The rest of the travel was quite normal. The only thing that would be different than usual was that when using his Arcane Eyes out of curiosity, he was able to locate two traces of really dark magic. One of which he was sure was Mr. Stutter with voldy-parasite, while the other he wasn’t sure at first, until he remembered that Harry had a part of Voldemort inside him.

{Maybe I should try to look for a way to take that from him…} He thought as he rubbed his chin. It was really difficult to determine whether Fate would hate him for that, but the system was pretty sure that it wouldn’t be a problem.

After reaching Hogsmeade, all students, except for the first years, moved towards the carriages. On his way, he could see Harry talking to Hagrid, just as in the movie. Sitting inside the carriages with Lyra, Julie, and William, Logan mentioned that he hoped this year would pass by quietly, just like last year.

The others also nodded, until Julie suddenly remembered something. “Oh, right. I almost forgot, did you guys hear the rumor?” She said, to which Logan raised an eyebrow.

“What rumor?” Asked William as he tilted his head.

“Harry Potter is coming to Hogwarts this year!” Julie said in a somewhat loud whisper. “I heard it from one of the fourth years when entering the train in King Cross Station.”

“Wait, Harry Potter? THAT Harry Potter? The one that defeated you-know-who?” Lyra asked surprised.

“The one and only!” Julie said excitedly.

“For Merlin’s beard…” William muttered. “The child who lived is going to attend Hogwarts.”

“Right!? I was surprised when I heard about it.” Julie nodded fervently.

“You guys are really doing a big thing out of it.” Logan chuckled as he shook his head.

“What? Are you jealous that you won’t be popular with the child who defeated you-know-who?” William asked with a teasing grin.

“Huh?” Logan tilted his head as he pointed at himself. “I am popular?”

“…” The others just looked at him flabbergasted.

“What?”

“You really don’t know?” Lyra asked with a dumbfounded face.

“Know what?”

“Dude… you’re quite popular among the second years, oh, wait, we’re third years now. Anyways, you’re quite popular with everyone in our grade.” William said as he sighed. “This denseness is getting to higher levels…”

“Only our grade? Don’t forget to include the older students.” Julie said as she smiled awkwardly. “Some of them are really terrified that Logan would do something to them.”

“Oh come on. I know that our seniors in Ravenclaw are not fond of me, but it’s not all of them, you know? I wouldn’t call that popularity. If anything, it’s only infamy. And it’s not my fault that I have such luck with our seniors…” Logan sighed as he shook his head.

“Dude… didn’t you listen to us? We’re saying that all of our grade's students know about you… even those of lower grades.”

“Yes…” Lyra muttered.

“This guy has no remedy…” While Julie sighed and whispered to herself.

“You’re just inventing things to tease me. Anyways, what I meant with Harry is that the guy’s not a bad child, and you should not go and create huge expectations for him without knowing him yourself.”

“Why do you talk as if you knew him?” Julie tilted her head.

“Oh, because I did. I met him inside Ollivander’s shop during the vacations, and also met him on the train while helping a first-year find a pet toad.”

“W-Wait! You met him!?” William asked in surprise, Julie and Lyra were also surprised.

“Yeah.” Logan nodded.

“Why didn’t you tell us!?”

“Well, it wasn’t something that important-” Logan was trying to explain, but stopped as the carriage stopped its march. “Seems like we’re here.” He said.

“Hey, don’t change the subject!” William’s eyebrow was twitching.

“Relax dude, he’s just a normal kid.” Logan rolled his eyes. “You look like a freaking fanboy right now.”

“W-What!? I’m not!” William said with a snort, making Lyra and Julie chuckle.

“Haha. Logan is right, he’s a kid, we shouldn’t worry about him or meddle with him. I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t like a lot of strangers bothering me just for something I did when I was a baby.” Lyra said as she stood up.

“Right.” Julie said with a smile still present on his face, also standing up.

“Oh come, I was just shocked that we would have him in Hogwarts this year.” William said as he followed them outside.

“Whatever you say, fanboy.” This time it was Logan who was giving him a teasing smile, which made William click his tongue.

They went inside the castle, meeting with Jake, Roger, Johanne, and Carla on the way. Logan also saw Lisandra walking alongside her friends, and he smiled and waved at her from afar, an action that she answered in kind. Her friend, Amelia, looked at this and turned to look at where Lisandra was waving, only to flinch when she saw an smiling Logan.

{She’s really afraid of me, why though?} Logan asked inwardly as he tilted his head, only to shrug after not getting an answer. {Just as I thought. I have more infamy than any supposed popularity. These guys are just blind or like to tease me.} He thought as he walked towards the Great Hall.

***

“They should be coming in any moment now.” Roger muttered as stars filled his eyes, both of his hands held together.

