Two's Company Chapter 10: The Sorting, a harry potter fanfic

Two's Company
by Teddylonglong

All recognizable Harry Potter characters belong to J. K. Rowling, and I am not earning anything by writing this story. I am merely borrowing the characters to play with them.
I am not a native speaker of English. Please excuse my mistakes.

Warnings: Completely AU, partly OOC, magically powerful Harry. Dumbledore/Weasley bashing.

It was in the evening of their eleventh birthday, right after their Granny had tucked them in and said good night – like she did every evening, even if they were already eleven – that Henry and Harry went to see Miranda. It only took Henry a minute to return to their room, where he impatiently waited for Harry to come back as well.

'Oh Merlin, I took him to Miranda. I hope he will take it well,' he thought to Sandra. 'Perhaps, he'll believe that I've completely messed up.'

'Well, then we're together in this anyway, but you haven't, and he'll understand. Miranda will teach him well,' she swiftly thought back, just when Harry manifested right next to him.

The twins remained quiet for a moment, eyeing each other, before Harry finally spoke up. "Thanks," he simply said."

"Do you regret being a twin again?" Henry enquired in a soft voice, giving his brother a sharp look.

"Of course not," Harry vehemently denied – much to Henry's relief.

During the four weeks before the beginning of their first Hogwarts year as students, the twins randomly assisted the professors with the preparations for the new school year.

They also spent much time in the potions lab with Severus, assisting in the brewing of the stock for the hospital wing as well as trying to further improve the Wolfsbane potion. So far, they had tried variations of the amount of basilisk egg and phoenix tears. The first attempt, however, which caused the werewolf to transform but enabled him to return to his human form immediately after the transformation, had remained the best.

If anyone noticed anything out of the normal about the twins, then nobody voiced their concern. Everyone simply seemed to believe that they were growing up and eager to finally become students at Hogwarts.

"Where do you think you're going to be sorted?" Theresa asked one day.

The twins exchanged a glance, knowing that the professors had gone as far as make bets about the question.

"Does it matter?"

"We don't really care."

"Where do you need us to go…"

"… to win the bet?" they then asked, causing their Granny to smirk.

"Well, the headmaster and Aunt Rolanda said you'd go to Gryffindor, Aunt Poppy, Uncle Remus and Professors Sprout and Flitwick believe that you should become Ravenclaws, Uncle Severus, Aunt Theresa and I bet for Slytherin," she admitted, letting out a sigh. "Nevertheless, I am still hoping for Gryffindor."

"I know that you would fit into any house though, and any of the house teams would kill to have you play Seeker or Chaser for them," Theresa continued.

"Interesting," the twins replied, looking at the two older witches in amusement.

A few days later, Harry and Henry boarded the Hogwarts Express, where they occupied a compartment together with Draco, Neville, Sandra and Susan. They spent the time chattering about their primary school, Hogwarts and the upcoming Sorting. Every now and then, they had to chase Neville's toad that notoriously tried to escape.

"He seems to not want to go to Hogwarts for whatever reason," Draco said, as he handed the small animal back to Neville in apparent disgust.

"I wonder why," Neville replied, giving the toad a sad look, as he gently caressed his pet. "Trevor, be nice, I want to have you with me." Turning to his friends, he asked, "Does none of you have a pet?"

"I have a raven, but I told him to fly straight to Hogwarts like Remus recommended," Draco spoke up.

"We left our familiars at Hogwarts in the first place," Harry replied.

"Do you have a raven as well?" Draco cast the twins a look of pure excitement.

"No, but a bird and a snake…"

"… and their names are Ignotus and Miranda," the twins replied, smiling, as they recalled how they had bonded with their familiars.

Beginning of memory

Harry and Henry entered the Magical Menagerie after their grandmother.

"Do you have an idea what kind of animal you wish?" they were asked, however, merely shrugged.

"We already have Neko…"

"… so, we don't really need another familiar…"

"… especially as there are more than enough owls at Hogwarts…"

"… in case we wish to send a letter to someone."

