Ch. 6: Sorting

Albus Dumbledore looked outside of his office from the window; his eyes fixed on the train station at the village nearby. He was very troubled, for many things that had happened during the last summer. He looked at his desk, on it he saw the only letter that had refused to leave the castle, which was addressed to Harry Potter, the lost son of Lily and James, and the brother of the boy who lived. That was one of the many thoughts running through his head. The child was still missing and not even Hogwarts was able to find him, how he was hiding was a mystery, and he might never know.

The second thing occupying his mind was the year to come and the new students, two of them particularly. First there was Henry Potter and all the plans he had for him, which would start developing this year. And then there was the mystery of Carlo Corvino. He had received word from Ollivander that the brother wand to Voldemort's had an owner at last, but he had thought that it would go in Henry's hand; instead it had chosen the Italian boy. This however, was not the only enigma surrounding the child, his six companions were also noteworthy. Where the child had found shades of all things and how he had come to make them his servants was unknown, but he would find out; he refused to believe that a child was capable of creating one and not dying, let alone six.

The old wizard sighed heavily, so young and the child already showed signs of being so dark; having shades as companions could be nothing less. And having the brother wand to Voldemort's could very well be a sign of a powerful wizard in the making. He would need to watch the boy carefully as to not let him taint young Henry or interfere with his plans. He was still a child so he could still be swayed to the light. But in the whole scheme of things the child was, as of now, irrelevant. He could work on changing Mr. Corvino's ways later; he needed to focus on Henry. He saw the speck of smoke rising from the express' chimney and went to ready himself to receive the students, things were about to get started.

.-._.-._.

Earlier on the Express, Carlo sat alone in one of the many compartments playing a game of Solitaire to pass the time with the deck of cards that Pulcinella had given him before boarding the train; Noro had left as soon as the train started to move, surely to explore the whole train. It had been already two and a half hours since the train left the station, and he felt a lump in his throat as he thought about the place. His former family had been there to leave Henry, of course. But after their loved child had boarded the train both, Lily and James, had started looking around; maybe for him. Fat chance of revealing himself just to be brought back to that hellhole. James had even used a few spells, probably to locate him, and Carlo was relieved when it was made obvious that those failed to point at him.

They had kept trying until the whistle of the locomotive attracter their attention and they waved goodbye to Henry. He had felt a morbid pleasure when he saw them crestfallen. He shook his head to get rid of those thoughts and focused on his game. Many would get easily bored when playing alone, but Carlo was used to it. One would if they had no one to play with, and even if he had the shades company they didn't make for good playmates.

He finished his game and shuffled the deck for another one. A few minutes into the game the door of his compartment was opened. This startled him; no one had seemed to notice even the compartment before, probably a side effect of the curse. There stood a bushy haired girl, accompanied by a chubby boy, the boy however seemed as startled as him, surely he had been unable to notice the compartment like all the other, but that left the question of why the girl could? What's more, she was eyeing him with what he assumed was disapproval, but that was impossible, no one noticed him ever. Her words however meant she did.

"I don't think that gambling games are allowed at Hogwarts"—she said haughtily.

Carlo's eyes widened for a second before his occlumency training kicked in and he was able to hide it.

"Then it's good that we are not at Hogwarts just yet"—he answered with an even voice, even though inside he was a mess of questions. He noticed the boy with her seemed even more put off by his 'sudden appearance'.

"Even then, those games are a bad vice and you shouldn't play them"—she commented matter-of-factly. Carlo decided he didn't like her attitude.

"Did you need something or you just enjoy bugging people?"—she actually seemed to be embarrassed for a second before her demeanor turned back to normal.

"Actually yes, have you seen a toad? Neville"—she pointed at the boy behind her—"lost his"

"I haven't seen a toad, have you contacted a prefect?"—he said turning back to his game. He noticed that Neville had problems keeping his attention on him; something the girl yet to be named had no problems with. Hell the only reason the plump boy was still able to notice Carlo was because the girl kept talking to him making it impossible to ignore the green eyed boy.

"We did but they are at a meeting and said to go to them later, we decided to look for it meanwhile"—Neville had wanted to comment that she had omitted the fact that it was her who decided it, but he didn't. Carlo picked up on this and concluded the girl was very bossy.

"Too bad then. Please close the door as you leave and if you see a lemur let him be"

"Lemur? I thought only cats, toads and owls were allowed, why do you have a lemur? And where is it? Surely you don't let him roam free around the train? He could bite someone and who knows how many sicknesses he could transmit!"—She would have rambled further, but Carlo's glare stopped it.

