This was it.

This was the meeting that Albus had been so dreading since the fateful sorting feast last week. Unfortunately, his own investigations into what exactly had transpired were unveiling more questions than answers. For one, the Hat actually was sapient, which raised all sorts of questions about the types of magic used in its creation. Sure, magical paintings imitated intelligence, but they lacked the fundamental ability to learn.

The Hat was intelligent. It had a mind of its own, and unfortunately, that mind was a little bit mad. Albus supposed that the long periods of isolation from year to year didn't do wonders for its sanity. He was sincerely regretting not consulting with the Hat more often, as so many previous headmasters did. Such were the downsides of having three full-time jobs.

The Hat was also terrifyingly intelligent, in spite of, or perhaps even because of, its madness. Every time Albus tried to find a way around the Hat's insane plan, he found himself blocked by some obscure clause in a long-forgotten term of the Hogwarts bylaws. It had taken him almost two weeks of navigating the unabridged bylaws before he finally conceded defeat. Now he just had to hope that his… guest… was able to see things in that light.

At that moment, a knock sounded on the office door, forcing Albus away from his thoughts. Without waiting for a response, a man with long, blonde hair and aristocratic features strode into the office.

"Dumbledore" Lucius Malfoy acknowledged, letting just a hint of distaste enter his tone.

"Hello, Lucius. I assume you are here to request several resortings on behalf of the board of governors?"

Lucius paused before replying. "Yes, that is why I am here. A great many families were upset not to have their children carry on their legacies. I trust that you have no intent to prevent the resortings from occurring? It wouldn't be good to be seen opposing the board of governors, after all."

Albus sighed. "I have no intent to interfere, but unfortunately, a resorting is not possible."

As Lucius processed that information, a scowl came onto his face. "And why, pray tell, is that?"

Another sigh escaped Albus's lips before he began speaking. "Because of an old clause in the Hogwarts bylaws that states that being sorted beneath the Sorting Hat constitutes a magically binding contract. In order to nullify that contract, both involved parties must consent to a resorting."

Lucius's voice now held a tone of anger. "And who... is the other party?"

Albus dejectedly gestured to the shelf where the Sorting Hat rested, directing Lucius's gaze to the left. "The Hat."

A deafening silence filled the room as Lucius processed this information. He turned back to Albus, cold anger evident in his tone.

"You mean to tell me that my son is forced to be in Gryffindor under threat of losing his magic because a hat says so?"

Another long pause.

"Yes."

"Hah! Serves the little shit right!" The Sorting Hat yelled.

Fury filled Lucius's expression as he stormed over to shout at the Hat.

As the shouting match went on, Albus softly banged his head against his desk.

Why couldn't he have a quiet year for once?

Anyone who had visited both the Hufflepuff and Gryffindor common rooms would note that, besides colour, they look almost identical.

While some might find this unusual, given the the Gryffindor common room is in a tower on the seventh floor and the Hufflepuff common room is in the basement, anyone familiar with magic knows better than to overthink such matters.

Each common room has a fireplace to the left of the entrance surrounded by sofas, and a wide variety of chairs, tables, and desks for students to use for work or relaxation. The stone floors in both rooms were covered in rugs bearing the house colours, and similarly coloured tapestries adorned the walls. The dormitories were also similar, with each year having one shared dorm for boys and one shared dorm for girls. The similarities ended there, though, as the Gryffindor dorms were built into the tower, and thus each year's dormitories were built on ascending levels, while the Hufflepuff dormitories were simply accessed from a hallway attached to the common room. Helga Hufflepuff also showed herself to be more progressive than Godric, and didn't install any gender-based wards on the entrance to the girls' dormitory.

That said, no student was able to remark on these changes, as no student had ever seen both dormitories, much to the ire of one Susan Bones.

Susan had spent much of her life with her childhood friend, Hannah. Between the death of her parents at the end of the blood war and her aunt's busy work schedule, Susan and Hannah wound up spending much of their childhood together.

