A/N: Hey guys this is one of the one-shots I guess (?) for my new One Piece Hogwarts!AU series. That basically means there will be no Harry Potter characters in these stories, just the Harry Potter world. This will probably be a series of one shots that have no real order to them but I will put the setting in author's notes at the top for you guys. Hope you enjoy it!
Setting: Luffy's sorting
Disclaimer: I do not own One Piece or Harry Potter.
The large, black haired man ushered the First Years into the entrance hall, conjuring up a few blankets for several boys who had fallen into the lake on the way over. They gazed up around them in awe, taking in the soft glow from the candle light and delighting in hushed whispers as their feet clacked and echoed along the stone slabs of the entrance hall. After making sure they were all there and he hadn't accidentally left someone swimming with the merpeople, Roger smiled at them all and led them over to where a red haired young man was waiting for them.
"Here's the first years for you, Professor Shanks" He chuckled with a teasing glint in his eyes. He still wasn't used to acknowledging his old friend as a professor and he doubted he ever would be.
"Try not to scare them too much, alright?"
"Nah, I'll leave that job up to our favourite pineapple head."
"Be careful now or he'll steal your job away. He already does a better job at it than you anyway."
Shanks laughed at Roger's teasing, noticing how this easy conversation was making the first years relax slightly. Their slightly terrified faces were melting into nervous smiles and hushed giggles. In fact he might have heard a familiar giggle emit from the crowd...
Roger clapped him on the shoulder with a grin and leaned forward to whisper in his ear.
"Yes he's here. But wait until you sort him to greet him. You know Daddy Dragon won't be happy if you keep his son out here longer than he deems necessary."
Shanks laughed softly but agreed, if somewhat reluctantly, to Roger's request. He could just greet his little ball of sunshine when he sorts him.
Shanks waved Roger away, waiting until the older man was in the Great Hall before turning to the first years with an inviting smile.
"Hey there squirts. If you didn't hear the behemoth that brought you guys in, I'm Professor Shanks and I'll be the one overseeing the sorting ceremony. Now for those of you that don't know Hogwarts is split into four different houses: Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. Each house has its own characteristics and values. In your houses you will find lifelong friends and even family sometimes; you can gain points for your house through your studies or through Quidditch games or a number of other ways. But you can also lose points by breaking the rules."
He winked down at the first years.
"But some teachers are more inclined than other to let you get away with something...given the right alibi, evidence, and incentive if you know what I mean."
"Professor Shanks, are you giving the first years a bad impression again, yoi?" Came an unimpressed voice from behind him.
Shanks didn't even bother turning around. It had become a sort of tradition for this brat to sneak into the entrance hall to check on the first years for himself. He had been doing it since his own second year and if Headmaster Whitebeard hadn't stopped him in the years since then there was no real use in trying anymore.
"Hello Marco, shouldn't you be looking after the Ravenclaws? It wouldn't do for a newly made prefect to be seen disregarding the rules."
A fifteen year old boy walked out of the shadows towards the group of gathered first years. He had lazy eyes that drooped slightly but the blue irises sparkled in curiosity as he surveyed the new students. His bright blonde hair drew a lot of attention away from his face however, as it looked slightly like a pineapple and reminded the first years of how hungry they were. A bright blue badge with a bronze 'P' glistened on his chest from the candle light. The blue and bronze stripped tie gave away what house he was in even if Shanks hadn't announced it.
"It also wouldn't do for the first years to have a false impression of what school really is like, yoi." Marco pointed out with a smirk. "Why don't you check on how everything is going while I make sure the first years understand a bit more about the school?"
Shanks huffed out a laugh before ruffling Marco's hair and departing through to the Great Hall, a cheery "Don't let him eat you" thrown over his shoulder as he went.
Marco shook his head in exasperation before turning back to the first years. His eyes softened kindly as he noticed the scared expressions and tense shoulders some of the children possessed.
