Sorting Ceremony

The Sorting Hat finally finished its song and fell silent. Professor Melesi took out a parchment and said, "Next, when I call your name, come up and put on the Sorting Hat. After you've been sorted, you may sit with your house."

"Abraxas Malfoy!" Professor Melesi called from the parchment.

Xiwen patted Abu on the shoulder and quietly wished him luck.

Abraxas walked toward the chair at the front of the Great Hall with an outwardly calm expression, but Xiwen noticed that his hands were trembling.

"Slytherin!"

The instant the Sorting Hat touched his head, it made its decision. The Slytherin table erupted into enthusiastic cheers. Abu smiled and happily walked toward Ignatius, who was waving him over.

Professor Melesi called, "Alastor Moody!"

The Sorting Hat made its decision without much hesitation. "Gryffindor!"

"Baruch Diggory."

"Hufflepuff!"

"Panny Mannis!"

When Professor Melesi called that name, Xiwen looked up and saw the freckle-faced little girl whom Abraxas had chased out of the compartment earlier walking past him. In her hurry, she accidentally stepped on Xiwen's foot. She immediately turned around, bowed, and apologized over and over.

Xiwen shook his head. "It's fine. Hurry up and get sorted."

Having been forgiven, the freckled little girl, Mannis, hurried over to the chair, sat down, and put on the Sorting Hat with her whole body trembling.

The hall suddenly fell quiet, but the Sorting Hat did not speak for a long time.

Xiwen glanced at the professors' table and the house tables below. He found that everyone merely looked over with mild interest before continuing their conversations, as though they were quite used to this.

Elshiona, beside him, noticed his confusion and explained, "Some young wizards possess traits from different houses. When the Sorting Hat encounters one of them, it takes longer to think."

Xiwen nodded in understanding, then suddenly asked with interest, "Do you think anyone could possess the traits of all four houses at once?"

Elshiona rolled her eyes at him. "Not likely. I don't think a Slytherin would have Hufflepuff traits."

"That's true."

After thinking for over a minute, the Sorting Hat finally opened the slit along its brim.

"Ravenclaw!"

Below, the Ravenclaws in blue-collared uniforms applauded to welcome their first new student.

Ravenclaw seemed to have the fewest students among the four houses. By contrast, the long Hufflepuff table was already nearly full.

"Come back, Miss Mannis!" Professor Melesi suddenly called.

Panny Mannis had forgotten to put the Sorting Hat back on the chair, and the entire Great Hall burst into laughter.

Mannis's face turned scarlet. She ran as though fleeing for her life to the back of the Ravenclaw table and curled up in a corner. Several older Ravenclaw students stood, seemingly intending to comfort her.

"Manto Trelawney." Professor Melesi was clearly more concerned with the progress of the sorting and quickly called the next name.

A silver-haired girl walked toward the Sorting Hat. Her cool, delicate features and strange silver eyes were exceptionally eye-catching. Her expression was as still as an ancient well, as though nothing around her could draw her attention.

"Ravenclaw!" the Sorting Hat called loudly.

The girl named Manto opened her silver-white eyes and calmly placed the Sorting Hat on the chair. Her expression remained unchanged, as though everything had gone exactly as expected.

"Xiwen Rosier!"

Xiwen, who had been observing that strange girl, was given a hard slap. He turned around in surprise to find Elshiona pursing her lips beside him. "Stop staring. It's your turn!"

Xiwen gave an embarrassed smile, nervously straightened his sleeves, and walked toward the Sorting Hat.

Suppressing the urge to cast a Cleaning Charm on the Sorting Hat, Xiwen steadily placed it on his head without his hands trembling at all. He seriously suspected that if he tilted it even slightly, it would shake a great deal of dust onto his face.

"Difficult. Very difficult."

A harsh voice rang out in Xiwen's mind, nearly startling him.

"Child, don't be nervous. I am the Sorting Hat on your head."

The Sorting Hat's explanation came just in time, preventing Xiwen from losing his composure in public.

"An interesting child. Noble blood and lofty ambition make Slytherin an obvious choice. Yet you are eager to learn and possess exceptional intelligence; Ravenclaw would also nurture you well."

Just as Xiwen wondered why he could not go to Gryffindor or Hufflepuff, the Sorting Hat spoke again. "You may also possess courage and integrity, but compared with your intelligence and ambition, those traits are so insignificant."

Before he had time to think about what ambitions he had, Xiwen realized that the Sorting Hat could hear his thoughts.

