July 30, 1991 (11:50 pm)
The Sea
Hut-on-the-Rock
The Floor

Harry Potter had tried to find the softest piece of floor to sleep on, after his Uncle Vernon went borderline crazy in his attempt to flee the mysterious letters. Harry was fairly sure he'd found the softest bit of floor, but it was still the floor, so Harry found himself unable to fall asleep. He was currently passing the time by watching the time, literally tick away on Dudley watch, which was on his limply hanging wrist. In just under ten minute's time, Harry would be 11 years old. Now, Harry was used to his birthdays being...well...bad. He couldn't recall ever having a good one, but by his reckoning, this was probably the worst one yet.

Over the past week, letters had been trying to get themselves into Harry's hands. Harry knew his mistake had been on the first day, not reading the letters in the hallway right away. If he'd done so, he would have known what all this was about before Vernon could stop him. As it was, Vernon was on a crusade to keep Harry from knowing whatever this mysterious business was about. It was sparking a relatively unused emotion in Harry. Anger.

Over the past ten years, Harry had gotten used to being miserable. It had seemed to simply be his lot in life. Living with people who treated him like he was unnatural. Treated like he was a freak. He had no friends, because of Dudley and his gang, and so he knew little of love, happiness, or fun. But because that was his life, he'd grown used to it. He was familiar with being miserable. But this...denial...was causing Harry to feel angry. Stupid Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia were trying their damnedest to keep Harry from learning the big secret, which Harry felt he was entitled to. Deep within the young boy, he knew that whatever was in that letter was going to be the source of a huge change in his life. He had no idea how or what, but he just knew that it was going to be major.

But the damned Dursleys hated change, more they hated anything that might make Harry happy. All the more reason to want the letter, since they seem to hate it so much.

Harry felt himself making a resolution. Ten years was enough. He didn't know how, but he wasn't going to let the Dursleys oppress him anymore. He glanced at the watch again. 11:59. A minute to go, and he'd be eleven. With a grim nod, Harry decided to start making things change.

Thirty seconds.

Twenty seconds.

Ten. Nine. (might wake up Dudley, just to annoy him) Eight. Seven. Six. Five. (What's that thumping noise, is it coming from outside?) Four. Three. Two. One.

BOOM!

The whole shack shook, quivering weakly as something huge outside was knocking to come in, wanting to bring with it change.

Harry and Dudley sat up at the same time, with Dudley blandly muttering, "Where's the cannon?"

It was understandable considering the sound coming from the door. Turning, Harry spotted Vernon come skidding into the room, wielding a rifle (so that what was in that package)

"Who's there?!" Vernon shouted at the door, from which another resounding BOOM came from, "I warn you-I'm armed!"

A palpable pause filled the room for a moment, time seeming to stretch briefly until a huge SMASH caused the door to fall over. And in stepped the man who would bring the biggest change to young Harry's life. Starting him on a destiny filled with wonder and magic, joy and despair, danger and excitement, though young Harry didn't know this yet. But he felt it, he felt it in his Soul that so much was waiting on him.

The giant of a man squeezed his way in. He had a wild appearance, a huge scraggly mane of hair and a tangled mess of a beard. Eyes, glinting like black beetles peered out from all that hair, taking in the two adults and the two kids. With the smallest chuckle, the man turned, lifting the door and easily putting it back into the frame. He then turned back to the people he'd intruded on. He briefly seemed to think something over, and apparently decided to start with a joke, perhaps to lighten things up.

"Couldn't make us a cup o' tea, could yeh? It's not been an easy journey..."

He stepped over to the sofa that Dudley had slept on. He made a "move over" motion as he said, "Budge up, yeh great lump!"

Dudley squeaked as he ran to hide behind his parents, while the giant turned his attention to the other child. "An' here's Harry!" He said, smiling happily, his dark eyes twinkling fondly. As he looked into those eyes, Harry felt a strong sense of familiarity.

"I...I've met you before." The boy whispered, drawing a good chuckle from the man.

"Aye, but Las' time I saw you, you was only a baby. Yeh look a lot like yer dad, but yeh've got yet mom's eyes."

Vernon decided this was a good moment to interrupt, before the giant and Harry could do much more bonding. "I demand you leave at once, sir! You are breaking and entering!"

"Ah shut up Dursley yeh great prune!" Hagrid laughed as he reached back over the sofa, yanking the gun out of Vernon's hands and turning it into a pretzel like it was made of paper and then tossing it aside. Harry took great amusement in the sound Vernon made, like a mouse who'd just realized he was poking a lion. "Anyway - Harry," Said the giant, turning his back on the Dursleys, "A very happy birthday to yeh. Got summat fer yeh here - I mighta sat on it at some point, but it'll taste all right."

