The weeks that passed since Jonathan returned from Diagon Alley were frustrating
and often times strange. Every once and a while when he and his family went into town,
he noticed people in robes appear from out of nowhere and watch him. Occasionally,
some of them would wave, while others would just stare at him. Every time that he
tried to approach one of them, that person would shake their head and disappear.
This became tiresome to him after awhile, because he felt that they were the only
ones he would be able to talk to about magic. Most of his frustration stemmed from
this. He did not have any friends to share his newfound discovery with and he could
not talk to his family about it either. Even his mother would change the subject
whenever he tried to talk about it. He also had a problem when trying to talk to
his owl, which he decided to name Table. All it would do is hoot at him when he
asked it anything. Their conversations were
rather short.
Another source of frustration for him was that he could not try anything that
he read in his course books. Every time he picked his wand, he would hear
the voice of Mr. Ollivander echo in his head. When Jonathan's mother was paying
for his wand, back when they were in the wand shop at Diagon Alley, Mr. Ollivander
told him that he would not be able to perform any type of magic outside of Hogwarts
until he was finished with school. He further explained that there were stiff
penalties for underage wizards performing magic outside of school. So, whenever
Jonathan had the desire to try something, he would go back to reading his books
to try to help curb his desire. It only helped in adding to the intensity of it.
As the weeks passed, Jonathan became so engrossed with his reading, that
when the night before he was to leave for Hogwarts came, he did not realize it.
"Are you not packed yet?" his mother asked, when she entered his room and
found him reading.
A look of confusion spread across his face. "Where are we going?" he asked.
"We are taking you to school tomorrow," she replied.
The look of confusion changed into a look of panic when everything started
to sink in. "Oh no," he said, as he jumped out of his bed and started gathering
all of his supplies. "I did not know that it was tomorrow."
She patted him on the head and smiled. "Take your time. There is still much
of the day left and we are in no hurry." As she was leaving his room, she
saw him running around his room in a panic, trying to pack everything.
She giggled.
The next morning, Jonathan woke up several hours earlier than he normally
did, because of a nightmare. He was having a dream that he slept all day and missed
the ride to Hogwarts and when he tried to get in, they told him he could not enter
and to never come back. He spent the next several hours making sure that he
had everything he needed and even repacked three times. When he was sufficiently
sure that he had everything, he dragged his trunk to the main room of the house
and began to read.
An hour later his mother woke him up by placing a plate of food in front of
him very loudly. He sat up and looked out the window, seeing the sun shining off in
the distance. He suddenly remembered his dream.
"Am I late for school?" he asked, with a note of panic in his voice.
"No," she answered. "It is still early. Now, finish your breakfast and get dressed.
We will be leaving soon."
When he was finished with his breakfast, he went back to his room and
got dressed. Once again, he checked the mirror to see if he showed any signs
of him being a wizard, but saw nothing out of the ordinary. Except for the
owl flying past his window. He ran to the window hoping that it was delivering
a message to him, but to his dismay, it just kept on flying. With a hint of irritation,
Table hooted at him.
"I'm sorry, Table. I was just hoping that it was some message for me from anyone,"
he said, petting him.
He took Table's cage and proceeded to leave his room. He looked back into the room
for a moment before closing the door for the last time. Minutes later, he and his mother
were once again in a carriage on their way to London. The weather that day was more
to Jonathan's liking, it was dark, dreary, and on the verge of raining.
He and his mother did not talk much during their trip. He could sense the sadness
in her and did not want to contribute to it by talking to her about the school.
When they finally arrived at King's Cross, Jonathan's mother instructed the driver
to drop them off at the main carriage station. Several minutes later they were at
the station trying to find the way to Hogwarts.
"Do you see anything?" she asked, peering around trying find any kind of sign
that mentioned Hogwarts.
"I don't see-", he started to reply, but stopped when he saw a group of children
all huddled together. "I think they might know," he said, pointing at the them.
As they walked over to the group, Jonathan felt a sudden urge of anxiety wash
over him. He did not know any of them and was becoming hesitant in approaching
them. That is, until he recognized one of them as the girl who waved at him
when he and his mother were in the restaurant back in Diagon Alley. She recognized
him as well and met him halfway.
"Hi, " she said, smiling.
"Hi, " Jonathan replied in return. "Is this where we are supposed to be to go
to Hogwarts?"
"Not exactly. We are supposed to be in there," she said, pointing to a brick wall.
"We are just waiting for them to let us through."
