HPGoA

-Fourth Dream-
Hogwarts Express

Harry looked up at the scarlet steam engine, a sense of trepidation coming over him. This was the train that would take him to Hogwarts.

"Getting nervous, Harry?" Daphne smiled at him before walking past. Her tone was gentle enough, but there was something slightly ill-natured about her grin, as though she were secretly laughing at him. "Don't worry, I'm sure we'll wind up together at Hogwarts. I'm going to see if I can find Tracey though, so be a dear and save us a compartment."

"It's not like I was worried about that anyways," Harry mumbled the complaint to Daphne's retreating back. He didn't put much stock in the supposed House Rivalries. Really, why should you shun someone just because they were sorted into a different House than yours anyways?

A sudden impact struck his back and he felt a pair of arms wrap around his waist. He gave wry smile as he turned and looked down to see Astoria clinging to him. A little bit behind her stood her parents and off in the distance. Emrys too had come to see him off, though the wizard had apparently been distracted by a pretty-looking witch. "Hey Astoria, don't give your Mum too much trouble while I'm gone, alright?"

He'd expected the younger girl to agree, but she managed to surprise him as she shook her head and instead pulled him in close to whisper, "Take me with you! I can sneak into your luggage!"

"And give your parents a heart attack in the process, I'm sure." Harry let out a small laugh. "Besides, even if we did sneak you into Hogwarts, they would just send you home once you got there."

Astoria pouted in response. "Then I'd just have to keep hiding the whole year! What else am I supposed to do all year with both you and Daphne gone?"

"Oh, come on, I haven't even been staying with you that long, Astoria. Besides, weren't you friends with Fiona? Why don't you spend some time with her?"

"Fiona's been a twit lately," Astoria sniffed, "I don't want to hang out with her."

"Well, I'll tell you what, I'll be sure to write to you every week. That way, you'll have something to do, since you'll have to write me back."

Astoria narrowed her eyes in suspicion. "Promise?"

"Promise." Harry smiled and ruffled her hair before extracting himself from her hug.

He stepped away, moving to board the train, when Emrys suddenly appeared at his side. The wizard glanced over at him and asked, "Are you ready then?"

Harry hesitated a moment before finally nodding, "Yeah. I'm ready."

•❅──────✧❅✦❅✧──────❅•

The month of August had proven somewhat hectic even by the standards of everything Harry had done in July.

First was the trip to Diagon Alley, and while Harry already had his trunk and his wand, he still needed to get his school robes fitted, his potions supplies filled, and the books required for Hogwarts purchased. That wasn't even counting the Greengrasses who had yet to do any of the school year shopping for Daphne or how Daphne wanted a new owl for herself.

More than anything, he was surprised at the crowd. The last time he'd been at Diagon Alley had been before the school rush. While the street had been busy then, it was positively empty compared to how packed the place was now. He felt he could barely move five feet without jostling into someone else. He supposed he would have expected the rush, had the Greengrasses decided to do their shopping on the day the letters had arrived, but this was nearly a week later.

Needless to say, it seemed like the Greengrasses weren't the only ones who delayed their shopping trip. Over the course of the trip they ran into both Susan and Blaise who decided to join them. To their dismay however, Draco also made an appearance at Madam Malkin's. Fortunately, Harry only had to put up listening to Draco talk about how he 'clearly ought to be allowed onto the House Quidditch Team, despite being a First Year, as it would simply be a crime if he wasn't,' for the length of Draco's fitting, as the boy left to continue shopping with his parents once he had made his purchase.

Unfortunately, Harry still had to see Draco again a few days later, as they had scheduled his visit to the Malfoy estate for that weekend. Predictably, Draco had spent most of the time trying to impress Harry with just how important his father was. Oh, it was nothing too overt, Harry supposed, but it was still rather blatant. For example, when Draco was giving him a tour of the estate, the boy slipped in small mentions of the people his father knew: "Here is the study, Father often hosts Minister Fudge and his other friends here," or, "Here is the library, most of the books are quite rare, Father had to speak with some of his contacts in the Ministry just to get them imported," and so on and so forth.

Harry kept a polite smile on his face through it all, though he was rather happy once Draco showed him out to the Quidditch pitch and they hopped on brooms for awhile. They didn't put any balls in play of course, not for just the two of them. However, Harry still had fun simply racing brooms about, and Draco even seemed like less of a pompous windbag once they were up in the air, though that could be simply due to not having the chance to talk quite as much.

