They had settled in, and were being bombarded by Ginny and Steven with questions about what happened after the world cup (and during it, Steven hadn't gone). Frisk had just finished with her story when the first visitors arrived. Ginny's brother Ron had knocked on the door, bringing along both Harry Potter and Hermione Granger. "I never mentioned this?" Ron asked. Judging from Hermione's exasperated expression, not for the first time.
"No," Hermione said, rolling her eyes, and stepped in front of him into the compartment. "Congratulations, Asriel," she said, offering her hand to shake. "I didn't think the minister would let this happen so quickly."
"I wasn't expecting it all," Asriel said, reaching up from his seat to shake her hand. "I'm so excited! I can't wait." Harry and Ron expressed their own congratulations and they headed off to their seats. "I wonder if anyone else will stop by."
The lunch lady was by next, and they got themselves sandwiches. Frisk, giving her quiet sister a look, bought them all chocolate frogs to go with their sandwiches and other lunch things. But Chara didn't much more then nibble at it.
They passed the time with exploding snap, and explanations of the classes (for at least a second time, in Frisk's estimation). Neville stopped by eventually, to offer his own congratulations, and to hear how the World Cup itself went. "Gran thought it was too expensive, and it was more fun to listen on the wireless," he explained. "But it sounds really fun to me."
The only thing that spoiled an otherwise pleasant ride was Malfoy giving an extremely nasty look inside their compartment. He might have been about to step in and cause trouble, but was shooed along by a Hufflepuff prefect that was patrolling the train's corridor. She wasn't sure Asriel noticed, but Chara had.
The rain was still coming down in buckets when they pulled into Hogsmeade station. The students looked into the downpour uncomfortably. "I hope that's not a bad sign," Asriel said. "I should have brought an umbrella. But we really don't need them once we're inside, do we?"
"I'd think the wind would blow it out of your hands," Ginny told him. Asriel laughed, shrugging. Frisk had a flashback to the monster kid she met in Waterfall.
"Besides," Luna said, "If you had an umbrella, it wouldn't be raining."
"Weather doesn't work like that, Luna," Steven said, grinning. "It only seems that way." Unnoticed, Frisk started uncomfortably. She hadn't thought about that in a long time.
"First years! First years ta' me please!" yelled Hagrid, the care of magical creatures professor, from one end of the platform.
"Wait, in this weather?" said Frisk. "That's crazy."
"What?" asked Asriel, not yet daring to go out in the rain.
"Uh, you're in for a soggy boat ride," Ginny said, apologetically.
Asriel would have rather followed Frisk into the carriage she had been last seen heading off toward. Instead, he was feeling his fur mat with the combined drenching of rain and splashing from the lake. Chara looked equally miserable, as did a third rider. The fourth, an absolutely small boy, even smaller than Frisk, kept trying to balance and kneel up in the boat. Each time he did, the boat would rock and sway dangerously.
"What are you doing?" asked the other student, in a bit of a hiss. Maybe a hiss, it sounded like she was feeling sick to her stomach. Asriel couldn't blame her, he was feeling slightly queasy himself. "You're going to fall in."
"I want to see the castle! Mum and Dad couldn't believe there was a second wizard in their family... they're both mug-ahhh!" The prediction was born out, as the small child stumbled slightly on the water soaked wood, and then, with a splash, toppled into the drink.
All three of them cried in alarm. But before they could do anything else, a large tentacle emerged from the water, carefully setting the boy back into the boat. They stared, unsure of what had just happened. "That was so cool!" the child exclaimed. "It was the giant squid, it had to be! Colin told me all about it!" The dripping water couldn't mask his huge smiling face, though, truth be told, he didn't look that much wetter than Asriel felt.
The boats continued on, through the rain. The castle loomed up ahead of them, looking imposing, like something out of one of Alphys's animes. When they finally came to shore, the giant of a human helped them out of the boats. "Which one of ye fell in?" he asked. They pointed at the swimmer, and Hagrid promptly wrapped him in a thick brown overcoat, and sent them inside to drip in the main hall.
Waiting for them there was a witch that Asriel recognized (by Frisk's description) as Professor McGonagall. She had, thank the stars, warm towels. It wasn't enough to completely take the chill away, but Asriel at least felt alive again after doing his best to dry his soaking fur. Once they'd at least made the attempt to dry themselves off, the Professor escorted them into the Great Hall proper.
Frisk had described the Great Hall. In Asriel's opinion, Frisk had not done the Great Hall justice. The ceiling mirrored the sky outside, dark, purple, and stormy, with silent bolts of lightning dancing between the clouds. The four long tables were filled, except for the far end, with students. And they were all staring at them. The staff table to the left was filled with the professors, and in the center was Dumbledore. Dumbledore, who's spectacled gaze seemed focused directly on Asriel.
