I'll be making up some unfamiliar names to make Hogwarts' population, Harry's year included, bigger, just to make the school feel a bit less insular, just in case you wonder "Oh, who's that?"
Elena Malfoy is only one of many.
The hall was, simply put, utterly magnificent. Not only was it enormous, it was decorated with flags holding the Hogwarts crest, gilded plates and goblets were found at each seat on the four incredibly long tables. The older students all seemed to give the new first years welcoming looks, but everyone's eyes eventually moved to McGonagall, who stood by a stool upon which sat an incredibly old, battered looking hat.
The first years looked confused at first, but before anyone could say anything, the hat of all things, began to talk... no... 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 folk 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!"
The whole hall began applauding thunderously.
"I'm going to kill Fred! He told me that you had to wrestle with a troll!" Ron told Harry and John over the tumultuous applause.
"When I call your name, you will sit upon this stool and try on the sorting hat. It will in time, call out the house it feels you will be best suited for. Abbott, Hannah!" McGonagall called.
The girl, a pink-faced, blonde-haired girl who looked positively terrified sat upon the stool and wore the hat, which was so large that it covered her eyes. No less than thirty seconds later did the hat make its decision.
"Huffelpuff!" it called. Hannah, looking relieved, leapt off the stool and headed over to the applauding Hufflepuff table.
The same process continued with the other new first years and when Hermione Granger sat upon the stool, Harry, Ron and John looked at her with interest, though mostly to check which house they didn't want to be in.
When the sorting hat yelled out "Gryffindor!", Ron let out an audible groan. With most of his family going to Gryffindor for the last few generations, he had a good enough idea of where he'd end up clearly and wasn't looking forward to Hermione Granger being near him every day.
Draco and Elena Malfoy were sorted into Slytherin without a moment's hesitation from the sorting hat.
Eventually, Harry himself was called up, resulting in the entire hall breaking into urgent, whispered conversations.
As soon as Harry put the hat on, a voice filled the inside of his head.
Very interesting... difficult too. Plenty of courage hidden away inside you... a decent mind too. A good heart, a thirst to prove yourself... but where to put you I wonder...
Not Slytherin... please.
Not Slytherin, eh? Are you sure? You would do well there. You've got ambition, you've got some cunning about you and if greatness was your destination, Slytherin would surely help you along the way!
Please, anywhere but Slytherin!
No? Better be:
"Gryffindor!", the hat bellowed.
Harry felt his heart leap and walked past a beaming Ron on his way to the Gryffindor table, where he sat down beside Ron's older brother Percy.
The Gryffindor table erupted into thunderous applause and more than one of them were boasting about how they 'got Potter'.
Harry knew instantly that John would be next and sure enough, he saw John walk with much more purpose and confidence than the other first years to the hat and stool when McGonagall called his name. Further whispering ensued - clearly it wasn't common knowledge that Harry wasn't an only child
Interesting... for just a moment I thought that I was meeting your father for the first time again.
Err... What does that mean?
It means that you're bursting with confidence and your like to have a certain... presence about yourself. Just as clever as your father too. I don't see that I have any choice here!
"Gryffindor!
The Gryffindor table once again applauded on a level beyond normal sortings as John joined Harry at the Gryffindor table. Hermione Granger looked none too pleased about him being there but applauded politely.
When Ron was sorted into Gryffindor, his older twin brothers ruffled his hair as he sat down opposite John.
The headmaster, Albus Dumbledore stood up from his seat at the staff table, raising his hands to quiet the crowd of students.
"I now have only a few words for you all. Nitwit. Blubber. Oddment. Tweak! Thank you!" he said, before sitting down, causing most of the hall to laugh heartily.
"Is... is he a bit mad?" Harry asked Percy.
"Mad? He's a genius! Brilliant! Best wizard alive! But yes, I suppose he is a bit mad. Potatoes Harry?" asked Percy. Harry looked down and his jaw dropped.
