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Chapter 10
A Rather Strange Sort
Year 1 - Hogwarts Castle - Earth
The next morning, all of the first-year students were up, dressed, and ready just as they were instructed to be the night before. The bunch of students who had either stomachaches and/or headaches, and had been taken to the Hospital Wing by Madam Pomfrey, were also up and out of bed on time. And even though they were feeling a whole lot better from the way they had all previously felt the night before, due to them overeating on the desserts at the start-of-term banquet, a couple students were still a tiny bit bleary-eyed because they hadn't gotten much sleep.
Harry, meanwhile, (who was currently sitting cross-legged on a spare bed that Madame Pomfrey had made-up for him to sleep in, and quietly meditating) had decided to stay in the Hospital Wing for the night as well since he had requested of Madam Pomfrey to come along with her and the students in order to help them, which he did so. And yet, it took a wee bit of prodding for Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle to allow Potter to help ease their suffering, before Pomfrey in turn gave each of the children (except Harry who wasn't feeling sick) a medical potion which completely quelled their upset stomachs and/or headaches within a few hours after taking it.
A few minutes later, each and everyone of the first-year students who had spent the night in the Hospital Wing, were all being guided towards the Great Hall where the rest of the older student-body as well as the castle staff were all patiently waiting for their arrival so that the Sorting Ceremony could finally take place.
While walking through the many prominent hallways and corridors, Harry couldn't help but notice that Pansy Parkinson was looking over at him through the crowd of people. Upon hanging back, so that other students could pass by and go around him, he slowly made his way to the little girl's position in the ever flowing stream of bodies.
"Hi, Potter," said Parkinson with a slight smile.
"Hi, Parkinson," replied Harry in an equally cheery manner. And the little girl giggled at the thought of both her and Harry addressing each other by their last names, which was funny to her since the letter "P" was at the beginning of the two surnames.
As the students approached the corridor where the entrance to the Great Hall was located, the wrest of the first-years who had all spent the night in the hidden chamber all walked into the corridor from the opposite end while being lead in by Professor Flitwick.
Harry immediately noticed Ron standing near to the front of the group opposite him. And upon looking around a bit more, he then spotted Neville and the Patil twins, as well as the little redheaded girl that he had helped the night before (who's name Potter had learned was Susan Bones) all standing at the very front of the crowd of children.
Professor McGonagall suddenly appeared in the corridor from the moment that the entry doors that lead into the Great Hall creaked wide-open and then immediately shut closed behind her again just as quickly. She briefly glanced about her at all of the small faces which now congregated the narrowly confining space, making absolutely sure that each and every one of the first-year students were both present and accounted for.
When she was certain that everyone was here, McGonagall nodded her head as a gesture toward each of the two groups of students; letting them know non-verbally to follow her inside the Great Hall as she then turned around and casually stepped through the entrance doors as they opened-wide once more into the gigantic room.
Upon stepping into the massive hall, the students all looked upward at where the ceiling was supposed to be, only to discover a bright bluish sky that was moderately layered with white clouds of varying shapes and sizes, which were randomly strewn out across the wide upper interior of the grand chamber.
As Harry looked on in complete awe and wonder, it was hard to believe that there was even a ceiling at all, and that the Great Hall itself didn't just simply open-up and stretch all the way out into reaches of the planet's upper atmosphere, even though Sirius had told him all about the Great Hall and also mentioned it many times before in the stories that his godfather had recounted.
Moments later, everyone was staring up towards the front of the hall where the High Table was situated along with all of the school's Professors and teachers, where Professor McGonagall silently placed a four-legged stool directly in front of the first-year students. And on top of the stool she gently put a pointy and rather mangy-looking old hat, with several patches and stitches. For a few seconds, there was nothing but silence as the first-years all stared curiously at it.
Suddenly, the hat twitched, and a large rip near the brim opened wide like a mouth, with two smaller tears along the center widening to form a pair of slits for "eyes" and the hat briefly looked around at the large gathering of students - then it began to sing:
"Oh, you may not think I'm pretty,
But don't judge on what you see,
I'll eat myself if you can find
A smarter hat than me.
