The eldest Potter brother tapped his wand nervously against his thigh. This was the first time he had been away from his parents and brothers in years.
"Come on Lee-let's see if this compartment's full yet," a voice said from behind the sliding door. Three people poked their heads in, one dark-skinned boy with curly hair and standing next to him were two identical red-haired boys with brown eyes and matching grins. "Ah, hi Charlus! Should have known you would be here." George said to his best friend.
"I'm Lee by the way," the non-identical boy said, apparently he didn't know Charles had heard them-or he was just trying to be polite.
"Hi Fred, George, Lee. Do come in and make yourself at home," Charles answered calmly.
"Right, thanks mate-"
The four boys laughed and joked until there was another knock at the compartment door. Two girls opened it and peaked inside, "Is there room in here? We've just been kicked out of our compartment-figured out too late some jerks care Rosie has muggle blood!" A girl with brown eyes and long black braided hair declared fiercely. The other girl, Rosie, was blonde with brown eyes that darted quickly around the compartment, assessing them.
Lee and the twins didn't look as if they were going to say anything so Charles invited the girls in. The other three boys had taken up the seat across from Charles so the girls sat by him. "So who is it that doesn't like muggles? Just so I know who to avoid," Charles joked nervously, he didn't like the strange silence that had taken over the compartment.
"Nora Beaumont and Viola De Clare, we were fine until Rosie started to talk. They don't like muggles but I guess they know what the muggle word for healer is-and Rosie mentioned that her father is a doctor. And I'm Angelina Johnson by the way, and this is Rosie Watson."
"Well that's too bad, my mother was muggle-born and there's nothing wrong with that. You wouldn't think people'd be that small minded." Charles huffed. The wizarding world's blood purity stuff seemed just like racism in his opinion. Complete nonsense.
"Dad says muggles are just like wizards, just without magic. He thinks they're great actually, collects tones of elekriciy stuff."
"Electricity." Both Charles and Rosie said at the same time. They looked at each other and blushed.
"Right that-but it doesn't work because of all the magic around the house."
"Taking it apart doesn't help either, Fred, because he can't use magic to repair them and have them still work."
"So what sorts of jobs do wizards have? You said being a healer is like being a doctor, what about other things?" Rosie asked.
Now the tension in the room was broken and Lee shared that his father worked in the Department of Magical Games and Sports while the Weasley's father was the Head of the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Office. Angelina's mother was a chaser of the Hollyhead Harpies, an all-girls Quiditch team which lead to a long an exciting discussion about the magical sport.
The compartment opened again to admit a trolly where Charles bought six of every sweet to try so he could share with his friends. Rosie too had fun with the new magical sweets and was delightfully shocked when her chocolate frog jumped out of her hands and into Lee's mouth when he opened it to speak. They played a game where the person on your right chose a Bertie Bott's Everyflavoured Bean for you to eat and you had to guess which flavour it was.
The twins older brother Charlie stopped by to see how they were doing. In addition, many other couple of first year students came into Charles's compartment and Charles was glad to see that most of them managed to hide their surprise at seeing they were in a compartment with 'Harry Potter's Older Brother'. Harry shouldn't have to face a bunch of people that gasped and gawked at him like he was some race exotic animal. Another Weasley brother stopped by to remind them to change into their robes and the girls left for the bathrooms for privacy.
Off the train a humongous man was waiting near a lake with some boats, that was how they were to get to the castle. "That's Hagrid," one of the twins whispered. "He got expelled a long time ago and Dumbledore kept him on as the groundskeeper."
"Our brother Charlie says he knows a lot about creatures and the forbidden forest."
"What'd he get expelled for?" Angelina asked.
"No one knows."
"Apparently it's the only thing he can keep his mouth shut about."
"Never tell Hagrid any secrets."
Charles was glad he wasn't the only one to gasp in awe at the beauty of the castle. The twins and Lee, who he shared a boat with, also wore astounded faces and Lee nearly fell out of the boat because he wasn't paying attention to Hagrid yelling "Duck!"
