Sorting Ceremony 2020-2021

To say Everly was nervous was an understatement.

Her hands fidgeted deep down in her robe pocket, her thoughts jumbling around as she stood nervously in line, positive her face was turning green. The other first years chattered excitedly before they were being called up one by one. Everly knew it would be her turn soon enough, and she was dreading it. She didn't think she was quite enough brave, or kind, or smart or ambitious enough. She closed her eyes and took a few steadying breaths and readied herself when she heard her name being called. "Charlton, Everly."

This was it, the moment of truth, when she'd find out which house she would belong in. Butterflies exploded in her as she slowly climbed up the steps, sure that she would trip somewhere and fall. She approached the wooden stool sitting there and was encased in blackness as the hat was lowered on her head. She couldn't see anything as the hat was quite too big for her, and that didn't help her nerves at all.

Everly got quite a spook when a small voice began to speak in her mind. Once her muscles began to relax she listened to the voice, trying to calm her nerves. The voice in her mind continued talking, and yet Everly couldn't quite hear what it was saying, it spoke of shyness, a desire to prove herself, wits, and big dreams. Everly was positive her bottom was getting sore, even though it had only been half a minute. "Ah, I see..." the voice muttered, "best you go in GRYFFINDOR!"

The hat was lifted off Everly's head and she felt like a big burden had been lifted off her shoulders. She'd been Sorted into Gryffindor, the house of bravery (even though she didn't feel quite brave right now). She stumbled down the steps and towards the table decorated red, her stomach feeling quite hungry.

Kitty had just gotten off the boats and was lead to an enormous hall. The ceiling was tall but seemed to disappear at the top. There were floating candles everywhere. Students with different colored robes were seated at the long tables. At the far end sat some adults, 'Maybe they are the teachers' thought, Kitty, 'Is that a hat?', in front of the table the adults sat at was a chair that held a very old hat. All the first-year students lined up. 'What's going to happen?' Kitty asked the boy in front of her, 'This is the sorting ceremony.', 'What do we get sorted into?', 'Wow, you must be new. There are four houses, Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Slytherin, and Hufflepuff. Each house stands for a certain personality. They call your name and you sit on that chair, then they put the hat on your head. The hat sorts you into which house you will be in.' the boy turned away. What personality does each house represent? Kitty wondered. Before she could ask, her name was called.

Nervousness racked her body. Trying to control her breathing, she stepped up the stairs and eased herself onto the chair. The hat was placed onto her head. How does the hat sort us into the houses?, 'You will see', a raspy voice sounded in her ear, or was it her head? 'I sense a great mind, eager to learn and add to her store of knowledge. Mabe Ravenclaw? But, her sense of valor and natural instinct to protect those she loves has caused me to make up my mind. You will be sorted into...

The sudden shout startled Kitty. The hat was taken off her head and she was directed to the table with Red and Gold.

Twenty four hours ago, Dorothy would have rolled her eyes at her fathers lavish descriptions and laughed off his seemingly exaggerated take on how quickly her first day would fly by. However, as she was shuffled through the large doors into the larger hall beyond, she realised he was exactly right. Even the cacophony of hundreds of students did nothing to drown out the awestruck silence Dorothy felt within her. Looking up at the floating candles twinkling like stars across the ceiling, the day so far replayed in her mind. Everything had been amazing to see. The country views on the drive from York to London, the hidden platform through a wall, the scenery flashing by the misty train windows, watching Hogwarts itself get closer and bigger as the boats were rowed across the lake. Somehow though, nothing quite matched how she felt right now. She was surrounded by hundreds of other witches and wizards for the first time in her life in a brand new place, but it already felt like her second home.

Dorothy's wonderment had distracted her entirely until the booming voice of the headmaster announced himself, the heads of houses and the magical hat her father told her about. It was the one that would decide her house here at Hogwarts, though she couldn't quite see it properly from her space near the back of the crowd of other first years. Now marveling instead at the teachers and the sorting ceremony itself, Dorothy awaited her name to be called.

