Damaged (A Marauders Era story)

First Year, Part 2 (The Sorting Hat)

As soon as McGonagall left, everyone started talking.

I remained silent and waited for her to come back. The blond haired girl came over to me and asked in a bored-sounding voice,

"So, where do you want to be sorted?"

I was too surprised that she had spoken to me to answer for a moment.

"Oh, I don't know," I said. "maybe Hufflepuff. What about you?" I asked her.

She shrugged. "Anywhere but Gryffindor. Gryffindors are arrogant, reckless, and obnoxious Gits."

"Oh," I said, a little surprised.
I wondered how she knew what Gryffindors were like, considering she was a First Year student, like me, and hadn't even met any Gryffindors that I was aware of anyway. Maybe she knew someone back home who was a Gryffindor.

Just then, there was a shrieking sound that made all the children jump.

"What was that?" I asked, a little scared.

Just then, ghostly figures flew through the room.

"They're harmless," the blond girl said in a bored sounding tone. Upon seeing my frightened expression, she smiled slightly. It was the first time I had seen her smile, and it transformed her face.Her eyes lit up when she smiled, and her lips that were naturally turned down curved upwards. She should smile more often, I thought to myself.
She had

The ghosts that had swooped down around us started talking to some of the students, and I felt slightly embarrassed at being frightened of them.

The door opened, and Professor McGonagall came back in.

"Children, follow me now to the Great Hall, where you will all be sorted," she said, and she led us all into the Great Hall. It was a huge room with hundreds of Candles that hung in midair, and the ceiling looked like the sky outside with a million stars shining brightly and dark clouds behind them.

I wondered if it there was no ceiling up there, or if it some kind of magic illusion.

The floors were lined with long wooden tables, where children of all ages sat and watched us as McGonagall led us to a stool with a pointy hat placed on it at the end of the room.
There was another long table where the professors all sat and watched us.
I noticed some of the students at the tables giving me strange looks. Some of them, especially the younger ones looked frightened upon seeing me and whispered behind their hands.
I looked down at the floor, pretending not to notice their stares.

McGonagall arrived at the stool with the hat placed upon it and stopped, turning to us.
"Wait here," she said, and she turned back to the hat.

All of a sudden, a rip near the brim of the hat opened wide like a mouth and started to sing.

"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 folks 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!"