CH8 - It Better Be...

Edmund joined the rush of students running out of the train, trying to get to the small covered area to escape the downpour of rain.

There the students were greeted by a short woman wearing all-white robes that were cut off at the elbows. She was waving her wand over shivering children while asking them questions and handing out potions.

Her actions combined with the small patch on her robes that Edmund recognized as the rod of Asclepius gave away her identity; Poppy Pomfrey, resident medi-witch of Hogwarts.

Edmund watched as a young girl downed the potion handed to her with no hesitation, her shivering immediately halting as hot steam blew out of her ears comically.

'Pepper up,' he promptly identified.

Off to the side, there were several steel hot chocolate dispensers and hundreds of cups placed on a wooden table, with students aplenty lining up. Edmund quickly joined the queue, noticing how the hot chocolate being served within the dispensers never ran out.

'Some sort of expansion charm, or are the house elves constantly refilling the containers?' Edmund thought, before shrugging it off.

It was several minutes later as Edmund was nursing his warm cup next to an equally quiet Cecilia, that a large man lumbered into view.

Hagrid clapped his hands twice, drawing attention to himself easily.

"Listen up now first years. Usually, I'd be taking you across the lake in the boats over there," he pointed over to the small dock. "But with the weather as it is and the dementors on guard, we've decided you'll be taking the carriages instead."

"The last fifteen carriages are for the first years only, as you'll be taken on a different path than the older students," Hagrid explained.

"Remember that now; I don't want you getting lost. If you don't know where to go, just follow me. I'll be easy enough to find," he chuckled, alleviating the tension.

Soon after, Edmund climbed aboard one of the last carriages, joined by Cecilia, and two other unknown children. Edmund gazed in front of the carriage, looking at the reins hanging in midair, attached to nothing. Only he knew that they were attached to something, something invisible.

"Forward!" Hagrid's voice boomed out from the front of the entourage, and the carriages all jerked into motion.

Edmund and the others looked out the side of the carriage, watching as Hogwarts became bigger and bigger in their view. The glowing yellow lights within seemed mighty inviting to them all, as did the safety that lay within. The carriages crested a hill, following a trail that led into a small cave.

As they slowed to a stop, Edmund realized that they were at the dock they would have reached below Hogwarts had they taken the boat. After Hagrid had helped some of the shorter children off, he beckoned them to follow behind, as he began scaling the stone steps. Up and up they went, finally reaching a large gate, after crossing which they officially entered Hogwarts.

The castle was made entirely of stone and would have looked quite drab if not for the hundreds of moving portraits that filled each square inch of the walls lining the Grand Staircase.

"Greetings," a knight introduced as he took off his helmet and bowed to them regally.

"Ah, you must be the new first years," an old lady exclaimed, fanning herself lazily. "Shorter and shorter they get every year, don't they?" she asked, receiving a chorus of affirmations.

By now, the moods of most of the students had elevated, and the incident with the dementors had been put firmly in the past. His eyes darting this way and that, it wasn't long before Edmund realized they had already reached the ground floor, where Hagrid handed them off to Professor McGonagall.

The stern witch looked over the crowd, her lips moving as she inaudibly counted to make sure everyone was present. As her eyes met with them, she nodded curtly at some of the students in recognition, including Edmund.

Looking behind her, Edmund could see the ornate set of double doors that led to the Great Hall, surrounded by a thick stone archway, weathered by time.

"Right," McGonagall began, introducing the house system and the process of sorting.

Already knowing the information, Edmund decided to take a closer look at his year mates, wondering if he would recognize any of them.

One of the girls, a ditzy-looking brunette with curly wild hair contained by lightning-bolt-themed hairbands, could be none other than Romilda Vane. Another, a sickly-looking blonde girl with ice-blue eyes, Edmund theorized might be the future Lady Malfoy, Astoria Greengrass.

"Now," McGonagall concluded as Edmund began to pay attention again, "be on your best behaviour."

The double doors swung open, as McGonagall led them into the great hall. Everyone's eyes were on the new students, as they chattered loudly to their neighbours, some pointing and giggling.

As McGonagall reached the high table, she set up the stool and placed a floppy brown hat upon it, taking a scroll into her hands. She glared at all the tables, and in a record amount of time, the hall grew silent.

The hat began its customary song, Edmund watching with fascination as the folds of the hat formed a mouth and began to sing. He took the time to look up and around, marvelling at the sea of floating candles, and the stormy, turbulent sky projected by the Great Hall's ceiling.

As names began to be called, Edmund attempted to peer at the Gryffindor and Slytherin tables, hoping to find some familiar faces. Embarrassingly, however, even with his above-average 5'1" inch height, he was too short to look over the heads of the older Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs that sandwiched him.

Soon enough, the first name he recognized was called.

"Cecilia Burke."

Cecilia confidently strolled up to the stool, where the hat was placed on her head. While Edmund expected her sorting to take only two seconds, Cecilia surprised him with a short hat stall. It was only a minute and a half later that the hat spoke up, surprising all those who knew of the Burke family's history.

"Hufflepuff!" it shouted with jubilation, as Cecilia's robe linings turned yellow. Many of the students, particularly in Slytherin, began to mutter, as Cecilia quickly took a seat at the end of the table.

Edmund had no time to deliberate the situation, however, as the next name called was his own.

"Edmund Cole."

As he walked up the steps to the high table, Edmund got his first glance at the teachers. But, it was only for a second, as the hat was plopped on his head, and his mind was fully occupied by the loud voice bouncing around in his brain.

'An Otherworlder,' the hat said in awed surprise and reverence, its voice cracking with excitement.

'There's a term for those like me?' Edmund asked excitedly, before becoming extremely worried. 'Does that mean you've met others in the same situation as me in the past?'

