In the Cupboard

In the Cupboard

By HarryDude85

I don't own any of the characters.


Harry put the hat back on the stool, gave it a pat, and went to sit next to Neville Longbottom. He shook hands with Percy Weasley, and saw two red-haired twins dancing and singing in their seats, "We got Potter! We got Potter!" Harry sat down opposite Parvati who looked happy to have him with her. Behind him, the ghost in the ruff was floating. He patted Harry on the back, giving Harry the sudden, horrible feeling he had stepped into a shower of ice water.

Harry could now see the High Table of teachers. He saw at the end Hagrid the giant. Hagrid caught his gaze and smiled at him, waving. Harry couldn't help but be relaxed by this, so he waved back. In the middle, sitting in a large gold chair, sat Albus Dumbledore. While Harry had never met or seen a picture of the man, Harry knew it was him. Who else would be sitting in a gold chair? He also had the look that Harry pictured, after everyone told Harry about him, an old man with long silver hair and beard, but every one could tell that he was young as ever on the inside.

Harry didn't know what to think about Dumbledore. A part of him wanted to like and trust the man, but another part had started to wonder during his last week at the Durlsey's, why did a man who had so much power, allow a boy to be forced to sleep in a cupboard? He knew it was happening, but he didn't do anything about it. Why? And why didn't he tell Harry the truth about his parents?

He forced his conflicting thoughts about Dumbledore down for the moment, and watched Dean Thomas join them come sit next to Parvati and as "Turpin, Lisa" became a Ravenclaw.

Finally, there were only two people left: the red-haired boy who defended Harry and a black boy.

"Weasley, Ronald!" the red-haired boy, looking a nasty shade of green now, stepped to put the hat on.

"GRYFFINDOR!" shouted the hat.

The table applauded again, Harry included. He could see that Percy was clapping hardest and the twin's who sang for him were pounding the table in celebration. Looking between these three and Ron, who sat down next to Harry, his face now red in excitement, Harry could easily tell that all four were brothers. He flashed back to the little girl he had waved to at Platform Nine and three-quarters, who had red hair and freckles like the brothers.

'How big is this family?' Harry laughed to himself as "Zabini, Blaise" joined his fellow Slytherin's.

Now that the sorting was over, Professor McGonagall took the hat and stool away.

Harry couldn't wait for the feast to start. He had only eaten a few pieces of candy on the train, and he was rapidly regretting it. His stomach felt like it would settle for the silverware if real food wasn't supplied soon.

Albus Dumbledore had gotten to his feet, and all chattering that had started after the sorting had ended died away. He was beaming at the students, looking as if there was nothing in the world than the children in front of him.

"Welcome!" he said. "Welcome to another year at Hogwarts! Before we begin our banquet, I would like to say a few words. And here they are: Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak! Thank you!"

He sat back down, and Harry couldn't help himself from laughing and clapping with the rest of the assembly.

"That was strange," said Harry to Ron.

"Yeah, I've heard that Dumbledore's a bit mad. Brilliant, but mad," replied Ron.

"Drumstick, Harry?" offered Hermione, holding out said drumstick.

Harry had read about the food and how it appeared from no where, but he was still floored when he saw the whole table had vanished from the mountains of food that had besieged it. Food had never looked better than it did now. Everything was glistening and hot, as if they had just been finished.

Harry took the drumstick Hermione offered, and also grabbed a couple spoonfuls of potatoes, carrots, steak, sausages, and fries. And after he had finished that plate, he tried some more.

"If only I could," the ghost in the ruff said.

"Can't you –?"

"No. I don't have to, of course, but one does miss it. Oh," he exclaimed, looking surprised at himself, "how very rude of me. I know all of your names, yet I haven't introduced myself." He cleared his throat very importantly and said, "I am Sir Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington at your service. I am the resident ghost of Gryffindor and I am here to help you any way I can."

"He's Nearly Headless Nick to the lazy," one of the Weasley twins said.

"And just Nick to the even lazier," the other one said.

