FicWad

For Fuck sake. This uploading on this site sucks. It butchers text and when you are OC and anal retentive about formating when it comes to text... Well lets just say that I have come close to throwing my computer a couple of times. So I am moving my story over to FanFiction.net. I like their uploading capibilities.@http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4101455/1/effingereimagusChapter 2

September 1st, a warm summers day, found Harry sitting on his trunk in the driveway of #4 Privet Drive waiting for his ride, away from his‘relatives’. His ride was supposed to arrive 9:30, however they were 20 minutes late.

‘Did they forget to come get me?’ Harry thought to himself as he began to get really worried. ‘I am going to have to Apparate if they don’t get here soon. I’ll give them till 10 o’clock then I will sneak off to a quite place and Apparate to the station. I will have to Apparate to someplace deserted but close to the station. But where to go I don’t know the station that well. Maybe I can send Hedwig to Professor McGonagall and she can tell me what to do. I don’t want to get into trouble by Apparating illegally.’

“What’s that matter Freak? Don’t you have a way to get to your freak school? You know Mum and Dad aren’t going to let you back in the house?” Dudley drawled form the doorway.

“Shut up, Diddy Kins,” Harry snapped back. “I don’t need a ride. If it comes down to it I can just disappear and reappear where I need to be.”

“Don’t lie, Freak.”

Just as Harry was, about to snap back at Dudley a great beat up old car came screeching down the street and stopped in front of the Dursleys’drive. As Dudley gaped in horror at the old beat up car, three passengers stepped out. The driver was a man with fair hair and agreat belly, nowhere near as large as uncle Vernon’s. From the passengers side stepped a tall thin rather pretty woman with warm brown hair. However, Harry barely noticed that they were there as his focus was drawn to the young girl getting out of the backseat of the car. She was the same height as Harry with a beautiful heart shaped face and happy blue eyes. She had shoulder length blond hair that Harry swore had pink tips.

All Harry could do was stare at her. Harry had seen pretty girls before, there was one from primary school that was rather pretty but this girl made her look ugly to Harry. There was something else as well, something just a little bit different about her. Not different bad but different as in magical.

“Harry Potter?” the man said snapping Harry out of is comma.

“Yes, Sir,” Harry mumbled.

The woman smiled happily at him as the girl came bounding over to Harry and hugged him. This nearly set him back again; as soon as the girl broke away, he wanted another hug. “My name is Tonks. This is my Mum and Dad,” the girl said.

“Name is Ted Tonks actually and that there is Andi and this is our Dora.”Ted added.

“Nymphadora, actually.” Andi corrected.

“Wow what a pretty girl… name.” Harry blushed.

Nymphadora did not hear Harry’s slip up as she was yelling at her Mum. “Don’t call me Nymphadora!” She turned back to Harry. “That goes for you too, call me Tonks,” she growled at him. “I don’t like my name.”

“Don’t scare the boy,” Andi responded.

“Why don’t you like your name, its pretty?” Harry asked.

“It’s all girly and I just don’t like it, Ok.” Tonks huffed.

“Ok,”Harry responded meekly.

“Well then now that we got the names all straightened out, how about we load up and get going so we aren’t late.” Ted responded jovially. Tonks and Andi climbed back in the car as Harry and Ted went to the boot and lift in Harry’s trunk. Harry looked in side and noticed that the boot was magically expanded so that the two trunks would fit comfortably. As Harry and Ted lifted the trunk to place it in the car Ted said, “You were a bit stunned by my daughter there, Harry.”

Harry blushed, “Yea, she is very pretty.”

“You just be watching yourself boy. That’s my only little girl.”

“No, Sir. I… I mean…” Harry spluttered.

“Don’t worry son. You to are a bit to young to be up to no good but I can tell when a boy is smitten. Same thing happened to me when I first saw Andi as well.”

“Yes Sir.” Harry did not know what else to say. Ted reached up, closed the boot, and made his way to the driver’s seat and Harry just shook his head and got in the backseat with his backpack and Hedwig in her cage.

“So you’re The Harry Potter?” Tonks asked apprehensively.

“Well I don’t know about The Harry Potter. I am sure there have been other kids named Harry Potter, but yes my name is Harry Potter.”Harry responded with a smile.

Tonks blushed but continued, “You’re famous, so why are you living with muggles?”

