Аннотация: Waiting for sorting. The hat assigns the children to the faculties.
The door swung open. Behind her stood a tall, black-haired sorceress in emerald-green robes. Her face was very stern, and it was better not to argue with such a lady, and in general it was better to stay away from her. Although Percy told me that Professor Snape is even worse.
"Professor McGonagall, here are the freshmen," Hagrid informed her happily.
"Thank you, Hagrid," the witch nodded at him. "I'm taking them."
She turned and walked forward, ordering us to follow her. We found ourselves in a huge hall-so huge that our house could easily fit in there. Torches burned on the stone walls, just like at Gringotts, the ceiling was lost somewhere above, and a beautiful marble staircase led to the upper floors.
We followed Professor McGonagall across the cobblestone floor. As I passed the closed door on the right, I heard the sound of hundreds of voices-the whole school must have already gathered there.
But Professor McGonagall wasn't leading us there at all, but into a small, empty dining room. It was crowded with freshmen, and we huddled together, breathing down each other's necks and looking around uneasily.
"Welcome to Hogwarts," Professor McGonagall finally greeted us. "The banquet for the start of the school year will begin soon, but before you sit down at the tables, you will be divided into faculties. Sorting is a very serious procedure, because from now until graduation, your faculty will become your second family. You will study together, sleep in the same bedroom and spend your free time in a room specially designated for your faculty.
That's why I was against such a neighborhood in the boat. I have no desire to see the omniscient Hermione constantly by my side and listen to her lecture. Percy is enough for me. I thought my ears would curl up in the summer. Like Bill's when his Brazilian friend took offense at him and sent him a damn hat. Mom took the photo, as a warning to all the other children.
"There are four faculties in the school - Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin. Each of them has its own ancient history, and outstanding wizards and sorceresses have emerged from each. While you are studying at Hogwarts, your achievements will earn your house prize points, and points will be deducted for each violation of the schedule. At the end of the year, the faculty with the most points wins the competition between the faculties, which is a great honor. Points are awarded both for academic success and for bravery, hard work and resourcefulness. I hope each of you will be a worthy member of your family. The sorting ceremony will begin in a few minutes in the presence of the entire school. In the meantime, you have some time, I advise you to collect your thoughts."
Her eyes lingered on Neville's robes, which had come loose so that the clasp was under my left ear, and then on my nose. Damn, should I put some stain cream on him? What I've got on him at all, it's all the twins. Exactly. Harry tried to smooth his unruly hair with a trembling hand. As he told me, it's useless. He's had such hair since early childhood that it sticks out in all directions. I asked him why he didn't put it in a ponytail like Bill. I'll grow a tail myself when I grow up. Despite Mom's protests. She always wants to cut Bill's hair.
"I'll come back here when everyone is ready to meet you." Professor McGonagall reported and went to the door. Before she left, she turned around. "Please be quiet." Harry sucked in a deep breath.
"And how will this selection take place?" he asked me. I remembered Fred and George's heartbreaking story about their sorting the year before last.
The Fox Hole smelled of baked bread, apples, and something eternally sparkling, as if the kitchen itself contained echoes of all the antics that had happened in this house. An old copper teapot hung above the table, grumbling to itself from time to time, and a twelve-hand clock ticked softly in the corner.
I sat on the edge of the chair, swinging my legs and trying to look as old and serious as possible, but curiosity still broke through in every question.
"Well, tell me already! What was it like when you were sorted? Was it scary?"
Fred and George exchanged glances.
"They had that look that twins have exactly one second before a story begins, in which truth and fiction are so tightly intertwined that it's impossible to make out."
"Is it scary?" Fred shuddered dramatically. "Yes, I almost turned gray. The hat told me that I belong in Slytherin, just like my brother. He barely talked us into going to Gryffindor."
George snorted and slapped his brother on the shoulder.
"He didn't turn gray, he just squeezed his eyes shut. But when they sorted me... that's when the real thing began."
I leaned forward, almost burying my nose in the table. Damn, it's not like I can't get used to a growing body. Sometimes I'll trip over something, sometimes I won't fit into the jamb. I'm sick of it.
"What started?" I asked curiously.
Bill, who was sitting next to her, stirring the cooling cocoa with a spoon, raised an eyebrow, but said nothing.
