Sorting Ceremony 2020-2021

Julian was struck with simple astonishment when he was guided into the Great Hall with the first years, his head whizzing from side to side as he caught an eye of the whole place. It was just as the boy had imagined, big and grand, decorative and lively. He could feel the surge of excitement in his bones, rocking on his feet back and forth. He has heard stories from his older siblings about Hogwarts, he listen intently and never interrupted. It was the one time that he had been nice to them, when they were sharing their stories.

His robe dragged slightly onto the floor, as he had gotten a size a bit too big for the young boy. It felt like christmas to him. He bumped into a student in line as he wasn't watching his steps at the moment.
He gave the person a mumbled apology with a toothy grin, soon being seated. Julian made chat with the student next to him and so on, having to be shushed many times by his prefect. Soon, it was time for him to take his turn, basically jumping out of his seat. He stepped up the small stairs, sitting down on the stool.

The hat was placed, it lopsidding to the side of his head slightly.¨Hello.¨ He greeted the lively hat, keeping his head still but eyes upwards towards the clothing on his head. ¨Let´s see here..¨ The hat started, grumbling out nosies. ¨HA! What a rambunctious soul, naive and bold.¨ Julian scrunched his eyebrows together. ¨I am certainly not naive. ¨ ¨With a mouth on him as well, there is no doubt with this one.¨ Julian didn't have any preferences when it came to his house, he knew he would do good in any house. ¨GRYFFINDOR¨ Julian beamed at the announcement, silently taking a seat at his designated housing. He had no complaints.

On the first day that Aulia started attending Hogwarts school, she was very nervous. After 11 years, she finally got an invitation to attend her dream school. When she was about to enter a room with a large-looking door with a magnificent pattern, she thought surely this was the main hall at Hogwarts. She was so nervous that she felt a heartbeat. Before long, the door opened and WOW, a very grand, large, diverse style was found around the walls of the hall and the statue, and of course, the candles that floated the hall sky. She and a group of new students were led to enter the room. When they walked, she was really nervous and still could not believe that she went to school here, she saw many students who were also watching them walk with enthusiasm and seemed curious, anyone who would enter their homes.

When she reached the front hall, the principal named Mr. Solomon Lear also welcomed them. Then the one who was waiting for him came, a woman who seemed to be a professor, was walking while carrying a conical tail hat, she was sure that this was a selection hat that would take them to the houses in Hogwarts, she knew a little about this, because before, she liked to read books or newspapers related to hogwarts. After the hat was placed on a high chair, the hat immediately spoke and sang about the characters of the houses they would occupy later, when she heard the song, she really hoped to enter Gryffindor because according to her, she had the character of a Gryffindor. She remained nervous seeing them finally go ahead one and be chosen in their respective homes according to the decision of the selection hat, until finally her name was mentioned.
She too trembled forward and when the hat was placed on her head, the hat muttered "hm, this child has such a character, brave, smart, and sometimes likes to break the rules. Hmm, it seems I know where the right home is for her, all right, I chose GRYFFINDOR" . She also really did not believe, Gryffindor students also applauded very lively, she was very happy because she was placed into a house in accordance with her expectations. She too sat with a very wide smile, then sat next to a girl who was glad she joined the other Gryffindor students.

After the sorting ceremony was over, and they had all been elected to their homes, the headmaster gave his speech again. He welcomed all of them and said that they could all enjoy the new school year enthusiastically. Hmmm, maybe this is the day when Aulia was very happy, entered the dream school and was also chosen in the dream home. She will try his best for Gryffindor and for Hogwarts.

[quote]

Bella Rivers stood quietly and nervously in front of the Sorting Hat, which, even though is an old hat is the most intimidating thing Bella had ever had to be in the presence of. The eyes of the older students and professors were all boring into her and her fellow first years. She watches as one by one they are called upon, awaiting their fate.

Bella always told her father she had no preference, that no matter what house she belonged in she would try her hardest. All this was a lie as she would love to be a Gryffindor like her father. She would of course try in any house, but Gryffindor was where she wished to be.

"Bella Rivers!" called the Professor, Bella's heart sinks to the ground.

With everyone's eyes falling on her tense person, she walks slowly toward the stool. This was it, after years of wondering she would know what house she truly belonged in. The hat sunk lightly on top of her head, it felt as though the whole world had been silenced. Like it was only her and the sorting hat in the Great Hall.

"Aaah... yes... I remember your father, a very determined boy... knew where he wanted to be..." the hat announces, just loud enough for Bella to hear. She shut her eyes, waiting. "I see loyalty in you, yes very strong... a sense of determination much like your father. I see some Ravenclaw in you, a smart individual... but I know what house calls your name... yes." silence.

