Another long chapter here, folks, but the Sorting is over, thank God! And it's up a bit quicker than usual. You are so lucky that I feel terrible, peoples! I'm sick, so I get to post. Hmm.

Have you all seen PoA? I know Steph, Emma and Michelle have, and Shay will soon, so I won't give anything away. Isn't it good?

"Don't worry Ron, Madam Pomfrey will fix it in a heartbeat."

"No, no, it's really bad. They'll have to chop it off!"

Aah, good times. R/H rools! (that was deliberate, folks!)

Thankies:

michelleywelley: Thanks, darling! The whole point of the story is to have it in Chars' POV, so yeah,

Emma: Cool stuff. You aren't mentioned this chapter, but trust me, Chars hasn't heard the last of you!

OK, I'm changing the genre of this story to get more readers! It's now Mystery/Romance.

Chapter Seven – The Sorting

Victoria sat gingerly on the stool. The large black hat fell right over her eyes … after a few moments a tear in the brim of the hat opened and began to shape itself into words …

"GRYFFINDOR!"

Once again, the far left table erupted in cheers. Charlotte grinned at her new friend as she sat down near Harry, Ron and their friends.

Charlotte almost missed the next name called. But the name was so important to her, held such good memories in her heart, that she jumped a foot in the air when it was indeed spoken.

"McLeod, Benjamin!"

The boy with dark hair and bleached tips, the one who'd had cats on the way over, stepped forward and sat upon the stool.

His hair is darker, thought Charlotte desperately. It's bleached, it wasn't before, but he looks like him … I can only see the back of his head, but it's the same shape and everything … it can't be Ben … can it?

After about a minute, the hat cried "GRYFFINDOR!"

Charlotte suddenly felt a desperate yearning to be placed in Gryffindor, so she could find out if it really was her old friend.

He lives in Ireland … he could come here, if he was a wizard, couldn't he? He's a lot taller … I still can't see his face … oh, now he's too far away!

She watched as Benjamin McLeod sat across the table from Ginny Weasley.

As "Morris, Alexandra" and "Mortimer, Luke" were sorted into Hufflepuff, Charlotte tried hard to tear her eyes from the boy across from Ginny. But to no avail.

She was now certain that this Ben was the Ben that she knew. She grew increasingly impatient as the list slowly dwindled through the alphabet.

"Reed, Mark" was sorted into Gryffindor, as was "Reilly, Rachel", a girl with strawberry-blonde hair in a long, high ponytail.

"Richards, Lara" was sorted into Hufflepuff and "Ryde, Philippa", a girl with short black hair, became a new Gryffindor alongside Peter, Amanda, Darren, David, Victoria, Ben, Rachel and Mark. "Samuels, Paul" was a Slytherin, "Stone, Thomas" was a Hufflepuff and "Turner, Kristy" was yet another Slytherin.

Come on!

"Vaughan, Charlotte!"

Although she had been anxious to be sorted, Charlotte began to tremble violently. She deliberately kept her eyes away from the Gryffindor table as she forced her legs to move.

The hat fell over her eyes. Suddenly all she could see was the inky blackness of the old material.

"Ah," said a voice in her ear. "A Muggle-born. You have no parents who came here, no one for me to look back on. But, yes! Kin, who came here! Let me see: you could do great things, if only you wanted to. You possess a curious brand of bravery, yet are too shy to see it. Gryffindor, eh?"

Charlotte suddenly realised that she had been silently wishing to be in Gryffindor again.

Yes, Gryffindor. I have friends there, I know a few people!

"Gryffindor could lead you to great things. Yes, I think you should be in GRYFFINDOR!"

The hat had shouted the last word to the whole hall. There was much cheering to Charlotte's left as she took off the hat and walked down to the Gryffindor table.

She sat between Ginny and Victoria and continued to avoid meeting Ben's eyes as "Walker, Rowan" and "White, Rebecca" were sorted into Ravenclaw and "Williams, Karen" into Hufflepuff. Professor McGonagall furled the roll of parchment and moved the stool to the side of the platform.

Chatter began to arise from the crowd of seated students. But almost immediately, the man in the middle of the High Table, the one with long, silvery hair, arose and the babble ceased at once.

"That's Dumbledore, the headmaster," Ginny whispered. Dumbledore's arms were outstretched, as if only the sight of all of the students there made him happy, and the beam on his face reinforced this judgement.

"Welcome, to another year at Hogwarts! I have a few start-of-term notices, but they must wait until our wonderful feast has been eaten. So, please! Eat up!"

The golden plates and goblets, which Charlotte had only just noticed, were suddenly filled with food and drink. There was every dish that she could imagine: roast meats, vegetables, salads, soups and what looked suspiciously like barbequed sausages, her favourite from back home. She had a fleeting memory of her family and the McLeod's, sitting around the barbie, eating snaggers that the men had prepared. (A/N Ah, the famous Aussie barbeque. My favourite too! We call it the barbie for short, just so you know. And 'snagger' is slang for sausage, like bangers. You know, as in Bangers and Mash? Oh, never mind!)

This memory reminded her of the boy sitting just opposite her. She looked up and saw … (A/N Dun dun dun dun!)

"Ben!"

He looked up, grinning. "Chars, I thought it was you! Oh my God! What are the odds of us meeting back up, huh?"

Charlotte grinned back. "Probably a million to one! Oh, it's so good to see you, Ben!"

"You can say that again."

"So, this is your boyfriend, huh?" Ginny whispered, laughing. Charlotte mock-glared at her.

"No! This is Ben McLeod, my best friend. Ben, this is Ginny Weasley. I met her and her brother and their friends on the train."

