Chapter 7- Begin Again

Dumbledore's Office- After The Sorting

Pacing the floor of his grand office was Albus Dumbledore, the leader of the light, the Supreme Mugwump of the ICW, Chief Warlock of the Wizengmont, the man who had everything perfectly planned for The Greater Good of the wizarding world. Yet in the space of 15 minutes inside the great hall everything he had planned for the Boy-Who-Lived had come crumbling down.

Not only had Ron Weasley been separate from Harry Potter when they came into the great hall which implied that he hadn't befriended Harry on the train, but then the idiot child had gone and got himself sorted into Slytherin. Something which Dumbledore didn't think was possible considering he had bewitched the Sorting Hat to force him into Gryffindor.

Dumbledore turned around to the sorting hat that had sat in the Headmaster's Office since the office had been bought in with the departure of the original founders. Dumbledore knew that somewhere in the castle lay the original offices of the four founders but in his entire time here Dumbledore had never been able to find them. He had hope to be able to find ancient magic lost to time that would be beneficial in his search for the Greater Good.

With the sorting over Dumbledore believed that the hat would not be sentient again until the following year, giving Dumbledore plenty of time to work out why it had gone against his word. What Dumbledore didn't know was that the Hat could be sentient at any time however it could not be bothered to deal with Dumbledore's rambling and ranting throughout the year so it just went to sleep. None of the Headmasters on the wall bothered to correct Dumbledore, after all he claimed that he was better than all of them why would he ever need their help.

Dumbledore ran a diagnostic charm over the tatty old hat and found that there was not even a residue of his compulsion left. Dumbledore had suspected that even if someone had found a way to break it there would still be a residual sense of magic over the hat. To find nothing implied that not only had someone broken the charm they had shattered it beyond any reasonable recognition.

Dumbledore was the most powerful wizard since Merlin himself (in his own mind) so for someone to be able to shatter a charm that he had created terrified him. The only person that could come anywhere near to matching him was Lord Voldemort and despite Dumbledore knowing full well that he was in the castle as a wrath on the back of Professor Quirrell's head, he had been notified as soon as he had entered through the wards, he knew that the wrath was not anywhere near the power of what Voldemort had reached. Quirrell himself was also barely more powerful than the students which in Dumbledore's mind made it all the funnier that he would be teaching Defence against the Dark Arts this year, at least with his old muggle studies job he could pretend to know what he was talking about.

Dumbledore also trusted all of the staff explicitly, all of them were regularly dosed with a loyalty potion brewed by Professor Snape. As such they tended to ignore any of the irregular practices that the headmaster liked to partake in.

Of course there was always the chance that Severus had broken the charm on the hat, he was definitely a powerful wizard and considering his double agent status Albus had always had a contingency plan in case he needed to push Severus under the bus, he was a useful hand to have around but a hand that was all too easy to cut off should the need come.

Sat above Dumbledore having been put back onto its shelf the Sorting Hat starting to watch as the old and supposedly wisened headmaster continued down his rabbit hole of paranoia. Dumbledore was so sure in his abilities that he hadn't even considered that the Hat itself had broken the charm, in fact the hat had never been under the charm to begin with. Sure he had played along for years because admittedly the house criteria was so vague that anyone could end up in any house and be able to find some justification for it. In fact most people don't have all the traits of their house but through being put in that house they develop them later down the road. There had never really been any issues putting people where Dumbledore had asked them to go.

Until Harry Potter had stepped up to the plate, Dumbledore had been less precise about where people needed to go this year allowing the hat to naturally sort most of the student population for a change, however he had been very specific that Harry Potter and Ronald Weasley needed to end up in Gryffindor together. Had he of looked in Ronald's head first then chances are then he would have obliged, there was nothing in his head that showed any malicious intent towards Harry, the only knowledge he had of the manipulations being done around him was that Harry had had a rough childhood and would need a friend and that Ron should go out of his way to be that friend.

