Enjoy :)

Wind of Change

1 September 1991 Hogwarts Express

Harry and Tracey sat down in their compartment, after storing Tracey's trunk under her seat. Harry's trunk was still shrunken in his pocket.

"Hmm, what should we do now?" Harry asked.

"Well Daphne promised to search for me so we can talk until we arrive at Hogwarts." Tracey answered happily.

"Okay, I guess she will be here any second. I will just read a book and let you do your stupid girl talk thing." Harry said.

"Hey nice to see you to and I will let you know our talks are not stupid!" huffed Daphne when she entered the compartment only hearing the last part of Harry's proclamation.

Daphne was a pretty girl, even Harry thought that, although most the girls were still only stupid and annoying for him. She had blond hair and crystal blue eyes and was a little bit bigger than Tracey, but still shorter than Harry.

"Hello Daph, you have to admit it is actually kinda stupid to talk about make-up and clothes while discussing the latest article about the Boy-Who-Lived in Witch Weekly for several hours...?" Harry smiled victoriously.

"Stop being such a brat Harry, that is just what girls talk about... hence it is called "Girl Talk" and you could have invited other boys to visit our compartment so you would not have to listen to our talk for several hours" Tracey shot back.

Harry just let out big sigh not even trying to discuss the importance of girl talk with 2 upset witches. He took is trunk out of his pocket and tapped it with his wand to revert it to its normal size, after that he searched for his year book about transfiguration. He thought it would be best to read ahead on the subject Ollivander said his wand was best made for.

Harry was halfway through the first chapter describing the ground rules for transfiguration such as not to change a material into some form of dust or food so it would not get eaten or breathed in, when there was a knock on the door of their compartment.

He just read about the reason for the ground rule being, that a Witch or a Wizard who was bad at transfiguration would create objects that could randomly change into their initial shape. Normally one would be able to transfigure the objects permanently, but there are always exceptions to the rule. This was the reason not to transfigure dust or food, you can only imagine the pain when suddenly there is a block off wood or a goblet made of gold or something like that in your lungs, because you inhaled the dust made by a bad transfiguration attempt.

Harry realised that the girls were too caught up in their talk to open the door, so he laid down his book after marking the page and went to unlock the door. Before him stood none other than Draco Malfoy.

"What do you want Malfoy?" Harry said angry. He was still annoyed that the boy almost made Tracey cry in Diagon Alley. Tracey and Daphne stopped their conversation and realised someone was in their compartment door.

"Oh it is you Potter. I was looking for the Boy-Who-Lived … have you seen him?" Draco sneered.

"And why exactly should I tell you that?" Harry answered.

"You should learn to do what your betters tell you!" Draco said angrily and poked his head into the compartment looking around. When he saw Daphne he said. "Greengrass what are you doing here with 2 half-bloods? Come with me I will show you the compartments for us pure-bloods while I look for the Boy-Who-Lived!"

"They are my friends, I won't follow you anywhere Malfoy" she answered.

"I think you should leave" Harry said while closing the door in front of the boy.

"Well that was fun" he smiled at the girls when he turned around sitting down again and reading in his book.

"I can't stand him at all, he is sooooo annoying at the balls and dinners I have to go to with my family" Daphne said after a few seconds of silence. "Anyway … did you decide what houses you want to go to?" she asked.

"After Malfoy gave us such a show here now and 2 weeks ago in Diagon Alley I only want to go to Ravenclaw." Tracey answered.

"Same for me, I prefer Ravenclaw. And you Harry?" Daphne said.

"Well after I met Malfoy I lost all my interest in Slytherin, but I still don't care in which of the other 3 houses I will get sorted in." He told them.

"It would be fun if we all end up in Ravenclaw together!" Daphne said with a smile. After the little chat the girls went back to their talk about the Boy-Who-Lived while Harry started to read the book about pranks he found in his vault.

Not more than 5 minutes later there was again a knock on the door. It was opened by a young girl with bushy brown hair.

"Can I sit with you?" she asked. "Sure" was the short answer from Tracey.

"I am Hermione Granger" she said proudly.

Harry didn't seem to react so Tracey just introduced them all. "I'm Tracey Davis, this is Daphne Greengrass and the boy over there with the book is my brother Harry Potter."

