Although my father had told me I could choose where to be sorted, I still wasn’t convinced. If the Sorting Hat let you choose, then why did Hazel Malfoy get sorted into Slytherin? I had met her a couple times already, and she was nice enough. Nice enough for a Malfoy, at least. The Hat obviously didn’t let her choose. My heart sank as a realized I would almost certainly be sorted into Slytherin. Now all I had to do was wait for McGonagall to call my name. 

“Malfoy, Scorpius,” Professor McGonagall said. 

A small, slim boy with white-blond hair walked quickly to the stool, unlike his twin, who had taken small steps to her fate. 

The greying hat was placed on Scorpius’s head, which slipped and covered his face up to his nose. I bit my lip, nervously knowing that I would soon be sorted into Slytherin, just like Scorpius Malfoy. 

“HUFFELPUFF!” the hat shouted. 

The Great Hall was silent. No Malfoy had ever been sorted into anything but Slytherin, especially not Huffelpuff. Scorpius took the Sorting Hat and looked at the floor as he made his way to the Huffelpuff table. Nobody clapped, not even his twin. 

“Yeah, Scorpius!” came a lone call. Hazel Malfoy was sitting up straight, at the very edge of the Slytherin table. She clapped, the sound echoing through the Great Hall. 

I marveled at the Slytherin’s bravery. To clap in front of the entire school, that took courage. 

She deserves to be in Gryffindor, not me, I thought, forgetting that Hazel had already been sorted into Slytherin. 

A couple more kids went. Their wide eyes, brand-new robes, and excitement when they were sorted into Slytherin, Huffelpuff, and Gryffindor showed me that they were Muggle-borns. 

Then Professor McGonagall looked back at the piece of parchment in her hand. “Potter, Albus!” she announced. 

I didn’t have to step out of the ranks of the first-years. They did it for me. As soon as my name was called, they stepped back, leaving me standing all alone. 

“Albus Severus Potter,” I told myself, taking slow steps to the stool,”You were named for two headmasters of Hogwarts. They were both brave men, and not cowards. Don’t be a coward.” 

But I was. As soon as the Sorting Hat covered my face, and it started talking I knew that it was looking at everything in my head. It knew that I wanted to run away back to Godric’s Hollow and hide underneath the covers of my bed. 

“So you’re a Potter, is it?” the Sorting Hat’s voice broke through my terrified thoughts. “Could barely guess it. I thought Potters were supposed to be brave, but you’re— wait.” There was silence, aside from some whispers and thinking noises. “Interesting. You are brave, Albus Severus Potter.”

“You have a brain, but nothing built for Ravenclaw,” it said. “There is hard work, determination, but not a lot. I could put you in Slytherin,” the Hat said, mostly to itself. 

“No!” I whispered aloud. “Please not Slytherin!”

“I suppose you could be right, but… Fine,” the Hat said, rather angrily. “I guess it’s going to be GRYFFINDOR!”

Before Professor McGonagall yanked the hat off of my hand, the Sorting Hat whispered quickly into my head,”Albus Potter, you have a lot more bravery than anybody realizes. It’s hidden, thats all.”

I slowly stepped off the stool, taking the Hat and holding it in front of me like it was a bomb that Dad had told me about. With slow steps I made my way to the Gryffindor table, where many students were waving their hats around, slapping me on the back, and shouting that they had gotten “the Potter”. 

Sitting down at the table, my eyes stared in the direction where my favorite cousin Weasley, Rose was being sorted. The Sorting Hat had barely touched her red hair when it bellowed,”RAVENCLAW!” 

I smiled for my cousin and rose in my seat, clapping and whooping for her. Rose was always so confident, so nice— she was my favorite. But when I looked closer, her face betrayed one of pure borden and disgust as she sat down, looking at her classmates.

A shiver overcame me slightly, and I sat down. Dad said, before we left the house that Hogwarts revealed the best and the worst of everyone. “You are there to learn,” he said,”but some choices that you may make will affect your entire life.”

Hogwarts was not what it seemed.