Chapter Four: The Sorting Ceremony: The Hat Goes Mad!

"Is this all of them?" she asked the BHT. The BHT nodded the top of his hair.

"Yep, Professor McGonagall."

"Excellent. Come along." McGonagall gestured the first-years to follow them. Mungo swarmed with the rest, crowding into a small room.

"Now, you are about to be Sorted into your Houses. Your house is like your family. You must support it with honor. The worthy achievements will earn it points towards winning the House Cup at the end of the year. If you break any rules, you will lose points, and seriously endanger the loss of the House Cup to another House. I hope the lot of you will be of unquestionable merit to whatever House you join. Now, please follow me." McGonagall opened another door, and led the first-years to a huge hall, with four tables. The hall had a clear ceiling, showing the crescent moon.

As the first-years entered, the other students at the tables started talking amongst themselves.

"They look so small and squeaky-voiced,"

"Aww, look, that one's shaking."

Mungo ignored these statements, afraid that they were being directed at him. He held himself tall, and with as much dignity as he could muster.

McGonagall brought out a stool and an old hat, older than Mungo's. Mungo felt extreme distaste at its daring to be older than his great-great-great-great grandfather's hat.

A rip opened wide at the brim of the hat on the stool, and it started singing:

"I don't care who you are,

Where you're from, what you did,

As long as you love me!"

McGonagall quickly put her hand over the hat's rip silencing it. She smiled apologetically, and said,

"Dreadfully sorry, the Sorting Hat got in a mixup with the Muggle postal service, and spent a month in a New York post office, and hasn't been quite right in the… well, head, I suppose. I'm sure it will sort you correctly, however. Its nothing compared to that time it went to Chad…."

She coughed, and produced a long scroll.

"When I call your name, please be so kind as to place the Hat on your head, and it will decide where you shall be. Abendroth, Duncan!"

A small boy with blonde hair walked up to the stool nervously, and McGonagall placed the Hat on his head. It waited for a moment, and then yelled,

"HUFFLEPUFF!"

Relieved, the boy took off the Hat and ran to the table on the far right, where he was enthusiastically cheered. Mungo scoffed, didn't take much brain to put on a Hat.

Then Mungo started getting worried. One girl spent an embarrassing ten minutes sitting on the stool before the Hat yelled out "RAVENCLAW!" What if he had the horrible thing on his own head for even longer?

Almost suddenly, it seemed, Professor McGonagall called for

"Gorsson, Mungo."

Mungo stepped nervously up to the stool, and stopped. He didn't want to take off his precious hat and put that beastly thing on his head.

"Remove your hat, Mr. Gorsson." Professor McGonagall commanded.

"But, ma'am, its me great-great-great-" Mungo started, but Professor McGonagall waved him off with a curt gesture.

"Take it off."

Mungo sighed, and took off his hat. It felt like he was removing his scalp.

Scowling, Mungo sat on the stool, and McGonagall placed the vile thing on his head.

"Don't like me, eh kid?" A small voice in his voice said in a harsh, New York's tone. "Think your hat's better, eh?"

"No, sir," Mungo whispered, but the Hat went on.

"Oh well, I guess I'd better Sort you. Let's see here, not exactly the brightest star in the sky, but you have a moderate amount of guts, kid… Your clever at certain things, yeah, yeah, lets get to the important stuff… I think Griffindor?"

Mungo shook his head. He didn't want to be in the same house as that Potter lad.

"Not Griffindor."

"Well, you ain't smart enough to go to Ravenclaw, so I think Slytherin." The Hat stated. It took a deep breath, as if to shout out the House, but Mungo whispered strongly in a sudden burst of intuition.

"I wan' t' goo to Hufflepuff!"

The Hat was taken aback.

"Are you sure kid? I mean Hufflepuffs ain't exactly the cream of the crop, y' know." The Hat said.

"I wan' t' goo t' Hufflepuff." Mungo repeated.

"Okay, okay, HUFFLEPUFF!"

Mungo flung off the Hat, which shrieked as it flew to through the air, jammed on his own hat and ran to the Hufflepuff table amidst gales of laughter. That's why no one heard a car zoom by the window.

Mungo sat down, wondering what would happen next.

