บท 5: Sorting
By the time we reached Hogsmeade, instructions were given to change into robes as we would reach Hogwarts within a short while.
As I predicted many students who waited till the last moment were raising a ruckus, I waited patiently in my compartment only to be joined by Neville and Hermione, I was pleasantly surprised, it would seem that I have indeed made some new acquaintances. After we reached Hogwarts, we detrained leaving our baggage inside the train which would then be taken to our dorms by house elves under the supervision of Argus Filch( well that explains a lot, Dumbles trusted a squib to check for troublesome goods, nice going there, he couldn't perform even the basic diagnostic spells, so Tom's diary must have just appeared to be..... well a diary to him. Since the house elf's transported them maybe the wards failed to pick up the Horcrux or maybe was this the work of Tom Riddle? he had Dippet in his palm during his school years, he could have keyed in his first Horcrux in the warding formulae for all I knew) making sure that certain banned products were not brought in. I would later learn that the Weasley twins had an arrangement with Peeves and a few house elves, smuggling in some of their products. Freed house-elves seem to be a little too mischevious for my liking.
I along with the other students followed Hagrid towards the lake shore where our boats were docked, Neville and Hermione and one of the Patel twins, Padma I think, shared my boat.
After making sure that the students had boarded the boats, Hagrid magicked them to slowly row their way towards the castle. Hermione was busy telling the others what she had learnt about the castle and the lake from her books.
"Fascinating isn't it? the lake is freshwater, but sea creatures like squids and sea turtles live in it. I also read that the lake houses Merpeople. One of the previous headmasters had formed a treaty with these people allowing sanctuary and he had even learnt their language eventually writing a book on it." Padma was in rapt attention while Neville was feeling nervous and was holding on to the boat tightly by the looks of his whitened knuckles. He was too busy being afraid of falling over that he didn't notice his toad slipping away from his pocket and into the lake.
It swam towards the direction of Hogwarts, so I didn't mention it to Neville, as he would needlessly panic.
Just like the books, we passed through a secret cave entrance leading to a large oaken door, where Professor Mcgonagall was waiting. She gave us the usual speech about houses, points, the house cup and some time to smarten up, I was prim and proper as always and Neville found Trevor again.
After she left, everyone started to chat and discuss what they knew about the sorting. Most were just senseless crap.
"How do you think we will be sorted?"
"I heard..."
"No, that's impossible...."
"Well, my brothers said we would have to fight a troll, but I think they are joking... I hope"
"I have practised all the spells in our book, will it be enough?" Hermione was not helping the situation, she didn't have to rub it in everyone's face that she knew more. I could clearly see the look of contempt on the Pureblood students huddling near Malfoy. ( Anyone can hardly mistake his identity as he had just said his father's name for, I don't know, umpteenth time), who was staring daggers at the Potter-Weasley duo, I figured that it must be due to the snubbing he received in the train. Hermione was painting a target on her own back and it was clear that I need to talk to her in private because helping her would someday help me.
After the house ghosts spooked some students, Minerva came back to lead us to the great hall. The hat broke into a song and the sorting began.
The sorting hat was a masterpiece of spell work and runes by the founders, the thought of allowing the sentient thing to read my memories, sent a chill through my spine. These thoughts increased my breathing and my heart beat with it.
By chanting a self-control mantra in my mind, I calmed my breathing, which in turn unclouded my mind, allowing me to think.
'Calm the F out Nathan, it is not a human, just a relic with a bit of charm work, so its Legilimency at best would only read your surface thoughts......... I hope so(Powerful Legilimency would require direct eye contact and a wand), it must be runes and spell to feel emotions and surface thoughts as it would be impossible to perform a deeper mind search without harming an adult mind, let alone children without any form of mental protection'
As I was musing, I didn't respond to the call, it took Minerva calling me a third time to bring me back from my thought. 'Shit, I brought unwanted attention to myself' was my first thought as I could see all the professors giving me a once over, especially Snape. I didn't want his hooked nose homing in on my direction so I moved quickly.
Putting those thoughts to the back of my head, I sat on the chair rapidly emptying my thoughts. The hat eclipsed over my eyes.
"Well let's have a look see" spoke a voice in my head.
The voice was summoning memories deep buried in my mind doing its best to bypass my newly built occlumency shields, it was distracting my effort to empty my mind but I knew my mind more than anyone, I have spent the last 11 years of my existence taming it to my will, the resistance it provided gave me a second to recover but a second was all I needed. I bit the inside of my cheek drawing blood in the process, the pain stopped the hat's magic and allowed me to keep my mind empty.
