The gate immediately opened. Infront of them was standing a tall, black-haired witch, Harry's head of the house, in his original life.
"These are first years, Professor McGonagall." Hagrid announced.
"Thanks, Hagrid. I'll take care of them from now," she opened the gate wide open. The entrance hall was the same as he remembered it before the war had officially started.
Then McGonagal led them to a small chamber where everyone was so close to eachother that it made all of them just more nervous. Harry was also nervous, ironically, for the same reason as all of his classmates: everyone in the room is wondering what house they'll go to.
"Welcome to Hogwarts," McGonagal welcomed them, "in a short while the gala banquet, in the honour of the beginning of a new school year, will begin. But before you'll sit down, you'll be sorted into your house. The sorting is a very important ceremony, because while you're here at Hogwarts, your house will be almost as a family to you. In it you'll have connected schooltable, you'll sleep at your house's dormitory and you'll spend your free time at the house's common room.
We have four houses, which are called Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff and Slytherin. Every single one of them has a famous history and out of each one came out a lot of great and brilliant wizards and witches. While you're at Hogwarts, for each of your success you'll get points for your house, although, if you violate any of the school rules you'll lose points. The house with the highest amount of points at the end of each year will win the year house cup, the highest honour. I strongly believe that every one of you will be a growth and strength for your house.
The sorting ceremony will start in a few minutes and it'll happen infront of the eyes of the eyes of the whole school. So, while you'll wait, fix yourself a bit."
Her eyes landed on Neville, who, somehow, had his habit tied right under his left ear; and on Ron's dirty nose.
"Just as everything will be prepared I'll come for you." McGonagal told all of them, "Be here, please, quiet."
"How do you think they'll sort us?" Ron asked Harry, who just remembered he has to keep pretending.
Ron took the surprised look as him not knowing, goes, "Fred told me we'll have some test, which hurts a lot, but I think he was just joking,."
Harry sighed, pretending to be a surprised, slightly scared, kid. This isn't how the sorting goes, the sorting doesn't hurt at all actually.
"What's...?" Some of the kids screamed out of surprise.
Harry immediately started looking around to see what caused the screaming. To his relief, he very quickly found out that it's because of the ghosts that just entered the room through the back wall. The ghosts are talking to eachother and seem like they hadn't noticed the first years under them. They were arguing.
"I'm telling you, forgive and forget, we should give him one more chance." Fat Friar told the other ghost.
"My dear Friar, haven't we given Peeves more then enough chances? He's giving us a bad reputation, and, you know it very well that he isn't even a ghost - and what are you doing here?" Nearly headless Nick finally noticed the students underneath them.
None of the people on the floor answered.
"New students!" Fat Friar smiled widely. "You're waiting for the sorting, right?"
Some of the kids nodded.
"I hope you'll be in Ravenclaw!" He called out, "You know, I've gone there too."
"You can come," a firm voice said, "the sorting ceremony will start in a short while." McGonagal said. "Stand in row and come with me," she ordered them.
The ghosts began leaving and going to the Great Hall.
After everyone had got to where they were supposed to go, McGonagal walked out of the room and everyone followed her.
After they went into the next room through big doubledoors they've entered the Great Hall.
It looks they same as it did in his memories.
McGonagal led them into the middle of the Great Hall infront of the stairs, leading to the table, behind which the professors are sitting.
And, of course, everyone was staring at him. But now, it's not because he's Harry Potter, not entirely. Most of the people are staring at him as much as they are staring at all of the other first years. Harry doesn't like it when people stare at him, but over the years, he got used to it, and is very easily able to ignore it, especially when tired.
Suddenly, he heard Hermione whispering to someone, "they bewitched it, so it would look like a real sky. I've read about it in Hogwarts: A History."
He just realized she was whispering to him, and he also just realized that he was absent-mindedly staring at the ceiling. He immediately looked back down, but was refusing to look at anyone, completely forgetting to thank or say something, anything to Hermione, when McGonagal placed a chair infront of them, and then put an old hat, in a terrible shape. The Sorting Hat.
For a few seconds everyone was in state of absolute silence. Students who've been here, in atleast the second year, because they're patiently waiting for the Hat's song and then the sorting itself. New students, because they're anxiously waiting and wondering what's coming.
Suddenly, the Sorting 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 Hufflepuffs 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 folks 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!"
When the hat finished its song every non-new student began clapping. The hat bowed to each of the four tables and then he remained still again.
"We don't have to do anything, but put it on our heads," Ron suddenly whispered to Harry, "I'll kill Fred, he told me that we'll have to fight a troll or something."
