Arthur Weasley scratched his head in confusion as he read the letter from Bill. It was the third of September and the mail had just arrived and... For some reason, his heir, the eldest son of two proud Gryffindors, had been sorted into Slytherin. It didn't make any sense to him. He knew Bill was a brave boy, daring, outgoing, bold, all the things a Gryffindor ought to be. Of course the boy was smart too, he never doubted that, but... This was going to take some re-evaluation. After all, he wasn't going to disown the boy for being sorted into the wrong house, and the Sorting Hat always knew what it was doing, so Bill was right where he was supposed to be, even if it seemed like, in recent times, Slytherin was a breeding ground for followers of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named.
"Alright Arthur," he said to himself. "Think. What are the good qualities attributed to Slytherin?" It was a question he'd never think he would have to ask himself, but his son had been sorted there and he refused to think that it meant his son was interested in joining the man who had killed two of his favourite uncles.
"Cunning isn't bad," Arthur admitted to himself. "Useful even. And... ambition, of course! That's why Bill's there! He's been determined ever since he read that book about Egypt that he was going to go." Arthur smiled to himself, satisfied that he understood what had put his eldest son in Slytherin rather than Gryffindor.
~oOo~
"Charlie too?" Arthur asked himself weakly, one year later, when he received a letter notifying him of the sorting of his second son. "What put him there? He wants to work with dragons, that's a profession you'd expect Gryffindor bravery for! Oh, but I suppose you need to be tricky when working with them..."
~oOo~
"I honestly didn't expect Percy to be in Slytherin," Arthur said softly, colour draining from his face as he read the letter. "He's such a quiet boy... Oh dear. I hope Bill and Charlie look out for him..."
~oOo~
Arthur chuckled to read that Fred and George were in Slytherin. They'd give Severus a headache, that's for sure.
He knew Molly didn't approve of their goal, but so far the only goal she had approved of was Percy's – turned out he wanted to work in the Ministry – so Arthur wasn't too worried. Rather, he'd begun to see a trend in the ambitions of his children. They all had dreams that would get them away from their mother, somehow. Brill to Egypt, Charlie to a dragon reserve, Percy would have a well paying job that would let him get his own house some day, and the twins would have a shop and be independent of their mother.
Yes, the twins would do just fine in Slytherin, he was sure. He also expected at least one of the teachers still with colour in their hair to be completely grey by the time they graduated.
~oOo~
Ron was a Gryffindor! He finally had a son in his old house! Oh, happy day! Of course, after years of justifying why his other sons were in Slytherin, Arthur had to wonder at Ron's sorting. Did it mean he had no ambition? Maybe, but he doubted it. The boy just wasn't thinking ahead yet.
Or maybe he'd gone for Gryffindor because Malfoy's son was starting the same year and he didn't want to share a dorm with the blood-purist snob. That would make sense too.
~oOo~
Arthur was worried. Ginny had been sorted into Slytherin and as far as he knew she had only one dream: become Mrs Harry Potter.
Immediately, he wrote to the boy his youngest son had befriended and warned him about his little girl's fanaticism. He loved little Ginerva, but he worried as well. She spent far too much time listening to her mother's stories about girls getting boyfriends with love potions. For his own part, Arthur knew that he hadn't been gotten in such a way. Molly had been a very different person when they were younger, and even though she'd changed, Arthur had stayed loyal to his wife. Mostly for her cooking after her less desirable personality traits had reared, and the kids of course. Ginny, on the other hand...
Well, he hoped she found something else to go for, since as far as he could tell of young Harry from the little time they'd had to interact with each other, was more likely to end up with the Granger girl than Ginny. Crush a mile wide there.
~End~