Harry Potter 1. Chapter 1

Dear Reader,

Thank you so much for checking this out, it means a lot to me that you would take the time to check this out. This story stays as close to canon as it possibly can, anything that is changed is done so only when JK Rowling herself didn't clearly state it one way or the other. Special thanks to her, of course, without whom this story simply wouldn't be possible. I'm releasing the first 6 chapters now (12/21/14) and will post a new chapter every week, lets say on Sundays, until its over. Well, thanks so much for checking it out and any comments you have for me are greatly appreciated.

Thanks again,

Andrei 

Chapter 1 A Late Letter

July 31st promised to be a cheery day, clear and warm. The temperatures all over England had spiked to record levels, and there was even talk of clear skies across all of Scotland; a thing that was very nearly unheard of. The city of London lay in a murky haze in the early morning hours when nothing moved through the streets save a few stray cats, for whom no hour was too early. One such nameless cat looked up from her meal of discarded tuna salad and observed a curious sight: a few dozen owls flying out of an old, abandoned building that both humans and animals knew to avoid. It was common knowledge to all, even cats, that the building was unsafe, a leftover shell that had been the site of a great fire or some such calamity. The cat watched curiously for a few moments as the owls separated, each one flying off in a different direction. It was unusual behaviour to say the least, but the cat decided it was not her concern and returned to her meal. After all, the tuna salad wasn't going to eat itself, and owls were known to act strangely.

A few miles away, a young boy was lying in bed, looking at his alarm clock that showed the time in huge red numbers. 5:43 was rather early, but he was so excited that he couldn't sleep. Cassy had said the letter would come today; he had waited for so long! He had been eleven years old for more than a month, but for some reason he had never... Cassy had told him not to worry, though, usually they sent the letters by the 31st of July. Well that was today, and he was much too excited to sleep when there was a letter on its way. After all, Harry Lawrence Wiggins was a wizard, and it was finally time for him to go to Hogwarts.

As Harry lay in bed, he thought of everything he had ever heard about Hogwarts from Cassy and his mother, getting more and more excited just thinking about it. Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry was the most magical, wonderful, amazing place in the whole wide world… everyone said so. Cassy had written letters nearly every week her first year, and Harry had read them over and over and over again. She hadn't written quite as much her second year, but Harry's parents had said that was just because she was so busy with schoolwork. He knew that wasn't true, she was just too busy having fun to bother writing to him. He had been really angry, but that was months and months ago and he had no reason to be upset anymore. After today, they would be going to school together, and none of that would matter! They would probably go to Diagon Alley or maybe even Hogsmede in a few days to get his school supplies. Harry was so excited that sleep was completely out of the question.

At least, that was what he had thought. However, not a minute later Harry found himself unable to stay awake. He had barely slept at all, it seemed to be finally catching up with him. Still, tired as he was Harry was also a bit nervous, thinking that maybe something would go wrong. There was no doubt he was going, he wasn't a squib or anything... but still. Harry had used magic before, although he had never been able to cast a real spell or anything like that. Cassy said that was a good thing, that he would get in trouble for using any real magic, and that he needed to wait until he was older. _Well,_ thought Harry tiredly as he struggled to stay awake, _Eleven was quite old enough._ He drifted off to sleep, dreaming fantastic dreams about Hogwarts.

Next thing he knew, Mother was shaking him awake, a smile on her face. "I thought you would be awake, sleepyhead," she said a pretty smile, "Breakfast is ready, Little Bean."

Harry scowled at her, careful not to give her the impression that the nickname was in any way acceptable. He was too excited to stay angry for long, though, and he was ready in less than a minute. He jumped down the steps, tripping slightly and landing at the bottom in a tangled heap. He didn't care, of course, but Father said, "Easy there, sport, don't go injuring yourself."

Harry smiled mischievously and sat down beside his sister, who was buttering herself a piece of toast. Breakfast was always excellent on the days when Mother didn't have to go into work early. Father scrolled through the _New York Times _absentmindedly on his tablet as a frying pan emerged from the kitchen and served two pieces of bacon each of them, all on its own. Father didn't even give the frying pan a second glance, despite the fact that he had not been born into a world of magic. Derrick Wiggins was a muggle, an American in fact, and he liked to say that he came to England looking for a job and ended up finding a whole lot more. He had met Olivia Boot at a bar in Tottenham, and completely unaware that she was a witch had fallen madly in love her. It had taken her many weeks, but eventually she had fallen for him too, and that love managed to survive the inevitable strain that exists in a marriage where only person can use magic. Harry knew little of this, for he was still too young, but Cassandra Wiggins knew or guessed most of it. She was very bright for her age, and spent most of her time asking questions and demanding to know all sorts of things. It was no easy feat raising a Ravenclaw.

Mother emerged from the kitchen with a smile while Father moved from the _New York Times_ to the _London Times_ before finally putting down the tablet and picking up a paper with a big headline on the top that read _The_ _Daily Prophet. _It was nothing like a normal newspaper, the front page was dominated by moving pictures of people on broomsticks.

"Must be a slow day, if England losing to Eritrea is front page news..." muttered Mother, who had never much cared for Quidditch. Cassy groaned as she read the story upside down, muttering to herself about terrible seeking. His sister was absolutely obsessed with Quidditch, badgering their parents all summer to get her a broomstick so she could try out for the Ravenclaw. Harry liked it too, but he had never been very good at sports and frankly he could never manage to feel upset when England managed to find spectacular ways to lose to rubbish opponents.

Harry was happy and excited at first, but the morning quickly passed without any owls arriving for him. Cassy kept glancing at him nervously, but Harry pretended he didn't notice. Mother seemed uneasy as well, but she had to get ready to go to work so she couldn't just sit around like Cassy and shoot him anxious looks. She managed an apothecary in Diagon Alley, and business was really busy this time of year with everyone getting ready to go back to school.

Mother was about to head off to work when the door rang and Cassy hurried off to open it. Father had flipped the TV on to watch QPR play (and probably lose). Harry didn't care about football much more than he cared about Quidditch, and so he didn't join his father, even though he usually jumped at the opportunity to spend time him. Father worked hard as a defence attorney, and Harry usually didn't get to see him during the week, not even during the summer. Still, Harry wasn't a little kid anymore; eleven was quite old enough to spend more time alone. After all when he was at Hogwarts he wouldn't see his mum and dad for months and months. He didn't want to get lonely and have everyone make fun of him for missing his parents.

Harry was deep in thought when Cassy returned with Uncle Terry, who smiled and gave the boy one of his trademark warm, exaggerated bear-hugs. He seemed to be in good spirits as usual, but Harry could feel that something was wrong when they broke apart, Uncle Terry was more nervous than Harry had ever seen him. "You kids run along upstairs now, I have to talk to your parents for a moment." Uncle Terry said, his eyes betraying the unease that his smile was trying to cover.

"But―" Began Harry, sure he could convince Uncle Terry to let him stay. After all, his Uncle had never said no to Harry before.

"Nope, let's go." Cassy said firmly, dragging her little brother behind her and towards the stairs as Mother emerged from the kitchen, looking upset.

"Wait... ouch... what's—" Harry yelped, trying to get someone's attention. He failed, and Cassy dragged him all the way to the bottom of the stairs.

"Shut it, you." Cassy whispered, "I got a plan. Don't worry, we'll find out what they're saying, and no one will ever know. Follow me, Halo, and keep quiet."

Harry knew better than to argue with his sister, and didn't even complain that she called him _Halo_. He didn't like that nickname, he thought it made him sound like a girl, but he knew this was important so he kept quiet and followed Cassy up the stairs. The children crept into their father's study, which sat right over the dining room.

Cassandra Wiggins had never much cared for authority, and positively hated secrets. About a year ago, she had carved a little hole right underneath her father's desk through which a pair of Weasley brand Extendable Ears could be lowered so that any supposedly private conversation taking place in the dining room could be easily overheard.

Harry waited impatiently as Cassy pulled the Extendable Ears out of the pocket of her jeans, and tied her long blonde hair behind her so it wouldn't get in the way. Getting in the way was what Wiggins' hair did best. Harry's shaggy blond locks were nearly as bad as his sister's, whatever his hair lacked in length it made up for messiness. He brushed his hair out of his face impatiently and crouched beside his sister, listening intently as she lowered the hearing device through the floor to listen to what his uncle had come to say.

"I don't understand," Father was saying, sounding agitated. "How could this happen?"

"I honestly don't know," Uncle Terry said, "I don't think anyone else would have noticed, but I know how excited Harry was and when I saw... well, I came straight here."

"But there's nothing wrong, he has just as much magic as we did at that age." mother said, her voice stained, almost as if she couldn't speak. "This can't be happening." She snapped, as angry as Harry had ever heard her.

"Olivia, please," Father said, "I'm sure there's a simple misunderstanding, there's no reason to overreact. Everything will be fine."

"You wouldn't understand," said mother, using the voice she used only when she was really upset. "I love you, Derrick, but sometimes you're such a Mugg-"

"Olivia, stop it," snapped Uncle Terry, and Harry got nervous. He hated when people fought, and everyone seemed really upset. What had he done to upset everyone?

"You-you're right, I'm sorry, dear."

"It's fine, Olivia, darling I know you're just upset. Terry, you were saying."

"His name didn't go out today, and I couldn't understand why. There's no reason he shouldn't get a letter, especially if _she_ got a letter. I thought there must be some sort of mistake, so I went over to the Department of Education and asked around. Padma helped me get to the bottom of it... she always rather liked me."

"Yes, yes, you're very handsome, get on with it," Mother said irritably.

Uncle Terry took a deep breath, as if whatever he was about to say was difficult. "Olivia, your son, he doesn't... he doesn't have the Trace on him."

Harry looked at Cassy, but she just shrugged. Apparently, she didn't know what that meant any more than he did, but his parents did. Mother gasped and said, "But that―that's..."

"Impossible?" Asked Uncle Terry, "That's what I thought. Anyways the Director of Education and the Headmaster has been informed. I don't know what they're going to do, but until they make a decision, Harry won't be able to go to Hogwarts."


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2 Interested Questions

Nothing seemed real as Harry shot to his feet and ran out of the room, ignoring his sister's look of shock. He raced to his parents, who looked alarmed that they had been overheard, but not terribly surprised. Uncle Terry and Father stayed and comforted him, telling him not to worry and that everything would work out just fine while Mother went to go find Cassy, no doubt to scold her for letting him overhear. Harry cried, feeling devastated and utterly confused. He was a wizard, how could he possibly not be allowed to attend Hogwarts? He had dreamed of it his whole life; it was all he ever wanted. It just wasn't fair.

Harry was too exhausted and upset to do anything except cry, watch some TV, and go back to bed. The house sounded as if it was full of people coming and going, but everyone left him alone and he didn't care much what was going on. He wasn't going to Hogwarts, his life was over. He would have to learn how to live as a muggle, which actually wasn't any different from how his life was now. He had gone to primary school with all the other muggle kids (Father had insisted) and so they would probably just make him do that while Cassy and her friends learned how to be witches and wizards. The thought made him angry and sad, but after a few tears in the morning Harry refused to cry. He wasn't a little boy anymore, and so he just stared at the wall in brooding silence.

The day passed slowly into night, and Mother tried to get him to eat something. He ignored her completely, refusing to speak or even look at her until, at last, she left him alone. He glanced at his alarm clock as the hours passed away. Around 10pm everyone went to bed, and Harry could no longer hear the sounds of people talking downstairs. An hour passed, and another, and Harry found that he was no closer to falling asleep. Very quietly, he heard his door creep open and his sister slipped inside. She rushed over to him and sat beside him on his narrow bed, hugging him closely while he cried a little bit more. He couldn't help it; it was almost as if he had been waiting for her to come even though he didn't want to see anyone. Cassy was different, she always had been. She was the best friend he had ever had, and when they were younger they had shared everything. Now, though, it felt like there was this massive wall growing between them. She was going to be a witch, and he...

"They can't do this, Halo," Cassy said firmly, stroking his curly hair, "You're a wizard. They can't keep you out of Hogwarts, it's just not fair."

"Maybe there's something wrong with me." Harry said in a hollow voice, "Maybe I'm not good enough."

"No, that's not it!" Cassy said firmly, shaking him slightly, "You are absolutely good enough! Don't ever think that, Halo, and don't give up. Everything will be alright."

Harry didn't answer, but he didn't find her words all that reassuring. Cassy was the smartest person he knew, but even she didn't know what was going on. It just made sense, if there was nothing wrong with him then why wasn't he allowed to go to Hogwarts? Therefore, it must be his fault, Harry must have done something.

"Do you want me to tell you a story?" Cassy whispered in his ear, still hugging him close. Almost instinctively, Harry nodded, for he had never said no when his sister offered to tell him a story. "Tell me about Hogwarts." Harry commanded softly.

Cassy hesitated, clearly that was not what she'd had in mind. Harry arranged his face into a look of determined stubbornness and his sister relented.

"Well, you see, the castle is very old," Cassy said, making Harry laugh a little. That was how Uncle Terry also started his stories, and the children always liked to imitate him. "It was founded a very long time ago by the four greatest witches and wizards who ever lived."

"What are their names?" Harry asked, although he already knew the answer. The only problem with Cassy's stories is that she tended to skip things, especially if she had told the story before.

"Quiet, you," scolded Cassy, her wide smile barely visible in the dark room. "Anyways, their names were Godric Gryffindor, Helga Hufflepuff, Rowena Ravenclaw, and Salazar-"

"Boo!" interrupted Harry, prompting his sister to whack him gently on the top of the head,

"I said be quiet, _Little Bean,_"

"Don't call-"

"Shut up or I'll stop talking," threatened Cassy, although they both knew she wasn't actually angry.

"Fine"

"And Salazar Slytherin, and they were all good friends." Continued Cassy, as if nothing had happened.

"Why were the others friends with Slytherin, he's the bad guy!"

"I don't know, Halo, that part isn't in _Hogwarts, a History_. It was a very long time ago, I'm not sure anyone knows. Anyways, the four friends decided to build a school, a place where wizards could be safe from the world at large. At that time, muggles hated and feared our kind, and did whatever they could to kill us."

"Why?"

"Wow, you're full of questions today, Halo. There are a lot of possible reasons, it could have been jealousy, it could have been fear. Wizards can be dangerous, and not all muggles are as understand or forgiving as Dad."

"So they built a castle called-"

"Hey, I'm telling the story, Harry Lawrence Wiggins! But yes, they built a castle called Hogwarts, and they each took students who they liked best. Gryffindor took the bravest and most courageous, as well as bunch of knuckleheads who don't know when to quit."

"Hey, I thought the Gryffindors were the best. Everyone says so, after all wasn't Dumbledore himself in Gryffindor... and wasn't..."  
>"Harry Potter?" Cassandra said, looking at her brother closely. Their parents had named her brother after the legendary Boy Who Lived, and they weren't the only ones. Harry was probably the most common name in the whole wizarding world, and many people thought he was the greatest wizard alive today. Harry absolutely worshipped his namesake; he would probably follow James Potter around school if he knew he was at Hogwarts. Cassy had never mentioned it to her brother; James Potter was far too full of himself as it was.<p>

"Anyways," she continued, "Ravenclaw, who _is_ actually the best," (Harry snorted) "Ravenclaw taught those of superior intellect, believing that the wisest and smarted witches... and wizards I suppose... made the best students."

"Nerds," muttered Harry, mostly just to irritate his sister.

"Both Mother and I are Ravenclaws, as was Uncle Terry, who fought beside Harry Potter at the battle of Hogwarts, as you well know." Said Cassy, truly irritated for the first time. Harry was slightly cowed, and muttered. "And the other founders, what did they value?"

"Hmph, well Helga Hufflepuff valued a stout heart and a determined spirit, for she believed that magic took focus and perseverance above everything else. Bathilda Bagshot speaks highly of her in _Hogwarts, a History_, but that's only because she was a Hufflepuff herself. Most people like to make fun of them... which isn't entirely fair, especially when there are..."

"Slytherins," finished her brother angrily.

"Well, it is said that Slytherin valued cunning and ambition above everything else, but as we all know he also cared about blood status. The thing that Slytherin truly cared most about was teaching the children of pure-bloods, preferably people with many generations of wizard parents. He didn't believe that people of muggle birth should be taught, he thought that they were somehow inferior to wizards who had two wizard parents."

"That's what Voldemort believed, that's why he killed people, isn't it?" whispered Harry.

"That's right, Halo." Cassy said quietly. Of all the stories she told him, his favourites were always about the Dark Lord and the band of heroes, led by a young Harry Potter, who finally defeated him. Much of the wizarding world still feared his name, nearly twenty years later, but the younger generation of children were finally beginning to lose their fear. Voldemort was a bogeyman to them, not anyone who could actually hurt them and their families.

"Voldemort was a Slytherin, as were most of Death Eaters who followed him. I heard someone say that Voldemort was descended from Slytherin himself, although I'm not sure if that's true or not."

"I bet it is," Harry said angrily, "Why do they even let that house continue? They're all bad, every one of them."

"I don't know." Cassy replied honestly. She didn't really know any of her fellow third-year Slytherins well, but they mostly seemed like an unpleasant lot. "Maybe you can ask Headmistress Sprout when you get there."

"Do you think I'll really get to go?" Harry asked, his eyes full of sadness and fear.

"Yes, Halo," Lied Cassy, "I'm sure of it. Now go to sleep, I'll stay here until you drift off."

As Harry lay beside his sister, slowly falling asleep, thoughts whirled through her mind. She had no idea what the Trace was, or why her brother hadn't received a letter from Hogwarts. All in all, though, it sounded very serious. She wasn't sure what a thirteen year old girl could do to solve this mystery, but she certainly wasn't going to sit by as her brother was forced to become a muggle. Together, the two children drifted off to sleep.

That was how their mother found them the following morning, sleeping gently side by side. It was a tender sight, but Olivia Wiggins was too anxious to fully appreciate it.

"Harry, dear, there as some people downstairs to see you. You too, Cassandra, although you are just to say hello and then leave them alone so they can talk to your brother."

"But Mom!" protested Cassy fiercely while he brother slowly rubbed his eyes.

"You have caused enough trouble, young lady, don't argue!" Replied Olivia Wiggins sternly, and Cassy decided not to argue... at least not yet. As soon as Harry was ready, she followed her brother and her mother down the stairs and into the sitting room, where two people were sitting, chatting idly with Father, who looked very nervous to be in such company. It was immediately obvious why, for sitting in their kitchen were two of the most famous people in the world, Minister of Magic Kingsley Shacklebolt and, more importantly, the Deputy Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement Hermione Granger.

Cassy almost fainted, but managed not to pass out as Hermione smiled kindly at her, although it was a near thing. Harry, for his part, didn't actually know who the woman was, and quite nervous enough that the Minister of Magic himself was staring at him

"Hello, young Harry, please sit down." said the Minister of Magic in a deep, calm voice that had weakened only slightly over the years. Minister Shacklebolt had led the wizarding community in Britain for nearly 20 years, and the strain of it seemed to finally be catching up with him. His face was covered with wrinkles, and he was slightly stooped now. His face was still cheerful, though, and he smiled warmly at Harry and indicated the seat opposite him. Harry stared at the minister's bald head, his lined face, and his golden earring from a moment before remembering his manners and doing as he was told.

"I am the Minister of Magic," Kingsley said deeply, as if anyone could possibly have confused him for someone else, "And this is Mrs..."

"Hermione, Hermione Granger!" said Cassy breathlessly, turning slightly pink as everyone turned to look at her. She hadn't been thinking, and had just rudely blurted out whatever was on her mind and interrupted the freaking Minister of Magic. She stammered an apology, but neither of the ministry officials seemed terribly concerned. Hermione looked a tiny bit embarrassed by the girl's reaction but handled it with grace, saying kindly, "Actually it's Hermione Weasley now, but there's no need to apologize. We are here to talk to your brother Harry, for he is... in a bit of an unusual situation."

"Hogwarts," Blurted Harry suddenly, unable to keep the anxiety out of his voice. "Will I be allowed to go?"

Mrs. Weasley and Minister Shacklebolt exchanged looks that Harry didn't understand, but after a moment Hermione Weasley smiled kindly at him and said, "Yes, you will be allowed to go. There has simply been a slight mix-up, and we have a few questions for you." Seeing the look on his face she added "You aren't in any trouble, Harry, it's just that there's a few unusual things about your situation, and we were hoping you might be able to tell us."

Harry nodded, not trusting himself to speak. He was so relieved; he was going to Hogwarts after all!

"Right, well excuse me Minister, I need to head out to Diagon Alley, and purchase some new school supplies... and a broomstick for my daughter." Mother said, looking meaningfully at her husband. "Come along, Cassandra."

Cassy looked on the verge of arguing, but her desire for broomstick eventually trumped her desire for information. Harry didn't really want her to go, but he was too intimidated to argue. Now that he knew who she was, he was finding it hard not to stare at Hermione Gr-Weasley. She was basically a superhero in his mind, she and her husband Ron Weasley were Harry Potter's closest friends, and they fought side by side with him against Voldemort. Now here she was, and she wanted to ask him some questions.

Mother and Cassy left, his sister giving him one last, reassuring smile. "Apologies Minister, Mrs. Weasley," Father said, "Our daughter is far too curious for her own good, she would probably try and get to the bottom of this herself, thinking she was smarter than the whole Ministry." Mrs. Weasley gave a little laugh that she tried to cover with a cough, and after a moment she asked Harry, "So, Harry, you were born on the 21st of June, 2006, is that correct?

Harry nodded and saw that Mrs. Weasley seemed to be thinking hard, "Have you been able to use magic?"

Harry again nodded, saying, "I turned that chair over there into a bush... and once I blew up a piece of cake when Cassy wouldn't share." He wasn't sure if they would be mad at him, but neither Mrs. Weasley nor the Minister seemed concerned.

"Hmm," Said Minister Shacklebolt, "Was there anything unusual surrounding his birth?"

"No, nothing." Father said quietly, "I don't understand, what you are trying to determine?"

"Your son doesn't have the Trace, something that all wizards and witches are born with. It is incredibly complex magic, quite possibly the oldest spell still operating in the world." Mrs. Weasley said very quickly, as if answering questions was second nature to her. "The Trace, among other things, allows us to detect the use of underage magic."

"More importantly," continued the Minister of Magic, "It identifies the presence of magic in children of muggle parents. The spell attaches itself to a witch or wizard at birth, and remains in effect until he or she comes of age. Without the Trace, it would be very hard to locate muggle-born witches and wizards and invite them to be educated at Hogwarts. The Department of Education works with the school these days and sends owls to all the children who would be attending Hogwarts this upcoming year, and you were not in the registry, Harry. It is unusual, unheard of in fact, for a wizard under the age of Seventeen not to have the Trace, which is why no one noticed it until now. We didn't know to look for it, or that it was even possible."

"Since we discovered that you didn't have the Trace, we have been going through records, trying to see if there are any more anomalies like you." Mrs. Weasley said very quickly, as if this were exciting. "We haven't found anyone, so for the time being you remain unique, Harry."

Harry looked back and forth between the Minister and Mrs. Weasley, trying to think of what he should say. "I-I don't know why I don't have the trace, I didn't do anything!"

"We know that, Harry," Hermione Weasley said kindly, "But all the same, we need to keep a close eye on you, just in case."

"In-in case what?" Harry asked, panicking slightly. Was he a danger to those around him, was he contaminated?

"Don't worry, young Harry," The minister said in a low, reassuring voice, "It is probably nothing. We will simply keep track of your progress, but unless we see something unusual there is nothing to worry about." He reached into the folds of his purple robes and pulled out a letter, handing it to Harry. "Welcome to Hogwarts, young man."

The cloud of panic and doubt that had settled over his mind yesterday finally began to lift, and Harry tore the letter open eagerly, unaware of Mrs. Weasley and Father talking in low voices nearby. The Minister of Magic gave Harry a reassuring pat of the shoulder and rose to his feet to check with one of his aurors, who apparently had been standing guard out front. Harry glanced briefly at the confident-looking female auror before turning back to his letter and read:

_HOGWARTS SCHOOL of WITCHCRAFT and WIZARDRY_

Headmistress: Pomona Sprout

Dear Mr. Wiggins,

We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry for the Fall Term of 2017. Enclosed is a list of books and materials you will be needing for the upcoming year.

Tern begins the first of September. The Hogwarts Express will leave from platform nine and three-quarters in King's Cross station, London at eleven o'clock. Your ticket is enclosed. We look forward to meeting you at the start of term, and welcome to Hogwarts.

Yours Sincerely,

Elmander Evergreen

_Deputy Headmaster_

Harry didn't even pause, he immediate continued on to the next piece of paper containing the list of things he would need for school. Cassy had already gone with Mother to get them all, but he kept staring that the list, as to remind himself that it was all real.

_HOGWARTS SCHOOL of WITCHCRAFT and WIZARDRY_

Uniform

First-year students will require:

Three sets of plain work robes (black)

One plain pointed hat

One pair of protective gloves (dragonhide or similar)

One winter cloak

Please note: Dress robes are optional, but students are encouraged to have formal attire on hand.

Course books

All students must have a copy of the following:

_The Standard Book of Spells (Grade 1)_ by Miranda Goshawk

_A History of Magic, Revised_ by Bathilda Bagshot and Tacitus Sneezle

_Magical Theory for Beginners _by Adalbert Waffling

_One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi_ by Phyllida Spore

_Beginner's Guide to Transfiguration, Revised_ by Emeric Switch and Minerva McGonagall

_Magical Draughts and Potions for Beginnners_ by Arsenius Jigger

_Introduction to Defence Against the Dark Arts_ by Leucadius and Alyzeus Clearwater

Other Equipment

1 wand

1 cauldron (pewter, standard size)

1 set glass or crystal phials1 telescope

1 set brass scales and small potions knife

Students may also bring an owl, rat, toad or cat. Any other animal will only be allowed by the express permission of the Headmistress.

Students are encouraged to bring their own quills.

Parents are reminded that first years are not allowed their own broomsticks.

Finally there was nothing more to read, and Harry blinked and came back to reality. When he looked up he saw that the Minister was gone, and nervously he wondered if he had been rude not saying goodbye. Hermione Weasley sat down opposite him again and said, "I will be assigned to monitoring your case personally, I hope that is alright with you." She said in a friendly tone.

It was more than ok with Harry, who couldn't believe that he was actually talking to one of his heroes. He was feeling much better, but he still had a shadow of unease in the back of his mind.

"Mrs. Weasley..."

"Please, call me Hermione,"

"Er, ok. Hermione, are you sure there's nothing wrong with me?"

Hermione looked at him for several seconds in silence before saying. "You're a little unusual, Harry, but nothing dangerous. You know, when I was your age I knew another boy named Harry, and he had was a bit unusual too. I think he turned out all right, and so will you."

Harry smiled at her and finally let his anxiety melt away. If Hermione said everything was going to be alright, then he believed her.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3 The Wand Chooses the Wizard

The rest of the summer couldn't have passed any slower, for Harry began anxiously counting down the days until September First. Mother had absolutely forbid him from discussing his conversation with Hermione with his sister, something that frustrated Cassy to no end. She was so angry with him that she didn't let him come with her to the broom flying arena outside Hogsmede, where the public could go and fly around without having to worry about muggles seeing them. She went there nearly every day to practice on her new Nimbus L7, one of the newest models that had been available. She was using so much Floo powder that when Mother finally took Harry to Diagon Alley to buy his wand during the last week of August she had to stop by _KwickTravel Depot_ to grab more.

Harry loved Diagon Alley; it was so full of magic and excitement. Today there seemed to be a number of foreign wizards, traveling in a tour group. No doubt they were there to see the memorial to those killed by He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, which stood outside a building that Mother had said was once an ice-cream shop. A number of the foreigners also seemed to be heading for Weasley's Wizard Wheezes, the most popular store in all of Diagon Alley. Harry desperately wanted to go there and just look around, but Mother refused, insisting they hurry up and buy his wand. She and Cassy had gotten all his other supplies weeks ago when the Minister of Magic had first cleared him to attend Hogwarts, and this was the only thing he had left to get. He didn't need any new robes either; he had plenty of ones that fit him just fine since he hadn't grown much since last year. Harry was certainly excited to get his wand, but he wished Mother would let him explore a bit.

Ollivander's Famous Wandshop was located in an isolated corner of Diagon Alley, almost hidden in shadow. It was not a large building, and there was a faded sign above the entrance that read _Ollivanders: Makers of Fine Wands Since 382 B.C._ Harry entered the shop nervously and Mother followed.

A little bell rang as they entered the shop, and a few moment later a very thin, middle aged woman with large blue eyes appeared. "Good day," She said neutrally, "I am Cordelia Ollivander. Will you be needing a wand?"

Harry nodded silently, and the woman immediately began measuring, or rather the tape measure began measuring on its own while Mrs. Ollivander made a few notes. When the magic tape measure was finished Mrs. Ollivander disappeared appeared amongst the stack, returning moments later with a small box.

"Eleven and a half inches, birch and unicorn hair." Announced Mrs. Ollivander, "Flexible and good for transfiguration. Go on, young man, give it a wave."

Harry did so, and immediately the room filled with purple light, shining beads of light danced and skipped off the walls. Mother's mouth dropped open and even Mrs. Ollivander looked a little surprised. "My, well, it seems that the wand has indeed chosen you, Mr. Wiggins. That will be..."

"Wait a moment!" Came a quiet voice from the back, and a very old man made his way slowly into view. He was leaning heavily on a cane, and was wrinkled and stooped. His eyes sparkled as he surveyed Harry, and Harry felt as though the old man was looking under his skin and into his mind and soul.

"Father, I have this under control," the woman said, sounding slightly sulky.

"No, Cordelia, I do not believe that you do." The man replied in a whisper, which seemed to be as loud as his voice went. "I am Mr. Ollivander." He said, directing his attention to Harry. "And that is not the right wand for you, young Harry Wiggins."

Harry had no idea why, the wand seemed to respond perfectly to him, but after a nod from his mother he handed the wand back to Mr. Ollivander. Mother seemed confused as he was, but she regarded Mr. Ollivander with a kind of reverence, so Harry decided it was best to just do what the man asked. They tried a few more wands, and each one performed perfectly for him. One sent a shower of rubies out of the tip, while the one after it turned the counter-top before him into solid gold. Mother watched with a kind of shocked fascination, as if unable to believe what she was seeing. Harry was surprised as well, but he hadn't really known exactly what to expect. If it weren't for the reactions of his Mother and Mrs. Ollivander, he would have even known that anything unusual was going on. After a wand caused foot high grass to sprout across the entire floor, Ollivander began pacing back and forth, muttering to himself silently. His cane seemed forgotten in his agitation, and Harry watched him nervously. Had he done something wrong? Would Ollivander tell the Ministry that there wasn't any wand for him, and then the Minister would have no choice but to force him to stay at home? At last Ollivander turned to his daughter and said, "Cordelia, would you fetch the import please, the green box."