"Nice to meet you" Hermione smiled. There was an awkward silence after the introduction, no one knew what to talk about. Hermione wanted to make friends at all cost so she tried to start the conversation. "What houses do you think you will get sorted in? I read all about them in Hogwarts: A History. You know I am a muggleborn so I didn't know about magic until a few weeks ago. I already read all the year books and some extra to educate myself. After reading about the houses I want to go Gryffindor, the books said it is Dumbledore's old house."

Tracey and Daphne kind of stared at the girl, they never had heard someone talk so fast and say so much in one breath. Harry was still reading his book without looking up. Hermione got sad, she thought she scared the girls with her attitude and failed her next attempt to make friends.

"You sure talk fast" Tracey said with a smile. "I want to go to Ravenclaw."

"Same" was the short answer from Daphne.

"What about you?" Hermione asked Harry. Harry did not react, so Hermione looked at the title of the book he read. She didn't recognize its title but she thought when he reads it before school it sure will be important.

"What is that book about and where did you get it?" she asked expectantly.

"Its about prank spells and I got it from my family vault, it is not published so this is the only copy." Harry stated after looking up from the book.

"Can you lend it to me if you finished it? I want to read it as well." Hermione asked.

"Nope, I will not give the books to anyone sorry they are from my family vault and I won't give it away." Harry answered.

Hermione got angry. "Books should be shared, knowledge is for everyone not only for few. It is unfair if you have knowledge from books in your family vault. You should give it to me and others as well." she said while getting a bit red in her face.

"You can't force me and I will not give it to you no matter how much you argue. Honestly you annoy me. I was just reading my book when you come in here asking questions and now demanding me to give you my book. There enough empty compartments on the train, it is magical so there should be enough space. How about you go look for one for yourself?" Harry said angry. The book was a connection to his dead family, he will never let anyone other read those books. The girl annoyed him. She didn't realise that he did not want to talk to her and just read his book in peace, but she had to talk so much and kind of demanded to get his book in the end.

Hermione realise she just managed to make the first people that were nice to her on the train angry. She looked at the girls and they did not seem to say anything. They were surprised how fast the conversation escalated. With watery eyes Hermione left the compartment in search for another one.

After she left Tracey said. "Wasn't that kind of harsh, Harry? She just wanted to see the book and you got all angry at her."

"Ye I am sorry, after Malfoy came here I was still a bit angry and just wanted to read my book. Then she came and asked all about it and the houses and just talked so awfully much that she managed to annoy me. But yeah I guess I was kinda cruel."

"Why did you get angry about the book anyway?" Daphne asked him.

"I found this and some others in a trunk in my family vault. They are like a connection to my dead family so I am somewhat protective over them and will not give them away." Harry said calmly now.

"Hmm okay, just don't scare all the girls away that want to be hour friends" Daphne said teasingly with a smile.

Harry lost interest in the book after a while and started to participate in the conversation of the girls.

"Hey Daph what wand did you get?" Harry asked.

Daphne pulled out a dark brown stick out of her pocket and gave it Harry so he can look at it.

"Its Yew with unicorn hair and 11 inches long. Mr. Ollivander said it would be good for charms." Daphne explained proudly. "Can I see yours now?" she asked Harry.

With a casual flick of his wrist Harry made his wand shoot out of his holster into his hand. He had a smug look on his face when he gave it to Daphne.

"Don't look like that, it wasn't even that cool." Daphne said after she saw Harry's look. "It looks really nice and is super light. What is it made of?" she asked.

"It is Arkor with a feather of a Silver Eagle, also 11 inches long. It was custom made by Mr. Ollivander and is perfect for transfiguration." he explained.

Daphne gave him his wand back while Tracey said "No one wants to see my wand? It's also cool!" Harry and Daphne just laughed.

"It's not like we both saw it already. Harry was with you when you bought it and You came to visit me just 1 day after you went shopping to show it to me..." Daphen said while laughing.

"Pff whatever" Tracey said annoyed, making Harry and Daphne laugh even more.

After their talk they were visited by Susan Bones and Hannah Abbot. They had a short little talk about the houses and where they expect to be in, when the girls left again. Blaise Zabini also visited to say hello but left again pretty fast to get back to the Slytherin compartments.

Their next visitor was a boy with red hair. He came into the compartment without knocking.

"Hey is Neville Longbottom here?" he asked.

"Ehm no? Just look around." Harry was annoyed with how the boy just burst into their compartment not even saying hello or his name and just asking a question.

"Okay if you see him tell his best mate is looking for him." the boy said leaving the compartment again.

