Chapter [IV] The Sorting Ceremony
Jamieson was only asleep for a solid 10 minutes, abruptly woken up by students loudly chattering and laughing as they walk past the carriage he was in. Letting out a groan and a huff, he shakes his head, unable to drift back to sleep, the boy settled to watch the scenery unfold through the train windows.
It was his first time riding a train, which he would've been able to enjoy... If his mind wasn't filled with questions about his family.
What happened to them? Why were the Dursleys so desperate to hide his origins? Why did they hate wizards so much?
His train of thought was soon broken, hearing light knocks on his carriage door. Turning his head slightly to face the door, he watches as the red door slid open slowly, revealing a rather timid looking boy with platinum hair peeking through.
"H-H-Hi," The boy sheepishly greeted Jamieson, who returned a small smile, "Hey," He responded with a warm manner. "I uh... m-mind if I bunk here? The other carriages are full," The boy continued.
With a warm smile, Jamieson replied "Sure. It'd be nice to have someone to talk to,", watching the boy step into the carriage, pulling his luggage beside him and sitting down across the stranger.
"I'm Jamieson Potter-Diggory," Jamieson smiles, extending a hand, still trying to get used to knowing his real full name. "Potter-Diggory...?" The blond boy curiously repeated, shaking Jamieson's hand, "I'm Leonidas Malfoy... P-people call me Leo for s-short," The boy stuttered.
'For someone named Leo, he super shy,' Jamieson chuckles internally, happy to have met someone his age before arriving at his new school. "Wait, a-are you really from the Potter-Diggory family?" Leo asked, growing more and more curious, which was rather obvious to Jamieson.
"Well... yeah. Is there something wrong?" Jamieson asked, trying to gouge out any information he could get about his family's background. "N-Nothing," Leo looked away, almost as if in shame, his curiosity peaking.
'Were my family members some sort of mafia gang in the wizard world or something?' Jamieson wonders to himself, wishing he could get to his new school soon so he could learn more about his family.
"Any idea when we'd get to Hogwash?" Jamieson smiles, trying to strike up a conversation with the blond boy sitting across from him. Leo opened his mouth to answer, only to be interrupted by a third person casually making their way into their carriage, pulling her luggage besides her.
"It's Hogwarts. Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, calling it any other names would be disrespectful," The girl spoke, sitting down next to Leo. "Oh, sorry," Jamieson apologizes, watching in amusement as Leo squirmed in his seat.
"I'm Frona Freesia Weasley-Granger, you can call me Frona," The girl extended a hand towards Leo, who sheepishly shook her hand, "L-L-Leonidas M-Malfoy," He barely managed to squeak out, almost as if embarrassed to say his full name.
"Malfoy...?" Frona's voice trailed off, her brows furrowing slightly, which Jamieson picked up on. "I'm Jamieson Potter-Diggory," Jamieson extends his hand towards the new girl, who shook it, "Potter-Diggory?" She continued, a look of shock evident on her face.
"Yeah, what's up? Why'd you two look surprised when I mention my family name?" Jamieson responded, extremely curious as to why they had such reactions. The more he thought about it, the more ridiculous his theories turned into.
"I... I'm not sure if I should be the one to tell," Frona trailed off, her sight slowly and discreetly moving towards the blond boy next to her. "G-Go ahead," Leo piped up, refusing to make eye contact with either of his new friends.
"C'mon, I'm dying to know. You two aren't the first to react this way... Plus, I was raised by my non-wizard step-parents so I know nothing about the wizarding world," Jamieson frowns, part of him excited to discover an entirely new world, another part horrified to enter Hogwarts after seeing people's reaction to his family name.
Jamieson felt like he was exaggerating a bit, which he was, since the only people who's heard of his family name are his two new friends, his step-parents and that mysterious dapper stranger, and only his new friends reacted that way.
"Uhm... Your parents, Mrs. and Mr. Potter-Diggory, were killed by his father, Barbatos Malfoy," Frona explains, wincing a bit.
"Killed...?" Jamieson's frown deepened.
'Okay, so that's why these two reacted that way...' Jamieson realizes, a small part of him angry at the boy carrying the Malfoy name in front of him, a bigger, more rational part thought that there had to be a reason behind it.
For quite a while, the entire train ride was quiet and awkward between the three, until Frona decided to break it up by spewing random facts about the wizarding world, which incited a lot of curious questions from Jamieson, who in turn forced Leo to talk, exchanging jokes, eyerolls, quips and so on between the three.
Tall, cemented buildings turned short, turned into empty plains, into trees, into forest and into jungles as the train ride went on, chattering away, taking short naps in between and eating snacks the two treated Jamieson to off of the snack cart.
