Chapter 26

"Well now, what do we have here?" the hat's voice echoed inside my head.

'Um...So can you see my memories?.'

"..HAHAHA...you are a funny one boy, I don't know where you heard that but if I could see memories I wouldn't be here you know? A few point of Ravenclaw for that"

'So where will you sort me then?'

"Hmm….let's see, you have curiosity, you are eager to learn more….these are traits that would put you in Ravenclaw but then again you also have ambition, something big. Oh wait….the reason you are eager to learn more is to further this ambition. NOW that's a very Slytherin trait."

'But can you sort me into Ravenclaw? I do pursue knowledge...'

"Only to further your own ambition. The very reason for you not wanting to be in Slytherin is the reason why you belong there."

'What do you mean?'

"People choose another house as a matter of opinion but you didn't choose Ravenclaw because you believed that it would further your knowledge or not choose Slytherin because you don't feel like you will fit in but you chose it because not being in Slytherin furthers your cunning."

'But can you still put me in Ravenclaw? You should respect the student's choices too, you know…'

"Bah! As if I care boy, all your traits point to you being in Slytherin so I shall put you in Slytherin.'

'Wait ! Just listen to me, I want to go to Ravenclaw and not Slytherin, can't you reconsider? Putting me in Slytherin might be a wrong choice. Surely you must have made mistakes a few times...'

"Well you do have Ravenclaw traits but Slytherin suits you boy and I have never been wrong in sorting." the hat said.

'Very well...so you have never made a mistake huh? Go ahead then, put me in Slytherin but you would have made a foe out of me. I will be the worst Slytherin there ever was just to spite you. I will be so bad at being a Slytherin that people will start doubting you.'

"Y-you wouldn't dare!" the hat shouted. I could sense that it was beginning to get agitated.

'Are you sure you want to take your chances?' Once people start doubting you, they will find a replacement for you and you will be kept in a dusty old corner and be forgotten.'

"NO...They wouldn't do that! No it will never happen….Fine boy you win."

"RAVENCLAW" shouted the hat.

McGonagall removed the hat off my head as I stood up in a daze. I will admit I hadn't expected that to work but I was glad it did. I had hoped that the hat wasn't too intelligent and it turned out to be true.

Nobody would doubt the hat for one student and even if they did, its accuracy speaks volumes.

I had lied to the hat about the threat but it seemed that it didn't pick up on that. If it had sorted me into Slytherin, I would have carried on and adapted. I was not going to risk my life at Hogwarts just to spite a dirty old hat.

I was glad that the hat couldn't read my memories. But then again it made sense as if it could, then it would have been confiscated by the ministry or at the very least been used for a different purpose.

…

I made my way towards the Ravenclaw table and received a warm welcome. Clearly, they perceived my longer than usual to be special or something.

As I reached the table, my robes changed colours and turned blue at the edges with a small Ravenclaw insignia manifesting near my left breast.

"SEV you made it!" Lily jumped towards me as I took a seat next to her.

"Well..yes, I did."

"Thank God, Sev I was worried you wouldn't make it."

"What do you mean?"

"...I thought you would go to Slytherin and then I would be all alone. I don't even know anyone, what if I didn't make any friends?"

"I am sure you would have done fine Lily but I am here now aren't I?" I said, flashing her a smile.

She smiled too, "Yeah...I am glad you are here Sev. Though I must ask, why did the hat take so long to sort you? It took even longer than mine. Did the hat want to put you somewhere else? You see...the hat wanted to put me in Gryffindor but I told it I didn't want to go there and it put me here."

"Calm down Lily, one question at a time. You were right about the hat, it did want to sort me into Slytherin but I convinced it...otherwise. Still, why didn't you want to be in Gryffindor?" I asked with a raised brow.

"Well you said that you were either going to be in Ravenclaw or Slytherin so I wanted to be here in case you did get sorted into these houses."

"I see.." I said feeling speechless. I had expected that Lily might be sorted differently but this was not the reason I was expecting.

Honestly I had planned on not interacting much with her once Hogwarts started as I had thought that the chances of the hat listening was low.

If I had been sorted into Slytherin and still interacted with her a lot, it would have been bad for both of us with mey lot being worse as interacting with a muggleborn would trigger the narrow minded Slyherin and worst case, I might be ostracized and they would have targeted me.

But all that didn't matter now, the odds were in my favour for once and my trick had worked. I had been sorted into Ravenclaw, the house of the witty, a relatively neutral house which meant I got to pick my side in the upcoming war with Voldemort or not pick one at all.