"What do you mean through there?" he asked, looking at the wall with confusion.
"I don't see any door."
"You have to walk through the wall to get there. Just watch", she said, pointing
to a couple of the students who happened to be pushing their trunks through
the wall. "There is nothing to it. All you have to do is simply walk through it."
"Wow," Jonathan said, refocusing his eyes and making sure that he was
actually seeing the students walking through walls.
"It's time for me to go in. I'll see you again when we are at Hogwarts," she said.
She stopped and walked back to Jonathan. "I just realized that I do not know your
name," she said.
"I'm Jonathan", he said.
"Pleased to meet you, Jonathan. I'm Sarah. Bye for now," she said.
Jonathan turned to face his mother who was looking a bit frightened. "Are you ready
to go in?" he asked.
She grabbed his hands and looked him in the eyes. "Do you mind if just see you
off here? To be honest I am afraid of trying to walk through walls."
"It's all right," Jonathan said, smiling. He gave her a hug. "I guess the thought
of doing that can be quite scary." He noticed that almost all of the students
were now through the wall. "Well, it's time for me to go."
He gave her another hug. "Goodbye, mum. I will miss you," he said.
She kissed him on the forhead as tears welled up in her eyes.
"Goodbye," she said, wiping her eyes. "Be careful at school and be sure
to send us messages. We will be watching for your owl."
He gave her one last hug and started pulling his trunk to the wall.
"I love you," she called out to him.
"I love you to," he said as he passed through the wall.
He had to stop, once he had reached the other side of the wall to take in the sights
that were before him. He saw the other students climbing into a long line of
carriages that appeared to be tied together. He also noticed that at either end
of the carriage line that there were no horses. He surmised that they must be
using magic to pull them.
Just as he started walking towards the carriages another wave of anxiety
overcame him. He did not want to climb into a carriage, to be kicked out by
some students that did not want him on it. His imagination was going wild.
While he was picturing a group of children laughing at him and making fun
of him, he saw a carriage that was unoccupied. He felt a sigh of relief and hurriedly
pulled his trunk to it.
When he arrived at the carriage, he opened it and pulled his trunk inside.
He found that the carriage was a lot larger inside than appeared from the outside.
He settled himself in, pulled out one of his books, and began to read.
Several minutes later, Jonathan lowered his book, as he heard the door to the
carriage open and saw two older students enter.
"Is it all right if we ride along with you?" one of the students asked him.
"Yes, it's all right" Jonathan replied, as he returned to reading his book.
The two students pulled their trunks into the carriage and sat down in seats
opposite Jonathan. They were quiet for several minutes before they started
up a conversation between themselves. Jonathan looked out the window and saw that it
started raining. He smiled to himself and went back to reading.
Twenty minutes later the carriages started moving.
During the carriage ride, Jonathan could not help in overhearing the conversation
that the two students were having.
"So, this is your sister's first year?"
"Yeah, I hope she gets put in Ravenclaw. I promised my parents
that I would look out for her and it would be easier if we were in the same
house. It would not be bad if she was put in the Gryffindor of Hufflepuff houses
either. I would be worried if she was put in Slytherin."
"I know what you mean. You can not trust any of them. I have heard rumors
that most of them end up being dark wizards by the time they leave school."
"I wouldn't doubt that. Did you ever hear about a wizard named Demordan?"
"No. Who is he?
"He was a wizard who was recently arrested for trying to bring about the end of the
world. Fortunately they stopped him right before he could finish the spell."
"That's scary. Hopefully he will rot in Azkaban and never be released. That just
goes to show that Slytherin sends out dark wizards."
"Exactly."
Jonathan went back to reading and soon fell asleep.
"Hey, wake up. We're here," said one of the students, as he was shaking Jonathan.
"We are at Hogwarts?" Jonathan asked, as he was rubbing his eyes, trying to focus.
"Yes we are," the student replied, as he was pulling his trunk out of the carriage.
Jonathan waited until both of the students were out of the carriage before he
got up. He noticed that the sky was dark when he stood up and gathered his
trunk and cage with Table in it. He pulled his trunk out of the carriage and began
to look for where he was supposed to go. A tall man in green robes walked up to him.
"Hi, are you a first year?" he asked.
"Yes," Jonathan replied.
"Just leave you things here and follow me," he said.
Jonathan followed him and joined a group of nervous looking first years. At the
other side of the group he saw Sarah again. She waved at him and smiled. Feeling
his face go red, he waved back.
"All right, first years. Follow me, " said the tall man.
