The Sorting
When the train arrived at Hogsmead station Sphotanna headed out of the compartment, head down. In the general bustle to get out of the train she got pushed about a lot and even nearly got squashed. Then over the racket she heard a loud booming voice call,
"Firs'-years! Firs'-years, over here. All Firs'-years!-"
Not able to fight against the tide of students heading off the platform she crashed headlong into someone. A large hand picked her up by the scruff of her robes and set her carefully back on her feet.
"Sorry, didn' see yeh there small one, hope I didn' hurt yeh."
Sphotanna shook her head, not looking at the man and brushed herself off. By now the rest of the scared looking first years had gathered around them. After calling once more over the heads of the crowd the man set off and Sphotanna followed along with the others, all of whom were staring at his back. He was huge! At least double the size of any normal man, he towered above them.
For some reason though Sphotanna wasn't scared. He seemed to have the same effect on her as the animals did; a feeling of belonging, reassurance and safety. The giant lead them to the edge of a great lake where a number of little boats floated quietly.
They all piled in. Sphotanna got in a boat with a boy with messy black hair, one with ginger hair, the girl that Sphotanna had seen at Diagon Alley and a boy who kept snivelling, muttering about losing a toad.
Across the lake they went all staring at the huge castle that loomed over them, many windows alight. After trailing her hand through the water, wondering what could be living under the surface, Sphotanna tried to warm up her freezing hands by putting them in her pockets and found a toad cowering in one of them. Looking around to make sure no one saw she bent her head down to ask him where he had come from.
He started blabbering immediately, "There was a fly; it looked really juicy so I went after it but when I came back Neville was gone! I looked all over the place and couldn't find him. I'm Trevor by the way-"
Sphotanna interrupted, "Shhh. Someone will hear you. I think Neville is sitting behind me, but wait a sec! Before you go, promise you'll stop going after flies, ok, especially if you're going to get lost all the time."
"Can't promise that!" And with that he was gone, hopped over her shoulder into Neville's lap.
"Trevor!" The toad croaked a greeting in reply that only Sphotanna understood. She smiled slightly at the affectionate greeting and the many apologies that came from the toad.
Once on the other side of the lake, they went up a long slippery path until they reached the gigantean oak front door. After the man banged three times on it, the door swung open, revealing a witch dressed all in green with a tall pointed hat atop her black bun.
"The firs'- years, Professor McGonagall, "he rumbled. "Thank you Hagrid. I will take them from here." And she pulled the doors wide.
The entrance hall was magnificent; the ceiling almost out of sight with great stairs leading upwards. Professor McGonagall led them through the entrance hall to a small room to the right of another set of double doors, out of which came the sound of hundreds of students, and told them to be quiet.
"Welcome to Hogwarts," she said, "before we begin the start of term feast, you must be sorted into the houses. They are Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin. While you are here you will belong to your house, like to a family. Do well here and you will earn house points, fail to follow the rules and you will lose points. At the end of the year the house with the most points is awarded the house cup, a great achievement. I trust you will all work hard in which ever house becomes yours."
She glanced around at them all, "The Sorting Ceremony with start shortly. I suggest you smarten yourselves up a bit before I return."
She eyed some individuals, then swept off.
Sphotanna heard someone ask, "How exactly do they sort us into the houses?"
And someone else answered, "Some sort of test I think, Fred said it hurts a lot, but I think he was joking."
Sphotannas body froze up. A test?! What would they have to do? (And who was Fred?)
But before she could continue that train of thought, a couple of ghosts burst out of the wall discussing loudly. Sphotanna didn't really listen, just watched the ghosts glide about the room shimmering. They were kind of pretty, although one did have a rather large dark stain on his front.
Then Professor McGonagall was back, shooing all the ghosts out the opposite wall that they had come from. Sphotanna felt numb Why had she never asked her father anything about Hogwarts? She was about to walk out in front of a whole schools worth of people and be tested on something, she didn't even know. She trailed after the rest of the first-years and came out last into the great hall.
Professor McGonagall was standing next to a stool with an old pointy hat sitting on it and a roll of parchment in her hand. Then when everything was quiet the hat moved. One of its many rips opened as it began to sing:
"Oh you may not think I'm pretty,
But don't judge on what you see,
I'll eat myself if you can find
A smarter hat than me.
You can keep your bowlers black,
Your top hats sleek and tall,
For I'm the Hogwarts Sorting Hat
And I can cap them all.
