Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger, and all other
characters, events, locations, story concepts, etc. (except Daniel Sharclo
and those concerning him) are the property of J. K. Rowling
Chapter Seven: The Sorting Hat
[113, 3, 12] She spotted Daniel floating in the air. "Daniel, please get down from there."
"As you wish," he slowly dropped to the ground, bowing politely. [c: 113, 4, 1]
[114, 23, a 10] She stared at Daniel's brown uniform for a moment. Harry nervously tried to flatten his hair.
"I shall return when we are ready for you," said Professor McGonagall, frowning slightly at Daniel as if to show disapprovement. "Please wait quietly."
She left the chamber. Harry swallowed.
"How exactly do they sort us into houses?" he asked Ron.
"Some sort of test, I think. Fred said it hurts a lot, but I think he was joking."
Harry's heart gave a horrible jolt.
Daniel, standing next to Ron, snorted disdainfully.
Ron turned to him. "What? Do you know what the test is?"
"Of course. Well, kind of. I haven't personally taken it, you know, but all involves is—" suddenly, he stopped and grinned "—never mind. But you'll find out. Trust me, it doesn't hurt, and it won't embarrass you, unless you're really shy in front of people."
Not very reassured by Daniel's mysteriousness, Harry looked around anxiously and saw that everyone else looked terrified, too. No one was talking much except for Hermione Granger, who was whispering very fast about all the spells she'd learned and wondering which ones she'd need. Harry tried hard not to listen to her. Maybe it would be hard. Maybe he wouldn't pass and have to go back to the Dursleys' house.
He had never been more nervous, never, not even when he'd had to take a school report home to the Dursleys saying that he'd somehow turned his teacher's wig blue.
"Don't worry," Daniel tried to reassure, spying Harry and Ron's worried looks. "It's nothing special. Well, actually, considering it sorts you into houses, I guess it is special. Shoot, I'm not saying this right, am I? You know what? Just don't listen to that babbler over there" –Harry had a feeling he was indicating Hermione, who swung around and glared at Daniel again— "And don't worry about it."
Barely listening, Harry kept his eyes fixed on the door. Any second now, the Professor would come back and lead him to his doom. [c: 115, 15, 1.]
[116, 1, b 1.] Daniel rose into the air to join them. "Hello, Friar, hello, everyone. How have you been? We're just waiting to be Sorted."
The Fat Friar smiled at him. "Well, if it isn't Daniel. Your first official year at Hogwarts, isn't it? Hope you make it to Hufflepuff! My old house, you know." He looked past Daniel at the frightened students. "And that goes for all of you."
Suddenly, Daniel rocketed down to the ground, seeming to fall he lightly touched down on the ground. A split second later, a sharp voice commanded, "Move along now. The Sorting Ceremony's about to start."
Professor McGonagall had returned. One by one, the ghosts floated away through the opposite wall, some bidding good-bye to Daniel and the others. [c: 116, 11, 1.]
[118, 25, b 1.] "Told ya," Daniel said confidently. "It's simple." He lowered his voice to a whisper. "I sure hope I'm in Gryffindor. I think I've got enough 'nerve and chivalry' to qualify, although I'm not bad at being 'just and loyal' or 'of wit and learning' or even ambitious and cunning—what do you think?"
Harry smiled weakly, Daniel's Sorting the last thing on his mind. [c: 118, 25, 4.]
[120, 4, a 8, np.] "She's calling by alphabetical order, you know," Daniel whispered. "You'll get called up soon enough."
Harry stared at him—"Finch-Fletchley, Justin" went to Hufflepuff—and wondered if Daniel had read his mind. He just winked and continued watching the Sorting. [c: 120, 7, 1.]
[121, 8, b 1.] "Good luck, Harry," Daniel whispered. [c: 121, 8, 1.]
[122, 15, b 1.] And now there were only four people left to be sorted. The first of them was Daniel.
"Sharclo, Daniel."
Looking confident, Daniel strode up to the stool, snatched the hat from it, sat down, and propped the hat down on his head. His brown eyes were hidden for what seemed like ages. Finally, the hat shouted, "GRYFFINDOR!"
Harry cheered with the rest of the Gryffindors as Daniel placed the hat back on the stool and walked over to the table, saluting mock-seriously to the cheerers. He took a seat across from Harry, which unfortunately happened to be the seat next to Hermione Granger, who seemed to draw herself further away from him as he sat down. He leaned across the table and whispered loudly with his lopsided grin, "Told ya I had enough 'nerve and chivalry' to make it."
