Part I: The Boy-Who-Lived
One: The World That Does Not Know Him
When the habitants of the Wizarding World pictured their saviour, they pictured a young, wide eyed boy who was the spitting image of either his mother or his father. He would be brash and talented, eager to prove himself to those who saw him, and undeniably determined in all matters requiring bravery and heroics.
Said wizards and witches would also be the first to admit that they didn't quite picture a quiet, understated brunette with large doe eyes and spiky, yet oddly fluffy hair. He wasn't impetuous or eager and people doubted he would be even sorted into Gryffindor, the proud House of his parents. Most, once setting eyes on him, immediately pegged him as an obediently loyal Hufflepuff.
The truth of the matter was simple. Harry Potter was Tsunayoshi Sawada, or better yet, Tsunayoshi Sawada was Harry Potter. They were one in the same and yet, the moment people set their eyes on him, the illusions that the wizarding world had about their saviour were dashed. How could this meek looking child be the one who slayed their greatest evil? Well, the answers to that particular question were varied, and most doubted that they would ever know the full truth.
Either way, it was poor Tsunayoshi Sawada who was the doe eyed, quiet boy who stood alone in King's Cross Station searching for a way onto the platform that was written on his train ticket. He was utterly confused, still adjusting to the potion that had allowed him instant access to the English language.
"Is it safe?" had been his first thought when the potion had been shoved into his trembling hands.
"Temporary," was the unhelpful reply. Temporary could mean so many things. However, in the end, it did work, so Tsunayoshi counted that as a win. Even if it made his eyes blur when reading and his writing was still not as fluid as it probably ought to be.
You must understand one thing about Tsunayoshi. He was Japanese, at least, he grew up in Japan surrounded by a Japanese family he thought was his own, in a Japanese town, populated by Japanese people, attending a Japanese school, fluently speaking the Japanese language and writing everything in Japanese characters. It had barely been one month since his eleventh birthday at the end of July and so almost one month since he had learned that he was actually a member of a secret magical society that was scattered across the world. He was a wizard, or so the giant man named Hagrid had explained to him. The couple he had come to only reluctantly call mother and father were technically only distant relatives. The same was true for his older, more talented not-brother. The three people he had been forced to live with for the past eleven years were nothing more than a pseudo-family. He wasn't even Japanese! At least, he didn't think he was, going by what Hagrid had told him.
It was all extremely confusing, how everyone related to everyone else. His real parents were Lily and James Potter, two real-life British magical folks who had been murdered by an equally magical megalomaniac. Again, the story was confusing and Tsuna had a difficult time understanding even half of it. Something about a Dark Lord and a Killing Curse, and his special lightning bolt shaped scar that was smack dab in the centre of his forehead and was like a homing beacon for every wizard he had met thus far. He had survived where everyone else had died and therefore, he had the pleasure of becoming something akin to a hero.
Either way, Tsuna was standing, surrounded by oblivious travellers in one of the largest train stations in a country he had never visited before. He was carrying with him a trolley that held his trunk, his bag and his newly acquired cat, Natsu. Just in front of him was a pillar that had Platform Nine on one side and Platform Ten on the other. Where was Platform Nine and Three Quarters? Was there even such a thing? Was this all one enormous prank pulled on him by his less than loving family? He hoped not because for a moment he had believed that not everyone on this earth hated him. That feeling of acceptance was one he was not so willing to let go.
He decided to ask a friendly looking woman standing a few feet from him.
"Excuse me, ma'am, but how do I get onto Platform Nine and Three Quarters?" His words were thought up in Japanese, but somewhere between thinking them and speaking them, they'd been turned into some strangely accented version of English that he could somewhat understand. The feeling was rather unpleasant, Tsuna had come to realize.
The woman, meanwhile, carrying a young child, scowled at him the moment the question registered in her mind and left him standing there with his trolley. Now he had to find someone else to help him find the seemingly nonexistent platform.
