Chapter Six
Harry and Dante took one of London's well known double-decker buses to the train station but they'd underestimated London city traffic and wound up getting there later than they'd wanted to.
Fortunately though when they arrived at Kings' Cross the station was not that crowded. Eventually they arrived at the platforms; they could see platform nine and platform ten but not platform nine and three quarters.
"Do you know how to get to the platform?" Dante asked
"Yeah, Draco told me. You just walk straight at the barrier between platforms nine and ten." Harry answered
"Ah, an illusionary barrier" Dante said, it wasn't the first time that he or Harry had encountered something like this…Seekers often used such methods to hide from mundanes. "Let's go"
After a brief pause to make sure no one was paying any attention to them, they walked through the barrier. Harry looked around and saw all kinds of interesting things but he couldn't see Draco anywhere
"Your friend's probably on the train already" Dante said pointing up at the clock on one of the walls
"Ahhh" Harry said as he realized that it was five of eleven, he didn't have much time. He'd have to run but his trunk was too heavy for him to lift by himself…with his hands that was.
He put his hand over his trunk and muttered "bubble lift" and suddenly his trunk was floating in a giant bubble. He then quickly grabbed Athena's (the name he'd chosen for his owl) cage with his other hand.
"Harry" Dante began
"Gotta go, bye Dante!" Harry responded automatically and he ran to the train. He was sorely tempted to use Hyperstride but there were too many people crowded around as it was he had to elbow his way through with his trunk floating behind him. He was running too fast for any of the wizards to get a good look at him but they did notice the bubble behind him, to them however, it was just some spell that they weren't familiar with. He jumped onto the train with only two minutes to spare. He dived into the nearest compartment which was luckily empty and sat down
"Phew, that was close" he said softly to himself
Once he'd caught his breath he opened his trunk and pulled out his copy of the tales of the Arabian Nights, this copy was in the original Arabic, although he'd learned to speak the language very well, his ability to read it needed some more work and the only way to get better was to practice
A few minutes later a kid with red hair appeared "Hey, mind if I sit here?" he asked "Everywhere else is full"
"Sure" Harry said without looking up from his book
"I'm Ron, by the way, Ron Weasley" he said
Harry realizing the boy wasn't going to let him read in peace did the polite thing and introduced himself
"Harry Potter"
"Really, do you have the scar?!" he asked eagerly
Harry resisted the urge to roll his eyes; he hoped everyone else wouldn't react like this. Still he held up his bangs to reveal his lightning bolt scar
"Wicked" he said "Can you remember anything about that night?"
Thanks to Perseus Harry could remember exactly what happened but there was no way he was going to tell Ron that "No" he answered
"Really, nothing?" Ron pressed
"No, I was too young" Harry responded
"Oh" Ron said unable to keep the disappointment out of his voice. Harry then went back to his book.
They sat in silence for a brief moment and then the redhead made another attempt at conversation "What are you reading?" he asked
"The tale of the Arabian Nights." Harry answered and then he bookmarked his place and handed the book to Ron
Ron took and exclaimed "this is just a bunch of scribbles, how can you read this?!"
'It's written in Arabic" Harry responded, annoyed "that's what Arabic script looks like" He then took the book back "Now if you don't mind, I would like to continue reading it."
Ron opened his mouth to try and say something else but was interrupted by a door opening
A bushy haired girl was standing on the doorway
"Have either of you seen a toad? A boy named Neville has lost one" she said
Both Harry and Ron shook their heads
Harry deliberately made sure that his face wound up away from her so she wouldn't notice his scar.
It worked…sort of, she didn't see the famous scar but she did see the book "Oh, wow, is that written in Arabic? I have ALWAYS wanted to learn another language but never had the time between all my school work. I've learned all of our textbooks by heart of course."
At this Ron looked absolutely flabbergasted, 'really who DOES that?' his facial expression read
For the first time Harry was inclined to agree with him, he liked learning but there WAS such a thing as going overboard also did that girl breathe?
"I just hope it will be enough" the girl continued, oblivious to the looks on the boys' faces "do you think you could teach me some Arabic sometime?"