"The firs' years, Professor McGonagall," said Hagrid as he directed them to giant doors that seemed to be able to fit ten men stacked on top of eachother.
"Thank you, Hagrid . I will take them from here."
She pulled the door wide. The entrance hall was so big in it. The stone walls were lit with flaming torches like the ones at Gringotts , the ceiling was too high to make out, and a magnificent marble staircase facing them led to the upper floors.
They followed Professor McGonagall across the flagged stone floor. Charles could hear the drone of hundreds of voices from a doorway to the right -the rest of the school must already be here - but Professor McGonagall showed the first years into a small, empty chamber off the hall. They crowded in, standing rather closer together than they would usually have done, peering about nervously.
"Welcome to Hogwarts," said Professor McGonagall. "The start-of-term banquet will begin shortly, but before you take your seats in the Great Hall, you will be sorted into your houses. The Sorting is a very important ceremony because, while you are here, your house will be something like your family within Hogwarts. You will have classes with the rest of your house, sleep in your house dormitory, and spend free time in your house common room.
"The four houses are called Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw , and Slytherin. Each house has its own noble history and each has produced outstanding witches and wizards. While you are at Hogwarts, your triumphs will earn your house points, while any rulebreaking will lose house points. At the end of the year, the house with the most points is awarded the house cup, a great honor. I hope each of you will be a credit to whichever house becomes yours.
"The Sorting Ceremony will take place in a few minutes in front of the rest of the school. I suggest you all smarten yourselves up as much as you can while you are waiting."
"I shall return when we are ready for you," said Professor McGonagall. "Please wait quietly." She left the chamber.
"How exactly do they sort us into houses?" he asked the twins who seemed to know a lot from their older brothers.
"Bill said he isn't allowed to tell-"
"-and Charlie was talking about some sort of surprise."
"Maybe we have to fight a troll-"
"-maybe they throw things at you to see which house you fit in-"
"Maybe we have to take a personality test," Rosie interjected.
"A what?" One of the twins asked. (Charles seriously needed to find some way to tell which one was which.)
"You know? Like the Myers Briggs test or something?" The twins stared at Rosie blankly until she sighed. "So you don't have that in the wizarding world? It can't be that then."
"They might not have heard of it, I doubt many eleven year olds know about it." Charles suggested, for once he knew what he was talking about. Him and Rosie explained the test to the rest of their small group and noticed some others listening in. It felt good to be the one explaining rather than being the one explained to Charles was used to explaining things to his brothers.
Shortly after Charles and Rosie finished the doors opened up once more and the formidable looking Professor McGonagall took them on to their new destination. She looked different, now that she was in her element and doing something she probably did every year. While meeting with Charles and his brothers she had been more frazzled, the old professor definitely hadn't expected to find three abused children while recruiting new students.
Oh my god did that hat just start singing?! The song was apparently about what traits each house valued and how they were all useful to the wizarding world in some way. Charles still wasn't sure which house he wanted. None of the sounded bad but according to his Mum's notes a lot of Death Eaters' families were in Slytherin House so Charles probably shouldn't be in that house in case some other student tried to get revenge if his parents had killed theirs in the war or something. All other houses seemed solid though, loyalty, bravery, and wit were all fine traits and none of his parents notes had warned him of anything from those houses.
Charles payed punctilious attention to the sorting, knowing what traits someone had or valued most could be a good factor in their personality and what friendship with them would be like. Still, you could only get so far with single parts of varied personalities.
"Anworth, Ralph."
"Ravenclaw!"
"Ashbridge, Jessalyn."
"Hufflepuff!"
"Atkins, Ophelia."
"Ravenclaw!"
And then the girl who bullied Rosie Watson out of her compartment because her father was a muggle. "Beaumont, Nora."
"Slytherin!"
Unlike with the other three students, who clapped loudly when someone was sorted into their house, the Slytherin's clapped in a polite, but reserved manner and Gryffindor House 'boo-'ed. Charles hoped it was because she was a bully and nor because she was Slytherin but based on his parents notes at how Gryffindor House treated Slytherins...
