Hewitt and Roger got off the goldfish (once they had stopped of course) and saw Johnson indicating everybody to come over to him. All the first years went over to him and he explained why only they did. “Traditionally, the first years get to the castle buy going through the forest. So, everyone get your wands out and we’ll head over to the forest. Now the forest is dangerous, so keep close to me. OK. Is everybody here? Right. Let’s go!” The first years headed over to the forest and they saw sights that amazed them. They saw big trees, little trees even a few strange looking stones that pretended to be trees. As the trees thinned out, the first years half ran out of the forest. They stopped suddenly when they left it. There they saw was the shabbiest looking castle they’d seen (of course, they had only seen pictures in fancy little fairy tales). They walked over to the castle with Johnson who walked right up to the door. He raised his hand and knocked on the door. The door flew open and there was professor Thorny. “New students, professor Thorny.” Johnson said. “Thank you Johnson just leave them here would you?” professor Thorny replied. Johnson left the first years with professor Thorny. Professor Thorny led the first years into the castle. “You will soon be sorted. There are four houses. Davy, Weightman, Trewartha and Barnes. Each has produced outstanding witches. Two of them have produced outstanding wizards. Wait here while I go set up.” At this, Professor Thorny left the first years alone in a confined space. The first years waited and waited. Professor Thorny finally came back. “You’ll now follow me. Get into line, and when I call your name, come forward.” All the first years hurried along behind professor Thorny. When they got to the Hall, they saw the entire school was watching them. They looked to the front of the hall, and saw an aardvark sitting on a stool. Everyone in the hall was looking at the aardvark. The aardvark opened its mouth and bellowed, “Many, many years ago, When I was newly born, This castle was created. By four wizards on their own. Each made a house, That each would be their own, Davy was the bravest, Wanted bravest in his house, Weightman was the smart one, Wanted those of quickest wit. Barnes was the fairest, Wanted those who did things right. Trewartha was power hungry, No Jiggler blood allowed. So poke me now, I’ll tell you where you should be.” The whole hall erupted into applause. “So all we’ve got to do is poke the aardvark! I’ll kill my brother. He was going on about putting on a hat.” Poking the aardvark did seem much better then trying on a hat, but did they have to get sorted in front of the whole school? Professor Thorny went up to the front and bellowed the name of the first student. “Andrews, John!” She bellowed. A little midget kid went up to the aardvark and poked it roughly in the kidney. “Trewartha!” the Aardvark bellowed after some consideration. Then, a horrible thought occurred to Hewitt. What if the aardvark tried to bite him? Hewitt continued to panic as the roll got closer to his name. Nausae, Odor went up to the aardvark and when he was seven metres away (he had to take a few steps backwards to accomplish this feat) the aardvark bellowed “Trewartha!” It bellowed. Odor hurried over to the Trewartha table. Then it was Hewitt’s turn. He half ran, mostly walked to the aardvark and poked it in the stomach. “Hmm, interesting,” Hewitt heard the aardvark whisper. “There’s curage, brains, fair play, snake talk, so where should I put you?” “Not Trewartha, Barnes or Weightman. Not Trewartha, Barnes or Weightman.” Hewitt thought fiercely. “Not Trewartha, Barnes or Weightman eh? You could be great in one of those houses you know? Well, if you’re sure, it had better be DAVY!” the aardvark yelled the last word for all to hear. Hewitt hurried to the Davy table. He groaned as he saw the bossy girl from the train there. She must have been Hayley Greenfield. Hewitt turned back to the aardvark so that he could see everyone else get sorted. He saw people going to all sorts of houses. One even went to the wrong table (Trewartha applauded him for not being in their house. He headed to that table when he was meant to go to Barnes). Finally, it was Roger’s turn. He was looking quite unnaturally yellow at the moment. He walked up to the aardvark and poked it. The aardvark thought for a moment before announcing that Roger would be in Davy. Hewitt cheered and clapped with everyone else at the table as Roger sidled into the seat next to him. “Well done Roj.” Someone said, that Hewitt didn’t know, to Roger. “He’s my brother Felix. He and my other brother Grant are the big trouble makers at the school. My other brother Peter is a prefect.” Roger explained. That moment, a very old looking man stood up. “A bit of hush! A bit of hush please. Thank you.” The old man began. “For those of you who don’t know, I am professor Bumblebee. I would like to say a few words before you all eat, but the food is already on the table so you won’t listen to me until you’re finished. So eat up and I’ll tell you the notices” Professor Bumblebee said and sat down. Hewitt looked at the table and gaped at the sight. Someone had put a horrid pink table cloth on the table. There was also food piled up on the plates that had previously been empty. Hewitt helped himself to chops, sausages and other exotic foods. Finally, he could not eat another bite and leant back on his chair, his stomach in agony. Professor Bumblebee stood up and cleared his throat. “And now it is time for the notices. The first years should note that the open desert is out of bounds. Some of our older students should remember that as well. Are you listening to me Felix and Grant Williams? Also, the second classroom two from the left of the corridor on the fourth floor that is next to the other corridor that has seven doors