Hoggy Hogwarts
Harry and Hermione stood with the rest of the first years as the sorting hat sang:
Oh you may not think me pretty, You might belong in Gryffindor,
But don't judge on what you see,
I'll eat myself if you can find
A smarter hat than me.
You can keep your bowlers black,
Your top hats sleek and tall,
For I'm the Hogwarts Sorting Hat
And I can cap them all.
There's nothing hidden in your head
The Sorting Hat can't see,
So try me on and I will tell you
Where you ought to be.
Where dwell the brave at heart,
Their daring, nerve, and chivalry
Set Gryffindors apart;
You might belong in Hufflepuff,
Where they are just and loyal,
Those patient Hufflepuffs are true
And unafraid of toil;
Or yet in wise old Ravenclaw,
If you've a ready mind,
Where those of wit and learning,
Will always find their kind;
Or perhaps in Slytherin So put me on! Don't be afraid!
You'll make your real friends,
Those cunning folks use any means
To achieve their ends.
And don't get in a flap!
You're in safe hands (though I have none)
For I'm a Thinking Cap!
:Some things never change, Harry commented. Hermione looked at him with an amused expression but said nothing. Soon enough they heard, "Black, Harry" called. Harry could hear various mutterings of "another Black" and "bet he ends up in Slytherin".
Harry stopped just before sitting on the stool, and looked out at the crowd. He decided not to respond before sitting down. As the hat blocked out the view of the gathered people, he heard, "well now Mr. Potter, shall we place you back in Gryffindor or would you like to be placed somewhere else?"
Smiling slightly, Harry responded, "Gryffindor please." He heard the hat shout "Gryffindor" to the rest of the hall, and quickly walked to an empty seat. He was pleased to notice that there was an amount of clapping that was appropriate to someone who neither saint nor sinner, just another person.
Harry watched as various people were sorted until it was Hermione's turn. He smiled as she walked with confidence towards the hat. Once she had it on, Harry turned his attention to Dumbledore. Dumbledore, having realized that he was looking at him, glanced at him for a moment before returning to look at the sorting.
Harry let his eyes drift down the table, most of the professors were there, McGonagall, Snape, Quirrell and others. He noticed that Quirrell was wearing a turban, which confirmed that Voldemort was now on the grounds.
Harry heard the hat shout Gryffindor, and glanced at Hermione as she walked down and sat next to him. She too glanced at Quirrell, but said nothing about it. They watched as their old friends and enemies were sorted back into their same houses. As the feast began, Harry let his hand drift over towards Hermione's to simply kept contact with her.
Harry knew that it would seem odd, as more than a few of their friends thought they were too much like brother and sister to actually have feelings for each other, which given their physical age, would not be surprising. Harry was glad that he was skilled enough to eat left handed, as it took some getting used to, as he brushed his right hand against hers.
Hermione glanced at him, but didn't say anything. She understood that this was bringing up memories that weren't completely unpleasant, but were painful none the less. These were times when Voldemort was considered dead, only a small few still stood guard against his return. Seeing the faces of so many who had meant so much, happy and without a care of the darkness looming up was painful.
As soon as the feast was over, and the school song sang, Dumbledore dismissed them, but had McGonagall hold Harry back. Seeing as he was Harry Black, not Potter, this caused a few odd looks from his friends. Keeping his face neutral, but plotting all the ways he was going to make the old man pay, he walked with his head of house into Dumbledore's office.
As he entered, Dumbledore dismissed Professor McGonagall. Once she had left, he leaned back in his chair, "now Mr. Potter, how is it that Sirius was able to was able to incriminate so many former death eaters that slipped through the cracks?"
Harry calmly leaned back, a pose that was a clear imitation of the headmaster, with one slight difference. Harry's eyes showed clear amusement, where as Dumbledore's were of a more comforting nature. "I wouldn't know sir, my father doesn't discuss his work with me." Harry smiled at the intrigued look on the headmaster's face.
"So is Ms. Granger the one that came with you from the future," Dumbledore asked as if he were certain of the answer.
Harry gave him a bemused look, "Ms. Granger," he said with clear sarcasm, "is my friend. I don't see how you as the headmaster need to concern yourself with my relationship to her."
"Mr. Potter," Dumbledore began.
"Its Black sir."
"You would deny those that brought you into this world?"
"I am saying nothing. I was saying nothing then and I am saying nothing now." Harry grinned, "if there is nothing else sir, may I be dismissed to my common room?"
