Disclaimer - Harry Potter and all of the character belong to J.K. Rowling.
-Chapter Two-
The Four Houses
As Professor Flitwick reached the large door, it swung open, without him even touching it. The chatter from the older students suddenly became louder, as there was no door in between them, to dim the sound, but they quickly quietened down to a whisper, as the first-years entered the Great Hall.
It was massive.
The walls were lined with larges torches and suspended fire pits hung from the stone ledges, that protruded from the walls, lighting up the four long tables, where the rest of the students were sitting. Floating in mid-air above these tables where thousands and thousands of candles, their flames reflected off the glistening, golden plates and goblets that had been laid out on the tables. At the top of the Great Hall stood another long table where all the teachers were sitting, facing all of their pupils. In the middle of the table, sitting in a large, golden chair, was the Headmistress, Professor Delaine.
As Albus shuffled down the center of the hall, with the rest of the first-years, he focused all of his energy on not tripping and falling. He did not fancy making a fool of himself on his first night here, before he was even sorted. He could hear the whispers and giggles of the other students, and out of the corner of his eyes, he could see some of them pointing and craning their neck to get a good look at the new-comers.
In an effort to avert his eyes from from the onlookers, he looked up at the ceiling which you would have never had guessed it was a ceiling. Rather, it looked as though the hall simply opened up to the starry, night sky, but Albus knew that it had just been enchanted to look like the sky outside, he had read it in Hogwarts, a History. He turned to tell Arthur this, but found his mouth very dry and as if there was a big lump in his throat.
Professor Flitwick led the students up to the large table at the top of the hall, and they halted in a line, facing the students and the teachers sat behind them. Albus looked around at the hundreds of faces looking up at them. Shadows flicked across some of their faces, as they scanned the line of first-years. Some, however, were not looking at the new students, but more to the side.
Albus followed their gaze and saw that Professor Flitwick had waddled over to collect a stool, and what looked to be a very old hat. Albus watched the Professor wander back over and stopped in front of the first-years, placing the four-legged stool down and perched the old, pointed wizards hat atop it. Albus studied the hat and saw that it was patched and frayed all over and looked as though it had not been cleaned for a very long time.
Albus drew his attention from the hat and once again looked around the hall. This time, no one was looking at the first-years, instead, everyone's gaze was set on the hat. Everyone in the hall was dead quiet, as they waited patiently for something to happen, as though the hat was going to perform a trick of some sort. Albus scanned the hall once more before looking at the hat, along with everyone else, and he too, waited.
Suddenly, the hat quivered, as if it just had a cold chill run up it's spine, before a rip near the brim opened wide, and it began to sing.
'A ragged, old hat, I may be,
But do not judge on what you see.
As I am smart and wise as well.
And I can promise, I do not dwell.
So try me on and I will look,
Inside your head, just like a book.
I will find out, at your core,
Where you're destined, among the four.
You may find yourself in Hufflepuff,
Where those are loyal enough.
They'll treat you like your blood line would,
Better, if they could.
Maybe you'll be in Gryffindor,
Although, you need a mighty roar.
As all of them are brave and fearless,
They leave their enemies in a mess.
Or perhaps you'll go to Slytherin,
Who are cunning and try to win.
Here, you'll make your real friends,
There'll be no need to make amends.
You might belong in Ravenclaw,
Their minds are quick to draw.
Full of wits and ready to learn,
These good people hate to adjourn.
So, let me slip onto your head,
And I'll stop talking, and sort you instead.
I've never been wrong and don't plan to be,
You need a house, and I am the key!'
The hat became silent and still once more, as the last words that were echoing around the hall were drowned out by the cheers and claps, that had erupted from the students and staff. Albus was amazing, as he clapped along with everyone else, he glanced around at the other first-years and could see that they too, had looks of utter amazement on their faces.
Albus didn't know how long it was until the noise had died down, but he wished it had kept going, because now, it was time to be sorted and his nerves welled back up again and he couldn't take his eyes off of the old hat.
