"Gray, Theresa."
As she walked up to the sorting hat, Tessa's brown hair turned a mousey grey, revealing her fear for everyone to see. The shocked silence in the hall wasn't unlike the one that had followed her all her life, as her powers had always manifested themselves at the most inconvenient times. Perks of growing up a metamorphous in a Muggle household, she thought sarcastically. Had her Mum not studied at Hogwarts before her death, Aunt Harriet might have thrown her out the first time Tessa's hair turned from an unremarkable brown to a flaming red. She was two.
"A metamorphagous…how interesting…haven't had one of us in a while."
Flinching slightly at the hat's voice in her head, who else could it, be? Tessa clenched her fingers and thought back a hello. How did the hat work though? The thought came unbidden and she flinched at how rude it was but it was an interesting concept. Was it an animated object? Or a recording device? Did it go through a student's thought? That seemed like an invasion of privacy!
The hat's laughter in her head slowed her thoughts but questions about its working and the ethics behind them were still there.
"A curious mind…but I am not just an object and I keep the thoughts I see in a student's head private."
"I am so sorry, that was very rude of me."
"There is kindness here…and great bravery…and love for learning and books…the badgers would be lucky to have you…and so would be lions….but….hmmm…you better be…"
"RAVENCLAW!"
Jumping off the stool, Tessa pushed her now blue hair behind her ears and ran to the Ravenclaw table. The blue and bronze robbed students were clapping politely and one of the older students made space for her on the bench, before returning to the parchment she was scribbling on. Tessa turned back to the sorting, eyes drifting to the ceiling and wondering how it worked, even as another part of her wanted the sorting to be over just so that she could return to the book she was reading on the train. Re-reading.
"Herondale William."
The professor's stern voice brought her out of her thoughts. A smartly dressed boy walked to the hat, a certain confidence in his step as turned and gave a thumbs-up sign to a silver-haired boy on the Hufflepuff table.
The hat dropped over his eyes and…remained silent. Judging by the scrunched up nose, the boy seemed to be having an argument with the hat, before it shouted out "SLYTHERIN."
As she turned to watch the rest of the sorting, Tessa Gray had no idea she had just seen her two soul-mates.
