Alec del Signore and the Forgotten Book

The Sorting

A voice echoed throughout the compartment: 'We will be reaching Hogwarts in five minutes' time. Please leave your luggage on the train, it will be taken to the school separately.'
    Alec glanced outside at the deep-purple sky. The train did seem to be slowing down. His stomach began to swim as nerves set in about the Sorting. Arthur had gone pale, too, and Guinevere looked almost green underneath her light brown freckles.
    Alec busied himself with making sure he hadn't left anything about in the compartment. The others followed suit, searching around the seats, wearing their new Hogwarts robes, picking up any wayward book or quill. Guin coaxed Peregrin, who had been napping at her feet, soothed by the rumbling of the train, back into her carrier, where she aptly went back to snoozing.
    The train continued slowing and finally stopped. Students of all ages pushed out of their compartments, and — in one great loud throng — piled out of the train through the narrow door near the middle and onto a tiny, dark platform certainly not fit for housing the all of them. The autumn night was rather cold. Soon a lamp came bobbing out of the trees and a booming voice echoed through the night: 'Firs'-years! Firs'-years over here! Watch the root, don't fall now!'
    'It's Hagrid!' Arthur exclaimed.
    'It's who?' Guin breathed out, as they slipped and stumbled after the giant down a steep, narrow path. They were incased by pitch black, generated by the thousands of trees on either side of them.
    'Hagrid,' Arthur said; 'he's a teacher here! He taught my parents when they were at school. He's great, trust me.'
    Alec, peering up at the massive, dark figure rumbling ahead of them, decided he would have to take Arthur's word for it.
    'You'll get your firs' sight o' Hogwarts any second now, jus' around this bend,' Hagrid called back to them.
    There was a loud "Oooooh!" from the students in the front of the pack.
    The dark path had suddenly opened onto the edge of a great, black lake. Grand with its many turrets and towers sparkling in the starry sky, there was a castle perched atop the cliff across from them. Its numerous windows glinted down at them.
    'Alrigh', no more'n four to a boat!' Hagrid boomed. Alec tore his eyes from the castle and peered down at the lake, where there was a fleet of many small boats against the shore.
    Alec, Arthur and Guin were followed into their boat by a boy with dirty-blond hair and thick eyebrows.
    'Everyone in?' shouted Hagrid, who had a boat all to himself. 'Right then — FORWARD!'
    The fleet of little boats set off all at once, gliding across the glass-like lake all by themselves. The entire throng of them had gone silent, staring awed above them at the castle. It towered high amongst the clouds and shrouded them in shadow as they sailed nearer and nearer to the cliff on which it was perched.
'Heads down!' Hagrid yelled as the first of the fleet reached the cliff. They all bent their heads and their vessels carried them through a large curtain of ivy that hid a wide opening in the cliff face. They were carried along through the cliff in the midst of a dark tunnel, which appeared to be taking them right underneath the castle. Eventually, they reached an underground harbour, where they all clambered out of their boats onto small rocks and pebbles.
Hagrid went around and checked all of the boats as students stumbled out of them. Alec, Arthur, and Guin stayed together, watching, still rather cold in the dampness.
'Follow me!' he said gruffly. They clambered up a passageway in the rock after the glowing light of Hagrid's massive lamp, emerging at last on to smooth, wet grass right in the shadow of the castle.
Alec, Arthur and Guin followed the other first-years and Hagrid up a flight of stone steps and crowded around the huge, oak front door.
'Everyone here?' Hagrid said, trailing his black eyes amongst the crowd. Once he had inferred that they were, indeed, all there, he raised a gigantic fist and pounded three times on the castle door.
Immediately, the huge oak door swung open. A large, bear-like man with a mane of black hair and a thick black beard stood there, smiling warmly at the students with his thin lips.
'The firs'-years, Professor Bacri,' said Hagrid.
'Thank you, Hagrid,' the man said evenly. He pulled the door wider and emitted the first years. The entrance hall they stepped in was massive, with stone walls lit with flaming torches, and a ceiling too high to make out. A magnificent marble staircase faced them that led all the way to the upper floors.
