Harry looked up the moment he entered the great hall and grinned. Beyond the floating candles, he see the night sky and could make out the quarter moon peeking out from behind the clouds, shining down on them. It was, to use a cliché description, magical.
McGonagall had all the young first years lined up behind her as she led them into the Great Hall. She paused near the dais that held the Professor's tables and told them to wait in the middle of the hall, in between the Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw tables. While McGonagall stepped up to the dais where the sorting hat sat on the staff table, Harry took a moment to notice that the Great Hall was a lot larger than the one shown in the movies. Real magic with space expansion charms trumped movie magic, heh.
Looking back to the front, he saw McGonagall place the hat on a three legged stool. The hat began singing the song just like in the first book. Harry smiled at the fact that the hat had a pretty decent singing voice. Unexpected facts.
He grinned and clapped along with everyone else when the hat had finished. Harry smiled at the animated hat bowing his appreciation for the applause.
"When I call your name, you will put on the hat and sit on the stool to be sorted," McGonagall stated as she unrolled a parchment. "Hannah Abbott!"
A blonde haired girl strode confidently up to the front, picked up the hat, placed it on her head, and didn't even get to sit down before the sorting hat loudly proclaimed, "Hufflepuff!"
Harry could feel the girl's surprise and frustration. Apparently she wanted to be sorted elsewhere, though Harry kept his mind reading talents to himself. He was only passively reading what people were projecting. He wasn't sufficiently curious enough about what they were thinking to chance doing any mind magic where Dumbledore or Voldemort could catch him at it.
Harry's eyes darted to the side where he spotted the turbaned Quirrell sitting next to Snape, and inwardly rolled his eyes at the hateful eyes that Snape was sending his way. The man didn't look anything like Alan Rickman, so he was pretty sure he didn't have a Superior Snape in this universe.
"Susan Bones!" McGonagall called out next.
"Hufflepuff!" The sorting hat called as soon as it touched Susan's head.
Harry was wondering if this was going to be a thing, the hat choosing where each of these reincarnated SIs would go, based on where they would have gone in the book.
"Terry Boot!" McGonagall called, quickly followed by the hat yelling out his place.
"Ravenclaw!"
Harry grinned in amusement as every single first year got the same treatment. Sorted as soon as the hat touched their head, no chance to argue against their placement. They were stuck with the house they would have gotten.
Brocklehurst, Mandy: Ravenclaw.
Brown, Lavender: Gryffindor.
Bustrode, Millicent: Slytherin.
Corner, Michael: Ravenclaw.
Cornfoot, Stephen: Ravenclaw.
Crabbe, Vincent: Slytherin.
Davis, Tracey: Slytherin.
Dunbar, Fay: Gryffindor.
Entwhistle, Kevin: Hufflepuff.
Finch-Fletchley, Justin: Hufflepuff.
Finnigan, Seamus: Gryffindor.
Goldstein, Anthony: Ravenclaw.
Goyle, Gregory: Slytherin.
Granger, Hermione: Gryffindor.
Greengrass, Daphne: Slytherin.
Hopkins, Wayne: Hufflepuff.
Jones, Megan: Hufflepuff.
Li, Sue: Ravenclaw.
Longbottom, Neville: Gryffindor.
MacDougal, Isobel: Ravenclaw.
Macmillan, Ernest: Hufflepuff.
Malfoy, Draco: Slytherin.
Malone, Roger: Ravenclaw.
Moon, Lily: Hufflepuff.
Nott, Theodore: Slytherin.
Parkinson, Pansy: Slytherin.
Patil, Padma: Ravenclaw.
Patil, Parvati: Gryffindor.
Perks, Sally-Anne: Gryffindor.
Potter, Harry: Gryffindor.
Harry actually found it quite amusing, the number of first years that were very disgruntled at the house they were sent to. Even without reading their minds, he could sense their emotions.
For him it was actually quite amusing and fun. He hadn't looked forward to the experience of being sorted and having a sentient piece of haberdashery pry into his mind. But having the sorting happen in such an odd way and not having to worry about going into Slytherin and dealing with the family members of death eaters, he was pleased as punch. And it was funny as hell to him that he didn't have to go through the whole talking to the sorting hat thing, which by now was a cliché.
