In every life Turias had, he had wondered why the students didn't just floe, apparate, or use a portkey from home or a public floe. That was, until he asked. Tuned out the Hogwarts train posed a chance to monitor the potential students to gauge their characteristics that made it easier for the sorting hat. It also worked as a medical scan, in such it gauged what nutrients a student may need and place the appropriate item on the menu for the welcoming feast. It would then scan the heath of a student to see if their families were mistreating them physically, its main focus on the muggleborns. The idea was that the prospecting witch or wizard was being mistreated for their abilities. It had been this way sense the founder's time – no so much the train, but the scanning of any student during their route to the school. Though in recent days the information was either neglected through being overworked, or outright ignored by not knowing what the information was for. It was supposed to be given to the resident healer at the school, but somewhere along the way it changed to the headmaster when the headmaster was that same healer.
This slight oversight had changed the completely understandable scan to inform the student's healer of the student's current health, to an invasion of privacy with the information given to someone not a healer and therefore not bound by oath to protect their privacy.
So, it was a very quiet Turias that was sitting in a compartment all to himself; he blocked the normal medical scan that would have taken place. While it would have been picked up on and marked as curious if the information was handled correctly, Turias was comfortable with the miniscule chance of being found out. His family had gotten to the station ridiculously early, so as not to deal with a crowd. Turias had a shrunken trunk in the pocket of his robe, and he was looking out the window to gaze upon the now crowded station. He was looking for his alternate self. He knew his alternate would not like the crowds and would cling to the outskirts; it's the symptoms of his abuse Turias was looking for. He was going to make it a point to only speak when need be, or to any close friends he would make, his parents, and 'himself'. At least, that was the plan to add a mysterious image for that life. In the meantime, he wondered what the sorting hat would do.
The compartment door opened to permit Harry Potter in the room. Turias had charmed the compartment to only be able to be seen by those on a specific whitelist rule. Harry lugged his trunk inside, and Turias smiled slightly. He watched Harry look to his belongings to the luggage compartment rack to his luggage again.
Harry looked out the door's window to see if anyone was watching, then wandlessly and wordlessly levitated his trunk onto the rack. Harry then noticed Turias sitting on the bench watching him. Harry jumped and took on a startled look, like he expected Turias to do something to him or rat him out. Turias remembered that feeling, once.
Turias gave him a reassuring look, and said, "Your secret is safe with me, Harry Potter." Harry still looked wary, but nodded none-the-less. They both seemed perfectly content with the silence, only Harry had pulled out a book to read silently, Turias only spared him a glance when he had brought the book out, noting that it wasn't on the book list. He wondered how this Harry had snook it past Hagrid.
In no short order, the train left the station, with Turias lost in the scenery, and Harry lost in a fictitious book. It was a book about his adventures, actually. Turias was amused to note a certain redhead could not find their compartment, nor could a certain blond cousin of his. Their silence was interrupted by said redhead opening the door to the adjacent compartment. He said, "I heard Harry Potter was on the train; have you seen him?" Harry had a fleeting look of panic before the other kids in the compartment responded in the negative. He was glad since he had no intentions of calling attention to himself, and he had the feeling that this boy would want to call plenty of attention to himself. If no-one knew what he looked like, all the better, in his opinion. Presumably the boy's attention turned to another in the compartment, "What's this? Another future Dark Snake? You best stay away from him, mate, they'r evil!" Harry and Turias just raised an eyebrow, impressed with a poor image of the boy, only Turias knowing that it was this version's Ronald Weasley.
Turias sighed inaudibly and shook his head at the disbelieving look Harry gave him. They just enjoyed the rest of the trip in comfortable silence, reading by the whitchlight when it got dark. At one point, Turias got his trunk out of his pocket, unshrunk it, and pulled out his Hogwarts robes to change into, having been in his good robes, for public appearances. Harry got what Turias was doing and quickly followed his example, though he chose to change in the loo. Turias wondered if it was genuine shyness, or an attempt to hide the possible abuse of the Dursley's
They made it off the train just fine, and then dutifully followed the half-giant Hagrid. In the boats they were joined by a shy pudgy boy with rich brown hair who he knew to be Nevil Longbottom and a girl with curly brown hair and a knack for asking more questions then there were answers for, who was this world's Hermione Granger. Turias smiled, glad that these friends didn't change from his first life. Albeit the former only became close later in life.
