In A Century
Chapter Five: Sorting It Out
"Daphne, you ought to change into your robes, we'll be arriving soon. And you might want to put some water on your face, dear."
Cecily Craven had tried to be as gentle as possible with her roommate, who had been crying even since she heard that their yearmate and fellow Ravenclaw, Tommy Concannon, had moved to America with his family over the summer. Daphne Mimir had been terribly sweet on Tommy, but had never gotten around to telling him so.
Cecily felt a bit guilty about the whole thing. She had been so anxious about her best friend, Bridget O'Toole, that she hadn't even thought about the fact that Tommy's family may have been forced to move away.
Bridget was the only one who hadn't reacted to the news about the 12 Hogwarts students that had dropped out with shock or tears.
"It's the best ting for their families, really," she had shrugged. "They stand a lot better chance of all gettin' through it over der than over here." Bridget always spoke with a light Irish brogue, but it was always heaviest just after the summer holidays.
The only other Ravenclaw group to be directly affected were the seventh years, who were missing Declan Quinn. That being the case, the seventh year girls, Belle Seacrest, Martha Chapman, and Alexandra Odum, had been in and out of the compartment the whole ride, consoling with Daphne. Cecily wasn't sure what the boys were up to, most likely discussing Quidditch, because in her experience, that was what boys did. And she had had plenty of experience with them; her home had been invaded by no less than four boys over the summer. Mother's oriental carpet had still not quite recovered, no matter how hard she, Cecily, and the house elf tried.
Bridget stuck her head in the compartment. "Daphne, stop crying, 'tis not a funeral. And put your robes on, we're going to be there any second."
Bridget had not, obviously, felt the need to coddle Daphne, Bridget was not the coddling type. If something was being difficult and not behaving, as it ought, Bridget hit it, hard, and repeatedly.
Daphne sniffed, Bridget tossed a wet rag at her head. "Wipe yer face, ye look terrible."
Bridget then spun around and walked across to the next compartment, dropping back down next to Luke Redding and across from Nicholas Pinterschloss.
"Is Daphne still crying?"
"She's slowing down."
"Good," Luke was fiddling with his tie while trying to read from his Ancient Runes textbook at the same time. Luke was sad about Tommy, naturally, Tommy was a fine mate. But he had had a little forewarning, Tom had written over the summer to both him and Nicholas to explain the situation, how he didn't feel right staying when his family was leaving, and how he hoped to come back in a few years, when things got better. He and Nick had both been down for the entire month of July, but at the age of 13 there was only so much time a boy could spend in deepest depression, and they had managed to come to an understanding that Tommy would think them rather great luggards if they continued the melancholy much longer.
"You don't think telling her that Tommy secretly fancied Tess Windlass would help snap her out of it, do you?"
"No Nicholas, I don't think that would be a good idea. Is it true?"
"Oh sure, he nearly got bit while pruning his Venomous Tentacula last year because Tess stood across from him in Herbology."
"Really, I never noticed."
"Herbology was Tommy's worst subject last year, I rather think it was all on account of Tess Windlass."
"Didn't she try and Transfigure him into a goose First year?"
"He had an odd habit of honking when extremely excited for weeks afterwards."
"And he still fancied her?"
"Apparently she made quite an impression."
Boys, honestly.
Cecily popped her head in. "The deluge has passed."
"Thank the Lord."
"Bridget-"
"Cecily, Daphne has been sweet on half the boys in our year, present company excluded, this was not love everlasting we are talking about."
"Why present company excluded?"
"Perhaps it has something to do with the way you both eat breakfast, don't ask me, I don't try to understand Daphne."
The boys looked at each other and shrugged, Bridget stood up, "You ought to get into your robes, we're going to be there any second."
She had been saying that for half an hour. Bridget wasn't particularly fond of train travel, she lived for the moment she could apparate and spare herself this whole trying business. With the aura of a Roman general going into battle she strode across the hall to make sure Daphne had finished with all this nonsense.
She never made it, however, because at that moment a very large, and very loud explosion came from the back of the train and Bridget was nearly trampled by the eager feet of Hugo Vincent and his partners in crime Gordon Hedgepeth and Bartholomew Babcock. They were followed in a more orderly fashion by an equally excited Arachne Parker, Bethany Belsch, and Cassiopea Forseti.
