The Sorting
Getting across the black lake is interesting, more of a bizarre experience than terrifying. It helps calm his nerves. He swears that he saw a dark green-y brown tentacle slip across the water, but that's a worry for another time.
Scorpius ran off saying he promised a friend he would go in the boats with them so Albus went to go hunt down Rose. He finds her with a few other girls and they all pile into a boat together along with some boy. They knew who Albus was and talked about him like he wasn’t even here. He tried his best to ignore them.
Gliding over the lake, the murky but clean water is like glass reflecting the moonlight, with the perfect replica of the castle glistening over the water. He sees some of the fish jumping over the water, as well as some birds of some sort hunting and diving over the water. Although Albus swears he saw a glimpse of fiery orange plumes off in the trees.
They dock the boats in a hidden, relatively moist cave on the side of the castle. Albus is immediately hit with a wave of a salty smelling must, that reminded him of James after he’s done playing a round of Quidditch.
Hagrid leads them up through the warm, and pretty well lit halls of Hogwarts until they freeze with such a massive halt that some kids in the front even bump into the giant that is Hagrid.
An older woman with graying hair, and lush emerald green robes is blocking the way to the inside of what Albus assumes is the biggest dining hall to exist. He recognized the woman immediately, Minerva McGonagall. His dad had definitely mentioned this woman, and he had heard James plenty of times talking about her class. Albus had never heard anyone speak ill of her, nothing but high praise. That made Albus feel a little intimidated and her stern glare didn’t help.
“Good Evening, Professor McGonagall. All the firs’ years safe and accounted for.” He said happily with a big grin. McGonagall gave a quick glance up at Hagrid with a rather thin smile. Hagrid trotted off down the long brick halls. The first years watched him leave and once out of sight turned their attention back to McGonagall.
“Come along then, don’t want to make them wait any longer.” She made a swift turn and pushed open the big wooden doors to a large hall filled with chattering voices from students and faculty. They all fell quiet when they saw the wave of first years being led in by their headmaster.
“Welcome to Hogwarts.” She said, everyone was gaising around looking at the beautiful hall that had a charmed ceiling so you could see the night sky. Albus was also enchanted by the magic that flowed through Hogwarts, so much so that he hadn’t noticed they had stopped moving and pumped into the person in front of him. They turned around to snap at him but saw who he was and turned back away in fear. Albus whispered an apology.
“Now, before you can sit down to eat the dinner, and sit with your respective tables, gaining friends for your time here at Hogwarts,” She was looking at them all now. It was utterly terrifying how everyone had fallen silent when she entered the room.
Albus didnt wanna think about it.
“You must be sorted into your houses, there are four houses, Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Slytherin, and Hufflepuff. You will be sorted by the word of the hat.” Albus turns around at a loud creak of the door, and another older woman- probably the same age as McGonagall- in red robes. In her hands, was a dusty, busted, old witches hat. Before anything else was said the hat grew eyes and a mouth and began to rhyme.
Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravencalw, Slytherin,
These are the founders of our school,
I call out your house for everyone to hear,
Some of you may think I am wrong or a tool,
But trust me I know what is best,
I have been doing this for centuries without rest,
So stop with the comments and sit on the chair
I’ll see what’s in your head when you give me a wear
You’ll be on your way in half a second
You’ll sit at your table and enjoy what's pleasant
And move through the present
Magic, mystery, and wonder await you after this dinner
I can see your patients is growing thinner
So let the sorting start
And let me take a look into your heart.
After the hat had fished its bout of poetry, McGonagall took out a scroll of parchment from her robes and began to read off names. Albus didn’t pay much attention to it and instead he looked around more at the room they were standing in, especially the Gryffindor table.
Across the benches were hundreds of smiling faces with their necks decorated by red and gold ties. Hidden amongst the crowd he could see his brother sitting with his friends, not paying attention to the sorting and cheering when they heard others clap their hands. Albus clicks back to reality, once he hears McGonagall clearly call out Rose's name. Once she heard her name, she made her way through the crowd and up to the stool where the hat was placed on her head. Albus counted the seconds, he got to 87 before the hat yelled out,
“GRYFFINDOR!” An uproar came from the Gryffindor table as Rose stood up to join the cheering voices when she caught a glimpse of Albus. She gives him a smile and a thumbs up that silently says ‘It’s going to be alright’. Albus’s smile says ‘I wouldn’t be too sure’.
Albus watches and Scorpius gets sorted and quietly cheers for him when he’s placed in Slytherin.
Finally his name is called, and he feels his stomach flips.
He can feel the eyes on him as he walks up and takes his seat on the stool.
“Potter eh?” a voice whispers in his ear.
“Yes.” Albus says back with a shiver down his spine. James had explained to him how the hat works but it still was uncomfortable.
“There's a sense of ambition in you, and you're determined to make a name for yourself?” Albus didn’t deny it.
“Yes, I’m sure being named after two great wizards would be hard.”
“It can be.”
“I also see a rather smart and cunning wizard. I think Slytherin would suit you well.” Albus froze. No no no! He can’t be Slytherin.
“Not Slytherin, please, please put me in Gryffindor.” He pleaded.
The hat laughed.
“You're like your father. He wanted to be placed in Gryffindor as well.”
“So do that for me! Please!” He begged again.
“I don’t think I can. You fit Slytherin perfectly, but you're missing a part of Gryffindor. I’ve decided,”
“No please don’t!”
It's too late.
“SLYTHERIN!”
The hall is silent.
Albus is horrified
He looks at his family, who are all sitting at Gryffindor table. Rose looks confused, James is shocked while everyone is horrified.
The hat is lifted from his head and when he doesn’t move McGonagall nudges him to get up. When Albus looks at her. She is shocked as well, but not in the way he expected.