That that stupid, spiteful Hat had twisted her words to separate them was bothering her much more than she would care to admit. And if the rumours following Malfoy Senior's visit to the headmaster's office were true, then the Hat was invoking obscure Hogwarts laws to prevent anyone from being resorted.

Susan never would have thought that an article of clothing could be petty.

She was still able to see Hannah, of course. Hufflepuffs and Gryffindors did share their herbology and astronomy classes. But those classes were both awful for social interaction, and the lack of a shared common room combined with the early curfew for first-years made it difficult to spend as much time with her as she'd like.

It was these facts that had Susan brooding in her common room just after lunch that day.

"You alright there, Susan?"

Susan looked up. She didn't even notice the seventh year sitting across from her until she spoke up.

"I'm fine, Miss…?"

"Tonks." she replied. "Just Tonks."

Susan stared at the girl's bright pink hair, trying to remember if they'd met anywhere before. The name seemed familiar, and yet…

"Do we know each other?"

Tonks shook her head. "Not directly, but I know your aunt through the auror internship I attended over the summer."

Ah, that would explain where she'd heard the name. Auntie had mentioned a clumsy intern named Tonks a few times.

"I'm fine, I just… the stupid Sorting Hat deliberately put me in a separate house from my friend. Between the early curfew and the lack of shared classes, we aren't able to spend as much time together as we used to."

Tonks leaned back and began chewing on a piece of bubblegum the same tone as her hair. 'Was that intentional on her part?' Susan wondered.

"Yeah, this year's sorting was an odd one. Very few people have been unhappy with their sortings in the past, but this year brought us a large bunch of dissatisfied students. So you don't like being in Hufflepuff?"

Susan shook her head. "No, it's not that, I'm just used to spending all of my time with Hannah, and I feel lonely without her."

"Learn to take the bad with the good, Susan." Tonks said as she stood up. "And making new friends isn't a betrayal of your existing ones."

Susan sat there thinking over those words. She really had been moping a lot, and aside from Crabbe and Goyle, everyone in her year was nice. Even Weasley, with all his awful table manners, had redeeming qualities. She supposed she really should reach out to more people.

She looked around the common room and saw one of the girls from her dorm sitting on her own with a book.

"Hi, it's Sophie, right? Do you mind if I sit here?"

If Harry thought he loved magic before attending Hogwarts, then he worshipped it now. Magic was amazing. Even with the minimal focus on practical work in the first two weeks of school, this was the most interesting schooling experience he had ever had.

The teachers were all decent… mostly. Okay, Professor Binns, the history teacher, could bore someone to death with one of lectures. Frankly, Harry wouldn't be surprised to learn that the reason the teacher was a ghost was that he had bored himself to death during one of his classes. His ability to lose people's interest did seem to be almost supernatural (no pun intended).

Herbology, History, and Astronomy were probably among the least interesting classes, since none of them involved the use of magic. History was all about Goblin rebellions. Honestly, listening to Binns' class, you'd think that wizards never did anything throughout history. Herbology was just more of the same gardening he did at the Dursley's, and Astronomy was… well, Harry didn't see what an astronomy class had to do with magic. It really seemed like the sort of class that would be taken as an elective.

Charms and Transfiguration were mostly covering theory and safety, though Flitwick had taught them the light charm, lumos. Harry did hope they would get on to the practical work soon, though. He was always more of a do-er than a thinker.

Defence Against the Dark Arts, though, that was an interesting class. Quirrell stuttered something awful, but the class ignored theory and focused solely on practical spellcasting. In the two weeks since school started, he had already learned three spells in the class, more than he'd learned in the others combined!

As Harry wandered aimlessly through the dungeon corridors, he reminisced on the other class he had: Potions. Potions was a lot like cooking, an activity Harry had no shortage of experience in. But while messing up a recipe can get you an inedible dish, messing up a potion tends to result in volatile explosions. The Slytherin prefects had thankfully explained that Professor Snape expected them to be fully versed in potions safety before their first class. Given how poorly the Gryffindors had performed , Harry was adding that as another advantage to being in Slytherin.