Just when the eleven-year-old was about to give up, a woman pushed through the throng of people around him, flanked on either side by two children around his age who could pass as twins. Both had the same odd style of hair. The girl was dressed in pale green clothes and wore an unfortunate eye patch over her right eye. The boy was dressed in a dark green jacket, with a pale blue shirt beneath, a terrible scowl marring what would otherwise be quite handsome features.
"Why are we using the muggle way? Last year we just apparated onto the platform. It would be so much easier."
Muggle. The word that Hagrid had used to describe those who did not have magic. Wizard, Tsuna's mind supplied.
"Mukuro, dear, you know how your sister gets with side-along apparition. She can't handle it." The woman barely glanced at her son as she finally paused and looked around her. She was standing at the brick column between the platforms nine and ten. "You go first, hon. Your sister and I will follow." The boy smirked and pushed his trunk through the wall. Tsuna hadn't been expecting it and was stunned. "You better be waiting on the other side, young man!" she called just as the hem of his pant leg disappeared through the solid, or not so solid, brick.
"Um . . ." Tsuna walked towards the woman who didn't appear all too kind, but apparently knew how to get where he wanted to be. "Excuse me!" Tsuna yelled over the sound of the non-magical people around him. "Excuse me!" The woman, appearing to be trying to ignore him, finally realized that she could no longer and finally gazed at him in the eye.
"Hello, child. And where are your parents?" Tsuna swallowed, catching a glance of the purple haired girl hiding behind her mother, a stuffed snowy owl clenched tightly in her arms.
"Uh, not h-here," he said nervously. It was sadly true, for both sets of parents. "I was just wondering . . . if you knew h-how to get onto Platform Nine and Three Quarters?"
"Ah, not a muggle, then. It must be your first time going to Hogwarts? It's Chrome's first time, too." Chrome leaned around her mother and gave Tsuna a look over before sliding back behind her. "She has a chronic shyness that healers simply cannot get rid of, so you'll have to excuse her behavior. Now, you just need to run through the wall there, right in the middle, and you'll be on the platform. You can walk it, if you'd like, but running's best if you haven't done it before."
Tsuna nodded his thanks and did as the woman had directed him, running, trunk and all, through the wall. When he opened the eyes he didn't realize he had closed, he saw before him a gleaming, scarlet steam engine. White vapor rose from a spot up top and golden letters proudly proclaimed that it was the Hogwarts Express. He gazed on in awe, forgetting the two women who were to follow him through the wall until the collided with him, Chrome flailing over him and his trunk falling off the trolley.
"H-Hiie! I'm sorry!" Tsuna struggled to attempt to help the fallen girl. Moments later, the girl's mother was there, but she had avoided a second collision.
"It's alright," Chrome's mother said sharply as she used her wand (oh, we actually use that thing!?) to clean up the mess of Tsuna's fallen and trunk, and then lent a hand to help Chrome stand. "It was nice meeting you . . . ?"
Tsuna swallowed. He had made the conscious decision on the way to London that he'd rather not be known by the name that was apparently actually his real name. He didn't like the name Harry, for more reasons than one.
"Sawa—er, Tsuna. My name is Tsuna Sawada." Despite the potion, his Japanese habit of saying last names first remained and he had to consciously remind himself that in English speaking places, his family name did not come first.
"It was nice meeting you, Tsuna. Enjoy your school year. Now come along, Chrome. Your brother seems to have disappeared on us."
As Chrome and her mother disappeared into the crowd of wizards, Tsuna took a moment to look at the sights and acknowledge the sounds around him. This magical station seemed so different compared to its Muggle counterpart.
The people were the main difference, dressed mostly in long flourishing robes of various colors, though there were some who remained in Muggle clothing. Well over half of the people were children, wishing their parents goodbye before getting into the long red train which was, according to the clock on the column adjacent to him, set to depart in fifteen minutes.
Tsuna glanced around, his mind narrowing in on several groups. The furthest from him was an older woman and a chubby brunette boy around his age. The woman seemed old enough to be the boy's grandmother and her clothing seemed ancient and tasteless. The vulture (stuffed, it seemed) in her hat was cringeworthy. The way she slapped the boy on his shoulder made him turn away, uncomfortable.