"Thomas, Dean," a Black boy even taller than Daniel, joined Harry at the Gryffindor table. "Turpin, Lisa," became a Ravenclaw and then it was Ron's turn.
"Here it comes," Daniel said, his eyes never leaving Ron, who was looking a bit green as he stepped up to the stool. Harry crossed his fingers under the table and a second later the hat had shouted, "GRYFFINDOR!"
Harry clapped loudly with the rest as Ron collapsed into the chair next to him. "All right!" Daniel shouted, pumping his fist into the air. Noticing the stares, he grinned at everyone. "Just expressing my feelings," he calmly explained, which caused a bit of laughter at the table. [c: 122, 23, 1.]
[123, 23, a 7, np.] Harry noticed Daniel was just piling up food on his plate, instead of eating them. Already, the plate was packed full of food. "Why don't you eat first? There's enough for everyone," Harry suggested.
Daniel grinned at him—were all his grins lopsided? "All right, if you say so." He stared at his food for a moment, and then picked up his fork. A second later, just about everyone at the table was staring at him as the food on Daniel's plate vanished rapidly. It was dizzy just watching him eat. How he managed to stuff food in his mouth so fast and not appear to be gorging was a wonder to Harry. Daniel's face showed no signs of hurry or hunger—in fact, it seemed to be total concentration, as if he was just taking an exam.
Finally, as half the food on his plate was left, Daniel lifted his head up and met the eyes of the people at the table. "What?" he asked. "Why are you looking at me like that?"
Most people shook their heads and returned to their meal. Ron and a few others continued to stare. "Blimey, Daniel, how do you eat so fast?"
"Well, considering the fact I haven't eaten for a whole day except for the candy on the train, I was—am—pretty hungry, all right?" Daniel returned to his eating, this time slower.
"Why were you starved?" Dean Thomas asked.
"I wasn't," Daniel replied, his fork pausing in the air. "I was just too busy, that's all. I can survive about two days without food without getting too hungry, anyway. I mean, I've got deformed stomachs."
Ron's eyes bugged. "'Stomachs'? You've got more than one?"
Daniel grinned again, as if he found all of this hilarious. "I've got two. One big one, one small one. The smaller one's just for storage, though. I know, I know," he added. "I'm a freak of nature. Admit it. But it sure comes in useful, you know. Don't tell me that's impossible, 'cause that never stops me, in case you haven't noticed."
He gave everyone his confident grin and continued to eat, though it was sometime before the others could follow. [c: 123, 24, 1]
[124, 3, b 1.] "A.k.a. Nearly Headless Nick," Daniel said, emerging from his new pile of food.
"My brothers told me about you," Ron said suddenly. [c: 124, 5, 1.]
[124, 27, b 1.] When everyone—even Daniel—had eaten as much as they could, the remains of [c: 124, 28, 1.]
[127, 5, b 2.] twins and Daniel.
"Fudge," Daniel whispered. "I was hoping I'd get to see it. I've heard there're werewolves and unicorns in there." [c: 127, 6, 1.]
[127, 20, a 12, np.] "Yeah," Daniel muttered. "I've never heard of it, either. I wonder if that's what all that meetings were about—?"
"And now, before we go to bed, let us sing the school song!" cried Dumbledore. Harry noticed that the other teachers' smiles had become rather fixed.
"Oh, fudge," Daniel groaned. "This is the worst part of the whole year—I can't sing, you see." He made a motion of sealing his lips shut. "So there actually is something you can't do," said Ron rather smugly. [c: 127, 24, 1.]
[129, 19, a 2, np.] "Oh, Pee-ves," Daniel called, stepping up from the crowd. "Do you want me to stick one of those up your nose, or are you going to go quietly?" he said in a sweet tone.
"Ooooooh. Ickle Danny's going to try to hurt me? Naughty, naughty, Danny." Daniel took out his wand. "All right, then. You don't believe me?" Peeves scowled, stuck out his tongue, and vanished, dropping the walking sticks on Neville's head. They heard him zooming away, rattling coats of armor as he passed.
"He's just like a spoiled little kid who loves to annoy," Daniel said.
"How do you know about him?" someone asked.
Daniel shrugged. "I've been here a couple of times, that's all," he said modestly. "We've... uh... met before."
Percy, clearly trying to regain control of the group, took over as they set off again. "You want to watch out for Peeves," he said. "The Bloody Baron's the only one who can control him, he won't even listen to us prefects. Here we are." [c: 129, 26, 1.]
