4. Harry happily hops to Hogwarts
By the time Harry got home, it was late lunch, and he was extremely hungry. Not wanting to taste the Dursley's horrible cooking, he ordered Indian. After a very filling linner, he went to sleep, thinking about the day's events.
The next day he woke up, Shadow still asleep as always. He had remembered one of the things that McGonagall had said.
"The Ministry of Magic is the government in the wizarding world. The Ministry doesn't allow wizards below 17 to do magic outside of school, so they place something called The Trace on them as soon as they come into school for the first time. The Trace will tell them if a student performs magic outside of school, and it's grounds for expulsion."
To Harry, that only meant one thing. He could practice magic till he got to school! Over the next month, he had read the recommended reading, which included the very beginning of all course books. He had also mastered the Lighting Charm, Lumos, and its counterpart, Nox, as well as the Lightening Charm. And finally, the day had arrived. September 1st, the day that Harry would board the Hogwarts Express, and begin his magical schooling. Harry was so excited, he couldn't even wait. He packed all of his things, had Shadow in his sleeve, and he left for Platform 9 and 3/4. This time, he cared enough to tell the Dursleys he wouldn't be back until summer, which of course they were ecstatic about. Since McGonagall had been very detailed in explaining how to get on the Hogwarts Express, Harry had absolutely no trouble. He immediately went to the back and sat in the empty compartment. He had cast the Lightening Charm on his trunks, so they weren't heavy at all, and quite easy to get up in the rack. He sat patiently, with a book, waiting for the train to depart. Suddenly there was a knock at the door. A dark-skinned boy, who seemed to be African and Italian, stood outside. He had dark red lips, and a slightly large nose, with a clean buzz cut.
"Can I come in?" the boy asked.
"Of course," Harry said.
The boy opened the glass sliding door, and extended his hand toward Harry.
"I'm Blaise Zabini."
"Hey Blaise, I'm Harry Potter," Harry said, shaking Blaise's hand.
Blaise's eyebrows shot up as he sat opposite to Harry.
"Do you have the… the scar?"
Harry smiled, and pushed his hair up. Underneath, there was a thin dark red scar of a lightning bolt.
"Woah dude, that's pretty sick."
Just then, they heard another knock at the door. Harry turned to see Daphne asking to come in.
"I'm fine with it," Blaise said. "But you were here first, so are you fine with it?"
"Yeah, come in Daphne," Harry said.
"Hi Harry," Daphne said, sitting down next to him. "Hi…"
"I'm Zabini. Blaise Zabini."
Harry snorted. They both looked at him.
"Huh, what? Oh no sorry it's a Muggle thing."
"Harry lived in the Muggle world," Daphne explained to a very confused Blaise.
Just then there was ANOTHER knock at the door. Draco was standing there, smiling. They let him in, and he sat down next to Blaise. The group talked for a bit, before Harry realized something. I can't just hide Shadow, I'm going to be here for 7 years. And why should I hide him? Well, might as well start with my friends. Friends? Acquaintances? People I know? Whatever.
"Ok guys," Harry started, "I'm going to need you to not freak out.
"Harry," said Daphne. "You're starting to freak me out."
"Alright Shadow. It's time to come out now. I know you've been listening."
Shadow littered out of Harry's hoodie sleeve, and loosely coiled around Harry's neck.
"Say hi Shadow."
"Hi."
"Shadow says hi."
"YOU'RE A PARSELMOUTH?"
"YOU HAVE A SNAKE?"
"HIS NAME IS SHADOW?"
"Oh yeah, he's definitely going in Slytherin," they all said at the same time.
Harry explained the situation to them, and they slowly began to wrap their heads around it.
"Wait, but how come he understood your English?" Daphne asked.
"Well, parseltongue is the magic language of the snakes, and the language that hey speak and understand. It's like their first language. English is like their second language. They can understand it fluently, but they can't speak it."
After a bit more talking, and changing, they were finally there. As they got off, they joined the other firsts-years, and walked toward Hagrid. He was the groundskeeper that McGonagall had mentioned. He was standing next to the lake, in which there were many big rowboats.
"4 to a boat!" he yelled. "Only 4 to a boat!"
Blaise, Daphne, Malfoy, and Harry all got on a boat. Once everyone had gotten on their boats, with Hagrid getting a special one, the boats all started magically moving toward the castle. When they reached the bend, they got their first look at Hogwarts. It was mystical. The fog cleared, and the shining lights of Hogwarts glowed, as the impossible architecture further solidified the magic of the place. Harry suddenly realized he was smiling. He was going to like it here at Hogwarts.
"These layers of magic…They're amazing Harry!"
