I hear Hagrid shouting, "Firs' years over here! Firs' years!" We make our way over to where his voice is coming from. We immediately get swarmed by a large crowd of people that have already reached him.
When everyone is gathered around him, he leads us all off to boats just large enough for six people to fit inside. Sirius, Lily, James, Peter, Remus, and I all climb inside of a boat. Lily and I each grab a paddle and begin to row to the other shore. Sirius, Remus, Peter, and James all look at us funny, as if to say What are you doing that for? We look around and show them what the other students are doing.
"Rowing without magic? That looks hard," James complains loudly. "What do you mean hard? It's easy! Just because you've known you were a wizard your whole life and actually got to use magic to do chores doesn't mean we all have," Lily snaps at him. We row the rest of the way in silence.
Upon reaching the shore, we all clamber out of the boat, feeling a bit claustrophobic. Hagrid leads all of us to the large, oak front doors to the castle and is met outside by a severe-looking woman with her hair pulled back into a tight bun. "Follow me," she says, taking us all inside.
"Stay here, please," she tells us. We hear her walk off, her footsteps echoing off the walls. When everyone is sure she has gone, they all start to chatter. Soon, the talking becomes deafening. I hope that they will be quiet.
"Hey, there's supposed to be some kind of test," James says to me. "What?!" My eyes nearly bug out of their sockets. "Oh-no-oh-no-oh-no! I can't do a single spell, let alone perform magic in front of the whole school!" I panic. Suddenly, the only thing I am thinking about is how terribly I'll do on the test.
"Why me?" I moan, covering my eyes with my hands. I hear clicking of shoes on the stone floor and look up. The woman who led us inside is back again. "Please enter the Great Hall silently. Single file, please," she tells us. Every person seems to have been rendered unspeakable by the woman's mere presence. "For all of you who do not know me, I am Professor McGonagall, your Transfiguration teacher. This way, please." She opens the door, ushering us all inside.
The Great Hall is huge, with high, arched ceilings that reflect the night sky outside. Four long tables filled with students are lined up next to each other. At the front of the room, a table is filled with adults who I assume to be teachers. The staff table is perpendicular to the students' tables, and in front of the staff table sits a rickety wooden stool, a mangy old hat filled with rips and patches perched precariously on top.
Professor McGonagall walks up to the stool and takes out a list. Before she can call names, however, a large rip near the hat's brim opens and forms a mouth. It sings a song, which at the end, everyone claps. The professor then begins to read names off the list alphabetically.
"Black, Sirius." Sirius walks up to the stool to have Professor McGonagall place the hat on his head. It slides down over his eyes, covering them. The hat shouts, "GRYFFINDOR!" The students at one of the tables clap loudly as he goes to sit with them.
"Evans, Lily." Lily slowly trudges up to the stool. After about thirty seconds of deliberation, the hat screams Gryffindor. Remus gets Gryffindor, too. It continues like this through the other students. The group thins as more and more people get sorted.
"Malfoy, Lucius." The blonde boy from Madam Malkin's walks up confidently. Before the hat can even touch his head, it calls out, "SLYTHERIN!" "Pettigrew, Peter." "GRYFFINDOR!" "Potter, James." "GRYFFINDOR!"
At last, it's my turn. The hat is placed upon my head, and I immediately hear its voice in my head. "Yes, you're quite clever. You have a thirst for knowledge, eh? You're also prepared to be brave and stand up for what's right. I see, you're also quite cunning.
"However, the bravery and cunning outweigh the other two..." Don't put me in Slytherin, anything but Slytherin, don't make me go there, I desperately think. "Hmm... Well then, if you're sure, better be... GRYFFINDOR!" The last word is shouted aloud and I hop down from the stool.
I hurry over to my friends, sitting next to Lily. "I hope they hurry up, I'm starving!" James says, eyeing the plates as if that would make food appear.
It finally did. The golden platters filled with every food imaginable. I had never seen so many of my favorite foods in one place. I pile heaping amounts of chicken and macaroni and cheese onto my plate. I never realized how hungry I was until now.
After supper, older students, called prefects, come and lead everyone to their dormitories. "The password is Pineapple water," the prefects tell us. A portrait of a rather fat lady swings open at those words, opening up to a large common room. At one side, a fireplace is crackling. Plush chairs surround it, a table at the center of it all.
At another side, there is a huge window with moonlight shining through it. A few chairs and a table sit right below it. The prefects lead us upstairs to where we will be sleeping.
The dormitory is a rather large room with four-poster beds along two walls. Against the wall of the door is where the students' trunks sit. The wall across from the door has a large window similar to that of the common room.
I walk over to my bed and flop down on it. I am exhausted. When the prefects have left, I go over to the wall and drag my dark brown trunk to my bed. It makes a scraping sound as it travels across the wooden floorboards.
Lily chooses the bed next to me. We both dig through our trunks to find pajamas. They are buried beneath countless shirts and jeans. I decide on a ratty t-shirt and sweatpants. Pulling them on, I climb into bed and yank the heavy blankets over my ears in a desperate attempt to warm them.
"I won-- wonder what's going to hap-- happen tomor-- tomorrow," Lily says through yawns. "I du-- dunno," I force out, failing to stifle my own yawn. "I'm so-- tired," she tells me. "And I don't even know why." "Maybe because it's so late, Lil," I answer her sarcastically.
Soon, neither of us can keep our eyes open and we drift off into a deep sleep.
YOU ARE READING
Stacie Redmond and the Shrieking Shack
FanfictionStacie Redmond, a muggle-born, has met a handsome yet mysterious boy, but one night every month he disappears. Where could he be going? One night, she finds out, but not in the way she would have expected. Hogwarts was supposed to be a place that...
