Chapter Text
“Evans, Harry” rang out in the hall. The stern-faced witch looked towards the gathered first years and waited patiently until the black-haired boy had extracted himself from his peers. The boy scampered towards her and sat down on the stool that was placed in front of the teacher’s table. ‘Hmmm most difficult… hmmm.. a sharp mind and a fierce need to prove yourself…hmmm and loyalty towards those that you deem important to you…hmmm what to do? Well, Mister Evans any thoughts?’ murmured an elderly voice within the confines of the hat. ‘Well I would prefer not to go to Gryffindor and Hufflepuff seems to me a wrong fit… so Ravenclaw please’ replied the boy. ‘Hmm well you would fit with those of sharp mind, but I think that you would do better with Slytherin.. .They will help you in your ambitions. Any objections? No? Okay SLYTHERIN!’
The boy heaved a sigh and removed the hat from his head and handed it back. He looked about and saw that the green and silver table was clapping politely. He moved towards the table and found a seat at the head of the table clearly cleared for the future first years and joined a big mean looking boy earlier identified as Crabbe. The sorting meanwhile had continued and Harry listened as his year mates were sorted into the four houses. A few girls joined his table before it was time to sort Neville Longbottom. The boy with the lightning bolt scar sat down and after a long wait was sorted into Gryffindor. Not all sortings took such a long deliberation as a young pointy faced, blonde boy was sorted In Slytherin even before the hat was placed on his head.
Harry was looking at the remaining children and his eyes fell on another black haired boy, this one wore glasses and had deep blue eyes, but he did have the same tangled mess of hair as Harry himself. ‘Apparently, the hair is genetic’ thought Harry ‘I am so happy that mom insisted on giving me an eye-correction potion’. He continued to stare at the boy and this led to the boy noticing that someone was watching him. Charles, as the boy was named, locked eyes with Harry and Harry was at a loss what to do. Just at that moment, the professor’s voice rang out with “Potter, Charles” and Charles moved toward the stool. After a couple of minutes, the hat said “Gryffindor”. Harry could only be relieved that he was not forced to share his dorm with his younger half-brother. “Ah the infamous Potter Heir” said the pointy-faced boy seated next to Harry “Have you been in contact with him, Evans?” Harry turned towards the boy and gave him an unimpressed once over and remained silent. Rebuked the boy stuck out his hand and said “Draco Malfoy”. Harry looked at the hand and decided to take it, ‘you never know if someone would turn out useful’. “Harry Evans, formerly of the house Potter. And to answer your question; no I have not been in contact with him or our father. However, I do not see how this is any of your business.” “If I have caused offense I apologise as I was just curious. The ascendance of the current heir was a shock that has been felt within society for a long time. For a family to slight their firstborn and to actually strip him of his name is a rare thing. So your situation is cause for curiosity.” Draco explained “but I understand that it might be a very sore subject. “ Harry shrugged his shoulders and looked towards the last student to be sorted “I don’t really care. I have been Harry Evans for as long as I have known my name so I have no ill feelings towards this Potter or his father.”
Blaise Zabini, the last to be sorted, got the honour of becoming a Slytherin and joined Harry and Draco at the table. After which the Headmaster addressed the hall and warned them of the dangers of the Third Floor. Several of the Slytherin upper-years seemed concerned by this news and started to furiously whisper to each other. Harry decided to focus on his housemates when the Headmaster decided to lead the school in the school song. Harry looked at the table and noticed that the girls and boys had decided to separate and he was surrounded by Draco, Crabbe, Zabini and two other boys.
As he had not been introduced to them yet he turned towards Draco and asked him to introduce him to the others. As it seemed to Harry as if Draco was acquainted with most of the first years. The other two boys turned out to be Gregory Goyle and Theodore Nott. The last began a conversation with Harry about Charms. “My father has mentioned that Ms. Evans is a great Charms Mistress. Do you know a lot of Charms already?” Theodore politely asked. Harry was unsure how to answer that question, should he be completely honest or should he hide the truth? In the end he decided to be sparse with the truth. “My mother has taught me some Charms. Mostly household charms designed to make it easier to keep the house functioning. Mother decided that it was better for me to learn the other charms here at school. But she did go over the first few chapters of the schoolbook with me. She wanted to make sure that I had a basic understanding of her favourite subject.”
He had not lied, but in reality, his Charms education extended beyond the first three years. His mother had found an eager student in young Harry and had helped him progress after finding him with a first year’s book when he was just nine. He had picked the book up while visiting a secondhand bookshop with his Uncle Remus. And when she had found him practicing the wand movements with a stick, she had decided to teach him properly. And he had turned out to be both an eager and a talented student. Over the last three years he had mainly focused on Charms, however, he had also decided to look into Potions. This came about after Lily had explained that he could not perform the charms properly without his own wand and that he was only allowed his personal wand at age eleven. Her wand performed adequately but not perfectly for Harry. In his search to find a wandless subject, he found Potions to be an engaging subject. And as with Charms his mother had stimulated his thirst for knowledge and had acquired several basic books on potion making which would be helpful for him.
Before the conversation could continue the table was suddenly stacked with food and both boys decided to eat rather than talk. Harry supplemented his healthy choices with some treacle tart and orange juice. Over dessert, the boys talked about their favourite quiditch teams and which class they were most looking forward to. Harry learned that most boys looked down on Charms and were looking forwards to Defence against the Dark Arts and Potions. He himself was interested in the Wizarding Culture class and the Magical Theory Class. But he decided not to share this as he had a feeling that it would draw unintended attention to the fact that his upbringing was not strictly magical.He had heeded the warning from his Uncle Remus while they were discussing his possible placement within Slytherin and his words had cautioned him enough not to want to draw attention to his Muggleborn mother.
After an hour the plates were mostly empty and most children had put down their cutlery signaling that they were done. Harry did notice that a red-headed boy seated next to Neville Longbottom was continuing to stuff his face and to Harry’s horror, the boy decided to speak with his mouth open. “Weasleys have no sense of dignity and have no manners to speak off.” Said Draco who had noticed where Harry’s eyes had wandered “However it seems that Potter has missed out on some lessons in etiquette as well” he nodded to the other side of Ron where Charles was sat. He also did not swallow his food before he decided to answer Ron’s questions. Harry scoffed and said “if what I was told was correct then you should not expect a lot of manners out of Potter. My father apparently held good manners in contempt and he has clearly raised Charles with that in mind.”” Clearly, someone taught you differently Evans” said Draco. At that moment the tables were cleared and the hook-nosed professor rose from behind the teacher’s table and nodded towards the Slytherin table. This was a sign for the upper years to get up and to gather the first years for their first trek through the dungeons towards the Slytherin Common Room