Harry Potter and the knowing Hat

By Lord Nerewar aka M S

Author's Note: This is my first story in Potter fandom and second altogether. It is based upon a challenge by DragonMaster or DrgnMstr on this site called Sorting Abuse. It will be fairly short but I hope that you will enjoy it. Revised chapter 1, fixed some grammar mistakes and added few words here and there. Please, leave a review and tell me of any grammar mistake you notice.

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, J. K. Rowling and Time Warner Bros are the owners.

First chapter

Wreckage on the train

Small form of Harry Potter slowly walked behind the large frame of Molly Weasley as he entered platform 9 ¾. Instinctively he scurried past the large woman and followed two of the Weasley brothers as they made their path towards the train. Harry sighed in relief when he found an empty compartment. He put Hedwig's cage on the seat next to him and closed the door before putting blindfolds in place. He hoped that this would be enough to keep people out of his compartment as he wanted to be alone.

Harry Potter was a small child even for his eleven years of age. If someone looked closely enough they could see the obvious signs of a child that was malnourished and underfed. Unfortunately for Harry no one ever looked close enough. While his exterior was small, Harry had a great heart, not something you would expect from an abused child. He always fought against anything he perceived as wrong and was known as protector of his small park in Little Whinging, the small town in which he had the misfortune to live. Unfortunately those acts on his part led too unhealthy interest that some people in his neighbourhood had in him. Often he would see old Ms. Figg as she walked by his aunt's house muttering to herself and staring at him.

Harry lived with his relatives, his mother's sister and her husband and their son. All three hated Harry with a passion that was only surpassed by Harry's passion towards schoolwork and gardening. He never understood what he did to them to deserve their harsh treatment and why they treated him that way so he accepted that he was a bad person. On the day of his tenth birthday he decided that one day he would do anything he could to redeem himself in his relative's eyes. From that day he always did whatever he was tasked to without a question or even a thought about trying to complain about anything.

Harry had two things that he genuinely liked doing and that were schoolwork and gardening. Schoolwork he did in secret using the school library as his sanctuary against his cousin while gardening was one of his daily chores at home and the only one that he liked doing. There was something that excited him in making the flowers and grass beautiful and full of life. He would often take one of his roses and put it the cupboard where he slept as a symbol of purity that he could reach one day when his relatives forgave him. Overall, Harry was totally different from the rest of the children of his age.

That was his life until his eleventh birthday. On that day his whole world crushed and burned around him. A big man called Hagrid saved him from the Dursleys and he learned that he was a wizard. When he tried to explain to Hagrid that he didn't want to go to Hogwarts and be a wizard if it meant that his relatives would continue to hate him Hagrid explained to him that the Dursleys lied and that they were behaving that way towards him because of his mother. Harry lost something that day; something in his big heart broke when his hope for acceptance in the family was crushed by his aunt and Hagrid. It was a big fight, one which came to haunt back Harry days later when he returned to the Privet Drive. Harry found that he was used as a slave to work around their house, that his whole short life was actually revenge of Petunia Dursley to her sister. He lost his will to live that night but fortunately for the whole wizarding world he regained that will the very next morning when he was shaking hands of other wizards in the Leaky Cauldron. He decided that he would embrace that world as his own. The Wizarding World became his new home with a simple act of a stranger's kindness.

When he returned from the Diagon Alley his life at the Privet Drive had become a hundred times worse. His relatives had begun to beat him which was something that they never did before. Little did Harry know but the same wards that made him safe from outside world were preventing his relatives of any heavy abuse until that moment. When Harry lost his hope of acceptance by his relatives wards crashed around the house making Harry's situation dangerous. Fortunately, the boy survived the ordeal and after a long and hard month at the Dursleys household he finally embarked for Hogwarts.

And now Harry sat in his compartment letting himself to feel everything he suppressed since his tenth birthday. He started crying as the train began its slow journey towards Scotland. All of his dreams and hopes had changed in this short period and Harry was crying for everything he lost when he was placed with his relatives. He especially cried for his parents and acceptance that he sought from them.

Hours passed while Harry grieved about his life and the boy fell into a restless sleep. As he let all of his insecurities and fears loose, Harry's dreamed one of the worst nightmares he would ever experience. His dream had contained almost all of the beatings and abuses his body suffered over the last month. He woke up after a half hour of that awful sleep. Feeling every pain that his body went through in the past month he had to scream in pain and sorrow. Hedwig looked at him in sympathy as Harry sat there shaking in some kind of shock.

Harry slowly calmed down from his pain. He wished to get rid of the feelings that ravaged him. Sighing he stood up and walked from his compartment going to the loo. After he refreshed himself with the water from the sink he began to feel much better. Walking slowly he returned to his compartment only to find three boys sitting there making offensive jokes about Hedwig. Harry angrily observed them, after several moments in which these bullies, and that was what Harry thought of them, that they were same as his cousin and his gang that he always disliked, didn't noticed him, he snapped.

"Why are you mean towards my owl?"

A Blonde boy that was obviously the leader of the group responded in haughty voice.

"Because it was mean towards us and that is not something we like."

Harry wasn't skilled in reading people but even he could see that these boys would pick on anything that they perceived as weaker as and lower than them. Or that the blonde boy would pick on, other two didn't look like they could form a sentence between them.

"Why are you in here? This is mine compartment," Harry demanded to know.

"I was looking for someone that I thought could be here. Obviously I was mistaken," the boy replied.

"Obviously, now, please, leave," Harry sat on the seat farther away from them.

