Sorting

Wade hurried over, put on the Sorting Hat, and muttered inwardly, Hufflepuff! Hufflepuff! I want to go to Hufflepuff!

"Hufflepuff?" a faint voice said. "Oh, perhaps you didn't hear the song I sang just now. Never mind, I can sing a verse just for you—where the people are just and loyal—"

Wade: "..."

He vaguely sensed something.

The Sorting Hat continued singing, "Hufflepuff students are resilient and honest—"

Wade: "..."

All right, I get it. Stop singing!

The Sorting Hat: "They do not fear arduous labor—"

Wade: "..."

That was a bit much! Your voice was a little too loud!

The Sorting Hat rustled as it said, "Although Hufflepuff never turns away any student who longs for Hogwarts, there is somewhere more suitable for you... Hmm—people always find it difficult to see themselves clearly, don't they?"

Wade hurriedly thought, I'm not going to Slytherin!

"Of course it is—" the Sorting Hat shouted, "Ravenclaw—"

The second table on the left began clapping, though the applause was notably restrained. Wade sighed inwardly, took off the hat, and walked toward the table decorated in bronze and blue.

—Stubborn Sorting Hat! So what if I'm not just, honest, and hardworking enough? I like making friends with people who are just, honest, and hardworking. Is that not allowed?

Several Ravenclaw students stood up to shake his hand. The boy at the front said, "Welcome to Ravenclaw. I'm West Mole, the male Prefect."

Another boy leaned over and said, "Your name is Wade Grey? Then you're perfect for our house!"

"What do you mean?" Wade asked.

"Oh, Benson, don't tell that joke of yours." West recalled something and said helplessly.

Benson waggled his eyebrows. "Because our house ghost is also named Grey—the Grey Lady."

Wade looked at him. After several seconds, he slowly said, "...Oh, so?"

Benson: "..."

West pushed the boy's head back. "I told you long ago not to imitate the Weasley Family Twins. You don't have the bloodline for comedy."

As though deeply struck, Benson slumped onto the table, his whole person seeming to dim. Wade thought his expression was much funnier now.

He sat down and looked around.

There was no need for introductions. In his eyes, everyone around him had one name—or two—floating above their head. Yet Wade remembered almost none of the Ravenclaws; they had probably never been mentioned in the story at all. The sole exception was a very cute black-haired girl seated diagonally across from him not far away—[Cho Chang]. She was watching the newly Sorted students and had not noticed Wade's gaze.

The people at the Staff Table also matched his memories—Albus Dumbledore with his silver hair and long beard; Severus Snape, sallow-faced and greasy-haired; Filius Flitwick, so small he looked like a three-year-old child; the twitchy Sybill Trelawney; the plump Professor Sprout; and Quirinus Quirrell & Tom Riddle, with one face in front and another behind.

Of course, seated at the Ravenclaw table, Wade was practically invisible. The professors did not pay him any attention.

The Sorting ceremony continued.

"Michael Corner!"

"Ravenclaw!"

Before Wade, a blonde boy named Anthony had been sorted into Ravenclaw and was enthusiastically greeting everyone. Before long, another boy named Michael Corner arrived, with long black curly hair, and sat beside Wade. Then came Padma Patil, the younger of a pair of Indian twin sisters. Her sister, Parvati Patil, was sorted into Gryffindor.

There were not many Ravenclaw first-years, only around ten arriving one after another. The new students watched their surroundings with both restraint and excitement, until a name suddenly rang out—

"Harry Potter!"

The entire Great Hall abruptly fell silent, followed by a buzzing murmur of discussion.

"Potter? Harry Potter?"

"Is that the Harry Potter?"

At the Ravenclaw table, even some of the aloof students who had barely acknowledged the first-years could not help turning their heads and craning their necks to look at the black-haired boy walking toward the Sorting Hat.

When he put on the hat, many people held their breath and waited. From Gryffindor to Slytherin, from Headmaster Dumbledore to Filch, the castle Administrator standing at the entrance, everyone stared at that grimy hat and the little boy beneath it, most of whose face was hidden.

The voices gradually grew quieter.

Finally—

"Gryffindor!"

The Sorting Hat gave a loud shout, and the Great Hall erupted in enthusiastic cheers and applause. Gryffindor was the loudest, but nearly everyone in Ravenclaw was clapping too—treatment no one else had received during Sorting.

"I knew he'd go to Gryffindor!" Benson said earnestly to West. "Of course Harry Potter would be in Gryffindor. Where else could he possibly go?"

"Shut up, Benson. Two months ago, you were saying Harry Potter was just a character from books and didn't actually exist!" West said, rolling his eyes.

As the final first-year was sorted into Slytherin, Professor McGonagall took away the Sorting Hat, and Dumbledore rose to his feet with his arms spread wide.

"Welcome!" he said. "Welcome to Hogwarts for the start of a new school year! Before the feast begins, I would like to say a few words. And here they are: Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak! Thank you!"

Hearing those classic opening words, Wade clapped hard.

"What did he mean?" Michael, seated beside him, asked.

"I don't know," Wade said.

"Then why are you clapping?" Michael asked with a raised brow.

"Wasn't that speech short enough to deserve applause?" Wade retorted.

Michael thought for a while, then agreed. "You're right!"

Amid roaring applause and cheers, heaps of food appeared on the empty long tables in the blink of an eye: Roast Beef, lamb chops, chips, Mashed potato, and more. There were a few too few vegetables, but everything smelled rich and looked delicious.

The students, who had been hungry for a long time, immediately dug in. After nearly everyone had eaten their fill, the main course vanished and numerous desserts appeared on the tables. With their stomachs full, the students had no choice but to slow down and savor them, leaving them free to chat with the people around them.

The first-years' conversation naturally focused on family backgrounds and blood status.

A boy named Stephen said, "I was born into a Pure-blood family. My mother was also in Ravenclaw, and my father was in Gryffindor. I read all the school textbooks at home already."

"What about you, Wade?" someone asked.

Wade answered frankly, "Neither of my parents can do magic."

"Then magic must be a completely unfamiliar field to you, right?" Stephen said sympathetically. "Your studies at school will have to be a bit harder."

"Mm, I'll work hard," Wade said with a smile.

"Though I'm a half-blood, I think being pure-blood or Muggle-born doesn't make any difference at all," Michael told Wade beside him. "Take my family, for example. My father is a wizard, but he isn't as smart as my mother. My mother makes every decision in our household."

The first letter of Wade Grey's surname is "G," as in Hermione Granger. The first letter of Harry Potter's surname is "P," not "B," so Wade was sorted after Hermione and before Harry.