"Alright students, slowly now. We don't want anyone to fall into the water in their first day." One of the boat conductors joked. Now that everyone's here, I realize there's actually a lot of boats.
There's at least 20 boat conductors!
"Good Evening students, welcome to Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry. In 5 minutes, you will be gathered in the Great Hall, along with the other students. You will stand in-front of the principal, and the sorting hat. When I call your name, step forward for your sorting ceremony." The Vice Principal, who I think was called Mrs. McGonagall, informed us.
I nodded along with the others.
While I looked around, waiting for Mrs. McGonagall to return, I spotted someone familiar. A boy with yellow hair, as light yellow as the Malfoy we had just encountered earlier. He disappeared as quickly as I spotted him though.
"Jamieson, Rafe, listen." Hazel said, grabbing our wrists and pulling us close. "No matter what happens, do not wish to get sorted into Slytherin. Don't ask why, you'll know later." She warned, looking me dead in the eye. "Especially you, Jamieson." She added, earning a nod of fear from me.
"Alright students, you may walk in now." A different teacher came out to greet us, opening the two large doors. "Welcome, welcome first year students." The principal stated, standing on a platform all the way in-front.
"Please welcome our first year students, it is an honour for us to receive you as students, and an honour for you to be enrolled in this school." He boasted with a huge grin. Something about him gave me bad vibes.
"Please welcome two students from legendary families, ones who have not appeared in the wizarding world for ages, and we can't forget, another Malfoy to our big family." He continued. Crap. Another Malfoy? Seriously? One was bad enough although we've only had a brief encounter with him. I guess the blond guy I saw earlier was a Malfoy.
"What did he mean two?" Rafe asked with a small frown in a whisper as we walked to the front.
"Let the Sorting Ceremony begin." He stated, his wand no longer pointing at his neck. Mrs. McGonagall nodded, taking one hand had a scroll while the other held some sort of brown witch hat.
"The first student to be sorted..." She paused for a bit before scanning the crowd of first years in-front of her.
"Jamieson H. Potter." She announced, immediately the crowd began whispering among each other. I gulped, I knew I'd be first! I had that bad feeling.
"Ah yes, a Potter. What an honour for a Potter to be part of Hogwarts again." The principal stated with a huge grin. I honestly wanted to smack him, but I couldn't. Something about him makes my blood boil.
As I walked up the small flight of stairs, my heart began racing erratically. What if I do get sorted into the Slytherin house?
Wait, what are the houses available anyways?
I sat down on the chair prepared for us and took a good look at the bottom part of the hall. There're 4 rows of really long tables, each filled with students. I'm assuming there're 4 houses available then.
"Ah yes, this one is complicated. I haven't had a student this complicated since the last Potter that came here, Albus." The sorting hat began talking, which startled me. This thing talks!
While it pondered which house I belonged in, I couldn't help but notice the table at the right-most side of the hall has a lot more students than the other three. Something tells me that might be the Slytherin table. The table next to it however, was just...
Well, it wasn't empty but there's a lot more space compared to the three tables.
"Gryffindor!" The sorting hat yelled, which once again startled me. I watched as the 3rd from the left table burst in cheers, claps and yells of joy. "Hell yeah! A Potter!" Yelled one of the students in pure joy.
"Congratulations, Ha-... Jamieson." The teacher smiled before taking the hat off of my head. The person who I assume is the leader ran up the stairs and greeted me, "Welcome to Gryffindor, Jamieson." He said with a huge grin before leading me to their table.
"I'm Oliver Wood Jr, leader of Gryffindor. Well, co-leader anyways. Our leader is Professor McGonagall there." He explained, pointing at said teacher.
So they call teachers professor. Noted.
"I really need to catch up on my family's history." I said with a small smile, sitting down right next to Oliver. "Ah... You must've grown up in a muggle environment, like your great grandfather." He said with a warm smile. I had to fight back the blush that was threatening to show up on my face.
I've just noticed that basically all of Gryffindor had attractive males and females, though I'm more into males.
Hazel and Rafe also got sorted into Gryffindor. When their names were announced, then their houses, Oliver cheered the loudest of them all. "The trio has returned." He said with a huge grin once Hazel sat across in-front of me and Rafe sat next to me.
Oliver and Rafe began talking and laughing once the latter sat down. I noticed a huge mood boost from this table. At first, this table just looked... Scared. Like, really scared.
