New chapter is live.
Settle in, take your time, and let’s see what waits in the dark 🖤
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Night had fallen by the time the train began to slow.
Callan looked out the window, then stood.
“Put your robes on.”
Lily quickly pulled her black school robe over her clothes.
Then she looked at Balian and their luggage.
“What about our trunks?”
“Someone will take care of them,” Snape said.
Lily still looked uneasy, but she hugged Balian close and followed them into the corridor.
“Do you think we really might be Sorted into different Houses?” she asked.
“Probably,” Callan said.
Lily glared at him.
He spread his hands.
“We will still all be at Hogwarts. We can meet whenever we want.”
“You won’t,” Snape said.
Lily immediately understood.
“Books, magic, books, magic. That will be your whole school life, won’t it?”
“Then study with me.”
“We are not even in the same House yet.”
“Same year. Same classes.”
Steve raised his hand weakly.
“What about me?”
Callan pushed them forward before the group could miss the Sorting entirely.
As they passed their old compartment, he noticed that Dorcas Meadows had already gone.
The sweets they had left behind were gone as well.
“She can really eat,” he muttered.
The platform outside was narrow, dark, and cold.
A huge voice boomed over the crowd.
“Firs’ years! Firs’ years over here!”
Hagrid stood above the sea of students like a half-giant lighthouse.
“Steve!” he called warmly when he saw them.
Steve waved.
“Hagrid knows my father. He likes magical creatures.”
Hagrid strode over and tried to pat them on the shoulders.
Callan immediately pulled Lily aside.
Snape was not so lucky and nearly folded under the huge hand.
“Sorry there,” Hagrid said, hastily brushing dust from Snape’s robes.
Callan pointed his wand.
“Scourgify.”
The dust vanished.
Steve looked impressed.
“Nice spellwork.”
Callan said nothing.
His attention had already shifted.
James, Sirius, Remus, and Peter were not far away, clustered together.
Lily noticed them too and quietly moved to the other side of Callan.
Hagrid led the first-years down a steep, narrow path.
“Yeh’ll get yer firs’ sight o’ Hogwarts in a sec,” he called.
“Just round this bend.”
The castle appeared all at once.
It stood across the black lake, towers and turrets rising into the starry sky, windows blazing gold against the dark.
For once, even Callan fell silent.
The boats waited at the shore.
“No more’n four to a boat!” Hagrid shouted.
Callan, Lily, Snape, and Steve took one.
James’s group ended up in the boat beside them.
Steve greeted James and Sirius cheerfully.
Neither answered.
James said something to Remus and Peter instead, and all four boys looked at Callan’s boat with a wary sort of caution.
Steve turned back, puzzled.
“What happened?”
Lily looked away.
Snape sneered.
Callan examined an Every Flavour Bean he had somehow kept in his pocket.
“We had a run-in with two of them,” Callan said.
“It’s settled.”
Steve did not look convinced.
Callan ate the bean.
“Watermelon. Not bad.”
The boats glided across the lake in silence.
They passed through a curtain of ivy and into a hidden harbor beneath the castle, then climbed up stone steps to a massive oak door.
The door opened.
Professor McGonagall stood there, younger than the version Callan remembered from the story, though no less severe.
“Welcome to Hogwarts,” she said.
“The start-of-term banquet will begin shortly, but before you take your seats in the Great Hall, you will be Sorted into your Houses.
“The four Houses are Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. While you are here, your House will be something like your family. Your triumphs will earn it points. Any rule-breaking will lose it points. At the end of the year, the House with the most points is awarded the House Cup.”
Lily whispered, “She is scary.”
Snape quietly agreed.
Steve whispered back, “When Professor McGonagall visits my house, I hide in my room.”
Callan looked at him.
“Why does your house have so many visitors?”
“Wizards have pets,” Steve said.
“And magical creatures are very popular.”
Before Callan could answer, several ghosts drifted through the wall.
A round, cheerful-looking ghost was saying, “Forgive and forget, I say. Give him another chance.”
Callan stared at him.
The Fat Friar looked kind, but Callan had the strange feeling that the ghost was less harmless than he appeared.
Hogwarts ghosts were proud creatures.
Even Peeves, poor as his manners were, had a certain dignity.
If the Friar wanted to look at first-years, he could simply say so.
Acting out the same little scene every year felt suspiciously deliberate.
Lily startled at the sight of the ghosts.
Peter looked even worse.
Professor McGonagall returned soon after and led them into a line.
Callan stood near the front of the line, though he doubted that would determine when he was called.
He had a feeling the actual order had already been arranged.
They entered the Great Hall.
The ceiling reflected the night sky above them.
Four long House tables stretched beneath it, crowded with students whispering and pointing at the first-years.
“Look at that handsome boy.”
“The Black boy?”
“No, the other one.”
Sirius ignored the whispers around him.
Lily blushed under a few admiring looks.
Callan ignored all of it and looked toward the staff table.
Most of the faces meant little to him yet, but two stood out.
Horace Slughorn sat among the staff as Slytherin’s Head of House and the Potions professor.
Beside Dumbledore, Dorcas Meadows leaned slightly back in her chair.
She and Dumbledore were speaking quietly.
Then, almost at the same time, both looked toward the first-years.
Callan met their eyes.
Dumbledore smiled kindly.
Meadows gave him a smile that was not quite a smile.
Callan rolled his eyes at her.
A spoon bent sharply at the staff table.
He pretended not to hear it.
Professor McGonagall placed a four-legged stool before the first-years.
On top of it, she set a patched, frayed, very old hat.
The Great Hall fell silent.
Then the Sorting Hat opened its brim and began to sing.
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Want to keep going?
I hope this chapter gave you another reason to stay with the story.
There’s still plenty ahead, and things are only starting to unfold.