In the end, while the visit wasn't completely unpleasant, Harry was rather happy when the time came to say his goodbyes. He still wasn't sure what had prompted the Malfoy Scion to invite him, but he supposed that it didn't hurt to be on friendly terms with the boy.

The real highlights of the month however, were the times that Emrys came to visit. He never stayed more than a single night at a time, whatever magic he was using to project himself from his tower didn't allow him to stay for that long, but he still stopped by often enough and they would spend what time they had talking. Usually it was just about random things, whatever happened to strike Emrys' fancy at that particular moment, but occasionally Harry managed to nag Emrys into giving him a lesson in magic as well. The problem was, the lessons in magic still didn't involve any actual spellcasting, even though Harry had his wand now.

"Meditation? Really?" Harry asked skeptically during one such lesson. He raised an eyebrow, watching to see how serious Emrys actually was about the idea.

Emrys simply waved his hand from the position he'd taken lying across the full length of the sofa. "Yes, really, Harry. Listen, you know part of magic is lying to the World. So what qualities make for the best liars?"

Furrowing his brow, Harry answered, "I guess it would be people who can keep a straight face even while lying."

"Bzzt. Wrong." Emrys popped a Bertie Bott's bean into his mouth before continuing to talk, still chewing between words. "The best liars are people who represent a piece of fiction so thoroughly, that they themselves come to believe it. To them, they aren't lying, they are completely convinced that what they are saying is the truth."

Harry scratched at his head for a moment before asking, "So you're saying that the best wizards are really stupid?"

"Hah!" Emrys let out a loud laugh before tossing a bean at Harry's forehead. Harry dodged back and caught in his mouth instead, only to gag as his mouth was suddenly flooded with the taste of soap. "I suppose you aren't wrong, Harry. Blind conviction is powerful, and I think you'll find a lot of powerful wizards are so caught up in their belief systems that they have trouble considering other points of view."

"Uh huh. So how does meditation play into that?"

"Well, it's simple. You can't naturally believe whatever you need to all the time. You're carrying too many assumptions up here." Emrys poked lightly at Harry's head. "That's true for any human, no matter how stupid they happen to be. We all have things that we naturally believe in. For example, if I were to throw this bag of beans across the room, what would happen?"

"I suppose it would fly across the room and hit the ground over there."

"Well, why is that?"

"Er… Well, gravity would eventually cause it to hit the ground I guess."

Emrys nodded. "Alright, let's test your theory." The wizard threw the bag - only for it to stop mid-air not a foot away from him. "Alright, so you were wrong. The bag didn't hit the floor. Why?"

Harry blinked. "Well, I guess you used magic to stop it."

"Did I? Maybe gravity simply does not work on bags of Every-Flavored Beans?"

"But I've seen plenty of Bertie Bott's bags that fell perfectly normal!"

"Then maybe it's just this specific bag. Or perhaps your assumptions about gravity were wrong, and simply because you've seen that bags of Bertie Bott's fall to the ground ninety-nine percent of the time, you assumed that they would continue to fall every time when that isn't the case." Emrys grinned before swiping the bag out of the air and popping another bean into his mouth. "Let me be clear, Harry. If you truly believe in your heart of hearts that nothing you can do would stop this bag from falling, then it doesn't matter how much magic you have at your disposal. You have to truly believe in what you're doing. That means meditation: to erase yourself and your preconceived notions, to clear your mind and focus only on obtaining the result that you desire."

Harry sighed and ran his hand through his hair before falling back to sit cross-legged on the floor. "Alright, so how do I do this meditation stuff?"

He had a feeling that this whole exercise would be a mistake when Emrys' eyes twinkled in response. Several hours later, with a sore back and sore bum and no sign of a 'clear mind,' he decided that his initial impression was correct. It was made worse when Emrys' assigned more meditation to him as homework, something that he was to do every day without fail.

The rest of August largely continued on in that manner, spending time with Blaise, Daphne, or Astoria between lessons with Emrys. Astoria in particular apparently enjoyed the "Boy-Who-Lived" books and enjoyed setting Harry up to roleplay as, well, himself ironically, while she would be the Princess he would have to rescue. On occasion Daphne would get recruited to play as well, though Astoria liked to cast her sister as the Evil Witch of whatever story they happened to be enacting.

Eventually however, the month came to an end, and Harry found himself on Platform 9 ¾ looking up at the scarlet steam engine.

