Requiem to a Goddess {Hermione Granger}

Year 1: House of Slytherin

We first years were loaded into small wooden boats by a giant man who seemed to be impossibly friendly. We'd been told to leave our luggage behind, apparently somebody would be coming to pick it up later for us. Pansy grabbed me by the hand - well, by the wrist - and dragged me onto a boat with her while Draco and the other two joined a boy named Blaise in a separate boat. Two other girls, Daphne Greengrass and Millicent Bulstrode, joined us. In the short period of time that we had before the boats headed off, we all introduced ourselves. Millicent was immediately... excluded from the rest of us, as the only one who wasn't a member of the old families. It wasn't really my choice, Pansy immediately pulled Daphne forwards, pushing Millicent to the back of the boat. Daphne, on the other hand, was treated to a handshake and a Pansy-special nickname, "Day." From what I could grab from my minute talking to her, Daphne was incredibly sharp, and a little bit unfriendly. She explained she'd been wanting to go the Beauxbatons school in France, and that she only going to Hogwarts because it was her father's alma mater and he was the one who made the final decision. She also said that she wanted to be sorted into Slytherin, just like the rest of us, but she thought Ravenclaw was a respectable option as well.

When the boats started to move forward, without us rowing, we all stopped talking. Pansy sat up front and I was behind her, but I could still see the view of the night and we travelled across a still lake that reflected the night sky. It looked, I thought, like liquid starlight had been poured into the water. Very pretty. We passed, ducking our heads, through an opening in the face of a cliff, hanging ivy brushing over our heads when we passed through. The cliff's opening led us through an underground tunnel, and the boats quickly reached a small harbor, where we all clambered out a gathered around a large door. The giant friendly man asked something about a toad, and a second later a chubby boy with dark hair shouted the name "Trevor" and had a frog placed into his hands. Next to him stood the girl from the train, whom I decided must be this boy's friend. After all, she'd asked after his toad.

The giant man turned towards the door, and knocked exactly three times. We all waited, suspense thick in the air, for a few moments until the doors opened to reveal a stern looking woman in a green robe. She was tall and has her grey hair tied back into a neat bun. I recognized her immediately from my father's description of the teachers, this was Professor McGonagall. A second later, the giant confirmed this for me. "The firs' years, Professor McGonagall."

"Thank you, Hagrid. I will take them from here." So Hargrid was the giant's name.

She pulled the door wide and we followed her into the entrance hall and down the stone floors to a small chamber. Pansy grabbed my hand this time, and I could tell without having to ask that she was nervous. "You'll get into Slytherin," I whispered, "I'm sure of it."

"And if I don't?"

"Then you'll make Slytherin rue the day they didn't let you in."

"Thanks," she smiled a bit, but I knew she didn't really believe me. Her worries made her softer than she had been on the train.

McGonagall began to launch into a very lengthy speech in which she explained the sorting ceremony and the houses and the house cup, which I thought was stupid to remind us of until I remembered that there were probably some mudbloods who didn't know how Hogwarts worked. I wasn't really listening, instead I was fixated on the girl from the train, who stood near the toad-boy. She was standing on the tips of her toes, straining to hear the Professor, over what I didn't know. She looked incredibly focused, and also incredibly nervous. Her hand kept on reaching up to fidget with her hair. Her eyes widened as McGonagall finished her speech and left the room, and I watched as she began to mumble something to herself, though I couldn't tell what.

"What do you think the test will be?" Pansy asked beside me.

"I don't know."

"I bet it will be easy."