The view of the castle left them completely and utterly breathless. Not only the view, but the fact that this was the school that they would be attending was amazing, a real life magic school. They came to a stop into the station slowly, and they wore their cloaks as they prepared their bags. A wave of children exited the large train as it came to a stop, Harry and Dudley waited for the crowd to dissipate slightly before leaving with them. Jay, Cole and Aaliyah walked away towards their year group, and the first year's were called towards a tall, hairy man with a lantern in his hand.

"Ov'r 'ere folks, First years with me!" The shorter bunch gathered around the man, and he led them towards a large, beautiful lakes with boats lined up at the shore. The students mounted the boats, Harry was in front with Dudley right behind him, and a taller girl behind him. The boats moved by themselves on Hagrid's command, he had announced his name not long prior.

"This is absurd..." Harry muttered mostly to himself, but Dudley snorted in agreement. Dudly grazed his hand across the surface of the water, nodding in contentment. The anxiety of their new adventure was subdued by this amazing experience, and he would savour every moment of it. "What do you think the inside looks like?" Harry asked whilst glancing towards the castle once more.

Dudley pondered the question. "Maybe like a big cathedral-" They had once been taken to a place of worship in hope of being 'healed', according to Vernon. "Or maybe the walls are made of marble with floating tables and chairs." His face was dead serious as he said so.

"I hope so..." Harry laughed at the suggestion, anything was possible in this new world, the building could be filled with gigantic robots who teleports them to class, with no teachers, only big computers which made you smarter just by looking at them... Harry's mind wondered to endless possibilities. As he did so, the boat rocked to a stop, and the group began dismounting them, and he followed suit. They were guided towards the castle doors, which opened in such an extravagant way that Dudley thought they must be showing off.

"This Pr'fessor will take you from 'ere." Hagrid gestured towards a gaunt but friendly looking woman, with hair hair in an elaborate style that looked like it was being held together with magic (and it may well have been).

"Welcome to Howard's School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, I am Professor McGonagall, I teach Transformations and am the Gryffindor Head of House." She spoke in a Scottish accent, Harry noted, and sounded quite pompous, if he said so himself. "We shall be heading to the Great Hall for the Sorting Ceremony."

Dudley glanced at him confusedly. Of course, they had heard of such thing in passing from other students, but neither had any clue of what it entailed. She led them through the front doors, and the boys stared in awe at the high ceilings and grand structures within the building as they walked through. There were torches mounted to the wall, and the doors to the Great Hall were huge, with a dark, pretty wood. No words escaped their mouths as their jaw hung slack, a few other students seemed as amazed as them, a few looked simply ecstatic and some looked unfazed at the castle at all.

"Are you ready?" The professor asked, and all of them nodded quickly. The doors opened without anybody touching them, and inside was filled with rows of students sat at 4 different tables, all leading to one table, placed higher up, with the teachers sat behind it. All eyes turned towards the first year's as the walked down to the front of the room, including the teachers. Dudley inspected them, and noticed a man who looked oddly familiar, wearing a blank expression and long, black hair. He nudged Harry and gestured towards the Professor, and the boys eyes widened in realisation.

"That's the man who bought us the cauldrons." He whispered in Dudley's ear. The man in question roamed his eyes across the group, stopping for a second on the pair who were looking his way. He raised his eyebrow before returning to his inspection of the new students. Harry turned to look towards Dudley, "Strange..." He muttered.

By now, they were all stationed near a platform, holding a chair and a dusty old hat which sat atop the other, and they only noticed the silence after a name was called. "Hannah Abbott!"

She walked up to the stage and sat on the chair, the hat was placed on her head gently, and she sat for around fifteen seconds before the hat on her head suddenly yelled "Hufflepuff!" And she left and walked towards one of the tables.

Harry startled at the loud shout after the bout of silence, and startled even further when he realised it was not a teacher that had yelled, but the hat itself. I mean, was it even possible for an object to speak? Harry looked upon all the items nearby with weariness, stepping away from the chair which he had previously been standing by. Dudley seemed to notice this action and chuckled in amusement. The amusement was shortly wiped off his face at the yell of his own name from the Professor's mouth.

"Dudley Dursley!"

SS~SS~SS~SS

The whole ordeal was a bore, really. Sitting at a tall table for hours, being stared at by snotty teenagers was not on Snape's list of 'fun activities' for the week, and wholly believed that the first day of school should always be erased from his memory, however here he remained, in both body and spirit. He had, of course, made his predetermined judgements on the new first year's simply off first appearance, though it was interesting to see the return of the ungrateful boys from the other day, who had been staring at him already.

He pretended to look as interested as he could as name by name, students were called to be sorted into their houses. Well, until a name he couldn't quite pinpoint was called.

"Dudley Dursley!"

He was certain he had heard that name before, or at least the surname. As a potions master, his memory had grown to become immaculate, and so it irked him to hear something so familiar yet be unable to identify why. His eyes roamed to the boy from the alley, and he squinted his eyes in thoughtfulness.

Who was Dudley Dursley?