AN: I probably shouldn't post this yet. But I want to.

Chapter 5

"Do you guys have everything?" Hermione asked.

"It's not like there's much we could forget." Harry answered. "All our school stuff came prepacked from the DoM and we don't own anything else."

"Thank you for the reminder Harry. Yes would have sufficed." Hermione said icily.

"Sorry." Harry muttered.

Hermione had been high strung all morning. Harry understood though. He couldn't say he was looking forward to going back to Hogwarts himself. It had been his home for five years now, but everything about it would be wrong this time. His friends wouldn't recognize him. The teachers wouldn't know him. He might not even be in Gryffindor if they had to be sorted again.

"We're all on edge. Could you guys please not fight and make it worse? I know I have the advantage here, having already met myself, but really, I'm sure you'll both be lovely." Neville deadpanned.

Harry chuckled.

"Just because your alternate self is so cool even with all of Diagon staring at him, doesn't mean my not-famous self will be too. I'm sure the only reason I have friends at all is because of this here old scar."

Hermione smiled.

"True. I've always thought it was your best feature. I don't know that my other self would want to be friends with your annoying little eleven-year-old self without it."

Harry mock glared at her but couldn't hold back his smile for long.

"Well, I guess that's it then. Bye house." Harry said.

They took one last look around the small appartment that had been their home for the summer, and then stepped out onto the streets of Fulham.

It wasn't even 9 yet, so they took their time strolling towards Parsons Green tube station.

"I wonder how everyone will react to us." Neville mused. "I mean, homeschooled kids or students from other schools coming to Hogwarts for their Newts isn't unheard of, but three at once? And from the same school?"

"I didn't even know Hogwarts accepted students after first years to be honest." Harry said.

"Don't you remember that Langston girl getting sorted in third year?" Neville asked.

"Oh that's right, you wouldn't know!" Hermione exclaimed. "You were in the infirmary because of the dementor on the train."

"Huh." Harry said.

Now that he thought about it, he had missed two of the four sortings he should have witnessed in his time at Hogwarts. Not a stellar record.

"So we'll be getting sorted then?" He asked.

"Of course we will, Harry! I thought you knew that. Why didn't you ask us sooner?" Hermione said.

"I didn't think you guys would know either to be honest. I just assumed you guys would be as new to the whole transfer thing as I am." Harry confessed.

Hermione shook her head in exasperation, but refrained from continuing the conversation as they'd reached the station. One smooth transfer at Edgware Road later, they pulled in to King's Cross and made their way to Platform Nine and Three-Quarters.

The Hogwarts Express looked just as resplendent as it always did, and the people and concession stands were familiar to the three of them as well. It was still fairly early, so of course the family of gingers they'd been equally hoping and dreading to see wasn't present yet.

"Should we just get a carriage then?" Hermione asked.

The boys nodded absently, focused on scanning the people on the platform for familiar faces.

There were plenty of empty carriages, so they selected one at random and levitated their trunks into one of the overhead luggage racks. Neville and Harry grabbed the window seats, so Hermione took one of her textbooks out of her trunk and settled in to read.

"It feels good to be able to use magic again." Harry said. "I hadn't even realised how uncomfortable I've been, unable to defend myself in all this weirdness should the need have arisen."

"Imagine how cross Alistair would've been with us if we'd been summoned to the ministry for underage use of magic though." Neville said.

Harry shuddered in mock horror.

They hadn't seen the unspeakables again, but they had received several owls from Unspeakable Andrews over the course of the summer. They'd even sent her one in turn to ask about alternative methods for learning occlumency. She'd given them the name of a book describing one, but also said that the DoM copies of it couldn't be taken out of the department library.

Luckily, they'd been able to find a copy of Pitfalls and Pushbacks, the Active Approach to the Defense of the Mind at a small bookshop in Knockturn Alley. The approach to occlumency described inside had fit Harry much better, and he'd improved in leaps and bounds. All three of them were now able to detect legilimency probes. Neville and Hermione could push innocent thoughts and memories to the forefront of their minds to mislead their attackers, but Harry could only counterattack head on to push the intruder out. He'd accidentally pushed into Neville's mind twice with the force of his counterattack, which had resulted in a very awkward night once.

The platform was starting to become more crowded as the time of departure crept closer. The Weasleys had yet to make their appearance.

"Do you remember us being this late Hermione?" Harry asked, getting a bit worried.

"We were late every year except third." Hermione answered. "And even then we weren't exactly early despite the ministry providing the transport."

