Chapter 3 - 3: The Sorting Ceremony (1/2)

Iris Potter was completely overwhelmed by the events that had happened recently in her life. Her aunt and uncle were not good people and always treated her harshly. They never harmed her physically, apart from occasional slaps from her aunt if she messed up while cooking or cleaning. Her uncle would shout at her everytime Dudley broke something. They'd treat like a servent. But what made her miserable was that she had no clue why they hated her.

The day of her birthday, she discovered that she was a witch and her aunt had been lying to her for all her life. Her parents were not some drunkards who died in a car accident, they were powerful wizards who sacrificed their life so that she could continue to live. She was happy that she had such wonderful parents but sad that they were truly gone.

The day she went to get her school supplies with Hagrid passed as a blur. When she arrived at the Leakey Cauldron, she was hounded by the crowd as they thanked her for something she didn't know. She got scared seeing so many people trying to shake her hand. Upon learning the name of her patents' murderer and how terrible he was, she got worried when Hagrid told her that he believed he was not dead. She was fascinated but somewhat cowed when she saw the goblins. She liked Hagrid. He was a good person according to her and even baught her a beautiful snowy owl. She had never seen such a beautiful owl in her life. She was peeved by the man who sold her a wand but what terrified her was the fact that her wand was a sister wand to the one that killed her parents and gave her the scar.

Iris was not happy when Hagrid disappeared without telling her about the platform from where she had to ride the express. She thanked whatever Gods were up there when a family of red-heads helped her get through the barrier.

The platform was noisy, much to her discomfort, but she liked it when no one really recognised her.

When she entered the compartment where a boy was sitting, she prepared herself to be hounded by questions but much to her delight, the boy gave her no mind and kept on reading his book. He was tall from what she could see and thought he was a year or two ahead of her. But she noticed that he did not wear any of the house colours, so he must be a first year like her. She wanted to introduce herself, but could see that he was not interested in talking to anyone. So she kept quiet and enjoyed the scenery outside the window. He didn't even take his eyes away from his book till she introduced herself to Ron.

Iris was not happy when Ron asked about the night her parents died. She was relieved when Ron focused his attention to the boy sitting opposite to her who had been at her without even blinking. She looked at him expectantly and was desperate to take Ron's attention away from her.

She noticed the boy's expression soften upon looking at her when he finished scaring Ron by what she could say the scariest poker face she had ever seen.

”Edmund.”

Edmund, he said. The boy was not very social. His spiky hair were not blond, they were golden. One could say they were the brightest of yellow. His sapphire eyes reminded her of the ocean. She could see a faint glow in them but didn't try to pry upon it. His skin was tanned, but she could tell that it was natural. What surprised her were the faint whisker like marks on his cheeks. They reminded her of a cat, or a fox. Maybe it was a family trait, she didn't know.

”Do you know which house you'll get in? I bet I'll go to Gryfindor. My whole family was in Gryfindor. Anyway, I guess we'll know at the sorting. Do know any magic? My brothers taught me a spell. It turns my pet rat's hair yellow. Wanna see?” Ron babbled and began reciting a spell.

Both Iris and Edmund shared a look. Ron was talking a lot and Iris noticed that Edmund was starting to get annoyed.

Before Ron could finish his spell, a girl with bushy brown hair entered the compartment and said, ”Has anyone seen a toad? A boy named Neville have lost it.”

When eveveryone shook their heads, she eyed Ron and noticed he had a wand out. Her eyes lit up and she asked, ”Oh! You are doing a spell, let's see.”

Ron cleared his throat and recited the spell again, only for nothing to happen.

”I don't think that's a spell,” the girl started. ”I've tried some on my own. But they worked for me.” She took out her wand and chanted, ”Lumos.”

”Anyway,” she continued as she said Nox. ”I'm Hermione Garnger. And you are?”

(ROTS)

Edmund was really getting annoyed. First, the red-headed weasel couldn't keep his mouth shut when he was trying to read. Even upon using his Tenzo face, he couldn't get the weasel to shut up. Then he uttered a completely rediculus spell which was obviously a prank by his brothers. Edmund didn't know what to say about that.

The girl that had entered their compartment, Hermione Granger, was obviously a muggleborn. The way she showed off how much she had read and demonstrated a first year spell, she deffinitely didn't have many friends. Not like he had any say in that.

When Iris introduced herself, Hermione squealed and went on a diatribe about how much she had read about Iris. Poor Iris had nothing to say for that. She didn't even know of any books being written about her. Hagrid had been highly cryptic and bought all the books for her. She didn't notice it, but Hagrid hadn't told her anything about the wizarding world.

The rest of the ride was uneventful except when Edmund bought everything from the food trolley and asked Ron to stuff it in his mouth and stop talking. He regretted saying that as Ron quite literally stuffed his mouth with food.