His wild hair covered the scar on his forehead as he sat in the small compartment, and even Ron didn’t know who he was just yet, but if he were honest and knew any kind of wizarding history, Harry could honestly say he didn’t know who he was either.  It greatly surprised him then when Ron nearly dropped his smashed sandwich when Harry scratched his forehead and brushed his bangs aside.  Really?  He was Harry Potter and he was somebody special?  Really?  An evil wizard had died because of him?  Really?  Everybody on earth who was of any kind of wizarding lineage knew who he was?  Yes, it was all true, and now Harry knew about it and so did everybody else on the train.  People stopped by the compartment out in the corridor to gawk through the tiny window in the door before being pushed out of the way by somebody else coming to see the boy who lived.

Even learning that an evil wizard had killed his parents hadn’t been enough to kill the hope in his heart.  Hagrid had told him that small bit of information in Diagonalley a few weeks before.  If anything it fueled the hope that there was some possibility that he might find some other wizarding relatives in this new, strange world.  And if he couldn’t?  Then he would find himself another real family to have and be all his own.  It was just something that he knew in his heart, and he already felt he had a pretty good start with Ron at his side as they got off the train in the darkness and tried to make their way through the throng of excited students to Hagrid’s voice.  Ah Hagrid… another start to his new family… his new life.  Harry had been determined to leave all his pain and suffering behind him as he entered this strange new place.  Nothing could kill the hope in his heart and soul that told him he had a chance to be normal here.

His bangs were covering his scar again as he stood in the cramped little room with the other first years where Hagrid had left them.  Harry couldn’t say he wasn’t as nervous as the rest of them, but Ron drew some kind of strength seeing Harry’s hopeful face, even if he didn’t understand it.  If Harry had hope then there couldn’t be anything too horrible on the other side of that door… even if they did have to battle a mountain troll to see where they got sorted.

The door opened and a tall, lean witch stood there in its place.  She scanned the faces and like everybody else was drawn to Harry’s eyes.  Those were Lily’s eyes, there was no mistake, and like everybody else he’d met that day, her eyes flicked up to his forehead, even though his scar was hidden.  Harry gave her a sheepish grin, and she couldn’t help but return it.  With Lily’s eyes and James’ smile how could she not?

As with all new information Harry was told regarding the wizarding world, Harry listened intently as Professor McGonagall told them about the sorting and lead them off into the Great Hal.  Ron nudged Harry in the ribs and pointed to the old hat.

“I knew Fred and George were joking.  Mountain troll my arse.”  A bushy haired girl they’d met on the train earlier named Hermione Granger shushed him, and Ron rolled his eyes and returned his attention to the hat as it began to sing.

Harry bit his lip and tried not to look at the staff sitting at the long table a foot to his left.  His turn at the hat was coming up fast and he hoped he would be put in the right house.  He knew he’d rather not be in Slytherin because that blond haired boy… (what was his name again?) …had just been put there a minute before.  He very much liked the idea that his new house would be his family, and he was quite sure he did not want to be family with certain people like the snobby blond boy.

“Potter, Harry.”  His name was called and he didn’t notice the renewed interest in the sorting of the staff and other students as he stepped up to the chair and allowed the hat to be placed on his head.

A small voice sounded in his ear.  “What to do with you?  You’re a hopeful one I see, just like the others… but wait, there’s something different about your hope… a family?  If you want a family you’d do well in Slytherin you know… they look after their own with fierce loyalty.”

Harry frowned inwardly.  “Please no,” he said, trying to be polite about it.  “I don’t want to be in that kind of family.”  He suddenly recalled a show from the television at his aunt and uncle’s house… it was about the American mafia ‘looking after their own.’

“No?” said the hat.  “Perhaps the kind of family you seek resides in the noble house of GRYFFINDOR!”  The hat was shouting now so the whole hall would hear, and Harry removed the hat carefully, afraid that if he treated it too harshly it might change his mind.  He hurried off to his new table and sat down next to a mousy looking first year boy named Seamus.

When Ron was also sorted into Gryffindor Harry budged up excitedly and made room for his new friend on the crowded bench next to him.  Ron grinned wildly and waved to his brothers a little ways down the table.

“Mum will be so excited!” he said as the feast started.  “My whole family’s been in Gryffindor!  The hat told me… except for my great, great, great uncle Millard… he was in Hufflepuff!”