The first Gryffindor was "Berry, Alisha." and she got a loud cheer... perhaps because a Slytherin had been sorted directly before her? Or had her parents done something noteworthy?
Then three Hufflepuffs, "Bond, Billy," a name him and Rosie shared a private laugh over, and identical twin girls, "Brynn and Rowan Boyd."
The next girl, "Campbell, Pricilla" was sorted into Slytherin, and got more loud 'boo-'s from Gryffindor House. Yep, it was certainly a rivalry thing and not just because the first Slytherin girl was a blood purist.
"Chavez, Kiran." -Ravenclaw
"Cherry, Nicholas." -Gryffindor. The amount of cheering was consistent so it just appeared that Gryffindor House was more boisterous than the other three.
"Chudwell, Harold." -Slytherin. Were they going to do that everytime a Slytherin student was sorted? There were over a hundred kids here to sort- -they'd never be finished!
"Clark, Alexander." -Hufflepuff
"Contreras, Serenity." -Gryffindor
"Covington, Eleadora." -Slytherin
"De Clare, Viola." The other blood purist Charles knew kicked Rosie out of her apartment, was also sorted into Slytherin.
"Delafontaine, William." -Slytherin
"Dennison, Ceanna." -Slytherin
"Dewitt, Cecil." -Slytherin
"Diggory, Cedric." -Hufflepuff
"Discord, Niam." -Ravenclaw
"Donovan, Jasmin." -Gryffindor. Charles notice Rosie squirmed when that name was called and resolved to ask her about it later.
"Downries, Quinten." -Slytherin
"Edwards, Dylan." -Gryffindor
"Evafield, Ivy." -Hufflepuff
"Everbleed, Keanu." -Ravenclaw
What was kind of funny were the three names that followed being so similar.
"Farbridge, Tobias." -Hufflepuff
"Farraday, Bridgette." -Ravenclaw
"Farrington, Jonah." -Hufflepuff
"Figueroa, Mal." -Hufflepuff
"Fitzcharles, Gideon." -Slytherin
"Forrest, Natalia." -Slytherin
"Geulimja, Cassia." -Ravenclaw
"Goyle, Lauren." -Slytherin
"Griffin, Robert." -Gryffindor
"Griggs, Gabriella." -Ravenclaw
"Gramm, Faolan." -Gryffindor
"Grant, Blake." -Gryffindor
"Greaves, Genivire." -Hufflepuff and "Greaves, Georgiana." Another pair of twins to Hufflepuff? Or were they cousins? Unlike the Boyd girls they weren't identical so he couldn't tell.
"Hawkins, Gavin." -Gryffindor
"Hurst, Sergio." -Hufflepuff
Finally McGonagall called "Angelina Johnson" up to the Sorting Hat and immediately the hat yelled "Gryffindor!" And after that "Lee Jordan" was sorted into Gryffindor right behind her. Hopefully Charles got sorted into Gryffindor then, two of his friends were already there and Charles was certain the twins would be Gryffindor's as well.
"Justice, Alexis." -Gryffindor
"Kelly, Maria." -Gryffindor
"LeRouge, Serafina." -Ravenclaw
"Druzilla and Elvira Lestrange" got loud 'boo-'s from all three houses when they were both sorted into Slytherin. Curious, Charles filled those two names into the back of his head.
"Lovelace, Runa." -Ravenclaw
"Lovell, Ingrid." -Hufflepuff
"Lynx, Sakura." -Ravenclaw
"Mavis, Frances." -Hufflepuff
"McCarthy, Ryan." -Gryffindor
"Mercer, Alden." -Ravenclaw
"Merriweather, Nicolette." -Ravenclaw
"Montague, Graham." -Slytherin
"Noble, Maddox." -Gryffindor
"Ocella, Lucifer." -Slytherin. Lucifer? Did someone seriously name their kid Lucifer? Charles didn't believe in any particular religion but naming your son Lucifer? And of course he was sorted into Slytherin. *The last name is pronounced O-K-ella.