"It's alright to be scared, yoi." He said kindly, looking at them all equally. "Everyone is at the start. The sorting ceremony won't hurt, as I'm sure some of you with older siblings will have been told. You don't have to fight a dragon or recite the alphabet in mermish. It's quick and painless and then before you know it you'll be sitting with your housemates and tucking into the feast."
He grinned slightly as a loud rumble echoed from one boy's stomach, causing the other first years to giggle nervously. Now he knew which one was the fabled 'Luffy'. Sure he usually always came to check on the new students but this year curiosity drove him to come here as well as concern. After all, Ace and Sabo hadn't stopped talking about their baby brother since the day they had first arrived at Hogwarts.
"If any of you feel lost or worried then each house has six prefects; three girls and three boys. There is also the Head Boy and the Head Girl, so don't feel like you have no-one to turn to okay, yoi?"
A shaking hand rose up from the crowd and Marco looked towards the boy with an inviting expression on his face. The boy had thick, curly brown hair and a very long nose and he was shaking from head to foot as he pointed towards one of the corridors on their right.
"I-is it n-normal for g-g-ghosts to be floating a-around?" he stuttered with terrified eyes, looking close to screaming as the familiar pearly white forms drifted through the walls and halls towards the Great Hall.
Marco smiled reassuringly at the small boy, noticing as he did so another boy clapped him on the back with a large grin. The other boy had fluffy black hair, a thin scar curving under his left eye, and an old straw-hat sat firmly on his head. It had to have been Luffy. Ace wouldn't shut up about his little brother and Marco had seen enough pictures of the boy to recognise him on sight. He was thankful that Luffy was trying to help the long nosed boy, although if he had the same amount of tact as Ace did, it would only end in disaster.
"Yes it is. The ghosts of Hogwarts act as guides and advisors to any student in need of assistance. In fact, they are often very useful in getting facts for a history essay but if any of you are scared of ghosts then I'd suggest getting another student to warn you about when one is coming down the hall, yoi."
The long nosed boy nodded vigorously in understanding before all but latching onto Luffy with a shaky grin. As Marco turned away he thought he heard something about Luffy not needing to be scared and how 'the Great Usopp' would protect him. He had difficulty trying o keep himself from snorting aloud at that statement. If Luffy ever needed protecting he had his big brothers on his side as well as half the staff.
Marco did a quick scan of the other first years and noticed how a lot of the scared faces had morphed into comfortable smiles and he did his best to smile back at them, glad he could have dissuaded their worries. A clap on his shoulder made him turn and look up at his Quidditch coach in surprise, not having heard the man return.
"Very well done Marco, but I think there's a certain sibling of yours that needs holding back from punching Cory so I'd hurry back to your table now."
With a groan Marco departed, knowing exactly which sibling Shanks was no doubt referring to. He just hoped Izo hadn't decided to rip Cory's face off with his teeth by the time Marco got back. He supposed he should be thankful that the other houses were not allowed on the Ravenclaw table otherwise all his other siblings would no doubt be wanting to murder Cory too.
Shanks watched Marco leave with a grin before turning back to the first years.
"Let's get you sorted then, yeah?"
He beamed at them all before leading the way into the Great Hall, not even needing to look at the new students to see the awe and wonder that would be shining in their faces. Starlight glimmered down from the enchanted ceiling, breaking through the warm, golden glow of the floating candles like silver arrows, dancing and mingling in the bright air. The golden plates glittered and twinkled in the soft light, reflecting the eager faces of old students, staring impatiently at the new ones. He could see Ace kneeling on his seat at the Hufflepuff table, craning his neck to catch a glimpse of his baby brother and nudging his green haired companion when he spotted the old straw-hat. All around the hall grins were breaking out on students' faces as they spotted a friend or sibling in the crowd of students that were following Shanks up the middle of the hall like a crowd of little ducklings. Only they were not yellow, or fluffy, or miniscule (they were tiny but not that tiny).
Okay, so maybe they weren't like ducklings at all but Shanks liked to think of them as ducklings because it made them seem more innocent in his head and from his experience with eleven year olds, they were hardly very innocent (Devious little blighters).