Bridget stuck her head in the girls compartment. "Come quick, I think the fourth years just blew up the Slytherins... again."
For the head boy, the head girl, and the prefects of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, the time after the Express left one station and before it arrived in the next were often the most difficult of the year. It was a time when classes had either just ended or not yet begun, which meant no work, no assignments, lots of free time, and, since instructors had demanded a reprieve from train chaperone duties as a part of the staff strike of 1803, absolutely NO adults.
That was a recipe for disaster if ever Gilbert Pendragon had heard of one.
He thought, foolishly enough, that he had it under control this year.
He had Caesar Parker's absolute assurance that his twin brothers Julius and Augustus were closeted away with a new Quidditch book and had no grand schemes for the ride.
He had Orion Foresti keeping a constant eye on the car that held Hugo Vincent and his minions, and Orion had reported not half an hour ago that they had not left the car since the train pulled out of King's Cross.
He also had Hufflepuff prefect Ivy Babcock's assurance that her siblings Holly and Bartholomew had kept to their own cars for the duration of the ride.
The Murphy clan, his fellow Gryffindors all of them, sadly enough, were not on the train this year, which meant he didn't have to look out for Eamon, Patrick, and Sean's perverse delight in blowing up the Slytherin toilets. He was going to miss that, but he wasn't going to miss cleaning it up.
Gwydion Goodfellow had been "having tea" with Siobhan Bronwen for a good portion of the ride, and Gil knew that without him around Algernon Northumberland and Elliot Southington wouldn't be a problem. They were the "how to" men, but the ideas were usually all Gwydion's.
The newest menace, also from his house, to add further trouble, of the Famed Three, the second years known to all as Finn, The Bruce, and Eric the Red, had been somewhat subdued after discovering the absence of their yearmate Kathleen Connell, and he had personally seen that they did nothing but play Exploding Cribbage for the past five hours.
The Murgatroyd brothers had their little sister constantly poking about, and were therefore not free to do anything too elaborate.
And the Clark girls and the Parker sisters were normally quite manageable coming off the truce of the summer holidays. It was mid-term when those rivalries would flare up, especially between Ariadne and Cassandra, and Arachne and Calisto. Gilbert shuddered, the things those girls could come up with....
Speaking of girls, some help from the Head Girl would have been nice in monitoring this traveling circus of about 150. However, as his roommate Wendy had reminded him this morning, Cordelia Morrigan had probably not had an unsupervised moment with Brian Connelly since the two emerged from the last baggage car in June, and did he really want to interrupt?
That had caused Gilbert to blush to the roots of his black, just cut for school, hair. Honesty, grandson of the Minister if Magic or not, the things that boy said sometimes....
He had often wondered over the summer if Wendy had felt upset about not being chosen Head Boy, with the family legacy it seemed he had a lot to live up to. He had finally asked him over lunch, Wendy had nearly choked laughing.
"You know, I spent all of the end of last year dreading I'd GET it! I even considered leaving spaces blank in my finals just to be sure I wasn't eligible."
"You didn't!"
"Of course I didn't, it isn't in the Westing character to be that cowardly. But you know, honestly old man, I didn't want it. I mean, running herd on some of the characters we have in this school? Not my idea of a good time, thanks muchly. Anyway, if I HAD gotten it, everyone would have assumed it was because of Pops."
No matter how many times he heard him say it, Gil never quite got used to how Wendy referred to his grandfather, Minister of Magic Wendall Westing, as "Pops."
"What did he say when he found out?"
Wendy shrugged, "He patted me on the shoulder, told me to congratulate you, and that, personally, he was very proud of me as a grandson but didn't trust me to set the behavioral standard for a pack of flobberworms, let alone a school. He didn't make Heady Boy either, said it made him feel free to be rebellious and rash during his seventh year. That, of course, led to that regrettable incident with the staff toilets that STILL gets mentioned SOMEWHERE whenever the Daily Prophet does a piece on him. Pops thinks it is a reason why he's so popular with the younger set."
Gilbert, who had never done anything rebellious or rash that hadn't been at Wendy's urging, wondered if his best friend realized how like his grandfather he really was.