"A troll," George said solemnly. "Right in the Great Hall. At the very moment when the Hat shouted "Gryffindor!" for Fred."
I rolled my eyes.
"Come on! A troll?! On sorting?!"
"It's true," Fred nodded, very seriously.
"And they all screamed," said George.
"The professors rushed back and forth, robes fluttering, and we were standing in the middle of the hall, and the hat was still on my head. And she was right in my ear: "Improvise if you want to go to Gryffindor, this is a challenge of increased difficulty.""
"And then," Fred lowered his voice, and began to pour in turns with George, as they heroically fought the troll. And then the hat was yelling Gryffindor at the whole hall.
...
Bill couldn't stand it anymore and snorted into his fist. The twins immediately stared at him with an offended look.
"Bill, you're ruining the legend!"
"I'm sorry," Bill wiped his eyes, trying to become serious again. "Go ahead. Trolls and stinky bombs with fireworks. Very strategic."
Fred waved his hand. After another half hour of tales about fighting the troll, I realized that the brothers were just hitting my ears, and Bill was already laughing out loud.
I stared at them with my mouth slightly open. The trashed great hall, wow.
"And you didn't have anything?"
"It was," Fred sighed. "We were forced to help in Professor Sprout's greenhouses for a week."
"But then she let us try to grow a screeching violet," George immediately perked up. "So in the end, everything was not in vain."
Bill finally stopped laughing and put his hand on my shoulder.
"You know, Ron, everyone has their own sorting. Someone with a troll, someone just with a Hat that thinks for a long time. But in Gryffindor, it's not how you got there that matters. And the fact that you remain yourself, even when everything is flying around you."
I nodded slowly, trying these words on myself. And if, like Hannah, the hat sends me to Halfpuff. Although it's better to go to the farmers than to these snake aristocrats.
"And if... if the Hat thinks for a long time?" I asked quietly.
Fred immediately leaned across the table towards me.
"Then you just tell her: "I'm from the Weasley family. Everyone in our family is a little noisy, but they have their own way." And she'll understand right away."
George winked.
"And if the troll suddenly appears again, hit him harder on the head, as Fred did at the end of the story."
At that moment, mam voice came from the hallway:
"Dinner is on the table!" and the whole company reached for the plates in unison.
But I smiled to myself for a long time, imagining a Hat whispering in his ear in the Great Hall, and somewhere nearby the twins were already pulling dung bombs out of their pockets, just in case.
"We'll probably have to go through some kind of ordeal," I replied. "Fred said it hurt a lot, but I think he was joking, as always." I decided not to talk about the test of the old troll hat, most likely the twins lied to me.
Harry looked around uneasily. Everyone was terrified and silent, except for Hermione Granger, who stood next to us and whispered to everyone around about which spells she had already learned, and wondered aloud which one she would need at the selection ceremony. Does she even think with her head? Who will demand to conjure the firstborn. Yes, if we can do something by the middle of the year, it's already good.
I stood and prepared for the selection. I hope the twins were joking about the troll after all.
Suddenly, heart-rending screams cut through the air, and I saw Harry jump in surprise. Damn, I was scared myself when I saw them. I've only seen our ghoul from the undead before.
"What?.." Harry began, but stopped, his mouth hanging open. Just like everyone else.
Ghosts were seeping into the room through the wall opposite the door-there were probably about twenty of them. Pearly-white, translucent, they glided around the room, talking among themselves and, it seems, not noticing our gathering at all or pretending not to notice. Apparently, they were arguing.
"And I'm telling you that you need to forget about his sins and forgive him", said one of them, who looked like a little fat monk. They say he was a pious Muggle-born wizard whom Lady Halfpalf accepted to study at her faculty. "I think we just have to give him another chance..."
"My dear Monk, didn't we give Peeves more chances than he deserved? He shames and insults us, and in my opinion, he was never really a ghost..."
The ghost in tights and a round puffy collar fell silent and stared at the freshmen, as if he had just noticed us.
"Hey, what are you doing here?"
No one answered.
"These are the new students!" The Fat Monk exclaimed, smiling at the crowd. Harry and I couldn't help but smile back, the ghost was so good-natured. "Waiting for the selection, I suppose?"
Several people nodded uncertainly.
"I hope you get to Hufflepuff!" The Monk continued to smile "My favorite faculty, you know, I used to study there myself."
