Disclaimer: I do not own the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. Anything familiar you see in this story, whether it be characters or plots, belongs to J.K. Rowling, Warner Brothers, and whoever else owns the rights.
Author's Note: As promised, here is the second of two chapters today. Finally, we're getting Harty's POV. Not that I dislike Katie's, but I've been really looking forward to writing this.
Shoutouts go to Discord Members 1saaa, Luq707, Sinisterfox, ubiquitouslyverbose, and Sectumus for helping with the planning and editing of this fic.
Lastly, I'd like to thank my wonderful Beta, Athena Hope, for her help editing this fic.
Self-Promotion: I have a Discord Server where you can talk with me and other readers. Also as part of the server, you get early access to all of my chapters. To join, paste the following link into a new tab and remove the spaces: discord . gg / Bfwywpf
As Harry and his classmates crossed the threshold of the Great Hall, they marveled at the ceiling. If Harry didn't know any better, he would say that the Great Hall was roofless. Above him was an array of stars freckled across a cloudy sky with a half-moon glowing forebodingly, it looked exactly like the night sky outside the castle. All around the Great Hall were candles of various shapes and sizes that provided an eerily calm lighting to the room.
Hundreds of faces stared at Harry and his year mates from the house tables. As Harry's eyes moved across the room, he spotted a pair of redheaded twins that could only have been Ron's brothers, Fred and George, sitting at the far left table.
As Harry returned his attention to Professor McGonagall, he discovered that she had placed a three-legged wooden stool with a raggedy old hat on top of it. Even more odd than the presence of the hat itself was the fact that it was singing.
Harry mused about the ridiculousness of wizards to himself as the hat sang on and on about the four houses and what each represented. As soon as the hat finished its song, the entire Great Hall burst into a round of applause — presumably for its conclusion, as the hat did not have a good singing voice — before going dead silent again as Professor McGonagall stepped forward, a roll of parchment in her hand.
"When I call your name, you will put on the hat and sit on the stool to be sorted," she instructed before calling out the first of his classmates' names. "Abbot, Hannah."
A pink-faced girl with blonde pigtails stumbled and shuffled out of the line to the stool, where she placed the hat on her head. After a few short moments, the hat opened its brim and yelled out a single word, loud and clear. "HUFFLEPUFF!"
Hannah quickly removed the hat, placed it back on the stool, and walked over to the table where the dark-haired boy exuding confidence that Harry had noticed was sitting. She sat down next to the boy as the round of applause from the hall died out and a rather rotund ghost gave her a large smile.
The next few students went to Hufflepuff as well before the hat sorted Terry Boot into Ravenclaw.
It took a few more sortings before Millicent Bulstrode became the first member of Slytherin House. The group had their eyes fixated on the girl the entire time she walked from stool to table, Harry noticed. He did not even bother to question why and assumed it was something to do with the house itself.
After many more sortings, which saw Hermione and Neville go to Gryffindor, Draco Malfoy go to Slytherin, and a pair of identical twins split up between Ravenclaw and Gryffindor, it was Harry's turn.
"Potter, Harry," Professor McGonagall intoned, causing whispers to break out across the room.
"Potter? Did she say?"
"The Harry Potter?"
As Harry put the hat on, the last sight he saw was kids of all ages from all four houses craning their heads to try and get a good look at him. When the hat slipped over his eyes, obscuring his view of the crowd, he closed them and waited for the hat to call out what house he would be in.
"Hmm," said a small voice that Harry realized was the hat in his ear. "Difficult. Very difficult. Plenty of courage, I see. Not a bad mind either. There's talent, oh my goodness, yes — and a nice thirst to prove yourself, now that's interesting… So, where shall I put you?"
Harry gripped the edges of the stool as tight as he could, the pain of his overgrown nails biting into the wood not fazing him as he desperately thought, 'Not Slytherin, not Slytherin.'
"Not Slytherin, eh?" the hat replied. "Are you sure? You could be great, you know. It's all here in your head, and Slytherin will help you on the way to greatness, no doubt about that — no? Well, if you're sure — better be GRYFFINDOR!" The hat yelled out the last word to the hall, causing Harry to reach up and remove the hat to find the hall looking at him in dead silence.
As he began to trudge over to the Gryffindor table, he heard two pairs of hands begin to clap in gusto for him. Sure enough, when Harry looked up to see who was clapping for him, it was none other than Fred and George Weasley. Harry smiled as he walked over to the table and sat down next to the twins, who had budged over slightly to give him room.
