Chapter 18 - Ch. 18 Friends, a meeting and snow

Just in case anyone was wondering, no I do not spend every waking moment out of class inside the RoR. That's what I have the Time-turner for because I literally cannot be in the room at the same time as myself. This gives me personal time to do some more normal things for an eleven year at a boarding school, like hanging out with friends.

Don't be surprised, I might be a pretty isolated from people in general. I mean my height intimidates a lot of the boys my age and most girls just run away from me, but I did become friends with James due to me constantly trying to help him adjust to Hogwarts or helping him out in potions. Turns out that although he is hopeless in Herbology and with Snape as a potions teacher his hopes in that subject were dashed, he is a wonder in charms and quite good in Transfiguration. Apparently Professor Flitwick is already trying to recruit him into the charms club, which he tried to do for me too but I rejected stating my own personal studies were my priority right now. So we started hanging out and sitting together when it was joint classes between Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff. We also study in the library together and exchange information about how everything was for each other before Hogwarts. He tells me about his time in muggle schools, t.v shows he likes, comics he reads or just random stuff with friends. I tell him about how it was to live with my aunt, Susan and Tilly. I obviously didn't mention my little stint in that cell, but I told him about me trying to improve myself, how I started my own magical plant garden in the backyard, or some potions I knew and even about some of the third year electives we can chose later.

James got really curious about house-elves when I talked about Tilly. To the Bones she's part of the family, as much as she tries to deny it when we say it, but James being a muggleborn was very surprised about the fact that there is basically a magical slave race in the world. He didn't go full Hermione on me thankfully, but he was still uncomfortable until I explained that as they 'evolved', if you can call it that, they became unable to form magic on their own and required to be either bonded to a wizard or witch, or to a house with enough residual magic to sustain them or die. He was very surprised when I told him that since Hogwarts is the largest magical residence in the UK, it also housed the largest known collection of house-elves. This actually led to a visit of the kitchens after we were done talking since we were peckish and James had a bit of curiosity towards them. Honestly, I've been in the kitchen quite a few times already since I have a lot of late nights or don't go to the Great hall for meals as you only really need to be there for special occasions, but it's always distressing to have so many elves fawn over you. James was certainly shocked as they kept shoving food his way without being able to deny their 'kindness', well until we ran out of there.

In the Hufflepuff house I've also been keeping contact with Tonks, who tried to jinx me when I kept trying to use her full name to tease her. She was very surprised to find out that I could keep up with her talk about her class troubles, with me giving advice on how to work out troublesome spells, brew a few potions or handle certain plants. First time that happened her mouth wouldn't close, her eyes and hair changed back to their natural color in shock. It was both funny and kinda cute, didn't now that enough of shock would cancel out her transformation. This resulted in me being the most Ravenclaw ravenclaw in history, or the most claw-like person she ever met. It did help that I also helped her make some potions to prank some bullies harassing younger kids and also helped improve her homework from time to time. All in all it's been fun hanging with her.

Between the start of the semester and the first break on Christmas, I also ended up befriending one Christian Ward, the guy from my house who was good in Herbology and Flying. He had short black hair, which was usually messy, sky blue eyes, was a bit on the shorter side, but nothing that puberty wouldn't fix and a bit of a wild feeling to him. He seemed to go out on his own a lot and preferred to spend his free time outdoors. So one day I tried to approach him when he was hanging out near the Black Lake.

"Hey, what are you doing out here?" I asked the guy.

"Trying to spot creatures in the lake." He just answered nonchalantly without even looking up from the water.

"You curious about the squid?" I then ask with a smile on my face.

"A bit, but I heard the lake has mer-people in it and I wanted to see if I could meet them." He answered

"Wouldn't it be better to play some music to draw them up? They are supposed to be fond of it." I then said off-handedly.

He then looked at me with a surprised look on his face.

"Wait. You know about them?" He asked incredulously. "I've been trying to get a chance to talk to them for weeks now! "

"I can see two problems with that. First is the language, cause I'd be surprised if you knew mermish, and second is that they don't come to the surface when people are near usually, since like most intelligent magical being they aren't exactly fond of wizards. But the tribes near Hogwarts are supposed to have agreed to not harm students and help if they are truly in danger." I explained to the guy.

"Huh, didn't think about the language. Also didn't know anyone else in our year had an interest in things like this. Especially the famous Silver Star of our house." He said with a chuckle.

"The what?" I asked the guy with a really confused look on my face.

"What, you didn't know? It's how people address you in our house, well the girls mostly. I even heard it's starting to spread to the others too." He said laughing at the face I was making.

"How the bloody hell did that happen?!" I exclaimed.

Christian just laughed even harder at that. It took him a few minutes to calm down and explain.

"Well, you know how you're basically the best of our year?" I nod in response, it's not really a contest at this point. "Then there's the fact that every class you just finish what's required and then some, then you turn around and help those who need it the most. Throw in your looks and voilà, the Silver Star." He explained.

"How come I've never heard about this stupid title?!" I exclaimed in disbelief.

"Well no offense mate, but you don't really spend a lot of time with other people. I'm actually surprised you're talking to me." He then answered with a questioning look.

"Sigh. Well I can't really say anything about the first bit. I did talk to you for a reason though." I say in response.

"Oh yeah. And what is this reason?" He asked with a raised eyebrow.

"I saw how you were during Herbology and Flying classes, you looked like you were enjoying yourself and so I wanted to try and become friends with you." I declared.

He was kinda stunned for a bit.

"You want to be friends with me?" He asked incredulously.

"Well yeah, that's why I approached you." I said while giving him a weird look.

"But everyone in the house looks down on me for not being Ravenclaw enough and for liking being in the fields playing with plants and animals." He said not understanding.

"And that exactly why I want to be friends with you." I proclaimed. "You're different from most people. Ravenclaw has turned into a house of bookworms instead of the place where researchers are born. They worship the books they read instead of trying to look beyond them. That's what's wrong with the house and why outside of succeeding academically they can't find paths for themselves. But you're already doing that. So I'll ask you, Christian Ward, to be my friend instead of any of those boring stick-in-the-muds any day."

"So you think I'm weird too?" He asked as a joke.

"What's weird about finding a subject one is passionate about and immersing oneself into it? If our house thinks that's weird then they've truly lost the path Rowena wanted for us." I answered. "So, will you be my friend?" I then asked the boy.

"Nice to meet you properly Aedan Bones, hope you don't regret this." He said holding out his hand with a grin.

I smiled and took it.

By the way, it turns out Christian isn't just passionate about Herbology and CoMC, he really likes any class or activity that has to do with nature itself, even Astronomy. Boy was he surprised when I introduced him to the muggle understanding on the subject. That's how I made my own friends at Hogwarts, usually hanging out with James and Christian, since Tonks is a fourth year and has her own things going on we don't see each other as much.

And so that's how my first few months at the castle were spent. Studying, training, experimenting, hanging out with friends and bouncing ideas, experiences and stories together. James started to get used to magic with my and Christians help. James brought us to some hidden spots he found while exploring the grounds. And I was mostly helping them find interesting bits of knowledge in their areas of interests or showing some new spells I was learning, even teaching them a few of the simpler ones.

The rhythm continued until the snow falling around the castle announced the arrival of the winter holidays.