He led them to a lake that stretched out before the castle. Jonathan had seen castles
before, but had never seen any castle as grand as this one. As he was marvelling
at the castle, he and the other students were led to a set of boats in the water.
Once they were all in the boats, they were gently pulled to the other side of the lake
and escorted to the main entrance of Hogwarts.
Jonathan couldn't help but enjoy the beauty Hogwarts architecture, from the
large entryway to the grandness of the great hall. He admired the way the ceiling
of the great hall reflected the sky as it was outside.
"Greetings, first years," said a man, wearing black robes, as he approached them."Before
we let you join the other students, you will each be sorted into one of the
four houses here. They are Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, and Slytherin.
If you will please wait here, we will be back soon to start the sorting."
Jonathan began to feel the anxiety swell again, but was sure that most of the first
years we're probably feeling it as well. He could hear some of the first years theorizing
as to what happens during the sorting. Everything ranging from drawing blood from
the students to having them fight a giant. Jonathan felt that they probably would not
go to such extremes to choose a house for the students.
Several minutes later, the man returned carrying an old, patched hat, which he placed
on a stool in the middle of the hall. A tear, whichturned out to be the hat's mouth,
opened up in the hat, and it sang. As the hat sung, Jonathan learned about each of the
four houses in Hogwarts and the qualities attributed to each.
"When you hear your name called, approach the stool and put the hat on your head.
It will tell you which house you are to be in," the man said."After you have been
sorted, please go to the appropriate table."
Jonathan watched as each student was called to the hat. He could see the nervousness
on their faces even after they were sorted. At one point, he heard Sarah's name and
watch as she was chosen to join Gryffindor.
It felt like the list of names was endless, but when he thought they would never
call his name, he heard it.
"Jonathan Renwick."
Feeling his heart pounding in his chest, he slowly walked away from the remaining
first years and made his way towards the hat. He could feel the eyes of everyone
there on him. The weight of their stare made him want to shout at them to make
them stop looking at him. He felt as if his feet were becoming heavier with each step.
"It will be all right, just put the hat on and it will be over with." he told himself.
When he reached the stool, he paused and took a deep breath. He picked up the
hat and sat down on the stool. With all eyes upon him he put the hat on his head.
Instantly the hat yelled out, "SLYTHERIN."
and often times strange. Every once and a while when he and his family went into town,
he noticed people in robes appear from out of nowhere and watch him. Occasionally,
some of them would wave, while others would just stare at him. Every time that he
tried to approach one of them, that person would shake their head and disappear.
This became tiresome to him after awhile, because he felt that they were the only
ones he would be able to talk to about magic. Most of his frustration stemmed from
this. He did not have any friends to share his newfound discovery with and he could
not talk to his family about it either. Even his mother would change the subject
whenever he tried to talk about it. He also had a problem when trying to talk to
his owl, which he decided to name Table. All it would do is hoot at him when he
asked it anything. Their conversations were
rather short.
Another source of frustration for him was that he could not try anything that
he read in his course books. Every time he picked his wand, he would hear
the voice of Mr. Ollivander echo in his head. When Jonathan's mother was paying
for his wand, back when they were in the wand shop at Diagon Alley, Mr. Ollivander
told him that he would not be able to perform any type of magic outside of Hogwarts
until he was finished with school. He further explained that there were stiff
penalties for underage wizards performing magic outside of school. So, whenever
Jonathan had the desire to try something, he would go back to reading his books
to try to help curb his desire. It only helped in adding to the intensity of it.
As the weeks passed, Jonathan became so engrossed with his reading, that
when the night before he was to leave for Hogwarts came, he did not realize it.
"Are you not packed yet?" his mother asked, when she entered his room and
found him reading.
A look of confusion spread across his face. "Where are we going?" he asked.
"We are taking you to school tomorrow," she replied.
The look of confusion changed into a look of panic when everything started
to sink in. "Oh no," he said, as he jumped out of his bed and started gathering
all of his supplies. "I did not know that it was tomorrow."
She patted him on the head and smiled. "Take your time. There is still much
of the day left and we are in no hurry." As she was leaving his room, she
saw him running around his room in a panic, trying to pack everything.
She giggled.
The next morning, Jonathan woke up several hours earlier than he normally
did, because of a nightmare. He was having a dream that he slept all day and missed
the ride to Hogwarts and when he tried to get in, they told him he could not enter
and to never come back. He spent the next several hours making sure that he
had everything he needed and even repacked three times. When he was sufficiently
sure that he had everything, he dragged his trunk to the main room of the house
and began to read.
