Dreaming through Hogwarts
by Healer Pomfrey
Please refer to the disclaimer and warnings in chapter 1!
Finally, Dumbledore addressed the students. "Welcome back to Hogwarts, my dear students. As I told you at the Leaving Feast, we're going to have a small Sorting before dinner tonight."
Harry eagerly followed the Headmaster's speach, and when the old wizard finally asked, "Who would like to join the Magical Advancement Programme?" Harry and Hermione were the first to raise their hands.
Harry had the impression as if not only his parents, but all teachers were grinning at him, and he unsurely averted his eyes to the table. He almost sighed in relief, when Dumbledore asked all who were interested to come to the front of the Hall in order to meet Sopho, the Sorting Hat, and Harry hurriedly rose from his seat, along with half of his Gryffindor classmates.
'I hope he'll choose me,' he thought, wondering if he'd be able to talk the Hat into sorting him for the programme. All of a sudden, he was pulled out of his thoughts, when the twins addressed him from both sides.
"Harry…"
"… we've invented some awesome fun potions recipes."
"Can you ask your father…"
"… if we may use the Potions classroom to brew them together?"
Harry chuckled, thinking, 'Fun potions invented by the twins sounds like great fun.' Glancing at his father, he whispered back, "I'll ask him later on."
While he was talking with the twins, Harry absentmindedly listened to the Sorting Hat shouting "Dismissed" into the Hall multiple times.
"Harry Snape," McGonagall suddenly called his name.
Harry stumbled towards the stool for the Hat, and before he could even think about what to tell the Hat, McGonagall had placed it on his head, and Sopho began to talk to him.
'Ah, it's you. I told you you'd have done well in Slytherin. But of course, stupid Gryffindors know everything better. Now why should I place you into the Magical Advancement Programme?'
'I love Potions, and I'd like to learn more about it,' Harry thought back, 'and maybe being in the programme would give me more time so I could try to find out some ancient potions, which have been lost in our time.'
The Hat did not reply but shouted into the Hall "Accepted."
Like in a trance, Harry handed Sopho back to his Head of House and returned to the Gryffindor table, slipping into the empty seat next to Hermione. Only a glance into the girl's face told him that she had been accepted as well.
"Harry, isn't it awesome?" the girl cheered, causing Ron to roll his eyes in annoyance.
A short while later, when the Sorting was over and everyone had returned to their tables, Dumbledore rose from his chair. "All those, who have been accepted into the Magical Advancement Programme, please assemble here in the Great Hall after the last afternoon class tomorrow."
HP
When everyone returned to Gryffindor, the Sorting remained the main topic. Apart from Hermione and Harry, the twins as well as their older brother Percy, Oliver Wood, the Quidditch captain, and Alicia Spinnet had been approved by the Sorting Hat. To Harry's surprise, there were no sixth and seventh year students, who had shown interest to attend the programme.
"They probably have enough work to do, considering that they have to prepare for their NEWTs," Percy informed them.
Harry was so distracted by the excitement about the Magical Advancement Programme that he completely forgot to return to his parents' quarters to have his father help him occluding his mind. Only when he tiredly scrambled into his bed did he remember that Severus had instructed him to come home for that purpose, but it was already far beyond curfew, so that Harry dismissed the thought.
'I'm just going to have a night full of visions,' he mused, inwardly groaning as he lay down, wondering what to think about. The first question that came into his mind was to wonder if there were potions invented by Salazar Slytherin or other great Potions Masters, which had become lost over the years.
As could be expected, it did not take long, before he was pulled into a vision.
Beginning of dream
Harry found himself in the Potions classroom. He was sitting alone at one of the students' tables, while at the front of the classroom Salazar Slytherin was setting up a cauldron, informing the student in his company about his every move.
After a long time of brewing a complicated potion, Salazar extinguished the flame under the cauldron. "Well done, Balthazar," he commended the boy for helping with the preparation of the ingredients.
"Dad, how are we going to bottle the potion?" the boy queried. "How is Amaterasu going to take it?"
Salazar quirked an eyebrow. "I'm going to spell it right into her stomach. In fact, I could also put a charm on her, which would make her eyes turn white, so that no student can be harmed by looking into her eyes. However, she told me that her head always hurts for weeks after having the charm placed on her, so that we're going to try it with a potion this time."
"Are you sure that it's going to work though, Dad?"
"Balthazar, I'm a Potions Master," Salazar growled. "Do you think you'll become a Potions Master just by inventing rubbish?"
End of dream
'That was interesting,' Harry thought. 'Amaterasu was the basilisk from one of my first visions. She must be Salazar's familiar. I wonder if she's still around somewhere here in the castle. Oh well, she must be if Rowena's vision of me battling her is authentic. We should try to find out something about her. I don't want to kill her, if she's Salazar's familiar.'
Not wanting to see any other visions, Harry got up and retreated to the common room, taking the books, which he had received for Christmas, with him.
HP
To Harry, the day seemed infinitely long. Not only was he extremely tired, but he also couldn't wait for the meeting for the Magic Advancement Programme to commence. The thought 'I wonder who of the other Houses' first years have been sorted for the Programme' occupied his mind during his classes.
tbc...
A huge thanks to the kind readers who fed my muse! See you tomorrow...