Chapter 4

Amazing. That word kept running through Harpers mind. The beautiful green blur of trees and the rolling hills of the country side seized her attention the moment the train left the station and kept her silently staring for most of the trip. Lucky for her, her new friend Tayler didn't mind the silence and was in fact silent herself. They both gazed out the window watching the beautiful scenery as they sped by until an older lady pushing a cart knocked on the glass door of their compartment. They looked at her and she slid open the glass door.

"Anything from the trolley dears?"

Harper and Tayler looked at each other for a moment. Just one look at the rainbow of sweets and Harper quickly pulled out her money (so did Tayler). Between the two girls, they bought at least one of everything. In the orphanage, candy and sweets were a rarity. Only when Harper decided to spend what little money she earned on the delicious bits of sugar did she ever get any. For the rest of the trip, the two girls made small talk about where they came from and Tayler answered all of Harpers questions about the wizarding world while they munched on the candy. It was the most she had ever talked to another person before and she found it rather pleasant. Most of the trip passed uneventfully but at some point, a girl with bushy brown hair came over, opened their door and regarded the both of them.

"You haven't seen a toad around here have you? A boy named Neville has just lost one."

The girls shook their heads, "Well, you should change into your robes. We will be arriving soon."

With that, she left and the girls decided to follow bossy girl's advice then continue their conversation. By the time the train reached the school, the sun had gone down and the kids shuffled out the train by the light of the lamp posts at the station. Confused in the shuffle, Harper and Tayler stayed close to each other. Harper looked around and noticed the extremely large man she had seen in Diagon Alley holding a lantern, yelling over the kids voices for first years to follow him. All the kids who looked like they knew where they were going, boarded strange, horse-less carriages while all the first-years followed the giant man like dazed and confused ducklings.

They were led down a narrow path through thick trees to the edge of an immense lake where dozens of row boats with lanterns on the helms and no oars waited. Across the lake, on top of a rocky cliff, she could see the battlements and towers of the castle pierce the starry night sky. The giant man told them that there weren't to be "no more'n four to a boat" and when all the kids were boarded, he yelled "FORWARD" causing the fleet to move smoothly across the glassy surface of the water. Harper told herself she would never get used to objects doing things on their own and decided to take look around. On a boat to her right, the near white hair of the boy from the shop stood out in the inky blackness surrounding them. On either side of him, two hulking boys that reminded her of gorillas were silently looking around in awe. Altogether, Harper found the image rather amusing and smiled silently to herself. On another boat to her left, the striking red hair of another boy stood out and next to him were the bushy-haired girl and the strange boy she had seen going into the shop that day in Diagon Alley. She found him intriguing and wondered why he seemed so odd.

The thought was pushed from her mind when the light shining from the castle caught her attention. The beauty of the ancient castle took her breath away. The warm, flickering lights glowing from the windows reflected on the glass surface of the lake. When they reached the cliff on which the castle sat, everyone ducked their heads on the command of the giant man and passed through a curtain of ivy that hid a long dark tunnel beneath the castle. At the end of the tunnel, there was a small harbor in which the boats docked and the students hurried out of their boats onto the rocky shore. They then clambered up stone steps and onto a large, green lawn in front of a pair of huge oak doors. The gigantic, hairy man knocked on the massive doors three times (after returning a toad to a boy she presumed was Neville) and they swung open to reveal the tall, severe witch Harper recognized as Professor McGonagall. She then took charge of the fumbling children and led them through the massive main hall, past another set of ridiculously large doors from which Harper could hear hundreds of other voices and into a rather cramped side room. Harper and Tayler stayed close together while they stared in awe at the moving paintings that greeted them as they walked by. In the chaotic shuffle, Harper bumped into another girl with brown, rectangular glasses and long hair similar in color to her own.

"Sorry," Harper whispered.

"Oh, no problem," the flustered girl looked at Harper for second, "I like your glasses," she blurted, then looked down in shame.

"Oh," here was another girl who, like Tayler, was about as awkward as herself, "Uhhh, thank you? Ha-ha. I'm Harper."

The girl looked up and smiled warmly, "Miranda."

And with that, the three stuck together in the surrounding chaos until the group settled down in their slightly cramped surroundings.

