HAHA, writing things the day they're due is my finesse. ANYWAYS, here you go!
(edited may 14th)
Percy POV (I'm writing far too many of these, but PLOT so whatever)
Shakily, I approach the hat. It seemed to have some sort of ability to judge the students- either by personality or actions… or memories… I'll have to be careful. Spilling my secrets on the first day of school might be a record. Actually, nevermind, orientation day is my record. Everyones staring at me. Oh yeah, I'm the only thirteen year old and nobody explained why. Sucks to be me, I guess.
Tentatively, I sit on the stool and the stern woman from earlier forces the talking artifact onto my head. Awkwardly it tips over my eyes, obscuring my view. I stare into darkness.
Hmmm… well, what do we have here? A voice speaks in my head. Immediately, I throw up my mental barriers. Touchy, touchy. The hat speaks again in my mind. Mentally, I grit my teeth at it (them?). What do you want? I ask it. I want to sort you, what else? It responds sarcastically Now, if you would let me in… it trails off.
I can feel it chipping at my barriers. I can tell it will get in eventually, so I let go on the wall around most of my memories. This is all that I'm giving you. I tell the hat. It makes a noise of dissent (how does it do that in my head?!) and pushes harder, revealing the memories from the years that are technically in the future. All but the ones down there… Well this is interesting, the hat says in a triumphant tone. Are you- it cuts me off Hush. I'm doing my job, and your input isn't important for that.
It mumbles to itself as I try to request that it keep quiet about the whole thing and hushes me again, somehow placing a mental barrier to shut me up. Well… let's see, a fatal flaw of loyalty… hm, that's obviously a hufflepuff trait. So is heading back for your brother. You're rather protective of him, you know? It questions rhetorically. That's rather interesting. It really would serve you well in any of the houses. Well, except Ravenclaw. It mutters in afterthought. You're exceedingly brave as well, leading two wars, as well as all of the reckless things you did in school to protect your brother. Oh, but you're cunning as well. Definitely smart, but more in the slytherin way than the ravenclaw one. You have the capability for darkness too. Hmmm. such a hard decision. What do you think? At first I think it's taunting me, seeing as I can't answer, but then it lifts the mental barrier.
Are you going to tell them about all those things or not? I question it angrily. Oh, well… It drags out the words in mock thought. Perhaps. Angered, I let loose on the dam holding my memories from tartarus.
It screams. "Make it stop! Make it stop! I won't- I don't care anymore-" it takes a laborious and panicked breath "just make it stop" I force the walls back into place. Well? I ask it, annoyed. Look. I'm sorry, but this is important. I sigh mentally. Cruel boy, the hat starts, it's voice shaking with anger and fear. Blackmailing the very thing that decides your future! See how well you fare in
"Slytherin!"
The hat is taken off my head by a very worried looking professor. Everyone stares as I trudge to my seat at the silver and green table. I wilt under their gazes into a seat next to a blond haired kid who looks about my age. The sorting continues and I slowly am forgotten by a majority of the students. After 'Jillian Zeber' is called and sorted, an old man with a long white beard ascends to a golden podium in front of the rest of the teachers. He talks for a couple of minutes about rules and expectations and yadda yadda yadda, boring teacher stuff. Ugh. As he talks I investigate my table-mates. Directly across from me are a pair of identical twins with long dark hair and wide, light green eyes. Next to me is a boy with platinum blond hair and what seems to be a permanent smirk. His features are thin and sort of elvish, and he's about half an inch taller than me which is quite the accomplishment.
On my other side there's a girl with light brown hair that's cut short with dark eyes. She radiates an aura of despair, and something else that I can't quite put my finger on. All of these kids seem too mature for their age (says me who fought in two wars before I was eighteen). Before I can get much farther into analyzing everyone in my sight the man ends his speech and platters of food appear on the table. Immediately, chatter breaks out through the room, and a lively atmosphere takes over.
"Who are you?" questions one of the twins, sizing me up. "I mean, yeah, Perseus Potter, but like… why'd you get here just now?"
"Umm… well, I was in America." trying to steer the conversation away from myself I say "also, I prefer to be called Percy. Who are you?"
She stares at me down her nose before saying. "I am Cassandra Syzygy, Pureblood."
"Ok, well I'm gonna call you Cass" I start, quickly continuing before she can retaliate "and what's a pureblood?". Wrong question, apparently. Everyone stares at me. Ignoring it, I continue "and your name, Cassandra, like the trojan prophet girl?". She stutters, then turns away to talk to someone else. Her sister turns to me,
"Sorry about my sister. I'm Manto, by the way" I smile at her, thankful for someone who was at least a little nice.
"I'm Kydon, but you can call me Ky." a boy across the table states. "Those two are Crabbe and Goyle, They don't talk much." I could practically feel the chaotic energy rolling off this kid. He was going to be fun to hang out with. The girl next to me remained silent, but blonde next to me spoke up.
"I'm Draco, Draco Malfloy." he said, staring me dead in the eyes. He smirks at me in a friendly manner. Now I'm convinced that he doesn't know how to do anything but smirk. Ohkayyy. My brother's bully. Hmmmm how will I deal with this? I could try to act oblivious and try and feel out what kind of a person he is under the pretense of gaining his trust? Or I could confront him now… I mean, what if there's a misunderstanding? It's better to try to be nice first.
