Hogwarts next Chapter 3:

'First-Years over here!' A booming voice called out. It belonged to a man whom was hard to miss as he was towering over everyone else by several meters, give or take.

Elizaveta and her new friends hurried over to him.

'Wait! What about our luggage?' Elizaveta stopped them in their tracks.

'Don't worry love.' A voice came from behind her, belonging to an elegant boy, approx. twelve yrs, wearing robes that had green linings. The only thing that ruined his immaculate appearance, were his thick eyebrows. Although, they were nicely accentuated with a piercing, that gleamed in the light from the lanterns of the train and the station, in each eyebrow. It was too dark to see his eyes. 'It will be brought to the school and will arrive before you do. Normally, you would've heard an announcement, but someone,', he glared into the train, 'messed the speaker system up.'

So, reassured, Elizaveta and her friends continued to the tall man, whom told them,

'You alright, First-Years?' When they only shrugged or murmured in what could be taken as an agreement, he continued. 'Okay, my name's Hagrid, and you're going to be sitting four and four in these boats.'

'Why are you standing so straight?' Gilbert asked as they moved towards the boats that Hagrid had shown them, in a voice that made one of the people already sitting in one of the boats turn around.

It was the snooty looking boy from the train.

Elizaveta didn't notice him as she explained herself to Gil.

'I find that standing up straight helps my posture, breathing and back. Besides, I'm used to it.'

'Come on!' Francis told them. 'Or else, there won't be any room left for us.'

'I doubt that, amigo.' Antonio said, but like the rest, followed him anyway.

So, they ended up in the same boat. Which was fine with them. It wasn't long before all the First Years sat in the boats. Then they were off. Halfway through to the castle they could see up ahead, Elizaveta was yanked out.

There was panic among the First Years, before Hagrid's voice boomed out,

'It's okay!' He shouted, loud enough for everyone to hear him. 'Everyone who falls into the lake, always come back into the boats! Usually.', he added in an undertone.

That calmed everyone down, except for Gilbert, whom couldn't explain, not even to himself, why he was so anxious. When there was no sign of Elizaveta on the surface, Francis and Antonio also started to get anxious. Gilbert was still worst; he had to be restrained from jumping out and swimming in the lake himself; even if they all three knew from experience that he was the better swimmer of the three.

It was just something unsettling about the Great Lake.

All three, while two of them still held Gilbert back, leaned slowly and precariously over the ledge, on the side that she'd fallen out of, trying to find her.

They could not find her.

Elizaveta broke through the surface on the other side of the boat, and hauled herself in.

'Hey guys!' She said, startling them. 'That was fun!'

'How the hell did you manage that?'

'I swam under the boat.'

'But you said you were Hungarian!'

'We do have lakes in Hungary!' She said calmly and evenly but affronted, with a pout. 'Besides, I've been living on an island almost all my life, learning to swim was part of my Muggle school curriculum.'

'You okay?!' Hagrid shouted back to them.

'Just peachy!'

'Shouldn't we rub her?' Antonio asked nervously, slowly returning to his happy self.

'What?!' The three others looked at him incredulously.

'To dry her up, so that she won't catch pneumonia.' he explained, giving a shaky smile.

'There's not much we can rub her with; we don't have any towels or anything.' Francis pointed out.

'They probably have some at the castle.' Gilbert commented. 'We'll just have to wait 'till then.'

By the time they arrived at the castle, Elizaveta's clothes were starting to damp. Although neither the evening nor the castle was that warm. It was a rather chilly evening, as a matter of fact, even for a Scottish September evening.

Inside, they were met with an old man leaning heavily on a cane, sporting an enormous walrus-like moustache, which were whiter than silver in colour, wrinkles all over the parts of his body one could see, as evident on his bald head where the wrinkles were so bad, they almost looked like hair. But beyond that, there were no signs of his age; his eyes were as prominent and shiny as if they belonged to a man at least ninety years younger than him.

'Good evening, Professor Slughorn.', Hagrid said. 'I didn't expect to see you so soon.'

'I'll take them from you now, Professor Hagrid.', the old man, standing just inside of the castle's gates, said. 'The other teachers are waiting for you in the Great Hall.'

