I'm baaaaack, did you all miss me? I sure missed you. I bet you're all dying to figure out what house Crystal goes to huh? You'll just have to wait and see, read on my little friends and find out what happens at Crystal's sorting.
First though, the reviews.
Dragon Master Naruto 003 chapter 11 . Aug 18
Great story so far and i am hoping for more! Also, when going through the will at Gringotts, James Potter was listed as alive while everyone other time he was mentioned he was dead. Is this an error and if not, HOW was that ignored? Finding out her supposedly dead father was actually alive should have shocked her to her core and possibly sent her into a spiral of depression and possible loathing of the man for abandoning her to the Dursleys. Great work otherwise!
Me: Everyone was more focused on Crystal's blocks and getting her healthy that they skimmed over the fact that James Potter is alive. Don't worry, she'll go over it again at a later date and realize what she missed the first time around.
Guest chapter 10 . Aug 17
It would be interesting if Crystal go to a different House so she can shock everyone.
Me: Ah, but which house shall it be?
Onto the story
She turned back to Neville, ignoring the way Ron's face turned red. "What do you think, Neville?" This time she made sure to address him directly.
"W-Well, we might have to-" He was cut off when several people screamed making them both spin around, Crystal was ready to fight while Neville was ready to run.
Crystal gasped with the people around her when she saw several ghosts fly through the wall. She assumed everyone else was shocked at seeing ghosts in person. Crystal was just shocked at how the ghosts looked, she was used to seeing ghosts but not ones that looked like this.
There were about twenty ghosts in total that had just flown through the back wall. Each one was pearly-white and slightly transparent, unlike the ghosts she was so used to seeing in the ghost zone. She wondered what made these ghosts different from normal ones and vowed to find out.
The twenty ghosts glided across the room talking with one another, hardly glancing at the first years. It seemed like most of the ghosts were unaware that the children were there at all.
They seemed to be arguing, one that looked like a chubby little monk was talking loudly with another ghost that was wearing ruffles and tights. "Forgive and forget, I say, we ought to give him a second chance-"
"My dear Friar, haven't we given Peeves all the chances he deserves? He gives us all a bad name and you know, he's not truly even a ghost - I say, what are you all doing here?" The Ghost with the ruffles and tights suddenly seemed to notice that he and his ghostly pals were not alone in the room.
Crystal noticed how no one else was speaking up and chose to answer the ghostly man herself. She could understand the others being skittish, for most if not all of them this must be their first time ever encountering a ghost at all.
"We're new students sir, waiting to be sorted," She said politely. She didn't want to be rude, she didn't know what these ghosts were capable of. Not to mention, she tried to be polite to others unless they were rude to her.
"New students? How wonderful," The one who looked like a monk said, smiling at the children. "Hope to see some of you in Hufflepuff!" The Ghostly Monk continued. "My old house, you know."
Just then a sharp voice spoke up. "Move along now." Crystal turned and saw that Professor McGonagall had returned. "The sorting ceremony is about to start."
Crystal gave the ghosts a little wave as they all turned and floated away through the opposite wall. A few of them returned her wave with a surprised but pleased smile on their faces.
Professor McGonagall gave her a curious look that Crystal ignored. She was only being polite so she had no reason to explain herself to this woman.
"Now, form a line," The Professor told the first years after realizing Crystal wouldn't be explaining anything, "And follow me."
Crystal got in line behind Neville and held back her annoyance when Ron got behind her. It seemed to her that he wanted to make everyone believe that they were the best of friends after just one train ride.
The children followed the Professor out of the chamber, back across the hall, and through a pair of double doors into the Great Hall. Crystal was thinking that this was much more complicated than it should be. The Professor should have taken them through that other door that Crystal had heard the voices from, instead, she was leading them around a different door that goes to the same room.
Several of her fellow first years expressed surprise and awe when walking into the great hall. Crystal could admit that it was pretty, but once again it wasn't the most amazing place in the world to her.
The room was lit by thousands and thousands of candles that were floating in midair over four long tables, where the rest of the students were sitting. Crystal hoped that there was some magic involved in making sure hot wax didn't fall on the students. She also wondered why no one had thought to update the castle with modern lighting yet, she would have to look into that.
