Chapter 7: Sorting

The door swung open slowly, silently and without physical aid, revealing the inside of the castle and a tall, thin man who Myles would best describe by controlled. There wasn't a stray strand of hair on his head or a single piece of fluff or first on his robes, and he calmly observed the giant before him and the crowd of first years standing on the stairs.

"The firs' years, Professor Sewell," the giant said.

"Much obliged, Hagrid. You're free to go," Professor Sewell returned. His voice was smooth, every syllable pronounced just so.

Professor Sewell led them through the hall at a pace that stopped them from gawking overmuch at the inside of the castle. He stopped them outside of a small door through which a rumbling of voices could be heard.

"Welcome to Hogwarts. As you all know, you are about to be sorted. Your friends, your family, perhaps even your heroes have likely told you that one House is greater than another, that some House holds only failures and another is the key to success. They are wrong."

"There is no best House. Keep that in mind when you take the stool. That said, I would be honored to take you into Slytherin."

"Now, form a single file line in alphabetical order by surname," Professor Sewell ordered. He waved his wand to form a spaced out alphabet in the air, any teacher should know that telling a large group of children, or adults for that matter, to line up in alphabetical order unaided is asking for chaos. "Move to the letter of your last name and organize amongst yourselves there."

Myles, having no surname, simply waited behind the Z and watched the rest of the first-years figure their order out. There was only one student with a last name of Z and that girl gave him a questioning look as she lined up. A short time later they had settled into a single file line.

"Follow me," Professor Sewell said. The door opened, releasing the clamour of noise that it had dulled, and Sewell led them through it.

They entered on the side of a great dining hall. There was, somehow, no ceiling but for the star-specked night sky above and ghosts flew freely in between the many candles that floated above them. Students were lined up and down four long tables labeled by their House symbol, so many of them that Myles had trouble believing they had all fit on the train together.

But Myles wasn't looking at the ghosts, or the students, or the night sky. He was looking at dusty old hat on a wooden stool set in front of the High Table, where the staff sat. Silence gradually filled the room and the hat woke up. It gave a yawn, cleared its throat and then, of all things, began to sing.

The hat wasn't terribly good at singing. It was, in fact, terrible at singing. But everyone in the hall listened to it explain its origins of its creation by the Hogwarts founders and describe each of the Houses and gave a hearty applause when it had finished.

"First-years, when I call your name sit on the stool and adorn the Sorting Hat." Professor Sewell said, from where he stood behind the owl-shaped podium in front of the High Table.

"Abernathy, Colin."

A boy walked up to the stool, trying to keep the nerves from his face but failing. He sat and put on the hat, which was too large to reasonably fit an eleven year old. Only a few seconds later the hat boomed. "RAVENCLAW!"

Cheers erupted from the table covered with bronze and blue. The boy hopped off the stairs with a relieved smile and sat at his new House table.

"Ascot, Bethany."

The next girl in line walked up to the stool and was sorted even faster after than the new Ravenclaw boy.

"SLYTHERIN!"

And so it went, each first-year was placed by the Sorting Hat, usually within seconds of placing it on their head. Gryffindor and Hufflepuff seemed to have a competition for who could cheer louder for their new housemates while the Ravenclaw and Slytherin tables were more restrained. First-years that he hadn't met continued to be sorted and there were so many of them, Myles estimated there were nearly a hundred students lined up, that their faces began to blend together and afterwards Myles could only recall the Sortings of the first-years he'd met before.

Sammuel Earnheart or, as Myles knew him, Sam was sorted into Hufflepuff after a whole ten seconds, which was more than the previous three students combined.

On the other hand, Lyla Laughlin, who strode up to the hat without even the barest show of nerves, hadn't quite yet put the hat on her head when the Sorting Hat declared "GRYFFINDOR!"

Calvin Longbottom, or Cal, got a particularly loud applause from the Hufflepuff table and, Myles noted, two of the professors sitting at the High Table.