It felt like she was waiting a long time to hear the final verdict. Until then, a weight is lifted of her shoulders as the hat shouts across the hall,

"Gryffindor!"

Grinning, she hops off the stool and rushes over toward the Gryffindor table, whose shouts carry across the hall. She did it, her father will be so happy.

September 1st

Clammy hands. Stomach hurting, that feeling that he downright hated and it's the butterflies in his stomach as he was making his way to the castle with all of his classmates for this year. Both of his friends who he liked talking on the train were nowhere to be seen.

He was all alone in this massive place until then.

Well... - Not entirely. As he looked over to his first-year peers, they all had a similar expression on their faces. This spectrum of looks went full-on panic-stricken faces to the point of looking pale and all the way to people looking complacent with the whole situation as if they didn't have to go on a ride in a rocky boat that had the chance of collapsing any moment you wrote on it to some kids whispering that there's some darn beast in these lakes.

'Stomach. Hurt...'

Remi thought to himself before getting into the castle and then, the great hall itself.

The Great hall, as candles flew up into the air and kept on hovering there. It gave off a rich, radiant warm feeling of home and for those few moments, he felt more comfortable but soon enough, the feeling of butterflies rushed back into his stomach. Push it back down and breathe.

Upon entering the great hall, however, his eyes fall onto the little, and to be brutally honest, dirty wizard's hat. It was odd and being that none of his family actually had an education in Hogwarts, he didn't know it was a sorting hat until it was too late.

"Remi Yao!"

If he was fair-skin, he would have looked deathly faint, looking like the color of alabaster white but thankfully, that wasn't the case. He just looked like he had a case of stomach flu from how hard he held onto his stomach.

Remi never did like events, events alone, that is. As he inched up until he was given the dirty hat to put onto his head. Now, from being from a magical background, he knew the hat talked but he didn't know the hat would be voicing his opinion rather loudly.

"Pure-blood, hmm."

The hat groaned softly to himself, one of the few moments that Remi would think that this thing would be quiet,

"A heart filled with gold, the curiosity you so have in your body is beaming! Yet you yearn for Slytherin..."

The hat continued to offer his thought process to the boy,

"YOU'LL MAKE A PERFECT GRYFFINDOR!"

The hat rattled Remi's ears as a large amount of clapping came from the Gryffindor table.

Taking the hat and placing it back down onto the seat as he walked his small self to the table of his new team, Gryffindor. But something in his body ached with a tinge of repulsion and confusion,

"Why Gryffindor?"

He said to himself before noticing there was food on the plates.

Pumpkin pie with whipped cream and Cranberry sauce on the side? A very small smile appeared on the boy's face as he digged in, eating his food as that thought would be something would ask one of the teachers about.

Absentmindedly, Era wiped her slightly sweaty palms on her new robe. Wait, sweaty palms? Curious.
In the midst of the flood of bodies that was this years new students, the small girl used a moment for introspection. Racing heart, sweaty palm, urge to fuss around with her hair despite knowing she was comfortable with how it looked - Unlike normally, it did seem like Era was nervous. Or maybe more... excited? Definitely a mix of the two on closer inspection. This was a big step for her after all, the first one on her way to become a proper wizard herself, instead of just reading and hearing about them.

A sudden jostle from some other kid jolted her back into the present, and Era suddenly realized two things: One, her sister was no longer by her side, which was not that unusual, but still a little disconcerting. The normality of having her nearby certainly could have been useful. Two, the big doors had finally swung open to admit the first-years into the Great Hall. The sudden attempt at movement of an entire crowd was most likely what caused the earlier bump in the first place, as an entire swarm of eager kids tried to press forward at once - and dragged the less eager ones along.

Before Era really realized what had transpired she got swept into the grandiose hall, past an elderly man in armour that gave her a short nod and an even shorter shake of her hand, and into a new massing of bodies slightly further in. Now that the crowd came to a halt again Era could finally take a closer look at her surroundings. A vast Hall, the ceiling shrouded by magic, well lit and filled to the absolute brim with food and people. Quite an impressive sight. Certainly intentionally so.

The man that greeted her at the door earlier then proceeded to introduce himself as the headmaster in his speech - a little surprising, but on second thought, not too much so. After all, a little glance around already served to confirm what her mother had told her about Hogwarts. A whole lot of- ... Nutcases was probably too strong of a word. Eccentrics? That seemed fitting enough. Once she focused back on what was happening, the headmaster started calling the students forth one by one, luckily for Era in order of the alphabet. Because by now, it was definitely evident to herself that she was incredibly nervous. The exact reasons could be sorted out later. It... Would've helped more than Era was willing to admit to have her twin by her side at the moment, yet sadly her far more energetic mirror was nowhere to be seen. Not that her slightly beneath average height did her any fav-

"ERA VIVIAN RYDER!"

