A/N I Own Nothing
Ao3 – Once_Upon_A_Potter
"Well, well." The sorting hat murmured, "What have we here?" It asked, diving deeper into the young mind.
It found many things.
Bravery.
Being terrified of the storm, but running out into the storm anyway, to help a bird that had been caught up in it.
The sorting hat chuckled. Bravery may have been one of Godric's traits, but only Helga would have risked a storm such as that one for something as insignificant as a bird.
Ambition.
Thinking up an elaborate plan for a tree house.
And through hard work, executing said plan, creating what may as well have been a tree castle.
A thirst for knowledge.
Studying for, and acing every test taken in muggle primary school.
But being loyal enough to share the knowledge with friends, so that they too, could pass their tests.
The sorting hat opening it's mouth, ready to announce the house, but hesitated. It had barely scratched the surface, finding itself curious, it dove deeper, feeling the
child under it jolt in surprise.
The hat wondered if the child was seeing these memories for the first time alongside it.
"What's that sound?" A blonde haired man asked suddenly. They were in a medieval style chamber, both he and the girl in the room with him were dressed in
medieval style clothing as well.
"What?" The young woman asked, blue eyes straying to where a set of keys was hovering by the young man's head.
"There was a sound." The man explained.
"Was there?" The woman asked blankly, shaking her had as if to tell him she hadn't heard it. Her eyes clearly tracked the keys as they moved once again.
"What is that?" The man asked agitatedly, trying to locate the sound, only for the keys to evade him by floating around the back of his head. "Are you sure you can't hear that?"
She shook her head again, "I can't hear anything."
"Are you deaf?" The man asked, looking up and around, "It's like a jangling sound!"
"There!" The woman exclaimed, pointing.
"What?" The man asked, turning to look where she pointed.
"Sorry," the woman apologized, "Thought I saw something." Her eyes flashed a brilliant gold, and the keys dropped into the man's bowl of soup with a splash.
"What was that?" the man asked, whirling around to look in the direction of the sound.
"What?" the woman asked, adopting a slightly worried look on her face.
"A different sound!" the man exclaimed, fed up, "Like, a splash!"
The sorting hat snorted, yeah, Ravenclaw was definitely out.
The same young, blonde haired man, barged into the same chambers, to see the young woman from the other memory making the bed.
"You need to get out of here!" He demanded, pointing toward her.
The woman looked at the man incredulously.
"The king has ordered me to arrested you." He explained.
"What?" she exclaimed, moving away from the bed, toward the man.
"Catrina has accused you of stealing her seal." He told, her, moving forward and meeting her half way.
"But I didn't!" The woman denied.
"I don't care," The man stated, moving to the door, and peaking out, looking both ways, "and you haven't got the time to explain." He shut the door once again,
moving back toward the woman. "If you value your life, you'll leave Camelot, now!"
The sorting hat hummed, there was that Hufflepuff loyalty.
The man stood before the king and queen.
"I gave you a direct order!" the king, growled, sitting on his throne, his crown sitting atop his head. A large pendant resting over his heart.
"The people cannot afford to pay the taxes." The man argued, straight backed, chin lifted to meet the king's gaze.
"Don't tell me you're naïve enough to take them at their word!" the queen sneered, glaring down her nose at the man.
"We have their loyalty, their good will." The man pointed out, "Do not forsake that by making unreasonable demands." The man said, tense.
"Is it so unreasonable, for a king to expect his subjects to obey him?" the queen asked, eyebrow quirked.
"They'll starve!" the man argued, still tense, back ramrod straight.
The pendant on the king's chest glowed a bright red.
"Nonsense." The king stood. "You have grown too soft; remember, these are your subjects, not your friends." The king explained.
"Why can't they be both?" the man questioned.
"Because we rule the people, not the other way around." The king told him, in reminder.
"I think you're wrong." The man said, looking down and breaking eye contact.
"I beg your pardon?" the queen asked, glancing at the king.
"I said, I think you're wrong." The man repeated with conviction, "Without the people, there is no Camelot. We are as much their servants, as they are ours."