"Dorothy Evans"

Her first thought when he heard her name was that really, she should have had the hindsight to stand nearer the front. Of course it was going to be alphabetical so of course she was going to be reasonably early on. This was a good first impression to leave on the Ravenclaws she suspected she would be spending her time with. Dorothy knew it was only something little, but she wanted nothing more than to be seen for the great witch she could be, not the silly first year who had to apologise her way through the crowd while everyone waited.

When she arrived at the front of the hall she couldn't help but think the hat should have looked more... important.
"Certainly not a charming hufflepuff then, I think."
Dorothy jumped as the hat spoke to her the second it was placed on her head. She cringed slightly.
"Sorry," she thought.
"Quite right too. Now then, if not hufflepuff where shall we put you?
I see you're expecting Ravenclaw like your father. You're certainly intelligent enough for it. Quick witted to match.
You want to do many things with it though. I sense you aren't as content with a mostly muggle life as your father is.
No.
There's ambition there, lots of it.
This sort of careful thinking I sense within you suits more than Ravenclaw.
I know just where you should be.
SLYTHERIN!"

That hat was removed from her head and she was nudged towards the cheers of the Slytherin table. Well, this outcome certainly hadn't crossed her mind and Dorothy didn't know how to feel now she'd been guided away from the footsteps of her father.

Being surrounded by strangers sharing an exclusive anticipation that I myself was exempt from, the trembling of my uneasy heart accentuated neither my anxiety nor my excitement, but my confusion. The days prior had been a blur, and while the wondrousness of newfound revelation about the nature of the hidden world may have served as a breath of fresh air to many a youthful mind, they settled upon my restless spirit as another source of unceasing tension. As if there wasn't enough to worry about in life besides grades, making friends in an immature and hypocritical society, and the sundering expectations of parental authority that threatened to split my feeble mind apart.

Well, it is said that hardship sharpens the spirit upon the anvil of willpower. In that regard, I should have felt that I outmatched any other individual in this room in terms of willpower by tenfold. But yet, this feeling eluded me. A bearded man stood with his wand poised, and from the scars of war engraved upon his eyes, I felt the quiet severity that radiated from the spectators. Not the children, but the adults who had to bear the truth that the world was much broader than it lied itself to be.

I almost wished for the bliss of ignorance. But as my soft cranium sought to contemplate the absurdity of the events of the past few hours, my name was called, and I scarcely heard it.

"Jackson Valentine."

There was no exclamative tone the second time, and somehow, the cold impatience of the Sorting Hat's scowl reached me more easily than the loud guffaws of its initial screech.

I stumbled forward, and almost lost my footing immediately. Somewhere in the back of my head, I could hear the quiet buzzing of laughter, my own thoughts playing jester to my physical failings. But as I wobbled uneasily toward the hat, the gaping mouths of students all around that threatened to swallow me in their infinite abyss only foretold the horrors of the days to come.

Every single one of them would eat me up if they could.

Squatting mechanically into the chair, I flinched at the invasive touch of someone's hand upon my shoulder.

"It's alright, dear. There's no need to be nervous," came the aged female voice that followed it. I wasn't nervous. I could have been deaf, I could have been blind, I could have been stabbed in the back from behind, but I would never be taken by surprise. There was just too much around me. Too many faces, too much information. Even I who was conditioned to absorb each and every detail to be committed to the deepest cores of memory was overwhelmed. And it only occurred to me then, the unbelievable.

I was a wizard.

I didn't even feel the grasp of the Sorting Hat nestled on the brittle fibers of my hair until it began to speak.

"This one has a good heart. . ." it spoke nonsensically to me, drowning my aching head in praises for some other kinder child. At least until its tone shifted, and its speech deviated from the characteristic optimism.

". . . But his mind is cold, twisted and misguided. His spirit is old, marred and beaten."