•❅──────✧❅✦❅✧──────❅•

Harry dodged past a group of kids running onto the train and passed by another group surrounding a boy with dreadlocks. He couldn't help but stop for a moment though as a gasp came from the group and a long, hairy leg poked its way out of the box that the boy was carrying. Harry stared for a moment before shaking his head. No getting distracted. He had to keep moving or there would be no chance of grabbing an empty compartment.

He finished pushing his way through the crowds and hauled his trunk up onto the train, making his way towards the back to find an empty compartment. It turned out that even with the trunk enchanted to be feather-light, it was still large enough to make it awkward pushing it up onto the luggage rack, especially as Harry was a bit on the short side and had to stand on his tiptoes and stretch out to nudge it the rest of the way before securing it. It wasn't until after he had tied the trunk down that he realized he could have tried using a levitating spell on it. He grumbled to himself before taking out a book and falling into a seat, settling in to wait for Daphne.

Harry glanced out the window, idly noting a large family of redheads that were bustling around the station, only to jump when someone suddenly knocked on the door. He called for them to come in, and a moment later, a pudgy face poked its way inside. "Um, is this compartment open? The train's already starting to get pretty full."

"Oh, it's fine. I have another friend or two who should be coming, but we should have plenty of space. Here, let me give you a hand with your trunk." Harry smiled lightly and stood up, reaching out to shake the boy's hand. "I'm Harry, by the way, who are you?"

The boy smiled in return as he took Harry's hand, though he turned a bit wide-eyed when Harry levitated his trunk up to the rack a moment later. Harry had learned his lesson with his own trunk, no need to repeat the mistake. "I'm, ah, Neville. Neville Longbottom. Good to meet you, Harry." He glanced up to his trunk before asking, "So are you a second year, Harry?"

"Nah, first year. Same as you, I'd imagine."

"O-Oh. I guess I'm a bit behind if everyone else can already use magic." Neville slumped into his chair, looking depressed.

"I'm sure you're fine, Neville. I think most people haven't used magic before Hogwarts. My guardian's just been big on teaching me magical theory before sending me off, and that was my first time using that spell anyways."

Neville nodded slightly and a moment later, a toad hopped out of his pocket, onto his lap, bringing a hesitant smile to the boy's face. "Oh yeah, this is Trevor."

"A pleasure to meet you as well, Trevor," Harry winked.

The toad croaked in response and took the opportunity to leap free of Neville's hands when the door suddenly banged open and a bushy-haired girl moved into the compartment a moment later. She glanced around, her eyes lighting up for a moment as she spotted the book by Harry's side, before saying, "Oh good, there's still space here. Do you mind if I join you?"

Harry darted a hand out to catch Trevor before the toad could get far, before flashing a smile at the girl. "Of course, come on in. I'm Harry and this is Neville. Let me get your trunk for you."

The girl stared at him for a moment, before finally letting out a breath, some hidden tension in her shoulders escaping. "Thank you." Then, she continued talking so fast that her words seemed to blend into one another. "Is that one of our textbooks that you're reading? I've read all the course books already of course, I just hope it'll be enough - Hogwarts is supposed to be the very best school of witchcraft there is, I've heard, so I'm sure their standards will be quite high - Nobody in my family's magic at all though, so I'm sure I'll have so much to catch up on - I'm Hermione Granger by the way."

"Er." Harry couldn't help let out the sound, despite Emrys' training. He stood there, blinking at Hermione for a moment, his brain trying to catch up with what she had said. "Good to meet you Hermione. Don't worry about being from a non-magic background. I was just telling Neville here that most kids don't know magic when they go to Hogwarts thanks to the Restriction on Underage Magic." He slipped his wand out as he talked, levitating Hermione's trunk up to join Neville's.

"Oh! That was magic, wasn't it! Wingardium Leviosa! I read about it in our Charms books - Do you know any others yet?"

Harry gave the girl a rueful smile as he tied her luggage down before sitting once more. "A few I suppose. The Wand-Lighting Charm was one of the first ones I learned. Handy to have a light at night and all."

Hermione actually clapped in response, looking thrilled to have someone else studying ahead in the same compartment as her. Neville just looked like he was trying to shrink into his seat. "So what Houses do you two think you'll be in? Right now, I'm hoping for Gryffindor - that's the House that Dumbledore himself was in according to Hogwarts, A History, and it sounds by far the best. Though Ravenclaw doesn't sound too bad either."

Neville finally spoke up in a small voice, "Gran wants me to get into Gryffindor. Says its where my parents were sorted."

