7

The door swung open. A tall, black-haired witch in emerald green robes stood there. She had a very stern face and I knew at once that this was not someone to cross - we'll see just how well that works out, shall we?

"The firs' years, Professor McGonagall," said Hagrid.

"Thank you Hagrid, I will take them from here."

She pulled the door wide and my eyes widened. The entrance hall was so big you could have fitted my whole house in it. The walls were lit with torches, the ceiling was too high to make out, and an amazing marble staircase facing us led to the upper floors.

We followed professor McGonagall across the stone floor. I could hear the drone of hundreds of voices from a doorway to the right- the rest of the school must already be here. I gulped and glanced around, relieved to find everyone else looking just as anxious.

Professor McGonagall stopped suddenly and turned around to face us all.

"Welcome to Hogwarts," she said. "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, you 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 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 honour. 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. I shall return when we are ready for you. Please wait quietly."

She left the chamber. I nudged Ron lightly to gain his attention, and pointed to his nose.

"There's a bit of dirt on it," I whispered to him. He looked at me with wide eyes and began to rub it furiously. I laughed and turned to my other side, where Harry was attempting to flatten his messy hair.

"I don't think that's gonna work," I said, smiling in amusement.

"Worth a try," he replied quietly, before glancing up at me and smirking.

"What's the smirk for, Potter?" I hissed, crossing my arms.

"Nothing, nothing."

"Mills, some of your hairs sticking up," Mione said to me, and I felt her begin to run her fingers through it.

"Wow," I breathed to Harry as his smirk grew bigger. "Hilarious. Thanks for telling me, Potter. Thanks, Mione."

"You'e welcome," they both said at the same time.

"How exactly do they sort us into houses?" I asked Mione, ignoring Harry completely. Before she could answer, however, Ron interrupted, earning himself a dangerous glare from the girl.

"Some sort of test, I think. Fred said it hurts a lot, but I think he was joking."

My heart gave a horrible jolt. A test? In front of the whole school? But I didn't know any magic yet - what on earth would I have to do? I hadn't expected something like this the moment we arrived. I could hear Mione behind me, whispering very fast about all the spells she'd learnt and wondering which one she'd need. I fixed my gaze to the floor. Any second now, Professor McGonagall would come back and lead me to my doom. But before anything else could happen, several people behind me screamed, making my head flick up.

"What the-?"

I gasped. So did everyone around me. About twenty ghosts had just streamed through the back wall. They glided across the room, talking to eachother and hardly glancing at us. 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?"

"Peeves," I muttered to myself.

"What?" Harry whispered.

"Peeves. Dad told me to stay away from him, on the train platform." I replied, not sparing him a glance.

"He gives us all a bad name," the ghost continued, "and you know, he's not really even a ghost- I say, what are you all doing here?"

The ghost had suddenly noticed us. I quickly diverted my eye line to the floor, so I wouldn't have to answer. Everyone else seemed to have the same idea.

"New students!" said the Fat Friar, smiling around at us. "About to be sorted, I suppose?"

I saw Mione nod, along with a few others.

"Hope to see you in Hufflepuff!" said the Friar. "My old house, you know." I looked up at him, suddenly more confident now, knowing that he had in the same house as my Dad.

"Move along now," said a sharp voice. "The sorting ceremony's about to start."

Professor McGonagall had returned, and one by one, the ghosts floated away through the opposite wall.

"Now, form a line," professor McGonagall told us. "And follow me."

Feeling as though my legs had turned to lead, I followed Mione into the line, with Harry behind me, and walked through a pair of double doors into the great hall. I had never imagined such a strange and splendid place. Looking around, i saw it was lit by thousands and thousands of candles which were floating in mid air over four long tables, where the rest of the school were sitting. I noticed the tables were laid with golden plates and goblets. At the top of the hall was another long table where the teachers were sitting. We followed professor McGonagall until she stopped in front of it, so we were facing the rest of the students, with the teachers behind us. Hundreds of faces were staring at us, and so mainly to avoid all the eyes, I looked upwards and saw a velvety, black ceiling dotted with stars.

"It's bewitched to look like the sky outside," Mione whispered. "I read about it in Hogwarts: a history."

"Wow," I breathed, staring up at it. It was hard to believe there was a ceiling there at all. I quickly looked down again as professor McGonagall silently placed a stool in front of us. On top of the stool, she put a wizards hat. A patched, frayed and extremely dirty wizards hat. Mum wouldn't have liked it in the house.

"Maybe we have to try and get a rabbit out of it," I whispered playfully to Ron, who raised his eyebrows at the hat. Everyone in the hall was now staring at it, including me. For a few seconds, there was complete silence. Then the hat twitched and a rip near the brim opened wide like a mouth and sung a song about all the four houses. My eyes didn't leave the hat once as it sung. When it finished, the whole hall burst into applause.

"So we've just got to try on the hat!" Ron whispered, more to himself than anyone. "I'll kill Fred, he was going on about wrestling a troll."

