As a child, Jim had been prone to fits of melancholy. Not surprising, considering he spent most of his formative years as an abused orphan. Attending Hogwarts began the journey to escaping his upbringing, but despite only having two months a year with their nephew, the Dursleys were quite efficient at bringing Harry's personality back to how they preferred him.

At twenty-six, Jim had spent nearly ten years in constant company with people who constantly reaffirmed their love for him. Hermione and Luna especially were quite proficient in bringing him out of any funks that he may have found himself in. If Jim found himself believing some horrible deed had been his fault, Hermione and Luna would be quick to point out the lack of logic in that idea. There had often been times over the years, when Jim would feel rather under attack if he ever felt the urge to brood.

So it should come as no surprise that Jim was able to get his emotions back under control, and return to his friends.

Jim made it to the compartment just as the train was coming to a stop. Hermione and Harry were already standing by the door, eager to disembark and join the rest of the students for the welcoming feast.

Daphne and Tracy were still sitting on the bench, waiting for the train to come to a complete stop, and for the rush of students to thin enough for them to exit without being trampled.

Upon seeing Jim return, Hermione made to step up and hug him again. Jim was both happy and disheartened when he noticed Harry tap her quickly on the wrist, which caused the bushy-haired girl to pause and glance at Harry, she nodded at the barely perceptible shake of his head.

That little tap on the wrist had been something that Jim had done with his own Hermione many times. It was just a little warning that she was getting a little too enthusiastic about something, and that it may be a good idea to back off a little. Just a quick little tap that few people would notice, but it had seemed to do the trick many times.

Harry stepped up next to Jim for a moment and gestured at the hallway, a clear invitation to join him for a quick discussion. A quick glance showed the girls acutely interested in a sudden quiet discussion. Jim shrugged and followed Harry out to the platform. Both boys stepped off to the side, away from the crowd.

"Listen," Harry said, "we spent a lot of time together over the past month, and I feel like I can call you a friend."

Jim nodded and clasped Harry on the shoulder, ignoring the slight flinch from the other boy.

"Of course," Jim said, "I'd be glad to have you as a friend."

Harry smiled, " Good," he said, "then I hope you're not too upset that I told all three of the girls that you had lost someone recently. I know it wasn't my place, but after Hermione hugging you made you run off, I had to tell them something."

Jim sighed and nodded, "I'm not upset Harry," he said, "it just kinda hit me all at once. I just started thinking about how they'll never be there to hug me again. I know that I don't have to tell you how it feels, but it hurts."

"Yeah," Harry said, "it does. It's a bit more recent for you than for me though. You just have to ask yourself though: would they be happy with you being sad whenever you think of them? I like to think that my mum and dad are up there cheering me on, you know. Like during a Quidditch game I just think of my dad there in the stands, cheering me on, while mum stands there right next to Hermione; both of them with this look that's somewhere between excited and scared. Anyway, I hope..."

"'Arry," a booming voice said from just behind Jim, causing him to jump about a mile high. Hagrid had never been this sneaky before. Hagrid placed on of his huge hands on Jim's shoulder, holding him in place. "Don' ya think it's about time ya joined yer friends in the carriages? I'll take this one on up to the school."

Harry smiled up at Hagrid, "Sorry Hagrid," he said, "just helping Jim get things together."

Harry started walking away towards the carriages, waving back at Jim as he went. "We'll talk more later Jim!"

Jim waved back before turning to look up at Hagrid. It was slightly disconcerting to find that he had to look much higher up than he remembered from before.

Hagrid waited until Harry had disappeared into one of the carriages before turning to look down at Jim. The scary thing was though, Hagrid did not look anything like the friendly half-giant he had known from before. In fact, Hagrid had a rather hateful look on his face as he surveyed the boy.

"You Black?" Hagrid asked.

"Yes sir," Jim responded, wondering when he had ever seen that look on his old friend's face.

Hagrid bent over to glare into Jim's eyes. "I'm ta take ya ta see the Headmaster firs' thing," He said, "seems there's a little mix up in yer paper work."