He pulled a box from his coat and handed it to Harry. To his immense surprise, it was a slightly squashed chocolate cake with "Happy Birthday Harry" written in green icing. The young boy felt tears welling up in his eyes. It was the first time he'd gotten a legitimate birthday cake in his life. He looked up at the giant, eyes wet, emotions and questions burning inside him. There were so many things he wanted to ask but all that he could get to come out, in a slightly cracked voice was, "Who are you?"

The man chuckled slightly, but he was a little surprised by the emotion coming from young Harry. It was almost as if he'd never gotten anything for his birthday before. "True, I haven't introduced meself. Rubeus Hagrid, Keeper of Keys and Grounds at Hogwarts." The giant held out an enormous hand, and ended up shaking Harry's whole arm. "What about that tea then, eh?" he said, rubbing his hands together. "I'd not say no ter summat stronger if yeh've got it, mind."

Hagrid then quickly started setting things up for himself. He went over to the empty grate and did...something that started a lovely fire. He then pulled out a variety of things from his pockets, including sausages, a poker, a teapot and kettle, some mugs, and some amber liquid that he took a swig from. In short time, the sausages were cooking on the poker, and the tea was getting made. Dudley made a noise of hunger at the smell of the sausages, but Vernon forbade him from accepting anything. Hagrid meanwhile made it clear he wasn't offering anything to the Dursleys, and gave Harry the first six sausages. Even if Harry was starving, the sausages were still easily one of the tastiest things he'd ever eaten. But the food wasn't distracting Harry from the fact that he still didn't know who the man was.

"I'm sorry, but I still don't really know who you are."

"Call me Hagrid," he said, "Everyone does. An' like I told yeh, I'm Keeper of Keys at Hogwarts - yeh'll know all about Hogwarts, o' course."

"Er, not really. Sorry."

"Sony?" barked Hagrid, turning to stare at the Dursleys, who shrank back into the shadows. "It's them as should be sorry! I knew yeh weren't gettin' yer letters but I never thought yeh wouldn't even know abou' Hogwarts, fer cryin' out loud! Did yeh never wonder where yet parents learned it all?"

"All what?" Harry asked, glad that he was finally learning what this was all about.

"ALL WHAT?!"

What followed was a fuming giant yelling at the Dursleys for not telling Harry about his parents, about himself and most importantly, that: "Yer a wizard, Harry."

"...A...what?" Harry was almost certain he'd misheard.

"A wizard Harry, an' a thumpin' good'un, I'd say, once yeh've been trained up a bit. With a mum an' dad like yours, what else would yeh be? An' I reckon it's abou' time yeh read yer letter."

Harry finally got his letter (which of course had the address adjusted per usual for his current location) and read that he'd been accepted to a school and that today was the last day to reply back (cutting it a little close there) and that he needed to reply by "owl" Of all the questions in his mind at the moment, that seemed a little bit pressing. "What does it meant, they await my owl?" He asked.

Hagrid was quick to pull a real, live, and very ruffled looking owl. He quickly pulled out a quill, ink, and parchment too to write a letter to someone, then gave the letter to the owl and tossed it out into the storm. Harry briefly wondered if the owl would be alright, but Hagrid didn't seem worried. When Hagrid came back, he was about to continue explaining when Vernon promptly tried to put a stop to things, saying that Harry wouldn't be going. What followed was a brief argument and then a rant where Aunt Petunia got some things off her chest that she'd obviously been keeping bottled up for ages. He also learned that his parents died, not in a car crash, as he'd long thought, but because they fought against a dark wizard called Voldemort. Harry learned his own story, that was was "The-Boy-Who-Lived" He learned that his aunt and uncle had tried to squash the magic out of him. He learned that all the weird things in his life had been caused by him when he'd been angry or upset. The whole while Vernon had tried to voice his opposition and stop things, but Hagrid wasn't having it. It came to an abrupt end when Vernon made the mistake to call Dumbledore a "Crackpot old fool" after which the gentle giant showed how terrifying he could be, before making Dudley look more like his real self. Harry then learned that Hagrid wasn't technically supposed to do magic, that he'd been expelled from Hogwarts. Hagrid then gave Harry his large coat to sleep with until morning.

Harry and Hagrid stepped into a place called the Leaky Cauldron in London. That morning Harry had learned a lot about the wizarding world, about Gringotts and the Ministry of Magic, and that Hagrid liked to knit. He'd learned that Hagrid didn't understand much about the muggle side of things too.

Once they entered the grubby looking pub, things got weird. Once the patrons realized that Harry Potter was there, there was a flurry of people trying to shake his hand, saying how proud they were to meet him, thanking him for something he didn't remember doing. Rather than feeling happy or proud, Harry found himself feeling confused and uncomfortable. He also met his Defense against the Dark Arts teacher, who seemed to be a bit...nervous. Hagrid said this was normal for him.

