The door swung open and there stood Professor McGonagall, who was the lady that had told the Lydell twins about the wizarding world and Hogwarts. Her dark hair was done up in a severe bun as it had then, but instead of a blouse and grey skirt and jacket she now wore robes of emerald green. She had looked somewhat stern during the visit, but now she looked so stern that James privately thought that crossing her would be a Very Bad Idea. He made a note to never play any pranks, or at least none that would result in him getting caught, because he didn't think his puppy-dog eyes or charming smile would work on her. No wonder Stuart had said it would be best to not get on the bad side of the Deputy Headmistress and Head of Gryffindor, though she was very fair, loved Quidditch, and did have a soft side, though she rarely showed it around the students.
Professor McGonagall led the first years to a small room next to the Great Hall, which from the noise sounded as if the rest of the school was there. She proceeded to give a speech on the four houses that they'd shortly be Sorted into, how your house would be like your family, and the point system. She finally ended with the fact that the Sorting would begin in a few minutes and the suggestion that they smarten themselves as much as they could while they were waiting.
Her eyes lingered for a moment on Neville's cloak, which was fastened under his left ear, and Ron's nose, which was still a bit smudged even though he had wiped it earlier. James nervously adjusted his glasses and attempted to flatten his hair, which was still a bit messy despite his Metamorphmagus powers, though not as messy as his real hair.
"I shall return when we are ready for you," said Professor McGonagall. "Please wait quietly."
James began fiddling with the left sleeve of his robes in his nervousness. He completely forgot about the plan at the moment to just wish that he would get into a house, any house, and not be told that it was all mistake and he wasn't magical at all. He looked enviously at Mari, who looked extremely composed and showed no sign of any nervousness or fear.
Then something happened which made him jump about a foot in the air – several people behind him screamed. "What the –?" He gasped. So did the people around him. Though James had been told about the ghosts at Hogwarts, it was still a shock to see about twenty ghosts streaming through the back wall. Once he got over his shock, he realized that they were arguing, and the subject of it seemed to be Peeves the poltergeist.
A ghost in ruff and tights, which James recognized from Stella's description to be the ghost of Gryffindor house, was the first to notice the first years. The Fat Friar added that he hoped to see them in Hufflepuff, his old house. Professor McGonagall returned at that point, told the ghosts to move on, and then led the first years into the Great Hall. Though the Lydell twins had given many descriptions of the Great Hall and he'd read the description in Hogwarts, a History, James still couldn't help gazing around in wonder. Reading and hearing descriptions wasn't the same as actually seeing it for yourself. He glanced up at the ceiling, which was velvety black and dotted with stars. So Hogwarts, a History was right about the ceiling being enchanted to look like the sky outside, James thought. Though it is hard to believe that there's a ceiling at all just by looking at it.
He quickly looked down again as Professor McGonagall silently placed a four-legged stool in front of the first years. On top of the stool she put a pointed wizard's hat. The hat was patched and frayed and extremely dirty. He finally remembered that Hogwarts, a Historyhad mentioned that Godric Gryffindor enchanting his hat in order to make the Sorting easier, but it hadn't gone into further detail. He put that with what Stella had said and gasped. So all we have to do was try on Gryffindor's enchanted hat, who would then look at our qualities and Sort us into a house based on what it saw! he thought. I'm going to have get Stuart back. I knew he was joking about the wrestling a troll and fighting a werewolf, but he still didn't have to try to scare me with those stories when it was just as simple as trying on a hat!
His thoughts were confirmed when a rip near the brim opened wide like a mouth and the hat began to sing. It sang a pretty decent, though slightly long, song about the four houses.
The whole school burst into applause as the hat finished its song. It bowed to each of the four tables and then became quite still again. "So we've just got to try on the hat!" Ron whispered to James. "I knew Fred had to be joking about wrestling a troll, but still! I don't find this funny one bit."
