Authors Note:

What was originally meant to be this chapter has been moved to what will probably be, next chapter.

What happens in the beginning of this chapter, was originally meant to be in the last one, but it wasn't working out well.

This should provide some background information as to... why hufflepuff?

Oh and... Reviews are nice ; No I'm not blackmailing you... I'll write my chapters when I write my chapters - regardless of if one person reviews or not... But... Writing a review is like leaving a poke in my inbox. O.o;

This story is dedicated to my biggest critic. She knows who she is. I was intending to dedicate it to her at a later chapter, once I've gotten this story rolling a little (and hopefully her addicted so she wants to find out next!) But I've noted she's started reading HP fanfiction regularly again... And her chances of stumbling across this grow greater and greater. So... Meh.

As said last chapter, if you want me to email you when I update this story, just let me know in your review... o.o;

Oh... And I only wish (as in do not currently) that I owned Harry Potter.

Edit: Editing for line breaks.

Excuse me - but what did you just say?

Both Hermione and Neville stood staring confused at each other. Neville's face had returned to an expression Hermione found much more recognizable - his face had returned to the usual clueless expression she was familiar with - he was waiting for her to explain exactly what was going on - faithful that she had the answers - despite his previous accusation that she was someone else.

"How am I acting different from normal?" Neville asked.

"The Neville I know, would avoid Professor Snape at all costs." Answered Hermione.

"Why? I know I was terrified of Snape back in first year, but he's not that bad really."

To that Hermione had no answer.

A tense silence ensured in which questions were thought of and brushed aside in nervousness.

"Why was Harry in Hufflepuff?" She, Hermione, broke the silence abruptly by starting with the question upmost in her mind.

Neville started in surprise, narrowed his eyes, responded with a suspicious tone, "Because he was sorted in there." Then something perfectly obvious but could be very dangerous to Neville had occurred to him... With this he raised his wand, and began "Expel-" the disarming spell.

Unfortunately for Neville - but very fortunate for Hermione, she had him down in a full body bind curse, before he could complete the spell.

"Sorry Neville." She echoed the words she had whispered so long ago... Back in first year, when Neville had for the first time in her eyes demonstrated extreme bravery, though, like this time, at an inappropriate moment for her. She paused for just a moment. She couldn't leave Neville like this. But if she undid the spell now- he would either attack or alert the entire school - something that she didn't want to happen just yet.

Sighing she knelt down and performed a small charm - in about 10 minuets the counter-curse would activate and Neville would be free. In that time she would run down to the library borrow a few choice books and then find a position to hide out. It wasn't a perfect solution but it would buy her some time to figure out what was going on.

Longest Ten Minutes Ever

As Neville lay frozen on the ground, his first thoughts were that, his suspicions were correct and that wasn't Hermione. Despite being absolutely frozen his heart rate soared. She was going to go out into the school... She was going to attack Dumbledoor, she'd already gotten rid of Harry... Or was it Neville she was after? Had they discovered that he was the other one that the prophecy could of been about... Or was Harry her sole aim and was she just going to escape from the castle. Or maybe he had been her aim all along... Harry was just a side effect - except he rushed her... Had he gotten Harry into trouble again? Or would this have happened anyway - regardless of his existence... And possible future.

His eyes wide and frighted watched as she knelt down. He saw with his own two eyes the effort she put into weaving the complex timing spell. He was a little relieved when he heard the counter-curse muttered. She wasn't going to leave him here. She couldn't be all bad in that case. But she obviously thought that ten minutes would be enough to get her to safety - what could she apparate or something? The Hermione he knew had said, time and time again, "You can't apparate in hogwarts." But now Neville was wondering if that was entirely correct or was their a way around it. Maybe there had never been a Hermione to begin with - it was all a cover to stop people from discovering the truth... To turn them all off...

It was these unpleasant thoughts stuck in Neville's mind as this fake Hermione wondered down the passage way. One hand tracing along the wall.

As Neville sat, waiting for the timer to finish and he could be freed from the spells - it was the only way he was going to get out of here - not to many students knew about this passage way - not even Harry - and he knew almost all the roots in the castle - it had been Dumbledoor himself who had pointed out this specially made passageway.

