This time I have many things to say.

Did you noted how many Scots there're in Harry Potter? I don't mean the Hogsmeade residents (Hogsmeade is in Scotland), but the other characters: Minerva McGonagall may be Irish (the last name is Irish, even if I know of at least a McGonagall born in Scotland), but Scots are: Ernie MacMillan, the only mentioned Morag MacDougal and her possible clanskin Eddie Carmichael (there're both a Clan Carmichael and a branch of Clan MacDougall with the last name Carmichael), Rufus Scrimgeour, Hannah Abbott, ROWENA RAVENCLAW... Well, I should thank JKR for giving me so many Scots with those last names. Specially MacMillan and MacDougal.

Now, a question: did you found the comic book character? He was Garfield Logan, alias Beast Boy. First appeared in Doom Patrol #99 in November 1965, you'll probably know him from his animated counterpart in the Teen Titans animated series. In the fanfic he was the Metamorphmagus (similar power) from LOGAN.

by lord Martiya

Disclaimer: the division between wizards and mages is a melding between my own Different Traditions system and the system created by Zephyrfiction for his fanfiction International Magic (a Negima!/Harry Potter crossover where Harry, Ron and Hermione are sent to Mahora as exchange students) and granted me permission to use. Thanks, Zephyr.

Other disclaimer: as you'll probably notice, my grammar in this chapter is much better than in the previous. I'd like to thank the fellow author Tail Kinker for his beta reading job.

SIXTH PERIOD: HOGWARTS

It was the First of September, 2008. The day when Harry went to Hogwarts the first time. They had a little run-in with the Weasley family, whose matriarch had forgotten the number of the platform (9 3/4. No Magicfolk-only platform had a normal name), thanks to a prank from two of her sons. That and Lucius Malfoy pointing Harry at his child version, most probably his son Draco (the pitiful result of mixing the naming conventions of the Most Noble and Ancient House of Black and of the Noble House of Malfoy(1)). Apart that, there was nothing worthy of note on the platform.

Then, on the train, Harry was sitting alone in a compartment reading his copy of Tatsumiya Mana's Handbook for Killing (the last of a long list of creepy but useful presents from the mercenary) when Hermione Granger entered.

"Hi. May I sit?" she asked.

Harry looked and nodded.

"Hermione Granger." she presented herself.

"Harry McDowell." he replied.

"I know. I was searching for you."

Harry frowned. Given what he saw at Mahora, this one was either a fangirl or a kidnapper. Even with his mother's warning that Mahora's girls were a bit different from the others, those were the two only possibilities he could though of. Before he could grab his things and run, Draco Malfoy opened the door, stared at him with his four goons, said "Crap!" and ran, immediately followed by his goons.

"Thanks." Hermione said.

"Uh... Care to explain?" Harry asked.

"I was searching for a compartement when I accidentally bumped the blond, and he's not exactly amicable. From his bragging I understood he values family above all else, so I supposed that a relative of the Dreaded Dark Evangel would scare him away."

"Related to who?" Harry asked, his mind screaming HOW DOES SHE KNOW?!?!?! WHAT I'LL DO?!?!?! KILL HER?!?!?! WHERE I HIDE THE BODY?!?!?! The fact that none of that appeared on his face is testament of how good emotion handling teachers Evangeline and Mana were.

"Evangeline A.K. McDowell. The last name is a bit of a giveaway. Maybe your mother knows her. I'd so like to meet her... She'd be a so great witch..."

"Mage."

"Uh?"

"Old story, and long, but quite important. The short version is that there're many approaches at magic. Basically, they're the Colchian, based mostly on potions you could use even to raise the dead(2), the Italic one based on rituals with the strangest and most powerful effects you could believe...

"Tell one."

"Romans had a name-based ritual to bribe away enemy magic, or, as they believed, enemy gods(3), and I saw a ritual to force recognition of magic. It would have just canceled the scepticism Muggles experiences to magic, but if it was completed in six months all the world would know about magic. May I continue?"

Hermione, now speechless, just nodded.

