Mikaela took off the hat quickly. First, she looked at me solemnly, then turned to the Gryffindor table and did a tiny smile. But the smile was gone as soon as it had come, and I could tell that she was thinking the same thing that I was:

We were both alone now, neither of us knew anyone in our new houses. We had been eachothers’ only real friends ever since first grade, and neither of us had any idea how to make new ones.

In third grade, they decided to have assigned seats at lunch, and they split up Mrs. Harla’s and Mrs. Abraham’s classes. Mikaela and I would wave to eachother from a table away, but for the most part, lunch was horribly boring, and I was completely silent the whole time. Was Slytherin going to be like that? Would I have no friends again? For seven years?

There was a great hush over the whole room when McGonogall called

“Potter, Harry”. He was  the famous one. I recognized him from the boat ride over. I had already decided to hate him when I found out he was famous on the train, but when I watched him step up to the stool, I saw how cute and little he was. He looked weak and afraid.

“So that’s Harry Potter.” said Flint, eyeing him. “Not so impressive, hmm, Gemma?”

“Ssh. He could be worth something.” Said the black-haired girl, Gemma.

“GRYFFINDOR!” Announced the hat. Gemma let out a disappointed sigh and slunk back in her chair. Flint slapped the table.

“Nevermind,” Gemma said.

The sorting went on after that. The last person to be sorted was Wilkowske, Sophie, into Ravenclaw, and then the sorting was over. 

I wasn’t feeling completely dismal. So, okay. I was split up from my friend for the next seven years, and was now in league with a bunch of dark wizards, and I would have to see Draco every day for the next seven years, and apparently there was some sort of blood rivalry between the Gryffindors and the Slytherins, but you know, at least I was here. I was a student at Hogwarts. I had a wand and a set of robes. I was going to learn magic.

I looked up at the panel of teachers. I could only describe them as a colorful bunch. Far to the left was the enormous bearded man, who was thumbs-upping Harry Potter in Gryffindor. There was a skinny sort of man with a large purple turban, who was fidgeting a lot. Next to him was a pale, inky-haired man wearing all black and no smile. I made a note to stay out of his way. There was McGonogall, who equaled him in humorlessness, and there was a friendly-looking fat little woman with grey hair and an earthy demeanor. There was an even littler man, about the height of a goblin, who was smiling broadly. In the center was a merlin-esque wizard, with a long white beard, a crooked nose, and half-moon spectacles. He wore a pointed wizard’s cap. I figured he must be the man in charge around here. 

He stood up and looked super happy at us.

“Welcome! Welcome to a new year at Hogwarts!” He beamed. “Before we begin our banquet, I would like to say a few words. And here they are: Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak!”

There are no words to describe the extent of adoration I now felt for this wizard. 

“Thank you.” He said, sitting down.

Everyone jumped up to applaud, me harder than others.

“He’s fantastic!” I squealed.

“Straight-up loony, though.” Said Gemma. “Got a soft spot for the Gryffs.”

“What he’s got is a vendetta against us.” Complained Flint. “He rigs things against us, you know. He’d better be replaced soon, or I’m leaving.”

“Flint’s just sore ‘cause he lost the Quidditch cup last year to Hufflepuff.” Said Gemma.

“On a technicality.” He hissed madly.

“Technicality, bullshit. I saw you out there, frolicking around in the rain like a lumbering ballerina while Hufflepuff put about a hundred and eighty points between you, even if you hadn’t been penalized for bludgering Diggory’s arm the moment it touched the snitch, you still would have lost.”

“If it wasn’t for Dumbledore accusing us of cheating, WE WOULD HAVE WON!” He bellowed.

“Marcus, you bloody oaf, a hundred and eighty points! The snitch is one fifty! Do the math, genius.”

I looked down at the table, noticing that all of a sudden, the great hall was full of food. Millicent Bullstrode was shoveling bacon and sausage, just straight-up bacon and sausage, onto her golden plate. The bacon and sausage dishes kept refilling themselves, though, so there was enough for everyone (though Millicent had taken probably six helpings worth).

There was literally everything anyone could wish for on the table. I wondered if maybe the magic plates could tell what our favorite foods were, or if whoever was in charge of supplying them had picked the widest array possible? A lot of what was on the table was meat, and even more was British comfort food, and there was also candy. I excavated the thing I had been most hoping for from the growingly massive struggle going on in the center of the table to get as much food as possible. It was a small bowl of chicken ginger curry with rice, which, even though it was so small and close to me that I wondered if it was a personal gift, refilled over and over so that if everyone had wanted some, they could have had all they wanted.

No green beans, but there were peas, which were green, and good with the curry. The most wonderful thing of all was my goblet, which filled periodically with all sorts of things I liked: Iced chai, raspberry tea, and pink lemonade. Still thirsty from the train ride over, I drank it all, aware that I would have to pee really bad in about twenty minutes.

There wasn’t a lot of talk going on over the sounds of plates and forks clinking, but at one point we heard the Gryffindor table let out a few shrieks when a ghost decided to unhinge his head.

