Chapter 5 - Knights by Night

James rushed into the room shared by the two boys, but Harry was already up. James' new son helped the other boy dress by switching his pyjamas for his normal clothes. James completely ignored the Underage Sorcery breach, and made sure they were getting away as fast as possible. The boys got out into the entrance room of the tent, where Sirius and James were checking over their combat equipment. Harry approached his father.

"Dad, I'm going there to see if I can end this riot anytime fast. I'll send my Cloak to Rose in a bit."

"No you don't, I want you here to..."

Harry interrupted his father by fading away into thin air.

James sighed.

"Brat."

Sirius put a hand on James' shoulder.

"He'll be fine. He can handle himself. Lets just focus on protecting our children."

The girls entered the room. Iris spied around.

"Where's Harry?"

"He's, uhm, scouting."

Iris slightly tilted her head, as if to say 'Really?' "I could've gone with him and helped him."

"Well, he apparently didn't feel like sticking around, and while I can't claim to be much happier about that than you are, my reasons are slightly different. Young lady, whatever happens, I expect you to keep an eye on your sister. Hold her hand and don't let go."

It said something about Rose that she didn't object.

"Iris? Other hand. You'll want your wand arm free." He looked over Iris and Hermione. "If you feel threatened, stun them. If anybody not an auror aims at you, cast. I'd much rather explain to the aurors why you stunned a civilian than sit beside you in Saint Mungo's. And stick together."

He looked around, surveying everyone.

"Ok everyone, lets go. We'll head to the forest - it's the closest place outside the wards. IF you get seperated, Merlin forbid, do NOT leave the wards. There we'll try and apparate all of you out. Hermione, you're coming with us to our manor. Three of you, over here. I'm going to put a tracking charm on your clothes."

He cast his spells on his daughter and Hermione, noticing Sirius doing the same to his own children.

"Ok, outside, let me and Sirius go first. Stick close behind us while we move. Your mothers will cover your backs. If we get into a fight, get down on the ground as fast as you can, then do whatever your mothers tell you to."

And with that, he led them outside into the chaos.

Harry sneaked thought the tents. So far it wasn't war here yet - mostly darkness, confusions, and people running around. He was not invisible. The Cloak was superior after all. And when augmented by the other two Hallows… no, he wasn't merely invisible. He was hidden. If there was a way to detect him, he wasn't aware of it. He'd tested anything he could think of.

And given that he had access to the knowledge of the dead, that said a lot.

He spotted them into the distance. A group of people, wearing black robes, and white masks. Some of the masks would have slightly different shades and designs, and he knew the robes would bear lines reminiscent of armor, even they weren't really armored. There were hardly any people around here - which was good because he wouldn't have to watch out for others coming the crossfire, but it also annoyed him - if only those inhabitants of the now abandoned tents between him and the Knights would have stood and all shot a single stunner at the same time, no shield on earth could have kept the Knights awake. But alas, the wizarding world here was as cowardly as his own had been before he'd given them a collective kick between the legs.

He focused on the battle to come. He looked close, and noted that unlike the world he came from, they didn't have any hostages like they'd had the muggles. Or they hadn't picked them up yet - it was still earlier in the evening. Regardless, that made it much easier for Harry. He lobbed an electrified orb into the sky, shrouding it in shadow to hide it from view. Then he aimed his wand for the figure in front of the group of Knights. He'd always taken a sort of satisfaction from teaching the Knights that whoever was stupid enough to lead a group would die first. He liked to encourage their cowardice.

Dominus

A line connected him to the figure in front, but it felt like a closer match than what Harry had anticipated. The person exploded, changing into a loose collection of very small, fast-moving parts. They wouldn't physically injure the others, being to soft. The entire group was stunned by surprise, though. Apparently they hadn't counted on someone fighting back.

'Hide Rose' Harry thought to his Cloak, and he felt it disappear to obey his command. No matter how hidden, he knew that there was little benefit once you revealed yourself in combat, unless you wanted to flee it.