“The hat knew all that?” Harry asked, wondering that it hadn’t said anything about which house his parents, or other family had been in.  Did Harry have any other family?  He looked around the hall to see if there was anybody else that looked remotely like him.  He had already seen some students that had a resemblance to each other, even ones sitting at different tables.

“It remembers everyone it’s ever sorted,” a much older Gryffindor boy told him.  “It told me I’m the first of my family to be in Gryffindor in three generations… the rest of my family has traditionally been placed in Ravenclaw.”  Here he pointed to a shorter boy at the next table and said, “That’s my brother Derek.  He’s in third year.  Didn’t surprise my mum one bit when he got put there.  Not like me.  She said my great, great granddad was in Gryffindor too but he was a wild one.”

Ron grinned, liking the idea of being a “wild one” if he was put into Gryffindor.  He had already told Harry all about his twin brothers when they were on the train, that had once turned the Potion Master’s chair into un-stickable ooze just before he sat in it.  After being unable to get out of the chair for half an hour, he dismissed the whole class and had to cut his pants off and have new clothes brought to him before he could leave the room.

“Which one’s the professor that your brothers did that chair thing to?” Harry asked, thinking that it wasn’t a very nice thing at all to do to anyone.

Ron pointed at the staff table.  “That one there with long black hair.  Old Snape.  Fred reckons he must have been in Hogwarts just after mum and dad graduated.  You’ll want to steer clear of him.”  Ron returned to shoveling mashed potatoes and roast chicken into his mouth as if it were going out of style.  Harry’s gaze lingered on Snape just a moment too long however, and he caught a glare from the man that gave Harry chills.  He tore his gaze away and tried not to look back up at the staff table again.  It was probably a good thing that he didn’t, because Snape stared at him for the rest of the meal.

Overjoyed with his new living space later that night, Harry crawled into his bed and fell asleep quickly, feeling more safe than he ever had there with his new bed and warm blankets, and new best friend sleeping in the bed beside his.  His dreams were sweet and filled with hope of finding some long lost relative who would take him in, and save him from the Dursleys.

“Harry, wake up!”

Ron threw a sneaker at him and Harry sat up tiredly, confused for a moment by his surroundings.

“Where-”

“Transfiguration!” Ron called as he threw some books into his bag, and tried to find his wand.

“Huh?”

“We slept through breakfast!  We’re going to be late!”

Panicked, Harry leapt from bed and threw his new robes on, not caring that they were slightly wrinkled from being stored in his trunk.  It was only another minute before both boys were dashing down the stairs and through the halls on their way to their first class.

“We’re lost,” Ron said, despair in his voice when they turned a corner and hit another dead end.

A throat cleared from behind them and Harry and Ron turned to find their new Master of Potions standing with his arms crossed, looking very unhappy.

“A likely excuse,” he said slowly, glaring at Ron before turning his attention to Harry.  Harry apparently was worthy of a nasty sneer… much worse than the man’s glare.

“The fame gone to your head already Mr. Potter?”  His lip curled.  “I can assure you that such foolish thinking will not be tolerated here.  10 points from Gryffindor for being late Mr. Weasley, and Mr. Potter, you have detention with me tonight.”

Ron’s jaw dropped as he looked over at Harry.  Harry wasn’t sure if this was normal or not for this school, but he was used to detention at his old school.  Dudley was always getting him into trouble for something or other.

“Get to class.  Now!”  He barked when they were still standing there.  Harry and Ron hurried off.  By the time they found Transfiguration, McGonagall was standing there looking at her watch.

“It’s fifteen past.  Where on earth have you two been?” she asked incredulously.

“Getting detention,” Ron muttered under his breath as he stood there next to Harry, kicking his shoes against the stone floor.

“Already Mr. Weasley?  What on earth for?”  She gave Ron a stern look, hoping to God that he wasn’t going to be like Fred and George.

“It’s my fault Professor,” Harry said.  “I think I got off on the wrong foot with Professor Snape.  He was mad because we were late to class.”

“Oh for heavens sakes,” she said.  “Take your seats.”

Harry and Ron plopped down in the seats in front of the Granger girl and Seamus Finnegan.  “You didn’t lose points did you?” Granger asked.

Ron turned around and glared at her.  “He took 10.”

