Updated:Tuesday 15th March 2005
Disclaimer: Where else? Chapter one of course:P
Chapter Forty Nine: The SortingEstella had finally shaken Draco off when he left her in the Entrance Hall with all the other first years to go take his seat with the older students. Since the blond haired boy had been unrelenting ever since he found her on the train she had unfortunately been unable to seek out and say hello to either Hermione or Harry. In fact, whilst she had seen Hermione from a distance as she was swept up in the crowd entering the Great Hall, she hadn't seen Harry… or his shadow, Ron, for that matter, all day.
"Good Evening students." Professor McGonagall began her welcoming address from the top of the stairs leading into one of the Great hall's antechambers. "If you will follow me in an orderly fashion, you will be sorted and join the rest of the students momentarily. You might care to take the time to make yourselves… presentable."
Estella rolled her eyes. It was the same every year. From where she'd sometimes sit in a shadowed alcove on the floor above she'd always had a good view. But now it was different somehow. Now it was happening to her. She was about to be sorted… finally.
As soon as the Deputy Headmistress lead them into the Great Hall and the Sorting Hat started its song, Estella scanned the faces in the room for her Uncle and her friends. While she could see Draco looking at her intently from his pride of place at the Slytherin Table (and noticed with grim realisation that he had ensured the seat at his right hand was vacant in anticipation of her favourable sorting), she could not see her Uncle at his place at the Head table, nor could she see the familiar duo of red on black hair side by side at its usual spot amongst the scarlet and gold.
Estella felt a sinking feeling in her stomach. First her Uncle had abandoned her accidentally on Christmas because of a school matter, and now he was going to miss her sorting? So many parents, she imagined, would give their right leg to have the privilege to be present at their child's sorting instead of hearing about it second-hand and yet here her Uncle was – her only guardian and family in the free world – and he was taking advantage of the unique advantage his position put him in. In the midst of her troubled meanderings, the Sorting Hat completed its verse.
"Elijah Abercrombie." Professor McGonagall called out in a firm voice.
A short, bespectacled blue-eyed boy with tight black curls edged towards the stool cautiously.
"Gryffindor!" The hat cried with barely a moment's time to think.
"Sean Ackerley!"
Sean Ackerley was a abnormally tall, skinny, sandy-haired boy who after a few indecisive moments became the first Ravenclaw of the school year.
Mallory Baddock and Malvern Bletchley were both sorted into Slytherin, who were looking decidedly smug that they had the most number of new students so far. Estella watched with unease as Draco shoved the weedy Bletchley boy aside when he attempted to take the empty seat at his side.
'He is saving it for me!' She groaned inwardly as Jack Barry was sorted into Hufflepuff.
"Estella Black!" Professor McGonagall called her name impatiently. Estella was too busy looking at Draco and wondering where in the four elements was her Uncle to pay any attention. It was normally a good thing that Estella's name fell at the beginning of roll calls, but if Estella had had it her way she would have been happy to laze back detachedly and watch as her classmates were sorted in her stead.
"ESTELLA BLACK!" Professor McGonagall snapped, more loudly this time, as her eyes sought out the child she knew from sight only too well.
First years around her having noticing Professor McGonagall's eyes on the unresponsive child nudged her urgently. Estella snapped out of her daze unperturbedly and sauntered over to the stool with a casualness that belied her inner turmoil.
Where was her Uncle?
"Ah, another Black I see!" The Sorting Hat's voice floated in through her head. Estella wondered vaguely if the school had ever had a problem with head lice given its sorting method.
"I assure you I am charmed against unwanted guests" The Hat answered, mirroring her thoughts. "The Snape blood runs strongly in your veins I see. How interesting that a Black and a Snape should have joined in marriage…"
"Am I getting sorted sometime today or did my Uncle bribe you to draw this out until he arrived at his convenience?" Estella thought bitingly.
"You have inherited the temperament of both your lines." The Hat observed. "I can see a future for you in Slytherin, you know. Both your families have been almost exclusively of that House…"
If Estella could growl in telepathic thought she would have. The Hat sensed her aversion regardless. "A strong conglomerate of Slytherin minds in your family, it is true… but not recently, no?" The Hat continued. "Your mother was a Ravenclaw if I am not mistaken… and your father a Gryffindor."
"Yeah and my Uncle's a Slytherin and there's a partridge in the pear tree… so what of it? You want to make me a Hufflepuff or something so that you can tell my children my family has a royal flush?" Estella snapped, feeling tired from her journey and let down by her Uncle's absence. The man hadn't seen her for eight weeks and he couldn't even greet her at the station. Either at Kings Cross or Hogsmeade and he misses her sorting!
"You are quiet, yes, and loyal… I see that too… but I don't think Hufflepuff is the right place for you. Your father was difficult to place also if my memory serves me correctly. He was the first Black in history to be sorted in a house other than Slytherin; and to make that change to Gryffindor I'm sure ruffled a few feathers in his household, no?" The Hat laughed, much to Estella's disgust. "Now, where to put you…"
"Ravenclaw." Estella hinted suddenly. She didn't know if it was because she wanted to associate with a part of her mother or if it was because she really didn't want to take that seat next to Draco, but it felt right.
"I see you have made up your mind then, child." The Hat said.
"I thought it was your job to sort?" Estella spluttered before the Hat could determine her fate.
"Far be it for me to place a student where they did not want to be. You would have done equally as well in Slytherin." The Hat said. "Know, however, that your Father was sorted into Gryffindor for good reason."
