Star of Gryffindor - Book 1

Chapter 4 - A Talking Hat

I stepped out of the train and into the cold night air. I couldn't see over the crowd of older students, and focused on trying to not lose Wren and Albus.

"Firs' years! Firs' years over here!" a gruff voice called. The three of us pushed our way through the crowd of students to the source of the voice.

The voice belonged to the biggest man I've ever seen. His beard and hair looked shaggy and covered most of his face, but he was smiling cheerfully at us.

Albus bounced up and down, waving. "Hagrid!"

"All right there, Albus?"

Albus nodded, then turned to Wren and me. "That's Hagrid. He's really nice." And really intimidating, I added in my head, staring up at the man who was five times my size.

"C'mon, follow me!" Hagrid called, leading us off the platform and down a steep, narrow path. I glanced around at my classmates as we stumbled through the dark, lit only by Hagrid's lantern.

I spotted the Malfoy twins ahead of me, and a bobbing head of ginger hair to my right that I recognized as Rose Weasley. Arthur Longbottom caught me looking at him and waved. The two dark-skinned girls next to me looked identical, so I guessed that the Malfoys weren't the only twins. Another blonde girl right behind smiled at me with a kind of dreamy look. I wondered if she was completely sane.

"Yeh'll get yer firs' sight o' Hogwarts in a sec," Hagrid told us. "Jus' round this bend here."

Everyone gasped as we rounded the bend. A huge black lake stretched before us, and perched atop a hill at the other side was a huge castle. It had many turrets and towers, and many of the windows were lit up. I stared in awe for a full minute before Wren dragged me over to one of the boats.

Albus, Wren and I clambered into one of the boats followed by the dreamy blonde girl.

"Everyone in?" Hagrid shouted. "Right then - FORWARD!" The boats took off.

At once, the fleet of boats sped off over the lake. Everyone silently stared at the rapidly-nearing castle.

The boats rode through a curtain of ivy, and we were carried along a dark tunnel. Finally, we reached a dock, and we all climbed onto the shore. Hagrid led us up a passageway and out into the open air. We followed him up a flight of steps to the huge front doors.

Waiting in the entrance hall was Professor Longbottom. He smiled at us as Hagrid said, "Firs' years, Professor Longbottom."

"Thank you, Hagrid. First years, this way!"

Professor Longbottom led us through the entrance hall. I could hear hundreds of voices from a doorway that we passed, so the rest of school was already there. Professor Longbottom showed us into a small room off the hall.

"Welcome to Hogwarts!" he said warmly. "The start-of-term banquet will begin in a few minutes, but before you take your seats, you'll be sorted into your Houses. The Sorting is very important because while you're here at Hogwarts, your House will be your honorary family. You'll have your classes with your House, sleep in your House dormitory, and spend your free time in your House common room.

"The four Houses are Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. Each House has its own noble history and each had produced outstanding witches and wizards."

Albus whispered, "All the 'outstanding' witches and wizards from Slytherin are dark wizards."

"That is not true," hissed a girl behind us. I whipped my head around to see Ciara Malfoy glaring at us. Quickly, I turned back toward the professor.