SB/N: (Substitute Beta note) Hello, just thought I'd let everyone know this chapter was beta read by the amazing NOCTEM! (No autographs please…) So if something's wrong don't blame Xirleb70 this time…
A/N: Another wonderful response to my chapter! I hope to keep these kind of responses up! A few words before I get started, though.
Alphabet-Psycho: Yes, he is eleven years old. He also reads a lot of books and has a large working vocabulary. If he's eleven, he is past fourth grade, and would know how those words are used if he read books that used them.
Mr. K: No, my story will not end with Harry being a super-wizard. He will be substantially more powerful than most other people, but not super powered.
TimGold: When I decide what the final pairing is going to be, I will let you know. Right now, I can tell you that it will not be a Harry/Ginny. Aside from that, it's up in the air. It will be Harry/Cho for a while in book five, but I don't know about the final pairing. More than likely, it will be Harry/Hermione in the end, but I haven't decided yet.
Swordwielder: Harry is going to be Hermione's little research project for a while, but eventually, they'll be friends.
AthenaKitty: You just summarized the last chapter in questions. The answer to most of your questions is yes. You will find out at the end of this chapter where I sort Harry. I will be loosely following the books, except for book 3, because I have a more interesting idea.
Xirleb70: Thank you again for being my beta. I honestly cannot think of a more perfect person to correct me. You are my Goddess, and I worship your name at the temple of fanfiction.
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Chapter 03: The School Year Begins
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Things were quiet at the Dursley residence for the next month, with one small exception. For some reason totally unknown to anyone, Harry went to the hospital about a week before term started. He was diagnosed with extreme exhaustion, and confined to his bed for the week. The Dursleys' didn't know the cause of it, and Harry refused to tell them. He promised an explanation later, but asked that they forget about it for the time being. His Uncle had no problem with that, as the two didn't get along very well, but his Aunt was more reluctant. Eventually, however, she agreed to forget about it for a while.
On September first, The Dursley family made a trip to London. Not only did Harry need to be at King's Cross train station, but Dudley had a surgical procedure scheduled for that day. He'd been having problems with his throat for a while, and the doctor said it was necessary to remove his tonsils. This meant, to Harry's Aunt's disappointment, that they would not be able to see Harry off to school. His Uncle was very gracious about helping Harry get his things loaded on to a trolley, and walked with him to Platform Nine. It was with a certain amount of glee that he informed Harry that there was no platform nine and three quarters.
At first glance, Harry would have agreed with his Uncle, but after taking a second look around, he found it. There was a glowing spot on one of the columns between Platforms Nine and Ten. He walked towards it, only to be cut off by a troop of redheads. The woman, who Harry assumed to be the mother of the family, was grumbling about muggles. Harry recognized that word from when the Headmaster had used it. He fell in behind the troop of redheads, and approached the glowing column.
"Percy, you first." said the mother. The eldest of the boys stepped up, and began to push his trolley towards the glowing column wall. Just as he got there, and Harry focused on the glow, to see if he could tell how it worked, a large group of tourists walked right into his line of sight. He couldn't see.
"Fred, you next" Said the mother.
"I'm not Fred, I'm George." said the boy. "Honestly woman, you call yourself our mother? Can't you tell I'm George?"
"Oh, I'm sorry George."
"Only joking, mum, I am Fred." said Fred, as he took of for the glowing spot. His twin followed him closely, and Harry watched them walk straight through the wall. The wall changed slightly to allow them access, but he couldn't see exactly what triggered it. He waited a few moments, trying to think of something, but finally decided to ask for help.
"Excuse me?" He said in a quiet, respectful voice. "Could you tell me how to get onto the platform?"
The woman looked at him with kind eyes. "Not to worry dear, it's quite easy really. Is this your first time to Hogwarts?" She asked, and then went on without waiting for his answer. "It's Ron's first time to Hogwarts as well." The youngest boy and the only one left on the outside of the wall, looked just a bit embarrassed by his mother's attention. "All you have to do is walk straight through the wall there. Best do it at a bit of a run, if you're nervous."
Harry was just a bit nervous. She told him how it worked, but he remembered the Bracelet again. He hoped that the magic in the wall didn't react badly with him. Well, the only thing to do was to test it out. He took of at a brisk walk, which turned into a jog. He was expecting to crash into the wall, but felt a cold tickling instead. Opening his eyes, he marveled at the train. It was an older style steam train, painted scarlet, with the words HOGWARTS EXPRESS written on the front. It was also glowing, a cheerful scarlet, which Harry had no idea what to make of. He dragged his trunk to one of the compartments, and opened the door. Inside, he found the redheaded twins.
