Chapter 8 A Happy That won't go Away

The new students followed Hagrid up the stone steps where he knocked on the door three times. It opened to reveal a woman, (who was normal sized, thank the lord) who was young looking and gave you a sense that said, "don't mess with me." Her hair was in a tight bun and her sharp blue eyes behind her glasses studied them all.

"Thank you Hagrid." She finally spoke. "I will take them from here." Hagrid nodded and walked off in another direction without a word.

"Fallow me please." she said to them and turned around, walking into the castle behind her. Melody could do no more than look around in wonder. This hall was HUGE. It could have fit her house in here about a billion times. Well, maybe not a billion, but a lot.

She stopped in front of another set of double doors and turned around to face the children in front of her. "My name is Professor McGonagall and I am the transfiguration teacher here at Hogwarts." McGonagall's eyes rested on Melody for a moment. "In a moment we will enter the great hall and you will be sorted into one of the four houses: Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, and Slytherin. You have a moment to yourselves before we enter so it would be wise to...clean yourselves up." She smiled thinly and disappeared into the hall.

Whispers immediately broke out all around Melody about what the sorting was like.

"I heard that you had to take a test of some sort." A girl with brown hair that was standing next to Melody said.

"Well, I heard that you have to actually do magic to fight something." Another boy spoke up. This comment only made everyone whisper more.

Melody began to panic. Sirius hadn't said anything about having to do anything really hard just to get sorted into your house. What if they had to take a test about Hogwarts? She barely knew anything about Hogwarts. Her parents didn't want her to want to go to Hogwarts. It would just make telling her she couldn't easier. Of course they had kinda blown off the issue of any magical child having to have schooling, but whatever floated their boats.

What if they had to recite some spell that everyone except for Melody already knew? She would like an idiot in front of all those kids. She turned red just thinking about it.

Then Professor McGonagall reappeared. "We're ready for you." she said, leading them into the hall.

The hall was huge. That and the ceiling looked like the sky outside, which was really cool. She wondered how they did that. There were four long tables that were three quarters filled. As they walked down the center, she passed Sirius James, Lily (who was sitting as far away from James as possible), Remus, Peter, (who they had found at the carriages) and Rebecca, who smiled and gave Melody a small wave. They were all sitting next to the empty seats. She smiled back when she saw the empty seat next to Sirius.

She looked up at the front of the hall where a long table sat with who Melody assumed were all the teachers sat. Dumbledore, (the one face that she recognized) was sitting in a large chair in the middle of the table, watching the new students file in with interest.

They stopped in front of the table. Professor McGonagall walked to stand by a stool and unraveled a roll of parchment.

"When I call your name, please step forward, sit on the stool and put the hat on." She paused. "But first..."

Melody sighed in relief. All they had to do was out on a hat. Then to her immense surprise, the hat opened its brim and began to sing of all things.

And sing it did. It sang about the four houses. Gryffindor the brave and loyal, Ravenclaw the smart and wise, Hufflepuff the honest and true, and Slytherin the cunning and smooth.

"Addison, Melanie."

"SLYTHERIN!" They Slytherin table clapped and welcomed their new housemate.

"Adams, Blair."

"GRYFFINDOR!" Now the Gryffindor table's turn to clap for a new housemate.

And so the names went on...and on...and on... and on. Until FINALLY McGonagall got to the 'C's.'

"Collins, Dawn."

"HUFFLEPUFF!" The small girl smiled joyfully and ran over to the Hufflepuff table.

"Clark, Kent."

"RAVEBCLAW!"

"Carrie, Jack."

And then she heard it. "Cauldwell, Melody."

Melody took a deep breath and nervously walked over to the stool and sat on it. Professor McGonagall dropped the hat on Melody's head and suddenly she couldn't see anything-the hat had covered her eyes.

"Well, what do we have here?" A voice whispered in her ear. Melody realized something with a start. The hat was talking to her. "Certainly a smart girl. Brave too." [Me? Brave?] She thought. "Yes, that's right. There's loyalty in her too. And an undying sense of friendship. Yes, I know the place for you-"

"-GRYFFINDOR!" The hat yelled loudly in her ear.

Melody grinned and practically ran over to the Gryffindor tables, who, (under Sirius' orders she found out later) were all cheering a little louder than usual.

