Harry stared in the mirror and sighed. It was the first day of term and he was beyond nervous. He had spent such a wonderful summer surrounded by incredibly supportive people and he hadn't considered the idea of having to sit down with a bunch of people he didn't really know with his current style. He'd been happy exploring more feminine styles over the summer, completely forgetting that not everyone would be as accepting as his partners. He could only imagine what the Hogwarts students would say if he had rocked up in something pink and frilly, not that he usually went that extreme but still. Greyback had tried to reassure him, saying that the werewolves were a very accepting group, but Harry knew, from his experience at primary school, that what children said in front of adults was not necessarily the same as what they said behind the adults' backs.
It didn't help that Harry hadn't had much chance to get to know the werewolf colony as he had hoped, what with the arrival of all of the Azkaban detainees. Tom's plan to free them had gone off without a hitch, with Greyback and his team picking up a few inmates each trip over the period of about a week to try and avoid suspicion. Severus had created a boil erupting potion for inmates to take initially, followed by some draught of the living death, delivered by Tom himself using his crow animagus form to infiltrate the prison and deliver it, along with instructions on when to take the potions and what would happen.
The plan had gone off without a hitch, with the rest of the wizarding world being none the wiser. The Malfoys had come by after the Lestranges had been brought back, since Narcissa was a Black and still retained the ability to enter the castle with the help of the family's house elf. Not Dobby, Harry was happy to hear, that particular elf had been 'let go', in Lucius's words. The family had brought news from the outside world with them, as Narcissa helped heal her sister from the ravages of that awful prison.
It seemed as if Harry had been declared dead, at least as far as the Prophet was concerned, although Dumbledore still maintained that Harry was missing, likely kidnapped by death eaters and Voldemort. The paper, and the Ministry, found the idea laughable and had even accused Dumbledore of removing Harry's body from the scene of the fire at Privet Drive as a way of continuing the ridiculous idea that the Dark Lord had somehow risen again. The so-called outbreak at Azkaban, and subsequent death of the death eaters, was seen as a sign, that the previous terror was well and truly in the past. Dumbledore, unsurprisingly, saw it as a sign of some dark plot, however, and was adamantly sticking to the idea that Voldemort had somehow come back, although he was at a loss to explain how that was possible which didn't help his story very much.
Harry had thankfully been wearing his short dungarees at the time of the Malfoys arrival but he had still felt like the family were giving him some slightly strange looks and he had made a point of steering clear of any of his more feminine clothes while there was a possibility of them showing up. He knew Tom would have made sure that no comments would be made but that wouldn't stop the looks which were sometimes just as bad.
Lucius had mentioned how a number of the dark families had taken their children out of Hogwarts: between Severus leaving and Dumbledore's apparent vendetta against anything even tangential to Voldemort they no longer felt safe sending their children to the school. Narcissa, and a lot of mums, still felt like Durmstrang was too far away plus, with the school's seemingly close connection to Hogwarts, as well as the dark reputation of the school, many parents decided that it wasn't the best option. Harry had briefly feared that the Slytherins would all join the werewolf school that was being set up but Severus had pointed out that it would be suspicious if the students were to suddenly disappear so a group of tutors were set up instead, with different grand houses being used for the lessons, should anyone from the Ministry, or Dumbledore's cronies want to come and check up on them.
Obviously this had meant that not everyone would be able to afford such an extravagance so a few families had decided to continue at Hogwarts, such as Crabbe and Goyle, with the idea of them also being able to keep an eye on what was going on there. Most people assumed those two boys were idiots although Harry had learned that was mostly a myth. Crabbe and Goyle were the dumbest of the Slytherin boys but, as Severus pointed out, Draco, Theodore and Blaise were all extremely smart and wouldn't have been out of place in Ravenclaw. Crabbe and Goyle were also very observant and, as they were often overlooked, were well positioned to snoop on the things going on at the school and try to make sure Dumbledore wasn't going to cause too much trouble before they were ready. There were also some students from branch lines of dark families in the other houses, even Gryffindor much to Harry's surprise, so that they could keep an eye on everything that happened.
Harry was just glad that he didn't have to deal with any of his former classmates yet. He knew he should have more confidence in himself and his choices but things were still a little new for him and he wasn't sure that a few misspoken words would cause his will to crumble. Even now he had adjusted his look lest the teenage werewolves look badly on him. He'd opted for some wide trousers with a high waist in a rust colour that he thought was appropriate for the season, along with a loose, cream coloured peasant blouse. He thought that it was somewhat masculine, he was wearing trousers at least, but he worried that his perceptions had become a little skewed over the last couple of years.
