The New Sorting Ceremony

[Tucker Williams]

Tucker stood a head above the rest of his first year class. He watched, wide-eyed and antsy as every student around him was sorted into the house that they so belonged. He waited and waited. Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Slytherin, Ravenclaw... Tucker couldn't take it anymore. He was starting to believe he was here by accident.

He was the last boy standing there when his name was finally called. With a huge sigh of relief Tucker ran up to the stool and anxiously put the hat on his head.

[Sorting Hat]

Gryffindor.

[Cleo Vanderley]

This was so stupid. Cleo couldn't understand why she had to stand here and wait for all these other students to put on that stupid hat and get sorted into their houses. Wasn't there a faster way to do this? As she looked around, Cleo thought she could guess which house each kid was going to be sorted in. Why did they need a hat to tell them?

That kid there with the glasses and the beads of sweat on his brow? Hufflepuff. The girl over there with her nose in a book? Ravenclaw. The boy who was saying snide things to the girl next to him was definitely a Slytherin, and the girl, who slapped his face, was clearly a Gryffindor.

She could probably have all these people sorted in ten minutes. Instead, she had to wait in line for what seemed like forever, just because her stupid last name had to begin with V. She was severely tempted to just run up and grab that hat and stick it on her head without waiting for her name to be called. Anything to not have to stand here anymore.

Come to think of it, what was stopping her? She glanced up at Professor McGonagall,with her pinched expression, and felt pretty confident that she could outrun the woman.

So just as a boy named Grey, Steven was called, Cleo ran across the platform and grabbed the hat, sticking it on her head defiantly.

[Sorting Hat]

How bad is it that I can't even decide how to sort my own character?

I wanted her to be a Slytherin, but she came out more like a Gryffindor, so...

Gryffindor!

[Madeline Fairchild]

Madeline tried not to think of the various germs that could be running rampant on the sorting hat. Surely they cleaned it? Eyeing its tattered appearance and the decidedly wicked tilt to the slit it called a mouth she decided that, no, they probably didn't. Here was a hat that did exactly as it liked, be that composing dreadfully long songs to inflict upon unsuspecting students or refusing to undergo the extensive repair work it so badly needed.

It was with an attempt at studied casual elegance that the young girl walked to the stool when her name was called; suddenly very aware of the eyes of her fellow students and the fact that every single one of them had worn the hat before her. Increasingly aware that the darned thing was going to know exactly what she thought of it’s appearance Madeline sat down and placed it on her head with an air of defiance.

[Sorting Hat]

Slytherin.

[Altheda Twidget]

Can hats get fleas? It was the kind of idol question that just popped into Altheda's head whenever she was bored - and while alot of students around her looked scared, or I-Wanna-Puke nervous, Altheda was definitely bored. And it was an important question, right? If she was supposed to be putting it on her head, she wanted to know what was, you know, on it.

Well, it was a magical wizarding hat - she saw several people go through the process to know what the gist was. A magical hat had to have a kind of protection about little critters, right? But the one spell her mom tried on the cats three years ago, well...that didn't work, so maybe fleas weren't affected by magic or something.

She was distracted momentarily by someone next to mutter under his name. She thought they were chanting in some foreign language - but soon realized that they were just saying the name of a house over and over again.

Did she know what house she wanted? No...but then again it never really mattered to her. Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Slytherin, Ravenclaw - they were just a bunch of funny-names of different dorms to her. She figured if she were a Gryffindor, she would be brave enough somewhere, If she was chosen for Ravenclaw, she had to have some sort of brains, and Slytherin...well, she didn't think she was as conniving or sly, but why was she to argue with the choice of a thousand year old talking hat?

She could pass off any choice, she supposed with a simple shrug. She wanted to be happy anywhere - and figured that she'd go with what the magic hat told her. Her mom wouldn't mind where she went, and her dad had no clue what any of this was anyways. Those that thought that house stuff mattered, she would never, ever willingly meet again, so - whoopedo!

"...Twiget!"[/i] Altheda started at the sound of her last name, and looked around her like a momentarily startled rabbit. The chances were slim that there was somebody else with the same last name, so she made her way forward through the jostling crowd to plop herself down unceremoniously on the little stool.

Hi, uh....Mister Sorting Hat. She greeted mentally. Was she supposed to greet the hat in some formal way? It seemed polite...[/size]

[Sorting Hat]

Hufflepuff.

[Aiden Edwards]

Aiden stood in line, impatiently awaiting his turn. He had his parents at home, moreso his father, worrying about the house he would be placed in, and that was the one thought running through Aiden's mind. Well, that and the fact he wasn't surrounded by the carefully picked pureblood children his parents always had him around growing up. He had half bloods around, which he could try and deal with, and he had muggle borns, whom his parents told him to refer to as "mudbloods" around him. As his name was called and he stood up to the stool, he contorted his face in disgust thinking about the people he would be taught with.

[Sorting Hat]

Slytherin.

