Chapter 8: Hogwarts

(A.N. From now on, General POV will be mostly about the founders, and everyone else will have their own POV, including Savrin.)

  ------------

  September 1, 1991

  (Savrin POV)

  Sitting in Dumbledore's, or rather, his office in Hogwarts, Savrin stared thoughtfully at the blood-red stone the half-giant Hagrid had delivered only moments ago. 'A philosopher's stone.' He mused to himself.

The stone was the size of a child's hand and was jagged, as if it were a chipped fragment from something else. Reaching into his storage space, Savrin pulled out a much larger, completely round blood-red stone that was the size of a human head.

"Mine's better." He mumbled to himself as he compared the coloration of the two, the density of power inside them, and of course the size. 'Whoever created this siphoned off the power from more than a million souls.' Savrin concluded after his inspection.

  He had no idea how Nicolas Flamel created the stone he was holding, but he suspected it was probably the same way he had created his. During wars or when plagues were sweeping over the lands, he would take the time to steal the life essence of those who were dying.

'I'll bet if I look into when this guy was around forty or fifty years old, I'll find records of millions of people dying.' Savrin thought, deciding that he would check a muggle history book sometime in the near future to satiate his curiosity.

  After admiring the red stone for a few minutes, Savrin wondered what he would do about the idiotic trials that Dumbledore had set up.

'A Cerberus is quite dangerous for wizards of this world, especially children. Not to mention the plants that would strangle anyone it could get a hold of. And of course there's the troll. What imbecile thought that would be a good idea?' He wondered, finding it hard to believe that none of the teachers spoke out against having a monster in the castle.

Trolls might be stupid, but they were violent and dangerous, and to even allow one within sight of a castle full of children was beyond stupid.

  After mulling it over for a time, Savrin came to the decision to remove the whole pit of death thing Dumbledore had originally planned, mostly because there wouldn't be anything there for the traps to guard.

'Still, there's no reason I can't create my own little challenge for some unfortunate soul.' He chuckled darkly as he began to think up a proper gauntlet of hell.

  ---------

  (General POV)

  "This is ridiculous! We were already a stone's throw away from Hogwarts, so why did we have to come here just to ride a train for eight hours to go back?! It took us seconds to get here through that fireplace-" "Floo Network." Rowena corrected Salazar.

"Irrelevant! Why doesn't everyone just use that damn Floo network to get to Hogwarts?!" Salazar complained in annoyance. The idea of wasting his precious time sitting in a compartment with snot nosed children was unappealing to say the least.

"Oh come on, Sally! We're doing this for the experience." Godric told him, though his words did nothing to appease his annoyed friend.

"Fuck the experience! We could be exploring our castle at this very moment, but instead we're going to be confined to a metal carriage!" Salazar reiterated, letting them all know just how much he was not looking forward to this trip.

Ignoring Salazar's complaining, they all made their way onto the crimson locomotive, and after storing their belongings away, they settled themselves in an empty compartment. Just as they sat down, Salazar raised his wand before casting a spell on the door, making it unable to be suddenly opened without his say-so.

"Is that really necessary?" Helga asked tiredly. "It is." Salazar answered simply, then pulled out a book from his bag before beginning to read. They all just sort of sat there in relative silence for a while before they felt the train begin to lurch forward.

  "You all can stay here if you want, but I'm going to go explore a bit." Godric said. Ignoring the spell on the door, he opened it up with relative ease before closing it behind him.

"Aren't you going to go after him?" Rowena asked Salazar, who hadn't so much as blinked at Godric's departure. "Why would I do that?" Salazar asked plainly, not showing the least bit of interest in going after Godric.

"You know full well how Godric is, Salazar! Smart as he may be, he enjoys conflict, even if he has to be the one to create it! Who knows what he's going to do with so many new people around. You're the only one of us who can stop him if he goes too far!" Helga stated, sounding a bit worried as she glanced at the door.

"Godric's never killed a student, so he shouldn't do anything we can't fix. Or at the very least, something Savrin can't fix. Besides, I've already lived one life as his babysitter, and I'd rather not do that again." Salazar said unapologetically, then went back to his book without a care in the world.

---------

  Walking down the aisle of the train, Godric smiled at the number of children between the compartments. He rather enjoyed seeing the excitement on their faces, and he hoped to be able to teach some of these people a thing or two about magic. He was also excited to see how many of them would join his House, but that would come sooner than later.

