The door opened at once. Professor Mcgonagall stood at the top of the stairs, looking a lot more stern than she had over the summer holidays.
"The firs' years, Professor McGonagall," said Hagrid.
"Thank you, Hagrid. I will take them from here." the Professor replied.
She pulled the door wide. The entrance hall was so big you could have fit the whole of Cassie's old school in it. The stone walls were lit with flaming torches and 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. Cassie 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.
"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 honour. 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 you can while you are waiting."
Her eyes lingered for a moment on Neville's cloak, which was fastened under his left ear. Cassie self-consciously combed through her hair with her fingers, wincing when she caught a knot.
"I shall return when we are ready for you," said Professor McGonagall. "Please wait quietly."
She left the chamber.
"How exactly do they sort us into houses?" Harry asked Ron.
"Some sort of test, I think. Fred said it hurts a lot, but I think he was joking."
"A test ?" Cassie whispered in alarm "But we haven't learnt anything yet."
Cassie didn't know what was wrong with her, she was usually very confident and outgoing and would have never minded standing up in front of lots of people but, for the second time today, her palms were sweaty and her heart was pounding. She looked around anxiously and saw that everyone else looked terrified, too. No one was talking much except Hermione Granger, who was whispering very fast about all the spells she'd learned and wondering which one she'd need. Cassie turned her back on Hermione, trying to block her out, she didn't need to be distracted.
Then several people screamed and Cassie whipped around and moved slightly in front of Harry and Ron. She looked around for the danger.
"Oh my gosh"
Cassie's mouth dropped open. 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?"
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."
With butterflies fluttering around her stomach, Cassie got into line behind Ron with Hermione behind her. They walked out of the chamber, back across the hall, and through a pair of double doors into the Great Hall.
Cassie had never seen a room quite like it, 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. Cassie glanced upwards and was amazed to see the Great Hall had no roof, she could see the night sky, a velvety black, sprinkled with bright white stars.
Cassie heard Hermione whisper, "It's bewitched to look like the sky outside. I read about it in Hogwarts, A History."
Well, thought Cassie, that made much more sense, what would happen if it rained?
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, frayed and extremely dirty. Cassie had no idea what to expect, what on earth did they have to do ?
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 Harry and Cassie. "I'll kill Fred, he was going on about wrestling a troll."
Cassie heaved a massive sigh of relief, trying on an old hat, she could do that, easy-peasy.
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...
"HUFFLEPUFF!" shouted the hat.
The table on the right cheered and clapped as Hannah went to sit down at the Hufflepuff table. Cassie saw the ghost of the Fat Friar waving merrily at her.
"Black, Cassandra," shouted Professor Mcgonagall
Cassie stepped out of the line and walked towards the small stool and sat down. The last thing she saw before the hat dropped over her eyes was lots of people on the Slytherin table looking at her with interest.
"Ah ha !" said a little voice in Cassie's ear.
Cassie jumped violently and nearly fell off the stool.
"Another Black !" said the little voice "I thought I had sorted the last one when young Regulus was put in Slytherin."
"Were there quite a lot of Blacks at Hogwarts then ?" asked Cassie
"Oh yes," said the hat "Generations and generations, all in Slytherin, you know."
"They can't all have been in Slytherin," said Cassie.
"Yes yes," said the hat "We can't be forgetting Sirius Black, he was in Gryffindor."
"Good," said Cassie relieved, "I'd much rather be in Gryffindor than Slytherin."
"Oh dear." said the hat "You'd do so well in Slytherin, achieve so much, become so powerful."
The hat mused for a few more seconds and Cassie wondered if she'd get sorted at all.
"Well it better be…."
Cassie crossed her fingers.
"GRYFFINDOR!"
Cassie jumped up off the stool and Professor Mcgonagall took the hat off Cassie's head. Cassie's smile nearly split her face as she made her way over to the cheering table. She sat down next to Fred and George and they leant over to talk to her,
"Well done Cassie !" said Fred
"We'd knew you'd do it !" said George.
"Thanks!" replied Cassie, heartily relived.