Gil checked his pocket watch one last time. They should be in the station in fifteen minutes, the students had all returned to their seats to pack up, some to change into their robes at the last minute. He breathed a sigh of relief; the worst was almost over.
It was as he was tucking his watch away that he heard the BOOM.
Damn it all to hell.
There was simply no room to move on the Hogwarts Express. They were still fifteen minutes out from Hogsmeade Station, and the conductor, no fool he, had locked his door the minute he heard the explosion and poured on more fuel, absolutely refusing to stop. Just as one did not walk alone and unarmed into the nest of a Norwegian Ridgeback, one did not stop in the wilderness after a mysterious explosion with a train full of Hogwarts students, fresh off the summer holidays with their pockets full of Merlin knows what.
The explosion had come from the second car to the end. The final car was in state of calm, being full of Slytherins who had been waiting for the explosion for nearly an hour. The third car had likewise been prepared, but it was met with an influx of students from further up the train who wanted to know what was going on.
As far as he could tell, from his vantage point with his nose pressed against the glass of the backdoor of the fourth car from the end, which was as near as he could get, Hugo's plan seemed to have worked perfectly. The Slytherins in the third car seemed fully agitated, and if the locking mechanism had worked as it should, the students in the second car from the end wouldn't be able to get out until the train stopped and Hugo released the charm.
"Looks perfect," he chuckled over his shoulder to Gordon, who relayed the message to Bartholomew, who told the girls.
"Back to your seats, to your seats at ONCE!"
Agnes Donnelly, the sixth year Gryffindor prefect, had a commanding presence on her own. But seeing as she was now flanked by her honor guard of Kieran Riley and Douglas Douglas, she looked positively imperial. When she told you to get back to your seat, you got back to your seat. It had taken her less than two minutes to clear the aisles of four cars.
"Vincent," she raised an eyebrow at the fourth years with their noses pressed to the glass, "You're looking rather delighted with yourself. You wouldn't know what it is I'm going to find back there, would you?"
"No, not at all." Vincent clasped his hands behind his back and feigned innocence.
"Then GET BACK IN YOUR SEAT!"
The fourth years scattered, and Agnes swept into the third car from the end, only to be met by Gilbert, Orion, Ivy, and Archibald, who had all not been up front, and had beaten her to the scene. They were all looking remarkably calm.
"Well, what is it?"
"What do you think?" Archie was leaning against a doorframe at the back of the car. "Hugo Vincent and Co. tried to detonate a device in the ventilation system to take out that entire car," he gestured back to the second car from the end.
"What?"
"Don't worry," Orion offered her a licorice wand, "The car had been emptied. Puck and his crew are ever vigilant about these tings, and they got everyone out before it happened."
"Oh, all right then, why is everyone still here?"
Gil grinned, "To see what's in the car. After the explosion, the doors locked, so part of the trick was to trap everyone in there. We won't find out till the train stops, I assume, we've tried all the traditional and non-traditional ways, but this is Hugo's group."
"And Cassie is pretty clever with locking charms," Orion added, a little bit proud. Normally the fact that his sister was occasionally party to Hugo's schemes gave him nothing but headaches.
After what seemed like the longest ten minutes of their lives, Hogsmeade appeared in the window, and the train ground to a halt. The younger prefects had been delegated to get students off the train and see to the herding of the first years toward the lake. The older prefects remained gathered just outside the now empty penultimate car. They were joined by a rather flustered Cordelia Morrigan, who leapt from the final car and trotted over to join them, with a very satisfied Brian Connelly following more serenely in her wake.
"I couldn't get into the car, what happened?"
"Don't worry Cordy, disaster has been averted. All will be revealed soon."
Cordelia fixed Archie with a gimlet stare, "Archibald Tumnus, have you been drinking?"
Archie laughed, "Of course not, but, seeing as your hair is normally impeccable, may I ask you where YOU have been all this time?"
Cordelia scowled, pointed her wand at her head, muttered something in French, and her golden tresses arranged themselves in a smooth twist.
In the next moment a loud popping sound could be heard, and the doors to the mysterious car swung open, as did the windows. A greenish sort of smoke came billowing out.
