[1989 Pt. 4]

Nathan entered the Great Hall along with his fellow first years who were whispering among each other as they looked at the ceiling. Nathan, unlike his peers, had only eyes for the staff table at the other end of the Great Hall.

His eyes found one man. It was a near-perfect copy of Michael Gambon that his eyes found sitting at the centre of the table.

'Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore'- This was the uncontested strongest in the world. The only two that were even in the same league as him were either defeated by him or feared him.

To others, the man might seem like a God, but to Nathan who had read about the man from the point of view of the Boy who lived himself, Albus Dumbledore seemed like a tired old man.

'Looking for weakness in him will obviously lead me to find a weakness in the man.'- Nathan shook his head, pitying a man that could probably fight all wizards within the hall and walk away alive without even a scratch was not something Nathan should do.

'After all, Albus Dumbledore as kind as he is, is neither my ally nor a man that would shy away from hurting a child if he did it in the name of the greater good. Harry Potter's tale is a testament to that fact.'

While Nathan was surveying the staff table, McGonagall had begun the sorting ceremony as she called out the names of the students to be sorted.

Nathan paid attention to some like Angelina Johnson but ignored most of the people for now.

It was only when she called out, "Graves, Merton," that Nathan paid attention again to the hat.

Graves walked to the stool and took a seat at it before McGonagall placed the sorting hat on his head.

It took three minutes before the hat shouted, "Ravenclaw!"

The Ravenclaws burst into applause just like the other houses when one of them got a new member.

"Grey, Nathan"- Upon hearing his name being called by the deputy headmistress, Nathan walked towards the stool. And turned to place himself upon it.

As he sat down, the thought in his head was, 'This is an introvert's nightmare.'

He felt the sorting hat being placed upon his head.

'Not completely unexpected but a rather unnerving development regardless,' Nathan thought as he felt the prick of a mind that was not his own at the edge of his mind trying to gain access to his mind which Nathan denied by pulling away his mind away from the edge of the intruder's own and pushing the feeling of being burned by fire.

The hat twitched on his head and whispered in a voice low enough that only he could hear, "Quite the method of protection you have there, little friend. And while I am impressed, you need to give me access to your surface thoughts if nothing else, so that our chat isn't heard by Minerva."

Nathan knew a threat when he heard one but he could not budge as he said, "Will our talks remain private and only for your mind?"

"It will be," as Nathan heard this, he withdrew one of the first defences he had built around his mind and moved his mind closer to the edge of the hat's own mind.

Nathan felt the hat's mind's edge overlapping with his own and immediately blocked out any unwanted information other than what he wanted to send from being given to the hat.

What they were doing was the closest thing to Telepathy in the wizarding world and it was achieved only when both the user and target knew occlumency and the user also knew the basics of legilimency. The hat was filling the role of the user in this case as it was the one that had overlapped the edge of its mind against Nathan's own.

'Sorting hat?' Nathan sent out as a test message and immediately felt another prick which he latched onto before hearing 'Nathan Grey? Yes, it is me. Surely I have to say, you have an amazing level of proficiency in the mind arts. So tell me boy, what is it that you value most?'

'I thought you were supposed to tell me that? And before that I would like to know- were you always a hat or was your mind entrapped within a hat?'- Even though Nathan's initial assumption in the hat being nothing more than a magical construct with spells to determine the house was proven wrong due to it having a mind, he still needed to know whether the hat was something like an AI or was it like a prison created for a bonded slave.

'The founders crafted me with the purpose of sorting children for their school after their time would pass, I was born as a hat and I will die as one, Mr Grey, though I am happy to note that you are a kind-hearted man.'

'Slavery is wrong, had you been one, I would have done something to help you. Not immediately but I would try regardless.'

'Would it not be a justified punishment for a sinner whose sins couldn't be erased? Maybe I committed an act so evil that Godric Gryffindor decided to enchain me within the hat for centuries as punishment.'- The hat was testing him, since it did not have the luxury of perusing his mind freely like the other children that it had to normally sort, it was applying an unorthodox method for sorting him.

'Depending on the crime and my own circumstances at the time, I would either destroy you or leave you as enchained as before.'

'I am a symbol of the founders. To destroy or free me would set you against the British Wizarding Community itself. Would you still take such a risk- knowing that it would buy not only you but your family the enmity of most of the wizarding community?'- Nathan realised that in his musings he had forgotten that he was supposed to be having the discussion as an eleven-year-old. The hat was too curious to realise this but Nathan realised that in their philosophical discussion, they had neglected unnecessary things like age.

'I will make sure to make it look like an accident and that my involvement is neither discovered nor suspected, I could do it easily too, it would require a lot of patience but you won't always be protected by Albus Dumbledore, will you?'

This time unlike before the hat also sent an emotion of amusement as he asked, 'And if you are still discovered, then would you regret it? And what about your own parents, I don't think they would be proud of you either?'

'Principles mean little when they are easy to follow. And to answer your question, I just have to become so powerful that the people's fear of me is greater than their hatred for me and love for founders that have been dead for a thousand years. And do not presume to know my family well enough to think that they would abandon me just because I burned the hat of a ghost that has been dead for centuries. Legacy or not, my family will never abandon me just as I will never abandon them.' Nathan could feel the tension between their link as the hat digested his message.

After a short pause, the hat spoke in a much more curt tone,'The only man that came the closest to the founders was the Prince of Enchanters and even he could not wipe out their legacy, Nathan Grey, the very ground you stand on is a testament to their legacy.'- Nathan could feel the intensity of the hat's admiration for its creators.

Nathan gulped a little to alleviate his dry mouth before he pushed another message towards the hat's mind, 'Then it's a good thing that this is a hypothetical situation, no, Mr Hat?'

'It is indeed.' The hat sent into his mind before following with another message, 'Now, Mr Grey I suppose I have gleaned enough of your character. And while I cannot say with absolute where you belong, I can say with absolute certainty where you do not belong. So I offer you a choice between two houses- Gryffindor and Hufflepuff.'

'I am curious to know why not- Ravenclaw and Slytherin? While I can say that I don't value ambition and cunning all that much, I still value knowledge and wit a lot more than I do courage.'

'Ravenclaw valued traits like Intelligence, Learning, Wisdom and Creativity. And while you do qualify for the house, you do not belong there. You remind me very much of another wizard, though he qualified for Slytherin more, he did not belong there.'

'And why not?'

'Because you will find no equal in there.'

'That would imply that I will find equals in Hufflepuff and Gryffindor- forgive me but I doubt that. I would be surprised if I ever found an equal in the same age group as me.'

'You do not understand. You will never find an equal in intelligence in the house of Ravenclaw, just as you will never find an equal in cunning in the house of Slytherin. But you will find an equal in courage if you join the house of Gryffindor, just as you will find an equal in loyalty if you join the house of Hufflepuff.'

'Ah! Traits that one is born with and traits that can be nurtured.'

'Exactly, in both those houses you might find people that might equal and surpass you in their respective traits. You will discover the very thing that the founders found when they found each other. They were the best at what they did but they were not almighty gods so they found people who could help them grow and fill their deficiencies. So choose carefully, Nathan Grey, Gryffindor or Hufflepuff.'

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[A|N:

The more-suited-to-Slytherin one is Dumbledore. Honestly, it had always bugged me how Dumbledore is very Slytherin just like Hermione is very Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff. It makes sense with the idea that while they did qualify for the house, they did not belong there because they would never be able to find peers there.

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