Chapter 3: Hogwarts School
They reached the station ten minutes later and walked out onto the platform and towards a large man calling all first years to him. Martha and her new friends followed him and they soon approached a large lake which the giant man had explained was called the Black Lake. They saw several small boats bobbing up and down on the surface like buoys.
"No more'n three or four to a boat." The giant man called as the students clambered into the boats and they set off, the giant man in a boat to himself.
They reached the castle's dark outline and gleaming windows positioned in tall turrets and along all the walls of the school. Approaching the school, they passed a huge forest which the giant man, whose name Martha soon found out was Hagrid, explained was called the Dark Forest and it definitely gave off an eerie air which made Martha and her new friends feel a bit apprehensive about coming to the school.
Finally they approached the huge oak front doors and Hagrid knocked three times before the door was opened by a tall, thin woman with her long black hair tied back in a tight bun.
"I'll take it from here Hagrid." She said.
Judging from her voice, I'm not sure she would be the one to cross on a bad day. Martha thought and her friends nodded when she voiced this thought to them quietly.
"I agree, Martha." Lannastar whispered in agreement.
"Same here." Dora replied.
"Me three." Adelyne replied as all the first year students all followed this new teacher into the school.
"Welcome to Hogwarts." The teacher said to them all. "My name is Professor McGonagall and I am the deputy headmistress here in the school as well as your Transfiguration teacher. Now, in a moment you will pass through these doors and join your classmates. But before you can take your seats, you must be sorted into your houses. The houses are as follows: Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin. And you should also know that whilst you are here, your house will be like your family. Your triumphs will earn you points, while any rule-breaking will lose you points. Now wait here while I let the headmaster know of your arrival." McGonagall said as she walked off through a pair of doors and into the noisy room beyond.
While she was gone, talk erupted among the first years like an active volcano.
Eventually McGonagall returned and led the students into the noisy room beyond the double doors, into the Great Hall. All the noise stopped all of a sudden as the new students entered the Hall and Martha felt every eye on her as she passed the students and approached the Teacher's Table at the front of the room. Looking upwards, Martha saw, not a normal ceiling, but the sky outside. A black and starry sky with a slight drizzle of rain. It was as if the ceiling opened up to the heavens above.