A tall black-haired witch greeted their arrival, wearing emerald green robes. She introduced herself as Professor McGonagall, and then entered the school, prompting the other first years to follow. When Curtis entered the first room, he was immediately shocked by the massiveness of it. However, he decided that after finding out about magic, he should stop getting shocked so easily now!

Professor McGonagall took them to just outside a door where Curtis assumed everyone was, due to the noise coming from it. She then directed the first years to a room just by that door. They squeezed in, and then the Professor explained about houses, dormitories, common rooms, and housepoints. Curtis did not like the sound of it; it could be a disaster if he was in a house with nobody that he would want to be a friend with. He was very picky with friends, he was easily annoyed.

Professor McGonagall led them into the room where everyone was. It was huge, and looked like it had no ceiling, yet it was clearly inside judging by the atmosphere. Everyone first looked at the entering first years, and then the hat that sat at the front of the hall on a three-legged stool.

Suddenly it burst into a song (AN: which you can read in the book if you're that desperate!) about the different houses at Hogwarts. Curtis was reassured in his mind that Ravenclaw was the house for him. Slytherin, on the other hand, sounded (and looked, judging by their table in the hall) somewhat more unfriendly.

Professor McGonagall then began calling out names to be sorted. "Abbott, Hannah" was the first one, but it wasn't long before it got to a familiar name.

"Granger, Hermione!" Professor McGonagall called.

Hermione went to the front and put the hat on her head. Curtis predicted that if Gryffindor was where she wanted to be, then Gryffindor was where she would be. He was right.

"GRYFFINDOR!" proclaimed the hat.

Knowing his alphabet well, Curtis realized who was next.

"Grant, Curtis!"

Curtis scuttled to the front of the hall and sat on the stool. He was very nervous, and almost missed his head as he placed the hat on. The hat sank to cover his eyes.

"You're fairly straight forward" the hat muttered into his ear. "I think you'll be satisfied that my decision is RAVENCLAW!"

The last word was called to the whole hall. Curtis was delighted; he had got what he wanted. The Ravenclaw table clapped as he walked over there and sat down next to the boy who was called up to the hat by the name Anthony Goldstein.

A girl from across the table shook his hand and said "Penelope Clearwater, Ravenclaw prefect. Congratulations!"

Curtis just nodded his head in reply, he wasn't really sure what to make of this girl; she was clearly much older than him, and much too pompous for his liking. But maybe he was just being over-critical.

The sorting carried on. Neville Longbottom was sorted into Gryffindor, much to Curtis' surprise. Neville hadn't struck him as someone particularly brave and Curtis had guessed he'd be a Hufflepuff.

"Potter, Harry!" McGonagall called out.

And there was silence, and mutterings of "Potter?" all around the hall. Even Curtis had read the name Harry Potter somewhere, in one of the books he'd flicked through at Flourish and Blotts. It turned out Harry Potter was the boy from the train station. Quiet, confused, and polite, it was hard for Curtis to think about him as someone famous, but clearly he was. He was sorted into Gryffindor like it seemed everyone Curtis had met was.

Near the end, the name Weasley was called (first name Ronald). Curtis had already noticed the Weasley contingent sitting on the Gryffindor table so was unsurprised when Ronald joined them. And after "Zabini, Blaise" (a Slytherin), that was that. Sorting over.

Now the odd and old looking man from the teacher's table at the front, who had long silvery hair and a beard of the same colour, stood up. He announced "Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak!", then said thank you and sat down. Immediately Curtis warmed to this clearly eccentric character, and very much hoped that this was Dumbledore, the headmaster of Hogwarts.

Curtis turned to look back at their own table and couldn't believe the feast that sat on it. It was essentially a roast dinner, but enough seemingly for everyone to have two roast dinners each. The mint humbugs were slightly odd, but Curtis was quick to ram some into the pockets of his robes, he knew he'd want them later. He then tucked into the food. He'd never quite eaten as much food in his life, so wanted to make up for lost time.

Once everyone had finished, the desserts quickly replaced the main courses on the plates.

"Why weren't the mint humbugs with the desserts?" Anthony Goldstein said. "I fancy one now!"

Curtis removed one from his pocket and wordlessly placed it on the table in front of Anthony. Anthony gave an odd look, and muttered "Thanks." Curtis was feeling really uncomfortable and out of place at the Ravenclaw table right now, and was thankful when Penelope Clearwater spoke across to him.

"Your name is Curtis right?" she said.

"Yep"

"Are you pleased to be in Ravenclaw?"

This was a question he no longer had the answer to. In truth, right now, he'd have rather have been in Gryffindor, where at least he already had acquaintances. On the other hand, he felt that he might make truer long-term friends in the end in Ravenclaw.

"Absolutely. Intelligence is something I've always greatly valued. There weren't enough intelligent people at my muggle school, so I hope there are more here."

