Dark Lord Dumbledore - Volume 1 Chapter 36
Thankfully, Ron had only been ranting about the evilness of Slytherin house for a few minutes before there was a knock on their compartment door. It slid open to reveal a round-faced boy looking slightly tearful.
“Sorry,” he said, “but have you seen a toad at all?”
When they shook their heads, he wailed, “I’ve lost him! He keeps getting away from me!”
“He’ll turn up,” said Harry.
“Yes,” said the boy miserably. “Well, if you see him…” He left.
“Don’t know why he’s so bothered,” said Ron. “If I’d brought a toad I’d lose it as quick as I could. Mind you, I brought Scabbers, so I can’t talk.” The rat was snoozing on Ron’s lap.
Harry looked at the human pretending to be a rat and thought how perfect a time it would be to get rid of this annoyance. He also couldn’t help but notice that the rat was missing an entire back foot as well as a finger on his front foot. His left eye also had a scar over it, but the eye itself seemed fine. How Percy liked the crippled rat enough to adopt it spoke to his weird tastes or magical compulsions. An a.d.u.l.t male sleeping in a child’s bed also could explain the strange behaviour of Ron and Percy from the books.
The version of Sirius and Peter’s confrontation must have gone nearly the same as canon. The fact that Sirius had failed against a one-legged Wormtail heavily suggested outside interference or mental f.u.c.kery. Harry wanted to capture the rat now but remembered that they would be interrupted once more and held back from acting for immediately. Sure enough, the door slid open once more, so soon that it even prevented Ron from suggesting turning his Rat yellow for laughs or to show off.
The toadless boy was back, but this time he had a girl with him. She was already wearing her new Hogwarts robes.
“Has anyone seen a toad? Neville’s lost one,” she said. She had a bossy sort of voice, lots of bushy brown hair, and rather large front teeth.
“We’ve already told him we haven’t seen it.” Said Ron.
Things had gone a bit differently from canon since Ron had not pulled his wand out yet to show his incompetence. Harry preferred to solve the situation quickly to prevent further interruptions to his plans and not become annoyed with a bossy little girl that was oblivious to her behaviour.
“Have you tried asking the Prefects? I heard that there are some students in the older years that solve these types of problems.” He supplied.
“Of course! Why didn’t I think of that? Thanks. Come on, Neville!” Before the poor teary-eyed boy knew what was happening, he was dragged out of the compartment by the hyper girl doing her best to alienate herself.
“Whatever house I’m in, I hope she’s not in it.” Said Ron.
Before he could launch into something else annoying, Harry hit him with a compulsion to sleep. The red-headed child yawned and then leaned against the window with his eyes closed. Harry then zapped Scabbers with a stunning charm and called for his head-elf.
“Boppy!”
With a pop, his most dependable elf appeared. “Yes, Master?”
“Take this rat to an isolated and secure base. Scan him for all magic and tracking spells just in case. He is the wizard that you threw rocks at the night I became your master, so be careful he doesn’t escape. Make him human again and then strip him of everything he owns, clothes and all. Next, catch a rat, make it look like him, and bring it to me.”
“Yes, Master!” The head-elf replied excitedly before grabbing his first-ever enemy by the tail and popping away.
Five minutes later, the little guy returned with an exact replica of Peter Pettigrew’s animagus form. It was even docile and lazy, happily munching on the food next to Ron when Harry indicated to place it there. With some encouraging words to Boppy for a job well done, Harry made himself invisible after the elf teleported away. He still had more Weasley family members to steal from.
He found them in a compartment nine doors away thanks to the overpowered ‘point me’ spell. Why wizards have not used it to find every buried muggle treasure, he would never know. They were so happy playing with Lee Jordan’s tarantula that they never noticed the door slide open slightly. With the sudden urge to sleep, the three boys in the compartment nodded off, not even stirring as the massive spider crawled over them.
A summon charm for the Marauder’s Map yielded no results, indicating that it must be in one of their school trunks. Being wary of the two containers thanks to their penchant for pranks, he opened them at a distance with telekinesis. No magic activated so they must have not been booby-trapped. Another summoning charm had a blank piece of parchment flying out of one of them into his waiting hand.
A couple obliviate charms concerning the map had Harry confident that he would not have two red-headed mischief-makers hunting him down for it at a later date. The rest of the trip was nice and quiet with Ron asleep. He changed into his Hogwarts robes and pulled out a book to read for the rest of the pleasantly uninterrupted trip.
A voice echoed through the train: “We will be reaching Hogwarts in five minutes. Please leave your luggage on the train, it will be taken to the school separately.”
Harry woke Ron up and told him to change into his robes. While they were waiting to reach the station, he asked what Ron’s dad did for a living. He then directed the conversation towards illegal artifacts and those that are sentient.
“So you are telling me that there are objects that can think and talk?” Harry exclaimed with fake disbelief.
“Sure, there are talking mirrors and things like that, but they are mostly enchantments. Dad has always warned us to be careful about such things, though. He says to never trust anything that can think for itself if you can’t see where it keeps its brain.” Ron answered, puffing his chest out in pride at Harry’s seemingly astonished face.
