Yes I am a speed demon in writing and if you wish to sell your soul I am currently trying to get a contract written up but satan is being a dick about it. Also Dumbledore is not evil he is just a big picture kind of guy.
She placed the ratty hat down on the stool and for a moment nothing happened and honestly with how accurate the muggle depiction of wizards had been he wouldn't have been surprised if a man jumped out of it. But he would admit it they manage to surprise him because the hat began to sign.
As the hat sang a off tune song Harry gaped. 'Rey did they slip something into the food on the train?' he asked the angel.
'No I do not believe so.' she muttered equally shocked, clearly the founders were barmy.
"Susan bones." the professor called snapping them out of their conversation, the sorting had begun and they must have missed the explanation.
The hat sat on her head for a minute before finally it called out. "HUFFLEPUFF!" as soon as she was sorted the house in yellow and black which he assumed was Hufflepuff erupted into cheers.
Down the list it went Hermione was called up and to his surprise the studious girl was sorted into Gryffindor. The blond prick who's name he felt like he should have known was called up without the hat being placed on his head but rather merely grazing his hair.
'I call bullshit.' Harry said looking at the blond twit who swaggered off to the table of silver and green. 'No way in hell that hat managed to take less than a second to judge him. Even the penance stare takes a few seconds.'
'Most likely the hat just sends them to whatever house they wish to be in.' Raguel guessed, she was sure the hat did sort students but she bet it had been decades if not centuries since it had been able to sort with a child demanding to go to a certain house.
"Harry Potter!" as soon as his name was called the hall erupted into whispers. When he heard one person ask if he had the scar he was tempted to look at them and say he didn't know it was a scar he had assumed it was just some marker he forgot to wash off.
The hat was placed on his head and Raguel felt something trying to enter his mind, with a small snarl she grabbed the Hat with her grace.
'What is going on!?' the hat called confused, it was placed on his head but as soon as he tried to read the boy's mind something grabbed him or more specifically the charms that made him. He had been on the heads of thousands of students and while many of them had been trained in the mental arts it was child's play for him to slip past them. Not even Dumbledore could keep him out for long, nor had any headmaster been able to. It was part of his job once a year he would be placed on the head of the current headmaster. If they were not acting in the best interests of the students he would alert the castle and they would be removed from the premises. But this whatever it was, was more powerful in the mental arts than anything he had ever seen.
'Give me one reason why I shouldn't reduce you to cinders?' a feminine voice asked him.
Normal he would have laughed, every year he got at least two students who threatened to burn him to a crisp or tear him to pieces. But just because he could not enter this being's mind didn't mean he couldn't sense it's power and was more than enough to shatter the spells that held it together.
'I am the sorting hat if anyone tried to take information about students from me, the very spells that hold me together would destroy me.' he hoped the knowledge that he couldn't share any information about it would pacify it. He sighed in relief when he felt the grip on his spell matrix vanish.
He quickly entered the boy's mind to sort and realized how lucky he was to not be destroyed considering he had just met face to face with an archangel! And the one that powered the Ghost Rider as well. The Rider had been feared for centuries even during the time of the founders, they had given him all their knowledge on the Rider for in case of an emergency.
In fact Godric Gryffindor his original owner held a deep seated fear of Rider. He remembered before the founding, his lord at the time called for his men to go to war they were surprised when instead of an army or a dragon, it was a man on horseback. Many had thought that their lord had lost their mind, he had called forth his army to deal with a single man even if he was a wizard that was extreme. The man called for the surrender of the lord saying the devil wanted his due. Than one of his soldier made the mistake of trying to kill the man. In a flash of fire the man and his horse were gone in his place was the Ghost Rider and his steed. It was the last mistake that man and many others would make. Even Gryffindor one of the most powerful wizards in the world could not scratch it everything they threw at the demon it just walked through without a mark on it. It killed everything in it's path till it reached the lord.
What happened that day haunted Gryffindor for the rest of his life. The Rider tore the lord from his perch and held him by his clothes before uttering a single phrase that struck him at his core. "Look into my eyes and tell me what you see." he watched as he lord's face twisted in horror and fire danced in the eyes of the demon before he dropped the now dead lord to the ground and rode off. That moment stayed with Godric till the day he died.
