Ok, I must confess that I took everything Hagrid and Minerva McGonagall say in this chapter straight out of HP1. But hey, just means it's correct.

Chapter 2 -There

"Firs' years! Firs' years over here! Any more o' you out there?"

Peter stopped in his tracks, his eyes widening. He pointed a finger. "Wh – wh – what's tha-that?"

The others looked round and followed his finger. A huge man, half-veiled by the night mist, was looming up from the shadows.

Hazel replied. "Oh, mum and dad told us about him, he's the groundskeeper. Um…can't remember his name…" She looked at James. "Any ideas?"

"Yeah…um…Hagrid, wasn't it? Yeah, that's right. Strange name. Think it's his surname."

Sirius laughed. "You think that's strange? You're talking to someone who has cousins called Andromeda, Narcissa and Bellatrix."

James smiled, "Yeah, I see what you mean."

"Righ', all here? Sure? Ok, off we go!"

Feeling very grateful that they did not have to take their trunks (they had left them on the train as they were to be taken up separately), as none of them knew the feather-light charm, the group set off, trying not to think about how slippery the steep, winding path would be if it had rained that day.

Hagrid called over his shoulder, "Yeh'll get yer firs' sight o' Hogwarts in a sec. Just' round this bend here."

He went round a corner and was lost to sight. Those at the front of the procession filed out into a presumably large area, unseeable from the path. Cries of, "Oh wow!", "Cool!", and "Oh hell, I hate boats…" went up.

The group, who had been last off the carriage because of the squash of students at the exit, reached the end of the path. Laid out before them was a huge lake, silvery light from the crescent moon sparkling off ripples made by creatures far out in the water. And beyond that, the castle…Hogwarts, all the children gazing in awe at the huge castle, perched high up on a craggy mountaintop, a sparkling jewel in the night air.

"Righ', no more'n four to a boat!" A small fleet of boats with no visible means of propulsion sat in the water near the shore, tethered to a pole on the shore but bobbing up and down slightly in the ebb and flow of the ripples.

Hazel looked at James, but Sirius had grabbed his arm and was trying to drag him away to one of the boats, Remus and Peter following.

"Um, Haze, is it ok if I go with them? Um…"

Hazel forced a small smile. "Yeah, go on, it's ok, I'll find somewhere else."

"Ok…if you're sure…"

As James followed the other boys, Hazel looked around, wondering what she was supposed to do now. Approaching a small group of three girls who looked quite friendly, she smiled shyly and asked, "Hi, um, I'm Hazel, um…can I go in a boat with you?"

A girl of about the same height as Hazel, but with just-past-shoulder-length dark red hair and sparkling emerald green eyes smiled at her, and spoke. "Yeah, of course. I'm Lily Evans, this is Maria Hall, (the girl, with mid-back-length light brown hair and brown eyes, waved) and this is…"

"Imperia Malfoy." Hazel interrupted. "Yeah, we've met before."

Imperia, who had long, platinum blonde hair and brown eyes, said, "Yeah, Hazel Potter, right? You were the girl who was pulling faces behind my father at that thing last February when he stood up to speak." She smiled at the memory – Imperia was not overly fond of her father. Or her mother or her brother, for that matter. But she had to put up with it. Where would an eleven-year-old go?

Hazel smiled more widely. "That's right."

A shouted prompting from Hagrid made the four climb into their chosen boat. Hagrid, who had a boat to himself, which was tilting slightly, called, "Everyone in? Right then – forward!"

The boats glided forward over the lake, heading for a shadowy, ivy-curtained entrance in the cliff face, at water level. As the first boats approached it, Hagrid called, "Heads down!"

The small fleet glided down a long, dark tunnel, emerging after a few minutes into a huge underground harbour, beneath the castle, where they left the boats and followed Hagrid to a flight of stone steps, the pebbles of the beach crunching beneath their feet, and up them. Hagrid, scanning the crowd to check all were present, raised his fist and knocked three times on the huge, magically reinforced double doors. The doors to the castle.

The door swung open, and a tall, black-haired witch in navy blue robes stood there.

Hazel could see her brother across the crowd, whispering and laughing with the other boys, until he received a stern glare from the tall witch.

"The firs' years, Professor McGonagall."

"Thankyou, Hagrid. I will take them from here."

As the crowd trooped through the huge doors, now wide open, Hazel gazed round the huge entrance hall. Flaming torches were mounted on the walls, burning blue; a massive marble staircase facing them led to the first floor. The ground was paved with worn stone slabs (Merlin knew how long they had been there) and she thought of the hundreds, thousands of students that must have made their way across it in past years.

Professor McGonagall led them across the room to another, smaller, wooden door, set in the left hand side of the hall. Opening it, she ushered them in, all of them visibly nervous and crowding together for company.