"I'll help you get him back," James whispered back. "I'm already planning to prank Stuart for doing the same thing to me. You can help me if you want."
Ron considered for a moment. "I'll help you prank Stuart, but I think my getting into Slytherin will be enough payback for Fred for now."
Professor McGonagall now stepped forward holding a long roll of parchment.
"When I call your name, you will put on the hat and sit on the stool to be sorted," she said. "Abbott, Hannah!"
The girl with pigtails that had been in the same boat as James, Kyle, and Mari stumbled out of line, put on the hat, which fell right down over her eyes, and sat down. A moment's pause –"HUFFLEPUFF!" shouted the hat.
The table on the right cheered and clapped as Hannah went to sit down at the Hufflepuff table. James saw the ghost of the Fat Friar waving merrily at her.
"Bones, Susan!" The auburn-haired girl that had been in the boat with Ron, Hermione, and Neville hurried up to the stool and put on the hat.
"HUFFLEPUFF!" shouted the hat again, and Susan scuttled off to sit next to Hannah.
"Boot, Terry!"
"RAVENCLAW!"
The second table from the left clapped this time; several Ravenclaws stood up to shake hands with Terry as he joined them, Stella among them.
"Brocklehurst, Mandy" went to Ravenclaw too, but "Brown, Lavender" became the first new Gryffindor and the table on the far left exploded with cheers; James could see Ron's twin brothers catcalling.
"Bulstrode, Millicent" then became a Slytherin. Perhaps it was James's imagination, after all he'd heard about Slytherin, but he thought they looked an unpleasant lot. Well, if Mari and Ron ended up there, things could change for the better for that house.
Sometimes, James noticed, the hat shouted out the house at once, but at others it took a little while to decide. "Finnegan, Seamus," the sandy-haired boy next to Neville in the line, sat on the stool for almost a whole minute before the hat declared him a Gryffindor.
"Granger, Hermione!" Hermione ran eagerly up to the stool and jammed the hat on her head. James crossed his fingers and several seconds later, it called out, "GRYFFINDOR!" She dropped the hat on the stool and hurried to the Gryffindor table, saying, "Good luck," to her new friends as she ran past them.
Next of the sextet to be Sorted was Mari. She calmly made her way to the stool, for all the world like a princess, and regally placed the hat on her head. After a minute, it shouted, "SLYTHERIN!" She removed the hat and made her way to the Slytherin table, head held high and what could only be a smirk on her face. James was very surprised, as Mari wasn't the type to smirk, until she winked at him just before she sat down. Then he realized it was just an act.
Neville was next. He tripped on his way to the stool due to his nervousness. The hat took a long time to decide with Neville. When it finally shouted "GRYFFINDOR", Neville ran off still wearing it, and had to jog back amid gales of laughter (other than from his friends, though Ron and James had to work hard to keep from laughing) to give it to James.
James sat down on the stool and put the Sorting Hat on his head, his nervousness returning. He gave a start of surprise when a voice in his head said, "So, you're not really who you claim to be are you? You were born Harry James Potter, not James Evan Lydell."
He felt a second of panic, but calmed down when the hat said, "Relax, there's such a thing as student/Sorting Hat confidentiality. I won't tell anyone your secret. Now, where shall I place you? You're loyal to your friends and foster siblings and don't mind a bit of hard work, you enjoy reading and are quite smart, you have courage and can be a bit rash at times, and you also have some ambition and can be cunning when it's necessary. Frankly, you have the qualities of all the houses, Mr. 'Lydell'."
Just put me in Ravenclaw, thought James. My foster siblings are there and I want to be with them, and my friends and I made a deal to be in separate houses in order to bring about inter-house unity. If Hermione got put in Gryffindor, I was to -
"There's no need to say more, I saw the promise you and your friends made in Miss Granger's mind," said the hat. "All right, your wish is granted, you will go to - RAVENCLAW!"
