Will somebody kill me? I've spent more than a year trying to write a novel, and I'm still on page two! Of course, I have already written around thirty pages worth of outline, but I have already written about the same number of pages of outline for the differences and convergences of "Harry Potter" and "Harry and Cherry Potter".

Anyway, I'm uploading this up, so I can get something done. And my promise to finish this still stands, even if takes me forever.

By the way, italized text is author's notes.

The Sorting Hat

The doors swung wide open at once. A rather tall, black-haired witch in emerald green robes stood there. She had a very stern face and the general aura of somebody who doesn't smile very often: the aura of a disciplinarian.

"The first years, Professor McGonagall," said Hagrid.

"Thank you, Hagrid. I will take them from here." Turning to the children, she said "Follow me, please."

She led them through a hall so big you could have easily built an average townhouse in it. There were magnificent stone walls and marble floors, which looked even more impressive thanks to the torches sparsely placed around. Across the hall were some impressive-looking doors, sculpted with the school's Coat of Arms, and at both ends were arches and stairwells leading elsewhere. From these great doors the drone of hundreds of voices could be heard, but Professor McGonagall led the instead to a chamber behind one of the arches. They crowded in behind her, maybe frightened, exited, or curious, but all of them nervous.

The professor turned at them and spoke up.

What leads is the same as the book, up to when the Hat's Song begins. Exception made of the fact that our heroes don't know Granger's name so far.

Oh, you might not think I'm pretty

But don't judge on what you see,

I'll eat myself if you can find

A wiser hat than me

You can keep you doubts at bay,

Along with your fears and dreads

And even if your sorting doesn't seem merry,

Your final joy will come from it.

There's … And so fort, till the end of the descriptions.

If my judging might seem mysterious,

Don't take it wrong, do take it serious,

That after a thousand years at work,

I have yet to be proven wrong.

The whole hall burst into applause as the hat finished its song. It bowed to each of the four House Tables and went back to rest.

"So we just have to try on a bloody hat!" Ron whispered to the twins. "I'll kill my brother Fred; he was going on about wrestling a troll."

The twins sighed, as quite a few others did. Trying on a hat seemed easy enough.

Professor McGonagall had now stepped behind the hat's stool.

"When the hat calls your name, you will put it on and sit on the stool to be sorted," she said. "Let's begin."

"Abbott, Hannah," the hat shouted, and a pink-faced girl with blonde pigtails stumbled out of the line of first years…

And so forth, exactly like the book.

"Bulstrode, Millicent" then became a Slytherin. It might have been a bit of biased thinking from the twins, but hearing catcalls like "The first one that matters" didn't help their first impression of their might-be housemates. It didn't help either to see that the girl seemed like an archetypical bully, and was being welcomed by what looked like other hardened gorillas.

And as more children went on to be sorted, a though occurred on Cherry's mind. And what if the hat decided to place them on two different houses? She pressed hard on Harry's hand, and by just looking at her eyes he could understand her fear. He stepped closer to her and pressed her hand back. They kept their eyes locked for a long time, and when they depleted the resource of unspoken communication, they turned back to the sorting.

'Granger, Hermione' was called. The bushy girl from the train went up to the stool and eagerly jammed the hat on her head. The Hat promptly shouted "Gryffindor", and the girl nearly ran to her new house.

"Isn't that the girl we saw on the train?" Ron asked the twins over his shoulder. "I hope you two also go in Gryffindor; that way we would already have our little gang set up."

'Ixidor, Aristotle' became a Hufflepuff.

"Longbottom, Neville and Rudolph" The Hat shouted. Harry and Cherry looked excited at each other, both thinking "It sorts twins together!" The moment was short-lived, though, as they saw the ooze's owner was walking alone toward the stool. The Hat took its time for his Sorting, during which the hall filled with murmurs. The hat shot down the noise when it shouted "Gryffindor" much louder than it had been doing so far. The boy got a discreet clapping, until somebody shouted "Hey, he's got a staff! We have a Mage!"

It took a few minutes for silence to return to the hall, and for somebody to notice that 'MacDougal, Morag' was now being called.