However it was what was in Harry's head about Ron that frightened the hat regarding putting Ron into Gryffindor. Gryffindor's were taught to be brave and protective of the people around them, and yet in that environment Weasley had turned manipulative and ruthless. The Hat knew that manipulation in itself wasn't a bad thing and, to paraphrase from the rambling wizard below him, could be used for the greater good. Salazar Slytherin was the most manipulative person that he had ever met, he was manipulative enough to persuade everyone that manipulative and ruthlessness were cunning and ambition. But Slytherin's legacy had been tarnished in the recent generation, long gone were the days of it being the house of Merlin, it had turned into the house of wrongdoers and evil. And partially he was to blame for that, many people that he had sorted into Slytherin would probably have done better in other houses, even today for instance.

Very few people know just how powerful The Sorting Hat actually was; it only takes a second for it to be able to grasp a large picture of someone's subconscious and he doesn't even need to be touching their head to do so. Draco Malfoy was one of those that the Hat believed would have done better outside of Slytherin, whilst he was a very ambitious boy he definitely lacked in cunning, prone to open his mouth without thinking about what was about to come out. A very un-slytherin like move. However, if there was one thing that Draco Malfoy did have, it was loyalty, whether out of fear or not he was completely loyal to his father. The hat had planned on putting Malfoy into Hufflepuff as a result until in his subconscious he found a genuine fear that his father might legitimately murder his own Scion should he not be put into Slytherin. The hat didn't particularly care for inter-house rivalries but it did care about life, and he never wanted to put a student in danger with his sorting. Including keeping Ronald Weasley as far away from Harry Potter as he could.

The Great Hall

The following morning was the first day of classes, so Harry made sure to get up with plenty of time to spare, Harry wasn't entirely sure whether the cleaner smell of the Gryffindor Boys dormitory was due to it only being night one or the lack of Ron but when he went down to breakfast with Neville and Hermione he reminisced over his fourth year when the two standing next to him now were the two who had stood by him when everyone else turned their back.

Upon receiving his timetable for the year Harry was surprised to see it completely different from how he remembered it, more specifically there were a lot more classes with the Slytherins, which meant more Malfoy and what Harry suspected the reasoning for this change was, more Ron.

As such while Harry had mentally been preparing himself for Charms with the Hufflepuffs, he now had to go and sit and listen to Professor Binns ramble on about Goblin Rebellions for the next two hours with the Slytherins.

Harry walked up to the classroom with Hermione and Neville, with Dean, Sheamus, Lavender and Pavarti walking behind them. Once they arrived Dean came up and thanked him for leading the way as nobody else knew where they were going yet Harry seemed to instinctively know. Harry faked a smile as he realised his unintentional use of future knowledge and knew he would need to come up with an excuse should he continue to know where everything is and the shortest routes to get there. Maybe he could find a way to get the twins to part with the map a few years earlier.

Trying to find a seat in the classroom was not something that Harry had expected to find so difficult, but when he had gone to sit down next to Hermione he looked over and found Hermione laying on the floor having been shoved out of the way, now sitting in the seat which she was supposed to have sat in was a Ginger freckled boy who didn't seem to know when to call it quits.

Harry jumped to his feet and pulled his wand from the back pocket of his trousers pointing it towards the Weasley pest, knowing that he wouldn't be able to show anyone him using magic without giving up the gig he contemplated his options before slowly lowering his wand and loudly stating to Weasley

"I don't know what is wrong with you, I know you want to be my friend but you seem to be as thick as a troll to believe that literally pushing my friend out of the way will make me replace them. Now I believe Hermione was sitting there so why don't you go and sit with your own house instead of bothering mine"

Ron went as red as his hair at this statement before bitterly retorting "I'm not going to sit with the snakes, I'm a Gryffindor just like you. The hat just made a mistake, I am sure Dumbledore will fix it"

Harry refused to say another word before he moved away from the table helping Hermione to her feet and grabbing their bags and moving towards the back of the room to a separate table where they could sit together. Ron shouted out asking where Harry was going but Harry never even turned back until he and Hermione were sat down. Coincidently on the table to their left were the Slytherin duo of Daphne Greengrass and Tracey Davis, Daphne leant over and quietly said to Harry

"He spent all last night running down Slytherin and claiming to be Harry Potter's best friend. Thanks for giving us all ammo to last a lifetime"

Harry smirked at the blonde girls message, whilst he hated the thought of anyone being isolated in their house after what he and Luna had been through in the previous timeline, part of him hoped that the hazing would help Ron mellow down and eventually that they could end up being acquaintances without Ron attempting to muscle his way into the top spot, which would always be reserved for Hermione and Neville.

