Chapter 4
Shisui took out One Thousand Herbs and Magical Fungi by Phyllida Spore to read for Herbology while he waited. A firm foundation in herbology seemed crucial to doing well in potions. He was excited to take potions class because it seemed the most easily applicable subject he'd be learning this year.
I wonder if I can use potions as poisons to coat my weapons. Whether I can or not, the wideye potion sounds like it'll be useful.
Surely someone would come in, eventually. He could still hear the kids in the corridor talking about him.
"Did you see the Prophet? Harry Potter's starting Hogwarts this year!"
"Really? What's he look like?"
"Who's Harry Potter?"
"Did you see his scar? Is it true he's got a lightning bolt shaped scar on his forehead?"
"Do you think he remembers?"
"I hope I get sorted in the same house as him."
"I heard he's supposed to be a really powerful wizard."
It was uncomfortable, and in a different way from the looks and words he got back home in Konoha.
"Pardon me," a boy he recognized as Neville from the platform said in a shaky voice as he opened the compartment door and poked his head in. His face was red and splotchy with tears. "Sorry to bother, but have you seen a toad at all? I lost mine."
Neville was trying his best not to break down crying even harder in front of him.
"Sorry, no I haven't." He replied. "I'm Harry Potter, by the way. You can call me Shisui Uchiha, though."
"Oh, so Gran was right, you are going to Hogwarts. I'm glad to meet you, Shisui, my name's Neville Longbottom." Neville said.
"Glad to meet you, Neville. Do you want some help looking for your toad?" he offered.
"Oh, no it's okay, I wouldn't want to inconvenience you. Hermione's helping me already. Thanks, though. I have to keep looking but I'll see you later, Shisui." Neville replied hurriedly, before leaving and asking the next compartment down. This time, he really did wail.
He really doesn't have any self-confidence, does he?
Not five minutes later, a girl with bushy brown hair opened the compartment door.
"Hello, have you seen a toad? Neville's lost one." She asked in a rather bossy voice. "I'm Hermione Granger, and you are?"
He got the distinct impression she wasn't helping just to be kind, but rather as an excuse to meet people.
"Hello, Hermione. I'm Harry Potter, but you can call me Shisui Uchiha." He replied.
"Are you really? Everyone on the train is saying you're starting this year. I've read all about you of course. You're in three of the books I bought at Flourish and Blotts, did you know? Modern Magical History and The Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts and Great Wizarding Events of the Twentieth Century. Our headmaster Albus Dumbledore himself is in them, too. He defeated the Dark Lord Grindelwald in 1945 and led the Order of the Phoenix in the fight against You Know Who." She said, talking very fast and quite animatedly.
"I am? I've just read my course textbooks." He replied. "And sorry, I don't know who you're talking about. Do you mean He Who Must Not Be Named? That's what Professor McGonagall called the dark lord I defeated as a baby."
"Yes, of course, they're the same thing. Did no one tell you? Didn't you do any reading?" she replied, sounding incredulous. "I know I wanted to learn as much as I could when I found out I was a witch."
"Well, yeah but Professor McGonagall lectured me about buying too much, so I just bought Hogwarts: A History as my one extra book. The Hogwarts library sounds big so I can just read at the Hogwarts library when we get there." He replied.
"Oh really? You read it, too? What house do you think you'll be in? I want to be in Gryffindor because it really sounds like the best out of the four. Dumbledore himself was in it, did you know? I suppose Ravenclaw wouldn't be too bad." He said, all in a rush.
"I don't know. Do you think we're sorted depending on what we value or what we actually possess? Cause I possess characteristics for most of the houses." He replied, then a thought occurred to him. "Do you know what house my mum and dad were in?"
"No, sorry, I don't. The books just mentioned you defeating You Know Who and that your parents fought him." She replied, looking genuinely sad for him. "Did you relatives not tell you anything about them?"