Roper, Sophie: Slytherin.
Runcorn, Leanne: Hufflepuff.
Smith, Zacharias: Hufflepuff.
Thomas, Dean: Gryffindor.
Turpin, Lisa: Ravenclaw.
Weasley, Ron: Gryffindor.
Zabini, Blaise: Slytherin.
Now that the sorting was finished, and Harry put his attention back on the professors, he could see that they were all taken aback by the very unusual sorting. But, the show must go on. So Dumbledore stood up to speak while McGonagall carried off the sorting hat.
"Welcome!" Dumbledore smiled benevolently down on the students. "Welcome to another 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!"
The food appeared on the table in front of Harry, and he happily dug in. There wasn't much talk at the table for a while, beyond the usual "pass me the…" and "thanks".
As people began filling their stomachs and feeling less starved, the students began chatting here and there. Harry noticed that quite a few of the first years were chatting with the older students about classes and whatnot. Not having made any friends on the train, Harry just listened in to what everyone was talking about.
Harry was inwardly pondering about this most unusual situation, and what he wanted to do about it. As far as he could tell, none of the other first years had cottoned on to the fact that their entire class was made of reincarnated souls.
They had also been so full of their own meta-knowledge and sure of what a huge impact they would have in this world, becoming powerful sorcerers or nobles or whatever, that they hadn't even paid attention to the little differences.
They certainly had a superiority complex over him, Harry Potter the Boy-Who-Lived. Not all the reincarnated souls felt shafted that they didn't get the prime reincarnation of the Main Character of this world, but enough of them felt that way and had a burning determination to overshadow him, that he thought that trying to be their friend, like a normal freaking student, would go over like a lead balloon.
Glancing up at the head table where Dumbledore was watching everything with a twinkle in his eyes, Carl wondered if he should make the old wizard aware certain facts about Voldemort that was playing least in sight beneath a turban on Quirrell's head right then. Or about the Horcrux. Or a hundred other things in this world.
But then again, why should he tell Dumbledore about something that he should be able to take care of by the end of the year?
And spilling the beans on the reincarnator's nature was also a no-go. It would simply let the old man know that he was different and focus attention on him. How else would he have discovered the nature of the reincarnators if he wasn't one and didn't have an impressive control of magic?
Judging by the fact that none of the other reincarnators got any special powers or perks before coming to this world, everyone would automatically assume he had used Legilimency on them. And he could easily predict how angry the thought that he was reading minds would make people, especially because he really was guilty of doing it.
Not to mention that having a young, powerful wizard of unknown character, especially one that took over Harry Potter, would just shout out to the old man that he was another Voldemort on the rise.
So everything Harry could think of told him it was a good idea to just play the part of a normal magical student. It might be a bit lonely among the first years, since they all seemed to assume he was the lazy, dumb Boy-Who-Lived Harry Potter from the canon story. But he figured he could make friends with the older years, and next year he could befriend some of the younger years.
So after all the mind-wracking thoughts, Harry decided to do nothing and let the chaos blossom. It would definitely be amusing to watch the antics of the reincarnators. Aside from Hermione and Ronald, he was aware of at least a half dozen others who were seriously planning on building themselves a Harem. And it wasn't just the guys. Lavender was planning on getting herself a reverse-Harem going.
Harry knew one girl he was going to avoid like the plague.
So overall his plan was the same as it was before. Act like a normal student, try to make friends (with different targets), and enjoy school. The presence of the reincarnators really didn't change anything.
Harry would see how this year went and if it would be worth sticking around any longer than the first year. For example, if these Harem obsessed people decided to play hardball with potions, spells, compulsions, or what other forms of magical coercion, well, they would soon discover that he was a lot farther along with his command of magic than they were, and they would indeed regret their actions.
Other than violating other's free will, he didn't really care what they got up to. If they could freely convince a bunch of hot magical women or men into their harem, who was he to care?
And with the soul piece or leech gone from his head, any obligation that Harry felt he should shoulder about making this world better was limited to making sure that Voldy died permanently.
Soon enough the feast was complete, desert had shown up and been devoured, and Dumbledore stood up for his announcements, which boiled down to:
1.The Forbidden Forest is forbidden.
