Alice Barnes

The Sorting

"Alrigh' yer firs' view o' Hogwarts is comin' up in a moment,"

As soon as Hagrid had said that, a humongous castle appeared.

Alice had ever seen anything as beautiful. Everything about the castle was just perfect. The lights, the windows, the stone, everything about it was perfect and Alice knew even with every ounce of creativity she had, she would never have been able to come up with something like this.

The boats continued to slowly float towards Hogwarts. Alice, Harry, Hermione, and Ron getting more excited by the second. A slow fifteen minutes passed and all of the boats were in a cave that was made into a dock.

They were exiting the boats when Alice heard Hagrid say.

"Is this your toad, Neville?" he asked.

"Trevor!" yelled a boy. Who apparently was named Neville. Alice thought he looked like a nice enough person. He grabbed the frog and all the first years started to walk up to the castle. When they had finally gotten to the great front doors, they were opened by a familiar looking witch. It was Professor McGonagall!

"Hello. I am Professor Minerva McGonagall. Now, please follow me into the Entrance Hall." she lead them into what was supposed to be called the Entrance Hall and she lead them into a room on the right.

"Welcome to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry," she said," the start-of-term banquet will begin shortly, but before you take your seats in the Great Hall, you will be sorted into your Houses. The Sorting is a very important ceremony because, while you are here, your House will be something like your family in Hogwarts. You will have classes with the rest of your House, sleep in your House dormitory, and spend free time in your House common room. The four Houses are called Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. Each House has its own noble history and each has produced outstanding witches and wizards. While you are at Hogwarts, your triumphs will earn your House points, while any rule breaking will lose House points. At the end of each year, the House with the most points is awarded the House Cup, a great honor. I hope each of you will be a credit to whichever House becomes yours. The Sorting Ceremony will take place in a few moments in front of the rest of the school. I suppose you all smarten yourselves up as much as you can while you are waiting." spoke the Professor.

Alice almost fell at what she had said. A test that Alice had no idea what the contents were. In front of every person in Hogwarts. She wouldn't have even been in Hogwarts for an hour and she would already have made a fool of herself.

Maybe Fred and George were right, Alice thought, No. They just said that to scare me.

At that exact moment, Alice heard Ron saying the same thing, although he didn't sound so sure about the being tricked part.

On the other side of the room, Hermione looked deep in thought about something. Of course, Alice had to go see what that thing was.

"Hey, 'Mione." Alice said, walking up to her friend.

"Hi, Alice." spoke Hermione, nervously," Please tell me you are at least a little nervous about the Sorting."

Alice didn't want to tell her friend that she was about to pass out from fear, or crumple into a pile of brown hair and black robes just so she wouldn't have to already embarrass herself.

"Yeah, very nervous." Alice replied. A moment later, the Professor had once again come though the doors.

"Now form a line, and follow me." the Professor stated. All the first years quickly formed a line behind her, none of them wanting to get a punishment this early in the year.