"Patel, Ali." -Hufflepuff
"Pierpont, Alma." -Slytherin
"Potter, Charles." And now it was Charles' turn. He wondered what would happen when the hat touched his head. It sometimes took a few seconds and other times a few minutes. How did the hat determine what kind of personality you had?
Well aren't you the inquisitive sort? Said the hat.
Charles nearly jumped, thankfully, what he liked to call his Dursley-training prevented him from showing his immediate emotional reaction. You can talk!
Well yes, you did hear me sing. Usually when someone can sing they can also talk. The hat snarked.
Charles thought about how he hadn't heard the hat talk to the other students but...he also hadn't spoken himself seconds ago. So you can read our minds? That's how you determine where we belong? Isn't that invasive? Can you tell others what you see in our heads? What about people who lie to themselves? How can you tell what someone's like in such a short amount of time? If someone would be hurt at home if they don't get sorted into a certain house do you sort them anyways? What if a person plans to commit a crime, do you tell a teacher? What if-
Calm down! I may be in your head but I can only answer one question at a time. Yes, I do read your mind and it is how I determine what house you belong to. I'm not sure how invasive it is, I'm a magical artifact, I don't have many personal opinions and this was what I was created for. No, I cannot tell others anything personal about the people I sort, the most I can say is what other houses students qualified for and even then I can only tell the Headmaster and the Head of House. People who lie to themselves often admit subconsciously what they feel and believe. I see everything at an extraordinarily fast rate. I take a person's feelings into account during their sorting. Most eleven year olds do not plan to commit crimes so the founders did not plan for that scenario, I'll tell you there are some things I wish I could say about certain students. Please, no more questions, I need to sort you before there is a hatstall , I haven't had one in decades and I want to reach a new record.
Charles did stay mostly silent (as silent as your thoughts could be) as he processed this new information. A hat could have goals? And kept records? So what house do I fit into?
The hat actually sighed inside his head before he answered. Well, you are extremely brave when it comes to protecting those you love and extraordinarily loyal to them as well. You have a ready mind, no doubt about that, and are also cunning in the way you plan things out. In reality, you could fit into any house, though you seem to have an aversion to being sorted into Slytherin due to the danger you could face there. You don't take unnecessary risk which could set you against Gryffindor, the only people you would take those sort of risk for are your brothers , so perhaps Hufflepuff? But you want to be seen so intelligent, adult-like. You hate being controlled. You aim to ruin anyone who wants to control you, Hufflepuff is more friendly than that. Ravenclaw would fit you well, you have always been an avid reader and student, with very realistic and cynical views of the world. But where would you fit well?
Charles paused. As long as the hat didn't place him into Slytherin he was sure he could do well in any house without much difficulty but... ? Wouldn't it be best to sort students somewhere they could grow, rather that somewhere that would mold them to be as they already are?
The hat chuckled. Oh you are clever! Hoping I would sort you into Gryffindor with your two friends? Charles mentally blushed. Of course he couldn't manipulate something that was reading his mind. Are you sure? Gryffindor is full of rowdy kids, you're the quiet sort who likes to blend into the background. Hufflepuff would make you comfortable, Ravenclaw would encourage your talents...but you're sure? Alright then! "Gryffindor!"
And his new house cheered for him as the inside of his robes turned to red and his tie turned to red and gold. Angelina and Lee had saved a seat for him and Noble Maddox clapped him on the back and said "Good, good man." As if he had done something other than put a hat on his head.
"Quean, Evie." -Hufflepuff
"Reynold, Ava." -Joined them at the Gryffindor table within three seconds. Charles wondered at that, were these people's personalities just not that deep or was it something else that caused the hat to sort quickly?
