The nine muggle-raised first years met up on the Hogwarts Express. Shortly after the train left, a red-headed boy came to one of the two compartments they were sharing, asking, "has anyone seen Harry Potter?"

They all turned their heads to Harry, but when Harry stared out the window, Justin spoke up, and simply said, "yes."

The boy waited for a beat, but when Justin said nothing further, he asked impatiently, "Well? Where is he?"

The others shared a look, until Terry asked, "have you read the Harry Potter books?"

"Yes," came the enthusiastic reply, "which one did you prefer?"

"I haven't read them. Did you realise that they are fictitious?"

"What?"

"They are made up stories."

"They're not," came the outraged reply. When that was met by silence, he asked, "why would you say that?"

"He told us."

The boy looked affronted, "what do you know anyway, you all look like muggleborns."

"We were all raised by muggles."

"If you see Harry Potter, tell him that Ron Weasley is looking for him."

"OK," Terry agreed.

After Ron had left, and Justin had closed the compartment door, Harry said, "thanks, Terry."

"No problem. Ron Weasley is looking for you," Terry joked.

The next person to show up knocked on their door. When they opened the door, he said, "I'm Neville Longbottom, has anyone seen my toad?"

Kevin snorted, but immediately apologised, "I'm sorry. I'm not used to people having toads as pets. I haven't seen any toad. I'm Kevin Entwhistle."

Neville nodded, but when he didn't say anything, Hermione volunteered, "I'll help you find your toad." To Harry, he looked slightly taken aback by that suggestion, but he did not object, and Hermione took the lead in going through the rest of the train. However, when they came back they didn't have a toad with them. Hermione asked Neville to stay in their compartment. Neville was happy to tell them about the four Houses and how people were put in each House based on their character traits, but that it was a closely guarded secret how the decision was actually made.

Halfway through the journey three more first year boys showed up. Harry recognised the set-up: the boy in the middle was the leader and the other two were his gang. Exactly like Dudley and his three thugs. The leader marched in as if he owned the place and looked at the occupants of their compartment until he got to Harry. After taking a good look he said, "You're Harry Potter, aren't you?" Harry stayed silent. Undeterred, he continued, "You'll soon find out some wizarding families are much better than other, Potter. You don't want to go making friends with the wrong sort. I can help you there." He held out his hand for Harry to shake, but Harry didn't take it.

"You want to help me get rid of the followers of Voldemort who avoided being put into prison for their crimes?"

Draco drew back. "Don't say his name," Draco hissed. Harry just stared at him. "You want to be more polite, Potter. If you hang out with riff-raff like this filth and you'll end up like your parents."

Harry laughed, "did you seriously just propose I join the supporters of Voldemort? After your kind killed my parents?"

Malfoy sniffed and left in a huff.

"How delusional can you get?" Harry asked rhetorically.

Terry and Kevin went into Ravenclaw, Justin and Sally-Anne went into Hufflepuff, while Hermione went into Gryffindor. Oliver, Sally and Dean were yet to be sorted when it was Harry's turn.

"Difficult," the Sorting Hat spoke in Harry's head, "Plenty of courage. Not a bad mind, either. There's talent, oh my goodness, yes – and a nice thirst to prove yourself. But where shall I put you?"

"Hufflepuff, please," Harry thought.

"Whatever for? You have nothing of the Hufflepuff."

"Only because my cousin always kept me from having any friends. I could use some help in making friends."

"Ah, I'm afraid that's not how the sorting works, I have to put you where you will fit in. How about Slytherin, they would help you to achieve greatness."

"With a bunch of plotters and manipulators, like Malfoy? No thanks."

"Would you prefer Gryffindor, then?"

"And run around acting brash and insensitive, like Weasley? No thanks."

"I'd be happy to put you in Ravenclaw, but they tend to house the most solitary of the students. Not exclusively, mind, and you already made several friends amongst your classmates, I see."

"Alright, if I can't go into Hufflepuff."

"There's no need to sound so offended, Mr Potter. You get your second choice, and I only get my third choice. RAVENCLAW."

The opening feast was amazing, but why was Professor Snape staring at Harry as if he had turned his hair blue? Harry was also rather taken aback that Professor Dumbledore could blithely warn the students about meeting a very painful death if they went out of bounds on the third floor. His confidence in the headmaster dropped another notch. Then the prefects showed the first years up to their respective dorms. Professor Flitwick, their head of House came to welcome them in the Ravenclaw Common Room, and explained some of the school rules and that their class schedules would be distributed at breakfast next morning. Harry had a plan; he first asked the prefects for an impression of their 7 classes. Before going up to the first years' room, he went knocking on the third years' door, and asked who would be starting Ancient Runes. Roger Davies agreed to show Harry his schedule. He then made his way down to the first-year's boys dorm to get settled in.

