Remus Lupin, a half-blood werewolf with a useless Defense mastery and an even more useless Muggle degree in Literature, sits by the fireplace in his apartment. Living in Muggle London has its drawbacks, namely the fact that there's no actual fireplace and he had to enchant one himself, but the rent is cheap and no one notices when he leaves every month. He sits by the false fireplace with its barely-working Floo connection- not that he uses it much- and reads a book, thoughts on the page and nothing else.
Wonder of wonders, the Floo comes on.
Who could be calling at this time? More importantly, who would be calling at all? Remus is a hermit, he knows, and his few connections in the wizarding world barely bother with him. He casts a quick identifier charm- it's coming from Hogwarts. Hmm.
"Hello?" He asks.
The face that flickers is not a welcome one.
...
Aurora Sinistra sips her tea. She wonders if Snape knows yet.
...
"Lupin. I trust you're able to talk?"
"Snape, yes, of course. How are things at Hogwarts?"
Severus tries his best not to grind his teeth. He scripted this out, he knows what to say. He can do this. "During our time as students, I may have expressed certain sentiments that caused your friends and yourself to believe me rather close-minded. However, Slytherin House, being what it is, tends to attract the marginalized and mistreated, and I would never so malign my own students."
"O...kay. Is everything all right?"
"Have you forgotten about Harriet Potter so quickly?"
Lupin, it amuses Severus to see, nearly falls off the chair. "Wait, was she there? McGonagall told me her name wasn't on the list! She said they had no idea where she was, or where her guardians were-"
"The Hogwarts List automatically updates itself when a student begins going by a different name."
Silence. Severus watches the gears turn as Lupin puzzles it out. "Wait," he says. "What are you implying?"
...
The prefects showed Harry to what would be his room. He'd be with the red-haired boy on the train, Draco from the train, and a dark-haired boy who looked like he was about to fall over.
"So," said the Draco. "Name's Malfoy. Draco Malfoy. Heir to the Noble House of Malfoy. Pureblood, of course."
With a look of resignation, the tired one spoke up next. "Theodore Nott. Of the Ancient and Noble House of Nott. Pureblood. You may call me Theo."
"Uh. I'm Ron, Ronald Weasley. You all know us."
All eyes turned to Harry, who was internally panicking. He didn't know what any of this was supposed to mean!
At his silence, Theo spoke again. "Well, I do hope you're not a Mudblood, or worse-"
"Harry. Half-blood."
"House?"
"Uh, Slytherin? Isn't that why we're here?" Deflecting had gotten him out of a fair few fights before.
"Nope. You'll have to do better than that," said Theo. "It's okay. The hat said Evans, right?"
"Er, yeah. Harry Evans."
"I don't know that name." Malfoy was frowning.
He sighed. Might as well. "House Potter."