2.No magic in the corridors.
3.Quidditch trials would be held the second week of term.
4.The third floor corridor on the right hand side is out of bounds to everyone who does not wish to die a very painful death.
Afterwards, Dumbledore led them in a rousing chaotic rendition of the school song. Harry naturally sang along, to no discernable tune. He wasn't that musically inclined, honestly. Maybe he should see if he could fix that in this new life?
'An endeavor for another time,' Harry thought as he followed behind Percy Weasley up to the Gryffindor tower. It was strange that the female fifth year prefect was there with them but didn't introduce herself, since Percy was hogging the spotlight and very proud of himself.
The prefect did follow the first year girls up the stairs, though, so she might be having a private talk with the girls about girl things where the boys couldn't hear.
Heading up to his dorm, he chatted with his fellow first year Gryffindors about their family backgrounds and random things. Harry was inwardly laughing since he could see the strain on the other first years as they tried to dumb themselves down, as they saw it, to be more like 11 year olds.
'Oh, so entertaining!' Harry laughed inwardly.
He was feeling somewhat sleepy by this time of night, but instead of crashing immediately when he pulled his curtain closed, he put up a silencing spell so no one could hear him and then pulled out his copy of the Marauder's Map and a book to read while waiting for everyone to go to sleep.
It didn't take more than a half hour to realize that his plan to go to the Room of Requirement…wasn't original. From all four houses Harry could see on the map first years sneaking out of their dorm rooms. But since they didn't have a Marauder's Map of their own, they didn't know that there were professors stationed outside their common rooms to catch anyone that thought they would be up to mischief on the first night back.
Harry couldn't help but laugh as each of the first years were caught, presumably docked points, given detention, and sent back to their room.
The only exception was in the Gryffindor tower, half of the first years weren't headed outside the common room, they were instead headed for the third year boy's dorm, presumably to steal the Maruader's Map that the twins had. From what Harry could tell, the twins were night owls and caught all those who came to their dorm room, pranked them, and sent them on to the prefects.
Harry had a good long laugh at all the chaos. He wondered what the next staff meeting would be like. Too bad he couldn't be a fly on the wall and listen in! After finally calming down, Harry went to sleep.
Harry woke up to his alarm at 3:45 in the morning. He cast a rennervate on himself to jumpstart his system, similar to what a cup of coffee would do for him. Scanning the Marauder's Map, he saw that the chaos had settled down and everyone was in their dorm rooms.
Pulling his Invisibility Cloak out of a special hidden pocket in his trunk, Harry cast a silencing charm on his feet and ghosted down the stairs and out of the common room.
One of the items he'd been able to purchase was one of the Deathly Hallows. Naturally he wouldn't be able to rely on Dumbledore giving him the cloak for Christmas, since he had no control over what kind of HP verse he would end up in. And even if he could guarantee that he would receive the cloak, that was still nearly four months of not having it available for his use until Christmas.
It didn't take him long to arrive outside the Room of Requirement and pace back and forth three times. Unfortunately, no door appeared.
'Damn! Someone must have gotten past the Professors at some point while I was sleeping! There goes my idea to snag the Diadem and use it as a focus to tear apart the rest of Riddle's soul pieces through the connection. It was the whole reason I'd gotten the Necromancy skill in the first place, to make it easy to get rid of Moldy who carelessly left soul pieces lying around.
'Hopefully whatever reincarnated first year got here first doesn't mess about with the horcrux and is just training or studying using the room.'
With nothing else to do since someone already had control over the room, Harry went back to his room to go back to sleep until breakfast.
As soon as he entered the Great Hall, Harry's eyes went to the house cup point counter and he chuckled. All four houses were in the negative thanks to the first years trying to sneak out of their common rooms, though the amount they were in the negative was telling about the biases of the different Heads of House. Gryffindor was the lowest at -50, followed by Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw coming about even at -25 and -28, and Slytherin was in first place with -10.
Sitting down and dishing himself up a full English breakfast, Harry idly looked around at the students who were at breakfast early. He saw Ronald putting his head together with Fred and George and whispering earnestly, which was out of character enough that Harry got curious.
