Modern Hogwarts --Sisiny

Sorting Ceremony - Emmett First Year

Emmett had been told to change into his school clothes - the robes and silly pointy hat. A giant of a man, Emmett forgot his name as soon as he heard it, was taking them up to the school via boats on a lake, while the older students took some carriages. The tiny boats moved across the water by themselves and arrived at what looked to be a giant castle, all windows glowing bright in the dark night. The black lake reflected it perfectly on such a calm surface that it looked as though a second castle lay secretly beneath it. There was excited chatter all through the little boats when it came into view.

For only a moment, the boat brushed against something in the water. The other two students in the boat didn't notice as they were engrossed in the ardor, but the slight bump pulled Emmett's eyes away from the picturesque school down to the water beside them. The water was impossible to see through in the night so Emmett only saw the tiny ripples made by their boat as they made their way across the lake. Then, for only a moment or two, a sideways current caused tumult in the boat's ripples. 

It took Emmett a moment to realize it wasn't a current. It was a thing. An alive thing. And it was not small. One side was smooth and seemed to glide through the water with no resistance. The other side had odd bumpy peaks that stirred the little waves from the boat into whirlpools.

That was it. The thing was gone. Emmett realized with a pang of fear that their tiny boat on the huge lake was not going to be any match for whatever leviathan that was, but Emmett was sensible. He braced for inevitable death via lake monster at any second now.

Death did not come. All the little boats made it across the lake with no other incidents. They started their way to the castle and Emmett took one last look at the dark lake in the night. A long, thin part of a creature rose out of the surface and wiggled its tip. Was it a head and neck of an animal, flipping water out of its ears? Or an arm... waving?

It returned to the depths and Emmett was forced to catch up to the rest of the students. 

They finally arrived in a huge hall. There were round table everywhere with the older students already seated at them. White candles hung in the air by themselves, all giving off brilliant light against the dim ceiling. The ceiling wasn't even a ceiling. There were stars above those candles, it looked like the room opened up right into the sky.

Emmett had been looking at the constellation alignments and didn't notice the rest of the group had stopped. He ran into a blond-haired boy in front of him. He muttered an apology when the boy gave him a disgruntled look.

Oh, no. The lady had already started talking! What was she saying? Oh the hat. Emmett remembered the man from the shop and felt a moment of satisfaction that he already knew what to do. He felt in his pocket for the little red-eared slider turtle. It wiggled.

The hat started singing. The hat. It was singing. He tried to gather what all it was saying and categorizing it for future reference. It was about the four houses. Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, Slytherin, and Gryffindor. Having not actually heard of them before (not taking any interest in history, his book Hogwarts: A History had not yet been opened), Emmett wondered vaguely which one he would be in. They all sounded the same to him.

The hat belted one final long note and the room erupted in applause. The lady from before pulled out a tube, unrolling it revealing it to be a piece of paper. The list of names.

"When I call your name, please come up here for sorting," she said in a Scottish accent. "Abrams, Emmett."

Crap. Of course he was first. No big deal, he'd been in front of bigger audiences. He reminded himself that the bit of magic wasn't even for them, it was for the teacher to decide which house he would be in.