Summary: Not the best trip...and revelations about Hogwarts.

Chapter 4: The Hogwarts Express

Harry settled into the compartment a good hour before the train was due to depart. He'd come early in hopes of avoiding being spotted in the crowd, and so far it had worked. Torn between people watching and pulling out a book, Harry split the difference and did both badly. Usually able to focus and memorize with extreme ease, he found himself reading the same details repeatedly. He wasn't make any progress at all, really, on the muggle 'How it Works' book he was reading, as he got distracted by every new arrival on the platform. He could feel the intensity of Pandora's own focus, hers entirely on the arrivals. A very few of them were recognizable enough from her donor memories that she labeled them in Harry's vision. August Longbottom with a nervous-looking boy Harry assumed to be Neville Longbottom. Ameila Bones, seeing off a redhead right next to a blonde girl the same age, whose parents went unlabeled. A few others with older students, but not many were labeled. Many of those the younger doners had known well enough to identify after over a decade ago had died in the war. And Euphemia's memories were mostly regarding older generations, rather than those with Hogwarts aged children.

Harry wasn't at all sure if he was relieved or disappointed when no one had joined his compartment by the last warning whistle. Though it was certainly with a bit of humor that he saw a large number of redheads arriving at the very last moment. That particular family was unlabeled but interesting, the entire group seeming to swarm with the sort of chaotic energy usually found in storms. The boisterous pair of twins among them most of all. All but one of the children managed to board at the last moment, with the little girl frantically waving to them all as they left. Shaking his head, Harry went back to his book as he felt the train finally start to move. Maybe now he could actually get past the page he'd been stuck on for half an hour? Well, he'd give it a good try, anyway.

.

…

…

…

.

It was almost ten minutes later, with Harry actually having managed to get wrapped up in his book, when there was a knock on the frame of the compartment door. Harry had left it open, half-hoping someone would take the invitation to join him, and he blinked in surprise as he looked up to find the youngest of the redheads he'd seen earlier looking at him nervously.

"Mind if I sit here? Everywhere else is full…"

Harry smiled. "Not at all! I was hoping someone would decide to join me. The ride might have been a bit dull, by myself."

It wouldn't have been. Not with Pandora always available to talk to. But Harry could seriously use some social interaction that wasn't with her. Pandora herself fretted over that, periodically, when the bits of her that were Lily and Euphemia came out the most strongly. He wasn't really sure, himself. It had been just him and Pandora against the world for so long that he honestly wasn't sure what to do with regular people. He supposed he'd just have to wing it.

The redhead, meanwhile, looked relieved. He tugged his trunk into the compartment and struggled to lift it. Without really thinking about it, Harry lifted his hand…then nearly cursed as Pandora flashed a warning in his vision and he realized he'd been able to use wandless levitation. Flicking his wrist in a motion he'd practiced a thousand times in the last few weeks, he flicked his wand out instead. Giving it a rough swish and flick, he cast the spell and the redhead yelped as the trunk he was struggling with suddenly lifted and fit itself onto the overhead rack. He turned to gape at Harry an instant later.

"Did you? But how did you? You didn't say anything!"

Harry shrugged. "Levitation is super easy to visualize. And incantations are just a crutch."

He ignored the redhead's new level of stupefaction at that statement. He was not going to bother with that bullshit. Even if he wanted to conceal the small amount of wandless magic he could manage, getting into the habit of using incantations instead of intent was dumb. Triply so for an Occulmens. Trying to distract from what he'd done, he stuck his hand out.

"Name's Harry, by the way. What's yours?"

Thankfully, the question seemed to shake the redhead out of his shock and he blushed.

"Right. My name's Ron, Ron Weasley!"

"Well, Ron, glad to have you! I saw you come at the last minute with your family. Quite a lot of you…"

Strangely, Ron grimaced at that, even as he plopped down on the bench across from Harry.

"Yeah. And that wasn't everyone. I have five older brothers and a younger sister. But Bill and Charlie have already finished with Hogwarts…"

Completely unsure why Ron was unhappy about that, Harry search about for another topic of conversation. This…could be a much more awkward train ride than he'd expected…

...

Well. The train ride had been…sort of awful? Ron wasn't any sort of idiot. In fact, he seemed quite bright…but he was mostly interested in talking about Quiddich, which Harry knew very little about. That had devolved in a long-winded explanation of a game that Harry thought sounded horribly unbalanced, if potentially rather fun to play. A thought he'd made the mistake of speaking aloud, sending his new acquaintance into a defensive lecture that had been sort of…mind numbing. The sarcastic running commentary Pandora started giving halfway through had been a hilarious saving grace, but one that left Harry struggling not to laugh in the redhead's face.

Then had been the visit from Draco Malfoy, who'd been disgustingly arrogant. That had very nearly ended in drawn wands, if not for Ron's pet rat biting one of the blonde's brutish looking friends, sending all three of them scrambling. The encounter had, sadly, also outed Harry as Harry Potter…and his mixed opinion of Ron had immediately dropped to 'negative' when the other boy had asked him what he remembered of that night. Harry remembered it all, of course, due to Pandora. But it was a memory he'd carefully sealed away for a reason…and having it casually brought up had not done his mood much good.

Thankfully, he'd managed not to snap at the redhead, who had at least had the grace to look embarrassed when Harry had given him a cold, 'I don't want to talk about it.' The awkward silence that had followed had only been broken when the food trolley came by. Harry had bought both of them some candy to break the awkward silence and things had, thankfully, taken a bit of a better turn when Ron offered to teach him a game called 'exploding snap.' The relatively neutral activity had helped smooth out the rest of the ride. But Harry still hadn't been left with an overly positive opinion of the redhead and had subtly separated from Ron when the large man Pandora had instantly labeled 'Hagrid,' had call all the first years to him.

