Disclaimer: I don not own anything.
Chapter 2: Harry Meets a Troll
Harry nervously made his way forward. All eyes were intently focused on him, embarrassing him a little, as he was still trying to get comfortable with his newfound fame. The most intent eyes belonged to the headmaster for some reason Harry didn't understand, and neither did the headmaster.
Harry slowly put the Sorting Hat on, making the event even more dramatic. When it was finally on, a little voice startled him.
"Very difficult. Very difficult indeed!" he heard.
"Huh?" Harry questioned.
"On which house you will be in of course," Harry now guessed that the hat was talking.
"What about it?" Harry asked. No matter what he heard from Ron, that Malfoy kid, or Hagrid, he still wasn't all that savvy of the houses.
"You seem to be of two minds, young Potter. Both are equally intriguing to your welfare and benefit. So, the question is: what are you looking for?" the hat asked.
"I don't think I want to go to Gryffindor," Harry said, "but somewhere that would make me powerful. I need power," For some unknown reason, he felt a strong urge and thirst for power.
"Gryffindor would give you the things you always wanted in life. Slytherin would only give you power." The hat advised.
"No, I want to go to Slytherin," Harry said firmly.
"Of course, after all, it is your choice so, SLYTHERIN!" the hat shouted finally.
This surprised everyone. The headmaster, however, looked as though he expected it to happen. There was no applause for Harry. All he got was angry gazes from all houses. How could the Boy Who Lived be sorted in Slytherin, the most evil house? And how did the golden boy of the wizarding world, be sorted in a house that was brought up to despise him?
Harry finally found a seat away from Malfoy, which caused whoever was sitting next to him to scoot as far away as they could get. Harry gave a feeble smile to the rest of his housemates, who in return gave hateful looks. Harry kept his head down the rest of the meal, missing the rest of the sorting. He gave a surprised look as the food appeared on the table, but didn't show it since he didn't want to give the rest of his housemates ammunition against him. He ate his meal to his fill, and listened to the headmaster's speech, detailing rules of the school. Harry only lip sang the school's song as he didn't want to draw attention to himself.
He followed a little behind the rest of his housemates after the feast to his dormitory, so he wouldn't get hazed. Inside his common room, which was behind a brick wall, had dreary furnishings that depressed Harry even more. He quickly made his way to his bed, which had green and silver sheets.
The next day Harry woke up early. He didn't want to meet the rest of his housemates, since they didn't seem to keen to meet him. At breakfast, a prefect threw Harry's schedule into his face. Harry looked down at his schedule, which didn't really strike him in any way, as he didn't know which were the fun classes.
He made his way to Potions, which was with the Gryffindors. Inside, Harry detected a great hostility towards him. Not even to the other Slytherins, since they had animosity directed towards him also. The only ones who showed an indifference was a bushy haired girl he remembered as Hermione Granger and a black boy named Dean Thomas. Harry guessed they must have been muggleborns, not yet knowing of the house rivalries.
The boy he met on the train, Ron Weasley, was mean to Harry. Harry went sent the boy a smile and made a move to go set with Ron, but all Harry received in return was an icy glare and a snarl. Harry guessed that since he got sorted into Slytherin, that Ron took it as a slap in the face. Harry honestly wanted to be friends with him, but the other boy didn't seem to make any effort in the relationship.
Professor Snape finally walked into the classroom. He gave a menacing gaze to all, more so to Harry, which confused him. After all, he was Harry's head of house. Snape intimidated Harry, since Harry was only eleven years old, and sitting alone in a cold dungeon.
The whole class was eerily quiet when he took role. When he finally came to Harry, he took it upon himself to embarrass Harry. Harry didn't even remember the questions that he asked him. How was he supposed to know that he was supposed to memorize the great big potions book?
After the class was over, he high tailed it to his next class, which was charms. Professor Flitwick, a tiny excitable teacher, seemed to have no qualms with Harry. When he came to his name on roll, he fell off the stack of books he needed to stand on. This did not sit well with Harry's class mates, and he paid dearly for that at the end of the day.
The next day, Harry showed up to transfiguration with a black eye. Professor McGonagall looked at Harry with a questioning look, which Harry pretended to ignore. McGonagall was also strict like Snape, but was much fairer. Harry had a difficult time in that class, but enjoyed it nonetheless thanks to McGonagall treating him like everyone else.
The weeks passed, and Harry began to learn. Not only in his subjects, but in how to survive. He learned that time spent away from his peers was time spent in safety. The sixth and seventh years didn't really pick on him, besides the Slytherins, but that didn't mean they stepped up if they witnessed any abuse to Harry.
The place Harry spent most of his leisure time was in the library. After all, the students didn't want to be in there more anymore than they had to be. Harry, however didn't get the solitude he wanted. The Granger girl also seemed socially malfunctioned. Her and Harry seemed to spend most of the time in each other's presence, without having even talking to her since he first day. It wasn't that they hated eachother, they just didn't have a time present itself for them to socialize.
The time spent in the library finally got the better of his curiosity. He had finally began reading the books in front of him instead of just looking and staring at an open book in front of him. His school and spell work was greatly increasing. He had the best practical results of his class, while Hermione had the best written work of their year. This also didn't sit well with the other Slytherins, specifically Malfoy.