Mrs. Ollivander's eyes widened, but she did not argue. The whole shop was quiet until she returned, for Mother seemed distracted, she just kept staring at the counter that he had turned into gold. Harry wanted to ask what was going on, what he was doing wrong, but he couldn't seem to find his voice. At last Mrs. Ollivander returned with a green box. Inside was a curious looking wand that twisted rather than remaining perfectly straight.

"This wand was actually made by a colleague of mine in Egypt." Ollivander said quietly, "It is made from the wood of a sycomore tree and the powdered teeth of a sphinx. I do not use sphinx teeth, myself, but we should see if this has a different result. Take it, Mr. Wiggins."

Harry hesitated, but gingerly he reached out and took the wand. The moment he touched it, a warm feeling spread through his arm, as if he were relaxing near a blazing fire. It was a wonderful feeling of power and possibility. The wand reacted immediately, a red band of light shot out of the tip, twirling in the shape of a sphere about a foot away from him. Half a second later, an orange band of light followed the red, followed by yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet. A sphere of rainbow light floated in the air before him for a few seconds, before vanishing into nothing. At last Mr. Ollivander seemed satisfied, saying, "Well, it seems that I have been waiting for you for quite a long time."

"Wh-what do you mean?" Harry asked, glancing nervously at his mother who seemed too shocked to say anything.

"I bought that wand over seventy years ago, when I was a very young man. I have never been able to sell it, however, for it refused to respond to any of the wizards who tried to use it. Sphinx teeth is amongst the most unusual magic ingredients that can be put into a wand, but as a result such wands tend to be incredibly temperamental. If this wand will work for you when it refused everyone who has come before, even the Dark Lord himself, then you are quite a special young man, Harry Wiggins."  
>Harry had no response to that, and neither did his mother, who was as flustered as he had ever seen her. "H-How much for the wand?"<p>

Ollivander turned his penetrating eyes on her and said, "Olivia Boot, yew and dragon heartstring, ten and three-quarters inches." He said it as if it were instinctive. "This wand is free of charge, for it was a gift many, many years ago, and I am most pleased that it has found a home. Good day to you." Without another word, Ollivander walked slowly to the back of the shop. Mrs. Ollivander looked just as confused as they were, but she cleared her throat after a few moments and said, "Well... er... Thank you for coming. I hope... hope to see you again."

"Yes, thank you," Mother said, finding her voice at last. "Thank you for everything." She led Harry out of the shop, his new wand in a box under her arm. She was very quiet as they made their way back to the Leaky Cauldron and took the Floo Network home.

"Wait, so you turned the counter into solid gold?" Cassy asked incredulously late that day, clearly giving him a look indicating that she didn't believe a word of it.

"That's what I said." Muttered Harry, annoyed by his sister's dismissive attitude. "You can ask Mum if you don't believe me. I'm telling you, my wand is something special."

"I tried! I tried to ask her about it," Protested Cassy, "But you know Mum, she wouldn't let me see the wand and she told me off for asking too many questions. It's as if she finds me annoying!"

"Imagine that." Harry muttered, loud enough for her to hear. She shot him a filthy look and left the room to go watch some television with Father. When she was gone, Harry regretting getting upset with her, wishing that his sister could tell him what it all means. Harry wanted to look at his wand, maybe hold it a little, but Mother said he wasn't to do magic before he got aboard the Hogwarts Express. Apparently she didn't trust him enough to give him his wand until then, which was probably a good idea. He wasn't sure the he could resist the temptation to see what his wand could do. He got excited thinking back on it, the rush of power he had felt as he touched the wand... There was something special about that wand, he just knew it, and it had chosen him.

Over the next couple of days, Harry tried to talk about what it could mean with Cassy, but she didn't seem to believe him. She spent nearly all her time either flying in Hogsmede or visiting her friends' homes around England. Nothing was really that far away for a wizard, especially when all you needed to do was step into a fireplace and shout your destination. Mother complained about Cassy's frequent absence, Harry heard her muttering to Father, one morning as Harry entered the kitchen, "She'll see them all soon enough, but she won't be able to see us until Christmas."

"She's a thirteen-year-old girl, dear, and she's going to do whatever she wants to do." Father responded reasonably, helping Mother chop up crocodile tail so she could brew her usual anti-migraine potion. Father couldn't do any magic, but he liked to say he could cut ingredients up as well as anyone. Both Mother and Cassy suffered from pretty severe headaches, and Mother wanted to make sure Cassy had enough to take back with her when school started up again. Harry tried to back out of the room slowly before she noticed him, but unfortunately Mother saw him almost immediately and enlisted his help too.

The last few days were insufferable, for Mother tried to spend every possible moment with him, coddling him to an indecent degree. She made him come with her on every errand, and seemed to want him around as much as possible. It got annoying very quickly, but Mother seemed completely deaf to Harry's frustration. Cassy seemed delighted by this, all the more so because she mostly managed to cleverly avoid Mother's clinging.

"Oh no, sorry, I can't go to the owl post with you and Harry. I have to finish my History of Magic essay on the persecution of wizards in Medieval Europe." Cassy said brightly as Mother tried to drag her on yet another boring errand.

"But term starts tomorrow!" Mother said crossly, "You shouldn't leave things to the last minute."

"You're right, Mother," Cassy said, solemnly, "and I promise never to do it again."

Mother left in an exasperated huff, and Harry turned to his sister and said, "You finished that essay weeks ago, didn't you."

"Oh, I didn't lie," Cassy said with her usual wide smile, "I haven't _quite _finished it yet. You see, I can't get the final sentence to sound just right..."

And so Harry had to go alone with mother to send a get well card to old Professor Flitwick, who had retired some years ago and was not feeling well. It was so incredibly boring that Harry decided it would be better to wait outside, where there were fewer owls. He told Mother where he was going, but he wasn't sure she heard him; she was too busy talking to an old, stooped witch whose hearing seemed so poor that Mother had to repeat everything she said twice. An owl screeched loudly, nearby, and Harry picked up his pace, trying to get out of there as fast as he could. It wasn't that he was afraid of owls... not really, but he preferred not to be near them if he could help it.

Harry was so distracted that he walked right into someone without even realizing. "Oi, watch where you're going, little man." Said a voice, and a big hand helped him to his feet.

"You could pay more attention yourself, Ron." said a familiar voice, tinged with more irritation that he had ever heard it. "Oh, hello Harry, how are you."

Harry tried to respond, he really did, but he couldn't stop starring at Ron Weasley, who looked rather concerned that he had caused permanent damage to the boy by walking into him. "You reckon he's alright, dear?" Harry heard him whisper to his wife.

"He's fine." Hermione said, a bit amused by the whole thing. "He's just surprised to see you, that's all. Harry Wiggins here is... a bit of a fan."

"Wiggins, the boy you were talking about?" Ron asked, but Hermione just nudged him in the ribs in an exasperated sort of way. "Oh right, er, hello there, Harry, how are you doing?" Ron Weasley said, holding his hand out for Harry to shake.

"Uuuh I'm fine." Harry managed to say, his voice very high, unable to believe he was actually shaking hands with Ron Freaking Weasley. Ron seemed a little concerned by Harry's reaction, as if wondering what sort of spell was responsible for his peculiar behaviour, but Hermione gave Harry a quick hug and said, "I'm glad to see you, wanted to make sure everything is going all right so far."

"I-I yes, everything's good," Harry said in that same high voice. Then he remembered the wand and everything that'd happened at Ollivanders. Should he tell Hermione about that, would she want know about that sort of thing? Before he could say anything two more people came through the door, a tall girl with red hair and a boy, a few years younger than Harry with bushy brown hair that made him look taller than he really was.

"I was wondering where you two wandered off to, you're as bad, well, as bad as we were at you're age." Ron said, smiling affectionately at his children and fondly messing with the boy's bushy hair.

"Sorry daddy," the girl said, but she did not look at her father. Instead she studied Harry with her bright blue eyes. Harry wondered what she was thinking, for she gave off the impression of someone who was very clever.

"This is Harry, children, Harry Wiggins. Harry will be going to Hogwarts tomorrow, just like you, Rosie. Harry, these are our children, Rose and Hugo Weasley." Hermione said kindly.

"Hi," Harry said, not sure what he should do with his hands. He stuck them in his pocket, hoping he looked cool. If he did, no one commented on it.

"Hello," Rose said, smiling slightly, "Nice to meet you."

"What house are you going to be in?" Demanded Hugo suddenly, and Harry could tell that the subject of Hogwarts was a sensitive one in the Weasley household. Harry remembered well the feeling of seeing his sister go off to Hogwarts knowing he had to wait another two years.

"Well, I want to be in Gryffindor, but I guess I'll probably be Ravenclaw, my whole family is." Harry said, "But it's not like you get to choose, right."

Rose nodded, and Harry could see that she was troubled, like he was, about Sorting tomorrow. It hit him like a thunderbolt... tomorrow night he would be sorted his house. He obviously wasn't going to be in Slytherin, but what if he got put in Hufflepuff or something like that. He didn't want to be a Hufflepuff for seven years...

"Oh, hello Olivia, how are you?" said Hermione as Mother came over. Another round of introductions followed, and then a little bit of grown up chit-chat. Rose didn't say anything, listening intently to what her parents were saying, despite the fact that it wasn't even remotely interesting. Hugo kept watching Harry with undisguised resentment in his eyes.

"I have an older sister, too. She's going into her third year now." Harry said, and Hugo stopped looking so resentful.

"How was it, staying at home when she was..." Hugo asked, drifting into silence. He looked half-angry, half-sad, and he seemed to be close to tears.

Harry considered lying, but he quickly decided not to. "It was rubbish, and I hated every minute of it. But you'll be going soon, too."

"Two whole years!" groaned Hugo, who seemed perfectly friendly now that they had something in common. "That's like forever."

"Well in two years you'll join me and your sister in Gryffindor, you'll see." Harry said, and was relieved to see that Hugo looked slightly happier. Harry tried his best to make people feel better, but he wasn't always sure of the best thing to say. This time, he seemed to have gotten it right. Hermione smiled at him, and Harry knew that she had been listening to the conversation as well as her own.

"Well, we have to get going; it was nice to see you both." Mother said at last, grabbing Harry's hand before he could protest. Hugo sniggered at Harry's embarrassment, but Rose didn't seem to notice. She just nodded at him and said, "See you tomorrow, Harry."

"Um, bye," Was all Harry could say as he unsuccessfully tried to get his mother to release his hand. He didn't have much success, and Hugo's laugh burned his ears as he and mother left the owl post. He was very surly with her the rest of the day, and when the morning of September First dawned Harry couldn't wait to get to Hogwarts; anything, really, to get away from his mother.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4 Aboard a Train

The first of September was always a very strange day at King's Cross station, though very few people were there often enough to notice it. It was only the veteran security guards, the ones who had been there for years and years that knew that the beginning of September brought innumerable people dressed in strange clothes, pushing all manner of exotic luggage. Tobias Crumbsworth had worked security at Kings Cross for more than 30 years, and he knew that, every year like clockwork, September 1st ended up being the strangest day of the year. Why, a few years back he'd seen a family pass through, trolley cart piled high with 3 or 4 owls (awake in broad daylight!) and what looked like a mongoose. He had almost asked to see their permit, but had decided it wouldn't be worth the trouble. There was no point making trouble on September 1st, and it was always the same. There must be some sort of convention of weirdoes in Coventry or Dover or some such place, for those were the trains that left around 11am. This year was no different, Mr. Crumbsworth could see as he looked up sleepily from where he was dozing by the wall. A family walked right past him, all wearing pointy hats, and he could see the eldest boy was holding a broom in his right hand. What in the blazes was he going to do with that, sweep the floor of the station? Muttering to himself about weirdoes and freaks, Tobias Crumbsworth leaned back against the wall and drifted back to sleep.

"Hurry up, Halo," Cassy said irritably to her brother, "Heather won't wait for me, she wants to sit next to Charlie, which won't be easy since he always sits next to..." There was more, but at that point Harry stopped listening. He didn't know how anyone could care so much about who they sat with on a lousy train ride, but then again he wasn't a girl. Still, he didn't want his sister to be mad at him, so he did his best to keep up as she practically flew through the station. They had gotten a bit of a late start (which wasn't _really_ his fault).

Their destination soon came into view, and there seemed to be a bit of a line to get onto platform Nine and Three-Quarters. A number of families were chatting casually between platforms 9 and 10, waiting for their chance to surreptitiously slip across the nearby magical barrier unnoticed. The problem was a curious looking young muggle boy, who was staring at the owl and cauldrons of the gathered wizards with keen, intelligent interest while his mother dozed nearby, completely unaware of her son's curiosity. As they joined the crowd, Cassy stamped her foot in frustration. Harry was a bit amazed that all these wizards could be beaten by a curious muggle boy. It seemed to him that there ought to be a better way to do this.

"Right, well I've had enough of this." Harry heard a tall, friendly looking black wizard say to his wife.

"Lee, what are you going to do?" His wife asked, a worried expression on her face.

"Don't worry, dear, _Suggesto,_" The man said, waving his arm subtly. Immediately a nearby homeless man stood up and began walking through the crowd. He had a slightly wild look in his eye, and began speaking loudly saying, "T'end is near! Have you heard, have you heard the news? The end is comin'! The time's a come to repent, repent and beg forgiveness for you sins!"

The man began making his way through the station, talking louder and louder. Muggles shied away from him, including the mother of the boy who had been starring at them, who took the boy's hand and walked quickly to another part of the station. Everyone was watching the man as the called on them to repent for their sins, and the wizarding families used the distraction to slip onto nine and three-quarters unnoticed.

Harry was a bit troubled by the way that muggle had been used, but it was soon forgotten as he followed Cassy through the wall and to the train beyond it. A wondrous sight greeted his eyes, a gleaming red train surrounded by mist and steam. He had dreamed of the Hogwarts so many times over the years, and he could scarcely believe that he was actually here. Everywhere around him, he could hear snippets of conversation by wizards and witches, and Harry just stood there taking it all in with a smile on his face.

"-and so, as I told the minister, there was no greater priority than the regulation of fireroot imports-"

"-can't believe they lost to Eritrea, too! Manager Davies will be sacked for sure-"

"-You like these robes? I got them for an absolutely steal in Denmark-"

"-you'll write me every day, won't you?"

"No, absolutely not, Scorpius. You are not a child, so you cannot expect to be coddled. Now stand up straight and..."

Harry turned at the sound of this conversation and saw a haughty looking blond man talking to his young son, who was clearly the same age as Harry was, though he looked much smaller. The boy seemed close to tears, and man looked rather annoyed. Troubled, Harry turned away, filled with a powerful desire to find his own parents. They weren't far away, Cassy was hugging them goodbye, looking noticeably more serious than she usually did.

"I'll watch him, don't worry." Harry heard his sister whisper as he came up, "I'll see you both for Christmas."

"Take care, darling, I love you." Said Mother, her eyes misty. Cassy permitted both her parents to kiss her on the cheek and then disappeared into the crowd to board the train. Harry hesitated for a moment, then ran forward and hugged his Mother closely. He hoped no one was around to see, but he was close to tears. He wouldn't see his parents for months and months, he had never been away from them for so long. Anxious thoughts bubbled up, making him feel uneasy. What if no one liked him, what if he was too stupid to make it?

"Shh," whispered Mother, who seemed as though she could almost read her son's thoughts. "Everything will be fine, and you'll have a wonderful time. Keep in touch, and we'll see you for Christmas, Little Bean."

Harry nodded, and he turned to give his father a big hug. "Try and keep your sister out of trouble, if at all possible." Father said, sounding almost amused. Harry nodded faintly and jumped slightly as the whistle blew behind him.

"You'd better get going." Mother said, kissing him gently on the top of the head, "Have a good term."

Harry nodded and hurried up onto the train while his father helped him lift his trunk, with his wand safely packed away, on board. Almost at once, the train began moving, and his parents gave him one last wave and disappeared from sight.

Young witches and wizards were everywhere, running back and forth along the corridors of the train, but no one paid him much attention. He walked past full compartments, filled with everyone from tall, intimidating 6th and 7th years to other 1st years, who looked just as out of place as he did. Halfway back along the train Cassy emerged from a nearby compartment, which looked completely full of fellow third years.

"You ok, Halo?" Cassy said, smiling at him with her usual, wide smile. "I'd invite you in, but it's a little packed in there."

"It's ok, Cassy," Harry said, not wanting to hang around with a bunch Cassy's friends who would just know him as _Cassy's Brother_. He needed to make his own friends. His sister seemed to understand, she was quite clever that way, and squeezed his arm reassuringly,

"If you need anything, you know where to find me." Said Cassy, and Harry nodded gratefully.

"Hey Wiggins, you want to join us?" called a boy from a bit further down the hall. He had long black hair that seemed to stick out at all angles, although it was possible that he made it look that on purpose. Cassy gave the boy a dismissive look before disappearing back inside her own compartment without even bothering to respond. The boy, who looked vaguely familiar, did not look pleased by this, but turned to Harry and said, "Who are you?" His tone wasn't angry, he seemed genuinely curious, if a bit rude.

"I'm Harry, Harry Wiggins." Harry said.

"James Potter." Replied the boy, watching him closely. Harry got the sense that he was testing him, to see what sort of reaction he would have to James' name. Harry thought he handled it rather well, concealing his waves of shock and just nodding casually and saying, "Hi."

"Is that Harry?" called a familiar voice from inside the compartment, "Tell him to come in."

James didn't seem particularly surprised and smiled slightly, saying "You heard my cousin, better come in. There's no real point trying to argue with Rosie."

Harry didn't really mind, in fact he was overjoyed that he had been invited to sit with the children of his favourite wizards and witches in the whole world. Rose smiled up at him, a book in her hands. James flopped down beside her, muttering something about books that Harry didn't quite catch. That left him to sit beside another boy who hadn't yet said anything. He looked so much like James that Harry had no doubt that the two were brothers, which meant that this boy was also the son of Harry Potter.

"I'm Harry, Harry Wiggins." Harry said politely to the boy, who nodded slightly at him.

"I heard." the boy replied, "Nice to meet you." He sounded troubled, but held out his hand politely and said, "Albus, Albus Potter."

"Al is gonna be in Hufflepuff, just wait and see." James said at once, making his brother's ears burn red.

"Shut your fat mouth," Albus shot back at James, who just laughed.

"There's nothing wrong with the 'Puffs, they need their share of average students..."

"I said shut it!" Yelled Albus again, rising to his feet, his hands curled in a fist. Harry didn't know the boy hardly at all, but somehow he couldn't actually see Albus really punching his brother. James apparently thought the same, for he just got up laughing and made his way out of the compartment.

"Well, little bro, I gotta go see my mates a couple of cars back. See you at Sorting. Later Rosie, Wiggins." He gave a lazy wave and left, leaving Albus standing there, breathing hard. Harry waved; a bit confused by the way James acted. He could understand teasing your sibling, he had plenty of practice with that, but he and Cassy never said things that mean to each other... did they?

"Git," Muttered Albus under his breath, sitting back down. Rose gave him an exasperated look and said, "You really shouldn't listen to him, he just says things because you let it bother you."

Albus scowled but didn't say anything, instead pulling out a GBEL Quidditch magazine and disappearing behind it. Harry was unsure of what to do since he was in a compartment with two people reading, but after a moment Albus seemed to remember that he was there and said, "Hey, Harry, you like Quidditch... or are you muggleborn?"

"No, his mother is a witch, I met her." Rose replied, before Harry could open his mouth.

Albus caught his eye and said, "I don't worry about it, she just says whatever she wants whenever she wants, likes to hear herself talk." Harry felt the corners of his mouth twitch into half a smile while Rose glared at her cousin, disappearing back behind her book again.

"Mental she is," whispered Albus quite audibly, rather enjoying himself. In response, Rose threw the book across the compartment and somehow managed to hit Harry in the nose. No doubt she was aiming for Albus, but she didn't seem to have particularly good aim.

"Oh no, I'm sorry!" Rose said apologetically as Albus laughed his head off. Harry just grinned at her, rubbing his nose a bit. It didn't really hurt, he was mostly just surprised.

"It's fine, you've got rotten aim though." Harry said, and pretty soon all three of them were laughing.

"Your family is rather..." Harry said after the giggling stopped

"Violent?" interrupted Albus.

"Mental?" interjected Rose.

"Unstable?" supplied Albus, and the three of them started laughing again.

"We have about a thousand cousins," Rose said, "Family gatherings get a little out of control."

"Plus, our parents are a bit famous," Albus said, his voice slightly strained, "There's..."

"A lot of pressure." Finished Harry, understanding immediately. He had felt that same feeling of fear when he thought he was going to Hogwarts, the thought he had let everyone who cared about him down. It had been awful, but how much worse would it be for these two, especially Albus. His Father was probably the most famous wizard in a hundred years, there were statues to him all over England. As cool as it must be to be the son of Harry Potter, it couldn't be easy. All in all, it was rather impressive that these two were as normal as they were.

Harry bent down to pick up the pick that Rose had thrown at him and was a little surprised to see that it was actually a comic book entitled _Adventures of Merlin and Arthur the Muggle_. He gave Rose a startled look as he handed it back to her.

"What?" Rose demanded, a little defensively, "I like comics."

"That's fine," Harry said quickly, not wanting to upset. She might have poor aim, but all the same he didn't want her throwing books at him if he could avoid it. "I just thought you'd be reading..."

"A textbook or something like that?" Rose demanded, eyes flashing slightly, "I'm not my mother!" She glared viciously at him, though he wasn't sure why she was so upset, and disappeared back behind her comic. Harry glanced at Albus, who shook his head sadly, as if it weren't the first time he had seen Rose yell at someone unprovoked. Harry gave a little sigh and sat back down in his seat.

They were all quiet for a while, Albus moved over to let Harry read the Quidditch Magazine with him. Harry didn't really find it that, especially since his favourite team, the South London Banshees, were headed for a bottom of the table finish. Sighing, he looked up and say that Rose wasn't actually reading her comic anymore, instead she was looking out the window. She didn't seem upset any more, just rather distracted. Albus noticed it too and said, "What's up Rosie?"

She jumped slightly, unaware that the two had been watching her. "Oh, I... It's nothing."

"Thinking about Sorting?" Albus guessed, and she nodded slightly, not looking at either of them.

"You heard what my dad said... If I'm not in Gryffindor he'll disown me." Rose said miserably.

"He's just kidding, you heard what Mum said." Albus said. He paused, clearly thinking about something. He glanced at Harry, who couldn't tell what the boy was thinking about.

"Listen, My dad said something before I left." whispered Albus, leaning in towards Harry and his cousin as if what he was about to say were some big secret, "He said that the... the Sorting Hat talks to you."

"Yeah, that's what my sister said too." Harry added, and Albus looked reassured that someone else backed up the story. "Well, he told me... Dad said that if you don't want to be in a certain house, you can just, well, tell it."

"Tell it," repeated Rose, "Tell the hat?"

"That's what Dad said," Albus said, sounding like he might be on the verge of getting upset.

"Alright, alright," Rose said quickly, "It's probably worth a try." Albus looked at Harry, who nodded reassuringly. Harry believed him, and it made a certain sense. There would be no point in Sorting someone into a house where they didn't belong, right?

After about an hour, the lunch trolley came around and Harry and the others bought tons of sweets, including Harry's personal favourite Wicked Weasley Weasels, which were weasel shaped gummies that were always either much too salty, much too spicy, much too sour, or much too bitter. Albus and Harry took turns eating the disgusting things while Rose looked on in disapproval, as if she couldn't believe anyone could be so stupid as to eat more than one of them.

Harry felt a bit sick the second half of the ride, which seemed to thoroughly amuse Rose. She and Albus talked about their upcoming classes while Harry did his best to keep his mouth shut and not throw up. Albus and Rose compared wand lengths (apparently they hadn't gotten them together) and discussed what Mrs. Ollivander had said.

"You should have seen old Mr. Ollivander when dad entered the shop, came out of the back room and bowed to him and everything." Albus said, turning to Harry. "What about you, Harry, where's your wand?"

"Oh... it's a bit... unusual." Harry said, nervous to discuss it with them despite the fact that he had tried very hard to talk about it with Cassy for days. Rose and Albus just stared at him curiously, and he had no choice but to reach into his trunk and get it out.

When he pulled out his wand, Rose gasped and Albus gave a soft _wow_, and for a moment Harry thought he'd done magic without meaning to. But nothing had happened; the others were just staring at the twisted, white wood that curled around itself, a sharp contrast to their own straight wands.

"Blimey, that's cool." Albus said, his voice full of jealousy.

"I've never seen anything like that before, what is it?" Rose said, studying it as if it were a science project.

"Erm, I think Mr. Ollivander said that it was sycomore wood and sphinx teeth."

"Sphinx teeth?" asked Rose, her eyes slightly unfocused as if she were thinking too quickly to see straight, "I've never heard of a wand made with sphinx teeth."

"Ollivander said it was an import, from Egypt I think. I don't really know what happened, but he said it was special or something."

"I reckon he's right, Dad always said that Ollivander knew wands better than anyone else." Albus said, as if that settled the matter. Rose disappeared back behind her book, but kept glancing at Harry curiously. He found her starring rather uncomfortable, and was happy an hour or two later when James returned. He seemed to have a black eye, as if he had been fighting, and said, "You lot should get changed, we'll be there pretty soon."

"What happened to you?" demanded Rose, sounding suddenly stern.

"Oh nothing, just a couple of Slytherins," James said dismissively, "Nothing to worry about. Hey, nice wand, Wiggins." He said with a nod, spotting the wand lying in Harry's lap.

"Uh, thanks." said Harry, but James was already gone. Rose glared at Albus, as if it were his fault that James had been fighting. Albus ignored her, and said to Harry, "Guess we should go get changed. Can you believe it we're..."

"Almost there." Finished Rose and Harry together. It was automatic; they had all basically had the same thoughts their entire lives. There was less than an hour to go, now, and they would all be students at Hogwarts.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5 Sorting

When the Hogwarts Express arrived at Hogsmede station, there was the usual hustle and bustle that accompanied several hundred students trying to disembark a train with limited adult supervision. Harry found himself separated from Rose and Albus, shuffling along with a group of first-years that he didn't recognize. One of them he had seen before, actually, the little blond boy named Scorpius. The boy stood in the doorway of the train and look around in wonder until an older student pushed him from behind, "Move it, you little moron." The boy flushed and hurried down, followed moments later by two giggling girls, Harry and a tall Asian boy who looked like a first year. Harry saw the boy was looking at him as they made their way across the platform and said, "Hello, My name's Harry Wiggins."

"Sora Takahashi" replied the boy, with a hint of an accent, "Pleased to meet you, I'm from Japan."

"Oh," Was all Harry could think to say. Sora had come all the way here to study magic? This must all be so strange to him. "Do you like it here?" It sounded lame even as he said it, but Sora didn't laugh at him, instead he said, "It is very different, but I am honoured to have the opportunity to study amongst you."

"Uh, right." Harry said, knowing he was doing a pretty terrible job of sounding interesting. Before he could look any dumber he heard a loud voice call, "Firs' years, Firs' years over this way."

Harry turned and saw a huge man who could only be Rubeus Hagrid, the famous Hogwarts Gamekeeper who had been at school as long as anyone could remember. His hair and beard were completely grey, but other than that he didn't seem like a particularly old man. He waved a tall lantern merrily, attempting to attract as many first years as he could. Harry thought it was probably a tad unnecessary, given that only a blind person would miss Hagrid in a crowd.

"Everyone here?" called Hagrid after the other students had gone off to where the horseless carriages were, somewhere below the platform. Harry knew that was where Cassy would be, chatting happily with her friend. He was a bit sad that he hadn't seen her as he was getting off the train, but it was silly to worry. After all, he didn't need his big sister to help him out, he could do this just fine on his own. "Well, let's go then. The boats are down here." Hagrid set off, followed closest by Albus and Rose, who seemed not at all intimidated by Hagrid's immense size.

"Hagrid, James was lying about the Giant Squid, wasn't he?" Albus said, his voice louder that he had probably would have intended.

"Oh, I wouldn't worry about tha', she knows not ter attack students," Hagrid said, waving his big hand dismissively. Rose and Albus exchanged nervous looks. Beside him, Harry could see that little Scorpius looked positively terrified. Only Sora looked unconcerned, walking on Harry's other side with purpose. Harry couldn't help but admire the boy, he seemed so cool. Harry did his best to mirror him, moving his arms in the same sort of way and arranging his face into an expression of controlled indifference.

They reached into the boats and Harry found himself sitting with Sora, Scorpius, and a girl with short brown hair that was rather spiky. She ignored them completely staring out across the water. Harry half wanted to ask her name, but he was too intimidated by her stony expression to say anything.

No one said anything as the boat floated out across the water. Harry stared down at his own reflection, he thought his blond, curly, mop-like head of hair looked ridiculous with his black robes, and wondered if he should maybe cut it. He often went back and forth on his hair, especially since it also looked rather silly when it was short.

"You'll be able to see it in a secon'." Called Hagrid from the distance, and sure enough when Harry looked up there it was before them. The Hogwarts Castle shone out in the darkness, uncounted lights and lanterns gleamed from high towers and broad walls. Harry gazed in wonder, and he heard Scorpius beside him mutter a soft _wow. _Sora said nothing, his expression completely unchanged as he gazed up at the castle. The short-haired girl didn't even look up, just kept on staring out across the water.

The boats sailed closer and closer, and Harry was so excited that he felt as though he might actually explode. Suddenly Scorpious screamed behind him, and Harry turned to see a giant tentacle covering the little boy's head like a huge, disgusting hat. Then there were tentacles everywhere, two or three of them feeling out Harry's arms. He stayed quite still, trying his best to appear unconcerned like Sora, who was gazing at the tentacles around him in mild interest. The girl in the front smacked the one tentacle that came near her, as if it were annoying her, and after a few seconds the tentacles disappeared beneath the waves, leaving behind nothing but a bit of slime on Scorpius's head. Harry resisted the urge to laugh at him, but only because the boy was clearly terrified and Harry didn't want to make him feel worse.

No one spoke the rest of the trip, though Harry thought he heard a few chuckles coming from the other boats as they pulled into a dock far below the school. "E'ryone still here? Good." Hagrid said, in what was clearly in attempt at a joke, but no one laughed. Instead, Harry was pretty sure he heard Scorpius whimper quietly beside him.

"Well, righ', let's get yer up ter the Deputy Headmaster." Hagrid said, leading them up through the cold dungeons. At the top of one of the stair cases a bright eyed teacher, who looked to be in his mid-forties, though he had the demeanour of a much younger man. The man look up as they approached and, smiling down at them, said in a clear voice, "Good evening first-years," the man said, "I am Deputy Headmaster Evergreen. I am will be your potions master in the coming years, and am also the head of Gryffindor House. If you'll follow me, please, it is nearly time for Sorting." Hagrid waved at them cheerily, and disappeared through another corridor.

