Disclaimer: none of these characters belong to me. They belong to J.K. Rowling and Sarah J. Maas, and I'm just messing around with them here.

Chapter 1

I scrabble at the tie around my neck without really thinking about it. it's still plain, not like some of the others I've seen, which have been striped with red and gold, or black and yellow. I'm still not sure what's going on. We came up to the massive castle in boats, but now we're just standing around in the entrance hall. There's a buzz of nervous chatter, occasionally interrupted by sounds from the hall, and one boy is scampering around looking for his toad. I decided not to bring Fleetfoot but bought an owl instead, despite my joking that I didn't really need an owl to take my post because I could get Rowan to do it, and my owl is sat on my shoulder, hooting softly. I was supposed to put her with the luggage but I couldn't quite bring myself to do it, so she's here instead.

My owl shuffles around on my shoulder as Rowan reaches for her, stroking her head. She's a tawny owl with massive eyes and silky smooth feathers and she only lets Rowan and I touch her. Rowan murmurs something to her, and she responds by clicking her beak.

"Are you talking to my owl in bird language?" I ask, running a hand down my owl's back. Rowan scowls at me.

"There's no such thing as bird language, Aelin."

"There must be." I say, and pick at my tie again. I don't like how tight it is; it makes me feel strangled. I didn't like the cloak at first either, but seeing as we're living in a massive ancient castle, I can see why we need to wear them.

"There's not. Trust me." Rowan says, reaching for the owl again. She's clearly had enough of the attention because she clicks her beak at him in a very aggressive manner, and he pulls his hand away quickly. She shuffles around again so her back is facing him, and watches the boy who is still looking for his toad from under my hair. The boy seems to be getting more and more panicked, which seems a little silly to me – it's just a toad.

Suddenly the door to the hall opens and a stern-looking woman comes out. She has tortoiseshell glasses on, grey hair in a bun and a stern expression which she keeps on as she surveys the crowd. The boy suddenly leaps forwards with a cry of "Trevor!" which gets a chorus of laughs and a disapproving look from the woman. He blushes and scampers away with his toad in his hands.

The woman begins a speech about the rules here, and ends with "It looks like they're ready for us. Follow me." She opens the hall door and goes through and we follow. Everyone is chattering with nervous excitement, but all I do is adjust my tie, because I've messed it up by picking at it. Rowan pulls his hood up and follows me as we walk into the hall. The group of boys in front of me are gasping and tipping their heads back, so I do the same, and my breath catches in my throat. The roof of the hall looks like the sky outside, and is so realistic that when a shooting star streaks across the sky I duck because it seems to be a metre away from the top of my head.

I'm so preoccupied by the ceiling that I don't notice when the boys in front of me stop and I end up crashing right into them. They're all staring at a stool with an old, battered looking hat on it, and as I watch the brim opens up into a mouth and the hat starts singing. I can't make out the words of the song, but even with everything I've seen I'm still shocked by a singing hat. Next to me, Rowan's mouth is also open. When the hat is finished, the hall bursts into applause and the woman – Professor McGonagall – unrolls a scroll.

"Ashryver, Aelin." She calls. I want to correct her and say that she's left out part of my name, but I can't be bothered, so I push through the crowd and to the front. I'm guessing they want me to put the hat on, so I sit on the stool and put the hat on my head. It's hardly touched my hair when it shouts, "Slytherin!"

There's a cheer from the table the furthest away from me. I take the hat and walk down to the table, sitting in an empty seat. The table is covered in empty plates, and I remember hearing something about a feast. Almost immediately, I want the hat to be done so I can eat food.

It takes ages to get to Rowan, but finally McGonagall calls "Whitethorn, Rowan."

He goes up to the front and puts the hat on, and I laugh softly because he looks ridiculous. The hat seems to be taking a long time to make up its mind, but it finally calls "Slytherin!"

Rowan pulls the hat off his head and goes to sit next to me, reaching behind my head to pet my owl, who I'd forgotten was there.

A man with a very long beard stands up and starts announcing things – the forest is out of bounds, the third floor is out of bounds, and Fanged Frisbees were now on the list of banned objects. Finally he spread his hands and said, "Let the feast begin!"

As the tables filled with food, I began to think that I was going to like it a lot at this school, and started piling my plate with food. I saw Rowan do the same, and I think I ate more than I had ever done before, just because I could. Rowan grinned at me, and I grinned back. This was going to be a fun year.