Michael Brown
The vast double doors swung open slowly, without being touched, allowing us to enter the Great Hall.
A vast room came into view. The walls were made from brown stone, with braziers in the shapes of various animals hanging on them . Countless candles were floating under the ceiling, which was for some reason looking like the night sky. The view was aesthetically pleasing, to say at least, but I was sure that it also held some dark secret. Most likely there was something hidden behind this "sky", probably some sort of magic circle, drawn using the blood of the students attending Hogwarts. I mean, there was no way anyone would ever try to see what was behind the illusion, so it was a perfect place to put some bloody drawing and drain the lifeforce of the students sitting under it. Or at least that was what I would do if I was the mad wizard in charge of this school.
Lowering my eyes I saw that the Hall was mostly occupied by four long tables, each belonging to one of the Hogwarts houses. They were already mostly full, as older students apparently arrived earlier than us. As we were passing them by, our upperclassmen were whispering between each other and pointing their fingers at us, treating us as some form of entertainment. Maybe they were just surprised that all of us arrived safely at the castle?
Behind the four tables there was a small set of steps, leading to the end of the Hall. I could see the sorting Hat being placed there, lying motionlessly on a stool, one on which we would soon be forced to sit. Behind it was a broad, wooden table, at which all of our future teachers were sitting, watching us in silence. In the middle of the table I could see a chair bigger than others, looking like some sort of throne. On that throne sat a monster, who was looking at us with his piercing cold eyes.
What scared me the most was the fact that it was impossible to tell he was a monster just by looking at him. Dumbledore actually looked utterly harmless with his colourful gown, goofy hat and half moon spectacles. If I were to see a man like that on the street, I would think of him as an eccentric old man, not the calculating tyrant that he actually was.
Fortunately I knew enough to not be fooled by his appearance. I was aware that this nice, twinkle-eyed grandpa was actually a high-ranked member of the Ministry, playing some sort of shadow war against his peers, hoping to gain more power. He was using his position as Hogwarts headmaster to spread his influence through the wizarding world, slowly converting his students and associates into his loyal servants, ready to fight for him even against the Ministry itself. It wasn't the accident that a lot of his former students were so ready to join his "order of the phoenix". He was subtly influencing them since the moment they arrived at Hogwarts. All for "the greater good".
Speaking of greater good, wasn't it a little too convenient that he was personally connected to both of the modern dark lords and was the only one capable of stopping them? He presented himself as a good, caring individual, but he was somehow a best friend/lover of Grindelwald and a teacher who first found Voldemort and was later watching him carefully through Tom's entire education?
It only convinced me further that Tom Riddle, just like Grindelwald before him, was just a heroic rebel, framed by this twinkle-eyed bastard, who was committing heinous acts on the wizarding population to present himself as their saviour. It was extremely suspicious that Dumbledore only fought Grindelwald after the man became a world-wide threat and despite "always suspecting Voldemort", he did nothing until Tom started fighting against the Ministry.
The most reasonable explanation was that the man watching our group was a ruthless puppet master, responsible for most of the misery of the wizarding world in the 20th century. It wouldn't be wrong to say that the blood of every victim in both wizarding wars was on his hands.
I would certainly avoid that man with all my might. I didn't want to end like poor Tom.
After our group finally reached the stool, professor McGonagall stopped, making every freshman do the same. She was waiting for something, though I wasn't exactly sure what it was. For the first few seconds nothing happened, but then the hat twitched. A rip near the brim opened wide like a mouth and the hat began to sing. The song was…weird to say at least, mostly consisting of the same information we already learned from McGonagall, making it quite pointless. It also sounded quite weird, as the Hat's voice didn't sound very organic (for obvious reasons). I was apparently in the minority however, as its song was met with the thunderous applause from the students.
After students fell silent again, McGonagall spoke.
"Now , when I call your name, you will come forth, I will place the sorting hat on your head, and you will be sorted into your houses" She exclaimed before reaching for the scroll and reading the first name. That…wasn't good. It wasn't good at all. I didn't think about that much before, being busy with thinking about other dangers, but I was about to be forced to wear a sentient hat, which would use legilimency to pry all of my deepest secrets from me.