Professor Evergreen led them up and up until at last they emerged through a large oak door and into the Entrance Hall with a tall staircase sweeping up to the higher levels of the castle. Harry thought they were about to enter the Great Hall and panicked slightly, positively terrified at the prospect of Sorting beginning right now. It was about to start, everything was about to be decided. What if...

His train of thoughts was interrupted as Professor Evergreen led them into a small classroom right beside the Great Hall. As he opened the door there was a large farting noise and the professor sighed, as if he should have known better.

"Peeves, please leave this room immediately, or I will have to curse you." Professor said wearily, directing his words at a man floating upside down above the blackboard. He was wearing and dizzyingly colourful outfit and a fiendish smile. Harry's sister had warned him about Peeves the Poltergeist, who caused more problems than everyone else at the school combined.

"Meanie mean old Greenie," Cackled Peeves, gliding past Professor Evergreen and dropping chalk dust on a few of the students before disappearing with a mad laugh. Albus seemed to have gotten the most chalk dumped on him, and he looked as though he had been lightly floured. Harry caught Rose's eye both of them did their best not to laugh too loudly.

"Wait here, Sorting will begin shortly," Said the professor as he left the room, closing the door behind him smartly. Everyone seemed a bit surprised at the sudden departure of authority, and hesitantly most people began talking to the person next to them,

"Hullo, my names Annie Trout, parents are both office workers in Newcastle." said one of the two giggly looking girls that Harry had seen earlier.

"And I'm Shandra, Shandra Higgins," said an exotic-looking girl beside Annie, who sounded like she had bit of a Jamaican accent, "I guess I'm what people call a muggle-born too. This is all so strange"

"I'm Harry Wiggins, and my Mum's a witch, bit even so this is all pretty strange to me, too." He admitted, trying to make the girls feel at ease, "My house is nothing like this place."

"Glad to hear it," Shandra said, sound a bit relieved. "I was afraid we might far behind."

"Hey Shandra, you guys are a lot alike, Higgins and Wiggins... it's sooo cute!" Said Annie, giggling annoyingly. Harry didn't know what to say, and felt himself blush slightly from embarrassment. Thankfully, Professor Evergreen had returned, and after getting their attention began to speak.

"The Sorting Ceremony is about to begin but there are a few basic things you need to know first. The four Houses at Hogwarts are Ravenclaw, Slytherin, Hufflepuff and Gryffindor. Each House has its own long and distinguished history, and I am sure that you will all be outstanding members of whatever House you end up becoming a part of in the next few minutes." Professor Evergreen paused, and Harry looked over at Shandra and Annie who looked a bit overwhelmed. "While you are at Hogwarts, your House will be almost like your family away from home. Each House has its own dormitory and its own common room, and your behaviour in class and beyond will either earn or cost you points for your House. At the end of the year, the House with the most points will be awarded the House Cup for that year. Now, if you would all follow me."

The students shuffled out after Professor Evergreen, but no one faster than the girl with short brown hair who had sat near Harry on the boat. She walked straight up to Professor Evergreen, whispering softly and urgently to him. The Professor frowned slightly, but the girl kept whispering, looking very determined. At the entrance to the Great Hall Professor Evergreen nodded, and the girl fell back in line looking, well, as impassive as she usually did. "If you would follow me, the Great Hall awaits," Professor Evergreen said, leading them inside with a faint smile.

Harry promised himself he wouldn't gasp or gape up when he entered the Great Hall, and he managed it only because Cassy had told him what to expect. Hundreds, maybe even thousands of candles floated above him, illuminating the entire hall with four long, broad tables, one for each house. The ceiling seemed as though it were not there, and despite what Cassy had said over and over again about how it was enchanted to look like the night sky, Harry had a hard time believe there was a roof up there at all. The place was filled with students, most of whom were talking loudly and staring at the first years as they made their across the hall to the staff table.

On a little stool, a few meters in front of the staff table, there sat a large black hat, so beaten and battered that Harry was amazed that it was still in one piece. It looked as if it might have been burned, and there was a large hole in the front that was so large Harry could have put his arm through it. It didn't look particularly impressive, and Harry wondered if the beat up old thing was really qualified to make such an important decision. The first years gathered around the little table, and Professor Evergreen drew a scroll out of the folds of his robes and called for silence. Most of the students ignored him, falling silent only after a loud voice cleared its throat. Harry looked around to see who was speaking, and was a bit surprised to see it was the hat itself, the large hole seemed to double as a kind of mouth. Once silence had fallen, more or less, the hat began to speak... or rather to sing.

_Come gather around young children,_

_And listen to my song._

_For I'm a hat for Sorting,_

_The place where you belong._

_A thousand years, or maybe more,_

_Upon this stool I've sat._

_Let me see what's in your mind_

_For I'm the smartest hat._

_It could be you're a Gryffindor,_

_Who never runs from danger._

_Who lives a life both brave and bold,_

_And always helps a stranger._

_Perhaps you are a Hufflepuff,_

_Who'll toil 'til the end._

_A loyal and sturdy one,_

_Who gives all you have to spend._

_You might just be a Ravenclaw,_

_With a mind that has no match._

_You never rest from learning,_

_With answers left to catch._

_Or will you be a Slytherin,_

_With a soul so full of cunning?_

_Your subtle mind and crafty skill,_

_Will send you rivals running._

_Just put me on and have no fear,_

_I'm wise as any tome._

_Trust in me and you will see,_

_I'll find you a true home._

When the song ended Harry was still staring at the hat in shock, and so was a little late in joining the rest of the school in clapping. Cassy hadn't mentioned a song, it seemed strange that she would leave out a thing like that. Knowing her, she probably left it as a little surprise for him. With a grin on his face, Harry turned around to look for her at the Ravenclaw table, but before he spotted her Professor Evergreen read the first name and Harry had to turn his attention back to the hat,

"Atkins, Cecilia." called Professor Evergreen, and a short blonde girl stepped forward nervously, sitting on the little stool and slipping the hat over her head. The hat sat there for about fifteen seconds, silent and shabby, before bellowing, "RAVENCLAW."

The room politely applauded, a few cheers came from the Ravenclaw table. Cecilia Atkins hurried over, and Harry saw his sister move over to make room for her. It could be his imagination, but it almost looked to Harry as if Cassy was saving a place for him, just in case.

Sorting took very different amounts of time, depending on the witch or wizard being sorted. Sometimes it was nearly immediate, like when Julie Bones was sorted into Hufflepuff, and sometimes it took several minutes, like when Corlin Dowers was sorted into Gryffindor. Harry couldn't tell for sure, but it seemed as though very few people were being sorted into Slytherin, and looking over, it rather looked like Slytherin had fewer students than the other houses. _Serves them right_, though Harry to himself.

"Goyle, Samantha." Professor Evergreen said, catching slightly at the name. The girl with spiky brown hair came forward, nodding to the Professor slightly as if he had done what she asked. The room went strangely quiet, and Harry looked over at Rose to see her eyes narrowed slightly, watching closely as Samantha put on the hat. After only about ten seconds, the Hat bellowed out, "SLYTHERIN" and the girl strode off, not at all concerned that she received far less applause then anyone before her had.

Harry watched her walk over the other Slytherins, wondering if she knew the reputation the house had or if she was completely unaware of its association with Dark Magic. He lost track of the next few names, coming back to himself as he heard Shandra Higgins be sorted into Gryffindor. She gave him a faint smile as she passed him, and Harry felt slightly confused.

More names passed, and no one else seemed to be sorted into Slytherin, at least until the Professor called, "Malfoy, Scorpius." The room went quiet again, and over at the Gryffindor table Harry saw James Potter say something to the friendly looking boy sitting next to him. Both nodded, and looked back at Sorting with dislike. Malfoy was sorted into Slytherin after only a few seconds, And Harry though the boy looked positively relieved as he set of towards the Slytherin table, looking much smaller than everyone else there.

Harry didn't recognize most of the names, but following alphabetically he knew who was coming next after Valerie Parsons, who hurried off to join Hufflepuff.

"Potter, Albus." Called Professor Evergreen, and Harry wished he was close enough to whisper good luck to the boy. Albus walked forward nervously, and Harry could have sworn he saw Albus's mouth move underneath the hat, although it sank so low that it was impossible to tell for sure. It didn't take long, maybe 20 seconds, for the hat to call out "GRYFFINDOR"

The applause was the loudest it had been all evening, and Albus set off to sit beside his brother with a huge smile on his face. After Albus, Helen Powers became a Ravenclaw while a tall, scary looking boy named Kevin Reese and horse-faced, mean looking girl named Courtney Stubbs became Slytherins. Harry wanted to glare at them, but was distracted by the name "Takahashi, Sora." The Sorting hat took a very long time placing Sora, it must have been nearly five minutes before it shouted, "HUFFLEPUFF!"

Harry almost couldn't believe it, someone as cool as Sora had no business being in Hufflepuff. The boy didn't seem to mind though, he bowed low to the staff table (which drew a fair amount of laughter from the Hall) and headed over to sit beside the other Hufflepuffs.

Annie Trout was next, joining Shandra at the Gryffindor table after less than a minute. The Gryffindor table certainly looked fuller than the others, and Harry wondered if the hat would listen to him if he asked to be put there instead of Ravenclaw. He loved his sister and his family, but he had made some friends amongst the Gryffindors and would much rather stay with them, if he could.

Carla and Francesco Vieri were both sorted into Ravenclaw, and as Harry Warren was being sorted Harry saw that only he and Rose were left. She smiled faintly at him, trying to hide her anxiety, and instinctively he went to stand beside her so that he could whisper good luck when they called her name. Harry Warren was sorted into Hufflepuff, but as Professor Evergreen looked down to call Rose's name the doors of the Great Hall flew open with a bang, and a number of people filed quickly in. Everyone was shocked, and Harry didn't even notice who was leading them until he opened the man opened his mouth and said, "Sorry about this, Headmistress, but we need a word."

"Mr. Potter," replied an older looking witch with short grey hair and a long, slightly dirty hat. "This is highly irregular."

"I know, Headmistress Sprout," Replied Harry Potter firmly, "But this cannot wait." He seemed to indicate someone standing behind him, and while Harry couldn't see well enough to understand.

"Ah, I see." The Headmistress said, sounding very tired, "Yes, you had best come up here and tell me what this is all about."


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6 Unusual Circumstances

Harry Potter walked straight up to the staff table, accompanied by Hermione Weasley, a severe-looking man Harry didn't know, an old man and an old woman that Harry also did not recognize, and a young girl with long dark hair who looked almost as old as Harry. He wondered who she was, she obviously wasn't eleven years old though, or she would have come with them aboard the Hogwarts Express. Rose looked as shocked as he did to see members of her family, and she stared at her mother so hard that it looked like she was trying to read her mind. The Headmistress did not lead the party away, deciding that they could speak in private right in front of the staff table. After all, the students were talking so loudly that they stood almost no chance of being overheard. The only students who were even remotely close enough were Rose and Harry, and both seemed to realize it at exactly the same time. Without speaking, the two crept slowly closer, doing their best to ensure that no one noticed them eavesdropping.

"-despite that, I don't think that she should be allowed to come. She could very well be a danger to everyone at this school." Harry Potter was saying firmly.

"The law is quite clear," Said the old man wheezily, "She is guilty of no crimes, and therefore cannot be barred from Hogwarts."

"The Headmistress can ban whomever she wishes, it is her decision alone." Said the severe-looking man, looking at the older gentleman, who Harry figured was a lawyer, with extreme dislike.

"But you can't, she's done nothing wrong." Said the old woman, speaking with the strength and authority of someone much younger. "I know her; I practically raised her these past four years. She deserves her chance, just like everyone else."

"Mrs. Tonks, I'm sorry, but there's no telling what sorts of things she might be capable of." Harry Potter said, seeming hesitant to disagree with the woman. "You said it yourself, and so did Teddy. He told me that she has these strange moods..."

"Yes, but—"

"And there could be some hidden spells, remnants of things that haven't been activated yet." Harry continued, ignoring the lawyer and staring at the old woman, "Don't forget," he said very quietly, "I was there, I saw what she did to her, her own daughter... Your own..."

"That is quite enough, young man." Said Mrs. Tonks, and Harry was surprised to see his namesake fall into an uneasy silence.

"What about you, Hermione," Said Harry Potter, turning to her suddenly, "What do you think?"

"Well," Hermione said, speaking very carefully, "No one has asked her what she wants. I think... I think that is the most important thing."

Harry Potter didn't look happy, but slowly he knelt beside the girl with black hair and asked, "Well, is there anything you want to say?" He sounded a bit harsh, and perhaps realizing it added, "Do you, um, want to come to Hogwarts?"

The girl didn't speak, but she nodded slowly, looking at her feet as if she didn't want to meet anyone's eyes. Harry Potter and Hermione Weasley both looked troubled but unsurprised, and Headmistress Spout just looked sad.

"You know I value your advice, both of you," The Headmistress said to the two of them, "What would you do if you were me?"

"You can't let her in, you know who she is, who her parents are!" The severe man said angrily, daring someone to contradict him.

"Being related to a Death Eater is not a crime, Director" Whispered Hermione, and the man scowled at her and walked away muttering. Harry Potter just looked at Mrs. Tonks, who stood looking down at the girl beside her.

"You told me once, that your debt to me could never be repaid." Mrs. Tonks said, turning to face Mr. Potter.

"I did." Harry Potter replied, his face so white that the lightning scar stuck out on his forehead vividly.

"Well, you can begin now." The old woman said firmly, "She should be allowed to attend school, there is no reason for her to be barred. She cannot be cleared without your authorization, for you were the leading Auror on the Scene."

Harry Potter did not respond, he simply gazed into the old woman's face. "Please, Harry," Said Hermione quietly beside him, "Let it go."

"Alright," said Harry Potter reluctantly, "Fine, I give my permission, and my recommendation, Headmistress." He did not sound at all pleased, and swept away from the table, followed soon after by Mrs. Tonks and the lawyer. The talk around them had only intensified, and Professor Evergreen talked with the Headmistress for almost a minute, as if he himself was confused as to what was happening.

Hermione looked over and seemed surprised to see Rose and Harry standing nearby, although her lips arranged themselves in a rather understanding smile.

"You two heard everything?" She asked, directing the question to her daughter, who nodded.

"Well, I doubt even you could figure out the whole truth, Rosie," Hermione said with a sigh, "Though I dare say you'll have a head-start on the rest of the students. They'll be talking about this, that's for sure." She said, almost to herself.

"Well, I'll stay and watch you two get sorted, but then I have to be off." Hermione said, focusing on them again. Rather than look reassured, the fact that her mother was watching seemed to make Rose feel a little sick. Harry smiled at her reassuringly, but she seemed more nervous now than ever before. Hermione got up suddenly, as if she had just remembered something, and turning to the Headmistress, who was still speaking with Professor Evergreen, she said, "I can't believe I forgot what this will mean for―"

"I know," replied the Headmistress with a frown, "I will... do what I can."

"Good luck you two." Hermione said, leaving only the girl standing in front of the staff table, only a few feet away from them. The girl didn't look up or move at all, she stood so still that she could have been stunned.

"Attention, ATTENTION!" Said Professor Evergreen loudly, and slowly people began to quiet down. "We have, er, a late addition to the class, and she will be sorted now, out of order." The whole room became completely silent, and Harry could see Hermione talking in a low voice to Harry Potter, who waved cheerily over at him. Wait no, he wasn't waving at him, obviously the Harry was waving at his niece, who rather nervously waved back. Professor Evergreen cleared his throat, and after a pronounced pause said, "Lestrange, Clytemnestra."

Several people gasped, including Rose beside Harry, who looked as though she couldn't believe her ears. Harry didn't gasp, but only because it took him a moment to figure out why that name was familiar. Then with a jolt he remembered, Bellatrix Lestrange and her husband Rodolphus had been amongst Voldemort most loyal, most fanatic followers. They had been dead for ages, though, and had never had any children. It made no sense; who could this girl possibly be?

Clytemnestra Lestrange walked slowly, and calmly put the Sorting Hat on her head. This time there was no mistaking it, Harry definitely could tell that she was talking, that she said something to the hat she was wearing. Minutes passed, or perhaps it was only seconds, and the whole hall seemed to hold its breath. Then, like a gunshot in a ghost town, the hat bellowed out, "SLYTHERIN."

There was no applause, no cheering, instead the whole hall began muttering to each other uneasily. Clytemnestra took the hat off carefully, and without hesitation set off towards the Slytherin table. Harry stared at her as she walked by, and for a fraction of a second their eyes met. She didn't look sad or scared, or even angry at the hostile muttering around her. Her eyes just looked dead, and no hint of emotion was visible on her narrow face. She turned away from him and Harry felt his eyes following her, at least until he caught a glimpse of Harry Potter out of the corner of his eye. The man who was Harry's namesake, his hero, looked angry and troubled, and the moment that Clytemnestra Lestrange sat down, Harry Potter left the Great Hall. He did not look back.

"Weasley, Rose." Called Professor Evergreen, and Rose jumped slightly, as if she had forgotten that Sorting was still going on. "Good luck," Harry whispered as she walked towards the hat slowly. "You too," she replied, looking terrified.

It took barely 10 seconds for the hat to yell "GRYFFINDOR," and for Rose to hurry off and join her cheering cousins. After all that worrying, Harry thought with a grin, and everything worked out just fine. Even though Harry was all alone now, his excitement started to grow. He would be fine, the hat would let him choose. And even if it didn't, being in Ravenclaw with his sister wouldn't be so bad.

"Wiggins, Harry." Called Professor Evergreen, and Harry could tell as he walked up that the students were restless for it to be over. Harry picked up the hat, and after a moment's pause dropped it over his eyes.

He didn't hear anything, and even the voice of the crowd seemed rather faint. "Um, hello?" Harry whispered, feeling rather foolish, "Mister, um, Hat?"

There was no reply, and Harry started to wonder what was going on. Albus had talked to it, hadn't he... why didn't the hat want to say anything to him? After a few seconds, Harry decided to try again. "I was wondering if-" began Harry, but he didn't get a chance to finish.

"SLYTHERIN," bellowed the Sorting Hat.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7 A Feasts with Serpents

Harry had no idea what to do; the only thing he could think of was to take of the Sorting Hat and stare around him in shock. This was all wrong, and it just didn't make any sense. The every face in the Great Hall was staring up at him, but they were nothing but a blur to him. He was only interested in one person... but where was she? Finally, his eyes found Cassy, her face showing the same confusion and surprise that he felt inside. Like him, she understood that this made no sense. Why would he, Harry Wiggins, be sorted into Slytherin? He was a half-blood with a muggle father whose family had always fought against the Dark Arts. Still, his sister would know what to do, thought Harry, she would be able to fix this. Cassy would be able to tell them, to make them understand that the Sorting Hat had clearly made a mistake.

"Well," Said Professor Evergreen in a quiet voice that no one but Harry could hear, "Off you go, Mr. Wiggins."

Harry looked at his sister again, who subtly gestured with her chin that he should sit down. She seemed at a loss of what to do, and Harry felt his hope deflate like a punctured balloon. There was nothing that she could do; nothing anyone could do. He longed to shout aloud, to tell everyone a mistake had been made... but he felt so very small. Staring straight down at his feet, Harry made his way over, step by agonizing step, across the Great Hall to the Slytherin table.

The students around him started talking again as he made his way down and the Sorting Ceremony came to an end. How could they be so normal, didn't they know what had just happened? The Slytherins, his fellow Slytherins now, did not look at all welcoming as he walked slowly past them. Harry settled himself at the very end of the table, where his fellow first-years were all gathered; busy ignoring each other utterly. He had listened to them all get called and sorted, one by one, never guessing that he would actually be joining them here. The only open seat at the whole table was next to Clytemnestra Lestrange, and Harry sat down very nervously, sitting as far away from her as he could without falling into Scorpius's lap on his other side. The Lestrange girl didn't look up at him at all, she just sat there staring down at her empty plate as the Headmistress got to her feet.

"Welcome!" Headmistress Sprout said in a friendly voice, smiling at all of them, "Another year of magical learning awaits. Sorting went a bit long this year, so all announcements can wait until after the feast. Without further delay, let the Welcome Feast begin!" She sat down as many of the students cheered, Harry not among them. He just stared blankly over at the Gryffindor table where all the students were laughing and joking, seemingly having the time of their lives. As Harry watched them, Rose Weasley glanced over at him, giving him a small, sad smile. Following her gaze, her cousin James Potter looked over at him, too, an expression of fierce dislike on his face. Suddenly Harry felt ashamed, and fighting tears he dropped his gaze to his empty plate in front of him. He hadn't asked to be in Slytherin, he didn't want to be here one bit. Why had this happened?

Dishes appeared all along the table, drawing surprised gasps and cheers from around the hall as Harry's fellow students began to hastily grab everything in sight. Harry looked around without much interest, for he found that he wasn't at all hungry. There was every kind of meat you could have wanted: roast beef, cooked chicken, pork, steak, lamb shanks and even fish and shrimp. There were at least four different kinds of bread and a variety of cheeses that Harry couldn't accurately identify. There were roasted, baked and mashed potatoes, chips, cheese pizza, vegetable stew, dumplings, shepherd's pie, and every sort of vegetable that Harry wouldn't have touched even if he had been hungry. The smell of it all was overwhelming, but all it did was make him feel rather sick. He watched as the other Slytherin first-years piled food onto their plates; all except the Lestrange girl, who quietly grabbed a single piece of bread and nibbled at it as though she were busy impersonating a chipmunk. He wasn't sure why, but Harry found himself staring at her. There was nothing all that special about her, she had long black hair and a small pointed nose, thin lips and a wide jaw that was a sharp contrast to her narrow, girly face. Her eyes were very large and a deep, sparkling blue, but she didn't look at him even once while he watched her.

"I wouldn't stare at her like that; she might curse that pretty smile off ya face." Said a girl sitting opposite Harry, and he turned to her in surprise. She had cold eyes and a large mouth that was currently arranged into a sneering grin. Harry thought she looked rather like a horse, and when she laughed at him the resemblance only grew. "I'm Courtney Stubbs," the girl said, although Harry hadn't asked, "And you're Harry Wiggins, I heard ya name when you got sorted. I haven't ever met no Wiggins before, doesn't sound like a wizarding name to me." Her words were a challenge, and all the other first-years turned to look at them. Everyone, that is, except Lestrange, who Harry figured at this point might not understand a word of English for all the reaction she showed to things happening around her. No one else was talking at this far end of the Slytherin table, and they all watched Harry to see what he would say.

Normally Harry would have yelled at the girl, proudly claiming that his father was a muggle and daring anyone said there was anything wrong with that. Instead he hesitated, feeling very small and lost. He was, after all, surrounded by a group of hostile-looking Slytherins who would almost certainly disagree with him. But what else could he say? He certainly wasn't going to pretend to be a pure-blood, but he didn't want them all to hate him from the very beginning. Anger flared up in Harry, he had nothing to be ashamed of. These people... they were the problem.

"Yeah, my father is a muggle; you got a problem with that?" Harry said in a low voice, his fist clenched under the table. His fellow first-year Slytherins all stared at him, but no one answered him as the merry sounds of the feast swirled around them. Even Courtney kept quiet, although the look on her face suggested that she most certainly did have a problem with it.

"What about your mother, she a witch?" asked the boy sitting across from Scorpius with a touch of hostility in his voice. Harry remembered from sorting that his name was Kevin Reese, and he was a big kid with very short black hair and the look of a bully in his tough face. Harry was still angry, but he thought it was best to answer the boy's question. He looked rather scary. "Yeah she is, her name is Olivia Boot. She's pure-blood, or close enough... Not that it matters!" Harry added that last part as a challenge, half-wanting to yell at someone and half-wanting to run away and cry. Again no one said anything, though none of the looks the others were giving him could be described as friendly. It was Courtney who spoke at last, after everyone but Harry had taken a few more bites to eat.

"Wonder why you got sorted into the Great House, Wiggins...A half-blood descendant of Ravenclaws." Courtney said, and Harry was surprised to discover just how unpleasant a person could be. In his whole life, he had never met anyone he liked less.

"Look, I didn't ask to be here!" Harry said loudly, and a few of the older Slytherins turned to glare at him from further down the table. Harry faltered, especially when he saw a truly terrifying ghost looking over at him from halfway across the table. Cassy had told him all about ghosts, of course, so he wasn't surprised to see them in general, but this particular ghost was different. He was covered in dried blood, and the hostile look in his dead, sunken eyes froze Harry's vocal cords. He looked away quickly, trying to get the image of the Bloody Baron out of his mind.

"Oh, well, if you'd rather follow like your blood-traitor mummy and follow her into Ravenclaw, then be my guest." Courtney said scathingly, and Harry felt a strong desire to punch her right in her ugly horse-face. There had been bullies in his primary school back in London, but no one that had ever made him as angry as Courtney did in their first five minutes together.

"Leave it, Courtney," said the boy on her other side, seemed too busy drenching everything on his plate in ketchup to look up at her. He had long brown hair and his body was thin and lanky. "He got sorted into Slytherin, just like all of us. Plus, there's nothing wrong with having a muggle father, we don't all have pure-blood, after all."

"J.B.," Courtney said hesitantly, "I wasn't talking about you, cousin." But J.B. didn't seem to be listening. Instead, he reached his hand across the table for Harry to shake. "Name's John, John Bartholomew Grant, but most people call me J.B. Welcome to Slytherin... better here than Gryffindor." Harry shook the boy's hand nervously and decided it would be best not to say just how much he wished that he was sitting with the Gryffindors.

J.B. took a bite of cheese pizza covered in ketchup and gravy before turning to the girl on his other side, the short-haired girl who had sat with Harry on the boat, and asking, "So what's your story, Samantha isn't it?" The girl looked at him briefly, but didn't seem inclined to answer. Their end of the table descended into uneasy, awkward silence once again.

"Professor Evergreen said your name was Samantha Crabbe." Courtney said obnoxiously, "But there aren't any Crabbe's left, that family name went extinct when Vincent Crabbe died in the Battle of Hogwarts 19 years ago. It said so in _Wizarding Genealogy Volume CCXII_, so..." she faded into silence under the look that Samantha was giving her.

"You read Wizarding Genealogies for fun?" Kevin Reese said in disbelief, and Courtney's ear went pink. She muttered something about _Mother made me_ on Harry's left Scorpius nodded and spoke for the first time, saying, "Yeah, my father made me do the same thing. I was dreadful at remembering it, though."

"You're Malfoy's kid, right?" Kevin demanded, and the little boy nodded nervously. "Hmm," Kevin said after a moment, "I thought you'd be a little more impressive, family as old as that. But I guess what they say about the Malfoys is true now." Scorpius's face burned bright red and he turned his attention back to his food, refusing to look at any of them or respond. Kevin looked rather pleased with himself that he had successfully bullied someone, and Harry felt his anger growing. Before he could decide what to say though, Samantha spoke, glaring daggers at Kevin and Courtney.

"You want to know my story, do you? Fine. My real name is Samantha Fisher, daughter of Anton Fisher. That name mean anything to you?" It didn't to Harry, but both Kevin and Courtneys' eyes widened in shock. "But if you ever call me by that name I swear I will end you, understand? You call me by my mother's maiden name, or better yet, don't talk to me at all." She smiled coldly at them all and without another word turned her attention to attacking the chicken leg on her plate as if it had done something to provoke her. It seemed to Harry as though his initial impression of Samantha Crabbe was right, she was absolutely terrifying.

No one spoke for the rest of the feast, but all the Slytherins took turns glancing over at Clytemnestra Lestrange, each of them undoubtedly as curious about her as Harry himself was. J.B. opened his mouth a few times to ask her something, but he always seemed to lose his nerve at the last moment. Harry spent most of his time watching the children at the other tables laughing and joking, and wondered what he'd done to be punished like this.

The feast seemed to take forever to finish. Harry still felt too sick to eat anything except a piece of bread, which he nibbled just like the Lestrange girl beside him; mostly just to have something to do. She glanced at him briefly, her blue eyes staring into his for only about a second before she turned back to her bread and continued ignoring everyone and everything around her. Before Harry could work up the courage to say anything to her, Headmistress Sprout got to her feet and smiled at all of them.

"Monday begins another year of magical education of all of you; I'm sure you all can't wait." A few students chuckled at her words, mostly coming from the Hufflepuff table. "Before you go off to your dormitories, I have a few announcements for everyone." The Headmistress's tone became a bit stricter, and Harry was reminded of his muggle grandmother who was kind and patient most of the time but, as Father put it, did not suffer fools.

"All students should remember that the Forbidden Forest is, as the name implies, forbidden to all students who do not have express teacher permission to be there. It is a dangerous place, and should be avoided for your own safety. There have been no deaths at Hogwarts for nineteen years," Headmistress Sprout faltered for a brief moment, "And we all very much prefer it that way. New students should also avoid the Whomping Willow on the east side of the grounds and the wall of vines on the south side of the castle, both of which can be very dangerous."

Harry looked around at the other new Slytherins. Samantha and Lestrange both ignored the warning completely, as if they couldn't care less. Courtney and Scorpius seemed nervous at the thought of being near anything dangerous, but Kevin and J.B. both looked rather excited, as if it wouldn't take much to convince them to try and see how close they could get to a Whomping Willow without getting... whomped.

"Quidditch tryouts will be conducted by the end of next week, anyone interested in playing should contact their House's Quidditch Captain to find out when their trials are being held. There are no new staff appointments, and any other announcements will be handled by the Heads of the Houses. Welcome back, and goodnight to you all!" The Headmistress smiled at all of them and dismissed them all with a wave.

The sound of hundreds of students moving all at once filled the Great Hall, and Harry seized his opportunity, leaping to his feet and rushing over to where his sister was as fast as he could. If he hurried, he would have a chance to speak to her before he had to follow the other Slytherins to wherever their common room was. Cassy had the same idea, for she met him halfway between the Slytherin and Ravenclaw table, reaching out to place a comforting arm on his shoulder instinctively.

"Cassy, I-" Began Harry.

"I know Halo, it doesn't make any sense. I'll talk to Professor Clearwater tonight, he's the Head of Ravenclaw, and maybe he will have some idea what to do. I know you, Halo, there's no way you should have been sorted in Slytherin."

"I hate it there, they're all..."

"Just sit tight, little brother; I'll get to the bottom of it, even if I have to yell at the Headmistress myself." Cassy gave his shoulder another little squeeze. "You better go though, Halo, the Slytherins are already leaving for the dungeon. Follow your prefects."

Harry didn't want to leave sister and follow the Slytherins down into the dungeon, but he didn't have choice. Cassy would able to sort it out eventually, but until then the hat had stuck him with these people. Harry nodded to his sister as bravely as he could and followed after the Slytherins.

