Disclaimer: I can honestly say that after looking at my poor bank balance I do not own any of the characters that you see and recognise here from either Harry Potter or The Labyrinth, I am just having a little fun with them all

Chapter Ten – Arrival at Hogwarts

When the train stopped the three friends stepped down onto the platform, all three of them couldn't help but notice the lamp being waved around the very large man and Jared immediately thought that there had to be giant ancestry in his blood to be that big.

The large man's voice boomed above the noise being created by all the other students, "Firs'-years! Firs'-years over here!"

Unlike the other first years that slipped and stumbled after the large man, Jared walked gracefully across the dark and rain-slicked ground thanks to his Fae blood, although seeing Hermione start to slip he quickly grabbed her elbow earning him a smile of thanks before offering her his arm as the gentleman he was raised to be and helping her the rest of the way.

At the bottom of the steep narrow path that they followed the large man called over his shoulder, "Yeh'll get yer firs' sight o'Hogwarts in a sec." And as they turned a corner there it sat.

At the top of a high mountain on the other side of the vast black lake before them, where a group of small boats bobbed, many windows glinted with light like starts in a clear sky, the many turrets and towers visible as only dark outlines in the night.

The group of first years began to ohhh and ahhh at the sight of it while Jared merely raised an eyebrow. He could understand how the young mortal children were impressed, but really not only did he live in a castle himself but had seen the castles of all the other rulers of the Underground not to mention a pure Elvish castle whenever he visited the High Lord in the Kingdom of Dragons, and compared to the High Lord's castle well this was cheap and tacky.

"No more'n four to a boat!" The loud voice boomed after sufficient time to admire the view had passed. Jared took a seat in one of them along with Hermione and Neville; they were soon joined by a young boy who introduced himself as Dean Thomas. As they made the way across the lake, Jared leaned over the side slightly and began trailing his fingers in the water to see if he could sense any interesting life living under its deceptively calm surface.

To his delight he was able to sense an entire colony of mer-people down there. He made a mental note to find a way to get in touch and open at the very least communications, at best he could even find one or two friends down there.

Soon they were passing under the cliff and into a well-lit but damp cave, climbing out the large man checked that they were all there before knocking three times on the large doors.

The doors swung open to reveal a stern witch in emerald-green robes. The large man formally handed the first years over to her, revealing his name as Hagrid in the process and the witches name to be Professor McGonagall, who proceeded to lead them into a small chamber where they were instructed to smarten themselves up before disappearing to see if everything was ready for their arrival.

Unlike the other first years Jared didn't bother to smooth his clothing or hair, he knew he looked fine. As the others fussed over their appearance, Jared saw the red headed boy, Ron and Draco Malfoy have an argument, it appeared there was a long standing feud between the two families if their words were anything to go by.

Before it could become anything more than a verbal disagreement, Professor McGonagall returned, "We're ready for you now. Follow me."

She then proceeded to lead the group into the Great Hall.

As soon as Jared stepped inside he experienced a severe case of dizziness as thanks to his Fae magic, he saw not only the enchanted ceiling but the real ceiling at the same time after a few moments he managed to supress his Fae magic so that he saw just the enchanted ceiling and not both. Just ahead of him he could hear Hermione mentioning that she had read about the enchantment in a book before coming, he smirked thinking that she would most likely end up in Ravenclaw if she was that studious.

They arrived at the front of the hall where they could all see the stool with the tatty looking hat sitting on it, a faint glow surrounding it told Jared that the magic on it was old and so he wasn't too surprised when it began to sing its song.

Soon it was finished and the sorting began. He was surprised to hear Hermione be placed in Gryffindor and not Ravenclaw as he had expected, and not at all surprised when the arrogant Malfoy heir got his wish and was placed in Slytherin. He was pleased to see Neville go to Gryffindor as his new friend had mentioned on the train that he had been worried he wouldn't be sorted there and wanted it in a way to honour his parents.

Finally they came to the letter P.

"Potter, Harry!" McGonagall called out, as soon as she did whispers broke out at the sound of the name; Jared stood there and frowned slightly but remained silent.

McGonagall frowned and repeated her call, sounding impatient as she did so, "Potter, Harry!"

Again Jared refused to answer to the name that he had stopped using six years ago. His father may have told him how much emphasis the people of the wizarding world had placed on his middle name, but he made his choice, he would not dance to their tune but his own and as far as he was concerned his name was Jared and that is what he would answer to.

