Lily began with high spirits, wanting eagerly to know which classes her son would excel in.

The next day, whispers seemed to follow Harry everywhere.

Her spirits went down at once, of course the student body would gock at him, like some perverse form of a celebrity. None of the others looked the least bit happy about this either, but Lily hoped dearly that this wouldn't last long, so she pressed on.

It started the moment Harry left his dormitory and kept up all through the hallways, which was very distracting as Harry's classes weren't very easy to find.

James frowned, feeling his spirits flag a bit as he realized he'd never be able to talk to Harry about the map they'd let Filch 'catch' them with on the last day of term. Harry wouldn't be able to adopt his birth right.

Sirius and Remus were both thinking the same thing, though Sirius tried to console himself that, with any luck, some other pranksters had worked out how to get a hold of it, and were putting it to use.

There were a hundred and forty-two staircases at Hogwarts,

"Why do you know that?" Remus laughed, "I've never even sat down and counted them."

"I heard Hermione say that in the common room that morning," Harry told him. "I'm sure she learned about it in that book Hogwarts a History."

"I'll agree with you on that one," Sirius said cheerfully.

all having something unique or magically odd about them, as well as the walls, and even the paintings in every corridor of this school.

"Gotta love a castle with a personality," James said with reminisce, it still felt like only yesterday he and his friends had been roaming those halls, learning every secret they could.

It didn't help him to memorize where anything was either, as the portraits constantly wandered around as much as the students, and Harry was sure the suits of armor could walk.

"They can," Remus chuckled, "and they love messing with the students as much as anything else in that castle with a mind."

Harry looked slightly disgruntled at this, but even Lily was smiling and saying, "It's all part of the experience. You need to learn at a young age that magic is complex in all aspects, and nothing is as it seems."

"Way to put a philosophy spin on messing with a kids mind," Sirius laughed.

Peeves was the worst of all, as he clearly went out of his way to torment the whole of the student population.

"He's a lovely chap really," James said through bursts of laughter, not being able to count how many times he'd been pulled over by Peeves in his first year.

Even worse than Peeves, if that was possible, was the caretaker, Argus Filch.

"Now he is worse," Sirius agreed, "at least Peeves has a sense of humor. That old fart wouldn't know a joke if it bit him in the arse."

"You're just bitter of all the times he caught you," Lily said primly.

"Oh, like you don't hold a grudge for that time in first year when you used the wrong spell and made that bottle of ink explode all over his cat," Remus said slyly.

Lily's face went bright red, and she began stammering a bit, but it was nothing compared to James, who went bug eyed as he spluttered, "you told us you did that!"

"Yes well, I took pity on her when I came across Filch yelling like that, so I told him I did it," Remus told them, still smiling.

Sirius and James looked like they couldn't decide if they were hurt, or pleased at this deception for so long.

"Why didn't you ever tell us?" James demanded.

"Yes, that was the entire reason we invited you out that night," Sirius seconded.

"Couldn't rat out such a pretty girl then," Remus said, smiling indulgently at them all.

"Oh, but you can now?" Lily demanded, her face completely red from all of this.

"Well it's for Harry's benefit after all," he admitted, eyes gleaming as he meet his cubs.

Harry was laughing so hard he feared he'd crack a rib soon, while James and Sirius finally decided to cave in and acknowledged that they to, were impressed with this.

Lily was withholding judgement on whether she was going to forgive him, though the chances were high since they were long out of school now and no one could really do anything about it.

"I really do have to wonder why he's even there though," Sirius butted in. "The house elves do a far better job at keeping the castle clean, he only does it when something needs to be taken care of right then in the middle of the day, do we really need someone whose sole purpose is to catch students doing bad things?"

"Considering you lot, and those Weasley twins exist, yes," Lily pointed out.

Harry and Ron managed to get on the wrong side of him on their first morning.

"So straight out of your mother, and Uncle Remus," James laughed.

"Yes well, we weren't much better," Sirius argued at once, "since we did wait until our second day to do it on purpose."

"Got to test your boundaries early," James agreed.

Filch found them trying to force their way through a door that turned out to be the entrance to the out-of-bounds corridor on the third floor.

Lily winced at the mention of this again, while the other three were more privately thinking that if Filch had come across them, it wouldn't have been an accident they were trying to get in.

