The ceiling of the great hall was awash with the colours of the outside sunset and drew the attention of Emily as she walked between the house tables with her fellow first-years. Her mother had told her it was a beautiful sight but the mix of blues, purples, oranges, reds and greens all meshing together in the sky outside was more than incredible to look at. Some of the other students had stopped walking entirely so that they could gape at the vision with their mouths wide open. The teacher leading them in, a tall witch with short, brown spiky hair and a navy blue cloak scowled at them and clicked her fingers. Instantly, their gazes dropped and they resumed following her towards the teachers' table at the front of the hall.
The headmistress, Professor McGonagall, was sat down in her chair in the centre of the table, watching the parade with interest. No doubt, she was already sizing the new students up in anticipation of their sorting. Emily caught her eye and was surprised to see the strict looking witch soften for a moment and wink at her, before leaning to her left to talk to a wizard with wavy blonde hair and a smile to be proud of.
The students came to a stop just short of the staff table, before which was a three legged stool with a battered old hat placed upon it. An awed hush came over the hall as the witch who had been leading the students pulled out a piece of parchment and help it up high to read it from the light of the many candles floating over their heads.
"Anderson, Tony."
A fairly chubby boy with shoulder length brown hair was pushed forward by some of the students behind him. Hugo stood on his tiptoes so he could see over the shoulder of the girl in front of him to watch what was going on. Tony ascended the three steps and stood in front of the stool, waiting for his trial. The witch lifted the old hat from the stool and once the boy had sat down, she placed it on his head.
The hat at first didn't appear to be doing anything much but a few seconds later, a rip near its brim opened wide and a voice shouted,
"Gryffindor!"
A huge cheer erupted from the table on the far left side of the hall and Tony leapt off the chair with the hat still on his head. Remembering himself he did a double take and pushed the hat back into the hands of the witch before dashing towards his new house table. The witch frowned disapprovingly and read out the next name.
"Broadhurst, Jake."
As the next student descended the steps, Emily took the opportunity to ask the tall blonde boy stood behind her who the witch reading the names out was.
"That's Professor Lynch," he whispered in reply, "she's head of Gryffindor house and my brother said she's been teaching transfiguration since McGonagall became Headmistress."
"Right… thank you," she whispered back and she turned in time to watch the hat open the rip near its brim once more and shout,
"Gryffindor!"
"Looks like Gryffindor is going to be popular tonight," Emily whispered under her breath to Hugo, "what are you going to do if they run out of places?"
She took pleasure in watching a brief picture of panic flash across his face.
"What with your last name being Weasley and all…"
She ignored his whimper and watched the next student as she was sorted into Slytherin. The girl smiled knowingly and went to sit right next to the roaring fire that happened to be located next to the Slytherin table. Emily eyed her evilly.
"Smile all you want," she muttered under her breath, "let's see if that smile stays when your arse lights on fire." Hugo gasped at her use of language. "What?" Emily defended herself, "I'm bleeding freezing and she's got the cheek to go and take the seat next to the fire."
The novelty of a hat shouting house names from on top of someone's head soon wore off and Emily found herself looking once more at the teachers' table. At the far end sat Hagrid; his chair had clearly been reinforced with magic to support the half-giant's weight. Next to him was a young, round faced man whose hair was black but looked almost brown because it was littered with small clumps of dirt. If Emily could remember rightly, this wizard was Professor Longbottom; Herbology teacher and hero of the Battle of Hogwarts. He was talking animatedly to the witch sat next to him, a Chinese woman with a short, black bob cut and a pair of glasses. Other than Professors Longbottom, Hagrid and McGonagall, Emily could not recognise any of the other teachers.
Her attention was brought back to the sorting when Professor Lynch called out the next name,
"Finkley, Ajax."
A stout boy with big, muscly shoulders pushed his way past Emily, causing her to fall sideways into Hugo. Regaining her balance, she stood up straight again and predicted correctly the hat's next outburst:
"Slytherin!"
