Warning: AU for all the books, whilst it will follow them in some events.
AND THE TRUTH SHALL SET YOU FREE
By
SilverSkies
CHAPTER NINE: Sorting Matters…
The spray of the sea wind against her face was glorious as she stood upon the deck. It brought to mind the freedom she felt when she had soared above the seas once away from the island prison, Azkaban. Really, she mused, she should be studying the Animagus transfiguration or planning on how she would be able to convince someone who knew her in her Death Eater days that she was loyal to Harry and had his best interests at heart. Instead she was luxuriating in the power and the exhilaration that the salt wind brought her – whipping at her hair – causing tangles which would no doubt leave people staring at her in distaste, much like those staring outside from the windows and pondering the madness that brought her outside in the cold and wet and wind.
It wasn't long before Bella realised they would soon be arriving in France and she needed to straighten up her appearance – no matter how good she looked with windswept hair – it leant all too much to the appearance she'd just been thoroughly shagged. With her sultry good looks, which she'd managed to regain - the leers and lustful looks from the male passengers weren't what she wanted to inspire.
Calais wasn't where she needed to be, and for once she gave thanks to her sister's love of fashion that had sent them to Paris' Rue de Magie, which meant that she was able to Apparate there. Her first stop – the little inn/restaurant, where she intended on eating and getting some much-needed information on the whereabouts of a rather private person.
"Bonjour monsieur. Je voudrais le plat du jour, c'est l'agneau, non? Avec une salade et un verre de vin rouge s'il vous plait" After ordering Bella settled back to enjoy the atmosphere – she hadn't been out to eat in years – disregarding the instances at the Shelter and a little café in Little Whinging. Which was apparently obvious as she savoured the glass of red house wine, because it had a number of wizards passing appreciative looks her way. Not the kind of attention she was wanting right now, but she'd let it pass – if one could offer to help her find a certain elusive person. She certainly wasn't expecting what happened next.
"Bella, how surprising to see you here." The voice was friendly; the hand that tightened on her shoulder was anything but.
As the other students milled about anxiously whilst awaiting to be Sorted, Harry was scanning the other first years to see if he recognised any based off of the family descriptions Bella had given him – there was a Weasley, but the rest didn't really have any distinguishing features he recognised.
"How do you think we'll be Sorted?" He heard the one he thought was a Weasley ask.
Harry missed the other boy's reply as Minerva McGonagall entered.
"The Sorting Ceremony is about to start. Form a line and follow me."
The Great Hall was everything he'd dreamed of – magical in everyway. The sky above was scattered with stars and he was momentarily amazed by their clarity until he remembered Bella's talks on how annoying Muggle lighting was – it was too diffuse, blocking people from viewing the stars properly. He hadn't appreciated it at the time – even when she'd explained there was a tradition in her family of being named after constellations or stars – now though; he was rather looking forward to his first Astronomy class.
'Oh you may not think me pretty,
But don't judge on what you see,
I'll eat myself if you can find
A smarter hat than 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 daring, nerve, and chivalry
Set Gryffindors apart;
You might belong in Hufflepuff
Where they are just and loyal,
Those patient Hufflepuffs are true
And unafraid of toil;
Or yet in wise old Ravenclaw,
if you've 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 folks 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 (though I have none)
For I'm a Thinking Cap!'
It was a hat. He wanted to laugh, Bella had no doubt thought he would appreciate this – and he did. He wouldn't have been able to act surprised if he had already known – and… a Hat! It made sense, in an odd nonsensical way that would only make sense to those exposed to magic. So when Professor McGonagall called out his name, he strode forth confidently, fighting the smile that wanted to make its appearance. He hadn't been paying much attention to the other's Sorting, but he had noticed Malfoy's swift entrance into Slytherin… and Neville's mishap with the hat. The smile wanted to come back.
To everyone else the Boy-Who-Lived walked forward with far greater poise than most of his year-mates, eyes twinkling, looking rather much like the young saviour he was meant to be. The Hat opened its mouth – and let out a laugh, before silence once more resumed… the Sorting was taking a while and the students were beginning to gossip – imagine the Boy-Who-Lived taking so long to Sort!
They were now seated in one of the back rooms – it was small, but it was private, which is what it was intended to be – used mainly for illicit dealings of all kinds, but usually benign lovers' trysts – a place to meet before continuing onwards to a plush Muggle Hotel or similar.