The last word was shouted out to the entire Great Hall. Feeling relieved, he removed the hat and went to the Ravenclaw table, where Stuart clapped him on the back and Stella smiled and said, "Welcome to Ravenclaw. I'm so glad that you're in the same house as Stuart and me."
After Morag MacDougal and Draco Malfoy (who was Sorted into Slytherin), it was Kyle's turn. He seemed to be arguing with the hat, since he made a face and then his lips moved soundlessly. Finally the hat shouted out, "HUFFLEPUFF!" Kyle removed it, a happy grin on his face, and took a seat between Susan Bones and Justin Finch-Fletchley.
Ron was the penultimate person called and he looked green as he made his way to the stool. James crossed his fingers and Mari loooked anxious. She relaxed when the hat called out "SLYTHERIN!" and was the only person at the table to clap. Everyone else looked stunned that a Weasley had been Sorted into Slytherin, except for James, Neville, Kyle, and Hermione, who also began clapping. After a moment of shocked silence, Fred and George joined in. Percy's expression turned from shock to one of mild disgust. As Blaise Zabini was being Sorted, Hermione leaned over and quietly explained to the three Weasleys why Ron was in Slytherin. The twins looked pleased that they had supported their brother, while Percy's look of disgust disappeared and he seemed thoughtful. As Blaise was declared a Slytherin, Percy said, "I can understand, but I wish Ron could have done the inter-house unity by being in Ravenclaw of Hufflepuff. Well, it would be nice if Slytherin's reputation was changed, so I guess I'll accept it and hope that Ron does a good job."
With the Sorting over, Professor McGonagall rolled up the scroll with the list of names and took the Sorting Hat away. James looked down at his empty golden plate. He had only just realised how hungry he was. The pumpkin pasties seemed ages ago.
Albus Dumbledore had got to his feet. He was beaming at the students, arms opened wide, as if nothing could have pleased him more than to see them all there.
"Welcome!" he said. "Welcome to a new year at Hogwarts! Before we begin our banquet, I would like to say a few words. And here they are: Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak! Thank you!"
He sat back down. Everybody clapped and cheered. James didn't know whether to laugh or not until he remembered Stuart telling him that Dumbledore had a habit of saying nonsense words to make the beginning-of-term feasts appear. He looked at the table and his mouth fell open. The dishes in front of him were now filled with food. He had never seen so many things he liked to eat on one table: roast beef, roast chicken, pork chops and lamb chops, sausages, bacon and steak, boiled potatoes, roast potatoes, chips, Yorkshire pudding, peas, carrots, gravy, ketchup and, for some strange reason, mint humbugs.
While everyone had gotten enough to eat at the orphanage and the food was quite good, it wasn't anything like this. Harry piled his plate with a bit of everything except the humbugs and began to eat. It was all delicious. As he ate, he joined in the conversation his new housemates were having and got to know the other first-years better. Anthony Goldstein and Terry Boot seemed rather nice, but he wasn't sure about Michael Croner. Lisa Turpin, Su Ling, and Padma Patil vaguely reminded him of Mari, and Mandy Brocklehurst was like Hermione in her eagerness. Morag MacDougal appeared rather shy and quiet, for she only spoke when someone asked her a question and her answers were brief. She aslo didn't seem to like her first name, for she winced when someone first said her name.
When everyone had eaten as much as they could, the remains of the food faded from the plates leaving them as clean as before. A moment later the puddings appeared. Blocks of ice cream in every flavour you could think of, apple pies, treacle tarts, chocolate éclairs and jam doughnuts, trifle, strawberries, jelly, rice pudding… Since dessert, other than pudding, had never been served except on holidays or when it was someone's birthday, James eagerly helped himself to some ice cream and treacle tart.
