Maggie

Chapter 10 - The Sorting

The bow of the boat bumped gently into the bank of the lake. A shiver ran down my spine which had nothing whatsoever to do with the cold as I stepped carefully out of the boat. I held my hand out to help the girl with the curls who was last left in the boat, lifting her by the elbow. She offered me a dazzling smile, which made me flush a deep scarlet.

    We made our procession up the sloping bank of the lake and along the passage which snaked us up to the school. My breath hitched in my throat. We had reached the castle. I watched as Hagrid raised an enormous fist and knocked on the castle door.

    It opened at once. In front of us stood a tall, handsome man who was extremely well dressed. I noticed that, despite his immediate impression of being well dressed, his fingernails were extremely dirty and there was mud around the bottom of his robes. A herbologist? Probably.

    "'Ere you go, Professor Longbottom. The firs' years."

    Longbottom? I was sure I'd heard that name before.

    The Professor led us through the doors and into a capacious entrance hall. On the right, four hourglasses stood taller than Hagrid and each full of hundreds of different gemstones: rubies, sapphires, citrine and emeralds. Directly in front of us was a colossal, sweeping marble staircase leading up to the rest of the castle. It was so big that I couldn't see the landing. Professor Longbottom lead us past all this and beyond another set of doors, quite as large as the front doors. There was a considerable volume of excitable chatter coming from within, the sounds of hundreds of students greeting one another after the summer break.

    We trudged past, drawing closer together as a group. The professor opened a narrower door and held it open for us. The room beyond was small and slightly claustrophobic. It was dark, only lit by a few torches in brackets, and the ceiling was very high. It felt a little as though we were at the bottom of a well.

    "I'll be back for you all very shortly. Let me just inform the Headmistress that you've arrived and then I'll bring you through for the sorting." He glanced around at our pale and nervous faces, grinning. "Don't be nervous. There's nothing at all to worry about," and he closed the door on us, throwing us all into even deeper darkness.

    "Well, THAT was reassuring." A bubbly laugh rang through the room. I looked around. It was the girl I had helped out of the boat. She was smiling again. It lit her face up and she seemed to radiate warmth. The whole room was entirely at her command.

    "I know, right. Like, Dude. I wast worried before but now I feel like I should be." The new speaker was a petite girl with a boyish figure, long and incredibly feathery, fawn-coloured hair. She had very wide and open eyes and I noticed her eyebrows seemed permanently raised, as though everything she saw surprised her. The first girl laughed her vivacious laugh again.

    The door to the room flew open. Professor Longbottom was back.

    "Alright, guys. Were all ready for you now. If you would follow me." We did. My legs were extremely heavy and I stumbled on my robes. We reached the large set of doors we had walked past earlier and hesitated. Professor Longbottom turned, flashing us an encouraging smile, before throwing them wide open.

    I first registered hundreds of faces staring right at us. I was grateful I was in the middle of the group, and quite near the back. It meant I was out of everyone's direct line of sight. Still. I glanced away from the stares, up at the ceiling. My jaw dropped.

    The roof above us was glittering with stars and dust from the milky way. There may as well have been no roof at all - it was as though we could see right through it. I gasped at the sight. The moon shone brighter than I had ever seen it, even on my camping trips with my parents. Never before had I seen the sky so clearly.