“Well I don’t want to be famous and I am living with muggles because they are unfortunately the only ‘family’ I have. I would happily live anywhere but with them.” Harry said dejectedly.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t know it was that bad.” Tonks responded.

Harry looked over to giver her a reassuring smile when he noticed her hair had gone blue. “Wha… what happened to your hair? It’s all blue now.” Harry stuttered.

“Damn.”

“Nymphadora!”her mother yelled.

“Sorry mum.” Tonks said quickly. “I almost have complete control, but when I get real emotional I can’t help some of my changes.”

“You mean magical people can change the way they look?” Harry concentrated on his hair and willed it be blue just like Tonks.

While Harry was concentrating on his hair Tonks said, “Well not everyone can but you see I am a Metamorphmagus and their really rare… Whoa.”Tonks gaped at Harry.

“Did it work? I can’t see my Hair.”

“Yeah, your hair is blue.”

“Cool, what else can we change?”

“Well it depending on how skilled you are at being a Metamorphmagus otherwise you can change just about anything. The only thing I can’t change is that I’m a girl. I can’t be a boy. This is so fun we can have so much fun together when we get to Hogwarts. But don’t tell anyone that you are a Metamorphmagus people tend to give you dirty looks and treat you differently when they know.”

While Tonks was talking Harry proceeded to give himself a Pinocchio nose that touched the back of the seat in front of him. Tonks giggled.‘She has a pretty giggle. I will have to make her do that more often.’

The rest of the way to Kings Cross was spent with Harry and Tonks changing into funny faces and hairstyles trying to out due and make the other laugh while Andi and Ted exchanged knowing looks.

Because of their late departure at the Dursleys’ Harry and the Tonkses arrived at Kings Cross with just minutes to spare. However, they were not the only ones. A rather large group of red heads were gathered at the station and greeted Andi and Ted with warm hellos.

“Andi I only thought you had one child. Who is this with you?” the woman who was obviously the mother of the large group of red heads asked.

“This is Harry Potter.” Andi stated waving her hand at Harry.

“Merlin’s beard, The Harry Potter?”

“Well he is a Harry Potter.” Tonks said snickering. “Hey Fred, George.”

“Hey Tonksie…” one of the twin red heads said.

“Are you ready to…” the other twin continued.

“Cause lots of…” the first twin, responded.

“Havoc.”They fished together.

“Yea I think Harry and I are going to be able effect more trouble then you two merry pranksters.” Tonks retorted. Tonks turned to Harry, “This lot is Fred and George Weasley. That one is Fred and that one is George.” Tonks said pointing at a random twin and then the other.

“I believe that is a challenge, bother o’ mine.” Said George

“Indeed it is. We accept.” Responded Fred.

“We will discuss terms when we get to Hogwarts.” George finished.

“Actually that one is Fred and that one is George.” Harry corrected pointing to the twins in the opposite order of Tonks.

“How did you know?” the twins responded in unison.

“I don’t know I can just tell.” Harry answer with a shrug.

“We better…” started Fred.

“Keep and eye…” continued George.

“On this one.” Finished Fred.

“Well we had better hurry. This lot have to get on the train.” Ted said pushing Harry’s, Tonks’s trunks and Hedwig’s cage right up to the barrier between platforms 9 and 10 and proceeded to walk right through it.

“So that’s were it is. I had never heard a platform 9¾before and was worried about finding it.” Harry sighed.

“Come on Harry,” Tonks said as she linked arms with Harry and proceeded to drag Harry, after her Dad, through the barrier. When they passed through the barrier, Harry was in for a grand surprise. A scarlet steam engine was waiting next to a platform packed with people. Smoke from the engine drifted over the heads of the chattering crowd, as the noise of cats, owls, and the scraping of heavy trunks reached his ears. It was beautiful chaos. Harry tried to take in as much as he could as Tonks drug him along the platform after her father. They were up in the train in mere moments. Having found the compartment where Ted had stored their trunks, Harry shrugged off his backpack and followed the two Tonkses out of the train to say goodbye to Andi.

Andi was standing with the red headed woman from before. “Harry, I would like to introduce you to Molly Weasley and her daughter Ginny Weasley. Molly, Ginny this is Harry Potter.”

“How do you do?” Harry said politely extending his hand to Molly and then Ginny. Ginny just gaped at him. Tonks elbowed her to get her back to the real world and to shake Harry’s hand.

