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The Sorting
James was jumping on Harry's bed again. Harry, who wasn't feeling awake enough to be in a bed mixer, slapped the bouncing boy in the back, with one of the pillows.
"Yes! You're awake. Daddy said I had to wait until you where awake before telling you." James said excitedly. Harry grumbled from under the pillow he'd dragged over his head.
"Tell me what?" James was bouncing on the floor now, Harry had a sneaking suspicion that James only bounced when ever near to Harry. Harry had laughed at him the first hundred times, but now, it was getting annoying.
"That we're going to…HOGWARTS!" James spread his arms out as if to illustrate the hugeness of it all. When Harry didn't react on James's big news he stopped bouncing. "Harry!" he whined, crawling into the other boys bed.
"I'm not allowed to wake mum and dad until you're up. And I'm starving!" Harry sighed, his dad was the master of whining.
"Pleeaasee…" Harry threw the cover away and followed the skipping James out of his room. After waking James's parents, the same way he had woken Harry up, they all headed down for something to eat, Mrs Potter kept sniffing, saying she had the beginnings of a cold. James who was being entertained with stories from his dad's time at Hogwarts didn't seem to be able to sit still.
"…and they are going to tell everyone what a good Gryffindor I am." James exclaimed happily. Harry and Mr Potter both rolled their eyes at him.
"You will be placed where ever you belong, James." Mr Potter said calmly, but James didn't seem to be listening, he had a dreamy expression on his face.
"Oh! Let's talk about other things!" Mrs Potter suddenly snapped, sniffing once again. Harry realised that she probably didn't feel like letting them go.
"Now, now dear. I'm sure that you'll enjoy having the house all quiet and calm, the kitchen to your self and most importantly… they'll be home for Christmas." Mr Potter said smiling at her.
"You'll be counting the days at the holiday, wanting to send them back. You'll see." Mrs Potter frowned, but James looked ecstatic.
"We can stay at Hogwarts over the holidays?" he asked. Harry shook his head at James's inability to see his mom struggling with the idée of letting him go in the first place.
"Of course not, James. Why would you want to spend Christmas away from your family?" Harry asked, maybe a little too forcefully. James looked at him surprised but Harry didn't feel sorry at all for his outburst. He had wished for a family to go home to during his years at Hogwarts. His Christmas with Sirius and the others at Grimmauld Place had been one of the best moments in his life. He stood and made his way up to his room, his father didn't know how lucky he was. Harry started packing his trunk and silently got dressed, a knock on the door revealed Mr Potter.
"How are you Harry?" he asked carefully. Harry shrugged, he had gotten a while to calm down, and his dad was only eleven after all. Mr Potter walked in and got seated on Harry's bed.
"I know that James is a little spoiled." Mr Potter said looking at Harry who wondered where this was going.
"Edna and I found out that we couldn't have anymore children after James was born."
Mr Potter said after a short silence. Harry didn't know what to say so he just nodded slowly.
"We're kind of hoping some of your calmness will rub of on him." Harry smiled to himself, there was no chance in hell that James would calm down. Mr Potter started laughing at Harry's face.
"Guess not, eh?" He stood up pulling Harry up at the same time.
"We had better get ready. Edna will no doubt want to leave early so that she can give you boys a proper good bye." He pretended to shivered in fear, making Harry smile.
They were early at the platform, true to Mr Potters' guess. Mrs Potter was currently squeezing James for all he was worth.
"Mom! Stop it! What if someone sees you?" James looked crushed at the sight of Frank walking towards them with his parents. He finally made it out of his mothers' tight embrace and tried to get himself in order.
"Hi there James. Harry. How are you people doing? Are you excited?" James, who had been trying to look cool, in front of Frank, ruined it by jumping up and down.
"Am I? Of course I am! It's Hogwarts!" He exclaimed. Harry who got a shock at the sight of Neville's, Very much younger grandmother just nodded slowly in response.
"Ah, Harry, how are you?" Mr Longbottom asked and smiled nervously at him.
"I'm fine thank you sir. How are you?" Harry never got an answer because James started pulling his trunk away towards the train.