[Cash Walker]

Cash didn't know where he was going to end up. He didn't have a prefferance, just whatever flew. The boy bounced up the steps as his name was called. His cowboy boots clicked on the floor, he was the only one in the room that was wearing something other than plain black shoes. That was his little bit of originality left.

He ran a hand through his hair nervously before the hat was placed upon his head. He didn't know what was coming here, but he was really excited to find out.

[Sorting Hat]

You're a tough one, but I'm going with Ravenclaw.

[Marcelle Odette Fairbairn]

Marcelle cast a nervous glance to her peers sitting at the tables watching the sorting as if it were a daytime soap opera. Fear struck her heart hard, she wanted to cry. To her surprise, someone was crying. Looking behind her there was a very young girl sobbing her heart out. Marcelle's eyes shot open and she reached out to the girl. "Oh, don't cry it'll be alright. Don't be scared!" She gave her sweetest smile and continued comforting the girl, till she too was smiling brightly. Marcelle loved helping people, she loved making people feel better. She looked back out to her peers who were gaping as some poor first year threw up from the nerves. She shook her head and wondered how the poor kid was feeling.
Then it happened, it felt as if the world had stopped. "Marcelle Fairbairn." It was her turn... She gulped nervously and patted her new friend on the back and drug herself up the stairs. Her heart beat so hard in her chest she thought it would burst out in front of the entire great hall..."Wouldn't that be embarrassing.." She said quietly to herself as they placed a hat on her.... What was a hat going to do.... Was it supposed to read her soul? Would it see things she didn't see? Would it know about that one time she broke her moms glasses and buried them in the backyard...she hoped not...that was the worst thing she'd ever done in her entire life and never told a soul. She felt she'd die if a hat could see this.

[Sorting Hat]

Hufflepuff!

[Conor Valentine]

Zoning off in Care of Magical Creatures, conor recalls his sorting hat cerimony experience, for whatever reason, perhaps it's something in the room that smells familiar. he remembers that smell, in the banquet room, someone's perfume or something. he remembers how nervous and apprehesive his fellow students were, much to his bafflement. how can everyone be so fretful over such a menial, if anything, task?

All of his family had been in either Ravenclaw or Slytherin, and it was family tradition, his grandparents were holding a wager to which house he'd call home, Slytherin was the famous, but Conor knew he'd be placed in Ravenclaw, just as his father was.

"Conor Valentine?" DUmbledore calls. Conor stands up, calm and slatefaced, he straightens his die and shows the Headmaster a polite smile as he sits upon the old wooden stool.

[Sorting Hat]

Ravenclaw!

[Thaddeus Avery]

Avery was standing back, away from most of the other students. He could pretty much tell the mudbloods on sight. They were the ones with stupid, slack-jawed expressions and wide eyes, staring all around them like they were in some kind of mystical fairyland. Really, if they hadn't ever seen magic before, whatever were they doing here, anyway? They didn't belong here.

There were a couple of kids near him with more relaxed expressions, and one who even looked rather bored. He edged a little closer to them, and further away from the girl who kept exclaiming, "Omigosh, omigosh, omigosh!"

Luckily for him, he didn't have to stand there and listen to her very long. "Avery, Thaddeus" was the second name called, and he strolled up to the stool as casually as if he were going up to the trash bin to toss out an old piece of gum. Stuffing the hat onto his head, he didn't wait long for the hat to make its decision.

[Sorting Hat]

Slytherin.

[Eerie Mannequin]

Eerie frowned, clicking her heels on the floor impatiently. She didn't care what houses other people were in, she only care which house she was in. How could the school expect so many people to sit through such torture? She was shushed by some teacher that thought they had the right to order her around, and the teacher pointed at Eerie's high heels, indicating that she was disrupting the assembly. Like anyone cared. They were probably having more fun listening to the rhythm of her shoes than listening to the sound of that foolish sorting hat rambling on about who-knows-what.

Eerie took a strand of her hair and twisted it through her fingers, looking down at her split ends. I really should take better care of my hair, she thought, running her fingers through it. It became evident that some people were looking at her, and she smiled sarcastically at them, showing all of her teeth, and quickly loosening her muscles into a scowl. They didn't have the right to look at her. She was quite tempted to whip out her wand and hex them all at that exact moment, but she knew that that would be highly inappropriate, and she would probably be expelled before she'd even been sorted into a house.

The queue was shortening, and as the time went slowly by, Eerie was soon at the front of the line, and her name was being read out. Tempted to do a little dance for attention before going up, she took a deep breath, and settled for walking as gracefully up the steps as she could manage.

The filthy hat was placed on her head, and all that she could think about was the fact that it might ruin her hair and face, or that it might have lice. It had been placed on so many people's heads that there could be all manner of things on it. She just hoped that they washed it frequently. Eerie would probably have a shower at the first opportunity for reassurance, but that didn't mean she found it any less gross having the thing put on her head.

She looked down at her feet, which she had twisted together, and waited rather impatiently for the sorting hat to speak.

[Sorting Hat]

Slytherin.