Formerly chapter 10

Chapter 11: Hogwarts

Harry's first impression of Platform 9 ¾ was awe. From the wrought-iron archway above him to the gleaming crimson steam train and the reverberating sound of hundreds of voices all packed into this entirely concealed train line, it was all quite overwhelming. There were already many students on the train, he could see them hanging out of the windows, maneuvering heavy trunks into the racks above them, and fighting over seats. All of them appeared to be excited and having a great time, though there were a number of kids around his age that looked rather nervous.

The first two carriages were already mostly full, so Harry decided to head towards the middle of the train. He overheard many snippets of conversation as he walked, such as a round-faced boy looking for his toad and an older boy with dreadlocks showing off what appeared to be a giant tarantula, but Harry studiously ignored them. Under no circumstances did he want to be mobbed once more by the admiring public, which they would if he stopped and someone recognized him. So to the train it was, at a dignified pace because a magus did not run. He was most certainly walking at a measured pace, no matter what anyone said to the contrary!

The train itself was luxurious and was composed of a large number of compartments, each usually seating about six (but spelled to expand and allow groups of up to 12), with very comfortable looking couches on either side. A sliding glass door, perhaps the most modern part of the train, if not the wizarding world as a whole, closed off the compartments. Curtains could also be pulled for privacy. All in all, it was a very nice arrangement.

About half way down his chosen car, Harry found a compartment with only two occupants. On the left side of the compartment was a blond girl his age. She was of average height, had long blond hair, blue-grey eyes, and sat perfectly straight giving her appearance an aristocratic air. Then her companion, a taller girl with short brown hair and brown eyes, said something and she broke down and began giggling instantly shattering her aristocratic appearance. Harry opened the door to their compartment, and as he did so the blond quickly schooled her features.

'She obviously has experience with politics,' Harry thought, 'probably from an old pureblood family.'

"Hello, would you mind if I sat with you fine ladies?" He asked after making his observation.

"That depends on who is asking," the blond replied, there was a calculating look in her eyes.

"My apologies, I am Harry Potter Brunestud."

"Very well mister Brunestud, you may join us. I am Daphne Greengrass and my companion is Tracey Davis."

"Harry Potter? Are you that Harry Potter?" The now named Tracey exclaimed bouncing in her seat.

"I am indeed," Harry responded as he entered the compartment.

"Brunestud?"

"My adoptive family."

"Ah. So, where's your trun… oh."

Before Tracey could even finished her question, Harry had pulled the shrunken trunk out of his pocket, expanded it, and levitated it into place on a rack. Her mouth remained open until Daphne reached over and manually closed it with an audible click.

"So, mister Potter," Tracey began leaning forward towards him, "there have been many stories about you and your activities over the years, care to comment on them?"

However, before they could continue their conversation, the train lurched into motion and the door was shoved open by a red-haired boy with lots of freckles. There was dirt on his nose.

"Is anyone else sitting there?" He asked, pointing at the seat next to Harry, "Everywhere else is full."

"No its not," Tracey promptly responded. "My brother says that there's always a couple of empty compartments near the end of the train. It is meant to carry a thousand students to school but Hogwarts currently does not even have half that many. You simply need to look harder."

The boy's ears turned pink at being called out and he began fidgeting under the collective stares of the compartment's three occupants. "Erm, well," he began while fidgeting even more, "I was hoping to get to know some of my classmates on the train, I don't really know anyone here besides my brothers."

"You have older brothers?" Harry asked.

"Yeah, five of them. Er, two have graduated already, one is in fifth year and a prefect, and there are the troublemaking twins in third year. I also have a little sister who will be starting next year."

"Wow, I've always wanted siblings. I mean, I suppose kinda have a sibling. It depends on how you look at things. Alt is my guardian and adoptive mother, but regularly acts her apparent age and is more like a sibling. It really depends on her mood. And her sister Arc is technically my aunt, sorta, as Arc and Alt aren't exactly blood related, but has claimed me as her little brother though she usually acts like a younger sibling instead, especially if she's on sugar, or caffeine, or both." Harry shuddered at a memory, "Trust me, you do not want to actually see what she is like on caffeine. My greatest regret is that I introduced her to coffee…" Harry trailed off noticing that the others were becoming increasingly confused as he rambled. "Sorry, I'm not making much sense am I? Let's just say that my family is complicated and leave it at that. What about you miss Greengrass?"

"Well I have a younger sister, Astoria, and love her to death. I wish I had a brother as well but my parents only wanted two kids."

"Trust me Daph, you do not want a brother," Tracey responded. "He's such a pain! Always going on and on about quidditch and running off with his friends leaving me behind."

"What's wrong with quidditch?" Ron angrily responded.

