Harry Potter : In the shadow of divinity20.24%

Chapter - 17 : The Serpent's Welcome

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(P).(A).(T).(R).(E).(O).(N)

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Professor Albus Dumbledore, Headmaster of Hogwarts, had been looking forward to this specific sorting for the better part of ten years. From the moment he'd entrusted the freshly orphaned Harry Potter into his relative's care, he'd anticipated the time he would return to the wizarding world as one of his students. And when the boy entered the hall, he was not disappointed.

Harry looked to be a fine young man, he stood among the sea of first years with a quiet confidence, his green eyes surveyed the hall carefully and without a trace of the fear and anxiety the majority of his peers exhibited. He was in the company of a red-haired, freckle faced boy who could only be the youngest Weasley son, Ronald, the Longbottom heir, Neville, and an unfamiliar brunette young lady he presumed to be a muggle-born student. Harry's choice in companionship had the headmaster breathing a touch easier, one of his greatest fears had been that he'd befriend the wrong sort of student during the train ride, the last thing he needed was the Boy-Who-Lived aligning himself with a child of a known Death Eater.

Headmaster Dumbledore watched with no small amount of satisfaction as the young muggleborn, Hermione Granger, was placed in Ravenclaw while the Longbottom heir seemingly defied his own expectations when was sorted into Gryffindor. Ronald was sure to be in Gryffindor, as all of his brothers before him had been; they would be a wonderful influence on Harry.

When it was finally time for Harry to be sorted, the entire hall straightened in interest; the boy ignored the flurry of excited whispers his name elicited as he approached the stool and allowed the Sorting Hat to be placed over his head. He gave a barely perceptible start, no doubt when the Sorting Hat first spoke to him, every student who went into the sorting ceremony blind found themselves startled by the extent of the hat's sentience. As the minutes slowly passed, Dumbledore catalogued every minute flicker in the boy's expression and every shift in his body; at one point, the little bit of his face that could be seen beneath the hat hardened, at another point he gripped the edge of the stool hard enough to whiten his knuckles.

Finally, after nearly five minutes, the rip at the brim of the hat's mouth opened and it spoke one word. "SLYTHERIN!"

Oh dear.

Harry wasn't entirely certain he liked the sorting ceremony, it felt the slightest bit invasive to have a seemingly sentient hat look into his mind and trawl through his thoughts and memories. The thing had uncovered the secret of his heritage within seconds of being on his head, and though it had assured him it had no intention of telling anyone, he didn't feel all that comfortable knowing an outdated, witch's hat knew one of his greatest secrets.

In the end, there was nothing much he could do; the hat declared him a Slytherin and he moved to seat himself beside a smug Malfoy. The rest of the sorting passed quickly after that, Ron joined Neville in Gryffindor, while the last person to be sorted, Blaise Zabini, was put in Slytherin. Zabini was nice enough, a bit entitled, but nowhere near as gratingly pompous as Malfoy had been during their first encounter; he had an admirable knowledge of the workings of Slytherin house, despite having just being sorted into it, and he seemed to have no problem sharing this knowledge with Harry.

"Majority of Slytherin house will see your addition as the golden opportunity it is, this is their chance to prove that this house is made up of more than just Death Eaters in training. However, not everyone is of the same mindset. The actual Death Eaters in training will want to see you gone as quickly and permanently as possible."

"How do I know the good from the bad?" Harry asked, casting a hooded glance down the length of the table.

"Sit tight, they'll make their move soon enough. When they do, you'll be able to pick out whose side everyone is on."

"Brilliant," Harry snorted. "I've been here five minutes and already I'm making enemies."

"I don't see why you're so surprised," Malfoy pointed out, "you've had a talent for making powerful enemies since you were a year old."

"I'm not sure any of our housemates could really qualify as powerful enemies," Blaise said. "A few may come from old families, but many of them have lost their influence since the fall of You-Know-Who and the outing of many of his Death Eaters. They may prove to be a nuisance, but, as of right now, none of them are truly dangerous."

"It still won't do to underestimate them," Harry sighed. "Or to let them think they can get away with harassing me because of who I may or may not have defeated when I was only a baby. I've had more than my fair share of bullies this lifetime, I won't stand for any more."

Blaise tilted his cup at Harry in acknowledgment, before turning the conversation to lighter topics, such as what to expect from their first day of lessons. When the feast ended and the headmaster dismissed everyone for the night, two of the older students, the male and female fifth year prefects, gathered up the first years to lead them to the common room. However, before they could even exit the hall, a mean faced teen who didn't look to be more than two or three years older than them, sidled up to the male prefect's side.

"You sure you want to take them all to the common room?" the boy challenged. "We haven't yet had the chance to weed out the weasels hiding amongst the bunch."

The prefect, Higgs, made it a point not to look in Harry's direction. "There will be no need for any weeding," he said acerbically. "The Sorting Hat has been sorting students for centuries, it's yet to make a mistake and I doubt it's started now."