There was pause before Harry realized the girl was waiting for an answer "uh…yeah, sure" he responded
The girl smiled "Great! Oh, I just realized I haven't introduced myself, how rude of me. I'm Hermonie, Hermonie Granger"
"Ron Weasley" Ron said
A bit later Harry introduced himself as well "Harry Potter"
"Really?" she said "I've read about you. You're in Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts, Greatest Events of the 20th century and Who's who of the Modern Wizarding World. None of the books mentioned that you knew Arabic though."
"Maybe you shouldn't rely on books alone for knowledge" Harry replied
Hermonie seemed offended by that and left in a huff, much to Harry's and Ron's relief
"Whatever house I'm in, I hope she's not in it...I'll probably be in Gryffindoor though, all the Weasleys have been for generations, how about you, what house do you think you'll be in?"
Harry wasn't entirely sure, he'd read up on the houses a little but he wasn't sure which was the best fit for him
"I don't really know. Any ideas on how we will be getting sorted?" Harry responded. None of the books he'd read mentioned it, apparently it was traditional for first years to not know how they were going to be sorted until afterwards.
Ron shook his head "Some sort of test I think, George said that it hurts a lot and Fred said we had to wrestle a troll but I don't know if I should believe them, they are major pranksters."
Harry felt that the answer to that was no, they shouldn't believe Fred and George, seriously what kind of school expected students to wrestle with trolls?
Just then the door opened. It was Draco and two other kids that Harry didn't know
"There you are Harry" Draco said "I've been looking everywhere for you…I was beginning to worry that you had missed the train."
"I nearly did, London traffic is some of the worst I have ever seen…and coming from me, you KNOW that is saying something." Harry responded
"Who are you?" Ron interjected
"My name is Draco, Draco Malfoy and these are Crab and Goyle. As for you, red hair, freckles, and a hand me down robe, let me guess, you're a Weasley" Draco replied
"What's it to you?" Ron demanded
Draco shrugged "Nothing" then he turned back to Harry "Anyway Harry, I was hoping to introduce you to some of my other friends, they're waiting for us up that way" Draco pointed down toward the front of the train "Do you want to come meet them?"
Harry put his book down once again and replied "sure" then he made to get up
"Don't do it!" Ron blurted out "His father's a deatheater; he's probably trying to lure you into some sort of trap!"
"My father was cleared of all charges" Draco snapped
"Only because he bribed the ministry" Ron shot back
By this point Harry had stood completely up "Draco, don't bother arguing with the troglodyte, let's just go."
"You're making a big mistake!" Ron said
Harry turned to Ron "No, the big mistake I made was saying that you could sit with me. You've done nothing but annoy me the whole time." He responded and then left with Draco and his friends
Once they had gotten into the next car Crabbe asked "Harry, what's a trgo…whatever?"
"A troglodyte, it means caveman" Harry answered
Draco laughed "that is the best description I have ever heard for a Weasley"
Harry looked at him
"All the pureblood families know each other, most of us are fairly close knit since there are not very many of us left these days…anyway the Weasleys have a very bad reputation" Draco explained
"I don't think you should judge people before you get to know them" Harry said
"Then why did you call that Weasley a troglodyte?" Draco asked
"Because he was very annoying but that doesn't mean that everyone named Weasley is" Harry responded
Eventually they arrived at Draco's car
"We're back and we've brought company" Draco announced as he entered the car. It was a bit of a tight fit but Harry, Crabbe and Goyle were all able to find places to sit.
"Wow, so it seems that Draco wasn't pulling our legs this time after all." A rather tan boy said "I'm Blaze, Blaze Zabini. Next to me is Theodore Nott but we call him Theo. The girls are Pansy Parkinson and Millicent Bulstrode."
"So Potter, Draco said that you've been living in Italy for the past few years, what has that been like?" Pansy asked eagerly
"Well, I've been living in Venice specifically-
"That's the city with all that water running around isn't it" Goyle asked
"Canals and yes" Harry replied
They spent the rest of the trip exchanging stories from their various childhoods until finally they arrived
"We have arrived at Hogsmeade Station" a loud voice announced "all students please leave your luggage on the train; it will be taken up separately."
Having already changed into his robes, Harry followed the others out of the car
They soon heard another loud voice saying "Firs' years thisaway, firs' years thisaway."
