Eccentric Wizard Chapter 6: Sorting part 2 (Patreon)

Beta read by Shigiya and DOOMRAIDER.

Finally gonna publish the story, first two chapters and I'll add more chapters to patreon later this week.

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-Hogwarts-


"SLYTHERIN!"

You know… one could assume that life was indeed strange. It could never be straightforward and always have mysteries lurking around each corner of our lives. Some events could happen without any reasons and beyond our understanding.

But nothing happened without reason, there was always a driving factor behind each action happening in existence, randomness was just a concept created to try and comprehend the complexity of existence.

Some would look at it like a butterfly effect, everything that happened at this moment was due to the domino effect of a past action, decision and object who themselves were influenced by an even further behind event. A butterfly that I let loose in my hand could have caused a tornado on the other side of the world, as to whether a certain man chose the blue pill or red pill could have changed the course of the entire human civilization.

"..."

Just where was I going with this?

Oh right!

Why is Hermione Granger, the girl who was literally the main reason why Harry and Ron survived for so long in the movies, sorted in Slytherin!?

Was my speech on the train that strong? Did I accidentally perform the legendary talk-no-jutsu without realizing it?

It would seem so... But maybe other factors as well which I didn't pay attention to?

Well yeah, now that I think about it, she did embody the Slytherin traits of cleverness, ambitiousness, resourcefulness and even determination. But her moral compass was the complete opposite of a regular Slytherin and the concept of blood purity still remained a major aspect for the members of the house! You could be the dumbest, stupidest, most wasteful kid in existence, but as long as your parents were pure bloods and you actually believed the concept—then you'd still be chosen as a Slytherin.

I'm not sure if it was Salazar Slytherin's fault for having the aspect of blood purity become more important than the four other traits, or if it was the fault of the future generations—but it will definitely become a major hurdle for the girl.

She was not the Hermione I scarcely remembered from the third movie, she was still an eleven years old girl who wanted to blend in. I remembered the scene of her crying in the girls bathroom when Ron talked bad about her.

"I'm going to Slytherin in the end as well."

'And why am I freaking out? It's not like the kids in the Slytherin House are bloody murderers and criminals. Most are just mean, snobby and arrogant kids who needed a good spank or two—Hermione will be fine.' I'll just deal with her case like I planned to do for most cases…

By completing winging it! It didn't fail me so far... Who am I kidding, I'll most likely need to plan my moves carefully now that I'm in Hogwarts.

"Longbottom Neville." Before he could go up, I quickly came to his side and offered a side hug to the confused and terrified kid.

"Hey man, good luck out there! You look like a true Gryffindor to me, so show me what you got." My prep talk was met with confusion, while everyone was waiting for him to go up, I had secretly slipped the toad inside his pockets. Thankfully, he didn't feel the extra weight inside his robe and the toad itself was asleep from a sleep charm I induced on it.

"GRYFFINDOR!"

Honestly, I always judged him more of a Hufflepuff.

"Malfoy Draco," called Professor McGonagall in the front. He strained his robe and gave me a nod. I returned the nod while patting his back as encouragement, not that he needed it in the first place with how he confidently walked in the front as if he owned the place.

And of course,

"SLYTHERIN!" At least things were back to normal.

Considering we both had the same family name, I didn't even need to guess who would be the next one called forward.

"Malfoy Jarius," I strutted forward, giving a sideways look at the teachers and headmaster sitting behind the hat. Severus Snape, potion teacher, looked uninterested by the whole sorting thing and had his gaze locked onto someone behind me. Turning back, I saw Harry have the same reaction of his scar hurting. But I knew that it was not Snape's fault—the turban teacher was also carefully observing the main protagonist.

Albus Percival Dumbledore was not focused on the boy who lived, but rather focused on the sorting ceremony, just like the rest of the teachers. A gentle, grandfatherly smile present on his face—he really made everyone feel safe and comfortable with his presence alone. The title of strongest wizard alive wasn't just for show.

