Chapter Text
For a long, long time, he was convinced it was all an elaborate prank – maybe for some new sitcom or game show, pulling really terrible practical jokes on unsuspecting guys who’ve literally done nothing to deserve it. Even when some woman in dungarees, a poncho and a woolly hat came to the house to explain the repeated letters, he still believed someone was just messing with his head.
In fact, it wasn’t until Harry Styles was a month into his first year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry that he thinks maybe there is something to this magic thing, and that’s only because he hadn’t come across a single mirror or screen to explain away the special effects.
The talking hat that had proudly proclaimed him to be a Gryffindor, Harry had written this off to be animatronics – the best he’d ever seen, but mechanical none the less. The talking portrait of the Fat Lady was probably just a livestream video hook up. Everything else? He couldn’t explain, and he found himself justifying that with ‘Well, I'm not in the smart house, I’m in the brave house, so-” before remembering that the houses weren’t actually real.
The levitation charm was the catalyst for his belief.
“What’s up? You’re staring at that feather like it can tell you the secret to life,” the boy next to him said. He was wearing a blue tie, and had been trying to engage Harry in conversation for the past month – he was very persistent, but Harry had been convinced he was a paid actor. Now, he didn’t know what to believe.
“This is real, isn’t it?” He said stupidly. “The magic thing.” The boy blinked.
“Uh, are you a Muggleborn? Didn’t someone come and explain this all to you?”
“Yeah, I just figured... You know... That this was some practical joke. Or something.” The boy laughed – it wasn’t unkind.
“That’s why you’ve been walking around like you’re expecting someone to jump out at you! We’ve been worried about you – well, I’ve been worried about you, my mates just think you’re kind of hilarious. I’m Liam, Liam Payne.” He actually held his hand out to shake, and Harry had to fight back an ‘aw’.
“Harry Styles.” They shake. “What’s a Muggleborn?”
“Non-magic parents. You’ve got Muggleborns, halfbloods – one magic one Muggle, that’s what I am – and pure-bloods, two magic parents.”
“Is it... Bad, that I’ve got Muggle parents?” Liam shook his head firmly.
“Nah. I mean, look at Hermione Granger.”
“Who?”
“Hermione Granger? Works in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement? One of the best witches of her generation – she was a Muggleborn. Look her up, might give you an ego boost.” Liam paused. “Most people don’t care what parents you have, it has no bearing on the type of wizard you are, but some people are still a bit... Iffy.” Harry got the impression that Liam was being polite. “Like, take the pure-bloods. Most of them are alright, but there’s still some that’ll treat you like dirt because they still believe in the pure-blood theologies.”
“But yeah, most of us aren’t bad,” the boy on Liam’s right leant forward and nodded his head. “Zayn Malik, pure-blood, an ‘alright’ bloke.” Liam shoved his shoulder.
“You know what I meant.”
“What Liam is trying to say is watch out for the Slytherins – you’re a Gryffindor Muggleborn, you’re gonna make a few enemies in that house. The Hufflepuffs are great, we’ve got a friend there, we’ll introduce you to him after class – and then, obviously, there’s the Ravenclaws, the greatest house you’ll ever meet.” Zayn grinned and flicked his wand lazily at the feather, making it hover over their heads for a few moments.
“Well done Mr Malik!” The professor said. “Mr Styles, you’re looking less bewildered today, let’s see what you can do.” Harry looked at the professor, panicking, and felt a hand bump against his – Liam had slipped a note into his hand.
‘Win-gar-dee-um Leh-vee-oh-sa’
Reading the note aloud and flicking his wand in the general vicinity of the feather, Harry tried to make the feather defy all of his previously known laws of gravity. The feather twitched, jumped into the air spasmodically, and then rocketed up into the air with such force that the quill actually buried into the wooden ceiling. They stared up at it for a few moments.
“Less force in the wrist next time, but that was a very good first attempt - five points to Gryffindor,” the professor said, winking at Harry.