The others were far ahead of him, already shuffling down the steps into the dungeon. Everyone, that is, except Clytemnestra Lestrange, who was standing right outside the doors of the Great Hall, staring at her feet like usual. Harry was nervous to be near her all alone, until a sudden thought crossed his mind. She wasn't here by accident… she had been waiting for him! The thought was absurd since she hadn't ever said a word to him, or as much as looked at him for more than half a second, but he knew it was true.

Clytemnestra Lestrange didn't look at him as he reached her, but sure enough she started walking beside him (well, a little behind him) as he reached her. Together they hurried after the other Slytherins who were already out of sight and on their way to the dungeons.

"Why were you waiting for me?" Harry asked suddenly as they hurried down the stairs, "You were waiting... weren't you?" he added nervously, and she gave a little nod; so subtle that it might not have been there at all. She looked over at him again, this time it was two whole seconds before she turned back to stare ahead of her again. Harry didn't know what to say, he had never met anyone as confusing as this girl. She didn't seem that evil, but Harry Potter and the rest of the ministry was clearly afraid of her. Why though?

Harry couldn't think of any likely answer to that question, although it wasn't easy to tell since she hadn't even said a single word to anyone yet. She couldn't be a mute, could she, or have no tongue or something like that? No, that wasn't possible, thought Harry, there was no way she could cast a spell if she couldn't talk. If she couldn't cast spells, she wouldn't be here. This was getting him nowhere, it had to be some else. Maybe...

They came upon the other Slytherins suddenly; the five other first-years and a pair of older boys who Harry figured had to be the prefects. They were standing outside a dark and cold classroom, and as Harry and Clytemnestra joined the others the taller of the prefects said, "Well, well, seems our stragglers have finally caught up. All right, you little turds, in here." He and the other prefect entered the classroom, followed by the first-years, who exchanged nervous looks.

"My name is Patrick Harper, and this is Liam Reese, and we have the unpleasant duty of seeing if you worthless pieces of shits have what it takes to be called Slytherins. If you can get by us, we'll let you in."

"What are you talking about?" Courtney asked nervously, "The Sorting Hat placed us here."

"True enough, but that doesn't mean you are actually worthy of being a Slytherin. To receive that honour, you'll have to beat us in duel." Patrick Harper said, smiling evilly and pulling out his wand. Harry and the other new Slytherins stared at each other in shock. They didn't know any magic at all, how could they possibly be expected to duel with 5th and 6th years?

"It's not a duel" said a small, high voice that no one had heard before. "It's an excuse to torture us, isn't it?" Harry jumped slightly when he realized that it was Clytemnestra that had spoken. He was even more surprised to see that she was completely shaking, her face utterly white and she seemed to be shaking uncontrollably, but whether it was from fear or anger Harry couldn't tell for sure.

"You're hazing us?" Samantha Crabbe said, clenching her fist angrily.

"That's right, ladies," Liam Reese said with a cruel smile on his face, "So, who want to be first?"


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8 Welcome to the Dungeon

Harry couldn't believe that this was really happening. How could the Slytherin prefects actually expect to duel a bunch of first-years who had never so much as cast a single spell before?

"No volunteers?" Patrick Harper said with a sneer, "I guess we'll just have to choose, Liam, since no one has any stones. What about that one, he looks tough." He indicated Kevin, who was staring at Liam with a look of disbelief on his face. Harry thought he saw a similarity in the two boys and figured they were probably brothers... or cousins at the very least. That, and the fact that they had the same last name.

"Perfect, I'll take this one," Liam said, drawing his wand suddenly and pointing it at Kevin. "Wand up, little brother."

"Liam..." Kevin said, sounding very small, an impressive trick considering he was quite a bit taller than all the other first-years. His brother just laughed and said, "Pay attention, you little shits, this is how you duel. First you bow, just like this." Liam gave an exaggerated bow, twirling his wand while Patrick Harper looked on with a look of savage pleasure.

"You can try and disarm me, or, if you are feeling particularly ambitious, little brother, you can try and stun me," Liam Reese said. "_Expelliarmus_ is the disarming charm; even a pathetic first-year should be able to cast it. _Stupefy_ is the incantation for stunning, but none of you will be able to cast a spell like that. Then, of course there is _Protego,_ a basic shield spell. Well, that's all you need to know, ready to start?"

The obvious answer was no, but Kevin Reese didn't seem able to speak. The boy just stood there holding his wand limply in his right hand as he stared at his brother.

"Three!" called Patrick Harper, holding up three fingers while Liam Reese raised his wand.

"Two!" continued Harper, putting his ring finger down. Harry felt awful for Kevin, despite the fact that he didn't much like the boy. Kevin was a bully, but even so Harry didn't think that he deserved to be cursed by his own brother like this.

"One!" called Harper, putting down his index finger and leaving up his middle, waving it at all of them crudely. _Compared to these jerks_, thought Harry, _Kevin and Courtney are angels_.

"GO!" shouted Harper, and Liam raised his wand over his head and yelled, "_CRU-_" while Kevin screamed, dropped his wand, and covered his head with his hands. Liam stopped whatever spell he was about to cast and broke down laughing, joined by Patrick Harper, who had tears of laughter in his eyes.

"Oh, little Kevin, you didn't piss yourself did you?" Liam said, gasping for breath. "I'm not going to haze you, brother, I was just messing. Come over here, you little idiot." Kevin moaned slightly in relief, and picked up his wand before going to join his brother.

"The rest of you, though, will have to prove yourselves worthy of the Great House of Salazar Slytherin," Patrick Harper said, turning to the rest of them. "Starting with you." He pointed directly at Clytemnestra Lestrange, who glanced at him briefly with wide eyes.

"Well, Lestrange, step forward," Liam Reese commanded, and very slowly the girl did as he said. She was shaking harder than ever, and drew her wand very slowly with her left hand. Harry wanted to stop this, to do something, but what could he do?

"You heard the explanation on how to duel, Lestrange?" demanded Patrick Harper. Clytemnestra didn't respond, her eyes remained fixed on the boy's shoes. Patrick and Liam exchanged glances, and they both shrugged.

"Get ready, little girl," Liam said, holding up three fingers. Clytemnestra muttered something which none of them could hear, and both boys paused.

"What did you say?" Patrick asked.

"I said," She repeated, raising her eyes to look straight at him, "that I don't want to hurt any of you... and that I'm sorry."

Patrick stared at her for a moment, and then he and Liam started laughing. Moments later Kevin joined in, and pretty soon, all the Slytherins were laughing, although the first-years' laughter was rather forced. Only Harry didn't join in, his mind was spinning rapidly. Mr. Potter had said something about not knowing the effects of some of the spells that had been cast on her. Could this hazing trigger something, something that would hurt them all? What bothered him the most was that the Lestrange girl didn't sound like she was kidding; she just seemed sad about what was about to happen. There was something not normal about that girl, something that made Harry very nervous. This needed to stop, Harry knew, before something went horribly wrong.

"Wait!" Called Harry, surprised at how squeaky his voice sounded in the dungeon classroom. "I-I volunteer. Haze... haze me instead."

Everyone turned to look at him, and the prefects started laughing again, but this time the first-year Slytherins did not join in. They were all staring at him, but Harry couldn't tell what they were thinking, exactly.

"Aww, looks like Wiggins is in love," Patrick said with a wicked grin on his face. "Alright, we'll spare your girlfriend... for now. Let's go, muggle-born."

"I'm not... my mother's a witch!" Protested Harry, although he wasn't really sure why. There was nothing wrong with being a muggle-born, after all. What made him say it?

"Fine, you're a half-breed," Patrick Harper said with a dismissive wave of his wand. "Let's see what that muggle blood does for you, shall we? Get ready."

Harry didn't need to be told twice, he angrily whipped his wand out of his ropes as he walked past Clytemnestra, who stepped back without looking at him. The other first years muttered in wonder as they saw it, marvelling at the way it twisted around itself. Patrick glanced at it without comment and raised his own wand above his head as Liam Reese called out, "Three!"

Harry began to panic, what the name of Merlin did he think he was doing? He didn't know any magic, and he had never so much as cast a single spell before. Was this another trick like the one they had pulled on Kevin? Harry doubted it...

"Two!"

What should he try... should he try to attack the boy? What good would that do, there was no way he could possibly beat him. It would probably...

"One!"

There was nothing for it, Harry thought, he would just have to try and shield himself. What was the charm again... Protecto? No, that wasn't it, it was...

"GO!"

"_Stupefy!_" shouted Patrick Harper pointing his wand at Harry.

"_Protego!_" shouted Harry, waving his wand in front of him, hoping it would work as he shut his eyes tightly. There was a collective gasp as Harry opened his eyes and found that he was miraculously unstunned and a shining indigo field of light shimmering in front of him. He couldn't it believe! The shield charm had actually worked... just like that. _Why though?_ Harry thought to himself, puzzled. _Why had it been so easy that he could do it first try?_ As Harry looked at the shield, it slowly began to fade away. He rather wished it wouldn't, he would need that shield again in a few seconds. Patrick Harper was staring at him in shock, but Harry knew it was only a matter of time before the prefect cursed him again. And this time, the boy would be angry.

Sure enough, a few seconds later Patrick's face contorted in anger and he raised his wand again saying, "Neat trick, Wiggins, but I bet you can't do it again."

"It must be the wand," said Liam Reese, giving Harry a hard look, "No first-year could summon a shield like that. Take it from him, Pat."

Patrick Harper nodded and shouted, "_Expelliar-_" but he faltered mid-spell as they heard the sound of footsteps coming down the hall.

"Oh, bloody hell," muttered Patrick Harper, quickly stowing his wand beneath his ropes. "Any of you piglets squeal about this, I will curse you so badly you'll never walk again, understand? Especially you, Wiggins." Before Harry could respond a teacher strode quickly into the classroom, surveying the scene in an instant. He was a thin, short man with long brown hair tied back in a ponytail. He didn't look very old, perhaps in his mid-thirties, and he had the look of a clever man who would be very hard to fool.

"Harper, Reese, I told you to stop this nonsense," the man said harshly, "and I expressly forbade you from hazing the Slytherin first-years."

"Hazing, Professor Mason?" Patrick Harper said as innocently as he could, "We weren't hazing them. Just wanted to give them a few pointers, and, you know, show them a classroom." He gestured around the dark, empty classroom that had absolutely nothing worth seeing in it.

Professor Mason raised a sceptical eyebrow, and his eyes swept over the first-years. "Luckily for you, Harper, it appears that you hadn't yet begun, so you did not expressly disobey my commands, despite your obvious intentions to do just that. Therefore, there will be no detention for either of you. Come along now, we have to get you to your common room."

Harry felt Patrick Harper's eyes upon, and he turned to meet them, refusing to be intimidated by the boy. He wasn't sure where his defiance was coming from, since obviously the Sorting Hat hadn't thought him courageous enough to be in Gryffindor. Even so, he longed to yell out the truth; regardless of what the boy threatened to do to him. Patrick seemed to read his mind and subtly gestured his head over at Clytemnestra Lestrange and clenched his fist. The meaning was clear enough; if Harry said anything he wouldn't be the only one who suffered. Harry didn't actually care about the Clytemnestra in any special way... actually he was a bit frightened of her, but he didn't want her, or anyone really, to suffer because of him (well, maybe Courtney.) Harry and Patrick were the last to leave the cold classroom, but in the end simply Harry followed without saying a word. Maybe the hat had been right—maybe he didn't have what it took to be a Gryffindor after all.

Harry and the others followed Professor Mason through the twisting maze of passages, and Harry soon lost all sense of where he was or what direction led back to the Great Hall. Thank goodness the Professor had come looking for them; he had saved Harry from a pretty desperate situation. He wondered who he was, and what subject he taught. What was he even doing down here, anyways... and where was the head of Slytherin House? Whoever that Professor was, he was probably sitting back in the Slytherin common room, laughing about how he had ordered the first-years to be tortured. _Of all the Houses I could have been sorted into... Slytherin... _Harry thought moodily.

Their footsteps echoed loudly through the passages, and Harry wished that it wasn't so dark. There were torches hung at various intervals, but it was still much too dark for Harry's liking. Patrick Harper kept glancing back at him, his eyes glittering ominously in the flickering torchlight. Harry's determination and anger had all but evaporated by this point, and he was back to being plain terrified that he had already made an enemy of a Slytherin prefect. _Good thinking, _Harry thought to himself sullenly, _I'll be snuffed by the end of the week_.

They reached their destination at last, a rather unimpressive section of wall with a pair of torches flanking a large portrait. Harry hadn't seen very many of the moving portraits that his sister had told him so much about. He figured they simply didn't put them down in the dungeons. Perhaps the portraits themselves didn't want to be stuck down here... something that Harry could very much relate to. Harry couldn't see anything at first, but Kevin Reese rudely shoved Scorpius Malfoy out of the way and Harry got a clear view of the portrait.

Sitting in a large, stuffed armchair in the large, ornate portrait was a very short, very fat man who seemed to be fast asleep; his head resting easily on his large belly. He was dressed as if for bed, but was wearing clothes far fancier than Harry had ever imagined someone would wear to bed. He was wearing a velvet robe of some kind over his nightshirt that seemed to be straining to contain his enormous stomach. His blond hair was covered with a ornate wizard hat, but what really drew Harry's eyes was his enormous moustache, which made him look rather like a short, richly-dressed, blond walrus.

"Professor Slughorn," called Professor Mason, "Professor Slughorn. Horace... HORACE!"

"I- what?" squawked the man in the portrait, jerking awake and scattering a number of objects that had cluttered up the small table beside him. "You startled me, Orpheus," muttered the portrait of Professor Slughorn. The heavy man stood with a wheeze and stooped down to collect the various objects from the floor of his portrait. He was a bit overzealous in his attempt to pick up a box of chocolates, a bottle of brandy, and what appeared to be a crystallized pineapple all at once, and rather than collecting them all in his little hands the Professor instead sent them all scattering further away, perhaps even into another portrait somewhere in the castle. Professor Slughorn gave a little moan and was about to hurry after his fallen treasures when Professor Mason tapped the portrait again and said, "Horace, would you please let us in."

"Oh I... yes, very well. You always were a favourite of mine, Orpheus," the Professor said with a jolly old smile. "Just a moment... how do I open myself again?" Harry heard the portrait mumble to himself.

"Professor Slughorn, you need to wait for me to give you the password," Professor Mason said, his voice slightly strained. At first Harry thought that he was angry, but he realized that Professor Mason was actually trying very hard not to laugh.

"Hmm, yes, you're right about that, my boy," Professor Slughorn's portrait said, solemnly bobbing his head in a gentlemanly sort of way.

"Serpensortia," said Professor Mason, and the portrait swung open, revealing the Slytherin common room. They entered it slowly, Harry dragging his feet as he reluctantly made his way forward. He didn't want to be here, not one bit, but this was where he had been placed. As the portrait closed behind him, Harry thought he could vaguely hear the sound of Professor Slughorn scrambling after his fallen possessions. Harry couldn't help himself; he smiled widely, and hurried to catch the others, who were heading for the far side of the common room.

The first word that came to Harry' mind when he took his first look around the Slytherin common room was... green. Green lamps hung from the low ceiling, casting green shadows off every surface—even the ornate marble fireplace that looked green rather than white in the light of the room. Then Harry saw the far wall of the common room, a sight so astounding that it was amazing that he hadn't noticed it straight away. The far wall was simply not there; it went right up to the water of the lake that Harry and the others had crossed just a few hours before. There didn't seem to be any glass or anything at all holding the water at bay; the far side of the common room simply opened into the water. The glow of the lake filled the whole common room with even more green light that made Harry feel slightly ill. He had always liked the colour green, but this was just too much.

"Now that I have recovered our missing first-years, I can continue and we can all get to bed," Said Professor Mason. "I am Professor Orpheus Mason, your Transfiguration teacher and head of the Slytherin house..."

Harry started slightly, although he wasn't sure why he was surprised. Professor Mason had gathered them all and taken them here... but even so Harry really had never expected him to actually be the Head of Slytherin. He had just assumed that he was a passing teacher. Professor Mason seemed, quite honestly, too fair and not nearly mean enough to be associated with Slytherin in any way. Harry realized that he was missing the announcements, and shook his head to clear the thoughts and help him pay attention.

"-Gobstone Club, Charm Club, Divination Club, and various others; if anyone is interested in joining." Professor Mason said dryly, as if he would find it rather surprising if any of them did express interest in joining a club.

"Anyone interested in trying out for this year's Quidditch Team as a chaser, keeper or beater please contact Captain Eustace Belby," Professor Mason said, indicating a tall and thin-looking boy who was so mature looking that Harry figured he had to be a seventh year.

"We need people with even the slightest amount of skill to join. Atalanta and I can't do it all on our own. We lost two games last year when she caught the snitch... TWO!" Belby said, shaking his head mournfully, glancing over at a short, slender girl who looked several years older than Harry was. She had very long blond hair that went down to her knees. Harry immediately realized that nearly every Slytherin in the common room was staring at her, but the stares didn't seem to bother her at all. She just looked patiently at Professor Mason, waiting for him to continue.

"So that's Atalanta Selwyn," Kevin Reese whispered to Courtney Stubbs, who was standing right in front of Harry. "The girl's a legend; I heard people say she's the most talented witch to come through Hogwarts since You-Know-Who himself. Every boy is mad for her, but Liam says she's an Ice Queen."

"What does that mean?" asked Courtney, who was clearly in awe of the girl, whoever she was. That wasn't much of a surprise, since everyone with eyes and a brain could tell that there was something special about Atalanta Selwyn.

"No idea," Replied Kevin with a shrug of his shoulders, as if it didn't matter in the slightest. The fact that he didn't know probably just made her more amazing in his eyes.

"Well that's all for tonight. I will go over everyone's schedules on Sunday. Term doesn't usually start on a Friday, so you lucky first-years have a weekend to get yourselves adjusted to the castle. First and Second years go up to bed, the rest of you ought to follow suit soon enough." There was some grumbling and complaining at this, but they had no choice and Harry followed the others as they made their way over to the staircases that lead up to the boys and girls dormitories.

"Wait a moment, everyone. Wiggins, which one of you is Harry Wiggins?" called Professor Mason. His fellow first-years all turned to look at him.

"I-I am," Harry said in a little voice that squeaked slightly when he saw that every single Slytherin was looking at him, even Atalanta Selwyn, who was gazing at him with large, hazel eyes that flickered with interest. She whispered something to the boy beside her, who with a jolt Harry recognized as Patrick Harper. Harry turned away quickly, hurrying over to Professor Mason. Whatever those two were talking about, it was bound to be bad news for Harry.

"I am to take you to see the Headmistress. It seems that there is some... question about your Sorting," the Professor said, loudly enough for everyone to hear.

"Oh, alright," Harry said in a faint whisper, very conscious that every Slytherin at Hogwarts was silent and staring at him. Harry looked down at his feet, trying not to feel the weight of their eyes upon him. Why had the Professor said it so loudly… why had he let everyone know? He definitely needed to get out of here know—they were bound to hate him after this.

"Alright first and second year students, on to bed. Goodnight to all of you."

"Goodnight, Professor Mason," the Slytherins echoed back at him.

"Come along, Wiggins," Professor Mason said, his tone completely neutral. Harry followed quickly, but he couldn't help giving the common room one last glance. The whole thing with the lake was pretty cool, and green was one of his favourite colours, after all. He wasn't quite sure why, but as he glanced around the common room his eyes found Clytemnestra Lestrange, who was staring straight at him as he made his way towards the exit of the common room. They watched each other for a few seconds before Lestrange turned and made her way up to the dormitories and out of sight while Harry followed Professor Mason out of the portrait hole. Harry tried to get the image of her blue eyes out of his head... but he just couldn't. Why had she looked so sad?


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9 Offers and Counteroffers

That night was the first time that Harry Wiggins walked the corridors and passages of Hogwarts Castle, following Professor Mason from the lowest dungeons to the Headmaster's Office many floors above. It was quite a long walk, full of many wonderful sights that one might witness along the way. They passed the enchanted forest classroom where Firenze the centaur taught his students the ancient knowledge of his people. They passed a small, roped-off section of swamp that the legendary Weasley Twins had created over twenty years before during their final, incomplete year at Hogwarts. They passed vanishing staircases, walls pretending to be doors, doors pretending to be wall, and even a particularly confusing bit of wall on the second floor that couldn't decide which it was going to be until you walked into it. They even passed the entrance to the mysterious Room of Requirements, although perhaps we can forgive a first-year for missing that particularly elusive Hogwarts secret. It is far harder to forgive Harry for staring at his feet the whole journey, missing the portraits, ghosts, suites of armour, and all the other fantastic things that one runs into while walking the corridors of Hogwarts at night.

But Harry was distracted and afraid, so the journey was something of a blur. What was going to happen to him… could he dare to hope that he would be allowed to change Houses? Cassy had said that she would be able to sort this whole thing out, but had she really managed to come through for him so quickly? There was so much going on, just how could he possibly make sense of it all? _I just got here for crying out loud!_ He thought to himself in exasperation.

Before Harry knew it, he and Professor Mason were standing before a large, unbelievably ugly gargoyle that seemed to be watching Harry with its huge stone eyes. Suddenly, the gargoyle blinked, and Harry jumped back with a shout that came out a bit more like a mix between a whimper and a girly scream. Professor Mason smiled at him, but Harry wasn't especially reassured. The Professor's eyes were far too calculating.

"Nothing to worry about, this is simply the entrance to the Headmistress's office. Now, Mr. Wiggins, before we go up, I would like you to tell me exactly what happened in that classroom," Professor Mason said in a quiet voice.

Harry hesitated, not sure what to say. He felt that he had to tell the truth to a Professor, but what if Patrick Harper was true to his word and took his revenge out on the others? Harry could accept it if the boy came after him, but the others might suffer because of this...

"There is no need to be afraid if they threatened you, I wouldn't let the boys hurt you," Professor Mason said reassuringly.

"It's not that, Professor," mumbled Harry. Why was he hesitating so much... what did he care? He could just get his revenge on those bullies and be done with it. He didn't owe the others anything.

"Well than what is it?" Asked the Professor, his eyes reading Harry's every move.

"It's just... well... the others. I don't... don't want anything to happen to them," Harry said slowly, as if fighting his own words. Did he really care that much about a bunch of rather unpleasant near-strangers?

"I see," Professor Mason said with a hint of surprise. "Do not be afraid, Mr. Wiggins, I will not let anything happen to my first-years. Now please, tell me what happened."

Harry could think of no reason not to, so he told the Professor everything that had happened since he and Clytemnestra had joined the others outside that dungeon classroom. The Professor showed no reaction to Harry's story, but his eyes continued scanning Harry's face with great interest.

"Indigo," the Professor said at last, "It was pure indigo?"

"What... er, Professor?" Harry said, almost forgetting his manners in his confusion.

"The shield charm, was it composed of pure indigo light?" Professor Mason asked.

"Well, yes... I think so. What does that mean?" Harry asked, not sure what was going on.

"Why did you volunteer in the place of Ms. Lestrange?" The Professor asked, ignoring Harry's question. Harry thought that was rather rude, but there was no use arguing with a teacher. He wasn't sure how much to tell the Professor about the conversation between Mr. Potter and the others. Had the other teachers been informed of her?

"I just had the feeling that something bad might happen if they started attacking her. I just get this feeling, Professor, that there's something... strange about her. "

"Are you afraid of her?" Professor Mason asked after another moment of silence. The question caught Harry a bit off guard. What was he supposed to say... _was_ he afraid of her?

"Uhh... I-I'm not sure," Harry stuttered. Then he remembered her blue eyes and the look of sadness. "No," he said more firmly, "No, I'm not afraid of her, I'm just... just confused."

The Professor watched him for another few seconds before nodding to himself and turning away. He said nothing more, and Harry had no idea what Professor Mason was thinking. Had he done something wrong, or had he said the right things?

"Fanged Geranium" The Professor said and without warning the Gargoyle leapt aside and the wall behind it opened in the blink of an eye, revealing a spiral staircase leading, most likely, to the Headmistress's office.

"Come along, Mr. Wiggins." Professor Mason said kindly, "You'll want to see this."

Harry obeyed, following the Professor onto the staircase that immediately began ascending on its own. Harry glanced at the Professor as they waited, wondering what sort of man he really was. He seemed nice enough most of the time, but the look that he had in his eye made Harry feel uneasy. Plus, he was the Head of Slytherin, so Harry had a hard time believing that he could really trust the Professor.

The staircase ended in front of a large wooden door with a brass knocker in the shape of what looked like a winged badger. Professor Mason knocked without hesitation and not a moment later the door swung open on its own and the Professor walked inside. Harry was a bit surprised by the suddenness of it all, but thought it best not to leave everybody waiting and hurried in after the Professor. He stumbled slightly on the lip of the door, and when he righted himself he got his first view of Headmistress Sprout's office.

It was a very large, circular room that was dominated by a very old wooden desk that was almost invisible under a dozen or so potted plants that Harry had never seen... or even imagined might possibly exist somewhere. There was one plant that looked like blue bamboo, rising about ten feet off of the top of the desk, almost to the ceiling. Another plant was covered with what looked like golden flowers, and smelled so sweet that, even from a distance, Harry felt rather light-headed. There were plants everywhere, not just on the Headmistress's desk but also scattered around the room on table and sitting high on atop shelves. It was as if Harry had walked into a jungle; the air was warm and full of dozens of sweet smells. Before he could examine the others in any great detail, Headmistress Sprout emerged from behind her desk, wearing beautiful green robes that were covered here and there with dirt. She looked much happier and more relaxed than she had at the feast, and she gave Harry a big smile.

"You must be Harry Wiggins. Welcome to Hogwarts, young man," the Headmistress said as she took off her dirty gloves.

"H-hello, Headmistress," Harry said nervously, totally overwhelmed by everything around him.

"Just give me a moment, if you all don't mind," the Headmistress said, absently brushing dirt off of her hat, "Sorry about the mess, chaps, I haven't had time to get Neville to take some of these down to the greenhouses yet." She began rearranging the plants on the desk, making as much space as she could. "Oh, and Miss Wiggins," added Professor Sprout, looking over her shoulder, "you might want to take a few steps away from that Incisored Elm sapling. It looks hungry."

Cassy moved so fast that she might have been shot out of a cannon, coming out of the shadows of an innocent-looking little tree to stand beside Harry, who was rather startled by her sudden appearance. Then he saw that there were a number of other people standing around in the office that he simply hadn't noticed with all the amazing plants around. Professor Evergreen stood nearby, talking to two other Professors who Harry didn't recognize.

"That's Professor Clearwater," Cassy whispered quietly to her brother, "He's the head of Ravenclaw, and he agreed to petition that your sorting was a mistake." As she spoke, a tall, bald professor with glasses nodded to him. At first Harry thought he had a kind looking face, but as the man stepped into the light he saw a pair of scars that ran the length of the man's head. One scar ran from his left ear to his chin, while the other ran from the top of his head down between his nose and his right eye, ending at his upper lip. His appearance was rather frightening; despite the cheerful smile he was giving Harry.

"And that," continued Cassy in a whisper, indicating the middle-aged witch with shoulder length brown hair, "is Professor Dimock. She's the head of Hufflepuff and teaches Charms. All the heads of the Houses are here, although I'm not sure what is going to hap-" She stopped suddenly as Professor Mason cleared his throat and said, "Let us begin, shall we?"

"By all means," Headmistress Sprout said, sitting behind her desk. She had finally cleared enough space so that she could see all of them.

"Earlier this evening," began Professor Clearwater, "Cassandra Wiggins brought to my attention her concerns regarding the Sorting of her brother, Harry Wiggins. He seemed to have been Sorted into a House that he was not suited for. Almost the entire Boot family has been in Ravenclaw for several generations, and young Harry does not seem to have the temperament that would warrant a break in that tradition. Therefore I have decided to call for a formal review of Mr. Wiggins Sorting."

None of the other Professors showed any reaction to his words, and Harry figured they must already have known what was going to happen. No one spoke for a moment, and Harry found it difficult to remember to breathe normally. What was going to happen? Was he really going to be allowed to switch Houses? _Please_, Harry thought, _please_...

"As I understand it," Professor Mason said mildly, although Harry could detect a hardness in the man's voice, as if he did not approve of what was happening, "the argument seems to be that he doesn't have, in your words, the usual Slytherin _temperament_ and therefore his Sorting must have been a mistake. I must say that I cannot help feeling victimized here. If young Harry had been sorted into Gryffindor, I doubt that there would be such an uproar."

"Oh stop it, Orpheus," Professor Evergreen said impatiently. "Don't pretend that Slytherin doesn't have a different history from the other Houses; that it doesn't have certain criteria on which it chooses its students. There is nothing sinister going on here, but rather it is simply that Harry Wiggins doesn't match the qualities Slytherin House prizes in its students."

"Oh, is that right?" Professor Mason said, as if surprised. "Is Harry not curious, not clever, not ambitious? That's not a very nice thing to say about a young man, Elmander, especially when he is standing right there."

"Enough of your word games, Orpheus," Professor Evergreen said, the annoyance clear in his voice. "The issue has been raised. The first order of business is to consult the Sorting Hat and understand its reasoning. If the hat agrees it erred and is willing to change Mr. Wiggin's assigned House, then that will be that. All in favour?"

Professors Evergreen, Dimock and Clearwater raised their hands, and, after a long pause, Professor Mason followed suit with an exaggerated sigh.

"If the hat made a mistake, then so be it. I would, however, like to make a formal complaint on how Slytherin House is being treated in this matter."

"Noted," The Headmistress said as she got to her feet and approached the Sorting Hat, which was resting shabbily on a shelf behind her desk. "Very well, I'll speak to the hat and see what it has to say on the matter."

Harry watched in astonishment as the Headmistress took the hat off of the shelf and, without hesitation, put it on her head. Everyone was completely silent; the only sound in the office came from a brown little plant in the back that seemed to be chirping like a bird. At last Headmistress Sprout took the Sorting Hat off slowly and replaced it on its place on the shelf. She did not speak as she sat back down behind her desk, and Harry was sorely tempted to shout, "Well!?" But even Cassy knew better than to shout a thing like that to a group of Professors, although the desire to do just that was, as usual, much stronger in her than in her brother.

"Has the hat offered an alternate Sorting?" Professor Clearwater asked quietly when the Headmistress didn't speak, still wrapped up in her own thoughts.

"No, the hat stands by its decision, although its explanation was... unusual," the Headmistress said. "I'm afraid I won't be sharing it with any of you, not tonight anyways."

Harry felt as though he was being deflated, as if someone had poked him with a pin and all the air was rushing out. So he would have to remain in Slytherin after all, after all that had...

"That brings us to the next step," Professor Evergreen said, cutting through Harry's thinking. Harry shook his head to help him focus. "If the heads of all four Houses agree that Harry should be placed into a House that he is more suited for, namely Ravenclaw, then he will be transferred. That is, if that's all right with you, Headmistress.

"Do what you will… I can make no recommendation for or against," Headmistress Sprout said, still preoccupied by whatever the hat had told her.

