Hermione, Chapter Four, I'm Gonna Show You Crazy.


As soon as we stepped foot in the hall, the demigods were abducted by Professor Mcgonagall, probably to be briefed. I was worried, in all honesty. When the Americans had first arrived, we had no idea what was going on. Mrs. Weasley stopped us from going downstairs, so Fred, in a rather smart move, sent Ginny down. She proclaimed, running up the stairs, that they had accidentally thrown a knife at her and some ranting about something or other.

This had caused Harry to let Sirius talk Mrs. Weasley into letting us know, saying it'd be easier on their 'cover' anyways.

I would have liked to think we would have found out rather quickly about them not being transfer students.

"He's not there," Harry said rather suddenly. Ron and I scanned the staff table for Hagrid, though there was no real need; Hagrid's size made him instantly obvious in any lineup. "He can't have left," said Ron, sounding slightly anxious. "Of course he hasn't," said Harry firmly. "You don't think he's . . . hurt, or anything, do you?" I said uneasily.

"No," said Harry at once. "But where is he, then?" There was a pause, then Harry said very quietly, so that Neville, Parvati, and Lavender could not hear, "Maybe he's not back yet. You know — from his mission — the thing he was doing over the summer for Dumbledore."

"Yeah . . . yeah, that'll be it," said Ron, sounding reassured, but I bit my lip, looking up and down the staff table as though hoping for some conclusive explanation of Hagrid's absence.

"Who's that?" I said sharply, pointing toward the middle of the staff table. Harry's eyes followed hers. She was squat, with short, curly, mouse-brown hair in which she had placed a horrible pink Alice band that matched the fluffy pink cardigan she wore over her robes. She had a toad like face and a pair of pouchy eyes. "It's that Umbridge woman!" Harry exclaimed.

"Who?" I said. "She was at my hearing, she works for Fudge!"

"Nice cardigan," said Ron, smirking. "She works for Fudge?" Hermione repeated, frowning. "What on earth's she doing here, then?"

"Dunno . . ." I scanned the staff table again, eyes narrowed. "No," I muttered, "no, surely not . . ." My mind was jumping ahead of itself, that was all.

A moment later the doors from the entrance hall opened. A long line of scared-looking first years entered, (and eight teens, towering over them,) led by Professor Mcgonagall, who was carrying a stool on which sat an ancient wizard's hat, heavily patched and darned with a wide rip near the frayed brim.

The buzz of talk in the Great Hall faded away. The first years lined up in front of the staff table facing the rest of the students, and Professor Mcgonagall placed the stool carefully in front of them, then stood back.

The first years' faces glowed palely in the candlelight, and the Americans seemed unnaturally tan. A small boy right in the middle of the row looked as though he was trembling. I remembered, fleetingly, how terrified he had felt when he had stood there, waiting for the unknown test that would determine to which House he belonged.

The whole school waited with bated breath. Then the rip near the hat's brim opened wide like a mouth and the Sorting Hat burst into song:

In times of old when I was new

And Hogwarts barely started

The founders of our noble school

Thought never to be parted:

United by a common goal,

They had the selfsame yearning,

To make the world's best magic school

And pass along their learning.

"Together we will build and teach!"

The four good friends decided

And never did they dream that they

Might someday be divided,

For were there such friends anywhere

As Slytherin and Gryffindor?

Unless it was the second pair

Of Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw?

So how could it have gone so wrong?

How could such friendships fail?

Why, I was there and so can tell

The whole sad, sorry tale.

Said Slytherin, "We'll teach just those Whose ancestry is purest."

Said Ravenclaw, "We'll teach those whose Intelligence is surest."

Said Gryffindor, "We'll teach all those With brave deeds to their name,"

Said Hufflepuff, "I'll teach the lot, And treat them just the same."

These differences caused little strife

When first they came to light,

For each of the four founders had

A House in which they might

Take only those they wanted, so,

For instance, Slytherin

Took only pure-blood wizards

Of great cunning, just like him,

And only those of sharpest mind

Were taught by Ravenclaw

While the bravest and the boldest

Went to daring Gryffindor.

Good Hufflepuff she took the rest,

And taught them all she knew,

Thus the Houses and their founders

Retained friendships firm and true.

