They followed Professor McGonagall back to the first years. She let them find their friends before issuing orders.
Now, form a line," Professor McGonagall told the first years, "and follow me."
Heart going beserk with anxiety, Petunia got into line between Ron and December. They walked out of the chamber, back across the hall, and through a pair of double doors into the Great Hall.
Petunia gasped along with many others as they entered the room. The long room was lit with hundreds of candles which floated over four long tables where the rest of the students were seated. These tables were laid with shining golden plates and goblets. At the top of the hall was another long table where the teachers were sitting. Professor McGonagall led the first years up to it, so that they came to a halt in a line facing the older students. The hundreds of faces staring at them made Petunia feel quisy. Dotted here and there among the students were what looked like ghosts made of mists. Petunia looked up at the ceiling and gasped again, seeing a velvety black ceiling dotted with stars exactly like the sky outside.
The bushy haired girl whispered, "Its bewitched to look like the sky outside. I read about it in Hogwarts, A History."
Petunia looked down again as she heard a small thunk to see Professor McGonagall place a four-legged stool in front of them. On top of the stool she put a pointed wizard's hat. This hat was patched and frayed and very dusty.
After she noticed that everyone in the hall was now staring at the hat, she stared at it, too. For a while, there was complete silence. Then the hat began to sing through a rip in it.
"Oh, you may not think I'm pretty,
But don't judge on what you see,
I'll eat myself if you can find
A smarter hat than me.
You can keep your bowlers black,
Your top hats sleek and tall,
For I'm the Hogwarts Sorting Hat
And I can cap them all.
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 Hufflepuffis 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 folk 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
For I'm a Thinking Cap!"
The hall burst into applause as the hat finished its song. It bowed to each of the four tables and then became quite still again.
"So we've just got to try on the hat!" Petunia overheard Ron whisper. "I'll kill Fred, he was going on about wrestling a troll." Petunia had to quite a giggle, she thought Ron was smart enough to realise that was an obvious joke.
Professor McGonagall now stepped forward holding a long roll of parchment.
"When I call your name, you will put on the hat and sit on the stool to be sorted," she said before yelling out a name.
Petunia quickly became bored of the sorting. All that happened was the person's name would get yelled out, they would sit on the stool with the hat on, the hat would shout out a house and that person would go join the table that was screaming. The only part she enjoyed was when the toad kid (Neville Longbottom) accidentally kept the hat on as he ran off towards Gryffindor and had to run back with his face blazing.
"Potter, Harry."
Petunia focused on the sorting again, watching as her..brother(?) made his way up to the stool and sat. Whispers broke out until he put the hat on and then the hall became eerily quite. Everybody stared with baited breath, wondering what house he'd join.