Finally they were right by the raised platform and he turned around to halt them, telling them to spread out along the bottom before he went up to the stool and waited for the Hat to sing its annual song.
It was strangely funny, Shanks reflected as he heard the startled gasps of first years as the hat began to sing. The more he heard the sorting songs the more he learned about the school's history and, more importantly, the house history. It made him slightly sad when he saw his Gryffindors jinxing Slytherins for no good reason other than for what house they were in. Slytherin and Gryffindor were best friends according to the Hat; shouldn't that be true now too?
But as he looked out at the hall he knew that several friendships had blossomed in the most unlikely of houses. For instance it always made him proud whenever Koala would walk to lessons with Sabo or just hang out with him in general. The same could be said with Hank. Both of them were in Gryffindor and when they had first befriended the Slytherin blond Shanks had awarded them five points each in private, for not obeying house prejudices. He knew there were a lot of Hufflepuffs that had Slytherin friends, knew a lot of Ravenclaws with Gryffindor friends. It made him so happy to see the old prejudices slipping slightly with every new year that came to the school. In his own school year his friendship with Buggy had been scorned severely, resulting in Buggy being ostracised from Slytherin and Shanks being instantly scrutinised whenever a Slytherin had managed to one up a Gryffindor in any way.
But he hoped, as he looked out among the sea of nervous, new faces, and expected that this year would be a very revolutionary year against prejudice as a whole, not just in between houses. There was a talking polar bear in this year for crying out loud!
There was moment of silence as the Hat finished it song before Shanks was brought back to reality as the students, both old and new, gave the Sorting Hat a thunderous round of applause. It rang clear and sharp around the halls and lasted several minutes, even after Shanks had conjured up a list of names and was holding his wand up for silence.
'It must have been a really good song' Shanks mused as the dying applause was still holding up the sorting and, in extension, the feast. And if Shanks had learned anything in the past two years as Ace and Sabo's teacher (or even in the past eight or nine years of knowing those boys) it was that they did not let anything stand in the way of them and food.
Eventually though the applause ended and the students settled down once more as Shanks set himself up for the incredibly boring task of reading out the names of all the new students so they could be sorted. As he glanced over the list he noticed several of them didn't have surnames next to them but shrugged it off pretty quickly; several of his best friends didn't have surnames after all.
"Alan, Tori"
There were very little 'A's that year, Tori going to Ravenclaw, Joseph Adams going to Hufflepuff and then Kylie Adamas going to join Tori at the Ravenclaw table. It was quite odd, usually there were several more 'A's.
"Bepo." He called, watching in surprise as the little polar bear shyly moved out of the crowd and up to the stool. When Shanks said little, he meant for a polar bear; the poor guy was still quite a bit taller than most of his year mates, coming to maybe a third year's height.
He carefully sat down on the stool and squeezed his eyes shut as the hat was placed over his head. It only took about a minute for the hat to proudly declare him a Hufflepuff. Bepo nearly melted with relief that his turn was over, taking off the hat and handing it back to Shanks before sending a regretful look over towards the Slytherin table. Law caught his look and gave him a small, proud smile in return, reminding him about what they had spoken about on the train and telling him to go and make some new friends with his housemates. Bepo remembered Law telling him about a freckled pyromaniac who was apparently pretty fun to hang around with.
Shanks watched as Bepo sat down next to Zoro and silently wished him luck as observed Ace leaning over to strike up a whispered conversation with the talking animal. He did not want to think about the silent treatment Sabo would be giving his brother for getting the cool talking animal in his house.
He turned his attention back to the list, reading out several names before another one caught his attention.
"Coby." He called, watching with curious eyes as a nervous boy with bubblegum pink hair tripped up slightly on the way to the stool. He smiled sympathetically as giggles spread through the hall, remembering what Whitebeard had said about drinking his rum stash if he did anything out of order tonight. If Shanks remembered correctly the last of Newgate's children was supposed to be sorted tonight too.
