It was Hagrid that received them at the train station and it was a Harry that was slightly busy admiring his new clothes that went onto a random boat. The robes were so breezy, so elegant. Wizarding fashion wasn't one of the things he'd expected to get excited about, but it was definitely a vibe. He thought he looked quite fetching in his new ensemble plus wizard's hat. He had always managed to pull off a hat, no matter the body, apparently that was a spiritual quality. It was because he was too busy admiring his own reflection, per say, despite there being no mirror, that Harry found himself in a boat with the Weasley twins and Cedric.
He sighed as he forlornly looked around for the other boats, seeing that none of them had a free spot.
"Thanks for the chocolate frog, I guess. My pocket is full of chocolate now," Harry said to the twins sitting in front of him, in lieu of a greeting, accepting his fate.
"Got you good, didn't we?" the one on the right cackled, "I knew it was a good idea to practise slipping things in people's pockets," the other one said, before they introduced themselves as Gred and Forge.
"Interesting names your parents picked," Harry noted, while leaning on the edge of the boat and admiring the perfect clear sky and the reflection of the bright moon on the placid lake. "Is it intentional that if one switches the first letters of your names one gets Fred and George?
"Their names really are Fred and George. They just think they're funny," Cedric interjected.
"Haha," Harry deadpanned, "How do you guys know each other, if I may ask?"
"Oh, we're neighbours," Cedric explained, but the conversation was interrupted by Hogwarts coming into view as the boats passed a bend. The rest of the ride remained silent, everyone being too busy admiring the beautifully lit castle. Harry felt touched, as if he'd travelled to another world and seen something not meant for his eyes.
They eventually stopped at an underground pier and all the students exited and formed a crowd around a stern-looking older woman with emerald green robes, who had been waiting for them. "All there?" She asked, turning to Hagrid.
She received a nod and off they were.
"Must be nice being neighbours, you can hang out in the summer," Harry remarked. "Hard to keep older friendships alive if you end up in different houses, I imagine. So many new people to get to know. Don't get me started on the different schedules," he mused, not remembering that it had ever been mentioned in the books that the Weasley twins and Cedric had any significant connection.
"Yeah, Cedric's gonna be sorted into Puff and then he'll be too lame to hang out with," One twin said, "a real tragedy," the other said.
"Hufflepuff is not lame!" Cedric protested and made to lightly shove one of the red-heads, who quickly dodged back.
"You guys already know where you want to be sorted then?" Harry asked.
"Gryffindor rules!" the twins shouted.
"My whole family has been in Hufflepuff for a while now. I heard stories about the common house and it sounds really nice. I wouldn't mind. Do you have a preference?"
"Anything but Slytherin is fine, muggleborn and all." Harry replied blasely, only for someone to shove him from behind.
He stumbled forward but righted himself before he could fall. Turning around angrily he saw a pale, dark-haired boy scowling at him. "We wouldn't want you there anyway, mu-" The boy spat, paused, before growing even paler than his already pale complexion. Dude really needed a week in the sun.
Harry rolled his eyes at the situation and turned around in the sudden silence and stillness that had formed to see professor McGonagall standing behind him, glaring at them both. He huffed. Good that he wasn't impulsive enough to retaliate, physically or verbally, or else they'd both gotten detention. Harry was perfectly fine with not being locked in a room like he had that much time to waste, thank you very much. "Now, now," he said instead, "There's no reason why we can't get along, we're just here to finish our magical education. Wasting our precious time here fighting each other seems contradictory to the fact that school is supposed to be fun," he said, before taking a step towards the boy and extending a hand. The boy looked between him and his hand, confused, but couldn't back away due to the throng of students surrounding them. He looked at the glaring professor standing behind Harry and shook his hand with a scowl. "See," Harry said, "and suddenly we're all friends and don't have to waste several hours of our lives in detention because we broke each other's noses. I'm Harry Evans, by the way."
"Montague." The boy ground out.
"It was nice meeting you Montague," Harry replied and turned around.
"I'm glad you managed to sort that out," McGonagall said approvingly, "onwards then, we've wasted enough time."