Cecilia Lovegood-Eden sat on the stool, in near complete stillness broken only by twitches of her lips, for nearly four minutes. It was enough for whispers to start, die back down into silence, and rise back up again twice over. When the Sorting Hat finally shouted "RAVENCLAW!" some of the students jumped at the sudden break of silence. Cecilia face was pale as she sat down to an enthusiastic, suspense built, applause

Ambrose Malfoy, the boy Myles had met at Malkins, was quickly sorted into Slytherin, giving off only a small smirk as he rose to join his housemates like he'd been born there.

His twin sister, Ambrosia Malfoy, however, sat under the hat for nearly a minute before, to everyones' surprise, she was sorted into Hufflepuff. There was a moment of shocked silence before the Hufflepuff table began, reluctantly at first, to cheer for their newest member. Myles heard one of the Slytherin students, who sat at the table closest to the first-years, say in a scathing voice "A Malfoy in Hufflepuff?"

Ambrosia was as shocked as the crowd. She looked over to her twin brother, who stared at her in a state of disbelief, before composing herself, wiping any evidence of emotion off her face. She made her way to the Hufflepuff table wearing what nearly looked like a genuine smile. Professor Sewell had to quiet the students down before they could proceed.

Albus Potter, who Myles had technically met at Florean's Icecream Parlor but didn't know, was sorted into Slytherin with nearly the same results as Ambrosia, though the applause from the Slytherin table was half-hearted at best.

Kory Stuart, to his pleasure, was sorted into Ravenclaw almost as fast as Lyla had been sorted into Gryffindor.

Elias Weasely was sorted into Gryffindor, where a set of red-headed students managed possibly the loudest ruckus of the night.

Rose Weasley, after ten seconds under the hat, went to Ravenclaw, where another set of red-headed students tried their best to outdo their Gryffindor counterparts.

Alissa Wood was sorted quickly into Gryffindor and that left a few a scant few people between Myles and the front of the line.

"Zabini, Thalia."

The cooly assured girl ahead of him took her place at the stool and suddenly he was the only person in line. She held the hat on her head for what Myles counted to be 3 heartbeats. "SLYTHERIN!" And he was up.

"Myles." Professor Sewell said. He didn't pause unnecessarily or otherwise highlight his name, but it was obvious. Myles was the only student without a surname.

He felt the extra weight, of being marked as someone who didn't belong, of being the last first-year to be sorted, the one everyone was watching and waiting on.

Myles felt his heartbeat thud heavily in his chest, his breath begin to restrict. It wasn't the same feeling he got in packed hallways, but it wasn't much different. He forced himself to breathe deep, slow breaths as walked, step by step, towards the Sorting Hat.

He sat down on the stool, facing hundreds of expectant faces, and put the hat on his head.

Interesting….

The voice inside his head was completely different than the one that had sung the song. It sounded very nearly like Myles's inner voice.

What do we have here?

So few to be loyal to. So little to be loyal for. Yet loyal all the same. There's no better place for friends than Hufflepuff. You would do well there.

No fool, not fearless. But not without courage are you?

Myles thought of himself running away in Lower Alley with no thought of fighting back, nothing but panic driving his motions.

But that's not true, is it? Knocked to the ground, looking up at trained wizards dueling, and you still tried to think of a way to help. That's why you froze on the ground, you were realizing there was nothing you could do. That you were helpless.

Myles tried to refute the statement but it was pointless. The hat was in his head. It wasn't entirely right, but it was right.

Yes, I'm entirely right boy. And you know it.

Now, where was I…. Ah! Ambition.

Ambition, not yet, not yet. But it dwells in your future. When you feel you belong in this world it will drive you forward, not for political gain or fame but for the love of the climb and to reach the heights you could only dream of before.

Cleverness…. Yes, when the situation calls for it.

And ancestry, yes, as you're sure to discover.

You know… my parents? To Myles, biological parents had always been something of a storybook notion. They existed in "The Green Wizard" which rested on the Orphanage's bookshelf, but not in the Orphanage. Seeing the Potters, Weaselys, and Malfoys at the train station, however, had brought the notion in reality.

Did they bring the notion into reality, or did Mrs. Lenore? The hat mused smugly. And I know nothing. I can learn, but never remember. I am meant to Sort, not spy.

And onto the last House. Intelligence, yes.