Harry looked in the direction of the voice and saw that it belonged to by far the largest man that he had ever seen; this guy was even larger than Montague.
Still they listened and walked over to the giant
"All righ then" The man began "For those o ye that dunno I'm Hagrid, Keeper of the Keys at Hogwarts and I'll be takin ye across the lake, no more en four to a boat."
Draco and Harry were joined in their boat by Crabbe and Goyle. Pansy, Blaze, Millicent and Theo climbed into the boat next to them.
Hagrid waited until everyone was situated and then shouted "Forward" and the boats began to row themselves across the lake
After about five or ten minutes Hagrid spoke again "Ye'll get yer firs' view of Hogwarts in a sec" and sure enough the castle came into view. There was a brief chorus as all the new students' ooed and ahhed at the castle. Even Harry who had seen castles before was very impressed by the sight.
Eventually they came to a cave "Mind yer heads" Hagrid instructed as he ducked down. He was the only one who needed to however; the first years had plenty of headroom. They stopped when they reached the end of the waterway; there was an older woman on the shore waiting for them. She reminded Harry a lot of his principal back in Venice, a strict, stern, no nonsense woman but she was also fair and would always hear her students' side of things before punishing them, he hoped that this woman would be the same in that sense.
"The firs' years professor McGonagall" Hagrid greeted her as the students began climbing out of the boats.
"Thank you Hagrid" she replied. She waited for all the students to finish disembarking before she spoke again "I am Professor McGonagall, teacher of transfiguration and deputy headmistress of Hogwarts, now follow me."
She led them through the double doors and up a flight of stairs to the castle's entrance hall then she stopped and addressed them once more
"You are about to be sorted into your houses. Your house will be your family within Hogwarts You will eat meals and take classes with your house as well as spending your free time in the house common room and sleeping in the house dormitory. Also each of the houses competes for the house cup as a team, your accomplishments earn points and rule-breaking will lose points. I hope each one of you becomes a credit to whichever house you are sorted into. Now wait here and I will come and collect you when we are ready for you." Then she left
The students began to talk among themselves about what the sorting might entail, even purebloods like Draco didn't know, thanks to the age old tradition of keeping it secret.
Before long they were startled when several ghosts came in through the far wall
"No, no, absolutely not!" one of them said
"Come on" one of the others urged "it's been ages since Peeves has attended a feast, don't you think it's time we gave him a second chance, forgive and forget I say."
"Friar, we've already given Peeves a second chance, heck we've given him well over a dozen chances and he's blown them all. He is wholly uncivilized" the other responded and then he noticed the first years pressing away from them "Oh, my goodness, you must be the first years."
"Hope to see you in Hufflepuff" the friar ghost added "my old house you know." And then the ghosts left the same way they arrived through one of the walls. Almost a split second later, McGonagall returned and took them into the Great Hall.
They were led to the front of the room where the teachers' table sat, along with a dirty and faded old hat on a stool
Suddenly the hat began to sing
"Oh you may not think I'm pretty but don't judge on what you see
I'll eat myself if you can find a smarter hat than me
You can keep your bowlers and your top hats sleek and tall
For I'm the Hogwarts sorting hat and I can cap them all
You might belong in Gryfinndor where dwell the brave at heart
Their daring nerve and chivalry set Gryfinndors apart
Or perhaps in Ravenclaw if you've a ready mind
Where those of wit and learning will always find their kid
You might belong in Hufflepuff where they are just and loyal
Those kind Hufflepuffs are true and unafraid of toil
Or perhaps in Slytherin you'll make your real friends
Those cunning folk use any means to achieve their ends
There's nothing hidden inside your head that the Sorting Hat can't see
So try me on and I will tell you where you ought to be."
Harry could faintly hear Ron muttering furiously but he didn't care about that. Harry was far more worried about what the Sorting Hat might see if it peaked into his mind. What if it told the Headmaster about the Foundation or even worse what if some member of the Organization managed to get their hands on it?
