Shopping was easy. Eric started humming to himself as he walked from store to store. He had heard the song on the radio and it was stuck in his head now. He started tapping his foot and a bounce entered his step as he made his way to Olivander’s wand shop. He probably didn’t need it, but everyone else seemed to be using them, so may as well.
The man inside was strange, and put many of the wands in his hand. He seemed awfully invested in making sure the wand was perfect for Eric. After almost forty minutes, Olivander finally found a wand that worked.
“Phoenix feather…” Olivander said as Eric grabbed the wand and stared at it. It didn’t feel any different than the others, but Olivander seemed satisfied and didn’t snatch it out of his hand again like the others.
“How curious, that you would be so fitted for that wand, considering what happened to its brother…”
“Brother?” Eric asked absentmindedly, still humming to himself. His thoughts had been in the clouds this whole time as the old man gave him wands in his hand before snatching it away seconds later.
“Yes, I sold that to one Lord Voldemort. A wand for a great wizard. Voldemort was terrible. Terrible… but great.”
Eric inspected his wand closely. He put some of his intrinsic magic in it and it hummed under his fingers. He could sense the magic moving through it, running up his arm and back into his body.
“Interesting. You think if I found his wand, I could use two at once?” Eric said, raising his other arm and pretending to hold another wand.
“Pow, pow, pow!”
He looked back at the old man who was frowning at him. Eric shrugged and fished at his pouch and handed over the seven galleons as payment.
“Anyway, thanks for the wand, Mr. Olivander.”
He left the shop and the urge to dance washed over him. He had been holding it back when he was with the teacher. But Harry’s body having been well fed over the last two years and getting some proper exercise had bulked up. So now Eric didn’t have to worry about exhausting himself anymore.
As he walked to the final store, he started shuffling side to side and snapping occasionally as he hummed to the beat of the song playing in his head. The others on the street gave him odd looks, but Eric didn’t mind. He danced to his own tune. He was sure someone at Hogwarts would appreciate his skills.
He went into the robes shop, where a blonde haired boy was being measured by the woman running the store. She took a few more measurements and stepped back.
“That’s all we need, young master Malfoy. Will there be anything else?”
“Just make it quick!” The blonde haired boy said with an imperious tone and sniffed, “I have places to be and I have no intention of loitering around this dingy shop longer than I have to be.”
The woman didn’t say anything and went into the backroom, looking like she’d smelled something foul.
“Heya. You’re a noble or something?” Eric asked as he hopped foot to foot, swaying side to side as he moved.
The boy looked at him and puffed up. “Indeed! I’m Draco Malfoy, of House Malfoy, ancient and noble. What is your name?”
“Why, I’m Eric Potter!” Eric said as he did a little spin in place before returning to look at the boy.
“You should watch out. I’ve heard the rude nobles get poisoned by their servants. That would be such an ironic way to go, right?”
He shuffled side to side as Draco eyed him with a confused look.
“What are you talking about?” Draco asked, “What in Merlin are you doing?”
“Dancing, my friend!” Eric shouted, starting to feel his blood start pumping, “Why, when the urge strikes me I just have to dance and sing. Let it all out for the world to see! You were very rude to that woman just now.”
Eric started practicing a move he had seen at the orphanage on the TV. The moonwalk. He still didn’t have it fully down, but he was getting there.
Draco’s face flashed with annoyance, but Eric kept speaking before he could interrupt.
“I’m just saying. Don’t do that to your chefs, or you might get poisoned. That’s how the arrogant ones usually go out, I’ve heard.”
“Will you stop that?!” Draco said, “Stop acting like a fool and just stand still for a second. Our chef would never poison us.”
Eric stopped in place, frozen.
“You say that, but if you said things like that to them, I wouldn't be so sure.”
He started moving again and started doing some jazz hands.
“I’m just dancing, not hurting anyone at all,” Eric said with a grin, “Maybe you should join me, show me that you’re better at it than me?”
Draco scoffed and turned back around, “Whatever. Do what you want.”
“I will.” Eric said as he kept dancing in the store and waiting for the woman to come back. He still had to get his school robes after all.
— — —
Everyone gave him strange looks, but no one else tried to stop Eric as he started to get a light sweat from the exercise. He danced over to the pub Hagrid had talked about and forcefully made himself stop and walk normally inside. The man inside was obvious, sitting at the bar and drinking from a large tankard.
“Hagrid, I’m done,” Eric said, “Can you buy me a beer? I’ll pay you back.”
Hagrid snorted, “Now thas’ more like it. George, two more tankards over here.”
The bartender shot a confused glance at the man, but complied and put the two large tankards in front of the giant of a man.
“Thas’ a galleon,” Hagrid said, “You’re paying for both if you want any.”
“Such a scam,” Eric complained even as he reached into his money pouch and handed it over. The two of them went over to a table and Hagrid handed Eric one of the tankards while retaining his own.
