A/N: well, not many voted. But adding the votes from both sites one came out on top. If you don't like my decision please, do complain and I'll redo the chapter.

This chapter is mainly from the book... The magic starts in the next.

Chapter Three

Brave..Smart..Loyal...Ambitious

The silence ended with the doors opening up sharply, a tall women with black greying hair in a bun, wearing emerald robes. She had glasses on and gave everyone a strict look that clearly said 'Behave' before looking to Hagrid.

"The firs'-years, Professor McGonagall," said Hagrid.

"Thank you, Hagrid. I will take them from here."

She opened the doors and all the first years piled into the huge Entrance hall, it looked big enough to hold the whole Dursley house plus more. Amaryllis looked up but couldn't spot the ceiling. She ushered us through to a small empty chamber off the hall, they all seemed to group together in a way that will probably never happen again.

"Welcome to Hogwarts," said Professor McGonagall. "The start-of-term banquet will begin shortly, but before you take your seats in the Great Hall, you will be sorted into your houses. The Sorting is a very important ceremony because, while you are here, your house will be something like your family within Hogwarts. You will have classes with the rest of your house, sleep in your house dormitory and spend free time in your house common room"

Amaryllis tilted her head slightly at that, she had never been much of a family person, there was her twin but her lack of speech made communication hard.

"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 honour. I hope each of you will be a credit to whichever house becomes yours"

She started walking to the door.

"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."

Amaryllis checked her hair was tied back tightly with the Lily string necklace and her cloak and clothes were straight.

Then jumped when several people behind her screamed.

"What the –?"

About twenty ghosts had just streamed through the back wall. Pearly-white and slightly transparent, they glided across the room talking to each other and hardly glancing at the first-years. They seemed to be arguing. What looked like a fat little monk was saying, "Forgive and forget, I say, we ought to give him a second chance –"

"My dear Friar, haven't we given Peeves all the chances he deserves? He gives us all a bad name and you know, he's not really even a ghost – I say, what are you all doing here?"

A ghost wearing a ruff and tights had suddenly noticed the first-years.

Nobody answered.

"New students!" said the Fat Friar, smiling around at them. "About to be sorted, I suppose?"

A few people nodded mutely.

"Hope to see you in Hufflepuff" said the Friar. "My old house, you know."

"Move along now," said a sharp voice. "The Sorting Ceremony's about to start."

Professor McGonagall had returned. One by one, the ghosts floated away through the opposite wall.

"Now, form a line," Professor McGonagall told the first-years, "and follow me."

As they walked into the room Amaryllis looked up at the thousands of candles which were floating in mid-air over four long tables, where the rest of the students were sitting. These tables were laid with glittering golden plates and goblets. At the top of the Hall was another long table where the teachers were sitting.

Professor McGonagall led the first-years up here, so that they came to a halt in a line facing the other students, with the teachers behind them. The hundreds of faces staring at them looked like pale lanterns in the flickering candlelight. Dotted here and there among the students, the ghosts shone misty silver. Amaryllis looked away from the stares to look up at the roof again, remembering what the history book said. Apparently Hermione thought the same and whispered to a girl next to her. "It's bewitched to look like the sky outside, I read about it in Hogwarts: A History."

Amaryllis looked back down 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. This hat was patched and frayed and extremely dirty.

Amaryllis looked at al the students, wondering what was going to happen next for a few seconds, there was complete silence. Then the hat twitched. A rip near the brim opened wide like a mouth – and the hat began 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 whole Hall 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 my brother. "I'll kill Fred, he was going on about wrestling a troll."

Amaryllis rolled her eyes and folded her arm, she looked at the four houses and thought hard about the song. She turned again and looked at each of the professors, she saw Flitwick and Sprout on one side of Dumbledore, she smiled at them warmly then continued looking down the table, she saw an empty chair, obviously for McGonagall, Hagrid at the very end, and then two more professors in between. One was wearing a turban and staring at Harry while the other, with wide black eyes, greasy hair and a slightly hooked nose was staring at Amaryllis herself, like he had seen a ghost…

'This is the man who held Mother after she died… Maybe they were friends' she smiled at him then turned to where Draco stood next to her.

"Ready?" She nodded her head quickly wishing she had her notepad out.

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!"

A pink-faced girl with blonde pigtails stumbled out of line, put on the hat, which fell right down over her eyes, and sat down. A moment's pause –

"HUFFLEPUFFF!" shouted the hat.

The table on the right cheered and clapped as Hannah went to sit down at the Hufflepuff table. Harry saw the ghost of the Fat Friar waving merrily at her.

