Harry Potter and the Silent Dead: Book 1

Chapter 5: Curiosity

The entire hall fell silent, and Harry felt like laughing. No one was expecting that. Everyone thought he'd be the perfect Gryffindor as those ridiculous books of him suggested. But no, he was smarter than that which is why he was a Ravenclaw. A snake hiding in the nest. He'd stay silent, not difficult, and just keep to himself for a while. Harry Potter, unordinary and unnoticeable. Hopefully Draco and the others would still talk to him. Ravenclaws were much better than Hufflepuff and Gryffindor, at least in Slytherins eyes. He walked down the isle between the Ravenclaw and Slytherin tables, before taking a seat with his fellow Ravenclaws. Looking around he saw a ridiculous amount of red heads staring at him confused from Gryffindor. The Hufflepuffs looked curious whilst the Ravenclaws.......they looked as if they'd been gifted the key to the library of Alexandria. It was silly, they didn't even know him! Finally, he turned to the Slytherin table. As expected no emotion could be seen behind their mask, but his small group of friends seemed to be assessing him. A quick legilemens showed that they were still making up their minds about the situation. He'd just have to wait and see what they decided. Turning back to the proffessors tables, he realised the entire hall was still looking at him. He frowned at Professor McGonagall, who blinked and cleared her throat calling out the rest of the names on her list. No one reacted, and no one clapped. Ridiculous.

Albus Dumbledore got to his feet as the last name was called out. He was beaming at his students, his arms open 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!"

Harry raised his eyebrow, wondering what on earth the man was on. His overly freindly, well meaning grandfather act wasn't fooling Harry at all, and neither was the mad old man act. This man was crafty, and clever. Yes, he would need to keep and eye on that one. He went to look at the other teachers, but was distracted by a swarm of Ravens asking stupid questions. "Is it true you defeated a Cerberus when you were nine!?" Shrieked Padma Patil. "Of course not!" Said Lisa. "He was learning to swim with merpeople!" Harry scoffed, but no one seemed to notice, to busy arguing over who was right. "Enough, enough! Give him some space people. Famous or not, he's a first year just like us. Relax." Harry looked towards the young boy who had moved to sit next to them. "Sorry about all that, I'm sure this is the last thing you wanted. I'm A
Terry Boot, by the way." Harry sighed, glad that at least one Ravenclaw seemed smart. He gave a small wave and a nod, smiling slightly. Elder said most people would find him rude for not replying, so he had to compensate by smiling apparently. Boot looked a little confused by his silence, but clearly refused to be deterred. "So what do you think Dumbledore's speech was all about anyway?" Lisa Turpin jumped in with some explanation about it being code, and Harry rolled his eyes and began to eat. "Well what do you think Harry?" He stopped and turned towards Terry, smirking slightly. On the one hand, conversations were very inconvenient for him. On the other, it was nice that the boy was going out of the way to include him. He took a quill from his pocket and wrote on a napkin He said we were foolish, fat, strange and in need of improvement. Somehow I doubt the Headmaster is insulting his students, so either it's his way of supporting our ignorance or he's pretending to be a fool. Everyone at the table blinked, completely silent and visibly confused. Padma asked, "Why did you write that down?" Harry went to write down when a pale hand refrained him from doing so. Looking up, he met the concerned blue eyes of Terry Boot. "You're mute aren't you?" Harry smiled slightly and nodded, glad he didn't have to explain himself. "I'm....so sorry! We must have seemed so rude asking all these silly questions!" Harry shook his head, and laughed silently. No, it's fine. You weren't to know. You haven't met me before and despite reading those silly stories, you don't know me at all. It's probably best we start over. By now, the entire table had heard what was going on, and looked a mixture of shocked and worried. A quick read of their thoughts confirmed it. They were all wondering how the boy they'd read about could be mute. Terry and Lisa moved closer to his side, and the small blonde girl looked shocked. "Nothing in those books were real were they?" He shook his head and Terry responded with "You shouldn't believe everything you read." He then turned to Harry and held out his hand. "I think we all got off on a wrong start. I'm Terry Boot, I'll be your roommate. It's nice to meet you." Harry grinned and shook his hand before writing, Harry Potter. It's a pleasure. Whether his Slytherins stood with him or not, it looked like he'd have at least one friend.