"Pleased to meet you, Ginny," Ben said, oblivious to her previous comment.

"You too. That's my brother, Ron, the one stuffing his face. And that's his best friend, Harry, and his girlfriend, Hermione."

"Pardon?" asked Hermione, hearing her name. "Oh, hello. Are you Ben?"

"Yeah."

The two old friends began to recount their adventures, if you could call them that, since Ben had moved away.

"I love Dublin, it's fantastic," Ben said excitedly. "But it was so cold when we got there! It's all right now, but you wait until winter, Charlotte! You'll freeze to death!"

Charlotte, used to the Darwin "winters" where the temperature got down to about fifteen degrees Celsius, minimum, shivered at the mere thought of snow. (A/N Ah, the freezing Darwin winters. Love them.)

"We won the Under 13's Surrey Netball Association's Summer Competition," Charlotte told him. "I played for Little Hanging Lions, and we won! It was really close, only one goal in it, and I shot it!"

Ben nodded, pretending to be interested. But Charlotte knew that he wasn't. He never had been.

When Charlotte felt she would burst from all the food she had eaten, the remaining dishes faded and the plates were sparkling clean again. Then, they refilled with desserts of all kinds: ice cream, pies, éclairs, fruit and all of Charlotte's favourites. She managed to find room for a little bit of everything.

When the desserts, too, had disappeared, the babble of talk rose in a quick crescendo as the students stopped pausing to eat. Professor Dumbledore arose and the babble quickly ceased again.

"I just have a few notices, before you all go to bed. First of all, first years should note that the forest in the grounds is forbidden to all students. And a few older students should note that as well." Harry and Ron glanced at each other and grinned. Hermione gave a small "hmph" noise rolled her eyes, but she was grinning slightly too.

"Our caretaker, Mr. Filch, has asked me to remind you all that magic is forbidden in the corridors between classes. Also, his list of forbidden objects now includes the new Rocket-Powered Roller Skates. The full list can be viewed in his office.

"I believe there are a few vacancies on the Slytherin, Ravenclaw and Gryffindor Quidditch teams. Those interested in trying out for their house teams should see the captains for further details.

"Also, my congratulations to our new head boy and girl, Mr. Macmillan and Miss Granger."

Hermione turned red and sank slightly in her chair.

"Finally, I would like to introduce a new member of staff! Could everyone please welcome Professor Roberts, the new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher?"

"Ooh, he's brave," murmured Ginny.

The students all applauded loudly. A man with brownish-red hair on the end of the High Table stood and waved merrily.

"Now, students, it is bedtime. There are no lessons tomorrow, but I would still like for you all to get a good night's sleep! Chop chop!"

There was much scraping of benches as the students arose from the house tables and made for the door. The babble of talk rose again and Charlotte's friends made to leave.

Charlotte ran around the table to the other side. She threw her arms around her old friend.

"Oh, I never thought I'd see you again! Gosh, you've grown!"

"But I'm still a midget compared to you, Chars," Ben replied laughingly. It was true: although Ben was slowly but steadily catching up to his friend, Charlotte still remained at least half a head taller than him. But she knew that soon he would have his typical boy's growth spurt and suddenly tower over her.

"Gryffindor first years, this way!" came a cheery female voice. Charlotte and Ben looked over and saw a girl of about fifteen with wavy chestnut-coloured hair and eyes and blue as the sky. On her badge was a shiny, new-looking badge with a large 'P' and a lion on it. Next to her was a boy with light brown hair and blue eyes, wearing an identical badge.

"Now, is that all of you?" asked the girl. She did a quick head count with her eyes. "Ten, yep, that's right. Well, I'm Michelle Austin and that's Shay Reilly –"

"I know who his is, he's my brother," Rachel muttered.

"Oh, um … well, we're Gryffindor prefects and we're meant to take you to the common room, so come on!"

The group followed Michelle and Shay out of the Great Hall and up a marble staircase. Charlotte was finding it suddenly very hard to walk, perhaps because she so tired and full of food. The prefects led them up many staircases, too many to count, and although Charlotte tried her hardest to remember they way they were going, it seemed impossible. Twice they walked through seemingly secret doors behind tapestries or sliding panels and when it seemed they could go no further –

"Damn." Shay said. Up ahead there was a funny little man with a bright orange bow tie, floating in midair. He had handfuls of bubblegum and was chewing extremely fast.

"Ooh, ickle firsties, what fun!" the man cried, suddenly dropping most of the gum. He whipped a straw from a pocket and aimed the gum in his mouth at Rachel. She shrieked and ducked.

"Peeves!" Michelle shouted crossly. "Get the gum out of your mouth and go away."

"Do you want us to call the Bloody Baron?" asked Shay menacingly. Peeves spat the gum at a painting and zoomed off, cackling away.

"That was Peeves, the poltergeist," Michelle told the shocked first years. "You'll want to watch him. Only the Bloody Baron, the Slytherin ghost, can control him.

"Ghost?" asked Ben interestedly.

"Yeah. There's heaps of the around here. Come on, we're nearly there.

Charlotte groaned inwardly. But after about thirty seconds, they reached a portrait of a rather large lady in a pink silk dress.

"Password?"

"Mandrake stew," Michelle replied importantly.

The portrait swung forward. The group stepped through the hole left by the portrait and into a warm, round room.

"This," Shay told them, "is the Gryffindor common room."

Hee hee hee, what fun. Did you expect that Ben was going to show up at Hogwarts? Well he's very important to the plot, so yeah.

By the way, I changed Shay's name. He 'hates' the name Connor, so he didn't want to be O'Connor.

Cya all,

Pen