1938 September 1 Continued…

A child's first sight of Hogwarts castle is always memorable. Coming round the bend on boats and seeing the castle looming up ahead. Even the children who had parents that taught them to hide their emotions could not help but gape at the sight. Tom Riddle was no exception to this, however with his experience in the orphanage he was the first to compose himself, beating even the stuck up blond boy.

Arriving at the castle and entering the entrance hall the first years were greeted by Professor Dumbledore who told them to wait for a few minutes until he came to get them. When did come to get them he told them how they would enter the great hall and be sorted into the four houses of Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin.

Upon entering the great hall the first years saw five tables, one for each house and the head table for the staff. At the front of the hall on a stool sat a ragged old hat, which seemed to be the focus of everyone's attention. The second all the first years were close enough to the front it broke into song.

Tom didn't bother paying attention to the words, though he did notice it describe Gryffindors as brave, Hufflepuffs as hard working, Ravenclaws as intelligent and Slytherins as cunning. Thinking over this he decided that he would much prefer to be a Slytherin or possibly Ravenclaw than the other two.

Watching person after person go up, have the sorting hat placed upon their head and the house they were to belong to shouted out to the hall he began to feel bored. Slowly his turn came round and he went up to be sorted. The hat barely touched his head before shouting out "Slytherin!" Glad of his house he went to sit with his peers, which included the snobbish blonde, who all seemed to have a sort of disdain for him that seemed based on absolutely nothing.

He waited until the rest of the students were sorted then listened to the Headmaster's sort speech on what was expected of the students during the year and then had dinner. After everyone had finished their dinner they sang the school song and the prefects led the first years to the dormitories. The Slytherin dorms were in the dungeons and to get in you had to tap the right brick while saying the password, which was currently 'Parseltongue'.

The next day was the first day of classes and Tom studied hard to try to prove to his classmates that he belonged in Slytherin. Each day he would go to the library as soon as his classes finished and study until dinner. Once back in the dorms he would start on his homework and finishing that he would read a book from the library or read ahead in one of his classes.