47 Chapter 47

By the time she'd finished speaking, the two of them were standing in front of a six foot tall gargoyle that jumped to the side when the older woman provided the proper password. Behind the gargoyle was a spiral staircase that moved much like an escalator the moment the two of them stepped onto the stairs. At the top, there was a door that led into a large office where they found Headmaster Dumbledore sitting behind a large desk piled high with paperwork. Harry briefly wondered how the man had gotten there first before he figured that there were bound to be shortcuts within the castle (unless the man had multiple avatars that were distributed throughout the castle so that he could be everywhere at once).

Letting his eyes sweep through the room, he noticed that there were several tables with spindly legs positioned up against the walls (their surfaces filled with an assortment of strange silver gadgets) and a large bookshelf stuffed full of old tomes behind the desk. To the right of the door he'd entered through was a large free standing cabinet (its doors currently closed) while to the left was a tall perch upon which sat what looked like a red swan. If Harry had not seen the occamy first, he'd have been tempted to call the red bird one of the most beautiful creatures in this new world.

Unfortunately for the bird, Harry's new companion was far more beautiful in his eyes. When the red bird showed an immediate interest in Harry, the occamy lifted her head and gave out a single warning hiss that had the bird immediately losing all interest in the eleven year old. Ah, beautiful is the jealous type, Harry thought to himself as he ran a hand over the occamy's feathered tail-tip that was tapping out an irritated tempo against his neck. I'll have to remember that, least I upset her needlessly by showing any interest in the other creatures and pets that reside in the castle.

"Have a seat, Mr. Potter," Professor McGonagall instructed as she pointed to a stool sitting in front of the desk.

Harry sat down and frowned when the woman picked up a tattered old hat and placed it over his head; dislodging the occamy in the process (the sinuous creature letting out another irritated hiss as she moved down onto his lap). He growled softly when the hat sank down to his shoulders and he would have ripped it off of his head if not for the small voice that began speaking to him. Confused, he tilted his head to one side and carefully listened to the unseen speaker.

"Well now, isn't this a surprise; I rarely ever sort students once the term has started. And oh what a child you are. You will shake our world right to its foundations; I have no doubts about that. Hmm, but before you can turn the world on its ears, I must first determine where you belong."

"What do you mean? Who are you?"

"I am the sorting hat and it is my job to place you in the house that best suits you. You are ambitious and cunning enough to do well in Slytherin but you'd soon terrify the entire house the first time they attempted to pull you into their inner house politics. You are loyal and hardworking enough for Hufflepuff but your loyalty is too hard to win and you would be easily annoyed by their excessive friendliness and end up alienating them when you continued to rebuff them."

"You are intelligent but dislike having your privacy invaded and you'd feel trapped in Ravenclaw as you'd be surrounded by an entire house of avid researchers that would wish to analyze every little thing about you which would have you lashing out more so than you already do. I guess that means there is only one place left for me to put you. Do try not to tear down the entire school when you start shaking the foundations of the world, Mr. Potter."

Harry was still trying to puzzle out what the hat meant when he heard it call out Gryffindor loud enough for the other two people in the office to hear. The hat was removed from his head a moment later and he found Professor McGonagall giving him a small smile that held a trace of smugness in it that confused him. He only had a brief second to take in the new red and gold trim his clothes were now sporting before the ancient wizard that ran the school spoke up and broke the silence.

"Congratulations, Harry, my boy, I'm certain that you'll make a fine Gryffindor," Dumbledore intoned while his blue eyes twinkled. "Do you have any questions that you'd like to have answered right now? No? Then let us head down to the Great Hall so that you might join your peers for the afternoon meal."

Friday, December 24, 2021 10:55 PM

Harry lay curled up in a red and gold comforter on top of the thick rug covering the floor in front of the fireplace in the common room of the Gryffindor Tower with Hedwig (his occamy, which he'd named after a witch he'd read about in A History of Magic) stretched out beside him. He'd been laying there all day and his fellow Gryffindors, those few that had stayed at the castle for the holidays, had given up on getting him to move (or even acknowledge them) sometime around lunch time. The pint sized eleven year old had spent the entire day grieving for his absent friends as his mind teased him with his memories of last year's Christmas Eve that he'd happily spent with Agil, Klein, and the other members of the Fuurinkazan Guild and tormented him with his memories of Aincrad's destruction and what he believed was the death of his self-claimed father and friends.

After a while, in an effort to ease his aching heart, Harry forced himself to think about the time he'd spent in the new game.

He'd been trapped in the world of Magic and Madness (as he taken to calling the new game he'd been trapped in) for five weeks now and nothing had changed. He was still surrounded entirely by NPCs (not a single human player aside from himself to be found anywhere in the castle, even amongst the students) and he still had no clue as to how to break out of the game. His days had been filled with classes and tutoring sessions while his nights were filled with the nightmares and dreams of all that he had lost. Any free time he had was spent in the library researching the game world he was in or holed up behind the curtains of his bed lavishing attention on the ever present Hedwig and reading through the various books he'd purchased.

During the first couple of weeks after he'd been sorted, he'd been hounded by a number of students that claimed to want his friendship but Harry rebuffed all of them; he had no interest in befriending those he believed were nothing more than computer generated characters meant to flesh out the game experience. It didn't help that all of the NPC students that approached him constantly asked him invasive and uncomfortable questions; such as why he was so short, why he'd started school late, and how he'd gotten those scars they could see. The adult NPCs were almost as bad; they constantly asked him how he was fitting in, how he was doing with the make-up work from the weeks of classes he'd missed, and if there was anything he'd like to talk about.

In order to cope with all the unwanted attention, Harry buried all of his insecurities along with his emotions and took to blanking his face into a stony mask whenever he moved through the castle. He also didn't speak to anyone outside of classes or his tutoring sessions and even then he never said a single word more than was necessary. That didn't stop the other characters in the game from seeking him out though and he started treating the more persistent individuals to some of his more humiliating trap pranks.

All he really wanted was to be left alone and be allowed to leave but no one else seemed to understand, except maybe Hedwig but there was little she could do to help him win his way free.

Hedwig had, on the other hand, become rather helpful in discouraging the more annoying NPCs as she often hissed menacingly at them when ever they approached him. She had started out as a computer generated creature but slowly over the course of his first two weeks in the game the green halo circling her green cursor had changed into a gold Health Bar, a green HP Bar, and a blue MP Bar. Harry attributed the change to the same anomalies that had affected the Items he'd come into contact within SAO after he'd reached level thirty. Her status had even been upgraded from pet to familiar on his Stat Page once the change had been finalized.

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