Trigger Warnings in the author's note at the end
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Well fuck.
The hat was lifted and the lights and crowds flooded his vision again.
The applause was scarce.
It seemed that Slytherin was not particularly popular during this time either.
He got up and walked over to the table decked out in green, hoping that his irritation didn't seem to obvious to his new classmates.
He let himself sink down onto the nearest empty seat among students that seemed to be around his own age, but refused to otherwise look across the table.
He wasn't quite ready to see Tom Riddle in person just yet.
He needed a bit to collect himself after that disaster of a sorting.
God fucking dammit.
Harry was supposed to deal with the lot over here while staying safe in the lions den but instead he had just been thrown into a pit of bloodthirsty wildly racist vipers all while carrying his mother's muggle name.
Great.
What could possibly go wrong?
He looked to the front of the hall to watch the first year's get sorted.
He didn't feel feel like it but clapped anyways.
It wasn't fair to let his bad mood out on the nervous kids.
After Slytherin gained 8 new students besides him, the sorting was finally over and professor Dippet gave his speech.
It was more tame and also much more boring than any Dumbledore ever held.
He gave some words of welcome, repeated some important rules and that was about it.
Harry was truly grateful when Hogwarts' delicious feast covered the table from start to end and he didn't hesitate to grab a healthy serving of roast with gravy and roasted potatoes that were a perfect golden brown shade.
As an after thought he also added some peas and carrots to the side and then dug in.
A few of the students around him subtly voiced their disgust or disapproval and he could feel several nasty stares directed his way but he couldn't care less.
If they had a stick the size of his firebolt up their asses he wasn't going to let it be his problem.
He ate however he liked.
"Hungry?", asked a boy sitting across from him.
Harry almost did a double take when he properly looked at him.
He was tall, it was noticeable even while sitting and he had sharp aristocratic features.
But the feature that surprised him so much was the shock of red hair, perfectly glossy in the hall's candlelight.
And he didn't mean Ron's shade of red either, no, this boy had crimson hair the colour of spilled wine that wouldn't look amiss on Tonk's head.
He noticed Harry looking and smirked.
"What's it to you", asked Harry gruffly.
The boy leaned forward, resting his chin on his elegant hands.
Harry noticed that his nails were shiny.
Did he paint them?
"Aw defensive are we? I didn't mean any offense promise~"
"What do you want?", Harry really didn't have the patience to deal with some weird joke right now.
His eyes widened comically as he asked: "Hey now, is it a crime to want to to get to know our mysterious new exchange student? I'll tell you a secret, I actually switched to Hogwarts in my fourth year so I get how you feel."
"Really?", Harry had to admit that this came as a surprise. He didn't know of anyone in his time who attended Hogwarts late.
"Oh yeah, I actually went to Durmstrang first."
"Why did you come here then?"
"I don't really like talking about it."
As he said that his friendly face closed off somewhat and he looked deep in thought.
Harry put his fork down halfway up to his mouth and said: "I'm sorry. You don't need to tell me about it if you don't want to. I was just curious is all."
"Ah well let's just say I had some difficulties with some of my classmates. Anyways, let's not dwell on such a depressing topic. Soo mysterious stranger, Harry was it?", at Harry's nod he continued, "what year are you in anyway?"
"Seventh", answered Harry briefly and continued eating.
The other boy brightened up immediately and he grinned at him: "That's great! I'm in seventh year too. You'll probably me in my dorm then. I'll introduce you to everyone after dinner."
"Thanks."
Harry wasn't sure he really wanted to meet his friends but he wasn't going to just say that to his face.
"Oh! How rude of me.. I didn't even introduce myself, did I? My name's Ramon Reiner."
"That's German isn't it?"
"Sure is, but don't get any ideas. That won't help you locate Durmstrang."
Ah right, the location of that school was still secret.
Victor hadn't been all that secretive about it though.
He had readily revealed it to an eager and curious Hermione and she in turn had told him-
Hermione.
Harry barely surpressed a pained gasp at a sudden but already spreading pain his his chest.
Hermione.
He couldn't breathe.
He inhaled and inhaled but no air seemed to reach his lungs.
His hands grasped at his shirt.
Why was this thing so tight?
He felt trapped.
He jumped when a hand grasped his free one.
It was Ramon.
"Hey, what's going on?"
Harry couldn't do this right now.
No no no no no
He ripped his hand free and shakily stood up before leaving the hall in great strikes.
