The Sorting
Harry flinched when the door suddenly swung open, and he felt Theo tense at his side. He peered in between the other students around him, spotting a stern looking witch in green robes.
“The firs’ years, Professor McGonagall,” said Hagrid.
“Thank you, Hagrid. I will take them from here.”
She pulled the door wide. The entrance hall was so big you could have fit the entirety of his house in it four times over. The stone walls were lit with flaming torches like the ones at Gringotts, the ceiling was too high to make out, and a magnificent marble staircase facing them led to the upper floor.
They followed Professor McGonagall across the flagged stone floor. Harry could hear the drone of hundreds of voices from a doorway to the right – the rest of the school must already be here – but Professor McGonagall showed the first years into a small, empty chamber off the hall. They crowded in, standing rather closer together than they would usually have done, peering about nervously.
“Welcome to Hogwarts,” said Professor McGonagall. “The start-of-term banquet will begin shortly, but before you take your seats in the Great Hall, you will be sorted into your houses. The Sorting is a very important ceremony because, while you are here, your house will be something like your family within Hogwarts. You will have classes with the rest of your house, sleep in your house dormitory, and spend free time in your house common room.
“The four houses are called Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin. Each house has its own noble history and each has produced outstanding witches and wizards. While you are at Hogwarts, your triumphs will earn your house points, while any rule-breaking will lose house points. At the end of the year, the house with the most points is awarded the house cup, a great honor. I hope each of you will be a credit to whichever house becomes yours.
“The Sorting Ceremony will take place in a few minutes in front of the rest of the school. I suggest you all smarten yourselves up as much as you can while you are waiting.”
Her gaze flicked over the group, stopping on a few of the students; a red haired boy with dirt smudged on his nose, Neville’s slightly undone tie, and Harry, who she just… Stared at for a moment.
Then, she left the chamber, which prompted a sigh of relief to spread over the group of students, who all immediately began discussing the possible ways they would be sorted into their houses. One person said that they heard that statues of the founders themselves hand selected students, while the red haired boy said that his brothers told him they would have to fight a mountain troll.
Harry thought it was probably much simpler. Maybe they read each student’s magic? Or, maybe it was just drawing a house out of a hat and going there based on sheer luck.
“Neville, hey, Neville.” Harry said softly, waving the boy over. He hesitated for a second, but walked over, his eyebrow raised in confusion before he jumped as Harry flicked his wand and fixed his tie.
“O-oh, uh, thank you, Harry.” He smiled.
“No problem. You’re shaking a lot, I didn’t want you to stress yourself.”
He heard a snort from behind him, and he turned to look at Draco with a raised brow. The blonde boy opened his mouth to speak, likely some sort of taunt, but the look that Harry had on his face seemed to knock it right out of him. The two larger boys that he had with him stepped back as well, like they were surprised.
“Don’t be rude.” Harry chided, letting his expression soften. “He’s nervous. There’s nothing wrong with being nervous. After all, we don’t know how the sorting actually happens.”
A few of the other students were looking over at him now, all of them seeming curious and confused by the interaction.
“Well, I mean-” Draco spluttered. “Longbottom is the heir of an ancient house, he’s supposed to be representing his family here, and he looks like a sniveling-”
“Draco.” Blaise warned.
“What, you know I’m right! He’s acting like a child, he has a duty to his family and here he is, trembling like he’s facing down a boggart!”
Harry sighed, running a hand through his hair, and he looked at Neville, who had somehow gotten even paler.
“Don’t mind him, Nev. I’m terrified too.” He admitted softly. “Although, I doubt we’re going to have to fight a mountain troll, at least. We’re eleven, I really doubt that anything that dangerous would happen at a school.”
Out of the corner of his eye, he could see that Professor McGonagall was approaching again, so he cleared his throat, offering Neville another smile and whispered.
“Everything will be fine, okay?”
Neville nodded a bit, offering his own nervous smile as Harry stepped back between Theo and Blaise, feeling the most comfortable between the two of them. The rest of the students had all gotten quiet after his and Draco’s conversation, and even Professor McGonagall seemed surprised and confused at that fact.
“Now, form a line,” Professor McGonagall told the first years, “and follow me.”
Heeling oddly as though his legs had turned to lead, Harry got into line behind a boy with sandy hair, with Ron behind him, and they walked out of the chamber, back across the hall, and through a pair of double doors into the Great Hall.
