Chương 41: Sorting Hat

Mary and Hermine kept talking while Stefan was sleeping on the lap of Hermione with a calm face.

"Do you know at which house you want to be sorted in Hogwarts?, I would like to go to Gryffindor or Ravenclaw... Did you know Dumbledore went to Gryffindor?, how do they choose to which house you belong to?" said Hermione while talking fastly.

"Haha, no I don't know which house we want to go or rather we don't care, as for how do they chose the house I don't know either, relax Hermione I'm sure you will do ok" said Mary while smiling at Hermione who started to take deep breaths to calm down.

"And so what if Dumbledore went to Griffindor as for what I know he's the reason a lot of wizards got hurt when Grindelwald did his comeback at Diagon Alley, he put a barrier so no one could escape Diagon Alley." heard the voice of Stefan, as she turned her head to look at him, but he had his eyes closed.

"But he was trying to capture Grindelwald... He didn't mean it... He's the greatest light wizard who stopped Grindelwald the first time" said Hermione while biting her lips.

"Dumbledore used the wizards in Diagon Alley to bait Grindelwald, while enclosing all the wizards with him, he knew Grindelwald wanted to do a big debut as comeback and he allowed it, for the sake of capturing it while risking the lives of the wizards in Diagon Alley, and as Grindelwald was going to kill the Death Eaters he saved them for what reason? they don't deserve to die?... So let's do a quick recounting of things he saved the Death Eaters and doomed some innocent wizards in Diagon Alley, he is just a hypocrite to me." said Stefan with a calm voice as he stood up from the lap of Hermione and started stretching as he sat down beside Mary, who was smiling without saying anything.

"But he did it for the greater good... And as for the death eaters... Nobody deserves to die..." said Hermione as she bit her lips.

"For the greater good huh, ok, remember those words..." said Stefan with a nonchalant voice.

There was a knock on the door of the compartment and a voice from the outside said "We're arriving at Hogwarts in 20 minutes, put your school robes, and when we got there leave your luggage in the train"

"Finally" said Stefan as he started to change into the school uniform, he finished changing and notice Hermione was looking at him.

"What? are you not going to change?" said Stefan with an amused voice.

"You have to get out, so we can change..." she froze as she noticed Mary was changing without caring about Stefan.

"Get out" said Hermione as she started pushing Stefan out of the compartment and lock the door as she pushed him out of the compartment.

"So annoying, whatever" said Stefan as a bit of black smog came out of his hand and materialized into a silver tablet, he started to send a message that said

"Grindelwald, stop guarding them..."

There was an immediate reply that said

"Ok, young master, I had put some warning wards, should I disabled them?"

Stefan pondered for a moment as he replied back.

"Don't, let them act as an instant message to us, the moment the wards turn on, send me a message, and I want you to finish the dragon gathering, sooner rather than later, that will be all, see you"

The silver tablet vanished in black smoke that entered the hand of Stefan, at that moment the door of the compartment opened, and he didn't wait for an invitation as he entered directly at the compartment and sat down beside Mary who was looking at the robes with furrowed brows.

"So... Which house do you want to go Stefan?" said Hermione with a soft voice, recalling the topic of a few moments before.

"As Mary said, we don't really care for the house, I would be fine even if we were sent to Slytherin or Hufflepuff" said Stefan with a calm voice.

"But Slytherin is the house of the evil wizards... You know who was in Slytherin and almost all of his Death Eaters too.," said Hermione while talking with fear on her voice as she remembered that day on Diagon Alley and the dark mark on the sky.

"So if we go to Slytherin you will stop talking to us?" said Mary while looking at her with an amused face.

"No.. I wouldn't do that" said Hermione while looking nervous.

"We have arrived the train is slowing down, let's go" said Stefan as he stood up and got out of the compartment, and behind him were Mary and Hermione following him, they got out of the train as it finally stopped completely and heard a loud voice shouting

"Firs' years, firs' years over here!, All of you right here, Harry is that you?" said a big man over two meters in from of them with a big hairy face while smiling at boy with a lightning bolt on his forehead who walked to Hagrid accompanied by a red-haired boy.

"Harry? Harry Potter?" said Hermione with a loud excited voice that everyone heard, and every student there started to stare at the lightning bolt on the forehead of the boy, who was feeling awkward for all the stares.

"What ar' you looking at', come firs' years follow me" said Hagrid with a loud voice.

"Stefan, Mary, and Hermione started following at the group who was being led by Hagrid to a narrow and muddy path, nobody spoke as they were lead well except for one annoying voice that was bragging.

"My father got me a complete room for myself I won't have to share the room with anyone it's one of the perks of coming from one of the 28 sacred families and having a father that is on the board of the school." said Draco while lifting his head and looking at everybody with disdain.

"Huh, he has a complete room for himself and doesn't need to share with anyone..." thought Stefan as his eyes gleamed as he heard that.

Stefan got closer to Mary and whispered her a few words that Hermione couldn't hear, Hermione saw as Mary nodded brightly at him.

She wondered were they talking about but didn't say anything, as she kept quiet all the way, till they finally arrived at a lake where there were a lot of boats and perched stop of a mountain there it was the enormous castle known as Hogwarts with its windows sparkling in the sky and with many watchtowers all over the castle.

Every student shouted as they saw the castle for the first time.

