Young Writers Society

"Melissa Twiffling," the woman at the front called after several other first years.

Melissa took in a sharp breath. She hadn't expected her name to be called so quickly. She took on the stairs, and stumbled over the last one. She sprawled out on the ground.

A short rumbling laughter sounded through the crowd.

Melissa, deciding that crying wasn't the best first impression to make, laughed along with them, but she couldn't keep her vision from misting. She was grateful when the musty sorting hat was dropped onto her head. When it landed onto her head, Melissa could feel a bit of dust land onto her head, and resisted the urge to brush it off.

'No need to be so scared,' a small voice muttered in Melissa's ear. She gasped. 'Melissa Twiffling, yes? I sorted your father. Started A robe shop, I hear?'

Melissa nodded, then stopped, fearing the hat would slide off.

'Very little self-confidence inside you. You are bright, that's for certain. But a very deep-rooted caring for people and, hmm. A willingness for sacrifice. You could be quite courageous, but you care not enough about justice. You rather lean toward the happiness of your peers. You're a slight bit cunning... I know where you should go.'

"HUFFLEPUFF!" The hat shouted aloud.

Melissa took in a shuddering gasp. She looked over to the Ravenclaw table, where her sister sat. She stood, sticking out like a sore thumb at her table, and whooped. Melissa, however, felt a hollow something in her stomach. She wasn't with her sister. She saw herself going to the Hufflepuff table, and absently shook the hands of the other's, not paying attention to whom she spoke to. She wasn't with her sister.

Jhon.
From the other side of the first year crowd sat a small boy. The kind of kid that was normally overlooked or classed as a Slytherin. His pale face was pinched and his mouth curled into an, unintentional, sly smirk. He was at Hogwarts! The place of his dreams.
And nightmares.
As he watched a rather pretty girl called Melissa get sorted into Hufflepuff he knew that it would have to be him soon.
Unlike the other first years he had spent the train journey alone. That was what happened when you were a Muggle born. No one knew you. Already he was beginning to feel alone.
"Jhonathion" His name was at long last called out and he stumbled forward to the platform and the hat amid the giggles. Why could people not just except his name?
There were only three steps and they were not particularly high but they felt like they were going on for ever.
Eventually he was there and the hat was placed on his head.
'Hmm...
Strange?' It muttered in his shivering ear.
What was it meaning.
'Brave. So brave and Loyal. Clever too. Very clever. I have not seen someone like you before. Confusing.
Hmmm...' The hat began to hum as if enjoying it's self.
'You are quite fun?' The hat crocked as it dropped down a bit more to cover Jhon's eyes.
'GRIFFIN-CLAW' It screeched out.
I shook. That made no sense. The hat slipped off my sweat-covered head and I relisted that there was no such house.
Suddenly I noticed that everyone had gone quite. Not a noise was uttered as hundreds of surprised eyes turned towards me.
In among the crowd I spotted someone I knew. Blake Croft.
Oh no. He was looking almost at home. Lucky him. Blake lived near me. He was first to tell me about my...
...difference.
I knew that his family were not normal wizards. I had herd his dad had done things. Bad things.
I felt a hand on my shaking shoulder and a warm voice whispered in my ear.
"Come with me."

Melissa frowned. The kid, Jhonathion, she thought it was? Griffin-claw? Was there even such a thing? Curiosity mingled in with her sorrow. What could possibly make the sorting hat split straight down the middle? She then made a solemn vow to contact Jhonathion as soon as she could.

Carson

He stared at Jhon in amazement. A griffen-claw?! He realized this must be the oddest sorting year Hogwarts had ever had, a hat stall AND an unknown house! He wondered what would happen to Jhon.

Jhon.
As he left the hall he chanced one pleading look back towards the assembled students. Every eye was trained on him. Every person was watching.
Every.
Last.
One.
This was all to much. He could not take it. The train would have left by now. Back to where ever it went. He knew his place. On that train. Hogwarts was the only place he ever thought that he could ever belong. Or not.
Jhon thought of his parents back at home and what they would be thinking.
Too much. This was all to much.
Darkness enveloped him. The last thing he herd before he fell was a soft voice whispering in his ear. One impossibly mocking word.
"Gryffin-Claw."

Stella Roux

"Griffin-Claw?" The unfamiliar phrase passed as a whisper over her lips, but felt strange. She felt compassion for this strange boy and understood the feeling he must be feeling. Like an outcast. Like freak that doesn't fit it. Kinda like herself. Then a thought hit her and nervously she pulled down the long sleeves of her robe and held tightly into them. A strange nervous habit she developed. She has never done anything daring like what she was thinking about doing before. Everyone one would be looking, and also how would he react? What if he didn't want to see her?
She pushed away the plague of doubts and anxieties and ran out the doors to follow him.

After a few feet of running she grew more and more terrified at what she had done. What if she were to get into trouble? She was even more terrified to meet him. She ran and almost hoped she would run forever. Not meet him. Not meet anyone and just keep going. She wouldn't have to face anything ever again. Warm salty tears blurred her vision and threatened to spill over, but she kept running.

