FIRST YEAR
September 1991
King's Crossing
Harry excitedly looked around at the bustle of the crowd, children and parents hugging and laughing as they prepared to start school. His uncle's hand was uncomfortably tight where he held Harry's shoulder but Harry didn't say anything to him about it. He knew his uncle was very scared to let him go to school.
He picked out the children's picture's his uncle had shown him, noting who they were with. But then he spotted a short bushy haired girl, who seemed to be looking at everyone just as intently as him.
As if she sensed his gaze, she turned and her eyes met his, and it was like a jolt of lightning hit him. Her eyes were wondrous. One a light green, seeming to be the exact same shade as his own eyes and her other eye was brown. Harry didn't know how long he would have continued to stare at her unmoving, because his uncle noticed where his gaze had landed and his grip on Harry's shoulder moved from uncomfortable to painful.
"Fuck."
Harry's eyes widened; his uncle tried very hard to not cuss in front of him. "Erm, Uncle, your hand is- Ow!"
Harry's uncle spun him to face him, holding both hands on either side of Harry's face. His black eyes looked very panicked. His voice came out in a fast soft urgent whisper, the train was already whistling for students to board.
"Stay away from that girl, Harry." Harry tried to pull away from his Uncle's tight grip on his face.
"But why-"
"Harry! Stay. Away. From. That. Girl." He locked eyes with his uncle, his heart sinking. He had wanted to talk to her at least. Maybe be her pretend friend, since he couldn't have real friends.
"Yes, Uncle."
"That's my boy. Now remember our lessons, you have a mirror if it's anything urgent, but try to refrain from using it, you never know who might be listening in."
Harry gulped and nodded as his Uncle hugged him tight before releasing him into the crowd of children. He kept his gaze down so that he didn't see the girl again as he boarded.
Harry passed the compartments looking for an empty one, before finally settling on one with a red haired boy. Ron Weasley. Sirius hadn't given instructions specifically about him so Harry was cautious. Before they could really talk there was a knock on the compartment door and a round faced boy came in. Neville Longbottom. He looked tearful.
"Sorry," Neville said, "but have you seen a toad at all?"
Harry and Ron both shook their heads and Neville wailed, "I've lost him! He keeps getting away from me."
"I'm sure he'll turn up, I can help you look." Harry stood up giving a nod to Ron before following Neville out the door.
They passed a few compartments, no one having seen the missing frog, when they ran into the girl his uncle had told him to stay away from.
Her gaze went from his face to Neville's tearful one before asking in an accusatory tone. "What did you do to him?"
"Nothing!"
Neville interjected helpfully, "He's helping me find my frog."
Harry couldn't resist looking at her again, even if he knew his uncle would be displeased with him. She met his gaze, her tone coming out bossy.
"Are you staring at me because of my eyes? It's supposed to be a blessing by magic. It means there's someone out there just like me. I can't wait to find them, they'll probably have loads of interesting books if they're supposed to be my soulmate. I read all about in a Compendium of Magical Blessings- well in addition to learning all our course books by heart. My name's Hermione Granger, by the way, who are you?"
She said all of this very fast and Neville and Harry just stared at her distracted from their quest to find the frog. Harry gave a sideways glance to Neville and could tell by his uncomfortable face he hadn't learned all the course books by heart either. He breathed a silent sigh of relief.
Should he reply to her? He was supposed to stay away from her. Finally the silence got to Harry.
"Harry Potter."
Both Neville and Hermione's gaze widened. "I read about your parents. I got a few extra books for background reading, and they're talked about in Modern Magical History and The Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts and Great Wizarding Events of the Twentieth Century. According to the books they didn't know what happened to you."
Harry blushed at her focus on him and muttered. "My godfather raised me, but I call him my uncle because he says my dad was like his brother."
The trio stood silently for a moment as that settled between them, Neville giving him a sympathetic glance of understanding.