A few metres away there was an older gentleman speaking to a teenage boy. This man, too, seemed old enough to be the boy's grandfather with elegantly styled silver hair and a long cane. He was dressed to the nines in a pinstripe suit and was speaking to the older teen with overwhelming longing in his eyes. The boy himself was tall and wearing mostly black. His hair was spiked slightly, a dark tan dyeing his skin several shades darker than he already was. He responded to all the older man's affections with a glare. Many men surrounded these two, dressed in dark suits and glasses. They were attempting to be inconspicuous, but they were far from it. Tsuna's eyes slid over them, a part of him acknowledging that this farewell deserved more privacy than it was afforded.
Nearby, someone was shouting at the top of their lungs. Each loud decibel reverberated through Tsuna's skull causing him to search for the source of it. It turned out to be yet another older male student. This time he had long silver hair, something he must have been growing out for a long time. He was shouting at some frizzy haired girl who looked as if she had accidentally walked right into him.
Hiie! What a mean guy!
Deciding that he should get a spot on the train lest he be stuck sitting with a group of people he'd rather not, Tsuna quickly got his luggage where it needed to be before climbing onto the scarlet train. He wandered down the main hallway, glancing in at already occupied compartments and more chatting students. Most of them looked well acquainted with each other, so he found himself searching for an empty compartment.
Eventually, about three quarters into the train, he found what he was looking for. He settled himself into it and stared out the window, watching the people he had seen earlier as they finally managed to separate themselves from their families and board the train, too.
The train whistled again, signalling that it was about to leave the station. Children hung out the windows, waving goodbye to their parents before, with a large surge, the train moved forward. It was slow at first, but, before long, they were out of the station and moving into the city.
There was a knock on the frosted glass pane of his compartment not moments after the train had begun its journey. Tsuna glanced up, surprised. It was the chubby brunette who had been talking to the vulture woman on the platform. Up close, Tsuna noted that he was very obviously nervous, but he had a very kind looking face.
"I'm sorry," he said quietly. "I was hoping that this compartment was empty. I'll go find another."
Just as he was turning to exit, Tsuna stopped the boy, surprising even himself as he yelped out a hurried, "Wait!" The boy did pause in response, much to Tsuna's relief. "S-Sorry, but you could stay here. If you'd like, I mean. I won't force you. Really. I just . . . don't want to hog a whole compartment. So if you want. It would be nice to have someone to talk to. Er . . ." Tsuna nervously rubbed the back of his head, cheeks turning redder with every passing second that the other boy eyed him.
The boy he assumed was his agemate seemed unsure, almost as much as Tsuna was, but he still sat down after hesitating for the briefest of seconds.
"I suppose we should introduce ourselves," the other boy finally murmured. "I'm Neville Longbottom, first year."
"Oh! I'm T-Tsunayoshi Sawada. I'm a first year, t-too." Neville smiled at him, his splotchy face lighting up at the idea of a kindred spirit in nerves.
"It's nice to meet you Tu-na-yoe-shee," Neville attempted. Tsuna smiled back, happy that he wasn't the only one who didn't seem good at this socializing thing.
"Tsu-na-yo-shi," Tsuna repeated. "It's a Japanese name," he explained. "Most people just call me Dame—um, I mean, Tsuna. Just Tsuna." Neville nodded gratefully and repeated the shortened name a few times until he managed to say it without butchering it.
"Sorry," Neville apologized for how long it took him to get his new friend's name right.
"It's okay," Tsuna responded back, truly not minding that the English boy had made the mistake. "It's r-really not the worst thing t-to have happened to me. I mean, it's nice that someone is being so nice." Neville looked rather concerned at those words, but there something akin to agreement in his expression. Just when he was about to open his mouth to respond, the compartment door opened without so much as a knock.
