Chapter Text
“Gryffindor! Gryffindor!” Soren started to chant.
“Come on, Soren,” Claudia said, “Don’t you think this is a little childish?”
“Gryffindor! Gryffindor!” Rayla joined into the chant.
Claudia sighed looking over to Callum who was pinching the bridge of his nose.
“I dunno,” Ezran said, shuffling Bait in his lap awkwardly. “Gryffindor is the house of the brave, and the fearless and stuff, right? I don’t know if that fits me all that well.”
“I bet you’re a Hufflepuff,” Claudia said, smiling at him, “You’re such a cutie, and such a good friend to all the animals, you’d do great there.”
“Isn’t your dad a Hufflepuff?” Callum asked her, “I wouldn’t exactly call him a cutie or friendly. Besides Ezran may be a good friend to humans, but he’s not all that great with other humans.”
“Callum!” Rayla said, jumping to the Ezran’s defense, “Don’t be mean! Ezran will make lots of friends, I’m sure about it.” She ruffled Ezran’s hair, and gave him a little hug.
Ezran leaned into the hug and stuck his tongue out at Callum. “Yeah, don’t be mean, jerkface.”
Callum glared at him. “You know what, I change my mind,” he said, “You’re a Slytherin, definitely.”
Soren gasped in horror. “Don’t even say things like that!” now he pulled Ezran towards him like he was a small animal. Bait lurched in his arms, but was sated as he was now close enough to Soren’s snack pile to steal his chocolate frogs, which Callum thought was some kind of weird cannibalism. “Our Ezran is far too precious to be a dirty Slytherin!”
“Oh, what is this, the ‘90’s?” Claudia said, rolling her eyes, “That old rivalry is so lame, I have several friends in Slytherin.”
“You should be the one in Slytherin,” Soren said, squinting at his sister.
The two were caught in a glaring match, until Claudia subtly shot a beam of water at Soren’s face, completely drenching his hair. “Ahh! Claudia!”
The rest of the train car burst out into laughter, seeing him desperately try and dry off his illustrious floof of hair. “Dammit, Claudia, it’s my last year, can’t you finally treat me with respect?”
“Mmm….” she thought, “No.”
The others laughed again, Rayla reclaiming Ezran back to her own hug. “Well, sorting doesn’t just depend on personality,” she said, “It’s all about choice as well. What do you want, Ezran, being cool with the Gryffindor’s, or being a total nerd with the Ravenclaws over there,” she said, indicating Callum and Claudia.
Ezran sighed, tilting his head, “I don’t know. My Dad was a Gryffindor. My mom was a Ravenclaw. My Aunt Amaya’s a Gryffindor. But...honestly, I don’t really care what house I get sorted into. I just want to, like, take the class Care of Magical Creatures.”
“You can’t take that until your third year,” Callum said.
Ezran slumped forward, “Nooo.”
“It’s alright,” Soren said, “If you join Gryffindor, I PROMISE to smuggle some animals for you to play with into the common room.”
“Are you…” Claudia said, “Are you trying to BRIBE him into joining Gryffindor?”
“Oh come on,” Soren said, “I need to leave behind SOME people I can trust on the Quidditch team.”
“Hey!” Rayla protested, as one of his beaters.
“Besides you,” he said, “I mean, some of those guys we have now couldn’t even fly past Callum.”
“Hey,” Callum protested, slightly hurt. He was good at magic, but flying was kind of his nemisis.
“First years can’t play Quidditch anyway,” Ezran reminded Soren.
Soren slumped with a groan. “Fine then. Join whatever you want.”
Ezran shrugged, “I guess I’ll just let the hat decide.”
“RAVENCLAW!” The hat screamed over the hall. Ezran beamed and rushed over to Callum’s side, as his brother pulled him in for a hug. Claudia ruffled his hair, and two tables over, Soren and Rayla toasted him with their pumpkin juice.