Ron grinned. Before Harry knew it Ron had hit him back. Harry laughed, Ron was not so good a hitter as himself, and hit Ron again, this time on the shoulder. Ron couldn't do nothing now, he hit Harry back and a true hitting-match began. The boys had much fun hitting each other, totally forgetting about the mortal combat game they were playing. Hermione however wasn't, she thought it was childish and didn't want to have to do anything with it. She just rolled her eyes from time to time, stroking Crookshanks, looking outside the window thinking about Merlin knows what - or who.
A little while later Harry and Ron were stopped by Hermione shrieks: "We're there! Look, Hogwarts!". Hermione was jumping around hyper, a little too much for Ron's likings. When Harry started to do the same, and Ron could hear a lot of excited shrieks coming from the carriages around him, he looked outside the window as well, to see what all the commotion was about.
All he saw was a castle. Yes, it was a pretty one, but to get all hyper about it? Ron didn't get it.
When the carriages stopped infront of the castle, the students got out as fast as possible. It was a humorous sight: students were dancing and jumping excitedly, pushing each other to get through the door as fast as possible. There were an old woman and an old man trying to get the children to calm down, to form a line and to quietly enter the castle. But it was al useless, of course. "Always the same - Every single year!" the woman cried out desperately, trying to stop two youngsters who were fighting. The old man responded with nothing but a growl.
Ron didn't know what to do. Harry was doing exactly the same, Ron could see a glimpse of white-blond hair fighting off a brunette, and Hermione was standing on a statue, screaming "Free the House elves!". It reminded Ron more of a riot.
Since he was the only one not jumping and screaming and god knows what more, it was easy to spot him, which the elderly woman did. She made her way towards him, with a "Out of my way, Pucey!" and a "Drop that stick now, Ms Bell!" once in a while. "Ah, you must be the new student? Ronald Greenleaf?" she said on the top of her voice, trying to be louder than the children's hyper screams. Ron yelled a "Yes." back, but the woman didn't hear him, so he nodded, thinking if she couldn't use her eares, her eyes might work better. "Good, follow me then, if you please." she yelled, pushing Ron through the crowd.
Once they finally got inside -it was a good ten minutes later-, not without a bruise or two, the lady pushed Ron towards a chamber, saying "We'll wait here for the first years". Ron nodded. He didn't know what to do, so he decided to check the room out. It wasn't a real room exactly, it was more of an open space, with several stairways and a giant door. Ron wondered where the door would lead to. Soon the door opened and a pack of first years came out of it. Curious... Ron thought. I must ask someone about that.
He was startled out of his thinking when he heard the old lady speak. "Welcome all to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. I am Professor McGonagall, Deputy-Headmistress of Hogwarts, Head of Gryffindor House ànd Transfiguration teacher", she said, not without some proud. "Now, in a few moments, you will pass through these doors and join your classmates. But before you take your seats, you must be sorted into your houses. They are Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. Now while you're here your house will be like your family. Your triumphs will earn you points. Any rule breaking and you will loose points. And the end of the year, the houses with the most points is awarded the house cup. If you would wait here - the Sorting Ceremony will begin momentarily". With that, she walked through the door, quickly closing it not to give the students a glimpse of what was going on inside there. The first years start chattering, about how excited they were, in which houses they want to be, and to what classes they were looking for. Ron was feeling uncomfortable, he was with his 6ft a lot taller than the first years. Some were staring up at him, wondering why he was with them. Ron saw a few girls staring at him, when he looked back the girls quickly turned around and giggled. Ron flustered, and his face burned almost as red as his hair.
It was then when the door opened, Professor McGonagall came through, and said: "We are ready for you. Follow me".