"So all we've got to do is grab some roosters and convince Potter to open the door, and we'll have a giant basilisk to harvest that'll pay for our future company's startup?" Fred or George was saying, looking intently at Ronald.
"Yup! And he's such a lonely guy that is pathetically eager for friendship that he'd do it for us if we just showed him some kindness." Ronald explained.
Harry listened a bit longer to the three brother's plans to get Harry to hook them up with a basilisk corpse before groaning in annoyance and cutting the eavesdropping spell. Of course he couldn't go to the Harry Potter world and not get the parseltongue ability. So yes, he could get them into the Chamber of Secrets. But why would he help them out when they were just planning on exploiting him?
'I'm already far more healthy than expected of the abused and neglected Harry Potter of the story, thanks to the goblin's healing. And I don't have the scar anymore, so it'll be obvious to these SIs that I don't have the horcrux in my head anymore if they actually paid attention.
'So if they approach me about it I'll just make up a story about how I used to be able to talk to snakes before the goblins healed me, but now I can't. That should convince most of these people with meta-knowledge that my ability to speak parseltongue is gone along with my scar-crux.
'If I mention it offhand thanks to some conversation at the dinner table, acting like I don't understand the significance of how "dark" the ability is seen to be, then word should spread around and these people probably won't find me as interesting if I'm lacking that ability to exploit.'
Harry was hoping that with that ability off the table, these ambitious first year inserts would find him far less interesting and useful and would leave him alone.
After finishing off his food, and with his schedule in hand that McGonagall had passed him, Harry headed off to grab his needed books. He had a Transfiguration class to get to.
"I already knew you were a smart one, Hermione Granger. But the more I look at you, the more I realize you are as beautiful as you are smart. And your name is as gorgeous as you are. I just love saying it. Hermione…"
Harry had been headed to the library near the end of the day when he coincidentally happened to overhear a certain blond first year Slytherin waylaying a certain not-bushy-haired first year Gryffindor. The cheesiness of the lines caused Harry to pause and peak around the corner to see what the feminist in Granger's body would do to being picked up in such a way.
A moment later Harry winced as a knee found its way to forcefully introduce Draco's goolies to an emphatic understanding of the word "no".
'Damn. That's a bit overboard, don't you think, Granger?' Harry thought as he pulled his head back and continued on his way, completely uninterested in getting involved in their little tiff. 'I get that you're offended by how he was trying to pick you up, but simply telling him "no" would suffice, right? I mean, if he didn't take your first no, then you can always go to a more violent method, right?'
Despite his sympathy for the pain Malfoy was feeling, there was no way Harry was going to put his own welfare on the line to try to speak up on Malfoy's behalf or to tell Granger she went too far. He obviously didn't want the same treatment, for one. It was none of his business, for two.
Harry's initial criticism against Granger's violence was that they were both adults in kids bodies, but then he remembered that the dude in Malfoy's body didn't know they were all reincarnated souls.
So the dude in Malfoy's body thought it was okay to start grooming eleven year old girls in preparation for his harem. As a result, Harry could only conclude that the chick in Granger's body had it right. Dude had that knee coming, and so much worse, really.
'Well, except that she didn't know he was an adult soul in a kid's body hitting on what he saw was a young girl. Gah! I'm going to just stop thinking about all the permutations. Not my business anyway what kind of heavy-handed flirting they get up to. It's not like she did permanent damage anyway, what with magical healing being a thing. It was just a bit of training via pain deterrence.'
Harry chuckled at his own joke since he certainly couldn't tell anyone. He soon found himself a nice quiet corner of the Library to study while trying to ignore the chaos that was still happening around him on a daily basis. He'd been similar seeing scenes all week long, so he was gradually becoming used to it.
Not all the first years were reenacting the exact same scene of an eleven year old flirting with someone and getting kneed in the balls, so much as the reincarnated first years were always trying to do something they thought was clever to achieve whatever goals they were pursuing.
Gregory tried to give Snape advice in their first potions class on how he should teach the theory, safety facts, and how ingredients should be prepared for potion brewing instead of just throwing a recipe on the board and yelling at them to get on with it.