"Welcome to Hogwarts," said Professor McGonagall. "The start-of-term banquet will begin shortly, but before you take your seats in the Great Hall, you will be sorted into your houses. The Sorting is a very important ceremony because, while you are here, your house will be something like your family within Hogwarts. You will have classes with the rest of your house, sleep in your house dormitory and spend free time in your house common room."

"The four houses are called Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin. Each house has its own noble history and each has produced outstanding witches and wizards. While you are at Hogwarts, your triumphs will earn your house points, while any rule-breaking will lose house points. At the end of the year, the house with the most points is awarded the house cup, a great honour. I hope each of you will be a credit to whichever house becomes yours.

"The Sorting Ceremony will take place in a few minutes in front of the rest of the school. I suggest you all smarten yourselves up as much as you can while you are waiting. I shall return when we are ready for you. Please wait quietly."

She left the small chamber.

James, whilst trying to flatten down his hair a bit (although he knew it was pointless) caught sight of a flash of red from the other side of the room. Stepping sideways slightly, he saw the mass of red turn round a reveal a beautiful face, with laughing green eyes and a lovely smile. James stared. "Wow…" he breathed. Sirius heard this and turned to him.

"Huh?"

James tore his eyes reluctantly away from the sight. "That girl over there…wow…"

Sirius looked over. "Which one?"

"The one with the red hair."

Sirius c spotted her. "Wow, yeah, I can see what you mean. Nice."

James turned angrily towards him…

Over on the other side of the chamber…

Hazel had caught sight of her brother staring at Lily, and smiled to herself.

Awww. Wasn't that cute…

"Oh. My god. Lily!"

Lily turned and squealed at the sight. Her eyes lit up as she stared at the girl running towards her. "Rosa! You're kidding, what are you doing here!"

The other girl, with dark brown hair cut in a bob and blue eyes, "What are you doing here! I haven't seen you for ages, I got this letter and I told my mum and she said yes she'd been expecting something like this and my mum's a witch and this is so weird!" Rosa paused for breath.

Lily started. "Oh, sorry, forgot my manners. Got to introduce you." She turned to the Hazel, Imperia and Maria, who had been standing watching them in amusement.

"Girls, this is Rosa Green. I've known her since we were really little, our parents are friends, and she never told me she got the letter! Rosa, this is Imperia, Maria and Hazel."

Rosa grinned at them. They liked her at first sight.

"Hi! And Lily never told me she got the letter either, did you Lils?"

Lily was saved from replying, and Sirius was saved from James glaring at him by the return of Professor McGonagall into the chamber.

"Come on now. The Sorting Ceremony's about to start. Form a line and follow me."

Most peoples' faces had turned ashen, apart from a few who were smiling nervously, trying to pretend they weren't dreading this.

They were led across the entrance hall again, and through another large pair of double doors, and into the candlelit hall beyond.

All whispering stopped. Thousands of candles hovered above the tables, illuminating them and the ceiling above, which was velvety black and dotted with stars and a silver sliver from the corner of the moon.

All the students had turned to look at the new first years, some of them making bets as to which houses some of them would be in, just by looking at them. The walls were lined with ghosts, some of them smiling, a few impassive, and one, blood-stained and staring, near the Slytherin table.

In the mass of faces, Hazel could see a few she recognised. As she looked at the Ravenclaw table, her brother Michael caught her eye and waved. Further down the table, sitting with her friends, was the Head Girl, whom she knew to be Andromeda Black, one of Sirius's cousins. Andromeda was smiling happily at the new first years – she could obviously remember what it was like to be in their position. Glancing over at the Slytherin table, she could see Andromeda's sister, Narcissa, with her friends around her pointing and laughing at the first years with no such sympathy. Her platinum blonde hair poker straight down her back, and her nose lifted, Narcissa smiled only at her sister, Bellatrix, in the queue far in front of Hazel.

The line had stopped. Professor McGonagall placed a short, four-legged stool on the floor, and a battered, frayed and dirty wizard's hat on top of it.

To the new first years' surprise, a large rip near the brim opened like a mouth, and the hat began to sing, rather badly;

"Long years ago when I was new,

There came to Hogwarts the chosen few.

Into the houses they were sorted,

Into the houses they were parted.

Slytherin and Gryffindor,

Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw.

It's times like these that I wish

That I had never accepted this

I must quarter every year

And yet still I fear

That this will divide you all

And that the world will fall.

Only you can remedy this

By making friendship your wish."

The students seated at the tables, who had listened to this, began to whisper among themselves about this new song, until Professor Dumbledore, resplendent in deep purple robes, rose and clapped his hands together. "Quiet, please."

Professor McGonagall stepped forwards, holding a long list.

"When I call your name, you will put on the hat and sit on the stool to be sorted."

And so the Sorting began.