"Hmm. . . You really could go into either. Honestly, you look like a good candidate for all of the houses. You have the brains needed for Ravenclaw. The ambition of a Slytherin, plus the nobility. I can also see that your bravery is outstanding, which suits someone from Gryffindor. And of course, anyone can get into Huffelpuff." There was a slight snigger, "Don't tell them that I said that."

"Please," I kept my voice small so that the entire school would not be able to hear me, "please make a good decision."

"SLYTHERIN!" The sorting hat's voice boomed throughout the Great Hall.

Across the room, the entire Slytherin table erupted into applause. Even though this was the customary response to the sorting, I still felt a scarlet blush spread to my ears. I glanced up to see the boy who was called before me smiling. His hair was so blonde that it bordered on having the absence of color. What was his name? Draco something. . . Malfoy! That was it; Draco Malfoy.

After a minute of shuffling towards the table, I finally found a seat at the long table. The rest of the sorting went pretty fast, I was mostly concentrating on blending in with the walls. Professor Dumbledore gave a short speech. He talked about rules, he talked about responsibility, and he gave stern warnings to anyone who dared to break the rules. There was no way I would ever need that warning, which would be way too much attention on me.

Two Perfects dressed in green and silver robes guided the first years to the common room entrance.

"Everyone: quiet down!" The boy Perfect raised his voice to a dull roar, and the skittish first years quickly silenced themselves. "Something that Dumbledore forgot to mention is that this is a SECRET!" The last word was bellowed for dramatic effect. "No one and I repeat: no one is to tell another person/centaur/creature/ghost where our dormitory can be found. Do you understand?" A full round of enthusiastic nodding and mumbling surfaced from the first years. Draco seemed to be the only person who was nonplussed by all of this. He leaned in a bit closer to some buffoon next to him and whispered something. I assume it was a joke, for the oaf laughed so hard that in a moment all eyes were on him.

After an awkward silence, we finally entered the dorm. The Perfect girl continued to stay silent, but waved all of the new female students upstairs.

"Well here we are. Now, let's sort out these beds!" Out of seemingly no where she drew out a piece of parchment and read aloud some names. "Alana Aberhad you will be sleeping in that bed." And last of all, she came to my name: "Clyde Malkiv, you get the last bed."

As I set my things down, the girl Alana came over. "Look," she started speaking in a breathy whisper, "I have to ask. What is with your name? Clyde?"

"Clyde can be a girl's name too." My mumbled reply didn't satisfy the Alana's curiosity and she briskly walked away. After eleven years, I was completely used to people wondering about my name. The truth is, and I've never told anyone this, my parents were so disappointed that I was a girl that they kept the boys name for me. Every day it occurred to me that maybe, just maybe, me being a girl had something to do with my situation at home.

Finally all of the excitement about being here died down, and everyone lapsed into a deep sleep.

The first thing I woke up to a loud shriek from a girl named Millicent, "Ahh! I'm going to be late!" I rolled over in bed to see the clock. Its silver filigree hands pointed to about six o'clock. And below the center, in cursive writing, it said 'Double Potions With Gryffindor, In One And A Half Hours.' With that, I rolled out of bed to begin my first ay at Hogwarts. For a moment though, I stopped to imagine what my Muggle foster parents were doing:

They would be sitting at the tattered yellow breakfast table wondering how the girl they were in the process of adopting was a witch. How Clyde, the unremarkable girl at the orphanage, had been whisked away to a school for magic. It was anything but unremarkable. My soon to be parents understood though, and for that I was more grateful then anything.

That's what brought the smile to my lips as I prepared for Potions.