"Guys, look!" Neville interrupted.

Neville was pointing towards one of the hearths installed for floo travel rather than the barrier to King's Cross. Younger Neville had just appeared there, Augusta Longbottom following him out of the hearth soon after.

"You really do look like you're doing well mate." Harry commented.

Neville just nodded mutely.

The young Neville had an air of self assurance that the Neville Harry was familiar with had never had. He didn't have the baby fat that Neville had still carried in their fourth year either. There was a good deal of pointing going on at the platform, but it didn't seem to affect the boy at all. He calmly hugged his grandmother and made his way to the train, waving to a younger Dean before getting on.

With less than two minutes to go, a familiar ginger finally emerged from the barrier. Ron was the first one through, with Ginny and the twins right behind him and Molly bringing up the rear.

"Hurry up, get on the train." The harried looking woman said, kissing each of her children as the whistle for departure sounded.

"You all have a good time, work hard, and behave, you hear?" She called after them as they trooped onto the train.

As the train started moving, they could hear one of the twins answering her.

"We'll try to keep the little ones in line for you mom!" Fred or George shouted.

"Although you know what a handful they can be, especially Ron!" The other twin added.

"Oi!" Was the last they heard before the door clicked shut and the train pulled out of the station.

Harry had smiled at hearing the familiar banter, but he now wore a worried frown.

A similar look had overtaken Hermione's face

"Looks like we didn't stay with them then." She said.

"Yeah." Harry agreed.

They didn't get much time to think on it though, as the door to their carriage slid open.

"You lot seem awfully big for a bunch of firsties." One of the twins said as he started to direct his trunk into the luggage rack.

"Right you are George." Fred said. "Dumbledore is starting to really ramp up this exchange thing methinks."

"Parlez you English? Espanyolo?" George asked as he plopped down next to Neville.

He pointed at Lee Jordan, who had followed the twins in, Fred and then himself in turn and spoke again, exaggeratedly slow.

"Lee. Fred. George."

Both of the twins then pointed at Hermione at the same time and adopted identical questioning expressions.

Hermione smiled. "We're English actually."

"I knew you couldn't possibly be exchange students the moment Fred said he'd been thinking." Lee said, having sat down on the end of the bench Harry and Hermione sat on.

He extended his hand towards Hermione, and they all shook.

"We've actually come over from Wimbleton to take our Newts here. They don't offer classes beyond O.W.L. level there." Neville said. "I'm Neville Sandler."

"Harry White."

"Jean Daniels."

"Cool." Fred said. "We could use some more Brits at Hogwarts these days. We're in danger of getting outnumbered."

Lee laughed. "Yeah, the place just isn't the same with a grand total of three exchange students running around."

The twins nodded seriously. The fact that they kept nodding for several seconds, deliberately out of sync, made it clear they were joking.

The trio meanwhile looked at each other in surprise.

"Hogwarts has an exchange program?" Harry asked.

"Yup. Started in our second year." George replied. He folded his hands in front of his face and spoke in a passable imitation of Dumbledore.

"In coordination with the the Department of International Magical Cooperation, Hogwarts has decided to establish an exchange program. If you find yourself interested in going on exchange to a foreign school for a term, or even a year, please contact your head of house for more information. For now, please welcome Hogwarts' first guest of the program; miss I-hate-fun!"

Lee leaned in to the trio conspiratorially and said from behind his hand. "They hate her because she snitched on them."

"We were just trying to be welcoming!" Fred exclaimed. "How could we possibly have known that Americans dislike being unable to produce anything but bird noises for half an hour?"

"I don't think that's limited to Americans." Lee responded with a grin.

"True." George nodded. "Filch didn't seem to like it much either. We thought that was just him hating everything on principle though. Anyway, enough of that. What's Wimbleton like? I think I've heard of it once but we've never actually met anyone that's gone there."

"It was, uhm…" Harry stalled. "It was alright I guess. Not as good as Hogwarts I'm sure. I've heard you have a quidditch competition every year! Wimbleton is way too small for that. We don't even have a pitch. I had to make do with the occasional pick up game on the grounds.

"You poor child!" Fred exclaimed.

"How did you survive there for 5 years!" George added. "We wouldn't have made it past the first week!"

The twins hugged each other, pretending to cry at the thought of no quidditch and consoling one another.

"These two are the beaters for Gryffindor, our house." Lee said. "I don't play myself, but I'm the stadium announcer."