“Hmpf.”  She crossed her arms and whispered harshly, “I just earned 10 for knowing three answers!”  Ron stuck his tongue out at her and turned around quickly so that she couldn’t retaliate.

At the end of class Harry and Ron were asked to stay behind.

Professor McGonagall looked at the two boys sternly.  “You will not have detention tonight,” she told them.  “It was your first time being late and I can trust it won’t happen again?”

Ron nodded eagerly and Harry hoped they would memorize the way to their classes quickly.

“That is all the punishment you will receive then.  I cannot protect you from all detentions however, and I will not if you are in the wrong.  Am I understood?”

Both boys nodded and walked away, happy, but looking chastened.

“That was close,” Ron said. 

Harry nodded.  “She thought we both had detention though.”

Ron shrugged.  “Oh well.  I told you to watch it around Snape.  I heard his detentions are the worst.  Fred and George are always complaining about cleaning out old ingredient jars and scrubbing floors… once I heard Snape made them use toothbrushes.”

“For gluing him to the chair?”

“No,” Ron shook his head, “He never figured out who did that… they got lucky.  If he found out, I bet they’d be dead now.”

“Shhh little brother,” Fred held a finger up to his lips as he and George ran past on their way to class.

“Family secrets,” George shouted back at them before he disappeared around a corner.

Harry gave Ron a questioning look.  “Family secrets stay in the family,” Ron recited.  Fred and George made me swear never to tell enemies things about them.

“I’m an enemy?” Harry asked.

Ron shook his head.  “Nope, I just think they don’t want Snape to overhear… you know, on case he’s lurking.”

“Oh, right.”  Suddenly Harry wished he had a family to keep secrets with, and felt all the more determined to make one for himself.

The rest of the day was uneventful, aside from Neville Longbottom, another of Harry’s new friends, vanishing Professor Flitwick’s stool on accident during their first ever Charms lesson.  The tiny man had tumbled to the floor, but had awarded Neville two points anyway for doing such a hard charm, even if he hadn’t meant to.

By the next day Harry had forgotten all about his would-be detention with Snape, that is until Double Potions with the Slytherins.

Harry had just gotten his book and note paper out, and was just inking his quill when the door to the classroom flew open, and Snape stalked in.  He took one look at Harry and narrowed his eyes.

“Potter!”  Harry and Ron jumped, and the blond boy, Draco, sniggered that class hadn’t even started yet and Harry was already in trouble.

Harry sat up straight and tried to look obedient.

Snape seemed to be sizing him up from the front of the room.

In a surprisingly calm tone, the professor asked, “You think it unacceptable to come to class looking like that?”

Confused, Harry looked down at his robes, and then at Ron’s, and saw no difference.  “Sir?” he asked.

“Yes or no Potter, you don’t even need to use that small mind of yours for this one.”

Harry tried not to frown.  He had no idea what the man was talking about.  If he said yes, then he might think he was talking back, but if he said no he would be agreeing to something he didn’t understand.

“Still waiting Potter,” Snape said, sounding annoyed.  There were more sniggers from the Slytherin side of the room.

“Um… no?”  He was hoping he had guessed right.

“So you know you did wrong and did it anyway?  Hm… sounds like someone thinks he can get away with anything.  You’d better schedule a detention into your busy schedule then for tonight Mr. Potter.  Seven sharp.”  Snape turned sharply to face the board and begin the day’s lesson.

“I can’t believe it,” Ron whispered.  “There’s nothing wrong with the way you look.”

“And that would be ten points from Gryffindor Mr. Potter, for encouraging students to talk in my class.”

Hermione nudged Ron hard in the back, sitting behind him again, and Ron closed his mouth, glaring hard at Snape’s back.

Ron complained all day about Snape’s unfair treatment of Harry, but it didn’t change the fact that Harry had somehow done something wrong, and still had detention with the man at seven sharp.

After dinner as Harry headed for the dungeons, Ron promised to wait up for him in the common room, and Harry waved goodbye.

He wasn’t exactly sure where Snape’s office was, but thought it had to be near the Potion’s classroom somewhere.  He wanted to make sure to have time enough to find it in case he got lost.

At ten til’ seven he found the office and knocked gently.  There was no answer and after a few moments he knocked again.

Deciding maybe that he was too early and the professor would show up at seven, Harry leaned against the wall opposite the door, and entertained his mind with wondering what his imaginary distant relatives might look like.  He didn’t even know what his parents looked like, so he imagined all of his family having dark black hair like his own, and dark green eyes.