Of course,being neutral wasn't always good but I did get more time to pick my sides. There was no stupid house rivalry too which was a relief. The last thing I wanted was to fight for meaningless points just to win some vanity banner at the end of the year.

The Sorting ceremony came to an end with the last student going to Hufflepuff. McGonagall rolled up the parchment and took the hat away.

Dumbledore stood up to address the first years and after a brief introduction he shouted, "Welcome to a new year at Hogwarts! To the first years who are joining us for the first time,especially the ones new to our world, I extend a warm welcome and I want you all to know that help will always be given at Hogwarts,to those who deserve it."

"Now before we begin our banquet, I would like to say a few words:Draco dormiens nunquam titillandus."

After he said that, the plates began to fill and the food magically materialized. There was a lot to choose from and I took a bit of everything. I avoided some shady wizard things like pumpkin juice and ate peacefully.

"What did he say Sev? Was it a spell?"Lily, who was seated next to me, asked.

I was fairly confident that I knew what he said so I said, "Never tickle a sleeping dragon"

"Huh?"

"Well...that's what he said in latin. And no it's not a spell…." I clarified.

Lily looked at me,"Really? You know latin?"

Well I had been trying to learn it unsuccessfully but I did know this phrase. "A little yeah…"

"But why did he say it? It's a strange thing to say no?" A voice interrupted. I turned to the source and was surprised to find a suspiciously familiar figure.

The girl had pale skin tone, dirty blonde hair and an air of cold around her.

"...I don't know...maybe it was meant for them." I said gesturing towards the rather rowdy Gryffindor table who were wolfing down the food 'elegantly.'

A faint smile appeared on the girl's face. "Severus Prince. Nice to meet you." I said, extending my hand towards her.

She seemed a bit surprised but happily shook my hand, "Pandora Hart."

"And this here is Lily." I said introducing Lily who shyly shook hands with her.

…

It seemed that Lily had finally made a friend. Pandora was pleasant enough to talk to and Lily had quickly warmed up to her.

I joined their conversation a few times as I slowly ate my dinner. From what I gathered, Pandora came from a pureblood house and was the only daughter.

I wondered if she was a canon character that appeared in the books. Well technically everyone here was a canon character in a way but I wanted to know if she was related to someone from the canon cast or named characters in the book.

Recognizing James and Sirius was just a lucky guess but I couldn't do that for other characters.

I had already failed to recognize characters like Narcissa and it also seemed that the timeline wasn't entirely accurate as she was a first year now.

This made me wonder if I was in some AU world. Most of my canon knowledge was hard to use due to how long before canon I woke up in but I thought I atleast had a grasp of characters.

If it was indeed an AU then everything I knew about a character could be false. For all I knew, Dumbledore might be some evil manipulative old man. Voldemort could actually be smart and might even have gone down a different path.

All these implications shattered any semblance of control I thought I had over canon events. I also realized that I had been treading down a dangerous path.

I had been subconsciously making assumptions about a lot of things even though I had promised myself not to do that.

I had been thinking that whatever I read in the book had to be true and had even formed biases against characters I had hardly interacted with.

I decided to take a more hands on approach to things now and properly verify canon lore knowledge instead of just believing them to be true.

Fortunately Occlumency helped me keep a straight face and keep my calm as I had this breakdown in the great hall.

Before long, almost everyone had finished and I had eaten more than I initially intended. The long journey had made me hungry and while the food served wasn't anything exceptional, it was better than Eileen's cooking.

Dumbledore once again got up after the feast ended and tapped a spoon against his goblet. A ting sound was heard throughout the hall. All the students looked at the source and turned quiet.

Now that's impressive. Silencing an entire hall of this many people instantly was no small feat.

"Ahern --now that everyone has had their fill, I do have a few start of the terms notices to give."

"First years should note that the forest on the grounds is forbidden to

all pupils. There is a reason it's called the Forbidden forest."

"Then as every year...no magic shall be used between classes in the corridors. If you are caught doing this then you will serve detention with Mr.Filch, the caretaker.

"And lastly, Quidditch trials will be held in the second week of the term. Anyone

interested in playing for their house teams should contact Madam Hooch."

And with that, he proceeded to make us sing the Hogwarts song. The singing was a horrible unsynced mess and I just began yawning half way through the song.

I wanted nothing more than to get some sleep and prepare for my first day at Hogwarts.