Not Quite What Was Expected

The train began to slow down, and everyone was looking out their windows. But there was nothing to see yet. Albus, Rose Scorpius and Jacob, began stuffing what was left of the sweets into their pockets. Albus reached for his trunk.

“No need to take your trunks, just have yourself ready First Years,” one of the older prefects shouted through their car. Albus stepped out of the compartment, into the crowded narrow walkway. Rose, Jacob and Scorpius followed behind.

“This way! Firs’ Years!” Hagrid’s booming voice came. And when the steam from the train had thinned you could see him at the end of the platform moving the first years along down a steep narrow slippery staircase to the edge of the lake.

“Hiya' Hagrid,” Albus and Rose chimed.

“Albus! Rose!” Hagrid exclaimed. “Firs’ Years follow me!” They followed Hagrid to the front of the snaking line of First Years.

“You’ll catch yer firs’ sight of the castle in just a moment now!” boomed Hagrid. The sky was darkening as the sun set over the other end of the lake, behind the great castle. There were lots of Ohhs and Ahhs from the First Years.

“I want no more’n four to a boat,” Hagrid called pointing to the fleet of little boats sitting at the edge of the lake. The students started piling into the little boats. Albus, Rose, Jacob and Scorpius all in one.

“Everyone in?” shouted Hagrid. He had his own boat, “right – FORWARD!” he comanded and the little fleet of boats sailed off towards the great castle. Everyone was silent, sitting in awe of the great castle looking overhead.

“Heads down,” Hagrid called. They all ducked as the boats passed the curtain of ivy. They were carried along a dark tunnel until they reach this sort of underground harbor, where they filed out onto the rocks and stumbling over some of the pebbles.

“Everyone here?” Hagrid asked. He looked around and knocked on the castle door three times with his gigantic fist. The gigantic doors swung open and they came into the Entrance hall.

“Professor, the Firs’ Years,” Hagrid mumbled to the man in the deep purple robes at the top of the stairs.

“Thank you Hagrid, I’ll take them from here,” The man huffed. Hagrid turned and left. Once Hagrid was gone, the man turned to the children and smiled.

“Hello, my name is Professor Gigglesnort,” he said happily.

“Giggle, snort,” some kids in the back joked. Some giggled and others snorted.

“Yes, I know, my name is very err, strange, but it has some historical importance in it, and you will learn so in your History of Magic classes,” the professor said.

“Before you all take your seats in the Great Hall, you will be sorted into your houses. The sorting is an important ceremony because your stay here in Hogwarts, your house, will be like your family, you will have classes with the rest of your house, sleep in the house dormitories and spend your free time within your house common room. The four houses, as many of you may know, are Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff and Slytherin. Each house has a noble history and each has had outstanding wizards and witches coming from them.
Right then, now, we head to the Great Hall, pairs of two please,” He said lining them up side by side, in the order of their names.

Scorpius was near the middle, Rose was at the end and Albus was in between the two. The giant doors swung open and they got their first look of the Great Hall. The ceiling, well, there was no ceiling! Where the ceiling should have been was the cloudy, night sky, with candles magically floating around.

Albus saw James sitting at the Gryffindor table, chatting with his mates, till he turned and waved at his younger brother. Albus smiled and waved back. Albus also saw Victoire sitting at the Ravenclaw table, she smiled and waved. Albus always liked Victoire; he also liked Uncle Billy very much. Fleur was very pretty and Victoire inherited her mother’s dazzling beauty. Some other Ravenclaw girls sitting around her pointed and then smiled and waved after she nodded.

Albus stood next to a boy whom he did not know. The boy was slightly taller than him, and had blue eyes, green hair and pale skin. Then they all came to a halt, every pair of eyes in the Great Hall were on the First Years.

“Welcome, my dears, to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, I’m Professor McGonagall, the Headmistress of this School for young witches and wizards. Your houses which you are sorted into are very important, your triumphs will earn you house points and your rule-breaking will cost you. At the end of the year the house with the most points is awarded the House Cup, it is a great honor to receive this and I hope that you will all work hard to gain more for each of your houses. And so, let the ceremony begin.”

The hat that Albus had not taken notice of on the stool began to sing, then he remembered, if the hat wanted him to go into Slytherin, it was okay, and if he really did not want to go, he could ask the hat to put him in another house, the hat did it for his dad, and it might as well do it for him. He looked over at the boy standing next to him.

“I’m scared,” the boy whispered suddenly to Albus.

“Don’t worry, I’m sure you’ll get into the house you want,” Albus said softly back to him. The Great Hall filled with applause when the Hat had finished its song.

“All we’ve got to do is put the hat on then?” The boy asked.

“Yeah, I suppose so,” Albus said.

_______________________________________________________________________

took me three days to write this chapter... i was sooo blocked! haha.... i'll update more soon as i can! comments=updates so make sure you comment!! the more comments the faster i'll update... XD

and thanks again to Chester's Turnstiles for editing!!