The pinkette allowed to hat to slip down past his eyes, biting his lip in nerves as he gripped the stool tightly.
"Do what you want to do, do what you want to do, do what you want to do."
He repeated the words of his new friend over and over in his head, repeating his wish to the sorting hat as it probed his mind, picking him apart until it found what it was looking for. It took at least five minutes but eventually Coby was sorted into Gryffindor and when some of the lower years didn't seem too enthused, Koala more than made up for it, greeting him with a warm hug and inviting him to sit next to her and her older friend Hank who offered a welcoming smile in face of Coby's fascination with his appearance.
Shanks smiled proudly at them, hoping that Coby wouldn't treat Hank any differently because of his species like several people in Hank's year had when the fishman had first arrived at Hogwarts. Luckily another fishman had arrived that very same year but had been sorted into Hufflepuff, so while they may not have been in the same house they still hung around each other a lot and it was through Jimbei that Hank had become such good friends with Koala.
On and on the list went until Shanks got to the name of Whitebeard's last child, turning to send a smirk towards the Headmaster as he read her name out.
"Haruta."
Shanks watched as pride shone in the old golden eyes as the Headmaster watched his only daughter run up to the stool with barely concealed eagerness and ram the sorting hat on her head. It had been hard for her to be the last to go to Hogwarts; he remembered getting constant letters from her for the past two years complaining about being bored and wanting to hear stories about what her siblings were up to.
Haruta was barely sitting still for a whole minute before the Sorting Hat announced her as a Slytherin, causing a red haired third year to jump up on the table and blow a raspberry towards the Ravenclaw table.
"In your face Marco! Look who gets our baby sister now!" Thatch yelled in triumph before hopping off the table and picking Haruta up and spinning her around in his arms, laughing gleefully at the despair that clouded their eldest brother's eyes as the two pranksters were united under the same green banner.
Shanks laughed along loudly as the Slytherins cheered, seeming to rejoice that another prankster had joined their ranks; it wouldn't do to lose the inter house prank war for the second time running now would it? They had barely lost to Hufflepuff last year and if the whispered plotting going on between Haruta, Thatch, and Sabo was any indication then Slytherin house would be coming back fighting. He pitied the poor sods that got caught in the crossfire.
The list soon left the 'H's, completely missing out the 'I's and the 'K's but when it reached the 'M's only one name was important to Shanks. As soon as he read it he beamed towards the little ball of sunshine that was standing just below him, straw-hat placed firmly on his head and a beaming smile that could rival all the stars in the sky for its brilliant light.
"Monkey D. Luffy you better get up here right now and give me a hug or I'm not going to sort you."
The familiar childish giggle ran clear through their air, over the sea of confused students as Luffy bolted up the steps and into Shanks waiting arm, hugging him tightly around his chest and burying his face into his shirt.
"I've missed you Anchor."
"Shihihihi you saw me last week."
Shanks pouted down at the bright eyed child, oblivious to the gawking students as he placed a gentle kiss to Luffy's forehead.
"Last week was ages ago though." He whined before turning to look at the History of Magic professor with a smug grin.
"Take that Dragon. I get Luffy's first hug of his Hogwarts career."
A cloud of depression seemed to emit from Dragon's skin as he slumped down in his seat. Roger laughed loudly and patted his back in a way that could have been comforting but really wasn't.
"Wow, your brat really does like Shanks more than you, doesn't he?" he laughed, directing Dragon's mounting ire onto himself rather than onto the red haired professor.
"Need I remind you that your son ran away last summer and spent two weeks with Shanks." Dragon ground out, causing Roger to slump over in his seat with tears streaming down his face, muttering about how Ace didn't love him anymore.
Luffy laughed loudly, leading the rest of the school to laugh at their over dramatic teachers before turning to Shanks with a bright grin on his face.
"Can I be sorted into your house?" he asked with pleading eyes, not seeming to realise he had caused the cloud over depression to hang over Dragon once more.
