Pridepack Chronicles

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, I only own Clarissa and her family

Chapter 4:

The Sorting

The first years were amazed by the great hall, one of the girls – Lavender, Harry thought was gushing about the ceiling 'It's bewitched you know' Hermione said to Luna, Clarissa, Susan and Lavender 'I read it in Hogwarts: A History' she said.

They finally reached the top of the hall in front of the second through seventh years, it was rather exciting Harry thought, he saw Remus and he waved at him, Remus heartily waved back smiling.

McGonagall placed a hat on the stool and it began to sing

'oh you may not think I'm pretty…..' it sang, about halfway through the song Harry heard Ron complain 'come on I'm starving' Harry gave a small chuckle 'what after you ate three pumpkin pasties' he said, Ron shrugged 'but that was hours ago' he complained,

Finally the hat ended its song and the first years broke out in a frantic whisper 'so that's all we had to do, try on a old hat' Harry heard on of the children say,

'When I call out your name, you will sit on the stool and put the hat on'

McGonagall said 'Abbott, Hannah' a girl with Blonde pigtails stepped forward she looked at Susan who mouthed 'good luck' to her

And Hannah sat on the stool and McGonagall put the hat on top of the girls head, after a few moments the hat shouted 'HUFFLEPUFF'

Hannah got off the stool and went to the Hufflepuff table where she was greeted by a prefect, a boy Harry and Draco recognised as Cedric Diggory; his father Amos was one of the coalition leaders at the ministry and had always gotten along with Sirius and Amelia,

Next up was Abercrombie, Richard who became the first Gryffindor

'Bones, Susan' said McGonagall a small while later, Susan looked over to her brother and cousin who both gave her the thumbs up, no sooner had she sat down the hat shouted 'HUFFLEPUFF' and Susan happily joined Hannah,

'Finnegan, Seamus' McGonagall's voice rang out 'more like Snivegan eh Harry' whispered Draco and he, Harry and Ron laughed

'SLYTHERIN' the hat shouted,

'knew it' Draco said 'I knew he was a snot nosed death eater wannabe'

Neville rolled his eyes but was smiling. 'Finch Fletchly, Justin became a Hufflepuff

A few moments later 'Granger, Hermione', Hermione practically ran to the stool causing many students to laugh, the hat fell over her eyes and after what seemed like an age the hat shouted 'GRYFFINDOR'

Hermione took the hat off and sat down next to Lavender Brown and Fay Dunbar,

'Oi Harry take a look at this girl' Draco said excitedly as Greengrass, Daphne walked elegantly to the stool, she had silvery blonde hair

Down to her back, she had blue eyes, Harry couldn't help but stare but Draco was pratically drooling 'aww' Neville said 'is ickle Draky in wuv?' He said, Draco turned Weasley red in the face, Daphne went to Ravenclaw.

A few minutes later after Goldstein, Anthony went to Ravenclaw and

Hopwood, Carly went to Ravenclaw, one name McGonagall called out shocked the entire student body of the great hall

'Lestrange, Persephone' Harry and Draco took particular interest as this girl was their cousin, they both sought out eye contact with Susan who was looking at the girl

Persephone was frightened, why were they all staring at her, she thought bitterly, I'm not my parents nor my older brother, she didn't want to go to Slytherin, but she knew she didn't have much of a choice in the matter, her parents would probably disown her – not that it would be a bad thing she thought, she saw her cousins Harry and Draco looking at her with distrust in their eyes standing with a redhead – probably a Weasley and another boy who was looking at her with hate in his eyes that boy was Longbottom and she knew why he hated her and her whole family all because of her brother Titan, she also saw her other cousin Susan, who smiled at her, the frightened girl tried to find her sister; Venus Lestrange among the Slytherin table she was a seventh year, when she finally saw her, Venus gave her an encouraging smile, and with that Persephone walked over to the stool and put the hat on

'So' the hat said 'another Lestrange eh, only I can see in your mind that you are different' he said

'Please just put me in Slytherin, my parents will kill me if I'm sorted anywhere else' she said to the hat desperately, but the hat disregarded her

'No no no my child, you belong Hufflepuff, I can see your very loyal' it said, Persephone was now petrified 'No no it has to be Slytherin' she said

But the hat shouted 'HUFFLEPUFF' the whole hall went silent even McGonagall seemed confused for a moment before she removed the sorting Hat off the girl's head, for as long as she could remember every Lestrange had been a Slytherin, though she was shocked when Sirius Black was sorted into Gryffindor twenty years ago.

