The One

Chapter 3.

Sorting and Celebrating

"So which house is yours?" asked Fred.

"House?" I questioned.

"Yeah. You know. What house do you hope for," George said.

"I really don't know."

"Oh," they said together.

"Well, Slytherins are the bad, dark, pureblood wizards; Hufflepuffs are some times idiots, and- what?" asked Fred defensively.

A girl wearing a badge with a badger and a yellow tie walked by as he told me this, and she didn't look very happy with him.

"Anyways," he continued. "Ravenclaw is for the brains, and lastly Gryffindor. That's like, the house to be in. It's where all the cool people are, although I guess Ravenclaw wouldn't be too too bad."

"Well, I guess I'm rooting for Gryffindor!"

By now the carriages were just stopping at the school. The twins helped me with my bags. When my and Fred's hands accidentally brush against each other's, he didn't seem too bothered by it. I was blushing though.

"Awesome," George said. "I'm also guessing that you should wait with the first years to be sorted. We have to go sit with the rest of the house, so we'll see you later!"

"Okay. Bye!" I said.

I left my luggage with the rest of the others' stuff, and stood waiting for Professor McGonagall to announce that they were ready for us. While we were waiting, a small, red headed girl approached me.

"Hi! I'm Ginny Weasley," she said.

"Oh!" I exclaimed. "So you're related to Fred and George. They didn't tell me that they had a sister, too!"

"Did they tell you that they also have three older brothers? One in Romania, he's studying dragons; one who works in Gringotts, that's our bank; and one whose still in school?"

My mouth dropped open. "You're the youngest of seven? They never mentioned it! I'm an only child. Wow."

"Yeah. You new here?"

"Yep. I'm a transfer student from Beauxbatons."

As soon as I finished talking, Professor McGonagall came back. She said, "We're ready for you. Please stay in line and follow me."

I was eighth to last being sorted. Apparently the Sorting Hat was the one to tell you where to go. Now, I was starting to really feel nervous.

What if I end up with those Slytherins, I thought. Fred and George would probably decide that I'm not friend worthy.

"Ablert, Cathy!"

Whew. Okay. Stay calm.

I nervously walked up and made my way over to the stool. I could see out of the corner of my eye that McGonagall was placing the Sorting Hat on my head.

Ah, a small voice in the back of my head whispered to me. Well, I can see a lot of potential, yes yes. And my, what a taste for trouble, too, eh? Not out of cruelty though, out of fun. You are bold, independent yet still needing companions. I guess it'll be safe to put you in... "GRYFFINDOR!" The hat screamed the last word and the table on the right started clapping loudly.

I ran over to sit next to George. Once the rest of the sorting was finished, we waited. George had told me that Professor Dumbledore usually makes a start of term speech.

"Another year! To our new hands, welcome, to our old hands, welcome back! Please take note that there is to be no magic in the corridors, and that the seventh floor is closed off temporarily, due to the fact that we are renevating. No student is allowed out of bed after eight thirty, and the Forbidden Forest is, well, forbidden. Now I would like to introduce Professor Gilderoy Lockhart, who wil be filling the post as the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. Now, I am quite sure that all of you are hungry, so, dig in!"

When he said 'dig in', the tables were piled high with food. There was some of everything. French foods, Chinese food, pizza, anything that you could ever imagine was right there in front of you.

After dinner, the prefects, one of which happened to be Percy, the brother of the twins who was still at school. He lead us upstairs, showing us the quickest path and the trick stairs. A black haired Ravenclaw stepped in one of them and Percy had to perform a spell so that her foot wouldn't be stuck in the stair.

The staircase that we were standing on moved, and everyone jumped when it lurched us all over to the left.

He told us the password, which was 'wattlebird'. Inside, the common room was phenomenal. It was amazing. With a couch and a fireplace, it looked extremely cozy.

Since I was taking the tour with the first years, Fred, George, and another boy named Lee were already there.

"Hey, guys!" I shouted over the noise in the common room.

"Hey," they all shouted back.

"Hey Cathy," Fred said. I liked it when he said my name. He put emphasis into the 'a'.

"What?"

"Did you hear about what my brother Ron and Harry Potter did?"

"No! what happened," just as I finished saying this, Harry and Ron came over. I introduced myself to them and them to me, and when I shook both of their hands, there faces went red. Out of the corner of my eye I could see Fred scowling at them, but I wasn't sure why. He was already dating Um, wasn't he?

"I'm Cathy, by the way," I said to Lee, holding out my hand. "Lee," was all he said.

"I'm gonna put my stuff upstairs."

I stayed upstairs for a while reading, after I had showered and washed my hair. I liked the girls dorms. They already felt like home to me. Even though I had only been there for a few hours.

At around ten o'clock, I tried to sleep. I just couldn't though. Then at eleven forty- five, I decided to go sit by the fire for a little. Maybe that would make me relax a little more.

When I saw who was still down there, I almost went back upstairs to bed, but then I decided against it. It was Fred. I went and sat in the armchair next to the couch, though it wasn't that warm.

"Oh hi," he said when he noticed me.

"Hi. What are you doing still down here?" I asked.

"Could ask the same," he replied, which wasn't really a full answer.

"I couldn't sleep," I said a after a few seconds.

"Same."

"It's really warm over here, so you can sit by me if you like."

"Oh," I said. My mouth suddenly went dry. I was about to say no, and head back to my dormitory, but instead I found myself saying, "Okay then."

I went and sat next to him and we huddled under the blanket that I had brought down with me. Eventually we fell asleep; my head on Fred's chest and his head resting on top of mine.