Dude really should have kept his trap shut, since this Snape was definitely not the misunderstood abused boy of crappy fanfics that just needed a hug and someone's caring understanding to set him on the right path. He was a bitter and angry man that was taking out his frustrations on his students.
Being in Slytherin didn't protect Gregory from a week's worth of detentions, even if Snape still wouldn't take many points from his own house.
Then there was Wayne who thought he was being funny when he arrived at their Transfiguration class and pulled out some catnip to wave at McGonagall in her cat animagus form. He'd even tried to pick her up to manhandle her and abuse her dignity as a professor. That bit of cheekiness got him nothing but some bleeding scratches across his knuckles that he had to suffer from for the two hours of class, 50 points from Hufflepuff, and two weekends of detentions.
It just seemed to Harry that hardly any of these reincarnated first years could sit still and be satisfied with learning magic in a magic school. They always seemed to be planning some kind of scheme to gain an advantage, correct "problems" that they saw in their Professors, or thought they were being funny by emulating their favorite fanfiction scenes.
And for the most part, it didn't go well for them. They ended up beat up, cursed, or saddled with days of detentions and point loss.
It really made him wonder just how far the Professor's patience with the first years could be stretched if they kept it up. It also made him wonder if Severus Snape was longing for the days he only had to deal with James Potter and his friends, instead of 39 rambunctious reincarnators with ideas.
In one aspect he was pretty happy that his fellow first-years were being so energetic in their activities since it took attention away from him and his Boy-Who-Lived fame. The professors were spending so much time disciplining the other students, they didn't have time to focus on him.
Once he'd finished writing his charms essay, the last of his homework from the first week, Harry packed up his stuff and left the library. It was Friday afternoon, and he had some business to conduct this evening.
He'd finally gotten a chance to go to the Room of Requirement when no one else was using it just the previous day. He checked in the room of lost things and discovered that the diadem horcrux was gone. One of the other reincarnated first years had probably snagged it at some point.
With a put-upon sigh he had crossed that option off his mental check list. He would have to go find another soul piece to use his brand new Necromancy gift on to connect to the main spirit of old Moldy and banish the wraith from this plane of existence.
So just after dinner, Harry headed out through one of the secret passages with one eye on his map to make sure no one noticed him. Once outside the wards, he teleported to the town of Little Hangleton. Finding the town had been as easy as calling information, then comparing it to a map.
Two of the greatest perks that Harry had purchased was the World Walker boosted by the Merlin Returned perks.
MERLIN RETURNED (Capstone Booster) - There were ancient tales of your coming, Jumper. Actually, wait, no. There weren't. But there should have been. You were born to greatness, and this reflects in everything you do. Magic is second nature to you.
While you don't get any skill or knowledge innate with this perk, nor any gifts or talents that pass down bloodlines or through rituals, you now have limitless talent in every single branch of magic apart from these limitations.
Besides that, you are a genius at learning magic too, mastering years' worth of material in days and weeks without even stressing yourself. This growth continues indefinitely, never slowing no matter what.
Your grasp of magic and its theoretical framework is such that you can manipulate the very nature of it, and do so with an almost contemptuous ease. You can take apart spells, rituals or even entire magic systems, and put them back together in whatever different arrangement you like, even in entirely new magic systems of your own. Even altering spells in real time is second nature to you, changing their effects, size, scope, everything. As is coming up with entirely new pieces of magic, with due research and innovation.
Finally, to fuel all this, your 'Magical Core', per se, is proportionately vast. You have a humongous amount of magic at your fingertips, stretching far and beyond any known metrics well into the realm of legends like Merlin and the Founders.
This perk follows you in the future too, providing you all of these effects in any and all magic you become able to do. This perk is a capstone booster, meaning that it serves to enhance each of the origin capstones in their own ways. The interactions are mentioned alongside the respective perks.
WORLD WALKER - You have an affinity for spellwork that has to do with long distance magic, such as transporting people or things, even things like words or messages. Not only are you one of the finest experts in apparition in the world, being an absolute genius at every variation and technique that exists, you're also capable of extremely fast flight without a broom, which has the curious effect of enveloping you in thick clouds of any colour you like.