"Hey, you want some help with that?" One of them said. Harry shook his head then lifted his trunk, with some effort, onto the rack. Fred and George, as he had heard them referred to, looked suitably impressed. "I'm George Weasley, and this is my less intelligent and less handsome twin brother, Fred."
"It's nice to meet you, I'm Harry Potter." Fred and George looked somewhat shocked.
"Are you really?" Harry nodded. "Blimey!" The two twins ran from the compartment. Harry had no idea where they were headed, but put it out of his mind. Harry opened his eyes to the magic surrounding him. The entire train seemed to glow scarlet, with a myriad of different colors thrown in. He could see a faint orange glow, and decided to concentrate on it, to see if he could tell what it was. Well, the glow was pulsing irregularly, which meant it was reacting to an outside influence. The outside influence was most definitely the students, Harry noticed as he looked out the window. Every time a student boarded, the glow would intensify for a few milliseconds, just enough for Harry to notice the change. Next, Harry tried to trigger the reaction from inside the car, by throwing magic at it. Once again, he flared his aura, and snapped his fingers. The magic vibrated throughout the cabin, but didn't trigger the spell. What it did do, however, is help Harry to understand what triggered the spell. It was adjusting the temperature on the train continually, compensating for the body heat of each student. Harry decided to call it a comfort spell, since he didn't know the actual name for it. His perceptions just a little clearer, Harry decided to stop studying the glow for a while. There would be plenty of time for that later. He closed his eyes, and let the magic of the train roll around him in a comforting embrace.
All too soon, though, his solitude was intruded upon, by another one of the redheaded boys. This was the young one, Ron. "Do you mind if I sit here?" He asked. "Everywhere else is full." Harry nodded, to show he didn't care, and the boy sat down across from him. Harry kept his eyes closed, but trained his other senses to study the boy's magic. Ron had a healthy feeling aura, but it seemed to roll and fluctuate. Harry opened his eyes to notice the moderate green glow, and watch it fluctuate. It was beautiful in a way, but it also felt as if he had an explosive temper. The boy seemed to be searching for the right way to ask a question. "Are you really Harry Potter?" He finally asked.
"Yes I am." Harry was a bit uncomfortable with the way he was being looked at.
"Oh, I thought Fred and George were kidding." Ron said. Now that Harry's identity was confirmed, the boy was focusing on Harry completely, and his eyes seemed planted firmly on his forehead. "Do you really have the…." He trailed off.
"The what?" Harry asked, keeping his calm expression. Truthfully, the boy was starting to annoy him, being tentative like he was.
"The scar?" The boy finished. Harry was somewhat surprised, but hid it well. He had no idea that his scar had some sort of importance.
"Yes, I do." Harry made no move to show Ron the scar, however, and Ron seemed a bit deflated.
Ron quickly recovered. "Can I see it?" He asked eagerly.
"Why?" Harry asked, keeping his expression calm, although he was getting annoyed inside. "I don't like being stared at like some kind of performing animal."
Ron had the decency to look embarrassed. "Sorry," he mumbled, turning his eyes away from Harry, and looking out the window. Ron was a bit confused by the way Harry was acting. He was famous, but didn't seem proud of it. Ron knew that he would be proud of his fame, if he had any.
The train began its journey, and Ron continued to try and coax Harry into a conversation. Harry, who was trying to relax and enjoy the magic sliding around his senses, was growing steadily more peeved at him. It was only when he brought up the subject of using magic to turn his rat yellow that Harry became interested in the red haired boy.
Ron pulled the rat out of his pocket, and Harry immediately noticed a few things. The rat was glowing, which meant that it had some sort of magic, but the glow itself was odd. It was mostly yellow, which Harry took to be the basic glow color, but it also had tinges of emerald green laced into the yellow. Now, Harry had seen several things that day that were glowing, but the only things with green glows were humans.
Ron cleared his throat to say the spell, but the door opened and Harry received another shock. There was a girl standing there with bushy hair and large front teeth. Normally, that wouldn't shock Harry, but the girl wasn't glowing green. Unlike the rest of the students he'd seen, the girl was glowing a bright purple color. Harry thought it looked quite powerful.
"Has anyone seen a toad?" The girl asked. Her voice was quite sharp, and Harry thought that she might be just a little bit bossy. "A boy name Neville's lost one."
Ron began to reply, but she had already noticed the wand in his hand, and demanded that he show her the spell he was going to do. Ron recited the spell.
"Sunshine, Daisies, Butter mellow,
Turn this stupid, fat rat yellow!"
He finished the spell, his wand pointing directly at the rat. Harry watched as the spell failed, but the uncontrolled magic left the wand anyway. It began to react with the yellow part of the aura, but the green immediately stopped it. The rat remained unchanged.
