Sorting
The first official day of the scholar year was chaotic. We had to wake up really early in the morning to finish the preparations at The Great Hall for the kids' arrival that evening. I remember being in charge of putting up some decorations at the Ravenclaw table, following the patterns of the rest of the houses but with different colors. It wasn't difficult even if decoration wasnt my strongest attribute.
I was nervous. I was going to be the new teacher after Mr. Benling, and he set the bar high. The kids looked curious at my direction, I was sitting at the left end of the professors table, next to Neville. I tried to smile at all the kids I caught looking at me, so they would have a good first impression of the new DADA´s teacher. I could see that most of the kids were excited to see their friends again after the summer. Some of them looked sad, I guess because holidays were over and school was about to start again, and I could relate to that.
McGonagall was giving a short speech about the school values, the new teachers, forbidden areas and so on, she was a great communicator. Once she finished, Mattheo appeared behind the big doors with all the first years. Cute little kids about to start their education, poor kids… (Being a teacher doesn't mean I enjoyed being a student.). Then the sorting ceremony started. It was way more interesting than the one we had at Beauxbatons. Most of the kids that year were sorted at Hufflepuff and Gryffindor, poor prefects… they had to manage all those little ones. It was curious to see every table cheering once a kid was sorted, it felt like everyone was happy regardless of the house the kids were being put into.
- Back to when I was a student things were different. - Neville was whispering at me. - I was a Gryffindor, there was an insane rivalry between Slytherins and Gryffindors. Things changed after the war tho, it's refreshing to see a healthy rivalry now.
- Was it that bad? - He looked serious at me. His eyes let me see that he still felt bad about whatever happened at that time. His mouth was closed in a thin line, his whole face seemed completely different from the cute happy one that I saw in him the prior day.
- Worse. It was even physical. It was different from now though. Many of us thought every single Slytherin was a death eater. It was way more complicated than that, but we were kids, and kids tend to try to simplify everything. - He then changed his expression to a more thoughtful one. - I think if you were to tell me that a Slytherin, Mattheo from them all, was going to be one of my closest friends, I would have laughed. - And finally his happy and easy going smile was back.
We kept talking for a bit while we ate, the loud voices and laughter from the kids made The Great Hall feel full of life, a big contrast from that same morning. I loved that ambience, it felt like a safe place, guarded from everything that was happening behind the doors, in the real world.
When the dinner ended the kids ran out to their common rooms, eager to unpack, talk until late hours at night and barely get enough sleep for the first day of classes. I almost missed being a student so I could feel so excited about everything again, when you grow up you lose the ability to feel that excited about almost everything… again: adulthood and capitalism.
Later that night I was already in my room, doing my skincare routine when someone knocked at my door.
- Hey, I decided to have a cup of tea and I wondered if maybe you would like one as well. - Mr. Puppy eyes was back.
- Sure I would love to drink something with you, but it has to be coffee, I hate tea. - And he stopped with the puppy eyes and looked at me as if I killed someone right in front of him… scary.
- You hate what?
- In my defense I'm Spanish, don't judge me with your Scottish parameters. - I raised my arms in defeat, people here were sensitive about tea. Couldn't judge them tho, I would feel the same if they said that they hate a good handmade Tortilla.
- You pretend to sleep early with a cup full of caffeine?
- Yes, now let's go get them, it's getting late. - I smiled at him while taking my bag of sweets, they were great to eat with coffee, and led him to one of the living rooms, there was always an elf there tidying up everything and taking requests, so he could get our beverages.
- Hello Coby, could you please bring a cup of strong coffee to Mrs. López and a cup of tea to me? Two sugar spoons, please. - People thought Mattheo was a bad person but he was behaving like a human being with a domestic elf, much more educated than the majority of those that belonged to pure blood families.
- Coby will bring the cups immediately, please Coby ask for the two of you to go to the big sofa in the living room to drink the cups, Coby knows it's the one more remote from the professors rooms, Coby doesn't want you to be scolded. - He said all of that in less than ten seconds, that was truly an ability. His eyes were huge and full of worry, like his life depended on us following his instructions, seemed like trauma.