Finally the adults seemed to realise that no one was going to answer, it was then that the old man at the centre of the head table stood and silence fell all around. A few moments of searching the faces of the small group of first years resulted in his eyes landing on Jared and didn't leave him.

With a grandfatherly twinkle in his eyes and a benign smile on his face Dumbledore said, "Mr Potter will you please step forward and be sorted."

Jared stared back at the old man, easily deflecting the gentle attempts to enter his mind, keeping his expression neutral he said clear enough for everyone to hear, "My name is not Harry Potter, it is Prince Jared and I will only answer to that."

Naturally this sparked the whispers to begin again but stopped when Dumbledore, the twinkle in his eyes fading slightly but not disappearing, waved a hand for silence, in a voice that made it clear to the adults at least that he was humouring the child he said, "Very well, Jared Potter will you please step forward and be sorted."

Jared stayed in place and crossed his arms over his chest, a scowl now appearing as he retorted, "I did not say my surname was Potter, as such I will not answer to that. I am to be known as Prince Jared and will be addressed as either Prince Jared or your highness in a first instance followed by sir thereafter as my status dictates, unless I give permission to be addressed in any other way. If the members of staff and students of this school cannot understand this then I will leave. I have no wish to attend a school that is filled with imbeciles"

The smile completely disappeared from Dumbledore's face at that and silence ruled the hall for a few moments. Then to the shock of everyone there Dumbledore, not wanting to lose his chance to bring the child back under his control, conceded to the eleven year old and said, "Very well Prince Jared please step forward and be sorted."

With a bland look in place as though he was bored by all of this, Jared inclined his head and made his way to the stool, where McGonagall, a disapproving look on her own face, placed the sorting hat on his head.

Everything went black and there was silence for a brief moment and then Jared heard a voice next to his ear, "my my, your highness such strong shields for one so young, I must ask that you lower them so I may conduct your sorting."

His face hidden by the hat, Jared raised an eyebrow at the voice before replying with his mind, "Before I do so I must have your word of honour and on the magic holding you together that you will tell no one, be they living or dead what you see."

The voice replied in a tone that was both amused and sincere, "I would never do so anyway sir, the magic that was used to create me would not allow it, however I also give you my word that I will keep all I see to myself."

Jareth gave a smirk of satisfaction before lowering his outer defences.

As soon as the sorting hat saw into his mind the first thing it said was, "Oh my, this is an honour indeed. Never before have I sat on the head of an individual with so much Fae blood running through their veins. I see this is where your title comes from as well."

"Does my blood affect what house I am placed into" Jared asked the hat curiously with his thoughts.

"Hmmm no not really your Highness. Now I see plenty of cunning here, no doubt your fathers influence, although I seem to recall there being a great deal of cunning in the mind of James Potter as well. And there is certainly a thirst for knowledge, from your mother Lily perhaps; I was tempted to place her in Ravenclaw, although I see from your memories that your stepmother is quite intelligent too."

Jared just gave a mental sigh at the Hat's rambling.

"Plenty of courage too I see, a result of being raised in the Labyrinth no doubt, so far all qualities necessary for an heir to a Kingdom, especially one such as the Goblin Kingdom."

"Tell me" Jared asked the Hat in a mental voice filled with sarcasm, "is there any chance of you making a decision tonight or would you like a few days to decide? "

"No patience I see more evidence of the influence from your father" came the hat's tart reply.

Jared was beginning to get annoyed and so snapped at it "Insult my lord and father again you tatty piece of cloth and I will show you what even a half-blood member of the Fae is capable of!"

The voice of the Hat immediately changed to one of apology "My apologies your Highness I meant no insult. However your loyalty to your father, family and the Underground are clearly dominant in you and so I see it would seem that I shall have to sort you into HUFFLEPUFF."

This last was shouted to the now restless occupants of the Great Hall due to how long the sorting was taking, never before had anyone seen a sorting take so long, including Dumbledore who had begun to get worried.

As soon as the verdict was made the Hufflepuff table erupted into shouts and screams at getting the legendary Boy-Who-Lived in their house. Up at the staff table Dumbledore made sure to hide his own annoyance with a benign smile, he had given the hat strict orders to place the boy in Gryffindor, he was going to have to have a talk with it to see why he, the headmaster had been defied as well as learn what it had seen in the boy's head.