Harry hummed lightly in response. "According to my guardian, you'll get sorted wherever is best for you. He says all four Houses have good things about them as well as bad. So I wouldn't worry too much about it or go in with too many preconceived notions. Though, for me, it'll probably be Ravenclaw."

The train gave a sudden lurch and began pulling away from the platform. Harry tried to ignore the small spot of anxiety that formed in his stomach. The train had begun moving and Daphne had yet to show up. She said that she would come sit with him. She wouldn't abandon him now that she had her other friends to spend time with. He bit down on his lip, glancing out the window for a moment as Hermione burst into another response. "Oh, then maybe we'll wind up as House Mates. That would be nice, wouldn't it?"

"I suppose it would. Maybe we can-"

He was interrupted before he could say more as the door slammed open and a brunette girl wearing a woolen cap strolled in and raised her hand in greeting. "Yo! You must be Harry, Daphne's been telling me all about you!" Daphne stepped in behind the girl, giving an exasperated roll of her eyes.

Harry looked between the two for a moment. "I take it this is Tracey?"

"Right in one." Tracey winked and flopped down into a seat next to Hermione, leaving Harry to levitate her and Daphne's luggage. Daphne, on the other hand, quietly thanked Harry and took her seat next to him.

General introductions went around for the group again and eventually the initial excitement wore down as the journey continued. Tracey decided to introduce Hermione to Exploding Snap, while Daphne talked quietly with Neville. While Daphne and Neville weren't friends per se, they were acquainted at least from Pureblood circles, even if Harry hadn't had a chance to meet the boy over the summer. As for Harry, he settled into reading his Arithmancy book.

The subject was rather fascinating, the idea that there were inherent magical qualities to numbers and that through calculation you could better structure spells, or even build entirely new ones. On some level however, he wondered how necessary it actually was. According to Emrys, most of the components of a spell - things such as the incantation and wand motion - were fundamentally lies. They existed to help the caster control their mental state, almost as a sort of form of self-hypnosis, a way to make the lie real to the wizard's mind. Emrys had said it was effective for training, but it wouldn't get Harry as far as if he learned to meditate and induce that sort of state in himself properly.

If that was the case however, then were the magical properties of numbers also just a lie? Something wizards had convinced themselves of to make things more effective? How much of what they would be learning at Hogwarts was real and how much was illusion?

Harry was interrupted from his thoughts as the food cart came by. Most everyone got something, except for Hermione, who flushed pink and mumbled about how her parents wouldn't approve of her eating sweets. Tracey however, wouldn't stand for this, and eventually convinced Hermione to at least buy a pack of Toothflossing Stringmints for herself. As for Harry, he'd decided to go with the supposedly classic Chocolate Frog, quickly breaking the frog's legs to keep it from trying to escape.

He looked down at the card he'd received and let out a strangled sound. Daphne looked up in alarm, and he had to quickly motion to her that he was okay. He turned the card over and read:

MERLIN AMBROSIUS

Merlin is the most famous wizard of all time. He is sometimes known as the Prince of Enchanters and was part of the Court of King Arthur.

Merlin is famous for his defeat of the Dark Lady, Morgan le Fey, as well as for his establishment of the Wizengamot.

There are some rumors that he was capable of travelling through time or was immortal, as it is claimed that he was a Hogwarts graduate some five-hundred years later.

Looking back at the portrait on the front of the card, Harry scowled at what was indisputably Emrys wearing a very obviously fake beard. The picture winked at him and put a finger up to its mouth, before mouthing the word, "Later," to Harry. Should he even be surprised at this point? If anyone could manage to make a fake trading card and sneak it into the exact Chocolate Frog that Harry bought, it would probably be Emrys. He sighed and tucked the card into his pocket for the time being.

Glancing out the window, Harry idly watched the scenery go by. The sun was starting to set, painting the Scottish highlands scarlet. It would probably only be another hour or two until they arrived, but perhaps he could get away with a quick nap in the meantime.

•❅──────✧❅✦❅✧──────❅•

"Harry? Wake up, we're supposed to be there in a few minutes."

Harry let out a small groan and blinked the sleep out of his eyes, turning his head to look at the person who had been shaking him awake. "Mm… Good morning, Daphne."

"It's dark out, Harry - hardly morning. Now come on, you still need to get changed into your school robes."

He glanced around at the other occupants and noticed that all the others had already changed. Hermione seemed to be practically bouncing with excitement, her face glued to the window now that they were getting closer to Hogwarts. Tracey met his eyes and grinned, woolen cap still on her head despite not being part of the uniform, and answered his unasked question. "We got changed while you were sleeping. Figured you wouldn't see anything anyways."

