2 September 1992, King's Cross Station
Blaise nodded, looking just as stupefied, "Wanna bet they get away with it?"
"That's a sucker's bet and you know it," Harry replied.
A first-year girl who had sat next to him after being sorted, Harry didn't really remember her first name, but she was a Yaxley, asked meekly, "Is this normal?"
Harry snorted and raised his goblet filled with his coffee, "Welcome to Hogwarts kid. I hope you survive the experience."
Harry woke up far later than usual and he knew that he wouldn't be able to have his daily Occlumency lesson and get to class in time. He was still exhausted because of the train ride, and the nightmares didn't help. The Potter scion didn't know if he was back at the castle or something, but that night, he dreamt of Voldemort looming over him, sending a killing curse his way.
The young Slytherin looked around and saw that most people were still asleep. What did he expect? It was still seven in the morning, and most students had spent months waking up far later than that. Choosing to simply clear his head, Harry took out a book in the common room and started reading it. It wasn't even an academic one; it was a fiction book which was a guilty pleasure of his. Yeah, he liked reading about adventures and such, and the authors in the magical words are very dramatic, which was something that he didn't think he would like but quickly learned to enjoy.
Although Harry would have rather been exploring the Room of Hidden Things instead. Yeah, Harry did his best not to remove anything from it with Voldemort possibly being in the castle. The man probably had wards that Harry didn't even know existed near the Diadem. Yeah, he didn't want to accidentally trip them and make the man start panicking for one reason or another.
Well, now his younger version was here, not him, meaning that he shouldn't really be notified by the wards. He was a fraction of a soul without any magic which wouldn't really make him a living being to any magical protection.
Harry's musings were interrupted by a pitiful groan and the sight of a familiar brunette with messy hair dropping herself on the couch next to him.
"Good morning, Tracy," Harry cheerfully stated.
The girl just replied by groaning miserably. "Don't take it personally," another familiar voice replied in her stead, "she's been like that all morning."
Harry turned and saw the familiar figure of Daphne who was immaculately dressed and didn't look worse for wear.
"Well, at least you're actually awake," Harry said.
The girl pouted, "You're supposed to say that I'm beautiful, Harry."
"Of course, you are, Daph. Now, do you know if Blaise is still sleeping?"
"Yeah, I tried to wake him, but he told me to get some breakfast without him."
Harry simply shrugged, "Fine, I guess we should get going so that we could eat before classes start."
They all walked in silence to the Great Hall. Honestly, Harry was kinda hunger, but when they arrived, the entire room was busy staring at Longbottom. His crashing arrival the previous day was the talk of the school. For some reason, people seemed to admire him for it.
It honestly confused Harry immensely. The boy had broken laws that would have gotten most people arrested and possibly in Azkaban. He had broken the Statute of Secrecy out of pure stupidity and negligence. The same Statute that happened to be one of the globally sacred laws in the magical world. People were taught since the moment they could talk to not reveal the existence of magic and yet a national icon did this.
A soft hoot interrupted his thoughts when Hedwig came to perch on his shoulder with a letter and his subscription to the daily prophet.
"Thanks, Hedwig, here have some," Harry spoke up while handing his companion a piece of bacon. The snowy owl nibbled on it and snugged into his face slightly before flying away once more.
Harry opened his letter first and saw that it was simply his timetable. Did everyone get their timetables this way, or was Snape just not bothered to give them face to face?
It didn't matter, only that while the organization was somewhat different, his practical lessons were still with the Gryffindor. There was actually a full-blown war between Longbottom and Malfoy because of this last year, and they are just left it as is? This was honestly getting ridiculous. And as expected, the front page of the daily prophet was a picture of Longbottom and Weasley in a flying car, breaking the statute of secrecy.
The Potter scion took a deep breath and decided to just continue eating. He wouldn't think about Longbottom, it just wasn't worth it. At least that was what he told himself until Tracy suddenly stiffened, "Look, Weasley got a Howler."
Remembering how the Weasley matriarch was yelling at her husband, Harry simply put his hands over his ears. Tracy gave him a confused look, "what are you doing?"
Of course, that was when the youngest Weasley boy decided to open the letter, whose volume was so high that a few people were pushed away by it. For a moment, most of the students were left reeling, as a roar of legendary proportions had echoed in the Hall who was almost shaking. Molly Weasley really had a point to put across.
"—STEALING THE CAR, I WOULDN'T HAVE BEEN SURPRISED IF THEY'D EXPELLED YOU, YOU WAIT TILL I GET HOLD OF YOU, I DON'T SUPPOSE YOU STOPPED TO THINK WHAT YOUR FATHER AND I WENT THROUGH WHEN WE SAW IT WAS GONE —"
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