"Weasley?"
Harry and the others all froze and looked toward Professor McGonagall.
A small girl was walking over. She had red hair and quite a few freckles on her face. She looked a little like Ginny, though her features were not as delicate.
She held her chin slightly raised, looking very proud.
Harry and the others all turned to Ron, their meaning obvious: Ron, is she a relative of yours? Why didn't you mention you had a relative coming?
But Ron looked just as bewildered. Clearly, he had not known about this either. When they looked at the twins beside him, they found them equally confused.
But that was nothing compared to what happened after Professor McGonagall put the Sorting Hat on Mafalda Weasley's head. A full minute passed without the hat saying a word.
It was not particularly unusual for the Sorting Hat to hesitate.
In Harry's year, the Sorting Hat had hesitated for a while over Harry, Neville, and Hermione. Hermione in particular had kept it deliberating for over three minutes.
Apparently, when the Sorting Hat had decided which houses Professor McGonagall and Professor Flitwick belonged in, it had hesitated for a full five minutes.
But today, the Sorting Hat had made all its previous decisions very quickly, with even the longest taking no more than ten seconds. This sudden hesitation surprised quite a few people.
Especially the older students, who had seen so many Weasleys appear and go straight into Gryffindor.
"Don't tell me this Weasley isn't coming to Gryffindor?" Seamus Finnigan leaned over to Ron and said.
"Well, it's not impossible." Ron thought for a moment. "I think quite a few of my relatives were in Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff. As long as it's not Slytherin..."
Ron had meant to say that it would not be strange