Yes, trying on the hat was a lot better than wrestling a troll, but I did wish we could try it on without everyone watching.

Professor McGonagall 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. "Abbot, Hannah!"

I watched as a girl with blonde pigtails stumbled out of the line, put on the hat, and sat down. A moments pause-

"HUFFLEPUFF!" shouted the hat.

The table on the right cheered and clapped as Hannah went to sit down at the Hufflepuff table. I saw the ghost from earlier waving at her.

"Bones, Susan!"

"HUFFLEPUFF!" shouted the hat again, and Susan ran off to sit next to Hannah.

"Boot, Terry!"

"RAVENCLAW!"

The table second from the left clapped this time and I saw several Ravenclaws stand 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 I watched as the table on the far left exploded with cheers. I grinned when I saw Ron's twin brothers catcalling.'Bulstrode, Millicent' then became a Slytherin. Maybe it was my imagination, after all I'd heard about Slytherin, but I thought they looked an unpleasant lot. I was starting to feel sick now.

"Donovan, Millie!"

I stood rooted to the spot as I heard my name.

I heard a few whispers, people saying things like "A Donovan?" and "Millie Donovan? As in daughter of Jake Donovan?"

Mione gave me a gentle push and I began walking up to the stool, one foot in front of the other. Deep breaths, Millie, come on. I looked up at professor McGonagall, who gave me a reassuring smile, as I sat on the wooden stool, and, with my hands shaking, dropped the hat onto my head. Hundreds of eyes were staring in my direction. I gulped. Abruptly, the hat spoke out;

"Ah, a Donovan. Your father was particularly hard to sort, but now, you. Interesting, very interesting. Hm, you have a good brain, perhaps Ravenclaw? Or to follow in your fathers footsteps, a Hufflepuff? Yes, you have a big heart too, to those who you love especially - and loyalty. Very loyal to your friends. Maybe Slytherin then, you would thrive there, although kind, you can definitely stick up for yourself, very confident and... ah yes. Bravery. Extremely brave, lots of courage and nerve. Determined, and, and- talent. There's lot of talent. We should expect great things from you, Millie Donovan. It seems you have it all, but where? Let's say... GRYFFINDOR!"

It was almost as if a massive weight had been lifted off my shoulders. Gryffindor! Smiling widely, I jumped down from the stool as the whole hall began to applaud and cheer loudly. I practically skipped over to the Gryffindor table, and sat down next to Ron's twin brothers. People were standing up and shaking my hand, congratulating me, and Fred (I think it was Fred, might have been George) pulled me into a hug. I hugged him back happily and sat down next to him, facing back towards the front, as the clapping died down again.

"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, like, 'Finnigan, Seamus', who sat on the stool for almost a while minute before the hat declared him a Gryffindor.

"Granger, Hermione!"

I crossed my fingers under the table, as Mione almost ran to the stool and jammed the hat on her head.

"GRYFFINDOR!" shouted the hat.

I clapped and cheered loudly, and when she reached me, I tackled her into a tight hug, congratulating her loudly. Over her shoulder, I saw Ron groan.

We sat back down next to each other and continued watching the sorting. Neville fell over on his way to the stool. When it finally shouted "GRYFFINDOR!", Neville ran off still wearing it, and had to jog back, to which I laughed loudly.

"Malfoy, Draco!"

I watched as he swaggered forward and got his wish at once; the hat had barely touched his head when it screamed, "SLYTHERIN!"

Malfoy went to join his mates Crabbe and Goyle, looking pleased with himself. I turned back to the front, noticing there wasn't many people left now. 'Moon'... 'Nott'... 'Parkinson'... then a pair of twin girls, 'Patil' and 'Patil'... then 'Perks'... 'Sally-Anne'... and then-

"Potter, Harry!"

I rolled my eyes as whispers suddenly broke out all over the hall.

"Potter, did she say?"

"The Harry Potter?"

Harry walked up to the stool and sat down, clearly ignoring everyone's voices. I waited, my fingers crossed under the table - but for a different reason.

"Please not Gryffindor, please not Gryffindor," I muttered under my breath, receiving a weird look from Fred (or George) beside me.

"GRYFFINDOR!"

I groaned loudly as cheers erupted all over the Gryffindor table, allowing my head to fall into my hands.

I heard the Weasley twins yelled "We got Potter! We got Potter!" And finally, after what seemed like hours, the hall died back down. I felt it safe to look up now, and my gaze instantly locked with Harry's, who had decided to sit directly opposite me. He winked, before facing the front. I scrunched my nose and looked away.

There were only three people left to be sorted, including Ron. 'Turpin, Lisa' became a Ravenclaw and then it was Ron's turn. He looked green. Once more, I crossed my fingers and a second later the hat shouted "GRYFFINDOR!"

I clapped loudly along with everyone else as he collapsed next to Harry, opposite Mione. I leant over and gave him a high five.

"Well done Ron, excellent," said Percy across Harry, as 'Zabini, Blaise' was made a Slytherin. With that, professor McGonagall rolled up the scroll and took the sorting hat away. Now what?