It was as if time itself had stopped.  For a moment nobody said anything nor made much movement.  Slowly, all the heads turned to Draco Malfoy; who looked as surprised as everybody else in the great hall.  His usually pale face was as white as a corpse, and his gray, cold eyes were wide in shock, but it took no time for them to turn narrow in dislike.  Harry was almost sure that Draco wasn't the type of person that blushed, but his cheeks had a pink flush that meant that he was either very embarrassed or very angry… or both.

Harry turned his attention to Druscilla, and noticed this was the same girl than the one he had smiled at.  He had unconsciously noticed the familiarity of her face then, but had not paid much attention to it.

 She looked as if she was on the verge of tears as she walked over to the Gryffindor table.  She had to be the only first year that hadn't been greeted with applauses and cheers when she reached the table of her house.  Harry instinctively felt bad for her.  She sat down, not daring to look at Draco Malfoy or anywhere near the Slytherin table.  Harry turned to look at Draco again.  His face was completely contorted in anger and hatred.  He was giving her pretty much the same look he normally gave Harry.  But this, somehow, felt much more personal than the usual hate Draco reserved for Harry.  Druscilla must have been a very close family member of Draco.  Harry had never heard about him having a sister... but he never hear of him being an only child either… everybody usually deduced that part on their own.

Then, out of nowhere, Hermione started clapping.  It was very awkward at first, but she gave Ron and Harry meaningful looks and they followed her lead, rather reluctantly.  When Neville saw them clapping, he started clapping himself and was quickly followed by Ginny and the Creevey brothers.  Before they knew it, the whole Gryffindor table was clapping and cheering.  Druscilla looked at Hermione and gave her a grateful smile while a single tear ran down her face, which she wiped away quickly.

McGonagall was finally satisfied with Druscilla's greeting (even thought she had been very surprised herself that a Malfoy had just got sorted into Gryffindor) and she kept calling out names, "Marvin, Ashley" being the next one; she was also sorted into Gryffindor.

The list of names went on and on for several more minutes when finally, it was time for the exchange students to get sorted.

"Mason, Bonnie." McGonagall called.  Bonnie walked towards the stool with no trace of fear on her face.  She sat on the stool and McGonagall placed the sorting hat on her head.  Seconds later the sorting hat shouted "Slytherin" for the entire great hall to hear.  She stood up beaming pompously and walked over to the Slytherin table; her chin up and an arrogant note in her step. She was greeted there with a massive applause.  Pansy Parkinson hurried over to her and shook her hand smugly; Harry wondered just who the hell placed her in charge of the Slytherin 'welcome committee'.

"Wallace, Pierre Luc" McGonagall called.  This time, a tall, rather good-looking young man walked over to the stool and had the sorting hat placed over his golden-brown straight hair. It took the sorting hat almost a minute to yell out "Ravenclaw!" Ron chuckled his tongue sternly as the new Ravenclaw walked over to the Ravenclaw table… right after winking at Hermione.  Ron's open hand closed into a fist.

"Those French guys…" he mumbled angrily. 

"Ron!" Hermione exclaimed angrily even thought she was still blushing.  She was oblivious of the looks of pure envy she was getting from the same girls that had giggled when Pierre was called.

 "What?" he asked, maybe ignoring the fact that he had said that comment out loud.  He kept rambling silently when Hermione gave him another disapproving look.

Just as the Sorting Ceremony finally came to an end, Dumbledore stood up. "Well as some you might have noticed," he addressed himself to the students. "Hogwarts is going through some changes this year."

"First, as last years Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher was… indisposed to continue with her teaching this year, I was put under the difficult task of finding another competent teacher.  However, as lucky as I seem to be," he chuckled lightly. "I have found an excellent person that will fill the position perfectly." He turned to the person that was sitting across from Prof. McGonagall and smiled politely.  Harry wasn't able to see the person, because his (or hers) back was turned towards him.

"I wish its Lupin…" he thought out loud.

"Therefore, the new teacher of Defense Against the Darks Arts is the Auror Scarlet McGregor!" he started clapping and she stood up, turned around and nodded her head towards the students.  Harry's stomach gave a nasty lurch as he heard this.  Why couldn't Lupin teach it? What if she's like Umbridge? But he was almost sure that Dumbledore wasn't going to hire anybody like her.

She a permanent polite look on her face and looked relatively young to be an Auror. She didn't have any nasty scars or was disfigured in any way like Mad-Eye Moody was.  On the contrary, she was a very nice looking woman.  Harry calculated her to be in her mid-thirties', if not younger.  Scarlet McGregor had her long and thick-looking black hair braided neatly.  She had fair skin and her nose was a little big for her not-to-large face. She had a slightly slim built; yet still looked strong enough like to take on a Deatheater.  Her straight poise made her seem somewhat strict, but Harry thought he would have to wait like everybody else to find out for sure.  Harry joined the applause and turned to Hermione.

"She looks nice." she said nodding.

"And she's an Auror… a pretty young one, like Tonks." Harry replied in turn.

"She wrote that book she assigned us for her class, you know." Said Hermione in her usual as-a-matter-of-fact manner.

"So did Lockhart and look at what an egomaniac he turned out to be." Ron said pouting.

"Honestly Ron, you are the most shallow and tactless person ever. Did you know?" she said pouting herself.

"Knock it off, you two.  Quit going directly at each other's throats for a minute… or at least wait a couple of days… for Merlin's sake." Harry exclaimed annoyed.  Ron was about to speak, (probably going to ramble incessantly about his innocence) but thought better of it when Prof. McGregor sat back down and Dumbledore kept talking.

"Secondly, as its usual by Hogwarts standards, gossip travels much faster than light itself.  Therefore I take it as many of you already know about the new Advanced Flying lessons." There was a shy murmur of agreement.  "They will be taught with the purpose of perfecting the Quidditch skills and learning tricks and maneuvers that you obviously didn't learn at the basic course of flying." His eyes wandered around the hall for a second, then he continued.

"This class will be taught for years four and up." There were some moans of protests from the younger students. "The course is completely optional for some students except those on the house teams, for obvious reasons. Actually, given the demand that a class of such a wonderful sport might have, I'm afraid there's limited spots for the class.  As for looking for a teacher, this wasn't a difficult task at all, as he kindly volunteered himself for the job.  Hogwarts is very honored to have such a professional teaching this class and I am sure that all of you know who he is… Victor Krum!"

know?" she said pouting herself.

"Knock it off, you two.  Quit going directly at each other's throats for a minute… or at least wait a couple of days… for Merlin's sake." Harry exclaimed annoyed.  Ron was about to speak, (probably going to ramble incessantly about his innocence) but thought better of it when Prof. McGregor sat back down and Dumbledore kept talking.

"Secondly, as its usual by Hogwarts standards, gossip travels much faster than light itself.  Therefore I take it as many of you already know about the new Advanced Flying lessons." There was a shy murmur of agreement.  "They will be taught with the purpose of perfecting the Quidditch skills and learning tricks and maneuvers that you obviously didn't learn at the basic course of flying." His eyes wandered around the hall for a second, then he continued.

"This class will be taught for years four and up." There were some moans of protests from the younger students. "The course is completely optional for some students except those on the house teams, for obvious reasons. Actually, given the demand that a class of such a wonderful sport might have, I'm afraid there's limited spots for the class.  As for looking for a teacher, this wasn't a difficult task at all, as he kindly volunteered himself for the job.  Hogwarts is very honored to have such a professional teaching this class and I am sure that all of you know who he is… Victor Krum!"