The Children of Atum

Sorry that this took so long, I have written this chapter twice now as I lost the first copy… not really sure how? This version turned out much different then the first but I like it better!
I just want to clarify something that came up in a review, this is still mostly SS/HP, but there will be lots of other pairings (mostly with HP in them), including a few threesomes/moresomes with SS and HP and other characters.
A big thank you to all my reviewers and readers, now on with the story, I hope you like it.

Last time
Draco pouted unhappily before rising and allowing himself to fall back on the member, squeaking as the large cock hit his prostate. Severus guided the boy to rise again and moved him up and down on his member, grunting, trying to deny himself his own orgasm. He reached down again to stroke Draco and grinned as the boy screamed his completion, clamping onto Severus’ erection and forcing his own orgasm to shoot deeply into the boy, holding back the name on his lips which was not ‘Draco’.

Chapter 11: Hogwarts

Eleven year old Harry Potter made his way through the throng of people in Kings Cross Station towards platforms nine and ten, he had a large trunk, that looking very ordinary actually had several compartments for his books and things he didn’t want others to know about, and a golden cage with a Snowy Owl resting inside. The owl, that he had named Hegwig, was a gift from Hagrid, he had decided to take her instead of Sehkmet, his kneezle, as she was getting quite old and it would arouse unwanted questions if “muggle raised” Harry Potter had a magical pet.

Harry watched a red headed family, ’Weasleys’, he thought, approach the barrier between platforms nine and ten before slipping through one at a time, the mother looking around nervously as if searching for someone, hesitating before finally entering herself. Harry wondered if she was looking for him, Hagrid hadn’t told Harry how to get to Platform 9 and ¾, and Harry was sure that it had been on purpose. Perhaps so that he would have to ask for help, no doubt the Weasley matriarch had been told to help the boy. The Weasleys were devoted supporters of Dumbledore, with several children around Harry’s age, no doubt they would be “suitable companions” for a lost and overwhelmed boy saviour.

Nervously arranging his hair to hide his scar the boy pushed his way over to the portal and slipped through, he hated crowds and the noise and bustle of the station was unnerving him. He made his way onto the train, struggling to pull his trunk along behind him.

He was stopped by a familiar blonde, “Harry, you made it”, he grinned.

“Good to see you too Draco”, he replied, “little help?” he asked motioning to his trunk.

The boy snorted and called behind him, “Crabbe, Goyle, give us a hand.”

Two large boys exited a nearby compartment and with a gesture from Draco, picked up the trunk and cage and brought them into the room. Draco grinned again, bowing slightly giving a haughty, “After you” and pushed Harry in after them.

“Harry these are some of my friends, Blaize Zabini, Daphne Greengrass, Gregory Goyle and Vincent Crabbe. Everyone this is my new friend Harry, Harry Potter.” Harry blushed at the startled stares he received from around the room, ducking his head he moved slightly behind the blonde boy, glad for his slight stature.

“You want this halfbl…” Daphne started but was cut-off by the glare she received from Draco, “this boy to ride with us?”

“Yes” the Malfoy heir replied with a tone of finality, giving the girl a look to say she should shut up, “he will stay. Now let’s play some Exploding Snap.” Draco sat next to Daphne, pulling Harry down to sit beside him, the other three sat across from them, Zabini directly across from Harry.

The six new students shared a pleasant trip to Hogwarts, the five telling Harry all about themselves and their friends, teaching Harry wizarding games and enjoying the snacks they bought from the trolley lady. Harry enjoyed this, finally getting to be a real kid, meeting other children his age, he sat quite close to Draco, drawing strength from his presence, he was really starting to like the boy despite his arrogant pureblood manner. He found he had a strange connection with the quite dark skinned Zabini boy, he thought they could become close friends as well. Daphne was okay once she stopped thinking of Harry as “Harry Potter, the halfblood saviour of the wizarding world”, Crabbe and Goyle were fairly quiet and dull, Harry didn’t think he would have much in common with either of them.

The train finally arrived at Hogsmeade station and the sextet left the train and headed towards the half giant that was calling out for “firs’ years”. They took the small boats across the lake towards Hogwarts, Harry gasping with the others as they caught their first sight of Hogwarts castle; it was breathtaking.

The students entered the small antechamber, Harry once again hiding slightly behind Draco, clutching his hand fiercely as he listened to the other students discuss how they would be sorted. No one knew as it was apparently a tradition not to tell new students. Harry avoided making eye contact with anyone and hid his scar trying to escape recognition.

Finally they entered the great hall and the sorting began. Harry watched as Crabbe, Goyle, Daphne and Draco were all sorted into Slytherin then the inevitable happened and the stern deputy headmistress called out “Potter, Harry”.