As he sat down, the sorting quickly wrapped up with Ron and a dark-skinned boy named Dean Thomas joining Harry in Gryffindor, Lisa Turpin joining Ravenclaw, and Blaise Zabini joining Slytherin.
Almost as soon as Blaise sat down at the Slytherin table, Dumbledore rose and gave a short address to the assembled students and staff before commencing the feast.
Once the older students around him had eaten their fill, they began to introduce themselves one by one.
"Fred —"
"— and George —"
"— Weasley, third year prankster extraordinaires at your service," the twins finished in unison.
"Kenneth Towler, second year."
"Angelina Johnson, third year."
"Alicia Spinnet, third year."
"I'm Katie Bell," the final girl introduced herself. "I'm a second year."
Once Katie finished introducing herself, the small section of the table fell quiet as everyone turned to look at him.
"Uh, hi, I guess. Apparently, everyone knows who I am because of whatever happened when I was a baby or something, but can you just pretend that never happened? Pretend that I'm just another first year?"
The people surrounding Harry looked amongst each other as if silently communicating, before Katie spoke up. "Of course, Harry. I can only imagine what it must feel like having everyone know who you are and everything about you before you've even met them."
'They don't know anything about me, though,' Harry thought to himself. 'They just know whatever happened when Voldemort killed my parents. Oh well, at least they're accepting my request.'
"Thanks, Katie. Thank you, guys," Harry replied, a small smile forming on his face.
"You're joking," Ron proclaimed incredulously. "Seeker? But first years never — you must be the youngest house player in about —"
"— a century," Harry finished, shoveling a slice of steak and kidney pie into his mouth. He was rather hungry after all the excitement the afternoon had provided. First, his aerial chase of Malfoy to get Neville's Remembrall back, then his fifty-foot dive to catch it after Malfoy had lobbed it at the ground, McGonagall storming over and taking him to the Quidditch Captain, a burly fifth year named Oliver Wood, and making him starting Seeker.
"Wood told me," Harry added after he swallowed his bite of pie.
The look on Ron's face was a mixture of amazed and impressed. He just sat there and gaped at Harry as if he had grown a second head.
"I start training next week," he continued excitedly, before adding, "Don't tell anyone, though. Wood wants to keep it a secret."
Almost as soon as the word left his mouth, Fred and George Weasley slid onto the bench on either side of Harry, Fred squeezing Ron out of the way.
"Well done," George said in a low voice. "We're on the team too — Beaters."
"Wood told me as well. Congrats, Harry," another voice said from behind Harry.
He turned around to see the smiling face of Katie Bell.
"I'm on the team, as well. I made the team as Chaser last week during tryouts."
"Wait…" Harry began, confused. "If tryouts were last week, how come you're only getting a seeker now?"
Fred, George, and Katie all exchanged a look that Harry couldn't quite decipher before Katie replied, "Our seeker from last year, Chaol Wing, was originally going to be on the team, but over the weekend, some seventh year Slytherins thought it would be amusing to shove him headfirst into a broken Vanishing Cabinet on the first floor."
As Katie lapsed into silence, Fred took up the story. "Chaol managed to apparate out of the Vanishing Cabinet, but ended up unconscious, facedown in one of the toilets in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom."
Putting the pieces together, Harry replied, sounding horrified, "Does that happen often?"
"Don't worry, Harry," George replied. "It had nothing to do with his position as Seeker. Chaol… wasn't the kindest to Slytherin House, to put it mildly. Many in Slytherin House hated him because of it. I imagine that's why those seventh years shoved him in the Vanishing Cabinet."
'Note to Self, don't make enemies with Slytherins,' Harry thought to himself, before responding aloud, "I'm sorry about Chaol, but I'm glad that you still will be able to play this year."
Fred grinned widely. "I tell you, we're going to win that Quidditch cup for sure this year. We haven't won since Charlie — our older brother — left, but this year's team is going to be brilliant."
"You must be good, Harry, Wood was almost skipping when he told us."
Katie raised an eyebrow. "He was that calm? When he told me, the look on his face was more excited than a child on Christmas morning looking at all of their gifts. It was as if McGonagall had told him he would be playing Keeper for the English national team in the Quidditch World Cup."
Fred and George roared with laughter.
"Nice one, Katie!" They exclaimed before Fred composed himself and said, "Anyway, we've got to go, Lee Jordan reckons he's found a new secret passageway out of the school."
"Bet it's that one behind the statue of Gregory the Smarmy that we found in our first week," George fired back.