Daphne and Hermione turned pink but Harry simply rolled his eyes. It wasn't as though he was all that curious to see what they were wearing beneath their robes anyways. "Alright, I'll go ahead and get changed then. Mind waiting out in the corridor? Unless you plan on watching, anyways."

Tracey's grin widened, only for Daphne to smack the back of her head, before ushering her out into the hallway, Hermione following quickly behind. Neville just gave a small shrug from where he was sitting. "Girls, huh?"

"I've got a feeling that it's more just Tracey being Tracey rather than anything to do with her gender." Harry snorted softly and stood up on his chair to start rooting through his trunk. "I noticed you were talking with Daphne earlier, were the two of you already friends?"

"Um, not really. I mean, we sort of know each other, but not all that well."

Harry nodded as he pulled his robes on. "Well, I suppose Hogwarts is a good time for making new friends, at least. Shall we let the girls know that it's safe to enter once more?"

Neville snorted. "Was it actually necessary to throw them out to begin with? You were already wearing the rest of your uniform."

"Necessary, maybe not, but it was fun seeing their expressions, wasn't it?"

Neville gave a small smile in response and Harry stuck his head out into the hallway to invite the girls back in. Not that it mattered much, it seemed Daphne had timed her waking of him well, as it was only a few minutes longer before they had arrived at Hogwarts and were disembarking.

A call of "Firs' years! Firs' years over here!" was shouted over the crowd and Harry followed it to find a giant of a man standing there. Neville gave a small squeak and Harry squeezed the boy's shoulder to reassure him. The giant spoke up again, "Alrigh', is that everyone? Follow me then." He led them down a rocky path to the edge of a great black lake, and there on the horizon, was Harry's first glimpse of Hogwarts. It was a pretty thing, with jutting turrets and sparkling lights, though, even at this distance, he judged that Emrys' tower was likely taller than the castle. It was a castle though, not a single tower, so he was sure there was plenty of ground there to explore.

He wound his way down to the lakeshore and the giant called out, "No more than four to a boat!"

The group he had sat with looked between themselves, having one too many. Eventually Hermione mumbled, "I'll just… I'll just find another boat then."

Harry let out a frustrated sigh before shaking his head. "No, don't worry about it, Hermione. I'll find another boat. You should stay with everyone else."

Hermione's eyes went wide and Tracey butted in, wrapping an arm around Hermione's shoulders. "Yeah, us girls need to stick together anyways. C'mon, Harry will be fine on his own."

Harry's lips thinned. Nice of her to write him off so quickly. Daphne gave him an apologetic look and he simply shrugged in return. It was true though, that he would be fine on his own. He slipped away from the group to find another boat, only to find an arm slipped through his, tugging him towards one.

He glanced at his abductor and saw it was Susan Bones. She smiled back at him. "Hey there, Harry. Long-time, no see. How's your summer been?"

"Oh, it's been quite fun, though, I suppose it was missing cute redheads coming to steal me away."

"Good thing I'm here to fix that, hm?" She grinned and dragged him into a boat where Hannah and another boy were already sitting. "Let's see, you already know Hannah, but you probably haven't met Ernie yet."

The boy gave a friendly wave. "Hullo there. I'm Ernie Macmillan. And I guess you're Harry, Susan hasn't been able to shut up about you since June."

Susan turned a color to match her hair and Harry gently nudged her with his elbow as the boat began sailing into the lake. "I hadn't realized I had made such an impression. I do hope it's all been good things she's said about me?"

"Oh, nothing too terrible. I'm sure I could try and remember one or two things she's said -"

"Ernie, you shut up this instant or I'll kick you off into the lake!" Susan glared. Harry just laughed in response and ducked his head as the boat passed through a tunnel that took them underneath the castle, to where their harbor waited.

•❅──────✧❅✦❅✧──────❅•

"Abbot, Hannah!"

"HUFFLEPUFF!"

The walk up after their boat ride had been rather amusing, in Harry's opinion. He'd made it back to his previous group, plus Blaise who he hadn't seen on the train, where Hermione was beginning to whisper every spell she knew to herself, having apparently overheard a boy talking about how there was some sort of test involved in the Sorting. Harry glanced at Daphne, who gave him a small shrug in response. Great, it was probably tradition not to tell first years what would be involved until the very last moment.

