3 Chapter 3: The Sorting Ceremony

Iris Potter was completely overwhelmed by the events that had happened recently in her life. Her aunt and uncle were not good people and always treated her harshly. They never harmed her physically, apart from occasional slaps from her aunt if she messed up while cooking or cleaning. Her uncle would shout at her every time Dudley broke something. They'd treat her like a servant. But what made her miserable was that she had no clue why they hated her.

The day of her birthday, she discovered that she was a witch and her aunt had been lying to her for all her life. Her parents were not some drunkards who died in a car accident, they were powerful wizards who sacrificed their lives so that she could continue to live. She was happy that she had such wonderful parents but sad that they were truly gone.

The day she had gone to get her school supplies with Hagrid went like a blur. When she arrived at the Leakey Cauldron, she was hounded by the crowd as they thanked her for something she didn't know. She was scared on seeing so many people trying to shake her hand.

Upon learning the name of her patents' murderer and how terrible he was, she got worried when Hagrid told her that he believed the murderer was not dead.

She was fascinated but somewhat scared when she saw the goblins.

She liked Hagrid. He was a good person according to her and even bought her a snowy owl. She had never seen such a beautiful owl in her life.

She was peeved by the man who sold her a wand but what terrified her was the fact that her wand was a sister wand to the one that killed her parents and gave her the scar.

Iris was not happy when Hagrid disappeared without telling her about the platform from where she had to ride the express. She thanked whatever Gods were up there when a family of red-heads helped her get through the barrier.

The platform was noisy, much to her discomfort, but she liked it when no one really recognised her.

When she entered the compartment where a boy was sitting, she prepared herself to be hounded by questions but much to her delight, the boy gave her no mind and kept on reading his book.

He was tall from what she could see and thought he was a year or two ahead of her.

But she noticed that he did not wear any of the house colours, so he must be a first-year like her. She wanted to introduce herself but could see that he was not interested in talking to anyone. So she kept quiet and enjoyed the scenery outside the window. He didn't even take his eyes away from his book until she introduced herself to Ron.

Iris was not happy when Ron asked about the night her parents died. She was relieved when Ron focused his attention on the boy sitting opposite to her who had been looking at her without even blinking. She looked at him expectantly and was desperate to take Ron's attention away from her.

She noticed the boy's expression soften upon looking at her when he finished scaring Ron by what she could say the scariest poker face she had ever seen.

"Edmund."

Edmund, he said. The boy was not very social. His spiky hair was not blond, they were golden. One could say they were the brightest of yellow. His sapphire eyes reminded her of the ocean. She could see a faint glow in them but didn't try to pry upon it. His skin was tanned, but she could tell that it was natural. What surprised her were the faint whisker-like marks on his cheeks. They reminded her of a cat or a fox. Maybe it was a family trait, she didn't know.

"Do you know which house you'll get in? I bet I'll go to Gryffindor. My whole family was in Gryffindor. Anyway, I guess we'll know at the sorting. Do you know any magic? My brothers taught me a spell. It turns my pet rat's hair yellow. Wanna see?" Ron babbled and began reciting a spell.

Both Iris and Edmund shared a look. Ron was talking a lot and Iris noticed that Edmund was starting to get annoyed.

Before Ron could finish his spell, a girl with bushy brown hair entered the compartment and said, "Has anyone seen a toad? A boy named Neville has lost it."

When everyone shook their heads, she eyed Ron and noticed he had a wand out. Her eyes lit up and she asked, "Oh! You are doing a spell, let's see."

Ron cleared his throat and recited the spell again, only for nothing to happen.

"I don't think that's a spell," the girl started. "I've tried some on my own. But they worked for me." She took out her wand and chanted, "Lumos."

"Anyway," she continued as she said Nox. "I'm Hermione Granger. And you are?"

(ROTS)

Edmund was really getting annoyed. First, the red-headed weasel couldn't keep his mouth shut when he was trying to read. Even upon using his scary poker face, he couldn't get the weasel to shut up. Then he uttered a completely ridicules spell which was obviously a prank by his brothers. Edmund didn't know what to say about that.

