This is going to be quite a short chapter, especially compared to how long the last few were. Mostly because I've cut down the Sorting Hat's song. I love it, but including it all would just be repeating more than what is needed. Enjoy!
The door swung open at once. A tall, black-haired witch in emerald-green robes stood there. She had a very stern face, looking like she was not someone to cross.
"The firs' years, Professor McGonagall," said Hagrid.
"Thank you, Hagrid. I will take them from here."
She pulled the door open wide into the giant entrance hall, with stone walls lit with flaming torches, a very high ceiling, and a marble staircase facing them led to the upper floors.
They followed McGonagall across the flagged stone floor. Nicole could hear the drone of hundreds of voices from a doorway to the right. The rest of the school must be already here, but McGonagall showed them all to a small, empty chamber off the hall. They crowded in, standing rather closer together than they usually would've done, peering about nervously.
"Welcome to Hogwarts," said Professor McGonagall. "The start-of-term banquet will begin shortly, but before you take your seats in the Great Hall, you will be sorted into your Houses. The Sorting is a very important ceremony because, while you are here, your House will be something like your family within Hogwarts. You will have classes with the rest of your house, sleep in your House dormitory, and spend free time in the House common room.
"The four houses are called Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin. Each House has its own noble history and has produced outstanding witches and wizards. While you are at Hogwarts, your triumphs will earn you House points, while any rule-breaking will lose House points. At the end of the year, the House with the most points is awarded the House Cup, a great honour. I hope each of you will become a credit to whichever House becomes yours.
"The Sorting Ceremony will take place in a few minutes in front of the rest of the school. I suggest you all smarten yourselves up as much as you can while you are waiting." She started looking around on other students, sometimes on specific details, until she said "I shall return when we are ready for you. Please wait quietly."
She left.
"So how are we sorted into our houses?" Harry asked Ron.
"Some sort of test I think," Ron said. "Fred said it hurts a lot, but I think he was joking."
"Hope it's not a hard test," Nicole said. "I just got here! What is supposed to happen?"
"Who knows?" said Ron.
Well, it might be easy or hard, who knows? Nicole looked around, there seemed to be a degree of nervousness around her. No one was talking that much except for Hermione Granger, who was whispering very fast about all the spells she'd learned. Then something happened which made Nicole jump, and a few others even scream.
"What the -?"
She gasped. So did Harry. About twenty ghosts just streamed back through the wall. Pearly-white and slightly transparent, they glided across the room talking to one another and hardly glancing at the first years. They seemed to be arguing. What looked like a fat little monk was saying "Forgive and forget, I say, we ought to give him a second chance –"
"My dear Friar, haven't we given Peeves all the chances he deserves? He gives us all a bad name you know, he's not even really a ghost – I say, what are you all doing here?"
Nobody answered.
"New students!" said the Fat Friar. "About to be sorted, I suppose?" A few people nodded silently. "Hope to see you in Hufflepuff! My old house, you know!"
"Move along now," said a stern voice. "The Sorting Ceremony's about to start."
Professor McGonagall had returned. One by one, the ghosts floated away through the opposite wall.
"Now form a line and follow me," Professor McGonagall said.
Harry and Nicole got in a line, Ron behind Harry, and Nicole in front of them, behind a boy with sandy hair. They walked out of the chamber, back across the hall, and through a pair of double doors into the Great Hall.
It looked like such a strange and splendid place. It was lit by thousands and thousands of candles, that were floating in midair over four long tables, where the rest of the students were sitting. McGonagall led the first years up here, so that they came to a halt in line facing the other students, with the teachers behind them. There was hundreds of faces staring at them. Dotted here and there among the students, the ghosts shone misty silver. There was a velvety black ceiling dotted with stars. She heard Hermione whisper, "It's bewitched to look like the sky outside. I read about it in Hogwarts: A History."
It was hard to believe there was a ceiling at all, and the Great Hall didn't simply open to the heavens. Nicole quickly looked down as Professor McGonagall silently placed a four-legged stool in front of the first years. On top of the stool she put a pointed wizard's hat. This hat was patched and frayed and extremely dirty. Aunt Petunia wouldn't have let it in the house. Everyone, including the twins were all soon staring at the hat, and for a few seconds, there was complete silence. Then the hat twitched. A rip near the brim opened wide like a mouth, and the hat began to sing a song.
First it said it was the best hat ever, and then it introduced itself as 'The Sorting Hat', and said it could read everyone's thoughts. It then told about the houses, Gryffindor, which it said treasures the brave, Hufflepuff just and loyal, Ravenclaw wit and learning, and Slytherin, who it described as cunning folk who use any means to achieve their ends. Weird wording. It then ended by saying that it's a thinking cap.