Harry stepped forward quickly, and jammed the hat on his head to avoid seeing the mass of students in front of him trying to catch a glimpse of him. He heard whispers and shouts of students, “Potter, did she say?” “The Harry Potter?”

He then felt a brush against his occlumency barriers and heard a chuckle inside his mind, “You’ll have to let me in you know young Harry,” the voice said, “I am the sorting hat and I need to see inside your true mind to sort you properly. Do not worry I am sworn to secrecy about the secrets in students minds.” It assured the boy sensing his unease, Harry cautiously cracked open his shield, just enough and felt the presence slip inside.

“My word, a mas-Bastet, how extraordinary,” the hat chuckled, “and the old coot thought he was getting a powerful warrior, oh this will be fun, but where to put you? The old man wants you in Gryffindor of course but that is not right for you, you are not reckless and single minded and are much too dark for them. Not Hufflepuff either you are loyal but only to power and those who you deem worthy. You could be a Ravenclaw but I think Slytherin is best for you, I see you have already met many of them and you know the head of house all ready. Hmmm… but you are so far ahead of the others, you won’t truly reach your potential just thrown in with the rest… I expect great things from you Harry Potter, and you will achieve them as…Slytherin’s Apprentice” it said, shouting the last bit to the stunned hall. The silence quickly erupted into shouts: “Slytherin?”, “Apprentice?”, “What the hell does that mean?”

Harry dithered for a moment, unsure what to make of this and where to sit until the hat piped up again, “Sit with the Slytherin’s Harry, you are a Slytherin, just not a standard one.”

Harry scrambled over and took a seat next to Draco, shrugging his shoulders at the questioning looks he received from his new friends; he didn’t know what any of it meant. The hall was silenced by loud noise issuing from Dumbledore’s wand.

“Please we must continue with the sorting. I will reveal more about Apprentice Potter’s unique situation later.” the old man called out to the hall, “Professor if you would” he said to the ashen faced head of Gryffindor, motioning for her to continue. Minerva had been sure that Harry Potter would be one of her students and now he had to put up with Severus who was sure to make the boy’s life miserable.

Albus Dumbledore’s serene mask hid his inner fury and turmoil, how could that blasted hat go against his direct order and place the boy in Slytherin, and why would he make him an Apprentice instead of a student. This gave Severus much more control over the boy then he would like, the man had succumbed to the dark side once, what was stopping him from falling again and dragging the boy with him? Albus knew he would have to be extra vigilant and perhaps Severus’ hatred for his father would ensure that he hated the boy and made his life miserable. This in fact could help his plan… yes this would work. The man smiled, yes this would work for the best and the boy would be his to control. Perhaps he would strike a bargain with the boy in a few years’ time and work out how to transfer Harry from Snape to himself. He was a Slytherin after all, the boy could be his apprentice, yes that would be perfect. A plan in mind Albus settled back to watch the end of the sorting.

Harry cheered with the rest of the students as Blaise was sorted into Slytherin as well thus ending the sorting before the head master stood again to utter some nonsense words before the food appeared. Harry had fun meeting more of his year mates at the feast and they all wondered about the apprenticeship and what it meant. Harry made sure to spread the lies about his growing up with muggles and learning about magic in secret.

Finally the feast ended and Dumbledore stood a third time to give general announcements including that the third floor corridor on the left hand side was out of bounds, this naturally peaking Harry’s ever present curiosity, and requesting that Harry come to the head table before dismissing the other students.

Harry left his new-found friends to meet with the headmaster, double and triple checking his occlumency barriers and fake memories and reinforcing his “bewildered muggle-raised” persona.

At Dumbledore’s request he followed the aging man along with most of the teaching staff up through various hallways and staircases before stopping in front of an ugly stone gargoyle and then proceeding up a turning staircase into a warm over-stuffed office. The man settled behind an immense desk, placing the sorting hat upon it and motioned for the others to take a seat.

“Now”, he said addressing the hat, “please explain why you sorted Mister Potter so.”

“Apprentice Potter is quite a unique individual” the hat said stressing the word ‘unique’ and looking intensely, as intensely as a hat can anyway, at the headmaster, “he is quite intelligent and fast learning, he already has a great deal of knowledge about magic and is simply too advanced to enter into first year. He thrives when working on his own at his own pace and will only be held back by being with the other students.”

“So we are making exceptions for Potter’s again,” Severus muttered, “typical.”

Dumbledore glanced warningly at his potions master before looking towards Harry, “Harry, my boy, how is it that you have learned so much about magic?”