Apart from this, you're extraordinary at creating things like Portkeys, Vanishing cabinets or Portals, being able to create Portkeys that can move people as gently as a mother's touch, and portals that move people around without them even noticing it until it's too late. Summoning and Banishing spells are trifling to you, even the most powerful or complex ones.
You have a considerable aptitude for penetrating wards and defenses when building these things, so much so that with even rudimentary information about the protections on a place, you can figure out how to circumvent them, and with a bit more work you could bring them down outright.
These abilities also carry over to any spells that revolve around observing people from afar, be they scrying spells, listening charms or other, similar magic.
Merlin Returned Boosted - Normally even the best of transportation or observation magic is limited by the range, be it a continent or a planet. Not for you such petty limits. Your portkeys can take someone to a different galaxy or a different reality just as easily they would take them next door.
You can go into both alternate realities, such as ones where someone who was a boy in your reality was born a girl instead, or where there were twins, or where Voldemort never fell at all. This ability also ensures there are such realities in all future jumps. You can also go to the connected multiverse, even spiritual or astral realms like Faerie or somesuch.
This ability covers any form of transportation that you can use. Portkeys, portals, apparition, anything can be used to travel thusly by you. You can't use it to travel to other jumps until post-spark, however.
Pulling out his broom and cloak, Harry flew through town until he arrived at the edge of town where the Riddle mansion was.
The time on the train when he'd finally noticed that every first year was some reincarnated soul, Harry had been so tempted to teleport to another reality and make that his new residence. He had wanted the classic Harry Potter experience, and that certainly wasn't dealing with a bunch of power hungry reincarnators.
But he'd picked a couple scenarios to run that he had to accomplish first before he could leave all this behind and enjoy the rest of his stay in this world. First of all, he needed to destroy Riddle so the bastard could never come back.
Second off, he needed to grab all three Deathly Hallows and keep them for his entire time against all comers.
So finding out that there were a bunch of first years with meta-knowledge about this world really did step up his timetable. There was no way for him to predict what kind of craziness could be happening right now. One of those kids could be possessed right this moment by Voldy's spirit from the diadem.
So he'd kept his head down and planned some quick actions this weekend that hopefully wouldn't be noticed. Grabbing the soul piece in the resurrection stone this very weekend seemed like the perfect thing to do.
Except…looking down on the Gaunt Shack from above, it was obvious that someone had already gotten to it. Using a version of the supersensory spell, Harry could see everything very clearly, and it looked like someone had dismantled all the protections. The ring was gone.
Sighing inside, Harry teleported back to Hogwarts. Calling on Feeney, he had her take his broom and Invisibility Cloak with her to hide it on his Island. He didn't want his cloak to be anywhere near this school if someone was hunting down the three Hollows due to meta-knowledge. Dumbledore and then himself would be the first ones they would search for that item, based on their meta-knowledge.
He hadn't even been gone more than half an hour, all told, so when he arrived at the Gryffindor common room, nobody really paid attention to his arrival. Heading up to his room, he put his school books away and went back down to the common room with a novel he'd picked up from a muggle bookstore.
Despite all the changes from his old life to his new, Harry still enjoyed a good story. So he parked his butt in a chair in the corner and began reading while ignoring the boisterousness of the Gryffindors.
In the back of his mind he was coming up with a new plan to snag the Horcruxes and kill old Moldy. But he first needed to relax and get over his disappointment at the failed expedition.
"Wake up! Come on, first years, rise and shine!" Harry blearily opened his eyes and stared at Percy as he was pulling back bed curtains. "Professor McGonagall wants all first years downstairs pronto! Let's go! Get up!"
Harry yawned as he got out of bed and got dressed.
"Hey, Percy. What's this all about?" Ronald asked, looking confused.
A quick look around, and Harry saw that all four of the reincarnators looked a bit on the wary side. No event like this had been mentioned in the books, so they were understandably worried about it.
"Apparently one of the other first years had a bad case of lice, some untreated muggle disease that is easily spread from kid to kid. So there's a mandatory health check this morning to fix the problem before it becomes a problem." Percy urged them to hurry up and go downstairs where further instructions would be given them.
"Line up, first years." Professor McGonagall sternly ordered when both the boys and girls were there. "I'm taking you to the medical wing to get checked over for urgent health problems. Come along, now."
