Back to Hogwarts

Harry could not move his head.

He was in a semi-lit room. The main source of light seemed to be candles placed in a cycle around him. The furniture and the decoration was in the style of Victorian England. It was rather lavish.

He felt like a spectator in a movie. It seemed as if he was in a small baby-like body. Tiny fingers and arms where stretched out where his normal arms should have been.

The view focused on a man cowering before him.

"Master, your only faithful servants are ready to die for you. Please forgive my fathers absence. The Minister is meeting with him right now." the cowering figure proclaimed.

"I will be merciful this time. He has done well in placing himself in such a good position in the time I was away. Now it is only for him to prove that he did this not out of weakness." a high pitched voice said. It seemed to originate with Harry. It continued, "I am pleased with your plans. Are they all ready?"

Harry awoke sweating. Was this real or just a dream? It seemed so real. He had never had a dream this vivid.

Harry shook his head. He would think about this later, on the train maybe. For now he had to get ready. Back to Hogwarts!

HPU

After the eight hour train ride, Harry was glad to get tho the Great Hall and join everyone in the start of the year traditions. First the sorting and then the feast. Harry had only had a sandwich on the train. This left him starving and ready for the meal.

Most of the name of the first years did not ring a bell for Harry. As a fourth year, he would have little contact with any of them, so he paid a little less attention to the names than in years past. At first he scanned the head table for any new professor. At the very end of the table, right next to the back door, sat a man whose most distinctive feature was a large magical eye. It seemed to twirl about constantly. His clothing was bulging, hiding who know what. Harry had the impression that the man was constantly expecting death around the corner.

The sorting reminded him of his first year. He had been, unexpectedly sorted to Slytherin. He had pleaded with the hat to let him go to 'the house of the brave.' The hat had not given in, however, he had seen that Harry was plenty brave, but had nevertheless placed him into Slytherin. His parting thoughts to Harry had been, 'In Gryffindor you would do great things, in Slytherin you will change the world.'

Of changing the world Harry had seen very little the last three years. Sure, the number of times Harry had faced some deadly peril could be termed: 'above average,' but the number of people it had affected was rather limited.

"Dennis Creevey." Professor McGonagall announced, ripping Harry out of his thoughts.

The person the name referred to was physically almost identical to Colin Creevey, so he must be the brother of the annoying Gryffindor. Harry worried that little Dennis would be as obnoxious as his older brother. In Colin's first year, Harry had to constantly be on the look out for Creevey's camera. Only last year had Creevey really become integrated in Gryffindor. That was when the Muggle-born had started to understand that the house rivalry between Gryffindor and Slytherin meant that he could not worship Harry. The constant terror of the dementors had maybe also toned Creevey down.

"GRYFFINDOR!" the hat proclaimed.

Yes, those dementors last year, they had been the last of a series of monsters he had encountered. So far. First year, it had been a troll and a possessed professor. Second year, it was the great basilisk. Then last year the aforementioned dementors as well as a werewolf and an escaped prisoner. The last two turned out to be new friends for him, but that was not something he knew at the time of the encounter.

"Isolde Greengrass." McGonagall announced a little later.

'Ah, Daphne Greengrass's younger sister,' Harry thought to himself. She was blond like Daphne and Astoria, but the hair was cut short, just above the shoulders, not long down the back like they had. Externally, she resembled her older sisters in every way. She seemed more subdued then Astoria, but not as 'icy' as the Ice Queen.

The hat took no time at all to decide: "SLYTHERIN!"

Slytherin.

Harry had been in Slytherin now for three full years. Yet, he was no closer of making an in house friend then on the day he was sorted.

Come to think of it, he didn't really have any friends at all.

When he had faced the monsters he had usually done it alone. There were some acquaintances that were almost friends, but that was it.

Harry's role of outcast within Slytherin left him no room to make friends. His position within Slytherin was absolute. While in the dungeon, no one would talk to him. This was an actual improvement from the first year. Initially the snakes had been openly hostile to him, this was partially due to his mothers Muggle-born status. But that was not the main reason. Tracy Davis was also a half blood, but her friendship with Daphne Greengrass eased her into Slytherin.

The main reason Harry was an outcast, was that Draco Malfoy had decided that Harry was the main threat to Malfoy's supreme rule over their year. His influence spread far and wide in the Dungeon, so Harry was avoided like the plague by his housemates.

