Chapter One
When teachers and students thought of Harry Potter, thoughts arose of a polite, but painfully shy boy who seemed to try to attract as little attention as possible; his grades were average, his behaviour normal, apart from a few, anomalous incidents where he was found to be in places he really shouldn't, like the roof of the school. Either way he had the potential to be a top rating student, if only he would take more care to excel.
Little did those teachers know that with exceptional reports home came harsh punishments, cleaning everything in the house multiple times, cooking feasts for his Uncle and Cousin, and finally the best(for him) of them all; confinement to his cupboard for days on end, with meagre meals shoved through the door at him every so often.
This was Harry Potter's life, at least up until a behemoth of a man came into the shack on his 11th birthday and pronounced him to be a wizard, a famous one at that!
After much consternation on the part of his immediate family, they relented to allowing Harry to attend Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry, although the agreement came mostly from fear after Hagrid gave Dudley a little addition (he later told Harry that he meant to make a full transfiguration, but shards of a wand are much less user-friendly than as a whole).
So came the trip into Diagon Alley, and his first, real interaction with the mysterious world of magic, it was fascinating! There were all sorts of extraordinary things happening, some of which were impossible, at least in the mind of one not acclimated to these surroundings. At the heart of it all laid Gringotts the wizarding bank run by Goblins of all things.
After the trip into the bank, and the collection of funds for Harry's school supplies, they set off into the Alley to pick up the essentials: potion ingredients, books, a uniform (where Harry met a slightly unpleasant fellow by the name of Malfoy), and a wand.
Upon entering Ollivander's wand store, Harry felt a prickling sensation, as if he were being watched by something, or someone.
"Ah, Master Potter, good to see you at last." Came from somewhere behind and below Harry, as he had jumped onto the store counter at the sound of a voice directly behind him, the laughter coming from behind him led Harry to believe that this was a regular occurrence, yet not always as dramatic as it had been for him.
"Sorry young man, but I couldn't resist." Said the man again, while still chuckling at Harry's misfortune. "My name is Ollivander."
"Ah, erm sorry sir, I'll just get off of the counter now." Replied a now thoroughly embarrassed Harry.
"Of course, now shall we set about finding you a wand?"
"Sure, although I don't quite know what to do."
"Leave it to me. Now, which is your stronger hand?" And so the fateful process began; Ollivander measuring Harry, in some ways that seemed unnecessary, like the distance between nostrils.
After much searching and rattling around, Ollivander was unable to find Harry a suitable wand, the closest being a Holly and Phoenix combination that Ollivander was sure to be the one.
"Interesting, it seems that you aren't one for a wand…I wonder." Ollivander mused, mostly to himself it seemed.
"I have an idea Mr Potter, it may work, it may very well not, but we shall see shan't we?"
Ollivander disappeared at this, going into a backroom some ways from the front counter where Harry and Hagrid remained. For ten minutes the pair waited, mostly in silence with the occasional hooting of the owl that Hagrid had bought Harry earlier. After a few more seconds, Ollivander came back carrying a long, thin box that looked to be about 6 feet in length. "This is one of my more, risky creations; it is a staff I made on a whim from Australian Blackwood and a tail hair from a griffon, hence the length." Ollivander looked nervous to be handing over what was obviously a precious item to a young man whose magic seemed to like rejecting wands violently.
Upon touching the staff, Harry felt a rush of energy move through him into the staff and from the staff into him, as if the two were sharing each other's power, after what could have been five seconds or five years, the feeling died down and Harry came back from that feeling of euphoria to the stunned faces of Ollivander and Hagrid staring at him, at least the owl (given the name Hedwig during the wait for Ollivander) didn't seem to care, she was asleep.
"My, my, my Mr Potter you are interesting, that staff is definitely yours, and I don't quite remember ever seeing such a positive reaction between wizard and implement." Ollivander was understandingly awed by the experience.
Once the payment was taken care of, Hagrid guided Harry to The Leaky Cauldron and explained his special place in the wizarding world; apparently an evil wizard named Voldemort tried to kill his whole family, succeeding with his parents and then turned his wand onto Harry, but was stopped by something which caused him to then disappear.
After this revelation, Hagrid accompanied Harry to his home in Surrey where he would stay until the first of September when he would go to Platform 9 ¾ to take the Hogwarts Express to his new life in the magical world. Hagrid also explained how to get onto the platform: "Jus' walk between into the third column on Platform 9 and ye'll be there."
During the period that Harry had to stay with his relatives, he read as much as possible, as if it were possible for someone under the impression that magic didn't exist being introduced into the world of magic and then being complacent with ignorance.
He also took to playing with his staff, not trying to use magic having been told about the penalties for an underage wizard using magic. But learning how to manoeuvre it comfortably and in such a way that he could still make the required movements to cast a spell. Unfortunately, this had the effect of him accidentally performing some spells, and after spending the next hour panicked that he would be called upon by the ministry of magic; Harry realised that he could use magic, as long as it was without the required incantation and he wouldn't get punished. Little did harry know that the true source of his loophole was the fact that since it was a staff, Ollivander never thought to register it with the ministry, making it a magical black hole.
So came the day of Harry's departure, he had conned his Uncle into dropping him off by saying: "Well, it'll be that last time you'll see me for at least a year, and who knows what could happen in such a dangerous, unknown world." Looks like Harry is a bit of a deviant when passionate about something.