Harry was really liking being in Slytherin, reputation be damned. I mean, they basically had no rules. So long as they didn't start fights in public or get caught doing anything they shouldn't, they were basically given free reign. Harry had already spent several nights out after curfew exploring the labyrinthine (and often baffling) halls of Hogwarts. Years of avoiding Dudley's gang had given Harry plenty of experience in going around unnoticed. Professor Snape, their currently absent head of house, was even supposedly willing to bail them out of most trouble they managed to get themselves into, but he was currently uninvolved in the operation of Slytherin house for a "personal leave of duties". No one seemed to know why he was only abandoning his duties as head of house, since he was still teaching potions.

Overall, though, Harry was enjoying his life right now. It was way better than living with the Dursleys.

Okay, some things were still the same. He still didn't have friends (well, he had Hagrid, but no friends his own age). Before he didn't have friends because Dudley chased off everyone who was nice to him. Now all of the non-Slytherins assumed he was a dark-wizard-in-training. The Slytherins, on the other hand, took issue with him being the "boy-who-lived", but no one wanted to be the first one to make a stink about it.

Now, he didn't have to force himself to fail his classes for fear of showing up Dudley. And he was able to eat full meals. He was more than willing to accept the isolation he'd long since grown used to in exchange for the current luxuries afforded to him. "Better to be ignored than hated" was the mantra he'd taken to lately.

Realising that he was nearing the Slytherin common room entrance, Harry withdrew from his thoughts. Just because the other members of his house had avoided him so far didn't mean he trusted things to stay that way.

Thankfully, everyone continued whatever they were doing without sparing him a second glance. It was only as he was preparing to head off towards the dorms that he noticed the upper-year students in the corner surrounding and taunting someone.

"Uppity mudblood!"

The girl they have surrounded let out a choked sob as they taunted her.

"Listen here," the one in the centre said, "we don't want you in this house. Hell, we don't even want you in this school! So why don't you-"

Harry had heard enough at that point. He'd been on the receiving end of such talks enough times himself. He knew he stood no chance against three upper years, but he didn't need to fight them...

"Petrificus Totalis!"

The dim white bolt shot from Harry's wand and struck the upper-year in the back. Before the other students had time to react, Harry shoved his way past the immobilised student, grabbed their target by the wrist, and made a beeline for the door with her in tow. The other students wouldn't be far behind once the shock wore off, but Harry had managed to find a few secret passages that looked like they'd been unused for some time…

Once Harry was convinced that they hadn't been followed, he ducked into one of the many unused classrooms that adorned every hall in Hogwarts. For the first time, he got a good look at the student he'd rescued. Her brown, bushy hair was immediately recognisable, though it took him a minute to place the name.

"...Hermione?"

She sniffed, evidently, still distraught, but managed to get out a faint "…thank you…"

Harry had no experience dealing with girls his own age, let alone distressed ones, so he decided his best course of action was to play it off.

"Um… It's no problem… Are you okay?"

Panic flooded Harry's brain as Hermione grabbed him and started sobbing into his shoulder.

This was not the response he was hoping for.

Her sobbing was rendering her pretty incoherent, but Harry can make out a few bits like "everyone hates me" or "alone".

Okay, so compassion and reassurance would probably be the best route. Not that Harry has experience with either of those.

"Uh, look, I don't hate you, so…"

Her sobbing did seem to calm down at that, so he was probably on the right track.

"…Look, I'm alone a lot, too. I know what it's like to be alone, and I'm used to it, but if you'd like to be friends…"

That got a response. Unfortunately, that response was to tighten her grip on Harry and sob harder. Which was the opposite of what he wanted to happen.

Thankfully, she managed to calm herself enough to get out a clear "Thank you". Harry wondered if she'd been trying to communicate that through the sobs.