"No. I was adopted by a foreign clan, though, so I wasn't raised around here. I knew I was a wizard my whole life, but I didn't know anything about wizards." He replied.
"Well, you can read about it all you want at Hogwarts. Or ask the professors, maybe they went to Hogwarts, too?" she suggested.
"Yeah, I will." He replied.
"Anyways, I'd better get going. I'm helping Neville find his lost toad. Bye, Shisui!"
And with that she left the compartment.
He had just turned the third page when the compartment door slid open again and a blonde boy entered, followed by two overweight boys.
"Is it true? They're saying all up and down the train that Harry Potter is in this compartment. So it's you, is it?" he asked.
"Yes, I am. I'm Harry Potter, but you can call me Shisui Uchiha. And you are?" he replied, holding out his hand to shake.
The blonde boy shook his hand immediately before sitting down across from him in the compartment. The two bigger boys sat on either side of him like bodyguards, and he got the distinct impression that they were muscle, cronies, rather than friends.
"Malfoy, Draco Malfoy." The blonde named Draco said. "So you're a Uchiha, now? My father said you were adopted by a foreign magical family. You probably aren't aware, being foreign, but he's very powerful and well-connected in the Ministry. He has a lot of influence at Hogwarts because he's on the Board of Governors."
He nodded. "Yeah, I was. Oh, he is? The Uchiha helped found our country, and my cousin and best friend is going to inherit the clan when he's older. This is my first time really being back since I was a baby, so I'm still pretty new to everything. We do things very different back home."
It was a bit of a stretch, but if Draco really was as well-connected as he made himself out to be then he could be a useful ally. His father just wanted to suck up to someone he perceived as powerful, and he wanted to see what would become of that. Keep your friends close and your enemies closer, and all that.
"Oh, well I can help you there. I'm going to be in Slytherin, what about you? Weren't your parents Gryffindors?" Draco replied.
"Were they? I didn't know, no one told me. I don't know what house I'll be in, to be honest. I suppose if it's what you value, maybe Ravenclaw or Slytherin?" he replied.
It really was a toss up, but no one makes jonin at only 11 without a lot of ambition, intelligence, and hard work.
"I hope you get into Slytherin. It's really the only house worth being in, but I guess Ravenclaw isn't so bad either. My apologies, but I'm going to go find my friends. Would you like to come along? You can meet your possible new housemates." Draco replied, clearly fishing for a possible connection.
"Thanks for the offer, but I'll stay here. The time difference is crazy, I want to get a nap in during the ride. I can meet everyone when we get to school, though." he suggested.
"Of course. Sleep well." Draco said, and he left the compartment.
He ended up sleeping for most of the ride there and waking up when the conductor came over the intercom to announce their approach.
"Good evening, Hogwarts pupils. We will be approaching Hogsmeade Platform in about ten minutes. Please gather your belongings and put on your uniforms and cloaks, we will be arriving shortly!" said a grizzled old man over the intercom before repeating himself.
He pulled his cloak out of his bag and put it in, fastening it at the neck awkwardly before putting his book back in his bag from earlier. Looking out the window, he saw that it was already dark outside.
Ten minutes later, he joined the mass of kids slowly exiting the train compartments. A bitter-looking older man holding up a lamp with a cat in his arms was yelling at students to leave their belongings with him.
"Leave your trunks and cages here! The house elves will send them up to your dormitory." He yelled, repeating himself every so often as loudly as he could.
Why isn't he just using his wand? There's a spell for that, Professor McGonagall used it.
"Firs' years! Firs' years, over here! Everyone else, down the platform and into the carriages!" said an impossible tall and imposing man also holding a lamp. He had long, shaggy hair, a tangled beard, and brown eyes and he was wearing a black overcoat with lots of pockets.
Shisui went over to stand by some other gathered first years and wait for everyone else to make it off the train. The first' years uniforms were rather plain, but the upperclassmen's uniforms often sported pins, colored ties, or ribbons on their pointed hats.
