A Journey and a Sorting "Hey, I'm going to go sit in a random cabin to make friends, you interested?" Adrian asked Jason, shoving his trunk onto the train and beginning to walk down it. "Yeah, I suppose, since if I say no then I'll be alone anyway. At least with you I've got someone." He replied, shrugging. They made their way down the train, glancing into the cabins and noting who was in there. Eventually they found an empty one and sat down. Adrian drew his wand and tapped a piece of parchment that was in his pocket, causing words to appear. It said "First years welcome". "Really Adrian? Makes us sound like absolute losers!" Jason said, exasperated. Adrian looked at the paper, and then nodded. Another tap of the wand and it was blank. "Anyway, what spell was that?" Jason asked, hoping to find something new to use. "Oh no, it's just trick revealing parchment. I bought a bunch from Weasley's Wizard Wheezes when we went there. You can write whatever you want on it and then when you tap it, it shows up. You can even set it so if anyone else taps it, it says something different. They sell premade ones that just insult whoever taps it, but they're more expensive. I just wanted to try it out. Here, you tap it." Adrian responded, passing the now blank parchment to Jason. He obliged, and after his wand hit the page, he saw a doodle of some stickmen duelling that moved ever so slightly. "Huh, I should have got some stuff from there, if it's as cool as this." He said, cursing his decision to avoid the joke shop. Adrian opened his mouth to respond when a girl opened the door. Judging by the look on her face and her size, Jason guessed she was another first year. "Hi, is this cabin taken?" She asked, not waiting for a response as she sat on the seat opposite Jason with a grin. He shook his head and, as she rifled in the small bag slung across her shoulders for something, he took the chance to inspect her. She was short, slightly chubby but far from being fat, and her short auburn hair framed a plain but not unattractive face. He noticed that her nails were bitten to stubs, and that her wand was simply hooked through her belt loop, a sure sign that she was a muggleborn. His observations were interrupted when she pointed at his wand (having withdrawn a small bar of chocolate from her bag) and quite loudly said "Hi, I'm Lisa. That's a really cool wand! I love the colour, what wood is that?" He smiled lightly, always glad for an opportunity to discuss wandlore. "It's driftwood actually, not a very common wood for wands, but I like it. Since my mum's a wandmaker she made it especially." The girl's eyes widened and she drew her own wand. "Is your mum Madame Lewis?" She asked, showing him the base of her wand where his mother's stamp was engraved. "Yep!" Adrian replied for him, rifling through the deck of cards he had brought. "Wow, it must be so cool to have a custom wand! Actually, I was wondering about that, and the whole 'the wand chooses the wizard' thing. How does that work? Cause, I was thinking that what if your wand hasn't been made yet, or it's in another shop, or it's too expensive? And how does a wand choose you anyway?" She asked, firing off the questions with the speed and intensity of a muggle machinegun. "It's really interesting actually. You see, every person has a magical 'resonance' that they transmit at all times. That's how portkeys and wards work, they detect the resonance. By using the resonance you can make wards that only admit certain people, or wizard only portkeys. Wandmakers use a set of charms to detect resonance, and then they compare that to the resonance of the wands they have in stock. Usually there's one around the same level. Like, different woods and cores have different resonances, but so do different lengths and things. Hang on." He said, stopping in his explanation to reach into his back pocket and withdraw a pair of glasses. "These are my mum's apprentice glasses. Since I can't apprentice with her till fifth year, she wants me to get used to them. Let me see." He looked intently at her, and at her wand, and then took off the glasses with a smile. "I'd say that your wand is Ash, with a Dragon Heartstring core. Good for hexes and curses, as well as transfiguration, although you might have a problem with healing magic." She nodded, urging him to continue. "Right, so Ash has a resonance of, let's use a random number, 7.3. But, the charms aren't that precise, so it'll read as 'around 7'. There are a few woods that will have resonances that fall within the 'around 7' mark, and any of them will fit a witch or wizard with that same resonance. Ash shares a resonance with Yew and also...Holly, I think. So any of those woods would work with a wizard who had an 'around 7' resonance. Of course, then there's core to be considered. Let's just say that Dragon Heartstring has a resonance of 'around 9'. That means that by putting a Dragon Heartstring core inside an Ash casing, you'd