Chapter 10:
The Pit
Draco put on a smug face when the two large boys that looked like Dudley sat next to Zabini. Professor McGonagall rolled up the scroll and took the Sorting Hat away. Harry looked down at his empty gold plate. He had only just realized how hungry he was since he ate at the train. Albus Dumbledore had gotten to his feet. A relief for Harry. He no longer needed an excuse to avoid eye contact with Draco and Zabini who had created an ominous atmosphere in the table.
Dumbledore was beaming at the students, his arms opened wide as if nothing could have pleased him more than to see them all there. "Welcome," he said. "Welcome to a new year at Hogwarts! Before we begin our banquet, I would like to say a few words. And here they are, Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak!
"Thank you!" He sat back down.
All the houses except Slytherin clapped and cheered. Harry didn't know whether to laugh or not. "Is he - a bit mad?" he asked the surrounding Slytherin students, uncertainty. Draco was left mouth-open as she was about to comment, but someone else spoke first. "Are you stupid?" said the tall, thin boy with a weakly built in front of Harry. "He's considered the Best wizard in the whole world. But he is nothing compared to You-Know-Who."
"Please Nott. If the Dark Lord had been anything close to the greatest wizard of all time, he would be here now," said Blaise. Harry's eyebrows crossed but quickly forgot about what the two boys were arguing in the background. His mind was now concentrated in the dishes in front of him were now piled with food.
"Need some help?" Draco watched Harry cut up his steak, "That one is-"
"Can you just not- ...please stop." The Dursley's had never exactly starved Harry, but he'd never been allowed to eat as much as he liked. Dudley had always taken anything that Harry really wanted, even if It made him sick. Harry piled his plate with a bit of everything except the peppermints and began to eat before Draco could make a move.
Draco thought Harry was being a jerk but agreed that everything in the table looked delicious, and remembering what Harry told her in Diagon Alley about his muggle relatives she decided to say nothing. Zabini looked at another table disgusted by what Draco was doing. He knew Draco well since they were little and if she was showing these feelings it wasn't because in her heart she was a good person.
Harry, who was starting to feel warm and sleepy, looked up at the High Table again. Hagrid was drinking deeply from his goblet. Professor McGonagall was talking to Professor Dumbledore. Professor Quirrell, in his absurd turban, was talking to a teacher with greasy black hair, a hooked nose, and sallow skin.
It happened very suddenly. The hook-nosed teacher looked past Quirrell's turban straight into Harry's eyes - and a sharp, hot pain shot across the scar on Harry's forehead. "Ouch!" Harry clapped a hand to his head. "What happened?" asked Draco. "N-nothing. I- I just felt-" The pain had gone as quickly as it had come. Harder to shake off was the feeling Harry had gotten from the teacher's look - a feeling that he didn't like Harry at all.
"Who's that teacher talking to Professor Quirrell?" Harry asked Draco. "You know Professor Quirrell already? Are you interest in the Dark Arts, Potter? The other teacher is Professor Snape. He teaches Potions, but he doesn't want to -Professor Snape wants the Defense Against the Dark Arts job." Harry watched Snape for a while, but Snape didn't look at him again.
At last, the desserts too disappeared, and Professor Dumbledore got to his feet again. The hall fell silent. "Ahern - just a few more words now that we are all fed and watered. I have a few start-of-term notices to give you."
"First years should note that the forest on the grounds is forbidden to all pupils. And a few of our older students would do well to remember that as well." Dumbledore's twinkling eyes flashed in the direction of the Gryffindor table. "I have also been asked by Mr. Filch, the caretaker, to remind you all that no magic should be used between classes in the corridors."
"Quidditch trials will be held in the second week of the term. Anyone interested in playing for their house teams should contact Madam Hooch."
"And finally, I must tell you that this year, the third-floor corridor on the right-hand side is out of bounds to everyone who does not wish to die a very painful death." Harry laughed, but he was one of the few who did. "He's not serious?" he muttered to Draco, but she didn't reply. "Dumbledore doesn't fool around," said Zabini, frowning at Nott.
"Isn't odd that he didn't give us a reason why we're not allowed to go there?" Nott said. "What about the forest on the grounds? He didn't give a reason for that either," said Harry swiftly. "The forest's full of dangerous beasts, everyone knows that," answered Draco with a serious expression. "Oh," commented Harry.
"I don't think the prefects know either." said Draco when she noticed Gemma Farley talking with the other Slytherin prefects."And now, before we go to bed, let us sing the school song!" cried Dumbledore. Harry noticed that the other teachers' smiles had become rather fixed except for Professor Snape. Dumbledore gave his wand a little flick as if he was trying to get a fly off the end, and a long golden ribbon flew out of it, which rose high above the tables and twisted itself, snakelike, into words.
"Everyone, choose your favorite tune," said Dumbledore, "and off we go!"