With a clunk, Professor McGonagall set down a small stool in front of the students. Upon the stool sat a large, grey, wide brimmed hat. Which burst into song. When it finished, the Professor unrolled a parchment. "When I call your name, you will put on the hat, and sit on the stool. When the hat announces your house, you will go sit at the appropriate table," she explained.
"Good luck, Chara," Asriel whispered, as the first few were sorted. Elanor Branstone, the girl from their boat was sorted into Hufflepuff. Dennis Creevey, the boy who fell into the water, was sent into Gryffindor. Through it all, there was ongoing quiet conversation between the already seated students.
But when "Dreemurr, Asriel!" was called, all conversation abruptly ceased. The silence as every single pair of eyes focused on the monster about to try on the sorting hat was, in its own way, deafening. Asriel looked for Frisk, and spotted her, sitting towards the end of the left hand table. He gave a nervous smile, and sat on the stool. A moment later, he felt the sorting hat touch his head.
For a second or two, there was silence. Then, he could feel the whispers in his mind, the sorting hat going through his memories. "Hmm. Another interesting case, much like the one you think of as your sister, aren't you?" it asked. "You wish to go to Gryffindor, but is that the best place for you? You wish to prove that monsters belong here, among the wizards, but it's not ambition for yourself, so not Slytherin. You enjoy experiencing things, but not knowledge for knowledge's sake. So, no not Ravenclaw."
"But Hufflepuff? Helga would have made a strong argument to have you in her house. You are loyal to your friends, and as kind as she was. And yet," the Sorting Hat's thoughts seemed unsure. "Godric would point to your sacrifices. Giving up your own life so that others might live? Perhaps I should grant your request."
"So what drives you? Hope for others?" The sorting hat was silent, as more memories bubbled up in Asriel's memory. "You admire how your parents acted to rescue the muggles, which is very Gryffindor, but also how they comforted them afterward, very Hufflepuff." Silence, again, for a minute, and Asriel was starting to hear murmurs from the assembled students again. He was aware that he'd taken longer than any sorting so far.
"You don't like to see others get hurt," whispered the hat. "But when you see others getting hurt, are you sword, or shield or a healer? They're all needed, you cannot win if you don't attack. If you had to fight, could you?" It paused a third time.
"A shield against the darkness," Asriel told it, "I want to keep people from being hurt."
"Hmmm," It considered. "In the end, it is where you will best achieve your potential that I send you. You want to be with your sibling. And you are so tired of being a flower. So I think it'd better be..."
"Gryffindor!" the hat cried to the audience, to an odd mixture of cheers and sighs of relief. Asriel looked up at the staff table. He saw a nod and a smile from the Dumbledore, and a wry look from an older woman. Asriel scrunched his face as he tried to remember who that was. Professor Sprout? Probably. Asriel felt a pang of guilt, he hadn't wanted to make anyone feel bad.
As he approached the end of the Gryffindor table, Frisk stood up and caught him in an enormous hug. Not at all embarrassed, he returned the hug, and sat down next to her, as McGonagall called the next name...
"Dreemurr, Chara!"
Part of her didn't want to move. She knew what the sorting hat was going to say, and she didn't want to hear it. She looked up at McGonagall, and shuffled slowly toward the stool. Sitting down on it, she felt the sorting hat being placed on her head.
It didn't say anything to her at first. Chara closed her eyes, waiting for her fate to be proclaimed.
"You would do well in Slytherin," the hat whispered to her.
"No, please, no," Chara whispered back. "I don't want to be in Slytherin. Just not Slytherin."
"But you think like one, you were willing to sacrifice yourself to..."
"I was trying to get people killed!" Chara whispered to the hat, "I don't want to be that person anymore! It wasn't necessary, and I lost my brother, and my life. I don't deserve to be here. But I am. And I want to change. I want to change."
"Quite possibly the best answer I could have been given. So, where to put you? Ravenclaw, you do value knowledge, but it's what you would do with that knowledge. Perhaps... the same question I asked your brother. In a fight, sword, shield, or healer?" Chara hesitated. She'd seen what Frisk had done. "But you know what the dark is really like, because you've seen it."
"A sword," Chara whispered. "Because someone has to be. I can't make Asriel or Frisk do it."
"Then we'll make it three for three," whispered the hat.
"Gryffindor!" the hat announced again. Her eyes wide, and wearing a broad, relieved smile, Chara tore through the hall, not stopping until she had reached her brother and sister, caught once again in a massive bear hug.
While Frank Edwards was sorted, and Frisk managed to disentangle herself for a second time, Chara walked around the table to sit across from Asriel, sitting next to the tiny Dennis Creevey. "Colin," he was saying. "Colin! You've got to take a picture of this! The first ever monster in Hogwarts, and he's in our house!"
"He's been like that since Asriel sat down," said Frisk, grinning.
"Congratulations Asriel, Chara," Opal said, sitting behind Frisk at the Hufflepuff table. "That was almost two stalls in two years," she said. "I was timing it!" she said, holding up a wrist watch.