The previously empty plates and dishes were now filled with an assortment of the most delicious looking food he'd ever seen; a far cry from his attempts at eggs and bacon, that was for sure.
Roast turkeys, dumblings, stuffing, potatoes, fish, chicken, steamed vegetables were on plates all the way along the tables. Harry saw that John and Ron had already grabbed just about everything they could reach and were putting away amounts of food he could hardly believe. Harry followed their example.
Five minutes of stuffing their faces later, another thing that Harry didn't expect at all happened. John had reached for more chicken wings, but a transparent, silver head appeared on the plate and as it rose, the body the head was attached to followed it.
"Gah!" said John.
Ghosts were now appearing from seemingly everywhere.
"Hello!" said the ghost that came from under the chicken wings. "Welcome to Gryffindor! Sir Nicholas de Mimsy Porpington, at your service!" he said, floating ten feet above the table now and giving a bow in mid-air.
"Hello Nicholas, did you have a good summer?" asked Percy politely.
"Not exactly. My request to join the headless hunt was yet again denied", he said, slightly downcast.
"Wait... Fred, is that-", Ron started.
"Nearly headless Nick, yeah", Fred replied, grinning
"I do prefer sir Nicholas if you don't mind", said the ghost rather haughtily.
"Nearly headless? How can you be nearly headless?" Hermione Granger asked.
Harry was now looking at Nick's neck and saw where someone had clearly swung an axe or sword at it and saw that about an inch of his neck was unmarked.
Nick sighed and took his hand to his left temple and gave it a push. His head rolled off it, hinging on the roughly one inch of untouched sinew and muscle keeping it from detaching completely.
Hermione Granger and a few of the other new Gryffindor girls shrieked out loud. Lavender Brown, the blonde-haired girl sat on the other side of Percy looked rather green and pushed her plate away from her.
"Wow... cool party trick though", said John.
"I suppose", said Nick, seemingly a bit more cheerful again.
The meat, vegetables and other main-course foodstuffs were in due time replaced by mouth-watering desserts. Harry, who always had a weakness for treacle tart, somehow managed to put away almost an entire tart on his own in spite of eating more meat than he'd ever had just beforehand.
John was positively obliterating two sticky toffee puddings at once (Harry hadn't worked out how he managed to eat so much yet) and eventually, when just about everyone had finished eating, Dumbledore stood up again.
"Now that we are all fed and watered, adequately I hope, I must give some start-of-term announcements. As always, the dark forest is forbidden to all students unless accompanied by a member of staff. Furthermore, this year, the corridor on the right-hand side of the third floor is out-of-bounds to all who do not wish to die a most painful death", Dumbledore said.
Harry and a few others laughed, but saw that most of the school wasn't laughing.
"He's serious?" asked Harry, slightly alarmed.
"He doesn't normally say we can't go somewhere in the castle without very good reason. I'd listen to what he says if I were you", said Percy.
Harry nodded, not needing to be told twice.
Dumbledore went on to announce additions of prohibited items at the school, a list of which were to be found on the caretaker, Mr. Filch's office door.
"How many of them do you reckon I'd be able to sneak in?" John whispered to Ron, who snorted, both of them drawing disapproving looks from Hermione Granger who was sat opposite them.
"And finally, I'm happy to announce the addition of professor Quirrel to our staff this year. He'll be taking up the post of Defence against the Dark Arts teacher. Please join me in wishing him good luck", said Dumbledore.
The very nervous new professor stood up from his seat to receive some perfunctory, polite applause. However, the professor next to him, a pale man with long curtains of shoulder-length, greasy black hair and a hooked nose was looking at him with utter loathing in his face.
"Who's that professor next to Quirrel?", asked Harry.
"Professor Snape. The potions master. He's the head of Slytherin house. He knows a lot about potions, but everyone knows he wants the defence against the dark arts teaching post. He knows an awful lot about the dark arts and he's been after Quirrel's job for years", Percy explained, accurately deciphering the look on Harry's face.
