Sorting

Draco, who had come in full of bluster, seemed a little thrown off after being interrupted. He briefly introduced his two followers, then introduced himself. "Malfoy, Draco Malfoy." He held out his hand for Harry to shake.

Ron was still surprised that Aya knew Malfoy. Before he could react, he saw their hands clasp in front of him.

"Ah-" He opened his mouth, wanting to say something, but Draco had already left with his followers, looking satisfied. "You-how could you shake his hand?" he whispered.

"What's wrong with him?" Harry was a little puzzled. Although he didn't much like Draco and thought he was a bit like his cousin, whom he hated, Draco had come over to make friends and hadn't said anything too offensive. Wouldn't it have been rude not to respond?

"My dad told me about his family!" Ron whispered. "They were some of the first to come back over to our side after You-Know-Who disappeared. They said they'd been bewitched, but my dad doesn't believe it. He said Malfoy's father went over to the dark side easily enough without needing any excuse."

Hearing this, Harry felt a little regretful. He turned to Aya, who had been listening intently to their conversation, and asked, "Did you know him before? That Malfoy?"

"I met him at Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions that day," Aya said, swaying her head. She still had the last leg of a Chocolate Frog in her hand. "Didn't you see?"

"But I didn't exchange names with him."

"He likes the professor who showed me the way," Aya said.

"You'd better get your robes on quickly. I just went to the front of the train and asked the driver, and he said we're almost there-" Hermione was passing Aya and the others' compartment when she saw the door open and turned to speak. Then she looked Ron over twice and added, "You've got some dirt on your nose. I think you need to do something about it." Then she hurried off.

"...Why didn't you tell me?" Ron glared angrily at Hermione's retreating back and complained.

Harry touched his nose, a little embarrassed. He had thought Ron would feel awkward if he pointed it out, so he hadn't said anything.

"I thought it was part of your look," Aya replied. Wasn't it perfectly normal for a character to have strange patterns on their face?

"Oh-" Ron groaned. "Aya, you should step outside. We need to change."

"All right." Aya walked out of the compartment and saw quite a few students already standing in the corridor. They were all wearing black school robes, and when they saw her come out, they pointed and whispered in surprise.

Aya took her robe out of her backpack and put it on. She didn't mind the stares, but after everyone saw her take out the robe, the murmuring grew a little quieter.

"We will be arriving at Hogwarts in five minutes. Please leave your luggage on the train..."

The announcement echoed through the carriage. Aya looked up curiously, trying to find the speaker, only to hear several older students snickering.

More students filled the corridor as the train slowed. Xiaohua clambered up Aya's robe and jumped onto her shoulder, clinging there. An older girl covered her mouth and exclaimed how cute Xiaohua was.

Hmph, Xiaohua is cute.

Aya swished her tail, and Harry and Ron opened the compartment door and came out as well.

The train stopped, and she followed the crowd down onto the platform. It had long since become completely dark. After getting off, Aya felt that it was colder here than at Platform Nine and Three-Quarters. She pulled her robe tighter, and Xiaohua obligingly wrapped around her neck, blocking some of the wind.

The platform was crowded with people, and a voice called loudly for the first-years to gather. Aya looked over and saw that it was Hagrid, whom Harry knew.

They followed Hagrid onward. Perhaps because it had rained in the past few days, the ground was wet and slippery, and the young witches and wizards stumbled along behind him. They went down a path, crossed a pitch-black lake by boat, landed, and climbed a flight of stone steps before finally reaching the castle's enormous oak doors.

Aya stayed with Harry and Ron the whole way. With her agile body, she wasn't afraid of falling at all. Instead, she steadied the two boys several times. Ron said, blushing, that his shoes were too old, which was why he couldn't keep his footing.

Bang, bang, bang- Hagrid knocked several times on the oak doors with his fist, making a dull sound. The doors opened, and a tall, black-haired witch in emerald-green robes came out. Hagrid addressed her as Professor McGonagall.

After the two of them completed the handover of the new students, Professor McGonagall led the young witches and wizards into a small room off the Entrance Hall. She told them about the upcoming Sorting Ceremony and the four houses, then had everyone tidy themselves up.

"How can they sort us into the right houses?" Harry asked Ron worriedly.

"There's always some sort of test, isn't there? Fred said it hurts a lot, but I think he might have been joking." Ron was a little nervous too, his face turning red.

"A test?" Aya blinked. "A fight?"

"Maybe?" Ron grew even more nervous. He went over all the spells he knew in his head, only to find that he didn't seem to know any.

Aya was relieved. Although many of her skills were grayed out, Xiaohua still had attack power. With Xiaohua there, she could pass the test.

While the first-years were guessing how they would be sorted, around twenty ghosts suddenly sprang out of the wall, making the young witches and wizards scream in fright. Aya looked at the pearly white, translucent ghosts with some curiosity. The ghosts, or rather spirits, she had encountered before could only form if they harbored great resentment. Almost none of them had been pleasant to look at or mentally stable. The ghosts at the school were actually rather pretty.

Professor McGonagall soon returned, and the ghosts, who had been moving among the first-years and recommending their own houses, disappeared through the wall. "Now, form a single line and follow me."

Once the little children had lined up neatly, the pointed ears on Aya's head stood out even more. She felt as though Professor McGonagall had glanced at her several times, but when she looked up, the professor had already turned around and was leading everyone out.

The Sorting Ceremony soon began. The magnificent Great Hall didn't draw much of Aya's attention. She looked curiously at the pointed hat on the four-legged stool at the front. It was patched, worn very old, and a little dirty.

The Great Hall fell silent. A slit opened in the hat and moved like a mouth as it began to sing, "You might think I'm not very pretty, but you mustn't judge by appearances..."

When the long song ended, Aya hadn't remembered a single word. Ron, beside her, spoke up in relief. "I'm going to kill Fred. All we have to do is put on a battered old hat, and he made it sound like I'd have to fight a Giant!"

"When I call your name, put on the hat and sit on the stool to be sorted," Professor McGonagall called, holding a roll of parchment.

"Hannah Abbott!"

A little girl with blond braids stepped out of the line. She stumbled forward, put on the hat, and sat on the stool. After a brief pause, the hat shouted, "Hufflepuff!"

Loud applause rose from the Hufflepuff table, and Professor McGonagall continued reading.

"Susan Bones!"

"Hufflepuff!"

"Terry Boot!"

"Ravenclaw!"

After calling several more names, Professor McGonagall finally called someone Aya knew.

"Hermione Granger!" Hermione practically ran to the stool and hurriedly put on the hat.

"Gryffindor!" Aya joined in the applause.

"Aya Hawthorne!" Aya started, her ears pricking up, and walked briskly out of line. She saw Dumbledore at the High Table smile and wink at her. On the other side, Snape, still dressed all in black, glanced at her.

Aya sat on the stool and saw that most of the people in the Great Hall were looking curiously at her and Xiaohua around her neck. She put on the hat.

"Oh, what's this-exploration, adventure, fighting, a helpful young witch," a tiny voice sounded in Aya's head. "I think you belong in-"

"Gryffindor!" the hat shouted.

Aya jumped off the stool, ignoring the system notification in her ear that a quest had been completed. She walked happily over to the table with the loudest applause and sat down next to Hermione.

"Congratulations!" Hermione said happily to Aya. "We're so lucky you're in Gryffindor too! The Sorting Hat just said I might be able to go to Ravenclaw, but after thinking about it, I chose Gryffindor!"

"Thanks, but it told me straight away that I belonged in Gryffindor," Aya said. Xiaohua slid down from her shoulder and landed on her lap.

"Welcome to Gryffindor, Miss Cat~" The twins sitting not far away stood up, leaned on the table, and smiled and applauded her.

The sorting continued, and Harry, who had everyone's attention, was also sorted into Gryffindor. The cheers were deafening, and Aya couldn't help raising her hands to cover her cat ears.

Percy, the Gryffindor Prefect, stood up and shook Harry's hand, while Fred and George cheered loudly.

Before long, Ron was sorted into Gryffindor too. When he sat down, he seemed limp all over, looking even softer than Xiaohua.

Aya had never attended such an unusual gathering before. Her attention just now had been entirely on the sorting. To her, it was like choosing a sect as she had done before. Players always talked about joining the stronger side to make quests easier, so she had been wondering whether she could be sorted into Gryffindor, where Dumbledore was.

The last student was sorted into Slytherin. Dumbledore stood up, beaming, spread his arms, and said happily, "Welcome, everyone, to a new school year at Hogwarts-"

Aya looked at the white-haired headmaster, who seemed a little too happy, and didn't understand what he said at the end. She turned to ask Hermione—she was the most well-read student Aya had met—and only then noticed that the previously empty plates on the table had been filled with delicious food.

Aya's eyes lit up, and the few puzzling words were instantly forgotten. What could be more important than trying food she had never eaten before?

"Wow-" Aya's mouth fell slightly open in surprise. The entire long table was covered with food. Duoduo had made a few of the dishes for her before, but there were even more that she had never seen!

Aya's hands moved at lightning speed, as fast as when she had raced to loot treasure chests. She piled every kind of food onto her plate without hesitation: roast beef, roasted chicken legs, pork chops, lamb chops, sausages, beef—a serving of every kind of meat!

Hermione watched wide-eyed as the pile on Aya's plate grew higher and higher, then quickly reached out to stop her. "You can't eat all that! There's so much, and you need a balance of meat and vegetables. Eating nothing but meat is bad for you. Don't you know that?"

Aya watched regretfully as the roast fish farther away was all taken. Only then did she sit down and start eating the meat on her plate with a fork. "No, I don't," she answered Hermione.

Hermione frowned and looked at her in strong disapproval, but they had only just met. She put some pea shoots and carrots on Aya's plate as Aya hunched over it, intent on eating her meat, then left her alone.

Gryffindor's ghost was Nearly Headless Nick. He seemed very curious about Harry, who was sitting next to Aya, so the ghost stayed opposite her the whole time.

Although the way he had died was a little gruesome to ordinary people, Aya had once braved a human experimentation dungeon and wasn't afraid at all. When Nick showed off his wobbling head, he couldn't draw even the slightest bit of her attention.

Aya forced down the last piece of carrot and was hugging her belly, almost ready to snore, when all the leftovers on the table suddenly vanished, and desserts of every kind appeared on the plates.

Aya closed her eyes in anguish. She couldn't eat another bite!

"Care to try some pudding, Miss Cat?" Fred called with a smile from several seats away, holding up a plate of wobbly yellow pudding and giving it a shake.

Aya's eyes followed it despite herself, but she forced herself to look away. "I can't eat any more."

Neither George nor Lee Jordan behind him could hold back their laughter. Aya had eaten that huge plate of meat just now, more than either of them.

"You could try a spoonful!" Ron suggested. He still had several pieces of jelly in his bowl, and his mouth was stuffed full.

Aya thought about it and decided she could try-people only found their limits by testing them. She reached for the pudding with a clean spoon from her plate, carefully scooped a tiny bit onto her own plate, and ate it little by little.

Apart from Aya, the first-year whose mind was full of food, the other students had long since begun chatting animatedly. The dessert course after the main meal seemed especially set aside for everyone to talk.

"I really wish I could get all the textbooks I need at once. There's so much to learn. I'm especially interested in Transfiguration, you know, turning one thing into another. Of course, it must be very difficult-" Hermione was talking with Percy beside her. She had a very favorable impression of the outstanding Prefect.

"You'll start by transforming small things. I remember that in my first year, Professor McGonagall's first lesson was turning a match into a needle or something..." Percy held his chin up as he talked at length.

The boys on Aya's other side were talking about their families. Seamus said his dad had been startled when he found out his mum was a witch; Neville said he lived with his grandmother and that his relatives had all thought he would be a Squib.

"What's a Squib?" Aya quietly asked Harry, who was smiling as he listened to them.

"Maybe someone like a Muggle?" Harry replied. He turned to look for Hagrid at the High Table and met the eyes of a black-haired, hook-nosed professor. The professor was talking to Professor Quirrell, whom Harry had met earlier at the Leaky Cauldron. The moment their eyes met, Harry felt a twinge of pain in the scar on his forehead.

"Th-the person talking to Professor Quirrell, who is he?" Harry asked Aya, drawing a sharp breath.

Aya followed his gaze. "Is Professor Quirrell the one wearing a turban?"

"Yes."

"That's Professor Snape. He was the one who came to get me when I enrolled. He's a good person!"