The headmasters booming voice tore Era from drifting off into her own thoughts once again, and with a deep breath she moved forward to take her place on the chair. The chair, where it would be decided. On the short way there the thoughts of the last year came back - Where would she be sorted? Ravenclaw, like her Mother? She certainly took after her. Studious, inquisitive, eager to learn about everything magic. Initially Era was certain that this was the only logical choice, but... The longer she thought about it, the less sure she was of that.

But as she sat down, and the talking - intelligent - "Thank you." hat was placed on her head, she knew what she truly wanted. "Hmm, yes, truly." She wanted to not only take after, but surpass her mother. Take the intellect she had, and do something momentous with it, not just be content in her little corner of the world. "This is crystal clear indeed." A great wizard? Writer of an extrodinary book? She didn't know what exactly - but it had to be... Something. And when Era opened her eyes again, she suddenly realized that the hat was already talking.

"Smarts paired with that kind of ambition - a powerful combination, that can only mean one house."

"SLYTHERIN!"

And with a satisfied nod Era rose again, ready to join her new house.

Jen was walking along with the crowd of first-years on their way to the great hall. While others were dawdling, gazing at the many wonderous sights around the school, or just being swept along in the stream of children, Jennefer Ryder was one of those actively pushing forward, eager to see more and get to what would be the culmination of this evening: the Sorting Ceremony. She had heard many stories, both about the Ceremony itself as well as about what it would mean, how it would set the course for much of the next years of her life.

Soon enough, she was standing in the Great Hall, only one small figure among many, her lower height combining with her unremarkable brown hair to make her hard to distinguish among all the others. With a jolt, she realized she had lost track of her twin sister Era - quite unusual for her, and a testament to how excited Jen was to finally be here, in this place of magic, where she would also learn to do magic of her own. While the first names were being called, Jen looked around, trying to see if she could spot Era at least, but she could not make her out. Just a few minutes later, however, she was completely focused on the Ceremony again, name after name being called, then sorted into their respective houses, until -

"Era Vivian Ryder!"

Jen held her breath when her twin sister was called to the front to be sorted into one of Hogwarts' four Houses. In their eleven years of life, the two had, while by no means inseperable, certainly grown accustomed to having the other nearby when they needed each other. This would be the first time in their lives that they might end up seperated by more than a few rooms, for longer periods of time - their seven years' worth of Hogwarts school life, to be precise. And so, while Jennefer rationally knew that their chance to be sorted into the same house was miniscule due to their widely different personalities, a part of her was yet hoping against all odds that they might end up together. Being the older one (despite only by a very short amount of time), Jen often felt responsible for protecting the more quiet and withdrawn Era. When, after a short but tension-filled wait, Era was loudly pronounced to be Slytherin, Jennefer felt a twist in her gut - if she was certain about one thing, she was not going to be sorted into Slytherin. She lacked both the drive for success and the ambition for greatness that defined so many of that House according to the tales her parents had told. Era on the other hand -

"Jennefer Claire Ryder!"

Oh. Of course, with the order being alphabetical, it was logical that Jennefer would follow immediately after her sister. A fact which she had utterly forgotten, caught up in the whirlwind of thoughts during the sorting of her sister. Now, a tingle of excitement took hold of her again, as she made her way in front of the crowd, took her place, and the hat was put on her head. She had heard the story of her mothers sorting so often and -
"Hello, another Ryder, I see."
There it was, the voice of the hat talking to her while listening in on her thoughts!
"Ah, yes, but you're quite different for the shared name."
According to her parents, the hat would now look through her most basic, deep-down personality, then sort her into the house most suited for her.
"You wouldn't be much of a Slytherin..."
Yes, she had guessed that.
"Though you're remarkably loyal, aren't you? Hufflepuff could suit you..."
Jen blinked involuntarily, the attribute coming as a surprise; She had not thought of herself as loyal before, though it was quite hard to deny it.
"But above all, you wouldn't back down from any challenge, now would you..."
That one really hit the mark. She certainly didn't have great ambitions of her own, but when she felt she was being challenged, her eagerness to rise up to the task had oftentimes bordered on the foolish - or passed the border, according to her mother.
"Yes, I think this makes you..."
Jen felt her heart beat once, heavily.



