(AN: Although JK has firmly stated that Hogwarts has around a thousand students, evidence in her books actually calculate around 300. I'm going to go with my own calculations. Sorry for any who disagree.)

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Chapter 6: The Sorting

Kazuma

Harry, Ron, Sarah, Neville, Hermione, and I made our way carefully out of the compartment and into the chaos of the corridor. I hated leaving Eikichi to be handled by some stranger, but I had no choice. The others got lost in the sea of identical black uniforms, though I noticed that some of the others had different color ties on than I did, and they had a patch on their left breast, too.

Outside, the sun had already set, but only a few stars had come out. It was early in the evening, so more than likely we were going to be fed—however they did that here—and then sent to our rooms to unpack. That was my guess, but knowing what little I did of Hogwarts of what Kurama told me, we'd probably get sorted into our houses, too.

"Firs' years! Firs' years, foller me!"

I recognized that giant of a man, and with a start, I realized where I'd seen Harry before too. In Diagon Alley, just before Kurama and Sarah went to get their birds. This man was the one who showed Harry around.

"Hello, Hagrid." I heard Harry's voice and waded through the sea of students. I was tall for my "age", but still the older students made it difficult to see. I found Harry, and the man—Hagrid—easily enough once I was out of the throng of older students headed for another area of the platform.

"Follow me. Got everybody?" Well, of course, no one knew anyone else unless they had ridden in the compartment together, and still again we'd all gotten separated by the scramble to get out. But he obviously knew that. "Okay, follow the person in front of you and no one run off. Follow me."

Harry got right behind Hagrid's bulk and I latched on, figuratively speaking, to Harry's uniformed back. After a very brief, but trying walk through a patch of woods and mud, we arrived at a small dock. Thirteen rowboats without oars sat in the black water, with only a lantern and the seats.

"Three to a boat!" Hagrid shouted. He took a whole boat all to himself.

Harry and I took a boat and I was relieved that Ron found us shortly afterwards. I liked people, but getting to know a bunch of new people all on one night was trying. I knew more was to come, but I'd rather wait till later.

As soon as all were accounted for, or so I assumed, the boats lurched off the shoreline and made their way out into open water. They rocked slightly, but other than that, the boats pleasantly floated over the waves at an even, steady pace. Neither fast nor slow. Hagrid's loud voice bellowed back, spreading over all of the boats like the fog that hung around the shore.

"You'll git yer firs' glance of Hogwarts aroun' the bend!"

Harry, Ron, and I watched carefully as the fog began to lift and the bend began. At first, all I saw were lights dancing out of reach. And then…a magnificent castle, as vast as it was beautiful, appeared. I didn't bother counting the floors—the towers made it difficult to tell how many there were. And there were so many, I couldn't even count them from this angle.

The castle came closer and closer, and soon enough we'd reached the other shore. I saw a small shack with a small garden outside of it as we walked up, along with what looked like a field way off in the distance. Hagrid led the way up a hill and then through a pair of heavy, solid oak doors. Inside was a huge hall, filled with armor on either side of the door we'd come in. I heard a hundreds of voices from the side of one door—probably the dining hall. Instead of leading us in there, however, a woman met us in the hall and strode across without a word toward another door.

On the other side of said door was a tiny room, where she began to inform us of what would happen after this.

"For some of you this may be new information," She smiled tightly. "I am Professor McGonagall, your Deputy Headmistress. Hogwarts school is divided up into four houses. They will be akin to your family for your stay here. Triumphs will earn you points, and rule-breaking will lose them. The houses are Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, Griffindor, and Slytherin. Each of the houses have turned out wonderful witches and wizards. In a few moments, I will lead you into the Great Hall where you will be sorted. Smarten yourselves up. I will come back for you when we are ready."

She turned on her heel and walked out of the room. I took a moment to look around, and I was almost sure that we were standing in the equivalent of the teacher's lounge. There were cups lining one wall, and a small stove on the other. A table had been cleared recently from the floor—I could see the dust marks where the legs of the table and the chairs had been. Before I could say anything more, however, Professor McGonagall was back.

"We're ready for you,"

Sarah

The Great Hall was gorgeous. In spite of being ready to see floating candles overhead, of being ready to see the starlit sky winking down at me, and the ghosts hanging over the tables. I wasn't ready. It was magnificent. Four long tables, made of oak or maple or something, sat students of all the higher years already.

The entire room, bar none, was silent when we walked in. After a rough count of us, the first years, I could say with confidence there were around thirty-five of us, maybe fewer. There was about three hundred head in the room, total, period. So there weren't many wizards and witches in Britain, then, at least not many children. I walked nervously in the line, and I could tell most of the others felt about the same. Some even looked a tad green.

