That Hat Sorts Them
"Jones, Abigale."
It was getting close now. Scorpius' name would soon be called to be sorted and Aniara was starting to get nervous for him. He was a Malfoy and therefore expected to be put into Slytherin. But he had just started to become friends with Al and Rose, and they would surely be put into Griffindor. She could feel his nervousness at being separated from them. She held onto his hand, not wanting to let go for fear he might collaps if she did.
"I will be with you the whole time. I'm gonna hold your hand when you get sorted. You have nothing to be worried about Sunshine. Nothing."
"But what if-"
"Stop. Just because you may be in different houses doesn't mean you still can't be friends. Just breath. Everything is going to be fine."
Scorpius nodded his head and didn't seem to care if someone noticed him.
"Malfoy, Scorpius."
Here is was. The moment had come. But her brother didn't move. He just stood there looking up at the stool and the witch holding the hat. Aniara tried to tug on his hand to pull him up to the hat, but his hand didn't budge. He didn't move at all until Al reached out and patted him on the back.
"Go ahead mate. It's not like the hat is gonna eat you."
That comment had snapped Scorpius out of whatever fear induced trance he was in and he gave a half hearted chuckle. Then he slowly walked up towards the stool. There were some hushed whispers throughout the students with a slight sneer in its hushed tone, but Aniara just squeezed his hand encouragingly.
Once he was seated on the stool, Professor Midgen placed the hat on his head. But unlike their father, it didn't imediately shout 'Slytherin.'
Then both siblings heard a strange voice. They were both used to having another voice speak in their head so this new one didn't shock them, but what it said certainly did.
"Hello. This is a new one! Never had two at the same time before. Quite unique. Quite unique indeed."
"Can it sense me here too?" Aniara said to her brother in a whisper.
"Yes Aniara. You are here are you not? My, my you too are quite special wizards indeed. With a long family history, one I am well familiar with."
Scorpius' mouth dropped open, before he closed it to gulp the lump down his throat. His nerves and fears dissapeared and made way for confusion. He turned he head slightly to look at his sister, before remembering he was in a hall with thousands of eyes on him and turned it back to the large double doors to the hall.
But Aniara just looked at her brother. She was at a lose for words. The hat was addressing both of them. How could it do that? No one else had ever addressed her while she was projecting before. How could the hat possibly know she was there? Then it felt like the hat was almost laughing in their minds.
"Why magic of course little one. It's my job to see into the minds of young wizards and witches to sort them to their future. But what to do with you two?"
Two? Was it going to sort them both? But Aniara wasn't even attending Hogwarts, how could she be sorted?
"Now one mind is easy to sort, but two is a challenge I have never faced before. I am quite excited to do something new for a change. Centuries of the same thing gets quiet tedious after a while, so thank you for bringing me something new children." It felt like it was chuckling with delight again.
Both of them were now completely confused and at a total loss for words. They weren't even sure how to think, almost as if their thoughts were getting tangled up in each other's and they didn't know which ones belonged to which twin. But why were they surprised? Their life the last four years had been nothing but one unbelievable thing after another. How was this situation any different. They looked out to the crowd of students and wondered how long they had been up there with the hat on Scorpius' head. Five seconds? Three minutes? Half an hour? A full day? It hadn't felt like much time had passed, but time was also starting to twist and fold and become irrelevant to them.
"I see a thirst for knowledge, valued heavily by Ravenclaw. A strong sense of loyalty as well, Hufflepuff would welcome you with open arms. And bravery, such bravery! And cunning too. How smart and cunning you were to do what you did that day."
That day? What day? What was this old hat talking about? There wasn't a day that stood out in their mind that they considered themselves very brave or very cunning. Maybe the hat just spoke in riddles and made all the other kids confused and antsy before shouting out their house.
"You would be welcomed by all the houses, yes even Griffindor would welcome you, don't doubt your worth children. Family is everything but it isn't always everything. So many choices, so many choices. But not much imput. Most tell me their wants at this point but you two don't know do you? You don't know what you want. Hard to work for things when you don't even know what you want to work for. Hard to think about your future when you have forgotten so much of your past."
Forgotten? What had they forgotten? There didn't seem to be any big holes in their memories of their childhood. They felt they could rememeber a lot really. They spent so much time together, how could they forget any memories that they didn't share together? Unless...
Aniara broke free of their colletive thoughts for a moment. She looked around at everyone in the Great Hall. She looked at all the teachers, all the older students, at the first years waiting their turn to be sorted. She looked at Rose who held her head up high as she patiently waited for her turn with the hat. She looked at Al and his sweet crooked smile that seemed to begin to fade as he watched Scorpius sitting on the stool. Then she scanned the crowd for his face. Why did she want to keep looking for his face once it was out of sight?
