A talking hat!
The rest of August passed by in a blur. From looking after the babies to absorbing in every Sunday mass he could, Hadrian kept himself busy, over run with things to keep his mind off of September first.
The chapel was undoubtedly where Hadrian spent his time the most, he kept hoping to catch Father Michael, as to express his concerns about being so far away from home. However no matter how hard he tried, he seemed to either never have a moment to spare or was just too busy to notice Hadrian in the first place. Hadrian shouldn't have expected otherwise really, this was how it was most of the time. He had foolishly thought that with his departure imminent that he would have been spared a moment. Foolish of him to think that.
Hadrian made his round of the nursery one last time in the very early hours of the morning, thankful that he was amongst a few other early risers as he did so. He bid a sleeping Lucas goodbye, wary of the fact that knowing how often babies stayed at the orphanage that Lucas was most likely going to have gone long before he arrived back. It wasn't exactly as if the sisters would keep him updated.
Hadrian wasn't an emotional boy, never had been, that was mostly because he was taught not to be by the people around him. So he was well aware he couldn't exactly go blurting out his feelings at the idea of being so far from his ‘home’. It wouldn't be manly or taken seriously. At least in a conversation with Father Michael he was bound by god to listen, maybe that's why he had avoided Hadrian, to not have to deal with pathetic emotions from a pathetic boy.
Oh what did he know?
After his nods and words of goodbyes or in Lucas’ case a quick hug, he made his way with his heavy trunk to the dark gate of the orphanage. He was early of course, having timed his movements to be outside at six forty five so as to not risk annoying his future Professor on the first day of an actual school. As he stood outside the gates he became increasingly aware of how high the black metal loomed over him. He felt vulnerable, as if the gates knew the secrets he was hiding and were one blow away from taking action. He held back a physical shiver at the thought,not wanting to seem out of it when Snape arrived.
After fifteen minutes in the brisk September air, Snape arrived with a silent pop. His stare bore in Hadrian just as it had last time, Hadrian noticed that this time however the man had a sweeping cloak on, much like the people had in that wizarding town. It made him look like a wall of black, Snape seemed to want it to seem that he was larger than he was.
He didn't speak, Hadrian sort of expected him not to, what with the man making it obvious the last time how much he seemed to despise him.
Like last time the Professor grabbed his arm and with a pop they were gone, sick feeling overcoming Hadrian again. How he hadn't missed that feeling.
For a second Hadrian was in a panic, his trunk, had Snape grabbed it? Although a quick turn to his left showed him that somehow it had managed to also make the trip. Hadrian turned to ask Snape how exactly that had happened, only to find the man gone. How nice.
He was surrounded by noise and people, a lot like how that shopping trip had been, just that this time he didn't have an empty shop to hide in or a chaperone to show him where to go. Well there was a train that Hadrian could see over the many heads around him so he assumed that was where he had to go.
He took a minute to take in all the people, from left to right in every direction was just the backs of people's heads. As he scanned around, off in the distance to his right Hadrian took notice of the many hair colours he could see.
Brunettes to blondes to the odd black hair to the white- a white flash of hair caught his attention, a platinum blonde that seemed white when the light hit it just right. Hadrian couldn't see the face that went along with the shocking colour but he didnt care, it was - breathtaking in a way. The sight calmed him for some crazy and unexplainable reason. Finally something pure in this weird world. It gave him some odd sort of hope. If something so pure could stay as vibrant as this person's hair was then surely he could survive here too.
As quick as it appeared it vanished from his sight into one of the main train carts, oh yes he had to board a train, that's what he was doing.
Lugging his trunk a couple meters to the doors of the train, a few older children and adults were helping others to get their trunks on board, Hadrian took full advantage of it. He was raised to be polite and if the people were offering who was he to turn them down? In the distance he overheard a conversation, obviously between a fellow first year and someone older.
“No need to worry, once the trunk is in the compartment, change into your Hogwarts robes and leave the trunk where it is as you get off. The staff will make sure it finds its way to your room, don't worry.”
That made sense, they couldn't have been expected to lug these trunks to the school afterall. He hoped the staff were competent, he didn't want his trunk scuffed.