Godric had been just about to enter into another train car when a hand landed on his shoulder. "And just where do you think you're going?" A sharp feminine voice asked.

Turning around, Godric saw an older girl staring pointedly at him with her nose scrunched up in disgust. "Green robes, snake emblem, stick up her ass, clearly she's in Sally's house." Godric mumbled under his breath, however given how her face turned murderous, she had most likely heard him.

  Before she had the chance to get her panties in a twist, the door Godric had been about to enter before he had been interrupted, opened and out stepped another girl who looked about the same age as the one who currently wanted his head on a spike.

"What's going on here, Gemma?" The new girl asked the bitchy looking one. "None of your business, Clearwater!" The Slytherin girl barked before she let out a huff and then went into the compartment that Godric still hadn't gotten to get into.

Looking down at him, the new girl smiled before saying, "Judging by your robes I'm guessing you're a first-year. Anyway, this compartment is off-limits to anyone who isn't a prefect. Sorry."

  "Oh, I didn't know that. Thank you for explaining it to me. That other girl could surely learn a thing or two from you about how to treat people." Godric said kindly.

"No problem at all. If you wish to explore the train, I would recommend you go that way." The girl said with a smile on her face as she pointed towards the hallway behind him.

"Thanks. The name's Godric. Pleasure to meet you." He said happily. "Godric? Like Godric Gryffindor?" She asked, sounding amused. "The one and only." He answered cheekily as he bowed at the waist.

  "That's adorable!" She practically squealed before she leaned down and pinched his cheek. "My name is Penelope Clearwater, but you can just call me Penny. All my friends do." She added while Godric subtly glared at her for pinching his cheeks.

'Ladies sure have changed in the last millennia.' Godric thought in annoyance.

  After getting away from Penny, Godric strode down the aisle in search of something interesting. Looking through the windows into the compartments, Godric saw children wearing robes that symbolized that they were returning students, but more often than not he would see children whose robes were not marked with one of the four houses of Hogwarts

. Looking into one of the compartments, Godric saw a bunch of children sitting around and laughing with each other, and after deciding that he wanted to join them, he let himself in.

  "Hello. The name's Godric. Mind if I hang out here for a bit?" He said happily. Without receiving an answer, he walked inside before closing the door behind him.

Looking at the six faces staring at him, Godric ignored their perplexed expressions and moved to sit to the right-side of the compartment where three little girls were sitting. Wedging himself so two of the girls were on his right and the third was on his left, Godric looked across the compartment to the three boys who were staring dumbly at him.

  "So what were you all talking about?" He asked cheerfully, earning more dumb looks from them. "If you're going to just stare at me, at least tell me your names." He said, wondering if they knew how to talk.

"Hannah Abbot."

"Susan Bones."

"Sally Smith."

"Justin Finch-Fletchley."

"Terry Boot."

"Dean Thomas."

They all said their names starting with the girl on the far right of him and then went in a circle. "Well, it's nice to meet you all. So, what were you talking about?" He asked, looking pointedly at Dean Thomas because he was the only one who wasn't still staring at him.

  "We were talking about which house we'll get into once we get to Hogwarts. Sally was just telling us about how there is a hat that sorts you into one of four Houses. Apparently everyone in her family has always been in Hufflepuff, so she's pretty sure she's going to as well." Dean said, getting a smile from Godric. He had forgotten about the hat, his hat in fact.

"Oh yeah. I remember that. What house do you think you'll get into?" Godric asked, looking again at Dean. "I don't know. This is the first time I've ever heard about the four Houses, so I couldn't tell you which one is better. What about you?" Dean said, turning the question back on Godric.

  "There are advantages to each house, and none of them are better than the others, but I'm going to Gryffindor. It just sounds so magnanimous and strong. I mean the name alone is great enough to make one swell with pride." Godric said with a goofy looking smile on his face. The others in the compartment just looked at him like he was an idiot, then they all started laughing.

"I take it your family are fans of Gryffindor?" Susan asked while giggling. "You have no idea." He answered half-heartedly.

  They all sat there for awhile and everyone talked about how excited they were to go to Hogwarts, and what spells they were hoping to learn. Hell, even Godric got into the conversation as he explained things none of them had never even heard about.

Their conversations came to a grinding halt however when the door to the compartment slid open and a cart full of sweets appeared. "Anything off the trolley, dears?" The old woman asked warmly.

  Before any of the others had a chance to ask for a thing, Godric jumped to his feet while making a pouch of gold appear in his hands, then said, "I'll take all of these, all of those, a little of these, and everything with cinnamon you have."