The Hat rummaged through the boy's mind and found him to be quite the paradox, he had cunning but not much, he had ambition but it belong to another. He had a desire for knowledge but only to a certain extent caring only for what he was interested in. He had no bravery for he feared nothing believing that the Archangel within would always help and protect him. He was bold but cared little for glory. In the end it was easy to decide. "HUFFLEPUFF!" the hat cried finally. For a moment the hall was quiet till the table of yellow and black erupted into cheers. Harry had no problem finding as seat as it seemed everyone wanted him to seat next to them.
The rest of the students were quickly sorted, it seemed Harry took a very long time. The headmaster gave a warning about the third floor and how there was a door you should only explore if you wanted to die painfully. 'We are soo checking that out right?' Harry asked as soon as he heard the warning.
'If I told you no, would you listen?' Raguel asked skeptically.
'No but I want to know if you are curious.'
She snorted. 'Of course I am curious. You don't say something like that to a room full of children and expect them to not be curious.'
The first week of lessons was easy but a pain, everyone was pointing and gawking at him. After about the third time of someway saying did you see the scar he asked Raguel if it would wrong for him to shoot anyone who bothered him.
'No Harry just because people bother you doesn't mean you can shoot them.' stupid voice of reason, never letting him have any fun.
'I am not spoiling your fun I am stopping you from possibly committing murder.'
'Same thing.' he pouted and he heard her give an amused laugh.
It had been a month since school began and the monthly meeting for teachers had begun. "Minerva any problems with your lions?" Dumbledore asked as the meeting began.
"Not really I feel Miss Granger might need to adjust to her new surroundings she seems to help me in contempt for some reason." Dumbledore wondered why that might be.
"Any idea why?"
"I might have one." Filius Flitwick said remembering an earlier conversation with her. "When I asked my students what kind of job they are looking forward to now so we that we could compare it to what they want in fifth year. I got a scathing page long essay that basically said that what she wanted didn't matter as the odds of her getting anything above janitor in the ministry were nearly zero."
The teachers flinched they were all well aware of the massive amount of bigotry Muggleborns faced in the ministry. "So she is angry at me." Minerva summarized.
"I believe betrayed would better summarize how she felt."
"I wonder who told her that."
"I believe Mr Potter might have had something to do with that." the teachers turned to the Sorting Hat it wasn't uncommon for him to advise them.
"What do you mean?"
"I am limited to what I can say, but well let's just say he has a very good memory and does not like the ministry approved version of what happened on Halloween all those years ago." Dumbledore's eyes widen in shock, he remembered that horrible night before they closed in sadness that meant he remembered the murder of his parents. He knew full well why Harry wouldn't like the ministry approved version of what could have happened that night, they went out of their way to discredit any claims that Lily had anything to do with. If he didn't like it that meant she most likely did something to save him and he has to listen to a bigot ministry degrade his mother's sacrifice.
This posed a problem how could he expect the boy to save the wizarding world from Voldemort if he didn't care for the government he was going to save. He had to find a way to get him to care for the wizarding world or they were all doomed. Perhaps if he could see what kind of upbringing he had if he took a peek inside his mind. He didn't like it but the boy had shown no hesitation in shooting another man he needed to know if he was a danger to other students.
"I know what you are thinking Albus and don't." the Hat warned.
"What do you mean?" He had worn the hat enough time to know not to dance around a topic because the hat had centuries of experience doing it and if you annoyed him, he would confuse you to the point where you would forget what you had even been talking about in the first place.
"The boy's mind is an impenetrable fortress." the hat told him and Snape scoffed.
"I know the boy has an over inflated sense of self importance but I highly doubt he could keep out the headmaster." he was still sore about the destruction of his wand as well as his injured arm. It still hadn't fully heal whatever caused the damage made sure it would have to heal the slow way.
"The reason I was on the boy's head so long was not because I had trouble sorting him, that only took me a few seconds. It was because I could not enter his mind, In fact I had come within an inch of being destroyed. You would all do well to remember the boy will not take well to anyone trying to control him and he has the power to back any attempt retaliation he may take." with those grim words the Hat went silent once more. A solemn air hung over the teachers the rest of the meeting, never in history had they heard of any being be powerful enough to keep out the sorting Hat for more than a few seconds to be so dangerous he could threaten to destroy and be able to follow through.
