Chapter Text
After Harry removed the Sorting Hat from his head, everyone in the room seemed to be frozen for a long moment. Then James burst into applause, followed by Barry. Even McGonagall clapped a few times, though Harry rather thought that the smile didn’t quite reach her eyes. The smattering of applause died out and McGonagall placed the Sorting Hat on a stool and picked both up.
“We should make our way to the Great Hall,” McGonagall said.
Barry glanced out the window again. “Yes, it looks like the carriages have arrived.”
James opened the door and gestured for everyone to precede him.
McGonagall went first, taking the lead with her long, purposeful strides.
Harry lingered back a bit to talk to James and Barry.
“Congratulations,” James said, nudging Harry in the shoulder.
“Yeah, Hufflepuff is great,” Barry said, flicking Harry’s newly black and yellow tie.
Harry hunched his shoulders in. “But it’s not Gryffindor.”
“So what?” James asked.
Harry heaved a sigh. “You must be disappointed that I’m not in Gryffindor like both of you,” Harry said, glancing at Barry. “Especially you, Barry. We won’t be sharing a dorm now or many classes together.”
Barry shrugged. “Well, I have to say that you may have dodged a bullet in not sharing a dorm with me. I’ve noticed you tend to keep your room quite organized, and our dorm tends to be a bit of a mess.”
McGonagall snorted from ahead of them.
“Alright, maybe that’s a bit of an understatement,” Barry admitted.
“But—”
“And as for our classes, we won’t know how many we will or won’t be sharing until tomorrow morning! It’s not like being in the same house would have increased our chances of having more classes together, either. In fact, it might have decreased our chances to share classes, since I suspect that the Gryffindor boys tend to get split up amongst the others.”
Harry frowned. “What do you mean the Gryffindor boys get split up? Don’t you have all of your classes together with your housemates?”
Barry shook his head. “Of course not, we’d never get to know our classmates if we did, and some of our classes would be too big with all of us in the same class. Not to mention the migraines I am sure our professors would end up with if all us Gryffindor boys were in one class.”
“How many Gryffindors are in your— our year?” Harry asked.
“Erm, I think like 25 or 30?”
Harry’s jaw dropped.
“Why, how many were in yours?” James asked.
“There were ten of us,” Harry said.
“I know you’ve mentioned that your Hogwarts was smaller and generally that the wizarding population was smaller,” Barry said, slowly, the horror clear in his voice. “But my word, that is so much smaller!”
“You mean there were ten Gryffindor boys in your year, right?” James asked.
“Er— no. Ten students total in Gryffindor. I think there were around forty of us total in my year.”
“Only forty students in your year?” McGonagall asked, glancing behind her even as she kept walking. “That cannot be right.”
Harry shrugged. “I don’t know what to tell you, that’s just how many there were.”
James put a hand on Harry’s shoulder, pulling both of them to a stop. Then he wrapped his arms around Harry, squeezing tight. “I am so glad that you are here now.”
“Were there other magical schools in the United Kingdom that students went to?” McGonagall asked, also coming to a stop.
“Not that I know of. Hogwarts was the premier, and maybe only, school for magic in the country,” Harry said into James’s shoulder.
“Damn straight it is,” McGonagall muttered.
“Do you see now why Harry disarming Mr Lahann was a very reasonable and measured response given the sort of world he has come from?” James asked, still hugging Harry.
McGonagall sighed. “I can understand the reflex, but I must still insist that such an instinct for aggression must be suppressed in an educational facility.”
“I’ll work on it,” Harry said. “But don’t we need to get to the Great Hall? It must take a while to sort so many students, if there’s, what, over a hundred students in an incoming class?”
“Yes, indeed,” McGonagall said, setting off again.
James squeezed one last time, then released Harry and started walking as well.
“So you took all your classes with your year mates?” Barry asked, linking his arm through Harry’s as they walked.
“Yes, usually with one entire other house.”
