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Can you feel this magic in the air? It must have been the way you kissed me.
Louis has just sat down to scarf down some food after Quidditch practice when Harry slides onto the bench next to him and bumps their elbows together. When Louis turns to raise an eyebrow at him, Harry is already smiling slyly down at where he’s plating his food.
“How’s my big and strong Quidditch captain? Did you have fun hitting balls today?” he asks, and Louis rolls his eyes.
“Six years in this school, and two years of knowing me and Niall, and yet you can’t remember what each Quidditch position means. Unbelieveable,” Louis shakes his head, stabbing at his peas. “I’m the seeker, Haz, I don’t hit balls, I catch them. The tiny golden one, to be specific.”
“I know a little something about tiny golden balls,” Harry murmurs. “We could go up to the dormitory, maybe I could show you my Quidditch skills. I’ve learned a few th-”
“LADS!”
Harry and Louis both jump, startled by the sudden close-range shout. In their lust-ridden haze, they had inched closer to each other, and they hastily shuffled apart a little. Thankfully they were straightened out just in time for Niall to plop down across from them, who rapidly began filling his plate with all the Gryffindor table offered.
“Z and Li and I were planning on hitting up the old library tonight, since we’ve got that Charms test coming up this week. Care to join, lovebirds?” Niall says, pouring out a goblet of pumpkin juice.
“Uh. Yeah,” Louis scratches his head. “We have a Charms test?”
*
When Harry, Louis and Niall arrive at the library, the first thing they do is wave to Madam Pince. The second thing they do is grab all of the Charms books they can, and then the trio finally makes their way over to where they can hear their two other best friends bickering.
“Liam. I say this with the most amount of love anyone can possibly possess for their best mate, but you’re being a fucking idiot.”
“Language!” came a loud hiss from the entryway. The Ravenclaw and Gryffindor pair sheepishly look up, calling apologies to the librarian. In doing so, they spot Niall, Harry and Louis heading towards their table.
“Hello!” Liam says, waving them over and scooting closer to Zayn to make room for the other three.
Niall immediately claims the seat next to Zayn, before turning around and chatting with the table of girls adjacent to the group. Harry and Louis sit down as well, Harry moving his chair closer to Louis so that their arms brush when they move.
“Li and I have started outlining the things Flitwick said would be on the exam. We need t-”
“Wait!” Harry says suddenly, and moves his chair back before jumping up. “I left my notes in the common room, let me go get them before we start.”
Zayn shrugs, and Harry leaves. Louis sighs, doodling in the corner of his parchment. Liam looks at him fondly, and says, “He’s such a scatterbrain. He always leaves his stuff everywhere in our wing. Sophia once brought back his sock that had somehow gotten in the girls’ dormitory. I honestly don’t know how he does it.”
Louis feels his face contorting strangely as he tries to hide his smile. That’s his boy they’re talking about. Even something as mundane as Harry’s forgetfulness causes Louis to feel as though his heart has double in size. He grins suddenly, remembering the instance when Harry had forgotten about the first Quidditch match of the season in their fourth year at Hogwarts. Harry had said after the fact (and the congratulatory blowjob he had given Louis when Gryffindor won against the Ravenclaw Quidditch team) that he had gone to the Owlery to mail his mum a letter and time had gotten away from him when he tried to befriend a tawny.
Louis pipes in, wanting to share his remembered anecdote with his friends, “Lads, do you remember that time Haz tried to make a friend out of an owl and missed the first Quidditch game of the season? I swear, he’s such a shit supporter of his own House. He never even wears the tie and robes! He’s unbelievable.”
“Wait.” Two voices say at once. Louis looks up from where his gaze had drifted down to his doodle of a compass. Niall and Zayn are all looking at Louis strangely.
“What?” Louis says, feeling self-conscious. “What did I say?” He glances at the other boys, relieved to see Liam looks as confused as Louis is.
Zayn finally speaks up. “He doesn’t support Gryffindor because he isn’t one, Lou. Harry’s a Ravenclaw.”
Louis opens his mouth to call Zayn out on his joke but Niall beats him to it.
“Um, if he’s a Ravenclaw then why does he sleep in the Hufflepuff common room three nights out of seven?” the blond boy questions.
“Boys, boys, could you all kindly shut up? We are in a library, after all,” a voice butts into the confused conversation. The four students turn to where Taylor Swift has turned around in her chair, smiling with one eyebrow arched.
“Besides, Harry’s my Potions partner in the Slytherin-only Advanced Potions class. So clearly he’s not in another House, he can’t be!” Taylor finishes before turning back around and nudging her girlfriend Karlie Kloss in the ribs to make her giggle. Louis turns his attention back to his own table, more confused than ever.