Hadrain found a small compartment just off to the side where people seemed to pass by without peering in. Things weren't too bad just yet. He pulled the blind of the compartment shut and made quick work of changing into his uniform, best to get it done now then to fret later he thought. When he had resealed his trunk and had made his way to sit by the window, he realized the train had already left the station. He must have been too focused to notice, oh well, it wasn't as if he had anyone to wave to as the other children did. How long was this journey anyhow?
Hadrian didn't own a watch so he wasn't aware of the time but he knew it wasn't too long till they reached Hogwarts, if the chatter in the halls was anything to go by. Just as he was finding himself daydreaming of just what a wizarding school would look like the compartment was all but yanked open. He swore the door rattled as it settled. Hadrian nearly fell out of his seat at being startled. He turned to face the door to see what had just happened when he was met with a rather rude looking girl.
The girl was obviously his age, the plain tie she was wearing gave it away, and she seemed to have a glare stuck on her face. Whether that was on purpose Hadrian didn't care to know, too annoyed at the blatant rudeness this girl was showing.
Sure Hadrian had not been in the wizarding world long,technically it had only been a few hours. Sure he had known of the wizarding world for weeks but if you counted his time at the wizarding stores and today together it had only been a few hours. Case in point Hadrian hadn't met many wizards but he was pretty sure that wizards, as muggles did, were supposed to have manners. The girl who just yanked open the door seemed to have missed that particular memo. Surely wizards taught their children respect and if they didn't, god have mercy on him if everyone from now on was like this.
“Excuse me, do you know what knocking is?” Hadrian spat at the girl, anger clear in his voice. The girl who had been almost searching the compartment turned to actually face him, her bushy hair bouncing as she did.
“Huh?” She said, as if she hadn't heard what he had just said, her eyebrow raised as she said it.
“Um sorry but have you seen a cat? Mine has run off, stupid Ron, scaring her and I wanted to see if she was here.” she said as if it was obvious.
“Ok and? Could you not have just knocked and asked me instead?” Hadrian said, more agitated than before, God this girl had the nerve.
“Huh?” she said once more, having seemingly ignored him again.
“Hermione, have you found it yet?” A voice from the walkway called, a brown haired boy around his height and a ginger haird boy just shorter than the brown haired boy appeared at this ‘Hermione’ girl's side, she turned to face these people. Bushy hair bouncing once again she spoke.
“No Ronald I haven't, ugh this is all your fault.” and with that she turned and walked away. Peace at last. The boys turned to follow her, The ginger boy went straight after she did. The brown haired boy however turned his way.
For a moment they locked eyes, thinking the boy was going to say something, maybe apologize for his friend's behavior Hadrian stayed quiet.
Instead however, to his shock, With their eyes still locked the boy did nothing but close the door. Turning and walking after his friends as he did so. Hadrian noticed a small quirk of the corner of his lips as he did so. A grimace. Whether that was at him or the boy's friend Hadrian didn't know. What he did know however was that he did not like these people. No manners at all.
He prayed for the rest of the uneventful journey that the rest of his life wouldn't be filled with people like them, realistically he knew he wasn't that lucky.
The journey after that was pretty quick, a possible ten minutes at most. The train came to a halt, the light from outside had gone and darkness took over. The lamps from outside the train glinted on the window, well wasn't that ominous. Hadrian slowly peered out of the compartment door, seeing as no one was passing his way he stepped out. Quickly making his way to the platform. As he did so his ears were overloaded by a loud yell.
“First years! this way with ya!” Hadrian covered his ears slightly when the noise started. He slowly looked up as it drowned out, coming face to face with a tall head in the distance. Was this man standing on something? As he made his way with the crowd in the direction of the man he noticed that no, this man wasn't standing on something. No. He was just a giant. Ok that's not normal for a person to be that large Hadrian thought.
He made his way to the group that had clustered around the giant man. As he stood there he thought back to a story the sisters had told when he was younger, the story of David and Goliath and found himself wondering if this man too would go down as he did. With a rock to the head.
It would sure make him quieten down that's for sure. Hadrian prayed for forgiveness at such a thought in his head. Oh this place was getting to him already and he wasn't even inside yet.
After the few minutes it took to round up the large number of first years, Hadrian noticed that they were the last ones left on the platform. He assumed by the man's presence that they were going to be taking a different route to the school. There wasn't a bus around nor was there any sort of car and Hadrian highly doubted this man was going to apparate them all as Snape had done before. The man began to speak but once Hadrian realized it was nothing but a ramble of nonsense he tuned it out as they began to move.
