The door swung open and out came Professor McGonagall, who glanced at Harry and gave him a small smile, which he returned fervently.
"The firs' years, Professor McGonagall," said Hagrid.
"Thank you, Hagrid, I will take them from here", She swung open the door with the first years following her.
The entrance hall was so big you could have fit the whole of the Dursleys' house in it. The stone walls were lit with flaming torches like the ones at Gringotts, the ceiling was too high to make out, and a magnificent marble staircase facing them led to the upper floors.
They followed Professor McGonagall across the flagged stone floor. Harry could hear the drone of hundreds of voices from a doorway to the right -the rest of the school must already be here - but Professor McGonagall showed the first years into a small, empty chamber off the hall. They crowded in, standing rather closer together than they would usually have done, peering about nervously, which annoyed Harry to no end as he kept on nudging the students away from him.
"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.
"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 possible given the allocated time", her gaze lingered on Neville's wrongly fastened cloak and Ron's smudged nose as Harry nervously straightened his robes.
"I shall return when we are ready for you," said Professor McGonagall. "Please wait quietly.", and she walked out through the door.
"How do we get sorted?", he asked Ron.
"Its some sort of test, I reckon. Fred says it hurts but he is probably joking", Ron replies, his pale skin shining with sweat.
Harry's body gave a horrible lurch. A test? What would he do, he only studied the incantations and wand movements, he doesn't even know if it will work, and judging by the almost silent crowd, the others were terrified also. What would happen if he failed? Would he go back to the Dursleys? He couldn't go back, he just got here for Merlin's sake!
Then something happened that made him jump about a foot in the air - several people behind him screamed.
"What the -?"
He gasped. So did the people around him. About twenty ghosts had just streamed through the back wall. Pearly-white and slightly transparent, they glided across the room talking to one another 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?"
Harry shuffled uncomfortably. Nobody said anything.
"New students!" said the Fat Friar, smiling around at them. "About to be Sorted, I suppose?", he said as students nodded mutely. "Hope to see you at Hufflepuff!"
"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."
Feeling oddly as though his legs had turned to lead, Harry got into line behind a boy with sandy hair, with Ron behind him, and they walked out of the chamber, back across the hall, and through a pair of double doors into the Great Hall.
Harry had never even imagined such a strange and splendid place. It was lit by thousands and thousands of candles that were floating in midair 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. Mainly to avoid all the staring eyes, Harry looked upward and saw a velvety black ceiling dotted with stars.
Hermione whispered, "Its bewitched to look like the sky outside. I read about it in Hogwarts, A History." As Harry nodded.
Harry quickly looked down again 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. Aunt Petunia wouldn't have let it in the house.
Maybe they had to try and get a rabbit out of it, Harry thought wildly, that seemed the sort of thing - noticing that everyone in the hall was now staring at the hat, he stared at it, too. 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.
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 Harry. "I'll kill Fred, he was going on about wrestling a troll."
Harry gave a weak smile. Yes, a hat was better than having to fight a troll, but he didn't seem to fit in the Gryffindor qualities. If both Ron and Hermione wanted to go to Gryffindor and he didn't, would they still stay friends? Would they leave him since he would go to another.
Professor McGonagall stepped forward with a rather long scroll 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. "HUFFLEPUFF!" shouted the hat. The table on the right cheered and clapped as Hannah went to sit down at the Hufflepuff table. The ghost of the Fat Friar waved 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; Harry could see Ron's twin brothers catcalling.
"Bulstrode, Millicent" then became a Slytherin. Perhaps it was Harry's imagination, after all he'd heard about Slytherin, but he thought they looked like an unpleasant lot. He was starting to feel definitely sick now. He remembered being picked for teams during gym at his old school. He had always been last to be chosen, not because he was no good, but because no one wanted Dudley to think they liked him.
"Finch-Fletchley, Justin!" "HUFFLEPUFF!"
Sometimes, Harry 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. And Harry felt his stomach roll.
When Neville Longbottom, the boy who kept losing his toad, was called, there were many whispers. 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 amidst the chaos of the Gryffindor table, and had to jog back amid gales of laughter to give it to "Malfoy, Draco."
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 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, at last - "Potter, Harry!"
Harry stepped forward to the hat and the last thing he saw before his vision went black was Ron giving Harry a hopeful look which made him purse his lips.
Hmm," said a small voice in his ear. "Difficult. Very difficult. Plenty of knowledge, I see. Not a bad mind either. There's talent, A my goodness, yes - and a nice thirst to prove yourself, now that's interesting... So where shall I put you?"