Hermione was a little sad that Turias didn't speak, though, as it was one less victim of her curiosity. Secretly, that was the reason why Turias stayed quiet for the ride. Granted it didn't stop her from bombarding Harry with questions on why that was, thinking Turias was a close friend or a twin. He could see how someone would think they were twins, as they did have a lot of similar traits, and they were in the same year. Unfortunately for Hermine that logic didn't really apply to Pureblood families too often as they were usually more related than not.
The rest of the trip was the same as he remembered with McGonagall giving the same old speech about the houses and house system and then leading them into a line in the centre of attention.
The hat sung its song, and so the sorting started. Hermione went to the Gryffindor table with pride, and only a slight amount of disappointment of not ending up in Ravenclaw. At one point, Turias would have thought that she would belong more in Ravenclaw than Griffindore, but after the years of adventures together he was never able to discount her overwhelming bravery. Longbottom was next, and the shy boy went right into Gryffindor, confusing many that knew him before school. More were confused as to why Turias' name was not called, for those that noticed. Turias' cousin –Draco – was sorted into Slytherin. He would do well in that house considering how good his acting skills were to pull the wool over his father's eyes. They were too good, in some cases, considering the first time Turias had been born in 1980. If Turias wasn't given the best acting award, Draco should be. Draco had only ever shown his true self to Turias, and he was the littlest bit happy that he was the one Draco chose to show his true self to. Then again, Draco probably thought that Turias couldn't repeat anything said to him.
He could imagine the fear he put Draco through in Madam Malkin's.
The name Potter was called, effectively quieting the hall, directing all attention to the quiet boy named Harry.
The hat was halfway between delighted and infuriated with Harry's sorting. It was one of the most difficult he had ever had. Well, other than that bloody immortal git. The problem was not a lack of attributes to fit a house, it was that the boy could fit in every house equally, but would not necessarily be happy in any of them. Worse was that when it tried to pressure him to choose, Harry just responded with indifference. Finally, the hat went with, "Apprentice!" The hat knew this would cause problems, but he didn't really care; it's not its job to care about that, it's its job to sort the children. The fact that it got to listen into the interesting discussions taken place within the Headmaster's office had no bearing on the decision.
Not at all.
The silence was almost tangible in that moment. It took Harry handing the hat back to a shocked Minerva for the students to start clapping politely, automatically. Harry wasn't entirely sure where to sit, but as if sensing his thoughts [he was pretty sure it did, after all the hat could] a relatively small table appeared close to the sorting stool at the front. Harry gratefully sat down, ignoring [or trying to] all of the stares he received.
In no short order all were sorted aside from Turias. None knew for sure why he was called out of order, but some had a fleeting idea. Filius Flitwick's theory was that it was similar to duelling tournaments wherein the most powerful duels were held last. His theory was that those with significant control of their magic would be taken out of order. Though he didn't put much stock into it, as why would you bother?
In reality, the hat had recognized part of the boy's magical signature, and correctly guessed that it was going to take a while to sort him. The sorting hat looks at the earliest memories of the child onward and sort where they would best fit. Turias smirked slightly as darkness settles over his eyes. The hat sighed in resignation as it set about to do its job. However, he did protest that his job is to sort children not immortal reincarnations. At least he had a pleasant chat as he worked. It had been quite a few lifetimes sense he had been 'sorted', and the hat had to be 'updated to make a proper placement'. The only way to get out of it would be for the student to make a choice towards one of the possible houses. No chance would that happen as Turias was enjoying the first true two-sided conversation in 11 years.
After two minutes, the longest sorting in Hogwarts History [normally the immortal student would pick one to get it over with, but this time he was starved for intelligent conversation as he had spoken very little in the last 11 years or so]. The hat finally announced his house with a shout of, "Apprentice!"
The announcement of his house gained the same stunned silence as Harry's. It wasn't well known what being an Apprentice of Hogwarts meant. Even the Headmaster didn't fully know what this meant, as it was before his time that the last apprentice graced the halls.
