Author's Note: Tonks may be currently going out with Matt Channing, but it won't last. They will eventually decide that they're not compatible as boyfriend and girlfriend and break up. However, they will still be good friends. Tonks will eventually end up with Remus like in the books.
The door swung open at once. Professor McGonagall, dressed in emerald-green robes, stood there. She had looked somewhat kind when Alexis had first met her, but now she looked wholly stern and it appeared that it would be A Very Bad Idea to cross her.
"The firs' years, Professor McGonagall," said Hagrid.
"Thank you, Hagrid. I will take them from here." The entrance hall was so big you could have fitted the whole of a house in it. The stone walls were lit with flaming torches like the ones at Gringotts, the ceiling was too high to make out, and a magnificent marble staircase facing them led to the upper floors. They followed Professor McGonagall across the flagged stone floor. Alexis could hear the drone of hundreds of voices from a doorway to the right – the rest of the school must already be here – but Professor McGonagall showed the first years into an empty chamber off the hall. They crowded in, standing rather closer together than they usually have done, peering about nervously.
"Welcome to Hogwarts," said Professor McGonagall. "The start-of-term banquet will begin shortly, but before you take your seats in the Great Hall, you will be sorted into your houses. The Sorting is a very important ceremony because, while you are here, your house will be something like your family within Hogwarts. You will have classes with the rest of your house, sleep in your house dormitory and spend free time in your house common room.
"The four houses are called Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. Each house has its own noble history and each has produced outstanding witches and wizards. While you are at Hogwarts, your triumphs will earn your house points, while any rule-breaking will lose house points. At the end of the year, the house with the most points is awarded the house cup, a great honour. I hope each of you will be a credit to whichever house becomes yours.
"The Sorting Ceremony will take place in a few minutes in front of the rest of the school. I suggest you all smarten yourselves up as much as you can while you are waiting." Her gaze lingered for a moment on Neville's cloak, which was fastened under his left ear, and on Ron's smudged nose. Alexis nervously straightened her glasses. "I shall return when we are ready for you," said Professor McGonagall, "Please wait quietly."
Alexis knew all about the Sorting Hat, but she still couldn't help feeling nervous. What if it judged her unfit for any of the four houses? Or decided that she wasn't magical at all? The feeling deepened and was much worse than the time when she'd had to take a school report home to the Dursleys saying that she'd somehow turned her teacher's wig blue. Aunt Petunia had slapped her several times then, and Uncle Vernon had shouted at her for half an hour before throwing her in the cupboard, adding that she would stay there a week without any meals.
Suddenly, something happened which made her jump about a foot in the air – several people behind her screamed. "What the -?" She gasped. So did the people around her. About twenty ghosts had just streamed through the back wall. Though Alexis knew about the Hogwarts ghosts, she wasn't prepared for this.
Pearly-white and translucent, they glided across the room talking to each other and hardly glancing at the first years. They seemed to be arguing. What looked like a fat little monk was saying, "Forgive and forget, I say, we ought to give him a second chance –"
"My dear Friar, haven't we given Peeves all the chances he deserves? He gives us all a bad name and you know, he's not really even a ghost–I say, what are you all doing here?" A ghost wearing a ruff and tights had suddenly noticed the first years. Nobody answered.
"New students!" said the Fat Friar, smiling at them. "About to be Sorted, I suppose?" A few people nodded mutely. "Hope to see you in Hufflepuff! My old house, you know."
"Move along now," said a voice. "The Sorting Ceremony's about to start." Professor McGonagall had returned. One by one, the ghosts floated away through the opposite wall.
"Now form a line," Professor McGonagall told the first years, "and follow me."
Feeling oddly as though her legs had turned to lead, Alexis got into line behind Hermione. Ron was behind her, with Neville behind him. They walked out of the chamber, back across the hall and through a pair of double doors into the Great Hall.
