After depositing his belongings in the designated area and bidding farewell to Hedwig, Harry joined Ron and Hermione in looking around at Hogsmead Station. The Hogwarts Express hissed behind them and belched steam towards the star speckled night, its deep red length glinting dully like the scaly body of a massive serpent. The floor of the open air platform was tiled in gray stone which was really rather dour looking. Students of all heights, ages and Houses passed by them, all collectively headed in the same direction; away from the lake.
Any efforts made to relocate the boy from Slytherin were met with failure, understandably. Despite being at least in his second year, as evidenced by the fact that he'd already been sorted into a House, he wasn't that much taller than Harry himself (and he wasn't very tall at all) and could have stood five feet away from him and yet still gone entirely unnoticed.
"How are we going to get to the lake?" Harry asked, looking to Ron in expectation of answers. He was the one with five older brothers, after all. Surely they'd told him something.
"Dunno." The red head replied most unhelpfully. "Percy said that the groundskeeper, a bloke named Ogg, should be collecting the first years and taking us down to the boats across the Black Lake. He's a Prefect and is a lot more uptight than Fred and George-born with a stick up his arse, you know how he is Harry-so his information can probably be trusted."
"Don't you think that that's a bit harsh of a thing to say about your brother, Ron?"
Ron sent Hermione a rather withering look, and in complete honesty Harry couldn't entirely blame him for it. "You've known the two of us for seven hours, Hermione. And you've never met my brothers." He said. "Once you're sorted into Gryffindor, if that is where you end up, you'll know exactly what I mean. And you'll agree with me."
"I don't know, Ron." Harry said, giving the effort of locating the Slytherin up for lost. "They might get along."
"Bloody hell, mate, don't jinx it!"
He snickered and gave his friend a playful shove. Hermione huffed at them and pushed her hair back behind her shoulder.
"First years! All first years, this way please!" The loud male voice barked from the far end of the platform, echoing to them over the top of the seething crowd. "All first years over here, please! The boats will be leaving soon!"
"Come on." Hermione grabbed each of them by the wrist and began carting them through the throng of people. "We don't want to be left behind."
Harry stumbled briefly before he picked up his pace enough to match hers. Ron just allowed himself to be dragged. They skirted around a loudly snickering group of Gryffindor seventh years and through a trio of Hufflepuff third years and then the crowd broke and revealed the massive figure of the Hogwarts Grounds Keeper.
Ogg truly was a huge man, standing nearly seven feet tall with wind tanned skin and arms as thick as the trunks of young trees. A lantern hung from one giant fist like a glowing cudgel. He tried, and mostly succeeded, in keeping his jaw from hanging open.
"Oh my," Hermione said, "he looks like a lumberjack."
Not knowing what, exactly, a 'lumberjack' was but not wanting to ask in case he was missing something obvious he looked over at Ron only to be met with a mirrored expression of confusion. Must have been another Muggle thing, like the 'dentists' that Hermione had mentioned earlier. What her parents were, apparently.
Maybe the Slytherin boy, who had laughed at them, would know.
Why was he thinking about him again? What was it about the sullen boy who'd dismounted the Knight Bus with the robes of a pauper but the arrogance of a prince, who despite his aloof façade had helped him with his owl, who had spent all train ride reading in near silence, that captivated him so much?
"First years, this way. The boats are waiting at the bank of the Black Lake." Ogg looked over the group that had gathered around him, nodded to himself on coming to the conclusion that the entire population of the new class had made it off the train and through the crowds, and then started off towards a short staircase at a plodding pace.
At the bottom of the staircase was a narrow footpath, the hard packed dirt uneven and broken in places with rocks and gnarled roots. Their footsteps echoed through the night around them like a herd of horses, a cloud of dust kicked up by their passing.
"Do either of you know what, exactly, the Sorting process amounts to?" Hermione asked, for the first time looking nervous. "Hogwarts: A History says that the House in which one belongs is determined by the Sorting but it didn't go into any further detail."
