III. The Sorting

Years later, Toby would look back on his first day at Hogwarts and fondly call it as "The day where I was nearly speechless with awe." He couldn't recall which was better: riding the Hogwarts express, meeting Teddy and Hagrid, riding the boats across the lake or entering the Great Hall for the Sorting.

Oh he had been told about Hogwarts, and the Great Hall and the places around it by his mother, his uncle and his cousins Stefano and Isobel, but it was nothing like their descriptions. The Great Hall was a throwback to medieval times, maybe even longer than that. Toby didn't know if it was as wide as it was as high, but it looked truly big enough to house a hundred people. He felt nervous walking through it, darting curious glances at the other students who were already seated on the long tables. He spotted his cousins among them: Isobel with the Ravenclaws and Stefano with the Slytherins. Both of them gave him an encouraging smile, and he felt a bit better.

Teddy nudged Toby, and made a gesture for him to look up. When he did, Toby was amazed at the sight. The Great Hall didn't have a ceiling, or at least, he thought it didn't. Instead, he saw the night sky, a inky blue dotted with bright silver stars. He could recognize some of the constellations, and it made him wonder if there really was a ceiling there.

Hagrid led the first years to the front of the Hall, just below the Headmaster's table. A lone stool stood there, with a crumpled looking object sitting on top of it. Hagrid nodded to one of the professors, who stepped out from behind the table and unrolled a parchment. As she did so, the object moved, seemingly straightening itself up until Toby could see that it was a hat of some sort. It moved again, and he saw a rip near the base of the hat. What he didn't expect was the hat to start speaking, singing even. It spoke of the history of Hogwarts and how each house defined a particular set of qualities that each founder prized. Toby didn't have any particular preference as to where he wanted to go. After all, his family was an odd assortment of various houses, and none really cared who went to what. "It's Hogwarts, isn't it? That's all that matters," was what they'd often say.

When the hat had finished speaking (or singing?), the professor with a parchment introduced himself. "My name is Professor Neville Longbottom, and I teach Herbology. I welcome you first years to Hogwarts. When I call your name, please step forward, put on the hat and sit on the stool. You will now be Sorted."

Toby and Teddy looked at each other. For some reason, despite knowing about the process of Sorting, neither knew how it was done. It seemed that there was an unwritten rule that wizards never reveal that to those who were just entering the school, and from the way the other first years were looking at each other, they had similar situations with their families.

Professor Longbottom read the first name off the list. "Abbott, Francine!"

A chubby, pigtailed girl walked towards the hat and gingerly lifted it to her head. It wasn't even on it properly when the hat opened its mouth and yelled "Hufflepuff!" A group of students near the left side cheered, and Neville guided the girl to the Hufflepuff house table. He called the next name and one by one, the students were sorted.

"Guess I'll go before you," Toby quipped to Teddy, trying desperately to mask his nervousness.

"Guess so," Teddy replied. He was nonchalantly standing on one foot, but Toby noticed that his new friend's face was a little pale, and his hair had become mousy brown. Apparently, the young Metamorphagus wasn't as relaxed as he was trying to be. It made Toby grin.

Teddy looked at him skeptically. "What's so funny?"

"Nothing," Toby shook his head. "I just can't believe I'm here." He was about to say something else when Professor Longbottom called his name.

"Ellewood, Tobias!"

Teddy gave him a quick grin and said, "Good luck mate." Toby nodded and with a gulp, he stepped forward.

The hat was truly old. The velvet material felt like it could crumple anytime as he picked it up. He gingerly sat on the stool and put the Sorting Hat on.

"Hmm, and who is this?"

Toby jumped at the voice in his head. The hat spoke to him! "Er, hi?" he timidly replied.

"Don't be afraid boy. I may have a mouth but I can't bite," the hat laughed at that. "Well, no time for chit chat, let's get down to business. I see you have a thirst for yearning, and you want to be the best in academics making you perfect for Ravenclaw. However, you also have a kind heart and you don't like seeing people in fights, a quality that the Hufflepuffs value. I also sense a certain streak of cunningness, for which you will be able to use with the Slytherin house. Yet inside you runs the blood of a truly brave man, one who would do anything for those he loves." The hat became silent at that.

"Man? What man? Whose blood? Are you talking about my uncle?" Toby asked the hat, who just hemmed and hawed.

"The answers to those questions will come in time my boy, but in meantime, the most pressing question would be is where to put you?"

Toby shrugged. "I don't mind anywhere, really. My family's a mix of various houses, so anywhere's ok."

"Very well." Toby felt the hat move and what it said next echoed deeply in his mind. "I shall put you in... Gryffindor!"

