A/N: Hey guys. I'm SO sorry for the "hiatus" on this story. It's been almost a year now, and I'm incredibly grateful to those of you who continued to read and follow Magic. To be honest, I had kind of given up on it a little bit, but the reviews have been so supportive and encouraging that I decided to pick it up again.
So, here's to Chapter 7!
Maya honestly had no idea what to think when she first saw the Sorting Hat. It was large, it was ugly, it was something she would never be caught dead wearing even on Halloween. It sat on an equally ugly brown stool, although the stool looked a lot more polished and a lot less...alive…
The Sorting Hat had been singing nonstop for the past two minutes, and Maya was wondering who could ever have been stupid enough to give it vocal chords. If she ever found out, she would strangle them. It wasn't even that the Sorting Hat had a terrible voice (it's vocal range was actually pretty good, now that she thought about it)– it was the fact that the thing COULDN'T CARRY A TUNE FOR ITS LIFE. If it continued screaming for much longer, she was hopping straight back onto the Hogwarts Express and cruising one-way to her home in the slums of New York. Her ears could only take so much.
Beside her, Riley, being the strange girl that she was, was..was beaming at the horrid hat. Her eyes had taken on that dopey quality they got whenever she was saw something cute or fluffy (although Maya REALLY didn't think the hat qualified as either of the two), and she was happily... swaying to the hat's nonsense. God bless her innocent soul.
When she looked around to her fellow first years to see their reactions, Maya realized with a start that no one else seemed to share her mild disgust for the Sorting Hat. Most of her other classmates were looking at it as if it were made of pure gold, or as if it had descended from the heavens themselves. What the hell? The upperclassmen sitting at their respective class tables were watching the entire spectacle with mild interest, although a few were snickering at the first years' reactions. Maya blinked. Perhaps the hat was more special than it looked?
The witch who had led Maya, Farkle, Riley, and the rest of their classmates up from the docks of the vast Hogwarts lake and through the gilded doors of Hogwarts castle, Professor McGonagall, had simply introduced the Sorting Hat as...the Sorting Hat. Maya had assumed that it was probably just some symbolic relic the school used to begin its new school year.
Then the hat had started to sing.
And now here she was.
Thankfully, as abruptly as it had begun its horrendous opening ballad, the hat stopped its raucous chanting. Everybody cheered. Maya stared around in confusion.
"Maya, clap!" Farkle nudged her, and Maya quickly brought her palms together to join in with the last round of applause. Riley gave her a weird look (the brunette had been one of the first people to start clapping, and certainly one of the most enthusiastic), which only made Maya even more baffled. It was a singing hat. Was that going to be the most impressive thing she saw at Hogwarts?
"Students, the sorting ritual will now begin promptly. First years, when I call your name, please step up and place the hat upon your head. Please do not panic if the hat happens to speak to you, it happens all the time, and best of luck!" Professor McGonagall stepped forward from her place beside the Sorting Hat, and unrolled a long sheet of yellowed parchment, which, Maya assumed, contained a list of names. A trickle of understanding flowed into her mind. Sorting Hat. The sorting ritual.
Oh.
THIS was how the Hogwarts administration sorted kids into houses? Maya didn't know whether to cry with relief, or laugh at the stupidity of it all. On one hand, she wouldn't have to take an aptitude test or anything of that sort to find out where she would be spending the next seven years of her life. On the other hand, her fate was being decided by a hat.
A freakin' hat.
And a loud, annoying one that had no idea how to sing at that.
Oh boy.
Just then, a ringing cry came from the general direction of the Sorting Hat. Maya realized that the first student Professor McGonagall had called forth had just had their house announced by the Sorting Hat. Hufflepuff. The second student was already sitting down on the stool. Placing the hat on their head. Maya gulped. This was going a lot faster than she expected.
Suddenly, a voice whispered into her ear. "You scared, Maya?"
Street reflexes kicking in, she whipped around, fist drawn and heart racing. When she saw that it was just Lucas, she relaxed slightly– enough to lower her fist, that is. She glared at him.
"That was really unnecessary," she said, feeling her annoyance grow when she saw the smirk on his face. Just you wait, Lucas, just you wait... The said boy was still flashing his pleased expression at her, and Maya realized she hadn't answered his question yet. She quickly declared:
"And, just so you know, of course I'm not scared. It's just a hat. And a it's a pretty lousy singer too." There. Take that, Hee Haw!
