I rose not to a wave of applause and cheers, as one might expect, but instead shocked silence, and that fact made me smirk. It was, after all, not as if anybody had ever expected me to end up in Hufflepuff, what with being the Boy-Who-Lived and whatnot. Most, I imagined, had bet on Gryffindor like James and Lily Potter before me, or perhaps Slytherin if they were feeling like being contrary. A few who knew me better might have even called Ravenclaw, for my studious and booky nature, though that category was thin and more likely to discern the truth of the matter. But Hufflepuff? Hufflepuff was, by and large, considered a waste of a house. To the eyes of the Wizarding public it was where all those who could not fit into any other house resided, everyone who wasn't courageous, cunning, or clever enough to wear another color. Of course, that was for the same reasons I both fit so well there and could hardly be expected to do so. The Hufflepuff traits-kindness, loyalty, and dedication-were all very quiet things. One did not bring attention to their existence, and they were only truly observable in the wake of events, not before. Of course one would expect the Hufflepuffs to remain out of the spotlight, simply because that's where they did their best work.
It wasn't until I had descended almost to the bottom step of the raised dais that people finally managed to snap out of their stupors, and I was just a few feet away from the Hufflepuff table when the applause started. There was no wild cheering and partying like I recalled from both book and movie lore, but that might be the result of how few people were actually clapping. Almost the whole of the Hufflepuff table, excepting first years, were still processing the fact that I had been placed among their humble ranks. Still the crowd spread to open a seat, and I took it gladly, eagerly stretching as I sat. I had never enjoyed standing for long periods of time, and nearly half an hour of slowly shuffling forward could wear on someone.
The next half hour or so was fairly peaceful, with McGonagall swiftly moving the line along and the other students still somewhat numb. Not much of note happened for the rest of the Sorting, with only one exception, namely that of the last first year I'd had my eye on. Saotome Ranma was the name he answered to, eventually, and it took me a few seconds to place the name in my recently revitalized memory of pre-life fiction. That was… from Ranma 1/2, if I recalled correctly. Gender-bending with different temperature water due to a cursed spring, and for a moment my mind flashed back to that encounter on the train with a redhead asking for hot water. Ah, of course. Eventually, however, the ceremony had to come to an end, and with a slightly humourous joke from Dumbledore that I vaguely remembered-he did only say 'a few words'-the Feast proper was begun. I raised a curious eyebrow at the table, filled with far too much food even for the masses around it, before shrugging. House Elves, always trying too hard.
"So," a faintly familiar voice interrupted my thoughts, making me look up and blink in surprise at the surprising sight of Rias Gremory sitting almost directly across from me. "The-Boy-Who-Lived in Hufflepuff. That's quite an unexpected turn of events." She was eyeing me casually as she spoke, one hand idly cradling a goblet of pumpkin juice. I blinked again, looking the girl up and down . Well fuck, I didn't like that look. It was far too calculating for a normal tween girl, and if what I remembered about her was correct… I cocked an eyebrow, smiling slightly and shrugging.
"Says the little sister of Lucifer." I shot back, crossing my arms and sparing a moment's thought to lament the lack of backing to these benches. It was hell on my balance, but I managed to remain focused enough that I still caught her tiny gasp of surprise, blue-green eyes widening in surprise.
"How did you…?" She started to ask, before trailing off as my grin widened. Well that solved that question. The comment had been a fairly innocuous one-I could easily divert to a euphemism about her unusual look if it had elicited a different reaction-but she really was a devil, and now I could start making a few educated guesses about anything coming from her side of the Crossover. I might still stumble, of course, but hopefully not too much would be different. Out of the corner of my eye I noted her companion, that black haired girl whose name was-Akeno, I think?-shift in her own surprise, but I ignored it. My voice was lower when I next spoke however, leaning forward to be heard over the din of hungry students partaking in unhealthy foods.
"The same way I know anything, Gremory. I learned." I answered in response to her half-asked question, and couldn't help the small chuckle that escaped when her face twisted in annoyance. I loved using that line. Beside the red-head, however, Akeno was less impressed by my witticisms, leaning forward with a grin of her own, to add her voice to the proceedings.
