The train had stopped- we were finally disembarking. After stretching out our legs and yawning quite a lot we stepped onto the platform and looked around.
"Firs' years over here!" A huge man- like 10 foot tall- waved at us. Billie, Desdemona and I headed over in his direction and waited for the other first years to arrive. When they did, we were led off towards the lake and directed to get into a boat.
"No more than four in a boat" the huge man –Hagrid I think his name was- informed us.
Billie, Des (that's what I decided to call her) and I all carefully got into a boat, and started off towards Hogwarts Castle.
When we finally arrived (and yes it was finally because Billie freaked out when Desdemona told her about the giant squid; it turns out Billie is deathly afraid of squid-who knew?) we were led through the corridors to meet a witch in emerald green robes and a pointed hat, who was standing in front of a pair of large doors.
"Good evening students" she greeted.
"Behind this door is the great hall, in which you will be sorted. Now, there are four houses- Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff and Slytherin. During your time at Hogwarts you will study many subjects which will help you all grow into successful witches and wizards. Any good deeds you do in your time here will earn you house points- any rule-breaking however, and you will lose points. That is all."
With that, she flicked her wand and the huge doors swung open to reveal a hall which had four long tables stretching its lengt. At the far end there was a table at which all the Professors were seated, and in front of that was a lone stool with an old withering pointed hat perched upon it.
[A/N: I'm sure there's supposed to a sorting hat song here somewhere, but I haven't written one]
Professor McGonagall was standing next to the stool with a scroll in her hand. She waited until all of us first years had congregated around her, and then she unrolled the scroll and cleared her throat.
"Now, when I call out your name, you will come up here and sit on this stool, where the sorting hat will sort you."
"Ace Archer"
A normal-sized (-well what am I supposed to say, I just spent about 2 hours in a compartment with a midget-) boy walked confidently up to the stool and sat down. He had dark brown hair, shabby robes and a glum expression on his face. The one thing that was so striking about him though, was that he had four long scars running across his face as if someone had swiped their fingernails across his cheek.
Just a few seconds after the sorting hat had been placed on his head it yelled out, "SLYTERIN!"
After a while (meaning about 10 seconds) I sort of stopped listening but managed to catch come snippets.
"Belby-"... "RAVENCLAW"
"Bell-"... "GRYFFINDOR"
"Charmichle-"... "RAVENCLAW!"
"Daniels-"... "SLYTHERIN"
"Hathaway-"... "SLYTHERIN"
Then all of a sudden... "Valerie Malymer!"
My head snapped up so fast that you could hear my neck crack. I took a deep breath, tossed my hair over my shoulders, stood up straight and marched up towards the stool. I sat down and crossed my legs with an air of superiority that my mother would be proud of.
"Well, well, well what do we have here, a Malymer"
"And what is that supposed to mean?" I thought in my head.
"Oh nothing, but I never suspected that a Malymer would be a vampire"
"... If you tell anyone, you will die a VERY horrible death"
"Now, now, no need to be feisty, let's see what's in that brain of yours... Hmmm, it seems that you are hardworking, though your motto is 'why do it yourself, when someone can do it for you', and it seems that you do have a heart of gold, even though you are not above being nasty some of the time. Oh, and what is this? You also think knowledge is important?"
"Yeah well I have an –er- broad personality..."
"More like multiple personality..."
"Excuse me?"
"Nothing, nothing. Though you do seem to have an extraordinary amount of ambition and cunning, so it seems fit that you will be in, SLYTHERIN!"
The Slytherin table erupted with cheers, while the rest of the houses clapped politely (though I couldn't help but notice that two red-headed individuals on the Gryffindor table that were clapping extra loud).
With a smile plastered to my face I trotted over the Slytherin table and sat myself down in between Billie and Desdemona.
The rest of the sorting went smoothly –though I kind of stopped listening again- and at the end an old man with a snowy white beard stood up from the teachers table.
"Now, I wish to welcome you all to Hogwarts, and may I remind you that the third floor corridor and the Forbidden Forest are both out of bounds and that you should not enter either of them unless you wish to die a very horrible death. That is all, now let the feast begin!"
And with that foods of all sorts suddenly appeared on all of the plates, and the jugs filled up with all types of different liquids. The hall erupted with chatter and the 'clinking' of cutlery could be heard everywhere.
I made sure I stocked up on lots of 'Pad Hokkien' (Thai food is BRILLIANT) and enormous quantities of apple juice before I devoured it all in about 10 swallows (Desdemona, on the other hand ate about half the tables food supply in about 5 seconds flat, while Billie just ate a few chicken wings) and was forced not to eat any more by my Mums 'food-reducing magic singlet'. By dessert Desdemona's eating habits had attracted the attention of quite a few people at the table (who themselves had stopped eating just to watch her). The main course was NOTHING compared to the dessert though, in which Des ate 3 whole cakes (yes, THREE) in the coarse of about 30 seconds. She seemed to be going at a speed faster than was humanely possible (and coming from a vampire with super-speed, that's saying something).
After the feast we were taken to our common rooms where we were then directed to our dormitories.
Then (simply because we were too buggered to do anything else) we just picked a random bed, flopped down on them and fell asleep.
And the only thing I though of before sleep reached me, was how great the next seven years would be.
[A/N: Thank you for reading, and please tell me what you think. By the way, if you like this story, check out 'The New Marauders' by Honorary-Weasley-Lover.]