“Very good, Harry. I would like for you to meet the rest of my children,”Molly said as her children returned to her. “Well you already met Fred and George. This is Percy,” he bowed officiously and shook Harry’s hand formally. Tonks had to stifle a giggle. “And this is Ron; this is his first year too.” Ron smiled and gave a little wave.

Just as Andi and Molly were striking up a conversation the whistle from the train blew letting them know it was about to leave the station.“We must get on the train Mother, and I have to get to the Prefects cart.” Percy said pompously as he kissed his mother and rushed off.

Tonks gave her Mum and Dad a hug and a kiss and promises to write them the after the first week. As Tonks grabs Harry’s hand to drag him off to the train Harry was quickly pulled back into a fierce backbreaking hug from Mrs. Weasley. “You can’t go off to Hogwarts with out ahug so there.” When Mrs. Weasley finally let go he found himself in another hug from Mrs. Tonks as well, only this one did not try to realign his spine and a firm handshake and wink from Mr. Tonks. As he was dragged off by Tonks, he heard Ginny call, “Bye Harry.”

When Harry and Tonks finally got situated in their compartment and the train started rolling Tonks laughed at Harry. “What’s so funny?”Harry asks not getting the joke.

“I think the Weasley women are a bit taken with you,” Tonks snickered.

“Well Mrs. Weasley was just being a mom, and I got the impression that Ginny was just star struck. She definitely is not my type. I’m not really into red heads.”

“That’s good to know. ‘Never have red hair.’” Tonks laugh to herself.“So what was it like growing up with muggles?”

“Horrible!”Harry spat. “Dudley would beat me up and then my uncle would lock me in my cupboard for getting into a fight with Dudley and my aunt would just ignore me like I didn’t exist. When Hagrid told me I was a wizard and that there was a school I would be going to so I could learn magic. I didn’t believe him at first but once we got to Diagon Alley it was like my life was a thousand times better and nothing my ‘relatives’ did mattered any more. And I found I was pretty good at this magic stuff.”

“Oh so you have done some magic let me see,” Tonks asked sceptically.

“Well what do you want me to do?”

“Well anything you can.”

“Ok”Harry pulled his wand from his pocket and gave it a bit of a flick and suddenly the room had changed colours. Where the seat had originally been a nice caramel, they were now canary yellow. The carpet that was once black with flecks of red was now lime green with orange polka dots and the mahogany wood in the compartment was now purple and red striped.

“Wow, this is really ugly. Change it back, change it back!”

Harry flicked his wand again and laughed. “You shouldn’t have said Icould do what ever I wanted.”

“That was impressive but scary. Who taught you to do that anyway?”

“No one,” Harry said quizzically. “I just read how to change the colour of things in our Transfiguration book, and tried it, and found I could do it with out any problems.”

“Wow, that’s gonna make Transfiguration a breeze for you if you can do all the spells that well. And I didn’t even hear you say a thing.”

“I didn’t. I found also that if you concentrate hard enough you could do it with out saying any words or waving your wand in funny ways. When I talked with Professor McGonagall, she said I was right but that I needed to be carful so nothing bad would happen. She was really nice. She said she wouldn’t even turn me in for the illegal Apparation I did.”

“What do you mean… You Apparated?” Tonks asked in wonder.

“Yea, I was in Diagon Alley one morning and I didn’t know how to get back home when I got all my shopping done, so when I read in my magical travel book about Apparating I tried it and it worked.”

“But how did you get there in the first place and why couldn’t you just get back the way you came.”

“Well,”Harry looked at he door real quick and said, “Can you keep asecret?” Harry didn’t know why he wanted to keep his shadow travel secret. Tonks nodded and leaned in closer to Harry. “When it’s dark I can travel around in the shadows like when IApparated.”

“What?”

“Well, if it is really dark and everything I can become a black shadow like thing and if I think hard enough about someplace I want to be I will reappear in the shadows around that place. I think that is why it was so easy to Apparate; it was explained a lot like how I moved when Iwas a shadow.”

“That’s kind of weird.”

“Oh, I understand if you don’t want to be around me any more. When ever Dudley would tell kids at school about me they would think I was weird and creepy and then leave me alone.” Harry said dejected at the loss of his first magical friend.

“Oh No. Harry I don’t want to stop being around you. It is just I have never heard of anyone travelling my shadow, and to be able to Apparate at our age is unheard of. You must be really powerful if you can do it. However, I don’t think you should tell too many people about it because just like being a Metamorphmagus people will treat you different.”