Harry didn't have too much time to dwell however; the first years were now following Percy up to the marble staircase.
Harry and the first years listened as Percy explained how individual pieces of the staircase would move at random and how some stairs were trick stairs which had to be jumped over. Any feet that stepped on them would sink through them and the person in question would be stuck.
They also met Peeves, apparently the bane of all authority figures in the castle. A mischievous poltergeist who clearly respected... just about no one really.
"Fred and George told me about him, they reckon he's really funny at times but a bit of an arse", Ron told John and Harry.
"Don't swear!" came the haughty, bossy voice of Hermione Granger. Both Ron and John gaped at her. Harry found himself agreeing with Ron and John. What eleven year old cared about their peers swearing or not? And arse wasn't even that bad a word in the first place!
"Live and let live Hermione. You do you, I'll do me. We'll all be much happier that way", said John, smirking at her.
"Hmmph!" said Hermione, turning around and sticking her nose up in the air.
"She's going to be a barrel of laughs, isn't she?" Ron grumbled.
Before long, Percy had led them through the portrait of a fat lady into the Gryffindor common room - a large, cozy looking room with a fireplace, many soft looking armchairs and sofas and tables for people to sit, work or relax at. The fat lady was apparently the guardian for Gryffindor tower and a password that periodically changed was required for entry.
Neville Longbottom looked slightly nervous as Percy explained that aspect of Hogwarts.
Eventually, the boys walked up the staircase on the right-hand side to find a room titled "first years" - evidently their dorm room.
Once they'd walked in, conversation began flowing surprisingly naturally and Harry found himself properly introduced to Neville Longbottom, who was clearly the most nervous boy there, Seamus Finnigan, an Irish wizard who had some cheekiness about him, Dean Thomas, who'd come from a family entirely made up of muggles.
The three then empty beds were occupied ten minutes later by a second 'wave' of new Gryffindor first-year boys. Alex Winter, a very slight, quiet boy with neat, mousy brown hair who struck Harry as somewhat socially awkward, Sam Wood, a boy almost as tall as Ron and Dean with auburn hair and a gap between his front teeth and Liu Fei, a boy clearly of Chinese origin but an accent almost as posh as John's.
As they talked, they seemed like a friendly bunch who wouldn't get on each others' nerves, which was all Harry could realistically ask for.
Discovering what Hogwarts life was truly like wasn't all sunshine and rainbows, but for Harry, it was by far the best experience of his life all the same. John had quickly become one of the most popular students in the first year, seemingly able to make a sarcastic quip that made people laugh in nearly every situation, but that didn't mask the whispers that followed him around.
"Next to the tall kid with the red hair"
"Did you see the scar?"
"I didn't know he had a brother"
It did make getting to classes a bit harder as it wasn't so easy to focus on getting to lessons when everyone was whispering his name.
The classes themselves seemed to be marked by the teachers reacting with a bit of surprise or excitement at teaching Harry. Professor Flitwick, the tiny wizard responsible for teaching charms, gave a little squeak and fell off the stack of books on his chair where he sat when doing his roll call.
Harry also quickly found that using magic was more than waving a wand and saying some strange Latin words. Theoretical and practical knowledge were equally important and equally complicated, even at their basic level.
Harry found himself both liking and disliking Transfiguration, taught by his head of house and the Deputy Headmistress, Professor McGonagall. It was very interesting and seemed useful, but it was also rather difficult. McGonagall impressed upon them that she was as strict as she looked and that Transfiguration, when done wrong could be highly dangerous.
This seemed to gain John's interest instantly.
Once McGonagall explained some of the basics of transfiguration, their first lesson's task was to turn matchsticks into needles, relatively simple compared to some of the things that McGonagall was capable of (she turned her desk into a pig and back into a desk within seconds).
Harry was also noticing a pattern of Hermione Granger knowing the answers to almost every question any teacher ever asked and Transfiguration was no exception.
