His Green Eyes:: Book 1 (Harry Potter love story)

Chp6: Into the castle

As soon as we reached the shore, we hoped out of the boat. We now had a closer view of the castle. "Oy, you there! Is this your toad?" said Hagrid who was checking the boat as people climbed out of them. "Trever!" cried Neville blissfully, holding out his hands. We then clambered up a passageway in the rock after Hagrid's lamp, coming out at last onto smooth, damp grass right in the shadow of the castle. We walked up a flight of stone steps and crowded around the huge Oak front door.

"Everyone here? You there, still got yer toad?" Hagrid raised his gigantic fist and knocked three times on the castle door.

The door swung open at once. Professor McGonagall. "The firs' years, Professor McGonagall," said Hagrid.

"Thank you Hagrid. I will take them from here." She pulled the door open. The entrance of the hall was very big. The stone walls were lit with flaming torches. The ceiling walls were very high and a magnificant marble staircase facing them led to the upper floors. We followed Professor McGonagall across the flagged stone floor. I could here the drone of hundreds of voices from a doorway to the right... the rest of the school must already be here! But Professor McGonagall led us into a small empty chamber and said, "Welcome to Hogwarts. The start-of-term banquet will begin shortly, but before you take your seats in the Great Hall, you will be sorted into your own 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 domitary, and spend free time in your house common room."

"The four houses are called Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. The Sorting ceremony will take place in a few minutes in from of the rest of the school. I suggest you all smarten yourselves up as much of you can while you are waiting." Her eyes lingered for a moment on Neville's clock, which was fastened under his left year, and Ron's smudged nose. Harry, besides me, nervously tried to flatten his hair while I readjusted the hairband that I wore.

"I shall return when we are ready for you." Said Professor McGonagall. "Please wait quietly."

"How exactly do they sort us into houses?" Harry asked Ron. "Some sort of test, I think. Fred says it hurts a lot, but I think he was joking." Replied Ron. "Oh no. Havn't you'll read anything?" Whispered Hermoine in an exasperated tone as she leaned over me to talk to the boys, "There is a..."

Before she could complete her sentence, something happened. Several people jumped and some screamed. "What the...?" Harry and I gasped together. About twenty ghosts had just streamed throght the back wall. Pearly white and slightly transparent, they glided across the room. They were talking to each other and hardly noticed us.

"Move along now," Said Professor McGonagall who had just returned, "The sorting Ceremony's about to start."

"Now form a line and follow me." She said. I was so nervous, I felt my heart was going to burst. I didn't know what test we had to pass in order to be sorted. Why didn't I pay attention to Hermoine before?