Jhon: *Two hours later*
He sat up and rubbed his bleary eyes. Goodness knows how long he was asleep for but it sure felt like an age. Jhon peered into the gloom. The room that he found himself sitting in had no windows and only one door. Jhon reached down for his wand and to his relief found it in the cloak pocket he had left it in. In the darkness he could just about make out the tip of his cracked oak wand. Time to try some magic. Jhon had been practicing hard so that he would not be behind the other wizards and witches when he arrived but this would be the first time he had ever performed an ‘advanced’ spell. Jhon cupped his hand around the tip of the wand and tried to remember the spell. 'Alohomora? Nah!' He thought to himself. 'Wait?! Was it Lumos?'
Jhon whispered the spell and to his surprise the wand began to glow a soft yellow colour. Suddenly the whole room was filled with light and Jhon found himself feeling chuffed. Who cared that he was from an unknown house? He could still do magic.
Jhon surveyed the room. The bed that he was sitting on took up about one third of the dimly lit room. The rest of it was open space. A large amount of open space. The celling seemed to never begin. Just an endless sea of black above him.
From outside the door Jhon became aware of a sobbing noise and the sound of running feet. Fast running feet coming straight towards him. Suddenly the door opened up into a void of black and a girl ran in. Her face was streamed with tears and her eyes were a blotchy red colour. She sunk down onto the floor and her dark red curly hair spilled out around her. Her eyes were closed and Jhon stood up, in awe of this strange girl that appeared to have just run into his life.
'Dam!' The light from his wand diminished and he found himself thrown back into darkness
“Who are you?” Jhon called out into the gloom trying to relight his wand.

Alexandra Wakefield:

Her nerves had already been a mess when she entered the room; though Blake had gone over the entire process in quiet words whispered into her ear while they waited in front of the gates, the uncertainty about what was going to happen next still had been just as strong as before.

She had no idea how she would be sorted. She didn't think she possessed the traits of any of the houses. And if she did, they certainly didn't define her nor were as prominent as deemed necessary.

But then that boy - Jhonathian Tommi Sands - had been sorted as Gryffinclaw and had gone running out of the room. And then the shocked conversations about how rare that was had begun to fill the room, and then Stella Roux had gone running out after him. Some teachers had left the room to find the two students in order to calm both of them down and get them to return to the Great Hall.

And now only she was left to be sorted. The final first year, a curse that had befallen her simply because her last name started with a "W". If combinations of houses were possible, wouldn't the possibility of not being sorted into house exist as well?

With her luck, she wasn't going to be put into any of them. She would be sent home and be forced to continue living the same, mundane life she had always been a part of, and her first ever friend (besides Newt, who had left with the luggage) would be frustratingly far away from her. She didn't want that to happen.

"Wakefield, Alexandra," the deputy headmistress called, sounding distracted (Lex suspected it was because of the whole Jhonathian incident). Heart racing and feet as heavy as lead, she made her way up to the stool and sat down. The hat was placed on her head as her sweaty palms tightly gripped her robes.

"Relax," the hat whispered into her ear. She guessed it was used to saying this a lot; after all, it must have dealt with thousands of nervous students before, and it would certainly understand how nerve-wracking her situation would be from all of its past Sortings. "You would do well in Hufflepuff."

I would?

"You are kind and just; you work hard no matter what you have to do, and you are incredibly loyal to those you care about."

It was only when the hat called out "HUFFLEPUFF!" that she realized she should have tried to get into Slytherin. Her ears were deaf to the sound of her new housemates cheering as she made her way over to the table; her eyes met Blake's and the two realized how difficult it would be to maintain the friendship that had only just started to blossom.

Stella Roux

I finally ran into the room where there was a small light emitting from the boys wand and he shouts out a question.
"Who are you?" I shudder at his voice and the fight I am having with myself to speak.
"I...um.... Stella Roux...I heard... I saw you... I'm sorry." I stuttered. Of course I heard what happens and saw everyone in the whole school saw. I didn't know what to say and kept playing with the sleeves of my sweater I was wearing beneath my robes. I collapse on the ground sniffling and embarrassed. Why did I think I could just come in here and talk to him and comfort him? Why would he care that I existed? That I know how it feels to be the outcast and the freak? Yet I couldn't even find the words to comprehend it all. I could barely say my name in front of him let alone express those empathy's.

Stella Roux

I can't believe I did that! I am so stupid to think that he would want to talk to me. He just stared at me silently for a few seconds and overcome I embarrassment I took off running. I ran to my common room and up to my bed. I pulled out a medium bag and stuffed a few books inside. I small whimper and I see Montag looking up sadly at me and I put him in my bag too. I drop a small book of Botts Beans for him to keep him quiet. I walk out and head directly for the empty girls bathroom where no one goes. Mertyl and I have because somewhat of friends being in the same house; or well she was in Ravenclaw when she was still alive.

It is quiet and I don't see her in the bathroom, which I am silently thankful for. It's the first day back so the bathroom is clean and smell nice. I sit under the tall sink and begin to open my bag then a loud screech of ceramic and again stone and the sink begins to move around. A waft of damp and must air floods my nose and a I recoil back a little terrified, but something seems to call me in...