He wouldn't believe they were lost, was sure they were trying to break into it on purpose,

Lily spoke aloud what they had just been thinking, "yes well, with James as his father, I don't really blame him for assuming that."

"Poor old chap was probably having a flashback," Remus agreed.

and was threatening them when Professor Quirrell came by and managed to rescue them.

Harry couldn't help a puzzled little frown, like something about Quirrell being near that door should mean something to him...

Filch owned a cat who was just as bad, named Mrs. Norris. Break one tiny rule in front of her, and she'd go in search of her master, who appeared seconds later.

"I swear that cat is part knezel," Sirius grumbled, "too damned smart for its own good."

There were many secret passages to help you get all around the castle, and Filch knew every one of them about as well as the Weasley twins. Every student in the castle hated Filch, and would love to give his cat a good kick.

"And you can't blame them one bit," James said with chipper.

Then of course once you found the classes you were looking for, they were hardly as easy as waving your wand around and saying a funny word.

"But the challenge makes it all the more fun," Lily said with pleasure.

On Wednesdays at midnight they had Astronomy with Professor Aurora Sinistra, where they studied the night skies stars and planets movements.

"Never saw the point in that class," Sirius huffed, "I think it should be optional to third years, and that's it."

"Oh no," Lily said at once, "It's very important that you get a rounded education, and learning how-"

"Lily," James said again, "we discussed this, pertinent information."

Lily narrowed her eyes at him and said, "you just wait, I'm going to remind you of that later."

Three times a week they had Herbology, where they learned to take care of all manner of magical plant life, taught by Professor Pomona Sprout, head of Hufflepuff house.

"That class hated me," Sirius said at once.

"No Sirius," James said slowly, as if talking to an idiotic child, "you hated that class. Don't blame the plants."

"The plants sure hated me," Sirius grumbled, bouncing the baby around a bit to make himself feel better. When he began letting out high pitched giggling, it worked at once.

The worst class of the lot was History of Magic, taught by a ghost.

Lily sighed, "I have to agree with you on that one," she said sadly, "I've read the text of course, and I think it's fascinating, but Binns has to be the worst teacher there is."

"I'll give you that" Remus agreed, feeling bored at the mere mention of that class. He would be the first to admit he had used that class as an extra nap period, "give that class a better teacher, and it could be one of the best."

"How do you fire a ghost though?" Sirius asked.

"Pretty sure no one can answer that, which is why no one's done anything about it," James laughed.

Older students tell of how Professor Cuthbert Binns had taken a nap by the fire one day, and woken up dead. He chose to remain as a ghost and had continued teaching. Easily the most interesting thing was the way he passed through his chalk board, then bored them all stupid as he droned on like a vacuum reading strictly from old notes.

Professor Filius Flitwick, head of Ravenclaw House, was the Charms teacher, who was human with goblin ancestors, had to stand on a pile of books to see over his desk. On his first day of class he called out roll, and toppled out of sight in excitement when he saw Harry's name.

All four adults huffed at that, wishing that at least the teachers would show a little decorum.

Professor Minerva McGonagall was again different.

"Why wouldn't she be?" Sirius laughed. "Did you expect all your teachers to be exactly the same?"

Harry quickly explained, "well, in primary school, we had one teacher that taught us everything. I wasn't used to having different teachers at the same time."

"Fascinating," Remus said, "but that must have been hard on them. My dad didn't send me to primary school, for ah, obvious reasons," he explained sheepishly.

"No," Harry said frowning. "What are the obvious reasons?"

Lily clasped Harry's hand tightly and said, "it's a bit hard to explain dear, but for now all you need to know is that Remus' dad tried to keep him away from other people."

"But why though?" Harry said, getting more confused by the minute.

"Prejudice against something they didn't understand," James answered when it seemed Remus didn't want to, "they thought werewolves were a danger to them all the time."

"But they're not," Harry said in a 'duh' like tone, this was obvious to him after all, why would other people not see it.

"Let's, carry on shall we," Remus said, getting more uncomfortable by the minute, "leave this one for later."

Harry still looked confused, but let the matter slide for now.

The others, especially Remus, felt both happy that Harry was still innocent enough to not understand prejudices, and equally unwilling to introduce them to him themselves.

