Chapter 55: Post Sorting

"Who knew you were an eagle? I did. Yes, I did." His father said after the ceremony.

Harry rolled his eyes.

"I won the bet, Claire is going to be so mad she was sure you were going to be in Slytherin." He said referring to his mother since he couldn't exactly call her mum here.

He hated that. He hated that his mother essentially had to hide because no one ever took the time to realize she was out of her freaking mind when she did all those things.

"Seriously, you betted on my sorting? Claire thought I was going to end up in Slytherin?"

His father shrugged. "We figured it was either Slytherin or Ravenclaw. I thought Draco might keep you from Slytherin. And you know how Claire feels about Slytherin…"

He wasn't exactly wrong about Draco and how his mother felt about the old house.

"I told the hat I would burn it if it put me with Snape."

His father laughed. "Yeah, I wouldn't want to be near Snivellus either. But really burning the hat? That's quite the threat. Something Claire would've done. Me too, come to think of it."

"The man creeps me out," He told his dad. "I thought…"

"Where's Draco?" His father said clearly distracted by a slight pinging noise that Harry was told earlier that it was an alarm for the Gryffindor common room.

"Snape tried to talk to me about Lucius." Draco said coming into Sirius's office with a scowl on his face.

"I'll deal with him tomorrow." His father said. "I have to deal my house first after I drop the two of you off."

"I want to talk to you about Snape too," Harry said looking at his father.

He nodded. "Snviellus always being the bane of my existence."

"Snape is Snivellus?" Draco asked. "Seriously? Snviellus grew up to be Snape?"

His father ignored him, cursing as the pinging noise went off again. "Ugh, seems rather than dropping the two of you off like I wanted, I have to go to my old house for a moment. The floo is ready if you want to step through now."

Harry couldn't step through the floo fast enough.

His mother was waiting on the other side.

She looked tired. She had looked exhausted lots lately since Aunt Cissy died. She suspected she hadn't been getting a lot of sleep. He worried about her. He knew she got sick a lot and sometimes Dad or Aunt Andromeda had to more or less forced her to eat. He still halfway suspected she was pregnant, but she was so thin. She was starting to look like she had when she had first arrived at the lodge which scared him.

"Claire," Draco said to his mum.

"Draco," She said a nod. "Good feast?"

He grimaced. "I forget how British the food is there."

Mum rolled her eyes. "You sound like Cissy. Heaven forbid you had to eat treacle tart."

"I enjoyed it," Harry said.

"You ate two slices of it," Draco said. "I don't know how you could handle something so sickeningly sweet let alone two slices."

It was the nutrition potion. Not that Draco knew that. And besides, Draco used to eat that much. At least until the blood adoption. Now he had became a way pickier eater.

"Where's Siri?"

"Gryffindorks are acting up again," Draco said. "I'm going to go in my room and work on this stupid Transfiguration assignment. I don't want to be the dunce in the intro class. I also need to take my potion. My skin is itching like crazy."

Harry raised an eyebrow when he mentioned the potions he was taking but didn't say anything. He noticed his mother looked concerned. "Didn't you take a dose this morning?"

He nodded, "I need more…"

"I'll need to talk to your father or Aunt Andi first to make sure its' safe," She said with a frown before adding. "Don't worry too much about Transfiguration, love. You've made lots of progress this summer."

The boy rolled his eyes. "I still need to study."

"Yes, yes, you do. But don't worry about the first years' tomorrow."

The boy nodded before leaving and going to his room. His mother then got up and motioned him to follow her into her and his father's bedroom where privacy charms were set up and they could talk with her being herself.

"So where did you end up?"

"Ravenclaw."

"He won? I can't believe it. He is never going to let me here the end of it."

"Yes. But to be fair, the hat did sort of want me in Slytherin. I may have had to threaten with setting it on fire to put me in Ravenclaw."

She may have started laughing even more than Dad had. "Clearly, you are my son. And I'm taking it your cousin is the reason why you ended up with the eagles?"

"More or less that and the dungeons and Snape creeps me out."

He noticed his mother's body tense when he mentioned Snape.

"What did he do, baby?"