"That was wicked," one of the twins whispered to Harry once they were on their way to the great hall again. Cedric seemed like he wanted to add something as well, but a well-timed backwards glance from McGonagall convinced him not too. Overall it was a sombre group of first years that eventually arrived at a great set of wooden doors leading to the great hall.
It wasn't long before the wooden doors opened with an ominous creaking sound. Truly completing the contradictory reality of a castle that was somehow magical, but had rusty hinges. It was definitely a sombre aesthetic, an impression that was immediately ruined by youthful chatter and a bright hall illuminated by countless candles.
-/-
"Hufflepuff," the sorting hat shouted and was promptly removed from Cedric's head by professor McGonagall.
"Harry Evans," she read from the scroll in her hand and the red-hair slowly began making his way to the stool sitting right in front of the staff table. He used this opportunity to observe the professors, the only unknown being a stiff woman that looked to be somewhere in her fifties and in desperate need of a proper meal. Otherwise it was as he remembered. Hagrid, Kettleburn, Slughorn, Dumbledore, Quirrell…. No Snape.
He smiled forlornly as he climbed the steps to the hat, closed his eyes and cleared his mind.
Nothing existed as he sat and had the hat put upon his head.
Nothing was thought as the hat whispered into his ear. "Look, It's a nice trick, but it'll just hurt if I have to actually break in. So give me something."
Harry sighed and released his hold on the void, it probably would have been too much to hope for to have mastered Occlumency without formal instruction or learning material. 'Not Slytherin,' he thought at the hat, before thinking about how going to Hogwarts to a potentially dangerous unknown exhibited bravery and how his perpetual learning and practice exhibited a thirst for knowledge and an astounding amount of hard-work. 'Take your pick,' he projected, not really having a preference.
"Well," the hat said, out loud this time, so the entire hall could hear, "it better be, Hufflepuff!"
Once Harry stood up from the chair, the yellow and black table burst into applause, joined by the corpulent monk floating atop it.
"The applause feels undeserved," Harry whispered to Cedric, who he'd sat down next to. "I just sat on a chair."
"It's more that the house wants the new students to feel welcome I think," Cedric whispered back, before they both turned to watch the next sorting.
It wasn't long before all the students were sorted and the headmaster, a man with an impressive silver beard and garishly purple robes stood up and gathered the attention of the room onto himself. Dumbledore, of course, gave a lengthy speech, not anything particularly mention-worthy being situated within it. The only thing Harry paid attention to was when the man introduced the new Defence against the Dark arts professor, a certain, "Professor Twix." Her background was curiously not elucidated upon and nobody in the great hall seemed particularly excited. The applause was rather middling.
Harry perked up however, when the headmaster ended his speech with, "Nitment, Bobbsi, Smithens," which caused the food to appear. "Those must be house-elf names," he muttered before quickly securing some roast beef, caramelised carrots and roasted potatoes. In addition to this he poured a clear tomato soup into his goblet and sipped from it in between bites.
"Does it taste good? Drinking tomato soup like that?" a blonde girl, with her hair in two braids sitting on his.
"Penny, right?" Harry asked.
"Yeah, sorry. Your name is Harry?" she asked, at which he nodded.
"Well, I like tomato soup. Considering the only other options are pumpkin juice and water, I decided to go with the more fun option." He glanced at her plate. Mashed potatoes with gravy. He smiled. "I see you know what you like enough to stick to a single thing though."
Penny turned her nose up, "Hogwarts is awesome, no parents to badger me into eating vegetables," she proclaimed, as if being a picky and difficult eater was something to be proud of.
Harry hummed and looked at her sceptically, before returning back to his meal. It wasn't his job to fix anyone's eating habits. "I like your braids, by the way," he said, so as to not end the conversation on the topic of food. The braids were indeed very cute. Penny had very bright blonde hair, half of which she tied into three braids, two of which rested on her front making sure her tie wasn't lonely. The last one ran from the top of her head to the back, where it joined the follicles that were allowed to swing freely down her back.
"Thanks," Penny muttered with a blush before diving face-first into her mashed potatoes.
Harry returned to his own meal, thinking sardonically that Penny was what his daughter would have looked like, if he'd been allowed to have one in his previous life.