His mind raced, filling with unknown variables he might have ignored that could give him any hints of the answer to his question.

'Don't be frightened lad. If there were others like you, I wouldn't have mentioned it at all. After all, I am enchanted to keep the secrets of all my wearers,' the hat soothed, waiting for his heart to slow down. 'The existence of one such as you was only theorized by Rowena Ravenclaw when she began experimenting with time magic after...' the hat trailed off sadly.

'Well, never you mind that. I have never peered into the mind of anyone that had lived another life before, nor of a soul occupying another's body. No, you, are an anomaly,' the hat confirmed.

Edmund sighed in relief.

'Now, where to place you... If you were truly only Tom Riddle as your memories suggest, then there would be no other house for you than Slytherin,' the hat deliberated. 'But your soul isn't Tom's, and I am grateful for that. Oh, you are ambitious, clearly, but not to the point of cruelty. Brave yes, but not reckless; that much is certain. Intelligent, but not just for the sake of seeking knowledge. You have a strong purpose,' it concluded.

'However, loneliness permeates your soul. Hmmm. How peculiar. Your time in the void as you call it, seems both infinitely long, and incredibly short all at once. It has filled you with coldness, and wariness. But, it has also given you a stronger will to live than I have ever seen,' the hat summarized.

'You have put up thick walls around yourself, but truly living means being vulnerable,' it contemplated, before falling silent once more.

"Hehehe," the hat chuckled audibly for all of the Great Hall to hear, before continuing mentally.

'Tom, or Voldemort as he calls himself now, will either think his younger version is an idiot or a genius,' the hat said mischievously into Edmund's mind. 'But I truly see no better place to put someone like you...'

Nearly two minutes after Edmund first sat on the stool, the hat spoke up with its decision.

"It better be... Hufflepuff!" it exclaimed loudly.

The table in yellow roared with approval as Edmund made his way down to sit next to Cecilia.

'Fuck my life! How the fuck am I supposed to explain this to Voldemort?' he thought miserably as he was thumped on the back by his housemates as they congratulated him.

*-*-*-*

- (Scene Break) -

*-*-*-*

After the sorting, a performance by the frog choir ensued, perfectly suiting the atmosphere around Hogwarts as well as Edmund's thoughts.

"Double trouble indeed," Edmund muttered hatefully.

A familiar speech by Dumbledore followed soon after, as the charismatic and powerful wizard worked his magic.

All the while, Edmund looked at the teachers, matching their faces with names. Dumbledore, Snape, McGonagall, Flitwick, and Hagrid were hard to miss with their distinctive looks. A plumper witch with slight bits of dirt in her hair bun could only be Professor Sprout. A woman with spiky white hair and yellow eyes was obviously Rolanda Hooch. A shaggy man with tattered clothes and a slight hunch, Edmund recognized as Lupin. The rest, he would learn over time.

After introductions, food appeared on the Great Hall's tables with a clap from Dumbledore.

"Finally," a student loudly proclaimed a table over.

"About time," someone else grumbled further down the Hufflepuff table.

Edmund couldn't help but agree. He may or may not have been poor in his old life, but the only food-related memories he could remember now consisted of Tom's starvation.

Eagerly, he filled his plate with the tiniest of portions of each of the foods present. Even then, he had no room left on his stacked plate. Taking a sip of pumpkin juice to wash down the bite of chicken drumstick he had just taken, Edmund nearly sprayed his housemate sitting opposite him

Managing to swallow down the vile concoction, he grimaced.

'Water it is for me,' he thought.

An older redheaded girl sitting next to him gave him a sympathetic look. Her green eyes and gaunt face, however, upturned into a slight smile.

"Muggleborn, huh?" she guessed, before rushing to clarify upon seeing Edmund's face. "Don't worry, our house has the largest muggle-born population at Hogwarts. We don't exactly discriminate against ourselves."

"You must be one too then?" Edmund asked, relaxing.

"Halfblood technically, but mum's a muggle-born and dad's a muggle, so I'll always be a mudblood to most" she explained bitterly.

"Elspeth MacGillony, sixth-year, sorted 1988" she introduced as she stuck her hand out.

"Edmund Cole, first-year, sorted 1993" he introduced lackadaisically, shaking her hand.

She laughed brightly.

"If you're ever bothered by any of the purebloods, you just let me know!" she announced patting herself.

"You must've had a rough time here for that to be your first piece of advice to me," Edmund discerned astutely.

"You have no idea," Elspeth said, a frown overtaking her face. "During my first four years here, I was bullied horribly, especially because my wand work was awful."

"Bullies always prefer someone who can't or won't retaliate, in my case both," she shrugged before her eyes took on a maniacal glint.

"It gave me the motivation to be better though, and then it was them on the other side of my wand getting hexed and cursed,' she said as her voice became louder.

'She's dangerous' Edmund noted. 'Probably a real victim like she said, but someone who snaps like that can be scary.'

"Well I appreciate the offer," he replied to Elspeth before she was thankfully drawn into conversation by someone on her other side.

Edmund turned to look at the housemates in his year group, which thankfully weren't many. Three boys and three girls, for a total of six. A small batch considering how large their year group was. Edmund knew that there was a big jump in births after 1980 and the end of the war. However, the majority of their year mates had gone to Gryffindor and Ravenclaw, with very few in Slytherin and Hufflepuff.

'More space in the dorms for the rest of us,' Edmund thought happily.

Before he could introduce himself to the four people he didn't know, Edmund heard the magnified noise of a spoon tapping against a glass, signifying the end of the feast.

All the students began to get up, pilling up near the entrance of the Great Hall.

"Hufflepuff first years this way," a boy and a girl with a golden 'P' badge on their breast pockets called for them.

Joining up with the rest of the badgers, Edmund trudged out of the hall.