“That seems a bit dull,” Barry said. “I enjoy the surprise of the first day of classes, and finding out who I have classes with by walking into a class for the first time.”
“I just hope we have some classes together,” Harry said. “Since we won’t even share the same common room.”
“Don’t worry, we’ll have plenty of time to spend together,” Barry said. “I’ll make sure of it.”
Harry smiled and squeezed Barry’s arm where they were linked together still.
The rest of the walk to the Great Hall passed quickly. James and McGonagall split off early to attend to their various duties. Harry and Barry slipped into the crowd of students flooding from the Entrance Hall into the Great Hall. To Harry’s immense relief, he and Barry ran into Cedric before they got very far.
Barry snagged Cedric’s arm and pulled him off to the side, out of the way of the seemingly endless stream of students.
Cedric’s expression quickly morphed from mild annoyance to pleasant surprise as he recognized Harry and Barry, then as his gaze drifted down to the crest on Harry’s robe, his face broke into a wide grin. He pulled Harry in and squeezed him in a quick hug. “Congratulations!” he exclaimed as he pulled away from the hug.
“Thanks,” Harry replied, a lingering thread of anxiety coming undone at Cedric’s enthusiasm.
Another student called for Cedric then, urgently waving him over.
Cedric pinched the bridge of his nose. “Sorry, I have to go see what he wants. Hopefully it’s not another missing firstie.”
“See you later,” Harry said with a half wave as Cedric took off, tossing a regretful look over his shoulder as he went.
“Sucks that he’s got so many responsibilities as the head boy,” Barry said. He hesitated. “Do you want me to come sit with you?”
Harry’s instinctual answer of yes, please almost burst out before he could stop it. “Is that allowed?” he asked instead.
Barry shrugged. “Who cares? The worst they can do is make me move back to where I’m supposed to be. They can’t even take any points, since we don’t have any yet.”
Harry’s shoulders drooped. “We should probably sit where we’re supposed to. Especially since I’m already in trouble with McGonagall today.”
Barry snorted. “I just don’t know why she’s being such a stick in the mud. Lahann really had what was coming for him, portkeying us off without consent like that. I personally feel safer knowing that you have those crazy reflexes and wand skills at hand.”
“I think she doesn’t like me very much,” Harry said.
“Well that’s ridiculous, and we’ll have to do something about that,” Barry said.
Harry shrugged. “It’s not like I’ll have any classes with her, so it’s not so bad that she doesn’t like me.”
“Still, between the two of us, I’m sure that we can get her on your side.”
“Speaking of professors, what do you think about James being the Transfiguration professor?”
Barry scrunched his nose up. “Well, first of all, he’s not the Transfiguration professor. There’s usually three or four of them. Unfortunately, McGonagall teaches the NEWT level classes, so chances are that he will be our professor.”
Harry raised his eyebrow, unimpressed with Barry’s avoidance of the question.
Barry heaved a sigh. “Normally, I’d be stoked about dad being our professor. I think he’s good at teaching, and he’s bound to be liked in general. But I am still mad at him, and it’s quite hard to give a professor the silent treatment, so I might have to figure out creative ways to let him know I’m still pissed. The apology at the train station today was nice and all, but it’s not enough. I guess it also depends on how he treats Draco, since Draco should also be in his classes.”
Harry nodded.
“Anyways, that’s not your problem. You’re going to have enough going on getting to know all your new housemates and figuring out what clubs to join and so on to worry about how far in the doghouse Dad is.”
“Yes, I guess so,” Harry said. Before he could add more, Ron and Ginny came running up to them.
“Barry, Harry there you are!” Ron said, gripping Barry’s shoulder.
“We’ve been looking everywhere for you,” Ginny added.
“Oh, sorry, we didn’t see you on the train and we were so late that we just had to grab the first seats that we saw,” Barry said.
“We had to do the same,” Ron said.
“You’d think that with just the two of us to get on the train, we’d manage to get to the station earlier, but nope we were just as late as ever,” Ginny said.