How did Harry end up in Hufflepuff anyway? It had come to be accepted as matter of fact in Hogwarts legend - but Neville himself wouldn't of thought that the boy brave enough to tell off Uncle Algie, (though Neville wasn't suppose to know that) would of ended up in the house - that more than a few wizards thought as "wishy, washy".

Though Hufflepuff was renown for loyalty. And Harry Potter was most certainly loyal above all else. He would never betray a friend. Unlike, it seemed a certain Hermione Granger.

Neville remembered fondly their first day at Hogwarts, as he impatiently waited to be freed.

Neville glanced around - he had first been frightened by the gigantic Hagrid, but remembering all that he had actually been told about the man - and the fact that Hagrid was kind enough to return his toad - had helped put him at ease.

The muggle-born witch Hermione stood by his side, effortlessly spouting all of the knowledge that she had very quickly memorized once she had found out she was coming to Hogwarts. It made Neville feel even worse, since as a pure-blood, raised for all of this sort of thing - and he did not have a clue.

As they made their way into the castle, Professor McGonagold came out and gave a little speech. Neville was far to unnerved by the ghosts popping in and out of the walls to pay to much attention. He was far to unnerved to even pay attention to what the ghosts were arguing about.

He did however notice Hermione's startled gasp. "Where did you pop up from?" She intently asked the small, dark haired green eyed boy - with a friendly familiar face.

"Oh I just came around the back" The boy smiled easily. There was a wispy, mournful aspect to his face. Though Neville noted that he neglected to say - the back of what...

"I'm Hermione Granger." She smiled and offered her hand, happy to make any new friends and share as much knowledge as possible. "Do you have any idea on where your going to be sorted?" She asked one of the thoughts that had been upmost in her mind.

"That's not a wizard name." Drawled slowly a voice of a rather blond boy. "I'm Draco Malfoy, I'll be in Slytherin of course - that's where all the best wizards get sorted, my family have been in Slytherin for generations. And will you stop snickering!" The last sentence was directed at a very red haired boy who had begun laughing once Draco had announced his name. "No need to tell me who you are - Father always said that the"

Neville edged backwards from the fight, watching how the green eyed boy's face had paled and he began to look upset.

"You shouldn't argue..." The green eyed boy began.

But the red head interrupted and got in first. "Yes I'm a Weasley, but I'm going to go into a proper house, like Gryffindor and not the little death eaters in training one."

Neville couldn't remember the actual speech itself. He did remember that it started with him telling them not to argue on the issue and finished with him accusing them both of being idiots.

"Don't say things like that!" The green eyed boy now had all eyes on him."I admire loyalty above all other traits. There is nothing wrong with either house. There is no shame in being sorted in any house. All of the Hogwarts house's have their moments of pride - all are worthy of having loyalty carried out to and through them. Showing family loyalty and being sorted into a house for those reasons - be it Slytherin or Gryffindor - is something that each individual should sort for themselves - is something worthy of carrying pride. But, each of those houses have their own secrets - their own things to be proud of - their own shame. There is nothing about Slytherin being evil - only ambitious - and we all have things that we want to accomplish. I think both of you are being well and truly stupid."

"Oh bravo" sneered the blond boy, though a faint trace of pink in his pale cheeks. "Still I think I'd much rather be in Slytherin it's a sensible house that knows to keep the mudbloods out."

"That's a disgusting word" The red head immediately jumped on the blond for his foul language though his response paled in comparison to the dark haired boy.

"HOW DARE YOU!" He exploded. His voice quieting down into a whisper. "You have no idea what your talking about." Before moving away.

The blond hair boy, remained quiet, his face now decidedly pink with everyone's attention turned towards him - as he watched the boy shift past people in his way -

The redhead also watched the boy, his face colouring to match his hair.

"Well then. That put them in their place." Said Hermione. And Neville had to agree.

Neville had to wonder though - Harry had changed over the years. He'd always been somewhat quiet, but now he had become positively timid. When did it start? It had been heading that way - slowly, but it was really bad now... Not much longer until he could go and alert Dumbledoor on what was happening.

Getting Into The Sorting Hats Head

Most students at Hogwarts were of the belief that the Sorting Hat decided on the spot where they would be sorted. Many often wondered what the sorting hat, actually did for the entire year - usually leaving with the assumption that it actually spent the entire year composing its new ditty for the year.

