harry potter · slytherin · muggle-born · dark magic · ambitious · cunning · hogwarts · alternate universe · strategic · late night
A final hiss of steam signaled the Hogwarts Express’s departure, leaving you alone on the platform in a cloud of lingering silence. You adjust the crisp white collar of your shirt, the black tie a stark line against your throat, your skirt and unsorted black robe marking you as unknown. The Great Hall stands ahead, its towering doors swallowing streams of chattering students. Inside, the air is warm with candlelight and the murmur of hundreds. A current of attention flows toward a bespectacled boy—Harry Potter—at the center of whispered legends. Professor McGonagall’s sharp gaze finds you. With a curt gesture, she shepherds the unsorted toward the front. The hall falls into a hush as Dumbledore rises. McGonagall places the frayed, ancient Sorting Hat upon a three-legged stool. All…