At first no one clapped but then Venus Lestrange, The head of Hufflepuff; Pomona Sprout, Cedric and Susan and her friends stood up and clapped, then the rest of the Hall followed, Persephone however wished she could feel what they felt, but by tomorrow morning she would receive a howler from her mother, she didn't have time to dwell on that thought as Susan shook her hand and smiled at her, maybe it needn't be so bad after all Persephone thought

'Longbottom, Neville', Neville smiled weakly at Harry, Ron and Luna

As he walked to the Hat, Neville's sorting was the longest as it took nearly three minutes before shouting 'GRYFFINDOR', Neville ran to the Gryffindor table to join Draco and Hermione, still wearing the sorting hat, he ran back and gave to McGonagall who smiled at him as the great hall burst out into laughter until 'Lovegood, Luna' Luna skipped to the

To chair but did some rather strange dance around the hat on the stool

'Miss Lovegood' said McGonagall tersely 'what on earth are you doing' she said in her brogue.

Luna looked at her as if it was the most obvious thing in the world

'I'm getting rid of the Italian Conksprout they fuddle with your brain you know' the whole school roared in laughter, even some members of the faculty were struggling to keep a straight face, McGonagall shoved the hat onto Luna's head within seconds the hat shouted 'GRYFFINDOR'

Luna took the hat off and skipped to the Gryffindor table and sat opposite

Draco, Hermione and Neville, some of the students were still laughing

One of the Weasley twins that Ron had pointed out; Fred or George shouted to Luna that that was her sorting dance would be legendry in years to come, Luna looked quite bemused by the attention she was getting.

A little while later 'Malfoy, Draco' McGonagall called out, Draco swaggered toward the stool and lazily plonked himself down on it

'I know where you should go…' the hat said, and for a moment Draco feared he would be put into Slytherin, then the hat shouted 'GRYFFINDOR' Draco sighed in relief as he went to shake hands with the Gryffindor prefect 'That's my brother Percy' Ron said 'He's a complete bore and goes by the rules' he said as he rolled his eyes

McDougal, Morag went to became the last Hufflepuff sorted, Parkinson, Pansy became a Slytherin,

Patil, Padma went to Ravenclaw whilst her twin; Parvati was sorted into Gryffindor, the finally it was Harry's turn;

'Potter, Harry' McGonagall said, Harry was now nervous, but remembered what Sirius said to him 'the sorting hat takes your choice into account' he wanted to be with Draco, Neville, Hermione and Luna

He heard Ron say 'good luck mate' Harry smiled and looked up at the staff table and caught Remus' eye, Remus winked at him encouragingly winked at him

Harry strode confidently to the stool he saw his other friends give him the thumbs up and McGonagall hadn't even put the hat on his head when the hat said 'just like your parents Potter…..GRYFFINDOR', Harry gave the hat back to McGonagall saw that Remus was clapping harder than any other teacher Draco was shouting 'WE GOT POTTER, WE GOT POTTER' Harry walked to the Gryffindor table and sat next to Luna, Harry was pleased, he shook the hands of the twins, Percy, a girl called Angelina, then he turned to Draco 'we did it!' he said 'Not quite, we still got Ron up there' Neville pointed out 'oh he'll get in alright' one of the twins said 'so Harry, Draco tells me you are pranksters in the making eh' he said Harry was about to reply when he heard the name 'Prewitt, Clarissa'

'Look George, Percy it's our cousin Clarissa, haven't seen her for years have we, mum and dad will be pleased, bet she's a Gryffindor' Fred said 'So Clarissa we haven't a Prewitt since your father and uncle and they were…GRYFFINDOR' the hat shouted,

Clarissa smiled and ran to the Gryffindor table, she was about to sit down next to Draco when she saw him and Harry she stalked off to sit next to Fay Dunbar and George Weasley, Draco was pointing to the Slytherin table and they saw that Seamus Finnegan was looking very miserable and looking longingly at Clarissa who was talking to Fay.

Roberts, Paul went to Hufflepuff, Turpin, Lisa went to Ravenclaw,

And minutes later 'Weasley, Ronald' was the second to last person to be sorted and as with every Weasley and Prewitt the hat shouted

'GRYFFINDOR' 'Come on Draco pay up' Neville said 'you owe me ten galleons'

'what did you bet on?' Hermione asked,

'Nev and me betted on whether Ron here would end up in Gryffindor, Neville said he would but I said Hufflepuff' Ron who had arrived looked offended 'I'm no duffer mate' he said 'Oi watch it Weasley, my sister is a Hufflepuff as was my cousin Dora' Harry said pretending to sound serious, the last person to be sorted was a 'Zambini, Blaise' and he went to Slytherin.