But most importantly for Ravenclaw, Curiosity, the desire for knowledge. You walk through the world unawares, so little known and so much to know. Those books on the narrow Orphanage shelf, read cover to cover so many times you could recite them by heart, weren't enough, could never be enough. Not for you. Not for the world outside.

You want to know how the world works. What is the Orphanage? Where did all of the orphans go at eleven? Why were so many people at the train station dressed oddly? What is Quidditch and why do people care so much about watching wizards fly around on broomsticks? What is it like to be a Muggle, to be magicless?

And more. So much more. The puzzle of countless generations, never solved. Magic.

But more importantly - most importantly - you want to know how people work. Why they work. Why didn't Livian work.

Myles was suddenly livid. Livan didn't work?! She'd always cared for him. They'd always been together, through it all, against the caretaker and against the others.

But you wondered.

In those times when she'd hang upside down from the tree by her legs, her eyes vacant and unseeing for the better part of the day. Looking like a broken clock, some gear knocked loose and now the hands won't tick right.

'Like a broken clock.' That's exactly what Myles had thought on those days. Deep down he knew that he wasn't angry at the hat, he was angry at himself.

In those times when she taunted the others, when she flaunted that she was better than them. Because you weren't an outcast at the Orphanage. They were your friends, before it happened. Livian brought you into exile with her, dragged you there. Because she could be cruel.

I was the one who went too far, not Livian.

Yes… yes. And you were the one that got the Hand didn't you? And why? Because you saw blood on Livian and you lost control. You never spent another moment in their company, not amicably. You were with Livian, for better or worse.

For Better.

Perhaps. The hat said slowly, softly. Perhaps not.

The hat allowed for a moment of silence before continuing.

I can tell you this Myles. Few that come under my brim have your raw power, your talent.

Fewer, far fewer still, come to me this malleable, this unformed, with this potential to change. It is not a question of maturity but an absence of restrictions. The presence of an open mind.

Life rarely fails to trap its victims in the corridors of their own mind. They can't escape, they can't want to escape.

But for you... Every step taken is one taken at a crossroads, and each will slowly determine who you will be.

I cannot Sort you; you must Sort yourself.

"RAVENCLAW!"

At some point Myles must have closed his eyes, because he had to open them to see. He had no idea how much time had passed, but by the reactions of the students in front of him he guessed he had been under the hat for a long time.

Myles took the hat off; it had grown silent as soon as it had declared his House and began to walk towards the Ravenclaw table. He could hear that they were cheering, but his mind didn't register the noise. Myles was still listening for the hat's voice in his head, a voice he couldn't even describe because it sounded so much like his own.

He sat down next to Cecilia. Her hands, hidden under the table but visible as he passed her, were shaking too. Myles didn't need to know what the hat had said to her. He understood. Cecilia scooted closer to him, not by much, not noticeably closer than the other students sat, but closer.

"Welcome to another year at Hogwarts." Professor Sewell had taken his seat with the rest of the staff and an old but hale woman with a stern, unflinching face stood at the podium. Headmistress McGonagall. "Another year of fresh pupils and bright futures. We're proud to have each and every one of you. Now, eat!"

The students cheered again, and food began to appear on the empty dishes on the table. It was, Myles thought, the most delicious display of food he'd seen in his entire life. The Orphanage had always had enough food, created in one of the locked rooms (Myles had snuck in there once, to find a number of enchanted pots and other kitchen utensils similar to the brooms and mops that cleaned the building) and delivered to your bowl by pulling a lever. But the Orphanage food, almost always a stew or soup of some kind, hadn't tasted great the first time Myles remembered eating it and it certainly hadn't improved with repetition.

Foods he had never seen before, much less eaten, soon crowded every dish and his stomach, overcoming his nerves, reminded him that he hadn't eaten anything but a cauldron cake for the better part of a day.

Myles dug in, joining the rest in heaping food onto his plate and noticing for the first time that Kory and Rose sat across from him. Some of the Ravenclaw students near him, mostly first-years, occasionally looked towards Cecilia and Myles, oddities because of how long they'd been under hat.

A discussion began around the table as they ate. First-years excitedly explained why they were sorted into Ravenclaw: what books they loved, what they wanted to learn, and stories about family members.