"Alright Melody!" James said, congratulating her.

"Another one for Gryffindor!" Sirius said, giving Remus a high five.

"Thanks. I was terribly nervous." Melody smiled weakly.

"You did fine." Remus assured her.

Rebecca nodded eagerly, agreeing with him. Melody was beginning to find that Rebecca didn't talk a whole lot. She tended to be quiet and didn't speak unless she was spoken to or had something REALLY important to say. So in short, she seemed really shy.

They stopped talking and listened to the rest of the sorting ceremony. With Sirius and the boys (they had now found Peter) making side comments every now and then. Things like, "Oh, I know his sister, she's not very nice." and Sirius would add, "DUH, she's a Slytherin." That particular comment made Melody frown. She knew about all the prejudices in the world she lived in, and it seemed that Sirius had a few of his own.

Finally Dumbledore stood up and gave them a few warnings about joke products and wandering through the Forbidden Forest. (All the while looking sternly-but with a twinkle in his eye-at Sirius, Remus, James, and Peter, who all whistled and looked in opposite directions.) He then said that it was time to eat and immediately food appeared in front of them. Melody could already tell that she was going to love being at Hogwarts.

She was also beginning to get a picture of Sirius' social status. Even though they were only in their second year, they seemed to be pretty popular. Like people came up to them just to say hi or to see how the summer went. It was actually pretty cool, to be sitting with guys that were "popular."

As the meal went on, she felt herself laughing and smiling more than she ever thought she would. She had never thought she would get this far. But here she was, sitting with seven great people, laughing and having fun.

Not to mention that the food was only a little short of ABSOLUTLY DELICIOUS. And by the end of the meal Melody felt very full.

"I do not think I could eat another bite." Sirius said, rubbing his stomach.

"Me too." Melody sighed contentedly.

"Ug, I don't ever want to eat again." Lily said.

"Somehow, I think you'll be thinking differently tomorrow morning." James commented.

"Shut-up."

"Make me."

"Well, if you really want me to..."

"Guys, could you save it for when the entire school isn't watching?" Remus interrupted."

"Besides, I think Dumbledore is going to make us sing the school song soon." Rebecca said.

And as if he had heard her. Professor Dumbledore stood up just then and began to speak. "Well, I believe that we all are full and deserve a nights good rest. But first, we have to sing everyone's favorite song." He smiled. "Now all YOU have to do is sing in your own tune and time."

"But Sirius, I don't know the school song!" Melody said worriedly.

"Don't worry, I'll feed you the words before everyone sings them." He assured her.

"Hogwarts, Hogwarts, hoggy hoggy Hogwarts, teach us something please." He whispered to him.

"Hogwarts, Hogwarts, hoggy hoggy Hogwarts, teach us something please." she sang with everyone else a second later.

And that's how the song went. Sirius whispered every line to Melody so she could sing it with everyone else. Everyone was too tired to be difficult about singing the song, so they all ended at once.

As Melody walked with Lily and Rebecca up to the common room (walking in front of the boys) they explained about all the moving portraits and the password to get into the common room.

As they walked into the common room Melody was almost too tired to notice that it was an incredibly homey place. There were tables to study at, chairs by the fire to read in, and chairs and tables in the corner to do...private things in. As she later learned that was where the boys did most of their prank plotting.

She walked up the stairs to the left, towards the girls dormitories, walked into the second year dorms and almost fell on Lily's bed, but Lily so kindly steered her toward her own bed where she simply fell into bed and went to sleep without changing her clothes.

Note to You- You know what CB? I'll make her almost drown and then of course someone will HAVE to do the whole mouth to mouth thing on her. There you go. Anyway, I got a total of three reviews for this chapter. But when I got madderthanyou's review, I was so happy! So I decided to get my lazy mind working and type another chapter. Although it kinda took a while, I have a lot of future chapters written out. And yes, I know that normally Dumbledore puts the words out of his wand or something, but I thought it would be cute if we didn't do like that. How do you think it turned out?

madderthanyou- There is no way that I'm NOT going to stick to this story. I have it all planned out in my mind all the way up to the 5th book. Except Sirius kinda dies, so I have to think on that one.