedwig was off in the air, heading towards its destination.

Tanya got up and stretched before heading towards the Common Room entrance.

"Where are you going?" Hermione asked, starting to follow.

"Hm? Oh, it is nearly tea time," Tanya answered. "The headmaster invited me to join him. I don't think he would mind if you were to join as well."

"Are you sure?" Hermione didn't think that sounded right. Dumbledore was a busy man and his time was valuable. It seemed wrong to interrupt it for some tea.

"Yes. I do not think he gets as many student visitors as he would prefer."

Harry began to get up as well. "Hey Ron!" He called out. Ron looked up from the chess set he was sitting at as he played against himself. "Want to join us for some tea?"

Ron gave a shrug and quickly put the pieces away. "Sure."

With the decision made, Ron, Harry, and Hermione followed Tanya till she came to a stop in front of an old gargoyle statue.

"Dumbledore is expecting me for tea," Tanya told the statue. Ron and Harry shared a look as nothing happened for a moment until the gargoyle began moving to reveal a staircase they took up to the headmaster's office where Tanya gave a firm knock.

"Come in," Dumbledore called out. "Oh, you brought your friends as well."

Dumbledore's smile was kind and his eyes were twinkling as he sat at his desk, a beautiful tea set in place with a selection of finger sandwiches to the side.

"Let me conjure up a few extra seats for you." With a swish of his wand several lovely, but mismatched, chairs came into being around the desk. Each had thick cushions and were very comfortable to sit in. "So nice to have some students join me for tea for a change. Don't tell Fawkes, but he can be a rather dull conversationalist at times," Dumbledore leaned in and whispered conspiratorially as he indicated a magnificent red bird behind him.

"Fawkes is a beautiful bird. What kind is he?" Tanya asked, taking her seat as the others followed her lead.

"A phoenix. Rather amazing birds they are. My family has a long history and affinity towards them." Dumbledore seemed to beam with joy as he talked about his bird. "Now, you like your coffee black if I recall correctly."

"Yes sir," Tanya nodded as Dumbledore poured the dark brew into a mug rather than the more dainty tea cups that were set in front of everyone else.

"And how about you? How do you like your tea?" Dumbledore switched to picking up a different pot of the brown and true.

"Milk and sugar, please, sir," Ron answered first, in awe of being served tea by the headmaster.

"Just cream, sir," Hermione answered, trying to take a page out of Tanya's book and treating this more casually than she really felt the situation warranted. They were having tea with Dumbledore, the most powerful and important wizard currently alive.

"Cream and sugar, please," Harry said with a smile as he was served.

After serving the children, Dumbledore added a couple heaping spoonfuls of sugar before twisting some lemon into his own cup. "How is the coffee?"

"It has been getting better. I do like the darker roasts, but it seems to be overly bitter still. I think the temperature of the water might be too high?"

"How so?" Dumbledore asked, picking up a cucumber sandwich and motioning for the children to help themselves.

"Something I sort of remember. I enjoy a good cup of coffee, but I never got into the craft of brewing it myself. I think I remember that for darker roasts a lower temperature is needed to brew out only the good flavors and to avoid too many of the bitter flavors." Tanya took a long sip from her mug. "I am impressed by the speed at which whoever is brewing the coffee has improved though."

"I believe it is Beeny. I'll be sure to pass along your compliment. She will be most pleased with the compliment. And how about you? How are the rest of you settling in to Hogwarts?"

"It's been brilliant, sir," Harry answered with a large honest grin. "I love it here." Dumbledore's smile became soft at that answer and the sparkle in his eyes almost seemed misty.

"Yeah," Ron nodded his head. "The food's great."

Hermione arched an eyebrow in Ron's direction before shaking her head. "I have been doing well, sir," Hermione answered. "The classes are great and I am learning so much."

"That is so good to hear," Dumbledore said. "While I have you here, do any of you have anything you want to ask me?"

Hermione bit her lip before nodding to herself.

"No, but I believe you wanted to discuss something with me," Tanya said before Hermione could ask her question.

"Ah yes. You mentioned that you infused yourself with mana during your quidditch match to protect yourself."

"What's mana?" Ron asked, his mouth occupied with a sandwich. Hermione gave Ron a glare while Dumbledore slid a napkin in front of the boy.

"Mana is magical energy. It is what actually produces the magical effects we call spells," Tanya answered in her tutoring voice.

"Isn't it our wands that produce spells?" Ron asked.

"No. The wand is a focus for magic. And we are the source of the magic that comes from the wand," Dumbledore answered.

"If you want to feel your mana, take it your wand and try to produce sparks without an incantation or wand movements," Tanya said as she took her wand out of the holster she kept on her side and demonstrated with a small spray of sparks coming out of the end of her wand. "There should be a clenching feeling. The more you try to force the effect without the aid of incantations or wand movements, the stronger the feeling should be."

Hermione took her wand out and tried to do as instructed along with Harry and Ron. Hermione managed to do as instructed by thinking back to her trip to Olivander's. She felt the clenching feeling. It was very slight and Hermione couldn't describe where it was, but it was there.

