Chapter Nine: Somber Premonitions
AN from SonofLuffy: This one has a bit of a 'slightly dark' beginning to it. What do you think it could mean? Harry's house anyone?
Disclaimer: Do not own Harry Potter or anything relevant or recognisable.
Harry sat in his bed. His first day at Hogwarts was so exhausting, but his mind could not turn off. All the other boys were asleep; they were used to all of this. On the other hand, Harry had seen so many things for the very first time. He was upset that he would be spending the next week in detention, but it was a small price to pay, and the sorrow was pretty far from his mind. Eventually, the night grew long enough, and he drifted off to sleep.
Harry and Neville stood on opposite sides of a small table, a small red rock between them. Harry did not know what it was, or why they were there. He looked at the rock, and then back at Neville. The two boys looked to Harry's left and there stood Professor Jin. He was gazing past them, to the opposite side of table, to Harry's right, where stood a man in a hooded cloak that covered his eyes and nose. All four of them turned and stared at the table, and when Harry's curiosity finally got the better of him, he reached to grab it, but Jin placed his hand on Harry's shoulder. "You do not want to do that." He said, without opening his mouth. Then Neville picked it up.
"Such a queer bauble, would you say?" Neville spoke, his eyes reflecting the red of the stone. But as soon as the words left his mouth, from the darkness under the cloak of the man on the right, forth sprang a great beast, canine in appearance, but with three heads. The beast snatched up the other three, holding Harry in the center mouth. He thought he would be eaten, but the dog froze.
Harry heard three voices in his head, the first was Neville. "I will never walk again." And Harry could see Neville's legs mangled. Next was Jin, who, Harry saw hanging upside-down, his goggles fallen from his head, and where they had been, were two sunken holes where eyes should have been. "Fame has a steep price." Last was a voice that he did not recognize, it seemed to come from the mouth of the beast in which he was held. "You will find no joy… no friendship… no love. The strongest are the ones who learn to live without." In the beast's eyes he saw his mother and father. Grief stricken upon their faces, his mother was practically in tears.
Finally, a great dragon appeared before him. It was odd, however, because the dragon had no scales, it appeared to be…chocolate. The dragon spit a small ball of fire at the dog, and everything vanished. Harry sat alone, in a boat, with nothing as far as the eye could see.
Harry sat up in bed, thankful that, with as odd as his new life was, it was not as odd as his dreams.
Harry had awaken an hour early, but was too rattled to go back to sleep. He started to think about the night prior to last. He had not seen Hagrid since he jumped in the lake. I hope he is ok. He may not be the brightest around, but he is still nice to me. For that matter, I do not recall seeing mister Quirrel, I wonder if he declined the job, or if I just did not see him yet.
As he looked around the bedchamber, he thought about the sorting ceremony. At this point, it was all a blur. His thoughts frequently returned to the same idea. Why do houses matter? I get along with Draco, a Slytherin; Dana, a Ravenclaw; Jordan, a Hufflepuff; and Hermione, a Gryffindor. It seems like they are just trying to pit us all against each other. Is the point of academia to study and become as great as possible, not to have us constantly trying to undercut each other? And he thought of the sorting hat. What a load of rubbish. I am supposed to let a talking hat tell me whom I should be friends with? Do they not trust me to be able to make a decision? And why should my house suffer for my mistakes? You know what, when I see Madam Hooch later, I will ask her to reinstate the fifty points, in exchange for more detention. No one should have to suffer because I know what needs to be done.
Harry was resolved, but he still had a quarter hour till his housemates were awake, so he pulled out his new potions book. He flipped to a random page, where, in the margins he saw some scribbling. It detailed the usage of a spell,
Vashu setpata-For enemies
With the base of wand static, pointed towards your own heart,
Swish the tip from left to right five times
Starting at a forty-five degree arc up
And ending at a forty-five degree arc down.
Solve for 'X'
Vashu Setpata? That may come in handy, but why would I need a combative spell at school? Wait, what is this, time travel? He thought, reading to the next page entitled "Time Warp"
It is just a jump to the left
And then a step to the right
You put your hands on hips
And turn your knees in tight
And it is a pelvic thrust
That really drives them insane
Let us do the Time Warp again
I will ask Professor Snape about that in class today.
"What a fine day to be a simply superior Slytherin!" Draco said to Harry as he woke up. "If only we lived on mars." Soon following were Blaise and Rockwell. The four of them got dressed and left for breakfast. Harry decided that he should just try to forget his dream.
-end-of-chapter-
Recognize the song? Did you guess his house correctly? What did you think of his dream? Please leave a review with questions, comments, concerns, etc in the review box below. Thanks for reading!