"That was interesting" Harry commented before they went back to their talk about what they would learn in the first weeks of school.

Their last visitor was the Boy-Who-Lived himself. He at least knocked at the door and introduced himself. "Hello, I'm Neville Longbottom." Tracey turned red when she realised who stood in their compartment. "I lost my toad did you see one?" he asked sheepishly.

"No sorry no toad visited our compartment yet" Harry answered.

"Okay thanks anyway bye" Neville said and was about to leave the compartment when Harry remembered the weird boy with red hair. "Wait a second, few minutes ago a boy came here. He said we should tell you your best mate is looking for you." Harry said.

"Best Mate? I didn't know any other kid before I boarded the train." Neville answered.

"Okay that's weird but whatever bye." Harry commented and Neville finally left their compartment.

"I can't believe the Boy-Who-Lived was in our compartment, this is soooo cool. I have to write to mum as soon as we are in Hogwarts." Tracey said excitedly.

"He has a stupid toad … how can he be cool with a toad?" Harry joked, he was annoyed at how smitten his sister was with the Boy-Who-Lived.

"I have to agree with Harry, toads were out of fashion 50 years ago" Daphne said, she was not in love with the Boy-Who-Lived like Tracey was.

The rest of their trip was without another visitor. They arrived in Hogsmeade in the evening.

When they left the train they saw a huge man with a lantern shouting "First years over here. First years to me please."

They walked to him and waited for the rest of the first years. The man started to count them. "19,20,21 good all of you are here. I am Hagrid Keeper of Keys and Grounds here at Hogwarts. Follow me to the boats so we can get to the castle."

They all followed him through a small forest until they arrived at a beach with small boats. "Not more than 4 in one boat." Hagrid said.

Tracey, Daphne and Harry were joined by Blaise in their boat.

"MOVE" Hagrid shouted and the boats started to move. "Soon you will get your first few of Hogwarts" he said.

The boats went around a cliff and they could finally see the huge castle that Hogwarts is. The castle stood on a high island in the middle of a sea. They could see 2 bridges connecting the school with the mainland. The castle was illuminated with light shining through every window and several big torches hanging on the walls.

"Heads down or you will get hit" Hagrid shouted over the group of boats when they were about to enter a cave. After another 3 minutes they stopped at a landing stage in the basement of the castle. They all jumped out of the boats and were told to wait for Professor McGonagall.

After 10 minutes of waiting McGonagall arrived. 'Welcome to Hogwarts,' said Professor McGonagall. 'The start-of-term banquet will begin shortly, but before you take your seats in the Great Hall, you will be sorted into your houses. The Sorting is a very important ceremony because, while you are here, your house will be something like your family within Hogwarts. You will have classes with the rest of your house, sleep in your house dormitory and spend free time in your house common room.
'The four houses are called Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin. Each house has its own noble history and each has produced outstanding witches and wizards. While you are at Hogwarts, your triumphs will earn your house points, while any rule-breaking will lose house points. At the end of the year, the house with the most points is awarded the House Cup, a great honour. I hope each of you will be a credit to whichever house becomes yours."

She made them follow her into a small room next to the Great Hall. They had to wait again for around 10 minutes. While they waited they were introduced to the ghosts of Hogwarts. They just walked into the room ignoring the kids, even walking through some of them. When they realised that children were in the room they all wished them luck and fun at Hogwarts.

When Professor McGonagall came back she opened the door to the Great Hall and made them follow her again. Harry was awestruck. The Hall was huge, bigger than everything he ever saw. Candles were floating around the room and the ceiling was the picture of a blue sky with some clouds that were moving around. They stopped their march through the Hall in front of stool with an old hat on it.

'Insert Obvious First Year song that we all know here'

After a thunderous applause Professor McGonagall took a Parchment out of her robes and said. "When I call your name, you will put on the hat and sit on the stool to be sorted. After the sorting you will join your house table and wait for the end of the sorting." She picked up the hat and called the first name.

"Hannah Abbott" a small girl with blond hair and green eyes walked nervously to McGonagall. The hat was over her whole head. After a minute it called out "HUFFLEPUFF". You could see the girl relax. She moved to her house table while the students clapped for her. With that the sorting really started.

"Susan Bones" was the next name called out by Professor McGonagall. This time a girl with red hair and brown eyes walked to the stool. Again the hat called out "HUFFLEPUFF" after a minute.