Harry noticed then that Ginny had Slytherin robes on and his jaw dropped. “Ginny, you’re in Slytherin?”
Ginny glanced down at her robe, then back to Harry, a quizzical expression on her face. “Er, yeah. Why?”
Harry looked over to Ron and Barry to see how they felt about it and neither seemed to care. “But… aren’t all the Weasleys in Gryffindor?”
All three of them shook their heads.
“Were they all in Gryffindor where you’re from?” Barry asked after a moment.
Harry nodded. “Yes, all seven of you.”
Ginny grimaced. “Eurgh, that’s gross. I’m glad I don’t live in that world.”
Ron nodded fervently in agreement. “Yes, we see enough of each other at home.”
The amount of people passing them into the Great Hall had gradually slowed to a trickle.
“Well, we should probably go in soon,” Ron said.
“You two go ahead, I want a moment with Harry,” Barry said, tugging on Harry’s elbow to pull him a bit further down.
“See you around,” Ginny said with a wave as she turned to go into the Great Hall.
“Yes, see you,” Ron echoed, following her.
Harry turned to Barry with a questioning expression on his face.
“Are you certain that you don’t want me to come sit with you?” Barry asked.
Harry would prefer to have someone he knows to sit with, but even more than he wanted that, he didn’t want to attract the kind of attention that he and Barry would if they sat together. Harry shook his head. “I’m sure you miss seeing all your Gryffindor friends, you should go sit with them.”
Barry rolled his eyes. “I’ll have plenty of time to see them later. I’d rather know that you’re comfortable.”
Harry sighed. “I’ll be fine, maybe I’ll be able to find Cedric and sit with him. You should sit at the Gryffindor table.”
Barry narrowed his eyes and stared at Harry as if trying to read his mind. “I’m going to sit where we can make eye contact, and if you want me to come over just make and hold eye contact with me and tug on your ear twice, okay?”
Harry took his turn to roll his eyes. “It’s just the welcome feast, I’ll be fine.”
“Well, we should probably head in then.”
Harry nodded and they turned to go into the Great Hall. As they walked in, the number of differences between this Great Hall and the Great Hall that he had known shocked Harry. For starters, this Great Hall was much bigger than the version that Harry had known. The head table was where Harry thought it should be, based on his memories, but instead of being positioned at the back of the hall, the room seemed to be twice as big as it used to be, so the head table bisected the hall. There were seats along both sides of the head table as well as at the head and foot of the table. Instead of four long house tables, there were loads of smaller round tables, each with space for five to ten students. The hall was split into four quadrants, with the Gryffindor and Hufflepuff areas near to where Harry had entered and the Ravenclaw and Slytherin areas on the other side of the head table. The students were all mingling along the walls of the room and nobody had taken their seats yet.
Harry reached out and grabbed Barry’s wrist, dragging him to stand against the wall right next to the grand doors. “This is nothing like the Great Hall I knew. Why is no one sitting? Where do the students get sorted?” If the sorting happened in front of the head table, then half the school wouldn’t be able to see it, and the students sorted into those houses would have to skirt around the head table to get to their seats.
“We don’t sit until after the first years do. They figure we’ve been sitting for long enough today with the train ride and all that we can stand for a bit, and it’ll burn a bit more of our energy. The actual sorting is happening now in a side chamber, of course. Then McGonagall will come in with the firsties. The firsties will group around the head table platform, and McGonagall will vanish the head table. She’ll set the sorting hat on a stand and the sorting hat will sing its silly song. Once it’s done, McGonagall will send the hat back to her office and vanish the platform. Then she’ll bring the firsties onto the platform one at a time to announce their house and transfigure their robes into the appropriate colors and send them on their way. The firsties get to take their seats, and they usually end up clumped together near the head table, though some of them end up alone at the fringes. Then once all the firsties have been introduced and their sorting announced, McGonagall signals for everybody else to take their seats and brings back the head table. She’ll do announcements after the feast.”
