Harry gave a sigh as Hermione gave him a lecture on why he should be paying more attention to her when she spoke with him. The warm cushions of the small compartment in Hogwarts Express seemed to grow softer in sympathy of his current state. Ron, noticing his boredom opened his rather large mouth to speak,

"Hermione, how is that book you were reading the other day?" and Hermione's eyes immediately lit up and she began to babble on about the uses of unicorn hairs in wands.

Harry gave Ron a grateful look before staring out the fast moving scenery. It had been a long summer that drew Harry to a close that made him desperately wish he was back at Hogwarts. He had been having strange dreams lately, most of them playing the scenes of Sirius's death before him; However, every once in a while, there came a strange dream where he would be standing in a tall grass meadow and the stars hung above, a small emerald colored snake would be wrapped around his neck and a pair of strong alabaster arms would encircle his waist. There would be a small river in front of him and across from that river was a gray figure that he couldn't make out yet.

This dream would occur often and the figure became clearer and clearer each time he had it. He had pondered many times over what that figure was, whoever or whatever it was, he felt bad intent radiating off of it. Maybe it was Voldemort, but he didn't dare tell Ron or Hermione about it, they would probably rant about how he should tell Dumbledore.

He didn't trust Dumbles all that much anymore, lately, Dumbledore was either completely ignoring him, or giving him lectures about spending more time with his friends. Sure, he used to enjoy playing Quidditch with Ron or listening to Hermione rant about something actually interesting, but now, they treated him differently. It was like they were dealing with some fragile vase that could shatter and cut them if they weren't too careful. Harry gave a mental snort, he wasn't going to blow up in their faces, he did take Sirius's death pretty hard, but he figured that Sirius would want him to live his life happily instead of sulking about his death. Hermione and Ron however, decided that he should do what they thought what he was supposed to do and mentioned Sirius many times, all of them explaining that he should just forget Sirius and focus on more important things like playing wizard's chess with Ron. Well, he had gotten over Sirius, but he sure wasn't going to toss his memories of him out the window and play some bloody game of chess like there were no problems in the world!

"Harry! Mate! Are you even listening to me?" Ron pushed his red face up to Harry's.

"Oh, sorry Ron, what were you saying?" Harry rolled his eyes in his mind

"I was talking," Ron dramatically stated, "about how we could get back at Malfoy and those slimy snakes." Harry let out another sigh and opened his mouth to reply when-

"Look here, if it isn't Potter and his two pathetic friends," Malfoy sneered as Crabbe and Goyle stood obediently at his side.

"Go away Malfoy!" Ron's face turned red.

"O boo hoo, it looks like we upset dear Weasel, would you like a little sucker to make you feel better?" Malfoy smirked while Crabbe and Goyle snorted at his insult.

"Why you!" and Ron pulled out his wand determined to jinx Malfoy back to 1st year.

"Ron, stop it, he's not worth it," Hermione quickly intervened; things were getting out of hand!

"You need your mudblood girlfriend to hold you back eh?"

"Why you-!"

"Why me what? Are you going to hex me Weasel? Or maybe your Mudblood will? I should have known that you would need a weak little Mudblood to run to once you need to lick your wounds." The ice prince taunted them with another infamous Malfoy sneer and continued, "Oh? And what's this? Potter has nothing to say? Maybe the death of his dear Black made him even more stupid? I don't think that's even possible.-"

"Malfoy," and the gray eyed teen met Harry's eyes. Harry looked up and locked gazes with him. Surprisingly there was a flicker of worry but it was soon covered with the cold piercing glares that usually filled them.

"Crabbe, Goyle, let's go." The blond mumbled, they immediately followed his command, and before Malfoy left he took a small unreadable glance at Harry.

"What was that about?" Hermione voiced her question out loud.

"He's probably planning something, those slimy bastards! I bet they're going to hex us in our sleep," Ron exclaimed, rather proud of his conclusion. Harry gave another small sigh and waited for Hogwarts Express to reach its destination.

The Great Hall was bustling with students chattering away about how their summer had been and telling new adventures they had. The ceiling was enchanted to show a beautiful starry night and candles drifted in the air above their heads. The golden trio took their seats at the Gryffindor table and was greeted by Neville, Sean, and Seamus. The Headmaster chimed his goblet for the Great Hall's attention and everyone became quiet.

"We will now begin sorting the first years, McGonagall?" he gestured to the Head of House for Gryffindor. McGonagall cleared her throat and pulled out the long scroll.

"Sarriet Gloraine." The first year walked up to the Sorting Hat and sat nervously under the singing head ornament.

"Ravenclaw!" and the sorting had begun.

After all the first years had taken their seats, Dumbledore stood to make an announcement.

"As you all remember well, last year the Ministry of Magic had replaced me with Dolores Umbridge." Most of the student body flinched. "We have once again had another misfortune and lost another Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher; However, do not fret, we have found a very intelligent and competent teacher, it is with my pleasure that the teacher for Defense Against the Dark Arts is Aens Sethinia! Please welcome him to Hogwarts." A man stood and the female part of the student body sighed. He had pale smooth skin, jet-black hair that reached his waist, almost wine colored eyes and wore all black robes. He bowed politely as the Hogwarts students applauded for him and sat back down.