Lucas' face changed from one of smug glee to slight astonishment. "You did NOT just insult the Sorting Hat."
A nervous gulp suddenly rose in her throat. Did something bad happen when you insulted the Sorting Hat? No, that's impossible, it's just a hat. Hoping he hadn't seen her momentary discomfort, Maya did her best uninterested shrug and coolly met Lucas' incredulous gaze. "What's the worse it can do to me?"
"Probably set you on fire or send a giant sword plunging into your head," Lucas replied seriously. Maya rolled her eyes, but… he didn't seem to be lying… She made a mental note to ask Riley if those things had ever happened in the past, for future reference. "Either that," Lucas continued, "or, you know, place you in Slytherin." He waggled his eyebrows.
Maya let out an annoyed huff. "You know I don't like you very much, right?"
He smiled and tipped an imaginary hat. "Anything for you, ma'am."
He turned away from her and started up a conversation regarding ancient magical relics with Farkle. Maya stared at his backside for a long moment, before glancing over at Riley beside them. Good, at least Little Miss Sunshine didn't see me talking to him.
Then she frowned. Why should it be a problem for me to talk to him around her? Shaking her head, Maya decided that there were more important matters at hand than her new best friend's relationship issues, and turned her attention back to the Sorting Hat and the kids it was rapidly "sorting".
Focus, Maya. Hogwarts comes first, whatever social life you manage to glean comes, like, fourth.
Lucas was called up a few minutes later, and the hat barely touched his head before announcing "Gryffindor!". Of course the goody-two-shoes cowboy was a hero. Maya wanted to puke at how cliché the situation was. He went to join the Gryffindor table amidst cheers and hollers, and Maya suddenly realized that belonging to a house not only determined your type of character, it also told you who you would have class with, hang out on weekends with, SLEEP with… Real nerves finally began to claw at her insides. The next few minutes would decide the nature of her entire career at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
And Professor McGonagall was getting awfully close to the "H" section now. Her name was going to be called soon. Maya mentally braced herself. C'mon, it doesn't really matter THAT much which house you get 're all going to give you the same opportunities, and you will get along fine in any one of them, and...
And she already knew she was going to be in Slytherin anyways, so it didn't really matter what she told herself.
Maya stepped closer towards where the stool and hat sat at there position in the front and center of the Great Hall. There was no point in psyching herself out anymore.
What happens, happens.
"Maya Hart!"
Maya stepped up to the center of the room and gingerly picked up the Sorting Hat from where the last student had left it on the stool. It felt a little warm, as if recently left in the sun to bake. The face molded into it was looking at her skeptically, and she quickly shoved it on her head and plopped down on the stool before it could stare at her any longer.
The hat immediately fell over her eyes, and she felt her face heating up at the thought of how silly she probably looked.
"Why do you worry about what other people think so much, Maya Hart?"
She almost jumped out of her skin. Was that...the hat? In her head? Talking? Maya didn't dare breathe, waiting for the voice to pop back again. After around five seconds, it let out a long sigh that seemed to reverberate throughout her entire being.
"Don't be so nervous. What could you possibly have to be afraid of?" She clamped down the retort that whichever house she got sorted into- whichever house the Sorting Hat sorted her into - would only determine the rest of her Hogwarts career.
"Feisty, are we?"
Could it hear inside her head?
"Of course I can see inside your mind. That's why they assigned me to do the Sorting. Now, which house to put you in..."
Maya tensed. This was it. The moment of truth. Her first step into the world of witchcraft and wizardry.
"Courage..and quite a bit of it. But I can also sense pain. Tough past, hmmm? But potential...so much potential. Very well..."
Maya was getting just a tad bit impatient. It wasn't exactly comfortable having her head picked apart by some foreign object. Just as she was about to tell it to hurry up, however, it spoke up- although this time not just to her, but to the entire room.
"GRYFFINDOR!"
Cheers erupted in the room. Riley and Farkle beamed at her from the group of first years, and Lucas was hollering from the Gryffindor table along with several other students.
She blinked. Gryffindor? Wasn't that the house of heroes and legends and...good?