Without waiting for her approval, he pulled out his wand before giving it a little wave, and everything he wanted began to float off the cart and into the compartment. With his purchase now through, the trolley looked almost bare, save for Bertie Bott's Every-Flavor Beans, Pumpkin Pasties, Drooble's Best Blowing Gum, and Ice Mice. None of the others moved to buy anything that was left.

  Getting a few sickles and knuts back from the old woman, Godric returned to the compartment where he pulled out a bag, then swept all of the cinnamon candies into it, along with most of the other candies, though he did leave a bit of each thing so he could snack on them.

"Why did you buy all of that?" Hannah asked, looking between the still floating candy and the bag he had stored the rest in.

"I don't know when I'm going to get another opportunity to buy anymore sweets, so I thought I'd stock up. The headmaster also loves sweets, so I figure I could try and bribe him with some of these. The cinnamon candies however, they're for my friend. He absolutely loves cinnamon, and when he finds out I bought all the cinnamon candies they have, he'll at least be easier to control." Godric answered with a less than pleasant smile on his face as he imagined Salazar's reaction once he found out there were no more cinnamon goodies on the cart.

  "You're not a nice person." Sally said, breaking him out of his musings.

"Of course you would defend him. You have the same initials, and your first names are too similar. Instead of judging me before you've met him, have some candy." Godric told her, then gestured to the others to all help themselves.

Dean and Justin didn't have to be told a second time before they helped themselves to some chocolate frogs, but Terry looked a little hesitant until Godric tossed him a licorice wand he had been staring at.

Hannah and Susan both tried some of the peppermint creams, and it wasn't until everyone else was eating something before Sally reluctantly reached out her hand and grabbed a shimmering pink square of coconut ice.

  They all enjoyed themselves for a while until the door to the compartment flew open once more and a bushy-haired girl and a sad looking little boy appeared. "Has anyone seen a toad? Neville's lost one." The bushy-haired girl asked.

Everyone shook their heads no, which only caused the sad looking boy to practically burst into tears. Wanting to help out somewhat, Godric pulled out his wand before  waving it in a circle above his head.

'Come to me.' He thought, and less than a second later there was the sound of people screeching from somewhere down the aisle. A few seconds after the screeching, a big fat toad flew into the compartment and hovered in the air above Godric's head.

  "I'm not going to lie to you, this is an ugly toad." He told the little boy who he guessed was Neville. "Trevor!" Neville cried happily as he reached up and grabbed the toad from the air.

"That was brilliant!" Terry said in awe. "How did you do that?!" Sally and the bushy-haired girl said at once. "Magic." Godric deadpanned at them, then gestured with his wand. "You both saw me wave my wand." He added, sounding as though he was talking to idiots.

There was a huff from the doorway before the bushy-haired girl stomped off, followed quickly by Neville, though not before he whispered his thanks.

  "What other magic can you do?!" Dean asked hopefully. Ignoring Sally who was glaring at the back of his head, Godric waved his wand into the air before a tiny orb of red light appeared. Storing his wand away, Godric let the little orb float down so it was hovering just inches above the palm of his left hand.

"This is a Rigor Sphere. Approximately one minute after they're formed, they explode on contact with something, causing certain effects depending on what they hit. It's great for playing Simulare Rigor Mortis!" He told them all, earning mixed reactions from the group.

  It was only after explaining how it would temporarily harden one's limbs for a few minutes that everyone relaxed somewhat, and it was only after Godric demonstrated it on himself that they really calmed down. His arm was as stiff as a board for about two minutes before it returned to normal, at which point he explained the game about tossing it around with each other, and how the goal was not to be the one it exploded on.

They played more than a dozen rounds of it, of which everyone but Godric had lost at least once. There were those who lost more than others, like Sally for instance, who happened to lose five times, and she blamed Godric for each loss.

  Was it really his fault that he was always the one who passed it to her when it detonated? Was it his fault for keeping track of how long it had been formed and making sure to hit it just right to her? Was it his fault that sometimes he would give it a tiny sliver of magic that would cause it to detonate a few seconds earlier when he passed it to her? Of course not.

  Dean had just tossed the ball of light to Godric when the door to the compartment slid open once more, and three boys stood there trying to look menacing. It was kind of hard to consider them more than a nuisance because one of the boys had his finger wrapped in a cloth, making it look like he was a little boy who had just been helped by his mother.

