03 - Gotta collect them all
Harry gets into the Hogwarts Express, feeling how his throat gets tight. One of the most 'banal' things he was sorry he missed in his last life was riding the train as a 7th Year, not having a chance to say goodbye to what drives him to his first home ever. He's extremely happy to have the opportunity to experience going home again.
(He doesn't care that he can take his OWL's and NEWT's and get and EE in most classes, he's gonna be in Hogwarts for the whole seven years even if he's not gonna learn -probably- anything new)
(He's SO going to take Ancient Runes and Arithmancy as electives. Trelawney can go drown herself in Sherry for all he cares, thank you very much)
He's early, as he passes through the compartments of the train he sees that the station is almost bare, excluding some families that are coming through the Floo and some that come from the brick wall that connects to the muggle world. Harry stops as he sees a recognizable vulture hat showing, and soon enough a baby-Neville steps past the Floo flames.
(Was he truly that small the first time around?!)
Harry hurries to where Neville is walking to get in the train, and as he gets to him he makes a show of almost walking into him.
"O-oh I'm sorry"Neville tries to say in a hushed breath, he truly looks sorry and it almost makes Harry feel bad, but it was necessary, because he'll be damned if he's going to leave baby-Neville alone in the train by himself.
"Oh no, don't apologise, it was my fault" He says trying to sound reassuring while smiling at Neville. It's easy to smile at that adorable face.
(If everyone looks THAT cute he's going to end up throwing up rainbows. Oh he just imagined a little Ron. DO. NOT. COO.)
"I was just looking for a compartment to sit on and I guess I got excited" Harry goes on when he sees Neville calming somewhat "I haven't met up any other first-years, do you want to sit with me?*
And that's how a very stunned Neville gets dragged around to a close empty compartment.
"By the way, what's your name? Sorry I didn't ask before" Harry asks when they got comfortable in the seats, remembering that he's not supposed to know who the blonde in front of him is.
(The bravest Gryffindor in their generation, he thinks fondly)
(He doesn't know, but his eyes are filled with so much warm that Neville looks at them and feels that he's actually cared for, even when he's aware that he only met this strange boy 5 minutes ago, Neville feels that even if he tells the boy that he's going to be sorted into Hufflepuff he wouldn't let him be alone)
"Uh, I'm Neville Longbottom, and this is Trevor" Neville says a tad more confident, showing Harry his toad. If the boy sitting at the other side were any other person he would've felt a little ashamed of having such a old fashion pet, but strangely enough the boy doesn't seem repulsed by the toad, and a very small smile creeps his way into his face.
"Hello Trevor, hello Nev, can I call you Nev? Hope so because I already started thinking of you as a friend. I'm Harry Potter and my pet is called Hedwig but as she's an owl I let her fly to Hogwarts already" Harry wasn't going to make his girl suffer through the whole ride inside a cage.
"O-oh dear" is the faint response. Neville almost let Trevor fall from his hands but he recovers quickly enough "Oh-Um yeah, you can call me Nev. A-and if you're already thinking of us as f-friends, can I call you Harry?" He blushes when he says the word friends and Harry wants to hug him so badly, but it would be probably too soon.
"Sure thing" He beams brightly instead, receiving a tiny smile in return.
They spend the time waiting for the train to go on talking about things to know each other better. Nev tries to go very briefly about plants but Harry knows how obsessed he is and he'll gladly hear a 1 hour lecture about herbology if needed, and so he tells Neville about the flowers he planted on his Aunt garden. Needless to say, Neville was glowing.
They were talking about the houses at Hogwarts ("And seriously Neville, I don't imagine that every house is just the little bits they describe them to be, I mean everyone has self-preservation right? But not everyone will be in Slytherin" Harry goes on a rant while a stunned Nev watches as everything he's been taught gets roasted) when a bushy-haired child opens the door in the compartment. Harry was getting into why a Hufflepuff with Slytherin traits could take over the world and no one would know when he stops to look at her.
(SHE'S SO SMALL)
"Eh, hi, I'm Hermione Granger, can I sit with you? The older students said to find the first years and stick with them" She somehow manages to sound bossy, ackward and pleading at the same time. Yup, his Mione didn't change that much in the social way.
And so, they adopt a muggleborn. Or Harry does and Neville accepts it because this girl did read 3 books on herbology and he needs to know what she thought of them. When they end that conversation Harry tries to keep them talking, going on about things he knows they're interested about.
Which means that yes, he's ranting about the houses again. He only stops himself about revealing about the Hat, because that's the only thing that probably every first year doesn't know before arriving to Hogwarts. But he goes on about everything else.
("Hermione, I like Dumbledore as much as any other kid, but a headmaster shouldn't have that much political power. I don't care if he's the incarnation of Godric Gryffindor, it feels wrong" "But Harry he's Dumbledore!" "And I'm Harry, nicetomeetyou" "Humpf")
They arrive to Hogsmeade without Draco showing up asking for Harry Potter, wich it's somehow surprising in a good way. He thinks he just ended with a tradition. He woul be lying if he said that he didn't like doing that, now if only the tradition(read: curse) of something happening in every 31 of October could end so easily, but alas.
The group of 3 friends (Because yes Hermione, yes Neville, we're friends , I'm your problem now) stepped out of the train and proceeded to follow Hagrid, Neville seemed to be nervous around the bigger man and Hermione's trying to brave herself and not show how scared she is but Harry lived with them in the Gryffindor tower for 6 years and, well, he nows them. And so there's a bunch of 3 first-years holding hands behind a half-giant while a dark moped kid tried to distract them talking about nonsense things.
