{Blah}...Harry
{Blah}...Gabriel
"Blah"... Normal Speaking
"Blah"...Sorting Hat
The vote for new characters will continue until sometime in year 2/3, so keep voting.
Never Trust Singing Hats
Harry sat back into his seat as the platform disappeared from sight. He had a very long journey to look forward too (coughnotcough) and he wasn't just going to sit there waiting for it to be over. Most people would have thought he was asleep. Most people would in fact be wrong.
Harry 'opened' his eyes to find himself in an expensive looking top floor apartment. The room was quite large and nicely decorated. Right behind him was a polished wooden door, with golden handle, and a coat hanger to the right of it. Immediately on his left was an open kitchen. Black and silver marble counter's sat atop rows of cupboards, whilst more were attached to the wall above head height. On the far wall, stood a freezer, a fridge, microwave and oven. A counter-top with a sink and dishwasher was separate from the rest of the kitchen, marking off the perimeter of the room.
Ahead from there was the living room. Wood panel floors, opposed to the tiles of the kitchen, ran the length of the entrance way and all through the place. A huge plasma, HD TV hung on the wall opposite the door, with a coffee table sat between it and a comfy leather couch. On either side were leather recliner chairs. On a shelf below the TV stood pretty much every recent console brought out as well as a blue ray DVD player. The following shelves proudly displayed rows upon rows of game's and DVDs. The left wall had a long rectangular window showing off the beautiful image of a lit up city skylight with the stars hanging over head, seeming to glimmer in the shine of the city lights. Beneath the window was a cabinet with a large radio system hooked up on top. The cabinet was filled with CD's from all times.
This was where Harry walked over to. He knelt down and opened the wooden and brass lined doors, before flicking through the collection. He eventually found something he deemed suitable, and turned to question his room mate on his choice.
"Oasis alright with you?" he asked, not truly caring
"Yeah, no problem Scar" a mocking voice called from the couch. Harry turned to glare at the offender. There sat a man with longish, dark blonde hair and brown eyes complete with a mocking grin. Slightly shorter than average, but still a fair bit taller than Harry, himself, Gabriel was sprawled on the couch, in a careless way, a plate full of sugary cakes and pastries lying on his chest. He was looking over at Harry, and his eyes were sparkling with mirth.
"Don't call me that," Harry muttered back as he turned on the CD. Harry started heading over past the still completely relaxed Gabe, and 'Wonderwall' started to play. The blonde had a brownie loosely held in his hand. Quick as a flash Harry's hand snapped out and then back, the chocolatey treat now in his own hand. He laughed at the false look of hurt on his friends face, and scoffed the chocolate quickly before any reaction could come.
Aware of Gabriel's glare, he moved away from the annoyed prankster, painfully conscious of the fact he would now have to be very careful, else he become the victim. Hurriedly, he strode only slightly nervous up the platform (the living room was dipped slightly below the rest of the room) and past the mahogany table and chairs that made up the dining section, coming up to hi drinks bar. He pulled up the first bottle he saw, and poured out two glasses of the amber fluid.
"You want one?" he questioned. At the dismissive flick of the archangel's hand, he dropped some ice in each and carried them over. Reached the lounging man again, he placed one of the drink on the coffee table, and then proceed to flop into one of the chairs. But not before he had swiped a few more of Gabe's snacks. He chuckled likely at the indigent look he was getting back.
"I spent all day whipping those up," he mumbled incoherently, then picked up the drink. "What is it?"
Harry took a mouthful before replying "Scotch of some sort"
"Still can't believe I got an eleven year old drinking," Gabe mused out loud
"Yeah, well, whatever. It's not like it'd even do anything bad for me in the long run. Besides, I believe I was nearly nine when I started"
Gabriel snorted,and then raised his glass "To us going to Hogwarts..."
"...And all the Pranks we'll be able to pull," Harry finished, clinking his glass against Gabriel's, and then finishing his drink. The best part was he couldn't get drunk. The alcohol tasted and smelt and felt and looked and hell even sounded real. But it wasn't. Nothing, bar the two companions, was real. Not physically anyway. It was all Harry's mindscape, which, after a lot of effort, he could now enter himself.
