When the last first-year was sorted – Zeller, Rose, into Hufflepuff – Dumbledore stood and spoke briefly.

“To our newcomers,” Dumbledore announced, beaming, “welcome! To our old hands – welcome back! There is a time for speech making, but this is not it. Tuck in!” Dumbledore sat down, and Tobias turned his attention to the food that showed up in front of them on the table. To his surprise, Zuka returned with a tray, and handed him a bowl of porridge for Mo, and a plate of raw, seasoned meatballs and vegetables for him.

“Thanks, Zuka!” he said. “That's very helpful.”

Zuka beamed, blushing, and bowed low. “Zuka is happy to serve, Master Fae, sir!”

Tobias grinned. “It's Tobias,” he said, “and thanks again.”

She bowed once more, and disappeared.

“Excuse me for asking,” the sharp-faced Esmeralda Leguin said, “but why did she bring you special food?”

I am People. Fae. He really didn't want people thinking of him as some sort of screwed-up human. “Humans are much more likely to eat their food cooked than the fae,” Tobias answered bluntly, purposely putting distance between 'the fae' and 'humans.'

“That's raw?” another girl exclaimed.

Tobias sighed. This again. “Yes. And before you all freak out, in about fifteen minutes I'm going to cut my wrist in order to feed Mo. My kind don't drink milk.”

“Umm...okay,” the girl said, sounding mildly affronted.

“Sorry,” Tobias sighed. “I'm just tired, and everybody who so much as looks at me has to stare. I understand, and I don't mind questions, but I do get tired of feeling like everything I do is weird.”

“Don't mind her,” Esmeralda said, giving the other girl a glare. “She's just being rude.”

The other girl tossed her head in mock-arrogance. “I was not being rude, 'Ralda, I was being righteously offended.”

“Yeah, which is frequently synonymous with rude,” Esmeralda told her friend.

“Well that's not how I meant it,” the friend answered, tossing her hair saucily before turning to Harry with a contrite smile. “Sorry,” she said. “I'm Jody.”

“Tobias Bâtard,” Tobias said shortly, “and I really don't mind. Everybody's either rude or scared. Trust me, I prefer rude.”

Gabriel gave a low whistle. “That blows, man.”

“Yeah, it does,” Tobias answered, softening the bluntness with a smile. Go Hufflepuff.

When the meal ended, Dumbledore stood up and made the usual announcements, including introducing a new professor, Delores Umbridge.

“She looks like a toad,” Esmeralda whispered. Jody snickered, and Tobias smiled. She really kind of did.

As Dumbledore moved on to talk about the house teams, however, he cut off and looked at the new professor, who had stood up to speak. The headmaster got over his confusion quickly, sitting down to listen attentively. The other professors didn't look quite as happy.

“Thank you, Headmaster,” the new professor said unctuously, “for those kind words of welcome.”

Jody gagged loudly, exactly like one of the twins had the day before.

Esmeralda smiled maliciously. “'Kind words of welcome'? Really?”

Gabriel snickered. “I think my ears just developed cavities.”

“Well, it is lovely to be back at Hogwarts, I must say!” Umbridge continued, “And to see such happy little faces looking back at me!”

“Oh. my. God,” Gabriel murmured. “Did she actually just say that?”

“I am very much looking forward to getting to know you all, and I'm sure we'll all be very good friends!”

“Yeah, yeah she did,” Jody answered, sounding resigned. “Oh, I am so looking forward to her class. Defense against the fluffy bunnies.”

“But that's no ordinary rabbit,” Gabriel said, grinning, “that's the most evil, foul tempered rodent you've ever set eyes on!”

“Oh, shove it, Gabe,” Esmeralda told him, punching his arm.

“You're muggle-born,” he said to Gabriel as he recognized the reference.

The whole table stiffened, and Gabriel met his eyes. “Is that a problem?”

“No,” Tobias said, “I just noticed. I am too, of a sort.”

Gabriel relaxed. “Of a sort?”

“Mixed-born, muggle raised,” he answered.

“Ah.”

“I thought blood-status was a human thing?”

“It is,” Tobias said shortly.

A strange, girly little throat-clearing cough saved him from having to continue, bringing their attention back to the new professor as she began speaking in an officious, obviously memorized cadence. Tobias listened with one ear while he slit his wrist on a canine and fed Mo. He caught enough to be vaguely disturbed - something about progress and tradition and pruning. When it was over, Gabriel was frowning.

“Can she do that?”

“Do what?” Esmeralda asked.