After History of Magic

Harry led the Gryffindor contingency back down to the Great Hall after History of Magic, acutely aware of the tailgating unwanted hitchhiker Ron Weasley following them. However when they made it for lunch the redheaded boy had disappeared from their trail which allowed Harry to breathe a sigh of relief knowing that he might be able to have a break over lunch before having to deal with the youngest Weasley male again at Defense against the Dark Arts.

Something which Harry had expected during lunch ever since learning of the changed timetable had been dejection of Hermione that one of the subjects she had been looking forward to was simply a recitation of the books that she had already read. She had been excited to learn about Grindelwald and the rise of Voldemort and had been greeted with the monotonous voice of a long dead professor still reciting the same crap he had read when he was alive.

Within one lesson the passion of the girl who was so excited to learn all about magic, who finally had a reason for her quirks as a child, wondered whether the magical world was right for her. Her timetable had nothing relating to maths or literacy so even if she wanted to go back to the muggle world later on she wouldn't be able to.

Harry knew that he needed to reassure the girl but was also silently frustrated that their next lesson was also scheduled to be taught by a completely hopeless teacher. At least Binns wasn't a physical threat to them.

After Defence Against The Dark arts

After a lesson that very much managed to hide Quirrell's inexperience in the subject matter, after all he was just giving an introduction to the course unlike Binns who decided to just start lecturing as if they knew everything he was talking about.

But Harry was now more excited as for the first time he was about to walk into a situation where he had no idea what to expect. The meeting with the four girls from the train.

Harry, Neville and Hermione walked along with Daphne and Tracey to where they were expected to meet Susan and Hannah and found the two Hufflepuff girls already sitting in the classroom. Harry made a joke that all they needed was a Ravenclaw to complete the set when Hermione responded, confirming Harry's suspicions that the Hat had almost put here in Ravenclaw before deciding on Gryffindor.

Daphne informed Harry that because of his rebuttal of Ron during History of Magic, Draco had attempted to recruit him towards his anti-Harry group ("He wouldn't even be the dumbest in the group" jibed Tracey) but Ron had rejected which led Draco to flip out in rage and challenge him to a Midnight Duel in the trophy room.

Hermione quickly said "Nobody would be stupid enough to believe that's not a trap" allowing Harry practice at hiding his shame as he remembered how he had been led by Ron into accepting that exact same duel in his original timeline.

Harry quickly tried to change the subject and asked Hannah and Susan how their lessons had gone and found out that in addition to the charms which Harry had expected to be in they had had transfiguration with the Ravenclaws in the afternoon.

The two half-bloods complained about having to go back to the basics of wand movement but understood that they had an advantage by having a magical parent or ward in Susan's case whereas Harry and Hermione didn't have that.

Harry lambasted how much Muggle-born hatred was linked into the curriculum with the students believing that they were being held back so that muggle-borns could catch up when clearly the true reason was for safety when performing spells. Harry remembered that the person who made the most mistakes in his charms class last time was Ron who was pureblood, and half-blood Sheamus who famously had a habit for blowing things up. Whilst Hermione, the muggle-born had beaten them in almost all subjects, and whilst Harry would never accuse the two Hufflepuffs of being blood purists, the dog-whistles that the blood purists used had snuck into everyday vernacular for the pure-bloods.

But as Harry looked around him he realised how much was already different from his previous life. Here he sat surrounded by people who he could call friends, some of whom he had never spoken to before. Could this be the power he needs to defeat both Voldemort and Dumbledore in this life.

But then Daphne said something that struck Harry completely out of his internal monologue.