He took advantage of their surprise.

Lacero

He could feel the sharp ill-intent as metal on his tongue as he spoke the word. A red horizontal line sprung from his wand as he swung it horizontally. Only one of those endangered by it conjured a shield, but apparently didn't know the Ribbon Slicer, or didn't know the specific counter. The difference was irrelevant.

The spell impacted on three of the Knights, slicing through their robes and flesh as if it made no difference. He threw a Confringo after it, then lifted the shroud from his Orb.

The Knights finally sprung into action, and shielded the Confringo, but the the shields aimed at the Lighting Orb didn't function well, and the casters were thrown down on the ground when the lightning fed back through their shields. He threw two piercing curses at two skulls, and prepared to defend against the rainbow of spells heading his way. He went out of the way of the two Cruciatus curses - at least they were using effective combat spells - and cast his shield.

Aegis Reflecta

He felt as if warm honey covered his tongue, and a silvery dome sprang into existence around him, and suddenly he felt tired. The Crucios passed through the shield and crashed into the floor harmlessly. The others seemed absorbed, but ejected again - from each other's impact locations. It was designed this way to make it more difficult for them to deflect or shield against the spells - your own magic was always easier to shield. But it was not what he wanted them to do. Perhaps he needed to make his intention a bit more clear?

He aimed, and spoke again.

Avada Kedavra

He felt as if the sweet rotting stench of death rolled over his tongue. This spell always made him want to wash his mouth. A bright green light sprang from his Elder Wand and struck a Knight, dropping him like a puppet whose strings had been cut. This did give him the desired response, and he noticed a flurry of green lights flying towards him - and he could sense all of them were Killing Curses. Time to really terrify them. Harry shifted his magic.

Protego

The lights splattered against his shield, and he barely felt their impact. Once you got around the bit where they were soul-shifted and therefore couldn't interact with normal magic, the Killing Curse was actually quite a low-powered spell. It was a surgical tool that ejected a soul from a body, nothing more.

Harry dropped the shield just before the last green jet of light, and batted it back to sender, following it up with another explosive and piercing curse. After the killing curse struck, though, the Knights' emergency portkeys activated, and they fled the battlefield.

Harry let the Elder Wand disappear, and drew another one. He quite liked this one - aside from his Elder Wand, it was also the best match to him. It had a Thestral Hair core in Blackthorn wood. He'd filled it's backlog with a few shields and lower-level stuff more appropriate to his age, none of them deadly.

He'd been weaker than he thought. His first conclusion was that his strength followed his age and decreased to his old strength at 14. He checked his tracking charms, and started towards them in the forest, wand in hand.

Before he could get even two meters away, he heard the cracks typical of careless apparition. He froze, and cast a shield around him. They were probably aurors, but he wasn't going to gamble on it.

It turned out to be Aurors. A group of people wearing dark red robes appeared. He tried to look nervous, and held his shield up.

"Aurors, drop your wands!"

Harry snorted. That was stupid. If it were hostiles, they wouldn't comply. If they were friendlies and listened, they'd be sitting ducks for any hostiles still around. So instead, he kept his shield up. It would be sufficiently opaque that he could claim to not have spotted they were Aurors right away. And wouldn't get into any trouble for underage sorcery if it were strictly defensive - or at least, no trouble any Wizengamot Lord, like for example Lord James Potter, could get him out of without spending any political capital. Of course, all this meant was that he didn't have to run and shake them from his tail.

"Who's there?" He asked, remaining strictly defensive.

"Lower your shield!"

Whoever it was, it was a moron.

"I don't know who you are. I'm not dropping my shield for Knights!"

"I am Rufus Scrimgeour, Head Auror. Drop your shield now!"

Ah, Scrimgeour. Well, that explained that. The biggest difference between him and Percy had been that Percy had eventually underwent cranial-rectal extraction and realized that criminals didn't follow the law. Scrimgeour had never figured that one out.