"Nothing, nothing. It's just that he never talks about anything else! A little quidditch is ok, but going on about it for hours and hours? Ugh, it's a nightmare. Anyway, I'm Tracey Davis."

"Daphne Greengrass. You must be one of the Weasley brood."

"Err, yeah, I'm Ron," he responded, looking a little put off.

"And I'm Harry Potter Brunestud."

"Wow, are you really Harry Potter?" Ron blurted out.

He nodded.

"And have you really got… you know," he pointed at Harry's forehead.

"I did have a scar, but it was healed years ago. Turns out there was some nasty dark magic clinging to it which kept it from healing so I had it exorcised."

"Oh. Well do you remember it any?"

"It?"

"I mean, when You-Know-Who..."

"Murdered his parents?" Daphne interjected sharply.

Ron turned pink again and looked down.

"Why don't you go find someone else to make friends with. It was nice meeting you Ron." Tracey said, diplomatically dismissing the Weasley before Daphne had a chance to start a tirade.

Ron wilted and turned with slumped shoulders and began to leave when Harry spoke up. "You know; I think you would get along well with a boy I met while shopping in Diagon Alley. His name is Thomas Smith, he's a larger boy with short brown hair and glasses. He was quite interested in both quidditch and magic as he grew up in a mundane family, I'm sure that Thomas would enjoy your company."

Ron immediately perked up, muttered a quiet "thanks" and shuffled out.

"So," Tracey started, "before we were interrupted you were going to comment on the various stories that have been circulating about you."

"You mean: is there any truth to the stories? No, not really," Harry replied with a laugh. "Well, mostly. I've not been running off and defeating dark wizards, rescuing princesses, wrestling trolls, or slaying dragons. Those stories are pure fantasy. Well, except for the troll bit, but that's mostly Prim."

"Prim?" Asked Tracey.

"Yes, Prim," Harry replied.

"And who is Prim?" Tracey prompted.

"You should be asking 'what is Prim' instead," Harry responded.

"Ok then… what is prim?" Tracey was beginning to become annoyed.

"My pet," was Harry's succinct reply.

"Your pet wrestles trolls?" Tracey continued incredulously.

"Occasionally when Prim is in a playful mood, yes. If she's not, well that ends quite badly for the trolls."

"What kind of pet can wrestle trolls!"

"Mine."

"And what, exactly, is your pet?"

"Very fuzzy," Harry replied seriously.

"What kind of fuzzy is this pet?" Tracey grit out.

"Prim is The Great Fuzzy."

"ENOUGH!" Daphne yelled, unable to maintain her silence when such stupidity could be found in the conversation. "What kind of bloody animal is this pet?"

There was a brief moment of shocked silence at her outburst, in which Daphne shrunk back under the combined stares of Harry and Tracey, her cheeks dusted lightly with pink.

"Daphne! How could you! Such foul language, what would your parents think!" Tracey said appearing to be aghast. Daphne's blush darkened.

Tracey then moved next to her friend, wrapped an arm around her shoulder, wiped an imaginary tear from her eye, and continued: "Oh Daphne, you won't believe how happy this makes me. My best friend has finally learned how to swear. I'm so bloody pleased right now; I could kiss you. My Daph is growing up at last."

"Please don't," Daphne protested weakly.

"So," Tracey started, releasing her embarrassed friend and turning back to Harry, "as our most eminent Daph was saying before unleashing her inner darkness upon the world, exactly what kind of animal is this mysteriously fuzzy pet of yours?"

"Oooh you want to know what kind of animal my pet is. Prim's a dog. Sorta."

"A dog?" Daphne repeated incredulously as she recovered from her earlier embarrassment, "A dog that wrestles with trolls? And what do you mean by 'Sorta'?!"

"To be fair, Prim is a very big dog."

Daphne and Tracey stared blankly back at Harry.

"A very, VERY big dog."

"Whatever you say bub," said the incredulous Tracey while rolling her eyes. Daphne, being the subtle one, bravely resisted the urge to also roll her eyes.

"So," Tracey continued after an awkward minute of silence, "Seeing as the stories are false, where have you been all these years?"

"I was raised by a vampire," Harry promptly replied.

"What?" Daphne exclaimed, broken out of her calm façade once more, this time by shock.

"That was a joke. I was not actually raised by a vampire."

"Oh thank goodness."

"That's right; he was raised by four vampires," a new female voice cut in, "I am one of them."

Sure enough, when Harry turned to his left he found Altrouge sitting next to him staring out the window as the English country side rushed by. She turned towards his new friends making them visibly flinch when they met her crimson eyes. A moment later they shook themselves out of their stupor and scrambled for their wands.

"T-tell us how you got in here!" Daphne demanded, but there was an audible quiver in her voice.