"He…I had a flashback and I think he read my mind in the past as Harry Potter." He said, "And he looked like he wanted to try to read my mind again today with how he kept trying to make eye contact."

"He what?"

Her eyes flashed gray and for a brief second he thought he saw a talon emerge from her hands. Sometimes he forgot she was a veela.

"I'm sorry," she said. " We had suspected that he might have tried as much. If he did do that in the past it's very illegal. Reading someone's thoughts with permission is essentially a form of mind rape. If he tries to do that again let me or your father know immediately."

Mind rape. That was a good way to describe it.

"I don't want to be near him, Mum. There's just something off about him."

"I'll see if we can get you pulled out of his class. I'd rather you and your brother not be in there with that…"

She took a breath.

"With what?"

"It doesn't matter." She said, "At the very least I'll make sure you won't be in that class alone if you do have to attend."

"I'll just refuse to attend."

She'd laughed. "You'd probably get detention."

"It could be assigned with Professor Black."

"Are you sure you were sorted in the right house, baby?"

Probably not. But there was no way in hell he would be in Slytherin at least with Snape there.

Aunt Andromeda came to check on him later on that evening. He guessed Sirius was still busy with the Gryfindorks and apparently Claire was concerned enough to have Aunt Andi floo all the way from London to be here. He didn't get what the big deal was he just need an extra dose of potion. Every inch of him wanted to…well, wanted to change. And everything itched. Especially his chest. Lord for a second there he thought he felt his nipples starting to shift. Luckily, they hadn't though. Or if they had they retreated once he left the school.

He didn't understand any of this. He just knew his skin itched like crazy which he told Aunt Andi.

"Your other form likely wants to get out," She stated.

He glared at her even though that's what he expected. "That cannot happen."

The last thing he needed was to be in that form at Hogwarts.

She sighed heavily. "Have you talked to Gunther about how you're feeling?"

Gunther was the mind healer he recently had started seeing. He knew Harry also saw him too. He was a nice enough guy, but Draco didn't want to talk with anyone about what was happening with his body. Instead, he talked about the grief he still feeling with regards to mother. He needed to deal with that. And with the potions, didn't think he had acknowledge it.

His aunt shook her head at him. "Gunther is not going to judge you. He is a mind healer. A trained professional. And you need to talk to someone about the dysphoria you're experiencing in your other form."

Dysphoria. That was a word he had to look up when they first mentioned it to him. But it did fit with what was going on. He was not a girl, even if a part of him was technically. A part of him he did not want to know.

"I can just take the potion," He said. "You know the one I need a dose of now so I stop feeling like I'm going to crawl out of my skin."

She shook her head at him. "The potion is only a temporary solution, Draco. It's not healthy for you to take it long term. I'm halfway tempted to take you off it right now because of the tingling you're experiencing."

"You can't," He said turning a pale white at the mere thought of not being on the potion. Of waking up like he did the other day. He couldn't…he couldn't go to school as a girl.

He felt himself being able to not breathe again as his aunt handed him a calming drought. He had taken enough of them in the past few weeks to know to sip it slowly.

"The itching means it's not working as well as it should," She said. "We may have been too late. You may have already started puberty."

He laughed, "Have you looked at me, Aunt Andi?"

He looked and sounded like a little boy, and he didn't look that much older in his other form either though he had noticed that his nipples had felt extremely tender when he was….no, he wasn't going to say the word.

"Puberty manifests itself in different ways, Cissy had her cycle but still pretty much looked like a child for years." She said, "And you're not familiar enough with…err, your other form to know the signs."

He grimaced not wanting to know about girl's bodies. The only thing he should be thinking about girls bodies at this point would be touching someone's knockers not growing his…well, that form's own. He barely had understood what was going to happen to his…well, his male form. The fact he also had to worry about puberty as a girl made things even worse.

Aunt Andi sighed, "You can talk to me or Claire about all of this if you want."

"I won't be changing so I won't go through with it." He said.