After all the hubbub was done, Harry and Hagrid went out to the back, where Hagrid laughed at having proved that Harry was famous before tapping the wall, revealing Diagon Alley. Harry of course tried to look at everything all at once. The sights, the sounds, the people, the animals. Even the smells, good and bad were amazing for how new they were. Hagrid led the way to the bank, Gringotts, while Harry's head swiveled trying to look at the broomstick store, the apothecary, the pet store, the books. Soon enough though, the bank took Harry's attention. Harry saw his first goblin, the man at the door bowing as people entered. Harry was amazed to see such a thing. The goblin was shorter than him by a head, with a clever face and long fingers and nails. He smiled and waved at the goblin as they passed inside, causing the goblin to give a small look of confusion.

Once inside, they quickly made their way to one of the teller stations where Hagrid started talking to the goblin, saying that they needed to withdraw some of Harry's money and get a "You-know-what" from vault 713. This little diversion intrigued Harry, who quickly wondered what it was about. Another goblin, Griphook was called to take care of the giant and the kid.

"Hello Mr. Griphook, nice to meet you." Harry said, trying to be polite.

Griphook meanwhile, seemed a bit amused by the pleasantries. "Greetings Mr. Potter. If you two will come this way." He lead them down a stone tunnel lit by torches, which lead to a railway system of some kind. Griphook whistled, causing a cart to come speeding to a stop next to them. After getting in (Hagrid with a little difficulty), they were off. The cart was ridiculously fast, and Harry could keep track of the turns they were taking. With some dark amusement, Harry noted that Griphook didn't seem to be steering.

Once the ride was over, Hagrid needed to lean against the wall to stop his trembling knees. The ride didn't agree with him, and he seemed a sick shade of green. While Hagrid tried to catch his breath, Griphook opened Harry's vault. Griphook had to stop himself from laughing when Harry's jaw dropped.

There was so much money, piles of gold, silver, and bronze. Harry couldn't believe he had so much. The Dursleys had been complaining for ages about how much it cost to feed and house Harry. If they learned about this, they would do anything to take it from him. Remembering his resolve to take control of his life, Harry turned to Griphook and started asking questions.

"Mr. Griphook, can I ask some questions?"

"Of course Mr. Potter, how can I be of assistance?" The goblin raised an eyebrow, still bemused by politeness from a wizard.

"I've been raised by, um, muggles I think is the word. I don't know much about the wizarding world yet," Harry grabbed a gold coin, a silver, and a bronze one. "How does wizarding money work?"

With a smile, Griphook answered, "Simple my boy, it's seventeen silver sickles to a gold galleon, and twenty-nine bronze knuts to a silver sickle. And since I'm often asked this by other muggle-born children, one galleon is approximately equal to five British pounds, though the exchange rate varies from day to day of course."

Harry nodded as he looked around the room. He was decent at math, but he had no idea how to estimate how many coins he had. "About how much money do I have in total here?"

Without missing a beat, Griphook immediately told Harry, "You have 113,546 Galleons, 10 Sickles, and 20 Knuts. In addition to that, you have a number of small investments in some muggle and magical companies, equaling about another 150,000 Galleons in value. All told, you have about one million three hundred thousand pounds. Not bad, eh boy?"

Harry's mind had temporarily broken as he took in all that information. He had MONEY! Granted, it wasn't an inexhaustible amount of money. He wasn't a billionaire, and indeed, he was only barely a millionaire. But he had enough money to live comfortably for the rest of his life.

"Like I said Harry, yer parents left yeh plenty of money to take care of yeh. You'll get through Hogwarts jus' fine. Now grab some of yer money and put it in this purse. I'll be jus' outside." The still greenish Hagrid tossed Harry a bag and went back outside to lean against the wall.

Harry turned again to the goblin and asked, "Mr. Griphook, about how much will I need to buy all my school supplies. I don't know how much things cost here."

Tilting his head slightly, Griphook seemed to think, doing the math in his head before saying, "80 Galleons will cover your first year's supplies, Mr. Potter, while leaving you some spending money. However, if I might make a suggestion?"

"Of course!"

"Then I suggest you consider making some long term investments with regards to your supplies. Most first years will get standard trunks with minor enlargement charms on the inside for storing their supplies, and while this will probably do you just fine for your school years, a good trunk can last a wizard a lifetime. There are certain kinds of trunks that allow for folded space storage, having multiple locks on the front, and unlocking each lock opens a different chest-space. You can even have the spaces customized so that one lock accesses a small library, another accesses a wardrobe, and so on. Since you can easily afford it, Mr. Potter, you might want to take out an extra hundred Galleons to buy yourself such a trunk. Also, since you know very little about the wizarding world, I suggest you buy more than just your designated school books. It might do you good to take an extra dozen galleons to buy books to expand your understanding of wizarding culture."