“I…. don’t know what to say.” Louis says, looking between Liam, Niall and Zayn. “What do we even do?”
Liam, ever the level-headed one in the group, speaks up. “Well, what table does he normally sit at? That’s an easy way to solve this.”
The other three all get quiet and think. Louis can clearly see Harry sitting at the Gryffindor table with him and Liam, the two of them alternating between teasing Liam for whatever they deigned to that day and making out fiercely and obnoxiously until a professor comes over to reprimand them. The more Louis thinks about it, however, the more he can see Harry sitting at the Hufflepuff table with Niall and Stan, laughing at what must undoubtedly be a dumb pun one of their minds has crafted up while Louis moodily picks at his food. He can also see Harry at the Ravenclaw table, intently talking with Zayn and Karlie about something presumably intellectual in his slow, syrupy drawl. Lastly, Louis sees Harry with Taylor at the Slytherin table, animatedly gesturing and then scribbling things in that journal he always keeps with him with a Muggle pen. Louis looks up in horror at the boys across from him, seeing his sudden realization that he doesn’t know what house Harry Styles is in reflected across the faces of Liam, Niall and Zayn.
“Hiiiiiiiii.”
“Oh, hey, babe. Welcome back,” Louis quickly schools his expression back to what he can only hope is something neutral, and prays his friends do the same. “Did you get what you needed?”
“Yeah! I got my notes which were exactly where I left them thankfully. I also found a cheat sheet to the most common charms Flitwick must have given me ages ago, probably back when we were second or third years. Did you know Wingardium Leviosa is the fourth most common charm used in Auror training? I wonder why they use it, seems so mundane…” Harry continues to babble on about his surely riveting discoveries on the commonalities of certain charms, but Louis loses focus and instead watches how his cherry red lips move and wonders if his boyfriend is keeping a huge secret from him.
*
Later that night, a while after Harry has drifted off koala-ed around him, Louis untangles his boy’s gangly limbs from around his body and creeps down to the common room. The fire is dwindling, so Louis mutters an incendio charm to give him some light so he can think.
What if Harry has been withholding this from him? Louis racks his brain for an instance in which they discussed their Houses. All he comes up with is his dorky first year self trying to impress the curly-haired boy sitting across from him in the train compartment by sharing his knowledge of the goings-on at Hogwarts despite having been the eldest child in the family. He remembers a chubby-cheeked Harry saying, “I’m the first wizard in my family, but Hufflypoofs sound nice!” and Louis correcting him by telling Harry all about the bravery of Gryffindors.
“There is one way to find out for certain, you know.”
Louis’ head whips to the entrance of stairway leading to the boys’ dormitory. Liam is standing there, sleep-ruffled and with a strange look in his eyes.
“What do you mean?” Louis asks with a tinge of desperation.
“Well, obviously I can’t guarantee anything, since I’ve never done it before,” Liam hastily amends. “But we all got Sorted, right? Can you remember that? What the Sorting Hat said that night?”
Louis thinks hard, wishing he had a Pensieve on hand. When he comes up empty, and sees Liam clearly doesn’t remember either if the look on his face is anything to go by, he goes back to staring at the fire and thinking.
Suddenly, a Lumos spell lights up his mind. Louis turns to Liam, who is now sitting in the armchair beside him, and says, “Li. Liam. You’re a genius.”
Liam turns to face Louis as well, and groans when he sees the look in his friend’s eyes.
“Tommo, I definitely do not like the look on your face,” Liam says, shaking his head already. “That look leads to us getting our Hogsmeade privileges revoked because you thought it was funny to charm all the Potions ingredients to come alive. Count me out of your terrible plan.”
*
That late night conversation is what lead to where Louis is now, namely, hiding in an alcove behind the decorative statue across from the Headmistress’ office, about to steal the Sorting Hat.
“Oh, for God’s sake, Niall!” he hisses, smacking whatever part of Niall is closest to him. Louis can practically hear Zayn rolling his eyes. He actually does hear Taylor sigh and shuffle her feet.
“Sorry, Lou. I guess I’ve just got jinxed fingers.” Niall says while picking up his wand.
Louis inhales sharply, then breathes out like Harry taught him to after he took yogi (yoga? yogen? Muggles have silly words) classes one summer. Right. Harry. The reason Louis gathered his group of friends together in the first place.
“Okay. Let’s get to it. Liam,” Louis says directly to his friend, “since you don’t want to be here, I want you and Niall to go create a diversion. A quiet diversion, please, don’t wake up the whole school. Just enough of a disturbance that McGonagall has to come running. I looked up her schedule, she shouldn’t be in her office right now.”
