A/N: WOOOOWWW it's been much too long since I posted a chapter. I knew I would get busier, but jeez this snuck up on me!

I forgot to mention it in the last chapter, the trunks the boys have are shrinkable. I guess it's kinda easy to just assume that, seeing as they shook the trunks in front of Lupin's face, lol.

I have most of the things for the crossover planned (and detailed thoroughly in a Google Doc), but the one thing I forgot about was any of our heroes to be a faunus. Since I'm sending four over into Remnant, I do want a decent amount of diversity in the cast instead of just four magicals all doing the same thing, and that might be a way to do it. So, I've decided to make a poll available on my profile to who, if anyone, to faunus-ify. Please check it out and vote!

No matter how much one hopes, they can't magically gain the rights to Harry Potter and RWBY. *sigh* Oh well, guess it's better off in Jo and RT's hands anyway.

xXx

After finally saying goodbye to their honorary Uncles, the next-gen Marauders eagerly board the Hogwarts Express.

Harry turns to Neville and asks, "So Nev, what do you think? Free compartment and have perspective friends join us, or go around and try to make friends?"

Neville thinks about it for a second. "Well, if everybody here is gonna know that you're the Boy-Who-Lived, and according to Uncle Padfoot they will know you, then I'd say let people come to us. We don't want people just saying 'join us, join us' because they want to be in the same compartment as a celebrity, right?"

"Yeah, I guess," Harry responds. "But then what do we do about anyone who wants to join us? Do we just turn them away? Or do we let them in and have the same problem?"

Neville shrugged in response. "I guess we'll just handle that when we handle that."

Harry shrugged back. "I guess? Ooh, this one's free!"

The boys climb in. The compartment they enter seems just enough to hold four students, maybe six if they don't mind being cramped. They put their trunks and Hedwig's cage up in the space above the compartment, and sit down. It isn't too long until they hear their first knock on the door.

Harry opens the door, and is met by a blonde boy and two walking meat slabs. The blonde boy is giving off this cocky vibe, accompanied by a sneer that reads 'I'm clearly so much better than all of you'.

"Ah, Harry Potter, just the Boy-Who-Lived that I'm looking for. This is Crabbe," he says as he indicates the meat slab on his right, "and Goyle." He indicates the taller meat slab on his left. "I'm Malfoy. Draco Malfoy. My father has recently learned that you were unfortunately raised by the blood-traitor Black and the half-breed Lupin. He asked me to offer my assistance to you. Some families are simply better than others, you'll learn that quickly. You don't want to making friends with," Draco eyes down Neville, "The wrong sort. I can help you with that." He offers a hand, which Harry just stares at.

"Um, thanks, but I think Nev and I can figure that out for ourselves. I don't know what you're trying to say by blood-traitor and half-breed, but my uncles were great as raising me and my brother here."

Draco goes wide-eyed for a second, then turns his sneer back on. "You'll regret this, Potter. Drop the Longbottom, and accept the help of the Slytherin House. You'll be sure to go far."

"You heard Harry. We can handle making friends ourselves. Thanks, and buh-bye," Neville says, right before closing the door.

"Okay, our uncles told us to learn about the houses ourselves, so I guess we kinda know what to expect from Slytherin if any of them parade it around as much as he did. Gryffindor's where they both got sorted, so all that's a mystery is Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw. Seeing as our uncles were the ones to raise us, I'm pretty sure that we'll end up there, but it's still good to learn about the school as a whole, right?"

Neville nods at Harry's assessment, and adds, "Mhm, but all I really know right now is I'm not going wherever he's going if I can. We still don't know how we get sorted, do we?"

"Nope," Harry says, shaking his head and popping the 'p'. "I heard some people talking on the platform, and I heard everything from fighting a troll to having to find the common rooms ourselves in the huge castle."

"I really hope it isn't the second one," Neville worriedly replied, "What if we don't find a common room? Are we just left unsorted?" Neville exaggerates a shiver. "Hopefully we can just, like, pick one."

"Nah, that can't be it. They definitely mentioned sorted, so it's gotta be we do something, and that determines where we'll get placed. Maybe it's on the way to the castle? Like if we talk to no one we get placed in the anti-social house, or we make tons of friends and get placed in the family house. Or, or we be a huge prat to everyone we meet and get sent into Slytherin like Draco." It was Harry's turn to exaggerate a shiver. "Definitely gonna try to be the nicest I can be to everyone, if only to avoid being with him."

