Trinette stood with the other first years, their insides jumping while they waited to be sorted into their houses. She played nervously with her frizzy black-hair that had been forced back into a ponytail. Trinette had pale white skin and heavily-lidded eyes and, by looking around, she could see that it was not that normal for everyone to have. She, of course, knew everyone looked different (except for the identical twins that stood next to her) but it made her feel slightly self-conscious.
"I hope what we do to determine our house isn't too hard," one reddish haired boy said suddenly.
"Don't be stupid," a small blonde-haired boy, who had been standing in front of Trinette, said. He turned around and scowled. "It's just a hat they put on your head." The reddish-haired boy gasped. The blonde-haired boy leaned back and looked Trinette up and down. She noticed that he too had pale white skin. "I hate it when Mudbloods gets mixed into us," he sneered. Trinette, however, took no notice to this. She firstly had no idea what a Mudblood was and secondly the doors that stood in front of the group had opened and standing in the threshold was a tall, muscular man with black hair and a round face.
"First years!" he said happily. Everyone's attention was on him. "I'm Professor Longbottom. Before you take your seats in the Great Hall, you'll need to be sorted. There are four houses, Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff and Slytherin. Each will be explained further when you enter, but we're ready for the sorting, if you'll just follow me …"
Walking into the room that was called the Great Hall was even more nerve-racking for Trinette than standing with the other first years. All the eyes were on the group of new students entering the room. Trinette tried to hide herself in the crowd but it seemed that everyone around was about her height or shorter. It seemed to take and hour before they actually stopped. Professor Longbottom was holding an old, ripped pointed hat in his hands and placing it on the stool. Trinette looked around and noticed that everyone's eyes were on the hat. So she turned back and once she did, a rip closer to the bottom opened up into a mouth and the hat began to sing.
"I am out here today to tell
A story every first year ought to know,
Of the four founders who founded
This school, Hogwarts, long ago.
This school was made for magic,
And in high hopes of being the best,
And with Gryffindor, Slytherin, Ravenclaw and Hufflpuff,
They were sure to beat the rest.
But Gryffindor wanted to teach the brave,
Who could win every dangerous feud.
Slytherin preferred the ones of long lines,
The witches and wizards of pure blood.
Ravenclaw wanted her students sharp,
And sure to please with their intellect.
While Hufflepuff said anyone who possessed,
For magic in each student is what each of them'd expect.
And although they're ideas were different,
And caused a few unwelcome riots,
Each of the founders benefited,
With their own house composed of their finest.
But when each founder had lived theirs lives,
And decided to move from the school,
Gryffindor knew something was needed
To continue with their house-picking rules.
So he took his hat right off his head,
Yes, this hat was me.
And Gryffindor put a spell so that
It is your minds that I see.
I'll tell you what house suits you best,
With your traits, and for some, a talk,
And then I'll say the name of the house,
To that table to you will walk.
Do not fear, come right up
And place me on your head,
Don't try to hide for it's impossible,
Well, that is, unless you're dead."
There was a silence in the Great Hall for a moment but it was broken soon enough by the applause of hundreds of hands. Trinette could hear the other first years whispering what house they wanted to be in and, from what she heard, most of them wanted to be in Gryffindor. 'I want Gryffindor too, then,' she thought, not wanting to be different from anyone else.
"First years, when I call out your name, please come up here. I will place the hat on your head and you will be sorted," Professor Longbottom announced, unraveling a scroll he had been holding in his hand. He cleared his throat and said the first name, "Aslini, Christine." A short, thin girl with long brown hair nervously made her way through the crowd passing Trinette. Trinette could hear her inhaling and exhaling rapidly as if she had just run a mile. When Christine reached the front, Professor Longbottom placed the hat on her head and almost immediately the hat hollered to the hall, "Ravenclaw!" and Christine hurried toward the table on the far right full of applauding students.
It seemed like forever until Trinette was called. The blonde boy had still not been called up and a few other people. Trinette could not help realizing that only one person had been sorted into Slytherin as of that time—a taller, thin girl with black hair that went by the name of Susanna Goyle. Trinette found herself not wanting to be put into Slytherin more and more. The twins beside her were called up, one by one, and both were sorted into Hufflepuff. Professor Longbottom looked down at the scroll to call the next name, but it was as if his voice had left him. His eyes were widened and his skin had suddenly turned pale. Realizing that he was staring at the name for far too long, he managed to say the next name in a quiet and stuttered voice, "Le-Lestrange, T-Trinette." Gasps of horror echoed the hall. Some people even booed or hollered at Trinette as she walked up hesitantly. If there was anywhere she didn't want to be, it was there. She didn't understand why everyone didn't seem to like her already, without even knowing her. When she sat down on the stool, she looked up questioningly to Professor Longbottom, but he was quiet and wearing a serious and somewhat angry expression. Trinette looked out to the Great Hall. No one seemed to want her up there...no one but one. The blonde haired boy was smiling at her so intensely it was as if he couldn't hold in his excitement.
