3
Lunch on the train was between roast beef sandwiches with mashed potatoes or baked fish on a bed of rice. It was rumored some girl on board insisted on lobster for her and her twin brother. What candy Gabrielle and her friends did not eat they had divvied up between them. It was Kelsey who first saw the shadow of Hogwarts in the distance from Hogsmeade, the nearest town to the school. The town was populated by both magic-folk and by regular people used to magic. It was so remote that travelers rarely turned up here. Ready for real food, the herds of children were taken off the train by status. Anyone who was a second year or up traveled by road around the lake and to the castle, but by tradition, the First Years traveled down a path to the lake where they were ferried across eight to a boat. Gabrielle and her friends arrived in one boat to reach the castle behind the older students used to the routine in school. Troy and Chad looked for the creature supposed to be in the lake, and Taylor showed Gabrielle the stars. The lake was as clear as a mirror; their boats floating oarless without a breeze like leaves in the wind under a starry night partially blocked out by the huge shadow of Hogwarts ablaze with lights and exterior bonfires lighting the way. Gabrielle dropped her mouth open stunned by the size of the location and looked to Kelsey astounded by the presence of the ancient school. Troy and Chad arched their heads up to look at it. Their boats drifting toward the castle under their own power, the bonds of friendship were already forged, and by time they reached the docks under the castle, they were ready to start their respective adventures. The school looked to be the size of a mountain with countless windows and illuminated windows. They approached one of the closest houses from the lake, ascending the stairs up to the castle fifty feet above them on the cliff and entering through an archway lead by Hagrid guiding the forty students behind him. He sent them up one staircase and stayed behind. Troy and Gabrielle were leading the way to the top with the blonde from the London Train Station with them. They crossed a balcony to a set of doors where there stood a tall proud woman in a witch's hat. She had been attractive in her youth, but time had made her mature and emboldened. Embraced by wisdom, headmistress Minerva McGonagal looked over the new group of First Years gathering before her and coming to a stop.
"Welcome to Hogwarts…" She spoke in a stern motherly voice like than of a grandmother with many children. "Now, through these doors you will pass into the meeting hall where you will join your classmates and be sorted into your houses. The houses here are Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff and Slitherin. While you are here, you house is like your family. Your triumphants will earn you points, any rule-breaking and you will lose points. At the end of the school year, the house with the most points will win the house cup… "
"Spencer!!!" Ryan Evans just casually looked around and noticed his pet frog sitting at the top step. His twin sister looked away and covered her face with her hand out of embarrassment. Ryan collected Spenser in his hands and looked to Professor McGonagal. She was taken a bit aback herself, but then, kids did lose pets from time to time. She recomposed herself.
"The sorting ceremony will commence momentarily." She mentioned and gestured for the kids to wait then stepped away as the kids were watched over by Argus Filtch, the school caretaker. He was a small thin sour little man holding a cat in on his arm and stroking it behind the head. It did not look like he liked kids, but the feeling was mutual. No one liked the look of him either. The kids all mulled around impatiently on the stairs waiting to keep going. A few tried to get off the second landing and stand on the steps to the next landing. They mumbled amongst themselves or looked around the impossibly high ceiling suspended over their heads or looked down quite dizzy to the first floor twenty feet below the staircase. One student feared the weight of kids might cause the marble staircase to collapse.
"Hi, Troy!!!" The perky blonde pulled Taylor back to get ahead of her. "Missed you at daddy's cotillion, but you should have seen me in my white dress. I looked stunning!"
"Sorry I missed it…" Troy reacted with trepidation. He didn't hate Sharpay, but she made his stomach tie in knots. "But Chad and I were skiing in the Himalayas…" He looked to Gabrielle. "Gabrielle, this is Sharpay. Sharpay, Gabrielle."
"Hi…" Gabrielle smiled with all of the innocence of a small town girl.
"Charmed, I'm sure…" Sharpay looked back to her blonde and red-haired friends. "This is Lily…" She gestured to the redhead. "And this is Tawni…" She gestured to the blonde behind her.
"A-hem…" Ryan rolled his eyes.
"And that's my idiot brother…"
Ryan bounced his head disgustedly that she just barely knew his name.
"Around here…" Sharpay continued speaking to Gabrielle. "There are different types of people here, and I can help you a lot with that here. It's very important that you hang out with the right people. Stick with me and I can show you the wrong type of people not to be with here." She reached out to shake Gabrielle's hand, but the cute brunette Waverly Place ingénue just gasped, looked to Taylor and Kelsey then back to Troy. He looked as if he was worried for her sake.