There must have been some mistake. She tried to express the thought to the Sorting Hat, but it was promptly plucked off her head by Professor McGonagall and handed to the next first year.
What is going on? Was this the Sorting Hat's way of messing with her life? Putting her into a house where she would never belong? Maya already knew that, by most people's standards, she was anything but good, or a legend, or a hero. And yet the Hat put you in Gryffindor...
Heart pounding and head still reeling with shock, Maya quickly walked the twenty or so feet to the Gryffindor table, deciding that she would ponder out the rest of the recent events once the commotion had died down a little. Lucas was patting the seat next to him, a –for once– genuine smile painting his features.
"Congrats, Shorty! Almost thought you'd actually get into Slytherin, with how long the Sorting Hat took."
More like "why did you not get into Slytherin"...
Maya flashed him a weak smile in reply before settling down in the seat he'd gestured at. To her right was Lucas, fat head blocking her view of the Sorting and all, and to her left was a guy with dark skin and tufty black hair. She presumed he was also a first year, but really wasn't in the mood to find out. He gave her a blinding grin when she looked at him, and Maya decided that this was a kid she either really didn't want to know, or really did.
Suddenly, Lucas grabbed her arm, hauling her attention back to the front of the Great Hall.
"Maya, they're getting to the Ms now. Riley and Farkle should be popping up any minute!"
Riley. Farkle. Maya was already positive that Farkle was going to Ravenclaw– after all, he had made no efforts to hide his inner nerd to her or anyone else. He would probably go on to become class valedictorian or whatnot, join whatever well-established science community the wizards had after graduation, gain fame and fortune for his ingenuity. Anyone with half a brain would be able to tell where he'd end up.
But Riley… Would she join Maya and Lucas in Gryffindor? After all, she was kind and generous and optimistic– traits Maya knew were probably valued in the house of the brave and noble. And she'd said her dad had also been a Gryffindor… But in the short time that she'd known her, Maya was already associating klutziness, an insane level of friendliness, and loyalty to those she liked as keystones of Riley's personality. Which seemed more like the description Riley had given her for Hufflepuff.
"Riley Matthews!" Well, no point in pondering any further. Maya, and everyone else, was about to find out exactly where the brunette belonged. As Riley practically skipped up to the Sorting Hat, Maya noticed offhandedly that Lucas was still holding on to her arm. The idea of shaking him off and poking fun at him for it briefly crossed her mind, before her attention was drawn back to Riley, and the large magical hat that was doing nothing to hide the ear-to-ear grin splitting her face.
Wonder what the Hat's saying to her…
After a few moments, the wrinkled face set into the hat's front opened its eyes, and a single word fell from its fabricated lips.
"HUFFLEPUFF!" Maya's mouth twisted with a bitter smile. Hufflepuff. Riley was going to be in Hufflepuff. Her thoughts turned darker, however, when she realized that the brunette was going to be making new friends in her new house. Friends that weren't Maya. Spend class goofing off with them and hours helping them with homework. Waste weekends playing cards in a common room Maya wouldn't be allowed in. The blonde almost laughed at the cruel irony of it all.
Fate had given her a single friend, and that single friend had been snatched back in the same day.
Hey, at least you still have Ranger Rick, a small voice in the back of her head whispered. She shushed it immediately. After all, Lucas was Riley's. She had literally dubbed him "Riley's Boyfriend". Any interest he had shown in her was probably because she annoyed him, or because he wanted to use her to get closer to Riley. And there was the entire issue of Riley potentially blowing up if she so much as attempted to get closer to him…
Yeah, no. Texas boy was out of the question.
Which left her friend count back at a big fat zero.
Maya watched, detached, as Riley skipped over to the Hufflepuff table to join the students sitting there. As Lucas hollered her name when she walked past Gryffindor. As her newly gained and newly lost brunette best friend met her gaze, a mask of excitement hiding the disappointment in Riley's eyes (of course she was upset about not being a Gryffindor– after all, that was where Lucas was). As Farkle was called and immediately sorted into Ravenclaw. As the boy to her left, who she soon discovered was called "Zay", began to talk with Lucas.
As everyone became caught up in the commotion of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and Maya realized with bleak resignation that she was utterly, painfully, alone again.
Weird how even a brief moment of company could make you forget how much loneliness hurt.