Alexis had never even imagined such a strange and splendid place. It was lit by thousands and thousands of candles, which were floating in mid-air over four long tables, where the rest of the students were sitting. These tables were laid with glittering golden plates and goblets. At one of the tables, she spotted Kyra whispering to a girl next to her. At another table, Emma turned from a boy and waved to Alexis. She waved back.
At the top of the hall was another long table where the teachers were sitting. Professor McGonagall led the first years up here, so that they came to a halt in a line facing the other students, with the teachers behind them. The hundreds of faces staring at them looked like pale lanterns in the flickering candlelight. Dotted here and there among the students, the ghosts shone misty silver. Mainly to avoid all the staring eyes, Alexis looked upwards and saw a velvety black ceiling dotted with stars.
She heard Hermione whisper to the sandy-haired boy in front of her, "It's bewitched to look like the sky outside, I read about it in Hogwarts, a History." Alexis had read about it also, but she found it hard to believe there was a ceiling there at all, and that the Great Hall didn't simply open on to the heavens.
She quickly looked down again as Professor McGonagall silently placed a four-legged stool in front of the first years. On top of the stool she put a pointed wizard's hat. This hat was patched, frayed and extremely dirty. Aunt Petunia wouldn't have let it in the house.
For a few seconds, there was complete silence. Then the hat twitched. A rip in the brim opened wide like a mouth – and the hat began to sing. It proclaimed itself to be the Hogwarts Sorting Hat, and to try it on and it would tell where you ought to be. Then it sang about the four houses and their qualities before ending the song.
The while hall burst into applause as the hat finished its song. It bowed to each of the four tables and then became quite still again. Alexis heard a boy mutter, "I am going to kill my brother! Making me think that we had to fight a werewolf!" She snorted and shook her head at how thick the boy was. First of all, Hogwarts wouldn't make a bunch of first years fight a werewolf, because they were likely to be bitten. And second of all, even if the school did, it couldn't do so now, because it wasn't the full moon.
Professor McGonagall now stepped forward holding a long roll of parchment. "When I call your name, you will put on the hat and sit on the stool to be sorted. Abbott, Hannah!"
A pink-faced girl with blonde pigtails stumbled out of line, put on the hat, which fell right down over her eyes, and sat down. A moment's pause – "HUFFLEPUFF!" shouted the hat. The table on the right cheered and clapped as Hannah went to sit down at the Hufflepuff table. Harry saw the ghost of the Fat Friar waving merrily at her.
"Bones, Susan!"
"HUFFLEPUFF!" shouted the hat again, and Susan scuttled off to sit next to Hannah.
"Boot, Terry!"
"RAVENCLAW!" The tables second from the left clapped this time: several Ravenclaws stood up to shake hands with Terry as he joined them.
"Brocklehurst, Mandy" went to Ravenclaw too, but "Brown, Lavender" became the first new Gryffindor and the table on the far left exploded with cheers. Alexis could see Fred and George Weasley catcalling.
"Bulstrode, Millicent" then became a Slytherin. Perhaps it was her imagination, after all she'd heard about Slytherin, but Alexis thought they looked an unpleasant lot.
She was starting to feel definitely sick now. She remembered being picked for teams during sports lessons at her primary school. She had always been the last to be chosen, not because she was no good, but because nobody wanted Dudley to think they liked her.
"Finch-Fletchley, Justin!"
"HUFFLEPUFF!"
Sometimes, Alexis noticed, the hat shouted out the house at once, but others it took a little while the decide. "Finnigan, Seamus", the sandy-haired boy next to Hermione in the line, sat on the stool for almost a whole minute before the hat declared him a Gryffindor.
"Granger, Hermione!"
"Good luck, Hermione," whispered Alexis. Hermione flashed her a grin, then almost ran to the stool and jammed the hat eagerly on her head. After half a minute, it shouted, "GRYFFINDOR!"
Alexis clapped along with the Gryffindors. She grinned when Hermione paused to whisper, "Hope you're in Gryffindor, too, Alexis!" before dashing off to sit at the Gryffindor table.