"Then there's the Afro-Hebrew magic, specialized in animation and causing things to happen by simulating them(4), the Shamanic tradition specialized in communicating with nature and manipulating their own spirits(5), the talisman-based magic diffused in China and Japan(6), the changing magic of the ancient Celts(7), and, finally, the Hermetic tradition, based on verbal formulas to make things happen. There are sub-divisions, obviously, like the one between Mages and Wizards in the Hermetic tradition. Mage style was adopted and diffused by the Romans when they found out it was faster and more combat-useful than their own magic(8), and perfected with the ancestors of the wands after the conquest of Egypt. Then the Wizard style appeared. It was easier to use and draw less energy from the caster, and so some Wizards decided they were better than the Mages and the Muggles, and there was war. In the end they found a compromise and Wizarding style is the most diffused in Europe, but Mages are more diffused in the rest of the world and on Mars."

Hermione was about to question him about Mars when the door was flung open and two other first years entered. One had the trademark red hair of the Weasleys, the other, obviously the leader, had an arrogant look. Much more arrogant than Malfoy's.

"Out. We sit here." he said.

"Why should we? We were here first." Hermione replied.

"Don't you know who he is?" the redhead asked. "He's Dumbledore's apprentice!"

"So? I'm Harry James McDowell, and my godmother is the first in the line of succession of the Hawa'ian crown, but it's not like that give me special rights." Harry calmly said. "Now, get out, or else..."

In Japan, Evangeline was talking with an old aquitance. The feared Augusta Longbottom. Who had a problem.

"OK, Dumbly took your grandson as apprentice. What's the problem?" Evangeline asked.

"The problem is that Dumbledore mentioned something about he and Harry Potter being the only ones who could possibly defeat Voldemort, and... Well, before that Neville had confidence issues, now he has three times Lucius' arrogance without the brain to support it." Augusta replied. "Don't get me wrong, Neville has potential, but still can't use it good enough to support half of Lucius' arrogance. So, I ask, can your son teach him humility?"

"If you ask me to tell him that, don't worry, he can't stand bullies. If you ask me he's able to do so... Well, do you know what a 'ohana is?"

"Yes. Don't tell around, but I'm a Lilo and Stitch fan..."

"Well, in his 'ohana there're many good fighters, and he picked up a lot from all of us."

"How...?" Hermione asked.

"Well, Wizard's magic may be simpler, but Mage's is pretty superior in combat. And our clan is kinda specialized in Ice magic. After all, our signature spell is the End of the World that can freeze Godzilla-sized demon gods..." Harry replied. "That thing is something every MacDowall of my age can do. Some of the clan are better at other elements, and my aunt is even a FIRE user, but still..."

"I knew about the Ice. How did you stopped him dead with a LOOK?"

Harry her the copy of the Tatsumiya Mana's Handbook for Killing, open at the chapter about psychological warfare, and said: "I know the author." Then he flicked his hand to send out the ice block containing Neville Longbottom and his Weasley goon and closed the door.

Just a few seconds later, they heard: "Going to provoke a MacDowall... What the hell they had in mind? And how did that Malfoy knew? Oh, when Mom will know... I just hope they don't end in the same house. Did he actually had to verify the fame of the MacDowall? Wasn't enough when they frozen down the Ministry for that?"

"Frozen down the Ministry?" Hermione asked.

"Something about a girl of the clan being killed and the Ministry condemning a guy without even searching for evidence." Harry replied.

While Longbottom and his goon got unfrozen, Harry and Hermione, thanks to her hunger for knowledge and the fact he never had a friend of his age (the only people who wasn't scared of Mahora's craziness were all older, the only exceptions being Haruna's siblings. And given she was the quiet one, Harry was positively scared), the two got somehow friends.

On the boats for Hogwarts, Harry and Hermione narrowly missed Longbottom and his goon thanks to a couple of Scots, namely an Ernie MacMillan guy who had with himself an armored case and a Morag MacDougal. Then, when they were all waiting for the Sorting, and while Weasley cursed two of his brothers, two twins who made him believe that the ceremony was not wearing a talking hat but wrestling with a troll, Malfoy's gang 'casually' blocked all the paths between Harry and Neville Longbottom. Apparently the Malfoy scion was smart enough to not want a fight involving the Ice spells of Clan MacDowall and the Water spells of Clan MacDougall. Plus, he knew well that in similar situations Scots tended to stick together against English nobles, and the fact that MacMillan's case had an American mark on could mean that it came from the US branch of the clan, and given they produced what Wizards considered heavy weapons(9)...

