Meeting their match, chapter 33:
Grindelwald gets sorted!
(We usually don't title these chapters but this particular one is worthy of a name.)
As they walked back to the great hall, Blaise's attention shifted back and forth between Gellert's beautiful face and stunning golden haired profile to the sorting hat in his hands. "So what's so special about it,"Gellert asked.
"What?"
Was he talking about his own face, or his hair or his slender elegant body? Were it truly required, Blaise supposed he had no trouble expounding on any of the three.
"You would not be so eager to study it were it not worthy, so why? What makes it so," Gellert asked nodding at the hat Blaise carried.
"Oh! The hat," Blaise said. Of course the bloody hat, he told himself, annoyed that his mind could so easily go apparently daft around Gellert's eyes. Still the subject of enchantments, talking shop as it were, could truly get Blaise going, and he immediately became enthusiastic as he began his explanation.
"Well...it is obviously an item of complex enchantments, but you or I can make items of complex enchantments so that's not the real bit that grabs me. Not even the fact it was made in part by Salazar Slytherin himself, though I'd love to study anything he made did it allow me to understand more of his style of magic. It's the fact the hat not only speaks aloud, but scans the mind of whoever wears it for the intention of placing the wearer in one of the four Hogwarts houses. At least I assume that is the original reason it was given the property of legilimency. I do wonder, though, if other hats or similar items with the same enchantments were used for other reasons. That is in part why I wished to study it. We could find many uses for an item with such abilities were we able to construct one. As if reading minds isn't complex enough for a hat, even a magic one, it also talks to you in your mind when it sorts you. It appears to be sentient at least on the matter of sorting. I never tried asking it about the weather, so I'm not sure how far the ability extends past the matter of the sorting itself."
Gellert laughed, tossing back his blonde locks as his eyes sparkled merrily at Blaise. Blaise felt his heart flutter in response and nearly gave a sigh of resignation.
"If we could create two that could be linked together, and get one onto the head of an enemy, lets say this Voldemort, and wear the other ourselves, we could tell what they are thinking at all times," Gellert said, and Blaise nodded.
"Yes! There are so many ways to use such an item of power for more than the mere matter of sorting little kids into school houses!"
That did give him an idea, though, and he gave Gellert his slow lazy grin. "However...I am curious."
"What," Gellert asked, returning the smile with one that said plainly he was up for any challenge.
"Lets see what house you would be sorted into. We'll put it on your head and let it sort you. Doing this will give you a feel for exactly how it works," Blaise said.
"Alright,"Gellert agreed readily as they entered the great hall.
"We usually sit on a stool to get sorted in our first year, but as I don't know where it is, hopefully the hat will respond even if you're on a chair," Blaise said, and headed up to the staff table where they had eaten their meals for the past few days. Pulling out the chair Gellert used for lunch, he gestured the blonde to sit, then placed the hat onto his head.
It shouldn't have come as a surprise that Gellert even looked hot in the sorting hat. Blaise supposed it was more of a surprise that he noticed how hot Gellert looked in the sorting hat. As Blaise watched, Gellert's expression went from expectant to focused. Something must be happening, but he would wait until Gellert was finished rather than interrupt to ask what the hat was saying even if he was intensely curious...which he was. Luckily he only had to wait about half a minute.
Gellert supposed he shouldn't have been surprised when the hat began speaking into his mind in a solid sounding yet soft voice rather than a mere thought concept. Blaise had explained the process, after all. Still the voice in his mind had almost startled him nonetheless.
"Hm," the hat said in a musing tone. Gellert could swear he felt it sifting through his head...or was it rather that he expected to feel it sifting through his head.
"I say, I can't sort you if you're trying to block my access," the hat complained.
Had he? He supposed he was so accustom to the need to keep his mind shielded that he had never opened it to another willingly. He opened his mouth to apologize, then shut it again, realizing a thought would do. Would the hat even hear him if he spoke aloud?
"Probably," the hat replied. "Though I'm mostly attuned to in here...not out there... And apology accepted. Now lets stop chatting so we can get you sorted, shall we? Hm...Brilliant enough to be in Ravenclaw for sure, and you are brave and you do have some loyalty in you but you're far too ambitious, shrewd, and cunning to be suitable for any other house...Yes it's the one of the silver and green. The one where the most ambitious such as yourself, can truly flourish. You will be a great leader...Or wait...You have already been a great leader, and you shall lead again...but...What are you doing here then? In all my thousand and some years I have never ever been confused!"
The soft voice of the hat almost sounded affronted, and Gellert couldn't help a small smile.
"Forgive me, but I thought you didn't want to chat."
"Very well, then," the hat said. "I have a job to do and I shall do it. Your traits are such that you are truly only suited to one house. That of...""SLYTHERIN!""
The hat shouted the final word aloud, and Blaise gave a pleased shout as he moved to hug Gellert.
"You got into Slytherin! That's the best house of course, and my mother and I were both sorted into it. Dad attended Durmstrang."
Gellert returned Blaise's embrace, pleased with the hat's choice as well. Salazar Slytherin's house was an impressive one as was the man himself. It was also the house of Merlin when he attended Hogwarts and of course Blaise so yes, he was pleased.
"It only took a few seconds too," Blaise said as he lifted the hat from Gellert's head. "It didn't take very long with me either, though it dithered between Slytherin and Ravenclaw for a moment."
Gellert nodded. "I am guessing traits or imprints of all four of the founders were put into the hat, but knowing that is still rather a basic concept," Blaise said. He then proceeded to explain all he knew of the hat to Gellert as he took the chair beside him in which he'd sat earlier. He explained how the hat had a new song each year about itself and at some points even seemed to make cryptic comments regarding the future.
"So either one of the founders was a seer, or it hears things in the headmaster's office," Blaise concluded.
"I wonder what it will tell us and how much we can unravel of the magic even if it does not wish to share or is unable to share. It was understandably curious about me, so perhaps it will trade information to satisfy itself," Gellert speculated and Blaise handed the hat over to him.
"Go ahead and start. I'll watch then pitch in when I get something," Blaise said. The eager feeling that gripped him wasn't the same as the overwhelming lust he felt for Gellert but it was nearly as intense. The hunger to understand an enchantment coupled with the thrill of watching Gellert work and sharing that work with him as they discovered enchantments together.