The train slowed right down and finally stopped. People pushed their way toward the door and out on to a tiny, dark platform. Harry shivered in the cold night air. Then a lamp came bobbing over the heads of the students, and Harry and Tenno heard a familiar voice:
Hagrid:"First years! First years over here! All right there, Harry? Tenno?"
Hagrid's big hairy face beamed over the sea of heads.
Hagrid:"C'mon, follow me, any more first years? Mind yer step, now! First years follow me!"
Slipping and stumbling, they followed Hagrid down what seemed to be a steep, narrow path. It was very dark on either side of them and they noticed there were thick trees there. Nobody spoke much. Neville, the boy who lost his toad, sniffed once or twice.
"You all get yer first sight of Hogwarts in a sec." Hagrid called over his shoulder "just around this bend here."
There was a loud "Oooooh!"
The narrow path had opened suddenly onto the edge of a great black take. Perched atop a high mountain on the other side, its windows sparkling in the starry sky, was a vast castle with many turrets and towers.
"No more then four to a boat!" Hagrid called, pointing to a fleet of little boats sitting in the water by the shore. Harry and Tenno were followed into their boat by Neville and Hermione. "Everyone in?" shouted Hagrid, who had an entire boat for himself. "Right then, FORWARD!"
And the fleet of little boats moved off all at once, gliding across the lake, which was as smooth as glass. Everyone was silent, staring up at the great castle overhead. It towered over them as they sailed nearer and nearer to the cliff on which it stood. From this angle, they coulden't see Tenno's crashed ship.
"Heads down!" yelled Hagrid as the first boats reached the cliff; they all bent their heads and the little boats carried them through a curtain of ivy that hid a wide opening in the cliff face. They were carried along a dark tunnel, which seemed to be taking them right underneath the castle, until they reached a kind of underground harbor, where they clambered out onto rocks and pebbles.
"Be carefull not to get your feet wet." Said Hagrid, who was checking the boats as people climbed out of them.
"Oy, you there! Is this your toad?" said Hagrid to Neville, taking a toad out of one of his pockets
"Trevor!" cried Neville blissfully, holding out his hands. Then they clambered up a passageway in the rock after Hagrid's lamp, coming out at last onto smooth, damp grass right in the shadow of the castle.
They walked up a flight of stone steps and crowded around the huge, Oak front door.
"Everyone here? You there, still got your toad?"
Hagrid raised a gigantic fist and knocked three times on the castle door.
The door swung open at once. A tall, black-haired witch in emerald-green robes stood there. She had a very stern face and Harry's first thought was that this was not someone to cross.
"The first years, Professor McGonagall." said Hagrid.
"Thank you, Hagrid. I will take them from here."
She pulled the door wide. The entrance hall was so big you could have fit a hole house in it. The stone walls were lit with flaming torches, the ceiling was too high to make out, and a magnificent marble staircase facing them led to the upper floors.
They followed Professor McGonagall across the flagged stone floor. Tenno could hear the drone of hundreds of voices from a doorway to the right. 'the rest of the school must already be here' Tenno thought. But Professor McGonagall showed the first years into a small, empty chamber off the hall. They crowded in, standing rather closer together, peering about nervously.
"Welcome to Hogwarts," said Professor McGonagall. "The start-of-term banquet will begin shortly, but before you take your seats in the Great Hall, you will be sorted into your houses. The Sorting is a very important ceremony because, while you are here, your house will be something like your family within Hogwarts. You will have classes with the rest of your house, sleep in your house dormitory, and spend free time in your house common room. The four houses are called Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. Each house has its own noble history and each has produced outstanding witches and wizards. While you are at Hogwarts, your triumphs will earn your house points, while any rulebreaking will lose house points. At the end of the year, the house with the most points is awarded the house cup, a great honor. I hope each of you will be a credit to whichever house becomes yours. The Sorting Ceremony will take place in a few minutes in front of the rest of the school. I suggest you all smarten yourselves up as much as you can while you are waiting."
Her eyes lingered for a moment on Neville's cloak, which was fastened under his left ear, and on a kid's smudged nose. Harry nervously tried to flatten his hair.
"I shall return when we are ready for you," said Professor McGonagall. "Please wait quietly."
She left the chamber. Harry swallowed.
"How exactly do they sort us into houses?" he asked Tenno, who in response, just shruged.
"Some sort of test, I think."The kid with the smudged nose said. "My brother Fred said it hurts a lot, but I think he was joking."
Harry's jolted at that, and most of the other students seemed to share his weariness. A test? In front of the whole school? But they didn't know any magic yet! What on earth would he have to do?!