Thinking it over for a moment, Harry nodded, quickly grabbing and pouring 200 Galleons into the purse Hagrid gave him. He stopped at one point as he thought about the fact that he was casually withdrawing about a thousand pounds, and hardly making a dent in his money at all, but he continued. Once the money was in hand he nodded at the goblin saying, "Thank you for your help, sir."

The goblin returned the nod, "My pleasure Mr. Potter."

Harry left the vault, and looked up at the now normal coloured Hagrid. The giant had heard the conversation with Griphook, and understood that Harry wasn't about to go wasting his money of random things, so he decided not to stop this. He smiled at him and patted Harry on the back (nearly knocking him to the ground) as they headed back to the cart, heading now to vault 713, from which Hagrid retrieved a very tiny package. Knowing better than to ask, Harry just mentally filed the detail away for later. Another short ride later, and they were back in the sunlight. Hagrid quickly went off to the Leaky Cauldron for a pick-me-up, leaving Harry to get his robes from Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions. Madam Malkin was a nice, squat lady in mauve robes, who quickly and cleverly deduced that Harry was a Hogwarts student in need of robes. She stood Harry on a stool near another young boy who was being worked on by another witch. The Madam quickly went to work figuring out Harry's measurements as the other boy started to speak.

"Hello, Hogwarts too?" He asked, sounding bored.

"Yep." Harry answered, smiling and trying to be friendly.

"My father's next door buying my books and mother's up the street looking at wands, then I'm going to drag them off to look at racing brooms. I don't see why first years can't have their own. I think I'll bully father into getting me one and I'll smuggle it in somehow."

Harry raised an eyebrow at this, being strongly reminded of Dudley's "I get what I want" attitude.

"Have you got your own broom yet?" The boy went on, glancing over at Harry briefly.

"No, but I was thinking of looking at them myself after this." Harry tried to not seem like he was clueless.

"Cool, maybe we can go look together. Do you play Quidditch?"

Following the train of the conversation, Harry figured that whatever Quidditch was, it was probably a broom based sport. "Nah, I've never really been one for sports." Harry replied, knowing that he was on the skinny side, and true, not one for sports.

The boy chuckled at Harry's comment, nodding slightly. "It's fun though, you should try it. I play Quidditch though, and my father says it would be a crime if I don't get picked to play for my house. Do you know what house you'll be in yet?"

Harry shook his head. He had no idea that Hogwarts would have houses or what they were, so he decided to go with a technically true answer, "I hadn't give it any thought, really."

"Well, no one really knows until they get there, do they, but I know I'll be in Slytherin, all our family have been - imagine being in Hufflepuff, I think I'd leave, wouldn't you?"

"I don't know, it might be worth it just to stay at Hogwarts, don't you think. It's the finest school for magic, isn't it?"

The pale boy made a face like he'd smelled something bad, "It is the best, but still, Hufflepuff? No thank you." It was at this point that the boy made a small squeaking noise, and then glared at the witch working on his clothes. Harry smiled thinking that the lady had probably been a Hufflepuff, and didn't like her house being made fun of.

"I say, look at that man!" said the boy suddenly, nodding toward the front window. Hagrid was standing there, grinning at Harry and pointing at two large ice creams to show he couldn't come in.

"That's Hagrid," said Harry, glad to have a chance to sound knowledgeable. "He works at Hogwarts."

"Oh," said the boy, "I've heard of him. He's a sort of servant, isn't he?"

"He's the gamekeeper," said Harry. He figured that this boy was probably the rich type to define people in terms of being servants.

"Yes, exactly. I heard he's a sort of savage - lives in a hut on the school grounds and every now and then he gets drunk, tries to do magic, and ends up setting fire to his bed."

"I think he's brilliant," said Harry coldly.

"Do you?" said the boy, with a slight sneer. "Why is he with you? Where are your parents?"

"They're dead," said Harry shortly. He didn't feel much like going into the matter with this boy.

"Oh, sorry," said the other, sounding more diplomatic than sorry. "But they were our kind, weren't they?"

"They were a witch and wizard, if that's what you mean."

"I really don't think they should let the other sort in, do you? They're just not the same, they've never been brought up to know our ways. Some of them have never even heard of Hogwarts until they get the letter, imagine. I think they should keep it in the old wizarding families. What's your surname, anyway?"

Harry smirked at his comments, thinking back on how Hagrid thought Harry, who'd been raised almost exactly as the boy had described, would be an amazing wizard. More, he could tell that there was more prejudice hidden in the boy than his words said. And it annoyed Harry to think that his mother was also exactly the type of person the other boy was describing. Starting to feel angry, Harry was about to say something to the boy when Madam Malkin said that she was done. Wasting no time, Harry quickly hopped down off the stool and headed out to Hagrid.

