Once Upon A Sorting
"It's almost time to go."
Silver looked over to the entrance of the gym to find her brother standing with his arms crossed. With a nod of her head, she stopped the punching bag from its harsh swinging and then unwrapped her hands and shins. She picked up a towel and wiped her face of sweat before picking up her gym bag.
"I'll be right there." She said.
Terra took one sniff and shook his head. "Go take a shower first. You have time."
"Okay. Meet you at the front gates?" Silver asked as she started heading towards the locker rooms.
"You've got twenty minutes." Was all she received as an answer before he left. Silver rolled her eyes as the locker room door clicked shut behind her. After a ten-minute shower, that—yes—was adequate enough time to get her clean and refreshed while smelling like a human being again and not some rancid gym addict, Silver looked at the clock as she finished putting her hair in a simple but elegant bun. Eight minutes was all she had left until she had to meet her brother.
Giving herself a once-over, Silver deemed herself good to go and dashed out of the gym building. She channeled magic into her legs in order to run faster and a little into her lungs for optimal oxygenation of her muscles. She stopped off at her's and Terra's house to grab two Glock 41s that she skillfully hid on her person as she was sprinting to the front gates. She made it with one minute to spare. Silver hunched over her knees and stared at her black flats as she heaved, trying to catch her breath.
"Damn it. Guess that means more cardio." She scolded herself.
Terra rose a brow. "Don't you already do plenty?" The confusion was pretty evident in his voice.
"Two miles a day clearly isn't enough if I'm like this after sprinting and you can't say anything mister 'I can run a mile in five minutes and not be winded'. Asshole." Silver snapped back.
"Either either way, we need to get going." Terra told her after he checked his watch. Holding out a hand to his sister, he pulled out a portkey and they disappeared to the train station. As soon as they arrived, they merged in with the crowd so that they wouldn't stick out. They made sure that their hair covered their ears and that Terra's fringe hid his eyepatch from the eyes of the highly judgmental adults around them.
"I really don't want to be here anymore. Can't I just stay and work on paperwork? I'd rather do that than deal with these people." Terra whispered to Silver. He didn't want people to find out about their ears—and by extension their parentage—just yet. His sister needed to crack down on the racism in the wizarding world first.
(Though he has some high suspicions that she'll just say, 'screw it' and show it off anyway for some kind of statement.)
Terra finally got all of his belongings loaded on the train by himself regardless of the weight. He coursed magic throughout his body to augment his muscles and make them stronger. However, he didn't need to use much as he was already plenty strong from all the workouts.
(Something the siblings made mandatory so that everyone was healthy, in shape, and knew how to defend themselves.)
Let it never be said that they didn't care about their community that they built from ashes‒that they built from the ground up‒into the prospering one that it is now. As last call was being made, Silver gave her brother a hug as he did the same.
"I will miss you, brother." If Terra's hold on her got any tighter, she didn't say anything.
"As will I, sister." He whispered so quietly that if it wasn't for her sharp ears, she wouldn't have been able to hear him.
"Just…enjoy yourself. Nothing should happen this year or the next until my first year. That will be when all the shit will start to hit the fan." She spoke just as quietly as her brother.
"I promise I will."
Silver stepped back to get a good look at her brother. "And keep up on your studies! I'm willing to proof-read! Also, send me your assignments and copies of text so that I know the context your essays are supposed to be in." Silver deadpanned. She made sure to burn his face into her memory. It would be some time before she sees him again.
Terra rubbed the back of his head sheepishly with a matching look plastered across his face. "I'm supposed to be the older one here." He mumbled.
"The hell you are," She answered. "I might as well be the older sibling with how I have to keep you on track with your paperwork. By the way, I will be sending it to you to do in addition to your homework." Terra could do nothing but groan.
"Silver!" He whined, "Don't do this to me!"
A raised eyebrow was all he got. He didn't try pushing it. With a final wave and goodbye, Terra boarded the train as deeply red as their hair. He found an empty compartment that didn't stay empty for long. Two ginger-haired twins‒because he had to specify as their red and his red were not the same‒settled in after introducing themselves. At first, the twins admittedly thought he was a female because of how long his hair was but was quickly realized they were wrong when they heard his voice. It was already starting to deepen slightly from an early puberty. It wasn't much, however, it made a difference.
All three got to know each other more. The twins had three older brothers, one younger brother, and one younger sister. Terra said he had only one younger sister and when asked to elaborate, he didn't say much.
"She looks a lot like me, just different eyes. Shorter too, but don't tell her I said that. She'll go on a rampage." Fred and George didn't tease him. The had Ginny for experience to know that there are some things you just don't tell your sister to her face. Depending on the girl, height happens to be one of them. Silver falls within that category; and he got to learn that one the hard way.
