A/N: Hey guys two chapters in one day, do you love me or what? Let me know what ye all think. Hope you liked this chapter.

THE SORTING CEREMONY

I followed the others out onto the platform. "Firs' years over here," I heard a large voice booming through the still night. I looked over and saw a huge man, "is he a giant," I whispered to Scorpious but before he could answer Rose and Al yelled "Hagrid!" and ran over to the large man.

"Hey you two, how've ye bin?" he asked as they approached him, me and Scorpious following behind unsurely. They all started chattering away. Eventually Hagrid spotted me and Scorpious hovering at the edge of the group looking uncomfortable. "Made new friends, eh?" he asked smiling, his beetle black eyes shining merrily "well anyway we best be getting to the boats now.

We followed him down to the edge a black lake where there were numerous boats lined up at the edge. "Four to a boat. no more or ye'll sink dem!" I heard Hagrid yell. The four of us quickly hopped into a boat and off we went. "So what housse do you want to be in?" Rose asked us, "I want to be in Gryffindor or Ravenclaw." "I definitely want to be in Gryffindor," Al told us happily. "What are the houses?" I asked. "oh there's Gryffindor, the brave, Hufflepuff, the kind, loyal and hard-working, Ravenclaw, the intelligent and Slytherin, the cunning and ambitious. "Well I'm not really sure," I said uncertainly, "I guess we'll find out. "What about you Scorpious?" Rose asked turning to him. All of a sudden he looked very flustered "ehhh…I'm not really sure, Slytherin is where all my family's been, so I mean….yeah," he finished ff somewhat lamely. "It doesn't matter where you end up, we'll sstill be friends with you," Albus told him, and a huge smile overtook Scorpious' face.

By now we were halfway across the lake. "Ye'll be getting' ye're firs' view of Hogwarts up on the right now," Hagrid told the group of first years. As we rounded the corner I couldn't help but gasp as I looked up at the castle in awe. There were huge towers shooting up into the ever darkening sky and there was an air of mystery, adventure and magic surrounding this castle. As I was staring up at the castle in awe I felt a nudge on my back as I went sprawling over the edge of the boat. The water was freezing and I inhaled sharply as I was hit with the coolness of the water. I surfaced spluttering for air and whirled around to see Rose, Scorpious and Al bent double with laughter. Well that sorted it, I had to get revenge. I swam over to the boat and held onto the edges as if to pull myself up but halfway through I changed directions and pushed down with all my might. The boat toppled over and al, Rose and Scorpious came toppling out.

I laughed manically at the expressions of shock on their faces. The other first years had noticed the big splash we had made and were peering at us curiously. "C'mon, aren't ye gonna come for a swim," I called out with a smirk on my face, challenging them. Dom was the first one to stand up and she did a cannonball into the lake causing a huge splash. she was quickly followed by a girl with brown hair who had been sitting in thee boat with her.

Soon all the first years were in the water splashing around and dunking each other. I saw Rose drifting peacefully on her back staring up at the stars and I silently glided through the water towards her. As soon as I was close enough I pounced on her and pushed her under the water. When she resurfaced she squealed loudly and threatened me, but I had already swam off as fast as I could.

"Alri' firs' years back in ye're boats or we'll never get there," came Hagrid's booming voice. I made my way back to the boat and hoisted myself in with the help of the others. I looked up and made eye contact with them and we all burst out laughing.

When we got to the castle we were all starting to get cold but we were excited from our swim and the sorting ceremony. We made our way into the castle and Hagrid led us to a small room that looked like an anti-chamber. A middle-aged professor with long straight black hair greeted us "I'm Professor Chang-Davies and I am the Deputy Headmistress," she said smiling at us.

She got us to line up alphabetically, so I was next to Dominique, then we followed her through the doors. We entered a large room with four tables in the middle and one at the top. The table at the top was filled with professors and all the other tables were crammed with students. Each table had different colours, theone on the far side was red and gold, then there was blue and silver, followed by yellow and black and lastly the table on this side of the hall was green and silver. I looked up and gasped in surprise instead of a ceiling it looked as though we were outside. the ceiling was covered in stars and there were candles floating in mid-air. "The ceiling is enchanted to look like the outside, my parents told me," Dominique whispered to me. If that was true then I would really like to see it when it was snowing.

