Disclaimer I don't own Harry Potter or any of the characters, that right belongs to JK Rowling.
A/N I might combine the chapters leading up to the feast, so stay tuned! I'll be posting a chapter every few (let's say 5-7) days!
Summary Harry and the other first-year Hogwarts students take the boats to Hogwarts in stead of the usual Thestral pulled carriages.
The Sorting ceremony - The boatride
At first he felt only a tingling and pressing feeling - as if he had stepped into a life-sized fishbowl - then his scar throbbed and burnt with heat, the world turned green and spun furiously and he heard a high, faint flutelike tone - a bit like the buzzing of a swarm of agitated mosquitoes. He stopped moving, till his sensations settled, tentatively took a small step and another and another. His ears now popped, and the burning sensation moved to his back. He jumped to the other side of the barrier and suddenly all the sensations stopped. Immediately. His clothes were dry again and the sky turned a very normal, pale gray and the eroded, sparse little stumps of grass turned yellow-green again, some even that recognizable yellowy-red colour you often see on sloped grass lawns next to highways and industrial areas. the mud was still - at least at the over-trodden pathway - littered with some few colourful, mostly colourless, pressed-into-the-ground candy wrappers, pieces of over-used parchment and, even though it was still quite early in the year, leaves galore. The lake up ahead hardly looked green or blue, but was mostly a pale shade gray matching the sky and the water was awfully turbulent and sprayed bucket load after bucket load of tiny droplets of water over the uninviting looking, rocky cliffs. Harry just simply loved it.
'Hey mate,' Harry heard Ron yell quite close to him 'hurry up, or we will lose sight of the rest.' They quickly stepped up to a little, muddy - though maybe a bit less wrapper-ridden - pathway that seemed to mostly consist of a silver coulored mixture of clay and mud that one often sees on worn, plantless, mostly badly maintained, slopes. In their haste Harry tripped over a hidden, knotty tree root, stumbled, fell on top of Ron, who proceeded to fall face-first in the mud. 'Well, at least the mud matches the colour of this bloody robe' Harry agreed, but still had the sense to keep silent. Ron's secondhand robe wasn't the usual black, but looked awfully worn and took up a grayish colour, it was also ripped and torn, but that, however, seemed to be sort of repaired by a badly preformed magic spell. 'Ron,' Harry started hesitatingly, when they both stood up and wiped the worst part of the mud off their robes 'where are all the other people? Are you sure we haven't took the wrong turn?'. 'I'll be jitterbugged Harry, I saw them head yonder,' Ron answered 'but we'd better hurry up. My dear brother Fred said the boats left without him when he first attended Hogwarts.' This surprised Harry who almost unintentionally said: 'Godswallop Ron, that sounds medieval, to just leave kids at their own bidding!'
They both hurried up, trying their best not to slide again, what just barely succeeded thanks to an enormous tree. 'Ron,' Harry said when they took a short breather 'didya you also feel a strange sensation when you walked through that barrier back there? Something a bit like a wave of heat and the sound of twenty kettles and -'. 'Blimey Harry,' Ron replied, a bit more surprised than Harry felt was necessary 'that was just dried and warmed us up! Are you really complaining about that? I'd walk through that gate all day, rather dan being wet like this!' Harry decided to just keep his mouth shut and decided to focus on his surroundings. They were on some kind of semi-wooded trail, probably mainly used by animals. The undergrowth consisted mostly of brambly bushes with longer than usual needles and the lower brambleless branches carried dark green leaves in the shape of those on a hawthorn. The grass here looked greener and more plump than on the main trail and the ground was covered with some leave like plant. He saw some big insects looking similar to an oversized dragonfly, and noticed some ugly looking gnomes tugging and digging at some root.
The rain still sprayed in their red, raw faces and the wind took away any heat they had left and were chilled to the bone. Harry looked over to the hill and saw the girl with the light-brown hair standing up there, seemingly waiting for someone or something, Harry secretly hoped she was waiting for him. 'See that girl yonder,' Ron said to Harry 'that's this Daphne Greengrass, her dad, Cyrus, gave the ministry a not inconsiderable amount of trouble last year and wounded my dad in a big fight last year… He got away with it saying he was under the Imperius curse…' 'What?' Harry cried out 'What is an Imperius? Is there a ministry for magicians? Is your dad healed now?'. Those questions had to wait for another time though, the girl had come up to them and quickly - between two gasps for air- said 'Hey, you two! They're all waiting down there for you guys, it's bloody likely that they would have left by now!' She smiled radiantly at Harry and Ron, but Harry didn't miss that she pressed her lips just a bit more tightly in response to Ron's frown, she quickly added 'What in Merlin's beard have you done to your robes!' as if his precarious robe situation was the reason for his bad mood and not, what she feared, their parents' fight in the last wizarding war.