Harry had clearly been right in thinking he shouldn't cross this woman. She was a strict, no nonsense kind of woman in class, instructing them that Transfiguration was one of the most difficult subjects they would learn, and then turned her desk into a pig and back again.

"Show off," Remus chuckled a bit forcefully, trying to brighten the mood back to what it was.

They weren't going to be changing the furniture into animals for quite some time though.

She set them all the task of turning a match into a needle, and Hermione was the only one to achieve this by the end of the first class, to which she received a smile and praise from the teacher.

"Really, are we sure she wasn't in Ravenclaw?" Sirius demanded, quite impressed himself.

"I don't think Harry's that senile, or that she's that lost," James said.

The class Harry had most been looking forward to turned out to be a bit of a joke. The Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Professor Quirinus Quirrell, sadly wasn't any more impressive in the class then he'd been out of it.

"I feared as much," Remus said with a wince.

"A real pity that, since it's one of your most important classes for learning offensive spells," James agreed.

Lily couldn't argue that logic, though she didn't approve what this lot had done with those offensive spells recreationally.

His classroom smelled of garlic, which everyone said was to ward off a vampire.

"Okay, that one's fair enough," Remus chuckled for real this time.

The turban he now wore, he told the class, was a thank you gift for getting rid of some zombies, but this story seemed rather fickle, when asked for details Quirrell tried to distract them with the weather.

"I can see why they're a bit skeptical then," James laughed.

"Can't even lie properly, or spin a good tale," Sirius said sadly.

Not to mention that Quirrell seemed to carry a funny smell with him everywhere, and the Weasley twins insisted that was because he carried garlic with him everywhere.

"I wouldn't put it past him," Remus said.

Harry couldn't help frowning, his automatic reaction to be to correct Remus and say something else was going on there, but he knew he'd pay for it and held his tongue.

Harry did realize though that he wasn't behind the other students in these classes.

"We tried to tell you that," Lily said.

"Oh I know now," Harry said quickly, still frowning a bit and knowing he was missing something to do with Quirrell and that turbine, but happy to change the subject and take his mind off of it.

Several of the students had come from Muggle backgrounds. There was so much to learn that even students like Ron didn't even get a head start. It took five days for Harry and Ron to make it down to the Great Hall without getting lost.

"It took you five days?" James said with honest disappointment, "Sirius and I managed that by the first morning."

"Yes well, to be fair, we kind of snuck out that very night and made sure we could do as much," Sirius said fairly.

Harry asks Ron what classes they have that day, and Ron tells him Double Potions with the Slytherins.

All four felt a spike in their emotions at that.

Professor Severus Snape was head of Slytherin house, and Ron told Harry how he favored his own house over others.

"Well he shouldn't," Lily said at once.

"Wouldn't surprise me if he did," James muttered to himself.

"Wish McGonagall favored us," Sirius said sadly, having been told off by her probably more than any other teacher.

Harry muttered how he wished McGonagall would favor them more.

Sirius blinked for a moment before bursting into laughter at that.

Being the head of her house had not stopped her from giving them a load of homework the previous day.

"And it never will," Remus said brightly.

"I swear sometimes you enjoyed your homework," James groaned.

Then the mail began arriving, by owls. Several hundred of the birds came streaming in to drop letters and packages to their destination person.

"A much better wakeup call then being yelled at," Harry said, smiling to himself, "if a bit more alarming."

Hedwig hadn't brought Harry anything so far.

The four adults wondered if the aching feeling of loss would ever go away at this constant

reminder that none of them had been able to write to him, to demand all sorts of details on how his week had gone. Who would Harry turn to for help if any problems arose at school? His friend was the same year as him, so he wasn't going to be able to help with everything?

She occasionally flew in to nibble on his ear and nip a bit of his breakfast before flying off to the owlery where she would sleep. This morning though, she fluttered in with a note in her beak.

They all perked up instantly at that.

Harry opened it at once, finding a note from Hagrid asking if Harry would like to come around his place that afternoon, and to send a reply back with Hedwig.

"Oh Hagrid," Lily said, almost tearing up with joy, "I'll never be able to thank that man enough."

The others couldn't help but agree with her, thinking that if they couldn't be there for Harry, at least someone still was for the little things like this.

Harry sent back that he'd be delighted to, and Hedwig flew off again.

"Why did Hagrid send him that in a note though?" James asked, "Surely he might have bumped into Hagrid on the grounds?"