"Legilimency?" he asked.

"Clever child." The Sorting Hat's voice sounded again. "All right, I would like to know your own opinion. Would you prefer Slytherin or Ravenclaw?"

"Either is fine. I'm not picky," Xiwen muttered aloud. Yet inwardly, he thought of how he had once immersed himself in a sea of books every day. On one hand, he truly sought knowledge; on the other, he wanted to find a solution to the way his soul seemed out of place in this world. Those twenty years had been spent mostly reading. From childhood to adulthood, he had never left Kamar-Taj, and his experience in other areas was extremely limited.

If I had a choice, I probably wanted to live differently.

"I understand." The Sorting Hat seemed to have finally made up its mind.

"Slytherin!"

Thunderous applause erupted from the Slytherin table. Xiwen froze for a moment, then opened his eyes and saw Abraxas and Ignatius already waving at him.

He carefully placed the Sorting Hat steadily back on the chair. Looking up, he saw Elshiona among the new students onstage, looking his way. The moment she met his gaze, she immediately turned her face away.

Xiwen smiled at Elshiona and walked toward the Slytherin table.

"Xiwen!" Abu waved him over to sit beside him, then said mysteriously, "How did you do it? The Sorting Hat was silent for five whole minutes! Pruitt and I were starting to worry you'd be sorted into another house. Luckily, you still came to Slytherin in the end."

Xiwen was somewhat surprised. "Was it really that long?"

Abraxas said, "Pruitt brought an hourglass. Look, the sand inside is almost gone."

Ignatius cooperatively took out the hourglass. "It flips every ten minutes. When your sorting began, it was still more than half full."

Xiwen looked at the hourglass in its dark green frame, filled with glowing green grains of sand. The last few grains were falling through. Then the hourglass itself automatically rotated within the frame and flipped over.

"It really was. But I didn't feel how much time had passed." He rested his chin on his hand, puzzled. "It kept hesitating between Ravenclaw and Slytherin."

"What a pity. It didn't speak to me at all before deciding I belonged in Slytherin." Abu tried to put on a regretful expression, but he could not hide the pride on his face.

At that moment, Professor Melesi called a somewhat familiar name.

"Walburga Black!"

Xiwen saw the girl he had encountered once at Twilfitt.

"Another Black," Abu muttered beside him.

"Another?" Xiwen asked.

"Didn't you know? The Black family is practically taking over Slytherin." As Abraxas spoke, he began counting the Black family students in Slytherin for Xiwen. "The seventh-year female Head Girl, Charlus Black; the sixth-year prefect, Dorea Black; the fifth-year prefect, Cedrella Black; plus several younger Blacks... What a headache!"

Xiwen caught sight of Walburga Black finishing her sorting decisively and sitting beside a girl at the Slytherin table who somewhat resembled her.

"The Black family members all seem to be either Head students or prefects. Are they all that outstanding?" Xiwen asked.

Hearing the question, Ignatius turned around and explained, "Headmaster Slughorn has good relations with all our pure-blood families, but he favors whichever family is more powerful. It's perfectly normal for the Black family to be valued."

Xiwen's mouth twitched. "That's a little too real..."

At that moment, Elshiona's name was called as well, and the Sorting Hat easily gave her the same answer: Slytherin.

Elshiona happily ran over, telling Xiwen to move aside as she squeezed in to sit beside him.

She bared her teeth and said, "Do you know you made me stand there for five extra minutes?"

Xiwen gave a bitter smile. "I didn't want that either. Blame the Sorting Hat! Want me to cast a spell on it and avenge you?"

Elshiona said, "Speaking of casting spells, you could use a Cleaning Charm on it. It's filthy!"

Xiwen nodded in agreement. "Exactly."

At last, all the new students had been sorted. Headmaster Armando Dippet, seated in the center of the Great Hall's dais, rose to give a speech. He had neatly trimmed white hair and a white beard, and even the wrinkles on his face seemed orderly. He looked like a capable old man.

"Welcome, welcome, all new students, to Hogwarts! This will be your warm home for the next seven years. And of course, welcome back to the returning students."

Then his expression became stern. "I must repeat once again: students are not permitted to enter the Forbidden Forest, and do not cast spells in the corridors. The world situation remains tense. I hope everyone will study hard and improve their ability to protect themselves."

After finishing his speech, the headmaster waved his hand, and all manner of food appeared out of thin air on the long tables. The impatient students immediately began to feast.