8. The Categorizing Headwear
The boats drifted across the huge black lake. The children stared in wonder and awe as they approached the castle of Hogwarts, its many turrets and towers silhouetted against the dark night. Lights glinted from the windows like so many fireflies.
'Looks cool,' muttered Ron, who was sharing a boat with Harry and Hermione.
'Yeah,' agreed Hagrid the giant, from his own boat which was a few feet away and ahead of theirs. Hagrid had greeted the first-years at Hogsmeade station, and led them to the boats. It was apparently tradition that the youngest students travel across a miles-deep lake in little boats at night-time to get to the school.
Dudley had got into a boat with Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle, but the latter two were the ones rowing. Dudley and Malfoy grinned gleefully at each other while Crabbe and Goyle puffed and pulled.
Soon after, the boats gently coasted the pebbly shore on the other side. The children alighted, shivering in the intimidating shadow of the castle. Hermione called out loudly, 'Hasn't anybody seen a toad? A boy named Neville -,'
'Hermione, I found Trevor forty-five minutes ago!' said round-faced Neville, pulling the toad out of his cloak for her to see. 'Will you just shut up, please?'
'Yeah, it's getting a bit old,' chimed in a heavily Irish-accented boy with sandy hair.
'So's your face,' Hermione retorted.
The boy, who Harry would later discover was called Seamus Finnegan, went red and opened his mouth furiously, but Hagrid spoke before he could get a word out, 'Right, then, enough's enough! Come on, let's get yeh up t' the school…'
Roughly three minutes and seventeen seconds later, having followed the winding path through the trees from the shore up to the castle itself, the first-years rushed up the stone steps and stopped before the great oak front door. Hagrid, having somehow gotten hold of his magical flying motorbike at some point, landed in front of them with a tremendous crash which made the castle tremble. The door in front of them opened and there stood a tall, strict looking witch with black hair in a tight bun beneath her witches' hat. She stared around at them all for a moment, before starting, as if surprised. 'Oh! Er...hi! Welcome to Hogwarts...thing.'
Harry and Ron raised their eyebrows at each other. Nobody said anything for a moment. Hagrid, still mounted on his gargantuan aeronautical motorized bicycle, seemed to be waiting politely for the witch to say something else. Eventually she did, addressing the nervous first-years.
'Er - take a look around, go where you want, meet back here in twenty minutes, and I'll tell you where in the school grounds is forbidden and deduct any points from the houses you're not yet sorted into, for having gone in those forbidden places.'
'Maybe they should be Sorted now, Professor McGonagall,' said Hagrid loudly.
Professor McGonagall looked for a moment as though she was going to scream. However, her voice very calm, she looked at Hagrid and said, 'Oh, very well, Hagrid, we'll play it your way... yes, yes, let us have them Sorted first...'
Her voice trailed away, and then she did. She had turned around and was drifting down a cavernous hallway before the children realised they had to follow her. 'A little erratic, isn't she?' Harry muttered to Ron and Hermione as they hurried over the threshold into the hallway.
'Yeah, they've totally got her character wrong,' said Ron.
They all stopped in front of another set of huge doors. Professor McGonagall stood in front of them and looked at the children. 'In a moment, you shall walk through these doors, like so -,' she mimed walking, '- and join your classmates.' She then mimed sitting down. 'Before that, however, you must be Sorted, or Categorized, into your houses. There are four,' she held up four fingers. 'Gryffindor, Slytherin, Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff. They're all rather awesome. Be good, and you'll earn house points. Be naughty, and you shall lose them. Any questions?'
But she didn't wait for anyone to ask questions; instead, she turned around and threw open the doors. Hundreds of students sat at the four house tables spanning the room, and there was a fifth table at the top of the room, where the teachers sat. Harry recognised Dumbledore's beard.
The first-years entered the Great Hall and proceeded to the Top Table. Harry felt very nervous; he looked around for Professor McGonagall, but couldn't see her. Then a door opened behind the teachers' table and McGonagall entered, carrying a spindly stool and a very old, patched and frayed wizards' hat.
McGonagall pirouetted around the table and placed the stool on the ground directly in front of Dumbledore, who sat at the centre of the table. Then she dropped the hat on top of the stool, hiding Dumbledore completely from view. Tutting irritably, Dumbledore leaned sideways so that he could be seen from behind the hat.
Professor McGonagall, her job done, faced the room at large, and bowed. There was no applause at all. Looking embarrassed, McGonagall hurried around the table and resumed her seat beside Dumbledore's. She cleared her throat and read out from a piece of parchment in front of her: 'When I call your name, sit on the stool and put on the Categorizing Headware' ('she means "Sorting Hat",' Hermione whispered to Ron and Harry), 'which will tell you in which house you belong.'
She opened another scroll of parchment, and looked down at it.
'ABBOTT, HANNAH!' Professor McGonagall screamed.
A small blonde-haired girl rushed forwards, donned the Hat and sat upon the stool.
'Hufflepuff!' cried the Hat. Hannah removed it from her head and rushed over to sit at the Hufflepuff table whilst everyone clapped.
It took just under four minutes and eleven and a half seconds to get through everyone. Harry, Ron and Hermione had got into Gryffindor, along with Trevor-owner Neville and Irish Seamus. Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle were Slytherins. Finally, Professor McGonagall screeched, 'DURSLEY, DUDLEY!'
Dudley walked forwards, barely feeling nervous. He looked around as he approached the stool, and saw Malfoy giving him a nod and a smile. Sure of his destiny, Dudley raised the Hat, and placed it on his head...
A/N: So which house does Dudley belong in, do you think?
