Chapter 3

A/N: Thanks to all of you guys who reviewed!

Disclaimer: Anything you don't recognise belongs to me. (this can apply to all chapters)

Chapter 3

Due to the poor state of the Hogwarts Express after Harry and Seamus' little accident, it was delayed for two hours. This ended up leaving Lily absolutely fuming with rage, while Harry and Seamus high-fived each other for scoring a month of detention each even before they reached Hogwarts.

-------------------------------------------

"Hey Seamus, what house do you think you're gonna be put in?"

"How many times do I have to tell you, call me FLASH!"

"Fine FLASH, what house do you think you're gonna be put in?"

"I dunno. But Mum and Dad were both in Gryffindor so I guess I'll probably be in Gryffindor."

Harry nodded. "Same here."

Suddenly the tall woman, Professor McGonagall, came back, and they followed her into the Great Hall. Everyone gasped at the splendour of it and looked around in wonder. There was four large tables seated by students and another table of teachers. The hall itself was richly decorated and the ceiling was enchanted to look like the sky outside.

Just then, Professor McGonagall walked to the centre of the Hall with a stool and placed a tattered old hat on top of it. The hat split to form a mouth and started chanting a poem.

Suddenly, an idea formed in Harry's head.
"Hey Se-, er, I mean, Flash. Don't you think that you should make the first impression that we give to the school a bit more, um, interesting??"

Seamus's face broke into a devilish grin and the two boys quickly decided what they were going to do.

Thank goodness the hat's song was quite long, and by the time they finished McGonagall had only just started explaining what they were going to do. Unfortunately, the sight of McGonagall reminded the two boys of tales of their parent's life at Hogwarts. It seems that McGonagall had tried countless times to stop their parents playing pranks, and to these two, who loved pranks more than anything else in this world, this is probably the worst crime you can commit. The two boys quickly changed part of their plan to 'suit' McGonagall.

Suddenly they heard Seamus's name being called.
"Black, Seamus" (Harry secretly thought he heard McGonagall sigh when she said Seamus's name, but he couldn't be sure).

Seamus walked up to the stool and sat on the hat. The whole hall broke into gasps.

"Seamus Black!! What do you think you are doing??" screamed Professor McGonagall.

"Didn't you say that we were supposed to sit on the stool?"asked Seamus innocently, and some of the students laughed.

"That's not funny!" snapped McGonagall, "Yes, I did say to sit on the stool but I also said to put the hat on your head!"

"Really?? Oh. Okay then." Seamus put the hat on his head and McGonagall breathed a sign of relief.

As soon as Seamus placed the hat on his head, he heard the hat talking to him.

"Why did you do that for?"

"Do what?"

"Sit on me!"

"Oh that. To annoy McGonagall of course."

"You don't like her?"

"Of course not. She tried to stop my parents playing pranks. I bet she's gonna do that to me."

The hat chuckled . "Ahh, I see we have a prankster here, but enough of that. I need to get on with the Sorting. I know! You should be in..."

"Hey wait! Can you help me with my prank?"

"Help you with your prank?"

"Yeah. Don't you think it's boring only reading people minds? I mean, all people think of you is a hat who reads people's minds nothing else. You can show them that you can play pranks too."

"Hmm, you have a point. But I have never tried before..."

"That's why you should try. Because you have never tried before, that's why everyone don't think much you. You've gotta show them what you really are!"

"Okay. I give in. What do you want me to do?"

Seamus grinned. "Okay, first....."

-----------------------------------------------

It has been about half an hour since Seamus went up to the Sorting Hat and everyone is getting impatient. Suddenly the hat screamed "Slytherins!", and one of the table broke into loud applause, but gasps can be heard around the Hall. Many people knew the Blacks and they were all true Gryffindors, but yet, their only son was a Slytherin...

Suddenly the hat started screaming again. "Oh no, no, no! I've got it all wrong. You're not a Slytherin, you're a Ravenclaw!"

The hall was silent for a moment before the realisation dawned in, and another table broke into applause, and the previous table groaned.

Suddenly the hat started screaming again. "Oh no! It's actually Hufflepuff" - another table starts applauding - "no, it's Gryffindor" - the Gryffindor table starts applauding - "no, it's really actually Ravenclaws" - applause - "No," - groans - "it's Gryffindor!" - applause - "Actually," - groans again, -

"WOULD YOU JUST PICK THE RIGHT HOUSE AND SHUT UP! YOU'RE SLOWING US DOWN!!" screamed McGonagall.

"Hey, chill out, Minerva, it's ok. Stop screaming too, 'cose I'm trying to concentrate here." replied the Sorting Hat.

Do you think this is enough? It asked Seamus.

Seamus thought for a moment. "Yeah, I think so. I don't want her to get worked up too much, my friend is going to come up later, and he's going to do another prank. By the way, can you please help him as well?"

