They were staring at him again.
He had planned to show his face in important occasions which was why he now sitting beside Penelope during the sorting but because of his presence, the students were paying less attention to the sorting and more attention to him.
The girls were looking at him with desire. In fact, he could almost see the predatory gleam in the eyes of the older girls.
The boys on the other hand were looking at him with envy and jealousy.
They were of of course trying to hide such looks whenever he looked their way but they were doing a really piss poor job of it.
He wondered if he'll ever gain immunity to such looks.
How the hell did the superstars in the non magical world dealt with so much attention.
Come to think of it, Steve was a kind of celebrity in his company as well. Maybe he should ask the man for some advice the next time they talk.
Penelope squeezed his hand to show her support and he sent a small nod toward her.
"Ginerva Weasley." Minerva called out and a small red haired girl who had been constantly staring at him came out of her trance and walked toward the stool quickly in order to hide embarrassment.
Ginny. The girl who married Harry Potter after they graduated from the school.
He could never understand what the original Harry saw in her.
Sure she was cute and all but the whole fucking school was filled wth cute girls.
There were a lot of girls who were looked over in the movie who were as beautiful as the grown Hermione Granger in the movie.
So why the hell did he fell in love with her.
Come to think of it, he could never understand why he liked Cho Chang either.
He turned to eyes and looked in the direction of the girl with the Chinese descent who was looking at him with googly eyes until she realized that she had been caught and blushed hard before averting her gaze.
Well, that was fucking weird.
And why the hell is the hat taking so much time with these kids. Couldn't it do it's job more quickly.
In order to not catch someone else making googly eyes at him, he concentrated on the sorting hat instead.
The sorting hat took a considerable long time talking with the red haired girl.
He had of course not forgotten to find her at some later date to check if she still had the diary or not.
He knew that his presence had changed a lot of things in this world so Lucius Malfoy might not have confronted Arthur Weasley in Florish & Botts which would mean that Lucius gave the diary to some other poor kid.
If that is the case then he would have to rely on Selena to find the dark object or wait for the possessed student in the chamber of Secrets.
He would probably have to set a trap if that was the case.
As his eyes were focused on the hat the whole time, he saw the moment the hat finally opened it's mouth and shouted
"Ravenclaw."
"Oh…"
"Is something wrong?" Penelope asked softly from the side as she and the rest of the table clapped for the girl.
He came out of his shock and shook his head before he started clapping for the girl as well who jumped in joy before she came and almost sat in the empty chair beside him when their eyes met and she froze in her place and her whole face turned red and she dropped the chair back on the ground and ran to their other side of the table and sat with some other 1st year Ravenclaw.
He wondered if she was really this shy in the movies and remembered the scene when she and Harry met for the first time.
Yup, she had bolted out of the kitchen that time as well.
He turned to gaze at Penelope who was trying to hide her amusement at the situation.
He gave her a mock glare and her amusement only increased even further until she had to put a hand on her face in order to stop herself from bursting out in laughter.
He rolled his eyes and went back to focusing on the hat which sorted a few more 1st years until it came to another interesting character that he knew from the movies.
"Luna Lovegood." Minerva called out and after sitting in silence for a few moments, the hat finally shouted "Ravenclaw" and the girl skipped up to the table.
Yup, she did not walk. She skipped.
Showing such eccentricity to the whole school must take a lot of courage.
Or maybe she simply did not cared about what other students thought about her.
She came to the table and sat in the empty chair beside him, giving a soft smile to everyone in the table.
"Oh… Hello Harry Potter." She said in a dreamy voice and he gave a nod.
"Hello Luna."
"My dad says that you want to create a spy network with your Magical Phones so that you could take over the ministry in the future. Is that true?" she asked innocently and Penelope almost let out a chuckle before she put a hand over her mouth and controlled herself.
He on the other hand simply smiled at the curious girl "Yes. How did your father know about my master plan?" he asked, trying to ignore the fact that he could easily use his magical mobiles to spy on anyone who had bought it from his company.
"He didn't told me." She replied dreamily "But if I have to guess then I would say that it was the Nargals who told him."
By this time, anyone within hearing distance was looking at the girl oddly except for him.
He knew that despite her oddities, Luna was fiercely loyal to her friends and one of the few people who stood alongside the original Harry and continued to believe in him when no one did.
He respected the girl for that so he made sure to never point out her eccentricities when he talks with her.
"Is that so. And how did those nargals knew about my master plan?" he asked in conspiratorial manner and the girl giggled a bit before answering.
"It's simple silly. They can go inside your mind and steal your thoughts. They're thieves like that."
"How interesting. You wouldn't know of a way to protect the mind against them would you?" he asked amusedly.
"I do. It's very simple in fact." She said dreamily "You just need to make a necklace out of Butterbeer caps and wear them around your neck."
He paused for a moment and wondered if the girl really believed in all the things that she's talking about.
If she was a bit light on the upper department herself or if it was her crazy father's influence.
If it was her father's influence then someone really needed to take the girl away from that man.
Just because his wife is dead does not gives him the excuse to fill her daughter's head with such fantasies.
He may write anything that he wants in his newspaper but telling about the same imagined creatures to his daughter is just plain stupid.
Does he not realize how his upbringing affected his daughter.
"But where will I find so many Butterbeer caps?" he asked, indulging the girl's fantasies.
If he ever wanted to bring her out of her fantasies then he needed to make sure that she trusted him completely before that.
Well, there was also the possibility that the Nargals, Snorckacks, Heleopaths and whatever else she and her father talks about are in fact real creatures and that you needed some kind of special sight to see them but even if there was such a possibility, it was quite low so for the moment, he would just believe that Luna was a bit of naive girl whose head was filled with imaginary creatures by her father.
After the sorting ended, Dumbledore introduced Remus Lupin as the new DADA teacher to everyone after which the feast started.
He spent the dinner indulging Luna with her imaginary creatures.
At least he knew that Luna was not after either his fame or money. Which made her far more tolerable in his mind than the other girls in the school.
She just wanted a friend and he didn't mind filling that role for the time being.
Author's Note- ~Phew~ Done at last.
Hope you like the chapter.
And if you like my work and want to support me, then please do so at- pat.reon.com/ankit1
Have a nice day :)