Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Harry had gotten up like he normally had every day, very early in order to begin his daily chores. He hadn’t expected anything different to happen that day, seeing as it was a summer day stuck in the Dursley’s household. He listened in the cupboard that he was sleeping in for noises from anyone that had awakened before he exited the cupboard and went straight towards the mirror in the downstairs bathroom. As Harry walked into the bathroom his reflection did not show the face of a black-haired boy but instead a girl with long white hair of similar scrawny stature. Harry sighed and changed his face, focusing on each individual part until he looked like he normally did.

A malnourished boy with black hair, dark eyes, and a lightning bolt scar on his forehead. This had been routine for the past few years ever since he had found out what he could do with his own body. He would see how much he could change himself and how long he was able to keep the transformation. He had found out he could change himself for as long as he had wanted and the only time he had troubles was when he was really angry at something Dudley had done. He also had issues when he was sad but since he was usually sad around the Durselys anyway, it actually helped him hide his strange ability. When he was sad or angry he slipped out of his transformation or even couldn’t transform at all. When he was frightened he would sometimes randomly change against his will. Luckily, it only happened momentarily and if it happened he could wave it off.

Harry stepped out of the bathroom and began to clean up the mess the Dursleys had made the previous night. He knew that the Dursleys knew about his strange shapeshifting ability because he had started to do it as a very young child before he began to fear them. Over the years he had stopped changing in front of them completely and they spoke about how they ‘cured’ him. However, that wasn’t the end of his worries with strange things happening around him.

He’s seen strange things happen that shouldn’t exist, like a man with one eye watching him at school. There was an incident where he spoke to a snake and some fish while he was at the zoo. Of course, there were all the times when miraculous things had happened, such as the glass at the zoo suddenly disappearing and letting the snake out of its enclosure or when he had ended up on the school roof after being chased by Dudley and his goons. He had barely managed to keep his form stable and not change in a panic. The Dursleys just called him a freak and he would be inclined to agree with them. He didn’t know why he was like this but it made his life considerably difficult, between having to control his emotions and dealing with the Dursleys.

Having cleaned up after his relatives, Harry moved on to making breakfast as he heard the Dursleys start waking and he grew more anxious as he heard them moving around. The first one to come into the kitchen was Aunt Petunia, she seemed to particularly dislike Harry for reasons he had no clue about. She pushed Harry out of the way of the stove, “Get everything else out for me freak! I don’t want you making the food worse than it already is!” Harry didn’t say anything and silently handed the spatula over to Aunt Petunia as he righted himself.

He was used to such things happening and he counted it lucky that he didn’t get hurt worse than the bruise on his back from running into a drawer’s handle. He took out the multitude of ingredients that he hadn’t already and began working with them out of the way of Aunt Petunia. Soon after he was washing the dishes and placing the food on the table. He wanted to take a bite of the eggs or the bacon on the table but knew what would happen if he tried. Uncle Vernon and Dudley arrived at the table and were pigging out as Harry was given a few slices of bread by Aunt Petunia,

He had barely touched his bread, sitting at the end of the table when Uncle Vernon yelled at Harry. Which was completely unnecessary seeing as how he was only a couple of feet away. “Go get the mail boy! I don’t know why you haven’t gotten it already!” Harry internally groaned but tried to keep his face still as he got up from his only bitten into bread and walked down the hall and retrieved the mail.

He usually looked through the mail because it was at least something to read other than boring school textbooks, plus it’s interesting to see what mail the Dursleys get sometimes. However, today was very different. When Harry looked through the letters he found his name in the mix of them. He was surprised, to say the least, he had never had a letter sent to him before and even stranger was the fact that it was addressed ‘To the Cupboard under the Stairs.

The front of the letter had a wax seal with the word ‘Hogwarts’ written above a crest of some kind in a fancy font. He knew that the letter would be taken from him if the Dursleys saw it, so he had begun to open and read the letter by the door.

HOGWARTS SCHOOL of WITCHCRAFT and WIZARDRY

Headmaster: Albus Dumbledore
(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock,
Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. of Wizards)

Dear Mr. Potter,
We are pleased to inform you-

That was as far as Harry had gotten before the letter was snatched by Aunt Petunia with a huff of indignation. “What do you think you are doing?! Snooping through our letters?!” Harry had had enough of it and protested, “It was addressed to me! It’s mine to rea-!” Harry’s hair had started turning red and growing before he was slapped by Aunt Petunia so hard that he fell back on the ground and hit the door with a painful gasp. Harry held his cheek as Aunt Petunia yelled at him some more, “Stop it with your freakishness! There’s no way that you were sent anything you lying brat!”

Harry glared at Aunt petunia as she finally looked at the letter her scowl deepening as Uncle Vernon walked beside her and read it in silence before he ripped it apart and glared back at Harry. “Get in the cupboard and don’t even think about having breakfast anymore! If we so much as hear a word about this letter then you will be beaten within an inch of your life!” Harry’s glare grew into a fearful look as he got up and stuffed himself in his cupboard.

He knew how serious of a threat it was and listened to him, all defiance was gone and his hair back to its original black color. He heard them arguing over the letter from the cupboard as they locked him in, for who knew how long. Dudley was even fearful as he heard his parents arguing and retreated to his room with a plate full of food.

It turned out that he would find out just how long they would lock him in the cupboard. He had heard them complaining and generally whining about more letters coming for him all week as he was locked in the cupboard. They slid a slice of bread into the cupboard every day so he didn’t starve along with small bottled water, telling him mocking comments as they did so.

He was able to shrink himself a little bit so that he wasn’t too cramped in his cupboard and as always thought to himself about stories he heard at school when he wasn’t just sleeping to pass the time. Eventually, he heard yelling and a lot of ruffling noises coming from outside his door and he looked through the cupboard door surprised by what he was seeing.

Hundreds of envelopes were flying through the living room and his Aunt and Uncle were rushing around in a futile attempt to catch all of the envelopes. As an envelope flew by he recognized the crest and guessed that they were all like the letter for him. He sighed and wished that he could finally read one of the letters as they all flew by his cupboard. They were all so close but he couldn’t touch a single one.

Just then a miraculous thing happened to him once again as the cupboard door suddenly opened with him leaning against it so that tumbled out on a quickly growing pile of envelopes.

He didn’t understand what was happening but didn’t want to miss the opportunity as he reached out his hands to grab an envelope. Finally catching one of the envelopes, he finds out that he had guessed correctly but he wasn’t able to read it once again as he was yelled at by Uncle Vernon who had just noticed him. “What are you doing out of your cupboard boy!? You weren’t supposed to leave!”

Dudley looked warily at his father and nervously spoke up, “Sh-shouldn’t we be worried about the letters n-now daddy?” Harry recognized this as one of Dudley’s attempts to get his father to stop yelling, which usually failed. He guessed that Dudley was afraid of being yelled at too, although he never actually got yelled at.

Uncle Vernon yelled in frustration and snatched the envelope from Harry, “I have had enough of this and your freakishness! We are going to be going somewhere no one can send us mail! Where no one can ever find us again!” Dudley looked scared as he thought about how horrible it would be to have to leave their home and looked to his mother, “Daddy’s gone mad hasn’t he?!” Harry chuckled to himself at the chaos that was happening and looked at all of the letters for a moment feeling a moment of happiness.

He had no idea why he was being sent letters but he was glad that someone wanted him for once. However, the happiness was short-lived as he was picked up by Uncle Vernon and shoved into the wall, wincing as he felt another bruise probably forming. “You better pick up every single one of these letters and not read a single one! I”m going to get us packed so we can be gone by the end of the day!” He turned to Aunt Petunia, “Stay with him while I pack!” Aunt Petunia nodded fearfully as he stomped up the stairs. As soon as he was gone she glared at Harry, “Get to it! We don’t have all day!”

Harry looked incredulously at the still-growing pile of letters and held back a sigh before he began to pick up the letters and shove them into a garbage bag. Dudley stared at Harry picking up the letters and then at the stairs contemplating whether to go upstairs or not. In the end, Dudley ended up sitting in the kitchen and eating what was left of breakfast listening to Aunt Petunia yelling at Harry.

Harry was scared of the Dursleys when they got angry at him but he was never more scared than when Uncle Vernon was ranting and raving while piloting them through the sea. There was a storm that was drenching all of them and every thunderclap and lightning bolt frightened him, although he didn’t show it as he was trying to make himself as unseen as possible without actually shrinking himself. In the moments when Uncle Vernon wasn’t being a lunatic, Harry noticed something odd about being on the ocean for the first time in his life.

It was as if he could feel the ocean around him as if it was a part of him. Sometimes if he focused he could almost sense where someone was just from touching the ground. Now he felt like he could see every fish that swam under them and exactly where they were. He didn’t know what it meant but didn’t question it as he focused on that as they made their way to the dinghy little island in the middle of the sea.

Harry grew sad when they left the boat as he was no longer over the ocean but he still didn’t mind getting under a roof so that he wouldn’t be soaked from head to toe. He tried getting to the door as quickly as possible as he pulled all of their luggage behind him. “Hurry up freak! I don’t want my clothes to get wet!”

Aunt Petunia shouted at Harry over the wind from the door before closing it again as the three of the Dursleys had already made it to the shack of a house. He finally pulled all of the luggage into the shack and shut the door behind him just as he was yelled at once again, “Put those in the upstairs room!”

After moving the luggage as the Dursleys wanted for a while, Harry was able to relax on the ground. One of the few possessions he had was a watch and as he looked at it he noticed with surprise that it was his 11th birthday tomorrow. He knew that it was approaching but he completely forgot that it was going to be so soon. He just then realized that he couldn’t change anymore and tears pricked at his eyes as he drew a birthday cake in the dirt that coated the floor of the shack.

Dudley was sleeping on the side of the room and he cried silently to himself as he looked at his watch, the time soon approaching midnight. The happiness from the letters turned to bitterness as he thought of how it took one of the few things he liked in his life.

As he saw the clock hit midnight he stared at his drawn birthday cake and blew away the dust, quietly speaking his wish to himself. “I wish I could get away from these people and be around people that might care about me if anyone such as that exists.”

He laid his head on the ground and tried to will himself to go to sleep but his rampant thoughts didn’t allow him to sleep. He couldn’t stop imagining what life would be like without having to live with the Dursleys. Maybe he could have some friends and a family that listened to him. Maybe he could change as much as he wanted to without worrying about what would happen.

After a while of laying there, Harry begins to hear something outside that began as a low rumble and grew into the sound of an engine. He was confused and looked upstairs thinking that it couldn’t be the Dursley’s boat. He heard a clang and a thud over the thunder and a few moments later the engine cut off. A few moments later Harry was startled and his hair shifted colors a few times along with his body growing slightly before snapping back to normal as there was a very loud bang on the door of the shack.

This noise woke up everyone else in the shack as Dudley yelped at the loud noise and fell to the ground from where he was laying on a dirty old couch. Dudley retreated from the door along with Harry, who hid behind the fireplace he was laying by. Harry heard another loud bang on the door and Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon ran down the stairs, Vernon with a shotgun in his hands yelling at the door. “Who’s there!? Go away! I have a gun and I’m not afraid to use it!”

Dudley looked terrified at his father and then at Harry before more loud bangs were heard from the door as it shook. Finally, the door, unable to take the strain anymore, burst off of its hinges, creaking and groaning as it fell to the ground with a similar sonorous thud. Harry watched as the Dursleys screamed at the silhouette that framed the door. The giant of a man that took up the doorframe was made even more intimidating by the lightning lighting up behind him and thunder announcing his presence.

Uncle Vernon blindly fired his shotgun in a panic but the pellets did nothing as the man was holding his umbrella in front of him and the pellets bounced off a seemingly invisible shield. As the giant walked in he bent down slightly and raised to his full eight and a-half-foot height glaring at the man who had shot at him.

The tone changed however when the giant man with a large brown mane of hair looked around the room saying, “Sorry ‘bout that. I don’t try and make a habit of knockin’ down doors.”

The Dursleys gaped at the giant man as he picked up the door and slammed it back into the doorframe with surprising success. Harry listened to his deep voice with a prominent accent with curiosity but didn’t move from his hiding spot.

Uncle Vernon had stopped his gaping and had begun yelling, “I told you that you should leave! You’re breaking and entering on my property!” Aunt Petunia held fearfully onto Uncle Vernon as he grew a bit fearful himself at the approaching giant of a man.

The man said in a loud commanding voice, “Shut up, Dursley! You dull bastard!” as he said this he grabbed Uncle Vernon’s shotgun and bent it in half before dropping the useless pieces of metal on the ground.

He left the two shaking adults and turned to the only child he could see, Dudley. “My, my, Harry! I ‘aven’t seen ye since ye were ah baby! You’re a bit bigger than I was expecting, ‘specially ‘round the middle, but that hardly matters dunnit?”

Dudley glanced at Harry and nervously spoke, “I-I’m not Harry.” Harry thought about it for a moment as he looked at the giant man that spoke with familiarity. He was already in Harry’s good books for standing up to the Dursleys, something that he hadn’t seen anyone do before. For the first time in his life, Harry felt hopeful. Hopeful that maybe his wish had come true, hopeful that he could get away from the people that hated him too much for him to call family.

However, he reeled in his hope as he breathed out and stepped from the hiding place, facing the giant man. “I’m Harry.” The man nodded, “Ahh well o’ course, you’re Harry!” Harry felt a bit confused at his words but didn’t say anything as the man continued speaking. “I got somethin’ for ya. I suppose it might be a bit squished but it’ll taste just the same.”

He pulled out a small package in a white box wrapped in a blue ribbon tied with a bow at the top of the box. Harry examined the box for a moment and looked back up at the large man standing silently with an expectant look on his face. “I baked it myself and even put the words on it for ya!” Harry shrugged slightly and opened the box to find a cake coated in frosting and the words ‘HAPPEE BIRTHDAE HARRY’ written on it. He chuckled to himself at the misspelling but felt happy at the thought behind the cake.

Harry looked up at the smiling man with a small smile, “You made this for me? Thank you.” The large man hummed and spoke up, “Well, o’ course! It’s not every day that a young man turns eleven!” Harry nodded and placed the cake on the corner of the couch as the man sat down on it, making the couch creak with his weight.

Harry stared in awe as the man once again picked up his umbrella and flames flew out of the tip of it, restarting the fire that had been out only seconds before. Harry did want to ask about the strange occurrence, but he had more pressing concerns that had been with him since the man appeared. “Um, who are you?” The large man didn’t look at Harry as he spoke, stoking the fire. “I’m Rubeus Hagrid, keeper of keys and grounds at Hogwarts but you know all about Hogwarts don’t ya?”

Harry looked at Hagrid with confusion, “I’ve only read it on the front of the letter I got. A school of witchcraft and wizardry?” Hagrid looked confused as well as he looked at Dursleys. “That’s all you know? Have they told you anything about Hogwarts? About where your mother learned everything?” Harry was catching on slowly, still not quite believing what he was saying.

“To be a witch?” Harry said this with uncertainty because he had considered the reason why he was sent the letters. Of course, he knew that he was different from other people but a whole school of people like him was something he didn’t want to think about. He didn’t want to have hope that he had somewhere to belong, something with exactly what he had wished for.

Uncle Vernon was having none of it however as he began yelling once again, having regained his courage somehow. “No No NO NO! I told you that you shouldn’t talk about that freakishness!” Uncle Vernon, in his rage, had forgotten about Hagrid and stomped over to Harry and raised his hand for a swing but was stopped by Hagrid grabbing his arm.

“What were ye ‘bout to do Dursley?” Hagrid said this with a calm voice filled with venom as Harry raised his hands in front of him, still expecting the blow. He opened his eyes as Hagrid spoke and looked at Hagrid with awe once again.

Hagrid sighed when Uncle Vernon didn’t say anything and pushed him back onto the stairs turning to Harry, “I was going to explain a bit more, but it would seem this conversation would be better done in private.” Harry nodded, thankful to the new giant man, and turned as he heard some noises off to the side of him.

Hagrid turned with Harry and gasped as he saw Dudley eating the cake that he had made for Harry with a gasp, “Ye little pig! That’s not for ye!” Hagrid was going to take the cake from him but it was already half gone and Dudley was cowering from him. Hagrid instead decided to punish the boy a bit, so he would hopefully learn some manners.

He mumbled a spell under his breath while pointing his umbrella at Dudley. A small ball of light came out of the umbrella and suddenly Dudley had grown a pig’s tail and snout. This made Harry laugh loudly for the first time in years. He felt so happy in that one moment at Dudley's shock that he ended up feeling comfortable enough to change almost unconsciously. His voice became more feminine and his hair grew, flashing between green and black.

He had stopped laughing a few moments later, hints of his hair were still green and his face was more feminine than usual. He wiped the tears from his eyes and saw Hagrids look of surprise on his face and the look of loathing on Petunia and Vernon’s faces. He saw the looks on their faces and quickly changed his face and hair back to their default form, mumbling an apology.

He feared that Hagrid would hate him just as the Dursleys did for his strange ability. However, Hagrid didn’t say anything about it and glanced over to the Dursleys that were giving Harry a death glare. He began walking towards the door motioning to Harry, “Let’s get going then, Harry. I have places to show you since your family here won’t.” While Harry was a bit wary of him, Hagrid had been nothing but nice to him since he arrived and told him more about his parents, at least his mother, than he had ever known before. So he quickly followed Hagrid out the door into the storm outside of the shack.

Harry could barely hear Hagrid over the booming thunder and rain as he yelled to him, “Get on the bike!” Harry did as he was told and hopped into the sidecar, being handed a helmet by Hagrid along with some goggles. He motioned for Harry to put them on and magically they somehow fit him.

Harry looked around wondering how the bike had gotten on the island before Hagrid yelled, “Hold onto something because the storm’s looking a bit wild and I don’t want ye to fall off!”

Harry nodded as the bike lurched as it started and Hagrid twisted the throttle speeding straight toward the ocean. Harry looked on curiously but also slightly worried as they kept heading forward, the water getting closer by the second. Harry gasped as he noticed the ground moving away from him and when they went over the edge they didn’t fall into the water but flew straight over it gaining height quickly!

Harry gaped in awe looking down at the ocean with an amazed smile. While he had been scared of the storm while in the boat, now there were no waves to deal with and the motorbike was flying much smoother than the boat was sailing. He let out a whoop of joy that Hagrid smiled at before he sped up and pushed through the storm clouds, protected from lightning by the bike’s magic.

It was calmer above the clouds but it was still pretty noisy, so as much as Harry wanted to ask questions, he couldn’t have. He instead tried to rest a bit on the journey that took a few hours. It was hard but he hadn’t slept at all so far so he eventually fell asleep for the last 2 hours of the ride. Hagrid had cast a silencing charm to help Harry sleep as he flew them to London.

Chapter Text

Harry woke up as Hagrid touched down on land once again, parking his bike in an alley before waving his umbrella and shrinking the bike small enough so that it can fit in his pocket. Harry looked on in amazement at the magic on display and Hagrid smiled as Harry looked at the simple spell. “Ye will be learning much more than that at Hogwarts, Harry. Now let’s go get some breakfast, neither of us has had anythin’ to eat in a bit and I bet yer starvin’ ain’t ye?”

Harry nodded as Hagrid walked into the semi-busy streets of London, waving his umbrella and mumbling a spell. He noticed how once Hagrid did the spell no one seemed to notice them anymore and grew curious about how they didn’t see them. “Hagrid, wouldn’t someone say something about how big you are? I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone as big as you before.”

Hagrid chuckled to himself, “It’s a muggle repelling charm Harry, we can walk by them and they won’t even bat an eye. Now, I’m not supposed to do magic, but ye need some food and I can’t let ye go around London alone.” Harry nodded and looked around at everyone ignoring them before turning to Hagrid. 

“What’s a muggle?” Hagrid looked down at Harry as he asked, expecting questions after he heard what the Dursleys spouted.

“A muggle is a person with no magic. They work a bit differently than witches and wizards like ourselves.” Harry nodded and noted that Hagrid had included him when he said ‘ourselves’. “So, I’m a wizard? Like you said my mother was?”

Hagrid nodded with a proud smile, “Yes, and a thumpin’ good one I’d wager! Yer mother was a great witch, Harry. I didn’t know her much personally, but I ain’t heard a single bad thing about her. From every reputable source at least.”

Harry listened to Hagrid as he spoke and walked with him in silence for a few minutes before they arrived at a seemingly run-down storefront. “Ah, We’ve arrived. Now, Harry, I might want to warn ye that yer a bit famous in the wizarding world. There shouldn’t be many people in there, but if ye feel uncomfortable wit’ too much attention, ye could try the trick ye did back wit’ the Dursleys. Mainly to cover up your scar, since that’s what people know about ye.” Harry looked in confusion at Hagrid for a moment before realizing what he meant, “You mean when I…changed?” Harry pointed to his hair nervously as he spoke a little hesitantly.

Hagrid nodded with a smile, “Ye can do it whenever ye want, right?” Harry hesitantly nodded and Hagrid continued smiling, “It’s what I thought, then. I can explain more inside and ye can change if it feels more comfortable for ye.” 

Harry nodded and looked around before remembering what Hagrid had said about the charm and while his worries didn’t go away completely, he managed to concentrate and change his face so that he looked less like himself and grew out his hair, covering up his scar and making it brown. He changed his voice only slightly as he spoke to Hagrid, who was watching with interest, “I-I’m ready to go in.”

Harry was a bit nervous but Hagrid patted him on the back as he pulled him into the door of what looked like a small restaurant. Harry looked around to see a few people in strange robes sitting at tables, talking to each other.

Hagrid walked up to a woman that was doing something at a counter. The woman had long brown hair striking blue eyes and a radiance to her that made Harry feel slightly happier immediately, “Could we get a table for two?” She looked up with a smile, recognizing the man. “Rubeus! It’s been a while since I’ve seen you!”

Hagrid waved his arm back towards Harry, “I’ve been on Hogwarts business to introduce this one to how wizard folk do things.” She nodded as if understanding the situation, “Well, then I expect you’ll want your meal and be on your way.” The woman turned to Harry, “It was nice meeting you, I hope I’ll see you more sometime.” Harry muttered out a shy thanks, not used to the politeness as she brought them to a table and got the menus. 

Luckily, Harry recognized some of the foods on the menu. Most of the foods he had never heard of and guessed that only magical people ate. However, it seemed that pancakes were universal. He hadn’t had any before but he wanted to try them. Once the food was ordered, Hagrid began speaking to Harry, “So, ye weren’t able to read yer letter were ye?”

Harry shook his head with a frown, “They didn’t let me, I only read a part of the letter before they took it.” Hagrid hummed in disapproval with a frown, “Well, I came to deliver your letter and make sure that you got all of the right supplies.” Hagrid pulled a letter out from his large coat and handed it to Harry. Harry smiled as he took the letter, his eyes flashing a few shades of green before settling down to brown again. Harry opened the letter and began reading it out loud to Hagrid. 

Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry

Headmaster: Albus Dumbledore (Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock, Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. of Wizards)

Dear Mr. Potter,

We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment. Term begins on September 1. We await your owl by no later than July 31.

Yours sincerely,

Minerva McGonagall Deputy Headmistress

Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry

UNIFORM First-year students will require: 1. Three sets of plain work robes (black) 2. One plain pointed hat (black) for day wear 3.One pair of protective gloves (dragon hide or similar) 4. One winter cloak (black, with silver fastenings) Please note that all pupil's clothes should carry name tags.

COURSE BOOKS All students should have a copy of each of the following:

• The Standard Book of Spells (Grade 1) by Miranda Goshawk

• A History of Magic by Bathilda Bagshot

• Magical Theory by Adalbert Waffling

• A Beginner's Guide to Transfiguration by Emeric Switch

• One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi by Phyllida Spore

• Magical Drafts and Potions by Arsenius Jigger

• Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them by Newt Scamander

• The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection by Quentin Trimble

OTHER EQUIPMENT

1 wand

1 cauldron (pewter, standard size 2)

1 set glass or crystal phials

1 telescope

1 set brass scales

Students may also bring an owl OR a cat OR a toad.

PARENTS ARE REMINDED THAT FIRST YEARS ARE NOT ALLOWED THEIR OWN BROOMSTICK

Harry looked at Hagrid feeling a bit overwhelmed, “Where are we supposed to get all of these? Here in London?” Hagrid gave a small smile and whispered to Harry as if keeping a secret. “If you know where to look, you can anything you need.”

Harry huffed a laugh at Hagrid and folded up the letter, placing it back on the table. Hagrid took the letter back and placed it in his pocket as the food arrived and the two of them began to eat. Harry was curious as he noticed something when Hagrid spoke, “How come you’ve never mentioned my father? Is he still alive? I know my mother died in a car accident but I’ve never heard about-”

Hagrid interrupted Harry with a scowl and a yell in outrage, “A car crash?! Did the Dursleys tell ye that?!” Harry looked a bit scared and his hair shortened a little bit as he nodded. Hagrid saw the fear in Harry and took a few breaths, ignoring the looks of the people around him. “Sorry about yelling. I jus’ find it ridiculous that ye would be told that yer mother died in jus’ a car crash.” Harry returned back to his normal transformed state and he asked another question nervously, “So how did she die?” 

Hagrid sighed and quieted his voice, “Yer mother was fighting against a real bad man who did terrible things. One night he came to her house, to kill her. She fought to try and keep you safe but ended up dying while protecting you.” Harry frowned and thought about it for a moment, still noting that his father hadn’t been mentioned.

“The reason why you’re so famous, Harry, is because the dark wizard that killed yer mother tried to kill ye too. However, the killing curse that he cast at you as a baby reflected back at him and killed him instead. The man is known as He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named. You didn’t hear this from me but his real name was…” Hagrid whispered the last word even more quietly, “Voldemort.” Harry shivered a little bit at the name of his mother’s murderer.

Hagrid continued, finally answering the question Harry had asked. “And about yer father, I don’t know who he is. Yer mother left for America for a few years and when she came back, she was pregnant with ye. People have tried to figure out who yer father is, but no one knows and they couldn’t do an ancestry test on ye without yer blood.” Harry looked thoughtful for a moment as he ran his hands through his long hair as it changed colors and his face morphed, emotions getting the better of him, eventually sighing heavily and returning to its previous appearance. “Well, at least I know what happened to my mother now. How do you do one of those…ancestry tests?” 

Hagrid smiled at Harry and huffed a laugh at how well he took the news about his parents. He saw that Harry was getting stares from his appearance changing but luckily no one said anything as he spoke again, “You’d go to a Gringotts Bank to do it. Goblins are a greedy bunch and protect money like no other and handle many witches' and wizards' affairs, including holding records of family lines. It’s the safest place in the world to store something, other than Hogwarts of course. They perform rituals to determine a person’s ancestry with their blood.”

Harry was interested in how the wizarding world worked and grew more curious as time went on. He thought about how it was just like those stories he used to read in school about the greek gods, witches, and heroes. Harry questioned Hagrid curiously, “Goblins are real? What other…magical creatures exist?” Hagrid laughed heartily, “I’m glad to see that you’re excited to learn! However, that’s what Hogwarts is for and I’m sure that ye can read all about it in the books that we need to go get.”

Hagrid checked his watch noting the time, “Speaking of, we should get going, I have an appointment at Gringott’s. We can pick up money for yer supplies as well from yer mother’s vault.” 

“My mother has a vault still?” Hagrid smiled as he stood up from the table, taking out several coins from a bag and walking up to the counter where the woman from before was waiting for them. “Well, she left an inheritance for ye, and a sizable one I’d bet. Yer mother had quite a fortune.”

Harry wondered how much his mother could have left him. He never had any money to buy himself what he wanted. He was taken out of his thoughts by the woman at the counter after she accepted the coins from Hagrid. She looked at Harry with a kind smile, “You’re a metamorphmagus aren’t you? No wonder Hagrid here is personally helping you! The thing you did with your hair earlier was amazing!” Harry blushed and his hair turned a mix of pink and green as he felt happy and embarrassed, not expecting the praise.

He schooled himself and returned his hair back to normal with an amused smirk from the lady. “Wow, thank you...” She ruffled his hair and chuckled. Harry smiled, his hair turning green again before he willingly stopped the change halfway, trying to keep control of his body as, for the first time, he couldn’t control it. Normally it was so easy but now he was struggling to not change his hair color and size. He felt like he wanted to be bigger than usual. He eventually calmed down and returned to his default look, short black hair and all once they left the restaurant. 

He mustered up the courage to speak as they walked down the street, “Hagrid, what did that woman call me?” Hagrid was waiting for this question once he heard her say the word. “A metamorphmagus is what she called ye. Metamorphmagus’ can change their body however they want, from the shape of their face and body to the color of their hair. I had guessed tha’ ye were one when I saw what happened in tha’ rundown shack with the Dursleys. Transfiguring one's own body is a difficult task and the only ones that can do it on their own are metamorphmagi. It’s an incredibly rare ability and I only know of one other in the world. She actually went to Hogwarts as well but I don’t think you’ll get to meet her, sadly.”