"What has that got to do with anything?" Estella asked.
"All is not as it seems, young Black." The Hat said cryptically, before shouting for the audience to hear. "RAVENCLAW!"
Estella wrenched the Hat from her head in disgust and stormed towards the Ravenclaw table, absently noting the sympathetic look Draco had cast her.
'Ha! He thinks I'm ticked off because I didn't get into Slytherin!' She thought triumphantly. Then, casting a look to her Uncle's empty chair a malevolent thought crossed her mind. 'I should tell Uncle Sev I got sorted into Gryffindor!'
Smirking evilly and with a glint in her eye, Estella took her seat at the Ravenclaw table, her mind plotting. She had no clue what the Sorting Hat was talking about, but she could only scoff at the vague implication that the Sorting Hat thought that all Gryffindors were incapable of wrong doings and innocent of their crimes.
Yep, there was no doubting that Godric Gryffindor had charmed the Sorting Hat. Typical egomaniacal Gryffindor! Glaring at the said table for lack of something better to do, Estella tried to quash the frame of mind that lingered in the background of her consciousness nagging at her, agreeing with the hat in that she probably would have done just as well in Slytherin.
"Estella!" A familiar voice screeched at her in excitement from close range. "I'm a Ravenclaw too!"
Languidly shifting her eyes to fix upon the source of the interruption to her thoughts, Estella was hardly surprised to see Luna. "Congratulations on stating the obvious." She said sarcastically, gesturing to the table they were sitting at. "Sorry, I'm a little put out that my Uncle is not at the Head Table like he always is." She added as a afterthought. She would, after all, be sharing a room with the girl in front of her for the next seven years.
'Strange too, that Dumbledore and McGonagall were no longer present.' She realised with a start. 'When had that happened?'
"No problem." Luna said dismissively. "Hey maybe your Uncle stayed away because he wants to find out what house you got into the same way as all the other parents or something." She said lamely.
"Yeah, whatever." Estella said. "Let's just listen to the rest of the sorting, Never saw Professor Flitwick read out the names before! And I've been at every sorting Ceremony for as long as I can remember! Wonder where Professor's Dumbledore and McGonagall went?"
Luna giggled quietly before settling down to watch the rest of the sorting with Estella.
As the names wore on and the group of first years waiting at the front of the room grew smaller, Estella recognised a lot of the new student's surnames from older siblings she'd watch get sorted years previously. The fleeting thought of what would her life be like if she had a sibling passed through her mind as quickly as it came and she propped her elbows up on the table to cradle her head in her hand. All she wanted to do was have dinner and go to bed. Better still… a bowl of popcorn and a beanbag in front of a late night Back to the Future movie marathon on home video with Remus was looking increasingly appealing. Anything but listening to that blasted Hat go on… and on… and on… 'I wonder if there's a home schooling program' Estella thought absently, before slapping her head. 'Bugger, I live in a school…'
Finally, after Chester Warrington was sorted into Slytherin and Ginevra Weasley went to Gryffindor (no real surprise there) the last two students – Kelly Whitby and Steven Zeller – went to Hufflepuff and Professor Dumbledore stood to officiate the feast. 'When had he gotten back?'
"Bludder, Ointment, Toil and Tweak." Estella lip-synched in perfect time with the Headmaster's favourite last words. Rolling her eyes, she made small talk with her new house mates and tucked into the feast before her, resolved to sneak off to the Dungeons as soon as she finished eating to seek out her truant Uncle.
Rising to her feet to leave the table before she had even finished chewing on her last mouthful of custard tart, Estella left the Great Hall before the prefects had even begun to think about escorting the first years to their new home. It was not as though Estella couldn't find her own way there before curfew… and if no one was about to give her the password she could just get in through the teacher's entrance. The passwords to the teacher's passages hadn't changed for as long as she could remember and were unlikely to do so provided she didn't draw attention to the privilege.
Tracing the familiar path back down to the dungeons lost in her own thoughts, Estella was caught unawares when she collided with a wild mix of black and red as they came tearing around the corner.
"Gerroff!" A voice that was so unmistakably Ron's cried out.
"No one's on you Ron. You're all legs and arms!" Harry's voice said exasperatedly. "Estella? Is that you?"
"No, it's her doppelganger!" Estella said sarcastically, standing up and dusting herself off. "Where have you been all night?"
"Couldn't get through the platform, flew a car to Hogwarts." Harry said, still slightly out of breath. "Crashed into the Whomping Willow."
Estella whistled. "Let me guess, my Uncle caught you and his eyes lit up like Christmas trees." She deadpanned, inwardly fuming that he would let his childhood animosity towards Harry's father keep him away from her sorting.
"Yeah, he's on a rampage. McGonagall and Dumbledore came after the sorting and stopped him from expelling us." Harry said. "I probably wouldn't go down there if I were you!"
Estella rolled her eyes. "Please, I know how to handle him."
"Yeah you're probably running to tell him all about his latest Slytherin recruit." Ron blurted out.
Two pairs of eyes glared at him. "Actually, for your information, I was going down there to carve him a new one for missing the sorting." Estella snapped, starting to walk away, suddenly not feeling very socialble. "You guys better scram before there's no food left in the Great Hall. I'll see you round."
"Wait, what house did you get into?" Harry called after her, with no response.
The last thing Estella heard as she fled out of earshot was Ron admonishing Harry for caring about what house she was in and then grumbling something about not looking forward to the next morning's post.
End Chapter: The Sorting