Chapter 7.

In which Sauron finds another reason to dislike pointy hats.

Ginny wanted to introduce him to her friends, so Sauron got pulled along to a group of people Ron was talking to. Ginny waved.

"Hi guys!"

One was a rather scrawny boy, with penetrating green eyes, messy black hair and a strange scar on his forehead. The other one was a moderately attractive girl with bushy hair and an expression of excitement on her face. Ron didn't seem too happy that his little sister came to intrude in his group of friends…

"Oh. Hi Gin."

Ron rolled his eyes, while the other ones eyed Sauron with interest and perhaps slight suspicion.

"Who's that?"

"Guys, this is Sauron. Sauron, this is Hermione Granger, and Harry Potter. And my brother, but you know him."

He nodded in a way that he hoped was polite. The bushy haired girl identified as Hermione gave him a scrutinizing look.

"Aren't you a bit old for Hogwarts?"

Ron rolled his eyes again.

"He's from abroad. Lives with us for the moment. Dumbledore thought it would be a good idea if he got to study magic too."

"Oh…"

The girl seemed to overthink that for a moment. The next moment she opened fire.

"Where are you from? Have you travelled a lot? Do you speak many languages? How long do you know you're a wizard already? Are you muggleborn or pureblood? Are you excited for Hogwarts? What house do you want to be in?"

Hermione had questions, and she fired them at him with the determination of an Oliphaunt storming a gate. Ginny bit her lip.

"It's a long story. We'll tell you later. We should go find Luna now. Bye guys!"

She pulled Sauron with her, and he was more than willing to follow her. The questions had been irritating, but the look Harry Potter had been giving him was downright unpleasant. It had been far too suspicious for his liking. Right now, even the bizarre Lovegood girl would be an improvement of company…

(Pagebreak)

On the train, Sauron took out his notebook and made a sketch of the locomotive, for as far as he had seen it. Normally he wouldn't take out his personal documents in public, but he found he had to write down what he remembered now, before he forgot it. Not that he forgot many things, but writing it down helped ordering his thoughts. Unfortunately it drew the attention of Luna Lovegood, whom he and Ginny shared a compartment with.

"You draw quite well."

Hundreds of technical drawings and sketches for weapons, armor, and even the design of his Citadel had taught him something after all then…

"You should draw your homeland once."

He ignored Luna, but it didn't stop her from peeking in his notebook. It was annoying, but a lot of things were. He was going to a school full of children, and children were annoying per definition. This whole thing would be an exercise in self-control and patience, and Sauron didn't plan on losing his cool so early in it.

"I only draw for good reasons."

"If you like drawing, it's a good enough reason."

"I don't like it, it is a skill useful to me in certain situations. When not in those situations, I am not interested to draw anything."

"I see. There is not much you like, is there?"

Again, one of those strangely ominous sounding expressions… He closed the notebook and put it away.

"What I do and do not like is of no concern to you."

With that he hoped he ended the conversation. He evaded the awkwardness by taking up another book and… well, pretending to read, mostly. He could understand and read basic English well enough now, but the text in his arithmancy book was a little too complex for his skill level still. Sauron caught Ginny's knowing smile and scowled. This one would come back to bite him in the ass, of that he was convinced…

(Pagebreak)

When the train stopped, Ginny suddenly remembered a rather important detail about how people in their first year usually got to Hogwarts. She pondered for a moment whether to tell Sauron or not, but decided he could better face it prepared.

"Err… Sauron?"

"Yes?"

"The first years travel to Hogwarts by boat."

"By… boat?"

"There's a lake, the Black Lake, and the groundskeeper takes the first years in boats over it."

Sauron hid his emotions very well, but the flicker of orange in his golden eyes told Ginny enough.

"It's not so bad… Just thought to warn you in advance."

No, it was not so bad. He had been on boats often enough. He hated them with a vengeance, but this was just a lake. How bad could it be?

"Thoughtful of you."

