Albus Severus Potter and the Cloak of Wisdom

Chapter 3: The Sorting

The door swung open, and a tall witch in emerald-green robes stood there, examining all the students. Albus recognized her as professor McGonagall, which his father had warned him not to cross. "The firs'-years, professor." said Hagrid, and then he walked off, which made the floor creak.

McGonagall then spoke to the group. "Welcome to Hogwarts. I am professor McGonagall, your transfiguration teacher. In a few moments you can join your classmates, but you have to be sorted into a house. This is very important, as you will spend much time with your house, and in free time, you will sit in your House common room. Each house has its own ancestors, and noble history.  Once sorted, you can collect house points with triumphs, and any rule-breaking will lose you points. The houses are named: Slytherin, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Gryffindor. You wait here, while I will go and see when you can be sorted."

She trailed off inside, and Albus turned to Quinn. "Which house do you prefer?"

"I don't know. I'm Muggle-born, you see. I've tried to learn as much as I can to keep up with all the wizard families, but I don't know." Quinn answered.

Rose stared at her for a moment. "Well, we'll help you. Slytherin is for the cunning, evil people, Hufflepuff for the really nice people, and Ravenclaw for the smart, Gryffindor is for the brave and adventurous. Al and I want Gryffindor"

Quinn smiled. "Then I want Gryffindor too."

Suddenly they heard a loud cackling: "Firstieeeeeees! Hello, you firsties! How're you! HEEHAA" suddenly a boy was covered in slime. "I'm Peeves. The poltergeist, and you will be annoyed by me!" It was followed by very loud laughter. An ugly thing appeared in the air, and he threw water balloons at the crowd.

Then a loud hoarse voice bellowed: "PEEVES! GET AWAY THIS INSTANT!" a ghost appeared. "Hello. I'm the bloody baron." the voice said, and Peeves fell out of the air.

"Sorry, your bloodiness, I wanted to-"

The baron held up his left hand."Nobody cares what you wanted Peeves, get out. Now." Peeves rose up in the air and sped away. "Sorry, I'll have someone come to fix you again." The baron said, and went to the wall.

"Eughh this slime's horrible" the boy squeaked.

"Hahahaha, It matches your eyes, Bagwell!" Ervin yelled, and Albus saw that the boy felt awful.

"That's mean, Ervin!" Albus yelled, before he could stop himself.

"Excuse me, Albus? I thought we were friends?" Ervin asked, and Albus stepped forward, when he realised Ervin was more than ten inches taller than he was.

"We're not friends. I thought you were smart enough to know that." He said, and Ervin laughed.

"Do you know what I hate? People who think they're brave and cool, by standing up to me." He said, and Albus looked him in the eye.

"Well, I suppose you are trying to look cool in front of your friends, as you were the one who came to sit in our boat on your way here, as they didn't want you in it. We never wanted you in there!" he said, and he could see some pink appearing on Ervin's nose.

"Well, you were the one who's scared of the Giant Squid!" he said.

"I suggest you stop being mean to others to make yourself look better, Ervin Jones." said Albus.

Ervin nodded at him, muttering, "stupid git."

Everyone except Ervin's friend club clapped. "That was amazing Albus!" Quinn said.

"Lucky you didn't get punched Al, good job." said Rose.

Albus felt stronger than ever when they walked into the Great Hall. He walked next to Rose and Quinn, not noticing his cousins waving at him. At the far end of the hall stood a stool, with a very old looking hat, and the crowd stopped walking, and they all focused on the hat, waiting for it to do something. A rip near the brim opened, and the hat began to sing: