Harry Potter - Series Fan Fiction ❯ Me at Privet Drive ❯ Who knows what's beneath.......... 'The Lake' ( Chapter 7 )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

Chapter 7 - Who knows, what's beneath….'The Lake'?As the Hogwarts Express pulled into the station I said goodbye to Cassandra, I told her I'd probably see her soon, she told me it wasn't going to happen; guess the chances of the hat putting me in Slytherin were pretty poor, hah sounds like a challenge to me.“Firs' ears Over ere!” bellowed Hagrid as he stumbled out of the overhang of the station, in the dark the he looked right dangerous, a group of first year girls gave a short scream before they realized what he'd said.

I had a good chuckle at that, bet the adrenaline will be flowing all through the trek.

Arriving at the edge of the lake Hagrid started herding the children into boats “On'y 'Or ta a boat.” I slowly made my way towards the nearest boat to Malfoy and his goons, which was already occupied by one student. Sitting down I noticed that everyone else was already in a boat and we were setting off behind Hagrid, who was in his own boat. “Hi” I said, feeling like starting up a conversation with this girl; I had a pretty good idea who she might be. “Greetings” was all she said in return before a big wave, caused by the resident kraken, rocked the little group of boats and threw her on top of me.

The girl landed on top of me in a very interesting manner, wonder how everyone else handled the wave?

“You know, I'd really like to know your name if we're going to continue any further, I'm Harry” I said, looking up into her eyes “Nym…Luna, Luna Lovegood” she said stumbling over the first bit, all the while blushing heavily enough to suffer from blood loss.

“So, how do you want to continue this?” I drawled as I looked her over, her only answer was to go an even redder shade and scramble off me. “What's wrong? Don't you want to have a little fun while we wait to cross the lake?” I humorously commented, standing up in the boat and stretching to work out a few kinks in my back.

Suddenly I ducked as a spark passed through were my head had been, Luna had her wand out much to fast for a normal first year; cursing could be heard not far behind us to the right and as I looked over I could see Malfoy and his goons, Malfoy went very pale when he saw me looking in his direction “why I aught to kill the bastard here and now…”

Seeing me pissed Luna tried to calm me down “Maybe he didn't mean it Harry, he could be in thrall of a Reaver.” Luna tried to reassure me “Bullshit, a Reaver only cares about were its next meal comes from. the very idea that it could go long enough without feeding from it to enthrall someone is ludicrous; no that bastard and I have a little bit of history together. Come to think of it, he's probably just mad at me for knocking him out with a chocolate frog, not as I that is a decent excuse.” I started looking around for something to throw at Malfoy “How could you knock him out with a chocolate fro….OH MY GOD!” Luna yelled as I suddenly ripped a large cast iron ornament off the back of the boat and, testing its weight and centre of balance, chucked it at Malfoy. *Hah, bulls eye.* Malfoy, pushed by the force of the cast iron ornament, tumbled over the side of the boat falling into the cold and murky water with a big splash.“Oh My God! Harry, How did you do that? Tha…that was a cast iron ornament and and this boat is made of Oak! The strength to rip it off would be…well…it shouldn't be possible!”

“Look, just forget about it. Heh, Malfoy's starting to cool off.” I started to laugh at Malfoy's floundering form, which had begun to attract the attention of the kraken “we should really tell Hagrid, please could we?” Luna pleaded to me, looking rather concerned for the little git “yeah sure, whatever” I half heartedly muttered “Oy Hagrid, Malfoy overboard!” Hagrid halted the boats and turned his around to fish Malfoy out, the whole time muttering about how much of a trouble Malfoy was making of himself.

After that was taken care of and Hagrid had made himself back to the front we finished our little trip.

The whole time I stayed in a half medative trance attune my senses the high level of free floating ambient magic energy in Hogwarts and the surrounding grounds, without doing this I would be near blind as just about every other student attending.

As our little group made our way up the stairs we were greeted by, who I could only guess to be, Professor McGonagall. Damn what a tight lipped expression, I'm willing to bet a hundred quid she practices in front of a mirror of some sort.

“Good gracious, what has happened here?” McGonagall asked, aghast at the state Draco was in. He was wet, shivering, much paler than usual, scraped, cut up, bruised, and appeared to be a little more than slightly concussed from the multiple blows to the head.