It's a shock more of anticipation?
He wishes that it made him feel better.
Slytherin begins to cheer while the other three tables politely clap, Albus finds Scorpius looking up at a girl with short black hair- he thinks they've been talking- and he waves Albus over. He decides it's the best place to sit and promptly sits right beside him.
“Are you ok?” Scorpius asks softly.
“I wasn’t supposed to be in Slytherin.” Albus whispers into the palms of his hands. He doesn’t want to see the looks he's getting.
Even though the sorting has kept going he knows all eyes are still on him. They're all glaring or shocked or maybe even disgusted.
Except for Scorpius, his eyes are happy, and so is his smile.
“Well I’m glad you are. Then you can hang out with me!” For some reason Albus wasn’t opposed to the idea of keeping Scorpius around. The thought made him smile.
It faded when he remembered his parents, his brother, his sister, and Rose. His parents were going to be so disappointed. He’d been sorted into bloody SLYTHERIN! That was the worst possible house for him to be sorted into. He could have survived being sorted into Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff, if he was in Ravenclaw at least he was smart and Teddy had been sorted into Hufflepuff so that would have been fine as well, but that stupid beaten up garbage of a hat had placed him in Slytherin.
He didn’t have the capability to pay attention to the rest of the sorting, he blanked being consumed by his own thoughts until he felt a nudge on his shoulder. It was Scorpius.
He had silently told them that the eating portion of the night had begun. Had he zoned out all the way through McGonagall's speech? He doesn’t know why but he feels a little guilty that he did. Just another thing to add onto the wave of emotions that were continuously hitting him.
Albus took a deep breath and tried to focus on getting through dinner, which was still difficult. There were still quite a few people staring and talking but most people had become distracted by the food that had magically apparated in front of them. Scorpius had noticed Albus’s quick mood change and tried his best to distract him but it was a difficult task.
He didn’t eat much. He just didn’t have the stomach for it at the moment.
It all got a lot worse when he was called with the fellow Slytherins by their head boy and girl to show them the way to the Slytherin common room. It hit him all over again that he had been sorted into Slytherin.
He had practically known the way to the Gryffindor dorms by the time he was seven, and now that wasn’t even the house he was in!
They were led down a set of stairs and at the bottom there was a long hall of odd passageways leading to rooms Albus didn’t know about, that mostly were empty rooms that smelled musty, like stale water or old books.
The new group stopped in front of a large tapestry with hundreds of different spices all tangled together, in some sort of pattern. Probably a bigger snake. The head girl harshly stated the password- Western Taipan- and the snakes began to move and slither apart until they formed a large arch. A handle appeared in front of the girl when she touched it. The arch turned into a large wooden door and it split open when she pushed, revealing a large common room that was bathing in the green hues of the lake that was visible through large, tall, crystal clear windows.
“Now, the password changes week to week, and although the new password will be written on a board in the common room. That board is used for important news only. Make sure you have it written down so you don't get locked out.“ The head boy mentioned in a cool tone.
The head boy stopped them in the middle of the common room and pointed them in the direction of the dorms. This was good news, this entire day should just be finished as quickly as possible. Maybe it was a dream!? He slips away from the crowd, still getting their tour, and heads down the stairs. There's a door waiting for him at the bottom.
When he opens the door it looks almost identical to the dorms his parents had described to him, but the color green and silver. Not red and gold.
Crap.
The sight makes his chest hurt. He falls onto the bed that has his trunks laying beside them. He had originally planned to unpack but decided he would do that another day. Albus slumped onto his bed and closed the curtains blocking out the outside world.
He was able to get a few moments of silence before he heard another person walk in. they shuffled around for a bit before pausing. When the footsteps started up again they were getting closer to him.
“Albus? Are you in there?” It was Scorpius, he was about to pull the curtains back before there was a loud BANG as the door flew open once more, this time with two pairs of shuffling feet. They were both giggling but it all abruptly stopped.
“Um, Hello. Scorpius Malfoy.” He introduced himself and Albus heard both of them hold their breath. Well that was bloody rude, did they think Scorpius was going to poison them? It was quiet for a little while longer before one of the other boys spoke up.
“Hello! My name is Ronan Canner.”
The other boy didn’t say anything so Ronan did it for him.
“And this is Justin Lanier.” Albus heard them shake hands and it was quiet again. He was hoping the three of them would split ways and go to bed, but nothing today seemed to be going in his favor.
“Who's that?” Ronan asked.
“Oh, I believe that’s Albus Potter.” Scorpius replied with a chipper voice.
“Really?” A new voice said all the sudden, must be Justin. “A bit weird he was sorted into Slytherin, don’t ya think?” Albus felt a new wave of embarrassment wash over him but he wasn’t under the water for long.
“Nope!” Scorpius answered, with a voice colder than Albus would have ever imagined Scorpius having, chilling him to the bone.
“I think it’s perfectly alright that he’s in Slytherin.” That seemed to shut him up because Justin didn’t say anything more and instead moved away.
The three of them only interacted one more time that evening which was when the two boys had asked Scorpius if they could switch beds so they could sleep next to each other.
Scorpius- of course- happily agreed and they continued to move their bags around.
Scorpius was now sleeping in the bed right next to him. A part of Albus wanted to go over and thank him for defending him. Was he really defending him though?
It seemed like he was defending him.
Before he could even make up his mind he heard the curtains close and he no longer had the option to do so.
Albus decided that the best thing to do now was to go to bed so that’s exactly what he did.
He took a pair of his own pajamas from his trunk and switched into them as quietly as possible not wanting to wake anyone up, for their sake or for his, he wasn’t sure but it didn’t matter. He laid down in bed and desperately wanted to fall asleep but the events of the day kept running through his head over and over again.
Albus didn’t fall asleep until the late hours.