Chapter 3
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
The first half of the trip is fairly calm with the two friends comparing their understanding of the school books and their impressions of the extra books they each got. Eventually however, Neville finds them and asks for their help in finding his Toad, Trevor. At Harry's suggestion, Hermione checks the girls' toilets while he provides an extra pair of eyes as Neville searches everywhere else. Amusingly, Trevor is found on the snack cart hiding among the foil-wrapped Chocolate-Covered Frogs.
After Hermione turns down any snacks, stating her parents' jobs, Harry and Neville get a few galleons worth of snacks including pumpkin pasties and Bertie Botts Every Flavor Beans. While the pasties are enjoyable enough, the Beans are a mixed bag with the name being a little too literal. Despite the Beans coming in unexpected flavors, Harry actually still likes most of them to the unease of his fellow students. Harry and Hermione get a laugh when Neville blushes at Hermione changing into her school uniform without asking the boys to leave but, luckily for the British raised wizard, he was already wearing his own uniform and thus was not at risk of being pressured into changing his own clothes in front of Hermione.
A short time later, the train comes to a stop and all of the passengers exit onto a platform that seems to be in the middle of nowhere. A voice rings out for first years to approach it while most of the students walk towards a line of carriages pulled by skeletal winged horses that many students can't seem to see. Following the instructions of the voice, Harry and his two friends find a massive man who is likely at least part giant holding a lantern to guide the first-year students somewhere. Once all the first-year students are gathered, the large man leads them down a dark path to the shore of a lake where a fleet of rowboats is waiting.
Following the large man's instructions of four to a boat, Harry, Hermione and Neville are joined by a red-haired boy who introduces himself as Ron Weasley and mistakes Harry for Hermione's familiar. While the other students are awed by their first sight of Hogwarts, Harry is distracted by the feel of the school wards granting him control. Somewhat worryingly, there are a handful of inactive wards that are hopefully only intended for war time use. However even the active wards seem rather weak given the reputation of the school. Eventually, the fleet of boats entered a tunnel that passed beneath the school before reaching an underground harbor.
Once everyone exits the boats, the large man leads them up a flight of stairs and across the lawn to the main doors of the castle where they are met by Professor McGonagall. The Transfiguration Mistress leads the young children to a small room where they are informed of the four Houses of Hogwarts and told to wait until the rest of the school is ready for the start of the Sorting Ceremony. Instead of waiting quietly, several students talk about what the ceremony might entail or mumble under their breathes various spells they might need to know if the ceremony includes a test of some sort until several Ghosts float through the wall into the small room while discussing a not-Ghost named Peeves. Just as the Ghosts notice the first-years and start to question them, McGonagall returns and shoos the spirits into the Great Hall before leading the children into the Hall as well to begin the Sorting Ceremony.
The Ceremony starts with McGonagall placing a three-legged stool in front of the staff table and placing an ancient hat on top of the stool. After a moment of silence during which nearly everyone stares at the hat, the hat bursts into song and sings about the four Houses and its own role in sorting the new students. As the hat finishes its song, the whole Hall bursts into applause. The hat bows to each of the four House tables before becoming still again.
After explaining the exact procedure for the Sorting, McGonagall calls for Abbott, Hannah. Hannah turns out to be a pink-faced girl with blonde pigtails who stumbles out of the line of first-years, puts on the hat, which falls right down over her eyes, and sits down. After a moment's pause the hat shouts "HUFFLEPUFF!"
The table on the right cheers and claps as Hannah goes to sit down at the Hufflepuff table. Harry sees the fat Ghost dressed as a Friar waving merrily at her.
"Bones, Susan!"
"HUFFLEPUFF!" shouts the hat again, and Susan scuttles off to sit next to Hannah.
"Boot, Terry!"
"RAVENCLAW!"
The second table from the left claps this time; several Ravenclaws stand up to shake hands with Terry as he joins them.