In actual fact the school hat's job of sorting was much more involved then many would give it credit for. The Sorting Hat's job was to not only sort the students into their houses - but to locate who the actual students would be - after all - being from a wizarding family was not full-proof and muggle-borns would obviously not have a clue.

Tying slightly into the locating of students and their eventual sorting was also the entire issue of underage magic. It was the hats job to locate instinctive magic being activated by un-registered witches and wizards - those who hadn't entered Hogwarts grounds. In short the sorting began from the first blast of uncontrolled magic.

While one may wonder at this fact - or indeed - debate with the points of foreign witches, adults and older hogwarts students - suggesting that perhaps if the hat's job was this vast it might be much more suited towards working for national security rather than the simple sorting of a school.

However they would have failed to have taken into account the simple fact that non-wand magic was infinitely easier to track then wand magic. Also once students had received their wands - they were registered within the ministry of magic - they became someone else's headache.

But until then - or if their parents chose to move outside of Britain (in which case the sorting hat would often work on sending some sort of message to its global equivalents) they were the sorting hat's kids. Each burst of magic would be evaluated in its intent and aims - as well as if it would be necessary for outside interference. (For example the rounding up of a missing boa constrictor on its way to Brazil.) An adult also had much greater control than a child and were more firmly dependent on their wand. Adults who performed wandless magic also usually had an excellent idea that they were doing so - and this also made the job much harder to follow.

The Sorting Hat usually had a house or two well and truly in mind before they ever entered the school. However the sorting hat had two policies. One was to not place a student in a house would be likely to be in danger. The other was to get the student to form some sort of agreement on what house they joined.

The Sorting Hat preferred to have a nice little discussion, one last dig through the students minds - probing through to decide which of the house they would likely to be placed in. Their responses were indeed what, it, the Sorting Hat, based the final decision on. A decision that it had been working on for up to twelve years.

In short, the Sorting Hat was kept very busy indeed trying to keep an approximate balance between the houses.

It was him. The pain in the brim. The boy who had set off the sorting hat's alarms, more than the entire previous sorted year's Hufflepuff's put together. Right, well, the Sorting Hat was going to have fun with this. This boy was clearly the sort to never back down - use what ever tools at their disposal - regardless of whether they understood them or not. Definitely Gryffindor or Slytherin traits.

'Hmmm,' said a small voice in Harry's ear. 'Difficult. Very difficult. Plenty of courage, I see. Intense loyalty too. 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 nervously. 'I don't know.' Where the thoughts Harry had in his mind. He was slightly confused about the whole thing - why would he be asked what house he would be sorted into?

That hadn't been the Sorting Hat's expected response. Gryffindor's and Slytherin's usually had a great deal to say and rather strong feelings on their sorting. Not a mild act of confusion waiting for the Sorting Hat's response.

'What about Slytherin' The Sorting Hat slyly asked having noted through the castle the earlier disagreement. Surely the thought of being placed with the previously sorted blond boy and his companions should evict a response.

'I'd rather not. I don't think certain people would be to happy if I was sorted in that house.' Again a nervous tone in the thoughts responded. Images of people Harry admired looking disappointed and sad floated along as well.

'Not Slytherin, eh?' said the small voice. It hadn't been expecting this. 'Are you sure? You could be great, you know, it's all here in your head, and Slytherin will help you get you on the way to greatness, no doubt about that - no? Well, if you're sure - better be HUFFLEPUFF!'

Harry heard the hat shout the last word to the whole hall. He took of the hat and walked shakily towards the Hufflepuff table. So relieved to have not disappointed two of the closest people to him in the world - who were decidedly not fans of Slytherin.

Authors Response:

Padfoot's Fire: Wheee! Thanks! I know its eery to think of Harry like that- and there is a reason why he (Hufflepuff!Harry) is like that at this point in the story and he definitely will progress later on in the story - but he is going to stay that way for quite a few chapters at least. -.-; These are kind of the preparatory chapters... The real action will be happening... Well... Much - God knows how much - later... I just keep getting lost in the little details.

Authors Note:

As said last chapter, if you want me to email you when I update this story, just let me know in your review... o.o;