“Thanks Tonks, I really like you and I don’t want to lose my first real friend so soon after I met her.”

“You like me? Most people just think I am weird, or if they know about my Metamorphmagus ability ask me to do funny faces or say mean things.”

“Well you are weird but I think that makes you cute and I am aMetamorphmagus to so why would I ask you to change or be mean.”

“You think I’m cute?” Tonks blushed and Harry quickly followed.

Just as Harry was, about to respond there was a knock on the door and atall red headed boy stuck his head in. “Can I sit in here with you?Fred and George kicked my out of their compartment.”

“Yea sure.” Harry said quickly and Tonks nodded her head reluctantly.

“So Ron, how have you been?” Tonks asked reluctantly.

“What, oh fine,” Ron answered barely paying attention to Tonks. “Were you at Gringotts about three weeks ago around 10:30 in the morning?”Ron blurted at Harry.

“What?Oh yea, I had a present to drop off for a goblin friend of mine. He had taken me on a really fun ride in the carts. When we were done he complained about how the only draw back to riding the carts was the wind in his eyes so when I saw the goggles in the Quidditch shop, Ijust had to get them for him. And since I didn’t want to disturb him I just asked Griphook if he could deliver them for me the next time he saw Gringott.”

Ron and Tonks just stared at Harry like he had grown three new heads. Ron was the first to regain his composure saying, “I was there and Isaw you. How hard was it to learn how to speak Gobbledegook?”

“What do you mean Gobbledegook? I was just talking with Griphook like I had earlier,” Harry asked a little worried.

“Well mate, you were speaking in goblin language, Gobbledegook. You didn’t know?” Ron responded amazed.

“No, I had met Griphook before and no one ever taught me how to speak Gobbledegook before.” Harry said really worried now. “I take it that it is weird to be able to speak Gobbledegook.”

“Well some people can speak it but it takes years to learn it. You did it with out even knowing it.” Tonks said as a smile crept across her face. “I can tell you are going to be full of surprises. Idefinitely hope we are in the same house.”

“What house do you think you will be in anyway, Tonks?” Ron asked.

“Well I doubt I will be in Slytherin like my Mum was, I am sneaky and all that but I’m a halfblood and they only take purebloods. I don’t think I will be in Ravenclaw either, I’m just not into the studying thing I like to be the cause of a little bit of trouble, so most likely Gryffindor, maybe Hufflepuff. What about you, Ron?”

“Well my whole family has been in Gryffindor so far and from tell it tends to run in families. What about you Harry?” Ron turned and asked.

“Well I don’t know much about the houses other then all the dark wizards come out of Slytherin.” Harry said unsure how else to answer.

“Well that is not completely true. My mum’s cousin Sirius was aGryffindor and he is in Azkaban for being a dark wizard, but a lot of them do come out of Slytherin.”

“Don’t listen to her, you should be in Slytherin, it’s the only house to turn out any decent wizards in ages,” said a drawling voice from the doorway.

“Sod off Draco!” Tonks spat at the blond haired boy from Madam Malkin’s.

“Oh, dear cousin, what are you doing slumming with a weasel. How low has your family sunk? Are you going to try to live up to you name sake and be a little nymph for the boys’ herk…” Draco never finished his insult since he was out cold on the floor with blood flowing from his nose as Harry had lept up and punched Draco in the noise. Harry stood there seething with anger at the nasty little git at his feet.

“You will defiantly be in Gryffindor. He’s my knight in shining armour, ready to defend my honour at a moments notice and he just met me.”Tonks snickered.

Harry composed himself and responded, “Anytime my Milady,” with a bow.

Tonks quickly jumped up and gave Harry a peck on the cheek while kicking up he right foot and then fell into a seat in a fit of laughter.

Ron stood up and said, “What are we going to do with him?”

Then George’s voice could be heard from a little ways down the train,“Don’t worry boys we will handle this piece of trash for you.”And before anyone could say anything Fred and George were dragging Draco to the back of the train with wicked grins on their face.

“What are they going to do with him?” Harry turned to Ron and asked.

“Nothing he doesn’t deserve.” Ron responded with a laugh.