Harry depowered his shield slightly so that it would be more transparent.

"Dad said never to lower a shield while there's a wand pointed at me by someone I don't both know and trust. I'm Harry Potter. I'll lower my shield when your three friends lower their wands." Well, his dad had said it at some point. Maybe? Probably. James Potter was smart, after all.

"Lower your wands, a schoolkid is no threat to us."

The three aurors lowered their wands, most of the group already poking around and casting detection spells. Harry lowered his shield, and pointed his wand to the ground, but ready to bring it up again.

"Put away your wand please, mister Potter."

"Perhaps they'll come back. I'll hold it right here in case I need a shield, thank you very much. But I promise I won't get in your way." Now if only he could be certain of the reverse, but then, Harry thought it pretty unlikely any Knight would return here.

"I'd like to go and find my family. They'll be worried." No reason to inform Scrimgeour that he could do a messenger Patronus.

"First a few questions. You were here after all."

Harry tilted his head a bit. "I saw the Knights portkey out. But you're going to question a minor without his parents present or even aware?"

He noticed Scrimgeour rub his forehead in the palm of his hand for a moment. He could admit it was probably a rather bad day for the man, but if he was acting like this much of a prick, Harry wouldn't be cooperating more than he needed to.

"Auror Shacklebolt, would you please send a messenger Patronus to Lord Potter? His son is a witness, I'd like very much to ask aforementioned son a few questions, and I require his presence for that. Urgently."

Harry noticed Kingsley Shacklebolt send the Patronus. He'd never really gotten to know the man in the previous world - by his seventh year, all aurors that weren't corrupt were dead, except for Tonks. That girl had been incredible. Bad way to go though.

Harry located an intact chair from an abandoned tent, and sat down on it awaiting either his father's response, or refusal. He'd already felt his tracking charms jump, and he knew his family was safe at Potter Manor. Or at least, very close to the chair he'd attached another tracking charm to before leaving. He didn't know well enough where Potter Manor was to tell without a beacon like that.

When his father arrived at the scene, Harry was looking totally comfortable on what had to be the only surviving chair in the wide surrounding. Rufus Scrimgeour was pacing, and apparently not at all comfortable with the fact that a teenager somehow felt more relaxed in this situation than the Head Auror.

Then again, the teenager wouldn't have to do the paperwork, which Harry guessed was a rather significant difference.

"Rufus, you said you had Harry here and wanted him to ask some questions?"

"Ah, James. Finally. Yes. It seems like the riot ended right here. There seems to be a single survivor from the rioters aside from the ones that fled. He of course claims Imperius. He did claim that Heir Potter here attacked them with lethal force, including unforgivables, though."

"Head Auror." Harry interrupted. "Would you really trust the story of a Knight that - forgive me from laughing - a teenager didn't only cast unforgivables but also defeated an entire group of Knights by himself?"

"While I admit that that does sound ridiculous, it remains that evidence shows the spells came from your general direction."

"Well, I'm afraid I didn't really see much. Of course, that might have been because there were killing curses flying around, so I considered it prudent to hide behind anything available." Harry gestured towards a random destroyed wizard tent. As with any expanded space collapsing, it had violently puked out all furniture inside, which made for plenty cover for a teenager.

Harry continued. "So when the spells stopped flying, I decided to resume my travel towards the rendezvous point that I agreed upon with my parents, over in the forest. Of course, that's when I heard your apparition, so I cast a shield charm because I didn't know who it was. I also cast a few of those earlier while hiding behind the rubble in case of stray spells."

All true as well. He didn't like lying. Yes, it was ridiculous that a teenager could cast unforgivables and defeat a group of Knights. Killing Curses had been flying around. He'd even hidden from them - Harry was of the opinion that his shifted Protego counted. Yes, he'd cast a few spells before his shield. And with the aiming the probably drunk Knights had demonstrated, he had no trouble at all calling most their spells "stray spells".

