AN: Hello again! All characters, except OCs (AMAYA THE CAT FOREVAAA) belong to JK Rowling and Warner Bros. This chapter contains a sorting hat song I spent way too long writing, and a much abridged version of Dumbledore's speech, so please review, this took forever.
DavidoDaVinci
PS. Updates every Tuesday from now on.
Chapter 5: Slytherin
She watched as everyone filed out, forming an alphabetical line in the middle of the Great Hall, taking her spot right before Rose. Glancing around, Ivy saw the four house tables, all draped in their respective colours: red and gold for Gryffindor, blue and bronze for Ravenclaw, yellow and black for Hufflepuff, and green and silver for Slytherin. Each had at least two hundred students, all staring at the first-years-to-be with varying degrees of interest. She vaguely registered that each table had a lot of floating candles above the tables, and a large banner above, about half the length of each table, which was quite an accomplishment. The emblems (Lion, Badger, Snake, and Eagle) were, she was disappointed to see, not moving, though one student swore they saw the gold lion blink and yawn.
Her eyes were drawn to the table at the very front of the Great hall, which had remained the same, with minimal changes. It was now slightly longer, which made sense, since it would now, of course, be used by all teachers rather than just the four founders. The chairs remained gold and decorative, though no longer emblazoned, as far as she could see, with the emblems, but the people sitting in them were much changed. The man in the middle, Dumbledore, with his long, silvery beard, and moon shaped spectacles, seemed to be snatching a glance at Rose whenever he could.
She was just trying to figure out, from their appearance, which teacher taught which subject, when McGonagall hurried back into the room, holding an old three-legged stool, and what appeared to be Godric's hat. She stared at it in utter bewilderment. She understood that wizards in all time frames loved holding onto old robes and things, trying to figure out how people lived back in the day (muggles called it archaeology), but she couldn't for the life of her understand what anyone would want with an old hat, even if it was the old hat of someone very famous, other than to maybe keep it in a museum… but even then, centuries later?
Nobody around the tables seemed at all confused at the arrival of this unusual sight, but most of the first-years were also staring at it in confusion, when they weren't admiring the candles. She had barely another second to dwell on this however, before the familiar hat, which had now been placed down onto the stool, unzipped a hole that she had not noticed before as far as it could, until it appeared to form a mouth, and began to sing.
'Perhaps I look a normal hat,
If right out of a war,
But maybe, if you stick around,
You'll find you know me more,
For I'm a hat for sorting,
The sorting hat, if you will,
And I'll sort you into a different house,
Based on your different skills,
Perhaps, if you're the brave kind,
You'll go to Gryffindor,
The most chivalrous and daring,
Of the houses four,
Or else in Ravenclaw,
If you're the thoughtful kind,
But only if you have a very
Clever sort of mind,
How about in Hufflepuff,
Where dwell the kind of heart?
Who will always help others,
If nothing else for a start,
And finally, there's Slytherin,
If you're a cunning soul,
Ready to do anything,
To meet your treasured goas,
Of course, if they could,
The founders would sort you
But, since they are long gone now,
I guess I'll have to do,'
There was a round of applause as the sorting hat finished singing. Most likely, the founders had needed a way to sort students after they were gone, and Godric suggested his hat. Perhaps, the next time they saw, she would give him the idea…
She was so deep in thought that she only realised that the sorting had begun until the hat shouted out 'HUFFLEPUFF!', making her jump. She glanced up, and saw a nervous, blonde girl with pigtails walk gingerly towards the Hufflepuff table.
"Bones, Susan!" shouted McGonagall, barely a second after the last girl had taken her seat. Susan walked forwards, and sat on the stool, which was so large compared to her that it covered her forehead and eyes entirely. This time, the hat seemed to take a while talking to her for at least thirty seconds before making its decision.
"HUFFLEPUFF!"
Terry Boot and Mandy Brocklehurst became the first two Ravenclaws of the day, both taking seats at the blue and bronze table, before 'Brown, Lavender' became the first Gryffindor, to Rose's delight.
'Bulstrode, Millicent', a stocky girl, had barely had the hat on for a moment when it yelled out, for the first time that evening, "SLYTHERIN!" Ivy forced a smile onto her face as she walked past. 'What fun company,' she thought, drearily. 'Corner, Michael', 'Cornfoot, Stephen', 'Crabbe Vincent', 'Davis, Tracey', and 'Entwistle, Kevin' were all sorted into the houses, and Hufflepuff and Gryffindor got a new student each with 'Finch-Fletchley, Justin' and 'Finnigan, Seamus'. Then both Hufflepuff and Slytherin got a new member, before Ivy heard a name she recognised.
"Granger, Hermione!"
She had been the girl on the train, who had been looking for Neville's toad. Hermione ran a hand through her bushy hair, which did absolutely nothing, and walked over to the hat. She, like a few others, seemed to talk to the hat for a while, becoming more and more relaxed looking after wearing a very nervous expression before. Eventually, the hat decided.
"GRYFFINDOR!"
Five names later, Neville was called to the front. Now that she could see him, he looked, admittedly, like the kind of person who would lose a pet toad. He had short, brown hair that hung over his forehead in a spiky fashion. It looked like he had not yet hit puberty, and yet he already had some spots on his forehead. He, too, was sitting under the hat for a long time.
"GRYFFINDOR!"