At this point, Stella got around to asking why Mari and Ron were Slytherin and Kyle in Hufflepuff, and why James didn't seem disappointed not to be in the same house as his friends. The other Ravenclaws were surprised upon hearing him explain the promise he and his friends had made. Several looked thoughtful, and the other first-years, except Michael Ccroner, said that perhaps they would make friends with people in the other three houses and help with the inter-house unity. A number of the older students said they would do the same thing, or be more open with the friendships they had with Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs. Not everyone was very happy about it, though. A curly-haired second-year girl said that she had no intention of doing any such thing, especially being friends with a Slytherin, though her friend, who looked Asian, frowned at that and said she would be more open-minded.
James, happy that the idea was being accepted by half the Ravenclaws, glanced at the staff table. His gaze rested on a teacher in a turban, who was talking to a greasy-haired, sallow-faced, hook-nosed man who was next to him. That was when James felt a flash of pain in his scar. "Ouch!" he exclaimed, clapping a hand to his chest.
Padma gave him a look of concern and Stuart leaned over to ask, "Are you all right, James?"
"Y-yes," responded James. The pain was gone as fast it had come. "Who's that teacher in the turban? You know, the one that's talking to, er, I guess Professor Snape?"
Stuart nodded. "Yep. Head of Slytherin and teaches Potion. The teacher in the turban is Professor Quirrell. He taught Muggle Studies, but took last year off to travel and is now the Defense Against Dark Arts teacher. I don't know about the turban, though. He's never worn one before. I guess he picked it up in the Middle East or someplace."
At last, the puddings too disappeared and Professor Dumbledore got to his feet again. The hall fell silent. He proceeded to give the start-of-term notices, his gaze flickering to Fred and George as he said that the forest on the grounds was forbidden to all pupils. After telling that magic was forbidden in the corridors and about Quidditch tryouts, he ended with the fact that the third-floor corridor on the right-hand side was out of bounds to everyone that did not wish to die a very painful death.
James laughed, but he was one of the few that did. To his surprise, Stuart didn't laugh, and instead exchanged a puzzled look with Stella.
"He's not actually serious, is he?" he muttered to Stella.
"Must be," said Stella, frowning at Dumbledore. "It's odd, because he usually gives us a reason why we're not allowed to go somewhere – the forest's full of dangerous beasts, everyone knows that. Which reminds me, I don't want to find you ever going there. Stuart went in during out first year and was lucky not to get hurt or caught."
With the notices over, Dumbledore announced the singing of the school song. The other teachers' smiles appeared rather fixed at this point.
Dumbledore gave his wand a little flick as if he was trying to get a fly off the end and a long golden ribbon flew out of it, which rose high above the tables and twisted itself snake-like into words.
"Everyone pick their favourite tune," said Dumbledore, "and off we go!"
James started singing the school song to the first tune that came to his mind, which happened to be "The Rainbow Connection" from The Muppet Movie, that he'd seen last year. Everybody finished the song at different times and finally only the Weasley twins were left signing along to a very slow funeral march.
Dumbledore conducted their last few lines with his wand and when they had finished, he was one of those who clapped loudest.
"Ah, music," he said, wiping his eyes. "A magic beyond all we do here! And now, bedtime. Off you trot!"
The Ravenclaw first-years followed the fifth-year prefects up to their common room. Unlike the other houses, which had passwords, the Ravenclaw common room could only be accessed by answering a question that the bronze knocker asked. If you got it wrong, you had to wait until someone came along that answered the question correctly.
When the group arrived at the entrance, the knocker asked, "What has no beginning and no end?"
There was moment of silence as everyone thought. Finally the male prefect said "A phoenix" at the exact same time as Morag said quietly, "A circle."
"Both answers are correct," said the knocker and the door opened to let the group in. James went with the other boys up the staircase to the boys' dorms. He entered one that had a sign marked "First years". Inside were five four-poster beds, all with blue and grey hangings. Their trunks were at the foot of the beds. The five first-years boys talked for a bit, then changed into their pyjamas, brushed their teeth, and went to bed.