The Chosen One [#Wattys2016]

THE START OF THE YEAR FEAST

"GRYFFINDOR!"

Neville heard the hat shout the last word to the hall. He felt annoyed at the hat but nevertheless, he pasted a smile on his face and jogged to the Gryffindor table, only to realise that he hadn't removed the hat and went back amid gales of laughter to return it to Professor McGonagall, who put it on "MacDougall, Morag's" head. Neville was too flustered to realise that he had gotten the loudest cheer and the red-haired twins who had catcalled Lavender Brown were now whooping and chanting "Longbottom Gryffindor!" Neville sat down between Hermione Granger and a red-haired boy who wore a prefect badge on his school robes and sat with a stiff posture and who had kindly introduced himself as Percy Weasley. The ghost with the ruffs and tights sat opposite him. Hermione beamed at him. The red-haired twins crawled over Percy's lap and wrung Neville's hand with too much enthusiasm.

Still in shock at the hat's betrayal and at being chosen a Gryffindor, Neville's heart thudded so hard that he was surprised it hadn't already leapt out of his body. He looked up at the Head Table and was able to see the teachers properly now. At one end of the table sat the half-giant Hagrid, who caught Neville's eye and gave a thumbs up, causing the latter to go red in the face. At the centre, in a large gold chair, sat Headmaster Albus Dumbledore, whom Neville recognised from the chocolate frog cards and his grandmother's photographs. The seat to the right of the Headmaster presumably belonged to Professor McGonagall as it was empty. To the right of the empty seat sat an old man, whose immensely fat belly was straining the buttons of his waistcoat. He had a shiny pate, prominent gooseberry coloured eyes and an enormous, silver, walrus-like moustache. Next to him sat a tiny man with a shock of white hair and brown eyes, followed by a squat little witch with short, grey, wavy hair and a patched and battered hat. Next to her sat a blue-eyed woman, whose white hair was covered with a nurse's hat. On the corner seat sat a white-haired man with grey eyes and heavily bandaged hands.

To the left of the headmaster sat a young, pale faced man with greying light brown hair and a thin moustache. His face was prematurely lined and covered with scars and scratches and he wore robes that were shabby compared to the other professor's robes. To his left sat four witches – one brown-haired brown-eyed, the second dark-skinned, brown-haired, the third with short spiky-grey hair, and piercing, yellow, hawk-like eyes and the fourth, next to Hagrid, with thinning blonde hair and grey eyes.

There weren't many people left now but Neville had lost track of the sorting midway.

"Nott, Theodore", the weedy boy who had been in front of Neville in the line, and "Parkinson, Pansy", a pug-face girl, were both sorted into Slytherin. A pair of twins "Patil, Padma" and "Patil, Parvati" went to Ravenclaw and Gryffindor respectively. "Potter, Harry" was sorted into Gryffindor the moment the hat touched his head.

And now there were only six people left to be sorted. "Prinsloo, Jennifer", "Snape, Avaline", "Thomas, Dean" and "Weasley, Ronald" joined Neville at the Gryffindor table. "Turpin, Lisa," became a Ravenclaw and finally "Zabini Blaise" was sorted into Slytherin.

Neville noticed that the hat had sat on Avaline Snape's head for a while before sending her to Gryffindor.

Professor McGonagall rolled up her scroll and took away the sorting hat and the three-legged stool. Everyone looked down expectantly at their golden plates, which were still empty. Neville realised how hungry he was when his stomach gave a colossal growl. Albus Dumbledore was on his feet, beaming at the students, his arms opened wide, as though nothing could have pleased him more than to see all the students.

"Welcome!" he said. "Welcome to a new year at Hogwarts! Before we begin our banquet, I would like to say a few words. And here they are: Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak!

"Thank you!"

He sat back down. Everybody clapped and cheered. Neville sat there bemused, not knowing whether to laugh or not.