Harry kept Mothra's hairs in a satchel, and after about a day of thought, decided that Manda should have the chance to give Ollivander a definite answer either way, so he went to the serpentine kaiju's lake and rhythmically tapped the surface of the water, a signal he had worked out the monster to request his presence.
Slithering up from the depths, Manda greeted him far less dramatically this time.
"So, the young wizard is preparing to learn to use his powers. Why do you summon me, young Speaker? Your own kind ought to be able to teach you far better than I."
Harry launched into a condensed version of his trip to Diagon Alley, to provide context for his encounter with the old wand maker; Manda was not truly a part of the family, and would not be as interested, but he deserved to know the whole truth. After a few minutes, Harry got to the wand maker's request.
The guardian of Mu shifted one of his coils in response.
"Approach, young one. I shall grant this wand maker's request. I feel a loose scale on my belly; if you can find it you may take it."
Harry had long ago learned to look for even the smallest details in his environment, and that served him well in finding the small, loose scale on the serpent's underside. As Manda breathed in and out, one of his wet scales wobbled and shimmered in the light.
Harry plucked it off and said, "Thank you, oh eldest of serpents."
He wasn't sure why he had said that, but it prompted the four-legged snake to take a closer look at him.
"Ah, I see now. Perhaps I shall speak with Mosura about this… after all, your manners are much improved in comparison to our first encounter. As a reward, take this advice to the wand maker: use cherry wood with my scale. The process will be much harder, but the end result much greater as well."
Unnerved by how closely Manda was looking at him, Harry thanked him and quickly took his leave.
Time flew by, and the day soon came for Harry to board the Hogwarts Express. Harry, having very little to pack besides his school supplies, left bright and early after saying goodbye to his extended family so that he would have time to visit Diagon Alley first. Jet Jaguar had given him a map of London so Harry knew how to navigate the city, at least from the entrance to the Leaky Cauldron to the train station.
A boy in a robe carrying an owl and a suitcase was an odd sight even in a city as cosmopolitan as London, but as with any big city, it was full of enough weirdos that he was not noticed too much.
Harry kept his head down when he entered the wizarding pub to avoid the ruckus that his first visit had caused, and got to Ollivander's wand shop without incident.
"Mr. Potter, I'm surprised to see you so soon. I take it you have an answer from the creatures?"
Harry handed Ollivander the hairs and the scale, and passed on the messages from both Mothra and Manda. As Harry left, he paused long enough to hear the wand maker murmuring excitedly to himself as he inspected the new materials.
"Very interesting. If that is true, the hairs will have some very intriguing properties. Laurel perhaps, or mahogany would be good matches; I shall have to find high quality samples of both. And the scale… cherry wood. Yes, I can see how difficult that would be, but the potential is there…"
Harry took one last look in each shop after finding that he had overcompensated for the change in time zones, but didn't purchase anything apart from a cheap magical watch charmed to be waterproof, and soon left for King's Cross Station.
At first, he was confused when he arrived, since there seemed to be only platforms nine and ten, with nothing in between, but Harry had learned to reach out with all of his senses to better hide himself from photographers and predators on Monster Island, to listen and smell for things he could not immediately see, and at the moment those senses were telling him that one of those solid walls was not as solid as it looked.
After walking slowly between platforms, he realized that the extra noise and exotic smells were both coming from the barrier between platforms nine and ten, and he confidently walked through, trunk and owl intact, to see a steam engine called the Hogwarts express. He picked a compartment mostly at random and chose one that had a young girl with bushy hair that reminded him of the shrubbery he would hid in while playing hide-and-seek with Minilla, and a shy looking boy holding a toad in one hand.
Harry learned that their names were Neville Longbottom and Hermione Granger. Harry wasn't able to get a proper read on Neville since he wasn't talking much yet, but rapidly concluded that Hermione was a walking encyclopedia. At even the slightest of prompting she would provide – completely from memory – detailed explanations about Hogwarts, the four House system, and even a few spells. After Harry introduced himself as Harry Potter she was even able to tell him what the wizarding world thought about him. He thought it was a bit silly that people were afraid of a name, but then, that could be his kaiju upbringing showing; what was a man with a stick, even a magical one, in comparison to Godzilla's war stories about the likes of Gigan, Megalon, Hedorah, Mechagodzilla, and King Ghidorah?
