Ace looked up at the castle, her eyes wider than she thought they'd ever been. It was huge. They'd said a school for magic and she had just imagined a school. Plain old school, maybe a little more interesting than the one she was meant to be going to. But this…this was better than she could have dreamed. This was all her favourite fantasy novels rolled into a real, tangible place that she would be learning magic at. And it was great.

She looked over at some of the other kids in the boat with her. A couple of boys who seemed to have met and become fast friends on the train here, and a girl who looked very nervous, but just as excited as Ace felt. She hadn't stopped blathering on about her grandfather, though she had a funny accent and was speaking very quickly, so Ace hadn't heard much of what she was saying.

There were people talking all around her, and for a moment Ace thought, dreaded, that she wouldn't have any friends here at all. But she dismissed that idea as stupid immediately. After all, she'd been by herself in the train carriage, and other people would have been as well. Ace didn't know that much about the school, but she hadn't been sorted yet, and Professor Baker had said that she'd make friends in her house very quickly. There were plenty of other people who didn't come from magic backgrounds in her year.

"My grandfather teaches Transfiguration, and he says that there's a ghost who stares at people when they're not dressed." The girl sitting on the bench behind her said, and Ace turned around to stare at her.

"Your grandfather teaches here?" She asked, ignoring the actual point of concern in the statement itself. That would hardly be fair on their classmates if the teacher knew the pupils. There had been a few kids at her primary school that had had parents in the teaching staff, and they were obnoxious and spoiled rotten.

"Yes." The girl said. "Doctor Hartnell. But he says I won't get any favours from him. I'm not very good at transfiguration…" She looked upset.

Ace smiled encouragingly at her. "I've barely used magic before, I'm sure you'll be fine."

The girl nodded and smiled back. "My name's Susan. What's yours?"

Ace paused for a moment. There was no way she was going to voluntarily say that her name was Dorothy. "Ace." She said, hoping that witches and wizards could have weird names or whatever and not be questioned.

Susan nodded, so it would probably be okay. She supposed that teachers were less likely to be impressed, though, and insist on the use of her 'real' name. It had always been that way, though there had always been people who thought Ace was a stupid name. Then again, there were always some people who would have said she was stupid regardless.

Getting out of the boat was a bit more of a challenge than getting in, as some prats who were sitting at the front (Patrick and Jamie, as they introduced themselves after they were all on the shore) decided that nudging each other until they almost all fell in was a good idea. Thankfully, they all stayed dry, but Ace pledged that she'd remember what happened and once it was warm she would push both of them into the lake.

The inside of the castle was even more intimidating than the outside. Looming darkness was replaced by high ceilings and a huge entrance hall that made Ace feel so small. And she wasn't even short. The room they were lead to to wait to go into the hall was small, and everyone was talking again, Ace ending up next to Susan again. Susan was glaring daggers at Jamie and Patrick.

Ace grinned. "We'll get them." She said.

Susan looked up and smiled. "If you like." She nodded towards the door Professor Gorlefstew had disappeared through. "Which house do you think you'll be in?"

Ace shrugged. "I didn't really think about it. At muggle schools, you don't get to choose which house you're in, and none are really any better than the others."

Susan smiled. "I'd like to be in Gryffindor, that's the house both my parents were in, but grandfather was in Slytherin. But I don't think I'm brave enough to be in either of those…"

Ace nodded. She had thought about it a lot, but she didn't want to seem as bothered as she was. She was terrified that she didn't go in any of those houses, that they'd just kick her out or something, because she wasn't good enough for any house at all. She wasn't smart or cunning or loyal or even brave, she was just really stupid. She didn't even know why she was at this school, she had hardly ever done any of this 'magic', if ever, if she could remember.

When she was really little, things used to explode around her a lot when she got angry, but that stopped quite a while ago. Nothing since then, and she was pleased about it until she found out that she was a witch, and the fact that she hadn't been doing magic anymore…well, she wished that things had just kept exploding. It certainly would have made her feel more comfortable about standing here.

Professor Gorlefstew came back pretty quickly, and Ace was one of the closest to the door, so she was the first to enter the Great Hall. She knew that above her the ceiling would show the sky outside, but she didn't stop to look up, she would look stupid. Once she got to the end of the hall (why did they start at the other end? It seemed a little like a walk of shame to her), she allowed herself to glance upwards.

It was just as beautiful as everything else she'd experienced of the magical world so far, among the chaotic order of Diagon Alley and the chaos that was not ordered at all at Platform Nine and Three Quarters. This was far more peaceful, but just as beautiful. The feeling of seeing the early September night sky whilst staying completely warm was something she still couldn't quite fathom.

There were quite a few people who were sorted before her, including Susan (Foreman, it turned out), who went to Hufflepuff. It suited her, she thought. She'd be better off there than with the Slytherins, who couldn't possibly be as bad as they looked, but they still looked decidedly scary. Even to Ace.

The boy before her (McCoy, Sylvester) went to Slytherin. He was really short, and that seemed to be his only distinguishing feature, other than his very odd looking face.

And then it was her turn. She sat on the stool, and felt the eyes of the whole school on her. That was a lot of teenagers who could laugh when she messed up and was told she wasn't actually a witch.

'Hello there.' She didn't jump, she'd seen almost everyone else jump when they heard what was probably the voice of the hat, so she was prepared. 'Well you're interesting, but don't give up on your magic. You'll find it's there. You just have control. Control is more of a Slytherin thing, if I may say. But you will never be a Slytherin on any day of the week. You could be a Hufflepuff, and learning in the Ravenclaw way isn't your style. But you're a very brave person, as well as being loyal. You'll give your loyalty to anyone, but only when pushed to in the right situation. So, for you, it's

"Gryffindor!"'