Tanya Degurechaff’s Hogwarts Adventure

Hermione Granger

Finding out she was a witch was one of the most magical days of Hermione's young life. Validation that she was special and not just some buck toothed freak. And she was getting to go to a school full of people just like her, a chance to make friends with peers and not be made fun of just because she liked books or odd things occasionally happened around her.

Hermione was so excited about the chance to learn magic and coming to a boarding school full of people like herself that she practically devoured her school books and the other books her parents bought her for extra reading. And here she was, being lead up to where she and the other girls sorted into Gryffindor would be sharing a dorm room together. It would be like a sleep over!

As soon as the five of them got to their room and they started to go to the beds with their trunks, the blonde girl, Tanya, came up to Hermione.

"Would you be willing to trade places with me? I sleep better with a wall to my back."

Tanya's eyes seemed to pierce through Hermione. She wanted to make a good impression on her new roommates, so Hermione nodded her head. "That's fine. Do you need help moving your trunk?"

"I got it," Tanya answered picking up her trunk and moving it next to the wall before also pushing the four poster bed against the wall as well.

"How did you do that?" The sleek brunette, Lavender, asked.

"Magic," was Tanya's answer before she pointed to Hermione's trunk. "Do you need help moving your trunk?"

Hermione gave a nod and watched as Tanya picked up and set her trunk down at the foot of her bed. "Thank you."

"Anyways, I'm Lavender Brown. Both of my parents are magical, what about you?" Lavender was sitting on her bed, opening the conversation up, trying to learn about her roommates.

"I'm Parvati Patil. My twin is in Ravenclaw and our parents are both magical." Parvati was pulling out her pajamas from her trunk.

"I am Hermione Granger. Neither one of my parents are magical so all of this is so new to me." Hermione had a nervous smile on her face as she introduced herself.

"Lily Moon. My dad is magical. My mum is a muggle." Lily was bouncing on her bed giggling.

"Tanya Degurechaff. Orphan." Tanya was looking at her uniform's tie for some reason. "I'm going to get washed up." Tanya stood up stiffly she went about mechanically removing her robe, folding it up with care and precision, before pulling out a set of night clothes that were well folded.

After Tanya left to the dorm's shower room, Lavender spoke up. "She seems a bit stuck up."

Lily and Parvati nodded in agreement, but Hermione felt a bit differently. "You shouldn't talk about others like that."

"Oh whatever. If she removes that stick she might be fun."

"She said she was an orphan," Lily said, lying back and staring at the canopy of her bed. "Maybe she's not comfortable talking about that?"

Lavender's cheeks dusted red and she crossed her arms. "Maybe. She didn't have to be so stuck up about it. A lot of people lost family."

"What if she doesn't know?" Parvati asked. "All she said was that she was an orphan, maybe she doesn't know anything about her parents."

Lily rolled into her side with a big grin. "Or maybe it happened recently and their tragic death at the hands of some dastardly spy is still fresh in her memory and she is thinking of ways to sneak out of the school to fight the spy?"

The other girls looked at Lily for a moment before Lavender beginning to giggle started the rest to giggle as well. "Maybe her parents were fighting a dragon and got eaten and now she wants to hunt the dragon down and eat it as vengeance?" Lavender suggested getting another round of giggles going.

Before any more guesses could be made, Tanya returned dressed in her night clothes.

"I thought you said you were going to take a shower," Parvati asked.

"I did. The water is still hot if any of you wish to have one as well." Tanya went over to her bed and turned down the sheets neatly before getting in. "Best be quick though. Tomorrow will be our first full day of here and it would be best to get an early start on the day."

"Yes. Your right," Hermione agreed, grabbing her stuff for brushing her teeth and changing into her night clothes before scuttling off to ready herself, the rest of the girls doing so as well while chatting, Tanya laying down quietly.

—-

Lavender Brown

The first day of school was here. The thought led to Lavender waking up early, rising with the sun and ready for the day.

Though she apparently was not the most excited one. "What are you doing?" Lavender asked, looking over to where Tanya was moving in odd ways.

"Stretching. Daily exercise is important for a healthy life and a basic stretch routine and maybe some light cardio are the exercises safe for our age without causing any growth stunting or other issues."

"It looks like yoga," Parvati said around a yawn. "Mom did it all time at home."

"I suppose it is similar. Do you remember your mother's routine?" Tanya asked, finishing up her routine.

Parvati gave it some thought. "No, but mom did say a healthy body leads to a healthy mind and that yoga is what helped her attract dad. She said yoga was her secret to her beauty."

Lavender perked up at that. "Really? Maybe I could join you in your yoga." Lavender suggested before yawning. "Tomorrow. Today, I'm taking a shower."

"I'll owl mom if she can help," Parvati said, getting up and preparing to take a shower as well.

"That would be appreciated," Tanya said as she began her morning routine, preparing for the day ahead.

Lavender was happy to see that there were several shower stalls, though she would have liked to also have seen a bath available for use. Each stall had several nozzles that she played with finding two were to control the temperature, one made the water soapy, and the last made the water feel sick. Hot and cold water, soap, and some sort of moisturizer.