get a wand with a resonance of 'around 16'. Then when a witch or wizard comes in, a wandmaker reads their resonance. In this case, yours would obviously be 'around 16'. When they see your resonance, they look for wands with the same. It wouldn't necessarily be Ash and Dragon Heartstring, it could be Yew and Kneazle hair for example, but any of the wands with that resonance would work ok for you. You'd try a few out and find the one that had the closest matching resonance, because obviously 'around 16' is only a general measurement, and that would feel right for you." She nodded again, seeming to understand, and he smiled, glad to have found someone who shared his interest in wands. Adrian had made a show of yawning and was now playing solitaire, the cards hovering in the air. "But, while your general resonance might be 'around 16' your exact one would be something like '16.24'. By measuring your exact resonance with a more complex charm, a wandmaker would have something to strive for. Then, they would find the exact resonance of each wood, core, length etc that they had in stock, and look for all of the combinations of those that matched '16.24'. With that list, they'd know what sort of spells they would be good for, and they'd ask you. If you wanted a transfiguration wand, they'd probably use a dark wood, and make it rigid and quite short. For a duelling wand, it would be longer and swishier, with a lighter wood. And of course cores are important too. So yeah, the wand sort of chooses the wizard, but with a custom wand, the wand is made to fit the wizard. Most people have a resonance in the same range of around 5 to 30, and so wandmakers will make lots of wands of every possible combination with a resonance that fits in that range. If someone comes in who doesn't fit, they need a custom one. Most people can find a wand in the range that will work okay for them though, even if they are outside of the range. It just means that those who can afford custom wands get a slightly better result in spells. It's not really fair, but there's nothing that can be done." She looked pensive for a moment and then spoke up. "So what's your resonance then?" She asked. He sighed, since she was clearly not grasping the point of resonance. "If I told you my exact resonance, and you at any point wanted to do me harm, there are hundreds of ways you could do that. You could make wards targeting only me, or spells that would only affect me, or a portkey that would take me somewhere dangerous and not transport anyone else, or, if you studied wandlore for a while, you could make my wand backfire. My mother has to obliviate the knowledge of everyone's exact resonance every time she learns it." She looked confused, but accepted his answer anyway. "So what house do you think you'll be in?" Asked Adrian, clearly wanting to turn the talk into something he could participate in. Jason knew he would be in Ravenclaw, of course, since his father was and from what he had heard he was the perfect candidate, but he kept quiet, interested to hear his new friend's response. Lisa pondered for a moment, before replying with "Hufflepuff I think. Or Gryffindor maybe. I don't really like to read so probably not Ravenclaw." Jason smiled, and then thought of an interesting bit of trivia. "You know there used to be 4 houses?" Lisa nodded, but looked a little puzzled. "Someone told me that actually, but they never explained why." "Well, during the war, the majority of the Dark Wizards, with their pureblood supremacy ideals and stuff, came from Slytherin, the fourth house. It already had a bad reputation since the founder, Salazar Slytherin, was a Dark Wizard and a bigot, so when more Dark Wizards and bigots, including the biggest Dark Wizard to strike the UK, came from that house, its reputation only got worse. And to top it off, in the Battle of Hogwarts, each house's 17 year olds were told they could fight or leave. Most Gryffindors stayed, a good few Ravenclaws stayed, interestingly enough actually, every single Hufflepuff stayed, to a man, but almost all of the Slytherins left, or actively fought on the side of the Death Eaters, some of whom were their parents. The good Slytherins were led as a charge by Horace Slughorn, the Head of House, but nobody remembers that good minority. In the 4 or so years after the Battle, the animosity towards Slytherin just got so much, there was so much bullying that one kid actually killed himself, so the Headmistress decided, before she resigned, to simply abolish the house. Now there are only three." She looked very interested at this, her head bobbing enthusiastically. "Wow, that sounds really interesting. I feel sorry for all of the Slytherins who got bullied though." Jason and Adrian both nodded at that, and then they lapsed into silence for a few seconds. "Wait, what about you two?" She asked, as if suddenly remembering the original topic. "Ravenclaw, I guess." Jason shrugged, but Adrian