A.N.-This is my first Harry Potter fanfic, so if you don't like it, TELL ME WHAT'S WRONG! This is BEFORE the first book, well during actually, and this will be completely different from the books, trust me.

During the train ride Helena came and joined Harry, Ashley, and Chris. Hermione also came in twice, once looking for a kid's toad and the second time was to tell them that they needed to change into their robes soon. Now, they were all unloaded from the train and loading into the boats to cross the lake to get to Hogwarts. Chris ended up with his brother and his brother's friends, while Harry was in a boat with Helena, Neville (the kid who lost the toad) and Hermione. Ashley landed somewhere behind Harry, but relatively close.

Something squishy yet firm grabbed a hold of Ashley and pulled her down into the icy depths of the lake, which she hoped never to go into again. When she had nearly lost consciousness someone's large hand grabbed her robe and another one smacked the thing that pulled her down. She was pulled up into Hagrid's boat and someone passed her their cloak. Once they got to the cave that would lead them up into the castle, Ashley had regained full consciousness, but was still wet and cold.

"I will take them from here Rubeus," said a rather old looking woman, she probably wouldn't look that old had she not had her hair up in a bun almost on top of her head.

"Righ' then, I'll jus' be off Professor!" Hagrid said and got into his boat and brought all the other boats back.

The professor led them way up into the castle which took what seemed like forever. Once they got to the Great Hall, Neville's toad, Trevor was found and taken to wherever the pets went. She explained to them about the houses (Griffindoor, Slitherin, Hufflepuff, and Ravenclaw.) and the school. She told them that the headmaster was Dumbledore and she was Professor McGonagal.

As they entered the hall they stared, either at the ceiling or at everything else. The ceiling was just like the outside sky, except the rain wasn't hitting anything. There were candles hanging in mid-air along with the banners above the correct house table. There were also random lights everywhere, most of which seemed to be up at the front with the teachers. The students were dressed mostly like they were, although there was a distinct difference between each house's robes. Professor McGonagal set out a stool near the teachers and set a very old and patched up hat on top of it. Many sighs of relief went around the section of new students, most of which were muggle-borns or orphans. Those sighs of relief were cut off when Professor McGonagal told them that the hat would sit on their heads until it decided on a house. Most of them were scared that it would take really, really long for them to be sorted, and others wanted to eat so badly; they thought that it would be midnight before anyone got a chance to eat anything.

"Alsby, Helena!" the professor cried out. Helena walked forward and sat on the stool, and Professor McGonagal set the hat one her head and it leaped to life.

It yelped, "HUFFLEPUFF!" and Helena got off and ran to the Hufflepuff table, and everyone there was cheering or clapping. This continued for about twenty or so people until it got to Ashley.

"Desourdor, Ashley!" the professor called and a proud looking girl with long shiny black hair walked up and sat down, the hat was placed on her but instead of waiting a few moments, it started talking rather to itself.

"My, my. Dear child you are a difficult one. If you are put in Hufflepuff, horrible, terrifying things shall happen to you, but if you're in Ravenclaw or Griffindoor you'll probably end up dead before your seven years at Hogwarts. I'd say Slitherin anyway, you've much more potential in that house than any other house." It told her, muttering half to itself.

"But I don't want to be in Slitherin, I heard that's the house that the worst, evilest, and cruelest wizard who ever lived got sorted into! I don't want anyone to hate me because of what house I'm in." Ashley thought.

"But remember your scars child! And your ability to communicate with snakes. Slitherin is known for that," it said, reminding her of what she feared most anyone finding out.

"Fine, do whatever. So long as I won't be hated by too many people." Ashley thought, giving up. That hat was obviously not going to give up, and she didn't want to starve anyone because she was arguing with the hat.

"Wise choice, but you gave up too soon. And I thought that I'd get someone who can be just as stubborn as I am aside from your headmaster and Peeves. You'll be in SLITHERIN!" it shouted and the entire Slitherin table roared with pleasure. Ashley slowly made her way to the table and caught her friend's eyes, she gave them a sad look and sat beside someone, they seemed to be almost ready to leave Hogwarts.

Many people later Chris got sorted into Ravenclaw no problem and his brother joined Ashley at the Slitherin table. Draco was gloating and Chris looked slightly happy, but seemed like he was dreading something. When Harry's name was called, most everyone's heads turned to stare at him. He walked up and went through almost the same procedure that Ashley went through, only he didn't gasp almost at the end. The hall exploded with cheers and claps as Harry went and sat happily at the Griffindoor table. He talked to everyone their, shook hands with some of them.

About five or six people later, Ronald Weasley was called up. Draco sneered, as did many other Slitherins as he walked up and sat down.

"Ha! Another Weasley! I know just where to put you!" the hat shouted, "GRIFFINDOOR!" and the Griffindoor table exploded again, along with many more sneers from the Slitherins.

Ron sat down and soon the sorting was over and everyone was eager to eat. Dumbledore stood up, which caught everyone's attention.

"I would like to say a few words before we feast on the wonderful dinner that has been prepared for us this evening! Apple, lemon drop, cockroach cluster. Let the feast begin!" he said. Most everyone thought the same thing: What a nutty guy! Is he our head master? Gosh, isn't he mad?

Delicious food appeared in front of everyone and they began to pile their plates with food and began to eat. The hall was full of talk, laughter and many screaming people. Apparently someone let out Peeves, the older people told the new students. "He doesn't like new students, so you'll have to watch out for him while getting to your classes," said the prefect that sat beside Ashley.

Helena was one of the first people to notice the ghosts that came out of the floor. Others, like Chris, noticed the ones flying from the walls and ceiling and still other found their way through the tables, like Sir Nicholas, Griffindoor's house ghost. The Bloody Baron came through a wall and sliced through the Slitherin table and many people laughed and insulted the Griffindoors.