Hermione seemed to sense that they needed to change the subject and rather than resume the frog search she had another question. "Do either of you know what House you'll be in? I've been asking around, and I hope I'm in Gryffindor, it sounds by far the best; I hear Dumbledore himself was in it, but I suppose Ravenclaw wouldn't be too bad…"
The door to the compartment they stood in front of suddenly snapped open and three boys stood there.
"Did I hear you say you were Harry Potter?" A pale thin boy, who Harry recognized as Draco Malfoy asked.
"Yes," said Harry.
Harry looked at the other boys standing on either side of Malfoy. Both of them were thickset and looked extremely mean. Crabbe and Goyle, more names his uncle had trained him on. Standing as they were, on either side of Malfoy, they looked like bodyguards.
"Oh, this is Crabbe and this is Goyle," said Malfoy carelessly, noticing where Harry was looking. "And my name's Malfoy, Draco Malfoy."
Hermione rolled her eyes at Malfoy's pretentiousness and Malfoy sneered at both her and Neville before turning back to Harry.
"You'll soon find out some wizarding families are much better than others, Potter. You don't want to go making friends with the wrong sort. I can help you there."
He held out his hand to shake Harry's and Harry hesitated, looking at Hermione and Neville.
Make friends with him, don't trust him, he will hurt you if he can. Get information on what his parents are doing.
Harry reached out and clasped Malfoy's hand, giving him a tentative smile.
Draco smiled back, before giving a dismissing look to Neville and Hermione. "Don't you have somewhere else to be?"
Hermione huffed and grabbed Neville's hand. "C'mon, I'll help you find your frog."
Harry stared after them, wishing he could join them.
"Come inside Potter!"
Taking a deep breath he turned and walked into the compartment with Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle, shutting it behind him.
The Sorting Hat
Harry entered through the double doors of the Great Hall. It was fantastic, lit by thousands of candles that were floating in midair over four long tables.
"We'll be at that table Potter." Malfoy pointed to the one under green banners. Harry hid his flinch, the time spent with them in the compartment had been uncomfortable for him. To avoid looking for Hermione or Neville he looked upward and saw a velvety black ceiling dotted with stars.
Despite his effort however he still heard Hermione whisper, "It's bewitched to look like the sky outside. I read about it in Hogwarts: A History ."
Professor McGonagall silently placed a four-legged stool in front of the first years. On top of the stool she put a pointed wizard's hat. This hat was patched and frayed and extremely dirty. She then stepped forward with a long roll of parchment.
"When I call your name, you will put on the hat and sit on the stool to be sorted," she said. "Abbot, Hannah!"
Harry watched as they were all sorted, and maybe it was Harry's imagination but every single picture his uncle had warned him about were getting sorted into Slytherin. How would he keep an eye on all of them if he wasn't in the same house?
They all also looked really unpleasant.
Sometimes, Harry noticed, the hat shouted out the House at once, but at others it took a little while to decide. "Finnigan, Seamus," a sandy-haired boy, sat on the stool for almost a whole minute before the hat declared him a Gryffindor.
"Granger, Hermione!" Hermione almost ran to the stool and jammed the hat eagerly on her head.
"RAVENCLAW!" shouted the hat.
What if he was sorted into Ravenclaw? How would he stay away from her then?
When Neville Longbottom, the boy who kept losing his toad, was called, he fell over on his way to the stool. The hat took a long time to decide with Neville. When it finally shouted, "GRYFFINDOR," Neville ran off still wearing it, and had to jog back amid gales of laughter to place it back on the stool.
Malfoy swaggered forward when his name was called and got his wish at once: the hat had barely touched his head when it screamed, "SLYTHERIN!"
Malfoy went to join his friends Crabbe and Goyle, looking pleased with himself. There weren't many people left now.
"Potter, Harry!" As Harry stepped forward, whispers suddenly broke out like little hissing fires all over the hall.