“Mm?” Cho Chang, who was sitting close to him, tilted her head at his action. “Why does it look like you’re praying?”

“Leave him alone.” Lyra said with a scornful tone that was directed at Roger, and not Cho, there may have been a scornful glare too directed to him, not that everyone noticed it.

“Shut up, Lyra. You’re not letting me concentrate.” Roger said as he closed his eyes.

“…” Cho Chang looked even more confused now.

“Haha...” Logan couldn’t help but chuckle awkwardly before turning to Cho. “He’s just… wishing for some female students to join Ravenclaw.”

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

“….Ah?” Cho Chang was visibly shocked at this, as her mouth was slightly open and her eyes just looked back at Logan absentmindedly.

“You’re wrong, Logan.” Roger, who had his eyes open, shook his head while smiling.

{Right… He can’t be that much of a douche-bag.} Cho thought, only to almost fall face-first on the table at Roger’s following remark.

“I’m praying for CUTE girls to join Ravenclaw. Cuteness is important.” He said with a smirk. “You can’t leave cute- Ocuh! What was that for!?” He exclaimed at Lyra, who had just smacked him on the head.

“To stop your perverted self.” She said with a cold glare which made him, and the other guys, shudder.

“...R-Right…” Roger just nodded. Soon after the thred-... warning that Lyra gave Roger. The new students started to move to the front of the four houses’ tables.

Just like the previous year, the group looked at the incoming new students go one by one to sit in front of everyone, before being sorted into their respective houses. Soon, the students started to fill the positions for first years on the tables.

Of the trio, Hermione was the first one to get sorted, while Neville fell on his way to the stool.

The applause and cheering soon stopped when two words came out of McGonagall’s mouth.

“Potter, Harry.” She said, calling the next student that would be sorted. Most of the students looked in shock as a small, gaudy kid walked shyly with slumped shoulders and a slightly lowered head towards the Sorting Hat.

“Is that…?”

“Yes, he has to be.”

“Wow…”

Some of the older students were whispering between each other as the kid made his way in front of McGonagall, who nodded at him with a small smile while pointing at the stool.

Harry nodded back and sat on the stool, looking around at the different houses, from where the students were trying to take a better look at him.

“Woah, is that him, Logan?” William asked as he slightly raised himself from the seat, trying to get a better look at the student sitting on the stool.

“Yeah, that’s him.” Logan nodded at his friend’s question while turning to look at the rest of the students. Most of them had quite an interested look on their face, trying their best to get a look at the kid. He also noticed some scornful looks on Slytherin's table, but they weren’t that many, just a small bunch, and a kid, who looked a lot like the Draco Malfoy of the movies. He saw him being sorted before, so it wasn’t really a surprise. {Mm? Oh, right, wasn’t there a scene of Harry rejecting his invitation to be friends? Man, that must suck.} Logan thought, as he turned to look at the stool.

There, he saw the hat covering Harry’s face, it was deliberating as usual, but it didn’t take long for it to shout Harry’s house.

“GRYFFINDOR!” The sorting hat shouted, and everyone at Gryffindor's table stood up to cheer and applause. He even saw the twins singing that they got Harry. Soon, the small kid got to the table and sat down beside Hermione, Neville, and another girl called Lavender Brown.

After Harry, the rest of the students turned to be sorted came, and between those were a few Ravenclaws and Ron Weasley, who was quickly sorted into Gryffindor, almost without a thought from the hat. {Malfoy to Slytherin and Weasley to Gryffindor, that’s some defined fate for those families.} Logan thought curious at the way the hat didn’t stop for a second to even consider where to send those two.

After the sorting was finished, new faces were on Ravenclaw’s table. Terry Boot, Mandy Brocklehurst, Michael Corner, Anthony Goldstein, Sue Li, Padma Patil, and Lisa Turpin. He honestly didn’t remember most of them, if anything only Padma ringed something in his head, as he remembered them from the movie. {Weren’t those two twins in Gryffindor?} He thought, confused, but decided that it might have been like this in the books, which wouldn’t be that weird considering the changes he’s been noticing from the book. The sorting ceremony itself is one of those examples.

Once McGonagall has taken the stool, the hat, and the parchment away, Dumbledore stood up, beaming at the students with his arms open wide. “Welcome,” he said. “Welcome to a new year in Hogwarts! Before we begin our banquet, I would like to say a few words. And here they are, Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak! Thank you!” He said and then sat down.

“It’s getting old.” Roger said with a sigh.

“Mm? You think so?” Jake tilted his head as he put some chicken on his plate. “I think it’s interesting, every year I wait to see which words he will randomly say.”

“Well, Roger, we have like four more years ahead of us, so you won’t stop hearing this any time soon haha.” William chuckled.

