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Harry Potter and the Sorting Hat's Choice by EmmaGM

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Chapter Three: Detention and Quidditch

When Harry arrived for his detention he found Snape sitting in his office. Snape’s office had two doors, one of which led directly into the Potion’s lab, the other leading into the hallway. Snape was marking essays, and spoke to Harry without looking up.

–Clean those cauldrons, Potter. Notify me when you’re done.”

–Yes, sir.” Harry shrugged off his robes and began to roll up his sleeves.

–Were you planning on asking permission to use magic, Potter?”

–No, sir. I don’t know any cleaning spells.”

Snape made a noise in the back of his throat. –They would not be effective if you did. My N.E.W.T. class has been brewing Ricochet Rub, which would reflect any cleaning spells.” Snape pointed across the room. –You will find a stiff brush and solvents in the cabinet.”

Harry worked hard to scrub the cauldrons completely clean. At Privet Drive, Harry would do the bare minimum to complete his chores; he knew he was going to be yelled at, no matter how well he did. After Halloween, though, Harry was desperate to prove to Professor Snape that he was a good student and a hard worker. Harry’s arms quickly began to ache from vigorous scrubbing, but he refused to complain.

As Harry scrubbed the cauldrons, Snape would periodically shout questions at him from the office. –Potter, how many uses are there for dragon’s blood?”

–Er… Twelve?”

–What are they?”

–I don’t know, sir.”

–You know at least one, Potter.”

–It keeps dragons alive?”

–Thank you, Potter, for advising me of the incredibly obvious.”

Several minutes later, Snape spoke again. –Potter, where would I find a bezoar?

–I don’t know, sir.”

–Inside the stomach of a goat. What are its uses?”

–I don’t know, sir.”

–It will cure most poisons,” said Snape. –You seem to be struggling without Mr Malfoy whispering you answers. Or did you think I hadn’t noticed?”

Harry gritted his teeth and continued scrubbing. How was he supposed to know what a bezoar was? They hadn’t covered that in class.

Three cauldrons later: –True or false, Potter. Gillyweed may be ingested directly and does not require a potion.”

–False?”

–Are you asking me or telling me, Potter?”

–Telling.”

–Incorrect.” Harry could hear the scratch of Snape’s quill against parchment as he marked an answer wrong. –It appears, Potter, that you should have been sorted into Hufflepuff, as you are making the same mistakes.”

Harry was finding it difficult to concentrate on cleaning the cauldrons. Harry suspected that Snape was marking essays of second or third year Hufflepuffs. How did he expect Harry to know these things?

Snape was quiet for a long time. Harry only had four cauldrons left to clean when Snape spoke again.

–I am stepping out,” he said. –Continue with your cleaning.”

Harry heard the outside door of Snape’s office open and close. When Snape returned several minutes later, he was carrying an enormous tray of food: potatoes and rice and squash and what appeared to be an entire roast hen. Harry realized that dinner had already begun in the Great Hall. Harry’s stomach rumbled as he hurriedly scrubbed the last cauldron, eager to attend the evening meal. The delicious scent of Snape’s food wafted from the office into the Potions laboratory.

Harry finished scrubbing and quickly tossed the brush and solvent into the cabinet. –The cauldrons are all scrubbed, sir.”

–Good,” said Snape. –The cauldron polish is in the cabinet. Ensure that the cauldrons are shined, as well.”

Harry’s mouth dropped open. Dinner was almost over!

–Is there something you wish to say, Potter?” Snape slowly lifted a forkful of roasted hen to his mouth. He chewed slowly and deliberately, staring at Harry the entire time.

Harry clenched his fists in anger. –Yes,” he said through tightly clamped teeth. –Where are the polishing rags?”

Snape swallowed. –You will find them in the same cabinet.”

Harry spun on his heel and stormed away to find the polish.

Over an hour later, long after the Great Hall had closed for dinner, Harry again presented himself to Snape. He was now covered in black smudges from the cauldron polish, and his hair was matted with sweat.

–The cauldrons are polished, sir.”

–Good. Have a seat, Potter.” Snape indicated a chair in front of his desk, and Harry sat. –I wish to have a frank discussion with you,” Snape said. –Whatever you say in the next ten minutes will not cause you to lose points, receive detention or be disciplined in any way. Do you understand?”

Harry nodded.

–What has occurred here tonight?”

–Detention, sir.”

–Don’t be fatuous, Potter. Think.”

Harry took a deep breath. –You’ve been asking me questions that I don’t know the answers to.”

–Toward what end?” asked Snape.

–I don’t know,” said Harry. –To embarrass me?”

–If I wanted to embarrass you, Potter, I would ask you those questions in front of the entire class.” Snape shook his head. –Perhaps you should have been in Hufflepuff.”

Harry snapped. –You know what? You have been provoking me. All night. You are nice to Draco and Pansy and Crabbe and Goyle and everybody in Slytherin but me!”

Snape’s face was calm. –You are correct. I have been provoking you.”

–You’re admitting it?” Harry was incredulous. His surprise almost overrode his anger. Almost.

–Of course, Potter. Or are you content to believe that I am simply being petty and spiteful?”

Harry opened his mouth to give a nasty response, but forced himself to hold back. A distant part of his curiosity had been aroused. There had to be something more than maliciousness behind Snape’s actions. Snape was no fool, and he had made that abundantly clear on Halloween.

–You’ve been testing me.”

The corners of Snape’s mouth twitched. –Go on.”

–You wanted to see if I had learned my lesson from Halloween. You were trying to make me do something stupid, like yell at you or walk out of detention.”

