chapter 9: house rivalry
"Oh, a tricky one, I see," a disembodied voice whispered in her ear, like an echo was sounding in her mind. "Almost as difficult as that Longbottom chap."
"So whatcha thinkin' about putting me?" Harper chirped.
"Hmm...You'd make a fine Slytherin. Fast-witted in dangerous conditions, cunning and willing to break some rules, it's all here for me to see."
Harper scrunched her nose. "No offense to the Slytherins or anything, but they all seem like a bunch of pricks."
The Sorting Hat made a noise that could've been laughter, but there was no body to make the sound. "Perhaps, but I have seen many like you before, all thinking the same. Not all Slytherins are what they appear to be, like you. You would come to like them, in time, but for now, better be… GRYFFINDOR!" it shouted to all in the Hall. The Hat was lifted from her head in the next moment by Professor McGonagall.
Not quite yet feeling satisfied with her House, Harper hopped off the stool and set the Hat down, meeting with loud applause from the lion's table.
Cheeks burning and back painfully straight, Harper stalked down the steps to the table and sat beside Hermione, the oldest Weasley brother sitting across from her. Then, with tense shoulders and a pounding heart, Harper gave all her attention to her brother.
Professor McGonagall had paused before she had reached his name, as if not quite believing it. "Harry Potter!" Her eyes scanned the faces of the remaining first years until they landed on Harry when he took a step forward.
The Hall was deathly quiet.
With baited breath and rapt attention, everyone's eyes followed Harper's brother all the way up to the stool. The Hat was lowered on his head and his eyes disappeared beneath the fabric.
Even though the Hall was so quiet someone could hear a fly buzzing from the other side of the room, Harper could see Harry's lips moving but not make out what he was saying to the Hat.
A few tense minutes passed by until, with a lurch of her stomach, the Hat called loudly, "GRYFFINDOR!"
The Hall remained in a thick silence for another moment before the lion table exploded in applause, many of them cheering, the Weasley triplets calling, "We got Potter! We got Potter!" and many students jumped up and down in their seats. The other tables grumbled about the "unfairness" while Percy Weasley stood to shake hands with her brother.
Feeling childish excitement blooming in her chest, Harper ignored the shouting of everyone else and hugged Harry tightly when he came within arms-reach.
Harry laughed at his sister's happy face and couldn't help mirroring her expression. While the Hat had pondered over which of the two Houses to put Harry in, Slytherin or Gryffindor, it had mentioned that Harper didn't care for her House unless Harry was in it. He had felt the same and was glad to be sitting beside her now. After Harry had settled, the ghost with the ruff from earlier popped up from the middle of the table so only his head was visible.
A few of the first years screamed at the sudden ghost head in the platter - like something out of a bad horror movie - while older students smiled and greeted him politely. The ghost returned the polite greetings and left from the middle of the table, coming over to instead sit next to Harry.
He patted him on the shoulder and Harry shuddered - it felt like he had been dunked in a frozen lake.
Swallowing the lump that had appeared in his throat, Harry cast the ghost a weary smile, which the ghost returned, before he fixed his eyes on the stool to watch the rest of the kids Sorted.
The ghost's transparent skin shone eerily in the candlelight. Harry quickly looked away in case the ghost turned back.
When Harry turned to look at the High Table, he realized he had a better view here. A small number of chairs were set up on either side of the golden throne in the middle, only now Harry realized that there was a person sitting there. A man with a long, silvery beard, half moon spectacles, and fashionable wizard robes sat in the throne with his bony fingers knitted together. Harry recognized him at once from his Chocolate Frog as Albus Dumbledore.
A few chairs down from Professor Dumbledore, with his purple turban still wrapped tightly around his head, was Professor Quirrell. He looked just as nervous and jumpy as the last time Harry saw him, and on his right was a man with greasy black hair and long black robes. He was looking right at Harper. She didn't seem to notice anyone staring at her yet. Harry nudged her side discreetly and when she turned to look at him, she caught the eye of the professor.
Their black eyes locked, Harper's own reflecting the candlelight till they shone gold, and she seemed to be in some sort of trance.
Brow furrowed and head tilted to the side, Harper studied the teacher closely and he seemed to be doing the same. Then his black eyes shifted to Harry.
A stinging pain went through his scar and Harry winced, putting a hand to his forehead and turned away. Harper looked at him in alarm and grabbed his shoulders, breaking the eye contact she had with the professor, and turned him towards her.
Panic painted on her face and grip on his shoulders tight, Harper asked, "What's wrong?"
"S-Scar hurts," Harry muttered, but the pain had already faded to a dull prickle. She must have picked up on the relieved look on his face, for her own face relaxed and her hands left his shoulders slowly.
Glaring half-heartedly at him, and hissed quietly, "Don't scare me like that again."
Unnoticed by the two, the students around them had witnessed what happened, but were just as lost as Harry was. While he had been bothered by his scar's unexpected pain, the Hat had continued calling the last of the students.
Professor McGonagall called, "Rogers, Terence" and a boy with short brown hair and dark blue eyes stepped forward.