Harry was surprised at how…unique he was. He didn’t think that what he could do would be that much of an uncommon occurrence in a world of magic. He willed his body to stay the same as he grew more worried about fitting in. Harry was pulled out of his thinking as Hagrid spoke, “Alright, we’re here.” Harry looked at the sign as Hagrid opened the door, with it reading ‘The Leaky Cauldron’. Harry didn’t have time to change as he feared losing Hagrid and quickly followed him inside. 

Walking into what looked like another restaurant of some kind, Harry heard the sounds of people speaking and what sounded like a lute, playing music. He looked around, still following behind Hagrid, at people wearing the same robes and old-timey clothes that the people in the other restaurant were. The tables looked old and wooden with candles and lamps lighting them. He looked up as he heard a loud voice, “Ah Hagrid! Do you want the usual?”

Hagrid shook his head and placed a hand on Harry’s shoulder, “I’m ‘fraid not Tom, I’m on official Hogwarts business. I’m helping Harry here get the school supplies he’ll need.” Tom was silent for a moment with shock, realizing who it must be, “Oh, bless me, it’s Harry Potter!”

At Tom’s words, the whole room was silent before people began walking over to the boy, greeting him and welcoming him back. He felt nervous but was able to keep his body in check as he silently shook hands with various people who spoke to him with a familiarity that made him uncomfortable. 

He walked through the place, eventually coming upon an unassuming man wearing a turban on his head. When Harry’s eyes met the man’s form, his scar ached a dull throb, but he didn’t have time to think about it as the man greeted him, “H-harry P…Potter, I can’t tell you how p-pleased I am to m-meet you.” Hagrid spoke with familiarity to the strange man, “Ah, Professor, I didn’t think you’d be here. This is Professor Quirrel, Harry, he’ll be your Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher.”

Harry gave a small smile to the strange man trying to be friendly as he held out his hand, “It’s nice to meet you, Professor.” Quirrel recoiled from the outstretched hand, “I-I look forward t-to seeing you in my class P-potter! Not that y-ou’ll n-need it.”

Quirrel let out a nervous-sounding laugh and Hagrid butted in, “It’s best that we’ll be going on now.” Hagrid then spoke loudly enough for everyone to hear, “We’ve got places to be and things to buy, so we’ll be on our way!” Harry followed Hagrid, letting out a ‘goodbye’ as he passed Quirrel and they moved out of ‘The Leaky Cauldron’ through a backdoor that led to a small bricked-off area. 

Harry didn’t see any exit as he looked around the small area with garbage cans in the corner wondering where they were going. Hagrid glanced back at Harry, pulling out his umbrella, “I told ye that ye were famous Harry, a lot of people didn’t like He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named. Ye are their hero, Harry, and I doubt that it will stop soon. I would suggest that ye prepare yourself for more of that.”

Harry nodded, worried but he told himself to keep it in mind for the future. He didn’t want all of this attention, much less to be famous for something that seemed like an accident. However, the people in ‘The Leaky Cauldron’ made him realize just how many people know who he is. Even if he was a…metamorphmagus, he couldn’t just hide because of that same fact. He was a unique occurrence and he couldn’t escape his unearned fame.

Harry sighed as a wave of purple passed through his hair and through his eyes before he saw Hagrid tap his umbrella on the bricks in a pattern. A rumble was heard as the bricks shook and began to grind as they moved, splitting apart to reveal a lively image. “This is Diagon Alley, Harry! Best place to get yer school supplies!” 

Harry gasped at the sight, there were dozens of people milling about a small street with shops lining the two sides of it. He looked around following Hagrid through the crowded street as he explained what the various shops were. Harry saw a shop of books and a shop with brooms in the window labeled as ‘racing brooms’. He passed by a shop of owls looking at them with awe as he hadn’t seen them up close before. However, the feeling was unreciprocated as they started screeching at him as he moved past them, some even pecking him.

He yelped and ran from them as the shop owner batted them away, Harry’s hair growing a bright yellow and he shrank a foot gaining a much younger appearance. Hagrid helped for a moment shooing off the attacking owls and shielding the scared Harry from them. “Get off ye beautiful creatures!” Harry returned to normal as Hagrid pulled him away from the shop with a sigh. “Sorry about tha’! Normally those owls are as peaceful as a dove.”

Harry’s hair then turned purple as he saw the stares coming from people around him. Many were looks of awe and surprise at his changes but Hagrid paid them no attention as he rushed Harry into the comparatively barren Gringotts Bank, at the end of the small road. Harry sighed in relief, willing his hair to turn back to its normal black and his body to grow as Hagrid walked him past many of the high desks of Gringotts Bank.

Harry looked at the creatures that he assumed were goblins, from what Hagrid had told him. He tried not to stare too much at their foreign appearance but wondered if he could make himself look like a goblin. Soon they stopped at a desk at the end back of the bank, Hagrid clearing his throat to get the attention of the goblin that was eye level with him. 

The goblin looked up from what it was writing with a scowl that didn’t deter Hagrid a single bit, much to the annoyance of the goblin. “Harry Potter here would like to make a withdrawal. Oh, and Dumbledore told me to hand this to ye, It’s about…you know what in the vault you know which.”

Hagrid handed the goblin a sealed letter and Harry looked up to Hagrid speaking up hesitantly, “A-and an ancestry test.” Harry turned to the goblin that had leaned over the desk, “Um, Please.” Harry was curious about what Hagrid had said but it was obviously not for him to hear, so he didn’t say anything about it.

The goblin huffed a rough laugh of amusement before turning to Hagrid, “That can be arranged with payment, but does Mr. Harry Potter have his key?” Hagrid nodded and pointed a finger up, “Ah yes of course, just wait a moment.”

Hagrid shuffled through his pockets for a few seconds before he let out an ‘ah ha’ and pulled out a key with a triumphant smile, “There’s the little devil!” The goblin let out a hum and got off his desk motioning for the two of them to follow.

Harry held on tight to the cart as they moved deeper into Gringotts. He looked at the vaults as they passed by them and he grew a bit bored, his foot tapping until they stopped at a vault door. “Vault 687!” The goblin pulled himself out of the cart and held his hand out to Hagrid, “Lamp, please!” Hagrid silently handed the goblin the lamp and got out of the cart as well.

Harry followed behind looking at the vault door with interest as the goblin held out his hand again, “Key, please!” Hagrid bent down, handing the goblin the key and it took the key from him before opening a circular plate and inserting the key into a lock. There was an audible click when the goblin turned the key and Harry could hear a series of clangs and clicks as the vault opened. There was a final hiss as it swing open, revealing a pile of golden coins several feet tall. Harry gasped and stared at the coins for a moment, stock still. Hagrid chuckled and patted Harry on the shoulder, “I told ye that yer mother left ye an inheritance.” 

Hagrid walked into the vault and grabbed a few handfuls of coins, putting them in a small drawstring bag. He closed the back and gave it to Harry, who expected it to be pretty heavy, however, it was as light as a feather.

After getting money for Harry’s school supplies, the goblin brought Hagrid to another vault. Harry wanted to ask what was inside but like before, he didn’t want to pry when it wasn’t his business. Instead of a key, the goblin just waved its hand in front of the vault door to open it. Inside of the vault was a small round object about two inches wide, wrapped up in cloth.

Hagrid walked inside the vault and grabbed it, placing it in his pocket as he spoke to Harry. “Ye probably shouldn’t mention this to anyone, Harry. Official Hogwarts business and all.” Harry nodded at Hagrid and took a final look at the vault before it shut and they took the cart back up to the surface with the goblin. 

Harry was excited but also nervous about his ancestry test. The goblin took Hagrid and Harry to a room in the back of the bank where there was a desk. On the desk, there were only four things, only a quill, an ink pot, parchment, and a nametag that read “Griphook”. After Griphook closed the door behind him and sat in his chair, he shuffled through a drawer for a moment before pulling out a seemingly unremarkable piece of parchment. “Now, first of all, payment,” Griphook spoke looking at Harry.

Hagrid looked like he was going to speak up but Harry beat him to it. “Ah, yes, of course…Mr. Griphook. Is this enough?” Harry pulled out a couple of gold coins from his bag that they had just retrieved and handed them to the outstretched hand of the goblin. Griphook smiled, showing off his pointed teeth. He pulled back his hand and dropped the coins into a drawer with Harry hearing an audible clink as they fell down into it as if dropping onto more coins. “Polite wand waver you are, well not yet I suppose. Now give me your hand.”

Harry nodded and held out his hand to Griphook and yelped just as suddenly as the goblin took a sharp claw and poked Harry’s hand, making blood begin to slowly pool up and drip from it. 

Harry didn’t move as the goblin tipped over his hand, letting the blood drip onto the page. Griphook let go of Harry’s hand as he spoke in an unknown language, moving his hands over the parchment. The blood began to move, tendrils of dark red spreading throughout the page forming a web of lines with boxes on the left side of the paper before the blood sank into the page and began to change colors.

Slowly faces began to appear, and for the first time, Harry saw his mother’s face. He touched it once the ritual was finished but looked curiously as only his mother’s family seemed to be on the page. He saw Aunt Petunia and his grandparents, but not his father or his family. Hagrid looked at the page with a furrowed brow, scratching his beard. “That’s a bit peculiar. Yer father should be on here.” Griphook nodded in agreement and placed his head on his interlocked hands. 

"In my many years of working here at Gringotts, I haven’t seen something like this before. For an additional fee, I can do a little bit of research on your behalf.” Hagrid glared at Griphook, “I’m sure that we can find out on our own.” Harry understood that Hagrid was probably worried about Harry being extorted. However, he wanted to know why his father wasn’t there. He pulled out another couple of gold coins from his pouch and placed them on the desk, “You’ve been nice and helpful Mr. Griphook, I trust you to try your best to find out about it.” Harry spoke honestly to the goblin, to the surprise of Hagrid.

Once again Griphook gave a toothy smile as he took the coins. “You’re an amusing one, Mr. Potter. I look forward to working with you from now on, provided that you pay me of course.” Harry smiled back at the goblin with a dark green shade appearing on his hair, “Of course, Mr. Griphook.” 

Harry was interested in almost everything in Diagon Alley. There were so many strange and new things that he hadn’t seen before, he got a closer look at many of the shops, including the broom shop. He was saddened that he couldn’t have one as a first-year because he really wanted to learn how to fly one. Harry avoided the owl shop as he moved by with Hagrid as they weaved through different stores buying the supplies that he needed.

Harry looked at the potion ingredients with interest in the apothecary, wondering how these ingredients combined to make potions or how potions worked in general. When they entered the bookstore, Harry looked around for a while at the different books picking up all the ones he needed and a few that he didn’t. He didn’t usually get to read with the Dursleys and it was only at school that he was able to. He wanted to know more about this strange world of magic and monsters. He didn’t want to be treated like an idiot again like he was at his old school. He wanted to do good in his classes and learn to be a really good wizard. 

When they went into ‘ Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions’, Harry immediately disliked the idea of wearing the robes that they had on display. He didn’t know much about clothes but he knew he didn’t like Dudley’s hand-me-downs and he didn’t like those long robes. “Hagrid, do I have to wear these robes at Hogwarts? Why not wear something more…modern, I guess?” Hagrid looked at Harry from the robes he was previously examining. Harry was getting measured for his robe size but didn’t think it was necessary if he could just change his size whenever he wanted. He could just change to fit whatever he wanted to wear.

Hagrid chuckled slightly, rubbing his beard, “Well, the magical world is a bit behind compared to muggles. Magic doesn’t exactly react well to fancy technology like computers and whatnot. So it hasn’t changed much in a long time. The robes are mandatory but ye don’t have to worry about them being too uncomfortable, all manner of charms are put onto them to make them comfortable to wear.” Harry nodded, taking in the information, feeling a bit better about wearing the robes.

After Harry got most of his supplies, the one thing left was to get his wand. Harry was left outside of ‘Ollivander’s’ with Hagrid telling him, “I’ve got one more thing to do, just go on in. Ollivander will help ye get the wand that ye need.” However, Harry was in for more than he imagined as he stepped through the doors to the wand shop.

Chapter Text

Harry walked into the wand shop looking around at the multitude of stacked rectangular boxes throughout the shop. He placed his bought supplies on a nearby shelf as he continued looking. Boxes were lining the walls and there was a lone counter in the middle of the room that Harry walked up to. Peering into the back of the shop Harry didn’t see anyone as he saw rows of shelves holding more boxes much like the ones in the front of the shop and drawers of similar size to the boxes. 

“Hello? Is anyone here?” Harry called out to the back of the shop. He was spooked as an older man with curly white hair in olden formal attire slid into his line of sight on a moving ladder. The ladder made a thud that startled Harry making his hair turn a momentary dark yellow before returning to black when he realized there was no danger. “Ah, Mr. Potter! I’ve been wondering when I’d be seeing you.” 

The man climbed off of the ladder with practiced ease and moved his hands along the boxes that were behind him. “It seems like just yesterday that your Mother came in here to buy her first wand. Ah, got it.” 

Ollivander pulled out a box from the shelf and carried it over to Harry pulling a wand out of the box. “Here we go, give this one a try.” He handed the wand over to Harry who stared at it for a moment before he spoke again, waving his hand, “Give it a wave!” Harry nodded and waved the wand over to his right, promptly making the drawers next to the ladder explode out and slam into the boxes and wall opposite them. 

Harry jumped flashing a purple mixed with yellow and placing the wand gently on the counter. “Well, that’s not it at all! A metamorphmagus, I should have taken that into account. Not just a metamorphmagus either.” Ollivander studied Harry for a few seconds before speaking once more, “Yes, you are very special Mr. Potter. One wand won’t do, you’ve got two sources of magic. Two sources require two wands.” 

Harry looked confused and opened his mouth to ask a question before Ollivander put a finger up in front of Harry, “Now wait a moment, I’ve got an idea.” The wandmaker walked off and grabbed a box, repeating the same process as before. This time Harry blew up a vase and just as quickly put the wand down. 

This happened several times in a row before Ollivander finally handed Harry the strangest wand he had seen yet. It was black with a twist to the wood that followed all the way up to the tip of the wand. The wand wasn’t straight, instead, it had a curve to it after the grip it bent down a centimeter or 2 before straightening out, leaving the tip of the wand right in front of Harry’s index finger instead of sticking out straight above it. It was a long wand of 13 inches which intrigued Ollivander. 

Harry felt a connection with the wand and smiled as he waved it around and nothing exploded. “Very Interesting, Mr. Potter. 13-inch Ebony wand with a Dragon Heartstring core and quite bendy too, a powerful wand for sure. Now let’s find your second wand…” Ollivander stood for a moment pondering while staring back at the shelves. “I do wonder…” He walked to a shelf in the back of the shop searching it before grabbing a box and taking it to the counter. 

Pulling out the wand for Harry, Ollivander looked on in curiosity as he handed the wand to him. Harry immediately felt a connection with the wand, a much stronger one than the Ebony wand, and felt a warm feeling holding the new shorter wand in his hand. “Curious, very curious Mr. Potter.” 

Harry looked back at Ollivander, “What’s curious about it, mister?” Ollivander pointed to Harry’s new wand, “It is curious because that wand’s core is a phoenix feather. I know every single wand that I have ever sold. The wand chooses the wizard Mr. Potter and it is curious that the only other feather that the phoenix dropped was put in a wand of a wizard that did great and terrible things. In fact, was the same wand that gave you that scar upon your head.” 

Harry touched his scar thoughtfully, looking at his Holly wand and then back to Ollivander, “He-who-shall-not-be-named…” Ollivander nodded and then pulled out something from a drawer behind the counter. 

He pulled out a box, opened it, and then placed two objects on the counter. “Usually, I don’t recommend it for first-years, but seeing as you have two wands, I suggest that you get a holster for them  It might be a bit long for your robe’s pockets and It’s not good to part a wizard with their wand.” Harry nodded and picked a leather holster that would attach to his leg or arm. It was big enough to fit both wands at the same time, luckily. 

Harry heard a knock on the window as he attached the holster under his right pant leg, as his ebony wand was too long for his arm. Sliding his wands into the holster he looked back at the window to see Hagrid waving to him with a cage in his hands. “Happy birthday, Harry!” In the cage was a large cat that was blueish with gray coloring on its belly. 

Ollivander told Harry the price of his wands and holster and he paid the wandmaker before grabbing his supplies from the shelf where he left them and walking out of the door to see Hagrid standing with the cage. Harry looked into the eyes of the cat noticing that it was staring straight at him. He walked closer to the cat examining it with curiosity. He noticed its strange ears and tail that looked, unlike cats he’s normally seen. 

Reaching a hand up to the cage the cat sniffed him and looked at him for a moment before licking his hand. Harry smiled as his hair turned green and pet the cat through the bars of the cage, “What kind of cat is this Hagrid? I don’t think I’ve ever seen it before.” Hagrid smiled at Harry bonding with his new friend, “That there is a half-kneazle! Clever cats they are, a hybrid between a right clever magical beast and an average house cat. Half-kneazles are still plenty clever and ye can bring him with ye to Hogwarts.” Harry smiled but the cat looked to Hagrid, giving him the best approximation of a scowl that a cat can make. 

Harry laughed, “I like him already!” The cat then turned to Harry, shaking its head. Which made him laugh again, “Her then?” The cat nodded and Hagrid hummed in curiosity. Harry pet the cat a bit more, “What should I name you then? You’re a like mythical creature so maybe you could get a matching name. I know a bit of Greek mythology, so what about…Athena? She’s smart just like you.” 

The cat nodded, preening itself and Harry stopped petting her. “Athena it is, then.” Hagrid checked the time and gasped, “Oh Blimey! We need to get ye to King’s Cross Station or else ye won’t catch the train on time!” Harry’s hair changed to purple as he grew worried about missing the train. He didn’t want to end up stuck in London, or worse, with the Dursleys. 

Hagrid walked him to King’s Cross Station from Diagon Alley, leaving him on a platform with a ticket that read ‘Platform 9 ¾’. Harry was confused at the strange platform number but tried to find it nonetheless. He walked until he found platforms 9 and 10, looking for any sign of platform 9 ¾ but had no luck. Harry decided to ask someone where it was since he couldn’t find it himself, however, the man that he asked was less than helpful. 

Harry’s luck turned around when he heard a red-haired woman walk by saying the word ‘muggle’. A word he had only heard from wizards and witches in the past day. Harry smiled, glad that he could probably ask them where to go. As he wasn’t in Diagon Alley anymore, he prevented his hair and body from changing as he grew excited at the idea of going to a school for magic! 

The woman in question was pulling along a young girl and four boys had trolleys just like him as they followed the older woman. Harry watched as they all stopped and the woman waved her hand to one of the pillars in the middle of the two platforms. “Alright Percy, you go first.” One of the boys, who looked a little bit older moved his trolley in the middle of the platforms and ran it straight into the pillar, passing through it and disappearing. 

Harry let out a quiet ‘Woah’ before the woman spoke again to two identical-looking boys. “You next, Fred!” The other boy sounded appalled as he responded, “He’s not Fred, I am!” The one she spoke to first spoke back not a moment later, “Honestly woman, and you call yourself our mother.” She let out a huff of frustration as if she deals with such situations way too often. “Ah, I’m sorry George!” She gestures to the pillar and the boy got in the same position as Percy did, “I was only joking! I am Fred!” The woman sighed as both of the boys went into the pillar with mischievous smiles on their faces. 

Harry, not wanting to wait too long, yelled out to get their attention, “Excuse me!” Harry pushed his cart over once he got their attention, “Can you tell me how to get…through?” 

The woman nodded with a chuckle, “Yes, not to worry, dear!” She pointed to the last and youngest boy beside him, “It’s Ron’s first time at Hogwarts as well!” Ron nodded as she spoke with a small smile. “Now all you have to do is walk straight through the wall right there and if you’re a bit nervous, I suggest you get a bit of a running start.” 

She pointed at the wall and Harry gave her a nervous smile as he walked up to the platform with the girl wishing him luck. He flashed her a smile before he looked at the wall and let out a nervous, shaky breath. He wasn’t used to talking to so many strangers before and he’s talked to so many in just a few hours that it’s been a bit nerve-wracking. He shook his head lightly before running right at the wall like she said, bracing for impact. He passed straight through the wall and let out a relieved sigh.

He looked behind him seeing a solid wall and spoke to Athena on the front of his cart, “We’ve made it in time.” He let his hair turn green for a moment before he walked forward and around a corner to find a steam locomotive in all of its glory in front of him with ‘Hogwarts Express’ in big lettering on the front. He let out a short laugh as he looked at it because you don’t see many steam trains anymore and seeing one up close was exciting for him. 

His hair turned a splotchy green and purple as he reached out to touch the train, “Take a look at this Athena! It looks like it’s brand new!” Athena took a look at it and flicked her tail, meowing in response to him. A few other people stood with him looking at the train, one being a girl with long untamed brown hair. “It runs completely on magic! They don’t even need to use steam anymore for it!” 

Harry turned to the girl, “How can they run a train on magic? Do they cast spells on it over and over again?” The girl shrugged and looked at Harry, glancing at his hair turning back to its normal black along with his eyes back to a darker green. “I don’t know. I just read about it in Hogwarts: a History.” Harry perked up in recognition, “Oh I got that book too, I haven’t had a chance to read it yet since I just got it today.” 

The girl nodded and held out her hand, “You should read it, it’s really quite fascinating! My name is Hermione Granger.” Harry smiled at her and shook her hand, “My name is Harry Potter, it’s nice to meet you.” She gasped and luckily, everyone else that had been there already walked off so only she heard his name. “You’re the Boy-who-lived. Is everything that they say about you true?” 

Harry’s hair turned a pink color as the girl got closer to him and it grew a few inches. “Ummm… I don’t know. Also, they call me the Boy-who-lived? That sounds a bit rubbish, doesn’t it?” The girl looked at his hair in fascination and looked like she was about to speak before Athena yowled catching the attention of Harry and Hermione. 

She pointed a paw to the now much more empty platform and Harry gasped, his hair shortening and turning purple. “We need to get on before they leave us here!” Hermione nodded and followed him as he ran to the man taking luggage from the other students that were still on the platform. 

Harry gave the man his luggage and thanked him as he told Harry he was allowed to take Athena out of her cage. Luckily, Athena allowed him to carry her as he waited on Hermione. Athena gave Harry a suggestive look wiggling her little cat eyebrows, which made Harry turn pink once again. “Don’t give me that look, Athena. I just met her and she just seems nice.” 

He willed himself to turn back to normal as Hermione walked up to and past Harry. “Come on, we need to find a seat!” Harry just nodded and followed along, Athena in hand, while looking for an empty cabin to take a seat in for the journey. He found Hermione up ahead talking to someone in a cabin and Harry went to look to see who was inside when he caught up. 

He was surprised to see someone familiar in the cabin, the same red-headed boy from earlier, Ron. “I don’t think that’s a spell.” Harry heard Hermione say this as he looked inside to see Ron pointing a wand at a rat. “Oh, Hello…Ron was it?” Ron looked to see Harry and smiled, “Yes, I’m Ron, Ron Weasley!” Harry chuckled as he shook Ron’s outstretched hand, “Do you mind if we sit here? There doesn’t look to be many empty cabins.” 

After Harry spoke, Ron waved them inside, “There’s plenty of room in here and I think mum would kill me if I didn’t try and help someone if I could.” Harry smiled again, his hair turning a dark green and he made his way into the cabin with Hermione behind him, shutting the door. Hermione held out her hand as she sat down next to Harry, “I’m Hermione Granger.” Ron gladly shook her hand and looked at Harry expectantly as he set Athena down on the seat next to him letting her nap on a soft cushion for the train ride. 

He looked up and realized what Ron wanted and let out an ‘oh’ to himself. “My name is Harry Potter, it’s nice to meet you, Ron. Or rather to meet you again, I guess.” Harry gave a nervous chuckle at the end and Ron gaped at him in shock. “D-Do you have the-the?” Ron was pointing to his head and Harry wasn’t quite understanding what he meant until Hermione spoke up, “I think he’s trying to ask about your scar.” 

Ron nodded with a small blush, “I didn’t expect to meet you. I had heard Harry Potter would be in my year, but I never would have guessed that I’d meet you on the train!” Harry smiled and lifted his hair to reveal the lightning bolt scar on the right side of his forehead. 

Hermione looked at it curiously, “Why is it in the shape of a lightning bolt? That seems strange doesn’t it?” Harry shrugged and let down his hair, turning to Hermione, “I thought it was strange too as a kid. I didn’t understand how I could get a scar like that until today when I learned it was from some kind of spell?” 

Harry said the last of his words a bit unsure but Ron nodded looking a bit confused, “How didn’t you know about what happened until today?” Harry’s hair turned a mix of pink and purple along with his eyes as he shrunk slightly, to the surprise of Hermione and Ron. 

Hermione finally let out the question she was waiting to ask and Harry was thankful for the distraction from Ron’s question. “How are you doing that with your body and hair? I thought that we couldn’t learn about transfiguring ourselves until much later.” Harry let out a breath of relief, growing back to his normal size, “I’m a meta…morphmagus. I think that’s what it’s called anyway.” 

Harry wasn’t sure if he got it right but the looks of amazement on Ron’s face once again told Harry that he was probably right. Hermione looked at Ron as he began explaining, “I’ve heard about those! Metamorphmagi are supposed to be really rare, I think that there might be only one other alive right now!” 

Hermione looked interested and looked curiously at Harry once again, “So what does that mean? You can change your hair color and size? That seems a bit strange.” Harry shook his head and explained to them, “I can change my body however I want, basically. Umm, I can show you! Ron, do you mind if I use you as an example?” Ron understanding what Harry meant nodded excitedly, wanting to see a metamorphmagus in action. 

Hermione looked at Ron for a moment and back to Harry, “Use him as an example?” Harry nodded as he studied Ron’s face for a few moments. He had done this before, changing into someone else, but he’s never done it in front of anyone else. He’s glad that he at least practiced his strange ability while he was with the Dursleys and could show his new friends something interesting. 

Harry finally began to change, he grew only slightly bigger with his hair shortening while turning the same red as Ron. His face began to shift and his eye color changed as he took on the appearance of Ron Weasley with a smile. 

Ron looked at Harry, letting at a ‘Woah’ and Hermione looked between the two of them, “You look completely the same! That’s incredible! Can you teach me to do it?” 

Harry shook his head, “I’ve been able to do this since I was a child, I don’t think that you can teach it if it’s as rare as Ron said.” 

Ron nodded and looked at Harry some more, “You even have my voice! It’s like looking into a really weird mirror!” 

Harry chuckled and reverted to his normal self with ease. Hermione looked a little sad but Harry shrugged, “If it makes you feel better, we can learn more about what I can do together. I don’t know what I can and can’t do yet because…” Harry’s hair turned a dark purple as he continued from his pause, “I didn’t know magic was a thing until today, because I was raised by my Aunt and Uncle who didn’t like magic. So I know nothing about magic. I just thought I was like some kind of monster or something.” His hair grew into a blue as he spoke more and Hermione frowned as Harry began to frown.

Ron felt awkward, staying silent as Athena crawled into Harry’s lap and nuzzled him, wrapping her tail around his arm momentarily before laying down there. Harry pet her and he returned to normal as he began to feel better. Hermione slowly spoke hesitantly, worrying about prying too much. 

At the moment, however, she was more curious than worried, “Why didn’t someone help you? I can’t imagine that it was any good for you.” Ron looked like he’d eaten a lemon with his face scrunched in disgust. Harry saw the two of them worried about him and felt even more embarrassed as his hair turned pink. 

It lengthened slightly and his voice became more feminine once again as he spoke, “No one trusted me, I was a freak to them and it didn’t help when my only family told them that it was true.” Hermione frowned, clenching her teeth. She sighed and almost reached out to touch Harry but she pulled her hand away, “Well, it’s not going to be the same here. You’re not a freak and you’re our friend now.” Ron looked up from the window with a look of surprise. “Me too? I don’t hate the idea but you want me to be your friend?!” 

Hermione nodded and gave pointed looks to Harry who had pink hair down to his jaw by then. Ron realized what Hermione was signaling to him and turned to Harry, “I’d love to be your friend Harry! If you want me to be your friend of course…” Harry finally responded with a not quite masculine voice looking at the two of his new friends. “Friends sound great.” Harry’s hair turned green at the roots and he smiled at the two of them. 

