Chapter 2

Minerva McGonogall watched in bemusement as the strangest group of first years she had ever seen wandered up the stairs toward her. In years past the children had looked nervous and excited as they pointed to the pictures and ghosts. These children were a different case all together.

Nothing stood out as wrong per say, they were just very different. Their clothing style all seemed similar with well fitting yet loose clothing. All completely black. A large number of the children had neon colors streaked through their hair, even the obviously purebloods. What exactly had happened on that train ride?

Beyond the clothing though was the way they all moved. A black haired boy held himself like a military general and exuded confidence and mischief despite nearly being the shortest one there. The blonde boy next to him seemed to prowl like a large cat with a grace typically gained in the middle aged years. Their faces were what really stopped her cold though. Blank, completely blank, as though not a thought or emotion existed in their minds. In contrast several of the students were dragging their finger tips across the stone walls in wonder and looked about ready to bawl.

Minerva decided it was time to take control. "Students, may I have your attention please."

She hesitated in surprise as forty sets of eyes focused on her unblinkingly. Okkay.

She actually stuttered as she ran through her start of the year house speech on automatic. She had been giving this speech for the last thirty years and she stuttered. Hopefully Severus would never hear of this.

She was startled out of auto pilot when a red haired boy piped up, "May we have a moment to prepare our performance?"

"What?" she exclaimed.

The obviously Malfoy child drawled, "You can't expect us not to warm up, five minutes please and we will be in."

In utter confusion, Minerva backed up into the hall. She better ask Albus about mass confundus charms. What performance could these children be talking about?

In the entrance hall the kids were scrambling madly to change. Clothes were flying left and right with no regard for who was nearby. They had all seen each other naked too many times to care anymore. Some excited giggles began spreading through the group. All their planning was about to go into action.

Harry stepped forward,"Alright first trumpets ready? Tumblers? Singers? Ribbon dancers? And final dancers? Lets all get lined up. Absolutely no crying, no one is dying here because we are fixing it. We are going to do this right and this time will never know what hit them. So are we ready?"

The group whooped quietly and finished last minute adjustments. With decidedly wicked grins on their faces they all turned toward the door.

Harry flicked his fingers and the doors banged open.

The older students had been loudly debating what was going on with the first years. Professor McGonogall had come in looking confused and seemed to be attempting to explain something to the Headmaster. The authoritative first years had her concerned.

As the doors banged against the walls two students began sprinting down either side of the aisle. As they reached the front of the room they held trumpets up to their mouth and began playing an introduction. Blaise Zabini and Terry Boot were perfectly capable of sprinting and still having breath left to play.

As the first notes began dying down two blurs in shining blue body suits began to tumble down the aisle. Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy were tiny as eleven year olds and took flexibility to another level. Their gymnastics skills had come in handy before in battle and now they were just doing flips as fast as they could and in perfect precision. As they approached the trumpets near the front singing could be heard from the entry hall.

About twelve students began marching down the aisle in single file. To their sides ran several children with ribbons flying behind them on sticks. The ribbons sparkled with each of the houses colors.

The choir was clapping in rhythm with their song which the muggleborns recognized as gospel singing from the American south. A pale redhead girl was singing with a voice that sounded like she had stolen it from a large black woman. The choir children swayed with the music and waved their hands above their heads. Grins were about to split several faces in half. They had thought this would be funny, but they had not expected it to be this funny. Luckily, it was being recorded from several angles so they would be able to later appreciate everyone's gob smacked expressions.

Behind the choir entered the dancers. If anyone had been paying very close attention they would have recognized dance steps straight from the musical West Side Story, but as it was only Dumbledore thought they looked vaguely familiar. The front of the Great Hall was now an explosion of color, sound, and activity.

Ron began giggling madly as the first years began to sing and dance together. As a group they had viewed numerous muggle musicals and voted on what the song should be. The girls had made it a landslide victory for High School Musical and "We're all in this Together." At least it was already choreographed for them. Neville's voices could be heard spiraling above everyone else as he sang the descant. He had reluctantly admitted his soprano talent as a young child.

The dancers began to pull themselves into a pyramid and Hannah pulled the springboard to the center. Harry backed up and vaulted off of it to land perfectly on top just as everyone held the last note. They edges all flung their free hands out and with wandless magic blasted sparkles and a bang into the air.

In the shell shocked silence that followed all that could be heard was the performers gasping breath and the gasps that came from trying not to howl with laughter.

One of the unidentified Weasley twins expressed the hall's feelings perfectly with a well placed, "What the bloody fuck?!"

The other responded, "Language brother dearest, didn't you notice the first years are here now?"

. The tiny black haired boy on top suddenly spoke up in a whisper that everyone heard, "Did they not like us, do we have to leave?"

Harry had placed a masterful tremble at the end of his question and the entire pyramid disassembled itself and began hugging him and each other in mock comfort. Hufflepuff table suddenly realized the first years had not received the cheers they were expecting and were near tears. They did not realize the time travelers were suffering from suppressed laughter.