"Congratulation, no one has stopped me before....not in this way, no need to hurt yourself anymore, I will respect your desire for privacy, over the centuries, I have met quite a few who have used dark artefacts to cover their thoughts but they were mostly wealthy Purebloods, but your actions itself gives me a picture of your character, you want to hide some things from me, so you're ambitious but not cunning enough as you openly confront me, you have worked hard to develop such ruthless mental discipline but I can't say anything about your loyalty, if nothing else, you are brave enough to deny me and you were able to deduce a way to stop me, that shows your intelligence( the hat didn't know that I had a seen the movies and read the books). So tell me which characteristic shall I choose, which house do you think you would do well?"
"I think, I will do well in Ravenclaw," I said calmly with a smile as I wanted this to be over with. Hat stalls drew unwanted attention.
"Duly noted Mr.Storm, hmm right, very well, I have made my decision, I know just the place for an oddball like you........"GRYFFINDOR"
My smile faltered a bit, the hat had taken its petty revenge, why bother asking when you are not going to listen, I wanted to be in a neutral house, that way I could limit my confrontations with the snakes but that didn't matter now, my smile was back, I didn't come here to play games, whichever my house might be I will gain knowledge and power, there is no changing that. Plus now I am within the reach of one of my pet projects.
I placed the hat back in the stool and made my way towards my house table, I was met with cheer and I sat next to Hermione, who was busy questioning Percy about academics, there were a few tidbits that were really interesting so kept my head down and listened.
After Zabini was sorted, the Headmaster gave us few words(precisely 4) of enlightenment. I heard Granger let out a gasp when the food suddenly materialized before us. I don't usually eat much during dinner, I prefer a heavy breakfast, but today was an exception I ate like there was no tomorrow and I think I might have ruined it for Hermione, who was constantly reminding me of table manners. Had I been a child (mentally) I would have snapped at her, but I just nodded and tried to slow down my pace. Thankfully Ronald outdid me and drew away Hermione, giving me much needed peace.
After his cryptic message intent on baiting Quirreldemort and Harry, the Headmaster allowed us to retire for the night, I followed the others as we were led by Percy towards the Gryffindor tower, I tried to memorize the way towards the Great hall but it was in vain, the good food and the changing stairs thoroughly confused me and I was too groggy to care.
After our encounter with the Poltergeist, the Prefects took us through the portrait, Neville and me, as I stood next to him, got logs dropped on our heads. I silently swore vengeance, I added learning exorcism to my pet project list. This week's password was "Caput Draconis".
The common room was comely enough, the fireplace was lit up to keep the room warm constantly. It had a number of sofas and tables for the student's leisure, I seriously didn't know how I was going to learn to live with this so many people, back home there was only mother and me, I had a lot of personal freedom, she never brought home any friends, colleagues, boyfriends or girlfriends.......I don't judge, it was cool as long as she was happy.
The prefects warned us not to enter the stairs to the girl's dorm as it was enchanted to prevent boys. The boys just questioned why they would ever enter the 'girls' dorm, I even heard one say girls had cooties......really? what are we five, stupid fucks had no idea what puberty would do, not that I was planning to enter my self....not yet.
My trunk was near the foot of my bed, I shared my room with Harry, Ronald, Neville. The four-poster beds looked comfortable enough, I took out my PJ's from my trunk to get ready, I wanted to pen a letter to my mother, but I figured it would sound better when I was not half wake and bone-tired.
I fell into the soft embrace of sleep and slept without dreams that night.
*************************************Staff Quarters********************************
Professor Trelawney's cabin.
"Another year, another batch of students" Sybill murmured to herself.
She was having a midlife crisis, she may be the great-great-granddaughter of Cassandra Trelawney, but her gifts didn't measure up to Cassandra's, her predictions were few and far between but she didn't know the weight of her predictions, not truly. To mask her incompetence she came up with false predictions, her marriage was a wreck and she had only lucked out when she came to seek Hogwarts employment.
She knew, that she made a prediction that day, but Albus wouldn't share it with her, he had acted as her witness that day and submitted the copy to the department of mystery, not that she could complain, he was her employer after all.
As she was contemplating her boring life, she subconsciously entered a trance
" Beware, for a snake has entered the lion's den,
Be thankful as it will aid the chosen one,
Beware for it will become the next dark one,
Third, in this century, ruthless than the previous ones, beware.... cough ....cough."
"Oh my, did, I say anything?" since she couldn't remember she went back to self-pitying.
Snape's cabin.
"At last the Potter spawn arrives, spitting image that one, everything I despise, except those eyes....Lily" Severus was on his way through the fire whiskey decanter. He was not worried about getting drunk as he had already made a sobering potion and a hangover potion. Seeing Harry Potter
brought back the painful memories of his foolish mistakes.
As he was contemplating how he would approach the Potter situation a fleeting thought crossed his mind, during the sorting he had a faint recognition from another student but it couldn't be, it must have been his imagination, he surmised and carried on drinking forgetting about it quickly.
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