"Bones, Susan!"

"HUFFLEPUFF!" shouted the hat again, and Susan scuttled off to sit next to Hannah.

"Boot, Terry!"

"RAVENCLAW!"

The table second from the left clapped this time; several Ravenclaws stood up to shake hands with Terry as he joined 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; Amaryllis heard Ron's twin brothers catcalling.

"Bulstrode, Millicent" then became a Slytherin.

"Finch-Fletchley, Justin!"

"HUFFLEPUFF!"

Sometimes, Harry and Amaryllis noticed, the hat shouted out the house at once, but at others it took a little while to decide. "Finnigan, Seamus", the sandy-haired boy next to Harry in the line, sat on the stool for almost a whole minute before the hat declared him a Gryffindor.

"Granger, Hermione!"

Hermione almost ran to the stool and jammed the hat eagerly on her head.

"GRYFFINDOR!" shouted the hat. Ron groaned.

When Neville Longbottom, the boy who kept losing his toad, was called, he fell over on his way to the stool. 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 to give it to "MacDougal, Morag".

Amaryllis silently giggled as Malfoy swaggered forward when his name was called and got his wish at once: the hat had barely touched his head when it screamed, "SLYTHERIN!"

Malfoy smiled at Amaryllis then went to join his friends Crabbe and Goyle, looking pleased with himself.

There weren't many people left now.

"Moon" … "Nott" … "Parkinson" … then a pair of twin girls, "Patil" and "Patil" … then "Perks, Sally-Anne" … and then.

"Potter, Amaryllis" Her heart seemed to pound in her chest as she slowly approached the stool and sat down, moments latter the hat was place on her head and it covered her eyes.

'Ahh, a Potter' the hat said, Amaryllis jumped slightly at the sound.

'Hello?' She thought

'I can hear you, and I'm ecstatic to be the first in a very long time, even if it is in your mind' it replied

'So, if your in my mind, where do you think I belong?' She asked

'Well, unfortunately not Gryffindor… You may be Brave but you never run into a situation without a plan and knowing what to expect. Your intelligent, yes, but you don't have that thirst which many Ravenclaws do, it's all logic to you. Your memory allowed you to remember everything so you don't need extra study. Your Ambitious but not very cunning, again. All Logic. And you are Hardworking but you haven't felt the need to be loyal to anyone but your brother, and even then you felt like the lesser in the twin bond…'

'Sounds like we have a difficult choice on our hands' she told him

'Yes, yes we do. Well, your heart is that of a Slytherin, but your mind of a Ravenclaw'

'But which have I followed all my life?' she thought sarcastically.

The hat chuckled out loud to the hall, Amaryllis could imagine the shocked and confused looks. Her visible lips grinned as the hat shouted out,

RAVENCLAW.

The table second from the left cheered loudly as McGonagall took the hat off and she ran to her house table.

She sat down next to Padma Patil who, in her excitement hugged the younger Potter. Amaryllis looked to Flitwick who was grinning and then to the greasy haired man who was clapping with a slight upturn of his lips as if happy she was a Ravenclaw… Or Happy she wasn't a Gryffindor. She knew already that Harry wouldn't be in Ravenclaw, and she would miss her, but she wanted people to notice her, as Amaryllis Potter… Not the Twin of Harry Potter.

"Potter, Harry" McGonagall shouted out and she watched him, oh so nervous, twin take his turn up to the stool. Amaryllis heard people whispering the name, making the twin shake her head with irritation.

A good five or so minuets latter the hay finally shouted out GRYFFINDOR and the table of lions roared there happiness to get the boy-who-lived in there house.

Amaryllis clapped her hands seeing Harry sit next to his first friend, she turned to look at Padma and held up her pre-made sign.

-Amaryllis Potter, Pleasure to meet you-

"Padma Patil" she offered her hand to the red head which was shaken quickly before grabbing out her notebook to talk

"You're mute?" Padma asked confused when she didn't talk.

Amaryllis nodded as she pulled a fountain pen out.

"Have you learnt Sign-Language?"

-I wish. Unfortunately my home life was less the desirable, I wasn't allowed many books, wasn't allowed extra lessons either-

"Well, I can teach you, my cousin is Deaf so everyone in the family learnt" she said with a grin.

-Really?-

"Of course, but we have to come up with some sort of nickname, I can barely pronounce A-Mary-liss"

Amaryllis silently giggled and wrote down.

-Am Er ill iss seems to be the easiest way, call me Liss-

"Liss, sounds good"

Suddenly the room went silent.