The tables were laid with glittering golden plates and goblets, something Crystal thought was way too over the top for a school. Normal glass plates and cups should have been fine, they didn't have to make them gold.
Looking around she spotted another long table at the top of the hall. It seemed to be where the teachers sat. She wondered whose idea it was to make the teacher's table reside high above the students, making it feel like they looked down upon the students like gods or kings and queens.
Professor McGonagall led the first years up to the teacher's table. They came to a halt in a line facing the rest of the school with the teachers behind them. Crystal believed once again, that this was unnecessary. Were they attempting to make the skittish and fearful kids have a panic attack or something?
The hundreds of faces of the rest of the school staring at them looked like pale lanterns in the flickering candlelight. Something that seemed to make poor Neville even more nervous. Crystal leaned over and whispered to him, "It's okay Neville, they don't matter." She then leaned away and stood straight up, ignoring the way Professor McGonagall gave her a reproachful look.
Crystal looked out over the crowd of students and noticed that dotted here and there among the students, the ghosts shone out like a silvery beacon in the night. Looking up, Crystal saw a velvety black ceiling speckled with stars. She wondered what magic was responsible for that and then heard Hermione start whispering.
"It's bewitched to look like the sky outside. I read about it in Hogwarts, A History."
Crystal decided she would need to learn that spell. If anything, it would be a good gift to Danny if she could bewitch the ceiling of his room to look like the night sky. She could do it both at his parent's home and his castle in the ghost zone. She knew how much he loved space, it would make an amazing Christmas or birthday present for him.
She knew how much he disliked Christmas, his parents had ruined it for him throughout his life. She would work hard to learn this spell before the holidays began so she could at least make that time of year a bit better for him.
Crystal looked back down as Professor McGonagall silently placed an uncomfortable-looking, four-legged stool in front of the first years. On top of the stool, she placed a pointed wizard's hat. The hat had clearly seen better days, it was patched and frayed, and it was also extremely dirty. She wondered when the last time anyone cleaned it was.
She wondered if they wanted them to pull a rabbit out of it before she decided that wasn't it. They wouldn't sort them based on if they could pull a rabbit out of a hat, that was ridiculous.
She noticed that everyone was staring at the hat, so she stared at it, too. For a few seconds, there was complete silence. It was so silent, Crystal thought that everyone, even her, would be able to hear if a needle hit the ground from the other end of the room.
Then, after a moment, the hat twitched. A rip near the brim of the hat opened wide like a mouth, and to Crystal's disbelief, the hat started to sing.
"Oh, you may not think I'm pretty,
But don't judge on what you see,
I'll eat myself if you can find
A smarter hat than me.
You can keep your bowlers black,
Your top hats sleek and tall,
For I'm the Hogwarts Sorting Hat
And I can cap them all.
There's nothing hidden in your head
The Sorting Hat can't see,
So try me on and I will tell you
Where you ought to be.
You might belong in Gryffindor,
Where dwell the brave at heart,
Their daring, nerve, and chivalry Set Gryffindors apart;
You might belong in Hufflepuff,
Where they are just and loyal,
Those patient Hufflepuffs are true And unafraid of toil;
Or yet in wise old Ravenclaw,
if you have a ready mind,
Where those of wit and learning,
Will always find their kind;
Or perhaps in Slytherin
You'll make your real friends,
Those cunning folk use any means
To achieve their ends.
So put me on! Don't be afraid!
And don't get in a flap!
You're in safe hands (though I have none)
For I'm a Thinking Cap!"
The whole hall burst into applause as the hat finished its song. It
bowed to each of the four tables and then became quite still again.
"So we've just got to try on the hat!" Ron whispered to Crystal, once again trying to act friendly. "I'll kill Fred, he was going on about wrestling a troll."
Crystal wondered why Ron would even believe that in the first place. Having first-years fight a troll was stupid and made no logical sense. The troll could kill the students.
Crystal stared at the hat curiously, she still thought they should have the students sorted by themselves. She didn't think it was nice that the teachers did this in front of the rest of the students.
