Chapter Three:Sorting, Feast, New Home
The first-year students(or what Brendan assumed were them), lined up in an orderly fashion in front of what Brendan identified to be the teacher that had brought them on the trip earlier. Brendan quickly darted to the back of the line. The teacher looked almost bored, and some of the students looked anxious, while others wore a curious look. "Alright, time for the Sorting." the teacher siad. "When I call your name, follow me into my classroom. Afterwards, go to the auditorium and sit at the table of your new house. "Ayers, Greg." A boy jumped up in suprise, but uncertainly followed the Charms teacher.
About a minute later, the Charms teacher returned. The boy, Greg Ayers, was nowhere to be seen-Brendan guessed he was at the feast like the older students, sitting down and trying to fit in with the other students of whatever house he had been sorted into. "Cerry, Victoria." A girl followed the teacher with a prideful stride. One minute later, the teacher returned again. "Cryus, Tom."
And so this went on. Brendan breifly noted "Karee, Penny", before the girl eagerly bounced after the teacher. Finally, the teacher-he supposed her name was Professor Darnith-called "Spryn, Brendan." Brendan tried to follow the teacher casually, but he ended up chewing his nails. All that he had heard was "The Sorting." There had been no explanation, no directions other than "go to the Auditorium after it and sit with your new house." Brendan had no idea what was going to happen to him.
Professor Darnith lead Brendan through a door on the front tower. Through the door there were spiral stairs that seemed to strech up forever. Luckily, the Charms teacher only went up to the third floor(although it still tired Brendan, who hated stairs but figured that he would have to climb many at Nehyr) and went through the door there. Brendan, with some hesitation, followed.
The 'floor' was only one room. It had a wooden floor, with the odd poster talking about work habits or(in one case, reminders on how to do spells.) The room was about twice the size of a normal classroom, and had dozens of desks. There was a blackboard against the wall, and in the end it reminded Brendan of a classroom back home. Brendan took a seat in an empty desk. "This your room?"
"Yup." Professor Darnith said, pulling out her wand. "Now, this'll all be over in a minute. Srotio!" Brendan braced himself for physical pain as a blue beam shot out of the wand, but all he felt was a slight ticklish sensation on the side of his head. This lasted for ten seconds until it vanihsed and Brendan could feel something inside his head. No-his brain, to be more accurate. He could just feel it, pulsing through his thought waves. It was looking through his memories and emotions. What was going on? Surely the Minsitry of Magic or whatever it was wouldn't permit this.
The teacher's a criminal. Brendan thought fearfully. She's doing this to all of the students! She's insane! I have to call for help! Get OUT you invader to my mind. Brendan resisted every urge to tear through his forhead and tried to push the creature in his mind out, but to little success.
"Garanis."
The small voice had came out of nowhere and as soon as it had spoken, the creature in Brendan's mind vanished. Brendan stood up, a little shellshocked. "Congratulations, you didn't do anything irrational." Professor Darnith said. Brendan nodded vaguely. "Sorry, that's always trying on first years. But it's the best way as far as privacy's concerned. Hey, in England they use an enchanted hat. Anyways, your house will be Garanis. Go down to the auditorium and go to the Garanis table." Brendan nodded vaguely once again, still processing what she was saying. It had been trying on Brendan-frightening, actually.
"Professor Darnith." Brendan asked, finding his voice. "Did those memories that...thing...was looking through..."
"I have no idea what the Srotio spell saw." Professor Darnith confirmed. "Now, please go down to the auditorium. I will deal with your bags." Brendan nodded once again, left the room, and shuffled down two flights of stairs. Once he had reached the bottom, he swung open the door and looked upon his new surroundings. The large room was decorated with banners spouting either "Welcome Back!" or some sort of crest. There were five long tables lined up in the auditorium, and at each one there were students(mostly older than Brendan) talking amongst themselves. At the base of a tall stage there was a smaller table at which adults who Brendan assumed were teachers sat.
Brendan looked around the room, searching for the Garanis banner. Sarazis, Kyronis, Aulis, Waradis...ah, Garanis. The Garanis crest was a yellow dragon surrounded by blue fire on a red background. Brendan meekly walked over to the Garanis tabe and was welcomed by the two Prefects-students who were responsible for looking out for the students in their houses. Out of the corner of his eye, Brendan saw Penny wave at him from the Kyronis table, but he ignored her. The table that Brendan had sat down at resumed their discussions, except for one girl who looked aboout two years older than Brendan
"So, your name's Brendan right?" the girl said. Brendan nodded shyly. "Well, it's good to have you here. Most of the first-years this year are going into Waradis, which sucks. No offense against them or anything. The key trait that makes up Waradis students is determination. But sometimes they can be a little too determined if you know what I mean-they don't care about the rules much, always end up getting loads of dermits." Brendan nodded once again, not sure of what to say. "You're Muggle-born, aren't you?"
