Chapter Text
After the feast the Gryffindors huddled back in their common room to listen to the prefects explain basic house rules and McGonagall’s usual first-day speech. But Harry stood lazily in the back, leaning against the wall, spending his time surveying the appearance of each of his Gryffindor housemates instead of listening to anyone talking. He couldn’t help but feel bitter when he looked at the relaxed smiles on peoples’ faces, and how so many people were elbowing their friends, cracking grins and stealing glances with each other while McGonagall talked. Harry couldn't imagine he’d ever be that carefree in his life again. Not since learning to love Sirius as part of his family in a few short months only to get him ripped away from him in the most cruel way possible.
Once McGonagall finished her speech, Harry dashed up to his dormitory, unpacked his things, then began getting ready for bed. Harry was in bed with his glasses off before any of his year-mates entered the dorm, and pretended to be asleep so he wouldn’t have to interact with any of them.
On the first day of classes Harry rose much earlier than the rest of his housemates and decided to head down to breakfast earlier than he ever had before. Harry dressed quickly and crammed his books in his bag, before setting off to the Great Hall.
While not the first student in the Hall, Harry had arrived early enough to see the house elves popping in and out, loading the tables with food. As Harry set himself down in a seat at the Gryffindor table, Dobby popped in suddenly with a basket of bagels on his right.
Dobby immediately dropped the bagel basket and shrieked, “Harry Potter! Harry Potter has come to breakfast early! What a pleasure it is for Dobby to see Harry Potter!”
Wide-eyed and mortified, Harry began cramming the bagels Dobby dropped back in the basket as he looked around to see who had heard Dobby. A few Gryffindor second-years looked amused at Dobby’s outburst, there were some snickers from the Hufflepuff table, but luckily none of Slytherin house was at breakfast that early. That is, except Snape who fixed Harry with a stare from the Head Table, as if Dobby getting all excited at breakfast was his fault.
“Stupid git,” Harry thought to himself, while also wondering what Snape was even doing at breakfast so early, knowing the man seemed to be up all night patrolling the corridors of the castle.
Harry brought his index finger up to his lips in a “shh” motion in front of Dobby and Dobby’s tennis-ball sized eyes widened as he lowered his voice, “Dobby is so sorry to have shouted during breakfast! Dobby just got very excited to see his friend Harry Potter,” Dobby finished sheepishly.
Harry offered Dobby a soft smile then shook Dobby’s hand, hoping Dobby understood that Harry was happy to see him as well.
Dobby clasped his hands together and a big smile overtook his face after Harry finished shaking his hand. Dobby kept staring at Harry in amazement until eventually Harry had to point to the food and point to himself, and pantomimed eating so Dobby got the hint.
“Oh yes, Dobby will leave Harry Potter to his breakfast as Dobby gets back to work!” Dobby exclaimed, and with a snap he was gone.
Harry began picking at his bagel with his fingers, only putting small pieces into his mouth and chewing them thoroughly as his thoughts wandered off. He was beginning to get that awful feeling in his gut he sometimes got when eating, when he remembered that he would never share another meal with Sirius again. Harry swallowed roughly.
Fighting not to cry in the Great Hall, Harry dropped his head and began rummaging through his bag to see what books he threw in there this morning. Oh lucky him, he had his brand new Potions book that was delivered yesterday and his Divination book that he only ever needed in class. He decided to start reading his Potions book, figuring he should at least crack the spine of the thing before the first class with Professor Slughorn.
Professor McGonagall has sent him a letter over the summer explaining that a different professor was taking over Potions classes this year, and Harry had made the cut with his E grade, so he needed to order the sixth year Potions book and supplies.
When Professor McGonagall sent Harry that letter, he had a brief hope that Dumbledore had finally fired Snape from Hogwarts, and instead had him busy doing Order business, or working elsewhere for Dumbeldore. He was thoroughly disappointed at the feast when he realized even before Dumbledore made his speech, that if the new professor - Professor Slughorn - was taking over Potions, and there were no other new members of the staff, that Dumbledore finally had awarded Snape his desired teaching position of Defense Against the Dark Arts instructor. Why now Dumbledore had finally promoted Snape to DADA professor, Harry could not quite figure out.
But Harry was always miles ahead of his classmates regarding DADA material, thanks in part to Lupin’s private lessons third year, Hermione studying spells with him for the Triwizard tournament fourth year, and then all the extra practice he had instructing the DA last year. There was a good chance he already knew all, if not at least a large majority, of the sixth year DADA material, so Snape would find it hard to find fault with Harry’s performance in that class. That is, until Snape found out Harry no longer spoke.
*****
At the Head Table, Severus Snape could not take his eyes off the Potter boy. He did not normally breakfast so early, but he had slept poorly the night before and decided to just get up and start his day. But of course, Potter had to be at breakfast this early as well, along with the house elf who must be captain of Potter’s fan club. Severus snorted to himself. One day back at school and the boy was already making a big deal of himself. Severus was disgusted with the boy’s arrogance, as he was every year.
Despite himself, Severus watched Potter pick at his bagel while managing to actually eat very little of it (the brat was being so wasteful!) and realized that Potter had pulled out his Potions book and after brushing some bagel bits off the table into his hand then onto his plate, he opened his book and began reading.
Severus could not believe what he was seeing. For five years, Harry Potter had taken his Potions class, and Severus bet he had willingly opened his textbook less than a dozen times in five years. And yet here he was, doing extra reading before it had been assigned so he would be prepared for the lesson. Unbelievable. “What a selfish little twat,” Severus thought to himself. “The brat starts putting effort into Potions when I’m no longer his teacher.”
As Harry continued reading his book, Severus continued watching the boy. Come to think of it, it was… odd to say the very least that the boy was at breakfast this early, and had whipped out his Potions book to read for leisure. Severus briefly wondered if an imposter was polyjuiced as Potter, but then remembered he had set wards in his storeroom that would notify him if anyone tried to steal from him, and most people couldn’t just buy all the necessary ingredients for polyjuice potion so it was extremely unlikely for someone to be impersonating the Potter boy currently.
As the Hall began to fill up, Severus was nursing his third cup of coffee. Since he got to breakfast early, he normally would file out quickly after he finished his first cup, but his curiosity regarding Potter got the better of him and he poured himself a second and third cup as he kept his eyes on the boy. Eventually more of Potter’s House-mates flocked to the Gryffindor table and his year-mates began sitting around them. He noticed that Potter looked up from his book to hold up a hand and smile at his friends, but immediately ducked his head to continue reading his book. “Now that was odd,” Severus thought.
Weasley and Granger sat around Potter and mostly chatted to each other, but when Thomas and Longbottom attempted to start conversation with Potter a few times Potter would just look up at them, shrug or shake his head, then point back to his book and continue reading. After being forced to look up from his book a half-dozen times, Severus saw the boy roll his head up to the ceiling in annoyance before grabbing his bookbag and waving to his friends with a tense smile as he left.
*****