"Draco," She said. "You'll have to shift at some point. Long term exposure to the suppression potions are dangerous. And like I told you, I don't know how effective they'll be considering your body is already resisting them we can up the dosage, but it's only a temporary solution. A very temporary solution. I'm going to see if Nymphadora can help you sooner than later."

"Resisting?" He asked.

"Yes, your itching is a sure sign that your body is fighting them."

"So, they're not working then?"

"They won't be working soon," She said hating that she had to give the boy the bad news.

It was bittersweet being sorted into Gryffindor for Ginerva Weasley.

On one hand, it was her family house. At this point, Gryffindor was as synonymous with Weasleys and Slytherin was synonymous with Blacks. She knew her parents would be proud of her house, but there was also an emptiness there.

An emptiness from her brother and Harry Potter not being at the feast. Not being in the house to welcome her.

It was weird that she felt an emptiness for a boy that she only met once, but she did.

Maybe it was because her mother had read her all those Harry Potter books when she was growing up, but she felt a connection to the boy who was now dead. Interestingly, those stories had recently been pulled from the shelves. Apparently, Harry's estate was suing the publishing company for libel and appropriating his image.

Harry's estate.

It was sad. Just like her brother had an estate. Or would if there would've been anything in it. No, unlike Harry, Ron had died more or less a pauper and any money that her parents may have gotten from his death now went to Percy's defense fund.

She couldn't believe her big brother was on trial for defending his family's honor. That Granger girl had caused Ron's death. At least that's what Mummy said. Really, Ginny didn't know too much about what happened to her brother or Harry. Mummy had kept her from reading the news. Apparently, some of the details were too grisly for a little girl to read.

She did know the basics though. It was sort of hard not to. She knew they had to have a closed casket service because there was really nothing left of Ron after the troll got through with him and the same was more or less for Harry Potter as well.

Gryffindor house had been forever impacted by what had happened. She knew that Professor McGonagall had left more or less because of what happened last year to Granger. The house was still unhappy about that and now they had crazy Sirius Black as their new Transfiguration teacher and head of house.

Mummy kept griping to Daddy about how unhinged Professor Black was ever since it was announced. She knew that there was a distant relation to the Black family on both sides of her family and for some reason Mummy especially despised the family. Called them abhorrent people. She knew it was because she suspected them killing her brothers, though no proof had been found regarding that.

She still didn't believe Professor Black was innocent even though Scabbers had apparently confessed to everything.

"Mark my words that family is crazy."

"Amelia questioned the man, Molly." Daddy said trying to rationalize with Mum. It never went well for him when he did. "Besides, you and I both are related to the Blacks. So not all of them are crazy."

"Distantly related," Her mother pointed out. "Both of us are distantly related."

"My mother was a Black." Daddy said.

"And that says everything you need to know," Mummy said clearly not knowing what distantly related meant though Ginny knew she couldn't stand Grandmum Weasley. "And if you're defending the man, Arthur, maybe you've got some of that Black madness as well."

"I'm just saying, Pettigrew confessed to being the Potters secret keeper. The poor man spent over a decade for a crime he didn't commit."

"Maybe he wasn't the secret keeper but…"

"Molly, no." Daddy said. "If he was guilty of anything Amelia would've never released him like that."

"I still don't trust the man, Arthur, especially to teach our children."

"Well, we really don't have any other option at the moment given the costs of alternative schooling due to the recent legislation."

It was still hard to get used to that Scabbers was a man. Apparently, he had done something both to Percy and Ron though Ginny wasn't sure what since her parents always seemed to throw up a silencing charm whenever they talked about it. It must have been really bad.

The common room seemed to be just like it had been described to her by her brothers. Large, imposing red and gold, but comfortable. She had made herself home on one of the large leather couches. They had been led there by the prefects who pretty much left the first years to their own accord after showing them to their dorm rooms. The prefects seemed pretty disinterested in them for the most part. Ginny had heard that it had been hard to find anyone in the house who actually qualified as a prefect or even wanted to do it after last year.

She knew there had been a couple of people who even protested the appointment at least that's what she overheard one of the fifth years telling the twins on the train ride here.

The twins—if anyone—had made sure she knew where to go. They were being extra protective of her. No big surprise after what happened last year. She knew both of them sort of blamed themselves about what happened to Ron and Percy going to such extremes to defend the family's honor.

