Chapter 3
{{Sorting time, this once again means, lots of names for characters that don't have official ones. As previously, I'll list them here at the start. (Plus some of the last ones to refresh your memories)
Ukraine: Yekaterina Braginskaya, Seychelles: Victoire Adelaide, Liechtenstein: Sofia Zwingli, Taiwan: Chen Meilan, Hong Kong: Wang Mao, Iceland: Sigurður Olvirsson, Belgium: Anika de Vries, Holland: Maarten de Vries, Germania: Aldric Reinhard, Rome: Julius Vargas. (And Egypt: Gupta Muhammad Hassan, since people forget his official name) Stick around for the omake at the end of the chap! }}
The Great Hall was a spectacular sight to behold. The Great Hall however, clearly thought that they were an even more spectacular sight to behold. The instant the group of first years entered the room, hundreds of gazes turned sharply to them. It was all these expectant stares that were the first thing that Matthew noticed, not the great banners hanging from the walls, or the thousands of floating candles, not even the ceiling, that reflected the cloudy night sky.
No, it were the hundreds of stares. Now, Matthew wasn't particularly used to being noticed and to have the whole hall turned to him, well the group of first years, it was still something different to say the least. He turned to his fellow first years, catching Yekaterina's gaze, who smiled a little nervously, probably to reassure him. His brother had skipped to the front of the group, glancing around, excitedly talking to whoever was standing next to him, one of the few students talking in the group of awe-struck first years.
Sofia had turned to one of the four long tables that were set in the hall, all flanked by students on each side. She waved a little wave at one of the tables, smiling calmly. Matthew leaned in a little closer, peeking at the table.
"Gryffindor," Sofia answered quietly. "My brother is in the table at the back."
Matthew cast another quick look over the table, taking a little while to find the person she was talking about. Once he did however, it was quite unmistakable who it was. His hair was cut in much the same way as the younger girl, perhaps a tad messier. The similarities however stopped there, especially when he spotted his expression. A somewhat unimpressed glare at the first years, especially him, or rather, the few that walked around his sister, he quickly gathered. He turned his gaze to the front again, as most of the first years had done.
Being a little further back, he couldn't make everything out perfectly, what he did gather was that there was a tattered hat. On a stool. It looked a little out of place in the grandness of the Great Hall. Then it started singing. And sing it did.
In its song it was quick to assure them that he was more than just any ordinary hat, which really seemed a little of a moot point to Canada, considering the hats he had encountered didn't talk, let alone sing. The Sorting Hat, for that appeared to be its name, made its purpose clear. He would sort them into the Houses, whether it be Gryffindor, for those brave and daring, Hufflepuff, for those loyal and hardworking, Ravenclaw, for those shrew and of wit or Slytherin for the cunning and ambitious.
The student body broke into excited clapping when it finished its song, but was quickly silenced by professor Reinhard. He unrolled a scroll of paper, standing imposingly in front of the students. "Your names will be called one by one. Sit down and put on the hat to be sorted."
The man gave them a last glance, then turned to the paper, calling out the first name.
"Adelaide, Victoire." A girl with dark brown hair, tied back in two long tails with big red ribbons ran to the front, putting on the hat excitedly. She didn't sit still for a moment between the moment she put the large hat on, shuffling beneath it, to the moment it called out her House.
"GRYFFINDOR!"
The left most table broke into a loud applause as the girl skipped over to them, heartily welcomed by the students.
"Braginskaya, Yekaterina."
Yekaterina looked up, quickly stepping forwards, taking a quick look back at the other first years, casting a sympathetic smile at Matthew and another student he had not quite noticed before. The other student was everything but unnoticeable however, towering a little above Matthew, adding another to the count of tall blonde men he met that day. Perhaps her brother?
"HUFFLEPUFF!"
The students on the right side of the hall cheered loudly, welcoming a slightly flustered and overwhelmed Yekaterina to their table.
"Braginski, Ivan."
Matthew's suspicions were confirmed when the blonde next to him stepped forwards and took place under the hat, smiling. The hat took long, quite, quite long to decide, casting the Great Hall in silence for nearly five minutes. Ivan's smile however, did not falter once.
"GRYFFINDOR!"
The left side of the hall burst into cheers again, as Ivan made his way over calmly. The next students passed. A short Asian girl, with long black hair, Chen Meilan, went to Gryffindor. The boy he had met on the boats earlier, Gupta Muhammad Hassan, was sorted into Ravenclaw. Im Yong Soo, who had pulled off the stunt with Alfred earlier, was put into Slytherin, under muttered protests from Alfred, though the boy himself did not seem to mind, skipping energetically towards the table.
"Jones, Alfred F." Matthew turned to find his brother, perhaps to wish him good luck, but he had already made a dash towards the stool, sitting on the edge, as if all ready to take off again. As before, the hat took a little while to decide and Alfred too seemed increasingly agitated.
