Professor McGonagall adjusted her square glasses and unrolled the parchment scroll.
"When I call your name, you will sit down on the stool and put on the Sorting Hat. Abbott, Hannah."
"Bones, Susan."
"Bullstrode, Millicent."
"Darling, Joshua."
"Finch-Fletchley, Justin."
"Harridan, Shelley."
Professor McGonagall paused and frowned. Something was not right about the next student's name.
The Great Hall waited patiently. At the seventh-year's Hufflepuff table, someone coughed dryly into their fist.
Suddenly, the professor's eyes flashed wide open behind her glasses, and two high spots of color bloomed on her withered cheeks.
"Oh my," she murmured. "Well, nothing to be done."
Then, taking in a deep chestful of air, she called out:
"Hooch, Gamma!"
There was a ponderous silence in the Hall as the girl went to perch on the Sorting Stool and then, inexplicably, the teachers' table erupted in clumsily suppressed snickers.