Gilbert noticed Hugo, Gordon, Batholomew, Arachne, Bethany, and Cassie all standing rather too casually to one side, trying too hard NOT to look interested. When no one came spewing out of the cars, screaming, gagging, and entirely green, their grins began to fade. When they noticed Puck, Nathaniel, Jasper, Calisto, Vanessa and Gloria all gathering their trunks to put into the carriages, all remarkably clean, all showing no trace of odor, they began to frown.
When they saw that the same group was watching THEM and wearing the intent, not-trying-to-look-too-eager expressions that they had been wearing themselves not so long ago, they became alarmed.
Finally, Arachne couldn't take it any longer, and, followed closely by Hugo, she stormed into the car.
All the people outside could hear was a high scream and a low pitched string of curses.
"What is it? What's in there?" Cassie called from outside the train.
Arachne appeared at the window, holding what appeared to be a smelly, steaming, green silk stocking between her thumb and forefinger.
"Our luggage!"
Gilbert and Cordelia followed the horrified fourth year Ravenclaws onto the train. Not only did it appear that Puck and Company had located all six of the Ravenclaws' trunks from the various baggage cars in which they had been stowed, they had also opened them, and strewn the contents throughout the car, near the vents, for maximum effect.
"Um, Gordon, how long did you say this was supposed to be effective?" There was a slight shake to Bethany's voice as she gathered up blouse after green blouse that smelled remarkably like dragon dung.
"Two weeks," Gordon answered meekly.
Gil stifled a laugh, this was no way for the head boy to react, but still, it was terribly funny to see all that green underwear.
Arachne whirled on Gilbert, "Well, aren't you going to DO something?"
Gil sobered and nodded, "Of course I am. I am going to find out exactly who set off this horrid incendiary device and see to it that they receive the harshest detention possible."
The Ravenclaws stared in horror. But Gilbert realized he was quite serious. An entire train car, most of whom had never done anything to any of them, they deserved it. He didn't have to make it harsh, just long. Ravenclaws abhorred detention; Ravenclaws just did NOT GET detention.
Ravenclaws normally didn't get caught either.
"But Gilbert-"
Gil fixed Hugo with a Look. "Sorry Old Man, you got caught. You could try to appeal to Cordelia, but seeing as she IS a Slytherin, I doubt you'll find much sympathy from her for attacking an entire car full of her housemates, no matter HOW unbiased the head girl is supposed to be. We'll make sure that a carriage or two stays behind for you until you can get all packed up again. I'll make an explanation for your tardiness to Professor Ambrose and Professor Babalel. Good luck."
It really was to both their credits that Gil and Cordy managed to get into a carriage before they burst into hysterical laughter.
"Please stop doing that."
"Doing what?"
"THAT! That! Do you want us to tip over?"
"It's just that with the water this clear you can see the bioluminescence of the giant squid!"
Well, it was obvious what house Isaac was going to end up in.
But for her part, Aurora Cerridwen would rather not have her first encounter with the famed Hogwarts Giant Freshwater squid to be as an appetizer.
"What's the matter Rory, can't you swim?"
Aurora looked across the boat, Isaac was seated up front, causing it to tip dreadfully whenever he peered into the water too closely, and she was sitting across from a round faced boy whose tie was crooked, Alastor, Albert, Algernon, no that was the older boy who had helped her with her trunk, who WAS that kid?
She was saved from addressing him by name by a rather large SPLASH.
Isaac Lightfoot, it appeared, wanted to see the giant squid first hand.
"Hey! Lightfoot's gone overboard!"
The little boats were all moving serenely towards the castle still, except one. The boat carrying two first years and Janas Heirndall made a sharp turn and headed back toward where....Alby, that was his name, Alby Jackson and Rory were hanging off the back of their boat, trying not to capsize and to pull Isaac aboard.
This was somewhat complicated by the fact that Isaac was still trying to get a look at the bloody squid.
"Hang on there lad," Janas brought his boat around next to Rory's, and instructed the two wide eyed children in the back to grab a hold of the lines on the side to keep the boats together. Janas, in a remarkable feat of balance, had one foot in one boat, one in another, and using his right arm reached down and plucked Isaac out of the water, depositing him in a sodden heap on the bottom of the boat.