Jim considered bolting for a moment until he realized that Hagrid had a hold on his shoulder and didn't seem like he was willing to let go anytime soon. Not to mention that there was entirely too much that he needed to do while at Hogwarts.

It wasn't like this wasn't something that had been expected anyway. The student book was constantly updating, and as soon as the teachers realized that a Black would be coming to Hogwarts, so soon after Sirius Black escaped from Azkaban, they would be quite suspicious of this new student.

So it was, that Jim found himself basically frogmarched up to the castle, bypassing the boats, where he saw that Filch had taken over guiding the firsties across the water. Poor kid, Filch had been rather unpleasant all through his years as a student, but it wasn't until Jim had taken refuge in Hogwarts after the first Battle that they learned that he wasn't actually that horrible of a man. He just had a tendency to prefer not being near the students.

Hagrid opened the great doors at the entrance, and led/pushed Jim down the first floor corridor. Apparently, this meeting was to take place in Mcgonagall's office. Which was frankly a relief, it had been a long day already.

Professor Dumbledore was standing just outside the office, supposedly waiting for them. His eyes didn't seem to twinkle at all like Jim remembered, in fact, the Headmaster looked quite as grim as he had been during Jim's original sixth year.

"Ah, Mr. Black," Dumbledore said as Jim approached, "we're just going to wait out here for a moment. I have prevailed upon Professor McGonagall to let us use her office. She just needed a moment to speak with a student."

Indeed, just as the Headmaster finished speaking, the door opened, and Hermione appeared, backing out of the door and thanking the professor inside. Jim smiled slightly when Hermione finally turned around and squeaked in surprise at seeing the three of them standing there.

"I'm so sorry Headmaster," she said, turning rather red under the powerful man's scrutiny, "I didn't think there was anyone out here."

"Quite alright my dear," Dumbledore said, "we were merely waiting our turn to use the illustrious Transfiguration professor's office. Why don't you head on into the Hall, Professor Flitwick is getting everyone settled."

"Yes sir," Hermione said, shooting a curious glance at Jim as she moved away. She raised a questioning eyebrow his way, but Jim just shrugged his shoulders. He didn't really know what was going to be happening, although a part of him seriously wished the girl would stay by his side in this situation. Just like her counterpart always had.

Hermione disappeared around the corner, and Jim turned back to find the Headmaster gazing at him curiously.

"Sorry sir," Jim said. Just now realizing that he had watched his old friend the entire time she had been walking away, "Hermione is a recent acquaintance, and she reminds me a whole lot of an old friend of mine."

"I see," Dumbledore said, then gestured to the open door, "Shall we?"

Realizing that he was to go in first, Jim stepped through the door into the office.

Before he had the chance to move to a seat however, Jim felt a spell impact the back of his head, and the hair that he had spent WAY too much time retying back over the course of the day, fell down around his shoulders.

Old habits are hard to break, and Jim had spent the last nine years of his life-before being sent back in time anyway-constantly fighting or on the run. So the moment the spell hit him, Jim had basically catapulted himself to the side while dropping his wand from its' holster on his left wrist and into his hand. In the blink of an eye Jim was completely across the room from Dumbledore standing in a duelers stance that would have made Flitwick proud. His wand up and pointed in between Dumbledore, McGonagall, and Hagrid.

All three teachers were staring wide-eyed at Jim, although Dumbledore had the elder wand between his fingers and aimed quite steadily.

"What was that for?" Jim asked slowly, doing his best to slow down his racing heart. It hadn't been that long since his last fight, and even now it was difficult to not take everyone in the room down and sort out the issues later. "Did you not like the hair tie? Because, honestly I lost the one I was given this morning, and it's been a pain keeping my hair back ever since."

Professor McGonagall, he noticed, had her own wand out, but was holding it by her side as she looked between Jim and Dumbledore. Hagrid looked ready to pounce across the room and take Jim on himself. Which was something the time lost boy did NOT want to deal with right now. Dumbledore himself seemed torn between being stern and amused. The twinkle had returned to his eyes for a moment. A good sign, Jim felt, he would have to try to keep that going.