The train slowed down and finally stopped at a poorly lit station. People pushed their way toward the door and out on to a tiny platform darkened by night. A lamp came bobbing over the heads of the students, and Harry heard a familiar voice.
“First years! First years over here! All right there, Harry?” Hagrid’s big hairy face beamed over the sea of heads. “Come on, follow me, any more first years? Mind your step, now! First years follow me!”
Harry gave Hagrid a wave in greeting before everyone trailed after the half-giant. Slipping and stumbling, they followed Hagrid down what seemed to be a steep, narrow path. It was so dark on either side of them that Harry thought there must be thick trees there. Nobody spoke much.
“You all get your first sight of Hogwarts in a second,” Hagrid called over his shoulder, “just around this bend here.”
There was a loud “Oooooh!” The narrow path had opened suddenly onto the edge of a great black lake. Perched atop a high mountain on the other side, its windows sparkling in the starry sky was a vast castle with many turrets and towers.
“No more than four to a boat!” Hagrid called, pointing to a fleet of little boats sitting in the water by the shore.
The shout had interrupted Harry as he marvelled at the site of the magical castle, and he had to admit, it was impressive. Not the most defensive looking castle but undoubtedly beautiful. Harry and Ron were followed into their boat by Neville and Hermione just like canon, but there was little small talk.
“Everyone in?” Shouted Hagrid, who had a boat to himself. “Right then, FORWARD!”
The fleet of little boats moved off all at once, gliding across the lake that was smooth as glass. Everyone was silent, staring up at the magnificent castle overhead. It towered over them as they sailed nearer and nearer to the cliff on which it stood. The group of boats were carried along the lake until they reached a dark tunnel mostly concealed by a curtain of ivy, which seemed to be taking them right underneath the castle. The ‘heads-down’ instruction from Hagrid really only applied to him, but everyone still instinctively ducked.
They soon reached a kind of underground harbour, where everyone jumped out onto the pebbles of the shore. Then they clambered up a passageway in the stone after Hagrid’s lamp, coming out at last onto smooth, damp grass right in the shadow of the castle. They walked up a flight of stone steps and crowded around the large, oak front door. After checking everyone was present, Hagrid raised a gigantic fist and knocked three times on the castle door.
The door swung open at once. A tall, black-haired witch in emerald-green robes stood there. She had a very stern face, and the children’s first thought was probably that this was not someone to cross.
“The first years, Professor McGonagall.”
“Thank you, Hagrid. I will take them from here.”
“Welcome to Hogwarts,” said Professor McGonagall. “The start-of-term banquet will begin shortly, but before you take your seats in the Great Hall, you will be sorted into your houses. The Sorting is a very important ceremony because, while you are here, your house will be something like your family within Hogwarts. You will have classes with the rest of your house, sleep in your house dormitory, and spend free time in your house common room.
“The four houses are called Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. Each house has its own noble history, and each has produced outstanding witches and wizards. While you are at Hogwarts, your triumphs will earn your house points, while any rulebreaking will lose house points. At the end of the year, the house with the most points is awarded the house cup, a great honour. I hope each of you will be a credit to whichever house becomes yours.
“The Sorting Ceremony will take place in a few minutes in front of the rest of the school. I suggest you all smarten yourselves up as much as you can while you are waiting.” Her eyes lingered for a moment on Neville’s cloak, which was fastened under his left ear, and on Ron’s dirt-smudged nose.
What followed was exactly like the book, everyone discussing how the Sorting happened, the ghosts coming out to scare eleven-year-old children and then being led into the great hall. It was lit by thousands of candles that were floating in midair over four long tables, where the rest of the students were sitting. The stool and the patched, frayed and filthy hat was brought out and placed in front of the first years.
It sang its rather clever song, and then Professor McGonagall 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!”
Harry watched the students do as they were told and place a mind-reading hat on their heads as if it was the most natural thing to do. Slowly the students were sorted the same as canon with no changes, Harry not caring enough to make any.
“Potter, Harry!” Professor McGonagall called his name at last.
As Harry stepped forward, whispers suddenly broke out like little hissing fires all over the hall.
“Potter, did she say?”
“The Harry Potter?”
The excited murmurs of the children brought up with the legend of the hero baby echoed throughout the hall. Harry walked up to Professor McGonagall, pretending to be a little shy under the scrutiny of hundreds and their murmuring. When he stood in front of the talking hat, he gave it a suspicious look and then turned to Professor McGonagall.
“I would like to go to Ravenclaw please.”
Professor McGonagall was a bit stumped at the request, and the great hall suddenly became so quiet you could hear a mouse fart.
“You have to put the hat on to be sorted, Harry.” She instructed with a kind tone in her stern voice.
“I would rather not. I was just talking with a boy on the train that told me all about the misuse of muggle artifacts. He warned me to never trust anything that can think for itself if you can’t see where it keeps its brain. This talking hat seems like it would fall under that category, especially if it reads minds!” Harry responded precociously, like a small child when they think they are unquestionably correct.
Professor McGonagall could only stare at Harry in shock, her mouth had even fallen open! To simply not put the Sorting Hat on just wasn’t done!
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