"James? It won't leave for another ten minuets." Mrs Potter called after him. James was ignoring her however, he seemed to be feeling that enough was enough. Mr Potter smiled. "Guess it's time for us to leave then Edna." Mrs Potter gave Harry a hard hug, sniffing loudly in his ear.
"We'll be back before you know it." Harry whispered to her and she nodded sniffing even louder. A loud hissing sound could be heard, James had thrown Crookshanks the second aboard the train, and he soon came back and grabbed Harry's arm.
"Come on already. Bye mom! Bye Dad!" He offered over his shoulders.
"Write!" His mom called back, before they boarded the train.
Crooky, as Harry had started to call the cat, hissed at the sight of James. The cat walked up to Harry and started to climb his leg, Harry who didn't agree with the cats claws, grabbed a hold of him and carried it to an empty carriage.
"I can't believe that I'm going to Hogwarts." James said excitedly, looking at Frank who smiled at him.
"Neither can I. Maybe I should write father and ask him to transfer me to Durmstrang." Harry couldn't help but roll his eyes at the boy in the doorway. He was blond.
"I can see right away that you'll be a looser, hanging with the likes of Longbottom." Frank flinched, making the blond boy smile.
"How is Daddy dearest? Heard he's as loony as ever." James flew up, obviously insulted on his friends behalf.
"James. Don't be silly, sit down." Harry said in a bored tone, looking at Frank who was trying to hold the younger boy back.
"Ah, the second Potter. At least your father had good schooling. You shouldn't hang around these losers, I can introduce you to the right people." Harry smirked at the words and the extended hand, like son like father, He thought.
"I think I can sort the right people out by my self, Malfoy." The older boy sneered at him before storming out of the compartment. James was looking at Harry with mixed feelings. "You know him?" He asked. Frank looked curious as well. Harry shook his head.
"Heard of him." he said vaguely, they didn't look convinced though.
"…Stupid blond!" A dark haired boy stumbled in and Harry felt his heart stop.
"Mind if I crash in here? There's a blond guy with an ego the size of Britain outside." He muttered. James who seemed to see a kindred spirit lightened up immediately.
"MALFOY!" they exclaimed after looking at each other for a while. They shook hand and soon sat next to each other talking in a hushed tone.
"Um, you want to take a walk? I could introduce you to the right people." Frank said, and winced at his own words. Harry gave his dad and Sirius a look and nodded. He would have plenty of time to get to know Sirius again, later.
After meeting half of the train and avoiding a boy from Hufflepuff (Lockhart), who according to Frank was a right git, they returned to the carriage only to find it empty.
"Anything of the trolley?" a young woman asked. Frank bought a small pile of sweets whilst Harry settled for a package of Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans. It didn't take long before Sirius and James returned, laughing loudly.
"…see his face?" Sirius asked James who nodded still laughing.
"Ah, Sirius this is my cousin Harry and this is Frank." Sirius looked at Harry surprised. "Wow! You look like twins!" he exclaimed.
"Think of the trouble you could make." James however just shook his head.
"My mum said she'd send me to Durmstrang if I got Harry into trouble." Sirius looked scandalised.
"Oh come on! Are you a little mommy's boy?" Sirius taunted Harry, who felt as if he'd been slapped in the face. James looked uncertain on what to do, and so didn't say a thing.
"I'm not. Since both my parents are dead it would be kind of hard to be a mommy's boy. Wouldn't it?" Harry spat, before exiting the now silent carriage, he didn't see Sirius shocked face.
To angry to look where he was going, he walked into a crying figure.
"Oh, I'm sorry." Harry stood and extended his hand to help who ever it was up from the floor. The person just glared at him though.
"You!" Snape spat, looking up at Harry as if he was a piece of rubbish. Harry didn't react on the tone, he was more shocked to see several bruises on the other boys face he also had a bleeding lip. Harry got his wand out, making Snape flinch. Harry realised that there was something wrong with his arm as well.
"I'm just going to heal that cut." Snape glared at him however and tried to get up from the floor.
