Harry left the podium and walked back to the Ravenclaw table. Ginny thought about what he had said about House Slytherin. She had never considered going there, but with Harry as Head of House, this suddenly became a real option. Also, Harry had said that the Hat would take wishes into consideration. Maybe she was not doomed to end up in Gryffindor after all.

A loud clapping noise pulled Ginny out of her thoughts and she saw a girl walking to the Ravenclaw table. She realised that Professor McGonagall had started with the sorting and that she had missed at least one person already.

"Creevey, Colin!"

Pause.

"GRYFFINDOR!"

"Darcy, Pearl!"

Pause.

"SLYTHERIN"

"Dursley, Dudley!"

Pause.

"GRYFFINDOR!"

"Graves, Magdalen"

Pause.

"RAVENCLAW!"

After a while Ginny's thoughts drifted away and she began to think about her own Sorting again. She really was unsure which House she would choose, if the Hat gave her a choice. She didn't think that she wanted to go to Hufflepuff. She came from a big family and loyal friends was not what she was really in need of. And only few people of importance had ever come from Hufflepuff. She also would have preferred not to go to Gryffindor, because there she would be constantly confronted with her elder siblings. She liked all of them well, but she preferred a clean start where she could find her own way, without her siblings intervening. Also, Harry was not linked to House Gryffindor like he was to Ravenclaw and Slytherin. Between those two houses she was really not sure, but it would probably be best to talk those two options through with the help of the Hat. After coming to this conclusion, Ginny started paying attention to the sorting again.

"Little, Justin!"

Pause.

"SLYTHERIN"

"Lovegood, Luna!"

Pause.

"HUFFLEPUFF"

"Moon, Eve!"

Pause.

"HUFFLEPUFF"

"Rogers, Timothy!"

Pause.

"SLYTHERIN"

"Smith, Zacharias!"

Pause.

"SLYTHERIN"

Other persons were called out and Sorted, but Ginny did not pay attention. Her own sorting came closer and closer and eventually she started getting nervous. A lot of her future depended on what would happen under the Sorting Hat and she started thinking everything through for a second time without coming to any new conclusions. Finally she heard Professor McGonagall's voice say:

"Weasley, Ginevra!"

After hearing her name, Ginny took place on the chair in front of the Staff Table and pulled the old hat over her head. The moment the hat rested on her head her nervousness was blown away. A few seconds later she heard a voice saying:

"This is going to take a while."

Although Ginny had known that the Sorting Hat would speak to her, nothing had prepared her for the feeling of communicating with it. She did not hear the hat, she thought it. It felt like her own thoughts, but in a different voice and she had no control over them. After the initial sensation was gone and her head was clear again, the hat continued.

"There are a lot of possible options for you. I don't think that you belong into Hufflepuff. You will be loyal to your friends, most people are since they don't want to lose them, but you will not support your friends to the very end if you think their actions are stupid. Loyalty is not your dominating character trait, but Gryffindor, Ravenclaw and Slytherin are options we should discuss. Let's start with Gryffindor. You definitely don't fear danger. You are not the typical Gryffindor who would run into every dangerous situation without thinking about it, but you will stand up for what you believe even if it is risky."

"I think I would prefer Ravenclaw or Slytherin", said Ginny

"Why is that so? Your whole family was in Gryffindor, it is the most prestigious house, people will expect you to go there. Ah, I see you think that this Harry Potter boy would think better of you if you went in one of those houses."

At first Ginny was confused how the Hat could know this, then she remembered that it could read her mind.

"I have seen similar motives often before, although usually it is that someone wants to be in the same house as one of his friends. Let me make this clear, I will take your wishes into consideration and will usually send no one to a house where they wouldn't want to be, but I will not send you into a house just because someone else you like is there. Friendships at your age usually don't last forever and crushes almost never do. It would be very unwise to sort people based on those things. You will have to convince me with something else to not send you into Gryffindor."

Ginny gave the hat a mental nod and then said, "OK let's talk about Ravenclaw. You said this was an option for me"

"You value knowledge and not only because you want to impress that Potter boy with it. You actually enjoy finding out new things. You would find people who are like that in Ravenclaw."