Hermione smiled back with Ron, but all three of them were spooked by a knock on the window of the cabin. A woman opened the cabin with a sweet smile, “Do you dears want anything off the trolley?” Ron shook his head along with Hermione but Harry smiled and pulled the bag of coins from around his neck. “I’d like a few things!” Harry turned to Ron and Hermione, “Do you want me to get you anything?” Ron and Hermione smiled, telling him that they did want some candy.

Harry and his new friends were sorting through the candy that he had bought them. They tried out much of the candy, Ron talking about them as he was the only one familiar with the magical candy. Harry was having a good time with the two that he was happy to call friends. They were the first ones he’s ever had and was glad that they didn’t think he was strange, especially with him constantly changing. He was green with happiness as he spoke to them about the candies until the subject of spells came up when Ron spoke about the spell his brothers told him about. 

Hermione scoffed when he tried the spell again, “That isn’t a real spell. A spell is usually in butchered Latin so that people don’t accidentally cast spells all the time. I know a few spells from the books for our classes, they were quite simple when I tried them.” Harry looked in curiosity as she picked up a ripped-up cardboard box for a chocolate frog. 

“This is what a spell is actually like.” Hermione motioned her wand and pointed at the box saying Reparo and the box began to go from torn in half to connecting at the seams with the tear completely disappearing. 

Ron looked a bit disgruntled at first but then he grew a look of awe at Hermione’s spellwork. Harry smiled and took the box as Hermione handed it to him with a proud smile. He inspected the box noticing that there wasn’t a single bit of damage on it, “Can you show me how to do that?” 

Hermione’s face turned a bit red as she nodded, “Yeah sure!” 

Hermione began to show Harry the spell’s movements with her wand and he pulled his Holly wand from his leg holster copying the wand movements that Hermione was showing him along with Ron. Ron wasn’t able to manage to fully do the charm, only halfway mending the ripped boxes. Harry, however, was able to fully mend the box after a while of repetition, letting out a happy laugh as he did so. Ron and Hermione gave him pats on the back congratulating him for his quickly learned spellwork. Harry wanted to try more spells but knew that there wasn’t enough time. 

Athena had been in the corner of the cabin with Ron’s rat, Scabbers, sleeping while curled around the rat. Athena was seemingly suffocating the thing as it tried to wriggle free of the large cat. Harry and Ron first watched them with weariness but eventually, a glare from Athena stopped them from watching anymore. 

A little bit before they arrived at Hogwarts, a boy came to the cabin door. He had brown hair and a slightly chubby face that held a frown, “Have any of you seen a toad? I’ve lost mine and I’ve not a clue where he’s gone.” They all shook their heads but Harry and Hermione offered to help him with Ron following behind, not wanting to look for a toad but also not wanting to be left alone with Athena. 

Harry tried to think of places that a toad would have gone but couldn’t think of anything for a while as they searched the train. However, he did meet a lot of people while walking around the train. He had already changed into his robes, so no one would judge him on the raggedy hand-me-downs he was still wearing. He was glad that Hagrid was right about the charms to make it more comfortable. He met a few people that he had a good feeling about, but as he didn’t trust anyone yet, he kept his hair its normal black. He wanted to at least keep his abilities as a metamorphmagus a secret for a little bit. 

The boy he was helping was named Neville Longbottom, a fairly meek boy that was polite to everyone he asked about his toad. He also met another set of twins, Parvati and Padma Patil, which he thought was interesting because he met another set of twins just hours ago, wondering if there was a connection between magic and twins. 

The two of them were very different compared to the Weasley twins but Harry enjoyed his short talk with them about their new classes and what they were excited about. Soon enough, Hermione had thought of looking for the toad in the bathrooms and found it, receiving a “Thank you” from Neville, he left to get to his cabin, and the three new friends left to get back to their cabin.

Chapter Text

Finally, they arrived at their destination, and Harry was excited as he walked along with his fellow first years behind Hagrid. He looked around at the station just as awed by it as he was when the train pulled into the station. Hagrid greeted him as he walked up to him and followed along until they all arrived at a lakeshore filled with small boats that had lamps attached to them. 

Harry smiled at the prospect of being on the water again without having to deal with the Dursleys. 

“Alright now, only four people are allowed in a boat at once! Don’t go over that or ye might fall into the water and trust me, ye don’t want to meet what’s in it.” Hagrid yelled this to the first years with a grin before motioning to them to get in the boats. Harry was pulled along by Hermione as she decided that she wanted a boat in the middle of the several boats that sat on the shore. 

Ron, however, was still looking at Hogwarts up ahead, “Wait for me!” he yelled as he noticed that Hermione and Harry had both gone ahead. 

“Bloody hell, you two run fast,” Ron said as he climbed into the boat, out of breath from sprinting after his two friends. Hermione chuckled along with Harry, who was just as out of breath as Ron. “Maybe you’re just too slow!” 

Ron looked at Hermione, “You just got a headstart, I’ll beat you next time, Granger.” Harry laughed and they were broken out of their conversation as the boats began to move. 

Harry gaped at the sight of all of the boats lit by lanterns and a very large castle looming over them in its intricate beauty. Harry’s hair turned white as he closed his eyes feeling the body of water under him, it was incredibly relaxing and peaceful, now that he didn’t need to worry about rocking waves, unlike last time. He felt the life in the water, thousands of creatures swimming around in this lake, one particularly large one. He couldn’t see their shapes clearly but he knew that it wasn’t one solid mass. He also noticed creatures in the water that were as large as humans. 

Harry was shaken out of his peaceful examination of the lake by Hermione, “Harry, are you alright?” Harry’s hair turned black again and he smiled at Hermione, “Yes, I’m better than alright.” Harry looked at the castle once again, glowing in the night, “I think that this is the best day of my life.” Ron and Hermione smiled looking at each other and Harry put his hand in the water as he looked down from the castle. “This lake is amazing, there are so many creatures in it.” Ron and Hermione shared a confused expression, 

“How do you know that?” Harry took his hand out of the water, not noticing how the water beaded off of his hand, leaving it completely dry. He shrugged and looked at the two of his friends. “I don’t know, I just…feel it, I guess.” Hermione hummed and looked to Hogwarts, “Maybe the school library will have something about it. I read that Hogwarts’ library has almost everything there is to know about magic. So, if it has to do with magic, then there must be something about it in there.” 

Harry nodded and looked back down at the water wondering why he was so much different than other people. First, there’s him being a metamorphmagus and he’s some kind of wizard celebrity. Now he has some strange other magic power that he has no clue about. Harry sighed and stayed silent as they made their way to the castle, basking in the light and savoring the feeling of the water. 

The first years were all walking up steps through the castle, looking around at the strange new sights that they were going to be experiencing for the next seven years. Harry looked up the stairs to see an older-looking woman with a stereotypical pointed witches’ hat and green robes. 

She spoke up as all of the students stopped in front of her on the stairs. She opened her arms, “Welcome to Hogwarts! Now, in a few moments, you will all pass through these doors and join your fellow classmates. However, before you can do this, you must be sorted into your houses. Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. While you’re here at Hogwarts, your house will be like your family. Your triumphs will win you points, and rule-breaking will lose them. At the end of the year, house points will be tallied and the house with the most points will win the house cup.” 

Neville had lost his toad again in the crowd of students and interrupted the woman as he spotted the toad. She quickly moved past this, however, after a look at the boy, “You will all be sorted momentarily.” She walked away from the new students leaving many of them letting out a breath of relief. 

As soon as she was out of sight a boy spoke up behind Harry, “So it’s true then? Harry Potter has come to Hogwarts.” 

Harry was confused but turned around to look at who was speaking. He saw a boy with light blond hair and a smug smile on his face as he spoke again, “People talk, especially when they see the most famous boy in the magical world riding on the same train as them.” 

Harry heard gasps and whispers from people around him. The boy walked forward, pointing to his two companions. “This is Crabbe and this is Goyle. I’m Draco, Draco Malfoy.” Harry inspected Draco as he walked toward him. 

He had seen boys like this before at his old school, ones that believed that they were better than everyone else. He didn’t like this boy but he didn’t want to give him reason to dislike him. He didn’t want to have to put up with another Dudley.

Ron snickered as Draco spoke his name and Harry watched as Draco glared at Ron. “Think my name’s funny? Your name is obvious. Redhead, hand-me-down robes, definitely a Weasley.” 

Suddenly a sigh was heard from behind Draco and a girl spoke, “Draco, you’re from an ancient, pureblood family! Act like it for once and stop being an arse!” 

The girl walked forward with a similar air to her that Draco does, an air of superiority. However, what she said had an effect on the blond boy, since he stopped talking. He glared at the girl before moving to turn away from Harry, who held out his hand to Draco, wanting to make a somewhat decent first impression. 

“Next time we talk, please don’t insult my friends.” Draco looked confused but took Harry’s hand and shook it before returning to his two companions, whispering to them. Harry turned to the blond-haired girl with shining blue eyes, “Thank you for defending my friend, even if it was only to save Draco from embarrassment.” 

Harry held his hand out to her and they met eyes as she gave a small smile to him, “Well met, Harry Potter, it’s nice to see that you’re not a stuck-up golden boy like our dear Malfoy here. For being so famous, you seem to have some integrity.” Harry huffed a laugh as he shook her hand, “I can’t say that I’ve been told that before, but thank you for the compliment…” 

Harry was fishing for a name and, catching on, she let go of his hand, “Daphne Greengrass, perhaps we can speak more after the sorting ceremony.” Harry nodded as she turned away and joined back with a few other girls in the back of the group. 

Harry wasn’t able to speak to Ron or Hermione as the woman came back speaking to the group, “Follow me, everyone!” Harry and several other students gasped as the doors to the hall opened on their own, revealing a large wide-open room with four tables holding hundreds of students. Above the students were numerous floating candles and a ceiling that looked like the night sky. In the back of the room, there was a shorter table that had seats for over a dozen seats for what Harry assumed were Hogwarts’ teachers. 

Hermione spoke up as she looked at the ceiling, walking up to the back of the hall. “The ceiling is bewitched to look like the night sky, it’s not real at all.” Harry looked back at Hermione with a smile and continued walking forward to the back of the hall, wondering how hard it is to cast an illusion like that. 

Once they were all stopped in front of the teachers, the woman turned around and spoke to them, “Before we begin, Professor Dumbledore would like to say a few words.” 

The old, white-haired, and bearded man in the most ornate and large seat in the middle of the table stood up. “There are a few start-of-term notices that I wish to announce. First years, don’t wander off into the Dark Forest, it is strictly forbidden to all students. Mr. Filch, our caretaker, has asked me to remind you that the third-floor corridor on the right-hand side is off-limits to all who do not want to die a most painful death. Thank you.” Harry blinked at being told that he could just be either murdered or die somehow in a school. Hermione gave him a look of incredulity that he shared with her, and Ron with only a small frown. 

The woman in the pointed hat spoke up again with parchment in hand, “When I call your name, you are to come up to the stool to have the sorting hat placed on your head and be sorted into your houses. Now, Hermione Granger!” Hermione looked nervous so Harry gave her a reassuring smile as she walked up to the stool and sat down. The hat mumbled for a moment before saying, “Okay....yes, Gryfindor!” Hermione immediately walked to Gryfindoor with a smile on her face. 

Draco Malfoy was called next and was immediately picked for Slytherin. Ron turned to Harry, whispering, “Not a single witch or wizard that’s gone bad, hasn’t been from Slytherin.” Harry frowned and looked at Daphne Greengrass behind him. 

A girl named Susan Bones was called up and was picked for Hufflepuff, she smiled and joined the Hufflepuffs as they cheered for her. Ron was called up next and after some deliberation, the hat put him in Gryfindor much to the joy of Ron and his brothers at the Gryffindor table. 

The room was silent as the last name was read aloud, “Harry Potter!” Several of the students that saw the confrontation in the stairwell, looked at Harry. Harry knew that he couldn’t hide his nature as a metamorphmagus, and he didn’t want to anymore. He was among wizards and witches, he could be himself without fear now. (He hoped so at least.) 

So, he decided to have a little fun with his abilities for the first time. From the group, out walked not a black-haired boy with a lightning-bolt-shaped scar, but instead, Ron Weasley walked out from the group for the second time. Harry would have become someone more exciting, but the only one he could think of was Ron on short notice, and he had already turned into him on the train. 

The woman looked confused at the appearance of a second Ron as well as did most of the people in the room, except for Hermione and Ron, who were holding in laughter at their reactions to it. Harry smiled innocently as he sat down on the stool, “Mr. Weasley, go back to the Gryffindor table, or you’ll get a detention before you attend a single class.” Luckily for Harry, the woman holding the hat couldn’t see Ron as some of the students in front had blocked him from view. 

Harry got another idea as he saw Hermione trying not to laugh at the Gryffindor table. Suddenly the Ron Weasley that was sitting on the stool changed into Hermione Granger and she turned to the woman with a smile, “I have no idea what you mean, Professor,” Hermione turned back into Ron Weasley and pointed to the other Ron Weasley still sitting at the Gryffindor table. “I never left the table.” Seeing Harry turn back and forth between Hermione and Ron, many of the students understood what was happening and burst out laughing. 

Ron couldn’t hold it anymore as the twins looked between the two Rons with a grin. Hermione was even snickering to herself and the hall was aloud with the laughter of many of the other students. Even a few of the professors were laughing at the exasperated look on the woman’s face. 

Hagrid cleared his throat after catching his breath. “Excuse me, Professor McGonagall!” Minerva McGonagall looked back at Hagrid sitting behind her as he pointed to Harry, “It turns out that Harry here is a metamorphmagus.” Many of the professors had already figured this, including McGonagall, but confirmation from the trustworthy groundskeeper was appreciated. She gave a curt nod to Hagrid, “Thank you, Rubeus.” 

Minerva faced Harry once again, still sitting on the stool, “Now if everyone is done having fun, Mr. Potter here still needs to be sorted.” Minerva gave a glare to Harry and the rest of the laughing students as she said this and successfully shut up the rest of the great hall. 

Minerva placed the sorting hat on Harry’s head and everyone listened with rapt attention as the sorting hat spoke. “Hmm, Harry Potter eh? A powerful wizard, and a metamorphmagus to boot! You’ve got plenty of courage, dealing with those muggles, perfect for Gryfindor. You have a great thirst for knowledge and wish to know as much about magic as you can, good quality in any wizard, especially a Ravenclaw. You’ve got a thirst to prove yourself, as well, as a good fit for Slytherin. Hufflepuff wouldn’t be bad either, you’re a loyal friend and wish to make friends even with those that you don’t immediately like. A very difficult choice…” Harry listened to the Sorting Hat with interest, wondering what house it would choose to put him in. He didn’t hate any of the houses, not even Slytherin, as not all of them could be rude like Malfoy. The Sorting Hat sat on Harry’s head for a while, thinking and humming to itself. 

Dumbledore hadn’t seen a true hatstall in a long long time, and it was taking a while to decide where Harry would be. It usually doesn’t take a long time to sort students but when it takes over 5 minutes to sort a student it’s called a hatstall. There have been cases where there were almost hatstalls but even those were rare. Dumbledore hummed to himself, interested in the child that had stumped the Sorting Hat. 

Eventually, the Sorting Hat began to talk to Harry again, trying to end the hatstall, “What house do you want to be in? No preference eh? Very rare…” After 9 minutes of deliberating, the Sorting Hat spoke up for the final time atop Harry’s head, “I have made my decision! Gryffindor!” The Gryffindor table cheered out at the exclamation but everyone quieted when the Sorting Hat yelled out more, “And Hufflepuff!” Dumbledore stood as he heard this, as such a sorting has only happened only a handful of times, and not once in the past 200 years. 

Suddenly, there was talking amongst the students and even the professors until Dumbledore yelled out, “Quiet! The Sorting Hat has decided! It is not our place to question it!” Dumbledore looked down from the tables at Harry, staring at the Headmaster standing in front of the stool, “Sit wherever you please, Harry, we will discuss your sleeping situation after dinner.” Harry nodded and walked down the steps to the stool, hair turning purple at being ogled by the students around him. 

Harry still looked like Ron so it was a strange sight for the Weasleys grouped together at the Gryffindor table as Harry approached them and sat down next to Ron, across from Hermione. When he sat down, his hair turned back to red making the strange sight all the funnier for Ron and his brothers. “When did we get another brother Ron?” “You could have warned us before he showed up, you know mum’s gonna have a fit.” 

Fred and George were both giving an amused smile as Percy piped up, “Knock it off you two, leave Harry alone. He’s been stared at enough for a day.” Fred and George waved him off as they all watched the rest of the first-year students sorted into their houses. Harry noted that the Patil twins were sorted into separate houses which made sense to him, but he wondered if they were okay with being separated. Daphne was sorted into Slytherin after a little bit of the Sorting Hat talking to her. Neville, to the surprise of Harry, Ron, and Hermione was sorted into Gryffindor and sat down next to them. 

After eating, and meeting a ghost that showed him its nearly cut-off head, Harry walked out of the Great Hall to be confronted by Professor McGonagall. She looked between the two Rons as Harry didn’t see a reason as to why he should change back. The professor sighed, “Whichever one of you is Mr. Potter, please follow me to the Headmaster’s office.” 

Ron turned to Harry, “See you later, mate. Don’t do anything bad with my face, you hear.” Harry nodded and said goodbye to Hermione as she followed the Gryffindor prefect along with Ron.

 Harry followed Professor McGonagal as she walked away from the hall and throughout the castle. Along the way, Harry finally changed back to himself but grew his hair longer than usual and making it a varying array of colors from pink to blue. 

He wasn’t going to stop using his abilities, especially after so long of not being able to use them freely. So, he decided to send a bit of a message to Dumbledore with his hair and his eyes, he also kept his scar visible by parting his hair. 

McGonagall looked back to be surprised by the appearance of Harry’s new look, she didn’t show anything on her face, however, as she brought Harry to the staircase to Dumbledore's office. Harry looks at the gargoyle in front of the stairs warily and McGonagall simply said, “Lemon Drop.” The gargoyle moved aside and a staircase was revealed, spiraling down and stopping when it hit the bottom of the alcove where the stairs resided. 

The Professor turned to Harry, “Just head straight up, Dumbledore’s waiting for you.” 

Harry nodded and walked past her, turning to her, “Thank you, Professor McGonagall. I look forward to your lessons in transfiguration, especially given my abilities.” Hermione had taken it upon herself to tell Harry about the classes they would take this year and the names of the Professors, so he knew what to expect. 

She nodded and Harry walked up the stairs to see a door, knocking on it before opening it, not seeing a reason to stay out given that he’d been invited and the door was open. He looked around the circular room with stairs leading up to the desk straight in front of him. There were shelves of books and paintings that moved, looking at him and speaking as he walked towards the empty desk. He saw the Sorting Hat sitting on a stand behind the desk next to a perch where a bird of a bright red color sat, eyeing him as well. 

Harry, thinking he’d probably have to wait for Dumbledore, walked up to the bird. He stared back at the bird with his multi-colored eyes and then looked at the ashes below it. He was in a magical school with magical paintings and a magical hat, so he guessed that the bird was magical too. He thought about what bird it could be and as he thought about it, he remembered a Greek mythical bird associated with ashes specifically, a phoenix. 

“Admiring Fawkes?” Dumbledore had been watching from the side after he walked down the steps that mirrored each other curving down to the level Harry was on. The Metamorphmagus snapped his head to Dumbledore, his hair flashing yellow for a moment, betraying his calm mask. 

After a moment he nodded looking back to the bird, “Fawkes is a phoenix, isn’t he?” 

Dumbledore nodded, standing next to Harry, “Yes, how did you know?” Dumbledore asked this question while Harry began petting Fawkes. “The ashes under him, I once read that phoenixes burn to ash and are reborn from the ashes.” Dumbledore nodded and smiled at Harry, glancing at his hair before gesturing to his desk. Harry followed him as he walked over and sat down in his chair. 

Harry watched as Dumbledore pulled out his wand and transfigured a pencil on his desk into a cushioned chair which floated, wordlessly. It was set down in front of Dumbledore’s desk, across from him. Harry sat down in the chair looking at Dumbledore from across the desk. 

He didn’t speak so Harry decided to say something first, “So, where should I sleep, sir?” Dumbledore leaned forward, “Mr. Potter, if I had known you were a metamorphmagus, I wouldn’t have left you with those Dursleys. I did know that they had an…aversion to magic, however, I thought you would be safer. Many people don’t like what happened that night, the night that You-Know-Who attacked you and your mother. They would sooner want you dead. I apologize for leaving you with those muggles, Rubeus told me of when he retrieved you from them.” 

Harry nodded, listening to Dumbledore as he spoke and he piped up when it seemed Dumbledore was done. “Thank you for the…um apology…I don’t understand, sir. You-you left me with the Dursleys?” 

Dumbledore sighed and nodded, “The same night your mother died. I would have left you with your father, but I don’t know who he is. I heard from Hagrid about the results of your ancestry test and am just as confounded. I have tried to find out why such a thing would happen but I’m afraid that I don’t know.” 

Harry looked down at his hands and he took a breath before looking back up, “Why are you telling me all of this, Professor Dumbledore?” 

Dumbledore stood and he picked up the Sorting Hat behind him, placing it on the desk. “Mostly because I feel guilt for what you must have suffered in that house from those muggles. I wish to let you know that I did not do it out of ill will and only had the best intentions.” 

Dumbledore stood next to his desk, “However, I also tell you this because you are a very unique boy and I want you to know that I am on your side. Hogwarts has not seen a true hybrid house in its halls in many years. It’s also-” Harry nodded along and before Dumbledore could speak more, Harry interrupted him, “About that, Professor, where am I going to sleep? I’m sorry for interrupting but I am tired and I don’t know where to go.” 

Dumbledore cleared his throat and moved the hat back to its pedestal. “Ah yes, you’re right, forgive me for the ramblings of an old man. Since you are a Gryffindor and a Hufflepuff, you can come and go from the common rooms as you please, however, you do need to choose which dorm you would like to stay in.” Harry didn’t need to think that hard about it as his only two friends were in Gryffindor, “I’d prefer to stay in Gryffindor, Professor.” 

Dumbledore nodded and wrote down something on a piece of parchment on his desk, “Would you rather stay in the boy’s or girl’s dorms?” Harry blinked, confused by the question, “What do you mean? Wouldn’t I just go to the boy’s dorms?” 

Dumbledore looked up from the parchment, “Ah yes, it might be confusing for you. Metamorphmagi sometimes prefer living as a girl even if they were born a boy or the opposite. Some even choose to live as neither. Of course, normal witches and wizards do as well, but it’s even more common for  Metamorphmagi. No one knows why, maybe it’s a part of the reason why they have their abilities.” 

Harry thought about it and considered the idea of being a girl all the time. He did like it when he looked more feminine and stuff, but that didn’t mean he wanted to be a girl. “I’ll just stay in the boy’s dorm, it makes more sense.” Dumbledore just wrote down some more on the parchment before waving his wand, sending it off in a poof. “You will find your belongings along with your pet down the steps with Professor McGonagall. If you have any further questions, don’t be afraid to come and visit me.” 

Harry did indeed find his luggage with Athena standing on top of it, staring at Professor McGonagall. Harry walked up to Athena and pet her before picking her up, “What’re you doing, Athena? I doubt glaring at Professor McGonagall will put you in her good graces.” Athena looked at Harry letting out a meow, shaking her head before she climbed Harry’s arm and sat on his shoulder. Somehow she was able to keep her balance there so, not wanting to anger his cat, he decided to not move her. 

Turning to McGonagall, who was looking at Athena, Harry spoke, “Are you going to show me to the Gryffindor dorms?” McGonagall looked to Harry, with a slight downturn to her lips, “Yes, I’ll show you to the dorms, make sure to keep up and be wary of fake steps in the stairway. This castle almost has a mind of its own.” Harry nodded and followed after her as she quickly walked through the castle and up the various staircases of Hogwarts, Harry pulling his luggage behind him. 

Along the way, Professor McGonagall glanced back at Harry, “Where did you get your pet?” Harry looked at Athena who just flicked her tail in his face, after he pushed her tail away, he responded, “Hagrid got her for me, although I don’t know where, it had to be at Diagon Alley because he got her when I was getting my wands.” 

Professor McGonagall turned around to look at Harry again, this time she stopped at a balcony connected to several staircases. “Wands? Ollivander gave you two wands?” 

Harry nodded, “Yeah, he said that one wasn’t enough. I don’t know why, I just thought it was another strange thing about me.” 

McGonagall looked up the stairwell again before turning back to Harry, “I think that this would best be talked about in my office, rather than in an open stairwell. It is getting late and I’m afraid that if I keep you any longer, you won’t be able to get to my class in the morning.” 

Harry nodded as she turned back around, silently leading Harry the short distance to the common room for Gryffindor. Harry waved to the portraits, who greeted him as they passed by, a few of them complimenting his rainbow-colored hair. Harry told himself to come back and talk to the paintings, he wanted to get to know them, they must be full of knowledge about the castle. 

Professor McGonagall left Harry at the portrait that was the entrance of the Gryffindor common room, she told him the password and walked away not but a few moments later. Harry spoke the password to the lady and she let him in with a smile as the frame swung open revealing a passageway. He walked inside the passageway that soon opened up to a cozy room with a couch in front of a fireplace and several large cushioned seats. Looking around the room, he noted the various unmoving paintings and the ornamental wallpaper. 

Finally, his eyes landed on his two new friends as he walked up to the fireplace, seeing them sitting on the couch. Harry had heard them speaking to each other as he walked into the room but wanted to take in the sight of his new home for the next year. “He’s going to be fine, he’s the boy-who-lived, not the boy-who-got-murdered-for-playing-a-prank.” Hermione was saying this to Ron as he was laying on the arm of the couch, leaning over it. “Yeah, but why isn’t he back yet, it’s probably almost midnight by now and I want to sleep.” 

Harry chuckled and jumped onto the couch, startling Hermione out of a textbook she was reading and making Ron fall off the couch and onto the floor with a thud. Hermione smacked Harry’s arm with the back of her hand, “Don’t do that! I could have thrown my book into the fire!” 

Ron got up, groaning from the fall, “Forget about your book, I could have broken my nose!” 

Harry winced, “Sorry about that, I just thought I’d surprise you two, not scare you half to death.” 

Hermione sighed and closed her book, “It’s fine, my book didn’t get burnt up.” She turned to Ron as she stood up, “Now you can go to bed, he’s here perfectly fine and looking like a unicorn puked on him. I’m going to go to bed because we need to get up for classes in the morning.” 

Harry frowned at the unicorn puke comment, “Well I think it looks lovely, especially on you.” Harry changed into Hermione but his hair stayed the same rainbow color as before. Hermione took one look at Harry and walked away, “I’m done. I’m going to sleep.” 

Harry smiled as he turned back into his normal self, short black hair and all. Ron watched as Hermione walked away, “I don’t think she liked that very much.” Harry shrugged and sat up, a sleeping Athena somehow still on his shoulder. “I am going to be doing a lot more than that from now on. I’ve never been able to change around people before. This is fun and the paintings liked my hair, maybe I should keep it permanent.” 

Ron shook his head, “Oh god no, please don’t. Hermione was right, it looked like unicorn vomit.” Harry laughed as he pulled his luggage behind him up the steps to the dorms. 

Harry couldn’t sleep. He had tried to for a little while but ultimately couldn’t catch a wink of shut-eye. So he had begun reading at least the beginning of all of his textbooks so that he could have some understanding of what was going to happen in his classes tomorrow. 

He had too much on his brain, replaying the events of the day and the strangeness of it all had only just got to him, not to mention his conversation with Dumbledore. Athena accompanied him as he read in the Gryffindor common room so as to not wake Ron or their other dorm mates. It also gave him the space to practice some spells from the books he had bought at Flourish and Blotts. 

The first one he tried was a spell to create a light from his wand since the book had explained how it could be the most simple spell to attempt and easily succeed. He guessed that he would be able to do it as he was already able to do the mending charm with concentrated effort. He practiced using Lumos and Nox periodically while reading the books trying to distract himself from his thoughts with some difficulty. 

The books that caught his attention the most were a book called Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and Magical Theory . The first book was a very detailed guide of magical creatures that was written by a man named Newt Scamander. Harry was very interested to learn about these strange new creatures and their array of innate magical abilities, like the Thunderbird, which was capable of causing storms with ease. 

Magical Theory went over how magic generally worked as a force that wizards and witches control. Harry had gotten a few ideas but knew that he should probably wait before trying them given that he’d only successfully done one spell so far. 

Harry was tired when daybreak came but satisfied that he wasn’t completely clueless about magic. He resolved to read some more about the books he hadn’t gotten into like Magical Drafts and Potions and One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi. He had begun looking into them but not as far as with the others. 

