Part 6*

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Revised: January 6, 2022

For some time now, I've been wanting to extend the first year but not to the point of adding a completely new chapter. Problem was I didn't know how to go about it. Until now. So enjoy.

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Harry stepped into the Great Hall. Practically every student there turned to look at him warily. He stared back, none of his own wariness showing, and then began heading for the Slytherin table.

"What's going on?" he muttered to Draco, sitting down.

"Word got out you were a Parselmouth," Draco replied.

Harry glanced over at Gryffindor. Ron was giving him a suspicious stare. For a few seconds, neither moved. Then Ron turned away to eat his breakfast.

"If Weasley used his brain, he'd remember what I said on the train," said Harry.

"Bet he can't even afford one," scoffed Pansy.

Harry sent her a look. Say what you wanted about Ron Weasley, but sneering at him for being poor was not something Harry was comfortable with. After all, he had gone most of his life with very little of his own.

"Here," said Gemma, handing him his timetable. "Looks like you have Herbology first."

"Thank you." Harry nodded at her and began eating.

"Dumbledore's staring at you," said Draco.

Harry glanced up toward the High Table and found himself locked the headmaster's piercing blue eyes. A strange intensity seemed to press against his head and he abruptly turned away, the hairs on the back of his neck raising.



Dumbledore groaned inwardly as Harry broke eye contact before he could glimpse his memories. The only thing he had seen was the conversation that had taken place just mere moments ago.

He didn't understand what had happened. He had waited, very patiently if one were to ask, for Harry Potter to come to his school. The boy had lived with his magic-hating relatives for ten years and would have been beaten into submission. As a result, he would be very easy to mold, eager to please the professors, especially Dumbledore. But something went wrong.

When the first years had come in, Dumbledore had searched for the familiar messy black hair and striking green eyes he knew the boy would have. He found him and sat back, eager for the hat to Sort him into Gryffindor. After all, both James and Lily were Gryffindors, and the Potters were known to be Gryffindors for as long as anyone could remember. He conveniently forgot that not everyone went into the same house as their family.

But then the hat called for Slytherin. What? No, no, no, that wouldn't do. He wasn't supposed to be in such a lowly house. Harry Potter was a Gryffindor! He saw that the Slytherins were especially shocked and hoped they would isolate Harry, pushing him away from the dark and back into the light.

But they didn't. The first couple days proved they were against Harry, but that suddenly changed by Thursday.

"Severus," Dumbledore said that morning, "how is Harry doing?"

"He seems to have made friends with Mr. Malfoy and Miss Parkinson," the potions professor replied neutrally.

Dumbledore didn't like the sound of that. The Malfoys had been one of Voldemort's biggest supporters, and although the Parkinsons hadn't been as far up in rank, they were still known Death Eaters.

The headmaster decided to wait and see how things played out before he stepped in. Ron and Hermione, who he had chosen to be Harry's friends, would surely bring him to his senses and go to the third floor corridor so Dumbledore could test Harry.

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