Hagrid explained Draco's messed up condition to having had fallen overboard in the lake; not looking totally convinced, but not wanting to hold everyone up, McGonagall continued on and escorted us into Hogwarts.

We were led into a small side chamber; not very far away from the main hall it was close enough that we could hear the noise of the assembled students. Aside from me all the other first years were gathered together in a huddle as they stared around in awe, I just stretched out in a nearby chair letting the sounds of Nightwish wash over me.

I closely watched as a group of the house ghosts came in, and the students noticed them, promptly scaring the shit out of them.

God these kids scare easy, maybe I should introduce horror movies to this lot, I'd probably laugh my ass off at their screams, but it would probably get old after a bit.

As I closely studied the ghosts I tried to memorize the general `feel' of their auras, which had a very distinct pattern and `feel' to it all this was simply in case I wanted stay away from them in the future or at least stay out of their range of notice.

McGonagall broke up any discussions the ghosts were starting by announcing that everyone needed to line up.

Parading us into the front got many a student staring at Draco's bedraggled and soaked form, *I'll have to continue with my game cause I'm really starting to enjoy messing him up*.

And then, horror upon horror, the most horrific ear grating sound started coming out of the hat, an electric guitar backup to drown it out and it wouldn't be too bad; but there wasn't one, so I flipped through my ipod music menu and added the guitar backup myself. With Cradle of Filth now blasting through my brain I was able to better concentrate on what was happening around me.

I noticed straight off that old Bumbledork was staring straight at me, as soon as eye contact was made I felt a probing in my mind, immediately clamping down on it I used a little burst of magic to forcefully eject the probe, with a little something extra.

I watched , with a sense of satisfaction, as Dumbledore winced a little before breaking eye contact; no longer did he have that almost ever-present smile and twinkle in his eyes.

(Screw you, if you think I'm gonna write out all of that long song of the sorting hat.)

With the dumb song over I turned the volume down just slightly, so I could hear Minerva's voice calling out names. “Abbott, Hannah!” McGonagall called out, starting the first student off.

“Hufflepuff!” shouted out the hat, after a momentary pause.

Once the list was near the end it finally got to be my turn to approach the hat, with a call from McGonagall of “Potter, Harry” the room exploded into whispers and movement as people tried to get a look at me. Looking over to see the startled look on Cassandra's face, from were she sat at Slytherin table, I turned up the volume, switched to some Slayer and strode confidently up to the hat.

“NOOOOOOOO! SLYTHERIN! TAKE ME OFF, TAKE ME OFF, TAKE ME OFF!!* screamed out the hat, the moment it was placed on my head, as Slayer and imagined acts like slowly burning off stitches until it fell apart were forced into it. The hat was suddenly retched off my head to reveal the alarmed and shocked face of Minerva McGonagall.

At the shout of Slytherin from the hat and then the sudden screaming from the hat as I mentally assaulted it the teachers all suddenly stood up. Most of the teacher's faces showed shock from the hats sudden uproar, but Dumbledore's face showed a face of pain as carefully set plans crumbled around him, he knew how people viewed those who were placed in Slytherin house, it didn't matter what he tried to do about it.

How would people react to the news that Harry Potter `The Boy Who Lived' had been placed in a house renowned for producing the last few century's most terrifying dark wizards?

Suddenly Dumbledore felt really old, all this new development added onto the fact that from Dumbledore could gather, especially now that he had seen him after all these years, Harry had taken the Philosophers Stone and the Scone from Hagrid, leaving a chunk of brown glass, while he slept in the leaky cauldron. He wasn't even sure if Harry had either or both of the items in question still. Harry might have used them already; eating the scone Albus could imagine Harry doing, anyone could have done that, but using the stone properly he couldn't imagine, after all Harry had only just been introduced into the magical community and learned about magic. No, there wasn't even a shadow of a doubt in Albus's mind that Harry would even be able to use the Philosophers Stone; Harry doesn't even know anything about alchemy after all.

As I stepped off the stool and walked towards the Slytherin table I noticed that aside from no one clapping or cheering, many of the Slytherin students around Draco were glaring at me or staring fearfully. Although, some seemed genuinely happy to have me in Slytherin, for whatever purpose I was meant to be there. *looks like I'm going to have to teach some of them to show me respect.* I thought as I sat down next to Cassandra. *Are they scared of her?* I wondered, noticing the space around her at the only half full table. Examining the students around me I figured a great deal of these student's parents were most likely Death Eaters or had been at one time, that would explain the fear and anger being projected towards me.

