Nothing happened.
The six just sat there, for what felt like ages. Then something extremely unexpected happened.
A drop of water landed on the System's shoulder.
Unless there was a leak somewhere in the enchanted ceiling, that wasn't just a drop of water.
It was a tear.
'Uh, dude, are you okay?' Dashie asked, entirely forgetting that not just anyone could hear when you spoke to them in your mind.
And so, for the first time in Hogwarts history, the Sorting Hat cried. And cried. It bawled its eyes out, for well over five minutes, before Fluttershy had a sudden panic, and Dash left control to Rarity to find out what had caused it.
There, in the middle of the street, was a hat. The Sorting Hat. Its wailing had quietened down by now, and it was blearily glancing between the gathered ponies.
'Are you okay, Mr Hat?' asked the yellow pegasus as she recovered, and the hat nodded vigorously, wiping a tear out of its metaphorical (though now nopony was so sure) eye with the ragged brim.
'I can die happy,' It sniffed with an expression of pure bliss gracing its face, 'just seeing you all as you are now.' The native inhabitants of the mindscape, minus Rarity, exchanged baffled looks, before turning back to the hat. 'Look at you all,' it sniffled by way of explanation, 'Six minds belonging to all the different houses, and you get along seamlessly! You've given me the hardest choice of all, however... Where to put you?'
'Not Slytherin,' Rarity's voice echoed suddenly, and the hat raised an eyebrow, snapping back to what seemed to be its regular self.
'Not Slytherin?' it repeated incredulously, 'Why ever not? You could be great, you know, it's all inside your head...'
Rarity snorted disdainfully. 'That featherbrained colt, Draco Malfoy, was sorted there, and we have enough of your so called 'greatness' to last for six lifetimes,' she shot him down, and he sighed.
'Well, I suppose that would be a problem then,' the hat mused aloud, then looked around at the others. 'Maybe Ravenclaw, you're all exceptionally intelligent for your age, but only Twilight seems to have any sort of inclination towards reading that makes a true Ravenclaw. I suppose that leaves Hufflepuff and Gryffindor, then.'
'Gryffindor,' Rainbow Dash said suddenly, the others nodding along with her choice. The hat seemed to consider, going back to thinking out loud.
'I'm not entirely sure about that,' it remarked, its gaze meeting Fluttershy's for ever so slightly longer than the rest as its eyes panned across the mindscape. 'You're not all courageous warriors, but you all have a burning flame of loyalty-'
'Which is why you're going to put us in Gryffindor with our new friends,' Fluttershy warned suddenly, cutting the bundle of rags off with a Stare. It shivered slightly, then nodded inaudibly, shuffling away from the butter-furred pony.
The rest of the System suppressed their own shivers, even as a slightly wavering voice yelled "Gryffindor!"
On hearing that exclamation, Fluttershy returned to her usual self, blushing and wrapping her legs around themselves as she was showered with praise. Dashie took control of the body and stood up, bouncing expertly on the false leg as she walked down to the thundeous cheering of the Gryffindor table. Two redheaded boys, twins by the look of it, jumped onto the table and made several rude gestures towards the Slytherin table, yelling "We got Baker!"
Dashie gave the two a thumbs up as she realised that they were purposely drawing attention to their new name, and the others passed around ideas for gifts in return. Pinkie, in particular, decided to do everything in her power to get those twins what they needed.
And according to her, that meant pranks, and enough money to open a shop.
Applejack and Twilight looked on, watering the mindscape's flowers for something to do and grinning widely.
This would be a fun seven years.
It was the first class of Hogwarts: charms.
Twilight sighed as she rested her head on her hands, gazing morosely at the quill on the desk. She groaned inaudibly and pulled a sheet of parchment towards herself, as the quill's tip dipped into the ink.
Unseen by the book savant, Professor Flitwick watched in unconcealed shock as Mr Baker's feather moved across the parchment of its own accord, scribbling something that he couldn't read onto the surface. He almost clapped his hands in delight when he realised that Baker must be controlling it wordlessly, but stopped himself, frowning lightly.
Despite having it out and pointing towards his quill, Mr Baker's wand wasn't being used. Flitwick's goblin blood made him far more sensitive to magic than most others, and the magic, instead of flowing through his hands, seemed to pulse throughout his entire body, and it felt somewhat unnatural. There was far too much control in that aura, probably more so than even Dumbledore possessed, and it was both exciting and unsettling for the Professor. He decided to hang back and wait for more information to show itself, as information was prone to do.
That came quicker than expected.
Less than five minutes later, Baker had swish-and-flicked the parchment away, before setting the quill back onto the desk. His posture seemed to change, like the teacher had noticed during the sorting, and the magic seemed to gravitate towards his forehead. Now sat much straighter, the humanoid enigma stiffly flicked his wand.
This time, the spell was different. It wrapped around the quill in a way that suggested incredible control, and although it didn't show in the finished product, he knew that the spell had been refined beyond belief.
The boy was suddenly different again, slouching in a way that reminded the Professor of the late James Potter. Letting loose a remorseful smile, he realised that System did have a piece of his birth father within him, after all.
The magic, though... Flitwick almost evacuated the room. The magic had taken the form of wings. Gigantic, spiky wings spreading from the boy's back, to be exact. Every now and then, a bolt of pure energy would dart towards someone nearby, only to stop less than an inch from their heads. As the spell was cast, a bolt hit the feather and zapped it into the air. More bolts began to juggle the quill, but eventually one missed, and System cursed lightly before changing yet again.
Flitwick cringed. The boy had curled in on himself, shying away from others around him, but the magic focussed into his pupils, giving them an eerie quality. the magic used to lift the quill, however, was tender and caring.
Quicker than the other changes, System sat up and began bobbing in his seat, grinning wildy and incessantly tapping his foot on the ground. His magic... vanished? Flitwick watched in awe as his oddest pupil ever moved the quill erratically without magic. However, like the Ravenclaw that he was, he quickly got over his shock and began compiling possible resources to help his mind along.
The three Ws was a commonly accepted magical theory- wand, word and will. It was, however, possible to use magic without all of these things present.
Was it possible to use magic without, well, magic?
The three foot tall teacher sighed and filed it in the back of his mind. He'd figure it out eventually.