My Tale {Book One in the Hermione Granger Series}

Chapter Seven

The door swung open at once. A tall, black-haired women in emerald-green robes stood there. "The firs' years, Professor McGonagall," the man said. She must be one of my new teachers, I thought.

"Thank you, Hagrid. I will take them from here." Thats a weird name, Hagrid. Usually people from my old academy were called simple names such as Tom, Samuel, and Dylan. Professor McGonagall pulled the door wide. The entrance hall was about twice the size of the lecture theatre of my old academy. The stone walls were lined with flaming torches, the ceiling was too high to make out, and a magnificent marble staircase in front.of us led to the upper floors.

We followed Professor McGonagall across the flagged stone floor. I could hear the drone of hundreds of voices from a doorway to the right. The rest of the school must already be here, I thought. However, instead of heading through the huge doors, Professor McGonagall showed the us into a small, empty chamber off the hall. We crowded in, standing rather closer together than we probably would usually do, peering about nervously.

"Welcome to Hogwarts," said Professor McGonagall. "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 within 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 the 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" she continued matter-of-factly. I hope I get into Gryffindor or Ravenclaw, I thought.

"The Sorting Ceremony will take place in a few minutes in front of the rest of the school. I suggest you all smarten yourselves up as much as you can while you are waiting" she finished.

Her eyes lingered for a moment on Neville's cloak, which was fastened under his left ear, and on Ron's smudged nose. I saw Harry trying to flatten his hair.

"I shall return when we are ready for you, please wait quietly" Professor McGonagall said before leaving the chamber.

"How exactly do they sort us into Houses?" I heard Harry ask Ron.

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

I looked around and saw that everyone else looked terrified. No one was talking much except me, as I was whispering about the spells I had learnt, and wondering which ones I would need.

Then something happened that made everyone around me jump about a foot in the air and several people behind me screamed. What the...?, I thought before turning around. I gasped, as well as everyone around me. About twenty ghosts - at least thats what I thought they were - had just fly through the wall. Pearly-white and slightly transparent, they glided across the room talking to one another and hardly glancing at the first years. They seemed to be arguing. What looked like a fat little monk was saying: "Forgive and forget, I say, we ought to give him a second chance -"

"My dear Friar, haven't we given Peeves all the chances he deserves? He gives us all a bad name and you know, he's not really even a ghost - I say, what are you all doing here?"

A ghost wearing a ruff and tights had suddenly noticed us.

"My, what are you all doing here?" he asked. The ghost could talk?, basked myself in shock. Everyone must've been in shock as well, as nobody answered.

"New students!" said the Fat Friar, smiling around at them. "About to be Sorted, I suppose?" A few people nodded mutely. "Hope to see you in Hufflepuff!" she said. "My old House, you know."

"Move along now," said a sharp voice. "The Sorting Ceremony's about to start."

Professor McGonagall had returned. One by one, the ghosts floated away through the opposite wall.

"Now, form a line," Professor McGonagall said to us, "and follow me."

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Dedicated to RebeccaDillard3