Disclaimer: As always I dont own anything in this fic beside the plot.
Chapter six.
The woman looked sternly at each and everyone of them, her gaze resting a bit longer on Harry, and he could see her gaze soften a bit. "I am Professor McGonagall, the Head of Hosue Gryffindor and Deputy-Headmistress of this school. Now before you are allowed to join your fellow students you will have to be sorted into one of the four houses which consists of Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin", she added the last house's name with a bit of a disdain, before she spoke again.
"While you are here, your hosue will be like your family, any triumphs you gain will award your house points, while misbehaviour will lose you points", she added sternly and her eyes narrowed a bit as she once again gazed at the students, and Harry was trying with not much success to tone down the glint he always got in his eyes with the prospect of mischief, and Harry could have sworn he heard something that almost sounded like a groan from McGonagall as she looked at him, however she continued speaking before he had the chance to ponder it. "At the end of the year the house with most points will win the prestigous House Cup, and as such we expect the best behaviour from all of you", at this she looked a bit pointedly at Harry, and to his surprise Malfoy, who was still moaning and sporting a hand that looked decidely broken, apparently one of his big lumps of bodyguards were to heavy for Malfoy's hand to take the pressure, resisting the urge to smirk at Malfoy Harry followed McGonagall and the other students into a large antechamber with two large magnificent oak doors from which laughter and sound of conversations were arising.
"Please wait here and I shall be along to fetch you shortly", said McGonagall, before turning and walking through a set of doors. Immideately conversations broke out. Some were aruing loudly if they had to perform magic in front of the school, while others like Hermione Granger were rattling on about all the spells the knew. Ron was telling Harry and Neville that they had to fight a troll, Neville who was already looking slightly green about the prospect of being sorted turned a deathly pale colour, Harry who was about to comfort the boy a little was however cut off by Malfoy, his earlier 'accident' apparently forgotten.
"Oh yes Weasel of course they would send a bunch of untrained eleven year olds against a troll, really smart choice, of course my Father has had me tutored in magic since I was a child so I wouldn't have any problem", he said smugly while puffing out his chest in such a manner that Harry thought he looked mroe like a blond peacock than anything else and a snort of laughter came from his lips.
Malfoy turned towards Harry who was smirking, and was about to no doubt deliver yet another scathing comment, but Harry got there first.
"Really Malfoy, and where were your oh so predigous skill on the train earlier? Flew out the window perhaps, beacuse if YOU are the example of a trained wizard, it leaves me baffled that the muggles havent run you down years ago", Harry's smirk widened even more as it left Malfoy standing in a spluttering rage unable to do anything other than loking like a tomatoe and exclaiming choking noises from his throat.
Harry winked at Malfoy and turned around, only to stand face to face with a miffed Professor McGonagall, he gulped. "That was unneccesary Mr.Potter, and I will not tolerate such behaviour again have I made myself clear"? at Harry's nod she beckoned the students to follow her through the great oak doors and into the great hall
The room was huge. Four long tables stretched through most of the room where hundreds of students sat all of them talking animatedly or looking at the incoming first years. At the end of the room were a raised platform where a fifth table stood, with many older withces and wizards was seated, the teachers, and at the middle of the table on a large grand throne with details picked out with gold and various gems sat Professor Dumbledore in all of his...sligtly bonkers glory, fully dressed up in a flowing lilac robe with silver trimmings and cute little midgets with wings splattered around on it, and to top it off he was wearing a large garish pink sombrero that cast a shade over the teacher sitting next to him.
Above the tables thousands of candles were flowing in the air casting light over the hall, and above that was the sky. From what Harry could remember the roof in the great hall had been bewitched to reflect the sky outside, and was now currently showing the black night speckled with stars. McGonagall stopped in front of a three legged stool, on which stood a ragged old hat, which to Harry's surprise opened a fold in the hat which looked almost like a mouth and started singing.
