This chapter is shorter than the others or then I would like, but it reached a point that just fit for me to end it. Hope you like it :)

Again please don't expect chapter to be posted this quick all the time. I am still working from the old ones which speeds this up a lot. There might be a few more quick updates before things slow down to a more normal speed.

Enjoy :)

XXX

Disclaimer: I own nothing :(

XXX

Beta: alexis. metoyer. 1

XXX

Chapter 3- Genus Hat

XXX

After a rather stomach churning trip via Portkey to Platform 9 ¾, Harry was thankfully about to lose Hermione and the other Muggleborn First Years in the crowd they were faced with. His red hat was pulled low to cover his scar, and the brim was shadowing his face enough that people didn't look twice at him.

He had seen several people who were dressed in expensive clothing sending the group he arrived with disgusted glares, but didn't really care enough to comment on it. He had been practically living in the Wizarding World for several weeks and had seen the blatant bigotry many of the older and richer Magical Families showed to those born or raised by 'Muggles'.

He had even taken the time to look into it more deeply. He realised that they were even bigger idiots then he had first assumed; their ideology of 'Blood Purity' was medieval and would lead to the older families' eventual extinction. The inbreeding they practiced was already starting to cause issues- mainly the increase in the number of 'Squibs' born- that they refused to acknowledge. Anyone with a rudimentary understanding of genetics could see that they were poisoning their own bloodlines in a blind attempt to avoid 'contaminating' themselves with 'impure stock'.

None of their logic makes sense!

After all, no matter what they claimed, any Wizard Family that could trace their family tree back long enough would eventually see that the first Witch or Wizard of their family was a Muggleborn. Muggleborns were simply the First Generation magic users of their Muggle family. They would eventually be considered 'Pure Bloods' if judging by the current standard of 'Blood Purity'.

The whole issue did nothing but prove that the Wizarding Community as a whole was a bunch of idiots. As far as Harry was concerned, he was happy to leave them to their ignorance as they slowly poisoned their families.

Because it was still early, most of the students that would be boarding the train were still waiting outside on the platform talking with their friends and families. This meant Harry had plenty of choices for empty compartments. He eventually settled for one a few compartments away from the back of the train, close to where the toilets were, and pulled out a book on Runes to read.

He ignored the sounds outside his compartment as more and more people started to board. It became increasingly harder, however, when they started shouting to each other between compartments.

Harry made a mental note to move learning the Silencing Charm to the top of his to do list if this was how it was going to be for the whole year.

Finally giving it up as a lost cause, Harry let out a sigh and put his book down. He pulled his legs up so they were crossed under him on the seat and closed his eyes with his Grimoire in his lap. While he slowed his breathing, he concentrated on his thoughts like he had been doing since starting his Occlumency training.

When he opened his eyes again, Harry found he was no longer looking at the inside of the compartment. Instead, he appeared to be inside a walled off room designed like a study. Bookcases lined the walls surrounding a large wooden table in the center of the room. The only light in the room came from several candles that never seemed to get smaller. Harry himself was sitting in a comfortable leather armchair with a cup of tea resting on a table on his right, his feet up on a small footrest in front of him. His Grimoire was lying on the table next to his tea, but the chains weren't connecting him to it.

The whole room had a slightly Victorian look and feel to it that Harry found relaxing.

Taking a sip of the tea, Harry let out a relaxed sigh as he stood up and walked over to the table. Despite it not being real tea, it tasted and felt the same from his memory, so he didn't care.

This room was Harry's Mental Core- the real one. Not the fake core he had constructed in the centre of his Maze defense. Although it closed off from the rest of the Maze, it was actually hidden under that room in such a way that only Harry should be able to find it. It was actually the only part of his Mind Harry really spent any time in; it was from this place that he created and controlled the rest of his defenses.

The books on the walls are the information and memories he had yet to sort into their proper place in the maze. However, the most important part of the room was the large table he was now looking down on- mainly, what was on the table. Covering every inch of the table was a Maze created mostly out of black Lego blocks; several of the walls being made from white blocks that represented the hidden doors. The red blocks were the trap rooms with unimportant information.

Without paying much attention to his movements, Harry started rearranging several of the walls and changing the layout of the Maze. The sound of stone grinding against stone was reaching his ears from a distance as the Maze that protected his mind moved to match the Maze on the table.

After doing this for several minutes, Harry moved to the bookcase and picked a book at random, quickly flipping through it to see what it held. When turning back to the model Maze, he took a few seconds to contemplate before holding the book over a particular part of the Maze in the east section. The room held a red door, and after Harry dropped the book, it disappeared in a flash of light before even touching the model. Harry then sensed the book on a shelf inside the room within the Maze.

