hello guys, third chapter of the series. Thanks to all who have read and a special thanks to all those who took the extra minute to review.
Professor McGonagall opened the door.
"The firs'-years, Professor McGonagall ," said Hagrid.
"Thank you, Hagrid. I will take them from here."
She then led them into the Entrance Hall, and into the empty chamber from there. She then gave her usual speech which she gave to every new first year batch.
"Welcome to Hogwarts," she said, "The start-of-term banquet will begin shortly-" Harry then zoned out, and instead concentrated whether he should follow the original timeline and the people's expectations and go to Gryffindor, or go to another house, Slytherin, perhaps. He knew that he would have to tell this to Hermione and then wait to see which house she goes in. Maybe if she goes in Hufflepuff or Ravenclaw, they may be able to follow (he still had doubts about Ron being able to make into Ravenclaw), he then focused back on what McGonagall was saying, and found that she had left the chamber. Just as he was about to tell Hermione what he was thinking, the ghosts streamed in from the back wall.
Hermione, he noticed was just standing behind him, so he turned around, cast a Muffliato around them as silently as he could, and then said to her, "Hermione, I'm thinking that what if we abandon Gryffindor, and go to another house, Slytherin, perhaps. What do you think?"
Hermione thought for a few seconds. Then she replied, "Harry, if we do something this big, the consequences will be immense. Have you even thought of it?"
"Umm... Actually no. I haven't thought of any consequences," replied Harry honestly.
"One second, let's take Ron in on this," said Hermione.
She called Ron, who was standing beside her, looking at the ghosts.
"Ron, do you think that we should change our houses this time?" asked Hermione.
Ron looked at her dumbstruck, for a very long second. Then he seemed to break out of his stupor, and said, "Mom will kill me if I even think of getting into any other house other than Gryffindor."
Hermione looked at Harry, waiting for an answer.
Harry responded, "Well I hadn't thought from this angle. Well then we'll just stick to Gryffindor."
"That's settled then," said Hermione.
"Move along now," said McGonagall, "The Sorting Ceremony's about to start."
"Now, form a line," she said, "and follow me."
They entered the Great Hall in all its splendour and glory, as it was before the destruction of the War.
McGonagall led them to the front of the hall, facing the Head table. Then she placed the Sorting Hat on the stool and it began singing its song.
Then she began calling out the names, starting with 'Abbott, Hannah', and then continuing till 'Granger, Hermione', whom Harry watched in dreadful anxiety as she seemed to sit there forever. Then the Hat called out loudly, "GRYFFINDOR".
Then the turn came for Harry. He had almost forgotten the stares that he had got from the school. He walked defiantly to the Hat, though he was worried inside whether he would still be sorted in Gryffindor or not, and put it on his head.
"Hello Harry Potter. I see that you all are from the future. To be honest, the last time that I had seen people travelling back in time so long was quite a few centuries ago. I suppose you'll want to follow Miss Granger to Gryffindor then, or perhaps you'd like to go to Slytherin."
"Oh no, I can't go to Slytherin, if the three of us get separated it would be a disaster on its own. We have to stay together."
"You know, I believe you should go in Slytherin, but if you say so," said the hat reluctantly before Harry interrupted it, "Are you compelled to tell anything and everything you hear to the Headmaster or anyone else?"
"No, I am charmed protect the secrets of the children who pass under me, and would rather die before telling anyone," replied the hat.
"Ok, so let me tell you, the reason why you're feeling the very strong urge to put me in Slytherin is because a shard of Tom Riddle's soul inhabits my head inside that scar," said Harry, and since the hat was about to scream, Harry calmed it down by saying, "Don't worry, I'll have it removed as early as possible."
Then, just as McGonagall was about to come and take the hat off to know what was taking so long, it shouted "GRYFFINDOR" with all its might, as if to mock Riddle.
The Gryffindor table broke into loud and raucous cheers with the Weasley twins singing 'We got Potter, We got Potter' over and over again. He was then again surrounded by everyone who wanted to introduce themselves to the Boy-Who-Lived.
He very calmly and politely shook everyone's hands. And then, as soon as everyone moved back, he focused on the sorting. Ron was just moving towards the Hat and as soon as he put it on, the hat, without even deliberating for a second, shouted 'GRYFFINDOR'.
The rest of the meal went in silence, or as much silence could be expected at the Welcoming Feast.
It seemed after no time at all that they were being led to the Gryffindor common room by Percy.
"Caput Draconis," said Percy as they entered the common room.
He then directed all of them to their dormitories.
As soon as they were in their dormitory, they simply went to sleep.
2nd September, 1991
Harry woke up tomorrow morning feeling a bit confused about being in his Hogwarts four-poster. But slowly he came to his senses and then remembered what had happened.
He went to the bathroom, came out, and began waking up all the others who had not woken up until now. Harry's habit, or rather what became a habit after constantly being woken up early every single day by Aunt Petunia over 10 long years. This time, Harry decided, that he would be friends with as many people as he could, not just Ron and Hermione like last time. And if possible, he would try to erase the inter-house boundaries too. But in order to plan any of that, he would have to discuss with Ron and Hermione about it.
Well, the three Gryffindor first year boys (apart from Ron of course) were quite confused to be woken up by the Boy-Who-Lived. As it was, they changed into their Hogwarts robes and soon they all went down to their common room, where they found Hermione just exiting the common room with Lavender and Parvati.
