Twin Power *Cedric Diggory Love Story* (EDITING)

Getting Sorted & the Start-Of-Term feast

"It's not real, the ceiling," I heard Hermione whisper from behind me. "It's just bewitched to look like the night sky. 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 up to the heavens.

I looked back down again just in time, because Professor McGonagall stopped us just a few feet from the teachers' table. Sitting slightly to her left was a small stool and a dirty, tattered, worn out hat. "Now, before we begin, Professor Dumbledore would like to say a few words," she said.

Professor Dumbledore stood up from his place at the head of the staff table. He looked just as he had on my Chocolate Frog card; he had silvery white hair and a matching beard that went down to the end of his torso, and bright blue eyes that twinkled behind half-moon glasses. "I have a few start-of-term notices I wish to announce," he said. "First-years, please note, that the Dark Forest is strictly forbidden to all students. Also, our caretaker, Mr. Filch, has asked me to remind you that the third floor corridor on the right hand side is out-of-bounds to everyone who does not wish to die a most painful death. Thank you." He sat back down, leaving me wondering if he was serious or just saying those things to dissuade us from going up to the third floor.

Professor McGonagall unrolled her scroll of parchment. "When I call your name, you will come forth, I shall place the Sorting Hat on your head --" she held up the tattered hat "-- and you will be sorted into your houses." She glanced down at her scroll. "Abbott, Hannah!"

A pink-faced girl with blonde pigtails stepped forward and sat down on the stool. Professor McGonagall placed the Sorting Hat on her head. It fell right down over her eyes. A moment's pause --

"HUFFLEPUFF!" the Sorting Hat cried. The table on the right cheered and clapped as Hannah went to sit at the Hufflepuff table.

"Bones, Susan!"

"HUFFLEPUFF!" the hat shouted again, and Susan scuttled off to sit next to Hannah at the Hufflepuff table.

"Boot, Terry!"

"RAVENCLAW!"

The table second from the left clapped this time; several Ravenclaws stood up to shake hands with Terry as he joined them.

"Brocklehurst, Mandy," went to Ravenclaw, too, but "Brown, Lavender," became the first new Gryffindor, and the table on the far left exploded with cheers; I could see Ron's twin brothers catcalling.

"Bulstrode, Millicent," then became a Slytherin. Perhaps it was my imagination, after all I'd heard about Slytherin, but I thought they looked like an unpleasant lot. I was starting to feel definitely sick now. I remembered being picked for teams during gym at my old school. I had always been last to be chosen, not because I was no good, but because no one wanted Dudley to think they liked me.

"Finch-Fletchley, Justin!"

"HUFFLEPUFF!"

Sometimes, I noticed, the hat shouted out the house at once, but at others it took a little while to decide. "Finnegan, Seamus," the sandy-haired boy next to me in the line, sat on the stool for almost a whole minute before the hat declared him a Gryffindor.

"Granger, Hermione!"

Hermione looked extremely nervous. "Oh, no -- okay, relax," she whispered to herself as she made her way up to McGonagall.

"Mental, that one. I'm telling you," Ron muttered.

Hermione sat down on the stool, and the hat was placed on her head. "Right, then..." it spoke, "Hmm...right. Okay -- GRYFFINDOR!"

A horrible thought struck me, as horrible thoughts always do when you're very nervous. What if I wasn't chosen at all? What if I sat there with the hat over my eyes for ages, until Professor McGonagall jerked it off my head and said there had obviously been a mistake and that I'd better get back on the train?