The Twins-Who-Lived | Harry Potter Fanfiction

3 - First Week

The moment the doors swung open, the eyes of the whole entire hall focused on the group of first years, many of them looking for the famous twins, some just observing the people that they might be sharing their dorm with that year. 

Alex's eyes lit up in wonder as he looked around. Hearing about the great hall for years had truly not done it justice. It was stunning and he had never seen anything like it before in his life. He looked at the four banners hanging from the ceiling, as well as the large moon and hundreds of stars that matched the ones that he had seen only minutes before. Candles were floating and Alex couldn't help but wonder who charmed them. 

Harry, on the other hand, showed only slight interest as he took in as much information as he could. Having not even started first year, he had no knowledge other than what was in the Potter library, but that seemed to give him at least the barest understanding of the charms that were used in the great hall. What he gathered from what he saw, the charms on the candles weren't very impressive, except for the fact that the spell was long-term. That was very impressive, something that Harry believed only someone like Flitwick or Dumbledore would have the magical capacity to pull off.

The twins were both so lost in thought that they barely even noticed that anything was even happening up until the loud singing of a hat interrupted their thoughts. This took Alex by surprise, but Harry had read Hogwarts: A History, and already knew about the hat that was charmed by Godric Gryffindor himself. 

The song flew by quickly, and before they knew it, the sorting was started, with a breathy yell of, "Abbott, Hannah!"

Names flew by, and Harry couldn't help but be stunned that such a major moment in all of these student's history would be defined within a minute. Some names took up to five, but most took about 20-30 seconds, which surprised Harry immensely. How could a hat determine a person's personality traits in less than 30 seconds?

Before he knew it, "Potter, Alexander," was called. Alex sent Harry a strained look before walking about. As if they weren't already nervous enough, everyone went silent the moment that their last name was mentioned. 

"Hm," the sorting hat began, "I figured you would be much more of a challenge. You are quite similar to your father, a very good lad, although a bit impetuous at times... Yes, very charismatic, perhaps a career in politics in your future?"

Alex smiled, "Yes, that's what I'm hoping for. Of course, if something else catches my interest, I would go for that as well. As long as I'm happy with what I'm doing, that's what matters."

The hat made a few noises of disgruntlement, muttering something about how that was such a Hufflepuff before saying, "Ok, I've made up my mind - GRYFFINDOR!"

Alex grinned as the table with the red and gold banner hanging above it burst out into ear-shattering cheers. Two twins started chanting, "We've got a Potter, we've got a Potter!", which lead to a lot of laughter across the hall, including a hearty chuckle from the headmaster.

It was already highly expected that Alex would be in Gryffindor, but now having it confirmed meant a lot than just having it theorized. Witch Weekly had covered many times what information they could gleam about the twins if they got into any of the houses. Then, they gave the most likely candidate for each twin, they guessed that Alex would be a Gryffindor and that Harry would be a Slytherin. The issue with the article was that the news outlets had a lot of information on Alex, but not Harry, so they really couldn't make a logical guess about what house he would end up in. 

The next name called was, "Potter, Harry," and once again, the whole crowd went silent, save for a few mutterings between friends who were making guesses on what house he would be in.