"Could you feel it?" Tanya asked. After getting nods all around, Tanya put away her wand. "That is you using your mana. If you focus carefully on that feeling, and have a firm image of what you want to happen…" Tanya trailed off as she held out her hand and a ball of light formed in the palm of her hand. "You can perform magic without a wand."

Dumbledore clapped, a large grin on his face. "Most impressive. You have not only performed wandless magic, but explained how to do it in a manner appropriate for lower year students. Most adults can't perform wandless spells and some of us who can have found the effort of learning not worthwhile."

"Thank you Headmaster." Tanya gave Dumbledore a small smile before turning back to her fellow students, the ball of light dispersing. "The Headmaster's point about the effort potentially not being worth the effort is correct. Particularly for increasingly complex spells. Keeping all the relevant information properly aligned in your head along with directing the mana and keeping an eye on your environment is difficult. Additionally, with the wand, incantation, and wand movements, by taking some of the effort off yourself and putting it into a focus and ritualistic casting you are capable of producing stronger spells than you could without."

"So, wandless casting is impressive, but not always useful?" Harry asked, getting nods from both Tanya and Dumbledore.

"You're bloody brilliant, Tanya," Ron said, looking at her with a grin on his face.

"Thank you."

"Is this related to how you killed the troll?" Hermione asked.

"In a way," Tanya said taking out her wand. "As I mentioned that night, I created a mage blade by emitting mana," Tanya's wand began to glow, "with a waveform of a particular frequency, strength, and shape." The glow began to take on a defined shape similar to a flattened teardrop. "What I described that night would produce this. A good shape for sure, but with practice it is possible to make the blade significantly sharper and more in line with a modern knife design." As she spoke, the magic teardrop morphed into a shape that looked familiar to Hermione. It looked a lot like the knife from the Crocodile Dundee movie Hermione watched with her parents a couple of Christmases ago.

"Interesting." Dumbledore leaned in to look closer at the blade. "Most interesting. I am quite impressed Ms. Degurechaff. Your methods are not the way we teach silent casting or how we would go about teaching wandless casting, but they do appear rather effective."

Dumbledore began stroking his beard. "Most interesting indeed. And you have been helping your fellow students with a study group?"

"Yes sir," Tanya said.

"If you keep up the good work, I hope you will help next year's batch of first years. I believe this school is made all the greater thanks to you."

"Thank you Headmaster."

—-

Albus Dumbledore

'A most interesting young lady indeed,' Dumbledore thought to himself as they finished up their little tea party and he invited the four students to come by any time. The young Tanya Degurechaff was proving to be a most interesting student. A rather concerning development considering certain suspicions Albus had about Tom Riddle's demise. So far though, the young lady seemed to be genuinely a kind, helpful young lady with an incredibly bright mind. A kind, helpful young lady and not in the ways Tom pretended to be helpful when it served his purposes. No, Tanya has gone out of her way to help her fellow Gryffindors in a proactive manner.

There was no time now, but perhaps over the coming winter break he could stop by Tanya's orphanage and ask a few questions.

 

[Half_Baked_cat]

Letter

Dear Tanya Degurechaff,

I thank you for your letter informing me of the errors my child has made, though it has left me with a few questions as well.

First and foremost among these questions being who you are. As Chairman of the Hogwarts Board of Governors I am kept informed of changes in staffing and general operations of the school and have not heard of you becoming a member of the faculty at Hogwarts. There is however one Tanya Degurechaff listed among the student roster in the same year as my son. Indeed my son has even made some complaints against this person in my letters, but it would appear my advice to him on the matter has been ignored in a rather unfortunate manner.

I would request from you what your relation to the student Tanya Degurechaff is. In the mean time, rest assured I will be writing to my son about how his actions are perceived and how to more carefully pick his words and will be having a firm conversation with him when he comes home over the winter break.

I await your response,
Lucius Malfoy

—-

Dear Lucius Malfoy,

I apologize for the confusion caused. It was not my intent to portray myself falsely as a member of the faculty, but to simply prevent my involvement in the situation from unduly coloring your opinion and methods of raising your son.

I am the student Tanya Degurechaff and it was myself along with Harry Potter that had our parents insulted by Draco.

My personal feelings about my parents are nonexistent due to having been left at an orphanage at an incredibly young age with no information on who they were or why I was not left in the care of a family member. The unknown status of my parents aside, Mr. Potter's parents are not people that should be casually insulted in such a manner. I understand there is some belief Mr. Potter defeated the leader of the terrorist organization known as the Death Eaters that caused instability within magical society in the 70s, but it is clear to me that saying a baby killed a prolific murderer and terrorist is a ridiculous claim and that it was clearly his parents that sacrificed themselves to take out the one known as Vol de Morte.

Mr. Potter's parents died ending a reign of fear and terror, fighting so that their child could grow up in a safer, more stable time. To besmirch their name is to spit upon the prosperity and safety of our time.