Scrimgeour sighed. Harry could spot that he didn't buy story completely, to the man's credit. However, it wasn't like there was any evidence incriminating Harry.

"May I see your wand, mister Potter?"

Scrimgeour looked at Lord Potter for permission, and received a nod after Harry'd signaled it was ok.

Harry held his Blackthorn wand out towards Scrimgeour.

Priori Incantatem

The wand showed a few shields, and then went to a levitation spell older than a week, and Scrimgeour cancelled it.

"Fine. You may return with your father. We'll contact you if we have more questions, unless you can volunteer some identities?"

"I was to far away. Though might I suggest pouring your survivor full of veritaserum?"

"Thank you mister Potter, but I am aware of how to do my job."

"With Fudge, you'll see it's easier to ask for forgiveness than permission. Good luck, Head Auror. I know I am looking forward to a warm bed by now."

James also said goodbye to the aurors, and they walked away together.

"Son, was it really necessary to antagonize him so?"

"He was annoying. And you should never ask anybody to drop their shield in a combat situation when you arrive. It's stupid. Criminals won't listen anyway, and civilians might get hurt if they're stupid enough to obey while it's still dangerous."

The next day, James escorted Hermione to her home, so that she could visit her parents a bit more until the school year started.

It was announced that the killed Knights had been Lucius Malfoy (in a lot of tiny pieces by 'unknown' magic - apparently the victim of Harry's Dominus), Avery (Ribbon Slicer victim one), Goyle (One of the killing curses) and three others whose names Harry didn't know well enough to care, victims of the other killing curse, the same ribbon slicer, and one of his piercing curses respectively. There were also a couple in hospital, mostly with lightning burns.

The one captured Knight had been Amycus Carrow. Since Lucius was dead, it slightly disrupted the hold of the Purebloods over Fudge, and Scrimgeour had managed to get away with dosing him with Veritaserum. He couldn't use him to convict any of the old Knights - their Imperius defense still counted - but he did get a few names, all of whom again claimed Imperius, of course. Sadly, the purebloods in the wizengamot judged Amycus' testimonial inaccurate due to him claiming the fighter had successfully shielded against killing curses which allowed Fudge to shield most of them from consequences, as well as protecting the reputation of the late elder Malfoy with the Imperius excuse. This also indirectly shielded Fudge himself from backlash of his most trusted advisor being in such a compromised position.

Due to the deaths and wounds sustained by poor Imperiused upstanding citizens, an arrest warrant went out to the unknown 'violent rioter', but since there was basically no evidence available, no real progress was made. Harry suspected the auror force wasn't really giving it their all, no matter what Fudge insisted. Unlike Fudge's life, auror lives were on the line against the Knights, and a majority of them didn't buy the Imperius excuses.

And of course this mysterious person had killed six knights apparently without effort and shielded and reflected killing curses. Aurors weren't that eager to mess with those amounts of power, and this had the result that even if they'd find him, they'd probably just ask politely if he could accompany them to the auror jail, and apologize for the intrusion if the answer was no.

Getting his supplies from Diagon Alley was boring, and the aurors didn't contact him again, so all Harry did was train Iris a bit until they'd start school. He'd finished a small side project of his, and finished a full set of basilisk skin armor for his parents, Iris, himself, and Rose. He rather liked the deep vibrant green color, and Iris had appreciated that it went well with their green eyes. He'd taken her word for that one.

Once at the station, Rose first stuck with Iris and Harry, until she found Sirius' daughter Mary, who would be a first year along with her, and the two of them went to find a compartment for the two of them. Since neither Hermione nor the Weasleys had arrived yet, that left the Potter twins to find an empty one, which they took close to the back as was their tradition in both the old and new worlds.