"Zelretch?" Harry asked, turning to her.

"No actually, I arrived using my own abilities. I've been taking lessons." She stated proudly.

"So Zelretch."

Altrouge pouted.

"So Alt, what brings you here this fine morning?"

"Zelretch just left on one of his multi-dimensional adventures, Arcueid ran off to Tibet to search for the abominable snowman, Lorelei is busy with paperwork, I finished my book some time ago, it's far too quiet at the house, Prim is off playing with the trolls again, and I'm hungry."

"You are bored then."

"Exactly! I'm also hungry."

"But you ate yesterday!"

"So?"

"Didn't you just say this morning, before I left, that you could last for an entire year before you needed to eat again?"

"Don't wanna," Altrouge's pout deepened.

"You can act like such a child Alt. I swear, if I didn't know your actual age…"

"Who told you that?" Altrouge hissed angrily as she jumped up and grabbed Harry's collar.

"Zelretch, who else?"

"It seems the old fool requires more… disciplining."

Somewhere across space and time Zelretch began to tremble in fear.

Sitting back down, ignoring the two frightened first years, Altrouge imperiously commanded "Feed me."

"As you wish your majesty," Harry replied with a sigh rolling up his sleeve and holding out his arm. Altrouge immediately latched onto it.

A minute of stunned silence later, Tracey timidly spoke, "You do know that you have a vampire attached to your arm, right?"

"Pay no attention to the leech," Altrouge glared at Harry. "She can be cranky when hungry or bored."

"But vampire on your arm… Are you sure you are ok? Aren't their bites supposed to be incurable, like werewolf bites?"

"My blood replenishes very rapidly so it's fine, and I won't turn into a vampire unless she wants me to or drains my blood completely, so you do not need to worry about that. Besides, she's very careful to avoid drinking faster than I can regenerate," Harry stated while petting Altrouge's head with his free hand. "Alt has raised me since my parents died, she'd never do anything that would endanger me."

The girls exchanged a look of concern, then Tracey asked, "So uh… what is it like being raised by a vampire? I mean, you are not a vampire yourself, are you?"

"What is it like being raised by a human? It's all I've really known so I can't compare them for you. And no, I am not a vampire. Vampires don't age and I don't want to be forever stuck an 11-year-old. I would say that is why Alt looks like a teen, but she was born a vampire so I'm not exactly sure why she isn't YOWCH! Altrouge, don't bite like that!"

"You shouln' talk abou a lady's age," was her muffled reply as she glared balefully up at Harry.

"What do you mean by 'vampires don't age'? Of course vampires age! They just do so rather slowly."

"Oh right, sorry I forgot. Wizarding vampires age and can have children with some difficulty, but Alt is a different kind."

Before Harry could explain the vast differences between wizarding vampires and dead apostles there was a knock at the door of the compartment and the round-faced boy that Harry had spotted earlier that day at the station came in.

"Sorry," he said, "but have you seen a toad at all?"

When they shook their heads, he wailed, "I've lost him! He keeps getting away from me!"

"He'll turn up," said Harry.

"Yes," said the boy miserably. "Well, if you see him..."

He left.

"That was a bit odd," Tracey began, "he didn't seem to notice the vamp… where'd she go?"

"Huh? She's still here attached to my arm, what do you… Altrouge why are you invisible? Actually, how are you invisible?"

There was no answer. A few minutes later Harry felt her detach from his arm before she returned to the visible spectrum. When she did, Altrouge could be seen daintily dabbing her mouth with a bright red handkerchief. When she was done, she turned back to the others in the compartment and asked, "I'm sorry, did someone ask me a question?"

Before anyone was able to respond, the compartment door slid open again. The toadless boy was back, but this time he had a familiar girl with him. She was already wearing her new Hogwarts robes.

"Has anyone seen a toad? Neville's lost one," she said. She had a bossy sort of voice, lots of bushy brown hair, and rather large front teeth. It took Harry a moment to place her as one of the girls that had been at Diagon Alley with him.

"A toad? I'll catch it for you," Altrouge replied. A ripple appeared in the air before her and, after a minute, she stuck her hand into the ripple and it vanished until it looked like she had nothing below the elbow of her left arm. "Gotcha!" She exclaimed, and brought her hand back out with a wriggling dark green toad in it.

"Er, no, that one's not mine, sorry." Altrouge shrugged, tossed the toad over her shoulder where it vanished into thin air, and reached back into the void. A muffle scream and cry of "Get it off me! Get it off!" could be heard from a few compartments down.

"What about this one?" Neville shook his head and Altrouge tossed the speckled black toad into the air where it again disappeared. Harry and his companions carefully ignored the cries of "oh merlin not another one" and "it's in my food, get it out, get it out!" that were floating down the train car.