Soon all of the other first years had been sorted, and the headmaster stood to make his customary opening speech, beaming at them all, as though he was delighted to see each and every one of them there he spread his arms wide and said, "Welcome! Welcome to the beginning of a new year at Hogwarts! Before we begin our banquet, I would like to say a few words. And here they are: Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak! Thank you!"

He sat back down and everyone but Jared clapped and cheered their eccentric headmaster. Jared just gave a slight frown at it all; he could see that the man was not eccentric, merely playing one so as to set all the new students at ease, to give them the pre-conceived notion that he was just an old man losing his marbles slightly.

He knew the gentle attempts to penetrate his mind earlier had come from the headmaster, not that he was in a position at the moment to say anything about it, but if his lessons from his father hadn't already warned him the actions tonight were enough to tell Jared that he was not a man to be trusted or fooled with easily.

This was reinforced by the fact that around him some of the older students were now making comments about how mad he was and yet still the best wizard in the world, the greatest sorcerer alive. Jared had to suppress the snort of laughter and disdain at that, no one in the wizarding world had seen a true sorcerer since the days of Merlin and Morgana, in fact the last person to show a glimmer of potential to be a true sorcerer was Mordred and that was only because he was Morgana's son.

Food had appeared on the platters in front of them and so Jared began helping himself, it was around mouthfuls of food all the first years began introducing themselves to each other, of course they all showed interest in Jared, as did the older students but they were a bit more subtle about it.

By the time the food for the main course had disappeared Jared knew the names of all the other first year Hufflepuffs as well as several of the older years. It was while eating his dessert Jared finally found a chance to cast his eye over the head table.

He was surprised to find that a teacher sat there with a thick layer of evil about his entire being, he couldn't believe he had missed it when he had first entered the hall, it was so clear to him now that he was looking up at the teachers. He couldn't completely identify what it was that caused it; he only knew it was there and made the decision he would need to inform his father about it.

He debated on trying to try and use his senses to see if he could identify what it was, but decided against it considering how public a setting this was. It was at that moment that his scar flared briefly with a stab of pain. He gave a small wince, more out of surprise then pain, it was also at that moment that he noticed that the man next to the one layered in evil, was glaring at him, a look of hate burning in his eyes.

Jared frowned not understanding how a man he had never met could look at him with such hate. He shook his head and turned away from the burning black eyes that spelled misery for his future.

With all of the food gone Dumbledore stood and gave out the start of term notices, as soon as the notice about the third floor was made whispers began circulating immediately.

Jared once again had to supress his emotions from showing, this time ones of disdain and contempt, after all why mention such a painful punishment if you want no one near there, doing so would only encourage the more curious and adventurous students to go looking, whilst the threat of something more mundane like a year of detentions would have worked much better.

But with the way the old man flicked his eyes at him as he told them this, he could tell he meant for Jared to go there anyway. He gave an internal snort of laughter as he thought the old man is going to be disappointed if he thinks I'm going near it.

"And now, before we go to bed, let us sing the school song!" Dumbledore cried, Jared noticed that the other teacher's smiles had become rather fixed.

Dumbledore gave his wand a little flick as if he was trying to get a fly off the end and a long golden ribbon flew out of it, which lifted high above the tables and twisted itself snake-like into words, "Everyone pick their favourite tune," said Dumbledore, "and off we go!"

The hall erupted in a blast of mixed tunes and off-key students as they attempted what could be a tune of some sort. Jared gave a sigh and while he took after his father in singing couldn't bear the thought of forcing a tune to commit suicide with the words hanging in the air and so decided to simply read them out as a poem in a quiet voice that easily got drowned out by everyone else.

He was amused to see that the red headed twins from the train drew the experience out with their funeral dirge. Soon though it was done and Dumbledore sent them all off to bed.

xxxx

A/N and there we are Harry/Jared is now sorted and in Hufflpuff I hope you all agree with his sorting, I just didn't think someone that had been raised to always think situations through so as to be sure that they place the Kingdom before their own desires would end up in Gryffindor where the students are known for always rushing in without thinking. I did nearly put him in Slytherin because of the same thought but then realised that it wasn't due to cunning that Harry/Jared thought that way but loyalty to his father, the man that took him away from his horrible relatives and adopted him and a kingdom that accepted him as he was, so Hufflepuff seemed to fit more.

Keep writing and have fun

V.