Just another fanfic

The little boy woke up in a cold sweat. There was that dream again. He was in a large hall, sitting on a chair, in front of hundreds of boys and girls. He was wearing a tattered hat and the hat was speaking to him. 
From the corner of his eye he could see his cousins Bella and Narcy looking at him with great pride. Being older they had told him hundreds of things they wanted him to know, see and understand about the new school. They said they would take him around and introduce him to their friends. They had even saved a chair for him at their table.
The boy could not bear to look at them. He did not want to sit at their table or get to know their friends. He disliked their conversations about how superior they were when compared to the rest of the children in the school. And how old and illustrious their family was, and how much it had contributed to the magical world. He found their bragging tiresome. He hoped and hoped that he would not have to sit at their table for the next seven years. And just when he thought the hat would be kind to him, the blessed thing had belted out, Slyyyyyy… jolting him out of his nightmare. No, no, not again he wished fervently.
***
The next few days were his last at home. Much of his time was spent in packing his belongings.. He looked at his oversized trunk. It was bursting at the seams. Several of his uncles and aunts and extended family members had sent him gifts, which were now stuffed into his trunk. After all he was the oldest son of an important family going away to the most prestigious school in the country. Everyone expected great things from him.
***
The train ride with his cousins was a blur. He pretended to sleep through out the day to escape their chatter.
The destination arrived, all too soon and he was back into his nightmare in the big hall, sitting on a chair, in front of hundreds of other boys and girls. He sat still, closed his eyes tight, held his breath and waited for the blow.
The hat, on the other hand, cocked its head, smiled through the tear near its mouth, rocked this way and that and finally shouted for the entire magical world to hear – GRYFINNNNNNDORRRRR!
***
It would be more than two decades later that Dumbledore would explain the mystery of what happened that night, and many other such nights, to his Godson “It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.”