A third attempt produced a pair of neon pink toads that were immediately discarded in disgust. The shrieks of "my eyes!" and "the goggles, they do nothing!" continued to increase in volume.

The fourth toad was enormous and a vibrant orange and strangely was wearing a blue jacket. It was immediately dropped toward the floor where it vanished through a glowing blue portal. This time the cry of grief that wafted down the corridor could be clearly understood and seemed to be: "Noooooooooooo Sir Fluffykins the Magnificent! My poor darling tarantula… why did it have to be toads?"

Six toads and a frog later ("I promise I'll be good, just please make this nightmare end!") and the correct toad had finally been procured. It was rather brown, squat, and ugly.

"Trevor! Oh thank you so much miss!"

"Wow! What kind of magic was that? I've tried a few simple spells just for practice but I've never heard of anything like that before, and wandless too! Nobody in my family's magic at all, it was ever such a surprise when I got my letter, but I was ever so pleased, of course, I mean, it's the very best school of witchcraft there is, I've heard - I've learned all our course books by heart, of course, I just hope it will be enough - I'm Hermione Granger, by the way, who are you?" She said all this very fast.

"I'm Daphne Greengrass, and my companion is Tracey Davis."

"Hello Hermione," Tracey said brightly.

"I'm Harry Potter Brunestud, I see we meet again."

"Are you really?" said Hermione apparently forgetting their previous meeting in her excitement. "I know all about you, of course - I got a few extra books, for background reading, and you're in Modern Magical History and The Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts and Great Wizarding Events of the Twentieth Century. Wait, again?"

"Yes, again. We visited Diagon Alley together during the summer. Did you forget in your excitement over the bookstore?"

Hermione looked down sheepishly before Harry continued: "You know; you really shouldn't believe everything the books tell you. Alt and I have been reading the Harry Potter Adventures series once we learned they existed, they are quite fanciful and somewhat fun to read but nowhere near being true. As for the rest of the books that mention me, the ones you just brought up, I'm pretty sure only Alt and my deceased parents know exactly what happened that night and she claims they were completely wrong."

"Really?" Hermione looked affronted at this, as if the books being false were a personal attack upon her. "Well, do any of you know what house you'll be in? I've been asking around, and I hope I'm in Gryffindor, it sounds by far the best; I hear Dumbledore himself was in it, but I suppose Ravenclaw wouldn't be too bad..."

"Gryffindor?" Daphne scoffed, "Why would anyone want to be part of that house? It's full of people who jump before they look. Idiots the lot of them. Anyway, Tracey and me are certainly going to be in Slytherin."

"I've heard some about the houses but I think I will just let the chips fall where they may as I don't have much of a preference," was Harry's answer.

"And you? Oh, you must be an older student. What year are you in? What house are you in? Oh, sorry, I haven't gotten your name yet… are those crimson eyes?" Were all asked in quick succession when Hermione re-noticed Altrouge, who had been sitting quietly next to the window watching the proceedings after rescuing Trevor with a bemused expression. Poor Neville, who had been about to speak up when Hermione began firing off questions, instead just took a seat in the corner and watched quietly.

"I am Altrouge Brunestud, and I am not a student at all, although I did attend Durmstrang at one point. As for my eyes, I am a dead apostle."

"A dead apostle?" Hermione questioned, scrunching up her nose, "sounds… Icky."

Surprisingly it was Daphne who responded. She was white as a sheet and shaking. "Dead apostles are a type of vampire, a very powerful type of vampire. Around 1600 one of my family was stupid enough to antagonize one. He vanished and was presumed dead, but almost 60 years later returned with an undead legion at his back and wreaked havoc upon the Isles. The worst part of the whole ordeal was how hard it was to kill the monster. Nothing seemed to work, not even the killing curse, he would just instantly regenerate back to full health. It took 20 wizards simultaneously casting Fiendfyre to finally bring him down and it came at a massive cost: it caused The Great Fire of London in 1666."

"I'm surprised the Mages' Association left it to the wizards to deal with him," said Harry. "Then again, they may have decided that since the wizards were at fault for causing the situation, they weren't going to clean up the mess."

Harry's classmates had obviously not heard of the Association, but before he could educate them the still pale Daphne continued: "Few outside of my family remember this tale, of the danger and power of the apostles. And while many details have been lost to time, one has not. The vampire my foolish ancestor antagonized went by the name of Altrouge Brunestud."

As one, the children within the compartment turned to Altrouge with wide eyes and much trembling.

"Hmm… Nope, sorry, your story doesn't ring a bell. Then again, he was probably so inconsequential that I forgot him. And really, it's not my fault that the wizards who defeated him decided to go full retard and cast 20 simultaneous fiendfyres near a large wooden city. That was all them."