A student, one Tsuna recognized as the frizzy haired brunette girl who'd run into the silver haired boy on the train platform, entered. She was already in her school robes, new ones, by their looks, and appeared quite frazzled and nervous. Therefore, she was in perfect company. Tsuna and Neville were still treading around each other with only slightly abated nerves.
"I'm T-Tsunayoshi Sawada," he introduced, voice trembling with said unconquered nerves. "But everyone calls me Tsuna," he added, going red.
"Neville Longbottom." Neville, Tsuna realized, was almost too much like him. He was quiet and easily just as terrified of this world as he was. "We're first years."
"I'm Hermione Granger, first year." Even though she tried to hide it, there was a slight tremor to her voice and once more, Tsuna hoped that here was a third person attending Hogwarts for the first time who didn't seem to reek of false confidence.
"Nice t-to meet you," Tsuna said as the girl sat down. Neville shifted next to Tsuna and Hermione sat on her own opposite the two boys. For a few moments everyone stared at each other.
"So, do you all know what house you want to be in? I want to be in Gryffindor or Ravenclaw." And then the ice was shattered. Hermione began to babble on about the qualities of each house, barely pausing for breath, gaining confidence the more she rambled. The other two children in the compartment silently stared, but they were not unhappy with the turn of events. Eventually, though, the girl slowed and waited for the answer to the question she had asked what felt like ages before. What house did they want to be in?
Neville started, barely seeming to miss a beat. "Gryffindor, like my family. I think my Gran would have a heart attack if I wasn't in my parents' house. She thought I was a Squib for a while." The boy blushed at his sudden confession. "Though I'll probably be in Hufflepuff."
"What's a Squib?" Tsuna wondered aloud.
Hermione jumped in to explain. "A non-magical person born to magical parents. The opposite of a muggleborn."
Tsuna formed a small 'o' with his mouth before nodding and looking over to Neville. The boy with the hidden lightning bolt scar smiled at his new acquaintance. He truly felt like he had found someone like him. A comrade. Almost every word (kind of unfortunately, for Neville) seemed to reaffirm this thought.
"I'm sure you'll find a house that fits," Hermione said with a small frown clearly picking up on the same lack of confidence Tsuna himself was seeing. "And you, Tsuna?"
"Er . . . from what y-you said I'm probably a Hufflep-puff." He rubbed the back of his head and smiled sheepishly. Nobody argued. They really couldn't. Everything, from his anxious stutter to the way he seemed to tuck into himself screamed the House of the Badgers.
"So, Tsuna, out of curiosity, where are you from? Your name doesn't sound British." Hermione, what a wonderfully perceptive girl.
"It isn't," he muttered, absently wondering why a foreign sounding name automatically meant that he was not from Britain. Still he would answer the girl, because she was right, if one ignored technicalities. "I was raised in Japan. I didn't actually speak any English until I was given a potion which allowed me to."
"That's odd. I would have thought that Japan had its own magical school. Most countries or continents do." Tsuna did not bother explaining under what circumstances he was going to Hogwarts. He was positive they would all eventually learn why, but until something forced the truth to come out, he would keep it hidden. If Hagrid had been right in saying that he was practically famous, that is (and so far, from his experience in Diagon Alley, this was turning out to be true). "But the fact that you were given a language potion is really cool! Did you know that they only use those in pressing matters due to the number of side effects that they cause?" And Hermione was at it again, blabbing away about the pros and cons of language potions and how it was incredibly rare that they would have even considered giving Tsuna one. And Tsuna just smiled and nodded, hoping to whatever higher being out there that she would not pick up on the smaller points of his circumstance.
The train ride went much like the first five minutes of them all meeting. Hermione would ask a question, rush in to answer it first and then wait for the others to quickly add in their own thoughts. Neville would stutter and blush as he answered, usually embarrassed of the answer. Tsuna would be trying to make sense of half the words that came from their mouths, unsure of half the terms that they were using before giving up and asking them to explain certain things. Between Neville who'd been raised in magical society and Hermione who'd read every book she could get her hands on, he was well covered in terms of the wider aspects of wizarding life.