"Every year," he muttered. He produced a blanket and draped it over Isaac's head, pulled out his wand and muttered something Rory couldn't understand, and removing the blanket with a flourish, Isaac was dry, if not somewhat rumpled.
"Try to stay in the boat, eh Lightfoot? Not too hard really, just don't go diving in anymore."
The boy in Janas's boat chuckled, trying to smother it behind his hand.
"I heard that Icarus, leave him be. All right Fianna, cast off, let's catch up with the others."
The girl let go, Janas pointed his wand first at Rory, Isaac, and Alby's boat, then at his own, and suddenly they weren't gliding, they were nearly flying across the lake. Rory noticed that Alby kept a restraining arm on Isaac the entire ride, and didn't let up until they reached shore.
"Up ye go now, everyone. Towards the castle....Mr. Lightfoot would you care to join us, or would you rather start school in a year or two, eh?"
Isaac Lightfoot reluctantly turned from the water and followed his future classmates up the hill.
Janas left them at the bottom of a large set of stone stairs. When they arrived at the top they were greeted by an elegant, white haired witch.
Eirene Ashtoroth quickly scanned the little group of twenty four and tried to pick out which one had had, what Janas liked to call, a "wet entry." Every year it seemed at least ONE of the first years managed to fall out of the boats. Still, tradition was tradition. Although there was that time twenty years ago when the whole fleet had blown over...Ah, it must be the rumpled boy in the back. Janas never managed to get the shoes completely dry, and THAT one was leaving damp footprints.
"Welcome to Hogwarts. I am Professor Ashtoroth, Deputy Headmistress. Now before you can be seated for the Homecoming Feast, you must be sorted into your houses. There are four houses here at Hogwarts: Ravenclaw, Slytherin, Hufflepuff, and Gryffindor. You will live with your housemates in the dormitories, and attend class with them as well. Your house is like your family while you are at school, and you must remember that everything you do reflects back upon it. This will be explained further in your orientation session after supper. Now, if you will wait here, I'll go see if everything is ready."
Professor Ashtoroth disappeared down the hall.
"How do they decide where you go?" The question came from the small girl from Janas's boat, Fianna, if Rory remembered correctly.
The boy standing next to her, Icarus, shrugged, "It's some kind of test, from what I heard."
"My brothers said you had to wrestle a troll, so you can pretty much eliminate it being anything like that." This from a smiling girl with blond braids and freckles.
"Why do you say that?" Rory asked.
"Because anything Rupert and Despard tell me about Hogwarts is bound to be some sort of wild fabrication. They told me that we all swam across the lake, and anyone who was caught by grindylows or the giant squid was sent home."
Alby chuckled, "Poor Isaac, you would have liked that option."
"I didn't mean to fall out you know!"
"Don't worry. All you do is sit-"
The boy with the superior expression on his face that no doubt came from already knowing what really happened in the Sorting Ceremony was cut off as Professor Ashtoroth returned.
"Follow me."
As they filed through the hall a girl leaned over to the boy, "Don't worry Cassius, it's probably lots more exciting if they don't already know."
"Sweet Merlin, were we that tiny?"
"Oh come off your high horse Jarlath, it was only a year ago."
"But still, don't they look SMALL? Like, abnormally small to you?"
"Well that one girl is pretty teeny, and skinny as well. But I mean, you never know these days..."
Violet Zobell's voice trailed away as she thought about Kathleen Connell, who was not sitting across from their Hufflepuff table with the Gryffindors this year. Kathleen, she remembered, had looked quite skinny as well when she was sorted last year. Her legs had been barely thicker than the legs of the stool she had been sitting on.
"There's also the fact that Aluicious had a freakish growth spurt over the summer and now dwarfs us all," her friend Seleny Sloan whispered in her ear.
Violet giggled, and nodded, glancing across the table to where Aluicious Daventry sat a head taller than Jarlath Yorrick and Ben Westernesse, looking every bit the long limbed and awkward youth. Fortunately, Aluicious had a sense of humor that made the fact that he looked a bit like he had been stretched on the rack for a few months not matter quite so much.
Regan Bastangle, their fellow second year, poked Violet with her elbow. "Look at that lot, those three up the front; three guesses as to which families THEY'RE from."