Harry and Malfoy were, not the greatest friends you could say. Every time they looked at eachother, everyone within ten feet felt the tension between them. This also seemed the way between the Weasley boy also. It seemed he also picked up two cronies like Malfoy's. A sandy haired boy Harry didn't know, and the muggleborn Thomas kid. It seemed he finally figured out about the house rivalries.
Halloween was now present and Harry, for lack of a better word, was giddy. He was a wizard and today was the day he figuared that this was a most special day for wizards. Not only that, but most of the teachers seemed to like him, and he had gotten a ton of points. No fisrt year or second year even tried to pick on him anymore, since he beat a third year Ravenclaw in a duel. The kid was giving him lip and Harry was having a bad day. The duel was over before the other kid even knew what was going on. His hazing by the older students seemed to stop as well. he heard some sixth years whispering about'mudbloods' or something of that nature. Harry didn't know exactly what it meant.
It was the middle of the day, when he walked by the first year Gryffindors coming from their charms class. He heard the Weasley boy say something like, "She's a nightmare honestly. She's got to wonder why she has no friends. Can you believe she was trying to tell me how to do a spell. Wingardium Leviosa, seriously." After that, he and his friends laughed at that, and watched as Hermione ran away crying, making the boys laugh harder.
Harry felt sorry for her, and realized they might have gone through similar scenarios in their respective houses. He noticed the way they called her 'bookworm' and the like. Harry respected her for not sinking to their level and retaliating. He knew she could beat all of them in a duel, maybe even a few third years that participated in the teasing.
Harry didn't retaliate for entirely different purposes. Slytherin students were known for their steeped knowledge of dark magic and their brute strength. Even Harry was smart enough to know that those were a bad combination.
It was finally time for the Halloween feast. Harry had a little grin on, which was noticed by the rest of his housemates. It seemed that if Scarhead, as they christened Harry, was happy, they would make him unhappy. Harry caught their looks and figured he was going to pay later, so he might as well and enjoy himself for a little while at least.
Half way through the meal, the stuttering joke for a Defense teacher, Quirrell, came running through the hall, gasping with what seemed to be extreme difficulty. He looked as though he might faint when he finally gasped out, "Troll in the dungeons, thought you ought to know." And fainted on the floor.
Dumbledore commanded in what seemed to be a godly voice for the prefects to lead the student to their houses. The Slytherins didn't even seem to question him. As Harry walked through the Great Hall, he overheard the Gryffindors.
"Where's the bushy haired first year?" a red headed prefect questioned. He looked like Ron's brother.
"She decided to skip the feast and stayed in her dorm." Ron said, not wanting to get in trouble for his teasing. He heard where she was and figured his brother would reprimand him, then send a letter to his mother.
Harry then overheard the group of girl first years from Gryffindor swearing that they saw her in the bathroom crying all day. Harry was worried that she didn't hear about the troll. He had to do something. After all, her and an absent minded boy from Gryffindor were the only kids their year that didn't make his life harder.
Harry ditched the group of Slytherins he was with and traveled to the girls bathroom. He saw Snape approaching and quickly hid. He was going in the opposite direction of the dungeons, which was strange. After he left, Harry continued his journey.
Finally a horrendous smell filled his nostrils. Down the hall was the mountain troll. It lumbered into a doorway, which Harry quickly rushed to and slammed it shut and locked the door. He felt happy that he could look for Hermione without that obstacle in the way.
Walking in the opposite direction with a spring in his step, Harry heard a blood-curdling scream. Harry realized why exactly he was in that hallway. It contained the girls bathroom.
Rushing back in, he made loud noises, confusing the troll. Finally spotting Harry, he lumbered after him. Harry flung his wand at the troll, sending an unknown magic at the troll, striking it in the eyes. It hollered in pain as Harry made his way to Hermione. He tried to coerce her into leaving, but she was just too terrified to move.
The troll finally ridded himself of the pain and turned enraged towards Harry. Harry casted a Deflecting Charm, which was supposed to be used in conjunction with another spell, to be able to bank spells into an opponent, but Harry only used that spell, causing the spell to bounce around the bathroom, once again confusing the troll. Harry moved away from Hermione, as it was obvious that she wasn't going to move.
The spell finally ended, and the troll found Harry yet again. This time Harry had a plan. He flung his wand at the beast again, causing it to lose grip on its club. Harry then shouted: "Wingardium Leviosa." Harry raised the club as high as it would go, and brought it full force upon the troll's head. It swayed and finally fell forward, knocked out.
Hermione seemed to have found her voice as she asked, "Is it dead?"
Harry was mildly surprised that she talked and rasped out, "Doubtful." He thought one worded answers was all that he was capable of, having not talked in a month.
The teachers finally came. Dumbledore looked relieved, McGonagall and Snape both looked furious, and Quirrell fainted.
"What is going on here?" McGonagall asked in a restrained voice.
"It looks pretty obvious to me, professor." Harry said. He didn't know when he became so sarcastic.
"Five points Potter." Snape hissed.
"You don't hear me complaining." Harry said in a nonchalant voice. He could make that up in five minutes in Charms.
"To bed Potter. And don't think you'll not get a detention for this either." Snape commanded silkily.
Harry shrugged his shoulders and made his way to his dorm, taking his time since he knew tonight would be an abusive night.
AN: Re-done as of October 29. For reference to this story, see my profile. Also, any new authors out there might want to take a look at that just because I put up a list of guidelines new authors should. And if not follow, at least to use it as a guideline to your own guideline to being a better writer.