"Cool." Harry said. "I'll finally have someone to play with. These two don't like it."

"I like quidditch just fine." Neville cut in. "I'm just no good on a broom."

Lee nodded. "I feel ya. I can fly in a straight line just fine, but people chucking or hitting things at ya is where I check out. What position do you play Harry?"

"Seeker."

The twins perked up at that.

"Do you think you'll end up in Gryffindor? Our seeker is actually a better chaser than she is a seeker." Fred said.

"She's alright," George continued "but we'll need all the help we can get if we're going to defend our title now that Wood's graduated. He was our keeper and captain, and the main reason we managed to win the cup last year if we're completely honest."

"Well, obviously I don't know where I'll end up, but I'll hope for Gryffindor then. It probably won't be Ravenclaw at least. That sounds much more like H- Jean here." Harry said, pretending to cough at the end.

Attention shifted to Hermione, but before anyone could say anything, the door opened again.

"Finally! I must've checked half the carriages on this blasted train."

"Language Gin." Fred tutted.

"What mustn't these good people think of you? Or us by association? But did you consider that? No, of course you didn't. I swear, you're so selfabsorbed sometimes!" George said.

Fred nodded seriously. "I think she gets it from Perce, brother mine. Why she'd follow his example over ours I'll never know."

"Shut up and listen." Ginny said. "This is bigger than us."

She paused for effect and then noticed the unfamiliar faces.

"Oh hi, I'm Ginny."

They introduced themselves.

"Well hurry up then Gin! What's the scoop?" Fred prompted.

Ginny smirked. "Ron's got an admirer. Me and Demelza were sitting with the 'Claws, and Robin said she thought he was, I quote, 'pretty nice'."

"Ah, young love. 'Tis a beautiful thing." Fred said, swooning.

"He's a Weasley man. It was always a matter of time before the birds would flock to him." George nodded, buffing his nails on his robe.

Ginny rolled her eyes. "Sure. Anyway, I just wanted to make sure you guys knew. I know how invested you are in matchmaking."

She gave them a pointed look and leaned closer. "Use this opportunity to get those urges off your chest in a more, shall we say, productive way."

The twins winced.

"Oh, and the trolley is here. Bye."

Hagrid hadn't changed a bit, his call for first years as rumbly and good-natured as ever.

"Uhm, are we supposed to go with the first years?" Hermione asked.

The twins and Lee all shrugged.

"Hey Hagrid!" George shouted. "Are transfer students supposed to go with you?"

"Err, yes. Minerva told me to expect three sixth years. That's you lot?" He replied, addressing the question to Hermione.

"Yes sir." Hermione answered with a smile.

"No need ter sir me. Please call me Hagrid, that's me name after all."

Hagrid took up his call for the first years again, so the trio said their goodbyes to Lee and the twins.

They drew some weird looks from the gathered first years, but none approached them, which they were just fine with.

"I haven't spotted us." Harry whispered to Hermione.

"Me neither." She replied. "Maybe we got out before us?"

"At least it points towards the two of you being together." Neville said. "I wouldn't worry until I spotted one of you on your own, that's when you know something's gone wrong."

"Thanks Neville, that's nice of you to say." Hermione said with a soft smile.

Harry just bumped Neville's shoulder.

"Come along then everyone." Hagrid boomed as he started making his way towards the lake.

Soon they were gliding across the lake, being waved on by the giant squid. They all got out without incident and were then handed into the care of professor McGonagall, who gave the same speech as she'd done their first year. The ghosts floated by again as well, confirming Hermione's previously voiced suspicion that they did so every year.

When the doors opened again, their eyes flew towards the Gryffindor table. The twins tried to outdo each other waving, bouncing in their seats, and Lee nodded at them, but there was no trace of a younger Harry, nor a younger Hermione.

They started to check the other tables, but they hadn't found themselves yet when Dumbledore stood up and they had to turn around.

"Welcome one and all, to a new year at Hogwarts. This will be something of a special year, hopefully to be remembered fondly by all of you. I have a few announcements to make on that account, but it might take a while to get to all of it, and I'm sure you're all as eager to dig into your dinners as I am. As such, I'll save those announcements for when we're all happily digesting our desserts."

A low buzz sprung up as students began to speculate about the mysterious announcement while Dumbledore paused to take a sip from his goblet. He cleared his throat audibly to quiet down the students and then continued his speech.