So Hogwarts worked in harmony

For several happy years,

But then discord crept among us

Feeding on our faults and fears.

The Houses that, like pillars four,

Had once held up our school,

Now turned upon each other and,

Divided, sought to rule.

And for a while it seemed the school

Must meet an early end,

What with dueling and with fighting

And the clash of friend on friend

And at last there came a morning

When old Slytherin departed

And though the fighting then died out

He left us quite downhearted.

And never since the founders four

Were whittled down to three

Have the Houses been united

As they once were meant to be.

And now the Sorting Hat is here

And you all know the score:

I sort you into Houses

Because that is what I'm for,

But this year I'll go further,

Listen closely to my song:

Though condemned I am to split you

Still I worry that it's wrong,

Though I must fulfill my duty

And must quarter every year

Still I wonder whether sorting

May not bring the end I fear.

Oh, know the perils, read the signs,

The warning history shows,

For our Hogwarts is in danger

From external, deadly foes

And we must unite inside her

Or we'll crumble from within.

I have told you, I have warned you. . . .

Let the Sorting now begin.

The hat became motionless once more; applause broke out, though it was punctured, for the first time in my memory, with muttering and whispers. All across the Great Hall students were exchanging remarks with their neighbors and I, clapping along with everyone else, knew exactly what they were talking about.

"Branched out a bit this year, hasn't it?" said Ron, his eyebrows raised. "Too right it has," said Harry.

The Sorting Hat usually confined itself to describing the different qualities looked for by each of the four Hogwarts Houses and its own role in sorting them; I could not remember for the life of me if it ever trying to give the school advice before.

"I wonder if it's ever given warnings before?" I asked, sounding slightly anxious.

"Yes, indeed," said Nearly Headless Nick knowledgeably, leaning across Neville towards me (Neville winced, it was very uncomfortable to have a ghost lean through you).

"The hat feels itself honor-bound to give the school due warning whenever it feels —" But Professor Mcgonagall, who was waiting to read out the list of first years' names, was giving the whispering students the sort of look that scorches.

Nearly Headless Nick placed a see-through finger to his lips and sat primly upright again as the muttering came to an abrupt end. With a last frowning look that swept the four House tables, Professor Mcgonagall lowered her eyes to her long piece of parchment and called out,

"Abercrombie, Euan."

A small, terrified looking boy stumbled forward and put the hat on his head; it was only prevented from falling right down to his shoulders by his very prominent ears. The hat considered for a moment, then the rip near the brim opened again and shouted, "GRYFFINDOR!"

I clapped as loud as I could, along with the rest of Gryffindor House as Euan Abercrombie staggered to their table and sat down, looking as though he would like very much to sink through the floor and never be looked at again.

It was only one first year, sorted to Hufflepuff when - "Chase, Annabeth."

There was a collected muttering when the tall tanned girl strode up to the stool. She sat down, her legs to long so she crossed them in an effort to make them shorter. She placed the hat on her head, and waited.


Annabeth

As I sat, I resisted the urge to jump when a voice whispered in my ear. "Well well. A demigod. It's been awhile since I sorted one of you."

If I think, will he hear me or do I have to speak?

"I can hear you think." was the hats response.

"Well be ready, you have seven more." I thought.

"If they're as easy as you to place, Daughter of Athena, it won't be any trouble at all." And with that, the hat shouted "RAVENCLAW!"

I took the hat off, setting it on the stool and jogged over to a table of cheering teens, all wearing blue and silver ties, I noted. *


Nico

"Di Angelo, Nico," Professor Mcgonagall called, and I walked up to the stage. I was already having enough trouble with the ghosts. Of course, the ghosts. Fun fun fun! How would I ever keep my cover with a bunch of dolts floating around?

When the hat was placed on my head, it shivered. Sorry, not much I can do. I thought glumly.

"So dark, so much pain. You run, you hide from it all. Not a Gryffindor. You don't depend on your smarts, not a Ravenclaw. Slytherin perhaps," the hat whispered in my ear.

I shrugged. Fine by me.

