2. The Sorting Ceremony
The sky outside grew darker as Callie chatted with a set of identical twin girls who were also going to Hogwarts for the first time. They had introduced themselves as Parvati and Padma Patil. The three of them had helped themselves to the food trolley and were now exchanging chocolate frog cards.
"Helga Hufflepuff - again," Parvati said, tossing her latest card off to the side. "I've already got three of her and no Rowena Ravenclaws."
"I've got a Ravenclaw," Callie said, flipping through her deck. "You want it?"
"Yeah, thanks!"
Callie passed the card over and grabbed another frog to open. "Merlin!" she squealed. "Yes, I've been waiting forever to get one!" She slipped the card into the safest spot inside her luggage, next to her money, her wand, and a picture of her parents.
Turning back to her new classmates, she asked, "So anyway, what do your mum and dad do?"
Padma replied, "Our mum's an aurologist. Dad's a healer."
"Really?" Callie said. "My mum's a doctor."
The twins were both surprised and interested by this. "A doctor?" Parvati asked. "Is she a muggle?"
"Yeah."
"Does she really cut into people with knives?" Padma asked.
"Sometimes. If they have something that needs to come out."
Parvati made a face. "Ugh! What would have to come out of someone's body?"
Callie smiled to herself, amused at how magical people were often baffled by muggle culture. Meanwhile, her mother had always been amazed, and someone envious, of how so many ailments could be cured with the flick of a wand in magical medicine.
Suddenly the door to their compartment slid open, and an older red-haired boy announced, "Did you hear? Harry Potter's on the train!" Then the door slid shut and he was gone.
The three girls sat in silence for a moment, before Parvati said, "Blimey, the Harry Potter?"
"No way," the girl's twin said.
"It can't be," Callie agreed. She knew all about the Boy Who Lived. His was one of the most famous names in the wizarding world. The only person to ever survive the Killing Curse - and he had only been a baby when it happened. On top of that, the boy's survival had somehow led to the downfall of He Who Must Not Be Named. These events had marked the end of the Great Wizarding War, as Callie's father had explained.
"Do you think he's in our year?" Parvati asked. "We could end up in the same house!"
"The war ended in 1981," Padma said, doing the math in her head. "If he was a baby then, he has to be about our age."
"Yeah, he must be a first-year," Callie concluded. "He can't be older than eleven."
The girls spent the rest of the journey speculating about their famous new classmate - what he would be like, how he would be sorted, if he would be their friend. Eventually the train came to a stop, and Callie and the twins cut their conversation off to hurriedly change into their robes.
Callie stepped out onto the crowded platform of Hogsmeade station, unsure of where she was supposed to go. A booming voice caught her attention as it called out, "Firs' years over here!" She turned in the direction of the voice and did a double take. "Wow!" she exclaimed. The caller was a very heavily bearded man who must have stood at least ten feel tall and was as wide as four or five full-grown people. The Patil twins came to stand beside Callie, and she asked, "Is he a giant?"
"Must be," Parvati said.
But her sister shook her head and corrected, "Giants are bigger."
Callie couldn't imagine any human being bigger than this bloke. The quasi-giant led the group of first years down a narrow path that opened onto the shore of a vast lake.
"There it is!" one of the twins called out, pointing excitedly across the water. As her classmates oohed and aahed, Callie raised her head and saw, for the first time, the castle that was to be her home and school for the next seven years. Her jaw dropped; it really was like something out of a fairytale.
A group of boats was gathered at the edge of the lake, and the big man gestured for everyone to get in. "No more'n four to a boat," he said. Callie and the twins got into one. "Right then - forward!"
The boats began to move in the direction of the castle, of which nobody could take their eyes off. Golden lights shown through the many windows, illuminating the awestruck faces of the first years and dancing off the water below. One by one the boats came to a stop on the other side of the lake, and the crowd clambered ashore.
The man led them across the castle grounds and up a flight of steps to the entrance, where he knocked on the large oak door. They were greeted by a very serious-looking woman in green robes and a pointed hat.
"The firs' years, Professor McGonagall," their leader announced.
"Thank you Hagrid," the woman replied, "I will take them from here."
They followed her through the massive entrance hall and into a small room off to the side. Standing before the crowded group, she announced, "Welcome to Hogwarts. 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 honor. I hope each of you will be a credit to whichever house becomes yours."
Callie was practically jumping out of her skin as the moment of truth grew closer and closer. She'd gone back and forth on which house she actually wanted, but in the end it didn't really matter. She just wanted to finally know where she belonged.
Professor McGonagall left them to wait. Everyone chattered excitedly - and some nervously - about where they'd be sorted, and how it was decided. Suddenly, all talk was cut off when a group of pearly white figures came flying through the room. Callie was so startled that she actually screamed, along with several others. Upon closer inspection, the figures appeared to be somewhat see-through. These are ghosts! she thought, her fright quickly turning to fascination.
"I say, what are you all doing here?" one of the figures inquired to the first years.
"New students!" another exclaimed. "About to be sorted, I suppose? Hope to see you in Hufflepuff!"