Harry gripped the edges of the stool and thought, Not Slytherin, not Slytherin.
"Not Slytherin, eh?" said the small voice. "Are you sure? You could be great, you know, it's all here in your head, and Slytherin will help you on the way to greatness, no doubt about that - no? Well, if you're sure…"
I need knowledge, I need knowledge, Harry repeated in his mind like a mantra.
"Hm… Well, I'm sure you will find your place in RAVENCLAW!", The hat shouted the last bit, and Professor McGonagall gave a disappointed look but took back the hat nonetheless as Harry shakily made his way to the Ravenclaw table, hardly realizing he was getting the second loudest cheering yet.
He sat down near Terry Boot as several Ravenclaws shook his hand and introduced himself as 'Avery' 'Penelope' 'Aaron' and many more. Terry gave him a bright smile and a handshake which Harry hesitantly accepted.
He could see the High Table properly now. At the end nearest him sat Hagrid, who caught his eye and gave a small nod. Harry nodded back. And there, in the center of the High Table, in a large gold chair, sat Albus Dumbledore. Harry recognized him at once from the card he'd gotten out of the Chocolate Frog on the train. Dumbledore's silver hair was the only thing in the whole hall that shone as brightly as the ghosts. Harry spotted another professor. He was looking very peculiar in a large purple turban.
And now there were only three people left to be sorted. "Thomas, Dean," a Black boy even taller than Ron, joined Lavander at the Gryffindor table. "Turpin, Lisa," joined Harry in Ravenclaw and then it was Ron's turn. He was pale green by now. Harry crossed his fingers under the table and a second later the hat had shouted, "GRYFFINDOR!"
Harry frowned as Ron collapsed near Dean and clapped lightly. "Zabini, Blaise", became a Slytherin. Professor McGonagall rolled up her scroll and took the Sorting Hat away.
Harry stared at his empty plate, only now realizing how hungry he was. The chocolate frogs seemed ages ago.
Albus Dumbledore had gotten 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. Harry didn't know whether to laugh or not.
"I-is he a bit mad?", Harry asked Terry, who was covering his mouth.
"He is quite mad, I reckon", Terry said. "The old age does effect the brain sometimes.", Terry nudged Harry.
"How old is he?", Harry frowned.
"Maybe a hundred and forty?", Terry estimated and then laughed at the look on Harry's face.
Harry's mouth fell open. The dishes in front of him were now piled with food. He had never seen so many things he liked to eat on one table: roast beef, roast chicken, pork chops and lamb chops, sausages, bacon and steak, boiled potatoes, roast potatoes, fries, Yorkshire pudding, peas, carrots, gravy, ketchup, and, for some strange reason, peppermint humbugs.
The Dursleys had never exactly starved Harry, but he'd never been allowed to eat as much as he liked. Dudley had always taken anything that Harry really wanted, even if It made him sick. Harry piled his plate with a bit of everything except the peppermints and began to eat. It was all delicious.
Harry looked around and spotted some ghosts around the other houses but there was no ghost for Ravenclaw. He furrowed his brows and turned to Penelope Clearwater. "Where is our ghost?", he asked.
"Our ghost is the Grey Lady, though she doesn't come to the welcoming feasts. She usually resides at the astronomy tower, though you can sometimes meet her, she has a good reputation with Ravenclaw house.", Penelope explained as Harry hummed in acknowledgement.
When everyone had eaten as much as they could, the remains of the food faded from the plates, leaving them sparkling clean as before. A moment later the desserts appeared. Blocks of ice cream in every flavor you could think of, apple pies, treacle tarts, chocolate eclairs and jam doughnuts, trifle, strawberries, Jell-O, rice pudding -
As Harry helped himself to a treacle tart, the talk turned to their families.
"Well, I'm a muggle-born, though my parents knew something was wrong with me ever since I levitated a vase that I once almost broke", Terry said, waving his hands around as everyone laughed.
"What about you, Padma?", Harry asked.
"I'm a pure-blood. The Patil's are quite a rich family in India but my family decided to move in the UK", Padma replied, still eating some chocolate éclair.
Harry looked up at the high table and a teacher with greasy black hair, a hooked nose, and sallow skin made eye contact with him, glaring at him like Aunt Petunia did sometimes and he shifted uncomfortably and the teacher looked away.
"Who's that?", he asked Penelope, nodding towards the black-haired teacher.