It was a slow process really, but not compared to most users of Occlumency. Harry was a Prodigy and the speed he was working at would be considered impossible to most. While from his perspective within his mind it seemed slow, only seconds were passing outside in the real word.

That was another interesting thing about Occlumency. The brain worked faster than most people realised, and when Harry was in his head, he was working at the brain's speed. One of the reasons Occlumency was so hard to learn was because people needed time to adjust to the speed difference between their mind and their body. It could be disorientating at first and usually took months- or even years- to adjust before someone could even begin to build up their defenses.

In fact, a 'Mind Battle'- as many books called it- which was when a user of Occlumency came under attack from a user of Legilimency, could be seconds in the real world while lasting hours in the minds of the two who were fighting.

It was all very interesting to Harry, though at the moment he had no interest in learning or using Legilimency. He only read enough about it to help build up his defenses because you can't guard against something you don't understand.

Harry spent hours flipping through books one at a time before dropping them into the correct place in the Maze. He would also stop periodically to move and change the layout of the maze. Unfortunately, every time he took a book off the shelf to be sorted, another would appear to take its place. It was tedious but necessary work, and Harry found it almost therapeutic to sort through his own thoughts. It was a mindless job which was ironic considering where he was. It just didn't take a lot of thought to do.

Unfortunately, all too soon Harry was forced to leave his work for another time when he felt someone start to shake his real body's shoulder in an attempt to get his attention.

Frowning as he put the book currently in his hands in the right section of the Maze, he closed his eyes with controlled breathing as he returned to the outside world.

XXX

Harry came back to his now stiff body with a groan and frowned at the one shaking him. His eyes slowly opened to the sight of Hermione glaring at him with a nervous round face boy standing behind her.

Harry had hoped he had lost her, but it seemed his luck didn't hold up.

"You better have a bloody, good reason for breaking my concentration?" Harry asked as he stared the two down. Hermione pulled her hand away, and he didn't miss the way her eyes seemed to glance down at the Grimoire in his lap before moving back to his face, either.

"You were asleep," Hermione stated stiffly.

"I was meditating and working on my Occlumency when you broke my concentration," Harry corrected.

While Hermione clearly had no clue what he was talking about, Harry saw the comprehension flash through the round-faced boy's eyes for a moment. When he looked back down at the floor and shuffled nervously, Harry turned his attention to the new face.

"Who the hell are you and what do you want?"

Before the boy could speak, Hermione stepped between them.

"That's Neville-" she started to say, but Harry interrupted her.

"I was asking him; I assume he knows how to speak and doesn't need you to do it for him."

His usual bored tone seemed to shut her up for the moment since an embarrassed blush spread across her cheeks and she stepped back again. The now named Neville looked like he wanted to sink into the ground when Harry turned his full attention back on him, looking down and rubbing his hands together nervously.

"N-Neville Longbottom… I'm looking for my toad, Trever and…" Neville mumbled quietly before trailing off at the end.

"Why not ask an older student to use a summoning charm on your toad? I heard there are Prefects that you can ask; why not go find one of them?" Harry asked this as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

Both Hermione and Neville spent the next five seconds blinking at him, before letting out uncomfortable chuckles that made him sigh.

"Let me guess; the thought never even occurred to you. What was your plan? To go to each compartment and ask if anyone had seen him?" They both blushed more fiercely at his words, which Harry assumed was a yes.

Shaking his head, Harry picked up the book on the seat next to him that he had been reading before he had started meditating. Already reading, he didn't even look up as they both left in search of a Prefect. He was sorely tempted to lock the door behind them to avoid any more visitors.

XXX

Harry kept himself to the back of the group of first years as they were led into the hallway to wait to be called into the Great Hall. Hermione and Neville were standing on either side of him for some reason.

Since returning to the compartment on the train, the two hadn't left his side and he had even been forced to take a boat across the lake with them. Locking the door to the compartment didn't work in the end because Hermione had kept banging on it until he let them back in. He had had to eventually give in because she was making it impossible for him to read.

Harry had reluctantly put on the school robes, but instead of the stupid little pointy hat he had decided to keep his red cap on. He had gotten several looks for it, but he just ignored them. He was just grateful it covered his scar.

Even now he could hear several people talking about Harry Potter, asking if anyone had seen him yet. He had seen Hermione sending him the odd look out of the corner of her eye, glancing from his face to his covered forehead before turning away when he looked at her. She had definitely figured out who he was, but thankfully hadn't tried to point him out yet. If nothing else, it made him hate her a little less.

