"First years this way! Come to me!" a gruff-looking, very tall man with a big black beard and hair to match called out. The Doctor, Jack and Rose hurried over to him, joining the clump of 11 year olds that had already gathered. A few minutes later, the big man looked over the group and said, "Now, I think that's everybody. My name's Hagrid, and I'm keeper of the keys here at Hogwarts. If you'll follow me." Hagrid strode off in the direction of the lake, and they soon reached a small dock with a collection of rowboats beside it. The entire time they had been walking, the first years had been talking and laughing excitedly to each other. "Now, quiet down!" Hagrid's booming voice drowned out all the first years, and they quieted down immediately. "No more than four to a boat. Hurry up then." The Doctor, Rose and Jack got into a boat, and they were joined by a small boy with a mess of blond hair. The boy enthusiastically stuck out his hand and said

"I'm Dylan Bevan! Who are you?"

The he trio had obviously been made uncomfortable by Dylan's openness, but Rose was the first one to speak.

"I'm Rose, this is Jack, and he's the-" she corrected herself, "John." she finished firmly, so there was no doubt as to the Doctor's fake name.

Dylan grabbed her hand and shook it enthusiastically, pumping his hand up and down, he then grabbed Jack's and then the Doctor's in turn, giving them the same treatment.

"This is so exciting!" Dylan said "I'm from a muggle family though. Do you think that'll matter?" This was the first time Dylan had been anything but cheery, and Rose spoke quickly to console him.

"No, definitely not. I mean, Jack's from a muggle family, but we like him all the same."

Jack shot Rose a look a mouthed, "I'll get you for that later." Rose smiled cheerily in return.

By now, the boats were moving, and Rose, Jack and the Doctor had let Dylan's babble fade into the background, nodding and smiling at him occasionally.

"I'll find some way to get a message to you." said the Doctor, low enough that Dylan couldn't hear. The boat ride was over now, and they got off the boats and joined Hagrid in walking up to the castle.


They were all gathered outside a pair of ornate wooden doors, when a stern-looking woman came and greeted them.

"Welcome to Hogwarts. The start if 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 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 you 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 begin in a few minutes in front of the rest of the school. I suggest you smarten yourselves up as much as you can while you are waiting."

A couple of kids fidgeted with their robes or hair, trying to make themselves presentable. The stern woman opened the doors, and Jack, Rose and the Doctor looked into a huge hall, with floating candles providing light, and a ceiling that looked as if it were the night sky. There were four long tables, with kids sitting at them, and a table at the far end of the hall, perpendicular to the rest of them, with what appeared to be teachers sitting at it. In front of the teacher's table, there was a three-legged stool with a ragged old hat on it. The first years gathered around it, and the hat opened a seam near the brim, and began to sing. It sang about the houses, and told them what type of person belonged in each house. When the hat was done its song, the stern woman stood up at the front and called,

"Bevan, Dylan!"

Dylan bounded up to the hat, jammed it on his head, and it shouted out

"HUFFLEPUFF!"

Dylan ran to the Hufflepuff table with the hat still on his head, and when he realized this, he ran back sheepishly and handed it to McGonagall.

"Braun, Jennifer."

A nervous-looking girl with long, light brown hair walked up to the stool and put the hat on. Almost immediately the hat called out,

"RAVENCLAW!"

The girl looked relieved and walked over to the cheering Ravenclaw table.

The Doctor then realized something. "You both remember how to block off your minds, right?"

" Yeah, Doctor. Why?"

"Do it now. Block off everything that would suggest you aren't 11, or am from a different time period."

The three of them concentrated on this, until

"Harkness, Jack."

"Were you done?" the Doctor whispered as Jack went up. Jack nodded. The Doctor visibly relaxed. Jack strode up to the stool and put the hat on. He had it on for much longer than anyone else, when the hat called out

"SLYTHERIN!"

Jack walked over to his new house table, and gave a small smile to the Doctor and Rose.

The Doctor and Rose continued blocking their minds until Rose said, "I think that's it. I'm done." She began to watch the sorting, taking note of who went where.

"Tyler, Rose."

She walked up to the stool, put the hat on, and immediately it called out,

"HUFFLEPUFF!"

Rose took the hat off and walked over to her cheering housemates. All of them had ties striped with black and yellow, and a small crest with a badger on their robes.

"Hello, I'm Cedric, Hufflepuff prefect. Welcome to Hufflepuff."

Rose sat next to the boy, who seemed to be about 15, and watched for the Doctor.

"Smith, John."

Rose straightened up a bit to see him. He must have had the hat on for a good five minutes, before the hat shouted

"Ravenclaw!"

Rose slumped a little in her chair, disappointed the Doctor wouldn't be in the same house as her.

"You friends with him or something?" she heard Cedric ask.

"Yeah. He's my best mate, along with that boy over there at the Slytherin table." she pointed to Jack.

"We'll cheer up, you should find some new mates soon."

"Yeah, I hope so."

"Don't worry you'll love it here."

"We should probably pay attention." she said, not wanting to continue the conversation.

"Yeah." he said.

They both turned their attention back to the Sorting for the last name to be called.

"Whalen, Callum."

He walked up to the hat, put it on, and it shouted,

"HUFFLEPUFF!"

He hurried down to the table and sat next to Rose.

"Hi." he said nervously.

"Hey." she said back, smiling at him.

A man with a long white beard and hair to match stood up a started to speak.

"Welcome! Welcome to another year at Hogwarts! I have a few things to say to you all, and as one of them is very serious, I think it best start with that.

Rose tuned out the rest of the Headmaster's speech, thinking about how she was going to talk to the Doctor and Jack, so she was very surprised when the feast just appeared out of nowhere in front of them. She let out a small gasp.

"Never seen much magic before, have you?" Cedric asked amusedly.

"No. I'm from a non-magical family." she thought it best to say that, so she wasn't too conspicuous.

"You're going to love it here then." Cedric said with a smile.


Meanwhile, the Doctor was trying to find out more about the situation from the older girl he had sat beside, Penelope Clearwater. After he had pestered her for quite some time, she sighed and said

"If you want to know things, go to Flitwick when he's not busy. He'll answer your questions better than I can."

"Which one is Flitwick?" the Doctor asked.

"That short one next to Hagrid."

"Thank you." he said, and ate the rest of his meal in silence.


Jack, however, was getting on just fine with s new house-mates, using his natural charm to get them to say things that would give him more information? He learned about the cliques in the school, more about the houses, and various other things that might become useful. He was a bit worried when he heard that students from different houses don't typically socialize, but he figured him, Rose and the Doctor could get around that.


A/N: The passage with McGonagall's speech is straight from the first book, as is the small amount of Dumbledore's speech (Only his is from the third book).