"Brockelhurst, Mandy" goes to Ravenclaw too, but "Brown, Lavender" becomes the first new Gryffindor, and the table on the far left explodes with cheers; Harry can see twin red-heads who might be related to Ron catcalling.
"Bulstrode, Millicent" then becomes a Slytherin. For some reason, the Slytherins look to be a generally unpleasant lot.
"Finch-Fletchley, Justin!"
"HUFFLEPUFF!"
Sometimes, Harry notices, the hat shouts out the House at once, but others it takes a little while to decide. "Finnigan, Seamus," a sandy-haired boy next to Harry in the line, sits on the stool for almost a whole minute before the hat declares him a Gryffindor.
"Granger, Hermione!"
Hermione almost runs to the stool and jams the hat eagerly on her head.
"RAVENCLAW!" shouts the hat. Ron groans for some reason.
When Neville Longbottom is called, he falls over on his way to the stool. The hat takes a long time to decide with Neville. When it finally shouts, "HUFFLEPUFF!" Neville runs off still wearing it, and has to jog back amid gales of laughter to give it to "MacDougal, Morag."
"Moon" ..., "Nott" …, "No Name" (at this Draco turned as red as Ron's hair) …, then a pair of twin girls, "Patil" and "Patil" …, "Perks, Sally-Anne" … then a few of the Death Eater children who swore the oath to serve Harry, and then, at last -
"Potter, Harry!"
As Harry steps forward, whispers suddenly break out like little hissing fires all over the Hall.
"Potter, did she say?"
"The Harry Potter?"
The last thing Harry sees before the hat drops over his eyes (and crushes his ears) is the Hall full of people craning to get a good look at him. Next second he is looking at the black inside of the hat. He waits.
"Hmm," says a small voice in his ear. "You could fit in any House if you suppressed various parts of your personality. As Heir one way or another to all four Founders however, there is one more option. The bigots in Slytherin would most likely get the House erased if I were to put you there, the elitism of the Ravens would drive them insane or get them killed, the Gryffindors would likely get on your nerves with their foolish recklessness, the Hufflepuffs would reject you for being too loyal to Hogwarts as a whole. These problems are marginalized if you are in – FOUNDER"S QUARTERS!"
Harry hears the hat shout the last two words to the whole Hall. He takes off the hat and walks over to a new table currently set for a single person that appeared in front of the staff table. All too noticeable is a complete silence as even Dumbledore takes a few minutes to absorb Harry's likely status as well as the more obvious status. A few more students are sorted, among them "Thomas, Dean," a black boy taller than any other first-year, joins Gryffindor. "Turpin, Lisa," joins Hermione as a Ravenclaw and then it is Ron's turn. The somewhat arrogant boy is pale green by now. Only a second or two later the hat shouts "GRYFFINDOR!"
"Zabini, Blaise," is the final student to be sorted and goes to Slytherin. Like Bulstrode, Zabini is likely a Neutral House as far as the last war is concerned but could easily be a Dark House. Professor McGonagall rolls up her scroll and takes the Sorting Hat away.
Albus Dumbledore gets to his feet. He is beaming at the students, his arms open wide, as if nothing could please him more than to see them all here.
"Welcome!" he says. "Welcome to a new year at Hogwarts! Before we begin our banquet, I would like to say a few words. And here they are: Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak!"
"Thank you!"
He sits back down. Everyone claps and cheers. Harry chuckles lightly almost missing the appearance of enough food on his private table alone to feed an army. It is quite clear that Dumbledore has a few screws loose. As far as the spread of food is concerned, Harry had never seen so many appetizing things on one table: roast beef, roast chicken, pork chops and lamb chops, sausages, bacon and steak, boiled potatoes, roast potatoes, fried potato sticks, some kind of pudding, peas, carrots, gravy, some kind of tomato byproduct, and even something that looked like a candy of some sort.