“How did the bartender let that happen?” Eric asked, “Isn’t there underage drinking laws here?”
“Nah. Nuffin’ like tha’. Ya think I’m allowed to legally give you LSD but alcohol was too much?”
Eric blinked, “Wait, it’s legal? You won’t get in trouble?”
“Of course not. Why would I? We just met, you think I’d do something illegal?”
“What about getting addicted or something? Isn’t that why drugs are bad?”
“There’s a potion for that. Right expensive to get, but one sip and any addiction you get from non magical drugs goes away instantly.”
Eric just looked at the man blankly. Well, it was to his advantage at least. Eric cupped the giant mug with both hands and took a sip.
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And then immediately spat it out.
“Ugh. Gross! Adults actually like that garbage?”
Hagrid let out a booming laugh.
“Ah, your face. Remember my firs’ drink, thought the same thing. Ya don’t have to like it. But you already paid for it, I’m not giving you yer money back.”
“You’re a real piece of work, you know that?” Eric said, “Aren’t teachers supposed to be kind and supportive?”
“And I am being, aren’t I? Here’s your drugs by the way. Got an extra good deal on them too. And not a teacher. Groundskeeper.”
Hagrid pulled out a giant plastic bag filled with what must be over a hundred little white pills.
“Only take one at a time. Maybe cut them in half for a boy your weight. Here ya go.”
Hagrid threw the bag to Eric and he caught it. He stared between Hagrid and it for a few seconds, before opening his trunk and throwing it in. Given how sketchy Hagrid was he was having second thoughts of trying those things now.
They sat there and Eric tried a few more sips of the beer, but it didn’t get any better and it was still mostly full.
Hagrid belched and stared thoughtfully at Eric’s nearly full mug, “You gonna finish tha’?”
“No, Hagrid,” Eric sighed, “I’m not.”
The giant of a man grabbed his drink and raised it to his lips, taking a few seconds to chug it all down in one go. He slammed it down on the table and let out a loud sigh of satisfaction and smacked his lips.
“Alrigh’ stay here while I pay the tab.”
The two of them left and Eric was dropped off back at the orphanage. The next day he experimentally tried one of Hagrid’s LSD pills.
He could admit he was a little strange, but based on the looks the other kids gave him when he came too after, he had gone a bit above and beyond while he was out of it. He didn’t even remember any of it, waking up a few hours later not sure exactly what had happened. It was lucky that his luggage case could disguise itself as a normal one. He just injected some magic and it would switch to the more magical spatially expanded section of it, the part where he had put the rest of the pills.
If it hadn’t had that then the Matron might have taken them from him. He didn’t really want to take them again, but he didn’t want to get rid of them either. When was the next time he would meet someone as sketchy as Hagrid who would get him more?
— — —
Eric was sitting on the train to Hogwarts in an empty compartment. Hagrid had taken him early from the orphanage to the station. He had tried to walk off and tell Eric that he would ‘figure out’ that he was supposed to run at a random brick wall to make his way to platform nine and three quarters. But Eric knew better. He would have never figured out how to get through that wall into Diagon alley on his own. So after some cajoling, Hagrid actually brought him through to the train itself rather than abandoning him at the entrance to king’s cross station.
Eric hoped that none of the teachers at his new school were drug dealers. That would get annoying, if they were all like Hagrid.
“Hello? Do you have room in here? The rest of the compartments are full.”
Eric looked up and saw a red haired boy at the door, looking awkward. He smiled at him wide and the boy flinched. Eric reduced his smile so his face didn’t hurt as much when he did it.
“Of course. Plenty of room,” He said. He looked at the rat in the boy’s lap. Eric had decided to not get an animal of his own for school. Taking care of them sounded like it would be too much work. And Balthazar had said familiars were important, so he didn’t want to waste it on owls or toads if he could only ever have one at a time. Imagine with getting stuck with something like a rat for your whole life?
The boy shifted, but sat down across from him.
“I’m Ron. Ron Weasley.”
“Eric. Eric Potter.”
The boy straightened up, “Potter? Are you related to Harry Potter?”
Eric sighed. This was getting annoying, “It’s me. I’m Harry Potter. I just go by Eric.”
“Oh. What’s it like? You are super famous, can I see the scar?”
Eric pulled back his black hair and showed Ron the lightning scar that had been on Harry’s forehead. After a second, he let go and his black hair fell to cover his forehead again.
“I’ve read about you in the papers. The boy who lived…”
“I’m here, aren’t I?” Eric said, “People should try to kill more babies using the same way Voldemort did to me, maybe more of them would survive the killing curse. Maybe people could figure out why it happens if they did it enough.”
Ron startled and looked at him in shock. Eric ran back what he had said. But, if Harry had survived then others should too, it made sense that there would be others that just had never had murder attempts on them while they were young…
He tried to think why Ron was upset. Oh, right. Dead babies.
