Talion looked around in his suitcase for a short moment to take stock and regarded the room afterwards. The two boys would share a small bathroom with two sinks, a bathtub, and a toilet. The dormroom itself came with two comfortable looking queen-sized beds on opposite walls with their trunks at the foot of those beds facing each other.
On the wall opposite the door were two windows as tall as he was giving a spectacular view of the black lake and the forbidden forest with two desks right below it and empty shelves off to the side of the window.
The room practically mirrored a perfect little dorm room suited for quiet study sessions.
Seeing that everything was in order and appreciating the calming color scheme and high-quality furniture, Talion made his way back toward the common room to read or maybe socialize some more.
Instead of his mum's notes, Talion took out one of the two books he bought outside the curriculum at Flourish & Blotts when he went shopping with Professor Babbling: 'Life of a Magical Bachelor: Grooming & Household Charms for Men by Tatum Andrews'
It was a book written by a recedent graduate of Hogwarts who was fed up with how magicals wrote books, so he compiled the spells for certain topics and wrote these spellbooks like muggle textbooks. That was reflected in its sales. According to the clerk, he was one of the first to buy such a book.
The magical world was bonkers, Talion judged at that point. Why read a book in Olde English featuring sixty pages on how a wizard bested his rival through trickery and only describing a spell on page sixty-one when you can get a one-spell-every-second-page book with nothing but easy-to-follow instructions?
In any case, the book gave Talion all the tools he needed to take care of himself magically - even cutting his hair and shaving were described in the book with three spells for every possible circumstance. This Tatum Andrews really knew his stuff - Talion wanted to see if there were any more books he published during his next visit at the bookstore.
Eventually, a few first years followed his example and sat down in the common room after browsing the book shelves along the decorated walls a little. Everyone had something to read in front of them... they really were Ravenclaws, all of them.
Looking up after flipping another page, he saw Hermione looking at him from the corner of her eyes before quickly looking downward once more.
"Something on your mind, Hermione?" Talion asked in a low voice to not disturb the concentration of the others.
"What kind of book are you reading?" She eventually asked back in a voice just as soft as his.
"Oh, Professor Babbling told me there'd be thousands of books in the library at Hogwarts, but this is a recently published book that I doubted would find its way into the library. It sounded incredibly practical and was written in a style much more to my liking than the other tomes I leafed through at Flourish & Blotts."
"What do you dislike about the other 'tomes'?" She asked with a curious expression.
"Hmm, too little actual information per word count."
Hermione nodded before saying, "I think there must be some kind of conspiracy going on. Most books are just disguised diaries in some form. I'm still trying to find a common ground to ignore the filler words or actually find a meaning behind all the anectodes. At least the actual school books are somewhat better, but I read through a dozen more books, and they only got progressively worse."
"Tell me when you figured it out," Talion coaxed with a small smirk, disregarding that Hermione just admitted to having read about twenty huge books in the less than two months since her first visit to Diagon Alley. He had done something similar with the books Patrick brought him, though probably not with the witch's thoroughness and efficiency.
Hermione, eager because she might have found her first friend at Hogwarts, responded with an exaggerated nod and hum. She blushed a little because her reaction was a little more forceful than planned.
There were a few more polite conversations Talion had with upper classmates before he retired to his room. Harry was still nowhere in sight. So the young Macnair finished his hygiene rituals while trying one of the charms from the book he just read to an underwhelming effect and got dressed for bed.
He couldn't wait to annoy Professor Flitwick with his countless questions.
"Talion, right?" A small voice got him out of his musings eventually as he sorted his books into the bookshelf next to his desk while already in his sleepwear.
"Ah, the boy wonder graces me with his presence. Everything alright?"
Harry narrowed his eyes slightly at his new title before shrugging.
"Professor Flitwick had a few warnings for me regarding my infamy. Eventually, he told me a little about my parents. That's what took so long," the boy-who-lived explained in as short a time as possible.
"No worries, Harry. No need to explain anything. I'd love to hear about my mother, too. But from the notebooks I found of her, I don't think she left a lasting expression on anyone that isn't the retired Professor Slughorn as her head of house and maybe Professor McGonagall. I'll try my luck after our first class with her, probably."
"You grew up not knowing anything about her either?"
Talion heard the sympathy in his voice and thought he might have heard a little yearning in it, too. Soon, he would have to decide whether or not he wanted to use Harry as a pawn, actually befriend him or if he would go as far as making the boy-who-lived an ally. If he knew of Dumbledore's machinations, this Harry would likely want to get even with him and Tom, too, just like Talion.
But the half-orphaned Macnair scion was also already risking everything by barely knowing the mind arts. His occlumency was at the level of a complete novice, and only because Walden Macnair had a book that gave a vague introduction into the esoteric art. Adding another unstable variable that could lead to him getting found out was very risky. And what if Dumbledore already had his fangs in the boy, and he would tell the headmaster everything Talion would share with him? This required delicate probing.
