Gorgeous

Sorting

A tall shaggy bearded man walked us to the boats and after looking at him for a while it finally clicked that this must be Hagrid. Ron mentioned him a lot this summer when he talked about his first year here.

"Come on Ella, let's get in this boat!" Ginny grabs me by my arm and drags me to an empty boat. I see Collin behind us almost sprinting to get in the boat before anyone else. Once he sits, people start getting in different boats all at once.

"Hello, I'm Luna! Do you know about Wrackspurts? They float into your ears and make your brain all fuzzy." I didn't even notice when the blond girl with loopy eyes came on the boat.

"Hello, and no I didn't know that! Is that common?" She continues to ramble about them and all different sorts of creatures and it makes me smile. She seems so care free and unaware of everything around her. And it seems like that affects me too because I didn't even notice we were off into the ocean heading to Hogwarts. I look over to Ginny and I see her face crumpled weirdly.

I nudge her and look at her. 'What's wrong.' I don't say it but she knows exactly what I mean because she directs her eyes towards Luna. And that just makes me even more confused. Why would she make Gin uncomfortable? I think she sees the confusion on my face because she just shakes her head and doesn't say anything else. She turned her body away from me and I think my eyes are watering.

I turn my eyes in front of me and I see Luna looking at me. She doesn't say anything but she just looks at me and smiles, then she continues her conversation with Collin.

***

Before I knew it we were walking up stairs and the towering great hall doors were in front of me. McGonagall starts talking about the houses and their traits but my ears are ringing so I don't hear a word. And again in a flash she's opening the doors and I'm walking into a pit of eyes staring at us.

I scan the room until I see Hermione, her eyes light up when she spots me and gives me an encouraging smile. Before I can smile back Gin tugs at my arm making me turn to look at her. She starts talking to me but I zone out again when I realize that neither Harry nor Ron were next to her. It makes me freak out a little again until my eyes focus on what is going on around me.

Daphne is staring right at me and she's not even hiding it. Again she stares at me like she has a question to ask but doesn't want to say. She knows I'm looking but doesn't even acknowledge it.

"Ella!" I turn my eyes back to Gin and she looks upset. I don't really blame her, I just zoned off while she was trying to talk to me. 'Sorry' I tell her quickly and she drops it for now since we're about to get sorted. Her head drops and she looks devastated and I feel horrible.

***

Almost everyone has gone, Lunas in Ravenclaw and Collin is Gryffindor with all the other kids sorted as well; it just leaves me and Ginny.

"Ella Weasley!" My hands are shaking and I desperately try to ease them. Ron not being here is definitely not helping I start walking and soon I'm stepping up the stairs to get put in a house. I turn and right before the hat is getting put on my head I see mostly bored eyes but after looking around my eyes land on George. Fred is distracted but George looks right at me. I know he sees my fear but he doesn't show that he knows. He simply smiles and my hands stop shaking.

'Ella Weasley, it seems the Weasleys multiply by the minute. You're an interesting one, you have quite intelligence for Ravenclaw, the thirst of the unknown for Slytherin.' Slytherin, no bloody way I can be a Slytherin? I-I can't do that to Gin. I look over at Ginny and she's looking at me with an encouraging smile. If I was in Slytherin I would lose her forever, I cannot be in Slytherin.

'Not slytherin I'm begging you.' This makes the hat hum in intrigue again.

'I see that is not what you want but is that what you need. The Slytherins will do you well in your future.'

'Then I'll find that path on my own! I am not going there, please I can't lose my family.' The hat is quiet for a moment then I hear a roar.

"Gryffindor!" I look up to see George and Fred clapping me on and I smile as I head over to my family. I quickly realize there's no room next to them so instead I decide to sit next to Hermione with Colin in front of us. It's not long after that Ginny is sitting next to me and now we're laughing and I'm hugging her. We both got where we wanted now we just have to get through the year.

***

All of the Gryffindor first years were directed by Percy to the common room and of course Percy was a little condescending but it's okay because I love him nonetheless. I'm in that dorm now but I can't fall asleep. There's no light and the only things I can see are whatever my eyes have adjusted to. I keep on tossing and turning and it surprises me that I haven't woken anyone up. I like to believe it's because I'm missing my mom but I don't think that's it. I just can't place what's up with me. I know it's not the two idiots since they must be in bed by now. It's something else but it seems to be straying in my mind. I can't stop thinking so I decide to get up and just get myself out of bed.

I'm almost down the stairs when I see the back of black messy hair in front of me on the couch. He must have heard me since it's dead quite apart from the crackling of the fireplace.

"Jesus Ella, you're the one that scared me this time!" I snort and plop myself on the couch next to him. I look over at him and wonder what the hell he's doing up.

"Why are you up?" He looks over at me and says.

"I could ask you that same thing." There he goes avoiding it again. He loves avoiding anything that symbolizes feelings. Fine I'll just force it out of him. I'll just tell him the truth.

"When I was getting sorted tonight the hat told me something unexpected." I'm looking down and picking at my fingers at this point. I think Harry noticed because his hand slightly twitches as if wanting to stop me from doing it but stops himself.

"Anyway, it basically told me that 'Slytherins will lead to a good future' or whatever. Which I think is absolute rubbish, but not according to that stupid hat. Apparently I have a 'thirst for the unknown' whatever the bloody hell that means. Like honestly that hat has no idea what he's on about, I mean honestly a Weasley in Slytherin? It's mental! So I told it to put me here and it listened." I breathe out a loud huff after my rant crashing my shoulders back on the cushions looking over at Harry. It looks like he saw a ghost or something. He looks like a lunatic.

"Hey you alright, you look as white as nearly headless Nick?" I let out a breath then fully turned his body to mine. He gets suddenly kind of serious and it freaks me out a little bit. I mean it's not that big of a deal right? I turn to him fully as well.

"Can I tell you something and you promise not to tell anyone? I haven't even told Ron this." That made me panic internally. What's so secret that he didn't even tell his best friend? Why is he telling me then?

"Of course." It's easy for me to slip out. The simple confession seemed to aid Harry's fears and he almost melted.

"I was supposed to be Slytherin too, I never really told anybody about it. I guess I just thought people would judge me. 'The savior' , who's Slytherin, doesn't really ring as well as the savior Gryffindor. So I asked it to put me anywhere but Slytherin, I mean obviously I don't regret it, I have Ron and Hermione but I think about it sometimes. It's crazy to think that I could have lived an entirely different life isn't it?" Harry's confession shocks me to my core. Harry Potter in Slytherin?

"This hat is definitely mental if it thinks me and you should've been in Slytherin." I chuckled and Harry laughed with me. I wonder if the two of us ended up in Slytherin what our relationship with my family would be?

"It definitely is." Harry quickly responds and after our laughter dies down we sit in a comfortable silence, both of us just staring into the fire until Harry speaks.

"I should probably get to bed, you should too." He pulls himself up and off the couch lingering for a moment, then he starts heading up the stairs.

"Thanks for the talk Ella." He says it quickly before I can even think about it then he's gone. Maybe surviving this year will be harder than I thought.