When we entered the castle, we saw a middle-aged woman with reddish hair done up in a lose bun and a kind smile. 

"Hello everybody. I'm Aoife O'Keeffe, Deputy Headmistress. You can call me Professor O'Keeffe. The sorting ceremony will begin shortly, and I will come and collect you when it's time. Try to . . .smarten yourselves up as best you can while you're waiting." Professor O'Keeffe glanced at a boy who had lipstick smeared on his forehead, then walked up a staircase and through two doors. 

Immediately everyone started talking and someone approached Ellie and I. 

"Hello, Tuckfield," Delta Malthwaite said. "And is this - no, it can't be - not a Draper," she commented unkindly.

"This is Ellie, Delta," I said protectively. "She's really nice."

"Whatever," Delta replied, turning away to talk to some other prospective Slytherins. 

Professor O'Keeffe came back and we all went quiet. "We're ready for you now. Follow me." 

We all followed her through the double doors through to a large, cavernous hall with four long house tables vertically from the front to the entrance. Students were sitting at all of them and they were all wearing black robes with lining and a jumper of either forest green, scarlet, canary yellow, or cobalt blue. The colours were divided, one to each table. These must've been house tables. There was a space at the very front of each of the tables, presumably for the first years for once they'd sat down. 

We all gathered at the front of the hall, in front of the long, horizontal teacher's table. In front of that table was a rickety, three-legged stool with an old, patched, and frayed hat. Professor O'Keeffe stood away from the stool and the whole hall was quiet. Suddenly, a rip at the brim opened wide and the hat burst into song. 

It introduced itself as the 'Sorting Hat' and sang about each house and it's different qualities, and invited us to put it on our heads and apparently it would tell us what house we'd be best suited to. Ravenclaw was for those who are witty and clever, Slytherin were those who were cunning and resourceful, Gryffindors were brave and chivalrous, and Hufflepuff were hardworking, loyal, and kind. I thought Hufflepuff sounded the best, and was probably the one that suited me best. Although I could also be suited to Ravenclaw. Either. 

Professor O'Keeffe made her way to the 'centre stage' and unrolled a long roll of parchment.  

"When I call out your name, you will come up, put the Sorting Hat on your head, and wait for it's decision. Blackwell, Anna." 
Trembling Anna came up, tripped over her own feet, then placed the hat on her head (it fell right over her eyes) and sat on the stool. The hat paused for a few seconds, then shouted, "HUFFLEPUFF!" 

Everybody clapped and Anna joined the table that was cheering the hardest (the yellow-clad table). 

"Crinkely, Jackson." 
"GRYFFINDOR!" 

"Draper, Ellie." Ellie looked at me with a terrified expression. She walked out of the crowd and put the hat on her head. She closed her eyes and seemed as though she was hoping with all her might. 

"HUFFLEPUFF!"

Ellie opened her eyes, removed the hat, and looking relieved, went to join the rest of her new house. 

The list went on and students sat on the stool and waited for their result. I noticed that the Slytherin table had noticeably fewer new recruits and noticeably fewer students than the other tables. 

I wished that the list would go faster but there was so many students with a last name starting with 'M'. 

"Malthwaite, Delta." 

Delta strutted up to the stool, and the moment the hat made contact, the hat screamed, "SLYTHERIN!" Delta had got her wish.

The crowd slowly thinned and eventually the Ts had their turn. Finally, I was called. 

"Tuckfield, Daisy." 

I walked up, put the hat on my head, and sat on the stool. 
"Hmm," the hat wondered aloud. I hoped nobody else could hear. "An abundance of kindness, but a quick and clever mind. Loyalty to the maximum, and sharp wit. You're a tricky decision. Hufflepuff, or Ravenclaw?" 
In my head, I thought desperately, Hufflepuff, Hufflepuff, please, Hufflepuff, Hufflepuff. I would be fine with either house, but Ellie was in Hufflepuff, and I wanted to stay with her. 

"HUFFLEPUFF!" The hat announced. I beamed around at the hall as I took the hat off and put it back on the stool. I restrained myself from skipping to the Hufflepuff table as I made for the empty seat next to Ellie. 

"Yay!" She whispered, as I slid beside her. 

~~~

We watched everybody else get sorted and then the headmistress stood up from a throne-like chair in the centre of the staff table. She had long blonde hair and wore plum-coloured robes. 

"Welcome, or welcome back, to another year at Hogwarts. My name is Professor Hannah Fischer, but you all seem hungry, so I'll save the announcements for later. Let the feast. . .begin!" 

Suddenly, all the golden crockery in the centre of the tables filled with food. There was every kind of British food I could think of - but no Australian food. However, I took some chicken drumsticks, boiled potatoes (not the potato chips. Why for dinner?), and some boiled veggies. I also tried some pumpkin juice, which Ellie highly recommended. It was very delicious. 

After a while, all our plates cleared themselves and the puddings materialised. There was chocolate pudding and chocolate gateau, ice cream in every flavour, treacle tarts, cheesecake, and so many other things. I helped myself to some chocolate and some strawberry ice cream and ate while I listened to the talk around me. 

"Welcome, all First-Years," Harriet was saying for the tenth time. "Any troubles, come and see me, I'll be more than happy to help you. Oh, hello Friar." 
A smiling, round-faced ghost had just glided up the front end of the table. "Hello, Harriet. Hello, First-years. I'm the Fat Friar, ghost of Hufflepuff house. Pleased to meet you all!" 
"He seems nice," I whispered to Ellie. 

"He's got a good reputation," Ellie replied. "He displays all of Hufflepuff's qualities." 

When everybody had finished with dessert (or 'pudding' as it was called here), Professor Fischer stood up again. 

"Now that you have all eaten," she said, "onto announcements. All First-Years should note that the Forbidden Forest in the grounds is, well, forbidden, to all students. Our caretaker, Mrs. Flutterby, has asked me to tell you that all students should remember to wipe their shoes on the mats outside entrances before entering the castle. Also, anyone wishing to try out for their house quidditch team should talk to their Head of House or Quidditch Captain. As a reminder, the Head of Houses are as follows. Gryffindor is Professor Ozias Ellison, he also teaches Defence Against the Dark Arts, Ravenclaw is Professor Juniper Green, she also teaches potions, Hufflepuff is Professor Daisy Wibault, also our Herbology teacher, and Slytherin is Professor Laurie Gothly, also our Transfiguration teacher.

"Well, that should be all. Can our prefects please lead their house back to their dormitories. Good night everybody!" She sat down. 

"Hufflepuff First-Years, this way please. Follow me, stick together." Harriet was in her element, waving her hands above her head for the Hufflepuff First-Years to follow her. "Oh, no, you're a Gryffindor. Your perfect is over there," Harriet pointed a young Gryffindor boy in the right direction. 