"Hn…" The man noticed my gaze and gave me a nod which I returned as well. I found it unnerving how he made his eyes twinkle like that, felt like he was scheming something against me. Which was absurd, I know, he was most likely more concentrated on Harry than anyone else—but you could never be too sure.

I didn't see him as a bad person in the least. Growing up with a father like Lucius did give me a good idea on who had an evil agenda against me or not. Aside from some plan he might have had for me, I could see that he looked back at me like he does for any other student.

Sitting down, I waited for the teacher to place the hat on my head. Due to its large size, it covered my eyes and I saw nothing but the inside of the hat which happened to be completely dark.

"Confusing," said the raspy voice of the hat. "I see courage, an abundance of courage—almost to the level of excessive boldness. But I also see love, the desire to protect your family and the love of your close ones that is embedded deeply within you. You wear your heart on your sleeve yet still manage to hide certain aspects of yourself... Curious indeed."

'Sort me in Slytherin.'

"Now that's new," it chuckled. "Are you sure? You certainly are more compatible with the other one, your heart says it all. With the potential to tie yourself with powerful allies and forge unbreakable bonds."

'But I'm also a Slytherin by nature, aren't I.' A statement more than a question. Whether I talked about the four traits or blood purity was left unsaid. 'Besides, there is so much I want to accomplish and I have people that I genuinely care about in that house.'

"I see, a valid reason—SLYTHERIN!!!"

Just like for Draco, far less people applauded for my sorting; especially the Gryffindor people. They weren't outright showing their dislike for both the Slytherin and the Malfoys, but I could just tell that they didn't appreciate us that much. 'I will have to look out for the Weasley twins and their pranks… maybe I can strike them first.' Though I would have to be careful later on, fearing their revenge prank... Maybe I can try a different approach in the future.

Though the Slytherin table on the other hand, the cheers were quite strong from their side. Draco looked unsurprised and kept displaying that rather haughty attitude. Crabbe and Goyle who still had yet to be sorted avoided any sort of eye contact with me. While Hermione genuinely looked happy and clapped the most enthusiastically of the rest.

"You have a lot of explaining to do, bushy hair."

She didn't look particularly pleased with the name calling.

"That's a rather rude thing for you to say."

"I just stated a fact, so don't change the subject. What did you just do there? More importantly, why did you convince the hat to sort you here? Are you aware that blood purity runs deeply within the ideology of the Slytherins? I remember telling you about this during our ride in the train."

"I did nothing wrong. I also remember you claiming that Slytherin housed the aspect of cleverness, ambitiousness, resourcefulness and so on. With further observation, I find these traits to suit me quite well." She said confidently.

"Don't you want to join the house of which Dumbledore used to be a part of in the past?" It wasn't a secret that the headmaster used to be a Gryffindor in the past. Many would dream to join the same house to follow in his footsteps, I honestly expected Hermione to have done so as well.

"Well yes, but I won't join a house just because of its popularity and reputation. I won't lie and say that I didn't want to be a Gryffindor at first, I told you so in the train, but after careful consideration—I made my choice to be sorted here."

"You just happened to meet my brother, well imagine everyone being just like him or even worse."

"Well I'll just mind my own business then, thank you very much." She remained stubborn. "And besides, I didn't come to Hogwarts to make friends. I came to become a successful witch, pass my OWLS and NEWTS in the future."

Wasn't that a convenient lie.

I sighed.

"Alright, it's your life and your choice. I gave you enough information to sort it out yourself and you've made your decision." Too much information in my opinion.

We returned our attention back to the sorting ceremony where few others had been already sorted as we were talking.

Now it was time for the famous Harry Potter to have his sorting done.

“Potter Harry!”

As Harry stepped forward, whispers suddenly broke out like little hissing fires all over the hall. More so on the Slytherin side, everyone was talking about 'He who must not be named' and how could have defeated the dark lord. Hermione herself grew interested in the topic and kept eavesdropping on the people nearby.

