Harry Potter And The Lord Of Darkness

The door slowly opened with an ominous croak. A tall, black-haired witch in scarlet-red robes stood there.

"The firs' years, Professor McGonagall," said the big man giving her a nod.

"Thank you, Hagrid. I will take them from here." She pulled the door wide as Hagrid, the big man walked away. The entrance hall was grand and majestic. The stone walls were lit

with flaming torches, the ceiling seemed to go on forever, and a magnificent marble staircase facing them led to the upper floors.

They followed Professor McGonagall across the flagged stone floor. They passed a door before entering into a small, empty chamber off the hall. They crowded in, standing rather closer together than they would usually have done, 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 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."

"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 on each student for a moment, as if she was attempting to identify the parts that weren't satisfactory.

"I shall return when we are ready for you," said Professor McGonagall. "Please wait quietly."

The moment she left the chamber, a drawling voice called out. "It's true then, what they're saying on the train? Harry Potter has come to Hogwarts."

A blonde boy walked out of the crowd and faced a black haired boy with glasses. On his face was a snobbish smirk. Two other boys also walked to the sides of the boy. Both of them were thickset and looked extremely mean. Standing on either side of the pale boy, they looked like bodyguards.

Daphne leaned over to Arth. "It looks like drama is about to happen."

"Mmm."

"This is Crabbe and this is Goyle," said the pale boy carelessly, "And my name's Malfoy, Draco Malfoy."

A red haired boy gave a slight cough, which might have been hiding a snigger. Draco Malfoy looked at him.

"Think my name's funny, do you? No need to ask who you are. My father told me all the Weasleys have red hair, freckles, and more children than they can afford."

"Ooh!" Daphne whispered to Arth, "this is getting intense."

"Mmm."

Malfoy turned back to the boy with glasses, who must've been Harry. "You'll soon find out some wizarding families are much better than others, Potter. You don't want to go making friends with the wrong sort. I can help you there."

He held out his hand to shake Harry's, but Harry didn't take it.

"I think I can tell who the wrong sort are for myself, thanks," he said coolly.

Draco Malfoy didn't go red, but a pink tinge appeared in his pale cheeks.

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

"That was super intense! We're you watching that, Arth?"

"Mmm," replied Arth, who was to busy playing with Corvus who found a new hobby of playing with a loose string that dangled from Arth's bag.

"Now, form a line," Professor McGonagall told the first years, "and follow me."

They walked out of the chamber, back across the hall, and through a pair of double doors into the Great Hall. The hall 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.

A velvety black ceiling dotted with stars.

"Its bewitched to look like the sky outside. I read about it in Hogwarts, A History," someone said, however, Arth didn't care enough to notice who did.

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.

For a few seconds, there was complete silence. Then the hat twitched. A rip near the brim opened wide like a mouth -- and the hat began to sing.

Arth noticed that Corvus was feeling a bit hot and took him out of his pocket and placed Corvus onto his head.

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.

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.

"HUFFLEPUFF!" shouted the hat.

The table on the right cheered and clapped as Hannah went to sit down at the Hufflepuff table.

"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.

" Brocklehurst, Mandy" went to Ravenclaw too, but "Brown, Lavender" became the first new Gryffindor, and the table on the far left exploded with cheers.

"Bulstrode, Millicent" then became a Slytherin.

"Finch-Fletchley, Justin!" "HUFFLEPUFF!"

"Finnigan, Seamus," "Gryffindor."

"Granger, Hermione!"

Arth noticed the brown haired girl who was looking for Neville's toad almost ran to the stool and jammed the hat eagerly on her head. "GRYFFINDOR!" shouted the hat.

"Greengrass, Daphne."

Daphne gave Arth a nervous grin before standing up and heading towards the hat. She placed the hat on her head and waited. A few seconds later the hat screamed "Slytherin!" And Daphne took the hat off with a relieved expression. As she made her way towards the Slytherin table, she whispered into Arth's ear.

"I hope you will join me in Slytherin."

"Kingscrown, Arthur."

Arth calmly dropped his bag onto the floor and placed Corvus on top, before making his way to the hat. As he walked up and put on the hat, his eye met a old man with a silvery long beard. He saw, for a split second, pity and sadness.

The hat immediately began talking to Arth the moment he put it on.

"Interesting, very interesting. You have great courage and great confidence. You also have a desire to prove, however, your desire to learn out performs them all. In that case, you better be- RAVENCLAW!"

Arth took the hat off and placed it onto the chair as the Ravenclaw table exploded into cheers.

He picked up his bag, placed Corvus onto his head once more before heading to the Ravenclaw table. From the Slytherin table, he could see that Daphne had on a disappointed look.

Arth sat down and took out a book from his bag, as the remaining first years were sorted into their houses.