After that, ghosts had come by, which was mildly interesting in and of itself, though they were quickly shooed away by Professor McGonagall and now Harry was watching students try on a hat.

Susan was quick to follow her friend to Hufflepuff, and a boy Harry didn't know, Terry Boot, went off to Ravenclaw. After a few more students, Tracey was sent up. She sat up there for nearly a minute, and based on the expression on her face, she was arguing with the hat until it finally sighed and shouted, "SLYTHERIN," as if in resignation.

Fay Dunbar was next, though Harry largely stopped paying attention, except for when people he knew were called. Hermione went to Ravenclaw and Daphne to Slytherin right after her. The hat seemed to have trouble deciding on Neville, though it eventually called out, "GRYFFINDOR," for him. Harry swallowed, his throat feeling tight. His name would be called soon enough. He had made his decision on who he wanted to be and it was certainly too late to change his mind now.

He could only hope it would be the right decision.

"Wyllt, Harry!"

Harry thought he saw the Headmaster's head jerk up, the old man's gaze sharpening to study him, as his name was called. He supposed it wasn't that surprising. He was the only Harry in his year after all, and if you were expecting Harry Potter only to find another child with the same name in the same year, anyone would be suspicious. That didn't matter though. He was Harry Wyllt now. That was the lie he had decided on. A lie that he would tell even to himself.

He stepped forward and closed his eyes as the hat was put onto his head.

"Hmm, well this is odd, isn't it," said a small voice in his ear. "Very strange, Harry… Wyllt?" The voice seemed confused for a moment before finally correcting itself, "No, Harry Potter it seems. A very confusing turn of events. Well, it doesn't matter much to me. Let's see here, plenty of courage and not a bad mind. More than that though, there seems to be a nice thirst to prove yourself. You want to learn magic not for the sake of knowledge, but to show you're worthy of everything you've been given, hm?"

Harry bit down on his lip, feeling as though something in chest was being constricted. "I'll give you a bit of advice as long as I'm here, Harry. Love is not something that is earned and you can never prove yourself worthy of receiving it, for it is something that is only ever given freely. That said, I think it's clear where you belong - you will do well in SLYTHERIN!"

Harry nodded jerkily and walked to the Slytherin table once the hat was taken off his head, feeling as though his body was numb. He ignored the applause and sat down next to Daphne, who frowned slightly and leaned over to ask, "What's wrong, Harry?" He could only shake his head in response, and Blaise joined them a moment later as the final first year to be sorted.

He supposed that he should have expected the Hat to be able to look at what he was thinking, but having it thrown in his face like that had thrown something off inside of him. Ugh, he couldn't keep acting like this. He could think it over later. Harry took a deep breath and shoved all of it: the doubt, the worry, and thoughts to the back of his mind, building the lie that was Harry Wyllt back up. Harry Wyllt was a normal, happy child, not someone who would be thrown off balance from a conversation with the Sorting Hat.

Harry Wyllt plastered a smile onto his face and glanced around at his new housemates, loading up his plate as he listened to Draco loudly decrying how Dumbledore was clearly going senile.

Author's Note

Hello everyone and welcome once again to this strange hint corner. I hope you enjoyed this chapter.

First is something of a bookkeeping thing. I was reminded of a method of formatting that the fic FateProphecy Break by Wrathkal did, in which chapter titles were given a unified theme in order to denote which book the fic was on. I've decided to borrow this bit in addition to the chapter titles I've been using so far. Expect chapters for book one to be labelled as Dream going forward.

Moving on to the chapter itself, Merlin being a student at Hogwarts is one of the odder points of Harry Potter lore, especially since we know when Hogwarts was founded, or rather how late it was founded by comparison to when things like when King Arthur's court are usually placed. Most fanfic that I've seen addressed it simply separate the two characters - there was both a Myrddin Emrys who served at King Arthur's Court and a Merlin Ambrosius who later attended Hogwarts. I'm sure it's no surprise to most of you readers that they're actually the same person in this fic due to shenanigans at play.

As for Harry being a Slytherin, I'm sure quite a few people were surprised by the decision, both in universe and out. My two betas both thought he was going to Ravenclaw. However, the Hat can see deeper than the surface a person presents to the world, and while this Harry is certainly enthusiastic about learning, and would have done well in Ravenclaw, his intrinsic motivations lie elsewhere. Perhaps the lesson to take away is how possibly problematic it is to teach a child that not only is lying okay, but it's something to excel at doing even with yourself.

Anyways, I hope all of you enjoyed, and I hope to see you again next time.