"See you, Harry!" the twins chorused as they stood up and walked out of the Great Hall, still bantering back and forth about the supposed secret passageway that Lee Jordan had found.
"I had better go as well, Harry. Angelina and Alicia — the other two Chasers — wanted me to meet them as soon as I finished dinner so that they could teach me all of the plays we will be running during games this year."
She then turned and exited the Great Hall through the same set of double doors the twins had exited through not two minutes earlier.
"I DON'T BELIEVE IT!" Lee Jordan exclaimed through his microphone. "HARRY POTTER HAS CAUGHT THE SNITCH! GRYFFINDOR WINS 170 TO 60!"
Almost as soon as Harry landed on the ground, Snitch in hand — as opposed to his mouth — he was mobbed by the rest of the team.
They were all cheering as loud as they possibly could, none could top Wood's excitement though. "I knew you could do it, Harry!" he later proclaimed to Harry.
Fred and George crushed Harry in a massive embrace.
"Masterfully done, Harrykins!" Fred — or was it George? — exclaimed proudly.
"That'll put some fear into the Slytherins," his twin replied exuberantly.
"Right you are, Freddie," the first twin replied. "The snakes can no longer cruise to another Quidditch Cup. Not with Harrykins here to swipe the snitch out from under their noses!"
The entire team — Harry included — cheered loudly at that prospect. While he may be the newest member of the team and least knowledgeable about Quidditch, Harry knew enough to know that beating Slytherin for the Quidditch Cup was Wood's dream and goal for the team.
"Well done, Harry," he heard Angelina Johnson say.
"We couldn't have done this without you," Alicia added, a massive grin stretching from ear to ear.
"Chaol was good," Angelina continued. "But I'm not sure he could have pulled that off. Managing to stay on your broom while it was trying to throw you off and catching the Snitch — in your mouth, no less — while in a rapid nosedive."
"I've heard a lot of stories about Quidditch from my father," Katie Bell interjected. "But I've never heard about anything like what you just pulled off."
"You know, Georgie," Fred said, a sly grin on his face. "Harrykins here wouldn't be on the team if not for Malfoy stealing Neville's Remembrall."
A Cheshire grin formed on George's face. "Oh how right you are, brother of mine."
The twins looked at each other, exchanged identical grins, then yelled out at the top of their lungs, "THANK YOU, MALFOY!"
As the entire team devolved into hysterical laughter at Fred and George's antics, all Harry could think was 'I never want this feeling to go away.'
Quidditch practice had become the part of the day Harry most looked forward to — even if Wood woke everyone up at ungodly hours for it.
Most of the practice was full-team drills. Angelina, Alicia, and Katie would attempt to run a play against Wood, while Fred and George would alternate hitting bludgers their way and protecting them from the bludgers. Meanwhile, Harry would attempt to run what Wood called "play interference."
That entailed Harry trying to dive through the Chasers and either block a pass or intimidate them into messing up a pass, which would hopefully allow the Chasers on his own team to gain possession of the Quaffle.
So long as he didn't block a shot on the hoops or commit any of the other six hundred and ninety-nine fouls, Harry could do anything to force a turnover. His favorite tactic, though, was to dive right in front of the Chaser attempting to make a pass in an attempt to scare them into dropping the Quaffle.
It worked better than Harry expected, leading to the Quaffle dropping roughly four out of every five times he did it. It grew less effective as practices went on, though, since Angelina, Alicia, and Katie grew used to it. Fortunately, that would not be an issue during the Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff games and the championship game, as the other teams had never experienced Harry doing pass interference.
During one particular attempt to disturb the "Flying Foxes" — as he had heard Fred and George dub the Chaser Trio — Hawkshead Formation, he nearly rammed into Katie Bell, just barely managing to avoid her. The disruption worked, albeit not in the way that Harry had hoped.
Noticing the near-miss, Oliver called an early end to the practice. "We have one week until we play Hufflepuff. I can't afford to send one of you to the Hospital Wing and have Madam Pomfrey declare you unfit to play for one reason or another. Hit the showers. Be back here tomorrow morning at the same time."
As the team trudged back to the locker rooms to shower and clean up before breakfast and classes, Harry went up to Katie.
"Katie?" he asked.
"Yes, Harry?"
"I just wanted to apologize for nearly hitting you earlier."
"Don't worry about it, Harry," Katie replied, mildly out of breath. "You weren't trying to. Plus, you didn't actually end up hitting me. I'm perfectly uninjured, no harm done."