Hermione was the first to find them, and sat right next to Iris, who was at the window across from Harry. Ron followed half an hour later, at four minutes to eleven, while Ginny had apparently gone to find her own friends. She seemed to have more friends than Harry remember from his own world, which might be a result of her not having a fangirl crush on the local child-who-lived. Since Hermione had gotten there first, the subject of the general talk was their lessons, their homework over summer, what their lessons would be this year, who their Defense teacher would be this year, their homework over summer, the riots at the Quidditch World Cup, and their homework over summer.

Some fifteen minutes into her verbal dissertation about how much she hoped she'd at least get A's for their homework over summer, Harry noticed the door open again, showing a well-known blonde, who directed her normally unfocused silver eyes towards Harry with an intense focus.

"Hello, miss Lovegood." Harry greeted her.

She tilted her head, and then was silent for two seconds. "Harry Potter. Why do I think we are friends when I can't remember talking to you before today?"

"I don't know, but I would love to be friends with you, if you'd allow me to."

Ron and Hermione gaped, while Iris herself still looked surprised despite Harry's briefing about Luna.

Ron interrupted before Harry could say anything. "Loony? What are you doing here?"

Luna took it all in stride. "Oh, you don't want to be friends with Loony Lovegood..." She shrank back a bit, looking like a kicked puppy expecting another kick.

"Wait. I want to be friends with you, Luna." Harry smiled, and his voice went softer. He softly gestured to Ron to switch seats, who was so flabbergasted that he did so without comment. Then he patted the seat next to him. Luna silently acquiesced. "Thank you."

"Anything for a friend, Luna. And I am confident we'll be good friends. Don't be afraid to tell the Nargles that. In fact, do you mind if I cast a nargle-ward on you?"

Her eyes evaluated him on an uncomfortable deep level, but she agreed, and Harry tagged her with a tracking charm so he'd be able to find her fast inside the castle if he needed to. It also tracked her health, and would inform him about powerful emotions as could be expected of a victim of bullying.

"You know to much, Harry."

"As do you. We'll talk later about that, ok?"

Harry looked towards Hermione.

"You were agreed with me teaching you Occlumency, weren't you? Is it alright if I also invite Luna here, or should I teach her seperately?"

Hermione nodded somewhat nervously. It'd take Iris some effort to convince Hermione to accept it - but between the eidetic memory and being promised the entire story about Harry, she'd agreed. She wasn't looking forward to having him inside of her head, though.

Harry turned to Luna. "You want to join the lessons?"

Luckily, the little Ravenclaw seemed to understand his reasoning for asking. She nodded. "Yes please."

Ron chose this moment to interrupt again.

"Yo, those lessons open?"

"In theory, yes. But at the start it's going to involve hours and hours of meditation you cannot interrupt. It's hard work, and I think will be about 20 hours a week in effort.."

That brought Ron up short. Sure, he wanted to be involved, but this took away a lot of his already rare free time. "I'll… think about it."

Harry was pretty sure that Ron wouldn't join, not having the patience to learn it.

Harry didn't know everything - he was no seer after all - but it couldn't be a bad thing to befriend Luna a year earlier than he'd befriended the Luna he'd known in his own world. Even if it was somewhat...terrifying how their introduction went.

Apparently, Hermione finally got over her surprise.

"Ok, this is weird. I'll admit I'm not an expert, but I don't think this is normal for a friendship to just… start by being discussed by this."

Luna was the one that answered. "That's because you limit yourself to what you know instead of what is."

"That… makes no sense at all."

Luna nodded. "But it does, really. For example, Harry and I are friends. We have been for five years." She tilted her head sideways. "I just can't remember any of it, and I don't know why. But that doesn't mean we're not friends."

Hermione gave a rather good imitation of a goldfish gaping without sound.

Luna turned to Harry. "Do you remember or know why?"

Harry smiled at her. "Later Luna, after the occlumency."

Luna smiled. "Ok."

"Thank you Luna. I'd say that you don't know how much it means to me that you trust me, but you obviously do."