While Harry was checking his appearance in the mirror, wondering if he should see if he could find some different colour trousers, although he didn't actually own any black ones anymore, Kaster appeared with a present from Binky. The seamstress had apparently realised that Harry might be a little apprehensive about starting his first day at school and had created him a hair band decorated with asters. The powder blue, daisy like flowers were clustered to one side and Binky had obviously taken great care in making it, and the colour matched his current outfit perfectly and Harry wondered if it was a sign, or possibly some house elf machinations, but he did suddenly feel a lot more confident in his choice, even if the hair band was definitely feminine.
Harry made his way out to the purpose built classrooms in the werewolf colony. There had initially been talk of using some of the spare rooms in the castle for the lessons but Deliah had vetoed that. There were some very strong wards on the main gates of the castle that prevented any werewolf from entering without express permission from the lord. Greyback obviously had it but, as the alpha werewolf and someone bonded to Harry's father, he posed little threat to the inhabitants of the castle even on a full moon. Teenage werewolves would be a different story however and it would be too much of a risk to keep refreshing the wards every full moon to make sure they couldn't get in accidentally. As such a purpose built building was created, with classrooms for each of the different class groups: basic, intermediate and advanced.
Harry had been placed in the advanced classes with the 14-16 year olds, despite his younger age, thanks to his two years at Hogwarts. Harry had to query that but Eric had pointed out that he had been the only one to be able to teach the students prior to them arriving so they had usually only had a couple of lessons a week meaning that Harry's two years had likely given him a higher education that even the advanced class, or at least it should have anyway, with the possible exception of History of Magic, solely due to Dumbledore and the Ministry's insistence on only teaching the Goblin Wars. Eric was much more interested in teaching a wider overview of history starting from the founders. It was the one place Eric would have liked to have put Harry with the basics but it would have caused major scheduling issues so the werewolf had simply given Harry a bunch of books to study before lessons began as well as assurances that there would be a review of previous topics at the start of term and the promise that Harry could come to Eric if there was anything he was struggling with.
Harry wasn't surprised that he was the last person to enter the room since he had had to walk across the castle grounds as opposed to just coming from the colony like the rest of his classmates.
"So you must be the young Lord Black," said one of the older looking students. He had shaggy black hair and what looked like the beginnings of a moustache. "I'm Marius, don't know why old Eric is making me do this instead of letting me go out to work early but I've been doing this stuff for 6 years now so, if you're struggling with anything let me know."
"Um, thank you," Harry said, a slight frown on his face as he took his seat.
"Don't worry about Marius," one of the girls chuckled. "He's just happy to finally be the oldest here and likes having the opportunity to play alpha for a bit. I'm Daisy by the way and I'm afraid you'll have to put up with me for two years."
"Is that a bad thing?" Harry queried, looking at the blonde girl. She was very curvy, with bright blue eyes and what Harry thought was a lovely sense of style rocking a bright purple crop jacket.
"That all depends on you," she smirked. "I've heard that the British aristocracy can be quite stuck up, although you seem like you might be alright. I'm Daisy by the way and I love your hair band."
"Thank you," Harry said with a slight smile. "Betsy made it for me. I like your jacket by the way."
"Thanks," Daisy smiled. "I designed it myself. If you're lucky I might even let you borrow it."
"So long as you don't mind getting in line," another girl laughed. "Daisy promised me I could borrow it next."
"I remember Tabatha," Daisy smiled.
"If you don't mind, Daisy, I can always ask Betsy to make us copies of the jacket," Harry suggested.
"Ooo, like a little club," Daisy squealed. "I like it."
"Fine," sighed a dark haired girl, "if you insist, although I hope you don't expect me to wear it every day."
"Yes, heaven forbid you break your goth phase Amadine," a blond haired boy laughed.
"It's not a phase Lars," Amadine pouted, "it's a lifestyle."
"If you say so," Lars chuckled, "but you should know Zach said the exact same thing last year and he lasted until we had that heatwave in April."
"That's because Zach is a weakling," Amadine scoffed.
"I'll remind you of that next time I beat you in hand to hand combat," Zach grouced.
"Then I'll beat you in archery and we'll be even," Amadine sassed, sticking her tongue out for good measure and causing Harry to chuckle.
"Do you really do hand-to-hand combat and archery?" Harry asked.
"Of course," Tabatha replied. "Not only are they good for our general fitness but they are also essential skills if we want to join the defenders with Ruby."
"Tabatha idolises Ruby," Daisy whispered to Harry.
"Plus Deliah always says we need to all be able to defend ourselves on the off-chance that the wards should fall and the hunters descend on us," Marius said.
Harry frowned. "But the wards are secure, I went over them with everyone over the summer after the Azkaban inmates got here. Everyone here is perfectly safe, there is no need for everyone to worry."
