Author's Note: I always found hat-stalls so cool for some reason. I myself was one on the old Pottermore website several years ago between Ravenclaw and Slytherin (I chose Slytherin). Here I thought it would be entertaining to write about the rare occurrence not once, but twice! I was going to switch POVs for Albus' sorting, but it seems like Scorpius had other plans for me.

To make sure no one is confused here, Cursed Child is not canon. I took the liberty of using the blank slate that are the Next-Gen and putting them in a House I feel best suits them in the long run. Why are they in the house I picked, you ask? The answer is at the end. :P

Enjoy.

Summary: Scorpius always feared being sorted the most when it came to school. It didn't help that he became a hat-stall to top it off.

Rated: K

Genre: General

Warning Tag: Descriptions/Mentions of a visual/auditory sensory overload.

Arguing With A Hat

"Malfoy, Scorpius."

His name snapped him back to the present, the gentle nudge from Al helped ground him from his ever growing troubled thoughts as his name echoed throughout the Great Hall.

The silence was deafening as he sucked in a breath to help compose himself before slowly approaching the three-footed stool and the Headmistress that stood next to it holding the tattered and slightly singed Hat by its end. This moment was what Scorpius was most nervous about attending school—being Sorted. He didn't have the courage to confess this to his parents, and reverted to the one they, too, were concerned about he having trouble with—making friends. Fortunately for him that wasn't as difficult as he thought, or he just got lucky. He didn't care, one great friend was already better than having none or several acquaintances.

He turned back to the other first years, as well as the other students who sat at the tables. They all looked back at him tentatively, sending his nerves into overdrive. Sitting down on the creaky stool, his vision was soon snuffed out by the Hat falling over his face and head.

There was a quiet humming in the darkness for several long seconds before Scorpius heard it's scratchy, old voice.

"Ah, a Malfoy. I have seen many of your family pass through here in my time. They were not so difficult to Sort. Yet you… you are a difficult one to read. You are hiding something, yes… because you are afraid of where I will put you."

Scorpius felt himself scowl at the comment. "I am not afraid of you. Your difficulty comes from yourself because I am not like my ancestors and I won't allow you to place me where you believe I should be based on them."

He heard the Hat chuckle. "But of course you won't. I can see that clearly. You have a lot of your mother in you with your steadfast beliefs. Yet your ambition and thirst to deviate from your family's traditions will get you quite far in Slytherin, will it not?"

Scorpius let out a quiet sigh. He was not prepared for this Hat to be so stand-offish.

"I do not desire to prove people wrong about me and my name, I just—"

"Dear boy, I can see your thoughts. Despite your beginners training as an Occlumens already—which is quite impressive for someone as young as you—I am quite adept at overseeing these barriers you wish to create. You do yearn for the chance to show the world your are more than your family's name and tainted legacy, but you do not value or prioritize it," the Hat interrupted, causing a quiet squeak to escape Scorpius' lips. "Your mother was much the same way. Humble, intelligent, firm in her choices and beliefs. You are a bright and highly intelligent child that strives for things beyond your capabilities. I truly admire this."

"Then you should know why Slytherin would be an ill fit for me," Scorpius reasoned.

He wondered how long he'd been arguing with this gross old Hat. To him it already felt like ages, but he was not going to allow it to push him somewhere he didn't want to go.

"I don't want to continue this stigma that my family is bad by being streamlined into Slytherin," he admitted, dropping his mental barriers now. They clearly weren't working on the Hat.

"Yet to break the very thing you desire, why not show the world that a Slytherin Malfoy is not what they perceive you as, hmm?"

The Hat had a valid point, but Scorpius felt his teeth gnaw into his lip as he searched for an answer. It felt like he was losing this mental battle, and that what Al said on the train about the Hat taking the persons request of a House into consideration was wrong. Maybe he was going to end up like Professor Longbottom and lose the argument of where he should go and accept the fact he'll be landed the outcast he feared he'd become.

At least he'd still have Albus regardless of the Sorting results.

"I disagree. Though I am not entirely against Slytherin House, I simply feel like my skills will be stifled if placed there due to the crippling stigma that still lingers in it today. My name paired with it will only set me back, and I will not know how to handle it when it does."

"I greatly admire that you wish to achieve this in your own way, and that you're willing to argue with an old sentient object like me in order to make sure that I don't erase you within a name and old traditions. You are already quite wise beyond your years, and I hope that you find my decision for you acceptable…"

"Very well…" Scorpius muttered in Greek, allowing his shoulders to slump.

Scorpius swallowed hard, preparing for the Hat to shout the name Slytherin to the crowd. How long has it been? It felt like they were talking for ages…

"Ravenclaw!"

'What?'

