The Trick

First Year - Talking Hats

Charlie's POV

The group of First years had just been spoken to by Professor McGonagall and the head of Hogwarts, Professor Dumbledore, was introducing the new students.

“Let us have an amazing year. And now the sorting!” His voice boomed through the great halls. Charlie was excited, but she was a little shocked. She heard her dad tell stories of when he was at Hogwarts, but the beauty she saw for herself, the stories didn’t do it justice. When Charlie stopped staring in awe. She realized the names were already down to ‘B’.

“Black, Sirius.” The professor called out. A boy with short black hair swaggered up to the stage. 

“He’s kind of cute.” Charlie said, not thinking about it. Mariah looked at her, 

“Seriously? That’s what you are thinking about right now? You forgot your tie!” Mariah basically hissed. Charlie rolled her eyes as Mariah looked back to the stage, “Wait, he looks familiar. I don’t remember where I saw him though.” Mariah said, more to herself than Charlie, but Charlie still caught on. The boy with the sorting hat on was up there for about a minute longer before the hat made its decision.

“GRYFFINDOR!” The whole hall went quiet. He sat there for a second before getting up and going over to the house of red and gold. 

“Why is it so quiet?” Charlie whispered to Mariah, but apparently she isn’t good at whispering because a kid behind them answered her, 

“His whole family is in Slytherin. He’s the first of however many generations to be in Gryffindor. That’s kinda cool, actually.” The kid told them, when Charlie turned to look at the kid, she was met with two boys. One with dark hair and glasses, the other with sandy blond hair with a light scar on his face. 

“Thanks. I’m Charlie.” 

“I’m James. Nice to meet you.” 

“You too. This is Mariah, she’s quiet.” Just as Charlie introduced her, she was shushed when Professor McGonagall started calling ‘E’s. Charlie paid little attention as more people were sorted. 

“Estella, Mariah.” Was called, and the stage had Charlie’s full attention. Mariah stood there for a minute before Charlie patted her on the back to get her moving. 

“Dude, don’t die of stage fright. You aren’t even up there yet.” Mariah walked up to the stool and the hat was placed on her head. Charlie kept her eyes on Mariah to make sure she wouldn’t pass out. And when the hat started talking Charlie tried to hear it, but not before making eye contact with Mariah and giving her two thumbs up with a big smile. 

“Slytherin.” The hat said, making Charlie’s eyebrows go up and the Slytherin table roar, “No.” The hat shut that down as soon as it happened. The Slytherin table went quiet. After about another minute the hat made a final decision. “GRYFFINDOR!” The Gryffindor table was louder than the Slytherin’s. 

“That was kind of weird.” Charlie muttered to herself. She turned back to James as she waited for her name. “Well if your name is James, what’s your name?” She asked the blond boy who was talking to James. She stared at him for a minute before his face registered in her brain, “Wait we bumped into each other at Diagon Alley, didn’t we?” She asked him. He thought for a moment before answering, 

“Oh yeah, sorry about that by the way.” He apologized, looking at him with a small smile, Charlie waved it off, 

“It’s fine, don’t worry about it. Your name is?” She asked the same question again. 

“Remus. You said your name was Charlie?” She nodded quickly, turning back to the front momentarily to see what letter they were on. They were on ‘I’. She turned back to the boys. 

“Yeah,” he nodded, “what house do you think you are going to be in?” She asked them both curious and trying to kill time. 

“Gryffindor of course.” James said confidently. He smiled, proud of himself. 

“You have the confidence for that,” she told him before switching her attention, “what about you, Remus?” she asked him directly this time. 

“Oh, I don’t know... maybe Ravenclaw.” He thought about it for a bit before actually giving an answer.

“Nice,” She looked back to the front again, they were on ‘K’s. “Oh, they are about to call me soon.” She told the boys, her smile growing, ready for food. Just as she went to turn back around to the stage, her name was called. 

“King, Charlotte.” Her name was called. 

“What’s the point of a nickname if nobody uses it?” She pouted to herself as the two boys behind her smiled, having heard her. She headed to the stage, she looked down for a moment, her shoe feeling loose. She was right, her laces had come undone. Thinking to herself, ‘don’t fall over’ she did the only reasonable thing. She fell over. 

Everyone laughed, and for a moment Charlie internally died of embarrassment, but she wasn’t about to let that stop. 

“Well, as nice as this place is,” She started, looking around, “the floor is really hard. Pretty though.” With a look of disapproval from the Professor, she gave a small smile and quickly got up and speed walked to the stool. The hat being placed on her head, Charlie looked up going cross-eyed. 

“Another King. What shall I do with you?” The hat asked her. 

“Well, that depends on if you are asking for my opinion or not.” she told the hat, and if hats could roll their eyes, but then again hats usually can’t talk either. 

“There is one of three places I can put you. Now this is where your opinion comes in. Where do you think you should go?” The hat asked her. Charlie thought for a moment.

“Do I really have to tell you out loud if you are pretty much reading my mind right now?” Charlie asked the hat. 

“I suppose not. GRYFFINDOR!” The hat called, Charlie stood up from the stool and skipped over to the cheering table. High fiving some of the older students, Charlie sat next to Mariah.

“Hello, did you miss me?” Charlie smiled, excited to be in the same house as her new best friend. 

Written by: Lo