You can keep your bowlers black,
Your top hats sleek and tall,
For I'm the Hogwarts Sorting Hat
And I can cap them all.
There's nothing hidden in your head
The Sorting Hat can't see,
So try me on and I will tell you
Where you ought to be.
You might belong in Gryffindor,
Where dwell the brave at heart,
Their daring, nerve, and chivalry
Set Gryffindors apart;
You might belong in Hufflepuff,
Where they are just and loyal,
Those patient Hufflepuffs are true
And unafraid of toil;
Or yet in wise old Ravenclaw,
If you've a ready mind,
Where those of wit and learning,
Will always find their kind;
Or perhaps in Slytherin
You'll make your real friends,
Those cunning folk use any means
To achieve their ends.
So put me on! Don't be afraid!
And don't get in a flap!
You're in safe hands (though I have none)
For I'm a Thinking Cap!"
The entire hall instantly burst into applause and the students cheered as the Sorting Hat finished it's song. And it then promptly bowed to each of the four tables in turn (including the large gathering of first-years who stood before it), and then became quite still and silent once more.
Professor McGonagall immediately stepped forward while holding a long roll of parchment in her hand.
"When I call your name, you will come forward," she said, adding, "I will place the Sorting Hat on your head, and you will be sorted into your Houses."
As she partly loosened her grip on the scroll of paper, the lower half instantly fell until it almost hit the floor: quickly unrolling itself before stopping only but a couple inches shy of touching the smooth marble steps.
"Abbott, Hannah!"
A small pink-faced girl with blonde hair and pigtails stumbled forward out of the cluster of first-years and nervously approached the stool, before slowly turning around and sitting right down on it just as the Deputy Headmistress gently put the hat on top of her head, which fell right down over her eyes. A moment passed by before-
"HUFFLEPUFF!" shouted the hat.
The table on the inner most right side with the older school students all sitting on both sides instantly cheered and clapped as the little girl hopped down from the stool and went over to sit down with her new classmates at the Hufflepuff table. And Harry immediately saw the Fat Friar (who was the resident Hufflepuff House ghost) wave merrily at her, to whom she cheerfully waved back in greeting the instant she noticed him.
"Bones, Susan!"
Susan Bones gently swallowed inwards, trying desperately to suppress her anxieties as she nervously made her way up the steps toward the stool, almost tripping on one of them in the process as she went, but managed to recover her footing in time to keep from falling over onto her face and hurting herself.
"Hmm. Where shall I put you?" said the hat, the moment it was on her head. A few moments passed by as it searched the little girl's mind. "Let's see. I know… HUFFLEPUFF!"
Everyone cheered as Susan jumped down from the stool and scuttled off to sit beside Hannah at the Hufflepuff table.
While the Sorting Hat was busy with Susan, Potter all of a sudden began to hear the same tiny voice of the baby whom he had heard that one night over at the Burrow awhile back. The voice was once again pleading and crying for help. Though, as Harry was looking very much confused over still not knowing who that voice was, let alone why he was even hearing it in his mind to begin with, he quickly got an idea in his head of what to do just in case anyone happened to be watching him.
"Ouch!" uttered Harry quietly as he clapped a hand to his head, making it appear to anyone who might be looking in his direction that the lightning scar above his eyebrow was hurting.
"Harry, what is it?" asked Ron in a concerned voice, upon seeing Harry with his right hand on his head.
"N-nothing," Harry answered slowly in a reassuring tone. "Nothing. I'm fine."
"Root, Terry!"
A blonde-haired little boy slowly made his way up the steps and sat down on the stool in front of the others as McGonagall casually placed the hat upon his head, and then-
"RAVENCLAW!"
The table directly in-between Gryffindor and Hufflepuff on the inner left side clapped and cheered this time; several Ravenclaws stood up to shake hands with Terry as he joined them.