No, I don't need to go to the farmers and employees of the ministry. Although if there is a choice between farmers and aristocrats, I will choose farmers, if only because Hannah will be there.
"Get out of here," said a stern voice. "The selection ceremony is about to begin."
It's Professor McGonagall back. She looked sternly at the ghosts, and they hurriedly began to seep through the wall and disappear one by one.
"Form a line," the professor commanded, addressing us, "and follow me!"
Harry stood behind the boy with the blond hair, and I stood behind him, and we left the small hall, crossed the hall we had already visited at the entrance to the castle, and went through the double doors into the Great Hall.
Oh, the beauty. The hall was lit by thousands of enchanted candles floating in the air above the four long tables where the senior students were sitting. The tables were filled with gleaming plates and goblets with Celtic designs. At the other end of the hall, the teachers were sitting at the same long table. Professor McGonagall led the first-year students to this table and ordered them to turn their backs to the teachers and face the upperclassmen.
There were hundreds of faces in front of me, pale in the semi-darkness, like dim lamps. Among the upperclassmen, the silvery, blurry silhouettes of ghosts flashed here and there. My brothers were sitting at a table with a burgundy tablecloth. Percy is closer to the edge of the table, and the twins are somewhere in the middle.
"It was specially enchanted to look like the sky", Hermione whispered, standing next to him again. "I read it in The History of Hogwarts."
She noticed that Harry was staring at the ceiling and was whispering in his ear, moving closer to us.
It was hard to believe that it was actually a ceiling. It seemed to me that the Great Hall was under the open sky. Even though I'm used to magic, it's really fascinating. There are no clouds today either, which is good. I don't even want to think about it if it was raining.
It is not customary to help children at school. As you can do magic, you also take care of yourself with charms. Some even collect their first-aid kits so that they don't have to go to the hospital wing for nothing. Under the supervision of my mother, I brewed several body-restoring potions and sleeping pills in our basement at home. But Harry is taking analgin and bandages with him, his aunt says she put them in her backpack at the last moment and told him to wear them all the time.
I heard a sound and, looking down at the ceiling, saw that Professor McGonagall had placed a very ordinary-looking stool in front of a row of first-year students and placed a pointed Magic hat on the seat. The hat was patched, worn, and terribly dirty. I remembered the beginning of the twins' story about the troll and shuddered, what if it wasn't a lie?
Everyone in the room was staring at the Hat, and I began to look at it carefully, too. There was complete silence in the hall for a few seconds. And then the Hat moved. The next moment, a hole appeared in her, resembling a mouth, and she began to sing, in a hoarse male voice:
"Maybe I'm ugly to look at,
But don't judge me harshly.
You can't find a smarter hat than me.,
Whatever you say..."
And the hat sang about the qualities of the students for each faculty. I wonder if she sings the same thing every year?
"... Do not be afraid of me, put on bravely,
And I will predict your fate more accurately.,
Than someone else will do it.
You're in good hands.,
Even though I'm armless, alas,
But I'm proud of myself."
Damn, all you have to do is try on a hat. These are the idiot brothers. Damn the troll, but I almost believed it. And even Bill didn't reassure me when I asked him in May.
As soon as the song ended, the entire audience applauded unanimously. The hat bowed to all four tables. Her mouth disappeared, she fell silent and froze.
"So, all each of us will need to do is try it on?" I whispered. "I'm going to kill that liar Fred, because he told me we were going to have to fight the troll."
Harry forced a smile. I hope I get to Gryffindor. The main thing is that this nerdy Granger doesn't get there. Although what should she do with us? She's on her way to Ravenclaw.
Professor McGonagall stepped forward, holding a long roll of parchment in her hands.
"When I say your name, you will put on your hat and sit on a stool", She said. "Let's get started. Abbott, Hannah!"
A girl with white pigtails and a pink face, either from embarrassment or fright, stumbled out of the line, went to a stool, took a Hat and sat down. The hat, apparently, was a large size, because, once on Hannah's head, it covered not only her forehead, but even her eyes. And after a moment...
"HUFFLEPUFF!" the Hat shouted loudly.
Those who were sitting at the rightmost table with a yellow tablecloth burst into applause. Hannah got up from the stool, went to this table and sat down in an empty seat.
"Congratulations, Hannah!" I yelled at her back, and the girl turned around and said:
"Good luck, Ron."