The children were not reassured. But before their terror could grow out of hand, the lunch trolley arrived and the mood was ruined.

"Ooh, wizarding sweets! It's been a while since I've had some of these." Then, turning to the unfazed Harry and placing a hand on his shoulder she continued: "Harry I have a task of grave importance for you."

After the tasty interlude, in which it was surprisingly hard to make Hermione try the sweets as her parents were dentists, the group of new friends sat in silence contemplating whether they wanted another chocolate frog or take a gamble with Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans. Before any of them could make an attempt to restart the conversation, the door to their compartment was slammed open by a pale boy who was flanked by a pair of thickset and mean looking boys who seemed rather more like bodyguards than students.

"Is it true?" he said. "They're saying all down the train that Harry Potter's in this compartment. So it's you, is it?"

"Yes," said Harry. He was looking at the thickset boy, trying to decide whether they had some troll in their ancestry.

"Oh, this is Crabbe and this is Goyle," said the pale boy carelessly, noticing where Harry was looking. "And my name's Malfoy, Draco Malfoy."

"You know Malfoy, you really should knock," Daphne said turning up her nose with a sniff, her voice cutting across the compartment. "I thought your parents raised you to be better than that."

"Draco Malfoy? The Draco who wet his bed until the age of 8? The Draco who's first flying lesson left him stuck at the top of a tall tree? The Draco who runs off to his father whenever anything does not go his way? The Draco who had his mummy kiss an owie on his knee after falling of a horse last year? Are you that Draco Malfoy?" Tracey asked, with utmost innocence.

A tinge of pink appeared on Malfoy's pale cheeks and he glared angrily at the two girls. "You filthy blood traitors! I'm going to…"

"Tell your father about this? Boo-hoo. Now get lost Draco, we don't want your kind in here!"

Malfoy turned and strode out, slamming the door once more behind him.

"Was that really necessary?" Harry asked.

"Absolutely. Draco's an insufferable child who can't do anything on his own. He was almost literally born with a silver spoon in his mouth and is terribly spoiled. His mere presence significantly drops the collective intelligence of whatever room he happens to be in, and don't even get me started on dumb and dumber," Daphne responded with a groan.

"His dad not only bribed his way out of prison after the last war but is both competitor and antagonist to the Greengrass family in business and politics," Tracey informed them.

"He's quite a nasty person," Neville said speaking up for the first time since he regained his toad. "Malfoy is not the sort you want to be friends with. Unfortunately for us, he is in our year and he'll probably be a major annoyance."

"So Neville, why don't you tell us about yourself?" Tracey asked.

"Um… well…" he began, instantly retreating in on himself. "What do you want to know?"

"How about your likes, dislikes, a little about your family, and goal for the future?"

"Uh, okay. I'm, uh, Neville Longbottom, I like magical plants and gardening. I dislike bullies like Malfoy and people who believe they are above the rules. I live with my gran, she's quite strict, and have several aunts, uncles, and cousins. Goal for the future? I'm just glad I have enough magic to go to Hogwarts. We were not sure until the letter arrived."

"Nice to meet you Neville. Now why don't you share about yourself Hermione?"

"Well, as I already said, I am Hermione Granger. I love books, reading, magic, books, rules, fuzzy things, books, and studying."

"She's a Ravenclaw for sure," Tracey stage whispered to Daphne.

"Silence from the peanut gallery. As I was saying, for dislikes, well… bullies like that Malfoy boy are certainly one. Hmm… I like a lot of things but don't dislike that many. I'm an only child and my parents are dentists. No cousins either. My dreams? I don't know at the moment. To learn everything I can about magic I guess. Tracey? Since you oh so rudely interrupted me, you can go next."

"Oh very well. I'm Tracey Davis, I like my family and best friend," Tracey began, throwing her arm around Daphne who immediately began attempting to escape. "I like having fun and making friends and hope to learn the art of pranking from the greatness that is the Weasley twins." At this Daphne groaned loudly and buried her face in her hands. Harry thought that he could make out a quiet 'kill me now' from her. "As for dislikes, I don't like those who look down on others for any reason, but especially blood purity. I think the whole thing is just stupid. My mum's a muggleborn and my dad's a pureblood. I have an older brother in Ravenclaw named Roger who is much too fond of quidditch. The rest of my family can go die for all I care."

"They are blood supremacists of the worst kind," Daphne helpfully explained.

"As for my goals, I want to get back at those jerks in my family who shun me mum, preferably via epic pranks. I also want to eliminate the whole 'blood supremacy' prejudice. Your turn Daphne."