Turias sat at the small round table with two chairs, giving a reassuring smile towards Harry. Harry smiled shyly in return, eyes dropping to the table. While Turias knew what that meant emotionally from having done the same so long ago, he didn't really know how to approach Harry's trust from the outside. Having been throught the exact same situations didn't mean that he could instinctively know how to deal with it. He silently cursed himself for never going into the psychology profession when he had the chance. Instead he had chosen Electrical Engineering and other intellectual pursuits when he had been born in advanced timelines.
Dumbledore stood to make his announcement, and motioned for the food to appear. Harry's eyes bugged out at the sight of the food on their table, and quickly loaded his plate with food. Harry ate like he hadn't eaten in a week, which, in all honesty, he probably hadn't. Somehow, he still kept his manners, though. It was an impressive feat.
Dumbledore stood up again to make his end of feast announcement, gaining everyone's attention. He smiled gently and with a twinkle in his eye he began, "For those of you that do not know, someone can only become an Apprentice of Hogwarts if they fit into all Houses, a mature individual, an above average pow - rather - potential and a great deal of patience.
"Now, to those new to Hogwarts, welcome, to those returning welcome back! The Dark Forest…" Turias tuned the old man out, already having heard what they had to say.
In no short order all the students were off to bed, aside from Harry and Turias whom were asked to follow the heads of houses to Dumbledore's office. Seeing the look of apprehension on Harry's face, Turias placed a hand on his shoulder, and gave another encouraging look. Harry had stiffened at the contact, but after seeing Turias' smile, he forced himself to relax.
To the office, the headmaster had headed the march of twos into the room.
No-one seemed to notice that Harry was getting more and more worried despite Turias' silent reassurance that nothing was wrong. Slowly, Harry was starting to panic. His thoughts were centered around the thought that Turias and him would not be able to attend Hogwarts as they weren't sorted into one of the four prominent houses.
All Harry wanted was to be normal and have a loving family like a normal person. He had finally found a place in the world where he was like other; he had found a community he belonged to. All of that was being threatened, and he felt he could do nothing about it. This just proved he was a freak, the sorting hat just confirmed it, sorting him apart from all the normal people. Though he refused to believe something was truly wrong with the his first ever friend.
Once everyone was settled, and offered a lemon drop, Dumbledore began. Everyone aside from Turias was oblivious of Harry's self-destructive thought process. "I'm sure you all were wondering about the Apprentice of Hogwarts position. Well, I must admit I do not know all that comes with the title, but what I do know is this:
"A Hogwarts Apprentice must keep a certain level of maturity from a young age, have an above-average magical core or at least a well-developed one, they must have an above average intelligence level, and all traits of the four houses but none of the drawbacks.
"To stay within the house, they must maintain a certain grade level set by the education board. They also must also take all the traditional subjects, and again maintain high grades.
"With the title also comes some perks the others do not have, as they were the original prefects. It was only after there were too few of them that the prefect position was created. The Apprentices do not have house points, they do not have a curfew, and they may go anywhere in Hogwarts and her grounds that She allows them to go, even in private chambers within reason.
"It will take a while for the house-elves to setup the commons, so I guess you'll have to do with one of the House rooms for now. So, where do you wish to go for the next little while until the rooms are ready?" the explanation was directed to the entire room, but the question at the end was directed to a now calm Harry. Dumbledore didn't bother with directing the question to Turias; it was well known the boy couldn't – or wouldn't – speak. The popular thought was the boy was a Seer, and only talks if it was of significant importance.
Instead of Harry answering as expected, Turias did. He made a show of losing focus, and then pointed directly to Pomona Sprout. She nodded her head at the unasked question and motioned for the boys to follow her out. "Come on then, Misers Potter and Lestrange," she beckoned. Dutifully, the boys that looked remarkably alike stood as one to follow the woman out of the office. For a long moment Albus, Minerva, Severus, and Filius Flitwick just stared after the leaving students, all lost in their thoughts about the two odd boys and what took place. They didn't understand why or how Turias Lestrange was made an Apprentice – he didn't seem the type.
Down by a portrait of a fruit bowl, Pomona stood beside the two boys that were so much alike. She showed them how to get into the common, by tapping on wooden barrels to a set pattern, and led them into the room. She sent them a motherly smile and quickly explained the basics of Hogwarts. For example: when breakfast was served, their rooming arrangements for now [they will be sharing a room, as all the first years in Hufflepuff shared a room with one other person] and showed them to their room.