Harry had never even imagined such a strange and beautiful place. It was lit by thousands and thousands of candles that were floating in midair over four long tables, where the rest of the students were sitting. These tables were laid with glittering golden plates and goblets. At the top of the hall was another long table where the teachers were sitting. Professor McGonagall led the first years up here, so that they came to a halt in a line in front of the other students, with the teachers behind them.
The hundreds of faces staring at them looked like pale lanterns in the flickering candlelight. Dotted here and there among the students, he could see a few silvery, transparent people. Likely the ghosts he had read about in one of the many books he had gotten on Hogwarts. Mainly to avoid all the staring eyes, Harry looked upward and saw a velvety black ceiling dotted with stars.
The magic he had felt when they first approached the castle was stronger here, but it was still muffled. Now, though, he could make out what it was trying to say to him, even just barely.
Welcome, Welcome! Hello hello! Hello, Welcome!
It felt excited, eager to have the students safely within its walls, to protect and nurture their magic until they were ready to venture out into the world. Before he could think about it much more, however, his attention was pulled back to where he was presently standing.
More specifically, towards the hat that sat upon an old stool, which had opened one of the rips on the front of itself to… Sing. The hat, was singing. Harry watched it in utter amazement, the song flying over his head entirely as he tried to study it, tried to figure out what sort of magic made it as sentient as it was.
The whole hall burst into applause as the hat finished its song, snapping him out of his fascinated staring. It bowed to each of the four tables and then became quite still again.
Well... He had been at least partially right about how they would be sorted.
Harry hummed a bit as he thought about the hat and the sorting in general. It was obvious which houses were favored amongst the general wizarding populace. Most wixen thought that Gryffindor was the best place to go, and were not afraid to admit it. Of course, Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff were good as well, but if someone wanted to be a hero of sorts, they had to go to Gryffindor.
But he already knew where he was going.
Harry was a Slytherin at heart, and he knew it. When he had read through his books on Hogwarts, they all talked about the traits that each house valued the most. Yes, Slytherin valued ambition and cunning, but they valued the ability to change, to shift gears in an instant, and to go against the grain of what everyone else wanted to do.
They valued determination in the face of adversity, a quiet strength that came through when it was needed most.
He smiled a bit as he watched Professor McGonagall unroll a long sheet of parchment and adjusted her glasses.
“When I call your name, you will put on the hat and sit on the stool to be sorted,” she said. “Abbott, Hannah!”
A pink-faced girl with blonde pigtails stumbled out of line, put on the hat, which fell right down over her eyes, and sat down. A moment’s pause, and then-
“HUFFLEPUFF!” shouted the hat.
The table on the right cheered and clapped as Hannah went to sit down at the Hufflepuff table.
“Bones, Susan!”
“HUFFLEPUFF!” shouted the hat again, and Susan scuttled off to sit next to Hannah.
“Boot, Terry!”
“RAVENCLAW!”
The table second from the left clapped this time; several Ravenclaws stood up to shake hands with Terry as he joined them.
“Brocklehurst, Mandy” went to Ravenclaw too, but “Brown, Lavender” became the first new Gryffindor, and the table on the far left exploded with cheers.
“Bulstrode, Millicent” then became a Slytherin. He let out a shaky breath, feeling a bit nervous now as the sorting continued on. He wanted to be in the same house as his friends, and wasn’t quite sure what he would do if he wasn’t.
“Finch-Fletchley, Justin!”
“HUFFLEPUFF!”
Sometimes, Harry noticed, the hat shouted out the house at once, but at others it took a little while to decide. “Finnigan, Seamus,” the sandy-haired boy next to Harry in the line, sat on the stool for almost a whole minute before the hat declared him a Gryffindor.
“Granger, Hermione!”
The bushy haired girl who had come to ask about Trevor the toad almost ran to the stool and jammed the hat eagerly on her head.
“GRYFFINDOR!” shouted the hat.
Well, now he knew where he knew Hermione from. She had, very very briefly, been his foster sister when he stayed with her family a few months before he went to his parents.
He didn’t remember her well, but chuckled a bit at the realization that he actually knew someone from the muggle world that was at the same school as him. Blaise looked at him strangely, but Harry shook his head, mouthing ‘later’, which the other boy agreed to.
When Neville was called up, the Sorting Hat took a long time to decide on a place for him, eventually calling out, “HUFFLEPUFF!”, and sending the table on the right into excited cheers. Harry clapped as well, flashing his friend a bright smile as he rushed off to join his yearmates.