"Didn't you get a good look before?" Snape exclaimed, making Harry look at him strangely.
"Excuse me?" Harry asked Snape confused, what did he mean with that. When the dark haired boy whimpered in pain grabbing his wand arm, Harry moved forward. He sneered right back at the other boy and carefully rolled the sleeve up. A huge cut across the arm made him swallow in disgust. He tried to remember what the healing charm was.
"Episkey." They both looked at the arm in amazement as the cut healed. Harry then performed the charm again on the lip, before Snape had the chance to object.
"Well, well. It looks like the little Potter boy knows his spells." Harry rolled his eyes at Malfoy's voice.
"What do you want Malfoy?" The blond boy just smirked, he would have said more if it hadn't been for a group of girls walking by. Harry saw his chance to sneak away when the blond was busy looking at the giggling girls. Harry kept himself away for the rest of the journey and only made his way out to change his clothes.
"Firs'-years this way!" Harry couldn't help but smile at the familiar sight of Hagrid. He made it over smiling.
"Harry? I eh…I'm sorry about Sirius, he didn't know about your mom and dad." James had finally found him. Harry looked passed him to see Sirius wringing his hands.
"I'm sorry." He whispered, looking down on the ground. Harry nodded feeling a little ashamed himself. James thumped Sirius on the back.
"See. Wasn't too bad was it?" he said to the now smiling Sirius. Harry sighed and stepped into one of the waiting boats, Sirius and James both climbed in after him.
Harry wasn't really feeling lucky about getting to see Hogwarts the boat way again. It had started to rain and James and Sirius were rocking the boat wildly.
Feeling relived, having the hard unmoving earth under his feet, Harry followed the rest of the students inside. Soon Harry and the rest, where waiting for Professor McGonagall to call out their names. Harry felt like he had a swarm of butterflies in his stomach, he was sure that the Professor would call him up, it was the hat he was worried about.
"Black, Sirius!" a very nervous looking Sirius made his way up to the sorting hat. It didn't take long before it shouted out Gryffindor. James was jumping up and down clapping his hands at Sirius. The rest of the students went by in a gif. Harry was surprised when a red haired girl made it up to the hat and was sorted into Gryffindor. He had completely forgotten about his mother being a first year as well. After clapping for Lupin, Remus. Harry started to feel a little sick.
"Pettigrew, Peter!" A short boy ran up to the sorting hat, stumbling before finally sitting down. The hat took its time making the boy tremble ever so slightly. Harry wanted to scream and curse the boy who was responsible for his parents being dead. He knew that the boy hadn't done anything yet, but he still cringed when the boy ran over to the Gryffindor table. What if it placed him in Slytherin? Harry thought, he couldn't live in the same house as all of those deatheater wanna-bees.
"Potter, Harry!" Harry froze, he couldn't do it. James gave him a push however and Harry came to his senses. He sat down on the stool and took a deep breath before Professor McGonagall placed the hat on his head.
"Potter, eh?" The hat asked in a bored voice. Harry gulped.
"Oh! What is this? A Time-traveller, Hm…you used the Gryffindor turner…but it wasn't yours." Harry felt a shiver creep up his back.
"You can't tell anyone." Harry whispered furiously under his breath. The hat ignored him. "And what have we here? A Slytherin even?" Harry was by now shaking his head.
"Not Slytherin, Anywhere but Slytherin." the hat laughed in his ear, making Harry pale.
"Oh don't worry kiddo. I think I've found you a house and it's not Slytherin. I never put anyone in a house against their wishes." Harry exhaled, he felt light headed.
"Do feel welcome to make a visit, I live up in the headmasters office." Harry nodded slowly, not really interested.
"You're a nice little riddle." the hat said before shouting,
"GRYFFINDOR!"
Harry made it over to the Gryffindor table on shaking legs. He meet Malfoy's intense gaze from the Slytherin table, and thanked his lucky star for not being sorted into the snakes house. The sorting went by in a blur after that, Harry remembered clapping as James was sorted. After that, he had no memory of the feast or walking up to the common room.