"Newton Longbottom... Hufflepuff!" I heard the hat announced, soon it was the third table to cheer loudly. So Gryffindor, Hufflepuff and Slytherin huh? I wonder what the last house is called. "Lydia Lovegood... Ravenclaw!" And so my question was answered.
Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Slytherin and Ravenclaw. The four houses of Hogwarts. This world is filled with interesting names. Another 15 minutes went by, soon, it was down to the last student.
A Malfoy.
This Malfoy looked fearful. He was practically squirming in his seat. I pitied him...
What could he possibly be scared of? His family practically owns the school! I know this because Oliver told me our principal was called Salazar Slytherin. He also told me soon I'd learn why everyone except the students of Slytherin hated him.
"Devin D Malfoy..." The hat announced. I watched sweat beads form on Devin's forehead. Not sure how I managed to see the sweat beads from this far, but I did.
"Now you're different." The hat continued, a long 'Hmm...' followed up afterwards. It took the hat 6 minutes to sort Devin. "Gryffindor!" The sorting hat announced, loud gasps came from the table behind us.
The principal, too, was shocked. He sheepishly walked towards us and saw no more space was available in-front. I wasn't gonna let him walk all the way to the back.
"Scoot over, Rafe." I said, getting ready to push him. "Wha-" Before he could ask, I pushed him to the side to make room for Devin. "C'mere, Devin." I said with an inviting smile. He lifted his head, revealing his watery grey eyes.
Wow, he was really scared huh...
"C'mon, I don't bite." I urged with a small smile, "He won't bite, he'll just gnaw you until you bleed to death." Joked Hazel after a while. I hadn't even noticed everyone else on our table, and a few from the Slytherin table, was staring at us with weird looks. Some had anger, some had curiosity.
"Thank you." He whispered with a small, almost unnoticeable smile. "Potter, what are you doing?" Asked Oliver, pulling me close to him. "I'm just making friends." I shrugged before returning to my previous position.
I couldn't just let him sit all the way at the end. Seriously, he looked bad enough on the stool, forcing him sit all the way at the end of the table is just wrong!
"I'm Rafael R. Weasley, you can call me Rafe." Rafael said with a huge grin, extending his hand for Devin to shake. Devin stared at his hand for a bit before shaking it, "Hi, Rafe." He said with a small smile. "I'm Hazel, nice to meet ya'." Hazel was next, showing they both accepted him although he's a Malfoy.
After a good 5 minutes of talking, the principal finally stood up. "Attention please." Professor McGonagall clanked her glass with a spoon multiple times before the hall finally quieted down.
"Since everyone here has been sorted into their houses, let the very first Great Feast of the year, begin!" He announced excitedly, though anger was lacing his voice slightly. All of a sudden, food of all kind appeared on every tray in-front of us.
Ranging from large, delicious smelling turkey, to floating balls of ice-cream that didn't seem to melt, to this humongous bowl of delicious looking soup, and finally a stack of colourful biscuits.
"Wow..." I said with a huge excited grin. If this is what we eat every day, I wouldn't mind living here! My plate was filled with food, some I've never even seen, within seconds. I felt a light nudge on my side, then turned my head to my right.
Rafe nudged his head towards Devin, silently telling me something was wrong.
I looked to my left and noticed Devin wasn't eating his food. In fact, his plate was empty! I set down both of my utensils with a small frown and picked up his plate, "It's the first day- well, technically the first night of school. You'd better eat up if you wanna survive the rest of the year...s," I joked, taking random bits of food from the trays and putting it on his plate.
"But-" before he could rebel any further, I jokingly scolded him, "Eat." With a small angry frown. He nodded before picking up his utensils and starting to eat.
I wonder what happened to him at home? I mean surely his parents must pamper him, he is the youngest of them all.
I think he is anyways.
As we ate, ghosts came out from the ceiling, the floor and the walls and came to greet us. Apparently each house has a ghost of its own! These 'ghosts' would patrol the school at night and make sure their house members are out of harm's way. They're also the first to spot any abnormality in the school, since they could literally just turn into orbs of light and fly away, or hide in small corners.
"Attention, students." Professor McGonagall did what she did earlier, clanking her glass multiple times. Everyone had already finished eating at this point, there were also quite a bit of leftovers on the trays. I wish I could eat more though, everything here tastes amazing! Even the floating ice-cream spheres.
"Since everyone has finished eating, you are now required to return to your dormitories. First year students please follow your house leaders to your dormitories. Your luggage has been taken care of." She announced, soon, the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th year students began standing up and leaving the giant hall.
Only when they were leaving did I notice the ceiling was different.