He was interested in potions, but there seemed to be a lot more pure memorization than the other courses which seemed more practical, other than history. Harry was woken up, however, when he took a shower in his dorm. As soon as he stepped into the water, which he guessed was brought up there by magical means, he felt refreshed and let the water soak onto him with a smile. After a day of crazy magical stuff happening and a night of sitting on a couch reading, a nice hot shower was relaxing and he stood under the shower for a few minutes before scrubbing himself off and washing his hair. Ron and his other dorm mates, one of which happened to be Neville, were just waking up as Harry was getting out of the shower. 

Harry waved to Ron as he got dressed in his new robes, which had his houses’ crests on them. They blended into a single crest on a diagonal line, showing off the lion and the badger. He strapped the wand holster to his leg again, this time, on the side of his right thigh, hidden by his robe. Seeing as how he hadn’t eaten since the night before, Harry went down to the hall to get breakfast.

Chapter Text

While he was nervous, he told himself Ron was going to join him in a little bit and Hermione was probably already down in the hall. He walked down the steps greeting many of the paintings as Athena padded alongside him, already fed. A dish with Athena’s name on it appeared at the foot of Harry’s bed the night before but disappeared after Athena was done. The same thing had happened that morning in the common room when Harry was reading, however, after reading the book that Hermione told him about, Hogwarts: a History, he knew what happened. He thanked the house elf that left Athena the food as it came and left, unseen. 

He got confused a few times but the paintings were helpful as he asked them for directions. He eventually arrived at the Great Hall, which was still filling up with students. Athena looked around the hall and jumped onto a table before jumping onto Harry’s shoulder again, surprising him and making him stumble into someone. 

“Woah! Watch where you’re going. You could have gotten hurt walking like that.” Harry looked up to see the face of a girl he recognized from the sorting the previous night, Susan Bones. Harry’s hair turned pink in embarrassment as he noticed that she was holding him up by his arms and he stood up straight. 

“Sorry about that, Athena here thought it would be a good idea to jump on me with no warning.” Harry gave a nervous smile as he pointed at Athena on his shoulder, who sat on his shoulder, licking herself before she flicked her tail into Harry’s face. He sighed and batted away Athena’s tail, much to the amusement of the now giggling Susan. 

She then looked at his hair and gasped, “You’re Harry Potter, aren’t you? I wondered what you looked like…if this is what you actually look like?” Harry nodded and then looked a bit confused at the question before realizing what she meant, “Oh! No, this is my face! I was just having a bit of fun yesterday.” 

Susan smiled, “Well then, it’s good to know what you actually look like. I’m Susan Bones, it’s nice to meet you.” Harry nodded and shook her hand as she held it out for him, “It’s nice to meet you too, Susan.” She looked at the Hufflepuff table before turning back to Harry, “You’re a Hufflepuff too right? You can come sit with me and meet some of your fellow badgers.” 

Harry nodded as he took a look at the table with the Hufflepuffs as he followed Susan to the table. On the way to the table, he saw Daphne Greengrass sitting next to some girls at the Slytherin table, when she looked up and he caught her eyes, he waved at her. She gave a small nod in acknowledgment and looked down at the book she had in front of her. Susan was staring at Harry from beside him as he did this. 

Once he had turned back to the Hufflepuff table she spoke, “You’re not averse to associating with Slytherins?” Harry sighed, “I don’t understand what the deal is with people disliking Slytherins. Sure, Draco Malfoy wasn’t exactly pleasant but Daphne was nice. Maybe a bit serious, but still nice.” 

Susan smiled as she sat down at the Hufflepuff table with Harry, “A lot of bad wizards and witches have come out of Slytherin, including You-Know-Who. So of course, Slytherin has a bad reputation.” A girl and a boy were sitting next to Susan and across from her and they heard what she was saying. 

“Talking about the Slytherins? They’re a nasty lot.” Harry sighed and Athena jumped off of his shoulder to sit on the table in front of him, hissing at the boy who spoke. He leaned away from the table pretty quickly and Harry responded to Susan, “You can’t just say that someone is bad if you don’t know them. If you treat someone like they’re evil from the moment you meet, they’re probably not going to treat you well either.” 

The girl next to Susan laughed, catching the attention of Harry. “You really are a Hufflepuff! Some of the older years were talking about how they doubted it, with the strange sorting and all.” Harry huffed a laugh, “Thank you, I suppose. It would be weird if I wasn’t a Hufflepuff.”

 Susan smiled at the two and pointed to the girl next to her, “Harry, this is Hannah Abbot. You’re the only thing she’s been talking about since you were sorted.” Hannah looked a bit taken aback at the accusation as Harry’s hair once again turned a light shade of pink, “I have not just been talking about him! I was just curious about why he got sorted into two houses and also about what he looked like.” 

Harry talked with Hannah, Susan, and the boy who was with them, who turned out to be named Ernie Macmillan and he was pretty okay once they started talking. He just didn’t like how the Slytherins had a tendency to bully others. Harry decided to keep the pink hair after he was complimented on it by a few of the Hufflepuffs and even the Hufflepuff’s house ghost, the Fat Friar while he spoke with them for a little bit. 

Before he left, however, the head of Hufflepuff walked up to him as he spoke with Susan, easily able to spot him with his pink hair. Harry was tapped from behind on his shoulder, “Mr. Potter, may I have a word with you? It concerns your classes.” Harry looked up to see a woman with gray hair and ratty-looking robes and a hat. She was a slightly portly and short woman with a kind smile on her face. 

Harry nodded and stood up from the table, “Oh you don’t have to move on my account, it isn’t anything important.” Harry smiled at her, “I was going to join my other friends at the Gryffindor table anyway, ma’am.” She pulled a parchment out of her robes as she spoke, “Very well. Since you are a bit of a special case, Mr. Potter, the Headmaster himself sorted out your schedule. You have classes with the Gryffindors and the Hufflepuffs on alternating days.” 

Harry took the parchment from the woman as she continued, “I’m Hufflepuff’s head of house and your Herbology professor, Pomona Sprout. I look forward to having you in my class Mr. Potter and I’m proud to have you in my house. I’ll see you in class.” She walked back up to the professor’s table leaving Harry to look at his schedule. 

AN: Thanks to u/Brutus_the_barbarian on Reddit for the timetable

Harry said goodbye to his new friends and left to the Gryffindor table with Athena perching on his shoulder once again, seeing the other heads of houses passing around the schedules while the students began eating. Harry sat down and said a quiet ‘thank you’ as his cup filled up next to him. “Have fun with the Puffs, Harry?” Ron said this as Harry sat down across from him, next to Hermione and Neville. 

Harry nodded and spoke as he grabbed some of the food on the table, filling his plate. “Yeah, they’re plenty of fun! They liked my hair color so I thought I’d keep it for a bit.” Hermione looked at his head, still bright pink. “Well, it’s a lot better than before, and you don’t look like me either.” Neville joined the conversation as he looked at Harry in curiosity, “What was it before? It can’t be that bad.” 

Harry changed his hair to the same rainbow coloring that he had the night before, turning to Neville, “This is what I had last night, I don’t know what the problem is.” Neville looked at Harry’s head in surprise along with a few other people at the table. Fred and George both smiled at the exotic hair color. “You look like you’ve been pranked by us.” “And to think that you’ve done it to yourself.” “”Snape is going to hate you.””

Harry looked at them in curiosity, turning his hair back to pink, “Which one is Snape?” Fred and George both pointed to the professors’ table at a person sitting near the left end of the table. The man had long shiny black hair and held a sneer on his face as he looked at Harry. “That right there is Snape,” “He’s the Potions professor, but everyone knows that he’s been wanting to teach Defense Against the Dark Arts for years now.” “He’s got a reputation for not liking Gryffindors” “”and the metamorphmagus that was here last year got on his nerves.”” 

Harry looked at Snape again as the twins spoke, worried about how he would deal with the man who seemed to be glaring at him even though he’d never met him before. He was distracted from his thoughts when owls began pouring into the Great Hall much to Harry’s dismay as his Hair turned purple at the roots. Harry tried to sink into his seat as the owls started flying above him leading Hermione to notice him looking at the owls warily. “What’s wrong Harry? It’s just the messaging owls.” Harry nodded still looking up at the owls, “Yeah I know, but-” 

Hermione realized what was wrong when an owl swooped down and clawed at Harry’s arm, leading to his hair turning yellow at the roots. “Stop attacking me! What have I done to owls to get them to attack me!?” Harry heard laughs in his direction as more owls began to swoop down and claw at him, and him trying to bat them away without hurting them. Hagrid saw this and was running up the tables with Professor Sprout as they cast protection charms on Harry while shooing away the birds. 

Harry was laying on the ground after falling from his seat with Athena standing on him hissing at and clawing at the birds that flew by still trying to get to him. His robes were ripped in a few places and he had a few cuts on his face that held a frown. “I don’t know what those birds have against ye Harry. I think we might need to figure something out so they don’t keep on attacking ye.” Harry nodded along with Professor Sprout as Hagrid pulled him up from the ground. “Yes, I think that it would be most prudent to keep Mr. Potter from being torn apart by the school's owls.” 

Professor Sprout turned to look at Harry, “Oh, look at you! You should go to see Madam Pomphrey and get those cuts looked at and maybe change your robes.” Harry looked down at the few cuts he had and shook his head, “I’ll be fine until tonight Professor Sprout, I’ve had worse. I don’t want to miss the first day of class since I’m probably already behind.” 

Professor Sprout hummed as she inspected Harry, “Very well, but if you look any worse later in my class, then I’m sending you straight to Madam Pomphrey.” Harry nodded, knowing that her class was his first class. “Now go get changed out of those robes, I doubt the other professors will be as forgiving as I.” Harry nodded once again before a thought came through his head once again, “Couldn’t I just fix them?” Professor Sprout looked at Harry in curiosity as he reached his hand into his robe, “Whatever do you mean, Mr. Potter?” Harry pulled out his Ebony wand, which Hermione and Ron off to the side, looked confused at. “With a spell, of course.” 

He pointed his twisting and curved black wand at his robes and Professor Sprout tried to stop him but she was only just too far away to pull the wand from his hand before he let out a Reparo and a small puff came out of his wand as the tears on his immediately mended itself. Professor Sprout stopped as she saw the robes mending themselves. Harry looked up and Hagrid let out a laugh, “Where did ye learn that Harry? Ye haven’t had a wand for even a day yet!” 

Harry pointed to Hermione, “Hermione showed me how to do the spell on the train.” Professor Sprout looked impressed and relaxed, “That is some incredible initiative from you two, but perhaps practice in the presence of a professor next time?” They both nodded at the look from Professor Sprout, however, they smiled when she spoke again, “Either way, 20 points to Gryffindor and 10 points to Hufflepuff.” 

After he was congratulated for getting the Gryffindors house points by a few people, he sat down and finished eating. He cleaned up his cuts thanks to a wet napkin and by the time he had to head to class he looked a bit better. He left the Great Hall following an older student that volunteered to show the first years where their classes were throughout the day since they all had the same classes. 

On the way, Hermione and Ron pulled Harry to the side, “What’s with the black wand? Yesterday you were using a different wand.” Hermione asked this while Ron was staring at Harry from his other side expectantly. Harry wasn’t exactly surprised by the question but he didn’t think it was a big deal. Nonetheless, Harry reached his hand into his robes and pulled out both of his wands, “I have two wands. When I went to get my wand, Ollivander told me that I should have two wands. Which I know is strange but I feel a…connection to both of my wands.” 

Ron looked at both of Harry’s wands curiously, “Why are they so different? Your black one looks a bit evil, no offense, Harry. It’s just that most wands like that tend to belong to dark witches or wizards. They like having a wand that they can poke and stab people with since it’s long and pointy y’know.” Hermione looked aghast at Ron’s description, “That’s awful! Why would you stab someone with a wand? What if it breaks?” 

Harry shared a look with Ron, “Hermione, I would be a bit more worried about the people getting hurt part. Wands can be replaced but I don’t think that a person can.” Hermione blushed slightly and looked away before looking back at them, “You do have a point…” 

Hermione then looked to Harry’s Ebony wand once more, “What kind of wood and core does it have? I read that different wand woods cores have different traits.” Harry slipped his wands back into their holster as he answered, “Ebony with a Dragon Heartstring. Ollivander said that it was a powerful wand.” Hermione shuffled through the stack of books she was carrying before letting out a ‘There it is!’ as she grabbed one of the books labeled Wandlore and Why Your Wand Might Choose You and flipped it open and handed it to Harry, pointing to a page. 

Harry took the book and read the part about Ebony wands, “It is highly suited for combative or transfiguration magic, Ebony is happiest in the hand of those with the courage to be themselves. Frequently non-conformist, highly individual or comfortable with the status of outsider.” Harry was flipping the pages looking for Holly but it would have to wait as they had arrived at the greenhouses where Professor Sprout was waiting, Athena making him look up as he arrived by pawing his cheek. He handed the book back to Hermione as they entered the Greenhouse. 

Most of the first Herbology class was what would be expected with a first-class, Professor Sprout mainly warned the first years about the dangers and the rules of handling the plants. She let the class look around the greenhouse, keeping them from getting too close to the more dangerous plants. Harry was looking at the various strange new plants with interest when Hermione spoke to him, “What did you think about the book on wands?” 

Harry looked over to Hermione moving away from the potentially very dangerous plant, “I thought it was cool, and it was interesting to see that it’s good for combat magic. I’ve never fought anyone in my life.” Hermione nodded silently and looked over to Ron who was poking and prodding a plant with his wand, “Ron stop touching that! That’s Venemous Tentacula!” 

Ron pulled his hand back saying, “What?” just as the plant took a swing at him and Professor sprout yelped out a Diffindo , casting a spell that cut off the plant just before it touched Ron. Suddenly everyone was looking at Professor Sprout’s wand still raised, “That is why we listen to the Greenhouse rules! Keep away from the plants until you are sure that they’re not dangerous!” The students all nodded, including the white-faced Ron that was being comforted by Harry. 

The next class was Defense Against the Dark Arts and immediately when Harry walked into the room he felt a pain where his scar was just like the time at The Leaky Cauldron . He looked at Professor Quirrel as he walked in with Hermione and Ron and the pain grew slightly. Harry winced but refrained from placing his hand on his forehead as he sat down, pulling out the book for D.A.D.A. He knew why they had to take this class as he had read the beginning of the book for the class. There were a lot of dangerous magical creatures and even dark witches and wizards to worry about. 

Harry was starting to feel less excited at the prospect of learning magic if this was how he was going to live, constantly worried about dying at every turn. He was taken out of his thoughts as Hermione poked him when class began. Harry wrote down notes on what Professor Quirrel spoke of, trying to make some sense of the stuttering that riddled his lecturing. Which was once again just introductions and speaking about what they would be covering in the class. Athena was laying on his desk next to him as Harry pet her in-between note-taking. As usual, she was looking around the room, scanning for threats other than the one glaring danger in the room, not that Harry knew about it. 

Transfiguration was similar to D.A.D.A. other than the fact that Professor McGonagall could turn into a cat. 

Athena glared at Professor McGonagall for the whole class period. 

When lunch came around Harry was able to fight through his tiredness from the previous night as he grew curious about his wands again. “Can I see your book on wands again Hermione? I wanted to know about my other wand.” Hermione nodded, “I’ve already looked at what my wand’s wood says about me, it says that I’m looking for a greater purpose. Which I suppose is true, when I heard I was a witch, I thought about what good things I would be able to do.” Harry looked through the book until he came upon the entry for Holly wand wood, “It says here that Holly is often protective and usually goes for people that are on a dangerous or spiritual quest. That doesn’t sound too good, I don’t want to be on a dangerous quest.” 

Ron spoke up from the food he was eating, “Well, You-Know-Who did try to kill you, Harry, and you’re hardly normal.” Hermione nodded as she took the book back from Harry, “Even among witches and wizards, you’re incredibly strange Harry. According to this book,” Hermione held up the book on wands, “There are only a few other wizards worldwide that have two wands, not to mention being a metamorphmagus and a hybrid house.” Neville from beside them even had something to say, “Harry has two wands? Didn’t Merlin have two wands too? I thought that it was the reason he was such a famous wizard.”

Harry looked at Neville with a frown, “This fame thing isn’t going to get better is it?” All of his friends shook their heads and Ron spoke up, “I don’t think so mate. I don’t think it would get better even if you were only the Boy-Who-Lived. As Hermione said, you’re kind of a strange wizard. Earlier you were thanking the house elves, right? No one even talks to house-elves unless they need something, really.”

Harry sighed and laid his head on the table and momentarily closed his eyes before opening them as Athena was meowing in front of his face. “I don’t understand you, Athena. You know I can’t speak cat.” She just continued staring at him as he sat up. Hermione looked at Athena with curiosity, “What kind of cat is she? I’ve been wondering ever since I’ve seen her. I thought she might have been a Kneazle but she’s too tame isn’t she?” Harry shrugged and petted Athena as he responded to Hermione, “I have no clue, Hagrid found her somewhere at Diagon Alley. I read about Kneazles too and I think she’s a bit too smart to be one, that’s why I named her Athena.” 

Athena preened at the praise and Harry kept on petting her as she laid down. Hermione let out a small chuckle next to Harry, “Professor McGonagall’s first name is Minerva and she’s a cat animagus. Your cat is named Athena.” Harry looked in confusion as did Ron and Neville before Hermione looked at them and sighed, “Minerva is like the Roman form of the Greek Goddess Athena.”

Harry smiled and looked down at Athena, “Is that why you keep staring at Professor McGonagall, Athena?” She shook her head, “Is it because she’s a cat Animagus?” Athena nodded and Harry huffed out a laugh, “Do you have something against other cats?” Instead of answering Athena just laid her head down and closed her eyes. Ron looked between Harry and Athena, “Your cat is way too smart, it’s a bit creepy, to be honest.” 

Harry smiled, “I don’t know about that. I actually like being able to talk to her, if only I could understand what she says.” Neville was looking at Athena and Harry curiously, “Harry, do you mind if I ask you a question about being a metamorphmagus?” Harry shook his head, “Ask away, I’m an open book.” Neville pointed to Athena as he spoke to Harry, “Could you become a cat, like Professor McGonagall?” Harry looked at Athena and then at the mentioned professor at the professors’ table. “I have no clue, I haven’t tried to become an animal before. I guess I could try.” 

Hermione gave Harry a look, “I”m not going to try it all at once! That would be a really bad idea. I’m just going to try my hand.” Harry looked at his hand and focused on the idea of fur covering his hand and gaining claws. It took a second but he knew how to control his body and it was a change in his hair and bone structure like he’d done many times before. Ron looked on in awe when Harry had a cat’s paw in place of a hand. Harry moved it around and changed it back to his normal hand easier than he had when transforming it. He smiled at his hand, moving it around with no difficulty or problems. 

Hermione looked at him with surprise, “Maybe you should tell Professor McGonagall about what you can do. She’s an animagus and the transfiguration professor so she should have some tips for you. Plus, you do remember what Professor Sprout told us.” Harry nodded and looked over to Professor McGonagall once again, who was looking at him. He waved at her and she waved back at him before turning to the small man next to her. 

It turns out that the same man was the professor for Harry’s next class, Professor Flitwick. While he did have them go over the rules and introductions, he allowed the students to begin practicing for their first charms. He did warn, however, that they shouldn’t try any of the more complicated incantations just to be safe. Harry was enjoying this class more than the previous classes as Professor Flitwick was much more hands-on while directing the students, floating around the classroom on top of a few books. 

Eventually, he got to Harry and noticed him switching his wand, trying to get used to using both of them. “Are you borrowing someone else’s wand, Mr. Potter?” Harry looked confused for only a moment before pulling out his other wand, “No sir, I was just using my other wand so that I can get to know how to use both of them well.” He didn’t see the point in hiding the truth about his wands since it would get out eventually. Professor Flitwick looked at both of Harry’s wands, specifically noting the black one. “Very interesting, Mr. Potter. I hope to see you excel in my class and from what I’ve heard from Pomona, that won’t be an issue for you.” 

Flitwick turned to Hermione sitting to the left of Harry, “Or for you Ms. Granger. I would like to see you after class, Mr. Potter.” Harry nodded and shared a look of confusion with Ron and Hermione before they continued practicing the charms they saw in the book with Flitwick telling people how to do certain movements. One thing was clear to Harry, everyone in the class had heard about him having two wands, and nobody was quiet in their whispering about it. 

After class, Harry had stayed behind with Flitwick assuring him that he wouldn’t be in trouble with Professor Sinistra. “It has been a long time since I’ve heard of a student having more than one wand. Do any of the other teachers know?” Harry shook his head, “Professor McGonagall knows about it but she said I should talk with her in her office about it.” Flitwick nodded and gestured for Harry to follow him as he walked to the back of the room and silently waved his wand, destroying a chair in a shower of wood. “I would like to see if you can mend this broken chair.” 

Harry had shielded his face from the exploded chair and Athena had jumped off of his shoulder and onto a desk at the back of the room. Harry looked at it and pulled out his Ebony wand from his holster pointing it at the remains of the chair and saying Reparo . Slowly at first and then picking up, the debris of the wooden chair began to coalesce and fly back to the largest parts of the chair. Piece by piece, in under a minute the chair was whole once again, lying on the ground.

Harry heard clapping from Professor Flitwick, “Incredibly well done, Mr. Potter! There’s not a scratch on it!” Professor Flitwick waved his wand and the chair exploded again, “Now do it with your other wand.” 

Harry nodded and pulled his Holly wand out of its holster and held it in his left hand. He repeated the same procedure with his Holly wand, and while he did fix the chair, it took much longer to completely be repaired. Flitwick clapped again, “Much slower, but for a first-year, it is still an incredible feat of magic! What is that wand’s wood?” Harry held out the wand he used, “It’s made of Holly, Professor.” 

Flitwick hummed to himself and walked over to his desk, writing down something on parchment before sending it off in a poof. Professor Flitwick turned to look at Harry again, “I sent a letter to Dumbledore to ask him if I could tutor you in using both of your wands at once. It takes incredible concentration to think of more than one spell at once and cast it at the same time, but if you are able to then you could be an incredible dueler.” 

Harry nodded and holstered his wands again, “What do you mean, Professor? Do you mean as in fighting?” Professor Flitwick nodded and pulled out his wand weaving an image of two people casting spells at each other in the air, “Dueling is a battle of wizards firing spells at each other until one of them either submits or dies.” The image disappeared as Professor Flitwick smiled at Harry, “And luckily for you, you’re talking to the former Dueling Champion.” Harry stared blankly at the professor wondering what he had gotten himself into.

Chapter Text

Harry was way too tired to visit Professor McGonagall that night when History got finished. He told Hermione and Ron that he was going to sleep since he didn’t get any the night before and headed up to his dorms with Athena walking behind him for once. He fell down onto his still perfectly neat bed and fell asleep easily within a few minutes. 

However, his dreams were much less easy as his memories from the Dursleys haunted him in the night causing him to toss and turn in his bed. 

His mind turned to all of the times that he had done something wrong and they had punished him for it. All the times that he had done magic and punished him for it. Harry woke up, tears running down his face in the middle of the night. He didn’t understand why he had those dreams, he usually has no dreams at all or none that he can remember at least. He pulled the large cat in his bed to his body as he hugged Athena in the night for a while. Athena licked his tears away every once in a while and ran her tail along his arm, seemingly in an attempt to comfort him. 

When Harry got up, he grabbed his books and ventured downstairs lighting his way with a weak Lumos . Like the night before he sat down and read more from his textbooks. Athena had helped him stop thinking about the Dursleys but there was one thought that plagued his mind, the thought of being a girl, the thought that he had been trying to keep out of his consciousness the whole day. 

He knew that he shouldn’t be thinking about it but after what Dumbledore had said to him about metamorphmagi, he wanted to try it more than ever. Of course, he’s changed into a girl before, but one time he got caught by Petunia and she wasn’t so forgiving. Since then, he’s stuck to feminine features without becoming the girl that he wants to be, rather than a different person altogether. He once considered trying to change into a cat again, but thought against it, knowing that Hermione was right. If it was easy to do what Professor McGonagall could do, then a lot of people would do it. 

He continued reading but didn’t try any more spells, following Professor Sprout’s warning. Since his first potions class was today and he already knew what to expect for the rest, he mainly focused on the books about brewing potions and plants used in potions. He read the very beginnings of them but now he was making himself sit down and try to get through the material. After what the twins had told Harry about Professor Snape, he knew he’d have to probably work hard to impress Snape or at least not make Snape hate him. 

Harry knew that he’d have to go get breakfast in a little bit so he took a shower and got dressed before heading back down to the common room to read. Harry was still reading when daybreak arrived and a familiar person came down the steps of the dorm rooms. “What are you doing down here, Harry?” 

Harry looked up to see that Hermione had come down in her robes as well, “I’m just catching up on stuff, I don’t want to be clueless in potions class, especially after what Fred and George said.” Hermione nodded and sat by Harry as he looked back down at his book, “You’re going with the Hufflepuffs today right?”

Harry looked back up and nodded again, “Yep, I have classes all day with the Hufflepuffs. I’m sure you, Ron, and Neville can manage without me.” Hermione smiled at Harry and he looked at the fire for a moment, “Hermione, can I ask you a question?” Athena looked at Harry with curiosity for a moment, curled up next to the fire. “Oh. Of course, Harry! Like you said yesterday, I’m an open book!” Harry laughed at her excitement and his hair turned a shade of dark purple as she turned away from her to ask the question. Hermione had deduced that Harry’s hair changed when he felt certain things, like when the owls came into the Great Hall, so she was a bit worried when it became the same color as then. “When I talked to Dumbledore about where I was going to stay, I told him that I wanted to be here sInce I knew you and Ron.” 

Hermione smiled, glad that Harry had wanted to stay with Gryffindor because of them. She had enjoyed talking to him and he didn’t think she was annoying when she spoke about things. He actually liked listening to her, which was a welcome change. Harry continued on immediately after, gaining the courage to finally look at Hermione, “Then the thing he asked me was if I wanted to stay in the boys' dorm…or the girls' dorm.” Hermione listened in curiosity at where this was going and why he was bringing this up. 

Harry looked at the curious expression on Hermione’s face and continued after a few moments, “I asked him what he meant and apparently a lot of metamorphmagi tend to live as the opposite of their birth gender and other people do too? I wanted to ask you about it because you know a lot of stuff. I figured if anyone knew, it would be you.” 

Harry saw as Hermione’s face changed from interest to surprise to understanding. “Why didn’t you ask a professor?” Harry sucked in a breath, “I don’t have the best track record with teachers, and most of my old ones kind of hated me. I like Professor Sprout, McGonagal, and Flitwick but I don’t exactly…trust them yet.” 

Hermione nodded and she tried to think of how to approach this, “Well…I don’t know if they have a word for it in the magical world, but in the muggle world, they call it being transgender.” Athena perked up at the words that Hermione had said and looked at Harry’s face as he processed it. “So…people try to do it everywhere?” 

Hermione nodded and placed a hand on Harry’s arm, “Some people are just different and don’t want to be a boy or a girl and that’s okay. My mom told me all about her sister, she was transgender. It’s a bit complicated for muggles.” Harry looked at Hermione, his hair turning yellow, “If-if…I wanted-” Hermione interrupted him, “If you want to be a girl then it's okay. You’d be very a very pretty girl!” Harry’s hair turned a mixed green and pink as he sat there with his face blank.

A few minutes later, Ron had walked down the steps with Neville in tow, wanting to get up so he could talk to Harry before he left with the Hufflepuffs. However, what he found in the common room was not something he expected and it made him feel incredibly awkward as he walked in. Harry was crying while saying, “I-I’m sorry, I try not to c-cry.” Hermione was talking to him, “It’s fine, you’re probably going through a lot. I can’t imagine how you must be feeling.” Athena had jumped up to Harry and he was hugging the big blue cat. “I don’t know how I’m feeling.” This was evident to Ron, Neville, and Hermione as Harry’s hair flashed through different colors from blue to red to pink to green. 

Eventually, Ron spoke up, “Harry? You okay there mate?” Neville felt even more awkward but piped up, “D-do you want me to make you some calming tea? My grandmother taught me how to make it.” Hermione looked like she was going to speak before Harry spoke up, wiping away his tears and sniffling, “I’m okay, just a bit confused. Some tea would be great Neville.” Hermione spoke up as Neville came back from his dorm with a cup of tea, and Ron sat down next to Harry. “Harry, do you want to tell them? I was right wasn’t I?”

Harry nodded and sighed as he she stood up, pacing with Athena in his arms before she sat down again while being handed some tea by Neville. Harry took a drink of the tea for a moment and tried to think about how to say it, “I-uh…” Harry gulped as she looked at a very confused Ron and Neville, “I want to be a girl, I think. I didn’t know that you could just…do it, before. I mean, I’ve been a girl before, I’ve been Hermione and some girls from my old schools. But I want to be myself, but a girl, I think.” 