"Welcome to Hogwarts," started the professor, "The start of term banquet will begin shortly, but before you take your seats in the Great Hall, you will be sorted into you houses. The sorting is a very important ceremony because while you are here, your house will be like your family within Hogwarts. You will have classes with the rest of your house, sleep in your dormitory and spend free 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 your 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 honor. I hope each of you will be a credit to whichever house becomes yours. The sorting ceremony will take place in a few minutes in front of the rest of the school. I suggest you all smarten yourselves up as much as you can while you are waiting," she glanced at a nearby student, "I shall return when we are ready for you. Please wait quietly."

Harper was nervously wondering what the professor meant by "smarten yourselves up" when all of the sudden, a group of ghosts hot in debate passed through one of the walls and flew right over their heads. Harper was too surprised by their silver, shimmering appearance to hear what they were saying but a fat one in friar robes did take notice of them and say something about Hufflepuff before going through the opposite wall. Once she got over the shock of seeing the misty specters, Harper noticed a confrontation between the pale boy with his gorillas and the strange boy with his red-head friend. She couldn't hear what they were saying, but she saw the pale boy sneer in contempt and walk away while the red-head sniggered. Harper smiled. That boy seemed to be in sore need of people who don't think he owned the world.

The doors swung open behind her and out spilled the subtle yet delicious smells of food, warm light from a thousand candles and hum of chatter from the mass of people inside. When she looked up, she could clearly see the stars above the floating candles and wondered if there was even a ceiling there at all. She assumed it was magic but decided to focus more on her immediate surroundings when she almost tripped over a small boy in front of her. McGonagall led the first years down the rows of other students sitting at their four long, wooden tables with golden dishes before them. Harper took in all the mixed emotions from all the older students. The majority looked at them with a mix of nostalgia and kindness while others (mostly clustered in the tables beneath green banners with silver snakes on them) sneered at them with contempt, much like the pale boy. In the front of the hall was a long row of tables where the teachers sat.

When Harper spotted Professor McGonagall again, she was placing a tattered, frayed and clearly dirty, pointed hat on a stool. Harper was wondering what on earth the significance of the hat could be when it twitched. She was taken aback for a moment before a rip near the brim opened wide and started to sing:

"Oh, you may not think I'm Pretty,

But don't judge on what you see,

I'll eat myself if you can find

A smarter hat than me.

You can keep your bowlers black,

Your top hats sleek and tall,

For I'm the Hogwarts sorting hat

And I can cap them all.

There's nothing hidden in your head

The sorting hat can't see,

So try me on and I will tell you

Where you ought to be.

You might belong in Gryffindor,

Where dwell the brave at heart,

Their daring nerve and chivalry

Set Gryffindors apart;

You might belong in Hufflepuff,

Where they are just and loyal,

Those patient Hufflepuffs are true and unafraid of toil;

Or yet in wise old Ravenclaw,

If you've a ready mind,

Where those of wit and learning,

Will always find their kind;

Or perhaps in Slytherin

You'll make your real friends,

Those cunning folk use any means

To achieve their ends.

So put me on! Don't be afraid!

And don't get in a flap!

You're in safe hands (though I have none)

For I'm a thinking cap!"

The hall surged with the students' energetic applause as the hat bowed to each of the four tables. Harper looked around at the sheer happiness that surrounded her. She could feel the intense emotions and had to take a deep breath to focus on her immediate surroundings again. She took the time to notice the girls on either side of her and their excitement. They made her smile contently and she continued letting the excitement of the Great Hall roll over her in waves as it died down and professor McGonagall pulled out a scroll from the folds of her robe.

"When I call your name, you will put on the hat and sit on the stool to be sorted," the professor looked over the first years then back to her scroll, "Abbot, Hannah."

A nervous, blushing girl stumbled up, placed the too-big hat on her head and sat down. The hall was silent for a moment then-

"HUFFLEPUFF!"

The table under yellow banners with badgers on them exploded in applause. Many other names were called before Harper's and she noticed that the tables under the red banners with golden lions belonged to her mother's house, Gryffindor, the tables under the blue banner with bronze eagles belonged to her father's house, Ravenclaw, and the tables with the sneering kids belonged to the pale boy's supposed house, Slytherin.

"Costello, Harper."

'Well, this is it,' thought Harper. She could feel the excited looks from her new friends and the questioning, judgmental look from the 'pale boy' (that name was really starting to stick in her mind) who thought she was crazy as she walked up to the stool. She sat down and gently placed the hat on her head, its brim resting on her glasses. Its raspy voice resonated in her mind.

