6 6

Hermoine was sorted into Gryffindor just like in the books and films.

Nothing noteworthy happened for a while. Until McGonagall arrived on the Letter P. "Harry Potter", she announced and instantly the hall turned silent. Everyone who wasn't already looking, now turned to McGonagall. A confident and athletic boy, with black hair and hazel eyes, walked up and got the hat put on him. It didn't take a long time for the magical hat to call out, "Gryffindor." From the moment he had walked out of the crowd I was befuddled, because that boy did absolutely not look like a beaten and malnourished kid. He did also not look very timid or anxious. He looked confident and sporty.

Just like in the movie the other Gryffindors broke out into thunderous applause. Some screamed his name others just whistled. With a smug smile on his face Harry jumped off the stool, sat the hat back and walked confidently to his assigned table. The Weasly twins, who for some reason sat next to the empty seats, welcomed Harry with shoulder pats and some words, which I could not understand through all the noice. Interrupting this little celebration was the magically reinforced voice of McGonagall, "Quiet." And silence returned.

McGonagall continued, "Holly Potter".

And with that my worldview was officially shattered.

With halted breath I looked on.

Out of the crowd came an auburn haired girl with green eyes. Everyone was silent, focusing on the ceromony, but you could hear some whispers here and there. Still the majority of students watched as the other Potter got the sorting hat. It took a while, longer than Harry. Eventually the hat announced, "Gryffindor!"

Thunderous applause erupted.

Out of the sea of voices you could distinctly hear two redheads chanting loudly, "We got the twins. We got the twins. We got the twins."

The magically reinforced voice of McGonagall resounded again, but it could not quell the enthusiasm of the Gryffindors.

Dumbeldore seeing McGonagall's unsuccessfull attempt, stood up, held his wand up to his throat and demanded "SILENCE!"

A wave of tremendous magical power swept through the Great Hall, muting all noise. Some were still chanting, but without any sound leaving their mouths, until eventually everyone stopped. As the wave swept over me I could feel the unfathomable magic force behind it, it was leagues above my own, in every aspect.

Dumbeldore practically took control over the Great Hall as a whole. I tried to use a little bit of magic, just enough to move the fork in front of me. I felt sluggish and weak almost like I was walking up a river.

Being done with my short experiment, I looked left and right to the other students. The senior ones on my right seemed to be perfectly fine with the situation. Not minding it at all. The other newcomers on my left seemed to have more of a reaction, but nowhere close to mine. They also seemed to not be concerned with the magical suppression, almost like they could not feel it at all.

This one instance showed me how little I actually knew of the real magical world and how far I still had to go. With my flame of ambition reignited, I vowed to train even harder than before.

"Please be respectful towards the rest of the unsorted Students and remain quiet." Dumbeldore followed with a warm smile on his face. His 'domain' vanishing into thin air.

McGonagall gave him a thankfull nod, before resuming with her list. All of the familiar characters were sorted into their houses without any outlier. The rest were allocated as well.

After McGonagall finished assigning everyone she walked behind the teachers table and sat on her spot.

Dumbeldore stood up and said "Let the feast begin!" With that the food and drinks magically apeared on the tables. Everyone started eating, some with more gusto, others with less. The first years were especially hungry since they had had no clue how long the train ride would take and therefore hadn't brought any food with them.

After the meal everyone except for the newly sorted and prefects left the Great Hall. The prefects roughly explaned the layout of the castle. Afterwards they led us from the Great Hall to our common rooms.

While we were walking I nudged someone who did not practice Occlumency next to me and asked "What's so special about the Potters?"

As he turned to me and we established eye contact I dove into his mind. I found myself in front of a single-family home. I walked up to the door, wich didn't even have a lock. Compared to Hagrid his mind was even less guarded.

Behind the door I saw a jumble of words. I could make out boy-who-lived, defeated he who must not be named, celebrity, noble, twins and a lot more.

Apart from words there were also feelings like his rough feelings towards them, which was envy and jealousy predominantly.

As I was observing his mind he began to explain in the real world "Oh you're a muggle, right. Ok let me explain. There once was a very bad wizard whose name nobody dares to speak that's why we call him he who must not be named and Harry Potter, the older of the twins, defeated him. After that he turned into this wunderkind that everyone admires. 'The one to defeat the dark lord! The idol of the wizarding world. Oh what I would give to be in his shoes.'" the tangent at the end of his explanation only hearable in his mind.

"Thanks." I said as I turned away thinking to myself.

'Another difference to the Harry Potter world I know. Concerning. I should look up what exactly happened in the library later. All the more reason to increase my magic training, because if that can change, what else can.'

