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Word Count 2550
~~~
On the train Harry suddenly started to sing in his head 'But I didn't shoot no deputy, oh no, oh!'
Hope watched as Harry suddenly started to shake his head to an invisible beat. Realizing his clones must have done something. Probably something strange. "Harry what song are you thinking about?"
"Bob Marley- I shot the sheriff" Harry replied without a care in the world.
...
Hope deadpanned 'He didn't.. of course he did. I can't believe that he would actually go and shoot some random Sheriff. '
"Nobody saw you right, you covered your trail"
"Oh, there was another guy there. We took turns shooting the scumbag and I burned the place afterward so I'm good."
'Why did I even ask? I should know better by now'
"Harry the train will reach Hogsmeade soon" Hope reminds Harry
"And?" he just raised an eyebrow 'Why should he care about that'
"Harry you and I might not care about the uniform. But Luna is new, Daphne and Tracy aren't interested in being social pariah's like you"
Harry couldn't recall the word so he did a quick search in the dictionary in his head ("social pariah" is a person who is disliked, rejected, or not accepted by a social group)
'Oh, makes sense, but i still don't care' "And?"
Hope facepalmed "Harry, you are in a cabin filled with girls. They need to change clothes"
Harry rolled his eyes and grumbled under his breath "Stupid common sense, you people have magic. Common sense is useless to a wizard or witch. Just use magic to change clothes" Harry snapped his fingers and the uniforms from their trunks floated out. Another snap of his fingers and the clothes automatically changed.
He even went a step further and transfigured Astoria's clothes. Now she matched with Daphne's Ravenclaw ones. She had ' Unofficial Ravenclaw' written on her back. Along with '#1 Little Sister in the World'
And judging by the grin on her face she loved the look.
"Rude" Tracy crossed her arms and glared at Harry
Daphne sighed "She is right, that was very rude and unfortunately for Tracy, Harry won't care one bit"
"Hmm? You say something Tracy" Harry turns to the girl in confusion.
"Hehehe. Trey is funny" Astoria laughed at the deadpan look Tracy was giving Harry
"Ohh, there are more Wrackspurts around Tracy now" Luna said with unfocused eyes.
"Ugh" Tracy just palms her face and drags her fingers down.
~
The train stopped. And the students started to leave in an orderly fashion. Harry sensed that someone was watching him. He turned towards the feeling and saw the twins.
Once the twins saw him looking their way they just smirked.
Normally Harry would just ignore them. Hope was easily taking care of their childish pranks. But for some inexplicable reason, he got a bad feeling. Something that doesn't happen usually.
Now a gut feeling is instinct. Its unscientific and sometimes it works out, even ordinary people. Like how dogs can sense something bad was about to happen or an earthquake before it hits. Wizards are even more connected to that, but only those who are more in tune with their magic. Like skilled Aurors or Hit-Wizards. People who constantly use their magic and whose lives depend on it.
So Harry decided to do something he had only done in one particular case. Divination against Dumbledore. He pulled out his Tarot Cards
"Harry" Hope said in a strange tone. Harry never uses his cards, saving them up for emergency's. Even though he failed to use it before the attack on his stores. Then again he predicted someone would attack, just not a High Class.
"Wait for a bit" Harry shuffled the cards there were two piles, pulled out two cards out of the 22 Major Arcana cards and one card from the 56 Minor Arcana.
A reversed 'Wheel of Fortune' meaning no control, clinging to control, bad luck.
A reversed 'The Magician' meaning trickery, illusions, out of touch
A reversed ' Seven of Swords' meaning Imposter syndrome, self-deceit, keeping secrets
'What the hell is this? All of them reversed? But still I am so glad i did this, even though the more often you use Divination the less effective it is. Though this is mostly for beginners. I have heard Masters of Divination use Future Sight in battle, literally like One Piece.'
Harry was definitely surprised by the cards especially by the meanings. 'No control, bad luck, trickery, illusions, Imposter Syndrome, self-deceit, and secrets'
He took one more glance at the twins who were going towards the carriages. ' Its all about pranks and chaos. But I wouldn't get this kind of feeling just from two teenage wizards. There is something off about this. Let's say it isn't about them, what else could the cards point to?'