'Why Daphne, Your Daphne, right, would they leave without us? Don't they count the amount of students before they leave to Hogwarts or something?' Harry said to his right, noticing she was about an inch taller than he was and a small birthmark on the bone of her nose. They started walking, Harry in the center, because Daphne and Ron - Ron was mostly to blame - refused to walk next to each other. He didn't really worry too much about it, because he enjoyed walking between them, but was slightly wary something really nasty would happen between the two later - maybe one of the twin Weasleys would pull a horrible prank. 'Yeah, I'm Daphne all right.' she replied 'You must be Harry, aren't you? And you must one of those Weasleys.' Stating the last part more like a fact, than a question. 'Sure I am, Greengrass' emphasizing the last word with a slight malevolent glitter in his eyes. She then turned at Harry 'So, anyway, Hagrid was saying like we looked awfully cold - what we most certainly were - and like he didn't have any clue how many students there would be, so I told him you were missing and he sent me off to fetch you. I have no clue how he could forget you, though, Harry, but then again everyone looks pretty much the same in those wet robes, with dark, wet hair.' He was never really good at talking, so was quite happy someone would do that for him and looked ahead and saw they were heading towards a sandy bay with a wooden port, which seemed to be located in a windless spot, for the water was dead still and unearthly wrinkleless and a dark shade of black instead of the pale gray they had seen earlier.
Hagrid, mustered a sigh of relief hen he saw Harry, Ron and Daphne hobbling down the steep trail leading towards the little, wooden dockyard with twenty or so small, probably magical boats. 'What didya take so much time for Harry? Got lost? We'd've almost left if Daphne hadn't reminded us of your absence. One point for whatever house you'll be in.' He boomed in his usual low voice 'Y'all must be desperate for some warmth, damned be those who lost their way, get on those boats. quickly!' 'Potter,' Malfoy began sneeringly 'can't you even get to the boats on time.' 'I'll tell you why,' his pale, gray eyes now flared 'it's the fault of that blood traitor' He looked directly at Harry now, his eyes slightly changing its form adding a slight hopeful glint, barely to noticed and continued saying 'I am giving you another chance, you don't want to be making friends with sort!' Harry standing up a bit straighter, replied 'If you'd quit bullying and stop your petty interactions with those yon,' pointing toward Crabbe and Goyle 'I'll give you a chance, but until then: Goodbye, Malfoy'. This comment earned him some appraising looks from his future classmates, Ron ,however, didn't look pleased, whispering so none but Harry would hear ''Sblood, you gave wreched, slant pig-faced gargoyle a chance?!' 'Yes in fact I did,' Harry replied quite bluntly and in a low whisper continued 'and while we're at it, let's get a boat before we'll have to be on one with Malfoy.'
The gods, however, weren't so merciful, during their little fight all the boats were taken so Harry, Malfoy, Daphne and Ron had to get on the boat with Neville, now clutching a fat toad, and Hermione. Hermione and Neville were so annoying that even Malfoy's fat cronies decided against waiting for their 'master' Malfoy and, much to Draco's dismay, got on a, now full, boat with some other burly-looking boys, rather than having to join be on a boat with Hermione and Neville. 'Well, yer herry up now, what are yeh waitin' for?' Hagrid's bearded voice sounded, attracting all attention from everyone and tapping his umbrella - distorting light all around - first on the side of his boat, then waving it at each of the other boats, just as Harry clambered in next to Daphne. The boats moved forward through the water suddenly, gliding slowly forward as the water parted neatly to let the boat move through. The water on the lake, just outside of the bay - for that was all they could see, due to the extensive vegetation - looked choppy and promised many bucketloads of water in Harry's collar. The trees were partly underwater because of the lake had over the course of the week flooded to an, unknown to all but Hagrid, unusually high size, which would cause some severe difficulties crossing the lake and mooring later, but decided to focus on the fact that leaving the bay would be easy. His memories were drawn back to times when the little, mosquito infested bay consisted out of nothing but a few puddles, a silty underground littered with shellfish-covered rocks and the first-years had to help him haul the boats over to the estuary.