Harry wasn't the only one that noticed that McGonagall had her wand ready to hand and was looking on edge. But he couldn't figure out just what was going on and was dithering back and forth about whether to try out his mind reading ability on her or not.
In the end, Harry decided to just go with the flow and learn what was happening as it happened. At the same time, he realized he'd neglected a portion of his training, since he was incredibly wary of using his own version of Legilimency on an adult wizard or witch. He just had no clue just how well his Psychonaut perk mind reading powers stacked up against Occlumency. So it made him blind in this situation, since he was too afraid to go searching for information without tipping his hand.
Harry swore to himself he'd find some random Aurors to use as a test where he could escape without getting recognized or caught. That should give him all the information he needed about the Occlumency skill levels here.
McGonagall ushered them into the medical wing, which had 40 different partitioned spaces. Each student was ushered into a separate one, and he noticed that all the house's first years were there.
The moment that Harry entered his little space, he noticed the emotions of an invisible someone already in the space. With iron control over his body and expressions, Harry acted clueless and hopped up on the bed while looking around curiously like an eleven year old would.
The stunner came with little warning, but he didn't dodge it. Letting it hit him, he acted like he was knocked unconscious as he let the partitioned part of his mindscape go dark in unconsciousness.
Playing along with one part of his mind that completely simulated the eleven year old Harry being unconscious while the majority of his mind was awake, aware, and hiding behind mental barriers, Harry prepared himself to wait and see what he could glean from the conversations around him.
"Team leads, report!" A stern voice called out.
"Team Alpha, all clear!"
"Team Bravo, all clear!"
"Team Charlie, all clear!"
"Team Delta, all clear!"
"Thank you for your assistance in this most unusual matter, Amelia."
'Huh, that was Dumbledore's voice,' Harry realized.
"Unusual matter is right." Madam Bones stated angrily. "I could hardly credit it when you actually came to the DMLE and Unspeakables with this wild story, but the evidence in front of our eyes is plain as day. I still can't believe they could actually get to my Susan, whoever they are. We're going to have to ramp up security around King's Cross and Hogwarts, you realize that, yes?"
"A small price to pay to ensure our future children are well protected." Dumbledore said. "I realize in the past I've been quite…"
"Obstructionist? Refused to allow us to do our jobs in your little private castle?" Madam Bones interrupted.
"Well, I wouldn't put it quite in those terms, Amelia."
"I would."
"Yes, well. The sheer scope of this…wide scale personality and memory transplantation into an entire class has really shaken me and my belief in the neutrality of Hogwarts. I can no longer afford to act in the same manner I have in the past, not when it concerns an entire generation."
"Good for you, Dumbledore. If this information had come to light without you taking extreme measures, you would have been crucified in front of the Wizengamot. And that's if the mobs with torches and pitchforks would even allow you to arrive there alive."
"Quite." Dumbledore's tight voice showed some small amount of amusement.
"So, the Boy-Who-Lived is the only one among the first years that didn't have his whole personality overwritten and given a whole new set of muggle memories?" Madam Bones asked, and Harry realized now why the two of them were talking so close to him.
Harry wondered just when Dumbledore had scanned him. He didn't notice at all!
"That's what my passive Legilimency scans have indicted, but I have my doubts." Dumbledore now sounded worried, though Harry felt relieved. At least the old goat wasn't good enough to penetrate his mindscape without him noticing. "I can't help but wonder if they didn't use a more…devious method to hide their manipulations where young Harry is concerned. He didn't act like he should in the story they all have in their head, which I don't really know what it suggests…"
"Maybe that's a good sign." Madam Bones interrupted. "If he was acting exactly like the scripted version of him all the other students were fed with, then I would worry even more that he really had been compulsed into having a new personality.
"But since he is not acting like the Boy-Who-Lived in that fictional story that was implanted in everyone's head, no matter how many similarities we find in our situation with that story, then I have to hope he wasn't kidnapped and adjusted by whoever did this. Probably this J.K. Rowling character. If I ever get my hands on her, she'll rue the day she messed with my Susan."