There's nothing hidden in your head
The Sorting Hat can't see,
So try me on and I will tell you
Where you ought to be.
You might belong in Gryffindor,
Where dwell the brave at heart,
Their daring, nerve, and chivalry
Set Gryffindors apart;
You might belong in Hufflepuff,
Where they are just and loyal,
Those patient Hufflepuffs are true
And unafraid of toil;
Or yet in wise old Ravenclaw,
if you've a ready mind,
Where those of wit and learning,
Will always find their kind;
Or perhaps in Slytherin
You'll make your real friends,
Those cunning folks use any means
To achieve their ends.
So put me on! Don't be afraid!
And don't get in a flap!
You're in safe hands (though I have none)
For I'm a Thinking Cap!"
Everyone burst into applause and when it cleared Professor McGonagall took the hat and read the first name on the list.
"Abbot, Hannah."
Sphotanna listened with dread as the names were called and the new kids went to the stool to be sorted. It seemed quite an easy task, but Sphotanna was quivering like autumn leaves on an old tree.
When her name was called she somehow made it up to Professor McGonagall and sat down on the stool. As the hat descended over her eyes the last thing she saw was professor McGonagall giving her a small smile.
For a long time nothing happened. Sphotanna, who had closed her eyes when the hat slipped over them, opened them again, but she saw just as much as she had with her eyes closed. She sat there, listening for the call that would surely resonate into the great hall at any minute. Or not? What if the hat didn't sort her, what if it stayed silent! Then a small voice in her ear made her jump.
'Oh not another one! You people are more trouble then you're worth, honestly. The last time one of you people turned up here, the Headmaster had all sorts of trouble on his hands. It'll be exactly the same this time, you mark my words-'
It continued in this way for quite some time. Sphotanna started trying to ignore the ranting in her ears, but it was difficult. She had started humming a tune in her head before it said tiredly
'Ah well, it has nothing to do with me. Now let's see... hmm, assets of three of the houses, not like we haven't had that before. We'll get through this mess. Any preferences?'
Sphotanna stared. The hat was asking her in which house she wanted to be in? Was that even allowed?
'Of course its allowed, otherwise I wouldn't be asking, would I!' The hat snapped back. 'No preference? All right.' The hat fell silent again.
Sphotanna started to get bored again, how long had she been sitting here? 5 minutes? 10? It must be really boring to do and watch this every year she thought at one point, before her thoughts wandered on.
Finally the hat had decided. Sphotanna heard it shout to the hall: "GRIFFINDOR!" 'I hope that I chose right...' it muttered as Professor McGonagall took the hat from her head.
The Hall was filled with applause as Sphotanna headed towards its source; the table on the far left of the hall. Once she had plopped down at one of the empty seats and the attention had redirected itself at the hat, Sphotanna took the chance to look around the large hall.
The walls were intersected regularly with man high, open fireplaces and flaming torches, just like at Gringotts. The ceiling, when Sphotanna looked up, seemed, at first, not to be there, until she overheard the brown haired girl whisper that it was bewitched to reduplicate the sky outside. Sphotanna wondered what reduplicate meant.
Next her gaze swept over the thousands of students at the long house tables, a mass of black robes and pointed hats, all facing the front, where the first years were still being sorted, boredom or anticipation on their faces as they tried to guess where the next first year would be sorted to.
Finally the golden eyes rested on the teachers table at the top of the hall behind the first years. The man in the middle was watching, not the sorting, but her and as she locked her eyes to his blue ones, she could have sworn he had winked at her before turning his attention back to the sorting as the name 'Potter, Harry' rang out into the hall.
Everyone fell completely silent then erupted into whispers at once, as they all craned their necks to see the famous boy. Sphotanna, still sitting in front of most of the students stared at the boy, known by every self-respecting witch or wizard in the country and probably everywhere else in the world too. Sphotanna had to admit he looked very normal, not the great wizard everyone had been hoping for then.
The hat stayed quiet for a time until: "GRIFFINDOR!" Sphotanna nearly jumped out of her skin as the table behind her practically exploded. Everyone was on their feet yelling their joy at the enchanted ceiling, boasting to the other houses, congratulating each other on getting Harry Potter into their house. Sphotanna clapped along with the rest, wondering why they were congratulating themselves on doing nothing at all. The hat had put Harry into Gryffindor, not them.