Malfoy got his wish at once. The hat had hardly touched his head and it screamed "Slytherin." The boy smoothly came to his house, were he was greeted by his cronies.

"Moon, Terry" was made a Ravenclaw.

'Nott, Theodore' was made a Slytherin.

'Parkinson, Pansy' was made a Slytherin.

'Patil, Padma and Parvati' were called. People tensed up because of what had happened with Neville and Rudolph, so plenty of sighs were heard as two black-haired girls approached the stool. Much fewer whispers were heard when Professor McGonagall helped them sit back to back on the narrow stool, but then these were livelier than lat time.

The hat didn't take long to pronounce them "Both: Gryffindor", and as they happily joined their new house, Harry and Cherry held hands full of hope.

'Perks, Sally-Anne' became a Hufflepuff, and finally…

"Potter, Cherry and Harry"

Excited whispers broke out everywhere as they moved on the stool, their feelings torn between hope and dread. Professor McGonagall helped them on, and set the hat between their heads.

As the hat fell on their heads, it was like a veil also fell on them blurring their eyes, muting all sound, and calming down their racing hearts.

"My, my, don't you worry. If you want not to be placed apart, you will not be. I will sort you in the same house."

They would have sighed, had their minds not been clouded-over at the moment.

"The deepest loyalty toward each other lives in you, and you two are just as loyal with your friends. Moreover, you wouldn't be afraid to give up everything if you saw a good cause. On the other hand, you also yearn to learn everything, and to prove your worth to anyone who might have doubted it. This last aspect seems to occupy an important part of your hearts, and Slytherin would truly help you there…"

The hat made a pause.

"However, you two don't seem to have the ruthlessness most members of Slytherin feel proud of. Moreover, I don't think your destinies are directly linked with that house. Being so, I think I've reached a conclusion."

"Gryffindor" the hat shouted, and they woke up from their trance. Shakily they moved to the table with the red tablecloths, which was cheering just as loudly as it had done with the mage boy. Many people greeted them as they sat on the table, opposite from the ghost on the ruff they had seen earlier. The cheering went on for a while before order was regained and the Sorting could continue.

Being now placed and calm enough to care, they took a good view of the High table, in front of which the Hat had been placed. At the end nearest them sat Hagrid, who they waved at as he gave them the thumbs up. And there, at the center of the table, sat Albus Dumbledore in a large golden chair.

The kids recognized him at once from the Chocolate Frog card Harry got of him on the train. Anyway, he was hard to miss with his waist long silver beard, and gentle smile.

A few more people were sorted, and finally it was Ron's turn. The hat declared him a Gryffindor almost at once, and he sat by Harry. The Weasley twins were still cheering on Ron when 'Zabini, Blaise' was made a Ravenclaw, and with no more students to sort, professor McGonagall took away the Hat and its stool.

Albus Dumbledore got to his feet, just as Ron's stomach had made a loud noise. The Headmaster was beaming at the students, his arms opened wide …

"That does look good," said the ghost in the ruff in a sad tone, watching Harry cut up his steak.

"Can't you…?" Harry began.

"I have been dead for nearly five hundred years, but I don't think I have eaten a full dozen times in all that time. I have no need for food, but one does miss having a sense of taste.

"By the way, I don't think I have properly introduced myself. I am Sir Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington at your service, and I am the resident ghost of Gryffindor Tower."

"I know who you are!" Ron said, after gulping down a mouthful of food. "My brothers have told me loads about you: You are Nearly Headless Nick!"

"What about you, Neville?" Ron said.

"Well, my grandma brought me up and she's a witch," said Neville. "But my family thought I was all muggle for ages. Matter of fact, no proof of me being magical at all could ever be seen till last year. We were going out and Grandma sent me to get her wand from her room. I held the wand for less than a minute, on the way back to my grandma, and the wand blew up in my hand, ripping off my fingers. Then, pink slime began oozing out of the stumps, and in less than another minute I had grown new fingers. I was scared, but my grand was so happy she was crying. A few weeks later, when my ooze hatched, my grand put me through some tests that said I'm both a Mage and an Ooze Master. And then I'm here."