The sound of clapping was deafening as he pulled off the hat. Toby stumbled off the stool and he felt a pair of hands steady him. Looking up he saw the friendly face of Professor Longbottom. "Congratulations Toby, welcome to Gryffindor." With a gently push, he bade Toby to the direction of a table to the right.

Toby smiled at the others who clapped hands to his back or shook his hand. He sat down and turned back to the remaining first years. Teddy smiled at him and gave him the thumbs up sign, and Toby gave one back. Sorting wasn't so bad after all.

***

The rest of the night passed by in a blur. Teddy was sorted to Gryffindor as well, making Toby happy that he at least had one friend in his house. Everyone else had been friendly, but it was comforting to have someone he already knew, even for just a short time. What made it even better was that they were roommates, along with two other first year boys Ericsson Cane and Travis Maxwell.

During dinner, Stefano and Isobel walked over to Toby. "Congratulations Toby! Getting in Gryffindor!" Isobel gave him a hug. She was three years older than he was, and was a tall blonde with a beautiful face. Toby noticed that many of the boys in his table were looking at her.

"Yeah, mate. Yet another notch to our family's house diversity," Stefano said, laughing. He was older than Isobel by a year, and looked her opposite, at least in coloring. Toby couldn't help but preen a bit with their attention. His cousins were both achievers, and he always wanted to be like them. They grew up close to each other, and many thought they were siblings rather than cousins.

"Thanks," he bashfully replied. "I'm nervous though, but excited as well. I can't believe I'm here with you two!"

Stefano laughed. "Hogwarts is amazing! 'Course, studying's a bit overrated, but the place in itself is amazing. The professors are good too." He nodded towards the head table. "You have Longbottom as your Head of House. He's strict, but fair and approachable."

Isobel nudged her brother. "Ease up a bit on the older brother routine, Stefan." She smiled at Toby. "You'll probably need to take some time to settle in. We'll leave you be, but I hope to see you this weekend! We'll need to catch up."

Toby nodded. "I'd like that." From the corner of his eye, he was Teddy approach. "Hey," he said.

"Hey," Teddy smiled, glancing at Isobel and blushing. "Professor Longbottom's ready to take us up to our dormitories."

"Alright. Oh, Teddy Lupin, these are my cousins, Isobel and Stefano Ellewood of Ravenclaw and Slytherin respectively."

Teddy blushed even more when he shook Isobel's smile, but when he faced Stefano, his eyes nearly bugged out. "You're Stefano Ellewood? The Slytherin Seeker? Wow! It's great to meet you!"

Stefano was amused. "The what? Yeah, I'm the Seeker for our house, but I didn't know it was treated with capital letters."

"Oh yeah. My uncles saw you play a couple of times in the past years. They're not really fans of your house, but they admit that you're a really smashing player," Teddy related enthusiastically.

"Wow, well, I'm honored." Stefano gave Isobel a glance and got a smirk back. Despite being really good at Quidditch, there was one thing Stefano hated, and it was attention. "Can you thank them for me, Ted?"

Teddy nodded, awed by the use of what he thinks of as his more mature nickname.

Isobel spoke up. "I see Professor Longbottom waving to you boys. It's really great to see you here Toby, and it was nice to meet you Teddy. I hope to see more of you both."

"Ditto," said Stefano, giving both boys a cocky two fingered salute.

"Yeah, thanks." Toby said, and watched his cousins saunter off.

Teddy was quiet for a bit, and as they walked over to where the rest of the first year Gryffindors were, he gave Toby a slight punch in the arm. "Why didn't you say you were related to Stefano Ellewood?" He then slapped himself on the forehead. "Why didn't I make the connection?"

His friend laughed. "I didn't realize that my cousin was famous. I mean, he's a good Quidditch player, but I didn't think he was that good."

"You better believe it, if my uncles noticed it. And Isobel! Is she part Veela? I don't think I've seen anyone as beautiful as her."

"Nah, I don't think she is. You think she's pretty?" Toby wondered about that. he did notice that there were many boys hanging out around their house when Isobel was home from Hogwarts, both wizards and Muggles.

"Yeah," Toby replied with a dreamy look in his eyes.

They reached the Gryffindor Tower now, and Professor Longbottom began to explain about the Fat Lady's portrait. After giving them the password, he let them in.

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A/N: I realised that the pacing may be too fast, but since this story will span nearly five years of their stay in Hogwarts, I needed to make it fast. I probably won't even go into details of their early years... These are chapters I've done before, tweaked a bit then published. I also realised that I can't have a beta reader yet haha.

I haven't gone through FF much to see if there are similarly themed stories. I've found and HG/SS one, but one that's like this, not yet. I'm saying right now that whatever similarities there are between the stories are incidental.