Still, despite Hermione's know-it-all chattering and Neville's constant nervous fidget, Tsuna was oddly relaxed. For once in his life, he could sit in content silence and just listen, nodding along and adding his very limited opinions when prompted.
However, their odd interview-like conversation only lasted about half the train ride before Neville realised that he had lost his toad. Hermione and Neville left to find it while Tsuna remained behind to keep their claim on their compartment.
Tsuna disappeared into his thoughts. Hermione was like him, almost like Neville was, but in a fairly different way. She was from a muggle family and had never heard of the secret wizard society until she had received her letter. Unlike him, she had been desperate to fit in to this newly discovered world and had read as much as she could, soaking up the information until she could vomit it all back up at a moment's notice. Tsuna had never fit in and had figured that there was really no point in trying. He was surprised he had even a single person willing to talk to him, let alone two, but he figured that as soon as they realized what a hopeless, no-good klutz he was, they would probably distance themselves from him anyways. Just like everyone else did.
Tsuna sighed at how pathetic he was. He really wasn't even going to try and keep these people as his friends?
Well, he could try, but experience had taught him that it really wasn't up to him in the end. Everyone he had tried to befriend in the past had quickly decided that poor No-Good Tsuna was not worth their time and abandoned him. It really would not be long before he was abandoned, just like he was every time he thought he had made a new friend.
The compartment doors opened suddenly. Tsuna jumped, looking up at the doors, expecting either Hermione or Neville but instead seeing a vaguely familiar pale boy tailed by two larger ones. The pale boy was clearly the leader of the group. His hair was practically white and slick, his eyes light and searching. His two guards were like clones. Both were tall, rotund and seemed to be lacking in the mental department. It took Tsuna a second to recognize where it was that he knew their leader. He had been in Diagon Alley, in the shop where Tsuna had been fitted for his school robes, and talked to him about Quidditch, and other, less savoury, topics.
The blonde boy eyed Tsuna, but clearly did not like what he saw. Still, he opened his mouth to speak, revealing a set of pearly white teeth.
"Word is that Harry Potter is coming to Hogwarts this year. Have you seen him?" His tone was as cool as his appearance. Tsuna shivered, instinctively shaking his head before remembering that he was not actually Tsunayoshi Sawada and that yes, he had seen Harry Potter because he was Harry Potter. Still, he doubted this boy's intentions were any good and stuck with his negative response.
"Shame. Been up and down almost this whole train and no one has seen or heard anything. It's rather odd." The boy scoffed.
Tsuna bowed his head, ensuring that the small lightning bolt on his forehead was hidden beneath his spiky bangs. "I guess."
The blonde boy suddenly recognized Tsuna. "You're that boy from Madam Malkin's." He sneered. Clearly, when Tsuna had fallen off the stool during his fitting, he had not left a good impression. Tsuna was also, apparently, not worthy of the boy's attention. "Crabbe, Goyle, come on." The boy left the compartment. Tsuna did his best to ignore his trembling fists.
Hermione and Neville returned minutes later. Unfortunately, neither had found Neville's toad, Trevor.
"I did speak to the driver, though," Hermione added at the end of her explanation of the various people she'd met, most of whom seemed quite nice. "He said we'll be arriving soon. You should probably get your robes on."
Neville and Tsuna both hurried off to the boy's bathroom at the end of the train and into separate stalls. Neither of the two boys were confident in their own bodies, clearly, to even consider just changing in their compartment.
Tsuna admired himself in the mirror for a few minutes, marvelling at the feel of clothes made especially for him. He was used to hand-me-downs. Sure, wizarding style was vastly different from muggle style with its swathes of fabric and length, but it was comfortable and fun to walk around in. Neville, who had already been dressed in wizarding robes as he came from a pureblood family, merely looked a bit sharper in his pure black robes. The two boys smiled uncomfortably at each other before going back to their compartment.