Lily shook her head a bit before saying, "James, has it even mentioned that Harry's been traveling the grounds yet? I'm sure he's been staying inside and studying. It's his first week after all, it's still all new."

Harry verbally agreed with his mother.

Harry was happy he had something pleasant like a visit to Hagrid's to look forward to, because his Potions lesson turned out to the worst thing to happened to him yet.

"I knew it," Sirius snarled, looking like he wanted to get to his feet all over again and go curse that little slime ball.

Lily looked crushed, still not really wanting to believe her old school friend would turn on a child, so she said nothing until she read what actually happened.

James was beginning to feel the first visages of guilt at all of his actions he'd done to Snape, now knowing how Lily had felt when she said she felt guilty for the way Petunia treated her son.

Whether intentionally or not, they both felt responsible for the way these people, secondary in their own life, figured directly into their son's life.

Harry had gotten the feeling that Professor Snape hadn't liked him from just a look. At the end of the class he realized he'd been wrong.

"Oh," Lily said, brightening up for a moment, perhaps it was a student that had made this potion class so bad, but then without even looking at the boys, she kept reading, and her feelings sunk far lower than before. Almost as much as when she'd found out her son had been sleeping in a cupboard.

Snape didn't dislike Harry - he hated him.

Pursing her lips, and fighting back tears, she had to wonder did everyone she used to love as a child hate her son now?

Harry looked very upset as well, more so that his mother looked so close to bursting into tears, but Lily gave none of those boys a chance to say anything, as she quickly read on.

The Potions classes took place in the dungeons, where the walls were lined with creepy pickled animals. Like Flitwick, Snape decided to do a roll call on the first class, and also made a remark upon finding Harry's name, in this case, referring to him as a celebrity.

James gritted his teeth, and both Sirius and Remus felt themselves go a bit flushed with anger at the way this was starting already.

Draco Malfoy began sniggering loudly, to which Snape took no notice. Harry couldn't help but notice Snape's eyes were black, like Hagrid's, but reminded him more of dark tunnels.

"Spot on comparison," Sirius hissed, Lily ignored him.

He then gave them a small lecture on what to expect, speaking in barely above a whisper, but managing to keep their every attention.

"I'm surprised really," James grumbled under his breath, "since everyone had a natural talent for ignoring him during classes."

Telling them there wasn't much wand waving in this class, but how useful potions could be,

"He sure thinks highly of his job," Sirius snapped.

Lily snapped as well, having quite enough, "Alright you two, you hate him. I know that. But I am not going to sit here and listen to you complain about every little thing he says."

Both boys went a bit wide eyed at the veracity, not knowing that she was channeling her own anger outwards. When her eyes swiveled onto Remus, possibly expecting him to join his friends, or maybe hoping for an ally against them, Remus simply threw his hands up in surrender and said, "I've several issues with Severus, but I'm not going to sit around and berate him."

"No, but you'll sit by and watch your friends do it," she practically hissed, all those old feelings coming back up to the surface again.

"Hey!" All three began at once, but Harry had finally had enough. "Stop it!"

They did indeed all freeze and turn to him. Harry had shouted so loudly though that baby Harry began crying in shock and fear. Sirius calmed him down quickly enough, and then Harry went on in more mellow tones, "Stop it, please. I can't stand watching you all fight like this."

Lily and James in particular looked remorseful, but Sirius still looked ready for a fight, and said, "Yes well, I guess there are some things we all still need to get off of our chests."

"Why are you even fighting though?" Harry demanded. "What on earth am I missing?"

All four fidgeted slightly, suddenly realizing they hadn't really mentioned there old school rival/friend.

Finally, it was Lily that sighed and said, "How about we explain after this chapter dear? It is a bit involved."

Harry still looked annoyed, but agreed anyways. His parents had kept their word about these things so far.

and finishing with how he could teach them great things, if they weren't the usual idiots he had to teach.

Remus couldn't help the snort that escaped him, oh that was a lovely teaching method, insult your students.

Snape then turned his attention back on Harry and asked him what he would get if you mixed powdered root of asphodel and an infusion of wormwood.

"The Drought of Living Death," Lily said at once, her eyes narrowing with distaste, that was a sixth year potion after all. "Why on earth would any of them know that?"