"Can we help you?" Godric asked politely. "You? Help me? I don't need the help of some filthy little mud-bloods!" The pale skinned blonde boy mocked.

Barely had he stepped one foot into the compartment before the ball of red floating above Godric's palm struck him in the face, causing the blonde-haired boy to fall face first onto the floor. "Oops. My hand slipped." Godric said with a smirk.

  The two larger boys who had been standing on either side of the blonde kid stepped into the compartment, but whether or not they were moving to help their friend or attack Godric was never answered because they didn't even make it a foot before they too were laying face down onto the ground and Godric was standing over them with his wand pointing at them.

"Just great. I'll bet they're going to be in Salazar's house." He mumbled under his breath so no one could hear him. Letting out a sigh, he waved his wand once more and the three prone boys began to levitate into the air.

  "Well, it was great meeting you all, and I hope to see more of you in the future, but for now I must be off. Don't worry though, I'll take the garbage with me." He told his six new acquaintances, then without further words between them, he left the compartment with three boys floating behind him.

"Oh, I like him! He's a laugh!" Dean said, to which Hannah and Susan agreed. Sally only glared at the door as though she was staring at Godric. She did not like him. Not one bit.

  Down the hall, Salazar and the others were in their own compartment sitting in silence when Helga suddenly let out a gasp as she covered her mouth. Looking up from his book, Salazar saw she was staring at the door, and after seeing what caused her to react in such a way, he could only shake his head as he tried to fight the headache that was already threatening him.

He had just seen Godric walk past the door, and got a perfect look at what looked to be three corpses trailing behind him in the air. "We haven't even got to Hogwarts yet, and he's already making my life miserable!" Salazar growled before he slammed his book closed and strode for the door.

  ----------

  "Oh good, we're here." Rowena said as she got to her feet. "I say, I'm awfully hungry. I do hope there will be food before we turn in for the night." Helga said, looking hopeful at the thought. "Come on. Let's get our stuff off the train." Salazar said, sounding far more tired than he should.

"Are you going to untie him?" Helga asked Salazar as she looked to the corner of the compartment where Godric was bound, gagged, and paralyzed for good measure. Looking at him, it seemed as though he was glaring at each one of them with hate-filled eyes, and Helga knew that she didn't want to be the one to release him from his bonds.

"Why? We could leave him like that and the whole ceremony will go ten times better, I assure you." Salazar said, rather enjoying the fact that Godric was imprisoned.

  Despite his wishes, Salazar very reluctantly released Godric when both Helga and Rowena glared at him. He could have persisted through their gazes, however, a skinny redheaded boy came in and demanded that Godric be released. 'I swear redheads are the worst!' Salazar thought angrily. In his mind, they were all terrible people, and were out to cause him headaches.

  "What none of you seem to realize is, I will have my vengeance. It might not be today, or tomorrow, or even this year. But know that I will get you for this." Godric told them as they all exited the train and onto the a tiny, dark platform.

"Firs'-years! Firs'-years over here!" Called a big hairy face over the sea of heads. "Is it just me, or does that guy remind you of someone?" Salazar asked as he stared at the half-giant.

"Oh shut it Salazar! That man looks nothing like Goliath! Besides, that blithering idiot died long before we did!" Helga barked at Salazar. Apparently she didn't think it was funny to compare this nice looking man to the deranged idiot from their past just because they were both half-giants.

"I'm just saying, trade in the fur for armor and shave his head, and they'd be twins." Salazar joked, earning himself a glare from his petite blonde friend.

"I could ask Savrin to shave your head again so you can get your mohawk back. Maybe he could even give you a snake nose like your idiot descendant?" Helga said angrily, earning a glare from Salazar and a laugh from Godric. "Can we?! Can we please?! It would be hilarious!" Godric said, enjoying the sudden turn of events.

  "I wasn't saying he was Goliath. I was comparing their-…. Never mind. It was poor humor, and I apologize." Salazar said, realizing he would only dig himself even further into a hole if he tried to fight on.

Helga didn't care what race, gender, or if you were magic or not, she did not appreciate anyone to be looked down upon, and comparing someone who appeared to be a pleasant half-giant to a deranged idiotic monster was more than she would tolerate, even from Salazar, who was normally allowed a number of passes before she ever got upset at him.

"Fine then, but I expect you to treat that man well in the future. He works for the school, so it's only fair to treat him with respect." Helga said, then turned and began to follow the half-giant who was calling all the first years to follow along after him.

