"Wh- what?" Ginny stuttered, as Professor McGonagall shooed her off the stool. 

"No! There's got to be a mistake! I'm supposed to be in Gryffindor! Everyone knows that!" She said, panicking.

"Miss. Weasley, the Sorting Hat has placed you in Slytherin, so that is where you will have to go. Now will you please take your seat before I give you a detention." Professor McGonagall said stiffly.

 Ginny turned towards the Slytherin table, trying not to cry, and walked towards it. Once she was sitting in an empty seat, between two brawny fourth years, Ginny chanced a glance at the Gryffindor table where her brothers and Hermione were seated. Ron and Harry Potter were nowhere to be seen but that was the least of Ginny's worries right now. Hermione looked as if she was thinking very hard about something, and Percy looked very worried. Fred and George were having a conversation, but they kept glancing in Ginny's direction. Fred looked horrified. Ginny didn’t even want to think about what her parents would say.

Ginny spent the rest of the feast keeping her head down and pushing her food around on her plate. Finally Professor Dumbledore dismissed the students and she followed the Slytherins reluctantly to the common room. A prefect directed the first years to their dorms. 

There were four other girls in Ginny’s dorm — Sarah Dobson, Elena Wilson, Katerina Knott and Caitlyn Diaz — but Ginny didn’t talk to them at all. As soon as she got inside the room, she flung herself onto the royal green four-poster bed, pulled the silky covers over her head and silently cried herself to sleep.