“Well… I found some books when I was little… they had my mo… mother’s name on them” Harry said in a quiet, timid voice, intentionally stumbling over the mention of his mother, “I hid them, and read them in my cupboard… I mean in my room. There was lots of books on all these really weird topics, I realised that they were magic, so I asked Uncle Vernon about magic and he hit… he told me that there was no such thing as magic, but I read them anyway, I knew he was lying. I didn’t understand them at first and I only read them because I didn’t know anything about my mum but…“, he trailed off.

“That’s okay Harry,” the old man sighed, “tell me what the books were on? How many of them were there?”

“Well I realised they were school books, there was the ‘Standard Book of Spells’ grades 1 to 7, as well as a bunch on Transfiguration, Defence against the Dark Arts, Potions, Herbology, Astronomy, History, Ancient Runes and Arithmancy as well as a few others like ‘Hogwarts a History’. It took a while to work out what was what and what order to read them in but I worked it out.”

“You read them all?” gasped Professor McGonagall, Harry merely nodded at this, “and you understood them?”

“I... I think so”, he replied.

“Hmph, what would you get if you added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?” Severus asked the boy acerbically as if he didn’t believe the boy could answer.

“Draught of Living Death, sir?”

“Where would you look if I asked you to find me a bezoar?”

“The stomach of a goat, sir”

“What’s the difference between monkshood and…”

“Really Severus, that’s enough, you can see the boy has read the books, you will get to test him properly later” interrupted McGonagall.

Severus Snape’s outward mask of distain showed nothing of his inner thoughts; he knew the boy would be able to answer the questions, they merely reinforced both their roles. He was astounded at how well the brat was playing the staff. Dropping just enough hints at abuse, being timid and answering their questions without allowing the truth to show through.

“I tried doing the spells when I was little but couldn’t ever get them to work, I realised I wasn’t magical like my mother obviously was, but I studied the books anyway… I didn’t realise you needed a wand”, the boy continued smiling sadly, “once I got my wand a tried them again and got heaps to work. I was so surprised when I got my letter, that I really was magical like my mother. I only found out about my scar and how my parents really died when I met Hagrid.”

Harry hid a smile as he heard the gasps from around the room at this admission, the plan was working, he glanced up at the teachers, noticing the slightly glassy eyes and maternal protective looks especially in Minerva McGonagall’s eyes. ‘Gottcha’, he thought, grinning inwardly.

“Now Harry,” the headmaster admonished, “it’s illegal to do magic out of school until your sixteen.”

“Oh… I… I’m sorry. I didn’t know, I promise!” Harry said desperately, wide eyes looking around frantically, “Don’t send me away, I don’t want to go back, I’m sorry… please…”

“Shh…” the stern Transfiguration teacher said, stepping towards Harry and kneeling down to be on eye level, “it’s okay, we aren’t sending you anywhere, this is your place, you belong here. Just promise you won’t do it again and it will be okay.” Harry nodded at this so she continued, “May I hug you Harry?”

He nodded again and allowed the teacher to wrap her arms around him, comforting him from his supposed terror. He knew that they would never send him away, he was too important to Dumbledore, but the act would only help his case.

“There you go,” the woman whispered to him, “are you okay now?”

He nodded again, raising his tear streaked face to her and smiling, he whispered back to her, “Thank you.”

She nodded and retook her seat.

‘Well…” the headmaster continued, clearly rattled at Harry’s response to his statement, “yes, Harry, it’s okay, we will have to test where you are up to in order to determine what classes you’ll attend, you will not go to classes tomorrow, instead come up to the head table after breakfast and we will discuss it. Now I’m sure Professor Snape will want to get down to the Slytherin dorm to meet his new students, then he will show you to your rooms. There will be a new room added to Professor Snape’s quarters and that is where you will be staying as his apprentice.”

“Really now, shouldn’t he sleep with the other first years? I’ll not have a Potter in my rooms.” The dark man said, keeping up his act.

“Severus he is for all intensive purposes your apprentice, he will stay in your rooms as is in your contract”, the headmaster rebuked, “you must get over your animosity for James Potter and accept Harry as he is, not as James’ son.”

The man sneered at Dumbledore before standing and sweeping from the room, not waiting for the boy to follow him.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Parts of this chapter were taken from Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone pages 67 - 95 and 102 - 103 of the Australian paperback edition.

Had an odd thought while writing this, should Harry experiment with girls in this story? If so they would likely have to be dominant. I was thinking maybe Daphne or random older Sytherin or maybe Fleur Delacor during the triwizard tornament…? Tell me what you think, would you like to see some het? Perhaps it could involve another guy as well… maybe Draco might convince Harry to have a go???? Let me know your thoughts.

As always read and review please please please please please!!!!

Love always, MeToo