Only about ten minutes after the group reunited, the train was pulling into the station. The sky had grown dark in the thirty minutes the final stretch of the journey had taken, but the lights of the town shined brightly, illuminating the station platform. Students flooded the platform in seconds and were corralled toward some more lights in the distance.
As Tsuna stepped off the train, his compartment mates following closely behind him, he gaped slightly at the pure volume of people milling about. At the station in London, there really hadn't seemed to be so many students, mostly just families. But here, it was obvious that there really were just that many students.
Hermione tugged on Tsuna's robes, causing him to flinch. The girl made a strange face but said only what she was planning on saying. "Tsuna, hurry up, they're calling for First Years over there." Tsuna suddenly became aware of the fact that he was blocking the exit to the train and Hermione was right; not too far from where he was, a man was calling for first year students in a deep, rumbling voice. Tsuna's ears perked up as he recognized the familiar slur of letters and the dropping of others. Hagrid.
Tsuna hurried over as quickly as he could, happy that the giant was there. He was something that was at least partially familiar in a sea of strange and unknown. Hagrid was the one who'd taken him away from his pathetic life in a swirl of magic and kindness.
Hagrid, black eyes like large shiny beads obscured by his wiry beard of the same colour, took note of Tsuna's presence and thankfully only nodded his head in greeting. Tsuna smiled at him.
Once most of the platform was cleared, the giant man led the Tsuna and his fellow first years in the opposite direction of where the older students had gone. The boy panicked. Was this part of their initiation? Were they going to have to fight something to prove that they were magical? Swear an oath? Perform a ritual? Tsuna really did not want to dance naked under the moonlight.
The nerves that Tsuna had been quelling all day suddenly surged through him once more. Even if he didn't know how to use it, the brunette held his wand tightly in trembling fingers. The phoenix core seemed to grow warm in his grip but did nothing more to offer comfort.
Despite his worries, however, Tsuna realized that there wasn't much to fear except the dark depths of the enormous lake that was surrounding them the moment they had broken through the line of pines. Directly in front of where they had exited the woods was a lit dock with several small boats floating ominously beside it, ready to be boarded and possibly sink as soon as they had travelled any significant distance. They didn't seem overly sturdy, but Tsuna assumed there had to be some type of magic involved. Otherwise, he took it back—there was most definitely something to fear.
But then his gaze shifted upwards and he wondered how he had missed it. Up above him, perched on a rocky cliff and across the glittering, moonlit waters, was a large castle, glowing warmly through the night, beckoning with its promises of home and comfort. Towers and spires reached up for the stars, their height only evident because of the hundreds of windows that allowed for the escape of orange light. Were they classrooms? Hallways? His mind reeled as he took in the vision that seemed to come straight out of a story book. What must it appear to look like during the day?
Tsuna's awed attention was ripped away when Hagrid, kindly and with much excitement, ordered the new students to get into the boats. Three children per boat, which worked out perfectly—Tsuna and his two new friends could fit into one. Tsuna sat with Neville behind Hermione. He didn't miss how his mates looked down at the water that was so close beside them, neither appearing comfortable with how deep it looked even this close to shore.
And then Hagrid made a motion and the boats were treading across black water. The castle that had been looming in the distance was soon hovering above them, threatening to fall upon them. Tsuna's chocolate eyes didn't leave its main tower until the rocky cliff interrupted his view.
Their mini fleet had just gone into the mouth of a giant cave whose home was beneath the stony precipices supporting the castle. Its entrance had been obscured by a thick curtain of ivy whose tips dangled in the water beneath. The cave itself was lit by torches and held a sturdier dock than the one at which they had boarded.
The boats required no steering to line themselves up at the dock so that the students could unload themselves. Some students, like Tsuna, looked around with eyes misted with curiosity. Others were anxious about the door, the only way in or out of the cave. Hermione had taken up babbling again. Tsuna only needed a moment to spy Neville who was nodding uncomfortably every few moments to whatever the brunette girl was saying.