"Potter, did she say?"
"The Harry Potter, I thought you know who got him?"
The last thing Harry saw before the hat dropped over his eyes was the hall full of people craning to get a good look at him. Next second he was looking at the black inside of the hat. He waited.
"Hmm," said a small voice in his ear. "Difficult. Very difficult. Plenty of courage, I see. Not a bad mind either. There's talent, oh my goodness, yes — and a nice thirst to prove yourself, now that's interesting. . . . So where shall I put you?" Harry gripped the edges of the stool and thought, Not Ravenclaw, not Ravenclaw. He was absolutely certain he wouldn't be able to listen to his uncle's rules if he was placed in the same house as Hermione.
"Not Ravenclaw, eh?" said the small voice. "Are you sure? You could be great, you know, it's all here in your head, and Ravenclaw will help you on the way to knowledge, no doubt about that — no? Well, if you're sure — better be SLYTHERIN!"
The Slytherin table cheered as it was announced and Harry's gaze seemed to find Hermione's unerringly where she sat amongst the Ravenclaws. Judgment gleamed in her different colored eyes.
Slytherin Dungeon
Harry followed his fellow Slytherins down into the dungeons as they were led by their prefect Gemma Farley. "Purity!"
The door rumbled open and they filed in, the rooms were dark, with drab colors and gothic architecture, the stone walls lit with green lighting.
No wonder they all looked unpleasant. They lived in a dungeon that was decorated like a haunted house.
Gemma motioned the boys down one staircase and the girls through another, even deeper into the dungeons for their beds. When Harry entered he saw five four posters hung with bright green, velvet curtains. Their trunks had already been brought up.
Malfoy threw himself into the bed next to his, "Did you see that filthy mudblood with weird eyes staring at you? She's been telling everyone her eyes are messed up because she has a soulmate. It's probably some birth defect from her being a muggleborn."
Harry wasn't quite sure how it happened, but suddenly he was on top of Malfoy, his wand shoved under the other boy's chin.
Malfoy's eyes flared with fear. "Potter what are you doing! Crabbe! Goyle!"
Harry heard the footsteps of the other boys as they came, but he ignored it. He couldn't say anything about Hermione, even he knew that.
He remembered Malfoy bragging about how his mother always sent him sweets when they were on the train together.
"My mother was muggleborn. She's dead now."
Malfoy tried to gather himself now that the other boys were looking, managing a pathetic sneer. "So?"
"Have you ever heard of a wizard's duel?"
Malfoy scoffed, gaining back more of his bravery as Harry held him down without casting any spells.
"I'd take you on anytime! Tonight, right now if you want. Wands only-no contact."
Harry got up off him and backed up and the crowd made a circle, he could hear the boys yelling for others to come watch.
Crabbe muttered to Malfoy, "Pansy says you two should move it to the common room, she wants to see."
Malfoy got up mockingly and gestured for Harry to go first. They went back up the Slytherin common rooms where everyone had gathered. Even the prefect Gemma Farley sat and looked at the fight with a bored expression, not interfering.
He met Malfoy in the middle and then straightened and marched apart the required distance before spinning around, as he had practiced countless times with his uncle.
"Expelliarmus!" Harry's spell was hitting Malfoy's hand before he even had a chance to speak, Malfoy's wand flipping end over end to land in his hand.
The crowd cat called Malfoy and he blushed, the duel barely lasting a second. Harry spun the wand in his hand, letting Malfoy suffer for a long minute.
Be his friend Harry.
Harry raised his eyebrows giving Malfoy a friendly smile holding out his wand. "Some wizarding families are better at dueling than others. I was raised as part of the House of Black. I could probably teach you a thing or two, as long as you listen to me ."
"Thanks Potter, yeah, okay." Malfoy muttered disagreeably then glanced at everyone who was still staring at them. "My friend Potter here, was trained in the house of Black! None of you lot could have beaten him either!"