Anne Volaine

Backstory

Both my mother and my father were sorted into Ravenclaw before me, just like my father's parents and my father's father's parents. Growing up, my room was coloured blue and bronze - for my seventh birthday they got me a toy Ravenclaw House Girl badge - so I always assumed that's where I'd be sorted when the day came. But when I sat down on the stool in the Great Hall and the hat fell down over my eyes, it whispered: "Ravenclaw, eh? Why so sure about that?" Quietly, I said, "Well, my mom and dad, they..." and I swear I could hear the hat smile. Gently, it said "Annie, you've got a brightness in your head, just like your parents. But I see a brave heart in that tiny chest, and even though I'm built to sit on heads, I trust in hearts. Do you?" I paused for a moment. What did I trust, my head or my heart?

In my mind's eye, I saw a little me, waddling on pudgy legs. I was drawing chalk wizards on the sidewalk outside my house when I heard a soft mewl. There was a soot-grey kitten, sitting with its head cocked, purring in the middle of the road. Little me panicked. Mommy and daddy had said not to go into the road because I could be hit by a car and really hurt - but what if the cat got hurt? Without thinking, I ran on those tiny, stumpy legs out into the street, picked up the kitten, and ran back. The cat looked up at me and licked my hand, and had stayed with me ever since.

Almost unconsciously, I nodded, and the sorting hat's brim ripped wide and yelled out "GRYFFINDOR!"