Chapter Three: Sorting Issues
"First years!" A burly man with a touch of Scottish accent cried out. Tom negotiated his way over to him, still clutching his mother's letter which he had been reading on the train.
Aside from finding out what Professor Mulciber meant by 'just walking through the barrier', Tom's trip had been surprisingly uneventful. On the train he had sat near a second year who ignored him after a brief exchange in pleasantries when Tom revealed he was hoping to be placed in Slytherin like this mother.
"Oh." The boy had said staring at Tom suspiciously. "That's nice."
"What house are you in?" Tom asked.
"Gryffindor. I had better go. I promised Paige and Minerva that I would see them on the train ride. Bye." With that he left, leaving Tom by himself. He spent most of the trip reading his mother's letter and trying to imagine what she had been like.
When he realized that he would be crossing the lake in a boat, Tom tucked the letter into his robe and hoped it would not get wet. He had so little from his mother.
Tom entered the first boat he came to that had an empty place. When everyone was seated, the burly man with the Scottish accent cried out "Onward!"
Once they were underway, Tom studied the three others who shared his boat. The first was a pretty girl with neatly braided black hair , bright blue eyes and porcelain pale skin. Next to her was an onyx eyed, dark headed boy whose sallow skin reminded Tom of yellowed newspaper. Finally there was a boy whose face seemed to have been cobbled together from lumps of flesh toned clay in a vague approximation of normal human features. His hair and eyes were both pale brown and dull. At the orphanage, Tom had seen his type numerous times: a brainless but bulky moron who became the fists for the brainier sort he latched onto.
"I'm Julian Wilkes." The sallow boy said in a bored, superior, voice.
"Alexandria McKinnon." The girl said.
"Charlemagne Goyle." Announced the thug.
"Charlemagne?" McKinnon asked incredulously.
The thug gave a shrug. "I think my mother got the name out of a book she read in Muggle Studies at school. She thought it sounded manly and impressive."
Tom could see that Wilkes was fighting to restrain his laughter. Tom had to agree with his sentiment. He remembered from his Muggle schooling just who Charlemagne had been and it seemed absurd that his name had been given to someone like Goyle.
"Tom Marvolo Riddle." He said as he realized the others were looking at him expectantly.
"Riddle?" Wilkes asked, one eyebrow rising sharply to form an inverted V. "McKinnon and Goyle's families I've heard about, but I have not heard of a wizarding family called Riddle. You wouldn't be a Muggle-born would you?" He spat out 'Muggle-born' like it was something not mentioned in polite society.
"I'm a half-blood."
Wilkes nodded. "I am very pleased to know that I do not have to share a boat ride with a Mudblood."
"That is rude." McKinnon said indignantly. "You should not use that word."
"And just what house are you hoping to get into?" Wilkes asked McKinnon.
"Gryffindor." She stated firmly.
"Ah, I figured you for that type." He sneered.
McKinnon refused to be baited. "And what house do you want to be in?"
"Slytherin," said Wilkes.
"Slytherin," chimed in Goyle.
"Slytherin," said Tom thinking of his mother's letter.
"I'm surrounded." muttered McKinnon.
The rest of the boat ride passed in uncomfortable silence with many dark looks passing between Wilkes and McKinnon. Not even the sight of the castle could lure them into speaking to one another. Finally they were able to get out of the boats and followed the burly man up a flight of stone steps toward the school itself. He knocked three times on the castle door.
Almost immediately the door was opened by a wizard with a long auburn beard and blue eyes that twinkled behind a pair of half moon spectacles and seemed to miss nothing as he scanned the nervous faces of the students.
"The first years, Professor Dumbledore." The burly man told the wizard formally.
"Thank you, Ogg. I'll take things from here." Dumbledore pulled the door open all the way and gestured for the students to follow him. Tom could not help gawking at the marble staircases and the torches used for lighting. Part of him wondered why they did not use electricity. That fire was dangerous was a lesson drilled into all the children at the orphanage after the papers printed a story about another orphanage burned to the ground. He supposed it was probably magic and the effect was great.
Dumbledore ushered them into a small room and Tom could hear voices talking from the other side of a closed door. He wondered why they were stopping.
"Welcome to Hogwarts." Said Dumbledore. "The start-of-term banquet will begin soon, but before you may be seated, you will be sorted into your houses. The sorting is a very important event as while you are at Hogwarts you will eat with your house, sleep in your house dormitory, have classes with your house and spend free time in your house common room. The four school houses are Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin. Each house has a noble history that you may look up in the library and has produced exemplary wizards and witches. Once you are sorted you bear a certain responsibility toward your house. Your successes earn points for your house, while infractions of the rules will result in a loss of points. At the conclusion of the year the house with the most points is awarded the house cup, a great honor as you will see. I hope each of you will be a credit to whatever house you are placed into."
Tom swallowed hard. He wondered how they decided. Professor Mulciber had said the decision was based on personality traits, but how did they determine that?
"The Sorting Ceremony will commence in a few minutes before the rest of the school. I suggest you prepare yourselves. I'll return when we are ready for you." Dumbledore left them to their anxiety.