“'Perfect what needs perfecting', 'prune what needs pruning'?”

“Sure she can,” Jody answered. “Didn't you hear? She was appointed by the Minister. Probably to do just that.”

“Oh lovely,” said Esmeralda sarcastically. “'Pruning'. Just what we needed. She's like Hell's own kindergarten teacher.”

“I'm excited,” said Jody, turning to Gabriel with obviously-faked enthusiasm, “aren't you excited?”

“Oh, yes,” said Gabriel, batting his eyelashes. “I love bunnies. You think maybe she'll install some lovely topiaries?”

Both girls turned to stare at him. “That was terrifying,” Esmeralda said seriously. “Never do that again.”

“Do what, darling?” He batted his eyelashes again before exclaiming, “Ow! Hey!” as Jody punched him in the arm.

“That.”

Suddenly, the noise in the hall increased as everybody started getting up to leave.

“Oh, oops,” Gabriel said. “I'm supposed to help the first-years find where to go.”

“No,” Jody said pointedly, “you're supposed to show the new students where to go.”

“Yeah,” Gabriel said with exaggerated patience, “and the difference is-?”

“Me,” Tobias answered.

Gabriel blushed and brought up a hand to cover his face. “Aaand I'm an idiot.” He brought the hand down and gave Tobias a look of confusion. “I don't actually know what to do with you, though. I was honestly just told what to do with the first-years. Surely they're not going to put you in the dorm, what with the little one and all?”

“I don't know,” Tobias answered. “Maybe let's just go on up and then see what Sprout says?”

“Sprout?” the boy questioned.

Shit, I'm not supposed to know her! “Yeah, Professor Sprout. Ermm...she's our Head-of-House, right?”

“Yeah, but how'd you know?” Gabriel asked without suspicion.

“Oh, err...the Gryffindor head-of-house – McGonagall – she talked about the four houses before bringing us in to be sorted,” he said, glad to find a not-quite-lie that would explain his knowledge. Whoops.

“Oh, right,” Gabriel said. “Well, come on, then.”

Gabriel gathered up the other new students to leave the hall, while Tobias wet a washcloth to start cleaning Mo up to leave. Fighting to wipe off her hands -she much preferred waving them around or chewing on them to having them washed – he suddenly realized something that he'd been sensing all along, but had ignored. There were a lot of People here. He'd thought the two first-years were a fluke, but apparently Hogwarts – or at least Dumbledore – accepted the People as students on a fairly regular basis, and it was just kept quiet. Either that or Dumbledore didn't know, and the students just hid themselves. They stood out from the crowd, somehow, as if he knew them, was intimately familiar with them and the way their bodies moved. And yet he didn't know them, and he couldn't see that they moved any differently at all. From the ones Tobias could sense, he guessed that there were about one in twenty students. How did nobody notice? Well I didn't, did I? I was human, I assumed they all were too. Even after Lupin had talked about Dumbledore allowing him in, he'd not made the connection. Dumb me. But it wasn't like the students who were People were going to expose each other. Except for me, he suddenly realized. They won't expose each other as People, but I bet somebody will report me to the Court.

He moved on to wiping Mo's face as he continued to think things through.

Could he return to Grimmauld Place, hide out? I thought that's what I was not doing. But if Mo was in danger – but that was the thing, wasn't it? Mo wasn't in danger. Lliannan would never have recommended that Tobias contact the Court for help if Mo was in danger from them. She probably wouldn't have if Tobias was in danger. And again, Mohira was scary, but possibly a perfectly decent guy. At the base of it, Tobias was running because he was scared, not for his life, but for his freedom. But that wouldn't matter, for Mo. At least, it wouldn't until she was significantly older.

Oh, hell, I really don't want to be their Heir. But if the last few weeks had taught him anything it was that once one started running it was nearly impossible to stop. And running wasn't any kind of freedom. He wanted to stay here, to finish his education. What kind of freedom was it, if he couldn't just be himself and make friends, but had to hide constantly who he was? Maybe the Court will let me stay here?

Wait. Let me? They can't make me do shit. The thought made him breathe a sigh of relief. They couldn't force him. Not really. The letters from the queen had proven that. They needed him, badly. They could beg, badger, cajole, and maybe even order, but they couldn't literally drag him. Even the order would probably be too strong - they needed him to be at least somewhat cooperative with them. He was the only Heir they had, and the Second's guardian. They certainly wouldn't want to alienate him any further. He already had a fair amount of power over their relationship, just like that.