"That's Professor Snape. He teaches Potions, but he doesn't want to - everyone knows he's after Quirrell's – the Defense teachers – job. He knows a lot about the Dark Arts.", Penelope said, smiling at Harry.
Harry watched Snape for a while, but Snape didn't look at him again.
At last, the desserts too disappeared, and Professor Dumbledore got to his feet again. The hall fell silent. "Ahem - just a few more words now that we are all fed and watered. I have a few start-of-term notices to give 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." 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 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."
Harry laughed, but he was one of the few who did. "He's not serious?" he muttered to Penelope.
"Must be," said Penelope, frowning at Dumbledore. "It's odd, because he usually gives us a reason why we're not allowed to go somewhere - the forest's full of dangerous beasts, everyone knows that. I do think he might have told us prefects, at least."
"And now, before we go to bed, let us sing the school song!" cried Dumbledore. Harry noticed that the other teachers' smiles had become rather fixed. Dumbledore gave his wand a little flick, as if he was trying to get a fly off the end, and a long golden ribbon flew out of it, which rose high above the tables and twisted itself, snakelike, into words. "Everyone picks their favorite tune," said Dumbledore, "and off we go!" And the school bellowed:
"Hogwarts, Hogwarts, Hoggy Warty Hogwarts, teach us something please, Whether we be old and bald Or young with scabby 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."
Everybody finished the song at different times. At last, only the Weasley twins were left singing along to a very slow funeral march. Dumbledore conducted their last few lines with his wand and when they had finished, he was one of those who clapped loudest.
"Ah, music," he said, wiping his eyes. "A magic beyond all we do here! And now, bedtime. Off you trot!"
The first years followed Penelope and Aaron as they made their way to the Ravenclaw dorm.
Harry's legs were like lead again, but only because he was so tired and full of food. He was too sleepy even to be surprised that the people in the portraits along the corridors whispered and pointed as they passed, or that twice, the prefects led them through doorways hidden behind sliding panels and hanging tapestries. They climbed more staircases, yawning and dragging their feet, and Harry was just wondering how much farther they had to go when they came to a sudden halt.
There was a wooden door with a knocker attached to it, but what really surprised Harry was the golden eagle statue on the top of the door. Aaron approached the door and knocked two times, before a deep voice echoing through the eagle had asked:
"Seas with no water. Hills with no earth. Roads never stepped on? What am I?"
The first year Ravenclaws murmured to each other as Harry turned to Terry and whispered to him; "It's a map!"
Terry's eyes brightened and his hand flew up. Aaron shot a questioning look. "Yes, Terry?", he asked to which he replied; "Harry knows! Harry knows!"
Everyone turned to Harry, who flushed under the scrutiny. "A map?", he suggested to Aaron. Aaron raised an eyebrow and turned to the door, that already opened. Terry flashed Harry a bright grin and clutched his hand, guiding Harry in the Ravenclaw tower.
The Ravenclaw common room was one of the airiest rooms Harry had seen. It was a wide, circular room with arched windows hung with blue and bronze silks and a midnight blue carpet covered in stars, which was reflected onto the domed ceiling. The room was furnished with tables, chairs, and bookcases; and by the door leading up to the dormitories stood a tall statue of Rowena Ravenclaw made of white marble, the staircase to the dormitories near the statue. He heard a meow and looked down to see Carina looking up at him. He smiled and kneeled down, bringing Terry down with him since their hands were intertwined.
"Hey Carina, found your way here just fine?", Harry asked, to which Carina purred.
"Aww, is this your cat? So cute!", Terry cooed as he tried to touch Carina but she hissed and he drew his hand away.
"Yeah, her name is Carina. I found her name in a book.", Harry explained, petting Carina. Someone cleared his throat and Harry looked up to see Aaron looking down at them.
"Should I show you the way to the dormitory?", he asked with a raised eyebrow.
They both flushed and nodded and soon, they were at their dorm room. Too tired to talk much, they pulled on their pajamas and fell into bed.
Harry wanted to ask Terry if he had tried the Treacle Tart but had fell asleep immediately.
He had a rather weird dream. He saw Professor Quirrell walking around the corridors, humming a song. He looked around to check if anyone was there and then taking off his turban, but before Harry could see what was behind the turban, the dream shifted and he saw a black dog running around a forest, seemingly chasing something as he kept barking until he saw Harry and lunged at him.
Harry woke up with a gasp, cold and shivering. He tucked the blankets tighter but, in the morning, he couldn't remember the dream he had.
Question: Should I keep Regulus alive or nah?