Harry had realized, quite swiftly, that he was not a normal child. In his defense, Luna had never said anything about his odd behavior, but it was clear that Ron and the other boys in their dorm had noticed his strangeness. It only took one incident for Harry to start changing in the bathroom so that he could avoid all their questions about his markings. Luckily, Neville of all people had known about rune tattoos being a religious practice (of nebulous origin and generally old fashioned, but not inherently Dark affiliation) and was able to help convince the others it was not a big deal and to please not tell people.
It was very hard to join in the getting to know each other. The other boys had not been raised in isolation with almost exclusively dead people for company. Thank Hades for Quidditch. All conversations could be redirected to discussions about really appreciated that about Ron and Neville in particular. He got the sense that they both realized when he was trying to avoid a subject and always let him talk about something else without fuss.
However, even in some of the more innocuous conversations where he felt he should have been able to contribute, Harry often put his foot in his mouth. He'd casually mentioned, in one of the discussions about magic they'd been able to practice before coming to Hogwarts, one of the many sacrificial rituals he'd performed. Everyone had stopped talking to stare at him, and Ron had turned him, exasperated, and said:
"He's talking about a goat, obviously. Like for a Beltane festival or something, right Harry?"
"Yeah, obviously. Um, murder is wrong and I have never committed it. So, Quidditch! Neville, you play any?"
He'd written to mama about the problem, but she'd been no help, simply advising him that he could avoid speaking to people or could come home, neither of which sounded like good options.
At the least, he was fairly certain people thought he was strange in the quirky, out-of-touch celebrity sort of way, and not in the secretly practicing illegal magic way. Mama had never made a big deal about him being famous. They would either glamor over his scar or he would wear a hat out in public, not to mention that they did most of their shopping in the muggle world - and so he had honestly forgotten how famous he really was. Harry learned quickly to lean into these assumptions. He couldn't talk too much about his private tutors growing up because they'd been sworn to secrecy for his protection. Death Eaters could always be listening, he told his yearmates in a calm voice, and so for everyone's safety, there were just some things he could not discuss with them.
Despite his inability to act normal, friendship came pretty easy to Harry. Ron, just like Luna had done years ago, had simply decided on his behalf that they were best friends. It was convenient to not have to try his hand at proper socialization, and Ron was genuinely pretty cool so Harry did not mind him. Mama had always insisted he kept busy, so it was nice to spend their first weekend at the castle camped out by the lake with a mountain of sandwiches and talking about nonsensical things. His twin older brothers let them borrow their brooms for the afternoon, and they dared each other to fly closer and closer to the edge of the Forbidden Forest. After a hearty dinner, they played chess by the fire.
No, Harry didn't think he would get bored here at Hogwarts, there was so much fun to be having!
Despite feeling plenty fulfilled with his existing friend group of two, by Halloween, Harry had acquired another. Hermione Granger was rather bossy, in Ron's defense, but Harry had not minded her presence nearly as much. With her willing to answer every question in class, Harry was able to zone out completely and not worry about being called on.
Then, Quirrell fell to a dead faint in the Great Hall, and all the children started to scream in terror.
"Where's Hermione?" One of their classmates shouted over the chaos as the first years huddled together.
"Bloody hell," Ron said, looking rather sheepish. "Is she still crying in the bathroom about what I said?"
"Probably," Harry said. "It looks like she's going to die and it'll be your fault. Tough luck, mate."
Ron gave him a baffled look.
"Merlin's tits you're weird. Let's go find her, Harry, I don't want her to die just because she's annoying."
You didn't need to be a budding necromancer to find a troll. They could smell it from a corridor away, nowhere near the dungeons, thanks Quirrell. They heard a shrill scream from Hermione and began to run towards the sound. The girl's bathroom was half destroyed, and the girl was frozen in shock. Harry fired a blasting curse and then an incendio but with the troll's thick skin and high pain tolerance, it merely turned to look at the intruders in mild annoyance. Harry hesitated to use something stronger against the beast. He was a perfectly normal first year with two months of training under his belt, after all. He went for another shot of fire, aimed directly at its face.
Ron meanwhile, had dragged Hermione away. They stood shaking behind Harry, shamelessly using him as a human shield with their wands out, unsure of how to contribute. Ron levitated bits of rubble to throw at the creature when it began to raise its arm to strike them.
"Ron - the club!" Hermione pointed to the troll's wooden club which was about as long and thick as the children themselves. While Harry kept the thing thoroughly distracted with his vaguely age-appropriate spells, the other two raised their arms as one and screamed.
" Wingardium Leviosa!" The club flew from its hand and crashed into the ceiling, then fell with a mighty bonk directly onto the troll's skull. It tipped over backwards and crashed into the sinks, spraying them with water. As Hermione and Ron began to laugh hysterically, Harry whispered the Killing Curse at the unconscious beast. The curse left no traces but the large bump on its head left a much more reasonable explanation how three school children had managed to take down the creature. When the professors found them, Harry's bashful, innocent smile fooled all of them.
Clearly the other two children were not accustomed to near-death experiences, as they both followed him around like lost ducklings. Hermione, like the rest of his growing horde of minions, had declared herself a part of their group after Halloween. Somehow, her overbearing behavior became endearing, although she and the boys disagreed heartily on the subject of studying. Harry had been able to get by just fine completing all his essays last minute. Most of the material was review for him, and Harry couldn't bother to waste precious effort beyond the bare minimum for his homework. His brain could only hold so much focus, and that focus, was of course, better suited to goofing around.
She was very nice and funny when she wasn't hyperfocused on her books. With her being muggleborn, Ron a pureblood, and Harry raised largely outside of both cultures, they had many an interesting discussion about the differences between muggle and wixen societies. They made grand plans to spend a summer visiting cinemas and theme parks as well as ancient magical heritage spots like Stonehenge and the oldest magical districts in the Alps.
They all agreed that exploring the castle in their spare moments was a good mix of exciting and educational, so that was how the students spent the majority of their time. Ron wanted to find the kitchens, Hermione wanted to sneak inside the Restricted Section and Harry (whose ideas had been vetoed immediately) wanted to explore the Forbidden Forest. Absolutely nothing dangerous or exciting happened up until one DADA class, when Harry, who was bored out of his mind, was trying to subtly influence Professor Quirrel with Dark magic. His goal was to make him talk about something more interesting than vampires for once and discovered the man was possessed by something, and his body and soul had mostly been consumed by the creature. (Oh, and he was drinking unicorn blood, which was not only gross, but an amateur move) That the cowardly professor was secretly a really shitty necromancer made things much more interesting, and Harry was ready to investigate.