Farancia Abacura
Chapter three: The silenced sorting hat
The large wooden doors swung open and the crowd of first years surged forward with excitement. Amina and Cami both stood on either side of Odran who only glanced around in amazement at the wide open hall. The ceiling shone brightly with stars marked with three distinct flags Odran assumed represented the four houses Amina had spoken of. As oblivious as ever Odran did not catch the banter between Amina and Cami about how one of their charges was already on the bad side of one of the most influential wizarding families in Europe.
The first years continued towards the front of the great hall where the teachers sat, and Odran who was examining the people at the front tables shyed away when an ancient looking women made eye contact with him. Something about her inquisitive eyes and the way she look at him as though he looked familiar unsettled him. A fairly large man stood from the teachers table and went around meeting them. He carefully took an old weathered hat from a shelf and a small wooden stool which he set down in from of the group of first years.
"Welcome to Hogwarts! If you would line up we can start the sorting," the large man said with a kind expression. He unfolded a scroll and began with the letter A reading off the names of children. The first years as a whole began to squirm but Odran was still fascinated with his surroundings until he realized the hat was talking, and this just happened to be right before. Amina Black was called for sorting.
Amina hesitated for a few seconds before shaking herself for some unknown reason and strode up to the seat with a determined air. Odran could see her mumbling something over and over like a chant and the hat took its sweet time with sorting her but finally the hat shouted out Gryffindor and Amina jumped for joy before almost sprinting to the cheering Gryffindor table.
A few more people passed when Odran was shocked out of his revere for the room, and assorted floating objects, by the man bellowing out his name.
"Odran Brennen!" the large man called and Odran wasted no time taking his seat but did give the hat a suspicious look.
"Don't worry," the large man winked as he dropped the hat on Odrans head but when the hat did all Odran heard was a large intake of breathe and a hiss. After what could have been seconds or minutes of the great hall holding it's breathe The large man took the hat up again and gave it a small shake and returned it on Odran's head but still nothing. After another minute or so someone spoke up.
"The mudblood broke the sorting hat!" Scorpious said from the line breaking out into laughter followed by the entire Slytherin table but a stern look from the teachers quieted them all and Odran was only more confused. What exactly was a mudblood anyways?
"Professor Longbottom may I see the hat," the ancient woman asked in a calm tone not showing the confusion of the rest of the room.
"Of course headmistress," Professor Longbottom said handing her the hat quickly and Odran's eyes went to the woman with a questioning look.
She ignored Odran at first tapping the hat with her wand at which point it sputtered out a surprising chain of foreign languages. After this she looked to Odran with a kind smile.
"Do you have your wand with you Mr. Brennen?" she asked in a casual manner that had Odran thinking that maybe she was a decent individual. He took his wand from his pocket tentatively showing it to her.
"Give it a flick won't you?" The headmistress asked and Odran did so and the same abundant shower of sparks shot out. Seeing this she nodded and turned to the hat with a stern look mumbling some words to it before putting it back on Odran's head and taking a seek.
The great hall stayed quiet for nearly another minute before the sorting hat rasped in a deep breath before letting out a whisper that reverberated around the entire great hall.
"Slytherin," the hat whispered but somehow every ear heard it but no one dared to speak. Three houses looked at Odran with horror and pity while the fourth, Slytherin, looked at Odran with a strange combination of confusion and hatred.
"Guess the hat is broken. I better end up in Slytherin or I will call my grandfather," Scorpious said with all sincerity receiving another glare from teachers and the headmistress.
"Go along my boy. Everything will be fine," Professor Longbottom reassured Odran but the looks Odran was getting from his own house and the look of regret on the teacher's face himself just confused Odran even more. It seemed to Odran that he was destined to be hated even if he didn't know why. Odran had come to accept that him just existing was enough reason for most of the world to dislike him so he only shrugged and made his way to his house. As he walked past his fellow Slytherins he caught bits of pieces of whispered conversations that only confused him more.
A sudden scurrying made it obvious his new house had cleared an entire table for him at the end of the row closest to the exit of the great hall. Odran didn't mind the solitude but the strange acts of both the sorting hat and his fellow students were beyond him. In his normal school Odran had always avoided notice but here it seemed he was destined to stand out. The word mud blood continued to come up. He filed the word away to find out what it means later as the sorting continued without any delay. Odran had set his head on his table just letting everything sink in as he watched four of his five associates go to the other three houses. He had in fact been the only one not to receive cheers. Camiellia Lupin only widened her eyes in horror as the Slytherin house exploded in applause and cheers as they managed to get her. Some of the slytherin actually gave Cami thumbs up or tried to give her a spot to sit but she actually gave them the birdie, which resulted in Amina laughing hysterically and falling off her bench on the other side of the great hall. Cami moved right past them taking a seat by Odran mumbling something about being a martyr.
"You did something to the hat? That has to be it! How could I be Slytherin?" She has grumbled the first time she sat down and began grumbling to herself, "Odran we will just have to make our own house! This just won't do!" she had went on in between her ranting most of which Odran ignored still trying to sort everything out.
As the sorting drew to a close a Naomi Selwyn was called and the hat barely touched her head before it shouted out Slytherin and her perfect confidance in that fact seemed undaunted and Odran immediately decided she was trouble. It didn't help that Odran remembered her as the girl who walked away from harassing "mudbloods" on the train. He glanced to Cami realizing he could solve a mystery.
"What's a mudblood Cami," he asked casually but Cami didn't have time to answer.
"It's a stupid filthy muggle who has stolen magic and wants to corrupt our society!" A rotund girl said sitting on Odran's table as all the other spots had been taken As Naomi and her other tall henchman sat on her other side. The large girls high nasally voice nearly gave Odran a headache immediately so much so that he only nodded hoping she would shut up but no such luck.
"Why do we have to sit next to the mudblood Naomi?" the fat girl seemed to speak straight from her nose but the tall dark blue haired girl only glanced at her and then Odran with an appraising look before turning back to look at the table.
"You shouldn't insult people you don't know Cocoa. You never know what they will become," she said quietly but Odran could almost sense a certain methodically observant mind which only made him more wary of her.
"You should avoid her Odran. She is a Selwyn," Cami said still slightly distracted and only when she saw Odran's confused expression did she elaborate, "She is a pureblood."
"And that makes her special?" Odran asked actually curious if it meant anything.
"Not really. It just means they have a little more money than common folk and huge bloated egos. They think they are better than muggle borns but I have an aunt that would completely smoke all their parents and she is muggle born so don't listen to them," she said going back to concentrating on some unknown problem.
"So it's just racism, and they will all under estimate me then. At least there's no pressure, but won't you get picked on too if you hang around me?" Odran asked as some teacher spoke to the student body once more but as usual Odran was contemplating other things but all this ended when a massive amount of food appeared on the table in front of him.
"Who cares what they think anyways," Cami responded but her words were lost on Odran who was nearly head first into some kind of pudding receiving a very weirded out look from Cami and looks of general disgust from anyone who could see, especially the Slytherins.
About an hour later Odran was feeling very sick as he did not possess the frame to support the amount of food he ate but at the same time he was more content than ever. Well fed, warm, and not being around anyone with a right to physically abuse him was making Odran very comfortable even if his mere presence was turning the whole school upside down.