"Now, Bella – How about you explain how you managed to get out of Azkaban and why I shouldn't have you thrown back in." It wasn't a question; the man's grey eyes were cold and forbidding as he glared at her.
"Cissa helped me," Bella replied with a shrug, "You… Frankly I'd rather you kill me than send me back, but you will hear me out first!" She didn't raise her voice too loud – after all this man had hers and Harry's future in his hands, even if he didn't know it.
He nodded, "I can imagine Narcissa would manage to think up something."
Bella looked at him, noting once more the resemblance. "When I escaped, I wasn't… any more in my right mind than when I went in." The confession hurt – still. "I wanted revenge, but instead I found something more – I found… purpose."
The man narrowed his eyes at her, "Go on."
"I found a young wizard, he was being abused by his Muggle relatives. Even as I was, it wasn't something I could stand for – yet I couldn't do anything because the Ministry would know and then they would come!"
He snorted, "I think you are crediting the Ministry with a bit too much. If you'd done a few spells on the Muggles – it's doubtful they would have noticed."
"Oh, they would have. At any rate, I befriended the child and now for the past three years or so I have been living as a Muggle, being his friend, mentor… even his babysitter. I've taught him about the magical world… he… I… He shouldn't have to live in that house, with those… people!" She practically spat the last word out.
"Careful, Bella. Your prejudices are showing."
She looked at him – defeated, "You don't believe me."
"Oh, of course I believe you – you all but adopted a Muggleborn, you – a Death Eater, the Dark Lord's most loyal supporter – lived as a Muggle. Right."
That was it. She'd had enough – lunging out of her chair, Bella grabbed the older man by the front of his robes. "I don't care if you believe me or not!" She snarled, "But you will help that boy!"
Having a Hat talking in your ear was… interesting, Harry decided afterwards – somewhat companionable, somewhat disturbing.
"So… what do we have here?" the Hat began.
Harry had a panic about the Hat seeing into his head then and frantically tried to Occlude. Nothing – he was in a void of nothingness.
"Um… Hello? Honestly! Do you think they'd let me Sort children if I were going to spill everyone's deepest secrets? I see what you send me… and get a glimpse of the rest… your personality more than the things you know!" The Hat seemed uncomfortable and surprised.
'Sorry about that - I should have realised that before panicking. Um… How should I address you?' Harry did feel rather apologetic – he'd interrupted the Hat's sole purpose, and it really did make sense that the Hat wouldn't be able to talk about whatever it saw in his head.
"…Hat will do Mr. Potter, now how about we Sort you then…Oh my."
'What! Is something wrong?'
"Oh, no… this will be a challenge though – certainly intelligent, rather brave, quite the evasive one as well though…ah – I see now, more through circumstance than anything else, but still incredibly adaptive… very loyal as well I see. Not so keen on hard work but you know the value of it. So where shall I put you?"
'Not Slytherin or Gryffindor.' Harry voiced firmly in his was to his surprise then that the Hat laughed aloud.
"Not Slytherin or Gryffindor, eh? I've never heard that one before – most want to be in one of those Houses… so Hufflepuff then?"
'I could work with that' Harry was already considering the possibilities – he would be overlooked which would be good and he'd be able to establish a number of alliances, though he might not have as much time for his studies…
"RAVENCLAW!" The Hat shouted, and Harry jumped – Ravenclaw – of course. He was the only one to hear as the Hat whispered – "Good luck" before joining the Ravenclaw table, which had erupted into applause.
"So why is this boy so important to you? Hoping that if you bring him up Dark enough, your Lord will overlook his Muggle blood?" The man was sneering back at her, not in the least mindful of the way she had him pinned. He had the unique experience of watching her face turn red with fury – not an attractive look for her, before she spun away from him angrily.
"That boy is Harry Potter!" She shouted at him.
It took a while for the words to sink into his head, but they did. Then he took the sensible option – he fainted.
Harry's first impression of the Ravenclaws was mixed – he heard one of them commenting how he almost beat the record for longest Sorting, whilst another was saying how good for their House it was that Harry Potter had been Sorted there. At any rate he was now sat next to Mandy Brocklehurst with whom he'd ridden with in the boat.
"I'm Michael Corner," was the abrupt introduction as a hand was thrust into his face. Harry twitched.
