We – well, Harry and Ron – crammed our pockets with the remaining sweets in the compartment. Outside, in the corridor, the jam-packed crowd laid rest to any chance of us exiting the train in anything resembling a timely and orderly manner.
The train shuddered to a stop, and we opened the door from the compartment. People streamed off the train and onto the tiny, ill-lit platform.
We shivered in the cold, damp breeze.
Then a lantern appeared in the dark, bobbing above the heads of the first-years.
"Firs' years!" yelled a deep voice. "Firs' years over here! All right there, Harry?"
The face of Hagrid, the giant who lived in the hut by the forest, beamed down from high above the crowd.
"C'mon, follow me – any more firs' years? Mind yer step now! Firs' years follow me!"
The mob of first years followed Hagrid down what seemed to be a rather narrow and steep path. In the night, the area on either side of the path was completely in shadow, as if obscured by thick trees.
"Yeh'll get yer firs' sight o' Hogwarts in a sec," called out Hagrid, "jus' round this bend here."
From up front, I could hear the gasping of the students who had just rounded the bend. Having already seen Hogwarts, I thought I was prepared for the view.
I was wrong.
The narrow path suddenly widened, giving us a full view of the lake. Reflected off the barely-rippling surface of the lake was Hogwarts itself, illuminated by a million candles, the many windows sparkling like the stars in the night sky that served as a backdrop to the immense castle.
"No more'n four to a boat!" Hagrid called out, waving – was that an umbrella – at a small fleet of boats.
Everyone scrambled to get a boat to themselves and their friends. Meanwhile, Hagrid waded into the water, before mounting a boat that seemed altogether too small to support his weight.
"Everyone in?"
No one responded, everyone having boarded a boat.
"Right then," said Hagrid.
He did a quick check, making sure that everyone had boarded a boat.
"FORWARD!"
At once, the little fleet of littler boats set off. Despite the motion of the boats, the water remained still, almost like a mirror. The gently rippling distortion of the reflection only served to make the scene more beautiful.
Before I knew it, a sheer rock cliff obscured our view of the shimmering lights of Hogwarts.
"HEADS DOWN!" bellowed Hagrid as we passed under the cliff, the layers of cold stone blocking out the dim glow of the stars.
For a moment, we sat in utter darkness, the boats still somehow moving forwards. Then, we turned a corner, and the warm glow of torches greeted us.
Hagrid, at the front of the group, disembarked his little boat, then turned to help the rest of us out of our own boats. Neville, the toad boy, slipped on the slick stones, nearly dropping his toad.
Once we had all straightened out our rumpled robes, Hagrid led us up a flight of stone steps and turned to the great oaken doors.
He knocked thrice.
The door swung silently open, barely wide enough to reveal the silhouette of a tall figure.
"The firs' years, Professor McGonagall," announced Hagrid.
Professor McGonagall nodded in greeting.
"Thank you, Hagrid. I will take them from here."
She pulled the door wide open, allowing the group to enter.
I stepped onto the flagstones of the entrance hall. Having been here but a few times over the past month, I was only slightly awed by the size and the decorations adorning the hall.
What was more unfamiliar was the chatter of a hundred voices in an adjoining room. No – the Great Hall. The inane babbling of so many people somehow warmed the castle, as if Hogwarts was incomplete without students within her.
McGonagall led us to a small room, where the entire group stood nervously, somewhat closer to each other than was comfortable.
When we had all settled down save for the occasional shuffling, Professor McGonagall spoke.
"Welcome to Hogwarts," she said, and I relaxed as she ran through the speech. I had heard it before; she had practiced it numerous times when she thought I wasn't listening.
"I will return when we are ready for you," Professor – no, Deputy Headmistress McGonagall concluded. "Please wait quietly."
With that, she left.
Inwardly, I snorted. Please wait quietly? There was no way a room full of eleven year-olds could manage that.
Sure enough, a scant second after the door closed behind her, a voice spoke up.
"So how exactly do they sort us into houses?" asked Harry.
"Some sort of test, I think. Fred says it got him into the hospital wing for a week, but, you know. Fred."
Harry nodded distractedly.
I winced a bit, rubbing at my forehead.
PERSONALITY
"Houses are based off personality, right?" I asked rhetorically. "Then any test is probably going to see what your personality is. A personality test, not a test of knowledge."
A quiet thump sounded, and I glanced to the right, where Hermione Granger had a hand on her forehead.
We stayed quiet for a short period of time, leaving me impressed.
Then a scream cut through the silence like a knife.
