Initiation at Hogwarts

"Whatever house I'm in, I hope she's not in it." Ron says as he throws his wand back in his trunk.

Nicholas finally agreed with Ron for the first time since meeting him and because of this, a new friendship was born. He sees Ron's brothers and points them out to him.

"Stupid spell." Ron mutters with a scowl. "George gave it to me. Be he knew it was a dud."

Nicholas lightly laughed at this, "Well if you want, we could prank them back?" Harry's eyes seemed to light up at this and agreed with Nicholas. Ron on the other hand vigorously shook his head at this.

"No no no no. You can't prank my brothers. It's not like you're not allowed to, it's just that it's impossible. They're like professors at the craft. They're the reason for most of the pranks going on at Hogwarts." Ron explained while Nicholas just contemplated this information.

"Well, this is going to be much easier isn't it? If they think they're unstoppable they couldn't be more wrong. There's bound to be some sort of weak link that I can expose. You can bet on that." Ron just smirked at this.

"5 galleons then?" Nicholas shook his hand with his, "Deal."

They arrived at the lake where Nicholas saw a huge person apparently named Hagrid. He was the one that introduced Harry to the magical world.

Nicholas says, "So he's an important person to you then? But it seems he doesn't miss much meals glancing at his stomach."

Harry started to nod his head at what Nicholas first said, then hit him in the back of Nicholas' head when he heard the second part.

"OW! I was just stating the truth! Hey! Wait up!" Nicholas says as Harry decides to get on the with Ron. Nicholas joins them as their ride across the lake starts. They make small conversation until Nicholas first sees Hogwarts. What he sees takes his breath away. He has never seen such an amazing building before. The magical power enveloping the castle made it seem like it was alive. Nicholas looked around and saw that other children his age was looking the same as him.

They finally arrived at the castle and there it seemed so much more bigger than when seeing it from the lake. They get off the boats and while waiting, they hear footsteps stop right next to them.

All three look and see a tall, pale boy with slicked back white-blonde hair standing in front of them with two bulky looking boys behind him.

"So, it's true, what they're all saying. Harry Potter is really back. So it's you, isn't it?"

"Well...uh, yes." Harry quickly sys after a few seconds.

"Oh, well this is Crabbe and Goyle." He points back towards the two lackeys. "And I'm Malfoy, Draco Malfoy."

Ron snickers, causing Nicholas to shake his head and Draco to quickly turn his attention towards him.

"Think my names funny, do you? No need to ask for yours." He looks Ron up and down. "Red hair and a hand-me-down robe...you must be a Weasley."

Nicholas just sighed, "You really were asking for it Ron." Ron just glares at Nicholas. Draco then turns to Nicholas, "Who are you then? Never seen you around before. Definitely not a Pureblood for sure."

Nicholas just inwardly grinned since he took the heat off of Ron and answered, "Nicholas Ward at your service. And not a Pureblood if you're asking. My blood is actually type O. I don't think Pureblood is a type. You reckon your type AB?"

Draco just splutters at this, "NO YOU IDIOT! I AM NOT TALKING ABOUT BLOOD TYPES! I AM TALKING ABOUT-" Nicholas interrupts him, "Hmm maybe a O negative then?"

Draco looked like he was about to explode before he realized his original purpose for coming here. After seething at Nicholas, who just smiled cheekily in response, he turned to Harry again.

"You'll soon learn that some Wizarding families are better than others, Potter. You don't want to be making friends with the wrong sort. I can help you there."

He extends his pale hand towards Harry, but the raven-haired 'Boy who Lived' doesn't take it.

"I think I can tell the wrong sort for myself, thanks."

Draco gets a little pink in his face and goes even redder when Nicholas cheers, "You tell him Harry!" Draco sneers in the end and said, "Be careful on which side you stick to Potter or you'll end up just like your parents. They didn't know what was good for them either."

At this Harry and Ron looked furious but Nicholas just had a cold, impassive face and said in a icy tone, "Leave. Now. Before I make you."

Draco just laughs at that. "How will you make me go away? Wave your wand? I'm sure you didn't learn any spells yet."

Nicholas just shrugged and said, "Maybe I didn't, but I know how hard I need to stick your wand so far up your arse that you'll be barfing your lunch." At this Draco looked even more paler than usual and quickly walked away. Nicholas turned around and saw that Ron looked a bit green while Harry said, "Thanks for sticking up for me mate but next time maybe without something sticking into Draco's arse?"

Nicholas just laughed. "Well that's the best way to get to leave ain't it?"

Harry just sighed but ultimately accepted it because it worked.

Awhile later the door finally opened and Nicholas saw a familiar face.

"Ms. McGonagall! It's great to see you again!"