The same thing happened, Harry gripping the chair tightly as if he was about to faint from stress. The hat talked about how the boy had a lot of courage, talent and the thirst to prove himself. The boy then proceeded to whisper—quite loudly I might add—not Slytherin repeatedly.

"Well someone really doesn't want to join us it seems."

Draco scoffed, "He turned down my offer, decided to spend more time with those crumbling in poverty Weasleys. He will bring nothing but shame to the Potter house... What a waste."

"GRYFFINDOR!"

Draco's frown deepened further more.

"Pathetic really…"

The Gryffindors were quite ecstatic with his presence. Everyone from the Weasley family came forward to shake his hand, the twins kept boasting about how they got Potter and even some of the ghosts came towards him to offer their congratulations.

A true celebrity that kid was.

I didn't forget to check out the teachers and staff's reactions. Hagrid, who sat at the very end gave him a thumbs up. Even Dumbledore had a brighter smile on his face, small detail, but something to notice anyways.

After the sorting was done, the new kids had some time to get familiar with their new peers.

On our side, Draco was already getting comfortable with some of the other first years. Crabbe and Goyle avoided both of us like the plague, only offering simple greetings. The boy who my brother was having a conversation with was someone I recognised not due to his family's name, but rather his infamous mother—Blaise Zabini. Narcissa gossiped about how the father mysteriously died and that the mother immediately got married months after. Now there were rumors about how the second father had suddenly fallen victim to a deadly Illness and was bedridden.

Even Lucius added his own thoughts on the matter, like how the woman was extremely beautiful and was planning to lure blind rich men to her trap.

I don't remember seeing him in the first three movies, maybe he became more prominent in the latter ones. So I couldn't really make an accurate judgment of his character, but I trusted Draco's ability to be a good judge of character… partially.

Hermione on the other hand looked lost and kept staring around her awkwardly. No one was even trying to talk to her. So I decided to amuse her till our food came to the table.

"Hungry?" I asked.

"Not even a little," her face scrunched as she patted her stomach. "I think I ate too many sweets and pastries you so half-hazzardly bought in the train. I still taste the chocolate in my mouth… uggh, even thinking about it makes me want to vomit."

"Oh? Now you're accusing me of being the main cause of your problem? You could have just not eaten the candies and left them on the cart or something."

"And let them go to waste? I would never resort to such a thing, my parents taught me to never waste food of any kind. And I doubt anyone would have taken those after they all melted at the end of the journey."

"Nope," I brought out some hard candies and chocolate boxes from my pockets and showed them to her. "I brought almost all of it with me and now have roughly a few kilograms worth of sugary sweets with me." Immediately, the girl's face turned green at the sight and pushed my hand away from her.

"Would you kindly put those things away from me."

"Hahahaha! Don't worry, you'll get over your nausea after eating something savory."

"Well I hope for that to be soon, I haven't seen a single servant or cook to serve us anything." She looked at her plate and touched the edge. "Is this real gold? Quite extravagant don't you think?"

We continued to have these small back and forth conversations for the next few minutes, Hermione was less tense and more relaxed. Some of the girls even took the time to talk with her, though I did explicitly remind her to not bring up the fact about her coming from a Muggle family—at least not yet. They talked about lessons and other academic related subjects

"I do hope they start right away, there’s so much to learn, I’m particularly interested in Transfiguration, you know, turning something into something else, of course, it’s supposed to be very difficult.“

"We’ll be starting small, just turning matches into needles and that sort of thing.“

She and Daphne were getting along surprisingly well, whether the latter was doing this out of politeness or if she was actually being interested was yet to be known. Even the prefect—Gemma Farley—was conversing with them on academics.

While for me, I conversed with some of the Ghosts. Kinda weird to think that I once used to be like them, basically a soul floating around. The Bloody Baron in particular had a rather tragic and tear jerking story to tell. The Bloody Baron was a wizard who attended Hogwarts in the 11th century and was sorted into Slytherin House.