"So Harry lets see your heir ring"

Harry went as white as a sheet, even in the original timeline he had no idea what an heir ring was, the only one he ever saw was when Draco was flaunting his around Hogwarts. So with a stutter in his voice Harry stated that he didn't have an heir ring. Not thinking this was much of a big deal until every single face except for Hermione gaped back at him as if he had just discovered gravity.

"How can you not have an heir ring? You should have got that when you went to Gringotts after your 11th Birthday" Neville asked, showing his surprising aptitude for these subjects

Susan joined the pile-on "Did you at least meet with your vault manager?" and let out an audible yelp when Harry shook his head.

Hannah continued "But surely you must have been called if you missed it, they would have sent you a letter"

Again Harry had no idea what they were referring to, throughout the entire seven years since he was supposedly supposed to have met with his account manager he had never received a single piece of mail from Gringotts, he hadn't gone there often but surely when he was in Diagon Alley on his own during third year someone should have come found him.

With the final shake of his head Daphne ran towards the window and opened it, and her owl flew in shortly after. She started scribbling something down onto a piece of parchment that had just been laying around the classroom, tied it to the leg of the owl and sent it off into the late afternoon sky.

When the silver haired Slytherin sat down Harry was quick to ask what that was all about, Daphne turned to her fellow wizard-raised students who had seemingly all understood exactly what she was doing and why. Harry just hoped they would be benevolent enough to keep him and Hermione, who was even more confused than Harry throughout this entire conversation, in the loop.

Daphne started to speak,

"You are the heir and Lord Presumptive of one of the oldest houses in the British Wizarding World. Whilst you might not be a member of the Sacred 28 like me and Hannah are, your exclusion was more to prevent your family from gaining even more political power. For you to have been denied access to your vault manager suggests illegality which may even go all the way to line theft, that note I sent was to my father. Its to ask him to contact Gringotts as a middle man to get to the bottom of why you have never received correspondence"

Harry was completely startled by this but he was about to be shocked even more to his core by Hannah Abbott's next question

"Harry, have you ever received fan-mail?"

Harry sputtered out "Why would I ever receive fan-mail, I'm not Lockhart". Harry allowed this slip of knowledge out as there were plenty of explainable reasons as to how he would know who Lockhart was, I mean it's not like he popped out of thin air for Harry's second year.

Hannah went bright red as she continued, "You would have got fan-mail for defeating Voldemort, I know because when I was five my parents made me write you a thank you letter for defeating him which was sent to you". The Hufflepuff girl hid behind her hands at that admission

Susan took over the conversation for her embarrassed friend, "Hannah is right, the fact that you have never received fan-mail is weird, it suggests that someone has put a mail-block on you which is entire illegal, I will have to message my aunt tonight and see if she can look into it, oh my aunt is the head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement" she had quickly added that last part after spotting Hermione's confused face

Harry started to ponder everything that had unfolded in front of him, if Daphne's letter was to make it to her father, and Harry had doubts over whether it would, then that would open up an entirely different world that Harry didn't have last time. If it was true that whatever mail-block, as Susan had called it, was illegal then there would be an investigation into whoever put it on. Harry had a sneaky suspicion as to who that might be.

Meanwhile in the castle, Albus Dumbledore was listening to one of his paintings explaining to him that Harry, Hermione and Neville had gone into an old classroom with Daphne, Hannah, Susan and Tracey, but they hadn't been able to contact the portrait that lived in there yet. Dumbledore seethed as the boy was not only getting further out of his control, the four witches were very influential people, but he was also dragging the backup option up with him. If neither Harry nor Neville would be able to be manipulated into self sacrifice then how could Dumbledore sweep in and take the reward, It was for the Greater Good after all, why could nobody else see that.

That night Ron Weasley was caught in the Trophy Room by Filch having not realised it was a trap. He was given a month's worth of detention with Snape and lost 50 points from Slytherin after accidentally letting slip to McGonagall that Draco had challenged him to a duel. His standing in the Slytherin house couldn't fall any lower.