Light in the Dark

First day of Class

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In the morning, Harry woke early as he always did and got washed and dressed as Enperadorea hung limply around him, very sluggish in the mornings like Tom was. He said it was because of low blood pressure as well as feeling lethargic from the cold. Harry made sure to set his scaly friend down in the steam from the shower as he washed up, enjoying being allowed to bathe without worry or having to freeze to near death. He had quickly learned with the Malfoy's he could have the things he was denied growing up, he could be simply Harry. One of the things he learned he enjoyed was hot baths, especially bubble baths and he loved watching Enperadorea swim in the warm water, humming nonsensical songs as he did so, full of energy from the heat. However baths would be a bit hard at Hogwarts, but thankfully the water was nice and hot.

He came out once he was ready and had dried off Enperadorea as well, the snake more awake now as he went to wake Tom, Draco was sitting up in his bed, half dazed still and in a few minutes he will be up and at'em. Blaise slept through the slowly growing noise of the others getting up and dressed. Theo and Vince made sure everyone had their books for the day and Greg made sure that everyone was dressed right. Blaise finally woke up and was ready in under 3 minutes. They headed down to the common room and met up with the first year girls and the Prefect Gemma Farley, she guided them back to the Great Hall and they dispersed to sit and eat, but Harry moved to where Hermione was sitting at the Ravenclaw table and she smiled at him.

"Good morning, did you sleep okay?" He asked.

"Yes, but so far no one wants to be my friend." She told him.

"That's ok, you have me." He beamed and she smiled back.

Draco and Tom came to sit with them as did Neville when he came into the Great Hall. Soon the others came to sit down, Harry introducing them to his Muggleborn friend and her to his Pureblood friends. They knew better than to say anything rude or mean, Harry had taught them to be tolerant to those different from them and that blood purity didn't mean anything, they all had magic and we're here to learn about it. They talked and ate, Tom waking up more as he had breakfast, which made Hermione giggle as Harry explained that he had low blood pressure in the mornings.

"Tom takes after Uncle in that sense." Draco told her. "He usually wakes up more once he gets food and his body temperature rises. If you see him bundle up randomly, you know why."

"Is it because you are not getting enough iron in your diet?" Hermione wondered, eyes studying the older boy, but also thinking of all the books and things she's read and learned. "There is a condition called Anemia, it means that your iron count is lower than usual and leads to chills and low blood pressure, especially in the mornings because of the large gap between dinner and breakfast that you spend sleeping. This can be counteracted by having an Iron rich meal or taking iron supplements."

"Huh... I never knew that." Blaise said amazed as Tom seemed to think about it. "You do always look better after eating some of the richer meats and foods, normally medium rare or rare..."

"Rare meats are rich with iron." Hermione stated. "Cooked enough to kill harmful bacteria that could make you sick, but keeping all the nutrients that are normally cooked out of the meat when fully cooked."

Tom considered this and silently asked for rare sausages from the House Elves, who happily sent some up to his plate and he began to eat them, passing a few to Nagini and Enperadorea, who seemed curious of this little concept.

"How did you do that?" Hermione asked.

"House Elves." Pansy stated. "They are a race that lives to serve. They are like servants, unpaid ones, but they seemed to like serving."