So did Percy.

It was probably why he reacted the way he did. She still didn't understand why that Granger girl's parents had decided to press charges or were suing the school and suing them for that matter.

Mummy had literally broken down when she heard the school was paying them a big sum of money to settle one of the lawsuits that the girl's family had against Hogwarts because of the new rules.

New rules that meant she likely had to be attending. But so far no one had seen her. She knew though there was talk that the house was preparing something if she showed. Only thing was, no one saw her on the train.

There were a few new students, but none of them could be her. And besides, she wouldn't have been sorted since she was in Gryffindor. They guessed it was possible the payout could've been enough where she was getting private tutors now, but…the house was waiting. She had watched some of her classmates prepare the necessary spells to alert them if the rat showed her ugly face and a couple of surprises if she did.

The only thing was all of their plans had gone to not when Professor Black stormed into the common room not an hour after they were dismissed from the Great Hall and had a look on his face that looked like it would rival Mummy's when she was mad at the twins. Except he was probably scarier than Mummy since he was about a foot and a half taller and was in shape. In fact, she had heard a couple of girls giggling about him being cute. Those girls probably weren't aware he was a crazy inmate from Azkaban.

With a wave of his wand, the booby traps that they had made of hairless tonic evaporated into nothing as well as the wards they had set up to alert them if rat entered the common room.

"Already planning to victimize a student on the first day. Isn't that precious?"

"That's not what was happening, sir…" Longbottom said being the idiot the twins said he was.

A cute idiot though.

"Didn't your grandmother teach you not to lie, Mr. Longbottom? That will be twenty points from you and an additional detention from the one the whole house will be serving." He said, "I have warded the house to alert me to stupidity because I was told there was a lot of idiocy coming from said house last year. I was hoping six months of detentions and being in the negative points sie last semester would've had the lot of you grow up. Guess I was wrong. Anyone want to care to let me know who this little trap was for?"

No one said anything.

"Such loyalty," Their new head of house said. "Though it's pretty obvious based on the papers that it's set for Ms. Granger. Well, spoiler alert, she's no longer enrolled here so the welcoming gift is only going to leave you with a slew of detentions for the entire house and a negative start to the house cup."

There was instant whining and then they found themselves unable to talk.

"Silence is golden," Their new head of house said with a smirk before adding, "It will wear off in an hour. You'll find out quickly that I am one not to trifle with unlike Minnie."

He then left.

Needless to say, the entire house was mad especially her brothers who were determined to perform a prank on their new head of house.

"I don't want Snivellus near our son," She told Sirius as soon as he came through the floo several hours later.

Harry had since gone to bed as had Draco finally. Andi ended up having to give the boy a sleeping potion before she left. Sadly, it was not a common occurrence these days. That had been hours ago though. Since she had even changed into her pajamas and dozed off. Well, they weren't her pajamas. The negligees she had been prone to wearing as Claire Du Pres were getting a little indecent in the chest area, not that her husband minded much. But it wasn't exactly comfortable for her to wear these days. Instead, she was back in Siri's old quidditch jersey again. She didn't know what had caused Sirius to come in late though she was sure it was related to his duties as head of house.

He scowled. "I don't want him near me if you really want to know it. I had to eat next to that man and your boy-toy."

She grimaced. "You had to eat next to Gil?"

"You'll be happy to know he asked me if I've seen his lilac eyed princess."

"Did you tell him you were fucking her and knocked her up with twins?"

"Not yet. Am waiting on the perfect moment for that." He said before adding, "Did I wake you up?"

She nodded, "It's after midnight, Siri."

"I know," He said. "I may have had to give my old house some new house rules and then had to show some Marauder Wannabes that it be best that they don't try to prank Professor Padfoot."

"Lord, do I even want to know what hell you unleashed."

"Fred and George Weasley will have green and silver hair for the next month." He said. "I view that as light punishment for trying to booby trap my office. Like I wouldn't have my own traps set."

"I almost feel sorry for your students," she said. "Almost."

