Harry was sitting quietly in a compartment, thinking. The scarlet train blew its whistle a few times and the set off, but the boy hardly noticed. He was thinking about what a nice older girl had told him about Hogwarts.
"There are four houses," she told him. "There's Slytherin, which is supposed to be for the cunning and ambitious- but is actually full of Dark wizards. There's Hufflepuff- which is the loyal and hardworking house. There's Gryffindor, which is the place for the brave and chivalrous- also the stupid. And then there's Ravenclaw, my house- it's the best one. Which one do you want to be in?"
Harry had shrugged and thanked her for the information, boarding the train deep in thought. He remained silent throughout the train trip and the boat ride, absently waving to Hagrid in between. When the first years got to the castle, he was still quiet but appeared to have come to a decision.
"I hear that they make you wrestle a troll," whispered a redheaded boy.
"Don't be silly; it's just a hat that they make you put on," proclaimed a snotty looking boy. "My father told me all about it."
"I suppose that's alright then," murmured a bushy-haired girl.
"Which house are you going to be in," the snotty boy asked Harry.
"I don't know," he replied casually.
"Well, I'm going to be in Slytherin. It's the only place to go if you want to go anywhere. What do you think?"
Harry gave the boy a look and spoke a sentence that would forever alter the first year's view of the world. "I think that one day a Slytherin is going to be sorted into Hufflepuff and they will rule the world."
"How do you work that out?" Draco demanded.
"It's quite simple really," Harry informed him. They were at the very back of the group now, everybody else having crowded up the Professor to know what was going on. "In Slytherin, everybody's ambitious and very cunning, so they'll take every opportunity to stab you in the back. You can't get any work done if you're watching for traitors all the time; that's why you need Hufflepuffs. They'll stay loyal and work hard whereas Slytherins would abandon a sinking ship."
Draco decided that this required too much thought for the moment and repeated his earlier question. "So what house do you think you'll be sorted into?"
Harry smiled at him, a slightly disturbing smile that would from that moment terrify the Malfoy scion in dreams. "I suspect I'll be in Slytherin, but I do hope that I'll be in Hufflepuff."
Before the other boy could process this, the pair were ushered into the Great Hall, where they grouped with the other first years and Draco anxiously awaited his sorting. Harry seemed oddly relaxed.
Draco was, quite naturally, sorted into Slytherin. He waited for his black-haired friend to join him and was quite surprised to hear that he was Harry Potter. Pleased with himself for making the connection that he had set out to make, Draco was then horrified when Harry was sorted into Hufflepuff.
He blanched as Harry's words drifted back to him and he realised that the boy had quite deliberately done this. One day a Slytherin will be sorted into Hufflepuff and they will rule the world.
That black haired boy with the disturbing smile had set out to rule the world.