It was a warm and shiny day, the sun shone down onto plattform 9 ¾, the steam curled heavily, mixing with the sound of rushing students, rolling trunks, and the screeching of owls in their cages. Clark stood near the entrance of the Hogwarts Express for a moment, as he watched Finlay, his personal butler, handling the giveaway of his luggage, that was packed into the seperate luggage wagons of the train. His eyes watched as people hurried past him, the black cages swaying behind them.

Today was September first.

That meant one thing.

Hogwarts.

The thought of it still didn‘t feel entirely real to him.

His fingers absentmindedly turned one of the silver rings on his hands, while his eyes followed every movement of the people around him. He watched parents waving. Waving their children goodbye, probably wishing them a good journey. Other students were laughing, talking to their friends, they probably didn‘t see all summer.

Clark stayed slightly off the side.

For him all these movements, all these noises felt suffocating, too loud. He could already feel the pressure building behind his eyes from all the overlapping voices around him.

The one thing that snapped him out of this trance was the figure that stepped back into his view. Finlay. He felt the comforting weight of his hand on his shoulder.

“You‘ll be alright, Clark. And if Hogwarts gets too loud…Just focus on something steady, okay?“

He always said that, when he noticed that Clark was zooming out. And it kind off helped.

Clarks eyes met the eyes of the man, that basically raised him, after his parents decided that they couldn‘t bear watching their son turn into a ‘beast‘ every month, when the silver light shone at the dark sky.

He gave Finlay a short nod, before stepping forward and climbed onto the train.

Inside of the train, he was greeted with an even more suffocating atmosphere than outside.

The narrow corridor was already filled with students trying to claim compartments before departure. Se doors stood open with groups loudly talking inside while others wer already crowded beyond reason.

Clark strode through the corridors, till he found an empty compartment.

Jackpot.

He opened the door, and stepped inside, letting himself drop onto a seat, his shoulders slumping slightly.

His gaze shifted towards the window, letting his thoughts slip.

Clark‘s silence was disturbed, as he heared the compartments door open. He watched quietly as other boy entered the compartment. The rattling sound of movement, that came from the door being slided open, made his shoulders tense involuntarily, the ease immediately forgotten for a moment, before his shoulders slumped back into place, as the boy settled down across from him instead of trying to fill the silence immediately, that hung between them.

Honestly Clark preferred that.

Quieter compartments felt easier to breath in.

For a few moments, the only sounds that could be heared, were the distant voices of the other students, the rattling of the trains wheels against the railway tracks. Clark‘s fingers absentmindedly continued to turn the silver rings, that were decorating his hand while his gaze drifted briefly towards the window beside him again.

Than the silence broke.

“Good day to you? Name is Chatt.“

Clark blinked once at the phrasing, caught slightly off guard by the heavy accent the boy was talking in. It sounded like french to him, but he wasn‘t entirely sure though. But there wasn‘t anything mocking in Clark‘s expression, as he now focused on the boy infront of him, mostly just quiet curiosity.

“Clark…“, he answered after a second, his own voice softer in comparison. “Clark Stellan.“

Clark sat up a bit straighter, while still watching Chatt across from him, letting the compartment they were sharing now, fall into a comfortable silence again.

For a few seconds it was just quiet.

And Clark could handle quietness pretty well.

Then he cleared his throat and directed his next question at Chatt.

“First year too?“

His voice stayed soft, almost careful, while his gaze remained on Chatt.

Clark was taken back by Chatt‘s questions, visibly caught off guard by the amount of them at once. For a brief second, he just simply stared at the other boy, fidgeting with his rings.

He… didn‘t know about the Houses?

Honestly, Clark had assumed everyone knew at least that much before boarding the train.

But then again, judging by the phrasing, the heavier accent, and Chatt‘s halting English, like he was still getting used to most of the language. And he probably hand’t lived here very long aswell. Maybe not long enough to grow up hearing all kind of stories about Hogwarts, like most kids with Wizarding parents, that attended Hogwarts theirselfs.

