Worse than expected
“Human Language/speech”
“Parseltongue/Spells”
(Start of chapter):
Though Hardym had awoken a few minutes before the train arrived at station, he only really began processing the world around him in the middle of the sorting. The first sensation he felt was pressure of the overwhelming magical power around him and a little sting in his chest as his core regenerated at an unnatural pace. What he recognized next was the subtle auras surrounding most of the professors and a few older students, he somehow connected each of these auras with a scent, how he did it he didn’t know. Professor Quirrell -who he had met when Hagrid escorted him to Diagon alley- had two very different smells, one was rotting flesh and the other was orange juice, the Professor next to Quirrell -who was deathly pale and had long, black hair- smelled of chocolate, Filius Flitwick -Hardym had read about the hogwarts staff beforehand and recognized the tiny professor along with a few more- was iron, Minerva McGonagall -head of Gryffindor and one of the few respectable Gryffindors nowadays- was Vanilla, Pomona Sprout was another with two scents, earth and apples, Albus Dumbledore -who Hardym respected for his power but didn’t agree with politically at all- was mint and a few others had the same blueberry scent or non at all.
“Longbottom, Neville”, called out McGonagall and a nervous boy walked to the hat, who made his decision after 5 minutes, declaring loud and clear,”Gryffindor!”
“Malfoy, Draco”, the boy he had met at Madam Malkin's was the next person whose sorting Hardym took interest in and just as the boy had exclaimed in the clothing store, it didn’t take one second before the hat made its choice,”Slytherin!”
The next sorting, Theodore Nott also went straight to Slytherin and Hardym stopped paying attention again until his name was called,”Potter, Hardym”
Confidently, Hardym walked towards the artifact and ignored all the whispering that started after his name was called,”Interesting”, the hat’s voice rang in the young potters head,”I must say It has been a long time since I have had problems with reading someone's mind, it is so… wild. Quite hard to navigate I must say, now let's see where to put you… You don’t shy away from hard work and your mind isn’t bad either but you aren’t loyal and definitely don’t seek knowledge for knowledge's sake… no neither Hufflepuff nor Ravenclaw are for you. You are indeed brave and don’t shy away from showing your power but… oh my this cunning and ambition of yours… I haven’t seen someone with that great potential in about 50 years now, Slytherin would be perfect for you… but no. You want to redeem the name of my Owner and think it to be troublesome for you to go to the snake den with your reputation...” Hardym didn’t answer, just smirking a little as that hat tried to figure something out that was decided before he even stepped in these halls,”Gryffindor!”
The Gryffindor table erupted into cheering and everyone there seemed to like the fact that Hardym joined their house, everyone except one muggleborn girl with bushy brown hair who Hardym realized with satisfaction had a look of absolute horror written all over her face. While walking past her, he made a short hissing noise which caused the fool to jump away, face into her half-full goblet.
After the other sortings were done as well -the Weasley boy of course made it into Gryffindor as well… yep Fortuna hated Hardym, it was official-, the white-bearded headmaster stood, clearing his throat. Silence came over the hall, Hardym couldn’t bring out one word and not in a respectful way, the words literally wouldn’t escape his mouth. Rather than focusing on… whatever this was, he turned his attention back to a beaming Dumbledore, eyes flickering with joy as they gazed upon the united student body,”Welcome to this new, fine year at Hogwarts! I have a speech prepared but who wants to listen to an old man with an empty stomach? Enjoy the feast!”
With a grand hand gesture from the warlock, food appeared on the long tables. The variety was astounding, roast beef, roast chicken, pork chops, sausages, bacon, steak, boiled and roasted potatoes, peas, rice and -for some strange reason- vanilla pudding with chocolate bars inside. The food was great, better than any he had ever had in the dursley household -whilst he wasn’t starved anymore, he wasn’t exactly given the best food available either- but after he had stopped to look around the whole array, the lack of vegetables was clear as a window. There were a few options, lettuce, carrots, Corn and so on but they were rare, some only appearing once on every table, in great contrast to the chicken wings, which he could see 12 plates of in his near surroundings alone.