"Thanks," I replied sarcastically, drawing an unfazed grunt from the Sorting Hat.

"Take care to nurture this one, for I have seen another like him some ninety years before."

It spoke as if I was the second coming of Jesus. With those comforting last words, it muttered a final verdict, naming the house which would forever be cursed to bear my scornful name upon its walls.

"Gryffindor."

A soft, awkward clapping erupted somewhere from the far back of the Great Hall as my sentence was passed. The name 'Gryffindor' held neither significance nor meaning to me. I felt like I had just been denounced as the Fourth Horseman of the Apocalypse.

With a trembling flutter of my heart, I limped over to join the rest of my conspirators in the grand scheme of education for the youth. Dark red streaks of fabric bled out across my robe as I sank back into a sea of faceless individuals. Just another crop in a field of weeds.

The Great Hall was, put simply, incredibly overwhelming. The rows of students tucked tightly against tables that seemed to go on forever, the roar of voices—unique, but none quite distinct enough to focus on a single conversation for long— and flashes of color twined through each set group. Even his mother's illustrative descriptions weren't enough to prepare Michael for the sensory overload. He turned his gaze up, and smiled at the collection of flying candles, twinkling in patterns like the ones he would one day learn from the sky. Back to the front, and Michael found himself and the rest of the first years finally standing at the head of the room.

The friendly bickering between Headmaster and hat did little to calm the nerves steadily arising in Michael's chest. He remembered days imagining this with his sister, placing each other on a single chair and yelling aloud one of the four houses—typically one their parents had belonged to. Michael had concluded long before stepping foot on the train that he wouldn't don red or green, a detail his once-Hufflepuff mother reassured him was fine. "It isn't fame or notoriety that makes you a good wizard; it's the care you put into it." And oh, how ready was he to care. Years of watching his mother's easy spell-casting in their slice of wooded paradise, and now it was finally his chance to learn. His mind traveled to the days past this— sun on the leaves tucked safe in the greenhouse, the flow of magic from his wand that he would learn more and more how to control, his hands wrapped around a broom as he finally let the ground drop beneath his feet—

Oh! They'd begun G names. Had he heard "Gold"? It was nearly his turn. And then. It was.

"Hmm... I see. Not even eaten and you're already preparing for your lessons. I see your dreams of mastery, a curiosity that can never be satisfied...Your loyalty to your family runs deep...And strong determination, so rooted to knowledge. Of course.....

RAVENCLAW!!!"

Michael let out a breath he hadn't realized he was holding and walked on shaky legs to the cheering sea of blue and bronze. Now that that ordeal was over, maybe he could go back to his daydreaming. Or actually try to talk to someone. Or start his letter to his family. Or, maybe, he could keep his focus on the smiles around him for just a bit longer...

Gia was filled with excitement as she walked into the Great Hall at Hogwarts for the very first time. When she saw the interior of the grand room, the girl couldn't help but gasp. It had been named correctly, she thought to herself, because it really was quite great. Of course, everything she'd seen of the Wizarding World so far was pretty amazing. Having thought she was a normal human—or muggle, as people here called them—for the majority of her life, Gia was in no way used to anything like this. Realizing that her mouth was still slightly open in awe, the eleven year old hurried to shut it, peeking out from the back of the line so she could see what was happening way up front.

As far as she could tell, nothing very exciting was happening yet. Everyone else in the room was staring at the first years, but that was really all. Wondering when the whole Sorting Ceremony was actually going to begin, Gia didn't even realize that the Headmaster of the whole school was standing only a few steps away until he started walking up towards the front of the room. When the girl finally figured this out, she looked around at the rest of the first years there to see if they knew this already. A few of them seemed to recognize the man, but most others simply looked frightened or nervous at what was about to happen.

