Private Drive, Surrey, 31st August 1991, Durleys House 10:30 a.m.
After driving for half an hour, Vernon finally stopped the car at Kings Cross Station.
"So, where's the station, Petunia?" Harry asked as they reached between 9 and 10 platforms.
"It's a barrier between platforms 9 and 10, though it is not seen by us – Muggles" Petunia informed.
"So, what next?" Harry asked looking around to see if he can find any magical family.
"I just know that your mother used the secret entrance by running straight ahead, directly into the barrier. Though I am not exactly sure where is that particular barrier." Petunia bit her lower lip frowning
Then only, a look of absolute disbelief and disgust crossed his face when he saw a girl with the wildest hair, if possible, shouting loudly about 'magic' and where the platform was and how she hoped that the classes won't be too hard.
He shook his head in disgust, clearly a muggle-born and the exemplary reason of why because of people like her, muggle-borns like his mother are also hated.
Turning around he saw a blonde family, walking straight to a wall and smiled. Yes, a magical way to a magical school.
"I'm leaving and don't expect me till the next summer." Harry glared at the couple and walked straight ahead to the wall followed by that same muggle-born girl.
As Harry entered the other side, his eyes wide staring at the big red and black train with people bustling to and from it.
"Aunt Andy, I won't prank anyone. Why don't you trust me?" a boy same age as him cried out loud followed by a giggling girl who had a tag of 'Head Girl' and weird hair colour.
"Trust and you? Merlin, you and Dora can never be trusted, especially if it comes to pranks." Andy, that woman crossed her arms when a man came to the rescue.
He shook his head, and focus on boarding the train, ignoring the pain which was making him feel suffocated. It was hard to see the other children of his age getting love from their parents, relatives while he for all the years had only been introduced to lies, pain, hatred and loneliness. There was no doubt that his parents loved him, because if they didn't, then they would never sacrificed themselves, but still he craved for the love and attention in the past. But now, he knows that love is only weakness and he would never be weak.
Harry ended up in a compartment, which he locked after entering with the new spell he had learnt. Not many people, read through the lines of the 'Need and Importance of the Statue of Secrecy' book, it indicates that until and unless an underage child performs magic in a magical place like Diagon Alley, St Mungos or in their own home (only magical homes) the ministry won't be able to find the child who performed the magic, as not the wand but the magic is traced, so as long as you're surrounded by magical people, you can practice magic. This rule was applied mainly for muggle-borns and muggle raised half-bloods as they lived with muggles. One of the reasons why pure blood children are taught magic from their home only and were a bit better in grasping the theories and practical knowledge.
Harry made himself comfortable and enlarged the trunk and picked up a book to read. At sharp 11, the train howled and with a jerk started off.
After twenty minutes of the train leaving the station, Harry's attention diverted on the sound of knocking. At first, he ignored it but after sometime he became irritated. Though he was glad finally that person went away.
It was nearly night, when a sound came from nowhere that they shall keep their luggage in the train only and to be ready in school robes. The train came to an halt, fifteen minutes after the announcement. Harry shrunk his trunk and walked outside.
"Firs'-years! Firs'-years over here! All right there. C'mon, follow me – any more firs'-years? Mind yer step, now! Firs'-years follow me!" A voice boomed and Harry saw a man who would be as twice as an average man standing there with a lantern, he along with others followed him. Harry looked around noticing that they were moving, what seemed to a steep, narrow path. Harry rolled his eyes when he saw some students stumbling or slipping.
' Really they didn't have any decorum.'
"Ye' all gets yer firs' sight o' 'ogwart's in a sec. No more 'n 'our in 'he boa'." The giant called over from his shoulder. "Everyone in? Right then….. FORWARD", The giant shouted. And the boats started moving themselves without a paddle. Harry sat with a blonde girl with icy blue eyes and two boys who were looking like they would want to be anywhere, rather than with each other. Both boys looked like they were brothers, so similar to each other as if difficult to understand who's who, though their eyes distinguished them. One had grey eyes and the other greyish blue.
And soon they were greeted by the mesmerizing sight of the school. Perched atop a high mountain on the other side, it's windows sparkling in the starry night, was a vast castle. Like the others, Harry gasped. He felt like it was a dream. The little boats carried them along a dark tunnel, which seemed to be taking them right underneath the castle, until they reached a kind of under-ground harbour, where they climbed out onto the rocks, following the giant.