"You should always be prepared for every possibility, Harry," Eric warned, coming into the class, "and it never hurts to be able to defend yourself, as well as being able to have contingency plans. Most wizards rely on their wands and think that a person is useless if they lose their wand. If you can learn to defend yourself without one then you will always have the advantage in a fight."
Harry hummed in agreement. "That makes sense. Will defence lessons be part of our Defence Against the Dark Arts classes?"
"They should be," Tabatha declared. "As should general fitness. Ruby always says that the best way to defend yourself is making sure you're not hit in the first place."
"I don't think there is any sort of physical education on the curriculum at the moment," Eric mused. "To be honest we were most worried about making sure you knew all of the defensive spells you would need. There is a theory, however, that improvements in a person's physical strength and stamina also improve a person's ability to cast and it would definitely be interesting to test the theory out. We could look at adding some physical education to your schedules but it probably won't be this week."
"Don't worry Eric, I'm sure we can figure out something to teach Harry some basics in our free time while you're figuring out the timetable," Marius assured him.
Eric smiled. "Thank you Marius, I know I can count on you, but make sure you don't push things too hard, you will be having homework as well."
"We can always start at lunchtime today," Lars suggested. "At least we can be sure we won't have any homework then."
"Uh, that means I'm going to have to change my shoes," Daisy pouted. "I would like to learn to kick but in heels eventually but I don't want to risk breaking my ankle on the first day of school."
"You're wearing heels?" Harry queried.
Daisy flashed Harry one of her shoes, a platform wedge shoe boot with a peep toe and studs on the heel. "I'm going for a rock chick look today although I'll probably go for something completely different tomorrow. My style tends to change depending on my mood."
Harry grinned. "Mind if I make you my mentor."
"I would be honoured," Daisy smiled.
"Now if you've quite finished exchanging fashion tips perhaps we could begin the lesson," Eric chided.
"Sorry Eric."
"Uh, yeah sorry," Harry said sheepishly.
"No problem, now, let's start with the ancient era," Eric announced. "There is a lot of information on the Ancient Egyptians and their contributions to the magical world but I would like to concentrate on Ancient Greece, more specifically, the famous wizard Herpo, frequently referred to as Herpo the Foul.
"He is well known for his contributions to what are now known as the Dark Arts. It should be noted, however, that many of the arts he practiced had not been designated as Dark at the time, the main reason being the fact that they hadn't existed before, in the same way that unforgivables weren't designated as such until 1717.
"Herpo is the earliest known parselmouth and it has been suggested that all parselmouths are descended from him, including Salazar Slytherin. It's possible but if that were the case then it would likely mean that every wizard in the wizarding world."
"Why is that?" Harry asked, after raising his hand of course.
"Because of numbers," Eric explained. "Each generation you go back, you double the number of people you are related to. You have 2 parents, 4 grandparents, 8 great-grandparents, 16 great-great-grandparents and so on. In only 10 generations you are related to 1024 people, in 11 that jumps up to 2048. Even taking into account the extended lifespan of wizards, the fact that Herpo predates the Roman empire, even not knowing his exact birth year, we can assume at least 20 generations and that number will far outflank the number of wizards in the whole of Europe at the time. This can be an uncomfortable fact for some to swallow however."
"Doesn't that mean that theoretically any wizard could have the ability to be a parselmouth in their blood?" Tabatha asked.
Eric nodded. "That is one of the theories. It's difficult to track the ability, however, as few people ever admit to having the ability due to its Dark associations. It is quite possible that there are other families, beyond the ones that are known, who have the ability and keep it secret.
"It's been posited that it was Herpo's parselmouth ability was influenced his experimentation with creatures. Herpo is, after all, the person who first created Basilisks by hatching chicken eggs beneath toads. It is said that he undertook a great deal of experimentation in that area although there is no recorded evidence of what the results of those experiments are."
Harry couldn't help but be intrigued at how easy it was to create a creature as magnificent as the Basilisk and he had to wonder why more people, namely Hagrid, hadn't created one before, especially since the half giant didn't seem to care about words like illegal or deadly.
Harry found himself enjoying the lesson and taking copious notes, largely helped by Eric's style of teaching, as well as the lack of a monotonous voice, not to mention the interesting topics. Dumbledore would never have allowed someone like Herpo to be taught about and especially not in the same way as Eric did, noting the difference between fact and opinion when it came to information about different characters. Eric tried to keep descriptions neutral; his opinion did leech through a little bit but he always let his personal opinions be known and encouraged the students to form their own, something that had never happened in Hogwarts.