I apologize if I may have come across poorly in your son's letters. At our first interaction he gave insult to the house I was sorted into. As a response, I chose to 1) pretend that he was interested in pursuing a romantic relation with the cute blonde girl in Gryffindor ie myself and 2) rebuff these fanciful attempts at wooing myself by pointing out that I had no interest in dating him. I do not want you to feel that my lack of interest in your son is a slight against your person or your son's, I do not have interest in pursuing a romantic relationship with anyone at this time.

I am willing to allow Young Draco's youthful transgressions to slide by this time.

Sincerely,
Tanya Degurechaff

—-

Lily Moon

Theater Club was so much fun. They practiced fake emotions and how to pretend to be people other than themselves and how to whisper theatrically which meant talking loudly in a way that pretended to be quiet. And Snape seemed like less of grumpy grumperston during the club meetings and more like a mild confused instructor barely staying a lesson ahead of the class. Lily liked mildly confused instructor barely staying ahead of the class Snape over grump grumperston Snape because mildly confused instructor barely staying a lesson ahead Snape wasn't as mean with his comments and actually a little funny.

Besides the fake emotions and pretending to be other people and whispering theatrically, they were making set pieces for the play they had chosen. Professor Snape said that the roles would be split up after the winter break when practice could be done with regulatory and costumes could be fitted.

Lily Moon liked being able to spend time with students from all the houses, but the Slytherins were acting weirdly around Tanya. Lily overheard earlier in the day Lavender talking to Parvati about how she heard from Lisa Turpin who was talking with Daphne Greengrass that Daphne heard from Blaise Zabini that Draco received a Howler that morning in the first year boy's dorm room. From what Blaise told Daphne who told Turpin who told Lavender who was telling Parvati when Lily overheard, Malfoy's father and Tanya have been in conversations about Malfoy and Malfoy's father was upset about how Malfoy was behaving towards Tanya.

It was like one of the princess stories where an arrangement for the hand of the beautiful maiden is arranged with a dashing prince by the parents, except Tanya is her own parent and the dashing prince. So that would make it more like the stories where the prince comes in to help kingdom in exchange for the hand of the beautiful princess. That seems right! Tanya defeated the troll for the hand of a different fair maiden already, so why couldn't she defeat some other evil beast on the behalf of the most Ancient and Noble Lineage of the Great House of Malfoy?

"Something get your attention, Ms Moon?" Professor Snape asked standing behind Lily as she fell over the boat set piece she was suppose to be painting. Lily gave the professor a big grin as several of the students laughed at her falling over. Snape just sighed before bending over to help Lily back to her feet. "You silly girl. What got you so distracted?"

"The romance between Tanya and Draco," Lily staged whispered.

Snape got a pained look on his face as he closed his eyes. "I apologize for asking. Just do not allow these thoughts to distract you in a more dangerous situation. Like class. Or going down the stairs." Snape went to check on the backdrop the Weasley Twins were working on in a swirl of his robes.

Lily picked up the boat piece she knocked over and began casting the coloring charm again. If Tanya was attempting to arrange a marriage with Draco by talking to his father, Tanya would need to perform some daring feat to show that despite her humble orphaned origins she was worthy of being in the company of High Lords of the Land. A bold daring feat defending Draco's purity and-

"You do know you are talking out loud again, right?" Lavender asked Lily.

"Oh, was I?" Lily laughed. "My bad."

"I don't think Tanya and Malfoy would make a good couple. I mean, sure they would look cute next to each other, but Tanya, well, she's Tanya."

"I don't think they would either, but it is so much fun making stories up. My daddy gets paid to make up stories and he is always saying that he loves what he does."

"That's neat," Lavender said with a funny smile. It looked like the smile Auntie Gene got when Lily hugged her. "Just leave me out of your stories."

"Too late," Lily said, reaching behind her back and pulling out a pair of hand puppets of Lavender and Parvati in pirate outfits. "I already made a story of Captain Brown, Pirate Queen of the High Seas, and her first mate Parvati plundering the seven seas in search of treasure and to enslave cabin boys for your crew and pleasure. I even made puppets."

"So I see. Why?"

"Because you are my friends and creating stories about you as awesome pirate queens is the least I can do for my friends."

Lavender had Auntie Gene's smile again. "Thanks."

"Friend hug!" Lily gave Lavender a hug. Lavender returned the hug. Puppet Parvati pulled Puppet Lavender into hugging Lavender as well.

Lavender pushed Lily away. "I draw the line at being hugged by a hand puppet."

"Ok."

—-

Tanya Degurechaff

Midterms are arriving shortly as the final scholastic event before a portion of the student body goes home to spend Christmas with their families. Professor McGonagall had taken down the names of the students that would be staying over the break and in addition to myself not wishing to return to the orphanage and deal with their religious sermons about the birth of their savior yet again, Harry and the Weasleys would be staying while it appeared the rest of the house would be heading home.

To prepare for the midterms, Hermione suggested a special study session that was achieved through much grumbling and griping.

"Do we really have to do this?" Ron complained rather loudly.