“Haha. Just a joke,” Eric said, “Sorry about that.”
The red headed boy relaxed a bit and sat back while still looking a bit disturbed.
The compartment door slid open. There was a girl with bushy brown hair standing there, “Hello? Is this compartment free? It seems the others are full. This is the last one…”
“Come on in,” Eric said, making sure his smile wasn’t as large and unnatural this time, “Plenty of room in here still.”
“Thanks. I’m Hermione. Hermione Granger.”
“Eric Potter.”
“Ron Weasley.”
The girl got settled in a minute or two and put her luggage in the overhead and sat back down. Eric adjusted his glasses. He still had to wear the stupid things even now. The first thing he would do when he started learning more spells was figuring out how to fix it.
She sat down and pulled out a rather heavy book after she settled.
“What book is that?” Eric asked.
“Hogwarts: A History,” Hermione said slightly proudly, “I’m reading ahead for classes. It’s all so interesting, isn’t it. Magic?”
“It sure is something,” Eric thought, remembering when he was a being of mud and magic. King and prisoner of the realm.
“What is Hogwarts, anyways? I haven’t looked over those things yet.”
“Well, Hogwarts is…”
Eric sat back and listened as the girl excitedly spoke about all the history of the school and different facts about it. He only had to hum in agreement or ask an occasional question to send her off on another rant explaining everything she had learned. Even when the train ride ended and they proceeded into Hogwarts itself, the three of them stayed together. Ron seemed interested by Hermione’s information and was much more active than Eric in asking questions. It seems that he was born in a wizarding home, so he knew some tidbits that weren’t in Hermione’s book. It annoyed the girl at first that Ron knew things that she didn’t, but she quickly recovered and started asking Ron questions about the situation after she realized he knew more than expected due to growing up in a magical environment.
Eric was far too distracted trying to suppress his magic sense. In the Hogwarts building magic pressed in on him from all sides. It tingled over him, like something was watching him. When he had let his detection out to the maximum he had felt a presence focus in on him, so he immediately pulled it back inwards in his body.
He kept an easy smile on his face, but it became a bit strained.
The groups of students were led into the great hall of Hogwarts and put in a line.
They were being sorted into the four houses with their treasured qualities. Gryffindor, for bravery. Ravenclaw, for intelligence. Hufflepuff, for loyalty. And Slytherin, for cunning. The blonde boy, Draco, went into Slytherin. An old raggedy hat would be put on their head before calling out what house they were in. Name after name was called. Hermione was put in Gryffindor, for bravery. Eric was up next.
“Harry Potter!” The stern woman. McGallager or something, called out. Eric hadn’t been paying attention when she had been speaking. There was some muttering in the hall as Eric stepped forward. Dumbledore was sitting at the headmaster’s table in a large golden chair almost like a throne, and watching with interest as Eric sat down and the hat was placed on his head.
Eric smiled back at Dumbledore. To think the headmaster had been getting drugs from Hagrid and hadn’t even cared if Eric would know about it…
‘Hmmm. Interesting. Eric Smith. What an interesting life you’ve lived,’ a voice suddenly said in his head. He could sense it from the hat.
‘What qualities do you value? You have no loyalty, that is certain. No Hufflepuff for you. When presented with an intellectual challenge you gave up rather than choosing to push onwards. Not Ravenclaw. So Slytherin or Gryffindor. But what to choose?’
Eric’s thoughts raced. Was he exposed? Should he make a run for it?
‘Don’t worry. I won’t share anything I learn with anyone. Otherwise do you think that the nobles would trust me to peek around their children’s secrets? Now, let’s think. What house to put you in?’
Eric looked between the rambling girl at the Gryffindor table and the blonde haired boy in Slytherin.
‘Put me in Slytherin,’ Eric thought, ‘It will be fun to see how far I can push the blonde boy. He’s so arrogant, it can’t be that hard to make him squirm by hurting his ego…’
‘Very well. The choice is clear. Better be…’
“GRYFFINDOR!”
‘Hey, what’s the big idea?’
‘I can see into your mind, Eric Smith. The captain of the Hogwarts dance club is in Gryffindor. They won’t accept you as easily if you are in Slytherin house.’
‘Oh, that’s fine then. Thanks, hat.’
‘Goodbye, Eric Smith.’
The hat was lifted off Eric’s head and the whole Gryffindor table was cheering.
“We got Potter! We got Potter!” Two red headed twins were cheering and clapped Eric on the back as he walked over to their table.
He sat down with Hermione and after a few minutes, Ron was sorted into Gryffindor as well and joined the two of them.
After a short speech that Eric didn’t listen to, Dumbledore clapped his hand and suddenly there was food at the table. Eric started eating, largely ignoring the two people he had stayed with at the train. What were their names? Oh, yeah. Ron and Hermione. He should try to remember them. They probably wouldn’t talk to him as much if he forgot them.