Henry's first year at Hogwarts was excellent. Besides the constant bullying from his fellow Slytherins. Henry was muggleborn, and most of the other Slytherins were either half-blood or greater, so they loved to call Henry mean names like "mudlbood". At first, Henry didn't understand what mudblood meant, but when he finally asked some of the friendlier students, Henry learned how bad it really was.
Even though he was bullied nearly every day, he was still able to smile. He was getting top marks in all his classes; something that no one else in his class could say. Although the potions professor was horribly mean, potions was still Henry's favorite class. It was just like cooking, and Henry loved to cook.
He was so relieved when his second letter came in the mail that summer. He was getting bored of muggles. Henry's parents loved having a wizard in the family. They always asked him how things worked in the wizarding world, and he always got plenty of letters at Hogwarts. Henry thought they were a bit much. Everything he said was questioned by his parents. Sometimes he just wanted to be alone.
Henry got up early that day, hoping he could get some peace before his parents woke up and took him to the train station. He got dressed and tiptoed down the hall. Both his parents were teachers, so they weren't rich. They had a small, two bedroom flat on the outskirts of London.
Henry walked into the kitchen and opened the fridge. He got out a bottle of orange juice, then took out a glass from the cupboard. He poured himself a tall glass of orange juice and sat down at the small, wooden table they had in the corner of their kitchen. Henry looked out the window to see the sun rise. He loved mornings. He was usually the first one up in Slytherin house. He loved getting the cozy fire all to himself in the common room.
Just then, Henry's large, orange tabby cat, Ender, jumped through the window and onto the table, knocking over Henry's glass of orange juice.
"Ender! You stupid cat. Get off!" Henry pushed him off the table and got a towel from the stove. Ender rubbed at his feet and meowed at him in his very high, very loud voice.
"Ender, shush. Don't wake up mom and dad."
Too late. Henry heard his parents stirring in their room. A few minutes later, their door opened and they both waked into the kitchen.
"Good morning, Henry. Ready to go to Hogwarts?"
Henry wiped all the orange juice off the floor, and he picked up the glass and put it in the sink.
"Sure Dad. Sorry I woke you guys. It was Ender's fault."
"Don't worry Henry." His mom smiled down at him, "We were planning on getting up early anyway."
Henry's mom cooked breakfast, and after they ate his dad helped him load all his school things into their car. It all went smoothly (they even managed to get Ender into his cage without much of a fuss) until his mom decided she wanted a picture.
"To remember this wonderful moment." she said.
Henry rolled his eyes. "Mom, you took a picture last year. That was my first year; that was the important year. Nothing special is going to happen this year."
His mom scoffed at him. "You don't know that. No stand over here with your dad. There you go."
Henry slouched next to his father in the front yard.
"Big smiles! One... Two... Three!"
They reached King's Cross with fifteen minutes to spare. As they walked toward the entrance to Platform 9 ¾, Henry's parents kept fussing over him.
"Remember to send us lots of letters!"
"And don't forget to study for all your exams."
"And make sure you make friends this year, honey."
They finally reached the barrier marking platforms nine and ten. Henry turned around and forced himself to smile.
"I'll be fine. Don't worry. I'll be the top of my class just like last year, and people will ignore me. It's all going to be OK."
His parents looked nervously at each other. But before they could say another word, Henry ran through the barrier, happy to be free at last.
Henry managed to get all of his stuff onto the train, and sat in a compartment with no one but Ender to bother him. He watched as a very messy bunch of redheads waved goodbye to their mother and clambered onto the train. Two of the redheads were twins. He remembered seeing them get into loads of trouble for setting off fireworks in the great hall last year. The two were a year older than him, and were in Gryffindor. Henry knew Slytherins were supposed to hate Gryffindors, but the twins were actually pretty cool.
The train started moving, and Henry thought he would finally have peace, when the door to the compartment opened and boy stood in the doorway. The boy looked around the room and then yelled to his friends.
"Oi! This one's empty!"
Empty? Henry thought. Am I invisible or something?
The boy's friends appeared in the doorway seconds later. It was the twins.
"Lee, this compartment is clearly taken!" One of the twins exclaimed.
The boy, Lee, now realizing someone else was in the compartment, blushed.
"Oh, my bad." They were just about to leave when Henry spoke up.
"You guys can come in. It's fine."
One of the twins turned around and smiled at Henry.
"Really? Sweet!"
The three of them climbed into the compartment. Two of them sat across from Henry, and one of them sat beside him.
"I'm Fred Weasley." said the boy beside him, holding out his hand.