"Oh, you may not think I'm pretty,
But don't judge on what you see,
I'll myself if you can find,
A smarter hat then me,
You can keep your bowlers black,
Your top hats sleek and tall,
For I'm the Hogwarts Sorting Hat,
And I can cap them all,
There's nothing hidden in your head,
The Sorting Hat can't see,
So try me on and I will tell you,
Where you ought to be,
You might belong in Gryffindor,
Where dwell the brave at heart,
Their darling, nerve, and chivalry,
Set Gryffindors apart;
You might belong in Hufflepuff,
Where they are just and loyal,
Those patient Hufflepuff are true,
And unafraid of toil;
Or yet in wise old Ravenclaw,
If you're a ready mind,
Where those of wit and learning,
Will always find their kind,
Or perhaps in Slytherin
You'll make your real friends,
Those cunning folk will use any means,
To achieve their ends,
So put me on! Don't be afraid!
And don't get in a flap!
You're in safe hands,
For I'm a Thinking Cap!"
The Hall broke into a loud applause while the hat bowed its tip to each of the four tables. When the sound died down, the hat lay quite still again.
"May I have your attention please," McGonagall called out. "When I call your name, come to the front. You will sit down on the stool and put on the Sorting Hat. The hat will decide in which of the houses you belong. Once you've been sorted, join the table of your house for the feast." She took a long list out of her pocket and the sorting began. "Abbott, Hannah," she called out.
A pink-faced girl with blonde pigtails came to the front, trembling nervously. She put on the hat and it sank immediately over her eyes. It was silent for a few moments, before calling out, "HUFFLEPUFF!"
The table on the right cheered loudly and the girl ran over to that table, smiling broadly.
The row of students slowly shrank as more and more students were sorted. Hermione was also sorted into Gryffindor, and Harry heard Ron emit a groan at this. Another thing Harry noticed was that the hat nver spent the same amount of time on a student. Malfoy was sorted into Slytherin before the hat even touched his head, while Neville was under the hat for a whole four minutes before the hat shouted 'GRYFFINDOR'.
Finally mcGonagall spoke "Potter Harry". The hall immideately broke into whispers and conversations, 'Potter, THE Harry Potter, heard he was dead', or 'didn't he go missing a few years back' Harry gave a silent groan 'just great now everybody's gotta want to know what happened', grumbling for himself Harry ignored McGonagall's smile, and sat down on the stool.
'Well hello there master Potter, oh my I haven't seen potential like this ever before, although Dumbledore was certainly close at your age yes'. "So I guess you have to sort me then"? Harry whispered more to himself than anyone else. 'Yes yes now be silent I need to consentrate' the hat snapped irritably at Harry.
Harry just smirked, imagine that before the school had even properly started he had managed to get the Deputy-Headmistress slightly anxious, then irate, and a few minutes later he had managed to get the hat who would decide his future place in the school annoyed with him as well. 'Damn I'm good' Harry thought, in with the hat forgot his place and said quite loudly "SUSH MR.POTTER", at which the hall started buzzying with conversations, and Albus Dumbledore's eye twinkling went into overdrive, meanwhile the hat was mumbling ferociously to itslef.
'Hmm, let's see Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff is definately out of the question, you have ambition creativeness, and cunning in the droves I can see, but you want to spend it for more than just personal gain, so you could do very well in Slytherin, but you have courage lots of it, and if I might say so Mr.Potter if your flying is any indicator you also have a death wish, certainly foolhardy, so I believe you will do well in GRYFFINDOR', it shouted the last word out loud again, and Harry stepped off the stool and gave the hat to McGonagall who smiled at him.
It took two seconds after that for the hat's decision to fully reach everyone, and then the table furthest left in the hall exploded with cheers, and Harry also noticed fred and George stand up and shout "WE GOT POTTER" to everybody. Devilish smirk in place again Harry went over to the table with cheering Gryffindors and sat down next to Fred, who gave him a thump on the back.
The sorting continued, and soon enough Ron was on the stool with the hat on his head and looking decisively green, however a second later he to was sorted into Gryffindor, and the last person to be sorted was Blaise Zabini.
Harry was about to say something to Ron when the Headmaster stood up with his arms extended wide, smiling at everyone. "I have only a few words before we begin our excellent feast and here they are: Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak!
"Thank you! Tuck in!"
A vast amount of foods appeared on the tables. Harry never had seen so many types of food together, even at the Temple. He quickly stacked his plate with different assortments of meat potatoes and vegetables.