"Very well, I'm Daphne Greengrass, heir to the Greengrass family. I love my little sister, my friends, and learning magic. I dislike idiots, bigots, braggarts, and those who supported the dark lord. Most of my relatives are bigots, but I must associate with them to keep up appearances. It's such a pain… My goal for the future is to, together with Tracey, take the government by storm and eliminate both the blood supremacy and patriarchal nature of our society. Harry?"

"As you all know; I am Harry Potter Brunestud. I was adopted by Altrouge Brunestud, the one drooling on my shoulder because of her sugar induced coma. I like my family, friends, pets, learning magecraft, reading, and visiting new places. I dislike the fact that I am famous for something I did not do; it was my mother's ability that deflected the curse, not 15-month-old me. I dislike the political games played by magi in the Clock Tower, bigots, bullies, and the Einzbern family. My family consists of Arcueid, who is basically a sister even though she is officially my aunt, Zelretch, who my basically grandfather, and Altrouge my adoptive mother. Once I am strong enough, I will rescue my best friend Illya from her family, the Einzberns, master my magecraft, and some day have a large family of my own."

"What is magecraft?" Hermione immediately asked once Harry was finished speaking.

"Well, it is a different form of magic, one practiced by an entirely separate society known as 'The Moonlit World.'"

It was after sunset, the sky a deep purple sprinkled with stars, when the train finally arrived at its destination. The platform was small, far less impressive than platform 9 ¾ had been, and it was rapidly filled by students of all ages wearing black robes who shivered in the cool breeze. What little could be seen of the countryside in the deepening gloom suggested that they had come to a wilderness area full of mountains and forests.

While the five new friends attempted to orient themselves, a lantern appeared bobbing over the heads of the crowd. A deep voice called out "Firs' years! Firs' years over here!"

There was a very large man with a hairy face holding the lantern. "That's Hagrid, the gamekeeper," Neville helpfully informed them.

After a few minutes when the crowd, minus first years, had dispersed, Hagrid said: "C'mon, follow me, any more firs' years? Mind yer step, now! Firs' years follow me!"

And with that he started down what appeared to be a steep and narrow path. It was very dark to either side, and not much could be made out. The stars were also invisible, so Harry guessed they were surrounded by trees. No one spoke much as the many students were far too busy attempting to stay on their feet to do so.

"Ye' all get yer firs' sight o' Hogwarts in a sec," Hagrid called over his shoulder, "jus' round this bend here."

There was a loud "Oooooh!"

The narrow path had opened up on the edge of a great black lake. Upon this lake the stars above were mirrored, dipping and bobbing as small waves ran across the water. On the opposite side, atop a small mountain, was a massive castle whose windows sparkled much like the stars behind. Numerous towers and turrets could be made out against the night sky. It was, Harry thought, the most impressive building he had seen.

Guiding the first years' attention to a fleet of small boats by the shore, Hagrid called out "No more'n four to a boat," and they began to clamber in. Harry's group, being composed of five members, found themselves in a dilemma. After a brief discussion they split by gender. Harry and Neville clambered into one of the little boats and were soon joined by Ron and Thomas.

Once everyone had seated themselves the fleet moved off all at once, gliding across the cold, dark lake. No one spoke much as the boats travelled, they were far too busy staring up at the behemoth above them. The great castle towered over them as they sailed towards the cliffs on which it stood.

"Heads down!" Yelled Hagrid as the first boats reached the cliff; they all bent their heads and the little boats carried them through a curtain of ivy that hid a wide opening in the cliff face. They were carried along a dark tunnel, which seemed to be taking them right underneath the castle, until they reached a kind of underground harbor, where they clambered out onto a rocky shore. Water gently lapped upon the shore and the new students stared about at the torch-lit cavern.

Then, after Hagrid checked to make sure everyone had made it, they clambered up a long passageway in the rock following Hagrid's lamp, coming out at last onto smooth, damp grass right in the shadow of the castle. They walked up a flight of stone steps and crowded around the huge oak front door.

"Everyone here? Good," Hagrid raised a gigantic fist and knocked three times on the castle door. The door swung open at once revealing Professor McGonagall in emerald green robes.

"The firs' years, Professor McGonagall," said Hagrid.

"Thank you, Hagrid. I will take them from here."

Pulling the door wide, she ushered the first years inside. The entrance hall was enormous, Harry's house could fit within it and have room to spare. There were torches blazing along the stone walls, their lack of smoke indicating that the fire was magical in nature. Far above, the walls melted into shadow- the ceiling could not be seen. To the right was a doorway from which the drone of hundreds of voices could be heard- it seemed that the rest of the school had already arrived. Directly ahead was a magnificent marble staircase that led to the castle's upper levels.

They followed the Professor across the flagged stone floor to a small antechamber which the new students crowded into, standing closer together than they normally would have, many peering about nervously.