Harry nodded and then shared how the Sorting had been in his world. The concept of being sorted in front of the entire school horrified Barry, and they spent some time discussing their own experiences being sorted as first years. Eventually, a nondescript door behind the head table swung open and McGonagall strode out.
“We can chat more later,” Barry whispered into Harry’s ear.
Harry nodded, then nudged Barry towards his housemates. Harry caught a glimpse of the tail end of Barry waving to him as Harry turned around to join his new housemates. He received a few nods of acknowledgement and confused glances from the people around him but otherwise, people remained focused on McGonagall and the Sorting Hat.
The song that the Sorting Hat sang reminded Harry a bit of the song from his first year, but was somehow even more light hearted— without the recent war, the hat probably had more benign sources to draw inspiration from in crafting its song. After the hat finished singing, the students gave a polite round of applause. Just as Barry described, McGonagall then called the first year students up to the stage, announced their house, and transfigured their robes. This process efficiently introduced all of the new students to the school and directed them to the appropriate section of the hall. Unlike the Sortings that Harry remembered, this process was quick and streamlined. The added number of new students meant that the effect was of a whirling rolodex of new names and faces, there and then gone long before Harry could search for a connection with the people he already knew.
As McGonagall directed the last student to his house— Slytherin— the rest of the student body surged forward to take their seats. The rush of students pressed around Harry, and he followed the tide in the absence of any other particular goal in mind. He found himself sitting at a sparsely populated table with some students that Harry didn’t recognize at all.
“You look like Harry,” one of the students said after several long, silent moments.
Harry resisted the urge to heave a sigh, resigning himself to the prospect of an awkward dinner spent dodging questions he didn’t want to answer. Before he could respond, though, another student elbowed the first.
“Don’t be rude,” she hissed to the first student. Turning to Harry, she said, “My name is Emily Oyama. This arsehole is Ally Rolland. What’s your name?”
Harry snorted. “It’s nice to meet you both. My name is– er, it is Harry Potter.”
Ally sent a look at Emily and gestured wordlessly at Harry.
“I’m related to the, uh, Harry that you already know. But just so you know, he’s going by Barry now.”
“So the Gryffindor Potter is Barry and the Hufflepuff Potter is Harry,” Emily muttered to herself.
“Right,” Harry said.
Another awkward silence fell over the table.
“Do you like Pidleys?” Ally asked.
“What are Pidleys?” Harry asked in return.
Ally’s jaw dropped and they shook their head, almost pityingly. “Pidleys are only the best candy ever.”
“How are you thinking about Pidleys when we are about to have a feast?” Emily asked in disbelief.
“We’re about to have a feast, but we don’t have a feast yet,” Ally said, gesturing at the still-empty serving platters.
Before Emily could respond, Cedric appeared next to Harry and dropped down into the open seat next to him.
“Oh good, I was worried we wouldn’t be able to sit together,” Cedric said to Harry. “Hi Emily, Hi Ally. How were your summers?”
They both shrugged.
“Good enough,” Emily said. “I missed magic, of course, but it was nice to see my family again.”
“Personally, I missed the marvels of modern television enough to make up for the lack of magic. I finally got to catch up on Byker Grove, and now I’m going to have to go months without it again. Bloody unreasonable is what it is,” Ally said.
Harry snorted.
“That… sucks…” Cedric said slowly.
Ally sighed. “None of you get it.”
The food appeared then with a subdued pop. Without missing a beat, Ally morosely dragged the nearest serving dish closer to them and started dishing out the potatoes it contained.
Harry shared a look with Cedric and did his best to keep from laughing as he started to serve himself as well.
The rest of the feast went better than Harry would have hoped it would. Ally and Emily were nice and their dynamic made Harry laugh, even as they continued to reference things he’d never heard of before. Thankfully, Cedric hadn’t heard of half the things they mentioned either, so he wasn’t alone in needing an explanation.