"I think I can tell the wrong sort myself, thank you." She responded as Sharpay reacted stunned. The doors to the meeting hall now shuddered and creaked open from the inside as everyone looked up. Troy grinned to Gabrielle and led the way for her as Sharpay reacted taken aback by Gabrielle's response, but she had little time to react to the snubbing. From inside the meeting hall, Professor McGonagal beckoned for the students to enter between the two middle tables. As the First Years entered, they entered into a room even larger than the first. Four long tables over forty chairs long filled the room beneath a grand hall with a higher stage area for the teachers and faculty area. Illuminated by both perched and levitating candles, the room expressed the enormity of the castle. The almost two hundred older students watched as the forty new students entered to be arranged into four houses at Hogwarts, five girls and five new boys for each house marching up the middle of the hall between the Gryffindor and Ravenclaw tables. Slitherin was to the left under the windows; Hufflepuff to the other wall near a large ten-foot high fireplace. Three stories above, Gabrielle saw open starry skies with clouds and a full moon with random ghosts and spirits flitting over and around the rafters obscured by the sky.
"It's enchanted to look like the sky." Taylor explained to Gabrielle. "I read about it in Hogwarts: A History."
"First Years, over here…" Professor McGonagal stood on the bottom steps to the teacher's table. Gabrielle looked up and noticed Hagrid sitting among them. On the bottom level near Professor McGonagal was a short wooden stool with a very old and withered cap falling in on itself atop. She guided the kids to a stop before her. "Now, as I call your name, step forward, take the seat and I will place the hat to your head to choose your house…" She looked at the list with in her right hand and lifted the hat with her left. "Michael Adams…" She called, and a short young man, lean in build with small brown eyes and a bowl-type haircut slowly emerged from the back of the crowd behind Troy and Chad. He looked nervous at first, a slight grin building to his face then advanced on the stool and sat down with a deep breath as McGonagal placed the Sorting Hat upon his head.
"It burns!!! It burns!!!" He started screaming as if the hat was killing him. The other First-Years reacted in terror and much of the room laughed, but Professor McGonagal was not amused. She jerked the Sorting Hat back up with a stern look as Michael looked up with a laughing, grinning face at his own practical joke.
"Mr. Adams…" She responded. "I love a good joke as well as the next person, but if you ever pull a stunt like that in front of me, you will be the first student in the History of Hogwarts to be expelled before he is admitted." She tried again with the Sorting Hat as it finally rested a second on Michael's head and had the time to create a face. The creases formed into eyes that blinked and thought and a mouth called forth from the hat itself.
"Hmmm…" A gravely voice came from it. "Another year has woken me up and new First Years have arrived, but what to do with this irritating little jester? Which house should it be? I can only think of only but… Hufflepuff!!!"
Hufflepuff house screamed excitedly at their new member as the process began, and Michael calmed down to join his house and meet new friends.
"Amanda Agee…" Professor McGonagal called next as a lovely redhead came strolling forward next from the back. The hat placed her in Ravenclaw, and from there, the names continued on alphabetically. Terry Ahern, Kelly Aiken, Valerie Birckhead, Susan Bones and then…
"Troy Boyden…" McGonagal called and Troy reacted nervously with a look to Gabrielle and Chad. Sharpay looked over her shoulder to him then to her twin brother. The hat was placed to his head.
"Hmmmm…" The hat read his character. "An American boy! I don't get to read many American wizards, but you're strong and bold as were your colonial ancestors, I say, Gryffindor!!!" It called out almost immediately.
Gryffindor House cheered to welcome their third new member. Troy grinned ear-to-ear and went to join the friends he'd have for the next few years. Behind him, a redhead named Chelsea Daniels also joined the house and then Chad himself.
"What?" The hat reacted. "Ha! Another Danforth?! Well, I know exactly what to do with you! Gryffindor!!!" Gryffindor House erupted with cheers. It was almost fate. They were friends on the train and now they were friends in the same house. Two more names and Ryan Evans got Hufflepuff and then Sharpay advanced before her name was even called. Professor McGonagal rolled her eyes at this girl's ego and placed the sorting hat to her head.
"Slitherin!!!" It cried out.
The students at the Slitherin House table cried out excited.
"Wait a second!" Sharpay reacted upset and turned to Professor McGonagal. "Miss McGonagal, I'm afraid there's been a little mistake. I'm sure I was supposed to join Troy in Gryffindor."