“Glad you didn’t set it on fire,” Zayn said as the tiny professor turned to the next group, a struggling knot of Gryffindor girls Harry had seen around the common room. “First time I waved a wand at something, I caused hundreds of galleons worth of damage.”
“That’s because you set fire to Ollivander’s, you twat,” Liam countered. “And you were showing off because I walked in and you tried to light the lantern behind my head. My hair hasn’t grown back properly for weeks.” Liam rubbed his short hair ruefully.
When Zayn told Liam that he’d done him a favour by setting him alight, “how else would I have made an impact on you, hold out my hand for a handshake?”, Liam had demanded that he and Harry swapped seats, so Harry spent the remainder of the lesson between the two of them – Zayn was charming little folded paper flowers to float into Harry’s hair, and Liam was muttering under his breath about “arseholes who should learn not to abuse magic”.
“For homework,” the professor said, just managing to interrupt Liam from attempting to perform a Full Body-Bind Curse on Zayn to stop his increasingly complicated charmwork from going wrong. “A foot on the improvements the levitation charm brought to general magical levitation, due next lesson.” The class packed their bags loudly – Zayn and Liam turned to Harry.
“You got plans?”
“Oh, I was going to do my homework, then-”
“That’s such a Liam thing to do,” Zayn said; Liam kicked him in the shin. “First you’re coming to the kitchens with us, then we’ll actually give you a tour of the castle, I bet you haven’t even bothered to look around yet.” Harry hadn’t, but he didn’t think it’d be wise to admit that he had, in fact, been holing himself up in his dorm every night after classes, only eating at breakfast and dinner. He hadn’t had lunch in over a month.
“The kitchens?” Harry asked, allowing the boys to lead him out of the classroom.
“Yeah. It’s not strictly meant for the students, but there’s no rule saying we’re not allowed in there – I checked,” Liam said.
“He did,” Zayn added. He continued to speak, heading down the stairs. “I wouldn’t have even thought to look there for the kitchens, really. There are perks to having friends in other houses – loads of people just stick to their houses, but we’ve really branched out,” He said proudly, scooting around some huge seventh years.
“We have two friends outside of our house – you’re the second,” Liam admitted quietly.
They headed down several flights of stairs, drawing to a halt in front of a portrait of a fruitbowl, which Zayn leant forward to and –
“Why’re you stroking the pear?” Harry asked.
“You’re doing it wrong, you’re supposed to tickle it!” Liam said, elbowing Zayn out of the way.
“I was tickling it!”
“Remind me never to get into a tickle fight with you then, you were practically caressing that pear.” Harry, meanwhile, was staring in awe at the passageway the portrait had revealed, after the pear had squirmed upon Liam’s touch. “Niall, you in there?”
“Mate, when am I not in here? Oh, you’re new, come have a sandwich.” A blonde boy in a yellow tie grinned at Harry. “Niall Horan, resident food junkie, Hufflepuff first year.”
“Harry Styles, Gryf – oh my God what is that?” What looked like a shrivelled potato in a white sheet bowed low.
“It’s a House Elf,” Liam explained. “They’re like servants.”
“I is Dinky, Master. Can I gets you a snack?” The thing stood up straight – it had eyes like shot put balls, and a mouth like ripped leather.
“I... Uh...”
“Don’t mind Harry, he’s in a permanent state of shock,” Zayn explained. “He’ll have one of everything, he looks like he hasn’t had a good meal in weeks. So, Nialler, how was Transfiguration?” Niall grinned.
“Terrible, I completely overshot my spell and turned somebody’s desk into a matchstick – gained five points for advanced magic, lost ten for not paying attention.”
“Could’ve been worse, Harry here nearly impaled me with his feather,” Zayn sniggered.
“Mate, you’ve been reading your mum’s romance novels again, haven’t you,” Niall said, nodding sympathetically. “Mum’s been going mental over some book her Muggle cousin gave her, 50 Shades of Grey? Perhaps she’d lend it to you.” Liam raised his eyebrows at Harry and bit into a pasty.