After a solid 7 hour train ride, they finally arrived at Hogsmeade station, with the three bonding long enough to feel like they were close, old friends. "Please leave your luggage and belonging in the train, they will be escorted into the castle separately," Rang through the whole train, the messaged being carried out by loud yet small speakers.
The trio looked around in confusion and curiosity once they got off the train, since it was their first time in Hogsmeade, "Over there," Frona pointed at a man carrying a large sign underneath a willow tree which says 'First Years this way!'.
Leo and Jamieson followed suite, trailing behind the red-headed girl as they, along with the other first years, followed the sign-carrying man down a shaded path. Long branches and thick leaves covered the top of the path, creating a magical, one-way path towards a body of water, lit up by small lightning bugs of various colours floating around.
"That, right there, is Hogwarts," Leo pointed at a castle in the middle of the body of water. From where they stood, the castle looked small, but Jamieson knew it was far from small. "Can't wait," He grins, both he and Leo catching up to Frona, getting the same boat with one other first-year.
Though the trio was silent, somewhat tired after spending an entire day on a train ride together, the rest of the boats were filled with 'whoahs', random chattering and nonsensical topics from the new students.
After about 30 minutes, the boat finally arrived at the school, Jamieson himself still trying to shake off the awe he felt when he saw the castle up close. It was at least 5 times bigger than he thought.
"Good evening, first years. Welcome to Hogwarts Witchcraft and Wizardry," A tall, grey-haired, old-aged woman wearing what looked like a witch's garb emerged once the boats had sailed off, greeting the new student body, "My name is Professor Dolevia McDonald, I'm sure you remember the name from your letters. Now, please follow me to the Chamber of Reception, the Sorting Hat Ceremony will begin shortly," Said woman spun around and began walking up the stairs, the student body following suite.
Since it was his first time in a castle, Jamieson was just awed at everything. Even though the school was centuries old, as stated by Frona in the train earlier, it didn't seem like it aged at all. In fact, the two wizarding wars that took place didn't look like it had any effects at all on the school.
They finally arrived at a room outside of the entrance gate, "Now, please wait here and await further instructions," Professor Dolevia then left the new student body inside said room, labeled as 'Chamber of Reception' outside the doors.
"Leo," Jamieson pulled the blond boy to the side, hoping to talk to him one on one.
"Look, I know our parents had... a thing," Jamieson began, watching the boy wince in fear, "B-But we're not our parents, alright? S-Surely they must have had their reasons... Plus, you genuinely look like a nice guy so... I wanna be your friend," Jamieson smiled, watching a teary-eyed Leonias smile, proceeding to engulf him in a tight hug afterwards, whispering a "Thank you," in a sob.
"Not sure if it was evident on the train, but I, too, would like to join this friendship," Frona smiles, walking over after overhearing the two. "Hug?" Jamieson grins, Frona herself running forward, hugging the boy just as tight.
"Someone's coming," Jamieson gently tapped their shoulders after a while, breaking the hug, all three of them turning towards the door where Professor Dolevia exited earlier. "First years, please follow me," A tall, plump man instructed, "Please form a neat line, no pushing around or shoving" He instructed, every single person in the room quickly following behind, forming a line as they made their way towards a set of open, tall doors.
Doors so tall, Jamieson didn't believe his eyes when he first saw them. 'Huh... I didn't know they made doors that tall,' He thought, following the person into the hall, he immediately recognized the person leading them now that they were under bright lights.
The man was one of the many people who came to try and fetch him, before the last silver fox came.
His train of thought was broken by all of the eyes trailing them as the first years made their way into the hall. Sat inside, divided into four long rows of tables were students of all sizes, shapes, skin tones and ages. From left to right, Jamieson deduced there were four types of what he initially thought as 'teams', Red, Yellow, Blue and Green, Jamieson once again being awed at how the Great Hall was decorated.
Thousands of flying candles and wall-hooked torches lighting up the gigantic hall, gold plates lining up the tables, statues holding swords and shields along the andesite walls.
"Welcome first years, a young new group students who will one day bring glory to the name of Hogwarts and grow as successful witches and wizards in their respective fields," A tall, silver-garb wearing man with a long. white beard spoke, standing in-front of a podium. Once he finished, the halls were filled with claps and cheers.
Ignoring the attention they were getting, Jamieson scanned the long row of tables at the elevated, opposite end of the entrance, filled what he realized were the school staffs. He recognized almost every single one of them, all familiar faces who came to his house the last 5 days.
