Entry 55: I may have accidentally caused a school wide debate
Less than a week ago, I wouldn't have even thought that this debate was even possible. We huddled around the fire in the common room trying to figure out ways to stop people from assuming Harry was the Heir of Slytherin, which seemed like an inevitability. I thought I knew that it was an inevitability. And it was, only on a much smaller scale than I thought.
Let me take you back to the day after the duelling club. There was so much snow the night before that our herbology class had to be cancelled for that day. I had planned to catch up on work with Susan so we had gone to the library to collect sources for our essays.
Knowing that this was where Harry would encounter Hufflepuffs gossiping about him, I wanted to get in and out of the library as quickly as possible. But luck was not on my side as out of the corner of my eye, I saw the group of Hufflepuffs from my year sat round a table. When Susan spotted her friends she instantly moved to say hello to them. I put a hand on her shoulder after a few steps and she turned to me with confusion in her eyes. But due to our closer proximity we were able to hear the topic of their conversation: Harry.
Susan looked between her friends and me, her face stricken. Her friends were heavily insulting my 'cousin-who-is-like-my-brother' after all. She wanted to go and confront them and prove to me that it was all just a misunderstanding, that they didn't actually think Harry was the Heir of Slytherin.
That should have been the first alarm bell that people's beliefs would be different this time. But I didn't realise that things would be different until Hannah Abbot, the usually soft spoken, kind Hannah, jumped out of her seat and slammed her hands on the table. She sternly told Ernie McMillian "I trust Em and Em trusts Harry. She would not be such close friends with the Heir of Slytherin!" before storming out of the room.
Despite the slight lack of logic in her statement (I may not have known that Harry was the Heir of Slytherin) I couldn't help but be surprised. I didn't remember exactly, but I was pretty sure that Hannah wasn't that vocal in support of Harry in the books. When Susan asked me if I would be okay if she went after Hannah, I could only nod as I stayed rooted in place, mulling things over in my head.
My shock was the reason that I was still near the table of Hufflepuffs when Harry came out to confront them. I was brought out of my thoughts when I noticed Harry's expression. He looked far more upset than I expected him to. Sure, the anger was still obviously there. But when he turned away from Ernie his face crumpled, showing that he was as hurt as he was angry.
It took me a few seconds to decide to follow him. I knew that in doing so I would most likely come across Justin's body with him, but I couldn't bring myself to leave Harry alone after overhearing Ernie's cruel words.
I ran after him, earning me a look from Pince, a glare that has never actually been directed at me before. I raced down the halls of Hogwarts, only catching up to Harry when he bumped into Hagrid. Harry was surprised to see both Hagrid and myself there and couldn't seem to focus on what Hagrid was telling him about the roosters, nor when I was trying to tell him I saw what had happened. We had just turned a corner into a particularly cold and dark corridor when Harry suddenly stopped. There, right in front of us, were Susan and Hannah on their knees crying over Justin's body, with the frozen figure of Nearly Headless Nick floating next to him.
Harry stumbled over to the two bodies as I paid more attention to trying to console the sobbing Hufflepuffs in front of me, who both had begun to cling to my body when I sank down next to them. I barely noticed the trail of spiders coming from under Justin, only truly looking up when Peeves shot out of a door next to Harry.
The two of us locked eyes, and for the first time I saw conflict on his face. He obviously wanted to cause some sort of mischief, but my presence there was holding him back for a reason that I still don't understand but can only blame on my MS powers. But the conflict left the poltergeist's face when he looked down to see a frozen Nearly Headless Nick. He began screaming about an 'attack' and 'no-one being safe'.
Instantly students and teachers alike came streaming into the hallway. I pulled Harry to stand right next to Hannah, Susan and I, trying to keep close to him while people started to squish into the corridor. At one point Hannah, still vaguely in shock, tried to stop someone from stepping on Nick, but the effort was in vain. The confusion only stopped when Professor McGonagall's wand gave out a loud bang and demanded the crowd to go back to their class.
It was a few seconds after this that Ernie showed up. He dramatically pointed a finger at Harry.
"Caught in the act I see!" Ernie cried
Susan's retort of "We were here first! It wasn't him!" overlapped with Professor McGonagall's own shout for Ernie to quiet down.
The overwhelming urge to make mischief seemed to overcome Peeves, causing him to start singing a verse about Harry being a killer. I shouted at him to shut up and fear suddenly overtook his face before he zoomed away.
Once the bodies of the two victims were taken away (Nick being fanned down the corridor by Ernie), Professor McGonagall gestured for the four of us to follow her. Susan and Hannah clung to each other as we marched towards Dumbledore's office, the entrance to which was marked by a large stone gargoyle that did nothing to help sooth any of our nerves. McGonagall sternly stated 'Sherbet Lemon' and the wall behind the gargoyle opened, revealing a spiralling staircase that seemed to steadily move upwards.
The five of us stepped onto the staircase and we rose until we were next to a grand oak door. After knocking on the door and stepping inside, McGonagall told us to wait where we were, something I was grateful for as the staircase had made me particularly dizzy. I must have looked a little pale, for when Harry saw me he led me over to the nearest wall to rest against.
Without me to talk to, Harry must have taken to looking around the room to sooth his nerves. That was what led him to seeing the Sorting Hat, which he swiftly moved towards and put on his head. After his own conversation with the hat, he pushed it into my hands, seemingly disgusted. I decided to put the hat on myself as I had been wanting to have another conversation with the hat for a while. I was still bitter that he put me into Gryffindor just because I was a Mary Sue. Turns out, there was no reason for me to feel that way.
The Sorting Hat pranked me.