All too soon dinner was over and this was apparently when Dumbledore made his real speech. "I would like to have your attention once more before you travel to your dormitories. I would like to notify the new students, and remind a few older students," his gaze ran lightly over two twins with flaming red hair and freckles, he continued, "that the Forbidden Forest is, of course, forbidden to all students," once again his gaze ran over the twins, "And that many items you might find in Zonko's, in the wizarding village, are not allowed inside the school. And tonight only you are not allowed outside your common rooms past nine o'clock. The rest of the nights it shall be at eleven. Now students follow the prefects of your house. They will lead the new students to it and the older ones will be told the password." Dumbledore said and all the prefects got up and herded the new students to their appropriate house common room.

"Come on, come on! This way! Say goodbye to the Ravenclaws!" Percy said to the first years and waved to Penelope, his girlfriend. Several children said bye and continued following Percy. He led them so far up they thought that they were up at the top of the castle. When they finally saw the picture of the Fat Lady, she was sitting down, obviously expecting them and asked for the password.

"Flobberworms," Percy said aloud, so that the Gryffindoor first years could hear and no others. The picture swung forward and admitted everyone into the common room. It was lavishly decorated with scarlet and gold accents. The two fire places had a fire in them that did not flicker but stayed the same. One was gold and the other was red. From the ceiling hung many Gryffindoor banners and miniature flags and more of those floating candles that were in the Great Hall, only these flickered from red to gold and back again. Many of the more excited students ran forward and grabbed one of the mini flags and they easily slid down out of the enchantment that had kept them hung up. Soon the others came forward and pulled down their own flags and waved them around shouting things like; "GRYFFINDOOR RULES!" and "GO GRYFFINDOOR!" which was very funny to watch because some of the kids were swaying slightly and other were running around in circles and yet others stayed still and just stared at the room.

"Percy? Where do we sleep exactly?" one of the new students asked him.

"Boys upstairs and to your right and girls the same only to your left. And I expect you all to be in your beds with your eyes shut bye ten o'clock sharp!" Percy cried as the students ran to their beds, finding all their stuff at the foot of one of the beds.

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Penelope led the Ravenclaws away from the Gryffindoors after waving back to Percy. She led them through all sorts of twists and turns until finally they came to a picture that had a man on a carpet eagerly awaiting them by the looks of it.

"Ah, the new students. I was wondering when you'd arrive. Did anything go wrong? Don't tell Peeves decided to join the sorting!" the man in the picture said, startling most of the first years.

"No, nothing went wrong Driand. The sorting just took a little longer than usual and having more students than the ones that left meant that we had to have a longer eating period and needed more seats. Oh and Billywig," Penelope said to the picture, which opened up at billywig. She stepped in first and the others walked calmly in behind her. The reason why the students were so calm and quiet was because they were admiring the room. Much like the Gryffindoor common room, it was lavishly decorated with a dark blue with trains of bronze lace with bronze bells that glistened in the candle light from the ceiling, which was flickering between blue and bronze. The warm glow of the fire flickered opposite of the candles, creating an interesting effect of colors on the walls, floor and ceiling. There were also large Ravenclaw banners and little mini flags to wave at qudditch matches. Penelope grabbed them all and passed them out. "Alright kids, girls down the hall and to the right and boys the same only to your left." She called as the first years ran off to find their beds.

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The Hufflepuffs traveled down a small flight of stairs with the Slitherins and turned to the right at the first opportunity to turn. They traveled straight for a while and down two more small flights of steps by the time the finally turned to the left. They saw a large picture with a woman that had waist length black hair and wore an emerald green dress with a black corset and belt. She waved and everyone waved back. The prefect who led them here, Orian, stepped forward, "Loyalty," he said and the picture swung back, revealing the Hufflepuffs common room. This room was much like the others only it did not have two regular sized fire places; it had one gigantic one that blazed, changing colors from black to yellow every now and then. They had little lights that flickered yellow and black that flew around the room, sticking to the ceiling mostly. In here there were also the houses banners and mini flag which all the first years got. One of the first years who was too excited to pay any attention to what was on the walls, came up and asked Orian where their dorms were. "Read the signs at the end of the hallway," he said in almost a monotone and pointed down the hall. The boy ran to the right corner and the sign that had Boys written on it and continued down the corner and down two steps to the door.

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The Slitherins continued down the stairs and many more stairs until it seemed like they had be climbing down the stairs for forever. Finally they came to a dead end with a large picture on it. In the picture there was a man sitting beside a woman talking. The man wore a dark emerald green tunic and dark brown pants tucked in at the boots. The woman was wearing a long elegant black dress and white lace gloves that matched the necklace she wore tightly around her neck. Ryan coughed and let the people in the picture know that hey were here and said, "Pure blood," he said simply and the picture swung inward.

Inside were torches hung every other foot or so lit with something that made them change their color to silver or green whenever it flickered. Many small fire places were positioned around the room and on either side of them were stone snakes slithering up the wall of the fire places trying to reach the mantle. A few very large banners were circled in a circle like the emerald green couches below them which had sliver stitches and snakes on the cushions. On the couches lay many small flags to wave (or throw at the players if it's a Gryffindoor one) during qudditch matches. There were two halls going upstairs, one went to the girls' dorms and the other led to the boys'. The first years just started walking up a hall and several boys slid down the right flight of stairs and they concluded that that one was the girls' dorms.

A.N.-So what do you think of the common rooms? Do you like what I did with this chapter?

READERS POLL! (Send answers in reviews only)

For quidditch games should I . . . ?

A use a whole chapter for one match.

B do two chapters in one chapter.

OR!

C other. (Explain what you think I should do.)