***
Pockets stuffed with enough food to feed a small country for several days, the boys left the kitchens.
“How about we head to the lake? It’s still pretty warm out,” Niall said.
“Look, I know you spent the whole summer in Iceland or somewhere-”
“Ireland, Ireland.”
“-but some of us actually went to places with temperatures in the double figures.”
“I think what Zayn’s trying to say is that it’s pretty nippy out – we could try the library?” Liam suggested; Niall snorted.
“That’s such a Ravenclawy thing to say.”
“No,” Zayn protested, holding up a hand. “I would never say that.”
“That’s because I’m convinced you’re just pretending to be a Ravenclaw, I’ve never once seen you open a book, and I always have to give you the answer to the statue’s question, the whole point of it is to encourage intellectual discussion, not–”
“Look out, Slytherin, straight ahead,” Niall said, trying to sound subtle by faking a coughing fit; Slytherin was not a suitable word to cough.
“Turn round, we can probably out-walk him, I still haven’t managed to change my other tie back to blue after our last Slytherin encounter,” Liam said, trying to chivvy them away – Harry, who had been eating a crumpet one of the house elves had pressed on him, swallowed hastily.
“What? But the door’s that way, why can’t we just walk past him, he’s only a first year, he’s in my potions class!” The other three boys looked at him with a mixture of admiration and pity.
“Gryffindors. All right, fine, we’ll walk past him – better to learn your lesson with a first year Slytherin than seventh years, they can get nasty, especially round the Quidditch season-”
“I’m sorry, did the Hufflepuff just say Quidditch? You know your house shouldn’t say that word, you haven’t won a match since Potter was knocked out by his idiotic substitute Beater.” Niall flushed angrily, and the Slytherin smirked.
“Lay off, Tomlinson, some of us value things besides Quidditch,” Liam said nervously – Tomlinson turned to look at him with unconcealed relish.
“Like what, getting turned on by the smell of old books? I’ll stick to sport, thanks. Malik!” He looked him up and down. “Mate, you look terrible in blue, have I told you?”
“Many times,” Zayn said stiffly.
“I’m sure old McGonagall will let you transfer,” Tomlinson said.
“I’d rather drop out, actually,” Zayn countered – the Slytherin shrugged, and then turned to Harry.
“Well, it looks like you three have acquired the pet Gryffindor Mudblood – tell me, does it know any tricks?”
“Piss off,” Harry said, the only witty enough comeback he could think of.
“Wow, the little kitty has claws – cute.” He smiled benignly, and spread his hands. “Well, I guess I’d be off, we’re having a little pre-emptive party for our win in the first match.”
“But the game hasn’t even happened yet,” Niall said – Tomlinson raised his eyebrows.
“Hence the “pre-emptive”,” he said, making exaggerated finger quotations. “Wow, can see why you got put in the duff house.”
“Get lost, Tomlinson,” Zayn said fiercely – the Slytherin held up his hands in mock surrender.
“I’m going, I’m going!” He paused, bringing a hand up to his chin and frowning in mock thought. “There’s something I’ve forgotten... Oh yeah! Locomotor Mortis!” His wand was in his hand and pointing at Niall before Harry had even considered getting his own wand out – instead he’d pushed Niall out of the way, getting the full blast of the spell and toppling over, face first. “Huh. Not what I expected, but still just as hilarious.” Tomlinson walked off, laughing loudly.
“Ow,” Harry said pointedly.
“Idiot Gryffindor,” Niall said fondly, grabbing one of his arms as Zayn grabbed the other and hauled him upright. “That could’ve been anything, and you just took it like it wasn’t a big deal. Liam, do you know the counter curse?”
“Yeah, but I don’t know if I can perform it without making it worse – we should take him to Madam Pomfrey. Chance to see the Hospital Wing?”
“Sounds exciting,” Harry deadpanned. “Not far, is it? Don’t think I can hop up too many stairs.”
