"Greengrass, Daphne!" the blond-haired girl who had insulted her at Madam Malkin marched with the style one expected of a princess to the stool and the hat didn't waste any time to scream "SLYTHERIN!" Alexandra groaned, now she really wanted to avoid Slytherin!
The following kids were not known to her: Thelma Holmes went to Gryffindor, Megan Jones and Wayne Hopkins to Hufflepuff, Su Li to Ravenclaw.
"Longbottom, Neville!"
The round boy marched to the stool with the arrogance of a chief of state, while the Hall was consumed by whispers and cheers. To everyone's surprise, the sorting took rather long, as the Boy-who-Lived seemed to argue with the hat. Finally the magical artefact screamed "GRYFFINDOR", looking really unhappy. The Gryffindor table burst into cheers and a thunder of applause welcomed him. All the Prefects shook his hand like if they were meeting a VIP, and the Weasley twins shouted "We got Longbottom! We got Longbottom!"
The sorting of Ernest Macmillan to Hufflepuff was lost in the clamours for the Hero. Alexandra noticed the three other Houses looked disgruntled to not have welcomed the Boy-Who-Lived into their ranks.
The thin blond boy named Draco Malfoy swaggered forward at a pace that showed a lot of arrogance when his name was called and the hat had barely touched his head when it screamed, "SLYTHERIN!" He went to join his bodyguards Crabbe and Goyle, looking very pleased with himself.
The minutes after that saw many people sent to Hufflepuff, with the twins Leanne and Roger Malone. Moral MacDougal was sorted into Ravenclaw. Theodore Nott and Pansy Parkinson to Slytherin. Another set of twins, this time of Indian ancestry, named Parvati and Padma Patil were sorted, Parvati going to Gryffindor while Padma went to Ravenclaw. Sally-Anne Perks went to Ravenclaw. And then at last-
"Potter, Alexandra!"
The mutters and whispered conversations around the hall ended abruptly. The silence was deafening, and when Alexandra started to walk towards the stool, she heard several of the Gryffindor at the opposite side of the Hall whisper "traitor's daughter". She tightened her jaw, but she kept her head high and marched to the stool.
The last thing she saw before the hat covered her eyes was the hateful looks being directed at her.
"Interesting, very interesting," came a deep rich voice in her ears. "Lots of talent, yes. Not a bad mind, either, and a nice thirst to survive challenges, now that's interesting … So where shall I put you?"
Alexandra thought "Where should I go?"
"The worst choices, though it will not surprise you, would be Hufflepuff and Gryffindor. You have no loyalty to anyone but yourself, and if I put you with the Lions there will be a massacre before the week is over. You are very well suited for Slytherin, dear, but you're not cruel, vicious or ruthless enough to join them and thrive through the challenges they would make against you. That only leaves ..."RAVENCLAW"!
This last word was shouted to the whole hall, but unlike the others, this was not met with cheers, just a deep silence. A lone girl at the Ravenclaw table cheered, but she stopped quickly when she saw she was the only one.
Face entirely blank, Alexandra stepped down from the stool and sat at the table of Blue and Bronze, noticing all the Ravens in proximity to her tried to get way as discreetly as possible, and failing miserably.
There were only few people left to be sorted now. Zacharias Smith to Hufflepuff. Dean Thomas to Gryffindor. Lisa Turpin to Ravenclaw. Byron Vaisey to Slytherin.
Then it was Ronald Weasley's turn, and she noticed the hat send him almost immediately to the Gryffindor table before it had even been fully installed on his head. What sort of nobility the hat had seen in him, she had no idea.
Nigel Wolpert, the boy who kept losing his toad, was called and he fell over on his way to the stool. The hat took a long time to decide with him she noticed. When it finally shouted "GRYFFINDOR", Nigel ran off still wearing it, and had to jog back amid gales of laughter to give it to Blaise Zabini.
She would have enjoyed the boy who had been in her compartment with her to be in the same House, at least to have a familiar face, but alas he was sorted into Slytherin. Professor McGonagall rolled up her scroll and took the Sorting Hat away.
Now that the sorting was over and she had no one near her, she could see the high table where the teachers sat. At one extremity was the giant named Hagrid, while at the other sat a woman who appeared to be a nurse or its magical equivalent. There were men and women, although a man with greasy hair, a nervous young man with a violet turban and the Headmaster stood out. Albus Dumbledore, she thought, was really someone who looked like Gandalf in the books of Tolkien or Merlin in the legends of the Round Table Knights should look like. The colour of his hair and his beard was a deep silver, shining like mystic silver candles and projecting a sort of serene aura around him.
As the Headmaster got to his feet, silence fell upon the Great Hall. He beamed at the students, his arms opened wide and he spoke.
"Welcome!" he said. "Welcome to a new year at Hogwarts! Before we begin our banquet, I would like to say a few words. And here they are: Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak!"
"Thank you!"
He sat back down. A lot of people clapped and cheered. Alexandra face palmed. Was her new headmaster playing the role of an idiot, or was he completely senile? Even with her limited knowledge of the world, she knew such a speech was the best way to kill any form of authority held by the adults over the students. She didn't know whether to laugh or to cry.