Chapter 9
September 1st, 1989- Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Somewhere in Scotland
The group of first year students had been ushered inside by a stern-looking woman with wire rim glasses who they learned was Professor McGonagall, the Deputy Headmistress. She had then given them a short speech about how they were going to be Sorted into Houses and the point of the points system, looked menacingly at a few kids who were less than put together after the boat ride and then left the small room they were in to go to the great hall. About two seconds after she left the entire group started talking frantically.
"Does anyone know how we get Sorted?" asked a black-haired girl with high eyebrows.
"My dad said we have to do some sort of test." a blue-eyed boy said. "He wouldn't tell me what it was though."
"I heard we have to fight a troll." Fred said.
"Without a wand." George added.
"In front of the entire school." Patricia put her two Knuts in. Eyes widened all around them except for Lee's, he just did his best to hide his grin.
"Yeah right, Weasleys." scoffed a brown-haired boy. "It's just a test, not an execution."
"What will we need to know?" another boy wondered frantically. He was the boy who had practically curled up in the middle of his boat when Patricia had said her piece about the Giant Squid's curse. She had to thank Uncle Remus for helping her with that one, she'd never have come up with a good way to break the curse if he hadn't told her about sneaking into the Slyterin common room when he was at school. That the boy had several strands of his dark hair plastered across his damp forehead meant that he had been one of those to get a look from Professor McGonagall. "I'm only in the middle of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them!"
A brown-haired girl rolled her eyes. "Calm down, Roger. It can't be that hard, we're just starting."
"It'll have to be hard enough to get rid of the Mudbloods that don't belong here." growled a wide boy with thick eyebrows. Gasps and shouts burst from about half of the room. A few people made hand signs like they were warding off the evil eye. Everyone else, the Muggle-borns , and really, really sheltered half-bloods, looked confused.
"How dare you?" Patricia shrieked in unison with two of the other girls. A freckly blond boy who didn't seem to know what was going on jumped on the wide boy, realizing that whatever he had said was really bad. He was backed by Fred and George. Lee would probably have joined in if Professor McGonagall hadn't stepped through the door at that very moment.
"WHAT IS GOING ON HERE?"
The four brawling boys fell back. The wide boy had a bruise forming around one eye and his lip was split. Fred, George and the blond boy were also going to be pretty bruised and they were a lot worse off than the other boy. Everyone was silent for a moment, then Patricia spoke up.
"Professor, he called Muggle-borns m-m-"Mudbloods" and said they don't belong at Hogwarts." She pointed at the wide boy. "They were fighting him because that's an awful thing to call someone." The kids who had looked confused before looked like they were beginning to understand what had been said. Anger was leaping through the air.
"The worse." the brown-haired girl said.
"It's just a word." the brown-haired boy argued. "Cassius did nothing wrong." A few others nodded in agreement with him.
"It's a horrible word!" the black haired girl shouted. Other people started taking sides and there was the definite possibility of an all-out brawl starting when Professor McGonagall raised her wand and set off loud explosions over her head. In all the commotion no one noticed a fat silver man float through the wall, look around the room and got back through the wall as fast as he could. One of the famous Hogwarts ghosts had just been there and none of the first years saw. That was a shame.
"Enough! Never in all my time at Hogwarts have I seen such an unruly group of first years! All of you have detention with me on the first day of classes. Messrs Weasley, Weasley, Towler and Warrington, you have dentition for the first three days. If you were Sorted I would take points from all of you!" No one had time to question how she knew Fred, George, Towler and Warrington's names or complain about the punishment because right away she ordered them to line up and follow her into the hall. Patricia pulled the twins aside and dusted them off before they joined the line.
The moment they entered the Great Hall, Patricia looked up. Uncle Remus had mentioned the enchanted ceiling to her in passing but had never really described it. She knew why now, it wasn't really possible to. She could swear that the hall just opened up to the heavens with the stars as close as they were when she saw them through Tracy's telescope. The ceiling didn't just show the sky, it showed every idea of the sky a person could have.
It was amazing.
She looked quickly around the hall at the four House tables, the silvery transparent ghosts and the teachers at the Head table before focusing at a spot in the middle of the front of the raised platform where Professor McGonagall was placing a tattered old pointed hat on a three legged stool. Everyone in the hall was looking at the hat and so did Patricia. They waited.
"What are we waiting for?" Lee whispered. Patricia shrugged.
"Dunno." the twins said in their regular vocal volume. A boy from the Ravenclaw table shushed them.
A rip in the hat opened up like a mouth. A few of the first years gasped. Then the hat began to sing, rather badly.
Another year, another crop
of students to be Sorted
and I believe you'd like to know
what values will be important.
Here at Hogwarts we have
four of Houses dear
and in just one will you spend
the next seven impending years.
The House of Fire, Gryffindor,
holds the brave and daring.
You'll never accuse a Gryffindor of
being a coward or uncaring!
Then Hufflepuff, the earthen House,
holds those who're just and loyal.
Hufflepuffs are the calm ones
who fear not work and toil!
Ravenclaw soars in air above
with those of wit and learning.
To have the knowledge of the world
is every Ravenclaw's yerning!
In the water Sytherin waits
with the upmost cunning.
Ambition, forethought, and resourcefulness
keep this odd family running!
And now you know what they're about
our Hogwarts Houses four.
So slip me on and I'll tell you
in which you belong more!