All around him conversations ensued, Hermione was jabbing with Percy about school subjects, while Seamus were telling the amusing story about how his muggle father had discovered his mother was a witch, after their marriage. Dean Thomas another Gryffindor Harry learned was a muggleborn with a passion for football, and was trying to explain Ron about the finer parts of football, although Ron judging from his expression had probably lost it halfway through the conversation.
Harry looked up at the staff table, only to meet Dumbledore's twinkling eyes, Harry winked at Dumbledore and turned to Fred who was sitting at his left. "Say Fred, I may have heard that you and your brother are into the delicate area of rulebreaking and general mischief".
Fred looked innocently (far too innocently in Harry's opinion) at Harry. "Now Harrykins what made you come up with that idea", he said smirking at Harry.
Harry raised an eyebrow, "well, I may happen to be into the same area, and who know perhaps I would like to help a bit, after all pranks are much more fun if we are a few more than just one", Harry said equally as innocently.
Fred leaned over to George and the two started whispering amongst themselves, after a few minutes they turned to Harry. "If you manage to pull off a prank in here without getting caught we'll let you in", said George.
Harry looked up at the staff table, then back to the twins, then back to the table again before 'the Glint' as the other Jedi Padawans called it appeared in his eye again. Harry leaned close to the twins. "You see Professor Dumbledore"? at their nod he continued," observe".
Harry sank back into the Force, felt it flowing through him as always, and then he concentrated on the Headmaster, more accurately on the large bowl of mashed potatioes in front of him, and almost delicately he pushed it at great speed at the Headmaster before abrubtly stopping it a few inches from his face, the result: the Headmaster was now coated from his head to his stomach in mashed potaoes, swiftly Harry lowered the bowl back on the table.
The entire room had gone still, soon though a chuckle was heard, then another and this started a chain reaction and soon the entire student body was laughing, that was until McGonagall had pulled herself together. "WEASLEY, DETENTION...BOTH OF YOU" she yelled while marching down at Fred and George who were writhing in their seats. "Honestly Professor", said Fred holding his hands up in surrender, "it wasn't us...really we would've been...happy...to...take credit...for such...a thing...but it...wasn't us", they finished together.
Professor McGonagall's lips were curling slightly upwards, her voice however was still strict as ever. "Potter, did you perhaps know who did this", McGonagall asked Harry who was sitting with wide eyed innocence that weren't fooling anyone, and certainly not McGonagall who had seen the same look on Harry's father for years.
"No professor McGonagall, me Fred and George were just discussing about starting an 'alternate' study group when the bowl with mashed potatoes which was conveniently stashed in front of the Headmaster suddenly leapt into the air and dumped it's load at the Headmaster before setting itself down at the table again", Harry said, while trying to keep up his innocent charade, although his tone of voice told everyone within hearing range that he knew exactly who had done it.
McGonagall sighed mournfully for herself, her days of peace after James Potter and his friends had finished school was now over, and now here was his son who looked more than caable of continuing the tradition of driving her insane. She looked hopelessly up at Dumbledore who had now cleaned himself up, only to find his eyes twinkling amused as always, with another sigh she turned towards the Harry and the twins again.
"Well since Mr.Potter has spoken to your defence, and we really don't have any evidence at you, the detentions will be dropped", she spoke mournfully, before turning and heading back to the staff table, as soon as she was gone the twins turned on Harry, "you're in", they said simultaneously.
The rest of the meal Harry amused himself by listening to the other students, deftly avoiding answering about questions about his own past, and had even more fun with using the Force to move Draco's cutlery whenever he tried to grab it. Eventually Draco had given up on drinking when his glass moved every time he tried to fill it, and after a little temper tantrum a dark greasy haired teacher called Snape came down to investigate. Snape had asked Draco to demonstrate what had happened, and so when Dracos glass di not move and allowed itself to be filled up with pumpkin juice just fine, Snape gave Draco detention the following night for 'acting like a child instead of a Slytherin', sufficiently pleased Harry stopped bothering Draco, after all teasing could only go so far before it became bullying.
As Snape sat down, the teacher sitting beside him, a man with a purple turban looked briefly at Harry, in which Harry felt a faint prescence in his mind, along with a small amout of pain emnating from his scar. With a wince Harry pushed the prescence away, and the pain dissapeared as well, narrowing his eyes a bit Harry decided he would stay on watch from that teacher from now on.