Cause a good portion of them seemed hostile towards me for no other reason.

“Why didn't you tell me you were `That' Harry?” Cassandra hissed into my ear

“What difference would it have made if I had told you my last name? Besides you didn't ask.” I shot back.

Cassandra was about to reply before I interrupted her “We'll talk about this later, the old bastard is about to start the feast.” I whispered into her ear, noticing Dumbledore finally standing up and getting ready to make his speech; the sorting had finished and the hat and stool had been taken away by Professor McGonagall.

Stealing himself for a moment Dumbledore began his speech

“Welcome!” he said, managing to put some feeling into his voice “Welcome to a new year at Hogwarts! Before we begin our Banquet, I would like to say a few words. And hear they are: Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak!! Now everyone, dig in.” he said as I felt the power behind those words, they guess they were used to summon the food.

Looking around at all the food I grabbed some meat, looked like roast beef, and some vegetables. Looking around for something to drink I grabbed the pitcher Cassandra had just set down and began to pour the contents into my cup, once filled I set the pitcher back down.

“Harry! What are you doing? You can't drink that.” Cassandra whispered into my ear as everyone around closest to us at the table stared on with shock.

“Why not, I'm thirsty?” I said “Caused that's for me Harry.”

“That's kind of selfish of you, hogging the pitcher all for yourself.” I said, grabbing the goblet to take a drink, only for Cassandra to grab my arm, now I was beginning to get a little annoyed.

“Harry, please, what do you think that is in there?” she said pointing at the deep red liquid inside my goblet.

“Looks like blood to me” I said as I took a drink of it, much to Cassandra's shock.

“Tastes like it too, now why can't I have any of it?” wasn't the first time I had tasted blood, and it wasn't the first time I had outright drank the stuff either. “Not bad either… Oi, What the fuck are you lot looking at? Mind your own fucking business, okay!” I yelled seeing almost all of the students at the table staring at me in shock, only the first years were rather oblivious to what was going on around them, but seemed shocked at my foul language. *God, do wizards even know how to swear?* I thought to myself, after all everyone seemed to real in shock at the slightest hint of a foul word.

Looking at Cassandra's shocked expression I waved a hand in front of her face “anyone home in there” I joked as she swatted my hand away.

“Okay, that is really weird, what kind of normal person drinks blood?” Cassandra muttered “Who are you to comment on what's normal? You aren't really a pinnacle of normality yourself. ” I said, countering her little comment as I finished off my sixth plateful of food. Hey, when you are a very active person and you're under a magically induced hyper gravity field equal to about 100g, you burn up a lot of calories just sitting around.

“Good point” she mumbled in a depressed tone. Man she really needs some emotional help, her mood keeps swinging back and forth.

As all the food disappeared off the table Dumbledore stood up and began to speak “Ahem, just a few more words, now that we are all fed and watered. I have start of term notices to give you.

First years should note that the forest in the grounds is forbidden to all pupils. And a few of our older students would do well to remember that as well” He said looking towards the Gryffindor table.

“I have also been asked by Mr. Filch, the caretaker, to remind you all that no magic should be used between classes in the corridors. Plus, on a more exciting note, anyone wishing to play Quidditch for their house should attend trials in the second week of term should contact Madam Hooch.”

I tuned him out and popped in the ear phones for my ipod and started up some Opeth, knowing that all he was going to be talking about now was probably the third floor.

When the Hogwarts Anthem started I added and made up my own words along the way, singing it loudly.

“Hogwarts, Hogwarts, Bloody Hog Fucking Warty Hogwarts

Teach us how to screw,

Whether we be old and shriveled

Or young and new,

with rock hard rods.

My heads full of knowledge,

But some more shit won't hurt me.

For too long have these halls been bare,

Filled only with Dead flies and bit of fluff.

So fuck all and teach us something.

Remind us of our lust.

All things carnal all thing hormonal,

Fill our brains with Heavy Metal.”

Everyone, at my table, ended up looking at me in shock; plus a few of the teachers had heard my lyrics. I just enjoyed it, these bastards would be getting a fist in the face if they made any cracks at how bad the rhythm was.