Draco all but strutted up when his name was called, and the hat barely touched his head before the boy was sent off to Slytherin. A few more names were called, and then he heard another familiar one.
“Nott, Theodore!”
Harry looked up, watching as Theo made his way up to the stool and took a seat. It took a moment, but then, to his relief, he heard the Sorting Hat call his friend to Slytherin as well.
Theo stood up from the stool gracefully before making his way over to the Slytherin table, and a few more names were called up before, all of a sudden.
“Potter, Harry!”
Harry felt his blood run cold at that. His letter had been addressed to Harry Hartford, so why was his name still on the list as Harry Potter?
He could hear the whispers and excited chattering from the students around him, suddenly remembering that he was, in fact, a famous person to them.
Blaise’s hand came to rest on his shoulder, giving it a gentle squeeze. He nodded at Harry, who nodded back, lifting his head and stepping forward, looking at Professor McGonagall.
“My name isn’t Potter, Professor. It’s Hartford. Please don’t refer to me by that name, because I will not respond from this point on.” He said simply, which seemed to silence the crowd in the dining hall. The professor seemed a bit frazzled by the backtalk, but he kept his gaze firm until she spoke again.
“Then… Well, Hartford, Harry.” She said, and he stepped up to the stool, taking his seat as she placed the hat upon his head.
“Hmmm… You’re an interesting young man, Mr. Hartford.” A small voice said in his ear after a moment. “You believe that you are not brave, yet you told off a professor.”
‘That’s not bravery, that’s just sticking up for myself. I’m not Harry Potter.’
“No, no you are not.” The Sorting Hat chuckled. ,i.“You have a kind heart, strict moral code, and a thirst for knowledge I’ve scarcely seen outside of Ravenclaw. But… I can see that you know where you belong, just as much as I know.”
“Better be… Slytherin!” The hat called out before it was swiftly lifted off of his head by Professor McGonagall. Harry blinked rapidly, going from the pitch darkness to a sudden bright light that hurt his eyes, and he shoved his glasses back up his nose from where he felt them slipping off.
He carefully stood up from his seat and headed towards the Slytherin table, noting in the back of his mind that… There was almost no applause for his sorting.
In fact, most people were staring at him, or rather, glaring.
Harry’s heart clenched in his chest. Just a few minutes before, they had been staring at him in shock and awe. Now, they looked almost betrayed, like he had done something wrong.
He shook his head, quickly hurrying to take his seat next to Theo, who wrapped an arm around his shoulders without a moment’s hesitation, offering him a small, supportive smile. Harry tried to give one back, but he just felt like he was out of his body, not registering anything that was happening around him.
He didn’t hear the other people who got sorted, only absently noticing that Blaise had sat on his other side, he didn’t hear the odd speech that the Headmaster gave, and he certainly didn’t even realize that the feast had appeared on the table in front of him until Draco leaned over, snatched up his plate, and piled a bit of food onto it for him.
Harry blinked a few times, sucking in a breath as he suddenly was slammed back into his own body. “Huh?”
“There you are, Harry. Are you okay?” Blaise asked quietly, his brow furrowed in concern.
“Oh, uh, yeah. Yeah, I’m alright.” He nodded, rubbing his face. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to zone out like that.”
“You’re fine. Do you know what caused it?”
“I think I just got overwhelmed by everyone staring at me. I’m not used to being around this many people.”
His plate suddenly appeared in front of him again, neatly cut roast chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, corn, and two buttered rolls arranged elegantly on the plate.
“I’m not surprised.” Draco said simply, taking a bite of his own dinner. “They looked at you like you killed their kneazles. Just because you were sorted into Slytherin.”
“Well, they were probably not expecting Harry to be his own person.” Theo added softly. “He used to be Harry Potter, after all, and both of his parents were Gryffindors. They expected him to follow in their footsteps, even though he wasn’t raised by them at all.”
Harry smiled a bit, starting to eat when he realized that everyone else was. “Thanks, Theo…”
“Don’t worry about it. You’re your own person.” The other boy insisted firmly. “And Harry Hartford is a lot nicer than I think Harry Potter would have been.”
He snickered a bit, shaking his head as he took a bite of his roll, the stress of the sorting and everyone else’s reactions quickly fading away as he settled into comfortable conversation with his new friends.