While they walked through the shop mainly looking at owls and kittens, they suddenly heard two animals speak to them, simultaneously. Upon taking a closer look, they realised that a black phoenix with green eyes and a few green back feathers was sitting on the shelf in front of them. Right next to it, a black snake with a green, Celtic pattern was curled up with its head raised towards them. All of a sudden, they felt incredibly happy.

#I just took the liberty of bonding with the two of you. I am a Death Phoenix, and I have been waiting for you for a long time,# they heard the phoenix trill.

At the same time, the snake requested, "Pleassse allow me to become your familiar asss well. I am an Aessssculapian ssserpent, most valuable for potions makers."

Harry and Henry exchanged a look of surprise.

"Will you also be willing…"

"… to bond with both of us?" they finally replied, causing the snake to nod its agreement.

"Will the two of you be willing to get along with each other…"

"… and bond with each other, too?"

#Yes,# the phoenix trilled back.

"Yes," the snake agreed.

The answers came straight away, and the twins nodded at each other in determination. 'Let's do this.'

End of memory

Harry and Henry climbed into a boat together with Susan and Sandra and thoroughly enjoyed the beautiful view onto Hogwarts. While they had known Hogwarts for several years, they had never seen the castle from this perspective.

An hour later, the twins were waiting for their grandmother to call their names from her long list, so that they could be sorted. The Bones sisters had already been sorted into Hufflepuff.

"Potter, Harry," the deputy headmistress finally called out.

After exchanging a glance with his twin, Harry stepped forward and sat on the stool, just before the Sorting Hat was placed onto his head. While the twins had seen the Hat sit on his shelf, whenever they visited the headmaster's office, they had never had the opportunity to speak with him.

"Hi Sopho," Harry whispered in excitement.

'Hello little one,' a faint voice replied right into his mind. 'What am I going to do with you?' the Hat asked.

Uncertain if it was a question for him or the Hat was rather speaking to himself, Harry thought back, 'I don't mind.'

'Well, you would fit into any house.' The Hat seemed thoughtful. 'Considering what you're hiding, I'd suggest Slytherin though, even if I know that Professor Dumbledore wishes for me to sort you into Gryffindor.'

'Slytherin is fine, but could you please sort my brother together with me, even if that may sound very Hufflepuff-ish?' Harry tried to send a pleading thought to the Hat.

'We'll see,' Sopho replied, before he shouted into the Hall, "Slytherin."

"Thanks," Harry whispered to the Hat, already handing him back to his grandmother, who cast him a proud smile.

He contentedly made his way to the Slytherin table, noticing that while the Great Hall had become extremely quiet in contrary to the applause that the other first-years had received, the Slytherin table began to applaud fiercely.

"Harry, you will be our new Seeker," Marcus, the Quidditch captain, told him, before he had even reached the table.

"Thanks," Harry replied, grinning, as he took the empty seat next to Draco.

In the meantime, Henry had been called to the Hat. When Harry looked up, he saw how Sopho barely touched Henry's head, when he already shouted, "Slytherin."

"Thanks Buddy," Henry replied aloud, as he handed the Hat back under huge applause coming from the Slytherin table.

While his brother was on the way to join him, Harry observed the reactions at the high table. While Dumbledore seemed to be outright disappointed, Severus was smirking in obvious approval, and everyone else looked at him, smiling broadly.

After the welcoming feast, a house-meeting took place in the Slytherin common room, much to the twins' surprise, as they knew that their Granny never held any house-meetings.

Severus explained the rules of his house, announcing that Slytherin had its own house point system of snakes for rewards and toads for lost points. He also pointed out that if they happened to receive a detention from any of the professors, they would also serve another detention with himself.

"Your house is your family, and I expect Slytherins to stick together. Here, within the house, you may fight as much as you wish, provided that no one gets hurt; however, no fight must leave this house. If you have any problems, which you can't solve by yourselves, ask a prefect or come to speak with me at any time. And now, I want the first-years to introduce themselves."