"Ello, m' name's Reubus Hagrid. I'm the keeper of the keys and grounds at Hogwarts. I'll be taking yeh lot up to the castle today across the lake." He said.
Eventually, an elderly lady with her hair up in a bun wearing an apron came over to them. "Everyone is off the train, Hagrid. You're good to go. Welcome to Hogwarts, dears, and have fun at Hogwarts!"
She bid them goodbye with a wave and a warm smile. Some of the kids waved back awkwardly, and they all followed the giant of a man named Hagrid down the platform and off the side down a steep, narrow, set of stairs down to the docks.
"No more'n four to a boat. Come on, in you go." Hagrid said, leading them down to the boats and waiting for them all to get in.
Shisui got in a boat with Neville, Hermione, and another boy he didn't recognize.
"Everyone in? Right then, forward!" Hagrid said.
And then they were all off. The boats followed Hagrid's enchanted boat off across the lake and around a bend, and everyone ooh'd and aww'd in amazement all at once.
Off across the lake, on top of a tall cliff, was a huge castle with lots of turrets and towers, it's many windows shining in the night.
Shisui grinned in excitement. It was even bigger than the pictures in the textbooks of the Daimyo's castle! And he would get to live and learn here for the next four months.
Everyone stared up at the castle as they got closer and closer, marvelling at it in awe, until Hagrid snapped them out of it.
"Heads down!" he called out, as they approached a cave in the cliff face hidden by a curtain of ivy.
Everyone bent their heads, and Hagrid had to nearly lay down in his boat so as not to bang his head on the cave ceiling. They seemed to be going under the castle through a tunnel that eventually opened up into an underground harbor with a dock and some stairs leading up to the castle.
Everyone clambered out onto the docks at once, talking amongst themselves quietly.
"Oi, is anyone missing a toad?" Hagrid called over the noise as he picked up a toad on the rocky, pebbled shoreline.
"Trevor!" Neville cried, joyfully, running up and taking his pet toad from Hagrid. It took a moment for the boy to remember his manners, no doubt drilled into him by his aunt. "Thank you, sir."
"Yer welcome, lad. Keep a good hold of 'im 'till you get to yer dormitory." Hagrid replied, smiling. "Everyone here? Le's go."
Hagrid led them up the stairs to the castle and knocked on the door, which was opened immediately by Professor McGonagall who was wearing the same emerald-green robes he'd seen her in last time.
"The firs' years, Professor McGonagall." He said, gesturing at the group of about forty kids.
"Thank you, Hagrid. I will take them from here." She said, pulling the door wide and letting them all in.
The entrance hall was huge, plenty big enough to fit the Dursley's entire house. The stone walls were lit with flaming torches and stone statues of knights in armor holding weapons flanked the walls on both sides, going all the way up the walls.
Some kind of defense measure, maybe? But why on a school? It's so isolated.
They all followed Professor McGonagall across the stone floor, down the halls, and to a stop in front of some double doors behind which were surely the rest of the student body and staff, judging from the noise and voices within.
"Welcome to Hogwarts. The start-of-term banquet will begin shortly, during which you will be sorted into your houses. This is the Great Hall, where you will be sorted into your houses. Henceforth, you will be taking all your meals here starting at 7am, 12 noon, and 6pm respectively. Your house will be like your family. You will have classes with all of your houses, but you will eat and sleep with your housemates in your dormitories and spend your free time in your house dormitories.
The four houses are Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, and Slytherin. Gryffindor for the brave and reckless, Ravenclaw for the intelligent and the ignorant, Hufflepuff for the loyal and the trusting, and Slytherin for the ambitious and the power-hungry. I assure you despite what you might have heard, each house has its own noble history and has produced many outstanding witches and wizards.
While you are at Hogwarts, you will earn your house points for good deeds, good behavior, and answering questions in class. Bad behavior will lose your house points. The house with the most points at the end of the year will win the house cup. The sorting ceremony will begin in just a few moments. I will line you up alphabetically, three to a row. Come forward when I call your name, and smarten yourselves up while you wait."