The food, which some of his housemates were still in the process of eating, popped out of existence once again as silence overtook the hall and Dumbledore spoke up,”Now, seeing that we are all fed and watered, I would like to say a few things. Those that will be starting their education this year as well as those older that may have forgotten”, the man looked not subtle at all towards a pair of identical students -twins perhaps?- that Hardym was sure were in some kind related to Ronald Weasley,”should note that the forest on grounds is forbidden to all pupils without the guidance of a professor or other faculty member and no, running from said faculty member does not count. The caretaker, Mr. Filch also asked me to remind all of you that no kind of magic should be used within the halls unless it is on the order of the professor currently teaching you”
Again the red-headed twins were focused upon, guess they have a reputation,”Quidditch trials will be held in the second week of the term, should any players be needed. Any student second year or above that wants to play for their house should contact either Madam Hooch or their team captain. Last but definitely not least, I must warn you that the third-floor corridor on the right hand-side is out of bounds for everyone who does not wish for a very painful death”
As soon as the magical silence fell, he turned to a fourth year boy asking him if Dumbledore was serious.
“Probably, a bit weird that he doesn’t tell us why though, normally he would say something like,’Dear students of Hogwarts, due to a few nasty critters we had to lock up the fourth room on the second corridor. I would advise all of you to stay away’ followed by some joke, his silence on why we can’t go there is indeed out of the ordinary”
He couldn’t suppress a small chuckle at the awful impression.
“I think you should go to percy over there, he will take you first years to your dorms”, Hardym cursed his luck for the… 4th? 5th? -he lost count already- time this day, Percy was definitely related to Ronald as well, he just had to hope that the ginger's relatives weren’t as shitty.
///HPTSB///
Turned out they weren’t, or at least Percy wasn’t. He was actually quite helpful, he knew a lot about the founders -which Hardym was greatly interested in seeing that he could talk to snakes and one founder could do so as well- especially Slytherin and Ravenclaw. It struck him as weird that a Gryffindor prefect knew so much more about Salazar Slytherin than Godric Gryffindor but he shrugged it off, this knowledge could prove useful.
“The four founders left behind sacred artifacts, or so it is said. What exactly they are is unknown but the Sorting hat once described them in one of his songs,’be you wealding of the lions weapon, feasting from the badger's silverware, wearing the Eagles fashion or harnessing the serpents gem, you are pupils of Hogwarts now. Made from things so different yet work as one, with your brethren in these walls, wherever you go you will be of these halls’. I have studied what each of these things could be for many hours but couldn’t figure out any of them”
“I think it’s time to-”
“Oh my, we are at the portrait already!” At this point he turned back to the other first years, who seemed quite confused, chance was they never heard about half of what we talked about despite growing up in magical -and in some cases pureblood- families. “Well… most of them did”, he thought to himself, his eyes wandering to a certain brown haired girl that had been not-so-secretly staring at him. Even though he couldn’t catch the look in her eyes -as she shifted her gaze- he could assume it was not a happy one. “-every two weeks after the christmas break and every week the 3 months before summer break. You will find new passworts hanging on the billboard for two days after they have been changed, today I will guide you in but from tomorrow onwards you have to remember the passwort yourself. So pay attention!”
“ Caput Draconis ”
The portrait of a rather… Robust woman swung out of the way, revealing the entrance to the Gryffindor common room. It was decorated with a lot -and I mean A LOT- of red, in every shape imaginable. Curtins a deep crimson, couches were lighter shades mixed with a bit of pink and so on and so forth.
The eye cancer of a room seemed to never end and the noisiness of his roommates wasn’t that pleasant either but somehow, through some miracle, Hardym survived long enough to finally get some quiet. All of his ‘mates’ -as Weasley kept insisting they were- were fast asleep, allowing him to catch his breath, he had a loooooot of work to do if he wanted to make something representable out of this. With a quiet groan he eventually slipped into morpheus’ realm, not noticing the green locket that now occupied his right pocket.