Ron was looking at his friend, “You don’t seem to be too sure, mate. I’m not saying that because I don’t like it or whatever, but you sound like you’re trying to tell yourself more than us.” Neville spoke up from beside Ron, “It’s lucky that you’re a metamorphmagus then isn’t it? You don’t have to take any potions or nothing like that.” Neville was smiling, albeit nervously, trying to make his friend feel a bit more comfortable. 

It worked a little bit as Harry laughed a little bit at the comment, “Y-yeah, I don’t know why I’m getting so worked up about it.” Hermione frowned, “Because it means something to you, and I’m assuming you don’t want your friends to dislike you.” Ron looked at Hermione and followed her lead, “Yeah, it’s all fine, mate. It sounds like it's a lot, so don’t worry about the whole crying thing.” 

Eventually, Harry calmed down, but she had another thing to worry about. Should she just go for it and change the way that she wants to, or should she wait? She stood in front of a mirror for the common room, which was filling up with people that were grouping up and going down to breakfast. It was the only mirror in the dorm rooms so she couldn’t do it anywhere else. She stood in front of the mirror, holding her Ebony wand, quoting to herself what the wand meant, and why it chose her. “Happy in the hands of those that have the courage to be themselves, right? Well here goes nothing.” 

A few of the people passing by looked as she changed her body and face into something much more feminine than before. No longer did she see Harry Potter in the mirror, but a completely different girl. She was a few inches taller with shoulder-length pink hair, her face was less squared and softer. The largest difference was in her voice, which was now a higher pitch and had a feminine tone. Reminiscent of when she first met Hagrid. Then it was an accident, now it was completely on purpose. As she steeled herself, trying to gain some more courage to step out the door, she felt something happen with her Ebony wand. 

Before she knew that her Ebony wand was connected to her, but her Holly wand was connected in a deeper way almost immediately. She felt as the wand grew warm in her hand like the Holly wand once did, seemingly humming in delight. She felt like it had finally accepted her. She smiled as she holstered the wand and looked at her friends, “What do you think?” 

Ron spoke first trying to make up for his previous comment, “Bloody hell, you look good. I didn’t know you could get taller like that.” Hermione smiled and clapped her hands, “It’s great! Now we just need a new name! Harry won’t do anymore!” Neville looked at her with a small smile, “It could be a flower, like your mum’s name.” She waved her hands, “I don’t want any similarities with my Aunt Petunia.” Hermione thought for a bit before seeing Athena, “It could be something like Athena’s name. You liked the name enough to name her.” 

She thought about it for a moment, “That doesn’t sound too bad. I mean there’s Aphrodite, the goddess of love.” Athena did not react well to it as she yowled and hissed. Hermione looked at Athena warily, “So, not Aphrodite, what about Artemis? Or Diana, her Roman name?” She weighed it for a moment before shaking her head, “I don’t like the sound of Artemis…but I do like the mythology theme…” 

Ron was trying to help, thinking of everything he knew, “What about Freyja? She’s a goddess of magic, beauty, and cats and stuff.” Hermione was staring at Ron in surprise, “What? I used to like reading about Viking stuff as a kid, and the mythology was always interesting to me. Do you know what Thor can do with his hammer!? It’s bloody mental!” 

She saw as Athena perked up at the name, recognizing it like Aphrodite, but she didn’t hiss this time. “Freya it is then! Thank you, Ron. Of course, to you too, Neville and Hermione.” Hermione looked up at the clock to figure out what time it was and yelped, “We’re going to miss breakfast if we don’t hurry! We’ve got 30 minutes until class!” Ron was the first one out the door with the other three not far behind. Freya ran with her friends down the halls and stairs trying to get to the Great Hall. 

Athena demonstrated that she was apparently very fast as she sped ahead of the group, treating it as a race. However, it was harder for Freya and Hermione, since they were weighed down by their books. They did make it to the Great Hall eventually, but as Freya’s luck would have it, it was time for mail. Running into the Great Hall, Freyja immediately had to move out of the way as an owl flew straight toward her. “Why is it only owls?!” 

Freya said this as she ran past all of the tables, half a dozen owls trailing after her, “Professors! Can anyone do something about these owls!” Hagrid looked at Freyja running towards them, “Calm down Harry I’ll get them off ye!” 

Professor Flitwick saw his young apprentice and sighed, “I’ll help you Rubeus!” Then he said under his breath, “I need to teach him a bird repelling charm sometime.” The both of them got up and with a few waves of their wands saved Freya from an untimely feathered doom. Most of the students were laughing at the scene as Freya was breathing heavily on the floor of the Great Hall after running so much. 

Hagrid walked up to Freya and pulled her up, “Thanks for that Hagrid, Professor Flitwick, I don’t know why the owls hate me. I’ve never even seen an owl before this week.” Hagrid looked at Freya with curiosity before speaking, “You’ve changed yourself again, but I don’t recognize ye, Harry.” Freya looked up at Hagrid with a smile, “Oh yeah, that’s not my name anymore. I decided to change it since I wasn’t going to use it anymore. It’s Freya now.” 

Hagrid let out an ‘Oh’ of surprise, “Well then, uh Freya you’d best get eating because breakfast is over in about 15 minutes I’d say.” Freya gasped and looked over to the Gryffindor table before running to the Hufflepuff table. She was left just as winded as she sat down next to Susan Bones. “I really need to exercise more if this is going to be a common thing.” Susan chuckled, “I don’t think anything’s common about you, Potter.” 

Freya nodded and grabbed whatever food that was left uneaten to eat before she had to go to charms. That was until someone showed up behind her, “Word around the school is that you have two wands, Potter.” She turned around to see Draco standing with Crabe and Goyle, “Draco! We haven’t talked since before the sorting! Congratulations on getting into Slytherin by the way!” Freya was truly glad to talk to him again as she hadn’t had a chance until then. Draco was frozen by the girl as she stood up and spoke to him so genuinely. A few of the nearby Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws spit out their drinks at the words. 

Freya smiled at Crabbe and Goyle holding a hand out to each of them, “We didn’t meet earlier, I”m Freya Potter, it’s nice to meet you Crabbe and Goyle.” She turned to look at Draco again, “I got a name change in the past...” She looked to Susan Bones, “What time is it?” A boy from the Hufflepuff table a few years older than her spoke up, “It’s 8:22!” She smiled at him, “Thank you, my kind upperclassman!” Turning back to Draco, “It has been about 23 minutes since I’ve changed my name.” Draco didn’t know what to say other than, “Well, um, Congratulations, I suppose?” 

She laughed, “Thank you, Draco. You don’t have to call me Potter, you know. We’re friends after all!” Draco was taken aback at this, “Friends!?” Freya nods, “Oh yes! I believe that this is the start of a wonderful friendship, Draco. Oh, and yes I do have two wands. If there was more time I’d come over to your table and show you but we have only…,” She turned back to the upperclassman boy, “How long until classes?” He sighed, “It’s only been a minute!” 

Draco’s confusion was deepened as he was pulled along by Freya to the Slytherin table. “We have 7 minutes, that’s more than enough. Plus I want to talk to Daphne again.” Crabbe and Goyle also followed in confusion.

Freya made herself a seat next to Daphne Greengrass, a striking contrast as she had bright pink hair, and robes colored red and yellow. “Hello Daphne, we haven’t talked either.” Daphne looked to see Freya smiling at her, confusion on her face seeing the pink in the sea of green. “What are you doing at the Slytherin table?” Freya looked over to see Draco sitting next to her and pointed to him, “I wanted to show him my wands and I thought I’d get to talk to you again. We had a nice conversation the last time we spoke.” Daphne nodded slowly, looking around at the bewildered expressions of some Slytherins and the furious expressions of others. 

Freya paid them no mind as she pulled out both of her wands, holding them in front of Draco. He looked at the Holly wand with indifference but when he saw the Ebony wand he looked intrigued. “Where did you get that one?” Freya ran her hands across it, “Ollivander’s shop in Diagon Alley. Do you recognize it or something?” Draco shook his head smiling, as she showed the wand to Daphne, “What do you think Daphne? It’s a nice wand isn’t it?” Daphne looked at it and at Draco with slightly wide eyes, “There’s no way you got that at Ollivander’s. That’s a specially made wand, only Ancient Pure-blood families get those.” Freya shrugged, “I don’t know what to tell you, I went to Ollivander’s and he told me I needed two wands and this was the first one that chose me.” 

Freya holstered her wands and smiled at the two Slytherins, “I am glad to have talked with you two and sorry if it was a bit…chaotic. I’m just a bit excited myself, learning magic and all. I didn’t even know it existed last week and I can’t imagine how it must be for you two, who have known about it all of your life.” Draco was confused at this obviously because he had thought that she was raised knowing about magic, “You haven’t known about magic?” 

Freya shook her head, “I lived with my muggle Aunt and Uncle, they tried to keep me from doing any kind of magic, even if it was unintentional. One time I accidentally set a snake loose in the Zoo. I got locked in the cupboard for a couple of weeks for that. It’s not like it's my fault that the snake wanted out!” Daphne was listening interested, wondering how Freya hadn’t become an obscurus. Then she realized what Freya had said, “You talked to the snake?” 

Freya nodded, looking back to Daphne, “Yeah, I thought it would be a common thing with people that have magic and stuff.” Daphne shook her head along with Draco, “Parselmouths are rare and it’s usually a sign of a dark witch or wizard.” Freya frowned, looking to Draco for confirmation. 

He nodded, “Daphne is right…Freya, talking to animals isn’t very common, much less talking to snakes. Usually, only Slytherins have the ability if anyone because it was what Salazar Slytherin was famous for.” 

Freya thought about it for a moment before sighing, “So basically, it’s kind of a bad thing?” Daphne spoke up from beside her, all thoughts of formality gone, “If you were a Slytherin it would be welcome, but you’re about as far from Slytherin as you can get. Being both a Gryffindor and a Hufflepuff hardly puts you in the good graces of many Slytherins.” Freya looked and Daphne confused, “But why? I kind of know that each house has different traits and all but it seems ridiculous to hate people that you don’t even know because they sit at a different table.” 

Before anything else could be said Draco spoke up, “Speaking of different tables, I believe that you should go to a different table. You aren’t supposed to sit at another house’s table and the longer you stay, the worse that Snape will treat you.” Freya smiled at Draco as she stood up, “Awww, I’m glad that you care about me, Draco.” He blushed slightly and stuttered, “Th-that’s not what I meant!” 

Freya didn’t see it as she turned to Daphne, “I’ll see you later Daphne, maybe we can talk about my wand again sometime.” Daphne nodded and stared at Freya as she walked back to the Hufflepuff table, “She’s insane.” Draco, who hadn’t talked to Daphne at all up until then said, “Yeah, but if I were her I think I’d have gone insane too. Imagine having to live with muggles all of your life.” Daphne nodded once again, noting that maybe Draco wasn’t as bad as she thought.

Freya was feeling much better after all of that and she had calmed down some. She was very happy with her new looks and in a rush of euphoria, she bulldozed Draco and Daphne. She sat down next to Susan again and Ernie, still across from her, was looking incredibly confused, “What was that? How did you sit at the Slytherin table and not get killed?” Freya shrugged and looked down at her plate, Athena laying next to it and glaring at her. “Don’t give me that look, Athena, I’m just feeling a bit different. I’m making friends so you should be proud of me.” 

She looked to Ernie, “I just wanted to talk to Draco and Daphne, I don’t care much for the whole house thing. It seems a bit dumb.” Ernie looked confused but didn’t say anything. Susan laughed, “Of course, you would think that Freya, you’re in two houses!” Hannah pointed over to the Gryffindor table, “I don’t think your red-haired friend over there is very happy with you.” Freya looked to see that Ron was glaring at her and she frowned. She knew that it would be a problem, but not one she could help right then as everyone was dismissed and she had to go to class. 

Charms class was more practice and Professor Flitwick taught her and the other students about what charms were. Freya was incredibly interested in how magic worked and charms were no exception. She listened intently to what the small man had to say and wrote down all the important bits on parchment as she had been doing for all of her classes. She wanted to make sure that she remembered what he was saying, even if he would repeat it later. 

Susan and Hanna sat next to her, while Ernie sat somewhere else with a Ravenclaw girl. She talked to them throughout the lesson trying to help them and just having fun with them. Eventually, the lesson ended and Freya was told to stay behind again by Professor Flitwick. He had wanted to inform her that he was given permission to tutor her by the Headmaster. While Freya was glad, she wondered what he was going to teach her because the look on his face yesterday didn’t comfort her. 

D.A.D.A. and Herbology were much the same and she breezed through the classes taking notes whenever she could, which some of her classmates found strange. She didn’t understand why since a lot of this had to be memorized, but she continued anyway. When lunch came around she moved to the Gryffindor table again, wanting to talk to her friends. 

She was greeted less than welcomely when Ron glared at her, “What is that look for Ron?” Hermione sighed as Freya sat down, “He’s mad that you sat with the Slytherins, especially Draco.” Freya looked at Ron with a frown, “It’s not like I’m going to stop being your friend Ron, or a Gryffindor. I just prefer to talk with them nicely than have a meaningless grudge against them. I know that they haven’t been great in your experiences but there’s no way that every single one of them is bad. Daphne is pretty nice and if you don’t mention muggles, then Draco can be civil.” 

Ron frowned looking less angry and sadder now, “But why did you have to sit with them?” Freya shrugged, “I was just doing the first thing I thought of, I knew the Hufflepuffs wouldn’t want Draco to sit there so I decided to go to the Slytherin table. I was feeling strange this morning, I was happy and excited. It sounded like Draco would have said something rude to me, so I decided to try and derail him because I didn’t want my mood ruined.”

Ron nodded and didn’t speak and Freya turned to Hermione, “So, did I miss anything while I was with the Hufflepuffs?” Hermione nodded pulling a newspaper from her stack of books, “Take a look at this newspaper that was delivered this morning! Someone broke into Gringotts Bank!” Freya took the paper and stared at the moving pictures for a moment before reading what Hermione had spoken of, “That’s the same vault that Hagrid took me to when we went to Gringotts. I wonder why they were trying to steal what Hagrid took. He said it was official Hogwarts business though, so it must be important.” 

Hermione grew curious at Freya’s words and hummed. “I wonder what it could be for someone to try and steal from Gringotts.” Neville was thoughtful for a moment, “Maybe it’s a super rare potion or something? I’ve heard that some potions can do crazy things.” Freya shrugged and went back to eating, feeding Athena some of the meat and petting her. 

Hermione smacked herself on the head and Freya looked at her strangely along with Ron, him asking her, “Whats the matter with you?”  Hermione turned to Freya, “I completely forgot to ask, what did Professor Flitwick want from you? You went to sleep as soon as we got back to the dorms so I couldn’t ask.” Freya smiled and leaned in so that only her friends heard, “Professor Flitwick is going to personally tutor me to use both of my wands at once. That’s why he wanted me to stay after, to test me, I guess.” 

Hermione smiled widely at Freya, “That’s amazing!” Freya nodded and laughed, “He wants to teach me how to duel and stuff too.” Ron perked up at that, “Dueling? Professor Flitwick knows how to duel?” Freya chuckled at his reaction too, “Apparently, he’s the former Dueling Champion, whatever that means. I just hope that he doesn’t end up murdering me during tutoring because he had like an evil grin.” Ron laughed a little at the joke and Hermione looked appalled at the idea.

Chapter Text

History was the only class that came close to boring for Freya but nonetheless, she pushed through, still interested in it even if the Professor was less than helpful at times. Potions was a whole other different story as it was the first time Freya was going to meet Snape. She was with the Ravenclaws for this class instead of the Slytherins or Gryffindors, so the only friends she had were Susan, Hannah, and maybe Ernie. 

Susan was telling how magical families lived without the modern amenities Freya was used to seeing when Snape walked in. 

“ There will be no foolish wand-waving or silly incantations in this class. As such, I don't expect many of you to appreciate the subtle science and exact art that is potion-making. However, for those select few...Who possess, the predisposition... I can teach you how to bewitch the mind and ensnare the senses. I can tell you how to bottle fame, brew glory, and even put a stopper in death.” As Snape said this, Freya was writing down the last few things he said, possibly wanting to ask about it later. 

Snape saw this and walked towards Freya, speaking directly to her. She was still taking notes on his speech. “Then again, maybe some of you have come to Hogwarts in possession of abilities so formidable that you feel confident enough to not pay attention!” 

Freya looked up at his last words, frowning at his accusation. She didn’t understand why he seemed to think that she was overconfident or something. If anything she felt like she was the opposite. “ Mister Potter. Our new celebrity.” Freya’s hair turned a darker shade of pink becoming slightly reddish but took a breath, hair returning to light pink again. She was aware that not everyone knew that she wanted to be referred to as a girl yet so it was understandable. “It’s Ms. Potter now, Professor Snape. I was just writing down some notes for questions later.” 

Professor Snape hummed at Freya, “Very well, Ms. Potter. Tell me, what would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?” A few of the Ravenclaws raised their hands as Freya looked thoughtful for a moment, “Well, the book said that it creates a sleeping potion called the Draught of the Living Death.” Snape nodded, “Yes, that is correct. It seems you aren’t a complete buffoon.” Freya frowned once again at his words as he continued speaking, “If you’re so smart then where, Ms. Potter, would you look if I asked you to find me a bezoar?” 

Freya didn’t understand why he was only asking her these questions. She was very glad that she studied the books earlier that morning. She tried to calm herself as she pet Athena on her desk, her cat also petting Freya with her tail. “A bezoar is found in the stomach of a goat and is most often used to treat poisons.” Snape nodded and hummed once again, “That is also correct, Ms. Potter. I assume that you have been reading the book assigned for this class?” Freya nodded and pulled the book Magical Drafts and Potions out from her stack of books, making sure to show the bookmark that showed she was halfway through the book. “I’ve been trying to catch up, Professor, I only got my books the day I arrived at Hogwarts. I’ve been reading them in the mornings and nights.” 

Professor Snape walked over to Freya’s desk, looking at the several books she had on it. “A very studious one are you? Perhaps you would have fit better in Ravenclaw.” Freya shook her head, “I only study what I’m interested in, if I had classes like I used to have I would be bored to death. But this is magic, it’s completely different.” Snape grew curious about Freya and what she meant, as someone who’s never had a muggle education, “What’s so different about it?” 

Freya looked down and tried to think of how to say it, “First off, just about anything can be done with magic, and that’s what we’re learning about, the ability to literally and figuratively change the world around us. Potions can heal things that muggles can’t even imagine healing and charms can make any ordinary object a thing capable of transporting someone hundreds of miles! If I was in a muggle school, I would be learning how to become some kind of businesswoman and probably still end up working at a restaurant!” 

Freya saw the almost surprised look on Professor Snape's face and looked down, “I’m sorry for rambling Professor.” Many of her classmates were surprised at her words to Professor Snape, who was known as a strict teacher. Snape walked away from Freya saying, “At least you show a desire to learn potions, unlike some in this classroom. I do hope that you can back up those words with your actions. Ms. Potter.” 

Astronomy went by quickly for Freya and she was glad to have a class with Gryffindor again. She told her friends that weren’t there about what happened with Snape and they looked at her in surprise, “He just kept on getting mad at us and telling us what we were doing wrong.” Ron said this with a frown and Freya frowned with him, turning red again like when Snape was asking her questions. “I don’t know what his problem is with Gryffindors. He wasn’t great but at least he wasn’t that bad with the Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws.” 

Hermione looked thoughtful as she looked down at her books, “Maybe it’s because you were interested in potions? I know a number of people in our class who didn’t care much for the subject.” Freya just shrugged and they continued paying attention to the lesson as the Professor was talking about different types of stars. 

After classes were finally over, Freya finally made her way to Professor McGonagall's office to talk with her. She did want to talk about the whole having two wands thing but she mostly wanted to ask about how Professor McGonagall turned into a cat. Once again, she had to ask the portraits for directions but in only half an hour she made it to Professor McGonagall's office. Once Freya knocked on the door of the office she heard a voice from inside a few seconds later, “Come in!” Freya opened the door and walked inside to see that it was fairly plain and she walked straight up to Professor McGonagall’s desk where she seemed to be looking over some papers, “Ah, Ms. Potter. I’ve been wondering when you would stop by.” 

Freya smiled at the professor and sat down in a chair in front of her desk. “I was too tired yesterday, I spend all night reading and trying to catch up.” Professor McGonagall nodded and set aside what she was doing, “I assume you want to talk about your wands? Or do you want to talk about something else?” McGonagall eyed Freya’s hair and she realized what the professor meant, “Yes, both actually, I did want to know about why I have two wands. I also wanted to know about the whole…cat transfiguration thing you did.” 

Freya’s hands were behind the desk and she turned one into a paw and held it up, “Because I was thinking that you could show me how without hurting myself.” Professor McGonagall’s eyes widened and she looked worriedly, “Ms. Potter, what have you done to yourself?!” Freya immediately turned her hand back, “I’m fine! I can change it back!” 

McGonagall sighed in relief and then looked a bit angry as she scolded Freya, “What did Professor Sprout tell you about unsupervised magic!” Freya held up her hand doing the same transformation to a cat paw, “I can do this easily. I know how to transfigure my body but I’ve never tried to actually be an animal and I wanted to ask because it might be different.” 

She changed her hand back as proof, McGonagall sighed and looked at Freya, “You’re different then, even for a metamorphmagus. The last metamorphmagus at this school couldn’t do anything as complex as that. It’s probably tied to the reason why you have two wands as well. For a wizard or witch to have two wands they need a substantial amount of magic. I can only guess why you have as much magic as you do, but it probably allows you to do things that other Metamorphmagi can’t since it depends on their magic.” Freya was listening to Professor McGonagall and looked down at her wands, “So, what you’re saying is….?” 

Professor McGonagall sighed and rested her head on her hands, “I believe that you could possibly be able to completely bypass the process to become an animagus, simply because of your powerful self-transfiguring abilities.” Freya began to smile and her hair turned a light green before turning to a darker green as Professor McGonagall spoke again, “However! You must be supervised by me at all times when you are practicing, and we take this slow! No jumping into total body transfigurations. Do you understand?!” 

Freya nodded excitedly and happily at the idea of becoming an animal. McGonagall sat up and looked Freya in the eyes, “That being said, are you sure you want to do this? It will take time and practice and you’ll probably get frustrated. You may be able to do a hand perfectly fine, but transforming the whole body is a completely different matter. Not to mention, the tutoring that Professor Flitwick is supposed to be giving you that will take up your time as well. Can you handle it and keep up with your classes Ms. Potter?” 

Freya thought about it for a moment, realizing that Professor McGonagall was right, it was a lot. However, she didn’t want to just be okay at magic, especially with how many dangerous things there seemed to be out there. She didn’t want to attack anyone or anything obviously, but she didn’t want to be powerless like she was with the Dursleys. 

Freya nodded, “I can handle it, Professor McGonagall. I’d have spent my time practicing or studying my magic anyway.” McGonagall looked at Freya, “What about your friends Ms. Potter? You seem to be very keen on making them.” Freya nodded, “Yes I do want to make friends, but I also want to be the best witch I can be. I don’t doubt that the people that follow You-Know-Who will end up coming for me. I was apparently protected by the Dursleys, but I’m never going back there again. So, I need to learn how to protect myself.” 

Professor McGonagall frowned, a little surprised, and let out a heavy sigh, “I told Dumbledore to not leave you there, they are some of the worst muggles I have ever seen.” She looked back up to Freya, “You need somewhere to stay Ms. Potter, are you sure that you won’t go back?” Freya’s hair suddenly turned red mixed with blue splotches. She looked down at her legs, trying to compose herself, before looking up back up, “Professor McGonagall…Do you know why I didn’t respond until Hagrid came to get me?” She said this quietly, tears threatening to spill from her eyes.

McGonagall shook her head, “I was told that you were on a small island when Hagrid found you, but mail should have still gotten there.” Freya swallowed and she shook her head, “That’s not why…I…I lived in a cupboard all of my life until this week, but you probably knew that. It was addressed in my letter.” Professor McGonagall frowned once again, “They had you living in a cupboard? Why on earth would they do that?” 

Freya stood up and walked away from the desk, hair now completely a bright red before walking back to look at the professor, “Why would they lock me in a cupboard for a week for trying to read a letter!? That’s what I want to know! Why did I have to stay there when you knew about me this whole time!? Did I have no other family!? No one else that wanted me?!” Freya yelled this, tears falling from her eyes, her hair slowly turning blue before she burst into tears, slumping down into a chair. 

Professor McGonagall stood up and rushed around the desk, tentatively hugging the crying girl. She silently held her until Freya’s crying had slowed down. Freya was tired, and she was still holding onto McGonagall, “I-I’m sorry for crying and yelling. I’ve never done that before, I don’t know what came over me” McGonagall shook her head and let go of Freya, “You don’t have to be sorry for crying over something like that. It is a terrible thing that they did to you and you have every right to be angry at me and Dumbledore.” 

Freya nodded and sat there silently, trying to keep herself calm. McGonagall stood up and placed a few things in her drawers before waving her wand at them, the drawers making an audible click. “Perhaps I should bring you back to the common room, Ms. Potter.” Freya shook her head and stood up, “I can make it on my own, Professor McGonagall. I just needed to get that out of my system I think, I’ll be okay now.” 

McGonagall knew that she couldn’t hope to make the girl feel better, she wasn’t the most comforting of characters. “Very well, Ms. Potter, but be careful.” Freya nodded and she walked out of the office silently as well as the rest of the way to the Gryffindor common room. As soon as Freya left, McGonagall’s face turned into a scowl, “I’m going to have some words with Albus.” 

It was still not that late, as she had come to McGonagall’s office not long after her last class. It was only a little after 5:30 when she got back to the common room. It had several groups of Gryffindor students talking and working on classwork. However, Freya tried to breeze past them, unsuccessfully. “Freya, are you alright?” She could guess why it was asked when her hair was now a mix of blue and red still, which wasn’t normal, so they could probably see it as an emotional reaction. They were right of course, as she breathed in before facing Neville, who was sitting with a girl she didn’t recognize. 

“I’m…not okay, but I’m getting through it. I think I need to sleep or something.” Freya rubbed her head. Neville frowned, “I could make you another cup of tea, or you can sit here and talk about it. I’m sure that Lavender doesn’t mind.” the girl shook her head as she held a cup of tea and sipped on it. Freya sighed and sat down against one of the walls after a few moments, she spoke up calmly. “I just yelled at Professor McGonagall and then cried in front of her. Surprisingly, she didn’t even take any house points.” 

Neville was surprised by it, as was Lavender, “Why did you yell at McGonagall?” Freya sighed and picked up Athena, who had just decided to walk up to her. Athena didn’t want to come to McGonagall’s office with her so she let her walk back to the Gryffindor common room. Freya began petting Athena as she spoke, “I wasn’t even mad at McGonagall, I was just mad at my Aunt and Uncle. Maybe mad at Dumbledore too.” Freya took a cup of tea from Neville's outstretched hand and took a sip of it. “Why were you mad at Dumbledore?” Lavender spoke softly and looked at Freya curiously. “He’s the one that put me with my Aunt and Uncle, who absolutely hate magic and he knew it.”

Neville frowned, “Why would he do that?” Freya shrugged and looked down at Athena, “I don’t know. He said it was for my protection. As if I didn’t need protection from them. He said ‘if I had known you were a metamorphmagus, I wouldn’t have left you there or something like that. Why does that matter? I still had accidental magic that happened other than the accidental changes that happened when I was a kid. I would have still been hated by them!” 

Neville had a thoughtful expression on his face, “Maybe you need to do something to take your mind off it, something that you enjoy. From what Hermione’s told me, you’ve just been studying when we’re not in class.” Freya nodded taking another drink from the tea before standing up, “Yeah that sounds good, it’s better than sleeping now and waking up in the middle of the night again. Thanks, Neville. It was nice meeting you Lavender.” 

She let Athena jump onto her shoulder as she walked towards the exit of the common room. As she left, she realized that she had no idea where Ron or Hermione was. She left the common room wondering where they could be, however, she tried not to dwell on it too much as she was trying to not upset herself again. 

Ron and Hermione were worried about Freya when they had heard that she left and no one knew where she went. Neville had told them that she was upset about her Aunt and Uncle and made a suggestion. They tried to begin thinking of places that Freya could have gone that she enjoyed. It took them a while as they walked around the castle but eventually, Hermione came up with it, “She’s probably at the lake! Remember how she looked when we were crossing the lake? If I wanted to be away from people and wanted to take my mind off of something, swimming in a lake would be perfect.” 