After the whole room has quieted again, McGonagal came to the front, already holding a roll of parchment.
"When I'll read your name, you'll put on the hat and you'll sit on this chair." She said.
Then she opened the parchment and read the first name: "Abbott Hannah!"
A pink-cheeked girl with blond braids put on the hat and sat down.
After a short while of silence the hat yelled: "RAVENCLAW!"
Hannah put down the hat and walked towards the Ravenclaw table, where people were clapping.
"Bones Susan!"
"RAVENCLAW!"
"Boot Terry!"
"HUFFLEPUFF!"
"Brocklehurst Mandy!"
"HUFFLEPUFF!"
"Brown Lavender!"
"GRYFFINDOR!"
Harry stopped paying much attention, only listening for the moment when he'll hear his own name get called.
But he payed slightly more attention when it was Hermione's turn.
"Granger Hermione!"
"GRYFFINDOR!"
He heard Ron sigh. Harry could not help but feel relieved that this stayed the same.
"Longbottom Neville!"
The Sorting Hat was thinking for a long while, this got Harry fearing that, after all, things are already changing, but to his relief the hat yelled: "GRYFFINDOR!"
Just like the last time, Neville was so glad to get sorted into Gryffindor, that, when he ran to the Gryffindor table, he forgot to put the hat down and give it to McDougal Morag.
When it was Malfoy's turn, he grinned with the same pride as before, and just like last time, he was sorted into Slytherin.
Harry stopped paying attention again, only hearing on the surface level that McGonagal called out: Moon, Nott, Parkinson, the Patil twins, Perks Sally-Anne...
And then finally...
"Potter Harry!"
Harry's attention was on full power again. He walked towards the chair, and, of course, everyone started whispering.
"Did she say Potter?"
"That Harry Potter?"
And then, to Harry's relief, the sorting hat had completely blocked the view of everyone staring at him. Everyone in the room quieted down.
"Hmm..." the hat said, within itself, so quietly that only the person who's wearing it can hear it, "why are you here again?" The hat asked, genuinely surprised and confused.
Right, the Sorting hat has the access to the person's mind, but only while the person is wearing it.
"I have no idea," Harry started explaining everything it in his head, "I was just hit with the killing curse and then I was suddenly brought back... I even saw the afterlife, I think..."
"Hmm, yes, that's very strange... that's never happened before... not without a timeturner that is... but even then..." the hat stated.
"So none of us know why this happened,"
"No... so, where to put you... you would do really well in Slytherin, especially with your Parseltongue ability..."
"No, please, not Slytherin. I don't want to go to the same house as my murderer did when he was a student here..."
"Okay... but you do still have the part of his soul in you, did you know that?"
"Unfortunately yes," Harry sighed, "but... I doubt you'll be able to even help me with this... but how old is the part of Voldemort's soul that is in me? I fear the one from my original timeline has traveled back with me..."
"Hmm... it seems like you only have one in your body..."
"Phew..."
"But I have no idea how old it actually is..."
"Oh... well atleast I don't have two inside me-!"
"Okay, but back to your sorting, you don't want this to be ten minutes long, do you?" The hat went back to the actual reason he's wearing the hat.
"Oh," that caught Harry off gaurd a bit but agrees, "yea."
"So... you would do brilliantly in Slytherin; you have determination in you, you have the want to reach your goals through whatever means necessary... but you also would do just as well in Gryffindor; you have a lot of bravery, need to save people, even if it meant you losing your life, as well as wanting to save the whole wizarding world from the Dark Lord... Hmm... this is a very hard decision, truly very hard... where would you like to go?"
"I would rather be in Gryffindor then Slytherin, thank you very much." Harry thought bitterly.
"Alright then, it was nice to have a chat with you again." and then the Sorting Hat yelled to everyone in the outside world: "GRYFFINDOR!"
Harry completely forgot just how loud that yell is when you're the one wearing the hat. But he ignored the post-effect and put the hat off his head and put it quickly back on the chair and walked towards the Gryffindor table. Just like the last time he received the biggest applause.
Percy stood up and began shaking his hand fast and furious until the twins started screaming: "We have Potter! We have Potter!".
Harry sat down opposite of Nearly Headless Nick. The ghosts patted him on his shoulder, and just as he remembers it, it felt as if someone sank him into a bucket with ice cold water.
Harry looked at the high table, just out of the blue. He guessed it was automatic.
People behind it sat in their common seats: Hagrid on the end that's the nearest to him, in the middle sat Dumbledore, and somewhere to the other end, sat Quirrell.