As soon as we had entered the hall all the other students had starting laughing at the lot of us dripping wet. The woman seated in the middle of the top table did not look amused. She had salt-and-pepper hair tied back into a neat bun and I guessed that she was the Headmistress.

I looked around and saw an old tattered hat sitting on a three-legged stool. As I watched it a rip appeared at the brim and it started to sing

I may be old and tattered

I may be worn and battered

But put me on and you will see

That I know where you should be

Whether you be smart or brave

I'll know what you do crave

I'll know whether you should be running

Towards loyalty or cunning

But let me tell you this

I fear of this terrible crisis

My job is to separate you

But you need to join together too

No matter what house you're in

The only way you'll ever win

Is to forget the past

And come together at last

The hat finished it's song and was met with thunderous applause as it bowed to all four tables. Professor Chang-Davies took out a scroll and began to read the names. "Adams, Luke!" was called out and he was sorted into Ravenclaw. It went on like this as one by one the group got smaller. I noticed that some people took a lot longer to get sorted than others. "Woodgrove, Ebony!" I heard my name being called out and I walked up and sat on the stool. Professor Chang-Davies placed the hat on my head. Hmm, so you're the one that started the whole lake episode, I jumped as I heard a voice in my head. How did this work? I tried to slow down my thoughts, well no technically Al pushed me in.I'm not stupid you know you don't have to slow down your thoughts for me, the hat said sounding annoyed, and you were the one who dared everyone else to jump in were you not? Well, yeah I spose I was, I thought, how do you work anyway, I mean I know it must be some sort of magic but how does it work? Inquisitive mind eh? Well the magic in me is far superior to anything you'd ever be able to understand the hat said in an arrogantly superior voice. He, was it a he? Was really starting to get on my nerves. Sure it is, I drawled, slowing down my thoughts just to annoy the hat, you aren't just saying that to make yourself feel better, I mean you don't even have any legs you have to be placed on our heads, what do you do for the rest of the year anyway? By now I was just trying to rile the hat up but it was fun. I am an entity far superior to be refined to just one gender, the hat crowed, I am EXTREMELY important, the school couldn't be run without me. I'm fairly sure they could replace you with a simple test, it would be quicker to, I said smirking. As if I could be replaced with a test, the hat shrieked.

Now that I was having fun getting the hat angry I started searching for things I knew would annoy him. Does the hat have nits? I wondered to myself. "NO, I DO NOT HAVE NITS!" the hat shrieked out loud and I heard some of the people in the hall snicker. Hah, I win, I thought triumphantly to the hat.

Let's just get this over with, the sooner I get off your head the better. And I couldn't help but agree with the hat on that, Agreed. You're cunning but not ambitious enough, that rules out Slytherin, the hat thought in my head, you're loyal but definitely too lazy for Hufflepuff, you'd do well in either Ravenclaw or Gryffindo. You're also extremely stubborn. So you can only be in…. wait, will you do me a favour? Depends on what the favour is,I thought back, unwilling to agree outright. Will you try to join the houses together as much as you can, I fear their separation, there was a note of desperation that had me agreeing and next thing I knew the hat was calling out "Gryffindor!" and the left side of the hall erupted into cheering.

I made my way down to the table and sat down next to Al. "What took you so long?" Al asked me "you had the hat on for almost ten minutes!" "Umm….I kind of had an argument with the hat," I said grinning sheepishly. At this Al burst out laughing, attracting a few curious glances from the other students. "Only you could manage that," he spluttered through his laughter. We were joined by Dominique and Rose and soon after, the feast started.

"So why are ye all soaked?" James asked form his place across the table "went for a swim?" he smirked. "Err…kind of," Al said a bit sheepishly. "Kind of?" Roxanne asked curiously. "Al pushed me into the lake so I toppled the boat over to get them back," I explained. "And then Ebony dared everyone else to jump in," Al said smiling mischievously. Everyone erupted into fits of laughter at that and Fred yelled "wicked!" as he slapped me on the back. I grinned and tucked into my food.

The food was delicious. I had never tasted anything as good as it before. The amount of food lain out on the table was causing it to groan slightly under the weight and my mouth watered just looking at. All too soon we were done eating and we made our way up to the common room. I walked in a half-asleep haze happily stuffed from all the food I had consumed. The prefects led us to our bedrooms and I vaguely remember getting changed before crawling into bed exhaustedly and falling asleep instantly.