After what felt like a minute of scanning the faces of the other students, she found it. The curly dark hair, the bright emerald green eyes, the sneaky smile that never seemed to disapear from his face no matter what he was saying or what he was feeling. Something eased inside her when she caught sight of his face.
She still heard the voice of the hat in her mind, but this time it felt like only she could hear it. "There you are. I see you now. Your time will come. No, I cannot see into the future, but I know it will come. And when it does, Ravenclaw shall be your home. But for now, yes for now..."
Then she was pulled back. Back into the jumble of confusing thoughts in their shared mind. They heard the hat speak one last time inside their head, "Tied together, and hard to separate, but for now you both will wait in-"
Then the hat shouted out to the great hall in a voice louder than it had used before for any of the other students, "SLYTHERIN!"
There was a shocked second of silence, and an almost sigh of relief, before a loud cheer errupted from the right side of the Great Hall as the other Slytherin's welcomed their newest memeber. Scorpius smiled sheepishly and softly made his way to sit with the rest of his house. Aniara didn't notice that she had let go of his hand once the hat had sorted him until she felt herself being pulled back towards him as he crossed the 30 foot limit. But though she hadn't tried to fight the pull, it wasn't slow at first. It imediately snapped her back to his side with a strong force that felt like it would have given her whiplash had it been to her physical body and not an astral projection of herself. She stood behind him while he sat down at the table and looked back towards the remaining first years in anticipation.
Aniara wasn't sure what had just happened, but she was determined to find out as soon as she could. And she wouldn't stop until she figured it all out.
*********
Scorpius watched as a few more students were sorted before the one he was waiting for was called.
"Potter, Albus."
Hushed murmurs had errupted just like when Scorpius's name was called, but he could tell these ones were far more nice than his had been. He watched as the young boy calmly made his way up to the stool. The hat was placed on his head and didn't say anything for a good 15 seconds. Then, in a voice much quieter than the once used for Scorpius' sorting, the hat simply stated, "Slytherin."
His heart lept. Was this actually happening? Was the boy Scorpius was daring to consider a friend actually being sorted into the same house as him? Was a child with the last name of Potter truely being sorted into Slytherin and not Griffindor? Scorpius didn't even register the change in tone of the murmurings of the other Hogwarts students. He didn't even notice that the cheer at the table around him for Al has been slightly less excited then it had been for him.
He just watched as the boy, with his dark head of hair held high, make his way over to him. He smiled down at Scorpius and clapped him on the back before sitting down next to him. Then Scorpius dared a glance at the man he was most intimidated by. He was worried about what look he would see on the man's face. Anger? Betrayal? Hurt? Disapointment?
No. Scorpius was surprised. Harry Potter, the Boy Who Lived Again, the wizard who saved the world, the lead of the Golden Trio, one of the most famous Griffindor's to ever live was looking at his youngest son, who had just been sorted into Slytherin, with pride. Harry Potter was proud that his son had been sorted into Slytherin.
What a day this was turning into.
"I was a little worried about being sorted into Slytherin before I came here. Told my dad just before getting on the train. Want to know what he said?"
Scorpius nodded and looked at Al.
"He told me that he was almost sorted into Slytherin himself. He said that the war is over, and not all Slytherins were bad: Merlin, Professor Slughorn, even one of your Gran's cousins. He also told me the hat takes your choise into account as well so if I was really worried about it I could ask it to put me in any house I wanted."
Scorpius' eyes went wide in shock.
"Did it not listen? Oh Al I'm sorry, I-"
"No," Al cut him off, "It listened. Can't very well abandon my friend when I was just starting to get to know him, now could I?"
Al just smiled. He smiled that crooked smile that made Scorpius unable to not smile back. "You consider me a friend?" He almost wanted to cry, "You don't have to you know. Just because your mum made you guys sit with me doesn't-"
"Cori, stop worrying will ya? It didn't matter if my mum told us to sit with you or not, I was gonna join you in your train car anyway. Saw you saying goodbye to your folks, smiling at them proudly and not worrying about your mum kissing you on the cheek in public. James throws a fit if Mum tries, and I'm not a big fan of it, but I know she can't help herself. You didn't even flinch. Then you just boarded the train like it pained you to leave them. You love your family. You would do anything for them, like I would for mine. I just knew I had to be friends with you. Even if I had to learn some sort of friendship spell or potion or something."
Scorpius didn't know what to say.