"First of all, Noro is vaccinated so you can rest your mind about him having a disease. Second! He is very well behaved and wouldn't bite anyone unless provoked. What I let my lemur do is none of your business. And you must be a muggleborn if you don't even know that there is an exception in the rules for familiars. It's very rare for a first year to have a familiar bond so that exception is seldom used, however it exist and as long as you don't know all of the facts you shouldn't jump to conclusions!"—The girl was taken aback by his outburst but then something he said clicked and she looked puzzled.

"So the lemur, Noro was it? Is your familiar?"—she didn't even bother to deny the fact that she was muggleborn, or ask what that was supposed to imply.

"That's what I said to the school, though I'm not sure"—He looked at his game and sighed in frustration, games helped keep him distracted but they were not good for calming him when stressed. He detached his trunk from his belt and enlarged it, which made both visitors' eyes widen, before opening the seventh compartment, storing the deck of cards inside and taking a book of herbology, the only one in the syllabus he had yet to read. Reading helped him more to relax, and even though he would like to read something else, it was inside the second compartment, which he wouldn't reveal to anyone. The bushy haired girl's bossiness seemed to come back with a vengeance then.

"You lied to the school? How could you do something so vile? And how did you do that with your trunk? We are not supposed to do magic outside of school"—Carlo sighed in frustration, didn't the girl recognize a dismissal when it was rubbed on her face? Why was she still here at all?

"I didn't lie, Noro could be my familiar. I'm not sure because I don't know how a familiar bond is, and even if he is not my familiar I was not about to leave him alone, and what is it to you? For that matter why do you care if I do magic out of school? Though you just keep showing your ignorance of the magical world, the trunk is charmed to shrink and enlarge with a command, I'm not actually doing magic, you ignorant busybody!"—Again the girl was taken aback, but this time it seemed that it was accompanied by some indignation, and a bit of sadness.

"I…I'm sorry. I didn't want to bother you, but I thought that…"

"That I was doing magic, well I was not, and even if I was it's not your place to reprimand anyone, you are not the authority. Though I'm perfectly able to do magic in the train, otherwise it would be useless to ask the prefects for help since they can only help you by using magic. However they are still underage, just like us. The fact that they can do magic inside the train while still being underage means that we too can use magic in the train if we so wish for, for example"—he then took out his dagger/wand/etc. both the girl and Neville freaked out by the weapon—"what's the toad's name?"—he looked at the boy, who seemed to shy away at being addressed directly.

"T...t…Trebor"

"Alright. Gánga eom onr ebrithil Trebor"—he chanted as he waved the dagger, it wouldn't do for anyone to spot him doing wand, motion and wordless magic, even though he could, but better let people think he was more at their level. Not even five seconds later a toad came soaring and landed on Neville's hand, which earned Carlo a good pair of awed stares. The girl, who still hadn't introduced herself, seemed unable to restrain her bossy mouth and the questions started again.

"How did you do that? Why did you use a knife instead of a wand? What spell was that? I don't think I have read about it, it didn't sound like any other I have read about! And it's not in our school books, where did you learn it?..."—Carlo decided to just cut the interrogation short.

"In that same order: Magic. Not a knife but a dagger and it's in fact my wand. The spell has no name. You can't read about it. Of course it doesn't sound like any other since it's a different language. And it's none of your business, so piss off!"

"Stop yelling at me!"—she finally snapped.

"Then stop trying to get people to do what you want! You have no right to demand anything from anyone, yet you act as if you must know everything from everyone. You are nothing special, and if you keep acting like everyone must tell you everything then you will be alone for a long while"—that last comment seemed to strike a chord inside her and her eyes turned watery but her expression remained the same. From this Carlo deduced that she had not many friends to begin with, so him pointing out that she never would, given her personality, must have hurt; not that he cared about that, she was at fault there. The fact that she didn't change her actual expression meant that she was very prideful as well; she didn't want to show him that his words affected her, even if the tears gave it away.

.-._.-._.

After the pair of intruders had left, with the girl being in tears, Carlo had stored his book back into his trunk. He would never be able to read peacefully with all the questions invading his mind right after his encounter with the bossy girl, who, Carlo noted, forgot to introduce herself, how rude!

The biggest question right now being: How was she able to see him? No one but his shades companions were ever able to. The letter he received a little over 3 years ago said that only those who wished the best for him would be able to notice him, but he very much doubted that was the case with this girl; even less with all that transpired during their brief meeting. Maybe if he knew more about her it would be easier to answer his questions.

He then started listing what he knew about here by his deductions. First, she is bossy and seemingly arrogant; but by the short lapses where she seemed vulnerable it was clear that was just a facade, so she is probably really insecure of herself; with her being bossy too, it could mean she had not much interaction with other people.

