CHAPTER SEVEN:

First Impressions

The door opened and in the doorframe stood a dark haired, strict looking witch.

"Good evenin' Professor McGonagall. The firs' years," said the large man.

"Thank you Hagrid. I will take them from here. Follow me, you lot," she said sternly, indicating us to follow her.

Professor McGonagall led us to an enormous entrance hall, with a marble staircase directly in front of them. I looked around at the walls, and, to my horror, I found were lined with candles in brackets. This was one medieval and nevertheless highly fascinating school, one like none other he had been in before.

Professor McGonagall faced us and gave us the general rules of Hogwarts. Basically, your triumphs earned your house points, and breaking the rules would lose you points. Exactly like Sacramento.

She left for a few minutes and then came back to us. "We're ready for you."

We all followed her into the great hall, which had four tables lined up in the middle, and one long table facing us in the front. All the first years were chatting nervously.

Professor McGonagall placed a four-legged stool in front of the High Table, and placed a dirty, dusty hat on top of it. I glanced around, and found Harry, Hermione, and all the Weasleys sitting at the table second from the right.

Suddenly, a rip in the dirty hat opened wide and it sang:

Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, Slytherin,

Just put me atop your head, and see what house you will be in.

Will it be Gryffindor,

The brave and the bold, who always win,

Will it be Hufflepuff,

The true and the loyal, who never sin,

Or perhaps Ravenclaw,

The intelligent ones lie within,

Maybe you're fit for Slytherin,

Make your real friends, come right on in!

Do not worry, do not fear,

I will make this choice for you,

Because as I can see and you can too,

You are very young and new!

Try me on, yes please do,

For I am a hat, and not a shoe!

Come on up, put me on your head,

And listen, to what I have said:

Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, Slytherin,

Which fine house will you be in?

The hall erupted in loud applause, and the hat bowed low to each table before becoming perfectly still again.

"Now when I call your name, please come forth and place the Sorting Hat on your head. Once the Sorting Hat has made its decision, join your classmates at the appropriate table." She took out a long list and began calling names.

"Alameda, Brad!"

After a few moments, the hat shouted "RAVENCLAW!"

"Bakersfield, Trent!"

"SLYTHERIN!"

"Barstow, Connor!"

"SLYTHERIN!"

The Slytherin table erupted in applause.

"Fleming, Sharona!"

"GRYFFINDOR!"

As this continued, the amount of people waiting in line grew smaller and smaller.

"Monk, Adrian!"

"GRYFFINDOR!"

"Monk, Ambrose!"

"GRYFFINDOR!"

"Nantucket, Eileen!"

"HUFFLEPUFF!"

The Hufflepuff table erupted in applause. Soon, there weren't many people left.

"Pittsburgh, Raven!"

"RAVENCLAW!"

"Pleasanton, Donna!"

"GRYFFINDOR!"

And, finally...

"Pott, Conrad!" I walked shakily up to the four-legged stool with the frayed hat on it. I picked it up and placed it onto my head.

"Interesting. Yes, very interesting. Plenty of intellect, yet also plenty of courage. Ravenclaw or Gryffindor?" The hat was speaking to me inside my head. "From the United States, is it? Yes, very nice place, however, I have never been there. Which state were you from?"

I thought this was a very odd method of placing me into a house. "California," I responded. "Why does this matter? Sorry if I sound rude, but I'm curious why you would ask me that."

"Well, I'm just curious. Plus, knowing where the person is from is also a part in sorting."

"But most people here are from England. Should they all be in the same house?"

"No, no, you see. They come from all over the place. It's actually very interesting. In fact, last year we had a young man from Finland. But you're right, it's not that important. Well, where to put you? Sorry for getting off the subject, lad."

I noticed that people in the hall were starting to get anxious, as this was the longest sorting yet.

"Can I choose between Gryffindor and Ravenclaw?"

"Yes, yes, in fact, many people actually just say where they want to be, and I put them there. Most people don't think about that though. So, I'm allowing a choice between Ravenclaw and Gryffindor. You are very hard to place."

"Okay, I choose Gryffindor."

"All right. I hope you made the right choice."

He then spoke aloud. "Better be...GRYFFINDOR!"

There was a loud applause and I went to sit at the Gryffindor table next to Percy.

"Pott, Tina!"

Tina went up and placed the hat on her head. About three minutes later, after many odd looks from the students, the hat shouted "GRYFFINDOR!"

I and the rest of the table cheered as Tina sat down at Gryffindor table. "That is one weird hat," she said. I laughed.

After the last person ("Zhu, Chris!") was made a Ravenclaw, the headmaster, Dumbledore, stood up.

