Ch 4 - Sorting

As the train came to a halt, older students lined the corridor of the train. Celine got off the train and looked around at the Hogsmeade train station. Older students were talking with their friends and were walking towards the carriages. Suddenly a booming voice out, "FIRS' YEARS, FIRS' YEARS THIS WAY!!!!"

Celine looked at the thing yelling it out. Was it a person? It looked like a giant moving boulder. Shaking her head, she made her way to the talking boulder. Upon seeing him closer, she a very giant man with kind eyes. He turned and saw Celine looking at him curiously. " hello there, the name's Rubeus Hagrid, pleasure to meet you." Hagrid gave her a kind smile behind his giant bush of a beard.

"Hey, Celine!" Alex said as George, him, and Fred caught up with her. "Woah! He's huge! Awesome, nice to meet you! Alex Terranova at your service." Hagrid chuckled at Alex's reaction. Fred and George were gawking at Hagrid with aw.

Hagrid led all the first years to boats and bellowed out, "NO MORE THAN FOUR TO A BOAT!" Alex, George, and Fred got on a boat and just as Celine was about to climb in Fred afford her a hand saying snootily, "M'lady." Celine raised one eyebrow while George rolled his eyes and Alex laughed his gut out. Celine gave him her hand nonetheless. As soon as Celine sat down the boats jerked forward with Hagrid leading. The boys kept joking around and splashing water at each other. The water kept completely missing Celine for some odd reason. As the boats turned a corner, Hogwarts came into view.

It was magnificent, with tall and looming towers. There seemed to be hundreds of windows around the castle. Celine let her poker face drop as soon as her eyes landed on the castle that would be her home for the next few months. A few seconds later her face turned back the seemingly stoned poker face, hoping no one noticed as she sat up straighter.

The boats made a stop at the bottom of some stairs and everyone got out. Going up the stairs they met with a giant pair of double doors. The doors reached from the floor to the ceiling. The doors opened with a creak as a stern witch in emerald-green robes stepped out. Her hair was in a tight bun and her eyes seemed to cut into your very soul.

" 'ere you go, Professor McGonagall!" Hagrid said cheerfully at 'Professor McGonagall'.

"Thank you, Hagrid. I will take them from here." She led them through the corridors. The halls themselves were high and the stone walls were lit up with flaming torches. The professor led them to a room that led to the Great Hall. She started talking and some of the students gave her their undivided attention, "Welcome to Hogwarts. The start of term banquet will begin shortly..." At the end of her long lecture, she left them to prepare for the sorting.

"Blimey, that was one boring speech," Fred yawned and stretched acting like he was about to fall asleep.

A dark-skinned boy with dreadlocks nodded in agreement," Tell me about it, I'm hungry." A few students chuckled at the comment. The students were quiet and a few were shuffling around just waiting. Celine saw that many of them were nervous and some gripped their robes tightly as if they were awaiting execution. But Celine knew better, never show fear or cowardice. It will be the death of you if you did.

After what seemed like forever to Alex, George, and Fred, McGonagall appeared, ushering them inside. "Now form a line, and follow me." Upon entering hundreds of eyes were on the first years that had just entered. McGonagall placed a stool in front of everyone, and then a dusty grimy hat on the stool. Everyone just stared at it and suddenly a rip appeared on the hat and it began singing.

"Talking hat, that's... new," Alex muttered quietly under his breath. As the song finished the hall burst into applause. McGonagall began calling the first years names, and slowly most of the were sorted.

"Terranova, Alexandre." Not a moment later that the hat touched his head it bellowed out, "GRYFFINDOR!!" The hall burst into applause. Then it was Celine's turn.

"Terranova, Celine." She put on a straight face and sat down. It took a while for the hat to decide for her, but only Celine and the Sorting hat would ever know what their conversation was about and why it took so long. About two minutes later the Hat called out, "RAVENCLAW!!!" The hall was once more filled with applause. Celine got off the stool and handed bak the hat to Professor McGonagall before making her way to Ravenclaw's table. Alex looked at her with a sad but proud smile. It would be the first time that they would be so far apart in a while. Celine simply sent him a small smile reassuring him. The Weasly twins were sorted last but made quite a commotion. When Fred was called George came up got into Gryffindor. When George was called, he got up from the Gryffindor table and went back to the hat. He then said that he forgot who was who. In the end, both of them were sorted in the same house.

Celine didn't mind being alone, it gave her more time to think and work on her potions. After the feast ended, the Ravenclaws were lead up a spiral staircase and met with a simple wooden door with a bronze eagle knocker. The Ravenclaw prefects explained hat we had to answer a question to enter the Ravenclaw common room. One went up to the knocker and knocked. A whimsical voice came out, "Journey without it and you'll never prevail but if you have too much of it you'll surely fail."

The prefects wanted one of the first years to answer it so they waited. Celine walked up to it and said with a calm voice, "Courage."

"Correct," the eagle said and the door swung open. Celine stepped in and was immediately in awe. The Ravenclaw common room was a wide, circular room. Graceful arched windows punctuated the walls, which were hung with blue and bronze silks. The ceiling was domed and painted with stars, which were echoed in the midnight-blue carpet. There were tables, chairs, and bookcases, and in a niche opposite the door stood a tall statue of white marble.

"Welcome to the Ravenclaw common room. Boy's dorms are on your left, the girl's on your right. Breakfast is from six to eight and announcements, flyers, and recruitment notices for clubs are posted on the bulletin board." One of the prefects pointing to two arched doorways showing a spiraling staircase in both. Celine made her way to her dorm and she saw she only had to share her dorm with two other girls. The room had three full-size beds with curtains for privacy and a few empty bookshelves. They also had three desks assigned to each of them. Celine saw Lune curled up on her bed near the footboard, and Delora was on her bird stand sleeping. Celine quickly changed and put her wand on her bedside table. She quickly crawled under her covers and slowly she felt sleep's hands dragging her deeper and deeper. Silence slowly filled the castle, with the occasional hoots from the owlery. In the middle of the night, Celine could feel Lune curling next to her head near on the free pillow.