'Now, when I call your name,' Professor Flitwick said, swinging around to face the first-years and pulling out a rolled up scroll, which he waved at them, 'you will step forward and put the hat on your head and sit down to be sorted. Once your house has been called, please proceed to your house table!' Professor Flitwick unravelled the scroll and held it under his nose, 'Alan, Martha!'
A small, plump girl, with bright red hair, walked shakily up to the stool and put the hat on, which was so big, it fell past her eyes, and she sat down. After a short period of time of complete silence, the rip at the brim of the hat opened once more.
'SLYTHERIN!'
The table second from the right clapped and cheered as Martha made her way over to the table, stumbling a bit and receiving pats on the back and what looked to be a warm welcome. When The noise, once again, died down, Professor Flitwick continued.
'Alan, Tony!'
A boy that looked very similar to Martha, walked up to the stool and put the hat on.
'SLYTHERIN!' The hat yelled and gain, and Tony jumped to his feet and wandered over to join, who Albus gathered was, his twin sister.
And the list went on.
'Bree, Lucas!' The boy that sat in the same boat as Albus, staggered up to the hat, and put it on his head.
'RAVENCLAW!' This time, the table second from the left erupted in cheers and welcomed Lucas to his new house as he ran over to join the table.
Albus wished that the sorting would go slower, maybe he wouldn't have to be sorted if it went to slow, but if anything, it started to go faster.
Dallas, Evan was the first Gryffindor and Eve, Sarah was the next to join him.
'Harper, Lucy!'
'HUFFLEPUFF!' The table on the right welcomed their first newcomer, some even stood up to shake her and as she reached the table.
As the sorting went on, Albus got more and more nervous, as they got closer and closer to his name. Jordan, Phillip (Ravenclaw), Lorry, Pike (Ravenclaw), Malfoy, Scorpius (Slytherin).
'Potter, Albus!' Professor Flitwick called.
Albus' heart skipped a beat. This was it. The moment he'd been dreading. The hall was once again quiet as he slowly walked towards the four-legged stool. He picked the hat up and sat on the stool, before placing it on his head. As the hat slipped past his eyes, he caught a glimpse of his brother, James, giving him a thumbs-up, before he was left, staring at the black inside of the sorting hat.
'Well, well, well,' a little voice said in his ear, 'another Potter. Hmm, yes. I remember your father. Quite difficult to place, yes, and your brother. But you...'
At that Albus remembered what his father was saying before he got onto the train.
I don't want to be in Slytherin. Please don't put me in Slytherin Albus thought to himself.
'Really?' The small voice said suddenly, 'you know, your father said something similar. But enough about him. No, you're not Slytherin, however, I do know where to put you,' the hat then fell silent. Albus didn't know how long he had been sitting there and through the padding of the hat, he could hear whispers and murmurs, then quite suddenly, the hat shouted out loud, so the rest of the hall could hear, 'GRYFFINDOR!'
The table on the far left of the hall erupted in an enormous cheer and happiness and relief, flooded through Albus as he took of the hat and placed it back on the stool, before he walked, with a skip in his step, over to sit next to his brother at the Gryffindor table.
James patted his brother on the back and congratulated him.
'At least pranks will be easier, since we're in the same house,' James grinned, 'of course I won't always be pranking you, we can also prank some people,' James looked over at the Slytherin table before turning back to Albus and winking. Albus couldn't help but to smile.
'Reed, Arthur!' Professor Flitwicks voice caught Albus' attention, and he looked up at his friend, who was walking towards the stool to be sorting. Albus was sitting quite still, as he held his breath and waited. After what seemed like no time at all, the hat yelled 'GRYFFINDOR!' Albus let out a sigh of relief and began to cheer with the rest of the Gryffindor's, as Arthur came and sat down beside him, with a huge grin on his face.
'Thank god,' he whispered to Albus, who smiled and gave him the same pat on the back, James had given him.
The sorting ceremony continued, but Albus was not paying much attention. He was looking the hall, fascinated. Now that he wasn't full of nerves and dread, he could properly take in the beauty of the Great Hall. He could faintly hear the cheers of the students as more people were sorted into their houses.
'Weasley, Rose!' Albus stopped drowning everything out and looked towards the top of the hall, where he saw his friend, whom he had known since birth, picking the hat up to put on her head.
