Demigod

Hats aren't supposed to sing

I was sitting on the train next to Luna and attempting to read the magazine she held upside down. It wasn't as difficult as i expected, as the news column was  actually the wrong way round so the reader had to first turn it upside down to actually understand the story. 

After a few minutes, she got up and told me she was going to the bathroom to change into her robes. I nodded and leant back against the seat, attempting, unsuccessfully to relax and or doze off. I tryed blanking my mind which had worked on several previous occasions but was proving inefficient right now, partly due to the fact that there were so many thoughts buzzing through my head. I tryed to sort them into some sort of order.

What am i actually doing here?

Why the heck do people dress so weird?

Why am i feeling like I'm not supposed to be here?

After about half an hour i gave up. There was nothing so annoying to me now than feeling like i was some level below the others on this train, which i probably was now i think about it. I gritted my teeth and smiled through them as Luna opened the sliding door and sat down. Removing the quibbler from the seat next to her she shook it open, turned it firmly upside down and continued reading. I sat in silence. I must have dozed off because when i cracked my eyes open, Luna was shaking me and saying something intelligible right in my ear. 

" what " i muttered, completely dazed by the brightness of the lights, which must have come on midway through my sleep.

"It's time to go," she said, "and unless you want to be late for the sorting, i suggest you hurry up."

"The what?" I mumbled, pulling myself off the seat and rubbing my eyes blearily.

"The sorting," she repeated, pulling me through the door and out into the corridor. It was filled with kids of all size wearing the black robes and welling the long sticks i had seen earlier. Now that i properly noticed them, they looked rather good for poking things and would probably create quite a hazard if used unsupervised but other wise, I thought they were quite cool. As we stepped out into the night air, i immediately felt myself wake up lightly more. A sort of unintelligible bellow was now reduced to the words, 

" firs' years over 'ere, come on, firs' years over 'ere!" I followed Luna as she walked serenely towards him and stood a few feet away, pulling on her earrings, which i now noticed were radishes. Though i had never seen this unusual style, i chose to ignore it for the present. 

Once a sizable crowd had gathered around us, the giant started walking towards a massive lake, in which twenty or so boats had been moored. I climbed into one with Luna and two other people called Ginny and Colin the boat started to move by itself. I jumped and gripped the side so hard my knuckles went white. None of the others seemed even startled by this alarming event. It's not that I'm afraid of water, only that the boat moving by itself was a phenomenon that I hadn't quite come around to believing.