"My father told me that we had to steal an egg from a Horntail's nest, but mom yelled at him about it so I'm assuming that it was a lie."
"Charlie told me that we had to get through a Dementor."
"That can't be right. Uncle Remus specializes in Dark Creatures: only a Patronus can fend off a Dementor and most adults can't even cast that spell. There's no way that it's a Dementor."
"A Boggart, maybe? They're not dangerous, right?"
"Well…that depends on what you're afraid of, doesn't it?" Harry said. "Do you really want to fight with a giant spider?"
Ron immediately turned pale and shuddered.
"I'll take that as a no." Hermione snickered.
The trail came to a head moments later and Harry saw the Black Lake for the first time. A slopping rocky shore gave way into a mirrored expanse of black water, its depths seeming to reflect the stars overhead. Numerous, long canoes baring hanging lanterns floated in the shallows, clattering together on occasion with a sound like hollow blocks of wood. Hogwarts castle rose high above them across the lake's still surface, a mass of black spires and glowing amber windows the mere sight of which was enough to take his breath away.
Truly the most magical place on earth.
Harry Ron and Hermione all piled into the same canoes, along with another boy named Neville who, despite leaving his trunk at the station like everyone else, was still tightly gripping a large and very warty toad. The ride across the lake passed in relative silence beyond a mild scare at the sight of an overly friendly squid the size of a city bus which, apparently, was named Mitchel.
Who had named it Harry neither knew nor cared to.
Luckily Ogg was able to beat it off with a baguette.
They dismounted the canoes at the base of the hill on which the castle sat. To the left of them was a thick forest, the trees standing grimly at attention and steeped in thick shadows. Something about them was …ominous. Foreboding. Like Ron had earlier, when he'd mentioned spiders, Harry shuddered.
Their group was met outside the towering doors into the Great Hall by Dumbledore, dressed in a respectable set of robes in Gryffindor colors. The man gave him a small smile and nod when Harry caught his eye.
"Welcome, first years, to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry." He said. "I'm sure that the long ride up from London has left you all a bit peckish; the start of term feast will begin shortly but first you must all undergo the Sorting. The Sorting is a very important ceremony at Hogwarts as it determines the House, the family away from your families, to which each of you best belong."
A quiet murmuring went up around them but Harry ignored most of what was being said.
"There are four Houses into which you could be sorted: Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, Gryffindor and Slytherin. Each with its own noble history and achievements, each producing outstanding Witches and Wizards in their own right. Though some more than…others."
"Like Slytherin." Ron muttered.
"My dad told me that Merlin was in Slytherin." Harry said.
"No he wasn't." Hermione told him. "Merlin wasn't in Slytherin, Harry. He wasn't in any of the Houses. He didn't even go to Hogwarts: the timing is all wrong."
"But…why would my father have said that if it wasn't true?" he couldn't help but feel confused.
Ron patted him on the shoulder. "He was probably trying to make you feel better, mate. It's a parent thing, I think."
"While here at Hogwarts," Dumbledore continued, "your triumphs will earn your House points while the breaking of rules will lose them; the House with the most points at the end of the year will win the House cup. Regardless of who comes to take that horror this year, I expect each and every one of you to prove a credit to whichever House becomes yours. Now," he turned and threw open the doors, "follow me, all of you. Single file."
Once more that sickening nervousness had returned and his legs felt like molds filled with molten lead: heavy and hard to move. With Ron and Hermione beside him and looking just as uncertain, Harry shuffled forward into the hall.
Thousands of candles, each adorned with flickering flames, hovered beneath the massive dome of the ceiling which had been bewitched to display the night sky outside. The four tables which filled the cavernous room, each stretched beneath banners baring the colors and mascots of the Houses, were laid with glistening plates and goblets formed from gold. A fifth table was positioned at the far end of the hall, occupied by the assorted members of the staff.
The clatter of wood against a stone floor drew Harry's attention back to Dumbledore, who had set a rickety stool and a badly patched hat down at the front of the hall. Every one, student and staff, were staring at it.