The table leapt to its feet to cheer. Hogwarts had never seen a show like the talented little eleven year olds had just performed. The other students quickly joined in and soon the kids sorted themselves out to bow.

The whole row turned to look at the professors table when McGonogall rang her glass. The Headmaster stood up and beamed at them in cheery delight.

"That was utterly wonderful. It reminded me of a performance I once saw in the Netherlands where the women…never mind, a story for another day perhaps. May I asked what inspired it though?" he asked.

Hermione jumped forward eagerly, "Our acceptance letters told us to be ready to display our talents, so we got all ready."

"And so you have. This is the first time the first years have ever done anything besides wear the Sorting Hat. I wonder if Hogwarts felt it was necessary?" the Headmaster mused to himself.

"A hat? Wouldn't we all share lice than? Ewww," said a blonde girl in pig tails.

Momentarily startled by this random comment the Headmaster paused.

Seamus excitedly exclaimed in the silence, "I had lice once! My mum shaved my head!"

"That is so cool, my mum would never let me do that," Blaise Zabini whined.

"Me neither," pouted Hermione. "I want to see her control this disaster," as she tossed her hair back. Her hair had calmed down as she grew, so she was no longer quite as concerned.

Severus Snape watched in appalled silence as thirty children managed to train wreck a historical ceremony. He was impressed how they had managed it with complete naiveté and were now discussing haircuts. He realized action needed to be taken though when he heard, "Did you know you can get lice on your butt too?" and he sprang out of his seat as the kids "ewwed," in disgust.

The older students were by this point only sitting up straight because they were all holding each other up. Several students realized right then and there that they wanted to be teachers when they grew up so they could have entertainment provided all day long.

Snape cleared his throat and suddenly received the creepy attention of the children that Minerva had experienced earlier. At least until the frizzy haired child said, "His secret disguise is so obvious, why isn't he better at it?"

His own godchild nodded his blonde head and said, "He tries really hard not to give it away, so I just pretend I don't know. Its politer that way I think."

The forty children nodded at this statement and suddenly looked at him with falsely polite engaging smiles. Severus shook his head, "To what are you referring?" he asked trying to keep the confusion from his voice.

The kids huddled together and then shoved the tiny Potter replica forward. Harry walked up to the table and scowled at the fact the top of his head was level with it. He thrust his hand down and suddenly there were steps for him to clamber up. He calmly walked across the teacher's table and stepped close enough to lean up into the professor's ear and whisper, "We know you are Batman and we just wanted to tell you we think you are really cool and won't tell your secret. You could do a better job at hiding your alias though. It is really obvious. And if you need any bat assistants we would love to help you."

With an astute nod and supposedly secret (but actually quite obvious as he had not quite mastered winking yet) wink he hopped back down the steps and banished them before slipping back into the mass of children. Who continued to gaze at him in adoration. This had to stop.

He cleared his throat unnecessarily and said, "If you would now allow Professor McGonagall to call your name and be sorted it would be much appreciated."

The entire group secretly winked, meaning that all of the professors noticed, and sorted themselves out in to some order known only to them. Professor McGonogall started to say, "What-" before she was interrupted by the bushy brown haired girl.

"We are by hair color order so that the pnufflies are happy. We thought it would be polite. Especially since they seem to be surrounding the snake table over there," Hermione declared.

The Slytherin table locked their masks firmly in place as they struggled to control their confusion over the danger of unhappy pnufflies. Their dark-arts doo-dads had never registered the danger of pnufflies to them before.

Harry secretly grinned at the small tribute to Luna Lovegood the year was starting. Hogwarts would never be able to sort out fact from fiction once they had begun spreading their rumors around.

McGonogall shook her head faintly before giving up and calling the students up to be sorted. The students had agreed before hand to go to the house where they would cause the most chaos. Draco in Hufflepuff, the Golden trio and Neville in Slytherin, Seamus and Lavender in Ravenclaw, and the list goes on.

Draco strode forward when his name was called looking silly in his bodysuit, but obviously not caring. As the hat whimpered, "Hufflepuff," Draco giggled happily and hugged McGonogall before skipping toward the yellow table.

The silence that followed this performance was nothing to the tomblike atmosphere that enveloped the hall when Harry Potter was announced as a Slytherin. Harry leapt up with a shouted, "Yeah!" and charged toward the snakes. He was immediately heard asking, "Is there a secret handshake?" to the meanest looking boy at the table.

When Ron joined him at the Slytherin table Percy actually fainted. The twins pretended to go in to hysterics, madly fanning their faces and stammering, "Oh dear."

At the head table Dumbledore stroked his beard thoughtfully. He had gone to much trouble to grow the magnificent beard for this purpose specially and tried to use it often. The first year class was certainly eccentric. That hardly mattered though, Dumbledore found people much more interesting when they were unusual. With a cheerful, "Hip-hip hooray," he started the feast with the most peculiar class he had ever seen.