After the 2 girls Harry zoomed out and started to look around the hall and at the staff table while waiting for his name to be called. He still recognized when Tracey and Daphne were both sorted into Ravenclaw, he was happy for the girls. When Longbottom was called whispering started. He could hear the students talk.

"The Neville Longbottom? The Boy-Who-Lived?".

"I thought it was a rumour that he would come to Hogwarts."

"I heard he was trained by Dumbledore himself in secret for several years."

Many more random facts about the boy were shared around the room and the different house tables. The hat sat on his head for several minutes when it finally called out "GRYFFINDOR". The house table broke out in applause. You could hear twins with red hair chant "We got Longbottom! We got Longbottom".

Finally Harry was called. No one whispered when he walked to the stool. The Professor dropped that hat on his head and he could hear a voice in his mind.

'Mr. Potter nice to meet you' the hat said.

'Ehhh hello Mr. Hat?' harry thought.

'Yes hello boy, should we start the sorting? I see plenty of courage in you, you stand up for other people and hate injustice. You like to read a good book but you don't value knowledge above everything. Neither are you cunning, but you are ambitious. You want to learn about magic and be able to prove yourself, make a name for yourself. But in the end you value friendship and family over everything, you work hard to achieve your goals and to help your friends all the time. You will always defend your family and be loyal.' the hat explained.

'Just please don't sort me into Slytherin, I can't stand the Malfoy boy and don't want to live 7 years with him.' Harry thought.

'I can see your conversations with Mr. Malfoy, yes it would be foolish to put you in the same house. At the moment I ponder between Gryffindor and Hufflepuff. In which house would you sort yourself?' the hat said.

'Well it is your job isn't it? I don't really care to be honest.' Harry answered.

'Okay I am sure were to sort you, you are loyal until the end and would die to defend your family and siblings. It will be HUFFLEPUFF' the last part was shouted into the Great Hall.

Harry was happy to finally get sorted. He stood up from the stool and gave Professor McGonagall the head. The Hufflepuff table was clapping for him while he walked to them and said down next to Hannah Abbott. He looked over at the Ravenclaw table and saw Tracey and Daphne waving him, he waved back with a huge smile on his face. Someone was poking his side, he turned around and saw Hannah grinning.

"Long time no see." she said when he was looking at her.

"Yes a few hours are a awfully long time." Harry answered smiling.

"I would never have thought you would get sorted into Hufflepuff. I expected you to follow your sister and brother into Ravenclaw or be a Gryffindor." Hannah said.

"The hat thought I am loyal and hard working enough to become a Hufflepuff. I'm actually happy getting sorted into Hufflepuff. I know many people say only the useless and the people the other houses don't want get into Hufflepuff. But I guess we have to show them that we are not useless." He explained.

After the small talk he was introduced to the rest of the people that were already sorted into Hufflepuff.

He saw the last kid to be sorted, Blaise Zabini, go to Slytherin, when the headmaster stood up.

"Now that all the new students are sorted I want to welcome you all to Hogwarts. I hope you will all work hard to learn magic and receive good marks and many O.W.L.s and N.E.W.T.s. I also hope you will all enjoy your time here and make friends for the rest of your live. And finally I want to say Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak! … Thank you!" with his last words the food appeared on the tables and the children started to dig in.

When the dinner vanished Dumbledore stood up again. "Before your Prefects will lead you to your common rooms I still have to tell you a few rules. First Mr. Filch updated his list of forbidden objects. You can view it at his office. Second I have to remind you all the Forbidden Forest is exactly that. 'Forbidden'. Also this year the third floor corridor on the right hand side is out of bounds. Everybody that does not wish to have an awfully painful death should not visit it. That's that, I wish all first years a good first night at Hogwarts" he said with a smile.

Harry wondered if the old man was mental 'Why would he have something in a school full of children that could kill you. And the random words he said before the meal. What a weird old man.'

He was brought back to reality when someone called. "First years come over here please. I am Michael Hines and this is Emily Mills. We are the fifth year prefects. If you would please follow us to the common room so we can show you your room and how to get into the common room."

They walked out of the Great Hall to the staircases. "Please take care were you step on, the stairs move randomly and some have invisible holes so watch your step." Emily explained. They did turn around and walked to the Entrance Hall. Michael lead them trough a door into a corridor and down some stairs.

"We now are in the basement of Hogwarts. Our common room is right next to the kitchen, if you want something to eat late at night or you missed breakfast, lunch or dinner just walk over to the portrait and tickle the pear. A door handle will appear that lest you swing the portrait open. Behind is the kitchen with the house elves."

