------------
If you enjoy please support me on my patreon Future 80+ chapters at patreon.com/Phoenizbeelze
-----
McGonagall gasped and unintentionally dropped the hat right on Harry's head.
'Hmm' The hat's voice echoed into Harry's head 'difficult, very difficult, plenty of courage I see. Not a bad mind either, there's talent, lots of that. Lots and lots of that. Hmm, you have no real ambitions but that does not mean you aren't cunning and you can be ambitious when you have a good enough goal. Loyalty? Hmm, as of right now your loyalty extends to three living beings, one of which is a bird.'
'Hey, that is a smart bird, thank you very much' Harry mentally replied 'he makes for better conversation than most the idiots I have to deal with'
'Yes, yes' The hat chuckled 'that is true, that much is very true. Ah, let me continue here, I see intelligence. Lots of it, witty, sarcastic, strength gained from your own imagination. Hmm, what a delightfully interesting mind you have Mr Potter. Tell me Mr Potter, if I offered you a choice then where would you go?'
'Ravenclaw' Harry answered 'from what I understand they have their own rooms and they would be likely to bother me less than the other houses or learn to not bother me faster than the other houses. Besides, if I have to be here then I am going to learn as much as I can and where better to do that than the house of knowledge?'
'Good points' The house agreed 'however, I will ask one last time, are you sure? You could be great in the other houses as well'
'Maybe but there's one crucial thing that you've forgotten that will cement my reason for being in Ravenclaw'
'What's that?'
'I own a raven' A silence fell amongst the two for several minutes, Harry was beginning to wonder if he had perhaps broken the hat somehow. Ah well, as long as he didn't have to pay for it.
"Ha" The hat began laughing out loud, surprising everyone in the hall "I like you Potter, have fun in RAVENCLAW!"
"This is yours" Harry handed McGonagall the hat as he stood up and made his way to the Ravenclaw table while shoving his mask into one of his pockets. He sat down, doing hid best to ignore the rather obvious stares coming from everyone else.
The Slytherins were surprised, they had expected Harry Potter to be a typical Gryffindor, instead they got a damaged Ravenclaw. The Hufflepuff's didn't seem to mind that he was in Ravenclaw, though they were still surprised by his face. The Gryffindor's were divided between being shocked by his face and horrified by the fact that Harry Potter wasn't a Gryffindor. Meanwhile, the Ravenclaw's were ecstatic at having the boy-who-lived be part of their house, so much so that they temporarily forgot about his face. After a few minutes, McGonagall gave Dumbledore a glare that translated into 'we WILL be talking later' before clearing her throat and continuing. Until she reached the only other name that interested the headmaster
"Delphi Riddle" McGonagall said, Dumbledore's eyes widened as he saw a young girl make her way to the stool and sit on it, a few minutes later the hat shouted out "RAVENCLAW!" His eyes widened further when he saw the girl sit opposite Harry Potter like they were old friends.
What on earth was happening?! Dumbledore didn't know Tom had a daughter, though now that he thought about it he had heard some rumors regarding Tom and Mrs Lestrange. Unfortunately he spent so much time worrying about Harry that he didn't think about any other kids.
Speaking of Harry, this Harry was very different from what Dumbledore had imagined. Now that he had a clear chance to see the boy's face, he quickly memorised as much of it as he could. Harry still had the Potter hair that was present in both his father and his grandfather, his eyes were also the same as his mothers. That was fine, Dumbledore expected that. What he didn't expect was the burn mark on Harry's face, nor the claw marks. What on earth had happened to damage the boy so much?
Hmm, perhaps he should have Madam Pomphrey take a look at him. Yes, it might even improve their relationship if he got her to heal his face. The poor boy must have suffered so much, it tore at Dumbledore's heartstrings but what was done is done. All he can do now is plan for the future, hmm, he should probably look into what happened with the Dursleys while he was free. He had gotten so busy and lost in his thoughts about Harry that he forgotten to do that.
"I'm proud of you Harry" Delphi whispered to Harry "I'm glad you took that mask off"
"I was thinking about it" Harry said in a soft voice "and I realised something, I don't need that mask anymore. It was going to come off sooner or later, I wore it when I was weak. But now, now I'm not weak anymore, I don't need it."