Yet another reference to Camelot. The sorting hat hemmed and hawed, recognizing the Gryffindor Chivalry.
"This table belonged to the ancient kings of Camelot." The man explained, looking around the table at those with him. "A round table afforded no man more importance than any other."
There was a pause, before the man continued,
"They believed in the equality of all things. So, it seems fitting that we revive this tradition now. Without each of you, we would not be here." The man told them, "My
father has languished in prison for long enough. Tomorrow, I make my bid to rescue him. Are there any around this table who will join me?"
The girl with the dark hair and bright blue eyes stood first, "You don't even need to ask."
In this memory, the sorting hat witnessed Gryffindor Bravery, Slytherin Ambition, surprisingly Ravenclae Knowledge, and most of all, Hufflepuff Loyalty.
Yes, the Sorting Hat knew where to put this one.
xXx
Eleven year old Cedric Diggory walked to his place at the Hufflepuff table, continuously glancing back at the sorting hat.
What was that?
What had the hat done to him?
xXx
It would be two years later, and the hat would have another, similar, experience.
It was set on a student's head, found the usual.
Ambition.
The child would get to Hogwarts.
No matter what their guardians said about it.
Bravery.
Standing up to a guardian who despised the child, for situations outside the child's control.
Loyalty.
Met another student on the Hogwarts express, and immediately became fast friends.
Wit.
Like a Ravenclaw.
But in a way only Salazar could have truly pulled off.
The hat, once again unsatisfied, dug deeper.
The hat dove into the first memory it found, immediately recognizing the young man and young woman in it.
Once again, the student jolted, and the sorting hat wondered if they were seeing these memories for the first time alongside it.
"Where's the target?" the young man mocked, his group of lackeys which were surrounding him laughed.
"There, sir?" a serving boy asked.
"It's into the sun?" the man asked.
"But, it's not that bright out." The serving boy told him.
"A bit like you, then?" the young man retorted, cruelly.
"I'll just move it over there, then, shall I, Sir?" the serving boy asked, picking up the target and moving it.
"Teach him a lesson," one of the knights growled, "Go on, boy!"
"This will teach him!" the young man exclaimed, picking out a dagger.
"Yeah!" encouraged another knight.
"Hehe," laughed yet another, "teach him a lesson!"
The young man threw a dagger at the target the serving boy was still carrying.
"Hey!" The serving boy exclaimed, jolting "Hang on!"
"Don't stop!" the young man laughed.
The serving boy took several steps back. "Here?"
"I told you to keep moving!" The young man called out, throwing another dagger. "Come on! Run!"
The serving boy shuffles along, struggling to carry the large piece of wood as the young man throws more daggers.
"Do you want some moving target practice?" the young man asks, just as the serving boy's grip slipped, and he dropped the target, sending it rolling to the young
woman's feet.
"Hey! Come on, that's enough!" the young woman told him, taking pity on the serving boy.
"What?" the young man laughed incredulously.
"You've had your fun, my friend." The woman told him.
"Do I know you?" the man asked, looking down at her.
"Er… I'm Merlyn." The young woman, Merlyn, answered, holding out a hand for the man to take.
"So, I don't know you." The man stated the obvious.
"No." Merlyn admitted.
"Yet you call me 'friend'?" the man asked.
"My mistake." Merlyn agreed.
"Yes, I should think so."
"I'd never have a friend who could be such an arse." Merlyn told him, turning to walk away.
"Nor I one who could be so stupid!" The man called after her, making her stop and turn toward him.
"Tell me, Merlyn. Do you know how to walk on your knees?"
"No." Merlyn told him, "I do not."
"Would you like me to help you?" the man asked, eyes narrowed.
"I wouldn't, if I were you." Merlyn warned.
The man laughed, "Why? What are you going to do to Me?" he asked.
"You have. No idea."
"Be my guest! Come on!" the man goaded, "Come on! Come oooon!"
Merlyn swung a fist, only for it to be caught, and her arm to be twisted back.
"Whoa." One of the knights breathed.
"I'll have you thrown in jail for that!" the man growled in her ear.