"When I call your name" McGonagall began, seemingly oblivious to the first years' worries "you will come, place the Sorting Hat on your head and sit on the stool…Abott, Hannah"
Almost immediately Harry noticed that the hat took longer to sort some students than it did others. For instance it had barely touched Draco's head before granting him his wish and putting him in Slytherin but it took a minute or two before placing the bushy haired girl from the train in Gryfinndor, which surprised Harry, he would have thought that she was Ravenclaw for sure.
Several more students were called and sorted until finally
"Potter, Harry"
Immediately students began to mutter again, saying things along the lines of
"Did she say THE Harry Potter" again Harry was irritated, since when did his name have a the in front of it?
Anyway he subtly cast a mind cage power on himself and walked over to the stool
"Mister Potter" the hat softly "While I must commend you on the strength of your shields, I must also insist that you lower them so that I may sort you."
"No, I won't have babbling my secrets all over, just put me somewhere" Harry snapped softly
"Mister Potter!" the hat replied clearly outraged "I will have you know that the founders placed well over a dozen charms on me to ensure that each student's information remained private, not even the headmaster himself can find out anything from me. Now lower your shields or I won't sort you and you won't get to go to school here!"
"Fine" Harry growled "but I warn you, if you let even one word slip out, I'll burn you to a crisp and then feed that crisp to a pig do you understand me?!"
"Perfectly" the hat replied "now lower the shields"
Reluctantly Harry did. After a brief moment the hat remarked "Oh my, you've led quite an interesting life already haven't you mister Potter?" without waiting for a response the hat continued "I definitely understand why you were so hesitant to let me see." A little later the hat added
"You're a tough one, no stranger to hard work, eager to make your mentor proud of you, that's a noble ambition, courage in bucketfuls and enough curiosity to rival Rowena herself…she always wanted to know everything about everything."
"You make it sound like I belong everywhere" Harry remarked
"Well, you probably could fit in any of them but I can only put you in one, so let's see if we can narrow it down…you are fiercely loyal but only to those you care about so not Hufflepuff. You can be cunning when you chose to be but you tend to act first and think later, you'd confuse the Slytherins to no end so that leaves either Gryfinndor or Ravenclaw…hmm"
"I think I'd prefer Ravenclaw" Harry suggested
"Why?" the hat asked
"Well I talked with several people in Diagon Alley and the first words' out of all their mouths were you look just like your father except you've got your mothers' eyes" Harry began, that had been great to hear at first but it had gotten very old very quickly "I've heard that they were both in Gryfinndor is that true?"
"Yes they were" the hat said
"Exactly, and I don't want people to see me as them…I want people to see me as me, Harry" Harry explained
"I see" the hat responded "plus, I have noticed over the years that many people think of Ravenclaws as mere bookworms, they are more than that and an adventurous soul like you can definitely help shatter those illusions. All right then, let it be RAVENCLAW" the hat shouted out the last word for the whole hall to hear
Harry then removed the hat and began walking towards his new house's table. The hall was silent, everyone was shocked, they'd all been expecting the boy who lived to wind up in Gryfinndor, everyone that is except Draco Malfoy. He knew the boy well enough to know that he was different than what they expected him to be and he was not surprised that the studious Harry had wound up in Ravenclaw…he even clapped politely for his friend and soon other students automatically joined in.
Once all the other students had been sorted Dumbledore stood up and said "Before we start I would like to say a few words, Nitwit, Oddment, and Tweak…thank you." Then he sat down and food appeared on all the tables
That settled it, Albus Dumbledore was definitely crazy but Harry was too hungry to let that stop him from eating.
Eventually they all finished eating and Dumbledore rose again "Now then, before you go to bed I have a few start of term notices to give out. First our caretaker Mister Filch has asked me to remind for what he tells me is the 352nd time that no magic is to be used in the school corridors. The Forbidden Forest is as its' name implies forbidden and the third floor corridor is off limits to anyone who does not wish to die a most painful death."
There was great deal of muttering at this
Dumbledore raised his hand and immediately the muttering ceased "Lastly the list of items not allowed in the corridors has grown to include fanged frisbees, the whole list is available in Mister Filch's office for any student who wishes to see it, now off to bed all of you."
A Ravenclaw fifth year stood up "All right, my name is Edwin McCullough, fifth year prefect. First years follow me; I'll show you to the common room."