"Yeah." Brendan admitted. "Don't worry, I think I'm starting to get used to all of the things around here."
"Well, don't worry about bloodlines." the older girl assured.
"There's this one Aulis girl-she's a sixth-year but she still has trouble
with third-year spells. And she's pure wizard too. Somehow
she manages to pass each year, though. If you got sorted here, I
know you'll get used to the wizarding enviorment sooner or later.
Garanis's key trait is ingenuity."
"Alright, so Waradis is Determination and Garanis is Ingenuity." Brendan comprehended. "What are the other house's key traits? Just curios."
"That's a good thing." the girl said. "Kyronis, their trait is bravery. They think they're all heroes or something, but they tend to rush into things a lot without thinking. Like Aggie-I'll tell you about all that later. Aulis's trait is Justice. They're always trying to do what's fair and all that kind of stuff. Of course, life isn't fair but they think it is. And finally, Sarazis who have Loyalty as a main trait. I always found that kind of pathetic, but they get most of the important jobs. Oh, am I babbling again?" Brendan nodded, a sense of humor coming to his eyes after the nerve-wracking Sorting. At that moment, a boy about Brendan's age sat down next to him. Brendan remembered him as the boy who had been doing punishment on the train.
"Hi." The boy started. "My name's Andrew. Andrew-" But Andrew was cut out by a loud clapping. The entire asssembly of students in the room looked up to the stage, where a middle-aged man stood.
"That's the headmaster." The girl next to Brendan whispered to him, and Brendan passed the message along to Andrew, who nodded. The headmaster clapped his hands again.
"HELLO, STUDENTS." the headmaster started, in a voice that reminded Brendan of the woman on the train. They probably used some kind of voice-enloudening charm. Brendan decided. "I AM YOUR HEADMASTER, MR. J. DERRIFER. I SEE MANY FAMILIAR FACES, AS WELL AS MANY NEW ONES. MANY OF THE FIRST-YEARS DO NOT KNOW NEHYR'S RULES, SO I SHALL NOW EXPLAIN THE PREMESIS.
"ALTHOUGH WE TRY TO KEEP YOU YOUNGSTERS ENTERTAINED, THE PURPOSE OF NEHYR IS TO TEACH YOU MAGIC. THUS, ARE TEACHERS ARE VERY STRICT. WHENEVER A STUDENT CAUSES TROUBLE, THEIR HOUSE WILL BE GIVEN AN APPROPRIATE NUMBER OF DERMITS, AS WELL AS A SUITABLE PUMISHMENT FOR THE STUDENT. AT THE END OF THE YEAR, A PRIZE WILL BE GIVEN TO THE HOUSE WITH THE LEAST NUMBER OF DERMITS. FORTUNATELY FOR SOME OF YOU" -at this Mr. Derrifer cast a glance at Andrew, who just smiled and fidgeted in his seat- "DERMITS WILL NOT BE GIVEN UNTIL THE START OF TERM, WHICH IS MONDAY.
"THERE ARE A LIST OF SOME 250 ITEMS THAT ARE NOT PERMITTED ON SCHOOL GROUNDS THT YOU CAN VIEW ALONG WITH THE FULL RULES BY MY OFFICE." Some students grinned as if it was some sort of private in-joke. "ON ANOTHER NOTE, QUIDDITCH TRYOUTS WILL BEGIN A WEEK TOMMOROW. ALL SECOND-YEARS AND ABOVE INTERESTED IN TRYING OUT SHOULD SIGN UP AT THE TABLE THAT WILL BE LOCATED IN THEIR HOUSE'S DINING AREA.
"FINALLY, EACH STUDENT WILL RECIEVE A SCHEDULE TOMORROW FOR THEIR CLASSES. NEHYR USES A SIX-DAY, SIX-PERIOD SCHEDULE. AFTER YOUR THIRD YEAR, YOU WILL HAVE ELECTIVES. WELCOME BACK TO NEHYR AND I HOPE YOU HAVE A GOOD DINNER. QUIETUS!" The man pointed a wand at his thoroat and walked offstage. Instantly a variety of foods appeared on each table. Brendan spooned some pasta onto his plate and tried some wizard food. It didn't taste half bad, but it just tasted a bit different from what Brendan was used to.
"As I was saying." Andrew said to him between gulps of some kind of flavoured rice. "I'm Andrew Yair, and I'm Muggle-born. You may have seen me on the train being punished. I'll try not to get too many dermits."
"Hi, Andrew." the girl next to Brendan said. "I'm Kaylee, a third-year." The rest of the table also introduced themselves, including the two Prefects.
After a few courses of delicious food, a bell rang that made all of the food vanish and be replaced with an array of deserts. Brendan gulped down a peanut-butter-and-chocolate dessert and some kind of wizard pie. I think I'm going to like it here. Brendan thought to himself. Lots of interesting stuff, I get to learn magic and all this FOOD! "Do you always get this kind of food?" Brendan asked Kaylee.
