August 31st came around and while all of the other magical children were trying to sleep before Hogwart's Harry was busy disillusioning himself. Once he was invisible he warped into Dumbledore's office, after seeing that Dumbledore was gone he walked over to The Sorting Hat and put it on.
"Hello, I'm not supposed to sort you until tomorrow, you'll have to wait like the rest." The Sorting Hat told him.
"About that Hat, if you take a sneak peek you'll understand. I would however like to interfere with where you put a few other people." Harry said.
"Tell me why and I might think about it."
"Well the first is Hermione Granger. She is a muggle born and last time she got sorted into Gryffindor because that's where Dumbledore was sorted. She belongs in Ravenclaw, don't let her make the same mistake again." Harry said.
"Well that sounds reasonable enough, I'll decide when I look in her head tomorrow." Hat replied. "Anyone else?"
"Well, yes but they are less justified. I think Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle should go to Hufflepuff but I won't pressure you on that one." Harry said.
"If Crabbe and Goyle are a toss up between Hufflepuff and something else I will take this into consideration." Hat said
"The last one will be against his wishes entirely." Harry said "I don't know if you will be willing."
"I am not above bribes you know." Hat said with a mental smile.
"I don't know, what do you give a hat?" Harry asked.
"Well it would be great if you could unify the school." Hat said hopefully.
"I don't know how possible that is but I will agree to try." Harry said.
"I guess that's the best I can hope for." Hat said "I'll do it for you on faith. Don't let me down."
After telling the hat where to sort the last person Harry left and slept for a few hours before heading to the station.
Harry didn't sleep much that night as it turned out. That was fine with him though since he knew that he wasn't going to need to be awake for anything that day. When he woke up he double checked that he had everything in his trunk. Hande decided that the shrinking process was very uncomfortable and wanted to ride with Harry. They compromised and Harry expanded a pocket of his book bag and told her she could ride in there if she didn't move or try to talk at all. Harry sent Hedwig ahead and left her cage in his room. Ten minutes before the train was due to leave he tucked his shrunken trunk into his bag, disillusioned himself and warped onto the platform. When no one was looking he became visible again and made his way through the crowd.
He sat in the last compartment just like last time and sure enough just before the train left Ron, with dirt on his nose, opened the door. "All the other compartments are full, can I sit here?"
"Sure." Harry said with a smile and help store Ron's trunk.
"I'm Ron Weasley." Ron said looking around for a moment. "Where is your trunk?"
"It is in my book bag, it shrinks." Harry said. "It is nice to meet you, you can call me James for now."
"What do you mean 'for now'?" Ron asked.
"That isn't my real name but I am trying to avoid letting Malfoy figure out what my name really is before the sorting." Harry said. "And the best way to keep a secret is to keep it to yourself."
"Why? Are you famous or something?" Ron asked.
"Or something. Please don't ask anymore, you'll know soon enough." Harry said.
"Fine, anything really to mess with a Malfoy." Ron said smiling. "Do you play wizards chess?"
"I do, but not on trains, too shaky, pieces go everywhere." Harry said. Just before Hermione opened the door.
"Excuse me but have either of you seen a toad?" Hermione asked and dragged Neville into view. "Neville lost his."
"No, but I'll help you look." Harry said enthusiastically and stood up to follow her out.
"I'll stay here, James, so no one takes our compartment." Ron said.
"Er, thanks Ron." Harry replied and Hermione led him out into the hall.
"I'm Hermione Granger, this is Neville Longbottom, who are you?" Hermione asked thrusting her hand forward.
"It is a pleasure to meet you Hermione and Neville." Harry said shaking their hands. "For various reasons I am using a pseudonym until the sorting, please call me James."
"Nice to meet you James." Hermione and Neville chorused. They got to the next door at that moment and Hermione threw it open "Excuse me, have any of you seen a toad? Neville lost his."
Fortunately Penelope Clearwater was sitting in this compartment and after confirming that Trevor wasn't in there she went with them.
"Pardon my interuption." Penelope said at the next door. "Accio...what's your toad's name Neville?"
"He's called Trevor." Neville said nervously.
"Accio Trevor" Penelope said. They finally found Trevor three compartments further down with the Weasley twins. Penelope then excused herself and went back to her compartment and joined her friends.
"If you two want you can join me and Ron in that compartment, just grab your stuff and head down, I'll be there momentarily." Harry said.
Hermione and Neville quickly accepted the invitation and went to get their things. Harry turned to the twins as soon as they were alone. "I hate to do this to you guys, but I think you have something that belongs to me."
"Why would you think that?" One of them asked, Harry decided to call him George.
"Because, I am the son of Prongs and I live up to what my parents would expect from a second generation marauder. I know lots of things." Harry said with a smug grin.
