Let's Do It Right This Time, Chapter 12: The Sorting
AN: Bolded sections are from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.
The trek to Hogwarts was exactly as Aurelius remembered it. The gaggle of firsties made their way down the slippery brick path to the soft lakeside sand of the little harbor, following Hagrid's husky "This way," and the flashing of his lantern.
At last they stood by the boats, and Hagrid herded them in ("No more 'n four to a boat), Lavender Brown squeaking as her feet sunk into a patch of lakeweed that wriggled and released bubbles of marsh gas to tickle her feet, and they slipped soundlessly into the water.
It was beautiful. The sky was jeweled with stars, and the lake like dark glass, interrupted only by the intersecting ripples forming around the prow of each boat. The other three in the boat, Hannah Abbot, Blaise Zabini, and Ron Weasley, chattered about the upcoming sorting, but Aurelius only leaned back against the side of the boat and sighed, listening to the lapping of the water against the boat. He rather missed the thestral carriages, but there was something undeniably peaceful about the slow, gentle rocking of the boat.
"What house are you hoping to get into?"
Aurelius opened his eyes with a start. It was Hannah Abbot.
"Me? Oh, I don't know. I'm too academically lazy for Ravenclaw, I'm not nice enough for Hufflepuff, I'm too ambitious for Gryffindor, and I do too many stupidly brave things for Slytherin." He sighed. "As I'm a Gaunt, the hat will probably stick me in either Slytherin or Ravenclaw."
"Well I want Gryffindor. My brothers would kill me if I wasn't." Ron declared. Hannah was quick to follow with "I'm fine with anything, although Slytherin wouldn't be a first choice." And Blaise added that Slytherin was the only real house.
They might have started something a bit more severe than an argument, when all at once Hogwarts loomed ahead through the mist, windows lit up and turrets magnificent in the moonlight, its reflection quivering on the lake surface as though on a shadowy mirror. Gasps rose from every throat, even Aurelius's, as it had been nine years since he'd last crossed the lake, and he'd been too emotional to really take in the view.
In less time than Aurelius anticipated, the bottoms of the boats were scraping on the rocks in the dungeon-level boathouse, and Hagrid, after checking that Neville still had his toad, led them to the great doors, and began pounding on them.
After a few minutes, Minerva Mcgonagall took over, leading the firsties to the waiting room off the Great Hall. At last, after they'd been left alone long enough for the ghosts to stream through them, gossiping and discussing Peeves' status (not that incorporeal shades could kick him out anyway) Mcgonagall returned and began to tell them about how "your house will be your family here at Hogwarts", and so on, then listed the various attributes of the houses. Aurelius didn't think he was imagining the slightly unpleasant look she got when explaining Slytherin, and he sighed. The one good thing about staying Harry Potter would have been that he'd have gotten preferential treatment in any house. Of course, in Slytherin, preferential meant being treated like an ordinary human.
After her explanation, she led them into the Great Hall, while Ron worried incessantly about the Sorting method, and Hermione feverishly listed all the spells she'd memorized out of her text books, in case the Sorting involved a test, and told anyone who would listen about Hogwarts, a History, and the ceiling in the Great Hall.
Mcgonagall motioned for silence, while two prefects brought out the Sorting Hat and laid it on the traditional stool. Then she stepped into the shadows, while everyone stared at the Hat with varying degrees of interest. And then the rip in the Sorting Hat's brim opened wide...
"Oh, you may not think I'm pretty,
But don't judge on what you see,
I'll eat myself if you can find
A smarter hat than me.
You can keep your bowlers black,
Your top hats sleek and tall,
For I'm the Hogwarts Sorting Hat
And I can cap them all.
There's nothing hidden in your head
The Sorting Hat can't see,
So try me on and I will tell you
Where you ought to be.
You might belong in Gryffindor,
Where dwell the brave at heart,
Their daring, nerve and chivalry,
Set Gryffindors apart;
You might belong in Hufflepuff
Where they are just and loyal,
Those patient Hufflepuffs are true,
And unafraid of toil;
Or yet in wise old Ravenclaw,
If you've a ready mind,
Where those of wit and learning,
Will always find their kind;
Or perhaps in Slytherin,
You'll make your real friends,
Those cunning folk use any means,
To achieve their ends.
