Blank Sheet

The Sorting Hat

The doors opened and revealed a grand hall. It was lit by thousands of candles and there were five tables: four of them were placed next to each other and only students sat at them. The fifth was at the top of the hall and obviously the teachers' table. In the middle of it was a great gold chair in which the Headmaster, Albus Dumbledore, sat. Even though Medea grew up in other countries mainly, she had heard of him as the greatest wizard of all time. His long and silver hair testified of experience and wisdom. The old man smiled kindly at the young students approaching him.

Professor McGonagall led the group so that the first years would face their future schoolmates and then stopped. They had their backs now turned to the teachers and looked onto a four-legged stool. Medea was still trying to figure out if the Great Hall had a ceiling or not when the whole school became quiet and zoned in on an old hat that was now placed on the stool. The hat was patched and really dirty, it looked as if it existed for thousands of years.

Medea didn't understand what was so great about the hat but still looked at it because the others were, too. Then something happened. A rip opened and it looked weirdly like a mouth. Now the hat began to sing. It sang about danger and that the school needed unity for success. It was a pretty gloomy song and if Medea had expected something than it wasn't this. 

Though, when she thought about it, she had heard about a Lord Voldemort. Other kids and adults talked quite a lot about him, Medea never wanted to bother herself with things like that. 

There were rumours that he had risen again. Still, why did a hat sing about it before the Sorting of new students? After the hat's song, the hall broke into applause, but there was whispering and murmuring beneath it. Even the Hogwarts students seemed to be surprised by the hat's song.

Professor McGonagall now raised a list, probably with the names of the new children, but before she said anything, she darted a severe glance at the students in front to silence them. By now, many of the students seemed to have noticed that Medea couldn't be a first-year. A lot of them stared at her and she didn't know where to look when she finally found the twins in the crowd. George smiled at her and it took a load of Medea's mind. She smiled and waited for McGonagall to begin.

"Instead of just starting alphabetically today, we will first sort a student who has transferred from Durmstrang. She will be a fifth-year. - Medea Lane!" the Professor announced and Medea took a few steps to the hat, still not knowing exactly, what it would do. She sat down and put it on. The next second a voice sounded in her head and Medea nearly jumped. It was a dark voice and it seemed as if you could hear the wisdom underneath.

"So...Lane...where will I put you. - You've got a great mind, undoubtedly. ... And some skill in duelling, yeah? ... Well, I guess Durmstrang is good for that. But also ... courage and determination, no doubt. If you want something you get it. - But Gryffindor's ... not really the house for you. I sense ... deep down in you, you're not very trusting," Medea frowned at that, she did think she was, " well that excludes Hufflepuff then, too... Leaves Slytherin and Ravenclaw."

Medea trembled under the hat. The decision was near. She heard Dumbledore from behind, his golden throne was just meters behind her. He sounded amused when he whispered "A hatstall Minerva."

Medea had heard of that, hatstalls were extremely rare and appeared only once every fifty years and were known to be game changers. It was said that they often didn't adhere to the house's ideals, made quite a splash and were born leaders. Oddly, Medea did not think she was any of this and wondered if you could also be normal as a hatstall?

"Well ... you've got character traits for both houses...but which ones are stronger?" the hat went on, now pausing for some time, trying to figure out, which house would fit Medea more, "what's your favourite subject?" the hat finally asked. Medea could feel that this was important, but she had no idea of the houses and which subject would give her which house. Moreover, she wasn't even sure what house would be better, after all, she knew both had good character traits to value and George, Fred and Lee were in none of them, so she just answered honestly, "Charms"

"Why did it take you so long to answer? .... You wondered which subject would get you into which house, right?" the hat asked. He didn't sound judgmental, just curious. Medea nodded. "Well, that means there's one house outweighing the other inside you. You're a SLYTHERIN!!!"

Medea heard that it yelled the last word out loud and got up. She put the hat back down and went to the second table on the right, which was cheering. She sat down next to a boy with platinum blond hair. A shining badge on his uniform told her he was a prefect. He ignored Medea totally and she wondered if it weren't the prefects who were supposed to be nice to the new ones. When his friends called him, she found out his name was Draco, but she soon had better things to do than to wonder about the unfriendliness of the prefect, because the sorting went on and she soon clapped for the new Slytherin-first years who sat down beside her and looked as excited as Medea felt.

During the sorting, Medea looked for George, Lee and Fred at the Gryffindor table, but when she saw them it made her unhappy. George looked right into her eyes, but the spark that had been in his since she met him was missing. They kept eye contact for a few seconds, but then George turned his head back to the first years and shook his head as in disbelief and disappointment. Medea didn't know what was going on, but couldn't stop thinking about it.

After all the new first had been sorted, the Headmaster got up to say a few words and Medea already feared a long speech, but he just welcomed the students which Medea found nice. After his last words, there was some laughing and clapping and then the food appeared on the tables.

Medea had never seen that much food at once and there was so much she liked. How should she decide between all those dishes, as there were clearly too much to eat them all? After all, she ate much more than she expected and much more than she actually needed. 

Then, Dumbledore got up again and started to talk. He talked about changes in staff, about stuff the caretaker had reminded him and was probably going to go on, when a tiny witch he had just introduced as Professor Umbridge, the teacher of Defense against the Dark Arts, got up and hoofed it forwards. The teachers seemed to be puzzled for a minute and so did the students at Medea's house table.

Professor Umbridge was dressed in bright pink colours and spoke in a girly voice. She made your eyes bleed as well as your ear. She talked as if the students were five-year-old and none of them seemed happy about it. She spoke about how the school needed some serious change and that some things about the teaching should be forbidden. Medea furrowed her brows. What was going on in that school? She did stop listening to the witch fast, but she heard some weird stuff.

The ghosts seemed very annoyed by the woman and soon, they were hovering around the room, told jokes or imitated Umbridge, who ignored that totally. She went on with her boring speech, nobody really listened to, as if she was just pattering something learned by heart.

When everyone got up to go to the Common Rooms, she felt heavier and slower than normal, her stomach aching a bit and her head slowing down out of tiredness. She walked up for a girl and the platinum blond boy who were both prefects and seemed to be responsible for the first years. Medea decided to join them as she knew as less about the castle as the younger ones. When they left the Great Hall she saw George again, but he broke eye contact at once.

Depressed, she followed the group of younger students but didn't listen to what the prefects said. When they arrived at the Common Room the girl explained where the girl's dormitory was and Medea left at once. She was so tired, she did pay any attention to her surroundings except to her bed. She still noticed that everything was held in green and planned to explore the rooms closer tomorrow. She barely managed to find her pyjama in her trunk, that had been brought there. She quickly brushed her teeth and fell asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow.

A short thanks to the great @topaz30 who has reviewed this book as a part of astethe reviews. Thanks so much!!