Neville seemed to be more preoccupied with his recovered toad which had been summoned by a female Prefect from Hufflepuff. Apparently, Trever had been hiding in the girls toilet on the train and had gone unnoticed sitting inside it for several hours.

The screams of the 6th year girl that had been sitting on the toilet when the toad was being summoned could be heard throughout the entire train. They were enough to make even Harry laugh when she had come running by his compartment with her jeans around her ankles and the toad flying behind her. He had even taken the time out of his reading to file the memory safely in his mind maze for later viewing.

Tuning back in to the present, Harry looked to the front of the crowd to see Professor McGonagall standing in front of them. He didn't miss the way her eyes moved disapprovingly over a red headed boy's dirty nose, Neville's unbuttoned robes, or his old, red hat. However, she didn't call him out on it, so Harry decided not to worry.

Clearly, he had left an impression on the usually stern professor. She had realised that to argue with him about it would only give her a headache.

A moment later they were all led into the Great Hall, immediately met with floating candles, an enchanted ceiling to look like the night sky, and a sea of faces staring at them. There were five tables in all; four separate ones for the students with their house banner hanging above each one, and the teachers' table at the front of the hall.

As they were led to form a line at the front of the room, Harry barely paid the students any attention and moved with the crowd of his fellow 1st years.

McGonagall walked forward with a stool in one hand and a ratty old hat in the other that she hadn't had a moment ago and stepped away. The hall fell into silence as all eyes turned to the hat.

Harry looked on with bored eyes waiting for something to happen, only to actually be surprised along with everyone else when a rip in the hat started moving as if it were a mouth and 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 black,

Your top hats sleek and tall,

For I'm the Hogwarts Sorting Hat

And I can cap them all.

There's nothing hidden in your head

The Sorting Hat can't see,

So try me on and I will tell you

Where you ought to be.

You might belong in Gryffindor,

Where dwell the brave at heart,

Their daring, nerve, and chivalry

Set Gryffindors apart;

You might belong in Hufflepuff,

Where they are just and loyal,

Those patient Hufflepuffs are true

And unafraid of toil;

Or yet in wise old Ravenclaw,

if you've a ready mind,

Where those of wit and learning,

Will always find their kind;

Or perhaps in Slytherin

You'll make your real friends,

Those cunning folks use any means

To achieve their ends.

So put me on! Don't be afraid!

And don't get in a flap!

You're in safe hands (though I have none)

For I'm a Thinking Cap!"

Harry was fascinated by the seemingly sentient hat which could be seen when his eyes actually opened fully without any boredom. It had to have been the first time in years. Was the hat actually sentient, or was it a trick? Was it artificial intelligence achieved through magic instead of computer?

Unfortunately, before he could spend any more time to consider the fascinating magical object, his attention was pulled away by the sound of McGonagall speaking to them. Her stern voice cut like a knife through the applause from the students that he had only just noticed. They all fell silent.

"When I call your name, you will come forward and take a seat, and I will place The Sorting Hat on your head. You will then be sorted into your houses," McGonagall said in a tone that implied she had said those same words many times.

Harry's attention once again drifted as the other 1st years were called up one by one. He cared very little for where anyone- or even he himself- was placed. He did listen with one ear as Hermione and Neville were sorted into Gryffindor. He thought it an odd fit for Hermione, who he was sure would have been sent to the 'Brain House' as he thought of it. Moreover, he didn't know enough about Neville to question his placement, but he did seem a little too skittish for the house.

Hermione was a bookworm through and through, though, not that he was one to talk. However, Harry also liked the practical side of work, too. That was something he wasn't sure would be the brown haired girl's forte. Neville, on the other hand, was an open book- shy and lacking in confidence. Yet after finding his toad, the boy had returned to the compartment despite the fact Harry made him uncomfortable. He clearly had a backbone hidden somewhere.

"Potter, Harry," called McGonagall.

The moment his name passed McGonagall's lips, all sound in the hall stopped. Heads turned as one to the stool. It would have been a very unnerving sight if he hadn't been expecting it; even the Professors were suddenly leading forward in their seats!

Frowning at the attention, Harry slowly made his way to the stool with a bored expression on his face. He also didn't miss the faces of Hermione and Neville at their table, but didn't care enough to note their reactions.

He took the seat without a word and removed his hat. Not a moment later his sight was covered by the brim of the Sorting Hat.

Then suddenly he was back in his mind, standing in his Core Room.

"Well now, it has been many a year since I have sat on the head of someone like yourself, Mr. Potter. And such an interesting Occlumency defense, as well… It almost had me stumped for a moment there..." said a slightly croaky voice from behind him.

