Harry on arrival in the great hall had followed the first years in order to be sorted right after them. He felt really old compared to the tiny first years and couldn't help but be a little bit embarrassed. Of course the great hall broke out in loud whispers when they saw an older student arriving. After all they had never seen any other student that had not come in during first year arrive at Hogwarts before.

Most of them also didn't know that it was the famed 'Harry Potter,' otherwise there would've been more staring and pointing. Not that Harry didn't feel like he was already being stared at and dissected.

Harry stood there thinking about his family while the hat sang it's song and then when the first years were being sorted. He already missed Andrew and Emily. Even though they could be really annoying sometimes, he really missed them. Andrew was probably playing some prank on Emily or even Sirius. He never really played pranks on his mom. Elle would blow a casket, even though she was amused really inside. But since she took the role of disciplinary (as Sirius was putty in Emily's hands and enjoyed his son's pranking too much for him to mind) she couldn't exactly show it.

Harry had honestly found the best father in Sirius. He would always have a special place in his heart for his parents but Sirius had not made him feel as if he was missing anything while he was growing up. True, he didn't have a mother figure around when he was younger but still, Sirius was a good godfather.

Even when he was still training to beat Voldermort and they had to search for his horcruxes, he had still felt like a normal kid. But things had turned out from great to fantastic when Sirius met Elle. Before Elizabeth, Sirius was a player, never keeping a girlfriend for longer than a month. But he had met Elizabeth, fell in love and gotten married to her when Harry was ten.

He had never felt like he needed a mother before, but when Elle came into their lives, he had seen all these wonderful changes. Suddenly they ate like a family all the time, she tucked him in at night even though he had told Sirius to stop doing that when he was nine, she liked cuddling him and ruffling his hair or hugging him all the time.

And when they had told her they were expecting when he was twelve, he had been over the moon. He would finally have a sibling to tease and to do brotherly things for. And when Emily came, they had just been wrapped around her finger just by her looking at them with her mother's eyes.

Harry was so wrapped up in his thoughts that he didn't hear McGonagall call his name.

"Potter Harry," she repeated a bit louder.

That finally got Harry's attention and the fact that the Great Hall seemed to have gone silent with faces showing shock

Despite the whispering that broke out again, Harry moved towards the stool with his head held high. When he put the hat on his head, he almost jumped when he heard a voice in his head.

"Another Potter. Well where to put you Mister Potter. You're loyal, smart, courageous and cunning. Yes this is going to be very difficult. Mmm…let me see….mmm…you would do well in Slytherin…yes that would be a good house for you…well-"

"No," Harry argued. "I would not do well in Slytherin. I don't want to be there. Please not Slytherin," he begged.

"Not Slytherin then. Well I guess I have to put you in GRYFFINDOR!"

Harry breathed a sigh of relief and made his way to the Gryffindor table as the Gryffindors gave him a roaring applause. He was wondering where he would sit, when he saw Ginny waving him over.

"Harry! I'm so glad you're in Gryffindor," she told him excitedly.

"Yeah, me too Ginny."

The dinner passed with new and amazing things for Harry. He had never seen so much food in his life and it was all delicious. There were ghosts just roaming around and the ceiling was just brilliant. Students spoke excitedly to each other and the staff looked promising enough. Well that was more likely because he knew most of them anyway seeing as Moony, McGonagall and Dumbledore practically helped raise him.

Snape was there too, which was very unfortunate. He had seen the man a few times and Harry knew that Snape didn't like him one bit. He didn't understand why the man would just judge him on the basis of what had happened ages ago with his father.

Oh well the greasy git is going to get what's coming to him if he doesn't watch it. And I do have to make Sirius proud somehow.

….

When Harry got into the common room, he couldn't help but feel at home. It was just so cozy and homey. Ron showed him his dorm and his bed. His belongings were already right next to his bed.

"Thanks Ron," he told him.

"No worries mate. It's my job after all. Hermione would kill me if I didn't. Not that I didn't want to or anything.

The next morning while they were still eating breakfast, McGonagall handed them their timetables.

"Thanks Minnie," Harry said without thinking.

"Professor Harry," she corrected him sternly.

"Sorry professor," he smiled at her.

Most of the time she appeared strict and proper but Harry knew how she really was in private. OK so maybe she was proper most of the time but she was loving and kind and had a wicked sense of humor.

"What was that?" Hermione asked when the professor had walked away.

"What was what?" From the short time that he had known her, Harry already knew that the bushy haired witch missed nothing. She was the most perceptive person that he had met in a long time.

"You called her Minnie. And she called you by your name. Professor McGonagall never does that. Plus when she told you to call her professor, she wasn't annoyed at you."

"Yeah well, she's sort of like my aunt or something like that."

"She's your aunt?" Ginny asked surprised.

"Not by blood or anything. She's a family friend I guess."

"Maybe she'll be lenient with you," Ron added excitedly with his mouth full.

"Could you speak without food in your mouth for once Ronald? That's so disgusting."

"And Minnie would never do that Ron," Harry added after Hermione's outburst. "She's just too fair for that."

"Well you never know," Ron argued.

It turned out that Harry was right after all. McGonagall was fair during transfiguration. She couldn't have been unfair anyways as Harry was fantastic in Transfiguration. He had frustrated poor Hermione by doing better than her in not only that class but every single one that they had that day.

Harry didn't understand why she was so upset. He had had to learn everything he could to defeat Voldermort, so obviously he was good. He couldn't help that.