A woman dressed in emerald green robes had entered at some point when Tsuna was busy analyzing the cave. She was tall and thin, her wrinkled face angular, her greying hair pulled back tightly and tucked beneath a hat of matching green that was completed with a long feather. She must have been something akin to pretty in her younger years, Tsuna thought. Now, however, she was watching them all with stern hawk eyes.
"If you would all be so kind as to quiet down," she projected into the cave. The children, recognizing the woman's authority, quieted. "Thank you. I am Professor McGonagall, head of Gryffindor House and teacher of Transfiguration at Hogwarts. In a few moments, I will lead you upstairs to the Great Hall where you will be sorted into your Houses. Your Houses will be like your family during your years here. You will sleep, eat and attend classes with them. There are four Houses: Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin." Tsuna's ears perked up at her dislike for the last house. Then again, during their discussions on the train, it seemed as if everyone held that house in distaste. It was strictly reserved for the sly trouble makers. Like that platinum blond boy that he'd met twice now, but whose name was still a mystery.
"Thank you, Hagrid," the professor continued. The giant nodded his head before hurrying off through the door. "If you would all follow me."
The air surrounding the eleven-year-olds was now heavy with excitement and dread. This was the moment that would dictate how their seven years at Hogwarts School would be. What if something went wrong and he didn't belong to any house? What if his very presence here was a mistake? What if he wasn't even Harry Potter?! Hiiie!
They went two by two up old stone steps and came out of the cave to a large, arched entry way. Right beside them was a set of tall wooden doors, so huge that it was as if they had taken giants into account when building them. They were closed, however, there was cool air coming through the gap beneath the door that led Tsuna to believe that these were the front doors to the castle.
After telling them to wait, McGonagall disappeared, leaving the anxious eleven-year-olds to stand and wait. During this wait, the blond boy from the train, still closely watched by his two oversized bodyguards, made a point to say that Harry Potter was supposed to be in their year. Other students, understanding the significance of this statement chattered with excitement, everyone responding by making eye contact with as many students as possible, hoping to be the one to point the Boy-Who-Lived out to the crowd. Tsuna only felt himself shrinking back. Why was Harry Potter such a big deal? Tsuna understood what Hagrid had told him about his supposed heroics, but honestly. Sure, the mad man that had practically torn apart magical Britain had vanished that night in his house, but he had just been a baby. How could he have done anything? He couldn't even remember anything!
This was one of many moments where Tsuna doubted his newly revealed identity. He had been one, supposedly, when Voldemort had been defeated, and yet he had always been led to believe that he was born and raised in Japan. He could not associate with his baby self. He had always believed that he had never even been outside Japan, so how could he be the child who had defeated the one man that all British wizards trembled at the thought of? There was an incredible disconnect and, boy, was it an uncomfortable one.
"We are ready for you now." McGonagall had returned in a flurry of brilliant green robes and had pushed open two more doors, not as large as the ones Tsuna had first noted, but still a great deal larger than any you would find in a house, let alone a mansion.
The sight she revealed upon pushing the doors open was warm and welcoming. A grand hall with five long tables, four stretching the length of the hall and one at the end, perpendicular to the others and far shorter. Students dressed in black robes with small coloured crests on their breasts watched them intently as they filed between the two centre tables. Hermione's chuntering quickened as her nerves worsened in response to the hundreds of eyes upon them. Tsuna caught something about the ceiling and so, turned his gaze upwards and realized what the girl was muttering about.
Directly above him, despite the tall beams that rose from the floor beside him and should have obscured the ceiling, was the night sky exactly as he'd seen it on the boat. It was dark blue and speckled with thousands of white stars that twinkled and winked at him. It was beautiful, a sight he would remember as one of most vivid from that night.
His sky gazing, however, led to their arrival at the front of the hall coming quicker than it should have. He was so scared, he was shaking, and his hands were embarrassingly clammy.
