AN: Hello everyone, I'm back with another chapter. Thank you to everyone who has reviewed. As some might have realized Harry is getting slightly OOC. This has to do with the influences of his Shinigami friends. Mostly Ikkaku and Yumichika are trying to man him up. Hedwig won't be in here sadly. Harry already got Makoto as a pet.

Well, I hope you'll all like the next chapter.

Chapter 8

After a few minutes of waiting they were finally led into the Great Hall. As Harry got his first glance he saw there were five long tables. One at the head of the hall were the teachers and headmaster and other staff were seated. Then you had four other tables were the students were seated.

Above each table were hanging banners in four different colors and with four different animals on it. You had green with silver with a snake on it. Red and gold with a lion. Blue and bronze with an eagle and last you had yellow and black with a badger on it.

Also above the table were floating hundreds of candles in midair. Harry supposed it was with the help of magic and magic also probably prevented the wax from dripping down. As Harry looked up to the ceiling he was surprised to see the night sky imprinted on it and it seemed to look pretty real.

"It's bewitched to look like the sky outside. I read about it in Hogwarts, A History." He heard Hermione whisper.

Harry turned his attention back to the sorting ceremony. Professor McGonagall had placed a four legged stool in front of the first years. Upon the stool she placed a patched, frayed and extremely dirty pointed wizard's hat.

Then a rim in the hat suddenly opened and it started to burst out in a song. Soon after the hat finished his song and the hall quieted down again the sorting finally started. They were sorted in alphabetic order of their surnames.

Yumichika was the first of them to be sorted. It took the hat longer to sort his soul reaper friend than it had all the students that had went before him. As Harry looked on it seemed to him Yumichika was having an argument with the hat as he noticed a sour and irritated expression on the beauty obsessed Shinigami.

"I wonder what they're arguing about?" Ikkaku muttered.

"He's probably complaining about the fact he has to put an dirty old hat on his head." Harry whispered back.

After the argument seemed to be finally over Yumichika was sorted into Gryffindor. James, Lily and Ikkaku were all sorted before Harry was, all of them into Gryffindor too. Though the hat had also taken the time with sorting them and it made Harry wonder why. Was the hat onto something?

As his turn drew closer and closer he suddenly became more nervous about getting sorted. He wondered more and more if the hat had figured out of them being Shinigami's, most of their party being dead with him as an exception. Finally he was called forward and as he had expected the hall bursted out in whispers.

He slowly made his way to the four legged stool and sat down, putting the frayed old hat on his head. The dirty old thing fell down over his eyes, making him feel a little bit irritated at it.

'Well excuse me if I'm too large for a child's head. You know I was made to fit on the head of an adult.' Echoed through his head.

'Ah, so you really can talk into someone's mind. I hope there won't be any peaking around.' Harry thought to the hat.

'Ah, don't worry. I already got a handful of yelling thrown at me from the wand spirit of that Madarame fellow. If I had ears they would be still ringing.' The hat replied.

'Wand spirit?' Harry asked curiously.

'Ah, it doesn't occur often, but once in a while the spirit in a wizards wand let itself know to its master. It is said that those who can hear those spirits become magnificent wizards.' The hat answered.

'I see, so what about this sorting. What do I have to do?' Harry asked.

'Let me brush the most outer barrier of your mind. I only need to pick up on your characteristics. No need to poke any further.' The hat told him.

'Alright, I think I can do that.' Harry replied and let his mind shield lower just enough for the hat to brush the most outer shield.

'Hmm, let's see. I see you got quite the fighting spirit. A courageous heart and you care quite a lot about your friends. I also see a little bit of cunning, though it seems to have melted down quite a bit. You probably would have done great in Slytherin had the influence of your friends not changed you. There is only one house you'll fit in perfectly…' the hat started inside his mind.

"GRYFFINDOR!" The hat then shouted out loud.

The hall busted out in applause and cheers. With his ears still ringing from the hat's loud shout Harry made his way to the Gryffindor table and sat with his friends. Makoto jumped off his shoulder and sat down on his lap.

