Magnus smiled. "Well however you came to be here it seems we are in for a wild ride. Also Felix I assume the daily prophet is a news paper for magic folk and what bloody sport do you play with a broom?" He knew that they were used for flying but Agnes hadn't told him anything else and knew nothing about sports that used them. Either way he shook it off and drifted off into thinking about playing tag on brooms and wished he had a broom.

[center].::Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry::.[/center]

Orianna Greco whom the most happy housemistress at Hogwarts. Today she was different, and found herself in a somber mood. One could only tell by the dimmed luster of her hazel eyes, her smile was plastered upon her face as always, mounted between her cheeks like a trophy. It was not so much that the professor was being-fake, rather, that a smile had become the default position of her peach colored lips.

Her job today was to prepare and present the Sorting Hat! An enchanted feather duster and a lint brush busied themselves cleaning the hat, each swished and swayed through the air by magic. Meanwhile, Orianna stood back with a can of muggle-made [i]Febreeze[/i], she pulled the trigger on the spray-bottle and engulfed the sorting hat in a deodorizing cloud.

“Oh my!” The Sorting Hat sneezed. “That-That smells… quite nice, actually.” The Hat seemed to settle down.

Orianna waved away the duster and lint brush, and began to look over the fabric of the hat more closely. As she did so, she thought about the the various legends of the Sorting Hat, stories and parables. She herself did not attend Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, she wondered if she would have been sorted into Hufflepuff, the house she was now in charge of.

“Curious?” The Sorting Hat spoke, it’s mouth was a tear in it’s side. “Why don’t you give me a try! I may be more fashionable than you think!” 

Greco smiled, she was a playful and curious type. She glanced around to be sure she was alone, she couldn’t stop herself, she took the old hat and placed it upon her head. 

Something unexpected happened. 

Nothing.

Her headspace was quite, wasn’t the hat supposed to be jabbering and deliberating? She even tugged the brim a few times, just to be sure the old thing hadn’t fallen asleep. 

She sighed, perhaps it only worked on first years. She began to remove the hat when it finally spoke to her. 

“Yes, a Hufflepuff through and through! No questions about that. We will need that Huffle-Heart! If only I could sort through all these teachers this year! We will need the house virtues to guide us! Even Slytherin! ”

“Need them? Are you… Clairvoyant? Do you know something?” Orianna clenched her hands together. 

“Me? No, but you are! I saw what you [i]saw[/i] this morning!”

Orianna blushed. “Yes, I read my cards… and my teacup... but I’m no prophetess, I only read cards for myself… and only on the first day of school, Christmas, and my birthday.”

“Oh, dear child, you must trust your instincts!”

It seemed that the Sorting Hat wasn’t clairvoyant on it’s own, but saw what she herself had seen in her own reading. She wondered just how sentient the hat was, and wondered if it still knew something that she did not. It’s job was to see into the hearts of children and sort them into the house they would be most successful in, it rarely explained itself or it’s choices. Perhaps this was a similar event, telling Orianna what she needed to hear, without much explanation.

Yet, sometimes the hat did more than that: “Is it true that you gave Harry Potter the Sword of Godric Gryffindor?” 

“I’ve a few tricks up my sleeve! Or up my pointed chimney as it were! Now, if I’m not mistaken, It’s time for my big moment!”

Orianna nodded, taking the hat from her head and resting it on a large red pillow. She turned, and began to carry the hat down a long corridor. Soon, they would reach the great hall, and she would bring the hat before the entire school and a crowd of wide-eyed first years. 

~~~

[center].::The Hogwarts Express at Hogsmeade::.[/center]

Sadria would pace down the hallway and call students to attention. “Gather your things and line up.” She reminded each and every one, helping someone recover their luggage, shooing along the ones who lingered. 

She directed the first years to follow a tall dark woman with white hair: Professor Sinistra. She held a lantern, and would quietly lead them down a path and toward the shore of a long river. They would board several long boats, Professor Sinistra would stand at the stern. With a wave of her hand, and without a word, the boats would slowly move down the river. 

After rounding a bend, they would see something truly spectacular. The long awaited sight. Hogwarts. It stood, a tall and regal castle, high on the horizon, towering above the river, forest and rock surrounding it. The starlight shone behind it, and hundreds of little windows glowed, the castle was regal and inviting, welcoming it’s students home. 

The students in their boats were dwarfed beneath the grand castle. They floated toward it, until coming to a large gated cavern entrance. They passed into the darkness, only the woman’s lantern could be seen for some time. If they peered into the darkness they might see the shadows move, or a pair of eyes flicker and blink back at them, were these visions real or merely a product of their young imaginations?

Finally they came to a dock beneath the castle. Professor Sinistra would wait as the students gathered on the dock, she looked over them with a sharp harsh eye, as if judging each and every one. Then she would lead them up a flight of stone steps. The students would begin to feel the heat of the castle as they ascended. Then, she opened a large set of double doors, that lead into the great hall.

They would see all the older students already gathered, they were sat at four long tables, and the teachers sat at a fifth long table at the head of the hall, elevated from the rest.