The Hogwarts express took off with a loud blast from the horn. Harry was with his friends in a compartment. It was different being on the train as a second year. There were all these kids running around, trying awkwardly to make friends and start conversation. Harry and Draco even had to tell one of them that their compartment was already taken. The kid tried to complain, saying that there were so many empty seats, but he was quickly put to rights and left.
"No longer gonna be the youngest in the school" Harry smiled. It had been a bit galling, towards the end of the year, to still be seen as the children.
Blaise was busy telling them all about his trip to Italy. Apparently, his mother was as well connected there as in Britain. He had just finished talking about how he met the Italian Minister for Magic when their compartment door opened, and a young brown haired girl walked in.
"Daph, I've been looking for you all over!"
Daphne seemed a bit embarrassed by this.
"Tori, I'm with my friends. Go sit with your own friends"
The girl, Tori presumably, pouted.
"You're just gonna ignore me all year because I'm younger than you? That's so lame"
"I just don't want to have to be looking after my little sister all the time!" Daphne retorted.
"Fine" Daph's sister said, flouncing her hair, "at least introduce me to your friends, I'd like to know whose house I'll be in"
"Unless you're a Hufflepuff," Daphne said snipingly, causing the younger girl to shudder.
"Girls, girls. Relax. Tori, I'm Draco-"
"I know that. We have met before you know"
"Just reminding you," Draco said charmingly, "And this is Harry and Theo, and Blaise"
"Harry? You're Harry Potter?" She said, accusingly.
"Uh, yeah?"
"Oh. I thought you'd be taller" She seemed to be appraising him.
' At least she's not fawning all over me'
"Ok Tori," Daphne said, standing up with her face reddening, "Time to go"
"But-"
"Out!"
Daphne sat back down.
"That was a bit harsh on her," Theo said.
"Harsh? I'm just trying to make sure she doesn't follow me around all day and try to do everything I do! I have my own life, and my own friends and she should also"
"But it can't be so bad" Pansy started
"You don't have a younger sister, you don't know what it's like. She's cool enough, and I don't mind hanging out with her, but I don't want her to follow me around all day"
The compartment fell into silence for a bit.
Theo brought out a deck of cards and started trying to explain how to play Poker. Soon enough, a game was going. Harry stayed lost in thought.
' What would it be like, having a younger sibling? Someone to follow me around and annoy me, but also someone who I could talk to. Someone who lived life with me'
Harry thought about it for a bit and came to a conclusion.
' Probably wouldn't be too different to what I have with Draco, and Daphne and Theo. Probably a similar thing'
Not too long later, the train was pulling into the Hogsmeade station.
They followed the crowd of students in departing. Harry saw Daphne giving Tori a hug behind the crowd of first years. He walked past and caught a snatch of their conversation.
"You'll be fine. Before you know it, you'll be at our table"
He debated calling her and telling her to hurry up or all the good carriages would be taken, but he decided to give her some space.
It was a totally different experience being in the Great Hall before the sorting began. Harry and Draco took their usual seats in the middle of the table and passed the time looking at the terrified new kids and trying to guess who would end up in which of the houses.
"She looks like a brain. Bet you she'll be in Ravenclaw"
"That one looks like he's gonna fall over. Hufflepuff material if there ever was"
"That one's gonna join us"
"Which one? The boy on the left there?"
"Yeah. Look at the way he's looking at everyone. He's gonna be here"
Harry was about to say something to that when McGonagall walked back through the side door with the stool and hat. A few minutes later, Michael Aarons was sorted into Hufflepuff.
"Always got to get the useless ones away first" Draco whispered to Harry.
"I'm sure you said the same thing last year"
"And it was just as true then as it is now"
Charles Braynsen became a Ravenclaw then.
"Why are you clapping?" Harry asked Draco.
"If they're not in Gryffindor or Hufflepuff, I'm happy with where they went. Not as good as us, but Ravenclaws are ok"
Colin Creevey became a Gryffindor.
"Another one to fawn over Dumbledore"
Richard Emmerson joined their table not too long after that, the first Slytherin of the night.
"How much longer is this damn thing gonna go on for? I'm hungry" Theo stage-whispered, causing their whole side of the table to start laughing. Indeed, Theo's stomach could be heard even over the background noise of the Sorting.
"Sshhh!" Daphne hissed. "My sister's up now"
They watched as Tori walked up and sat under the Hat. Daphne seemed to be holding her breath. A few seconds later, the hat shouted out-
"SLYTHERIN!"