"Oh ho ho, he thinks he's clever, doesn't he? How adorable." She drawled, in a way that would almost be sultry if her voice weren't so high, and I actually had to pause as I glanced at her in askance. The teenaged-looking girl was in a highly suggestive pose, hand on her chin and lips curling up to form a wicked grin, but I could only flinch at the sight.
"Okay, stop that." I said suddenly, turning to face the girl fully and gesturing at her. She blinked, caught off guard by my non-sequiter, and drew back a touch.
"I'm sorry? Stop what?" the ravenette asked, blinking in confusion I just shook my head, a hiss of breath escaping my lips as aI fought not to sigh.
"That." I gestured again, this time encompassing her entire form. "I mean, I get you're a half-fallen turned devil or whatever so maturity and puberty probably works different for you, but we're eleven for gods' sakes. Even then, some assholes might take your little seductive act for an actual invitation, especially with how you look. Knock it off before somebody gets the wrong idea." She blinked, then blinked again, her mouth forming a silent oh as she absorbed my explanation. I mean, I got it, I did. Possessing the instincts of two races born from sin, the poor girl probably hadn't even realized what she was doing, but it was still, highly inappropriate, and I wouldn't put it past the old-fashioned and frankly oblivious Wizards to not realize the difference. Then Akeno paused, her eyes narrowing on me suspiciously.
"Wait, you just called me a fallen. How-?" She started, but I interrupted her question with a lazy wave of my hand, cutting it off.
"I answered that already," I said, glancing over to where Rias had changed expressions from annoyed to curious. Akeno's eyes followed, and she made a small noise of realization. I allowed myself another smirk, before pausing. Hmm, from what I remembered about their setting, most of Rias's Peerage were a mess, and Akeno had some very interesting problems. Bullshit, in my opinion, but problems nonetheless. My expression shifted to a frown, and I cleared my throat to regain her attention.
"He hates himself more than you ever could, you know." I said quietly, much to her confusion.
"He? Who hates himself?" She asked, but I simply shook my head. I didn't expect her to get what I was talking about immediately, even the most scarred person didn't take every mysterious comment to reference their deepest and darkest secrets. I wasn't even sure if my memories were still correct, or if the vague advice would work regardless. Still, I might as well try.
"I think you know." I replied, still speaking softly, and thanking my lucky stars that these were devils I was talking to. Superhuman hearing was extremely useful in keeping conversations secret. "I won't advocate forgiveness-that's your choice, and none of my business-but sometimes a wound must be cleaned before it can begin to heal. Just remember that you're not the only one allowed to lose people." There was a moment in which I thought she might still be lost, only confusion showing on the dark-haired devil's face, before it twisted into something almost unrecognizable she finally seemed to understand what I was alluding to.
"You're right," Akeno growled out, a flash of candlelight reflecting off her bared teeth as for the briefest moment I smelt the sharp tang of ozone rippling through the air. "That is none of your business." She glared at me for a moment, power tiny sparks of electricity crackling over her skin… before just as quickly they died off, and she turned away to stab a fork sharply into her meal. I almost flinched at the viciousness of her reaction, before sighing and shaking my head. For fuck's sake, drama was annoying, whether it belonged to children or adults. Meh, it was my fault for trying to play mysterious sage, I supposed.
"And what the hell was that about, Potter?" Rias suddenly said, interrupting the tension which had built between me and Akeno and forcing my attention back to the red-head. She looked simultaneously worried about her friend and curious about the conversaqtion as a whole… not to mention the particularly eager gleam in her eyes as she glanced me up and down like a piece of meat. If she weren't eleven years old, and I didn't know better, or any kind of stereotypical male, I would probably be pretty pleased to be getting a look like that. As it was I was fairly certain her interest wasn't romantic in the slightest, but something that set me quite on edge.
"Not my secret to tell," I said after suppressing an involuntary shudder. Then I smiled, just tight-lipped and smug. "Just because I have a cheat-sheet into the world's secrets doesn't mean I'm letting anybody else use it. Wouldn't be fair if I did, really." She seemed annoyed by that answer, but after a moment of thoroughly examining me seemed to decide there wouldn't be a better one forthcoming. Finally, the girl sighed, shaking her head.