"Let the feast begin!" Dumbledore quieted his voice with a quieting charm. Food appeared in front of the students and the excited chatter grew. Harry rubbed his temples in an attempt to get rid of his headache and popped a piece of chicken in his mouth. Ron, apparently, decided against the new DADA teacher once he heard Hermione sigh along with the female student body.

"I bet that DADA teacher has something up his sleeve! Hermione! Are you listening to me? I said-!"

"Harry Potter." And the green-eyed teen turned to face McGonagall's serious stance. "The Headmaster would like to speak to you about something, Mr. Weasley and Ms. Granger can come along as well." Ron gave a small groan but was silenced by Hermione's scolding look. Harry popped one more piece of chicken in his mouth and strode out of the Great Hall, glad to get away from the ruckus. The Golden Trio followed McGonagall to Dumbledore's office and they climbed up the stairs once the gargoyle jumped out of the way. Hermione asked their Head of House what was going on, but the professor just answered that they would find out soon. Dumbledore greeted them warmly, offered them a lemon drop, and then told them to take a seat.

"Harry, over the summer, have you hung around your friends at all?" Harry looked down on his hands resting on his lap in order to avoid the prying eyes of his headmaster and replied.

"No, I haven't lately." The old wizard gave a disappointed sigh and spoke with a soft scolding voice, "Now Harry, I know you miss Sirius, we all do, however, you need to move on and play with your friends." Hermione gave a small, satisfied nod, and Ron grinned at Dumbledore's agreement with their opinion.

"I'll try to hang around them more Sir," Harry replied dryly as he could almost feel his magic boiling the air in the room. The Headmaster's eyes flashed in a brief sense of danger and said calmly, "Harry, please calm down, we just want you to get better and move on, its what Sirius would want-,"

"How would you know! You knew he was innocent damn it! Yet, you kept him in Askaban, you didn't let him have a fair trial! You abandoned him when he needed your help, and-!"

"Mr. Potter, watch how you speak to the Headmaster!" McGonagall sputtered like an angry cat. Ron and Hermione looked shocked at Harry's outrage, this wasn't the Harry they knew. The boy-who-lived was about to open his mouth to say some more when he was interrupted.

"Ah, Harry Potter, I always knew great things would come from you," a voice spoke out. All of the attention in the room was placed on The Sorting Hat. "I've been watching you, Harry Potter, I believe that you have grown. It is time." Dumbledore's face clearly wrote confusion on it.

"Time for what?" Ron frowned. Hermione was quickly scanning her brain for answers, the Sorting Hat only came to life when he was sorting the children, or when there was great danger to Hogwarts. She highly doubted that there would be a great danger now, of all times, so why was it animated?

Harry spoke up, "What do you mean?" the Sorting Hat gave a sort of a chuckle, "my dear boy, it is time for you to be re-sorted."

"Re-re-sorted!" Surprisingly, it was McGonagall that asked broke the silence first.

"Yes, I've been watching you, young Harry Potter, you will do many great things, but the house that you asked to be in has completed it's purpose, you will be sorted into a house that suits you better, yes?" and the Sorting Hat chuckled to itself again, like it was sharing some private joke. Dumbledore frowned; surely Harry was a true Gryffindor, if he wasn't then how could have pulled out Godric's Sword in the 2nd his second year? Only a true Gryffindor could pull out that sword and hold it without being burned by it. Fawkes also, he wouldn't have helped Harry unless the boy passed Fawkes's judgement, and phoenixes were the purest of the pure magical creatures there were. Surely the Gryffindor house was the purest of all three houses? Wasn't it? The old wizard nodded to himself, even if he was sorted into a different house than Gryffindor, Dumbledore was not afraid that he would be in Slytherin, even after Harry had told him the Sorting Hat wanted to place him there. Harry was too pure of a child to be in Slytherin, and even if the Sorting Hat would suggest Slytherin to Harry again, that boy would definitely refuse. He had been fighting with Slytherins since 1st year though, so he would definitely refuse. Harry could still be a pure child in the other houses, Dumbledore nodded to himself.

"If you insist, Sorting Hat." He bowed to the animated hat. Motioning for a still shocked McGonagall to place the hat on Harry, the boy panicked and before he could jump out of his seat, the hat was set on him.

"Harry Potter, I remember when you asked me to set you in Gryffindor six years ago, you are now in your 6th year at Hogwarts. Ah, yes, I see your fellow Gryffindors and that old bumbling fool of a Headmaster annoy you. You want to change, do you not? I see that you are tired of being told what to do. Do you want to do great things? Do you want to be your own person? I know just the house, however, once again, you will need to choose. Which house do you want to be in? "

Harry gulped and thought about which house he wanted to be in, he wished it with all his might, he wanted to be free from his shackles, he wanted the house that would welcome him as Harry, not the boy-who-lived, not the savior of the world, not Harry Potter, just Harry. The house he wanted, the place he wanted to be, was at-

"Slytherin!" The Old Sorting Hat shouted, and the room went silent.

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AN: haha! thats the end of the first chappy! were you expecting that? i bet you were. If you want me to continue with this story, just give me a review telling so. This story has some very interesting twists, who is the new DADA teacher? Why slytherin? how will dumbles, Mcgonagall, ron and hermione react? What does this have to do with vampires? (hinttttt hintttt) Review to tell me if you want me to continue!