They hang back getting off the train and take the last small boat across the lake, Tom and Gellert watching Credence carefully. They can always bail out and go to Durmstrang if the wards don't let Credence in.

Then again, according to Harry's stories of his time here, the wards don't keep anything out; teachers abusing students, trolls, acromantula, Dark Lords, the basilisk in the basement…

They pass the line, Tom and Gellert with their wands in hand and ready. Credence jerks, shoulders hunching up and he strains under the sudden pressure of so much magic -his antithesis- trying to restrain him, and it's uncomfortable and makes him want to disperse but it doesn't stop him.

Credence's fingers twitch towards the pocket where he put the invisibility cloak but he takes a deep breath and straightens his back. He's going to Hogwarts because Harry wants him to. He's not being scared off now.

"Are we good?" Gellert asks cautiously.

Credence breathes in deeply. "It can't stop me."

"That's worrying," Tom muses. "Seeing as you're just about the worst thing in the British Isles right now."

"I'm surprised it doesn't stop you," Credence mumbles.

"What was that?"

"Nothing, brother."

When the boats reach the entrance just outside the Great Hall, they first years are told to bunch up together and as much as Credence tries to stay out of range, they lock onto him. It's quite obvious seeing as eleven year olds don't really know how to control their expressions.

"What's wrong with you?" snaps a girl.

"What's wrong with your hair?" Gellert retorts.

She shrinks back, hand coming up to smooth down blonde locks. No one else speaks, probably because Tom is standing just behind Credence's shoulder and doing that thing where he makes his eyes red to scare other children away at the park - and it works just as well on magical children as it does muggle.

They're lead in and it gets even worse as they pass by the middle of the lengthy tables, Credence's presence washing over the Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff tables as they walk down the middle. The older students hush mid-sentence, and flinch, twisting awkwardly so they don't put their back to him, fear in their eyes.

Things get nasty very quickly with glares and muttered insults, spontaneous things that seem to surprise even the people who are acting out. Gellert stays right in front and Tom just behind Credence, wands tucked up their sleeves still but released from the holster spell that usually keeps them stuck to forearms.

"Pity no one has tried to attack you yet," Gellert murmurs, voice quiet enough for only his brothers to hear.

"If you do get hit in front of me, pretend it hurts," Tom whispers. "So I can claim extended self-defence when I put them in St Mungos."

The Head of Ravenclaw steps up with the Sorting Hat in hand and starts calling out names. It's a subdued affair considering everyone in their general radius is staring at Credence with mild horror.

"Corvidae, Credence!"

They couldn't use Dumbledore after all with Albus being a Dark Lord and Potter is an actual family here so it was either take on Tom or Gellert's last names – but they fought over that one so Harry had to step in and give his fake name instead.

Credence goes up and it's just silence, tense. The Sorting Hat opens its mouth but no words come out. Credence is the only one who hears the screaming, ragged and out of its mind with pain and so, so painfully human sounding.

Tom has stepped forward, Gellert's body hiding Tom's raised wand.

"Hufflepuff!" the Sorting Hat cries in its usual cheery voice.

The Head of Ravenclaw is watching Credence warily as he takes the hat off, the material sagging and writhing strangely. Credence goes to sit at the Hufflepuff table where everyone slides down the bench away from him. He glances nervously at his brothers but smiles when they both give him a discrete thumbs up.

A few more kids go by and then, "Grindelwald, Gellert!"

Gellert thinks immense Gryffindor thoughts and when the Sorting Hat tries to put him in Slytherin anyway he thinks very hard about giving the hat back to Credence.

"Gryffindor!"

"Many thanks," Gellert murmurs and when he sits down at the table he's all bright smiles and easy laughter, quickly making friends.

"Riddle, Tom!"

The Sorting Hat isn't even on Tom's head yet and it shouts, "Slytherin!"

Tom sits down at the table and everyone sees the Gaunt ring on display around his neck and is awed, especially since most of the older Slytherins have already heard of Tom and his brother from their parents and have been cautioned to be careful.

"That other one you were talking to," Nott begins carefully. "The Hufflepuff, is he…"

"My newest brother," Tom answers calmly. "A bit of a quiet one. I don't want you near him."

They all take that to heart.

After being shown around their dorms by the prefects, they meet up again in the seventh floor hidden room, sitting on a giant cushy bed around the pair of Harry's mirror and waiting for a call.

"A complicated layout but I've got some ideas for making a map that tracks people," Gellert announces.

"Like Harry's stories about the Marauder's Map?" Credence asks, nibbling on a scone from the pile of food Tom brought up from the kitchens on his way.

"Of course, it's now family tradition," Gellert states. "We need to make a map that grandfather would be proud of."

"And then we can expend it to towns," Tom murmurs, eye narrowing. "And then cities and eventually the world."

The mirror lights up and Credence dives for it "Harry!"

"How was your first day?" Harry gushes. "I wait as long as I could so you could make friends and learn the layout in peace but – ahhh! What Houses are you in?! Tell me everything!"

.

A/N: I felt bad for the hat but I was also smiling while writing that part so…