A/N This is my second entry to TheHogwartsActress' Next Generation Go to Hogwarts Competition on the Harry Potter fanfiction Challenges Forum. I have already written Lorcan and will be writing Victoire also.
Disclaimer: Almost nothing in the story is mine it belongs to the genius that is JK Rowling. I only steal her work because I love it so much.
The Weasley Way
"Welcome to Hogwarts." A strict looking woman with choppy brown hair says to us. "My name is Professor Portcullis and I am not only the deputy head teacher, but head of Ravenclaw house." She continues.
"In a few moments you will step through these doors into the great hall where you will be sorted into one of the four houses of Hogwarts: Hufflepuff, Gryffindor, Ravenclaw or Slytherin. At Hogwarts your house will become like your family, you eat at your house table, have lessons with your house mates, sleep in your house dormitory and spend leisure time in your house common room. Hard work and excellence will reward you with points for your house, while tomfoolery and disobedience will result in the deduction of house points. At the end of the school year the house that has attained the most points will win the house cup. I hope that each and every one of you will be a credit to your house. The sorting will take place in a few minutes so I suggest you all smarten yourselves up a bit for not only your first impressions of the school, but the school's first impression of you."
Once she had finished her monologue she led us all into a small chamber past the doors to the great hall. As soon as she had left the students, as students do, instantly went mad. I of course did not. I didn't want a teacher to have to come in here and tell us off. That would make a bad impression on a first (or any) day.
"So," I ask my best friend, and cousin, Louis,
"Are you nervous?"
I was and I just wanted to make sure I wasn't alone.
"Not really," he tells me, "I mean the hat is obviously going to put me where I belong and if I am where I belong then I don't need to worry."
The profound comment didn't reassure me, but only worried me more.
"But what if we're not in Gryffindor? What would our family do?"
"If you belong in Gryffindor then you will get placed in Gryffindor."
Louis may be my best friend, but he is my exact opposite. Whilst I worry, he dismisses. Whilst I curl up with a good book, he plays Quidditch. Whilst I am an eldest child, he is a youngest. My younger sister Lucy is on the wild side and I've always felt that I have to make up for it by taking charge and making sure she doesn't do anything too crazy, it isn't that I want to be a bore, it's just that in the Weasley family someone is always going to be trying something dangerous and it's my job to be the one standing with a first aid kit and a rule book. Although Louis and I happen to be exact opposites we still get on well, they do say opposites attract!
"I guess, but maybe… maybe I don't belong in Gryffindor." I tell him, quietly voicing the fear that I had been harbouring, well maybe my entire life. It's just that sometimes I feel like the only neat Weasley. The only sensible Weasley. The only Weasley who's a coward. The only boring Weasley. And every Weasley goes to Gryffindor, but maybe I'm not a Weasley. Sometimes I don't feel like one.
"You may proceed to the great hall," says Professor Portcullis who has returned. She opens the doors and we file through into it.
If my first impression of the castle was amazing, then my fist impression of the great hall is astonishing. The ceiling makes you feel like you are looking up to the heavens as it is enchanted to look the sky outside. Candles float above our heads lighting the hall and the tables are filled with students dressed in pitch black robes and pointed hats. I spot my cousins: Victoire and Dominique. At the Gryffindor table. Dominique gives a small wave to me and Louis (her younger brother,) but Vic doesn't spot us, deep in conversation with Teddy who is sitting next to her. We stop when we reach the front of the hall and stand in a crowd by the teachers table.
After the sorting hat sings a song, Professor Portcullis calls the first name
"Albury, Clark" who walks up to a three-legged stool, places the sorting hat onto his head. The hat pauses for a moment and then screams out "Slytherin!"
Professor Portcullis calls out name after name and each person does the same as Clark. The sorting hat pauses for a moment each time and then calls out a house. It doesn't look so bad.
Finally, Louis is called up. He walks up to the stool like everyone else and pulls the hat down over his head. Without even pausing for thought the sorting hat screams out Gryffindor. I am relieved Gryffindor is where Weasleys belong. Of course it is.
"Weasley, Molly" exclaims.
The walk is longer than I realised and with the entire school (and staff) watching even harder than I had previously thought. Suddenly I am struck with a fearful idea, forget Slytherin, what if I am not sorted at all? What if the sorting hat has nowhere to put me? Will I have to go home?
I sit down on the stool. The legs are uneven and it is wobbles like mad. I slowly place the sorting hat on my small head. The entire hall is silent.
'Aha,' says the sorting hat, 'another Weasley already?' I flinch.
'It's been a while since there have been two in one year.'
'But where to put you? Weasleys belong in Gryffindor do they not? And yet I don't sense that in you. Loyalty yes, but brains also. You don't think like a Gryffindor, much more like a Ravenclaw. Yes, Ravenclaw would do you good. You have the brains for sure, but also you are willing to put in the work. You plan ahead, you are much more logical than Gryffindors tend to be, but then again you do have the courage for Gryffindor. You haven't shown it yet, but it's all locked up inside here just waiting for a chance to come out. Yes, Gryffindor could do with someone like you. Then again… so could Ravenclaw. So now, now, now where ever to put you? I haven't had a choice this hard for oh, perhaps not since McGonagall herself was sorted. Yes you have plenty of potential, but where will it be unlocked? Do you have anything to say for yourself?' the hat asks me.
I freeze, what to say? What to say? until finally. 'Sorry sir,' I think, 'you've just placed my best friend into Gryffindor and I was wondering if maybe I could join him?'
'Yes, yes. Louis Weasley. You work well together; I think together you would be unstoppable. It's a hard choice, but I'm going to have to say'
"Gryffindor!"
I breathe a sigh of relief. I am a Weasley. And just out of the corner of my eye I see Professor McGonagall give me a knowing smile.