In the distance he noticed that just a few dozen steps away as a reflection of the moon, which only meant one thing. They were heading towards the water. Hadrian had never been near a lake and he certainly has not been near the sea, worry began to fill his head when he noticed only small boats on the edge of the shore. Were they going to paddle their way themselves? He decided at that point to pay attention to the man's chatter, hoping it would ease him.
“Now kids, it's four to a boat. On with it now, don't want to be late for your sortin’ now do ya?”
Well that answered nothing. Hadrian made his way to a boat, not sparing any attention to the three others who boarded after him. Waiting patiently for everyone else to make their way as he had just done. Without a word the boats began to move, Hadrian's hands shot out to grip the sides of the boat.
By the angel. For a second Hadian swore his heart was in his throat, did these wizards not know how to warn people? Seeing as no one else was as panicked as he was, Hadrian calmed down slightly. These children were acting if this was normal so it had to assume this was again some common knowledge thing he was unaware of.
The water seemed to go on forever, as did the giant man's useless conversation. Succeeding in scaring Hadrian at the mention of some giant squid. Luckily enough for him soon after that comment from the giant they were met with the wonderful shore coming to view.
It took another couple of minutes for everyone to get out of the boats, Hadrian lending his arm to the two girls he apparently rode with.
He was raised to be polite and offering to help out of the boats was the nicest thing he could think of at that moment, though he seemed to be the only one offering help.
The walk thereafter was exhausting, whoever had the idea for them to walk up what was practically a rocky hill with next to no light was a mad man.
As they quickly approached the doors Hadrian took in the true size of the castle he had seen from the distance on the ride over. Dear god this place was huge, were all wizarding schools like this? To Hadrian it looked not too far off from the old churches the sisters had pictures of from their days as traveling nuns. He was awestruck. As they came up to it, the large wooden or perhaps they were metal, Hadrian couldn't tell in the current light, doors opened. Only magic could open something as large as these doors.
With the doors now opened they were met with a corridor, and a woman dressed in green robes at the end of it, who as they approached seemed to be in front of another set of wooden doors.
Once they had all stopped in front of this mystery woman she spoke to the giant man.
“Thank you Hagrid, I will take it from here. thank you.” And with that the giant, who he now knew was named Hagrid left, passing them all and leaving down another corridor that led down the side of the wall the doors were attached to.
“Welcome first years. My name is Professor Mcgonagall. I am head of gryffindor house and deputy headmistress and will be conducting your sorting. I am going to go into the hall behind me and when the doors open you are to walk straight down and wait for your name to be called as you step up to be sorted. Understood? Good. Just a moment.” Professor Mcgonagall then disappeared behind the large doors as they opened and shut widely enough for her to pass through without giving them a peek inside. The chatter from in the hall floated out to them however.
As Mcgongall left, his peers started their own conversations. Which as he overheard were all their versions of the potential sorting that they were about to face. As Hadrian watched them all he took notice of the fact that quite a few of them had seemed to break off into small groups. People who already knew each other he assumed. Their chatter didn't last long however as the wooden doors began to slowly creak open, everyone's attention now on the quickly appearing hall. The opened doors spurred everyone including himself to move slowly forward down the length of the large hall.
There were four large tables, all with different coloured robes. Houses, that's what the professor had called them. Hadrian took it all in, from the sheer size of the room to the - were those candles floating?- to the ceiling which apparently could display actual stars. Wizards were dramatic, Snape wasn't the only one who enjoyed the dramatics it seems. As they reached the end of the tables, the group of first years stopped. Hadrian finally turned forward and saw a table full of what he could only assume were teachers. Professor Snape was off the edge of the table closest to the wall and Hadrian didn't know the other teachers to pay attention to them.
Professor Mcgonagall coughed as to gain the attention of the rest of the first years as she made them cast their eyes to- a hat?
A hat was sat to her side on a stool, the hat was obviously old and was heavily wrinkled. Suddenly the hat moved on its own and - Talked? No, it was sort of singing.
“Oh, you may not think I'm pretty,
But don't judge on what you see,
I'll eat myself if you can find
A smarter hat than me.
You can keep your bowlers black,
Your top hats sleek and tall,
For I'm the Hogwarts Sorting Hat
And I can cap them all.
