The huge double doors leading into the great hall swung open with a thud, and the children seated at their respectable tables all turned with hushed glances. The sixty-some new arrivals all took in the sight of the massive hall with bewildered faces and wide eyes. Well, all but one.
Sherlock Holmes looked at the hall with a completely bored expression, arms crossed over his chest, his robes dragging on the ground just a bit since Mycroft had gotten them too large. He had insisted that getting his first year robes so big would ensure at least three more years of wearability, but now, with the sleeves hanging over his hands, he huffed.
The group of children were paraded through the Gryffindor and Ravenclaw tables. All the kids smiled or waved to the frightened first years - Sherlock just scowled. He made eye contact with Mycroft, his seventh year brother at the Slytherin table and made an even sourer face.
All the children were then lined up in front of all the tables, staring at Professor Mcgonagall and the lonely, rickety stool with a worn-out hat sitting on it. She promptly explained what would happen, and the hat began to sing a song. All the children around Sherlock looked fascinated - he himself was not impressed.
Mcgonagall unrolled a scroll with a long list of names on it and began to call up student by student. Each one sat on the stool, had the hat placed on their head, and was sorted into their respective house. Hufflepuff, Slytherin, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, Gryffindor, Slytherin... it went on and on.
"Greg Lestrade!" Mcgonagall said, her voice ringing clear over the quieting Slytherin table welcoming their new member. The boy, who was small and had sandy hair, brown eyes and what seemed like permanently sarcastic eyebrows walked up the steps with the most confidence Sherlock had seen out of any of the shaking children. He was ten times as comfortable in this magical place than that mousy girl Molly Hooper, who had timidly gone to sit and promptly tripped up the stairs. On her way back down to Hufflepuff, she shook with embarrassed tears. Her new house-mates went to comfort her.
Lestrade sat on the stool and looked out at the tables. The hat sat on his head for a moment, debating and muttering before shouting, "Hufflepuff!"
The look of disappointment on his face made Sherlock smirk.
With rousing cheers, the Hufflepuff table welcomed the sad-looking boy. Meanwhile, another name was already being called.
"John Watson!" she called. Sherlock watched a short, scrawny boy with hair dusty blonde and eyes sort of gray-blue. He walked to the stool and sat, his hands buried in the sleeves of his robes, not by mistake like Sherlock, but by choice. The hat was placed on his head. He swung his legs nervously, but almost immediately, it yelled, "Gryffindor!"
As he got down, grinning, he looked at Sherlock and grinned some more. Sherlock blinked in surprise, before hearing his name called.
He walked up, reverting back to a bored look, and tried to keep from tripping like Molly did on his impossibly long robes. He looked at the celebrating Gryffindors, and at John shaking hands with multiple people, including some of the people that had just been accepted there. The hat was placed on his head.
Hmmm... another Holmes boy. The hat's voice rumbled around in his head. Sherlock's eyes widened in surprise. Could everyone hear what the hat had to say, or was this just in his head?
You lot are tricky... impossibly smart, too smart for your own good. You could really go anywhere, though. Daring. Loyal. Cunning.
The hat started to say "Sly-" but Sherlock promptly interrupted.
"Oh, no, no, that's Mycroft's house. Absolutely not."
"Huff-"
"Sentimental. No."
"Gryf-"
"Stuck up. Does everyone always listen to you?"
The hat audibly sighed. "Ravenclaw! You'll fit in there, I'm sure."
Sherlock got up to the clapping and hollering of the Ravenclaw table. He looked at the shocked faces of the other first year students and gave a little smirk, taking a seat amongst blue ties and approving nods.
"Welcome to Ravenclaw!" someone among the many surrounding Sherlock said. He shrugged.
"This will have to do."