"No, but a quick overview of what we learned this semester would not hurt," I told the assembled students as we commandeered a corner of the Common Room. "Further more, I do not want to see any of you receive a low grade on your midterms."

Low grades would have detrimental effects on the house's standing in the House Cup. Currently the scores were rather close without any one House having a significant lead or falling particularly behind. With the tightness of the race, it would not be proper to be the cause of our house slipping down the rankings.

"To start, how about we check how good everyone's levitation charm is?" Starting off with a relatively fun activity would hopefully keep everyone's attention better during the less exciting parts of the study session. It was not like I could use the threat of danger to keep everyone's attention sharp, we were school children. Not soldiers.

Going through the various spells we had been taught, interspersed with some light theory discussion, allowed us to breeze through a good portion swiftly. Having set a good pace for the study session, we continued touching on the different subjects and checking that everyone at least had a surface level idea of what we were discussing.

On the whole, I felt most of my fellow first years would do fine. Hermione was needlessly concerned about how she would do when it seemed clear to me she would be a top scorer with Harry not too far behind. Parvati, Lavender, Seamus, and Dean would all be fine. My main concerns were Ron, Lily, and Neville.

I gave even odds that Ron would get marked off for putting as few words as he possibly could manage onto the paper in a fit of laziness and apathy towards his schoolwork. Neville would do fine in most of the classes, but he was extremely nervous about potions and he seemed the type to choke under pressure.

Lily… Lily was a tricky one. Her exuberance was clear, but she seemed to space out regularly. When I had asked her about the levitation charm, she went on a tangent about tiny pixies coming out of the wand to lift the paper we were testing the spell on. While imaginative, if I was grading a paper with such an answer, I would mark the answer as wrong and irrelevant.

She was either going to surprise me by managing to achieve high marks, or I would be disappointed in her poor performance and need to take corrective actions. Either way, I will not find out which until everyone is back and class resumes so I would not allow Lily's possible performance bother me when I would have most of a month without classes, clubs, or quidditch practice to get in the way of spending time with a good book.

 

[Aleh]

Letter

Dear Tanya Degurechaff,

Click to shrink...

You, ah, forgot a few threadmarks.

That said, great to see this mirrored here!

 

[Half_Baked_cat]

You, ah, forgot a few threadmarks.

That said, great to see this mirrored here!

Click to shrink...

I thought I had set up the thread marks. Looks like my mass posting got a like screwy.

 

[Warer]

Fffffffffff xD I love this to bits type more or you shall be a fully baked potato!

 

[a guy1013]

I thought I had set up the thread marks. Looks like my mass posting got a like screwy.

Click to shrink...

So you followed my advice of posting it here and also if you ever plan to make it nsfw simply ask a mod to move it for you

 

[Half_Baked_cat]

So you followed my advice of posting it here and also if you ever plan to make it nsfw simply ask a mod to move it for you

Click to shrink...

Don't think the main story will ever be NSFW, but an Omake might.

In fact, there is an Omake I am thinking of writing that is NSFW that could be canonical to the story. Set in second year's summer.

Spoiler: The ones involved in the NSFW scene are

Gellert Grindelwald and Albus Dumbledore.

 

[Gindjurra]

"She never answered if she is a guard kitty for the dorm."

Click to shrink...

New head canon!

They are the only four that can score a goal or it is a foul.

Click to shrink...

Which makes me wonder about two things:

First, if a seeker catches the quaffle or a beater bats it, and bounces it off a chaser or keeper - opposing or not - and the quaffle goes through a hoop, is it a foul or did the chaser/keeper technically score as the last player to touch the quaffle?

Second, if a chaser, keeper or beater catches the snitch - possibly by accident as erratic as the thing is - and either throws it or hands it to a seeker, is it a foul or has the seeker made a catch?

the basics were simple enough, but that behind that was a lot more to it than met the eye.

Click to shrink...

I see it as an allegory to how wizards fight wars. The seeker is the Dark or Light Lord or Lady, the beaters are his or her inner circle, the chasers (including the keeper) are his or her rank & file followers. Without a Lord/Lady-class wizard or witch, a faction is at a steep disadvantage because a high class combatant like that can win a battle by themselves. A faction can still lose even with their Lord/Lady, but it's much less likely to happen. And Bellatrix coming for you is one nasty bludger indeed.

"Emit mana at a waveform of three hundred hertz with an amplitude of five cenna within a flattened ellipsoid with a sharpen great ellipse of less than point one two millimeters in thickness with point zero zero two being a more preferable upper bound."

Click to shrink...

I understood everything but the word cenna. A quick dictionary search leaves me with a vague Gaelic reference to fire, and a belief it's a word from her previous life, that she used for want of an appropriate English word.

The desire to call Ron a soldier was stamped down ruthlessl

Click to shrink...

Dmbledore's Army is going to eat the Death Eaters alive this time around…

Ron fell over, his breathing deep and even. Tanya have the sleeping boy a glare.

Click to shrink...

A very common result for meditation beginners.

Also a typo, have should be gave.

Sincerely,
Tanya Degurecha

Click to shrink...