Snape nodded. –Tonight was all about pragmatism, Potter. You could have given in to your emotions, and you might have felt better in the short term. Trust me when I say that the long term consequences would have been… severe.” Snape’s lip curled upward, a ghost of the sneer that was normally reserved for Gryffindors.

–Since the beginning of the school year, Potter, I have been trying to reserve my judgement of you. This was not without difficulty. Tonight, you showed me that you were not sorted into Slytherin in error.”

Snape waved his wand. A plate of food appeared on the desk in front of Harry – the same food that Snape had eaten himself. Next to it was a set of silverware and a glass of pumpkin juice.

–Your plate has been on a warming charm since dinner,” said Snape. –After you’re finished, you are released to your dormitory. The house elves take care of your dishes.”

Snape walked out of the office and into the Potions lab, where he began inspecting cauldrons. Harry dove forward and attacked the plate of food.

After Harry had finished his dinner, as he was walking out of the Potions lab, Snape’s voice called out one last time.

–Good work tonight, Mr Potter.”



–Come on, Harry, we have to get seats. And I don’t mean just seats, I mean good seats!”

Harry pulled his cloak on as he followed Draco through the common room. Slytherin was playing Gryffindor and Draco had been a nervous ball of energy all week.

–I’m coming,” said Harry. –Don’t worry.”

Draco was several feet ahead, walking briskly toward the door. –Why aren’t you more excited, Harry? It’s your first Quidditch match!”

–I know. You keep telling me that.”

Draco shook his head. –Muggle raised. You’ll understand after the match.”

The halls of Hogwarts were deserted – it was almost as if another troll was on the loose. As Harry and Draco walked through the main doors, they saw only a few straggling Hufflepuffs rushing toward the Quidditch pitch. Harry and Draco were hundreds of yards away from the stadium, but they could already hear the roar of the crowd.

As usual, the whole school had turned out for the Quidditch match. Gryffindor, Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw were usually seated together in blocks of red-gold, yellow-black and blue-bronze, but there was some blending at the edges as students sat with friends from other houses. Slytherin, by contrast, was a solid mass of silver and green, with no blending whatsoever.

Draco and Harry pushed their way into the crowd. The first years were midway up the grandstand. They were the worst seats in the stadium, according to Draco: neither close to the pitch nor high in the air. Harry and Draco eventually settled into seats next to Tracey Davis and Theodore Nott, two other first years. Pansy was a few rows ahead, using Crabbe and Goyle to create some breathing room on either side of her.

As the Slytherin team took the pitch, Draco launched into a tactical evaluation of the teams. –Flint is our captain. He’s a chaser, and a good one. Wood is the captain of Gryffindor. He’s the best keeper of the school and he’s only a fifth year. Our team is stronger than Gryffindor, so we should be able to push them around the pitch. Gryffindor’s seeker is new this year, a converted chaser, so she shouldn’t be too threatening.”

Harry nodded, pretending that the whole thing made sense. The Quidditch business seemed a bit silly…

Then Madam Hooch blew her whistle, the teams were up in the air and Harry was in love.

The game was spectacular. Players were flying everywhere, bludgers were being clobbered all over the pitch, Flint was firing cannon shots at Wood, and Wood was making miraculous saves. It was a dream.

–Why didn’t you tell me how amazing this was?” Harry asked.

Draco laughed. –I did tell you. Apparently you wanted to see for yourself.”

As the game progressed, it was clear to see that a Slytherin victory was inevitable. The Slytherin chasers were dominant, the beaters were roughly equal, and the Gryffindor seeker didn’t stand a chance. Harry and Draco joined their older classmates in raucous cheers, some planned, other spontaneous. Tracey Davis, the smallest girl in their year, was cheering louder than anyone else in the Slytherin section. The rest of the school would boo whenever Slytherin scored a goal, Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws as well as Gryffindors. Their catcalls simply drove the Slytherin section to cheer louder and more frequently.

It was amazing. For the first time in his life, Harry felt like he was a part of something greater than himself. He was a Slytherin. And a victory for one Slytherin (or seven) was a victory for all. The final score was 290-70 for Slytherin. The lions had been utterly demolished.

As they walked back to their common room, Harry couldn’t stop talking about Quidditch. –Did you see how fast they were going on their brooms?”

–Yes,” said Draco.

–How about when Johnson got hit by that bludger,” Harry said. –She could barely stay on her broom.”

–Yes,” said Draco.

–And did you see how our seeker caught the snitch?”

–Yes,” said Draco. –I, too, was at the match.”

Harry glanced over at Draco. –Come on, Draco, that was the greatest!”

Draco laughed. –It was a pretty good match. It wasn’t really close, though; Gryffindor has a bad team this year. But it’s always nice when Slytherin wins.”

–I still can’t believe there’s a sport this amazing!”

–You should see a professional match,” Draco said. –Everything is faster and all the players are better.”

Harry’s eyes grew wide. –Quidditch gets better?”

–Yes, it does. And next year, we get to bring our brooms to school. We can try out for the Quidditch team ourselves.”

–Wow…” Harry’s voice was low and reverent. The thought of being on the Quidditch team, having the entire house cheering for you… Harry could barely imagine it. The sound of the Slytherin table cheering at the Sorting was nothing compared to the sound of the crowd at the Quidditch match. And getting to fly in front of the whole school, wind in your hair, dodging bludgers… Harry would get to wear Quidditch robes with his teammates, rich Slytherin green trimmed in bright silver…

–Harry? Harry!” Draco was waving his hand in front of Harry’s face. –You’re going all misty-eyed on me. Try to keep it together.”

Harry blinked and refocused his eyes. –Draco, next year we are both making the Quidditch team.”

–I intend to,” said Draco with a smile.



AN: Thank you for reading! Please leave a review. I would very much like to see what you think.

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