I wasn't the only scary thing about the Hat though. I was quite sure that the Sorting Hat was actually performing a full brain scan, coping all memories inside. Then, whenever one of the students had an accident or "accident", Dumbledore would prepare a homunculus with the body of the deceased student and use the Hat to transfer these memories into the homunculus' brain. It wouldn't work well with older students, who would lose several years of memories, but first year students, still unused to the dangers of Hogwarts, were probably dying more frequently than older students.
I certainly didn't want to have my memories copied, as that would make me less valuable alive, but was there anything I could do to prevent that? I wasn't sure. With Dumbledore there I would die before I would be able to take even two steps. I also didn't know how to use occlumency, so I wouldn't be able to stop the Hat. Was that their plan? To steal my memories under the pretence of sorting me?
"Michael Brown" Read McGonagall and looked at me, waiting for me to take a seat. I knew that I had no choice but to do that, so with a heavy heart I approached the stool.
The Sorting Hat
Ravenclaw? Maybe Slytherin?
The hat wasn't sure which one would be more fitting, but it could already tell that the boy would be more suited for one of the more "intellectual" houses. Its feeling didn't come from the legilimency of course, as the Hat could only use it when placed upon child's head, but its long existence, spent mostly by placing children in the houses most suited for them, gave it quite a lot of experience in this kind of thing, so it was quite confident about its hunch. The serious gaze and rigid posture certainly suggested that this boy probably wouldn't be a good fit for Hufflepuff.
It was however just a guess, made mostly for its own entertainment, to make the sorting a little more interesting for the old hat. The real judgement would be made by reading Michael's mind. It was its role, given by the founders itself.
After the tense boy sat on the stool, McGonagall gently placed the Sorting hat on his head.
'Let's see if my hunch was right' thought the Hat and entered Michael's mind.
Something was wrong.
Not even a second after the Sorting Hat thought that, it was violently assaulted by the stream of boy's thoughts, feeling like something was trying to rip it apart.
MY MIND IS MY OWN, MY MIND IS MY OWN
The sorting hat was burning on Neville Longbottom's head, an act of mockery on Voldemort's part. "No more houses, only Slytherin" announced the dark lord as the boy was screaming.
HoUsE eLvEs ArE dEsCeNdAnTs Of ThE rAcE oF nOrMaL eLvEs, ThAt WeRe SuBjUcAtEd By WiZaRdS aNd MaDe ThEiR sLaVeS. ThEy ArE lOyAl BeCaUsE oF tHe DaRk RiTuAl.
WHAT IS REAL I NEED TO KNOW
You are trying to copy my brain, Dumbledore is creating homonculuses to replace the dead students
The man is driving his car, the man is hit by the truck. The man is dead, the man is alive
There is a trace on every wand, most of the population just doesn't know about it
The infant looks at its new parents, confused and terrified. Who are these people and why am I a baby?
I NEED TO LEARN THE TRUTH
Overwhelmed by the chaotic mind and assaulted by pain, The sorting Hat cut the connection.
"RAVENCLAW! RAVENCLAW! RAVENCLAW!" It exclaimed, desperate to get away from the boy as soon as possible. McGonagall took it off Michael's head, making it sigh in relief. She was looking at the Hat quite confused, just like most of the people present, but it didn't care about that at the moment.
There was something seriously wrong with Michael Brown. His mind was like some feral beast, savagely attacking the intruder with violent thoughts, putting a pressure on them and forcing them out. It wasn't even an occlumency, not really. It was too chaotic and unorganized to even be called that. No, it was something much more primal, something it didn't experience before. The Hat didn't even want to think what would have to happen to create such a brutal mindscape.
Not to mention the content of these thoughts. The sorting hat shuddered, afraid by what it saw. Did it just watch his own death, burned and humiliated? Was the boy a seer? Was that why his mind was so dangerous? But there were also these thoughts, these horrible thoughts about being reborn, about the dead walking again. Were these memories true? What did it all mean?
It didn't know.
It however knew that it never wanted to touch Michal Brown's head again. It doubted it would survive another attempt.
So, about Michael's mind. He will not be some sort of prodigy, who can cast any spell and brew any elixir, he is too paranoid and neurotic for that, but he basically spent 11 years constantly on guard, filling his mind with mad thoughts and paranoia. That's why his mind is a very dangerous thing for mind readers. It's actually not that useful though, as most of the legilimency users wouldn't really bother reading his thoughts, as they would have no reason to do that. Good for traumatizing Hats, though.