Harry thought about it and an idea formed in his head, which made his gut feeling even worse. 'No way. Pranks, Illusions, Imposter and Deceit. There is only one person that comes to mind when you put all of those together. Norse God Loki.
Why the fuck would Loki be involved with a couple of nobody's? Wait... he is still a god, a God of Pranks... those two morons prayed to him didn't they. Of course they did.
Only someone as brain dead as them would even consider to pray to Loki nowadays. He is very fickle about prayers and blessings. If he doesn't like you, say goodbye to your sanity.
Seeing as they are still the same, Loki must have been amused by them, so a plus for the twins actually. Judging by the rumors I have heard about Loki and my knowledge. Its rare for him to actually like someone even slightly.
This will most likely involve them pulling some over the top prank designed by the God of Tricks himself. Which explains the bad feeling. I need to think about this, is it more worth it to just take the prank like a man, or ruin it and then the possibility of Loki paying more attention towards me. Decisions, decisions' *
~
They continued along the path and then split up.
Luna went on the boats. Astoria went with Luna to keep her company. The rest went to Carriage rides since they were second Years.
"Hmm, so these are are the thestrals." he looked curiously at the skeletal, winged horses. They can only be seen by thosewho have witnessed and accepted death. Which was everybody except Tracy. Daphne and Astoria saw their father being killed by Harry. Hope has killed a few people during her journey's with Harry. And Harry... well no words are needed to explain him.
"They are certainly strange." Hope says with a wry smile and Daphne nods.
"Wait you call all see them?! Come on! I'm barely in this group as it is" Tracy whines about not being able to see them.
Harry ignores Tracy's existential crisis as a member of the group and pokes at one of the horses, it tries to bites him, he doesn't even bother and lets it bite him but after applying some barriers on his forearm and continues to poke and run diagnostics on the poor creature.
Chomp. Chomp. Nehhh
The thestral shook its head as its teeth started to hurt.
'Fascinating' Harry had a wide smile on his face. ' How did this happen? Was it a mutation? Or did some god decide to mess around. A horse with the concept of death interwoven in it. Did Poseidon and Hades get drunk and decided to throw around their powers to make this.
No, no, its not Death. This horse has no death energy in it. I'm sensitive to stuff involving souls and death. It's something else. Loss and Grief. Only those who felt loss can see them. A horse hidden by Emotion. Evolution possibly, like how a Demiguise got the ability to turn invisible, though that thing is even more broken since it can see the future. I need to get my hands on one of those monkeys.
Though this does open up an interesting research topic. Invisibility behind a single emotion. Lets say you are in a bloody war and I decide to hide behind 'Peacefulness or Serenity.' Nobody would be able to see me. Well that's for later. Time to go traumatize the hat again'
~
The carriages arrive quickly to the main gate. The firsties were still going the long way around across the lake. Taking the beautiful view of the castle.
"Its very pretty isn't it." Luna commentated with a dazed tone
Tori who was on the boat with her, Ginny Weasley and another girl nodded. "Yeah, I saw it last year when I was with my sister and Harry. Its still very pretty"
Ginny gritted her teeth and clenched her fist. She used every bit of restraint she had to not lash out. She hasn't even seen Harry. What if this little girl goes and cries to him. Harry will hate her forever. 'I'll show you your places soon'
A tentacle burst through still surface of the lake. Scaring quite a few of the muggleborn. But the giant tentacle just waved at them
"Oh that reminds me" Tori rummages through her bag, before she starts pulled out a bag and turned it over, cut up sea food started to fall from the bag into the lake in large amounts. Fish, crabs, lobsters and sharks. The Kraken was instantly intrigued by the food. Then Tori throws some weird metallic balls that Harry gave her.
She had no idea what they did. But this was her first mission from Harry. So it had to be done perfectly, even it was disgusting to see the bleeding fish parts.
What she didn't know is that those were probes. And there were a few of them inside the fish as well. Last time Harry was here he used his sonar spell to get a look at the Squid, realizing that it was in fact a Kraken.
