Hadrian Riddle:the second tom riddle

chapter 4

so hi........so o know i like Just posted a chapter but i cant sleep so i was like Frick it i ain getting any sleep tonight I hope y'all are grateful for what im sacrificing rn lol

The door swung open at once. A tall, black-haired witch in emerald-green robes stood there. She had a very stern face and Hadrian’s first thought was that this was not someone to cross. ‘The firs’-years, Professor McGonagall,’ said Hagrid. ‘Thank you, Hagrid. I will take them from here.’ She pulled the door wide. The Entrance Hall was so big you could have fitted the whole of the orphanage in it. The stone walls were lit with flaming torches like the ones at Gringotts, the ceiling was too high to make out, and a magnificent marble staircase facing them led to the upper floors. They followed Professor McGonagall across the flagged stone floor. Hadrian could hear the drone of hundreds of voices from a doorway to the right – the rest of the school must already be here – but Professor McGonagall showed the first-years into a small empty chamber off the hall. They crowded in, standing rather closer together than they would usually have done, peering about nervously. ‘Welcome to Hogwarts,’ said Professor McGonagall. ‘The start of-term banquet will begin shortly, but before you take your seats in the Great Hall, you will be sorted into your houses. The Sorting is a very important ceremony because, while you are here, your house will be something like your family within Hogwarts. You will have classes with the rest of your house, sleep in your house dormitory and spend free time in your house common room. ‘The four houses are called Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin. Each house has its own noble history and each has produced outstanding witches and wizards. While you are at Hogwarts, your triumphs will earn your house points, while any rule-breaking will lose house points. At the end of the year, the house with the most points is awarded the House Cup, a great honour. I hope each of you will be a credit to whichever house becomes yours. ‘The Sorting Ceremony will take place in a few minutes in front of the rest of the school. I suggest you all smarten yourselves up as much as you can while you are waiting.’ Her eyes lingered for a moment on Neville’s cloak, which was fastened under his left ear, and on Ron’s smudged nose. Hadrian stood still looking for anything at all he could exploit to his advantage. ‘I shall return when we are ready for you,’ said Professor McGonagall. ‘Please wait quietly.’ She left the chamber. Hadrian swallowed. No one was talking much except Hermione Granger, who was whispering very fast about all the spells she’d learnt and wondering which one she’d need. Hadrian tried hard not to listen to her. He’d never been more nervous, never, not even when he’d had to take a school report home to the Orphanage saying that he’d somehow turned his teacher’s wig blue. He kept his eyes fixed on the door. Any second now, Professor McGonagall would come back and lead him to his doom. Then something happened which made him jump about a foot in the air – several people behind him screamed. ‘What the –?’ He gasped. So did the people around him. About twenty ghosts had just streamed through the back wall. Pearly-white and slightly transparent, they glided across the room talking to each other and hardly glancing at the first-years. They seemed to be arguing. What looked like a fat little monk was saying, ‘Forgive and forget, I say, we ought to give him a second chance –’ ‘My dear Friar, haven’t we given Peeves all the chances he deserves? He gives us all a bad name and you know, he’s not really even a ghost – I say, what are you all doing here?’ A ghost wearing a ruff and tights had suddenly noticed the first-years. Nobody answered. ‘New students!’ said the Fat Friar, smiling around at them. ‘About to be sorted, I suppose?’ A few people nodded mutely. ‘Hope to see you in Hufflepuff!’ said the Friar. ‘My old house, you know.’ ‘Move along now,’ said a sharp voice. ‘The Sorting Ceremony’s about to start.’ Professor McGonagall had returned. One by one, the ghosts floated away through the opposite wall. ‘Now, form a line,’ Professor McGonagall told the first-years, ‘and follow me.’ Feeling oddly as though his legs had turned to lead, Hadrian got into line behind a boy with sandy hair, with Draco behind him, and they walked out of the chamber, back across the hall and through a pair of double doors into the Great Hall. Hadrian had never even imagined such a strange and splendid place. It was lit by thousands and thousands of candles which were floating in mid-air over four long tables, where the rest of the students were sitting. These tables were laid with glittering golden plates and goblets. At the top of the Hall was another long table where the teachers were sitting. Professor McGonagall led the first-years up here, so that they came to a halt in a line facing the other students, with the teachers behind them. The hundreds of faces staring at them looked like pale lanterns in the flickering candlelight. Dotted here and there among the students, the ghosts shone misty silver. Mainly to avoid all the staring eyes, Hadrian looked upwards and saw a velvety black ceiling dotted with stars. He heard Hermione whisper, ‘It’s bewitched to look like the sky outside, I read about it in Hogwarts: A History.’ It was hard to believe there was a ceiling there at all, and that the Great Hall didn’t simply open on to the heavens. Hadrian quickly looked down again as Professor McGonagall silently placed a four-legged stool in front of the first-years. On top of the stool she put a pointed wizard’s hat. This hat was patched and frayed and extremely dirty. Maybe they had to try and get a rabbit out of it, Hadrian thought wildly, that seemed the sort of thing – noticing that everyone in the Hall was now staring at the hat, he stared at it too. For a few seconds, there was complete silence. Then the hat twitched. A rip near the brim opened wide like a mouth – and the hat began to sing: 'oh what's this? Such a surprise! I get to crack the newest Riddle and see what he hides! Shall he go to Gryffindor like the ones who stole him and whom he was led to believe were his blood? Or Hufflepuff where the work he's been forced into one might even say abuse will come into use! Or maybe Ravenclaw like his mother whose intellect turned her to the shadows? Or perhaps he shall find his home in Slytherin just as his father did so long ago; shall he be consumed by the darkness too? I don't know but I can't wait to find out!” There was silence before finally Professor McGonagall stepped forward holding a long roll of parchment. ‘When I call your name, you will put on the hat and sit on the stool to be sorted,’ she said. ‘Abbott, Hannah!’ A pink-faced girl with blonde pigtails stumbled out of line, put on the hat, which fell right down over her eyes, and sat down. A moment’s pause – ‘HUFFLEPUFF!’ shouted the hat. The table on the right cheered and clapped as Hannah went to sit down at the Hufflepuff table. Hadrian saw the ghost of the Fat Friar waving merrily at her. ‘Bones, Susan!’ ‘HUFFLEPUFF!’ shouted the hat again, and Susan scuttled off to sit next to Hannah. ‘Boot, Terry!’ ‘RAVENCLAW!’ The table second from the left clapped this time; several Ravenclaws stood up to shake hands with Terry as he joined them. ‘Brocklehurst, Mandy’ went to Ravenclaw too, but ‘Brown, Lavender’ became the first new Gryffindor and the table on the far left exploded with cheers; Hadrian could see Ron’s twin brothers catcalling. ‘Bulstrode, Millicent’ then became a Slytherin. ‘Finch-Fletchley, Justin!’ ‘HUFFLEPUFF!’ Sometimes, Hadrian noticed, the hat shouted out the house at once, but at others it took a little while to decide. ‘Finnigan, Seamus’, the sandy-haired boy next to Hadrian in the line, sat on the stool for almost a whole minute before the hat declared him a Gryffindor. ‘Granger, Hermione!’ Hermione almost ran to the stool and jammed the hat eagerly on her head. ‘GRYFFINDOR!’ shouted the hat. When Neville Longbottom, the boy who kept losing his toad, was called, he fell over on his way to the stool. The hat took a long time to decide with Neville. When it finally shouted ‘GRYFFINDOR’, Neville ran off still wearing it, and had to jog back amid gales of laughter to give it to ‘MacDougal, Morag’. Draco swaggered forward when his name was called and got his wish at once: the hat had barely touched his head when it screamed, ‘SLYTHERIN!’ Malfoy went to join his friends Crabbe and Goyle, looking pleased with himself. There weren’t many people left now. ‘Moon’ ... ‘Nott’ ... ‘Parkinson’ ... then a pair of twin girls, ‘Patil’ and ‘Patil’ ... then ‘Perks, Sally-Anne’ ... and then, at last – ‘Potter, Harry!’ whispers suddenly broke out like little hissing fires all over the hall. ‘Potter, did she say?’ ‘The Hadrian Potter?’ ‘Where is he? Why won't he come up?’ Finally Dumbledore stood up and said ‘Hadrian I know you don't use your given first name but there is no need to ignore it.” Hadrian stepped forward and spoke “oh but you see headmaster that IS my given name. What I find curious is why when I went to Gringots to get a blood test it said that my name was Hadrian Riddle. In fact I have no relation with the potters at all. At first I thought there had been a mistake and I'd been mixed up with the real Harry Potter but it ALSO said I was blood adapted by the Potters and renamed Harry Potter however I would prefer to go by my given name.” he said before stepping back again. Dumbledore's face was hilarious, in fact all of the teachers' faces were. “V-very well minerva go ahead” Dumbledore said before sitting back down looking shaken. “Hadrian Riddle,” Professor McGonigal said. The last thing Hadrian saw before the hat dropped over his eyes was the Hall full of people craning to get a good look at him. Next second he was looking at the black inside of the hat. He waited. ‘Hmm,’ said a small voice in his ear. ‘Difficult. Very difficult. Plenty of wisdom, I see. And There’s talent, oh my goodness, yes a nice thirst to prove yourself, now that’s interesting ... So where shall I put you?’ ‘Better be SLYTHERIN!’ Hadrian heard the hat shout the last word to the whole Hall. He took off the hat and walked towards the Slytherin table. The hall was silent only the slytherins were clapping and Professor Quirrell too strangely enough, Dumbledore however looked as though I had just killed his little sister which I most definitely didn't, I kept track of all those i murder. And now there were only three people left to be sorted. ‘Turpin, Lisa’ became a Ravenclaw and then it was Ron’s turn. He was pale green by now. Hadrian crossed his fingers under the table and a second later the hat had shouted, ‘GRYFFINDOR!’ Hadrian sighed in relief that he wouldn't have to deal with him, Hadrian watched as ‘Zabini, Blaise’ was made a Slytherin and sat down across from him and Draco. Professor McGonagall rolled up her scroll and took the Sorting Hat away. Hadrian looked down at his empty gold plate. He had only just realised how hungry he was. The pumpkin pasties seemed ages ago. Albus Dumbledore had got 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. Hadrian didn’t know whether to laugh or not. ‘Is he – a bit mad?’ he asked Draco uncertaintly. ‘Mad?’ said Draco airily. ‘Of course he is, although it's more like insane no wonder he wanted to stop…never mind, aren't you going to eat? Hadrian’s mouth fell open. The dishes in front of him were now piled with food. He had never seen so many things to eat on one table: roast beef, roast chicken, pork chops and lamb chops, sausages, bacon and steak, boiled potatoes, roast potatoes, chips, Yorkshire pudding, peas, carrots, gravy, ketchup and, for some strange reason, mint humbugs. Hadrian piled his plate with a bit of everything except the humbugs and began to eat. It was all delicious. When everyone had eaten as much as they could, the remains of the food faded from the plates, leaving them sparkling clean as before. A moment later the puddings appeared. Blocks of ice cream in every flavour you could think of, apple pies, treacle tarts, chocolate éclairs and jam doughnuts, trifle, strawberries, jelly, rice pudding ... As Hadrian helped himself to a treacle tart Hadrian, who was starting to feel warm and sleepy, looked up at the High Table again. Hagrid was drinking deeply from his goblet. Professor McGonagall was talking to Professor Dumbledore. Professor Quirrell, in his absurd turban, was still staring at him. It should have been strange but Hadrian only was mildly annoyed.  At last, the puddings too disappeared and Professor Dumbledore got to his feet again. The Hall fell silent. ‘Ahem – just a few more words now we are all fed and watered. I have a few start-of-term notices to give you. ‘First-years should note that the forest in 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 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.’ ‘And now, before we go to bed, let us sing the school song!’ cried Dumbledore. Hadrian noticed that the other teachers’ smiles had become rather fixed. Dumbledore 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 snake-like into words. ‘Everyone pick their favourite tune,’ said Dumbledore, ‘and off we go!’ And the school bellowed: ‘Hogwarts, Hogwarts, Hoggy Warty Hogwarts, Teach us something please, Whether we be old and bald Or young with scabby knees, Our heads could do with filling With some interesting stuff, For now they’re bare and full of air, Dead flies and bits of fluff, So teach us things worth knowing, Bring back what we’ve forgot, Just do your best, we’ll do the rest, And learn until our brains all rot.’ Hadrian noticed that the other Slytherins only mouthed the words and he was only too happy to follow their lead. 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!’ The Slytherin first-years followed the prefects through the chattering crowds, out of the Great Hall and down the marble staircase to the dungeons. Hadrian’s legs were like lead again, but only because he was so tired and full of food. He was too sleepy even to be surprised that the people in the portraits along the corridors whispered and pointed as they passed. Here we are.’ At the very end of the corridor hung a portrait of a snake. ‘Password?’it hissed. Blood purity said one of the prefects cutting it off Hadrian frowned “that was rude” draco and all the others near them turned to him, some looking angry, some confused “what was” draco said Harian frowned again “the perfect cut off the snake” everyone froze “Hadrian can you…Understand it” “of course i can” he said “i dont think id be able to keep up with Akshleys if i couldn't” he said pointing to her and all havoc wreaked.