Whilst being tasked with transforming matchsticks into needles, Harry thought that his looked mildly silver and Ron's had become slightly pointier but that was about it. Hermione Granger on the other hand, managed to make her matchstick almost entirely metallic within ten minutes, earning her five points for Gryffindor and a rare smile from McGonagall.
John however, was sat at his desk, with no change to his matchstick and yet a smug expression on his face.
"Mr. Potter, you are aware that when a teacher assigns you a task, you are required to complete it, are you not?" McGonagall asked, sounding thoroughly unimpressed.
"No problem professor", said John. The class gasped as John's matchstick morphed into a perfectly straight, silver needle before their eyes. McGonagall, if possible, looked more shocked than the class did. Hermione looked livid.
McGonagall picked up the needle in astonishment and beamed at John.
"Very well done, Mr. Potter! You should know that your father was a dab hand at transfiguration himself!", she said.
That made Harry feel slightly uncomfortable; how did John understand it so much more easily than he did? Though, Harry realised, for all the skill John apparently had with transfiguration, he was already proving to be lousy at astronomy. Perhaps John was just going to be either extremely good or extremely bad at new things.
When McGonagall walked off to inspect Neville Longbottom's work, John spoke up again.
"No points professor?" he asked cheekily. Most of the class laughed and even McGonagall's lips twiched upwards in a smile which almost looked nostalgic.
"I'll award you five points for an excellent display of transfiguration, but I'm afraid I'll have to take away five for laziness", she said, before turning back to Neville.
John turned to Harry and Ron grinning.
"Looks like I've found my favourite subject", he said. Ron and Harry snickered. Hermione was now looking positively mutinous and remained so for the rest of the lesson, until she finally managed (unlike the rest of the class) to successfully transform her matchstick into a needle at the end of the lesson.
"How did you do it?", she asked John accusingly at the end of the lesson.
John shrugged.
"Just comes easily to me I suppose", he said, before following Harry and Ron to their next lesson, leaving Hermione gaping after him incredulously.
"What was that all about?" John asked Harry and Ron as they queued outside the Potions classroom for the first time.
"Probably annoyed that she isn't the best at something", said Ron, smirking at him. Harry laughed, but was cut off by the arrival of Professor Snape.
"Enter", he said in a low, calm voice. The class did so nervously, their eyes on the professor as they did so. It seemed that like McGonagall, Snape was likely not a professor one would want to cross. The class of Gryffindors and Slytherins quietly took their seats.
"Many", began Snape slowly, his voice somewhat menacing as he paced back and forth in front of his blackboard. "Do not always see the art of potioneering as magic. They do not understand the subtle science behind the bubbling cauldron. Their understanding of magic lacks breadth, for they see magic as nothing more than foolish wand-waving and incantations. Unlike them, I can teach you to bewitch the mind and ensnare the senses. I can teach you to bottle fame, brew glory and even put a stopper in death. That is of course, predicated upon my hope that you aren't the dunderheads that I usually find myself teaching", he finished.
Harry felt that the effect he created with his speech about the merits of potion making was somewhat dampened by the comment about dunderheaded students.
Snape, like the others began his roll call and also like the other teachers, paused upon Harry's name.
"Harry Potter. Our... new... celebrity", he said. Draco Malfoy snickered at the back of the room and Crabbe and Goyle followed suit. Elena Malfoy seemed as disinterested as before.
"And John Potter. I must say, you seem to have been omitted from the history books", said Snape.
"Got lucky I suppose", said John, shrugging.
Snape surveyed him for a moment, an unreadable expression taking root in his face before finishing the roll call.
"Now then... Harry Potter, tell me what I'd get if I added powdered asphodel to an infusion of wormwood", Snape said suddenly.
Harry, caught off-guard and having no idea what Snape was talking about stammered out his response while Hermione began her routing of bouncing on her seat with her hand in the air.
"I... don't know sir", said Harry.