She is very inquisitive too by how many questions she made in rapid succession, and by the way she reacted when he took out the book she is an abide reader; probably derived from her lack of human interaction, or maybe that was the cause instead of an effect.

By how many times she alluded at the school rules, she is also very strict when it came to following them, so she probably relies a lot on authority figures, namely teachers; this probably meant she had been bullied during her earlier education and teachers were her only support; not an uncommon occurrence for muggleborns. Humans as a whole hate what they don't understand, so muggle children witnessing accidental magic from muggleborns was a recipe for bullying, with a few exceptions here and there; sadly, in magical Britain, said bullying didn't stop once they entered the magical world, what with all the purebloodist society and all.

She had also given the impression that she was not a thinker. Oh she has probably a lot of booksmarts, but she relies only on hard facts and has not an open mind, something that should have gone once she entered the magical world, most skeptical muggleborns stop being so once they entered the magical world, she obviously didn't…that last deduction gave him stop.

She was skeptical! Even though she had seen the magical world by herself she was still having her doubts about it. She doesn't really believe in magic that much yet, and yet she has the ability to use it. If the books his future self had written where to be believe then she could alter reality, just like any other wizard or witch could.

The power of magic, the true power of altering reality that every magical possesses, relies on belief and willpower. However that girl is the opposite, she is strong-willed alright, but the factor of her disbelief is what made her able to see him, right now she is in a bubble where magic not aimed at her lost its effects for a short while. So while most wizards shield themselves by 'believing' that they were being shielded, this disbelief of her, if nurtured, could make it so no magic could have an effect on her because she simply didn't believe in its effects.

Right now, if a curse was aimed at her directly then by the belief of the caster it would indeed affect her, but if it was a wide area no aimed specifically at her and which effects she didn't know nor believed in then it would in fact not affect her at all. This of course meant that once she saw any magic, spell, curse, or otherwise, have an effect on anything else that was not her; or once she read about it given her nature, this pseudo-immunity would be worthless against that specific piece of magic. So once she learnt about notice-me-not charms or other similar magic she would probably stop noticing him like everyone else.

This of course brought another thought to his mind, if she could nullify the effects of magic by not knowing nor believing in them, then he could very well do the same. He smirked; this would need to be further tested.

.-._.-._.

The rest of the trip went without further incidents and they arrived at Hogsmeade's station during the early night, he had already changed into hi special uniform made of basilisk scales and dragon hide mix along with his acromantula silk shirt. Something any pureblood worth his sneer would envy, of course that with him being unnoticeable, he wouldn't be receiving any of the envious glares his garments would otherwise garner.

The first years were being now assembled by a half giant that Carlo vaguely remembered from his days at the Potter's, he was a friend of James and Lily and sort of a low rank worker here at Hogwarts. Carlo joined the group of eleven years old and followed the giant of a man to the shore of a lake, where they were instructed to board on boas 'no more than four a boat' had been Haggrid's words.

Once they were all on board of a boat, Carlo being alone in his, they started moving forward on their own.

"Heds dun"—warned Haggrid when they approached a bunch of low top trees, but the man was the only one who needed to lower his head to prevent being knocked out of his boat—"You'll get your firs sight of Howars now"—he announced and not a second later the group of future students got the first view of their future school.

It was a beautiful sight indeed, but Harry had seen so many other more beautiful structures during his travels that the only reason he kept staring was because of the novelty of this one, but it soon wore off and it was just another building, a great one yes, but not the greatest he had seen; that title belonged, in his opinion, to both Catherine Palace and Peterhof Palace in St. Petersburg, Russia, for sheer beauty and he was planning on visiting Germany next summer, if he lived past this year of course, and visit Linderhof Palace and see if it was as impressive as he imagined, he had heard about Munich Residenz too. The fact that they had been built without magic at all only added to their magnificence.

He was taken out of his musing by the sound of someone pounding heavily on a wooden door, he shook of the disorientation and discovered that his body had moved on its own, following the other first years and the half-giant. The door opened just slightly and a stern looking woman, who Carlo also remembered visiting the Potters once or twice, came out.

"Tha firs yers, professor McGonagall"—said the man. So, McGonagall, at last he started getting names.

"Thank you Haggrid"—and now he finally knew the name of their guide—"are all of them present?"—she asked meaningfully. Haggrid seemed to be crestfallen at the question.

"He ain't here professor"—answered Haggrid and McGonagall seemed to be saddened too, but she soon composed herself and nodded. Was it possible they were talking about him? Meh, whatever.

"Alright then"—she then addressed the children—"follow me"

.-._.-._.

