"Why are you laughing?" Ron demanded.
"I just think it's funny is all," Harry drawled. Behind him, Neville, Susan, and Hannah were all snickering slightly as they knew who Harry was.
"Oh yeah," Ron challenged.
"Yes," Harry said calmly.
"Well, who asked you anyway?" Ron said, dismissing Harry as he turned back to Draco. Looking up, Harry saw the blond giving him an appraising look. Draco, seeing he had been noticed, nodded his head in greeting. Harry, seeing this, nodded back and smirked slightly.
Before Ron could continue his argument McGonagall returned. "If you would, line up in twos and follow me," she instructed. Not waiting, she began striding through the entrance doors.
~
The sorting happened as Harry remembered, however, this time when Harry's name was called out, there was a gasp of indignation heard coming from Ronald Weasley as he realized who he had argued with and a wide smirk on the face of Draco Malfoy. Walking with grace up to the stool, Harry sat down and waited for the hat to be placed on his head.
'Hello again,' Harry thought as the hat settled on his head.
'Oh, you are interesting Lord Potter - or should I say Heir Potter? You're not a lord yet. Such a fascinating mind you have, so many secrets; oh, you would do very well in Slytherin, but I can see you don't want to go there. Why not, Harry? You could achieve so much greatness,' the hat questioned.
'You've seen my mind, you know exactly who I face; if I go into Slytherin I stand the chance of being discovered that much earlier. Dumbledore's suspicious already now that he's seen I don't have a glamour; if I go to the snake pit he'll never leave me alone.' Harry hoped his reasoning would persuade the hat, he was lucky the hat was bound to Hogwarts and could not reveal what it found in people's heads and held no loyalty to the headmaster - just to Hogwarts itself.
'Mmm yes, I see. Then it better be—'
"RAVENCLAW!" The final word was shouted out loud and, for a moment, the hall froze in shock before erupting into cheers, the eagle house jumping up and down. Looking around before he moved, Harry noticed Draco Malfoy staring at him again, and nodded his head as he went to sit.
Sitting down at his table, Harry was greeted by members, some of which he knew from his past, mainly the ones close to him in age but some he had never met before. Beside him was Padma Patil, who Harry knew through the DA and from the disaster that was the Yule Ball, when he took her twin Parvati. Terry Boot and Sue Li where opposite him, with Anthony Goldstein and Michael Corner slightly further up. Lisa Turpin was finally sorted and she took the space next to Harry.
"Do you really have the scar?" asked Terry, staring at Harry intently as though he was trying to see through his hair.
Sighing, Harry looked around. "I understand that as Ravenclaws you all love mysteries and knowledge, but please, can you not stare at me like I'm something special? I'm really not," Harry said.
"How can you say that? You defeated You-Know-Who!" asked one of the older students listening in.
"I didn't actually," Harry said causing silence to fall around him.
"What?" asked multiple people in shock.
"I very much doubt what happened had anything to do with me. I was most likely a mistake on Voldemort's end or something done by my mum," Harry said.
At that a lot of people shrank back and developed looks of consideration.
"Anyway, like I was saying, I do understand that you may have questions, but honestly, a lot of what you've been told about me is utter rubbish. I'm just a normal boy, a normal student, I'm really not all that interesting, so please treat me like you would anybody else," Harry said. With that he started to fill his plate with the food that had appeared.
The students around him shared some looks and followed his example, most even happier now that Harry was in their house as he seemed like a good person as well as being the Boy-Who-Lived.
~
Meanwhile at the staff table
Albus Dumbledore almost choked on his lemon drop as Harry Potter stepped forward. The boy looked nothing like James, which worried him as he himself had placed the blood glamour. Watching with trepidation as Harry walked forward with an unusual amount of grace for a muggle raised boy, Albus leaned forward. The sorting took a few minutes, the longest of the students so far, making Albus' heart rate skyrocket; he should have gone straight to Gryffindor! Eventually, when the hat shouted Ravenclaw, Albus almost wept in relief. Although not Gryffindor, the boy obviously had some redeeming qualities keeping him out of Slytherin. However, the fact that it appeared that some of his charms had failed worried him. He needed Harry to be his perfect little light warrior, his plans counted on that fact.
Severus Snape, however, had the opposite reaction to Harry Potter's appearance; he had dreaded the day that Potter's spawn would arrive at Hogwarts, expecting a pampered prince, a clone of James and the embodiment of everything he hated. Therefore, he was surprised when the longhaired, delicate looking boy walked forward with his head down at first. The boy was small for his age and walked with an innate grace that had Severus scowling. That scowl, however, soon died when the boy looked up; his features were soft - small nose, slightly pouted lips, and high cheekbones, but most shockingly were the vivid emerald eyes. Eyes Severus had once loved, that had belonged to the sister of his heart. The boy looked like a male version of Lily; sure, there were traces of Potter, but they were well hidden. The boy had even somehow managed to avoid the dreaded Potter hair; his hair falling in waves and curls to his shoulders, not perfectly in place, but a far cry from the untamable mane his sire had.
Severus watched with baited breath as the boy sat boy to be sorted and he wondered if maybe he would be a snake, but dismissed that thought. No Potter had ever been in Slytherin as far as he knew. The hat seemed to be taking his time and Severus wondered if maybe the boy would break the pattern before it called out for Ravenclaw. Clapping politely, Severus almost missed the nod Potter had sent to Draco Malfoy. Wondering what it was about, Severus tuned out the rest of the sorting, clapping whenever he heard Slytherin shouted out.