"Hmmm, a rather odd girl I see. You might be a bit tricky. Plenty of wisdom and wit in there. A good amount of passion. Definite kindness and empathy… Oh, and what's this? A strong sense of adventure eh?" the small voice in her ear made the hairs on the back of her neck stand up, "Lots of creativity and talent as well, but where to put you? Gryffindor may serve you well buuuuut…" Harper was already nervous, but then wondered what would happen if she were sorted into the wrong house when the hat bellowed, "RAVENCLAW!"

Her table gave a modest round of applause and greeted her. She had noticed earlier that different houses had different levels of excitement. She had already put them in order from most excitement to least: Hufflepuff, Gryffindor, Ravenclaw then Slytherin. She settled down in a seat between two of the more friendly looking kids at the table and continued to watch for her new friends and people she recognized. She learned that the bushy-haired girl's name was 'Hermoine Granger' and was placed in Gryffindor. McGonagall called 'Kasper, Tayler' and she walked up about as gracefully as Harper did. It took the hat a moment to make a decision and it decided she belonged in Ravenclaw with Harper. She immediately smiled and bounded over to sit next to Harper who took her up in an excited hug. As the list of names continued, she discovered that the 'pale boy's name was Draco Malfoy and the hat didn't even come to a full rest on his head before it deemed him a Slytherin just as he predicted. When the strange boy with black hair walked up, the entire hall went into a flurry of whispers. This boy's name was Harry Potter and the Gryffindor table made more noise than any other table that night when the hat placed him in their house. This reaction peaked her interest and she whispered to Tayler when the ruckus had settled:

"Is that boy special or something?"

Tayler looked at her in disbelief, "That's Harry Potter! Have you seriously ne…" and then recognition passed over her face, "Oh, yeah. You don't know. Well, I assume you know abo…" she turned to look back at the ceremony, "Wait, its Miranda's turn."

Miranda Raines was blushing and fidgeting for a few moments before the hat called out, "HUFFLEPUFF!"

Harper and Tayler gave each other a disappointed looks, "Oh, well. We'll see her around. I'll tell you about Potter later. I'm starving and the ceremony shouldn't last too much longer."

Harper was hungry too and continued matching names to faces in case the knowledge would be useful to her later although the only other person that caught her attention was 'Wesley, Ronald'. The only reason this boy caught her attention was because when he walked to the Gryffindor table, he was heartily greeted by three other boys with similar flaming red hair and sat next to the Potter boy. After 'Zabini, Blaise' was put into Slytherin, McGonagall rolled the scroll up and put it back into her robes.

Suddenly, an odd looking man sitting in the center of the teachers table stood up. His silver hair and beard could both have been easily tucked into his belt and a pair of half-moon glasses rested on his rather crooked nose. Harper could tell from the respect his presence demanded that he was Dumbledore, the headmaster Tayler had talked about on the train. She said he was the most powerful, wise and well-respected wizard around: the greatest headmaster Hogwarts had ever seen. His kind smile assured Harper that Tayler hadn't been exaggerating.

'"Welcome!" His voice echoed over the silent hall, "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! Oddments! Tweak! Thank you!"

Harper gave Tayler a quizzical look. She simply shrugged. Well that was odd Harper thought. When she looked back at the table, the gold plates were piled with every food Harper could think of. Many of the dishes were things she had only seen looking through the windows of restaurants in her hometown. She filled her own plate with little bits of everything and started to eat. She was a tad overwhelmed with the freedom and sheer amount of food but still managed to force herself to slowly savor everything. She was used to eating at a crowded table and simply ate her meal in silence, listening in to the other students conversations about who they thought was going to win the house/quidditch cup, what new classes they were taking, stories of how first years discovered their magic and of course, the famous Harry Potter. Harper took the opportunity to observe some of the older students. Many of them at her table seemed to be talking about the tests which made Harper think, 'Seriously guys? Aren't those at the end of the year?' and laugh a little in her head. One of the nicer, older girls was questioning a first year muggle-born about her home and family. Some other housemates of hers were discussing the humane rights of house elves, whatever those were.

"So, where are you from?"

Harper jumped at the voice of the boy next to her, "Oh! ... umm, sorry what?"

The softly spiked tips of the boys black hair shook slightly as he chuckled, "Spacing out much? I asked where you were from."

"Oh," a nervous giggle, "Uh, Bristol."