Then the sorting came. With surprises. Obviously, the only guess you could do about Muggleborns was not-Slytherin, and even that was uncertain(10), but for most Purebloods you could guess fairly accurate. So, it was quite a surprise that two of Malfoy's goons, Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle, were sorted in Gryffindor. At least now Dumbledore was fairly certain what the Sorting Hat had been paid for by Malfoy sr, given Malfoy jr. very-convincing-but-not-enough-to-fool-THE-Dumbledore fake shocked expression. Why, he could only guess, even if Snape suggested it came from their stupidity and Malfoy Jr. having found two alternative bodyguards by chance.

Neville Longbottom, as expected, was sorted in Gryffindor, and so was Hermione Granger. Then, Harry's turn came.

"Let me see..." the Hat 'said'. "A very difficult Sorting, this is... You're loyal and hard-working, intelligent and knowledge-thirsty, cunning and a hell of bastard, and brave bordering on insanity. Some preference, kid?"

"Not much. After all, you're the expert, right?" Harry mentally replied.

"Hehe, right... Well, I can tell your thirst for knowledge is a bit superior, and given your Clan... RAV-Wait a second... THE HELL?!?!?!"

"It's funny!"

"Forget what I just said, guv, your place is GRYFFINDOR! Holy shit, considering THAT funny... Last one thought that feeding an annoying classmate to a werewolf was a funny prank... At least this one is more the Ravenclaw type than the Slytherin and is quiet and controlled..."

"Thanks god it's not another one..." Snape blurted out.

After that the Sorting proceeded without other surprises, until Ronald Weasley, A.K.A. Longbottom's goon, was Sorted.

"Another Weasley... I know EXACTLY where I'll sort you." the Sorting Hat said out loud. "SLYTHERIN!"

BUMP!

"Just kidding!" the Hat said. "He's a GRYFFINDOR, and when he wake up tell him to not bully the Twin, they know all too well how to contact and bribe me and many other people."

After all the Sorting, and waking up Ron Weasley, the Headmaster spoke: "Welcome to a new year at Hogwarts! Before we begin our banquet, I would like to say a few words. And here they are: nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak! Thank you!"

Unknowing to him, or pretty much everyone else, those words had scared Harry, a lot.

Crap! He has the same humor of Qiao-akuoba(11)! And he's in charge!!! If he's half as crazy as her, we're doomed!!!

After the banquet, Dumbledore made some announces. First, welcoming back Quirinus Quirrel, once Muggle Studies teacher, now, after a sabbatic year, Defence Against Dark Arts teacher. And scared as hell. Second, something about a list of forbidden objects, and, for second years and older, the tries for the Quidditch teams. Third, a corridor in the third floor was forbidden to "anyone who don't wish a rather painful death". At that point Harry noted Longbottom being curious enough to take a look, and started to wonder if magicfolks had something like the Darwin Awards(12).

In the dormitory Harry was reading a book when Longbottom and Weasley ripped it.

"It was a first edition of Dracula. Do you have any idea of how much you owe me now?" Harry said.

"Shut the fuck up, Potter." Longbottom said. "You will apologize for your actions on the train, or !!!"

"Team Chacha-Gryffindor to Command: Longbottom and Weasley tried to attack him. They are out of the window, now." a Chacha doll dressed as a SAS soldier said to the air. Near the window, two other Chachas, dressed as a Napoleonic-era soldier of the King's Own Borderers (later King's Own Scottish Borderers) regiment and a member of the Scots Guards of the British Army, were keeping the two from falling to their deaths.

A couple seconds later two other Chachas, dressed as members of the Royal Gurkha Rifles (completed with kukri knives) and the Parachute Regiment, entered the room and jumped down the window, returning only after cutting naked the two victims.

"Hoot!"

"Yes, Samael, they're from mom. I think." Harry replied to the snowy owl that had just collected the money for Dracula's cost from Longbottom's cash.

"Hoot hoot hoot?"

"I told you, I was about naming you after queen Jadwiga of Poland(13), but mom's line has a tradition of naming pets after angels."

"Hoot."

"Zero's a fan of the Angel of Death, and I owed her one."

Samael facepalmed and returned to the owlery after delivering the money. Then Harry repaired his book and returned reading.

Hufflepuff dormitory.

"Er... MacMillan, what do you have in that case?" an Hufflepuff Muggleborn student asked.