The usual mosquitoes weren't out - probably to spare their fragile wings from the heavy rainfall - and a fresh smell of wet earth and basil was faintly leaking out of the woods surrounding the intrepid boat-riders. Harry was sitting on a rickety boat - it was a wonder the boat hadn't already collapsed probably due to some hard spellwork - that was way too small, so all their legs and feet were pressed together, a pleasure for Daphne, Harry and strangely enough Malfoy, who was squeezed against the hook-faced girl and the front of the boat. It was unfortunate, though, for Ron and Hermione, who were trying to move a far away from each other as possible and Neville, who sat next to Hermione, happily reaped the benefits of their discomfort. It was only because the rain made their cheeks raw and red, their hair stick to their faces and the slowly fading sunlight from behind the clouds that they weren't able to notice the blushing - or in Hermione's and Ron's case flushed - faces. As they slowly made their way towards the lake - they were about halfway and no-one dared to break the silence, Harry decided to look at the situation on the different boats, conveniently allowing him to look over Daphne's shoulder and noticed the enormous variety of groups. There were four or five boats with mixed groups, precariously avoiding to touch each other too much, but failing without exception - Harry didn't really see the point of sitting on a boat in mixed groups if you didn't want to be touching each other. There were three boat quite literally filled to the brim with big, burly boys (in a traditional school they would be called the footballers) speaking, perhaps just grunting together. A bit farther away there was a group of girls talking away animatedly and bursting into giggles after seeing him look their way. 'Blimey' Malfoy said 'those were some high waves!' 'Pheh,' Daphne interjected 'I do agree with you there, Draco' Hermione responded with a snort and a pretentious voice, 'Well, if you had read Hogwarts: A History, you would have known that on at least thirty-eight separate occasions, the water was much higher than this. In 1873 five first-years were even found dead!' 'You can say what you want, Hermione, but I'm bloody happy those waves don't reach us anymore!' Ron said, sounding relieved.
The conversation had drifted back and forth, mostly falling apart in Malfoy, Harry and Daphne talking, Hermione, Neville and Ron talking together talking, but at times Harry and Ron started talking, leaving Daphne and Malfoy in a deep conversation 'Look over there' Harry said after a while pointing at the contours of a castle looming up ahead in the distance, which magically appeared when they had left the foliage behind them, drawing all the attention and starting a huge fit of oohing and ahhing. 'That's quite some castle' Neville said elated. 'Well, in 1786-' Hermione tried to respond, what Malfoy, however, interrupted sneeringly saying 'Spare us the boring details, just shut up and enjoy the sight.' They all took Malfoy's tip to heart; they all looked intently at the castle with many turrets. Harry saw the castle was on top of a big jagged expanse of rock - probably flattened out on the surface and rose high up in the sky the many turrets, probably twenty, stuck out at odd angels with slanted roofs. The base was covered green by moss and lichen and brown by age-old rust and the walls were covered in windows, sparkling radiantly with magic. He saw many birds of prey flying over or nesting one the high towers, looking down hungrily at the new assortment of fresh food - the first years. Around the castle was a great stretch of land, probably grassy, with parts branching out all around, some even to the east side of the lake (the leeside), where there were no rocks, but a sandy beach and a whole bunch of trees: Ash, willows a huge knobby one Harry didn't know the name of. To the west of the castle there were enormous woods stretching as far as the eye could see sloping up into some huge, ice-capped mountains.
They finally neared the castle and a lot of people were wondering how they would scale the deep black slate of rock, sticking out uninvitingly or even come close to it, without the boats crashing and breaking (the waves were quickly getting more powerful now), when the boats suddenly stopped in their tracks. Hagrid now stood up and swung his wand impressively, precariously balancing on his tiny boat shooting streams of water out of the way of the boats and, somehow, lowering the level of the water one foot, then two, then four feet below the level of the rest of the lake, uncovering a previously hidden cave (still covered in different, colourful seaweeds and kelp, with plenty shellfish shells hanging down, giving it the look of an oriental curtain with beads). His wand was furiously vibrating due to the effort of maintaining his spellwork as if he were casting himself there before all the water and was personally pushing it away. Swinging his wand around, he simultaneously forced his boat to the mouth of the cave, jumped up on the land, in doing so shattering his boat, which he fixed which a thoughtless flick of the wand and proceeded forcing away the water, now standing on more stable ground. 'Yeh hurry up now' he said in a shaking voice at all the kids partly frozen in indecision, partly in awe of the impressive display of magic, who jumped off the boats in an almost scared manner. 'Will you let go of my hand now, Harry' Daphne said semi-scolding and half laughingly - they hadn't stopped holding hands after the water had stilled. Harry jumped up, looked at his hand, into Daphne's face and let go of the hand he had forgotten he was holding. One by one they filled up the cave behind Hagrid. 'Yeh go up those stairs now, I'll be up there in a minute.'
Harry walked up the slippery, covered with seaweed - it had been underwater of the better part of a month - and very, very small and steep steps and was forced upward by an enormous mass of hungry children, which incidentally prevented him falling, what would have been quite easy due to the lack of railing. After a few minutes or so in cramped claustrophobia, Harry and his fellow students stood, many lied, gasping for air out on an enormous, grassy courtyard not at all minding the mud or wrappers sniffing up the thick air, having their nausea and seasickness being flushed away by the cold night air and the occasional, thick raindrop. Many looked up to the huge castle towering up like one of the many skyscrapers in London. Hagrid, his forehead beaded with sweat and with an air of exhaustion, lead them up to the enormous steps at the front of the castle and swung open the enormous doors.
A/N Should I make Draco fall in love with anyone (repriprocally or not), for example with Harry or Hermione or even Daphne? Give suggestions please if you do/don't want to see something like that!