When he brought us the couple of cups, he was still nervous and bouncing up and down, but that was pretty common in domestic elves. What wasn't common was his urge to keep sweeping the rooms. According to Mattheo, Coby was rescued from a family that treated him badly, to the point that it has been impossible for the healers to help him with his trauma.
We went to the living room that Coby told us about. It had a huge sofa, a little table and a chimney. It was small but very cozy, it felt like a house´s living room, way more private than the other ones. And it was farther away from the rooms than any of the other ones. It felt great to have that small place of peace, I loved working with kids but they were more noisy than what I could handle without being utterly exhausted.
- I wanted to ask you something, Neville talked to me about it at dinner and I have some questions. - He settled himself better on the couch, turning his body to face me.
- Uh… with Neville? What is it?
- It was strange for me that Slytherins and Gryffindors were rivals to an insane degree, I guess a little bit of that behavior made sense given we are talking about kids, but he told me it reached even physical ways. - That seemed to pick his interest.
- Well, I wasn't a student before the war, I was less than a year old back then. But what I know is that every single witch or wizard sorted into my house has to be of pure blood. It is one of the conditions that Salazar indicated. And then the sorting hat started to mess everything up. It didn't matter your attributes, just your blood and if you had a little bit of mischief, then you were sorted into Slytherin. - He was angry while saying all of that, clearly disgusted. - There were a lot of people sorted in wrong houses because of that. Cunning, ambitious and determined students that were perfect for our house, were sorted mostly on Ravenclaw. And slow, lazy, brainless, evil kids were put into Slytherin because of their blood status and their families being radicals. That was one of the reasons why people thought Slytherins were bad omens.
- And what happened then? How is it that all of that changed?
- When the final battle started at Hogwarts, McGonagall led the Slytherins to their common room; she didn't want kids to fight their own parents at the battle. But most of them escaped and helped Harry Potter to defeat my father. They proved that the house did not represent evil wizards. Just some traits that were diffused at that point. - He stopped for a moment to sip some of his tea, he seemed to be lost in his head. - When I started school ten years later the sorting hat put me in Slytherin and I was so afraid, Mía I was terrified because that was what my father wanted, that I followed his steps. And I felt that being an Slytherin would change me and lead me through that road. But it didn't. I wasn't sorted there because I was evil, it was because I'm determined to fulfill my wishes, I'm cunning and clever enough to reach my dreams, I'm ambitious and I fight for everything that deserves a good fight. It took me some time to see myself as a good person because everyone was expecting me to be a little Voldemort. I proved them wrong.
- You are a good person, Mattheo. We are not our legacy, we are not what people want us to be. - I smiled at him truthfully, he needed the world to see him with different eyes.
- Thanks Mía. - He whispered that while smirking, looking at the floor, he didn't look me in the eyes for all of this conversation. - Now that the war was left behind and fewer families and people are obsessed with my father´s ideals, people are starting to stop associating houses with evil or good people, and starting to associate them with different and amazing traits.
I remembered then that song that said “War is over”, (Happy Xmas from John Lennon) and he was the personification of it. Even if it wasn't over for him. I was there to be a professor, but also to be sure if the Ministry of Magic could rely and trust in him in the crimes that were taking place in the UK.
We talked a little about other general topics, about food, the elves at Hogwarts, his desire to travel to Spain, and so on. But it got too late and we had to sleep enough to start working the next day. We decided to go to our rooms and rest a little, it was an amazing day. I couldn't wait for the next day to arrive so classes could start. But when I entered my room there was an owl on my nightstand with a letter for me. I closed the door after saying my goodbyes. I hoped back then that the owl was from my family, it would be cool if they write to me first for a change. But I hoped for too much. I pet the gray owl as a way of thanking them for delivering the letter, and proceeded to read it. It was from the Ministry, it looked like bad news.