After Hogwarts, he fell in love with Helena Ravenclaw, but she did not love him in return. He was sent by Rowena Ravenclaw to find Helena in Albania, but Helena refused to return with him and so he killed her in a rage. When he realised what he had done, the Baron stabbed himself with the same knife and died by suicide.

It was when he returned to the school as a ghost, still covered in blood that he earned the title of Bloody Baron.

Hermione and Daphne, who were talking prior, both looked disturbed by the story and so did the other first years.

"How I miss my dear Helena… if only… IF ONLY!!" He moaned loudly while flying away to the ceiling.

"Was that, Helena's blood?" asked Hermione.

"I… maybe."

Clap!

Albus Dumbledore had gotten to his feet.

He was beaming at the students, his arms opened wide, as if nothing could have pleased him more than to see them all there.

“Welcome!” he said. “Welcome to a new year at Hogwarts! Before we begin our banquet, I would like to say a few words. And here they are: Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak!"

“Thank you!”

He sat back down. Everybody clapped and cheered. Hermione meanwhile looked confused.

"Is he alright in the head?" She asked.

"Probably not," I answered. "But don't let his joyful and kind attitude fool you that he is THE strongest wizard alive. There may be others who come extremely close to him, but none can best him." I remembered Lucius admitting that Dumbledore was a force to be reckoned with. Even if he acted all mighty in front of the old man, he always stayed vigilant.

Whoosh!

The table in front of us suddenly turned into a feast as plates filled with roast beef, roast chicken, pork chops and lamb chops, sausages, bacon and steak, boiled potatoes, roast potatoes, fries, Yorkshire pudding, peas, carrots, gravy, ketchup, and, for some strange reason, peppermint humbugs; spread all over the table. A variety of cuisine from different countries. I immediately went for the medium rare steak, draped with a heavy peppercorn and mushroom sauce.

Hermione was still shell shocked over the display of magic.

"Remember," I spoke while munching at the same time. "Try to eat more veggies if you don't want an upset stomach tomorrow morning after eating all that sugar."

"I was planning to do so."

These elves were truly the best chef's one could ask for in the wizarding world. Even Dobby—despite his odd quirks—could cook up the finest Chinese dishes in a matter of minutes. He even became my errand boy? Elf? Anyways, he was the one who bought me snacks and beverages from the Muggle world. We didn't have a fridge so storing most of the things I had was impossible.

"Are you familiar with some of the teachers, Jarius?" She asked.

I pointed at Snape first. "You see the guy with greasy hair and all dark robes? That's Professor Snape, he teaches Potions. The quivering guy next to him with the turban is Professor Quirinus Quirrell, teaches dark arts—be very careful of him."

She wanted to ask me why but I continued with my speech and continued describing the other staff members including Hagrid and McGonagall.

Dumbledore got to his feet again.

The hall fell silent.

“Ahem – just a few more words now that we are all fed and watered. I have a few start-of-term notices to give you."

“First years should note that the forest on the grounds is forbidden to all pupils. And a few of our older students would do well to remember that as well.”

Dumbledore’s twinkling eyes flashed in the direction of the Weasley twins.

“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.

“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 finally, I must tell you that this year, the third-floor corridor on the right-hand side is out of bounds to everyone who does not wish to die a very painful death.”

"That's weird," exclaimed our prefect, Gemma. "Normally he gives us a reason why not go somewhere. The forest is easy to guess due to the many monsters lurking in the darkness. But he never mentioned anything about a room."

Cause that is where the sorcerer's stone was hidden or was it the philosopher's stone? Anyways, I was curious about that stone and its properties, so I planned to get it before Quirrel and Harry with his new gang get to it. That is... If I could get it in the first place. I knew what were the challenges but that didn't mean I could just walk through them like it was nothing. Especially the last trial with the mirror...

And now, before we go to bed, let us sing the school song!” cried Dumbledore.