Ron looked at Hermione and followed her as she swiftly walked through and out of the castle towards the lake, “Didn’t Hagrid say that it was dangerous? There’s like monsters and stuff in it right?” Hermione nodded, “That’s what I’m worried about, but hopefully she won’t have gotten herself killed.”

Hermione and Ron found a once again white-haired Freya, floating on the water about 20 feet from the shore. She was just laying on the water and mentally combing through the lake. Feeling peace at the activity and being in the water. Hermione looked at Freya strangely as she was still in her robes as she floated on the lake. Ron leaned toward Hermione, “Why is she just floating there?” Hermione gave Ron a look of incredulity gesturing to Freya, “What Neville suggested for her to do, relax.” Hermione sighed and turned to her floating friend, “Freya! Get out of the water! The lake is dangerous!” 

Freya looked up from where she was floating, her hair returning to its now normal pink. She saw her friends at the shore and began swimming back towards them. She didn’t know how she was able to since she’d never done it in her life, but she just accepted it like most of the other strange things about her. Arriving at the shore, her robes were sopping wet along with the rest of her body and Athena did the best approximation of an amused smile that a cat can make as she groomed herself on the shore a few feet away from Ron and Hermione. 

Freya wiped her hair out of her face, “I was wondering where you two were earlier.” She was smiling at her two friends that were looking at her strangely. “We looked all over for you!” Ron shouted to Freya and she stopped smiling, “Oh. Sorry about that. I thought you two were busy with something and if I tried to join you I would have had to tell you what happened again and I still wanted to like cry and punch a wall!” Freya spoke slowly at first but grew more agitated as she spoke until she was holding up her hands just shaking them until Hermione grabbed them and stopped them. 

Freya looked at Hermione’s hands and then her face, “Sorry, I was trying to calm down, not get angry again.” Hermione let go of Freya’s hands after an awkward moment of silence and she spoke, “We already know what happened from Neville so we don’t have to talk about it again.” Ron shook his head, “Yeah, we don’t have to talk about that, but I bet Hermione is dying to tell you about what we were just looking at!” 

Hermione gasped and nodded, pulling a still very wet Freya along with Athena following quickly behind, “Wait, where are we going?!” Hermione looked back at the confused Freya, “Just wait! You’ll see soon enough!” Hermione dragged Freya through corridors making a trail of water droplets the whole way, Ron finding the sight of it amusing. Hermione finally stopped at a case filled with trophies and pictures of what Freya recognized as Quiddich players. She had read about what Quiddich was in the book Hermione suggested to her and wondered why she had brought her there. 

Freya looked at Hermione in confusion before she pointed to one of the trophies in the cabinet and Freya stared in more confusion at what was imprinted onto the golden trophy, James Potter - Seeker. Hermione spoke as she pointed, “Your father was a seeker Freya!” Ron nodded and spoke up, “Seekers are supposed to be some of the best flyers ever! I’m sure that you’ll do well in flying practice if your father was that good. Maybe next year you’ll be able to get on the Quiddich team.” 

Freya shook her head and gestured to the name, “That can’t be my father, not unless the ancestry test I took was wrong.” Both of her friends looked at her just as confused as she was, “Hagrid told me that no one knew who my father was when I asked him and I wanted to find out who it was. So, I went to Gringotts and asked for an ancestry test done with my blood to see who my father was. Nothing showed up. Only my mother’s name and her ancestors showed up on the parchment.” 

Hermione sighed and Ron stood there, still confused, “It looks like we have even more to look up in the library. That’s another thing we were going to tell you about. We tried to look up anything about what you had told us with the water thing and the two wands thing but we didn’t find anything.” Ron shook his head, “We actually found a lot, but it wasn’t anything to do with what we wanted to know. Can you believe it? An hour at the Library and we got nothing!” 

Freya sighed, “Well, I’m sorry that you had to spend all that time trying to help me for it to be for nothing,” Hermione smiled at Freya, “It’s not a problem. It’s what friends do right?” Hermione looked over to Ron a bit nervously and he nodded, “Oh yeah! Friends do all kinds of stuff for each other, I think.” Ron looked as awkward as Freya and Hermione did. Ron spoke up a few moments later, “So we should probably go to the Great Hall before we miss dinner.” With nods of agreement from the two girls, Ron happily made his way with them in tow to the Great Hall. 

After they had all eaten and were full they went back to the Gryffindor common room to go to sleep. Freya was ready for sleep as she was tired after all of the cryings she had done and even if she felt better, she was still a little upset. However, as she tried to climb the stairs that she had previously gone up in order to get to her dorm, the stairs became a slide suddenly. This surprised Freya, Ron, and Neville as they walked up the steps and suddenly slid down them in a tangle of limbs and a lot of groaning. 

“What the bloody hell was that?” Ron said this while trying to get out from under Neville. Hermione, who had gone up her side of the steps, came down after hearing the commotion. “What did you do?” Hermione looked to the pile of people, noticing Freya, and then looking at the stairs that were forming back into steps. Hermione sighed and looked at Freya, who was still trying to get up, “I think you need to go to the girls dorms now Freya.” Hermione pointed to the stairs, “The stairs are enchanted to keep girls from going into the boy’s dorms. Maybe now that you see yourself as a girl it won’t let you in.” 

Freya smiled and her hair turned green at the strange euphoria, before turning back to pink, her smile becoming a frown, “All my stuff is up there.” Neville spoke up once he was able to stand, “I can get them for you, and I’m sure Ron can help.” 

Ron nodded and rubbed his arm, presumably where he landed on it. “Yeah I don’t mind that, but I wish that the stairs didn’t try to kill us,” Ron grumbled up the stairs and Neville followed after him. Both of them heard a yelled ‘Thank you!’ from Freya as they walked up the steps. 

A little bit later they were carrying down a trunk of Freya’s things, Ron looking like he was struggling. “Why do you have so many books? There’s like twice as many as you need!” Freya’s hair turned a brighter shade of pink, “I just wanted to know more about magic and stuff since I didn’t know anything before” 

Neville was carrying a separate case behind Ron, “You could always ask us, Ron and I have always been around magic.” Freya nodded and moved aside, taking the case from Ron, “I know but I don’t want to just ask a ton of questions that I’ll probably either learn about later or from a book. I don’t want to bother any of you.” 

Ron smiled and patted Freya on the back, “I probably don’t know as much as I should but you don’t have to worry about asking stuff. My mum told me to help the muggle-borns at Hogwarts if they needed it. I’d say that you count.” Freya smiled at Ron and tried to take the other case before Hermione grabbed it. Freya smiled at her friends and thanked them all before heading up to the girls' dorms with Hermione.

Chapter Text

The classes the next day passed by fairly quickly, Freya did well enough in her classes to earn 30 house points in Transfiguration, Charms, and surprisingly, Potions. Professor Snape was happy enough with the base for a potion that she made, that he had awarded 5 points to Gryffindor and Hufflepuff. While it wasn’t a lot, it surprised the other Gryffindors in her potions class. 

In Transfiguration class, they had begun learning about the basics of how one did transfiguration and how to determine if one could do it with a formula. Freya helped her friends with the lesson, including Draco, as Slytherins were paired up with them in this class. She earned 10 points for helping them understand the calculations done along with Hermione who was trying to help Ron and Neville too. 

In charms, Freya was awarded 15 points for a demonstration of the Mending charm. A few of the Ravenclaws didn’t enjoy that Freya did the demonstration for the spell that they were just learning that day, taking it as a challenge. Unlike the previous day, she got questions about her new look and she responded to them honestly. A few of the people she told did look at her strangely but didn’t say anything. 

Professor McGonagall had pulled Freya aside after Transfiguration class and handed her a parchment that held a schedule of when she would be tutoring with her and Professor Flitwick. It had an alternating schedule like with her house schedule but on Friday since she had two free periods she had tutoring with both of them. 

After classes, she went to Professor Flitwick’s office to receive her first tutoring from him. Freya was nervous but she hoped that it would be at least a good learning experience. Walking into Flitwick’s office Freya didn’t pay much attention to her surroundings as she saw Professor Flitwick floating on a table, reading a book that was floating in front of him with other books flying around him. Once he saw Freya, the books sorted themselves in neat piles on the desk as he floated downward, Flitwick setting them down on the ground with a smile. “Ah Miss Potter, I was just reviewing some about those who had used two wands in the past to prepare for our little lesson. From what I have read you are going to be quite the formidable witch when you grow up.” 

Freya looked at the books that were once floating nodding, “So what exactly are we going to be doing?” Flitwick waved his wand and a book flew over to Freya and she caught it. “First, you need to know a few spells if we’re going to practice with both of your wands…and if you want to stand a chance against me.” Freya looked at the book that read Dueling and How to Not Die a Painful Death - by Filius Flitwick. 

Professor Flitwick pointed at it, “That book holds several spells that you are going to want to know if what you were being truthful in what you said to Professor McGonagall.” Freya looked at Flitwick as he walked towards her with a grim look on his face, “If you wish to learn to protect yourself, then it is best that I teach you the correct way. Be aware that I will not be easy on you because I know that you have the ability to excel in our little lessons, that is, if you pay attention and stay focused.” Flitwick walked around Freya as he spoke until he stopped right in front of her, “Do I make myself clear Ms. Potter?” 

She nodded and Professor Flitwick smiled, “Good. The first two spells that you should know in order to protect yourself are some of my personal favorites, Expelliarmus and Protego.” Flitwick waved his wand over the book, opening the book to a page that had the spells he spoke of. Flitwick spoke once again as he walked back up to his desk, “I want to see how quickly you take to learning new spells. Now, before we begin, what other spells do you know other than the Mending charm?” 

Freya looked up from the book she was scanning over and pulled out her Holly wand, “The only other spell that I know is Lumos .” To demonstrate, the moment she said the last word her wand began to glow with a gentle light until she extinguished it with a quick Nox . “Ah, the wand lighting charm, a very simple but useful charm. How long did it take for you to accomplish a successful cast?” Freya thought it over for a few moments, “I think it only took a few hours, but I’m not sure.”

Professor Flitwick nodded and waved his wand once again, making a dummy with a wand-like stick in its hand out of a few quills on his desk, “Let’s begin the first lesson then.” Professor Flitwick yelled out ‘Expelliarmus’ and the dummy flew back several feet with the wand flying out of the dummy’s hand. Professor Flitwick moved the dummy back into position and gestured to Freya, “Now that I’ve demonstrated, read the book and follow the directions.” Freya nodded and began what would be a hard but very rewarding course in magic. 

Freya moved into an open courtyard excited along with several of her fellow Hufflepuffs. Athena was with her most of the day but had gone off on her own when Freya began walking to Flying class. “Ever since I first saw a flying broom I wanted to try riding one!” 

Susan was next to her and looked strangely at Freya, “I never saw the appeal myself, way too high and fast for me.” 

Freya shrugged, “I guess I can understand that but there must be some charms or something to keep you safe, or else they wouldn’t allow children on the things.” Ernie slapped Freya’s back with a chuckle, “I think you overestimate how much the professors worry about us getting hurt.” Freya nodded and held her right arm where it was still bruised from the tutoring she had received from Professor Flitwick the day before. 

She had used a bit too much power during a spell and instead of just blasting it back, in the style of Seamus Finnegan, she blew up the wooden dummy. The shrapnel mostly missed her but a piece of the wood flew straight toward the arm she was casting with, leaving it with a big bruise that was luckily hidden by her robes. Once they entered the courtyard, Freya was happy to see that there were people she knew since the Slytherins and Gryffindors were joining them that day. 

Freya saw her Gryffindor friends standing and talking together while waiting for the lesson to start. As usual, Draco was flanked by Crabbe and Goyle, who in her time of talking to Draco had been mainly silent, although not overtly unfriendly to her. Daphne was off to the side, away from most of the other Slytherins, and reading from a small book. She wanted to introduce her Hufflepuff friends to her Slytherin friends first because she didn’t talk to them as often. Freya went to Daphne first, pulling along the worried Hufflepuffs behind her, “Uhh, Freya? Why are you bringing us with you?” 

Freya looked back at Susan, “I’m going to introduce my friends to each other!” Hannah and Susan shared a look while Ernie was very reluctant to follow Freya pulling along the two girls. Eventually, he did end up following as those three girls were the only ones he really talked to and didn’t want to stand around awkwardly. “Daphne!” The mentioned girl looked up from her book and sighed, seeing Freya with three other Huffepuffs in tow. “Yes, Freya?” 

Freya smiled at Daphne, wrapping an arm around the Slytherin girl’s shoulder as she gestured to her Hufflepuff friends, introducing all of them. Unknown to Freya, Daphne was blushing a little bit at the amount of contact. The three Hufflepuffs were still nervous but did end up having a small awkward conversation with Daphne about the book she was reading. It turned out Hannah and Susan have a taste for romance books like Daphne did. Ernie did pop in every once in a while to say something but was mostly silent on the topic. 

Freya left them be, as she didn’t read much romance, and walked over to Draco. He had already seen her and was speaking to another boy as he waited for her inevitable approach. He soon found out that Freya usually tried to speak to him when he was in the room, and while he did not hate it, he did not understand why either. “Draco! Who’re you talking to?” The boy looked at Freya and made a face of disgust before walking away. As Freya got to Draco she said, “Oh, I guess he didn’t want to talk.” Draco sighed and shook his head, “That was Theodore Nott, and he doesn’t care much for anyone that isn’t a Slytherin.”

Freya shrugged, “That’s his opinion. Now come on, I wanna show you to my Hufflepuff friends because I’m pretty sure that they’re scared of you.” Draco looked at her confused as he followed her through the group of Slytherins that had grown used to her presence. “You want me to talk to them…because they’re scared of me?” Freya rolled her eyes, “Well, of Slytherins in general, and what better to make them feel better about it than to have a reasonable conversation with you.” 

Draco looked at Freya with skepticism but continued following her. Once again Freya introduced Draco to her friends and when her Gryffindor friends came over she introduced everyone to each other. However, the introductions had to end as a woman with wild grey hair walked onto the courtyard. She blew a very loud whistle that made several people jump, “Good afternoon class! I am Madam Hooch and I will be showing all of you how to fly on a broom! Grab a broom and line up next to each other!” Immediately everyone looked to where she gestured as there was a shed that held dozens of brooms stored on racks. Freya quickly grabbed hers and lined up with her friends.

Madam Hooch was straight to the point as she spoke, “Place your broom on your dominant hand side, Right if you’re right-handed and Left if you’re left-handed.” Once everyone had done so she whistled to quiet them up and continued, “Now then, hold out your dominant hand and command the broom to go UP!” Madam Hooch demonstrated with a broom as she said ‘UP!’ it flew straight into her hand immediately. “Just like that, if you can’t command a broom from the ground then you can’t get it into the air! Now do what I did and just say up!” 

Freya wiggled with excitement as she yelled out “UP!” and the broom shot straight into her right palm with a painful sting. She laughed happily as she looked around, seeing that she was the first one to do it. The next one that she saw was Draco’s broom that flew up into his hand and she smiled at him, “I think I beat you Draco.” 

He rolled his eyes and laughed with Freya as she saw Ron’s broom smack him in the face. Freya was laughing and Ron told her to shut up before she looked at his head, wincing, “You alright?” Ron nodded, holding his forehead, “I’m fine, Miss I-got-my-broom-on-the-first-try.” 

Draco was still laughing, however, “Try it again! That was amazing!” Ron glared at him and Freya looked nervously between the two of them before seeing that Hermione’s broom was just flopping helplessly on the ground as Hermione glared at it and Neville wasn’t much better. Daphne seemed to be having similar issues and Susan was able to get it after a little bit like Ron, along with Ernie and Hannah. The last few that got their brooms were Hermione and Daphne a few minutes after they had begun. 

Once everyone had finally gotten their brooms Madam Hooch once again blew that loud whistle of hers, “Now, everyone mount your brooms, and make sure to grip them tight! When I blow my whistle you are all going to take off, float for a few seconds and come down! Am I clear?” With nods from everyone, Madam Hooch blew her whistle causing all of the students to simultaneously kick off from the ground and float…except for one of them. 

For a few peaceful moments, Freya felt amazing as she rose into the air and smiled at her friends as she did so but soon she was crying out as Neville’s broom started bucking under him and he lost complete control of his broom. He went shooting across the sky, dragged by his broom every which way. Freya couldn’t help as she shot forward towards Neville despite the cries of her other friends and Madam Hooch, who would no doubt be giving her detention later. Freya flew forward trying to follow Neville as his broom pulled him along and realized she couldn't just follow him if she wanted to help him. 

Freya realized she had to probably knock him off of his broom unless she wanted his broom taking her along for a ride too. She willed her broom to go faster as she curved around and saw him heading for a statue that had way too many pointy things for her comfort. She flew from the side of Neville and only just pulled him off his broom as she flew by him and the broom crashed into the statue with a crack and a shower of splintered wood. 

Neville held on for dear life as Freya pulled him up behind her on her broom and he gasped as an object fell out of his pocket, “My Remembrall!” Freya was sure that she could fly now without getting Neville hurt and she looked around for Neville’s Remembrall. He had gotten it as a gift from his grandmother to try and help him remember things, as he had often forgotten things. Freya didn’t want him to lose it so she tried to find it as she kept on flying. 

Freya gasped as she spotted it flying straight towards the ground at a high speed. “Hold on tight Neville!” Neville looked to his friend in confusion, “Wait! What are you dooooiiingggaaahhhh!” 

Freya sped forward once again, heading toward the ground this time as she saw the Remembrall. She had to pull up tightly on the broom as she approached the ground but only 10 feet above the ground she reached out her hand and caught the small, palm-sized magical ball. She let out a whoop of exhilaration as she looped around and slowed as she flew back to see the shocked faces of many of her classmates and even Madam Hooch. 

When she finally touched down, Freya heard groaning from behind her as Neville stumbled off of her broom and threw up into the grass. Immediately she turned to him and made sure that he was alright, “Oh gosh Neville, I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean to make you sick! I was trying to get your Remembrall!” 

Freya was waved off by a groaning Neville, “I-I’m okay. j-just very fast and very scary.” Madam Hooch finally walked over to Neville and examined him for injuries, “Were you injured, Mr. Longbottom?” He shook his head as he tried to take deep breaths, “N-no, just m-motion sick.” 

Madam Hooch sighed, “Well that’s good at least. Just in case, however, I’m taking you to the infirmary. Besides, I doubt you’d be able to handle getting on a broom again today.” Neville nodded, feeling a bit better, “Try the rest of my life…” Madam Hooch nodded as she pulled him up and held his arm to keep him steady, “Yes, well, not everyone can be expert flyers like Miss Potter here is. Speaking of,” 

Madam Hooch faced Freya, “You are coming with me as well Miss Potter, we have to discuss your little stunt.” Freya nodded, her hair turning black and frowning as she followed the flying instructor who spoke once again to everyone else, “Class is dismissed for today! Everyone put your brooms in the shed!” There were groans and sighs of disappointment from several of the students and Madam Hooch, “You’ll get to try again next week, and hopefully no one follows Mr. Longbottom’s example.” She leveled a glare at the class for a moment before continuing on and making her way through the school with two students in tow. 

However, Freya was confused as Madam Hooch approached the greenhouses and told her and Neville to stay outside. A few moments later, Madam Hooch came out with Professor Sprout, who didn’t say anything as they once again began walking again. After a while, they had arrived at the infirmary, and Neville was left with Madam Pomphrey who began fussing over him, making sure that he was healthy. Freya grew worried as they walked through the halls and eventually came upon Professor McGonagall's office. She knew what she had done was dumb and she hoped that the punishment wasn’t too bad at least. 

She didn’t know what to think as Professor McGonagall welcomed them into her office and sat down, “What is this about?” Madam Hooch gestured to Freya, “The reason why I wanted to talk to the two of you is that earlier Ms. Potter here pulled a stunt that warrants attention.” 

Professor Sprout looked back at Freya with a curious look as Madam Hooch continued talking, “Mr. Longbottom had lost control of his broom, and Ms. Potter decided to step in and try to help him. In doing so she disobeyed me when I told her to stop, however, she saved Mr. Longbottom from getting severely injured by pulling him off his broom before it hit a statue.” 

McGonagall and Sprout were both looking at Freya with an unreadable expression. “Not only did she save Mr. Longbottom but she managed a move in flying that I have only seen attempted by some of our 6th or 7th years by pulling up from an almost 90-degree dive and successfully catching a Remembrall that Mr. Longbottom had dropped only a few feet from the ground.”

McGonagall looked to Freya with a stern glare, “What were you thinking, trying such a stunt?” 

Freya shrunk in her seat slightly, literally, “I didn’t want Neville to get hurt. So, I didn’t really think, I just wanted to make sure he didn’t…die.” Professor Sprout spoke up, “So, I’m presuming that this is about Quiddich?” Madam Hooch nodded and pointed to Freya, “I think that Ms. Potter could be an incredible seeker, but seeing that she’s in two houses, which team will she be on?” 

Freya was now more confused than ever, “Wait, I’m not in trouble?” Madam Hooch looked at Freya, “No, while you did do something stupid, you ended up saving a student from possible death and displayed an incredible talent for flying. Was this your first time riding a broom?” Freya nodded and Madam Hooch faced the two professors, “Even more impressive then. So how will you decide this?” Professor Sprout spoke up once again, “While I do wish that Ms. Potter could play for both teams, it can’t happen. Ms. Potter already lives in the Gryffindor dorms so why not let her play for the Gryffindor team.” 

Professor McGonagall looked at Sprout, “If you have no objections then I see no reason to not have her on the Gryffindor team.” Professor McGonagall stood up from her seat and Freya followed along behind the adults, “I will take Ms. Potter and introduce her to the captain of the Gryffindor Quidditch team.” Madam Hooch walked off and Professor Sprout congratulated Freya before walking back to the greenhouses.

Freya felt better knowing that she wasn’t going to get in trouble for what she did, but she wondered what she would have to do as a Seeker. All she knew from Ron was that it was supposed to be a spot for some of the best flyers. When they finally stopped walking, Professor McGonagall called an older Gryffindor boy named Oliver Wood out from Professor Quirrel’s class. “Ms. Potter this is Oliver Wood.” McGonagall gestured to the boy that came out of the classroom, ”I believe that I’ve found you a seeker.” 

Oliver held out his hand and Freya shook his hand as he spoke, “It’s nice to formally meet you, Potter. I’ve been hearing all sorts of things about you from Fred and George. They are going to be ecstatic to have you on the team.” Freya nodded and smiled at the older boy, “It’s nice to meet you as well, Wood. I hope I don’t disappoint.” Professor McGonagall huffed a laugh, “She’s being modest, from what Madam Hooch told me, it sounds like she practically did a Wronski Feint to catch a falling Remembrall.” Oliver looked back to Freya with an impressed look, “Well then, I guarantee that you won’t disappoint, Potter.” Freya’s hair turned pink again as she blushed from the praise. 

After telling Freya to come to the courtyard the next day to familiarize her with the game of Quiddich, Oliver went back to class and Professor McGonagall walked Freya back to her office, “Since you are with me, we might as well begin our lesson.” Freya nodded as McGonagall closed the door behind her, “You are already able to transfigure parts of your body easily correct?” Freya nodded once again as Professor McGonagall stood in front of her, “Now then, instead of just your hand, I want you to try to do your whole arm. A cat first, since that’s what you’re familiar with and I can help the most.” 

Freya followed Professor McGonagall’s instructions and focused on her whole arm, trying to turn it into a cat’s front leg. She was able to do her hand like last time, however, as she tried to change her arm further up, her focus began to slip and her cat paw began changing back to her normal hand. She tried her hardest but wasn’t able to do her whole arm and was left panting slightly from the effort. “I can’t do it…I don’t know why.” Professor McGonagall nodded and made the change she told Freya to do, “The process to gain an animagus form is difficult, but after you gain an animagus form, you don’t suddenly gain the ability to transform into the animal immediately. You must take steps and most of all, completely focus on your body whenever you change. That is what we’ll be training, your focus, and the anatomy of a cat so that you can visualize what you are becoming. Transfiguration is all about visualization, so first, you need to be able to visualize yourself becoming a cat.” Freya nodded and began following along as McGonagall showed and told her how to do the total arm transformation. 

By the time that Freya had finished with Professor McGonagall, she had only succeeded in doing a permanent transformation halfway up her forearm. McGonagall was right when she said it would take a while to get it done, but Freya hoped to be able to completely become a cat in a month or two. She walked back to the Gryffindor common room, tired but still riding the high of the news that she was going to be the seeker for the Gryffindor Quidditch team. It wasn’t until then that she realized that her friends probably thought she got in trouble or something and she sighed as she approached the Gryffindor common room, speaking the password to the lady in the painting and walking inside. 

She walked into the common room to see Hermione trying to help Ron and Neville study for Transfiguration since they were having a hard time understanding the transfiguration alphabet. Ron was looking all but frustrated and Neville a bit confused as Hermione spoke to them, but their faces changed to relief as soon as Freya walked into the room. “Freya! You’re not dead!” Ron said this, glad for the distraction from studying and that his friend was okay. 

Freya smiled as Hermione turned around, “Why were you gone so long? We’d have thought that you’d have been back hours ago.” Neville turned with Hermione, “Where did Madam Hooch take you and why did she need Professor Sprout?” Freya held up her hands chuckling, “I’m fine, I’m fine. I thought that they were going to give me detention but you’ll never guess what they did instead. I can hardly believe it myself!” 

This grabbed the attention of a few other people in the common room, including the Weasley twins, who joined Freya with both of them draping their rooms around her neck. “We heard the news earlier from the captain himself!” “Congratulations, Potter!” Ron looked to his two brothers wondering what they meant and before he could ask, 

Hermione did. “What do you two mean!? Congratulations at what?” Fred and George gestured to the girl between them, “Freya just made the Gryffindor Quidditch team!” “Not just any position either.” “”She was made the seeker!”” Ron gasped, “Seeker!? But how?! You’re a first-year!” 

Freya made the best attempt of a shrug she could make with the twins still holding onto her shoulders, “I guess they made an exception because of what I did when I saved Neville.” Hermione stood up her face of relief turning to anger, “Speaking of, what were you thinking?!” 

Fred and George let go of Freya, ““This is all you”” Freya looked at the two retreating Weasleys in confusion and back to Hermione as she walked towards her. “You could have ended up getting killed!” Freya’s hair turned purple in anxiousness as Hermione walked toward her. She was surprised when Hermione ended up hugging her a few tears running down her face as she sniffled in Freya’s neck. “I was scared when you started diving towards the ground…” Freya nodded, finally recovering from the surprise, and hugged Hermione back, “I-I’m sorry for scaring you.” 

Ron groaned and looked to Neville, who looked a bit uncomfortable, “Ugh, girls.” Hermione wiped away a few tears as she faced Ron, “Don’t act like you weren’t screaming louder than I was, Ron.” Ron let out an offended “Hey!” and Freya laughed. 

Neville was smiling, and still curious about where Freya had been, he spoke up, “Why were you gone so long?” Freya turned to Neville, “When I talked to Professor McGonagall yesterday, she had agreed to teach me how to become a cat like her. That was before…I got upset. She was showing me how to do it and I made a little progress but it’s going to take a while until I’ll be able to even become a cat, much less anything else.” 

Ron shook his head, “I don’t understand how you do it, I can barely figure out how to do regular classes and you’re learning how to become a cat and how to duel. It’s absolutely mental!” Hermione faced Freya, “Ron is right, we’re only first years and while I do enjoy learning about more things, we have six more years to learn.” Freya nodded and sat down on the couch, “Yes that’s true, but according to Dumbledore, I’m still in danger because of what happened with You-Know-Who. I’m not going back to the Dursleys and I told Professor McGonagall that. If I have to learn how to protect myself just so I don’t have to stay there, then I’ll do it.” 

Freya’s hair turned bright red and Neville looked at her incredulously, “You can’t be serious! You can’t fight off dark wizards on your own!” Freya sighed trying not to let her anger get the better of her, “I don’t know what I’ll do but I’m not going to go back to my relatives. I can stay in the woods or something even, I’m sure that there are a few spells that I can use to stay in the woods for a while.” 

Ron looked at Freya with a confused look, “You do know that you can’t use spells outside of Hogwarts until you’re seventeen right? It’s the law and if you break it then you can get expelled.” Freya looked up at this, “But I’ve done magic a bunch of times before and no one has said anything. I didn’t even know it was magic.” 

Ron shrugged, “That was probably accidental magic and if no muggles say anything then it doesn’t get reported. Besides they track us using our wands.” Freya nodded, “Then I just don’t use a wand.” Neville once again looked at Freya incredulously, “It’s not that simple, wandless magic can only be done by wizards and witches like our professors!” Freya sighed and looked at Neville, “I’m going to try at least, but hopefully I don’t have to worry about living in the woods at all. Maybe I can ask Professor McGonagall to help, she seemed to not want me to return either.” 