"Bones, Susan!" called Professor Mcgonagall
"HUFFLEPUFF!" shouted the hat
"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 second new Gryffindor, and Cassie cheered along with the rest of the table. Fred and George started catcalling when "Bulstrode, Millicent" became a Slytherin.
"Finch-Fletchley, Justin!"
"HUFFLEPUFF!"
Sometimes, Cassie 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.
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 "Macmillan, Ernest"
Malfoy swaggered forward when his name was called, 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. "Nott", "Parkinson", then a pair of twin girls, "Patil" and "Patil", then "Perks, Sally-Anne", and then,
"Potter, Harry!"
As Harry stepped forward, whispers suddenly broke out like little hissing fires all over the hall.
"Potter, did she say?"
"The Harry Potter?"
Harry walked nervously across to the stool and Cassie crossed her fingers,
"Come on Harry." she whispered under her breath.
"GRYFFINDOR !" shouted the hat
The Gryffindor table gave the loudest cheer yet and Fred and George began to chant,
"WE GOT POTTER, WE GOT POTTER !"
And now there were only four people left to be sorted. "Thomas, Dean," who was even taller than Ron, joined the Gryffindor table. "Turpin, Lisa," became a Ravenclaw and then it was Ron's turn. He was pale green by now. Cassie crossed her fingers again and a second later the hat had shouted,
"GRYFFINDOR!"
Cassie and Harry both clapped and whooped loudly with the rest as Ron collapsed into the chair next to them.
"Well done, Ron, excellent," said Percy Weasley, another of Ron's brothers, pompously as "Zabini, Blaise," was made a Slytherin.
Professor Mcgonagall rolled up her scroll and took the Sorting Hat away. 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. Cassie wondered if the headmaster wasn't entirely sane.
"Is he a bit mad?" Harry asked Percy uncertainly.
"Mad?" said Percy airily. "He's a genius! Best wizard in the world! But he is a bit mad, yes. Potatoes, Harry?"
Right in front of Cassie's eyes, the dishes on the table began to fill with food. There was all sorts of wonderful things that Cassie liked to eat, 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.
Cassie piled her plate with enough to keep her going for several days and began to eat.
"That does look good," said the ghost in the ruff sadly, watching them all stuff themselves silly.
"Can't you..?" asked Cassie
"I haven't eaten for nearly five hundred years," said the ghost. "I don't need to, of course, but one does miss it. I don't think I've introduced myself? Sir Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington at your service. Resident ghost of Gryffindor Tower."
"I know who you are!" said Ron suddenly. "My brothers told me about you, you're Nearly Headless Nick!"
"I would prefer you to call me Sir Nicholas de Mimsy.. " the ghost began stiffly, but Cassie interrupted.
"Nearly Headless? How can you be nearly headless?"
Sir Nicholas looked extremely miffed, as if their little chat wasn't going at all the way he wanted.
"Like this," he said irritably. He seized his left ear and pulled. His whole head swung off his neck and fell onto his shoulder as if it were on a hinge. Someone had obviously tried to behead him, but not done it properly. Looking pleased at the stunned looks on their faces, Nearly Headless Nick flipped his head back onto his neck, coughed, and said,
"So, new Gryffindors! I hope you're going to help us win the house championship this year? Gryffindors have never gone so long without winning. Slytherins have got the cup six years in a row! The Bloody Baron's becoming almost unbearable, he's the Slytherin ghost."
All the First Years looked over at the Slytherin table and saw a horrible ghost sitting there, with blank staring eyes, a gaunt face, and robes stained with silver blood.
"How did he get covered in blood?" asked Seamus Finnegan with great interest.
"I've never asked," said Nearly Headless Nick delicately.
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 flavour you could think of, apple pies, treacle tarts, chocolate eclairs and jam doughnuts, trifle, strawberries, rice pudding...
As Cassie helped herself to a large slice of chocolate cake, the talk turned to their families.
"I'm half-and-half," said Seamus. "Me dad's a Muggle. Mam's a witch. Bit of a nasty shock for him when he found out."
The others laughed.
"What about you, Neville?" said Ron.
