Succession

The Great Hall was buzzing with talk, rumours of a monarch being seen on the train was one thing but when the same person was also Harry Potter then it was even more interesting. Though they did not here the grumbles of annoyance the young Lord made as he walked into the hall alone, the first years being kept behind thanks to the intervention of his grandmother. The woman did not want his welcoming ceremony suffering the distraction of younger children.

All eyes were indeed on him, the young man wearing dark robes and a blue cloak covered with fleur-de-lis covering it. His entrance was grand with the hall silenced, the doors opened for him and he had to stride into the wall, using slow steady movements. A regal walk that had long been drilled into him. Once he was dead in the centre of the room then Albus Dumbledore from his position at head of the staff table and hall rose to his feet.

"Ceremony indeed seems odd to stand upon when introducing one to his peers but these measures I doubt are of your doing. Instead I shall welcome you, Lord Harry James Potter de Bourbon, to Hogwarts." Dumbledore spoke in an almost grandfatherly tone which made Harry pause, the man had just thrown a lengthy and ministry agreed ceremony out of the window. Something Harry had to be grateful for, not liking long ceremony which would have excluded him even more from the students.

"Thank you Headmaster, it is a pleasure to be here." Harry answered with a warm smile,

"The pleasure I am sure is ours, now your sorting has already been arranged. You of course will be taking up the residence of your ancestors, living in the wing designated for Azkaban's nobility but you shall be attending meals and functions with the house of your choosing." Dumbledore continued and Harry said nothing but knew when his grandmother heard of this she was going to be furious.

"However as you are wearing their colours may I recommend you attend Ravenclaw house for the duration of this evening." Dumbledore even made a slight bow with an almost joking attitude, one Harry took on board.

"I thank you headmaster," he spoke slowly and then moved towards the table with a quicker pace, one which got him to the table in question and out of attention's centre in less than a minute.

"Well then shall we begin the sorting, the school must go on after all. Lord or no Lord." That sentence was slightly strange to Harry, the way the man said it; something was just wrong. Though the old man did seem eccentric so he shrugged it off and sat down in a space which had been made readily available for him.

"Hi," almost every voice; male or female, greeted him the moment he had settled. In response he managed no more than a polite response and was met by expecting eyes .

"Oh for God's sake," someone was shaking her head, quite obtusely and lacking the expectant fascination which had met Harry so far. He turned towards her,

"Problem?" He asked, he didn't know the girl but she was certainly at least a year older and somewhat pretty. She was of a Chinese descent or so he guessed and while her long dark made her look on the verge of cute, there was something dark about her eyes, it made her making her look almost foreboding.

"Nothing, do I have to say My Lord?" Her voice snapped with clear venom, it threw Harry back to say the least.

"No, though your tone reflects a problem." Harry inferred with a puzzled frown, "Do I know you?"

"I doubt it, why waste your time on subjects after all." The girl replied with a sardonic smile, she was a citizen? Harry had been told all his life that they all adored him and while doubting it; he had never been confronted with it.

"You're a citizen?" He corrected unaware he would face such hostility,

"I thought we were subject to the Lordship? I'm Cho Chang, third generational ardent republican." A republican? The word that made his grandmother spit, now Harry saw why she was being hostile. The Lady Regent had not exactly been kind to them during her regency and it was one of the few areas she enjoyed total support from Sir Alistair; both of them depended on their aristocratic system for power.

"Shut up Cho," someone interfered but Harry ignored that person,

"I didn't realise you were a citizen," Harry apologised knowing it would do little good. The girl blew air through her nose and made a noise resembling a laugh while more and more of the Ravenclaw table turned to them.

"I wouldn't expect you to, then again it's hard to be a citizen when you're grandparents, aunts and uncles were exiled." She spat sounding full of resentment while Harry said nothing. His grandmother had no hatred higher than republicans, something her regency had reflected.

"Nothing to say or you just going to banish me too, tell you what don't worry I'll just do it myself," and with that she got up and stormed away and Harry just watched, both surprised and conflicted.

"Sorry about her," another girl sitting next to the girl who had stormed of tried to apologise.

"Yeah she's not representative of us at all." Harry found that almost disappointing, this was Ravenclaw and somehow he had only actually met one person who disagreed with what he was fundamentally. Though he resigned himself to where he was and the rest of the evening was spent picking at food and answering bizarre and pointless questions about everything from Azkaban to Lordship, it was not what he wanted to happen and with every passing question he felt more and more apart from the students of Hogwarts, indeed few of them even counted him as one.