Hermione was listening intently, glad to learn more about the wizarding world, and soon spoke up, “We can look up all of this in the library this weekend. Freya has nothing to do and we have a lot to try and figure out.” 

Ron looked at Hermione, “What do you mean we? I’m not spending another few hours in a library.” Hermione looked back at Ron, “What else do you have to do Ron?” He looked around before pointing at the book they were studying, “Homework.” 

Hermione rolled her eyes, “You can do your homework while we’re in the library, and I’m sure I and Freya can help.” Ron sighed and Hermione faced Neville, “I’m sure we can help you if you want to come too, Neville.” Neville nodded and held up his book, “I don’t mind helping Freya, It’s the least I can do after her saving me.” Freya blushed and muttered thanks to her friends. The group had talked a bit more before heading off to bed, all of them still thinking about what Freya had said. 

Chapter Text

Freya was used to getting up early, so as per usual, she took a few of her books and read them in the few hours before breakfast was going to begin. She had realized by now that she didn’t need to catch up like she previously believed but she wanted to stay ahead. She liked knowing the fact that she was good at doing magic and it came easy to her. When she was still living with the Dursleys she wasn’t even allowed to do well on her school work because then she would outshine Dudley and of course, Petunia couldn’t have that. 

However, at Hogwarts Freya could work as hard as she could for her classes and learn anything she wanted. Well, she could learn what the professors allowed her to learn. Either way, she was feeling better than yesterday and read through at least half of a couple of the books by the time breakfast was about to begin. Athena was with her per usual and Freya picked her up, placing the cat on her shoulder before walking up the stairs to the girl’s dorms with her books. 

Living in the girls' dorms was different for Freya, to say the least since she was not used to being around girls. She used to think that if she talked to a girl then they’d be creeped out by her. Freya had thought that girls wouldn’t like to talk to her because she was a boy like Dudley or Vernon.

Until she met Hermione, she never had an actual conversation with a girl her age, and going from that to living with some of them was weird. Especially because Freya had realized that girls do not have the same body parts as boys. 

The other girls that weren’t Hermione spoke about things that Freya didn’t understand and it made her feel like some kind of fraud when she didn’t understand how they talked about boys. Freya had also seen how some of the other girls look at her from the corner of her eye and she assumed they didn’t like her or maybe that she didn’t belong there. The only reason why she didn’t just try and find somewhere else to stay was because of Hermione, who was always willing to talk about anything with her. Despite what the other girls did Freya did enjoy how she looked now and she wouldn’t want to go back to being a boy again. That morning she decided to go with a different hair color since some older year girls had told her about the previous metamorphmagus at Hogwarts.

Freya had surprisingly not heard much about Nymphadora Tonks and she attributed that to the fact that she mainly talked to people in her year. However, on the few occasions that she had spoken to older years or when she was practicing with Professor McGonagall they had mentioned her. Apparently, she had also favored pink hair, and she was a Hufflepuff like Freya as well as a good study. 

Freya had decided to stop wearing the pink hair permanently because she had reminded a lot of people about the other metamorphmagus when she sat at the Hufflepuff table. In the end, Freya chose to have her hair stay a bright white along with her eyes since it was just as eye-catching as the pink, if not more so. She knew that she would be recognized because she refused to have her normal black hair permanently anymore, not when she could have literally any colored hair. She wanted to be her own person and differentiate herself from the metamorphmagus that used to be at Hogwarts.

Eventually, Freya had met up with her friends and they went to breakfast together. The first thing that they did was comment on Freya’s new hair and she enjoyed the few compliments that she got from her friends. She explained to them why she changed her hair and about the last metamorphmagus at Hogwarts. Hermione didn’t see the reason why she needed to change but accepted it while Ron preferred the white hair saying that it was ‘wicked’. Neville said that he liked it and that it reminded him of a flower that his grandmother had in his garden.

Freya thanked them all as they made their way to Great Hall and Freya pulled out her wand before they entered, pointing it at herself. True to his word, Professor Flitwick taught Freya a spell to keep the owls away in the mornings when the mail came. Freya said, “ Reppellum Avium” as a blue layer of magic covered her for a moment and she continued walking into the Great Hall with her friends, who were glad to not have to worry about being assaulted by birds in proximity to her. 

Freya talked with her friends and even the twins during breakfast, as always she fed Athena because she seemed to enjoy the attention. Athena in turn let Freya pet her as much as she wanted, which became a common occurrence when she was reading and studying. Freya finally spoke to Parvati Patil again after meeting on the train when she began to room with Hermione, Lavender, and Parvati. After a little bit of talking Freya had grown to enjoy talking to Parvati even more and got to see just how different she was compared to the few interactions that she’s had with Padma, Parvati’s twin sister. Parvati became a quick friend to Lavender and soon they were both sitting with Freya and her three other Gryffindor friends, with Fred and George occasionally joining them. Freya was having a good time with them when she noticed that an owl was flying around long after most of the owls had already gone.

Freya pointed out the owl to her friends, “Do owls normally do that?” Ron and Neville shook their heads, “It should have delivered its letter by now. Maybe it’s just a confused owl?” Neville looked slightly confused as well as Parvati and Lavender. A few minutes later the owl had garnered the attention of several students with many of them wondering whose letter it was for as it carried it, looking across the tables in the hall. 

Eventually, breakfast was about to end and, to silence the talking students, Dumbledore silently cast an Accio and retrieved the letter from the owl. The owl promptly flew off, considering its letter sent and Dumbledore looked at the person to who the letter was addressed before handing the letter to Professor Snape and saying something that no one but they could hear. Freya wondered what it was all about before she returned to talking with her friends until she had to go to potions, which she was excited about because they were making their first actual potion that day since they have a double period. 

Freya soon arrived at potions class in the dungeon after breakfast had ended, Athena jumping off her shoulder and onto her desk as she sat down next to Daphne. Since Daphne didn’t talk to many people other than Freya and her other friends could all easily find partners. While Freya’s Gryffindor friends didn’t like her talking to Slytherins at first, they soon grew used to it as Freya told them that she would continue to talk to them as long as they weren’t being assholes. Daphne had grown accustomed to having Freya around her and she didn’t speak unless she felt it necessary but she enjoyed Freya’s company nonetheless. She had especially enjoyed petting Athena when they shared classes and Freya sat with her. 

“Hello, Freya.” Daphne looked over from a book that she was usually found with, “Hello, Daphne. What are you reading today? Something interesting?” Daphne nodded and reached for Athena’s head, petting it as she spoke, “It’s about dragons. Did you know that dragons breathe fire on their eggs to incubate them? It’s very fascinating.” Freya shook her head and took a look at the few diagrams in the book Daphne was reading. Daphne was unaccustomed to the closeness that Freya had often shown by touching her or getting near her. Right then, as Freya leaned toward her face she began blushing once again. 

Freya once again didn’t notice and looked in the book with drawings of dragons with their eggs. “It’s hard to believe that dragons are actually real. I wonder if I could speak to a dragon, I mean, they are reptiles too right?” Freya looked back up, leaning backward again as she realized she was probably too close to Daphne. Athena sat and watched the two girls with amusement as Freya was clueless about how much Daphne enjoyed having a friend that didn’t care about blood purity or her being a Slytherin, it didn’t hurt that she was pretty smart either. 

Daphne spoke up a few moments later looking into her book to avoid Freya’s eyes which were now bright halos of white that stood out even in her white sclera. “I don’t think it would be possible, parselmouths can only talk to snakes and I’ve never heard otherwise.” Freya frowned slightly and leaned back in her chair, “Well, it would be amazing if I could talk to dragons. Can you imagine riding one? Having a gigantic fire-breathing death machine as a friend?” 

Daphne huffed a laugh and looked over at Freya again, “I think that you’re insane but you are a Gryffindor so I suppose it makes sense.” Freya winced and held her chest, “Ouch, Daphne! Insulting my house? That’s a low blow but I guess I can’t expect anything less from a Slytherin.” Freya spoke in a teasing tone and Daphne stared at her with a blank stare before pulling a small smile across her lips. Freya smiled back and opened her mouth to speak but was interrupted as Snape walked into the Potions classroom.

Snape’s head immediately snapped to Freya facing Daphne and he spoke with the same drawl that always came out of his mouth. “Potter, come up to my desk. I need to speak with you.” Daphne just shooed Freya on as she turned back to her with a questioning look. Freya nodded, getting up and walking to the front of the class, wondering what Snape could want with her. Snape waved his wand uttering ‘ muffliato’ and all of the sounds from the murmuring classmates behind Freya disappeared. 

She looked back at Snape as he spoke again, holding out an envelope, “You received a letter from Gringotts this morning. Dumbledore thought it best to hand it to you now instead of during breakfast.” Freya reached for the envelope and tried to take it from Snape, but he didn’t let go of it, “I do wonder, Potter, why you are receiving letters from Gringotts.” Freya didn’t understand what he was implying so she spoke truthfully, “Mr. Griphook told me that he would send a letter after he found out anything about my father.”

Snape quickly stood up his face now full of anger, “Your father?! Why would you ask a goblin about your father?” Freya frowned and her hair turned slightly red as she pulled the letter from Snape’s hand, “I want to know who my father is, Professor! I don’t see why it should matter to you anyways, if I ask a goblin about my father, especially when an ancestry test won’t even tell me who he is!” As Freya spoke her hair turned a bright crimson red and she grew several inches in front of a stunned Snape.

She turned around and breathed out as she returned to her normal stature and color slowly while Snape spoke, “Your father isn’t James Potter? Who else could it be?” Freya turned around and looked down at her letter, “I don’t know but he didn’t show up when I did an ancestry test.” Freya shrugged as she looked up to see the anger gone from Snape’s face, replaced with confusion.

Freya didn’t know what to do so she pointed back to her seat, “C-can I sit down now, Professor?” Snape’s face grew its normal stern look once more and he waved Freya back to her seat, which she took, hair pink from embarrassment at all of the eyes from her classmates on her. 

Daphne leaned over to Freya as she sat down and Athena moved over to nuzzle her head on Freya’s arm, “What did he say to you? You got very red.” Freya turned to Daphne and showed her the envelope Snape had given her, “He wanted to know about why I got this letter. I wouldn’t have told him had I known he would have reacted so badly.” Daphne nodded and opened her mouth a few times before speaking hesitantly, “Do you mind telling me? I’m awfully curious about what could have caused you to get so angry.” 

Freya sighs and places the envelope in one of her robes’ pockets, “I’ll tell you about it during lunch. I’m still a bit…frustrated.” Daphne nodded and closed her book as Snape walked up to the front of the class and began telling them what potion they would be making that day. While Freya was less excited than before she was still excited to be able to make her first potion. She saw Snape staring at her as she went through the potion and the instructions with Daphne, pointedly trying to ignore him. 

She instead tried to focus on making the potion and Daphne as she told her more about dragons as they made the potion for the two hours that they were in class. In the end, Snape went around and inspected all of the potions and Freya waited with bated breath hoping that her’s and Daphne’s potion was good enough. When he came up to their cauldron and inspected it by looking at the color and smelling it he hummed and spoke, “A decent cure for boils, 10 points to Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, and Slytherin.” Freya smiled at Daphne as soon as he moved on and Daphne returned a small smile back. 

Astronomy passed in a flash for Freya as she hadn’t stopped thinking about the envelope that was burning a hole in her pocket. She told her friends what happened between her and Snape, including her Hufflepuff friends since they had Astronomy with the Gryffindors that day. She wanted to wait until lunch so that she could just tell everyone at once, so she told them just what she told Daphne. 

When Lunch did finally come, Freya had thought of how she should tell all of her friends about the letter because as far as she was aware not everyone knew that her father wasn’t James Potter. Hagrid knew, as well as McGonagall and Dumbledore, but she assumes that it’s because they were the ones that took her to the Dursleys. While Freya was walking in she looked to the separate tables and sighed, “Screw it.” 

Freya grabbed her friends’ attention by telling all of her Hufflepuff and Gryffindor friends to follow her and when some of them asked her why she answered them, “I want to tell everyone about the letter at once, since you’re all my friends and it’ll be better to do it all together.” Her friends followed her as she moved towards the Gryffindor table and Sarah looked to Freya, “Umm, I don’t think we can sit there.” Freya looked back at Sarah and smiled, “It’ll be fine, and I’ll take the blame if anything happens.” Sarah nodded and looked to Hannah who just shrugged and waved to the Gryffindors as she passed by them to where Freya normally sat with her friends. 

Freya told all of her friends to sit down as she ran across the Great Hall, garnering more attention than she already had. She stopped at the Slytherin table in front of Draco and Daphne, who had taken to sitting together after they both became Freya’s friends. “Draco, Daphne, would you mind following me back to the Gryffindor table?” 

Draco looked at Freya like she was crazy, “Why would I sit with a bunch of lions? I tolerate them because they’re your friends Freya, but sitting with them is a lot different.” Freya groaned and looked back to her friends at the Gryffindor table before looking back at Draco, “I can get them to come here to the Slytherin table if that’s better.” Daphne gave a skeptical look to Freya, “I’m sure that them coming here is a worse idea. I don’t mind it as much as I am very curious as to what is in your letter.” 

Draco looked to Daphne and then Freya, groaning. He looked like he was making the most difficult decision in his life but eventually let out a growl before standing up, “Stay here Crabbe, Goyle. I have to have a conversation with Potter it seems.” Freya smiled at her friends and placed her arms on their shoulders as she led them to the Gryffindor table. Freya ignored the stares from the students and some of the teachers as she brought Draco and Daphne to the Gryffindor table. 

As Freya sat down between Draco and Daphne across from Her Gryffindor friends she spoke to Draco like a pet dog, “Play nice with Ron, Draco.” She pointed a finger at him and several of her friends laughed, including Daphne with a small chuckle. Draco looked affronted and stuttered as he spoke again, “I-I can be c-civil.” He pulled Freya’s hand down and she smiled at him, “Stop pointing at me like that I’m not like your pet cat, you can’t just order me around.” 

Hermione, Ron, and Neville winced as Athena hissed at Draco from Freya’s shoulder and jumped down onto the table, staring at him. Draco leaned away from the table and the scowling cat, leading to more laughs from the Gryffindors surrounding him. Draco turned red and Freya spoke to Athena, “Leave him alone, it’s not like he’s harmful.” Athena let one last hiss out at Draco and walked over to Daphne on the other side of Freya, an endless source of pets for the cat. Freya faced Draco, “She has a mind of her own, so I’d watch what you say to her. She takes offense if you insult her.” 

Draco nodded and recomposed himself sitting up straight as if he wasn’t just scared by a cat, “So are you going to say what you wanted to or not?” Ron rolled his eyes, “Do you have somewhere to be Draco? You might as well get used to being here if I know Freya as well as I do.” a few others nodded and the Weasley twins, who happened to be sitting with them that day spoke, “I don’t think that the professors mind anyway.” 

“Look up there.” Fred was pointing to the professors’ table and saw that while they were looking at the strange group of students, they weren’t doing anything. Hermione looks at them, “Well, Freya is in two houses, so maybe they’re giving her some leeway on who can sit with her?” Sarah looked at the bushy-haired girl across from her, “Then why are they letting Draco and Daphne sit here?” Hermione shrugged and Neville looked at the professors before speaking, “Maybe they don’t care as long as we don’t kill each other. I mean if Freya wasn’t here then I think Draco would have been hexed at least a dozen times by now.” Freya nodded and Draco looked a bit worried as he stared at Neville. 

Freya spoke up to break the tension, “So anyway, I wanted to talk about this.” Freya took the envelope out of her robes and placed it on the table in front of her, “Before I talk about the letter there’s something all of you have to know because for some reason people don’t know it.” Freya looked around at her friends who were all waiting expectantly for what she had to say. “My father is not James Potter, despite what people seem to think.” 

Confusion could be seen on her friends faces and she heard from Lavender, sitting next to Neville and Parvati, “Why does everyone think that he’s your father then?” Freya shrugged, “I don’t know, all I know about him is that he used to be a seeker here at Hogwarts. I know that my mother left for America and when she came back, she had me.” 

Daphne looked at Freya curiously, “How do you know that he isn’t your father? If everyone seems to know, or think that they know that your father is James Potter then it seems strange that you would say otherwise.” 

Freya nodded and gestured to her friend, “Daphne, you have a good point, that’s a part of the reason why I have this letter. I got an ancestry test at Gringotts the day that I learned about…magic. My father didn’t show up on it, which I was told had never happened before. Mr. Griphook told me that he would send word of what he found about it.” 

Daphne nodded, accepting the answer and Freya grabbed the envelope, opened it, and pulled out the letter. “Should I read it out loud?” Ron shrugged, “If you want to, it’s a letter for you so…” Freya nodded, “I’ll just read it out loud, it’s not like I have anything to hide from you all anyway.” 

She gained a few smiles and a blush from Daphne that didn’t go unnoticed by Hermione. “Dear Mr. Potter, Sadly for your generous payment to me, I was unable to find anything related to the absence of the patrilineal line on your family tree. However, while I looked back at records of those that were related to you, looking for a clue in my spare time, I found out something that might be of interest to you. While I was unable to find anything about your father, there were records of your godfather. Not that long after you were born Sirus Black was named by Lily Potter to be your godfather. If you wish to require my services once again, send me a letter by owl or come to Gringotts once again.” 

Freya looked up at her friends, a few of them looking at her with surprise. “What? Is it something I said?” Ron shook his head, “Sirius Black is a murderer and he worked under You-know-who. How can that man be your godfather?” Freya frowned and looked down at the letter again, “I wish I knew, Ron.” 

Draco looked at Freya with a smile, “You just keep on getting more and more interesting.” Parvati gave a wary look to Draco before she spoke to Freya, “What are you going to do about it?” Freya turned to Parvati and shrugged, “Maybe I can try to find him and talk to him? I would like to know why he’s my godfather.” 

Daphne looked up confused until her mouth formed an ‘o’ in realization, “I forget that you don’t know everything about the magical world. Sirius Black is in Azkaban. If you end up in there you’ve done something awful, and no one even tries to visit.” Freya looked over to Ron and he nodded, “She’s right, plus I’ve heard that they have monsters that guard the prison.” Freya took in this information and set her head on the table. 

Athena moved away from Daphne to begin pawing at Freya’s head, making her look up at Athena. “Yes?” Athena moved her gaze to look up at the professors’ table and she nudged her head in the direction of it before looking back down to Freya. Freya’s friends were intrigued by the way Athena acted and even more so as Freya spoke to her. “What? I should talk to the professors? McGonagall? Flitwick? Dumbledore?” Athena meowed as Freya spoke Dumbledore’s name and she sighed looking at the old man. “Is he supposed to help?” 

Athena nodded and she returned to Daphne, acting as if she didn’t just have a conversation with Freya and knew information that Freya didn’t, much to the surprise of everyone other than Neville, Ron, and Hermione. Freya looked at her cat as she walked away, “I don’t suppose that you’re going to tell me why you know that?” When Athena did nothing else other than lay down Freya said, “I guess not.”

Chapter Text

The only class that Freya had left was History which passed by slowly as she thought of her godfather and how she would ask Dumbledore about him. She decided to put the thought aside when History was over, as she was going out to the courtyard to finally meet Oliver Wood, who was going to teach her about Quiddich.

She was nervous but also super excited to begin learning how to play Quiddich, especially because it’s the first sport she’s ever had an aptitude for. When she met Oliver at the entrance to the courtyard he smiled at her, “Hello, firstie! Are you ready to get started?” Freya nodded and he gestured for her to follow. He led her to the shed where the school’s brooms were kept, sweeping past all of the brooms, and instead, came upon a chest that was sitting in the back. “Help me move this will you, it’s a bit heavy.” Freya once again nodded and grabbed one side as she helped him pull the chest out of the shed. Oliver spoke to her as they walked to the center of the courtyard. 

He looked over to Freya as he began explaining the sport, “Quiddich is easy enough to understand. Each team has seven players made up of three chasers, two beaters, a keeper, and a seeker, that’s you.” Oliver stopped them and dropped the chest before crouching down to pop the latches and open the chest. Inside Freya could see three balls inside with two of them vibrating under the chains that held them in place. “There are three kinds of balls,” 

Oliver picked up the biggest ball in the middle and tossed it up before catching it again, “This one is called the Quaffle, the Chasers try to put the Quaffle through those three hoops.” Oliver pointed to the three hoops on the Quiddich field in the distance and then pointed to himself, “A keeper, that’s me, defends the hoops. Are you with me so far?” 

Freya nodded and looked down at the vibrating balls in the chest, “Yeah, um, what are those and why are they vibrating?” It was then that Freya noticed that the balls were making strange growling noises, “and making noises.” Oliver chuckled and pulled out a small bat from the chest, “You’re going to want this.” 

Freya took the bat and looked on as Oliver crouched down again and unlatched one of the balls. Not a second after he undid the latch, the ball flew straight up into the air before flying back down straight towards Freya. As he was still staring at the ball Oliver spoke, “Careful now it’s coming back.” Freya looked at him before looking at the bat he gave her before shrugging and readying herself to hit the ball. She cocked her arm back as it flew down at her and right before it hit her she swung the bat, launching the ball across the courtyard and through a statue’s raised arms and crossed swords. 

“Not bad, Potter. You’d make a fair beater.” Freya smiled at the compliment, but she looked behind her when Oliver’s face dropped and she heard the same growling noise from before. “Oh no,” Oliver said just as the ball passed over Freya’s head and flew right into his gut leaving him on the ground wrestling the strange animated ball. Freya looked at him struggling and smiled to herself “Do you need some help with that?” Oliver shook his head, “Nope, I’ve got this. I’m not the captain of the Quiddich team for nothing.” His voice was strained as he managed to wrestle the ball back into the chest and lock it back in place, panting as he did so. “What is that thing?” 

After a moment of Oliver catching his breath, he said, “That…is a bludger. Nasty little buggers they are. But that’s not what you need to worry about, that’s for the Weasleys.” Oliver opened up a small pocket in the roof of the chest that had a small ball about the size of a golf ball residing in it. He took it out and stood up showing it to Freya, “This is what you need to worry about, the Golden Snitch.” 

Oliver handed it to Freya and she examined the ball before turning her hair the same golden color as the ball, “I like this ball, it’s a nice shiny color.” Oliver looked at her hair with awe before speaking again, “You might like it now, but it’s wicked fast and dam near impossible to see. In the middle of a game, it’s incredibly difficult to spot, much less chase. Which is why you were chosen to be the seeker.” 

Freya nodded and looked up to Oliver, “What am I supposed to do with it exactly?” Oliver pointed to the Snitch, “You catch it before the other team's seeker. If you catch the Snitch, the game ends and we win. I don’t know anyone on our team that could even attempt a Wronski Feint, but you did on your first time flying. While it may seem like a lot of pressure, you are already one of our best flyers before we’ve even practiced, in theory at least.” Freya’s hair turned from shiny gold to pink as she handed the Snitch back to Oliver. 

Oliver chuckled and took the small ball from her before closing up the chest, “Quiddich practice doesn’t start for another couple of weeks, since trials are still being held. I expect to see you at our first practice Potter and I will warn you, it will be fairly early.” Freya smiled at Oliver as she helped him bring the chest back to the shed, “Don’t worry, I’m always up early.” 

Freya had only a small amount of free time before she had to join Professor Flitwick for his dueling lessons again and she decided to spend that time, practicing the Expelliarmus charm on a tree near the lake. She had taken to using the shiny golden hair color now since she saw the snitch. She might change it back to white sometime but she knew she’d wear it for her first Quiddich game, maybe add in a little red too to show her team's colors. She was able to successfully do the spell only part of the time and even then it was less than stable. 

Practicing with both wands, she tried her best at keeping the spell stable and not do something like blow up the tree, although she didn’t know if that was possible with just Expelliarmus, she didn’t want to find out. Freya was casting the spell over and over again and once again she failed to cast it correctly as her wand instead flew out of her hand. All of a sudden she heard a voice from behind her, which made her point her Ebony wand at the voice as she was startled by it.

Fred and George had walked up to her while she was practicing, “Who’re you preparing to fight Goldilocks?” “Do we need to take care of someone who’s been being rude to our seeker?” 

They raised their hands as soon as she turned around with her wand raised before lowering her arm, “Gosh, you two scared me!” Freya walked over and picked up her Holly wand from the ground, as she was doing that she spoke to the two red-headed boys, “To answer your question, I don’t know, maybe Professor Dumbledore.” 

Fred and George lowered their hands and looked at each other before walking over to Freya, “I think that it’ll take more than a botched Disarming charm to defeat Dumbledore.” “I doubt even any of the teachers could take him on in a duel.” Freya shrugged and sat down as she knew she probably couldn’t get any more practice with them there. She put her feet in the water after taking her shoes off, feeling refreshed by the contact as was usual. “Well, maybe I’ll get lucky. I could just become Hagrid and punch him, that would surely surprise him.” 

The twins chuckled at the image of Hagrid punching Dumbledore and flanked Freya as they sat down next to her, “Where did you learn that charm anyways?” “”It’s not something a first-year usually learns.”” “We only learned it in our second year and Professor Flitwick was less than pleased when we ended up disarming him when we were practicing.” 

Freya looked back and forth between them as they spoke in turn and when they stopped she finally answered, “Professor Flitwick taught me the spell. Since I have two wands,” Freya held up both of her wands to either side of her in front of Fred and George, “he wanted to show me how to cast two spells at once, so I guess he’s teaching me how to duel. He even taught me a handy charm that keeps the owls away during breakfast, thankfully.” 

The twins took the wands from Freya’s hand and inspected them, “So that’s why there wasn’t an owl attack today.” “”It was a little funny,”” “But we also prefer to not be surrounded by murderous birds every morning.” 

Freya nodded and took the wands back from the twins before sheathing them on her thigh, “Well apparently, it works well enough to keep any owls from delivering mail to me. I don’t get much mail anyway so it doesn’t matter too much to me.” 

Fred and George looked at each other behind Freya’s back and then they looked at her, “”What about during the summer?”” “You’re going to want to send letters to your friends right?” “So how are you going to do that without an owl?” 

Freya shrugged and laid down on the ground, her hair spreading across the grass. “Aren’t there other messaging birds or something like that? I mean there has to be more than one way to communicate other than by owl. I doubt Athena could deliver my letters for me, she would never agree to it.” 

Athena raised her head from where she was lying under the shade of a separate tree about ten feet away at hearing her name. She stood up and walked over to Freya and crawled onto her chest before sitting down. “Wow, thanks Athena, it’s much easier to breathe now.” 

Fred and George chuckled and pet Athena for a moment before standing up, “If you need any help figuring it out, just come to us.” “It would be dismal if Ronikins was depressed all summer because you couldn’t talk to him.” Freya nodded and the Weasley twins walked away talking about something but she couldn’t understand what they were talking about because of the strange words they used that were most likely ingredients for something that was going to be used for no good.

When Freya went to Professor Flitwick’s office she expected that they would be working to improve her use of the disarming charm. However, he had other ideas as she arrived at his classroom. 

“Ms. Potter, since you can already cast the disarming charm we are going to be moving on to the other spell that I told you of, the shield charm.” Freya took the book from the air as Professor Flitwick floated it over to her, “The spell only works some of the time, shouldn’t I work on it some more?” Flitwick shook his head, “All you need is practice and experience to be able to do the spell correctly. You are here for me to teach you, so I will show you something new during our tutoring sessions. You should practice and master the spells in your own time.” Freya nodded and opened the book to the page with the charm that she was going to learn today, Protego, the shield charm. 

She read the applications of the spell and how to cast it as well as the wand movements before Flitwick got off of his desk and moved towards Freya. She looked up from the book when she saw him, “Done reading? Good. I will give a demonstration for you. I will tell you now that the shield charm is a much more difficult spell to cast than the disarming charm, however, this is because it takes more magical power since it is a shield of solid magic. Magic is fluid in nature and holding it into a physical shape takes more power than casting a spell that causes an effect such as levitation or a pushing force. However, you have an excess of magic power that many do not, so this should be a much more simple task for you.” 

Freya smiled at the explanation and placed the book down on a desk as he spoke again, “I want you to cast the disarming charm at me so I can demonstrate. The shield charm is generally invisible unless it is made to be visible or a substantial amount of magical power is put into it. So, whenever you’re ready cast the spell.” 

Freya nodded and unsheathed her Ebony wand since it was easier to cast the disarming charm with that wand compared to her Holly wand. Freya took a breath, remembering the movements for the spell and she yelled out Expelliarmus as she twirled her wand and a red light shot out of it successfully. She smiled as the spell successfully worked and watched as Flitwick yelled out Protego not a moment later and the red light dissipated as it hit an invisible barrier that became visible for a moment as Flitwick moved his wand in a cutting motion. 

