Previously on What If
The train began to slow and finally screeched to a halt. the boys looked at each other for moment, wondering what to do, when a sudden rush of noise flooded the train. compartment doors slammed open and loud voices and thudding feet filled the hallway. Ashi looked out the window at the platform and watched the student file onto the station platform. the noise outside their compartment lessened and Ashi stood up. He stretched his arms above his head and yawned toothily.
"Well," he said to Ron, who was staring nervously out the window. "Shall we go?"
"What? Oh. Yeah," said Ron and he also stood up.
The two boys joined the last few people shuffling through the hallway on their way to disembark. As he stepped off the last stair, Ashi heard a booming voice yelling," Firs' years! Firs' years! Over 'ere!" Ashi looked around and saw Hagrid standing off on one end of the platform holding up a lantern in one hand and cupping the other around his mouth while he repeated his call. A group of scared-looking children was huddled around him. Ashi walked toward Hagrid, completely forgetting Ron, who was struggling to push through the crowd to keep up.
"Hi, Hagrid," said Ashi.
"Oh. 'ello 'arr—ah—Ashi," said Hagrid, obviously straining to remember which name to call the boy by. "Anymore firs' years? Right then. Foller me."
Hagrid led the group down a dark, steep path to a dock with several small boats moored to it. Ashi climbed into one of them with Ron and another two boys and sat down near the front. Once they were all in, Hagrid commanded the boats to move and they were off, drifting through the blackness of the lake with only the lanterns at the bows of each of their boats indicate where they were going. Nothing happened for a while and Ashi began to wonder how the older students got to the school and whether the first years went to a different building than the rest when they rounded a bend and Ashi heard several awed 'Whoa's behind him.
He looked up to see the biggest castle he had ever seen. It was even bigger than the ones he had seen in France, and certainly in much better condition. Several towers rose into the air to touch the stars and lights glinted from nearly every window. It was spectacular.
Ashi continued to stare at the castle as they drifted toward it in the boats, but was distracted when he heard a soft splash not too far away from them. He peered into the darkness and saw ripples in the water coming closer to the boats. It was too dark even for Ashi to see what exactly was stalking them. As the ripples entered the circle of light cast by the boat's lantern, Ashi began to hear the other boys whispering behind him. He kept his eyes on the water.
As the ripples neared the boat, they grew smaller, nearly disappearing due to the slowness of their approach. Ashi felt something hit the boat gently and the three boys behind him each gave a little cry of surprise as they clenched the sides of the boat. Ashi leaned out over water and looked in. He saw nothing at first, but then he noticed a great eye staring back up at him; it was at least five inches in diameter. Ashi wasn't too versed in the magical portion of the animal kingdom, but he knew there were only so many animals that lived in water that had eyes that big so he wasn't too surprised when a huge tentacle came slithering slowly out of the water toward him.
Ashi leaned back into the boat and looked at the giant squid's tentacle, which swayed slightly in front of him. Tentatively, he reached out a hand and touched the side of the tentacle without suction cups. Even though it was only the tip of the tentacle, it was so big his fingers wouldn't have been able to touch each other if he had grasped it. It was surprisingly soft and felt rubbery and cold. Ashi could feel the muscles churning beneath his touch and the blood being pumped just beneath the skin. Ashi smiled and reached to touch one of the cups on the opposite side. They pulsed and wriggled beneath his finger.
The tentacle reached back a little and the very tip touched Ashi's face, exploring him as he explored it. It started at Ashi's temple just below his hairline and dragged the tip gently down his cheek, then reached back up to navigate through Ashi's hair. This would have been a rather awkward and disgusting experience for anyone else, but Ashi was quite comfortable with the squid's actions. It felt like the gentle caress of a loving mother and he felt no animosity, nor harmful intent from the creature.
"AAAHHHH!"
The tentacle went rigid and sank quickly back into the water with a plop. Ashi watched the eye blink once before it sank below the boat and out of sight. He looked back to glare at whoever had screamed. He had started with the occupants of the other boats because the scream sounded like a girl's but had to try very hard not to grin when he realized that the one who had screamed was Ron.
"D-d-did you s-s-ee that?" asked Ron with a squeaky voice, pointing at Ashi.