  Together all of the first year students followed along behind the half-giant down what seemed to be a steep, narrow path. "Yeh'll get yer firs' sight o' Hogwarts in a sec.' The half-giant called over his shoulder. "Jus' round this bend here."

The narrow path opened suddenly on to the edge of a great black lake, and perched atop a high mountain on the other side was a familiar great castle that brought a smile to the four founders.

"I told you it would last forever." Godric boasted over Rowena's shoulder. "A thousand years is not forever, Godric. Granted I didn't think it would last this long, so there is that." Rowena said, smiling happily at the sight of her home.

  "No more'n four to a boat!" The half-giant called out as he pointed to a fleet of little boats sitting in the water by the shore. "The first year experience sucks." Salazar said as he slowly made his way to the boat.

"Don't be like that Sally. Just don't think of the boat rocking, back and forth. Up and down. Tilting side to side." Godric practically whispered into Salazar's ear, causing his face to turn green.

"Godric, if you don't shut up, I'm going to throw you in the lake." Salazar spat out through clenched teeth, earning a dark chuckle from Godric. "I knew if your parseltongue carried over, your sea-sickness would too!" Godric stated happily as the boats began gliding across the lake.

  Peering over the edge of the boat, Godric saw a tentacle just below the water, and he couldn't help but smile as he dipped his finger beneath the water's surface before plunging in his whole hand before he began to wave back and forth.

"Squidward! It's me! Godric!" He shouted under the water after plunging his head in. It being so dark out, he couldn't see exactly where the squid was, but he felt a tentacle push him back up in the boat, which was a good sign all on its own. Normally squids like Squidward ate anyone they could get their tentacles on, but this one had been raised by wizards since it was first born.

  Godric could remember as clear as day when a little girl brought it to school and placed it on his desk in its glass bowl. He remembered how the little girl came to see it on the first day of each school year and every week after that until that fateful day when she went out on her own. She had promised to come back and see it, and see Godric too, but after leaving to go explore the world, Godric had never seen her again.

Three years after she disappeared, he took the squid out to the lake so it could go explore, and the first day of each school year he would go to the edge of the lake and say hello. He wasn't sure if he kept that up until he died, but he liked to think he did something like that.

Still, he never imagined that Squidward would have remained here even after a thousand years, or that he would even still be alive after a thousand years, let alone that he would be working with the school.

  "Squidward? You mean that disgusting thing that Lysandra gave to you is still alive?" Salazar asked, earning a frown from Godric.

"It's not disgusting! And of course it's still alive! They're magical creatures, and as long as no one kills it, it very well might live forever." Godric said, defending the humongous creature that once was so small that he could hold it in the palm of his hand.

  They remained in silence after that, at least as silent as they could be while Salazar moaned nauseously over the side of the boat. He might have lost the contents of his stomach if he had been allowed to eat anything, but sadly some greedy bastard had purchased everything worth eating off the trolley before it arrived to his compartment. At the time he had been angry, but right now he couldn't be happier.

  Eventually they arrived at an underground harbor of sorts where they all clamored out of the little boats, then they all walked up a flight of stone steps and crowded around a huge, oak front door. The half-giant leading them stared at them for a moment as he counted their heads, and after making sure they were all present, he turned back to the door before knocking three times.

  The door swung open at once, and a tall, black-haired witch in emerald-green robes stood there. She had a very stern face that made one have the impression that she did not like jokes. "The firs'-years, Professor McGonagall." The half-giant said. "Thank you, Hagrid. I will take them from here." She said, at which point the man now known as Hagrid walked back down the flight of stairs and out of sight.

  The group of children followed after her into the Entrance Hall, but rather than go into the room where they could hear hundreds of voices, they were all led into a small empty chamber off the hall.

"Welcome to Hogwarts. The start-of-term banquet will begin shortly, but before you take your seats in the Great Hall, you will be sorted into your houses. The Sorting is a very important ceremony because, while you are here, your house will be something like your family within Hogwarts. You will have classes with the rest of your house, sleep in your house dormitory and spend free time in your house common room."  She said, pausing to look around to make sure that everyone was still paying attention to her.

  "The four houses are called Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. Each house has its own noble history and each has produced outstanding witches and wizards. While you are at Hogwarts, your triumphs will earn your house points, while any rule-breaking will lose your house points. At the end of the year, the house with the most points is awarded the House Cup, a great honor. I hope each of you will be a credit to whichever house becomes yours." She explained, though her explanation seemed to leave both Godric and Salazar perplexed.