While in Gryffindor, the students were staying in dormitories with up to five people, the Slytherins only shared their rooms with one other person. Harry and Henry sighed in relief upon realising that they had a room together. Even if they knew all the other boys from attending the primary school together and got along well with Draco, Theodore, Blaise and even Vincent and Gregory, it was something else to just have to share with his twin.

"The headmaster was thoroughly pissed off," Harry told Henry, when they were getting ready for bed.

"Do you mind?" Henry asked, rolling his eyes.

"Nope."

"Nor do I, and Granny, Theresa and Severus won their bet."

"Yeah, that's great," Harry replied, feeling happy for the three people among the teachers who were the closest to them.

At breakfast the following morning, Severus distributed the timetables, and the twins realised in excitement that Transfiguration was their first morning class. When everyone was finished with their breakfast, they motioned the first-years to follow them and walked by the Gryffindor table to take their classmates with them to the classroom.

None of them noticed that Ronald Weasley did not follow them. Harry and Henry became distracted by a bushy-haired muggleborn girl, who kept asking questions.

"Why do you know your way so well around the castle? Why are the two of you in Slytherin? I've read everything about you in Hogwarts: A History and other books, and you're said to be on the light side, and all Slytherins are dark. Oh, by the way, can you show me the library after class?"

"Excuse me," Harry asked, giving the girl a questioning look.

"… but who are you?"

"Don't you think it would be good manners to at least introduce yourself…"

"… before asking a bunch of questions?"

"Oh, I am sorry, I am Hermione Granger," the girl replied, just when they reached the Transfiguration classroom.

Seeing that Neville was sitting alone in the first row, Harry and Henry took the seats on either side of him.

"May we sit in such a mixed-up way?" Hermione enquired, giving them a questioning look.

"Of course," Harry replied, offering the empty seat on his right side to her.

'Really now?' Henry thought to him, causing Harry to shrug and turn his attention to his Granny, who was sitting on the teacher's desk in her Animagus form.

Before the muggleborn girl next to him could further bother him with questions, the professor changed back into her human form, causing the class to cheer in apparent amazement.

"Mr. Weasley, you are late," she addressed the redheaded Gryffindor, who chose that moment to enter the classroom.

"I'm sorry, I didn't know where the classroom was," Ronald said, causing the twins to snort.

"Then take a seat, or do you need me to transfigure you into a map?" the professor asked, before she returned to view the class. "Ten points to Slytherin for your attempt to overcome the house rivalry and for showing your classmates where the classroom is," she added, giving the twins a look of pure pride.

"Of course she gives points to her own grandsons," Ronald mumbled, causing Gryffindor to lose ten points.

The class was easy to say the least, however, the twins held back and only flawlessly transfigured their match into a needle, when they realised that Draco and Hermione were going to succeed soon. Once again, they received ten points each for Slytherin.

"Clear that McGonagall awarded points to her grandsons," Ronald complained, once they had been dismissed and were on their way to the dungeons.

"They managed the transfiguration first," Draco said, coldly, glaring at the redhead.

The twins simply chose to ignore the conversation and strode ahead, knowing that they could not dawdle if they wanted to be at the Potions classroom on time.

Potions went similarly. Knowing from their last year at the primary school, where Severus had only taught a few introductory Potions classes, that Neville, Gregory and Vincent might have difficulties in the class, Harry sat next to Neville, Draco chose the seat next to Gregory and Henry paired up with Vincent.

In the end, everyone brewed their concoctions more or less correctly, no one blew up their cauldron and Severus took only thirty points from Gryffindor – which according to the Weasley twins, who were third-year Gryffindors and had become good friends with Harry and Henry during the last two years – was an all-time low.

The last afternoon-class was Defence Against the Dark Arts. While the twins had detested Professor Quirrell from the time he first set foot into Hogwarts, the professor's stuttering in class was absolutely unbearable.

"That's it," Harry said, once they left the classroom. "I'm not going to attend such a bullshit class with that imbecile of a teacher."

