"My toad!" A boy shrieked. Rose felt a spray of water splash onto her crisp robes as the magically pulled boat halted in the middle of the loch.
A submerged boy raised his hand above the murky waters, toad squirming in hand. She found herself holding her breath, waiting for the boy to start swimming back to the boat, or at least bring his head above the water. Her heart pummeled in her chest. She was frozen to the spot.
She was never scared of swimming and enjoyed taking the paddle boat out on the lake next to her home. But she couldn't squelch the memories from flooding into her mind. She was seven and it was a clear winter's day. Her brother, Hugo, and she had been ice skating on the lake, a muggle activity her mum had introduced them to days before. The sun was bright and reflecting on everything. She'd been laughing so hard at her brother, who kept landing on his butt. She'd already bruised her knees multiple times, attempting to spin around and around. She was still laughing when she heard it. The crack, like glass shattering, and her brother's scream followed by a splash. She hadn't reacted. She'd just froze mid-laugh while his hand reached out above the surface. She'd watched as moments passed and her father had finally swooped in on a broomstick, scooping Hugo out of the icy lake. Her parents always had an eye on them when they played. But the shame of her inaction would always haunt her.
Another splash in the water snapped her back to the drowning boy, frog still clutched in hand. Another student had jumped from the boat, grabbed the boy with one arm, and was swimming back. Albus and Will aided in bringing the boy with his toad back into the boat, the boy coughing water out of his lungs.
"Thank you, thank you" he kept muttering, tucking his frog deep into his pockets.
A boy with platinum blond hair streaked down his eyes was heaving himself back into the boat, Al and Will attempting to help as he swatted their hands away. Rose leaned to the other side as the boat began to rock, hoping to counter the weight and prevent it from capsizing.
"What the bloody hell was that!" The boy growled once he managed to swing both his legs back into the safety of the boat.
"Humphry has been in my family for years… thank you for saving me! And Humphry! I haven't really ever been swimming before. It's much harder than I expected, especially with robes on." The boy prattled, patting his pocket to ensure his frog was still there. "My name's Burt. Burt Polyton." The grateful boy extended his hand.
"You idiot, you could've drowned! Or capsized the boat and put us all in danger," the blond boy lashed out, silver eyes narrowing while he wiped his soaked hair out of his face.
Rose burned, fists clenching. This boy just saved someone's life and he had the audacity to be mad about it? Here she was feeling ashamed that she wasn't the one who jumped to the rescue. What was his problem?
Burt blubbered out an apology. Will diffused the situation, offering Burt to take off his wet cloak and use his dry one instead. Burt shivered under his wet clothes, the loch must be freezing. Rose watched as the blond boy trembled too and turned away from them, muttering about the dangers of merpeople and a giant squid.
Rose was relieved when their boat crunched against the pebbly shoreline. Hogwarts' spires reaching up into the depth of the night sky above her.
After a spell to dry Burt and the angsty blond boy, a prefect led them up a pathway, past rows of statues that waved and turned their heads as the students flowed into the castle. Albus held his breath as they entered, feeling his nerves about the sorting ceremony compound on top of his experience of nearly watching a student drown. Rose, Will, and he huddled close together as the group of about 50 new students gathered outside a set of large oak doors riddled in ironwork.
A man with wiry gray hair, hooked nose, slouched back, and a cat purring at his feet greeted them with a sneer and squinting eyes.
"Welcome to Hogwarts. My name is Argus Filch, caretaker of this once fine school. You are here to learn something. I expect that you take care to at least try to do so. And by Merlin behave yourselves! I'll have none of your mischief…. I'm getting too old for that now anyway. Had enough battles here to last a lifetime and seen too many of the likes of you who've never make it out of these walls."
Filch paused for dramatic effect. Albus felt the scare tactic working, many students taking a step back or staring up at the man with fear in their eyes. He found his heart pounding a little faster too, knowing his parents had probably almost died in these halls.
"Now I'm supposed to give a speech on welcoming you and all that prattle," Filch cleared his throat. "So welcome. That's as much as you'll get out of me. Now you're to be sorted into one of four houses, which will be your home for the next 7 years of your lives if you survive that long. The houses are Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, Gryffindor, and Slytherin. You are to respect your teachers and fellow students. Points will be awarded to those who've earned it and deducted from those who disobey the rules" Filch spit off his tongue, with numerous eye-rolls.
"There are floors here that are strictly forbidden, along with the forbidden forest. If you want to survive your time here, you will do well to follow the rules, unless you want to end up in detention with me," he lifted the edges of his lips into what should have been a grin. "Your house prefects will fill you in on the details. Any questions?"
Albus looked around as all 50 students remained silent, fear clearly struck on their faces.
"Right," Flinch smiled genuinely. "Let's begin!"
The doors to the great hall swung open. Four long tables lined the cobbled floor with students eagerly peering out at him and the other students. He could've sworn some whispered "Harry Potter's son." Albus focused on the room with the ceiling enchanted to look like the night's sky. Hundreds of candles glistened above their heads. He felt his heart skip a beat with wonder. He looked over at Will's face, with wide eyes and mouth agape. They grinned. He saw James and Teddy sitting near each other and waved. James gave him two thumbs up.
Headmistress McGonigal swept her dark green gown across the floor and stood at the podium. He'd been introduced to her a few times as a child, his parents seemed to have considered her a friend and mentor.
"Welcome to the new year at Hogwarts!" the headmistress exclaimed and launched into a short speech about new classes, school spirit, and new teachers. The complete opposite of Filch and his cat. Nevertheless, all the fear and anxiety Albus had felt at platform 9 ¾ welled back into his heart. This was it. This was what was going to set him on a certain path for the rest of his life.