"Well, I'll see you at Hogwarts, I suppose," said the drawling boy.

Soon after, Harry was eating his ice cream with Hagrid, who seemed to pick up on Harry's annoyed mood. Harry didn't want to talk about it just yet, so they went and bought parchment and quills. Harry cheered up a bit when he got some ink that changed colors as you wrote. Eventually though, Harry would tell Hagrid about his encounter with the boy, and start asking questions about Quidditch, the houses of Hogwarts, and about the bigotry that the boy had hinted at. Hagrid, to the best of his ability, told Harry what he could. Though when Hagrid said that all bad wizards came from Slytherin, the young boy felt very doubtful of that. Soon after they were buying Harry's school books in a store called Flourish and Blotts. After getting his required books Harry took Griphook's advice to heart, and spent fifteen Galleons buying a couple big books that covered broad topics such as Hogwarts, politics, and general modern history, as well as a couple dozen cheaper books. Anything that was less than three or four sickles was grabbed, adding a good number of fictional books, short stories, and novellas to Harry's collection. Harry hoped that reading these books would give him a better understanding of wizarding culture.

Hagrid and Harry's arms were getting pretty loaded by then, so they stopped by Wiseacre's Wizarding Equipment and got Harry a 7-lock trunk for 90 Galleons. Much to Harry's annoyance, the store owner almost gave it to Harry for free when he noticed his scar and realized who he was. Harry managed to convince the store owner to only give Harry a 10% discount ("But you saved us all, my boy, please let me-" "No.").

After that they stopped at the apothecary and got Harry his potions supplies, the cauldron and ingredients. Harry tried to get more upscale supplies but Hagrid firmly stopped him, getting only what was needed. With that out of the way, all that was left really was the wand. But before that, Hagrid insisted on giving Harry a pet as a birthday present. Harry tried to tell him that he didn't need to, but Hagrid bought him a beautiful snowy owl he would eventually name Hedwig. Harry had to be quiet afterwords. He was fighting back the urge to cry from the first real birthday present he ever had. Hagrid pretended not to notice.

After that Harry and Hagrid went to Ollivander's to get Harry's wand. About fifteen minutes later they came out with Harry's new wand (holly and phoenix feather, 11 inches, nice and supple). All Harry had to say was, "Well, that was dramatic." Hagrid nodded in agreement.

With all his supplies purchased and safely stored in his chest, Harry and Hagrid went to get something to eat before Harry returned to the Dursleys. While they ate Harry confessed some fears he'd been feeling. He'd heard a lot of people saying they expect great things from him, while others acted like he was already great because of something he couldn't remember doing. Hagrid assured the young boy that he would be great. He would learn what he needed to learn and everything would work out. With that all done, Hagrid handed Harry his train ticket and got up to leave. Harry glanced at the ticket and noticed something about it that raised a few questions. Before Hagrid got two steps away from the table, Harry spoke up.

"Hold on a second Hagrid!"

"Eh? What s'matter?"

"This ticket says platform 9 3/4? King's Cross is a muggle train station, they don't do platforms like that."

"Oh blimey, can't believe I didn't think of tha'. Sorry Harry. In King's Cross between platforms nine and ten is a column where the signs hang. Jus' walk into that column and you'll end up on 9 3/4."

"Oh," Harry said, relieved that there wasn't a mistake with his ticket. "So it's hidden with magic? Like the Leaky Cauldron?"

"Nah, It's more of an invisible door than a thing muggles can't see."

"Okay, thank you Hagrid. I'll see you at Hogwarts."

Harry actually enjoyed the next month with the Dursleys while he waited for school to start. He spent his time pooring over his many new books, quickly learning many details about Wizard culture that would be useful in the future, probably. He also found that he loved studying his school books, and deeply regretted that he couldn't practice his spells. He figured that he could probably practice his potions if he wanted, but decided against it. While the Dursleys generally acted like he didn't exist (a major improvement) he could tell the current relationship was tenuous at best. They were scared of him and what they thought he could do, and he realized that if they knew he wasn't allowed to do magic, he'd probably be in trouble. Right now the fear was keeping the Dursleys from doing anything bad, but Harry realized he needed something more solid to protect him from the muggles. He'd probably be fine for the month, but next year, who knows? Nothing in his current collection of books gave Harry anything that might help, but he didn't find anything. Thinking of the muggles, Harry needed a ride to King's Cross.

"Excuse me, Uncle Vernon?"

"Mmm." The uncle grunted, showing he was listening.

"I need to get to King's Cross tomorrow to take the train to school."

Another grunt.

"Can you give me a ride, or should I ride my broomstick all over town?" Harry was getting annoyed with the vague grunting. He decided to drop a line that he new would get a rise out of his Uncle.