Harry walked through the gate onto the platform to an astonishing sight, a steam train with the Hogwarts logo emblazoned with a multitude of witches and wizards of varying age wandering around, saying goodbye to children and some in groups chatting to one another. Having spent years in school with his cousin taught Harry how to stay discreet so he snuck onto the train without garnering any unwanted attention, and found himself a seat some ways to the back.
The trip was rather quiet for young Harry, which in his opinion was perfect as he was able to read more of his books along the way, and apart from a bushy haired girl popping in to ask about a toad, he stayed alone for the trip.
When the train arrived at Hogsmeade station and the students disembarked, they met up with Hagrid who led them to a small dock where a number of oars-less boats awaited them.
"Righ' then, no more'n four to a boat, off ye go." Called Hagrid from the back, obviously looking to make sure all the students followed his instructions.
After some chaos in which the students clambered into boats with others they had met on the trip, Harry found himself sharing a boat with three girls, they introduced themselves as: Daphne Greengrass, Padma Patil who also mentioned being a twin but not wanting that to be how she was known and Susan Bones.
"I'm Harry Potter." Said Harry after some self-deliberation as to whether or not it would be wise to inform a boatful of girls his identity. They seemed to take it well, only Susan made any audible noise, a rather cute squeak that earned her amused looks from the others.
"Well, you took that better than I was expecting."
"What did you expect? Squeals high pitched enough to break your eardrums." Replied Daphne with only a slight hint of sarcasm. The other girls agreed with her and the subject moved on to awe when they came into sight of their new school.
After passing under some hanging vines and coming to another dock, the students left their boats and came to a door under the castle, it was here that Hagrid left them in the stern and slightly fearsome hands of Professor McGonagall who led them into the Entrance Hall of the castle, and informed them to wait until they were called.
There was some chatter amongst the students about what was going to happen in the Sorting, one red haired student mentioned wrestling a troll, which brought snickers from Malfoy, who Harry had noticed in the crowd and Daphne. It seemed that they both knew what was coming.
A hat
It was a ratty old, singing hat.
After getting over the shock of being informed that the being qualified to sort them into houses where they would remain for seven years was a piece of ancient headwear, the sorting began.
Harry mostly paid attention only when someone he recognised was called to the hat; Susan went into the Hufflepuff house, the girl who asked about the toad, now named to be Hermione Granger went to Gryffindor, Daphne to Slytherin, Padma to Ravenclaw. He spent the rest of the time glancing around at the surroundings, from the impressive looking staff, to the magical ceiling, Harry thought that he was going to love being in Hogwarts.
That is until he heard: "Potter, Harry." Come from the mouth of Professor McGonagall.
This brought the entire schools attention upon the group of unsorted children, students and teachers alike jostling each other to see the hero of the wizarding world.
Harry slowly walked up to the Hat, all the while hearing the comments about him from the tables of students, remarks on his "cuteness" seemed to be popular among the female students, while the males tended to question his magical prowess. None it seemed had caught onto the fact that he had a six foot long piece of wood strapped to his back rather than a wand.
Upon placing the Hat upon his head Harry heard the voice of the Hat speaking to him.
'Hmm, young Mr Potter, lovely to see you here at last, now let's take a gander into that noggin of yours shall we?' Then began an awkward feeling of a presence within his mind sorting through all of his memories and experiences, after what seemed like a decade, but was probably more likely a few minutes, the Hat called.
"RAVENCLAW" To the surprise of those who knew about Harry's parents both being in Gryffindor. Although, Ravenclaw was fairly happy about this, cheering the fact that the Boy-Who-Lived was a thinker rather than a paragon of brute-force as so many think of the Gryffindors.
After making his way to the Ravenclaw table and sitting next to Padma who congratulated him, Harry was introduced to the surrounding members of his house: Roger Davies, Cho Chang, Lisa Turpin and their prefect: Elena Turpin, Lisa's older sister.
The room quietened down after the final sorting, and Headmaster Dumbledore took the attention of the room.
"Now that the Sorting has finished, allow me to say a few words: those who wish to know the new banned items can see the list in Argus Filch's office, it seems to have grown three feet over the holidays. The Forbidden Forest is as it should be: Forbidden." With this, Dumbledore looked to a pair of twins at the Gryffindor table who looking delighted at the news. "And finally: Nitwit Oddment Blubber Tweak." With that the stepped back to the staff table and began to converse with the other professors.
"Well, that was certainly strange." Commented Harry after thought returned to the students, many of whom were piling their plates with food that had come from nowhere, magic Harry reckoned.
"Yeah, Dumbledore certainly is…something." Elena informed Harry and Padma who stared back at her blankly as if to say "No, really?"
Once the students had finished the filling meal, Dumbledore asked the Prefects to guide the students back to their common rooms for the night.
Unsurprisingly, the Ravenclaw common room's entrance was across from the library, the guardian being a bust of Rowena Ravenclaw herself that only came to life when given the phrase: "For if you gaze too long into the abyss, the abyss gazes into you." Apparently whoever chose passwords had a penchant for Nietzsche. When everyone had gathered in the common room, Elena informed the students of their sleeping arrangements; since they had a smaller intake due to intelligence and a search for knowledge being the required traits, they were able to give single rooms to each student.
After being assigned to his room, Harry lay on his bed and fell asleep wondering what the new day would bring.
A/N: This is fairly deviated from the original, as you can see. The whole Voldemort thing will run differently than how it normally does in Fanfiction, which is to say how it runs in the source material.
Also just because Harry has a staff does not mean he is more powerful, just that a staff was the best match.
I look forward to seeing what you think of this :)