Off To Hogwarts

The start of the school year came too quickly for James' liking, he'd been anxious when Jamie had gone for the first time two years ago…and now Harry was going. It was hard enough walking down Diagon Alley without someone spotting Harry's scar and stopping them…what would the kids at Hogwarts make of 'The Boy Who Lived'.

He couldn't believe they would now both be at Hogwarts, it seemed like yesterday they were climbing into his bed, scared of thunderstorms or monsters or nightmares; he didn't have his bed to himself a full night until Harry was five. Oh those damn nightmares, Harry had them much worse than Jamie, but then he'd wake up and completely forget them.

Harry had a nervous tight knot in his stomach, after enduring taunts by his brother all summer that he'd be in Slytherin and Sirius's promises that he would disown him if he ended up in Slytherin he was now terrified that he'd end up there, especially since the snake incident. In fact Jamie and Sirius had been winding him up about the sorting all summer, with stories of having to battle trolls and slay giant spiders; Harry's eyes grew round with shock as they spouted this bollocks.

"You're making that up," said Harry, uncertainly, after they started on the subject of dragon taming.

"No we're not," announced Sirius, "any idiot can tame a dragon!"

"Ignore them Harry," said Remus coming to his rescue, "what have I told you about taking Sirius seriously?"

"Try saying that five times fast!" said Jamie.

"All you have to do is try on an old hat and it'll tell which house you belong in," James said

"Yeah," said Jamie, "then after the hat comes the scarf of sexual preference!"

"The what?!" said Harry.

"The scarf of sexual preference; it tells you what your sexuality is," he said, "It knew Sirius was totally gay before it even touched his neck"

"And the sorting hat wasn't even finished with you when it announced you were a little Nancy Boy!" declared Sirius.

"For the millionth time Harry," said James, "never listen to a thing Sirius or your brother says; they both talk utter shite!"

They'd been running a little late on the morning of September 1st, but they made it onto the platform with five minutes to spare.

"Bye!" Jamie said trying to run off.

"Think you're too old now to give your poor old dad a kiss goodbye?"

"Uh…yeah I do"

"Guess that means you're too old for Christmas presents too," said James, "and you wanted that new racing broom so badly."

Jamie sighed and came back and gave James a quick kiss, hoping none of his friends were watching. As Jamie tried to walk away James pulled him back in for a hug.

"Dad get off!" moaned Jamie, he was certain he could hear some familiar Slytherin voices laughing at him. James released him.

"And Jamie," he said as Jamie walked away, "I don't want any more letters about you getting into duels…what is it with you and duels?"

"Can't help it, those Slytherins are little gits," said Jamie as he ran off to join his friends, Fred and George Weasley, Lee Jordan and Luke Hayes; Luke had been his best friend at their muggle primary school, and Jamie was stunned to find him on the Hogwarts Express on their first day of school; it turned out he was muggle born.

"All right Harry," said James, noting the anxious look on his youngest son's face, "you're not still worried about this sorting business are you?"

"What if AM in Slytherin though?" asked Harry, He hadn't told his dad the whole story of what had happened to the zoo, and he was genuinely worried that his ability to talk to snakes would earn him a one way ticket into Slytherin.

"I doubt it will happen, but if does it's no big deal…I won't disown you over it, and contrary to what he might have said to you, Sirius won't either," he replied, "besides, you haven't considered the upside to being in a different house to your brother."

"What's that?"

"You'll actually get some peace and quiet from him!" He pulled Harry in for a hug, "Just don't worry about it, the sorting hat will put you wherever it thinks you'll do best, so the outcome can only be a good thing, right?" He kissed Harry's forehead, "You'd better get on the train, it's about to leave. Have fun, I'll see you a Christmas…and don't forget to make Sirius's life very difficult!"

Harry made it on the train just in time, he made it to a window in time to wave goodbye; his dad was stood waving next to Mr and Mrs Hayes and Luke's little sister, who was crying and Mrs Weasley and Ginny, who was also crying.

"Bye Ginny, we'll send you a toilet seat!" yelled Fred and George

Ginny started laughing, she ran along with the train waving goodbye.

As soon as the platform was out of sight Jamie and his friends went to look for a compartment, Harry and Ron went to follow them.

"Whoa, where do you two think you're going?" asked Jamie, putting his hands out to stop them, "bugger off and find your own compartment!"

The five of them walked off leaving Harry and Ron alone.

"Alright Harry?" he said.

"Alright?"