Harry exhaled in relief. He had been quite worried that he had accidentally killed any potential friendship he had with Katie. "That's a relief to hear."
As if she could read his thoughts, Katie replied, "Harry, near-misses like that happen all the time in Quidditch — same with actually hitting people. I was honestly expecting to be hit and wouldn't have been upset with you had you actually hit me."
Slightly startled that Katie had addressed his concerns without him even mentioning them, Harry stammered out, "T-Thanks, Katie."
He then quickly made his way over to and struck up a conversation with Fred and George about what the Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff Quidditch Teams' play styles were.
Harry opened his eyes to the sight of the entire Quidditch Team surrounding his bed, looking worriedly at him.
"Hey, guys," he managed to get out, albeit rather weakly.
"Harry!" they exclaimed, rushing around to the head of his bed.
"What happened?"
"Are you okay?"
"Dumbledore wouldn't tell us any details!"
Harry smiled feebly. "It's a long story, but I'll do my best to tell you everything."
He forced himself to sit up.
"It all started during the first Quidditch match when I was being bucked off of my broom. Hermione figured out that it was someone cursing me, and just assumed it was Professor Snape. She lit the hem of his robes on fire with bluebell flames, though not before knocking over Professor Quirrell in the process.
When we talked to Hagrid after the match, he asked why we — Ron, Hermione, and I — thought it was Snape cursing me. I told him that on Halloween I noticed a bite mark on his leg that could have only come from the three-headed dog in the off-bounds corridor on the third floor. We assumed that it was because he was trying to get past the dog and steal whatever it was guarding.
"When we asked Hagrid what Fluffy, the cerberus —"
"Woah, Woah, Woah," Oliver interjected. "You're telling me there was a three-headed dog in the forbidden corridor and it was named Fluffy?"
Harry nodded, then continued. "Anyway, when we asked Hagrid what Fluffy was guarding, he let it slip that it had something to do with Nicholas Flamel —"
"The famous alchemist?" The twins chorused in surprise.
"Yes, him," Harry replied, wincing slightly, before resuming his story. "Then, last Thursday, Dumbledore left the castle. As soon as we discovered that we realized that Snape was going to try and steal the item Fluffy was guarding — which we had determined to be the Philosopher's Stone."
"The Philosopher's Stone?" Angelina asked. "As in the stone that grants Flamel and his wife eternal life?"
Nodding, Harry retold the events of his trip past Fluffy. "Hagrid had slipped how to get past Fluffy, so we were able to enter the trapdoor hiding underneath him. Within the corridor of sorts underneath Fluffy was a gauntlet of challenges that Hermione, Ron, and I somehow managed to make it through. However, I was the only one to make it into the final chamber where I encountered not Professor Snape, but Professor Quirrel."
"Quirrel was the one trying to steal the stone?" Alicia cut in.
"I was surprised as well, believe me. It gets worse, though."
"How could it possibly get worse?" Katie spoke now.
"Professor Quirrel unraveled his turban to reveal that, on the back of his head, was the face of Voldemort," Harry replied softly.
Horrified gasps and screams came from every single member of the team.
"VOLDEMORT IS ALIVE?!" The entire team thundered, nearly as one.
"Don't ask me how, because I don't know, but, yes, he's alive. We ended up fighting over the Stone, which had appeared in my pocket because of a bit of magic that I don't quite understand. That's the last thing I can remember before waking up in the Hospital Wing earlier today, with Dumbledore sitting where you guys are now," Harry finished, collapsing back onto his back from his sitting up position.
The team sat in shocked silence, attempting to digest what all Harry had just told them. Unfortunately, they had no time to ask Harry any more questions as Madam Pomfrey bustled in.
"OUT! I gave you ten minutes and it has been much longer than that. The poor boy needs his rest if he wants to be at the end-of-term feast tomorrow evening. Now, OUT!"
The team quickly said their goodbyes before rushing out of the Hospital Wing, the matron's hawk-like eyes watching their every step until the moment the last member — Katie Bell — exited the Hospital Wing.
Author's Note:
Double update for you all to make up for my shitty upload speed. Again, I'm really sorry about that. College is a bitch. I will write whenever I can and hopefully get something out next month as well. I've mostly been writing original snippets for my Fiction Writing course, all of which are available on my Discord Server. There's one longer piece along with a couple of shorter ones. Not sure what else to say, except that I do have plans for a lot of this fic written up, it's just a matter of finding the time and motivation to write it. Thank you for sticking with me through this gap and I hope to see y'all again soon with another update.
- Asmodeus Stahl