Harry's mind was a complete blank, he'd never heard of those, and judging by Ron's face, neither had he. Hermione's hand shot straight into the air.

"I don't believe it," James gaped, "there's no way she actually knows that!"

"Perhaps she was going to cite something from One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi," Sirius offered, not believing that even this bright little first year could know that.

Harry admits he doesn't know, and Snape sneers at him, saying how fame clearly wasn't everything.

"He did not," James snarled, wanting to reach out and take the book to confirm that this bully was really picking on a child now, for something as awful as his parents death!

"Why that," both Remus and Sirius began at once, but Lily quickly looked round at them, her face flushed with anger herself, but saying, "I meant it you three. I will not sit here and listen to you go badgering on about him every time he says something. Yes-" she quickly added on when James looked ready to fight back, "-he shouldn't have said that, it was wrong. Yet I won't hear it."

All three slumped back in real agitation now, really not wanting to see how far Snivellus was going to push little Harry's buttons.

He ignored Hermione's hand and instead asked Harry another question, where would you find a bezoar?

"In the stomach of a goat," she said to herself, that at least was a first year question, though why he was still picking on her boy, made her furious. However, as the one most wronged by him, she still felt she was the one who should be complaining, and she was holding it together. They should be able to as well.

Hermione was now waving her hand frantically, and Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle were all shaking with laughter. Harry again admitted how he didn't know the answer, adding on sir at the end.

"And he's still being polite and everything," Sirius grumbled to himself.

Snape cracks that Harry should have opened a textbook before coming to class.

"Really now," Remus snarled, "that's just being childish," though he said it quietly enough he didn't think Lily heard him.

Harry had looked through all of his books, but did Snape really expect him to memorize everything in his text One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi? Snape was still ignoring Hermione, the only person with her hand raised, and instead asked Harry what's the difference between monkshood and wolfsbane?

"There the same plant, really now Severus, if he doesn't know by now move on!" Lily said in outrage, yes having heard all of the boys previous mutters, but finally losing her own patience.

"Lily, are you going to answer all of these questions?" James asked.

"It distracts me!" she snapped, temper flaring.

"Alright then, you do that," he said at once, tossing his hands up in surrender.

Now Hermione took to her feet and was waving her hand frantically, clearly determined to show she knew the answer.

Remus wanted to laugh at this, she clearly wanted to prove herself, but he just couldn't bring himself to do it, still to angered at Snape's actions.

Harry again says he doesn't know the answer, then points out how Hermione clearly does, and he should give her a shot.

"Thank you Harry," James said, releasing a breath, "I was starting to get worried you'd let him do that to you all class."

Harry shook his head, having had more than enough bullying from the family he lived with to last a lifetime, he really wasn't going to let a teacher start on him now.

Snape was not pleased. He snapped at Hermione to sit down, then informed the class of the proper answer to all of those questions, then demanded to know why they weren't all writing that information down.

Lily's hands tensed over the book so hard she feared she might rip it. Still, that didn't lessen her anger any. Really, now who was acting like a child? Taking an old grudge out on her baby.

While the students went to work on that, Snape called out how Gryffindor had lost a point, for Harry's cheek.

James groaned and planted his face in his hands, knowing full well that this was just the beginning in a long line of times he was going to hate his eleven year old self.

Things only got worse from there, as he set them up making a potion to cure boils. He went stalking around, insulting everyone's work except Malfoy's, whom he seemed to favor.

"His dad's an old Death Eater buddy I'm sure," Sirius whispered into baby Harry's ear, making very sure Lily didn't hear that one.

Then Neville's potion began to boil over, sweeping across the whole floor and burning holes in people's shoes.

"Now that's a real accomplishment," Remus chuckled, "I didn't manage to melt a cauldron until my second potions lesson."

"And you then melted one every other class after that," Sirius laughed.

"Don't exaggerate Sirius," James said, a teasing smile curling his lips, "it was only once a month I'm sure."

"Oh haha, very funny," he grumbled, his friends would never let him live that down.

Neville had gotten a full blast of it in the face, and was moaning in pain as boils sprang up all over his exposed skin.

"The poor thing," Lily crooned.

Snape called him an idiot,

"That arse!" She screamed.

All four boys jumped, looking as startled as the baby. Lily quickly set the book aside, then went over and scooped the baby away from Sirius, more to calm her own nerves down then anything.