As he got his composer back, he nodded.

“…yeah.“, Clark answered than, while his fingers thightened around one of his rings. “There are four Houses.“

The train rattled gently beneath them, while the blurry images of the world outside, changed rapidly, signalising the change in landscape and their surroundings. Clark cleared his throat again before continuing talking.

“There are Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff and Slytherin. First years like us, get sorted into them, by a hat.“

A hat. Even Clark was still amused by this fact. He only had gotten told some stories by his Butler Finlay, who was once a student at Hogwarts aswell. But that was a long time ago.

“And like….they all stand for different things…apparently, if you believe the words of my Butler.“, he added, as he shifted on his seat, waiting for Chatt‘s reaction.

He wasn‘t sure though if he should elaborate on the meanings of the houses, but he didn‘t even know if Chatt needed them.

Clark stared at Chatt for a few seconds after he laughed, visibly caught between confusion and mild offense. His fingers paused against the ring he had been absentmindedly twisting, while he just let the sensation of the cool metal against his fingertips sink in, while inside his head his thoughts were racing.

Honestly…this being said out loud…did sound a bit of ridiculous?

But still.

“It‘s not…just a hat…“, Clark muttered, though his voice wavered slightly, exposing the uncertainty in his voice made it clear he wasn‘t entirely confident in defending this concept either.

After that he fell into a silence again, starring at Chatt, without continuing speaking.

He swallowed, gathering his thoughts, before talking again, as Chatt asked if they threw the hat away after every ceremony.

“They don‘t throw it away. I mean its a hogwarts tradition.“, he said his voice a bit steadier now. “It‘s actually more than thousand years old, And imagine surviving hundreds of students, getting you placed on their heads every year…only to land in a bin afterwards.“

The image sounded absurd enough that even Clark looked mildly amused by it now.

The new tension that had settled into his muscles again, eased, and Clark relaxed again, while the compartment settled into a clamer atmosphere again.

Clark listened patiently to what Chatt had to say. He listened to all the theories the other boy worked through, trying to keep up with him jumping from an ancient hat ti personalities and everything in between.

Clark had to admit, Chatt asked question he never even considered asking himself before.

While he kept his focus on the bubbly boy in front of him, Clark fingers found their way back to turning the rings on his fingers again.
After a period of silence that had followed Chatt‘s wild questions, Clark cleared his throat before answering one of the boy‘s questions.

“The Hat sorts you into a house.“, he said simply. “From what I‘ve heard, it‘s mostly based on who you are deep inside.“

Clark paused briefly before opening his mouth again to continue talking.

“Like for example, your personality, your values. All those aspects, that basically sum up who you are.“

In reality Clark had no clue, how a magical hat managed any of that. Even if he was from a prestige Wizarding family, who all went to Hogwarts, it was an individual experience after all, wasn‘t it? Even if he was told many stories about Hogwarts, about it‘s prestige, it‘s fame, but only hearing it and actually going were two entirely different things. And Everyone in his family, had shared different experiences, and soon enough, Clark would form his own one, and maybe he had a complete different one, than the ones before him.

After a moment of being intrigued by his thoughts, Clark looked at Chatt again.

“I suppose we‘ll both find out soon enough.“

About finding out where he will end up, Clark had never really thought about that himself. He didn‘t really mind where he would go, but listening to his family‘s stories, it would be for the best, if he wasn‘t sorted into Slytherin. According to his family, they were the bad one‘s. Most of them were Ravenclaws, and surely Clark would be sorted into either Ravenclaw or Gryffindor, according to the traits he was aware about himself.

“Finding out is one thing, now that we are talking about it, I wonder where I end up myself.“

The confession slipped out a bit quiet, but still loud enough for Chatt to hear it.

He was curious on how his life in Hogwarts would be shaped, through the sorting into a specific house.