"These aren't scented," Lavender complained.

"I have some scented soaps in my trunk you can borrow until you can get your own," Parvati said from the next stall over.

"Thank you Parv," Lavender said, giving Parvati a nickname.

"Parv?"

"Yeah, Parv. Do you not like it?"

"I wasn't expecting it. Would it be alright if I called you Lav?"

"Sure," Lavender said before sticking her head around and into Parvati's stall. "Friends?"

Parvati gave a smile and nodded. "Friends."

The two finished up and returned to the dormroom where Hermione and Lily were now getting dressed and Tanya was looking through one of the schoolbooks.

"Morning everyone!" Lavender greeted.

She got mornings in return before Tanya spoke up without taking her eyes off her book. "Please be quick in preparing for the day. We were told we would be having classes together yesterday and it would be in our best interest to stick together going to classes until we all have learned the castle layout." Tanya then closed her book and stood up. "I will wait for you in the common room and try to catch the boys before they leave without us."

Lavender was not sure why Tanya seemed to act so mature and boring, but she didn't like it.

"She's right," Hermione said, hurrying up her own dressing. "It is a rather large castle." Hermione seemed to be bouncing in place, a smile on her lips.

"Maybe," Lavender agreed while flipping her hair. "Let's just get ready and get some breakfast."

"Woo! Breakfast!" Lily jumped up before tossing on her shoes and running down the stairs to the common room.

"She is a bit energetic," Parvati commented as she finished getting dressed.

Lavender began heading to the common room as well and stopped at the door. Looking back she nodded. "She is, but this is kinda exciting. Being away from home, actually getting a chance to learn magic. This should be fun. Hermione, leave your bag. We don't know what classes we have today. Once we know we'll come back and get our things for class."

"Uh, right." Hermione put her bag back onto her bed and followed Parvati and Lavender down to the common room where Tanya was talking to Percy Weasley, the Prefect that had guided the first year Gryffindors the previous night and seemed to be going to help them back down to the Great Hall.

Next to Tanya was Neville Longbottom, a doughy looking boy Lavender had met before they came to Hogwarts. Neville was a nice enough boy, but not someone Lavender planned on spending much time with. He was just too boring and the other boys were cuter.

Shortly after all the girls were down, the rest of the boys came down and the first years went down to breakfast.

—-

Harry Potter

The first breakfast at Hogwarts was an exciting experience for Harry. No preparing the bacon or being given a few scraps. He could eat as much as he wanted to. And he was eating it with his new friends, Ron to one side and Tanya to the other. Ron was even more enthusiastic about eating than Harry was while Tanya was more poised in her eating habits. Though Harry was not sure which one was actually eating faster because each time he looked at Tanya's plate another section was cleared. The rest of the Gryffindor first years were also nearby chatting to each other, speculating about what classes would be like and making jokes.

Harry wasn't comfortable with the way most of the other students seemed to stare at him and go out of their way to look at him. It was weird how everyone knew who he was and just… stared. So far, only Tanya has treated him as just Harry the entire time. No hero worship, no staring, just Tanya being his friend. Ron was not bad now that he got it out of his system and Harry hoped the rest of the school would get it out of their system soon too.

As they ate their fill, Professor McGonagall stopped by the table and handed out class schedules, introducing herself as their head of house and if they needed anything they could go to her office. The schedule looked a bit confusing to Harry and he was worried he would get lost getting to and from class, but it also had a lot of free time in it.

"Hm, looks like they do expect us to do a lot of self directed study," Tanya said to herself.

"What do you mean?" Ron asked, ignoring Hermione telling him not to talk with food in his mouth.

Tanya pointed to all the empty areas of the schedule. "We have breaks where normally a class would be. That is when we are meant to fill time with self directed study to prepare us for our post school life by building good research and study habits when we need to learn a new spell to deal with a situation we have not dealt with or been prepared for in class."

"Perhaps we should use a few of them for a group study session to do homework and help each other on our self study projects," Hermione suggested.

"You two get that setup and I suppose I'll show up," Lavender said, having listened in before going back to talking with Parvati and Lily.

"Very well," Tanya agreed before looking to Hermione. "We will work out the details during the free time Friday after potions once we have a better understanding of what the actual classes are like."

"But when will we have fun time if we are just studying all the time?" Ron asked.

"There are plenty of other hours in the day for fun and games, you can play during those," Tanya answered. "Anyways, we have History of Magic and Charms, so once you are done with breakfast, head back to the dorm, grab your books, and meet in the Common Room. We'll go to the classes as a group."

With that, Tanya stood up and started heading towards the main stairwell. Harry got up to follow, telling Ron he would see him once he was done with breakfast.

As they were getting close to the Great Hall doors, the boy Harry met when he was getting his robes fitted walked up to the pair flanked with a pair of boys that reminded Harry of his fat cousin.