With a start, she realized that it was already over. The hat was taken from her head, and, still a tiny bit stunned after returning from the turmoil of her inner self, she started off, towards the other members of her house. Towards her new house. Gryffindor.

The floating candles dangling above Katherine's head were most certainly a fire hazard. However, when you happen to find yourself surrounded by many aspiring witches and wizards, the little balls of flame are truly breathtaking. There happened to be more food on the 4 long tables then Katherine had ever seen in her life, roast meats, pastries, gravies, soups; Everything anyone would ever want to eat! The 11 year old found herself crowded in with a bedazzled (albeit nervous) group of first years. All around them were students of the four houses, waiting for the sorting ceremony to happen so they could enjoy their meals. Katherine was excited.

Most of her family was made up of Ravenclaws and Slytherins, and Katherine herself felt that Slytherin would be a perfect fit for her. A booming voice echoed through the room. The sorting ceremony has begun. Once the introductions were made and the hat sang its song, the Headmaster called the first names.

Barlow, Mandy! (Gryffindor)

The list went on and on, and Katherine felt sure it would never end. Her hands were getting tired of clapping and her feet were beginning to ache. But at last...

Song, Katherine! She forced herself to stand up tall and make her way to the hat. When she got there, the Headmaster smiled kindly and placed the hat on her head. The hat's voice filled her mind.

Hmm... What do we have here? Ah yes, the intelligence and the thirst for knowledge of Ravenclaw... But I also sense a great amount of ambition... Well, so be it.

SLYTHERIN!

Katherine grinned, and made her way down to the clapping Slytherin table to wait out the rest of the list, proud that her prediction had come true.

Lauren walked along with the line of first years, slowly making their way to the front of the Great Hall. Lauren knew vaguely what to expect the sorting ceremony and great hall to look like because her dad had described it to her. However, nothing he had said could compare to the actual thing. The great hall was stunning with candles floating everywhere. Lauren had an urge to duck because of the fear that the candle wax would drip down onto her. However, looking around, no one else seemed to be bothered by it so she assumed it was fine.

She could see rows of students sat at four very long tables all staring at them. She looked from green to blue, to red, and then yellow. All of them seemed to be very excited to meet their new members. She will admit, however, that some of the Slytherins seemed a bit intimidating but she also wonders if it's just their reputation clouding her perception.

Lauren's mind wandered to thoughts of her family. Most of her family was made up of Slytherins and Gryffindors with the occasional Hufflepuff. She figured she had the most traits in common with Gryffindor. She really hoped that Gryffindor would be where she ended up. However, Lauren is soon jolted out of her thoughts as she hears her name called.

"Lauren Stonewood"

Lauren slowly walks up to the stool and sits down. She can feel the moment the hat is placed on her head. There is a beat of silence before it speaks.

"Ah, a Stonewood. Its been a while since I've had one of you."
Lauren giggles quietly.

"Certainly some ambition"
Slytherin, she thinks but the hat continues.

"You also have all the courage, bravery and heart of a Gryffindor"
Gryffindor, perfect, she thinks again to herself.

"However, I think that Hufflepuff will serve you well. It will teach you how to strengthen your weaknesses and will help you to find the friends you need."

HUFFLEPUFF!

Lauren has never been more confused in her life. She really thought the hat was going to place her in Gryffindor. However, when she wanders over to the Hufflepuff table and is greeted by all their friendly and warm faces she realizes that this maybe isn't so bad. Hufflepuff may not have been her first choice but she's definitely going to make the most of it.

There I was, taking my first steps in a famous school. My parents' school, my grandparents' school. All my family had gone through this school and now it was my turn to honour them. At least I wasn't alone. Other students looked as lost and panicked as I was. The big door opened and there was a huge room full of students and adults. My heart was gradually getting warmer and warmer. I didn't expect to find so many people behind that door.

I walked to the end of the room by the teachers' table. My steps were heavy, could you feel my fear through my footsteps?
I don't know. I' m not sure. I was now in front of the teachers and I was getting to know my future home, my future family.

The names scrolled in alphabetical order. And I waited patiently for my turn. The letter "A" was finished, the letter "B" had just finished, and then the others followed. Now it was my turn.

LOXAR... LOXAR Edward.

I didn't move for several seconds and then I finally looked up and walked towards this magic hat that scared me.
It was on top of my head, it seemed to take the time to think. Was he having second thoughts? Was he lost?
Then finally he cried out GRYFFINDOR!
I was surprised but not disappointed, I thought I was like my father and I had imagined I was in Serdaigle but I was wrong.

The shouts were heard at the gryffindor table and they now had a new member in their family.