(I'm not writing McGonagall's speech about the houses; everyone has memorized it by now)

Carlo watched impassive as the Deputy Mistress went into the great hall by herself and left the children unsupervised, yeah, that's a great idea right there. As soon as she was past the door a blond boy who seemed to be trying to look important approached his brother and his group. He didn't bother to hear what they said to each other, he only knew that Henry insulted the boy and he got mad, fortunately before any trouble could arise all their attention was taken by a couple of ghosts passing by and discussing something about some Peeves guy. His year mates were terrified by their ghostly forms and some screamed in fright, this got the attention of the ghosts themselves and they started speaking about them and how they hoped they were in their house, the fat one apparently was the Hufflepuff ghost.

It was after that small incident that the Deputy Headmistress, McGonagall finally returned and led them to the front of the hall. Carlo noticed that the ceiling was bewitched to look show the outside sky, the girl he had briefly met during the train ride said she had read this fact as if it was not obvious.

Once they were all at the front of the head table, they had to heard to a so called song from a talking hat (not writing it either) which was the responsible of sorting the students. He had read about the hat from his future counterpart's journals since it was a necessary piece of knowledge for events that could happen in the future, but his future self had called it 'The Founders' Hat' and never mentioned anywhere that it was the responsible of the sorting, he should have been able to deduce that though, but he never put much thought to it.

McGonagall had started calling names once the hat finished its song and he tuned her out until his name was called.

"Carlo Corvino"—stated the witch, who didn't seem to notice him walking towards the hat—"Carlo Corvino?"—she called again. Carlo sighed; this was going to be a long year if this was to be the norm until he got rid of his curse.

"I'm already here"—he state tonelessly, startling not only McGonagall but the entire faculty, except for the turban guy who looked curious instead, and the student body as well, including his year mates. The Deputy Headmistress shook off her embarrassment at not noticing a student and awkwardly put the hat on Carlos head as he sat on the stool.

Hmm…what do we have here? You're an intriguing individual Mr. Corvino, you're not who you say you are, yet I'm unable to determine your actual identity—Carlo sighed in relief, it wouldn't do if his plans crumbled because of a ragged hat—I would appreciate it if you refrained from calling me that, I know my appearance is not the best, but it's still rude to point it out. Now, where to put you? You have many traits from every house Mr. Corvino, something unusual I must say. You value knowledge and don't have any qualms about spending long periods of time to acquire it, yet it's not the knowledge you want, but the power it can give you, Ravenclaw is not for you.

Power, that's one of the things you seek the most, the power to prove yourself better than one other, hmm, who could that other be? Your brother, you have been wronged and want revenge, something proper of a Slytherin, and you're cunning enough. But you are not willing to use or hurt others to achieve your revenge, you only want to prove that they lost a big opportunity; you prefer doing things on your own before making others do your bidding, so Slytherin is not for you either.

You're brave too, and adventurous too, but you're not hotheaded like most Gryffindors. You like to have a plan before putting yourself in danger, and you have a coldness to you that would make it difficult for you to fit in there. You fit in Gryffindor, but Gryffindor isn't fit for you.

Hmm, what's this? You're determined to work for what you wish. You're aware that you need to work hard to achieve both, knowledge and power come at that cost and you are willing to pay it, to sweat, bleed and cry for what's your goal, not many can claim that. You're also very loyal, to those you deem worthy, but loyal nonetheless, not very trusting but you would hold onto those who gain your trust. You wouldn't hurt for your own gain, but you would to defend your close ones. That's definitely something proper of any "HUFFLEPUFF!"—the hat shouted out loud the last part. Carlo felt relieved; this had taken too long for his liking. He had no qualms about what house he ended up in, but he had hoped it would be decided fast.

He got up from the stool and walked towards the Hufflepuff table, where he was receiving some applause. His housemates had a hard time keeping their attention on him, yet seemed to be doing a better job than the other houses or the faculty. Hufflepuff were more notorious for their loyalty than for their hard work, as such it stands to reason that they would wish the best for one of their own. He smiled at that thought, if this was to be his house, maybe the year wouldn't be so bad after all.

.-._.-._.

WARNING!

I want you to read this to avoid being flamed next chapter. First of all I want to make clear that I dislike rushed stories, I just don't care about reading them because it is kind of boring to read a rushed story. However, I find myself having to write the early development of this story as being rushed. Why? You might ask. The thing is that during first year there are few events of interest that will happen, so I plan on writing a brief overview of classes, the passing of the seasons and other trivial things to the story, and focusing on detailing only important events for this first year like the Halloween incident or the stone retrieval, they will definitely happen differently and there are a couple of other things that will happen too, but that would be telling. So in short I will write the whole first year in one, maybe a long chapter, though I'm not too sure about how long, I just wanted to warn you now.

I hope you liked the chapter as much as I liked writing it, it almost wrote itself. R&R.