“Nearly Headless Nick,” explained Gemma. “the Gryffindor house ghost. Whoever was in charge of beheading him wasn’t qualified enough, evidently. Now he’s sort of a show-off; he does that all the time.” She motioned to down where Draco was sitting, next to a very creepy, blood-covered ghost, who he was slowly inching away from. “We’ve got the Bloody Baron. Don’t get on his bad side, but if you’re on his good side, he’ll scare people for you if you ask him, especially Gryffindors.”

The feast was replaced by four giant tablefuls of dessert. Millicent, who I thought could not possibly eat any more, helped herself to four chocolate eclairs and two scoops of ice cream. I had a piece of lemon cake and a scoop of pistachio gelato.

After dessert, Dumbledore stood up again. Everyone shut up.

“Just a few more words, now that we are all fed and watered. I have a few start-of-term notices to give you. First years should note that the forest in the grounds is forbidden to all pupils.”

“Werewolves in there, you know.” Flint whispered to me, grinning.

“And a few of our older students would do well to remember that as well. I have also been asked by Mr. Filch, the caretaker, to remind you all that no magic should be used between classes in the corridors.” Flint gave Gemma a look, and she kicked him under the table.

I had been getting sleepier and sleepier since we had arrived, and it all culminated at that moment, when my head slunk down into my arms on the table and I dozed off. I heard something maybe about the third floor.

I awoke to a tremendous cacophony of sound. Everyone seemed to be singing, though they were completely different tunes. I stood up quickly, accidentally knocking over the bench that Millicent and I had been sharing, and tried to follow. I couldn’t quite tell what was going on, and stared in silence, trying to find someplace to start.

I noticed Malfoy wasn’t singing, looking “too cool” to participate. So to spite him, I sang the first part of “A Whole New World” just to contribute to the noise. 

Everyone clapped as the last two Gryffindors finished singing.

“Ah, Music. A magic beyond all we do here.” Dumbledore said. “And now, bedtime! Off you trot!”

I resolved to make Dumbledore my first new friend. 

Gemma stood up. I noticed now that she had a blue badge with a P on it in addition to her Slytherin insignia.

“First years, follow me!” She said professionally. We all got in a line behind her, which to me seemed sort of demeaning; did she think we were going to get lost?

As soon as I found my place in line, I felt two large shadows looming behind me, and at once Draco cut in front of me, followed by his two gargoyle protectors. 

“Hey!” I said.

“Wizards first,” he sneered. Crabbe and Goyle chuckled. Too sleepy to respond, I took my place at the back of the line, and began to follow, making sure to step on Goyle’s heels as often as I could. 

All four houses of first-years left the great hall at once, and I passed Mikaela, who was also back of the line. We all walked down the hall together in sleepy silence, but as soon as Gryffindor and Slytherin forked down different halls, Mikaela grabbed my robe and pulled me aside.

“We’re still going to be friends, right?” She asked me seriously.

“Yessssss....” I said, yawning and blinking rapidly. “We’ve got to have some classes together.”

“Don’t hang out with the mean people.” She advised me. 

“Don’t expect me to start getting friendly with Goyle just cause we have to be in close proximity. And not everyone’s mean,” I added, hoping neither Gemma or Flint turned out to be meaner that I thought.

“Also, I think next year we should coordinate how we sing the school song.”

“Okay,” I said, my eyelids heavy.

“Okay.” Said Mikaela. “Well, bye, then.” She said, trotting off down the hallway the other Gryffindors had disappeared to.

I ran down the dark hallway that I had seen the Slytherins go down. However, I met a slight obstacle when it turned out that the hallway led to a solid wall. I groaned. Too exhausted to work out any sort of plan, I gave up immediately, sat down, and cried. 

About ten minutes later, Mikaela showed up again.

“You lost your house too!” she said unhappily. I was now laying down next to the wall, half-asleep. “We should go back to the Great Hall and ask someone for directions.”

“Okay.” I grumbled, getting up and following her back down the hallway.

When we arrived at the Great Hall, no one was there.

“Aaaaaaaaagh!” Mikaela and I wailed at the same time. The tables and chairs had all stacked themselves against the walls, so there was nothing to lay on except the floor. 

“Now what do we do?” She complained.

“We die. That’s what.”

“Ugh! Someone has to find us eventually.”

“We’re going to get in trouble.” I said. “They’ll start docking house points already. Slytherin is going to hate me before classes even start.” I was on the floor now with my arms and legs splayed out all over. I started to tear up again. “I’m soooooo tired.” I moaned.

“We’ll find someone who can help!” Mikaela said.

“I don’t see how. Everyone is gone.”

“Gryffindor disappeared up some moving stairs. Maybe we can find McGonogall or one of the prefects and they’ll be able to point us in the right directions.”

“Why McGonogall?” I asked.

“She’s the head of Gryffindor.”

“Tough luck,” I said. I got up and we went all the way back down the hall. This time we both turned down Gryffindor’s hall and kept walking till we got to an enormous room filled with paintings. Where it looked like there should be a staircase, there wasn’t one.