An hour later his mother woke him up by placing a plate of food in front of
him very loudly. He sat up and looked out the window, seeing the sun shining off in
the distance. He suddenly remembered his dream.
"Am I late for school?" he asked, with a note of panic in his voice.
"No," she answered. "It is still early. Now, finish your breakfast and get dressed.
We will be leaving soon."
When he was finished with his breakfast, he went back to his room and
got dressed. Once again, he checked the mirror to see if he showed any signs
of him being a wizard, but saw nothing out of the ordinary. Except for the
owl flying past his window. He ran to the window hoping that it was delivering
a message to him, but to his dismay, it just kept on flying. With a hint of irritation,
Table hooted at him.
"I'm sorry, Table. I was just hoping that it was some message for me from anyone,"
he said, petting him.
He took Table's cage and proceeded to leave his room. He looked back into the room
for a moment before closing the door for the last time. Minutes later, he and his mother
were once again in a carriage on their way to London. The weather that day was more
to Jonathan's liking, it was dark, dreary, and on the verge of raining.
He and his mother did not talk much during their trip. He could sense the sadness
in her and did not want to contribute to it by talking to her about the school.
When they finally arrived at King's Cross, Jonathan's mother instructed the driver
to drop them off at the main carriage station. Several minutes later they were at
the station trying to find the way to Hogwarts.
"Do you see anything?" she asked, peering around trying find any kind of sign
that mentioned Hogwarts.
"I don't see-", he started to reply, but stopped when he saw a group of children
all huddled together. "I think they might know," he said, pointing at the them.
As they walked over to the group, Jonathan felt a sudden urge of anxiety wash
over him. He did not know any of them and was becoming hesitant in approaching
them. That is, until he recognized one of them as the girl who waved at him
when he and his mother were in the restaurant back in Diagon Alley. She recognized
him as well and met him halfway.
"Hi, " she said, smiling.
"Hi, " Jonathan replied in return. "Is this where we are supposed to be to go
to Hogwarts?"
"Not exactly. We are supposed to be in there," she said, pointing to a brick wall.
"We are just waiting for them to let us through."
"What do you mean through there?" he asked, looking at the wall with confusion.
"I don't see any door."
"You have to walk through the wall to get there. Just watch", she said, pointing
to a couple of the students who happened to be pushing their trunks through
the wall. "There is nothing to it. All you have to do is simply walk through it."
"Wow," Jonathan said, refocusing his eyes and making sure that he was
actually seeing the students walking through walls.
"It's time for me to go in. I'll see you again when we are at Hogwarts," she said.
She stopped and walked back to Jonathan. "I just realized that I do not know your
name," she said.
"I'm Jonathan", he said.
"Pleased to meet you, Jonathan. I'm Sarah. Bye for now," she said.
Jonathan turned to face his mother who was looking a bit frightened. "Are you ready
to go in?" he asked.
She grabbed his hands and looked him in the eyes. "Do you mind if just see you
off here? To be honest I am afraid of trying to walk through walls."
"It's all right," Jonathan said, smiling. He gave her a hug. "I guess the thought
of doing that can be quite scary." He noticed that almost all of the students
were now through the wall. "Well, it's time for me to go."
He gave her another hug. "Goodbye, mum. I will miss you," he said.
She kissed him on the forhead as tears welled up in her eyes.
"Goodbye," she said, wiping her eyes. "Be careful at school and be sure
to send us messages. We will be watching for your owl."
He gave her one last hug and started pulling his trunk to the wall.
"I love you," she called out to him.
"I love you to," he said as he passed through the wall.
He had to stop, once he had reached the other side of the wall to take in the sights
that were before him. He saw the other students climbing into a long line of
carriages that appeared to be tied together. He also noticed that at either end
of the carriage line that there were no horses. He surmised that they must be
using magic to pull them.
Just as he started walking towards the carriages another wave of anxiety
overcame him. He did not want to climb into a carriage, to be kicked out by
some students that did not want him on it. His imagination was going wild.
While he was picturing a group of children laughing at him and making fun
of him, he saw a carriage that was unoccupied. He felt a sigh of relief and hurriedly
pulled his trunk to it.
When he arrived at the carriage, he opened it and pulled his trunk inside.
He found that the carriage was a lot larger inside than appeared from the outside.
He settled himself in, pulled out one of his books, and began to read.
Several minutes later, Jonathan lowered his book, as he heard the door to the
carriage open and saw two older students enter.