"You're the son of Prongs?" Fred asked
"Can we meet him?" George asked a moment later.
"Do you know-"
"Who the others are too?"
"Of course I do, you cannot meet my Prongs though." Harry said sadly.
"Can we meet-"
"The other three though?"
"Well there is a good chance that you will be meeting Moony soon, you already know Wormtail as to Padfoot, he is going to be out of contact for a while, I don't know how he'll feel when he is back though, I'll be sure to ask when I see him." Harry said with a grin.
"We know Wormtail?"
"You aren't going-"
"To tell us who he is-"
"Are you?"
"No, Sorry." Harry said. "I'm sure you'll be able to figure it out eventually though, good luck. But anyway I came here to get my map, so could you hand it over?"
The twin Harry was calling Fred pulled the map out of his pocket and handed it over. Harry pulled out his wand and tapped it. "I solemnly swear I am up to no good."
Harry had to glare at Fred when nothing happened, he handed over a second piece of parchment and took the fake map back. This time when Harry said the pass code it worked.
"Sorry, figured if you weren't who you said you were you wouldn't be able to work it." Fred said with a shrug.
"It's okay," Harry replied "I would have done the same to you."
Harry wiped the map and stuck it in his pocket. He started to leave but turned back when he got to the door. "I hope that we will be able to work together in the future."
"Us too." The twins chorused before Harry closed the door behind him.
Harry returned to his compartment as Neville and Ron were just finishing putting Neville's trunk in place. Harry closed the door behind him and sat down next to Hermione, smiling at her.
"What took you so long James?" Ron asked.
"Had to stop to talk to someone." Harry replied.
"Oh, who?" Ron asked.
"Someone." Harry replied.
"That's not very helpful." Ron said.
"I don't think it was meant to be Ron." Neville said.
"Nope." Harry said.
"So, who was it?" Ron said again.
"If I didn't tell you the first time why would I tell you just because you asked again?" Harry said bewildered.
"He clearly considers it to be none of our business who he talked to or what they talked about." Hermione said "And honestly we have no right to that information."
"Correct." Harry said. "We just met after all."
"Sorry James." Ron muttered barely loud enough to be heard.
"Hey Neville, you grew up in the magical world right?" Hermione asked, successfully changing the subject.
"Yea, so did Ron. James?" Neville replied.
"I was raised by muggles but I have some experience with the magical world. What's up Hermione?"
"Oh, I was just wondering if I could get more information on Harry Potter. I believe he is eleven now and should be attending Hogwart's with us." Hermione said.
"Yea, his birthday is the day after mine, so he should be coming." Neville said.
"Yeah right. Why would Harry Potter come here? He has the money and fame to get any tutors he wants, he could learn magic better from home than any of us will at school." Ron said.
"Not to mention that after that night no one knows where he went." Neville added. "Who knows, wanna go try to find him?"
"Don't you think we would have heard about it if someone found Harry Potter on this train?" Harry asked using all of his mental discipline to keep from laughing. "No one could have kept it a secret."
"Yeah he probably went to Hogwart's some other way if he is attending at all. I guess we should just wait and see." Hermione said.
The door slid open again to reveal Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle. Malfoy spoke up with a sneer. "There you are, I guess you aren't as important as I thought if you are hanging out with Longbottom and a Weasley."
"Hello Draco, might as well make introductions. Ron, Neville, Hermione, this is Draco Malfoy and his brainless body guards Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle. Draco, Crabbe, Goyle, this is Ron Weasley, Neville Longbottom and Hermione Granger." Harry said pointing to each person as he named them.
"How do you know Crabbe and Goyle?" Draco demanded.
"Important people learn details, I'm sure you wouldn't understand Draco." Harry said smugly.
"Whatever, Granger? I don't know that name. Are you a mudblood" Draco sneered.
Harry stood quickly and threw a punch quickly breaking Malfoy's nose. "Don't use that word anywhere within my hearing or I will make it so you can never say it again."
"JAMES! What did you do that for?" Hermione shrieked.
"You'll pay for this!" Draco shouted slightly garbled and stalked away with his goons.
"Sorry, the M word in the magical community is like the N word in America. It is racist and vulgar." Harry said.
"Some members of the magical community value themselves on 'Blood Status'" Neville said.
"If you were born of muggle stock they consider your blood dirty" Harry said.
"It's really foul. Bloody git." Ron added.
"Ron!" Hermione admonished. "You know in America the black population turned the N word into their own thing, they claim ownership even. We could do the same."
"What do you mean?" Ron asked.
"Well, simply put those of us from muggle families could all agree and decide that that word wouldn't be offensive if used by us for us to us." Hermione explained. "What is the PC term anyway?"
"Muggleborn" Neville said. "if both of your parents are muggles. Half-blood if either of your parents or any of your grandparents or great grandparents are muggles."