"I don't think so. We are bored and you look as though you could provide some fun," the blonde boy smirked.

He motioned towards his two companions and they started towards Harry.

"I don't think so," A girl spoke from the corridor. She was looking extremely angry at the blonde boy. "You will return to your compartment and leave him alone."

Harry stared at the girl. She was obviously quite older than them and he noticed that she was discretely fingering her wand. He sighed in relief when the boys left quite reluctantly. Harry knew that this wasn't over, those boys would haunt him for the rest of his schooling and that was something that he wasn't looking forward to. Again Harry's thoughts went down that well travelled path in which he asked what was wrong with him that everyone always hated him.

As Harry wallowed in his misery, girl that saved him from the blonde and his servants was silently watching him. She was a fourth year Ravenclaw student called Marcia Perrie. She stood at her 5 foot 4 inch frame with long brown hair. She was passing through the corridor when she noticed the happenings that went on in Harry's compartment. She was intrigued by the small boy that was all alone in that compartment. Marcia frowned as the boy started sobbing. Her attention was drawn to the owl that softly barked in her cage trying to get her attention. She was shocked when the owl motioned with her head towards boy. She looked at the boy again as he at the same time realized that she was there. Marcia softly smiled at him.

"Hey, what's wrong," she asked.

"Nothing's wrong. I'm fine," he replied.

"You are not looking like you're fine. I won't force you to tell me but I hope that you will speak with someone about what is wrong," Marcia stated.

"I told you I'm fine, now leave me alone," he rather forcefully stated.

"If that's what you wish," Marcia replied and turned to leave. She was stopped by a forceful bark from that snowy owl. She glared at her. "What?"

Owl motioned towards the boy again and barked more softly than before and Marcia understood that she was pleading with her to help her owner. Marcia looked at the said boy who was now frowning at his owl. She smiled slightly.

"Your owl doesn't think that you are fine."

Harry was still frowning at Hedwig. His owl stared at him just as hard. He didn't understand what she was doing. He was confused by her actions and also by the actions of that girl. Why was she trying to help him? What did she want?

After several minutes of deafening silence from Harry, Marcia realized that he wouldn't answer her questions. She shrugged and walked away. Harry slumped in relief when she left him alone. He hoped that he could calm himself before they got to Hogwarts.

Not long after that Harry's peace and quiet were again interrupted. This time it was a small bushy haired girl that asked him if he saw a toad. Harry answered that he didn't but he could help find her toad if she wanted. Girl answered that it wasn't her toad but of a boy she shared compartment with and that she would like if he could help her because she was looking for almost an hour.

"I'm Hermione Granger by the way," girl introduced herself as they walked through the train.

"I'm Harry Potter, nice to meet you," he responded.

Hermione stopped in shock. "Are you really? I've read about you in Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts. Is it true that you defeated the You-Know-Who?"

Harry stared at the girl. "You've read about me? I don't know about that Hermione. I don't remember anything about that night, until recently I didn't know that I was a wizard."

Hermione scowled at the boy that dared to contradict a book. As she realized what he was saying her expression softened.

"What do you mean you didn't know you were a wizard? Didn't someone tell you about that before?"

"My relatives with whom I live don't like wizards and witches very much; they didn't want me to go to Hogwarts. It doesn't matter, let's go. We have a frog to find," he urged her to move. Hermione noticed that he was trying to change the topic, but she didn't know why. She followed him as he looked at several empty compartments.

After several more minutes of search they heard a shrieking sound from the end of the corridor. When they got there they saw a boy trying to apologize to a girl who had a large toad on her head. Harry had to smile at the sight as the terrified girl was still shrieking to someone to remove the toad. He softly defused the situation when he removed the toad from girl's head and returned it to the boy. Boy again apologized and girl just smiled at him accepting it. She introduced herself as Padma Patil. She was of Indian origin and had a twin sister. Boy introduced himself as Neville Longbottom and Harry and Hermione introduced themselves. Padma suggested that they find the trolley with snacks and get to meet each other better. Everyone agreed and ten minutes later they were in Hermione's compartment shyly talking. They learned a lot about each other, all except Harry who was keeping strangely to himself. Most important topic in their conversation was the sorting and which house they would like to get in. Hermione wanted to go into Gryffindor while Neville hoped for Gryffindor but thought he could get into Huflepuff, Padma wasn't sure where she would get except that she hoped that it wasn't in the same house as her sister. Harry's preference was from anything but Slytherin as he explained that it was the house from where Voldemort came from.

As time progressed they started first steps toward friendship and it was a feeling that Harry liked. He hoped that they ended up in a house together because, as he said to the two girls after the boy went to the loo: "I like you. You are interesting and different from the normal children."

When train arrived to the station they waited for a moment until older students exited the train at Padma's suggestion. Harry introduced the two girls to Hagrid and they boarded the boat, another red headed boy entering the same boat. Neville unfortunately got nervous in their company, something which Harry and the girls didn't understand why. As the boats softly glided over the lake, red headed boy stared at Harry making him nervous.

Harry turned and looked at the most impressive sight in his life. Directly in front of them was the huge castle of Hogwarts. Its shining lights reflected in the calm waters of the dark lake and Harry was mesmerized by it. The castle was better that he imagined and he smiled as he felt that his life has finally started to turn for the better.

A/N Hey, hope you enjoyed the read. Please leave a review on your way out. I want to get better and only your criticism is going to do that. I will continue to revise the chapters before continuing the story.