Oh my. Written in High Purebloodese no less. The formal manners are likely to incur the Malfoy's favor all by themselves, though she probably should have included her von as well. Von has a rather different meaning than the more common(er) van, after all. Then again, it might have come across as snooty, so maybe she's better off excluding it.

After another fruitless research binge, Hermione returned to the Common Room with a rough plan of curling up in a warm corner with 'Hogwarts: A History' for some light reading when she saw Tanya writing something down while Harry Harry gave his beautiful snowy owl some attention.

Click to shrink...

You have a redundant Harry there.

If you want to feel your mana, take it your wand and try to produce sparks without an incantation or wand movements,

Click to shrink...

Typo. That should be either "take your wand in hand," "take your wand" or "hold your wand."

Vol de Morte.

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While a reasonable spelling, this gives away that she is not a Pureblood. That might actually help her case with Lucius Malfoy though, since one of the big Death Eater objections to muggleborns is cultural dilution or contamination, and she's clearly embracing at least proper wizarding manners.

mildly confused instructor barely staying a lesson ahead

Click to shrink...

I find this one of the funniest bits - he publicly made the offer, and now cannot back down without serious loss of face.

"I don't think Tanya and Malfoy would make a good couple. I mean, sure they would look cute next to each other, but Tanya, well, she's Tanya."

Click to shrink...

Actually, there is a good chance that Lucius Malfoy might be considering her as a match for Draco at this point. Between those letters, her magical prodigy status and her blonde hair, she's almost the ideal Malfoy bride. All she's missing is pureblood ancestry and/or wealth. And with her parentage unknown, I suspect Lucius Malfoy will be spending some Galleons trying to positively identify her parents. Doubly so if he gets wind of the fact her name is von Degurechaff not merely Degurechaff!

 

[Half_Baked_cat]

I understood everything but the word cenna. A quick dictionary search leaves me with a vague Gaelic reference to fire, and a belief it's a word from her previous life, that she used for want of an appropriate English word.

Click to shrink...

Cenna is a made up unit. I originally had magiJoules or something, but was convinced to change it. Cenna is now a unit named after someone involved in magical science.

 

[ioriangel]

Yep this is good, following this!

 

[Carlo Lazol]

This is very entertaining version of the bloodthirsty Loli German

 

[BigBnana]

Excellent story! I noticed you posted nearly in bulk, are you intending to hold of posting again until you have the rest of the year sorted?

Regardless, I totee want to read more of this.

 

[Half_Baked_cat]

Harry Potter

The first snowfall came in the middle of the night just before the students that were heading home for the winter break left. The chill in the air seeped pleasantly into Harry's body as he gave Hermione a hug. Ron and Tanya had elected to not see their friend off, but Harry wanted Hermione to know how much he valued her friendship. With so few people he could honestly call a friend, each one of them was special to him.

"Thank you Harry," Hermione said, returning the hug. "It is so nice of you to see me off."

"Of course. Have a good trip." The two broke their hug before going their separate ways, Hermione getting into a carriage being pulled by nothing and Harry turning back to the castle.

"Potter," Malfoy called from nearby, Crabbe and Goyle waiting near a separate carriage. "No Degurechaff with you?"

"No, she said her farewells in the warmth of the Great Hall this morning," Harry said, staring down Malfoy. Malfoy looked down.

"Tell her I'm sorry. And I'm sorry to you as well. I shouldn't have said what I did about your parents."

Harry was silent for a moment. He didn't know what to say. Dudley never apologized for anything he did. Bullies did not apologize, they just kept being bullied and would only be sneakier about it if they got in trouble.

"Well?" Malfoy asked, whipping his face up, contorted in anger.

"Tell her yourself," Harry answered. Malfoy scoffed and turned away. "Thank you." Malfoy paused for a moment before continuing to his carriage.

—-

Albus Dumbledore

With the arrival of the winter break, Albus's schedule was freed up enough to pay a visit to the orphanage Tanya was from, Wings of Love Orphan Home. It was a small, well cared for facility from what Dumbledore could see from the outside, though he knew very well that secrets could hide behind such a pleasant facade. With a sigh, Dumbledore began to walk towards the building when the pop of apparition surprised the time with wizard.

"Lucius?" Dumbledore cried it in surprise. "What are you doing here?"

"I could ask the same of you," Lucius Malfoy coolly replied.

"I have come to check on the home situation of one of my students. What business do you have here?"

"A Ms. Degurechaff I presume. My son has told me some interesting tales about her and I have come to look into her past myself."

The two men stared each other down. Thick tension in the air as the men calculated what to do about the situation.

"I suppose we should go together then," Dumbledore said, turning and resuming his trek to the orphanage.

"Indeed." Lucius began following, his gaze cutting across the street, his disdain evident as he watched the muggle children play in the snow.

With a firm knock on the door, the two men waited a moment for the door to be answered.

"Yes? How may I help you?" A nun asked answering the door and looking at the gentlemen with a raised eyebrow.