Another one? How many pranksters can there be in one year?

Seamus grinned. "At least two. His name is Harry Potter."

Oh. The realisation dawned on the Hat, Another Potter. I must say, you two are exactly the same as your parents.

"I know. So you're willing to help?"

Yes.

"Thanks. I suppose I need to go now."

Yeah, it was nice talking to you. The hat screamed "GRYFFINDOR!!!" and the students began to applause.

"Bye! Thanks for helping!" said Seamus before he took off the hat. He walked towards a cheering table that he knew was Gryffindor - but not before giving a thumbs-up sign to Harry, who grinned back.

He took a seat next to a third year Gryffindor *a/n: take a guess who!* and grinned at him.
"Did you enjoy that? I bet you did."

Aurelius Lupin sighed. "Some people never change."

McGonagall was called another name. "Granger, Hermione."

A girl with bushy hair shyly walked up and placed the Hat on her head. A few minutes later, it shouted, "Gryffindor!" The girl looked pleased and walked towards the Gryffindor table as others clapped and Gryffindor cheered.

"Hey Seamus! What's Harry going to do?" asked Aurelius.

Seamus tried to look innocent. "You sure that Harry is going to do something?"

Aurelius rolled his eyes. "Duh. Now tell me what is he going to do."

-------------------------------------------------

"Potter, Harry!"

Harry walked up and grinned at McGonagall before putting on the hat. The whole hall heard McGonagall sigh and Seamus grinned while commenting to Aurelius: "Ahhh, the lady is a natural at Divination."

Hello. So you are Harry Potter?

"Yes. Did Flash, er, I mean Seamus tell you?"

Yes. He asked me to help you too. And I agreed.

"Excellent! Now here's what you have to do..."

Professor McGonagall was waiting faithfully for the Hat to put Harry in Gryffindor (there was no doubt that a Potter would be in Gryffindor) when suddenly Harry took off the hat and started complaining.

"Professor, what am I suppose to do?" wailed Harry.

"You don't have to do anything, the hat will do everything for you."

"But what can a hat do?"

"It can read your mind, Harry, and it will talk to you."

"Talk to me? There's nothing there?"

"WHAT?!" yelled McGonagall.

"It's true Professor, there's nothing there. I put the hat on like you said, but nothing happened!"

"That's IMPOSSIBLE! Give it to me!" McGonagall snatched the Hat from Harry and put it on her own head.

"Hello?? The Sorting Hat, are you there?" Suddenly, McGonagall's voice could be heard throughout the Hall. Somehow, McGonagall and Sorting Hat's thoughts can be heard by everyone. Unfortunately, Professor McGonagall didn't know that. Oh! and of course the Sorting Hat didn't know that either. So there goes the students, listening to every bit of the conversation.

"Sorting Hat! Answer me!"

Be quiet, Minerva, I'm trying to sleep here.

"Trying to sleep? Your job is not finished yet! You still have the rest of the first years to sort!"

I'm tired. I'll sort the rest tomorrow. I need to sleep now.

"Tired?! Need sleep?! You have had a whole year to sleep!"

Calm down Minerva. Ahhh, you are so different from when I first saw you. That shy quiet sweet little girl....

McGonagall was going to reply when suddenly she heard the whole hall burst out laughing.

"Oh My Goodness!!!!" laughed Aurelius, "McGonagall a shy, quiet, sweet little girl?? She certainly has changed!"

"I know!" said Seamus, who was practically rolling on the floor. "I can just imagine what my dad's face is gonna look like when he hears this!"

Professor McGonagall, who has had no clue what-so-ever about what is going on, just stared blankly at the wild students. Finally, after about ten minutes of staring, she got her sense back.
"Albus, can be please tell me what is going on?"

Professor Dumbledore, who was trying very hard to not laugh, informed her that her conversation with the Sorting Hat could be heard by everyone in the Great Hall.

"WHAT?! HARRY POTTER AND SEAMUS BLACK! WHAT HAVE YOU TWO DONE?"

Heads turned towards them and the two guilty but innocent looking boys stood up. Harry started explaining.
"Well, we thought that it would be good to give the students a, um, muggle Studies lesson. And we thought it would be more interesting if it was like a practical lesson."

Seamus walked up to the Sorting Hat, reached in and took out a small black thing, then took out a small black shiny box with holes over it and lifted the two things up for the school to see.

"You see, that little black thing there is a muggle microphone - the small, expensive ones, - and the box here is the speaker, where the sound comes out. The job of the microphone is to modify a persons voice to a louder volume. The volume can be controlled by turning this little round thing on the speaker."

With that the two bowed to the school and Seamus said: "Thank you school, for attending today's Muggle Studies lesson. I hope you have enjoyed it."

The hall broke into laughter again while McGonagall began fuming with rage again. "Potter! Black! DETENTION FOR TWO WEEKS EACH!!"