became a lot more animated. "Gryffindor, of course, the best house. Harry Potter, the Boy-Who-Lived-Twice and head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, Ron Weasley, Head Auror, Hermione Granger, Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot, Neville Longbottom, the hero of Hogwarts who slayed the Dark Lord's snake with the sword of Godric Gryffindor, weakening him so that Harry Potter could finish the job, and head of the house now as well as Herbology professor, all of the heroes came from Gryffindor. Who did Ravenclaw have? Or Hufflepuff?" Jason shrugged again. "Well the defense was all house, and we had Luna Lovegood, she teaches Divination and apparently was tortured by the Dark Lord for weeks without giving up any secrets at all. And Hufflepuff had Cedric Diggory, who may not have been in the battle but who Harry Potter said in his War Memoirs was one of the best and bravest wizards he knew. Plus, just because the heroes were in that house doesn't mean you'll be a hero." Adrian pretended like he didn't hear. The rest of the journey passed mostly the same way, with the three of them talking and playing cards, pausing only to change into their robes when a prefect came by and notified them that it was time. As they pulled into the station, Jason made sure his wand holster was secured and locked so that his wand didn't fall out, and followed his new friend and old friend onto the platform. "Firs' Years! Firs' Years over here!" Jason knew the big man at the station from reputation. A half-giant who taught Care of Magical Creatures, worked as Groundskeeper and had a full giant brother was not exactly the sort of thing you didn't notice. But he remembered his father saying that Hagrid was a nice teacher who didn't mind helping you out and would never hurt a fly, so he didn't share in the fearful looks that some of the students got. Since Hagrid had been a big help at the Battle of Hogwarts, according to his father, most of the pure and halfbloods knew of him. Jason followed the giant to the boats, where he commandeered one for his little trio. On the boat, slowly floating along the water towards the place that would be his new home, Jason got his first view of Hogwarts. It wasn't as impressive as it might have been before, with it's newly rebuilt towers, all of the brickwork repaired and re-repaired, but it still inspired an awe in Jason like no other. Almost on a whim, he decided to try out his aura sight, squeezing his eyes together to activate it, but when he opened them, he startled and fell out of the boat. The light from Hogwarts was blazing so brightly in a rainbow of colours that he couldn't keep his balance. In the second before he hit the water he resigned himself to a freezing cold splash. It never came. He felt a slimy, slightly damp weight press into his back, and then he was back on the boat. "Woah! Did you just get pushed back by the giant squid?" Adrian asked, excitedly bouncing in place. Jason shrugged, unsure if he had or if it was just an enchantment. His eyes still throbbed and although he had disengaged his aura sight out of reflex when he was blinded, there were still spots of white obscuring his vision, which kind of took away from his enjoyment of the moment. They arrived in the great hall, huddled together in an unsure knot, waiting to be sorted. Slowly, smoke began to swirl in a tight cyclone by the doors, flickering purple and yellow and grey, and as everyone turned to face it, muttering, whispering and getting worried, but as soon as it had started, it dissipated, leaving a tall, chiselled man in place. He had long, jagged scars on his cheeks as well as a few miscellaneous scratches and marks, especially a big lump of scar tissue on his lip where he had obviously bitten through it multiple times. It took him a moment to make the connection, but he quickly realised who it was. Professor Longbottom, the centre of many of his father's tales, leader of Dumbledore's Army in the year of darkness, when death eaters ruled the school, the man who had been whipped, tortured, beaten, cursed, and fought back against all of it. The man who had killed Voldemort's snake and who had stood up to the Dark Lord himself. He turned to Adrian, who was clutching a chocolate frog card in his hand, as well as a small autograph quill, and stifled a laugh. He always knew Adrian was a fanboy, but he hadn't expected him to actually ask for his teacher's autograph. "Hello everybody, I am Professor Longbottom. I am the Gryffindor Head of House, Deputy Headmaster, and Herbology teacher here at Hogwarts. Undoubtedly there will be some among you who have heard stories about me from parents and uncles and grandparents, and I will say now that they are probably greatly exaggerated. That's all I wish to hear about it now, so let's move onto the sorting. Each of you will sit on the stool, have the sorting hat placed atop your head, and you will be sorted. The houses are as