The boy smirked playfully, "Cool, I'm from Richmond," he noticed Harper looking down, "I don't bite you know. I'm not a werewolf," he hooked his fingers in the sides of his mouth and pulled, showing his straight, white teeth, "See?"

The both of them laughed, then Harper suddenly stopped and looked at the boy wide-eyed, "Do werewolves actually exist?" she quietly asked.

"Of course. I even heard there are some in…" he leaned towards Harper and pretended to whisper for dramatic effect, "The Forbidden Forest!"

Harper knew from Tayler what the Forbidden Forest was and stared, her mouth slightly open.

At this, the lanky boy of obvious Asian decent almost fell backwards laughing, "I'm kidding, I'm kidding. Well not the werewolf part. They do exist, but not in the forbidden forest. I think they just say that to keep us out," he said after he calmed down, "Anyways, I still haven't introduced myself have I? My name is Shen. You?"

"Harper," she said quietly, blushing and looking down again.

"Well, shy little Harper, you might not want to be so gullible. Especially around those Slytherins. They will take full advantage if you give them the chance. By the way, if you ever need help finding your way or something, just let me know. I am a prefect after all," he puffed out his chest, winked and turned around to re-join the conversation he had earlier with the boy on the other side of him.

Harper smiled and went back to silently enjoying her food, occasionally talking to Tayler. When she and most of the people at her table had finished, the dinner plates disappeared and dessert appeared. She took full advantage of the spread before her, letting her love for chocolate take over, and ate till she couldn't possibly eat anymore. For the first time she could remember, she was actually full. Living with thirteen other kids in an under-funded orphanage, seconds were never really an option. She was feeling drowsy and content when all the desserts disappeared and Dumbledore rose to the podium again, filling the hall with silence.

"Ahem- just a few words now that we are all fed and watered. I have a few start-of-term notices to give to you. First years should note that the forest on the grounds is forbidden to all pupils. And a few of our older students would do well to remember that as well," his twinkling eyes glanced at the Gryffindor table for a moment, "I have also been asked by Mr. Filch, the caretaker, to remind you all that no magic should be used between classes in the corridors. Quidditch trials will be held the second week of the term. Anyone interested in playing for their house teams should contact Madam Hooch. And finally, I must tell you that this year, the third-floor corridor on the right-hand side is out of bounds to everyone who does not wish to die a very painful death."

Harper was confused and wondered what could possibly be so dangerous in the school then remembered that this was a magical school. And werewolves were real. Shen looked rather confused as well and mumbled something like 'usually tells us these things' as did many other older students. Harper felt the seriousness on his tone meant it was no joke and took mental note to stay clear of the mentioned area.

"And now, before we go to bed, let us sing the school song!" he cried and Harper noticed the teachers' putting on the same forced smile that Hollie had every time she asked to keep a stray cat as a small child.

He flicked his wand and out of the tip, a golden ribbon flowed, twisting its way into words high above the teachers table, "Everyone pick their favorite tune, and off we go!"

The joyous song filled the air:

"Hogwarts, Hogwarts, Hoggy warty Hogwarts,

Teach us something please,

Whether we be old and bald

Or young with shabby knees,

Our heads could do with filling

With some interesting stuff,

For now they're bare and full of air,

Dead flies and bits of fluff,

So teach us things worth knowing,

Bring back what we've forgot,

Just do your best, we'll do the rest, and learn until our brains all rot."

The dissonance of people finishing the songs at different times was rather amusing to Harper who had only mumbled her way through. She had to hold herself together when two identical members from the red-head group finished their funeral march tune much later than everyone else.

"Ah, music," he wiped the small tears from the corners of his eyes, "A magic beyond all we do here! And now, bedtime. Off you trot!"

And with that, Shen and another older girl led all the Ravenclaw first years out of the hall, with many greetings from the paintings, to the western tower, and up a long flight of spiral stairs to yet another oak door. His one however did not have a door handle, rather a large eagle shaped knocker. When Shen approached, its beak opened and it asked:

"If you have me, you want to share me, but if you give me away, I no longer exist. What am I?"

Shen answered with Harper's exact thought, "A secret."

Harper was surprised that she was even able to answer the question because she had been so tired that she didn't talk the entire way to the room and Tayler had to lead her by the arm to their dorm. The only thing she noticed of the large common room was the midnight blue carpet. She entered her new dorm and snapped out of her drowsy stupor when she noticed that on the bed with her luggage next to it, was a small cage. From behind the thin silver bars, two huge, dark eyes stared at her.