"GRYFFINDOR!" The hat yelled, finally it seemed, and Alfred jumped up from the stool, smiling widely at the applauding table, nearly throwing the hat back onto its stool as he ran off to join them.
"Olvirsson, Sigurður," a white haired boy stepped forwards and was consequently sorted into Slytherin, but Matthew didn't pay that much attention. Instead he had turned to watch Alfred as he joined his new table and was quickly let to wonder what House he would end up in. And he had enough time to wonder, as he quickly he had realized that names were called out in alphabetical order, which put Williams quite far down the list.
He watched another boy join the Gryffindor table, a little air headed looking. Feliciano Vargas was his name? Matthew was only half certain, as he had stopped paying too much attention to the hat for the moment as he got lost in thought. Did he want to go to Gryffindor? He wasn't quite certain, despite the talk he had heard from his brother. Another boy joined the table, Wang Mao, silently taking place amongst the rest.
Matthew looked around him, the student number had dwindled a lot since they had started, and for a moment he had to remind himself that, no, the Sorting Hat won't forget me. He was simply far down the list. There was nothing to be worried about, after all, everybody had gone just fine till now and -
"Williams, Matthew." Professor Reinhard called.
Matthew blinked and was brought back to earth by a small push in his back, coming from Sofia. Who, he suddenly noticed, was the only one left besides him. He stumbled a little forward, returning a small smile at her and hurried towards the stool.
The hat fell a little large over his ears, the brim sinking in front of his eyes. Something he did not particularly mind, as a large majority of the Hall's eyes were fixated on him. He could hear his brother cheering for him somewhere in the background.
"Again?" A voice said, somewhat disgruntled.
Matthew stared at the dark brim, realizing the voice came from inside the hat. A little confused, to say the least.
"There's no point in arguing further, you've already gotten into Gryffindor, there's no need for a prank or a mix-"
"Sir Hat?" Matthew spoke, eliciting a chuckle from the Hall, quickly realizing the hat could read his thoughts, continuing to speak further in his mind, already realizing the problem. "You've got me mistaken for my brother, this sadly has happened before, often, I'm Matthew, Matthew Williams." His thoughts were followed by some less than polite memories and thoughts regarding those situations, flustering a little as he realized the hat could see all of that. It was hard to keep one's thoughts under control in your own mind. He quickly started to formulate an apology for that in his mind, nervously plucking at the cloth of his robe, but the hat was quick to speak once more.
"Matthew, hmmm... despite being in your brother's shadow you are quite hardworking, maybe more independent because of that, patient too, loyal, friendly, so the place where you would strongest shine... "
"HUFFLEPUFF!"
The loud cheering overwhelmed him somewhat when he took off the hat, looking at the table situated to the right, a little dazed as he sat down next to Yekaterina, enthusiastically greeted by the rest of the students at the table. He received some cheering and back patting and a wave of handshaking and high fives, in what was perhaps the most attention he had ever gotten in his life, save sometimes when he had gotten the blame for Alfred's tricks, but that hardly counted.
Opposite of him, he noticed the girl he met on the train before, as the table slowly quieted down a little. The girl caught his gaze, smiling cheekily. "Welcome to Hufflepuff Matthew." She held out her hand across the table, shaking his firmly. "I'm Anika, and you've already met my brother over there." She pointed a thumb sideways, at the spikey haired male, who was deeply engaged in busy conversation with somewhat serious looking blonde.
"Maarten," Matthew stated.
"Yep," Anika replied cheerfully. "And the big guy next to him is Ludwig, the guy further down the table is-"
"RAVENCLAW!"
They were interrupted by a loud noise that almost immediately erupted on the other side of the room. Everybody turned to the source of the noise, which had appeared to be the Gryffindor table, but Matthew could not really see what was happening. This was mainly due to Ludwig and Maarten, both quite big and broad, completely blocking his view.
The Great Hall quieted down for a moment, then slowly started murmuring and talking once more. Matthew protested to know what had happened, but Anika merely shrugged. "Nothing too important," she pointed down the hall, at the table which Matthew presumed was filled with the staff of Hogwarts. Professor Reinhard too had taken a seat. "Julius Vargas is going to make his speech." She quickly added. "The Headmaster."
A tanned man, sporting somewhat messy hair and what looked like a rough stubble, had risen from his chair, looking quite the opposite of what Matthew believed Headmasters looked like.
"Welcome all to Hogwarts! Lets look forwards to yet another wonderful year together! Now, before we begin the feast, let me say these few words. Siesta! Signorina! Canzona! Vitto! Thank you."
Matthew blinked. "Is he really?.."
"Yep," Anika replied. "Want some potato?"
Chapter 3.1 Omake/Extra
"Do you have everything?"
