Sorted
“Cheers.”
Rose Granger-Weasley had inherited the best traits from both of her parents—her mother’s brain, her father’s loyalty.
She was proud to be a Granger-Weasley and wouldn’t trade her family for the world. She knew both of her parents had fought alongside Harry Potter and helped to bring about the destruction of Voldemort and his supporters.
Her mother was an activist who’d been working hard to free house elves, and her father was an auror, and though they sometimes clashed, she was proud to be related to the both of them.
Which was why when she met Scorpius Malfoy, she’d instantly felt the urge to beat him at everything, not just because her parents had half-jokingly prompted it. Right of the bat, everything about him annoyed her, from his casual manner of speaking to knowing he came from privilege and probably wouldn’t even have to work to get a job after school.
He hadn’t even truly responded to her challenge, leaving with a simple “cheers”, which seemed inadequate of a response. He was probably very thick, she convinced herself.
He was stupidly tall, she thought, as he strode down the corridor and into a compartment a few doors down. Way too tall for an eleven year old. His white blonde hair lay flat on his head, looking overly combed. How could simple things irritate her this much?
“Rose?” James called from inside the compartment, which he’d already retreated too as she stood in the doorway, lost in thought
“Sorry.” She took her seat again, embarrassed.
…
Scorpius met a boy on the train named Panju Patil who he got along well with. It appeared he was not going to be friendless after all.
The two of them stood next to each other in the line, awaiting their names to be called for the sorting.
Scorpius watched as Rose Granger-Weasley was called. She strode up to the sorting hat and sat on the stool, the hat slipping over her eyes. The hat seemed to debate for a quite a long time before it called out “Ravenclaw!”
A small murder went around the room. Rose herself looked startled when she removed the hat and went to go take her place among the sea of black cloaks and blue and silver ties.
“A Weasley? In Ravenclaw?” Panju said in surprise. “My mom said everyone in that family ends up in Gryffindor.”
Scorpius didn’t say anything—too nervous for his own name to be called.
“Malfoy, Scorpius!” The sharp looking professor called from the front of the room.
Scorpius took a deep breath, taking a shaky step forward. He could feel the eyes of every student in the hall on him. A ripple went through the watching students as he took his place on the stool—they recognized his name. He saw some of the Slytherins taking a particular interest in him.
“Much brains…”
The voice nearly made him fall off the stool as soon as the hat was placed on his head.
Thank you, he thought after he’d regained his composure.
“You’d do well in Slytherin, you know…” the hat trailed.
No!
The thought escaped him without his permission. He realized—it was true. He didn’t want to be in Slytherin, didn’t want to be confined to a cold dungeon and live with all of the families that he’d been forced to mingle with for years at dinner parties and events. What did he want? Scorpius wanted to learn, to be challenged. He wanted to read every book in the Hogwarts library, he wanted to know all he could about magic…
“You don’t want to be in Slytherin? Well, a shame. I’d better put you in, RAVENCLAW!” The hat bellowed the last word aloud, and the table of students with blue and grey ties erupted into applause.