We wait on the beach for a few minutes. Neville holds Trevor tightly and everyone is chatting.

          “Firs' years, Professor McGonagall.” says Hagrid.

          “Thank you, Hagrid. I will take them from here.” a stern looking middle aged professor says.

           She leads us up to the door and we follow her inside. She turns to face us.  She welcomes us and explains that we are to be sorted into our houses before a banquet. A few students begin chatting, and one girl in particular whispers profusely to her sister about all the spells they've learnt.  Draco nudges me and I look at him.

          “See that boy there?” he says nodding in the direction of a dark-haired boy.

          “What about him?”

           “That's Harry Potter?”

          “Really?”

          “Yeah. I met him on the train. He's not someone we ought to hang around.”

          “I think i'll wait to meet him and make that judgement for myself.”

          “I'm serious, Lisa, he's already made friends with that Weasley, I already made it clear to them what I thought of them.”

          I frown at him and feel ashamed of what he might have said and how he would have behaved.

          “Why do you do that? Why do you have to be so rude?”

           Before he can reply, Professor McGonagall comes back in.

          “Move along now, The Sorting Ceremony's about to start. Now form a line and follow me.”

          We do as she says and follow her through to a large room filled with students already seated.  I look up to the ceiling, it appears not to be there and all I see is the starry sky with a few clouds.

          “It's bewitched to look like the sky outside, I read about it in Hogwarts: A History.” a girl whispers from in front of me. We walk up to the front of the hall to see an old, worn and wrinkled wizard’s hat. After we’ve spread out in front of the hat, a rip near the brim opens and the hat starts 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 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 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!”

           When the hat finishes singing the students and teachers all break into applause. Professor McGonagall then stands behind the stool that the sorting hat is on.

          “When I call your name, you will put on the hat and sit on the stool to be sorted. Abbot, Hannah!”

          Hannah was the first to be sorted. After a while the hat shouted “Hufflepuff” the house to the right of the centre aisle applauds and Hanna goes to join them. As more names are called out the hat takes varying lengths of time to decide what house to put them in.

          “Granger, Hermione” Professor McGonagall calls. The girl who was talking about the ceiling walks up and puts on the hat, a short while later the hat calls out “Gryffindor” the table to the far left cheers and Hermione goes and sits with them.

          “Granger Lauren” is next and the girl looks almost identical to Hermione goes up and puts the hat on. It also calls out “Gryffindor.” The girl goes and sits next to her sister. More names are called and then-- “Malfoy, Draco” is called. 
          My brother struts up to the hat and it barely touches his head when the hat yells out “Slytherin.” The far right table cheers and he goes and sits with them

           “Malfoy, Lisa” my name is called out and I’m terrified of each outcome. Half of me wants to be in Slytherin to make my parents happy and half of me knows that I don’t belong there. I place the hat on my head.
           “Lisa Malfoy, I see that you do not think you will fit in with Slytherin. Well then I guess we’d better find a better house for you. You’re smart, that’s easy to see. I know where to put you.”  The hat pauses for a second and I grip the stool tightly “Gryffindor.” 
          I walk over to the Gryffindor table in shock. I sit next to Laoren and a red headed prefect. I look over to the Slytherin table on the far side, they all appear shocked and my brother looks horrified.

           “Hello.” The girl sitting next to me says “I'm Laoren.”

          “I'm Lisa.”

          “Nice to meet you.”

          “Likewise.”

          More names get called out. Then “Parker, Victoria” gets called out then and a very pretty red headed girl walks up to be sorted. The hat quickly yells out “Gryffindor” and Victoria comes and joins us. Next “Potter, Harry” gets called. I see the boy who Draco was being mean to walk up and put the hat on. The hat takes the longest amount of time to sort him, then it yells “Gryffindor.” He walks over to our table as the Weasley twins, you could tell they’re Weasley’s from their hair, catcall “We got potter, we got potter!”

          As he walks past me I touch his arm to get his attention.

          “I’m sorry my brother was rude to you earlier.” I apologise

          “Uh...That's alright. Thanks.” he replies and sits down.

          As more people get sorted the number of people left gets smaller. We end up at “Weasley, Katerina” her twin brother “Weasley Ronald” who was the boy who laughed at my brother’s name. They both became Gryffindors and the last person to be sorted was a “Zabini, Blaise” who became a Slytherin.

           “Welcome!” Dumbledore says “Welcome to a new year at Hogwarts! Before we begin out banquet, I would like to say a few words. And here the are: Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak!”


          I can’t help but smile at the silliness of the headmaster. The plates fill up and the room goes quieter as people eat as much as they can, I look again over to my brother, he looks back and it’s quite clear that he’s disappointed in me. I suddenly lose my appetite and start playing with my food.

          After dinner we’re instructed to follow our prefects back to the dormitory. Our Prefect was Percy Weasley, whom I assumed to be the older brother of Katerina and Ronald, as he had the same red hair as them and Weasley isn’t a common name in the wizarding world. We all follow Percy to the seventh floor where he says the password to the portrait of the fat-lady. The portrait swings open and he tells us where our dorms are located.

           As soon as we got in the door, a girl dove for a bed and yelled “This one's mine!”
Another rolled her eyes at the first girl.

          “Actually I think you'll find the beds have already been appointed. Look for the one with your luggage next to it.”  The second girl replied.

          We all look around and find out luggage. The order ended up Starting on the left side of the door, it went Parvati Patil, Kat Weasley, Hermione Granger, Laoren granger, me (I ended up in the middle for some reason), Victoria Parker, Fay Dunbar, Lavender Brown and 'Kellah'.

           Parvati suggested we all introduce ourselves, which was straight away rejected by a girl who's trunk just said 'Kellah'. It didn’t seem that all of us were going to get along. Laoren and Katerina start talking. And after a while I close the hangings and stare at the canopy of my bed. I was dreading the morning post tomorrow because I know my brother will have told them all about the sorting. You’d think they’d be happy that their daughter was true to herself but all they care about is the family image. After a while there is no sound from the room and I know that everyone has probably fallen asleep. I open the hangings and walk over to the window. I stare at the stars for about an hour, then I fall back on my bed. Too tired to worry anymore, I quickly fall asleep.




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