She walked silently at the back of the group, staring at the stone floor. Everyone else was whispering excitedly and nervously but Madge had no one to whisper to so she listened to everyone else instead. There where two boys in front of her chatting openly bout how they want to be in Gryffindor because they were so brave. Madge didn't really where she was put; it wasn't like Gryffindor would give her more chance of making friends than Hufflepuff. But that had nothing to do with the other students. Professor McGonagall stopped and pulled a roll of parchment out from her robe.

"Henrietta Abonleigh" Henrietta stumbled up to the stool and removed the tatty hat before sitting herself down. The hat cried the moment it touched her head, giving Madge and many other first years a fright.

"Hufflepuff!" Henrietta stood up and shuffled over to the huge table where older students where cheering and clapping.

"James Anderson"

"Gryffindor!"

"Katrina Barclay"

"Hufflepuff!"

"Dayna Carson"

"Ravenclaw!"

"Frank Darwin"

"Gryffindor!"

"Madge Gillies" Madge made her way through the somewhat decreased group of first years and up to the stool. Picking up the hat, she sat on the stool and waited for it to scream out a name of one of the houses. It didn't. Instead it spoke to her.

"Ahhh… Interesting… What house would you like to be in? Hmm?" Madge didn't know what to say or whether she should say anything at all. " Oh I see. You're the silent type. Well I think you will do well in… Slytherin!" Madge stood up and took the hat off before wandering over to the cheering Slytherins. As she reached the table, Madge was greeted by a tall blonde boy with a shiny Prefect badge on his robes.

" Good to see Slytherin getting pure-bloods. You are a pure-blood right?" Madge nodded.

" Good. I'm Draco, Draco Malfoy." He lead Madge to a bench where there where a couple of second years were gossiping.

" Grace, Catherine." He nodded his head in their general direction before showing Madge her place next to Grace and a first year that had just been shown to his seat by another Slytherin Prefect.

" I guess I will see you around, Madge." Draco strolled off and Madge was left standing in the aisle between Gryffindor and Slytherin.

" Well, aren't you going to sit down?" The girl named Grace had turned to peer at Madge.

" Oh… Yeah." Madge sat down but found that Grace had gone back to talking with her friends and the other first years had started a conversation about Potions. She didn't feel like taking part in either conversations so she stared at the wood of the table, following the grain with her eyes. After a few minutes Grace turned back to her.

" Hey, cheer up! You are going to love it here." She smiled and Madge smiled back just to be polite. She didn't think she was going to love it here.