He didn't have to wait long. The Sorting continued, on and on. Mungo was now really hungry, he hadn't eaten anything since breakfast all the way back in Diagon Alley.

Mungo stared at the staff table blankly, waiting. Mungo's stomach growled terribly.

The boy next to him, the blonde haired first-year, leaned towards him and asked.

"Are you half as hungry as I am?"

"No, I'm twice as hungry as ye are. I didn' eat anythin' since breakfast." Mungo replied.

"Davy Jones' Locker! What, did you get the trolley lady upset?" the boy asked.

"Na, I jus'… was asleep," Mungo replied. He didn't feel like telling of his embarrassing incident with the Sticking Charm yet.

"Pennisworth, George!"

The boy groaned.

"They're still only at the P's. Oh, my name is Duncan Abendroth, by the way. Now that you know me, please don't eat me." Duncan smiled, but Mungo didn't quite get it.

"What do ye mean, eat ye?" He asked.

"Well, you said you were twice as hungry as I was, and I figured you'd be hungry enough to eat a person, and…" Duncan trailed off uncomfortably.

Finally, Professor McGonagall finished Sorting "Zedekiah, Julian" and an old man with long white hair stood up.

"I see we have had a large number of new students this year. Therefore, a very long Sorting Ceremony. Though you are anxious to fill your mouths and stomachs, I merely want to tell you older students to keep a good eye for these newcomers, and help them with what you can. That is all." The man clapped his hands, and food appeared all over the plates and bowls on the table.

"FOOD!" Mungo yelled, shoving about fifteen different foods onto his plate at once.

"I say, you're going to get sick if you keep eating like that, er, Mungo." Duncan said, looking at all meal piled on Mungo's plate.

"I doon't care, I was ready t'eat th'table." Mungo said after he had gotten his current mouthful down.

"Well, suit yourself. Where are you from, anyway?" Duncan asked.

"Altnaharra. Its in th' Highlands." Mungo answered.

"Oh… I just live in Dover." Duncan turned his attention to his food again, and the conversation was stifled.

About halfway through the meal, Mungo felt fed enough to take up the chat again.

"Soo, are yer parents Muggles?" Mungo asked. He thought he was just being polite.

Duncan frowned, and shook his head.

"No, they're both Squibs. They were really happy when I got into Hogwarts, though, they were afraid I wouldn't be able to get in."

"Well tha's good. Me oon parents doon't remember me dooin' any magic themselves, they were beginnin' t'think I wasn' magical." Mungo said.

"Eh, how about that. Do you know Quidditch?" Duncan asked.

"No' really. I'm no' muckle fond-"

"What's that?" Duncan interrupted.

"What's what?" Mungo asked, confused.

"Muckle. Is that some form of Muggle?"

"Na, na, it means great or big. Or much. Anywee, I'm no' muckle fond of heights."

The meal passed, and the tables were cleared and students started filing out of the Hall. Mungo followed the majority of the Hufflepuff students, and was led through many broad corridors and some short passageways. Mungo had sunk into a stupor, and Duncan wasn't much better. They couldn't have resembled zombies more if they had been decaying and groaning.

Finally, they reached the top of a narrow, spindly tower. They could see nearly all of the grounds from it, but Mungo couldn't see where they were going.

A boy with a shiny badge walked up to a window and said,

"Ghost haunt."

The window shone a bright blue light, causing Mungo to pull the brim of his hat over his eyes. When the light faded, he pushed his hat back from his eyes and saw a long, small transparent tunnel. The prefect scrambled down into it on his stomach, and slid out of view. Mungo groaned, thinking of how full his belly felt..

"Don't worry, you can lie on your back too." A third year said to Mungo as he clambered in. Mungo rolled over accordingly, and seemed to shoot out over the castle grounds, whizzing over nothing. Then another tower loomed into view, with a small hole in one side. Mungo zoomed through it, and landed on a large mass of cushions.

"Welcome to the Hufflepuff common room." The prefect was saying. "The boys' dormitories are downstairs, the girls', upstairs."

Mungo and Duncan walked down the stairs mentioned, until they got to a door labeled "First Years." They went in, followed by three other boys.

They saw five four-poster beds, and their trunks sitting at the foot of them. Mungo was too tired to appreciate this, however, and fell on the bed like a falling tree, asleep before he had reached an angle of forty-five degrees