To be Me, Amie (Harry Potter fan-fic) Book 1 COMPLETED

The sorting

The door opened almost at once. Standing just behind it was Professor McGonagall, wearing her strictest expression. It didn't fool Amie, she knew that she was actually very kind. She smiled and waved at her, but Professor McGonagall didn't seem to notice.

"The firs' years, Professor McGonagall." said Hagrid.

"Thank you, Hagrid. I will take them from here."

She pulled the door wide open and they all poured into a huge room. The ceiling was too high to make out, there were torches on the walls, and in front of them was a big marble staircase. Amie wasn't the only one speechless by the sight. They all walked over the stone floor, past a door to the right where Amie could hear voices — probably the other students, she thought. McGonagall led them into a small empty chamber of the hall. They crowded in, standing closely together.

"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 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, Huffleuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. Each house has it's own noble history, and each has produced outstanding witches and wizards. While you are at Hogwarts, your triumphs will earn you house points, while any rulebreaking 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.

"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."

After this impressive speach Amie saw McGonagall look around them, seeming to search for flaws. Amie saw Harry patting his unruly hair nervously with his hand. Amie wasn't nervous for the sorting. Sure, she wasn't to happy about being sorted in front of everybody, but she was sure it wasn't as bad as everybody else thought it was. For one, she was sure that it wasn't dangerous - they wouldn't spring that on a bunch of eleven year olds with no experience in magic.

"I shall return when we are ready for you." McGonagall told them. "Please wait quietly."

As soon as McGonagall left Hermione started speaking to Amie about which spells she would need to be sorted. Amie told her that it was probably nothing like that, and not to worry. Suddenly she heard lots of gasps, and a few people screamed. She turned around and what she saw made her gasp too. Around twenty ghosts had just streamed through the wall. They where slightly transparent and seemed to send out a white glow. It seemed that they were arguing, and they didn't even notice Amie and the other first years. They appeared to disagree about giving someone called Peeves a second chance. Just then, the ghosts noticed the first years.

"— I say, what are you all doing here?" the one talking asked. Nobody answered him.

"New students!" another one said. "About to be sorted, I suppose?" he asked, smiling at them.

A few of them, including Amie, nodded in response.

"Hope to see you in Hufflepuff!" said the ghost. "My old house, you know." he said proudly.

"Move along now." a sharp voice, that Amie recognized to be McGonagalls, said. "The Sorting Ceremony's about to start."

All of the ghost slowly floated through the wall.

"Now, form a line —" McGonagall said. "and follow me."

They all did as they were told, and Amie followed behind Hermione into the Great hall. It was spendid in there. The roof looked like it opened up to the sky outside, thousands of candles floated over four long tables which was laden with golden plates and goblets. McGonagall led them up to the end of the room, in front of another table, where the teachers were sitting. When they stood still, facing the other students, McGonagall placed a four-legged stool in front of them, and on top of the stool she put a patched and dirty pointed wizards hat. Amie looked at it confused, but then the hat twitched and started singing. Amie caught almost nothing of what the hat was singing though, she was still so shocked that a hat could sing in the first place - it was a hat!. What she did hear from the song was that Gryffindors are brave, Hufflepuffs are loyal, Ravenclaws are clever and Slytherins are cunning. When the hat was finished everyone burst into applause and the hat bowed and became still again.