Once the dishes had been cleared away, Professor McGonagall got to her feet, causing the students to fall silent. With the attention of the students on her, Professor McGonagall went through the announcements. She mentioned a minor new staff member in charge of curriculum administration and a hallway that would be off limits for renovation. She also introduced James as her stand-in for NEWT level transfiguration classes. Then at the end, she introduced Harry to the school with a brief explanation of his relation to Barry, Barry’s new name, and Harry’s Hufflepuff sorting. At this, students all around the hall spun around to stare at him, the weight of their stares all too familiar from his old world. Thankfully, the sensation didn’t last long as McGonagall concluded the announcements and ended the feast.
After the feast, Cedric had to go off again to help the prefects with guiding the first years to the common room. To Harry’s relief, Emily and Ally seemed to have latched onto him, and let him trail behind them and involved him in their conversation as they led the way to the dorm.
As they approached the hallway leading to the Hufflepuff dorms and the kitchen, Harry realized that he hadn’t yet heard the password to the dorms yet. One benefit of the long single table is that it made it easy enough for the password to be quietly shared down the length of the table and subsequently with the entire house.
“Have either of you heard the password yet?” Harry asked in a rare conversational lull between Ally and Emily.
They both shrugged and shook their heads.
“Nah, we usually just check the bulletin board before we head out in the morning,” Emily said.
“Since we’re all clumped together, there’s no real need to have the password yet, so the portrait will just be held open until curfew.”
“And it’d be hard to get the password around to everybody during the feast anyways,” Emily added.
Harry nodded, acquiescing that this made sense, especially for this world where there were so many more people to get the word out to. Even now, as they walked down with a crowd of just Hufflepuff students, the sheer number of people jostling around overwhelmed Harry. Moreover, he found himself searching for the familiar faces in the crowd, not finding them nearly as often as he expected to. And worse, when he did find those familiar faces and make eye contact with them, they stared back at him with either blank eyes or confused recognition.
At least none of these people were supposed to be his best friends or closest classmates. At least nobody here had a history of hating him. At least he had until tomorrow before he would have to face people like Neville Longbottom or Luna Lovegood.
Harry realized, as he followed Ally and Emily through the portrait hole, that he didn’t actually know what the front of the portrait that he’d just climbed through looked like. He’d have to take a moment on his way out in the morning to get a good look at the portrait, though even if he forgot, he was familiar enough with the hallway thanks to his visits to the kitchen that he was confident he could figure it out eventually if he needed to.
The common room stretched out farther than Harry expected it to. The ceiling hung lower than it did in the Gryffindor common room, lacking the space for arching ceilings that Gryffindor’s location in the tower provided. The lower ceiling made things feel more cozy, though, despite the expanse of the room, and all the overstuffed armchairs and well worn couches added to the coziness too. Warm and yellow lighting suffused the room, contributed to by banked fires and scattered mismatched floor lamps. The Gryffindor common room had always smelled of the Scottish highlands and whatever prank the Weasley twins had last pulled. The Hufflepuff common room smelled of the crackling fires and something sweet that Harry couldn’t quite place. The bustling sounds of students eager to see each other after a long summer filled the air.
Already, students gathered towards the center of the common room, where the seating had all been arranged to face the center. Harry followed the crowd. He ended up perched on a small couch, sandwiched between Ally and Emily.
“What’s going on?” Harry asked, looking around curiously as more and more students settled into seats. The prefects directed the first years to sit on cushions in the very center, then faded back to join the rest of the older students.
“Ms Walsh addresses the house on the first night to introduce herself, go over the main house rules, give a brief overview of how things work here, and to give us an opportunity to bring up concerns,” Emily said.
Ally nudged Harry with their elbow. “Maybe you should be sitting up there with the firsties since you are a new student.”
Harry froze as the thought of getting up in front of the entire house and sitting down with the tiny first years sent a bolt of horror down his spine. Frankly, he’d have hated sitting in front of everyone like that back when he was a first year, and at least then he wouldn’t have stuck out like a sore thumb like he would if he went up there now.
