Weighed & Measured {HP}

10. the first day

He had gotten used to reading alone in the month between his trip to Diagon Alley and Hogwarts, and he was well-practiced in ignoring the noises of his relatives, so Harry didn't notice as the Hall began to fill. In fact, he was so absorbed in the book, he didn't realize that wasn't alone until Draco spoke to him

"Is this where you were?" he asked. "I was worried when you were gone from the dorm."

"Sorry," Harry said sheepishly, somewhat reluctantly closing his book. "I woke up early, and decided to get some reading in."

"I see that," Draco said, his voice a little bit sour. "Are you sure you weren't meant to be in Ravenclaw?"

"Pretty sure," Harry said, thoughtfully. The Sorting Hat hadn't said anything about it, after all. "I like reading about magic, but you would too if you were raised by muggles."

Draco looked thoughtful at that.

"I guess it's still all new to you, huh?" he said.

"Yeah. Like, I never knew that the Hogwarts Houses were named after real people," Harry said eagerly. "The Founders must have been amazing."

"Huh. I guess it never occurred to me that you might not know some of that stuff." He poured himself a bowl of cold cereal, and heaped sugar on top of it. "Mother and father never let me do this," he said with a grin.

Harry, who was unused to the bounty of Hogwarts and had overstuffed himself the previous night at the feast, stuck to toast. It was fresh and buttered, though, so he was happy with his breakfast.

Pansy had come up with Draco, and she sat opposite them.

"Is Persephone with you?" she asked.

"Yeah," Harry chuckled. "She's asleep under my shirt. Seems a bit grumpy in the mornings."

Pansy giggled, as if this was very amusing, serving herself breakfast.

"I wanted to thank you, Harry," she said, changing the subject, "for including Millicent last night. She's very nervous about school starting."

"I didn't realize you were friends."

"Yeah, I've known her for ages. We're cousins, actually, so we kind of grew up together."

"Oh. She seems kind of shy," Harry said, a questioning tone to his voice.

"Yeah. She's been teased before."

"I can understand that."

Pansy looked curiously at him, but before she could ask what he meant, Millicent appeared. She sat down across from Harry and next to Pansy.

"Good morning," Harry said cheerfully.

"Morning, Potter," she said quietly.

"You can call me Harry, if you'd like."

Millicent shrugged, serving herself some eggs and bacon. Harry hoped that was a yes.

The Slytherin table was nearly full by then. Harry noticed that most of the first years sat together, but the rest of the years mingled a bit more. That was, except for Theodore Nott, who sat alone.

Harry was happy enough to let him.

Once everyone had arrived, or at least Harry thought they had, Professor Snape came around, handing out their schedules from a stack of parchment. Harry took his eagerly with a smile and a thank you, examining his classes. He couldn't wait to get started.

But it turned out there was a lot to learn before he could cast a spell. His classes were full of the theory of magic, which was complicated and didn't entirely make sense. Harry tried to just go with it, however, figuring his professors knew what they were talking about.