"As always, an updated list of what items have been labeled contraband can be found spelled to the door of mr. Filch's office and the Forbidden Forest remains forbidden. As has also, to my regret, become part of the yearly ritual, I find myself needing to introduce a new Defence Against the Dark Arts professor. This year, we're very lucky to have found the ministry willing to temporarily part with one of its best aurors. Please welcome Senior Auror James Potter."

Harry's head snapped to the end of the teachers' table, where his father casually raised his hand in acknowledgement of the polite applause from the student body and his new colleagues.

He looked exactly like his image had in the Mirror of Erised, except more tanned and with a few more lines in his face. But he was actually here this time. In the flesh.

Harry couldn't tear his eyes away.

Dumbledore spoke again, and then the sorting began, but Harry didn't notice any of it. It wasn't until Neville grabbed his arm, breath stocked in surprise, that Harry came to himself again. Turning away from teachers' table, he saw Hermione shakily put the hat down and make her way to her house table.

Except she wasn't moving towards the Gryffindor table. It was the Ravenclaws that were applauding her, and the Ravenclaw table Hermione was dazedly walking towards. She looked back at them questioningly, shrugged as if to say she didn't know what'd happened either and turned towards her new housemates.

"Oh Merlin oh Merlin oh Merlin." Neville muttered under his breath. "I'll never get into Ravenclaw. What if we all end up in different houses and don't share classes? I'll never be able to deal with Newt classes on my own on top of everything else!"

"I'm sure we'll be in the same house Nev." Harry reassured him. "We've always known Hermione is a Ravenclaw with a Gryffindor heart. Besides, Newt elective classes are small enough that they combine all the students and Runes and Arithmancy aren't the most popular choices in the first place."

Harry thought he was doing an okay job helping Neville calm down, but it wasn't long before 'Neville Sandler' was called and the panicked look in his eyes came rushing back.

Harry held his breath when Neville sat down and put the Sorting Hat on.

And waited.

In the end, Harry needed to start breathing again long before the Hat made its decision known. Minutes passed and the students began to get tired of waiting, turning to talk to each other.

Finally, after close to 4 minutes (Harry had started counting as he'd been holding his breath), the Hat righted itself and said:

"Hufflepuff!"

Neville gave Harry a vacant shrug as he put the hat down and made his way to the table populated by the cheering badgers.

Jamie Swift and Rob Travers were sorted into Ravenclaw and Slytherin respectively, and then it was Harry's turn.

He picked up the hat a touch warily, sat down, and gingerly put it on.

"Hmmm, tricky. You'd do well in most houses. Not Ravenclaw though."

"I've already been sorted once, if that makes any difference."

"Yes, I noticed. Very annoying. I'll rule out Gryffindor for that reason alone. Can't have some other hat sorting my students."

Harry was decidedly nonplussed.

"It wasn't another hat, it was you."

"I think I'd remember that, kid! I've been sorting children into houses for thousands of years and I remember every single one of them. Just because I can't reveal their thoughts doesn't mean I don't remember, so don't try telling me otherwise."

"I'm not saying you've forgotten, I'm saying-"

"Just be silent and let me do my bloody job. Shame on you for trying to make me think I'm getting too old for this. I'm a hat! I only get better with time! You're doing a shite job of tricking me, which by the way tells me all need to know."

"Hufflepuff!" The hat shouted out loud.

Harry stood up feeling both frustrated and amused. He put the hat back on the stool and made his way over to Neville, accepting the congratulations of his new housemates as he sat down.

"I told you we'd be in the same house." Harry smiled.

Neville returned his smile uncertainly.

"Was the hat as weird to you as it was too me?" He asked softly.

"It was pretty weird, yeah. It actually reminded me of Alistair a bit."

Neville blushed and pulled on his earlobe. "That's… Not the same kind of strange."

"What did it say to you then?" Harry asked.

"It took minutes just for it to stop laughing. When it finally did, it just said I'd make a crappy Slytherin and that I should be thankful for its decision before announcing me a Hufflepuff."

"Huh. That really is weird."

By then the last first year had been sorted. Dumbledore raised his glass in a toast, and the feast appeared.

Harry and Neville sat somewhat isolated because of the first years sitting between them and the rest of their new house. That was alright with them though, as most of their focus was on communicating with Hermione at the table next to theirs through the medium of hand gestures and facial expressions while they ate.

Hufflepuff being the house that it is, a senior housemate soon made his way over to them. Harry had to take a moment to compose himself once again when he heard Cedric's voice over his shoulder, asking them to join the other Newt students, but he shook it off quickly. If his handshake was a bit firmer than normal, well that was nobody's business.

