"Wood, Reyna!"

I slowly walked up to the hat. I could hear whispers here and there, talking about such ordinary things. Meanwhile, in the next few moments, my whole future at Hogwarts would be decided.

Sitting on the stool, I put the hat on my head, shaking. Hmm... the hat said thoughtfully. Plenty of courage pops out at me. But there is wisdom here too. Where to put you? The lions or the eagles? I didn't know what to choose. So, of course, I went on the defense. 

"You're the freaking Sorting Hat, you decide!" I thought angrily. "Just freaking read my mind and find out!" 

The hat didn't seem at all perturbed. All right then, better be..."RAVENCLAW!" 

Relieved, I got up and started walking towards the Ravenclaw table. I saw that Alex looked a little disappointed. 

I had only gotten three steps, when the hat shouted, "WAIT!" Everybody quieted immediately. The hat never called anybody back. I started breathing in short gasps. What was going on?

"For the first time ever, I retract my decision," the Hat continued, its voice echoing around the deathly silent hall. Professor Paxton looked like she was going to vomit. The headmaster's brow was furrowed. What on earth was going on? I looked at my shoes. My legs were shaking. I couldn't let the whole school see me like this!

I sucked in a deep breath and steadied as the Hat started talking again. "I have remembered something-something so deeply buried in my memory it seems to be trying to be forgotten. But this memory changes everything. And if I sort you in Ravenclaw-" Oh! It was talking to me, not the whole hall! "-then the consequences would be disastrous. You belong in Gryffindor." 

Clip, clop. Clip, clop. 

The hall was deathly silent as I plodded towards the Gryffindor table. Wait-don't plod, I thought, and stalked to the table. Plopping down next to Alex, I could see everybody still staring at me. Even though I had no inner sense of people staring at me, it was still creepy. I opened my mouth to yell at them. Alex noticed and slapped her hand over my mouth.

"Nothing to see here," she said nervously over my muffled yells. 

Right after that, the headmaster stood up. "Welcome back to Hogwarts!" He exclaimed, "And for those who have just recently been sorted, welcome to Hogwarts! My name is Professor Davies, and I am your headmaster. So that's out of the way, go and eat this delicious food!"

Food started to appear out of nowhere. Alex started to grab food, but I was slower. What memory did the Sorting Hat see? 

"Rei!" Alex called, shoveling food onto her plate. She didn't seem to care at all about what the Sorting Hat had said. Thank god, I thought. 

"START EATING!" Alex cried, and a little scared, I started to put food onto my plate. I was going to, anyways. The rest of the dinner passed quickly. I tried my best to ignore the whispers and stares.

Soon, the headmaster stood up. "Well then, since the feast is over, I must say some start of term notices. The Forbidden Forest is forbidden. Quidditch sign ups will begin soon. That's all I can think of, so good night, sleep tight, don't let the manticores bite."

Everybody started conversing in hushed whispers after this last sentence. 

"Do you think he knows who they are?"

"What're they going to do this time?"

"Mmm...this treacle tart is good!"

What were they talking about? Just then, a tall, blonde girl shouted, "GRYFFINDOR MIDGETS THIS WAY! I MEAN GRYFFINDOR FIRST YEARS OVER HERE!" Alex practically dragged me to her. There were four boys and one other girl. "Wow, small group this year. I think most went to the Puffs," the girl commented. "My name's Ashley Simpson, by the way. Other fifth year Gryff prefect's Mark Andrews. Lazy bum."

"So anyways," Ashley continued as she started walking out of the hall. "I bet you guys are wondering why everybody started whispering at Professor Davies's speech. Well, there's this group of pranksters called the Manticores. Nobody knows who they are, and they pull these amazing pranks."

We were now in the Entrance Hall. "Right guys." Ashley started walking backwards. "I'm going to take you guys to Gryffindor Tower." As we followed her, we were all staring in awe at the castle. I had heard so many descriptions of it, but none ever really told its depth. The portraits, the moving staircases, all of it radiated magic. 

Soon, we reached the famed portrait-the Fat Lady. She smiled, and asked, "Password?"

Amanda replied, "Conundrum." For some reason, the Fat Lady did a curtsy and her portrait opened. 

Inside was red. Actually, maroon. Lots of maroon. I noticed a warm, crackling, fire, and lots of people talking. "So guys!" Ashley yelled to get our attention. It worked. Clutching my eardrums, I turned to face her. "Right, so girls are on the right, boys on the left. See ya! Gotta catch up with FART! Or FRT I guess," she seemed to be talking to herself now. 

"Come on!" For once I took the lead and skipped over to the stairs, trying to ignore the stairs and whispers. Alex was close behind. 

I pushed open the door that said First Year Grils Girls. Inside were three beds. It looked huge! I found the bed with my trunk under it, and plopped down. I patted the space next to me for Alex to sit down. 

"What a day," she sighed. 

"It's not over yet," I said with a wicked grin. "We're going exploring."