It took a good ten minutes to sort the forty new pupils into an orderly, alphabetical line of nervous kids.
"The sorting ceremony is about to start. Follow me." Professor McGonagall said, opening the doors and leading them all into the Great Hall.
The Great Hall was as big as the entrance chamber with the statues, lit up by countless floating candles under a ceiling that reflected the starry night sky above. They were led past four long, narrow tables, two on each side, each decorated with a tablecloth sporting it's house's colors. At the far end of the hall was the staff table and a podium for the headmaster to speak at.
Professor McGonagall stopped at a stool with an old, ragged-looking hat on it and pulled a scroll out of a pocket inside her cloak. "When I call your name, take a seat on the stool and put on the sorting hat so that you may be sorted into your houses."
Shisui was towards the back of the line, even if he wasn't as far back as he would have been if he was listed under Uchiha Shisui rather than Potter Harry.
I'll probably have to talk to the headmaster and get my name changed under admissions.
Eventually, after a long while, the Deputy Headmistress called out his name.
"Harry Potter!"
Whispers broke out among the student body, which had been respectful and polite up until this point.
"Did she say Potter?"
"Did you hear that? It's Harry Potter!"
"Wow, you were right he is here!"
"Is that him? The boy who lived?"
Kids and teenagers strained to get a good look at him as he sat down and put the hat on his head.
"Hmmm. Difficult, very difficult. You might be the first true hat-stall of the year." Said a small voice in his ear. "I see plenty of courage, darting headlong into battle like that. And a thirst to prove yourself to your family. You have a great mind, as well. Shisui of the Body Flicker, is it? You would do well in either Slytherin or Ravenclaw. Maybe Hufflepuff as well, you see the humanity in everyone even your enemies. But where to put you…"
Even the sorting hat seemed stuck.
How do you sort your students? Based on what they value, or what they possess?
"Good question! Such an inquisitive mind, I ought to put you in Ravenclaw. I sort based on what you value, and I will never put a student where they don't want to go. I will provide my professional opinion, but it is ultimately your choice. Where would you like to go, Mr. Uchiha? Your house will be your family for the next seven years." The hat asked.
And so he thought.
Draco had extended a welcome with ulterior motives and had ended up in Slytherin. Neville and Hermione both had gone to Gryffindor. He had been surprised at Hermione's sorting, he thought her more suited to Ravenclaw.
Maybe she values bravery more than she does knowledge.
It all came back to a question that his homeroom teacher had asked the whole class to write a short essay about his first day at Academy all those years ago: why do you want to be a ninja? What do you fight for? What is your ninja way.
I want to make my family proud and prove to the whole clan that I really am an Uchiha.
That had been his answer back then. Upon graduating and being thrown onto the battlefields to collect bodies and perform basic first aid to the wounded and watching fellow genin die gruesome deaths, his motivations changed.
I want to protect my friends.
He would do anything to protect those he cared about, and ultimately that motivation is what his magic reacted to when suddenly a C-rank turned to an A-rank and they found themselves way out of their league in enemy territory.
I don't want anyone else to die because I wasn't good enough.
That had been his mantra for the past few years since Kaito's untimely death. It had taken the search and rescue squad ten days to find them, and enemies had found them before they did.
Put me wherever I can accomplish that best.
Author's Note: I've been in a writing mood lately, and finally was able to get this chapter out. Sorry if it's not up to par. I don't want to put him in Gryffindor and essentially be writing canon. But as much as I like the idea of putting him in Hufflepuff, it's hard with how poorly written his yearmates in both Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff are. I'm stalling so I can make up prefects and housemates and have them not be awful. Hopefully. He'll still befriend others though, hence the set up for Draco, Neville, and Hermione. Also yes I reread parts of the book and occasionally put them on here verbatim, like with the descriptions of stuff.