follows. Gryffindor, of which I am head, the house of the brave and the noble, symbol of the lion and colours of gold and crimson. Ravenclaw, house of the wise and the knowledgeable, of which the head of house is Professor Lovegood, symbol of the raven and colours of blue and silver. Last, but not by any stretch of the imagination least, Hufflepuff, house of the loyal and hardworking, of which the head is Professor Henderson, symbol of the badger and colours of yellow and black. While you are here, your house will be your friends and your family. Do something right, your house benefits. Do something wrong, your house suffers. Now, I think it's about time we went in!" They followed Professor Longbottom into the main area of the hall, where they were immediately the centre of attention. All around them, kids of various ages sat along the three house tables, scanning them all with suspicious eyes. "Adams, Abe!" Professor Longbottom shouted, and the boy standing at the edge of the group gulped, walking tentatively over to the stool. No sooner had the hat touched his head than a shout of "HUFFLEPUFF!" filled the hall. He sighed with relief, left the hat on the stool and strolled over to the biggest table, full of cheering kids. "Armstrong, Marie!" Another girl wandered to the stool, taking a seat and waiting for the response. Two minutes passed. Another two. Another one. When her sorting passed the five minute mark, Jason heard a shout from the Gryffindor table. "HATSTALL! WE HAVE A HATSTALL!". He turned to see who it had come from, but the tall, blonde boy who had shouted was already being dragged from the room by his sleeve by an angry looking female professor. Adrian nudged Jason and whispered "What's a hatstall?" Jason racked his memory, desperately trying to remember when he caught a murmur from beside him. "It's when someone takes more than five minutes to be sorted. They don't happen very often. Most people think that if you hatstall you're either going to be a really powerful wizard or you're a near squib. The last hatstall was Albus Dumbledore, but before that it was a girl whose name I don't even remember who left Hogwarts in second year because she couldn't do any of the spells." Adrian nodded, but before he could respond, the hat shouted "RAVENCLAW!" and cheering burst out from the second table. Eventually, after Adrian had been sorted to Gryffindor (with a whoop of joy that filled the air, and a deliberately jaunty wave to those who had still not been sorted) and Lisa (whose last name turned out to be Greer) had gone to Hufflepuff too, it fell to "Lewis, Jason" to be sorted. He walked to the stool, keeping his head high and pushing down his feelings of nervousness. He knew he'd be in Ravenclaw, he knew he'd be in Ravenclaw, and even if he wasn't, that didn't change anything. He took a seat, and felt the warmth of the hat as Professor Longbottom placed it on. Suddenly, a voice filled his head. "Ah, a Lewis. Your father was an exemplary Ravenclaw. What's he doing now?" Jason responded inside his head, hoping that was the proper way to speak. "He's a freelance cursebreaker. Does a lot of work for Gringotts." The hat sounded approving when it replied. "Ah, good, very good. He deserved a nice job. Anyway, I guess I have to sort you. You're clearly trying your best to be the perfect Ravenclaw, and you're doing well. None of the other kids I've sorted today have had anywhere near your level of knowledge. It's a shame Slytherin was disbanded really, you'd be good there too. Well, since it is disbanded, looks like I only have one choice. RAVENCLAW!" Jason cheered with the rest of them as he practically ran to the table. He took a seat by a brunette girl who introduced herself as Lele, and watched the rest of the sorting with a big smile. When the sorting had finished, the headmistress stood up, calling for silence with her wand to her throat. "Okay, okay, calm down everybody." When quiet had fallen, she cracked a wide smile. "Hello everybody, I am Professor Rosati. I teach Transfiguration here at Hogwarts as I'm sure you know, and I'd like to welcome first years to Hogwarts, and other years back! So, as usual on the first day, it's time for the feast! And then, I've been told by a little birdy that there's going to be a duel demonstration by two of our sixth year students." Jason almost jumped out of his seat in anticipation. He would get to watch a proper duel on his first day! As soon as she had sat down, the plates in front of them filled with all kinds of food. He helped himself to a heaping plate, and started to eat, not even really listening to the various conversations around him. He picked up snippets, sure, but nothing that really caught his interest. "I heard that it was Matty and Stacey that have to duel. They got caught smuggling banned Weasley's products into the common rooms to sell and were told to either take Advanced Duelling and do demonstrations at events like this or