'GRYFFINDOR!' The hat yelled, barely touching her bright red hair. Another round of applause and cheers, from the Gryffindor table, filled the hall, as they accepted, yet another Weasley, into their folds.
After the rest of the first years had placed the hat on their head and were sorted into their houses, Professor Flitwick took the sorting hat and stool away before returning to his seat at the staff table. The Headmistress, Professor Delaine, then stood up and the Great Hall fell silent once more.
'I know, you are all very hungry,' she started, 'so the announcements shall wait. Dig in!' With that, the shining golden plates filled with food; roast beef, roast chicken, sausages, bacon, steaks, lamb chops, pork chops, all manner of potatoes, peas, carrots, gravy and much more.
Albus looked up and down the table, trying to find somewhere to start, before deciding to pile a bit of everything on his plate. While everyone else started to put food on their plate, the hall filled with chatter once more and Albus heard a lot of the newcomers, at the Gryffindor table, introducing themselves to those who would listen.
Albus, on the other hand, didn't really need to introduce himself, as his brother, James, seemed to have already handled that. Though he did have a few questions, which he decided to ask James.
'Who teaches what classes?' He asked as he turned to his brother.
James quickly chewed and swallowed the large mouthful of food he had in his mouth before answering.
'Ok, so, you have Professor Long for Potions, he's also the head of Slytherin house. Professor Flitwick for Charms, he's Ravenclaws head of house. Professor Binns for History of Magic, Professor Valor for Transfiguration, Neville Longbottom of course is our Herbology teacher and head of Hufflepuff. You'll have Astronomy with Professor Sinistra and for Defence Against the Dark Arts, you have, Professor Crane, she has taken over as head of Gryffindor as well."
Albus was reciting what his brother had just told him, trying to remember it all, as if he was going to be tested on it at any moment, and as he looked over at Rose and Arthur, who had been listening, seemed to be doing the same things, while looking up at the staff table.
Suddenly, Albus felt as though his whole body had been plunged into a bucket of ice cold water. He let out a gasp and dropped his food, back onto his plate, and he wasn't the only one. Other students in the hall (mainly first-years), gasped, some even let out a scream, as some, twenty odd, pearly-white, semi-transparent ghosts drifted through the walls, floors and doors of the hall, and one, unfortunately for Albus, drifted straight through him.
'I'm sorry, my boy! I didn't see you there!' Albus turned to look at the ghost who had just passed through him, he was wearing a ruff and tights and had a look of surprise on his face. 'You're Albus Potter! James has told me about you,' he added as after seeing the look of confusion on Albus' face.
Albus looked over at James, whose ears were turning pick and was looking intently at his plate of food.
'I don't mean to be rude,' Albus heard Arthur say, 'but who are you?'
'Ah, yes. Sorry, I forgot about my introduction,' the ghost said hastily, 'I am, Sir Nicholas De Mimsy-Porpington, and I am the ghost of Gryffindor!' He looked around the table and beamed at the first-years.
'Gryffindor's ghost?' Sarah Eve asked from down the table, 'do all the houses have ghosts?'
Sir Nicholas turned his head to Sarah, which seemed to wobble a bit, before answering.
'Of course they do!' He said cheerily, then his eyes swept the hall, 'see, over there, at the Slytherin table, that's the Bloody Baron, you may have guessed already, that he is the Slytherin house ghost,' he pointed to a semi-transparent being, which had, what seemed to be, blood stains all over his robes. He was sweeping low over the Slytherin table, waving his pearly-white sword, wildly, in front of him.
'Hello, Bloody Baron!' A Slytherin called, as the Bloody Baron swooped past him.
'Hello!' He called back, brandishing his sword, even more wildly.
'And over there,' Sir Nicholas moved his finger in the direction of the Hufflepuff table, where a rather fat looking ghost sat in between two very unsettle second years, 'that's The Fat Friar, Hufflepuffs ghost,' he finished looking back at the Gryffindor table.
'What about Ravenclaw?' Sarah questioned, looking around at the Ravenclaw table.
