As Hagrid brought the trio into the great hall from a side-door, he waved in greeting to Professor McGonagall, who was standing behind a tiny stool with a first-year on it wearing a particularly large and tattered hat, "Slytherin", the hat shouted into the hall, the child leaping up and running away towards the green-and-silver table.
McGonagall beckoned the three of them over, a grateful nod towards Hagrid and told Hermione to sit on the chair, a single moment of silence "Gryffindor" the hat proclaimed, the red-and-gold table created a virtual wall of sound that almost took the three of them of their feet. The girl running to the table where Neville had kept a spot open,
And it was Harry's turn, the world turned black as the hat fell over his eyes,
"Hmm. Quite strange." a voice came from within the hat, "Just like I expected, one of Her children…" the voice drawled on. "Never sorted a King before…, of course there's a reason for that"
"What?" Harry asked, curiosity piqued.
"Well, usually I look into someone's mind to see which house would fit them best, but with you that won't work". The voice said, Harry nodding in understanding.
"Luckily I've a solution, Longbottom and the Granger girl just now. While not as useful as a peek into your mind I guess I'll make due"
The remark ended in silence, lasting for what Harry felt must be minutes, until Harry ended it.
"You're loyal from what I can tell, I might not know why the ghost scared you such but you clearly cared enough to take your friends along. But your very nature suggests both cunning and courage. It must take both to kill a god…" the hat mused…
"Well then? What will it be" the hat asked, "Hufflepuff, Slytherin or Gryffindor, which do you want to go to?..." the hat asked.
Thinking deeply Harry wondered, he didn't have any bias towards any house in particular. How could he have. He knew their defining traits.
And after what must've been minutes to all watching he decided. He didn't know much about any of the houses, he knew their defining traits. but he also knew the houses didn't teach you those traits, so picking a house because he wanted to be more courageous, loyal or cunning felt wrong to him. So eventually he made his decision on 2 reasons.
Hermione and Neville, the two he'd spent time with on the train searching for the lost toad. If they were in Gryffindor, then that's where he'd want to go as well.
"Gryffindor, please?" "GRYFFINDOR it is then." The world returned to Harry as McGonagall removed the hat from over his head.
Harry barely had the time to mentally process Dumbledore's warning about a "very painfull death" on the third floor before the school broke out in an abominable attempt at song. Harry felt that telling an entire school full of curious children, a quarter of whom self-identified as courageous was an accident waiting to happen, and resolved to have one of his animals on perpetual guard, Probably Hannibal, the buzzard hawk of Artemis, amidst Harry's familiar's it was no doubt amongst the swiftest and would be his best shot at arriving in time if a student decided to investigate this corridor.
He quickly whispered a chant under his breath, "Moon's favourite, fly true". Unheard amidst the cacophony of song.
The hawk materialised in the rafters of the hall, and quickly flew towards the hall to find a perch to spot from.
With a final dismissal from the Headmaster Harry and the Gryffindors followed Ron's older brother Percy to Gryffindor tower, Interrupted only by a poltergeist called Peeves, where Harry quickly closed his bed's velvet curtains and went to sleep.
Harry loved most of his new classes, learning a new school of magic that seemed not to rely on the favour of this-or-that deity. It intrigued Harry, the notion of magic that didn't rely on one to remain steadfast in the favour of a specific figure who may abandon you at any time seemed impossible to him.
Some classes felt familiar, like on Wednesday evening when Astrology was their field of study, the very first form of magic he'd ever had an interest in, he didn't understand the significance of everything, or how relevant it would be to the wizard's magic but he knew all the constellations by heart from reading his favourite book time and time again.
Then there was Herbology, they taught about a wide variety of magical herbs and plants, some of them downright lethal if mistreated. They reminded him of his Sister's authority, though on a significantly smaller scale. He quickly decided that he'd purchase a spare textbook to send her when he'd have the time, Anything that could inspire his sister to the invention of new techniques or skills would be something she'd appreciate.