"So, the boy-who-lived got sorted into Gryffindor. I suppose you are not good enough to have been sorted into a real house," Draco said with a sneer.

"I'm sorry that you are jealous that we got sorted into the house of the brave and you didn't," Tanya responded, staring at the blonde boy. Every hair on Harry's body was standing on end as she evaluated the three Slytherin first years. "I could help you develop a spine if you ever needed it."

Draco's eyes turned to Tanya and his jaw was clenched. "And who are you suppose to be?"

"My oh my. I suppose before I teach you what having a spine is like, I will need to correct your manners. Lesson one, before asking the name of a girl you are interested in, you introduce yourself and your companions first."

"I'm Draco Malfoy. This is Crabbe and Goyle."

"Good to make your acquaintance Mr. Malfoy, I am Tanya Degurechaff, and I am not interested in you that way. Now if you don't mind, we need to get ready for class. Have a good day."

Tanya strode past the sputtering Draco with Harry on her heels.

"My father will hear of this!"

"Will not change my mind. I do not date weak little boys," Tanya called out over her shoulder.

After a few moments to get away from Malfoy, Harry broke out in laughter. "That was awesome."

"Professor McGonagall made it clear that we are meant to have unit cohesion within our houses. As part of that is developing a sense of House Loyalty and Honor. Letting someone from a different house to insult our house would be counter to that."

"Uh, ok?"

Tanya sighed before giving Harry a big smile that reminded Harry of the look the people behind the counter at stores would give his aunt when they went shopping. "Gryffindor first. Gryffindor forever."

Harry nodded. "Gryffindor first. Gryffindor forever," he agreed.

—-

Tanya Degurechaff

The classes of the first week went as expected; introduction to what the class would cover, safety rules for the classes with wand usage, and an introductory lesson with an easy homework assignment to get us students into the correct mindset.

Professor McGonagall was a clear professional and strict taskmaster, but her first lesson was given in a clear, concise manner before giving us students a lot of time to practice and correct any errors in technique and methodology. The ability to transform objects from one form into another was impressive and I had no idea how to begin translating the work into the spell formulas I was more used to. Despite that, Hermione and myself were both able to complete the task of turning a matchstick into a needle by the end of class.

Magic performed with a wand was very different than orb casting. I had previously thought of the difference as the difference between computing technology, but differences were much greater than that. Now that I have actually gotten a chance to perform magic in both methods, it is more akin to playing music. With the orb, it is selecting a song and following the notes to the beat of a metronome. You can vary the song by changing the metronome's speed or the way a note is played, but the song overall will be the same each time. Wand magic was more akin to learning jazz, knowing certain key features and improvising while playing the song. Each time the song is a bit different depending on many more variables, but when it works it is one of the best styles. When it doesn't, the results are smooth jazz.

Professor Flitwick seemed to fully embrace this point, being a much more excitable teacher whose style appeared to be more free form and willing to follow students' tangential questions. He was clearly encouraging a curiosity in the students to balance the discipline Professor McGonagal was trying to instill.

Professor Quirrell needed speech classes. His stutter was atrocious, slowed down the lessons to a crawl, and was a pain to listen to for long stretches of time. Defense Against the Dark Arts was likely going to require the most out of classroom study just to ensure I was at an acceptable level of proficiency.

Herbology with Professor Sprout was an interesting and very practically minded class. While we had a text book for the class, the actual class work was done in the greenhouse getting up close and personal to some of the plants and fungi we were learning about. Her methods I could appreciate as being very effective on getting the relevant lessons across, though I was concerned about my grades. In both of my previous lives I had been gifted potted plants for my living space. Both times the plant died a surprisingly swift death and I am unsure what I had done wrong. Neville seemed like he knew what he was doing already in the class, so I might need to place him as the lead in the Herbology side sessions.

Professor Binns was teaching History of Magic as a clever cost savings measure. His effectiveness of teaching was as dead as he was and I wondered what we would actually need to learn for history for our upper year testings.

Professor Sinistra taught Astronomy in the middle of the night. While practical for being able to actually look at the night sky and mapping the current sky, I would rather be in bed. She has a rather technical method of teaching, explaining what she is teaching us in a very precise manner.

That left our final class, potions and Professor Snape. If I was a colleague of his, I might call him a drama queen. Sitting in on his lesson reminded me of watching a Shakespearean play, full of dramatic movements and pauses in speech to emphasize a point. Harry did not like the way Professor Snape used him as an example that natural talent or rumors of being some Dark Lord slayer at the age of one would not be enough to excel in his class. That it would take hard work and dedication.

I attempted to calm Harry down by explaining the Professor's actual point and that we would need to put in a lot of effort to ensure good grades. That his methods might be unorthodox, but he would not be a professor if he couldn't teach a class. Unfortunately, I was not able to fully get Harry out of his funk before he went to have tea with the bear by the woods called Hagrid and my meeting with Hermione to setup the group study sessions for the Gryffindor first years. My comment about Hagrid's physical appearance did get a laugh out of Harry and he promised to tell Hagrid I called him a bear man.