'Ah, yes. How could I forget? Helena Ravenclaw is Ravenclaws house ghost, though many people call her "The Grey Lady",' Sir Nicholas looked around the hall, 'however she is not here, right now. She had some business to attend to, as do I. Goodnight fellow Gryffindor's!' With that Sir Nicholas grabbed his left ear and pulled, and as if it were stuck on with a hung, his head swung off his neck, only to be held on by the tiniest bit of skin, before placing it back on his neck. A few people let out a yelp, 'I love doing that,' he chortled as he glided away.
'I know who that is!' Arthur whispered into Albus' ear.
'Of course you do,' Albus said, a grin spreading across his face, 'he just told you.'
'Oh, ha-ha,' Arthur retorted sarcastically, 'I mean, I've read about him. He's Nearly Headless Nick!'
'I can see why,' Albus said, looking down at his plate, which had just held food, but now was sparkling clean again. He looked down at the dishes on the table, just in time to see dessert appear. Blocks of ice cream, pudding, trifles, apple pies, treacle tarts and a number of other delicious looking desserts.
'He was his forty-five times in the neck with a blunt axe!' Arthur continued, helping himself to the sweets that sat in front of him, 'you'd think they would have made an effort to swing one more time, to make it clean.'
'Charming conversation to be having while we're eating,' Rose said, who was sitting across from Albus and did not look up from here plate.
Albus leant closer to Arthur, so James would hear, and made it look like he was getting some food from down the table, 'I read that too. It's a great book,' he then sat up straight and began to eat his dessert.
Soon, everyone in the Great Hall had become quite full and the desserts vanished from the tables, and the plates became sparkling clean once again. Professor Delaine stood up from her chair and looked out at her pupils, and the conversations died down at once.
'So begins, another year at Hogwarts!' She began, with the faintest hint of a smile, 'I would like to welcome those who have been sorted tonight, and welcome back the older students. Now, I have a few, start of term notices, that I need to give you, before you can go to bed.
'As always, the forest, on the edges of the grounds, is forbidden to all students. No magic is to be used in the corridors, and for more things that are banned, please see a full list in Mr Hall, our wonderful caretakers, office.
'Also, Quidditch trials will be held in the coming weeks, if you wish to try out for the team, please see your head of house.
'Now, I think, it's time for bed!' She finished, before sitting back down in her golden chair, and turning to talk to Professor Flitwick.
The great Hall filled with the sound of students getting up from their seats and moving towards the doors, all while talking excitedly.
'First years! First years, follow me!' Albus heard a voice call from down the Gryffindor table, where quite a tall boy, with long brown hair, was standing on his seat, gesturing to the newcomers.
Albus and Arthur got up and walked towards him. He jumped down from the seat and smiled at the first years who had grouped up in front of him.
'I'm Donald Rain, one of Gryffindors Prefects,' his voice was a little high pitched and shaky, Albus gathered it was due to nerves, 'now, if you'll follow me, I'll show you to our common room.'
With that, Donald turned, and led them towards the door, fighting their way through the crowd.
Albus felt rather tired and as they reached the marble stairs that shot off from the Entrance Hall, his mind started to wander and wasn't paying attention to where he was going but was brought back to reality when someone pulled on his arm.
'Where are you going?' Arthur said, looking at Albus with a puzzled look. Albus shook his head and looked around and realised that instead of turning right and following his classmates up the stairs, he had gone straight, and was heading for a broom cupboard.
'I - I don't know,' he gave an embarrassed laugh, before setting off with Arthur up the stairs.
'Albus Potter?' Albus stopped and gave a deep sigh.
I just want to get to bed he thought to himself as he turned around and looked back down the stairs. A boy with a pointed, pale face and sleek blond hair, stood there, looking up at him.
'You're Scorpius Malfoy, aren't you?' Albus said, squinting his eyes, which stung with tiredness.
'I am,' the boy said, making his way up the stairs.
'Right, now that's cleared up, we'll be going to be now,' Arthur joined in, pulling Albus further up the stairs.
'And you are?' Scorpius asked, reaching Albus and Arthur.
'Nobody important.'
Albus gave Arthur a nudge, 'This is Arthur Reed, a good friend of mine.'