Professor McGonagall reappeared in the doorway and said, "Move along now. The Sorting Ceremony's about to start." The ghosts flew off through another wall as the students formed a line. The woman led them back through the grand foyer and into the Great Hall.
Callie's eyes darted from the thousands of candles that floated in midair, to the starry night sky to which the room opened high above. To no one in particular she commented, "There's no ceiling."
But a girl to her right replied, "It's bewitched to look like the sky outside. I read about it in Hogwarts, A History."
"Oh," Callie said. She would've sworn it was real.
The group came to a halt in front of a long table at the head of the room. Seated at the middle was a very elderly wizard with a long white beard, who Callie recognized from pictures her father had shown her - Albus Dumbledore, the Hogwarts headmaster. The rest of the table was occupied by who Callie assumed were the teachers, and in the middle of the Great Hall were four other tables seating hundreds of students.
Professor McGonagall placed a wooden stool before the teachers' table, and on top of that she set an old, raggedy brown wizard's hat. The woman stood back and a moment of silence passed, before a rip in the hat suddenly began to move as though it were a mouth.
"Oh, you may not think I'm pretty," it sang. "but don't judge on what you see. I'll eat myself if you can find a smarter hat than me."
Callie was delighted. She had seen a lot of magical stuff in her lifetime, but a singing hat was new to her.
"You can keep your bowlers black," it continued, "your top hats sleek and tall. For I'm the Hogwarts Sorting Hat, and I can cap them all.
"There's nothing hidden in your head The Sorting Hat can't see, so try me on and I will tell you where you ought to be.
"You might belong in Gryffindor, where dwell the brave at heart. Their daring, nerve, and chivalry set Gryffindors apart."
Daring, nerve, and chivalry - brave at heart. Callie certainly didn't think herself a coward. Looking back on the time she and her friends decided to sneak into a graveyard in the middle of the night, a smug little smirk curled her lips as she remembered being the first one who'd dared to enter.
"You might belong in Hufflepuff, where they are just and loyal. Those patient Hufflepuffs are true and unafraid of toil."
Just and loyal, sure, though patience had never been one of her virtues.
"Or yet in wise old Ravenclaw, if you've a ready mind, where those of wit and learning will always find their kind."
Dad's house, Callie thought. She'd always been a good student, and curious about a lot of things. So far, she was almost positive that this would be her house too.
"Or perhaps in Slytherin you'll make your real friends. Those cunning folk use any means to achieve their ends."
Cunning. She'd asked her mum once what that word meant. "It's like... sly," the woman had explained. "Like using trickery to get what you want." Callie hardly thought of herself that way. If anything, she was very much not cunning. If she wanted something, she was perfectly upfront about it. Based on the hat's descriptions, Slytherin house seemed the least fitting for her.
"So put me on! Don't be afraid! And don't get in a flap! You're in safe hands, though I have none, for I'm a Thinking Cap!"
The hat fell silent, and everyone broke out into applause. Professor McGonagall came forward and unrolled a long sheet of parchment. "When I call your name," she announced, "you will put on the hat and sit on the stool to be sorted."
The sorting began with Hannah Abbott (Hufflepuff), Susan Bones (Hufflepuff), and Terry Boot (Ravenclaw), and Callie wallowed in despair at being cursed with a W surname. The whole process seemed to take forever, though there were a few interesting points. For one, the Patil twins were actually sorted into different houses - Padma had gone to Ravenclaw, while Parvati went to Gryffindor. And then, one or two sortings later, Professor McGonagall called out, "Potter, Harry!"
The whole hall was suddenly filled with excited whispers; those who'd already been seated craned their necks to get a better look at the infamous boy, who was ultimately sorted into Gryffindor. The cheers from his new housemates were almost deafening.
Callie finally found herself the next in line, with only two other people behind her. Professor McGonagall called out, "Warbeck, Calista!" and her heart skipped a beat as she took her place on the stool.
The hat was so big that it fell over her eyes, and the voice that spoke was a bit softer than that which had shouted out her classmates' houses. "Hmm, what a mind," it said. Callie wondered if anyone else could hear what she was hearing. For everyone else, the hat had only given it's decision, not the thought process behind it.
The voice continued, "Intelligence well above average, and quite a thirst for knowledge."
Ravenclaw? Callie thought.
"Perhaps. But let us not ignore the strong sense of right and wrong."
Hufflepuff.
"Patience, young one, of which you have little. But determined, you are. Oh, yes, you'd be almost unstoppable in your quest to achieve your goals."
So...Slytherin?
She was ignored as the hat went on, "Daring, where others cower. Bold. Unafraid."
Gryffindor.
"Hmm... where to put this one. Her abilities must be tended to with great care, if she is to become all that she is capable of being. Any preference?"
Silently she asked, Are you speaking to me?
"But of course!"
Callie gave it a moment of thought, and replied, I don't know. That's for you to decide.
"Very well," the hat said. And after a pause, "Such talents as yours must not be wasted. You will do great things, in time...
"Slytherin!"