Fortune of Fate (A female Harry Potter fanfiction)

[14]

  Many people were now staring at the first years, Rose flushed with embarrassment. Mainly to avoid all the staring eyes, Rose looked upward and saw a velvety black selling dotted with stars. She heard Hermione whisper, ''It's bewitched to look like the sky outside. I read about it in Hogwarts: a History .''

I t was hard to believe there was a ceiling there at all, and that the Great Hall didn't simply open up on the heavens.

Rose quickly looked down again as Professor McGonagall silently placed a four-legged stool in front of the first years. On top of the stool, she put a pointed wizard's hat. This hat was patched and frayed and extremely dirty. Aunt Petunia wouldn't have let it in the house.

  Maybe they had to try and get a rabbit out of it, Rose thought wildly, that seemed the sort or thing - noticing that everyone in the hall was now staring at the hat, she stared at it too. 

  For a few seconds, there was complete silence. Then the hat twitched. A rip near the brim opened wide like a mouth - and the hat began to sing:

"Oh you may not think I'm pretty,
But don't judge on what you see,
I'll eat myself if you can find
A smarter hat than me.

You can keep your  black,
Your sleek and tall,
For I'm the Hogwarts Sorting Hat
And I can cap them all.

There's nothing hidden in your head
The Sorting Hat can't see,
So try me on and I will tell you
Where you ought to be.

You might belong in Gryffindor,
Where dwell the brave at heart,
Their daring, nerve, and chivalry
Set Gryffindors apart;

You might belong in Hufflepuff,
Where they are just and loyal,
Those patient Hufflepuffs are true
And unafraid of toil;

Or yet in wise old Ravenclaw,
if you've a ready mind,
Where those of wit and learning,
Will always find their kind;

Or perhaps in Slytherin
You'll make your real friends,
Those cunning folks use any means
To achieve their ends.

So put me on! Don't be afraid!

And don't get in a flap! You're in safe hands (though I have none)

For I'm a Thinking Cap!"

  The whole hall burst into applause as the hat finished its song. It bowed to each four tables and then became quite still again.

  ''So we've just got to try on the hat!'' Ron whispered to Rose. ''I'll kill Fred, he was going on and on about wrestling a troll.'' Rose smiled weakly. 

  Yes, trying on the hat was lot better than having to do a spell, but she did wish they could have tried it on without everyone watching. 

  The hat seemed to be asking rather a lot; Rose didn't feel brave or quick-witted or any of it at the moment. If only the hat mentioned a House for people who felt a bit queasy, that would have been the one for her.

  Professor McGonagall now stepped forward holding along roll of parchment.

''When I call your name, you will put on the hat and sit on the stool to be sorted,'' she said. ''Abott, Hannah!''

  A pink-faced girl with blond pigtails stumbled out of line, put on the hat, which fell right down over her eyes, and sat down. A moment's pause- ''HUFFLEPUFF!'' shouted the hat.

  The table on the right cheered and clapped as Hannah went to sit down at the Hufflepuff table. Rose saw the ghost of the Fat Friar waving merrily at her, and she waved back.

  ''Bones, Susan!''

  ''HUFFLEPUFF!'' shouted the hat again, and Susan scuttled off to sit next to Hannah.

  ''Boot, Terry''

  ''RAVENCLAW!''

  The second table from the left capped this time; several Ravenclaws stood up to shake hands with Terry as he joined them.

  ''Brocklehurst, Mandy'' went to Ravenclaw too, but ''Brown, Lavender'' became the first new Gryffindor, and the table on the far left exploded with cheers; Rose could see Ron's twin brothers cat-calling.

  ''Bulstrode, Millicent'' then became a Slytherin. Perhaps it was Rose's imagination, after all she'd heard about Slytherin, but she though they looked like an unpleasant lot, but after all looks can be deceiving, maybe they were just very grumpy bunch, after all a lot of people thought they were evil, Rose thought that this was horrible and that this prejudice should end.

  Rose was starting to feel sick now. She remembered being picked for teams during gym at her old school. She had always been last to be chosen, not because she was no good, but because no one wanted Dudley to think they liked her.

  After all, Dudley considered Rose his and anyone that showed even the slightest interest in her, would be scared out of their wits by Dudley and his gang.

  ''Finch-Fletchey, Justin!''

  ''HUFFLEPUFF!''

  Sometimes, Rose noticed, the hat shouted out the House at once, but at others it took at little while to decide. ''Finnigan, Seamus,'' The sandy-haired boy next to Rose on the line, sat on the stool for almost a whole minute before the hat declared him a Gryffindor.

  ''Granger, Hermione.''

  Hermione almost ran to the stool and jammed the hat eagerly on his head. ''GRYFFINDOR!'' shouted the hat, Ron groaned.

  A horrible thought struck Rose, as horrible thoughts always do when you're very nervous. 

  What if she wasn't chosen at all? What if she just sat there with the hat over her eyes for ages, until Professor McGonagall jerked it off her head and said there had obviously been a mistake and she'd better get back on the train?

  When Neville Longbottom, the boy who kept losing his toad, was called he fell over on his way to the stool. The hat took a long time to decide with Neville. 

  When it finally shouted, ''GRYFFINDOR,'' Neville ran off still wearing it, and had to jog back amid gales of laughter to give it to ''MacDougal, Morag.''

  Malfoy swaggered forward when his name was called and got his wish at once: the hat had barely touched his head when it screamed, ''SLYTHERIN!'' 

  Malfoy looked in Rose's direction, smirking, Rose rolled her eyes and gave him a sarcastic smile. Malfoy frowned and went to join his friends Crabbe and Goyle.

  There weren't many people left now.

''Moon''. . . . , ''Nott''. . . .  ''Zabine'' . . . . ''Parkinson''. . . . , then a pair of twin girls, ''Patil'' and ''Patil'' . . . . , then ''Perks, Sally-Anne'' . . . . , and then, at last-

  ''Potter, Rose!''