'Right. Well, I don't see us having any problems then,' with that Scorpius turned and followed his fellow Slytherins away.
'Why would we have problems with him?' Arthur asked, a puzzled look coming across his face, as he and Albus started making their way up the stairs.
'I have no idea. But, we need to beat him in every test,' Albus said lazily.
'Why?'
'Ron said so.'
'Who's Ron?
'My uncle,' Albus said, while paying an awful lot of attention to his legs, which had started to feel like they were made of led.
'Right.'
Albus suddenly felt a tug on his arm again an almost fell over. He turned around and saw that Arthur had stopped in his tracks.
'Oh no,' Arthur muttered.
'What?'
'We don't know where the common room is,' Arthur was looking at Albus with his eyes wide. They stood looking around them, hoping to see a sign of where they need to go.
'Nick!' Albus yelled suddenly, causing Arthur to jump. Albus was looking down a corridor that shot off of the landing they were on, where the pearly-white figure of Sir Nicholas was.
'Oh, hello, Albus!' Nick said, gliding towards them, 'shouldn't you be in your common room?'
'Well, yes, but we got lost,' Albus said quickly, 'and we were wondering if you could show us there.'
'Of course I can!' Nick beamed down on the boys, 'come on, follow me!' With that nick drifted past them and up the stairs, with Albus and Arthur following him.
Nobody spoke as Nick led them up the stairs and through the corridors, but soon enough, Sir Nicholas suddenly stopped, causing Albus to, yet again, feel as though he was plunged in ice cold water, as he walked through him.
'Right!' Said Nick, 'here we are!' He then turned to Albus and Arthur, bowed, then said 'goodnight, fine gentlemen,' before gliding back down the corridor.
Albus and Arthur looked at each other, before turning to a portrait of a rather large lady, in a pink silk dress.
'Password?' The lady in the portrait said, eyeing the two boys, whose mouths were gaping.
'I - I don't know the password!' Arthur said, panicking.
'No password, no entry.'
'How are we to get in?' Albus asked Arthur.
'I don't -'
'There you are!' Arthur was cut off by a familiar voice. they spun around to see Donald, half walking, half running, towards them, 'I've been looking for you!' He said coming level with them,' where were you?'
'We got separated!' Albus replied quickly.
'Right, well, I should explain that, every so often, we will get a new
password to get into the common room,' he walked up to the portrait.
'Password?' She said again.
'Phoenix Feather!'
The fat lady bowed and the portrait swung open, revealing a hole in the wall, in which, all three of them, clambered through.
Albus found himself standing in a cosy, round room, mainly decorated in red and gold, full of squishy armchairs, with a crackling fire illuminating it.
'Right, now off to bed. Your dormitory is up the stairs, on the right, you'll see it.'
'Alright, thank you,' Albus started, looking back at Donald, 'wait a minute! Are you Quidditch captain too?'
Donald's face quickly became red, but nevertheless, he stuck his chest out with pride, 'yes I am!'
'Can first years try out?' Albus asked quickly, for fear that if he stood there for much longer, he would collapse of exhaustion.
'Well, they can. Though it's not likely they get in,' Donald said, his chest still pushed out, 'where do you play?'
'I - I don't know,' Albus muttered, 'my brother says I'm a good seeker.'
'Well then, no harm in trying out!' With that, Donald gave Albus a pat on the back, before wander up the spiral staircase, closely followed by Albus and Arthur.
When they reached the top of the staircase, Albus looked out one of the windows and gathered that they were in one of the high towers.
They their dormitory and entered. Five four-poster beds hung with deep-red velvet curtains stood around the room. Their trunks had already been brought up.
After finding their trunks, Albus and Arthur pulled on their pyjamas as quietly as they could, so they wouldn't disturb the others, and then crawled into bed.
Finally Albus thought, as he lay looking up at the canopy of his four-poster, engulfed in warmness. It had indeed been a long day and Albus couldn't wait for tomorrow, when his first year at Hogwarts would really begin.
Although he was excited about the day ahead of him, as soon as Albus closed his eyes, he fell into a dreamless sleep.