[130, 5, 1.] "Um... excuse me, sir." Daniel raised his hand.
"Yeeees?" Percy said, stretching out the word.
"Well, I was wondering," Daniel said with an innocent look. "What if, in the middle of the night, someone really had to use the loo? Where would the nearest one be?"
Some of the first years laughed. Percy glared. "The nearest ones are out in the hallways, right to the left."
"But wouldn't that be too far away for some people to make it?" Daniel said in the same mock-sweet tone he had used with Peeves. Without waiting for an answer, he flew to a blank section of the wall surrounding the common room. He studied the portion of the room in silence as everyone else stared.
Suddenly, Daniel seemed to produce a wand from nowhere. He pointed at the door and mumbled something—and a blue streak flashed out, hitting the wall square on. For a moment, nothing happened.
Someone cried out as two small doors appeared on the wall, steadily getting larger. In a few seconds, they were full-sized doors that blended into the wall. One had a label: Boys' Bathroom, while the other—surprise, surprise—had the label: Girls' Bathroom.
Daniel flew back to the crowd, who was gawking at the doors. "See?" he said in a jolly tone. "Problem solved. All complete with five stalls and five sinks. I'll add tubs later on if I have to. If you have any questions, concerns, problems, comments, or perplexities involving these... uh... restrooms, speak now or forever hold your peace. Or you could always just tell me."
"H-how did you do that?" Ron asked faintly, the first to recover his voice.
Daniel didn't answer.
After a minute of silence, Percy cleared his throat. "Well, then. That was... interesting." He directed the girls through one door to their dormitory and the boys through another. At the top of a spiral staircase—they were obviously in one of the towers—they found their beds at last: six four-posters hung with deep red, velvet curtains. Their trunks had already been brought up. Too tired to talk much, they pulled on their pajamas and fell into bed.
"Great food, isn't it?" Ron muttered to Harry through the hangings. "Get off, Scabbers! He's chewing my sheets." He turned to Daniel with half- closed eyes. "You are going to tell us how you did that back there later, right?" he asked in a sleepy-yet-curious tone.
"Of course," Daniel replied, getting into bed.
Harry was going to ask both of them if they'd had any of the treacle tart, but he fell asleep almost at once. Today had been an extraordinary day. [c: 130, 15, 1.]
Chapter Seven: The Sorting Hat
[113, 3, 12] She spotted Daniel floating in the air. "Daniel, please get down from there."
"As you wish," he slowly dropped to the ground, bowing politely. [c: 113, 4, 1]
[114, 23, a 10] She stared at Daniel's brown uniform for a moment. Harry nervously tried to flatten his hair.
"I shall return when we are ready for you," said Professor McGonagall, frowning slightly at Daniel as if to show disapprovement. "Please wait quietly."
She left the chamber. Harry swallowed.
"How exactly do they sort us into houses?" he asked Ron.
"Some sort of test, I think. Fred said it hurts a lot, but I think he was joking."
Harry's heart gave a horrible jolt.
Daniel, standing next to Ron, snorted disdainfully.
Ron turned to him. "What? Do you know what the test is?"
"Of course. Well, kind of. I haven't personally taken it, you know, but all involves is—" suddenly, he stopped and grinned "—never mind. But you'll find out. Trust me, it doesn't hurt, and it won't embarrass you, unless you're really shy in front of people."
Not very reassured by Daniel's mysteriousness, Harry looked around anxiously and saw that everyone else looked terrified, too. No one was talking much except for Hermione Granger, who was whispering very fast about all the spells she'd learned and wondering which ones she'd need. Harry tried hard not to listen to her. Maybe it would be hard. Maybe he wouldn't pass and have to go back to the Dursleys' house.
He had never been more nervous, never, not even when he'd had to take a school report home to the Dursleys saying that he'd somehow turned his teacher's wig blue.
"Don't worry," Daniel tried to reassure, spying Harry and Ron's worried looks. "It's nothing special. Well, actually, considering it sorts you into houses, I guess it is special. Shoot, I'm not saying this right, am I? You know what? Just don't listen to that babbler over there" –Harry had a feeling he was indicating Hermione, who swung around and glared at Daniel again— "And don't worry about it."
Barely listening, Harry kept his eyes fixed on the door. Any second now, the Professor would come back and lead him to his doom. [c: 115, 15, 1.]
[116, 1, b 1.] Daniel rose into the air to join them. "Hello, Friar, hello, everyone. How have you been? We're just waiting to be Sorted."
