Harry, Ginny Hermione and Ron were sitting in the Great Hall of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry waiting for the sorting of the new students and the beginning of term feast. The seating arrangement was that Ron was seated on Harry's left Ginny on his right with Hermione on her right, Hermione was intending to avoid Ron as much as possible, or at least as long as it took for him to stop pursuing her as a possible romantic interest. Ginny was quite disgusted the way that some members of her family had been treating Hermione, she had told Hermione as much on the way up to the castle by the Thestral drawn carriages, that again Harry was the only one on the carriage that could see them. Harry was at that moment glancing at his watch, he had gotten a new one from Hermione the other year after his first one had been rendered useless in the Triwizard Tournament, he noticed that the first years were arriving a little late this year, he tried to quiet the voice in the back of his mind that said that something had happened to them. Suddenly the doors to the Great Hall were thrown open and a visibly shaken McGonagall strode in at the head of the terrified first years, it was then Lavender Brown, one of Harry and co's fellow Gryffindor's exclaimed "Who is that?" Most of the people at the table, and indeed the Great Hall looked around and there was Rags, completely drenched and missing his over robe, in his right hand he was holding his equally drenched school jumper. He was standing behind the long line of first years, but there was a diminutive shape that kept rather close to him, this shape Hermione realised, was none other than an equally drenched first year girl, who at the moment was smothered in Rags' much larger school robe in order to keep her warm and safe from chills. Rags being drenched gave the female population of Hogwarts a completely unrestricted view of his physique, something Hermione was slightly embarrassed to say she joined in. Her earlier appraisal of his physical appearance was not quite on the money, his arms biceps, triceps and forearms were much larger and much more heavily muscled than she thought, and his chest and torso had most of the girls over third year drooling. She also noticed that his chest and abs were in the same condition as his arms, with his abs sporting an impressive eight-pack. "Ooh baby, please let him be a Gryffindor" said Lavender with a side look at some of the other girls in their house who all nodded their heads in agreement, what they didn't notice as that Hermione was also nodding her head too. McGonagall went up to the head table and had a quit conversation with Dumbledore, the Headmaster stood up and signalled for silence. "Welcome back students for another year of magical education, normally we would go straight into the sorting, but it appears that something has already happened this early in the year that merits some attention. Professor Hagrid will tell us what has happened."

Flashback: Rags POV

Rags was sitting in one of the boats with the first years heading towards the great castle of Hogwarts, a boat he decided he was completely unsuited being in, seeing as it was designed for first years and he was turning seventeen later that year. Glancing around he noticed that the lake was becoming quite rough, taking a glance at the large figure of Hagrid in the lead boat, and noticing that the teacher appeared to be unconcerned by the sailing conditions, leaned back and thought upon the eventful train ride from London.

He was smiling to himself at the thought of punching out the arrogant Malfoy when over the sound of the waves he heard a short scream. A squeaky male voice called out as loudly as they could "Help please, that girl just fell in." There was a figure in one of the boats pointing at a struggling shape in the lake, a figure that apparently lost the battle to stay afloat and was soon lost beneath the surface, a quick glance at Hagrid confirmed his fears that the half-giant, he assumed he was thus upon seeing the size of the man, was not in a position to do anything, shrugged out of his outer robe, Rags drew his wand from the holster strapped to his left arm, under his school shirt, and dived into the murky water.

'Great move Ragnar you moron, you can't see under the water' Rags thought to himself, he quickly cast the Bubblehead Charm on himself so that air was not going to be a problem, and set about looking for the fallen girl. Catching sight of a slightly struggling figure about thirty metres ahead he set out in that direction.

End of Flashback:

"I was lookin round for the two of em, but there was no sign, Rags had been under the water for about two minutes, and I ad all but given im up for dead along with liddle Emily over there" the bundle gave a wave and looked up at Rags who smiled at her. Hermione could hardly believe what she had heard, Rags had dived into the lake to save the life of someone he hadn't even known, then she turned her attention back to Hagrid who had continued his story before the captivated hall. "Then he burst out of the water swimming hard for the boat he dived from, he put Emily in first then climbed in himself and wrapped her up in his robe, and she hasn' left his side since." Hagrid favoured Rags with a big smile, which Rags returned with one of his now better known smaller ones. "Well this is a most wondrous occasion, seeing as you have not been sorted into a house young man, I think a reward of two hundred house points to whichever house you enter will be sufficient" Dumbledore was smiling his encouraging smile, which slipped slightly when Rags only gave him a cold stare in return, which itself shocked many of the students and staff, but he replied with a "Thank you Headmaster, I'm just glad Emily is safe."

