Widow's Vengeance chapter 15

Chapter 15 – Harry's new house

As Harry got off the train along with Natasha and Clint he patted down his school uniform, making sure it was perfectly neat.

"Don't worry about it, mate," Clint spoke up, patting Harry on the shoulder. "it's not like they're going to kick you out if your school uniform isn't perfect."

"I know, I know, still...want to make a good impression." Harry said before the trio moved forwards when they heard a voice calling for all of the first years. The trio along with the others first years moved forwards, only to stop when they saw a very, very large man with long black hair and a great big, bushy beard.

"First years, four to a boat." He said, his voice booming through the ears of all the children. Natasha, Harry and Clint blinked but quickly did as they were instructed and took a boat, only to find themselves reunited with Ronald Weasley.

"There you guys are." He said as he sat in the boat with them.

"We didn't go anywhere." Harry pointed out. "You ran, we were in the compartment for the whole train ride."

"I didn't run!" Ron protested, his ears turning red. "Anyway, even if I did, you couldn't blame me! It was a bloody nightmare!"

"He's not that bad." Harry said defensively.

"No, I mean it's an actual nightmare, that's what they are called. And what do you mean he's not that bad?" Ron asked, looking at Harry.

"Look." Natasha said, interrupting before Harry had to answer. She pointed and the boys followed the direction she was pointing in, only to see the majestic castle of Hogwarts a short distance away. The castle looked especially beautiful in the starry sky as the moon's light reflected off the water.

"Wow." Harry breathed, looking stunned.

"Not bad." Clint said, nodding in agreement.

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Eventually they all found themselves standing outside of the great hall when Hagrid handed the children over to Professor McGonagall who gave him a short nod before he left.

"Good evening," Professor McGonagall said, greeting the new first year students. "and welcome to Hogwarts. In a moment we will enter the great hall and we shall begin the sorting ceremony. Each and every one of you will be sorted into one of the four Hogwarts houses: Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin. These houses will be like your family. Throughout the year your behaviour will be monitored, good behaviour will earn you house points, bad behaviour will result you in losing points. At the end of the school year the house with the most points will win the house cup. Now, follow me." She said before she turned and walked towards the great hall with the students following her.

"Nat," Harry whispered to Natasha. "which house do you think we'll get in?" He asked.

"I don't know," She whispered back. "but I like Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff the best." She said, hoping to pull Harry away from Gryffindor. While she knew that Harry's life would not totally be ruined if he went to Gryffindor, she did hope to have him placed somewhere other than that house. As far as she was concerned he would be a lot better off in the other two houses, and she definitely did not want him in Slytherin, the people in that house would constantly be going after him. She knew that not everyone who went to that house was evil but the majority of them were related to death eaters (followers of the dark lord) or at the very least agreed with many of the death eaters beliefs.

As they entered the great hall they saw four long tables stretching down the hall, filled with students, they were able to tell which table housed which house easily enough thanks to the coloured uniforms they wore. Red was Gryffindor, green was Slytherin, yellow was Hufflepuff and blue was Ravenclaw. At the opposite end of the hall was a large table up on a slightly more elevated platform, the table was filled with teachers, including the headmaster who was sat on what looked like a golden throne.

Professor McGonagall lead the students all the way up to the front where they stopped just before the platform, she went up onto the platform and stopped in front of the head table where a stool was waiting for her. On the stool was an old looking brown, pointy wizards hat. Professor McGonagall pulled out a scroll which she unrolled, before she picked up the hat.

"When I call your name, you will come forth and be sorted." Professor McGonagall said, her voice carrying all throughout the hall, she looked down at the scroll. "Abbot, Hannah." She called out. Moments later a nervous looking blonde girl stepped out from the crowd of first year students and walked up to the stool. She sat down, facing the rest of the students, Professor McGonagall gently placed the hat on her head. The other students watched as the hat shifted slightly, changing shape so it now had eyes and a mouth.

