Hyperesthesia || Harry Potter

03 | The Sorting Ceremony

A voice echoed through the train: "We will be reaching Hogwarts in five minutes' time. Please leave your luggage on the train, it will be taken to the school separately."

Pepper's stomach lurched with excitement. She scratched Momo behind the ears before letting her settle across the back of her neck and shoulders, hiding under Pepper's wild hair, and joined the crowd thronging the corridor.

The train slowed right down and finally stopped. People pushed their way toward the door and out on to a tiny, dark platform, and Pepper located Harry and Ron once again.

She shivered in the cold night air, Momo being her only source of warmth. Then a lamp came bobbing over the heads of the students, and Pepper heard an unfamiliar voice: "Firs' years! Firs' years over here! Alright there, Harry?" A giant's big hairy face beamed over the sea of heads. "C'mon, follow me — any more firs' years? Mind yer step, now! Firs' years follow me!"

It was that giant from Diagon Alley. And then it clicked within Pepper's mind — Harry was that boy whose eyes she was mesmerized with through those circle glasses.

No wonder he seemed similar. It had only been a month, but a lot had happened since her trip to Diagon Alley, making her barely remember his appearance.

Slipping and stumbling, the students followed the giant, Hagrid, down what seemed to be a steep, narrow path. It was so dark on either side of them that Pepper thought there must be thick trees there. Nobody spoke much. Neville, the boy who kept losing his toad, sniffed once or twice.

"Yeh'll get yer firs' sight o' Hogwarts in a sec," Hagrid called over his shoulder, "jus' round this bend here."

There was a loud "Oooooh!"

The narrow path had opened suddenly onto the edge of a great black lake. Perched atop a high mountain on the other side, its windows sparkling in the starry sky, was a vast castle with many turrets and towers. Pepper was amazed by the giant structure, in awe of all that surrounded it.

"No more'n four to a boat!" Hagrid called, pointing to a fleet of little boats sitting in the water by the shore. Pepper was followed into a boat by Harry, Ron, and Hermione Granger.

"Everyone in?" shouted Hagrid, who had a boat to himself. "Right then — FORWARD!"

And the fleet of little boats moved off all at once, gliding across the lake, which was as smooth as glass. Everyone was silent, staring up at the great castle overhead. It towered over them as they sailed nearer and nearer to the cliff on which it stood.

"Heads down!" yelled Hagrid as the first boats reached the cliff; they all bent their heads and the little boats carried them through a curtain of ivy that hid a wide opening in the cliff face.

They were carried along a dark tunnel, which seemed to be taking them right underneath the castle, until they reached a kind of underground harbor, where they clambered out onto rocks and pebbles.

"Oy, you there! Is this your toad?" said Hagrid, who was checking the boats as people climbed out of them.

"Trevor!" cried Neville blissfully, holding out his hands.

Then they clambered up a passageway in the rock after Hagrid's lamp, coming out at last onto smooth, damp grass right in the shadow of the castle. They walked up a flight of stone steps and crowded around the huge, oak front door.

Pepper shivered again, but she couldn't tell if it was from the cold this time or the excitement of finally being let inside to the school she'd been thinking about since she had learned about it.

"Everyone here? You there, still got yer toad?" Hagrid raised a gigantic fist and knocked three times on the castle door.

The door swung open at once. A tall, black-haired witch in emerald-green robes stood there. She had a very stern face and Pepper's first thought was of that witch that visited her house months prior.