There's nothing hidden in your head
The Sorting Hat can't see,
So try me on and I will tell you
Where you ought to be.
You might belong in Gryffindor,
Where dwell the brave at heart,
Their daring, nerve and chivalry
Set Gryffindors apart;
You might belong in Hufflepuff,
Where they are just and loyal,
Those patient Hufflepuffs are true
And unafraid of toil;
Or yet in wise old Ravenclaw,
If you've a ready mind,
Where those of wit and learning,
Will always find their kind;
Or perhaps in Slytherin
You'll make your real friends,
Those cunning folk use any means
To achieve their ends.
So put me on! Don't be afraid!
And don't get in a flap!
You're in safe hands (though I have none)
For I'm a Thinking Cap!”
Hadrian was stunned and he was sure it was clear as day on his face. What on Earth was this place? Hats could talk here? Oh he was too exhausted for this.
Mcgonagall pulled a scroll from her robes, unrolling it as she spoke.
“One by one I will say your name, you are to come and sit on the stool where the hat will be placed on your head to sort you” She said, in a confident tone as she grabbed the hat and lifted it to the height their heads would be when they sat down.
“Abbott,Hannah.” The first girl was called, slowly walking the couple of steps and sitting on the stool. The hat was placed on her head, seeming to rock slightly, before bellowing out.
“Hufflepuff!”
The table of yellow cheered from beside them, nearly causing Hadrian to flinch. Now at least he knew what a Hufflepuff was, he guessed.
Slowly name after name was called. The obnoxious Hermione girl was sorted to the table of red, the gryffindors Mcgonagall had mentioned before.
“Longbottom,Neville.” As the boy from earlier made his way up, standing straight and confident, the people around him began to mumble. ‘The boy who lived’ ‘THE Neville Longbottom?’
So the boy was famous? The sisters had said the famous ones were the rudest, guess they hadn't been too far off. Within a few seconds the hat screamed Gryffindor once more. Hadrian knew which house he didn't want, that's for sure.
Not long after Hadrian was called.
“Potter,Hadrian '' Slowly he made his way to the stool, slowly sitting on it as the hat was placed on his head, nearly covering his eyes. He almost jumped when a voice entered his head. He knew not to speak out loud, none of the other children had.
“Hmm what a complex mind. Religious are you?Hmm Loyal That's for sure. Ambitious one too. And what's this, don't like the idea of being in red? You'll make your true friends here, that's certain Mr.Potter.” The hat spoke, voice rough in tone. Hadrian couldn't get a word in before it screamed its answer, before being pulled off of his head.
“Best be, Slytherin!”
The house in green didn't cheer, seeming to be the tamer house of the bunch, that he was thankful for. They did clap however. Hadrian felt Snape's eyes on his back as he made his way slowly over to the table that was full of his new housemates. Hadrian knew Snapes eyes, having felt this glare a few times when he came to take him out.
No one talked to him,just as he had hoped they wouldn’t.
The sorting was over not too shortly after him. The final child being placed in slytherin.
A man with disgusting coloured robes walked out from the teachers table, and his ornate seat. The only ornate one in the bunch. He reached the lectern and started his speech.
“Welcome all to another year at Hogwarts. I’ll make this quick so we can all eat. I'd first like to remind you all that the forbidden forest is just that- forbidden. Also, our caretaker, Mr. Filch, has asked me to remind you that the third-floor corridor on the right-hand side is out of bounds to everyone who does not wish to die a most painful death.
Now before we begin our banquet i'd like to say a few words. And here they are:Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! and Tweak! Now let the feast begin.” The man who he heard someone say was called Dumbledore, their headmaster spoke, waving his wand and making food appear around them all across the table. His housemates and the rest of the hall began to pile food onto their plates. Hadrian however was more focused on the painful death part of that horrible ‘welcome’ speech than the food. Were these people ok in the head? That is not normal. Hadrian took a look around and no one else was worried in the slightest, too busy tucking into the vast amount of food, more food then Hadrian had ever seen before in his life.
This school was far from normal. A part of Hadrian wanted to hightail it back to the orphanage, already missing its plain and boring walls. The weight of his rosary, which he had unconsciously clasped in his hand in his pocket.
God have mercy on his soul. This was going to drain him. He just knew it.
Oh well how bad could the next few years be?