"Very well, Potter. Keep your secrets." She bit out, before pausing. I would almost say a thought had just occured to her, but there was just a touch too much calculation to the motion to be fooled. As such, her next words came as little surprise. "Although, since you seem to know so much, I do have a proposition for you…" She began, before trailing off after seeing me already shaking my head.
"No thank you, Gremory, I already have plans for my death, and it's not to join a Peerage." I said, lips curling in amusement as she blinked with surprise.
"Oh?" The redhead girl asked after a moment, voice high and curious. "That is certainly… unusual."
"I'm an unusual person." I replied simply, gesturing down at myself as if to illustrate. "There was already an extremely powerful magical terrorist tryig to kill me while I was still a baby, and contrary to popular belief he's not nearly as dead as one would like. Given that I'm likely to pick up even more enemies as time goes on, it's best to be prepared." And oh, but wasn't that just the understatement of the century. I was already counting, what? Five possible apocalypses if things were even remotely similar to the various canons running around? :More? And that was just what I saw here and now. I wouldn't put it past the universe to dredge up even more crossovers as time went on, just to keep wrecking my shit every time I thought I was safe.
"Well the offer is open should you change your mind." Rias relented, looking disappointed but accepting. "I still have both bishop pieces if necessary." I cocked an eyebrow at that, but said nothing more. Both bishop pieces? Then that meant she hadn't recruited… oh, what was his name again? The vampire kid who could stop time. That did make me wonder if maybe she hadn't recruited the other members of her peerage either, but after a moment I shrugged it away. I would figure it out eventually, I was sure. Instead I focused on eating, now that the conversation was finally done. A few minutes after that, however, I was forced to stop once again I was interrupted, this time by a sudden buzzing sensation in my pocket. Sighing, I put down my fork full of turkey and reached inside, before withdrawing a small silver ball scrawled with arcane markings. I raised it to my mouth-careful to wrap it in my hand so it simply looked like I was adopting a thinking pose-before speaking.
"I'm trying to eat, Drake. What is it?" If my voice was a little snappish, well, who could blame me? I was hungry.
"Hey, I just wanted to check up on you," Draco's voice responded, almost lost in the din as it echoed from seemingly thin air. "You were pretty out of it during the Sorting, and not your usual out of it. Did something go wrong?" I snorted. Now wasn't that a loaded question.
"Everything Draco." I replied tiredly, shaking my head and chuckling. "Pretty much everything went wrong. Gods, you don't even want to know how fucked my plans just became over the last hour or so." There was a moment's pause, before his voice came back, this time worried.
"You're serious, aren't you? What happened?"
"Paradigm shift." I answered, unconsciously letting my eyes sweep over the room as it took in all the important players. Illyasviel, Percy Jackson, Ranma Saotome, Rias Gremory-the last of whom was looking at me curiously, which made my lips twitch into a smile as I realized she could probably hear this whole conversation-and that wasn't even getting into the Hogwarts Staff, who I had quite purposefully been avoiding paying attention to for most of the night. Dumbledore was, as ever, unflappable, and most of the rest seemed to have noticed nothing wrong about their latest crop of students. Snape, who I very vaguely recognized from my visits to the castle over the last few years, was of course staring at me with his beady dark eyes and an utterly unreadable expression, and there was another, identifiable only by the large turban on his head, who surprisingly was not focused on me, but rather all the same people I had been staring at myself. Voldemort, it seemed, had noticed the discrepancies as well, though how I couldn't be sure. Eventually, I sighed, continuing my explanation. "Before today Draco, I thought I was playing chess. One enemy, one goal, and I had all the time in the world to set my stage. But now it's like I'm playing a completely different game, one with a dozen players and five separate rulebooks that all want to contradict each other."
For a long, long moment, silence reigned after that statement. Finally, Draco spoke.
"Guess we had better get busy then." And when he said that, I couldn't help but imagine the sharp grin he was likely wearing somewhere across the Hall. For all that he was young and inexperienced, I thought, it still paid to remember that Draco had ended up in Slytherin even after all my friendship changed him. He may have had even less of an idea about what he was going up against than me, but my best friend in this world wasn't one to back away from a challenge, no matter what it was. By his wits and his pride he would carve a path to my side, just as I did the same for him, and we would face the world head on.
"Yeah Draco," I responded, my own sharp grin stretching across my lips, "Guess we had."