Liam and Niall exchange glances, Niall looking excited and Liam weary. The duo then scamper off to do Louis’ bidding. Louis turns to the remaining two, and they both stare back, Taylor slightly wide-eyed and Zayn looking relatively disinterested. Louis sighs, and can’t help but wish Harry was here with him, despite his boyfriend being the reason for this mission in the first place.
“Listen, Louis,” Taylor begins faintly, “I’m a Slytherin through and through, but even this seems a little risky to me. We’re breaking into the Headmistress’ office, and if we’re caught, we’ll probably be in detention for the rest of our academic careers. I understand you think it’s important to know this, but have you ever thought of… I don’t know, asking Harry? Call me old-fashioned, but I think talking about your feelings never goes out of style.”
Zayn looks between Louis and Taylor. “Lou, she’s right. The statistics of this working out in your favor are slim to none. If you think he’ll evade your questions, Taylor and I can whip up a batch of Veritaserum no problem, even that will be less forbidden than th-”
Loud banging noises followed by high pitched screeching break the quiet of the halls. Louis exchanges glances with Taylor, and Zayn looks like this is above his paygrade. Louis grabs both of their arms and drags them over to the gargoyle that stands between them and the Sorting Hat.
“Okay, can either of your clever brains think up what might be the password to get up to McGonagall’s office?”
“Well,” Zayn begins, “Headmaster Dumbledore used to have candies as the password, should we give that a go?”
Louis looks at him blankly. “Does Professor McGonagall seem like the type to use bloody candies as a guard between students and her office?!”
Zayn scratches his face. “Well, no.”
Taylor taps her foot impatiently. Suddenly, she springs into action, shoving both boys aside to get closer to the winged creature. She whispers something to it, and suddenly a spiral staircase leading to what is undoubtedly McGonagall’s office appears.
Louis and Zayn stand there, gobsmacked, until Taylor huffs and pushes them towards the stairs.
*
After a frantic two minutes of searching, heavy footfalls thud their way up to the office. Taylor, Zayn and Louis freeze in their rummaging, staring at the doorway. Liam and Niall appear at the top, panting and clutching their sides. They make their way into the office and begin to help search for the old hat. Louis approaches Liam cautiously, and asks, “So… How’d it go?”
Liam sighs, and mutters, “Niall decided it would be a good idea to release Cornish pixies in the Great Hall. We’ve probably got around fifteen or so minutes.”
Louis breathes out a sigh of relief, then goes back to looking for the Sorting Hat.
*
Six minutes later, a door bangs open, and the five students freeze.
In the doorway leading to her presumed bedroom stands Professor McGonagall in all of her dressing gowned glory, sporting a vibrantly red nose and watery eyes.
McGonagall narrows her eyes at the group, and starts doing a headcount.
“Mr. Tomlinson, Mr. Payne, Mr. Horan, Mr. Malik, and Ms. Swift. Where’s Mr. Styles, and to what do I owe the pleasure of this late night soirée?”
Louis steps forward. “Uh, Professor. Can I just say this was all my idea? My friends were only trying to help, they’re so kind to me after having been instilled with such great morals at this fine school…”
“And what, Mr. Tomlinson? Did these teachings bypass your young self?” McGonagall says, and Louis must be delirious with panic because it looks like the Headmistress is hiding a smile.
“No! No, I… I’m just not a very good student, is all.” Louis tries to joke self-deprecatingly, while his palms sweat something awful.
McGonagall sighs, and pinches the bridge of her nose. “You still haven’t answered my questions.”
Louis bites his lip. “We’re in here because I want to steal the Sorting Hat and ask it a question.”
“And where’s Mr. Styles? I haven’t seen you two be... voluntarily separated since your first year here.”
“He’s sort of the reason I have something to ask the Sorting Hat?”
“Is that a question, Mr. Tomlinson?”
“...No.”
“What is your question for the hat? Let’s see if I can answer it quickly, and then we can all go to sleep sooner rather than later.”
“We realized today that we don’t actually know what House Harry was sorted into. He’s done things that made each of us believe he was in our House, so…”
Louis trails off once he realizes Minerva McGonagall is laughing. At him.
“Louis Tomlinson, you’re a sixth year! How could you all have possibly gone without knowing Mr. Styles’ House for six years?!”
“Well, we…” Louis begins, only to be interrupted by Professor McGonagall rummaging in her desk. A few seconds later, she pulls out the slightly crumpled Sorting Hat, before walking over and handing it to Louis.