The voices of Bones and Dumbledore faded as they walked away at that point, but Harry had gotten the gist of what was happening. Apparently having nearly 40 first year students acting so very crazy had pinged on some radars.
And Dumbledore had somehow found out that they all had a wealth of new memories in their heads, and that they thought were someone other than the children whose bodies they inhabited.
'Oh, man. I predict a bunch of Obliviates are going to be used to turn all the students back into the children they are.' Harry inwardly shook his head at the result of the uncaring chaos all those reincarnators had caused. No doubt the books caused them to think that they could act willfully with no repercussions.
But without any special powers and perks, they unwisely assumed they were smarter and more clever than anyone else in this setting because they had a bit of meta-knowledge. Their rampant behavior had brought disaster down on everyone's heads.
And judging by the fact that Dumbledore of all people called on the DMLE and the Unspeakables for help, it showed what an unprecedented situation he'd landed in, in this world.
'Thank goodness I managed to finagle those perks! Otherwise I'd be mindwiped and suffer a complete personality death along with everyone else!'
Thinking about the event of all his fellow reincarnators suffering that exact same fate of being mind wiped, Harry wondered if he was a complete hypocrite that he didn't find it that troubling, since it wasn't happening to him but to someone else.
'I didn't create the situation we find ourselves in. None of these people are my friends or family, and they aren't even my allies. Over the week we were here, none of them ever tried to befriend or help me, and they all thought of me as some dumb, lazy, and unworthy of my "mc status" pitiful joke. So as a result, I just really don't care what happens to them.
'I bet that our class is going to be closely monitored over the next several years. So unless I'm willing to shed all pretenses and disappear into another world so this one can't hunt me down, I'm going to have to act like a completely normal student.
'I wonder how long I'll last before I crack and decide to take off for more exciting adventure? I guess it all depends on whether or not I can make friends once they mind wipe away the reincarnator's memories and personalities.'
Harry inwardly shrugged at his callous disregard for the other reincarnator's fate and waited out the incarceration and mind scans. At the very least he was learning more about Legilimency and Occlumency from the scans the Unspeakables and Aurors were doing on him, and he was now very confident in his defenses and mind partition.
Harry was sure that they would release him soon when they didn't find anything wrong with his mind. He could then go back to his normal school routine.
Several hours later, when he'd been left alone for a while, Harry heard footsteps coming close to him. He kept his eyes closed, pretending to be unconscious, and waited for whoever to finish up their scans once more.
"Legilimency!" Dumbledore said and Harry could feel the much more powerful probe backed by the Elder Wand digging into his mind. Despite the extra power that Dumbledore brought to bear, Harry was surprised to find it wasn't that much of a strain to keep the mind probe inside the partitioned part of his mind. Dumbledore only ever got a look at the young Harry that he was supposed to be.
Harry could feel Dumbledore's emotions as the old wizard rifled through his partitioned mindscape. At first the old man was frustrated at not finding any sign of the other world personas that all the other first years were inflicted with. But then, as time went by and Dumbledore found absolutely no hint of anything other than an eleven year old mind, he grew more and more relieved.
"For whatever reason, Harry my boy, I'm glad you were spared this assault. And for what it's worth, I'm sorry that you had to suffer those ten dark and terrible years. If only I had known that the Goblin's could remove the Horcrux from your scar, you would have been raised very differently. But I, in my hubris, felt that in order to keep Riddle's soul piece weak, you had to be weak as well. I hope that one day you can forgive me, my boy. For now, though, rest and everything will be better after this weekend."
Harry kept himself from reacting to the words, even though he wanted to scoff and roll his eyes at the old wizard for his arrogance. It wouldn't do to give up the act, not now that the old man was buying it. And confessing to his unconscious body, rather than having the bravery to talk to an abused eleven year old boy and explain to him why he had to grow up as a starved slave in a cupboard? That showed a distinct lack of Gryffindor bravery.
When the old man walked away, Harry relaxed his mind slightly, while keeping his body still and unconscious. He was glad he had survived the ordeal. Now that he didn't have to worry so much about it, he began looking through his mental library to read some books to keep himself entertained. He couldn't exactly let himself go to sleep while he was being held captive in the medical wing under strict observation, so reading a good book was a good alternative.