"Ah, my boy," Dumbledore said, "that was just a quick Finite, we had to make sure you weren't wearing a glamour of some sort. What with Sirius Black being on the loose, we have to be careful."

Jim swallowed and slowly lowered his wand. This was going to be the point where every bit of acting that Walburga had imparted to him over the past few days would come into play. After all, it was going to be quite difficult for Jim to say what he had to say about Sirius Black in order to keep his cover.

"Please sir," Jim said, "I would much rather not talk about my father's brother. He was responsible for so much sadness, not just for poor Harry, but for my adopted father when he was younger."

THAT got Dumbledore to lower his wand. "I'm sorry," he said, "are you claiming to be Regulus' child?"

"Sort of sir," Jim said, fighting down his elation at the confusion he was seeing, "he's actually my godfather, but he adopted me several years ago. Before he disappeared a couple years ago."

"Really," Dumbledore said, suddenly sounding rather unconvinced, "and who were your real parents before your adoption?"

"The Locke's sir," Jim said, "they owned a potions store just of of Vertic Alley. My mother was the potions Mistress, but her and dad both ran the store. They, um, passed away about two months ago. My tutor had just gotten married and her and her husband were moving to the states. It was decided then that since I didn't have anyone else around to look after me, and since my godfather disappeared a couple years ago, I was enrolled here."

"Hmm," Dumbledore moved around the desk and quite without asking permission sat in Professor McGonagall's seat. It was at this moment that Jim noticed the Sorting Hat sitting on the desk, apparently they were holding off the school sorting for this little meeting to end.

"I find myself believing your story, although you have little proof that you can present. I propose that we sort you and see where we go from there. Be warned however, if you mean harm to anyone that resides in this school you will find that hogwart's herself will most likely not allow you entrance."

Jim nodded, glad to at least be able to get this far. He holstered his wand again and sat in the seat that Professor McGonagall pulled out for him. Quite without any fanfare, McGonagall placed the hat on his head.

"Ah," Jim heard inside his head, "so you're the one i've been hearing so much about."

"All good things of course, right?" Jim asked.

"Of course my boy, of course. Now, let's see what we're working with."

Jim sat quite nervously for a long moment as he felt the hat rummaging through his head.

"Why my boy," the hat said, "I've sorted you before. In fact, Mr. Potter, aren't you sitting in the Great Hall at this very moment eating your dinner."

Jim sighed mentally, he had hoped that his soul had changed enough by this point to not have to worry about this.

"Actually, if you'll notice," Jim said, "I'm quite a bit older than my counterpart."

"Why yes," the hat replied, "it seems you are. Let's see...Ah, I see. Time Travel eh? Your girls must have loved you quite a lot to go through this. Hmm."

Jim felt the hat digging around quite a bit more. Looking out he could see that Professor McGonagall was quite tense, and the Headmaster had his wand out again.

"Oh, you poor boy," the hate suddenly said, "to go through so much, and then have them ripped away anyway. You did quite well by your girls while you were by their side. Ah yes, I see some lingering guilt over not being quick enough to save them from those horrid men. Well, I can tell you right now that you did everything you could. Hell you did more than could reasonably be expected. They would be proud of you.

Although I can tell you now my boy, you're going to need to stop holding all of this in. I can see where your mind is slightly eroded from the grief, and if you don't start managing it soon, you're going to fall. Not to mention what you've done with your adoption into the Black family. It was a good idea, but I can tell you right now you're going to need to pay attention to your feelings. I've said too much concerning your new family magic. You'll have to talk to a Black soon though. Oh sit down Albus, there's nothing to worry yourself about."

That last bit was said as Dumbledore had stood from his chair and was looking quite menacingly at Jim, his wand quite steadily on the boy. Albus promptly sat down at the hat's word's and resumed staring at the boy."

"Enough about all that then eh," the hat said, "Let's get to sorting you. You have quite a lot of ambition and cunning, although it's not used for yourself is it? You're brave, that's quite easy to see, but again, you're not brave for just you. Loyal, yes, quite loyal to your girls. However, I see your plan regarding your foreknowledge, and I think that it might be best to place you in Ravenclaw."