A gagging sound came from the Uncle as he turned and glared at Harry. Harry smirked.

"I'll drive you to the blasted train station boy. I don't want the neighbors knowing about your bloody weirdness."

"Thank you Uncle Vernon, I really appreciate it." Harry didn't bother hiding his sarcasm. He turned to leave when Vernon continued talking.

"Funny way to get to a wizards' school, the train. Magic carpets all got punctures, have they?"

Not missing a beat, Harry responded with, "Magic Carpets are more middle-eastern wizards than British. We ride brooms, use Portkeys, or Apparate."

"Then why do you need to ride a train, eh? Where is this school, anyway?"

"The highlands of Scotland, I think. It's enchanted to be Unplottable, so I literally can't give specifics beyond that."

"And yet, you'll be getting on a train to go there? Aren't your kind supposed to be secret? How do you hide a train going to a bloody magic school?"

Harry smirked as he told his Uncle, "The Hogwarts Express leaves from Platform nine and three quarters. Muggles don't know where that is."

Vernon turned an angry shade of red and he raised his voice, "There is no bloody nine and three quarters at King's Cross!"

"We'll see Uncle, if there isn't, you can just leave me at the station. You will anyway, won't you?"

Vernon glared at Harry for a moment before grunting an angry affirmation and returning to his paper.

The next day they all got to King's Cross at half past ten. Vernon had grabbed Harry's trunk and put it in a cart for him, which was oddly nice until they were at the pillar between platforms nine and ten and Vernon was giving him an evil smile, waiting. Ah, he simply wants to see me fail.

"So boy, here's platforms nine, and ten, and there doesn't seem to be any nine and three quarters here, now does it?"

"I already told you it's not like, you know what, never mind. See you next year Uncle." With that Harry grabbed his cart and strode purposefully towards the pillar. He had a brief moment of panic where he thought the very solid looking wall would remain solid, but the next thing he knew, he was on a different platform, with a shiny red train waiting for him. Not wanting to miss the looks on their faces, Harry quickly turned around and poked his head through the portal, grinning at a stunned Dursley family, and then came back to the magical side of things.

He took in the sights around him, all the people wearing robes, the owls hooting, with the occasional cat meowing or frog croaking. People were still arriving and so the compartments weren't too filled up yet, but Harry decided to go for one of the empty ones near the back. He got Hedwig's cage in alright, but he had trouble with his trunk. Even with a Weight-Reducing Charm on it, it was still a bit heavy for scrawny Harry. Luckily a pair of red-haired twins came by and offered to help. They got the trunk loaded in quickly before they noticed Harry's scar and realized who he was. A red-face Harry asked them not to make a big deal out of it, though the cheeky twins made no promises.

From his compartment, he was able to hear the twins talking to their family, and felt a brief pang of envy at the sounds of their loving, if amusingly dysfunctional family. Unfortunately the twins told their family about Harry Potter being on the train. The young daughter of the group excitedly asked to get on the train to see him, but was shut down by her mother, saying he wasn't someone to be ogled at like an animal in the zoo. Harry silently thanked the mystery mother for that. She also forbade the twins from asking Harry any questions about Voldemort or anything that might bother him on his first day of school. Again, Harry felt appreciative for the understanding woman.

Soon enough the train whistled and everyone hurried to get on the train. They were off, to a magical place where everything would be different for Harry.

It wasn't long before a red-haired boy Harry's age opened the door to his compartment. The twins came back briefly to introduce themselves (Fred and George Weasley) and their brother (Ron). Harry and Ron quickly got acquainted and learned a little bit about each other. Harry realized that Ron's family wasn't very well off quickly, which put Harry in an odd position because until a month ago, he was pretty poor himself. When the trolley came around, filled with candies he'd never seen before. Harry bought a little of everything and promptly started to share with Ron. It was nice to have someone to share things with. He learned about Chocolate Frogs and the cards they came with, starting his collection with Albus Dumbledore and a couple others. The Merlin card interested Harry greatly because the immensely famous wizard, even in the muggle world, was apparently a Slytherin, and yet was a major force for good in his time. Harry had immense fun with the Every Flavor Beans. Even when he got a bad flavor, he would laugh at the fact that whatever it was was even a flavor in the first place.

A round-face boy poked his head into their compartment briefly, asking if they'd seen his toad. Harry and Ron said no, but Harry offered to help find it, but the boy said to just let him know if they saw it. Not long later, a cute, bushy haired girl came in with the boy again asking the same question. Rolling his eyes a bit, Harry said that he and Ron were keeping an eye out for Trevor. The girl noticed then that Ron had his wand out, having been about to show Harry a spell. It didn't work out, and Hermione Granger, as she introduced herself, demonstrated her motormouth abilities saying that she could already do a couple spells and had memorized her school books. After Harry and Ron introduced themselves, Hermione excitedly starting talking about all the stuff she new about Harry, but he quickly cut her off.

