How to Prevent a War

Starting Classes

Harry was awake with the first rising of his roommates. The nightmares, insomnia and the Dursleys made sure he had become a light sleeper. Call him paranoid, but with Tom Riddle only two beds away, Harry was sure that it might just save his life at some point in the near future.

He sat up and yawned, looking over the still sleeping students to find Tom Riddle walking out of the bathroom. The dark eyed wizard looked over at him with a blank expression before making his way over to the only empty bed in the room. A well-aimed spell had Alphard, who slept next to Tom, yelp in surprise. The young Black glared half-heartedly at Tom, before grabbing his school robes and walking over to the bathroom, pausing when he noticed Harry staring.

"You better get ready for class too if you want breakfast," he told the green eyed wizard.
"The other morons here are usually too late."

After that, he turned around and walked into the bathroom. Harry yawned again and rubbed his eyes, slowly rising from the bed and stumbling over to his trunk to get his clothes. He cast a glance in Tom's direction and found him leaning bored against the wall between his and Alphard's bed, waiting for his 'friend' to come back out of the bathroom.

"There's a second bathroom on the other side of the hallway," Tom said, not even looking Harry's way.

"What?" the other asked confused.

"Black usually spends about half an hour in the bathroom," Voldemort-to-be explained.
"If I were you, I'd use the other bathroom."

Harry nodded and walked out, spotting the other bathroom door across the hall from their dorm room and walking over. Just as he raised his hand to knock, the door swung open. Harry chocked back a startled yell, when he came eye to eye with the younger version of his godfather, Orion Black. Orion cocked his head and stared at Harry questioningly with familiar black eyes.

"You alright there?" the younger boy asked.

"S-sure! I-I just thought you were someone else, that's all," Harry stuttered.

"Who?" the teenage father of Sirius asked curiously.

"It- it doesn't matter..."

Orion gave him a questioning look and stepped back, allowing Harry to enter the bathroom before disappearing back to his own dorm. Harry took a shaky breath. He really had to be more careful if he wanted to get through this without rising too much suspicion, but being surrounded by family members of people he knew from his own time and Voldemort really was hard.

Once he was finished, Harry walked back into the dorm room to pick up everything he would need for classes today. It wasn't that much of a surprise when he found Tom Riddle was already gone and most of his classmates still sound asleep. He sighed, deciding it wasn't really his business anyway and he walked back out.

"Potter!"

Harry turned around just in time to see Alphard Black approach him from the bathroom. The other raven grinned, dark eyes glittering with mischief that reminded him so much of Sirius. Alphard didn't look particularly like his godfather, but he knew that his personality was likely to be much like his future nephew and in the end. Harry didn't know if he should consider that a good thing or bad.

"Thought you might wanted some company," Alphard said grinning.

"Thanks," Harry replied, smiling wryly.

His reaction seemed to confuse the young Black, as Alphard frowned and took a step closer.

"You alright mate?" he asked.