“Look!” Mikaela whispered. Floating toward us like on a track was a set of stone stairs. When it got down to our floor and started to look completely solid, we carefully stepped onto it, and when it did not drop us or start moving again or turn out to be incorporeal, we walked up to the next floor. 

“This is where the Gryffindors went!” Said Mikaela excitedly. “The staircase must’ve moved while we were talking, and now they’ve moved back!”

“Hmm.” I said sleepily.

“Shh!” said a woman in a painting hanging just over us, who was trying to sleep apparently. 

Before the staircases had a chance to move again, we hurried off down the dark hallway. 

“Creepy.” I said. The place had a feel of abandonment. It was pitch black and echoey, and not even a ghost was nearby. We kept walking and walking, turning when the hall did, till all traces of light were gone.

“Do we have to go down here?” Mikaela asked, suddenly nervous.

“This is where they went, you said. This is the third floor.”

“What?!?” Mikaela panicked.

“What?” I asked, confused and frightened.

“Dumbledore just said not to come up here!” She had already started backing up.

“Well, how was I supposed to know that?” I argued.

“He just said!! There’s something bad up here!” She said. She grabbed my robes and started pulling me back down the dark hallway.

“What do you mean, something bad?” I yelled, the sound echoing all through the black, deserted hall. 

“Just run!” She said back.

We spotted torchlight, and made the final turn, seeing the archway leading to the staircase room at last, and we both breathed in relief, and raced toward it as fast as possible.

All of a sudden, the two giant stone suits of armor that stood guard on either side of the archway collapsed on top of eachother in our path, completely blocking out the light and barring our escape.

Mikaela and I screamed. We were trapped.

“We’re going to die!” Mikaela wailed.

I had a sudden horrible feeling that a black smoke monster was going to creep up from behind us and envelop us both. 

“Well well well!” Said a very high-pitched, maniacal voice behind us. “Ickle-firsties  think it’s fun to run ‘round the forbidden floor?”

“No! No!” Squealed Mikaela. All of a sudden, a bizarre little man appeared out of thin air.

“Naughty naughty! Bad beasties lurking, where firsties come smirking!” His face was stretched into an insanely wide grin. He cackled and flew up into the air and did a twirl, zooming down toward us. We both ducked, but the little blue man in the red suit swooped and grabbed both our robe tails, and chucked them over our heads, cackling like a madman all the way. I was thrown into even more darkness, and as I stumbled forward, I tripped over what could only have been a foot. 

“AAH Ha ha ha ha!!” He screeched, beside himself with laughter.

“Let us out!” Pleaded Mikaela.

A sudden blast reverberated through the hallway. Light flooded in. I untangled my head from my cloak to see that the statues had been thrown to the sides of the walls, and two figures stood in the doorway.

“Peeves!” Shouted a familiar stern voice. It was McGonogall. The little blue man cackled even more loudly and disappeared with a pop. “Honestly, the nerve of that poltergeist, endangering first-years.”

Mikaela and I wasted not time in running out of the archway as soon as possible.

“Though I wouldn’t forget, Professor, that these students left their groups of their own free will.” Said a second person I hadn’t met yet.

“We-we d-didn’t mean to c-come up here...” I sputtered, realizing I had been crying. Well, I had been convinced I was going to be killed a second ago.

“I suppose you two thought yourselves above listening to your Headmaster’s rules?” Asked the new person, who I recognized from the panel of teachers. He was tall with shoulder-length black hair and a rather large nose.

“The staircases moved!” Mikaela argued. Her face had tears on it too.

“You could have waited,” said McGonogall, “or better yet, asked a prefect for help.”

“We didn’t know... we didn’t know that was the third floor.... I thought that’s where the others had gone... I didn’t know that thing, that poltergeist was up here! It would have killed us!” Yelled Mikaela. To my surprise, McGonogall chuckled.

“Peeves, you mean, Ms. McParlan? Quite an annoyance, I assure you, but in all my years of teaching, he’s never killed a student.” 

“We’re sorry.” I said quickly.

“We’re really sorry!” Added Mikaela.

“Be that as it may, the both of you have violated a most important school rule tonight.” Said the black-haired professor. “Detentions, I believe, are in order.” 

I froze up. Only bad kids got detention. I had never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever gotten into any sort of trouble in my entire school career. Not a white card, nor a pink slip, not a referral, nor a detention, not even a single visit to the principal’s office. And here on my first day, was I going to finally break my perfect streak? Was I going to turn into a bad kid?

“Really, Severus,” said McGonogall, “detentions? I believe it was an honest mistake. They are quite new to the school, after all, and it’s quite easy to get lost.”

Severus’ eyes narrowed.

“Ten points from Gryffindor, then.” He said, grudgingly compromising.

“And Slytherin, likewise.” Added McGonogall, nodding at me. “Now, Professor Snape, would you kindly lead your student to her common room? Ms. McParlan, you may follow me.”

I had the unfortunate realization that this hook-nosed ray of sunshine must be my head of house. As we departed down different staircases, I saw Mikaela mouth at me,

“Tough luck.”