Morning

The Azkaban dormitory was impressive to say the least, cosy black and gold carpeted floors stretched throughout a common room divided into four. A roaring fireplace accompanied leather chairs and sofas in one-quarter while a row of bookcases divided it from a small yet packed library complete with shelves and reading room. The other two consisted of a study area with tables, chairs and desks, with a mountain of supplies hidden in drawers throughout the room. The final quarter was more of a social area with close together furniture, games and a selection of Azkban's newspapers. It seemed as if the room had been done up because of him as Harry knew the last person in this room would have been his father and his friends, whom he made citizens with his father's consent. Before being disinherited of course.

Harry emerged from a staircase on the far side of one room, through that and above was the male bedrooms, all individual as only members of Azkaban royalty or appointees could stay in this room.

"Good morning My Lord." Alice entered the dormitory, not being a student she had been made to reside in Hogsmeade, something his grandmother did not argue as she had a personal dislike of his security being independent .

"Good morning and you can call me Harry here, there is no chance of the Lady Regent hearing of it." Harry sighed as his security smiled slightly.

"I heard you met a republican yesterday?" She asked as they walked towards the great hall, her tone bordered on worried.

"I did, she's not a security risk." Harry warned knowing what she was thinking already "My grandmother's opinions aside not all republicans are terrorists." He received no response for a few long moments until they arrived at the doors to the Great Hall.

"I'm supposed to wait here." She was not allowed to enter the Great Hall unless there was a security breach nor could she approach him during the day. Harry found the agreement somewhat irritating as she was the only person he knew well. Though he put it out of his mind before sitting down on the Ravencalw table once more.

"Hey there." A girl perked up when he approached but not in the same way others did. There was something off about her, she looked almost fine with long blond hair, light skin and a slender frame but there was an airiness of oddity. Something Harry saw when he noticed her earrings, they looked like small turnips.

"You look troubled, wrackspurts?" She asked throwing Harry completely off guard,

"I'm sorry?" He questioned wondering if he would be treated to an explanation.

"You look troubled, I thought wrackspurts might be buzzing around your brain," she answered with all the contentment in the world "though maybe you have a different problem."

Harry didn't say anything per say but made a confused and evident noise before perking up

"You want to fit in, or you think you do." She announced after a moment,

"What makes you think that?" Harry asked, she was right in some ways but the way she said it was almost as if she had reached into his very mind and pulled the answer out. She shrugged,

"You want to fit in but you don't." She continued ignoring his question "You prefer the people who stand out to those who don't." Harry again said nothing but remained confused for a second, though she did not show a sign of caring.

"You think you want to fit in with the crowd but at the same time you hate the crowd." With that conclusion she looked him dead in the eye, daring him to contradict her.

"Who are you?" Harry asked not confirming or denying what she said,

"Luna Lovegood." She answered with no further explanation, instead she just smiled and stared in his direction.

"What makes you think all of that?"

"I see things from the outside, it's fun to see people. Look at the Hufflepuff by the door." Willingly Harry turned around to see the person in question, he was tripped up by a Slytherin." Harry's eyes narrowed but Luna wasn't done.

"Now look over there." She continued and Harry looked to see another Hufflepuff being pushed around by a Slytherin, he didn't need Luna to see more and more examples of Hufflepuffs being targeted by Slytherins.

" Slytherin has been targeting Hufflepuff for years but no one really notices because it's just normal, Slytherin works well with Ravenclaw at times, hates Gryffindor and bullies Hufflepuff. I see these things because I'm at the side. Loony they say." She answered and Harry smiled. It seemed she had a point.

"So what do you see about me?" He asked not sure if he was having a real conversation with this girl.

"You don't know what you want yet, but you will. You just need to know what kind of person you are," She answered obviously enjoying what she was saying, Harry for his part lightly chuckled at his own confusion.

"So what kind of person am I?" He asked eventually, she acted as if she already knew every detail about his life and there was just something about her. Something which made him double take and think about every word she said.

"I know, but you don't and telling is cheating." She giggled and with that she jumped out of her seat and walked away, swinging her head from side to side with a lopsided smile. Harry just watched her go and then his eyes turned back to the Hufflepuff table, Slytherins were hovering around it like sharks. There was something wrong with it, an injustice but what could he do about it?