Author's note: This story contains two one shots. There will be four stories per book! Thanks you for reading.

Disclaimer: I do not own anything except my ideas. Harry Potter is J.K. Rowling's.

Sorting

Dumbledore sucked on a lemon drop and looked at the group of first years who stared at the majestic great hall with awe. The children politely clapped when a student were placed into their house, impatiently waiting for their turn. When Minerva called Harry Potter to the stool, an air of anticipation and excitement filled the hall. Every person tried see the legendary boy as the boy's head was covered by the sorting hat. Albus assessed the young wizard with a keen eye.

iThe boy was on the short side and had a messy hairdo. He was a carbon copy of his father, except for the remarkable green eyes he had hidden behind round spectacles. Albus wondered for a moment what house he would go to, but quickly dismissed any doubts when he remembered the reports he had gotten from Arabella and Hagrid. If they were indeed accurate, he had no doubt he would go to gryffindor.

The tense silence permeated the room as the wait for Harry Potter's sorting became ridiculously long. Suddenly, the sorting hat straightened from its natural slouch and bellowed out.

"Gryffindor's heir!"

As the boys tie's stripes became gold and red, the gryffindor emblem appeared on his robe and the some of the muggleborns appeared thoroughly confused, gasps and exclamations of surprise rang out in the hall. Meanwhile, Albus tried to find a way to deal with this situation. Harry would become more independent when his status as an heir of one of the four legendary founders. Albus's influence on the boy would lessen and Harry could defy his orders. Moreover, Albus would have to give Gryffindor's sword to the boy since it was known that he possessed the priceless artifact. If Harry learned about its existence, he would demand to have the blade. Albus's reputation as a wise but slightly eccentric grandfatherly headmaster would be shattered. It was more advantageous to his plans if he solved the problem immediately.

Albus also remembered the demands from the goblins to return the weapon to the bank. He knew of the ridiculous rule the goblins had with goblin-forged items, but he thought the object too valuable to just give away. He knew that if he gave the sword to Harry now, the goblins would know about it. They would probably not officialise Harry's status as heir if the boy didn't return the weapon to them in exchange. Even if this extremely convoluted plan did not work, the boy would still feel indebted to him because he would have gifted Harry with either a priceless artifact or a strong alliance with the goblins, depending on the boy's choices and perceptiveness. After all, could still be a slytherin while still being slytherin's heir.

He stood from his seat and wordlessly shot out a couple of purple fireworks. When order was restored, he slowly walked to his podium to execute his improvised plan.

"It seems that one young Harry's ancestors was Godric Gryffindor, one of the four founders of this school. I possess myself the sword of Gryffindor and I will give young Harry his heritage."

As Albus raised his hands for dramatic effect, the sound of metal slicing flesh rang out in the hall. To Albus's great surprise, Gryffindor's sword had emerged from the sorting hat and had pierced Harry Potter's skull.

Time seemed to freeze while the boy's body slumped to the floor. Screams rang out when students saw the pool of blood that wa spreading on the floor. The more competent members of his staff started to examine the boy's body, but almost everyone was panicking. Albus tried to reinstate order, but it was to no avail.

As the hall descended into further chaos when the blood reached the group of unsorted first years, Albus wondered how he would recover from this incident. Certain people from the media would blame him for the death of the savior, but Albus could always blame the sorting hat for this unfortunate tragedy. If the journalists started investigating the boy's childhood, he would make sure all evidence he had a hand in it would disapear. Furthermore, the light had just lost their beacon of hope. If the dark side took advantage of this moment of weakness, the wizarding world would be doomed. They would need to turn to someone new for guidance.

Perhaps young Longbottom can be used as a replacement? Albus thought as he popped a lemon drop in his mouth. After a few seconds, he started moving towards the body to complete his new plan. After all, he wouldn't want to be accused of murder.

End


courage

She had thought the wizarding world would be completely different from its muggle counterpart. She had thought would not be judged and ostracized for her love for books and that her hard work and unwavering effort would finally be respected by her peers. How wrong she was.

The sorting hat had suggested ravenclaw, but she was determined to try to break out of her timid shell and go to the house of lions. At first all seemed to be going according to plan until Lavender Brown asked if she wanted to paint her nails. After politely declining the offer, She went back to reading Hogwarts a history. The other girls shared a look before going back to their discussion about cosmetics.

When the first day of classes started, Hermione made sure to be extra early for her first transfiguration lesson. As the professor started to quiz them to determine at what level they were at, she eagerly raised her hand to answer the teacher's question. Soon, the soft whisper of jealousy could be heard wherever she went. It seemed she was destined to be singled out as the teacher's pet and know it all once again. She tried to help other students to show them her knowledge could be advantageous to them, but her bossy streak seemed to rear out every time. Months passed slowly but surely with most of her spare time spent trying to submerge herself in books and never return. Finally when Ron Weasley made a snide remark about her bossiness while she was clearly still in earshot, it became too much. Sprinting to the bathroom, she locked herself in a stall and quickly had the break down that had been a long time coming.

She cried for what seemed like hours before a smelt an unpleasant odor coming from the hall. The tiled floor seemed to vibrate every few seconds and the pungent smell seemed to become worse. When the bathroom door was opened, she slowly creeped out her head curiously to see who had come in. She thought that someone had finally decided to comfort her until she saw the enormous troll was slowly entering the room. It looked almost comical with it's disproportionately tiny head and gigantic hands compared to the rest of his body. Though it was its figure was vaguely humanoid, the gray skin you could see seemed disfigured and his legs seemed to be mere stubs. The short moment she had taken identify it as the most dangerous species of troll was long enough for it to spot her. She immediately started screaming at the top of her lungs in hopes to attract the attention of anyone nearby. With a speed and agility that contradicted his former slowness, he swung a giant wooden club and destroyed the bathroom stalls in one fell swoop.

Her cries were abruptly cut off when the debris covered her quivering form. She covered her head with her hands and started to lose any hope for rescue. Thankfully, Harry Potter soon appeared with his faithful sidekick before the troll had killed her with his giant club. However, he seemed to freeze in his tracks when he saw what beast he would have to defeat to save the damsel in distress. He brandished his wand and aimed a stunner at the hulking beast. The spell hit it's mark before instantly rebounding with no discernible damage.

The mountain troll slowly turned around and focused on the new puny humans that had entered its territory with a furious expression on his face. It let out a guttural roar before bringing its club down on the tiny human that had dared attack him. Though Ronald was able to dodge the blow, the boy-who-lived was not so fortunate. The sickening sound of squelching flesh reverberated through the room. Hermione felt her breath catch and a knot for in her stomach. She wanted to look away from the horrifying sight, needed to look away, but her eyes seemed glued to the scene. As the troll's club lifted from the corpse, she had but a scant few seconds to register the growing pool of blood and Harry's unnaturally contorted body before the teachers burst into the room. Though she escaped the fatal encounter physically intact, the mental scars of the unnatural stillness of Harry's mangled corpse would haunt her forever.

End

Poochiemay