Just as Harry and Ron were sitting back down with a now subdued Tonks, asqueaking noise could be heard coming form Ron’s shirt pocket. Ron reached in his pocket and pulled out a fat rat, he then reached in one of his pants pockets, pulled out a bit of cheese, and fed the cheese to the rat. As Ron scratched the rat’s head Harry looked on quizzically.

“Harry, do you have anything interesting to read in your backpack?” Tonks whined.

Harry pulled his eyes away from Ron and his rat to answer Tonks. “Well all I have in my bag is my school books but feel free to read anything you want.” Harry handed over his bag to Tonks.

“Harry, we only have seven classes. Why do you have over fifty books in hear?I thought you said they were only your school books.”

“I decided to get all my school books at once since I learned all the stuff from our first year books.”

“Well maybe my knight in shinning armour will be from Ravenclaw with all the studying you have been doing.”

“Well I don’t really like to study I was just really interested to learn more when I found I could do the spells.”

“You can do spells already? My brothers gave me a spell to turn my rat, Scabbers, yellow but I don’t think it is a real spell.” Ron chimed in.

“Let’s see it. I know Harry can do magic, but what about you?” Tonks snapped.

Ron started to wave his wand above the rat that had fallen asleep on his lap. Ron had opened his mouth to say his spell as the door burst open and a bushy haired girl stood in the door way and said, “Hi. I’m Hermione Granger and this is Neville Longbottom. Neville here has lost his toad, Trevor. Have you seen it? Oh, are you doing magic? I would love to see a real spell. I’ve tried a few spells from our books and they worked for me.”

The trio just sat and stared at her until Ron finally responded, “Which one of those questions do you want me to answer first? And can you repeat them slowly so we can answer them, one at a time, please?”

Hermione blushed and said, “Have you seen Neville’s toad, Trevor?”

“No but let me try something.” Harry said and pulled out his wand gave it a small flick and said, “Trevor.” Instantly a large dark green toad flew out from under the seat, Hermione had taken in the compartment, and into Harry’s hand. “Is this Trevor?”

“Yea thanks. My name is Neville Longbottom, what’s yours?” the boy said with a happy smile, as he took the toad from Harry and stuffed him in his pocket.

“My name is Harry Potter and this is Ron Weasley and Tonks” Harry responded point to Ron and then Tonks.

“You’re The Harry Potter?” Hermione asked. “I know all about you. You’re in ‘Modern Magical History’and ‘The Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts’and ‘Great Wizarding Events of the Twentieth Century’.”

“Well I’m not The Harry Potter.” Harry responded and Hermione looked embarrassed.

“But he is A Harry Potter.” Tonks said with a laugh.

Hermione blushed and turned back to Ron. “Well we know Harry can do magic let’s see that spell you were going to do.”

Ron lifted his wand again, said, “Sunshine, daises, butter mellow, Turn this stupid fat rat yellow”, and waved his wand over the rat. Nothing happened. “Stupid Fred and George! Gits!”

“Feel free to join us. It is not fair we have a whole compartment with only three people in it. Tonks and I were just going to sit and read but you are free to join us if you want.” Harry said as Tonks dug out Harry’s book on magical travel and passed the bag back to him. Harry pulled out his fourth year Potions book and got comfortable in the seat next to Tonks.

“What books do you have to read in there?” Hermione asked. Harry just handed her his backpack and opened his book.

“Feel free to read what ever you want, just be sure I get them back before you leave.”

Hermione looked inside Harry’s bag and gasped. “Yea we know there are alot of books in there; he will most likely be in Ravenclaw.” Ron said quickly to stifle another frantic set of questions from the bushy haired girl.

As Tonks, Harry, and Hermione sat quietly with books Neville and Ron talked Quidditch. Harry listened in for a while but had trouble following since he had never seen a game before.

The time flew by and soon it was lunchtime. Just as Harry was thinking that he should have packed some food there was a knock on the door and an elderly witch pushing a trolley asked if they wanted anything from the cart. Harry instantly jumped up to ask what they had.

“No, mum packed me some sandwiches,” Ron said dejectedly. Harry quickly looked over the cart.

“I will take five of everything,” Harry said as he pulled out a hand full of coins and passed them to the witch who began passing out the snacks.

“You didn’t have to do that. I had something to eat,” Ron said with abit of a blush.

“Well, I have the money so I am going to use it to make sure my friends aren’t hungry.” They spent the rest of the trip eating sweets and cakes as they told jokes and got to know each other.

