The window disappeared and Harry was left standing in front of the Sorting Hat. Harry shouted "What? I'm not not supposed to be in Hufflepuff!"
He turned to Professor McGonagall and said, "This has to be some sort of mistake."

Professor McGonagall replied, "The Sorting Hat has made its decision. Please take your seat at the Hufflepuff table."

Harry said, "No, you don't understand. I was supposed to be sorted into Gryffindor!"

Harry experienced a sense of unreality as McGonagall spoke again. "The Sorting Hat has made its decision," she said, repeating herself exactly. "Please take your seat at the Hufflepuff table."

Harry stared at her. "Ugh," he finally said, "fine." Harry trudged to the Hufflepuff table. A young boy sitting at the table shouted his name. "Harry! Hey Harry!"
Harry didn't recognize the boy, but as he approached the table the boy quickly made an opening for Harry.

There didn't seem to be any other spots open at the table, so Harry took the offered seat.
"Hah!" the boy shouted exultantly. "I told you you'd be in Hufflepuff, didn't I?"

Harry was about to correct the stranger's mistake when the scene faded to black before his eyes.

The next scene opened inside a large train station filled with throngs of people coming and going their own directions. A stylized font appeared in white letters in the foreground, reading "King's Cross Station". After a second the words faded away with a sparkle, and Harry's viewpoint changed dramatically. It zoomed around, examining the interior walls and stairs, flying past trains and train tracks, and breezing past the crowds before finally shooting into the back of a scrawny black-haired figure dressed in wizard's robes.

Harry yelped and threw his hands in front of his face.

After a second Harry realized he hadn't collided with anything, so he slowly lowered his hands.

Harry had his body back, but there was no sign of the person he had almost crashed into. Perhaps he had scurried off before Harry collided with him? Yes, that seemed reasonable.

Harry looked around. Although he had seen large crowds of people just seconds ago while on his flyby, the station was now almost completely deserted. He was standing between Platforms 3 and 4, and the only people to be seen were a pair of adults in wizarding robes several platforms away. Standing next to them was a young boy dressed in the same fashion, and beyond them was a push-cart full of random objects.
Harry had a good view of the Station and, aside from those three people, there wasn't a single person to be seen in any direction.

Harry started to walk towards the rather obvious wizards when a window popped up in front of his face. Harry yelped and jerked backwards, almost falling over.

The message read:
Hint: Check your inventory from the menu to read your Hogwarts acceptance letter!

Harry stopped. "Check your inventory..." he said, reading the message, which shortly disappeared.

"But how do I do that?" he asked.

There was no response.

Harry patted his robes, as if maybe they were his "inventory", but there was nothing in the robes except for Harry James Potter.

"How do I check my inventory?" Harry asked again, hoping for some sort of response.

Unfortunately, nobody responded.

With a sigh, Harry walked forwards toward the wizards again. The sound of Harry's footsteps echoed unnervingly as he walked. The boy had left while Harry had been distracted, and now it was just the two adult wizards who stood there. Harry stopped walking and observed them. He couldn't see their features from behind, but they didn't appear to be doing anything.

What are they waiting for? Harry wondered.

Come to think of it, what am I doing here?

Now that Harry wasn't being dragged from one reality to another, he realized that he wasn't sure what he was doing here or why.
Or even where "here" was.

Harry sat down on a nearby bench and tried to puzzle it out.

He knew where he was... and then again he didn't know where he was.

On one hand, this looked like King's Cross Station. The wizarding couple were standing where Platform Nine and Three Quarters should be, and the boy he'd seen had probably gone through when Harry hadn't been looking.

On the other hand, King's Cross should have been packed with people at this time of day. Instead, it appeared to be almost completely abandoned.

Harry pondered on this.

Okay, so I'm in a place that may or may not be King's Cross Station. I went to Diagon Alley, got my equipment (sort of), then arrived in Hogwarts without taking the Hogwarts Express.

Is this somehow supposed to make up for that? Is that why I'm the only person here? Because you have to arrive at Hogwarts by train, and I missed that, so now they're trying to fix the problem?

That made some sense, but Harry wasn't convinced.

Harry looked around. If this really was King's Cross he knew where the exits were. He could get out now and try to leave all this insanity behind him. He could skip going to Hogwarts and look for a place where people didn't repeat themselves like they were Imperio'd. A place where text windows wouldn't randomly pop up in front of him. A place where things were nice and normal and most importantly sane.

Then again, could he really leave Hogwarts? It might be different from how he remembered it, but Hogwarts had been a very important part of his life for six years. He had taken classes there, made lifelong friends there, and overcome challenges there. It was where he had grown up, and where he had become both a wizard and a man.

Could he really leave it all behind?

Should he leave it all behind?

Harry looked around him. He looked at the eerily abandoned train station. He looked at the space between Platforms 9 and 10 and the wizarding couple that stood in front of it. He looked at the empty stairs and walkways in King's Cross Station.

Harry stood up. He had made his decision.

Author's Note:

That contest I mentioned last chapter? It lasted a whole 3 days before somebody correctly identified the character. I guess it wasn't as obscure as I had thought. :P

The character was Juri from Yu Yu Hakusho.

Zex, I have your cameo planned but it might be a bit before I can work it in. You'll know it when you see it.