"You will have classes with the rest of your house, sleep in your house dormitory, and spend free time in your house common room." Her gaze swept across the group. However, just as she was about to continue speaking, a boy with messy brown hair rushed up to the front.
"Trevor!" He bent down to McGonagall's feet and picked up a toad off the ground. Rune didn't even realize it was there.
That must be Neville, the boy Rune and Hermione were helping back on the train. Rune wonder how the toad ended up all the way here after being lost for so long. Neville muttered an apology and moved to get back to where he stood before. The boys with Rune began to snicker to themselves. The situation was a but amusing, but Rune had a feeling that they weren't laughing with Neville in this case.
McGonagall continued on without addressing the boy, "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 you house points, while any rule-breaking 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."
McGonagall gestured to the large doors, stepping aside for the group to get a better view. "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 gaze seemed to linger on poor Neville, who tensed up and went red with embarrassment. "I shall return for you when we are ready," With that final announcement, the elderly lady left the group temporarily to their devices.
It wasn't long before Draco's voice spoke up. "So what people have been saying on the train is true. Harry Potter has come to Hogwarts." Murmur immediately erupted into the air as everyone took in this information.
Rune was just a bit surprised that Draco was right about Harry. He really did do those bizarre things. It would be pretty difficult to have so many strangers start talking in awe about a single person if he wasn't actually so famous.
Draco made his way over to Harry with ease, standing in front of him with a hand stuck out to him. It reminded Rune of when they first met and shook hands back in Diagon Alley about a month and a half ago now. "I'm Malfoy. Draco Malfoy." He gave a confident smile, one that immediately dropped at the sound of someone snorting in amusement.
His head turned a little to Harry's right to glare are the ginger-- Ron. "No need to ask yours," A scowl remained on the blonde's face as he spoke with a bit of venom dripping from his tone, "Red hair, and a hand-me-down robe? You must be a Weasley." Rune was feeling uneasy if he chose the good people to stay with or not.
Ron only scowled back at Draco without a word, watching as the blonde looked back to Harry with the confident smirk to return to his face. "You'll learn that some wizarding families are better than others. I can help you with that. You wouldn't want to go about hanging out with the wrong sort." Rune's stomach churned uncomfortably. This didn't seem like the Draco he knew moments ago: a bit of a suck up who whines but isn't all too terrible. This was changing a bit of his perspective on him.
Harry looked at Draco's hand and then back up at his face. "I think I can pick out the wrong sort myself, thanks." Harry spoke plainly, staring up at Draco with a blank face.
Draco frowned with a narrowed gaze, his hand lowering. Before he can speak, Draco was tapped on the shoulder by McGonagall. He looked up at her. It was her gaze that left him to remain silent as he went to take his place with Crabbe, Goyle, and Rune.
Rune's brows were furrowed in a slight disbelief, looking from him to Harry and Ron. They were looking this way-- so Rune silently mouthed an apology. Ron didn't do much, just look over to Draco again before uncomfortably looking ahead. Harry gave a kinder look and nodded understandably before also looking ahead.
"They're ready for you, now." The woman spoke, raising an arm to push open one of the two doors-- though both opened in sync.
It was a long hall with four very long tables. They were filled with students wearing robes similar to all of the first years, but there were certain colored accents that differed the tables; the colors were red, blue, green, and yellow.
Those must be the houses Professor McGonagall was talking about before with each color representing a house. Rune would take guesses-- but what's the fun in that? It would be better to wait and be surprised, right?
The hall was lit up with hundreds upon thousands of candles that floated up into the air. The ceiling above was made to look like the night sky, stars faintly twinkling above the candle's flame. To the wall on the right was a large fireplace roared with a warm flame. On the opposite side of the entrance was a long table- though shorter than the previous four- with what Rune assume are the professors sitting at it.
All except for Professor McGonagall, of course. She stood up with a roll of parchment in her hands. On the slight incline was a stool that had an old witch's hat resting on top of it. "When I call your name, you will put on the hat and sit on the stool to be sorted." As she spoke, she picked up the old hat by the pointed end and looked down to the list.
"Hannah Abbott." McGonagall spoke loud enough for the whole hall to hear, which had fallen silent to pay attention to the ceremony.
A pink-faced girl with blonde pigtails came out of the line. She was rather small, a little nervous too. Hell-- she almost had to climb the stool to sit down on it. The hat even fell over her eyes. However, what left a few first years in shock was the hat's sudden movement. The fabric contorted into a face and it began to speak in mumbles that only the girl could hear until it shouted, "HUFFLEPUFF!"
The table on the far right cheered and clapped for the girl. She wore a look of relief as she slipped off the stool, fixing her robes before jogging over to the table with the yellow color coded students. McGonagall wasted no time calling the next student, "Susan Bones."
The hat called out her house, "HUFFLEPUFF!" Susan went to sit next to Hannah. The process of names being called and being sorted continued on.
"Terry Boot."
"RAVENCLAW." The table second to the left clapped this time, the students of this table wearing blue.
"Mandy Brocklehurst."
"RAVENCLAW."
"Lavender Brown."
"GRYFFINDOR." The table on the far left clapped now, these students wearing red.
"Millicent Bulstrode."
"SLYTHERIN." Finally, the students wearing green clapped from the table second to the right
"Ronald Weasley." Rune looked to watch the ginger walk up to the stool as well.
He looked extremely nervous, gulping heavily before he walked up the steps and turned to sit on the stool. Ron's eyes seemed to go everywhere in that moment as the hat lowered on his head.
The hat spoke in amusement, the sudden speech making Ron jump in place. "Another Weasley, eh? I know just where to put you... better be- GRYFFINDOR!" The Gryffindor table erupted in applause again, especially three boys with very similar red hair. They must be the other Weasley's that are mentioned. The sorting continued from there with--
"Justin Finch-Fletchly."
"HUFFLEPUFF."
"Hermione Granger." Just like Ron, Rune watched her go up to the stool. She too was nervous, though not the same kind of nervous Ron was-- if that makes sense.
Mumbles slipped from her lips, though when she sat on the stool, the nervousness slipped away and she appeared to be very eager. Rune personally thought that she would get Ravenclaw with how smart she seemed. However, Rune was quickly proven wrong when the sorting hat called out her house.
"GRYFFINDOR!" Cheers erupted from the Gryffindor table once more with Hermione's expression to relax into a smile.
"Neville Longbottom."
"GRYFFINDOR!"
"Draco Malfoy."
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TO BE CONTINUED.....