"It is Sir Nicholas de –"

"How are you nearly headless?" Lavender Brown asked. "It's ether on or off, right?"

"You would think, but alas," the ghost said, as he pulled on his left ear and pulled.

Harry looked away as Nick's head came off it was on a hinge. Putting his head on right, Nick said, "I must go off to visit others. Please don't be afraid to ever ask me for help." And he drifted off to the other end of the table.

"Weird," said Harry, turning back to his food. He saw Hermione was in a deep discussion with Percy about lessons, and that Ron was talking passionately about a sport called "Quddith" or something to Dean Thomas, while Dean was talking back about football, but that both Neville and Parvati were rather quite.

Harry knew what was wrong with Parvati, and tried to ask her first before delving into new territory with Neville.

"Hey Parvati," said Harry. She looked up at him. "I know you wanted to be with Padma, but you can't get to down about it. You can still see her every day."

"I know that," Parvati admitted, "It's just this is the first time we are going to be apart in our lives. We've done everything together, and now we won't."

"Just because your in different houses doesn't mean you have to be separate," said Harry. "We can still hang out with her and Ernie."

"I know." She still looked upset, but Harry didn't know what else to say.

Fortunately, Parvati smiled and said, "I'll be fine. This is just something the two of us will have to get used to, is all. Thanks for helping Harry."

"Anytime," said Harry.

When everyone had finished eating, the food disappeared so that not one crumb remained. The next second, the plates were full of desserts.

As Harry helped himself to a treacle tart, the talk had turned to families.

"I'm muggleborn,' said Hermione. "My parents are both dentist's – Muggle healer's for teeth –" she added when she got a few confused looks, "but they were both very happy that I turned out to be a witch, but also disappointed. They were looking forward to me becoming a dentist as well. Well, no offence to them, but dentistry is rather boring, so I was really glad this happened."

"I'm pureblood," said Ron. "My whole family is."

"How big is your family?" asked Seamus. "It's you and your three brothers here. And that was your little sister running after the train, right."

Ron's face was now pink. "Yeah, Ginny. She will be starting next year, but has wanted to go since our eldest brother Bill went."

"So you have five siblings?" asked Parvati.

"Six. My brother Charlie is between Bill and Percy. Fred and George are next," he said, indicating the twins, who were making a group of people laugh uproariously, one of them so much she started to choke on a piece of apple pie.

"What about you, Neville," Harry asked, wanting him to be in the conversation.

Neville was even pinker than Ron. "Pureblood, but I have been so non-magic my family thought I was a squib. It wasn't until my Great Uncle Algie threw me out a window and I bounced that they knew I wasn't a disappointment after all."

"I'm muggleborn, I guess," Dean said.

"What do you mean, 'You guess'" Fred or George asked, Harry couldn't tell which, having overheard the conversation. "How do you not know?"

"Well, I know my mum is a Muggle, but I was raised by my step-dad. I never knew my real dad, he left soon after he got my mom pregnant with me. So I guess he could have been a wizard."

"I don't know about me either," Harry said. "I know my mum was muggleborn, because I was raised by her sister and she and her family are the very definition of Muggles, but I don't know anything about my dad's family."

"Your dad was a pureblood," said the other Weasley twin. "Everyone in our world knows that. So I guess you're a half-blood."

"Does any of this mean anything?" Lavender asked. "'Pureblood', 'half-blood', 'muggleborn' – does being muggleborn make you any less capable than a pureblood?"

"Not at all," said Neville, surprising Harry. He thought Neville had finished talking and would have just sat there for the rest of the night. But Harry saw a look in Neville's eyes that told Harry that this was something he truly believed. "I'm pureblood, and I've known muggleborns who could do magic years before me. All of this 'pureblood is superior' nonsense is just something the Slytherin's like to rub in people's faces."

Before anybody could say anything to this statement, the desserts had vanished like the dinner before it and once again, Professor Dumbledore had gotten to his feet.