"Hmm...Hufflepuff!" The hat shouted a few seconds later. Professor McGonagall removed the sorting hat from her head, Hannah smiled as she stood up and walked over to the cheering Hufflepuff table, her school clothes changing on the way there so she was now supporting yellow and black.

The sorting continued with students going into all four houses, Natasha half-paid attention to which house each student went to, she was mostly trying to think about what she would do if Harry ended up in a different house to her. However she did give the sorting ceremony her full attention when Harry was called up.

"Good luck, mate." Clint whispered to Harry, Natasha gave his hand a squeeze before he walked forwards to go get sorted. The entire hall went silent, all wanting to pay attention to where the boy-who-lived would be sorted. For many it was their first time seeing him at all.

Natasha watched with rapt attention as Harry sat down on the stool, she waited and waited, it was several minutes before the hat spoke, making it the longest sorting so far.

"Hufflepuff!" The hat yelled out, the whole hall fell silent, everyone stared as Professor McGonagall - who looked slightly disappointed - picked the hat up off of Harry's head. The very long moment of silence was broken as the Hufflepuff table erupted into cheers, cheering louder than they had all night.

"We got Potter! We got Potter!" Several of them chanted while the other three houses had begun politely clapping, the Gryffindors looking noticeably disappointed. Harry had a small, adorable blush on his face as he walked over to the Hufflepuff table, something that endeared him to the many female members of the school population.

"Right, guess we're going into Hufflepuff then." Clint whispered to Natasha.

"I'm going to burn the hat if it does anything other than put me there." Natasha responded without looking away from Harry.

Soon Clint was called up and after a few minutes he was sent to join Harry in Hufflepuff, and then it was Natasha's turn.

'Hello, Miss Rushman, or should I say Mrs Potter?' She heard the hat speak when she had put it on. Funnily enough she heard it speak from inside of her own head.

'Miss Rushman will do, I'm not Mrs Potter anymore, and I'm guessing my mental defences aren't good enough if you are able to bypass them so easily.' Natasha mentally replied, frowning slightly as she did so. She had been building up her mental defences for a while, it was disappointing knowing that after all of her efforts she wasn't even able to keep out a hat.

'Oh no, my dear, your defences are quite excellent for your age. I believe that anything less than a direct assault will be unable to penetrate your mind, however it is very unlikely for someone to directly assault your mind. You might get a probe or two but you should be able to detect them.' The hat replied.

'You mean Snape and Dumbledore?' Natasha asked.

'Indeed,' The hat responded. 'I wouldn't worry, Miss Rushman, just like I told your brother, I am bound to not speak of what I know from reading a student's mind. Though if I could make a suggestion then I think you should keep practising your mental defences, give it a year and you should be able to keep me out.'

'I'll remember to do so, now I believe that you were about to put me in Hufflepuff.' Natasha responded.

'Well, I don't fancy being burned so I guess I will have to.' The hat agreed. 'Surprisingly enough I get many death threats from students who want to be put in specific houses, though I think that you're one of the only few who could actually follow up on your threats.' The hat added before he spoke out loud to the hall. "Hufflepuff!" He yelled.

Once the hat was removed she stood up and walked to the Hufflepuff table where Clint and Harry were cheering for her along with the other students, she smiled as she sat down next to Harry who was sat opposite Clint.

"Missed me?" She asked Harry teasingly.

"Maybe." Harry grinned at her. "I'm glad you're here."

"You're not getting rid of me that easily." Natasha smirked.

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The next morning Harry was sat in the great hall, happily eating his breakfast with Natasha and Clint along with the other Hufflepuffs. So far Harry was really enjoying being in Hufflepuff, the other students were so nice to him! Though he realised that it was mostly because of the fact that he was the famous boy-who-lived and saviour of the wizarding world, but still...it felt nice.

Harry had also really liked the common room, which had a sort of natural feel to it, apparently the head of house taught herbology which was basically magical gardening. Harry liked to believe he would be good at that, he had done most of the garden work when he had lived with the Dursley's and ever since he had joined the Rushman family he helped Jess out with the gardening, when he did so he did his best to make it as good as possible since Jess loved her garden.

