Evan Foster and the Sorting Hat- An Adventure at Hogwarts After Harry Potter
He was trembling with anticipation as he looked out the window towards the lights that he knew belonged to Hogwarts Castle. It was finally Evan Foster's turn to attend the prestigious school of magic. In his compartment on the Hogwarts Express, a few other first years were sitting with him, but Evan could focus on nothing but the seven exciting years he would experience at Hogwarts.
Finally, Evan felt the train begin to slow down and eventually come to a stop. Evan burst into the corridor and ran toward the exit, squeezing past older students. He jumped onto the platform and looked around. He was the first student off the train, though they were beginning to appear as he stood there. Then, he saw a great dark shadow on the other side of the platform.
"Firs' years over here!" called the shadow. Evan knew that this was Hagrid, the gamekeeper. His father had told him about Hagrid. Evan raced over to Hagrid and stood in front of him, jumping up and down a little on his feet. Hagrid glanced down at him before resuming his chant. "Firs' years over here!"
When all of the first years had assembled in front of Hagrid, he led them off the platform. Evan knew that Hagrid was leading them to the boats so they could make their trip across the lake. Evan was first to climb into a boat, and didn't even bother look around at the other three students who had climbed in with him. His eyes were completely focused on the castle towering over him. And then, the pack of boats pushed off from the shore towards Hogwarts.
"Stop it!" cried a voice from inside the boat. "You are rocking the boat." Evan looked around for the first time. With him were a small brown-haired girl, skinny blond boy, and a very fat boy with a shaved head. They were all looking at him. In his excitement, he must have been shaking so hard that the boat was wobbling.
"Sorry," Evan replied. He looked down, slightly ashamed. However, that feeling quickly left him when he saw the front of his robes. There was a large wet spot down his front, and now that he thought about it, his underwear felt very warm.
"Oh no," he thought. "I can't make a first impression like this at Hogwarts! How could I have let this happen? I let my excitement go too far." Thinking quickly, Evan got an idea.
"Wow, is that the giant squid?" Evan cried out, leaning over the edge of the boat.
"Be careful!" yelled the very fat boy in the boat. But it was too late. Evan toppled into the water.
"Yeh idiot!" yelled Hagrid across the water as Evan climbed back into the boat. He pretended to be embarrassed, but in truth he was proud that he had been able to cover up his accident so well. The rest of the school seeing that a first year had fallen into the lake would be nothing out of the ordinary. In fact, when they had climbed out of the boats and made their way to the entrance hall, Professor McGonagall even sighed out loud upon seeing Evan.
"Another one fell in the lake?" she asked. She then pointed her wand at Evan and his robes instantly dried. "Right then," she said, turning to the rest of the first years. "You will now follow me into the Great Hall to be sorted.
Evan was lucky that he had emptied his bladder earlier, because his legs were shaking so badly now that he was sure that he would have peed himself again if he had anything left to pee. It was time for him to become a Gryffindor like his father before him.
"Let me tell you," his father had told him that morning. "No house is better than Gryffindor. I can't wait to start telling all my friends about my son, the Gryffindor. You sure are lucky that your old man wasn't sorted into Hufflepuff."
Evan grew impatient, wishing the Sorting Hat would finish his song. He was glad that his last name, Foster, put him close to the beginning of the list of students. Finally, the Hat finished talking and McGonagall stepped forward.
"Avery, Adam," she called. Evan knew that name. "Some nerve he has, showing up here after his father nearly destroyed the school twenty-five years ago," he thought. The hat had barely touched Adam's head when it shouted out "Slytherin!"
Evan hoped that the hat would sort him like that. It wouldn't even need to think about where to put him because he so obviously belonged in Gryffindor. A few more students were sorted. There was a Hufflepuff who sat on the stool for three full minutes before the hat sorted him, but then a Gryffindor was placed after only a few seconds. There was another Slytherin and another Hufflepuff, and then they were into the last names starting with "F."
"Forbes, Fred," called McGonagall. Fred sat with the hat on his head for almost a minute. "I bet he's going to be in Hufflepuff," thought Evan. "The hat needs to think a lot because Hufflepuffs are just leftovers. It needs to make sure that a student is truly hopeless before putting it into Hufflepuff.
"Ravenclaw," yelled the Sorting Hat. Fred hurried off to the Ravenclaw table. Evan pushed his way to the front of the first years. He was trying extremely hard to keep his legs under control. He was going to be a dignified Gryffindor.
"Foster, Evan." Evan walked slowly up to the stool. Grinning and confident, he sat down. Professor McGonagall made to put the hat on his head, but before it even touched his hair, it yelled out "HUFFLEPUFF!" Evan sat there, petrified. He could hear the students start to snicker. He even heard a cough behind him that made him think that Professor McGonagall was holding back a laugh. He turned around on the stool.
"Can I put it on again?" asked Evan desperately, hoping that maybe it made a mistake. But before Professor McGonagall could answer, the hat in her hand screamed out "HUFFLEPUFF!" Evan stood up. He could feel tears building up in his eyes. Quickly and suddenly, he made a decision. If he was so much of a duffer that the Sorting Hat did not even have to think, then he didn't want to be a wizard. He sprinted out of the Great Hall, through the Entrance Hall, and onto the grounds. He then began running towards the Forbidden Forest with tears streaming down his face. He hurried through the trees and bramble, not caring which creatures heard him. He was a disappointment to the wizarding world.
Two centaurs were walking nearby in the woods as Evan ran by, not even noticing them. One of them pulled out an arrow and was about to fit it in his bow, but the other one stopped him. "Don't worry about it," he said. "He looks like a Hufflepuff."