The Shrieking Shack || The Marauders (Book 1)

8. REMUS

They were now crowded in an empty chamber off the entrance hall, looking about nervously. Remus's palms were getting annoyingly sweaty and his stomach was into knots. Professor McGonagall, a stern witch with black hair tightly tied into a knot, had just told them about the Sorting Ceremony where they would be sorted into the four Hogwarts Houses- Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff and Slytherin.

A low murmuring broke into the room as Professor McGonagall left, everyone anticipating what would happen next.

"How exactly do they sort us into Houses?" asked a boy, standing just beside Remus, to the room at large.

"My father told me we've got to try on the Sorting Hat," replied the boy who had been talking to Hagrid earlier- James.

"The Sorting Hat?" Selena asked.

"Yes, it's a wizened old hat which sorts the first years into Houses every year," James continued pompously. "Which house do you think you'll get into?"

"Oh, I don't really mind, as long as I actually get sorted into one." Selena gave a nervous little laugh and then turned around to face Remus and Peter. "A hat that sorts you into Houses," she said excitedly. "Isn't that the most curious thing you've heard?"

"The Sorting Ceremony is about to start." Professor McGonagall had returned. "Form a line and follow me." She led them through a pair of double doors into the Great Hall.

Remus's heart skipped a beat as he stumbled into the hall behind Selena, with Peter still holding on to his sleeves tightly. There were hundreds, if not thousands, of kids just sitting about, chattering away the evening. Remus had never seen so many people gathered at one place his entire life. They all sat around four long tables, which Remus guessed signified the four Hogwarts Houses. There was another table at the end of the hall where all the teachers sat. The Hall was illuminated by thousands of floating candles and the tables laid with golden plates and goblets which glistened in the candlelight. 

Professor McGonagall led them up to the teachers' table so they all came to a halt in a line facing the other students, with the teachers behind them. With a start Remus noticed that amongst the students, scattered around the hall were about a dozen silvery-misty ghosts.

Remus could feel all the eyes staring up at him, students, teachers and ghosts alike, trying to gauge his worth. He had never been this nervous before in his life, not even during the first full-moon-night. His face reddened and he looked up at the ceiling, mostly to avoid any eye contact, and noticed for the first time that there was none.

"Whoa!" gasped Peter looking up and elbowed Selena in the ribs who was still gawking open mouthed at the ghosts.

"The ceiling," she whispered. "There's no ceiling!"

"There is actually," said a rather bored looking boy, with black hair and grey eyes, standing next to James, "It's just bewitched to look like the sky outside."

Remus looked down as Professor McGonagall placed a big dirty, patched and frayed wizard's hat atop a four legged stool. For some reason unfathomable to him, the entire Hall quietened down at that and each pair of eyes turned to look at the hat expectantly. Just as he was about to ask James what was happening, the hat twitched and a rip near the brim opened wide like a mouth and the hat began to sing:

"Another year has come to pass

Just like the hundreds I've seen,

And here I am, the sorting hat

The only one there's ever been.