Harry jumped when Fred and George Weasley seemingly came out of nowhere and almost pounced on him. "What is this?"
"It looks suspiciously like a map, a certain map that only you, I and Lee know about, twin of mine."
"But the parchment is too new."
Harry got a broad grin on his face. "You two got hold of the Marauder's Map from Filch's office didn't you."
Both red heads swiveled to look at him. "And what would an ickle firstie like you be knowing about that?" They asked in unison.
Harry answered by touching his wand to his own map and clearing it. "Mischief managed. I'd really like to see the original my father, godfather, and Uncle Remus worked on it. The rat had gotten two months of detention from Slughorn for throwing something into a Slytherin cauldron during class and causing an explosion, so he didn't have much input on it. He was also why they lost it to a much younger but still sour git, Filch, their fifth year."
"Your father was… A Marauder!"
"Yup."
"Fred, you know what this means-"
"We have a new best friend!"
Harry laughed.
Over the rest of the month Harry found himself splitting his time. He spent roughly a third of his free time with his year mates, about half involved in his independent studies, and the rest was spent with Fred and George Weasley. Harry found himself in the position of helping them with their pranks, but he also found himself in the position of having to at times act as a voice of reason because some of the pranks they came up with and proposed testing on the Slytherins were cruel. Harry found himself starching up like McGonagall and asking pointedly how they would feel if someone did that prank to them would they laugh, or get mad. Reluctantly the twins had agreed they would get mad.
Harry found it wildly amusing that he got on so well with Fred and George but he despised their two brothers Percy and Ron. Ron was just a prejudiced ignorant lout with no manners, annoying but easily ignored. Percy, well, Percy was the sort who hungered for power, and once he had it he lorded it over others but had no real plan for what to do with it and he had no real creativity. Harry fed Fred and George a steady stream of minor pranks to keep the prat humble. Percy was just bright enough to figure out the correlation between trying to boss Harry around and an increase of pranks on himself as result he had resolved to steer clear of Harry. If only Dumbledore had been as smart.
Dumbledore called Harry to his office the same week Harry finished his map. He was disconcerted when instead of having to wait for Dumbledore to call him up. Harry entered the office as if he knew the passwords. "You called for me, Headmaster?"
"Yes, I..I wanted to make sure you were settling into Hogwarts alright. It must be very different here in Scotland than in the U.S."
Harry looked around the office noticing a plethora of shiny, sparkly, objects. Then he noticed a phoenix sitting on a perch. "Is that a phoenix?"
"Yes, that is Fawkes, my familiar. Remarkable creatures phoenixes-"
"Yes, they are, the way their tears can heal, the way they can lift heavy loads, simply amazing. I've never heard of one that color before though his feathers are such a vivid crimson and scarlet and there's so little gold on him."
"Yes, Harry, I, too find Fawkes to be a most beautiful bird. But I wanted to make sure that you were doing alright. With your outside lessons you seem to have a heavier course load than your peers, if it is too much I could insist that those outside lessons cease."
Harry inwardly smirked so that was the Headmaster's game. "No, if anything my load is lighter than in years past. Since all of what us firsties are learning magically speaking is stuff I learned a couple years ago the last thing I want to do is drop my private lessons it's the only place I'm being challenged right now. But thank you for your concern, Headmaster. As far as adjusting to here in Scotland, well it is the coldest place I've ever lived. But I've done enough traveling to know that people are people pretty much where ever you go, so being here isn't that much of an adjustment. Was there anything else, Headmaster?
Albus gave a small frown, this hadn't gone as he'd hoped. The boy had yet to meet his eyes even once, instead the boy's eyes darted from here to there. He'd expected the boy to want a lighter course load so he would have more time to play. Instead the boy claimed his workload was light.
"It has also been brought to my attention that you - shall we say- are not as discriminating perhaps, as you should be in choosing your friends."
Harry felt a flash of fury how dare this old fart tell him- He took a deep breath then another to regain complete control of his emotions. The Headmaster had without realizing it crossed one of Harry's lines and he would pay for it in humiliation. "I choose my own friends. If I choose poorly then I suffer the consequences as is proper. Life is about experiences, Headmaster, both good and bad. Choosing such things for another is likely to have- negative effects. Was there anything else?"
Dumbledore frowned. That was hardly the response he wanted from this brat. "No that will be all."