"Well, that was a spectacular awakening." The girl with the bushy hair said, whose name was Hermione. "Mine was quieter. I was studying for my midterm tests and was buried in a sea of books, and it took my dad for me to notice that two of the books were in mid air. My dad didn't mind it, but advised me better to avoid making such things in public. Then two years later I get a letter from the Ministry of Magic because of me managing to curse a typewriter to take oral dictation, and a year later I'm here."

"But how didn't your parents tell you before? You must have been up to your chins in magic by age three!" Ron sputtered.

"How could I be? Neither of my parents is magical."

"Huh…" Ron began. "Anyway… What about you and your sister, Parvati?" Ron said to a girl next to Hermione, across the table.

It was the girl by her who answered.

"Actually, I am Parvati, Ron, and she's Padma."

There were general chuckles, as Ron blushed.

"Anyway…" Padma began. "Our family came from India some eight years ago and opened a cargo and heavy-lift carpet business."

"And about ourselves…" Parvati continued. "I think we have been making minor potions since we could walk, but they would only do anything if we had both helped at making them. I guess that as toddlers neither of us alone had enough power."

She shrugged.

On Cherry's other side, this boy Seamus Finnigan was making conversation with this nice girl named Ezri Teheran, Prefect for Gryffindor House.

"But wasn't it much more difficult for us Ring-bearers to do stuff? I mean, I've got my two silver rings for a month, and I have never been able to make them do a thing."

"Don't worry. It took me a lot of work to get the simplest charms to work, but from the day I could get a hanging at how to channel the energy through my own fingers, I became the best one in my Charms class."

"And how did you do, then? I have never been able to make a single spark fly from my rings."

"That's your first mistake, in fact. Rings aren't like wands, which channel your magic; instead, they focus your magic in your own body for you to make things work. Here, try concentrating on your fingertip while you wave it around."

At that stage Cherry returned her attention to the chat her brother was in the center of, but couldn't do but smile when a few minutes later a soft shower of blue sparks began coming off from Seamus' fingertip.

By now, as the noise level was making it clear that nobody was eating any longer, the desserts disappeared and Professor Dumbledore got to his feet again. The hall fell silent.

"Ahem… I'll have to comment you a few start-of-term notices before we uphold one of our most sacred Hogwarts traditions…" Several faint groans were heard at this "… And march to our beds.

"First years should note that there is a curfew to be respected every night, and that the Forbidden Forest is forbidden unless you have a special permission. A few of our older students would do well to remember those notices as well."

Dumbledore's eyes flashed toward the grinning figures of the Weasley twins.

"I have also been asked by Mr. Filch, our caretaker, to remind you all that no magic or magical artifacts are to be used in the corridors between classes.

"Quidditch trials will be held in the second week of term. Anyone interested in playing for their house's primary team should contact madam Hooch by then.

"The School now houses an Egyptian Sphinx in the central corridor of the South Wing's Fifth floor. Please be friendly with it, but never forget to respect it for what it is.

"And finally, anyone who enjoys being alive should avoid opening any locked doors in the third floor corridor on the East Wing. One of them now houses a fully grown Cerberus dog that had to be removed from the Forbidden Forest."

He made a little pause, to let the last detail sink in.

"And now, before we go to bed, let us sing the school song!" Dumbledore cried. It was easily noticed that the other teachers' smiles had become rather fixed.

Dumbledore gave his wand a little flick as if trying to get a fly off its tip and a long golden ribbon flew out of it, which rose high above the tables and twisted itself snake like into words.

"Ah school;" Dumbledore said wiping his eyes. "That was absolutely dreadful!"

A general chuckle followed his remark. "And it is my sad duty to inform fifth years and above that the next rendition of the school song is scheduled three years from now, so you won't be part of it.

"And now is bedtime. Off you trot!"

The Gryffindor first years followed Ezri through the chattering crowds, out of the great Hall and up a marble staircase.

…A Poltergeist." She raised her voice, but not her friendly tone.

"How're you doing, Peeves? Had a nice, peeving vacation?"