We lined up against one wall, next to a single large table filled with people wearing green ties. I supposed they were Slytherin, considering the snake in the crest on their chest. Everyone looked forward, at a tiny three-legged stool beside Professor McGonagall. A hat similar to the one I had bought, but much older and with a tear on its front, sat on the stool. We all seemed to be waiting for something.

But what?

Then, to my surprise, the hat began to sing.

Long ago, fair Griffindor

Had this to say to them

When we are gone, what

Will happen then?

To sort them all

Like we have done

Is a big task indeed

So what will run

That Sorting every time

Why a hat, a hat!

With brains and that

The wit of a cat

And hence was me!

Griffindor favors courage

Ravenclaw the bright

Slytherin the cunning

And Hufflepuff the light

I have a warning, small

And just here to speak

Stand together, houses

And you shall reach the peak

Divided with calamity bring

Us all at demon's door

But trust in your headmaster

Our beloved Dumbledore!

The hat fell silent and the tear at the brim stopped moving. What was the hat trying to say, exactly? I was baffled by most of it, though I did understand the gist. It was going to sort us into the houses. Somehow.

Professor McGonagall came back to the stool. "When I call your name, come forward and put the Sorting Hat on your head. Abbott, Hannah!"

All of the first years, myself included, watched as the hat fell over Hannah's head and hid her eyes from everyone. At first, nothing happened. And then, to everyone's surprise, the hat shouted "Hufflepuff!" Clapping came from the table three down from where we stood. I could barely make out yellow ties on them.

I paid attention for a good amount of it. Harry, Ron, Hermione, Neville, and Kazuma, and his brother Kurama ended up in Griffindor. So did Parvati Patil (not Padma, though, she was Ravenclaw), Seamus Finnegan, Dean Thomas, and Lavender Brown. Draco Malfoy, Blaise Zabini, Pansy Parkington were Slytherin. Justin Finch-Fletchley and Ernie MacMillan were in Hufflepuff with Hannah. Terry Boot and Su Li were Ravenclaws. Suddenly, though, it was my turn.

"Galis, Sarah!" I walked briskly up to the front, since I was in the back of the line and I didn't want to keep everyone waiting. More than half of the others had already gone. I sucked in a deep breath before sitting down on the tiny stool.

"Hmm…such a bright mind. Strange dreams when you were younger, eh? Certainly are perceptive. Oh, I wouldn't put you in Hufflepuff…but really, this is a puzzle…you'd fit just about anywhere. Let's just put you in GRIFFINDOR!"

I grinned sheepishly at Professor McGonagall as I made my way over to the far end of the four long tables. They were all cheering as I took my seat between Kaz and Hermione. I was glad, because my favorite color was red and I really didn't consider myself too brave. Maybe being in this house would change that. Why had the hat mentioned the dreams I'd had as a child, though? Were they really relevant, three years down the line?

I shrugged it off, and watched the rest of the sorting. If I'd counted right, there were a total of thirty-four first year students. Eleven of which ended up in Griffindor, myself included.

At the Head Table were almost a dozen teachers. I saw Hagrid, and the man who'd helped my mom out at Diagon Alley, Dumbledore. McGonagall had joined them as soon as the sorting was done, the hat and the stool mysteriously vanishing. Dumbledore stood and smiled.

"I will say a few words, and then we can begin our welcoming feast. Underhill. Belonia. Oddment. Hetcher."

I was still watching Dumbledore when Hermione tapped me on the shoulder and pointed down at the table. In my absence of mind, platters of food and goblets of water and pumpkin juice had appeared on the table. I spied shepherd's pie and dug in on that, steaks, steamed broccoli, and a bowl of beef stew. I downed a lot of pumpkin juice, something that I hadn't thought I'd like, but was good nonetheless. After everyone had finished eating, the platters refilled with deserts. I helped myself to treacle tart and a chocolate éclair.

Dumbledore stood, and the desert disappeared, though glasses of iced water remained on the tables for thirsty folks.

"I don't want to keep you much longer, but I must make some announcements. First years will note that he forest on grounds is strictly forbidden. Mr. Filch has a list of banned items up outside of his office. The third floor corridor on the left hand side is forbidden, unless you want to suffer a painful death. On that same note, if anyone sees anything odd, I want it reported immediately to one of the teachers. Now, off to bed with you lot! Prefects lead the first years."

Kaz

"Usually he gives reasons for stuff," Ron said, puzzling over Dumbledore's beginning-of-the-year remarks. "The forest's full of dangerous creatures, everyone knows that."

"Well, maybe he's hoping people will catch the anomaly and see it as being more serious than normal," Kurama said.

"Maybe," Ron shrugged.