Violet sat up a bit to follow Regan's head tilt towards a grouping of two boys and a girl, who all looked vaguely familiar and seemed very confident of themselves.
"Three more?" Seleny groaned. "That makes fifteen!"
"Fifteen what?" Ben leaned over to figure out what was going on.
"The Roman Circus has three new acrobats," Violet glumly gestured towards the first years.
"Oh bugger." Ben sat back and bit into his last bit of candy from the train. "Their mothers must be dancing naked in the fields of Scotland right about now."
"Ben!" Jarlath smacked his friend upside the head. It wasn't Ben's fault he hadn't grown up with any guiding female influence, but still, the things that boy said sometimes, and with ladies present...
"Sorry, but honestly, can you imagine the terror that lot must inspire when they're at home?"
It was widely known around Hogwarts that the Logans, Clarks, and Parkers all lived together in an enchanted castle in Scotland. They weren't Scottish at all actually, well, not really. Mrs. Parker, Mrs. Clark, and Mr. Logan were siblings, and had grown up in the north of England. So the story went, a distant relative had died and left Mr. Logan the castle, and since there was far too much room for just he and Mrs. Logan, they had invited his sisters and their husbands to live with them. And apparently after that they had decided there was nothing to be done but to fill the castle with children, for, as Aluicious had said himself once, before being smacked by Jarlath, what else was there to do in Scotland in the winter?
The actual truth of the story was somewhat disputed, along with many details, some claiming that they had FLED to Scotland because of something that had happened in England, and there were certainly more interesting versions, but the fact was that with their current number, one in ten Hogwarts students was a member of that family, and they certainly exerted a significant amount of control over student activities. Students were still gossiping about how ONE of them hadn't managed to be head boy or girl this year, not that Gil and Cordy didn't deserve it, but, when you considered the odds...
Further down the Hufflepuff table the odds were being calculated by the sixth year boys. To take their minds off the absence of roommate Seamus O'Connor, Gwydion Goodfellow, Elliot Southington, and Algernon Northumberland had a pool going as to where various first years were going to end up. This was also tradition; they had been running the pool since third year.
"Lists to me, lists to me, the hat's almost finished!"
As the school sorting hat finished its song, lists of the known entering first years were passed in from along the Hufflepuff table as well as a few from the surrounding Ravenclaw and Gryffindors. The pool was rather substantial for the person with the most right.
Gwydion snatched a few from Algie's hands and leafed through them. "Well, if little Euripides Logan or Marcus Parker break the family convention a LOT of people are going to be down by two."
"Shhh!" Their fellow Hufflepuff sixth year Robyn Westwood had put quite a bit of her pocket money in, and she wasn't going to miss a word of the sorting.
Professor Ashtoroth was standing before the stool, with a list in her hand.
"Icarus Argo!"
A wild card, there weren't any Argos in Hogwarts, and there hadn't been for many years, so it was more or less a guess as to where he and those like him would end up.
"Gryffindor!"
Gwydion, Elliot, Algernon, Robyn, and their year-mate Morgaine Easton began to shuffle the lists furiously, marking those that had answered correctly, and organizing the lists for the next first year down the line. The girls had been up and down the train the whole ride, collecting names, and, with typical Hufflepuff diligence, had succeeded in getting them all. There were 24 names on the list, and now 23 students stood before the head table.
"Oberon Cadaver!"
"Well this won't be too exciting," Algernon looked down at his piles; only a few souls had been either intrepid or stupid enough to bet against four generations of Cadaver family legacy.
"Slytherin!"
Stupid it was. As Oberon joined his brother and sister at the far table, the lists were rearranged again for the possible outcomes of the next student.
Ethan Castor had no relatives at school, and the number of lists that had correctly placed him in Slytherin were just as few as had placed Icarus Argo in Gryffindor.
This was going to be close.
"Aurora Cerridwen!"
Morgaine put down her quill. "Get ready to stand up."
"Huh?"
"Hufflepuff!"
The sixth years joined their house in huzzah-ing the first Hufflepuff of the year.