He gave his wand a little flick, as if he was trying to get a fly off the end, and a long golden ribbon flew out of it, which rose high above the tables and twisted itself, snakelike, into words.

“Everyone, pick your favorite tune,” said Dumbledore, “and off we go!”

And the school bellowed:

“Hogwarts, Hogwarts, Hoggy Warty Hogwarts...'

Everyone sang jovially, even those who didn't know the lyrics tried to participate with clapping. Even some of the teachers sang the song, Hagrid, Flitwick and even McGonagall. The timing wasn't perfect and the we were not even at synch with each other, but nobody cared, everyone was having fun.

It surprised me when I witnessed the comical sight of Snape clapping along with his frowning face.

'...And learn until our brains all rot.”

Everybody finished the song at different times. At last, only the Weasley twins were left singing along to a very slow funeral march. Dumbledore conducted their last few lines with his wand and when they had finished, he was one of those who clapped loudest.

“Ah, music,” he said, wiping his eyes. “A magic beyond all we do here! And now, bedtime. Off you trot!”

We followed Gemma back to our dorms, which were in the dungeons. Through the grand hallways covered in many paintings of people moving around and greeting us first years. We headed further down the stairs into a dark corridor when we reached the painting guardian.

"Password?"

"Pure-Blood."

Of course it was.

The portrait swung open, leading the students to arrive into a massive common room with exotic green armchairs and sofas all around the room. I noticed that despite us going beneath the castle, there were still windows all around us showing the outside world with the full moon shining brightly in the sky.

'Even after all these years, I still marvel at what magic can accomplish.'

Gemma guided the girls to their dorms first, while the boys were escorted to theirs later. I wished Hermione and Daphne goodnight before joining Draco by the fire. He was amongst the very few who decided to hang out in the commons for a little while longer. "You're contemplating something." I asked, trying to start a conversation with him.

"I still can't get over the fact that a mudblood managed to be sorted into Slytherin, let alone your actions of befriending her is setting up a bad image for us." He snarled in anger, "She should have just gone on with the Gryffindors and become their problem. At least she won't last long here, probably will be gone before the year ends."

"..."

"Her kind are parasites, father was correct that their lives are nothing but a waste."

Swish!

Crack!

Immediately, the flames of the fireplace dimmed down considerably while several cups and glasses in the common room cracked under the bone chilling presence that engulfed everything around. Those very few present, felt an incredibly dreadful feeling creep up their spine.

"Dear brother…"

The flames continued to grow weaker by the second that the remaining fire wasn't even bigger than that of a lighter.

"... don't…"

He was still young, that I knew perfectly. I watched him grow up, and tried to teach him the ways of life. But it seemed that I failed at some point…

"...push it."

Draco was sweating, his hands kept shaking while he tried to look up to me but kept failing miserably. There was no physical pressure holding him down, but rather the fear he was feeling from the sudden change of my tone. Normally, it was very hard for me to get angry, but hearing Draco speak like this really brought my mood down.

Guess he still had a lot to learn.

"Sorry Jarius… it won't happen again."

"I know it won't, you're smarter than that."

I talked to him for a little while longer before we retreated to our bedroom. Five four-posters hung with deep red, velvet curtains. Our trunks had already been brought up. "Oh? Nice, so they got you here in time, Whiteley." A grin stretched on my, I came over the snowy owl and scratched his head. Aside from Draco and I, the other two people sleeping in this room were Blaise Zabini and another kid named Theodore Nott. We exchanged our greetings and everyone aside me went to sleep.

Once again, I marveled at the fact that our room had a window, despite our dorms being technically underground. Maybe it was the castle playing a trick on the students. 'Magic really makes no sense.' I thought to myself.

Whitley was out of his cage, resting on my lap while I sat on the window's edge, looking up at the moon. I felt my conscience leave me as I began feeling increasingly sleepy. Going back to my bed, I closed my eyes and dreamed of blue fire.