"Fame clearly isn't everything, is it? Let's try again", said Snape, his face now morphing into a sneer which made him look distinctly unlikable.
"Where would I be best served if I were searching for a bezoar?"
"I don't know sir", said Harry, trying to ignore Hermione, who was still jumping in her seat with a raised hand.
"Perhaps the other Potter will fare better. What is the difference between Monkshood and Wolfsbane?"
"I don't know sir" John echoed, before smirking slightly. "I have a feeling Hermione knows though, you should probably try asking her", said John.
Harry could almost hear the stifled laughter from the Gryffindors in the classroom, but Snape was far from amused.
"You'll learn very quickly Potter, that I do not under any circumstances, tolerate cheek in my classes. No matter how witty you think you may be. It also seems that neither you, nor your brother felt the need to open a book before coming here. A point will be taken from you for your cheek. For your information, powdered asphodel when mixed with an infusion of wormwood creates a sleeping draught so powerful that it is known as the draught of living death. A bezoar is found in the stomach of a goat and there is no difference between monkshood and wolfbane. Well? Why aren't you copying that down?"
After the rush of students grabbing quills, ink and parchment from their bags and the scratching of quills, the rest of the lesson was spent either with Snape criticising everyone but Hermione or Snape praising the Malfoy twins for their 'immaculately crushed snake fangs' or their 'perfectly stewed horned slugs'.
John wasn't the only person to lose a point for Gryffindor that lesson; when Neville's potion malfunctioned rather spectacularly, Harry found himself losing a point for 'not warning Longbottom to add the porcupine quills after taking his cauldron off the fire'. Harry opened his mouth to argue, but Ron poked him in the back.
"Don't bother. Fred and George told me that Snape can turn really nasty", he whispered.
It was rather clear to both Harry and John that Snape wasn't exactly their greatest supporter by the end of the lesson.
"I mean... I got a bit cheeky but he seemed like he really hated us for no real reason", said John.
"Don't worry about it. He's always taking points off Fred and George... most Gryffindors actaully, the way they explain it", Ron explained.
"If you say so", said Harry, slightly glumly.
"Listen, can I come with you-" Ron started before Snape interrupted them, making them jump.
"Potter... John Potter, not you" he started when Harry looked at him.
"From what I've heard from other staff members I am under the impression that your cheek may become something of a theme for your time at Hogwarts. I would like a word", he said in a very low, dangerous voice.
"Err... sure", said John.
"I am a professor", said Snape, folding his arms and looking expectantly at John, who looked rather confused for a moment.
"Oh! Right, sure, professor", said John after four or five seconds of silence.
Snape gave Harry and Ron a look that told them to move along and John followed Snape back to his office.
"Other staff members", Snape began once they'd got to the classroom again. "May tolerate your cheek and random comments. Perhaps they find them amusing. But as I said before, I will not tolerate it. Am I understood?" Snape asked, his eyes boring into John's.
"Err... yes sir", said John, his words coming out more like a question. Snape didn't look satisfied.
"My assessment thus far is that you see your sarcastic attempts at humour in lessons as a way of showing off. Whether I am correct or not is of no consequence. I do not permit my students to believe themselves special until they have earned it through hard work", said Snape.
John got the impression that Snape had some hidden meaning behind his words, but he couldn't work out what they were for the life of him.
"Sir, I get that I was being a bit cheeky in the lesson when I probably shouldn't have, but... I do want to learn here. I mean, I didn't even know I was a wizard until a couple of months ago", said John.
Snape surveyed John again in a very calculating manner.
"Tell me Potter. What do you know about your father?" asked Snape. John was taken aback by this seemingly random change of subject.
"Err... He's a CFO at a charity, he likes rugby... he likes cooking-" John started.
Snape sighed in frustration.
"Your father. Not your adoptive father", he said impatiently.
"Oh! Err... honestly I don't really know anything about him. Well... Hagrid told me he was the head boy here when he was a student but that's all I really know", said John. This admission made his stomach churn uncomfortably. His curiosity about his biological parents had never subsided and it had only grown more extreme since coming to the wizarding world.