The door opened at once, when the students reached there. An old woman entered wearing emerald green robes and glasses, looking at the children with her stern eyes and thinned lips. After looking at the professor, Harry noted that this woman was not to be crossed. "'e firs' years, Professor McGonagall." The giant said. "Thank you, Hagrid. I'll take them from here." Professor McGonagall replied
Professor McGonagall brought the first years to a small chamber of the hall, it was empty, though one could hear the students voices from here. Turning around and facing the students, she stated "Welcome to Hogwarts", she stopped surveying the students and as she found everyone listening attentively, she continued, "The start-of-term banquet will begin shortly, but before you take your seats in the Great Hall, you will be sorted into your houses. The Sorting is a very important ceremony because, while you are here, your house will be something like your family within Hogwarts. Your classes will be with your house, sleep in your house dormitory and your free hours in your house common room."
The students were listening attentively, some hoping to be in the same house, some hoping to be in different. Some were nervous about the sorting system. "I heard we have to battle a troll", whispered a boy with red hair and shabby clothes. Harry scoffed at him. "You know I have heard that the sorting hat sorts us, according to our best trait." The same muggle-born girl declared to anyone who was listening. Harry had to stop the urge to sneer at the girl.
"The four houses," the chattering died, "are called Gryffindor, Slytherin,. Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff. Each house has it's own noble history and each has produced outstanding witches and wizards." "Except the slimy Slytherins, they have all dark witches and wizards." declared the red haired boy and received death glares from one third of the students. "Mr. Weasley, do not interrupt. While you're at Hogwarts, your triumphs will earn your house points, while any rule breaking will lose house points. At the end of the year, the house with The most points is awarded the house cup, a great honor. I hope each of you will be a credit to whichever house becomes yours."
"The Sorting Ceremony will take place in a few minutes in front of the rest of the school. I suggest you all smarten yourselves up as much as you can while you are waiting." Her eyes lingered for a moment.
"I shall return when we are ready for you," said Professor McGonagall. "Please wait quietly."
She left the chamber. No one was talking much except that girl, Hermione Granger, who was whispering very fast about all the spells she'd learned and wondering which one she'd need. Harry tried hard not to listen to her, no matter which house he gets sorted, he won't stay in the same house as her. He kept his eyes fixed on the door.
Then something happened that made him jump about a foot in the air several people behind him screamed. About twenty ghosts had just streamed through the back wall. Pearly-white and slightly transparent, they glided across the room talking to one another and hardly glancing at the first years. They seemed to be arguing. What looked like a fat little monk was saying: "Forgive and forget, I say, we ought to give him a second chance…."
"My dear Friar, haven't we given Peeves all the chances he deserves? He gives us all a bad name and you know, he's not really even a ghost – I say, what are you all doing here?", a ghost wearing a ruff and tights had suddenly noticed the first years.Nobody answered. "New students!" said the Fat Friar, smiling around at them.
"About to be sorted, I suppose?" A few people nodded mutely. "Hope to see you in Hufflepuff!" said the Friar. "My old house, you know."
"Move along now," said a sharp voice. "The Sorting Ceremony's about to start. Now, form a line," Professor McGonagall told the first years, "and follow me."
Feeling oddly as though his legs had turned to lead, Harry got into line behind a boy with sandy hair, with the red haired boy behind him, and they walked out of the chamber, back across the hall, and through a pair of double doors into the Great Hall.
Harry had never even imagined such a strange and splendid place. It was lit by thousands and thousands of candles that were floating in midair over four long tables, where the rest of the students were sitting. These tables were laid with glittering golden plates and goblets. At the top of the hall was another long table where the teachers were sitting.
Professor McGonagall led the first years up here, so that they came to a halt in a line facing the other students, with the teachers behind them. The hundreds of faces staring at them looked like pale lanterns in the flickering candlelight. Dotted here and there among the students, the ghosts shone misty silver. Mainly to avoid all the staring eyes, Harry looked upward and saw a velvety black ceiling dotted with stars. He remembered reading in the 'Hogwarts : A History' that it's bewitched to look like the sky outside. But watching the same with his eyes was a total different thing. He made a note in his mind to thank Dumbledore for referring that book.
Harry quickly looked down again as Professor McGonagall silently placed a four-legged stool in front of the first years. On top of the stool she put a pointed wizard's hat. This hat was patched and frayed and extremely dirty. He remembered reading it to be Godric Gryffindor's hat.