He spotted the dapper man 3 seats to the right, who flashed him a smirk. Jamieson returned a small smile at the man before his attention was pulled back towards the person on the podium, now joined by Professor Dolevia beside him, who was holding an odd brown hat with a scrunched up face.
"Before we proceed with our Welcoming Feast, we shall now begin the most awaited ceremony of all, The Sorting Hat Ceremony!" The man announced, the hall once again erupting in cheers and claps.
"Now, first years, each of you will come up to and sit on the chair. Professor Dolevia will then place the Sorting Hat on you, which will announce which house you will end up in. Now, do mind, all houses are equal in greatness. You are sorted based on your characteristics, dreams, hopes, inner desires, and so on," The man explained, the rest of the students filling the hall with cheers and shouts of the house names.
"Now, the first student to be sorted, Mr. Tom Harrington, please step up," Professor Dolevia instructed. Jamieson wondered how their voices were so loud, considering he couldn't see any voice enhancers anywhere, and how electronics don't work in the wizarding world as Frona had explained earlier. 'Huh... must be magic,' He wonders.
"Frona Freesia Weasley-Granger," Professor Dolevia announced, watching in curiosity as the Weasly-Granger bloodline carrier walk up the steps. The entire bloodline had ended up as Gryffindors, achieving greatness, they were wondering whether any of them would end up in Ravenclaw, as Hermione Granger should have due to her high intellect.
"Gryffindor!" The hat announced, loud cheers coming from the red-themed table as Frona made her way down to said table. "That's my sister!" A red-headed student whistled, the rest of the house cheering and clapping for her as she went down the stairs, towards the red and gold themed house.
Students after students went up the steps, alternating between boy and girl, until there were only Jamieson and Leonidas left.
"Jamieson Jamie Potter-Diggory," Professor Dolevia announed, full of excitement, the entire hall suddenly fell into silence at the mention of Jamieson's name. 'Now would you look at that, my middle name is Jamie. I'm starting to think my parents hated me,' Jamieson joked to himself, wishing he never learned about his middle name.
"Gryffindor!" The had announces, Professor Delovia, internally, screamed quite excitedly, another Potter-Diggory bloodline in Gryffindor. Although she admitted her sadness as to what happened to Jamieson's parents, she was still excited at least their child was following their footsteps. The entire row of Gryffindor students exploded into loud cheers, whistles and yells of all kinds once his house was announced.
'Now I'm praying to Merlin he's not nearly as chaotic as his father,' She silently prayed, remembering all the hocus-pocus, chaotic event Jamieson's parents caused for the whole school.
In fact, after rereading all of the history books and listening in on the older faculty members, it seemed to her that anyone with the family name 'Potter-Diggory' was keen to cause trouble, even before the two families converged after the 2nd Wizarding War.
"Our last student of the night," Professor Dolevia was rather hesitant to announce his name, knowing what burden it carried, especially for such a young child. For the rest of the staff members, they immediately recognized the slick back, blond hair, though the fearful expression was definitely new to them.
They already taught two generations of Malfoys, who wore a snarky expression almost 100% of the time, seeing one with such terror on his face was definitely new.
"Leonidas Malfoy," Professor Dolevia announced, the entire hall immediately fell into silence. After the last Malfoys graduated, who happened to be his parents, there hadn't been another one for at least a few decades, the same happening with the Potter-Diggory bloodline and Weasley-Granger bloodline.
Even so, anyone would recognize the name Malfoy.
The family who sided with Voldemort throughout the first and second wizarding war? A family keen on keeping the pureblood laws? A family responsible for murdering the previous generation of the Potter-Diggory bloodline?
After the last event, the name was etched into everyone's mind.
The staffs and students both awaited for the hat to shout Slytherin, along with Leonidas himself, knowing full well his entire family tree had been in Slytherin...
Which meant it was a pure surprise to everyone when the hat, instead, announced "Gryffindor!", its voice echoing throughout the gigantic halls, shocking everyone listening, except for Jamieson and Frona, who knew Leonidas would end up in Gryffindor after their bonding during the entire train ride.
Chatterings, gossips, murmurs immediately filled the entire hall instead of the expected claps and cheers as Leonidas skittishly made his way towards the Gryffindor table, sitting right between Jamieson and Frona, with Jamieson giving him a high-five and Frona hugging him tight.
"See? I told you you'd end up in Gryffindor with us," Frona grins, remembering her words when they were lined up earlier.
"Interesting... A Malfoy in Gryffindor. This is gonna be a great year," One of the professors chuckles as Professor Dolevia returned to her seat behind the podium. "Knowing them, I know they're gonna raise hell in this school," She shook hear head, a small smile emerging on her face afterwards, "We're ready for this new generation," She grins, sensing a huge change within the Malfoy family tree coming quite soon.