He and Ron found an empty compartment to sit in. Harry didn't know Ron very well; he didn't really know ANY witches or wizards his age very well. He and Jamie had lived a pretty sheltered life and all his friends had been muggles up to that point.

"I hope you don't mind me asking Harry…do you really have the…scar and that?"

Harry pushed up his fringe showing Ron his scar.

"Wow" Ron marvelled, "do remember what happened?"

"No," said Harry quickly, "Jamie remembers though; little bits anyway."

Harry said no more and made it clear to Ron he didn't really want to talk about it, Ron felt embarrassed at asking such a personal question.

Harry was glad the trolley lady came at that moment.

"Anything from the trolley dears?"

"No thanks, I have sandwiches."

Harry, however bought a little of everything.

"Want one?" he asked Ron, offering him a pumpkin pasty.

"No thanks," said Ron, still feeling embarrassed.

"Go on, have one!"

The two enjoyed a feast of sweets while Ron's sandwiches lay forgotten.

"Another Dumbledore," said Harry, disappointed with his Chocolate Frog card, "I've got loads of him." He read the back of the card nonetheless.

They receive some visitors throughout the journey…first was Neville Longbottom, looking for his toad, the next was a rather annoying girl named Hermione, looking for Neville's toad. Later on they received a visit from three unpleasant boys, Draco Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle, luckily Jamie and Luke happened to walk past at that moment, and Jamie shot a jelly-legs jinx at Malfoy.

"That's Lucius Malfoy's son," he'd said, when Crabbe and Goyle carted Malfoy off, his legs still shaking, "I've heard he's a nasty piece of work, don't let him get to you!"

Jamie gave Harry a little smile, he wasn't too bad sometimes.

"You guys might wanna change into your robes we should be there soon." Said Luke

It was dark by the time they arrived at Hogsmeade Station, where they were greeted by Hagrid, who took them across the lake to the castle.

They finally made it to the great hall, where they headed up the aisles towards a stool with an old hat sat waiting on it. Harry walked past Jamie on the Gryffindor table, who gave him an encouraging wink, he saw Sirius sat up at the staff table, who gave him a thumbs up.

As soon as the hat finished singing its song, the sorting ceremony finally began. Hermione was sorted into Gryffindor and Crabbe, Goyle and Malfoy were, unsurprisingly, sorted into Slytherin. Finally, after Sally-Anne Perks was sorted into Hufflepuff, Harry's name was called.

"Potter, Harry!"

The hat took a long time to decide on his house, he sat there while the hat mulled things over, trying not to look nervous in front of the whole school, who were whispering about him.

"Please not Slytherin," he thought, "Anything but Slytherin!"

"Not Slytherin, eh?" buzzed a voice in his head. "Are you sure? You could be great, you know, it's all here in your head, and Slytherin will help you on the way to greatness, no doubt about that – no? Well, if you're sure – better be GRYFFINDOR!"

Harry, got the loudest cheer yet, he was sure he even heard Sirius whooping. He ran to join his fellow Gryffindors; Jamie and Luke both reached across the table to give him high fives, Percy shook his hand and the Weasley twins joined Sirius in whooping. Ron joined him at the Gryffindor table shortly and soon the sorting was finally over. Dumbledore began the feast with four simple words:

"Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak!"

They finished up with a rendition of the school song, everyone singing in their own tune. Harry joined Jamie and Luke in singing in the tune of The Simpsons Theme.

When the feast was finally over and Harry was more stuffed than he had ever been in his life Dumbledore sent them off to bed, after a warning NOT to go anywhere near the forbidden forest and that the third floor corridor was out of bounds.

The next day, stares and whispers followed him around from the moment he left his dormitory. He ignored them; he was used to people staring at his scar.

He'd been on his way to lunch when Sirius pulled him aside.

"Harry, a word please?"

"See you downstairs," he said to Ron

"What the bloody hell have you done to your poor father?"

"What?" Harry asked, trying to look innocent…he knew full well what he'd done.

"You're father's having some kind of panic attack or something and I can't get it out of him what's wrong."

Harry smirked, "I have just pulled the greatest prank ever, and I've only been at Hogwarts for less than a day!"

"Oh, really? I doubt it's anywhere near as good as anything I've ever done."

"I told Dad I was in Slytherin."

Sirius looked at Harry for a second, then he grinned, "That is quite possibly, the most simple, but evil prank ever…maybe you SHOULD be in Slytherin!"

"Hey!"

"Sorry," he said, "maybe I should go and put him out of his misery….or I could leave it for a few days?"

"Do what you want," said Harry, shrugging, "but I don't know what his problem is, HE'S the one who said it didn't matter!"