Penelope smiled. "You're in the right place then, in Ravenclaw. Rowena Ravenclaw always said 'Wit beyond measure is man's greatest treasure'. You're muggle-born then are you?"

"Yes." Curtis wondered whether she might have a problem with that.

"Oh, don't worry, I'm the same! You think that you don't stand a chance compared to all the people who have been brought up in magical families but you'll find that you catch up easily. They've never been allowed to do magic before see, you're not allowed to magic outside of Hogwarts below 17."

Curtis was shocked at the sheer volume of muggle-born students there were. He thought there might have been only a few, but it seemed like they were everywhere. He simply said "Thank you" across the table, feeling much more content now. Once the puddings were over, the eccentric man on the staff table stood up again, and the hall silenced.

Penelope whispered "That's Professor Dumbledore."

This confirmed Curtis' suspicions, and he was quite pleased that this man was the headmaster. He seemed to have a personality, something most muggle headteachers lack. He also radiated power, control, and respectability. Curtis wasn't quite sure what it was, but there was something about him which made him think that he was a good wizard. He felt safer thinking that he'd be in the same castle as this man.

Professor Dumbledore's announcements were essentially telling the first-years the rules of the school. Don't go in the forest in the grounds. Don't use magic in the corridors between classes. Don't go in the third floor right corridor unless you wish to die a terrible death. The last one caused a few mutterings.

"A terrible death?" Anthony Goldstein said.

"Oh who knows, it's Dumbledore" a dark-haired girl said a few seats down. "If he says we shouldn't do it, we probably shouldn't."

A boy sorted by the name Michael Corner nodded in agreement.

Dumbledore then instructed everyone to sing the school song to their favourite tune. Curtis laughed, he knew that what he was about to hear would be a massacre to his ears, with everyone singing different tunes. The surprising thing was that it wasn't. It actually sounded good.

Curtis decided to speak to Anthony while everyone was singing. "How does this sound so good, everyone singing different tunes?"

Anthony just shrugged his shoulders.

"Bah, I guess anything is possible at Hogwarts." Curtis said, more to himself than Anthony.

Once everyone had finished, Professor Dumbledore dismissed them to their common rooms for bed. Curtis was glad, he certainly needed bed, but he knew he wouldn't be able to sleep with the prospect of lessons in magic the following day.

Penelope and a few other Ravenclaws stood up and told everyone else to follow to the common room. Curtis was overwhelmed by the size of Hogwarts and felt that he'd spend a great deal of his time just exploring the place. After going up a few (moving) staircases, the prefects led everyone to a spiral staircase, which they all climbed up. When they got to the top, they faced a wooden door with a bronze knocker the shape of an eagle on it. Penelope knocked once, and the eagle spoke.

"What should you fear more, a dragon or a dementor, and why?"

Penelope turned to the crowd. "To get into Ravenclaw common room, you have to answer the eagle's question. Now I know some of you won't know what a dementor is, but don't worry, the eagle will ask only questions that are reasonable to ask given the knowledge you have. It's very smart like that. If you can't give a satisfactory answer to the eagle, then you will have to wait for another Ravenclaw to come along who can."

This caused a muttering through the first-years in the crowd. Curtis was unperturbed by this though, he felt he could probably guess at the right answer, as long as he had the right knowledge base to begin with. Actually, Curtis really quite liked the idea of being asked questions such as this to get into the common room, he knew that he'd be doing it for fun tomorrow when he got the chance.

Penelope turned around and answered the eagle. "A dementor, for surely the most wise fear to have is a fear of fear itself."

"Sensible, but I bet you fear the dragon more really," the eagle said, and the door opened. All of the Ravenclaws filed inside.

The Ravenclaw common room was wide and circular. Arched windows and portraits of intelligent looking people lined the walls. They could not see out of the windows well now, but it appeared that there were some mountains outside of the window, probably a very nice view in the day. Blue was the dominating colour around the room, which made sense, as blue was the Ravenclaw colour, as Curtis had noted whilst in the Great Hall.

Before anyone could have a proper look around, Penelope directed the first years to their dormitories, and Curtis really couldn't see the point in not going right now. He'd rather look around the common room more when it was less crowded than it was now. Just before he left to go to the dormitory, another prefect shouted something.

"Wandering outside of the common room at night is forbidden, and punishable by huge housepoint deductions. You have been warned!"

Curtis had no intentions of wandering the castle by night anyway, it seemed like it would be far too spooky to do that. He wandered upstairs the dormitories, where everyone's luggage had managed to get to. He went to his four-poster bed (with royal blue curtains and a royal blue duvet), changed into his pyjamas, and dropped down dead on his bed.

He couldn't get the idea of doing magic out of his mind. The wand he got from Ollivander's could finally be put to use. Suddenly, he worried. Thinking of Diagon Alley, he remembered his misgivings about the wizarding world, about the people within it. Sure, they all seemed alright today, but he remembered that day in Diagon Alley well, and undoubtedly, so did his parents, who would also be in bed, thinking about this same thing probably.