The girl that had entered their compartment, Hermione Granger, was obviously a muggle-born. The way she showed off how much she had read and demonstrated a first-year spell, she definitely didn't have many friends. Not like he had any say in that.

When Iris introduced herself, Hermione squealed and went on a diatribe about how much she had read about Iris. Poor Iris had nothing to say for that. She didn't even know there were books being written about her. Hagrid had been highly cryptic and bought all the books for her. She didn't notice it, but Hagrid hadn't told her anything about the wizarding world.

The rest of the ride was uneventful except for when Edmund bought everything from the food trolley and asked Ron to stuff everything in his mouth and stop talking. He regretted saying that as Ron quite literally stuffed his mouth with food.

It was night time when the train arrived at Hogsmeade train station. All the first years were asked to sit in the boats as they were taken to the castle.

Edmund marvelled at the beauty of the castle. He could almost feel the magic around him.

Upon reaching the castle, they were asked to stop by the stairs for a professor to come and escort them to the great hall.

Edmund was quietly looking around when a very annoying ferret decided to disturb him.

"I heard the Girl-Who-Lived was coming to Hogwarts this year. My name is Malfoy, Draco Malfoy," The annoying ferret said as he went in front of the crowd of first years, facing Iris.

The weasel couldn't control himself and snickered. The ferret took offence of that and retorted, "Find my name funny, do you? Let me guess, red hair, hand-me-down rags, you must be a Weasley." He again looked at Iris and said, "You must choose wisely who you hang around with. Stay away from the wrong sort."

Well, that's that. Really smooth. The chap lost his chance to be a friend. Edmund was sure that Iris would respond in an unkindly way.

"No thanks. I think I know what the right and wrong sort are."

'There you go. And so it begins. The enmity between the ferret and the raven.' Edmund sighed. 'Well, I guess school years won't be too boring with these two around.'

By the time the ferret could retort, a stern-looking professor came and introduced herself and escorted all the first years to the Great Hall.

As Edmund looked around, he heard Hermione tell someone about the enchanted ceiling and where she read it. The sorting hat sang a song and the students were then asked to go one by one on the platform and get sorted.

The Bones heiress was sorted to Hufflepuff along with the Abbot heiress. The Greengrass and Davis heiresses were sorted into Slytherin.

When it was Hermione's turn, Edmund was certain that she'd go to Ravenclaw. But, to his surprise, she was sorted into Gryffindor.

Just like the rest of his family, the gluttonous weasel was sorted in Gryffindor while the pompous ferret into Slytherin along with his two trolls.

When Iris was called to be sorted, the whole hall went silent as the professors watched eagerly while a greasy bat sneered.

'Great! Way to make a child comfortable.'

It took seven minutes for Iris to get sorted. Edmund wondered what kind of conversation the two were having. She was finally sorted into Gryffindor.

"Vulpis, Edmund."

As he was going towards the hat, Edmund heard the weasel say something to Iris and those sitting around them that ruined his mood.

"He's Edmund Vulpis, the Vulpis family Heir. Dark ones they all are. His father was a known death eater. Bet he'll be sorted into Slytherin. Slimy snakes."

'Comparing me to my father, good one weasel. But, it'll be a bloodbath if I am sorted into yours or that ferret's house.'

Edmund quietly sat down on the stool and placed the hat on his head.

'Hello, wise hat.'

'Hmm, hello to you too, lad. Let's see where you might belong... hmmm.. you are certainly a whirlpool. I have never seen a spiral as strong as you since the first one. He was able to combine magic and chakra into one and became the strongest wizard for two centuries. They all were Gryffindors. But you, the first thing you'll do is slaughter all of them for what you think is their stupidity. Anyway, though you are very ambitious and cunning, you won't be able to tolerate the Slytherins. Same goes for Hufflepuff. Ah! You seek knowledge. I know just where to put you..'

"Better be... RAVENCLAW!"