If Blaze Zabini was a Muggled Wizard, he would have had time to study at an ordinary school before entering Hogwarts and would have felt all the "charm" of a soulless and impersonal classifier called the alphabet, used in almost any modern organization, including the educational one. After all, everybody knows that people (both wizards and Muggles) strive to make their lives as easy as possible, so they come up with such universal classifiers. Thus, alphabetical lists of students are widely used in schools in order to systematize data, simplify search and other conveniences. However, it is necessary to notice, convenience of teachers, but in any way pupils. "Why? - You may ask. Yes, because there are two poor people in each class who are more likely to be inconvenienced by this alphabet. As you have already guessed, their surnames are in the opposite ends of the list - one of them is the head of the list, the other is the last one.
For the sake of justice, it is necessary to say that the first pupil is no longer lucky, because the overwhelming majority of teachers prefer to start over again (excuse me for puns). It looks like this:
- Well, everybody's here, we can start the exam. Let's start with you, Miss Abigail. Pull the ticket.
Or:
- Today we will be on duty... Let's go straight to the list. Is Mr Atkins here? Okay.
Or:
- I need to go to the teachers' lounge for a while. Mr. Angerson, you stay in charge. Watch out for discipline. Keep in mind that you will be in full demand.
In general, as you have understood, to be at the top of the list is just stress and discomfort. But even the latter have a hard time, because sometimes teachers suddenly ask for homework or summon students to the blackboard from the end of the list. And sometimes, on the contrary, the last ones do not get to the queue at all, which also happens to be a shame. For example:
- I'm sorry, Ms. Siegemund, but you won't have time to pass the test today. Come back the day after tomorrow.
Or:
- Wait! Did you hear the call? The lesson is over, basketball players. It was a great game! Mr. Saltzman, unfortunately, you failed to reach the court today. Well, it`s okay, you`ll play in the next lesson in the first shift.
Blaze didn't even think about it all. To be more precise, I thought about it a couple of times, but only due to the fact that his mother, who had a third marriage, once again changed her name.
But at the end of the summer ninety-first year Blaze made all the necessary purchases in Kosmy pereulok, instructed the home elves to pack his suitcase and the first of September, along with the rest of the freshmen arrived in Hogwarts for the distribution ceremony.
There was an unimaginable hormone in the Great Hall, and the platform with the stool and the Distributing Hat had no way to push through. Part of the fuss was caused by the arrival at Harry Potter's school, but Blaise didn't care about him. Much more interested in the girls, among whom he had already noticed a couple of cute, as well as the faculty, which he will get to. At home, this topic was not discussed; and with whom to discuss here, when Blaise's father was not at home, my mother was always busy with the arrangement of personal life, and the only grandfather lived in the south-west of Africa, where neither the fireplace nor the portal. When Blaise received a letter from Hogwarts, Mom casually said that it would be nice to get to Cogteuran or Slytherin, but since she graduated from Charmbaton, Blaze did not attach much importance to her words.
Until that very moment.
- Abbott, Hanna!
- Well, here we go," he whispered to Anthony Goldstein, who was standing next to him; Blaze and Anthony knew each other from childhood because they lived next door. - I wonder how long it would take? I'm already hungry.
- They say it happens differently," Anthony shrugged. - But this year there are quite a few freshmen.
- Bones, Susan!
Less than a minute later, Susan joined Hannah and the older Puffendui company. Blaze was cheered up.
- If things keep going like this, you can sit down at the table in an hour!
- Yeah, but for which one? - Goldstein grinned.
And then Blaise realized that he would be the last, if not the last one on the list, then at least the penultimate one, and, therefore, he would have to stand in this crowd until the end of the ceremony.
- Bulstrode, Millicenta!
The fat girl, who looked older than her peers, went to the stool, and from there - to the slytherin table. The grey-haired wizard in the emerald robe and with a scroll in her hands - Professor McGonagall seems to have continued to summon one student after another, but not everyone jumped out of the stool as fast as a boy named Terry, whom the hat barely touched, identified in Cogteuran. For example, a girl with a strange name Lavender stayed on a stool a little longer, and after her, who ran away to the Gryffindor table, called Anthony.
to be continued...