Finally the feast was well underway, Gryffindors gained the most new students this year followed by Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff, Slytherin however only received six new students, four boys and two girls

And speaking of Slytherin 'Hey Harry, theres old Snivillus' Draco said pointing to the teachers table, Severus Snape was looking at the Gryffindor table, he could see it happening all over again

An arrogant Potter, a Black for a sidekick and apparently Longbottom was a werewolf, thankfully he couldn't see any Peter Pettigrew's in the group and the group seemed a lot larger than The Marauders,

Snape could tell straight away that Potter, Malfoy and Weasley were the ring leaders; he would watch out for them, they looked like trouble

Longbottom was the quiet one of the group, as was the bushy haired Muggle-born girl, they seemed more studious, Lovegood however

He couldn't make his mind up on she was the dark horse of the group,

all Snape knew was that in future he was going to watch these six student – the Gryffindor Pride.

Remus was happy, though he didn't care what house Harry or Draco ended up in he was glad it was Gryffindor, he saw that the two cousins had already made friends with four other students, Remus couldn't help

But be reminded of himself, James and Sirius, he didn't want to think of Peter, he was just the tag along after all and he was the one who destroyed their friendship that cost Lily and James' lives and made Harry into one of the many war orphans, but on to lighter things Remus had a feeling he'd be seeing Harry and Draco in detention a lot in the coming years.

Dumbledore was watching over the six children on the Gryffindor table

He chuckled to himself, Poor Minerva he thought she has only just recovered from the Marauders, when the Weasley twins arrived to pick up from where the Marauders left off over a decade earlier and now already he could see the six young Gryffindors easily taking over as the schools new pranksters, Dumbledore didn't mind jokes and pranks in the school, Merlin knows the wizarding world needs humour in these dark times and the younger children especially the Muggle-born and Muggle-raised students who were often home-sick or frightened it took their minds of the ongoing war with Voldemort and his merry band of blood

Purists, that was why Dumbledore never punished the Prewitt twins, the marauders or the Weasley twins he went very lenient on them because what the world needs is more laughter something Voldemort will never know.

Later that night the first year Gryfindors followed Percy Weasley to the common room, well not all of them, Harry, Draco, Ron, Hermione, Neville and Luna had found a quicker way thanks the Marauders map

'Come it's this way, behind the statute of George the Simpleton' Harry said 'this passage should take one floor below the Gryffindor common room and we'll still beat Percy' he said enthusiastically

'I'm not sure about this Harry' Hermione said 'didn't Percy say he had the password' she stated

'Oh come on Hermione, it'll be fun, lets go guys' Ron said

And the six Gryffindors went through the tunnel,

After ten minutes they were officially lost 'Harry I thought you said we'd be right below the common room?' Neville asked

'Yeah, we should be right about now' Harry replied as he opened a door only to realise he may have read the map wrong 'err sorry guys it looks like we still have four floors to go' he said ruffling his permanently messy hair 'Harry' the other five whined 'come on guys look we can just tell Percy we got lost'

'On the forbidden third floor corridor' Luna said airily

'What' Hermione asked 'Dumbledore said we weren't allowed up here' she said in a panicky voice 'oh dear we're going to be expelled' she shrieked

'Calm down Hermione look at the map' Harry said 'Percy is coming for us' he said Ron, Hermione, Luna and Neville looked at the map in awe

'Wow Harry this map really is amazing' Neville commented 'look I think I see your uncle Remus not far from here, and on the third floor – hello

Harry look at this' Neville pointed at a dot, Harry looked at it and saw not far from where they were standing behind the locked doors there was a dot that said Fluffy, 'whose Fluffy?' Harry wondered aloud

'It's a three headed dog' Luna said 'What?' the other five said

'why would they keep a creature like that in a school?' Ron asked incredulously, not caring on how Luna knew that was what was behind the door.

'I don't know but lets get out of here before, Percy finds us, I'd rather we bumped into Remus' Draco said 'yeah your right mate, we'll check up on this when we've settled in agreed' Harry said, the others nodded though

Hermione and Neville were a little more reluctant, the six quickly ran from the corridor and found themselves nearer the Gryffindor common room Harry looked at the map and saw that Remus was nearing the corner of the corridor the six where on 'mischef managed' Harry said and he quickly stuffed the map back in his pocket, just as Remus turned the corner 'That was close mate' Ron said.

'what do you think your doing' Remus chided lightly 'going off on nighttime wanderings on your very first night here' he said trying to keep a smile off his face

'We err got lost' Harry said trying but failing to look innocent

Remus had seem that look many times before on James's face

'Come you six lets get you to your common room I can give you your password' he said as he led the six up to Gryffindor tower

Well Sirius would be pleased, his godson getting into trouble and getting away with it on the first night here Remus thought smiling.