Neville snorts at him. "That's assuming you're right about sorting."

"Well, what, do you expect it to be the troll? It can-" As Harry's about to finish that sentence, the door opens.

"Oh, um, hi? I was wondering if I could join you guys in here? It seems like every other compartment is full," says the rude red-headed boy.

Neville and Harry share a look which they both recognize as, 'What is he talking about? There's empty compartments!'

Neville is the one to break the silence. "Um, yeah sure, you can join… us." Just as he starts talking, the boy is already sitting down at Harry's side.

"Oh, wow, great! Thanks! My name's Ron. Er, Ron Weasley." Ron isn't projecting the same pompous vibe as Draco, but there's definitely something similar between the two.

"Um… Okay. Well, I'm Neville Longbottom and this is," Neville starts, only to find Ron interrupting him again.

"Harry Potter, of course! Man oh man am I glad I found your compartment! Two of the best Gryffindors-to-be, in the same place!" It suddenly became clear to both boys what was similar about the two compartment-crashers. They both just wanted 'in' with Harry.

Harry's smile turned a little into a speculative glare as he responds. "How do you know who's gonna end up where? Merlin's arse, I don't even know anything about any House but Slytherin, nevermind where I'll be!"

The redhead's jaw hit the floor. "The Boy-Who-Lived not being in Gryffindor? The house of the brave? The house of the warriors, the strong? The best house in all of Hogwarts?" Wide-eyed, he turns to Neville for some support. "Hey, you, um Nathaniel right? You know that Harry'll end up in Gryffindor, right? Back me up!"

"Er, um, Neville, I-"

"Listen here, Mister Weasley, I don't know what you think you know about Harry, but besides pranking he's rather quiet and awkward. And besides his helping people thing too. Sure I guess that's a little Gryffindorish, if the House is how you describe it to be, but I'm sure that when we find out about the other two houses it'll be pretty obvious that no one's a perfect fit for any house."

"Um, yeah. Unless they count pranking as the same as whatever that Malfoy kid was earlier," Ron looks utterly disgusted at just Harry's mention of that name, "I'll bet that I'll fit right into any of the other three houses. Still not like we know how we even get sorted."

"My brothers told me you have to fight a troll! I'm sure you'd do great at that, Harry!" Ron said, seemingly ignoring everything said before.

Neville finally had enough of Ron. "Okay Ron, I think that's enough."

"Eh?"

"You're like persuading Harry here into Gryffindor, almost like some kind of sales rep or one of those American Girl Scouts trying to sell us Gryffindor Mint Cookies. I think you ought as well leave. You know as well as I do that there's many empty or just not full compartments, so how about you just go to one of those?"

Ron looks to Harry with pleading eyes, but when met with a cold stare, he mumbles, "You'll regret this once you're sorted into Gryffindor for sure," and leaves.

The rest of the trip was calm, the two brothers in all but blood talking more about sorting and Hogwarts. Finally, the Hogwarts Express came to a stop, and they all headed out towards the boats, with an exceedingly large man narrating parts of their journey. They chose an empty one, and continued their conversation from before until they were interrupted by two girls.

"Um, do you mind if we join you?" The first girl asks. "We totally understand if you don't want to be bothered, being the Boy-Who-Lived and all. I'm sure you've had people trying to get up close and personal this entire trip."

Neville decided to give the two girls a chance, and responds, "Only two really bothered us. This blonde kid boasting about his father and Slytherin, and this redhead boasting about Gryffindor. As long as you're not here to try to get my brother to join your House or tell us who to be friends with, you can definitely stay."

The other girl responds. "The blonde Slytherin must be Malfoy, and the only redheads I know of are the Weasleys. Draco's father is on the Hogwarts Board of Governors, and Malfoy Jr. likes to boast about Malfoy Sr.'s power. 'Malfoys deserve better' or some crap, is what Auntie says that they say. The Weasley bothering you is interesting, I met some of the older Weasleys on occasion and they seemed like some decent blokes. Ooh, and their mother has some really nice cooking, she made food for a Ministry potluck once. Really weird that he'd bother you." She looks away and seems to take a breather after speaking for so long. "Oh! We never introduced ourselves, did we? I'm Susan Bones," she started.

"And I'm Hannah Abbot," the other girl finished.

"Well, as you already know, apparently, I'm Harry Potter, and this here's my brother in all but blood, Neville Longbottom," Harry responded.