When Neville Longbottom was called, he fell over on his way to the stool. The hat took a long time to decide with Neville. When it finally shouted, "GRYFFINDOR", he ran off still wearing it, and had to jog back amid gales of laughter to give it to "MacDougal, Morag." Alexis was the only one who didn't laugh, despite the fact that she found it funny, because she knew what it was like to be laughed at.
After "Macmillan, Ernie" (HUFFLEPUFF!), Draco Malfoy was called up. He swaggered forward and got his wish at once. The hat had barely touched his head when it screamed, "SLYTHERIN!" Malfoy went to join his friends Crabbe and Goyle, looking pleased with himself.
There weren't that many people left now. "Nott, Theodore" and "Parkinson, Pansy" both were Sorted into Slytherin. "Patil, Padma" went to Ravenclaw and her twin Parvati was in Gryffindor. After "Perks, Sally-Anne," it was finally – "Potter, Alexis!"
As Alexis stepped forward, whispers suddenly broke out like little hissing fires all over the hall. "Potter, did she say?" "The Alexis Potter?" The last thing she saw before the hat dropped over her eyes was the hall full of people craning to get a good look at her. Next second she was looking at the black inside of the hat. She waited.
"Hmm," said a small voice in her ear. "Difficult. Very difficult. You have qualities of all the houses. Plenty of courage, I see. Not a bad mind, either. You enjoy reading and learning. There's talent, oh my goodness, yes – and a nice thirst to prove yourself and an ambition to do well. So where shall I put you?"
Alexis gripped the edges of the stool and thought, "Not Slytherin, not Slytherin."
"Not Slytherin, eh?" asked the small voice.
"Are you sure?" "Yes, I'm sure!" though Alexis fiercely. "Put me in Gryffindor. Two of my friends are there and I'd like to be with them."
"But you could be great, and Slytherin will help you on the way to greatness, no doubt about that – no? Well, if you're sure – better be GRYFFINDOR!"
Alexis heard the hat shout the last word to the whole hall. She took off the hat and walked shakily towards the Gryffindor table. She was so relieved to have not been put in Slytherin that she hardly noticed that she was getting the loudest cheer yet. Percy the prefect got up and shook her hand vigorously, while the Weasley twins yelled, "We got Potter! We got Potter!"
Alexis sat down next to Hermione, who said, "I'm glad you're in Gryffindor, too." Neville, who was sitting on Hermione's other side, grinned widely. Kyra flashed Alexis a smile of congratulatiosn before turning her attention back to the Sorting.
Alexis could see the High table properly now. At the end nearest her sat Hagrid, who caught her eye and gave her the thumbs up. She grinned back. And there, in the centre of the High Table, sat Albus Dumbledore. She recognised him from the card she'd got out of the Chocolate Frog on the train. Dumbledore's silver hair was the only thing in the whole hall that shone was brightly as the ghosts. Alexis spotted Professor Quirrell, too, the nervous young man from the Leaky Cauldron. He was looking peculiar in a large purple turban.
And now there were only four people left to be sorted. "Turpin, Lisa" became a Ravenclaw. "Thomas, Dean", a black boy that was taller than Ron, was sorted into Gryffindor. Then it was Ron's turn. He was pale green by now. Alexis crossed her fingers under the table and a second later the hat had shouted, "GRYFFINDOR!"
She clapped loudly with the rest as Ron collapsed into the chair next to her. "Well done, Ron, excellent," said Percy pompously across Alexis as "Zabini, Blaise" was made a Slytherin. Professor McGonagall rolled up her scroll and took the Sorting Hat away.
Albus Dumbledore got to his feet. He was beaming at the students, his arms opened wide, as if nothing could have pleased him more than to see them all there. "Welcome!" he said. "Welcome to a new year at Hogwarts! Before we begin our banquet, I would like to say a few words. And here they are: Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak! Thank you!" He sat down. Everybody clapped and cheered. Alexis didn't know whether to laugh or not. "Is he – a bit mad?" she asked Kyra uncertainly.