'You're a Professor?' Gilbert asked, only to immediately be punched in the arm by Elizaveta.

'Yes,', Hagrid said, showing no indication that he had taken offense, 'but you won't have me before Third Year, if you choose Care for Magical Creatures. But I must be on my way now.'

As soon as Mr. Hagrid, Professor Hagrid, had left, Professor Slughorn turned towards the children.

'I'm going to take you to a room near the Great Hall, which is where you'll be Sorted into the four Houses we have here. These Houses will be like family while you're staying here at Hogwarts. You, and everyone in your House are responsible for the accumulation of points. You answer correctly in class, you get points, you perform a great feat, in class or otherwise, you get points. You disrupt class, you lose points, you break the rules, you lose points. How many you lose, or gain is up to the teacher in question. At the end of the Year, the results of the different Houses' points will be announced, and the House with the most points will win the House Cup; a most prestigious achievement. But before the Sorting, you're going to have to wait in the room I mentioned, alone, while we prepare the Sorting. Inside the Great Hall, when you get there, you'll be told about the Sorting, and how it's done. But what's happened to you?', he suddenly asked when he noticed that Elizaveta was wringing, or trying to wring out her hair, it was always the hardest to get dry.

'Oh, I fell into the lake.'

'More like yanked.', Francis corrected.

'Are you okay?', Professor Slughorn asked concerned. It wasn't uncommon for First Years to be a little shaken after having been yanked out by one of the residents of the lake. Even if they did get rescued by the giant squid, Hagrid, one of the other First-Years, managed to swim ashore themselves, or got up in the boats by themselves.

'Oh, I'm topping, Professor. Just trying to dry my hair, that's all.'

'You see, miss Elizaveta here,', Gilbert said almost joyfully, he still hadn't forgotten how terrified he'd been, the few moments she was in the lake, 'decided to take a swim.'

'I swam under the boat, and hauled myself in.', Elizaveta explained when she saw Professor Slughorn stare at her.

Shaking his head, he led them to the room he had been talking about, where he told them to stand in lines of twos and wait until he came back for them.

While they waited outside the door, Francis and Antonio in front of her, and herself standing with Gilbert, Elizaveta was jostled by someone behind her.

'Apologies, it was an accident.' A polite voice with a slight accent told her.

Turning around, Elizaveta saw the same snooty looking boy she recognized from the train. Years of diplomatic training she'd never really cared for before set in, as she said,

'It is quite alright, apology accepted.', without any hint of anything but sincerity. Hope against hope that that was the end of it, and she could turn back around, was squashed when the snooty looking boy reached out his hand,

'I'm Roderich Edelstein, and you are?'

Not wanting to be rude, at least until she got to know the school better, she shook his hand.

'Elizaveta Héderváry.'

'Héderváry? That sounds familiar. Is your father perchance the Hungarian Muggle Diplomat?'

'He is.', she responded while wondering how she could finish this as quickly as possible without being impolite.

Luckily, the ghosts helped her.

They came gliding, twenty or so, through the walls. Clearly in an animated, although they were ghosts, discussion.

'Is not the new school year a time for forgiveness, friends? Should we not show magnitude?', a round monk told the others.

'Every year you plead the same cause,', a man clad in what looked like royal court clothes told him 'and every year the answer is the same. No, we cannot allow Peeves to join us in the opening Feast. Such is my answer, and I believe our esteemed colleagues would agree with me.' The last he aimed at the other ghosts whom all nodded gravely.

'He is a nuisance.', added a ghost with ghostly dark blood stains on his ghostly clothes.

The monk opened his mouth, probably to come with one more argument for his cause, but then he spotted the First Years.

'What-ho! New students! Are you excited about being Sorted? I hope to see you in my House, Hufflepuff!'

'Perhaps you could tell us more about the Houses, and what happens after we get Sorted?', Francis said, with one eye at Elizaveta. He was probably thinking that she, as a Muggle born, needed reassurance that ghosts were okay, and that would be best effective if they were helpful and friendly.

He needn't to worry; like all the magical things (though they were not that many) she'd seen, Elizaveta found the ghosts fascinating.

Despite this, or because of this, she didn't stop them from talking.

'French', muttered one of the few female ghosts loudly and slightly depreciatory.