"Harry Potter," he drawled his response, ignoring the hand, slowly raising his eyes to meet those of the other boy. Corner flinched, leaving Harry to inwardly smirk and offer thanks to Bella for informing him of just how to use his eyes to his advantage. Killing curse green was the way she described them, something that hadn't pleased him at first, but her talk on how green was the colour of Life had offered a more pleasing take on it – for him at least.
He noticed Mandy struggling not to smile at his put-down of the other boy and he was about to speak to her, when Zabini, Blaise was sorted into Slytherin – the last to be Sorted. So instead he watched as the Headmaster gave a welcome and uttered a few nonsense words, the latter of which, was rather off-putting – words could hold power, and who knows what those words held?
Such thoughts didn't hold his attention long however, as the platters and plates before him rapidly filled with food – he spared an idle thought to what his cousin's reaction would be to the spread of food before him, before digging in heartily – making a conscious effort to avoid gluttony – eating well was one thing, stuffing to the point where one was incapable of swift movement was not.
He soon let himself be drawn into conversation about what the classes would be like, and listened as his year-mates told about their families, as his attention started to wander he found himself observing the teacher's table – focussing on first the Headmaster, then the man he suspected to be Severus Snape – Death Eater and Legilimens.
It was then that he felt it – a sharp stabbing pain across his scar, there was a momentary slip in his expression before he thrust back against the pain – angry. Somehow, Harry didn't think Snape was behind it – the Dark Lord caused the scar; one of his servants wasn't likely to be able to affect it, which meant the Dark Lord was rising. Oh, how he wanted to get word to Bella, but they hadn't been able to arrange a secure method of communication, which meant he'd have to remain at Hogwarts and remain watchful. Working on his Occlumency would no doubt be a good start, but Harry had a least some subconscious barriers up – yet his scar still flared – he definitely had to start on some of the heavier tomes on magical theory.
Something…someone rather, was patting him on the face, an annoying flutter more than anything – so the open-handed slap that whipped his other cheek into the floorboards wasn't expected. It was painful. He sat up and glared at his assaulter, which was when he remembered who it was and what had happened.
"Harry Potter?" his voice sounded faint to his own ears, bad idea to sound weak before Bella, but he'd had a slight shock so he felt he could excuse himself well enough.
The woman before him sighed, "Yes, Harry Potter."
"But you…" he didn't quite know what to say.
"Yes, I'm a Death Eater, I'm a Black, a Dark witch, an all round horrible person – so will you help me help Harry Potter?"
She'd cracked, only maybe it was in reverse? A sort-of non-madness cancelling out her previous natural state of sadistic glee? What was he thinking?
"So you say you've been in contact with Harry Potter. What exactly has this got to do with me?" There, she was most probably delusional – as if she would be able to get to the Boy-Who-Lived… he may as well see what it was she wanted, before discreetly contacting some Aurors.
"I formally request that you, Alphard Black adopt me into your family."
Definitely cracked.
The Ravenclaw common room was impressive, located in a tower – something used to great advantage as bookshelves lined the walls, complete attached ladders, which as he soon witnessed moved along brass railings – allowing the students to reach any book with ease. The ceiling was high in order to accommodate the second level that covered roughly half of the area within the tower. Stairs spiralled up gracefully to what was explained as the lounge area – plush sofas in deep blue were casually arranged with low golden wood tables between them. The lower level in contrast, had several round tables for studying, the floor was still the same polished golden wood, but where in the lounge area the floor was covered in soft fur rugs, the library level made do with what Harry decided were probably Persian rugs.
"…you may be wondering where your dorms are, the spiral staircase leading to the lounge continues upwards to the dorms. Whilst I doubt I need to tell you this, it is not possible for you to enter a dorm that isn't yours. You will share a dorm with the same people for the duration of your studies at Hogwarts, unless you work hard enough that you end up Head Boy or Head Girl who are given the privilege of having their own room. Books are not to be taken from here into the dorms – the reason for that is simple, over exposure to sunlight is damaging to some of the books, which is the reason for the lack of windows. Now, do any of you have any questions before we lead you to your dorms?"
Harry couldn't think of a single question to ask, there was enough information that he already had to process, unlike him however, Mandy was already raising her hand.
"Ah, and what is your question, Miss…?" the Prefect asked.
"Oh," She blushed slightly, " I'm Mandy Brocklehurst… I was wondering when we get our schedules and if there are any tutorial sessions?"
"Schedules will be handed out tomorrow at breakfast – so I recommend you pack all your books for the first day at least. We don't have tutorial sessions exactly, but if you are having trouble in a class – I suggest you speak to the teacher or request help from your classmates… Is that all?"
