"Potter, Harry"

The short raven haired boy froze in shock as his name was called out next. All eyes in the Grand hall immediately fell to him, and the quaking Arctic Fox at his feet.

The hushed chatter was instantaneous. The older children seated at the four long tables began talking quietly amongst themselves, whilst the first years Harry had been grouped with took to conversing with their own animal-shaped companions. It didn't take a genius to guess their topic of conversation.

He glanced over to the table on the far left of the hall, where he saw the boy from the train- Ron. The red head flashed him a smile and gave a thumbs up for good measure. The hazel coloured rabbit in his lap flopped her ears over at them, and twitched her nose encouragingly.

Harry smiled appreciatively back, before blinking nervously up at the lady who had called his name. Professor McGonagall, Deputy Headmistress and Head-house of Gryffindor, looked back at him expectantly. She cast her eyes over to the stool sitting in the middle of the room, silently inviting him to take a seat. At her feet, a tabby cat sat proudly, watching him with a half-lidded gaze.

Harry felt movement against his legs and stared down at his own feet. The Arctic fox still sat dutifully between his shoes, watching the stern looking tabby cat with unease. The animal- nay, his Daemon, as that was what they were formerly known as- felt his gaze, and looked up at him, panting nervously.

Harry gave his daemon a weak smile, before turning back to the teacher, the stool, and the worn hat she held in her hands.

The young wizard sensed a swift change between himself and his Daemon- and felt his daemon shudder like disturbed water, before the Arctic fox fell away, replaced just as quickly by the image of a small vampire bat. The bat in question fluttered almost drunkenly up from the floor, wobbling slightly, before landing on the boys shoulder. Its teeny little claws grabbed at Harry's ear for balance.

"We've got this, Harry" he heard the little voice squeak, before feeling his Daemon press closer to his neck, trying to be both encouraging and seek encouragement.

"Right" Harry whispered back, biting the skin of his lip, before taking his place on the stool.

——-

Harry was clapped several times on the back as he was merrily greeted at the Gryffindor table- his new House and family. Every student in reach shook his hand, whilst every daemon fluttered, squatted, and scurried playfully beside his own.

Ron pulled him down into his seat and excitedly introducing him to everyone in earshot. Ron's Daemon, Delila, still a rabbit, was prodding her nose playfully at Harry's daemon- who seemed to glow from the affectionate interaction. Ron's ears turned a slight pink, before he quickly diverted Harry's attention away from the two animals.

"Harry, these are my brothers Fred and George" Ron said, pointing to the other two read-headed boys opposite them on the table, who flashed him a double-set of toothy grins.

"I'm Fred" the first boy said, as a blue hummingbird hovered by his right ear. "This is shae" he said, pointing to his daemon, who then shifted into a dusty coloured ferret.

"Hi" a small female voice emanated from the animal, before scurrying across the table to tackle George's daemon, who suddenly shifted into a ferret aswell. Harry watched the daemons engage in their play, before glancing over to the second twin- "then you must be George"

"He's good at this, Fred" George joked, before giving a small smile to the spectacled boy- "That's right. And that there is Pepper" he said, nodding to his daemon, who giggled a swift greeting amidst the wrestling game with her twin-daemon.

Harry marvelled at the interaction. He felt Samson quiver in his arms, obviously still struggling with seeing so many daemons in one place at a time.

The muggle world didn't have daemons- So Harry and Samson hadn't many meetings with people like them. It was both exhilarating and overwhelming.

Harry sensed the twins' eyes on his daemon, who shuffled about in his lap- changing into an otter, and snuggling further into his humans almost defensive embrace.

"This is Samson, but I call him 'Sam' for short" Harry said eventually, introducing his own daemon to the table, though he felt slightly weary of doing so. It hadn't taken him long to notice that unlike the other children's daemons, Sam wasn't the opposite sex as Harry.

"He's male?" A bushy-haired girl a few seats down from his asked in surprise. The silver furred cat-daemon cuddled up in her arms tilted his head to the side, also equally curious.

"Is that bad?" Harry asked back, his bottom lip almost bleeding now from anxiously chewing on it all evening. He genuinely didn't know. In fact, he didn't really know all that much about daemons. That was until Hagrid and his large dog-daemon, Fang, had come swooping in to whisk he and Sam away to the wizarding world. That had been the first time he'd seen another person with a daemon- another individual whose soul didn't reside in their body, but instead walked beside them.

It had also been the first time he and Samson hadn't questioned their abnormality. Or "freakishness" as the Dursley's had liked to call it. Or rather, how they had liked to call ‘them’.

Fred was quick to intervene. "Not at all" he said, before frowning a little in thought, “I mean, it's a bit rare-"

"-As not many people have same-sex daemons" George added.

"-but it's not bad at all. Just more unique- and very cool" Fred finished, and both boys gave him another smile.

"Oh" Harry said, absently brushing a hand across Samson's head, who preened at the contact. Harry, in turn, preened at the compliment about his little daemon. "Cool" he echoed quietly.

"Fascinating" The bushy haired girl said in awe, stroking the soft fur of her own daemon.

Harry blushed and looked down to his lap.

The sharp ringing of a fork against a wine glass sounded from the front of the hall, before Professor Dumbledore’s voice followed;

"Let the feast begin!"

Mountains of food filled previously empty plates.

Harry was really beginning to love magic.

———

"Percy?" Harry asked another one of Ron's older brothers, making sure to swallow the mashed potato in his mouth before he spoke.

Percy looked up at him in question, chewing softly on a piece of chicken.

"Who's the man sitting next to professor Quirrell?"

He'd noticed the dark-robed man watching him earlier on in the evening, but had refused to meet his eye. However, Samson had whispered up at him that the man had been watching him again several times in the last half hour, and couldn't contain his curiosity any longer.

Percy followed his gaze, before frowning. "Oh" he said, almost sourly, "that's Professor Snape, the Potions master"

Olla, Percy's Robin daemon- whom Harry learned, had now permanently settled in her chosen form- tweeted lowly into Harry's ear.

"But everyone knows it's the defence position he's after" she said, "he's been pestering Dumbledore for years, but the headmaster won't give in to him”

"Why's that?" Harry asked, not looking away from the man, who was chatting with Quirrel- though he looked like he'd rather being doing anything but.

"Harry" he heard Samson murmur warningly, his young, boyish voice cracking in fright. "The daemon"

Harry cast his eyes downward, below the head table, where he saw a great black panther sitting gracefully at the Professors feet. Large amber eyes stared back at him, fierce and unwavering.

Harry gasped, and tore his own eyes away.

“Better be careful in his classes, Harry” Percy said, before shoving a piece of sausage into his mouth. “He doesn’t like Gryffindor house very much and jumps at any opportunity to deduct points”

Olla nodded her little brown head, “don’t get in his way” she warned, before absently picking small pieces of lint from Percy’s robes. The boy thanked her wordlessly by smoothing her feathers down for her.

Harry looked down at Samson who jittered slightly at the advice, and shifted into a turtle, before quickly shifting again into a yellow eyed lemur. They both exchanging worried looks;

“I’ll try my best” was all he said.