The hat had barely touched Draco's head, when the hat shouted "SLYTHERIN!". As he headed over to the Slytherin table, she glanced at him and grinned. Theodore Nott and Pansy Parkinson became Slytherins too, and two twins, Parvati and Padma Patil, were put in two different houses: Gryffindor for Parvati, and Ravenclaw for Padma.
And then, she realised that she was at the front of the queue.
"Potter, Ivy!"
She had half expected the hall at large to become quiet with anticipation as she strode up to the stool, and was therefore half surprised when the low buzz of conversation continued. She supposed, on balance, it was not as big a moment for anyone else as it was for her, and therefore, nobody else was silent. It nevertheless felt an age to walk the short distance between the line and the sorting hat. Eventually, she was facing the hat. She slowly picked it up, sat down on the small chair, which was probably in need of a replacement, and put it on, allowing it to drop over her eyes so that she could no more see the rest of the Great hall than the average person would be able to lick their nose.
'Ah! Ivy! Hello there! It's been ages… I suppose literally. Merlin got you here, I take it?'
She started to nod, but realised it could see inside her head and just said 'yes' mentally. A thought struck her.
'Sorry, but… how did you become… this? I've only ever seen Godric wearing you.'
'Oh, just a few quick spells. Now, where to put you? Oh, I'm just kidding, SLYTHERIN!'
She could hear the last word being shouted out to the rest of the hall. She took it off immediately, and hurried off to the Slytherin table amidst the cheers. She took a seat between Draco, and Theodore Nott, who preferred Theo.
"Potter, Rose!"
This time, the entire hall seemed to hush, as though the next person to speak would be shunned from society. The silence was thick, and she could have sworn that had she merely sniffed, Ivy would have heard the sound echoing around the Great hall for a good ten seconds. The hat took a while. Not nearly as long as Neville, but more than most other people.
"GRYFFINDOR!"
She clapped, along with everyone else.
The rest of the sorting was pretty tame, in her opinion. Plenty more people were sorted, but the only one she recognised was Ron, who was sorted into Gryffindor. Finally, after 'Zabini, Blaise' was sorted into Slytherin, Dumbledore stood up.
"Before we begin our excellent feast, I would like to say a few words, and here they are: Nitwit, Blubber, Oddment, Tweak! Thank you!"
It was the strangest meal Ivy had ever eaten. Rather than having a menu, or even a finite amount of food, the moment Dumbledore finished speaking, food appeared across all four tables. There was such a large variety that she was not convinced she would have been able to write down every piece of food on the tables if given six rolls of parchment and a spare cup of ink. There were meats cooked in many different ways: pork, sausages, bacon, roast steak, roast lamb, roast chicken, chicken wings, joints, and so on, along with metric tons of fruit, vegetables, carbohydrates, and anything else one could want: potatoes were roasted, boiled, and mashed, eggs were boiled, fried, and scrambled, there were leaks, carrots, sweetcorn, peas, apples, pears, oranges, satsumas, bananas, grapes, berries of all descriptions, yorkshire pudding, black pudding, gravy, and a handful of things she didn't know the name of. Oddly enough, there were also peppermint humbugs.
Ivy tucked into some sausage and mashed potatoes, while watching in amusement as Draco attempted to pile his plate high with as many foods as he could. The result was a combination of three roast meats, a fried egg, and a carrot perched precariously on top, all covered in a huge amount of gravy. He managed to finish it.
There was such a large quantity of food that even after many students taking more than their fair share of it, and especially Draco's shenanigans, she would have strongly doubted that the amassed students would have been able to finish even half of it if they had five courses. She was just beginning to feel drowsy, when desserts showed up, offering a similar, ridiculous, amount of variety. Ice cream, strawberries, mince pies, treacle tart, and many other things that she didn't have the energy to list mentally.
When even a very- to put it politely- large fifth year Hufflepuff had finished eating, Dumbledore stood up again, this time with a proper speech.
"To our new students, welcome! To our returning students, welcome back! I have a few notices to give you. First, the forbidden forest in the grounds is, hence the name, forbidden to all students at all times! Argus Filch, our caretaker, has asked me to remind you not to use magic in the corridors between lessons. Quidditch trials will be held in the second week of term. Anyone seeking information on it should contact Madam Hooch. And, finally, the third-floor corridor on the right hand side is out of bounds to all students not looking to die a horrific death this year. And now, a song!"
…
After the speech, Dumbledore had waved his wand, and glittering golden letters had spelled out some lyrics in cursive to a song about Hogwarts. She couldn't remember most of the words, but knew the first line was 'Hogwarts, Hogwarts, Hoggy Warty Hogwarts', which she thought would be enough to amuse Salazar. Everyone had sung to their own tune. She had personally gone with a short tune that would have fit in with the old nursery rhymes like 'Twinkle Twinkle Little Star', and 'Barry the Bored's Tips and Tricks for those in the business of entertainment'.
When she had got to the Slytherin common room, which was a largish room underneath the lake, and headed up to her dormitory, she had found all her stuff already there, including all her trunks and Amaya, who she stroked absently, getting into her green pyjamas and looked at her roommates. There was Pansy Parkinson, a blonde girl, who, she thought privately, looked like a pug, but seemed friendly enough, Millicent Bulstrode, and quite a few others who she couldn't, from the sorting, remember the names of.
She slumped down into her bed, and, as she was drifting off, wondered when she would next see the founders.