Chapter 7 – The Sorting

The Great Hall was magnificent; it was easily the most splendid place she had ever seen! There were thousands and thousands of burning candles, twinkling as brightly as the stars reflected on the ceiling – was there even a ceiling? – floating above five long, wooden, tables lined with golden plates and silverware. The first table was at the front of the hall, and seated there was what could only be the teaching staff. The students were sitting at the other four tables that were to Arthur and Laura's right and left as they walked down the center of the hall, two on each side.

As soon as they stepped in the hall, every single eye in the Great Hall, whether it be teacher or student – or the occasional ghost that Laura hadn't noticed before – was turned towards them. Laura, not used to attention, turned her gaze to the front of the room, blushing.

Professor McGonagall, pausing from where she had been reading off of a large piece of parchment, was standing next to a stool with a very patched and dirty hat on it. The Sorting Hat. There was a small clump of first-years, only about five of them left, who were also staring at her. Laura was slightly relieved to see Severus' familiar face among them. She kept her eyes firmly on him as she walked continued walking down the center – it didn't seem this long when they walked through the doors – and tried to ignore the water that was still dripping from her robes.

When they finally reached the front, Laura went and stood by Severus, trying to ignore the stares and to stop shivering (it was colder in here than it was in the Entrance Hall), while Arthur continued walking and talked with Professor McGonagall in low whispers. The Professor looked towards the staff table for a moment, beckoning over two of the faculty: a strict, yet motherly looking woman, and a man who could only be Professor Dumbledore, with his long white beard, half-moon glasses, and bright purple robes.

"What happened?" Severus hissed under his breath, pulling Laura's attention from the adults' conversation. She couldn't help but notice that he looked slightly green, most likely with nerves.

She half-smiled sheepishly. "I got lost." Laura explained how she had accidentally followed the older students and eventually ended up in the lake. Severus was having a hard time keeping a smirk off of his face.

When she finished, he had opened his mouth, no doubt to make some sarcastic remark, when Laura noticed that the professors had taken their seats again, and Professor McGonagall had reopened her scroll.

"Snape, Severus!" she read loudly, and the students who were whispering quietly to each other cut off abruptly.

"Good luck," she whispered to Severus as he walked towards the stool. Laura watched curiously as the hat was placed on his head, but she was the only one. She assumed that the older students had seen enough people be Sorted that it didn't hold any interest for them anymore, and everyone else was staring at her. Sigh. Well, this was probably the first time a first-year had managed to arrive late to a Sorting.

The hat had been sitting on his head for about fifteen seconds, and Severus looked desperate, like he was arguing with it. After a couple more seconds, a tear near the brim of the hat opened up wide.

"SLYTHERIN!" it yelled, and the table on the second to the right began clapping loudly.

After Laura got over the shock of a talking (more like yelling) hat, she realized where Severus had been sorted. She smiled at him, clapping loudly, trying to send her congratulations for getting where he wanted, before noticing that he looked upset. Laura was completely confused, but then she caught the longing look he shot at the table at the far left of the hall. Following his line of sight, Laura noticed that Lily had been made a Gryffindor, and was sitting next to Remus. The two of them were the only ones clapping at their table, but they made up for it by being extra loud. The boy who had just finished being Sorted when Laura had walked in and another aristocratic-looking boy sitting next to him were shooting Lily and Remus distasteful looks.

"Stebbins, Michael!" Professor McGonagall read the next name.

"RAVENCLAW!" it called after couple of seconds, much more quickly than Severus' Sorting, and the shy, studious-looking boy hurried towards the second to left table.

As "Turpin, Sean" was put in Ravenclaw as well, Laura noticed something that had her panicking again. It seemed as though the Sorting was going in alphabetical order by last name, and 'K' was certainly before 'T'. She came after she was supposed to be Sorted! What if they sent her home because she messed up a thousand-year old tradition?

Two more students were Sorted, and then Laura was the only one left standing at the front of the Great Hall. Professor McGonagall's eyes flicked farther up the parchment. "Kittson, Laura!"

She blushed at the slightly amused whispers that broke out throughout the hall at her name, and stumbled up to the stool, tripping twice over her drenched robes, which were sagging under the weight of the water and dragging on the floor. Her face went even redder as Professor McGonagall gave her a sympathetic smile, and placed the hat on her head. It was so big that it dropped over both of her ears, and rested somewhere around her nose.

She waited.

"Hmm…" said a small voice in her ear. Laura jumped slightly; she didn't quite know the details of the Sorting. How was she supposed to know that the hat would talk to her?

"How indeed…" the Sorting Hat chuckled.

Laura blinked, and tried to ignore the fact that the hat could most likely hear everything that she had ever thought.