If he did say so himself, his defences were quite brilliant. At the moment he was sitting in the top floor of a 25 storey building. He had 23 floors of security and enochian traps and wards to protect his thoughts and memories (and his security force was based on angels). The floor directly below held everything he had ever thought, done, wished and didn't do. All of his memories, and the thoughts and emotions that came with them, were locked down in that room. In order to gain entry, if you got that far (doubtful), you had to guess thirteen different passwords in the correct order, and they were completely random. Almost impossible to guess, and there was no pattern or consistency to them at all. After three failed attempts, you get blasted out. After that the room was lined with I-Mac's. Each represented a different subject or set of memories. And each had a different password. Same story as the door. Three wrong and the chance is gone.
But that wasn't it. Oh no. He'd set up another twelve apartment blocks, that moved around on their own and re-arranged after each mental intrusion. These ones were filled with other but equally dangerous protections, and the layout was completely different. Plus, outside there were a series of defences no Pureblood would understand to deal with because they were muggle created. Millennium Falcons, X-wings and Tie Fighters, Death Stars, Star Trek Enterprise's, AC-130's, Normandy SR2's with the big gun upgrade, Reapers and so many more from muggle fictional works. And that was behind his thirty something amount of walls, each made up of differant materials and with a gate running through them all, Reinforced by steel, and with an Iron bar gate every 20 meters (There were thirty). To top it off, the tunnel had murder holes for boiling oil running all the way along.
Hm, Harry thought, No one's getting in my head unless I let them.
They sat in comfortable silence for a while. Until Harry noticed something.
"GABRIEL! WHAT IN YOUR DAD'S NAME DID YOU DO TO MY KITCHEN?!"
"Relax, I'll fix it before you get back. Right now, someone just walked into your compartment,"
With that, Harry eyes snapped open to see the four from Ollivander's just coming into the compartment.
The Weasel looked extremely angry upon catching sight of him, though at least this time he knew why. The Weasley's, though Pureblood, were very poor. So seeing Harry get TWO wands for free had riled him up. But, Harry did not like the Weasel at all. So he felt no guilt at all from flicking his wrist and twirling his Purgatory wood and Hell Hound Fang wand between his fingers when it fell into his waiting hand. Weasley's face began to resemble his hair. Nope. Not a good look at all.
{He looks like Rudolph if his whole face was a nose!}
Harry had to stifle a laugh at that description
Hayden shot a glare at Ron for getting jealous so easily. Then he explained why they were there.
"Hey, you don't mind if we sit here do you? Everywhere else is full," The Boy-Who-Lived said.
Harry such gave a noncommittal shrug. He hated Weasel, and Longbottom had ignored him when they were kids so he wasn't over the moon to be with them, but he didn't know how Hayden had turned out yet and now he remembered that Dri had been his only friend besides Hay (it took him a while to remember but it had been 6 years)
The four boys quickly took their seats and swiftly started their conversation. Harry simply sat back and brought up a fifth year charms book he had bought in Flourish and Blotts. When the trolley came around, three boys excitedly jumped to their feet and began buying multiple snacks off the cart. Harry likely would have, except for the fact that it didn't have any real candy on it. So he pulled out a huge slice of chocolate gateau from thin air and started attacking it like mad.
Ron meanwhile had merely pulled out some wrapped corn beef sandwich, muttering about how he didn't even like corn beef. Anyone else and Harry would have whipped up some food for the other person. But this was Ron Weasley. So he didn't. Besides, Hayden and Neville had some extra sweets which they dropped in Ron's lap. It didn't go unnoticed that Dri didn't do this. It was clear that, after having re-run their whole conversation in his head, Ron was not on good terms with Dri.
Suddenly, the subject of his thoughts dragged him into the conversation
"Sorry we never introduced ourselves. I'm Adrian Black. The red headed moron is Ronald Weasley," Ron spluttered a bit, once again going red {Honestly. He'll need a potion to lower blood pressure at the rate he's going. And he's a healthy eleven year old. I drink and my entire diet is sugar}
Dri continued "The lad next to him is Neville Longbottom. And Finally we have Hayden Potter"
Hayden smiled at his introduction. "So what's your name?"
"Harry Gabriel," Had he been watching he would have seen Hayden freeze, but he had already turned to answer Neville's question of 'What house do you think you'll be in?'
"I'm hoping for Hufflepuff to be honest. My brother is there so I know I'll have someone to look after me," he said.
