On the raised platform, the Sorting Hat suddenly split open, forming a wide mouth.
It began singing its traditional song, a melody about the four houses and their founders.
The lyrics spoke of courage, wit, loyalty, and ambition. Of Gryffindor's boldness, Ravenclaw's wisdom, Hufflepuff's dedication, and Slytherin's cunning.
As the Sorting Hat's voice fell silent, the Great Hall burst into enthusiastic applause.
The hat bowed to each of the four house tables in turn before becoming motionless once more.
Professor McGonagall stepped forward with a roll of parchment and spoke clearly to the assembled first years.
"When I call your name, please come to the platform, put on the Sorting Hat, sit on the stool, and wait for your house assignment."
"Hannah Abbott."
Professor McGonagall's voice rang out clearly.
Hannah Abbott hurried forward nervously, put on the oversized hat, and almost immediately, it shouted:
"Hufflepuff."
The Hufflepuff table erupted in cheers, applauding warmly for their first new student.
One by one, names were called.
Whenever the Sorting Hat announced a house, that table would applaud enthusiastically.
Gryffindor cheered the loudest, with two red-headed twins making particularly raucous noise. Some students even booed when Slytherin was announced, though Professor McGonagall silenced them with a sharp look.
Finally...
"Erwin Gaunt."
When Professor McGonagall called the name, every professor at the High Table immediately looked up.
Dumbledore's expression remained serene, but his eyes gleamed with interest.
Snape's gaze was particularly penetrating, boring into the line of first years with cold intensity.
The Slytherin table stirred with recognition.
Many purebloods were intimately familiar with that surname, and they craned their necks eagerly, wanting to see what the last surviving member of the once-great Gaunt family looked like.
In the queue of first years, a girl with bushy brown hair and bright eyes also cast a startled look toward the front, her expression curious and thoughtful.
Erwin appeared not to notice the attention.
He walked calmly to the platform under everyone's watchful eyes.
He glanced at the Sorting Hat with barely concealed distaste, as if steeling himself for an unpleasant task, before placing it on his head.
"Damn impertinent boy. I am the hat crafted by the founders of Hogwarts themselves. Countless excellent wizards have been properly sorted under my wisdom."
The Sorting Hat's indignant voice echoed in Erwin's mind.
"Oh? Such a great Sorting Hat, yet in all these centuries, none of those excellent wizards thought to clean you?"
"Who says they didn't? Two hundred years ago, a Gryffindor student threw me into the Black Lake. That counts as washing."
Erwin couldn't help but think wryly, 'Washed once two hundred years ago. You certainly have high standards for "clean."'
"Slytherin blood runs through your veins. What more is there to say?"
"S, "
"Stop. I'm going to Ravenclaw. Ravenclaw."
Hearing the Sorting Hat begin to announce, Erwin frantically projected his thoughts.
'Ravenclaw, Ravenclaw, RAVENCLAW.'
"Why? Although you possess intellectual curiosity, your ambition for magical mastery, and your bloodline prove you're a natural Slytherin. That is where you belong."
"Bloodline isn't the standard for sorting, is it? My own desires and qualities matter most, don't they?"
"You yourself admitted I have Ravenclaw qualities. So let me go to Ravenclaw."
Uncompromising, Erwin kept sending the Sorting Hat his fierce desire for Ravenclaw placement, thinking of Cho's hopeful face.
After a long pause, the hat spoke again in his mind.
"Alright, boy. Promise me this: come give me a proper cleaning whenever you have time, and I'll grant your request."
"Deal," Erwin agreed immediately.
"If Rowena could see this, she'd laugh at Salazar until the next millennium."
"RAVENCLAW."
The Sorting Hat announced loudly.
Not only were the students stunned into silence, but even the professors at the High Table stared in shock.
Just moments ago, the Sorting Hat had clearly begun announcing "Slytherin"; the "S" had been audible before stopping abruptly.
After an unprecedented silence, it had changed to Ravenclaw.
