Falling for the Boy Who Lived (philosephers stone+ Harry Hermione fanfic)

Chapter 5- To Hogwarts and the Sorting

As I walk down the station in the front of the large group eager to see the school, I get a good look at who's leading us in a gruff loud voice. The man was huge! He's atleast twice the height of myself and four times the width of a fully grown man! As I gape at him he yells out, "Firs' years! Firs' years over hear! All right there, Harry?" This man knew Harry! I look back at him to see him beaming over the mass of first years. "C'mon, follow me - any more firs' years? Mind yer step, now! Firs' years follow me!" slipping and sliding down the steep narrow path we follow the man. Thankfully the man is holding a lamp, it's so dark on either side. I hear someone sniffling and glance around to see who it is. As soon as I catch sight of him I rush over as fast as I can through the crowd. "Hey, Neville." I whisper. He looks over and smiles at me. Just then the man spoke out again. Yeh'll get yet firs' sight o' Hogwarts in a sec," Excitement floods me. And I can tell the others around me feel the same. "Jus' round this bend here." I am one of the first to catch sight of it as I join in the loud chorus of, "Oooooh!" The narrow path we had been on opened to a magnificent black lake. Atop the mountain on the other side a vast castle with sparkling windows on its many towers. "No more'n four to a boat!" The man called, pointing to a group of small boats at the shore. I see Harry and Ron get into a boat, and hurriedly drag Neville into the same. Just as everyone was in the man (who had a boat to himself) shouts, " Everyone in? Right then - FORWARD!" The little boats then move all at once. I was getting more excited by the second, if I hold it in much longer it might burst out. I think to myself. "Heads down!" Shouts the man. I wonder if he's a teacher, I think as I lower my head and pass through a curtain of ivy. Everyone is silent as we glide along a dark tunnel. It seems that we're being taken right under the castle, but I don't voice my thoughts. We eventually reach an underground harbor. We all climb out our boats and the rocks and pebbles. The large man who had been searching the boats then turned to Neville who shrank back beside me. "Oy, you there! Is this your toad?" Everyone looks at Neville, they were asked on the train if they'd seen a toad. "Trevor!" cried Neville happily, as he held out his hands to the man. I grin to him, and him to me. We all clamber up a passageway after the large man's lamp. We finally come out onto flat, damp grass. We walk up stone steps and crowd around the towering oak door. "Everyone here? You there still got yer toad?" He raised a gigantic fist and knocked three times on the door.

The door swung open at once. A tall black-grey haired witch in emerald green robes with an emerald green hat stood before us. She had a stern face but I swear she had a nearly undetectable smirk when her eyes pass over me. I grin, it was professor McGonagall. "The firs' years, Professor McGonagall," Said the man. The professor then turned to the man, "Thank you, Hagrid. I will take them from here." Hagrid? I think. That's an odd name. The professor opened the doors wide. The entrance hall was humongous it was larger then any house I had been in. The stone walls were lined with flaming torches. The ceiling was so high you couldn't see it properly. Leading up was a marble staircase. They followed the professor through the hall past a door where the rest of the school must be, there are many droning voices coming from it. She leads us to empty chamber off the hall. We all crowd in standing rather close together. Glancing around nervously. Welcome to Hogwarts," began McGonagall. "The start-of-term banquet will begin shortly, but before you take your seats in the great hall, you will be sorted into your houses." I know these, Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. "The sorting is a very important ceremony because, while you are here, your house will be something like your family within Hogwarts. You will have classes with the rest of your house, sleep in your house dormitory and spend free time in your house common room. The four houses are," I list them in my head. "Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. Each house has its own noble history and each has produced outstanding witches and wizards. While you are at Hogwarts, your triumphs will earn your house points, any rule breaking will lose house points. At the end of the year, the house with the most points will be awarded the house cup, a great honour. I hope each of you will be credit to whichever house becomes yours. The Sorting Ceremony will take place in a few minutes I. Front of the rest if the school. I suggest you all smarten yourselves up as much as you can while you are waiting." I see her eyes linger on Neville's cloak and Ron's smudged nose. I see Harry trying to flatten his hair nervously though I think it looks quite fine the way it is. Wait what?! I shout in my head, you can't think like that Hermione! I scold myself. Then I have another thought. In front of the whole school?! I hurriedly try to make something of my bushy hair. As everyone is frantically trying to look presentable, I whisper frantically to the girl next to me about which spells I might need. I'm terrified, what if I can't do the spell I need and I get sent home and laughed at from everyone in the hall? Suddenly people around me are screaming, and I see why and scream myself. I see Harry jump a foot in the air and stifle a giggle. Slightly opaque eggshell white ghosts had floated through the wall behind us. They were arguing. "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?" The short, tight-wearing, ruffle-necked one noticed us. "First years!" shouts a plump one the other had called 'Friar'. "About to be sorted I suppose?" I nod silently along with others. I notice the professor return though no one else does. "Hope to see you in Hufflepuff! My old house you know." Says the Friar. "Move along now," Said the professor's sharp voice. "The Sorting Ceremony's about to start." My stomach erupts with butterflies. "Now, form a line." More butterflies. "And, follow me." We walk back the way we came. And through the double oak doors. What I see was infinitely better than what I dreamed, I wasn't even sure that was possible. But it was. Candles floated in the air over four long wood tables. Four houses, four tables, soon I would sit at one of these tables. We make it to the front and stand in front of all the other students, who are scanning over each one of us. To try to calm myself down I look up and see... the sky? Oh. Right. I had read all about it in 'Hogwarts: A History'. The ceiling was bewitched to look like the skies outside. I tell this again to the girl beside me who looks like i'm getting on her last nerve so I stop talking. The professor the walked out with a four-legged stool and a worn old hat. I wonder, do we have to make it new? All the first years stare, as do the others. What are they waiting for? I think. Suddenly the hat twitches then one of its many rips open. And it begins to sing.