Emily rolled her eyes. “Harry obviously doesn’t have to do that. But Ms Walsh might want to meet with you separately later. Probably not tonight, since it’s usually pretty late by the time this meeting is over with, but maybe later.”
Before Harry could respond further, a hush fell over the room. A moment later, he caught sight of a tall woman picking her way through the crowded room until she came to a stop in the center of the circle of firsties. She sat down in the middle of them, on a bright yellow circular rug that looked quite soft.
Harry shifted in his seat, trying to get a better look at the woman, but having some trouble with the way she faced away from them.
Then she shifted on the rug, and the rug lifted several centimeters into the air and started to spin slowly in place, providing Harry with a periodically better view. She was willowy, with long limbs elegantly folded around her as she perched on the carpet and golden brown skin warmly absorbing the firelight. She wore black robes with yellow accents at the hems.
“Good evening, Hufflepuff house! I hope you all had a quick journey here and enjoyed a sating feast. To those of you who are new, welcome. To the rest, welcome back, and feel free to allow your attention to wander as I impart some needed information to our newcomers. I am Ms Dakota Walsh, head of Hufflepuff house. You have been sorted into the house of fairness, of loyalty, of justice and of diligence. There are some who will disparage us as the bottom of the barrel or the default house, but that couldn’t be further from the truth.
“We are bound together by some of the most highly sought after ideals in the ‘real world’— the traits that are most likely to bring you happiness and companionship throughout your lives. We value our relationships, allowing us to create tight-knit networks that will support us through anything. Others may look down on us as ‘all the rest’, but I don’t know about any of you, but there’s nowhere else I’d rather be.”
A rousing cheer went up from many of the older Hufflepuffs. Harry absentmindedly joined the rest in clapping as he considered her words. Ms Walsh let this go on for a moment, then raised her hands, and the house immediately fell silent. She went on to describe the structure of the common room, gesturing around her as she did. There were eight halls spinning off from the common room; one for each year as well as an added hall where Ms Walsh’s quarters and office could be found and to provide private rooms for if the head students happened to be in Hufflepuff. Down the hallway for each year was another, smaller common room with several more rooms splitting off from there. The doors leading off from these smaller common rooms were alternating bathrooms—with a toilet, sink, and shower stall— and dorm rooms— with space for 3-4 students. The rooms were generally split by gender and each dorm had a door connecting it with a bathroom, but they were to consider the bathrooms as shared with everyone in each year. She explained that the goal was to avoid the conflicts that arose from overlapping schedules within each room and to ensure that there would always be a bathroom available.
Harry thought that this sounded nice compared to the way things worked in Gryffindor, where if he wanted to spend time with people in his house, the only real option was to sit in the general common room, which had the tendency to be a bit overwhelming. Here, he could spend time with smaller groups without dealing with the chaos of the crowded general common room. That is, if he managed to make friends here at all, without a troll to bind him together in friendship with someone.
Ms Walsh went on to explain that anyone unsure of how to get to the Great Hall from the common room should congregate in the main common room the next morning a half an hour before breakfast started so that the prefects could escort them to breakfast. Ms Walsh said that she would distribute class schedules for the coming year the next morning at breakfast.
“I do believe that concludes all of the pressing information that you need to know. If you have further need of assistance or questions, please come and ask me. My quarters are down that hallway,” she said, waving her hand towards the one hallway without a number overhead. “Please don’t hesitate to come find me should you have need of me.” She paused as she made eye contact with the crowd while she continued to spin slowly in place. Once she had completed a revolution, she spoke again. “Thank you all for listening so patiently. Once again, welcome to Hogwarts, welcome to Hufflepuff and I look forward to spending another magically educational year with you!”
Harry joined the other students in applauding her as she dismounted from her floating perch. Then a low buzz of conversation broke out as students began to disperse down the many different hallways.
“C’mon, Harry, you’re with us,” Ally said as they stood up.
“You don’t know that for sure, he could be with Austin, Ayomide, and Brandon,” Emily said, getting up as well.
Harry stood up too. “Oh, you mean you might be my roommates?”