They went to the Great Hall, with Harry in the lead, who was continuously asking portraits and ghosts whether they were going the right way, as he did not want it to appear as if he already knew the paths around the castle.
Soon they arrived and Harry sat down beside Hermione, and the rest of them sat down beside and opposite him. He began a sort of casual conversation with Hermione and the others. Slowly they opened up and all of them began discussing various topics, or at least what could be expected from a bunch of mostly first years.
Soon Professor McGonagall arrived and started handing them their timetables. Harry checked his, they had Potions with the Slytherins, followed by Charms, and then after lunch, DADA, and finally Herbology with the Hufflepuffs.
They all headed to the dungeons to go to Potions, where Harry knew he would be questioned by Snape, on potions and substances which, he now knew, he would have only known had he studies the full year's syllabus. He also thought that since Snape was a master Occlumens as well as a Legilimens, he may be tempted to peek in the mind of the son of his rival and the love of his life, or just the Boy-Who-Lived. With that thought, Harry began checking his Occlumency shields and found that, though they were not what he had developed after the War, they were there. He quickly took Ron and Hermione a little to the side, secured their conversation with Muffliato, and whispered to them, "Make sure you keep your Occlumency shields as high as you can and don't make eye contact." He thought he was prepared now.
Snape began the class by calling names off his register, and when he came to Harry's name, he paused. "Ah, yes," he said softly, "Harry Potter, our new — celebrity."
"Sir, I hardly think that I qualify as a celebrity, because, from what I know, my mother was the one because of whose sacrifice I was able to survive Vol-sorry The Dark Lord's Killing Curse. So I think that she should be the one to be honoured," said Harry and he saw Snape's mask slip for a just a second which showed the surprise within. But soon it was schooled back to his famous sneer.
"Potter, I believe you just lost a point for cheek," said Snape, sneering at him. Harry wasn't much affected by it though, as he knew Snape had vowed to protect his life at all costs, and he understood that it would be agonising seeing the face of Lily's son, when Snape thought he was responsible for her death.
He then began his speech about the subtle science and exact art of potion making. As soon as he finished his speech, he rounded up on Harry, who knew it would happen.
"Potter, what would I get if I get powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?" asked Snape.
Harry noticed, that this time around, Hermione wasn't practically jumping up and down on her seat in her eagerness to answer. She had just raised her hand, just enough for the others to know that even she knew the answer. To Harry's slight surprise, even Ron had raised his hand defiantly amidst sniggers from the Slytherins.
"A sleeping potion so powerful it is known as The Draught of Living Death, sir. It puts the victim to such a deep sleep that for all means and purposes he appears dead until he is given the antidote, sir," replied Harry.
Snape was surprised a little, most people would have missed it but not Harry. There was just a little widening of his eyes as Harry managed to answer it.
"Potter, where would you look if I told you to find a Bezoar?" asked Snape, sneering again.
"In the stomach of a goat, sir. Bezoars are stones that would protect one from most poisons, sir," replied Harry in his calm and levelled voice.
Snape was so thrown off by Harry's answer that he didn't even bother to ask the third question. "Well? Why aren't you all copying that down?" asked Snape, sneering at them.
There was the sound of rummaging of quills and parchment as the students, except Harry, began taking out their quills and parchment to note down Harry's words.
"Potter, don't you think you need to note that down, or your head is so full with rubbish that you don't consider that worth writing?" asked Snape.
"Sir, I hardly think that I should write that down as I was the one who answered those questions, and correctly if I may, in the first place," replied Harry coolly.
Snape didn't say anything, just divided them into pairs. This time Harry paired with Neville;, Ron and Hermione with each other; Seamus with Dean and the rest were the same as last time.
This time, since Harry knew Neville would add the porcupine quills before taking the cauldron off the fire, Harry kept his almost constant attention on the quills; and as Neville was about to put them in the cauldron without taking it off the fire, he stopped him and averted a major disaster.
Soon they left the dungeons to walk up to the Charms classroom. This time it seemed very easy to understand the Wingardium Leviosa charm as well as the theory behind it. The trio performed the spell correctly in their first try only and got awarded 5 points each from Flitwick for performing the spell correctly in the first try.
DADA was a joke. Quirrellmort, as Harry liked to call him, was stuttering, artificially, the whole time. Then they went to the Great Hall for dinner, and on the way, Harry slipped a note each to Ron and Hermione, which read, "Leave the hall a few minutes after me and use different paths to go to the Room."
Soon after finishing dinner, Harry excused himself from a heated discussion about the rights of magical beings, which was prompted by Hermione by the way, and soon after him, both Ron and Hermione excused themselves.
When Ron and Hermione arrived in front of the Room of Requirement, they found an ajar door, which they immediately entered and were met by the sight of Harry sitting in one of the three armchairs which the room had provided.
Ron and Hermione soon sat on the other two chairs.
"I asked the room to provide the safest room to discuss and to not let anyone other than you two in," said Harry as soon as they were seated.
"Well, how do you think we should proceed now?" asked Hermione.
A/N: Sorry to leave you guys at a cliffhanger. But the temptation was too great, and I succumbed to it.
Sorry for posting this late, I don't have any excuse for it, just the fact that there was a lot of work which I had to do, and so it was put on the backfoot. But I promise it won't happen again.
And guys, I'm in a high need for a beta reader, preferably someone who's well-versed in British english. If you are interested, kindly put it in a review and I'll contact you, or you can PM me.
Feel free to review and share.