Next Generation- Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Professor McGonagall led the students to the front of the Great Hall for the umpteenth time. She was getting too old for this. Next year it would become the young, but very accomplished Professor Longbottom's job to lead the students down the aisle and call names from the scroll for the Sorting Ceremony. McGonagall would have given it up this year, but the children of some past students she cared very much for would begin their time at Hogwarts this year.

She stood atop the stage, standing next to a stool with the Sorting Hat sitting on it, and she opened the scroll to read the names. She vaguely recognized some names, but her lips thinned when she got to the "M"s.

"Malfoy, Scorpius!" she called.

A pale blond boy stepped onto the stage. My God! thought Minerva. He's the spitting image of his father! She set the Sorting Hat on the boy's head. It took the hat a moment or two to ponder which house the boy should be put in. Scorpius's face was crumpled in concentration.

Scorpius couldn't care less what house he was put in, but he knew his father did. As Scorpius was sitting on the stool in front of the whole school, the hat talked to him. When the hat spoke to Scorpius, it was like the hat was the Time Lord Kronos, slowing down all time.

"You should not worry about what your father thinks," the hat spoke. " If he becomes angry because you are not in Slytherin like him, then maybe he does not love you for who you really are."

"Does that mean--?" Scorpius's thought was interrupted by the hat's answer.

"No, your father does love you, no questioning that," the hat consoled him. "He also has no reason to be angry. But be wise, child. You and another shall bring along great change in your house. He is a person who is not so lucky as yourself in being accepted in the house you both shall reside in. This house is SLYTHERIN!"

Minerva removed the hat from Scorpius's head and he jumped off the stage to join to politely cheering Slytherins at their table.

Professor McGonagall continued reading names to sort the students. Then, finally, she came across a name that made her smile. Just last year she had called up his older brother to have him sorted into Gryffindor. She hoped to have the same happen to his younger brother. It made McGonagall sad to think that she wouldn't be able to call his sister's name, the last of the three. She knew she wouldn't be able to stand up there for the whole ceremony in two years considering her current physical condition. It was so unlikely that she would be able to outlive the number of years Professor Dumbledore had been able to endure the task.

"Potter, Albus!" she called, proudly showing her smile.

In the audience James Potter, Albus's older brother, sat with a wide smile on his face, his heart beating with anticipation. He pictured his little brother sitting with him at the feast in a few minutes, and he couldn't help but feel prematurely proud of his brother.

Albus stepped up onto the stage and sat on the stool. Professor McGonagall set the Sorting Hat down on his head. Time became liquid and seemed to be as thick as tree sap.

"I've been waiting for you." The Sorting Hat told Albus. "Don't be frightened. You are to be in the same house as that Malfoy son." Albus's eyes bugged out. What would his brother say? His father? Mother? The rest of his family? His father said it didn't matter, but he didn't know how anyone else would react.

"The two of you will bring about a great change not only in that House, but in all of Hogwarts," the hat continued. "There is nothing to fear, boy. You should not be scared of destiny because you will be great in SLYTHERIN!"

The room was silent. James's mouth hung agape in an "O" shape. Professor McGonagall nearly had a stroke where she stood. Professor Longbottom almost exlcaimed a loud "No!" and demanded a re-sort, but he held his tongue. The first person in the room to recover was Scorpius Malfoy, who knew that Albus was going to be his partner in changing the House of Slytherin. He broke the silence by being the first to clap politely. Albus stepped off the stage and sat down at the Slytherin table next to Scorpius, he father's childhood enemy's descendant.

It took a while for the rest of the school to recover from the shock of Albus's sorting. In which time Luna Lovegood's sons, Lorcan and Lysander Scamander, who were both sorted into Hufflepuff, the House of Spares, for who knows what reason. The room had finally recovered from the shock of Albus's sorting--which seemed to take quite a long time--when McGonagall got to the last name--another name she crossed her fingers would be sorted into Gryffindor.

"Weasley, Rose!" she called.

The little, curly-haired ginger stepped onto the stage and sat down on the stool. Minerva put the hat down on the girl's head.

"Don't lose faith in your cousin Albus," the had advised. "You will play an important part in his destiny." Then the hat yelled out with all his might, "RAVENCLAW!" I can has wit. Well, at least Rose knew that her parents had had a clue that this would probably be her house. They'd accept her the way she was, as they always had.

McGonagall pressed her lips together in bitter disappointment. As Rose walked down the stairs to her table and McGonagall rolled up the scroll, she thought to herself, "This is going to be one sad year for Gryffindor."