The two other boys in the boat both stared open-mouthed at Ashi and one slowly nodded. The other students had apparently missed all the action though because Ashi heard shouts of "What? What happened?" from behind them. Ashi glared hard at Ron before turning back to the front of the boat and sat down again. He had lost interest in the castle now and wanted to hurry up and get there.
It was another few minutes before they reached the other end of the lake and disembarked on its banks. Ashi now found himself relatively alone in the crowd of students. Ron stood a few feet away, but instead of chatting animatedly with Ashi about the castle as others were, he only glanced nervously at him every few seconds. The group followed Hagrid up the steps to the castle doors. They creaked open after Hagrid knocked and they were greeted by the face of a tall, stern-looking witch. Hagrid handed the first years off to the witch, whom he addressed as Professor McGonagall, and the children followed her down the torch-lit, stone hallway.
She led them into a small room and Ashi could hear the chattering of many voices on the other side of one wall. Apparently, the rest of the school was already here and were waiting for them. Time for the Sorting. Professor McGonagall explained the Houses and the rules for the children, then left the chamber. The children around Ashi began muttering about how the Sorting would be done. Several of them suggested a paper test and he heard Ron mention the bit about wrestling a troll to his new friends. Ashi had already explained why Ron's suggestion was rubbish and, while the paper test was more likely, there would be several children from non-wizarding families to be sorted and the chance that any of them would have any clue about magic at this moment was almost nonexistent.
Ashi was starting to get impatient again, when a group of ghosts wafted in through the back wall, causing a few of the girls to shriek. The ghosts were arguing about something and completely ignored the children until one ghost shouted, "New students!" and said a few praiseful words about his old House, Hufflepuff, to them. Professor McGonagall came back to the chamber, interrupting the chattering ghosts. They grumbled a bit, but left quickly, drifting straight through the first years. When they passed in front of Ashi, however, several of them tipped their hats or bobbed their heads at him and smiled. Ashi nodded back, wondering why he was getting so much attention. First the squid and now the ghosts.
Professor McGonagall instructed them to form a line and led them out into the Great Hall. It was so big, Ashi could barely see the other end. He couldn't see the ceiling at all because of the spell decorating it like the night sky and the hundreds of candles floating in the air. The students sat at tables as long as the Hall. At the head of the hall, a significantly shorter table at which the teachers sat was set perpendicular to the others. The tables were littered with golden goblets and plates and each table had several flags of varying colors hanging over them.
McGonagall stopped the first years in front of the head table and softly placed a stool in the middle of the line. She pulled out an old, extremely dirty and tattered wizard's hat and placed it on the stool. She stepped back and nothing happened for a few seconds. Then, the hat began to sing. Nearly half the song was about how important the hat itself was, then it changed gears and sang about the four houses. Ashi didn't see why the song was necessary, but the whole hall burst into applause after it finished. McGonagall stepped forward again and explained the Sorting Process then began to call names in alphabetical order.
The first few when to Hufflepuff, then some to Ravenclaw, one or two to Gryffindor, and one or two to Slytherin. Sometimes the hat shouted out the house at once, other times it took a while to decide. Hermione Granger and the boy who lost his toad both went to Gryffindor. It seemed to take forever before Ashi's name was called. He almost missed it because McGonagall didn't call the name he was used to.
"Potter, Harry!"
He stepped forward to the stool and immediately heard the students begin to whisper.
"Harry Potter?"
"Did she say 'Potter'?"
"Is it really him?"
He saw several of them rise from their seats to get a better look at him as he sat down, but then his vision was blocked by the brim of the hat. The world went silent as the hat dropped over his ears and Ashi started to hope he would be able to visit the hat more often to escape from the torrents of noise his sensitive ears always picked up. He heard a soft chuckle when he finished his thought.
"No, my boy. I don't think we will see each other after this."
Ashi nearly cried out. The hat could read his mind!
"Yes, I can read your mind. How else would I be able to sort you into the right house?"
Ashi had to admit the hat made a valid point.
"Now, let's see. Hmm. Difficult. Very difficult. Plenty of courage. Not too shabby at being cunning. Very smart."
Ashi didn't really care where he went.
"Now, dear boy. This decision could affect your entire life and how the others treat you. You would fit in very well in any of the houses, but with your future, it would be best you had the most influence you could possibly have. Yours is a very hard path to travel, but if you find some friends, the road will be smoother. These children are eager to learn and even more eager to form bonds, not out of obligation, but out of a true desire to know you. Do not push them away, dear boy, and wait until the moment is right to show them your true self. They are quick to judge, but once you pass their tests, they will never let you down. Prove yourself to be faithful and good while you are in SLYTHERIN!"