"Are you sure that's a real spell?" The bossy girl asked. Without waiting for a reply, she continued. "Well, it's not very good, now is it?" Ron looked over at Harry, trying to convey his displeasure at her criticism, but Harry agreed with her. Even if the green part of the rat's aura hadn't squashed it, the magic was completely unstructured, and would not have had a predictable result. In other words, the rat may have turned into a toad, or anything. Most likely, in Harry's opinion anyway, Ron would have set the rat on fire.
Harry, ever the assertive one, extended his hand to the girl. He wasn't sure whether or not he liked her, but she had the strangest colored aura, and Harry wanted to know what it felt like to touch her magic. "Hello, I'm Harry Potter, pleased to meet you."
The look on the girls face didn't really change, as her eyes were already quite wide, something that many of the first years had in common. She looked like she'd just met someone from a storybook, to tell the truth. "Are you really? I've read all about you, of course. You're in Modern Magical History and Great Wizarding Events of the Twentieth Century, and you have a whole chapter in The Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts."
"Really?" Harry asked. He had been told that he was famous, and he knew that everyone knew his name, but he didn't know that he'd been written about.
"Didn't you know? I'd have found out all I could, if it was me. Oh, sorry about that. I'm Hermione Granger. And you are…" She trailed off, looking expectantly at Ron, who was in the middle of stuffing a Chocolate Frog into his mouth.
"Ron Weasley." He said, his mouth still half filled with frog. Hermione quirked an eyebrow, and looked at him with a small amount of disdain. Harry was a bit disdainful as well. Harry had always been taught that manners should always be minded in public, and not speaking with one's mouth full was a fundamental rule.
"Pleasure," Hermione said flatly, her facial expression stating that obviously wasn't much of a pleasure. "Well, you two had best change into your robes. I expect we'll be arriving soon." Hermione stood up and walked out of the compartment.
Harry stood up to take his trunk off the rack, so that he could get his robes out. He'd only just started, however, when the door to the compartment opened again. Standing in the doorway, flanked by two boys roughly the size of his cousin Dudley, was a blonde boy with a pale face and an ugly sneer. Harry immediately disliked him. It wasn't the sneer, or the superior look, or anything visible to the naked eye. It was only what was visible to Harry's magic sight. The boy was tainted by something dark. His aura was also different than most others. Most people, save that girl Hermione, had a bright green aura. The pale boy, and both his bookends, had a poisonous looking red color laced throughout their auras, making them a muddy, filthy brown color. It almost made Harry sick to look at them.
"People are saying that Harry Potter is in this compartment." The blonde boy stated. "Is it you, then?" Harry nodded, getting his stomach under control. "This is Crabbe, and Goyle. My name's Malfoy, Draco Malfoy." Ron snorted at the name. "You think my name is funny, do you? I don't even need to ask yours. My father said that all Weasleys' have red hair and shabby clothes. You must be one of them, judging by your hand-me-downs." He turned to Harry. "You'll soon find out that some wizarding families are better than others, Potter. You don't want to go making friends with the wrong sort. I can help you there." Draco extended his hand, and Harry started to debate with himself. On the one hand, he would rather do just about anything than move any closer to that sickening aura. On the other hand, the boy didn't seem know he was tainted, and was offering Harry friendship.
Harry was saved from his decision by Ron pouncing on Draco, his face as red as his hair. Harry noticed that his aura was flared, and he was in what Harry called attack mode. Draco's aura flared quickly, as did the two gargoyles flanking him. It quickly became a brawl, and Harry started to get angry. All he wanted to do was change his clothes and these people were fighting in his compartment. His aura flared out of control, and he raised his hand, holding his wand aloft. Before he could do anything with it, he lost what little hold he had on his magic, and the four boys were picked up and thrown out of the compartment rather forcefully.
Harry walked to the door of the compartment, and surveyed the damage. Ron was laid out on the floor, breathing heavily, and pretty bruised up, but ok. The two flunkies were sitting on the floor, looking very confused. The Malfoy boy was lying on his back, a look of perfect rage on his face. He glared at Harry, as if trying to kill him with the power of hate from his eyes.
"You'll pay for that, Potter!" Was the last thing Harry heard before he pulled the compartment door shut, and locked it. He changed into his robes, and sat down to wait for the train to stop.
The train stopped a little over ten minutes later, and Harry heard the message to leave his trunk where it was. Apparently, it would be taken to the school separately. Harry got off the train, and followed the rest of the first years to where the Giant man he'd met in Diagon Alley was waiting, calling for all the first years. They approached the water, and were told to board some rickety looking boats. They loaded themselves surprisingly quickly for a group of eleven-year olds, and Hagrid sent the boats moving forward with a wave from his…Umbrella? Harry thought that it was an odd magical focus, but it did glow just like a wand, with the small exception of a piece in the middle, which looked fractured.