"So, Slytherin… Would you mind showing me around a little? I've never, y'know… been here and I obviously don't know anything about the house." I request, remembering some of the psychology tricks I've picked up. He smiles at me, and agrees. We dig into our dinner with the rest of the people in the room. Dinner is served, and we're led to the common room. I choose to ignore the opening speech (probably a bad idea, but whatever) in favour of staring around the room and watching the visible part of the freaking lake outside the windows. The place is upholstered nicely, in my opinion, with emerald green plush furniture and grand stairways and archways. As soon as they let us leave, I followed Draco to the rooms, and said goodnight to Small-Bob, who somehow appeared in the room, before flopping onto my bed, falling asleep nearly instantly.
Harry's POV
I follow the crowd of Gryffindors in a haze. Percy… He's a Slytherin, and he was talking calmly with Malfloy. Hermione and Ron keep looking me in the eyes, worried. There are just so many things… Why was the hat screaming? I blink. Focus on positives, I tell myself. Um… well, Slytherin won't be winning the house cup at least. I giggle, which earns me some weird looks. Percy could lose thousands of points just by being near a teacher. Actually, just by being in the school.
"What?" hisses Hermione.
I smile. "There's no way that Slytherin is going to win the house cup. Do you know how many schools Percy's been expelled from?". Ron smiles evilly while Hermione muttered 'boys' in an exasperated, but fond tone.
"He's really that bad?" Ron asked, half joking, and half hopeful.
"Six schools" I say, trying to distract myself from everything. And anyways, if he's in kahoots with Malfloy then anything is fair game. He's my brother, but it's all in good fun, right?
"Sick" Ron responds and we dissolve into mindless chatter with the rest of our house. When I reach the room, I fall asleep almost immediately, tired from the events of the day.
The next morning me, Hermione, and Ron make our way to breakfast. As we sit down to eat, the heads of houses pass out schedules. McGonagall wanders around our table. Curious, I glance over at my brother and turn away before whipping my head back to watch the commotion. I poke Hermione and then Ron, gesturing towards the slytherin table. There we watch as Draco Malfloy shoves pancakes down my brother's throat. There were crumbs flying everywhere, and Malfloy was yelling good naturedly that my brother had to eat. A majority of the student population was staring openly at the spectacle. Many of the people around my brother were laughing.
The weirdest thing was that Malfloy seemed legitimately concerned that Percy wasn't going to eat.
"They're not blue!" he cries through the crumbs, good naturedly pushing at Malfoy. Everyone is staring at them, and the funniest thing is that they don't seem to care.
"Wha?" Ron questions "But- that's Malfloy! How is- why…"
"That's just Percy for you, I guess. He can make friends with anyone." I reply. We both continue staring. Why would Percy want to befriend Malfoy? The guy I explicitly told him was my bully? I know Percy wouldn't betray me like that, he's too protective, and… he just wouldn't. So… What was he doing? Was he desperate for a friend, or was he trying to get back at him all sneaky-like? As much as I hated to admit it, he was a slytherin. A slytherin would do that. But… not Percy. Percy is too nice. So then, what? I'm distracted from my train of thought when Professor McGonagall clears her throat behind us.
"Mr. Potter, and Miss Granger, would you go up to my office? I'll be there in a minute, I just need to get another student first." She hands Ron a schedule and walks off.
"That's too many classes," Ron notes, indicating Hermione's schedule. She huffs and we agree to meet Ron at Divintation, and hurry to the Professor's office. When there, we stand outside for a moment, before the professor walks by and invites us in, Percy in tow. We sit on fabric stools around a merrily blazing fireplace. I glance at Percy. He's covered in crumbs, and his tie is simply in a double knot instead of the way it's supposed to be. He looks up and meets my eyes, then smiles innocently.
"So…" he starts. He's about to continue when Madam Pomfrey bustles into the room. She checks me over for a minute, and declares me to be OK. She then leaves. Everyone looks at the Professor, confused. She sighs and says "Sorry we couldn't do this earlier, but we had to determine if you were alright after the dementor incident on the train. Two students got into a fight on the train, and she didn't have time to check on you afterwards." I nod and she continues "The real reason that you" she gestures to me and Percy "are here is that we wanted to inform you of the ramifications of Percy's unique situation." she pauses.
"The faculty has determined that Percy is too old to go into first year classes, so he'll be in third year with you. Because you're his brother, we're trusting you to help him catch up. He'll be taking gryffindor classes with you to assist with that as well." she pauses, as if trying to remember if there is anything she missed "Oh, and he's allowed in the gryffindor common room with you to help him catch up. Miss Granger, if you would stay a moment, please".
"Ok, thank you". I thank the professor, gather my books and make to get up and walk to divintation. "Percy?" I tap my brother on the shoulder, and he startles before quickly grabbing his bag and walking out of the room with me.
"What was that about?" he questions.
"You weren't listening?" I ask him, a little miffed.
"... no?" I groan and thwack him gently in the back of the head before explaining.
"Well, you're going to be in Gryffindor classes with us, so I can lead you around and help you catch up. Professor McGonagall says you're too old to be with the first years." He snorts, and fakes confusion when I look at him.
"What?" he asks, a grin tugging at his lips.
HAHAHA ok, I feel like I say this too often, but sorry that it's late…. It's long? Does that make up for it? Who cares, o well. I think I'm going to start posting normal chapters while im editing? Who knows.