Conversation died down while Terra drifted off in his thoughts thinking about what house he was actually going to be in. His sister, he knew, could fit in any of the four if she really tried. She was loyal to a fault. So loyal that even if it hurt her, she would still stay out of sheer stubbornness to remain loyal and to not appear weak either. As far as he knew, that was a quality of Hufflepuff. Though probably not so toxically. Silver desperately needed to work on that about herself or she was going to get hurt far more than she could be repaired.
She loved knowledge just for the sake of knowing things and as she is a perfectionist—she despises being wrong if she can help it. However, wasn't one of Harry's friends a total bookworm but still sorted into Gryffindor? Maybe that was due to her brash personality in being very straight-forward that the hat deemed Gryffindor the best house for her? Either, either way, Silver would make an excellent Ravenclaw as well.
The house of Slytherin could be a decent fit for her sheer capability of insulting someone without them knowing she's insulting them. That, or Silver hits their ego where it hurts. Oh, it is a sight to see, watching grown men become uncomfortable and threatened by his sister's mere presence. Regardless of what she says about hating politics and wishes it would crash and burn in hell: she navigates politics and law like a professional. She'd fit right in as a snake. Terra could also see her taking all of them under her wing regardless of age and becoming their pseudo mom. He wouldn't put it past her. She's done it before.
With all that being said, Terra began to think that Gryffindor might not be the best fit for his sister. Silver isn't outright brave or chivalrous nor is she brash. She does what any other human should have done. Speaking of this house, Silver says that no matter what he thinks about himself, he is going to be sorted into Gryffindor. She refused to "say what I told you years ago again". Did she think he was an idiot? It takes one to know one, Silver.
(Yes, she does think Terra is an idiot. The fact that he can't see it makes him an even more likely candidate for Gryffindor. At least that's what she says.)
With Terra's head in the clouds, he didn't notice when the train had pulled into the station until one of the twins—where's Silver when you need her with her blessed ability to tell twins apart—shook his shoulder to get his attention.
"Everyone is getting off of the train. I reckon we should be getting of as well." The ginger- haired boy said just before he followed his twin out the compartment door and off the train. Terra waited until the majority of everyone else was off the train before getting out as well. He didn't want anyone bumping into him and revealing his ears so soon into his younger sister's 'little' political game. He is pretty sure she's a little bit off her rocker. An image of Silver cackling and falling out of her chair while clutching her aching stomach appeared in his head causing him to stop on the shore just before the boats. 'Okay maybe she's a more than little bit off.'
He shook his head to clear his thoughts and proceeded to get into the empty boat. Some other children that he was sure he had seen sometime in the Sanctuary got inside the boat with him. The children all brought their right thumb to just before the corner of their mouths and did a quick swipe in greeting. To anyone else, that wouldn't have meant anything. To Terra, it was a greeting. What Silver and Terra don't know is that everyone in the Sanctuary all agreed unanimously that this was how they were going to greet others from the community when outside the Sanctuary borders. A non-verbal way of saying "I'm one of you". They also knew that their leader was sitting in the same boat that they were in. However, the children settled for the standard greeting; otherwise, those children would have been clambering over themselves to thank Terra for his and his sister's hard work in making a safe place to call home for everyone.
Soon enough, the boats were setting off, gliding across the glass like surface of the Black Lake. When they came around the bend to get a good view of Hogwarts for the first time many awed noises and chattering spread like wildfire amongst the soon to be students. Terra had to admit, the architecture was a splendid sight to behold. One of the children in the boat with him muttered, "Still ain't got nothing on Miss Cassandra's creations." None of the others bothered to correct him. Cass had a distinctive touch to her creations that garnered attention anywhere and everywhere. She truly was a wonderful craftswoman.
'Cascius, I wish you could see this right now.' Terra thought to himself. Honestly, Terra just wished that Cascius was there. He wished he was alive.
(He just wished that Cascius didn't have to die.)
(IshouldhavesavedyouIshouldn'thaveleftyoutodielekithatI'msosorry)
Everyone chuckled at the boy's comment. "Heads down!" Yelled Hagrid from the front of all the boats. All four children ducked under the stonework to gawk at the interior of Hogwarts when they were able to sit back up. Terra had the passing thought that the books really didn't do the design on this palace any good.
When all the boats docked inside Hogwarts's hidden mini harbor, they got out and onto the stone to begin making their way to the sorting. An arm was thrown around Terra's shoulders, startling him and making him tense until he saw who it was out of the corner of his working left eye. One of the twins, Fred or George—he still doesn't know cut him some slack—had his arm thrown over his shoulder.
"Y'know, I hear in order to get sorted we got to fight a troll." The ginger told Terra. The scarlet-haired boy glanced flippantly at the other boy hanging off of him.
"I highly doubt any sensible teacher here would pit children who hasn't learned even a little bit of magic up against a troll before their first day. They would be begging for a lawsuit if they did that." Terra refuted.
Before anyone could say anything, the doors to the smaller chamber that they were just in opened up to reveal a severe looking woman with the tightest bun Terra had ever seen in his life. He assumed that this was one Minerva McGonagall.