When Hagrid noticed that Harry was looking at him, he smiled faintly and put both of the thumbs up.
Quirrell was as nervous as he always was, wearing the same purple turban as he always did; this got him wondering about something, something that he wondered about almost all the time when he was thinking of Hogwarts while he was still at the Dursleys... is Voldemort on the back of his head already?
He broke out of these thoughts when he heard McGonagall call out: "Weasley Ronald".
Ron walked and sat down on the chair and put the hat on. Harry hopes that the house Ron's gets sorted in stays unchanged too. He let out a relieved sigh when he heard the yell of the Sorting Hat: "GRYFFINDOR!"
Harry began furiously clapping, along with everyone. When someone gets sorted, everyone in the Great Hall begins to clap, but people from the house said person gets sorted into, is always the most energetic and loudest.
An exhausted Ron sat beside him.
"Awesome, Ron, you were great!" Percy told Ron just as Blaise Zambini got sorted into Slytherin and McGonagall rolled the parchment back and took the Sorting Hat away.
Dumbledore then stood up and everyone quieted into silence. He smiled kindly at all of the students and stretched his hands as if just seeing everyone is a huge joy for him.
"Welcome!" He called out, "Welcome in your new school year at Hogwarts! Before the banquet itself will start let me say some words." He called out again: "Dummy! Fat! Wheezes! Pinch!
Thank you everyone!"
Then he sat back down. Everyone was happy, celebrating and was clapping. Harry almost forgot just how weird the first speech from Dumbledore, Harry had heard was this weird.
He looked back at the table and noticed that the food had appeared again.
Harry, who had just realized that he's hungry again, since it was a really long time since he'd eaten at the train. He put some of the food onto his plate and began eating, just as everyone is doing right now.
"That looks good," Nearly Headless Nick sighed sadly, not looking away from the steak that Harry is currently eating and cutting.
Harry just nodded in reply, he was already, conveniently, chewing the steak.
The ghost sighed again, "I haven't eaten in almost four hundred years. I don't have to eat, but, you know, person misses it. Sir Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington, at your service. Permanent citizen of the Gryffindor tower."
"I know who you are!" Ron suddenly said, "My brothers told me about you - you're Nearly Headless Nick!"
"I would be glad if you'll call me Sir Nicholas de Mimsy..." he said unhappily but Seamus jumped in.
"Nearly Headless? How can you be Nearly headless?"
Nearly Headless Nick now looked completely unhappy, as if the conversation wasn't heading the way he wanted it to go.
"This is how," he said, irritated. He grabbed his left ear and pulled. His whole head got off his neck and fell onto his shoulder, as if it was on a hinge. He coughed and said: "so - new Gryffindor's reinforcements! I hope that this year we'll be able to win the house cup. It never happened before that Gryffindor hadn't won for this long. Slytherin won the house cup for the sixth year one-after-another! It's unbearable with Bloody Baron - that's the main ghost of Slytherin."
Harry glanced at the Slytherin table, he had completely forgotten that before his time at Hogwarts Slytherin used to win the house cup all the time.
"Why is he almost whole covered in blood?" Seamus asked curiously about the Bloody Baron.
"I don't know, I haven't asked him," Nearly Headless Nick replied diplomatically.
After everyone has eaten as much as they could from the main course. The food was replaced by desserts: huge scoops of ice cream, in various flavors of course!; apple pies, and much more.
Just as Harry was taking some of the ice cream, the conversation had twisted onto family.
"I'm half and half," Seamus began explaining, "my dad is a muggle, and my mom is a witch; she confessed after their wedding, it was a huge shocker for him"
Others started laughing.
"What about you, Neville?" Ron asked.
"Well, I live with my grandma and she's a witch," Neville explained, "my whole family was convinced that I'm through-and-through a muggle. My granduncle Algie tried a bunch of times to get some magic out of me - one time he threw me from the Blackpool pier, I almost drowned - until my eight birthday I hadn't showed any magic. One day, greatuncle Algie came to dinner to ours; he was holding me out of a window from a floor by my ankle head-down, just in that moment greataunt Enid suggested a snow cake to him; he forgot about me for a while and let go of me; and I started bouncing around the garden like a ball, I even got onto the road. Everyone was amazed, gran even started crying out of joy. You should've seen how they looked when I came back - they thought they'll never see me again. Greatuncle Algie was so happy that he bought me a toad."
To Harry's other side Percy and Hermione were having a conversation about school.
Harry's exhaustion was finally catching up to him on a conscious level.