"I've got to go. Nice meeting you," Hayden said hastily as he left the compartment.
Ron smirked victoriously in his direction before taking off after boy wonder, with Neville trailing unsure behind. Surprisingly though, Dri didn't leave. He just sat and ate a few chocolate frogs. Not wanting to be out done, Harry picked a Mars Bar out of thin air and started eating. Of course he made sure Dri thought it had been in his pocket.
Finally Dri sighed "You could have chosen your words better there, Potter"
"My words were fine. I have amazing diction," Harry retorted, then caught on to the name. His hair changed back to it's messy black as he stuttered "You..wait..wha...how did...you?"
"Know?" Dri guessed, laughing "Only one guy has eyes that colour and he sure as Hell ain't a Diggory"
With that, the two spent the remaining journey time catching up with each other. Dri had dragged Harry (in his Harry Gabriel form) to a compartment holding two red headed twins and their dread-locked friend. There Harry discovered, the Weasley's weren't all Weasel's. They were the school's resident pranksters. And they were good. Dri was another pranking master and had been delighted to find out that Harry had found his inner Prankster. The two had declared a challenge war on the twins for their titles, who had accepted. It was fun, Harry had grudgingly admitted to himself. Ced was going to have a heart attack when he learned just who had been befriended by his younger brother.
He was still annoyed by Hayden though. In the end it was decided he was just a rich prat who looked down on anyone not a gryff.
Down the train, however, Hayden's thoughts were tormenting him. I had to leave. The same name, same eyes, same age. Life is mocking me, sending someone to Hogwarts with me who reminded me of my probably dead brother. Dammit, Harry where are you?
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o
Filius Flitwick sighed as he leaned back in his chair. The whole Hogwarts staff were convened in the Staff Room (along with Auror's Potter and Black) for the pre-term staff meeting. The usual subjects had been discussed: clubs like Quiditch, extra classes, OWL's and NEWT's ecetera. Then they had moved on to the Philosopher's Stone and it's protections. A bit different, yes, but not anything astronomical. It was a reasonable subject.
Harry James Potter, however, was not.
"Now then. Did you see him at the Platform, Minerva? Severus? Lily? Or you Aurors?"
All of them shook their head in the negative. The headmaster frowned, his usual twinkle gone. Why is he so obsessed with that boy? Flitwick wondered. Lily and James and Sirius made sense, but Dumbledore?
"Well not to worry. If he is here, we will find him at the sorting," the man continued "As he will undoubtedly be in Gryffindor; he is James and Lily's son of course; then perhaps Minerva, you would assist his parents and siblings in helping him deal with whatever trauma he has endured these past years,"
Filius stopped and thought. A gryffindor would not be able to survive alone for four years. Nor a badger. If he is here, he will be a Slytherin or a Raven. With that in mind, Flitwick made a large stakes bet.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o
Hogwarts, despite it's ridiculous sounding name, was beautiful. After exiting the train all the first years had been herded into a small fleet of boats and sent across a large lake, which had actually held a giant quid interestingly enough, by a huge must-be-eight-foot man named Hagrid. They had seen Hogwarts from the outside and it was breathtaking. Actually, now that he looked back in perspective, maybe that was Dri's elbow in response to flirting with Susan Bones. {He so has a crush on her}
{Yeah, don't aggravate it. I felt that from inside your head}
Anyway, they had arrived in some sort of cove and led to the entrance hall, where they currently stood. Hagrid had just left and Professor MgGonagall had arrived.
"When I lead you into the hall you are to be sorted into one of the four houses. They are Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin. When you are here your house will be like family. Any triumph's may earn points. While any rule breaking will lose them. Please wait here," with that, the no nonsense woman had left.
"How do we get sorted," Neville asked fearfully from the duo's right
"Well Fred and George said that we have to fight a troll," Ron said
Everyone else was in equal degree's of panic and uncertainty, except for Dri who just laughed anything off, and Harry who was perfectly safe anyway, given his extra powers. Meanwhile some moron called Malfoy was running his mouth off at Weasel and Boy Wonder. As he was about to knock 'em down a peg or two each, MgGonagall showed up, this time carrying a rag and a stool.