Flitwick gave a small smile to Freya, “Did you catch all of that? The movement for the shield charm is a simple straight line with your wand. Even if you can’t see it, you’ll be able to feel the shield when you create it as it’s made of your magic and therefore an extension of yourself. Compared to transfigurations, charms are about feeling, intent, and focus. If you lose focus when casting or your intent wavers then the spell will go awry, not work, or backfire on you. Remember this from now on as we do these lessons and it could make your casts much smoother and easier to pull off. Such as your disarming charm just then, you were completely focused on casting it and you intended to disarm me, correct?” 

Freya nodded and Professor Flitwick smiled, “Very good, now I will use the disarming charm against you after you get your first successful cast. I suggest you use your Holly wand for this spell, at least at first.” Freya pulled her Holly wand from her thigh, sheathing her Ebony wand, “I’m going to get more bruises today aren’t I Professor?” Flitwick said nothing as he gestured for Freya to continue and she sighed. 

It took a good 20 minutes before Freya felt a flicker of the spell working and another 10 before she was able to cast a shield that could cover her torso. As soon as she had done this Professor Flitwick told her to brace herself for an incoming disarming charm. As soon as Freya heard him yell out Expelliarmus she said a much quieter Protego as she slashed her Holly wand in front of her where she saw the red light heading for. However, while the shield did come up, the spell shattered the shield and hit Freya’s shoulder, knocking her wand out of her grip. 

She fell back a few feet with an ‘oomph’ and rubbed her shoulder. She heard Athena meowing in her direction and sighed, “I’m fine Athena, just stay over there so you don’t get hurt.” Athena laid her head down again, watching the two as they continued doing the same thing over and over again. Each time Freya ended up on the floor, wand out of her hand, her shield either shattered or not casting at all. 

Near the end of the session, the disarming charms began losing some of their punch as Freya’s shield grew stronger. They continued on like this Professor Flitwick casting the charm with a neutral expression on his face and Freya panting from the exertion of casting the difficult spell so many times in a row. While she did have a large amount of magic in her she had not exercised using it so much and so it was tiring for her to use so much in quick succession. 

Just before the session was due to end about an hour after Freya had arrived, she managed to stop one of Flitwick's disarming charms. She stood in shock when she realized she had done it finally, she raised her bruise-covered arms and whooped with joy, her hair turning bright green. 

Her joy was short-lived as only moments later a red light hit her straight in the chest, blasting her back several feet and knocking the wind out of her. Professor Flitwick walked toward the gasping girl as she sat up, trying to catch her breath, “You did a good job, Ms. Potter, but the number one thing that you shouldn’t do when someone is pointing a wand at you, is lowering your guard. Consider that your only lesson on that subject and I hope that you take it to heart.” Freya nodded, as she was still trying to catch her breath. Professor Flitwick floated Freya up back onto her feet when she was finally able to talk again, “That was a lot worse than the other ones.” 

Professor Flitwick smiled, “Yes, your shields were slowing down the spells, nullifying the effects so that you never got the full brunt of the force until now. Now, if you will stand still, I will heal your bruises.” Flitwick flicked his wand at Freya saying ‘ Episkey ’ and over the span of a minute the magic did its work and Freya’s skin was once again free of bruises. “Thank you, Professor! Can you teach me that sometime?” Professor Flitwick hummed thoughtfully to himself before pulling the book that he gave to Freya to him from where she placed it with a silent Accio . 

He tapped the book saying ‘ Geminio ” and the book warped for a moment as a second book appeared to grow from it popping up into the air a few inches and being caught by Flitwick. He held out the book to Freya, “Here. If you’re so eager to learn some new spells then go over this book. Don’t practice any of them outside of my supervision.” Freya nodded and took the book from his hand and she smiled at him, “I’ll make sure to memorize them all Professor!” Flitwick chuckled, “I would like to see it, Ms. Potter. If you can master every spell in that book by the end of the year, then I’ll gladly duel you in the Great Hall and we can see which will win,” He pointed to himself, “Experience,” then he pointed to Freya, “Or pure magical power and talent.” Freya held out her hand, “It’s a deal, Professor!” Professor Flitwick shook her hand with an excited smile at the idea of the upcoming challenge. 

Athena was once again sitting on Freya’s shoulder as she walked through the halls and entered Professor McGonagall's office fairly soon as the offices were close by. Freya was carrying the small book given to her by Professor Flitwick in her pocket, which she swore to study as much as she could in the two weeks before she had to start practicing for Quidditch. 

She smiled at Professor McGonagal as she walked in with Freya jumping off of her shoulder and onto a desk, jumping across the others to reach McGonagall's desk. McGonagall looked up from the books and papers in front of her, to see a smiling golden-haired Freya walking her way, “I see that you’ve enjoyed your time with Filius.” Freya looked thoughtful for a moment as she sat down in front of McGonagall's desk. “Most of the time I was just getting thrown around and that wasn’t very fun. The disarming charm can leave a lot of bruises apparently?” 

Professor McGonagall pulled a slight frown on her face and Freya shook her hands in front of her, “But I’m fine now! And I managed to pull off a shield charm strong enough to deflect one of his charms!” McGonagal was taken aback for a moment, “You managed to pull off a shield charm strong enough to dispel a disarming charm? I must say that I’m impressed, Ms. Potter. I see now why Filius has taken an interest in you.” 

Freya’s hair turned pink again from the praise, “Thank you, Professor McGonagall. Ummm, What are we going to be doing today?” McGonagall smiled at the girl, “You will be continuing where we left off last time but with your other arm. Every part of your body needs to be changed individually before you can think of a full transformation.” Freya nodded and glanced at Athena every once in a while to help visualize the transformation. McGonagall had suggested that she bring Athena along for their sessions in the foreseeable future to help with visualization and she only came along after some bribing with treats. 

McGonagall once again guided Freya along as she did it and eventually let her be as she worked on papers that needed to be looked at or graded. McGonagall looked up when Freya said her name, “Professor McGonagall, can I ask you a question about Professor Dumbledore?” 

McGonagall looked at Freya with an eyebrow slightly raised, “What do you want to know, Ms. Potter?” Freya gulped and turned to Athena who gestured to McGonagall with her head. She turned back to McGonagall, “Can I trust Professor Dumbledore? He left me with the Dursleys and I’ve heard from you and him that he was trying to protect me. I want to ask him something but I wanted to know if he’d actually…listen, I guess.” 

Professor McGonagall frowned and mulled it over for a moment before she responded, “I…believe that he wants you to be safe and that he feels guilty over leaving you with the Dursleys. I…spoke…to him yesterday after you left and he seemed truly remorseful for what has happened. I think that he wishes to make it up to you in some form and that might be part of the reason why he allowed you to take part in mine and Filius’s lessons.” Freya nodded and looked down at the table for a minute or two thinking about what McGonagall said. Freya looked up and her golden hair flowed around her face as she stared at Professor McGonagall, “Thank you for your honesty, Professor.” 

Professor McGonagall nodded, “Of course, Ms. Potter, but may I ask what you wanted to speak to him about?” Freya bit her lip and spots of purple showed up in her hair as she began to speak, “So you know about the letter that I had gotten from Gringotts?” McGonagall nodded and Freya continued, “It was about my father and Mr. Griphook wasn’t able to find anything about him. However, he was able to find out about my only other living relative,” Professor McGonagall sucked in a breath as she knew what was coming next, “Sirius Black.” 

Freya saw the reaction on Professor McGonagall’s face but kept on speaking just so she could get it out. “Mr. Griphook told me that Sirius was made my godfather only days after I was born. If he betrayed my mother, then why is he my godfather? Shouldn’t there have been some sign that he was working for Vo-…You-Know-Who? He’s my only family left and I want to know about him, even if he’s a murderous traitor. Is that bad?” 

Professor McGonagall stood up and spoke to her, “It’s not bad for wanting to know about him, but I think that we should go to Albus’s office to speak of this. It’s much more private.” Freya nodded and followed the agitated Professor McGonagall as she led her to the same place as last time, the older witch following her up the steps instead of staying in the hallway. 

Dumbledore was tending to Fawkes and feeding him as his door opened, “Ah, Minerva and…Freya, if I’m not mistaken.” Freya nodded and he walked up to them, “For what reason do I have to thank for you two gracing my office?” McGonagall shook her head, “Now is not the time for pleasantries Albus.” McGonagall shut the door and locked it with a wave of her wand, “Ms. Potter here was curious about her godfather.” 

That sobered up Dumbledore pretty quick as he gave a slightly surprised look to Freya, “Sirius Black?” they both nodded and Freya spoke up as she stepped forward, her hair now completely purple. “I wanted to know more about him since he’s my godfather. I also wanted to talk to him if that’s possible. I was told that he was in a prison but if he was close to my mother after I was born then maybe he knows who my father is. Plus it feels strange to me, if he wanted me dead then why would he become my godfather, and Draco told me that he cut ties with his family who were known to be associated with You-Know-Who during the war.” 

Dumbledore gave a curious look to McGonagall before looking back at Freya and speaking slowly, “Are you telling me that you believe him to be innocent?” Freya shrugged, “I-I don’t know but I still want to meet him and that’s why I wanted to talk to you. You said that you wanted to help me, and I wanted to know if somehow you could a-arrange a visit to Azkaban? I know that it might be a big ask and it might be crazy but is it possible?” 

Freya was being stared at by the two professors with a wary look on their faces and Dumbledore spoke, “Technically…it is possible but no one has willingly done it. It wouldn’t look good on you either, Ms. Potter, visiting a known murderer and death eater. The guards to Azkaban are dangerous in of themselves and you’re only a child.”

Freya paced for a moment, “I don’t care if I look bad, people probably won’t like me anyway. Professor Snape proved that to me, he thinks I only care about fame or whatever. I have family other than the Dursleys and I don’t want to think that they’re just as bad as they are or worse. If he is as bad as you say then fine, I’ll never speak of him again.” 

Freya was crying at this point and pleading to the two adults there for help, “Please, just…if it’s possible at all! I just-I want to know!” Dumbledore’s face fell and he turned from the crying girl as Professor McGonagall tried to comfort her. He stood there for a few moments and sighed as he turned around, “You’re technically his family, so it’s possible that I can pull a few strings to allow you to visit him.” 

McGonagall gaped at him, “Albus! You can’t! She shouldn’t even go near Azkaban!” Dumbledore held his hand up to quiet his Deputy Headmistress, “I will send someone to protect her, and I will wait outside the prison. I see no good can come of depriving her of this and if she wishes to leave, she can do so at any time.” 

Freya was staring at Dumbledore as he moved his gaze to her, “You should be warned, the guards of Azkaban are not human. They are dark creatures and in order to walk through the halls of Azkaban at least five of them will have to follow you at all times. They are terrifying creatures that suck all of the happiness from the air and turn it ice cold. Are you still sure that you would like to go?” Freya gulped and steeled her expression before nodding, determined.

Chapter Text

The next week passed by similarly to the first with Freya going through her classes and her lessons from McGonagall and Flitwick. She didn’t hear anything about Azkaban or Sirius the whole time but she expected that it might take time since it was probably going to be difficult for Dumbledore to pull it off. 

The next two weekends Freya spent between researching things in the library and trying to master a few out of the 31 spells in the book she was given. However, that didn’t stop her from trying to learn new spells from spellbooks in the library, and since she didn’t want to be scolded again for not having supervision, she usually went down to Hagrid’s hut to practice. 

She made it a habit to come to visit him and practice new spells nearly every day when she didn’t have assignments to do. Hagrid was amazed at her ability to learn spells and he told her that being able to cast the shield charm at her age was an incredible feat considering that many Aurors couldn’t pull it off. 

She spoke to him constantly when she was down with him and soon learned how little human company he had gotten in the past. She didn’t understand why as the large man was extremely nice if only a bit clumsy at times. He even offered to help her with a few spells that she was trying and sometimes even joined her since his education was severely stunted, although she didn’t know why as he had never told her the reason. 

The spells that she had been trying to learn were cooking and household spells since she figured she knew those things best from her years with the Dursleys and she found out that she enjoyed cooking when it wasn’t for her relatives. 

Many times Freya would arrive at Hagrid’s hut before he was done with his duties and made him something as a gift for his help. He always gladly ate her food and told her how she was a fantastic cook. He was more than happy to guide her along with a spell that could be used to perfectly cook meat to the caster’s desire or to bake bread perfectly once you have mastered the spell. 

The first dozen or so times however had ended with either burnt or undercooked food but she eventually was able to do the spells correctly most of the time after a few days. She had decided that Sundays were almost exclusively for her training new spells and perfecting the ones that she had begun to learn the week before.

Hopefully, that meant that by the end of the year she could have that duel with Professor Flitwick. Of course, her friends and Athena joined her every once in a while but Ron couldn’t keep up with her and so sometimes he ended up playing wizard’s chess with Hagrid. 

Hermione tried her best but she ended up getting exhausted after the first hour or two of almost constant magic use. Hermione did pick up the spells quickly and Hagrid told her that if Freya wasn’t in her year then she’d probably be the best witch he’d ever seen. While it didn’t seem to cheer Hermione up a lot at the time, she was much less sad after the following training sessions. It was only because Hermione’s parents sent her a gift by an owl on the Wednesday of the third week of classes that her friends knew that it was her birthday. Ron gasped when he realized, “It’s your birthday today?! Why didn’t you tell us?! I would have owl ordered a gift or made something but now I’ll look like an arse!”

Freya was laughing with Hermione and their other friends as they had grown closer in the weeks together. Daphe and Draco were semi-regular sights at the Gryffindor table along with Sarah and Hannah. While Ernie had talked with Freya and the other two Hufflepuff girls the first week a few days later he said, “This is way too girly for me, I’m going to sit over with the boys.” Freya held no ill will against him as she understood that he simply didn’t enjoy the conversations between her and the other girls. Ron seemed to be right at home and talked to the many girls surrounding him with ease if a bit abrasive at times. However, Lavender or Parvati would correct him along with Hermione if he said something wrong. 

Draco took in the solace that there were at least 2 other boys with him in the group and while he didn’t speak much, like Neville. When he did, it was usually something that had to do with Freya or what he knew of purebloods. He liked telling his friends, as he had come to call them after Freya corrected him a few times, about how his family did things compared to muggles or other pureblood houses like the Weasleys. While he didn’t stop thinking about muggles as lesser than witches or wizards, he did stop making unnecessary comments even if sometimes it was only because Freya or Daphne glared at him. 

Freya was thinking about what she should get Hermione for her birthday. She’d never had a birthday party or anything and wasn’t sure that what the Dursleys did was very normal. The closest thing she’s ever had was going to Diagon Alley but that was for school supplies, which isn’t very festive. Since she couldn’t buy anything on such short notice it would mean that she had to make something for Hermione and the only people that she could think of to help her with that were Flitwick and McGonagall. 

Since she had a free period between potions and her dueling lesson with Flitwick, she could visit McGonagall. However, before she was able to go talk to Professor McGonagall, she had to attend Potions class. She did enjoy potions class and they had learned a few handy potions that Freya was interested in but Snape was putting a real damper on the whole magic of potions. He had stopped trying to make her look bad in front of the class but he still continued staring at her and she found it unsettling.

Finally out of Potions, Freya made her way to Professor McGonagall’s office but when she looked inside the office she couldn’t see the professor. She smacked her forehead as she realized why she wasn’t there. “She’s probably having classes right now.” Athena just meowed at her and licked her cheek as if signifying her condolences. Freya sighed and began walking through the halls trying to think of something. She would have preferred that Professor McGonagall would help her but maybe she’ll have to try and find an older student to help with Hermione’s gift. 

She couldn’t think of anyone other than the Weasley twins to help and she didn’t trust them with a birthday gift for Hermione. Several people were walking through the halls as was usual during the day and she usually didn’t pay them any mind as Freya didn’t want to bother anyone if they needed to go somewhere. However, she spotted someone she recognized but wasn’t familiar with, he was an older Hufflepuff boy that she knew of from her first day living as a girl. He was the boy who told her the time when she asked and she knew that he was a well-liked boy. 

She quickened her pace so that she could walk next to him to talk to him. However, he spoke before she could because her shiny golden hair was hardly inconspicuous and he immediately noticed her, “Did you need something, Potter?” 

Freya smiled at him and he gave her a skeptical look as she spoke, “Yes! Well, no, buuut I would like it if you could help me with a little problem I’m having. You’re in, what, third or fourth year?” The boy decided to play along as he was curious about what the famous girl wanted from him. “I’m in my third year. Why do you ask?” 

She looked away and he noticed the cat on her shoulder staring at him from under her golden hair, “Well, I was wondering how good you are at transfigurations. You’ve helped me before when I asked for the time and so I would like to know if you’d help me again. Of course, I would owe you and you could ask me to help or for a favor sometime. By the way, what’s your name?” 

The boy was looking at her and was stopped, his arm was pulled back by Freya as the steps that he was about to go down changed, with only a large fall to the bottom remaining. Freya let out an apology for touching him and she retracted her hand from his arm and he smiled at her, “Thanks, I’ll count that as repayment for the time thing, I”m Cedric Diggory.” Freya smiled as she shook his hand, “I’m Freya Potter, it’s nice to meet you, Cedric.”

As soon as the staircase shifted back Cedric began walking again with Freya following him, “So where were you going?” Cedric looked back at Freya, “To the Hufflepuff common room. What do you need an older student to help you with Transfiguration for?” Freya caught up to him having to take twice as many steps to keep up with him at her stature, “Wow, I’ve never been to the Hufflepuff common room, I’d like to wait because its a surprise,” Freya looked around at the several students milling around the halls, even more so the Gryffindors, “and I don’t want it to be ruined because someone spoke about it before I could.” 

Cedric nodded with a chuckle, “Okay, so how come you’ve never been? I assumed that you were just gone when I was there or something.” Freya shrugged, Athena on her shoulder unfazed by the movement. “I’ve been busy studying and doing homework and doing more studying. If I had been practicing transfigurations the whole time I’ve been practicing charms I could probably do what I need but this was a bit short notice.” Cedric grew more curious about Freya as she spoke and he said what Freya had expected to hear, “Are you sure you’re not a Ravenclaw?”

Freya groaned and she rolled her eyes, “I don’t understand why people keep on saying that! I only study as much as I do because I want to and it’s fun! It’s magic for the love of god! How do so many people here treat it like work? Fred and George Weasley may be annoying at times with their pranks but they see the best in magic! Have you seen half the things that they’ve created with charms and potions? It’s insane!” 

Cedric backed from the yelling girl who was waving her hands to accentuate her point and many people around them were staring at her, “That sounds like something a Ravenclaw would say.” 

Freya slumped and Athena nuzzled her cheek for a moment and Freya pet the cat muttering a ‘thank you’ Athena before she looked back at Cedric, “Okay, so, I wouldn’t care about magic unless I liked it. I’m not curious about how it works or studying it. I just want to be able to do all of the magic I can do because it’s fun. Not to mention how many people I could help by brewing healing potions or protecting them like some kind of magical hero.” 

Cedric was smiling at Freya and she realized that they had stopped in front of the door to the Hufflepuff common room with suddenly pink hair. The woman at the painting of this one was staring at Freya with curiosity but let them pass as she had the badger on one half of her crest. 

When they had entered the common room Freya looked around at the Hufflepuff common room and noted that it had similarities to the Gryffindor common room but she could see the differences that made the room that much more cozy and welcoming. There were more chairs and blankets spread about the common room and even several bowls filled with assorted fruits. There was a fireplace like the Gryffindor common room but it was instead in the center of the room no doubt charmed to be smokeless and with grating to protect people from falling in. Around the fireplace was a circle of a couch with two splits on opposite sides to let people sit in it. 

Freya smiled as she looked around the place noting a large number of people of all years in the room compared to the Gryffindor common room. Cedric chuckled again and patted her on the back, “I’m glad you like it, I wasn’t sure how you’d feel about it compared to the Gryffindor common room.” Freya nodded and she was all of a sudden tackled by a blur of blond, black, and yellow as Sarah hugged her. “You’re here! I’ve been asking you to come here for a week and you finally come over with Cedric?” 

Hannah was right behind her and hugged Freya as well, “Do we need to have a girl talk?” Freya shook her head and pushed off the two girls, “No, there’s no talk necessary! Now get off before Athena scratches one of you.” Athena was glaring at the two girls as she was barely hanging onto Freya’s shoulder anymore and Freya boosted her back up. They apologized to Athena and she returned to her normal watchful stance so they took it as acceptance of their apology

Hannah looked between Freya and Cedric, “So why are you here? I thought you would be too busy practicing with Professor Flitwick.” Hannah said it in an annoyed tone but Freya knew that she was joking as her lips tilted into a small smile. Cedric looked to Freya, “Practicing with Flitwick? Is that what you meant when you said you’ve been practicing charms?” Hannah nodded and pointed at Freya, “Yeah! Can you believe it?! This girl gets personal tutoring from Flitwick because she’s special or something!” 

Freya rolled her eyes and flicked Hannah on the forehead, “Shut up, Abbot. Maybe you want me to show you exactly what I’ve learned with my wand?” Freya was inches away from Hannah’s face with a smirk on her face and Cedric behind her cracked up laughing along with Susan as the red-faced Hannah. “D-don’t say things like that!” 

Freya walked past Hannah, “Say things like what? I was talking about a duel. What were you thinking about Hannah?” That shut up Hannah real quick. Susan began patting her on the back, “You were asking for it. Maybe next time don’t tease the most powerful witch in our year.” Cedric chuckled and followed Freya, “So why did you want my help?” Freya sat down in the center of the room on the circular couch and she gestured for her friends and Cedric to sit down next to her. 

Freya pulled out a wooden block about the size of her hand from her robe. She had used the severing spell on a block wooden log during lunch to make it into the shape of a cube, “Since it’s Hermione’s birthday I wanted to get her a gift and since I can’t buy anything on such short notice, I was going to make something. However, I don’t have the skill in transfiguration yet to make a part of what I want, which is why I am asking for your help Cedric. For the lovely favor of turning this block into a little wooden cat, I will owe you a favor in return.” 

Susan was snickering in her hand and when she spoke up finally at the curious stares of the other three she said, “The law of equivalent exchange.” Cedric and Hannah looked confused but Freya laughed at the dumb reference. Freya thought it best to explain to them what Susan meant, “It’s from a muggle television show slash book that’s from Japan. Do wizards not watch muggle television?” 

The three shook their heads and Freya sighed, “You have to watch anime sometime! I’ve not watched much myself, mainly when my cousin was up late at night and I watched him watching the TV through the slits in my cupboard door.” Freya realized a second too late that what she said was less than normal and her friends were staring at her with slight confusion.

Cedric, however, understood that it was probably personal and so he changed the subject back to Hermione’s gift, “So, do you want me to do the transfiguration for you?” Freya looked away from her friends and smiled at Cedric as she held out the cube for him. He took it from her and set it on the floor before swishing his want and speaking a spell that Freya didn’t recognize and the cube morphed into the shape of a small wooden cat. 

Freya picked it up and grinned as she inspected the small polygonal cat figure. While it wasn’t a perfect replica of a cat it was recognizable as one and that’s all that mattered as she would hopefully be able to do the last step herself when she visits Professor Flitwick later for her tutoring. Freya looked at Cedric with a smile, “Thank you for this! It’s great!” Cedric gave a nervous chuckle, “I’m glad you like it, that was the best I could do.” Freya placed the cat in her robe’s pocket and she looked back up at Cedric, “Would you happen to know where the kitchens are? I’ve been trying to find them but I only have so much time and I have not much longer before I have to go to Professor Flitwick! And since you’re a third-year I thought-” 

She said this a bit rushed and Cedric held up a hand, stopping her, “It’s fine! Calm down! The kitchens are right outside this common room, luckily for you. Just find the painting with the fruit on it and tickle the pear.” Freya nodded and moved to get up and Susan grabbed her hand, “You just got here and now you’re leaving?” 

Freya looked back at her friends and Cedric, “You’re welcome to come along if you want, you already know about my gift for Hermione so it’s not like it matters.” Susan looked to Hannah who was already standing, ready to go and she sighed, “Okay sure, I’ll come along but the next time you come here you better stay longer than a few minutes.”

 Susan stood up and followed Freya as she began walking to the common room door along with Hannah and Cedric, who ended up deciding to go with them, if only because he was curious about what the kitchens looked like as he had never been himself. He caught up with them as they were leaving and Susan was speaking to Freya, “So why do you want to go to the kitchens anyway? You said you don’t have that much time so you can’t make a cake for Hermione or anything right?” 

Freya looked around the hall and gasped as she saw the fruit painting, “I do want to make a cake for Hermione and normally I wouldn’t be able to make a cake in 30 minutes, but I do know a few cooking spells that can help speed up the process that I’ve been learning this week.” Susan raised an eyebrow slightly at Freya, “Oh just a few spells this week huh? When did you get the time to do it?” 

Freya looked to Susan as they arrived at the painting, “After classes whenever I go down to see Hagrid. He likes my cooking and says it's some of the best he’s ever had, and that was before I started learning the spells.” Hannah was walking behind them and she butted in, “You know how to cook? I can barely make eggs without burning them!” Freya shrugged and tickled the pear on the painting and it let out a giggle before the painting swung open revealing a passageway lit with torches. 

Freya began walking down the passage and looked back to Hannah, “I’ve been cooking since I was 5. My aunt said that I had to ‘earn my keep’ so that I could keep living with her. Since they got angry when I didn’t make it perfect for them, I had to learn how to cook well.” Cedric hadn’t said anything and was listening until he spoke up, “Your aunt sounds like a bitch.” Freya chuckled and looked at Cedric and the frowns on her friends' faces, “That’s one word for her.” 

The passageway opened up suddenly into a room just as big as the Great Hall with a similar look of 5 giant tables in the room covered in ingredients for food along with various dishware and cookware for the meals. Over a hundred house elves were milling about, several of them floating on pot lids as they directed floating cookware and food throughout the kitchen with a precision that amazed the students. As soon as Freya walked in there she was noticed by several of the house-elves that walked up to her and began speaking to her, asking her why she was there. 

It turned out that she had become a bit famous with the house-elves too because of how she had thanked them. Eventually, she was able to speak and tell them that she needed a few ingredients to make something for a friend’s birthday. Freya and her friends weaved around the house elves and the various floating objects in the kitchens as she began picking out assorted ingredients and cookware from the tables. Freya turned to her friends who watched as she grabbed all the ingredients, “I’ve made cakes for my cousin’s birthdays but I’ve never actually tried the cakes. They liked it enough I guess but I don’t know if it’ll be good enough for Hermione.” 

Freya began casting spells after she mixed the ingredients and made the cake take the shape she wanted it to be, unknowing of her friends giving her worried looks as she molded the cake with her wand. She spoke the incantations she had learned with Hagrid and eventually the base of the cake was done with it being made into the shape of an opened book. 

The three Hufflepuffs were watching, impressed with Freya’s spellwork as she shaped it and began making icing from the ingredients she collected. She used different food dyes to make the different colors and spread the Icing over the book, decorating it by hand. Her friends began to help her with the icing and before they knew it the cake was done. Freya put a stasis charm on it that she learned to keep a food’s temperature the same, but she realized it could also be used to keep food fresh for an indefinite amount of time. 

It would keep the cake as it is until dinner came, which is when she planned to give Hermione her gifts. Susan sighed and leaned against the table they were working at, “You’re baking Hermione a cake and giving her a gift. You’re making us look bad Freya.” Freya chuckled and wiped some icing off of Susan’s cheek that had somehow ended up there and tasted it with a delighted hum before speaking, “You helped too so we can say that it’s from all three of us. Although Ron and Neville are probably going to be feeling the same way, especially after what Ron said this morning.” Susan blushed slightly and wiped off the icing that was left. 

Cedric chuckled at Susan’s reaction and faced Freya, “So where are you going to put this cake? I doubt you’ll be able to keep it a surprise if you bring it to dinner.” Freya smiled and faced a house elf that was watching them and had helped Freya every once in a while when she was looking for the ingredients, “Hello there, what’s your name?” The house-elf smiled, “It’s Winney, Ms. Potter.” 

Freya pointed to her cake, “I would like to ask you or one of your friends here if you could bring that cake up to me during dinner. I want it to be a surprise for my friend you see? It’s her birthday and I want to make sure she has a good one.” Winney nodded and snapped her fingers making the cake float over to her, “It would be my honor to help you with this favor Ms. Potter.” Freya smiled and thanked the elf as she brought the cake over and spoke with a few other elves before she and her friends left the kitchens.