"I guess I'll leave you to it," She said at last, and left them to settle into their rooms. Their room was fairly large, with two single sized beds, one on each side of the room. Harry's trunk was at the foot of the left bed, the one by the window, and Turias took out his shrunken trunk to place by the right, enlarging it when it was in place. Harry gathered his clothes he will sleep in and left to change in their shared bathroom. Turias just changed into pyjama bottoms, and slipped under the sheets. Not long after Harry returned wearing a too-large shirt, and slipped into his bed.
Turias was awoken from his peaceful sleep by Harry's restless sleep. It sounded to Turias like Harry was having nightmares. He remembered having nightmares in his first year, and after being embarrassed by it he had looked into ways so that the others wouldn't know about it. Turias couldn't let that happen again.
Turias slipped out of his bed to go over to Harry. Carefully he shook Harry awake, and said, "Shh, it's okay, it was just a nightmare, it's over; it's not real. You are safe now." As he was speaking, he had climbed into the bed and hugged the now calmed down boy.
It didn't take long for Harry to drift, but when Turias made to get up Harry just clutched tighter and mumbled sleepily, "No – stay." Turias smiled sadly to his alternate self.
He whispered in reply, "Okay, I'll stay."
Turias maneuvered the smaller boy in his arms so that they both were under the blankets, and drifted off to sleep holding the too-small boy in his arms. In his past lives, it was something he had done for younger siblings or his children when they had nightmares or trouble sleeping. He had protected them with his 'life' when they were in danger; he made a diction right then to protect the boy in his arms with his current life as well. He knew too well Harry had gone through too much already to not have anyone there for him.
Harry awoke earlier than he set his mechanical alarm clock, as he always did. Honestly, he only set an alarm to make sure he doesn't oversleep. What was not usual for him, however, was waking up in the arms of another person. Memories of the previous night came back to him in a flash. He blushed furiously, he had asked them to sleep in his bed, added onto the fact that the other boy- Turias – had seen his weakness; he had seen his nightmare induced sleep.
He began to panic, he thought of how his first friend wouldn't want to be friends anymore, now that he saw how pathetic he was. Honestly, who has nightmares at boarding school? He should have known it would only be a matter of time for Turias to find out he was a freak, he would even think it freaky that he wanted him to hold him while he slept.
Harry began to try to slip out of Turias' hold, to sneak away from Turias, that inevitable conflict for a while, and to gain some semblance of dignity.
Harry didn't know whether to panic more or to be delighted when his gentle prodding to get Turias to let go only made Turias' arms grip tighter and bring him closer to his body. When one is panicking, they don't really have rational thought, so it only added to his panic that he wouldn't be able to save face; Turias would see him as some freak that wants to be held by another boy. He was hyperventilating, and realized that he did want to be held and comforted by the boy in front of him; He wanted to feel protected. Now his feelings were so confusing because he didn't want Turias to think him as abnormal, but at the same time he wanted to be right where he was. He had never been held before, and it felt wonderful to him, and it made the dread in his stomach grow stronger to realize when he'll be inevitably rejected, he would never feel it again.
Through Harry's angst filled thoughts he failed to notice that his now wild movements had awoken the subject of said thoughts. Turias noticed where Harry's thoughts were headed, and quickly sought to remedy the situation. He brought Harry ever closer, resting Harry's head I the nape of his neck, and carded his hand thorough Harry's wild hair. From his time as Harry, he knew that someone playing with his hair always felt wonderful and was a sure-fire way to calm him down almost faster than a calming draught.
When Harry stopped shaking and silent sobbing, Turias asked, "Are you okay now?" Harry nodded into him, and Turias continued, "All right, how about we get up and head down for breakfast, hmm? But first, promise me you won't hide your nightmares from me, I can't help you if I don't know what is going on. I'm told I'm a good listener, and I'm always open if you have something to say." Another, albeit hesitant, nod, and Turias released his hold on the small boy. They slowly got up to get dressed. Turias politely looked away from Harry's side of the room for him to dress in privacy, though Turias did see everything there was to see of Harry, having been him. When they walked out of their rooms, Turias discreetly cast a few security wards, to ensure their things will be kept safe. Hufflepuff were loyal, but it was who they are loyal to that needed to be asked.