I noticed that the Fat Monk who was hovering at the table waved at her affably.
"Bones, Susan!" Well, this is a future employee of the ministry, who else would she be with such an aunt? She is now the head of the judicial department.
"HUFFLEPUFF!" the Hat shouted again, and Susan hurriedly scurried to her desk, sitting next to Hannah.
"Booth, Terry!"
"RAVENCLAW!"
Now there was applause at the second table on the left, and several seniors rose from their seats to shake hands with Terry, who joined them.
Mandy Brocklehurst also went to the Ravenclaw faculty table, and Lavender Brown became the first new member of the Gryffindor faculty. The table on the far left exploded with cheers, and I saw my brothers among the shouting.
Millicent Bulstrode was assigned to Slytherin.
I started to worry. What if they send me to another faculty?
"Finch-Fletchley, Justin!"
"HUFFLEPUFF!" Well, this is also a future employee of the ministry. He went to Susan Bones, and I grimaced with displeasure when Hannah gave him a friendly smile.
Sometimes the hat, as soon as it appeared on the head of another boy or girl freshman, almost instantly called the faculty, and sometimes she thought. So, Seamus Finnigan, the blond boy standing in front of Harry, sat on a stool for almost a minute until the Hat sent him to the Gryffindor table.
"Hermione Granger!"
Apparently, Hermione, unlike me, was looking forward to her turn and had no doubt of success. When she heard her name, she almost ran to the stool and in the blink of an eye put a hat on her head.
"GRYFFINDOR!" shouted the Hat.
I groaned, despite all my doubts, I believed that I would end up where my brothers were, and I didn't want to study with the pushy and omniscient Hermione.
I wasn't the only one nervous. When Neville Longbottom, the boy who kept losing his toad, was called, he managed to stumble and fall before he even reached the stool.
The hat thought seriously before shouting "GRYFFINDOR."
Well, where did he go? He belongs in Hufflepuff, according to what I know about him. Hereditary herbologists. Neville, upon hearing his verdict, jumped up from his chair and rushed to the table where the students of the faculty were sitting, forgetting to take off his hat. The whole room roared with laughter, and Neville, catching himself, turned around and ran back to hand the Hat to Morag MacDougal.
When Malfoy was called, he walked out of the line with a terribly important look, and his dream came true in the blink of an eye - the hat, barely touching his head, immediately screamed:
"SLYTHERIN!"
Well, I didn't even doubt it. Malfoy joined his friends Crabbe and Goyle, who had previously been selected for the same faculty, and looked extremely pleased with himself.
There were fewer and fewer freshmen who had not passed the selection process.
Moon, Nott, Parkinson, the Patil twin girls, then Sally-Ann Perks, and finally...
"Potter, Harry!"
Harry took a step forward, and lights of surprise flashed across the room, accompanied by loud whispers.
"Did she say Potter?"
"The same Harry Potter?"
Before the Hat was placed on Harry's head, a huge hall filled with people stared at him, leaning forward to get a better look at him. I wonder where he will end up?
Harry gripped the seat of the stool tightly with both hands. A couple of minutes have passed and now:
"GRYFFINDOR!"
I wonder if he was arguing with the hat. Harry took off his hat and walked slowly to his desk. Percy jumped up from his chair, grabbed Harry's hand and started shaking it, while Fred and George screamed at the top of their voices:
"Potter is with us! Potter is with us!"
After shaking hands with everyone, Harry plopped down on an empty chair, finding himself right in front of the ghost in tights that I saw before the ceremony began. The ghost patted his hand.
Behind us was the main table, where the teachers were sitting. Hagrid was sitting in the corner, and when he caught Harry's eye, he gave him the thumbs-up, and Harry smiled back. And in the center of the table was a large golden chair, resembling the throne on which Albus Dumbledore sat. Dumbledore's silver hair shone brighter than the ghosts, brighter than anything in the hall.
There was also Professor Quirrell, a nervous young man. Right now, Quirrell had a big purple turban on his head, so the professor looked very strange. The ceremony was coming to an end, and there were only three of us left. Lisa Turpin was enrolled in Ravenclaw, and now it's my turn. I even turned green with fear. What if the hat wants to send me to Slytherin like Fred? I walked over to the stool, collapsed on it, and McGonagall put a hat on my head. And a second later, the Hat screamed loudly: