As the train eased to a stop at Hogsmeade station, an announcement went through the train,

"Attention all students! Please leave your luggage on the train. It will be collected and brought to your dormitories."

Hearing this announcement, and seeing that they were each ready, Hermione, Marcus, and Neville disembarked from the train. As they were beginning to make their way into the crowd, they heard a voice call out,

"Firs' years! Firs' years over here!"

Marcus, heading towards the source of this voice, saw a giant of a man. He knew this man to be Hagrid, of course.

Upon reaching Hagrid, he directed the three of them to a boat with only one other student in it.

This student had dark brown hair and a calm expression on his face, and once all three of them sat down he introduced himself,

"Hello, my name is Theodore Nott."

"Neville Longbottom."

"Hermione Granger."

"Marcus Castle, a pleasure to meet you."

Theodore Nott nodded, and eventually the boats began to set off with Hagrid's call of "Forward!"

Marcus, enjoying the scenery, saw how nervous Hermione and Neville were. He decided to reassure them.

"Calm down, Hermione, Neville," Marcus spoke in a soothing voice. "You will be sorted tonight, and you will begin your journey here at Hogwarts. Wherever we end up, we can still be friends, although I have a good feeling you two will be a couple of Professor McGonagall's lions. Call it intuition."

Hermione and Neville, due to Marcus' encouraging words, calmed down mostly. Theodore Nott, upon seeing this, gave Marcus a nod of approval.

Marcus nodded back.

Soon, they passed under a curtain of ivy, and there she was.

Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Having never seen a castle in either of his lives, Marcus was in awe of the sheer image in front of him, let alone knowing that this was a magical castle? He was extremely excited but sobered up for the most part when he remembered that within those very walls was Britain's most recent Dark Lord.

Eventually, the boats docked in an inlet, and the first years, following Hagrid, were led to a set of grand doors. Upon arrival at these doors, Hagrid knocked upon them thrice, and eventually Professor McGonagall came out, relieving Hagrid of his duty.

The professor then led them to a chamber where another set of grand doors were, where hundreds of voices were being heard, and spoke,

"Welcome to Hogwarts... Please wait quietly." (A/N I am not going to copy and paste JK Rowling's text unless it is something like the Hogwarts letter or supply list.)

As the professor left to finish the presentation, several of the students behind Marcus screamed, causing him to turn around.

'Ah, yes. The ghosts,' thought Marcus.

Out from the wall came the Fat Friar of Hufflepuff, the Bloody Baron of Slytherin, the Grey Lady from Ravenclaw, and Nearly-Headless Nick from Gryffindor.

These ghosts spoke to the students, and Marcus knew they were just having their fun. After all, centuries of being in the same castle, even a magical one, would eventually get boring.

Eventually, the professor returned, and the ghosts were dismissed by her, and she then led the first years into the Great Hall.

Looking around, Marcus could see four long tables filled with students, a 'sky' that opened to the heavens, and a long table in front of all the other tables. This table, of course, had the staff of Hogwarts. Marcus dared not look Dumbledore and Snape in the eye, not yet at least.

The professor, seeing they were all mostly in a line, placed a four-legged stool in front of them along with a frayed hat with patches. Suddenly, the hat began to sing!

"Oh, you may not think I'm pretty... for I am a thinking cap!"

Marcus applauded, along with most of the school.

Marcus heard a red-haired boy whisper to a black-haired boy, and he figured that those two were Ronald Weasley and Harry Potter, respectively.

The professor, pulled out a roll of parchment and then said,

"When I call your name, you will sit on the stool, the hat will be placed on you, and you will be sorted."

"Abbot, Hannah!"

A girl with blonde pigtails stumbled out of line, put on the hat, and after a moment, was sorted into Hufflepuff. The house cheered.

"Bones, Susan!" went to Hufflepuff. More cheers

.

"Boot, Terry!" went to Ravenclaw. Cheering erupted from another table.

"Brocklehurst, Mandy!" went to Ravenclaw. More cheering.

"Brown, Lavender!" went to Gryffindor, and Marcus had a flashback of the books where she was mauled to death by Fenrir Greyback during the final battle. Marcus swore to himself that he would prevent this fate, even if it meant killing Greyback himself. No children deserve to die at the hands of monsters like him.

Unknown to Marcus, a hard glint appeared in his green eyes, and Professor McGonagall saw. She resolved to make sure he was alright later.

"Bulstrode, Millicent!" went to Slytherin, and then next—

"Castle, Marcus!" was called.

Neville and Hermione wished him good luck, and Marcus smiled at them.

He walked over to the stool, sat down, and the hat was placed upon his head.

"Hmm... oh my... this...this is!"

The hat gasped audibly but then went quiet, due to its surprise, collecting better control of its 'emotions'. This spooked the hall a bit and caught the curiosity of even more who were now paying close attention to this sorting.

"Well, Mr. Castle, welcome to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. I can see that your mind is not the mind of an eleven-year-old. Your brain is far too developed. What are you?"

Marcus thought back to the hat, 'Do you know of the concept of reincarnation, and parallel universes? Put those two together.'

"Oh my, this is quite interesting. It is so rare that I get to sort the mind of an adult, of a mostly developed personality. Your knowledge is also quite interesting. The year 2023, huh? And you come from a parallel universe where this world is a book series. Fascinating. You have good knowledge of the next seven years too, don't you? Horrific knowledge to be sure, but good knowledge."

Marcus thought back to the hat, 'Yes. I have plans to truly end the reign of the Dark Lord. But I will need your help, and I will need the help of Hogwarts to do so. Are you with me?'

