Chapter 8 – The Hat Stall

The little professor began to lead the first years through the entrance hall, but rather than following Hagrid through the giant double doors, he took them through a smaller door into an antechamber. Once everybody had sidled into the room, Flitwick turned round to address them.

"Welcome to Hogwarts. The start of term feast will start soon, but first you must be sorted into your houses. The sorting ceremony is very important because as long as you are here, your house will be like your family. Your classes will be with the rest of your house and your common rooms and dormitories are shared with other members of your houses."

Once everyone had absorbed this information, Flitwick continued,

"There are four houses which are called Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin. Each house has a long history and they have all produced many outstanding witches and wizards. While here, you will be rewarded with house points but any rule breaking will lose you points. At the end of the year, the house with the most points will receive the house cup. The sorting ceremony will begin soon, so take this opportunity to tidy yourselves up."

Before he left the room, Adam saw Flitwick look straight up at Aaron's wild hair and one of Aaron's hands flew up to it instinctively. As Flitwick left, Aaron turned to Adam blushing slightly, running his hands through the great mass of hair.

"Help me. Does this look better?" The honest answer was no. Before this, Aaron's hair had looked fairly neat, with some messy bits, but now it looked as though he had been out in a gust. The one good thing was that now both of his eyes were uncovered, though this doubled his look of blind panic.

Before Adam could bring himself to answer however, Professor Flitwick had reappeared.

"Form a line please and follow me." Having been among the first to enter the room, both Adam and Aaron were at the back of the line. Fear seemed to spread through Adam as though Aaron's was contagious and he was soon surprised that he could move at all, though all feelings of fear disappeared as the first-years passed through the great double doors, being replaced by feelings of mingled surprise and interest.

Thousands of candles hovered high above the five long tables, the eyes of every student seemed to be watching him. Not the line of first-years, specifically him. The light from the candles reflected off of the golden plates and goblets while the starry ceiling mirrored that of the clear sky outside. As they reached their destination and stood facing the other students, Adam could see the students still watching him very clearly. He looked down at the tiny stool in front of him, upon which stood an ancient wizard's hat. As well as various patches and it being very dirty, the hat looked as though it had suffered from quite a bit of fire damage.

Adam looked up and surprisingly, most of the older students were looking expectantly at the hat, as though it was supposed to be doing something, however Professor Flitwick stepped forward with a roll of parchment, which from his height trailed slightly on the floor.

"When I call your name, you will put the hat on and sit on the stool to be sorted. Black, Adam." Adam could feel his feet moving, though he wasn't aware that he was making them. He pulled the ancient hat up off the stool and inserted it on to his head. As it fell over his eyes, he sat down on the stool, waiting for the hat's decision.

"Very difficult," came a voice suddenly in his ear, "There's a brilliant mind in there, but there's courage and loyalty too. Yet I see a certain predisposition for Slytherin. Hmmm…" After the hat's mumblings, it fell into silence. Adam didn't hear from it for another ten minutes. He could hear that people back in the hall were starting to mumble, clearly wondering whether the hat was dysfunctional. "I've narrowed it down to two," it mumbled, more to itself than to Adam. About a minute later the hat shouted out the whole hall "RAVENCLAW!"

As Adam removed the hat from his head, he could see the table second from the left clapping loudly. He went and joined them, sitting down the end of the table next to Luna, who rather than clapping was observing him closely. Having gotten used to Luna's unusual behaviour on the journey, this didn't upset Adam at all. Screwing up his face, he turned his hair the exact shade of blue that was on the Ravenclaw symbol, to even more applause from his fellow Ravenclaw's. He sat and watched as the remainder of the students were sorted. Soon Professor Flitwick had gotten town to "Lampford, Hannah." who joined Adam at the Ravenclaw table. As it got ever nearer to his name, Aaron seemed to be getting paler.

"Mawson, Aaron." As pale as some of the ghosts that had joined them in the hall, Aaron sat trembling on the stool and placed the hat on his head. Like with Adam, the hat seemed to be having some difficulty placing Aaron in his house. After about five minutes however, the hat seemed to have won their silent struggle. "RAVENCLAW!" Adam clapped the loudest as Aaron, still pale and trembling came and sat down next to him. Adam gave him an encouraging smile and Aaron made a weak attempt to return it.

Aaron swiftly regained his colour as the sorting went on and he joined in with the others in welcoming the new Ravenclaw students when they were selected. Finally, there was only one student left. This was the narrow-faced boy who Adam had first met in Diagon Alley.

"White, Matthew." Thankfully, the hat shouted out that Matthew White belonged in "SLYTHERIN!" before falling silent once again. Little Professor Flitwick picked up the stool, which was barely smaller than him and he removed it from the hall as Professor McGonagall stood up to address the hall.