In front of an ornate owl-decorated podium and just before the few steps that led up to what Tsuna assumed was the staff table, was a simple stool which supported a ratty old hat. Tsuna's eyes travelled between said hat and the man he realized could only be the headmaster sitting front and centre at the staff table.
He was an old man, older than McGonagall, even. The clean white beard that disappeared beneath the surface of the table was enough to prove his age. His robes were plum coloured, matching his long, droopy hat. But his eyes, even at this distance, Tsuna could tell, were watching him behind half-moon spectacles. Tsuna looked away, uncomfortable.
Just at that moment, a large crease on the ratty old hat on the stool opened and words came out. Despite most of the first years' confusion, everyone else in the hall watched with avid interest.
The hat was rhyming, its words a description of each house and what their founders had valued. It was information he had already gathered on the train, but still Tsuna was fascinated. Had the hat sat around all year to think of this song? Or had someone else written it and bewitched the hat to sing it? What were the limits of magic? Could it truly do anything?
When the hat had finished its poem, the hall broke into applause. The first years joined in hesitantly before McGonagall, still standing beside the hat, pulled a roll of parchment from her robes. Her eyes skimmed it and then she began to read off names.
Students that were called practically ran up the steps before seating themselves on the stool so the aged professor could place the hat upon their heads. Tsuna's mind briefly drifted to thoughts of lice before he understood suddenly how they were sorted.
Susan Bones, one of the first to be sorted had sat down for only a few seconds when the hat, using the same crease as before, shouted out Hufflepuff. The hat was deciding their house. Tsuna wondered how legitimate this practice was. How could a hat, something completely unalive, decide where students from various backgrounds with various habits and traits would go? It seemed wrong and almost inappropriate. To Tsuna, at least.
McGonagall ran through the list. The first of his compartment mates to be sorted was Hermione, with the last name Granger. Her steps were more careful and precise, probably so that she would not trip on the way up (to which Tsuna reminded himself he should do the same). The hat came down on her head, sitting over the bushiness of her hair and covering her eyes. There was complete and utter silence as they waited for the hat to shout out the name of a house.
A few minutes ticked by and just when Tsuna was wondering if they were going to be there all night, the hat's creased parted and it shouted, "Gryffindor!"
Hermione, after McGonagall had removed the hat, scurried down the steps to the cheering table just behind them.
A few more names were called before it was Neville's turn. He was just as nervous as every other student climbing the few steps to the stool. He sat down on it and the hat, too, fell over his eyes, too big for his head.
As silence overtook the hall for the second time that night, Tsuna hoped feverishly that Neville got his wish and made it into Gryffindor. The Japanese-raised boy understood as well as anyone what unmet expectations could do to a child. If the pudgy boy ended up in any House besides Gryffindor, the poor boy's heart would break.
He took a similar amount of time to Hermione before the hat called out, "Gryffindor!" in much of the same manner as it had for their female friend. Tsuna himself released a sigh of relief. Neville himself was so excited to have been sorted into the same house as his family that he ran down the steps before the professor could remove the hat from his head. He had to go back up, red with embarrassment, to return it.
McGonagall was going through the letters of the alphabet too quickly for Tsuna's liking. Sure, he was curious as to what house he would go to, even if he was already sure that it would probably be Hufflepuff, but he wanted to know what it was like to wear the hat.
What he had forgotten about when they reached the P's, however, was that as a wizarding hero, he was most likely registered under that name that he felt no connection with. So, when McGonagall opened her mouth to speak and the name rolled off her tongue with well-practised familiarity, Tsuna was suddenly white as a sheet. He was shaking and he couldn't move. Students began whispering.
McGonagall repeated the name. "Harry Potter!"
Tsunayoshi Sawada, also known as Harry Potter, stepped out from the remaining group of unsorted children, prepared for the worst.
Author's Note: So, we have got ourselves a nice mix bag of characters here. Tsuna, Hermione, Neville, Mukuro and Chrome, so far. Who else do you think is going to be going to Hogwarts? Who do you want to see? Who do you not want to see? Of course, I also want to hear your predictions for the future.
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