"No, just at feasts." the girl answered, munching on some nutty desert. "Normally we eat in our houses, and get served whatever we get served. But for occasions like holidays we get a feast like this." A few minutes later, Professor Darnith arrived at the head of the Garanis table.
"Alright, boys and girls." Professor Darnith sighed. "Time to head back to the tower." The rest of the students nodded and followed the woman out the door. Night had fallen since Brendan had last been outside. The sky was a dark shade of blue, and the moon and stars began to twinkle in the sky. Brendan decided that Nehyr must be out in the middle of nowhere since the stars were visible more than they were in Brendan's home town. Each of the towers behind the main one had a glowing brick pattern around them, but each one was of a dirrefent colour.
Professor Darnith lead Brendan, Kaylee, Andrew, and the rest of the Garanis students to the tower whose brick pattern was glowing blue. There was also a glowing blue INGENUITY in a Gothic font above a tragedy mask, but their was no doorway to speak of. Brendan watched as the Charms teacher removed her wand from a pocket in her robes. In the darkness, there was a blue ring around the middle of the teacher's wand that glowed like the golden ring around the wand of the helper Brendan had seen. Professor Darnith inserted her wand into the right eye of the Tragedy mask and-this was the strangest part-she just seemed to melt into the door. The next person in line, the male Prefect, pulled out his wand, which also had a blue circle around it, put it into the mask's right eye up to the circle and too, melted through the door. This continued to happen to all of the other wizards or witches until Brendan came up to the mask.
Brendan pulled his wand out from his pocket and found that it glowed blue around the middle like the other wands had. Nervously, Brendan put the wand into the right eye of the mask until the blue ring vanished. Then...he was in the tower. There was a fresh smell and Brendan saw that he was in some sort of kitchen, with a wooden floor, a wide table and a mask not unlike the one at the door hanging from the ceiling. Suddenly, he felt a body bump into him from behind. Brendan spun around to see Andrew standing there. "Oh, sorry."
"Well, it wouldn't have happened if your freind here wasn't standing around just smelling everything!" A voice from above said. Brendan and Andrew practically jumped all the way up to the ceiling-which, they saw a minute later, held a tragedy mask like the one on the door. But this one had talked. "Oh, you two must be Mudbloods." the mask chuckled, and it's mouth moved. "Well there's a lot to get used to around here. Like hanging from the ceiling instead of tucked away into some old chest! Kidding, kidding, you won't have to hang from the cieling. Any fun at all is on the next floor up. Brendan looked around and saw a set of stairs tucked away into the corner of the kitchen. "See you in a few seconds!" The two Muggle-born boys quietly climbed up the stairs.
The room on the second floor appeared to be a living room. It
had blue drapery for the first few weet of the wall, after which sheets
of graph paper where tacked to a wooden wall. There was a TV in the
center of a wall unit, but it appeared not to have been used for a couple
months. Several couches were scattered around the room. Above
the wall unit an exact replica of the tragedy mask stood grinning, although
it's eyes were still in a sorrowful position.
"Oh, hi." Kaylee said, taking a short break from a conversation with another
third-year girl. "This is where we are when we're not eating, sleeping
or taking classes. Which dosen't occur all that often." Brendan
and Andrew both nodded, Andrew more vaguely. "So you see, then Chris
says..." Kaylee returned to her conversation with her freind.
"Hey, aren't you that kid!" Brendan looked up to see an athletic first-year
running towards him. "You were the retard who knocked all the food
over in my car!" Andrew paled and nodded slowly. "I should
teach you and your little freind a lesson!" At this point Professor
Darnith walked over and cleared her throat. "Uh, don't do it again."
the kid said nervously before dashing off."
"I hope William didn't give you any trouble." Professor Darnith said.
"I almost took it upon myself to punish him too after the accident in Andrew's
car. But since he didn't do any physical damage..." The Charms
teacher sighed.
"I hope that between the two of them they don't make us add an extra two columns for dermits!" the mask chuckl Brendan noticed that just above the mask there were three score-notepad-things that they used at sports games to show the score. All three of the score-notepad-things had a "0" on them. Brendan guessed that these were for keeping track of dermits.
"What's up with him?" Brendan asked, jerking a thumb towards the tragedy
mask.
"He's just our house spirit." Professor Darnith sighed(which, Brendan noted,
was almost always how she talked.) "All of the houses have one, and
they have three places they can view from:The first floor, the door or
the second floor. Our one happens to be a comedian.
By the way, I'm your house supervisor."
Brendan nodded and sat down on one of the couches with Andrew. "Hey."
Andrew said, excited. "I know what they use that stadium for!
Somebody told me that it's for a game called Kwidditch."
They talked for about half an hour until when Professor Darnith told them
that the first years had to go to bed now, where Brendan changed into the
nightclothes he had packed(via one of the washrooms on the top floor),
went down two floors to the boy's dorm and lay down into one of the average-sized
beds there. Brendan had never slept easily, but