"They will reap what they sow. I think they're already scared of me and I haven't had my official first day yet. I may also have set way too many monitoring charms on that common room to my liking."

She shook her head.

"Someone has the map."

"The map? That thing you created with your little friends?"

He nodded.

She groaned. She remembered when he told her about that thing. She told him it was creepy.

"You literally can track anyone in that school," she said. "How is that not creepy?"

"You know Dumbledore didn't just misplace it," she told him.

"I know."

Hufflepuff was a nice departure from Gryffindor. Even though she hated the fact the common room was in the basement, it really didn't feel that way. The common room seemed open, cheerful, cozy, hardly imposing, and like Susan said there were lots of plants.

"Ms. Lupin," Professor Sprout said after she had gotten settled.

Hermione nodded and followed the Herbology professor to her office. She didn't remember finding Professor Sprout terribly offensive the last time she was here. Not that she had really even been a particular fan of Herbology. She wasn't much of a plant person really. That had been Longbottom's thing in their house.

As soon as they got to the professor's quarters, which was right off the common room much like McGonagall's the woman gave her a big hug.

Hermione was taken aback.

"Look at you, Ms. Granger." The woman said with a huge smile on her face. "I dare say you're taller than me now."

She probably was. She was about Draco's old height now and he had been one of the taller boys in their class until the blood adoption. She barely recognized him earlier. It was so odd, last year he was probably one of the taller boys after Ron and Harry had been one of the shortest. Now it was the opposite. Harry was probably the only student that was taller than her now in her year. It wasn't that big a surprise either since both her parents were ridiculously tall, though she knew that the clinic's treatments had enhanced her growing even in the last few weeks.

"I guess it's Ms. Lupin now though, isn't it?" She said not waiting for Hermione to speak.

"It is."

"Remus was a good student," she said. "A bit like you when it came to books. I should've seen it last year."

"You barely saw me outside of class, ma'am."

The little Herbology professor shook her head. "That is a shame. I am glad to hear you are doing better and in my house. I was horrified when I heard what happened last year."

Hermione could feel herself tensing up.

"It won't happen here," Professor Sprout said. "I have a very strict anti-bullying policy. Luckily, I find that most my badgers wouldn't dream of doing such things their fellow badgers. Loyalty is a big thing for us, you know."

Oh, she knew. She thought it may have been the reason she ended up here rather than Ravenclaw with Harry. A part of her really wanted to be in the same house as him, but another part of her didn't want to deal with the competitiveness and cattiness that would've came with being in there. It probably wasn't as bad as Slytherin…but honestly she was just tired of dealing with people like that.

"I know you're behind," The professor continued. "Given what happened…."

"I did have some tutoring this summer," Hermione said. "I was going to do an accelerated home study to hopefully get back to second year studies, but I'm not exactly sure if I know enough to be labeled a second-year student."

"We will likely put you on a modified schedule," Professor Sprout said. "I know we have a couple other students here that need accommodations so it shouldn't be that big of a deal. I also have an older student that volunteered to tutor you."

"Tutor me?"

"Cedric Diggory, fine lad. He is thinking of going into academia after he graduates so he is always volunteering helping others learn."

She remembered Cedric Diggory. Who wouldn't? He was probably one of the handsomest boys in his year. Susan certainly mentioned him a lot on the train ride and she hadn't been the only other one. Lavender Brown was obsessed last year with his smoky grey eyes. She talked about them all the time in the girl's dormitories. Even Hermione had to admit he was cute, though she really hadn't given him much of a look last year since she knew she had no chance in hell with him.

He hadn't really said much to her last year. Certainly hadn't tormented her. Honestly, Diggory probably didn't even know she existed last year so she had no problem with her helping him.

"I know you don't want to be here." Sprout said looking at her.

Hermione sighed heavily, "I'm sorry."

"No child, I'm sorry that you have to go back to a place that traumatized you so much. My floo is open to your mother and father if you want to see them. You can also use it to see your mind healer. I understand your having sessions every day."

She nodded. Being back here made things…well, worse she was already prescribed a daily calming drought as well as a host of other potions that she'd have to take daily. Some for the rest of her life.

