Chapter- 8 : Aftermath Part - 2

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But that also meant he needed help. Both because he'd need protection while he was learning, and because he'd probably need help learning too. Not that he had to reveal exactly why he wanted the knowledge. He was vaguely aware that there was an expected healthy reaction to traumatic events like he'd undergone tonight.

And I'm pretty sure I'm not having it.

The night had been awful. Terrible. Terrifying. But even though he'd cried until he felt wrung out and spent, even though he had a slightly headache from the force of his tears but even now still felt like he wouldn't mind curling up in his bed and weeping some more…

At this second, what he wanted most was to figure how to make sure it never happened again.

I need some advice.

He didn't know what he was weakest with. Didn't know what he was best with. What he really needed to improve on and how he compared to Voldemort when he was younger. He might be able to ask Dumbledore, but he wasn't sure he completely trusted Dumbledore to give him a full answer. What if he pulled the "it's a secret" and "when you're older" idiocy as he had last year?

But who else had known both he and Voldemort?

Shaking his head, he opened his eyes. This was going nowhere, he realized, as he stood to shut off the water. Drying off with a quick charm, he stepped from the shower. When you have only one option, you don't have a choice. Dumbledore was the only one who could tell him of Riddle.

Except, he realized, pausing as he pulled on his shirt, for something else.

Slowly, he walked over to where he'd set the Sorting Hat in safety. Then, taking a breath, he leaned over, picked it up, and put it on.

The small voice was exactly the same. "Back again so soon, Mr. Potter? Really, I haven't spoken to a student as many times as I've spoken with you in decades, and you're only in second year."

"Er." He said intelligently. Is that a bad thing?

"Merely unusual. Now, you had a question for me. My question for you is if you're going to react like the last two times I've given advice. I don't sort you for my own edification, you know." Then, before Harry could ask what edification meant, the Hat supplied, "Knowledge, instruction, sake."

"Well, I don't-"

"Oh, good. I'm sorry for what you were forced to do down in the Chamber, but you've learned from it. If any comfort can be drawn from the events, perhaps that is it."

He was beginning to realize how aggravating an extended conversation with a mind reading entity could be.

"I heard that."

Determinedly refusing to acknowledge that one, he ventured, "So, can you tell me?"

"I can't give away students' secrets, even past students' secrets. No family patriarch or matriarch in the land would send their heirs off to have their minds picked clean. And to be honest, I probably wouldn't even if I could." The Hat paused while he absorbed this, then continued. "What I can do is give you a warning. Do you wish to hear it?" There was something almost formal in its tone.

"Yes!"

"Very well. When I first sorted you, I mentioned a great deal of talent, a fine mind, and a thirst to prove yourself. I considered you for both Gryffindor and Slytherin, with Ravenclaw as some place where you might exist, but would not really suit. Knowledge, cunning, and bravery – all will be necessary to ultimately accomplish what you've decided you must do. But to achieve what you hope to over the next several years, it is Hufflepuff traits you must pursue."

He blinked. What? Hufflepuff?

Not that he had anything against them, but they weren't exactly the first house he thought of when he imagined formidable or dangerous opponents.

"Oh, and you think Helga couldn't hold her own against Godric or Salazar? But in some aspects you are right. Hufflepuff does not at all fit your temperament, although you admire their ideals of loyalty. What you must take from your fellow house is their calm determination. You've asked me how to prepare to fight a dark wizard decades older, and there is a great deal of advice I could give. But right now what you need most is hard, steady work. Can you work, every day, to improve? Can you pursue difficult knowledge, not from love of it, nor for its immediate gains, but as a stepping stone for the future? Can you work and work some more, even when progress appears miniscule or fleeting? In short, Mr. Potter, what makes great wizards is not just ambition, or power, or genius, although all those help. It is their willingness to act rather than to react, and to work rather than play."

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