"How do they decide what house we are to be put in?" He asked Wilkes.
Wilkes looked edgy and seemed to have turned a peculiar and unflattering shade of olive green. "I think they put a drop of a special potion on your hand and it turns the color of the house you are supposed to be in. Green for Slytherin, blue for Ravenclaw, red for Gryffindor or yellow for Hufflepuff."
"I heard," said Goyle, "that they let the house ghosts walk through you and decide."
"House ghost?" Tom repeated. Wilkes rolled his eyes, but Dumbledore had returned and he did not explain anything to Tom.
"Come now, we are ready to start the Sorting Ceremony. Please form a line, single file, and follow me."
Tom ended up behind Wilkes and in front of Goyle as he stepped into the Great Hall. It was a spectacular place lit by thousands of candles. He saw a pearly white man, he could just see through him and supposed he was one of the ghosts Goyle had mentioned. He was talking to a student at one of the tables.
There were five tables in all, one for each house and one for the staff. Tom found his eyes drawn to the Slytherin table. Thanks to Wilkes he was able to recognize the green banner with the silver snake. He smiled a bit seeing the snake.
Professor Dumbledore had quietly placed a four legged stool in front of the first years. On top of the stool, he reverently placed a pointed wizards hat that had definitely seen better days. Even from where he stood he could see the patches and the stains. Just as he was wondering what the hat was for, a rip opened like a mouth and the hat began to sing.
From the outside that's all you see
But I'll bet if you looked a century
You'd never find a smarter hat than me.
For a thousand years I've
Determined where students should be
So cast your fears aside
And place your trust in me!
You might belong in noble Gryffindor
Where they are brave and loyal
Or with the good Hufflepuffs
Who are true and unafraid of toil
Or in wise Ravenclaw
Where the cleverest find their friends
Perhaps you belong with the cunning Slytherins
Whose ambition knows no ends!
Just place me on your head
There is nothing in you I cannot see
So take a deep breathe and relax while
I'll decide where ought to be!
The hall burst into applause at the hat concluded it's song and bowed to each of the four tables.
"When I call your name, you will sit on the stool and place the hat on your head to be sorted." Dumbledore said. He unrolled a long piece of parchment and scanned the first name. "Atkins, Richard!"
A pudgy boy hurried from the line and climbed onto the stool. He placed that hat on his head. A few seconds later the hat shouted out a house.
"HUFFLEPUFF!"
The Hufflepuff table began to clap and cheer.
"Avery, Midas!"
"SLYTHERIN!"
Tom watched Avery join the smiling Slytherins, and Goyle a few minutes after him, and prayed he would soon be amongst them as well, but doubt was creeping into him. He paid little attention to the Sorting until a familiar name was called out:
"Malfoy, Clarissa!"
"SLYTHERIN!"
"McKinnon, Alexandria!"
"GRYFFINDOR!"
The Gryffindor table erupted as McKinnon walked over to them smiling. Tom heard Wilkes sigh in relief and knew he was glad that he would not have her in his house if he was placed into Slytherin as he hoped he would be. Tom listened to the last names, they were moving further down the alphabet. Soon Dumbledore would get to his name.
"Prewitt, Maxwell!"
"RAVENCLAW!"
"Almost there." Tom whispered.
"Potter, Patrick!"
"GRYFFINDOR!"
"Riddle, Tom!"
Tom walked over and placed the Sorting Hat on his head as he sat down. All he could see the black inside of the cat.
"Hmm," said a voice in his ear. "You are a tough one. A good mind, no doubt there, a great deal of power, oh yes."
Slytherin, Tom thought, just say Slytherin.
"Slytherin? You'd be good in Gryffindor, you know, but if you are sure...SLYTHERIN!"
The Slytherin table applauded and Tom set the hat back down on the stool. As he sat down, the next student (Ryder, Allison) was sorted into Ravenclaw.
"Riddle? I'm Clarissa Malfoy." A pretty girl with hard pewter gray eyes stuck out her hand with an air of reservation like Wilkes had displayed on the boat ride.
"Tom Riddle, its a pleasure. My mother was in Slytherin, you know." Tom said.
"Your mother? Really?" Clarissa asked, considerably warmer in tone and demeanor now. "What was her maiden name?"
"Reihlive, Alicia Reihlive. I have my grandfather, Marvolo's name for my middle name."
"The Reihlives were a very respected pure blood family. I heard about your mother. Terrible tragedy." Clarissa said in a voice that made Tom wonder just what she meant by 'terrible tragedy'.
Tom thought of the letter again and felt white hot anger for the man who abandoned his pregnant mother, the man whose name he was forced to carry. "A mistake I do not intend to repeat."
"Looks like your friend is about to be Sorted. I saw the two of you talking earlier." Clarissa said nodding in the direction of the Sorting Hat which was then being picked up by Julian Wilkes. Tom held his breathe as Wilkes sat down on the stool.
"SLYTHERIN!"
Julian glided over to the Slytherin table and sat down next to Tom. "I knew I'd be a Slytherin."
Tom grinned in response.