Harry heard Daphne letting out a relieved breath, as Astoria (he had to admit, Tori sounded far less pretentious) came towards their table.
Soon enough, Anton Harper joined Slytherin as well.
Harry's mind began to wonder. He tried to avoid looking at a fair amount of the main table. Lockhart seemed intent on catching Harry's eye, and he really didn't want that to happen.
' If that man keeps trying to draw me in this year, I think I'll lose my mind'
He was pleased to see that Snape seemed quite unhappy about being seated next to their new Defence teacher. Harry caught Snape sneering at the man as he looked the other way and immediately felt justified in how he had begun to think of the foppish wizard.
' If he actually did do half the stuff he claimed, he's probably the greatest wizard in the world. If that's the case, why is Snape looking at him that way?'
An explosion of clapping from his own table brought Harry back from his thoughts. He hurriedly joined in with everyone as they clapped the new Slytherin girl to their table. He leaned into Draco and whispered
"What's her name?"
"Morag Plunkett. I think she's Theo's cousin or something, he's mentioned her before"
And finally, the last student to be Sorted was sitting under the hat.
"I can't believe there's another Weasley here! That's five of them in school. Are their parents trying to make their own Quidditch team?"
Harry didn't have a reply to that. He imagined it must actually be quite nice, growing up with a large contingent of siblings around you. All the same, the Weasley's were ponces.
"Wouldn't it be hilarious?" Harry said, "If she came to us?"
Draco looked at him with growing horror. Harry rushed to explain.
"I mean, with all the shit her git of a brother talks about Slytherin, imagine if his sister was here!"
"Harry," Draco said weakly, "Some things are better not even thinking about"
Sure enough, after a few long minutes, the hat sent her to Gryffindor. Once the Hat was removed, Dumbledore stood at the podium. He smiled benevolently at the hall and spoke.
"Welcome. Just a word before the feast begins. Eat!"
Chuckling, the old wizard sat back down. And then Harry wasn't looking anywhere near him, because by then the food had arrived.
He went into his usual Hogwarts feast trance, eating a bit of everything and just avoiding the conversation flowing around him. Eventually, he surfaced to hear-
"I dare you. I'll give you ten Galleons"
"Maybe I would think about it for fifty"
"Fifty! You must be out your mind! Look, he's right there, just ask"
Harry pulled Draco away from the spectacle Theo and Blaise were making of themselves.
"What's Blaise trying to get him to do?" He asked
"To go ask the Bloody Baron about the blood and the chains. Why he wears them"
"Hah!" Harry called out to Theo, "Hey if you do it, I'll give you fifty galleons"
Theo looked like a deer caught in a pair of headlights.
"C'mon, he'll give you fifty, I'll give you twenty-five" Blaise wheedled, "Seventy-five Galleons for asking a simple question"
"What's the matter, Theo?" Draco asked now, "What can he do to you anyway?"
Theo looked positively stricken now. He glanced towards the other end of the table, where the Baron was sitting next to an uncomfortable Flint, looked back at the crowd staring expectantly at him. He gulped and muttered "Fine. I'll do it"
But as he was standing up, silence fell over the Great Hall. Harry looked up at the main table, only to see that Dumbledore had taken the podium again, and was about to speak. Theo settled back into his seat with a relieved expression.
"Perhaps, with full bellies, you shall all be more receptive to a few short, notices.
To all returning students, welcome back. To all new students, welcome.
Mr. Flich has informed me that there are new additions to the list of forbidden objects. These include Homing Slingshots, Pigeon Golems, and other such flying menaces. I assume everyone will rush to his office tomorrow to peruse the full three hundred or so items on the list"
"Quidditch try-outs will begin in approximately two weeks. If you wish to try to be on your House's team, please speak to your captain, head of house, or madam Hooch"
Draco winked at Harry at this.
' We're already on' Harry thought, smirking back.
"Finally, please ensure that you do not enter the forbidden forest unless you are accompanied by a teacher or the groundskeeper" Hagrid gave a little wave at that. Harry tried to ignore the jet of bile that rose in his throat at the sight of the stupid man.
"Off to bed with all of you," Dumbledore said, giving a little clap, "Tomorrow, the year, and hopefully some education with it, begins!"
Harry got up quickly, ignoring the Prefect calling for the first years, he followed the rest of the Slytherin table towards their common-room, and beyond that, to sleep.
Harry lay in bed that night, listening to the lake lapping against his windows, and feeling intensely comfortable. Before he fell asleep, his last thoughts had been of how prepared he felt for the year.
Only time would show him how wrong he was.