Elemental

6. Harper Avery: The Sorting Hat

6. Harper Avery: The Sorting Hat

The large doors in front of Harper, Keely, Lyra, and Auria creaked open loudly to reveal an even louder room. As the first years marched behind Professor McGonagall towards the front, everything grew silent.

To Harper's left, Auria gasped audibly, and Harper followed her gaze to the ceiling above them that displayed a perfectly cloudless night sky with all the twinkling stars. "Where's the roof?' Auria asked loudly.

The other two girls looked up as well. All of their mouths fell open, but Harper just chuckled a little. "That is the roof! It's enchanted to look like the sky. Mother told me about it and how it changes all the time. But I like seeing the stars like this best."

"Wow, so Harper is from a magical family?" Auria whispered since they'd just been shushed by the boy behind her. Harper nodded her head.

"Magic is amazing, isn't it?" Lyra asked, and Keely and Auria agreed eagerly.

"I'm in love with this place already!" Keely squealed from in front of Harper.

The line of first years came to a halt in the front of them and gathered around a wooden stool where an old, brown hat sat. The girls all jumped a little when the hat started to move and then to sing.

"Alright now when I call your name, please come forward to be sorted," Professor McGonagall said when the hat had sung it's final note.

"Avery, Harper!" She yelled only two names down the list.

Harper stepped forward hesitantly at first but jumped ahead quickly when she saw the others looking at her. She didn't want them to know that she was afraid of what the Sorting Hat would say. She knew it would be Slytherin, like everyone else in her family. But of her new friends, it was most likely for only Keely to be with her. She wouldn't get to talk to Lyra or Auria much. They weren't what her family would consider to be proper witches.

The hat was light as it landed on top of Harper's head, and then it started to wriggle around making Harper feel a little uncomfortable. "Ah, I see. Yes, yes. Nothing at all like your brothers... Plenty of courage to you," the hat said to her, and she snorted.

"You don't think so? Well, then the choice is obvious, isn't it? RAVENCLAW!"

"What?" Harper asked, unsure whether she had heard correctly or not.

Professor McGonagall took the hat from her head and pointed her to the table on the far left where the Ravenclaws were applauding their first new housemate of the year. "Ravenclaw, dear, now move along."

Harper hurried to the table so that she could watch the rest of the sorting, hoping that at least one of her new friends were in the same house as she was. If that were the case, not being in Slytherin might be worth it. She sat down beside a black-haired girl who was patting the seat beside her wildly.

"Hello. I'm Harper, Harper Avery."

"Yes, I heard. It's nice to meet you. I'm Ariana Rockfell, obviously a second year," the very hyper girl told her. "Let's listen for the rest, right?"

Harper nodded and turned back to watch several boys and girls go to either Hufflepuff or Gryffindor with a couple heading over to the Slytherin table. Two boys had been sorted into Ravenclaw, but Harper reserved the seat beside her and the two in front of her for her friends. Something told her that they would be together.

Finally, Professor McGonagall called a familiar name. "Hale, Lyra!"

Lyra fidgeted her way up to the hat and looked over towards Harper who smiled and pointed beside her. Lyra smiled in return with a small nod before the hat came down on her head. Her eyes darted upwards, and she whispered something just before the Sorting Hat announced it's decision. "RAVENCLAW!"

Harper lit up as Lyra came to sit beside her. "We're together!" Harper said, giving Lyra a hug.

"You're saving the others seats?" Lyra asked, motioning across from them. "It's highly unlikely, you know."

"I know, but I just have this feeling."

"Holbrook, Melanie!" Professor McGonagall yelled louder than she had before.

The hat took only a moment to call out Hufflepuff. "It's going to be a while before they get to Keely. Her last name starts with Q. What about Auria?" Harper asked as the sorting continued.

"I don't remember if she said or not..." Lyra said slowly.

Harper shrugged. They'd find out soon enough. As more Ravenclaws joined them at the table, Harper and Lyra continued to save the seats across from them and listened for their friends' names.

"Quinn, Keely!" Professor McGonagall said loudly, and a snort came from the Slytherin table that no one but Harper seemed to hear. She sent a glare towards that table before turning her attention back to Keely.

The hat took a few moments to consider where to place Keely, the whole time she looked frightened and hopeful. Then the hat yelled, "RAVENCLAW!" And Keely's reaction was confusion, just like Harper's when she was sorted. 

Keely stalked towards the Ravenclaw table looking for Harper and Lyra who waved their hand frantically and pointed to the opposite side of the table. Keely sat in front of them lost in her own thoughts for a moment.

"Raines, Alanis!"

"SLYTHERIN!"

"Rockfell, Mindy!"

"Oh, my sister!" Ariana Rockfell squealed excitedly beside Harper.

"GRYFFINDOR!"

"Oh, yay! Anything but Slytherin, right?"

Harper and Lyra weren't listening though. They were looking across the table at Keely waiting for a response. "I was so sure I would be Slytherin... But I'm glad that I'm not, I think," Keely said slowly.

Harper smiled across at her. "Well, I'm most certainly happy that we're both not! I wouldn't know what to do if we weren't together. Best friends, right?"

Keely nodded happily then pointed to the front where only one girl stood. "Wynters, Auria!" The Headmistress yelled as she tucked away her list.

"What rotten luck to be last..." Lyra muttered.

The hat didn't take long at all to announce, "RAVENCLAW!"

Auria smiled brightly and saw her three new friends standing up and motion towards the seat they had saved for her. She hurried to sit beside them just as the feast began, and they all chatted about how they were going to be together for seven years.

But the whole time, in the back of her mind, Harper wondered what would happen when her strictly Slytherin family found out that she was a Ravenclaw.