"Yeah. Fun fact, we were born on the same day, Harry. Yet, my birthday coincided with my mother's likely passing. The matron said I couldn't have been older than a week when she found me on her doorsteps... and she only did so when she was drunk - drunk when she was telling me about it, I mean. Not really the storytelling type, that one..."
"Same birthday, huh?" Harry said with a vacant look.
'Oh, right. Not likely that he celebrated any of those before.'
"Tell you what. You're giving me the vibe of someone who grew up never doing anything for it. Same is true for me. The orphanage barely even did anything for Christmas unless some reporter came for a sob story, let alone individual birthdays. I got a vault with money in it when I went to Gringotts, and I bet you found something similar. Let's just treat each other to some ice cream or something next year. Well, if we still like each other after a year of sharing a room."
"Still like?" Harry asked with a raised brow while emphasizing the 'still'.
"Ah, how presumpteous of me. Of course, we can take our time deciding if we are worth each other's time," Talion answered with a slightly colder voice than he had planned.
'Mature, right... Guess I'm still a little childish, after all. Why did I snap like that?' Talion thought with an inward groan.
"I didn't mean it like that," Harry weakly muttered and got dressed for bed in the bathroom while avoiding to look anywhere close to Talion.
As the lights went out, Talion eventually spoke up once more.
"Good night, Harry. Didn't mean to snap like that. It's been a long, unusual day for me..."
"Night Talion," Harry answered in kind. "Don't worry about it, I get it."
Compared to his bed at the orphanage, in his new dorm, Talion felt like he was sleeping on a cloud. When he got up a good hour after sun-up. Harry was already staring out of the window. It looked like the boy-who-lived needed a little more time to adjust to the comforts of his new living arrangements at school.
"You should see Madam Pomfrey," Talion gently advised as he looked at Harry's exposed skin he didn't see last night. "A lot of the damage they did can be healed without problems."
Harry flinched and quickly rolled down his sleeves and buttoned up his shirt, completely covering his body. He warily looked at Talion for a while before he sighed.
"I didn't mean for you to see that," Harry whispered.
"Don't fret. It's safe with me. I'll get some scars removed myself later this week... if Madam Pomfrey does what I think she does," Talion explained with a shrug and pulled down his collar to show Harry some of the burn scars he had 'earned' at the orphanage.
Though, he did inwardly cringe over the fact that Harry was covered in permanent belt markings. And those didn't seem to be the only things he's covered in.
'Dudley and his gang got more violent than the books described, maybe? Physical abuse going as far as heavy belt lashings at home on top of that. Guess I got lucky if we discount that janitor who pressed out a few cigarettes on me after I stopped him from stealing food. Like, who steals food from orphans?'
Harry didn't answer, and Talion went and got dressed in the school uniform.
"First thing I'm doing is researching potions and maybe rituals for body enhancement. Not a big fan of physical exercise. You in?"
Harry looked toward Talion and saw his lean frame as he buttoned up his dress shirt.
"To what end?"
"I'm not looking to get absolutely shredded or gain magical super strength. I just want more stamina and a little more strength. Maybe fill out a little if puberty isn't helping," Talion easily answered with a shrug and took out his extended space pouch.
"You got one of these, too? If not, I could carry your supplies for you. I already got all my schoolbooks in there because we weren't given the time table yet and I don't wanna run more stairs than necessary if it turns out our first lesson is on the ground floor or something."
"Where did you get it?" Harry asked curiously as Talion's arm entirely vanished inside the pouch that should have fit little more than his fist and a bit of his wrist normally.
"Oh, found it in the family vault."
Harry gained a frustrated look for a moment before shaking his head, "The vault I got access to only had gold. A trust vault for heirs... I'd trade it all for a few knick-knacks of them. Maybe a letter..."
Talion wordlessly took Harry's books and cauldron and put them in the bag, not knowing how to answer that. He definitely couldn't tell him that he'd been studying his mum's notes from all seven years of Hogwarts.
'Ugh... already did that, didn't I? Okay, just don't gloat about it and it should be fine.'
"Got your wand?"
Harry nodded and patted his wrist, "Ollivander told me to buy a holster."
"Same here. Where else would you even put it?" Talion asked with an incredulous look, though only he knew he was equipped with two holsters as he planned to get a second wand just in case at some point. "I mean, maybe behind the ears. Saw a few women do it like that while shopping before. But only a moron would put the wand in, like, his pants pockets or something. That's like pointing a loaded weapon at your arse or private parts, really."
Harry gave him a mirthful smile while nodding but didn't comment further.
"Tempus," Talion said as he did a figure eight with his wand and got to know the time for his magical efforts. "Breakfast's just started. Let's go."
"You already know how to cast spells?"