Before he could ask the Hat what was going on, he was suddenly blinded by the light flooding his vision and the cheers that echoed the room from the Ravenclaw table and fellow first years deafened him. Scorpius wasn't exactly prepared for the plethora of sensory overload in that moment since he dropped his mental barriers for the Hat, so he started to feel very dizzy and sick. The Headmistress had touched his shoulder at that point, gently guiding him in the direction he needed to go, but it felt like a shock of lightning surged through his arm.

He barely found the end of Ravenclaw table before collapsing onto the bench and placed his head in his hands. He needed to quickly regain his composure and set his barriers back up before passing out.

The prefect was now next to him, offering a kind greeting.

"Welcome to Ravenclaw! I'm sure you are quite overwhelmed by this. I would be too if I sat up there for six minutes," she said with excitement.

Scorpius, barely conscious now, started to take deep slow breaths in a meager attempt to regain control of his senses. The last thing he needed was an anxiety attack on top of his sensory overload right now. He was going to black out any second now, he knew it.

It took some time and a glass of cool water offered by the prefect—who finally realized he was struggling to remain conscious—for Scorpius to feel stable enough to open his eyes again. He heard the name Potter be announced and he looked to the front of the Great Hall to see his friend plop onto the bench. If they were just as worried about this as Scorpius was, Albus didn't show it.

The room finally quieted down as they waited for Albus to be Sorted. Scorpius tried to rebuild his mental walls to help brace for the next onslaught of applause, but knew he wouldn't be able to outlast the ceremony in the state he was in much longer. He'd have to ask for an escort to the washrooms soon to recuperate… but he could hold out for Albus at least.

Albus was an unexpected friend to obtain while on the train. Not only an offspring to the famous Harry Potter, but his father's school rival. It was ironic, to say the least. But he felt an instant connection with them during the few short hours of exchanging get-to-know anecdotes of conversation. When they came across the discussion about the Sorting was when they really got to know each other. They both shared the same fears that their respective family names legacies and the burden it held was going to cause them problems in school. It was also when Scorpius discovered that Albus confided that they were also worried that not responding to gendered pronouns was going to cause them a lot of problems. This opened up an entire new world for Scorpius as well, one that he would need to further explore sometime soon. Scorpius shared with them that he has suffered various sensory disorders since he was little, from too much sound going on around him to textures of foods. Learning basic Occlumency helped him get past some of the irritants that set him off, primarily noise and lighting, but there were times when even its mental barriers didn't work.

His mother was still working on special charmed jewelry he could wear that will someday help manage his triggers better, but for now, forcing to close off parts of his mind was all that was available.

Recalling the train ride as a distraction helped for a time, but knew where his mind was wandering would soon be a bad idea to linger on much longer, so he settled with counting the seconds in his head.

It became oddly quiet again as the seconds ticked away into minutes. Scorpius risked a glance down the table and picked up the prefect whispering to someone next to her about it being close to another stall. He raised his brows at this and decided to ask what he meant.

"What do you mean by a stall?"

"Well, you were up there for six minutes. They call it a hat-stall when you are sitting under the Hat for five minutes or longer. Seems like you and Potter are quite the controversial lot for the poor thing to wrap itself around."

"I see," he said, looking back up to his Hat-clad friend.

Scorpius didn't know what to do with this information, but he also wondered if Albus' sorting delay is something similar to what his was like. He'd definitely would have to ask them about it later, hopefully.

"Ravenclaw!"

It was like a cannon had gone off, startling Scorpius out of his trance-like mental exercises that kept him from overreacting to the sudden loudness. He stood up promptly and clapped as loud as he could, watching as Al approached the table with a crooked smile on their face.

"Didn't really except for that to happen. You should've seen the dumbstruck look on my brother and the other Weasleys' faces," Al said, taking a seat beside Scorpius. "That Hat sure loves to argue, doesn't it? How long was I up there for, anyway? Felt like ages."

He gave a nod, attempting to drown out the background noise. "About five minutes and seven seconds."

"Dang, I was hoping to beat you. Six minutes is unheard of, or so they say."

Scorpius started to get that swimming head feeling again as he overheard the prefect state that having two hat-stalls in their house was quite fascinating. He needed to recover properly and hopefully get some food soon. All those sweets on the train weren't helping, either.

"Yeah. Really is." He turned to the prefect then, tapping onto her shoulder. "Excuse me, I really need to get to a washroom."

As he was escorted out by the prefect, Scorpius couldn't help but wonder that if he or Albus never bothered to speak up against the Hat, would it have put them in the Houses they loathed?

His mother used to always say to him when he was younger, "You get in life what you have the courage to ask for." Apparently her words held some truth to them now.

Originally Written For:

Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry (Challenges & Assignments)

Monthly Challenges for All

Word Count: 1,899

Originally Written: November 2019

Author' Note 2: Yes, Ravenclaw. Fight me. I like to think Scorpius reflects the more studious and general knowledge smart whereas Albus would be more street smart but very good at problem solving. Take from that what you will.