The next morning, after he had got his schedule, he learned that Ancient Runes was taught on Monday afternoon and Thursday morning. Roger agreed to take him to show him where the class would be held at the end of the morning classes so he could talk to Professor Babbling. They had their first period off and started off their education with Herbology during the second morning period.

Harry decided to lie to Professor Babbling and tell her that he didn't have classes while the third years had Runes. The first year Ravenclaws did have Thursday morning off, although he'd have to make do with a short night as they had Astronomy on Wednesday at midnight. But on Monday afternoon he had History of Magic. He figured that if he admitted to this, Professor Babbling would refuse to allow him into her class, while if he received acceptable scores in History before he was found out he would hopefully be allowed to continue. Once that was achieved, he raced to the Great Hall for a quick lunch where he asked Terry and Kevin to take notes for him, telling them about starting an elective early. When he talked to the two over dinner, they admitted that the class had been even more soporific than the prefects had led them to expect, and that they would continue to cover for him if Harry promised to stay awake and take notes for the other two during their Friday morning History class.

During Potions class on Thursday afternoon it became apparent that the hateful glare that Professor Snape had sent to him during the opening feast had not been a unique occurrence. During role call he sneered about Harry being the 'new celebrity'. As if Harry had done anything to try and catch the attention of the general student population. When Professor Snape asked the third question of Harry, he asked, "Professor, if we were supposed to study any of the material in advance, I was not informed. You see, I got the Hogwarts letter for students raised by wizards, and the letter didn't explain very much, but I've been living with muggles who never told me I was a wizard."

Professor Snape then proceeded to insult him for not understanding that going to a new school he would be expected to familiarise himself with the subject (something that Harry had in fact understood quite well, but apparently still not to the standards that would satisfy the professor), rattled off the answers to his questions, complained that none of the students were taking notes, and then proceeded to take a point from Ravenclaw because Harry had been 'making excuses'. The professor then set them to prepare their first potion, and went around the classroom aggressively criticizing everyone for the slightest mistakes.

Harry convinced the other Ravenclaw first years to come to talk to Professor Flitwick. "Professor, we wish to make a complaint about the unprofessional behaviour of Professor Snape."

Having already heard from the older students that Professor Snape only ever praised Slytherin students and only criticized the other houses, Harry thought it was telling that Professor Flitwick showed no surprise at their complaint. "If you wish, please write down what unprofessional behaviour you are complaining about, and I will give it to the headmaster. I have to warn you, though, that Professor Snape has received complaints before. The headmaster always promises to talk to Professor Snape about it, but nothing much has changed."

"Is there a department of education that can overrule the headmaster?"

Professor Flitwick did show surprise at that question, "Hogwarts has a board of governors, and there is the Wizarding Examination Authority in the Ministry, but I must confess that I don't know whether either has the power to overrule the headmaster. If the situation were dangerous, then the board could fire the headmaster if he didn't do enough, but the safety record of Professor Snape's class is better than of Potions classes in Beauxbatons in France, so I don't think that is going to be an argument you could prove. In any case, the first step would still be to write a complaint to the headmaster. Only if that doesn't solve the problem could you consider complaining to the board or the WEA."

Back in their common room, the first year Ravenclaws agreed they would ask a pupil from every year to note down everything that Professor Snape did in all his classes, and also to find a Gryffindor or a Hufflepuff from the first five years to cover the classes that didn't have any Ravenclaws.

Meanwhile, whispers followed Harry everywhere, and several students had made overtures of friendship. Harry was reticent. With some people it was obvious they were interested in the fictional character rather than the real Harry Potter, and, while he started out with vague answers of goodwill that didn't actually agree to spend time with these people, he soon learned that with some this was not discouraging enough, and he had to learn to gradually increase his bluntness until they got the picture. A few were more subtle, and those Harry would agree to do homework or play gobstones with, but if they were too insistent trying to learn about his past, then he would lump them with the fictional Harry fans. The two wizard-raised students who Harry got along with best were Neville Longbottom and Susan Bones. Susan had also lost her parents to Voldemort, and Neville, though he was as tight-lipped about his past as Harry, only ever talked about his grandmother. They were both happy to answer the questions the muggle-raised first-years had about wizarding society, and on the rare occasion that the three found themselves alone, they also told Harry what he could expect as the heir of an Ancient House.