"Let's see… You are one of the easier ones I've hat to Sort today. Plenty of courage, and a tendency to be slightly reckless… not a bad mind, but your pranks would definitely send you to GRYFFINDOR!"

The Gryffindor table exploded into cheers, and Laura took the hat off with relief. She set it back down on the stool before hurrying over to her cheering classmates and took a seat in between Lily, who gave her a hug, and Remus, who smiled at her. The chatter at the other tables started to die down, and Laura noticed that Professor Dumbledore had stood up, and was beaming widely, arms spread wide.

Everyone had noticed by now, and the hall was completely silent, except for the sound of a cat mewling from somewhere in the back of the hall.

"Welcome!" he smiled, "to another year at Hogwarts! 'He who laughs last thinks slowest.' Thank you!" With that, he sat down again, and everyone clapped and cheered, though that might have been because food had appeared on the golden plates.

There were roast beef, roast chicken, pork chops and lamb chops, sausages, bacon and steak. There were boiled potatoes, roast potatoes, fries, pudding, peas, carrots, gravy, ketchup, and for some strange reason, peppermint humbugs. There were a number of different dishes that Laura had no name for, but she grabbed a little of everything anyways.

"Is Severus going to be okay alone in Slytherin?" Laura asked Lily after they had piled tons of food on their plates, concerned for her new friend – at least she thought Severus was a friend.

Lily frowned, and the three of them glanced over to where Severus was sitting two tables away. He was talking to an older student with hair so blonde it was almost white. He was a prefect, judging by the badge on his shirt, and had a slightly pompous air about him.

Seemingly sensing their eyes on him, Severus' eyes flickered over to where they were sitting. Lily beamed at him, raising her hand and waving, Laura and Remus mimicking her. He nodded back, the first genuine smile that Laura had seen barely tracing his features, before turning back to the prefect.

Lily looked slightly put out.

"He probably just wants to make some friends in his own house, as well," Laura was surprised to hear Remus say to Lily. He hadn't spoken that much on the train, and seemed extremely shy.

Lily looked surprised as well, but hid well, to her credit. "Yeah, you're right. We've known each other since we were nine, so we'll still be friends." She nodded to herself, and that was the end of it.

Well, almost.

"What're you waving to him for?" the boy with messy hair – one of the two boys that were scowling at Lily and Remus when Severus was Sorted – asked from a couple of seats down the table.

It seemed that Lily had recognized them, or these were the two boys that she had been muttering about on the train – it seemed likely – because she glared at them. "What's it to you, Potter?" she retorted. So she knew him, then.

"He's a Slytherin!" Potter protested, and a chubby boy sitting next to him nodded quickly, muttering his agreement.

"He's my friend," snarled Lily. "I don't care what houses people are in, so shut up!"

A boy sitting on his other side– she didn't know his name at this point, looked ready to respond again (he really was an idiot), so Laura tapped Lily on the shoulder, wincing slightly and the furious expression on her face, and asked her a question about what the heck Quidditch was.

She smirked slightly at the disappointed expression on his face.

Eventually, the dinner disappeared, replaced a second later with every kind of food that had sugar in it. There were colorful cakes, blocks of ice cream in every flavor you could think of, apple pies, treacle tarts, chocolate éclairs and jam doughnuts, trifle, strawberries, Jell-O, rice pudding, taffy, cookies, and bowls of chocolate.

By the time the deserts had vanished, Laura was warm, sleepy, and happy, despite the fact that her robes were still wet, and she had a feeling that she had gotten a cold. She and Lily had spent a part of the feast talking to a couple of other girls in their year, Mary MacDonald and Marlene McKinnon.

Professor Dumbledore stood up again and cleared his throat. "Ahem – just a few more announcements now that we are all fed and watered. I have a few start-of-term notices to give you. First years should note that the Forbidden forest on the edge of the grounds is out of bounds for all pupils." Forbidden forest is forbidden, thought Laura sleepily. Got it. "Mr. Filch would like me to remind you not to use magic in the corridors. Quidditch trials will be starting the second week of term, and we are also in need of a new announcer. Please contact Madam Flake if you are interestered." Out of the question. "Lastly, some of you have most likely noticed the new tree that has been planted by the lake this year. It is called a Whomping Willow – seventh years will be learning more about it later this week – but the rest of you need to know that it is best to steer clear of it because, as the name suggests, it is likely to try to squash you into the ground." Stay away from killer tree. Understood. Some of the students were whispering again, most likely wondering what the tree was doing there in the first place.

She got up to follow Arthur Weasley and another redheaded girl to the common room, but the motherly looking woman who was talking with the professors practically grabbed her and dragged her off to the hospital wing. That must be Madam Promfrey, she thought sleepily, remembering what Arthur had said, as she lay down on the soft, white bed.

She didn't even bother to take off her uniform before she collapsed against the pillow, falling asleep instantly.