They spent the rest of the boat ride talking. Susan's Aunt, whom the boys presumed to be her guardian since she never mentioned parents, was Amelia Bones, an ex-girlfriend of Sirius' and head of the DMLE. Hannah's family turned out to be a part of the 'sacred twenty-eight', the same thing that Neville and Sirius' families were in. The girls explained the remaining two houses to the boys, finally completing their knowledge. Finally, they all arrived at Hogwarts, and found themselves in the Great Hall. They kept talking, and half-listened to the witch who introduced herself as Professor McGonagall. They saw what appeared to be the staff table, with a bunch of professors behind it, and a throne of sorts, with a man in purple robes and a long, white beard sitting on it.

While all the students were getting settled, taking in the Great Hall, Professor McGonagall set up a stool, and placed an oddly shaped hat on top. Once the students noticed it, the entire hall fell silent. That was, until what appeared to be the mouth of the hat opened up, and it started to sing.

'A magical hat, that sings no less? If this is our test I have no idea what we're in for. At least a troll, you just fight. This? What do I even make of this?' Harry thought.

The only parts of the song that Harry noticed were "I'm the Hogwarts Sorting Hat," and "try me on and I will tell you Where you ought to be." All they had to do was put on the hat!

Soon, Professor McGonagall started calling out people's names. Hannah and Susan were called out first, and both were sorted into Hufflepuff. Harry had already decided to try to make mental notes of where people were going, so he paid attention to everything. Terry Boot and Mandy Brocklehurst went to Ravenclaw, Lavender Brown to Gryffindor, Millicent Bulstrode and Vincent Crabbe to Slytherin, Justin Finch-Fletchley to Hufflepuff, Seamus Finnigan to Gryffindor, and Gregory Goyle to Slytherin. Then, the one thing that Harry never expected to happen, happened. He recognized someone being called up.

As Professor McGonagall called up "Granger, Hermione," Harry remembered the time Neville and he had snuck into the car with their uncles. 'The bushy haired girl from the supermarket was a witch!?' He made a special note that she got sorted into Ravenclaw. Lost in thought, he missed a few names until Neville was called.

A tense minute went by, until the hat shrieked "GRYFFINDOR!", and Harry's eyes followed Neville over to the table. 'Maybe completely knocking off Gryffindor isn't too good of an idea. If it's good enough for my brother, it's gotta be good enough for me! Still definitely no Slytherin, though.'

Morag MacDougal went off into Slytherin, and the reason Harry was never going to consider Slytherin's name was called. The hat barely even touched Draco's head before sorting him straight into the house he was blabbering on about back on the train.

And then, his name was called.

Everybody, sorted and not, started whispering. As he walked through the remaining crowd to reach the hat, he heard many whispers of disbelief and astonish of Harry being there. Of course, having been prepped by the Marauders about his fame, he was expecting it. Seeing it in action was a completely different story.

As soon as he put the hat on, he started to hear its voice in his head.

'Hmm… Let's see. Decently intelligent, but not the most studious without some kind of real purpose. That definitely wasn't helped by being raised by Mr. Black, but there is something there solely from Mr. Lupin. Good men they were during their time here. They both instilled senses of bravery and goodness within you, and… oh ho what's this? Mr. Black has a wager going on if you place in Gryffindor? Interesting to note. Still, you do have a natural… How do I phrase it? Goodness within you? Determination to help others? Sense of family? If you say it as a sense of family, I think I might just know EXACTLY where to place you. But for the sake of getting this as right as possible, let's not. Not just yet. Ooh, very cunning, very ambitious. Very well suited for a certain palace of snakes. It seems I was right in delaying your placement, this is a much better house for you.'

'Not Slytherin, not Slytherin, not Slytherin!' Harry chanted in response.

'Oh? A strong desire not to be placed where you're sure to do well? And why would that be? Did Mr. Black instill his anti-Slytherin-ness into you? No… It seems a simple meeting of the Malfoy heir did this. Quite interesting… You don't want to be like him because you don't want to use others like he seems to, and you jumped to the conclusion that that's all Slytherin is good for because of how much he boasted about it. Ah… unfortunately you'd actually be right in your assumption. Nowadays, that's all Slytherins end up doing, with exceptions of course. If Salazar were still here, I'm sure he'd banish all that did this to his house to his Chamber underneath the school. If this were, say, fifty or sixty years ago, I wouldn't have cared one bit for your little distaste towards the house. Alas, you do have a point. But before I revisit my little sense of family comment from earlier, I do have a few pointers for you. The Slytherins may be referred to as snakes, but do not let that defer you from actual snakes. In fact, I'm sure you would get along with snakes quite well, if you chose to strike up a conversation with one. Oh ho ho… yes, you would indeed. Especially since the only other that could in recent times was, frankly, an utter bloody shite of a person.'