Now he was about to get his first sight of Hogwarts and…

'HOLY SHI-!'

Harry flinched as Pandora abruptly shouted, then went silent. Mind racing, he sent a question to her, only to get no reply for agonizing seconds. When she did reply, she sounded…off. Her voice somewhat clipped.

'Nothing to worry about, I think. Hogwarts is more alive than I was aware of. I'll fill you in later. Probably.'

She went silent again, leaving Harry to worry as they drew close to the castle. Pandora had never sounded like that before. He ignored the questioning looks of the others in his boat as he tried to quell his anxiety…

...

He still hadn't heard more than a few empty words of reassurance from Pandora by the time they were usured into the Great Hall. Which was really stressing him out, since this is one of the things that they'd known from the start might…cause problems. Specifically, that he had absolutely fucking zero intention of letting a random hat with completely unknown intentions get inside his shields. And with Pandora shoring them up, it shouldn't be able to. Both of them were worried what it would mean for the sorting, but the secret of Pandora's existence was too important to take chances on who the hat might report her too. Like, say, the headmaster whom neither of them quite trusted just now.

It was almost his turn when, abruptly, Pandora returned.

'The sorting is taken care of, just go along with the hat, Hogwarts talked to him.'

Baffled but out of time, Harry tried to ignore both his worry and the frantic murmurs racing around the hall as he went up to the stool, Professor McGonagall dropping the hat on his head as soon as he sat down. The moment it touched him, there was a whisper in his ear. Thankfully, his mental barriers felt nothing."

"An odd situation, Mr. Potter. But Hogwarts knows best. So I'll refrain from rummaging in your memories. A student's own preferences always take precedent, anyway. So where would you like to be placed?"

Harry only paused for a moment. This wasn't what he'd been expecting, but he had already thought through what he considered his ideal placement. In some ways, Ravenclaw would be better…but only in some ways.

"Gryffindor, please." Harry whispered to the hat, trying to move his mouth as little as possible.

"Very well. I'm curious what will become of you there, Mr. Potter. Good luck."

Raising its voice to the same shout as it had used for every first year, the hat called out his new house and Harry hurriedly took it off, disconcerted by the encounter. He hurried to the Gryffindor table, which was cheering wildly, Ron's twin brothers even dancing a little jig of sorts. He hid a sigh at that. He'd know a certain amount of this was likely to happen, but he very much hoped it didn't last. He sat down with the other first years and waited out the rest of the sorting…"

...

Harry was lying in bed, a few pre-bought ward stones already placed for privacy in the dorm room, when he finally got to have a proper conversation with Pandora. He'd been too busy talking with his fellow firsties at the feast, as well as trying to make sense of the Headmaster's ominous warning about the third floor corridor that was for some reason off limits.

"Okay, Pan…what the heck is going on?"

'Well…it turns out that Hogwarts has a genius loci? Sort of?'

Harry blinked. Okay. What? He voiced that thought to Pandora and she sighed.

'Well, she's sort of like me? Only a lot more powerful and a lot more chaotic. Almost to the point of being schizophrenic." Pandora paused, with Harry feeling her try to find the words she needed. It was a curious sensation for the usually confident AI. "As far as I can tell, the founders tried to sort of encourage a genius loci to grow here. They built in a sort of magical latticework that they thought would help one develop much faster than normal, while also encouraging it to develop certain traits. It…sort of worked.'

Pandora paused as Harry wrapped his mind around that. Genius Loci weren't something he knew that much about in the first place. They were spirits of places, usually highly magical places. As often malevolent as friendly, depending on what sort of place they formed in. The only reason he knew anything about them at all was that Lily Potter had suspected Hogwarts to have one.

"Weren't we half-expecting there to be one, though? Why were you so shocked?"

'Because it's only sort of a genius loci. The parameters the founders tried to force on it conflicted with the chaotic nature of the genius loci that should have formed here, with tens of thousands of students up to mischief mixing into the natural magic of the place. The result is, as I said, something like me. Not quite an AI but not quite a Genuis Loci either. It's a lot more fully formed than a spirit, yet somewhat conflicted. It almost attacked me to protect the students, but then thought I was a wonderful prank, and…well…she's sort of a mess?'

Harry groaned. Great, the ancient magic castle was crazy. That just figured.

'There's a thread of coherence in her that keeps me from calling her truly schizophrenic. She'd never hurt a student…but also never betray a student's secrets unless it would harm others. And sometimes not even then, if the harm wasn't serious enough. I was able to convince her that trying to force you to be sorted would be trying to force you to give up a secret. Which is how I got her to order the sorting hat to just place you where you wanted to go. Apparently, it ultimately answers to her, even if it has a sort of semi-sentient intelligence of its own.'

Harry considered for a moment.

"Do you…think you can help her?"

Pandora's response was instant and worryingly worried sounding.

'I certainly hope I can, Harry. She's bordering on dangerously unstable as is…and I kind of doubt anyone even realizes it. There's no sign that anyone after the founders tried tweaking the initial matrix. I'm betting the secret of their attempt died with them.'

Harry sighed. This was certainly a complication neither of them had seen coming."

"Well, if anyone can help her it's you, Pan. For now, though, I should probably try and sleep."

Pandora murmured an agreement to that, shutting down the various distracting bits of magic they'd developed as a Heads Up Display for Harry. Despite the worries on his mind, the day had been draining enough that Harry soon found himself drifting away to the land of dreams…