These things will get a much better image and the probes that it will eat will show biometrics. The Kraken's health, its organs, brainwaves and possibly magical amount. The last one was still a work in progress. But not bad for Magic Sonar Probe Mark 18. It took 18 times before Harry was somewhat satisfied with his product.
The Alpha and Beta marks were the most frustrating since he was still figuring out how he was going to make it before he realized he can just make the parts first and then shrink them to fit inside the alchemic metal shell that makes it easier for the Magic powered Sonar waves.
' Daffy is going to praise me after this' Tory had a big smile on her face. To her the most important things were that her family is happy and getting praised a lot by Daphne and Harry.. and Hope.. and Melinda.. and Bella... maybe by everybody, but mostly importantly by Daphne and Harry
~
Harry and his group entered the Great Hall. And Harry immediately locked eyes with Dumbledore. The old man looked tired but tried to hide it. After a few moments nothing happened. Harry half expected Dumbledore to at least try to probe his defenses. He even let out a few openings on purpose.
But Dumbledore isn't stupid, he knows that Harry must have learned Occlumency by now. Not to mention whatever magical artifacts Harry might have that protect him from mental attacks.
So even when he sat down their staring contest continued. But without magic. It was like a chess match. Both players trying to uncover information about the other to plan more and more moves ahead.
Harry saw a tired Dumbledore who looked like he didn't want to be here.
Dumbledore saw Harry, the growth spurt he had during the summer. The increased magical reserves. The boy still wore his green coat, but now he had a few more accessories new rings, a chain that went into his T-Shirt, most likely a necklace. Both obviously magical artifacts otherwise the boy wouldn't be wearing them. If nothing else Harry Potter was pragmatic.
'He has gotten stronger and bolder. Its moments like these that his wit is clearly shown. He obviously knows about Grindelwald and possible ways it will affect me. So he is looking for any useful information that he can use to his advantage. For someone who despises politics he is showing a lot of potential.
But the boy won't apply himself. My men told me about the incident in France, many members of the Traditional Faction were found dead. Apparently they were the ones causing trouble for the boy. What a fortuitous 'coincidence' for him' Dumbledore chuckled inwardly. What did they expect would happen when they didn't cover their tracks well.
'But still I'm being stretched too thin. A lot of my plans were put on hold because of Gellert. I haven't even set up the test I was planning for Young Potter. I was planning to hire that moron Gilderoy Lockhart to provoke Potter to see what he would do. But now that war is on the horizon I can't afford to have useless people fighting it. I can always cull them down to being sheep later.
But if the Acolytes mow down the wizards in Britain there will be no one left for me to rule. They need to be strong enough to at least hold the line.'
Harry on the other hand received a telepathic transmission from Hope, she didn't want to break his little staring contest with Dumbledore 'Harry did you notice the new Dark Arts professor?'
'Didn't need to, i can feel his magic. Its Lupin, he is unimportant. Ignore him.'
At that moment the firsties being lead by McGonagall entered the Great Hall. Tory just skipped to the Ravenclaw table and plopped down next to Daphne with her head raised looking at her big sister with sparkling eyes 'Praise me'
Daphne sighed and started to pat her head and pamper her little hellion. *
Sorting continued on as usual. Harry sent a telepathic link to the Hat. He didn't know what it would see in Luna's head. But Harry reminded it what would happen if it tried to 'take revenge' for last year. He was to do his job and send Luna to Ravenclaw
And that's exactly where the moon child was sent to. The students clapped and Luna went to sit by Astoria. Getting a few surprised looks from professors and students.
The sorting continued on until the last student. Ginevra Weasley
As soon as the Hat was put on top of her head, it started to curse inwardly 'Why does this shit happen to me! God fucking damn it. All her thoughts are about going to Ravenclaw. She is trying to push through. But if I send her there she is as good as dead.
What a stupid, obsessive, delusional child. Go with your family stupid Weasel.'
"GRYFFINDOR!!" The hat yelled out and Ginny's eyes widened.
"Nooo! I don't want to be in Gryffindor!"
~ A/N
*( Divination is so OP and Hax. Especially in The Gamer Novel)
*Hellion- a rowdy or mischievous person, especially a child.