chapter one
Harry made sure to stand as far away from Dudley as he could, whilst the rest of the children were getting sorted. That’s right, Dudley Dursley was a wizard. Even here, at Hogwarts, Harry couldn’t escape the Dursley’s. He was determined to at the very least not go to the same house dudley went to, so- when Dudley was eventually sorted into Gryffindor, Harry knew that that was the one place he didn’t want to go. Why couldn’t Dudley have been a muggle? It would’ve made things so much easier. Had Dudley been like his parents, then Harry might’ve actually enjoyed the ride on the Hogwarts express but no! There was only one free compartment, meaning he had to share it with his bully/cousin.
“Potter, Harry”, McGonagall called out, ripping him from his thoughts.
He made his way to the wooden stool standing before the teacher’s table, upon which sat the sorting hat. Climbing up upon it and putting on the hat, he could hear a whisper in his ear, a high-pitched whisper, “Ah, what have we here? Quite the need to prove yourself, not a bad mind either and bravery to spare but where to put you?”
“Not Gryffindor, not gryffindor”, Harry whispered to himself, desperate to not be in the same house as Dudley.
“Not Gryffindor? Well if not Gryffindor, then you better be…”, the hat paused dramatically, before loudly announcing, “SLYTHERIN!”
A silent sigh of relieve escaped Harry’s mouth as he put down the hat and made his way to the slytherin table on the opposite side of the hall to the gryffindor table. The slytherins were applauding him more loudly than they had for any other slytherin sorting before.
Harry made his way to his fellow first years.
A sickly looking, pale boy with platinum blonde hair introduced himself to Harry, “Greetings, I am Malfoy, Draco Malfoy, good to see you here in the best house, these guys are Crabbe and Goyle”, he motioned to two fat boys sitting next to him. They reminded Harry of brunette Dudley’s, “I heard ghastly rumors that you were forced to live with some horrid muggle scum, is it true?”
“Yeah, I only learned I was a Wizard recently”, he was glad that Draco understood that the Dursleys were bad, no one ever believed him before, so it was quite refreshing to hear.
Draco shot him a reassuring smile, “No need to worry, Harry. I’ll gladly explain to you everything that you need to know. Have you read your books already?”
“Only the first few chapters of each one, why?”
“Well, some teachers are stricter than others”, the blonde wizard explained, “Professor Snape for example is very strict. He’s our potions professor and head of slytherin house, so you might want to study up on that. Look he’s sitting right there next to Quirrell, the man with the turban”
Draco pointed to a sour looking man, dressed in all black, with oily black hair and black eyes, he was just as pale as draco was and currently talking with Quirrell, though his eyes seemed to snap into Harry’s direction rather frequently. Each time the professor looked at him, there was something in his eyes, though he wasn’t sure if it was anger, pity or something completely different. The only thing he could rule out was happiness, that man looked anything but happy.
“Who’s the Gryffindor head of house”, he asked draco, his eyes snapping to Dudley’s fat face.
“Oh, that's McGonagall, she is strict too but not as much as snape. That small wizard there, next to Snape, he’s the ravenclaw head of house and our charms professor, he’s very laid back. The woman next to him- well I don’t remember her name but she teaches astronomy. The empty seat next to her belongs to McGonagall, followed by dumbledore. They say he is brilliant, my father thinks he’s gone senile. The next is Sprout, she teaches herbology and- I think she is the head of Hufflepuff house? The next few I’m not sure of, I think they teach the electives, nothing we have to worry about ‘till 3rd year”
“Thanks”, Harry quicked, trying to absorb all the knowledge he had just received.
“No problem mate”, Draco laughed it off, just at that moment, the last boy was sorted. Blaise Zabini joined them at Slytherin.
With a grand gesture, Dumbledore stood up and, after clearing his throat, announced, “Welcome to a new year at Hogwarts! Before we begin our banquet, I would like to say a few words. And here they are: Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak! Thank you”
Draco leaned into Harry’s ear and whispered, “Looney, like I said”
Harry just nodded his head. What the Headmaster said didn’t inspire a lot of confidence in his mental faculties.
The feast that appeared after his speech was fantastic though, an assortment of the best meats, veggies and fruits he’d ever eaten. Dudley seemed to agree, seeing as he was stuffing his face more than usual. Another Gryffindor was rivaling him in the amount eaten and the lack of manners, a tall redhead who was eating maybe even more than dudley. It was really rather impressive, if it weren’t so disgusting.
The slytherin’s had better table manners, even Crabbe and Goyle, despite their rather lacking smarts were eating more well mannered than Dudley and the redhead.
“Look at weasley just stuffing his face”, Blaise commented, pointing at the redhead, “can’t go associating yourself with their kind, blood traitors their lot”
“Blood traitors?”
“Wizards and witches who love Muggles”
Harry saw before his inner eye the dursley’s and wondered how anyone could love people like them, “how?”
“Don’t know”, Draco answered, “delusional I reckon”
The rest of the meal continued on in silence, Harry eating at a slower pace than the others, so used to savoring any and all food he could get, in fear of wasting any of the precious resource. After some time, the meat heavy plates disappeared, replaced with plates upon plates of sweets, none of which Harry wanted to eat, already too stuffed from all the food he’d eaten.
“Well then, now that everyone is fed and watered”, Dumbledore spoke after the dessert too had vanished, “Would the prefects please gather up the first years and show them the way to their common rooms”