Weissika had never starved Harry, but food wasn't exactly plentiful even in the towns and cities that he grew up visiting. Harry piled his plate with a little of everything except the candies and began to eat. It was all even more delicious than it looked.
Over at the Gryffindor table, Ron irritates a Ghost with a large ruff who turns out to have been the victim of a botched beheading. Hermione has better luck chatting with a female Ghost who looks unhappy for some reason yet is friendly enough. Neville seems overshadowed by the Ghost of a fat friar who seems to talk non-stop.
Just when everyone seems full from the dinner foods, a fresh set of desserts appears. Blocks of ice cream in every flavor you could think of, apple pies, treacle tarts, chocolate eclairs and jam doughnuts, trifle, strawberries, some type of gelatin, rice pudding...
As Harry helps himself to a treacle tart, the talk turns to families.
One of the more disturbing conversations Harry over hears is about Neville being nearly drowned once just to force him to display magic and, at a later point, dropped out a window and into a road. Turns out his toad was a gift for getting into Hogwarts. Over at the Ravenclaw table, Hermione and the Grey Lady are discussing lessons.
Eventually, everyone is truly stuffed and the desserts disappear. Professor Dumbledore gets to his feet again and the Hall falls silent.
"Ahem - just a few more words now that we are all fed and watered. (At this, Harry chuckles since the drink was a juice derived from pumpkins rather than actual water.) I have a few start-of-term notices to give you.
First years should note that the forest on the grounds is forbidden to all pupils. And a few of our older students would do well to remember that as well."
Dumbledore's twinkling eyes flash in the direction of a pair of twin red-heads who may be related to Ron.
"I have also been asked by Mr. Filch, the caretaker, to remind you all that no magic should be used between classes in the corridors.
Quidditch trials will be held in the second week of the term. Anyone interested in playing for their House teams should contact Madam Hooch.
And finally, I must tell you that this year, the third-floor corridor on the right-hand side is out of bounds to everyone who does not wish to die a very painful death."
A small outbreak of whispers occurs as some of the first years question Dumbledore's sanity.
"And now, before we go to bed, let us sing the school song!" cries Dumbledore. Harry notices that the other teachers' smiles have become rather fixed.
Dumbledore gives his wand a little flick, as if he is trying to get a fly off the end, and a long golden ribbon flies out of it, which rises high above the tables and twists itself, snakelike, into words.
"Everyone pick their favorite tune," says Dumbledore, "and off we go!"
And the school bellows:
"Hogwarts, Hogwarts, Hoggy Warty Hogwarts,
Teach us something please,
Whether we be old and bald
Or young with scabby knees,
Our heads could do with filling
With some interesting stuff,
For now they're bare and full of air,
Dead flies and bits of fluff,
So teach us things worth knowing,
Bring back what we've forgot,
Just do your best, we'll do the rest,
And learn until our brains all rot."
Everybody finishes the song at different times. At last, only the red-headed twins are left singing along to a very slow funeral march. Dumbledore conducts their last few lines with his wand and when they finish, he is one of those who clap loudest.
"Ah, music," he says, wiping his eyes. "A magic beyond all we do here! And now, bedtime. Off you trot!"
Harry briefly focuses on the wards in an attempt to use the different types in different locations to locate the Founders' quarters when he notices Dumbledore and McGonagall signaling for his attention. "Lord Potter, we need to discuss your schedule and sleeping arrangements since you are not in one of the four traditional Houses," McGonagall says when he walks up to the Headmaster and Deputy Headmistress.
"Founders' Quarters is for Heirs of the founders primarily. As for my schedule, give me a copy of the first years' schedule for Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff, then check with the other professors at the staff meeting at the end of the week to make sure I attended each subject at least once," Harry replies before turning to a section of wall just large enough for a door behind the staff table and revealing a secret door directly into his private quarters. The door quickly seals shut behind him before Dumbledore or McGonagall can follow him in.
AN: Thanks for reading and please review