Harry ignored Dumbledore's song and turned to Draco whispering to her, " You told me earlier that we are related. How are we related?" asked Harry. "I don't know. The pure-blood families are all interrelated according to my father," said Draco. "If you're only going to let your sons and daughters marry pure-bloods your choice is very limited, he said to me once, there are hardly any of us left."
Harry raised an eyebrow for a second, "Huh." barely processing the thought of it. "My first cousin Dorea married Charlus Potter, have you heard of him?" Harry shocked his head sideways. "Well, is barely a family tree connection perhaps we are probably not related at all."
"I hope so." Harry smiled. Their moment was interrupted by those who clapped loudest after Dumbledore finished the song. "Ah, music," he said, wiping his eyes. "A magic beyond all we do here! And now, bedtime. Off you trot!"
The Slytherins were the last students to followed the other houses through the chattering crowds, out of the Great Hall, "All First-Years gather around and follow me, please." said Gemma Farley. She led them to a door on the right side of the Entrance Hall. "The Slytherin common room is this way." Behind the door were a set of stone steps which descend deep into the dungeons.
"That narrow staircase leads down to Snape's office, Head of Slytherin House. Don't visit him unless you're dying. Professor Snape doesn't like the company of others that much." Draco saw some of the first-year students swallowed. Harry's legs were like lead again, but only because he was so tired and full of food.
"If you need something you come to me, I am Gemma Farley or you go to any of the other Slytherin prefects, we are given extra authority to move around the school and each of us has different responsibilities given to us by the Head of House and the Headmaster himself. We help out around the school grounds, so look for us if you need anything." Harry lowered his shoulders relieved that he wouldn't get lost in this old castle.
"One more thing." Gemma turned around forcing the students to stop walking. "If you have problems not related to the school, you go talk to the Headmaster about it. Dumbledore's office is located in the Headmaster's Tower. If you don't know where it is you can ask any of the Slytherin prefects to escort you there."
Harry saw that the entrance to the common room was located behind a bare stretch of a stone wall, similar to Diagon Alley, but this one was in the dungeons of Hogwarts Castle. A password was also required to enter it; whereupon the passage was revealed to lead to the common room. He was too sleepy even to be surprised that the other students were yawning and dragging their feet, and Harry was just wondering how much farther they had to go when they came to a sudden halt.
Harry noticed the moving paintings in the room when someone else spoke, "Our emblem is the serpent, the wisest of creatures; our house colours are emerald green and silver, and our common room lies behind this concealed entrance deep down in the dungeons of Hogwarts. As you'll see, these windows look out into the depths of the Hogwarts lake. We often see the giant squid swooshing by — and sometimes more interesting creatures. We like to feel that our hangout has the aura of a mysterious, underwater shipwreck." A male prefect rocking dark short hair said upon their arrival.
Harry looked around the common room it was a cave-like room with greenish lamps and chairs. The dungeon extended partway under the lake, giving the light in the room a green tinge. The common room had lots of low backed black and dark green button-tufted, leather sofas; skulls; and dark wood cupboards. "What a grand atmosphere, but also quite a cold one." Said, Harry.
"Yes, it is Mr. Potter." said the male prefect directing himself at the crowd of first-years next to Harry, "The password to the common room changes every fortnight, and it is posted on the noticeboard. Here is the first rule of the house. Never bring students from other houses into the common room, or reveal the password." As he continued on Harry turned to Draco. "What is he talking about?" asked Harry. "No outsider has entered the common room for more than seven centuries. Is tradition." Draco told him with a smug face.
Gemma directed the girls through one door to their dormitory and the boys through another. At the end of the common room, a hallway led to the dormitories - girls to the left, and boys to the right - they found their beds at last: four-curtains hung from their beds, sharing the house colours. Their trunks had already been brought up and placed in front of their beds.
Draco waited outside until all the girls enter the dormitory. She grabbed Gemma by her rope. "Hey, where's my room?" Draco said. Gemma turned around crossed arms. "Well?" asked Draco. Gemma moved her hand toward the dormitory with a smug face.
"Is this a joke?" Draco couldn't close her mouth and was getting angry by the second. "Professor Snape has requested that prefects make the necessary arrangements so only students through the fifth year and above can have their own private rooms."
Draco opened her mouth to say something but she couldn't find the words, and finally decided on, "My father will hear about this." and she entered the dormitory.
On the boy's dorms, too tired to talk much, Harry pulled on his pajamas and fell into bed. "So you know Draco?" Harry muttered to Zabini through the hangings who's bed laid next to Harry's. "Don't talk to me, Potter." Zabini closed his curtains and rolled to the other side of the bed.
Harry wanted to apologize for Draco's behavior earlier in the Great Hall, and after a lot of thought on how to apologize to Zabini, Harry fell asleep almost at once.