"I mean," says Ron confidently. "We've never had a new student in our year before."
"Hogwarts never has," confirmed Hermione. "Professor Dumbledore must have had something to do with it."
The student was noticeably taller than the first years they had entered with. His blue gray hair stuck out as well, at odds with the disinterested expression on his face.
Harry thought it was weird. Every student that entered these halls were distracted by the ceilings and appearance of Hogwarts. He could have been a student from some other magical school, used to such displays of magic, but Harry felt that Hogwarts was in a class of its own. But his opinion was definitely biased.
He (because it was a he, Ron had deduced after squinting at his adam's apple for a minute) seemed more interested in the students at the tables, sweeping his gaze along them. Harry saw what seemed like his line of sight locking with someone, and turned to find out it was Draco Malfoy.
Malfoy's sneer appeared, but dropped into suspicion at whatever the boy's expression was. Before Harry could get a good look the student whipped his head back to where McGonagall was calling out the names of the students to be sorted.
McGonagall called out a girl's name. Instead of a girl the new student began to part the crowd, moving towards the stool. A murmur began to rise up in the hall, until halfway through, he stopped and looked down at his side. Harry realized he was holding a first-year's hand, to whom he leant down and whispered something.
The hall silenced itself, but was too late to hear the whipsered words as Merida Creswell had walked up to the stool. The hat was placed on her head. Barely a minute passed before it shouted, "Hufflepuff!"
The tables clapped loudly along with the new student. He threw a smile Merida's way as she sat down with the other first-years, a nervous smile on her face.
"That was nice of him," remarked Hermione.
"I'll bet," said Ron with a snort. "Here's to hoping I'll do as good a job with this year's firsties."
"Yeah mate," agreed Dean casually. "You'd better lead them to their dormitories before Peeves does it for you."
Ron objected vehemently to this. "It happened once, and I'll have you know I was being held hostage by Umbitch at the time."
"There's no good excuse for neglecting your duties, Weasley," said Harry with his best McGonagall impression. Ron responded by thumping him on the back. It would have escalated into a fight if it weren't for Hermione tapping them on the shoulder and hissing, "The new student's getting sorted."
He was seated on the stool, having a long conversation of sorts with the hat.
"Is he going to be a hat-stall?" Hermione wondered in a whisper.
It seemed like that was the case. The volume of noise began to rise, whispers from the corners turning into conversations.
"It must be because he's a sixth year student," Ron said. "I mean, his head's got a lot more stuff to look through than a first years, doesn't it?"
Harry agreed with a non-committal sound but he was already getting bored. His thoughts were wandering back to the summer, and the time he had spent with Tom, helping him move his stuff and set up at the university. Of course, that had taken hardly an hour, but it had preceded one of the best weeks of his life. His parents and Tom had become easy with one another, and they had went to many places with his friends.
"Gryffindor!" bellowed the hat, and around him the table broke out into raucous applause.