The sorting

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Four

"FIR'S YEARS OV'R HERE"

Sirius, James, Peter, Remus, and Katherine grinned at each other before following the giant of a man named Hagrid down to the docks of the lake. Hagrid stepped into a large boat and raised his lantern in the general direction of a dozen other smaller boats. "FOUR TO A BOAT" He shouted over the chattering of their soon to be peers.

The friends glanced at each other, similar looks of worry on their faces. Kat quickly stepped forward and calmly asked "Sir, excuse me, but is there any way that the five of us can all be on a boat together?"

Hagrid frowned in thought before smiling "Well, I s'pose you five can ride ov'r in one of the larger boats."

Kat grinned up at him before ushering the boys into a boat identical to Hagrid's. As they climbed in, Hagrid yelled "EV'RYONE SITTING DOWN?" After various calls and shouts of affirmation, the boats moved in synchronization away from the docks, as if someone had given a silent command.

After twenty or so seconds of silence, James grinned and said, "We're finally here, can you believe it?This is going to be the best year ever"

Remus laughed quietly and replied, "I certainly hope so."

James stared into the black water for a moment, moonlight flickering off his glasses. "Wouldn't it be awesome if we were all in the same house? I mean, I kinda like you guys."

Sirius nodded, "Yeah, that would be wicked. Imagine  all the trouble we could cause if we were all together."

Before anything else could be said, the boats turned a corner and a collective gasp cut through the air as the magnificent castle came into view. "Боже мой!" Kat murmured softly. As she spoke, she unconsciously stood up to get a better view and stumbled as the boat was jostled by a dark tentacle poking out of the water. Kat let out a startled yelp and closed her eyes, bracing herself for the cold impact of the water before she was yanked back over the side and pulled into her seat. She opened her eyes to see James laughing at her.

With sparkling eyes, he jokingly said, "Well, for a Kat, you aren't very graceful."

She playfully glared at him and said, "Ugh, if I have to put up with your awful jokes for seven years, I'm not sure if I want to be in he same house anymore."

There was a jolt as the boats came to a halt in a large cavelike room. After the five climbed out, Hagrid led them up a pathway until they arrived at the front doors of the castle. Hagrid knocked three times on the monstrous doors and the first years all waited in silence until a stern looking woman wearing dark green robes opened the doors. "Thank you Hagrid, I will take them from here." she said stiffly while ushering them in through the doors. Instead of going straight to the Great Hall,  she led them to a small room, where she said, "Good Evening, I am Professor McGonagall, head of the transfiguration department. The sorting will begin in a matter of minutes, so you best try to tidy yourselves up a bit."

Kat turned to ask Peter about the sorting when she noticed the girl and boy from before. The girl looked as if she was getting increasingly more upset, and the boy looked as if he had no idea how to comfort her. After she slipped away from my friends, Kat quickly made her way through the chattering mass of students to the two friends.

After she reached them, she cleared my throat, and the girl -Lily, she had to remind herself- glared at her. "Go away." she sniffled, "You're friends with those awful boys on the train."

Kat raised her eyebrows and said, "Yes, I am, but I came over here to apologize for their actions. They're boys, they wouldn't know the definition of tact if it slapped them in the face." Lily laughed softly but then gasped in shock as hundreds of ghosts poured in from the walls. There were a few startled screams from the other children, but Kat just laughed and rolled her eyes at the ghost's antics. There had been ghosts back home, but these were more cheerful it seemed. Kat regained her thoughts and calmly stuck out her hand and said, "Let's start over, shall we? I'm Katherine Kartashova, but I suppose that you can call me Kat."

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Lily hesitated for a moment before smiling and shaking her extended hand, "It's a pleasure to meet you, I'm Lily Evans." She then turned to her black haired friend-Severus-, if I remembered correctly, and said, "And this is Severus Snape, we've been friends for years."

Kat nodded politely at him, ignoring the sharp gaze he had fixed on her since she had introduced herself, and turned back to the doors right before Professor McGonagall came back in to lead them into the great hall. There were gasps as the first years stared in awe at the size of the room. There were four tables all sitting perpendicular to the teacher's table that was at the back of the room on a slightly raised platform. The wall behind the teacher's table was covered with five huge banners, the Hogwarts crest in the middle and the house crests surrounding it. The towering ceiling must have been charmed because It looked like the night sky. Katherine barely paid attention to the song and the sorting until She heard Professor McGonagall call out, "Black, Sirius!"

The room was silent as the hat made its choice. Finally, the hat shouted, "Gryffindor!" The entire hall was quiet as the first black in history was made anything other than Slytherine. And on top of that, Sirius had been names a Gryffindor of all things. Katherine glanced at James and Remus and they nodded at her before the three began clapping as hard as they could. After that, The Gryffindor table erupted into cheers along with the other houses, save the Slytherin table that was almost completely silent. Lily was sorted nearly instantly into Gryffindor, and so was Remus, although it took a little longer for him. Peter surprised them all by getting into Gryffindor as well because they had pegged him as a Hufflepuff. The hat barely had to touch James's head before it shouted "GRYFFINDOR!" so loudly that the plates shook. When it was Severus's turn, it only took a few seconds before a shout of "Slytherin!" echoed around the hall.

Eventually, there were only four children left. After a girl named Walks, Marilyn, was sorted into Ravenclaw, Professor McGonagall looked down at her list and opened her mouth before pausing and biting her lip. "Kapatpob, Katherine." She called out uncertainly.

Kat rolled her eyes in annoyance and squared her shoulders before strolling up to the hat. " It is Katherine Карташовactually, she said tightly, pronouncing it Kartashova. 'She must have saved it for last because she couldn't pronounce it.' she thought.

She could hear the whispers in the hall, she heard them everywhere she went, even from the paintings in her own house. The Kartashov's were not natural, the things they did were wrong and immoral, and nobody could do a thing about it because they were so unnaturally powerful. The rumors said that someone in the bloodline had made a deal with an evil being and that they practiced the darkest magic without any fear. The rumors were not exactly true, but they were not completely wrong either. Her family's past was dark and twisted, and as Kat sat in the middle of the hall, surrounded by horrified whispers, she couldn't help but smirk.

Kat could feel the hat prodding at the shields around her mind, and she let them down a fraction. "A Kartashov? How strange," the hat spoke. "I thought that you would have gone to Koldovstortez."

Kat kept her face passive. "I should have, but there's nothing I can do about it now. This is very different than how we are sorted there," she added thoughtfully.

"Oh?"  The hat asked. "How do they do it there then? An old hat like me doesn't get to travel much, and I know nearly nothing of the great school of the north."

Kat gave a tiny smile and replied. "I shouldn't tell you much, but I will say that it involves a very large dragon and lots and lots of icicles." 

She could hear the students beginning to whisper again, only this time she could pick out the word 'Hat-stall' repeatedly.

The hat chuckled inside her head before prodding her mind a little more. "Hmm, you are ambitious, and you thirst for knowledge as well as friendship. But above that...You long for courage. You are courageous already of course, but you long for more, yes, you long for justice, and revolution. Hmm, you are so very like you're parents...Perhaps...yes it must be. The hat called out the word so loud it hurt her ears "GRYFFINDOR!" The entire hall was silent for a moment before Lily, James, Sirius, Peter, and Remus began clapping and cheering wildly. After a moment the other tables began cheering,  though the cheering from the Slytherin table was subdued. After a few moments,  the hall had quieted down. Headmaster Dumbledore gave a quick speech about something that Kat wasn't really listening to. She was talking with her new friends when she grimaced slightly.

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