Okay, so that's helpful. But how did he preserve that? Great. And already I'm playing politics. But it was important. He didn't want to meet the Queen and Consort for the first time from a position of weakness. And he was losing this chase. How did one lose, and look strong at the same time? By resigning, and pretending the game wasn't all that important in the first place, he realized. By handing myself in, willingly.

Soo...what? I write them back, 'hey there, you 'caught' me, I'm at Hogwarts? He'd just barely gotten to Hogwarts. He hadn't even gotten to his dorm, yet. And just his luck, he'd send them the note today, and they'd show up tomorrow. No good. I need to get settled in here, first. If he could keep things quiet for just a couple more days, he could get settled here, then deal with the court. It'd be a balancing act, to make sure he was the one that contacted the court first, but with any luck, he would have that time. The Hogwarts students, even the People ones, were mostly children. Most of them probably wouldn't even know that the Court was looking for him, let alone what he looked like. And those that did might make the connection, but they also might not, at least not right away. He was some species of Greater Fae, but they didn't know which, and he was carrying around a baby, which was strange, but they'd hardly expect to find the Heir to the Unseelie Throne up to his elbows in mud in Sprout's Herbology class, or getting growled at by Snape in Potions. And I only need to get by for like two or three days. Long enough to get on my feet here before dealing with the next set of difficulties. He'd dealt with moving every two days with an infant, he could deal with this. He was alright. Or I will be, once I get some sleep. God, am I tired.

“Oy, Tobias, you coming?”

Tobias looked up quickly to see that Gabriel and the other prefect had finished getting everybody organized to leave.

“Oh, yeah, sorry.”

Tucking the wet washcloth back in his diaper bag, he gathered Mo into his arms to leave. Paying attention to her, he barely noticed the students parting to let the Hufflepuffs through.

HPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHP

Woah. He'd seen the Slytherin common room, and of course the Gryffindor, and he'd imagined that all of the dorms would be like them – decorated totally in the house colors, and embodying the stereotypes about each house. The Hufflepuff common room was different. The furniture was mostly black leather, and the wood of the floor was a gentle yellow, so the colors were there, but they were almost totally overwhelmed by the room's real feature – the plants. He felt like he was walking into a particularly messy greenhouse, or a particularly well-lit jungle. There was plenty of space to move around in, and the windows were so enormous it felt like there were no walls at all, but everywhere you looked there were magical plants in fantastic colors. It was beautiful. “Look, Mo,” he whispered, beyond caring what the eleven-year-olds would think of him talking to a five-month-old. “See the pretty plants?”

“Before we enter,” Gabriel told them all, “make sure you watch out for the plants. The purple-green one to the left of the entrance is particularly mean.”

“How can a plant be mean?” a blond boy in the front of the line asked loudly.

“It bites, of course,” Gabriel answered simply, leading them around the plant in question.

“Scratches?” the first year guessed.

“No, I really mean bites,” Gabriel said calmly. “Don't piss it off.”

“Ooookay,” the boyr said skeptically, looking sideways at the plant. Tobias felt a tug on his robes, and looked down to see Toby clinging with one hand to his robes.

“Do this plants really...bite?” he asked carefully.

“Yes,” Tobias answered.

“Okay...” Toby said uncertainly, hand still gripping Tobias' robes.

Of course Sprout has carnivorous plants guarding the door. Why not? Tobias thought, shaking his head. Hogwarts really was a strange place.

“Welcome to Hufflepuff, students!” a voice greeted them happily as they got to the middle of the room. “I am Professor Sprout, your head-of-house and Herbology teacher.”

The first-years all looked up at the kind-faced, matronly woman as she entered the common room from a door off the side. Tobias watched over all their heads, glad to be fifteen years old, and not eleven. This whole process was terribly overwhelming as a first-year. Hopefully Toby'll figure out that Sprout's okay and cling to her, he thought, giving Sprout a smile.

“Oh, Tobias, yes. The headmaster gave me instructions for you,” she said enthusiastically. “He thought you'd appreciate having a separate room, so that the other students would not wake up the little one, and vice versa. What do you think? It is no trouble at all, I assure you.” As if she'd heard her name, Mo squirmed in Tobias' grip. He turned her around to face Sprout, and the woman smiled broadly, clearly delighted. “Oh and she is so sweet, isn't she? What a little darling. Yes, you'll need a separate room, I think, and big enough for a crib and a changing table. That's not something we've needed at Hogwarts for quite some time, I must say. Now, you don't worry about a thing, we'll get you all set up in a moment. Now, first years. Your rooms are upstairs, girls on the left and boys on the right. There's a list of basic rules up there for you, we'll discuss some other things in a bit, for now you should all get upstairs and get your pajamas on, and then come downstairs for some chocolate.”

