"I never talk about what's in students' heads, except in general terms. For example, STILL SLYTHERIN!"

"And that, it would appear, is that," says Dumbledore, retrieving the hat and returning him to his perch. "Your dormitory is where you left it and your bed is at least close, but I expect you will need a trip to Diagon Alley today or tomorrow to purchase replacement supplies and updated spellbooks. Your head of house is professor Snape, the potions master; he should be able to escort you there and back."

"Thanks, sir. Should you call him, or should I just make my way over?"

"His office should be right where you left it, provided you left it on a Thursday." He takes a metal sphere with a bunch of little rods sticking out of it off a shelf and busies himself in pushing some of them in, which causes others to pop out in no obvious pattern.

"Um. Goodbye?" says Harry. Receiving no reply, he heads out, followed by the other Gryffindors.

Edmund follows.

"Well, that was informative. And also not very informative at all actually."

"Yeah, that's Dumbledore for you."

"So, was Slytherin also a bunch of pureblood gits in the 40s or is that new?"

"Ronald!"

"...no, it wasn't. I guess it is now? That's disturbing."

"Yeah. Also, you should know--someone claiming to be the Heir of Slytherin is attacking muggleborns. Petrifying them. You're probably safe, but--be on the lookout."

"The Heir. Of Slytherin. That's... bloody deranged, is what that is. The heir of Slytherin should be focusing on building up his connections and becoming Minister, not cursing people for stupid fucking reasons!"

"Well, if you find him you should tell him that! Or her I guess, nobody knows who it is."

"Harry, I'm sorry, but someone really is going to have to explain the last fifty years to him at some point. Better that he hear it from us than someone else, right?"

Harry scuffs a shoe against the floor. "Yeah. Yeah, alright."

"...I get the feeling you're more involved in that history than you'd like to be," Edmund says.

Gosh what interesting walls this hallway has. 

(In his defense, one of the walls does happen to have a portrait of several cats, all of which are currently asleep in a pile.)

"Well, the first thing to know is that the Allies defeat the Axis, and Dumbledore defeats Grindelwald, in 1945. So that came out mostly alright. Except the American muggles invented atomic bombs and dropped two on Japan and since then there's been a lot of worry that muggles will destroy the Earth."

"...that does sound pretty scary. Bombs worse than the ones they were already using?"

"They can destroy a whole city with one bomb."

"...You can't Protego that, I bet. Alright. So, anti-Muggle sentiment naturally rises... which is frankly a bit surreal, muggle-baiting was one thing but for sentiment to rise you almost have to think of them as people."

"Muggles are people."