"We were hoping to speak the head of this orphanage," Dumbledore said, putting a polite foot forwards. "Tanya Degurechaff is a student at the school I am the headmaster at and we had a few questions about her."

The nun sighed and Dumbledore could feel the sense of resignation coming off of the nun's mind.

"Of course you want to ask about her. And is this gentleman with you a teacher?"

"I am the Chairman of the Board of Governors for the school," Lucius said, putting on his most aristocratic airs.

The nun raised an eyebrow at Lucius before letting the men in. "Follow me. Abbess Jane should be in her office right now."

The men followed the nun as she entered a hallway under the staircase in the foyer of the orphanage. The carpet was worn, there were scratches on the banisters, but the orphanage looked clean with no dust or cobwebs visible to Dumbledore's keen eyes. In the Head Matriarch's office the furniture was well worn, but appeared to be in good, sturdy condition and the bookshelves filled with files clearly labeled and organized.

"These gentlemen are here to talk with you about Tanya."

The Head Matriarch sighed and motioned for the two men to sit. "Thank you Sister Kate. That will be all. I take it you two are from that heathen school of sorceries?"

Dumbledore could tell that the abbess's words struck a cord with Lucius. Despite the harshness of the words, Abbess Jane's thoughts felt more resigned than upset.

"Yes. I am Albus Dumbledore, Headmaster of Hogwarts, and the man with me is Lucius Malfoy, the Chairman of the Board of Governors."

"So, what did Tanya do?"

"Do?" Dumbledore feigned confusion about what the Abbess was asking about to gauge her reaction.

"We've known since she first arrived here that she was no ordinary child," the Abbess explained. "So what did she do? Did she grow fangs? Did her ears become pointed? Is she green now?"

"No. Not at all. Why would you think she would gain inhuman characteristics?" To have her accuse Ms. Degurechaff of gaining beastly traits was interesting. Dumbledore was concerned about her behavior prior to arriving at Hogwarts, but to have accusations unrelated to actions was most unusual.

"Well, she's not human is she?" The Abbess fully believed Ms. Degurechaff was not human. There was no deception, no deflection, just honest belief that a child that had been in her care for years was not a human child.

"What makes you so sure of that?" Lucius asked, saving Dumbledore the effort.

The Abbess stood up and began looking through her files. "She arrived in a rather unusual manner." The Abbess pulled down a folder with Tanya's name on it. Her full name by the looks of it. "She was left in a basket in the foyer with a note on her. A foyer we lock at night and was still locked in the morning when we found her. Ah, here it is. This note."

The Abbess handed over an old yellowing piece of paper with a single line of text written on it.

'Her name is Tanya Natasha Tenya Ginsei Romanoff Degurechaff.'

Even Albus had to admit to himself that was a very full name and perhaps a bit excessive.

"I have helped raise a great many children, many from infancy, in this building. None have been like Tanya. She learned to speak at an early age, and I do not mean one or two words. No, by the time she was two, she was using full sentences. And it was the strangest thing, she sounded like one of those actresses from the American movies. But as she got older, her accent changed. Or rather, she began hiding it under a different accent."

The Abbess took a seat and stared at the two men.

"I do not know what sorts of sorceries you are teaching those children, but the existence of magic is enough proof for me that those Irish folk tales of the fair folk and changelings are true. Tanya is not human, of that I am sure."

Albus leaned back in the seat and stroked his beard as he thought on this information. There were some creatures that could appear to be human, but there was always a tell. Web toes, forked tongue, something that marked them as different.

"What other proof do you have that she is not human?" Lucius asked with a snarl, likely disbelieving the tale as the ramblings of some superstitious muggle.

The Abbess shook her head. "Nothing concrete, just the way she talks and acts is not the same as a child her age should. Even as a mere babe, she would speak and move about as if she was merely a very small adult. The way she plays with the other children looked more like an adult indulging a child to me rather than two children engaged in a game."

"Interesting. Perhaps we should speak to some of the children," Dumbledore suggested. "Children often have a different perspective on things than adults."

Abbess Jane narrowed her eyes at Dumbledore before staring down Lucius. "You will not be filling the children's heads with stories of your heathen magic."

"We would not think it," Dumbledore promised with a kind smile.

"Before we do, though," Lucius added, a scowl still on his face. "If you believe us heathens, why allow Ms. Degurechaff to attend Hogwarts?"

The Abbess sighed and grasped her rosary. "Even if she is not human, it would be unchristianly of myself and this orphanage to keep her away from her people. I have concerns for her soul, but the good book tells us to be good people to each other, even if they are heathens that will burn in hell, for it is not our place to judge the sins of others."

Albus stayed close to Lucius as they talked to the children to get a fuller picture of Ms. Degurechaff. And the more they learned, the stranger the picture became. The best Albus could describe the impression even the older children had of Tanya was of an aloof older sibling. Distant as far as emotions were concerned, but constantly stepping in to prevent fights or end them, helping others with school work, and advising against certain actions, advise that when ignored always seemed to result in injury.

As they were about to part ways, Lucius stopped Albus.

