The Sorting Hat

His anger had receded slightly by the time he rejoined the rest of the first years. Professor Slughorn had apparently finished with them as he was now chatting with a nearby ghost. Alex walked through the crowd trying to spot Hermione among all the groups of people chatting. Most seemed either nervous or excited based on their quick manner of speech.

            “Alex!” He heard her voice calling from behind him.  He turned and saw Hermione standing next to another boy. The boy looked rather nervous when he saw Alex walking towards them. Hermione, on the other hand, was looking extremely relieved.

            “I didn’t think you were going to make it!” She exclaimed. “We’re just getting ready to head into the Great Hall. What did your dad want?”

Alex glanced hesitantly at the boy standing next to Hermione. She seemed to notice the apprehension Alex showed. “Oh sorry Alex, this is Edward. Edward, this is Alex.” They shook hands, but neither of them seemed to be too thrilled about the situation.     

            “You can trust him Alex. We’ve been talking since professor Slughorn finished with us. He’s really nice.

Edward seemed a little uncomfortable at the praise he was receiving. Hermione may trust him, but Alex certainly wasn’t going to start talking about his father in front of him.

            “I’ll tell you later” he finally said to her. She looked disappointed but let it go.

            “Edward here was just telling me about his family.” Hermione said.

Edward looked at Hermione mentioning this and excused himself muttering something about looking for someone.

Hermione just stared at him confused, but Alex was used to people reacting like that around him. When your dad is famous, people just see you as an extension of him, like and extra arm or leg.

          

  His thoughts were cut short as professor Slughorn finally called out, “Ok everybody please form a single file line behind me please.”

All the first years rushed to line up behind Slughorn, anxious from waiting around. Alex jumped in line behind Hermione and the first years were led into the Great Hall. The chatter of the older students died down as the procession of first years made their way down the isle. Alex felt exposed standing in between the four house tables. He didn’t like the way that they were all staring expectantly at the group. He had enough stares today to fill an entire year. Alex looked up to the professor’s table and saw his father making his way across to the headmaster’s spot. He had his normal grouchy scowl across his face. One of the first years tripped and fell face first one the floor. The entire hall erupted into a chorus of laughter. The boy who tripped got up looking very red in the face.

         

   “Enough!” Came the familiar voice from the professor’s table. The entire hall died down abruptly at the sound of his father’s voice. Alex’s dad had that effect on people. He wasn’t a particularly big person, however, he looked as intimidating as a person could get. He turned towards one of the professors sitting next to him.

           

  “Well, what are you waiting for professor Moonstone?” His father said curtly.

The other wizard seem to not notice the rudeness in which he was addressed, because he smiled at Alex’s dad warmly and then moved around front of the table. Alex had met most of the teachers that worked at Hogwarts, but this professor Moonstone was new. He had not been at Hogwarts the previous year. Alex didn’t know anything about him and Alex hated not knowing things.

 Professor Moonstone brought out an old looking box from underneath the table. Alex recognized it even before the professor brought out the old decrepit looking hat. It looked like the hat had once been a rich brown color, but over the years the color had dulled and faded. It now resembled something you might find in a dumpster. Several first years gasped as the hat parted along the front above the brim to form a mouth. The group of new students looked at the hat expectantly, but the other students just chuckled like it was a joke. The old hat opened its mouth to speak. The first years that had been taken by surprise leaned forward in anticipation. The hat heaved a great sigh and muttered dejectedly, “Let’s get this over with.”

Professor Moonstone smiled at the hat and muttered sarcastically, “Inspiring”. He then unrolled a large scroll and started reading off the list of first years to come up. 

“Abbot, Lucas”. A timid looking boy walked up to the hat and sat down. Moonstone placed the hat on his head and after a second it said unenthusiastically, “Hufflepuff”.

The students seemed to try to make up for the hat’s lack of energy by cheering twice as loud themselves. Lucas Abbot, who probably never had this many people looking at him, turned a deep shade of scarlet and made his way towards the Hufflepuff table. One by one the names were rattled off. Professor Moonstone called out “Carmichael, Edward”. The boy who Hermione had been talking to before walked up to the sorting hat. It was placed on his head and after a few seconds the hat said, “Ravenclaw”. Moonstone seemed to smile a little more at Edward than the others before him. More and more people were sorted into their houses. Alex had been zoning out until the next name woke him up.

“Granger, Hermione”

Hermione glanced nervously back at Alex who tried to give her a brave smile. He was probably just as nervous as she was. He knew that she didn’t want to be sorted into Slytherin, but a small selfish part of him still wished that she would be. People spent the majority of their time with people in their own houses. You could still have friends from other houses, but your best friends were generally from your own house. Hermione was shaking slightly as she sat on the stool. She was so nervous that she almost fell off before catching herself. The hat was lowered onto her head and she closed her eyes in anticipation. A few seconds passed by and the hat had still not called out a house. Hermione opened her eyes and looked terrified that it wasn’t going to call out a house at all. The hat scrunched up like it was making a very difficult decision, but finally it popped up and said, “Ravenclaw!” The hat seemed to say her name with a little more enthusiasm. She smiled at Alex and rushed over to the Ravenclaw table where she sat next to the Edward boy.

        

    Alex knew that it was a long shot, but actually seeing it happen left him with a sinking feeling in his stomach. He chided himself for even letting himself have any hope of her being in Slytherin. You could talk to her for a minute and know she didn’t belong in the Slytherin house. Alex on the other hand, had Slytherin blood. His father was a Slytherin and so was his grandmother.