Even with comments like that.

What little smile had been on Francis' face, quickly disappeared, but Gilbert cut in and said,

'Yeah, but he's still somewhat okay. So, can you just tell us about the Houses and stuff?' Although Gilbert was pleased that the ghosts had turned up because it meant that Roderich was being ignored by Elizaveta, he didn't like them being mean to one of his friends.

Despite Gilbert's reassurance, the ghosts gave Francis doubtful looks, but responded to their query anyway.

'As to the Sorting itself, since you'll be instructed once you arrive in the Great Hall, we cannot tell you much about it. But as to the Houses, we'll give you the briefest and informative idea as we can manage, given the time restraint we've on us.'

The time restraint was so severe, that that was all they'd time to say, before Professor Slughorn came for them, rubbing his back, and walking with an almost undetectable limp. He led them through a set of doors into a great room where the first thing they saw was a table filled with adults dressed almost in the same manner as him. Walking alongside it, they saw four other tables facing that table. These four tables were filled with students staring at them. It was difficult, on the border of impossible, not to squirm under the curious but enquiring eyes of their soon-to-be schoolmates.

Francis, Antonio and Gilbert would've walked straight into the persons in front of them if Elizaveta hadn't dragged them back with incredible strength when she discovered that Professor Slughorn had abruptly halted the procession (it almost looked like he'd stumbled, poor man).

Unfortunately, the same thing couldn't be said about the two boys, Edelstein and one other with short-cropped blond hair, standing behind her and Gilbert, whom stumbled into them and would've made them stumble too, if Elizaveta hadn't stood as firm as she did.

'Thanks', the three (Francis, Antonio and Gilbert) whispered simultaneously to her.

She was about to whisper "you're welcome" back, when she discovered the ceiling.

It was a true picture of the sky outside, complete with the twinkling stars and moving clouds. She gaped at it, but quickly reverted her attention from the magnificent view when Professor Slughorn, well supported by a younger, more rugged person, also dressed in teacher robes, started to talk.

'The Sorting will happen thus; I'll read out your names one by one, and when I call out your name, you'll come up here, and get the Sorting Hat put on you.', here he pointed to where a three-legged chair stood. On that three-legged chair was an old pointed hat with a rift near its brim. 'It will then say which House you belong to. Once you've been told which House you belong to, you give back the Hat and go to that House. The Gryffindors go to the Table that's underneath the banner with a lion on a scarlet background. The Hufflepuffs go to the Table that's underneath the banner with a badger on a yellow background. The Ravenclaws go to the Table that's underneath the banner with a raven on a blue background. And the Slytherins go to the Table that's underneath the banner with a snake on a green background. Sit anywhere you like at your chosen Table.' Then he went quiet, and as if the Sorting Hat had been waiting for this the rift opened and,

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 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 folks 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!

Now let the Sorting begin!', Professor Slughorn finished with remarkable gusto and strength in voice.

Author's notes:

The Sorting Hat song is taken from Harry Potter and The Philosopher's Stone, of which all rights belong to J.K. Rowling. As does the Wizarding World. Hetalia Axis Powers, and all rights regarding it, belong to Hidekaz Himaruya.

Beyond that, all rights belong to me.

You may not have noticed, but I've Professor Horace Slughorn with me in this fanfiction. But don't worry; he's going to get his well-deserved retirement soon. I think I'll have a female professor in Potions after him. Any suggestions to her name? Or to improvements in language on this story?

In the next chapter:

If Elizaveta had thought that seeing other people being Sorted would help her nervousness, she was dead wrong. Still shaking inside, but calm on the outside, she went up. Concentrating on walking like she was balancing on the ledge on the balcony of her family's summer house back in Hungary, she slowly walked to the platform, where Professor Slughorn stood, smiling down at her. Taking step by step, she soon stood in front of the stool everyone to be Sorted sat on. Turning around, she realized, by reaching her hands behind her, that she needed to make at least one more step before she could sit. She did. She sat on the stool. The hat was lowered on to her head. Luckily, for her nerves, the Sorting didn't take long. Three seconds later, it shouted,

Additional note:

I want to express my deepest gratitude towards all those who follow my story, me, or just read my stories. Thank you! You warm my heart