The two of them followed Cedric up the table and introduced themselves to the sixth and seventh years over dessert. The 'Puffs were very curious about Wimbleton. Not even the mention of quidditch derailed their questioning for long, so Harry was relieved to see Dumbledore get up once again.

"Now that we've all had our fill of a most excellent feast, if I may say so myself, the time for the big announcement has come. We've decided to cancel the inter-house quidditch cup this year."

A storm of protest burst loose.

Harry, of course already in the know about the tournament, could see just how much Dumbledore enjoyed the effect his words had had. The headmaster wore a big smile under his beard and his eyes twinkled merrily.

After a minute or so, Dumbledore raised a hand and patiently waited for silence.

"Instead of the regular quidditch tournament, Hogwarts will be participating in the Triwizard Tournament this year. Some of you may have heard of it, but this iteration will be decidedly different from those in the past. The organisers have worked very hard to modernise the tournament in order to make it an exciting experience for participants and audience alike. Please welcome the Head of the Department of International Magical Cooperation, Beatrice Pye, to explain the event in full."

A woman with wild curly hair and dark skin emerged from the room Harry'd been sent to when the Goblet selected the champions 2 years ago. She walked up to the Dumbledore, who backed away to his seat with a bow, unrolled a parchment from inside her sleeve, and began to speak. She did not glance at the parchment once.

"Thank you for that rousing introduction headmaster.

Traditionally, the Triwizard Tournament was a competition between the chosen champions of Durmstrang, Beauxbatons and Hogwarts. Durmstrang decided against joining this new version of the tournament though, so instead we've found a third participant in Kartana Academy of Magic*, a well respected school of magic located in the Mediterranean Sea.

In addition to the Tournament of Champions and the traditional Yule Ball, an inter-school quidditch tournament will be held, as well as duelling tournaments in both singles and trios formats. We've also organised guest lectures by experts in varying fields of magic at all three participating schools once a month."

She paused for a quick sip of water from the goblet of water that appeared in the air as she reached out.

"The Tournament of Champions consists of three tasks of considerable difficulty, testing the complete range of the participants' skills. The details of the tasks will remain a secret until the start of the task. Each participating school will host a single task, with Hogwarts hosting the first, Beauxbatons the second and Kartana the third. Only students that are of age as of today will be allowed to enter this competition. In order to enter the Tournament of Champions, please write your name and school on a piece of parchment and deposit it in the Goblet of Fire. The Goblet will reside in Kartana this week, move to Beauxbatons the next, and will arrive here 14 days from now. On the 22nd of September, all prospective candidates will gather here in the great hall to witness the selection of the champions.

The Yule Ball will be held on the 24th of December, as is traditional, at Beauxbatons. Everyone is welcome to attend, but first through third years will be escorted back to Hogwarts at 10:30pm.

The quidditch competition will be played over six matches. Each team plays two home matches, one against each school, and one away match at each school as well. We will be using professional rosters. This means there are 11 slots on a team, allowing for a substitute per position. Tryouts will be announced this week by your school's flying instructor.

Duellists entering the tournament will be competing segregated by years. Fourth year students will only face fourth year students, first years will face first years. The tournament will be played in knock-out style, and draws are completely randomised within the year bracket. That makes this tournament the only one where students could come to compete with students from their own school as well as students from the foreign schools. Sign ups will remain open until the end of the month. Please contact your head of house to sign up.

Finally, the guest lectures will be open to all, with the first one to be held in October. Some speakers have indicated they'll hold more than one lecture, so as to be able to cater to all levels of experience."

The overload of information resulted in a stunned silence when mrs Pye stopped speaking and rolled up her unused parchment again.

"I realise it's a lot of information to take in," she smiled, making her look a lot less imposing all of a sudden "so flyers with information about all of the events to come have been spread throughout to castle to peruse at your leisure. I thank you all for listening and hope you'll enjoy what the year will bring."

A hesitant applause started, but it quickly picked up as the information was processed and students became more enthusiastic.

Mrs Pye nodded in thanks and made her way back to the small room in the back of the hall accompanied by professor Dumbledore.

It was left to professor McGonagall to end the feast and send the students to bed.

Harry and Neville met up with Hermione on their way out.

"Well, that was different." She said.

They nodded.

AN: Sorry for the huge infodump at the end, but I couldn't see any way around it. Hopefully the promise of new tasks, duelling, quidditch and a new school will at least be exciting to you!