"So two muggleborns would give birth to a half-blood, and two half bloods can potentially birth a full-blood?" Hermione clarified.
"Yes, eventually. They call themselves 'pure-blood' though." Harry said. "I am half-blood myself, these two are pure-blood for several generations."
"So that term applies to you as well?" Hermione asked Harry.
"Yea, I don't think your idea will catch on though." Harry replied.
"You're probably right. It is hard to start these kinds of things on purpose." Hermione admitted.
The rest of the trip was quiet, the four of them chatted or read, Ron and Neville tried to play chess once and almost lost a rook under a seat. Soon enough though the bell chimed through the train indicating that they would be arriving within a few minutes. Hermione stood outside the door while the boys got changed into their robes and then switched and put hers on as well. Harry left his trunk enlarged and put his backpack in it so it would go up to his dorm automatically like everyone else's. The other three were properly impressed with it.
They were all done and sitting back in the compartment waiting out the final stretch when Harry noticed Wormtail, he had come out of Ron's trunk while everyone was changing.
"What's wrong James?" Hermione asked then followed Harry's stare and screamed.
"What?" Ron said dumbly looking around. "Oi, Scabbers! I told you to stay in the trunk."
By the time the train stopped Scabbers and Trevor were both lock securely in their trunks and a voice spoke through the entire train. "Please leave your belongings here, they will be taken up to your dorms."
The four of them filed out and Harry started walking towards Hagrid. The other three followed him just before they heard Hagrid bellow is traditional "Firs' years over 'ere!"
The four of them shared a boat, Ron and Neville on one side and Harry with Hermione on the other. "How do you think we get sorted?" Neville asked.
"The twins told me that we have to wrestle a troll." Ron said grimly.
"Maybe it is a test, do you think we will have to cast anything?" Hermione asked anxiously.
"It isn't either of those things." Harry said as he watched the castle approach. "This is a really impressive view."
"Yeah, and how do you know it isn't either of those things?" Hermione asked slightly offended that her suggestion was brushed off so easily.
"Well, trolls are too dangerous to expect an untrained eleven year old to be able to handle. As for the test, well a percentage of the population only just found out about magic. It would be like taking a group of pure-bloods to a muggle school and giving them a test to place them in a computer class." Harry said.
"What's a kompootre?" Ron asked. "I bet dad has one in his shed..."
"See?" Harry asked turning to Hermione.
"The board of governers is almost exclusively pure-blood though James. They could do something like this to discriminate against muggleborns." Neville said.
"Good point. I guess it really just depends on whether we eat first or second then. If everyone's dinner is waiting on the sorting it will have to be a pretty quick process." Harry said as the boat bumped into the dock. "And why are you supporting the test theory? Do you want it to be a test?"
"NO!" Neville shouted "It's just that we should be prepared for it if it is."
"Don't you think it is a little too late to start preparing for a test?" Harry asked.
"That's why I've already memorized all of our school books." Hermione said smugly. Harry laughed when Ron's jaw dropped. It was nice to see that his mouth could open that far without food being involved.
"That may have been more than you needed Hermione." Neville said. "You might not want to advertise that."
"She is definitely going to be a claw." Ron said.
"Claw? Oh, Ravenclaw. I am really hoping to be in Gryffindor, that's where Dumbledore was sorted you know." Hermione said.
"Why do you want to be in Gryffindor?" Harry asked.
"I just told you, that's where Dumbledore was sorted." Hermione said.
"Is that the only reason?" Harry asked.
"Well, yes. The headmaster came from that house though, there has to be a reason why." Hermione said.
"If you look at the statistics though less than a quarter of the Hogwart's headmasters have been Gryffindors. Most of them are from Ravenclaw and Slytherin. There have even been more Hufflepuff headmasters than Gryffindors." Harry said.
"But they say that Dumbledore is the strongest wizard alive." Hermione said.
"Even if that is true, are you Dumbledore?" Harry asked. "No, so what does it matter to your life how strong he is, you won't necessarily match him, or you might beat him, either way that is already part of you, none of the houses come with a power boost."
"Hrmpf!" Hermione said and turned away from Harry crossing her arms. He shrugged and followed after Hagrid, who was starting to show them the way to the entrance hall. Neville and Ron followed immediately, Hermione hesitated for a moment but decided that staying with the three people she knew was better than trying to meet more new people, even if one of them had proved her wrong.
The great hall erupted into applause as The Sorting Hat finished his song. Hermione had blushed slightly when she realized that the hat did the sorting and there was no test. Professor McGonagall called out the first name "Abbott, Hannah"
A little girl walked nervously up to the stool and climbed on sliding the hat down around her ears. Ron let out a groan and said "Aw, their using last names and going alphabetically. I'm going to be standing here all night."