Only after her son was properly happy again did she give him back and march back over and pick up the book, intending to pick up where she left off, but James bravely said, "Ah, Lily flower, would you like to vent a bit?"

"No," she said through gritted teeth, then read in the same way.

and predicted that Neville had added porcupine quills before taking the cauldron off the fire.

"A genuine mistake," Remus muttered, rubbing a spot on his arm in pained remembrance.

Neville just whimpered as an answer, and Snape instructed Seamus to take him up to the hospital wing, then he turned his attention on Harry, and demanded to know why Harry didn't stop that mistake.

"Why should he," James cut in his, his eyes burning, "it's not his job to watch, it's yours."

Lily sucked in a deep breath, but finally started to read again in an almost normal tone, only for her words to spike in anger as she kept going.

He accused him of not doing because it would make himself look better, before taking another point off of Gryffindor.

"Oh bloody hell!" she and Sirius cried at the same time.

"This is, I really can't believe," Lily stuttered, to angry for words any more. Sirius sure wasn't, as he continued to verbally abuse Snape, calling him several things he'd never even thought to do back in school.

Even James and Remus looked like they were going to explode at any given moment, each only being able to hold themselves back at a bit of personal guilt, but it was quickly waning.

Harry just looked around at all of them, hurt and confused as to what had his family so upset.

When he gently touched his mum on the shoulders, she came out of her rage a bit, enough to go on anyways.

Harry was finally about to lose his temper, and opened his mouth to argue, before Ron kicked him.

"Probably for the best," Remus sighed, "don't give him a real excuse to go after you."

"He obviously doesn't need one," James growled.

Ron quietly warned Harry that was a bad idea, they didn't want to see what worse thing Snape might do. When they were finally climbing back up the stairs after class,

"Thank you," Lily breathed, knowing full well she couldn't have handled another paragraph of that.

Harry's feelings were as low as they could get. He'd lost two points for Gryffindor in his first week

All three boys then snorted, genuinely amused this was what had Harry's spirits down.

"Please," James sighed, "I lost ten in my first ever class by asking Slughorn if his moustache was hiding tusks."

Harry blinked, very confused by this, but it made Lily laugh again and say, "Oh yes, I remember that. Slughorn always did like cheek, but never, it seemed, from you."

"It might have had something to do with the fact that James resented his little Slug Club initiation," Sirius said wisely, "as James really didn't want to be invited to another, he made a bit of an arse of himself."

"And it just got worse as time went on," Remus laughed.

and wondered why Snape hated him so much.

"That's my fault, I'm afraid," James said with a grimace.

"Our fault," Sirius butted in at once, "you were hardly ever alone after all."

"We couldn't very well let you after a point," Remus agreed, "or you likely would have been ambushed."

"I can't decide if that was really sweet, or just sad at how many enemies you lot made," Lily said, frowning at them.

"Go with sweet," Sirius said in what he clearly thought was a charming tone of voice, "it makes us look better."

Harry felt like he was finally understanding the underlying problem here, but still wanted to hear this story first hand. Ignoring that awful feeling that, yet again, he should know the answer anyways.

Ron tried to cheer him up by pointing out that his elder brothers lost points for the house all the time, then asked if he could come meet Hagrid with Harry. Harry agreed and the two boys went out onto the grounds of the school, easily coming across Hagrid's cabin on the edge of the Forbidden Forest. When they knocked, they heard deep booming barks from inside, and Hagrid's voice instructing what must be a dog named Fang to get back.

"Oh, did Hagrid get a new dog?" Sirius asked brightly.

"I guess, time wise, poor Claw would have died," James said sadly.

"I'm sure this one is just as vicious," Remus said, chuckling.

Hagrid got the door open, and a black boarhound was straining at his collar.

Lily was pursing her lips, knowing full well the boys were joking about the vicious thing, but still feeling rather worried that Hagrid had to hold the dog back.

When Hagrid did let him go, he lunged forward and began slobbering all over the boys in greeting.

Now they were all laughing at this, Lily relaxing at once as she realized Fang was just a little puppy at heart.

"Better than Claw then," Sirius laughed, "he just loved sticking his nose up our-"

"Okay Sirius," James said quickly, "we know, I promise, we remember."