She gave a single, energetic nod. "Yup, I do." She took out the quibbler, folding her legs under her towards her non-Harry side, as she burrowed into his side while reading the magazine. Suddenly, she reminded him of Rose. The old Luna had sometimes casually burrowed into his side the same way, but he'd never known how to feel about it. Thanks to Rose, he now knew that it was exactly how it felt like to have a little sister. And for some reason far beyond Harry's comprehension (and apparently beyond Luna's as well), this Luna seemed to feel just as much at ease with him as the old Luna he'd known had. As if his friendship with her had carried over into this world, and it warmed his heart more than he'd have thought possible.

He looked up as Hermione seemed to recover the power of speech for the second time in five minutes. "But you cannot act on things you don't know!"

Luna looked up with the most adorable frown. She was good at being adorable. "Why not?"

"You just can't! If you don't know something, you cannot account for it."

"But Harry is a friend to me whether I know or not. Why would he stop being a friend just because I don't know about it yet?"

"That's not how it works!"

"Harry is your friend to, you know."

"Yes, but I've spend a couple days with Iris where I got to know him to. I didn't just walk in and claim we were already friends."

"Why not tell him right away? Harry's been your friend for almost forty-six months longer than he's been mine. I think it's silly to distance yourself from a friend just because you don't know he's your friend yet."

Hermione developed a nervous tic in the edge of her right eye, so Harry had mercy on her. Somewhat.

"Hermione, this'll make a bit more sense after you've learned occlumency. And after you, Iris and I have had a good talk.."

She looked at him helplessly.

He followed up. "I promise."

Ron went in again. "Sorry to tell you mate, but Loo-, uhm, Luna often says things that make no sense." Well, at least he learned.

Harry thought for a moment. "They do, even if we can't always see it. Luna here never told me anything that made no sense to me." That earned him a slightly closer burrowing into his arm with her rather bony shoulder.

Of course, other Luna had said plenty things he hadn't understood. But this Luna hadn't, yet. But even if nothing she'd ever say in the future would make sense, she'd still be his friend, and still be his almost-sister.

During the afternoon, they met Susan who dropped by for a small chat. Harry wasn't comfortable sharing anything he hadn't told the aurors, so he didn't, and he wasn't enough of a prat to try and ask Susan what Amelia could've let slip about the case. It might get her into trouble with her grand-aunt. So instead they exchanged a polite greeting, and shared half a minute of looking forward to the quidditch season at school. In this, Ron eagerly joined in while the other girls remained silent about it.

Draco Malfoy did not drop by. Harry knew for a fact that he'd made the habit in this world just like in the other, but apparently the death of his father had some effect. Regardless, Harry didn't really regret killing the murderous Knight.

Following the instruction relayed by his parents, he joined the first years down the path, and ended up with a boat to himself. He didn't really care for socializing with these first years, even if he could recognize a few of them, like Demelza Robbins, who'd beccome a Chaser on his Quidditch team when he made captain in fifth year. The weather was terrible, and multiple times during the trip across the lake he carefully used magic to prevent some boats from capsizing in the storm.

While waiting in the entrance hall, he did reassure his sister and Mary that really, they'd be perfectly fine, there was nothing to worry about, and that nobody had died during the sorting in ages. Since both girls were Marauder enough to pick up on his jesting, they giggled slightly when they saw a few other first year students blanch. Harry cast a few drying and warming charms on them, and before he knew it, the others were all lined up and he was casting on all of them, interrupted by McGonagall just before the last firsty. She did look at him in approval, which was sort of new to him. Not that he'd been bad at transfiguration, but generally his actions didn't tend to gain the approval of a rules-heavy teacher. He did notice her approval lesson a tiny bit when he gave her a grin that probably reminded her of his father and possibly the other Marauders.