Professor Bacri led them across the flagged stone floor. Alec could hear hundreds of voices droning together from a doorway to the right. Alec thought the rest of the school must have already been there. But instead of leading the first years there, Professor Bacri showed them into a small, empty chamber off the side of the hall. They all crowed inside, shoulder-to-shoulder, peering around at the room nervously and waiting for Professor Bacri, the bear-like man, to say something.
'Welcome to Hogwarts,' he said. 'I assure you, I will let you into the start-of-term banquet shortly. However, before then, I must explain the process of the Sorting to you. Before you take a seat in the Great Hall, you must be placed into your house. The process of this is very important because, while you are here at Hogwarts, the house you are placed in will be something like your family. You will have classes with your house, sleep in your house dormitory, spend free time in your house common room, and, hopefully, grow friendships with your housemates.
'The four houses available here at Hogwarts are called Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. Each of these four houses have their own unique history and each have produced outstanding witches and wizards alike. All four of these houses will participate in a competition run here at Hogwarts were the triumphs and good behavior of students will earn them House Points, while mischief will lose your team House Points. At the end of the year, the house with the most compiled points is awarded the House Cup, a great honour. We hope that you will be credits to your house while you are here at Hogwarts, and not a burden.
'You will find out more about each house,' Professor Bacri said, 'during the Sorting Ceremony. For now, I suggest you all smarten yourselves up, as the Ceremony will take place in front of the rest of the school.'
All forty-or-so of them nervously began patting themselves down and straightening their robes.
'I will return momentarily,' he said. 'Please do wait quietly.'
He left the chamber, black robes flowing behind him.
    Alec swallowed heavily. He turned the collar of his robe so that it faced the right way, then turned to his friends.
    'How do they sort us, anyway?' Alec asked. For all that he had learned about Hogwarts, he had never gone over the exact details of the Sorting with his aunt — it was all about the houses themselves.
    'It's a type of... personality test, I suppose,' Guin ventured. 'I read about it in a book. They place a magic hat on our head, and it decides on our house by way of gauging our person.'
    Alec and Arthur frowned at each other. That seemed rather odd. But then again, most things in the wizarding world were.
    Alec glanced around. Everyone else — about forty of them in all — looked terribly anxious. Those who knew the students around them chattered nervously in small groups, while those that did not stood palely in corners or in empty spaces. Alec wasn't one to be very nervous, but this event seemed to be an exception. His insides were swimming.
    Suddenly, the chamber door opened again. Professor Bacri had returned.
    'Come along now, children,' he said. 'The Sorting Ceremony's about to start.'
    They all formed a single-file line after a good bit of guidance from their professor. Then, light-headed and with legs like lead, Alec got in line behind Arthur and autonomously followed the other students and Professor Bacri out of the chamber. They went back across the hall and through the pair of double doors Alec had seen earlier into the Great Hall.
Alec had heard of the Great Hall before, of course, through the stories of Aunt Vikki, Grandpa Fabio, and Mary, his aunt's co-worker, but he had never imagined it to be so strange and splendid. Thousands of candles floated in the air above four long tables, where the rest of the student body was already sitting. These tables were dressed sumptuously in golden dishes and goblets. At the very back of the Hall was another, long table, where the professors were sitting. The children in the Hall, all of whom were staring at the first-years like hundreds of pale lanterns in the flickering candlelight, looked like they were anywhere from slightly above Alec's age to nearly full-grown adults -- seventeen-year-olds with the starts of scruffy beards and mature faces. High above them, there was a velvety black roof dotted with twinkling stars. It must have mirrored the sky outside.
The first-years were led to be in front of the High Table, looking back at all of the other students who were already seated. Professor Bacri retrieved a four-legged stool and placed it in front of the first-years. Then, he drew a ratty, pointed wizard's hat from behind him and placed it atop. It was clearly not in wearing condition -- frayed, and extremely dirty.
Everyone in the Hall stared at the hat. Waiting in bated breath, Alec watched as a rip tore open in the brim of the hat like a wide mouth -- and then the Hat began to sing: