We Are Golden (A Harry Potter Fan Fiction)

Pranks at the Sorting Ceremony

"Welcome back for another glorious year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry!" Dumbledore stood in front of the Great Hall, his arms raised above his head in excitement. His cloaks were a flamboyant colour of periwinkle blue, his beards braided with several glittering strings of silver.

"We get it" Mary mumbled, looking down at her empty plate in agony. "He says the same barming speech every year, can't we just get on with it and get to the food." Peter snickered and she shot him a sideways glances of disgust. She'd never liked him very much, finding him unnervingly comparable to a rodent.

"Calm down, Mary" Sasha said chastising and pulled a package of saltines from her robes. Mary took them instantly and began to nibble on them, looking slyly over at the head table. "I've come prepared."

"Now..." Dumbledore looked around the room and pointed his wanded hand towards the door. "Onto the sorting!"

A gaggle of terrified looking first years entered the room, McGonagall leading the pack and carrying the three-legged stool and dingy old hat. At least twenty of the kids had their hands in their mouths, biting their nails down to the quick, others stumbling forwards and looking a nauseating colour of green. The reached the front of the hall and McGonagall placed the Sorting hat on the stool, as she did every year, and it began to sing.

A hat, I am,

But I can see,

Into your head,

And what you will be.

Gryffindor, oh bravery!

Ravenclaw, the brain,

Slytherin, most cunning,

Hufflepuff, never two the same.

Four families that feud,

Bite and claw,

To get to the top,

And win it all.

But listen close, a warning I heed

As the days grow dark,

Togetherness is what we need.

The dining hall clapped politely, the faces of the brighter students (ahem, nee, Ravenclaws) picking up on the most macabre rhyme the hat has ever spouted. "What the hell do you suppose that means?" Sirius leaned over to whisper in my ear.

"Dunno, about You-know-who I suspect" James laughed a tiny, nervous laugh and nudged my shoulder. "He's the big bad after all."

"But the hat has never said anything so gloomy" Alice said and cast a subtle look at Frank. He had visibly paled, causing Alice to reach over and place her hand on his knee. "It's okay, Frank." He nodded and became suddenly interested in his cutlery.

"Amberwood, Donaldson" McGonagall read off of her parchment, interrupting the conversation with a pointed look in our direction. The braver of the first years stood out from the crowd, his dark hair pushed back out of his face. He practically strutted up the steps, giving snide looks to the Gryffindor table, and sat down onto the seat as if it was his thrown.

The hat only made it a centimetre from the boys scalp before it shouted out "Slytherin!" The boy rose and walked into the applause of the Slytherin table. James and Sirius jumped up onto their feet and booed loudly.

"Amedy, Bertrum" a timid boy with hair so white it was practically translucent pushed his way from the back of the huddle and headed towards the front.