Snape's expression could have frozen water.
His already cold features became positively glacial, and the temperature around him seemed to drop several degrees.
In nearly a thousand years of Hogwarts history, no student had ever forcibly overridden the Sorting Hat's will and successfully changed their house assignment.
Yet here stood a young wizard who had not only rejected Slytherin but had done so loudly and publicly.
To Snape, Head of Slytherin House, this felt like a personal insult.
Dumbledore's eyes, half-hidden behind his half-moon spectacles, gleamed with golden curiosity.
He hadn't expected the young Gaunt to refuse Slytherin.
This was a fascinating development, one that altered several of his carefully laid plans.
The students at the Slytherin table understood the implications immediately.
After their initial shock faded, they looked at Erwin with barely concealed hostility. Several reached instinctively toward their robes, as if wanting to draw wands and hex him on the spot.
Erwin paid them no mind.
He happily lifted the Sorting Hat from his head and placed it carefully on the stool.
Then, suddenly, he drew his wand and pointed it at the battered hat.
"[Aguamenti]."
A jet of clear water burst from his wand tip and splashed over the Sorting Hat.
"Oh. Ah. Merlin's beard, that's wonderful."
"Boy, you're magnificent. Far better than that Gryffindor brat two hundred years ago. More. Don't stop."
Erwin's eye twitched.
'Where did this hat learn to talk like that? These phrases are extremely questionable.'
Ignoring the Sorting Hat's enthusiastic exclamations, Erwin turned and walked toward the Ravenclaw table.
The students gradually recovered from their shock, and thunderous applause erupted from both the Ravenclaw and Gryffindor tables.
The red-haired Weasley twins were particularly enthusiastic, shouting excitedly.
"Brilliant work, Gaunt. You should've been in Gryffindor with nerve like that. Absolutely brilliant."
Then they were promptly shushed by their older brother Percy, who looked scandalized by their behavior.
Walking to Cho's side and seeing her surprised, delighted expression, Erwin sat down beside her. He gave her a meaningful look and whispered.
"I made it."
"Welcome to Ravenclaw." Cho was genuinely thrilled. The boy before her had just become the first person in Hogwarts history to openly defy the Sorting Hat's initial judgment, and he'd done it for her.
She was deeply moved.
Erwin looked at the girl whose eyes shone with admiration and wonder. The two began talking quietly together, lost in their own world.
The uproar caused by Erwin's sorting eventually subsided, and the ceremony continued.
When Hermione Granger was called, she glanced briefly at Erwin with an unreadable expression before being sorted into Gryffindor.
Then came Harry Potter's turn, which caused another sensation throughout the hall.
When Harry was finally assigned to Gryffindor after a notably long deliberation, the Gryffindor table erupted in even louder cheers than before.
The twins jumped up and down, shouting, "We've got Potter. We've got Potter."
The excitement didn't affect Cho and Erwin, who were deep in conversation.
Several older Ravenclaw girls shot jealous looks in their direction, lamenting that their house's first handsome male student in years had already been claimed.
Soon, the Sorting Ceremony concluded.
Dumbledore rose to his feet, and the noise in the Great Hall gradually subsided. Looking at the students seated before him, a flash of deep satisfaction crossed his face.
These students, this school, they were the living proof of everything he'd devoted his life to protecting.
Surveying the assembled crowd, Dumbledore spoke cheerfully.
"Welcome, everyone. Welcome to Hogwarts. Before we begin our feast, I'd like to say a few words. And here they are: Nitwit. Blubber. Oddment. Tweak. Thank you."
He sat down promptly, looking nothing like the greatest wizard of the twentieth century and everything like an eccentric old man.
Under everyone's bewildered stares, the empty plates before the students suddenly filled with food. Roasted chicken, beef, pork chops, sausages, bacon, steak, boiled potatoes, roasted potatoes, chips, Yorkshire pudding, peas, carrots, gravy, ketchup, and, for some strange reason, peppermint humbugs.
The feast had officially begun.