Chapter 3
The doors of the Hogwarts Express closed behind them as Rainy, Fred, and George stepped into the cool night air.
“First years!” a voice boomed, “First years to me!”
Rainy was momentarily blinded by the lantern that was waved around in the direction the voice was coming from.
“Guess that's us,” Fred commented, blinking his eyes rapidly–he had clearly been blinded as well.
The man calling for them turned out to be a tall, broad, man that reminded Rainy of the Ghost of Christmas Present that they had seen in the stageplay of A Christmas Carol as a child. (Rainy and Dio had snuck into it, of course. They hadn’t had the money to spend on something so frivolous.)
They were directed to a fleet of small boats that each fit three to four children. The man with the lantern took one boat all to his own.
Rainy ended up on a boat with the twins and another boy around Rainy’s height with a wild afro.
The boats moved on their own over a large dark lake and Rainy could see a grand castle in the distance, resting on the Scottish highlands like a big sleeping dragon.
Rainy was pulled out of their awestruck viewing when the boats softly bumped against a dock on the other side of the lake near a boat house.
The man with the lantern was already out of his boat and leading the group forward to-
“How many fucking stairs are those?!” Rainy exclaimed.
There were a couple of giggles from the children around them as the man with the lantern turned back around.
“Just a couple,” he assured them.
Rainy looked at the steep staircase that was hewn into the side of the mountain and decided that this guy was full of shit.
Drenched in sweat, the first years arrived in the entrance hall. They stood by a grand staircase to the right of the door they had entered through.
“That was such bullshit,” Rainy panted, leaning onto a cool marble railing.
“Should have gone to Erehnoll instead,” another first-year muttered next to Rainy, his face planted to the marble.
They didn't wait long until a door on the opposite side of the door they had come through opened and an older woman in dark green robes and a pointy black hat decorated with three pheasant feathers stalked towards them.
She seemed to quickly count through the group of children before nodding to herself.
“Welcome to Hogwarts. I am Professor McGonagall, Head of Gryffindor House. In a moment you will be sorted into your first-year houses,” she told them, “There is a chance, small as it is, that this will be your house for the next seven years. More than likely, you will be in more than one house during your schooling. Whether or not you remain in this year's house, we expect you to take pride in yourself, your house, and your school throughout this year. Follow me.”
The double doors in front of them opened and let them peer into a ginormous dining hall. Four tables were placed on sandstone tiles. All around, the walls were decked out in different moving portraits. The ceiling seemed transfigured to show the night sky as it currently was, and the rest of the space above their heads was filled with floating candles.
Rainy hoped they wouldn't drip hot wax onto them.
The first-years were herded to the other end of the hall, in front of a head table seating multiple witches and wizards of different ages. (It had to be the teacher's table, as Snape was seated at it and Rainy noticed he seemed to be one of the youngest amongst them. The only teacher who looked to be his age was a woman with long black and red hair seated next to him.)
Behind the table, on the right, there were four big glasses–almost like hourglasses–that were filled with yellow, green, red, and blue gems respectively. Rainy assumed this was a fancy wizarding way of counting house points. If Hugh Hudson Academy had dared to use gems for house point counting, Rainy doubted it would have taken very long for someone to break in and steal all of said gems.
In the middle of the table, an old man with a long grey-white beard sat in a light blue outfit involving way too many layers and rhinestones (or maybe actual gems, who knew).
McGonagall now stood by a three-footed stool. On the stool was an old brown leather hat that was as pointy as any wizarding hat Rainy knew.
“Once I call your name, you will come forth. I shall place the sorting hat on your head, and you will be sorted into your houses.”
McGonagall conjured up a roll of parchment and began reading out names.
She went through a handful of names before coming to, “Baggins, Rainy.”
Rainy went forward. They took the offered hat and sat down. When the old leather touched their curls, a deep voice sounded inside their head.
Ah, a traveller, said the voice. So very few of you grace these halls. And even less are human!
Rainy made an offended face, Excuse you! I’m a hobbit!
Are you now? asked the hat. If you say so. Well, then. I see you’d fit quite well in any of the houses.
Slytherin sounds the coolest, Rainy remarked.
And you will find a home amongst them sooner or later, but for now, I think you'll do quite well in “HUFFLEPUFF!”