Harry's role as star Seeker had mellowed out most of the house, but had only served to increase the hatred Malfoy had for him. Malfoy's threats kept the snakes away from Harry. The only time he was popular was when Harry caught the Snitch. While he was flying over the Quidditch pitch, he was free.

Outside the house he also had no chance of making friends. Gryffindor and Hufflepuff did not interact with Slytherin on principle. There was no way that he could befriend one of them.

The situation with Ravenclaw was a bit more complicated. The relationship between Slytherin and Ravenclaw were always shaky, but of the three other houses, Ravenclaw was the one closest to Slytherin. This led Ravenclaws to usually defer to the internal politicking of Slytherin when forming opinions of individual Slytherins. This led Ravenclaw to also reject Harry.

After the troll incident, Hermione Granger and he had hung out together several times. But, Granger's Ravenclaw housemates had not allowed this. Granger was esteemed in the house of the learned, mainly because of her intellectual powers. Her position as smartest witch of the year allowed at least the Ravenclaws to overlook her Muggle heritage. This status, however, did not allow her to befriend a very unpopular half-blood Slytherin. If Granger continued to spend time with Harry, she was exposed to relentless harassment by her house. Harry was surprised how vicious they could be to her.

And so the two had agreed upon a secret signal to arrange hidden encounters, but discontinued regular meetings. Harry was sad that he could not become friends with Granger, but he wanted the Muggle-born to enjoy her time at Hogwarts, even if he had not really enjoyed much besides Quidditch.

"Mafalda Weasley," was the final name announced.

Another Weasley! It could not be a sister of Ginny. She was well known to be the only girl in the family. A cousin maybe. Harry was interested in the Weasleys mainly because he had rescued Ginny from a gigantic basilisk in his second year. But this was a forgone conclusion. ALL Weasleys go to Gryffindor. Harry was a little sad, he would never get to know them. There was just too big of a divide between Gryffindor and Slytherin. And the Weasleys were as Gryffindor as one could be. Arthur and Molly had been very grateful to him, but the Weasley children, when in Hogwarts, avoided getting too near any Slytherin. After the initial thanks to him, things had quickly gotten back to normal.

Harry's main interactions with the Weasleys had been on the Quidditch field. The twins were excellent Beaters. Ginny had become the new Gryffindor Seeker. She had given Harry quite a hard game last year. The Weasley influence on the Gryffindor team was undeniable. He would not be surprised if Ron would also be on the team at some point. Harry would love to play some pick up Quidditch with them sometime. Maybe he could befriend these three at least, on those grounds.

"SLYTHERIN!" exclaimed the hat, tearing Harry from his Quidditch musings.

The hall was silent. Not a single hair twitched. Harry looked over to the Gryffindor table.

The Weasleys were wide eyed.

The twins smirked despite their wide eyes. Harry had been the target of their pranks in the past, before he had saved Ginny. Were they planing to harass his new house mate, or did they think they have a new spy to help them plot against the House of Slytherin new unspeakable terror? Only time would tell.

Ron was red as a tomato. He had a frown on his face. Harry did not see anything good come out of this.

Ginny frowned. But it was not a malicious frown as with her brother. Rather she seemed sad at the lost opportunity to get to know her cousin better.

Mafalda looked at the Slytherin table. Her face betrayed no emotions, her mouth was sealed so tight, it was just a single line. Her red hair partially hid her eyes. Harry was sure she was absolutely terrified. She took a tentative step towards the table. Every face on Gryffindor and Hufflepuff showed concern or sorrow.

As she came close to the table, it became apparent that no one made room for her on the benches. It reminded Harry awfully like his own sorting three years ago. He was painfully aware how she had to feel. He had had the same reception into this house.

As Mafalda approached midway, close to where he sat, Harry had enough. She was just a first year! Harry waved at her invitingly. There was ample room around him. Harry was not part of any of the factions of the house, so he had to sit by himself.

As all the eyes were still on her, she hardly changed her poker face, but a faint smile could be detected if one really paid attention.

Mafalda sat down next to Harry. "Thanks." she peeped quietly.

Harry could also see thankful expressions in the faces of Ginny and the twins.

The Headmaster clapped his hands. "What joy, what joy. We are almost at the most important part of the night, the food.