The hat bowed to each of the four tables and the students clapped. Patricia noticed that the older students were a lot less enthusiastic than the younger ones. The Hat must sing a song every year and it would definitely get boring after seven of them.
Professor McGonagall unrolled a sheet of parchment. "When I call your name you will come to the front and the Sorting Hat will put you in a House." she told the first years. The she read the first name, "Abbot, Grace!" A girl with blond pigtails walked up from the centre of the line. McGonagall took the hat off the stool and Grace sat down, visibly shaking. McGonagall put the hat on her head and it slipped down over her eyes. The entire hall seemed to hold its breath.
"RAVENCLAW!" the Hat shouted. The Ravenclaw table burst into applause, followed shortly by the other three Houses. Grace got off the stool and handed the Hat to Professor McGonagall before joining her new housemates. Professor McGonagall then called out the next name.
The boy who'd been worried about not being prepared for a test , "Davis, Roger!", also became a Ravenclaw. "Diggory, Cedric!", the blue-eyed boy who had first suggested the idea of a test was the first new Hufflepuff. His new House applauded even more loudly than Gryffindor had when they got their first new student. "Johnson, Angelina!" was the brown-haired girl who had tried to calm Roger down. She sat on the stool for almost a full minute before the Hat put her in Gryffindor.
Then it was Lee's turn. He mounted the steps up to the platform with an air of trepidation that he tried to hide by balling his hands into fists and burying them in the folds of his robe. The Hat fell over his eyes and almost immediately shouted "GRYFFINDOR!" Lee went over to the Gryffindor table with a small smile on his face. He was patted on the shoulder by the ghost that was sitting next to him and immediately looked like he'd been drenched with ice water.
"Lie, Noa!" was a tiny Japanese girl who became a Ravenclaw. She had a red fabric amulet hanging around her neck that swung back and forth as she scampered to the Ravenclaw table. "Moon, Violet!" was another Ravenclaw. She was a wispy looking girl whose wafting brown hair made Patricia strongly suspect that she had some sort of faerie ancestry. "Pucey, Adrian!" was the boy who had defended Warrington. He became a Slytherin after several seconds of wearing the Hat.
"No surprise there." Fred muttered. Patricia elbowed him in the gut and he doubled over with an "Oof!"
The Hat put "Spinnet, Alicia!" in Gryffindor. The black-haired girl sat down beside Angelina Johnson and was greeted enthusiastically by her and Lee, who was sitting across from them.
When Patricia's turn came she sat up straight on the stool and looked at the inside of the Hat. A few people muttered when they realized that she was, in fact, not a Weasley. Sure she had red hair but it wasn't Weasley red, and she didn't have freckles and her nose was all wrong for her to be a Weasley. Really, people ought to have noticed.
"Ah." the Hat's voice said. "How interesting." Patricia blinked.
"Err, hello." she thought. "How are you?"
"As well as can be expected." the Hat replied. "Now, where to put you? Hmm…Enough ambition for Slytherin but I don't believe you'd do well there. Gryffindor perhaps? Or Hufflepuff? Ah, you are a difficult one to place!" The Hat sounded quite excited by that. Patricia wondered how long she'd been sitting in front of the entire school with it on her head. Could it really make decisions that quickly? "Yes, Hufflepuff would be good for you, but would you be good for Hufflepuff?"
"I'm afraid I don't know, sir." Patricia thought. The Hat laughed.
"Gryffindor then? You know Remus Lupin...No, you'd be too much for Gyrffindor." Patricia wasn't sure if she should be offended by that.
"Do you go through all the Houses for everyone?" she asked the Hat.
"Certainly not!" the Hat replied in a voice that could only be described as smiling. "Now let me see…Yes that will do nicely. You, my dear, will do great things in RAVENCLAW!" The Hat shouted the last word and the hall burst into applause. McGonagall took it off Patricia's head and she walked quickly to the Ravenclaw table. Noa Lie patted the place on the bench next to her and Patricia sat down gratefully.
"That was a minute and a half." Roger Davis commented. "What on earth were you talking about?" Patricia shrugged, not wanting to tell a complete stranger that the Hat had considered each of the Houses for her.
"Welcome to Ravenclaw." a girl said from down the table. Patricia looked and realized that she was the girl who had come to their compartment on the train to let them know that they were arriving. The girl also recognized Patricia. "I'm Penelope Clearwater."
"Patricia Stimpson." Patricia said, even though the entire hall had just heard her name. Penelope's forehead wrinkled in concentration.
"Aren't you dead?" she asked at last.
"No." Patricia said. Then she turned to watch the rest of the Sorting.
The Hat seemed to be able to Sort the last bit of their group rather quickly. "Towler, Kenneth!" became a Gryffindor and Warrington was a Slytherin. Patricia was quite glad that the Hat hadn't put her in Slytherin when that happened. Fred and George both wore the Hat for less than a second before they both became Gryffindors and then the Sorting was done. McGonagall rolled up her parchment and the Hat and stool were taken away.
"What now?" Grace Abbot asked in a whisper. Her question was answered when the white-bearded man in pink and green checked robes stood up. He was easily recognized by all the students, even the first years, as Albus Dumbledore, the Headmaster of Hogwarts. That was probably because his Chocolate Frog card was really common.
"Welcome Hogwarts students, new and old!" he said in a voice that echoed around the hall. "Welcome to the start of a new year at our fine school! As I am sure your stomachs are all emptier than you would wish them to be, let us begin our feast!"