Harry had finally gotten around to sneaking into the third floor. As soon as he opened the door the scent of Hell rushed to meet his senses before he could even think he followed the instincts of the rider of how to deal with a demon and pulled out his gun before opening fire several times. When his mind cleared he saw a dead cerberus lying the the ground bullet holes littering it's body and heads. He felt a bit guilty for killing it Cerberus were not evil but rather merely guardians. But a side effect of constantly channeling the power of Raguel was that he reacted to any presence from hell like she would with immediate destruction.
It was Halloween and Harry was enjoying all the sweets like any kid. Eating as many as he could. 'You shouldn't eat so much candy.' Raguel scolded lightly.
'Why not with you in me it's not like I can get cavities.' he pointed out, nothing short of the deadliest poisons on the planet could even make him sneeze. And even if he did get cavities it's not like he couldn't just pull the tooth out and regrow it.
Suddenly the great hall doors burst open and Professor Quirrell rushed in. "TROLL! Troll in the dungeon!" he cried rushing in. "thought you oughta know." he mumbled before collapsing to the ground in a dead faint. Harry frowned at the professor he had seen that soul leech on him and it had been growing in power and if it didn't get him into trouble he would have killed the man by now for making a deal with a demon.
'You think there is a Troll?'
'Oh undoubtedly.' she confirmed. 'if there wasn't he would have to explain why it wasn't in the castle but I doubt it is in the dungeons.'
Harry was just going to head back to his common room with everyone else as this wasn't his problem but he realized that if Quirrell was after whatever was on the third floor it was now defenseless because of him. Damn his moral compass. He snuck off from the herd of Hufflepuffs and headed towards the third floor.
He was stopped halfway by a scream of fright from a voice he recognized. HERMIONE what was she doing here, than he remembered something about her crying in the bathroom during transfiguration. "DAMN IT!" he cursed turning around to go help her.
He entered the room to see the troll standing over Hermione with it's club raised to strike. pulling his gun he fired off a few rounds into it's back making it stumble if Hermione wasn't so terrified she would have wondered where he got a gun and what kind of gun fired blue fire. The troll turned around and swung it's club at Harry he jumped over the club and landed next to Hermione. "I need you to run as fast as you can as soon as I distract it."
"But-" she tried to object but he stopped her.
"Go get a teacher!" as soon as he said that he walked off to the side and fired several rounds into the chest of troll drawing small amounts of blood. The troll growled and turn to face him. With it's back to her she manage to run past it and reach the door she turned around and stopped, looking back.
"Run!" He ordered turning his attention away from the troll for a second. A fatal mistake the troll swung it's club with such force he was sent flying to the wall.
"HARRY!" Hermione cried at the boy or rather the place where his corpse would be. The troll turn to her and began to lumber towards it's club trailing behind it. The troll raised it's club to kill her but found itself unable to lift it's club. Turning their attention to the other end of the club the troll and girl saw a skeletal hand coated in blue fire holding the club.
Harry glared at the troll. "Hey!" he called getting up looking no worse for wear. "I am not done with you yet." he growled.
Harry only felt pain as he laid in the wall. 'You stupid idiotic boy!' Raguel scolded. 'Do you have any idea how close you are to dying! You aren't yet a Rider! You don't have their durability!'
'Can you heal me?' he asked she didn't respond but he felt the pain go away.
Finally she spoke up. 'You have ten seconds don't waste them.' she told him before going silent. He felt a strange sensation cover his right arm. Looking at it he he saw a skeletal hand and blue fire coating it. Looking at his other arm and feeling his face told him only his right arm had transformed. He quickly pulled his way out of the rubble. That took about four seconds leaving him with only six to kill the troll.
He saw the troll trying to lift up it's club and grabbed it. The troll turned to him and he glared. "Hey" he called. "I am not done with you yet!" he growled. He pulled the club towards him forcing the troll to follow. He realizing he only had one second left he pulled his gun once more and channeled all the soulfire coursing through his body into the gun with a single shot it blew the head off the troll.
The teachers showed up just as the troll fell to the ground with a loud thud. He turned to the headmaster. "I didn't need my gun because there is no place safer than Hogwarts right?" he asked before walking off tired and exhausted.
Yes Harry is powerful the sorting hat can give some warnings but nothing specific if he had his way he would tell them all to run like hell and hope he didn't kill them because he is the GHOST RIDER! Also this will most likely be the last chapter that goes into first year intimately the rest will be a vague overview and going straight to second year.