Suffice it to say, Harry had a very enjoyable first day of lessons. True to their word, the werewolves took Harry to one of the fallow fields at lunchtime where the house elves provided a picnic. The younger werewolves joined them as well and the older werewolves led an impromptu fighting lesson where Harry learned how to punch and kick properly, with the promise that they would sort out proper equipment the next day.
Sirius came by to teach transfigurations in the afternoon which was a whole new level of fun. Harry had been impressed with how seriously his father had been taking his teaching duties, spending time talking with Eric about the various ability levels of the students as well as consulting different texts used in teaching at Hogwarts in the library, all while helping with the new arrivals at the castle when he could. Sirius's lesson was engaging and informative and he encouraged the older students to help the younger ones master the Lapifors spell, one of the transfiguration spells that Sirius thought would actually be useful for the werewolves to learn, as opposed to the likes of owls into opera glasses, which is a spell that would never be used in the werewolf colony. It was a sentiment that Harry, and his classmates could appreciate and had instantly put Sirius high in the werewolves esteem.
All in all it was an excellent first day and Harry was in high spirits that evening when he went back to the castle with Sirius for dinner. It was just immediate family, with the other detainees eating in their own family groups. Harry happily regaled everyone around the table with what he'd learned about Herpo in History.
"I didn't realise how easy it was to create Basilisks," Tom mused.
"No!" Severus said, not even bothering to look up from his food.
"But think about it, Severus. Imagine the look on our enemies faces when our people come riding in on the backs of an army of Basilisks."
You can't be serious!" Sirius gaped.
"And what are we to do when the creatures turn on their riders?" Severus asked.
"We have two speakers," Tom argued, "and that will be more than enough to keep them under control, especially if we raise them from birth."
"Is that true!" Harry exclaimed.
"Well I would assume so," Tom obfuscated.
"You don't know!" Remus gaped.
"Well it's not as if anyone has ever tried it before," Tom pouted.
"The answer is still no," Severus stated resolutely.
"Seconded," Sirius said. "I do not want such dangerous creatures around my son."
"But the one in the Chamber seemed so nice," Harry argued, "and he never once attacked me."
"She," Tom corrected. "You can tell because of the lack of a crest."
"Apparently I need to brush up on my creature knowledge," Harry grinned.
"Oh no you don't!" Sirius yelled.
"For once, and hopefully only once, I am in complete agreement with your father Harry," Severus stated. "It is far too dangerous to keep such creatures in the castle, especially with the number of non speakers in residence."
"I'm surprised at you Severus," Tom scoffed. "I'd have thought you would be all for the opportunity to have ready access to some rare potions ingredients."
"I am currently up to my eyeballs in the ones Harry has so generously donated," Severus scowled, then paused. "If, in the future, however, I were to finish with those ingredients, then I may be tempted to look into it."
"Snape!" Sirius yelled. "I knew you were a two-faced bastard! I thought you were trying to stop this madness!"
"Leave off the man Puppy," Greyback chuckled. "For starters even I know the value of Basilisk parts, and that's saying something. Admittedly that is mostly due the toxicity of the venom and its ability to be used on weapons but still. The Dark Lord would have likely carried on regardless and at least this way he has been put off for a while and there is a chance he might forget about it down the line."
"You really think that I'm going to forget about this easily?" Tom queried somewhat incredulously.
"You do have a lot on your plate at the minute," Greyback pointed out, "and there are things that I don't know if you've even considered yet like how you're going to deal with Dumbledore."
"Of course I have," Tom scowled. "There are a number of options, I am just waiting on more information at the moment before setting any plans in stone."
"That's fine my Lord," Greyback smirked, "just be sure to keep me updated when you do."
Sirius snickered a bit but shut up quickly when Tom turned his scowl on him.
Harry could understand a bit of Tom's predicament. They had been mostly concentrating on making things secure and safeguarding their future, as well as ensuring the safety of Tom's followers. Changing the wizarding world hadn't been a priority before and, with how comfortable they were at the moment, Harry was almost wondering if it ever would be. The problem was that Harry was starting to feel so comfortable here at Castle Black that he was finding it hard to care about what was happening in the wizarding world at large. Those people hadn't cared about his well being, not really, and he was wondering if it was actually worth giving up their precious security for a group of people who were happy to stick their head in the sand and ignore the corruption around them as long as it didn't affect them.
What happened to the Azkaban detainees was a prime example. Harry had been horrified to learn that most of them hadn't even had a proper trial before they were thrown into that prison that violated basically every basic human right. The fact that people were sent to that hell hole for even minor crimes beggared belief and the fact that no one in the wizarding world even questioned it had Harry wondering of such a world was even worth saving.
That was a problem for another day, however. Tonight he had essays to write, spells to practice, and a potion to read up on ready foe tomorrow's lesson lest he risk letting Severus down.