Chapter 1
The Sorting Hat's Warning
AN: This is the first chapter in my Seven Worlds crossover. Includes Harry Potter, Hobbit, Star Wars, Spiderwick, Pirates of the Caribbean, Chronicles of Narnia, and Alice in Wonderland, 2010. This chapter takes place in Chapter eleven of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Disclaimer: Harry Potter belongs to J.K. Rowling, Hobbit belongs to J.R.R. Tolkien, Star Wars belongs to George Lucas, Spiderwick belongs to Tony Diterlizzi, Pirates of the Caribbean belongs to Disney, The Chronicles of Narnia belong to C.S. Lewis, Alice in Wonderland, 2010, belongs to Tim Burton and Disney, The Three Musketeers (2011 film) belongs to Alexandre Dumas, Sherlock Holmes, 2009, belongs to Warner Bros. and Arthur Conan Doyle, Divergent Trilogy(movie based) belongs to Veronica Roth, Hunger Games(movie based) belongs to Suzanne Collins, Maze Runner(movie based) belongs to James Dashner, and The Jungle Book, 2016, belongs to Disney.
Harry did not want to tell the others that he and Luna were having the same hallucination, if that was what it was, so he said nothing about the horses as he sat down inside the carriage and slammed the door behind him. Nevertheless, he could not help watching the silhouettes of the horses moving beyond the window.
"Did anyone see that Grubbly-Plank woman?" asked Ginny. "What's she doing back here? Hagrid can't have left, can he?"
"I'll be quite glad if he has," said Luna. "He isn't a very good teacher, is he?"
"Yes, he is!" said Harry, Ron, and Ginny angrily.
Harry glared at Hermione; she cleared her throat and quickly said, "Erm...yes...he's very good."
"Well, we think he's a bit of a joke in Ravenclaw," said Luna, unfazed.
"You've got rubbish sense of humor then," Ron snapped, as the wheels below them creaked into motion.
Luna did not seem perturbed by Ron's rudeness; on the contrary, she simply watched him for while as though he were a mildly interesting television program.
Rattling and swaying, the carriages moved in convoy up the road. When they passed between the tall stone pillars topped with winged boars on either side of the gates to the school grounds, Harry leaned forward to try and see whether there were any lights on in Hagrid's cabin by the Forbidden Forest, but the grounds were in complete darkness. Hogwarts Castle, however, loomed ever closer: a towering mass of turrets, jet-black against the dark sky, here and there a window blazing fiery bright above them.
The carriages jingled to a halt near the stone steps leading up to the oak front doors and Harry got out of the carriage first. He turned again to look for lit windows down by the forest, but there was definitely no sign of life within Hagrid's cabin. Unwillingly, because he had half hoped they would have vanished, he turned his eyes instead upon the strange, skeletal creatures standing quietly in the chill night, their blank white eyes gleaming,
Harry had once before had the experience of seeing something that Ron could not, but that had been a reflection in a mirror, something much more insubstantial than a hundred very solid-looking beasts strong enough to pull a fleet of carriages. If Luna was to be believed, the beasts had always been there but invisible; why, then, could Harry suddenly see them, and why could Ron not?
"Are you coming or what?" said Ron beside him.
"Oh...yeah," said Harry quickly, and then joined the crowd hurrying up the stone steps into the castle.
The entrance hall was ablaze with torches and echoing with footsteps as the students crossed the flagged stone floor for the double doors to the right, leading to the Great Hall and the start-of-term feast.
The four long House tables in the Great Hall were filling up the under the starless black ceiling, which was just like the sky they could glimpse through the high windows. Candles floated in midair all along the tables, illuminating the silvery ghosts who were dotted about the Hall and the faces of the students talking eagerly to one another, exchanging summer news, shouting greetings at friends from other Houses, eyeing one another's new haircuts and robes. Again Harry noticed people putting their heads together to whisper as he passed; he gritted his teeth and tried to act as though he neither noticed nor cared.
Luna drifted away from them at the Ravenclaw table. The moment they reached Gryffindor's, Ginny was hailed by some fellow fourth years and left to sit with them; Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Neville found seats together about halfway down the table between Nearly Headless Nick, the Gryffindor House ghost, and Parvati Patil and Lavender Brown, the last two of whom gave Harry airy, overly friendly greetings that made him quite sure they had stooped talking about a split second before. He had more important things to worry about, however: He was looking over the students' heads to the staff table that ran along the top wall of the Hall.
"He's not there."
Ron and Hermione scanned the staff table too, though there was no real need; Hagrid's size made him instantly obvious in any lineup.