"Is it all right if we ride along with you?" one of the students asked him.
"Yes, it's all right" Jonathan replied, as he returned to reading his book.
The two students pulled their trunks into the carriage and sat down in seats
opposite Jonathan. They were quiet for several minutes before they started
up a conversation between themselves. Jonathan looked out the window and saw that it
started raining. He smiled to himself and went back to reading.
Twenty minutes later the carriages started moving.
During the carriage ride, Jonathan could not help in overhearing the conversation
that the two students were having.
"So, this is your sister's first year?"
"Yeah, I hope she gets put in Ravenclaw. I promised my parents
that I would look out for her and it would be easier if we were in the same
house. It would not be bad if she was put in the Gryffindor of Hufflepuff houses
either. I would be worried if she was put in Slytherin."
"I know what you mean. You can not trust any of them. I have heard rumors
that most of them end up being dark wizards by the time they leave school."
"I wouldn't doubt that. Did you ever hear about a wizard named Demordan?"
"No. Who is he?
"He was a wizard who was recently arrested for trying to bring about the end of the
world. Fortunately they stopped him right before he could finish the spell."
"That's scary. Hopefully he will rot in Azkaban and never be released. That just
goes to show that Slytherin sends out dark wizards."
"Exactly."
Jonathan went back to reading and soon fell asleep.
"Hey, wake up. We're here," said one of the students, as he was shaking Jonathan.
"We are at Hogwarts?" Jonathan asked, as he was rubbing his eyes, trying to focus.
"Yes we are," the student replied, as he was pulling his trunk out of the carriage.
Jonathan waited until both of the students were out of the carriage before he
got up. He noticed that the sky was dark when he stood up and gathered his
trunk and cage with Table in it. He pulled his trunk out of the carriage and began
to look for where he was supposed to go. A tall man in green robes walked up to him.
"Hi, are you a first year?" he asked.
"Yes," Jonathan replied.
"Just leave you things here and follow me," he said.
Jonathan followed him and joined a group of nervous looking first years. At the
other side of the group he saw Sarah again. She waved at him and smiled. Feeling
his face go red, he waved back.
"All right, first years. Follow me, " said the tall man.
He led them to a lake that stretched out before the castle. Jonathan had seen castles
before, but had never seen any castle as grand as this one. As he was marvelling
at the castle, he and the other students were led to a set of boats in the water.
Once they were all in the boats, they were gently pulled to the other side of the lake
and escorted to the main entrance of Hogwarts.
Jonathan couldn't help but enjoy the beauty Hogwarts architecture, from the
large entryway to the grandness of the great hall. He admired the way the ceiling
of the great hall reflected the sky as it was outside.
"Greetings, first years," said a man, wearing black robes, as he approached them."Before
we let you join the other students, you will each be sorted into one of the
four houses here. They are Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, and Slytherin.
If you will please wait here, we will be back soon to start the sorting."
Jonathan began to feel the anxiety swell again, but was sure that most of the first
years we're probably feeling it as well. He could hear some of the first years theorizing
as to what happens during the sorting. Everything ranging from drawing blood from
the students to having them fight a giant. Jonathan felt that they probably would not
go to such extremes to choose a house for the students.
Several minutes later, the man returned carrying an old, patched hat, which he placed
on a stool in the middle of the hall. A tear, whichturned out to be the hat's mouth,
opened up in the hat, and it sang. As the hat sung, Jonathan learned about each of the
four houses in Hogwarts and the qualities attributed to each.
"When you hear your name called, approach the stool and put the hat on your head.
It will tell you which house you are to be in," the man said."After you have been
sorted, please go to the appropriate table."
Jonathan watched as each student was called to the hat. He could see the nervousness
on their faces even after they were sorted. At one point, he heard Sarah's name and
watch as she was chosen to join Gryffindor.
It felt like the list of names was endless, but when he thought they would never
call his name, he heard it.
"Jonathan Renwick."
Feeling his heart pounding in his chest, he slowly walked away from the remaining
first years and made his way towards the hat. He could feel the eyes of everyone
there on him. The weight of their stare made him want to shout at them to make
them stop looking at him. He felt as if his feet were becoming heavier with each step.
"It will be all right, just put the hat on and it will be over with." he told himself.
When he reached the stool, he paused and took a deep breath. He picked up the
hat and sat down on the stool. With all eyes upon him he put the hat on his head.
Instantly the hat yelled out, "SLYTHERIN."