Just as they were nearing a bend in the glowing path Harry could see floating slightly above the water, Hagrid told them that Hogwarts was just up ahead. Harry wasn't sure what it was going to look like, but he never imagined that he wouldn't be able to see it. Sure enough, just like the scene in London, All Harry could see was a blinding white glow, which overpowered everything else. Trying to stop the light, he let his magic flow, just like he did back in London. The reaction this time, however, was very different. His magic seemed to slide around the light, and the light dimmed considerably before changing color and fading from his vision. He could still feel it, and he knew it was there, but somehow it had sensed his discomfort and altered itself for him. Harry smiled at the thought.
It didn't take long for the boats to make their way to a small tunnel under the castle, where they seemed to dock themselves. The troop of first years disembarked, and made their way up the staircase, to be meet Harry's friend Minerva, who he now had to call Professor McGonagall.
The Professor walked then through the guidelines of the sorting, explaining the four houses to them, then left for a few moments. Harry could feel the flared magic of the four boys behind him, but didn't detect any hostility threatening to break through their control. He glanced behind him, to find that their hostility was actually directed at each other, the three filthy boys sneering at the redhead. His eyes sought out his friend Hermione. It wasn't so much that he knew her well, but she seemed to be likable. She also had that majestic aura around her, which Harry loved to watch. It positively pulsed with power, wrapped around her like a silken purple cocoon. It really was quite breathtaking.
His Professor came back quickly and led them into the Great Hall. It took Harry a couple of seconds to distinguish the many magical glows from the actual structures of the Great Hall. The ceiling was definitely the coolest part of the Hall. Harry watched, captivated, as the glowing aura rippled like the ocean, changing the image displayed, so it always looked like the night sky. He could hear Hermione telling a girl standing next to her that the ceiling was enchanted, but Harry already knew that. He wondered if she could see magic like him or not, but decided on not when she listed her knowledge came from a book.
Professor McGonagall placed an old hat, patched and frayed, onto a three-legged stool. All the first years gazed eagerly at the hat, but none more so than Harry. It was glowing, and glowing powerfully. It was an enchanted object, and it was old. It was very old. In fact, it was almost as old as the enchanted school felt to him. The hat's brim opened wide, and the hat began to sing.
(A/N: If you really need to read it, open your copy of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, and turn to page117. There you have a sorting song.)
The sorting began, and Harry watched the glow from the hat change slightly for everyone that put it on. He began to get more and more nervous. The hat was a magical object, and Harry did not have the best track record with magical objects so far. His thoughts once again landed on the bracelet. Trying not to be angry, Harry started looking at his teachers, most of them had bright green auras, fairly powerful. The little man next to the end had more power than most of the rest, save the Headmaster. Before he could go any further into his investigations, the teacher with the turban caught his eye.
He could make out the face of Professor Quirrel, and knew by sight it was who he was, but the black smoky cloud around him prevented Harry from seeing anything else. It was almost as if he was…hiding. Harry opened his eyes more completely, trying to penetrate that smoky wall. The first layers peeled away rather easily, but just as he lifted another barrier, he saw a red flash, and the scar on his forehead exploded with momentary pain. Harry grabbed his forehead, but the pain was already gone. Harry was so involved thinking about it, that he missed Hermione being sorted into Gryffindor, and the Malfoy boy being sorted into Slytherin. He snapped out of his thoughts when McGonagall called his name. His stomach full of butterflies, Harry sat on the stool, and placed the Hat upon his head.
Immediately, Harry felt a presence in his mind. "Hmmm…" The presence began. "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…But you're holding something back, Potter. Open yourself up and relax, so I can sort you properly.
Harry had not relaxed his mind in several years, allowing himself complete release. However, since the hat had asked him to, Harry tried to relax his controls. He let his magic slide out around him, feeling the release his mind had craved without him knowing.
"Well, that's a surprise!" The hat said. "I haven't seen anything like you in nine hundred years. Hmmm… Well, Albus is going to have my brim for this, but there really is no other place to put you."
Harry wanted to ask the hat some questions, but the presence had left his mind, turning itself outwards. From under the hat, Harry could hear the word it shouted to the Hall, and was rather dumbfounded.
"Draconus!" The hat shouted.
A/N: I bet nobody saw that coming! Hope you enjoyed my third chapter, because it does get more interesting now that I've got him sorted. Coming soon: Rules, Regulations, and Lessons.