Harry's immediate response to this was, 'Talk to snakes?'

'Did no one bother to tell you of your ability, young boy? Possibly out of fear of what that might lead you to learn about yourself, maybe. With all the 'urges' Dumbledore's giving even me, I think I could understand why no one that knows has mentioned it. I, however, am not so weak-willed as to let his beliefs delay you from important knowledge. How would you ever learn about your talent? Go to a zoo one day, and just start speaking to a snake within its cage?' The hat starts to laugh. 'While I'm parlaying information to you, why stop there? Let's see, what else can I actually tell you that actually matters?'

'What you can tell me? Are you not able to tell me things?'

'Well, of course I can, but I respect my creators too much to simply go about telling any student, say, the locations of my Lady Ravenclaw's diadem, my Lord Gryffindor's sword, or my Lord Slytherin's secret quarters. Not that I'm hinting you look into any of those things, that would be preposterous.'

Those viewing this oddly extremely long sorting noticed the hat smirk.

'Here's one bit of information I'm sure Dumblesnore will have kept from you; your soul isn't alone in this body.'

Harry's eyes nearly bulged out of his head. 'WHAT!'

'I do not know exactly what, as it is incredibly dark magic, but it is definitely something you must be aware of. Now I would love to stay and chat, but… Actually no I wouldn't. I have students to sort, places to sit. Despite the obvious answer of 'Oh look! The Boy-Who-Lived, let's just throw him in GRYFFINDOR!' Whoops, said that out loud. JUST KIDDING, EVERYONE! MY APOLOGIES FOR THE SLIP UP! No, no let's revisit that strong sense of family, and place you in HUFFLEPUFF!'

'Wait, are you like a person or something?'

'Asking if I'm self-aware? Trust me boy, that is one road you most certainly do NOT want to go down. Now get up, get me off, and go sit with your house-mates.'

Harry took off the hat, opened his eyes, and saw all the shocked and confused looks that he had gotten.

The old man on the throne spoke up when he noticed that Harry was confused. "My boy, they're all just confused that they heard the hat say something aloud other than just the house the person under it was sorted to. I can assure you all, that besides the ten minute hat stall, nothing out of the ordinary happened here today."

"I was under the hat for ten minutes!? Harry nearly screeched.

"Do not worry, Harry," the old man said, with a twinkle in his eye and a soft smile on his face, "Nothing is wrong here at all." He then looked towards Harry's scar, and Harry could almost hear something that sounded like the man saying 'almost'.

With that, Harry joined everyone at the Hufflepuff table. He was so lost in thought, that after the obligatory hellos were over, he zoned out for nearly the rest of the feast.

That was, until he felt a sharp pain in his scar.

"AHH!" Harry all but shouted as he brought his clenched fist against the space between his eyes.

"You okay, Harry?" asked the boy who had introduced himself as Cedric Diggory.

Harry noticed the pain went away almost as quickly as it came, so shook his head.

"Alright then, don't be afraid to tell me, or any of your fellow Puffs, if anything is the matter, though," Cedric said with a smile.

"Thank you very much, Mr. Diggory," Harry responded.

Cedric gave a light laugh. "Please, call me Cedric. I'm sure I can speak for the rest of the house when I say that goes for any of us." This was met by a chorus of nods.

"Will do, Cedric," Harry said with a smile.

After that, he resumed his zoning out.

'I'm not the only soul in my body? Who else, or what else is in here?'

xXx

Whew! That was most certainly a long time coming! I was originally going to end the chapter after going to the common rooms, but realized I didn't know exactly how I wanted to go about having them, so I stopped here so this wouldn't be delayed any longer. (By 'having them', I mean if I wanted to go with girl's and boy's dormitories or a couple people to a room regardless of gender. I've read the latter in enough stories where I'd been convinced that was canon until I looked it up!)

Also, the self-aware thing with the Sorting Hat was a reference to HP:MoR. If you don't know what that is, I encourage you to give it a read if you're comfortable with giving yourself a headache trying to read. LOL.

Until next time! (Which should NOT be as long of a wait as this was.)