Miss. Minerva motioned for me to take a place in the group behind her. I took a place next to a girl with bushy brown hair. Determined to make friends I held out my hand.
"Hello! I'm Alexandra." I said, hoping it wasn't too bold.
"I'm Hermione Granger." She replied with a smile.
Just then Miss. Minerva (now Professor McGonagall) started her speach. I had heard her practicing so this was old news. Instead I looked at my fellow piers. Many of them were looking around like me, whispering to friends, or (though very few) listening to Professor McGonagall. My eyes found their way to the rude boy and Harry Potter.
"I shall return when we are ready for you," said Professor McGonagall. "Please wait quietly."
Once more I turned to the boys.
"No thanks. I'm perfectly cappable of finding friends on my own thanks." Harry finished saying. I smirked and trotted over to Hermione. We weren't friends, but she was all I got so far. She was telling another girl with red hair about the spells she had learned and which ones she would need for the test to be sorted. I giggled. A test? More like a rest, seeing as you got to sit down. Just then there was a scream. I looked up to see what had happened. About twenty ghosts had just streamed through the back 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 the first years.
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!" said the Friar. "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 told the first years, "and follow me." We all shuffled into a cramped line and entered the great hall. I heard gasped of amazment around me and the destinct voice of Hermione.
"Its bewitched to look like the sky outside. I read about it in Hogwarts, A History."
Suddenly everyone stopped walking and I ran into the person in front of me.
"Sorry." I muttered.
I quickly looked at Professor McGonagall as she silently placed a four-legged stool in front of the first years. On top of the stool she put a pointed wizard's hat. This hat was patched and frayed and extremely dirty.
For a few seconds, there was complete silence. Then the hat twitched. A rip near the brim opened wide like a mouth -- and the hat began to sing:
"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 (though I have none)
For I'm a Thinking Cap!"
The whole hall burst into applause as the hat finished its song. It bowed to each of the four tables and then became quite still again. I was determined to leave it completely up to the hat. No, I won't be the one muttering my favourite house while he's perched on my head. I want to be where I truly belong.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. "Abbott, Hannah!"
A pink-faced girl with blonde pigtails stumbled out of line, put on the hat, which fell right down over her eyes, and sat down. A moments pause --
"HUFFLEPUFF!" shouted the hat.
The table on the right cheered and clapped as Hannah went to sit down at the Hufflepuff table. I saw the ghost of the Fat Friar waving merrily at her.
"Bones, Susan!"
"HUFFLEPUFF!" shouted the hat again, and Susan scuttled off to sit next to Hannah.
"Boot, Terry!"
"RAVENCLAW!"
The table second from the left clapped this time; several Ravenclaws stood up to shake hands with Terry as he joined them.
" Brocklehurst, Mandy" went to Ravenclaw too, but "Brown, Lavender" became the first new Gryffindor, and the table on the far left exploded with cheers; I could see red headed twins catcalling.
"Bulstrode, Millicent" then became a Slytherin. Perhaps it was my imagination, after all I'd heard about Slytherin, but I thought they looked like an unpleasant lot.
"Finch-Fletchley, Justin!"
"HUFFLEPUFF!"
Sometimes, I noticed, the hat shouted out the house at once, but at others it took a little while to decide. "Finnigan, Seamus," the sandy-haired boy sat on the stool for almost a whole minute before the hat declared him a Gryffindor.
"Granger, Hermione!"
Hermione almost ran to the stool and jammed the hat eagerly on her head.
"GRYFFINDOR!" shouted the hat. Someone groaned.
A horrible thought struck me, as horrible thoughts always do when you're very nervous. What if I wasn't chosen at all? What if I just sat there with the hat over my eyes for ages, until Professor McGonagall jerked it off my head and told me to leave?
When Neville Longbottomwas called, he fell over on his way to the stool. The hat took a long time to decide with Neville. When it finally shouted, "GRYFFINDOR," Neville ran off still wearing it, and had to jog back amid gales of laughter to give it to "MacDougal, Morag."
Malfoy swaggered forward when his name was called. The hat had barely touched his head when it screamed, "SLYTHERIN!"
"McKinnon, Alexandra."
I walked up nervously. This was my moment. No one could take that away from me. Professor McGonagall nodded and placed it on my head.
"Hmmmm... A black. I suppose you want to follow dada eh?"
I don't care. Just hurry up! I thought.
"Hmmmm...I can't make my decision just yet..." The hat muttered.
"UNDECIDED!"I sat there confused for a moment, before hoping off the stool, handing her the hat and sprinting out of the room, tears leaking onto my cheeks. Dumbledore stood up but just stood there and nodded to McGonagall. There weren't many people left now. "Moon" "Nott" "Parkinson" then a pair of twin girls, "Patil" and "Patil" then "Perks, Sally-Anne" and then, at last -- "Potter, Harry!"
As Harry stepped forward, whispers suddenly broke out like little hissing fires all over the hall.
"Potter, did she say?"
"The Harry Potter?"
I just sat there tucked behind the door when someone came to join me.
Professor Snape came and gently picked me up and brought me to his office. I started nodding off in his arms on the way. I felt him wipe away some of my tears, lay me on a cushy chair, and tuck a blanket over me. I didn't hear any footsteps though. Suddenly I felt him plant a kiss on my forehead. He sat down beside me and stroked my hair until I fell asleep.
****************
Hey i know i haven't written in for evs but yah. i will try too write more now. Some of the text is copied directly from the book so im not making it up.
P.S. Snape is not falling in love with Alex. That's wierd.
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Alexandra Black
FanfictionThis is HP fan fiction because Harry potter is my life!!! Anyway, Alexandra black is Regulas blacks daughter. She was born the year her dad died and her mother died at her birth. She has lived in dumbledores office ever since her father died. But fi...