After the sorting the headmaster said a few words, before the table suddenly filled itself up with food to the surprise of Harry, Ikkaku and Yumichika.

And just after dinner Dumbledore spoke to the students again, telling them there was some change in staff, some about the rules and a list of objects that weren't allowed in the school and lastly he told them that the third floor corridor on the right hand side was out of bounds.

The students then were taken to their dormitories by the prefects.

It was later that night when everyone else had fallen asleep that Harry confronted his friend with what the hat had told him. It had been bothering him ever since and it had also made him quite curious.

"Do you think there have been more people who have awakened their Zanpakuto even before there death?" Harry asked in curiosity.

"Aside from you there has only been one case of a human gaining the powers of a Shinigami and with that unlocking his Zanpakuto while still alive. Though I've never heard of other humans being able to even communicate with their Zanpakuto spirit even before their death." Ikkaku admitted.

"We should at least report this. It would probably give a lot of trouble should some wizard find out how to unleash the power of a Zanpakuto." Lily said with a concerned look in her face.

"Even more troublesome if that someone is Voldemort or some of his followers." Harry said.

"I don't even want to know what will happen if he does." James shuddered.

"Alright, we'll write the report and send it of as soon as possible. You should get some sleep while you can." Ikkaku said as he and Yumichika said down behind a table in the common room and started with the report.

Harry, together with James went to their sleeping quarters, while Lily went to hers. The night was uneventful and they rose again quite early. They were the first of all the students to be awake. Harry wasn't surprised since they had made it a routine to rise early to start training.

Right now they all had put on some comfortable clothing to train in and had all gone outside to run some laps around the huge lake. Of course they had begun with some warm-ups and finished with some cool-downs.

After that they went back inside, took a quick shower and by the time they were ready to go down for breakfast the rest of the student body started to wake up.

At breakfast they were given their timetables by the head of house, in their case it was Professor McGonagall who was giving the timetables to the students of Griffindor.

Their first week at Hogwarts wasn't that eventful. They studied Astronomy on Wednesday at midnight. Looking at stars and planets wasn't that exciting though.

Three times a week they had Herbology. Taking care of the magical plants was something that Neville seemed to be good at and he also liked it very much. Harry made sure to talk to the shy boy if he had questions about the subject.

History of Magic was a class the Shinigami had to keep control over themselves not to Konso the teacher. The teacher was a ghost that talked in a monotone voice and most of the students slept while he droned on.

Then you had Charms, which Harry found one of the more interesting classes. It was kind of similar to Kido, though maybe a bit different as well.

Transfiguration found Harry most part useless, though there were some aspects that could be useful. Harry found the Animagus transformation very interesting and James promised him he would teach him to become one and told he himself is an Animagus.

Defense Against the Dark Arts was a failure as Professor Quirrell wasn't that good of a teacher and his stuttering was getting on Harry's nerves.

They got potions at the end of the week. It was a double class as well, meaning it was twice as long as a normal class. They had the class together with the Slytherins. There were a few things that made potions his less favorite class.

One was they had it with the Slytherins which Snape seems to favor. And two Snape downright hated him, why he didn't know. James speculated it had to do with something that happened in the past, something that might have been his fault and he made sure to apologize for it.

But no matter how much Snape tried to stamp him into the ground he always had a retort ready and made sure Snape had no feet on the ground to take points from Griffindor.

In his first lesson he asked Harry some theoretical questions, which Harry gave him the correct answers for.

Harry also made clear to everyone that he greatly disliked to be famous.

When the weekend finally arrived they finally gotten enough free time to continue their Shinigami training. Although Harry had meditated every single day to refine his Reiatsu control. He finally seemed to have gotten some grip on it, though it still wasn't quite perfect.

They choose an open space within the Forbidden Forest as their training ground. This time James decided to be his sparring partner.

Harry admitted that James was pretty good with a sword as they clashed. Though quite a beginner himself James had had some years at the academy ahead of Harry.

AN: Next chapter the fight between Harry and James will continue. So don't miss it.

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