"Mad?" asked Kyra . She paused, then answered, "Well, Professor Dumbledore is a bit mad. But he's a genius and the best wizard in the world. Potatoes, Alexis?"
Alexis's mouth fell open. The dishes in front of her were now piled with food. She had never seen so many things she liked, or would have liked, to eat on one table. The Dursleys had never exactly starved her, but neither had she been given as much food as she liked. With Dudley eating so much, there never was very much in the way of leftovers at mealtimes. Uncle Vernon hadn't stinted himself, either. The only time she had decent meals had been during the past month.
Alexis filled her plate with a bit of everything and began to eat. It was all delicious. :That does look good," said the ghost in the ruff sadly, watching Alexis cut up her steak.
"Can't you-?" I haven't eaten for nearly four hundred years," said the ghost. "I don't need to, of course, but one does miss it." He then introduced himself as Sir Nicolas de Mimsy-Porpington. Kyra had told her all about the Gryffindor ghost, and added that he was more commonly known as Nearly-Headless Nick. Kyra was proved right when Ron exclaimed that his brothers had told him about the ghost and called him that.
"I would prefer you to call me Sir Nicolas de Mimsy –" the ghost began stiffly, but Seamus Finnigan interrupted. "Nearly Headless? How can you be nearly headless?"
Sir Nicolas looked extremely miffed, as if their little chat wasn't going at all the way he wanted. "Like this," he said irritably. He seized his left ear and pulled. His whole head swung off his neck and fell on to his shoulder as if it was on a hinge. Someone had obviously tried to behead him, but not done it properly. Looking pleased at the stunned looks on their faces, Nearly Headless Nick flipped his head back on to his neck and coughed. He went on to say that he hoped that the new Gryffindors would help win the house championship this year. Apparently Slytherin had gotten the cup six years in a row. The Bloody Baron, the Slytherin ghost, was becoming almost unbearable. Alexis looked over at the Slytherin table and saw a horrible ghost sitting there, with blank staring eyes, a gaunt face, and robes stained with silver blood. He was right next to Malfoy whom, Alexis was pleased to see, didn't look too pleased with the seating arrangements.
"How did he get covered in blood?" asked Seamus with great interest.
"I've never asked," responded Nearly Headless Nick delicately.
When everyone had eaten as much as they could, the remains of the food faded from the plates leaving them sparkling clean as before. A moment later, the puddings appeared, along with blocks of ice cream, treacle tarts, trifle, strawberries, and other desserts.
As Alexis helped herself to a treacle tart, the talk turned to their families. Seamus said that he was half and half. His father was a Muggle, and his mother didn't reveal that she was a witch until after they were married. Parvati Patil then asked about Neville and he said everything he had revealed to Alexis, Ron, and Hermione on the train. Hermione said she was Muggleborn and then got involved in a conversation with Kyra and Percy about the lessons.
Alexis, who was starting to feel warm and sleepy, looked up at the High Table again. Hagrid was drinking deeply from his goblet. Professor McGonagall was talking to Professor Dumbledore. Professor Quirrell, in his absurd turban, was talking to a teacher with greasy black hair, a hooked nose, and sallow skin. It happened very suddenly. The hook-nose teacher looked past Quirrell's turban straight into Alexis's eyes - and a sharp, hot pain shot across the scar on her forehead. "Ouch!" she clapped a hand to her head.
"What is it?" inquired Kyra, sounding concerned.
"N-Nothing." The pain had gone as quickly as it had come. Harder to shake off was the feeling that Alexis had got from the teacher's look, a feeling that he didn't like her at all.
"Who is that teacher talking to Professor Quirrell?" she asked. "Professor Snape?"
"Yes, he is," answered Kyra. "You remembered what I told you about the teachers."