"Hermione, hold on. Think for a second like a Ravenclaw." This seemed to make Hermione blush for a moment as she stopped and listened. "I was only one when the thing with Voldemort happened. No one else was there. I've since been raised by Muggles and only a month ago learned about the Wizarding World, much like you, I think. Whatever those books say about me, whatever they think happened that night, don't put any stock in it. I'm just a normal kid, okay?"

Hermione nodded, slightly embarrassed before she started talking again, "Do either of you know what house you'll be in? I've been asking around, and I hope I'm in Gryffindor, it sounds by far the best; I hear Dumbledore himself was in it, but I suppose Ravenclaw wouldn't be too bad..."

Harry laughed a bit as he waved off Hermione's concerns. "You shouldn't worry too much about what house you're going to be in, though I think you should be in Ravenclaw. Each house generally has two virtues going for them, you know. Gryffindor is the house of the brave and the noble. They're most likely to be 'heroes' so to speak, but they also have a tendency to be reckless." Ron seemed to chuckle, nodding his head. Harry figured that he was thinking about his brothers. "Ravenclaw favors people of intelligence and wisdom, though sometimes they can be a bit eccentric." Hermione nodded, paying rapt attention to Harry. "Hufflepuffs are the house of hardwork and loyalty. From what I understand, if you're a Hufflepuff, you'll never find better friends, though you better be ready to work hard." Harry noted that Neville was listening intently at this. "And finally, Slytherin-"

"The house of evil gits." Ron snorted, crossing his arms and leaning back as if that was all there was to say on the matter.

"No." Harry said sharply, looking at Ron for a moment before looking back at Hermione. "Slytherin is the house that prizes ambition and cunning. Most Dark wizards tend to want to gain lots of power, which is an ambitious desire, so they tend to be place in Slytherin, but that doesn't mean everyone in the house is evil. Evil wizards have come from all the houses, even Hufflepuff and Gryffindor. But ambition isn't evil, as this man could tell you." Harry held up his newly acquired Merlin card. "Merlin was a Slytherin, and he was one of the greatest advocators for muggle rights. He was ambitious, and holy cow was he cunning. But he wasn't evil."

None of the other three seemed to want to argue with Harry, though Ron seemed grumpy. Hermione quietly said that Ron and Harry should get changed, as they would arrive soon, before leaving with Neville. Harry saw that they were both thoughtful as they left. Turning back to Ron, Harry was quickly to diplomatically change the subject before Ron could say anything about Houses. Harry asked about Ron's brothers, learning what they did for a living after Hogwarts. He also learned about the break-in at Gringotts, and about Quidditch teams, of which Ron was a huge fan. Their chat about the rules of Quidditch was interrupted though when the pale boy from the robe shop, backed by two thuggish looking boys entered their compartment.

"Is it true?" he said. "They're saying all down the train that Harry Potter's in this compartment. So it's you, is it?"

"Yep," Harry said, rolling his eyes and turning up the sarcasm. "I'm Harry bleedin Potter. No, by all means, feel free to come and stare at me like everyone else. It's not like I'm getting uncomfortable or anything."

All three of the boys looked both surprised and uncomfortable. The leader quickly tried to rally though.

"These two are Crabbe and Goyle, my name is Malfoy, Draco Malfoy."

Ron openly sniggered at Malfoy's name, causing the pale boy to sneer at Ron and identify his as a Weasley and calling him poor. Turning back to Harry he said, "You'll soon find out some wizarding families are much better than others, Potter. You don't want to go making friends with the wrong sort. I can help you there."

Malfoy held out his hand for Harry to shake, which Harry stared at for a moment. He knew he didn't like this Malfoy, and he knew he didn't trust him to know right from wrong if it was labeled in neon. But he wanted to be diplomatic so he said, "I think I'll try figuring things out for myself for now. Thanks for the offer though."

He stepped back, not taking Malfoy's hand and crossing his arms, making it clear that the conversation was over. It seemed that Malfoy had more that he wanted to say, but decided to leave instead. After they left, Ron and Harry quickly got changed into their robes and waited to arrive at Hogwarts. Harry and Ron, along with the other first years, were quickly gathered up by Hagrid, who greeted Harry warmly. They all soon got their first sight of Hogwarts, the majestic castle was sitting on the hill, towers glittering and all its splendor reflected on the surface of the lake. All the first years then got into a bunch of boats, with Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Neville sharing one. With a word, Hagrid made all the boats move across the lake, gliding smoothly in silence. Soon enough, they were all clambering out of the boats, and Hagrid found Neville's toad.

