Chapter Two: The Ceremony of Sorting

As Harry and his companions were ushered into the castle, Harry could only stare in shock at the stone walls and moving stairs. Torches lit the halls and as Harry's grouped merged with the large First-Year group ahead of them they even saw some pale ghosts floating past. The stern woman who had scolded them earlier left them waiting in front of a large door. Left to their own devices, the tiny children soon began to talk, exchanging fears and worries. Unsure of what to do, Harry started to break off from the main group when the blond boy, Draco, crept up to him at the same time as the other boy, Ron.

"I don't believe we've been introduced," Draco said to Harry, holding out his hand, "I am Draco Malfoy."

"I know," Harry said, shaking the hand. Draco seemed surprised, and a little pleased to hear that his reputation had reached even this insignificant worm, at least until Harry continued to talk, "You told me on the train. Like the constellation, right?"

"Yeah," Draco said, annoyed, "And you are?"

"I'm Harry," Harry said, too which Ron nodded in agreement.

Draco looked at Ron, a smirk and a sneer fighting each other to see which one would have dominance on his face.

"I just want you to know Harry that not all wizards are of the proper sort. Some of them, like the Weasel here, are poor and poor people, as I'm sure you know, are not as good as people who are not poor, like me."

Surprised Harry turned to Ron.

"You never told me you were poor!"

"I didn't know I had too," Ron said, peeved at Harry's hurt tone.

"Yes Harry, poor people are also liars," Draco said, his smirking-sneer growing.

"I trusted you," Harry told Ron.

"Harry, just because he didn't tell you he was poor doesn't mean he's untrustworthy," Hermione cut in, "It just means he's not good at talking about himself."

Ron ignored Hermione's attempts to placate his almost-friend, too worried he was by Draco Malfoy's clever attempt to turn Harry against him…but at that moment Ron realized something, recognizing Draco's last name.

"Harry!" Ron said, "You can't trust Draco! He's a Malfoy and all Malfoy's are Slytherins!"

There was a resounding gasp from the students and Draco looked uneasy at the suspicious glances being flung at him. His sneer slipped a bit, but he managed to refocus on Harry, just as the boy began to speak.

"What's a Slytherin?"

Ron swore internally. He had forgotten he hadn't explained that to Harry. Seeing an opportunity Draco started to speak.

"Slytherin is the name of the best House in Hogwarts, it refers to the smartest, most intelligent and important people in the school. It-"

"All Slytherin's are sneaky conniving snakes whose only goal is to serve Dark Wizards," Ron interrupted, glaring at Malfoy.

"Slytherin is one of the Four Houses of Hogwarts, founded seven and sixty-nine years ago by Rowena Ravenclaw, Godric Gryffindor, Helga Hufflepuff and Salazar Slytherin," Hermione said confidently, ending any further arguments with her quick and correct words.

Harry was still unsure over which one was correct and so made an effort to separate himself from both the poor person and the potential snake-person. Before the situation could get too awkward the tall woman came back, introduced herself as Mcgonagall and escorted the jumpy children into the Great Hall.

As the children scuttled in, the students sitting down at the tables around the hall began clapping, the sound echoing off the walls. It had an odd echo though, and Harry's eyes were drawn upwards, where he noticed that there was no ceiling and he could see the outside. Surprised by the apparent lack of funding for the castle he turned towards Hermione who was already answering his question.

"There really is a ceiling; it's just charmed to act like the sky outside. I read it in Hogwarts, A History."

"What happens when it rains?" Neville asked.

Hermione opened her mouth, and then closed it as she realized she did not know the answer. While she was scraping through her mental trough for some kind of response, similarly to how a pig would scrape through its actual trough for some kind of food, the students came to a stop. In front of them was a stool with a large black wizards hat in a slumped position, the jaunty point angled towards the floor.

"The Sorting Hat!" Hermione whispered.

"What's that?" Harry asked.

"It's the test all students must pass before being allowed to become students," Mcgonagall said gruffly.

Without anymore pomp or circumstance the woman pulled a long sheet of parchment out of her robes and started calling names. The children whose names were called stepped towards the stool where they were directed to take the hat and place it on their head. It made them look rather silly, as the hat was far too large for these tiny children. Harry was certain that this "Sorting" Ceremony was really only designed to make the new kids feel unwelcome…until the hat developed a large rip near the brim. Using the rip like a mouth the hat shouted something out in a clear, hatty voice.

"Whoops. Forgot the song. I'll sing it after these kids are done. By the way, HUFFLEPUFF!"

The boy got up, terrified about having the hat scream in his ear and he tossed it on the ground and bolted to the Hufflepuff table, where several people greeted him with open arms. Mcgonagall called the next student who picked the hat up from the stool and repeated the process.

Crabbe was the first of the seven called up, and he ended up in Slytherin. His lumbering form bumped into some students on his way to the table, and while some might attribute that to his clumsiness, the ones he knocked onto the ground were on the opposite end of the room from where he was supposed to be. Course that could still be a result of his poor coordination. His friend Goyle also ended up in Slytherin. Goyle, upon discovering the closest seat taken merely lifted up the girl in the way and dropped her on the ground, taking her seat.