The last word rang as much through the hall as it did through Rainy's skull. They tore the hat off and handed it back to McGonagall before turning to the cheering table in gold and black.
Rainy’s uniform changed to represent his house as he sat down next to a blond boy.
“I’m Connor!” the boy introduced himself, “Welcome to Hufflepuff!”
“Thanks!”
Fred and George were both sorted into Gryffindor–where they joined a group of other redheads–and so was the boy, Lee Jordan, who had been on the boat with them.
“One day we'll get a first-year Weasley of our own,” a girl with bright pink hair prophesized.
After the welcoming ceremony, including the feast, was concluded and the headmaster told them all not to go into the Forbidden Forrest–Rainy made immediate plans to take a look around–the students were sent to their dorms.
“Who made you prefect?” a boy asked the pink-haired girl from earlier.
“Sprout thinks she's funny,” another boy said shrugging.
Rainy noticed that both he and the pink-haired girl had silver badges on their robes.
“You taking the firsties up?” the boy asked.
“Sure thing!” the pink-haired girl turned to the group of first-years that were waiting for directions to their dorm.
“Hey, everyone! I’m Tonks, one of your prefects. If you have any questions throughout the year, just ask me or Devan over there,” she pointed in the direction of the other prefect, who gave a short wave before leaving with a group of other boys.
The first years sorted into Hufflepuff followed Tonks slowly through the castle to their dorm. On the way there, Tonks took the time to introduce them to various paintings and point out certain quirks of the castle–like disappearing steps or doors that led to nowhere.
They eventually arrived at the entrance to the Hufflepuff common room. To Rainy’s great delight, the entrance was a round wooden door, similar to that of smials–commonly referred to as hobbit holes.
“Alright, pay attention!” Tonks called out, walking to the side where a number of barrels stood.
Tonks hit one of the barrels in a musical beat and the round door opened.
“We change the melody every few months and the barrel order gets changed every year,” Tonks warned.
She closed the door and repeated the beat on the barrel for everyone to memorize it.
Once the first-years seemed to grasp the melody, Tonks led them all inside and pointed the students towards their correct dorms.
“Remember that breakfast is at seven-thirty, first period starts at nine. You’ll get your schedules during breakfast, so at least be there tomorrow, yeah?”
The first-years chorused in agreement and Tonks sent them off with a cheerful “Goodnight!”
Rainy's new dorm was a round room with five poster beds. The ceiling had wooden beams across it and half-circle windows were spaced out between the beds.
Each bed was labelled with a student's name at the foot end. In order, the plagues read Rainy Baggins, Yasmine Castellanos, Emmy Drummond, Leila Hay, and Rosen Payne.
Rainy walked towards their bed and found that Cowboy’s crate had been parked beside it, in front of a wooden dresser.
“Do you have a cat too?” the girl that stood by the bed labelled Leila Hay asked.
“Yeah!” Rainy told her, “His name is Cowboy!”
“Oh!” she seemed excited now, bending down to pull an orange tabby from his crate, “This is Prudence.”
The cat made a disgruntled noise but didn't try to get out of the girl’s grip.
Leila let him down again anyway.
“I’m Leila, by the way. Rainy, right?”
Rainy nodded and opened Cowboy’s crate. The cat zoomed out and made a bee-line towards Prudence.
The dorm mates watched with bated breaths as the cats interacted. They hissed at each other but didn't seem too opposed to the other feline, both returning to their human and staring at each other from across the room.
“Anyone else got a cat to introduce?” a pale girl with dark hair pulled back into a loose braid asked. Her bed read Yasmine Castellanos.
The remaining occupants of the room shook their heads.
“Good. I don't think I could deal with it if they started fighting each other,” she sighed tiredly, already tucked beneath her blankets. Rainy had no idea when she had gotten changed. They must have been distracted by the cats.
“We should sleep, Tonks said not to miss breakfast,” a redhead, climbing into the bed labelled Emmy Drummond said. “We can get to know each other later.”
There were agreeing murmurs as everyone got ready for bed and tucked themselves in.
“Goodnight!” Rainy called out and was answered by both Leila and Emmy. It seemed the other two were already asleep. It had been a long day after all.
Rainy pulled Cowboy a little closer, who huffed in offence but let it happen, turned around to lay on their side with the cat in front of him, and promptly fell asleep.