"The luggage will be delivered to my room, brother."
"Well, you better double check to make certain and be careful."
"Of what, brother?" Sofia stared at her brother calmly, used to his behaviour. She had spend most of the journey together with him in the cabin (other people were not likely to enter, as one quick look from her brother, usually combined by one hand always on his wand, was quite enough to scare anybody away). During the journey she had listened to his warnings, in-depth explanations and general advice about 'surviving' at Hogwarts.
Judging by his current gaze, she nearly got the impression he would simply drag her along into the carriages the older students took, just to make sure she'd arrive safely.
"Well, you'll have to be careful of snakes, and bears, and make sure not to trip, you'll be going through a forest, and you know what you should do when you're attacked by wildlife, right?"
"Of course, brother." She replied politely, shaking his hand calmly to loosen his, patting it softly. Vash had in fact dedicated several hours to this matter with her.
"And watch out for Slytherins, you never know what they'll do." He added, frowning a little.
"Brother, none of us has been sorted yet, even if they did, I wouldn't know who is one."
He frowned deeper, making a slightly agitated hand movement. "Just watch out for them, okay?"
Sofia smiled softly, patting his hand again. "I'll be late brother."
Vash looked around him for a moment, as if he was truly considering dragging her along, then sighed, frowning still. "Fine, but be very careful, I'll meet you at Gryffindor table."
She let go of his hand and nodded lightly. "Thank you brother, I'll see you at the castle." She nodded once more, then quickly turned, waving a few times as she briskly hurried towards the group of first years. She was quite certain her brother watched her run till she was completely swallowed by the trees.
Quickly she had met up with Gupta, a somewhat quiet boy, with whom she had walked the last stretches towards the boats, later meeting Matthew and Yekaterina, both a little shy, she noted, or otherwise a little easily flustered.
She had silently observed her class, idly wondering where everybody would land, based on what she had heard her brother say before. The trip had gone quickly, and with hardly any delay she had found herself in the Great Hall.
Her eyes scanned over the tables, searching out her brother quickly, smiling softly as he found him, lifting one hand in a small wave. In return, she noticed the slightest nervous twitch around the corner of his mouth, what accounted for a forced smile from her brother in this situation. She noticed his eyes flickering between the fellow students around her and sighed slightly, shaking her head just a little.
Next to her, she noticed Matthew too had turned to face her brother, presumably following her gaze.
"Gryffindor," Sofia said quietly. "My brother is in the table at the back." She turned her own gaze forwards again, to where the Sorting Hat was laid.
Because of her last name, Zwingli, being the last on the list, Sofia saw the entirety of the first year pass. She started to make a habit out of guessing which house each person would end up in. In the end, she turned out quite adapt at it, guessing all but three students correctly. After she had given a small last push to Matthew, the realization it was her turn afterwards quickly dawned on her.
She was not as much nervous, as curious, as she sat under the Sorting Hat, which sank enough over her ears to cover her face down to her nose.
"Sofia," the voice inside the hat said slowly, as if tasting the name. "You are quite the shrewd girl, clever, most certainly do have your wits about you. Ravenclaw perhaps."
"Are you certain?" Sofia thought back at the hat.
"Do you disagree?"
"Oh no, it is just that my brother will be disappointed." She continued. "Or concerned." She subconsciously added. "I personally believe Ravenclaw is quite a fine House, sir Hat."
"Then Ravenclaw it is!"
"RAVENCLAW!"
Sofia barely had time to take off her hat when the left side of the room seemed to explode with action. Noticeably not from the Ravenclaw table, most of which members appeared to be halfway through raising their hands to clap for their new member.
She didn't have to look to know what had made the noise, the outcry that followed only reaffirming her suspicions. She let out a light sigh, walking towards the Gryffindor table, from which Vash had already parted himself to meet Sofia.
"I'm sure they can still re-sort you Sofia, there must have been some sort of error and-" Her brother spoke a little loudly, especially considering the majority of the Great Hall turned to watch them. Pausing as he noticed the silence he turned, eyes shooting daggers in the general direction of the Hall. "Could I have a solitary moment?" He didn't ask, as much as command, gazing hesitantly turning away again, muted muttering slowly starting up again. "Sofia, if you hurry then st-"
"Brother, it's alright." Sofia smiled gently. "You don't have to worry, Ravenclaw is a nice House."
Vash opened his mouth to protest, clearly disagreeing with the fact he wouldn't be able to keep an eye on her, protective. Stubbornly he turned his head to the side, frowning. "Are you sure?"
"I'm quite sure, brother." She nodded, noticing that they had talked between each other right through Julius Vargas' speech, to the annoyed gaze of Professor Reinhard.
"Take care then Sofia," he laid one hand on her shoulder, frowning seriously still, corner of his mouth twitching slightly.
Sofia smiled.
"I will."