"No, Miss Evans…" Professor McGonagal saw through this girl's intentions. "There's no mistake. Please join your house." Sharpay made a face and pouted as she joined her new house with deep apprehension. Separated from her brother and from Troy, all she could do was hope that Gabrielle did not end up in Gryffindor.
"I might have known…" Taylor whispered to Gabrielle and Taylor. "There is not a witch or wizard in Slitherin who did not turn bad… or got herself pregnant before graduating." The three of them giggled in hushed tones as McGonagal continued calling names. There were still twenty-six kids ahead and Gryffindor and Ravenclaw were filling up fast. Another girl with Gothic dark hair came in next to Sharpay, Lily and Tawni at the Slitherin Table. Taylor McKessie ended up in Ravenclaw and two people later, Kelsey Nielsen took her place at the Hufflepuff Table. Ten more, and another name was called to break the tension.
"Gabrielle Russo." Professor McGonagal called.
One of the last of the nine students waiting to be called, Gabrielle looked to Hagrid at the big table looking down and encouraging her. He nodded a bit as Gabrielle strolled forward as the thirty-one previous First-Years before her. Her eyes looked to Troy and Chad at the Gryffindor table ready to join them at their table or Kelsey and Ryan in Hufflepuff House or Taylor in Ravenclaw House. Fearing she could join Sharpay in Slitherin, she began nervously fretting and praying as the Sorting Hat was placed to her head.
"Hmmm… hmmm…." The hat tried reading her and prolonging the tension. "Where should this one go? Could it be Hufflepuff? Slitherin?"
Gabrielle started worrying even more. Ravenclaw had one empty seat. Griffindor two seats left. Both Hufflepuff and Slitherin had three seats left.
"I know!" The Hat realized the truth. "Gryffindor!!!" It called out and Gabrielle squealed with delight! The Gryffindor Table roared excitedly as Professor McGonagal called James Saddle for Slitherin house. Gabrielle excitedly rushed over to join her house. Behind her, Saddle joined Sharpay in Slitherin and Jeanne Sagal was called to join Hufflepuff. Young William Samms from London was called to take the last chair in Gryffindor. As the last chairs were filled, Sharpay looked and watched as Gabrielle became friends with Troy… and began plotting. Amidst the reverie, Professor McGonagal took her seat behind the great table between Albus Dumbledore, the schoolmaster, and Hagrid himself. She tapped her crystal goblet with a ringing noise to get the room's attention.
"Attention…" She called. "A few announcements…." She sat as Professor Dumbledore rose. He could have been the Great Merlin or legendary Vainamoinen himself. He had a long white beard down to his belt and a light blue robe with white cuffs and matching sorcerer's cap folded backward, and as he rose, he slightly tilted his head and looked up to the ghosts watching the room before addressing his students.
"First Years, a few start of term notices…" He spoke. "The Dark Forest remains forbidden to all students, and Mr. Filtch has asked me to remind you all that the third floor hall on the right side is out of bounds… unless you want to suffer a violent and very powerful death."
"Like Lindsay Lohan's acting career." Chad whispered to Troy. His buddy tried stifling his laughter.
"Or Tiger Woods' marriage…" Taylor turned and spoke to her friends at the Gryffindor Table. Everyone in between cracked up a bit from the jokes. Hagrid must have heard the jokes as well because he choked back a bit of laughter. Miss McGonagal must have psychically eavesdropped a bit as well because she looked to Troy's posse of friends with a stern look.
"And now…" Dumbledore swayed his hands to summon the food. "Let the feast begin." Endless bowls and platters of food now appeared from out of the air at the tables. It was as if they were hidden behind a veil of invisibility just lifted. The older kids immediately started filling their plates, but the younger students marveled at the spell. Wonderful vegetables, cooked ham, roasted chicken, sweet yams, whole pies of every sort and sliced five-layer cakes tempted the eyes and the tastes of the students. The platters of apples and pears might have just well been decorations because no one ate any of them except a few prefects who sliced them into edible pieces. Gabrielle took just a small slice of ham, and Taylor delicately chose a few pieces of chicken. Troy and Chad were across from each other filling up on pork chops and mashed potatoes. As Gabrielle sipped the fine sweet taste of juice from her goblet, she looked through the faces toward Sharpay… looking back at her with an annoyed little grin at her and mentally chiding her by jostling her head at her.