The Forest - R.L.

Chapter 9 - The Hat

  "This is a joke, right? You can't actually-"

Professor McGonagall approached him "Mr Clemons, this is not a joke. If you could you please take a seat at the Hufflepuff table-"
"I'm not in Hufflepuff! I'm a Clemons, for crying out loud, I'm in Slytherin! This stupid hat made a mistake."
"I never make mistakes, boy. You're a Hufflepuff whether you like it or not," the hat replied.

Sam then proceeded to rip the Sorting Hat off of his head and throw it to the floor. For the second time that evening, the whole school burst into conversation.

"Mr Clemons! Take a seat at the Hufflepuff table immediately or you will be at risk of expulsion."
That made him stop. He knew for a fact that his parents would handle him not being in Slytherin better than him being expelled from Hogwarts. Professor McGonagall knew this.

With a growl, he stormed down the steps towards the table, roughly sitting on the bench next to a frightened second year.

As if nothing had happened, Professor McGonagall picked up the Sorting Hat and called out "Evans, Lily," and the sorting ceremony continued.

"Lupin, Remus."
He looked worriedly at Grace, who gave him a thumbs up, before heading towards the stool, passing the newly sorted Ravenclaw, Marcelle Isaacs.
Remus' eyes never once left the hat the whole time it was on his head.
"Gryffindor!"
A smile broke out on his face as he walked towards his new house.

The rest of the sorting went quickly.

"Pettigrew, Peter."
Peter Pettigrew, the small boy that had been sitting with Remus, James and Sirius, was also sorted into Gryffindor, surprising Grace as he had seemed quite shy during the short time she had known him.

"Pinehood, Abigail."
Unsurprisingly, Abbey was sorted into Hufflepuff, and sat directly across from Sam at the Hufflepuff table, who was still silently fuming.

"Potter, James."
James was sorted into Gryffindor, which according to her dad, was the exact same house his father was in.

After "Snape, Severus," was sorted into Slytherin, she knew it was nearly her turn, and she began to worry. She wanted to be in Ravenclaw like her dad, but also in Gryffindor with Remus or Hufflepuff with Abbey. The Slytherin table didn't look to bad either, although she hadn't heard very nice things about their house.

"Thorne, Grace."
She practically ran towards the hat, trying to breathe deeply, something she was having an extreme difficulty with.
"It's been a while since I've had a Thorne."
The voice of the hat made her jump.
"You're certainly an intelligent girl, just like your father. Ravenclaw would suit you well."
Grace wasn't surprised by his words. Her dad had always told her that she would probably be in Ravenclaw.
"But perhaps it isn't the best fit."
This made her raise her eyebrows.
"You'd make quite a good Slytherin as well. However, you are extremely brave."
"Brave? Me? I don't think so."
"And yet I have never heard of a witch your age who is so comfortable around dangerous creatures. Gryffindor!"
Grace ran to the table, plonking herself down next to Remus, whilst still thinking about the hat's words.
"We're in the same house!" Grace exclaimed, only to be glared at by the rest of the table for being so loud. "Sorry."

After a few more students, another name was called that Grace recognised.
"Witten, Ely."
He was sitting on the stool for no less than three seconds before it shouted "Hufflepuff," and he sat down next to Abbey.

After the final student, "Westworth, Elise," was sorted into Slytherin, a wide variety of different foods appeared on the tables, and the feast began.

---

Their first class the next day was Transfiguration, where they were given a brief description of the subject and the rundown of what they would be looking at that year. Professor McGonagall also used it as an opportunity to answer any question the first years had.

Grace was slightly disappointed to see that she only had Potions and Defence Against the Dark Arts with Hufflepuff. They shared their Transfiguration class with the Slytherins, which lead to quite a lot of glaring. She thought her dad had been exaggerating about the amount of tension between the snake house and her own. Apparently not.

After Transfiguration, they had Potions with the Hufflepuffs, which went smoothly until Sam decided to throw a tantrum to Professor Slughorn, the Slytherin House Leader, about being in Hufflepuff.

Their third class of the day was Herbology with the Slytherins, where they learned about Devils Snare. The Professor took them to one of the back rooms of the greenhouse, where it was dark enough for the plant to survive. There was a small amount of it growing in a pot, not enough to do any damage unless you got close to it.
James and Sirius spent majority of the class trying to push or trip each other into the plant, until the Professor came over and threatened to give them each a detention. Whilst she was yelling at them, Peter took a step away from the two, not wanting to be associated with them, and backed himself up against the table, completely forgetting about the Devils Snare on it. One of the plant's vine quickly wrapped itself around his arm and he let out a small shriek, before the Professor came over and cast Inecendio, the fire-making spell, at the vine, causing it to shrivel up and release its grip.

By the time they had reached their fourth class for the day, Charms with the Ravenclaws, Remus was beginning to feel ill, the effects of the full moon were starting to take hold.
There was a full moon on Sunday, meaning that he had to spend majority of the weekend in the Hospital Wing. Grace had told everyone that he had a cold, and visited him several times throughout the day, mostly to yell at him for worrying and to tell him that no one suspected anything and that he would be fine.

During their short time of knowing each other, Remus had noticed that Grace had a rather aggressive way of dealing with worry. There was something oddly reassuring about having "Remus Lupin! You'll be fine, you won't hurt anyone and no one's go to find out, so stop worrying!" shouted in your face. If she was so sure of it, then maybe he should be too.

And just as Grace had predicted, the night had gone smoothly. Well, as smoothly as a full moon can go. He still woke up shivering, covered in bruises and scratches, but no one else had been hurt, and that was all that he cared about.  

---
Sorry for the delay, I've been trying to sort out exactly what events I want to write about and time skips and that kind of stuff (so get ready for a time skip in the next chapter).

Also, thank you so much to 50_words_for_murder for voting on a few of the chapters (feel free to do the same ;) ).

I'm sorry if all the sorting stuff is boring, but things will certainly pick up in the next chapter.

-Grace