Reading Maddie Potter and Percy Jackson

Reading Chapter 7: The Sorting Hat

Hermione made a face of fake hurt.

it was just making her more anxious.

Hermione got that look off her face. Annabeth giggled at that.

She'd never been more nervous, never, not even when she'd had to take a school report home to the Dursleys saying that she'd somehow turned her teacher's wig blue.

Everyone stared at her.

"I'm not mad about the color, but how?" Percy asked his future wife. Maddie just blushed and shrugged.

She kept her eyes fixed on the door. Any second now, Professor McGonagall would come back and lead her to her doom.

"Pessimist," All the kids (including Sirius but minus Nico I) coughed. Maddie rolled her eyes

Then something happened that made him jump about a foot in the air -- several people behind her screamed.
"What the --?"
She gasped. So did the people around her.

"What happened?" The people who didn't know (the gods) asked.

About twenty ghosts had just streamed through the back wall.

"Ghosts?" Artemis asked, "there are ghosts at Hogwarts?" All of the witches and wizards nodded.

Pearly-white and slightly transparent, they glided across the room talking to one another and hardly glancing at the first years. They seemed to be arguing. What looked like a fat little monk was saying: "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 --

"They're still having that conversation?" Sirius asked.

"Yep," Maddie and Harry nodded.

"Huh, one would think the same conversation would get boring," Remus thought aloud.

"One would think," Teddy agreed with his dad.

I say, what are you all doing here?"
A ghost wearing a ruff and tights had suddenly noticed the first years.
Nobody answered.
"New students!" said the Fat Friar, smiling around at them. "About to be Sorted, I suppose?"
A few people nodded mutely.
"Hope to see you in Hufflepuff!" said the Friar. "My old house, you know."
"Move along now," said a sharp voice. "The Sorting Ceremony's about to start."
Professor McGonagall had returned. One by one, the ghosts floated away through the opposite wall.
"Now, form a line," Professor McGonagall told the first years, "and follow me."
Feeling oddly as though his legs had turned to lead, Maddie got into line behind a boy with sandy hair, with Ron behind her, and they walked out of the chamber, back across the hall, and through a pair of double doors into the Great Hall.
Maddie had never even imagined such a strange and splendid place. It was lit by thousands and thousands of candles that were floating in midair over four long tables, where the rest of the students were sitting. These tables were laid with glittering golden plates and goblets. At the top of the hall was another long table where the teachers were sitting.

All of the wizards sighed in happiness remembering the first time they walked through those doors.

Professor McGonagall led the first years up here, so that they came to a halt in a line facing the other students, with the teachers behind them. The hundreds of faces staring at them looked like pale lanterns in the flickering candlelight. Dotted here and there among the students, the ghosts shone misty silver. Mainly to avoid all the staring eyes, Maddie looked upward and saw a velvety black ceiling dotted with stars. She heard Hermione whisper, "Its bewitched to look like the sky outside. I read about it in Hogwarts, A History."
It was hard to believe there was a ceiling there at all, and that the Great Hall didn't simply open on to the heavens.