John stared. The carriage stretched on to infinity. A full half the eyes were on him. The other half fixed on the figure standing at the other end of the infinite space.
It was Harry.
His heart beat faster. He started sweating.
But, it wasn't Harry. It wasn't the Harry that he remembered. The Harry he remembered was small and scrawny - timid - flinching at shadows and jumping at the smallest noises.
This Harry looked to be as tall as he was and his stance was taller still. His face was open and friendly, and he wasn't wearing glasses, taped or otherwise.
His own face obviously betrayed his confusion.
"Surprised to see me?" Harry's lip quirked into an almost cheeky grin.
"How?"
An uncomfortable feeling of déjà vu flooded him.
"The normal way, I suspect. Didn't Mum and Dad tell you I'd be joining you this year?"
His eye twitched. "What do you know about Mum and Dad?"
All the assembled students watched, wide-eyed, turning back and forth with each volley in the turn-based verbal duel.
"Very little. They did after all, abandon me."
Someone gasped.
"An unusual policy, you must admit, for the supposed lightest family. But even then, you'd think when they realised their mistake that they'd at least take the effort to meet their long lost child before he left for school."
He flinched and shifted his feet on the plush carpet. That certainly didn't look good. But how did Harry know about what was normal for squibs and families of the Light? And how did Harry… he froze. Harry wasn't ignorant. His heart pounded faster. Which meant… He screamed a roar of primal rage. "You bastard!" He drew his wand and fired the dueller's hello without so much as a thought. The fucker dodged them all and flipped up a nearby table as a shield. Books and parchment went everywhere.
Shouts and screams filled the carriage.
He lunged forward. Magic poured from his wand, determined to destroy the threat to his love. "What. Did you. Do. To. GINNY?!" With each furious cry an overpowered spell dented, gouged, and smashed apart the doomed table in a righteous shower of ripped parchment and wood splinters. But when the dust and magic settled, the fucker had vanished.
He snarled.
"Potter!"
He dodged a head-bound expelliarmus on instinct and spun around, adrenaline still pumping, wand still in hand, ready to obliterate his new target.
"Potter! Put your wand down now! That is an order!"
He stared into the trembling but determined face of a younger Penelope Clearwater. Anger drained away. A lump formed in his throat. His wand arm dropped to his side. He shook. He looked around. Every face looked back at him with shock and fear. Several flinched as his gaze fell on them. Dread pooled in his stomach. Oh, that can't have looked good.
Several hours later, it was a red-faced and much scolded John Potter who stepped off the Hogwarts Express.
The crisp air of the Scottish September bit into his hands and face. The children around him chatted and laughed, leaving him alone in the crowd. He deposited himself in a boat with Susan, Ron, and Hannah; and stared at nothing while the others stared at everything. The oohs and aahs of naked awe swirled around his person like mist, while the worries and angst of hidden uncertainty caressed his skin like a cloth-made dementor aura.
He clambered out of the boat and offered Susan an unthinking hand. Together, they trudged up the embankment, to the greatest magical school in Britain, and to the Hogwarts sorting ceremony.
He listened with half an ear as McGonagall gave them the house as family speech, and he caught a glance of Harry, alone and isolated, but also strong and confident. He clenched his teeth. If things kept going as they were… he was going to have to do something.
....
The Hogwarts great hall was big, and the students, packed together like bristles on a broomstick, were small.
Headmaster Albus Dumbledore frowned. He surveyed the young witches and wizards of the great hall with the air of a similarly great lord surveying his just as great house. There was a feeling of trepidation not normally found before the sorting. John Potter's entrance to Hogwarts had been on the lips of all for the past week, but this went beyond even that.
He'd heard the phrase 'The Golden Year' more than once. There hadn't been a year so full of heirs in living memory. Ten heirs. A year was usually lucky if it got even one . That three of those heirs were children of the leaders of the Dark, Light, and Gray didn't help.
The side door opened and Professor McGonagall lead the first years into a line facing the rest of the students.
The general hubbub of the hall slowly died.
Leaning over the head table, he could see the general state of the children. Many fidgeted, their eyes darting around the hall as though expecting to be attacked. That was normal. His frown deepened. What wasn't so normal was that a smaller number seemed to sway slightly. Their eyes drooped shut before jerking open again. An occasional yawn escaped. They looked exhausted. He couldn't help notice that this second group all wore custom made robes.
The sorting began.
"Abbott, Hannah."
It wasn't right, forcing these children to sink in their parents political crucibles. They should enjoy their childhood.
"Hufflepuff!"
He forced a smile and clapped for the Abbott girl.
"Bones, Susan."
"Hufflepuff!"
He motioned for Poppy to join him.
"Boot, Terry."
"Ravenclaw!"
Poppy leaned down to his ear. "Yes, Headmaster?"
"Brocklehurst, Mandy."
"I wonder if you might take a quick look at some of our more well known young charges-"
"Ravenclaw!"
"-during the feast? I fear many of them may have been using their occlumency all day."
Poppy huffed.
"Brown, Lavender."
"Really, Albus. I know occlumency doesn't use much magic, but they're still far too young for extended use like that."
"Gryffindor!"
"I know, Poppy."
"Bulsrode, Millicent."
"Slytherin!"
He sighed. "Unfortunately it's not our place to dictate how their houses conduct their affairs."
"Corner, Michael."
"Ravenclaw!"
Poppy grumbled.
"Crabbe, Vincent."
"So long as they don't expect pepper up," she said.
"Slytherin!"
"I'm getting far too many students these days who think-"
"Davis, Tracey."
"-they can push themselves to the magical edge and just fix it with a potion."
"Slytherin!"
"Just don't be surprised if I drag one or two of them up to the hospital wing."
"Dunbar, Fay"
"Gryffindor!"
He pursed his lips.
"Entwhistle, Kevin."
"I hope that won't be necessary, Poppy."
"Hufflepuff!"
He clapped extra enthusiastically for the wizarding world's first newest member.
"Well, of course I also hope it won't be…"
"Finch-Fletchley, Justin"
"… But, well… look at that boy there." She gestured towards the line of unsorted students."
"Hufflepuff!"
He glanced over to where Poppy had indicated. The Longbottom heir was resting his head on the adjacent girl's shoulders, eyes closed.
"Finnigan, Seamus"
He frowned. If only Tom had chosen the Longbottom child. Low magical power, no brother, and no parents.
"Gryffindor!"
"Yes," he said, slowly.
"Goldstein, Anthony."
"I see the problem."
"Ravenclaw!"
Poppy nodded and left to sit back down.
"Goyle, Gregory."
....
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