"Welcome to Hogwarts," said Professor McGonagall. "The start-of-term banquet will begin shortly, but before you take your seats in the Great Hall, you will be sorted into your houses. The Sorting is a very important ceremony because, while you are here, your house will be something like your family within Hogwarts. You will have classes with the rest of your house, sleep in your house dormitory, and spend free time in your house common room.

The four houses are called Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. Each house has its own noble history and each has produced outstanding witches and wizards. While you are at Hogwarts, your triumphs will earn your house points, while any rulebreaking will lose house points. At the end of the year, the house with the most points is awarded the house cup, a great honor. I hope each of you will be a credit to whichever house becomes yours.

The Sorting Ceremony will take place in a few minutes in front of the rest of the school. I suggest you all smarten yourselves up as much as you can while you are waiting."

Her eyes lingered for a moment on Neville's cloak, which was fastened under his left ear, and on Ron's smudged nose.

"I shall return when we are ready for you," said Professor McGonagall. "Please wait quietly." She left the chamber.

"How exactly do they sort us into houses?" Harry overheard Thomas asked Ron. Most of the other students in the room were listening intently for the answer.

"Some sort of test, I think. Fred said it hurts a lot, but I think he was joking."

"My older brother said that we had to wrestle a troll!" Tracey piped up, a mischievous grin on her lips. The panic that she set off among the students was glorious. That the panic increased further when ghosts floated into the room until it was bordering on hysteria was even better. The ghosts had been talking amongst themselves as they floated into the room, but seeing the state of the frantic first years caused the chatter to cease as they quickly fled. Harry caught a few concerned glances from one who appeared to be a fat little monk.

A minute later Professor McGonagall returned and, upon finding the first years panicking, promptly cast a silencing spell upon them and waited for them to notice her.

A moment later and they did, so she spoke in a sharp voice, "Move along now, the sorting ceremony is about to start. Now, form a line, and follow me."

And with that she strode out of the chamber, back across the entrance hall, and through the double doors into the Great Hall.

The hall was magnificent. It was lit by thousands upon thousands of candles that were floating in midair over four long tables, where the rest of the students were sitting. These tables were laid with glittering golden plates and goblets. At the top of the hall was another long table where the many teachers, including Harry's magecraft tutor Waver, were sitting. Professor McGonagall led the first years up here, so that they came to a halt in a line facing the other students, with the teachers behind them. The hundreds of faces staring at them looked like pale lanterns in the flickering candlelight. Dotted here and there among the students, the ghosts shone misty silver. Above them was a velvety black ceiling dotted with stars as it had become fully dark since their arrival by train. Harry heard Hermione whisper, "Its bewitched to look like the sky outside. I read about it in Hogwarts, A History."

'Why bewitch it when it could simply be spelled transparent?' Harry thought, 'Wizards… so frivolous with their magic that they ignore the simplest and most logical way to do things.'

While Harry was contemplating the lack of sense all wizards seemed to share, Professor McGonagall silently placed a four-legged stool in front of the first years. On top of the stool she put a pointed wizard's hat. This hat was patched and frayed and extremely dirty. For a few seconds, there was complete silence. Then the hat twitched. A rip near the brim opened wide like a mouth, and then the hat began to sing of all things. Harry carefully ignored it.

When it had finished, the whole hall broke into applause. The hat then bowed (how did it do that? It's a hat!) to each of the tables before becoming still once more. McGonagall then stepped forward with a long roll of parchment and said, "When I call your name, you will put on the hat and sit on the stool to be sorted. Abbott, Hannah!"

A pink-faced girl with blonde pigtails stumbled out of line, put on the hat, which fell right down over her eyes, and sat down.

A moments pause - "HUFFLEPUFF!" shouted the hat.

The table on the right cheered and clapped as Hannah went to sit down at the Hufflepuff table.

"Anderson, Edward!" "SLYTHERIN!" shouted the hat after a few seconds, and Edward walked sedately to the second table from the right to some scattered polite applause.

"Bones, Susan!" "HUFFLEPUFF!" shouted the hat once more, and Susan scuttled off to sit next to Hannah.

"Boot, Terry!" "RAVENCLAW!" The table second from the left clapped this time; several Ravenclaws stood up to shake hands with Terry as he joined them.

"Brocklehurst, Mandy" went to Ravenclaw too, but "Brown, Lavender" became the first new Gryffindor, and the table on the far left exploded with cheers.

Then it was his turn, "Brunestud, Harry Potter." He stepped up hearing whispers suddenly break out like little hissing fires all over the hall.

"Potter, did she say?"

"The Harry Potter?"

"What did she mean by 'Brunestud'?"