Harry introduced Ron while Hagrid made them a cup of tea and put some rock cakes on a plate.

"Rock cakes?" Lily asked in confusion.

The others shrugged, sure they knew Hagrid in passing and liked him well enough, they travelled the grounds so much that they had struck up a few conversations and gotten to know his previous dog, but never well enough to be invited over.

Hagrid took one look at Ron's hair and laughed about another Weasley on school grounds, then told them how he spent half his life chasing the twins away from the forest. The rock cakes Hagrid served were shapeless and the raisins in them were so hard Harry nearly broke a tooth over one.

"Oh I see," Lily said, unable to help laughing a bit, "Hagrid must not be a very good cook."

But Harry and Ron enjoyed the rest of their time there as they talked about all of their classes. Both boys laughed when Hagrid referred to Filch as an old git.

"Now I wonder where he could have heard that," James said with high exaggeration as he eyed

Sirius, who smiled unabashedly.

He even expressed his desire to sick Fang on Mrs. Norris, since she always followed him around when he went up to the school.

"Now that's just rude," Lily said, frowning.

"Hagrid clearly doesn't know that a good way to get a cat to stop following you is to bark at it a few times," Sirius said wisely.

"I highly doubt anybody but you four would know that," Lily said right back.

Harry mentioned Snape's class to Hagrid, and again voiced the question of why Snape hated him so much, but Hagrid denied it, asking why would he?

"Oh, he knows exactly why," Remus said, frowning a bit.

"Though I can't blame him for not telling," James said sadly, "I guess Hagrid doesn't want you to start out hating one of your teachers."

"But you are still going to tell me yourselves right?" Harry persisted.

Still not looking happy about it, James promised he would try.

Yet Hagrid was about as good as Quirrell at evading the subject, as he quickly changed topics to Ron's older brother Charlie.

"And as subtle as ever," Sirius chuckled.

Harry suspected Hagrid had changed the subject on purpose

"Cotton on to that have you?" James said weakly.

but instead turned his attention to an edition of the Daily Prophet Hagrid had lying around, which was still talking about the break in at Gringotts, which had the date of July 31st on it.

"Really?" They all said at once, taking note now that this had happened on Harry's birthday, the day he was at Gringotts. All four frowned now, very glad Hagrid had been with him. If it really had been Dark wizards, then they would have liked nothing more than to get their hands on Harry.

Still, they managed to comfort themselves by thinking this must have happened much later, after Harry had long since left Diagon Alley, so none of them said anything more of it.

Harry exclaims to Hagrid that this had happened on his birthday, that this could have happened while they were there!

"Oh please don't say that," Lily said looking almost faint at the idea.

Hagrid definitely wouldn't meet Harry's eyes this time.

"So he knows?" James yelped in shock.

"It was the package he took out?" Sirius said, looking wide eyed.

"What on earth did Dumbledore have him pick up?" Remus demanded.

Lily bit her lip hard to stop herself from blurting out the next question, 'why was it suddenly that a door was being bared off that same year?' No, it couldn't be possible Dumbledore would hide something that Dark wizards wanted in a school full of children. That was dangerous beyond anything else there.

Instead, she pressed on quickly, hoping Hagrid would once again make a stab at changing the subject.

Harry on the other hand looked like he was going to be sick, the constant feeling of pain building up in his head getting worse with all these questions he should have been able to answer, and quickly zoned in on the sound of his mother's voice as a distraction.

Harry couldn't help but wonder if this had something to do with that little package Hagrid had picked up.

"It stands to reason, or just a really, really big fat coincidence," Remus muttered, mostly to himself.

When they did leave Hagrid's to go back up to the castle for dinner, Harry was now loaded down with questions about this, and rock cakes Hagrid had offered that they'd been too polite to refuse. Had Hagrid taken that package out just in time before the thieves stole it? Where was the package now? Did Hagrid know something about Snape that he didn't want to tell Harry?

"Most likely, I have a bad feeling I know the answer to that, and yes," Lily said wisely.

"What did you do with the rock cakes?" James asked loudly, really not wanting to think of Dark wizards bursting through the Hogwarts gates in search of this artifact that all this implied was now hanging around his son's school.

Harry gave himself a firm shake and said, "err, Ron and I left them by the fireplace, let them melt a bit and get all gooey again. Then we really did eat them, and they weren't bad then."