"Ahem – just a few more words now that we are all fed and watered. I have a few start-of-term notices to give you."

As Dumbledore was talking, Harry couldn't help but get a better look at the teachers surrounding him. He saw Professor McGonagall directly to his left, sitting next to the woman Harry had seen at the Leaky Cauldron. Next to her, was a younger looking teacher whose eye kept twitching. He was wearing a ridiculous looking purple turban. All of these teachers were watching Dumbledore.

All except one, whose eyes were searching the crowd. Harry watched this man. He had greasy black hair, a hooked nose, and sallow skin. He seemed to be looking for someone.

Then, the man's eyes found Harry's. He had black eyes like Hagrid's, but instead of the comforting warmth within the giant's, this man seemed to be nothing but cold, hard hatred. He didn't know why, but Harry couldn't look away from the man, who seemed fascinated with Harry, yet revolted at the same time.

The man gave Harry one last sneer before looking up to here the Headmaster.

Feeling totally confused, Harry turned to ask someone who he was, but forgot Dumbledore was still talking.

Listening in, Dumbledore said, "And finally, I must tell you that this year, the third-floor corridor on the right hand side is out of bounds to everyone who does not wish to die a very painful death."

No body laughed at this. Harry couldn't tell if he was the brilliant side of Dumbledore talking or the mad side that everyone kept mentioning.

"And now that everything of importance has been said, bedtime. Off you trot!"

Harry turned to ask someone, preferably Percy since he seemed to know a lot, but everyone was starting to move toward the door and Percy was now at the head of the first years saying, "Alright everyone, follow me. Keep up and try to remember where you're going."

As the Gryffindor first years were filing out of the Great Hall and heading towards the staircase, the Slytherin first years were exiting next to them, going down one of the hallways. Harry saw Draco Malfoy.

He remembered what Draco had said to Ron, that he only picked on people that deserved it. Who deserved to be picked on? That was one of the reasons Dudley gave when ever some one stood up to him for beating up Harry. 'He deserved it.'

But Harry also remembered how nice Draco had been on the boat over and that the Sorting Hat told him that it was a good idea trying to be friends with a Slytherin.

He didn't know which way he wanted to go with Draco: to try and become friends with him, or break all ties with him and become enemies.

His thoughts on Draco were interrupted when they encountered Peeves the poltergeist.

"You want to watch out for Peeves," said Percy after he drove Peeves away. "He loves causing chaos. The Bloody Baron's the only one who can control him, he won't even listen to us prefects. Here we are."

They stopped at the end of a corridor in front of a huge portrait of a very fat woman in pink.

"Password?" she said.

"Caput Draconis," said Percy and the portrait swung open to reveal a hole in the wall. The hole led to a very cozy looking space with a fireplace surrounded by big, comfy chairs and tables all over the room. There were windows that looked out to the beautiful surrounding mountains. On either side of the fire place was a staircase: one that led to the girl's dormitories and one that led to the boys.

After wishing the girls a good night, and promising Hermione and Parvati that they would go to breakfast tomorrow together, Harry followed Ron up the spiral staircase.

Each boy found there stuff at a bed, so choosing who got which bed wasn't a factor.

"Good food, isn't it?" Ron asked the room, who all muttered back positive responses. "Get off, Scabbers!" Harry looked and saw Ron was talking to his pet rat. It was a fat rat, who looked like it had seen better days, with a tattered ear and a toe missing from one of his paws. "He's chewing my sheets."

Harry was too tired to say anything, so, after taking his glasses off he went to sleep, thinking 'At last, I'm home,' before drifting off.


If you think that so far the story has been rather close too canon, with only a couple of tweaks, the next few chapters will make you feel better. Now it will get complicated. And, in a few chapters, Harry has his talk with Dumbledore that will really change things.

Also, I'm trying to make this as British as possible. That's why you see 'mum' not 'mom' and 'football' not 'soccer'. If that's to annoying, or if I butcher it completely, than I'll just go back to using American lingo.

Later.