The sorting continued on as normal from that point, except with Rags having a quiet word with Professor Flitwck about having a drying charm done on himself and Emily, he said that he was so cold at that point he probably would have set fire to himself if he had tried, the small Charms Professor laughed at this and performed the charm himself, along with a congratulations for his heroics. Soon "Vakley, Emily" was called by Professor McGonagall, and the small girl, still in Rags' robe, he had quietly told her to keep it on if she was cold, she was quite happy with this arrangement and said she would return it after the feast. The girl tentatively sat on the stool and the sorting hat had only been on her head for a matter of moments when it yelled out "GRYFFINDOR" which had the Gryffindor table cheering loudly, well the girls anyway, they wanted to ask Emily some questions about Rags. But all noise in the hall stopped when McGonagall called out the last name "Valerian, Ragnar" Rags stepped up and sat gingerly on the stool that was much too small for him, the hat was placed on his head, and there was silence. The hall waited with baited breath, wondering what could take so long, the longest wait that they had endured from the Sorting Hat was a few minuted, Rags was approaching six minuted when the hat called out "GRYFFINDOR", this sent the Gryffindor table, mostly the girls into hysterics. Rags calmly walked toward the table and sat down opposite Hermione and next to Seamus Finnigan who enthusiastically clapped him on the shoulder and said "Welcome to Gryffindor mate" only Hermione, Harry and Ginny noticed Rags stiffen at the touch but relaxed when Rags grinned back at Seamus and introduced himself. It was then that the Headmaster stood up and signaled for silence "Now before we enjoy our most excellent feast, there are a few announcements to be made, firstly Mr. Filch has expanded his list of banned objects, the full list can be seen on the door to his office, also I would like for you to welcome a new member of the teaching staff here at Hogwarts, Professor H Slughorn, who will be taking over the position of Potions Master" this statement left all of the students second year and above reeling in shock, as they could all clearly the hated Professor Snape sitting at the High Table. "Our very own Professor Snape has graciously agreed to step in as the new Defense Against the Dark Arts Teacher, please give our new staff member and our new DADA Master a warm welcome, now Dig In", the applause was loud but polite, many of the students wondering what was going to happen in Snape's new class. As the feast wore on Rags was gradually introduced to his fellow Gryffindor's, everyone was being exceptionally friendly to the new lion , but that may have had something to do with him earning them a record setting two hundred house points in one go, before the year officially started. But as with all good things, the feast came to an end, the prefects of each house escorting their houses back to their dormitories, Rags again filled in for Ron, who had been rather distant and cool towards the new addition, who had left as quickly as he could and gone straight to bed, which was probably a good thing as he missed all the smiles and giggles that were sent Rags' way from the Gryffindor girls, even Hermione, not that she would admit to it. Most of the sixth and seventh year Gryffindor's cornered Rags as soon as he entered the common room, and started firing questions of at him, much faster than the young man could answer. Harry noticed his new friend in trouble, Rags was giving his usual minimum answers to all the questions that were thrown at him, so Harry decided, with a grin, to use his saving people thing and grabbed his friend by the arms and said "Oi that's enough for tonight folks, let the man breath, remember its his first time at Hogwarts so let him get adjusted before you interrogate him." The Gryffindor's chuckled at this and most made there way to their dormitories, except for Harry, Ginny, Hermione, Rags and Emily, who shyly came up to the tall young man and politely said "Thanks for saving me, here is your robe back" she then did something that caught the big Norwegian completely by surprise, she threw herself at him an gave him a hug, Rags seemed unsure what to do, so he gently hugged her back and said "You are most welcome Emily, I'm just glad I could help" she gave him a big grin, and blushing slightly rushed up to the first year girls dorm. Harry noticed that Rags had an odd expression on his face; the little voice inside Harry's head was telling him that this was more evidence of Rags bad childhood, and Harry then and there decided that he was going to try and get Rags to open up and talk about it.

The four of them were sitting comfortably in the Common Room talking about any topic that came to mind, much to Hermione's relief the topic of Quidditch had come and gone seeing as Harry and Ginny had gotten Rags to admit he had never watched a game, never played, but could fly alright, and so having convinced him to try out for the Gryffindor team when the Captain had been announced, they had moved on to other subjects, even though it was late the four of them showed almost no signs of tiredness, Hermione was used to staying up most of the night studying, and could survive and be at peak studying condition on about two full nights of sleep in a seven day week, Harry was used to sneaking around the castle and Privet Drive at all kinds of ungodly hours, Ginny was used to being woken up in the middle of the night by explosions coming from Fred and George's room so she was holding up ok, and Rags was the one that they couldn't explain, out of all of them he seemed least affected by the lateness of the time, which was fast approaching twelve thirty, so Hermione vetoed everyone's objections and used her Prefects power and ordered them all off to bed, Harry gave Ginny a rather long kiss goodnight which resulted in Rags and Hermione politely looking out the window a the Hogwarts grounds. After that Harry and Ginny went to their dorms, but before Harry entered his he turned and said "Coming Rags? You don't want Hermione gunning for you for being late to class tomorrow" Rags grinned at Hermione and said back to Harry "I guaranty you Harry that no matter what time you get up tomorrow, well today, I will be already dressed, and waiting right here in the common room." Harry smirked "Ok fine, it's a bet" with that he turned and entered his dorm, and was asleep almost as soon as his head hit the pillow 'Its good to be home' were Harry's final thought of the day. Meanwhile Hermione and Rags were still down in the common room, as Hermione was about to follow Ginny towards the girls dorms, she turned round and pulled Rags into a hug of her own, as she expected, as she had watched his reactions to physical contact since they got to Hogwarts, he stiffened up almost immediately she kept holding him until she felt him return her embrace, as she hugged him she said "Rags I just wanted to say thank you, thank you for what you did on the train" Rags replied by saying "It was my pleasure Hermione, I'll see you in the morning." Hermione smiled at him then turned and went up the sixth year girl's dorm, wondering about her mysterious new friend, but determined to find out more about him, and one thing Hermione Jane Granger as good at was finding out new things.

A/N: I hope that the character's mentioned were not too OOC, and that the OC of Ragnar is to everyone's like. Also please if you read this story, please drop me a review, cheers TBK