"OK and what about Slytherin? I bet you were unhappy every time you had to send someone who belonged to Slytherin somewhere else. I am sure you want to avoid that happening again, now that people are more willing to go there"

"I was not unhappy, because I usually don't have feelings. However since I borrow most of my intelligence from the minds of the students I sit on I have now indeed become unhappy, since you thought of me as someone who has feelings. I don't know what is wrong with wizard children nowadays. For hundreds of years they have just accepted that a speaking hat is talking do them and not cared about how it feels. This is the second time something strange like this has happened to me in two years.

Ginny was quite surprised. She had not expected that she could change the Sorting Hat just by expecting something of it. She decided not to talk about this incident since it would have major potential for abuse.

"Let us come back to your sorting. You want to achieve something in your life. You want to outshine your older brothers even though most of them are rather bright. And there is this Potter boy. You have set yourself the goal to seduce him and would even have been willing to base your choice of house on what you think he would prefer just because you think it would help you with your goal. You are clearly ambitious and willing to do things to achieve your goals. I think to decide whether Slytherin or Ravenclaw would suit you better you should tell me for what reason you seek knowledge?"

"I like understanding new things, that is definitely a part of it. But I think mostly I want to learn things because they are useful. They help me make better decisions and plan my actions."

"So you seek knowledge because it helps you to achieve your goals, that points more towards Slytherin than Ravenclaw. What do you want to do after you graduate from Hogwarts, besides marry Harry Potter?"

"I want to become the most powerful witch I can possibly be. I don't want to stop learning after Hogwarts. Then I want to find some way to make money. I will probably use the knowledge I have gathered to invent some kinds of magical artefacts I can sell. Just taking a normal job will not give me the amount of money that I need to become an influential person. After I have achieved this I have every possibility open to me. I can decide to just live my quiet and happy or to seek further power and go into politics."

"You have planned your future quite well for a girl of your age. Although most of your plans probably will not work out the way that you expect, you have shown true ambition. You did not just say that you want to become rich and powerful, but you have a clear idea on how to achieve these goals. I think you would really do better in Slytherin than in either of Gryffindor or Ravenclaw. Do you accept my decision to put you into Slytherin?"

"Yes, but don't officially sort me just yet. Can you please wait another minute or two? Staying under the hat for a long time is seen as a sign that someone is a powerful witch or wizard. I think it will really improve my chances with Harry Potter."

"You are a Slytherin indeed. You are not the first person to ask me this. A few other Slytherins have done so, but not many. I usually decline since I don't care about whether you achieve your ambition. I care about sorting. But currently I am happy that I sorted you correctly and I quite like this feeling, I will grant your request and wait before I proclaim you a Slytherin.

After that, the voice of the hat disappeared and Ginny sat there in silence for a while before the hat proclaimed:

"SLYTHERIN!"

Ginny stood up and walked towards the Slytherin table to join her new housemates. While walking, she scanned the crowd for familiar faces. Harry smiled at her, he looked rather happy with her decision. Ron did look very angry; he had a strong dislike for Slytherin and was proud to be from an all-Gryffindor family. Seeing him look at her like this made Ginny sad. She really hoped that her decision had not seriously damaged her relationship with him. Fred and George seemed to be neither happy nor unhappy with her decision. They had never taken the house rivalries very seriously, so she guessed they would not treat her any differently because she decided to be in Slytherin. Percy's look was hard to read, but she thought that he would support her decision. Now that she thought about it, the Hat had probably offered Percy Slytherin as well. He was very ambitious. He already planned to join the ministry after Hogwarts and she was sure that he would not be content with a badly paid position in some unimportant office like their father. She was sure that if Percy had put on the Sorting Hat today, he would have been in Slytherin as well.

She reached the Slytherin Table and sat down next to Timothy Rogers. The moment she sat down again, the Sorting Hat proclaimed "Gryffindor" and a small boy started walking to the Gryffindor table. She saw that all first years had been sorted now and an instance later, food appeared on the table in front of her. She started eating and began small talk with the other first years around her. It would be good to make some friends on among the first years, since she did not know anyone in House Slytherin. She was halfway through her first plate of food when she heard a shrieking sound from somewhere above her. A single owl was flying through the great hall of Hogwarts. It dropped a sealed parchment in front of Harry Potter and then left. Harry broke the seal looked at the parchment for a few seconds and smiled.

Authors Notes

Thanks to everyone who sent me a proposal for a character on reddit. As you can see I have included quite a few of them into the story and will possibly add more later on. I can however neither confirm nor deny that I will stick a hundred percent to the background story you proposed. The next chapter will go online on Saturday the 20th of June.