They walked for not even a minute when they stopped again in front of a barrel.

"You have to tap the barrel with your wand in the rhythm of 'Helga Hufflepuff' and a door will swing open allowing you to enter the tunnel." Emily explained and opened the barrel to let them in.

Inside was a big round room painted yellow. On one side were a few couches and seats around a fireplace on the other were some tables and chairs to sit at. It was really warm and cosy.

"This is our main common room it has 2 doors. The first is the entrance to the common room and the exit. The other lead to the year rooms. If you please follow me I will show you your rooms." Emily said while walking to the door on the other side of the room.

They climbed some stairs and entered another common room, it had the same layout as the main room but it had 7 doors.

"This is the 7 year common room, every year has its own common room. Each of this doors leads to a room of a single student. Everyone of you will have his own room with his own bathroom. The common room of your year is where you will be most of your time. You can do homework with your year mates or play games or just talk all this will mostly happen in your own common room. The first year room is on the highest floor." Emily explained. After that they climbed the stairs until they ended in the first year common room.

Their common room had 5 couches around a fireplace next to the staircase and 3 tables with 4 seats each on the other side of the room. In Harry's year were 7 Hufflepuffs, therefore the room had 7 doors. On each door was the name of the student in gold letters. Everyone moved to their own room to store their trunks and change into casual cloth after they wore their school robes the whole day.

Harry walked to the door with 'Harry Potter' on it. He opened the door and walked into his new room. It was not big but had enough space for a comfy looking bed with a wardrobe next to it, a small book shelve and a small desk with a chair. Over the desk was a window. Looking out of it he saw the water of the black lake sparkle in the moonlight. Harry stored his trunk in front of the bed and opened the bathroom. It had a toilet a sink and a small shower.

He took all his books out of the trunk and placed them on the shelve. After that he placed his clothes in the wardrobe and made sure to place his invisibility cloak on the right side of it, so he could find it. His ink, quill and parchment was put on his desk. When his trunk was empty he shrunk it down to pocket size and also placed it on his desk. When he was sure that everything was stored properly he went back into the common room where some people already sat on the couches chatting.

He found a place on one couch next to Susan and waited for the rest of his year to arrive. When everybody was their they introduced themselves to each other. In Harry year were 3 girls and 3 other boys. The girls were Susan Bones, Hannah Abbott and Megan Jones. The boys were Ernie Macmillan, Justin Finch-Fletchley and Zacharias Smith.

They all chatted for a bit when Emily entered they common room. "I hope you all like your rooms. Tomorrow at 7 breakfast will start. You will be able to eat until 7.30. At 8 class will start. Each lesson goes for 1 hour and 30 minutes. You normally have 3 lessons before lunch and 1 after. Lunch is from 13 until 13.45. At 14 your last lesson of the day will start. From 15.30 until 23 you can do what you want. Everybody that has no reason to be out of bed after 23 will lose house points and get detention. From 23 until 5 is curfew, no one should be outside of the common room at this time. Tomorrow at breakfast our head of house Professor Sprout will give you your time table. It is 22.37 now. It was a long day for all of us so I advise you to go to bed now, see you all in the morning." with a smile Emily ended her explanation about the daily time table and walked back down the stairs.

Harry wished everybody a good night and retreaded to his room. After changing into his pyjamas he went to bed and thought about his day and what will happen tomorrow. He was happy that he would finally learn magic and promised himself to do good in school so his parents could be proud of him. With a smile on his face he fell asleep for his first night at Hogwarts.

Hope you all enjoyed reading the chapter. I'm sorry it took so long to write it, but I found no time in the last weeks for it. I promise to try to update every week :D. In the next chapter the real fun will finally start. I will introduce the different classes and will give an overview what the students will learn in each major subject, I already made a plan how to structure the classes. I thought a lot about how I will design the Hufflepuff common room and decided to do rooms for each year, without separating the rooms for each gender. Hufflepuff is the house of the loyal so they will not sneak into each other rooms without permission and I think with a common room like this the year group will be much closer friends. In the books Harry had only Ron and Hermione as real friends. Gryffindor had only 1 big common room so the kids had their own little groups in the same year made of friends they met on the train or on the first day. With the year room they will interact with each other each day and will be a close group, as Hufflepuffs they will defend each other and be a loyal bunch.