Wait, She had to wear that dirty hat? No way, not a chance, she would refuse. Who knew if it had head lice on it, not to mention it was filthy. Sure, she didn't mind if something was a little dirty, but this thing looked like it was caked in dirt, dust, and other things. How hard could it be to keep one hat clean?
Professor McGonagall now stepped forward holding a long roll of parchment and spoke, "When I call your name, you will put on the hat and sit on the stool to be sorted."
She looked down at the parchment in her hands and spoke, "Abbott, Hannah!"
A pink-faced girl with blond pigtails stumbled out of line, Crystal thought that she seemed nice. The girl, Hannah, sat down on the stool after picking up the dirty hat. She put the hat on causing Crystal to shudder, how could she do that so willingly without a thought?
Maybe it was a side effect of growing up the way she had but Crystal preferred to keep things neat and tidy, this hat was neither.
After a few moments of silence, the rip in the hat opened again. "HUFFLEPUFF!" shouted the hat to the entire hall.
The table on the right with the yellow and black banners cheered and clapped as Hannah went to sit down at what Crystal assumed was the Hufflepuff's table. Crystal noticed that Hannah's robes changed as well.
The trims of her robe, her tie, and the crest of the robes had all changed. The trims were now yellow while the tie was tripped like a bumblebee. The crest on her robes changed from the Hogwarts crest to the Hufflepuff one instead.
Crystal saw the ghost that looked like a Monk waving merrily to Hannah as she sat down. She smiled when seeing how well received the ghosts here were. It was always wonderful to see people welcoming ghosts into their lives.
Sure, some ghosts were bad but the same could be said for humans. There were good and bad humans just like there were good and bad ghosts.
The sorting carried on unbothered, Crystal watched as Hermione, Ron, and Neville got sorted into Gryffindor. Poor Neville had been so excited that he had run off with the sorting hat still on his head, he had to sheepishly walk back to hand the hat back to Professor McGonagall, too much laughter in the hall. Crystal felt bad for him and decided that even if they didn't get into the same house, she would still be friendly with him.
Crystal had noticed that the dirty hat seemed to take different times when sorting students. Sometimes the hat would shout out the house right away while other times it took a bit longer.
Crystal watched as Malfoy swaggered up to the hat and put it on, she was surprised since she would have thought that he at least would have refused since it was so dirty.
The hat had barely touched his head before it shouted out Slytherin. This seemed to make the blond boy pleased as he once again swaggered his way to his new table, joining his bodyguards in sitting down.
Soon enough the Professor was calling for those with their last names starting with P.
"Potter, Crystal!" The Professor called out, looking pleased with herself.
As Crystal walked up to the stool she heard the entire hall start to whisper.
"Potter, did she say?"
"The Crystal Potter?"
"That's the Girl-Who-Lived!"
"Five Gallons that she'll be in Gryffindor."
"No bet, dude that's a given."
Seriously, what was with these people? Shaking her head slightly she stood in front of the stool with her arms crossed. Professor McGonagall frowned when she didn't sit down and put on the hat.
"Miss. Potter, you must sit down on the stool and place the hat on." She said, gesturing to the stool and hat.
"I'm not putting something this dirty on my head, it could have wood ticks or head lice. Not to mention it's filthy, when's the last time it was cleaned? A decade ago?" Crystal responded.
Her words had all the first years that had just been sorted start to panic, they all stood up and Crystal could hear Malfoy yell. "If I've contracted anything from that filthy hat my father will hear about it!"
Several first-years had the upper-years start checking their heads, the teachers tried to calm them down but there was a panic when people did find head lice in most of the first-year's hairs.
The Professors were all shocked, sure they hadn't cleaned the hat but they never thought the students would get head lice.
They should have expected it though, if every student ever attending wore that hat at least once, there was bound to be head lice on it if it wasn't cleaned.
So, I bet none of you were expecting this ending. I made a big deal at the start about Crystal's sorting and what house she might be in only for it to wind up with her refusing to put the hat on. Not only that, but this caused everyone to realize there was now a lice problem.