Kory was muggleborn and had only found out about the wizarding world a month ago, which explained why he seemed as lost as Myles. He was still only half-convinced that magic was real, explaining using a bunch of words that Myles didn't know and that he heard discounted as "muggle nonsense" out of Kory's earshot. He wanted to learn everything he could about the wizarding world and figure out why Muggle technology didn't work with magic. Kory got a polite response from the Ravenclaws, though it was obvious none of them, except Rose, cared for Muggle things.

Rose's parents were famous for their involvement in a war and her cheeks flushed red when Sabina, a gossipy second-year sitting on the opposite side of Cecilia, mentioned it. She wanted to join the chess club and couldn't wait for Transfiguration classes.

Everyone, excited after the thrill of their sorting, was eager to talk, and soon the only ones left were Cecilia and Myles. A pack of expectant and curious Ravenclaws, including those farther away that had previously held their own conversations looked towards them. There was a long moment of silence, Myles certainly didn't know what to say, before Cecilia spoke.

"I always thought I was going to be Gryffindor or Hufflepuff," Cecilia began shyly, she brought a hand, a perfectly stable hand, up to nervously rearrange her hair. "But… I guess I've always liked books. And maybe.. maybe I've thought of becoming a spell inventor like my mother."

Cecilia's words and body motions, Myles thought, looked and felt completely genuine. But Myles had seen her when she had talked to her father, becoming an entirely different person in an instant. The act was a lie.

She explained how she'd been really sickly as a child so she'd never had many friends and that she hoped she could change that in Ravenclaw. By the time she was done every student listening thought that she was the sweetest girl in the House, if a bit fragile.

Myles had been stuffing his face at the beginning, both because of his hunger and as an excuse to listen but not talk. Now, however, he was losing his appetite.

"And Myles, you want to be a Healer right?" Cecilia asked him excitedly. "I heard you apprenticed with a Healer on Diagon Alley!"

Myles saw what she was doing and took both her lead and a page out of her book. "Yeah," he said softly, the nervousness was not feigned. "I think Ravenclaw can help with that."

"What'd the hat say to you?" Rose Weasely asked, her eyes intensely curious.

"Now, Rose, it's rude to ask that," Sabina admonished, but Myles noticed she was still looking at him with an expression not dissimilar to Rose's, hoping that he would still answer.

"Oh, sorry Myles." Rose's checks flushed an impressive red.

Myles accepted her apology and the conversation reluctantly veered away from him and Cecilia. The dinner dishes disappeared and were replaced by an equal variety of desserts, which he made his best attempt to eat but was too full to manage more than a few bites.

When the deserts disappeared the Great Hall once again quieted and turned to look to the podium Headmistress McGonagall had returned to.

"A few announcements before we head to bed. Due to her exemplary performance finishing out the last year's Defence Against the Dark Arts curriculum and a record high number of students, Professor Calding will be joining us this year as an Assistant Professor."

Professor Calding stood and gave a short wave to the students before returning to her seat.

"Keeping with teaching practices in recent years, non-core Professors will relieve some of the workload for our core classes. As for the Defence Against the Dark Arts post, Professor Salem has joined the Hogwarts staff."

A dark-haired man rose and waved, inspecting the students as they looked up at him. The hand that he waved with, however, was made of metal, not flesh, and it looked like his pieces of his palm moved around his hand.

"Whaddya think? Nutcase?"

"Nah. That was two years ago, this one will be a murderer."

"Least he doesn't look a fraud. Man looks right dangerous."

"I hear he lost his arm hunting a Dark Wizard in the Romanian Wastes."

"You didn't hear anything, it just got announced. His hand's a neat enchantment though, wonder what it does."

Headmistress McGonagall cleared her throat to silence the bout of whispered conversations.

"The forest on school grounds is forbidden to all students without explicit permission from staff and the use of magic on other students is prohibited outside of the classroom. Club information will be posted on the bulletin outside of the Great Hall and House Quidditch trials will be posted on your House bulletin. Now, off to bed."