Alexis nodded. "He teaches Potions, but wants the Defence Against Dark Arts job." Kyra smiled, then turned her attention to her friend. Alexis watched Snape for awhile, but he didn't look at her again. At last, the puddings too disappeared and Professor Dumbledore got to his feet again. The hall fell silent. He gave the start of term notices, ending with that the third floor corridor on the right-hand side was out of bounds to anyone who didn't wish to die a very painful death. Ron laughed, but he was one of the few who did. Alexis didn't find it particularly funny, because Kyra said Dumbledore was serious about most things. She looked questioningly at Kyra, who shrugged in reply.
"And now before we go to bed, let us sing the school song!" cried Dumbledore. Alexis noticed that the other teachers' smiles had become rather fixed.
Dumbledore gave his wand a little flick as if he was trying to get a fly off the end and a long golden ribbon flew out of it, which rose high above the tables and twisted itself snake-like into words. "Everybody pick their favourite tune and off we go!"
Alexis, not knowing any tunes besides the national anthem, "Happy Birthday", "London Bridge," and some other children's songs, finally picked the tune of the national anthem.
Everybody finished the song at different times. At last, only the Weasley twins were left singing along to a very slow funeral march. Dumbledore conducted their last few lines with his wand and when they had finished, he was one of those who clapped the loudest.
"Ah, music," he said wiping his eyes. "A magic beyond all we do here! And now, bedtime. Off you trot!" The Gryffindor first years followed Percy and Kyra through the chattering crowds, out of the Great Hall, and up the marble staircase. On the way, they ran into Peeves the Poltergeist. Percy and Kyra warned about him, saying that only the Bloody Baron could control him, though Peeves did show some respect to the teachers.
Finally they reached the common room. At the very end of the corridor hung a portrait of a very fat woman in a pink dress. "Password?" she asked.
"Caput Draconis," replied Percy, and the portrait swing forward to reveal a round hole in the wall. They scrambled through it–Neville needed a leg up–and found themselves in the Gryffindor common room, a cosy, round room full of squashy armchairs. Percy directed the boys through one door to their dormitory and Kyra directed the girls through another.
At the top of a spiral staircase – they were obviously in one of the towers – they found their beds at last: five four-posters hung with deep-red velvet curtains placed circularly. Their trunks had already been brought up.
Alexis and Hermione selected beds next to each other. Lavender Brown took the bed on Alexis's other side, and Parvati Patil the bed on Hermione's. The fifth girl, Sophia Kent, took the bed between Lavender and Parvati. Sophia said she preferred to be called Sophie, adding, "I will hex you if you call me by that horrid, old-fashioned name. My paternal grandmother is named that, and she is one of the most horrid people in the world." Then she changed into her pyjamas and headed to the bathroom to brush her teeth.
Lavender and Parvati struck up a conversation, and tried to get Alexis and Hermione involved in it. They clearly wanted to get to know the others better and try to be friends. Unfortunately, neither Alexis or Hermione were interested. Parvati and Lavender were very nice girls, but they were interested in gossip and fashion.
When Sophie returned, Alexis and Hermione grabbed their dressing gowns and nightgowns and went to brush their teeth as well. When they returned, they saw that Lavender and Parvati looked slightly put out as they talked to each other. Glancing at Sophie's bed, they saw that the girl had drawn shut her curtains. It looked as if Sophie had decided to go to sleep.
Parvati and Lavender tried to get Alexis and Hermione in conversation again. However, Alexis was just too tired, and said so. She then got into bed and drew shut the hangings. Hermione did the same as well.
Alexis had a very weird ream that involved her wearing Quirrell's turban and it telling her that she was her destiny to transfer to Slytherin at once. She told it that she didn't want to be in Slytherin and tried to pull it off, to no avail. Malfoy appeared and laughed at her. Then he turned into Snape, whose laugh became high and cold, and then there was a burst of green light. Alexis woke up at this point, shaking and sweating. It took an hour before she fell asleep again, and when she woke the next day, she had forgotten all about the dream.