—
Getting down to the dormitories in the dungeons was a bit of a process, mostly because of the sheer amount of staircases they had to make their way down. The first year Slytherins and Hufflepuffs walked side by side for most of the journey, and although Harry was a good few people in front of them, he could hear bits and pieces of the quiet conversation that Neville and Draco were having, and he couldn’t stop the smile that pulled at his lips as he realized what they were saying.
“-ologize, my behavior was completely uncalled for, Longbottom.” Draco said softly, and after a moment, Neville replied.
“Uh… Apology accepted, Malfoy. I… I want us to get along, you know? We’re both Harry’s friends, even if it’s still new, and…”
“Agreed.”
“So… Friends?”
“Friends.”
A pleased hum escaped Harry as he continued walking. That issue resolved itself easily, which he very much appreciated.
Eventually, the two groups split apart, the Slytherins going to the left as the Hufflepuffs went to the right. Gemma Fawley and Castor Torrance, the Slytherin Prefects, stopped the first years just outside of their entrance.
“Alright, firsties.” Gemma smiled at them, crossing her arms over her chest. “The password for the door changes every week. You are not to share it with members of any other house. If you forget the password, or don’t know the password, you can ask any of your classmates for help getting in. If all else fails, come to either myself or Castor, as we’re the ones in charge of you while we get you settled in. This week’s password is ‘Aconite’.”
As she spoke the word, which Harry vaguely remembered was another name for wolfsbane, the stone wall that they were staring at slowly parted. Both prefects waved everyone inside, and once all of them were safely within the walls of the Slytherin common room, did they follow, allowing the door to close behind them.
The common room was dark, cool, and soothing to be in. The dark stone walls with the silver and green accents gave the entire room an elegant, almost gothic feel.
Harry felt right at home.
“Is this everyone, Miss Fawley?” A familiar voice pulled his attention away from admiring the decor, and he smiled when he saw Professor Snape, the man’s eyes looking over them appraisingly.
“Yes, sir. All of our new first years.” Gemma nodded. “Annual speech time?”
Snape hummed in agreement, folding his arms behind his back.
“Welcome to Slytherin House. Some of you may know who I am due to other family members, but for those of you who do not, I am Professor Severus Snape, your Head of House and Potions professor for the next five years at least.” He said simply. “As your head of house, I have rules to enforce. Number one; you must be back in the common room by 10:00 PM every night, although I would prefer for you to be in your dormitories at that time, I understand that sleepless nights do occur.”
“Number two; Slytherins do not have public disputes with one another. Should you have a problem, of any sort, with a fellow Slytherin, it is to be dealt with in the common room via a duel supervised by one of your six prefects. We are a single unit when outside these walls, and you must always remember that. Number three; Never go anywhere alone. I am unsure if you’re all aware of the… Previous incidents, but lone Slytherin students have been known to be hexed, cursed, or otherwise tricked by members of other houses. If you must go somewhere, take at least one other person with you.”
Snape looked over them as they all nodded along, and he made eye contact with Harry.
“An addendum to my rules is this; Any students who have a name that they use that may differ from what the official school documents may say are to have that name respected and used, no matter what. I do not care if they have slighted you, I do not care if they insulted you, your mother, or your pet flobberworm. You will respect their chosen name, and that is final.”
Harry felt his shoulders slump in relief, joining in as the rest of the students chorused. “Yes, Professor Snape.”
“You are dismissed.”
And with that, Snape turned and walked off, disappearing down a side corridor. Blaise grabbed Harry’s hand, bringing him and Theo over to one of the sofas in the middle of the room.
“What’s up, Blaise?” He asked softly, looking at his friend worriedly.
“I just don’t want to go to bed yet.” He replied, a soft chuckle escaping him as he plopped down on the sofa, the other two following his lead.
It didn’t take long until all three of them got to chatting about whatever came to mind, mostly things about school, the books they’ve read, and the occasional question about their families, which was mostly directed at Harry. Draco wandered over and joined them after a while, easily fitting into the conversation now that Harry wasn’t frustrated with him, and the four of them stayed up talking and laughing until one of the seventh years sent them to bed.
By the time they made it to their dorm, which they all shared, they were all exhausted, and Harry was relieved to see his trunk sitting in front of the bed closest to the door, letting him kick off his shoes and flop face first into it. He could hear the shuffling of the other boys as they all started getting ready for bed, and allowed himself to drift off a bit before heading into the bathroom to get ready himself.
He wanted to look, and feel, his best for his first day of school, after all.