I watched Percy Weasley's back carefully as we made our way up staircase after staircase. All of the portraits around the stairs were moving. Some of them just stared at us, but a couple of them said "hello, children!" as we passed by. I was beginning to think we weren't ever going to get there—we'd gone up six staircases. The last one had moved on us, making Percy groan and explain that we had to go around to another one.

"He sure likes being a Prefect, doesn't he?" Sarah asked Ron as we made our way around the sixth floor hallway.

Ron snorted softly. "He's been gloating about it all summer. Loves the attention."

Fred and George Weasley were following us, too. "Yeah, he's just been pompous and unbearable. Not like we care." Which one was it who'd spoken?

The hallway led around to several other staircases, and we'd already passed three. Percy had looked up each one, muttered to himself, and continued on. At the sixth one, he grinned back at the rest of us. "Here we are. Quickly, now, we don't want to lose it."

We rushed up the stairs at these words, hoping that we didn't have to walk much further after this one. Hopefully no more changing staircases, anyway.

"I can't wait to see our beds, but how are we gonna get our stuff up all those stairs?" Harry asked as we arrived on the landing. Neville huffed up the last step, only for the staircase to start moving just as he'd got off.

"That was close," he muttered.

Fred and George snickered, but at Neville's close call or at Harry's comment, I couldn't tell. Percy headed straight down another hall, this one full of full-bodied portraits framed in gold. At the very end of the hall was a painting of a very fat woman in a pink dress. Folds of fat came from her bare arms and showed at her lower legs. Her tiny feet were daintily put in a pair of dark red, high-heeled shoes.

In a voice as deep as a French horn, she spoke. "Password?"

"Caput Draconis," Percy said, with a little titter to himself. The female Prefect beside him just shrugged off the implications of the phrase. The portrait swung open like a door and a large round hole appeared in the wall behind it. I spotted an old armchair and a huge fireplace, but other than that my first glimpse of the Griffindor Common Room would wait until a bunch of the others had gotten into the door first.

When at last it was my turn, I climbed in to receive a shock. The Common Room was enormous, covering an area that would rival my entire apartment back home five times over. There were actually three fireplaces, but only the largest one was lit. Brilliant red and gold tapestries hung on the walls, seemingly held there by magic because there weren't any fastenings. Only one—a tapestry between two huge, arched windows to the right—had the Griffindor lion on it, roaring toward the left. There were bunches of little areas set off with armchairs and couches and ornate side tables and coffee tables.

Two such areas were by the largest fireplace, and one at each of the unlit fireplaces. Sarah and Hermione were both staring at the fireplace, where a stack of library books sat from somewhere. Percy pointed as he spoke.

"Boys dorms on the right, girls on the left. You'll find your year on the outside of the doors. Good night, everyone."

I followed Ron and Kurama up a winding, but sturdy black iron staircase. At the first landing was "Seventh Year", and I let out a groan as we reached the second landing, reading "Sixth Year".

"We're at the top!" I shouted back to the other boys behind me. Groans could be heard all the way up the stairs, winding round and round and round the spiral stairs until at last, we reached the very top. "First Years" in silver, ornate letters is what it read, and I smiled as Ron pushed the door open into the spacious room.

It was round, with its own fireplace. Four-poster beds with heavy red curtains sat at spaced intervals. With a start, I recognized my own trunk, with Eikichi's cage sitting on top of it. Eikichi himself was sleeping on my bed, a bowl of food and water sat up against one wall. Kurama's owl, however, was nowhere in sight.

"I wonder where the owls are kept," Kurama said, seeing that Okuroshi wasn't with him.

Neville spoke up from where he was with his things. "There's an Owlery in the West Tower. The school owls are kept there, too. Gran told me about it, so I could send her a letter this week."

"Cool," Dean grinned. "Looks like we got it made here."

Kurama grabbed a set of sleepwear from his bags and hopped up into the bed. He closed the curtains around him and when he emerged again, he was dressed. I chuckled.

"Just like you, Rama," I said, using the nickname he'd suggested earlier in case anyone asked how close we were. Looks like I'd be getting to know him more than before.

He smiled and began unpacking his Muggle clothing into the cabinet beside his bed. I followed his example and put away my robes, blue jeans, and folded t-shirts and boxers into the drawers at the bottom. The others just got dressed and talked while we got prepared for the next day.

Kurama brushed his hair back into a ponytail and walked into the restroom at the back of the dorm. I followed him. There were showers with locking doors and a shared bath in the middle. A long line of sinks with a ceiling-to-floor mirror sat against the wall nearest the door.

Once finished in the bathroom, Kurama and me went back into the dorm where the others were still talking about one thing or another. I climbed into bed with Eikichi, who mewled and curled up against me as I laid down to sleep. I was out within minutes.

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Don't make fun of my Sorting Hat song. I know it sucks. But with the changes, I know that the Hat would sing a different tune, and as such, tried to alter it as necessary.