"Look, Harry, I'm… sorry to have dumped this on you, but so far everyone has hated me and I've never been this isolated, even when I was in primary school because at least then I could go home to my parents when the other kids teased me or ignored me but the nastiness here has been even worse because my parents are muggles and I was honestly wondering if being here was even worse it anymore and…"

Seeing her pause for breath, Harry jumped in. "Look! It's fine! I've been alone for most of my life, so I know what that's like. If you've been feeling alone, why don't we just meet up in the library tomorrow to do our homework. We can head there straight after our first broomstick lesson."

A smile crossed Hermione's face for the first time at the mention of "library".

"I think that sounds great."

A pair of dark green eyes watched Potter's altercation in the Slytherin common room with great interest.

"Well, Daphne," Tracey said to her blonde companion, "it seems the situation in the snake pit has just gotten a fair bit more interesting."

Daphne's eyes failed to leave her book as she responded. "So the 'boy-who-lived' has befriended the infamous 'Slytherin mudblood'. I fail to see how this should interest us."

Tracey shook her head. "You're not seeing the big picture here, Daph. Something went screwy during the sorting ceremony. Malfoy and Parkinson went to Gryffindor. Bulstrode went to Ravenclaw. Weasley, Crabbe, and Goyle went to Hufflepuff. And our own house got a muggleborn and the 'saviour of the light'. One or two odd sortings would be a reasonable thing to brush off; after all, not everyone will meet expectations. This, though? This is endemic. And those two students who just walked out of here together are the nexus of this issue in our own house."

Daphne turned a page in her book. "…You want to approach them."

"No, not yet. Potter is likely to get caught up in the controversy surrounding Granger, and that sort of reputation damage isn't something either you or I want to risk dealing with. For the time being, I say we just watch, and see how they handle things from here."

Silence filled their corner of the common room, broken only by the occasional page being turned in Daphne's book.

"Daphne," Tracey said after a while, "What can you tell me about house Potter?"

Daphne carefully marked the page in her book and closed it before speaking.

"House Potter's earliest records can be traced to 1532, making the family 459 years old at present."

"So, like the Greengrasses, the family's not considered old enough for a Wizengamot seat."

"Correct. The family can claim the noble title by virtue of being the only descendants of the Peverell line, though no one has yet done so. Unfortunately for them, their relation to the Peverells can be traced back to shortly after the earliest records of house Potter, while the Peverell name only died out 200 years ago, so they were deemed 'too distantly related' to claim the Peverell house seat."

"Huh. Anything else worth noting?"

"Well, Potter is one of only two people related closely enough to the Black family seat after the death of Arcturus Black last year. However, Draco Malfoy has a better claim because he is more closely related, and because Potter's paternal grandmother, Dorea Potter née Black, was disinherited for marrying a Potter. Dorea would have to be posthumously reinstated for Potter to have an earnest claim, and with Arcturus dead, and no unincarcerated family bearing the Black name, there's no Head of the family to do so."

"Still, a relation to the Black family, even a disinherited one, is nothing to scoff at. What's the family's stance typically been on blood purity?"

"Progressive. While the family itself was pureblood until James Potter married Lily Evans, they typically promoted an agenda that was designed to help muggleborns. Fleamont Potter's potions business actually employed a large number of squibs, a move unheard of at the time."

"Interesting… Well, thanks for the infodump, Daph. I knew there was a reason I kept you around."

"Doesn't explain why I keep you around…" Daphne muttered as she reopened her book.

"You know you love me, Greengrass."

Tracey's eyes' wandered around the common room, mentally weighing the events of the day.

"Yeah, definitely keep an eye on them…" Tracey said to herself. The Hat said she would jump at any advantage she would see, and she'd be a fool to pass up on a potential opportunity like this.

A/N: Lucius Malfoy being outwitted by a hat was one of the first scenes I came up with when conceptualising this story.

I made a few adjustments to canon for the sake of my story. For one, Dorea is officially Harry's great aunt, not his grandmother. The reason for this change will come up later. Much later. Also, neither the Greengrasses nor the Potters are part of the Sacred Twenty-eight in this story. I am not about to hand my protagonists major advantages on a silver platter. If they want to succeed, they have to work for it, dammit.