"But you must," Hermione contradicted, causing Harry to look at her with a raised eyebrow. "He is our teacher, and everyone must attend Defence Against the Dark Arts."

"Then Hogwarts must provide an adequate teacher, not a stuttering dunderhead," Henry replied, rolling his eyes.

Draco chuckled. "You sound like Professor Snape, do you know that? You must have spent too much time with him."

"Possible," the twins replied, simultaneously, grinning.

"At least he would be a better teacher than Quirrell," Harry growled.

"Let's go and speak with Granny about Quirrell," Henry suggested.

"I'm in," Draco replied, and the three boys made their way towards the deputy headmistress' office, followed by the rest of the Slytherin and Gryffindor first-years.

"Granny," the twins stuck their heads into the doorframe.

"May we disturb you for a moment?"

Minerva looked up from the parchment in front of her. "Of course," she replied, smiling, only to give the boys a questioning look, when she noticed the whole Gryffindor and Slytherin first-year class standing outside her office. "Is everything all right?" she asked, giving the students a concerned look.

"Yes but…"

"…. We just wanted to let you know…"

"… that we're not going to attend Defence Against the Dark Arts classes," the twins informed her.

"With the professor's stuttering, it's hardly possible to follow his explanations," Draco added.

"I see," Minerva replied, at a loss of what else to say.

"Let's go and speak with Professor Dumbledore," she finally said. "I cannot simply exempt you from the Defence Against the Dark Arts class."

"All right," the twins replied and strode behind her to the headmaster's office, closely followed by their classmates.

The headmaster looked up in apparent surprise, when his deputy entered his office followed by the whole Gryffindor and Slytherin first-year class.

"Minerva, what does this mean?" Dumbledore enquired, holding out a bowl with lemon drops. "Lemon drop?"

"No thank you," the twins replied in annoyance, thinking that the headmaster should know by now that neither them nor their Granny or their friends would ever take one of the disgusting sweets.

Everyone else followed their example and stood around the headmaster's desk.

"What can I do for you?" Dumbledore enquired.

"Headmaster, we simply wanted to inform you…"

"… that we're not going to attend the Defence Against the Dark Arts classes…"

"… unless you hire a better teacher," the twins spoke up.

"He stutters so much that we can't even understand him, sir," Draco added, joining the twins in their glare at the headmaster.

"I am sorry, my boys, but there is nothing that I can do about it," the headmaster replied, causing the twins to shrug.

"That's fine, sir…"

"… but we simply won't attend the class then," they replied, matter-of-factly, noticing that their grandmother cast them a surprised look.

"Defence Against the Dark Arts is one of the required subjects though," Dumbledore reminded them, gently.

"We don't care…"

"… as we will simply study for ourselves…"

"… or ask one of the Aurors or Unspeakables to teach us…"

"… and take our OWLs at the Ministry of Magic on time," the twins contradicted, causing the deputy headmistress to stare at them in obvious surprise.

"That was all we wished to talk about," Henry added, and the students crossed the room and left the office together, leaving two stunned professors.

"Five points each for overcoming the house rivalry," Minerva uttered, feeling very proud of her twins.

"Minerva, you have gone soft," Albus spoke up in clear anger.

"No, I certainly haven't," Minerva replied, her lips stretched to a thin line.

"Have you ever heard a student talk in a tone with me like your grandsons do?" Albus enquired.

"No," Minerva acknowledged, "but you have to admit that they're right, and apparently, their whole class agrees with them. Quirinus' stuttering is intolerable."

Albus let out a deep sigh. "You know as well as I do that Defence Against the Dark Arts is the most important subject for these twins. We need them to once again save the magical world from Voldemort."

'Good luck with that,' Minerva thought, having to restrain herself to not snort. 'These boys are much too stubborn to listen to your little ideas.'

tbc...

Thank you for your kind comments on the previous chapter. Please tell me what you thought about this chapter and what you expect from this story. My muse appreciates the feedback.

Next chapter "Dark or Light?".