"You're not last though." Harry said, pointing down the line to a disappointed looking italian boy. "That is Blaise Zabini. He's last."
"HUFFLEPUFF" One of the tables started cheering loudly.
"Bones, Susan"
"I am so glad my name is in the G's" Hermione said.
"HUFFLEPUFF" More cheers.
"Boot, Terry"
"It gives me enough time to understand what to expect but not so much time that I get bored of waiting." She finished.
Crabbe getting sorted into Hufflepuff got more whispers than applause. When Goyle followed him people were clearly laughing.
"Granger, Hermione"
"Wish me luck." Hermione said as she walked up confidently and put that hat on. She only had it on for a second before it shouted "RAVENCLAW"
Neville got sorted into Gryffindor again and soon McGonagall looked at the list and called out "Malfoy, Draco"
Draco walked up with his normal condescending swagger and jammed the hat down around his head. Last time, Harry remembered, his sorting took an eyeblink, this time though Draco sat and sat. Even though only his mouth was showing you could tell that a moment after the hat went on he was surprised. That was slowly replaced with impatience, then indignation. After that he just started getting angrier and angrier, suddenly all of the blood rushed out of his head and he started sweating. Just when the collar of Draco's shirt was showing dampness the tear in the hat opened and Draco was sorted.
"GRYFFINDOR"
Only three sounds were heard in the great hall after that. The first was Harry laughing. The second was Snape's face hitting his hands and the third was the thud of Draco hitting the floor, he passed out and fell off the stool. McGonagall took that hat off Draco's head and quickly revived him and sent him on his way, to the gryffindor table. Where the Weasley twins immediately took the seats on either side of him with an evil grin, their friend Lee Jordan took the seat directly across from Draco, who looked worse than he did on the stool.
There were only ten students left to be sorted when McGonagall got to the one they were all waiting for.
"Potter, Harry"
Absolute silence. Then as one every person leaned towards the remaining unsorted. Harry was now at the end of the line furthest from that hat, Ron was right next to him looking down the line waiting to see which one was Harry, since he knew that the one was Zabini that left three choices for him. Ron was very surprised when James walked passed him and down the line toward the hat. He was even more surprised when James' features suddenly started changing to give him his customary unruly black hair and bright emerald eyes.
The Great Hall was much louder this time than last, possibly because he just told everyone that he is a metamorphmagus. Draco looked appalled by Harry's identity, Neville and Ron had identical looks of shock and Hermione looked like she had a thousand questions to ask. He smiled to Hermione and sat down on the stool and slid the hat on.
Did he faint? Hat asked.
Yea, it was funny. Thanks a lot for that Harry thought I'll gladly do my best to hold up my end of the arrangement. Could you put me in Ravenclaw please? I think it will be the easiest way to explain away my knowledge.
Sounds good Hat replied Dumbledore is trying really hard to convince me to put you in Gryffindor. Too bad I don't work for him. "RAVENCLAW"
Harry jumped up with a smile and set the hat back on the stool and walked down Ravenclaw table to join Hermione. A seventh year stopped him along the way and introduced herself "Hi Harry, Welcome to Ravenclaw, I'm Lisa Turpin, the seventh year prefect."
"It's nice to meet you Lisa." Harry said shaking her hand quickly before moving on. He took the seat next to Hermione before it hit him. Lisa Turnpin was in our year last time. Something is up.
"Why didn't you tell us you were Harry Potter? I have read all about you. How did you change your appearance like that?" Hermione started her barrage.
Harry smiled and leaned close, whispering in her ear he said "Nitwit Blubber Oddment Tweek"
"What does that mean?" Hermione asked but Harry was scanning down the remaining line of unsorted.
"Who is it, who is it?" Harry muttered to himself before finding the unfamiliar face. "Who is she?"
"Who is who?" Hermione asked.
"Her, second girl from the hat." Harry said.
"Why does she matter?" Hermione asked.
"Hermione," Harry said turning towards her. "I will tell you everything I trust you with but not on command. That girl matters for reasons that I don't trust you with yet."
Harry did trust her with the information, but not until he figured out what was going on and got her in private. A different person here might mean it is a different universe than mine and I traveled to it rather than back in time...
"You don't trust me?" Hermione said sounding hurt.
"I just met you, do you trust me with all of your secrets?" Harry replied.
"How can I trust you, you lied about who you were." Hermione responded.
"I did no such thing, I told you right up front that I was using a fake name, it isn't even fake, it is my middle name. Plenty of people go by their middle names, and I never told you any last name." Harry said.
"Tonks, Nymphadora" McGonagall called out, Harry's head shot up as he watched the girl he didn't recognize walk up to the hat.
"No, way." Harry said jaw dropping.
"RAVENCLAW"