For a few seconds, there was complete silence. Then the hat twitched. A rip near the brim opened wide like a mouth – and the hat began 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 Hufflepuffis 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 burst into applause as the hat finished its song. It bowed to each of the four tables and then became quite still again. "So we've just got to try on the hat!" That red haired boy whispered to himself. "I'll kill Fred, he was going on about wrestling a troll."
Professor McGonagall now stepped forward holding a long roll of parchment. "When I call your name, you will put on the hat and sit on the stool to be sorted," she said.
"Abbott, Hannah!"
A pink-faced girl with blonde pigtails stumbled out of line, put on the hat, which fell right down over her eyes, and sat down. A moments pause –
"HUFFLEPUFF!" shouted the hat.
The table on the right cheered and clapped as Hannah went to sit down at the Hufflepuff table. Harry saw the ghost of the Fat Friar waving merrily at her.
"Bones, Susan!"
"HUFFLEPUFF!" shouted the hat again, and Susan scuttled off to sit next to Hannah.
"Black, Aries!"
"SLYTHERIN!"
The boy with greyish blue eyes, he then remembered watching him in the station with that weird hair girl. He looked like he was about to puke. He glared at the hat and sat with the Slytherins.
"Black, Homam!"
"SLYTHERIN!"
The grey haired boy smirked at the blonde standing before him and went to his table.
"Boot, Terry!"
"RAVENCLAW!"
The table second from the left clapped this time; several Ravenclaws stood up to shake hands with Terry as he joined them.
" Brocklehurst, Mandy" went to Ravenclaw too, but "Brown, Lavender" became the first new Gryffindor, and the table on the far left exploded with cheers.
"Bulstrode, Millicent"
"SLYTHERIN!"
"Finch-Fletchley, Justin!"
"HUFFLEPUFF!"
Sometimes, Harry noticed, the hat shouted out the house at once, but at others it took a little while to decide. "Finnigan, Seamus," the sandy-haired boy next to Harry in the line, sat on the stool for almost a whole minute before the hat declared him a Gryffindor.
"Granger, Hermione!"
Hermione almost ran to the stool and jammed the hat eagerly on her head. Harry listened attentively as he wanted to make sure he doesn't go to the same house as Granger.
"GRYFFINDOR!" shouted the hat. The red haired boy groaned, and Harry's day couldn't have been better. Looks like, the red haired boy targeted for the same house.
When Neville Longbottom, the boy who kept losing his toad, was called, he fell over on his way to the stool. The hat took a long time to decide with Neville. When it finally shouted, "GRYFFINDOR," Neville ran off still wearing it, and had to jog back amid gales of laughter to give it to "MacDougal, Morag."
"RAVENCLAW!"
"Malfoy, Draco."
Malfoy swaggered forward when his name was called and got his wish at once: the hat had barely touched his head when it screamed, "SLYTHERIN!"
Malfoy went to join his friends Crabbe and Goyle, who were in the boat with him and smirked at Homam black looking pleased with himself.
There weren't many people left now. "Lilian Moon", who went to Ravenclaw, "Theodre Nott" , who joined that blonde boy in the snake pit along with Parkinson, then a pair of twin girls, "Patil" and "Patil" , one of them went to Gryffindor while the other in Ravenclaw, then "Perks, Sally-Anne", she also went to Ravenclaw and then, at last
"Potter, Harrison!"
As Harry stepped forward, whispers suddenly broke out like little hissing fires all over the hall.
"Potter, did she say?"
"The Harry Potter?"
"I didn't knew his name was Harrison!"
"Where is his scar?"
Harry confidently walked towards the hat like a perfect pureblood prince. He sat on the stool when McGonagall put the hat on his head. The last thing Harry saw before the hat dropped over his eyes was the hall full of people craning to get a good look at him. Next second he was looking at the black inside of the hat. He waited.
"Hmm," said a small voice in his ear. Your mind is well trained. You'll bring a new age for the Wizarding world. You could be great, it's all here in your head, and Slytherin will help you on the way to greatness, no doubt about that better be
SLYTHERIN!"
Harry heard the hat shout the last word to the whole hall. He took off the hat and walked confidently towards the Slytherin table. He hardly noticed that he was getting the a pin drop silence. Harry sat down opposite the Aries Black. It was then he noticed the silence.