As he entered the Great Hall for the first time since it's destruction, Harry instantly felt home again. He released a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding. He could still remember the moment in his own world when the ceiling enchantment had failed mid-combat - Merlin, even Tom Snake-face Riddle had looked sad when that happened. Which proved that the madman had cared more for a cosmetic enchantment than any human, but that was beside the point. Regardless, while knowing fully that most eyes would be on him, he stuck around at the back of the group of children, easily being taller than all of them. Partly because he didn't want to draw attention out of sheer force of habit, partly because he didn't want to ruin their first impression of the Great Hall, and entirely because of all the memories.

Merlin, he'd missed Hogwarts so much.

The hat sang it's little song, and professor McGonagall started calling out the names.

Black, Mary, went to Gryffindor. Apparently, Rose knew it'd be a while before it'd be her turn, so she joined Harry and stood next to him. Harry didn't think she entirely realized what she was doing, but he did feel her noticeably smaller hand search for his. This both made him feel incredibly warm from inside that she'd look to him for comfort, as well as making him feel incredibly protective of her.

"Everything will be just fine, Rose. Even if Mary, Iris and I are all Gryffindors, you know we'll always be your friends and family respectively. And to be honest, I wouldn't be surprised if a smart girl like you would end up in Ravenclaw. You'd be right at home there." He softly squeezed her hand. "I was always surprised that mom wasn't in Ravenclaw. She's plenty smart and studious to fit right in there. But even if you end up in Slytherin, you're my little sister and there's nothing that can change that."

She nodded, and he felt her relax a little bit.

The sorting slowly continued. Then after a while, it was the turn of:

"Potter, Harry"

Harry walked to the front calmly and controlled. There was quite a bit of hushed discussions among the house tables - it was rare for someone to transfer in. He himself hadn't seen it in all his seven years.

Then he sat down, and McGonagall put the Hat on his head. Unlike his first year, it didn't fall over his eyes completely.

"Wow! You are certainly older than you look, mister Potter. I had not expected anyone like you in a while."

"Anyone like me? There are more?"

"Not in a while, but in the past I've seen a few more temporally displaced people, or slightly more rarely, those from parallel worlds such as yourself. Sadly, I don't know enough about those sorts of magics to tell you anything you don't already know, though. And then again, that's not what we're here for."

"Indeed not. I'd like to go to Gryffindor so that I can help my sister with any issues like those I lived through myself. "

"Yes, I see. My alternate version put you there completely justified. I can see that you've learned a lot from Gryffindor, and I am sure that alternate me would be proud to see how you've lived up to the standards of Godric. I can also clearly understand why Slytherin was suggested. Why, just look at the fact that you managed to pull the wool over the eyes of the alternate versions of your friends, without lying even once. I would like to remind you that it's still deception, even if I know it would have given some rather significant issues if you hadn't done it. Even just those actions show your cunning and devotion to your goals. Salazar would probably have grabbed you as his apprentice if he could even if you hadn't spoken the language of snakes. Rowena would have wanted you yesterday, if only for the knowledge you wield through the Stone of the Dead. However, I can also see the longing for knowledge inside you, your endless curiosity. However, you do not long for knowledge just for knowledge's sake - you have a goal. I can feel that now that you have a family, there is quite literally nothing that could stop you from fighting for them. Yours is a loyalty that would burn the world to save a sister. Helga would have welcomed you in the family of badgers just for that."

"But I don't want that. I am a Gryffindor by heart."

"It's true that your heart is golden and red. Gryffindor has after all made you into the archmage that you are, even if your strength has been reduced along with your age."

"Exactly. I used to be unsure of myself, but I've learned that I am noble and brave the way a lion should be. Please help me protect those I care about."

"While your skills and abilities would have all four founders drooling and fighting over who would be allowed to add you to their house, considering your ambitions, dreams, goals and reason for being here, the house where you truly belong is HUFFLEPUFF!"

The hat's last word sounded throughout the entire Great Hall.

...

Wait, WHAT?