When they got out, Sauron noticed that he got many curious stares from people. Apparently it wasn't usual for a tall 20-something year old to hang around among the first years. He walked a bit out of the crowd, and caught sight of the carriages he suspected the other students would take. In front of them stood horses… no. Not horses. They were black and winged, and almost skeletal, and Sauron felt oddly attracted to them. He had never been good with animals, but these creatures didn't flinch away from him, if anything they approached him for as far as their bridles allowed it. He softly stroked one over the nose, almost affectionate.

"They like you."

He startled from the clear voice of Luna Lovegood next to him. The blonde girl gave him her mysterious smile, and not knowing what else to say he asked,

"What are these creatures?"

"Thestrals. Only those who saw death can see them."

So these were the creatures of which the hair had been worked into his wand… Sauron smirked. Yes, he had seen death indeed, often and in great quantities. Perhaps that was why the thestrals didn't seem to dislike him. He wanted to pat them again for some reason, but the presence of Luna stopped him from doing so. How could she see them, anyway? When had a child like her seen death? The opportunity passed when a large, bearded man started calling out for the first years to come to the boats.

"You should go. I suppose we'll meet again soon. Bye!"

Sauron made his way to the boats, feeling both annoyed and apprehensive. He hated boats, he hated water, and he definitely hated loads of small children. They reminded him of Hobbits. Why couldn't all species just get born into adulthood, like Maiar? It would make life so much less complicated…

The boat trip was spent blocking out the excited babbling of children, ignoring the curious looks of children, and desperately trying to forget he was in a boat, on a lake, surrounded by water. The first two he managed, the last one… not so much. He was completely stressed up when he entered the Great Hall, and thus didn't spend much thought on the décor. He was more concerned with the fact he was about twice as tall as some children, and stuck out like a sore thumb in the group of first years. He didn't even count as a first year! Actually it was downright humiliating that he had to go through this. He was certain they could have "sorted" him somewhere in private. But then… if this was punishment, it made sense that he would be humiliated as much as possible. Damn Valar…

Sauron watched how a rather old wizard's hat got put on a stool, and raised eyebrows as the thing started to sing. The style of the song reminded him of Middle-Earth minstrels… Then the sorting began, and the whole process somewhat puzzled him. They actually relied on the judgment of a talking piece of garment to sort students into fitting houses? He didn't have much time to think, because soon the stern lady called out.

"Sauron Gorthaur."

He got to sit on the ridiculously small stool with the hat on his head. Much to his surprise, he suddenly heard a voice in his mind.

"Well, well… what do we have here? I don't think I've sorted one like you before… Mairon is a beautiful name, by the way. Too bad you don't use it anymore…"

Sauron almost answered out loud, but corrected himself and thought.

"What?"

"Hmm… where to put you… Let's see, you're not exactly loyal, are you?"

"Excuse me? I am loyal to Melkor, I am his most trusted lieutenant! I continued his work on Middle-Earth!"

"Obeisance out of fear is not loyalty, and neither is picking the least bad of two options, Mairon. Didn't you repent after the War of Wrath, only to run away out of fear for trial?"

Sauron scowled.

"All right, that wasn't my proudest moment…"

"It's still to be seen if what you did then was the least bad of your options, actually. As for bravery… I think we answered that question with previous example, didn't we?"

"You're a fucking hat! What right do you have to judge me?"

"I am the Sorting Hat, and that places you, literally, under me. I have all the right to judge you. Now, where was I? No loyalty, no bravery…"

Sauron felt the growing urge to pull the hat off his head and kick it.

"I'm not going to put you in Slytherin. Made that mistake once, not doing it again. You're cunning and power-hungry enough for it, but you need to find yourself a place in the world first. So, then remains only one house for you, Mairon. You seek knowledge, insight and understanding, so I'm sure you'll do well in RAVENCLAW!"

In the meantime, more than five minutes had passed and the whole Great Hall had been observing Sauron's expressive facial expressions while the hat made its decision. While the Ravenclaws clapped a little apprehensively, Sauron put the hat back on the stool, grumbling under his breath.

"I'll get you back for this, Hat."

The Hat appeared to grin.