"Of course, Mr. Castle. Hogwarts and I would be delighted to help in a noble quest such as this. For your perseverance, in spite of all you have faced, I am tempted to place you in Gryffindor, but I can see your thought process to be that of Ravenclaw. I can also see you are worried about the headmaster and whether he is evil or not. I will dissuade you of that last fear; I have known the headmaster very well, and I was the one who sorted him. While a man with a strong ambition, in his heart, he still mourns for Ariana and has never forgiven himself for her death. He is a good man, but he can be manipulative. But you already know this."

The hall was watching this sorting with interest, unaware of the extremely important discussion taking place. It was approaching something called a hat-stall, where the hat has a very hard time choosing the house of a student because the student fits two or more houses. If one were to look at Dumbledore right now, you could see an interested glint in his eye, along with Professor McGonagall's.

Marcus, reflecting for a second, ultimately said to the hat 'Thank you for the knowledge on the headmaster. I will ask that you do not tell him for now, if that is alright? Also, sort me wherever you wish, though I would prefer not to be sorted into Slytherin if that is alright. Probably too cold down there for me.' Marcus joked.

"Of course, Mr. Castle. No, Slytherin isn't in the cards for you. And I cannot tell the headmaster about a student unless they pose an active danger to the school, something which you are not. Also, you need not worry about this knowledge being legilimensed from you, I couldn't access it before you gave me verbal permission. Hmm, the mind of a Ravenclaw, yet you do not pursue knowledge for its own sake, rather to help yourself and those around you. Ultimately, however, what drives you is perseverance in spite of the odds you have gone through, where lesser men and women would have failed. Better be...'

"GRYFFINDOR!" The hat shouted.

The hat, just before being removed, said to Marcus 'Good luck, Hogwarts helps those who need it.'

The table with the red and gold ties cheered, and as Marcus glanced upwards to meet McGonagall's face, she had a slight expression of surprise but a smile as well.

Marcus, looking down at his robes, noticed that his tie was changing to red and gold, along with the Gryffindor crest appearing upon them.

Marcus made his way over to the Gryffindor table and was approached by a redhead with long hair who offered his hand to him. They shook hands. He also had a prefect's badge upon his robes. The prefect spoke,

"Welcome to Gryffindor, Mr. Castle. My name is Percy Weasley. I am sure you will be a credit to our house."

Marcus nodded and went to go sit with the other first year, Lavender Brown. The sorting proceeded as usual after this. "Finnegan, Seamus" being the next to go to Gryffindor. After him, the next to go to Gryffindor was "Granger, Hermione," where she proceeded to sit down next to Marcus and smile at him.

"Marcus, I thought you wanted to go to Ravenclaw? Also why were you under the hat for so long? And why did the hat gasp? I read about that in Hogwarts: A History, you know, people like you are often called hatstalls, in fact..."

Marcus cut her off, "One question at a time, Hermione. I did want to go to Ravenclaw, but the hat and I had an enlightening discussion, and I told the hat to put me where he thought I would do the best. The hat was merely surprised at some of my memories as well. That is why it took so long. Also, I'm glad you're here as well." Marcus smiled.

Hermione, happy that her friend had been placed in the same house as her, grinned and proceeded to hug Marcus.

Marcus, having not been hugged in a long time, was shocked but quickly hugged her back gently.

While this was going on, Neville was also sorted into "GRYFFINDOR!" and proceeded to join Marcus and Hermione at the table.

The sorting continued as normal after that, with Draco Malfoy quickly being placed into Slytherin and Harry Potter getting sent to Gryffindor.

Marcus covered his ears when the Weasley twins shouted, "We got Potter! We got Potter!" as they were rather loud.

Finally, with Ronald Weasley getting sent to Gryffindor and Blaise Zabini, getting sent to Slytherin, the headmaster stood up and spoke,

"Welcome...Tweak! Thank you!"

Food appeared on the plates of the students, and Marcus, testing a theory he had heard in the books and wanting to eat healthier, placed his finger on the table and asked in a low whisper for water instead of pumpkin juice.

The juice was immediately switched for water, and Marcus sent back a quiet "thank you."

Marcus then proceeded to put roast chicken, carrots, and boiled potatoes on his plate. He had a new chance in life, and he was going to treat his body right.

Conversation struck up among the first years, and they all introduced themselves to each other. When it was Marcus' turn, he said,

"Hello. My name is Marcus Castle. It is a pleasure to meet all of you, and I look forward to getting to know you all more in the future."

Marcus stayed mostly quiet and ate his dinner but occasionally contributed to the conversation. When asked about his background, Marcus said,

"I live in an orphanage near London, I found out about my magic last November. It was interesting and it explained some things."

Harry, hearing that Marcus was an orphan like him, became interested in his housemate. He wanted to ask how he had become an orphan but felt like it was too insensitive a topic to broach at the table.

Eventually, dessert appeared, and Marcus settled on a scoop of vanilla ice cream. After dessert was over and disappeared, the headmaster rose to his feet and spoke.

"Ahem...before we go to bed, let us sing the school song!"

Marcus, after listening to the headmaster's announcements and the horrid school song, followed the 5th-year prefects to Gryffindor tower along with the other first years, accompanied by a small distraction by Peeves the Poltergeist.

After the password, 'Caput Draconis,' was said, the students entered the tower. The common room was decorated in accents of red and gold.

'Head of the Dragon, indeed,' thought Marcus.

After splitting off from Hermione, Percy led the boys to the first-year dormitory, and Marcus, noticing the bed which had his trunk at its foot, went to the bathroom attached to the dorm and cleaned up for bed, changed into his nightwear, and fell asleep.