"Ugh, I mean 'tempus' is barely a spell. If the book I got it from is to be believed, a toddler could cast it by knowing the word 'tempus'."
Harry nodded with an absent look.
The two made it down to the common room and saw several upper years getting ready for breakfast themselves. Eventually, they ran into Hermione, Padma, Lisa, Mandy, Isobel, and Sue, who had gathered together. It looked like, opposed to what Harry and he were trying, the girls of the Ravenclaw first year wanted to eat as a group.
"Mind if we tag along? Well, we're mostly just trying to follow those sixth years over there, but we wouldn't mind some company. Right, Harry?" Talion asked as they got closer and received a wordless nod from his roommate.
"You two share a bed?" Sue, a tall young girl with shiny black hair and asian features, inquired as they fell into one step.
"Uh, not quite. We do share a room, but there's two beds in it," Talion quipped as he turned to Sue with a raised brow. "Is it different for you girls?"
Sue blushed a little because of her small blunder and refused to answer. One staircase down from the common room, Mandy eventually spoke up to break the silence that hung over the group.
"You two didn't bring your class books? Are you eager to run all these steps to get them after eating? We got classes right after," the brunette girl with more freckles than he had ever seen on a person asked. It looked cute, Talion judged as he regarded her a little more intensely than he probably should.
"Is there something on my face?" She shyly asked and looked away while brushing her long straight hair from behind her freckled ears back over her face.
"Yeah, freckles. I was thinking that they look really cute," Talion honestly replied, which earned him a blush that even her freckles couldn't hide. "And to answer your question, I found a pouch with an extension charm on it in my family's vault. Professor Babbling advised me to take it for my school supplies, and I'm carrying Harry's and my stuff in it."
"Where is this pouch?" Hermione asked as she walked closer to Talion and looked him up and down. "I don't see any? Is it invisible or something?"
"Nope, I showed it to Madam Malkin when my robes were made and had her sew a lining able to hold the pouch comfortably into it. Here, let me show you," Talion calmly explained and opened his robes a little to show her what essentially was an inner breast pocket with the pouch hanging in there snuggly. "Uh, I could probably store a few of your things for you girls? Like the heavy cauldrons, maybe?"
The girls gladly handed him their cauldrons that all the girls except for Isobel and Padma awkwardly carried in regular bags. Most of the cauldrons also held some off their books inside, but since his pouch had a featherlight charm, Talion didn't notice a difference in weight.
All girls looked at him gratefully once they were done packing their heavy load away while a few older students looked at Talion with a knowing smirk. 'Oldest trick in the book,' most of them thought with a laugh.
As such, Isobel and Padma revealed that they, too, had an expanded bag, but theirs were already completely full, so they couldn't help their fellow Ravenclaws. The pouch of Talion had much more space than theirs, likely because the pouches of the girls were bought with the purpose of holding the limited school supplies in mind. Talion's pouch was an item Walden probably treasured or even inherited instead. A pouch worthy of a 'pureblood lord'.
Harry kept to himself the entire time they were talking but received the quiet attention of most girls in the group regardless, especially Lisa Turpin and Isobel MacDougal.
Isobel looked like a proper noble lady in the making with elegantly braided raven hair and pale, aristocratic facial features. Lisa Turpin on the hand looked like the very picture of a girl next door. Just like Talion, she had a slightly taller nose than most, though it suited her face just the same. A face covered in a few freckles, just much less than Mandy's. Her strawberry blonde hair was done in a messy bun.
Both girls shot the boy-who-lived many looks, though their agenda wasn't entirely apparent or even the same. Talion merely chalked it up to Harry's celebrity status, not that he minded if it was literally anything else.
At breakfast, their timetable arrived at the hands of Professor Flitwick and gave Talion a slight surprise.
Magical Etiquette, a course designed for those who did not grow up in the magical world, was added. And, only those who passed with a tutor or one of the few ministry-run 'pre-schools', schools that were named P.S.Y. or Prepatory Schools for Youngsters were exempt from these courses if needed, and much like Flying Lessons, they wouldn't last all year.
'Huh, was I.M.P. already taken? Something like Involuntary Magical Pre-Education?' Talion idly thought when he found out the mystery on why some of the other first years were already acting like they were friends all their life.
Other than that, his timetable was as expected for Talion, though it was a lot more free time than he expected. With two or three electives two years later, that would likely change. But for this year, it was the same professors as canon, same courses other than etiquette, and from what he could tell roughly the same amount of free time to do what he pleased. Or, well, homework.
The schedule was a little different, though he didn't know Ravenclaw's timetable by heart from canon, so he couldn't be sure. But, their first lesson turned out to be Charms together with Slytherin, followed by Defense Against the Dark Arts with Hufflepuff, then lunch, and finally Magical Etiquette before a long block of free time and dinner.