“Just a flight of stairs round the corner – Tomlinson was probably coming from there,” Zayn said, throwing Harry’s arm around his shoulder and helping him hobble down the hall.
“Who was that guy, anyway? Seemed like you all know him.”
“Louis Tomlinson. Our parents know each other – he used to be alright, then we got here, he got sorted into Slytherin, and now he’s a dick,” Zayn said bluntly. “He got into the Slytherin Quidditch team, first first year to do that since Potter – you can probably imagine how modest he was about it.”
“Quidditch – what’s that, anyway?” The three boys turned to stare at Harry.
“Oh my God-”
“He doesn’t know-”
“The poor kid-”
Several hours, one counter curse, and a trip to the library to check out Quidditch Through The Ages later, and Liam was still trying to earnestly explain the rules while Zayn and Niall contributed by re-enacting their favourite matches their parents had taken them to see.
“-and they just keep adding to the fouls, because it’s such a complicated game – they should really think about codifying the rules, I mean, some of them are so outdated-”
“-he just swooped, it was so fantastic, man, what’s that move called?”
“The Wronski Feint, it was the greatest thing ever, the other guy’s broomstick just went SMACK on the ground, CRUNCH, they had to get the Healers out and everything, took three levitation charms to lift him-”
“-like ‘Players should not throw powdered dodo’s beak onto players brooms in an attempt to counteract the flight charms’? Really? Dodos have been extinct for hundreds of years, there’s no need-”
“-Krum’s final game though, god, still gives me chills any time I think about it!”
“When he just-” Zayn lunged out his arm, almost punching Niall in the face. “He just missed! I’ve watched the footage back over and over again, you can see his fingertips brush the wings of the Snitch, isn’t that the worst thing you’ve heard, he was this close!”
“The Snitch is the little one, right?” Harry asked, flicking through the book frantically.
“Yeah. What you need to understand is that Krum’s the best Seeker I’ve ever seen play – I’ve been to a lot of matches – and to not catch the Snitch in his last match was just...”
“Bulgaria still won, but that’s not the point.” There was silence for a moment, in reverence of the Seeker Harry still knew practically nothing about (although Liam was probably creating his own codified version of the Quidditch rules in his head, rather than paying his respects for Viktor Krum).
“...We heading down for dinner?” Niall said eventually. “I’m starving.”
“You should sit with us, Harry,” Liam said. Harry blinked, still not used to the whole ‘having friends’ business.
“You sure?” Zayn laughed.
“Mate, if we didn’t like you, I wouldn’t have carried you bridal style all the way to the Hospital Wing.”
“It wasn’t bridal style, and it was barely twenty feet, what’re you on about...” Harry said – Zayn batted his eyelashes.
“I tease because I care, muffincakes.”
“That’s a pretty redundant nickname, it’d be like calling him ‘applefruit’ or something,” Liam said.
“Liam, if you wanted me to call you applefruit, all you had to do was ask,” Zayn said, putting his arm around Liam’s shoulders. “Niall, where’re we – where’d he go?”
“Probably ran ahead to get us seats,” Liam said. “I mean, house intersectionality is great, don’t get me wrong, but just once I want to get a seat that isn’t right under the teachers noses.”
“What?” Harry asked.
“They used to seat us by house, but then some bright spark-”
“Probably Professor Longbottom, let’s be honest.”
“-came up with little tables, to encourage us to ‘mingle’, and there’s a few tables right by the teachers that, obviously, no one wants to sit at, and because we’re first years we always end up there. Wait...” Liam paused, looking at Harry. “Where’ve you been sitting?”
“With the Prefects, usually,” Harry admitted; Zayn shook his head.
“You poor thing. Come, let us introduce you to a world of conversation that isn’t about polishing badges, or whatever it is Prefects talk about.”
After a minor scuffle with some Hufflepuffs, the four boys ended up on a reasonably decent table – unfortunately close to some Slytherins, but it would have to do.