"Welcome to Hogwarts." She started off as her gaze went from each first year to the next. "The start-of-term banquet will begin shortly, but before you take your seats in the Great Hall, you will be sorted into your houses. The Sorting is a very important ceremony because, while you are here, your house will be something like your family within Hogwarts. You will have classes with the rest of your house, sleep in your house dormitory, and spend free time in your house common room." She had paused for another moment to let the information sink in before continuing on.
"The four houses are called Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. Each house has its own noble history and each has produced outstanding witches and wizards. While you are at Hogwarts, your triumphs will earn you house points, while any rule breaking will lose house points. At the end of the year, the house with the most house points is awarded the house cup, a great honor. I hope each of you will be a credit to whichever house becomes yours. The Sorting Ceremony will take place in a few minutes in front of the rest of the school. I suggest you all smarten yourselves up as much as you can while you are waiting."
She turned to make her way back into the Great Hall but paused and added as an afterthought, "I shall return when we are ready for you. Please wait quietly." This time she actually did go inside. Terra didn't know if actually telling the first years this was going to be taking place in front of the whole entire school was a good idea or not. On one hand, they would be prepared and warned before that they would have all eyes on them. On the other, they have more time to freak out. His sister would probably have a few words to say about this. He stopped his train of thought after the last one.
'She'll have something to say about this?' He had a vague sense that he's heard that sentence before. (Myfatherwillhearaboutthis) Terra shook his head. He was going crazy; he was starting to hear voices of annoying little shits in his head. He should get that checked out. A ginger twin came up to him with his brother and both had very exaggerated put-upon expressions.
"What's wrong with you two?" Terra asked them with an amused smile plastered across his face. He had to admit, the twins were pretty funny.
"Well, we aren't the first ones of our family to come here at Hogwarts." The one on the left said.
The one on the right took over for his brother, "We have three older brothers that are both in Gryffindor. Bill is in his last year—"
"—Charlie is in his sixth—"
"—and Percy's in his fifth."
"…" Terra felt like he was getting whiplash from the back and forth of the two brothers in front of him. He honestly wished there was a twin translator for him—his sister wasn't there to help him. She was fucking amazing at this—Terra felt like screaming.
"You both think that you're going to be in Gryffindor?" They looked at each other then faced back at Terra.
"Definitely."
The doors creaked back open, and McGonagall beckoned all of them through and to follow her. As soon as they made it inside the Great Hall, everyone's eyes landed on the incoming first years and watched—making many of the children far more nervous than they needed to be. Walking along the tables to the front, Terra got a good look around the Great Hall and he had to say…
He'd much rather be at home chilling in the garden that Silver and he worked so hard together to make. Yeah, it was nice with all the grandeur, but there is such a thing as too much with decorating. Hogwarts is always too much and always going overboard, honestly.
All this thinking that Terra was doing made time pass faster than he initially believed as about half of the first years were already sorted by this time. His eyes wandered around the room one more time and met a set of onyx eyes up at the head table. Snape gave him the slightest of tilts of the head in greeting. It was good to see each other in person again. Letters just didn't do justice to in-person conversations.
"Scarlet, Terra." Oh, there was his name. Terra made his way up to the stool that looked like it would break in the next couple of years and sat down on it. His eyes scanned the crowd of children sitting at the tables and a select few quickly swiped their thumb on the corner of their lips. Then the hat covered his sight from watching the room.
Although he was prepared for it, having a voice in his head that wasn't his sister's was strange. Granted, that only happened when they made eye-contact or were close enough to each other to do so.
"You are certainly an interesting one." The voice of the hat filtered through. Interesting? In what way is he interesting?
"An underground leader hiding in plain sight," He sounded amused, "You and your sister made a third side that is so underestimated. I look forward to watching it progress."
"You're not going to tell anyone are you?" Terra thought to the hat.
"Of course not! Strictly confidential this is. I also see an interesting parentage. It is highly amusing that you and your sister think of yourselves as 'high elves' from the muggle stories."
"Silver is an avid reader. It wasn't surprising, and really the only difference between us and others is our ears."
"And your light-footedness." The hat added.
"Yes, and our light-footedness." Terra repeated. "Am I ever going to be sorted sometime soon?"
"Why of course you are! Why do you think you're here? What do you think my job is you brat?" The hat asked clearly affronted. "Really what is it with kids these days. Though, you are clearly anything but. Are you, Terra?" The boy refused to answer. In reality, he had never been a child in the world. Not only was he mentally twenty-nine years old, but his childhood in this world was not a light-hearted one filled with naivety. So, the hat was right, in a way. Terra was never a child; but he's not going to let that stop him from being a kid from time to time.
The hat, hearing these thoughts, decided on a fitting house for Terra.
"GRYFFINDOR!" A roaring applause erupted from the red and gold table. Even though there were those that were cheering for him joining the house, his mind was still elsewhere.
"Fucking shit, I owe Silver twenty bucks."