Harry looked at the high table. Hagrid was drinking from his goblet; McGonagall was conversing with Dumbledore; Quirrell was also having a conversation, but with Snape. Snape stopped paying attention to Quirrell's turban and stared straight into Harry's eyes-
Suddenly, Harry felt a piercing, but brief, pain in his scar.
He breathed in suddenly at the pain and his hand flew up onto his scar - out of reflex. His scar hadn't hurt for about three months, he guessed that he had started to forget that his scar can hurt whenever Voldemort is near.
"What happened?" Percy asked.
"Nothing," Harry replied automatically.
There it was, the answer whether Voldemort is, or isn't, already on Quirrell's head.
At the end, even the desserts had disappeared and Dumbledore stood up once again.
"Hmm - now, that we've all eaten and drank, let me say a few more words. I have a few instructions, following with the start of the school year.
I ask all of the first years, to take onto mind that it's strictly prohibited for students to enter the Forbidden Forest. And to some students from higher grades, I warn, that this applies to them too."
Yea, as if Harry would've wanted to go to the Forbidden Forest anytime soon.
Dumbledore looked away from the twins and back at the general direction of all of the students.
"Mister Filch, our caretaker, asked me to remind you that spell-casting is prohibited in the halls when the periods are over.
The Quidditch tournament will begin in the second week of school. Ones of you, who are interested in playing for your house, are to sign up at madam Hooch.
And one more thing, to everyone, who doesn't want to die in a long and horrible death, I recommend, to never enter the first hall on the third floor!"
Some people, mostly first years, and some Slytherins, laughed.
"And before we go to sleep, we'll sing the school anthem!" Dumbledore called out. The smiles on the faces of the other teachers were a little forced.
Dumbledore swished with his wand, and a golden ribbon flew out of it, and flew high above the tables and formed letters.
"Everyone, choose your favorite melody," Dumbledore said, "and sing!"
And the who school began to sing:
"Hogwarts, Hogwarts, Hoggy Warty Hogwarts,
Teach us something please,
Whether we be old and bald,
Or young with scabby knees,
Our heads could do with filling,
With some interesting stuff,
For now they're bare and full of air,
Dead flies and bits of fluff,
So teach us things worth knowing,
Bring back what we've forgot,
Just do your best, we'll do the rest,
And learn until our brains all rot."
Everyone was done at a different time, out of coincidence, Harry and Ron had finished singing at around the same time.
When it was just the last two people, it turned out that only the twins were singing; they sang in a slow, funeral-y way. So, Dumbledore dirigented their last tacts. When they were done, his clapping was the most powerful from everyone.
"Oh, music," he sighed as he wiped his eyes, "Miracle over miracles! And now, off to the beds you go!"
Gryffindor first years started following Percy, between the loud crowd of people. They left the Great Hall and began walking up the stairs towards the Gryffindor common room. Harry was so tired that he was barely able to walk, but the exhaustion motivated him to move.
Harry was shot out of his numb exhausted state when a bunch of walking sticks fell onto Neville's head.
"What-?" Percy turned around, he immediately looked up, "of course - Peeves!"
Suddenly, a sound when you let the air out of a balloon.
"Peeves - show yourself."
Laughter began to sound. Peeves still hadn't shown himself yet though.
"Should I go to the Bloody Baron?"
That got Peeves to finally show up; he was grinning maliciously, despite the thread.
"Hohoho," he called out and began giggling, "first years! How funny!"
Suddenly, he threw himself on them, everyone covered their heads with their hands, Harry reflexively did the same.
"Get lost, Peeves, or I'll tell Bloody Baron about this, and I mean it seriously!" Percy retorted.
Peeves stuck out his tongue and disappeared. It's audible that as he went far away he rattles with the armor.
"Be wary of Peeves," Percy warned as they continued walking, "Bloody Baron is the only one, who he is scared of, otherwise he won't even listen to us, prefects. And were here."
The stopped infront of the painting of the Fat Lady.
"Password?" She asked.
"Caput Draconis" Percy replied.
The Fat Lady nodded and opened to the hole in the wall. They've gotten through it, (they had to help Neville, who was still shaken from the fallen sticks), and they ended up in the Gryffindor common room.
Percy then gestured and explained where the girls go to their dormitory and where boys do.
Finally, they've walked up the stairs to the very top, to their dormitory, where all of their luggage already is.
Everyone was too tired for proper conversations so they just changed into pajamas and layed down.
"Awesome dinner, right?" Ron asked.
"Yea," Harry replied as he lied down onto his bed.
"Shove off, Scabbers! He's always chewing my duvet."
After that Ron lied down too.
Only about a minute later, everyone fell asleep.