First year:
I walk among the crowd of other first years up to the doors of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The ancient, large doors swing open and reveal a cavernous hall bustling with staff and students. Immediately, I am overwhelmed at the sights. Candle float from the ceiling, students chatter at their tables, and the teachers are setting up for some sort of ceremony. I hear snippets of the other students conversations.
"The Sorting Ceremony is about to begin!"
"I wonder what house my brother will be sorted in?"
"-hope she's not in Slytherin-"
"I remember being sorted-"
I see one of the teachers bringing in a stool with a battered, torn hat. She places it at the front of the hall, and everyone falls silent. Then, to my surprise, it starts to sing. It sings of four houses: Gryffindor, the brave house; Slytherin, the cunning house, Ravenclaw, the intellectual house, and Hufflepuff, the loyal and kind house. When the hat finishes its song, the hall erupts in enthusiastic applause. Then, the female teacher starts to read off names.
"Apple, Lucas!"
A small, brunette, chubby-faced boy runs eagerly up to the stool and places the hat on his head.
"HUFFLEPUFF!" the hat cries. Cheers and clapping comes from one table with yellow and black colors, and the boys runs over to meet his new classmates.
"Braswell, Kennedy!"
"GRYFFINDOR!" Loud yells come from a table with red and gold. She walks to them, relieved.
"Day, Emily!"
"HUFFLEPUFF!"
"Devers, Quentin!"
A primly dressed, proud-looking boy struts up to the stool.
"SLYTHERIN!"
Loud applause and jeers come from a table decked in green and silver. He smiles smugly and saunters over to the table.
The teacher calls more and more names, slowly filling the tables, reducing the mcrowd of new students. Then, she reaches my name.
"Ovia, Willow!"
Nervous, I timidly walk up to the stool and gingerly place the hat on my head. I scrunch up my face, waiting for the result. The hat reaches a decision.
"RAVENCLAW!"
What? I ended up in the smart house? Claps come from a table adorned with blue and bronze. I walk over on wobbly legs. As I walk, I think. This must have been a mistake, I think. I'm not smart! I just get average grades in school! Why did the hat sort me here? I sit down, and tried to believe that the hat knows best. The teacher goes through the rest of the names, and then makes a speech. After the speech, there is a fantastic feast, but I am too nervous to enjoy it. After everyone is stuffed full of rich food, the headmistress dismisses us to go to our dormitories. Our table gets up, and a older girl with a long red braid and a shiny badge reading "Prefect" on her chest leads us out of the Great Hall. We wind through the castle corridors and up moving staircases. We then climb a snaking spiral staircase up to the top of a high tower. We reach a double door with a bronze eagle knocker on the front. The girl with the red braid turns to us and says, "Welcome to Ravenclaw Tower! This is the door to our common room. To open the door, you have to answer a riddle."
The eagle knocker then states its riddle. "What gets wetter and wetter the more it dries?" The girl ponders the riddle for a few seconds, and then says, "A towel."
The doors swing open and reveal a large, blue and bronze room with many armchairs, tables, and bookcases. Gasps of surprise ripple through the first years, and people start to file into the room. I, however, stay behind. I am more nervous than I've ever been in my life. All these people look so smart and important, unlike me. And I have to answer riddles? I'm awful at riddles! My eyes start to sting. I feel so small and alone and misplaced. I sit in the corner of the hallway, bury my head in my arms, and start to cry. Suddenly, I feel a hand on my shoulder. I rub my eyes and lift my head up. It's the girl with in the red braid, looking concerned.
"Are you okay?" She asks, looking worried.
I sniffle and say, " I'm fine."
Not convinced, she says, "Are you sure? I just want to make sure you are feeling okay." Her face is kind, gentle.
Moved by her kindness, I start to cry again. "The-the hat put me in he-here and I don't know why-hy because I'm not-ot smart and all of you are so-o smart and I'm not good at-at riddles and I feel so sca-ared," I sob.
The girl pulls me into a hug and holds me until I calm down. I rub at my eyes and say, "Thank you."
"No prob,"she replies. "Now, listen to me. You shouldn't be scared. I was the same way when I was sorted into Ravenclaw. But Ravenclaw is so much more that being smart, and everyone is smart in their own ways,"I look at her, skeptical. "Here, I'll show you," she grabs my hand and pulls me up. She leads me through the door.
"Everyone in Ravenclaw has their own kind of smart," she says. "For example, look at Tori," She points at a girl hunched over a canvas, robes splattered with paint. "Tori is art smart. She makes amazing paintings that look like they could hop off the canvas," Tori wipes a green smudge of paint across her brow, then turns and smiles at me before returning to her painting. The red headed prefect then pulls me over to a boy dramatically waving his hands all over the place. "This is Richard. He is fantastic at acting. He can portray any character in the world." Richard takes my hand and kisses it. "Delighted to meet you, m'lady," he proclaims. I giggle, starting to feel better. She then drags me to a girl poring over complicated sheet music. "As you can see, Charlotte is obviously good at music. She can play just about every instrument ever, and her music is beautiful," she says with emphasis. "Do you want me to play something for you?" Charlotte offers. I nod enthusiastically. She pulls out a flute and says, "Here's something I've been working on,". She then plays the most gorgeous music I've ever heard. The notes whirled around me, high notes of hope and beauty and low notes of sadness and despair, combining into a haunting story more beautiful than any I've ever heard. When she finishes, the entire room erupts with loud takes a sweeping bow, then returns to her compositions. The prefect then turns to face me. "Do you believe me now? I told you, you don't have to be academically smart to be put in Ravenclaw. After all, another one of our house traits is creativity and uniqueness," she tells me. My hearts glows, inspired by all of these unique, amazing people that I am now a part of. Now, I am not scared. "Thank you," i say to the girl, my voice heavy with gratitude. "Thank you for introducing me to all of these wonderful people, and most of all, thank you for caring for me." Her emerald eyes shine as she looks at me. "No, Willow. Thank YOU for being brave enough to give Ravenclaw a chance. We are so glad to have such an amazing new first year among us. Now, what are you smart at?" she asks with a teasing smile on her lips. I almost forgot! Excited, i reach into my bag for my photo album. I pull it out and eagerly show the girl. "I like to sew things," I say. "I sew anything and everything,". Her eyes grow wide as she flips through the pages.
"Bloody hell! How did you do all of this? This is amazing!"
Her shrieks gathered a large crowd, now looking at my album. Gasps and oohs and ahhs rose around the room. My cheeks flushed with pleasure. After the ruckus died down, the prefect looked at me with a wide smile on her face.
"Now we know you definitely belong in Ravenclaw," she says with a wink.
I smiled.