Albus Dumbledore had got to his feet. He was beaming at the students, his 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. Padma and Amaryllis sat there giggling from what they assumed was insanity. The giggling stopped the moment the food appeared, her eyes widened as she looked over the food. Her first thought was to stuff herself, to eat as much as possible. But her mind told her that it would be dangerous, her body hadn't had heavy rich food in ten years. She clenched her hands into fists and the calmly reached out for a bread roll and a few potatoes. All the meat looked heavy a rich so she avoided it carefully. She also grabbed some peas and carrots and dug into the food slowly. Her new friend gave her a strange look but dismissed the carefully choosing and tiny plate of food. She looked up and saw Harry stuffing his face 'well, he'll have either horrible nightmares or a sore stomach'.

Her stomach flipped as she heard screams from the next table over, there was a ghost with his head hanging off his neck like a hinge. Padma next to her slowly pushed her good away at the sight but Amaryllis just shrugged and went back to eating.

"Hello, I'm Terry" a boy across from them said.

"I'm Padma and this is Amaryllis, she's mute but I'm going to teach her how to sign" Amaryllis held her hand out to shake Terry's, Padma did just after.

"Pleasure to meet you" he said. Dinner switched to dessert and then at last, the puddings too disappeared and Professor Dumbledore got to his feet again. The Hall fell silent.

"Ahem – just a few more words now we are all fed and watered. I have a few start-of-term notices to give you.

"First-years should note that the forest in the grounds is forbidden to all pupils. And a few of our older students would do well to remember that as well."

Dumbledore's twinkling eyes flashed in the direction of the Weasley twins.

"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 in the second week of 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."

Amaryllis, of course, skipped the Hogwarts song. Mealy shrugging when Snape, who wasn't singing either and found out his name from a second year, raised his eyebrows at the girl. He dropped one eyebrow so only one was up, she sighed and then mouthed 'Mute' his eyes widen slightly then left the room with the rest of the Professors when the song ended as the Prefects led there houses away.

Penelope Clearwater was the new Ravenclaw prefect of the year, she talked to us as we walked. "The Ravenclaw tower is found in the West tower of Hogwarts, our head of house is Professor Flitwick, he also teaches Charms. Which is your first class tomorrow morning, but since there is so little of you" she looked over the six of us "they may merge the classes again, they normally do. Classes start at Nine Thirty sharp, you will have three classes a day normally, two in the morning and one after lunch, and astronomy at midnight on Wednesday's I believe. You need to be in the Great Hall by eight tomorrow morning… Do not be late"

She kept the monologue up until they reached a tight spiral staircase, they took it in lines of three till they reached a landing with a large door, there was no doorknob or keyhole but rather a bronze knocker in the shape of an eagle. Penelope knocked the knocker at it spoke.

-It's between heaven and earth and is not on a tree

In this riddle I have told you but you can't tell me.-

"You have to and we a riddle to get inside, normally it repeats riddles throughout the year but there difficult… Like this one for instant… Good luck" she said standing aside.

They all stood there confused at the riddle.

'It said it told us, but now we have to tell it… It mentioned a tree so maybe it has to do with th… Wait.. Not is also spelled Knot…'

She pulled out her notepad and wrote down.

-Knot on a Tree- and then showed it to Penelope, she smiled and read it out to the door and it swung open.

"The Mute solved it first, good job"

Amaryllis silently groaned hoping that wouldn't catch on as they all walked into the Ravenclaw common room which was a wide, circular room with a midnight blue carpet, arched windows hung with blue and bronze silks, and a domed ceiling painted with star. There were Bookcases, Desks and chairs surrounding the room, while blue sofas surrounded the fireplace.

"The Ravenclaws house Two to a room, so Padma and Amaryllis will share since there the only girls this year. A majority of the first years went to Hufflepuff. So Terry, Michael, Anthony and Phillip pair up quickly.

Anthony and Michael decided to share and Terry and Phillip were left with the other.

~A.P~

Padma and Amaryllis entered there room with giant smiles, it was a strange room in there opinion. There was a giant bookcase as one of the walls. It was empty at the moment. There were two beds on each side with class bedside tables next to each. It looked more like a private study then a castle room. There was a couch I between the bedside tables for reading. Desks at each end of the bed and pin boards by the doors.

"Home for the next seven years" Padma said as they walked over to there separate beds, Amaryllis took the bed away from the window, in the dark shadows.

"How about we set up in the morning? I always wake up early" she told the redhead.

Amaryllis smiled and nodded.

"Good" they smiled at each other and then headed straight to bed.