When it came time for them to change into there Hogwarts robes Ron, Hermione, and Neville left to find there trunks while Harry stepped into the hall to allow Tonks some privacy to change. While standing outside the door to their compartment the Weasley twins passed by the in the corridor and said, “Don’t worry mate.”

“Draco won’t…” Fred continued.

“Remember a thing…” George responded

“About what happened…”

“To him.”

“That is if…”

“He makes it…”

“To Hogwarts.” The twins finished with an evil laugh.

“Do I even want to know?” Harry said.

“Best not…” Started Fred.

“To know.” Finished George.

The twins disappeared down the corridor as Tonks opened the door so Harry could change into his Hogwarts robes. Just as Harry finishes putting on his new school robes a magical voice was heard through out the train, “Welcome to the Hogsmeade Station. Please leave your things on the train, they will be delivered to your dorms for you, and exit the train at this time. Thank you and have a great school year.” At the end of the message Harry opened the door and proceeded to exit the train close on Tonks’s heals.

When they got off the train on onto the platform a booming voice that Harry recognized could be heard over all the clatter and chatter from the students. “Firs’ Years, Firs’ Years follow me, Firs’Years. ‘Arry good to see yer, ready for yer firs’ year?” Tonks and Harry quickly followed behind Hagrid as he forced a path through the throng of students. Hagrid led them from the platform down to the lake. “Everyone in, four to a boat.”

Harry and Tonks climbed into one of the boats and were quickly followed by Hermione and Neville. Hagrid got a boat all to himself as they set sail out of the cove and out into the great black lake. Harry got his first look at Hogwarts as the castle loomed over them on the edge of a massive cliff.

Hogwarts was a massive stone castle with impressively large towers and hundreds of windows over looking the lake. As they sailed over the black lake Tonks suddenly whimpered and grabbed Harry’s hand as athing could be seen lightly breaking the surface of the water. “Not ta worry tha’ just the giant squid. ‘E’s ‘armless, ‘less e’s ‘ungry. ‘E knows ta leave firs’ years be.” Hagrid yelled back to the students. Tonks still did not let go of Harry’s hand, and he wasn’t going to complain.

“Watch yer ‘eads,” Hagrid called as they entered a low hanging tunnel into the rock wall. Moments latter, the boats stopped at a small dock next to a set of stairs to a massive wooden door. Harry quickly got out and offered his hand to Tonks to help her out of the boat. Neville did the same thing to Hermione. After every one was out of the boats, Hagrid led them up the stairs and through the wood door into a large antechamber. “You lot wait ‘ere and Professor McGonagall with escort you in fer yer sorting.”

As Hagrid left through the other door a voice from behind them could be heard, “You be the new students. I pray you be a benefit to your prospective houses.” The greeting came from the portrait that now covered the doorway they entered from.

As all the first years turned to see this talking portrait, a scream from the other side of the room was heard. Everyone quickly turned to see four gray people float through the wall and turn to see where the screams had come from.

“Ho, Ho. I think we scared the poor girl. Not to worry Miss we are just the house ghosts, at your service,” a fat jolly looking ghost said trying to reassure the poor girl.

“I think dear Friar we best take our leave before we scare the young lady any more then has already been done,” said a very formal looking ghost with a large ruff. The four ghosts proceeded to continue on through the far wall in the direction that they were originally headed.

Just as the girl had been calmed down by her friend, the door Hagrid had left through opened and Professor McGonagall entered and addressed the now very nervous first years. Professor McGonagall addressed the collective body very sternly, “In a few moments you will be sorted into houses. The houses are Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. While here at Hogwarts, your house will be like your family. You will attend classes with your fellow housemates, eat meals with them, and live in your house dormitory. You will gain house point for proper behaviour and lose house points for rule breaking. At the end of the year, the house with the most point will win the house cup. I expect all of you to be a fine asset to your house. I am head of Gryffindor and I expect those sorted into my house to be the best they can be. I assure you that the heads of the other houses expect the same.” When Professor McGonagall finished her speech, she gave a little sniff and continued, “I will return momentarily to take you into the great hall for your sorting,” and she turned and exited the room.

“What do you think we have to do to be sorted?” a tall black boy said in a snooty voice.

“My brothers said something about wrestling a baby giant.” Ron responded.

“That would be too dangerous,” Harry responded. Just as panic settled firmly on the huddled first years, the door opened again and McGonagall returned and led them through the door.