The eleven-year-olds faces all lit up at the word 'chocolate', even after the enormous welcoming feast, and in no time they'd all disappeared up the stairs.

Once they were all taken care of for the moment, Sprout turned towards Tobias with a sympathetic smile. “How was your trip over, dear? You look exhausted.”

Tobias smiled. Goodness, people here are amazing. “Exhausting,” he said. “But it's nice to be...” not back “...here...anyway. And the brownies have been wonderful.”

Sprout gave him a confused look. “Brownies?”

“House-elves,” Tobias said. “They're fae, and so am I. We call them brownies.”

“You're related to the house-elves?” Sprout asked skeptically.

“People tend to underestimate the brownies, it's true, but yes, they're related to the Unseelie and the goblins, and actually quite powerful. They're just not ambitious, is all.”

“Interesting,” Sprout said openly. “Well, dear, we do have a room set up in the dorm for these kinds of special cases, but it's not set up as a nursery just yet. Did you bring all your own stuff, or do you need us to find you anything?”

“Err...I have most of what I need,” he said, “but I don't have a changing table, just a pad. It works just fine, but-”

“Oh, absolutely, dear. No problem at all. Will you need a crib, too, or did you bring one?”

“No, she stays with me,” Tobias answered. Sprout smiled broadly at him.

“Alright then. Now the changing table might not get there before you go to bed, but at the worst we can get it for you while you're in class tomorrow. Do you need any other supplies? An extra set of diapers, maybe?”

“No, I've got enough for now.”

“Oh, good, you're well prepared, then. But if you need to restock, just let me know and I'll make sure to find you some catalogs for owl-order. Oh, and you're a new fifth-year. Have you chosen your specials, yet?”

“Oh,” Tobias said. That's right, we did that in third year. “Umm...all I have any background in is Divination and Care of Magical Creatures...”

“So you'll want to continue those, then?” the Professor asked.

I hate Divination. “Can I change them? I don't have any background in the other ones.”

“It's a bit unusual, and might be rather difficult, but it is certainly possible,” Sprout assured him.

Awesome. But...he sighed. School was going to be hard enough already without trying to make up for two years worth of Arithmancy. “No thank you,” he finally said. “I hate divination, but I think I'd better just stick with what I know.”

“Alright, dear. That's probably best. Would you like to see your room, then?”

“Sure.”

HPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHP

Hey, nice, Tobias thought, looking around. The room was set up like a hotel room, or a guest bedroom, rather than a dorm at all. His trunk had already been brought in, presumably by the brownies, and was set at the base of a nice double bed with pale yellow covers. Beside the bed was a bedside table, with a lamp and drawers. The room also held a comfortable-looking loveseat, a nice desk, and a chest of drawers. Everything in the room was in various colors of yellow, from a just-slightly-yellowish cream to a dark honey color. The overall effect was ridiculously cheerful, and a bit feminine, but still nice.

There were three doors leading from the room. The first was the one he'd come in by from the common room, but another proved to lead to a nice bathroom, with a bathtub option that he knew the dorms didn't have. The third door proved to be a decent sized closet.

Ron would be jealous, he realized with a pang. He couldn't really share it with him, not when he couldn't ever be 'Harry'. Not that that was really his favorite thing about Ron, but he missed his friends. Ron was cautiously friendly, but he wasn't his friend anymore.

It kinda sucked, he realized suddenly. He tended to push the emotional stuff to the back of his mind, running around as he had been, but it really did kind of suck. On the one hand, he had the chance to really start afresh, with new friends and an entirely new life, but on the other hand he'd never meant to get this far away from who he was before. He wouldn't have minded getting away from the Dursleys, but not if it had meant leaving Ron and Hermione behind, as well.

He shook his head. Whatever. It's done. And reversing it would mean giving up Mo, which he wouldn't do even if that were possible. New life, new friends, new problems. He didn't have time for the old ones, anymore.