"Then we will vote to place Harry into my House," Professor Clearwater said. "That is what you want, isn't it Harry?"

"Er," was all Harry could say at first. It was a little strange that no one had asked him what _he_ wanted up to now. He would, all things considered, probably want to be in Gryffindor, but he thought it best not to push his luck. There seemed to be a small chance that he could get out of Slytherin, and he needed to seize it. "Yes, Professor, that is what I would want."

"All in favour?" Asked Professor Evergreen, and again Professor Dimock, Evergreen and Clearwater raised their hands almost immediately. Professor Mason's hand remained down, and Harry heard Cassy groan quietly beside her.

"Really, Orpheus?" Professor Dimock said with a shake of her head. "Do you have a reason to go against the will of your fellow Professors?"

"I simply do not think that an artifact that has served this school for a thousand years; that has been entrusted with sorting young wizards for generations, should be so easily disregarded."

"The hat has made questionable decisions before, which is why this process was instituted in 1695," Professor Clearwater said, although he seemed to be seriously considering Professor Mason's words.

"I simply cannot agree to give up one of my students based on such a flimsy pretext. I'll say again that if Mr. Wiggins had been sorted into any other House, we wouldn't be having this meeting."

"But Harry himself said that he would like to be placed in Ravenclaw," Professor Dimock said with a frown.

"Sorting is not a popularity contest, because if it were I think we all know who would win... and who would lose," Professor Mason said, and Professor Dimock blushed slightly. Harry knew, as everyone else undoubtedly did, that there weren't many who would rather be sorted into Hufflepuff over Gryffindor.

"Are you really going to set yourself against the three of us, Mason?" Professor Evergreen said in a quiet, dangerous voice. It seemed that the kind, helpful Professor Evergreen was not the only side the man had.

"Very well," Professor Mason said with a sigh, "but at least give Harry some time to judge Slytherin for himself before making a decision. If, at the start of winter holidays, he still wants to change Houses, then I will not oppose it."

"But for a student to change Houses halfway through the year is unheard of!" Protested Professor Dimock.

"Not unheard of, Alana, merely unusual," said the Headmistress, speaking for the first time in several minutes. "I think that Professor Mason's proposal is most reasonable. At the end of Term we shall reconvene and Mr. Wiggins, if he so chooses, will be allowed to change Houses. That is enough for tonight, these students ought to get to bed."

And suddenly that was that, the Professor all seemed to move at once. Professor Dimock gave Harry a little smile as she left, while Professor Evergreen went forward to speak to the Headmistress. Harry wasn't sure how he should feel, for he now had more than four months of Slytherin life to get through. Still, after that, he would be free to leave; perhaps he would even be allowed to choose Gryffindor, and that was more than he had dared to hope for since the moment the Sorting Hat had put him in Slytherin. Feeling slightly better, Harry followed Professor Mason out of the Headmistress's office and back down the spiral staircase.

Before they had taken more than two steps down the corridor, Cassy came rushing up behind them.

"The Headmistress says that she would like to speak with you, Professor Mason," Cassy said, glaring up at him not-so-subtly.

"Is that so? Very well, do you think you could see your brother safely back to the Slytherin common room, Ms. Wiggins?" Professor Mason said, smiling thinly in response to her glares. Cassy seemed rather surprised by the suggestion, but agreed to it immediately. Professor Mason nodded to both of them, gave Harry one last, appraising look, and made his way back up to the Headmistress's office.

"He's a slippery one, isn't he?" Muttered Cassy as she led her brother back through the silent school. "Where does he get off, blocking the other teachers like that? They could all see that you shouldn't have been put into Slytherin, why didn't he just let you go?"

"Dunno," replied Harry, although that wasn't exactly true. Something that night must have convinced Professor Mason that he needed to keep him in Slytherin at all cost. What did he know about Harry that Harry himself didn't know? Or was he just imagining things...

"Still, it's only for a few months, Halo, and then you'll be able to leave," Cassy said bracingly. "You'll be alright won't you? Just don't go making any enemies and you'll be just fine." Harry was a little surprised at how concerned his sister seemed, so he simply smiled at her and nodded. There was no point telling her that it was too late for that; that there were already upperclassmen waiting for their chance to get revenge on him. That was something he would have to deal with for himself.

Cassy talked nearly the whole way back to the common room, but Harry didn't really listen to that much of it. He simply drew comfort from her presence, and from her desire to make him feel like everything was alright. Whether or not everything was going to turn out alright remained to be seen, but the fear that had twisting in his stomach all evening seemed to be dissipating slightly.

Before he knew Harry was once again facing the portrait of the sleeping Professor Slughorn, and he turned to Cassy with a lump in his throat. This was his home, for now at least, and she wouldn't be able to come in with him. Cassy seemed to read his thoughts, for she wrapped him up in a warm hug and said, "It's been a strange few months, hasn't it, Halo? I know this isn't what had in mind this summer when you dreamed of coming to Hogwarts, but I know that it will all work out for you. You'll see, as soon as classes start you'll be just like everyone else."

Harry nodded bravely and after one last hug Cassy disappeared back around the corner leading to the Castle above. Harry was now completely alone, and after taking a minute or so to summon his courage he woke up the strange portrait in front of him and entered the common room, hoping that everyone will have gone to bed.

Harry very nearly got his wish… only one person remained in the common room, sitting cross-legged on the carpet and staring at the dying green fire burning in the fireplace. Atalanta's shining blonde hair rippled as she turned to face him, her beautiful face regarding him curiously.

"The famous Harry Wiggins," Atalanta said in a voice stronger and deeper than one would except from such a little girl. "The stories about you have been spiralling out of control this evening. Some seemed to think that you were going to change Houses tonight, follow in your sister's footsteps, as it were. Obviously that rumour, at least, seems to have been untrue. You are a Slytherin after all."

"Yep," Harry said, intimidated by the girl in spite of himself. "Wait, do you, er, know my sister?"

"We've met," Atalanta said indifferently, and Harry felt a chill un through him as he saw that she was twirling her wand in her long fingers. "But that is not what interests me right now. Harper told me something this evening, something I would like to see for myself. Draw your wand, Harry Wiggins."

Harry didn't move, suddenly feeling very tired. Why did he have to go through all this, couldn't he just go to bed? How much magic was he expected to use before his first lesson?

"You might want to draw your wand, because I'm going to use mine regardless of what you do," Atalanta Selwyn said as she gracefully rose to her feet. There was nothing overly threatening about her, she was barely taller than he was himself, but Harry was absolutely terrified of her. As she drew her wand high above her head, Harry angrily drew his wand, almost without thinking. He'd had a long day, but he wasn't going to just sit back and let her curse him like this. If Atlanta wanted to see what he could do, than he would show her.

"Good," Atlanta said with smile, "Now, let's see what you can do, Wiggins."

Before Harry could think Atalanta's wand arm moved subtly, emitting a jet of red light without her uttering a single word. "_Protego!_" Yelled Harry, but he was too slow, and his wand flew out of his hands and though the air. As it soared through the air, Atlanta caught it deftly behind her back without even turning around. Harry had never seen someone with that degree of body control. She must really be an exceptional seeker.

Atalanta raised his twisted wand in front of her, examining it curiously. "I've never seen anything like this, what is it made of?" She asked curiously, waving it around experimentally.

"Sycomore wood and Sphinx Teeth... can I have it back now?" Harry said, wishing after he'd spoken that it hadn't come out sounding like such a whine.

"I'm not going to break it," Atalanta said with a little laugh, "I just wanted to see if Liam was right. That one doesn't have too many brain cells, but in this case I think he might be right. _Auguamenti,_" Atlanta said suddenly, pointing his wand at the fire place. Nothing happened, and Atlanta frowned down at the wand in her hand.

"_Auguamenti_," Atalanta repeated, and this time used her own wand and there was a small flash of blue light followed by a stream of clear water that completely doused the dying fire. She frowned again and tossed Harry's wand back to him with a little growl of frustration, as if Harry had done something to annoy her. He didn't like the look in her eye, and honestly Atalanta had no need to make herself look any more dangerous.

"So it's not the wand," Atalanta said, raising her wand over her head again. "Let's see if you can block me this time." She slashed with her wand again without uttering a single word, but this time Harry was ready for it. He mirrored her motion as best he could, Shouting, "_Protego_," as she shot another jet of red light at him. This time his indigo shield formed in time, and as Atalanta's jet of red light hit his shield the light rippled, but his shield held.

Atalanta starred at him in wide-eyed surprise. Then she sent another jet of red with a flash of red light, followed by another. The shield wavered as the second jet hit his shield, and collapsed entirely as the third spell hit it, sending his wand once again flying through the air. Naturally, Atalanta caught it effortlessly, but she walked over to him and handed it back to him a second later.

"I've never seen anyone so young with so much raw power! I think you might be even stronger than me someday," Atalanta said. She seemed unable to decide whether she should be impressed or angry at him. Harry stood there nervously, but to his utter shock she put her arm around him and smiled broadly.

"Don't worry about a thing, little Wiggins, I'll keep the other Slytherins off your back. You stick with me, kid, and I'll teach you everything you need to know. It would be a waste not to learn how to use all that power of yours. I could use an ally like you."

"Ally, ally for what?" Harry asked in confusion. What was going on? What did Atalanta want from him?

"You can never have too many powerful friends, can you Wiggins?" Atalanta said with a glint in her eye. "Now get off to bed, you've had a long day."

That was certainly true, so Harry nervously bid Atalanta goodnight and climbed the stairs up to his dormitory. He entered as quietly as he could, but the other first year Slytherin boys seemed to be fast asleep. Harry changed as quietly as he could and got into bed. He did his best to fall asleep, but too many things had happened that evening for him to shut off his brain. Cassy had said that when classes started he would be _just like everyone else. _Harry didn't really understand much about what had happened that night, but there was one thing he did know. In this case, his sister was very, very wrong.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10 Start of Classes

When Harry awoke the next morning the dormitory was empty. He didn't feel much like moving, but his watch said it was already 11 o'clock. He never slept this late in the morning, but then again he had never had a day quite like the one he'd had the day before. With a sigh, he got ready to face the day... and the Slytherins that would no doubt fill it.

The common room was pretty empty when Harry descended down the stairs from the dormitory above; most of the people had probably gone down to breakfast. Sunlight was streaming in through the lake above, filling the room with a cheerier shade of green light. The common room was actually a really cool place; Harry would probably love it here if there weren't so many unpleasant people around.

As if on cue, Patrick Harper stood up from a nearby chair, flanked by three unpleasant looking Slytherin boys. Harry reached for his wand immediately, trying to not look as anxious as he felt. Was every day going to be like this?

"Easy there, half-breed," Patrick Harper said, giving Harry a smile so false that it just made the boy look hungry. Patrick's eyes were hard, but everything about him was relaxed. "I'm not here to pick a fight with Atalanta's new toy."

"What do you want?" Harry said impatiently. Being called _half-breed_ and _Atalanta's toy_ didn't sit well with him.

"Let's bury the hatchet, shall we? You just stay out of my way and I won't cause you any grief. Deal?" Patrick Harper said, putting out his hand.

Harry stared at the boy's hand, wondering what to do. He didn't like Harper one bit, but there was really no point in making the boy an enemy. It would be much smarter to just stay out of each other's way for four months and then leave him and everyone else in Slytherin behind. As satisfying as it would be to brush his offer off, it wasn't a very smart idea. Harry reached out hesitantly and shook hands with the older boy.

"I don't like you much, Wiggins, but you're not worth tangling with Atalanta over," Harper said in a conversational sort of way. "Plus, you're not so bad. You didn't rat me out to Mason, and for that I'm grateful." Harry just nodded and turned away, leaving Harper and the others behind. Why did he think that Harry hadn't ratted the boy out to Professor Mason when, in fact, he had done just that? He hoped Patrick never found out the truth, Harry would hate to think that he swallowed his pride and made peace with the bully for nothing.

"That was some good thinking, I half-expected you to refuse," said Samantha Crabbe unexpectedly. She was leaning against a nearby pillar, watching him causally. He hadn't seen her standing there, and he wasn't sure why she was talking to him. "I guess you're not as dumb as you look, Simba," she added.

"Simba, what kind of lame nickname is that for Harry?" J.B. said from a nearby chair, holding what looked like a blueberry muffin covered with ketchup. Harry looked around quickly, wondering if there were anyone else hidden nearby that he hadn't seen. That was it, though, there was no one else was in this part of the common room.

"He's a character from a muggle cartoon, a lion. His hair looks more like a mane if you ask me." Samantha said defensively, as if she didn't like people questioning her nicknames.

"Did anyone ask you?" J.B. asked innocently, taking a bite of his muffin.

"You know that's disgusting, don't you? Why can't you just finish eating in the Great Hall like everyone else?" Samantha asked, glaring at him threateningly. Harry wondered why J.B. wasn't terrified about pushing her buttons. Samantha might seem like a sweet little angel compared to Atalanta, but she was still scary enough.

"What did you mean when you said it was good thinking?" Harry said, directing his question at Samantha. Compared to the other Slytherins, these two didn't seem all that bad. He could at least talk to them without getting the urge to punch them.

"It's a smart strategy to pretend make peace with your enemies, at least the ones you cannot easily defeat," Samantha said, as if it were obvious. "It was pretty clear that neither of you meant what you said, but refusing his hand would have been pointless. It would have just given him an excuse to mess with you. Even so, there are plenty of idiots who would have refused to go along with the charade, claiming it was too dishonest or some such nonsense. You're more of a Slytherin than I would have expected."

She probably meant for the words to be a compliment, but Harry didn't take them as such. "You're wrong!" He muttered, walking past them and towards the exit of the common room without saying goodbye. Just as he reached the portrait hole, it swung open and Clytemnestra Lestrange entered, all alone. She looked at him for only a fraction of a second before dropping her eyes and hurrying past him without a word. Harry was a little sick of Slytherins at the moment, so he didn't give her another glance. Whatever her deal was, he found he didn't really care much about it today.

He spent the rest of the day half-exploring, half-hiding from everyone. He went to lunch as early as possible, grabbing two sandwiches and heading out to the grounds. He sat by the lake, watching various students playing and enjoying the good weather. He felt no desire to join any of them, instead he absorbed in his thoughts. _More of a Slytherin than I expected_, Samantha Crabbe had said... was that true? A scowling Harry threw stones into the lake for a while before deciding to go back inside and explore more of the castle.

By day's end he had wandered all around, from the dungeons to the top of the astronomy tower. He didn't know where everything was, not by any means, but he learned a thing or two about getting around. Hopefully that meant he wouldn't get too lost going to classes on Monday. As he made his way back to the Slytherin common room at the end of the day, he decided at last that Samantha had been wrong. It had simply been the rational, intelligent thing to do in that situation. Ravenclaw... he was meant to be in Ravenclaw. That was where he belonged.

Sunday passed in much the same way. He avoided everyone as much as possible, using only a few words if someone did speak to him. Harry passed Professor Dimock in the halls, and was unable to get away from her until he reassured her several times that he was doing "fine". He just wanted to get away from everyone, even Cassy, and so he went where no one would think to look for him. He spent the afternoon sitting on the ledge of the Astronomy Tower, gazing down across the grounds of Hogwarts Castle. He had way too many thoughts in his head, now his life was far more complicated now than it had ever been in his eleven years on this Earth. He looked down across Hogwarts, wondering how he should feel.

This place was just amazing as he imagined it would be, but it just wasn't quite right. Everything was all wrong for him, or at least not what he had expected or wanted. The Sorting Hat had placed him in Slytherin not once but twice. Why though, what was it that it had seen in him that made it place him here? Samantha had said she could see it too, did that mean that they were right? Was he truly different from Cassy, Rose, Albus, James, Annie, Shandra and all the others? He sighed and just gave up; this was way too big for him to understand. _There's no point to any of this, is there? I'm just thinking in circles over and over again._ He didn't have any answers, but he knew he just wanted to be alone. Naturally, that was when he heard footsteps.

"Oh, there you are," said Atalanta Selwyn, coming to stand beside the ledge he was sitting on. "See, you worry too much, Wiggins."

"Halo where have you been?" demanded Cassy angrily, "And get down from there this instant. You could fall and kill yourself!"

Harry was so shocked that the two of them had found him, and even more shocked that they had looked together, that he complied almost immediately. "Wha... sorry, sis. Um, what are you two doing here… together? A-are you guys friends?"

Atalanta and Cassy exchanged glances, and both turned away in a huff. "Friends? No way," Cassy said viciously, "I can't stand her to be honest, but we were both looking for you... so."

"I was looking for you, I'm not sure what this loser was doing," Atalanta said, crossing her arms.

"Oh I'm a loser am I, Selwyn? Is that why Slytherin loses every game of Quidditch it plays?"

"Oh. I didn't see you on a broom out there, Wiggins. Most likely you'd fall right off."

"Finn is gone, and I'm going to be the next Ravenclaw seeker. Just wait and see, Selwyn."

"I can't wait," Atalanta said sarcastically, "Hopefully your flying is better than your dueling. I'd hate to beat you that easily at everything."

"You want to settle this?" raged Cassy, whipping out her wand. Atalanta went to draw her own when Harry figured he'd better do something.

"Hey, whoa there, guys. Cool it, alright?" Harry said, stepping between them. Both girls folded their arm again and stared in opposite directions. Harry gazed at his sister in amazement, surprised by how she was acting. She loved to pick fights, sure, but this was a new level... even for her.

"Why were you looking for me?" He asked, resigned that he had to deal with these two at least.

"I was worried, Halo... I haven't seen you since Friday!" Cassy said reproachfully, and Harry started to feel a tad guilty.

"Sorry, Cass, I was just..."

"Don't coddle, him, Wiggins," Atalanta said with a wave of her hand, "He's stronger than he looks."

"Oh what do you know, Selwyn?"

"More than you, birdbrain!"

"Birdbrain? Why you ugly little snake-faced..."

"UGLY?" roared Atalanta, reaching for her wand again.

"Hey, cut it out, guys," Harry said, alarmed at the look on Atalanta's face. How was Cassy not terrified of her?

Both the girls stopped talking again, glaring at each other so furiously that Harry half-expected them to both burst into flames. "I guess we should go back down, huh? Classes start tomorrow."

"Yeah we should. So, um, it's almost dinner time, Halo," Cassy said tentatively. "You should really eat something."

Harry nodded half-heartedly, almost ashamed that she was so hesitant. When he was little he had thrown huge tantrums whenever Mother tried to get him to eat things. Most of the magic that he'd used as a kid had been during those times, including turning all the broccoli on his plate into pizza. Father had laughed his head off, but Mother had been furious and sent him straight to his room. Cassy probably didn't want him to throw a tantrum on her. That was unfair though, since he hadn't thrown a tantrum like that in... well... um... ok, it was only about a year. Still, a year was a long time, he was completely different now. Harry set off down the stairs, unaware for a moment that the girls weren't following him. He stopped suddenly, just out of sight, and heard Cassy say to Atalanta.

"I know we don't really get along, Atalanta, but would you please watch over him?"

"Of course, Cassy. Not that... I—I mean... I don't like you, but I would never let anything happen to your brother."

"Thank you," whispered Cassy, so softly that Harry could barely hear it.

"Shut up," Atalanta said, her voice extra aggressive, as if she was uncomfortable with the understanding they had just reached.

"Don't tell me to shut up, you stupid blonde... um... snake!"

"Oooo, snake, how original!"

"So, you guys coming?" Harry called up to them, pretending like he hadn't heard their exchange. Clearly these two loved fighting each other. That made, well, not friends exactly, but... something. Was this why Atalanta had really waited up for him that night... was this why she was protecting him? She couldn't actually want him as an ally, could she? After all, she was a fifth-year and he had just gotten here. No, this made a lot more sense. Harry had even more to think about as he and the girl walked to the Great Hall. School was a confusing place... and classes hadn't even started!

Harry bid Cassy goodbye as they passed the Ravenclaw table and went reluctantly over to the Slytherin table to have some dinner. He expected Atalanta to sit somewhere else, but she sat right across from him, glaring at the second-year girls sitting nearby.

"Leave," she said simply, eyes narrowed aggressively. The Slytherin girls didn't need to be told twice, scurrying away fearfully.

"Um, Atalanta, you didn't need to do that," Harry said uncomfortably.

Atalanta just shrugged, helping herself to a large chicken leg. "They might be spies for Violet or Patrick. Those two are always trying to have me followed, as if I would just give away my secrets."

"W-what?" Harry asked startled. She made it sound like a spy movie... just what sort of place was Slytherin?

"Don't worry about that for now," Atalanta said, waving her hand dismissively, "I have something important to ask you."

"Um, alright," Harry said, drinking a sip of pumpkin juice and grabbing a tiny loaf of bread. He wasn't very hungry.

"Why does your sister call you Halo?" demanded Atlanta aggressively, brandishing her fork at him. "What does it mean? I must know."  
>Harry stared at her, utterly confused. Was she really so intense all the time, even about silly little things like this? "Mean? It doesn't mean anything. It's just cause my middle name is Lawrence, and so she just combined my two names into Halo. It's just a nonsense name, um, and actually I don't like it all that mu..."<p>

"Good, good," Atalanta said absently, ignoring him. "I like that name, it suits you, Halo. Oh, and if anyone asks, I thought of it, not your sister." She added, eyes flashing.

"Oh, sure, whatever you want, Atalanta." Harry said meekly, nibbling his loaf of bread.

"Don't worry about your classes tomorrow, they'll be easy for someone as strong as you," Atalanta said. "But don't slack off, or you'll never reach your potential. That would be such a waste, for both of us."

So there it was again... but just what did she want from him? "Um, Atalanta..."

"Never mind that for now, just do your best," she said, cutting across him. "But don't come running to me for every little problem, you got that? You need to learn to stand on your own."

"Wha..."

"Oh, and one more thing... don't be so distant from everyone, it's foolish to act like you're better than your classmates, even if you are. It just breeds resentment."

"I..."

"Off you go, Halo, and don't worry too much. I'll be watching you, just in case."

"But..."

Atalanta's eyes flashed again, and Harry knew that his time with her was done. He was having a really hard time figuring her out, but this much he did know. If she said they were done, then they were done. He went back to the common room and avoided everyone, sitting in his dormitory and scanning his textbooks until he fell asleep. That night his dreams were all nightmares involving a long haired demon lady chasing him with a whip made of snakes. Quite honestly, though, the real Atalanta was probably scarier.

Monday morning came at last and Harry followed the other Slytherin first-years up through the dungeons to the Great Hall. Harry hadn't actually eaten breakfast there yet, and found that he was much hungrier than usually would be, probably due to the fact that he'd eaten almost nothing for several days. He helped himself to large portions of eggs, ham and toast and immediately began stuffing his face.

"So I wonder what our first class will be like," J.B. said excitedly. His plate was almost identical to Harry's, except that it was completely covered with ketchup.

"Liam says that Professor Evergreen dislikes Slytherins, and I bet it will be even worse since we are with the Gryffindors." Kevin said, watching J.B. eat with an expression of amazed revulsion.

"Wait, we have potions with the Gryffindors?" Harry asked, looking up suddenly. When had they gone over the schedule?

"Professor Mason went over the schedule last night," Courtney said. "Where were you, Half-breed?"

Scorpius and Kevin laughed at the nickname, but Samantha and J.B. didn't join in as Harry felt his ears turn red. Why did they have to be such jerks? Clytemnestra, who was sitting a little ways away, showed no reaction at all to their conversation... she was too busy buttering a piece of toast with a fork. She really was strange, but Harry figured he'd rather sit with her all day long than spend five minutes with Courtney. At least it would be quiet.

"Harry was probably just busy," J. with a casual shrug. "You didn't miss much, mate, you can copy my schedule later. We have double potions with the Gryffindors this morning, which is going to suck. Then it's Herbology and Charms in the afternoon, both with the Hufflepuffs."

"We always have classes with another House?" Harry asked, wishing he hadn't forgotten the meeting. What had he been thinking?

"Of course," Courtney said annoyingly, "cause otherwise the teachers would have far too many classes to teach. We have to make sure we beat whoever we have classes with, especially those Hufflepuffs. There aren't that many of us, so we all have to pull our weigh, you got that, Wiggins?"

"I don't think we need to worry about him, you saw what he did in the classroom," Kevin said with a dismissive wave of his hand. "She's the one I'm worried about, she can barely even talk." He indicated Clytemnestra Lestrange, who was still sitting all alone, nibbling her piece of toast. "I don't want her dragging us down."

To Harry's surprise, the others all nodded. He couldn't believe it, did they all care about winning that much? There wasn't even a formal contest between the two Houses in a class, at least not as far as he knew, but they all wanted to win anyways. Harry said nothing the rest of breakfast; following the others silently back to the dungeons where their potions class met.

There were a handful of large tables scattered around, and Harry decided to go to a completely separate table than the other Slytherins. They were really started to bother him, and he would much rather be alone. Clytemnestra went all the way to the back, but Harry stayed at a table near the front, both avoiding the other five Slytherins. The Gryffindors came all at once, and Harry saw that there were several more of them then there were Slytherins. They quickly grouped around the remaining tables, completely avoiding both his table and Clytemnestra's. Harry was completely shocked when Rose Weasley sat down beside him, placing her own cauldron right beside his. Albus joined them as well, but he looked pretty unsure about the whole thing.

"Hi, Harry, hope you had a good weekend," Rose said, as if nothing unusual had happened the past few days. "How's being in Slytherin?"

"Uh, pretty lousy to be honest," Harry said quietly, so the other Slytherins wouldn't hear him. He didn't need them disliking him anymore.

"Told you he would say that," Rose said to Albus, who looked slightly more comfortable. "James has been saying all sort of nonsense, as if there were something wrong with you," Rose said, shaking her head angrily. "That boy's brain is so full of dung sometimes."

Harry stared at Rose in wonder, unable to believe that she still wanted to be friends with him. He had been sure that she and all the other Gryffindors would hate him for where he was Sorted, Had he had been wrong after all? As Professor Evergreen entered and called the class to order, Harry felt better than he had in days.

"Today you will begin your study of potions," Professor Evergreen said in a friendly tone. "It is not an easy subject, full of nuance and subtlety that many find hard to master. However, you can all rest assured that I will guide you as best I can, and I have confidence that most of you have what it takes to be excellent potioneers." He paused for a moment before continuing in a harder tone. "A word of warning; carelessness will not be tolerated in this classroom, neither will malicious pranks. Potions can be very dangerous if brewed incorrectly, and anyone found intentionally messing around with anyone else's potion will leave and never return." His eyes lingered on the Slytherin table. "Now, let us begin. When I call your name, please indicate that you are here. Haley Azure?"

"Here," said a thin Gryffindor girl with short brown hair.

Professor Evergreen proceeded to call the rest of the names, but Harry didn't pay any attention. His own would be called last, so he didn't have to worry about missing it. He glanced at the Slytherin table, all of whom looked slightly sulky that the Professor had called them out like that. Harry understood why Evergreen might feel a special need to warn them, but it wasn't really fair, was it? Sure, the House had a bad reputation, but none of them had done anything to warrant such suspicion. Aside from Kevin and maybe Courtney, he couldn't picture any of the Slytherins trying to hurt anyone else for a laugh. They were all just kids after all.

"Clytemnestra Lestrange?" Called Professor Evergreen, his voice completely neutral.

"H-here," came the quiet response from the back.

The Gryffindors immediately began muttering to each other, and Rose stared at the girl intently, her curiosity unmistakable.

"Settle down, everyone," Professor Evergreen ordered, his own eyes watching Clytemnestra with great interest. "You can't sit back there all alone, Miss Lestrange," he said. "Why don't you come join Mr. Wiggins, Ms. Weasley and Mr. Potter up here?"

The entire class watched as Clytemnestra gathered her things and moved over to Harry's table, sitting opposite him. She didn't look at any of them, but Harry saw that she was once again shaking slightly. What did she have to be afraid of here? He was thinking so intently that he almost missed the Professor call his name... actually he would have if Rose hadn't elbowed him to get his attention. Harry shook his head to clear it and listened as the Professor began to speak.

"Alright everyone, please copy this down," Professor Evergreen said cheerfully waving his wand at the blackboard when he was finished calling roll. "After that you'll get right down to brewing a potion that turns your tongue blue. It's a silly little potion of my own invention. It's not very useful, but it's simple and a good introduction on how to brew correctly. And if any of you do manage to make it correctly, at the end of class you'll each get to nominate someone in the class who has to drink it."

Harry glanced at Rose, who smiled wickedly at him. With a sigh, Harry began copying down the recipe, knowing without a doubt that his tongue was going to be blue for the rest of the day. He scribbled down the instructions with fierce determination. If she was going to get him, then he was going to get her back.

The class was actually a lot of fun. Harry and Rose had a bit of a race about who could chop their gillyroot leaves faster. They had to be exact triangles, and when they were mixed with powdered cobalt it formed the basis of the potion. Even Albus joined in cheerfully, and Harry was having so much fun that he didn't notice at first that Clytemnestra was shaking worse than ever, staring at the leaves in front of her without moving to cut them.

"Hey, you ok?" Harry asked, almost without meaning to. She still made him feel uncomfortable, but he just hated to see her, or anyone really, looking like that.

"I-I'm fine," Clytemnestra replied in a quiet voice, but she made no move to continue making her potion. "I just... I don't like knives."

Harry exchanged glances with Rose, whose curiosity was so strong he could almost feel it. Harry didn't think, instead he instinctively reached out and exchanged her uncut leaves of his own perfect ones. There was no reason behind it, at least nothing he could consciously understand. He just hated it when people looked sad. It had nothing special to do with this strange, silent girl who everyone was a bit afraid of. Nothing at all.

"Thank you," Clytenmestra said, staring at him with her sparkling blue eyes.

Harry didn't respond, instead he just began chopping up the leaves. Rose's eyes went back and forth between the two of them, clearly thinking hard. "Um, Clytemnestra, I... I had a question, if that's ok?" Rose said hesitantly.

Clytemnestra said nothing, but nodded subtly. Albus stared at his cousin, his mouth slightly open, clearly amazed that she had the courage to talk to the girl. Harry had no idea what sort of things the Gryffindor first-years had been saying to each other about her, but they probably all thought that she was some sort of monster.

"Is, er, are you the daughter of Bellatrix Lestrange?" Rose said, her eyes wide as if she was amazed with herself for asking such a direct question.

Clytemnestra dropped her head suddenly, offering no reply. "Sorry, I didn't mean-" Rose said nervously.

"Yes," replied Clytemnestra at last, "Yes, she is my mother."

"How is that possible?" Rose said in wonder. Clytemnestra again gave no response, and instead began grinding up her cobalt, her hands shaking.

"Sorry," muttered Rose. She looked half-ashamed at her curiosity, "I, erm, guess you don't like to talk about it, do you?"

"If she were your mother, would you want to talk about it?" Clytemnestra replied in a faint whisper. No one had any response to that, and they worked the rest of the class in silence.