be expelled!" "Professor Rosati said that this year I could move onto Advanced Transfiguration! But I don't know how I'll find time in between my Advanced Charms and Double Advanced Potions." "So I got a new broom, the Razor's Edge. It's so ridiculous, I nearly died on my first trip, smashed straight into a tree. Lucky mum's a healer or I would still be in a hospital bed with my legs mending" Once everyone had eaten their fill (aside from a few of the more portly boys at the Hufflepuff table, who moaned like their oxygen had been cut off when the plates vanished), Professor Rosati stood up again. "Now then, time for Mr Matthews and Miss Kennedy to demonstrate the duelling skills that they have spent most of the summer practicing!" On her final word, the floor shook and two pillars raised up from the floor, expanding outwards into regulation duelling platforms. A student entered from either side of the room to raucous applause, spread throughout all three houses and the staff table, and floated gracefully up to place. Well, one of them was graceful. The male student looked like he was going to throw up as he levitated. When they landed, a teacher floated up to the centre between the two. "Regulation rules, no Dark Magic, definitely no lethal spells, simple." With that, he floated away again, and the two took up their stances. Matthews favoured a more traditional stance, the scorpion, with his wand arm out at a right angle and his left over the head like a scorpion tail, whilst his opponent simply raised her wand directly at him and left her other by the side. "DUEL!" Whether the two students were friends or not, they didn't give any quarter. The moment the shout had finished, a spell was snapping off of each wand, their lips moving but no discernable sound coming out. Jason recognised the technique as whispercasting. Not quite as good as silent casting, but in a loud environment it had basically the same effect. Matthews had started with a sickly green hex that could be anything, whilst Kennedy had begun with a much more standard shield charm. The green hex dissipated, but no sooner had it left Matthews' wand than he was sending another one, a two pronged fork of red light that left Kennedy on the backfoot. She came dangerously close to falling off, but after blocking both prongs, she spiralled her wand forwards with venom. Jason did recognise the spell she used, the purple corkscrewing towards Matthews obviously dictating the tooth growing jinx that she was sending. He managed to dodge that one, but his response of the boil jinx- Furnunculus- was sent to the sky with barely a flick. From what Jason could tell, she was the more skilled duellist, whereas he was simply relying on power. Another three jinxes, red blue and yellow, came from Matthews' wand. The blue and yellow ones from either side were blocked against a very pale shield, but the red one was able to get through and smacked into her face. She staggered, and when she looked up again, a collective gasp went up. Her eyes had gone milky white and were leaking light yellow pus. Jason heard someone whisper "conjunctivitis curse" and refocused in on the duel. That was a borderline dark curse to use on another human, but Kennedy didn't seem to be too annoyed, simply waving her wand to create a more solid shield and then performing the counter. Her eyes cleared up again, although she seemed unsteady on her feet. She let her shield fall and jumped forwards, wand arm slashing violently. It took Jason a second to translate the French she used- prise de terre-, and her opponent looked confused, for about one second until he realised that she was transfiguring something. The stone floor he stood on rippled and grew, till he had thick stone arms holding his legs to the floor. He hurriedly sent a blasting charm at one, but in the time it took she was able to get him in the chest with a bright pink hex that Jason recognised as a tickler. He convulsed as it hit and ended up lying on the floor still gripped by one of the arms. She jumped again, this time whipping her wand towards her feet, giving her the extra thrust needed to clear the distance between the two pillars and land straddling him. She placed her wand at his head and smiled sweetly. "I surrender." He said, sheepishly getting to his feet after she had dispelled the other stone arm. They shook hands, and he placed his arm around her in a gesture of friendship, both of them grinning madly. As Professor Rosati waved her wand and caused the pillars to slowly descend, Jason noticed Kennedy jab her wand into Matthews' waist causing him to belch loudly. A chorus of laughter filled the air as everyone applauded the display. Soon, after a final statement from Professor Rosati, the Ravenclaw prefects stood up and began to beckon the first years to follow. Jason allowed himself a broad smile. If the rest of his time at Hogwarts was as good as his first feast, then he would never want to leave.