"After that long hatstall, Rose said it took seven minutes and 14 seconds, yes she counted, I decided that I would tell the sorting hat that it had to put me in Slytherin. It almost argued with me, like it was shocked I actually wanted to be in Slytherin. But it said I had potential here so Slytherin it is."
"Wait! I caused a Hatstall?!" Scorpius nearly shouted.
"You didn't notice?" Al looked midly shocked but smirked, "Yeah you did. Rose says she reckons it was possibly the longest one ever. Some of the students were surprised when the hat took more than a few seconds to sort you. I think after a minute lots of students got worried when you weren't sorted. After five minutes had passed, it felt like everyone just held their breath. What were you two arguing about that took seven minutes?"
Scorpius paused and looked away from Al for a moment. He felt like he knew the answer, like it was on the tip of his tongue, but when he tried to reach it, it just fell from his grasp and fluttered away. What had been happening in his mind for seven minutes?
"I don't... It didn't feel that long. I don't remember exactly what it was saying to u-," He paused catching the slip up, "uh, saying to me. It was all a bunch of weird riddles and almost like a jumbled mess. And sometimes it felt like it was waiting for me to answer it, even though it just kept talking."
"Well whatever happened," Al nugged his shoulder, "I'm just glad we get to share a dorm for the next seven years. Oh hold up," He pointed to his head towards the hat as Timothy Wallace had been sorted into Hufflepuff. Rose was the last first year left.
"Weasley, Rose." Professor Midgen called out as Rose nearly jumped to sit on the stool. It took only about 10 seconds before the hat announced, "Ravenclaw."
The table next to them cheered in welcome to their newest member and some of the other students at the Slytherin table muttered shocked statements about a Weasley not in Griffindor.
"I guess I wasn't the only one to break the generational house streak today. Lets just hope the two of us don't get any howlers tomorrow eh?"
************
Aniara moved through the table to stand behind Rose. She looked out at the table of the other Ravenclaw students and her heart began to ache. She was supposed to be here. She was supposed to be next sitting next to the redheaded girl, chatting with her newly aquired best friend. She had been sorted into Ravenclaw. But how could she have been? She hadn't even gotten a proper Hogwarts letter, but the hat had still sorted her into Ravenclaw.
No, it hadn't really. Had it? I said that Ravenclaw would welcome her, that it would be her home, but for now she had to wait. She had to wait and live vicariously through her twin brother as he lived in the house of Slytherin.
But what had just happened? What did it all mean?
She watched as Headmistress McGonagall stood up and welcomed everyone to another year at Hogwarts. She informed the first years of some of the rules: the forbiden forest is forbiden, student curfew was at 9:30 on the weekdays and 10:30 on the weekends, and WWW products beyond a grade 3 were prohibited and would be confiscated, and their use would result in two weeks worth of detentions.
And with that the Welcome Feast had begin. Mounds of food, sweets, and pudding were magically piled on the tables and students began to eagerly dig in. Aniara looked around in longing, wishing she were actually there to experience all of this. She looked over at her brother and watched as he enjoyed his meal and was engrossed in his conversation with his new friend. She wasn't sure if he was even aware she was still there.
She looked around one last time. She had planned to stay until Scorpius went to bed, eaves droping in on other students conversations, maybe just sit and watch the other students while she imagined which house she would have been sorted into. But she didn't need to imagine. She had been sorted. But she still couldn't attend. She still couldn't do any magic beyond her astral projections. She was still labeled a squib. She was still sitting alone in her bedroom closet, projecting herself through her brother's magic and conciousness.
She didn't want to pretend. She didn't want to live vicariously through her brother's classes, through the welcome feast, through the first looks at the school dorm room. She wanted to actually be there at Hogwarts sitting next to the other Ravenclaw students. Sitting next to Rose.
*********
She opened her eyes. It took a moment to register her surroundings. She was leaning agaist the wall in the back of her large walk in closet. Her expensive robes and dresses were hanging on multiple racks to her right, while on her left was rows of shoes and shelves full of all other sorts of assorted accessories she couldn't ever use that her mother and Grandmother insisted she still own. Directly across from her, in the dim light of her closet, was a full length mirror mounted to the door. She could barely make out her sillouette as it sat slouched aginst the wall, hugging its knees. Her face was weird. It had lots of red splotches all over and was glistening a little bit. And it seemed sad. No, not sad, it was angry. It was angry. distressed, and defeated.
She was angry, distressed and defeated.
She leaded over and layed on her side on the floor, still hugging her knees to her chest. And that was where she slept the rest of the night.