Robyn shuffled her lists and rolled her eyes. Morgaine was the only one of them in Advanced Divination, and she had won the pool the last two years running. The only reason they let her play this year was that she agreed to share the winnings. She wasn't actually cheating, so it was all fair and square. Still, it could be downright creepy sometimes.
Fredrick Chising, another wild card, was sent off to Slytherin.
"That's three already."
"We can count for ourselves Elliot, thanks muchly."
They shuffled the papers and waited eagerly for one of the most debated sortings of the year.
"Cassius Clark!"
The Clarks did not follow the sorting pattern of the Logans and the Parkers, they went pretty much anywhere, so Cassius was almost as difficult to pick as a wild card.
"Ravenclaw!"
"Well, no Romans for us this year."
"I think Iphigenia is enough for the entire house. Imagine being in Ravenclaw, they're already full up with Parkers!"
The girls shuddered, they all had class with Julius and Augustus Parker.
"Charity Higgins!"
"No big surprises there," Algie muttered. Charity's sister Hope and brother Justus were Hufflepuff fifth and seventh years respectively.
"Gryffindor!"
"What!" They all began furiously shuffling and marking lists, only Morgaine seemed unsurprised by the break in Higgins family tradition.
However, in the next moments "Virgil Howard" followed his older sister Lilly's footsteps and was sorted into Hufflepuff. All was right with the world once again.
Alby Jackson was the oldest in his family, and as a wild card didn't cause too much of a stir when he was sorted into Gryffindor.
"Veronice Keating!"
Robyn leaned over to Morgaine, "Isn't her mother THE Mrs. Keating? The head of the Witches Aid Society?"
Morgaine nodded. "Her brother is Typhon Keating, my dad works down the hall from the nursery, apparently the child is an absolute terror."
Gwydion snickered, "I hear they wouldn't let Mrs. Keating bring him onto the train platform, they were afraid he would damage the Express."
Elliot leaned over while shuffling his papers, "Well I heard that Agnes Donnelly plastered him and 19 other children to the ceiling of the nursery over the summer."
Algernon nodded, "I believe it. My cousin Joe works in the Ex. Pot's Department, and he had to hide out in the country for a week after spreading that stuff on the floor of the Ministry lobby."
"Fergus Kirkpatrick!"
"Wait, where'd the Keating girl go?"
"Slytherin," Morgaine answered triumphantly.
"Well, that figures."
They were still discussing the Experimental Potions disaster, and whether any of that potion could be got at the school (there were some rumors that those sodding Ravenclaws had already got a hold of some) when Fergus was sent off to Gryffindor and Justin League was sorted into their own house.
"Deirdre Lawrence!"
Deirdre was a wild card, and she looked unusually happy to be sorted into Slytherin. The first year members of that house who were not legacy, and Deirdre's parents had been a Ravenclaw and a Gryffindor, usually approached the table with a degree of trepidation.
Deirdre fairly skipped over and immediately began chattering with Veronica Keating.
"Isaac Lightfoot!"
Isaac slipped on the slippery floor, created by his own leaking shoes, and had to be helped over to the stool.
"Esmerelda Cerridwen in fourth year says that he fell in the lake."
"How'd she know?"
"Apparently her little sister Rory had to help pull him out. Janus told her before he took his seat. Said the boy was trying to examine the biolumi-something of the giant squid."
"Ravenclaw!"
"Well, that explains that."
"Euripides Logan!"
"They couldn't have found a more normal sounding name?"
"I dare say she's used to the teasing by now, she HAS three brothers."
Which she joined after a few moments at the Slytherin table.
"Fianna McCarthy!"
A supremely tiny and nervous girl approached the stool and sank down upon it.
"Must be an Irish muggle born," Gwydion commented softly.
"No wonder Ambrose had them all snapped up early this summer, she looks like she'd blow away at any moment."
"Hufflepuff!"
The sixth years cheered unusually loud for Fianna, and it seemed even the first years could sense her unease; she was warmly welcomed by Rory, Virgil, and Justin.
The Ravenclaws, who seemed a bit put out at only having received two first years thus far were very happy to welcome Elspeth Morgan and Alice Mosgeil. Elspeth and Alice were, however, less than thrilled to be seated quite so close to the fourth years, which still reeked from the stench of their Express disaster and had been shunted down toward that end of the table. Cassius and Isaac didn't seem to notice, but they had already taken spots on the benches as far to the end of the table as they could get.