("Did you know that to enter the kitchen at Hogwarts you have to tickle a pear?" "W-What?" "Yeah, I know")
They hop into the boat, Harry helping both of them and holding Trevor when it looks like Nev is about to fall. Another kid joins them and he must've been a Slytherin or a Ravenclaw in his past life because he honest to god (Merlin? He still don't understand how to use those names) doesn't remember him.
The kid is small (which by now shouldn't surprise him because seriously), lanky and has brown hair. Most importantly, he looks lonely and is hunched over himself, and Harry is having none of it. Neville, taking Trevor now that he's settled, sees Harry's expression and he nows that he's going to adopt another friend. By now he would've been a little worried about being dropped out but his gut tells him that Harry would rather fall into the lake and have a chat with the fish, and his gut saved him for being discovered playing in the greenhouses in more than five times, so he's not worried. Hermione is more interested in looking at the view of the water, her hand holding the boat tightly.
"Hello, I'm Harry, and they're Neville and Hermione, who're you?" He asks the kid, trying to not be so overbearing, he may sound a bit too enthusiastic but he mostly succeeds.
"Hello, I'm Theodore Nott" Nott-Theodore? Answers him and he looks almost surprised at being asked, the connotations make him sure about it, he's going to adopt him into his -new- group of friends.
"Oh, do I call you Nott or Theodore?" He remembers a Death Eater Nott from before but that one was too old and so he wasn't this kid, but that means a blood purist which means a pure-blood or at most a half-blood, and the ones at school were weird about calling each other by their first name.
"Call me Theo" He looks like he was totally expecting Harry to drop the conversation as soon as he said 'Nott' and now he's feeling wrong-footed. Harry of course does not drop the conversation and starts to talk about silly things to make him low his guard, it's hard, but when it happens he will introduce him to Nev and Mione. A plan with no error margin.
Neville is silently panicking because he knows Nott Sr. was a Death Eather, but he also knows that a kid his age most certainly is not a Death Eather, he feels confused and decides to let it lie and see where this goes. Hermione stoped looking at the reflections on the water and starts listening. She's so happy, she's a witch, she's going to a magical school, she got friends somehow and by the looks of it she's getting a new one. Today's a good day for Hermione Granger.
And suddenly everyone shuts up. Hogwarts shows at the distance. The firsties look at the castle in awe, and Harry, Harry is one second away from crying. He missed her so much. His first home, his only home, the place where he got to know so many amazing people. Not even the bad memories can make Harry regret the decision to go to Hogwarts again. Harry smiles looking at the tower he knows the Gryffindor common room is.
He's coming home.
-
They step out of the boat, Harry again helping the others (Neville didn't lose Trevor, Hermione will never admit it but when Harry helped her she felt sort of like a princess, and Theo was shy but accepted the help nonetheless). The group followed behind Hagrid and stopped behind the main doors of Hogwarts.
Hagrid knocked and the giant doors opened, a familiar severe looking witch showing. Professor McGonagall walks the bunch of firsties and no one dares to talk when they're following her out of fear. The get into the Receiving Room and McGonagall leaves after telling them to behave. And as the good kids they are, as soon as she left, a ruckus started.
Harry turns to his bunch and notices Hermione's look of worship and determination, it's probably because of McGonagall and honestly, same. Neville seems intimidated and Theo as well, but he masks it a little more. Harry is amused by the amount of fear that Professor McGonagall installed on them in less than 20 minutes, and impressed. He should try to help them relax a bit but then he spots an unmistakably shade of red.
(He has to physically stops himself from cooing and rushing to pick at him. He looks so tiny. It's a change from seeing him as a lamp to seeing him as a bed lamp. He better enjoy while he's not the tallest boy in their whole year)
(Seriously why is everyone so adorable, he's gonna die)
Neville and by now Hermione catch him looking, Theo does too but he doesn't know what the glint in Harry's eyes mean. Neville is wondering if by the end of the year Harry's going to be friends with half the castle and Hermione does too, but she is delighted because that would mean even more friends, surely.
Harry approaches Ron, who suddenly felt a shudder for no reason, maybe he's getting a cold? His mother will make a fuss if he gets sick on his first day at Hogwarts when she is not here to take care of him.
"Hello, I'm Harry, so do you know how they sort us? My friends were wondering about that as no one seems to have an idea of how they do it" Harry's friend we're most definitely not wondering about that, but what Ron doesn't know can't hurt him.
After a quick chat in which Ron almost makes Hermione and Neville have a heart attack (not Theo, Theo knows about the hat, he doesn't remember when he found out but he remembers hearing his father talking about it), everyone is knowing each other names and Harry is going on another, if shorter because Minnie could be back anytime now and he prefers to be alive, rant about the houses, mixed with prejudice, children playing politics and the fact that certainly an eleven years old can't be a Death Eater.
(Yes, Ron said something when Theo told him his last name. Neville is so so so glad he didn't say anything when Theo first introduced himself)
The ghosts do their usual play and are faced with the sight of a child with unruly hair lecturing the firsties on why judging a person by something they can't choose or they didn't do is a bad thing, even if said child is only paying attention to four other kids a d doesn't see the others looking at him weirdly.
Eventually a kid sees the ghost and screams, and from there everything goes as usual. McGonagall comes back and leads them to the Great Hall. As they have to follow a line Harry can't coax them to hold hands, and he pouts as he tails behind Ron.
Ron is feeling chastised, but this Harry fellow doesn't seem to hold his hot mouth against him. Maybe they can be friends? He can try to get along with Nott as long as he doesn't do anything evil, and the other two kids seem nice enough.
(Neville looks at Ron with something akin to pity, because he already saw how Harry got three kids to consider each other friends in less than 1 day. Ron doesn't have a chance)
And then, they're in the Great Hall.