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11 How to Make Gold

Harry and Rose were the last ones to leave Potions class, both sporting brilliant blue tongues that they had given one another. There was no rush; the others had said that first-years didn't have any classes on Monday until after lunch. Harry wasn't that hungry since he had actually eaten breakfast that day, so instead of going back to the Slytherin common room (where he had no desire to be), he suggested to Rose that they go outside. She nodded distractedly and was silent as Harry led her to this favourite little hill that overlooked the lake. It was funny to think that he already had a _favourite spot, _since he had been here for all of four days. Hogwarts really was a special place. Harry could have been happy just sitting in the sun and staring out across the lake, but Rose was so preoccupied that it was distracting.

"Whachya thinking about?" Harry said at last, mostly because he was tired of being ignored. He most likely wouldn't be all that interested in whatever was eating her up. Rose was a lot like his sister in some ways; both were obsessed with getting to the bottom of every mystery they came across. Harry, on the other hand, could rarely muster the energy to care that much.

"I can't figure it out," Rose said, biting her lip. Her blue tongue was just visible between her teeth, and it made her look like she was suffering from some terrible disease.

"Well, I'm glad you cleared that up," Harry sighed, looking out across the lake again. Let her worry away to his heart's content. He was going to enjoy the sunshine.

"What?" Rose asked, not really listening to him. "No, it's just I can't figure out why she would lie."

"Lie... what do you mean?"

"Don't tell me you believe that girl is actually the daughter of Bellatrix Lestrange?" Rose said in disbelief.

"W-well, why not?" Harry said defensively. He had no reason not to take Clytemnestra's word for it, and his first instinct had been to believe her.

"Harry," Rose said, shaking her head in patient bemusement, as if he were being incredibly foolish. "Bellatrix Lestrange was killed nineteen years ago at the Battle of Hogwarts. That girl is only eleven years old. You see the problem there, don't you?"

"Of course I do," Harry snapped, mostly because he felt stupid that he had realized no such thing. "It's just... well… she didn't sound like she was lying, did it?"

"No," agreed Rose, "No it didn't."

"Could it be that Bellatrix wasn't actually killed?" Harry asked hesitantly, trying to remember the stories that Cassy and Uncle Terry had told him of Battle of Hogwarts. Of the two of them, Uncle Terry's accounts were much more memorable and far less reliable, despite the fact that he had actually been there. Harry's uncle tended to... add things. He doubted, for instance, that Harry Potter and his companions had really flown to the battle on a dragon. That was simply ridiculous; where would they have even gotten a dragon?

"No, she was killed," Rose said quietly. "People don't really talk about it much, but it was Grandma Weasley who killed her in the end. I heard her talk about it once when I was supposed to be asleep upstairs. She definitely did it."

"Then... then I don't know," Harry said lamely, trying to think. Why would Clytemnestra think that she was the daughter of someone who died before she was born? That made no sense.

"All righ', Rosie?" Came the booming voice of Hagrid, who was walking past with two dozen logs in his massive arms. "How's yer firs' day goin'?"

"Hello, Hagrid," Rose said distractedly. Suddenly her eyes widened as she turned excitedly to peer up at the big groundskeeper. "Say, Hagrid, you're a Professor, and a pretty important person around here, right?" "Oh I don' know abou' all tha'," Hagrid said, trying (and failing) to sound modest. "Course I am a senior Professor, mind you."

"Then you must know about the Lestrange girl!" Rose said eagerly.

"Well now," Hagrid said in an unconvincingly airy tone, "What makes you say tha'?" They both stared at him without comment, and after a moment Hagrid scowled. "Yer as nosy as those parents of yers. The trouble they gave me when they were here... don' even get me started on tha'." Hagrid continued to scowl furiously, but there was simply no way to say no to Rose's eager smile. "Hmph. As a matter o' fact, all ther professors were told about her, but it'll do you no good askin', I won' tell yeh... so don' even try it."

"But..." protested Rose

"So who's yer young friend?" Hagrid said, clearly changing the subject. "Tha's quite a mane of hair yer got there, lad."

"I'm Harry, Harry Wiggins," Harry said nervously. If Professor Hagrid really was a senior Professor, had he also already heard about Harry? Did he already not trust him like James Potter and who knows how many others?

"Are yeh now?" Hagrid said neutrally, studying him. Hagrid wasn't particularly scary, but he was still a huge man. Harry swallowed nervously.

"I had your sister Cassandra in my class this mornin', she's a good egg," Hagrid said, which Harry thought was encouraging. "Why don't the two of yeh come 'round fer tea on Friday, an' bring those Potter cousins of yers if yeh can. Some of yer cousins visit from time to time, Rosie, but ever since Teddy Lupin graduated no one visits regularly."

"Will you tell us about the Lestrange girl if we come?" Rose asked, merciless in her curiosity.

"I most certainly won'," Hagrid growled, brandishing a log at them in a scolding sort of way. "Now get goin' to lunch or yeh'll be late on yer firs' day."

"Alright," Rose said brightly, "see you Friday, Hagrid!" The sparkle in her eyes left no doubt in Harry's mind that she wouldn't leave Hagrid's without her answers.

Rose looked positively cheerful as she and Harry made their way back up to the Castle. Harry was less optimistic that Hagrid was going to actually tell them anything, but he thought it was best not to tell her so. She was much better company when she wasn't obsessing.

"So what do you have this afternoon? We have History of Magic and then Herbology with the Ravenclaws," Rose said. She seemed way too interested in her classes.

"Herbology and then Charms, both with the Hufflepuffs," Harry said without much enthusiasm.

Rose nodded and said, "Makes sense, since if both your classes are with the Hufflepuffs ours would be with the Ravenclaws. Nev—I mean... Professor Longbottom teaches Herbology and he's an old friend of my parents. He's really nice to everyone."

"No way, Neville Longbottom teaches at Hogwarts?" Harry said, completely stunned. His sister had never mentioned that! He had never imagined that she would leave out so many things. "Did he really kill Voldemort's snake with the Sword of Gryffindor?"

"Sure, he loves to tell that story," Rose said with a laugh, "You'll see, that class will be a blast."

They went to lunch, and as they passed the Gryffindor table Rose cheerfully said goodbye to him. Harry sat all alone at the end of the Slytherin table, glancing at the food without much interest. Food didn't interest him, but the afternoon he had ahead of him certainly did. He could never remember being more excited for a class in his whole life. That was no surprise, really, since South London International Grade School didn't have a class on magical plants taught by one of his personal heroes. If it had, well, then he might have been just as excited to go to school then too.

Harry went down to greenhouse one alone, since none of the other first-year Slytherins seemed to be around. As he entered the greenhouse, the distinctive smell of growing things filled his nostrils and put him at ease. It reminded him of his grandparent's house in the country that he had often visited when he was younger. A few years back Grandma Boot had shown him all her favourite herbs and plants from her garden as well as her collection of giant pumpkins. Harry had loved visiting that cottage, just to get a sense of what living surrounded by magic was really like. He had never realized how much he associated the smell of growing things with the feeling of magic. Now both life and magic were all around; both completely surrounded him. _I'm really here, _Harry thought to himself as he walked through the greenhouse, _I'm really at Hogwarts... this class is going to be great! _

The Hufflepuffs were already there, clustered five to a table around two four-person tables. That took some of the wind out of Harry's sails as he quietly made his way over one of the other empty tables. Were they really so afraid of being stuck with a Slytherin that they all crowded together for safety? He didn't recognize any of the Hufflepuffs except for Sora, who he had sat with on the boat ride over from Hogsmede station. Sora didn't look over at him, and Harry tried not to feel hurt. Look, he didn't expect a friendly wave or anything like that, but he had really liked the kid when they had met briefly. How many people were going to hate him for where he'd been sorted? _James... Sora... the list is getting longer,_ Harry thought to himself sadly, sitting all alone on a long bench that was half covered in dirt.

Samantha Crabbe came in next. She glared dismissively at the Hufflepuffs crowding around their table before sitting down beside Harry. "Damn, Simba, they look like we're going to attack them," she said, gesturing angrily at the Hufflepuffs. Harry was feeling pretty lousy by this point, and made no response.

"Careful," Samantha said loudly to a little Hufflepuff boy who was looking at them nervously, "He likes to bite people, I can't always control him." She made a big show of grabbing Harry's shoulder as if to restrain him. The boy's eyes widened in terror, but it seemed as if the boy couldn't look away. Without warning, Samantha snapped her teeth at the boy, and he looked away so quickly that he stumbled backwards. Harry shrugged Samantha off of him and glared at her. What was she thinking, going after the kid like that? Sure, it was annoying the way complete strangers were looking at them, but that was no excuse for...

"You think it's funny to torment someone for no reason?" Sora asked quietly, emerging from behind the table to stand across from Samantha. "It seems like all the things that people say about the House of Slytherin is true."

"No, it's not..." Harry started to say, but no one seemed to be listening to him. Samantha stood up too, moving to stand face to face with Sora. She was a few inches tall than he was, but Sora didn't look the least bit afraid.

"It's funny, isn't it... How everything ends up being our fault," Samantha said quietly. "The moment I walked in this class all you little Puffs were wetting yourselves because the big, scary Slytherins had arrived. What choice did I have? You've all decided you know everything about me."

"Everyone is responsible for their own actions," Sora said, not backing down an inch. "If you are not what people say you are, you just have to show them."

"But why should I have to?" whispered Samantha so quietly that no one except Sora and Harry who was sitting nearby heard her. She sounded hurt, almost vulnerable... something Harry would never have expected from her.

"We all do, that is just the way of the world. You are not the only one with things to prove," Sora said, holding her eyes. No one spoke as the seconds dragged on; every eye in the classroom was on the two of them.

"I'm sorry," Samantha said at last, turning to face the Hufflepuff boy who dropped his eyes the moment she turned to face him. "I shouldn't have gone at you like that." The boy just stared at her blankly. He looked more confused than anything else.

"And you," Samantha said, turning back to glare at Sora, "keep your lessons to yourself... and stay the hell out of my way." She bumped her shoulder into him as she walked past him, returning to sit beside Harry. Sora said nothing, but glanced over at Harry, nodded to him in recognition, and also returned to his seat.

"What an annoying git," Samantha muttered to Harry, gesturing at Sora as the other Slytherins (minus Clytemnestra) entered and sat together at the table across from them. Harry shrugged noncommittally. He would never have had the courage to say something like that to her, even though he had been thinking many of the same things. Sora was really something.

Professor Longbottom came bustling in moments later, saying "Sorry I'm late, everyone!" He had a round, bearded face and a cheerful manner. He bustled around a bit, setting a few pieces of paper and a shiny little plant down on his desk before turning back to face them all. "Lost track of time and then forgot where I put my roster. I never did find that, actually," the Professor said, frowning at himself. "Well than, why don't you all go around the room and introduce yourselves. Why don't you start, miss?" Professor Longbottom said, gesturing to Samantha.

"Oh, I..." Samantha said, taken a bit by surprise. It was funny to see her flustered; she looked much nicer when she wasn't scowling at everything. "My name is Samantha Crabbe."

Professor Longbottom looked at her curiously. Some of his early good cheer seemed to have evaporated. "I don't remember seeing that name on my roster this morning..."

"Well, it probably said Samantha F-Fisher," she said quietly, her hands curling themselves into fists under the table where only Harry could see them. "But I ha— um, don't prefer that name... so please call me Crabbe... Professor."

"Alright, Ms. Crabbe," Professor Longbottom said, nodding kindly, "How about you, young man."

"Harry Wiggins, sir," Harry said self-consciously. Why was it that he was always so nervous when everybody was looking at him?

And so they went around the room, everyone introducing themselves. The Hufflepuffs were named Amber Fortescue, Tammy Twiddle, Curtis Nash, Otto McLaggen and so on. Harry tried his best to keep their names straight, but it was too many people introduced too quickly. The little boy that Samantha had scared was named Harry Warren... that one he could remember. He always felt a bond of sorts with the other Harrys of the world, as if the name they shared connected them somehow. He tried to catch Harry Warren's eye, but the boy was too nervous to look in his direction. _That special connection stuff is probably just wishful thinking,_ Harry thought with a sigh.

About halfway through Harry noticed that Clytemnestra still hadn't shown up. Where was she? Had something happened to her? He wasn't scared for her, of course, but it was strange that she would go missing. Bunking off on the first day didn't bode well.

They'd finished introducing themselves and Professor Longbottom had begun his introductory lecture on Herbology and the study of magic plants when Professor Mason entered, followed by Clytemnestra Lestrange, who looked as if she were trying to hide behind her long black hair.

"Sorry to disturb, Professor Longbottom, but I happened upon a missing student of yours," Professor Mason said casually.

"Oh?" Professor Longbottom said, regarding the girl curiously, "and who might you be?"

They three of them were standing right in front of the table where Harry and Samantha were sitting, and when Clytemnestra raised her head Harry got a good look at her face. She looked haunted, her eyes utterly dark... just like she had in the Great Hall as she had passed him after being sorted into Slytherin. It looked like she was wearing a mask, and in a toneless voice she said, "My name is Clytemnestra Lestrange. I'm sorry that I'm late."

Professor Longbottom didn't say anything as Clytemnestra moved past him and sat down at the table with Harry and Samantha, but the lines on his face grew hard. His mouth arranged itself in a frown and Harry could see the faint outline of an old scar, just below the Professor's left eye.

"Neville..." Professor Mason said very quietly, his tone as full of concern as Harry had ever heard it. "Thank you for bringing my missing student, Orpheus, but if you would please excuse yourself, I have a class to teach," Professor Longbottom said in a firm voice. "Be sure to arrive on time in the future Miss... Miss, or I will be forced to give you detention," Professor Longbottom said, seemingly unable to look at Clytemnestra or say her name.

Professor Mason nodded and turned to leave, give Professor Longbottom a pat on the shoulder as passed him. Harry couldn't figure out what was going on, but everyone seemed to be a bit on edge. Professor Longbottom continued his lecture on Herbology for a few minutes. He seemed distracted and far less cheerful than he had been at the beginning of class. After he was done he said, "The best way to learn, of course, is to just dive right in. Why don't we get started growing some Indonesian Gold Lettuce?"

"Indonesian what?" Harry Warren said from one of the Hufflepuff tables, eyes as wide as saucers.

"Indonesian Gold Lettuce, Harry, is a rare plant native to one of the many uninhabited, unnamed islands in the archipelago nation of Indonesia. A friend of mine discovered the plant by accident when she was traveling the world in search of Nargle colonies," Professor Longbottom said, smiling fondly. Harry exchanged glanced with Samantha and was relieved to see the words didn't mean anything to her either. "It is extremely poisonous if eaten, so make sure none of you put any in your mouth by mistake."

"So if it's poisonous, why are we growing it?" Scorpius asked in a rather rude tone.

"Good question, Malfoy," Professor Longbottom said, giving Scorpius an odd look that Harry didn't really understand. "Because when flubberworms eat this lettuce it leaves behind two things, mucous and powdered gold dust."

"No way," Courtney whispered, her horse-face flushed with excitement.

"Yes way," Professor Longbottom said with a smile. "So let's all get started."

The other students were as excited as Harry had ever seen them, listening closely as Professor Longbottom instructed them on the proper way to care for the strange golden plant he had brought with him. He handed out plants to each table, but Harry's table didn't get one.

"I have a special task that I need doing, if you don't mind," Professor Longbottom said after the other tables had got down to work. His voice seemed rather strained, and he had a big box in his hands that Harry couldn't see inside.

"These are flubberworms," the Professor said, placing the box down in front of them. It was full of maybe a hundred disgusting little worm things wriggling all over each other. "I need someone to make sure that they are all alive and healthy. You three don't mind doing it, do you?" Professor Longbottom was clearly refusing to look at Clytemnestra, although he seemed to be talking only to her.

"Um, wait a second..." Samantha started to say, staring at the box of flubberworms in front of her in horror.

"I don't mind," Clytemnestra said quietly, her dead eyes watching the worms squirm. Professor Longbottom nodded uncomfortably and walked away. Harry thought that he looked very troubled... almost guilty. _Well he should!_ Harry thought as he watched the Professor walk over to one of the Hufflepuff tables, _why were they being singled out like this?_ Harry gulped and turned to look at the mass of flubberworms before him. Samantha was muttering furiously to herself as she reached into her bag to get her protective gloves while Clytemnestra calmly reached into the box and grabbed a slimy handful of flubberworms. _She must have something to do with this, it was almost as if she were being punished for something, _Harry thought. _Whatever it is, she doesn't seem to think it's unfair. Does that mean that she really is...? No, it doesn't matter now. I need to think about this later. _Harry shook his head to clear it.

"You look like an idiot when you shake your head like that, Simba," Samantha said rudely, grimacing as she put her hand into the box. "Now hurry up and help me get this over with. I never agreed to help the voiceless princess with her issues." She glared at Clytemnestra, who said nothing; her face a perfect masks as she calmly focused all her attention on the flubberworms.

Harry sighed and pulled his own gloves out of his bag. This was not at all how he had expected the class to go.


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12 Sides

Charms class was beyond boring, mostly because they didn't use even a little bit of magic. Sure, Professor Dimock was nice, happy, and cheerful... but Harry was in no mood to appreciate that sort of thing. He was bored and unbelievably sticky while waiting for her to finish her stupid lecture. Before that Herbology class, Harry had never given much thought to how uncomfortably sticky someone could get in a single hour. Oh, and apparently, wearing gloves didn't do a damn thing to help except keep his hands a tiny bit less sticky than the rest of him.

Samantha was in a foul mood too and sat as far away from the others as the little classroom would allow her to. Harry didn't really blame her, since even he was having a hard time resisting the urge to glare at Clytemnestra. He knew it wasn't her fault, not really, but it was hard not to feel resentful. The other Slytherins didn't help; they seemed to find the whole situation hilarious. He was sticky... it was Clytemnestra's fault... this class is boring. Charms class was spent pondering innumerable meaningful thoughts like these.

Harry practically sprinted back to the Slytherin common room at the end of class. Other people might be getting ready to go outside, maybe enjoy the end of their first day of classes. But not Harry... Harry needed to shower and change. Hurray for flubberworm slime.

"Serpensortia," Harry muttered dully to the portrait of the sleeping Professor Slughorn, who naturally didn't wake up. Harry couldn't help but sigh. The day had started out so well, but had really gone downhill from there. He didn't want to tap on the portrait to wake the Professor up, because that would get it all sticky. Should he yell to get the portrait's attention, or was that rude? Before he could make up his mind about what to do, the portrait swung open from the inside and a number of older students filed out, talking loudly to each other.

"-seen her face when Amelia hit her with it," a tall black girl who Harry didn't know was cheerfully telling Patrick Harper. "That purple mustache won't fade in a hurry."

"Serves her right, the insufferable hag," said another girl with tangled brown hair muttered to Atalanta, who was the last one out of the portrait hole. "Ooo, look at me, I'm sooo talented and pretty," the girl continued in a shrill, sing-song interpretation of someone. "All the boys drool over my perfect blonde hair. But really it's just because I'm a giant sl-"

"Halo, what happened to you?" Atalanta said, cutting the other girl off. The other upperclassman clustered around him, their staring making him feel uncomfortable.

"Was it one of those damn Gryffs?" the girl with tangled hair asked, eyes narrowed angrily.

"What? No, this is just from Herbology." Harry said slightly confused. Why had they thought this had been the work of Gryffindors? They would never do something like this to him.

"What the hell did Big Bottom have you doing in Herbology?" Patrick Harper asked, exchanging silent looks with Atalanta.

Harry hesitated, not really sure what to say. He didn't know or trust any of these Slytherins, except maybe Atlanta. Honestly he didn't even trust her, mostly because he could never figure out what she wanted from him. But he couldn't think of any reason not to tell them what's happened, so he did.

"What is Big Bottom thinking, going after our first-years like that?" The tall girl said, while the other muttered in agreement.

"We won't let them get away with this, Udoh," Patrick said, "People needed to be reminded that they can't walk all over our first-years. Good thing out next class is Herbology, right mates?" The Slytherins nodded firmly; all except for Atalanta, who looked especially thoughtful.

"What are you talking about?" Harry said before he could stop himself, "You're the one who tried to haze us."

"That's different," Harper said with a dismissive wave of his hand, "We have to make sure our fellow Slytherins are up to snuff. But that doesn't mean it's ok for anyone else to have a go at you."

Harry didn't think that logic made a whole lot of sense, but he figured he should probably stay quiet before he got himself back on Harper's bad side.

"So this is the Wiggins kid, huh?" One of the other boys said. "I swear they make first-years teenier every year. Name's Florian Smith, by the way. I'd shake your hand, but it's a bit stick for my taste. You aren't offended, are you, little bugger?"

"Shut it, Florian, you're being more annoying that unusual," The tall girl said, smiling broadly at Harry. "My name's Destiny Udoh, it's nice to meet you."

"He's adorable, isn't he?" said the girl with tangled hair. "Oh, I'm Amelia Runcorn by the way." She ruffled his hair, which made him feel a little uncomfortable. She was being perfectly friendly to him, but he could tell from earlier that Amelia had a bit of a mean streak. "Don't worry, Halo," Amelia continued. "Just like Harper said, we won't let them get away with what they did to you. You don't mind if I call you Halo, do you, sweetie?"

"Uh…"

"Good," Amelia said happily, absentmindedly running her fingers through her thicket of hair. "It's such a good nickname, Lanti."

"Isn't it?" Atlanta said, looking incredibly pleased with herself. He had never seen anyone so pleased with one-upping someone in such a pointless way. That girl really was obsessed with winning. "But enough dallying, we should get to Herbology," commanded Atlanta. "We wouldn't want to get in trouble for being late, would we?"

There was something about the way she said that last part that made Harry uncomfortable. The other Slytherins laughed as if she had just told a good joke and did exactly as she said. Everyone, that is, except Patrick Harper, who glared at her for a moment before following the others down the hall. Harry just couldn't figure out what was going one, but he was nervous about one thing. "Atalanta," he said as she turned to go, "you aren't going make trouble, are you? It wasn't a big deal, really. I don't want anyone else to..."

"It's not about you, Halo," Atalanta said, cutting him off. She sure did that a lot. "It's about our pride. The students from the other houses, even the teachers sometimes, go after us because of what other Slytherins did decades ago. It doesn't matter one bit to anyone that none of us are or ever were Death Eaters, we're all guilty by association. It's worse for some of us, depending on the names we were born with." She lapsed into silence, staring at the wall behind Harry's head. "But of course," she continued in a somewhat lighter tone, "the fact that Longbottom went after you, of all people, makes it personal. I told the other Slytherins what would happen if they went after my Halo. I'm not backing down now."

"But..."

Nothing doing, she was already gone, following the other Slytherins down the hall without another word. "Well, are you coming in or not? It's exhausting, you know, hanging open like this," came the wounded voice of Professor Slughorn. Harry silently went inside the common room, trying not to worry too much. Atalanta and the others would really hurt anyone over something stupid like this, would they? Sure, he'd complained a bunch about what had happened, but that didn't mean he wanted revenge. Harry took a nice long shower and tried to forget all about it.

It wasn't until the following morning that Harry learned what they had done. He joined his fellow Slytherins for breakfast right in the middle of morning owl mail delivery. Therefore, Harry was a little too distracted to listen to what the others were saying at first.

"Hey, are you listening to me?" Samantha said, reaching out to grab his arm.

"I-what?" Harry said, jumping slightly.

"What the hell's wrong with you?" Kevin asked, eying him with his standard unfriendly look.

"N-nothing. Sorry, what were you saying?"

"He's afraid of owls," Scorpius said, his expression positively gleeful. Scorpius got so much grief from the others for being afraid of various things that he looked extremely pleased that someone else was going to get teased instead of him. Most of the time, Harry actually felt rather bad for the little boy. Now was not one of those times.

"I'm not _afraid_ of them, it's just..." he muttered, fading into silence. It was no use… clearly no one believed him. Courtney's eyes sparkled with evil delight, as if she had gotten an early birthday present. Thankfully, though, Harry's embarrassing phobia was not the juiciest news topic of the morning.

"Whatever, scaredy cat," Samantha said, refusing to be distracted from her story for longer than it took to hand out an embarrassing nickname, "Did you hear what Selwyn and the other Slytherin fifth-years did?" Harry shook his head, having heard nothing of the kind. None of his fellow Slytherins went out of their way to tell him much of anything. Actually J.B. wasn't so bad. At least he had let Harry copy down the semester's schedule. Still, it wasn't good when your biggest ally was busy adding ketchup to his oatmeal.

"So it turns out that Atalanta and the others heard what Big Bottom did to you guys and decided they wouldn't stand for it," Courtney said with a twisted grin on her long, horsey face. Samantha glared at the girl, clearly upset that Courtney had hijacked her story.

"Fine, whatever... you tell it, Crabbe," Courtney muttered mutinously, backing down beneath the heat of Samantha's angry stare.

"I will," Samantha said waspishly. "So anyways, when they had their Herbology class in the afternoon after we were already done for the day they all just stood there, refusing to take part in the lesson to protest what he made us do yesterday. I heard every one of them got detention, but none of them complained. Can you believe they would stand up for us first-years like that?"

"I heard Atalanta Selwyn said that no professors had the right to pick on students just for being who they are," Scorpius said, shaking his head in admiration. It was curious who the other Slytherin first-years were completely on their side now after laughing their heads off about it yesterday.

Harry stayed quiet, nibbling a bit of food only because Samantha forced him to. Quite honestly, he didn't really understand what was going on. Since when had Slytherin House been the champions of equality? That was utterly ridiculous coming from a house whose core beliefs held that some wizards were inherently better than others. Then again, it did seem wrong for other people to treat the Slytherins differently just because of where they were sorted. Did that mean that everyone was in the wrong? Boy was that a depressing thought. Plus, of all the things that the fifth-year Slytherins could have done, silently refusing to participate in a class wasn't all that sinister. In fact, Harry was rather touched that they would fight for him.

The morning consisted of three fairly uninteresting classes. First was Theory of Magic, which was nothing but a lot of writing with no real, actual magic being used. After that they had another Charms class with the Hufflepuffs in which they again took notes instead of using magic. It wasn't quite as bad as it had been the day before when he was covered with flubberworm slime, but it was every bit as boring. "Keep up those spirits," Professor Dimock said cheerfully as they shuffled out at the end of class. "We'll start practicing some of the simpler charms by the end of the week!"

The last class before lunch was Transfiguration. The Slytherins had this class with the Ravenclaws, just like Theory of Magic. Harry hadn't actually gotten a chance to look at the Ravenclaw first-years very closely during Theory, mostly because they had to do so much writing. They were a serious looking group, but they didn't seem to treat the Slytherins the way the Hufflepuffs had. Still, the Ravenclaws stayed on their side of the room and Harry and the other Slytherins stayed on their side.

"Everybody stand up, if you please," Professor Mason said as he strode into the room, closing the door behind him with a flick of his wand. "For this class you will have assigned seats."

The students exchanged surprised looks. What was this rubbish about assigned seats? They were eleven-years-old for goodness sakes, not a bunch of children! No one looked more upset than Clytemnestra, who looked as if she did not at all fancy the idea of being forced to sit beside new, strange people.

"Clytemnestra Lestrange... Miss Lestrange right up here, please," Professor Mason said, putting her right in the front. "Then Mister Wiggins, next to her. Miss Vulcan after that, then Mister Vieri, followed by Mister Malfoy, and then... let's see here..."

Harry did as he was told, sitting right up in the front next to Clytemnestra. They were clearly being seated in such a way as to mix up the houses. Every Slytherin had to sit beside at least one Ravenclaw... everyone, that is, except Clytemnestra. She glanced at Harry briefly as he sat down next to her and he was surprised at how relieved she looked that he was the one sitting next to her. That didn't make any sense, what had he ever done to put her at ease? He'd never really gone out of his way for her. Well, maybe when Harper and Reese had tried to haze them, but that had just been because he was afraid that something bad might happen if they attacked her. He had never actually tried to be friends with the girl or anything like that. The more he thought about the look she had given him, the guiltier he felt. He didn't deserve it.

In the end Transfiguration was just as boring as the classes before it. Professor Mason explained that they would require quite a bit of note-taking and hours practice before they could hope to transfigure anything successful. "But," he said with a mysterious smile, "if you stick with it, there is nothing you cannot do." With a wave of his wand, the desk behind him turned into a small dragon, which flew around the classroom a few times before turning back into a desk with another wave of Professor Mason's wand. "Class dismissed."

"I hope someone lets us use magic soon," J.B. muttered after they were finished with lunch and hurrying off to their next class, "I swear my hand is about to fall off from writing so much."

"Fat chance that baldy lets us use magic in our first Data class," Kevin said with a sigh.

"Data class?" Harry asked, confused. What was he talking about?

"Not Data, Scaredy Cat, DatDA" Courtney said, spelling out the letters and shaking her head at his stupidity. "You can say Defense Against the Dark Arts every time if you want to, but people who aren't idiots just call it Data."

"Don't you ever shut up?" Harry snapped. Normally he was able to keep control of his temper, but Horsy had made one comment too many.

Before Courtney could respond, they came upon the Gryffindors gathered outside the classroom. Instantly the hallway became silent, with each side glaring at the other with dislike.

"Harry," Rose said, coming to stand beside him, a strained look on her face. "What happened yesterday? People are saying you're the reason those Slytherins disrespected Uncle Neville like that. Plus, yesterday someone cursed my cousin Dominique with a purple mustache that won't stop growing."

"I had nothing to do with it," Harry said, a little upset that she would even ask him that. He felt a little bit guilty that Amelia had cursed her cousin like that, but he's had nothing to do with that either. "Anyways, I told them not to cause trouble but they didn't listen to me. Still, none of that would have happened if Professor Longbottom hadn't made Samantha, Clytemnestra and me sort through flubberworm slime for a whole class."

"Why would he make you do that?" Rose asked, surprised.

"I don't know," Harry said, which wasn't entirely true. He knew it had something to do with Clytemnestra, but he had no idea what. He could tell Rose about it later, but right now there were far too many people around. "Maybe he..."

"The bloke's just lying," one of the Gryffindor boys that Harry didn't know said, "What else do you expect, Rose." Harry turned to look at the boy in disbelief. What had Harry ever done to him?

"That's what happened, we were all there," J.B. said aggressively, taking a step towards the Gryffindors. Harry hadn't noticed until then that the Slytherins were hanging on one end of the hallway while the Gryffindors stood at the other end, with Rose and Harry standing in the middle.

"Then you're probably all liars," the Gryffindor boy said, folding his arms over his chest. "You are Slytherins, after all."

"You have something you want to say, you ugly little git?" Kevin Reese said, taking out his wand.

"You've got no right to be calling anyone ugly with that face of yours," said Annie Trout, drawing her own wand and standing beside the Gryffindor boy. Within seconds, all the Slytherins except Harry and Clytemnestra and many of the Gryffindors had drawn their wands.