Harry was doing his charms essay when Ginny plopped down next to him.

"So how was your first day of classes Harry?"

"They were ok. A bit boring though, but ok."

"Boring? I'm used to hard, challenging, a bit scary or daunting but boring! I've never had that before," she told him with a smile and shake of her head.

Harry laughed and smiled at her before answering. This girl really is adorable, he thought to himself.

"Thing is, I've done all those things before or maybe the advanced version of them. So everything was easy for me. Writing all these essays is going to be annoying though."

"You learnt everything before?"

"Well not everything. I had to train to beat Voldermort after all so I had to know my staff. I had tutors since I was five…the best of their fields. Even if I don't know something, if I can just understand what it's about, I can usually get it really fast."

"Wow. Maybe you can help me with my work."

"Maybe I will. I can't exactly say no to a beautiful lady now can I?"

"Are you flirting with me Mr Potter?"

"Maybe I am. What are you going to do about it?"

"Well maybe I can-"

"Ginny! I've been looking for you," Ron interrupted. "Pig dropped off your letter from mom along with mine. Here you go," he said while handing it to her.

"So what are you guys doing?"

"Nothing Ron," replied an annoyed Ginny. "We were just talking."

Ron really had an irritating knack for interrupting.

"Harry, do you want to play chess?"

"No thanks Ron. I have to finish my essay."

"OK. Let me go and see what Dean and Seamus are doing then."

Harry was about to comment on Ron's importune appearance when he noticed Ginny scowling into her letter.

"Ginny? What is it?"

"It's my mom. My family is so annoying sometimes. You make one mistake in your life and they never let it go."

"What happened?"

Ginny looked at Harry with a bit of uncertainty in her eyes. She didn't exactly know Harry, even though it felt like she did. She couldn't go around spouting her feelings to people she didn't know.

"You don't have to tell me if you don't want to talk about it," Harry told her, noticing the conflicting emotions she was feeling.

"No, it's ok. I'm just not used to talking about this. It's really hard for me, you know."

Harry took her hand in his and gave it a squeeze in support.

"I understand. I'm a good listener, I promise," he told her with one of his crooked smiles that she was starting to like.

She giggled and turned to him.

"Well," she began going back to being serious again. "In my first year I got in possession of a diary. I started writing in it because I felt lonely because none of my brothers payed attention to me while we here. At home they doted on me and played with me all the time but when we got here, they had their own friends and forgot about me. Ron didn't even want me to sit with him and his friends. So I got really lonely and wrote in the diary all the time.

I started noticing that there would be periods of time where I wouldn't remember anything about. I would suddenly see myself covered in dirt and in places where I didn't remember going. Students started getting petrified and I suspected that it was me. When Hermione was petrified I went to Dumbledore and turned myself in. I thought that I was going to be expelled. I was so scared Harry," she said in a quiet voice.

"But Dumbledore didn't do that. Instead he told me that I was strong for fighting Tom for that long and that nothing would happen to me. I was so thankful when I heard that. But my family doesn't trust me anymore. They treat me like that eleven year old girl that was possessed by a diary.

They're always smothering me in attention. I don't have any space at home and all my brothers are always looking out for me and chasing boys away. When Percy, the twins and Ron were here together, it was really bad. But now there is just Ron so it's a bit better."

"Twins? Percy? Are those your brothers?"

"Yeah. The twins are great. They're so funny and always pull pranks. You would love them. Percy is a bit…ok not a bit…he's pompous. He's always thinking that he's better than everyone else. Then there's Bill and Charlie. Bill is the oldest and he works in Egypt as a curse breaker. Charlie is the second oldest. He works with dragons in Romania."

"Six brothers?" Harry asked shocked.

Ginny laughed at his expression and nodded.

Harry smiled at her and squeezed her hand again.

"Ginny, about the diary, Dumbledore was right. This is Voldermort that we're talking about. You had the will to turn the diary over and that's more than any witch your age could have done. Your family will see that one day. They're just scared that if they don't watch over you something else might happen. I bet they blame themselves for the incident."

"Well stifling me with attention won't help."

"I know," Harry said softy while rubbing her palm with his thumb.

"So…" Harry said after a while with a devious smirk on his face.

"So what?" Ginny asked carefully. That smirk didn't look promising.

"You've never had a boyfriend?"

Ginny blushed crimson and buried her face in the one hand that Harry wasn't holding. Harry laughed quietly while trying to get her to look at him.

"I didn't say that. They just didn't last under my brother's wrath. Michael broke up with me a week after we started dating and Dean broke up with me two weeks after we started going out."

"Ouch!"

"Shut up Potter. It wasn't my fault anyways. I'm too pretty to be dumped," she said jokingly.

"That's true," Harry told her while looking straight into her deep chocolate eyes.

A blush crept up on Ginny's face while she looked at him too. Harry was starting to lean into her when Hermione went over to their couch.

It seemed like interrupting was Hermione and Ron's thing.

"Harry, how did you do that rune translation so fast? I'm still struggling with it and you finished it in class?" she asked with a tinge of frustration in her voice.

"Elle is very good with runes so she started teaching me when she married Sirius. She says I'm as good as her now."

"Wizards always have the advantages," she muttered while moving away.

"Well," Ginny started awkwardly. "I have to get to bed."

"Goodnight Ginny," He told her and then kissed her hand. Ginny blushed an even deeper shade of red than he had seen and scrambled quickly to the stairs.