"Couldn't have put it better myself," she muttered under her breath as Ajax went and joined the girl by the fire. She would have to privately admit that he was quite good looking as far as eleven-year olds go, but to admit it out loud was something else entirely.
Emily was tempted to sit on the floor whilst she waited for her name to be called out but something told her Professor Lynch wouldn't approve of that. Was there a spell for making invisible things to lean against? She'd have to learn it in the future because her feet were starting to go to sleep.
Emily couldn't help but laugh when she heard a girl called Ruby Hooper sorted into Ravenclaw and she imagined introducing her one day to her similarly named Pygmy Puff. Ruby, a girl with perfectly curled blonde hair and painted nails didn't look like the kind of girl who would appreciate the joke.
Kitty Marlowe was the first person Emily recognised to be sorted and she clapped politely as she joined Ajax at the Slytherin table. He had started eating already and he acknowledged her with a brief wave of his hand as he dug into another forkful of potato.
After five more students whose name began with the letter 'M' and one new Slytherin student called 'O'Marty' Emily's name was called out to the hall. She hitched her robes up so she wouldn't make an idiot of herself tripping over and sat on the stool, ready for the Sorting Hat to choose her destiny.
A thousand eyes stared at her as the leathery material dropped onto her black hair and stopped short of covering her face by landing on her protruding ears. At last, I have found a use for my ears, Emily sighed to herself. She pulled the hat backwards a little so it didn't mess up her fringe and…
"I say, is this a Peakes?"
Ridiculous as it was that she would talk to a hat; Emily had been expecting this and struck up a conversation.
"Yep, Jimmy Peakes is my dad. Gryffindor."
"Yes… a plucky lad when he was here. You have his sarcasm."
"Why, thank you. I'll take that as a compliment."
She wondered briefly whether she had yet had a chance to say anything sarcastic in the presence of the hat but she reminded herself that this particular magical accessory could see your entire personality through your skull.
"What else is this? Midgen blood?"
Emily sighed and scratched her ear. This hat wasn't exactly clean and her head was beginning to itch.
"Yeah. Eloise Midgen is my mum. Hufflepuff, kind of spotty. But you wouldn't remember that, would you? You see what's inside."
The hat shifted on her head and Emily got the feeling somehow that the material above had formed a smile.
"True, Miss Peakes. What would you like me to see?"
She hadn't been expecting that.
"You mean, I get to choose?"
"You may choose to choose, so to speak. Or, you may allow me to decide for you."
"Holy macaroni. That's a bit too much responsibility for my liking. How about you choose for me?"
"As you wish."
The hat bent upwards and Emily stuck her fingers in her ear in anticipation of the upcoming shout.
"Hufflepuff!"
Time did that crazy little thing where it stops with no warning. The hat was raised from Emily's head but she did not move. She felt as though a Venomous Tentacula had bound her to the stool.
Hufflepuff? Whaaaat… The table second from the left was cheering and a few of them were beckoning her towards them. Emily rose as if in a dream and floated down the steps to join the whooping and yelling students.
Of all the houses, Hufflepuff had been the last she had been expecting. Okay, so she didn't have that many sadistic tendencies, which meant she wasn't Slytherin material. She was a little disappointed the hat didn't consider her clever enough to be a Ravenclaw but…Hufflepuff?
Too late now, she thought sullenly as she seated herself at the table and felt numerous pats on the back from her new fellow students.
Holy macaroni.
The shock wore off just in time for her to watch Lily be sorted into Gryffindor and eventually, when only three students were left, Hugo joined her. How typical, she thought she might have made some new friends and already they had been sorted into different houses from her. She half-heartedly introduced herself to the new Hufflepuff girls, Sarah McMarvin, whose twin brother Greg was also in Hufflepuff, Zelda Rosmerta, a blonde haired, blue eyed girl who resembled a blow up doll and Bethany Thruston, a shy girl that Zelda pointed out was daughter of one of the Weird Sisters. Compared to Emily's sudden attack of mild depression, they appeared to be so excited that an innocent bystander would have good reason to think someone had spiked the pumpkin juice.