He knew he was attracting attention but he didn't care.
He found an empty bathroom steadied himself on the marmor sink.
It cooled his heated skin as warm tears pooled in and spilled from his eyes.
Hermione.
Clever, kind, passionate Hermione.
His best friend.
She had relied on him and he.. And he..
He looked in his reflection in the mirror and hated what he saw.
A failure.
In a sudden burst of rage he lifted his bare fist and smashed the mirror and his reflection in it into a million pieces.
He didn't register the pain, only felt the hot thick trickle blood pouring from his wounds.
He stared at the red marring the white of the sink in a mix of total detachment and a sick sort of fascination until his legs gave out.
His knees hit the hard ground and slumped down.
Harry clenched his fists again, making the small pieces of glass stuck inside press in deeper.
He deserved this.
It was nothing compared to what he did to others.
As he shook and trembled on the floor he barely even heard the door behind him open.
A voice called out to him and when he turned around he saw the concerned face of Ramon.
He must have followed him out and looked for him.
"Harry, what happened? Did I do something?"
He slowly approached and sat down beside him only to hiss when his palm landed on a glass shard.
The redhead pulled out his wand and vanished them silently.
"Harry ?"
The boy in question exhaled shakily and shook his head while wiping his red face with his sleeves..
"You didn't do anything", assured Harry in a quiet tone, "It's just.. This happens sometimes. It's never been quite this bad but I suppose the.. Move to Hogwarts and all the stress that came with it got to me.. I don't know.."
"Oh Harry.. It's- you're hurt. "
"It's nothing.. I just cut myself on some glass."
"It's not nothing", scoffed Ramon and took his hand, "your hand is covered in blood, Merlin."
"Really, it's not a big deal. I've had worse than this."
"That's not as reassuring as you think it is."
Harry shrugged and looked at the ground.
Ramon clicked his tongue and pulled Harry's hand even closer to him, inspecting it closely.
Then he closed his eyes and murmured an incantation that Harry was unfamiliar with.
His skin seemed to push the glass shards out and stiched itself back together.
He eyed it in wonder when Ramon was done and turned it this way and that but it looked and felt as if it hadn't been hurt in the first place.
"Thank you but you didn't have to do that."
"I'm just going to pretend you said 'oh thank you Ramon you kind and selfless genius for saving little poor me'.
Do.. Do you think you're ready for me to bring you to our dorm?"
Harry swallowed but nodded.
Ramon extended a hand to help him up and he took it, still not quite trusting his legs to do their job.
And then they were off, waking along the deserted Hogwarts halls while Ramon babbled away about various covers.
"Hey..", begann Harry, "could you like.. Not tell our dorm mates about this? I don't immediately want them to think that I'm some nutcase."
"Of course, don't worry. My heroic rescue will die with me."
Harry chuckled a bit and the long walk to the dungeons didn't feel that long at all with good company.
They arrived at a dark brickwall which he knew to be the hidden entrance from his little excursion in second year.
"Schwarzwald", said Ramon clearly and the bricks reverted one by one until a doorway opened up for them.
"Schwarzwald, really?", asked Harry thoroughly unimpressed.
"Shush, it fits the vibe."
Can't argue with that.
When he looked around the gloomy room cast in a shimmer of green from the windows displaying the black lake he still felt some shivers run down his spine.
Yeah Gryffindor definitely won the competition for the superior common room.
"Come now", said Ramon and pulled him past a few staring Slytherin students and up a spiraling staircase until they arrived in front of the hallway where all the dorms were situated.
They went all the way to the end to the one designated to the seventh year boys.
The year group wasn't overly big and all of them shared just one room.
Ramon pulled unlocked the dark green door and stepped in, still holding onto Harry's arm.
Harry looked around the room.
There were a few boys already unpacking their trunks.
His attention however was pulled away from them as the door to the adjacent bathroom opened and a tall black haired boy stepped out.
He looked up at his face and felt himself practically freeze to the spot as his gaze met the brightest blue eyes he had ever seen.
Tom Riddle.
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Author's note:
Trigger warnings for this chapter are a panic attack, self harm and some dissociation
As I'm sure you've noticed Ramon is not a Canon Harry Potter character but we don't know all that much about the students that attended during Tom's time at hogwarts so I decided to add a few ocs to flesh the student body out.
Dont worry there won't be any shipping involving them and Canon characters
Also.. Hm I wonder what happened to Hermione?
-Author Shadow🕸️