𝐃𝐨𝐥𝐜𝐞 | ʜ. ᴊ. ᴘ. [ hiatus ]

• 𝐁𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐁𝐞 •

❾¾ ⌁☍ ♪ ‹ 𝓶𝓪 𝓭𝓸𝓵𝓬𝓮 › ♪ ☍⌁¾❾

He opened the door wide. The door swung open at once.

A tall, black-haired witch in emerald-green robes stood there. She had a very stern face and Harry's first thought was that this was not someone to cross.

"The firs' years, Professor McGonagall," said Hagrid.

"Thank you, Hagrid. I will take them from here."

She pulled the door wide. 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.

The ceiling was so high that it couldn't be seen, and there was a majestic marble staircase before them, leading up to the top floor.

The students followed Professor McGonagall across the floor checkered rock. Harry could hear the hum of hundreds of voices from the door on the right - other students for sure already there - but Professor McGonagall brought the students first graders to an empty restroom outside the hall. They clustered together, standing closer together than usual, looked around anxiously.

"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 you can while you are waiting."

Her eyes lingered for a moment on Neville's cloak, which was fastened under his left ear, and on Ron's smudged nose. Harry nervously tried to flatten his hair.

"I'll be back when we're ready to accept you," said Professor McGonagall. "Wait here and be quiet."

She left the room.

Harry still trying hard flatten his messy hair, Mal noticed that after she and Hermione chatted. She step forward to Harry; he gasped as grinning and his circular glasses almost slipped from his nose.

"Want me to help you with your hair?" she said, Harry wideded his eyes felt his face burn furiously. "Grandpa Perseus has same problem with messy hair, I used to help him flatten his hair when in vacations."

Harry nodded eagerly, lowered his head helped Mal smoothed his hair with his fingers combing each strand of messy black hair. The little girl's slender fingers lightly massaged his scalp making him relax didn't realized he was smiling to himself dreamily while looked down at her.

"Voila!" she said, smiling bright to Harry.

"Thank you, Mal." Harry grinning at her but suddenly he swallowed hard. "How do they get us into houses?"

"With some sort of test, I suppose. Fred said the process it hurts a lot, but I think he's just kidding." before Mal answered, Ron told him.

"Really?" Mal rised her eyebrows. "Zeus also said that we have to count green beans two thousand times in order to enter the dorms here, but like you said he was kidding. "