Rockabye Baby

4

harry ignored the trolly lady as she passed not taking down his wards, he would eat when he got there, real food, sweets were not part of his diet for many years, and getting addicted to sugar now would be a hindrance towards his goal of getting his magic and body into shape for what he would need to do in the future.

Harry closed his eyes and felt for his magic like a wild tiger ready to break free powerful, savage, and unstoppable.

he focused on changing the flow to his whim even making shapes with it, a method of control it had taken him well into his adulthood to figure out, which none of his friends seems to be able to grasp themselves but if it worked for him they wouldn't say anything against the method.

he didn't know just how long had passed as he meditated, he was only alerted that they had stopped by the train luring to a stop.

seeing Hogwarts again was like coming home, though it was a bittersweet homecoming and the event had none of the awe-inspiring show-stopping feel that it did the first time, like what was happening to the children around him, he felt melancholy and was ready to revisit old nooks and see things how they where before the castle was attacked and there was extensive repair work.
no this was Hogwarts in her unblemished beauty.
he stood in the anti-chamber with the other first years Draco and Ron were arguing over harry who had slipped out of their sight the moment they looked away from him, avoiding them and any offering of hands, harry frowned the two were arguing over him like he was a possession which he wasn't, as if one HAD to get him regardless, though with the way the adults did things he wasn't all that surprised that they thought that.

Minerva McGonagall interrupted their pissing contest.
"We are ready for you now"
as he walked he took the moment to assess the houses, a lot of the students he knew at one time and a bunch of 7th years he didn't, minus the Quidditch team, he could see a lot of good people who had died and raising his eyes to the head table he was so happy to see people who died sitting there like this was an everyday occurrence.
snape looked miles younger than when he had been killed, clearly, Voldemort took years off his life, the man was only thirty years old this year, wizards lived for much longer than muggles and he should have been looking just a youthful well into his eighties, in fact, a lot of wizards he had learned lived into their two hundred looking decent, the wars had aged the headmaster beyond his years, Nicolas Flamel was recorded in the books to be well over six hundred only thanks to his elixir.

harry himself didn't realize just how long wizards lived for until he sat through the trials of death eaters, sentences of hundreds of years and nobody thought it was unusual, in fact, some people had been screaming for life in prison or four hundred years.

it took both him and Hermione looking it up and frustrated venting to Ron about the lack of results before he laughed at them and explained even going down to his parents to confirm what he was saying, molly had a dusty old tome that was only common amongst pureblood families, they weren't made for many generations but she allowed harry to copy it by hand requesting no magic on it.
Harry looked up at the sorting hat, he didn't even notice it had been singing, he had been ignoring it at the feast for many years too busy thinking about other stuff.

soon students were getting sorted into houses and harry wanted for his turn committed to going into Slytherin for his comfort.

soon he heard a familiar voice in his head, strangely the hat didn't give any indication that it saw his past, none it acted like it did last time so harry asked for Slytherin and seconds later it yelled the house of snakes.

the hall was silent and nobody moved, he did see Ron with an open mouth fixated on him in disbelief.

the man-turned child walked to his table taking the seat a stunned upperclassman offered him without a word just a nod of the head.

there was an uproar but harry ignored all the yelling from Griffindore and focused on the hat waiting for the next student to be started.