The Fat Friar smiled at him. "Well, if it isn't Daniel. Your first official year at Hogwarts, isn't it? Hope you make it to Hufflepuff! My old house, you know." He looked past Daniel at the frightened students. "And that goes for all of you."
Suddenly, Daniel rocketed down to the ground, seeming to fall he lightly touched down on the ground. A split second later, a sharp voice commanded, "Move along now. The Sorting Ceremony's about to start."
Professor McGonagall had returned. One by one, the ghosts floated away through the opposite wall, some bidding good-bye to Daniel and the others. [c: 116, 11, 1.]
[118, 25, b 1.] "Told ya," Daniel said confidently. "It's simple." He lowered his voice to a whisper. "I sure hope I'm in Gryffindor. I think I've got enough 'nerve and chivalry' to qualify, although I'm not bad at being 'just and loyal' or 'of wit and learning' or even ambitious and cunning—what do you think?"
Harry smiled weakly, Daniel's Sorting the last thing on his mind. [c: 118, 25, 4.]
[120, 4, a 8, np.] "She's calling by alphabetical order, you know," Daniel whispered. "You'll get called up soon enough."
Harry stared at him—"Finch-Fletchley, Justin" went to Hufflepuff—and wondered if Daniel had read his mind. He just winked and continued watching the Sorting. [c: 120, 7, 1.]
[121, 8, b 1.] "Good luck, Harry," Daniel whispered. [c: 121, 8, 1.]
[122, 15, b 1.] And now there were only four people left to be sorted. The first of them was Daniel.
"Sharclo, Daniel."
Looking confident, Daniel strode up to the stool, snatched the hat from it, sat down, and propped the hat down on his head. His brown eyes were hidden for what seemed like ages. Finally, the hat shouted, "GRYFFINDOR!"
Harry cheered with the rest of the Gryffindors as Daniel placed the hat back on the stool and walked over to the table, saluting mock-seriously to the cheerers. He took a seat across from Harry, which unfortunately happened to be the seat next to Hermione Granger, who seemed to draw herself further away from him as he sat down. He leaned across the table and whispered loudly with his lopsided grin, "Told ya I had enough 'nerve and chivalry' to make it."
"Thomas, Dean," a Black boy even taller than Daniel, joined Harry at the Gryffindor table. "Turpin, Lisa," became a Ravenclaw and then it was Ron's turn.
"Here it comes," Daniel said, his eyes never leaving Ron, who was looking a bit green as he stepped up to the stool. Harry crossed his fingers under the table and a second later the hat had shouted, "GRYFFINDOR!"
Harry clapped loudly with the rest as Ron collapsed into the chair next to him. "All right!" Daniel shouted, pumping his fist into the air. Noticing the stares, he grinned at everyone. "Just expressing my feelings," he calmly explained, which caused a bit of laughter at the table. [c: 122, 23, 1.]
[123, 23, a 7, np.] Harry noticed Daniel was just piling up food on his plate, instead of eating them. Already, the plate was packed full of food. "Why don't you eat first? There's enough for everyone," Harry suggested.
Daniel grinned at him—were all his grins lopsided? "All right, if you say so." He stared at his food for a moment, and then picked up his fork. A second later, just about everyone at the table was staring at him as the food on Daniel's plate vanished rapidly. It was dizzy just watching him eat. How he managed to stuff food in his mouth so fast and not appear to be gorging was a wonder to Harry. Daniel's face showed no signs of hurry or hunger—in fact, it seemed to be total concentration, as if he was just taking an exam.
Finally, as half the food on his plate was left, Daniel lifted his head up and met the eyes of the people at the table. "What?" he asked. "Why are you looking at me like that?"
Most people shook their heads and returned to their meal. Ron and a few others continued to stare. "Blimey, Daniel, how do you eat so fast?"
"Well, considering the fact I haven't eaten for a whole day except for the candy on the train, I was—am—pretty hungry, all right?" Daniel returned to his eating, this time slower.
"Why were you starved?" Dean Thomas asked.
"I wasn't," Daniel replied, his fork pausing in the air. "I was just too busy, that's all. I can survive about two days without food without getting too hungry, anyway. I mean, I've got deformed stomachs."
Ron's eyes bugged. "'Stomachs'? You've got more than one?"
Daniel grinned again, as if he found all of this hilarious. "I've got two. One big one, one small one. The smaller one's just for storage, though. I know, I know," he added. "I'm a freak of nature. Admit it. But it sure comes in useful, you know. Don't tell me that's impossible, 'cause that never stops me, in case you haven't noticed."