“Here you go, Mr. Tomlinson. Tell the hat about your troubles.”
Louis hesitantly puts it on, feeling the eyes of his friends burning a hole in his back. He closes his eyes.
Louis Tomlinson of Gryffindor.
'Uh, hi.’ Louis thinks.
What do you need to know?
‘Can’t you already tell?’ Louis complains in his thoughts. ‘Why do I have to jump through hoops when you can just tell me what I want to know?!’
Ask, and you shall receive.
‘Well, my boyfriend Harry, Harry Styles, do you remember him? Anyway, he was sorted with my group six years ago. I’m wondering what House he was sorted in. Can you tell me?’
Harry Styles was given a choice six years ago, like very few before him. Not even Harry Potter can say he had the option of being sorted into any of the four Houses.
‘Harry could’ve been in any of the Houses?!’
Yes, Louis Tomlinson. And he continued his rarity by being sorted into none of them.
“What?!” Louis says aloud, his eyes flying open.
If you can’t recall, let me recall for you.
In Louis’ mind’s eye, he can see the eleven year-old version of Harry sitting on the stool in the Great Hall, the very same Sorting Hat sat atop present-day Louis’ head covering Harry’s curls and eyes. He can see Harry’s mouth moving as rapidly as he has ever seen it move in all of his years of knowing him, and a slightly younger Professor McGonagall hurrying over after a solid ten minute period of what seems to be Harry arguing with the hat. After McGonagall places it on her head and seems to listen to what it says, she ushers Harry off the stage with the barest hint of a smile on her lips.
For whatever reason, Louis did not remember that event transpiring until this very moment. He didn’t remember his boyfriend, even though Harry had not been so at the time, not getting a House called out to the Great Hall. Louis did not remember the whispering students already seated at their House tables. Louis did not remember -
“Alright, that’s all for tonight!”
Louis’ eyes open again, focusing on the present-day Professor McGonagall in front of him, and what she is currently saying.
“I’ll decide you lot’s punishment tomorrow morning, seven o’clock sharp. I expect to see the five of you in front of the staff table then, and I will be thinking long and hard about what tonight’s little excursion deserves. To bed, all of you!”
*
Louis smiles tiredly at Liam before opening the curtains on his four poster bed. Harry is sitting propped against the headboard reading last month’s copy of The Quibbler, and looks up at Louis standing beside the bed. He puts down the magazine and pats the space next to him, then pulls the covers over the both of them when Louis crawls in next to him.
“And what did you spend your night doing, Lou?” Harry asks with a hint of a smile gracing his lips.
Louis furtively glances at the curtains surrounding the bed once again before casting a silent Muffliato spell. He sighs.
“IsortofbrokeintoMcGonagall’sofficewiththehelpofLiamNiallZaynandTaylortoasktheSortingHatwhichhouseyouwerein.”
Harry furrows his brow in an adorable look of confusion. “You… broke into McGonagall’s office to ask the Sorting Hat a question?”
Louis sheepishly looks down at their intertwined hands in the sheets. “Yeah. I realized that you sort of bounce around Houses, and that I didn’t know which one you were actually in.”
“Lou.” One of Harry’s hands breaks free of the entanglement and lifts Louis’ chin up so that nervous blue eyes meet bright green. “You’re ridiculous.” Harry is giggling at him, and Louis can’t help the smile that grows on his face.
“Six years in Hogwarts, and you didn’t know my House! You’re so thick sometimes, I swear.” Harry is still laughing, and Louis sighs, mock-offended.
“Well, I got an answer. You’re such a people-pleaser that you couldn’t even choose a House!” Louis exclaims.
“You know why I couldn’t choose, right?” Harry has stopped laughing finally and is now gazing at Louis with a twinkle in his eyes.
Louis scratches his head, and shrugs slightly. “Well… No.”
Harry shakes his head with a fond look on his face. “I couldn’t choose my House because of a spiky-haired boy in my train compartment.”
Louis gapes at him, shocked. “You’re House-less for… me?”
“Yes, silly. Even my eleven year-old self could tell you were going to be a significant part of my life. That’s why I could’ve been in Ravenclaw.”
Louis is just staring at Harry, unable to form words after Harry’s revelation.
Harry just stares back intently, before slowly beginning to grin.
Louis mirrors his expression, and thanks his lucky stars for the green-eyed boy across from him.
*
The next morning, Louis, Harry, Liam, Niall, Zayn, and Taylor all trudge up to the table where the professors are eating breakfast. McGonagall looks up from her piece of toast, catches sight of Louis and Harry’s entwined hands, smiles faintly, and gives the group (including Harry) a month of detention.