Hello again!
This update came a lot later than I expected, but January has been quite a trip for me. I hope you enjoyed this chapter. I considered leaving out which House Ashi got sorted into, but I didn't want you all distracted worrying about it :)
Just in case any of you are Slytherin haters, I have reasons why he was sorted there. Granted, they're not very good, but this is my story. I mostly wanted Ashi to influence Draco into turning away from the Dark, but remember that the Sorting Hat had originally wanted to place him in Slytherin. My Harry is also different from the cannon Harry. He's much more reserved, mature, and responsible. Being with the other wolves has also made him more cunning and sly and proud.
Not all Slytherins are bad. Ashi, for one, is going to be good, Merlin was sorted into Slytherin, and I consider myself to be a good person as well, but when I took the Sorting on Pottermore last month, guess where I got sorted. It was kind of bizarre too; I also did the patronus test thing and I got an adder. It's kind of a small snake, but who cares. It's a snake, and I love snakes...and lizards and iguanas and generally anything slimy or scaly. If any of you are wondering how I'm a Christian and yet love snakes, THE SNAKE WAS JUST A VESSIL FOR SATAN. I doubt the snake had any choice in the matter. And the whole bit about, "I will put enmity between thy seed and her seed" I believe was said about Jesus and Satan, not the children of Eve and snakes.
Sorry about that random rant, but as I said before, I have absolutely no one to talk to. Moving on.
Fanfiction recommendation: Perfectly Alien by SignatureDish. It's a Transformers (movies)/HP crossover and it's amazing. Just as good as Kurinoone in my opinion. Stayed up way later than I should have reading it. There's an original and a rewrite; I recommend reading both of them. It's pretty interesting to see how he/she changes it. The only catch is that he/she updates extremely infrequently (roughly 1 chapter every 2 months). Still...
Wolf11 asked why Harry couldn't smell Pettigrew while was a rat. I'd like to say there was a reason when I wrote it, but there wasn't. I just forgot (don't know how I did that). So the reason I made up for not fixing it, other than being too lazy, was that Animagus have two different scents, both of which smell vaguely like the other. So while Peter was in rat form, he vaguely smells like his human self, but he hasn't used that form for so long that it has kind of worn away. That, coupled with the fact that there are thousands of humans surrounding him so he's sort of "plugging" his nose to keep out the stench, disguised the fact that the rat was actually human. Peter didn't notice Ashi because he was asleep and they obviously won't be meeting each other again in the near future.
Almost done. Just a few more things.
What I'm planning for Ashi is a kind of expanded Golden Trio. He's going to be one of those student who miraculously manages to make friends in almost all houses, Gryffindor included. So yes, Ron and Hermione will be included. It'll take a while for Ron to become friendly because he's a pretty biased person in general. Hermione not so much because she's a mudblood, and therefore her being rather different will help her connect with Ashi a little more, and because Ashi is rather excited to be studying magic. They'll become "study buddies." As for Ron...I don't know. Maybe Ashi will save him from some bullies or something. I wouldn't mind a few ideas from you guys about that.
One last thing: I am posting the first chapter of my WR/HP crossover with Lily and James ALIVE tonight so check it out if you're into that kind of thing. I'm calling it Who Am I. As the title suggests, once we get further into the story, Harry/Ashi (I'm probably going to keep the same basic storyline/names/character developments) will be questioning he existence as both human and wolf and why his wolf parents abandoned him in the graveyard that night (he doesn't know his wolf parents abandoned him because Lily and James never told anyone, not even Sirius or Dumbledore, where they found Ashi). This first few chapters will be the same as this one, at least until Voldemort attacks. Therefore, it will update much faster, about once a week until I reach the different parts; then it will slow way down. I plan to update these two stories alternately, but I don't know how often.
That's all for now folks! Feel free to review/PM me about which house/patronus you got on Pottermore if you did that.
Before I forget, THANK YOU TO ALL REVIEWERS. Although I think it was just Wolf11 that reviewed last chapter. Shame on the rest of you. Even "This is a great story!" or "This is a horrible story!" would be welcome. I would like to hear why it's a horrible story if you choose to send the latter, though.
See you next time!
-GH
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