only wish

Draco stepped into the Great Hall blinking in the sudden bright light. He was surprised to not see any black clothes of mourning, it looked exactly the same. But, he soon felt glares boring holes into his back. His silver eyes narrowed and he met McGonagall’s glare head-on. Draco sighed and stalked to the Slytherin table. He wasn’t surprised to see no friendly faces. Eyes quickly avoided his. Draco smirked, true Slytherins, all of them. Know what company to hang with and one that is hated by everyone is not the ideal person to be seen with.

Draco shrugged and sat down. As much as he understood his fellow classmates, it still hurt to see those he considered his ‘friends’ turn on him like that. They were never really your friends, a nasty voice sounded in his head, you never had any. Draco grimaced and shook his head. He looked back up at the teachers’ table. He frowned, noticing that the Headmaster chair was empty. Well, Dumbledore was dead but McGonagall should have taken his place since she was Deputy Headmistress. McGonagall stood up and hit her glass with a fork. The mutters subsided and all gazes went to lock with her face. The professor swallowed and opened her mouth, “Due to the the premature demise of our Headmaster,” here, her eyes flicked toward Draco, “I shall be filling his place as Headmaster. Now, I have some announcements but they can wait until after the sorting.”


At that, confused mutters filled the hall. Parents were actually sending their children to Hogwarts? Especially now? The Great Hall’s massive doors opened and Hagrid strode in, followed by 6 shivering children. It was titchy compared to the usual 40 to 50 students that entered each year. The first years grew obviously more nervous under the constant staring. Hagrid kept on walking until he finally realized that the first years were no longer following him. He frowned and turned around to find the kids clustered into a bunch. He placed gargantuan hands on large hips and he frowned, “What are ye doin? The sortin hat is o’er here.”



The first years gave a start and they hurried over to the giant’s shadow as if hoping his bulk would hide them. They hurried over to where the tattered hat sat on the stool, staring at it apprehensively as if the hat would jump up and attack them. Professor Flitwick had taken McGonagall’s place at setting the hat on the students’ heads which did contain any logic in Draco’s opinion. The professor was half the height of the first years. “don’t worry first years!” he squeaked, “ the hat doesn’t bite. He talks but he doesn’t bite.”



Draco saw the students sit up, expecting a speech from the hat but it remained silent. They muttered, surprised, as Flitwick levitated the hat onto “Bilby, Daniel!”. The hat fell over the boy’s head, only kept up by the boy’s abnormally large ears. “Hufflepuff!” The hat barked and the boy shoved off the offending hat before running toward the half-empty Hufflepuff table. “Cliff, Clara” was sorted into Gryffindor, “Harrison, Martin” was sorted into Ravenclaw, “Lockwood, Mary” became a Gryffindor, “Pimms, Robert” became a Hufflepuff and “Robbins, Evan” became a Ravenclaw. Draco’s eyes narrowed when he realized that none of the first years had been sorted into Slytherin.



Talk soon filled the room when the other students had realized this as well. Many ominous glances were shot at the table and the Slytherins glared right back. McGonagall stood up and cleared her throat, “ahem. We have a new student this year who will be entering the 7th year, everybody welcome Laura Beater!” there was a smattering of applause as a girl stepped forward. She had lightly tanned skin and green-brown eyes, her brown hair was caught up in a ponytail. Her eyes held street intelligence and her t-shirt and jeans gave it all away. She was a muggle. Draco could hear Granger whisper, “See? I told you!”

She gazed around nervously and when her curious eyes met Draco’s a flash of pain ran up his left arm. Eyes watering, Draco looked up only to see that she was looking somewhere else. Flitwick levitated the sorting hat over to her and she eyed it apprehensively. She grabbed it from the air and glared at the professor. She set it gingerly on her head and started when the hat’s brim open and it began to speak, “hmm..interesting. You, my dear are a rare gem. One of those people that are nearly impossible to sort.”


“sorry to cause you trouble.” The girl muttered sarcastically, rolling her eyes.

“indeed.” The hat raised an eyebrow, “I’d like to see you be a perfect judge of character and be able to sort people into the exact place that matches their personalities.”


“oh really? Then let’s see you try and judge ME.”

“I doubt you want me to say anything in public.”

“Really?” the girl look genuinely bemused this time, “there’s nothing that bad about me.”



“I, ah, must be mistaken then,” the hat said hurriedly, “well, your character would point to Gryffindor but your horrid speech would place you in Hufflepuff, but you have the book smarts as well which guide you to ravenclaw…and well…for Slytherin.” The hat trailed off.


“yeah whatever..you made up your mind yet?” the girl rolled her eyes. The hat’s brim opened as if to say something, “gryf-“ but was cut off and stuttered, “Sly-slytherin…”. The girl threw the hat off and eyed it, “uhh…med-medication to you. You obviously need it.” She turned and looked at the staring students and frowned, “what?”.