Disclaimer: I own nothing but the things you don't recognize.

Welcome to Hogwarts

When the train came to a stop, Lily, Nicole, Aimee, and Alicia stepped out of their compartment, already dressed in their black school robes. They pushed their way toward the exit and out on to a tiny, dark platform. Suddenly, Lily saw a lamp come bobbing over the heads of the students, and she heard a deep voice shout out.

"Firs' years! Firs' years over here! Any more firs' years? Watch yer step! Firs' years follow me!"

Lily was shocked when she saw the man - no, the giant, that the voice belonged to. He was twice as tall as a normal man, and nearly four times as wide. His face was almost entirely hidden by a long, tangled mane of hair and a wild, shaggy beard, but you could make out his eyes, shinning like black beetles under all of his hair.

Slipping and sliding, the first years followed the giant down a steep, narrow path. "Yeh'll get to see Hogwarts in a second," the giant yelled back to the students following him, "it's jus' round this bend."

Lily gasped at the sight, and heard Nicole, who was standing next to her, gasp as well. The narrow path they had been walking on opened suddenly onto the edge of a huge lake. Perched atop a high bluff on the other side, was Hogwarts. It was a huge castle with many turrets and towers.

"No more'n four to a boat!" the giant yelled, pointing to a group of little boats sitting in the water by the shore. Lily and Nicole got in one of the little boats and were followed by Aimee and Alicia.

"Is everyone in?" shouted the giant, who had a filled a boat all by himself. "All right - FORWARD!

The little group of boats moved off at once. Everyone was quiet, staring at the huge castle overhead. It towered over them as they glided closer and closer to the cliff on which Hogwarts stood.

"Watch yer heads!" called the giant as the boats reached the cliff; the first years bent their heads as the boats carried them through a curtain of ivy that concealed a wide opening in the cliff's face. They all climbed out of the boats and onto a sort of underground harbor. They all followed the huge man up a passageway in the rock, and at last they came out onto smooth grass right in front of the castle. The giant raised his huge fist and knocked on the castle door three times.

Almost at once the door swung open. A rather severe-looking woman was standing there. She looked fairly young, and was tall, she had square framed glasses and black hair that was tied back into a tight bun. She seemed very strict, and Lily decided to be careful not to cross her.

"Here yeh are Professor McGonagall, the firs' years." said the giant.

"Thank you Hagrid. I will take them from here."

She opened the door wider so the first years could file into the entrance hall. Lily looked around, her mouth slightly open. The entrance hall was huge enough to fit a whole house in. The stone walls of the hall were lit with flaming torches, the ceiling was so high that Lily couldn't see it at all. There were two beautiful marble staircases that led to the upper floors.

The first years followed Professor McGonagall across the stone floor. Lily could hear the sound of hundreds of voices from a doorway on her right, and guessed that the rest of the school must be in there. Professor McGonagall showed them into a small empty chamber off of the hall.

"Welcome to Hogwarts," said Professor McGonagall. "The start-of-term feast will begin soon, but before you can sit in the Great Hall, you must be sorted into your houses. The Sorting ceremony is very important because while your here, you will spend most of your time with the people in your house.

"The four houses are Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. Each house has it's own noble history and each has produced wonderful wizards and witches. While you are staying at Hogwarts, good things you do will earn house points, while rule-breaking will lose house points. At the end of the year, the house with the most points is awarded the house cup, a great honor. I hope each of you will be a credit to whichever house becomes yours.

"The Sorting Ceremony will take place in a few moments in front of the rest of the school. I shall return when we are ready for you," said Professor McGonagall. "Please wait quietly."

She left the chamber. Lily glanced nervously at Nicole.

"What do they make us do to decide which house we belong to?" she asked Nicole.

"I guess that it would be some sort of test, but I really don't know."

At that precise moment Professor McGonagall returned. "Move along now, the Sorting Ceremony's about to start. Please form a line and follow me." Professor McGonagall told the first years.

Feeling extremely nervous, Lily got into line behind a boy with black hair that stuck up in various directions, with Nicole behind her, and they walked out of the chamber, back across the entrance hall, and through a pair of double doors into the Great Hall.

Lily felt her mouth drop as she looked at the Great Hall. It was lit by thousands of candles that were floating in midair over four long tables, where the rest of the students were sitting. The tables had glittering golden plates and goblets set on them. At the top of the hall was another long table where the teachers were sitting. The ceiling was black and dotted with stars. Lily remembered reading in Hogwarts, A History that the ceiling was enchanted to look like the sky outside. Professor McGonagall led the first years up there, so they faced the rest of the school, with the teachers behind them.

Professor McGonagall placed a four-legged stool in front of the first years. On top of the school she put a patched and frayed wizard's hat. Everyone appeared to be staring at the hat, so Lily stared at it, too. The hat twitched, startling Lily. A rip near the brim opened up like a mouth and the hat began to sing.

(A/N: At this point there would usually be a song, but since I can't make up a song, you can just pretend there's a song right here.)