History of magic made Harry conflicted. On the one hand the history of this new society was interesting to him, If any class was going to help him find a way to dispel the curse of blindness it was going to be this one. But on the other hand there was a single major issue.
The professor, who droned on and on, and kept mis-remembering the details was far from a reliable source. He quickly found himself and Hermione forming a study group to try and keep up with the class, as well as do their own self-study.
Charms and Transfiguration were very interesting as well, but were not specifically interesting to Harry. These fields felt broad and random in what they could do, and most of the things they could seemed rather useless. What use could someone possibly have for turning tables into hogs? Harry wouldn't know, and McGonagall hadn't been willing to answer.
And then there was Potions. It's teacher was biased and seemed unwilling to teach the students anything at all, including but not limited to basic safety measures. If Harry could he'd have gone straight to Dumbledore and demanded him replaced. While such behaviour would usually feel distasteful to Harry, Snape was just that bad.
But he couldn't. The one time in his life when he wanted to use his authority as a king, and it was with the one group of people who would never believe his claim.
And now that he thought about it, Maybe Snape shouldn't be the only teacher taken of his job, Binns needed to be removed as well, a teacher who couldn't remember their history correctly was not worthy of their position.
Another solution would have to be made. Harry didn't know how yet, but he'd get Snape removed from the position and replaced with a better teacher as soon as possible. Maybe he could go to the Witangemot, they might not keep too close an eye on the land of the blind; but they had remained a steady influence through their contracts with the descendants of Asag, whose divine ancestry had been a great boon to their fortunes.
While Harry hated to order people around like that, he felt that in this case an exemption might be for the better of all involved. The students would get a better education, Snape would get a job he'd actually enjoy, and Binns could finally retire, and Harry would have a greater chance at one day discovering a cure for the blindness.
And finally there was defence against the dark arts, a class that Harry deemed mostly irrelevant, and would've slept through had the smell of garlic not forced him awake throughout. He understood intellectually that it was probably an important class to others, but to someone who'd fought gods it was redundant at best, and insulting at worst.
Aside from classes the rest of Harry's first month fell away into a simple pattern, He'd wake up, do his training, and bond with the groundskeeper about their mutual love of magical creatures.
Over the course of his interactions with the half-giant, he'd quickly discovered that his second authority seemed to have even more benefits then he'd initially considered. Instead of merely summoning beasts, it also allowed Harry to invoke the powers of Buer to command beasts to do his bidding. This he'd figured out when Hagrid had taken him to see some Hippogriffs, who Hagrid commented acted almost unnaturally kind to Harry. Harry soon resolved himself to make a visit to his siblings to investigate the potential in this newfound ability.
And so the first week of Hogwarts passed him by, filled with excitement and chaos in equal measure.
So, that's another chapter done.
I must admit that this has been quite the learning experience, but not in the way I'd expected. While at first I'd expected to learn a thing or two about the struggles involved with balancing canon and headcanon, or the balance between two sides of a crossover. The main thing I seem to have learned is the reason of many personal frustrations.
That being writers who write a thousand different fics at once to the point they stop updating any of them. I never understood it, but now that i've given writing a chance my head just starts to fill with ideas, especially during the research on things, and im constantly like "That's an awesome thing, wont work in this story but it would work greatly for THIS character" and before i realise I've written half a storyline for a BNHA-Campione crossover. (Deku and Ochako are both going to be campione, Deku's theme is Martyr, Ochako's theme'd be angel) and then i run into a gaellic legend, remember the existence of Geiss in Celtic folklore and within an hour of my mind wandering at work i've composed a general authority-set for Lelouch Lamperouge, and am starting to brainstorm that (He'd have a theme of Rebel/Demon).
So hereby, to any and all writers I've ever complained about for making "too many" fanfics, and refusing to finish the ones they have. My apologies, i didn't understand what it was like.
Also, if anyone would be willing to Beta, please PM.