Ineffable | Harry Potter - George Weasley // COMPLETED

3 | Gryffindor!

I felt my heart start to pound against my chest as I wiped my sweaty palms against my black robe. Hearing about a 'painful death' was not one of the first things I would have liked to hear upon arriving in a place that I had never even heard of until about a month ago. I was already pretty overwhelmed as it was, so that certainly didn't help.

"When I call your name, you will come forth. I shall place the Sorting Hat on your head...and you will be sorted into your houses." the women unrolled a scroll and read out the first name. "Hermione Granger."

Taking a deep breath, Hermione walked up the few steps before sitting down on a stool. Carefully, the woman placed an old, brown, wrinkled hat onto her head.

"Right, then. Right." the hat began to speak, which would have freaked me out if my parents hadn't have warned me about it beforehand. "Okay. Gryffindor!"

The kids from the Gryffindor table cheered as Hermione smiled, stood up, and joined them. And just like that, we kept going through the list of kids. Draco Malfoy was placed in Slytherin, which Ron told us was the house where all the witches and wizards who went bad had been in.

"Ronald Weasley."

As Ron stepped up to the stool, the hat instantly started talking when placed upon his head. "Another Weasley!" it exclaimed. "I know just what to do with you. Gryffindor!"

Ron sighed in relief as he went and sat down at the designated table. "Yavana Rookwood." I heard the woman call, and all of a sudden my heart rate sped up again and my palms felt like I had just gone swimming. Making my way up to the stool, I drew in a deep breath as the hat was placed on my head.

"Ah, nervous, are we?" the hat asked as everyone in the room kept their eyes glued to me. "So many possibilities, but I think you'd do wonders in...Gryffindor!"

A smile spread onto my face as soon as the house name had been called, mostly because it was over and done with. I didn't know much about the houses, but so far my only friends were in Gryffindor, so that was the house I wanted to be in.

Walking over, I sat down next to Hermione and met three of Ron's brothers, Percy and the twins, Fred and George. Turning my body so I could see the rest of the house sorting, I smiled and let my body relax. Hopefully that would be the most stressful thing I would have to do on my first day.

"Harry Potter."

"Difficult, very difficult." the hat pondered as it sat on top of Harry's head. "Plenty of courage, I see. Not a bad mind, either. There's talent, oh, yes. And a thirst to prove yourself. But where to put you?"

"Not Slytherin, not Slytherin." I could see Harry mouth the words as he shut his eyes, wishing for it to be over much like I had.

"Not Slytherin, eh?" the hat spoke. "Are you sure? You could be great, you know. It's all here, in your head. And Slytherin will help you on the way to greatness, there's no doubt about that. No? Well, if you're sure. Better be...Gryffindor!"

We all cheered as Harry came over and sat down next to Ron. Somehow all four of us had been placed in the same house, which must have been pure luck, or maybe we were just meant to be friends.

Once everyone had been placed into a house, the woman from before tapped her spoon against her glass, which filled the hall with a high-pitched tapping and made everyone turn to face her. "Your attention, please."

Rising from his chair once more, the headmaster, Dumbledore, nodded his head. "Let the feast begin."

And just like, well, magic, the four tables suddenly became packed with different types of food. Kids' hands instantly started reaching out for food to fill their plates, and not long after I did the same. No matter how much of a nerve-racking day it had been, there was no denying that I was starving.

"Say, Percy, who's that teacher talking to Professor Quirrell?" Harry pointed over to the table with all of the adults.

Percy's eyes followed Harry's finger to a man with long black robes and shoulder-length black hair. "That's Professor Snape, head of Slytherin house."

"What's he teach?"

"Potions. But everyone knows it's the Dark Arts that he fancies. He's been after Quirrell's job for years."

Just then, as Ron reached his hand out for some more chicken, a head popped up through the table. Well, not a real head. It had been a real head once before, but now it belonged to a ghost.

"Hello! How are you?" the see-through man looked around at us. "Welcome to Gryffindor."

Not long after, the room became packed with ghosts as they flew around, saying hello to the kids and laughing as the first years got scared. "Hello, Sir Nicholas." Percy, the Weasley brother with curly hair, greeted the man with his head in our chicken. "Have a nice summer?"

"Dismal," he answered, rising up through the table a little more. "Once again, my request to join the Headless Hunt has been denied."

"I know you," Ron called as the ghost flew off. "You're Nearly Headless Nick."

"I prefer Sir Nicholas if you don't mind."

Hermione scoffed. "'Nearly headless? How can you be nearly headless?"

"Like this." Sir Nicholas grabbed onto his hair and pulled, causing his head to come nearly clean off of his shoulders. With a smirk and chuckle at our chocked expressions, he popped his head back on and took off.

Once the feast was over and everyone was full and happy, we split off into our separate houses and headed for our common rooms.

"Gryffindors, follow me, please. Keep up. Thank you." Percy called as we came to a room full of stairs. "This is the most direct path to the dormitories. Oh, and keep an eye on the staircases. They like to change."

Just as he said that one of the higher up staircases moved from one platform to another, making my mouth drop for probably the tenth time that day. Following Percy up a few flights of stairs and into a dimly lit hallway, we came to a stop in front of a large painting with a woman on it.

"Password?" the woman in the pink dress looked to Percy.

"Caput Draconis."

Smiling, the woman waved her arm out and the painting swung open like a door, revealing an entrance to what I assumed was our common room. "Gather around here." Percy stopped in the middle of the main room which had couches, tables, and a lovely fireplace. "Welcome to the Gryffindor common room. Boys' dormitory is upstairs and down to your left. Girls, the same on your right. You'll find all your belongings have already been brought up."

After heading to the girls' dormitory with Hermione, we located our beds, which had our things on it along with a few extra outfits and a Gryffindor scarf, we all climbed into bed and fell asleep just as the sun began to disappear.

Rolling over, I took a look at Sonia, who was sitting quietly in her cage next to my bed and sighed. Never in a million years would I have guessed that something like this would happen to me. How did no one else back home know about Hogwarts? How many wizards were there in the world? Had I really had hidden powers all this time?

Surprisingly, the questions floating around my head eventually soothed me to sleep and I commenced my first night of many in Hogwarts.