The banquet went without a hitch, and it was soon time to start moving towards the common rooms, not without the usual warnings. After the desserts disappeared, Dumbledore was once again on his feet. “Ahem.” He caught everyone’s attention as the Hall got immediately quiet. “First years should note that the forest on the grounds is forbidden to all students. And a few of our older would do well to remember that.” He said as he gave a glance at the twins on Gryffindor’s table. Knowing it, Logan chuckled, only to cough awkwardly when Dumbledore’s eyes were also directed at him.

“I have also been asked by Mr. Filch, the caretaker, to remind you all that no magic should be used between classes in the corridors.” Dumbledore continued. “Quidditch trials will be held in the second week of the term. Anyone interested in playing for their house teams should contact Madam Hooch.”

“I’ll try this year.” Roger whispered with enthusiasm, which gained a thumbs up and a good-luck from the others. Truth be told, it wasn't as if he was bad on the broom, after all, between those from third-year, he was the best. Logan could probably beat him using his levitation spell mixed with a couple others, but if it was strictly when sitting on a broom, then Roger was the unbeatable one in the flying department.

“And finally.” Dumbledore said as his eyes turned slightly serious. “I must tell you that this year, the third-floor corridor on the right-hand side is out of bounds to everyone who does not wish to die a very painful death.” He said, before once again giving a glance at Logan.

“…” Logan looked at him, dumbfounded. {It’s not like I was going to… Ok, fuck it, I was planning to do it. Well... still planning to do it...} He thought with an awkward smile.

“What would be there?” Jake asked confused. “...Does it have to do with another one of those curses?”

“No.” Logan shook his head. “Those curses were cleared. It has to be something else.”

“Yeah, the question is what.” Julie asked with a slightly worried face.

“I don’t think it’s something we should worry about.” Roger said with a shrug. “I mean, we just have to avoid that area and nothing should happen to us, right?”

“You’re right.” Carla Moncado nodded at him.

Before finally retiring to their common room, they all started singing the school’s song, being the twins the ones to finish last, as they have picked a slow funeral march’s tone to sing, causing Logan and Roger to laugh at them, while still clapping loudly. Of course, it was Dumbledore who clapped the loudest.

The way to the common room was relaxed, the older students at Ravenclaw started to guide the first years on some of the things they would need to take into account here. Logan found that, for some reason, Cho and Marietta were chuckling while pointing at him, talking to some of the first years, who also looked at him.

“See? Popular.” William said with a teasing grin.

“Oh, come on. That doesn’t mean I’m popular, fanboy. Cho just likes to play jokes.” To which Logan rolled his eyes.

“…” Roger who listened to this, only glared at Logan with frustration clear on his face.

“Right, right. Keep lying to yourself.” William sighed as he shook his head.

Soon they were in front of the door leading to the common room, and like every year, the prefects would explain the way to enter the common room, inviting one of the first years to try it out.

This time it was Padma Patil the one to answer the first riddle, but before going in, the older prefect, Robert Hilliard, coughed to get everyone’s attention. As everyone turned to look at him with a questioning face, he started to speak.

“Before we go inside, I need to tell a few words.” He said as he seriously looked around. “The previous couple of years we have had incidents in our house.” He said as he looked at a group that Logan recognized. The usual bullies of the shitty ‘tradition’. “Seeing as it has been causing some… troubles, I’ll need to make it clear, this year, we should all keep it civilized.” He said, giving Logan a glance, while the latter only tilted his head, causing his friends to laugh. “So, no trials, no keeping first years outside to test them, nothing about that should happen, am I clear?”

A couple of groans could be heard, but in general, everyone just nodded, some of them giving an obvious stare at Logan, who frowned. “This is ridiculous… It wasn’t my fault…” He muttered, only to receive a few chuckles and rolling eyes back.

The first years were at first confused, then scared, and then relieved at the announcement. They were thankful that they wouldn’t need to be kept outside to ‘prove themselves', not like they knew that was something before hearing it from the prefect, they have heard it from Cho Chang before, but now it really sunk in as the prefect confirmed the stories. Some of them even gave a thankful glance at Logan, after all, Cho Chang and Marietta Edgecomb had taken the liberty to tell them how he had saved them, and apparently, how it also happened a year before they themselves got to Hogwarts.

After the announcement, more inductions were given to the first years, but that was a task for the prefects to take care of, everyone else just decided to call it a day, leaving to their respective rooms. Logan, once again, got the nicest one of the year, after all, he was still the one with better results and better overall score for his year.

After laying down on his bed, he looked at the ceiling of the room and started to think of all the things that would be happening soon.

{This is going to be an interesting year for sure.} He thought with a smirk, before falling asleep.