Slowly turning to face the intruder in his mind, Harry was a little surprised to come face to face with…himself- or at least a version of himself. The colours of his doppelganger were faded, leaving him mostly in black and white with grey to blend the two together- not unlike an old photo. It also had the sorting hat on its head which covered the top of its face and eyes. It actually made it look like the folds of the hat were the top of its face.

It wasn't looking at him directly, but mostly at his model Maze on the table. A slightly glowing hand was held over it, moving over the rooms holding his memories and knowledge. It paused for a moment over some rooms and then continued its movement. It even took the time to move several of the pieces around, not unlike Harry himself did.

Harry blinked, slowly becoming calm as he watched what he understood to be a representation of the Sorting Hat. Oddly enough, after taking a moment to think it over he wasn't all that surprised, or even upset, that the Hat had apparently broken through his Maze without apparent effort. It just meant he would need to work hard and find the crack it had used to get into his Core Room.

Harry moved to stand next to the hat as it continued its examination.

"Do you mind if I ask how you got through it? If there is a hole in my defense, I would like to cover it so others cannot use it. Also, do you have a name, or should I just call you 'Sorting Hat'?" Harry asked as he also looked over the Model.

The Hat actually paused at his last question for a moment before carrying on as if it never happened. He let out a quick laugh.

"…HA! In all my years you are the only person to ever ask me my name. You may call me…Genus. Genus Hat is my name." Harry couldn't help but snort quietly. The Sorting Hat's name was Latin for 'Sorting Hat'. He should have known.

"As for how I got in, you don't need to worry. Your defense is very impressive and there are no 'cracks', as you put it. You simply cannot defend from yourself…" explained Genus, trailing off at the end and actually looking at Harry out of the corner of his…eye?

Frowning slightly as he thought it over, Harry once again took in the form of the hat, a copy of Harry himself…that was it. Genus used a copy of Harry himself to slip past the Maze and straight into his Core Room. The Maze didn't work because Harry went straight to his Core Room and Genus, at the moment, was Harry.

He couldn't help but smirk, "Very clever." Genus seemed to finally finish his examination with a sigh.

"Thank you, Mr. Potter…can I call you Harry?" After a nod a quick nod from Harry, he continued, "Good. But now there is a problem, Harry, because I honestly don't know where to put you," Genus ended with a sigh and a frown on his clothed face.

Harry raised an eyebrow at this, but didn't show any other emotion, "Has this ever happened before?"

"Never in all my years of sorting. There have been tough choices, of course; sometimes a mind will be fit for two or three houses. You, however, are different," Genus said as he moved to sit on Harry's chair.

"You are more than smart enough for Ravenclaw- too smart in fact. I fear that by placing you in that house the others will kill themselves trying to compete with you, so I cannot send you there. Hufflepuff wouldn't work; you have no true understanding of loyalty or people, and hard work is not really necessary for one such as yourself. You have no true fear, but at the same time there is no bravery that would allow me to place you in Gryffindor. Slytherin may have been a good fit as you are more than cunning enough, but you have no true goal or ambition. You truly are an interesting person Harry…would you like to be placed in any particular house? Choose where you want to go?" The 'cloth' eyebrow lifted slightly in question.

Harry merely gave an indifferent shrug, "I have no real preference. I personally feel the system is outdated and should have been abolished by now. No offense to you of course, but separating students seems to only ensure house rivalry."

"I am afraid you are correct, but I was created to sort and that is what I must do," said Genus with a tired voice as he leaned back in the chair.

To many it may have seemed weird that he was having a philosophical conversation with a mind reading Hat, but Harry was able to take the oddness in stride.

However, the tiredness quickly disappeared from Genus. He sat up suddenly, seeming to have realised something important since a large grin spread across his clothed mouth.

"Well, I guess this is goodbye for now, Harry. Do remember to visit me when you have finished your Occlumency training. Speaking to you and getting past your defenses has been the most fun I've had in centuries," Genus practically jumped to his feet before Harry could comment.

He found himself once again sitting on the stool in the Great Hall with the brim of the hat over his eyes. Everything was quiet as everyone waited for Genus to announce his House.

"I have been waiting a long time to say this. Better be…Peverell!"

The silence lasted for another five seconds before all hell broke loose.

XXX

So a little more detail about how Harry's Occlumency defences works this time around, I hope you liked it. I thought the model of the Maze would be an interesting/funny way for Harry to control it, and the Lego was just a little fun on my part that worked in nicely.

Also decided to put Harry into the house I planned to put him in originally, though before I was going to have him out in it his second year I realised there wasn't much point waiting.