~~~

We exited the Great Hall and Harriet led us down a set of stairs to the right of it. It was chillier down here - we were probably underground. 

"The kitchens are down here - but nobody's supposed to know where, except prefects of course, so I'm not telling you. And here we are!" Harriet stopped at a pile of barrels. "Now, you have to tap this barrel," she gestured, "in the rhythm of Helga Hufflepuff. If you get the rhythm or the barrel wrong, you get squirted with vinegar. So make sure you don't!" Harriet tapped the correct barrel in the rhythm. "He-lga-Hu-ffle-puff."

The lid of the barrel vanished and enlarged so it became a doorway. Harriet stepped through and everyone followed. We emerged into a large, earthy passageway and we walked along it for about twenty seconds before we entered into a large, sunlit room. There were cosy cushions and armchairs, piles of magazines, many houseplants, a kitchenette stocked with different kinds of tea and biscuits, and two hallways on opposite sides of the room. There was also a fire burning merrily in one corner. 

"Welcome to the Hufflepuff common room," Harriet told the fourteen of us. "Girls, your dormitories are down the hall on your left, and boys, the same on your right. All your luggage will be in your dormitory. You'll be sharing with six others, and your door will be labelled 'First-Years'. If you need anything, don't hesitate to ask anyone. In Hufflepuff, we're all friendly!"

There was a sudden rush to explore the common room and and the dormitories. While the rest of the girls decided to examine the cosy nooks and the quality of the blankets, Ellie and I rushed into the hallway to find our dormitory. 

We pushed open the heavy oak door together and we found a sunlit room similar to the common room. There was a fireplace on one 'side' of the circular room and next to it was another kitchen. On the rest of the 'sides', there were doorways that led to extensions of the main area, each fitted with an ensuite, wardrobe, desk, and a bed sunk into an alcove with yellow curtains you could pull across. In each of these rooms there was also another fireplace - I assumed to keep the students warm at night. There was plenty of wall space to decorate and I wondered how these large spaces fit into such a small area, as the Second-Years' door was right next to ours! It seemed impossible, but I was sure a large amount of magic was the answer. 

Ellie and I chose rooms next to each other, and when we voiced, "this one's mine!" Or something similar, our trunks and other luggage zoomed through the doorway into our section. This wouldn't be at all like living with other students - it would be like living by ourselves, if we wanted it to be. 

I sat down on my bed as my trunk opened itself and my clothes began to re-fold themselves then soar into my wardrobe. My other belongings spread themselves out across my room, finding new homes for themselves. I saw Athena in her cage and I let her out. She flew out the window, stretching her wings. She came back pretty soon, and I fed her some owl food. These owls had been trained to stay with their owners and eat what they were given, rather than hunting then coughing up owl pellets. Mum had thought I would prefer it that way - and I did. 

I decided to practise the rhythm of to get into the common room on the wall beside my bed. 

He-lga-Hu-ffle-puff.

To my surprise, a hole opened up in the wall and I could see into Ellie's dorm, next door to mine! I climbed through onto her bed. 

"Er, hello," she said. 

"We can get into each other's rooms!" I exclaimed. "Using the Helga Hufflepuff rhythm."

"That's cool, but don't you dare wake me up in the middle of the night," Ellie warned. 

"I wouldn't do that!" I said. 

I went back into my room, and wondered how to close the hole. I tried tapping the rhythm again and the hole sealed immediately. 

Neat, I thought. 

I got into my pyjamas, brushed my teeth and took out one of my textbooks: A History of Magic by Bathilda Bagshot. Suddenly, another owl fluttered through the window and dropped a bit of parchment on my desk. I hurried over and saw that it was my timetable. I was very excited to start classes and saw that tomorrow morning I had Charms first. That was when I accidentally knocked over my cup of chamomile tea with my elbow and it spilt all over my timetable. 

"Noooo!" I howled. Ellie burst through the wall and jumped off my bed. 

"What's happened?" She asked urgently.

"My timetable!" 

"Oh no," Ellie replied, but she'd barely finished her sentence before the tea slowly left the parchment, leaving it dry. "Cool! I'm going to try and damage mine."

"It keeps healing up!" Ellie yelled through the hole.

"That's a great charm to put on the timetables," I answered. "Goodnight." I tapped out the rhythm.