There was a beautiful view of the night sky, with the moon shining bright, the stars twinkling and the dark clouds moving by.
How did I not notice that before? Also, what the heck would happen if it starts raining? Is there a spell that protects students from rain? That would be insanely useful.
"Alright juniors, follow me." Oliver said with a smile before leading us all out of the room. We followed him up a few flights of stairs, then down, then turned left a hall, then right, and finally stood right in-front of a painting of a Fat Lady.
"Password, please." The lady spoke, which actually startled me. And quite a few other students, Rafe and Devin included. "Wicked." Rafe gasped in awe, then smiled widely. "Godric Gryffindor" Oliver stated, earning an nod from the lady in the painting.
"That painting can talk!" Rafe commented with a huge smile. "All paintings can talk... Didn't you notice that?" Oliver asked with a smirk, which Rafe replied with a shake of his head. We walked through a corridor, barely able to fit 3 peoples at once, before reaching some sort of living room.
Said living room had lots of comfy looking chairs, at least 3 long sofas, a few armchairs here and there, a few tables, bookshelves, large windows, a fireplace and the portrait of a lion hung on top of said fireplace.
The place looked like a cosy library-living room mix. "Alright guys, clear out." Urged Oliver, earning him a few groans and a few curious looks before all of the students left. I did spot a familiar, tall, brown-haired student before he disappeared behind the door to the right of the room.
"Alright, so this is the Gryffindor Common Room. You guys do know how to get here, right?" Oliver asked, raising a brow and crossing his arms. I shook my head, "Yeah I didn't see where we were going either." Rafe said with a small frown once he was done looking around in awe.
"You two are hopeless." Hazel commented, earning a small laugh from Devin, who I shoved lightly with a small smile. I'm not sure why but hearing his little laugh made me happy. "Well, as long as you're with someone who knows the way back here, I'm sure you'll be fine." Oliver sighed.
"Okay so... In this room, we celebrate. Doesn't matter what it is, a birthday party, getting an A in any subject, winning the Quidditch championship... As long as you're a Gryffindor and you've won something, or want to celebrate something, this room is all open for you. As long as you clean it afterwards." Oliver explained with a small smile before leaning against the fireplace.
"Before I let you guys go to sleep, I'll let you know. The founder of the Gryffindor house is Godric Gryffindor, who is also one of the four founders of this school. This is just a heads up for your first class of History of Magic tomorrow, in case you're actually unlucky enough to get it on your first day here." He continued explaining before glancing at the clock all the way above the lion portrait.
"Well, it's already 9:45 PM. The room to your right will lead to your dormitories. First year student dormitories are on the 2nd floor, the boys to the right, the girls to the left." He said before walking towards said door, twisting the knob and slowly pulling the door open. "Be careful, the stairs move." He said with a small smirk.
I gasped in awe, again, once I saw what was behind the door.
Staircases were everywhere, leading from one place to another. The ones we were facing didn't move, but the ones above us were turning every now and then.
"How do they do that?" Hazel asked, her eyes clearly showing awe. "Even I don't know how. Anyways, the first floor is strictly prohibited for all first year students. Got it?" He asked, scanning each of us.
We nodded in response, earning another nod from him. "Motus Prohibere!" He chanted. I didn't even see him whip out his wand! Wow, that's actually really fast. Or I'm just really distracted. The tip of his wand shone a red light before shooting a red beam of light upwards and causing all the stairs to stop rotating.
"Alright, like I said earlier, boys to the right, girls to the left. Hurry now." He urged before walking up the stairs, his wand still pointing upwards. We quickly ran up the stairs and into the door to the right, "Good night first years." One of the paintings stated.
"Good night sir Walsh." Replied Oliver with a smile before disappearing behind his door.
Since I was the last one to enter, I watched the red beam of light disappear, causing all of the stairs to start moving again. Thankfully the platforms themselves didn't move.
I entered the first year's dormitories and saw my bed was placed between Rafe and Devin's. Looking around the room, I saw 6 other four-post, two-level beds and the balcony. There was a large drawer under the bed and a wardrobe next to each bed.
I'm assuming the drawer is for bottom-bunk beds and the wardrobe is for the top-bunk beds. "G'night Jamieson." Rafe said with a huge grin.
"G'night Rafe, and you too Devin." I replied, smiling at Devin, who was currently climbing into his own bed. The blond boy smiled back at me before pulling his comforter all the way to the top-half of his body.
'I can't wait for tomorrow.' I thought before climbing into my own bed and falling asleep quickly, not even bothering to change into pajamas.