Halley blinked, silently thanked the hat, took it off, and went to the Gryffindor table. Hermione actually hugged her.
Halley was glad to be put in Gryffindor, for she at least knew two people in Gryffindor, Hermione and Ron. Ron wasn't sorted yet, but all the Weasleys before him have been sorted into Gryffindor. Sure enough, when Ron put the hat on, it shouted Gryffindor.
After Ron got to the Gryffindor table and the last student was sorted, Dumbledore said a few odd words. He didn't seem too bad, a bit odd, a bit crazy maybe, but from what Halley heard from Hagrid, he was a good wizard, and was in Gryffindor himself.
Halley felt sort of hungry, and she looked down at her empty plate. She glanced up at the ceiling and when she looked back at the table, there were dishes of food! Halley blinked, then piled boiled potatoes, peas, and carrots onto her plate. She started eating, listening to the conversations at the table.
"What subjects do you think you'll like?" Hermione asked.
"Well what subjects are there?" Halley responded.
Hermione looked up to the bewitched ceiling as if thinking, then named them, counting on her fingers. "Transfiguration, Charms, Potions, History of Magic, Defence Against the Dark Arts, Astronomy and Herbology. Flying lessons too."
"Flying? On actual broomsticks?"
"Yes, of course, what else would we be flying in?"
"Dunno...like...jets?"
"Jets? Jets are the last thing that could be magical, Halley. Anyways, what subjects do you think you'll like?"
"Transfiguration, Charms maybe, Potions, Astronomy, and Defence against the Dark Arts," Halley said, taking a bite of potatoes, then pointing her fork at Hermione. "What about you?"
"Well I, I am interested in transfiguration, it's turning one thing in another. Who knows maybe we'll be able to turn something into something big."
The conversation continued until dinner ended. Everyone had sure eaten their fill, and the remains of the food faded from the plates, leaving them looking like the plates had never been touched. Then dessert appeared, dishes of ice cream, chocolate éclairs, jam donuts, rice pudding, everything she could think of.
Halley ate all the ice cream she could, there were blocks of different flavors. Sherbet, vanilla, mint n' chip- all the normal ones, and also odd flavors like apple, or carrot, or toast, pepper…
Her personal favorites were toast, sherbet, and vanilla. She was just licking the sherbet ice cream off her fingers when she heard someone ask her, "Halley, what about you?"
Lucy looked up to see Hermione asking the question, after she talked about herself, of course.
"What about me?" Halley asked.
"Your parentage," Seamus Finnigan explained. "For example, I'm a half and half, because my mum's a witch and my dad's a Muggle, and Ron's full wizard, with a witch mother and a wizard father—what about you?"
"Oh," Halley said, returning to her ice cream, getting some toast flavored ice cream and putting it on her plate. "My dad's a wizard and my mum's a Muggle. Or so I was told."
"Or so you were told?" Hermione asked.
"Yes," Halley said tentatively, "the Sorting Hat told me. I never knew them."
"Oh, sorry," Seamus said.
Halley simply shrugged and started eating her ice cream.
Pretty soon everyone was finished with dessert also, and those remains faded off the plates as Dumbledore stood and everyone quieted. He opened his mouth and told everyone of the start-of-term notices, about how the forests on the grounds was forbidden, and that the caretaker, Mr. Filch, asked to remind the students that there were to be no uses of magic in the corridors between classes, that Quidditch trials would be held in a few weeks and anyone who would like to try out should contact Madam Hooch, and that finally the right-hand side of the third-floor corridor was out of bounds for everyone.
And that now, before they went to bed, to sing the school song. School song? Halley thought. How very odd. So the whole school did, a very odd song indeed.
After that, Percy the Prefect led them to the Common Room. Halley was wide awake when she heard the portraits whispering.
"First years, first years," one was saying, and the portrait next to him was saying, "Calm down, Reginald."
Halley looked around. The staircases were changing, moving, and it was odd to see the people in the frames moving, talking, pointing. Percy led them through hidden doorways, behind tapestries and panels. They had some trouble with Peeves, the poltergeist, but other than that, the journey was quite uneventful.
They finally reached a wall with a big portrait, a portrait of a fat lady in a silk dress that was pink. She asked for a password.
"Caput Draconis," Percy had answered, and the portrait opened like a door. They all climbed in, and Percy directed them to different dormitories. Halley followed Lavender Brown, Parvati Patil, and Hermione up. They came to a room with four-poster beds.
The girls pulled on their pajamas and, without much talking, got into bed and fell asleep. Halley was just drifting off to sleep when she remembered what the hat had said. Her father had been a Slytherin.
But who? And how could the daughter of a Slytherin be in Gryffindor? And was her father as bad as the Slytherins looked?
So many questions ran through her head; she fell asleep only when dawn approached, only then the questions stopped.