Hermione was then called up, and the girl seemed to be arguing with the hat for quite a while. Apparently it said something she didn't like because she reached up to swat it and it bit her hand. In between her cursing (not of the mystical variety) and it's spitting out her flesh, it managed to shout out Ravenclaw. With a self-satisfied air Hermione took the hat off, leaving it close enough to the edge of the stool to cause it to fall off as she strolled towards her table.

Neville was up soon after, dropping his toad on the way. He was too nervous to pick it up and merely lifted the hat off the stool and put it on his head. It made the decision in a second.

"Another HUFFLEPUFF!"

Soon after that Malfoy strolled up, picked up the hat and started to put it on, smirk in full-display. Before it even touched his head it yelled "GRYFFINDOR!"

There was silence and Draco pulled the hat in front of him like it was cursed. It grinned at him and said "Just kidding. SLYTHERIN!"

Relieved Draco bolted towards the Slytherin table so he could join his cronies, leaving the hat abandoned at Mcgonagall's feet.

After a couple more people went past Ron got called. He went up, worried and anxious, an emotion that intensified as his brothers cheered for him. Ron picked the hat up from by Mcgonagall, who didn't look at him and put it on. As he squirmed in the seat the hat apparently said something that made Ron upset.

"Don't put me in Hufflepuff because I'm loyal!" Ron yelled, practically crying.

"Boy!" The hat said, "Talk to me in your mind!"

"Oh," Ron said, "Sorry."

There was silence for a while.

"Can you hear me?" Ron asked.
The hat sighed before screaming, "GRYFFINDOR!"

Ron moaned in relief before yanking the hat off his head and letting it fall to the floor. He joined his brothers who had begun cheering for him, although he still seemed extremely nervous.

Ron was near the end of the list, and soon Harry found himself the only person standing. Mcgonagall cleared her throat and silence pervaded.

"Harry Potter," she said, looking at Harry who had already started walking towards the hat.

As soon as his name was called everyone stopped talking and making noise. Harry picked up the hat and put it on as he took a seat. Immediately his sight grew black, as if someone had draped a dark cloth over his eyes and then told him to close his eyes, only since it wasn't quite that dark he didn't actually close his eyes so he could still kind of see through the cloth. The hat began talking to him soon after.

"Hmm…indeed you are magical, as the Headmaster had predicted."

"What?" Harry asked.

"I'm just making sure you aren't a Muggle that slipped into the school," the hat said.

"Oh."

"Let's see what house you should go in…hmm, strong desire to be liked, sounds like a Hufflepuff thing…not a complete moron, might be a decent Ravenclaw. You have green eyes, might fit in with Slytherin and their green motif…not that brave and probably wouldn't fit in with Gryffindor. No that would be the worst pick for you. I'm going to have to say-"

Before the hat could shout out Harry's fate the boy interrupted it.

"Uh…I'm not sure I understand this…all the smart kids go to Ravenclaw right?"

"Except for the ones that go to Slytherin, yes, all the smart kids go to Ravenclaw."

"Okay, so who goes to Hufflepuff?"

"The one's who weren't smart enough to go to either Ravenclaw or Slytherin and weren't energetic enough for Gryffindor."

"Oh," Harry said, surprised.

"Now as I was saying, GRYFFINDOR!"

There was thunderous applause as Harry carefully took a seat next to Ron, who was staring at him in shock.

"You never told me you were Harry Potter!"

"I didn't know I had to," Harry said, surprised at Ron's amazement, an attitude that was shared by many other students. Before Harry could ask why he was so amazing, an old man at the teacher's table stood up. He looked at the student body over his impressive beard, his eyes twinkling like stars refracted through the earth's atmosphere.

"Another year begins at Hogwarts," the man said, "And I, Albus Percival Wilfric Brian Dumbledore, will be your Headmaster, although I doubt that's a surprise to anyone."

That comment elicited a few chuckles. Harry looked at Ron questioningly, who merely stared back blankly. An older brother of Ron leaned in close and answered their unspoken question.

"I'm Percy, and he's been Headmaster for a whole bunch of years."

"Ah," Harry said, laughing slightly at the now funny joke. Dumbledore continued to speak.

"Listen to your teachers, it is against the rules to go into the Forbidden Forest, and eat your food!"

At the last, food appeared. The students ate the food*, and after they finished eating the food, whatever food was left over vanished back to the kitchen, where the food had been made. After they finished Harry followed his new housemates to the seventh floor where they opened a portrait and went through the portrait to find a room that had been behind the portrait. In the room were doors to other rooms, doors which Harry took to find himself in a room that had a bed. His stuff was at the foot of one of the beds, and after talking a bit with his newfound friends he quickly fell asleep, anxiously awaiting the next day.

* I thought the use of alliteration here would accentuate the drama of the situation. Email me if you disagree.