"Hopefully, they're helping?" The Herbology professor asked.

Hermione shrugged. "They help some. It's just sort of…"

"You do not need to explain, Ms. Lupin." She said before smiling. "The name does seem to suit you."

Hermione smiled. She did like using Remus's last name, but she would've probably hyphenated if she could to include Daddy's. It was still hard realizing that she'd likely not see him. She honestly didn't even know if he'd want to see her again like this. She had picked her eye color in part because it reminded her of his eyes. Made her feel a bit more like his even though she knew she wasn't.

It was odd, coming grips with her paternity that is.

A part of her always knew, but acknowledging it the past month had been different. Everything had been so different including the badge that now adorned her new uniform.

Maybe the Americans were right about having coffee in the morning, Albus mused the next day.

The first thing he had to deal with this morning was an irate Sirius Black.

He forgot the man could be…well, such a Black.

"The alarm went off ten times last night," He snapped.

"Alarm?"

"Alarm I set on the common room because I don't trust the little cretins. You know they were already planning another trap for Ms. Granger last night."

"You mean your own house?" He said specifically not addressing the bit about Ms. Granger. Though he wasn't surprised. His old house could be vindictive.

The man rolled his grey eyes. All Blacks had those eyes. Sirius's sons had those eyes. Both of them. He had been wanted to talk to both boys after the feast, but it seemed like Sirius had quickly sent them back to Bern. Severus hadn't even been able to barely say two words to Draco without the boy cut him off.

He knew that Sirius had filed paperwork showing that medical accommodations were to be made for both boys. Andromeda's note was pretty clear on that as well. Still, he wished to talk to them some more. It was bad enough an injunction had been granted that kept him from talking to Ms. Granger—he supposed it was Ms. Lupin now. He really thought he could get things settled if only they were allowed to communicate.

But alas…

"How did you come about adopting Draco?" He asked he was still surprised Narcissa had allowed him to adopt the boy.

"It's none of your concern," he said eying him.

"Yet, medical accommodations have to be made for his adoption?"

"Yes," Sirius said. "You saw Andromeda's notes. There are medical reasons for both boys are not to stay on campus."

"You don't need to be so guarded with me, my…."

"I could be in the arms of a very pretty blonde right now instead of dealing with your shit this morning, Albus. Don't try me."

"You're seeing someone?"

"I am Sirius Black."

"Are you and Narcissa…" It would explain the blood adoption and Narcissa was a blonde. Or used to be or was…he couldn't' keep track of her hair color. And he knew the Black family liked to keep it in the family. He had heard rumors that when Sirius was younger the family had been trying to arrange a marriage between him and one of the Black sisters. Perhaps it was Narcissa it would make sense especially with her recent separation from Lucius.

"My romantic life is none of your concern," Sirius said rolling his eyes. "But if we want to talk about romantic interests should I ask when you're going to put the moves on Gilderoy."

Dumbledore could feel himself turning bright red even though admittedly Gilderoy looked rather fetching last night in those lilac robes of his. He kept saying how it matched some lilac princess in the veela coven he had been staying at while researching his upcoming book Vacationing With Veela.

"Thought so," Sirius said looking at Albus's face. "Anyway, this is notice to you that till further notice my house is on lockdown."

"Lockdown?" He said, "I know last year there were troubles, but surely with it being the new school year."

"Ten times, Albus. Ten times. They are going to find out I'm not Minerva very early on."

"Speaking of that, Fred and George Weasley came to see Poppy this morning with silver and green hair and she can't remove the spell."

"Interesting."

"I remember Severus had the same hair back in the sixth year."

"Must be a coincidence," Sirius said. "You'll also be interested to know that both Weasley boys were two of the students who snuck out last night and they might've tried to break into my office."

Albus grimaced knowing that the Weasley twins' hair was a result of trying to break into Sirius's office. Well, the boys had met their match with Sirius.

"I'm sure you'll discipline them accordingly."

"Naturally."

Maybe hiring Sirius as a professor here was a mistake.

Chapter 56 Preview: It's the actual first day of classes and Bella confides in Andromeda