Alex stepped inside of the great hall. Brightly lit candles floated towards the ceiling which was adorned with flying buttresses and some sort of spell that bewitched it to look like the night sky. Four long tables seated the many students of Hogwarts, all staring intently at Alex and the other first years making there way up to the front of the hall. Alex spotted Lily and gave a wave. She smiled back and mouthed something that looked like "Go Gryffindor!".
Alex and the first years all filed in front of the teachers table where a stool stood seating a large frayed hat. To Alex's surprise, and apparently most of the first years also, a slit near the bottom of the hat broke open and the hat broke into song. Singing about the four houses and their founders in a very deep voice, the hat seemed to send waves of vibrations throughout the hall. After the hats rendition, Professor McGonagall walked over next to the stool and unrolled a long sheet of parchment.
"When I call your name, you will come up and place the sorting hat on your head." She instructed in a loud voice so everyone could hear her. Heads peered up, over, and out from all four of the tables and excited whispers followed.
"McGraw, Eleanor!" she called and a short girl with mousy brown hair wobbled up to the stool and placed the hat on her head.
"Hmmm...", said the hat. "I think I know where to put you... HUFFLEPUFF!". The table at the far left of the hall broke out into cheers and shouts as Eleanor shook hands and sat down with the rest of her house.
"Brown, Timothy!" called Professor McGonagall.
"RAVENCLAW!" shouted the hat, and after Phil Sacraw, Melanie Davies, and Ben Garret were sorted into Slytherin, Ravenclaw, and Gryffindor, Alex's name was called.
"Alexandra Marcs!" said Professor McGonagall with a smile. Alex walked up to the stool, heart pounding so hard in her chest she was afraid it might explode, she turned and sat down. The last thing she saw before the large hat covered her eyes was Lily waving, James jabbing Peter in the ribs and telling him off for not paying attention to the ceremony, and Remus and Sirius both smiling and looking up intently towards the front of the hall.
"Ahhh..." said a voice in her ear. Alex jumped slightly, even though she had anticipated this. "So much talent I see... and a hidden power. Hmmm... clever... very clever. Brave... and opinionated. This is difficult... very difficult indeed."
A wave of panic washed over Alex as she began to fear the worst. What if she couldn't be sorted? What if there had been some sort of mistake? What if Hogwarts didn't allow people like her? But her thoughts were interrupted when the hat shouted, "GRYFFINDOR!"
Alex let out a sigh of relief as she took the hat off and placed it back on the stool. She smiled broadly and made her way over to the Gryffindor table where James clapped her on the back and shouted "Great job!" and Remus shook her hand while congratulating her. Sirius just gave her a sly smile and Lily pounced on Alex, knocking the wind out of her.
"That was brilliant Alex! Simply brilliant!" she said while beaming and pulling Alex down into the seat next to her and Molly.
"Congrats!" said Molly shaking Alex's hand.
Alex was just about to thank Molly when a middle aged wizard stood up. Even though he still looked to be in about his 50's, the man had a very long silver beard. His pointed hat flopped off to one side of his head which held a kind and bemused expression.
"Yes... very good, very good!" he said clapping his hands together and grinning. "Excuse me while I make another boring round of announcements! I would like to remind everybody that the Forbidden Forest is strictly... forgive me for being so redundant... forbidden! And, Mr. Filch has kindly asked me to remind you that all dungbombs, stinkpellets, cobweb blasters, and bashing boomerangs should stay inside of your dorms at all times. Unless..." he added with a look of mischief in his sparkling blue eyes. "Unless,there happens to be a great need to produce these items from their hiding places. Now that we have all that said... I believe a feast is in order." And with that, the golden platters and plates all suddenly filled with mounds of delicious steaming food. Alex gasped and Lily smiled.
"I suppose you've never seen a Hogwarts feast before?" she joked.
Alex began piling her plate with endless amounts of food. All through dinner, Alex watched James and Sirius fling their chicken bones at each other while Lily sighed and gave them a look of disapproval.
After the feast, Alex and Lily both got up from their seats and walked out of the great hall.
"I'll show you where the dorms are." said Lily as she began walking up a flight of stairs. "Be careful around here..." she said. "The staircases like to change whenever they-"but she stopped talking as the staircase they were standing on started moving up and towards the left. "Right..." she said exasperatedly. "Guess we'll just take the long way."
After passing many suits of armor, climbing obscene amounts of stairs and passing halls of portraits, including one of a crazy knight that kept trying to get them to duel with him, Alex and Lily finally made it to the portrait of a very plump lady in pink.
"Password?" she asked in a high pitched voice.
"Cockroach Cluster." Said Lily and the portrait swung open to reveal a large hole in the wall. The two of them climbed through it and found themselves in a cozy common room.
"Ahhh... it's so nice to be back home again." said Lily with a dreamy sigh.
Warm lighting, bookcases, desks and an assortment of plush couches stood around the circular room which also held a brightly lit fireplace. Lily plopped onto a nearby couch and closed her eyes for a moment. She then sat up suddenly and pointed to two staircases at the far end of the room.
"Those are the entrances to the boys and girls' dormitories. Girls on the right, boys on the left." She said pointing. "It's really quite funny..." said Lily looking towards the boys' dorms. "Girls can get up into the boys' dormitories, but whenever a guy tries to get into the girls', the staircase turns into a slide making it impossible for them to reach the top. Comes in handy quite often..." said Lily giggling.
Just then, four figures clambered through the portrait hole.
"Ahh..." said James spying Lily.
"If it isn't our two favorite ladies!" finished Sirius directing his attention towards Alex.
"James..." said Lily annoyed.
"Sirius..." said Alex in the same fashion.
"So sorry, but it seems to be getting quite late and Alex and I were just heading up to our dorms." sid Lily. "Come on Alex..." said Lily.
They walked over towards the girls' staircase and halfway up Alex heard her name being called.
"Alex!" said Sirius from the bottom of the stairs.
"Yes?" asked Alex spinning around to face him.
"Night." He said warmly.
"Night." sid Alex flatly as she turned and made continued her way up the staircase.
She walked up into the dorm and found her things lying at the end of one of the many four poster beds around the room. Her owl was sitting on her pillow and gave an excited hoot at the sight of her. Patting her and then proceeding to change into a pair of terrycloth pajamas and a tank top, Alex jumped onto her bed and lost herself in the comfortable layers of her goose down comforter.
"Night Lily." She yawned over at the bed next to her.
"Night Alex." Replied Lily sleepily.
"Night Alex." Repeated the rest of the dorm.
"Night everybody." Said Alex laughing before closing her eyes and drifting off to sleep.