"Do you know why the third floor corridor is forbidden?" one of the other first years asked him
"No, I don't. I do know that the Forbidden Forest is forbidden because there are tons of very dangerous animals there but the third floor corridor that's new."
Harry was intrigued…sounded like a mystery that needed investigating….first he'd have to figure out where the third floor corridor was.
Edwin led them up to one of the towers and eventually they came to a stop in front of an eagle-headed statue. Then he turned to them and said "Unlike the other houses, you don't need to have a special password to get into our common room, instead you have to solve a riddle. The riddle changes every few months, if you can't solve the riddle you will have to wait for someone who can to let you in"
Shortly after that the eagle opened its' mouth and asked
"What walks on four legs in the morning, two legs at noon and three legs at dusk?"
Harry was surprised, he knew that riddle. It was the riddle of the Sphinx from the myth of Oedipus.
"Anyone know the answer?" Edwin asked
Harry hesitated he knew, but he had heard it before…it felt a bit like cheating
For a moment no one spoke and then Edwin said "Well, I guess none of you are going to get to bed tonight-"
"A person" Harry said loudly
The eagle didn't reply verbally, it simply moved aside so the students could enter
They hurried into the common room "All right now, girls dormitories are on the left and the boys are on the right. A couple of other things you might want to know is that the Grey Lady is our ghost and our head of house is Professor Flitwick, the charms teacher. If you have any questions you can talk to either of them or to one of us prefects. Now good night"
Most of the students remained in the common room to linger but Harry didn't. He headed up to the boys dorm. His room was at the very top of the tower and he noticed that he would be sharing it with three other boys, Terry Boot, Michael Corner, and Anthony Goldstein. Anyway he went in and found his bed…the farthest from the door.
His bed was a four poster with several curtains…this suited Harry perfectly. He sat on the bed, closed the curtains around him and cast a block sound power. Then he pulled out his hollow tome. When he opened it, he discovered that it seemed to be working perfectly, even though Narcissa had said that muggle devices couldn't work around Hogwarts, that still didn't make sense to him.
Anyway he made his call to Dante
"Hi Harry" Dante greeted him "How do you like the school so far?"
"It's amazing!" Harry responded "It's an old castle and it's all magic, the staircases move-"
"moving staircases…you mean like an escalator?" Dante asked
"No, not at all, I mean whole stair cases swing around not just the steps."
"hmm, that seems like it might be a bit impractical" Dante said
Harry sighed "must you put a damper on my magic parade?"
"I'm sorry please continue" Dante responded his voice was serious but the amused look in his eyes and the slight smile on his face countered the tone very effectively
"Ok, so the pictures in this world move, they leave their frames and everything…I think I saw one of the suits of armor walking too."
"How about the sorting, what dorm are you?" Dante asked
'Oh, right. I'm in Ravenclaw…everyone seemed really surprised by that. Draco got into Slytherin like he wanted."
"Make any new friends?" Dante asked
"I don't know…Draco introduced me to his friends but I don't know if I will like them or not. I haven't met my dorm mates yet either." Harry responded "I haven' told you the most exciting thing yet…Dumbledore told us that the third floor corridor is out of bounds and no one knows why it's out of bounds."
"Be careful, Harry don't go looking for trouble." Dante warned
"I don't go looking for trouble, trouble finds me…but you worry too much, I am sure that they wouldn't put anything REALLY dangerous in the school." Harry said
"I wouldn't be so sure of that…" Dante replied
"Why?" Harry asked "Dumbledore's crazy but he's not THAT crazy…I don't think"
"I don't trust him" Dante said "I keep thinking about what we found at Gringotts, that man is up to something and I don't think it means anything good for you."
"I'll be fine" Harry repeated "think of it this way, avoiding Dumbledore's schemes will be good practice for when I have to avoid the Organization's schemes as a grown Seeker"
Dante opened his mouth but before he could speak Harry heard the door open.
"Someone's coming, gotta go" and he quickly closed the Hollotome and prepared to face his dorm mates.
AN: Just a note, Block Sound prevents sound from leaving a particular area but it doesn't prevent sound from entering, so that is why Harry was able to hear the door open even though the sound would have come from outside of his block sound barrier