When everyone was in lines, they were trooped down the rows between the house table's. Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw were on either side. Cedric caught Harry's eyes and they grinned at each other. Just ahead, a bushy haired girl who had been mumbled and reciting read-about spells in the entrance all was sprouting off 'knowledge' left and right. It just screamed 'KNOW-IT-ALL'. She reminded them of Cas, but a less 'give you knowledge as you need it', and more 'tell everyone what you read word-for-word and be a teachers pet'
MgGonagall set the stool down at the front of the hall, and placed the hat on top of it. Then the hat sang
A/N:I'm not writing the song. Everyone has read it about a thousand times. I can't be bothered doing it again
When the hat stopped singing, and Gabe stopped shivering and muttering about evil hats with mouth's, the stern woman stepped forward and unrolled a scroll of parchment. Harry was getting nervous. Everyone, and he meant EVERYONE, was staring at him. Then he realized why and grinned. He wasn't wearing robes. He was wearing Gabe's favorite outfit. Olive green jacket, maroon red/brown button up shirt, jeans and boots. He looked so out of place. It felt good.
He noticed a man who looked like Dri, a couple who could only be his parents and Dumbledore watching closely.
"Abbott, Hannah!"
A timid looking girl stepped forward and the hat was placed on head. A moment later, the hat cried out 'Hufflepuff!"
As the girl ran off to her table, MgGonagall called for "Black, Adrian!"
Dri made his way up with confidence and sat. The hat hesitated only a moment and then shouted "Gryffindor
"Bones, Susan!" "Hufflepuff!"
"Boot, Terry!" "Ravenclaw!"
"Bulstrode, Milicent!" "Slytherin!"
It continued this way for a while the hat taking longer for some people than others. Malfoy unsurprisingly went to Slytherin, yet shockingly Granger the know-it-all was sent to Gryffindor, as was Longbottom. By this point, Harry knew his name would be called as Potter. Neither the surname Diggory nor Gabriel had been called. And then it was almost his turn.
"Potter, Hayden!"
Wait, What! What! Whispers started all the way through out the hall (excluding the Snakes table)
"Gryffindor!" the hat announced almost immediately, and every table but Slytherin cheered, though the red was loudest
"Potter, Harry!" {Oh that clever old man}
{Indeed (Dramatic Sigh) We knew this was coming. May as well get it over with}
The whispering started again at an equal level, then rose when he stepped out and allowed his hair to revert back to it's normal state. He walked somewhat arrogantly to the stool sat and put on the hat himself.
"So what have we here. I can not sort you so while your barriers are in place" the Hat's voice said in his head
Quickly, Harry opened the gate and after a confidentiality agreement, handed over a guide way to avoid all traps and security in his head
{I'm assuming you hear me too?}
"Indeed, Mr. Gabriel. Now then. Hmm, you are tricky. Loyalty, yes I see that. But only to special people, and not at hard working. Not for Hufflepuff then.
{Shame}
"And you both have bravery beyond regular standards. No chivalry or nobility though. And you always think first. Gryffindor would not suit you well.
{Yes! I couldn't have lasted with that table. Yeah our friends are there but so Prat Weasel}
"Very clever too, I see. Resourceful, clever, witty. Not overly studious, but a natural academic mind. But also lots of ambition and cunning. Which to pick. Slytherin or Ravenclaw.
{Ravenclaw. I don't feel like spending 7 years with ferret}
{Plus we won't be ostracized by everyone}
{Makes it easier for pranks. Shame it won't piss James off as much though.}
"Well I see your minds are made up. Good luck in RAVENCLAW!
He pulled the hat of and saw the cheering table in the blue and bronze colored robes. As he made his way to it, he swished his wand, turning his jacket Ravenclaw blue and his shirt bronze. He sat down and watched the rest of the sorting.
After a long, delicious feast, a boring speech Harry didn't listen to, a walk to the tower that Gabe memorized and a brief summary of the expectations of Ravenclaw, he was in his dorm. He simply threw himself onto his bed and fell asleep fully clothed.
So that's that done. Ravenclaw won the vote. Result's:
Ravenclaw: 7
Slytherin: 7
Hufflepuff:4
Gryffindor:1
Snakes and Raven's were tied so I had to decide. I felt that the Claw's would be better, and my reasoning is in the chapter.
You'll get the Dumbles/Potter's confrontation next chapter.