Merlyn huffed a laugh, "Who do you think you are?" she asked, "The king?"
"No." the man agreed, he wasn't the king, "I'm his son, Arthur."
The Sorting hat went eerily silent of the student's head. What on earth had it just witnessed?
The sorting hat was silent for long enough that the student glanced up at Professor McGonagall in confusion.
Right. Sorting. Gryffindor Bravery, that was for sure. Hufflepuff loyalty. The sorting hat snorted, Slytherin Sass.
It dove deeper, eager to know more.
"And may the differences of our past stay there!" a foreign king announced, goblet held up to toast, "To your health, Uther. Arthur. The Lady Morgana."
"The people of Camelot!" The foreign king added.
"And to the fallen warriors on both sides." Uther finished, holding up his own goblet.
"Wait!" Merlyn announces, bursting into the room and running over to Arthur. "It's poisoned! Don't drink it!" she ripped the goblet from Arthur's hand.
"What?" Uther asked, staring at the girl.
"Merlyn." Arthur hisses, "What are you doing?"
"Bayard laced Arthur's goblet with poison!" Merlyn informed them.
"This is an outrage!" the foreign king, Bayard, shouted, and knights, dressed in both blue and red, all drew their swords.
"Order your men to put down their swords!" Uther demanded, as more Camelot knights flooded the room. "You're outnumbered."
"I will not allow this insult to go unchallenged!" Bayard declares.
"On what grounds do you base this accusation?" Uther asked Merlyn, staring the girl down.
"I'll handle this." Arthur tells his father, skirting around the table, "Merlyn, you idiot! Have we gotten into the sloe gin again?" he asked, taking the goblet from
Merlyn's hand.
The sorting hat snorted, what chaos, one could cause. It reminded it of the chaotic nature of one of it's parents.
"Merlyn. Apologize." Arthur demanded, trying to take the goblet from Merlyn, once again. "This is a mistake, I'll drink it."
"No. No, no, no." Merlyn refused, "It's, its's alright, I'll drink it."
She toasts Bayard and Arthur. Sipping from the goblet.
She looked down at the golden goblet.
"It's fine."
All of that, for nothing! The sorting hat burst into hysterical, cackling, laughter, startling those around it, all of that Gryffindor idiocy, for nothing! All of that Slytherin
Chaos. For nothing!
When the hat finally calmed, it dove back in, just one last time, aware of how long it was taking.
"Fýrbendum fæst!" Merlyn chanted, eyes glowing gold, as a woman, the queen, tried to open the door to flee.
The queen repeatedly bangs on the door, "Come on! Come on!" She tried the handle, "Open!"
"Let me," Arthur told her, stepping toward the door, only to freeze, and ask, looking down at the queen's hand, "What's that?"
The queen turns, as her face starts warping, changing color.
"What's going on!" a dark haired woman demanded, green eyes wide, "Somebody help her!"
Merlyn grinned, watching the scene unfolding around her.
The queen finishes transforming, leaving a troll standing where before, there had been a beautiful queen.
Arthur takes a step back, a hand going up to cover his mouth. Shock runs through the gathered crowd.
"You're a troll." Arthur states bluntly, in shock.
"How dare you speak of her like that!" Uther scolds.
Merlyn continues watching from her hide spot.
"What is wrong with you?" Arthur demanded, gesturing toward the troll, "Just look at the state of her!"
"I don't believe it." The dark haired, green eyed woman said, in shock, as Uther continued grinning at his queen.
The troll, fed up with being kept in the room, rips the door clean off the hinges.
"She just ripped a door off it's hinges!" Arthur exclaimed, slightly hysterical, "Doesn't that tell you something?"
"Enough!" Uther snapped at his son.
"She is a troll!" Arthur stated once again.
The sorting hat chuckled, it wasn't the only one this time, the child under it was struggling to hide their amusement as well.
Well, that was enough of that, the sorting hat knew where to put this one.
xXx
The great hall was dead silent, as Hailey Potter made her way to the Slytherin table.
She glanced back at the sorting hat as she went.
What was that?
What had the hat done to her?