It was Harry's stories about growing up on Monster Island that got Neville to start opening up, if only out of sheer disbelief. The idea of creatures that could dwarf dragons was something that he could not wrap his head around, even after Hermione vouched for Harry's honesty. She hadn't done much research into kaiju, apparently since the loud roars scared her and the death tolls of their rampages saddened her, but she was tangentially aware of their existence.
Harry engaged in a game of quid pro quo with Neville, giving a bit of his background in exchange for more of Neville's, and a picture emerged of a shy boy with a very strict grandmother and an environment of high expectations. Apparently for quite some time his relatives had feared that he was a squib, essentially a wizard-born muggle, the opposite of Hermione. The girl empathized, quietly explaining that while she could not relate to the borderline hostility of family, she had few friends in muggle school because people made fun of her for being bookish.
The emotions running high in the room were making it seem like a therapy session, and in solidarity Harry explained that life on Monster Island, while he wouldn't trade it for anything, could sometimes be lonely. As the only wizard in the village, the people looked at him oddly sometimes, and kaiju could not play with him or hold him simply due to the vast differences in size and strength. And many kaiju, even Manda, were poor conversationalists.
"Who is Manda?"
"I heard something about that in my old history lessons; isn't that the guardian of Mu?"
Harry nodded, and explained that for some reason he could talk to the serpent kaiju, but not any of the others.
"You might not want to share that Harry. Talking to snakes, Parseltongue, is seen as a dark art."
"I don't want to sound biased against any of the houses, but Slytherin has a dark reputation and its founder, Salazar Slytherin, was known as 'Serpent Tongue' for his ability."
Harry shrugged. "I don't think of that many things as being inherently bad, especially not something as simple as being able to talk to an animal, but I'll keep it to myself. But speaking of houses…"
From there the conversation shifted to which house they thought that they would be in. Hermione hoped that she would be in Gryffindor because she looked up to Dumbledore who had also been in that house, and Neville also hoped for Gryffindor, but guessed that he might be a Hufflepuff which he said would not be bad.
Harry, knowing nothing else but the house's reputation, also opted to hope for Gryffindor.
Out of topics to discuss, the trio sank into a companionable silence, only to be interrupted by the arrival of a pale boy and what looked to be a pair of large bodyguards. Harry wasn't intimidated. With combat training from Jet Jaguar and Godzilla he could see at least a dozen ways to subdue all three of them even if he couldn't burn them to ash. Harry had his first brush with a fairly transparent attempt at manipulation when the boy – named Draco Malfoy – referred to Hermione and Neville as the "wrong sort" with all the subtlety of an atomic blast and offered to introduce him to the "right people."
Harry's response does not bear repeating, but he made clear to the pale boy that he would choose his own friends and decide for himself who were the right and wrong sort of people, and that he wanted nothing to do with anyone who wore such prejudices on their sleeve. Draco and company stormed out, and Neville and Hermione, both lacking self-esteem, looked at Harry with something akin to awe at his confidence and loyalty.
The rest of the train ride passed without incident, except for Harry briefly having use his tracking skills to find Trevor ("He's under your chair Neville").
When the train stopped the trio got into a boat together. Hermione mentioned that Hogwarts: a History said that the lake had a giant squid living in it, along with merpeople, and Harry immediately stared over the side in hopes of making friends with it, already growing homesick for the presence of colossal creatures.
Hogwarts was indeed an impressive sight, far from the decrepit ruin that Jet Jaguar had seen, Harry could see that the castle was weathered but pristine.
Once out of the boats, the first years followed Hagrid until they arrived at the top of the stairs. Harry was surprised, but not spooked when the ghosts appeared, unlike nearly everyone else.
Silence fell when Professor McGonagall arrived. She impressed Harry, because she had that aura demanding respect that he had thought only kaiju could possess. She told them that they would enter the Great Hall and then wait for their names to be called in order to be sorted.
Silence fell over the hall as the professor placed a tattered hat on a stool in front of the student body.
And then the hat burst into song.
Oh you may not think I'm pretty,
But don't judge on what you see,
I'll eat myself if you can find
A smarter hat than me.
You can keep your bowlers black,
Your top hats sleek and tall,
For I'm the Hogwarts Sorting Hat
And I can cap them all.
There's nothing hidden in your head
The Sorting Hat can't see,
So try me on and I will tell you
Where you ought to be.