Yes, you read that right, the Sorting Hat is a prankster. It has been sentient for thousands of years, most of that time being kept stored away with nothing to do but sit and think about the different qualities that make people suited to each house. He thought so much about this that his ability to perform the job improved tenfold. He was able to sort every child within a few seconds, as evidenced by his treatment of Malfoy at our own sorting. But that meant that, after a few years, the sorting ceremony barely lasted a few minutes. The Sorting Hat didn't want this. He wanted to have conversations with people.
It took a few decades, but slowly he began to take longer to sort people, talking with them instead. It was then that he realised how gullible some eleven year olds are and how fun it was to tease them. There were also some children who he was able to have very interesting conversations with about the whole house system. That was how hat stalls were born: they are purely kids who he can either have a good conversation with or are easy to trick. The more fun the Sorting Hat is having, the longer your sorting will take.
I was one of the elven year olds that the Sorting Hat knew would be easy to trick. For when it was placed on my head, it could read all of my thoughts. It knew that I was from another world and it knew that I had scenarios running through my head about different ways that Mary Sues could be sorted. He took the idea that seemed most entertaining to him (having traits of all four houses but eventually being put in Gryffindor for plot purposes) and ran with it, completely making up points for his side of the debate. I was apparently always destined for Gryffindor, but the parting comment about putting me in Hufflepuff had I been normal was the cherry on top of a seemingly perfect prank.
I would like to repeat the sentiment that I wrote down after my first encounter with the hat: the nerve!
The sorting hat was far too proud of this prank to keep me in the dark, so when I asked him about my sorting he spilled the beans. I couldn't believe it at first, but after his story sank in it started to make more and more sense.
The hat always makes sure that people end up where he first thought they should go, no matter what argument they give. Not because he knows what's best for them, but because he can picture how each person would grow in the future if they are taught to appreciate different values. Everyone has traits valued by each house: everyone is loyal to something (even if it's to themselves), everyone is smart in a certain way (be it academically, socially or otherwise), everyone has ambitions (wanting to make friends, wanting to be happy, wanting to pass a test) and everyone is brave at some point in their lives. Thus we can't be sorted by what we are like, but we must be sorted based on how we could be. Or at least that's what the hat told me. It could have been pranking me again.
I was so engrossed by my conversation with the hat that I completely missed everything that happened in the room. Fawkes setting himself on fire; Hagrid bursting in; Hagrid, Hannah and Susan jumping to Harry's defence; Dumbledore telling the others to wait outside so he could talk to Harry. I only became aware of my surroundings when the hat was slowly lifted off my head and I turned to face Harry and Dumbledore, the latter of which seemed to find my sheepish expression rather amusing. I became even more sheepish when I was told that I had been mumbling things like 'what!' and 'are you kidding me?' the entire time.
Harry and I left the room together and, after saying goodbye to Susan and Hannah (who had calmed down but were still upset about Justin) and Hagrid, we made our way back to Gryffindor Tower. Harry related to me the happenings of the room, slightly amused by the fact that I had missed it all. Initially he was very eager to know about what my conversation with the hat was about but he laid off when I told him that it was somewhat personal. The hat only pranked me because of my knowledge after all, so I couldn't tell Harry about that. But I did tell him what the hat told me about why it sorts people the way it does. He did seem somewhat happier after that. I wonder why.
The next few days were very strange. I was expecting for everyone to start avoiding Harry like the plague. But the opposite happened. Lots of people started rallying behind him. It was Lavender who told me all of the reasons she heard of for this. Some people have been pointing out that Hannah, Susan and I were with him when we found Justin's body. Other's point out that Harry had a bad injury on the night of Colin's petrification, giving him an alibi. Many have started to remember that one of Harry's best friends is a muggleborn. Last but not least, Marcus Belby started the rumour that the snake at the duelling club was advancing on Justin before Harry spoke and stopped afterwards.
Of course, there are some that claim that Harry could still be the Heir of Slytherin, Ernie being the most vocal of these that I know of. But they are in the minority, with most people standing up for Harry against them. I was with Harry when we overheard Cedric Diggory telling off some third years who were talking badly about him. The third years sulked away when the popular Hufflepuff took Harry's side, causing Harry and I to smile. That was when Cedric saw us, coming over to talk to Harry about the situation and tell him that he was trying his best to talk people down from getting angry at him. Harry was incredibly happy to hear that someone as popular and influential as Cedric was actively trying to help him.
But I can't help but notice that, of the four main reasons people jump to Harry's defence, I am responsible for three of them occurring. Once again I have changed the plot, although this time in a more major way than any before it. I don't regret it though, not this time. Harry looks much better now than he has in weeks due to most of the school taking his side.
Despite not blaming Harry for the petrifications, most people (myself included) are still going home for Christmas, too scared of the possibility of being petrified. All of the Weasleys are staying for Christmas as their parents are visiting Bill in Egypt. My own family has been invited to have Christmas dinner with Tonks and her parents, which I am very much looking forward to.
Guess who has to self isolate! Don't worry, I don't have any symptoms, but I was doing fieldwork with a girl who tested positive, so a few of us in my geography class had to be sent home. Then her boyfriend tested positive, sending 30 more people home, and then a teacher got it. So the decided to send my whole year group to self isolate. But it does mean I'm at home more, which gave me a bit of time to edit this chapter. I hope you liked my take on the sorting hat and the sorting in general. I find it a bit weird that they would sort 11 year olds based on personality traits when they are still at a point in their lives when what they are still developing their own personality. So I decided to make it so that the sorting hat puts them where it thinks they could grow and develop into the best version of themselves.