Harry waited at the Gryffindor table, a feeling of happiness inside him, battling away the boredom he was so used to feeling these days. He had to wait only a few seconds before the Great Hall was flooded with chatting witches and wizards who were second year to seventh year.

Hermione and Ron were somewhere in the lead, both with Prefect badges shining in the light of hundreds of floating candles. Both of his best friends came running up to him, in an un-prefect like way and sat down on either side of him.

Hermione gave him a hug that seemed to squeeze the air out of his lungs. When Harry had owled his two friends about what had been happening around the castle, he had also added in the part about Snape being his father (to the horror of the both of them) and about the slow transformation into a vampire.

Not that much had changed. He had expected it to happen faster, but all that had changed in him so far was his senses, all now as sharp as his eyesight, and his strength. He had been talking to Snape a lot about what went on with him. At first, when his sense of smell doubled, he would go into sneezing fits whenever he went outside, the pollen being too much. After a while, that had stopped though, thankfully.

Severus was worried about him that much was certain. He had told Harry to call him by his first name when students weren't about. That in itself was scary.

Ron stared at him. "How you doing, Harry?" he asked, a smile on his lips. He knew how much his best friend hated being asked that.

Harry scowled. "How do you think I'm doing?" he snapped, before he realized his friend meant it as a joke. He smiled in an apologetic way. "Sorry." Looking around the Great hall, he was suddenly drowned by noise. It had been so quiet for so long, he had grown used to it. He had to fight the urge to cover his ears. "Is it my imagination, or is it extremely noisy in here right now?"

"Everyone is excited Harry. Start of new year at Hogwarts is always this noisy." Hermione replied. "Hey look, the new first years." She announced, pointing to the nervous and scared new pupils of Hogwarts that were now filing into the room.

The sorting. He had forgotten all about it. For the first time ever, he really wished not to see it. The thought of hundreds of people cheering and clapping and (in the Weasley twins' case) wolf whistling and cat calling, was already giving him a headache.

Groaning, he slunk down in his chair, determined to sit through it and enjoy it. When the Hall quieted down and the hat had sung its song, Professor McGonagall brought out the sorting hat and sat it on its three- legged stool. Unwrapping the sheet of parchment with the new students' names on it, she went about saying her usual speech about putting the hat on to be sorted into their houses.

As the first person was called up to be sorted (Simmons, Beverly) and was placed into Hufflepuff one quarter of the hall exploded into sound. Harry stuffed his fingers in his ears and closed his eyes tight.

This went on for a long time, people being sorted into their houses, with an uncharacteristic Harry trying to hide in his seat. After the sorting, he found he had been right. He did have a headache.

Hermione and Ron were openly staring at him and he felt himself turn red. A quick look around told him nobody else was really paying attention to him. He sighed in relief at that. He rubbed his head, but ignored the throbbing when Dumbledore stood up for his announcement.

"Please all of you note that the Forbidden Forest, as always, is out of bounds to all students. This is a rather dangerous time, as most of you know. With the rebirth of Lord Voldemort I would also like to note that nobody should be outside after dark, or alone. Always walk in groups and inform a Prefect or a teacher if there is any unusual goings on I should know about. Now enjoy this scrumptious feast."

At that said the tables filled with all kinds of food and everybody heartily dug in. Harry forgot about his headache and everything else as the food appeared in front of him. Lately, he had one huge appetite and when he saw food, he had a one-track mind. Eat. Nothing else really mattered unless it was food.

He piled a lot of meat onto his plate and began to furiously chew at it. It was overcooked to his tastes, but that didn't really matter. By the time he realized he was being stared at he had managed to figure out that he hadn't been using his knife and fork, but his bare hands. 

Looking down at his now empty plate, he felt himself going red again. Ron again asked if he was ok, Hermione began to fuss over him. "What's the password to get into the common room," he asked quietly.

Hermione looked worriedly at him, but answered. "It's Frogspawn. McGonagall was looking at frogs in a pond at the time." She announced quietly. Harry got up and quickly fled the Great Hall.

"What just happened?" he asked himself quietly, before muttering the password to the Fat lady and entering the Gryffindor Common Room.