"It's ok..." thought Stefan as he looked at the castle.

"Our castle is better young master" whispered Mary on the ear of Stefan with a proud voice.

"Yeah it is" said Stefan with a smile on his face.

"Four' for boat'" said Hagrid with a loud voice as he pointed at the little boats that were on the shore of the black lake.

Stefan, Mary, and Hermione got in the boat, but no one else sat inside of that boat, the voice of Hagrid sounded again as it said "Everyone is in the boats?" shouted Hagrid while standing in one little boat for himself that looked that it can barely manage to float.

"Forward" shouted Hagrid, all the little boats started to move by themselves gliding across the black lake that reflected the stars in the sky, everyone was silent as they appreciated the scenery, the Castle was kept getting bigger and bigger the more the little boats moved.

They finally anchored at the other side of the short and as they came out of the little boats the voice of Hagrid sounded all over the shore.

"Who was the one who lost the toad?" while showing a big toad on his enormous hand.

"Trevor" a boy screamed with joy as he ran to Hagrid and took the toad from the hand of Hagrid, and kept it in his pocket.

They started walking until they got in front of a big black front door.

Hagrid knocked with his enormous hand at the front door three times.

The front door was opened and a tall ball haired woman with green robes, who had a stern face.

"The firs' years Prof McGonagall" said Hagrid with a serious face.

"Thank you Hagrid, I will take care of them from here"

"Follow me" said McGonagall as she turned around and walked inside the door.

All the students passed through the big black door, and saw as they were torches on the walls as they were following McGonagall, they started to hear hundred of voices the more they got close to a big oak door.

Prof McGonagall turned around as she said with a stern face "Welcome to Hogwarts, the banquet will start shortly but first, you will get sorted into your houses. The sorting is very important, you will be living in that house for all the years to come, you will have class with rest of your house, sleep in your house dormitory and spend free time in your house common room.

"While you are in Hogwarts, your triumphs will get you house points while breaking rules will lose house points, at the end of the year, the house with the most points is awarded the house cup, a great honor." said McGonagall with a stern voice as she looked at every student.

"The sorting ceremony will take place in front of all the other students and it will take place in a couple of minutes, I will be back in a few minutes, so get ready, and wait quietly" said McGonagall as she left.

As Prof. McGonagall left, all of the first years started to whisper about how do they choose to what house they belong to.

"Oh my God, I have never thought about it, Mary, Stefan, do you know how do they get to choose our house?" said Hermione with a nervous voice and a panicked face.

Stefan didn't bother to answer her as he ignored her, Mary smiled to her with a reassuring face while saying "Don't worry, it's going to be ok"

Hermione took a deep breath as she tried to calm down, and suddenly she screamed as she saw twenty ghosts passing through a wall, they had pearly-white-transparent color, they were gliding while talking one to another, some of them turned their heads as they heard the scream and furrowed their brows.

Hermione turned red as she got embarrassed by the situation everyone was looking at her.

Two ghosts appeared a little bit late while arguing, a fat monk was saying "Forgive and forget, I say, we ought to give him a second chance"

"My dear Friar, haven't we given Peeves all the chances he deserves, he give us all the ghosts a bad reputation, like that girl who screamed as she saw us... Oh they are first years" a ghost with a ruff and tights said while looking at the first year's with curious eyes.

"New students, excellent" said the Fat Friar whole smiling at them. "About to be sorted, I suppose?"

A few people nodded at his question while the others stayed quiet, others were looking at the ghosts with curiosity in their eyes.

"Hope to see you in Hufflepuff, my old house" said the fat monk Friar, while waving at them as he passed through the wall with the rest of the ghosts.

"The sorting ceremony is about to start" said a stern voice, all of the first years turned their head and saw Prof McGonagall walking to them.

"Form a line and follow me quietly" said Prof McGonagall to all the first years as she opened the oak door and start walking inside, as they entered Stefan saw with an interested face all over the place the thousands of candles flying over 4 long tables where the students were sitting. These tables were laid with glittering golden plates and goblets, at top of the hall there was another large table where the teachers were sitting.

Prof McGonagall halted the students up in the top of the hall so they faced all the other of the students who were sitted, and the teachers behind them, all of the first years got intimidated as they saw all of the other students looking at them with interest.

Prof McGonagall took a four-leg stool in front of the first years and on top of that stool she put a dusty old pointy wizards hat, the hat had a lot of patches and was too dirty.

Stefan looked with interest at the hat, his eyes turned black with silver iris as he looked at the hat for a fraction of second, and smiled as he 'saw' the hat.

The hat twitched for a moment, a rip near the brim opened wide like a mouth and the hat began to sing to the first years surprise.

----

"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 Gryffindor apart

You might belong in Hufflepuff,

Where they are just just and loyal,

Those patient Hufflepuffs are true and unafraid of toil;

Or yet in wise Old Ravenclaw,

If you have 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

For I'm a Thinking Cap"

---------

The whole hall burst in applause as the hat finished its song, it bowed to each of the four tables and then became quite still again.

All the first years got stunned as they saw the show but woke up as they heard the stern voice of Prof McGonagall saying "When I call your name you will put on the hat, and sit on the stool to be sorted"

All of the first years nodded as they waited for the first of them to be sorted.

Stefan turned his head as he looked for a moment at certain someone and smiled mockingly.