"Well, my gran brought me up and she's a witch," said Neville, "but the family thought I was all-Muggle for ages. My Great Uncle Algie kept trying to catch me off my guard and force some magic out of me, he pushed me off the end of Blackpool pier once, I nearly drowned, but nothing happened until I was eight. Great Uncle Algie came round for dinner, and he was hanging me out of an upstairs window by the ankles when my Great Auntie Enid offered him a meringue and he accidentally let go. But I bounced, all the way down the garden and into the road. They were all really pleased, Gran was crying, she was so happy. And you should have seen their faces when I got in here, they thought I might not be magic enough to come, you see. Great Uncle Algie was so pleased he bought me my toad."
Opposite Cassie, Percy Weasley and Hermione were talking about lessons
"I do hope they start right away, there's so much to learn, I'm particularly interested in Transfiguration, you know, turning something into something else, of course, it's supposed to be very difficult,"
"You'll be starting small, just matches into needles and that sort of thing.. "
Cassie was starting to feel very sleepy and her head got closer and closer to the table until...
"Ouch!" Harry clapped a hand to his head.
"What is it?" asked Cassie, jolting upright.
"N-nothing."
"Who's that teacher talking to Professor Quirrell?" Harry asked Percy, pointing to the teacher's table.
Cassie looked towards the front of the hall, Professor Quirrell, the man who Harry pointed at, was wearing a ridiculously large purple turban. He was talking to a teacher with greasy black hair, a hooked nose, and sallow skin. Cassie didn't really like the look of either of them.
"Oh, you know Quirrell already, do you?" said Percy "No wonder he's looking so nervous, that's Professor Snape. He teaches Potions, but he doesn't want to, everyone knows he's after Quirrell's job. Knows an awful lot about the Dark Arts, Snape."
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 Fred and George.
"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."
"Why on earth keep something that kills people painfully in a school ?" muttered Cassie to Harry.
Harry nodded back in response.
"It's odd," said Percy, frowning at Dumbledore. "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. Cassie 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 pick their favourite 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 Fred and George 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 Gryffindor first years followed Percy through the chattering crowds, out of the Great Hall, and up the marble staircase. Cassie looked around in wonder, as the people in the portraits along the corridors whispered and pointed as they passed. Twice Percy led them through doorways hidden behind sliding panels and hanging tapestries. They climbed more staircases, yawning and dragging their feet, and Cassie was just wondering how much farther they had to go when they came to a sudden halt. A bundle of walking sticks was floating in midair ahead of them, and as Percy took a step toward them they started throwing themselves at him.
"Peeves," Percy whispered to the first years. "A poltergeist." He raised his voice, "Peeves, show yourself."
A loud, rude sound, like the air being let out of a balloon, answered.
"Do you want me to go to the Bloody Baron?"
There was a pop, and a little man with wicked, dark eyes and a wide mouth appeared, floating cross-legged in the air, clutching the walking sticks.
"Oooooooh!" he said, with an evil cackle. "Ickle Firsties! What fun!"
He swooped suddenly at them. They all ducked.
"Go away, Peeves, or the Baron'll hear about this, I mean it!" barked Percy.
Peeves stuck out his tongue and vanished, dropping the walking sticks on Neville's head. They heard him zooming away, rattling coats of armour as he passed.
"You want to watch out for Peeves," said Percy, as they set off again. "The Bloody Baron's the only one who can control him, he won't even listen to us, prefects. Here we are."
At the very end of the corridor hung a portrait of a very fat woman in a pink silk dress.
"Password?" she said.
"Caput Draconis," said Percy, and the portrait swung forward to reveal a round hole in the wall.
They all scrambled through it, Neville needed a leg up, and found themselves in the Gryffindor common room, a cosy, round room full of red squashy armchairs. It reminded Cassie of her living room at home and she smiled as she looked around the room.
After saying goodnight to Ron and Harry, Cassie followed the other three first-year girls as they walked up a spiral staircase and entered a comfortable room with four-postered beds covered in thick scarlet hangings. Their trunks had been placed at the foot of each bed. The girls were too tired to talk, they pulled on their pyjamas, took turns in the bathroom, fell into bed.
"This was the best birthday ever" thought Cassie grinning before her head hit the pillow and she went straight to sleep.