"Brocklehurst, Mandy" also went to Ravenclaw House along with "Corner, Michael", "Goldstein, Anthony", "MacDougal, Isobel", "Li, Sue", and "Turpin, Lisa" as well, while "Brown, Lavender" became the first new Gryffindor, and the Gryffindor table (which was the table on the far left) exploded with cheers; Harry and Ron both could see Fred and George making catcalls.
"Bulstrode, Millicent" then became the first Slytherin of the new school-year, as well as "Zabini, Blaise", "Davis, Tracey", "Accrington, Zoe", "Parkinson, Pansy", "Nott, Theodore", and last but not least "Malfoy, Draco."
"Finch-Fletchley, Justin!" called Professor McGonagall as she read off the name of a dark-brown haired little boy on the scroll.
"HUFFLEPUFF!"
Sometimes the hat shouted out the appropriate House for the person who was wearing it at once, while at other times it took a little while for the hat to decide, as Harry had undoubtedly noticed with "Finnigan, Seamus" who had momentarily glanced up at Potter a tad nervously (who in turn gave him a reassuring nudge forward as he gently smiled down at the smaller boy) before taking his place on the stool; and sat there for almost a full minute before the hat declared-
"GRYFFINDOR!"
When Neville Longbottom was called up, he half-confidently and half-fearfully made his way up to the stool, before turning and sitting down. What would the hat decide? Which of the Houses would he be sorted into? He desperately hoped with all of his might that it wouldn't be Slytherin, but he also hoped less-so that it wasn't Ravenclaw, since he didn't feel that he was particularly clever or witty enough for their liking. Plus, the hat took a rather long time to decide on his behalf. Then, finally, after nearly five whole minutes the hat shouted-
"GRYFFINDOR!"
Longbottom practically leapt off the stool and ran directly over to the Gryffindor table, thus barely giving McGonagall any time at all to remove the hat from his head, as the little boy was looking rather elated at having been sorted into Gryffindor.
"Moon, Lily!"
"HUFFLEPUFF!"
"Patil, Parvati" ended up in Gryffindor, while her twin sister "Patil, Padma" was sorted into Ravenclaw, and "Perks, Sally-Anne" was sorted into Hufflepuff House. Then it was Ron's turn to be sorted, and for all intents and purposes, he was looking a rather light shade of pale-green by now; appearing as though he was about to hurl. Harry crossed his fingers as the redhead sat uncomfortably down on the stool.
"Ha! Another Weasley," the hat exclaimed from the instant McGonagall had lowered it onto his head. "I know just what to do with you. GRYFFINDOR!"
Harry clapped loudly along with everyone at the Gryffindor table as Ron literally collapsed into his seat right next to Parvati. And then, "Thomas, Dean," a black boy who was even taller than Ron promptly joined them moments later at the table after being sorted into Gryffindor too.
"Well done, Ron, excellent," said Percy Weasley rather pompously from across the table the moment Ronald sat down.
And then, the moment which everyone had been anxiously waiting for had at long last come. The sorting of one-
"Potter, Harry!"
As Harry quietly stepped forward and took his place on the stool, whispers suddenly broke out like little hissing fires all over the hall amongst every one of the students, from first-years all the way up to seventh-years.
"Harry Potter."
"I wonder which House he'll be in."
"I sure hope that it's Gryffindor."
"I'm betting it'll be Ravenclaw. He certainly seems clever enough."
The only thing Harry could make out were the shoulders on the nearest column of students that were seated at all four tables as the brim of the Sorting Hat stretched out for several inches, thereby obscuring the little boy's view of everyone who was either watching him, or who were all craning their necks to get a good look at him for themselves.
"Hmm," said a small voice in his ear, and Harry recognized it to be the hat's at once. "Difficult. Most difficult. Plenty of courage, I see. And a rather talented mind at that. You have a very strong drive to succeed, I can tell. You would make a fine Slytherin to be sure."
'Not Slytherin. Not Slytherin,' Harry thought over and over again in his mind. 'Anything but Slytherin.'