Then the hat slid down over his eyes as he sat on the stool, and for a moment there was silence.

'My, my, now this is interesting,' said a voice. 'It has been centuries since a true magus wore me.'

'True magus?'

'Indeed. There are some families, such as your own, the Potters, that have maintained the use of magecraft, but it was never more than supplementary to their wizardry. There are even more with the potential to do so but remain ignorant of these talents. You are the first in many years to focus on magecraft and merely supplement with wizardry. Now… where to put you?

Hmmm… You certainly are a tricky one. Had you been a typical magus, Slytherin would have been an easy choice because of their endless ambition. You do have that in spades, but your ambition is not to simply gain power for power's sake, but rather power for the sake of others. Particularly for that lost friend of yours. Going with that, you have a very strong desire to learn. Knowledge is power after all, as you magi know well, so Ravenclaw would also be a good fit. But that is not all, there is plenty of courage to go around. You will not hesitate to rush headlong into danger if it is the right thing to do, which would make Gryffindor himself proud. However, we cannot keep out your admirable work ethic and immense loyalty towards those you consider friends and family, few and inhuman though they may be… Honestly you would fit well in any house. Do you have a preference young magus?'

'If Slytherin is anything like the Clock Tower, full of politics and intrigue, I would prefer to avoid it. I was hoping to be able to relax on that front while here. As for the other three, I am sure that you, being a sentient magical artifact a thousand years old which has sorted countless wizards, would know better than me.'

'Flattery will get you everywhere young magus. Very well then, you had better be…'

-End Chapter 11-

Author's Note:

And now we finally arrive at Hogwarts. Ron will not be part of the group, but has instead become friends with the muggleborn boys Thomas and Alex (OC's that showed up last chapter). I had originally planned for him to be rude and antagonistic, like Draco, but that sort of response would be out of character. Instead Daphne decides she does not want him in the group and Harry points him in the direction of a different set of friends. I do not yet know exactly where Ron will stand in the story (the Harry-Ron-Hermione trio having been changed to Harry-Daphne-Tracey-Hermione-Neville), we will just have to see what Ron ends up doing. While I won't tell you which house Harry will be in until next time (feel free to guess), you should know that the quintet of friends will not be together in the same house.

There are a number of short passages taken directly from the book- mostly introductions to new characters (minus Daphne and Tracey as they never appear in the books) as well as McGonagall's speech to the first years. J.K.R. did a wonderful job in her books and these parts would be more or less unchanged by the events that caused this AU. The farther along the story gets, the more things will diverge until they are completely different (5th year, at the latest, will be entirely different than the books).

About the incoming class: I have always felt that Hogwarts was meant to hold about 1000 students. Considering the war, we can assume there are perhaps 400-500 currently in attendance. That breaks down to between 60 and 70 students in each year. JKR has Harry's year having only 40 students. If this was true, there would only be about 280 students which is much less than the number that appear to be attending Hogwarts. For the sake of this story, go ahead and assume that the extra 20-30 students in every class are muggleborn. Why? The war only really affected wizards and wizarding families. It should have no effect on the numbers of new muggleborn witches and wizards as they would not have been identified as magical before its conclusion. Combine this with the rapidly increasing muggle population and you get a Hogwarts that is at least 50% muggleborn, if not more. This is so many muggleborn students that some of them have to be sorted into Slytherin, if they were not then the house of the snakes would be half the size of every other house. This massive influx of muggleborn students is helping to drive blood prejudices, but it will also cause massive societal changes in the wizarding world as they age. Had the war never happened, class sizes would be around 140-150 (letting Hogwarts have its full 1000 students). There would be the same number of muggleborn students- 40 to 45 in each year- but that puts them at about 30% of the student population instead of closer to 60% as they are now.

One last thought: The Elder Wand. Some of you were wondering how the wielder of a noble phantasm wand with the property "never loses a duel" (Grindewald) could have lost to Dumbledore. Answer: it wasn't a duel. The property about dueling only applies to some very specific circumstances- a 1v1 magical duel between mature wizards. In all other cases it is merely a very potent power booster. Why is that? Well you can't expect any old 1st year to walk up with the deathstick knowing only levitation charms and how to turn a matchstick into a needle and then best one of their teachers in a duel. The power increase the wand gives simply isn't enough to compensate for the difference in skill and knowledge. The other part- 1v1- specifies that the property only applies if there is a single opponent. If there are more it is a fight or battle. It still provides a substantial power boost, but no longer gives its wielder a guaranteed win (or at least not a loss). Dumbledore, when he confronted and dueled Grindewald, did not do so alone. He arrived with a strike team of powerful wizards. The others were quickly defeated, but it was enough to negate the "duel" property of the Elder Wand allowing Dumbledore to defeat Grindewald.