Said boy fell into the seat next to Sphotanna, not glancing at her, but looking at the staff table. Sphotanna went back to letting her mind wonder until the last first year had been sorted. Only then did the man who had winked at her stand as Professor McGonagall took the stool, the hat and the scroll away. As the old man held his arms wide, she realised this had to be the headmaster, Albus Dumbledore.
He beamed at the students and welcomed them with some very strange words: 'Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak!' As he sat back down the laughs that had filled the hall silenced as food appeared on the tables and everyone dug in.
Sphotanna listened to the conversations around her as she started eating. The students talked of holidays, the new school year, pets, pretty much every topic could be heard around the room, if one listened properly.
The Students around her didn't glance twice at the small girl in their midst so Sphotanna was able to eat in relative peace. Her fellow first years were talking to a ghost wearing a rather large ruff around his neck. When he showed them his severed head Sphotanna shuddered, looking away, then shuddered much more violently when the ghost glided right through her on its way to a different group of older students.
Once he was gone the puddings appeared. If the first course had been good, it was nothing compared to this; cakes, carved in various artistic forms, great, self freezing tubs of ice-cream, tarts in every colour and size, mountains of doughnuts, the list went on and on, every delicacy you could imagine was piled on the tables. As Sphotanna took herself a doughnut, the first years chatter turned to their families.
One boy told them that his mother was a witch and his father a muggle. Neville, the boy with the toad Trevor said he had been brought up by his grandmother and that his family had thought he was all muggle for a long time until some relation had accidentally dropped him out of a window. Others told their stories as well and Sphotanna listened while eating her doughnut, until one boy turned to her and asked,
"What about you, what's your name by the way?" he smiled at her as she looked at him through her bangs, careful not to let anyone see her eyes.
All the others stared at her until she answered in a small voice: "I don't know, I'm adopted, I-I don't know my real parents."
They all stayed quiet for a second, then a sandy haired boy opposite Harry said,
"Hey Ron, your hair pales next to hers, huh. So you still didn't tell us your name Firehead!"
Sphotannas head snapped up to stare at the boy, not having expected hearing her Nickname being used by someone other than Rick. She watched the reactions on her future classmates faces as they saw the strange eye-colour. Ron, the red-haired boy swore, one girl made a cross sign on her chest and the rest simply stared. Sphotanna sadly went back to her doughnut.
She should have known; these people would not be different from the boys on the train. She tried not to listen to the whispers next to her and focused instead on the conversation between the ghost who had floated through her earlier and the group of older students sitting at the other end of the table.
She gleamed that the ghost was called Sir Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington, that he was the ghost of Gryffindor tower and that he had been unsuccessful, yet again to join the Headless Hunt, whatever that was.
Once she had finished her doughnut, Harry, still eating treacle tart, asked her, apparently not too fussed about her eye colour,
"So, what is your name? I'm Harry, by the way, Harry Potter."
Sphotanna stared at her empty plate. Had he not seen her eyes, or why was he still talking to her?
"I know who you are, everyone does. I'm Sphotanna Nightlark." she whispered almost inaudibly, inwardly cursing her shyness or whatever it was that made it so hard to talk to people she didn't know.
Harry, noticing her stiffen next to him simply smiled and said, "Nice to meet you Sphotanna, that's an interesting name," then turned back to Ron and the others.
Once the puddings too had disappeared Professor Dumbledore stood once more. Once more Sphotanna didn't listen to what he was saying, but absentmindedly stared around the room.
She was therefore very much surprised when the whole school burst into song, some rather off tune. She looked towards the staff table and saw the ribbon trailing words above Dumbledore's head. After the ribbon had vanished, the headmaster bade them all a good night and dismissed them.
At once, a red haired boy, who looked a little like Ron, with a shiny badge on the front of his robes, started calling for the first years to follow him. They dragged themselves off the benches and followed the boy, most stumbling out of pure tiredness.
The boy led them up stairs, along corridors, through doors, portraits and walls, until they reached a painting of a fat lady in a silk dress. He said something to her and the painting swung forward letting them into the round common room. He showed them the staircases leading up to their dorms and bade them good night, just as Dumbledore had done.
Weary to the bone, Sphotanna trudged up the stairs to the tower room that she would be sharing with the other Gryffindor girls for the next seven years. Not looking at any of the others, she changed and was asleep, almost before her head hit the pillow of her four-poster bed.