REVIEW REPLIES:

To Reader AZ - I've never seen it before, and I certainly haven't published this before the other day. If there's another story like mine, please tell me! I'd like to read it!

Harry will have two friends in addition to Dudley next year. Those and his current friends will be his 'core', so to speak. Expect even more adventures than in the books, but smaller, more everyday ones. Those will just show more about how everyone acts together, and give me some license to stray from a cannon book plot. I completeley agree with you about the Snape/Malfoys thing, although they are nicer in this story.

I also don't like Dumbledore bashing, which is why he's not really bashed. Just...slightly different. And by writers, do you mean fanfiction or the script writers? Personally, I like to mix movie and book dialogue together, but keep the extra little book plot points.

To Ndo - First of all, thank you for your amazing and long review! Yes, I plan to flesh out Harry's friends backgrounds' as much as possible. I wanted to change just a few things in cannon (Dumbledore being a bit more manipulative, the Dursleys being nice) and a good Lucius was one of them. Sorry about the rushed parts; I just wanted to dive right in.

It would have been easier for Harry and his friends to be together, but it's better this way in the long run. I wanted him to have at least one friend (and he'll later have another) in Gryffindor so Harry wouldn't grow bitter towards Gryffindor because of Ron and Dumbledore.

I can't reply to the House questions until the next chapter, for obvious reasons :)

Yes, Dumbledore definitely isn't evil. He's rather more manipulative and wants to mould Harry, but not harm him. Also, I have to agree with Reader AZ on the Severus/Draco bit.

And thank you of course to all the people who alerted! The next chapter will be long and follow the book more. Enjoy!

CHAPTER 3

The hall went completely silent for a moment. Harry walked as fast as he dared up to the stool, and in the second before the hat covered his eyes he could see that the entire hall was completely focused on him. He could hear them whispering:

"Potter, did she say?"

"The Harry Potter?

"The Boy Who Lived?"

"No way!"

"Don't even think about it – he's a shoe–in for Gryffindor."

Then the hat covered his eyes, and it was dark and silent for a moment.

Ah, Mr. Potter…said a voice in his ear suddenly. We finally meet.

Harry jumped, but the hate paid him no mind.

Now, where to put you? Your parents certainly did well in Gryffindor…but you would also flourish in Slytherin.

Harry shrugged. I don't know…I mean, there's nothing wrong with either of those houses, but I don't think they really fit me. I just want to be where I'm meant to be, not where everyone thinks I should be.

The hat was silent for a moment. Harry started to think that he may have said something stupid.

Wise words, Mr. Potter, wise indeed… It said slowly. In that case, I'll put you where you'll most fit now. But come to visit me some time, yes? It gets lonely in the headmaster's office…

Before Harry could reply, the hate exclaimed, "RAVENCLAW!"

Harry was shocked for a moment, then grinned and jumped up, handing the hat to Professor McGonagall and running to sit by Hermione, who was beaming and clapping so hard Harry worried her hands might fall off. The Ravenclaws were all ecstatic and seemed shocked, and while the Slytherins and Hufflepuffs looked indifferent for the most part (except for Harry's friends), the Gryffindors looked quite put-out. Harry glanced up at the head table, still smiling happily, to see with a start that all of the teachers were looking at him in shock, Professor Dumbledore especially. He was glancing from Ron Weasley, who was still in the line waiting to be Sorted, to Harry with his eyebrows raised. Harry nearly stuck his tongue out at the man. Harry was happy that Parvati was in Gryffindor and he didn't see anything wrong with the house, other than the stories about it being the 'Light house', but Harry didn't feel like he belonged there. In fact, if one of his friends wasn't in the house, Harry could see himself growing quite bitter towards it, all because of Dumbledore.

But Harry was happy. Not just because the hat hadn't said that he actually wasn't a wizard (which had been buzzing around in his head, no matter how much proof there was to the opposite), but because there was something satisfying about being completely different than everyone else's expectations.

"Hello Harry!" said an older girl cheerfully from down the table a–ways, "I'm Penelope Clearwater, one of the Ravenclaw prefects. Welcome to the house!"

Harry nodded and thanked her, glad to be accepted.