Upon the boy sitting down and the Hat being placed on his head, the Hall had calmed somewhat, until Harper.
"What the h-!" Harper shouted, having jumped from her seat to glare at the boy, but was quickly yanked back down by Harry. He had wide green eyes and was staring at Terence with great surprise, but had the reflexes to pull Harper back down before she blurted anything bad out.
Almost everyone at their table had turned to look at her in shock, even Professors McGonagall and Dumbledore hadn't been expecting the outburst.
Terence Rogers was a boy who lived a few neighborhoods away from Privet Drive and was a member of Dudley's gang. He was the smartest of the pack and would often create strategies to different ways of beating other kids up, or even evading trouble. To say the twins greatly disliked him would be an understatement.
After a steely glare from Professor McGonagall, the Hat also seemed a little startled, the rest of their table went back to staring at Terence and waiting for his House to be called. Seems everyone was deciding to ignore Harper for the rest of the Ceremony.
"RAVENCLAW!" the blue and bronze table clapped, though a bit warily, as Terence hopped off the stool and headed their way, with a scowl at the twins as he passed. It was returned.
Ron had, as expected, ended up in Gryffindor like the rest of his siblings. Percy was greeting Ron maturely while the triplets were all slapping him on the back or ruffling his already unkempt hair.
The last student called was "Zabini, Blaise" and he was Sorted into Slytherin with a satisfied smirk.
Professor McGonagall rolled up her scroll, stuck it back in her robes, took the Sorting Hat, and put it away. As she took her seat, Albus Dumbledore stood up from his own and raised his hands.
The Hall quieted at once as the headmaster beamed at them all. "Welcome," he said cheerfully. "Welcome to a new year at Hogwarts. Before we begin the banquet, I wish to say a few words. And here they are: nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak!"
Professor Dumbledore sat back in his seat as hundreds upon hundreds of platters full of all kinds of food appeared on the table, their goblets filling with pumpkin juice and golden plates setting themselves before everyone. As excited cheers broke out at the sight of all the delicious food, so did chatter and everyone tucked in.
Harper stared in disbelief at all the food before her. She doubted even Dudley had seen so much food in his whole life. With that smug thought crossing her mind, she early dug in as Harry struck up a conversation with the ghost, Percy, and Ron.
"What was that about?" Hermione asked as she dumped some boiled potatoes and vegetables on her shimmering gold plate.
Taking large helpings of bacon, pudding, and roast beef, which earned her a disgusted look from the brunette, Harper asked, "What?"
When Hermione eyed the plate, Harper rolled her eyes and scooped some carrots as well. "Happy?"
When she sighed and didn't answer, Harper grinned and tore into her food. It wasn't that she was an unhealthy eater - she never really had the chance with her porker cousin around - but it wasn't like she only ate healthy things either. She'd sneak candy for her and Harry whenever she could, which wasn't often, and tried to eat a nice balance of everything on the food pyramid. She wanted to stay fit enough that she could outrun Dudley and not have to worry about her health later on in life. But it was still nice to gorge every now and then.
As she chomped down on her bacon, she remembered Hermione asked her a question. Swallowing thickly, she coughed and took a gulp of pumpkin juice. When her throat was cleared, she rasped out, "Terence is a friend of my cousin's. He's a real arse and we don't get along well. You can imagine my surprise to see the little weasel here," she added with a huff.
With a frustrated look from Ron, she quickly muttered a sorry.
"I can understand that," Hermione said with her eyes on her fork as a few students screamed when the ghost pulled his head nearly clean off his neck.
Harper laughed along with the older students at the reactions before she directed her attention back to Hermione.
"Sorry," Harper said after a pause. "You gotta lot of jerks bothering you?" Her nod was almost undetected.
Harper sighed and placed down her knife and fork. "Guess neither of us have a lot of friends, huh?" When Hermione didn't respond, Harper said with a small smile, "Well, neither of us are gonna get any friends by sulking. You wanna be mine?"
Hermione snapped her head up quickly with wide brown eyes.
She had never had any friends before. Everyone at school would tease her for being a bookworm, always spending time in the libraries willingly and avoiding playing sports with the other kids in favor of reading a thick encyclopedia she would find. For someone like Harper Potter, someone who seemed like she was more likely to be the bully, Hermione never would have expected it. After all, the only times people her own age were ever nice to her was when they wanted her to do their homework.
When Hermione hesitated, Harper smiled reassuringly to her.
With a small smile of her own, she said, "Sure. Friends."
….
Hello, everyone
I'm sure most of you would've noticed my absence by now. Or you might not've cared. Whatever. Since Christmas, I kinda lost my writing mojo. Even with 9 and 10 mostly complete, I was just in this off-mood. I'm feeling a bit better. Anyways, I decided to take it slow. Updates will no longer be on Sundays, just whenever I can get things out. I am not abandoning, that's a dick move. My friend started nagging me to write at least one word a day (I'm writing a paragraph or two, chill), and hopefully I'll be more motivated soon.
Chapter 10 might come out within the next two weeks. Maybe. I'm hopeful. I hope you guys had a nice break :)