"We'll see, we'll see…"

With clenched fists and smoldering red eyes he made his way to the Ravenclaw table. He then realized the symbol of the house… was an eagle. Oh, the irony… One girl waved enthusiastically at him, she had apparently kept a spot. Luna Lovegood. Since no one else was very eager to let the strange and evil looking new guy sit next to them, he had no choice but to sit down next to Luna.

"I told you we'd meet again soon."

He didn't answer, only gave her a most dangerous look… that she answered with a happy smile. Wasn't anyone intimidated by him anymore? Okay, the rest of the table didn't count; it only took one non-intimidated person to ruin his status after all. He felt awkward and out of place, and for once he wished Ginny Weasley was there. He didn't like to admit it, but she was probably the only thing that made this punishment bearable…

Headmaster Dumbledore made announcements, and one of those concerned a tournament in which more schools would compete. It sounded… relatively familiar, actually. He recalled that the people of Gondor organized things like that as well, quests for glory to keep warriors occupied in peacetime… Sauron hoped the tasks would be extremely dangerous and preferably end in a bloody mess. After all he'd been through he could use a bit of familiar entertainment… (With his luck however, they would probably be patting bunnies and baking pies for tasks.)

The rest of the meal, Sauron spent thinking up irrational things Námo and Manwë were probably doing at the moment. One of those was watching him in a palantìr and rolling on the floor with laughter. Maybe they had even invited those nasty, horrible Hobbits to watch with them. He could just feel his anger rise at the mere thought of it.

"When you aren't sure, give people the benefit of doubt. If anything it's good for your temper."

Again, Luna gave him one of those prophecy-like advices, staring at him unblinkingly. How unpleasant it might be though, she was right. He took a deep breath and banned Hobbits from his mind. For all he knew they had fallen in Orodruin and died a satisfactory death by fire.

(Pagebreak)

"I don't like that guy, Ginny."

"Harry, you don't know him, at all! Besides, he's in Ravenclaw. Ravenclaw isn't exactly known to produce evil wizards, is it?"

"Ron told me about his wand."

"Right, because that is so defining. Who is it again whose wand is a brother to You-Know-Who's?"

Harry sighed.

"You know what I mean. Something about him just doesn't sit right with me."

Ginny shook her head.

"Really, you shouldn't judge him before you get to know him. He's…" She hesitated for a moment. Sauron wasn't really nice, not even if you got to know him, and she wasn't sure he wasn't dangerous either. "A bit like Snape, I think." She eventually said. Harry raised an eyebrow.

"Like Snape? That guy?"

"That guy has a name, Harry. And I know he's a little strange, but…" She sighed. "He's been through a lot and everything here is new for him. Cut him some slack, will you?"

Harry gave her a dark glance.

"Please watch out with him. I… I don't want you to be harmed."

Ginny smiled.

"I'll manage."

Harry left, and Ginny contemplated his words. Two people had warned her already for Sauron, and she couldn't really blame them. He had a terrible temper, was perpetually grumpy, and he exuded an aura of horrible doom and danger. Then why did she like him? Ginny found that she didn't really know; she just found that she did. Despite all his dangerousness and evil flaming glares she had the feeling that Sauron was in truth just really confused and not all that bad. She couldn't really tell anyone, and she was sort of sure Sauron himself would think it an insult, but that didn't change her idea about it.

(Author's Apologies)

So, Sauron meets the Hat. Maiar or not, no mind can resist the Hat, that thing is totally overpowered...

A little explanation of what the Hat tells Sauron... Of course Sauron followed Melkor because he believed in the same things, but I do think that our fallen Vala was not an easy master at all, and that Sauron must have rued his choice more than once. If Maedhros' treatment at Thangorodrim is a reference, Melkor was highly original and sadistic in his punishments. (And as Sauron was technically his servant, I don't think he escaped them...) And as for picking the least bad of two options; Sauron honestly must have thought waiting things out would be better than standing trial before the Valar... (And honestly, can you blame him?)

Also, if the Harry Potter universe has a deity, its name must be Irony. xD

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