246Title: Instinctive Behaviour
Author: Knife Hand
Feedback: Constructive feedback appreciated, flames unappreciated
Spoilers: Nothing Specific, general for first few books.
Rating: M
Disclaimer: I do not own Hermione, or Luna, or Ginny, or Cho, or... I would buy them all but I am broke.
Summary: Harry gets cold waiting on the front porch of number 4 as a baby, so he does something to get warmer, which changes things immensely (Animagus young Harry, no living with the Dursleys)
A/N: Just to be clear on two points. Firstly, the Sorting Hat only reads personalities, not memories, so it would not know all the student's secrets and make leaps of logic that the student themselves have not made, like Lemur Harry is Harry Potter. Secondly, how bloody big do some of you think the Sorting Hat is that it would cover Lemur Harry as he is sitting on Hermione's shoulders. Sure, it covers First Years eyes, but not their entire head and shoulders.
Hermione felt Harry jump down off her shoulders and scamper off to a quiet corner of the crowded Ravenclaw Common Room. Su, who was beside Hermione, watched in fascination as Harry weaved his way, almost completely unnoticed, through the legs of the milling students then up onto a chair, across the fireplace mantle, to top of one on the smaller bookcases and then up to the top of one of the taller bookcases. He disappeared from view for a second and then his head popped over the edge before pulling back again.
The two Fifth Year Ravenclaw Prefects went over the general rules of the House. Eight levels of the Ravenclaw tower was, apart from the bottom floor with the Common Room, was divided into two separate dorms, one for males and one for females, which had no access to each other than through the Common Room. The year levels went up the tower, with the exception of the Seventh Years who were on the level below the First Years to provide any assistance to the lower year levels and to respond to any issues in the Common Rooms.
Each level had five rooms for two occupants and a communal bathroom, with First Years being on the second level above the Common Room. As there were only six female and four males amongst the First Years, only two girls would be required to share and the boys could have their own room with a room to spare, but it was encouraged that they share rooms rather than go solo. From what Hermione had gathered at dinner and the milling of students around the Common Room, it seemed that up to Fifth Year the average was about ten students per year, but Sixth Year had fourteen, eight boys and six girls, and Seventh Year had seventeen, nine girls and eight boys. Based on the histories she had read, Hermione attributed this to the 'First Blood War', which had ended around a decade ago. The last six odd years of the war were brutal and with so many deaths and people seriously injured, the birth rate dropped dramatically.
Hermione looked at Su who nodded that she would be amicable to sharing rooms with Hermione. It seemed as if Mandy and Amanda were going to bunk, as were Padma and Lisa. Two of the boys had moved next to each other to indicate they would be roommates, but the other two stood apart, indicating they were considering going solo.
Once the Prefects dismissed the First Years, the Common Room had cleared somewhat, but there was still a little bit of a crowd by the stiars. Hermione and Su wandered around the Common Room, looking at the bookcases and reading chairs. After a circuit, they made their way to the girl's dorm stairs and were half way up the stairs when Hermione stopped.
"Harry, come on." Hermione called back down the stairs.
"Boy's aren't allowed up there… Woah!" A Seventh Year began.
The last exclamation was made when Harry, who had jumped down, via the lower bookcases and the fireplace mantle, ran past her and then leaped up onto the railing of the stairs to the female dorms, scurried up the railing and then leaped onto Hermione's shoulders. He let out a chirp of pleasure as Su took a moment to scratch him behind the left ear before Hermione began to climb the stairs, followed a second later by Su.
They entered one of the rooms on the First Year's level, which had the door open to indicate it was not occupied. The room had two separate four poster beds, with curtains in a deep blue; a pair of study desks with a small shelf above them to store books; a single comfortable two-seater couch and a pair of wardrobes. A few moments after Su closed the door, their School Trunks appeared at the foot of the beds.
"Right side ok with you?" Hermione asked, as her own trunk had appeared below the left-hand bed.
"Yeah." Su replied.
Harry had jumped down by this point and was running around exploring the room, chittering away in excitement.
"So, what do you think of Hogwarts so far?" Harry asked as soon as Hermione appeared.
The dreamscape still represented Hermione's bedroom at home, with Harry sitting in her favourite reading armchair. Dream Harry was slightly taller than Hermione, his clear, unobstructed emerald eyes shining out in a way that Hermione found almost hypnotising. He was dressed in jeans and a t-shirt, much as she was, as the dreamscape was never hot or cold.
"You were there with me for it, so what did you think?" She replied, giving herself time to think, and stop his eyes distracting her.
A part of Hermione wished Harry could be Dream Harry all the time. She occasionally fantasised that he was human and he would be standing by her side as they learnt magic together and went on adventures. Another side of her was kind of glad he was a Lemur in the real world, because if he was not, he would not be curled up in the same bed as she was in the Ravenclaw Dorm. Alongside her parents, Harry was the most important person in Hermione's life. Moving to the bed, she dropped onto it.
"I asked first." Harry said with a smirk that made something inside Hermione melt, but in a good way.
"The Castle is amazing, and I am kind of glad I am rooming with Su. I want to keep being friends with Susan, Hannah, Daphne and Tracy too, even though they are in different Houses. It will be interesting to see what classes are like when they start tomorrow." Hermione replied.
"Me too." Harry replied. "But you are on your own for Potions Class. It's like when you are cooking with mum. There's no way I am getting that close to that many open flames."
"I know, I know." Hermione said. "Honestly, one spilt soup and I never hear the end of it."
Harry stood from the reading chair and joined Hermione on the bed. She curled up against his side, in an unconscious mirroring of how Harry, in his Lemur form, was curled up against Hermione's side under the blankets in the Dorm, as Scotland was much colder than home was.
Hermione just lay there and enjoyed the feeling of closeness. With a thought, Harry manipulated the dreamscape and the light that filled the room dimmed. Harry idly stoked Hermione's hair as she snuggled into his side.
Su was a morning person, usually getting up at five am, but she was having a lie in before the first day of classes, so she was awake when, just after six, Hermione re-entered the room, dressed in a bath robe and towelling her hair dry, with a damp Harry perched on her shoulder.
"Harry showers with you?" Su asked.
"Sometimes." Hermione replied. "It depends on his mood."
Su got out of bed and began to get ready for her own shower. Harry chirped and signed at Hermione. Su swore to herself that she would learn the signs that Harry used so that she could understand him.
"No, Harry." Hermione scolded. "You were just in the shower with me, you can't have another with Su."
Harry scrambled over to Su and gave her a pleading look.
"Not today." Su said, but she scratched him behind the ear. "Off you go."
After one more pleading look, Harry ran to Hermione's bed and curled up as Su left the room and Hermione began to get dressed. Three quarters of an hour later, Su was back in the room, bathed and dressed, so Harry settled into his usual place behind a curtain of Hermione's hair and the girls made their way down to breakfast.
TBC…