Up in the front, the sorting continued (after a slight delay where the occupants of Ravenclaw calmed themselves down ). "Rivers, Oliver!" went to Gryffindor, and then came, "Roper, Sophie!", who joined him. "Smith, Georgina!" went to Slytherin, and "Thomas, Dean!" went to Gryffindor, as did, unsurprisingly, "Weasley, Ron!". Harry saw Ron glance helplessly at Dumbledore and shrug slightly, before throwing an almost desperate look at Harry, who tried to ignore him.

The last to be sorted was "Zabini, Blaise!", who became a Slytherin.

After the cheering had subsided, Dumbledore stood up. Harry noticed some of the teachers were still staring at him, including Dumbledore himself. Harry blushed and looked anywhere but at him, still not sure what to think about the elderly man. Thankfully the headmaster tore his eyes off of Harry with a small smile, and beamed out at the school, eyes twinkling.

"Welcome!" he said. "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 sat back down, and everyone clapped and cheered. Harry couldn't help but laugh a bit.

"Is he a bit mad, you think?" Hermione whispered to him. Before Harry could answer however, Hermione let out a small shriek. Harry followed her eyes to the table and gasped.

The empty dishes in front of him had suddenly filled with food. Harry had never seen so many of his favourite things on one table in his life: roast beef, bangers, pork chops and lamb chops, steak, sandwiches, at least five different types of potatoes, Yorkshire pudding, peas, carrots, bowls and bowls of gravy, biscuits, rice, and, for some reason, peppermint humbugs.

The Dursleys always had plenty to eat, but never this much variety. Harry was suddenly starving, and grabbed everything in reach.

Harry glanced around at the other tables while he ate. She could see Neville talking quietly to Wayne Hopkins at the Hufflepuff table, and Draco and Padma trading plates of food across the table with Pansy Parkinson and Vincent Crabbe. Parvati was laughing with Lavender Brown and Sally–Anne Perks, while Ron sulked across the table from her.

When everyone had eaten as much as they could, the remains of the food faded from their plates, leaving them spotless. A moment later the pudding appeared: bowls of ice cream in several dozen different flavours, pies, cake, treacle tarts, chocolate éclairs and jam doughnuts, trifle, cheesecake, strawberries, jelly, lollies, rice pudding, candy…

Harry smiled at the thought of how much Dudley would love this when he came to Hogwarts next year. As he helped himself to some cinnamon ice cream and trifle, the talk at the Ravenclaw table turned to families.

"I'm Muggle-born," said Kevin Entwhistle. "My dad nearly had a stroke when Professor Vector turned our telly into a dog."

The other First-Years laughed.

It seemed that everyone wanted to hear from Harry the most, so Harry told the other students a bit about his aunt and uncle and cousin. Terry Boot, Michael Corner, and Su Li all had wizard parents, and they were all interested to hear from Harry, Hermione, and Kevin what Muggles were like. They were fascinated by the strangest things, like doctors and the subway and cooking.

After awhile, Harry started to feel warm and sleepy. He felt like he could almost lay right down on the table and go to sleep, so he distracted himself by looking at the staff table. Professor Dumbledore was talking to Professor McGonagall, their heads bent close to each other. Hagrid was drinking very deeply from his goblet, which was much larger than everyone else's. A man in a strange turban was talking to a teacher with long black hair. Harry thought this must be Professor Snape, the potion's teacher and head of Slytherin. Aunt Petunia had mentioned him.

At that second, Professor Snape looked past the man's turban straight at Harry.

"Ouch!" Harry cried, clapping a hand to his forehead. A sharp, hot pain had suddenly shot across his scar.

"What is it?" asked Hermione, looking concerned.

"N-nothing," Harry said shakily, rubbing his head. "Just a headache."

The pain had left as quickly as it had come, but Harry had gotten a strange feeling from the teacher's look – a feeling Harry didn't like at all.

"Alright, Harry?" asked Penelope.

"Yeah…fine. Headache." Harry said, smiling. "Er – Penelope? Who's that man talking to Professor Snape? With the turban?"