And the hat shouted "SLYTHERIN!" I removed the hat, and jogged over to the table, taking a seat next to a ghost, giving him a solid 'shut up' glare. He did so.

The next of our group to be sorted would be... Lou.


Lou

"Ellen, Lou," the professor read. Oh goody. I would hate this.

I sat, and the hat was silent. I assumed it was picking through my brain – I had heard about the hat before.

"Well, you're a tricky one." a voice whispered in my ear. Oh thanks, I try. I thought, sarcasm dripping from my thoughts.

I could practically hear the hat chuckle. It considered for a long while, asking me questions and such.

"Not Slytherin. Not for you, no. Ravenclaw could be for you – you're much more advanced than any of the students currently here. Or perhaps... Gryffindor? Hmm. Quite the dilemma."

I watched the hordes of whispering students, watching me watching them.

"No, you're a Gryffindor. You've always been brave." His words whipped through my mind as he shouted "GRYFFINDOR!" and I walked to the Gryffindor table rather numbly. He had seen it all, as expected. He must have known those words You've always been brave and what they would do to me.


Hermione

Jason, Piper, and Thalia were all placed in Gryffindor, and Percy into Hufflepuff surprisingly. And Leo's was almost certainly the most entertaining sorting I had ever had the pleasure of seeing.

For first thing, the hat was comically too small for him, just barely fitting. And he yelped, assumingly when he first spoke in his head and proclaimed "Oh no not another talking hat!"

Thalia, sitting next to me, face palmed while giggles rolled through the tables.

Leo didn't seem to understand he could just think and the hat would hear him. "Hey! I'm sneaky. Okay, that time doesn't count it was the tables fault!"

This continued for some time, Leo shrieking from time to time. Things like "Nacho cheese!" where also interspersed. Eventually, the hat yelled "RAVENCLAW!" Leo jumped off the stool and was halfway down the steps before realizing he still had it on, and tossed it to Professor Mcgonagall, who caught it, rather miffed. Leo traipsed over to the wildly cheering Ravenclaw table, and took a seat next to Annabeth.

There were two more kids, and finally, "Zeller, Rose" was sorted into Hufflepuff, and Professor Mcgonagall picked up the hat and stool and marched them away as Professor Dumbledore rose to his feet.

"To our newcomers," said Dumbledore in a ringing voice, his arms stretched wide and a beaming smile on his lips, "welcome! To our old hands – welcome back! Also, a hand out to our American transfer students. There is a time for speech making, but this is not it. Tuck in!" There was an appreciative laugh and an outbreak of applause as Dumbledore sat down neatly and threw his long beard over his shoulder so as to keep it out of the way of his plate — for food had appeared out of nowhere, so that the nine long tables were groaning under joints and pies and dishes of vegetables, bread, sauces, and flagons of pumpkin juice.

"Excellent," said Ron, with a kind of groan of longing, and he seized the nearest plate of chops and began piling them onto his plate, watched wistfully by Nearly Headless Nick.

"What were you saying before the Sorting?" I asked the ghost. "About the hat giving warnings?"

Thalia turned her eyes towards our conversation, clearly interested. "Oh yes," said Nick, who seemed glad of a reason to turn away from Ron, who was now eating roast potatoes with almost indecent enthusiasm.

"Yes, I have heard the hat give several warnings before, always at times when it detects periods of great danger for the school. And always, of course, its advice is the same: Stand together, be strong from within."

"Ow kunnit nofe skusin danger ifzat?" said Ron. His mouth was so full Harry thought it was quite an achievement for him to make any noise at all.

"I beg your pardon?" said Nearly Headless Nick politely, while Hermione looked revolted. Ron gave an enormous swallow and said, "How can it know if the school's in danger if it's a hat?"

"I have no idea," said Nearly Headless Nick. "Of course, it lives in Dumbledore's office, so I daresay it picks things up there."

"And it wants all the Houses to be friends?" said Harry, looking over at the Slytherin table, where Draco Malfoy was holding court. "Fat chance."

"Well, now, you shouldn't take that attitude," said Nick reprovingly. "Peaceful cooperation, that's the key. We ghosts, though we belong to separate Houses, maintain links of friendship. In spite of the competitiveness between Gryffindor and Slytherin, I would never dream of seeking an argument with the Bloody Baron."

