Professor McGonagall began listing names. A girl named Hannah Abbott went first and was placed in Hufflepuff. Elizabeth and Morgan watched in awe as the hat shouted the house it selected for the student, Dade however nodded pretending like he had been expecting this all along.
"Alcott, Abigail," Professor McGonagall announced.
The girl presented the Hall with a sly smile and she looked over her shoulder, first at Malfoy who folded his arms over his chest with a snide smile; then to Dade, Elizabeth, and Morgan who frowned at her.
Abigail sat the hat on top of her head and sat up straight as the hat shouted, "SLYTHERIN!" barely on her head. The Slytherin house shouted and cheered, aside from their dark demeanor. Abigail placed the hat lightly down on the stool and danced happily over to her table who welcomed her to their house.
Dade was glaring at the table that Abigail had sat down at, and had to be poked in the ribs twice before he noticed anyone was touching him. "What?" He looked at Elizabeth, who was staring up at him with wide worrying eyes.
Morgan gave him a bit of a shove and she grumbled a harsh whisper, "McGonagall has called you twice."
The old woman raised her eyebrows at him, Dade returned her stare with a humble smile. Morgan and Elizabeth presented him with encouraging grins and crossed fingers. "Hope for Ravenclaw," Elizabeth mouthed to him. Dade took a giant breath and sat on the chair, praying for Ravenclaw because he knew Elizabeth thought she'd be sorted there coming from a family of Ravenclaws.
No sooner had the hat been placed on his head and it shouted, "RAVENCLAW!"
Dade smiled to the cheering table and peeked behind him at his friends with a grin and a thumbs up. Elizabeth came after a boy named Justin Finch-Fletchley was called a Hufflepuff. She sat gently down onto the stool and lifted the hat with a sigh. The hat fell down over her eyes and roared, "GRYFFINDOR!"
Elizabeth blinked, perfectly still for several long moments in pure and utter shock…had the hat said Gryffindor? She removed the hat with a smug grin on her pale face; Hogwarts was full of surprises and she was thinking she might like this one. Gryffindor broke into loud whoops and hollers. She met two red headed twins at her table who gave her a pat on the head.
Next came, "Gallagher, Morgan."
Morgan looked from Ravenclaw to Gryffindor unsure which house she should wish for now, though she'd decided wishing did no good; so she hopped up onto the chair, her blood pumping, and plopped the hat onto her head. The hat deliberated for a matter of seconds, "HUFFLEPUFF!" Morgan replaced the hat and went to meet up with her cheering house. A tall spiky haired boy met her first, "Welcome Morgan."
Morgan smiled at him, for his accent matched hers and she decided then that she was home in Hufflepuff. Morgan accepted his hand as he told her, "Warren Withering."
Dade looked over a table to Morgan who had just sat down and frowned. Morgan shrugged and looked over her shoulder at Elizabeth who was looking longingly over to her lost friends in other houses, but her thoughts were interrupted as another girl was sorted into Gryffindor and came and sat next to her.
"Hi, Hermione," Elizabeth said to her as Hermione took a seat on the bench aside Elizabeth.
"Hello," Hermione smiled at them.
Dade caught a glimpse of the bratty little American girl, Abigail Alcott, frown when Draco Malfoy was immediately sorted into Slytherin. It brought Dade the slightest sense of joy that she looked discomforted by the devilish-looking Malfoy boy, whom had nearly started a fight with Morgan on the train. Dade decided that Alcott and Malfoy deserved one another, and no doubt would rake each others nerves to no end, and would do a better job of it than he could.
"Potter, Harry!" Professor McGonagall said.
Dade's undivided attention went to the front. Morgan looked around the two fat girls who had been placed in her house to see the famous Harry Potter. Elizabeth waited patiently as the hat thought, long and hard atop Harry's head, on it.
"It's been a while," Elizabeth said to Hermione.
Hermione didn't look at Elizabeth she simply nodded in agreement just as the hat shouted "GRYFFINDOR!"
The Great Hall roared with cheers, and Harry stumbled toward the table and plopped down next to Hermione.
The last to go into Gryffindor was a red haired boy named Ronald Weasley who, Elizabeth quickly learned, was a friend of Harry's and a brother to the two twins who'd greeted her first. It was at this moment that the three friends realized that they might have a problem on their hands, seeing that they each belonged to different houses and would be working independently to gain points for their respective houses.
The feast began with a greeting from Albus Dumbledore, the Headmaster of Hogwarts. Dinner rushed by and the first years were swept off to their towers to be shown the living arrangements.
"Did you see the look on Potter's face?" Malfoy hissed.
Abigail hadn't been listening to the boy as he walked along side her. Finally she glanced over at him and wrinkled her nose trying to decipher what he'd been talking about without hearing a word he'd said, "Who?"
"Potter," Malfoy spat the name from his lips. Then Malfoy went on mockingly, "Some wizard he'll be."
"Some wizard alright," Abigail sighed disinterested.
"What's it like?" Malfoy asked.
"What's what like?" Abigail asked.
"Living in a wizarding family in the United States?"
Abigail did her best not to sound bored with Malfoy, who she was certain was trying to make friends with her because his father suggested it, though he did sound interested in the United States. Abigail pondered it for a moment, she really didn't feel like talking, but she did wonder about what Malfoy's father had told him about her. She decided she didn't care that much about what Lucius had told Draco, she'd rather not be bothered by him, "I wouldn't know, I've never lived in a wizarding family in England. I have no basis for comparison."
"I could tell you-"
"Why don't you tell me when they started letting Mudbloods in by the hundreds?" Abigail barked.
Malfoy drew back from Abigail, for the second time that day. "What makes you think there are that many Mudbloods here?"
"My father approves all the students accepted to Hogwarts," Abigail told him bossily, "and I've never seen so many on the list…as I've seen this year."
"Well maybe you should tell him not to approve them," Malfoy growled.
Abigail fell silent, she smiled humbly, he had risen to her level in one angry swoop…she was impressed, one notch up a long ladder to be off Abigail's hate list; everyone started on her hate list until they proved otherwise. Perhaps she could use him just like her father had used Lucius, a someone to point the finger at when things went hairy.
Malfoy backed down when she smiled. Crabbe and Goyle, who had been tagging along the entire time, were surprised to see Draco simmer when she did.
She snickered and gave Malfoy a pat on the shoulder, "You're right Malfoy…maybe I should. So," she raised her voice pleasantly, against her better judgment, and went on to say, "I live in Florida, it's warm there and we have a little castle out of sight from the Muggles just off the coast…it's real nice, I like it." And she went on to tell him about the magical world across the Atlantic Ocean as they were led to the Slytherin common room.