"My son told me that there is a rumor that Ms. Degurechaff fought a troll that managed to get into the school. How accurate is this rumor?"

"Accurate save for one detail," Albus admitted, looking at Lucius. "The term butcher would be a more apt term for what Ms. Degurechaff did to that troll who had the misfortune to cross her path."

The slow widening of eyes along with the slow realization crossing Lucius's mind was a rather sweet joy that would comfort Albus as what was to be done with Ms. Degurechaff was determined.

Returning to his office, Albus pulled an old book off the shelf. For once the habit of people to purchase books as gifts for Albus was proving useful as only his old friend Newt would have gotten him an antique book on fairies with a detailed explanation of the varieties and peculiarities of the different types. While the superstitions of muggles were often wrong, there was often a basis in truth to the superstitions.

Getting to the section on Changelings, known by many names all across the continent, Albus saw a list of methods to identify one and the ways in which a changeling came to be. In most cases, changelings were fairies swapped with a human child to be raised by a human family. In a few cases, the swap was an elderly fae looking to live out the rest of their life being cared for by humans. Changelings were often sickly looking and the preferred targets were attractive people, particularly those of fair hair and blue eyes.

Albus bit his thumb as he thought and began pacing as he read on. Ms. Degurechaff was unusually pale of skin and her hair was a striking golden hue that made spotting her in a crowd easy. Combined with her bright blue eyes, she bore a striking appearance to Gellert.

Albus paused as the thought crossed his mind. He placed the book on his desk and pulled out a parchment to begin making notes. Degurechaff was a family name that sounded to be from Central Europe among the Germanic nations. On a quick whim, Albus checked the Arithmancy and was pleased to see the calculations did not line up, but Degurechaff translates into character of 3, heart of 5, and social of 7. Three prime numbers.

That was too significant to write off as a coincident. With the eyes and hair that match Gellert so well, Albus would need to compare facial structure. To see if there was a relation between the two.

Taking a calming breath, Albus went to his pensive and grabbed a bottled memory of his and poured it into the basin. He then placed his wand to his temple and extracted a memory of Ms. Degurechaff's face. With a wave of his wand over the pensive, two silver faces came out of the basin. A smiling, youthful Gellert laughing at something Albus had said and the relaxed, detached expression of Ms. Degurechaff. Albus looked past the expression to the nose and chin shapes and the structure of the cheeks.

Gellert's nose was crooked from an earlier confrontation that had not fully healed, but the thin profile and smooth curve was similar to Ms. Degurechaff, as was the high cheek bones both had.

Returning to the book, Albus furiously read. One of the identifiers for Changelings was a ravenous appetite in addition to wisdom and knowledge far beyond their years. Albus would need to watch the young Ms. Degurechaff the next time they ate to see how much she ate.

And have a large amount of eggshells brought to his office for the next time they had tea together. That was likely to raise questions from the faculty, but a bit of eccentricity to uncover a changeling would be worth it. Having the eggshells near a fireplace appeared to be enough to out a changeling, but the reason for how that worked was missing.

Albus sighed before pulling out his schedule and wincing. A trip to Austria would have to wait till the summer. Ms. Degurechaff had to date not shown herself a danger to the students at Hogwarts outside of her capacity to do harm, meaning that Albus could not justify rescheduling a week's worth of meetings on short notice and he needed to remain at the castle as much as possible until the summer to help protect the stone.

Sitting down, Albus began to organize his thoughts onto paper so he would know what he needed to confront Gellert about when they met again.

—-

Lucius Malfoy

Lucius dismissed the idea of a changeling child out of hand. The note and basket being left inside the orphanage with locked doors was clearly something any half decent wizard could manage with little issue. With a full name at his disposal and his son to confirm family resemblances, Lucius would be able to find out the blood status of this Tanya Degurechaff.

His first stop was to the Ministry of Magic to look through the records to see if one of the lesser wizarding families had a connection to a Degurechaff line. Appariting to the main foyer, Malfoy confidently strolled his way to the security checkpoint where Malfoy presented his wand and stated his business was to check the public records. After his wand was weighed, Malfoy took the elevators down to the records floor and began with a look through the marriage and birth records for any Degurechaffs that might exist within Wizarding Britain. The name had a certain Central European feel to it, so there was a fair chance Lucius would have to contact his old comrade Karkaroff about any Degurechaffs that may exist near him.

After hours of scanning records and finding nothing within the last one hundred years about any Degurechaffs existing in Britain, Lucius left the Ministry disappointed, but not defeated. A child able to butcher a troll at the age of eleven was sure to have come from a powerful, pure blooded family. Just not a family that Lucius was familiar with.

Returning to the Wiltshire Manor, Lucius sent for his son to meet him in the library where Lucius sat down at a writing desk to pen the letter to Karkaroff.

"You called for me, father?" Draco asked when he arrived.

"Yes. This Tanya Degurechaff you mentioned hanging around the Potter boy, tell me about her," Lucius said, looking up at his son with his face carefully kept blank.

"Why do you want to know? She's just some orphan."