  After saying how she would return momentarily and disappearing through the door in front of them, Godric turned to Salazar and asked, "There's got to be more of a reward than just a cup, right? They wouldn't expect us to fall in line just to win a lousy cup."

"Maybe it's solid gold and it gets divided up between the winning house?" Salazar said, thinking that anyone who came from a poor family would love the chance to earn gold. "Doubtful. I didn't read anything about being given anything to take home in A-History." Rowena said, crushing that little idea.

  Before they could get anymore into how idiotic the house point system sounded, there was some screaming from children behind them, at which point all four of them drew their wands and turned to see what the commotion was all about, only to relax slightly when they saw pearly white, transparent people come out of one of the back walls.

They watched as the ghosts introduced themselves and saw how excited they were about new students coming to Hogwarts. The only one of them who wasn't paying attention to what was going on, was Rowena. Her attention was focused on one ghost in particular, one that she knew better than anyone else.

'Helena.' She said internally, trying her best not to burst into tears at the sight of her daughter, who was now a ghost.

  Neither Helga, Salazar, or Godric seemed to notice her pained expression, nor did they realize that one of the ghosts before them was her daughter. Rowena was brought back to reality when a sharp voice rang out, "Move along now! The sorting ceremony is about to start!" Professor McGonagall had returned, and with her presence, the ghosts began floating away through the opposite wall they had come from.

  All the students were led back out into the entrance Hall and through the great double doors that led into the Great Hall where hundreds of students were sitting at four long tables. Looking up, they all saw thousands of floating candles, and looking past that, they saw the night sky covered in stars.

They all walked to the front of the room where McGonagall placed a four-legged stool in front of them, and resting upon it, was a pointed wizard's hat. It was patched and frayed, but to Godric, it was the most beautiful hat in the whole world.

  Before anyone could move to the hat, a rip near the brim opened wide like a mouth and the hat began to sing:

  Oh you may not think I'm pretty,

But don't judge on what you see,

I'll eat myself if you can find

A smarter hat than me.

You can keep your bowlers black,

Your top hats sleek and tall,

For I'm the Hogwarts Sorting Hat

And I can cap them all.

There's nothing hidden in your head

The Sorting Hat can't see,

So try me on and I will tell you

Where you ought to be.

You might belong in Gryffindor,

Where dwell the brave at heart,

Their daring, nerve, and chivalry

Set Gryffindors apart;

You might belong in Hufflepuff,

Where they are just and loyal,

Those patient Hufflepuffs are true

And unafraid of toil;

Or yet in wise old Ravenclaw,

if you've a ready mind,

Where those of wit and learning,

Will always find their kind;

Or perhaps in Slytherin

You'll make your real friends,

Those cunning folks use any means

To achieve their ends.

So put me on! Don't be afraid!

And don't get in a flap!

You're in safe hands (though I have none)

For I'm a Thinking Cap!

  The whole Hall burst into applause at the hat finished it's song, but none clapped louder or longer than Godric. A tear even came to his eye when it bowed, which he was sure no other hat in the world could do.

"What in Savrin's name was that?! It sings!" Salazar whispered loudly in Godric's ear, and Godric could tell Salazar was just as stunned as he was. "I knew it was the best hat in the world!" Godric said, looking like a proud father as he stared at the hat.

  Once the Hall quieted down, McGonagall stepped forward holding a long roll of parchment. "When I call your name, you will step forward and sit on the stool then put on the hat and wait to be sorted. Abbot, Hannah!"

  The little blonde girl that Godric had met on the train nervously stepped forward. There was a moment's pause after the hat was placed upon her head before the hat cried, "HUFFLEPUFF!" The table on the right side of the room cheered and clapped as Hannah went to sit down at the Hufflepuff table.

  "Bones, Susan!" McGonagall said, reading the next name off the list, which also happened to belong to another of the girls that Godric had met on the train. "HUFFLEPUFF!" The hat cried once more.

The names were called out one after the other, and after the bushy-haired girl who he now learned was named Hermione Granger was sorted into his own house, Godric waited expectantly for his name to be called, however McGonagall simply remained quiet as she stared at the roll of parchment in her hand.

After almost a full minute of just staring at it, she looked to the head table behind the stool and at the old man who was sitting in the golden throne-like chair, and only after getting a nod from him did she call out, "Gryffindor, Godric!"