"Not Slytherin, eh?" replied the Sorting Hat. "It's all right here, inside your-" Suddenly, the hat fell silent for a brief instant. "Wait, what is this I see? What?!"
Everyone at all four of the tables looked back and forth at one another curiously, as they could all see that Professor McGonagall was suddenly looking nervous for some strange reason. And as she apparently turned around to throw a worried glance at Albus Dumbledore, the whole student-body began whispering amongst themselves the moment they noticed the Headmaster's tense expression as well.
"THAT'S IMPOSSIBLE‼" the Sorting Hat unexpectedly bellowed loudly, causing all of the students (including Harry) to jump in their seats with alarm.
All of a sudden, Harry could hear a loud chorus of dismayed gasps all coming from the students across all four of the tables, as he could both see and feel the hat slowly turning on his head, yet had absolutely no clue as to what was going on, or even why it was doing what it was doing. Then he could faintly hear all of the students now whispering among one another anew, though a bit quieter than before. Finally, he couldn't stand it any longer, and subsequently reached up with his right hand and flicked what was technically the back-end of the Sorting Hat (given that it's face was turned in Professor McGonagall's immediate direction); making it yelp in surprise, before turning back to face forward again and then lean over slightly, as through it were looking Potter in the eyes rather gruffly.
'Hey, what is going on up there?' the little boy demanded sharply. 'Are you going to sort me or what, already?'
"Urgh!" the Sorting Hat grumbled "under it's breath" quite rather bluntly in utter disgust. "Very well, then… Potter!" it then groaned in reply.
After searching the little boy's head once more for a bit longer, it finally yelled in a loud voice-
"GRYFFINDOR!"
The moment the Sorting Hat was removed from Harry's head, he jumped down off the stool and sprinted towards the Gryffindor table as a thunderous chorus of ecstatic cheers and clapping hands erupted from the students there as he took a seat right next to Dean Thomas, while the Weasley twins proudly yelled, "We got Potter! We got Potter!" over and over again.
**WACK!**
Just at that moment, Harry heard a noise from up near the front along with sharp yelp from Professor McGonagall and he turned to see that the Sorting Hat was for some reason fiercely assaulting the Deputy Headmistress. And upon seeing this, Potter jumped up from where he was sitting at the table and lunged for the hat; promptly snatching it out of the air just as McGonagall had released her grip on it in reaction and complete surprise to it unexpectedly smacking at her hand.
"Hey, stop that!" chided Harry sharply. "What is wrong with you? Why are you hitting the Professor like that?"
**WACK!**
The hat didn't answer, but instead, smacked Harry across the face which caused the little boy to stumble backwards in sheer surprise and slight shock, before vanishing into thin air with a pop.
"Bloody impostor!" the Sorting Hat uttered before vanishing from the Great Hall entirely, while Harry accidentally missed a step as he stumbled back from the blow. But instead of tumbling head over heels down the marble steps, Potter rather quite suddenly leapt off his feet, and to the astonished amazement of everyone in the gigantic room, back-flipped across the small landing and did a full one-eighty degree turn of his body before nailing a perfect three-pointer on his feet.
The entire student-body literally exploded into a frenzy of ecstatic cheers and clapped their hands upon witnessing the amazing feat of which "The-Boy-Who-Lived" had just now preformed before their very eyes, right as the little boy got to a standing position, before lowering his eyes in a slightly brief pang of embarrassment upon seeing what was happening in front of him, as it hadn't been his intention to showoff like that.
And as the day progressed onward, Harry's mind was continuously reeling with questions as to why the Sorting Hat was acting the way that it had been when it was his turn to be sorted, and also why the hat had assaulted Professor McGonagall as it had done so, but also why all of the other students were so hushed-up about whatever it was they had witnessed while he was under the hat, and why none of them would talk to him about it.
Harry needed answers. And he surely hoped that he could in fact get at least some of those answers from the only other person that he knew had gone to school at Hogwarts many years before.
Sirius Black.