Finally when everyone was stuffed, the desserts had been eaten and the table had cleared itself again, Professor Dumbledore rose to address the students. He was smiling and his eyes were twinkling merrily.
"Welcome everyone for a new year at Hogwarts. Now that our hunger has been relieved, I'm afraid I have to keep you here for a few more moments before we can enjoy our well deserved rest. I have a few start-of-term notices to pass around. First of all, I would like you all to welcome our new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, Professor Quirrell."
He pointed at the man with the turban, who rose to accept a polite applause. It was weird to see a grown man cowering with every clap that was heard and Harry's suscpicion grew further and especially when Snape looked disgusted by the new teacher
"Secondly, I would like to point out to our first-years that the forbidden forest is out of bounds for every student. I would like to remind some of our older students about that too," he said, his eyes darting to the Gryffindor table for a few seconds, no doubt looking for the twins. "Next, Mr. Filch, our caretaker, has asked me to remind you all that magic is forbidden in the corridors and a list of banned items can be reviewed at the door of his office for all who wish to check.
"I would finally like to bring your attention to the fact that the third-floor corridor on the right-hand side is out of bounds for all who do not wish to die a most painful death. That's all I have to say for now. I wish everyone a pleasant stay at Hogwarts and a good night to all!"
All the students rose, and Percy's voice shouting "first years with me" was heard. The eight new Gryffindors fell in line behind the two fifth year prefects. Percy and his female counterpart led them through several corridors and up several staircases before halting in front of a portrait of a very corpulent woman in a silly pink dress.
"Good evening, young Gryffindors. Welcome to Hogwarts," the portrait spoke in a very high and somewhat annoying voice. Some of the Muggleborn students acted surprised at seeing a portrait move and talk, but Harry had already lived with a wizarding family for almost two months, so he knew that most portraits were charmed to act like their original.
"Caput Draconis," Percy spoke clearly. The portrait swung to the side to reveal a doorway. They passed through it and entered the Gryffindor Common Room. Percy turned around to address the first-years trying to look important, but failing somehow. "This is the Gryffindor Common Room. The girl's dormitories are on your left and the boy's dormitories are on your right. You will find your luggage has already been brought up there. If you have any questions, please address me or any of the other prefects and we will be happy to assist you. Good night." Without waiting any more, Percy turned around and left the first-years on their own in the common room.
"Force, and I thought McGonagall was stiff", Harry whispered to Ron who nodded his ascent. Harry and the other Gryffindor boys went up to their dorm, where they quickly found their respective beds. Harry who didn't really need sleep, not like normal people anywas simply sat down and started meditating on his bed, after drawing the curtains in front of it, later when everyone had gone to sleep, he would explore the castle.
Staff Room.
All the teachers now sat gathered in the teachers lounge, except from Snape who had withdrawn to his office, and Minerva McGonagall who was missing. Professor Dumbledore was just about to question her absence when she came in with a bottle of firewhiskey , she sat down with a groan, before filling up a glass with the amber liquid, and draining it. The other teachers stared at her as if she had grown a second head, befor Pomona Sprout managed to say something. "Something on you mind Minerva"?
Minerva answered by draining another glass, before looking desperately at Sprout. "it's Potter, our days of peace since James graduated is over, he's got the same smirk his father had whenever he was up to something, and his got the glint his mother always had whenever she did something. Now Lily's pranks were always far and between, but when she did them the marauders were emberrassed for days after it, and now he has joined with the Weasley twins", she finished dejectively.
The other teachers looked around at eachother before collectively draining their drinks as one, the thought of what Harry Potter and the Weasley twins could do to Hogwarts with five and seven years respectively made each of them nervous.
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AN. okay so now Harry has been sorted, into Gryffindor I might add, since his personality is quite different he would only have been sent into Slytherin if he had asked the hat for it. Also if someone thinks Harry is overpowered due to the fact that he could notice Moldywarts presence in his mind and banish him from it, it is beacuse the Jedi have really good mind healers who have helped Harry earlier with overcoing the damage of his abusive childhood, and also he have been learned by his master to control his mind from outside stimuli (and other people minds as well with mind tricks for example).
Well I'm out, I'll try to have a larger update next time.