Headache exacerbated by the noise, I turned around. A dozen or so ghosts streamed into the room, led by the Fat Friar.
"Forgive and forget, I say, we ought to give him a second chance –" said the Friar.
"My dear Friar, haven't we given Peeves all the chances he deserves?" retorted Sir Nicholas.
I found myself nodding in agreement – I had been prey to some of Peeves's tricks. I listened in on the conclusion of their argument a few seconds later, when the noticed us.
The Friar, kindly man that he was, took time to make us welcome, and not-so-subtly pushing us towards his old house, Hufflepuff.
The door swung open.
"Move along, now," ordered Deputy Headmistress McGonagall. "The Sorting Ceremony is about to begin."
Nodding respectfully at her, the ghosts left through the opposite wall.
"Now form a line, and follow me."
We exited the chamber, crossing the hall to the doors to the Great Hall. McGonagall pushed the doors open, and led us into the Great Hall.
It's amazing how hundreds of students can make the hall seem so much friendlier.
"It's bewitched to look like the sky outside," said Hermione Granger.
I followed her gaze to the ceiling.
"I read about it in Hogwarts, a History," she added.
After a moment of staring at the stars, I lowered my gaze, just in time to catch McGonagall placing down a stool, with the Headmaster's battered old hat on top.
Then, the hat straightened, opened a rip like a mouth, and began to sing.
It introduced itself, then went on to name the four houses and the virtues for which they are chosen.
"You're in safe hands, (though I have none), for I'm a thinking cap!" it concluded to polite applause.
"So we just put on the hat!" exclaimed Ron. "I'm gonna kill Fred; he was going on about wrestling a troll!"
I rolled my eyes. Even without it being Fred who said that, it was obviously false.
McGonagall stepped forward, unrolling a large scroll.
"Abbott, Hannah!"
Hannah Abbott, a blond girl with pigtails, stumbled forwards to the stool. She sat, the hat lowering on her head and falling to cover her eyes.
With bated breath, the room fell utterly silent for the first sorting.
"HUFFLEPUFF!"
McGonagall looked back at the list. If it were alphabetical, as I suspected, I would be next.
"Anderson, William!"
I took a calming breath. Stepping forward, I could feel the eyes of everyone in the hall falling upon me. Reading me. Judging me.
Silently, I stepped forward, to just behind the stool. I lifted the Hat off it, then, in one smooth motion seated myself on the stool.
The hat flopped onto my head.
«Interesting. Very, very interesting,» sounded the voice of the Hat.
I blinked, my eyes obscured by the fabric of the Hat. Those words were not heard by the ears, but in the head.
«Courage. Plenty of courage. Loyalty to your ideals. Loyalty to your lost family. A thirst for knowledge. But there's something else.»
"What is it?" I asked. Or rather, I tried to ask; no indication of the words reached my lips.
The hat chuckled.
«So impatient,» it said. «Your ambition is… ambitious»
"Tautology," I noted. Again, not even a twitch reached my lips.
«Indeed. You wish to avenge your lost family. And there is nothing that you would not do to reach that goal.»
"Yes, that's–"
A thought struck me.
"You're not going to put me in Slytherin, are you?" I exclaimed.
«That remains to be seen,» said the Hat drily.
"I thought Hogwarts, a History said that you never sort muggleborns into Slytherin."
«The book is wrong. I only rarely sort muggleborns into Slytherin, and even then only because of their personalities. Most muggleborns would not fit in Slytherin.»
"Because they think differently?"
«Yes.»
I nodded.
«You have ambition, bravery, and a thirst for knowledge and justice, all in great measure. Godric would not have taken you; you are too sneaky for him. Helga would not lay claim on you, for she would wish to avoid conflict.»
"Wait, you knew them?"
«Yes, I was Godric's old hat.»
I blinked. Apparently, I was wrong in assuming that the hat was the Headmaster's.
«We are left with Ravenclaw and Slytherin. The two most stubborn of the four. They had so many arguments in their day, over students. In the end… Why do you seek knowledge?»
Why did I seek knowledge? Years ago, I simply wanted to know everything. But not anymore. There are simply too many things for a single person to know. So, I wanted to know everything useful?
No. That still wasn't quite right. I wanted knowledge that I could use, so I could use it. Even in the past month, the few spells I had learnt were spells which I would find useful every day.
Spells like Lumos, or Locomotor.
I learn things so that I can use them.
«You learn things so that you can use them,» echoed the Hat.
"Yes."
«Then I know which house you belong to.»
It took a pause, as if to inhale.
And it spoke.