The whole hall burst into applause as the hat finished its song. It bowed to each of the four tables and then became quite still again.
"So we've just got to try on the hat!" Ron whispered. "I'll kill Fred, he was going on about wrestling a troll."
Nicole thought about what house she might be in. She never really considered herself any of the traits. But she wasn't sure. She just hoped she and Harry would be sorted into the same house.
Professor McGonagall stepped forward holding a long roll of parchment.
"When I call your name, you will put on the hat and sit on the stool to be sorted," she said. "Abbott, Hannah."
A pink-faced girl with blonde pigtails stumbled out of line, put on the hat, which fell right down over her eyes, and sat down. A moment's pause –
"HUFFLEPUFF!"
The table on the right cheered and clapped as Hannah went to sit down on the Hufflepuff table. Harry saw the ghost of the Fat Friar waving merrily at her.
"Bones, Susan!"
"HUFFLEPUFF!" the hat shouted again, and Susan went to sit next to Hannah.
"Boot, Terry!"
"RAVENCLAW!"
The table second from left clapped this time; several Ravenclaws stood up to shake hands with Terry as he joined them.
"Brocklehurst, Mandy" went to Ravenclaw too, while "Brown, Lavender" became the first new Gryffindor, and the table on the far left exploded with cheers.
"Bulstrode, Millicent" then became the first Slytherin. Nicole really hoped that Slytherin wasn't as bad as Hagrid or anyone else said.
"Cornfoot, Stephen" became a Ravenclaw, while "Entwhistle, Kevin" became another Hufflepuff. Nicole noticed Harry looked a bit pale.
"It's okay," Nicole whispered to him. "They're going in alphabetical order. You won't be last again." She remembers when they were both picked last, because no one wanted Dudley to think he liked them.
"Finch-Fletchley, Justin!"
"HUFFLEPUFF!"
Sometimes the hat shouted out the house at once, but at others, it took a little while to decide. "Finnigan, Seamus," the sandy-haired boy sat on the stool for almost a minute before the hat declared him a Gryffindor.
"Granger, Hermione."
Hermione almost ran to the stool and jammed the hat eagerly on her head.
"GRYFFINDOR!" shouted the hat. Ron groaned.
"Li, Su."
"RAVENCLAW!"
Neville Longbottom, the boy who kept losing his toad was then called up, and it took so long for the hat to decide, until he finally said, "GRYFFINDOR," but then Neville ran off still wearing it, and had to jog back lots of laughter to give it to "Macdougal, Morag" who then became a Ravenclaw.
Draco swaggered forward when his name was called and got his wish at once: the hat had barely touched his head when he said "SLYTHERIN!"
"Moon, Lily!"
Lily Moon, the girl who Nicole saw at the train, took a while to get sorted into Slytherin, and that added two more Slytherins, Theodore Nott and Pansy Parkinson. There was then a pair of twin girls, both Patil, and then –
"Potter, Harry!"
As Harry stepped forward, predictably, there were whispers all over the hall.
"Potter, did she say?"
"The real Harry Potter?"
Nicole grunted, as she watched her twin brother get sorted, which took a while. Maybe the longest one. Her brother was incredibly hard to sort. He must be terrified up there, she thought. At last, about a minute and thirty seconds later, the hat shouted "GRYFFINDOR!"
As Harry went to join the Gryffindor table, he got the loudest cheer yet. A lot of Gryffindors were saying "We got Potter!", and the whole table was in cheer.
"Potter, Nicole!"
"Hmm," said a small voice. "Not hard. But interesting in a lot of ways."
Nicole tried not to think. It was obviously the hat judging her, but in weird ways. She didn't want to influence its decision too much.
"SLYTHERIN!" the hat said.
Nicole gasped. Slytherin, really? What? And it didn't take that long either. She suddenly felt uncomfortable. Not only was she sorted into a different house than Harry, she was also sorted into the house with the worst reputation. She saw Harry, on the Gryffindor table, his mouth turn from a smile to a frown, and Hagrid was also noticeably shocked when she looked over. She herself looked disappointed.
She could hear a little bit of applause from the Slytherins, some clapping, some feeling weird, Draco himself was more laughing than clapping, next to his friends. Nicole tried to find an empty seat, and she found one next to Lily Moon, the girl she saw on the train. This was going to be different.
Sorry that this was so short! But yes, Nicole is finally in Slytherin! What do you guys think?