If she was being honest, the eleven year old really had no clue as to what house she was going to be sorted into. From what she understood so far, there were four different houses, and each one had certain values that they deemed important. She couldn't quite remember the names of the different houses though, all she recalled was that they sounded, well. . . silly. Fingers tapping gently on the side of her legs, the girl searched the front of the room again to see if anything else had occurred while she had been distracted by her thoughts. Ooh, finally! Gia thought, seeing the Headmaster open his mouth to speak. Hopefully he wasn't one for super long speeches. . . those always bored her. Although, even if he was, whatever he was going to say would probably be more interesting than the ones her old school teachers had given back home. The man was, after all, the Headmaster of a school for magic. . .

The Headmaster introduced all the professors in the room, and Gia took her time examining all of them, wondering what each of them were like. She still hadn't remembered which house had which values yet, and was very interested to find out what they were. Hopefully she'd know before she herself was sorted, since it just wouldn't do to not know what the house she'd been sorted into was like. By now, the Headmaster had finished introducing everyone and had moved on to explaining about a House Championship Cup. This immediately sparked Gia's interest, and she leaned a little closer, growing more excited by the minute. It sounded fun. . . and it was a competition. The last part was something she loved, as the first year was a very competitive person.

Once the man had finished, another voice echoed throughout the room. Startled, the eleven year old's gaze skipped from person to person as she tried to figure out where it had come from. . . and finally landed on a worn out, old brown hat. The front of it seemed to be moving, as if it had a mouth! "How. . ." Gia's sentence trailed off. The answer was obvious of course, it was magic like everything else here. After a bit of staring, the girl realized that this song was probably the explanation she'd been waiting for, and hurried to listen more closely to what was being said. When she heard the part she'd been waiting for, Gia repeated the house names and values in her mind over and over again so she wouldn't forget. And then the line began to move forward.

Child after child placed the Sorting Hat on their head, and child after child was sorted into a house. Gia's excitement only grew the closer she got to the front, and she couldn't wait to hear her name being called. Finally, finally it happened. "ADELARD, GIA!" The girl practically ran up to the stool and hurriedly put it upon her head, her thoughts jumbling together into one big, crazy mess.

You have a strong mind, the Sorting Hat's voice said. Gia smiled.

"I suppose," she replied.

Hmm. . . I see loyalty in you as well. Bravery and mischief. . . At this, a determined expression appeared on Gia's face. Oh, don't worry. I've seen that trait in many others today, and now I believe I know exactly which house you were meant to be in. . . She held her breath, waiting. GRYFFINDOR! The hat yelled out, and she pulled it off her head, a bright grin on her face as she made her way over to—what had the Headmaster called it? Oh right—her second family.

849 words
Banner by Lucia Fox

After the initial excitement of entering Hogwarts for the first time slowly faded, Sylvester was currently discovering that the sorting ceremony was a bit of a letdown. Sure, he'd had no real expectation of what would happen beforehand. When you've just been told that magic is real and you're being sent away to some random magical school in September you have to expect the unexpected. He just wished the unexpected had been a bit more interesting than watching a singing hat proceed to shout out the same four house names for the past hour or so, the portrait he'd been holding an impromptu staring contest with having long since moved on because apparently, the paintings here could just up and leave whenever they wanted. The hat could have at least kept the singing up or shot a few spells out, maybe just randomly shout out MUGGLE or whatever that professor has called his parents, that would have been funny.

It wasn't like any of this ceremony meant all that much to him anyway. Maybe if he'd grown up here it'd have been different but right now all the tables looked about the same from where he was standing. It didn't matter to him if he ended up in Gryffinpuff or Slytherclaw or whatever name the hat wound up calling out when it was his turn and whatever that supposedly meant about him as a person, at the end of the day it was just a table and colour, he'd still be learning magic so he'd make the best of it wherever he wound up. Unless this championship cup came with another decent prize the whole thing seemed to be a big fuss about nothing.

