13 Chapter 13

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McGonagall then stepped forward, a long roll of parchment having appeared in her hands at some point.

"When I call your name, you will put on the hat and sit on the stool to be sorted."

"Abbott, Hannah!"

A blushing blond girl came out of the crowd, and before everyone's eyes she sat on the stool as Professor McGonagall placed the hat on top of her head.

Hannah was obviously feeling extremely nervous at the moment, but thankfully for her, the hat didn't take long to announce loudly its choice.

"Hufflepuff!"

The table filled with yellow scarf wearing students cheered loudly as they got the first of the first years to come up, warmly welcoming the shy girl with their applause. The Hufflepuffs were known for their friendliness.

Next, McGonagall called one student after the other, and honestly Ethan had no impression of most of them. He remembered some of the famous names, but he couldn't remember most of the secondary characters, not to mention those who were mentioned a couple of times through the whole series.

Actually, Ethan had no idea whether Sophia had been in JK Rowling's books, or in any of the movies, but it didn't really matter in the end, reasoned Ethan, as this was an AU.

"Granger, Hermione!"

Finally, one character Ethan recognized was called as they got closer and closer to his name. The girl, who would grow to become Hogwarts' brightest witch, didn't seem as stressed as the other students as she nearly ran to the stool and slammed the hat on top of her head.

The head took relatively more time than usual too before finally announcing loudly, "Gryffindor!"

Again, the Gryffindor table clapped loudly, maybe even louder than the Hufflepuff table, but Ethan was pretty sure it was out of competitiveness more than camaraderie.

"Greengrass, Daphne!"

Ethan, who expected it would be his turn, faltered in his step, and to not appear too awkward, he leaned over to Sophia's ear, as if it was what he wanted to do from beginning, and whispered, "No matter what, do not enter Slytherin."

Sophia was puzzled at his words, and asked, "Is it a bad house?"

Ethan shook his head as the hat nearly immediately screamed the name of the house of the snake as it sat on the witch's head, and explained, "It's not about good or bad, you simply aren't suited for the house. Trust me, and you will understand later why."

"Grindelwald, Ethan."

Before Sophia could ask anymore questions, McGonagall called for Ethan in a loud and clear voice.

Out of respect, the older students would remain quiet while the students were called up, but this time, as they heard the infamous name, whispers broke out in the four tables and among the first years.

Ethan, who expected it from the beginning, simply walked forward, keeping his gaze straight on the hat, not daring to look any higher.

Since he had arrived in the Great Hall, Ethan had evaded the teachers' table with his gaze despite his curiosity because of a simple reason, one called Dumbledore.

As he was in an AU, Ethan had no idea of how Dumbledore would behave, maybe it was one of those universes where Dumbledore was a Dark Lord in disguise. However, one thing Ethan knew for a fact was that Dumbledore was as great of a Legilimens as in the original universe, which was something his father had told him.

Ethan was extremely confident in his mental defences, and doubted that even someone of Dumbledore's calibre could enter his mind in an instant and effortlessly look into his mind, but Ethan was confident, not arrogant.

Why tempt the devil if he could avoid it?

Of course, Ethan couldn't ignore the old man forever, but Ethan still would rather not take any risk.

Ethan quickly approached the stool, and as he sat on it McGonagall cleared her throat loudly, quieting the entire room in an instant, before placing the hat on top of Ethan's head.

Faced with the hat, Ethan was tempted to try to protect himself from its probing, as a test to himself, but decided not to, if he really succeeded it could become problematic…

"You wouldn't succeed anyway." A soft yet rough voice appeared in Ethan's head, one he recognized as the Sorting Hat's.

Ethan merely smiled at the provocation, and the hat continued, "You have a lot of talent, and a rarely seen passion for magic. Of this intensity at least. You could excel in academics, but considering how much you abhor reading, Ravenclaw is out of the question."

At that, Ethan felt like sighing mentally. He too wanted to appear like those cool main characters and always have a book in hand, appearing mysterious and intelligent all the time, but that would simply be too painful.

He didn't like reading very much in his past life already, but his mother had only hammered the nail deeper as she taught Ethan about runes. Learning several rune languages in the span of a few years had been quite traumatic as that had involved an insane amount of reading, and it wasn't fun reading.

Added with all the books on magical theory Ethan read to better his control over his magic, he really abhorred reading now. If he really needed to, he obviously could read, but he would rather not if he could help it.

"You have the cunning and the ambition to go in Slytherin, more than enough courage and determination to enter Gryffindor, and your connection with that Kitsune waiting for you is more than enough to tell about your compassion so Hufflepuff would be a great choice too."

Ethan's eyes darted to Sophia, with Miyuki who was waiting next to her, staring at Ethan. The pets of the students should normally wait for their masters in their rooms, but Miyuki was special. As a dangerous species, although Ethan had received the school's authorization to keep her in the school, she also had to be next to him as often as possible so that no accident would happen. The only exception were classes, where she was allowed to stay in his dorm room for most of them.

She may seem not as dangerous while in his room, but if she escaped then she would be a much greater danger, so the school decided he should bring her around.

Seeing the hat was having trouble, Ethan said in his mind, "Stop stalling now, and just put me in Slytherin already. Putting me in any other house would do me more harm than good anyway."

"If you say so… Slytherin!" The last part was yelled out loud for everyone to hear, and so McGonagall took the hat from his head.

To Ethan's surprise, many claps were heard from the Slytherin table, as well as cheers. Looking at the snakes, Ethan had to admit he did not expect them to welcome him this warmly. Well, thinking about it, they were Pure Bloods, so even if Ethan followed in his grandfather's footsteps, they wouldn't have to fear much.

Grindelwald did not believe in Pure Blood Supremacy from what Ethan knew, but as they were the most powerful houses in Britain, he had allied with them.

Miyuki quickly ran up to his side as Ethan joined the Slytherin table, a smile on his face this time. He couldn't help it, he might be an adult in a child's body, he still felt bothered by the stares of everyone he met, so meeting a group of people who actually did not treat him as a freak felt good.

Ethan saw a place in front of the blond girl who had been called before him, Daphne Greengrass, so he went to sit there, while sending a look at Sophia. He had just told her not to choose Slytherin, while he joined the house himself.

He was aware this would probably hurt the shy girl, who would probably take it as him thinking she didn't have the skills to enter the house, but Ethan would rather slightly hurt the girl than let her throw herself into hell for the next seven years.

After all, for a Muggleborn, Slytherin truly could be hell.

As he finally sat down, Ethan sent a look at his neighbours, one was an older female student who had a polite smile on, while the other place next to him was empty.

Ethan wanted to strike up a conversation with his fellow students, but it wasn't the time as others still had to be sorted.

Sophia was called up next, and to Ethan's delight, she was sorted into Gryffindor. In his opinion, the house may be filled with many morons, but it would always be better than Slytherin, for a muggle born.

Besides, there were some fine people in Gryffindor.

He did notice though that Sophia sent a glance his way as she walked toward her table, so he sent her a reassuring smile, to say everything was alright.