They were met at the doors by Professor McGonagall, who sent an imperceptible nod Harry's way. After explaining the rules and house system, she let everyone inside. The first-years gathered right outside the door of the Great Hall. Outside, in the dark, no one could see Shadow, but now in the light, everyone saw the very noticeable snake hanging around Harry's neck. Hushed muttering spread across all four house tables, and even in the group of first-years. McGonagall went up and began explaining the sorting. Then she began calling names.
"Abbot, Hannah."
The first one was a Hufflepuff, but Harry didn't keep track after that. He was more distracted by the way that the old guy in the head chair was looking at him. He presumed that this was Dumbledore. He didn't like the way that Dumbledore gave off creepy old perv guy vibes, kind of like Ollivander.
"Doesn't that Dumbledore guy kind of seem like Ollivander?" Harry asked Shadow.
"Yeah…yeah he does. Hey! Maybe you'll get a hat trick! 3 in a row!"
Harry noticed his friend's names getting called.
"Greengrass, Daphne."
"Malfoy, Draco."
Both Daphne and Malfoy got sorted into Slytherin, Malfoy even before the hat touched his head, and Daphne after a little bit.
"Potter, Harry."
Everyone in the Great Hall was staring at him, silent.
If they're going to stare, can they at least not make it obvious?
Harry went to the stool, which the hat was on. He picked up the hat, getting ready to sit down, but-
"SLYTHERIN!" the hat exploded.
"Called it!" said Daphne, Draco, and Blaise at the same time.
A roar of cheer came from the Slytherin table, welcoming him, while the Gryffindors looked like someone had kicked their puppy. He sat down in between Daphne and Malfoy, with Daphne on his left and Malfoy on his right. Blaise got sorted to Slytherin soon after, and sat down on the right of Malfoy. Once the sorting was over, the table filled with more food than Harry had ever seen. He was ravenously hungry, and ate like there was no tomorrow. After a bit of talking with his friends, and a speech from Dumbledore, they were excused to go to their common rooms. They followed the prefects down into the dungeon. Through a secret passageway, they found the ornate green and silver door of the Slytherin dormitories.
"Parseltongue," whispered the male prefect, and the door swung open.
The common room consisted of a warm roaring fire in the middle, with a rug in front of it. On the rug, there were many lavish chairs and plush comfy sofas adorned with the silver and green theme, and a small coffee table that sat in the middle. There were other tables not next to the fireplace, scattered around the dormitory. They also had chairs and sofas, along with games on them, such as Wizards Chess, Wizard Cards, and Wizard Dominoes. Colored wallpaper ran down the walls, and two staircases on either side led to the dormitories.
"All right then," said the female prefect. "Girls on the left, boys on the right. It's already 9pm, so curfew's in an hour. By 10pm I want all lights off! Though I daresay most of you will be asleep before it. Before you leave to lounge about, I want to make one thing clear. Whatever you do, it reflects on Slytherin House. It reflects on all of us. So if you do something good, Slytherin House looks good. However, if you do something bad, Slytherin house looks bad. And we don't want Slytherin House to look bad. So whatever arguments, problems, or disputes, settle it in the common room. Outside, we are one. Also, I know many of you haven't read the recommended reading, but make sure to read the beginning of your Potions books. Professor Snape's a hard grader, even for his own class. Now scram, we've all had a long day."
The first years nodded, before scattering off into their newly made friend groups. Harry, Daphne, Blaise, and Malfoy quickly got seats at the fireplace, which added a homey vibe to the common room. People were giving him weird looks, and staring. He couldn't tell if it was because he was Harry Potter, or because of Shadow, or both. He suspected that they would ask about it in the morning, but for now, nobody said anything. Shadow himself was asleep, and had been since he had eaten meat in the Great Hall. Harry and his friends talked for a while, laughing and having fun, before Harry excused himself to go sleep. The good thing about Slytherin was that they had one-person dorm rooms, so you didn't have to share with another person. He opened his room, locked it, and almost immediately fell onto the bed, after taking Shadow off. It was extremely comfortable. Plush and soft, but it didn't give too much. However, for some reason, he couldn't fall asleep. Lucky Shadow was already curling up on the pillow, snoozing to his heart's content. Harry put his glasses on the other nightstand, and thought about how to fall asleep. Suddenly, it came to him. He opened up his History of Magic book and read the first wor…
A.N: Hey guys, thanks so much for reading my first ever fanfiction. Please Follow/Favorite, Share, and Review, it means a lot to me.
I'm not sure how I want this story to go, but im leaning toward a Ron, Hermione, and Dumbledore Bashing, with more if I feel like it. Lemme know how I can do better, because again its my first fic.
My length for each chapter fluctuates a lot, cuz it really depends on the motivation I have. So yeah, sorry if I can't deliver high length chapters every time, but I'll try my best.
I don't really have a set schedule for uploading, but il try to stick to this story and be consistent, which is a problem I've had in the past. Based on the feedback this story gets, I'll know how much attention to give it, so make sure to interact, cuz it really helps motivate me.
Thanks for reading!