Innocence

Chapter Five

When the three children got back to the front of the school, they were greeted by an elderly, smiling witch who was repeatedly calling out:

"First years form an orderly line in front of me please! Everyone else go straight through into the school."

Adam turned to his younger sister. "I guess this is where I leave you. Good luck in the sorting ceremony." He said, hugging her.

"Is this the last time I'm going to see you before tomorrow?" She asked.

"No, we've still got lunch and dinner to get through yet." Adam chuckled. "Not only that but we'll be sharing a common room if you decide to be in Horned Serpent and it wouldn't surprise me if we saw each other between our lessons." He turned to the other boy stood with them. "Goodbye, David. I know nothing about you, but I guess I will wish you luck in the sorting ceremony as well."

The boy curled his lips in response, causing Adam to walk away with his eyebrows raised, all the way into the school.

Sophia turned to David, deciding that if they had to spend time together stood in that line, they wouldn't do it in silence.

"What's your favourite colour?" She asked, smiling pleasantly.

David curled his lip again. "I don't have one." He stated bluntly. "It's pointless to have a favourite colour."

Sophia sighed and muttered. "Well personally, I like blue." She raised her voice again. "Alright then, if that was a pointless question, I'll ask you one that certainly isn't. Why are you so moody all the time?"

David seemed shocked that she had said such a thing and his face softened slightly before sighing. "It's because I'm nervous. It's my first time away from home and my first time away from my brother." His face hardened again once more, not liking to show weakness. "But what do you care, anyway?"

Sophia didn't respond, but nodded her head minutely, remembering how painful it had been for her the previous year to be without Adam. She also remembered how much he had written to her; almost twice as many letters addressed to his sister than were addressed to his parents.

She imagined it would be hard for the eldest sibling to have to spend so much time away from home first.

She stayed silent after that, her heart slightly softened for the scowling boy next to her.

- - - - -

They had to wait for another half an hour for everyone to get where they needed to be. After that, the elderly witch spoke again.

"Now I will lead you into the school, where you will enter a room in which you will stand around the edges of. One by one, you will be called forward and told to stand on the Gordian knot in the centre, surrounded by the four house statues. The statues will let you know if you have been chosen for their house."

She then led them into the school, past the statues of Isolt and James, and through the wide double doors. Sophia blinked as she looked around the big, circular room. She heard whispers around her and looked up, seeing that the rest of the school were stood watching them from a balcony above, which spread around the whole circumference of the room.

Sophia bit her lip, half scared and half excited, eyes darting around at the hundreds of pairs staring back at her, looking for the most important out of the lot of them. But she couldn't find her brother's. Sighing in resignation, she followed David around the side of the room and stood with her back pressed hard against the wall when she stopped in her place, willing herself not to let her knees buckle in fear.

Suddenly she seemed to snap back to reality and was shocked to discover that in the time it had taken to compose herself, there were some children who had already been sorted. She realised in horror that they weren't going along the line, but we're in fact going alphabetically by last name. Having a name like Graves would mean that it would be her turn very soon.

And, far sooner than she hoped, it came.

"Graves, Sophia!" The elderly witch called.

From the corner of her eye, she saw David glance at her and narrow his eyes. Drawing in a breath, Sophia took a shaky step forward, and forced herself to keep moving. Legs shaking, she stumbled forward and almost tripped, her cheeks glowing red from shyness. She came to an abrupt halt and waited, turning slowly on the spot, willing the statues to come to life. After a minute or two she really started to panic. Although only a few people had been sorted before her, it only took at most 10 seconds for the others to be sorted.

Sophia tried to rattle through every bit of information about the sorting ceremony that she had ever either read or been told. She had never come across an instance where someone hadn't been chosen by any house. She could hear muttering coming from the gallery above and hung her head. She had just summoned up enough courage to turn to the elderly witch and apologise, explaining that there must have been a mistake about her magical ability due to being adopted when the loudest sound she had ever heard reverberated around the room, stunning everyone into silence.

She whipped her head up, and her eyes landed on the statue of the wampus, who before too long opened its mouth again and let out a mighty roar. There was no doubt about it, although it had taken its time to decide, it was sure that it wanted her in its house. Clenching her fists and setting her face into a determined pose, she nodded at it once, pride flooding through her veins as she realised that although she wasn't biologically related to her Father, she obviously took after him in all the ways that mattered. She returned to David's side with her head held high, as those watching clapped politely.

She went back to not paying attention, trying in vein to settle her pounding heart, until a familiar figure stepped forward. It was the boy that she had in Fabian's Fabrics. Daniel. She met his eye for a second and felt the same twisted feeling in her stomach she got the last time she saw him.

Within seconds, both the Wampus and Horned Serpent came to life and Sophia bit on her lip, willing the boy not to pick the same house as her. She didn't know why, but she just knew that she wanted as little to do with him as possible. She breathed a sigh of relief when he chose her brother's house rather than her own.

Adam.

The thought of him sent a bolt of panic through her. He had seemed so hopeful at the idea of them being in the same house, she hoped that he wouldn't be too disappointed in her.

Shaking off that thought, she realised that there were only a couple of kids who needed to be sorted left. David startled her a bit when he started to move forward, away from her. Time seemed to slow down as he walked away from her, and the air suddenly seemed tinged. For some reason, without even knowing it, everyone appeared on edge and expectant of something, though no one knew what.

The second David's foot touched the symbol of the Gordian knot, all four statues jumped into life. There was a collective gasp around the room and hundreds of people started talking at once. Sophia could only stand, speechless, staring in wonder at this moody boy who she'd only known for about an hour as she heard a girl stood to her left exclaiming, "How on Earth is he wanted by all of the houses? He doesn't even look like he wants to be here."

It was true, Sophia realised in shock. Stood there in the middle of the room, head bowed with a steely determined scowl on his face and dark hair casting his expression into shadow, David looked neither embarrassed at the attention he was getting nor happy at what he had just managed to achieve.

- - - - - - - - - -

Hi guys. I know that it's been a while, but the last two years have just been so busy. However, I always knew that I would return here. I hope you will give this story time and patience as I have worked so hard over the past two weeks to make it as good as it can be. I'm currently writing a draft for chapter eight, so you know I'm serious when I say that I'm genuinely doing this now.

Please give it a chance, I beg you. Please vote and comment, let me know your thoughts. It would mean the absolute world to me.