"It's going to be okay," Rose nudged him and smiled. Al swallowed, not able to smile back.
"Let the sorting hat begin," McGonigal stated as she placed the large wizard's hat on a simple wooden stool.
The sorting hat spoke and launched into a poem.
"Time is spinning round and round
Repetitions I fear may enter our ground
You have the intelligence, the courage, the perseverance, the cunning
You decide
You need only look inside
Realize what you hide
To break the path
To blaze anew
To seek what was found
To descry the truth."
"Does the sorting hat always talk in riddles?" Will whispered.
Al shrugged and smiled. "James, my brother, always told me the hat speaks rubbish."
He looked over at Rose. She had that look on her face that meant her mind was racing eighty miles an hour. She'd probably go to the Hogwarts's library soon and piece together past Sorting Hat speeches.
His stomach dropped again as Professor McGonigal bellowed "Let's begin!"
"Berkley Abyon"
A nervous-looking girl shuffled up to the stool and sat primly. McGonigal gently placed the sorting hat on her head and it bellowed "Ravenclaw!"
The pacing was irregular. Sometimes the hat would take a few minutes, other times split seconds. Al watched as each student nervously bit their lip or fidgeted with their hands when the hat was placed atop their heads, expressions turning to relief and smiles once their house was called. The wait was eating at him and he felt sweat trickle down his brow in anticipation. He tried not to think of his stomach doing summersaults, suddenly relieved he didn't eat anything on the Hogwarts Express.
"Hmm, not many Gryffindors yet" Rose whispered. Albus's stomach was doing acrobatics now.
"William Locksly" McGonigal read from her list.
Will gave him and Rose a tight smile and sat on the stool.
"Gryffindor!" Albus saw Will's eyes light up and smile at him as he made his way to the table with students clapping.
"Scorpius Malfoy." Albus watched as the platinum blond boy from the boat made his way up the steps to the stool, an ugly scowl plastered across his face to rival Flinch's. The hat barely touched his still-damp hair before crying out "Slytherin!"
"Wow that was quick," Rose commented, looking a little surprised. Al had been impressed by the boy's quick thinking on the boat. He'd barely had his own shoes off before Scorpius had jumped in. The good impression however replaced quickly by the heated temper and vehement words.
"Burt Polyton… Brave, loyal, yes… yes… Gryffindor!" the hat shouted.
"Albus Potter." A wave of whispers set off across the room like a storm blowing in. Albus froze, feeling dread creep into his heart. He felt Rose's hand give him a push and he stumbled forward, student's eyes crawling along his back.
McGonigal placed the hat on his head, and the sorting hat entered his mind like venom.
"Hmm, another Potter I see… yet so scared? Would Gryffindor really be the house for you?"
"Not Slytherin, please not Slytherin," Albus dared to whisper through his teeth.
"Not Slytherin, aye? Slytherin is a house of strength, of leadership, of understanding how to succeed… you would become powerful in Slytherin."
"Not Slytherin. Not Slytherin. Not Slytherin," Albus prayed over and over again as the hat continued to talk about how wonderful Slytherin would be for him. Albus felt eyes peering at him, he dared to look at the crowd and noticed multiple students yawning, Time was flying by and yet it felt like mere seconds.
"Not Slytherin? Then prove yourself!" The hat demanded, irritated. Maybe the prayer of "not Slytherin" was the wrong thing to say. Maybe he needed a discussion with the hat.
Al cleared his throat, and whispered to the hat as silently as he could, "I don't want to be a leader, or learn to manipulate or control."
"But you'd be so talented at it, Slytherin could hone your skills. You're so observant. You see everything, you notice everything. You could develop that into a weapon in Slytherin."
"That's not what I want my life to be," Albus replied, mind racing to further his response. "I want to thrive in an environment where I'll be supported, where I'll become better at making friends, where I'll learn from and support my classmates… not compete with them."
Al noticed the clock chime… he'd been debating with the hat for nearly half an hour. He gulped, suddenly feeling guilty and ashamed. He was making a spectacle out of this. Rose was right on the train, being placed in Slytherin wouldn't be the end of the world. And maybe being placed in a house designed to foster like-minded growth and set one on a certain path didn't mean he'd have to follow it. He was wasting time, trying to convince the hat to change its mind. Despite the newfound news that his parents might be a bigger deal than he'd grown up to believe, he wasn't any more important than the rest of his classmates who were awaiting the hat's decision so they could have their turn to discover their house.
A sense of calm steeled over him. "You may place me in Slytherin."
Al heard a chuckle from above his head. "Slyth… ," the sorting hat began to speak and paused. "Now that's sacrifice and bravery."
"Gryffindor!" the sorting hat bellowed into the hall.
Al slid off the stool and wanted to hide, a mixture of embarrassment and relief battling in his chest. The Gryffindor table erupted into cheers, adding to his mortification. He smiled anyways as James jumped up to give him a hug and Will gave him a slap on the back. Teddy and Victorie winked at him from across the table.
"What just happened," Al asked Will once he was settled in and the sorting continued.
"Guessing you stumped the sorting hat?" Will laughed and winked.
"I honestly just feel so bad for taking up all that time" Albus felt flush now.
"Nah, the suspense was worth it!" Will exclaimed. "Plus, I got a chance to talk to and meet some of the other students. Don't think anyone really minded that the hat needed extra time. The general opinion was pretty positive that you dared to question the hat... ask for what you wanted, choose your own path and all that."
"Oh… I didn't look at it that way," Al muttered. He felt his mind still trying to process.
"Rose Weasley," McGonigal called out. Rose winked at him and skipped up to the stool, crossing her feet and hands, smiling, and sitting straight. Perfect confident Gryffindor. Albus smiled up at her.
"Slytherin!" the sorting hat proclaimed.