"… But before that, I have to introduce you to our new DADA teacher. I nearly forgot. I was able to fill the spot with an old friend of mine Mr. Alastor Moody. He is very qualified, he was Head Auror for decades and served with distinction during the last war with Voldemort. …

"But now children, to the food!" He snapped with his right hand, and the five tables were filled with an opulent feast of heavy English cuisine. There was some Scottish flavors this year too though, such as haggis. "To the food, lets begin!"

And everyone did just that.

Harry tried to smile at Mafalda encouragingly, "I am Harry Potter. If you need any help, I will do the best I can to be there for you. So, who is Mafalda Weasley?"

"I am a somewhat estranged member of the Weasley clan. My father is a stock broker in the Muggle world. Dad kind of abandoned the magical world, after he met my mother, a Muggle. He is a squib. I was born a witch anyway, and so now I am here." She freely shared, but quietly enough that only the two of them could hear it.

"Just as a warning, I would keep this information guarded. I have a Muggle-born mother and this has been a problem for me in this house. If some purebloods here discover that you're the daughter of a squib and a Muggle, you will have real trouble," Harry warned her. "But don't worry too much, since you are a Weasley, no one will suspect it."

HPU

After everyone appeared to be finished, the Headmaster stood up, snapped his fingers to disappear the dessert, and waited for everyone to be quiet.

Since the dessert disappeared, all students quickly quieted down.

"Now, children, I have to remind you that the Forbidden Forest is forbidden. Also our esteemed caretaker Argus Filch has updated the banned items list to now include one hundred and twenty nine items. I am at loss to how to remember one hundred and twenty nine items," some students giggled. "If you desire to attempt the feat, you can find the list by asking him very nicely." Turning to the Deputy-Headmistress, he asked her in a whisper, which was amplified due to the sonorus charm, "have I told them about the Forbidden Forest yet."

"Yes, Headmaster."

He resumed: "Ok, well then, I have a final two announcements. One good and one bad as they say. …

"As for the bad news, this year both the house cup and the Quidditch cup are canceled."

The entire student body released an unified groan. Harry was instantly red in his face, how could they cancel Quidditch?

Dumbledore resumed unperturbed: "In its place Hogwarts is honored to host an ancient tradition, the Triwizard Tournament. One champion from each of the three schools participating will have the opportunity to win everlasting fame and one thousand Galleons. I am sure some of you remember the last time it was held, I was just a little lad, but my mother would read to me about it, from the papers. The Daily Prophet had a whole page about the winner. Our own Gryffindor Champion won. … Sadly of course Clarence Mortimer won only posthumously, … you see all three champions died in the second task … it was rather grand anyway."

The Headmasters continued ramblings about the last Triwizard Tournament was drowned by the exited and feverish noise of the students. Everyone shouted atop each other. All wanted to know who would try to become one of the Champions.

Students were shouting across tables and the Gryffindor table was already taunting the Slytherins for not possibly being worthy of the honor.

Harry was still angry, this silly tournament could not possibly replace Quidditch!

"Silence!" The Deputy-Headmistress, used a slightly over-powered sonorus charm to get the student body back into control. "This concludes tonight's Welcoming Feast. Please, leave to your respective houses. First years, the fifth year prefects will lead you to your rooms, and introduce you to your new house. Please, do head to bed quietly. It is late, and classes start tomorrow."

Her last request was of course ignored. Nevertheless, with a loud murmuring, the students moved to the exit.

Harry turned to Mafalda, "Over there are our prefects. You can identify them because of the 'P's on their chest. Remember if you need anything, just come to me."

"Thanks, Harry. Good night." Mafalda said, and left with the other first years.

A.N. And so it begins.

I have a question: I am still learning this whole writing thing, so I would like some feedback. In this chapter I tried to show how Harry goes back and forth with paying attention to the sorting, and thinking back on his situation in Hogwarts. I hope it was an ok way of introducing his situation. How did that work?

So, according to Wikipedia, Mafalda is an unused character of early scripts of GF. Although that Mafalda would not be a Weasley, since she is from Molly's side, not from Arthur's. The character is rather sparsely described, so she will be mostly an OC, including the fact that she is from the Weasley side, not the Prewett. When reading this I decided that a Slytherin Weasley cousin is perfect for a Slytherin!Harry story.

Also, I gave some cannon characters extra siblings, just because. Actually there is some sense that might or might not be more apparent in the future.