Coup de Foudre [Fred Weasley] [5]

⚡️ Chapter 19 ⚡️

Vega was still trying to process how to deal with a Ministry woman being present at school when Professor Grubbly-Plank appeared behind the staff table; she worked her way along to the very end and took the seat that ought to have been Hagrid's.

That meant that the first years must have crossed the lake and reached the castle just as usual and just as Vega herself had done years ago, and sure enough, a few seconds later, the doors from the Entrance Hall opened.

A long line of scared-looking first year entered, led by Professor McGonagall, who was carrying a stool on which sat an ancient wizard's hat, heavily patched and darned with a wide rip near the frayed brim.

The buzz of talk in the Great Hall faded away at the sight of the new students. The first years lined up in front of the staff table facing the rest of the students, and Professor McGonagall placed the stool carefully in front of them, then stood back.

All the first years' faces glowed palely in the candlelight. A small boy right in the middle of the row looked as though he was trembling. The whole school waited with bated breath. Then the rip near the hat's brim opened wide like a mouth and the Sorting Hat burst into song:

In times of old when I was new

And Hogwarts barely startedThe founders of our noble schoolThought never to be parted:

United by a common goal,

They had the self-same yearning,To make the world's best magic schoolAnd pass along their learning.

"Together we will build and teach!"

The four good friends decidedAnd never did they dream that theyMight someday be divided.

For were there such friends anywhere

As Slytherin and Gryffindor?Unless it was the second pairOf Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw?

So how could it have gone so wrong?

How could such friendships fail?Why, I was there and so can tellThe whole sad, sorry tale.

Said Slytherin,

"We'll teach just thoseWhose ancestry is purest."

Said Ravenclaw,

"We'll teach those whoseIntelligence is surest."

Said Gryffindor,

"We'll teach all thoseWith brave deeds to their name,"

Said Hufflepuff,

"I'll teach the lot,And treat them just the same."

These differences caused little strife

When first they came to light,For each of the four founders hadA House in which they mightTake only those they wanted, so,

For instance, Slytherin

Took only pure-blood wizardsOf great cunning, just like him,And only those of sharpest mind