And I've got that meeting. Life in Hufflepuff 101. Moving quickly, Tobias set out his changing pad on the bed and set Mo down to change her. When that was done, he changed her into pajamas and grabbed her carrier. Deciding to leave the diaper bag in the room, for now, he instead grabbed her hippo and one of the ever-present teething rings and left the room. When he got out, the room was almost full, and the other students scooted across the floor to let him pass, some quicker than others. He pretended not to notice, and just smiled and sat down against the door, wings tucked up carefully behind him. Looking around quickly for Toby, he found him in a group with three other boys, to all appearances perfectly content. Satisfied, he turned his attention to the rest of the group. He sensed three – no, four - other People in the room other than himself and Toby. Two were his same age or older – he wasn't sure – and the others were younger – maybe second or third year for the one, third or fourth for the other. Two were some sort of fae, and another he thought was maybe some kind of shape-shifter, but the other felt a bit strange, and he couldn't place it. This wasn't unusual at all, but it did make him a bit curious.

Feeling a tug on his shirt, he looked back to Mo and pulled his shirt out of her mouth to replace it with the teething ring. A giggle to his left drew his attention to one of the older girls, watching him with wide eyes. When he smiled at her, she blushed but spoke. “She's...she's just like my cousin Cassie. Everything goes in the mouth.”

“Yup,” he agreed, “and since I'm usually closest...”

The girl smiled. “Of course.”

“Quiet, please,” Sprout called out.

She got almost-instant silence. Amazing. Sprout was so nice, it was difficult to imagine her having any sort of authority over her students, but obviously she did. Once again, go Hufflepuff, he thought.

“Hello everyone, and welcome again to Hufflepuff!” Sprout said happily. “I'm not going to bother going over the rules, as I am quite sure you are all perfectly capable of reading them, just know that you are expected to do so, and to ask questions if you are unsure about anything. I do want to once again remind the older students that you, too, were once new here, and of how overwhelming it was. Please do your best to make Hufflepuff the welcoming place that it is meant to be and help the younger students to get settled. First-years, do ask them or me for whatever help you need, we're all very glad you are here and more than happy to help. Tobias, that of course goes for you as well.”

Tobias gave her a smile and a nod, readjusting a sleepy Mo in her carrier. Sprout smiled back and looked back around at the whole room.

“Oh, good. Well, then we just have one more thing to talk about before we break out the chocolate. You might have noticed that there's a child here a good bit smaller than the rest of you. Tobias, would you like to stand up and introduce little Mo?”

Oh, Tobias thought, startled. He stood up slowly, keeping a hand behind Mo's head. He realized to what extent he really towered over the room when people moved back nervously to be able to see his face. I'm Tobias-she of the Unseelie Court, he reminded himself. I can't make a fool of myself, not now. He took a moment to breath and plan what he was going to say, then spoke. “This is Mo. She's my daughter.” He looked down at her briefly, and decided not to qualify the statement. She's my daughter. They can deal with it. “The important thing to realize is, she's a baby, and so a good bit more fragile than any of you. My instincts make me extremely protective of her, so please be careful. I really don't want to hurt you over a misunderstanding.” Hopefully that didn't sound too violent, he thought. “That said, I don't mind people approaching, as long as I don't feel like you're going to be a threat.” Little better. “Any questions?”

“Your room's right off the common room, right? Do we gotta be quiet?” asked a girl that Harry recognized as the Hufflepuff Keeper.

He hadn't thought of that, but apparently Sprout had. “His room is silenced. Unless you actually knock on the door, you won't disturb them.”

The girl nodded, apparently relieved.

“You going to bring her to class?” one of the older boys asked.

“I have not fully discussed it with the headmaster yet, but that is what I am hoping, yes.”

“You'll want to be careful,” the boy advised. “Some of our classes here can be dangerous, and certain professors probably won't be the nicest about her crying in class.”

“Snaaaaape,” a student called.

“Snaaaaaaaaape,” another called back.

“Snaaaaaaaaaaaaaaape,” a third responded.

“And Care of Magical Creatures,” yet another advised, cutting off the razzing. “Some of the critters can be pretty nasty.”

“Thanks for the warning,” he said. “I may have to find a babysitter, though that has some complications with my race.” Molly Weasley, maybe? he wondered.

“What are you, anyway?” one of the sixth or seventh years asked.

“Unseelie Sidhe.”

When he just looked at him blankly, he grinned, and explained. “I'm big fae,” he said, “like a giant, scary, meat-eating fairy.”

“Scary's right,” the sarcastic blond first-year from before commented.

“Alexander!” Sprout admonished.

“Sorry,” the student grumbled, “he said it first.”

“I did,” Tobias acknowledged. “If it helps, I'm a lot less dangerous than a hippogryph or a unicorn,” he said. “I'm just uglier.”

Nobody seemed to want to answer that. Tobias didn't blame them.

“Soo...chocolate?” he asked Sprout, trying to avoid an awkward silence.

She smiled at him. “Absolutely.”