"Only because you're terrified of him," said Ron. Nearly Headless Nick looked highly affronted. "Terrified? I hope I, Sir Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington, have never been guilty of cowardice in my life! The noble blood that runs in my veins —"

"What blood?" asked Ron. "Surely you haven't still got — ?" "It's a figure of speech!" said Nearly Headless Nick, now so annoyed his head was trembling ominously on his partially severed neck. "I assume I am still allowed to enjoy the use of whichever words I like, even if the pleasures of eating and drinking are denied me! But I am quite used to students poking fun at my death, I assure you!"

"Nick, he wasn't really laughing at you!" I said, throwing a furious look at Ron. Unfortunately, Ron's mouth was packed to exploding point again and all he could manage was "node iddum eentup sechew," which Nick did not seem to think constituted an adequate apology.

Rising into the air, he straightened his feathered hat and swept away from them to the other end of the table, coming to rest between the Creevey brothers, Colin and Dennis. "Well done, Ron," I snapped. "What?" said Ron indignantly, having managed, finally, to swallow his food. "I'm not allowed to ask a simple question?"

"Oh forget it," I said, rather irritably. God, that idiot.

"Well, this school is already interesting, amiright?" Jason asked Thalia, who was sitting across from him, shrugged.

"Not enough to keep me busy. Or enough to keep you and Piper from getting some alone time, no doubt. Roof of the school looks cold, amiright little bro?" Thalia asked. Jason blushed, and then scowled.

"You weren't even there!" He pointed out, half furiously.

"Everybody talks everybody talks everybody talks too much," she sang, her blue eyes sparkling with electricity.

Jason, shaking it off, rolled his eyes and dug into the large heaping of food on his plate. Loud laughter could be heard from the Ravenclaw table, where Leo was waving his arms wildly, and several people were enraptured with his story.

I glanced farther down the Gryffindor table, where Piper was talking to some of the sixth years, her hands moving almost as much as Leo's. Lou was talking happily with Isabella, a girl in my year, but her smile didn't reach her dark eyes.

My eyes moved over to the Slytherin table next, where Nico didn't seem to quite fit, but wasn't shunned either. Then, back to the Ravenclaw table, I noted Annabeth animatedly talking about something with James Carnagie, a fifth year Ravenclaw, who was laughing.

"Sparky, I have a question-" Jason cut off Thalia with "tiki veekansus mo," he belted out "zeres moi aresatikana." I glanced at Harry questioningly. I didn't recognize the language. Thalia responded in a heated voice, and the two began to argue, insults flying back and forth.


A/N: Annabeth * I know, I know. Sue me, I like blue and silver better than blue and bronze.

So, this chapter was originally like, 5000 words, but I chopped off the next POV, which was already short and is now about 4000 words so I'm just going to have to figure this out . . . . anyways, I have about another 12K written, and maybe like three chapters. I sort of stopped writing for a bit, all burned out. I also apologize for not updating - things got crazy busy.

Okay! Explanation time on the houses!

Leo: Leo is, just simply a Ravenclaw. He's not sneaky, or manipulative. He's not brave, in fact it states he runs away from pretty much everything. He's also not a Hufflepuff. He's a Ravenclaw, through and through.

Annabeth: Is also a Ravenclaw. Don't fuck with me, she is a Ravenclaw. She relies on her smarts, and I swear to god, if you say she's a Slytherin... She fits best into Ravenclaw.

Nico: Nico doesn't get a ton of quest time, or really any since I didn't read the Demigod files, but I imagine in the moment he can be very manipulative, and that he's an excellent liar.

Percy: Okay. He is a Hufflepuff. HIS FATAL FLAW IS LOYALTY. Originally, he was in Gryffindor but I changed it. It helped the plot more but it made less sense if he wasn't in Hufflepuff.

Thalia and Jason: Thalia died for her friends, Jason is a born leader, strong and brave. They, are Gryffindors.

Piper: Piper, well I'm going to build onto her, but she was already a Grade A badass. She's already courageous.

Shoutouts to aviendhaphiragon and Lizzy for reviewing!

Please review, it makes my day!