[1989 Pt.3]

The carriages of the Hogwarts Express were filled with various compartments.

'The further back one goes, the lower the age of the passenger gets.'- Nathan realised this after he saw how the student council was located in the first compartment of the first carriage.

So Nathan like any other good little first year, slowly made his way towards the end of the train to find himself a partially empty compartment.

'Friendships that last seven years are likely to last a lifetime.'- This was the conclusion of a survey about which Nathan had read in his time as Jason. And while he was not cold enough to treat his relationships with people as nothing more than superficial attempts at networking, he was also not stupid enough to not realise the potential of said relationships.

'Let us just hope, I can convince the hat to not put me in Slytherin.'- Getting killed by a jealous loser in one life was enough for him, he would rather avoid the snakes getting jealous of himself since he was half-blood.

'Cunning is just a polite way of saying underhanded and backstabbing.'- Nathan was fine with using underhanded methods himself, but he never liked them. He sure as hell did not idolize or admire the personality trait that was cunning.

'This one seems like it will do,' Nathan thought as he looked into the compartment. There were three boys in the carriage, two of which Nathan was sure he recognised.

'There are only two red-haired twins that I can think of.'

He slowly opened the door and Nathan asked, "Can I join you all?"

One of the three boys said, "Sure, mate."

Nathan walked into the compartment and slowly put his trunk on the ground before sliding it below the seats. He took the open window seat since the boy with black hair between the three was sitting closer to the door.

"Name's George Weasley, this is Fred Weasley and that there is--"

"-- Merton Graves," the boy said distractedly even as he focused on reading a piece of parchment.

"Nathan Grey," Nathan said with a smile and the others nodded before asking, "Does any of you have any family that studies at Hogwarts?"

Merton shook his head while Fred and George nodded, a proud look on their faces.

'They sure are proud of their big brothers.'- Nathan thought with amusement, children always looked up to their siblings when they were younger.

Fred said, "Bill's the Head Boy and Charlie's the Gryffindor Prefect. They both are awesome."

George nodded before saying, "Our whole family's been in Gryffindor for generations. I think we will end up there too. Though I hope I don't become perfect, it will be a nightmare."

'Ah so they already have their dislike for positions of responsibility.'- Nathan nodded before saying, "I hope I end up in Gryffindor or Ravenclaw. Hufflepuff's nice too. I just don't want to end up in Slytherin."

Even as he said, Nathan was looking at Graves to see if the boy had any bias towards or against the house of snakes. Nathan was expecting either anger or agreement but when he found confusion on Graves's face, he couldn't help but ask, "Where do you think you will end up Graves?"

The boy finding himself the centre of attention of his fellow occupants simply said, "I actually am ignorant of the house system of Hogwarts."

"Your parents are muggles?"

"My family is American and we have a lot of power within the MACUSA, most of my cousins are going to Ilvermony, but my parents along with a few other friends of theirs moved here and wanted me to attend Hogwarts. I have a cousin named Anthony who will join me at Hogwarts in two years. So what are the different houses and how are we going to get chosen for them?"

George nodded before answering, "There is Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Slytherin and Hufflepuff. We don't know how we will be sorted, nobody answers straight when we ask and the books don't have any information about it either, Fred and I checked."

At Merton's nod, George continued on with his explanation of the houses with a heavy bias against the Slytherins which Nathan did not bother correct since Merton seemed like a good boy, it was better if Slytherin took all the bad apples like Malfoy and Warrington.

***** ***** ***** ****** ****** ********* ******* *********

The journey from Kings Cross to Hogwarts took nine hours for the Express to cover and, by the time they were about to reach the castle. Nathan and his new acquaintances had already changed into their robes.

Throughout the journey, Nathan asked a lot of questions to all three children that were occupying the room alongside him. He asked them about unimportant things like quidditch teams, music, brooms, etc. Nathan also made sure to ask questions about their families and things that would allow him to get a gist of their character.

They walked out of the train as they heard someone shouting instructions for the first years to follow him.

'The movies did not do justice to Hagrid's size.'- Nathan gaped at the sheer size of Hagrid. He was at least Eight and a half feet in length from the ground to his head.

After seeing the man, Nathan could definitely see why the giants were feared. And knowing that this man could walk off nearly all spells Nathan could throw at him like mere annoyance really unnerved him.

'This guy if provoked can be a killing machine.'- His character might not allow it but the potential was clearly there.

He was not afraid of the man, but his sheer lethality did make Nathan respect him.

So he followed Hagrid to the docks where the man said, "No more'n four on the boat."

Fred, George, Nathan and Merton all slowly lowered themselves into one of the many boats which started moving forward after Hagrid bellowed a loud, "FORWARD!"

Nathan was making an effort to not look into the deep water of the black lake since he had always felt wary around deep waters. His wariness was justified if a tad bit paranoid in his previous world, in this one, his caution would be seen as natural.

And while he was awed by the castle like the others, his adult mind did not allow him to truly appreciate its beauty while he floated above the territory of magical beings like the Kraken and the merfolk who had hippocampus mounts and Lobalug poison. He was far more aware of the danger he truly was under, unlike the oblivious children who were unaware of the monstrous beasts that lay beneath them.

'Ignorance truly is bliss,' was all Nathan could think even as Hagrid warned them with another shout of "Head down!!"

It was a tense few minutes for Nathan and he jumped off the boat onto solid ground with a feeling of relief.

'Yeah, I am not going close to the Black Lake until I am sure I can toast everything that resides within it at the flick of my wand.'

Nathan helped the other three students out of the boat before they followed the half-giant to what Nathan assumed was the Entrance Hall that led to the Great Hall.

After a short walk, Hagrid walked up to a massive oak door that he opened by knocking on it three times.

A Scottish woman with black hair in brown robes with a stern look on her face walked out and Hagrid said to her in a respectful and measured tone, "The firs' years, Professor."

She gave him a brief smile and replied, "Thank you, Hagrid."

McGonagall looked at the first years again and the brief smile was replaced by a stern look.

She beckoned them to follow and started moving at a brisk pace into the Entrance Hall.

They stopped in front of another door. This one even larger than the oak door of the Entrance Hall. She turned before explaining to the group of young children about the house system of Hogwarts and how she hoped that they would credit whichever house they may join before finishing with, "The Sorting Ceremony will take place in a few minutes in front of the rest of the school. Smarten yourselves up to present yourself better to your peers."

Now, Nathan would say that he was not nervous about the sorting but he was a bit wary of the Sorting Hat.

'Let's hope that Pureblood Families allow the hat to exist because it can't divulge what it learns or it isn't capable of legilimency as I suspect.'

Yes, that is what Nathan had come up with after thinking about the sorting hat in depth. Nathan ventured that the hat had an animation enchantment and a spell the founders crafted to judge students cast upon it coupled with spells for its own protection.

It made a lot more sense than the founders creating an artificial mind that they had bound to a hat which had further constraints of judging a child's house via the use of legilimency.

------------------------------------------

A|N:

Fair bit of warning- he will not be going to either Ravenclaw or Slytherin.