The first years formed a long line in the great hall as Professor Flitwick took a very old, dirty hat and set it out on a stool. "When I call your name, come forward and place the hat on your head. After the hat calls your house, take it off and go to your house table."
"A hat?" Christina mouthed to Sam. They both watched Professor Flitwick call up the first person and place the hat on his head. Silence for a minute or two, then a tear at the hat's brim opened wide.
"SLYTHERIN!" The hat shouted. The boy took it off and ran to the Slytherin table. Christina felt herself relax a little. This would be simple, right?
A few people later, Flitwick called, "Cramer, Abigail." Abigail stepped out of the line and put the hat on. A few seconds later the hat called, "Gryffindor!" Christina, Sam, and Derrick clapped along with all the Gryffindors as Abigail squeezed onto a bench next to the Weasley twins.
And a few people after that, Flitwick called, "Evans, Christina!" Knees shaking, Christina walked forward and dropped the filthy hat over her head.
"Interesting." A little voice said inside her head. "Not bad, not bad. Now where to put you? A good mind, kind and friendly, strong and inquisitive." The hat paused for a minute. "I think the perfect place for is—GRYFFINDOR!" Beaming, Christina took off the hat and ran to the Gryffindor table. Wherever Sam and Derrick ended up, she had at least one friend in the same house.
As the sorting went on, Sam ended up in Ravenclaw and and Derrick ended up in Hufflepuff. Christina thought Sam was an excellent match for Ravenclaw, and Derrick an excellent match for Hufflepuff. And she was glad none of her new friends had ended up in Slytherin. When he'd finally gotten through all the first-years, Flitwick rolled up his sheet of parchment and took the stool and hat away. As Flitwick shuffled away with the hat, two students awkwardly shuffled into the hall and sat down at the Gryffindor table.
"Harry Potter and Hermione Granger." Ginny whispered to Christina and Abigail. "I think McGonagall wanted to talk to them about something."
Meanwhile, Professor Dumbledore had gotten up. "Welcome to Hogwarts, and welcome back to our returning students. I look forward to another year together. However, before we can begin the feast, I have some important announcements. The first is this: Due to recent events in the wizarding community, the ministry has decided to place dementors at every entrance to the school to guard it. These creatures are incredibly dangerous and I advise you not to go near them for any reason ever. They will not know to stop and let students pass, and they will not be fooled by tricks or disguises." Dumbledore paused for a moment. "Now, on to lighter announcements. Mr. Filch has asked me to remind you once again that the forbidden forest is off limits to all students and that fanged frisbees and ever-bashing boomerangs are still banned." Was it Christina's imagination, or did Dumbledore look pointedly at the Weasley twins?
"Now on to faculty changes for the coming year." He continued. "First up, in the post of Defense Against the Dark Arts, Professor Remus Lupin!"
A tall, thin, greying man with scars across his face stood up and the school half-heartedly clapped for him.
"That post is cursed." Ginny whispered. "We get a new DADA professor every year."
"In addition, our Care of Magical Creatures professor, Professor Kettleburn, has retired in order to spend more time with his remaining limbs. To fill that position, I am pleased to appoint . . . RUBEUS HAGRID!"
Hagrid stood up sheepishly as the whole school erupted in furious applause. Fred and George Weasley actually climbed up on the table and started cheering, and were quickly followed by Harry and Ron.
"Thank you, thank you for your enthusiasm!" Dumbledore called over the noise. "Now—dig in!" He picked up his fork and knife and food of all kinds appeared on each table. People immediately began reaching for dishes they wanted and piling their plates high with food. Christina inhaled a full plate of roast beef, mashed potatoes, roasted broccoli, and several delicious soft bread rolls before she came up for air.
"Good, isn't it?" Said Ginny, who was devouring a plate of lasagna. "The first-year fifteen is very, very real."
Christina nodded and reached for another platter, but Ron Weasley got to it first.
"A word of advice, since we'll be at the same table as Ron for the next several years," Said Ginny, "He can get very hangry and it's really scary."
"I'll keep that in mind." Said Christina. "Hey, how many Weaselys are there exactly? Have I met all of you?"
"You've met everyone who's still at Hogwarts." Said Ginny. "There's Percy, who's in seventh year, also letting the power of head boy go to his head. There's Fred and George—currently the biggest troublemakers in the school—and then Ron. I'm the youngest. There's also Bill and Charlie. Bill works at Gringotts and Charlie trains dragons in Romania."
"Wow."
"Yeah, we're a pretty big family." Said Ginny. "We're also the biggest blood traitor family in Britain. It's a fun time."
"Blood traitor?"