Snape's lips curled into an unnverving smile. John hoped that he'd never see a smile like that on Snape's face again.
"Perhaps I will... enlighten you some day. I'd hate for you to remain so ignorant about the man to whom you owe your existence", he said in an obviously falsely helpful voice.
"You knew him?" John asked excitedly, not caring about Snape's tone. "Can you tell me now?" asked John quickly.
"Good things come to those who wait, Potter. Off you go", said Snape.
"Uh", said John dumbly. "Okay"
John turned and left Snape's classroom to catch up with Harry and Ron at lunch. When he left however, he groaned inwardly, as he found Hermione Granger waiting for him outside.
"What did he keep you behind for? If you've got Gryffindor into trouble again-" Hermione started anxiously.
"Just wanted to warn me to not be cheeky. Are you going to get off my back?" John asked wearily. He didn't feel too fond about the idea of sharing the knowledge that Snape knew his real father with this irritatingly nosy girl.
Hermione looked affronted but did not get off John's back.
"I still want to know how you did McGonagall's task! You can't have done it so easily and quickly! You must've been cheating!" she insisted.
"What? I just understood how it works, why's that a problem?" John asked.
"It took me all lesson! I'd been reading the books all summer and you-" she started.
"Can't be better than you at something?" John asked through gritted teeth.
"I-just- you- didn't-" Hermione stuttered before regaining her composure.
"That was difficult magic! You must've been... I don't know, practising somewhere!" She said accusingly.
"Or... I understood something that a teacher taught me", said John tiredly.
"What's this? Lover's tiff from the new Gryffindors?" came the drawling voice of Draco Malfoy as they passed a corner, making Hermione flush slightly and give Malfoy a filthy look.
John however, ignored him and kept on walking as if he wasn't there.
"It's a bit surprising, isn't it? A know-it-all prude following the golden boy of Gryffindor like a lost puppy?" Malfoy added, trying harder to goad John.
"Ignore him, I've seen like... a dozen guys like him at my old school. Probably just jealous of you being better than him at every subject", John said to Hermione, who now looked rather confused.
"As if I want to be sucking up to teachers like her!", said Malfoy.
"Better than having no actual friends aside from a pair of apes like these two. Where's your sister anyway? Has she worked out what a twat you are too?" John asked, smirking at Malfoy who was starting to turn pink. Crabbe and Goyle stepped forwards with folded arms, glaring daggers at John.
"Speaking of no actual friends", Malfoy started, now smirking at Hermione, who looked genuinely upset for the first time. Her features shifted in a way that very clearly showed that Malfoy had touched a nerve.
For the first time, John looked at Hermione properly and found that he felt quite bad for her. He supposed that she must've had a hard time at her old school with the way she carried herself - likely seen as an overly keen nerd or a suck-up.
"Apart from me", said John defiantly. Hermione's slightly tearful face snapped towards John in surprise.
"Really? Suppose the whole school should know about this one!", said Malfoy gleefully.
"You do that", said John and the smirk on Malfoy's face faltered.
"C'mon", he muttered to Crabbe and Goyle as they skulked away.
"W-why did you say that?" asked Hermione.
"Dunno. Seemed like the right thing to do I suppose", said John, shrugging.
"Well I- thank you. I can't say anyone's ever really made an effort to defend me like that. Or at all", said Hermione shyly.
John frowned.
"Seems a bit shit", he mumbled, now feeling very sorry for the way he'd acted around her until then.
"Please don't swear", she said, almost automatically.
"If we are going to be friends, you're going to have to get used to that", said John, giving her what he hoped was an encouraging smile.
"Y-you're not serious, are you?" Hermione asked.
"Of course I am, I swear all the time. My mum hates it", said John, grinning at her.
Hermione laughed as the two of them walked back to the great hall for lunch, feeling lighter than she had done in a very long time.