Harry Potter ~ Year 1 and the Alchemist Stone

Chapter 7 - The Sorting Ceremony

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

"The first years, Professor McGonagall," Hagrid said.

"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 and a magnificent marble staircase facing them led to the upper floors. They followed Professor McGonagall across the flagged stone floor. Harry could hear the drone of hundreds of voices from a doorway to the right, the rest of the school must already be here, but Professor McGonagall showed the first years into a small, empty chamber off the hall. They crowded in, standing rather closer together than they would usually have done, peering about nervously.

"Welcome to Hogwarts," Professor McGonagall said. "The start-of-year banquet will begin shortly but before you can take your seats in the Great Hall, you will be sorted into your houses. Now while you are here, your houses will be like your family. You will have classes with the rest of your house, sleep in your house dormitory, and spend your free time in your house common room. There a four houses and they are called by Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. Each of them has their own noble history and has each produced outstanding witches and wizards, some of whom you will learn about in your classes. While you are at Hogwarts, your triumphs will earn you house points while breaking any rules will lose you house points. There are hourglasses in the Great Hall that show the current points and at the end of the year, whoever has the most points is awarded the House Cup, a great honour. I hope each of you will be a credit to whichever house becomes yours. The Sorting Ceremony will begin momentarily in front of the rest of the school body, so I suggest you smarten yourselves up as much as you can while you are waiting. I shall return when we are ready for you so please wait here quietly."

Her eyes lingered on Neville's rumbled cloak, Ron's smudged nose, and Harry's wild hair, before turning and leaving the chamber.

"How exactly do they sort us into houses?" Harry asked his two new friends. Wasn't that a thought, he had friends!

"Some sort of test, I think," Ron said. "Fred said it hurts a lot, but I think he was joking."

"Father wanted to tell me but mother thought it would be better if I found out myself," Draco added.

Harry's heart gave a horrible jolt. A test? In front of the whole school? Already? But he didn't know any magic yet, what on earth would he have to do? He hadn't expected something like this the moment they arrived, He looked around anxiously and saw that everyone else looked terrified as well. No one was talking much except Hermione Granger, the girl from the train, who was whispering very fast to herself about all the spells she learned and wondering which one she would need. Harry tried to tune her out. He'd never been so nervous, not even when he'd had to take a school report home to the Dursleys saying that he had done better than Dudley. They had not been happy about that. He kept his eyes fixed on the door. Any second now, Professor McGonagall would come back and lead him to his doom.

Then something happened that made him jump about a foot in the air and several people behind him scream.

"What the-?"

Everyone around him gasped. Twenty, real ghosts had just come floating through the back wall. Pearly white and slightly transparent, they glided across the room talking to each other and hardly glancing at the first years. Two of them seemed to be arguing. A fat little monk was saying "Forgive and forget, I say. We ought to give him a second chance-"