So put me on! Don't be afraid!
And don't get in a flap!
You're in safe hands (though I have none)
For I'm a Thinking Cap!"
Everyone clapped obediently when it had finished, and then Mcgonagall announced the obvious: that they would each come and try on the hat when she called their name. And then the Sorting began.
"'So we've just got to try on the hat!' Ron whispered to Aurelius. 'I'll kill Fred, he was going on about wrestling a troll"
"Oh, you never know," replied Aurelius, who was thinking about Halloween in the previous timeline. "But honestly, if they set a troll on us at the Sorting ceremony and our parents found out, everyone would be going to Beauxbatons."
Ron just swallowed, apparently too consumed with nerves to reply.
The Sorting soon commenced, with Hannah Abbot being placed in Hufflepuff. Her friend Susan Bones quickly followed her, and most of the following Sortings (Terry Boot- Ravenclaw, Mandy Brocklehurst- Ravenclaw, Lavender Brown- Gryffindor, and so on, with Millicent Bulstrode being the first Slytherin) went as expected. Aurelius, however, was near panic as Seamus Finnegan was called up. Suppose the Sorting Hat outed him? Or refused to Sort him? Or stuck him in Gryffindor regardless? And then:
"Gaunt, Aurelius!" Mcgonagall announced.
Aurelius ran forward to put on the Hat, almost glad that he was small enough for it to cover his eyes again. The entire hall was staring and whispering, almost as much as if he were still Harry Potter. After all, there hadn't been a Gaunt at Hogwarts for three hundred years, either due to the fact that they were so inbred that they hadn't birthed a true witch or wizard in years, and because they had no family funds to send their children to Hogwarts anyway. And it was a well-kept secret that the family were all parcelmouthes. Of course, as it was a secret, all the old Wizarding families knew it.
Hello, the Sorting Hat began, I seem to have Sorted you before, but strangely, I don't remember it. I- "Oh bloody Merlin!" the hat burst out aloud, startling half the students and staff of their chairs. A time traveler, it continued wonderingly in Aurelius's brain. And the things you've been through; it's no wonder that you decided to come back! So hmm, any preference on where to put you?
I get to pick? Aurelius asked incredulously; he'd been expecting to have to argue.
Somehow, I don't think Gryffindor would be the best choice a second time, the Hat responded. And you'd definitely not fit Ravenclaw. So I'd say Hufflepuff or Slytherin; it is, however, your prerogative as a time traveler to override me; you can thank Morgana L'fey for that.
Slytherin please, Aurelius responded. It will help my plans, and it will really piss of my git of a dad.
If you say so. I quite agree, although for different reasons. It has been sixty years since there was a parcelmouth in Slytherin, and there are very special parcelmouth wards against rape and abuse that were taken down by Lionel Gaunt a long time before that, and they need to be put up again. And you have healthy ambition and great cunning. The first true Slytherin since Tom Riddle! So "Better be Slytherin!"
Quirrell looked thoughtful. Dumbledore looked worried. Snape looked sour (or was that just his face?) Ron refused to meet his eyes, evidently thinking Aurelius was lost for good. And the pureblood students were gossiping right in front of him as he say down, the hall filled with whispers. It was going to be a long night, and Aurelius couldn't wait for Harry Potter to be called, if only to draw attention away from his current self.
"Goyle, Gregory...Granger, Hermione...Greengrass, Daphne...Hopkins, Wayne..."
The hall was just way too loud, and all Aurelius wanted to do was eat and go to bed. The Sorting was interminable. Why couldn't they just call Potter now, and shake things up a bit?"
"Li, Su...Longbottom, Neville...MacDougal, Morag...MacMillen, Ernie...Malfoy, Draco...Moon, Lilian...Nott, Theodore...Parkinson, Pansy,"
Aurelius rested his chin on his forearm, clapping dutifly when each student was Sorted. Three more names to go...
"Padma and Parvati Patil; and Sally Anne Perkins!
And then, at long last, "Harry Potter!"
The look on Dumbledore's face when his pet Chosen One didn't appear was definitely worth the wait. In fact, it might just be a new patronus memory of his!