A beautiful Ravenclaw witch called out to the first-years to come to her with a wink at Rose and, based on her strawberry gold hair, Myles assumed she was yet another Weasley relative, likely Elias's sister. She checked to make sure all of them were there, before introducing herself and the other prefect (who stood behind them to make sure there were no stragglers). The gold-red haired witch was Victoire Weasley and the witch behind them was another Weasely named Molly. It seemed half of Hogwarts were Weaselys.

They were led up the marble staircase outside the Great Hall and then into a room that extended forever, or farther than the eye could see, vertically and the walls to the left and right were hundreds of meters away. Stairways up in the air moved from place to place, seemingly at random. Victoire, with full confidence, led them downwards onto a staircase but stopped them from getting off. Moments after they'd all walked onto it, the staircase disconnected from the platform they'd been standing, attaching itself to a different one instead.

"If you're ever confused about how to get around in Hogwarts - and you will be! - just ask the portraits. They'll tell you where to go," Victoire informed them, and began answering questions as they waited for the staircase to disconnect from its original destination and connect to a new one, such that the staircase was in a completely different location than when they'd gotten onto it.

"Follow me!" She called, leading them off the platform and upwards on an extraordinarily long staircase. They disembarked after five floors of stairs and Victorie led them to another set of stairs, this time a spiral staircase that ended with a hallway.

"And here we are! The entrance to the Ravenclaw Tower." All of the first-years tried to peer over one another to get a good look at the door Victoire was leading them to, some jumping to do so.

Myles, being close to the front, got a good look at the wooden door, which lacked ornamentation except for a large bronze knocker in the shape of an eagle. Victoire, with a deliberate sense of showmanship, used the knocker.

The door didn't open, but the eagle's break did, speaking in a deliberate, somehow musical voice.

"I can bring tears to your eyes; resurrect the dead, make you smile, and reverse time. I form in an instant but I last a lifetime. What am I?"

"Ooo," Victoire said. "Any guesses? The door only lets each person try once so if you get it wrong, you'll have to wait around for the next Ravenclaw to get in. Thankfully, we have a crowd."

"A memory," a girl shouted out behind Myles and the door swung neatly open.

"Very good, Alexa," Victoire said, stepping through the door before continuing dramatically. "And welcome to your new home. The Ravenclaw Tower!"

It was, Myles thought when he made it through the doorway, the most beautiful room he would ever see. A painting of a dark blue and black night sky sparkled brightly above, the stars glowed bright enough to light up the expansive circular room, which was comparable in size to the Great Hall.

A white marble statue, wearing a bronze tiara with a sapphire jewel, stood guard over the room's personal library. The graceful arched windows that lined the walls were framed by bright blue and bronze curtains. An assortment of chairs, tables, and couches too fancy to rightfully be called couches were spread out across the room, each of which featured a reading light attached.

The first-years walked out onto the midnight blue carpet of the common room in muted wonder. Victoire Weasely watched them with an amused smile, remembering the first time she'd seen the Ravenclaw common room. She gave them a few minutes to wander in the room before calling them back in and directing them to their dormitories, the girls rooms up the stairway to the left and the boys to the right.

Another prefect, David, led the twelve Ravenclaw first-years to their section of the boys dormitory, where their luggage waited in front of a set of three doors. Myles and Kory, the only first-year Ravenclaw boy he had met, claimed the two beds on the far side of the middle room. Two other boys, who they quickly and tiredly met, Dexter Turner and Rowan O'Brien, claimed two of the other three beds, leaving the fifth, and last, bed empty.

Myles took his robe off, leaving him in his thin white Orphanage long johns, and climbed tiredly into bed. Despite his full stomach and drooping eyes he was the last boy in the room to fall asleep.

A/N: So perhaps Livian wasn't/isn't quite the angel Myles makes her out to be.

A/N: I had always thought the Ravenclaw animal was a raven, which are extremely intelligent birds, not an eagle but I'll roll with it.

A/N: There's no way core teachers can handle so many classes/students I'm considering whether to make it more realistic to have some of the other teachers, like the Calding and the non-core professors, teaching some of the classes and by using sixth year TAs (seventh has NEWTs) or just keeping it the same as original to keep it simpler.