"Not so much, Ezri; even throwing slime at the slime-ball's head gets old after a while."

Ezri giggled at that, and the voice laughed happily. There was a pop and a little man with wicked black eyes and a wide mouth appeared, clutching the walking sticks and floating in mid air. He turned at the children and grinned at them.

"So you are the new Lion cubs? I hope you aren't half as uptight as the Claws' usually are. In fact I think I'll have to verify that! See you all!"

And he zoomed away through the roof, incidentally dropping the sticks high over the "Lion cubs." The covered their heads, but a second before impact Ezri shouted something, and the sticks changed course to her outstretched arm.

"Peeves can never be truly called nice, but he can be a great source of laughs if you have a good sense of humor and an even better sense of when to dodge." She said sisterly, as she dropped the sticks aside and kept on walking down the corridor they were on.

"He doesn't truly respect anyone but the Bloody Baron, and if you are too uptight he can be like Hell. Oh, here we are." She stopped and her smile turned awkward.

"Hello, ma'am; had a nice holiday?"

At the very end of the corridor swung a life-size portrait of a very fat lady in a pink silk dress. She had her hands on her hips and was gazing at Ezri with a strange smile.

"I think I did fine, thanks. Now, could you please tell me the password, Miss Teheran?"

Ezri pouted; then she answered meekly.

"Will you ever forgive me? I did apologize and then I cleaned every last drop of ink from you."

"That is not the password, Ezri." The portrait said, still with her strange smile.

Ezri muttered some gibberish.

"Come on, Ezri, I couldn't hear that."

"Okay: What an adorable klutz!"

"Thank you." The portrait said grinning, as it swung forward to reveal a hole in the wall behind it. They all scrambled through it and found themselves in the Gryffindor Common Room, a cozy, ample room full of old-fashioned office furniture and squashy armchairs.

All heads accounted, she opened her arms to the room.

"Welcome to the Gryffindor Common Room, also known as the Tower Common Room. The Claws' is called Library Common Room, the Puff's is the Greenhouse Common Room, and the Sluts'… the Slits' I mean, is the Dungeon Common Room. You are not to allow anyone from another house into our common room, and you aren't allowed in any others' common rooms… so sneak in at your first chance."

Everyone chuckled.

"And now go up and find your dorms. I think this year the cubs' dorms should be on the second floor; don't take my word for it, though. Now, boys up that staircase…" She pointed across the room. "…And girls up this one." She pointed over her shoulder. "Now better get onto your beds, and enjoy your first night. Just don't stay awake too long: is nearly midnight, and breakfast is at eight o'clock."

She made a pause.

"I, on the other hand, am supposed to keep open the portrait hole and tell everyone the new password."

She scowled, and everyone else went up their staircases chortling.

Up the staircases both groups found their dorm rooms: half circular rooms with bathrooms by the stairwells, sinks and mirrors on the straight walls, and five four poster beds with velvet curtain lining the round wall of each room.

Too tired and stuffed to talk much further, both groups quickly settled down, changed to their sleeping apparels, and went to sleep.

Insert Harry's dream

Meanwhile, Cherry also had a strange dream. She was sitting on a park bench with her brother, talking about nothing in particular. After looking away for a second, she found her body sitting where Harry had been; she then looked down and saw that she was on Harry's body. Scared, she asked her alter-ego what was this. This alter-ego seemed mystified by her reaction, and on Harry's voice said that it wasn't such a great deal if he took a stride on her body, or her on his.

Harry woke up sweating and made a knot on his sheets. He opened the hangings enough to let air circulate, and fell asleep quickly after he had somewhat straightened up his sheets. Cherry woke up not so much later, somewhat sweaty and in need to hug Harry. Then she opened her eyes wide as she remembered the dream, and quickly her hands went to look for her breasts. She nearly panicked at feeling her chest so flat, but then she began berating herself at looking for something that she knew wasn't there… yet. She shock her head, and quickly fell asleep again feeling slightly annoyed with herself.

Both of the siblings remembered their dreams the day later, and yetthey both attributed them to the previous night overeating.

Nothing else for now

Bye