"E...excuse me" A voice interrupted, the pair turned to see a Chinese girl looking at them "Uh...hi, I'm Cho...Cho Chang"
"Is that Cho-Cho Chang or just Cho Chang?" Harry asked and if it wasn't for his voice than Cho might've thought that he was making fun of her
"Uh...just Cho Chang but you can call me Cho. I just wanted to say welcome to Ravenclaw"
"Thank you" Delphi smiled
"And uh..." Cho continued nervously "if...if you want...you could probably see Madam Pomphrey, she's the school nurse. She can fix pretty much anything from broken bones to scars in like a day. I don't mean to be rude or anything but..."
"It's alright, I understand" Harry nodded reassuringly
"So...what happened to your face?" Another girl asked out of the blue and the whole table turned to look at them
"Marietta!" Cho scolded the girl
"What?" The girl asked, unsure about why she was being yelled at "just tell us Potter" The girl demanded
"I could recreate what happened with you if you're really that curious to know" Harry said, his eyes narrowing on the girl like she was a bug he was about to squash
"Hey! I..."
"Sorry" Cho cut Marietta off "about her" She said to Harry
"Don't bother apologising for other people, you'll be here all day" Harry said as he continued eating
"Ha" Delphi snorted "glad to know that you still have your sense of humor"
"Do you two know each other?" One Ravenclaw asked
"I'm his carer" Delphi smirked
"Yes, she cares so I don't have to" Harry replied
"Plus, he's pretty useless without me" Delphi added, sending Harry a grin
"You can spend the next month doing homework on your own" Harry said as he ignored the fact that her grin was replaced with a face filled with horror
"You wouldn't!" She blurted out
"Do you want to test that out?" Harry raised an eyebrow
"I'll behave" Delphi said in a quiet voice. Any further response was cut off by the sound of a birds wings, everyone looked up to see a black raven fly down and land on Harry's shoulder
"Hello boy" Harry said, his calmness and lack of surprise showed he didn't see this as anything out of the ordinary "are you hungry?" The raven nodded and Harry fed him some food from his plate
"Hello Raven" Delphi greeted the bird
"Who is that?" A boy, Terry Boot, asked
"This is Harry's Raven" Delphi answered
"What is he called?" Cho asked while her friend looked at the raven with disgust
"Raven" Harry answered
"You...named him Raven?" Cho asked with disbelief
"I never claimed to be creative" Harry said with a slight shrug
"Why on earth would you keep that thing when you could have an owl?" Marietta said, only to be met with two glares, one of which came from Raven
"He's cooler" Harry said and Raven raised his head in agreement
"Debatable" Marietta sniffed
"Besides, I'd think that as ravens, he'd be welcome here" Harry sniffed right back
"Well, we're technically called eagles" Cho pointed out
"What?" Harry's head snapped to Cho's direction "Why?"
"Don't know" She shrugged "but we're called eagles"
"But it's Ravenclaw" Harry pointed out in a confused voice "why are we called eagles?"
"You do realise that the Ravenclaw symbol is an eagle?" Another Ravenclaw said, Harry looked down at his badge
"So it is" He said with surprise in his voice "does the eagle have raven claws?"
"Uh...don't think so"
"Well that's just false advertising bullshit" Harry replied and a few people gasped at his choice of language
"Language" One member scolded
"Most of my face is hideously ruined and I will have to deal with people grilling me about that for the next few years. I chose my house for the next few years, in a school that I was basically forced to come to, based on an animal, only to find it's named after the wrong fucking animal. What makes you think that I care about language?"
"Just give him a night, he'll get over it" Delphi assured the rest of the table "Harry, eat your food, you'll better". Harry returned to eating, all the while mumbling about being false advertisements and killing the first person who referred to him as an eagle
"You do know that we use Eagle and Raven interchangeably?" One Ravenclaw said
"So I could be called either?" Harry asked
"Yes" The Ravenclaw nodded
"Oh brilliant" Harry said before he continued to eat, either unaware or purposefully ignoring the incredulous looks from the rest of his house mates.
------------
If you enjoy please support me on my patreon Future 80+ chapters at patreon.com/Phoenizbeelze
-----