"Hey... wait..." Rose and Harry said at almost the exact same time, trying to calm the others down. They stood there between the two sides, arms raised, hoping that somehow everyone would come to their senses.

"Just let it go, don't be stupid," Shandra Higgins said putting her hand on her fellow students' wand arms. "Peter, Annie, just let it go."

"There's no reason for this," Albus added, doing the same thing. "You'll just make trouble over nothing."

"Best do what Mummy and Lord Potty tells you, little Gryfflings," J.B. said with a scornful laugh, not lowering his wand an inch. Harry had never seen him like this. Out of all the Slytherins, he was by far the nicest. What was going on?

"Oh shove it, you stupid Slytherin," Rose said angrily, glaring at J.B. viciously. There was something about the way she said it that crushed Harry's spirits. _Slytherin_... she had used that word like a curse. He knew in that moment that they couldn't really be friends, not while he was still, in the end, one of _them_. It was only a matter of time before she realized there was something wrong with him too. Trying to keep the tears from forming in his eyes, Harry stumbled a few steps backwards.

"Well, I wish I could say this was unusual," the mild voice of Professor Clearwater said behind them. "But alas, Slytherins and Gryffindors never do seem to get along. Inside, all of you, before one of you does something I have to give out detentions for."

Harry was the last one into the classroom, and as the class wore on his resentment and anger grew and grew. What did it matter that he was a Slytherin; why should that hold him back at every turn? It just wasn't fair! He was no different than he was before, but people kept treating him as if he were a completely different person now. Even Rose apparently had secret feelings that she had been hiding away. Would even Cassy start looking at him differently before long? He was so frustrated that he didn't take notes at all during class.

"Can I have a volunteer for a practical demonstration?" Professor Clearwater asked quietly, and Harry, who had hardly listened to a word up until that point, was the first to raise his hand. He wanted to use some damn magic.

"Mr. Wiggins, join me please." Professor Clearwater said. "Now, most counter-curses, jinxes and hexes require far more magic power than any first-year possesses. One notable exception is the Disarming spell. Does anyone know why?"

A few Gryffindors raised their hands, Rose not among them. Harry thought she looked a bit troubled. Good.

"Mr. Corlin," Professor Clearwater said, indicating a boy with short brown hair.

"Uh, because it is so simple?" The boy said, not sounding very sure. Several of the Slytherins smirked at what they considered to be quite a stupid answer.

"In a way, yes," Professor Clearwater said. "Expelliarmus is a charm, and a fairly simple one at that. Does anyone know what makes a charm distinct from a different type of spell? Ms. Stubbs."

"A charm is a spell that contains specific instructions that the spell will fulfill. For example, a levitation charm will cause an object to levitate. As such, they are extremely powerful but also very limited, for they cannot be modified to accomplish any goal other than the one they naturally fulfill." Courtney said, sounding far smarter than she ever had before. Was that what they had been talking about in Theory of Magic class?

"Yes, very good, Ms. Stubbs… five points to Slytherin. Charms typically require very precise word usage and wand movements, but less energy that others spells because of the very limited nature of their function. Charms are designed to make certain tasks easier, and their usefulness comes from the fact they conserve the caster's energy. The disarming spell, however, is a bit of a hybrid, which is what makes it so useful for our class. It was designed as a standard charm, but ended up functioning more along the lines of a jinx or hex, subsets of charms magic that operate very differently from standard charms. Such spells are less tailored toward a specific function, but rather are versatile and function differently depending on how much power the cast uses in that particular spell. Do you understand Mr. Wiggins?"

"Uh, yeah," Harry said, his mind busy processing this information. "It's a bit like the way that the water charm Auguamenti works," he continued, thinking back to the spell that Atalanta had used. "What you're saying, Sir, is that that particular charm could never be used to create a flood of water. No matter how much power you use, it will only create a stream of water because that is the function of the charm.

"That, Mr. Wiggins, is a very good answer. Ten points to Slytherin." Harry felt absolutely thrilled. He hadn't earned any points for Slytherin up to this point. The other Slytherins looked pleased; the Gryffindors sulky. "Just for your information," continued Professor Clearwater, "the charm to cause a flood is called Torrentia. However, it is such a complex charm that there are only a handful of people alive today skilled enough to cast it. But to get back to the point at hand, the reason it is worth practicing the Expelliarmus charm is because it is simple enough that even a first-year student can learn how to use it while complex enough that it can be a very versatile and useful spell if done correctly. Mr. Wiggins, would you care to have a go? I won't make any attempt to shield myself."

Harry drew his wand, eliciting the standard reaction from the Gryffindors who had never seen it before. He hadn't cast a single spell since that first night when had somehow cast spells without even knowing quite what he was doing. He had waited days for this opportunity... but now that it was here he was hesitant. What would happen if he wasn't able to control his power properly? Should he try and hold back a little?

"Do you remember the incantation?" Professor Clearwater asked softly.

"Y-yes Professor," Harry said; nervous now that everyone's eyes were on him. He needed to make up his mind quickly.

"_Loser,_" coughed one of the Gryffindors, his fake cough far from subtle. Harry recognized him as the boy who had called Harry a liar before. He still didn't know the boy's name... and he didn't really care. Harry mind was made up, and it was positive spinning in anger. He was going to show them just what he could. He would make damn sure not one of them forgot it. Harry pointed his wand at Professor Mason and, as loudly was he could, said, "EXPELLIARMUS!"

He had intended to use as much power as possible, but it was quickly clear that probably hadn't been such a good idea. Every wand in the entire classroom came flying towards him, whizzing through the air before arranging themselves around his feet like rays of the sun. A stunned silence descended over the classroom. Everyone was looking at him as if they couldn't believe that had just happened. Harry himself was a little surprised, but given everything else that had happened he was far less surprised than everyone else.

Professor Clearwater seemed to recover first. He strode to the window, raised his wand, and cast a spell that Harry couldn't quite hear. Something made of silver light shot out of the end of the Professor's wand and flew across the grounds and out of sight. Then Clearwater scribbled a quick note and handed it to Harry.

"Take this to the Headmistress, Mr. Wiggins," Professor Clearwater said, his expression unreadable. "You remember where the Headmistress's study is, don't you?"

"Yes," Harry said in a small voice. Boy he had really done it now.

"Well then, off you go. Everyone else, erm, you can come up here and collect your wands."

As Harry left, he saw Rose give him a look of stunned disbelief. It looked like he had been right after all; there was no way they could go back to being friends now. He was glad no one went with him the Headmistress's study. Harry hated it when people saw him cry.


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13 Ghosts and Chocolate

It was not far from Harry's classroom to the Headmistress's study, but Harry took his time getting there. He didn't want Professor Sprout or anyone else to know that he had been crying, and so he walked around aimlessly, waiting for the tears to dry. After all, it was a silly thing to cry over. He had known deep down that this would happen the moment the Sorting Hat made its choice; he had just been denying it up until now. Slytherins were the bad guys, the villains in all the stories he had been told as a kid. There was no way that Rose, Albus, or anyone else would want to be friends with someone like that. He had been fooling himself when he thought that they wouldn't mind. They'd ended up on different sides, and nothing could change that.

Looking around he saw that he had taken a wrong turn somewhere and ended up further away from the Gargoyle statue than he ought to be. Harry sighed in frustration and shook his head to clear it. He was also feeling pretty dizzy... was that from thinking so hard? Whatever the case may be, it was stupid to get into more trouble by being late to see the Headmistress. Massaging his aching head, Harry began retracing his steps. It was good that he had an innate sense of direction and very rarely got lost. That allowed him to navigate the confusing passages of the castle better than almost any other first-year. As he retraced his steps, his brain kept working feverishly, Harry didn't know what the Headmistress was going to do with him, but it probably wasn't going to be good. She might even decide to kick...

Harry stopped dead, dread pulsing through him. He hadn't actually considered the very real possibility that he might expelled. There was something wrong with him; he was able to do all sorts of things that no one was supposed to be able to do. What if they decided that he was too dangerous to be around the other students? He hadn't hurt anyone, but if he wasn't careful he certainly could. What if he cast a levitation charm or something and instead of floating whatever he was supposed to be floating he sent all his fellow classmates flying into the air? Maybe it would just be safer for everyone if he did get expelled.

"Wait, my lady, do not leave me like this!" Someone said abruptly a little ways behind Harry, who turned and looked around in shock. There hadn't been anyone around him, so who was speaking? Harry shook his head to clear it again and tried to identify the source of the voice. The headache wasn't helping. Without warning the ghostly figure of a woman burst out of the wall five feet away from Harry. She was very pretty, but that was rather hard to appreciate given the angry, haughty look she had on her face as she floated past him without a word and melted into the far wall. She was followed moments later by another ghost who materialized out of the same wall that she had left behind.

"Helena!" The ghost called mournfully. "Wait for—" he stopped suddenly, noticing Harry standing there with a stunned expression on his face. "Oh-I... Good day, young man. Should you not be in class?"

"Uh, I was sent... I'm supposed to go to the Headmistress's study," Harry said, still shocked. He had never actually talked to a ghost before, much less interrupted one in the middle of... whatever it was this poor fellow was trying to do.

"And you're lost I expect," the ghost guessed, glancing mournfully at the wall where the Lady Ghost had disappeared.

"No, actually I..."

"Fear not, Sir Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington, ghost of the Gryffindor House, will guide you on your way," Sir Nicholas said, bobbing his head kindly. That was when Harry noticed something was wrong. Sir Nicholas's head was only attached to his neck by the least possible amount of skin, causing his head to wobble ominously. Harry wasn't sure if it was disgusting or hilarious. Honestly, it was probably a little of both.

"The Headmistress's study is this way," Sir Nicholas pronounced with authority, drifting forward in a dignified sort of way. It almost looked to Harry as if he were showing off for someone, probably that Lady Ghost. Privately, Harry thought that poor Sir Nicholas was wasting his time with her.

"Uh, thank you, Sir Nicholas," Harry said, following after the ghost.

"You're a nice young man," the ghost said approvingly, "Children today have no manners. Hardly anyone calls me Sir Nicholas anymore."

"What do they call you?" Harry asked curious. He hardly knew anything about the Hogwarts Ghosts because he had never let Cassy tell him any stories about them. They'd always given him the willies, but this one actually wasn't so bad up close.

"Well, never mind that," Sir Nicholas said, displeased with where the conversation was headed. "You can just call me Sir Nicholas, if you would. What is your name, young man?"

"Harry Wiggins," Harry replied politely, wishing they would move a bit faster. He had already wasted some time wandering around and crying, and didn't want to be any later than he had to be. He was also starting to feel very tired, but perhaps that was just from talking to Sir Nicholas.

"Wiggins... You're not by chance descended for Earl Archibald Wiggins of Northumbria who hunted the last manticore in England and served the most delicious Dragon Steaks?" Sir Nicholas asked with a hungry, longing look in his eyes.

"I don't think so sir, my father is a muggle... and from America for that matter." Harry said dully. That Earl Wiggins seemed like an interesting person to be descended from.

"Hmm, America," Sir Nicholas said. "I should very much have liked to see that land. You know that muggles only discovered it the year that I died? We wizards, of course, had known that it was there the whole time. After all, it is rather hard to miss two entire continents like that. But then, that's muggles for you." Sir Nicholas wobbled his head in bemusement.

"Well why didn't you tell them?" Harry asked, not understanding. There was nothing wrong with being a muggle like his dad.

"They would never have believed me," Sir Nicholas said with a head-tottering shrug, "and there would not have been much point trying to enlighten them. Muggles are usually happier not knowing."

Harry felt himself growing upset again, but he said nothing. This man was the ghost of Gryffindor House, the champions of the muggles. Why was he acting as if they were some kind of adorable pet instead of real people?

"How do you like Hogwarts so far, young Harry?" Sir Nicholas asked as the silence stretched on. "I must say," he continued before Harry had a chance to respond, "that there are quite a number of Harrys around these days. That is only to be expected, of course, considering everything that young Harry Potter accomplished. You know, I'm somewhat of an expert on all things Potter. And you might say I'm his official consult on all things ghostly," Sir Nicholas sounded as if he were quite used to bragging this way. Harry didn't really care much... his headache was quickly growing worse. The sooner he got away from this chatty ghost, the better.  
>"I'm actually on good terms with all the heroes of the Battle of Hogwarts," Sir Nicholas continued, undeterred by Harry's lack of interest. "Miss Hermione always says hello to me whenever she visits the school, and Master Ronald gave me the sage advice to follow my heart, wherever it may lead." Sir Nicholas gazed wistfully at the wall as if the Lady Ghost were lurking there, just out of sight. Harry figured she was probably on the far side of the castle by now. He also didn't think that Mr. Weasley's advice on this matter was very good. Sir Nicholas would definitely be better off if his heart lead him somewhere else.<p>

"Well, here you are," Sir Nicholas said, indicating the familiar gargoyle that stood before the Headmistress's Study. "Fare you well, young Harry. By the way, I failed to ask you which House you had been sorted into."

"Slytherin," Harry said dully, waiting for Sir Nicholas to react the same way everyone else did.

"Well. I must say, they are very fortunate to have gotten a student like you. They have been rather down on their luck in recent years. Why, only twenty years ago the Slytherins were a shoe-in to win the House Cup seemingly every year. Maybe you can help turn them around, young Harry."  
>"Y-you don't think it's a bad thing?"<p>

"My dear boy, there are far more important things in this world than where one is sorted," Sir Nicholas said with a determined wobble. "Houses matter very little to us ghosts. For instance, the Bloody Baron and I are on, er, very good terms. He's been most understand regarding my affections for the Grey Lady. He had feelings for her long ago when they were both alive." Sir Nicholas sounded distinctly nervous now.

"You haven't told him, have you," Harry guessed.

"Not expressly, no," Sir Nicholas said, glancing around fearfully, "But as I said we have a very good understanding. I would, though, ask that you not mention it to him, if you please."

"Sure thing," Harry said, figuring that would be easy enough. He would never in a million years go near the Bloody Baron of his own free will.

"You don't think it's foolish do you... an old soul striving to find love after all these years?" Sir Nicholas asked, gaze distant.

"Er," Harry said, unsure of what would possibly be a reasonable answer to that question. Harry wasn't very experience in such matters, and he figured he knew as much about love as a teaspoon. "Good for you, I guess."

"You are too kind," Sir Nicholas said, a ghostly tear forming in his eye. "Well, I must be off to win my sweet lady's affection. Good luck to you, Harry, and I hope to see you around." With one last head-bobbling bow, Sir Nicholas departed through the nearest wall.

"Fanged Geranium," Harry said to the Gargoyle, rubbing his forehead. For some reason he didn't quite understand his headache got worse _after _the talkative ghost had disappeared. Still, talking to Sir Nicholas had helped calm him down. He highly doubted he would be expelled for casting a really strong spell, but he might be reprimanded for not telling them about his power earlier. Professor Mason had known, did that mean that the Professor would get in trouble now? Harry stumbled onto the moving staircase, missing his footing at first. _Oops,_ Harry thought to himself sleepily, _missed my step. Why is everything so fuzzy all of a sudden?_

Harry stood in front of the door for a good ten seconds before remembering to knock. He was so tired all of a sudden. Hopefully the Headmistress wouldn't take too long and he would be ableto get some sleep. Why was he here, again?

He knocked lightly and the door opened all on its own. _Magic is so cool, _Harry thought sluggishly, shuffling inside with a yawn.

"I have a note for you, Headmistress," Harry said sleepily as he approached the Headmistress's desk. She was busy doing something to some plant or other, but smiled kindly at him when he approached. She was such a nice lady.

"Well now," Professor Sprout said as she finished reading his note, "So it seems that she was right."

"W-what?" Harry said, stopping mid-word to yawn. It didn't occur to him at the time that he wasn't being very polite.

"Oh dear, magic drain," Professor Sprout said, coming quickly to stand by his side. "You should sit down, Mr. Wiggins."

Harry went to sit down, but he didn't quite manage it. He lost consciousness right then and there in the Headmistress's study.

"I think he's waking up," a woman said nearby, but it was not a voice that he recognized. He was lying down somewhere. What had just happened? _Oh damn,_ he thought, eyes flying open, _I fainted in front of the Headmistress._

"Shhh, it's alright," Hermione Weasley said from a nearby chair. "Here, have a piece of chocolate."

"T-thank you," Harry said, sitting up and accepting the large piece of chocolate that Hermione handed him. He was sitting in the hospital wing, and there was no one around except for Hermione, a young woman that Harry didn't know, and the school healer who was talking to a girl on the other side of the room who had her back to him. "What happened to me? Is the Headmistress angry?"

Hermione laughed, prompting Harry to give her a hurt look. "Oh, I'm sorry Harry," Hermione said, giving him an amused smile, "but Professor Sprout would never be upset over something like that. Although she was a bit annoyed with Alyzeus for sending you to her study alone. He should have known that it was possible that you might be suffering from magic drain, but he does forget the little things sometimes."

"A pretty common trend among Aurors," the other woman said cheerfully, not looking up. Harry realized that she was busy writing. "Or maybe it's just men."

"You knew what you were getting into," Hermione said, smiling and offering Harry some more chocolate. He wasn't sure he could eat it, but he wasn't foolish enough to say no to her.

"Very true," The woman said, looking up at Harry. He saw that she was probably a bit older than he had thought she was. She just gave off an air of youthful excitement, and her brown eyes twinkled warmly. Her hair a distinctive shade of red, and Harry knew without a doubt who she was before she even introduced herself. This was Ginny Potter, James and Albus's mother and Harry Potter's wife.

"What are you doing here?" Harry asked in wonder, glancing back and forth between Hermione and Mrs. Potter.

"When you cast an abnormal disarming spell, Professor Clearwater sent word to me immediately," Hermione said. "He was the one who hired me into the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, back when he was still an Auror. You do remember, don't you, that the Ministry put me in charge of your case?"

"Y-yes," Harry said quietly, feeling guilty. It had slipped his mind that he ought to have told her everything that was going on. He could very well be in trouble with the ministry now.

"Don't look so guilty, Harry. Truth be told, I was waiting for something like this to happen. It proves that my theory is correct," Hermione said, her voice flushed with excitement. She clearly loved being right.

"Everyone already knew your theory was correct," Mrs. Potter said, going back to writing by hand. "There isn't a witch or wizard alive who's smarter than you."

"Oh nonsense," Hermione said, looking embarrassed and pleased at the same time. "More chocolate, Harry?"

"No, thanks," Harry said very confused. Usually adults tried to get him to eat fewer sweets, not more.

"Chocolate is an excellent remedy for recovering from strain placed upon the soul," Hermione said, sensing his confusion. "When a wizard uses too much of their magic energy at once, they become physically and spiritually exhausted. That phenomenon is more common known as magic drain. Extreme examples can cause permanent damage to your body... or even your soul."

"Not to worry," Hermione continued, seeing the scared expression on his face, "You didn't reach anywhere near that level of power. You had a very mild form of magic drain, which is why it didn't manifest itself immediately."

"How long was I out for? And is... is this sort of thing common? I've never heard of it." Harry said, deciding to accept another slab of chocolate. He didn't want anything going wrong with his soul.

"You were only unconscious for maybe half an hour, we were already on our way here when you fainted. And no, given the way that magic is taught at Hogwarts it is unusual for a student to experience symptoms of magic drain," Hermione said. "You should be more careful in the future, though, since you are far more susceptible to it than an average student."

"Hermione," Mrs. Potter said, looking up from her writing again, "Harry probably wants to know what's going on."

"Oh, right," Hermione said, as if she had forgotten that he didn't know everything she did. "I should explain. Harry, your unusual level of power is most likely the result of the fact that you do not have the Trace on you."

"What?" Harry said, stunned. "But why would that matter? I thought the Trace was just used to keep track of young wizards and make sure they didn't use magic outside of school."

"Yes, that is what everyone thought, but it turns out that the Trace does far more than that," Hermione explained excitedly. "It is a very old spell, and quite honestly there is so much about it that we don't know. There are no surviving records of when it was cast or exactly how it works. Most people assumed that its function was straightforward, but I'm beginning to believe that that isn't the case. I think that the Trace actually fundamentally changes who we are as wizards."

"What do you mean?" Harry asked in a hushed voice.

"We always assumed that a wizard's power developed gradually over time, increasing slowly from the time you are born to the time you reach the age of adulthood at seventeen," Hermione said. She really seemed to be in her element when she was explaining things to people. "There was really no point in debating otherwise, because you could just observe a young wizard and you could see that their power grew over time. I'm convinced, however, that that's not really the case at all. Instead, I believe a wizard is born with the ability to access their full store of magical power, but the Trace limits them until they reach adulthood. The Trace gradually weakens, allowing them to use a greater percentage of their magical power as they grow older. The proof of that theory, Harry, is you."

"Me?"

"Yes, you. You should not be able to control as much power as you do at such a young age; it goes against the laws of magic as we understand them. It seems that you have access to as much power as any adult wizard, something that ought to be impossible. The only explanation that makes sense is that your lack of the Trace gives you access to all your power, meaning that it limits the power in everyone else."

"But why?" Harry asked, looking back and forth between Hermione and Mrs. Potter, who had stopped writing to watch him. "Why would the Trace limit everyone like that?"

"Honestly I don't know," Hermione said slowly, "but if I had to guess I would say it was for safety. If magic really does manifest fully in children, it would make them potential dangers to themselves and everyone around them. There is nothing more dangerous than out of control magic. Even with limited magical power, magical accidents at Hogwarts can be deadly. Our wizard ancestors might have come up with the Trace as a way to try and limit their children's power until they learned control."

"It's also possible that Hermione's theory is wrong and that you are currently using a small portion of your total power," Mrs. Potter interjected, studying him with her large brown eyes. "But if that is the case, then you are probably the most powerful wizard who has ever lived. Not even Dumbledore could have cast an empowered disarming spell on his second day of school."

"Mrs. Potter," Harry said, nervously facing her.

"Please call me Ginny," she replied self-consciously. "Mrs. Potter makes me sound like an old lady."

"Er, Ginny, sorry," Harry said, "You don't think that's true, do you?" He didn't want to be the most powerful wizard who had ever lived. He was just Harry.

"No," Ginny said slowly, considering her words. "Years of experience have taught me that Hermione is nearly always right. Still, it is a possibility."

"A small one," Hermione conceded reluctantly. "It will be impossible to know for certain until we spend more time observing you. You, Harry, might completely change the way we understand magic. We will have to meet regularly to note your progress. Twice a month we are going to need to meet with you and talk about how your magical power is progressing. The headmistress has already given her permission, although she is not thrilled with the Ministry meddling with one of her students. It helps a bit that it is me. That's alright with you, isn't it Harry?"

"Uh, sure," Harry said uncertainly. It didn't really matter do him. He glanced at Ginny, trying to figure out what exactly she was doing here. She hadn't answered his question earlier.

"Oh, I'm just here to take notes," Ginny said brightly, as if reading his mind. "Hermione can't be expected to do this all alone, she doesn't have the time to both ask you questions and take notes. I am a reporter, after all, and I dare say I'm better than some red-faced intern. Mostly I write about Quidditch, but that's a bit of a depressing subject these days. I fully expect England to lose to Bhutan later this week."

"A reporter..." Harry said uneasily. Was he going to be in some sort of story in the _Daily Prophet_?

"She's just here to assist me," Hermione said, giving Ginny a rather exasperated look, "Although I should say she rather invited herself."

"I was bored," Ginny said unapologetically, "Now that both Albus and James are out of the house I don't have much occupy my time. Lily is a quiet little angel compared to those two. Sometimes she's so quiet that I have no idea what's going on in that little head of hers." Ginny looked unusually thoughtful.

"Like I said before we came here, I'm sure it's nothing. Lily is just a nine-year-old girl being a nine year-old-girl," Hermione said soothingly.

"I know," Ginny said quietly. "But I can't help worrying sometimes. That's what parents do, after all. Still," She added after taking a second to gather herself. "It's the oldest that I ought to be worrying about. Have you met my James, by chance?"

"Er, yeah," Harry said uncomfortably. He didn't really want to talk about the Potter and Weasley kids right now.

"He hasn't been his usual rude self, has he?" Ginny asked, eyes stormy. "I swear that boy has far too much of my brothers in him."

"No, he's been really nice" Harry lied, not quite sure why he was doing it. He just didn't want Ginny to look upset. He wasn't quite sure that lying to her was the right thing to do, though.

"And how's Rosie doing?" Hermione asked, sounding more concerned than he expected. "She hasn't written home at all." Harry wasn't sure what he could possibly bring himself to say about Rose, so he kept silent. It's not like they were actually friends... not really.

"Hermione, it's been less than a week," Ginny said, smirking in amusement.

"I know that," snapped Hermione irritably, as if she didn't appreciate Ginny's amusement. Thankfully, Ginny's comment seemed to have made Hermione forget her original question and so Harry didn't have to answer. "But let's get back to the task at hand. Ginny is here helping me because she has nothing else to do."

"Hey," protested Ginny, "I'm trying to write more for the Prophet, but my editor keeps saying that no one wants to read serious stories written by a former Quidditch player. She's a bit of an old cow, really." She scribbled angrily on her paper with her quill, making Harry feel nervous. Not for himself, of course, but for that poor editor. He was very glad that he wasn't the one who had made her mad.

"So anyways," Ginny continued, back to being cheerful as ever, "I'm here to help out however I can. Don't say you couldn't use the help, Hermione."

Hermione said nothing, but Harry could tell she was struggling against a desire to say those exact words. "What about that special report you were doing, Ginny?" Hermione said after a lull.

"It's almost done," Ginny said with a sigh, "but most likely they won't even publish it. Wizards just don't want to read about stuff like that, even if it is happening right in their backyard."

"What is it about?" Harry asked curiously.

"It's about the recent terrorist attacks in England. There have been three separate bombings this month, the last one was only this morning," Ginny said, looking grim.

"Terrorist attacks?" Harry said in shock. "I haven't heard anything about that!"

"I'm not surprised; it's easily to get isolated from what's going on in the outside word here at Hogwarts. But it's not your fault. Wizards aren't talking about it in general because no wizards have been hurt or killed. They figure that it's just a muggle problem, like a war or something like that. It's amazing how little attention we pay to the people dying around us," Ginny said, shaking her head fiercely like an angry wild animal.

"Ginny, Harry's a little young for this conversation," Hermione said sternly.

"No I'm not!" Harry protested fiercely. He was eleven years old, not some child!

"No, Hermione is right," Ginny said, shaking her head. "You should be focusing on your studies, not worrying about the state of the world. That is what the adults are for!" She added with a smile.

"Have you finished badgering the young man yet?" The school healer said sternly, coming over to glare at Ginny and Hermione.

"Yes, we are. Sorry, Hannah," Hermione said, looking guilty. The Healer had long blonde hair and a kindly air about her, but was glaring ferociously at the two women.

"Well then off with you, young Harry needs to rest. Magic drain can be a nasty business." Her glower turned to a friendly smile and she added in a lower voice, "Oh, and say hello to your niece before you leave. She's having a rough go of it because of some Slytherin teasing."

"Slytherins," Ginny muttered angrily, "Dominique is such a gentle soul. Well, I'll see you in about two weeks, Harry. I'd be happy to stay and chat..."

"Oh you would, would you?" The healer said, hands on her hips.

"But my daughter Lily said this morning that she wasn't feeling well and I want to check on her," continued Ginny, winking at the healer. "Plus Madame Abbott might skin me alive if I don't let you rest."

Giving Harry a friendly pat on his arm, Ginny got up and went to talk with the blonde girl on the other side of the hospital wing, who still had half a purple mustache on her face. She looked absolutely miserable. Suddenly he didn't find what Amelia Runcorn had done to her funny at all... not that he ever had, really.

"How's Neville doing?" Hermione asked Madame Abbott quietly as she also got up to leave. They were talking quietly, but Harry could still hear them well enough. He closed his eyes and pretended to take a nap so that they wouldn't think he was eavesdropping on them... even though he most certainly was.

"It's harder than he thought it would be. He says that she looks just like a younger version of her mother."

"Yeah, that's what I thought myself," Hermione said with a sigh. "It's creepy, but hardly the poor girl's fault. She hasn't done anything, has she?"

"No," Madame Abbott said, "but a number of Slytherins have been causing trouble, all in the name of protecting their fellow student. As if Slytherins need a reason to make trouble. My husband is getting the worst of it for some reason. Poor Neville, you know how things like that upset him."

"I'm sure he did nothing wrong," Hermione said with a sigh. "Even so, it's not good for everyone to always expect the worst of the Slytherins. All it does is make them feel more and more isolated."

"They're always the ones who start it," Madame Abbott said stubbornly. "I wonder how much longer the Headmistress and the others will be able to put up with them if they keep making trouble year after year."

"It wouldn't be Hogwarts without the Slytherins. Salazar Slytherin is still one of the founders," Hermione said. "Plus, they certainly aren't all bad. Harry is a perfect example of that."

"That little boy is a Slytherin? I had no idea. It doesn't seem right."

"I was a bit surprised when he was sorted myself," conceded Hermione, "but the Sorting Hat always has its reasons. It certainly knew what it was doing when it sorted me in Gryffindor instead of Ravenclaw."  
>"I suppose so," Madame Abbott said reluctantly. "And it's not so bad that our biggest problem these days is a few rowdy school students."<p>

"No," Hermione said, her voice strained. "That's not such a bad thing at all." After giving the healer a quick hug, she and Ginny left the hospital wing, leaving Harry to rest. He spent quite a long time fighting his desire to nap and thinking over everything they had told him. There was, after all, quite a bit to process. Was Hermione really right about him... was he really special? He sure didn't feel special, mostly just tired. Maybe everyone was just making a giant mistake. _Then again,_ Harry thought as he fell into a doze, _it would be rather exciting to be special and save the world and all that. It almost too bad that Harry Potter fixed all the problems when he beat Voldemort. Now there's nothing left for the rest of us to do!_

With that rather silly thought in his head, young Harry Wiggins fell asleep.