He gave everyone his confident grin and continued to eat, though it was sometime before the others could follow. [c: 123, 24, 1]
[124, 3, b 1.] "A.k.a. Nearly Headless Nick," Daniel said, emerging from his new pile of food.
"My brothers told me about you," Ron said suddenly. [c: 124, 5, 1.]
[124, 27, b 1.] When everyone—even Daniel—had eaten as much as they could, the remains of [c: 124, 28, 1.]
[127, 5, b 2.] twins and Daniel.
"Fudge," Daniel whispered. "I was hoping I'd get to see it. I've heard there're werewolves and unicorns in there." [c: 127, 6, 1.]
[127, 20, a 12, np.] "Yeah," Daniel muttered. "I've never heard of it, either. I wonder if that's what all that meetings were about—?"
"And now, before we go to bed, let us sing the school song!" cried Dumbledore. Harry noticed that the other teachers' smiles had become rather fixed.
"Oh, fudge," Daniel groaned. "This is the worst part of the whole year—I can't sing, you see." He made a motion of sealing his lips shut. "So there actually is something you can't do," said Ron rather smugly. [c: 127, 24, 1.]
[129, 19, a 2, np.] "Oh, Pee-ves," Daniel called, stepping up from the crowd. "Do you want me to stick one of those up your nose, or are you going to go quietly?" he said in a sweet tone.
"Ooooooh. Ickle Danny's going to try to hurt me? Naughty, naughty, Danny." Daniel took out his wand. "All right, then. You don't believe me?" Peeves scowled, stuck out his tongue, and vanished, dropping the walking sticks on Neville's head. They heard him zooming away, rattling coats of armor as he passed.
"He's just like a spoiled little kid who loves to annoy," Daniel said.
"How do you know about him?" someone asked.
Daniel shrugged. "I've been here a couple of times, that's all," he said modestly. "We've... uh... met before."
Percy, clearly trying to regain control of the group, took over as they set off again. "You want to watch out for Peeves," he said. "The Bloody Baron's the only one who can control him, he won't even listen to us prefects. Here we are." [c: 129, 26, 1.]
[130, 5, 1.] "Um... excuse me, sir." Daniel raised his hand.
"Yeeees?" Percy said, stretching out the word.
"Well, I was wondering," Daniel said with an innocent look. "What if, in the middle of the night, someone really had to use the loo? Where would the nearest one be?"
Some of the first years laughed. Percy glared. "The nearest ones are out in the hallways, right to the left."
"But wouldn't that be too far away for some people to make it?" Daniel said in the same mock-sweet tone he had used with Peeves. Without waiting for an answer, he flew to a blank section of the wall surrounding the common room. He studied the portion of the room in silence as everyone else stared.
Suddenly, Daniel seemed to produce a wand from nowhere. He pointed at the door and mumbled something—and a blue streak flashed out, hitting the wall square on. For a moment, nothing happened.
Someone cried out as two small doors appeared on the wall, steadily getting larger. In a few seconds, they were full-sized doors that blended into the wall. One had a label: Boys' Bathroom, while the other—surprise, surprise—had the label: Girls' Bathroom.
Daniel flew back to the crowd, who was gawking at the doors. "See?" he said in a jolly tone. "Problem solved. All complete with five stalls and five sinks. I'll add tubs later on if I have to. If you have any questions, concerns, problems, comments, or perplexities involving these... uh... restrooms, speak now or forever hold your peace. Or you could always just tell me."
"H-how did you do that?" Ron asked faintly, the first to recover his voice.
Daniel didn't answer.
After a minute of silence, Percy cleared his throat. "Well, then. That was... interesting." He directed the girls through one door to their dormitory and the boys through another. At the top of a spiral staircase—they were obviously in one of the towers—they found their beds at last: six four-posters hung with deep red, velvet curtains. Their trunks had already been brought up. Too tired to talk much, they pulled on their pajamas and fell into bed.
"Great food, isn't it?" Ron muttered to Harry through the hangings. "Get off, Scabbers! He's chewing my sheets." He turned to Daniel with half- closed eyes. "You are going to tell us how you did that back there later, right?" he asked in a sleepy-yet-curious tone.
"Of course," Daniel replied, getting into bed.
Harry was going to ask both of them if they'd had any of the treacle tart, but he fell asleep almost at once. Today had been an extraordinary day. [c: 130, 15, 1.]