Hermione unlocked the compartment, and they all took the same carriage to Hogwarts.
When they arrived at a batch of small boats, the three friends and Padma took a boat together. They all marvelled at how beautiful the view was. Harry and Hermione smiled at Professor McGonagall when she met Hagrid at the door, and she smiled back. Since they were all first-years, none of them remarked on how unusual that was for the strict Deputy Headmistress.
Professor McGonagall was still having a crisis of conscience, so she did not trot out her usual speech about how your House was like your family - it usually was not, unless you had a rather unfortunate family. Nor about house points being important - Snape, with the Headmaster's acquiescence, had made a mockery of that system for almost a decade now. Instead, she pointed out that you would share a common room with others in your House, and if you played Quidditch, your team would be other members of your House. After all, while Hooch is a Slytherin alumna and does a dreadful job reining in the Slytherins as they injure the other students, at least the Quidditch Cup isn't completely rigged, unlike the House Cup, she thought.
She emphasized that, while important Feasts and the handing out of initial schedules required students to sit at their House tables, students were encouraged to sit wherever they wished all other times.
She thought over her past conduct, and decided it was wholly inadequate. Telling first years that if they fool around in Transfiguration, they'll be forever banned from the class is a lie, and entirely inappropriate to 11-year-old children. I need to be less lazy, and patiently explain how dangerous it will become when they're older and more skilled.
In the same vein, she resolved to for once do her duty as Head of House (or cede that position to one of the other Gryffindor alumnae on staff) and hold a house meeting. She pondered openly challenging Snape. The fly in that ointment was that not only did Dumbledore protect the odious man, but so did the Hogwarts board, because Lucius Malfoy controlled it with threats and some strategic bribes. She had been too busy in the past to support Augusta Longbottom's efforts to get Malfoy off the board, but that had to change.
I'll be using more Pepper-Up potions this year than since the War, she decided. I had better make sure I get enough sleep to make up for it. She would refuse to do all of Dumbledore's work for him. Let it pile up. She would carefully record everything he and Snape did wrong, and she and Augusta would arrange to bypass the Daily Prophet/Witch Weekly and Minister Fudge when they went after Malfoy, then Snape, and Dumbledore if he was so foolish as to stand in their way. The Wizarding Wireless was independent, and so were the French and other European papers. Really, wizards and witches are very lazy and lack imagination. It was a sobering realisation.
Harry only paid attention to Hannah and Susan before Hermione's time arrived. She squeezed his had, then gave him a small hug before she stood up and walked resolutely to the stool and placed the hat on her head with aplomb.
Harry started to worry after Hermione had sat in place for over two minutes. When, contrary to their plans and expectations, the Hat finally announced "better be GRYFFINDOR!" Harry's heart sank. It was hard to convince a hat, he imagined, that you belonged in Gryffindor. It was easy to prove he was loyal to Hermione, had the ambition to be with her, and thanks to the Grangers, had the academic heft to be a Ravenclaw. But if he baulked at being put somewhere else, the Hat might mock him for being frightened and dependent without Hermione mothering him.
He decided, nonetheless, to go with Plan A, and perhaps a Plan B would occur while he was bargaining/arguing with the Hat, if it even objected to him being in Gryffindor to begin with.
He paid passing attention to Padma and Parvati's Sorting. They were, surprisingly, split up. Somewhat surprisingly, Parvati didn't seem broken up over it, though Padma clearly was.
Finally, it was Harry's turn.
He had planned it all out, that his parents were in Gryffindor, the hell their Headmaster had put him through, that he deserved a break, that his only happiness in life was being with Hermione. And so on.
Well, well, Harry Potter, the hat said in his mind. Oh, my, you ARE determined, aren't you? That kind of determination would help you fit in in Slytherin, or even Hufflepuff. I only concern myself with where someone's parents were if their minds don't present me with adequate information, and they're too dull to make a case for a preference, neither of which applies to you. I should also warn you that the Headmaster has directed me to put you in a specific House, or at least to lobby you hard for it.
That, actually, gave Harry some hope. Hermione had told her that Dumbledore had been in Gryffindor, and he probably would want Harry there too, even if as just a homage to himself.
That's where you're very wrong, young Harry, the Hat said, chuckling. Oh, if you agreed to Slytherin - and I had a full speech readied by the Headmaster, about how you had greatness in you and only Slytherin would help you achieve it - he would openly act disappointed, but that is where he wants you. Your mistreatment by your relatives isn't an accident, nor would seven years of cruelty at the hands of Severus Snape - your enemy from your birth - be. And Dumbledore would later on be able to accuse you of being Dark whenever you disagreed with him over the slightest trifle. And if anyone called him on it, he'd say, if pressed, that I was probably reading a part of Voldemort that he attached to your scar when he was destroyed that Halloween night, long ago. Pretty sound plan, isn't it? The gamekeeper and Deputy Headmistress believe he's growing senile, and he certainly isn't as sharp as he was in his prime, but I think they're underestimating the amount of wits he still has about him, and grossly overestimating his good intentions. Still, you are connected in some way to Tom Riddle - that's Voldemort, by the way, he was Head Boy in his day - and you do have a lot of ambitions, mostly centred on Ms Granger ... you are intensely loyal to her, and you do value learning - you've recovered that from the conditioning the Dursleys did to drive it out of you, thanks to her.
The way the Hat was going on about Hermione drove all other thoughts, rationales, bargaining, out of Harry's head. The Hat had seen his abuse, anyway, and assigned proper blame. It knew all about his parents, and probably was sensible enough to realise if he went to the House of his parents' killers, there would be violence eventually. But Harry was in full panic.
Hermione Granger, he thought, over and over. Hermione! Hermione! I want Hermione! I have to be with her! Please, oh please! Hermione!
He'd entirely lost control of his emotions, and was probably presenting a spectacle to the onlookers amongst the students and staff.
The next words of the Hat surprised him. Very well, Mr Potter. You shall have your wish. Your exact wish, and you may find what others who have had their wishes granted discovered, that the reality reveals aspects you had not thought of.
Harry was so relieved, he started to cry.
But then, aloud, the Hat yelled, "BETTER BE HERMIONE GRANGER!"