After a long while he looked at his watch and saw that it was already seven twenty.  Had the professor forgotten?  It suddenly occurred to him that Professor Snape might have been waiting at the classroom, and so he hurried off to check.  Sure enough, he was sitting at the desk at the front of the room, tapping his fingers on the top.

“Well your majesty,” Snape said with mock fealty.  “Does it please you to make a fashionably late entrance?”

“I’m sorry sir,” Harry started, “I-”

Snape held up a hand and cut him off.  “You shall serve lunch tomorrow cleaning the desks in here since you were late.  I do not accept excuses… from anyone.”  He said the last word in a deadly tone, and Harry wasn’t sure why.  He hadn’t asked for any exceptions to be made for him.

“I’m sorry,” Harry said.  Snape ignored him.  He waved his wand and a mop and bucket filled with water appeared in front of Harry.

“Scrub the floor,” he said.  “I would leave you alone because I don’t have time to baby sit you, but I can’t trust the likes of your majesty to do his work if left alone.”

Harry bit his lip.  This was not turning out at all like he had hoped it would.  So far he felt like he had not left Privet Drive at all, except for the absence of Dudley trying to get him in trouble, although it turned out that Harry wasn’t needing the help, but was getting in trouble all on his own.

“NOW!” Snape spat because Harry was taking too long.

Harry jumped and grabbed the mop, accidentally sloshing some water on the floor.  He hurried to clean it up and got to work immediately.  Snape watched the ease with which the boy cleaned.  Apparently this wasn’t a hard enough task, because he didn’t look like he was really being punished.

The room was large, and it took Harry half an hour to finish it.  He again kept his mind busy with possibilities of spying somebody who looked like him on holiday somewhere out in the Muggle world.  Snape continued to watch him as he finished up, lip curling.

“I’m all done sir,” Harry said, standing up straight.

“It has become apparent that you do not know how to properly clean a floor Potter.  You will do it again.”  Harry surveyed the floor to see if he’d missed a spot, but couldn’t see any place that was dry.  Suddenly a rag appeared on the floor in front of his feet, and Snape said, “On your knees.”

Harry put the mop away obediently, and got on his hands and knees to begin scrubbing.  Aunt Petunia always made him scrub like this… he had never been allowed a mop before this night, and had been so pleased at how fast it went with the long handle.  Carefully he scrubbed out every crack and worked at every stain on the stone floor.  This time it was an hour before he was finished, and his knees and back ached.

“I’m all done sir,” he said again, sitting up and wiping his forehead.

Snape stood from where he had been sitting with his feet on the desk ignoring Harry.  After looking over the floor lazily, he seemed satisfied that Harry had done a good enough job this time.

“You are done for the night Potter.”

Harry sighed in relief and stood up, putting the rag over the edge of the mop bucket.  He was almost to the door when Snape stopped him however, and said, “Potter!”  He turned to face his teacher.

“Do not think that you will get away with crying foul to your head of house or another professor.  If I give you detention, you will have detention, do I make myself clear?”

That’s what this was all about?  Because McGonagall had told him he didn’t have to go?  “Yes sir,” he said.  He hadn’t even asked to have his sentence commuted, she had just done it for him.

“Then get out.”

Harry hurried out without waiting around to be yelled at some more.

It was almost nine when he climbed through the portrait hole and saw Ron crumpling up a messed up homework assignment and tossing it in the fire.

“How was it?” Ron asked when Harry sat down next to him.

“My knees and back are killing me,” Harry said.  “I had to scrub the whole class floor.”

“That bad?”  Harry nodded.

“He thought I’d asked McGonagall to get me out of detention, so he gave me another one to show me I wouldn’t get away with it.”

“Ugh,” Ron made a face and slapped his hand on the wooden table.  “He makes me so angry.”

Harry shrugged.  “I don’t know what I did to get on his bad side.  Maybe he’ll just forget about it tomorrow and let me start over?”

Ron shook his head, amazed at the hope in his friends voice that things could be so simple.  “Yeah, maybe,” he said, not wanting to disappoint him.

Harry went to bed that night confident that things would be better the rest of the week, but slept fitfully anyway.  He had dreams that Snape stood over him telling him how untrustworthy he was, while Slytherins stood around him and laughed.