They were lead to the castle, where Hagrid handed them off to Professor McGonagall, a stern looking witch that gave Harry the same sense of familiarity as when he first met Hagrid. After leading them to a room next to the Great Hall, McGonagall made the rules clear to the first years, telling them about the Sorting and the Houses, and the House Cup. She left them momentarily, during which many of the kids started gossiping about what the sorting would or wouldn't be. Harry himself found it odd that during his reading he'd found nothing about how the Sorting Ceremony actually worked, but decided not to worry too much. It couldn't be a test, like some of the kids were saying, that wouldn't be fair. And since sorting was based more on personality traits, it wouldn't be worth it to try and remember any spells, like Hermione was doing. So Harry decided just to relax until it was time. That is, until about twenty ghosts came through the wall, startling everyone, including Harry. They were quickly shooed away though when McGonagall returned, and lead them into the Great Hall.

Once inside the Hall, Harry had to resist the urge to gape at the ceiling, which looked like the night sky. He'd read about it in his book, Hogwarts, A History, but to see it in person was unreal. McGonagall quickly set up a positively ancient hat on a stool which suddenly burst into song, describing it's job and the houses. When it spoke of Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw, Harry smiled and nodded at Neville and Hermione, the latter of whom blushed prettily. The hat soon finished its song, and Harry nodded. A magical, mind-reading Hat that checked your personality and sorted you. Makes as much sense as anything in the Wizarding World. McGonagall then pulled out a list and started calling names.

"Abbott, Hannah!"

"HUFFLEPUFF!"

"Bones, Susan!"

"HUFFLEPUFF!"

"Boot, Terry!"

"RAVENCLAW!"

The sorting went relatively quickly, each house cheering loudly when it got a new student. Harry quickly noted that the time it took the Hat to choose varied sometimes, taking a mere second for some, and longer for others, like Finnigan, who took almost a whole minute. Harry figured this might be because a student has traits of multiple houses. Was the hat asking them for their choice, or was the hat mulling it over? Harry wondered briefly.

"Granger, Hermione!" Harry perked up when he heard the girl's name, looking over at her. She seemed to hesitate for a moment, glancing at Harry for a moment before running up to the stool and jamming the hat on her head. Harry noticed that she was pulling the brim down, almost as if she didn't want to make eye contact with anyone while she was sorted. Four minutes slowly ticked by. Harry saw Hermione bit her lower lip once or twice nervously. Almost imperceptible, Harry saw her just barely shake her head, once, twice, three times, she told the hat no.

"RAVENCLAW!"

The Ravenclaw table erupted into cheers as Hermione, red-faced and avoiding looking at Harry, ran over to join her new House. Harry felt that there was probably something to do with him in that Sorting, but he didn't know what. But he was distracted by the next student, Neville, who was sorted into Hufflepuff after a long wait. Many other names followed, including Malfoy, who was sorted into Slytherin in an instant. But finally, "Potter, Harry!"

Harry bravely stepped forward, ignoring the whispers that had started as expected. He sat on the stool, his eyes locking onto Hermione. The last thing he saw before the hat came down was her hopeful face.

"Hmm," said a small voice in his ear. "Difficult. Very difficult. Plenty of courage, I see. Not a bad mind either. There's talent, oh my goodness, yes - and a nice thirst to prove yourself, now that's interesting... So where shall I put you?"

Do I have a choice in the matter? Harry asked, thinking the question.

"To a degree, yes. I would never put a student in a house they hated. But ultimately, I choose the house I think will help the students best grow into who they are meant to be."

Harry sat there for a moment, considering this. What would each house offer me?

"Well, if you go to Gryffindor, you will be a true and noble hero for sure. You will gain the courage to do what needs to be done in the coming days. If you go to Ravenclaw, you will gain immense knowledge and wisdom, learning things that would surely help you. In Hufflepuff, you would find many friends and allies, you'll surely become someone who'd be able to do anything you set your mind to. But in Slytherin, oh yes, in Slytherin, you'd truly find greatness. All those ambitions you never thought possible would easily be within reach. All your goals, your dreams, they would guide you to power and fame."

What if, I don't care about any of that? Harry thought, What if all I want, is to never be a victim again?

"What?" The small voice seemed surprised, even disturbed. Images flashed by in the back of Harry's head. He could feel the hat sorting through his memories, seeing the ten years he spent with the Dursleys, what they did to him and how much Harry wanted to never go back to that again. "Oh, oh shite."

Yeah. Harry thought with a chuckle. I don't care about fame. I don't care about glory, or power, or wealth. Tell me, which house will protect me from them? Which house will teach me to never be a victim. Which house will understand my hatred of them.

Five minutes, and eighteen seconds after putting on the hat, the Sorting Hat finally decided where the Boy-Who-Lived would go, what path his destiny lay on. The hat declared, "SLYTHERIN!"