Dumbledore looked perplexed, but dismissed him. Harry reached out towards where he felt Hermione and called :what's the password love:
:Caput Draconis: came her tired response. :So he finally let you go, that's good. Your conversation was keeping me up.:
Harry laughed softly and made his way down the path to the fat lady. Quickly saying the password, he walked up to his dorm, dressed for bed, and went to sleep.
Both Harry and Hermione found it fun to torment their teachers, mostly by giving instruction that was custom tailored to their friends. Ron and Neville were sitting pretty at the sixth and seventh positions in grade raking at the end of the first week, while Hermione and Harry sat tied for the number one spot.
The only person most put off by this was, of course, Snape. Snape had even gone as far as to pair them up with Slytherins, which was advantageous for the Slytherins.
It had became quickly evident that the two of them were highly skilled, but no one said anything that could possibly upset them, especially after what happened to Malfoy. Malfoy was stupid enough to call Hermione a Mudblood, which set Harry off. They found Malfoy three days later in a rather small broom closet in a ridiculously improbable position, it took two days for his bones to reform.
The two of them sat underneath their favorite tree, Harry laid with his head in Hermione's lap with his eyes closed as if asleep. What appeared to outsiders as two friends enjoying the last days of warmth and sun, was an intense struggle to keep the other out.
Their skills in Occlumency had been only rivaled by each other, not even the combined skill of Dumbledore and Snape could penetrate either of their shields. Currently they could hold each other out while attacking for forty five minutes, something they had been told was supposedly impossible.
After passing their goal by a minute, Harry sent :I can't believe that life was ever this peaceful.:
Hermione leaned back against the tree:everyone believes that Voldemort is dead, why wouldn't they be peaceful: They had begun planning for the eventual confrontation with Voldemort at the end of the year, something that they were loathed to even contemplate, and decided to exploit their knowledge of what would happen and take their enemy down before he could attempt a second time.
The plan was simple, lie low and wait for Voldemort to make his move for the stone. Outside of that, there was nothing else they could think of to do that didn't include tipping their hand in case they failed. Harry had already explained to Dumbledore that Voldemort was on the school grounds and that he would be taken care of on the timetable that Hermione and Harry had set up.
Two other goals firmly in place was to get their hands on Riddle's diary and prevent the Basilisk from attacking students. The only unfortunate part of getting the Diary was that to free Dobby, they would have to place Ginny or another student in the crossfire between the light and dark.
They had thrown ideas back and forth on how to accomplish freeing Dobby and saving the students from the power of the diary, but so far came up with nothing. They contemplated using the Polyjuice potion with a hair from Malfoy Jr., but weren't sure if it would work.
A possible side benefit was that if Dobby were freed, he'd be willing to work with Winky and hopefully their relationship would still flourish as it had. Though having Winky working at Harry's house taking care of Sirius and Remus would change the shape of things.
Far sooner than they would have liked, they returned inside for dinner. No one seemed to notice them walking in together, although they walk very close to each other. As they sat down next to Neville and Ron, Hermione was struck by the incompleteness of their group.
She missed having Ginny to talk to, though that was mostly after she had gotten over the crush she had on Harry, even Luna. The decision to hold back on contacting Luna had been a hard choice, but given that Luna was gifted with a small talent of foresight, they had stayed clear until she had more control of her talent, so she wouldn't be burdened by what they had seen happen to her.
Never one to be very interested in Quidditch, unless Harry was playing, she took out a rather large book and began reading. To anyone who didn't know what it was, it looked like Hogwarts: A History, to her it was Sending the undead to the 0therside: A Beginners Guide to Exorcisms.
Hopefully they would be able to send Voldemort out of their world and lives for good.
1700 wds. You would think being in between jobs would give me plenty of time to work on writing, but apparently not. Sorry for the 4+ month delay. There's a B5 line in here, anyone know what it is?
RamiNeko: Very good ideas, not sure exactly how I could implement them, but their added to my list of things to use.
Fred: 1) yes 2) just not the Crouchs 3) Malfoy still has the diary 4) yep 5) oh definitely
Shinigami: A little is explained about why they haven't gotten in contact with Luna, but they will be meeting her during the summer before the next school year (don't hold me to that though).
Cocoa Girl: Sorry, their Gryffindors. It plays a part later, as Harry isn't widely know as Harry Potter but Black.