Short Hogwarts AU Ficlet
Naruto X Hinata
I don't own Naruto or Harry Potter
There are a great many witches and wizards who think that the Sorting Hat chooses far too early, and that eleven is much too young to decide upon a person's fate. After all, they'd say, at that age children have not fully come into their personalities and are not mature enough. They often think that, perhaps, Hogwarts should wait a few years before giving students a house. Granted, even though the topic is one of common conversation, it is rarely seriously considered but by a few.
And yet, it was no doubt the thought that crossed many minds the year the Sorting Hat decided to place the loud mouthed Naruto Uzumaki into Hufflepuff. It was such a shock to everyone, including the little eleven year old blonde that Naruto had all but ripped the hat from his head to scold it for placing him in the "weird" house.
Still many were still willing to brush it off as a small discrepancy had it not, only a few minutes later, placed yet another student in an unusual house by selecting the timid Hinata Hyuuga for Gryffindor. The poor girl fainted upon hearing the news.
"Surely, there was some kind of mistake?" or "Perhaps the hat was going senile in its old age," were the whispers around the Great Hall that night and for weeks, even years afterward. How on Earth could such a blatant mistake have been made for not one, but two students?
But what so many students could not and would not see, were the kind of things that Naruto and Hinata only displayed amongst their friends. They were the little things that the two only really knew about each other. Displaying proudly to each other what their true house colors were.
Hinata, from her first year, had alway seen how well Naruto fit into Hufflepuff. He possessed a dazzling loyalty to his comrades. He was fair and kind. Hinata also knew him to be a hard worker who put all his dedication into his training as well as his friendships. And although he was exorbitant, he was gentle. Especially when he would kiss her in the corridors between classes, making her dizzy from his distinct smell of parchment and Butterbeer.
Of course Naruto easily saw Gryffindor characteristics in Hinata. She was the paramount of chivalry, always willing to put all others before herself. She was courageous and daring, always challenging herself to become better. And Hinata was certainly the bravest person he knew, he'd witnessed it first hand when she'd battled a dark wizard to protect him and nearly losing her life in the process. The moment he realized he loved her…
It took them only a little while at Hogwarts to understand why the Sorting Hat had placed the other where it had. But it took seven years to understand it for themselves (and for the rest of the school to see it too). Seven years of battling, and studying, and laughter, and friendship, and stolen kisses for everyone to see that what is on the outside doesn't always reflect who you are on the inside and that maybe, just maybe, the old Sorting Hat knew what is was doing.
