"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 honour. 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 for a moment on Nigel's cloak, which was fastened under his right ear, on Ronald Weasley's smudged nose and several boys who had adopted rather strange hair styles.
"I shall return when we are ready for you," said Professor McGonagall. "Please wait quietly."
She left the chamber.
Alexandra took a moment to look around. Now that they were all gathered in one place, she could tell there were between forty and fifty new students to be sorted with her. She noticed the pure-blood princess with long blond hair and ice eyes she had met at Madam Malkin's was in the back of the crowd, while Neville Longbottom the Boy-Who Lived was already soaking up attention by chatting with several boys, which seemed to include Ronald Weasley. A thin blond boy was flanked by two boys who looked like his bodyguards. The bushy-haired girl who had helped Nigel was whispering something at full speed as if her life depended on it.
Alexandra felt her stomach tighten. For better or for worse, these were the wizards and the witches she was going to be in classes with. Why did she felt absolutely no enthusiasm at this very idea? She also had no idea what House she was going to be in. Hufflepuff was all about loyalty and hardwork, and she had to admit she did not fit in the mould. She could be loyal to herself, she supposed, but she had never trusted anyone in her ten years with the Dursleys. Too many children had abandoned her when Dudley and his gang chased her for her to have any friends in school, and she had never respected any teacher as they tended to bow before her Uncle Vernon.
Gryffindor was all about nobility and courage, but most of her solutions facing someone stronger than her was to flee, and she stole to live better. There was no honour in what she did, only survival.
She supposed she was a bit intelligent and liked reading, so maybe she could be a Ravenclaw? She didn't think she would really fit in Slytherin: her ambitions were relatively modest once said, and she did not have the cunning of a politician. Then again, neither did most of the children who were waiting with her here.
"How exactly do they sort us into houses?" She heard the voice of an unknown boy behind her.
"Some sort of test, I think. Fred said it hurts a lot, but I think he was joking," replied Weasley.
Alexandra restrained herself from drawing her wand and cursing Weasley here and now. They were eleven years old children! No one was going to make them do something dangerous, not in front of hundreds of students. Then again, when she heard the red-hair boy speaking about "trolls", she wondered if there was a fifth house for stupid people. Some children in this crowd looked like they would have been sorted there in the blink of an eye.
Any second now, Professor McGonagall would come back and lead them to their sorting and destiny.
Then something happened which made her jump about a foot in the air – several people behind her screamed or shouted.
"What the –?"
She gasped. So did the people around her. About twenty white beings had just streamed through the back wall. Pearly-white and slightly transparent, they glided across the room talking to each other and hardly glancing at the first-years. Ghosts. They seemed to be arguing about something. What looked like a fat little monk was saying, "Forgive and forget, I say, we ought to give him a second chance..."
"My dear Friar, haven't we given Peeves all the chances he deserves? He gives us all a bad name and you know, he's not really even a ghost – I say, what are you all doing here?"
A ghost wearing a ruff and tights had suddenly noticed the first-years.
Nobody answered.
"New students!" said the Fat Friar, smiling around at them. "About to be sorted, I suppose?"
A few people nodded mutely.
"Hope to see you in Hufflepuff!" said the Friar. "My old house, you know."
"Move along now," said a sharp voice. "The Sorting Ceremony's about to start."
Professor McGonagall had returned. One by one, the ghosts floated away through the opposite wall. Funny.
"Now, form a line," Professor McGonagall told the first-years, "and follow me."
Alexandra got into the line between one of the bodyguard-type boys and before a girl who looked really, well, massive. Perhaps she was the magical girl equivalent of Dudley Dursley? All the line began to walk out of the chamber, went back in the hall and then, passing a pair of huge double doors, they entered the Great Hall.