Professor Longbottom placed the Sorting Hat on Trinette's head and, with it barely touching her, it hollered, "Slytherin!" A tear trickled down Trinette's face as she walked to the un-applauding table of mean looking people, who looked meaner with their somewhat disapproving expressions. She had thought would be a great to go to Hogwarts, to escape the Smiths—the non-wizarding family that had taken her in after the disappearance of her real family ten years previous—and to be normal for once, not the freaky girl who could levitate when she was happy or make clouds appear above other people's heads when she was in a bad mood, but clearly she was wrong. Hogwarts was not as great as she thought it would be.
When she took her seat at the table, the blonde boy was called up.
"Malfoy, Scorpius" Professor Longbottom called, now sounding slightly cruel. But it didn't seem that Scorpius noticed because while he walked up, he was still smiling. Professor Longbottom barely placed the hat on his head when it hollered, "Slytherin!" just as fast as it had for Trinette. Scorpius jogged to the Slytherin tabled and jumped into the seat beside Trinette. "You're my cousin!" he exclaimed. Trinette looked at him strangely. Scorpius must have noticed because he began to explain. "Well, second-cousin, actually. You're Bellatrix's daughter and I'm her sister's, Narcissa, son's, Draco, child. But, I'm sure you knew all that. I wonder why we haven't met…"
"Um," Trinette said quietly in an unsteady voice. She was still upset about being put in Slytherin. "What are you talking about? Bellatrix? Narcissa? Draco?"
Scorpius looked at Trinette as if she was stupid for a moment, but then shook his head and smiled, explaining further. "Draco is my father who is the son of Narcissa who is the sister of Bellatrix who is your mother."
"But, I don't know my mother, how would you?" Trinette asked. Scorpius scoffed muttering something that sounded like, 'I suppose every family's got an idiot.' Trinette ignored him and looked at the two first years that remained. It seemed that while Scorpius was talking to her two others were sorted. She looked up at Professor Longbottom who beamed as he said the next name, "Potter, Albus Severus." A nervous black-haired boy walked up to the stool. His eyes went to the table of Gryffindor and fixed directly on a boy that looked very similar to him, although his hair was less messy. He smiled weakly at this boy, Trinette assumed it was his brother, and then waited patiently for Professor Longbottom to place the Sorting Hat on his head. Once the hat was on, it stayed on for a while. Trinette could see Albus Severus talking to the hat. It seemed like forever for the hat to come to its descision. Trinette knew where Albus Severus was going, to Gryffindor with his brother. It made sense to her that they did.
"Slytherin!" the hat hollered. A gasp echoed through the Great Hall—but not a terrified one like with Trinette, this gasp was made in surprise. Albus Severus slid off the stool, nodded to Professor Longbottom, and then headed to the table of applauding Slytherins, each step hitting the marble floor hard. The only person not clapping was Scorpius who had, it seemed, decided to pay attention while Albus Severus walked to their table and shout out, "A Potter? In Slytherin? This school's going mad!" Trinette gave him a harsh glare and applauded louder for Albus Severus who slumped into the seat beside her (edging away when he noticed who it was) and buried his head in his arms. Trinette looked across the hall the see the boy he had been looking at, his brother she assumed, looking shocked.
"Weasley, Rose," Professor Longbottom said the last name, throwing the scroll aside in disappointment. He picked up the hat and placed it on a girl with red bushy hair forced into two braids and a freckled face. She paid no attention to Professor Longbottom, her eyes were on the boy who had just slumped down beside Trinette with a look of sympathy on her face.
"AH! ANOTHER WEASLY!" the hat said loudly, scaring the girl so much that she looked up at the hat on her head. "It's obvious, this choice—Gryffindor!"
Rose bounced off the stool, looked at Albus Severus for a moment, and then ran off to the Gryffindor table.
"The sorting is completed," Professor Longbottom said in monotone voice, "Please turn your attention to the Headmistress." With that he walked behind the table where all the teachers sat and took a seat beside a bleach-blonde hair woman wearing silver robes that stood up.
"Welcome," she said in a calm voice, smiling slightly. Trinette couldn't help but notice the radish earrings on her ears. "I do hope that the Nargles did not ruin your journey here—I've found them quite bothersome during this time of year. I am Luna Lovegood, your Headmistress otherwise known as Professor Loony for a reason most of the students know. You may call me whatever you like, students, as long as there is 'Professor' before it. I would love to ask how each of your summers has been this year but that would take too long and I'm afraid our Invisible Warncarts hunt in the later hours of the night."
It was clear that no one had any idea of what she was talking about, but Professor Loony continued.
"I would like to touch upon the rules that our caretaker has left us but no one listens to them anyways so there's really no point," she said. A balding man that sat at the end of the table scowled at the Headmistress. "Oh, here come our ghosts." Trinette thought that she was just speaking nonsense again, but it was true. Nearly transparent shapes floated around the Great Hall.
"It's the Bloody Baron!" Scorpius exclaimed, pointing to a ghost brandishing a sword with silver bloodstains all over his front. Trinette shivered a bit at his appearance. The Baron took a seat beside Albus Severus who still had his head buried in his arms.
"And without further ado, let us eat!" Professor Loony announced and the plates, platters and goblets in front of them filled with food and drink and everyone began to eat.