"Richfield, Royce." -Slytherin
"Robshaw, Sebastian." -Ravenclaw
"Rowley, Imogen." -Ravenclaw
"Rutherfield, Kate." -Slytherin
"Savoy, Lillian." -Ravenclaw
"Scott, Zelda." -Gryffindor
"Shawcross, Ethalind." -Slytherin
" , Preston." -Ravenclaw
"Steele, Agnes." -Gryffindor
"Steward, Liam." -Hufflepuff
"Stone, Noah." -Gryffindor
"Strain, Mansfield." -Hufflepuff
"Stuart-Lane, Andres." -Ravenclaw
"Topper, Emily." -Gryffindor
"Tudor, Felicity." -Hufflepuff
"Wakefield, Geoffrey." -Slytherin
And finally - "Watson, Rosamund." So her first names wasn't just Rosie? Interesting. The hat sat on her head for so long people started murmuring, "Hatstall?" "Just a minute longer and it'll be a hatstall." "Did you know Professor McGonagall was a hatstall?" "Well so was Professor Flitwick." But then the hat yelled "Gryffindor!" And to Charles' relief his friend was sorted into his house. He had saved a seat for her, om his right and across from Angelina, who had saved two seats for the twins, Lee was on his left.
"Isn't that just brilliant? We're all together now! I'm sure the twins will be in Gryffindor, all three of their brothers were-and their parents." Rosie said in a rush as she settled into her seat.
And she was right "Warrington, Cassius" joined the Slytherin table right before "Weasley, Fred" and "Weasley, George" joined the Gryffindor table. Feeling a lot more settled now that his friends were sorted into the same house as him, Charles watched the last four people get sorted.
"White, Chilton." -Ravenclaw
"Wood, Harriet." - Was welcomed into Gryffindor by an older student with similar features who Charles assumed must be her older brother or perhaps a close cousin.
"Wraith, Misty." -Ravenclaw
"York, Lawrence." -Ravenclaw
"Ah, a new batch of students to teacher, beautiful as always. Now I hope you'll all wait a while longer while I give a short speech. Ignoramus. Squish. Weirdo. Channeling. There it is-now onto the feast!"
Charles was even more certain Dumbledore was senile, first he leaves three magical children with relatives that dislike magical and never check up on them and now...whatever that was? Whatever. That was a long sorting. Nearly a hundred kids. And they did this every year after a long train ride before the students were allowed to eat?
Wow.
He barely payed attention to the leaving speech which basically said the Forbidden Forest was forbidden (no duh) and a few more items were banned (Charles had no idea what they were so it was safe to say they didn't concern him). And now they were supposed to get up and sing the school song?! It also happened to be the lamest school song ever but what did Charles know, he was only eleven.
Charles was put in a dorm with the Fred and George Weasley, Lee Jordan and Faolan Gramm. There was a notice on the door that said any strong objections to roommates should be settled tonight, you could only be rehoused at the start, middle and end of a school year, otherwise you were stuck with your roommates.
"You gonna fawn over my little brother? Because I find that quite annoying." Charles hoped this one question would root out any undesirable people that he wouldn't be able to deal with until the Winter Hols. If they were going to fawn over Harry they were annoying. If they weren't going to fawn over Harry but objected to him then they would probably voice it. Eleven year olds didn't have much tact.
"No. Harry Potter may be a savior but he's also a person."
Satisfied, Charles choose the bed closest to the door, you never new when you would have to flee a room or situation. Tomorrow was a Saturday, that would give him time to familiarize himself with the castle. That shouldn't be hard, his father had a lot of notes written by him and his friends about where things were in the castle and had apparently written a map that they lost. There were four copies, one for each of the Marauders. One was in the Potter Heirlooms Vault which sucked because Charles wouldn't be able to bring anything out of that vault until he completed his OWLS. One was in Caretaker Filtch's Office as Sirius Black had lost his on purpose because he didn't want to put it in the Black Heirlooms Vault. Two more were hidden around the school; Peter Pettigrew's had been hidden in strange room that disappeared and reappeared if you passed it three times, and Remus Lupin's was in someplace called the Shrieking Shack where the Marauders had practiced their Animagus forms.
He was so tired he fell asleep almost immediately while thinking of what he would write in his letter to Harry and John tomorrow. The oldest Potter brother didn't even have time to reflect on how today was the first day he hadn't spent worried about his brothers in some way or another.