Harry almost dropped dead from surprise when a rip at the bottom opened like a mouth and it began to-of all things-sing! The surprise was so bad that he didn't catch a word of what it said.
"All of this nonsense about dragons and Dementors and all we have to do is wear a bloody hat?" Ron huffed. "I'm going to kill Charlie!"
Dumbledore now had a large roll of parchment in his hands and began to call out names. "Abott, Hannah!"
The first girl, Hannah, was pronounced "Hufflepuff!" as was the second, Susan.
Next up was a boy named Terry Boot who was determined to belong to "Ravenclaw!"
After another handful of names Hermione was called up and sent to "Gryffindor!" as was Neville, the boy with the toad.
Draco Malfoy, recognizable by his smug ferret-like face and nearly white hair, was naturally sent to "Slytherin!"
And then it was Harry's turn. He stumbled up to the front of the room and sat down on the stool, the hat dropping down over his eyes and obscuring all view of the Great Hall around him. He nearly jumped out of his skin when a small voice spoke into his ear.
"Well, well, well, another Potter. Though you're a good deal more interesting than your father or grandfather were." Said the hat. "Just when I thought that I would never see the trait again I'm worn by two Adder Tongues in the span of as many years. Though you've much less baggage to carry than poor Tom Riddle."
Harry didn't know what 'Adder Tongue' meant. How did the hat even know about his mild 'birth defect', not that his parents ever called it that? His tongue was slightly split at the tip, so what? No one could see his deformity and it amounted to nothing so why did it matter?
The hat tutted quietly.
"A bit too fearful a disposition for a Gryffindor, despite your Lion blood, though you've definitely the stubbornness inherent in Godric's House. You've loyalty, which could fit you in amidst the Badgers. But that wouldn't be quite right. And you haven't the wings to fly with the Eagles." It said. "Better be…Slytherin!"
Slytherin? Slytherin? Sure he'd told Ron that he'd be fine with any of the Houses but he hadn't really believed that he could actually end up in Snake House. And what about his parents? They'd told him that it was fine but…they'd be disappointed, surely.
He was so flabbergasted that he almost didn't catch the hat's final words to him. "Good luck with Riddle. You'll need it."
Dumbledore's face was kept carefully neutral as he lifted the hat from Harry's head but there was something in his blue eyes that made him look…angry. Ron, for his part, appeared to be as shocked as Harry himself was. He stumbled from the raised platform and teetered in the direction of the green and silver draped table, dropping into the first empty space that he could find.
The Sorting came to a conclusion not long after and, by the time he recovered enough to look around, the Headmaster had already rose from his place at the staff table and begun to speak. The boy from the train sat at the far end of the table, alone; he was looking off into the far distance with an odd expression which looked almost traumatized.
Harry was about to move to sit with him when someone dropped into the bench beside him.
"Evening, Potter." Draco drawled. "Never fancied I'd see one of you end up here; welcome to Snake House. Let's be friends."
Harry felt the hairs on the back of his neck rise; his eyes darted towards the Gryffindor table, where Ron and Hermione were now sitting with the twins, and dearly wished that he was with them. "Why would you want to be friends with me? I'm a Half-blood."
"You may be a Half-blood but at least you're of the respectable sort, unlike the Mudblood over there." He sent a caustic glare in the direction of the boy from the train. "Bot of your parents are magical, even if your mother is a Mudblood herself."
A spark of anger flashed through him and the nearest goblets around them toppled to the floor with a metallic clatter. Harry leapt to his feet and, had the bench not been occupied, his sudden movement would have toppled it over onto the ground. "I have no interest in befriending a Git like you, Draco!" He snapped, only just restraining himself from drawing his wand. "Insult my mother, or any other member of my family, again and I will Hex you!"
Just as soon as he learned how to.
Regardless he turned on his heel and stormed to the far end of the table, sitting down beside the other boy. No reaction was engendered by this development from his new companions, much to Harry's disappointment. He could feel the eyes of both Malfoy boys, and the majority of the rest of the table, burning into his back.
This was shaping up to be a long seven years.