McGonagall saw Nicholas among the first-years and inwardly smiled but said, "Mr. Ward, at school please address me and the other teachers here properly. So from now on address me as Professor McGonagall."

Nicholas was disappointed at this but saw that she was serious so he complied, but making sure that he would be less formal if they were together. McGonagall nods at his acceptance and to speak to the rest of the first-years.

"Welcome to Hogwarts. The start of term banquet will begin shortly, but before you take your seats in the Great Hall, you will be sorted into your houses. The four houses are Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin."

Nicholas knows most about the traits of each house but wanted to be placed into Gryffindor. Mostly because he liked Professor McGonagall and wanted her to be his head of house.

McGonagall continued with her speech, {Your house will be like your family. Your triumphs will earn you points-but ANY rule breaking..will lose you points. At the end of the year, the house with the most points is awarded the house cup, a GREAT honor."

After her speech, she left and told the students to wait for her return so they could get sorted into one of the houses. When she leaves, Harry whispers to Nicholas and Ron, "How exactly do they sort us into Houses?"

"Some sort of test, I think. Fred said it hurts a lot thought, so not too excited for it." Nicholas deadpanned at Ron.

"So the brother who gave you a fake spell for your rat, told you that something bad was going to happen for the sorting ceremony, and you believed it? You must be joking."

Ron realized this fact and said, "I am so going to kill Fred."

Nicholas and Harry chuckled at this and at that point McGonagall came back and led them to the Great Hall. They arrived at the Great Hall where Nicholas could see a great amount of students sitting down at specified tables started to look around while Dumbeldore was saying a few words.

Once Dumbeldore finished, McGonagall started to call student's names. He only paid attention to few. First was Hermione Granger. She seemed to be muttering something to herself as she was walking to the hat. She quickly shoved it onto her head and after awhile, the hat bellowed,

"GRYFFINDOR!"

The room cheered and the brown-haired girl happily ran over to the Gryffindor table. Nobody heard Nicholas and Ron's groans because of the Gryffindors except for Harry who just chuckled.

Next up was Draco. Immediately, the hat yelled,

"SLYTHERIN"

As Nicholas watched the other kids get sorted, he heard Harry grunt out, "Ouch" and rub the scar on his forehead. Nicholas looked at him confused and saw that Harry was rubbing his head but turned his head to his other friend Ron being sorted.

"GRYFFINDOR"

Then, it was Harry's turn. Whispers were made as his name was called and Nicholas noticed that three professors in particular were interested in Harry. Dumbeldore, a oily-haired man, and the last one was wearing a turban on his head. He couldn't pay attention to it much because his name was called next.

"Nicholas Ward." McGonagall called out.

The young boy stepped forward and walked up the steps. He sat down and waited for the Sorting Hat to be placed on his head.

Suddenly he heard it speak, "Ah yes, Nicholas Hunter! Let's see what we have here." Nicholas was confused yet again. He spoke to the hat, "My last name is Ward not Hunter. This is the second time this happened."

The hat was surprised at this, "Hmm? Oh! I see what happened here." But the hat continued his evaluation without saying any explanation. "Because of the tough times that are coming to pass, best to place you;

GRYFFINDOR"

The room cheered and Nicholas was still trying to get an answer but he saw Harry and Ron's face smiling widely at him, beckoning him to join him at the table, while he saw Hermione fuming at the fact they were in he same house. He sighed and accepted that he wasn't going to get an answer so he headed over to the Gryffindor table.

A few moments later, dinner was served. Nicholas found himself between Harry and Fred, while George and Ron sat across from them. Thankfully, Hermione wasn't in his view because she was sitting next to Harry.

In the middle of the dinner, Nicholas felt Harry ask Percy, "Percy, who's that sitting by Professor Quirrell?"

Nicholas looked towards the staff table and noticed the oily-haired man ignoring Quirrell talking to him as he was too fixated on glaring at Harry.

Nicholas studied the professor as Percy was explaining to Harry, "That's Professor Snape. Head of Slytherin House. He also teaches Potions, but everyone knows it's the dark arts he fancies. He's been after Quirrell's job for as long as I can remember. Stubborn git, he is. Don't tell him I said that."

Nicholas heard and thought that he should pay extra attention in Snape's class, seeing that he had something against most Gryffindor students. Nicholas didn't want to be one of them. He sighed, he really didn't want to study any more than he had to.

Nicholas then smiled as he looked at his two new friends. No matter his past of hiding his magic, or ending up in the same house as that Hermione, he was just really happy where he felt whole.

He looked at Harry and in turn found Harry looking at him with a smile.

"It's good to be here."

Harry nodded along with him and they did their handshake.