The following meal was impressive: ten different kinds of meat, fish, pasta and one or two dishes Emily couldn't identify were within her arm's reach alone. Not wanting to be too adventurous, she helped herself to some pasta and her stomach was ready to burst when the time came for the students to go to their respective dormitories for the night.
A Hufflepuff prefect, introducing himself Xemnas, gathered up the first-years and led the way from the great hall into the Entrance hall and down into a corridor that led to the Dungeons. Emily barely had time to look at the moving paintings of witches, wizards, animals and scenery before they stopped in front of one that showed a grumpy looking dwarf digging in a mine.
"This," announced Xemnas to the group, "is the entrance to the Hufflepuff common room. "Grumpy here-"
"That's Rhythram to you!" shouted the dwarf, dropping his pickaxe onto the rocks at his feet.
"Yes, Rhythram, but don't you think it's important they learn your nickname too?"
The dwarf did indeed look grumpy as he stuck his hands in his pockets and turned his back on the students huddled in the corridor.
"Where was I? Oh yes. Every week there will be a new password to get inside the portrait hole. This password, once you have stated it to Grumpy-" the dwarf briefly turned round and gave the prefect the finger, "- will grant you access to the Hufflepuff common room. You'll have to come and see me or another older student if you want the new ones in future. I'll demonstrate the first password to you."
He stood squarely in front of the door and poked Rhythram in the back with his finger.
"Hi ho."
"Ha, ha, HA! Very funny! Just because I'm a painting you think you can make fun of me you pesky-"
"It's the password you bludger!"
The dwarf scowled.
"I knows that. I'm just telling you what I think of you all you bleedin'-"
The boy got tired and prised the portrait open with his fingers, pressing the dwarf's protesting image against the wall beside the opening that was revealed.
"Technically, he's not allowed to keep it shut once you've said the password. It unlocks automatically, you may just need to give it some help, like so."
Xemnas climbed carefully through the hole where Rhythram's painting had been and offered his hand to the waiting students. Zelda was first to climb through after him, followed by Emily, Sarah and her brother and eventually Bethany who was last to drop through on the other side.
The Hufflepuff common room was a lot smaller than Emily had expected it to be. Being underground, there was no natural light. Instead, fat yellow lamps hung from the ceiling and tapers were burning with a sparkling magical yellow flame on the wall.
"This could do with some Feng Shui," remarked Zelda, as she sat down on a puffy brown leather sofa.
The main room was round in shape with two tunnels branching off from the far end of the room. The walls were made of chestnut coloured wood and were covered with many tapestries and paintings, the occupants of which were all dozing or chatting quietly to one another. The atmosphere was rather a peaceful one and it was making Emily feel strangely uneasy.
"So, where's our rooms?" asked Zelda, tossing a fat yellow cushion to the side to make room for a boy to sit next to her.
"Girls' dormitories are in the tunnel on the left. Boys' are in the right tunnel," Xemnas explained, "It will be the first door you come to. Speaking of dormitories it's late already and I suggest you get to bed as soon as possible because classes start tomorrow."
A groan rose from the gathered students.
"I'm not listening to any excuses. With any luck in the next coming weeks you'll be working so hard you'll appreciate those beds. So… off with you."
He ushered them into their respective dorm rooms and Emily was pushed aside by Zelda who instantly claimed to bed closest to the heater as her own. Emily sat down on the one nearest the door and was surprised to find her luggage waiting for her at the foot of the bed. It was as though whoever had placed it there already knew which bed she would take. She picked up Hooper's cage and took him out so he could sit on her shoulder as she unpacked her things and changed into her pyjamas. Hopefully, things would look better in the morning.
These first few chapters are mostly setting up the scene so I promise something known as plot will show itself in chapters to come. Please take the time to review, I love to hear what you all think and I'm willing to take on some ideas for sub-plots if anyone would like to see anything in particular happening. Over and Out.
XXLollyXX