"Oh, that's Professor Quirrell." Penelope said. "He teaches Defence Against the Dark Arts. He's really smart – he was in Ravenclaw when he came to Hogwarts – but he went off to get some first–hand experience awhile ago and hasn't been the same since…"

Harry nodded and turned back to the table and watched Snape for a moment, curious to see if the incident from a few moments ago was a coincidence or somehow related to the potion's professor, but he didn't look at Harry again.

At last, the desserts too disappeared, and Professor Dumbledore got to his feet again. The hall fell silent.

"Ahem – just a few more words now that we are all well-fed and watered. I have a few start-of-term notices to give you. First-years, please note that the forest is forbidden to all pupils. A few of our older students would do well to remember that as well."

Dumbledore's eyes flashed towards someone in the Gryffindor table.

"Also, the caretaker, Mr. Filch, has asked me to remind you that the third-floor corridor on the right-hand side is out of bounds to those who do not wish to die a most painful death."

Harry and Hermione shared wide–eyed looks. Harry wouldn't be surprised to hear that there had been accidents at Hogwarts before – the school was huge, and with the lake and all of the high–up places, something bad was bound to happen. But for the headmaster to just state something like that outright, without a reason like a staircase being broken or something like that just seemed strange to Harry.

"And now, before we got to bed, let us sing the school song!" cried Dumbledore. Harry noticed that the other teachers' smiles had become somewhat fixed.

Dumbledore flicked his wand, and a long golden ribbon flew out of it, which rose high above the tables and twisted itself like a snake into writing.

"Everyone pick their favourite tune," said Dumbledore cheerfully. "and off we go!"

"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."

Everyone finished the song at different times. Harry and Hermione were both singing to the tune of 'Mary Had A Little Lamb'. Finally only two red-haired boys at the Gryffindor table were left – they were singing to what sounded like a very slow funeral march. Dumbledore conducted the last few lines with his wand, which Harry couldn't help laughing at, and when they had finished, Dumbledore was one of the ones who clapped the loudest.

"Ah, music," he said, wiping at his eyes. "A magic beyond all we do here! And now, bedtime. Off you trot!"

The Ravenclaw first-years were led by Penelope and a boy named Robert Hilliard to their common room. For awhile, Harry wasn't sure he would make it there. They must have climbed a dozen staircases and cut through at least that many halls, but finally they reached a wooden door at the top of a spiral staircase in one of the towers. The prefects were in front, and the first-years waited quietly. All of the sudden, the bronze eagle on the door opened its mouth and spoke:

"What walks on four legs in the morning, two in the afternoon, and three at night?"

Robert answered. "Man."

"Correct." The eagle proclaimed, and the door swung open. Harry watched with awe. First talking hats, now talking doorknockers?

The room inside was airy and fresh. It was wide, circular, and had a domed ceiling painted with stars. A dark blue carpet lay on the floor, and the windows were hung with soft blue and bronze silks. It was too dark to see outside now, but Harry knew they must be up high, and there was probably a great view of the grounds during the day. The room contained tables, chairs, a few sofas, and several bookcases. By a door at the end of the room stood a stature that Harry assumed was the houses' founder, Rowena Ravenclaw

"Okay everyone, gather 'round!" said Robert. They did. "As you've just seen, to get into the common room you need to answer whatever question the eagle gives you. If you get it wrong, you'll have to wait until someone else can figure it out, so be careful."

"The girls and boys dormitories are in separate turrets off the tower." Continued Penelope. "The girls' is to the right, the boys' to the left. All of your things have been brought up already. The Great Hall starts serving breakfast at six, but most people don't go until around seven or so."

"A bell will ring at nine, and that's when the lessons start. A teacher will hand out your schedules tomorrow morning." Robert said. "You'll have two classes in the morning, with a break between each. After that is lunch, another break, and classes restart at one – then one or two classes depending on the day. Last is dinner and everyone goes to their common rooms for the night."

"Any questions?" asked Penelope. The first-years shook their heads. Harry, at least, was very grateful that the prefects had explained what their days would be like. He wouldn't want to wait up late on his first day.

Soon the boys and girls were splitting up, and Harry quickly found his trunk and owl, Hedwig, by the bed directly across from the door. He barely had time to pull on pajamas and lie down in the sky blue silk covered bed before his eyes shut and Harry fell asleep.