“Could be, we only have the two of us in our room because our old roommate moved away and no one wanted to leave their roommates,” Ally said.
“But I think they’re more likely to have put you with the boys,” Emily said.
Sure enough, once they made their way into the smaller common room for sixth years, Harry quickly spotted his name on the door with the three boys.
Ally huffed out a disappointed sigh. “Damn, I was hoping you’d be with us.”
“We’ll still see each other all the time!” Emily said soothingly. “I am knackered, though, so all the time will have to begin some other time.”
Harry could only agree. They said goodnight to each other, and Harry slipped into what would be his room for the next two years. The room was a bit smaller than his Gryffindor room had been and square instead of circular. Each bed, wardrobe, and desk setup took up a corner of the room.
All three boys were already present and in the process of getting ready for bed.
“You must be Harry,” one of the boys said, turning away from his open wardrobe. He was tall and had a patchy moustache.
Harry nodded.
“I’m Austin, that’s Brandon,” he said, pointing to a pale boy with hearing aids, “and that’s Ayomide,” pointing out the last boy with dark skin and curly short-cropped hair.
“Nice to meet you, Austin, Brandon, and Ayomide.”
The other three boys muttered greetings back.
Brandon pointed at the one empty bed, desk, and wardrobe. “That’s yours.”
As he entered the room properly, Harry could see that his trunk sat at the foot of the bed. “Thanks,” he said, propping it open.
“If you need help getting to breakfast or anything, one of us can show you if you don’t want to be stuck with the prefects and firsties,” Ayomide said.
Austin and Brandon nodded agreement.
“Oh—” Harry managed to stop himself from declining the invitation just in time. He didn’t want to deal with the questions that would arise from displaying too much knowledge of Hogwarts at this point. “Thanks, I would appreciate it.”
“No problem,” Brandon said.
“Mind if I hit the lights?” Austin asked as he plopped down onto his bed.
Harry shook his head with the other two boys.
Austin flicked his wand, putting out the lights with a muttered incantation, then pulled the curtains around his bed.
The conversation subsided as the other boys wound down for bed as well. Harry half-heartedly unpacked enough of his clothes by wandlight to find his pajamas, then abandoned the task in favor of getting into bed. He pulled the goldenrod curtains closed around him with a practiced flick as he did, glad that they responded just like his maroon curtains in Gryffindor had.
As Harry settled back onto his pillows, Harry stared at the ceiling with his thoughts racing. Hufflepuff. He never would have guessed that he would end up in Hufflepuff. He’d assumed— hoped, really, that the Sorting Hat would see that he had spent five years in Gryffindor and would just put him back there, where he belonged. Now and then, he had worried about the possibility that the Sorting Hat would push him into Slytherin, so he could be “great”, whatever that meant. But Hufflepuff? Sure, Harry could admit that his bone-deep loyalty to his friends and— his mind flashed to the Potters, surrounding him in hugs and warmth at the train station— his, er, new friends were the best things in his life. But he didn’t think of hard-working or even loyalty as being his primary character traits.
Then again, he supposed he didn’t think of himself as very brave either. All the instances that people liked to point to to demonstrate his courage, were times where fear and desperation were the only things that Harry could remember feeling. Like he’d told the Sorting Hat, luck and his friends were the only things that had gotten him through those situations.
So maybe the Sorting Hat had been right about him. Maybe he did belong in Hufflepuff. And maybe Hufflepuff wouldn’t be so bad. He already had one good friend here in Cedric, and Ally and Emily seemed nice enough, like they wouldn’t mind if he tagged along with them during classes. Even his roommates seemed nice. He’d just have to find a way to have a proper conversation with Barry soon, to reiterate that he would have chosen Gryffindor if he could have and that he hadn’t wanted to abandon Barry after everything that Barry has done for him this summer.
And even as Harry resigned himself to a sleepless night of racing thoughts, a wave of exhaustion struck him sweeping in under into the welcome embrace of a deep slumber.