"Sally Murgatroyd!"
As Sally's name was announced there was some commotion, as two boys stood up in the middle of the Slytherin table and began singing some bawdy tune, of which all could be made out was "Oh my dear Sally, my dear Sally! A wench that I met in an ally..."
The girl's face turned a brilliant scarlet before Professor Ashtoroth fixed the students from her own house with a silencing look.
Of course, when Sally was sorted into Slytherin moments later, not even the deputy headmistress's fury could keep her brothers from completing the verse.
Marcus Parker, to nobody's great shock, followed in the footsteps of Arachne, Ariadne, Julius, Augustus, and Ceasar and was welcomed into Ravenclaw with no less fanfare than Sally's, although with so many voices the lyrics to the tune could not be made out at all.
"Hebe Rothschild!"
"Is she Preserved's sister?"
Preserved Rothschild, who had graduated two years past, had been the Hufflepuff Quidditch captain, Head Boy, and the first student in recorded history to have infiltrated and planted Grindylows in the Slytherin prefect's bathtub. Not that the bit about the Grindylows and the bathtub was common knowledge, of course, and in any case, it had been in perfectly reasonable retaliation to the South American fire beetles released into the fifth year Hufflepuff boys dormitory. There had been quite a bit of biological warfare going on that year, as they all recalled.
"She's a cousin, I think."
"Hufflepuff!"
"Well, if she's anything like Preserved she's got great potential."
"I'm sure she has great potential Gwydion, but I don't think anyone is exactly like Preserved."
"David Thatcher!"
"Bastian's little brother, right?"
"Yup."
"Hufflepuff!"
"I hope he doesn't walk in his sleep like Bastian, I had a devil of a time tracking him down last year."
"That's the burden you get to bear for being a prefect Gwyd."
"Abigail Vincent!"
Lists were forgotten as all heads swiveled toward the head table. It seemed, indeed, that the entire school was intensely interested in whoever was related by blood ties to Hugo Vincent.
For the most part, Abigail seemed a capable sort of girl, who held her head high under the obvious intense scrutiny, and sat down on the stool with an almost regal air.
"Gryffindor!"
"Hmm, that doesn't prove she is any less of a mischief monger than her brother."
"It could be a sign she is more so, only perhaps less devious."
"Oh leave her alone will-"
"Willimena Westing!"
Abigail Vincent may have come under close scrutiny, but at THAT name the Great Hall fell silent enough to hear a quill drop.
She was the last to be sorted, poor thing, and not looking to pleased to be up front at all.
At that moment a shrill whistle came from the back of the hall, and towards the far end of the Gryffindor table a tall boy was standing up on the table itself, waving at Willimena with a rather mischievous expression on his face, while the two girls sitting next to and across from him kept pulling at the edge of his robes. Their urgent whispering of "Wendy, for Merlin's sake, do you want to mortify her completely!" and "Get down before you embarrass her AND us," could easily be heard in the silent hall.
Wendy decided to oblige, and in getting down took a rather spectacular fall off the table, resulting in an eruption of laughter throughout the hall, as had no doubt been his object.
Willimena took advantage of the distraction to hop on the stool. Most students were still watching the antics of her cousin when she was sorted into Ravenclaw and practically sprinted to the relative anonymity of her house table.
The spectacle over, the sixth year Hufflepuffs returned to scoring their lists.
"Results?" Gwydion asked.
"I have two with 20."
"One with 21."
"Three with 22."
"One with 23."
"One with 23."
"Well I've got Miss Know It All's and she got all 24, as usual."
Robyn tossed Morgaine's list on the table, and the boys read it over, comparing it to the master list they had been keeping, just in case a scoring had been overlooked. It hadn't, Morgaine was the winner, again.
"They are never going to let us run the pool next year."
"Well, let's give a token to the two runner ups at least, that should make them happy. Congratulations Miss Easton."
Morgaine merely shrugged, and began to load her plate as the food appeared and the feast began.
Gwydion poured their glasses of pumpkin juice, and then raised his. "To Seamus."
His four year-mates did the same. "To Seamus."
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