"I'd like to inform you all that the Forbidden Forest is out of bounds. Also, singing earrings have been added to the list of items forbidden in the castle. You can view the complete list of some four hundred eighty-three items in our caretaker, Filch's office.

"So, with that said, let the feast begin!"

Automatically, all the plates in the hall filled up with food. I looked around at all the food. They had normal food, like steak and ribs and mashed potatoes and cornbread, but they also had some food that I had never seen before, and when I pointed one dish out to Harry, he said it was 'Steak and Kidney Pie.' I gave myself some mashed potatoes and ribs.

After a while, all the plates cleared and a wide variety of desserts had filled the plates in the hall. Harry told me the names of some of the more unusual ones, like Treacle Tarts and Peppermint Humbugs. I tried a treacle tart. It was very good.

"Tina, try these weird things called 'Treacle Tarts.' They're really good," I said, flinging the tray of treacle tarts at her.

"Why, is there something wrong with them?"

"Tina! There's nothing wrong with them. Just try it!"

"Why would you ask me to try it if there was nothing wrong with it?"

"Because it's good!" I exclaimed, exasperation written in my voice.

Half an hour later, Dumbledore dismissed us from dinner and the four houses rose as one and headed off to their separate Houses.

However, before I could get up with the rest of Gryffindor, Professor McGonagall rushed toward me with a piece of parchment in her hand. "Mr. Pott, wait a minute."

Harry and I turned around. As there was no second syllable to the name she requested, it was clear that she meant for me, and not Harry. He rushed off with the rest of the Gryffindors.

"You still have to choose your new classes for this year. Here are your choices." She waited patiently as I decided which classes I wanted. I had liked the sound of Divination from the start, so I marked that. Arithmancy had also sounded interesting. But, ooooh! Care of Magical Creatures! That sounded fun. I chose that too.

I handed the paper back to her. As she rushed away, I stopped her. "Wait a minute, professor. Could you tell me where the House is?" I had no idea where it was, and it was too late to follow the rest of my House.

She made what almost looked like a smile. "It's strait up those stairs. If you go quickly enough, you might find the rest of the Gryffindors still heading up."

I quickly walked to where she told me to and went up the stairs.

My shoes made loud clunking noises as I walked down some hallway, unbelievably lost. I was panicked. This school was huge! What if I never found it? And those darn candles didn't help either. What this school needs is some electricity.

Up ahead, I thought I saw something moving. Yes, I thought, maybe it's someone who can help me find Gryffindor Tower. Unfortunately, it was just a ghost. However, it still might know the way.

"Excuse me," I said nervously, my heart beating loudly. "Um, could you tell me the way to Gryffindor Tower? I'm lost."

The ghost was very pale and had what horribly looked like silver bloodstains all down his front. He turned an icy glare at me. I gulped.

"Just go strait down that corridor, up the stairs to the right, and up three more sets of stairs, then take a left and House is at the end of the hall," he said in an eerie voice.

"Th-Thank you," I stammered. I practically ran the whole way up the path the ghost had given me, and sure enough, there was a large painting of a fat lady.

"Password?" she asked.

I racked my brain, trying to remember what Ron's brother, Percy had said the password was. Aha! "Fortuna Minor."

Her painting opened up and I entered.

"Where have you been? It's quite late. You should have been back twenty minutes ago," was the greeting I got from Tina.

"Well hello to you too. I got lost. If it weren't for that creepy ghost with silver bloodstains down his front, I'd still be lost, too."

"The Bloody Baron gave you directions to the Gryffindor Tower?" Ron asked incredulously.

"Oh, is that its name? Fits him perfectly."

"The Bloody Baron is the Slytherin ghost," Harry added. "You should stay away from him."

"But why? If he hadn't been there, then I wouldn't be here. Because I would have been wandering around some corridor, totally lost."

"You got lucky," Hermione said. "Usually he's very unpleasant. He must have been in a good mood."

"Well, he seemed nice enough to me," I pouted.

"Rubbish," said Hermione, Ron, Harry, and Ginny at the same time.

I decided to bed. "I'm going to bed. Wake me up in the morning."

I retreated up a staircase to a room marked "Third Years Boy's Dormitory." My suitcase was sitting on the bed third from the left in the circular room.

I put on my pajamas and crawled into bed. Half an hour later, Harry, Ron, Neville, Dean, and Seamus entered the room and a few minutes later heard them plop onto their separate beds. Neville began to snore loudly.

I closed my hangings and crawled back into bed. A few minutes later, I was sound asleep.

A/N: Hey, guys, it would be nice if you reviewed. How did you like the Sorting Hat's song? I made it up myself. I should update in a bit, and it might get more interesting later on. Please continute reading!

A/N