“Timetable,” Liam said, holding out his hand. Harry blinked. “Come on, we need to compare classes – I think I’ve only got Charms with you, I haven’t seen you in anything else...”
“Have you been watching me?”
“Yes,” Liam said plainly. “As I said earlier, I’ve been a bit worried about you.”
“That’s Liam for you,” Zayn said.
“We think he’s part Weasley, they’re all quite motherhen-y,” Niall said. “I remember one year my parents had some sort of party and invited the Potters, so-” and Niall was off, regaling stories of his childhood surrounded by people who were probably very important – Harry supposed he’d be more impressed if he knew who any of these people were. Zayn occasionally added to a story with his own side, so eventually Harry asked,
“Did you all grow up together or something?”
“Liam wasn’t around, he was off attending some Muggle school for the offensively gifted-”
“I went to a regular Muggle primary school,” Liam explained. “Dad figured I should stay in touch with my Muggle roots, so I could truly appreciate the gift of magic; these two just aren’t used to people who’ve been schooled before the age of eleven.”
“My parents always hosted parties and stuff, they’re pretty important, so Zayn was around a lot, and where there was Zayn there was Tomlinson – he didn’t really like me, I think.” Niall shrugged. “Slytherin since the beginning.”
“Ey, the hat thought about putting me in Slytherin,” Zayn said snippily. “But I told it where to go, so it put me in Ravenclaw instead.”
“You were a hat stall,” Liam said knowledgeably.
“And remarks like that are precisely why the static energy from your head was enough for the hat to put you in Ravenclaw,” Niall said, pointing a sausage at Liam.
“The hat talked to me for ages,” Harry said, remembering, trying to look at the memory through wizarding eyes as opposed to ones looking for animatronics. “About how he’d put some other kid named Harry in Gryffindor, and how I would probably be expected to do my namesake proud or something.” The three boys raised their eyebrows simultaneously. “What?”
“At some point during your magical education, open a book on recent wizarding history,” Liam said with a laugh. “Maybe then all these references won’t go over your head.”
“Um, excuse me?” The boys turned. Two girls, a Hufflepuff and a Gryffindor, were stood there, clutching their bags with tight hands. “Mind if we sit down? We tried sitting with the Slytherins, but they threatened to curse my friend if she sat near them...” The Gryffindor looked at her friend worriedly, before turning fiercely to the boys, glaring at each of them in turn.
“No, go ahead!” Liam said, scooting round to let the girls sit down. “I’m Liam, that’s Niall, Zayn, and Harry.”
“Yeah, I know Harry, we’ve got all our classes together.”
“Right! Uh, this is...” Harry tried to remember her name; she laughed.
“Eleanor. Harry always has his head in the clouds, the amount of times I’ve tried to get him to talk to me, you have no idea...” She shook her head. “Thought I had bad breath or something.”
“Oh, no, it’s nothing like that, I just thought you were, you know, an actor or something.” Eleanor looked confused, but the other girl looked up.
“Me too! New TV reality show, right?” Harry laughed.
“Yeah! Only stopped thinking that today when we did-”
“Levitation!” The two laughed, and the girl held out her hand. “Danielle, pretty obvious Muggleborn.”
“Harry, the biggest Muggleborn you’ll ever meet.”
“May I have your attention, please?” Headmaster McGonagall chimed her fork against her glass. “Somebody,” she directed her gaze towards an overly innocent looking group of Gryffindors. “Has released an ‘Expanding Fart Miasma’ in the Entrance Hall.” She glared around the room, daring anyone to laugh. “Due to its ‘expanding’ nature, I have to ask all of you to return to your dormitories immediately, before the stench of it becomes any more severe.” The dishes were wiped clean just as Harry was beginning to help himself to pudding.
“I don’t understand why someone would do that while we’re eating,” Liam said irritably; Niall rolled his eyes.
“Because it’s funny,” he said.
“It’d be funnier if they did it outside the teachers’ lounge, so they couldn’t leave.”
“...Sometimes I wonder about you, Payne, I really do.”