        

    Alex tried to pay attention as the sorting was proceeding, but he kept stealing glances over at the Ravenclaw table where Hermione and Edward were talking and laughing together. Alex tried to ignore the knot in his stomach that felt like jealousy. On and on the ceremony went. A boy named Longbottom to Gryffindor and an Ernie Macmillan to Hufflepuff. He heard the name “Malfoy, Draco” called out. Alex recognized the name, as the Malfoys were close friends of his father’s. The hat had barely touched the boy’s head before it called out Slytherin.

        

    Great, Alex thought. This arrogant, self-entitled kid was going to be in his house. Who knows, maybe him and Draco will become best friends and they can go terrorizing muggles together. That’s seems like a blast. Now Alex was really dreading his name being called. Finally, a couple minutes later, he heard professor Moonstone call out, “Snape, Alexander”. The conversations that had broken out between the students had suddenly died out. Even the teachers had stopped talking to watch.

       

     Alex glanced over at Hermione, who gave him a thumbs up. That seemed to give him the confidence to start walking. He made his way towards the hat and happened to glace up at his father. His face was clear of any emotion. It could have been anybody who was just called up by looking at him. He determinedly sat down on the stool ready to accept his fate. Professor Moonstone gave him a sympathetic smile as he lowered the hat onto Alex’s head.

        

    The normally glum hat sprang to life on top of Alex’s head. Students first through seventh year all gasped as if they had never seen the hat act like this.

            “Well now this is quite interesting, quite interesting indeed”. Said the hat curiously. “You have potential in any of the houses. I see the kindness and acceptance of the badger. Yet, there’s the bravery and leadership of the lion. Ah but there’s the determination and blood of the snake”.

There it is thought Alex. He was at least happy to know that it hadn’t immediately put him in Slytherin, as it did with Draco.  Alex was surprised though when the hat continued talking.

            “But most of all I see your intelligence. Not only intelligent, but an open mind as well. Yes, intelligence and wisdom is what you’ll need in the troubling times ahead. It becomes clearer now, yes quite clear. You belong in Ravenclaw!” The hat cried with a triumphant roar.

       

     No applause rang out from the tables. Everybody seemed to be frozen in shock. Alex stood up nervously and started making his way towards the Ravenclaw table. He happened to glace back at the staff table. He couldn’t decipher the look that his father was giving him. It seemed to be a mixture of surprise and amusement. Professor Slughorn, on the other hand, appeared quite disappointed. Finally after traveling a halfway to the table, the Ravenclaw kids seemed to shake off their paralysis and erupted into a roar of applause. He glanced over at Hermione who was standing up clapping, smiling from ear to ear. She made room for him as he sat down next to her. Several of the Ravenclaw kids patted on the back or shook his hand.

            “This is wonderful Alex! I thought for sure you would be put into Slytherin.” She said.

Alex just stared at her dumbstruck. Realization still hadn’t set in for him. He wasn’t in Slytherin? Could this be real? It all seemed like a wonderful dream. That surely wouldn’t last.

            “Alex…..Alex!” he heard Hermione saying somewhere in the back of this head.

He forced his attention back to the present, as Hermione was staring intently at him.

            “What?” Alex muttered, finally snapping out of it.

She smiled and shook her head at him. “I said I’m happy that were in the same house. Aren’t you?”

            “Couldn’t be more” he replied. And he was happy. Actual proper happy for the first time in a while. Suddenly all the bad things that had happened today didn’t seem to matter anymore.

            With all the excitement, Alex had almost forgotten that the ceremony wasn’t over yet. The hat had returned to its monotone, dreary speech.

            “Its rather melancholy isn’t it?” Hermione said.

Alex nodded his head in agreement. The dull, uninspired way the hat talked was somewhere between boring and depressing.

            “I’m confused.” Edward said, who was sitting on Hermione’s other side. “My Gran said that the hat sings.

One of the older students stifled a laugh at Edward’s statement.

            “The Sorting Hat sing? Blimey, first years are stupid.” He was laughing hysterically as he said it. “Does the hat look like it sings mate? Merlin’s beard, that’s the funniest thing I’ve heard all summer. Who ever heard of a singing hat?”

Edward turned red and Alex heard him muttering under his breath. “I always knew Gran was full of rubbish.  As the ceremony went on, people started paying less and less attention. Alex noticed the boy named Ron Weasley was called up and sorted into Gryffindor. The people at the table were too bust talking to clap for him. The two exceptions however, were the twins who both stood up and gave very loud mocking applause for their little brother. There seemed to be a great sigh of relief when the last person was finally sorted. Alex watched as his father stood up and addressed the crowd of students.

“Welcome students to Hogwarts, school of witchcraft and wizardry. My older students are already aware of this, so I am speaking to you new students. I expect proper and dignified behavior as befitting your age. There is no place in this school for childish antics. Anybody found to be breaking school rules shall be punished to the full extent. I expect an uneventful school year and pray that you don’t find yourself in my office.” The older students as well as Alex, were quite bored with the speech as they had heard it multiple times now. A lot of the first years however, seemed genuinely scared of what his father might do.

“Now, I suppose you have noticed that we have a new professor here this year. Professor Moonstone shall be taking over Charms classes as well as heading the Ravenclaw house. Applause sound across the room with much more noise being made at Alex’s table. His father’s voice was drowned out as Alex’s was must more interested in professor Moonstone. Alex wondered the head of his new house was like. He very much looked forward to meeting him and getting a chance to talk to him.

Before he realized, the food was out and being served by house elves. He enjoyed a good meal and great conversation with his new housemates. It was nice to belong somewhere. He never really had that feeling before. All things considered, his first days hadn’t been so bad.

Reviews

[Rudi J.P. Lejaeghere]

Very nice and interesting. Of course as a Harry Potter fan I'm glad Hermione and Alex are in the same house. Tomorrow I will read another chapter. Well done, JB