	14. Chapter 13 and a half

Chapter 13.5 A Glimpse of Things to Come

_The sky was on fire._

_ Sometimes Daddy liked to say that when the sun was setting and the sky turned all red and orange. He would point up at the sky and say, "Look, honey, the sky is on fire," but it never was. Daddy was just saying it to make her laugh. She always did laugh, of course, that was part of the game. This was different though; this time the sky really was on fire. Above her were swirling clouds of burning gas, raining down fiery rain upon the dead, ruined world around her. If this were real, the heat would be so intense that she couldn't stand where she was standing and live. One breath of this stuff would probably burn her right up... so it was a good thing that this wasn't real. At least not yet._

_ Lily Potter rose to her feet and looked around carefully, wondering where she should go. This wasn't the first strange dream she'd had, but this one was definitely the scariest. Did this mean that this was going to happen to... where was she exactly? Was this her home? It was impossible to tell. There was nothing around her but burnt rubble and ash. But this just made no sense._

_ Lily spent a few seconds half-heartedly trying to convince herself that this was just a regular dream, the kind that anyone might have, but deep down she just knew that wasn't true. This was one of those dreams, the kind that showed things that hadn't happened yet. It had been four years now since that first one. It almost made her cry just thinking about it... and this dream was even worse. She knew from her other dreams that the things that happened would come true, but this couldn't possibly happen, could it? What could possibly have the power to set the sky on fire?_

_ Lily needed answers, and there didn't seem to be any around here. Quick as she could, she made her way down from the ruins around her and went in search of anything that would help her make sense of this dream. Quite honestly, she had no idea what that something would be. Within seconds her bare feet were covered with ash. She was always barefoot in these dreams... so it was a good thing she couldn't feel the heat of the burning ground around her. She shivered just thinking about it, and didn't want to go on. I need to be brave, thought Lily; I need to figure out why this is happening. That's what Mum and Dad would do._

_ She moved slowly through the plain of ash, watching the burning sky with a kind of terrified wonder. There were giant burning gas clouds high above her, blazing and swirling with red, orange and yellow hues. You could almost call it pretty, if not for the fact that all life around her had been burned away. She walked for minutes, or maybe longer, but so no signs of any living thing. The world around her was completely dead and silent, if there had once been people here… well… they were now gone. There weren't even any bodies, just ash, soot and dust. Lily managed not to cry as she walked on and on, but only because she was too young to truly understand the enormity of what she was seeing. _

_Eventually Lily reached the edge of a large crater. Was this the place the cause of all of this? Had something crashed into the earth like in one of those muggle movies and blown everything up? If that was the case, there wasn't a whole lot she could do about it. No, it had to be something else... something she could fix. All the other dreams had been that way, so this one had to be too .There'd be no point in showing her things she couldn't fix._

_ "So you have come," came a voice from below her, and Lily was so surprised that she fell over. Out of the edge of the crater below her slithered a huge snake, bigger than any she had ever seen. It didn't seem entirely real, but rather looked like it was a kind of ghost. Not that Lily had ever seen a ghost, of course, but James told her stories. Plus, it wasn't hard to figure out what a ghost might look like, they were transparent and white and so on. Lily wasn't stupid._

_ "Hello," Lily said nervously, very aware that she was doing the thing that James always told her not to do. "Don't Lil," he always said. "Don't talk to them. People aren't supposed to be able to talk to snakes. You'll get in trouble." Well, she certainly wasn't going to get into any trouble here... and this snake was the only thing around. Still she felt guilty. Lily never liked to do things that James had told her not to do. He was a good big brother. _

_ "Greetings dreamwalker," the big snaky-ghost thing said, "it was not a simple thing to bring you here." _

_ "I'm sorry," Lily said automatically, feeling guilty. She always seemed to make trouble for other people, even imaginary snake ghosts. _

_ "You needn't apologize, hatchling," the snake said in an amused sort of way. "It is necessary. As you can see, this world is about to be in a rather dire situation."_

_ "What happened here?" Lily asked trying to not sound as scared as she was. So she had been right, this was actually going to happen in the real world. _

_ "Your kind has once again made something which should never have been made, and now seems to have fallen into... the wrong hands as you would say," the snake said, flicking out his ghostly tongue._

_ "What do you mean?" Lily asked, not understanding. _

_ "Do not concern yourself with such things, dreamwalker, for it is not your battle to wage. You are barely more than a newborn. You need only bear witness for those who will stand against this fire."_

_ Lily didn't like being told that she was too young... she was nine years old after all, but the snake probably had a good point. She couldn't possibly hope to prevent... this._

_ "What should I do?" Asked Lily; her voice small. _

_ "Watch, and remember," the snake said simply, slithering down into the crater and leaving her behind. Lily scrambled down after it, wishing it would be a little nicer to her. Snake or no, it was rude to just walk away from someone like that. It was something her stupid cousin Hugo might do. He was always doing rude things like that. _

_ They made their way across the bottom of the crater, which ended up being much much bigger than she'd thought it would be. What sort of thing could have made a crater this huge? Lily wanted to ask the snake, but he was too far ahead of her for her to talk to. Not only that, but he was moving much faster than her too. He sure was a rude snake ghost._

_ When it came into view, Lily stopped dead, refusing to believe what she was seeing. She might have screamed... actually, yeah, she screamed, although she didn't realize it at the time. She was too shocked and scared to notice such things. Sitting on the far side of the crater that she now knew wasn't a crater was the burnt, crumbling ruin of Hogwarts Castle, barely able to keep itself from crumbling into the dried-up lake that the snake was leading her through. She had been to the castle before with her daddy, and she had seen so many pictures of the place that she knew the view from the lake well. Her brothers... what had happened to her brothers and cousins?_

_ She didn't want to cry, she really didn't, but the enormity of what she was seeing was finally too much for her to bear. Some people weren't so bad when they cried, like how some of the other girls she knew could still look cute while doing it. But Lily wasn't one of those girls; when she cried she balled her eyes out and tears and snot went everywhere. It was really embarrassing, but she couldn't help it. Sometimes you just need to cry._

_ "Hush hatchling," the snake said, coming back to soothe her… eventually. "Now you understand what is at stake. You must return, and bear witness to the fire that is coming for us all."_

_ "But no one is going to believe me," Lily said, hiccupping pitifully. _

_ "This is not the first time you have walked, is it?" the snake asked, acting as if he already knew the answer._

_ "N-no, no it's not." Lily said, drying her eyes. That was a good point, actually. She had been able to make a difference before. "Still, my brother James was the one who helped me last time. He always believed whatever I said." _

_ "And does he still?" The snake asked, fixing his large snaky eyes on her. _

_ "Yes, yes he does," Lily said, smiling for the first time. James would know what to do. Her big brother would believe her. He was always on her side._

_ "Then he at least must be told what is coming. The world must be warned, no matter what."_

_ "I don't think anyone else will believe me," Lily said in a sulky voice. She could just imagine trying to get her father to believe her. That is, if he didn't kill her after she told him all the secrets she had been hiding from him and mum. No, they would just end up thinking she was crazy. _

_ "You must do what you think is best," the snake said, inclining his head._

_ Lily frowned at the snake, not understanding something. "Hey, wouldn't it be make more sense for you to just tell me everything that is going on and how to prevent it?" _

_ "Unfortunately I cannot," the snake said, shaking its transparent, scaly head. Typical. _

_ "And why is that?" Lily asked, putting her little hands on her little hips and glaring at the snake. He was being deliberately unhelpful... she could tell. Boys were always the same._

_ "What do you know of the nature of prophecy?"_

_ "Uh," Lily said, losing the ability to maintain her glare, "I don't know..."_

_ "Prophecies refer to specific paths that one might take down the road to the future," the ghost snake said patiently. "If one has the ability, one can look down specific paths and see where they lead. Human seers are among the least reliable, often barely able to make sense of what they see and repeating their visions in cryptic messages that are of very little use to anyone. That is not the way of the snakes."_

_ "Snakes... snakes can see the future?" Lily asked in a little voice, completely stunned. Was he being serious?_

_ "On occasion," the snake said mysteriously. "As it so happens, I looked down the path of the future in which I tell you everything and you tell the world what was coming. This is that future, where all things end in fire."_

_ "What?" Lily shouted, close to tears again. "Then what am I supposed to do?" _

_ "I have no idea, for you must choose your own path. Only then is there any hope of success."_

_ Oh no, thought Lily, mind spinning. Not good._

_ "Do not lose hope, for all futures do not lead to this point, although I do not have the skill to identify the ones that do not. For that, I am sorry. But even so, you know as well as I do that unwanted futures can be prevented." That was certainly true, Lily thought, trying to be positive, she had done that much before. _

_ "But I don't know what to do," Lily said miserably. The snake was asking rather a lot of her. Saving the world was too much pressure to be putting on a nine-year-old. Wasn't there someone else who could handle this sort of thing? _

_ "Nor do I," the snake said, which Lily found hardly comforting. "But you are the only human who has the power to both walk in dreams and speak the tongue of snakes. Without you, all hope of saving the school and the world would be lost."_

_ "The school?" Lily asked, confused. "Do you mean Hogwarts? So this is all going to start at Hogwarts…um, isn't it?"_

_ "Thsss, I did not say that," the snake said, slithering his tongue lazily. He had the same sort of tone that Albus got when he was trying to sound clever. Lily saw right through that. "At any rate, my advice to you is this. Tell your brother to seek out those with power enough to save the school. Again, I do not know what must be done to save the future, but I have faith in you, Lily Potter."_

_ "Um, thanks," Lily said. "Oh, I'm sorry, I never asked what your name was." _

_ "There is no need to apologize, hatchling. Long ago, one of your kind named me Oxalion, and bid me watch over this world after he was gone and could watch it no more. That is what you may call me, if you desire."_

_ "Oxalion," repeated Lily carefully. It wasn't the easiest name to say. "How long do we have before something sets fire to the sky?"_

_ "You have until the end of the year. When the sun rises on the year 2018, it will be too late."_

_ Well that wasn't so bad, thought Lily. That was still a few months away, which was good since she had absolutely no idea what to do. Who should she be looking for, again, someone who had unusual powers at Hogwarts? She hoped James would know who that was. Someone had to know. _

_ "It is time for you to return to your world. Do not forget, and do what must be done," Oxalion said, bowing his head to her again._

_ "Wait, Oxalion!" Lily said, alarmed by the suddenness of it all. She didn't feel like she knew anywhere near enough. "What is-"_

Lily awoke with a start; her mother was sitting at the foot of her bed smiling down at her.

"Did you have a good nap, Lily-bean?" Mum asked, smiling cheerfully at her. Lily just scowled. She wasn't really mad at her mother, but it was frustrating that she was woken up before she had been able to learn more. She didn't understand nearly enough, and now there was no way to find any more answers.

"Something wrong?" Mum asked, looking at Lily with concern.

"No, I'm fine," Lily lied, sitting up slowly. James... she needed to tell James what had happened. "I thought you were going to Hogwarts with Aunt Hermione."

"I did, but that was hours ago, dear," Mum said, ruffling Lily's hair fondly. She wished her mother wouldn't do that. It always messed her hair up. But right now there were bigger things to worry about than her hair.

"Mum, I want to send an owl to James, but I want it to be private. Is-is that ok?" Lily asked. Her mother gave her a strange look, but said it was fine. It would mean getting one of the post owls to come by the house and pick it up. For some reason Lily didn't understand, Daddy refused to own an owl. It had never made much sense to her.

Mum looked like she wanted to say something, but in the end she got up to leave without saying a word. Lily didn't like confusing her mother like this, but there was just no way to tell her the truth. These things she saw, they were really... but no one would believe her. No one but James. Probably.

"Mum," Lily said impulsively as her mother reached the door. "There isn't... isn't any way to set the sky on fire, is there?"

"What?" Her mother asked, completely shocked. "What are you talking about, Lily?"

"N-nothing, it was just a dream. I had a dream that the sky was on fire," Lily said quickly.

"There's nothing to worry about, dear," Mum said soothingly, "A dream is just a dream."

Lily put on a false smile to reassure her mother as she left the room. When she was alone again, Lily lay back on her pillow and sighed. If only what her mother said was true... but it wasn't. Hopefully James would believe her. He just had to. She got out of bed and started writing her letter.


	15. Chapter 14

Chapter 14 A Gentle Pull in the Right Direction

It all started Wednesday evening, when Madam Abbott finally released Harry from the hospital wing. Harry had missed the last class of the afternoon because of the effects of magic drain, and in truth he still felt pretty out of it when he managed to convince the healer that he was "totally fine". Sure, he lied a little bit, but only because sitting in the hospital wing with nothing to do was dreary and dull. As he left the hospital wing, Harry figured that pretty much anything would be better than just sitting around. He soon learned he was quite wrong.

The first thing that happened was that he ran into James Potter… quite literally. Everything was spinning just a little bit, and Harry had been walking with one hand pressing against the wall for support. Right as he went to turn the corner, he collided with James, who was coming from the other direction. James was a good deal taller than Harry was, and so Harry fell on his butt painfully.

"Oi, you ok?" James said, rubbing his chin which had collided with Harry's forehead. When he saw who it was, though, his tone grew hard. "Oh, it's you Wiggins. You ought to watch where you're going."

"Sorry," muttered Harry, who wasn't really very sorry. It wasn't his fault any more than it had been James's. Plus, Harry had gotten the worst of it.

"Don't just stand there, James, help him up," Rose said reprovingly stepping out from behind her cousin. Rose moved to where Harry was lying and offered her hand to help him up. He knew he should have just taken it, but he didn't. Maybe it was because he was tired and dizzy and irritable and in pain. Maybe it was because he wanted her to stop pretending to be his friend so it wouldn't hurt as much when her true feelings came out later. Maybe he was just being childish. Or maybe there was absolutely no reason at all. Whatever the case, Harry ignored Rose's hand and struggled to his feet himself, using the wall for support.

"What's the deal with you, Harry?" Rose asked with a hurt look on her face. "Hey, are you alright?" She said as he stumbled a bit. "Is this from what happened in Data class?" She just sounded concerned and curious, not angry or scared. Harry wondered if maybe he should just answer her. Maybe he was wrong about...

"Who is this little boy?" Asked a tall, blonde girl suddenly, coming to stand beside James. Her eyes regarded Harry with a look of faint disapproval. He felt his spirits plummeting even further. Not that they had been very high up until this point anyways.

"This is Harry Wiggins, Victoire," James said dismissively. "He's just a first-year Slytherin."

"James that's not-" Rose started to say, but James ignored her and proceeded to act as if Harry were not there. He turned to Victoire and said, "So where is your brother, anyways? We said we would visit Domi at seven."

"He's always late," Victoire said, thoroughly unconcerned. She shifted her attention to Harry once again and narrowed her pretty eyes dangerously. "You're a funny lot, you Slytherins, cursing my younger sister like that. Really amusing."

"Vic, Harry didn't have anything to do with that!" Protested Rose. Harry didn't even hear her, not really. He was too upset with what Victoire had said. Why did she think it was alright to blame him for something that he had absolutely nothing to do with? She didn't know a single thing about him; they had never met before. Plus, he had felt bad for Dominique from the very moment he heard what had happened to her. But none of that seemed to matter one bit to this girl. It was somehow his fault for being a Slytherin... and they were always the ones to blame. How was that fair?

"I think that mustache really suits her actually," Harry snapped. Thinking back on it later, he couldn't really believe that he actually said it. He really had felt bad for Dominique Weasley only a minute before, and had never said something that mean to anyone in his entire life. Anyone but Cassy, that is... but sisters were different. He just wanted to lash out, to make them feel as bad as they had made him feel. At the time, he didn't feel sorry at all.

"Harry!" Rose gasped, "How can you say something like that?"

"What's the big deal?" Muttered Harry, pushing past her and making his way down the hallway. "I am just a stupid Slytherin, after all."

"Harry, when I said that I didn't mean..." Rose said in a quiet, quivering voice.

"Rose, just let the little boy throw his tantrum if he wants," James said from behind Harry. "It's best to leave people like him alone."

Rose didn't say anything else as Harry walked away, not looking back. He half-wondered what look she had on her face as he walked away, but he didn't turn around to look. More than likely, seeing her look of hurt outrage would just make him start crying again. He didn't want to cry anymore, not over stuff like this. It wasn't like they had really been friends anyways.

When Harry finally made his way back to the Slytherin common room, he realized that he didn't remember the trip back at all. It wasn't that he had been thinking about anything, really; his mind had just been completely blank. Not thinking... not thinking was better sometimes. He stepped through the portrait hole, intent on going straight to bed. It didn't matter how early it was, he was done with this day.

"There he is; the boy wonder," Courtney Stubbs said as he started across the common room. She rushed up to him before he could make his way up to the dormitory. She looked even more unpleasant than usual.

"We want to talk to you," Kevin Reese said, putting his arm on Harry's shoulder. Harry tried to shrug the boy off irritably, but Kevin was a lot stronger than he was.

"What's your rush, half-breed?" Courtney asked, smiling her ugly smile at him.

"Just leave me alone," Harry said, who was in no mood for these clowns. He wondered how much trouble he would get into if he cursed these two and just made his way up to the dormitory. He might have done it too, but sadly he didn't know any curses like that.

With a sigh, Harry let them lead him over to where the other first-year Slytherins were gathered. Even Clytemnestra was there, sitting on the ground with her back to the others, her knees tucked under her chin and her eyes staring into the green fire. They had all been waiting around to talk to him, but he had nothing he wanted to say to any of them. He just wanted to be alone.

"What was that back in class?" Scorpius asked before anyone else said anything. He sounded amazed, or maybe a little afraid. "How were you able to use that much magic?"

"I don't know," Harry replied tonelessly, which wasn't really true. But he had no desire to explain Trace Theory to Malfoy and the others. The others clearly did not believe him.

"Just how powerful are you?" Courtney demanded. "You're not going to go crazy on us, are you?"

"What?" Harry asked, staring at her.

"The really powerful wizards, they're the ones who crack and lost control of their powers," Courtney said. "You seem to have way too much power to handle, since you're not all that bright. I don't want you blowing me up or something by accident."

"I might just end up doing that on purpose," Harry said angrily, but secretly he was scared. What if he was a danger to everyone? What if he couldn't keep control of his powers? Hermione hadn't mentioned anything about that... but that didn't mean it couldn't happen. What if Hermione didn't even know how dangerous he was?

"What's the deal with you and Gryffindors?" J.B. asked after everyone was quiet for a while. He sounded angry, far angrier than he usually was. "You seemed pretty friendly with that Weasley girl."

"What do you care?" Harry demanded, feeling even worse than before with him bringing up Rose again. He hadn't thought that was possible.

"I hate Gryffindors," J.B. said viciously. "They think they're all a bunch of heroes, but they have just as much blood on their hands as anyone. If you're on their side..."

"Look, I don't have any friends in Gryffindor," Harry shouted, getting to his feet.

"You don't have any friends anywhere, do you half-breed?" Kevin Reese said with a sneer. Without thinking, Harry began reaching for his wand. He didn't know what he was going to do with it, but he was on the verge of simply waving it and seeing what happened. It was all too much. Why didn't they just leave him alone?

Suddenly Clytemnestra Lestrange stood up, moving to stand right in front of Harry. They were almost exactly the same height, and her sparkling blue eyes stared into his. She had never stood this close to him before... actually no girl had ever stood this close to him before. It was really strange, but not bad really...

"Go to bed," she said quietly, dropping her eyes but not stepping away from him.

"W-what?" Harry said, completely shocked. The other first year Slytherins just stared at her, their mouths hanging open.

"You look tired, go to bed," Clytemnestra said, putting her hand on his right arm, which had been on the verge of drawing his wand. It was warm... he hadn't expected it to be so warm. Harry stared at her, his tired mind struggling to make sense. Did... did she know what he'd been thinking? Did she know he had been ready to attack everyone? How could she have known that?

"When I look tired, Aunt Andromeda always tells me to go to bed," Clytemnestra said quietly, flicking her eyes up to look at him again. There was no mistaking it, he saw a look of understanding in her eyes. It was like she knew... she definitely knew. But how... why? It made no sense.

"Go."

Harry nodded, stumbling backwards. He tried to use his mouth to form words, but he couldn't. Nothing came out. He was either too tired or too confused... or probably both. Giving up, Harry turned around and walked away, climbing the steps up to the dormitory. He collapsed onto his bed, utterly spent. Then it hit him, all the things that he had said and done. He had yelled at Rose and James. He had said mean, hurtful things. He had nearly attack the other Slytherins. He might have hurt them. He could have killed...

Harry cried for a long, long time, unable to believe the things he was capable of doing. He swore to himself that he would never let it happen again. He would never, ever lose control like that. It didn't matter how tired or upset or angry he was, he wasn't going to lash out. Because if he did... there was no telling what might happen. Harry curled into a ball and fell into a restless sleep.

Thursday was a sign of the days to come. None of the other Slytherin boys woke him up, and so he was late getting down to breakfast. J.B. might have done it once, but not anymore. No one talked to him during breakfast... or during Magic Theory... or during Potions were he sat by himself at the table in the back. Professor Evergreen glanced at him curiously as he called roll, but did not force him to sit with anyone like he had Clytemnestra on the first day. Rose and Albus looked over at him several times during class, but Harry never met their gaze.

Friday was the same way, as was the weekend. Harry did homework alone, ate alone, went to sleep alone, and avoided everyone as much as possible. He spoke to no one, and no one spoke to him. Samantha was the only one that didn't seem to be angry or afraid of him, but she really wasn't much of talker herself, so even if she was around he more or less spent his time in silence anyways.

The only person he had any desire to see was Clytemnestra. Harry found himself staring at her more and more when they were in class together. The strange thing was that she never seemed to be around anywhere outside of class. Harry had no idea where she disappeared off to while the others were in the common room. He spent more and more of his time wondering about her. Who was she exactly? Everyone seemed to think she was the daughter of someone who died long, long ago, but no one seemed likely to explain to him how that was even possible. With a jolt, he remembered that he and Rose had agreed to visit Hagrid's hut on Friday to try and get answers to that very question. He wondered if Rose had ended up going there together with Albus and maybe with a few of their other cousins. Whatever the case, she was better off without him. Harry had thought at first that he had been put into Slytherin unfairly, but maybe this was where he belonged, far from everyone else. After all, he had proved that night that he was dangerous. It was best to just keep quiet and do everything alone.

Sometimes when Harry was staring at Clytemnestra, she would meet his eyes for a second or two. He never really understood what she was thinking, but in a way she seemed to understand him. She certainly had that night, when she had stopped him from doing... who knows what. How had she known? He almost wanted to ask, but could never find the words. So in the end, he never said anything and neither did she. As the days crept by, it was a very real possibility that his voice had stopped working altogether. Harry wondered if that would be a problem.

The next week was even more of the same, as the other students got used to the way things were at Hogwarts, Harry got used to his pattern of silence. Every morning, he tried to come down every day after the morning delivery was over. Not that he was afraid of owls of course; he just preferred not to be around when they were. The only problem was that it didn't leave him much time to eat... but he did much of that anyways. Samantha forced him to eat sometimes, but if she was distracted or in a bad mood or simply indifferent he more or less ate nothing. In general, nobody seemed to care much what he did… so he did nothing. It was oddly relaxing.

They started using magic in most of their classes, practicing simple charms in Charms and simple inanimate transfiguration in Transfiguration. They didn't look very hard, but Harry didn't even try to cast the spells. He gave a few pretend waves to satisfy the Professors, who assured him that he would get it if he kept practicing. Eventually he would have to use magic again, but he wasn't going to unless he had to. Harry just didn't have any desire to use real magic... not when it could be dangerous. What if he wasn't able to control it and someone got hurt? No... it was better this way.

They had Astronomy on Wednesday nights, and old Professor Sinistra spent the first five minutes of class berating Harry for missing class the week before, the night he had just gone to bed forgetting all about the night class. He felt a bit guilty, but honestly couldn't have been able to handle a class at the time. He somehow managed to avoid detention and spent the rest of class avoiding the delighted smirks of the other Slytherins, who seemed to love watching people who weren't them getting yelled at. Harry found that he really didn't care very much and focused on memorizing the constellations. That was what they were supposed to be doing, after all.

Towards the end of the week, Harry got the feeling that he would have to start using magic soon, before the professors would catch on to his little act. Professor Mason had a knowing look in his eye when he told Harry to make sure he kept practicing on his own. The classes where they did nothing but writing were almost a relief, despite the fact that they were dull. History of Magic was the worst, it was taught by a little ghost named Professor Binns, who seemed to possess a magic voice that placed a sleeping enchantment on the class. It was a shame, really, since the stories of famous witches and wizards throughout history were really quite interesting. Merlin, Morgana, Circe, Dumbledore and so on had led really fascinating lives. It was too bad that it was all Harry could do to stay awake.

The end of Harry's second week found him lying in his bed in the early afternoon, looking up at the ceiling. They only had three classes on Fridays, and now that they were over he was in no mood to do anything else. Suddenly the door to the dormitory flew open and Harry sat up in startled confusion.

"Hey-what?" Harry managed before Atalanta sped over to his bed, her arms folded in front of her chest. She was a little girl, but somehow still managed to tower over him. She did not look happy.

"What the hell are you doing, Halo?" Atalanta said in a low growl. "Get up."

"You-you're not allowed in here, this is a boy's... OUCH!"

Atalanta was done talking; she grabbed a hold of his hair and pulled him out of bed.

"Okokok," Harry moaned, shuffling behind her as she marched him out of the dormitory. Harry thought that she might let go of his hair while they walked down the stairs, but Atalanta clearly had other ideas. She held on tight as she forced him down the stairs and across the common room. It hurt... a lot. There weren't too many Slytherins around, but the ones that were laughing hysterically. Harry caught a glimpse of Destiny Udoh and Amelia Runcorn sitting by the fire, rolling around in a fit of giggles. He rather doubted it was _that_ funny.

Atalanta led him by the hair through the castle, ignoring his questions and pleas that she let go of him. Harry lost all track of where they were, focusing only on shuffling his feet along so that it didn't hurt so much. Maybe he shouldn't have let it grow so long. It just made it easier for Atalanta to grab. If he had known...

"Miss Selwyn, what are you doing?" Professor Mason called out suddenly, striding over to frown down them. Harry had never been so glad to see a Professor before. He was saved!

"Teaching," Atalanta said calmly, not letting go of Harry's hair.

"Teaching..." Professor Mason echoed, his mouth arranged in a thin smile.

"Yes. Halo here has a difficult time interacting with others."

"I see," Professor Mason said, clearly trying not to laugh. "Are you sure you're the most qualified person to instruct young Harry on this matter, Atalanta?"

Atalanta scowled, pulling Harry away by the hair. "I-ouch... Professor Mason...help! "

"Oh, I'm sorry, Harry, but it would be impolite for me to interrupt someone else's lesson. Carry on, Professor Selwyn." Professor Mason gave him a cheery wave, and walked away without another word. And so they marched on.

They made their way outside, and Harry's had to blink several times to get adjusted to the light. It had been a while since he had gone outside, since he spent most of his time inside the dungeon. Why was Atalanta leading him outside? What was she planning?

"Here," Atalanta said at last, throwing him down onto the soft grass. Harry struggled to sit up and find where he was. He sat up, and found himself face to face with Rose, who was staring at him in disbelief. She was sitting at his favorite spot by the lake... and they were way too close to each other. Harry scrambled back, not at all understanding what was happening.

"I brought Halo here for you, Weasley," Atalanta said, folding her arms again irritably.

"Oh, um, thank you," Rose said in a little voice, looking completely lost. "W-who are you, exactly?"

"I'm Atalanta," she announced glaring expectantly at Harry, who just stared up at her in shock. "Cassandra Wiggins told me to go find her worthless brother and drag him out here. She said that you wanted to talk to him, but that he was being... difficult."

"Oh, I..." Rose mumbled, blushing furiously. She obviously hadn't intended for Harry to actually be _dragged_ anywhere. That was just Atalanta being Atalanta.

"My sister put you up to this?" Harry asked, massaging his head.

"She hasn't seen you in days, none of us have," snapped Atalanta. "She was worried and kept pestering me to make sure you were alright… so I had to do something just to shut her up."

"T-that's right," Rose said, glancing at Atalanta nervously. Clearly Rose was as intimidated by her as Harry was. Rose clearly didn't know what to say next.

"Fine, I'll let you two talk alone," Atalanta said with an irritated snort, as if they were annoying her. "And Halo, if you don't stop acting like an idiot I'm going to have to curse the stupid out of you." Giving him vicious glare, Atalanta stormed away.

Harry and Rose looked at each other in silence, both feeling rather awkward. Rose certainly didn't look mad at him... in spite of everything he had said and done. Why wasn't she mad at him?

"I didn't mean for that girl to drag you out here or anything, but I had a talk with your sister because I didn't know what else to do. I told her… well… I just wanted to say I'm sorry," Rose said, curling her hands into fists. She seemed quite upset, but with herself rather than him. It made no sense. "I wasn't thinking when said that Grant was just a stupid Slytherin. I didn't think about what you might..."

"Why are you apologizing?" Harry blurted, staring at her in shock. He was the one who had...

"I... I made you mad," Rose said, blinking her eyes rapidly. She looked like she might be about to cry. That wasn't right, he had to do something. Harry didn't want to see her cry.

"But it's my fault," Harry said loudly. "Everything was my fault! I said those terrible things about your cousin, and I didn't mean them. And I pushed you and everyone away because..." Harry faltered. He didn't know what to say anymore. All the things he had been thinking, the walls he had been building, didn't make sense out here in the sunshine. Why had he been running away from everyone again? "You... you are the one who should be mad at me!"

"Oh. Well I'm not, sorry," Rose said smiling slightly. "I'm just confused. You just disappeared all of a sudden. You ought to tell your friends before you go and do something like that, Harry. "

Harry stared at her smiling at him, wondering how he could have been so wrong. Rose didn't secretly hate him after all, he had been wrong about the whole thing. Had it really all just been in his head? He felt like such an idiot. _You ought to tell your friends... _Harry couldn't help it, he started crying. All the doubt and loneliness he had been piling on top of himself for the past week and a half came spilling out. He didn't like crying in front of Rose, it was embarrassing, but he couldn't help it. After all, no eleven-year-old was meant to feel that alone.

After a while, Harry managed to more or less stop crying a little, and he proceeded to tell Rose everything that had been happening to him, from the very beginning when he hadn't gotten a letter from Hogwarts. He left nothing out, even telling her everything Hermione and Ginny had told him. Rose was a rather impatient listener, interrupting him frequently to ask questions. It was really rather obnoxious, but Harry found he didn't care one bit. It was just so nice to share everything with a friend.  
>"So you said that the Lestrange girl definitely stopped you, knowing what you were going to do?" Rose asked, staring out across the water. "But how could she have known? Did she read your mind or something?"<p>

Harry didn't say anything. He was still too ashamed of what he had almost done that night. It still scared him to think of the things he was capable of saying and doing.

"Well, we won't get any answers sitting here," Rose said, springing to her feet. She looked so excited to be working on a mystery. "Let's go to Hagrid's and make him tell us the girl's secrets. You did sort of ditch me last week."

"Yeah, sorry about that," Harry said, smiling at her sudden burst of energy. He just couldn't muster brood or worry anymore. "All right, let's go."

Rose offered her hand to help him up, and this time he took it. Together they walked to Hagrid's hut, talking the whole way about all manner of nothing. Harry'd had his fill of saying nothing. From here on out, he was going to talk nonstop to make up for all the time he'd lost. As the made their way through Hagrid's patch of giant pumpkins, Harry promised himself two things. First, that he would be less of an idiot and consider things carefully before jumping to conclusions. Second, that he would never doubt Rose Weasley again.


End file.

Harry Potter, Adventure, Fantasy