Lucius sighed, displaying his disappointment in his son. "Draco, my son, surely you must know that many old families died off during the last few wars, leaving many children without parents. Some of these families could have found a way to leave their last heir at an orphanage so their lineage does not die out." Lucius leaned back in his seat as Draco fidgeted under the gaze. "This Degurechaff has garnered the attention of Dumbledore. He is investigating who she is and where she is from as well as I. While our hope that Potter was to be the next Dark Lord is seemingly lost, there might still be something there if he is connecting himself to a more powerful Dark Lady. We need to find out who Degurechaff is and where she is from. So, tell me, what do you know about her?"

Draco's eyes grew wide as he heard his father speak and nodded his head before becoming thoughtful. "There are rumors floating around the school, like that she fought a troll."

"Confirmed by Dumbledore that the incident was more akin to a butchering, but go on," Lucius interrupted.

Draco swallowed hard before nodding. "Right, other than that I have not heard much. We only have one class together and I haven't noticed her standing out too much there. The biggest thing is her flying. She is on the Gryffindor quidditch team as a first year and in the first game she kicked a bludger away. Flint spent hours complaining after the game that she cheated, but Dumbledore sided with the Gryffindors by calling it an advanced technique not against the rules."

"An advanced technique? Any specifics on what it is?" Lucius asked.

Draco shook his head. "No. Flint didn't mention what she said and none of us really wanted to hear him complain about the loss."

Lucius stood up and began to pace the room. "We need more information. I have a few leads to follow, but you need to get closer to her and give me anything she lets slip. She is not some normal witch and the Malfoy family needs to know if we need to get rid of her or if we should ally ourselves to her."

Draco looked uncomfortable as his father turned to him. "Yes father, but I may need to apologize to her first."

Lucius took his seat. "Whatever it takes. If you need to borrow some of the family funds, do not hesitate to ask." Lucius pulled out a parchment and began to write, dismissing his son.

—-

Letter

Dear Karkaroff,

I require information on a Degurechaff family. Particularly any that might be connected to a Tanya Natasha Tenya Ginsei Romanoff Degurechaff. The name sounds like it comes from your neck of the woods and she has garnered my attention and her lineage needs to be established.

Lucius Malfoy

 

[The_Bajar]

interesting full name

 

[ioriangel]

Urgh I see a forced marriage in the horizon...

 

[Erling]

I'm having a great time reading! Not a crossover I had ever considered until now, but you make it work beautifully. It's nice to see Tanya not struggling for her life at every moment too.

 

[Ina_Meishou]

It's kind of hilarious how, with exactly the same starting information, Dumbledore and Lucius wind up each tunnel visioning on a different aspect in line with their personal obsessions.

Dumbles immediately assumes 'magic we know not' or ties to past dark lords. Lucius immediately dismisses wonder and whimsy and assumes 'hidden bloodline'.

It's a nice touch.

 

[Tortoise]

Grammar:

With so few people he could honestly call a friend, each one of them was special to him.

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friends

Bullies did not apologize, they just kept being bullied and would only be sneakier about it if they got in trouble.

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bullying

With a sigh, Dumbledore began to walk towards the building when the pop of apparition surprised the time with wizard.

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?

"Lucius?" Dumbledore cried it in surprise. "What are you doing here?"

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remove

"We were hoping to speak the head of this orphanage," Dumbledore said, putting a polite foot forwards.

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speak to the head

The nun sighed and Dumbledore could feel the sense of resignation coming off of the nun's mind.

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remove

Combined with her bright blue eyes, she bore a striking appearance to Gellert.

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resemblance

That was too significant to write off as a coincident.

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a coincidence

With the eyes and hair that match Gellert so well, Albus would need to compare facial structure.

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matched

Taking a calming breath, Albus went to his pensive and grabbed a bottled memory of his and poured it into the basin.

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With a wave of his wand over the pensive, two silver faces came out of the basin.

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pensieve

Gellert's nose was crooked from an earlier confrontation that had not fully healed, but the thin profile and smooth curve was similar to Ms. Degurechaff, as was the high cheek bones both had.

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a confrontation would not heal; change to "injury" or something?
were

 

[Akuma-Heika]

Changelings were often sickly looking and the preferred targets were attractive people, particularly those of fair hair and blue eyes.

Albus bit his thumb as he thought and began pacing as he read on. Ms. Degurechaff was unusually pale of skin and her hair was a striking golden hue that made spotting her in a crowd easy. Combined with her bright blue eyes, she bore a striking appearance to Gellert.

Click to shrink...

Think you need to rewrite this, since it seemingly establishes that Tanya cannot be a changeling but Albus takes it as her very possibly being one. She has very pale skin, which on its own really doesn't qualify as sickly, but lets give it to him, but the attractive people with fair hair and blue eyes was their target, aka the humans they are attached to, not their disguise (although in the case of being dropped off with parents of those features, it likely would share them, but in this case, Tanya was left at an orphanage, and nothing was done to hide the fact [she wasn't switched out with another kid with nothing being displayed, but left as a new orphan]).