We eventaully arrived at the Hufflepuff common room. It was right next to the kitchen one floor below the Great Hall behind a stack of barrels. There was no entry requirement like a password or a riddle.

Subsequently the prefects handed out our timetable, we would share most of our classes with the ravenclaws. They further split us in male and female groups in order to show us the bedrooms, which consisted of single or double rooms. They were not that big, in return our common room was substantually larger than the other houses'.

Seeing as it was already late I did my normal routine before going to bed, I had a solo room.

The next day I woke up rather early. It was 6 am, which suited me well, because I decided to look for a very special room.

Arriving at the seventh floor I stood in front of an empty wall. Behind me was a tapestry depicting Barnabas the Barmy attempting to teach ballet to trolls. Walking up and down in front of the wall I imagined a room in which I could train.

Lo and behold, a door appeared. I opened it, walked in and could see a spacious room, about 5 meter in width and depth, with some weights in the corner and a shower.

Finding the room adequate I walked to the middle and released a wave of magic, enough to fill the whole room, just like dumbeldore had done and similar to what I do on a daily basis. But to fill this whole room I had to use 10% of my total magic capacity and this room was nowhere near as massive as the Great Hall. If I wanted to use this 'domain' for anything, then I would be spent after roughly 10 seconds unless I drastically reduce the magic density and therefore its power.

"I have a long way to go, havn't I." I said to myself, regretting a little that I had been so focused on legilimency that I neglected my normal magic.

Pulling myself back together I grabbed the weights and started exercising for some time. I did not do any magic training as I did not want to be magically exhausted before my very first lesson even began.

Afterwards I took a shower and went back down to the Great Hall where I saw some other Hufflepuff students already eating their breakfast.

"Good morning." I greeted the student I sat down next to "My name's Lucas, I hope we can get along." I offered him a handshake.

"Nice to meet you, I am Justin." he said as we shook hands and made eye contact. Over the next few minutes I learned a lot about him, from his mouth as well as his mind. Justin Finch-Fletchley was a upper class muggle-born and was on his way to enroll in the prestigious school Eton, when his letter arrived. His mother is to this day sceptic whether he should be trained as a wizard or go to a normal school. Completely idiotic if you ask me. He on the other hand was glad to have gone to Hogwarts, which was understandable.

During the conversation I also instilled a sense of comfort and reliance in him.

I wanted to establish myself under the students as someone, who you could ask for help regardless what you needed with no questions asked. I wanted them to owe me a favour. Just imagining a whole generation of future heads of noble houses indebted to me gave me goosebumps. The best part is I wouldn't even need to manipulate a lot of students, because after a while word would get out and people would automatically come to me.

"Good morning Lucas" I heard the familiar voice of Hannah from behind me. Turning around I waved at her and Susan, who waved back. "Morning."

They sat down next to me.

"Excited for the first day?" Susan asked while grabbing some food and putting it on her plate. Not getting an immediate answer she expectantly looked up from her food, to me.

After getting a feel on her emotions I answered her excitedly "You bet I am."

Hannah and I talked a bit about our timetable and what we expected from our first day, all the while I slowly shaped her emotions to the same comfort and reliance as Justin.

Being done with her I switched to Susan, who was for the most part left out of our conversation.

"Susan" I spoke successfully startling her out of her daydream.

"Yes?" she said turning to me.

"What are you looking forward to?" I asked to get her talking, while I could do the same I did to Hannah.

After breakfast we went to our rooms to gather our belongings for the first class that starts at 9 am. It was charms together with ravenclaw and their head of house Filius Flitwick.

He told us a bit about himself, about the curriculum and about the importance of charms. Afterwards we started with the first spell, the Levitation Charm. The professor told us the right incantation and wand movement. Then he levitated feathers out of a jar, so that every student had one laying in front of them.

"Now you may try" he said encouragingly. Immediatly I heard someone loudly shouting "Wingardium Leviosa." Everyone turned towards that one student, only to witness nothing happening. A short moment passed until some more chants could be heard. I as well decided to turn my attention towards the feather in front of me. Once more going through Fliwick's demonstration in my head I raised my wand, moved it accordingly and used the incantaion.

Nothing.

The feather didn't move.

Confused why it didn't work I stared at my wand, replayind my attempt in my mind to make sure i did everything right.

"Wonderful, excellent, 10 points to ravenclaw for successfully casting a charm on the first day." Flitwicks voice startled me. Looking up I could see a single feather floating above a ravenclaw student.

Focusing back to my feather I tried to cast the spell a few more times. By the time the professor ended the class, I was crestfallen. Not a single successful spell. Not one.