The entire hall burst into applause once the hat had finished its song.

"We've only got to try on the hat!" Nicole whispered to Lily.

Lily felt extremely relieved, trying on a talking hat was a million times better than having to do a spell in front of the whole school.

Professor McGonagall stepped forward holding a long roll of parchment.

"When I call your name, you will put on the hat and sit on the stool to be sorted," she said, "Adams, Emily!"

A tall girl with brown hair walked shakily up to the stool, and put on the hat, which fell right down over her eyes, and sat down. There was a bit of a pause -

"RAVENCLAW!" shouted the hat.

The second table from the left clapped and cheered as Emily joined them.

"Amphitrite, Alicia!"

Lily watched, interested in where Alicia would go.

After a minute, the hat bellowed, "GRYFFINDOR!"

Alicia looked relieved and hurried of to the table on the far left, which had exploded with cheers.

"Black, Sirius!"

"GRYFFINDOR!"

Lily was so nervous that she didn't hear anything else until, "Evans, Lily!"

Lily tried to look calm as she walked up to the stool, sat down, and placed the hat on her head, which immediately slid down and sat on the bridge of her nose. She heard a small voice in her ear. "Lets see, you have plenty of courage, your going to need that when your older, I see, you belong in GRYFFINDOR!"

The hat shouted Gryffindor to the rest of the school, so Lily stood and walked over to the Gryffindor table with a relieved smile on her face. She plopped down next to Alicia.

"Fitzgerald, Jacob!"

"RAVENCLAW!"

"Gaea, Aimee!"

Aimee stepped forward, and put the hat on her head, it took about two minutes before it declared Aimee a Gryffindor. Lily waved at Aimee to sit with her and Alicia.

"Holt, Thomas!"

"HUFFLEPUFF!"

"Jones, Narcissa!"

"SLYTHERIN!"

"Leone, Nicole!"

The three girls crossed their fingers, and the hat had barely touched Nicole's head when it yelled, "GRYFFINDOR!"

Lily yelled and cheered along with the rest of the Gryffindors as Nicole sat next to her.

"Lupin, Remus!"

"GRYFFINDOR!"

"Malfoy, Lucius!"

A blond and rather menacing looking boy stepped up and was pronounced a Slytherin.

"Pettigrew, Peter!"

The hat took a long time to decide with Peter, he was sitting there for five minutes before the hat yelled out, "GRYFFINDOR!"

"Potter, James!"

The boy Lily had been standing next to walked forward and became a Gryffindor.

"Redmond, Julia!"

"HUFFLEPUFF!"

"Scott, Madeline!"

"RAVENCLAW!"

"Snape, Severus!"

A rather greasy looking boy with a hook nose stepped up and placed the hat on his head.

"SLYTHERIN!"

After Zang, Morgan was made a Ravenclaw, Professor McGonagall rolled up her parchment and carried away the Sorting Hat. Albus Dumbledore stood up and was beaming at the students.

"Welcome to another year at Hogwarts! Before we start the feast I would like to say: Dig in!

"Thank you!"

Nicole tapped Lily on the shoulder, "Aren't you going to eat anything?" she asked.

Lily gasped when she turned around. Instead of seeing the empty golden plates and goblets, there were mountains of delicious foods on them. Lily put giant portions of everything onto her golden plate and began to eat. There was a cheerful conversation around the table as the older years got to know the first years.

Finally after the dessert cleared off of the golden plates, a prefect stood up and the first years followed her up to the common room. Lily was wondering when they would get to the dormitories, and how on earth she would ever find her way around this gigantic school when the prefect stopped in front of a large painting of a rather fat woman in a pink dress.

"Password?" the fat lady asked.

"Astrea." the prefect promptly answered.

The portrait hole slowly swung open, revealing a room decorated in gold and red, and full of chattering students.

"Girls dormitories are up the left staircase, boys up the right," said the prefect. (A/N: I don't know if the staircases are right, but if someone finds out, please tell me!) "Off to bed, you've got a big day tomorrow, what with all your new classes and such."

Lily, Nicole, Aimee and Alicia all went up the spiral staircase to their bedroom, and saw a door with gold lettering that said 'First Year Girls.'

Aimee opened the door, and the girls followed her into the room. It was a circular tower room with tons of open bay windows, and they even had a small balcony! Lily and Nicole's trunks were one each side of the lattice work glass door leading to the balcony. Aimee's and Alicia's were one on each side of Lily and Nicole.

"I'm beat, lets go to bed." Aimee mumbled sleepily. So the four girls pulled off their robes and changed into their nightclothes, crawled into bed, and they all fell asleep very quickly, with dreams of their first day at Hogwarts running through their minds.

A/N: I hope that was longer than the first one, sorry it took me so long to right it, I got lazy. Anyways, please read and review, tell me what you think, and if you have any ideas, send them to me! If they're good, I might use them, if they suck, I most certainly will not use it, but I might make fun of you for such a bad idea. Just kidding! Alright PLEASE read and review!