Shanks laughed before directing Luffy over to the stool.
"You know that's not how it works Anchor. You've got to be sorted by the sorting hat."
Luffy pouted as he eyed the tatty old hat before clutching the straw-hat tightly to his head.
"Don't wanna."
"Come on. Ace and Sabo took their hats off when getting sorted." Shanks tried to persuade him, knowing that if he mentioned his brothers then Luffy was most likely willing to go through with what was being asked of him. Still, doubt flickered in his dark brown eyes before the little boy looked up at Shanks and hesitantly took his hat off his head.
"You can't have it back just yet." He explained as he passed it reverently back to Shanks. "I'm not the greatest Quidditch player in the world just yet. So you can't have it back forever, okay?"
"Okay Luffy, I understand." Shanks smiled softly, clutching the old treasure to his chest as he watched Luffy pull on the sorting hat, sending up his own plea for Luffy to be in his house to whatever god that might happen to be listening.
The hat seemed to take it's time with Luffy and it had obviously said something Luffy either didn't lie or didn't understand as he crossed his arms and pouted, seeming to forget that the entire student population of Hogwarts could see him. This had been the sorting that most of the years had been looking forward to; having heard about Ace and Sabo's little brother constantly over the past two years. But the question was, where would he go? Would he be loyal to a fault like his raven haired Hufflepuff brother? Or cunning and quick-witted like his blond Slytherin brother? The answer it seemed was neither.
"Gryffindor!" the Hat yelled at long last, causing Shanks' heart to explode from happiness as Luffy's beaming face appeared once more. Shanks swept him up in a hug, wrapping his arm around shoulders and placing the worn straw-hat back on Luffy's head; back where it belonged. The hall exploded in cheers, housemates clapping two depressed brothers on the back until they got it together long enough to clap in pride for their baby brother.
With one last hug to Shanks, Luffy bounded over to the Gryffindor table greeting Sanji with an enthusiastic hug, saying hello to Koala and Hank, and slipping in beside Coby with a beaming smile.
It took a while for the hall to settle down once more and an even longer time until they got to the last name on the list, Yasopp's son Usopp, someone Shanks knew enough about to write a biography if he ever wanted to take up writing as a career. Thankfully he didn't and so the world was spared from hearing every baby story imaginable that came from a doting father who had far too much time on his hands.
Usopp had taken roughly the same amount of time as Luffy and he too seemed to be having an argument with the Sorting Hat. Eventually though he seemed to realise that maybe the Sorting Hat had a reason for picking the house it did for when the Hat screamed "Ravenclaw" Usopp threw a longing glance at the Gryffindor table before slumping down to join Tori Alan at the Ravenclaw table. Shanks frowned in concern as he vanished the stool, hat and parchment, and took his place at the staff table beside Whitebeard. Being in Ravenclaw was nothing to be ashamed of and something told him he would need to inform Yasopp of his son's reluctance to accept his house. If anyone could get through to Usopp it would be his father.
Shanks was brought out of these thought by the towering form of Whitebeard standing up and beaming proudly at all the students.
"My children, welcome home."
With these words food magically appeared before everyone, piling high on golden dishes and filling the air with warm, succulent smells. The students needed no encouragement as they dug in with vigour, a smattering of chatter being initiated in between bites. Bepo was soon finding himself engaged in an eating contest with Ace as Zoro tried desperately to turn his pumpkin juice into sake with no results. Coby was drawn into a discussion on merpeople rights with Hank, having the older boy explain the difference between fishpeople and merpeople to the pinkette for him to understand it better. Sabo and Thatch were sneaking collecting tins around the tables, collecting all the betting slips the older years had prepared before hand on when the Headmaster would try and sneak alcohol past Marco's nose and consequently when Marco would notice and take it away from him.
Needless to say it was a typical welcoming feast at Hogwarts and Shanks couldn't wait to see how the rest of the year would pan out.
A/N: There you go guys, hope you enjoyed this little chapter thing and please leave a review and tell me what you think!