The Serpent's Path
Chapter 1: A Twist of Fate
Professor McGonagall now stepped forward holding a long roll of parchment.
"When I call your name, you will put on the hat and sit on the stool to be sorted," she said. "Abbott, Hannah!"
A pink-faced girl with blonde pigtails stumbled out of line, put on the hat, which fell right down over her eyes, and sat down. A moment's pause –
"HUFFLEPUFF!" shouted the hat.
The table on the right cheered and clapped as Hannah went to sit down at the Hufflepuff table. Harry saw the ghost of the Fat Friar waving merrily at her.
"Bones, Susan!"
"HUFFLEPUFF!" shouted the hat again, and Susan scuttled off to sit next to Hannah.
"Boot, Terry!"
"RAVENCLAW!"
The table second from the left clapped this time; several Ravenclaws stood up to shake hands with Terry as he joined them.
"Brocklehurst, Mandy" went to Ravenclaw too, but "Brown, Lavender" became the first new Gryffindor, and the table on the far left exploded with cheers; Harry could see Ron's twin brothers catcalling.
"Bulstrode, Millicent" then became a Slytherin. Perhaps it was Harry's imagination, after all he'd heard about Slytherin, but he thought they looked like an unpleasant lot.
He was starting to feel definitely sick now. He remembered being picked for teams during gym at his old school. He had always been last to be chosen, not because he was no good, but because no one wanted Dudley to think they liked him.
"Finch-Fletchley, Justin!"
"HUFFLEPUFF!"
Sometimes, Harry noticed, the hat shouted out the house at once, but at others it took a little while to decide. "Finnigan, Seamus," the sandy-haired boy next to Harry in the line, sat on the stool for almost a whole minute before the hat declared him a Gryffindor.
"Granger, Hermione!"
Hermione almost ran to the stool and jammed the hat eagerly on her head.
"GRYFFINDOR!" shouted the hat. Ron groaned.
A horrible thought struck Harry, as horrible thoughts always do when you're very nervous. What if he wasn't chosen at all? What if he just sat there with the hat over his eyes for ages, until Professor McGonagall jerked it off his head and said there had obviously been a mistake and he'd better get back on the train?
When Neville Longbottom, the boy who kept losing his toad, was called, he fell over on his way to the stool. The hat took a long time to decide with Neville. When it finally shouted, "GRYFFINDOR," Neville ran off still wearing it, and had to jog back amid gales of laughter to give it to "MacDougal, Morag."
Malfoy swaggered forward when his name was called and got his wish at once: the hat had barely touched his head when it screamed, "SLYTHERIN!"
Malfoy went to join his friends Crabbe and Goyle, looking pleased with himself.
There weren't many people left now.
"Moon"…, "Nott"…, "Parkinson"…, then a pair of twin girls, "Patil" and "Patil"…, then "Perks, Sally-Anne…, and then, at last –
"Potter, Harry!"
As Harry stepped forward, whispers suddenly broke out like little hissing fires all over the hall.
"Potter, did she say?"
"The Harry Potter?"
The last thing Harry saw before the hat dropped over his eyes was the hall full of people craning to get a good look at him. Next second he was looking at the black inside of the hat. He waited.
"Hmm," said a small voice in his ear. "Difficult. Very Difficult. Plenty of courage, I see. Not a bad mind either. There's talent, oh my goodness, yes – and a nice thirst to prove yourself, now that's interesting….So where shall I put the great Harry Potter?"
Harry gripped the edges of the stool and thought, Not Slytherin, not Slytherin.
"Not Slytherin, eh?" said the small voice. "Are you sure? You could be great, you know, it's all here in your head, and Slytherin will help you on the way to greatness, no doubt about that. How can you deny your true calling? Oh, I see. You want to be with your little friends you just made in Gryffindor. But you have loads of ambition with strong self preservation. You have the ability to lead, one few have. Well, I'm sure – better be SLYTHERIN!"
The great hall stayed deadly silent. Harry sat there shook, stunned, unable to move a muscle. What did the hat say? He now wished that his horrible thought did come true. If everything Ron said about Slytherin was true, he's going into the lion's den or rather the snake's burrow. Even Neville made it into Gryffindor, what does that say about him?
"Go take your seat with your house, Harry," McGonagall said, creeping up behind him. She takes the hat off his head and gives Harry a little shove towards the Slytherin table. Harry stepped down the stairs and made his way to the table. Whispers broke out once again.
Potter a Slytherin!?
I would have never thought.
Nothing like his parents.
The walk felt like the longest one of his life. He approached the table and slid into the closest spot.
"Fancy seeing you here again Potter," Malfoy said, grinning like a madman. Of course it had to be across from Malfoy.
"Malfoy." Harry grumbled. Could this day get any worse?
"Still think you can tell who the wrong sort are?"
Harry just sat there unsure of what to say. He felt like crying. Why did the sorting hat do this to him? Why didn't he listen to me?
"Cat got your tongue Potter?" Malfoy cackled.
"Shut up Malfoy."
"So big and tough Potter. You better play nice with your housemates. I give you another chance to do what you should have done earlier," he stuck out his hand once more, "Truce?"
Harry stared at the hand for the longest time. If he was Slytherin he might as well embrace it. He did something he was sure he would regret later. Harry took his hand and shook it.