"My comics collection. Why?" was the reply.

So long for the suspect of him carrying a precision rifle.

footnotes

(1)As you probably know, the House of Black named many of its members after astronomical objects (searching on the Harry Potter Wiki I found Sirius, Regulus Arcturus, Bellatrix, Andromeda, Cygnus, Charis, Cassiopeia, Alphard, Hesper, Pollux, Lycoris and Phoebe. If you search on Wikipedia, you'll found that most of them are stars or costellations, with Hesper being a variant of Esther (meaning 'star'), Charis an asteroid, Lycoris, meaning 'twilight' in Greek, an obscure homage to the Sun, and Phoebe the name of a Moon Goddess and a moon of Saturn), while Malfoy family members have often named its members from demons and otherwordly creatures (Lucius is related to LUCIFER, while his father Abraxas take name from an entity claimed to be a Gnostic deity, an Egyptian god, a demon or the sum of God and Satan). Draco sums both, as draco is a constellation and the Latin word for dragon, often used as a face for Satan in Christian mythology. On a similar note, his son in canon, Scorpius Hyperion, is named after the Scorpio constellation, that as zodiacal sign is linked to Hades, and after a moon of Saturn.

(2)As Medea DID in myth.

(3)That's true: ancient Romans bribed away enemy gods before attacking a besieged city. For the same reason, the Romans always kept secret the real name (now lost) of their city, calling it with the nicknames Roma (meaning 'the place of the Romans'), from wich the modern names, or Urbe (literally 'THE City').

(4)That's mostly based on the legend of the Golem, the zombies (their legend originated in Africa) and the performances of Egyptian mages in the ancient stories (animating armies of statues, beheading a chicken and then make it reattach the head by itself and sinking an entire warfleet by sinking their reproductions are just some examples).

(5)This one comes from the classical portrait of shamans in Far West fiction.

(6)See Chigusa, she's a good example of what Japanese and Chinese mages of ancient stories are supposed to be.

(7)Based on what fairies are normally shown doing: changing things and people, healing, powering up, crippling and killing them. Morgana Le Fay is a good example.

(8)If you don't believe Romans would do something like that, I'll just tell you that the oval Roman shield used during the Republic (of wich the reptangular one is a developement) was adopted afted they saw the Samnythes use them, their famous aqueducts, Rome's sewers and most of their own architecture were of Etruscan origin, their gladius swords were originally Gaulish and Hiberians (first adopted by the legions defeated at Cannae for their campaign in Spain and then in their revenge at Zama) and later perfected, their infamous javelins were apparently an Etruscan weapon they later adopted and perfected in design and use, the armor used during the Republican era was of Celtic origin, their warships evolved from designs from Carthage (their obiquitous quinquiremes were alleged to be originally copies of a Carthaginian ship they managed to capture), Greek cities (mostly the triremes, built in the Greek cities in Italy) and pirates (their infamous liburnians were a pirate design with better protection and weaponry), their entire siege technology were the spoils of war of Syracuse... I suppose that's enough.

(9)What the McMillan Brothers Rifle Company produces is actually small arms in the form of very accurate hunting and sniping rifles. Still, amongst this company products there's the Tac-50, perfectly capable to shoot 13.8 cm (5.45 in) long EXPLOSIVE-INCENDIARY-ARMOR PIERCING bullets. And that, compared to what Wizards had showed, is pretty much heavy weaponry with the added bonus of accuracy outstanding enough to hit a man-sized target at 2430 m (1.435 miles).

(10)I know at least three Half-Bloods (Tom Riddle, Tracey Davis and Severus Snape) and a possible bastard (Blaise Zabini, son of a seven times widowed woman) in Slytherin. Given that and that JKR had a Slytherin character cut from the books who would have been daughter to a Muggle woman and a Squib and, on top of that, third cousin to the Gryffindor-only Weasleys, I seriously doubt that blood purity is really a factor. Apart for the students' safety.

(11)I made up this honofic by melding 'aku', evil, and '-oba', the Japanese honorific for your own aunt.

(12)The Darwin Awards are awarded to anyone who helps the long-time survival of mankind by eliminating himself from the gene pool in a very stupid way, like the couple who was killed by a train while having sex on the railway.

(13)Venerated as Saint Edwig by the Roman Catholic Church, she's one of two saints known as Hedwig by English-speaking people.