"Welcome, first years. You have all been sorted out into your houses. Before we begin our Welcoming Feast, I would like to remind all of you that the 3rd floor and above is restricted to students who are Year 2 and below for various reasons. Seniors, please behave well and be good examples for the new students. I would like to remind you that Hogwarts first ever Gobstones Competition will be happening 2 months from now, so train yourselves to win house points for this year's house cups, along with various other prizes," The man announced, taking a short breather, "To all first years, I am Professor Edward mcDuffel, your Headmaster for this year, I declare the Welcome Feast to begin!" He continues, voice filled with excitement.
Just like that, food of all kind appeared on the tables with a puff of air.
"Wow..." James breathes out. Never did he ever see so much food displayed in front of him, and for the first time in his life... he's allowed to actually eat it. Like everyone else, he soon joined in on feasting on the delicious food, feeling like his tongue was sent to heaven for the first time in his life.
After about 30 minutes of eating delicious stuff and enjoying his first night with Leo and Frona, the current prefects for Gryffindor stood up, assuming their duties.
"Alright first years, since you've all finished eating, let me, Nicole Samsons and Graham Woods take you to our dormitories," The female prefect announces, waiting for everyone to line up behind them. "Oh... So he was a prefect," Jamieson gasped quietly, remembering the face of the male prefect, the same one who rounded the students up back at King's Cross before they boarded the train.
Soon, the prefects took the new students to where the Gryffindor Landing was, which was decorated lavishly with gold and velvet coloured ornaments.
"This is called the Gryffindor Landing, behind this portrait is where our common room and dormitories lies. Now, the password changes every week, so make sure to pass it around and memorize it, otherwise you'd have to wait for another student who has the password to walk by, which might take all night or day," Graham, the male prefect explained, "Burnt bacon," He simply chanted while facing the painting.
"Wow," Jamieson gasped, once again. It felt like the only words he had spoke the whole time since arriving was "Wow,", "Whoah" or a variation of the two.
Following the prefects into the room, they were met with a beautifully decorated living room, "This is our common room, where you can hang out or study, do anything in general as long as you don't wreck it," Graham continued, the trio looking around the the room in awe. Sure, Frona and Leo heard that Hogwarts was amazing, but experiencing it in first hand was just...
Wow.
Inside the common room was a small area with a huge table, seemingly dedicated for a study session, the floor itself was covered with red-velvet carpeting, three large sofas in the middle of the room facing a fireplace with a big lion head on top, symbolizing Gryffindor.
"This way, students," Graham beckoned, the students following him through an archway, which lead to two sets of stairs. "Now, the first stairs to the left will always lead to the male dormitories, the right leading to the female dormitories. Boys, don't ever try to step foot into the female dormitories, because this'll happen," Graham continued, demonstrating by taking a few steps up the female stairs.
The students were then startled by a loud wail, watching in awe as the stair steps retracted to form a slide, forcing Graham back down the the bottom.
"Wait, what did you mean when you said the first stairs would lead a certain place... Wouldn't the rest of the stairs do the same?" One of the students piped up, murmurs soon filling the area.
"Watch," Nicole pointed upwards at the rest of the stairs, Jamieson confused as to why there were floating, unconnected stairs on top.
After a moment of pure silence, the sound of heavy stones moving could be heard as the staircases began to shift positions, rotating and changing their end-destination, with only the bottom two remaining still.
"The staircases change every few minutes so uh... watch out for that. Now, follow me, boys," Graham smiles, leading the male students to their dorms.
"This is where you'll be staying for your first year. you'll move up a floor as you enter your 2nd, 3rd and so forth. I'll be up in the 6th floor if you needing anything," Graham explained before disappearing behind the entrance door, leaving the new students to their own entertainment.
"Leo look, our luggage is here," Jamieson pointed towards their bed, happy that he got bottom bunk and Leo being his bunk mate on top.
A note was left next to their luggage with 'Welcome to Hogwarts, here are your essentials, please note that starting next year, you will need to gather your own from nearby towns and shops,' written on it, underneath the notes were their books, robes and other necessities. Once Jamieson had his items tucked away, he sat on the edge of his bed, admiring his new room, which was a solid 101% improvement compared to his old, sad excuse of a room.
This one actually came with roommates and an entire balcony.
"Hey Jamieson," Leo called out, poking his head to the side and looking down, Jamieson responded with a simple "Hm?" With a lazy smile as he looked up, "I'm excited for tomorrow, and the rest of our years. Scared poopless, but also excited," Leonidas admitted with a shy smile, Jamieson's own smile widening slightly.
"Same here," He answered simply.