Harry was musing on how he was going to keep up with his Occlumency whilst not appearing too dumb for Ravenclaw – although the Ravenclaw library was certainly going to be helpful.
An Unbreakable Vow – she would not intentionally seek harm to Harry Potter and she had told the truth to the best of her knowledge about Harry Potter – given. Alphard had been surprised at her readiness to make the Vow. Hopefully now they would get somewhere.
"Why do you want me to adopt you? What purpose could that possibly serve?" He was still slightly disbelieving.
"If you adopt me then I can become someone else. Plus there would be an excuse for why I'm not known – you left Britain for France, you had to be on guard for attacks – it would be feasible that you kept your daughter hidden…With a legitimate wizarding identity I can help Harry… Please Uncle Alphard, you helped Sirius when he wanted to leave, help me do the right thing!"
It made sense, though Alphard felt he was missing something, she had another motive here that she hadn't yet mentioned…
"You'll stay with me, whilst I decide what to do with you." Of his nieces, Bella had been his favourite when they were young – his first niece, looking up at him with large solemn dark eyes… angry when her younger cousin Sirius had claimed that boys were better – all fiery temper and Black stubbornness. Perhaps that little girl hadn't been completely destroyed by what she had later become.
Joy. He was rooming with Michael Corner, Terrence 'Terry' Boot, Anthony Goldstein, Stephen Cornfoot and Kevin Entwhistle. All of who seemed rather pleased to be rooming with 'Harry Potter' – 'Boy Who Lived'. He was waiting for one of them to ask if he remembered anything from that night; he sighed.
"Um, are you alright Harry?" Kevin's question drew the attention of the other boys to him.
"I suppose you already know quite a few spells then." It wasn't quite a sneer, but Corner's attitude was clearly against Harry – perhaps his snubbing of the other boy had been a bit too harsh.
" I only know the tickling hex – my cousin's rather fond of that one." Goldstein had a rather wry grin on his face as he spoke. The other boys laughed.
"Actually my relatives never told me anything about the magical world. Though I am looking forward to trying out some of the spells I've read about – Transfiguration and Charms look to be very useful. Though I'm not so keen on the idea of Potions." That was it, Harry decided, hopefully the conversation would lead round to Snape.
"Yea, I heard that Snape – that's the Potions professor, is biased against everyone not from his own House. Gryffindors get the worst of it though – and as Ravenclaws we should be fine." Goldstein again.
"Well in that case, I think I better read some more of my Potions book." Having said it, Harry opened his trunk to take out his textbook, deciding then to unpack the rest of his stuff into the small chest o' drawers and wardrobe provided. His books he placed in his book bag along with school supplies for the following day. He didn't however, read his Potions text, instead reading his Occlumency notes hidden within the pages of the rather boring book on the brewing of various potions.
(AN: And in English – Bella says 'Hello, I would like the dish of the day, it's lamb, no? Also a small salad and a glass of red wine, thank you.' Errors in the French are my fault… help was gotten though.
So I'm hoping none of you are overly disappointed to see Harry in Ravenclaw… Perhaps he is more Slytherin, perhaps not… certainly more of a toss-up between Ravenclaw and Slytherin and… I don't think the Hat is going to Sort eleven year olds into a House they aren't happy with… I'm thinking it's a little more child-friendly than that… What do you think of Harry going into Ravenclaw?
Alphard – the only relative I thought I could deal with… but look! A Black! Actually I figured I could use him since we know little about him… and he was blasted off the tapestry for giving gold to Sirius…
I hope you all enjoyed this as much as it seemed you enjoyed the last… I was ridiculously happy when I realised there were over 100 reviews…
Updates – I will try to update every…(picks what she thinks is a reasonable number) sixteen days… (Two weeks is what I would prefer – but I have an upcoming project…)
Thank you to all you lovely reviewers – jitterbug393, Gabwr, Tsurai no Shi, Rabid Reader 4, blueoctober, dovaly, Zevrillion, Reviewer of the West, the (french) dark lord, TheSmallestGhost, ShyOrangette, Heather, dianehc, Zephyr1, cutecess, kehlencrow, Meggplant, Amber Jack, Wonderbee31, SailorHecate, LandUnderWave, Morgan Daratrazanoff, Kirinin, Gundum M, nafio and Potterfreak52390.)