"Guys, relax!" Tenno sayd to the crowd. "We diden't even get our first class yet! There is no way we are expected to do a dificult test right now!"
People started to calm down, but then the screams sounded.
The reason for the screams? About twenty ghosts had just streamed through the back wall. 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. I say- What are you all doing here?"
A ghost wearing a ruff and tights had suddenly noticed the first years.
Nobody answered. Tenno was wondering if a void beam would afect a ghost.
"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."
Harry got into line behind a boy with sandy hair, with Tenno behind him, and they walked out of the chamber, back across the hall, and through a pair of double doors into the Great Hall.
Harry was awestruck by the place, like many other first years. 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. 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. Harry looked upward and saw a velvety black ceiling dotted with stars. He 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. It made Tenno remember all the repairs he had to do on his ship.
Harry and Tenno quickly looked down again as Professor McGonagall silently placed a four-legged stool in front of the first years. On top of the stool she put a pointed wizard's hat. This hat was patched and frayed and extremely dirty.
For a few seconds, there was complete silence as everyone looked at the hat. Then the hat twitched. A rip near the brim opened wide like a mouth and the hat began to sing:
"Oh, you may not think I'm pretty,
But don't judge on what you see,
I'll eat myself if you can find
A smarter hat than me.
You can keep your bowlers black,
Your top hats sleek and tall,
For I'm the Hogwarts Sorting Hat
And I can cap them all.
There's nothing hidden in your head
The Sorting Hat can't see,
So try me on and I will tell you
Where you ought to be.
You might belong in Gryffindor,
Where dwell the brave at heart,
Their daring, nerve, and chivalry Set Gryffindors apart;
You might belong in Hufflepuff,
Where they are just and loyal,
Those patient Hufflepuffis are true And unafraid of toil;
Or yet in wise old Ravenclaw,
if you've a ready mind,
Where those of wit and learning,
Will always find their kind;
Or perhaps in Slytherin
You'll make your real friends,
Those cunning folk use any means
To achieve their ends.
So put me on! Don't be afraid!
And don't get in a flap!
You're in safe hands (though I have none)
For I'm a Thinking Cap!"
The whole hall burst into applause as the hat finished its song. It bowed to each of the four tables and then became quite still again.
"So we've just got to try on the hat!" A first year sayd aloud.
"I'll kill Fred, he was going on about wrestling a troll." Replied the kid with the smudged nose.
Professor McGonagall now stepped forward holding a long roll of parchment.
"When I call your name, you will put on the hat and sit on the stool to be sorted," she said. "Abbott, Hannah!"
A pink-faced girl with blonde pigtails stumbled out of line, put on the hat, which fell right down over her eyes, and sat down. A moments pause, and- "HUFFLEPUFF!" shouted the hat.
The table on the right cheered and clapped as Hannah went to sit down at the Hufflepuff table. Harry saw the ghost of the Fat Friar waving merrily at her.
"Bones, Susan!"
"HUFFLEPUFF!" shouted the hat again, and Susan scuttled off to sit next to Hannah.
"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.
The sorting continued, with Mcgonagal calling names and the students beeing sorted into either ravenclaw, slitherin, grifindor and hufflepuff.
Sometimes, Tenno noticed, the hat shouted out the house at once, but at others it took a little while to decide. "Finnigan, Seamus," the sandy-haired boy next to Harry in the line, sat on the stool for almost a whole minute before the hat declared him a Gryffindor.
"Granger, Hermione!"
Hermione almost ran to the stool and jammed the hat eagerly on her head.
"GRYFFINDOR!" shouted the hat.
When Neville Longbottom, the boy who lost his toad, was called, he fell over on his way to the stool. The hat took a long time to decide with Neville. When it finally shouted.
"GRYFFINDOR!" Neville ran off still wearing it, and had to jog back amid gales of laughter to give it to the next student.
Malfoy swaggered forward when his name was called and the hat had barely touched his head when it screamed.
"SLYTHERIN!" Malfoy went to join his friends Crabbe and Goyle, looking pleased with himself.
"Potter, Harry!"
As Harry stepped forward, whispers suddenly broke out like little hissing fires all over the hall.
"Potter, did she say?"
"The Harry Potter?"
'It seems I underestimated Harry's fame' Thought Tenno.
The last thing Harry saw before the hat dropped over his eyes was the hall full of people craning to get a good look at him. Next second he was looking at the black inside of the hat. Tenno waited.
"GRYFFINDOR!"
Harry went to the grifindor table under its loud cheers.
And now there were only few people left to be sorted.
"Tenno." Finaly, it was Tenno's turn.
A/N: (I realy need name ideas for MC)