A new chapter is up.
Come in, get comfortable, and let’s see what kind of trouble waits this time ❤️ ✦ On the platform, a split opened in the Sorting Hat like a mouth.
It began to sing.
The song was every bit as strange as Edmund remembered, though he had to admit that a hat performing for the entire school had a certain ridiculous charm.
When the song ended, applause filled the Great Hall.
The Sorting Hat bowed to each of the four house tables before going still again.
Professor McGonagall stepped forward with a sheet of parchment.
“When I call your name, come forward, put on the Sorting Hat, and sit on the stool to be sorted.” She glanced down at the list.
“Hannah Abbott!” A nervous girl hurried forward, sat down, and pulled the hat over her head.
“HUFFLEPUFF!” The Hufflepuff table cheered loudly, celebrating their first new student of the year.
After that, names were called one after another.
Each time the Sorting Hat shouted a house, that table erupted in applause.
Gryffindor was the loudest by far.
A pair of red-haired twins even made exaggerated booing sounds when Slytherin received a student, only to be silenced by an older boy further down the table.
At last, McGonagall’s voice rang out.
“Edmund Gaunt!” The moment she called the name, the professors at the staff table turned their eyes toward the platform.
The Slytherin table reacted as well.
Students stretched their necks, eager to see what the rumored last orphan of House Gaunt looked like.
Among the first-years, a cute girl with a riot of bushy brown hair also looked over in surprise.
Edmund appeared not to notice any of it.
Under the attention of the hall, he walked to the Sorting Hat.
He looked at the battered old thing with faint distaste, then seemed to make a difficult decision before placing it on his head.
A voice sounded inside his mind at once.
“Insolent boy.
I am the hat of Hogwarts’ founders.
Countless excellent witches and wizards have found their proper houses through my judgment.” “Is that so?” Edmund thought back.
“Then, great Sorting Hat, did none of those excellent wizards ever think to clean you?” “Who says they did not?
Two hundred years ago, a Gryffindor boy threw me into the Black Lake.
That washed me well enough.” Edmund nearly laughed.
Washed once, two centuries ago.
How very clean.
“Slytherin blood,” the hat said.
“What else is there to say?
Sly-” “Stop.” Edmund’s thought sharpened.
“Ravenclaw.
I want Ravenclaw.” He repeated the word firmly in his mind.
“Ravenclaw?
Why?
You do possess a thirst for knowledge, yes, but your ambition for magic and your blood both make you a natural Slytherin.” “Blood is not the Sorting standard, is it?
My own desires and qualities matter more.” Edmund did not yield.
“You admitted I have Ravenclaw qualities.
Then send me to Ravenclaw.” The Sorting Hat fell silent for a moment.
“Very well, boy.
Promise that you will clean me properly when you have the chance, and I will agree.” “Done.” Edmund agreed immediately.
“If Rowena knew about this,” the hat muttered, “she would laugh at Salazar for a century.” Then it shouted aloud.
“RAVENCLAW!” The hall froze.
Not just the students.
Even the professors at the staff table looked stunned.
Only a moment earlier, the hat had already begun to say Slytherin.
It had stopped halfway, fallen silent, and then changed to Ravenclaw.
Snape’s face went cold enough to chill the room.
In nearly a thousand years of Hogwarts history, no first-year had so openly forced the Sorting Hat away from its first decision and into another house.
Now a young wizard had rejected Slytherin in front of the entire school and chosen Ravenclaw instead.
To Snape, it felt very much like a slap.
Behind half-moon spectacles, Dumbledore’s eyes gleamed with interest.
The little Gaunt had not gone to Slytherin.
That was not what he had expected.
At the Slytherin table, many students understood the insult as well.
After a brief shock, several stared at Edmund with open resentment, looking as if they would have happily reached for a curse if sanity and school rules had not existed.
Edmund did not care.
In an excellent mood, he removed the Sorting Hat and placed it back on the stool.
Then he suddenly drew his wand and aimed at the hat.
“Aguamenti.” A stream of clear water burst from the tip of his wand and poured over the Sorting Hat.
“Ah!
Merlin, that’s better!” the hat cried.
“You know how to treat a hat, boy!
Better than that Gryffindor two centuries ago.
Give it another pass.
I can still feel two centuries of dust in the brim!” Edmund felt his expression go blank.
Where had this filthy old hat learned to talk like that?
Ignoring its calls, he turned and walked toward the Ravenclaw table.
The first-years gradually came back to themselves.
Applause erupted from Ravenclaw and Gryffindor.
The red-haired twins shouted excitedly from the Gryffindor table.
“Brilliant, Edmund!
You should have been in Gryffindor!” An older red-haired student immediately suppressed them.
Edmund reached Cho’s side and sat down close beside her.
Looking into her delighted eyes, he said softly, “I made it.” “Welcome to Ravenclaw!” Cho was visibly excited.
The boy in front of her had become, for her sake, the first student in Hogwarts history to publicly bend the Sorting Hat’s decision.
She was deeply moved.
Edmund saw the admiration and surprise in her eyes and gently took her hand.
The two of them began speaking quietly.
The disturbance caused by Edmund gradually settled, and the Sorting continued.
When Hermione Granger took the platform, she glanced briefly toward Edmund before the hat sent her to Gryffindor.
Then came Harry Potter, which caused another wave of commotion.
When Harry was sorted into Gryffindor, the table exploded into cheers.
The twins shouted, “We’ve got Potter!
We’ve got Potter!” None of it disturbed Edmund and Cho.
They were far too absorbed in each other, talking with their heads close together.
Some of the older Ravenclaw girls looked faintly aggrieved.
A handsome new first-year had finally arrived, and Cho had already got there first.
Soon, the Sorting Ceremony ended.
Dumbledore stood, and the noise in the hall gradually quieted.
Looking over the students, a glimmer of satisfaction passed through his eyes.
These students, this school – they were the proof of his life’s work.
He looked around once, then spoke.
“Welcome!
Welcome to Hogwarts.
Before the feast begins, I would like to say a few words.
And here they are: Nitwit!
Blubber!
Oddment!
Tweak!
Thank you.” Then he sat down, looking every inch the eccentric old man and not at all like the greatest wizard of the twentieth century.
As the students watched in astonishment, the empty plates suddenly filled with food.
The feast began.
CREATORS’ THOUGHTS AuroraVale Thank you for reading.
I hope this chapter pulled you a little deeper into the story.
Stay close, because things are only getting more interesting.