Chara laughed, an easier freer laugh, then Frisk had heard from her since she'd woken back up. Together, the three of them clapped as Natalie McDonald joined the table, sitting down the line from Asriel.
"Is that an actual ghost? Nearly Headless Nick, right?" Asriel asked, pointing about halfway up the table. "We ought to find a way to bring Napstablook here."
After the sorting was done, the feast began. Frisk paused in slight confusion when Asriel started eating with the rest of them, and then decided if it didn't bother him, it wasn't going to bother her, selecting a portion of chicken and baked potato.
"I've never seen such a large mix of food," Chara said in awe.
"And we've not made it to dessert yet!" Frisk told her, grinning. And it arrived, in due course. There still was no butterscotch and cinnamon pie, but there was everything else from treacle to pudding. When they were all stuffed to bursting, and the dishes vanished from sight, Headmaster Dumbledore stood again.
"I have a several announcements before we can all retire to our beds tonight. As much as I do not wish to call out a specific student, I must address the elephant in the room. Mr. Asriel Dreemurr is our first monster student, and I trust that all students will treat him with the same respect given to any other member of our student body."
He paused, nodding in the direction of the Gryffindor table, Asriel shrank a little, but gave a determined wave back.
"My second announcement regards the cancellation of the House Quidditch Tournament..." there were gasps and cries of alarm from all around the great hall. One of the loudest came from directly behind Frisk.
He was about to explain the reason for it, when he was interrupted by the thunk of the door opening. A man stood there, wearing a black traveling cloak and leaning on a thick staff. As he walked into the hall, Frisk stared, it was the eyes. There was a normal looking beady eye and that was looking forward, but the other, the other eye was not normal. It was blue, as large as a galleon, and swivelling this way and that. It paused, looking in Frisk's direction for a second, then continued to roll and spin.
"May I introduce our new Defense against the Dark Arts teacher," said Dumbledore brightly.
Frisk shuddered, her first impression, especially after having Professor Lupin the previous year, was of nervousness. She tried to pull herself together, she'd seen stranger things than that underground. Dumbledore had begun to applaud, and Frisk tried to clap with him, but was one of the few who was doing so. The sound was slightly hollow, and it echoed through the great hall. She quickly stopped.
"Ah, yes, the reason of the Quidditch cancellation," and announced the Triwizard Tournament.
"Rubbish," said Opal, "I can't participate in that. I'd rather have the Quidditch matches."
"Oh, it'll be fun to watch," Frisk said. "Besides, it'll give you time for you to practice. After you helped me with flying practice, I'll help make sure you make your team next year!"
"Thanks, Frisk," Opal told her. And with that, they were dismissed.
Frisk and Ginny led Asriel and Chara through some of the lesser known passages through the castle, eschewing the grand staircase. "Did you happen to catch the password, Ginny?" Frisk asked her.
"Overheard it from a Prefect," Ginny said. "Balderdash! And don't you forget it," she added, winking at Asriel and Chara.
The fat lady swung her portrait open. The common room was nearly empty when they got there. "Those are your brothers, right?" Asriel asked Ginny as they arrived. Fred and George were sitting in front of the fire, discussing how to fool the impartial judge of the Triwizard Tournament.
"Are you trying to give mum a heart attack?" Ginny asked them as she passed. Fred and George simultaneously gave her a withering look. "Anyway, I think I'm going to go off to bed. Classes start tomorrow."
Frisk, Asriel, and Chara exchanged looks, and simultaneously nodded. "See you in the morning!" he said, disappearing up the stairs marked for the boys. Frisk and Chara climbed up the other one. When Chara found her dorm, she nodded, hugged Frisk one last time, and disappeared inside. Frisk's own dorm room was a little higher up the tower, but she found it, changed into her purple pajamas, got into bed and promptly went to sleep.
They reconvened the next morning, Asriel and Chara met Frisk back in the common room. "I almost couldn't sleep," Asriel admitted, rubbing his eyes. "Can you lead us back to the great hall?"
"Of course, though you probably need to learn the castle," Frisk said, smiling. "We have different classes, after all!" She led the way back to the great hall for breakfast. A prefect from Gryffindor was sorting through their names, and handed them their schedules. Frisk was drinking orange juice when the owl post arrived. There were letters for all three of them from Mom and Dad, saying how much they missed them already.
But Frisk got a second letter, this one marked from Sans. It contained only a single sentence, written in an all lower case script: "have you ever heard of dr. gaster?"
A/N: You would not believe how hard I agonized over Asriel's sorting hat decision. I think I had a decision written both ways at least twice. Was I copping out, for an 'easier' story if I kept them together? Was I worried so much about what other people think that I wasn't listening to my gut, which said that Asriel would take bullets for people he hadn't met?
But I had to make a decision. (Chara's was easier. Much easier.) I'm at peace with it, because I have to be. There's stories to tell, and his isn't the only one. See you soon!
