Disclaimer: The Harry potter series belongs to J. K. Rowling. The only profit I gain from this story is the enjoyment and experience of writing it.
-Chapter 7: The Hat says and The Daily Prophet -
When the song ended everyone cheered and clapped. Then fell silent again as Mcgonagall picked up the hat.
"When I call your name, you will put on the hat and sit on the stool to be sorted, Avery, -" Snape shifted besides him and whispered to Lily distracting him from Mcgonagall. "Don't worry you'll be fine."
"SLYTHERIN!"
Dudley winced suddenly realizing that he that he probably wouldn't be, because he couldn't do magic in the first place.
"Black, Sirius!"
The familiar name caused him to look over to see a good looking kid with black hair walk forward and sit down on the stool. "So he is Harry's godfather..or at least he will be. Since that would be in the future…though technically he had been since he was dead now. Well not dead now NOW cause he is sitting right there, which means he clearly alive. But that's only because I went back in time which I still don't understand in the first place..."
"GRYFFINDOR!"
As he walked over to the red and gold table, he sent a smirk at the other side of the room. Following his gaze he found a enraged looking blonde girl sitting at the Slytherin house table.
"Drake, Damon!"
He strolled forward trying to show as little nervousness as possible. He slumped down onto the stool and the world became black as the hat slidded down over his eyes.
"Hmm.. how interesting." Said a small voice in his ear.
"So are you going to throw me to the dogs?" Dudley whispered.
"Way would I do that? It would be a horrible waste of such great potential." Replied the hat calmly.
"Potential for what! I can't do any magic!" He hissed at the hat.
"O, I assure you that you have magic. That wand was quite quick to realize that."
"You mean the wand that I found in the trunk?"
"Yes, now where to put you? You have some chivalry. You're not bad as far as cunning go either as well as some leadership qualities."
"Wait! So you're actually going to sort me! Even though I'm not Damon Drake! What about the time-traveling and the whole Muggle thing before that!" He growled as quietly as humanly possible.
"You never were a Muggle. But back to the problem at hand, where to put you?"
"Never a Muggle! What do you mean by that?"
"Precisely what I said. Hmm… you have gained some honorable traits and there is still many that you could grow in given some time..."
"I just need some place to lay low until I figure out how to get back to my own time."
"Sometimes it's not as as easy as figuring out the problem, but also carrying out the plan and knowing what you're leaving behind when you move on."
Dudley frowned in confusion but before he could ask another question.
"But since you insist that you want some place where you can lay low as you put it. Good luck in...HUFFLEPUFF!"
Mcgonegal swept the hat off his head and Dudley shot a glare at it as he stood up. "Don't think this is over! You won't get rid of me that easy!" He strolled over to the cheering table with his scowl still set in place. "Hopefully they will leave me alone if I don't look friendly." He thought as he took a empty seat at the end of the table. He slumped forward and buried his face in his hands. "What did that dusty rag mean when he said that I never was a Muggle? And he didn't seem to even care that I wasn't who I said I was or that I was from the future! UGH I don't understand these people!" He hear murmuring and cheering from around him but it was muffled like he was under water. "What did he by what he last said? Did he think that I don't want to get back to my own time?"
"I didn't think that Hufflepuff was that bad to be sorted into." Said someone to his right.
Dudley jerked out of his thoughts and turned to look at the kid sitting beside him. The kid was tall and good looking with dirty blonde hair. "Urm.. It wasn't that, it was something the hat said." Glancing around he realized that he must have zoned for far longer than he had thought, because the sorting was now over. He grimaced and chided himself. "Dang, I probably should have been paying attention to that."
At that moment Dumbledore stood up beaming. "Welcome to another new year at Hogwarts! Before we dig in let me say a few words. They are: Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak!"
Cheering and clapping broke out and Dudley snorted in amusement.
All kinds of food started to appear on the dishes that were set on the table. Even though the food looked really good, he didn't feel very hunger. But he took a piece of roast beef and a little from the other things around him in order to not stand out.
"So what did the hat say?" Asked the kid to his right.
"Nothing that concerns you." Said Dudley flatly and then grimaced at his own rudeness.
The kid didn't seem at all deterred by it though and introduced himself. "I am Frank Longbottom, by the way." He said with a grin and offered his hand.
"The last name sounds familiar…. maybe one of Harry's friends?" Dudley thought but accepted the hand anyway. "Damon Drake." He said calmly in return.
"Hey, wasn't there something about your family in the Daily Prophet." Said a kid across the table from them, who was now leaning over with interest. "Or at least there would have been if the Aurors didn't stop them from printing it. It must have been bloody barking, want to tells us what it was about?" By now many of the surrounding students had taken an interest in the conversation as well.
"The Auror's stopping the press from printing things doesn't happen often I take it?" Dudley asked curiously.
"No! It's like the first time in wizard history!" Replied the kid with excitement.
"Or at least that we know of. "Added Longbottom after he had swallowed his mouthful of food.
"Well, yeah… " Said the kid looking a little sheepish. "But what did they want to cover up so bad?"