Sylvester had never been good with standing still in one place for an extended period of time, never mind the fact that he hadn't eaten since lunch and was bored out of his mind. Hopefully, it'd be his turn under the hat soon, trying to poke the weird black pointy hats he and the rest of the group had been forced to wear off of his fellow crowd members heads was becoming more and more tempting. That could be one memorable way to be fast-tracked to the big hat in charge but he didn't really want any trouble on the first night.

Thankfully the decision was made for him when "Sinclaire, Sylvester" was suddenly called from the front of the hall. Sylvester wasted no time, moving through the remaining crowd and running up to the stool, jamming the hat onto his head as quickly as possible. A few seconds later a voice appeared in his head, seemingly coming from the hat itself. "Hmm, honest to a fault with more than a fair amount of courage. Plenty of wit, rationality, and an undeniable curiosity. Better be Ravenclaw!" Sylvester grinned before pulling the hat off and hurrying over to the cheering table. Hopefully, the hat would hurry up with the rest of the sorting and the real fun could finally begin.

After spending most of her day on the train, alone, reading Hogwarts a History to understand just what she is getting herself into, Aspen had finally arrived at the school, or rather castle only to be swept away onto a little boat and into the Hogwarts entrance hall.

Eyes wide and mouth falling open, floating candles and a plethora of colored banners with different animal emblems decorate this grand room. The Headmaster introduces himself, the school, and the four houses- one of which will be Aspen's home for the next seven years.

Gryffindor- The Daring
Hufflepuff- The Loyal
Slytherin- The Cunning
Ravenclaw- The Wise

None seem right, Aspen is not practically brave or kind or ambitious or smart, no, what if the Headmaster made a mistake, what is she is not magical just average.

"Summers, Aspen" With a deep breath, Aspen starts to make her way up to the wooden stool. Looking down and trying to ignore the looks from older students, she takes the hat and puts it onto her little head.

Ahh, nervous are we? Scared we do not belong, well surely not Slytherin than. No, you just do not want to disappoint your parents. I see... I think you will be best in

HUFFLEPUFF!

The students decked out in yellow and black begin to cheer, but Aspen is still. Someone ushers her over to the table and she sits, lost, confused, and scared. Let the new chapter begin.

On her way to Hogwarts stress was all over her head and body. What if she's put in a house that doesn't represent her? What if she doesn't get along with the ones from her house?

She started to feel better when she realized she wasn't the only one stressed. A blonde little girl was standing next to her, starting to bite her nails and look out the train window . She seemed anxious so Daria tried to introduce herself to her, maybe it will make her feel better. But the girl looked at her with fear in her eyes, moved her eyes on her shoes and didn't say a word.
Daria didn't insist. She kind of understood the situation that girl was on. She kept quiet in the compartment all the way to Hogwarts..

When she finally arrived,the stress started to come up again. The castle was HUGE. She knew that she was going to get lost on that castle the next day when she was going to have classes..
At the entrance, a professor was waiting. She presented herself and lead everyone to the Great Hall. Daria was starting to panic. Her mom was a Slytherin but her dad was a Ravenclaw. Where is she going to be placed ? Will her parents be mad if she doesn't get in one of their houses?

When they finally entered the Great Hall it was exactly like it's name. GREAT. It was a big room, with candles as chandeliers and 4 long tables. In the front, a man was waiting peacefuly. It was the Headmaster of the school. He introduced himself and told the kids some things about Hogwarts and the ceremony that was about to begin . Behind him, there was a table with all the professors. Everything was so magical.
Next to him, there was a hat..a talking hat! Which, technically had to put us in our houses.
Student by student started to go in the front..
"RAVENCLAW!"
"Better be... GRIFFINDOR!"
Then..she heard her name.. "Ah, yes....interesting. Lots of potential... An ambitious person.. yeah, I know exactly what to do with you. Better be SLYTHERIN!"
She didn't know if she should be happy or not. But she was. And that's because her mom was in Slytherin too. She always knew that she was a mommy's girl.
The students from the Slytherin house started to applaud and stand up. She was finally able to start her adventure...