"He can't have left," said Ron, sounding slightly anxious.
"Of course he hasn't," said Harry firmly
"You don't think he's... hurt, or anything, do you?" said Hermione uneasily.
"No," said Harry at once.
"But where is he, then?"
There was a pause, then Harry said very quietly, so that Neville, Parvati, and Lavender could not hear. "Maybe he's not back yet. You know- form his mission- the thing he was doing over the summer for Dumbledore."
"Yeah... yeah, that'll be it," said Ron, sounding reassured, but Hermione bit her lip. looking up and down the staff table as though hoping for some conclusive explanation of Hagrid's absence.
"Who's that?" she said sharply, pointing toward the middle of the staff table.
Harry's eyes followed hers. They lit first upon Professor Dumbledore, sitting in his high-backed golden chair at the center of the long staff table, wearing grey robes and a dark grey tassel hat. Dumbledore's head was inclined toward the woman sitting next him, who was talking into his ear. She looked, Harry thought, like somebody's maiden aunt: squat, with short, curly, mouse-brown hair in which she had placed a horrible pink Alice band that matched the fluffy pink cardigan she wore over her robes. Then she turned her face slightly to take a sip from her goblet and he saw, with a shock of recognition, a pallid, toadlike face and a pair of prominent, pouchy eyes.
"It's that Umbridge woman!"
"Who?" said Hermione.
"She was at my hearing, she works for Fudge!"
"Nice cardigan," said Ron, smirking.
"She works for Fudge?" Hermione repeated, frowning. "What on earth's she doing here, then?"
"Dunno..."
Hermione scanned the staff table, her eyes narrowed.
"No," she muttered,"no, surely not..."
Harry did not understand what she was talking about but did not ask; his attention had just been caught by Professor Grubbly-Plank who had just appeared behind the staff table; she worked her way along the very end and took the seat that ought to have been Hagrid's. That meant that the first years must have crossed the lake and reached the castle, and sure enough, a few seconds later, the doors from the entrance hall opened. A long line of scared-looking first years entered, led by Professor McGonagall, who was carrying a stool on which sat an ancient wizard's hat, heavily patched and darned with a wide rip near the frayed brim.
The buzz of talk in the Great Hall faded away. The first years lined up in front of the staff table facing the rest of the students, and Professor McGonagall placed the stool carefully in front of them, then stood back.
The first years' faces glowed palely in the candlelight. A small boy right in the middle of the row looked as though he was trembling. Harry recalled, fleetingly, how terrified he had felt when he had stood there, waiting for the unknown test that would determine to which House he belonged.
The whole school waited bated breath for the Sorting Hat's song. But it stood there, motionless. Professor McGonagall turned to Dumbledore with a concerned look as the Hat moved slowly and sang in a low voice (Hoist the Colors, Pirates of the Caribbean, with a twist):
The warlock and his men
stole the squib from her bed,
and bound her in her bones...
These lands be ours, and by the powers
where we will, we'll roam
Yo ho, all hands
cast the spells high.
Heave ho, witches and wizards
never shall we die.
Some men have died and some are alive
and others sail on the sea.
With keys to the cage
and the devil to pay
we lay to the Keeper's green
Yo ho, flick together
cast the charms high
Heave ho, witches and wizards
never shall we die.
The fireworks have been raised,
from their papery grave,
see its shining tone.
A call to all; pay heed the sqauil,
and turn your wands home.
Yo ho, defend together
block your curses high
Heave ho, witches and wizards
never shall we die.
Yo ho, cast together
cause your jinxes straight.
Heave ho, witches and wizards
Never shall we plight
The warlock and his men,
stole the squib from her bed...
And the Hat became motionless once again. Instead though of the usual applause, there was only whispers.
"Branched out a bit this year hasn't it?" asked Ron.
"Yeah," Harry replied.
"I wonder if it's ever given this warning before?" wondered Hermione.
"No, it has not," came the voice of Nearly Headless Nick. But before he could continue, the scampering of feet and jingle of keys could be heard. Soon, a shaggy dog with keys in his mouth and something around his neck came into view as it trotted down the Great Hall toward Dumbledore. Dumbledore untied the object around its neck and read it, tuning out for the said object to be a scroll.
"Why do you think they would use a dog instead of a owl?" Hermione asked.
"Who would 'they' be?" said Ron."
"The ministry, of course. Who else?" Hermione pointed out.
"It has come to my attention that we will be having some quests this year stay with us," Dumbledore announced with his booming voice. "Tomorrow they will settle in with us and help with terms. You will treat them with the highest respect and honesty. Now let the feast begin!"