"I'm sure the almost destruction of a pure-blooded family would make the wizarding news, but that can't be all of it….. so what did they not want people to know?" Dudley shrugged and replied "I don't know." He then took a large bite out of his piece of roast beef.
"Awh.. come on. You're a Drake, you should at least have some idea of what the rest of your family is doing!"
Dudley fixed an irritated glare at the kid. "Yeah, I know what they are doing right now is laying in the cold hard ground… Well, not even that really." He chewed his food slowly then swallowed and replied with a cold tone. "If you hadn't notice I am the same age as you. So how many adults would tell a kid our age what they are doing exceptionally if it's something the Aurors are trying to cover up?"
"Alright, you have a point there." The kid said deflating with disappointment.
"By the way, how did you find out the Aurors were trying to cover something up and what's your name?" Asked Dudley with a frown.
" Another writer of the Daily Prophet wrote an article about it. There was a allot of stuff about stopping free writing and all of that, my mother said it was rubbish." Answered Longbottom.
"It's not! If they were able to stopped this article, what will stop more of them in the future?" Said the kid with a determined look on his face. " And my name is Adrian."
"It's rubbish the Aurors wouldn't be do that! And I am sure that they had a really good reason for stopping the article, plus the Minister was there to backed them up." Snapped Longbottom.
"Yeah, but they aren't telling us what that reason is!" Growled Adrian.
"ENOUGH!" Snapped an older student, causing both Adrian and Longbottom to jump. "They will probably release a reason later, but even if they don't it's neither of you two's business. Is that understood?"
"Yes." Both of them reluctantly replied, though they were still shooting glares at each other.
Dudley absentmindedly noticed that the student that had spoken up had a badge with a large "P" on it attached to her robe. The students that had been eavesdropping quickly returned to their own conversations.
He glanced around at the others tables, his Aunt was at the Gryffindor with Harry's Godfather. Looking the other way he saw Snape sitting rather sulkily at the Slytherin table. "Not that I blamed him getting separate from your only friend, sucks… " His thinking glumly of Piers and the few other people that he would call his family and friends. "Have they noticed that I am gone? Does time even move in the future since I am in the past? Have I change the future by just being here?"
In order to distract from his rapidly darkening thoughts, he leaned over to the older student and after getting her attention. He asked about the adults at the fifth table.
"Well the big man at the end is Hagrid his the grounds keeper here. Then there is Mcgonagall who teaches Transfiguration and is also the Head of the Gryffindor house. Professor Flitwick who teaches Charms and is Head of RavenClaw…" As she continued talking Dudley recognized the names of some of them. But a few of them he did not like the Arts teacher and the new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher. Apparently the last one had messed up a spell during the summer and had ended up somewhere in Norway where the dragons had tried to eat him.
"People say the position is curse cause no one survives more than a year." Said Longbottom who had joined the conversation.
"Cursed as in they all end up dead or something?" asked Dudley.
"No, not all of them. But there usually something that goes wrong and they never come back for another year." Said the Prefect.
The dessert dishes started to disappear and Dumbledore stood again. He said that the Forbidden Forest was out of bonds and the quidditch team tryouts would be held in the second week of term. After another song the houses headed of to their own dormitories. The older girl that he had been talking to earlier lead the way. "I am Prefect Amelia Bones, if you need anything feel free to ask me or any of the older students and we will be glad to help." She said giving them a smile as they headed down a flight of stairs leading to the floors below. The Slytherins were also heading in the same direction, while the Ravenclaws and Gryffindors were heading up. She nodded to the Slytherin boy Prefect as they passed each other. "Make sure to watch the fifth step on the next flight of stairs, I heard that Peeves put waxes on from the Fat Friar." She called over to him.
He nodded his thanks as the two houses split heading in different directions. Dudley caught another glimpse of Snape before they turned a corner, he still looked pretty down. They passed through a several hidden doors and hallways. They passed a large painting of a basket of fruit before finally stopping in front of a stack of barrels. "Now listen up!" Bones shouted to get everyone's full attention. Then she reached out and taped a rhythm on one a barrel that was two from the bottom and middle of the second row. It swung open to reveal a small round passageway. "Follow me." She said before she hoisted herself up and crawled into it. There was a moment of silence as the first years shuffled nervously in front of the barrels. Dudley sighed and brushed through the group of first years. He quickly pulled himself up and into the barrel and without a backwards glance crawled into the small earthy passageway.
-(Author's notes)-
Thank you! Everyone that voted and has reviewed! I honestly didn't expect that many replies and it was cool to see people's different opinions. As always I hope you enjoyed and are willing to review.
On a side note I had Dudley miss the rest of the sorting cause I thought it would be boring to introduce the rest of the Marauders and the other canon characters like that. But I did introduce Sirius because he was before him in sorting. Also I'm using last names in order to show the relationship between the Dudley and other character. Once they become friends I'll switch to using their first name.
I will be fudging on different character as far as when they came to Hogwarts. So you'll see more people that you will recognize the names of but could argue that they shouldn't be there. Cause honestly I have no clue as to when Amelia Bones went to Hogwarts but she seemed to work as a good Hufflepuff Prefect.
Does anyone have an idea for a good last name for Adrian?