"Henry Hall." said Henry, shaking his hand.
"This is my brother, George." George nodded to Henry.
"And this idiot is Lee Jordan." Fred pointed at the other boy who was now carrying a large box.
"Hey!" Lee said half heartedly. He was too invested in what he was holding to care what Fred said.
"What's in the box?" Henry asked Lee.
"A giant tarantula. Want to see?"
Lee lifted the lid to show Henry the giant, furry creature inside.
"Woah," said Henry, "Cool."
The four of them talked about the tarantula and what they expected at Hogwarts this year for the whole ride.
"Did you know Harry Potter is going to Hogwarts this year?" George looked gleeful. "We met him at the platform!"
Lee looked amazed. Henry, on the other hand, looked puzzled.
"Who's Harry Potter?"
All three of the boys' mouths dropped open.
"You don't know who Harry Potter is?"
"Er, no." Henry blushed. "I don't know that much of wizard history. My parents are muggles."
The twins looked understanding.
"That makes sense. Harry Potter is the only person in the whole world to have survived the death curse. He made You-Know-Who disappear when he was just a baby. Surely you've heard of You-Know-Who?"
Henry had heard of him. Henry's fellow Slytherins always talked about the Dark Lord as if he was an idol. Henry thought this was disgusting.
"Yeah, I've heard of him."
"Good. Harry's a first year this year. I hope he's in Gryffindor." The other boys nodded in agreement. Fred looked back at Henry.
"What house are you in?"
"Slytherin."
Lee Jordan gasped.
"Really?" Fred looked amazed. "You aren't even mean or anything!"
Henry laughed nervously. "Yeah, I guess not."
Lee Jordan looked at his watch.
"We'll be arriving soon. Better change into our robes."
Twenty minutes after they changed, they arrived at Hogwarts. Henry let Ender out of his cage and he bolted for the door.
"You can come with us if you want. Since you're alone."
Henry smiled up at Fred.
"OK."
Henry followed the twins and Lee up to the castle. They said their goodbyes at the entrance to the Great Hall, and Henry went to sit down at the Slytherin table. Fortunately none of his bullies were near him, so he got to sit quietly. Henry looked over at the Gryffindor table and saw the twins. He couldn't tell them apart yet, but he hoped he would get to know them more over the year. They might be the only friends he had here at Hogwarts.
Professor McGonagall led the first years into the Great Hall and waited for the sorting hat to finish his song. Everyone clapped when he was done, and McGonagall started the sorting.
"Abbot, Hannah!"
A girl in blonde pigtails walked up the steps and put on the hat.
"HUFFLEPUFF!" the hat yelled.
The Hufflepuff table cheered as the girl sat down.
"Bones, Susan!"
"HUFFLEPUFF!"
"Boot, Terry!"
"RAVENCLAW!"
The boy went over and sat down at the Ravenclaw table, where some students stood to shake his hand.
The list went on and on. "Brown, Lavender" was the first to get into Gryffindor, followed by "Granger, Hermione" and "Longbottom, Neville".
"Malfoy, Draco!"
A pale boy with blonde hair walked up to the hat. As soon as he put it on, the hat yelled
"SLYTHERIN!"
Henry cheered along with his classmates. The boy looked very happy to be put in Slytherin.
The list went on until McGonagall called out
"Potter, Harry!"
The whole hall went into a whisper. People got up from their seats to get a better look at the famous, Harry Potter. The boy that stepped up to the hat didn't look famous. His black hair was untidy and he looked frightened in front of all these people.
He put the hat on, and after a few moments it yelled
"GRYFFINDOR!"
The was a loud roar as nearly all of Gryffindor stood up and cheered. Henry saw the twins shake the boy's hand.
They got their wish. Henry thought.
A few first years later, Henry heard
"Weasley, Ronald!"
Henry looked up at the sorting hat. A thin boy with wild red hair nervously put the sorting hat on. Henry looked over at the twins. They both had their fingers crossed and were mouthing "Please be Gryffindor. Please be Gryffindor."
"GRYFFINDOR!" the sorting hat shouted.
The twins got up and hugged each other. They were so excited to have their brother in the same house as them.
After the sorting, Dumbledore, the headmaster, started the feast. It was just as delicious as Henry remembered it. After dinner and dessert, the houses all walked to their dormitories for their first night at Hogwarts. The prefects told each house the password to the common room (the Slytherin's was 'house elf').
As Henry got into bed, he thought back on today's journey in the train. Ender jumped onto the bed and snuggled up to Henry. Henry pet him as he started to fall asleep. He couldn't wait for tomorrow.