Near the end of breakfast their head of house, Professor Sprout, approached with their timetables. Professor Sprout was a rotund woman with curly grey hair and a kind smile, she wore a pointy hat and robes just like the other adult witches that they had seen except her clothes were brown and looked like gardening robes.

"Mr Potter," Professor Sprout spoke to him after handing out all the timetables. "I'd like to start by saying I am very glad to have you join the noble house of Hufflepuff." She said, smiling at him.

"Thank you, Professor." Harry smiled back. "I'm just glad to be here." He admitted.

"Well, that's good to hear." Professor Sprout replied. "Now, I'm sorry to interrupt your morning but the headmaster has requested your presence outside so we can discuss your familiar."

"Oh, okay." Harry nodded. "Can Natasha and Clint come as well?" He asked.

"Well...I don't see any reason why not." Professor Sprout said, knowing that none of them had any lessons to attend for their first period.

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A short while later Harry was joined by Natasha and Clint as he stood outside of the gamekeeper's hut, he was joined by the gamekeeper (Hagrid, if Harry remembered right) along with the four head of houses and Professor Dumbledore, the headmaster. Harry rather liked the Ravenclaw head of house, Professor Flitwick. He was probably the smallest person Harry had ever met, about the same size as a goblin, in fact he looked a lot like one, but still...he seemed very nice, unlike the Slytherin head of house.

Professor Snape, head of Slytherin house, was a man dressed from neck to feet in so much black that even the grim reaper would tell him to mix it up. He wore black shoes, black trousers and black robes that descended down to his ankles. He had pale skin, horribly yellow teeth, and black shoulder length hair, that had more grease than what normally could be held in a person's hair. Though Harry wasn't one to judge people on their looks, even though Professor Snape was practically asking for it, Harry was judging Professor Snape over the fact that the man looked like he hated him.

When they first saw each other the man had glared at Harry for a movement before settling his face into a sneer which looked far too practised, almost as if it was his natural expression, in seeing that Harry missed the brief glare that Natasha had sent to Professor Snape before settling her face so she had a blank expression.

"Now, Mr Potter," Professor Dumbledore began. "you are not in any trouble, of course, but we do need to discuss your familiar." Professor Dumbledore said.

"Knight?" Harry asked. "Sure," He shrugged. "I'll call him." Harry said, then before anyone could respond he whistled.

"Potter, what are you doing?" Professor Snape asked in an irritated voice. "Stop wasting time and..."

Whoosh!

Snape found himself interrupted as Knight ran out of the forbidden forest and stopped behind Harry, letting out a whinny as he did so. Knight easily ignored the five Professors that were standing by with their wands ready, he lowered his head so Harry could pet him.

"Professors, meet Knight." Harry smiled as he used one hand to gesture to Knight while the other petted him.

"Sweet Merlin, a real nightmare!" Professor Flitwick gasped.

"He's actually quite nice." Harry said as Knight lowered himself down, Harry smirked and got on Knight's back before the nightmare stood at its full height.

"Blimey, that's amazing!" Hagrid said, looking like a kid in a candy store, looking like he wanted nothing less than to reach out and pet Knight.

"It's unbelievable is what it is," Professor Sprout said, lowering her wand slightly. "one of the most feared creatures in the wizarding world and here it is, letting an eleven year old boy ride it."

"It's not a..." Professor Snape began speaking but was interrupted when Knight snorted and glared in his direction, causing the pale man to become paler and take a step back. Knight turned his attention to Dumbledore who was frowning as he had confirmed to himself that Knight was indeed the same nightmare that had attacked him.

"He is indeed an impressive looking animal." Dumbledore said in a soft voice as he stared at Knight who glared at him.

"Yep!" Harry grinned, oblivious to the tension between his familiar and headmaster.

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A.N: Hey guys, I know not much happened this chapter but next chapter we'll be greeted with Harry's first week at school, so I hope you look forward to it.