You might belong in Gryffindor,
Where dwell the brave at heart,
Their daring, nerve, and chivalry
Set Gryffindors apart;
You might belong in Hufflepuff,
Where they are just and loyal,
Those patient Hufflepuffs are true
And unafraid of toil;
Or yet in wise old Ravenclaw,
if you've a ready mind,
Where those of wit and learning,
Will always find their kind;
Or perhaps in Slytherin
You'll make your real friends,
Those cunning folks use any means
To achieve their ends.
So put me on! Don't be afraid!
And don't get in a flap!
You're in safe hands (though I have none)
For I'm a Thinking Cap!
Author's Interrupting Note: I know that song lyrics are not allowed, but no one ever actually sang this, did they? It's just an excerpt, and I've seen plenty of fanfics use those.
The assembled students applauded, but Harry was just able to hear someone angrily yell, "I'll kill Fred! He kept going on about wrestling a troll!" Now it was Harry's turn to be upset. Partly raised by kaiju, Harry appreciated the idea of a good fight, and now he wanted to wrestle a troll into submission.
The sorting proceeded smoothly and easily. Hermione was the first of their trio to be called, and after a few moments the Hat shouted, "GRYFFINDOR!" Harry found that intriguing. The hat either took preference into account or it genuinely thought Hermione was even braver than she was intelligent, and based on Harry's impression of her that would be quite impressive.
Neville followed when his name was called, and on hearing the Hat shout "GRYFFINDOR!" the boy was so excited he almost ran to the Gryffindor table with it still on his head. Harry thought nothing ill of Neville, but he had silently agreed that the boy sounded more like a Hufflepuff. Perhaps the Hat was all about a person's potential.
Draco Malfoy had scarcely had it on his head before it screamed "SLYTHERIN!" giving Harry another reason to avoid the house; he did not want to share a dormitory with such an arrogant bigot for the next seven years.
Finally, Harry heard the professor call his name. Harry walked calmly to the stool, paying no mind to the whispers that followed him. When he placed the Sorting Hat on his head, he got quite the surprise when it started talking to him.
"My, my, you've lead an interesting life haven't you? Regardless, this seems to be rather straightforward. You are clever in your own way, but not a Ravenclaw at heart, and while Salazar would covet someone like you, you don't possess the ambition for Slytherin house, even if it would make you great. You would fight to the death for anyone who earned your loyalty, but the one trait that outshines all others is your courage. Yes, I think you'd better be GRYFFINDOR!"
The last word was shouted loud enough for the entire hall to hear, and started an enormous round of applause from the Gryffindors, including chants of "We got Potter!" Harry sat down next to Neville and Hermione and waited patiently for the sorting to finish and the feast to start.
After the last student was sent to Slytherin, Dumbledore made an announcement that no one laughed at, and was thus presumably serious: no one was to enter the third floor corridor unless they wished to die a horrible death. He then finished with a few words: "Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak!"
And then the feast appeared and Harry put the announcement out of his he loved the food he could get on Monster Island there was very little variety, so, (answering as few questions as he could get away with) he gorged himself, so much so that his table manners were almost as bad as Ron Weasley's.
He felt a sudden pain in his scar, almost enough to make him flinch and drop his utensils. It was possible that someone had hexed him, but he doubted that anyone would disrupt such a magnificent feast just for that, so instead he look around for any sign of what might have happened… but the only thing even slightly noteworthy was that Professor Quirrell was not eating. Instead, his back was turned towards Harry and he was speaking to a man in black with greasy hair who seemed to be glaring at the Gryffindor table and Harry himself.
"Excuse me, but who's the man speaking to Professor Quirrell?"
"Hm?" Replied a red haired prefect, "Oh, that's Professor Snape, the potions master. You'll want to watch out for him. Everyone says he's biased towards Slytherin and that he really wants the defense position."
Harry made note of that, and decided that it might be time to open that extra book. The one about the worst professor ever…
Author's Note: Sorry for the interruption in the middle everyone, just consider it Professor Gojirahkiin's contribution to the feast. I just wanted to avoid anybody PMing me about the rules; I know the rules, and this is a calculated risk. For anyone who somehow does not know, the Sorting Hat's song (rendered in italics and centered) is a direct quotation from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's/Philosopher's Stone.
In my original rough outline, the second trip to Diagon Alley and the Hogwarts Express were their own chapter, but I think we've all waited long enough for Harry's first year to properly start, so next chapter we'll focus on classes. Depending on how it all pans out, we might even get to the troll next chapter – and I don't consider that a spoiler since I'm guessing most of this story's readers are Harry Potter fans, on account of statistics saying that my other Godzilla crossovers get much less love.