"Yeah. We're purebloods—wizards all the way back— but we're partial to muggles and muggleborns—Dad collects batteries for fun—so we're seen as going against the pureblood way of life."
"That's . . . that's kind of messed up." Said Abigail, who had been listening in.
"Yeah. I mean, a lot of things in the wizarding world are kind of messed if you think about them long enough. There are lots of people out there who still hate muggleborns."
As the food plates began to disappear, chairs scraped against the stone floor and people started to stand up. "First years!" Percy bellowed. "First years come this way! Come along now, don't fall behind!"
"What is up that guy's ass?" Abigail muttered as she stood up.
"Gred and I think he sat on a broom the wrong way when he was young." Said George.
Percy led them out of the great hall and up the biggest staircase Christina had ever seen. Even worse than its size was the fact that parts of it moved, leaving you with stairs that led nowhere and some the just ended in midair. How was this safe? How could anyone get where they needed to go? When they'd passed the horrors of the moving staircase, Percy led them down a series of long passages lined with portraits who moved and talked. The castle went on and on, and Christina was beginning to think that maybe they'd be wandering the identical-looking stone passages all night, when Percy stopped by a portrait of a fat woman in a pink silk dress.
"Password?" She asked.
"Fortuna major." The fat lady nodded and her portrait swung open to reveal a doorway in the wall behind her. "Boys' dormitories to the right, girls to the left!" Percy called as they all scrambled though the portrait hole.
Upon entering the first-year girls' dormitory, Christina saw that all their luggage had been brought up as promised. Even better, there was Gryffindor gear laid out at the ends of each of the six beds: house badges for their robes, house ties, and red-and-gold striped scarves. Already the rest of the girls were piling in behind her.
"We should all introduce ourselves." Said a tall girl as she climbed onto her bed. "I'm Nora Jones."
"Christina Evans."
"Abigail Cramer."
"Jeanie Riggins."
"Nya Lewis."
"Dakota Wells."
"What do you guys think about having dementors on campus?" Asked Dakota as she pulled a set of Chudley Cannons pajamas out of her trunk.
"I don't like it." Said Nya. "They're so awful."
"Why are they even here?" Asked Abigail. "Dumbledore didn't say."
"Are you muggleborn?" Asked Nora. "Then you must not have heard about Sirius Black."
"Who's Sirius Black?"
"Sirius Black is a mass murderer. He killed thirteen people with one curse. He sold out the Potters to the dark lord, and now he's broken out of prison to kill Harry Potter and finish the job."
"Who's the dark lord? Why's he trying to kill Harry Potter?"
"Well, there was this bad wizard. He-who-must-not-be-named. He tried to rule the wizarding world, and he would kill anyone who got in his way. One time he decided to go after this family called the Potters because they were resisting his new regime. He burst inside and killed the father immediately. He did something even worse to the mother and the baby daughter, some kind of dark magic so horrible that even their bodies disappeared, leaving only a snarl of red hair where Mrs. Potter had been standing. Then he tried to kill the other child, Harry, but he couldn't. Harry survived, and the dark lord was vanquished. No one knows how it happened or why he survived." Nora paused, seeming to enjoy the effect she was having on the room. Christina personally thought Nora was spinning it almost like a ghost story, despite the fact that this was a horrible event that had killed multiple people.
"It's ok, though. He's gone." Nora went on. "It happened before we were even born, unless you were born before halloween 1981."
"I was." Said Crhistina. "October 10th."
"Ok, but you're too young to remember it." Said Nora. "And that makes you one of the oldest in this dorm."
"Keep going, I want to see how Sirius Black fits in!" Said Abigail.
"Ok, but don't say I didn't warn you. Sirius Black was the Potters' friend, but he gave away their location to the dark lord so he could come and kill them. Peter Pettigrew, another friend of theirs, confronted Black the next day. Black took out his wand and fired a curse that killed Pettigrew and a bunch of muggles. The biggest piece of Pettigrew that they could find was his finger, which they boxed up and gave to his mother."
"And now he wants to kill Harry Potter?" Abigail asked.
"Don't worry, Hogwarts is the safest place in the world." Said Jeanie Riggins. "Especially with the dementors here. Black won't even try to get inside."
"Did you even read the Daily Prophet?" Asked Nya. "They said it was like the dementors didn't affect him!"
Nora, Jeanie, and Dakota all started trying to tell Nya what they'd seen in the Prophet; meanwhile Christina and Abigail drifted off to their beds.
"What do think about all this?" Abigail asked Christina.
"What do I think? Well, I think Colin Creevey was wrong. He told me this year should be pretty quiet and I think it's gonna be anything but."