in it, is also out of bounds for those who do not want to meet a very unfortunate death. Also, halfwits are also banned from this school, so any found, will be immediately expelled. Now, prefects must lead their houses to their common rooms. Now go and have a good sleep.” Hewitt and Ron saw Peter calling everyone in Davy over to him. They followed him up several flights of stairs, down a couple of flights, through two doors and they found themselves by an evil looking pot plant. Peter stepped up to the pot plant and said David Davy’s personal noble statement, “Go Them Mighty Cats!” the pot plant sprang aside and the wall opened up. There was a room with fierce looking cats draped on banners all over it. There was a fire and very comfortable looking armchairs. “First year boys, you go up the stairs on the right.” Peter Williams said. “First year girls, you go up the stairs on the left.” The other prefect said. “You go to the first door.” Both the prefects said at the same time. The first years obeyed, and headed up to their dormitories. Hewitt and Roger walked into the boy’s dorm and they saw eight huge king sized beds with curtains draped all around them. Hewitt ran for a bed and jumped in. Roger hurried to a bed and hopped in. All the other first years walked to their beds and scrambled in. Hewitt fell asleep very quickly. When Hewitt awoke with a start, he saw that his curtains had been decimated. He got out of bed, and they quickly remade themselves. Hewitt shrugged and he saw that Roger was staring at his curtains that were still decimated. Roger got out of bed and his curtains too, remade themselves. Hewitt and Roger quickly hurried down to breakfast when they got there; they saw that there were still four tables (They’d hoped that Trewartha got relegated) and plenty of food. They went down to the tables and ate a hurried breakfast. They sat down, and hundreds of letters fell from the ceiling. They landed on everybody’s tables (Even Hewitt who had never got any mail this way before) all of whom opened them. They contained their timetables. Hewitt saw that he had Potions, Defence, Enchantments and Shape Changing. We’d better get to potions now or we’ll be late. When Hewitt and Roger arrived at potions, they saw a nasty looking teacher sitting in a desk. Hewitt and Roger walked into the room and were followed by a stampede. The teacher stood up when everyone was settled. “My name is professor Snerpert. I teach potions. Now, I will begin with the roll.” When he got to Hewitt’s name, he paused. “Hewitt Parkinson, our new celebrity. Tell me Parkinson, what is a Flarer?” “I don’t know sir.” Hewitt responded as Hayley next to him put up her hand. “Tut, tut. Where would you find a Drogan?” professor Snerpert interrogated. “I don’t know sir.” Hewitt replied as Hayley stretched her hand up. “Naughty, Parkinson. What would happen if you were to swallow a litre of Obsidianistic Potion?” Professor Snerpert continued. “I don’t know, but why don’t you ask someone else?” Hewitt answered, getting annoyed. “A point will be taken from Davy for you’re lack of talent. A Flarer is a rock that ignites anything it touches. A Drogan is a plant found in swamps and the Obsidianistic Potion would put you to sleep. Thought you wouldn’t open a book before coming did you Parkinson? Another point will be taken from Davy.” Later in the lesson, the boy who lost his cow on the train accidentally made a black potion that was supposed to look green. “Obsidianistic Potion, Wideface? I told you to make the boils cure. NOT Obsidianistic Potion. I don’t know how you even made it. It requires a Flarer applied to a Drogan combined with a four leaf clover that was picked at the exact moment of a solar eclipse with a unicorn hair placed inside of a very rare rock called Glardendale. How did you manage to make this?” He drained Newman’s cauldron and rounded on Hewitt. “Why didn’t you tell him to put the fleas IN the water? Sixty three points from Davy.” The lesson finished and Hewitt went off walking with Roger to Defence. Hewitt thought that Defence would be fun. But he was wrong. Professor BFTP was the teacher and all he did was read to them, and throw apples at them (when they least expect it) that they have to defend themselves against. Poor Newman was hit square in the face with an apple and he had to go to the sick-bay. Enchantments was pretty fun. They had a little midget teacher called professor Mitchit. They were all given their own little beaker of water to change colour. Shape Changing was very interesting. They had professor Thorny as their teacher. Professor Thorny changed her desk into a cauldron of Obsidianistic Potion and back again without ruffling any of her paperwork. The class was very eager to get going. Although, they discovered that they would only be changing matches into needles first. “But professor,” Roger argued. “We want to be able to do the same as you.” “You can’t match me, I’m on fire. Get it? Match me! I’m on fire! A match gets lit on fire!” At this, professor Thorny fell over in huge gales of laughter. By the end of the lesson, only Hayley had made any difference to her match. It was shiny and silver and nice and pointy as professor Thorny put it. They had other lessons that week, such as History, and Magical Theory. They were possibly the most boring subjects ever. All they did was write and listen. Sports was on Friday and everyone was eager to get there because they’d be doing Findit first. A game on broomstick. When Friday came along, Hewitt got a piece of mail. It was written in awful writing inviting Hewitt over to Johnson’s house in the afternoon. Sports was in the morning, first lesson, so everyone got there early. When the teacher had arrived, everyone was standing around looking excited. “Hello everyone. I’m professor Hitchy. Everyone get to a broom.” Everyone headed to a broom. Hewitt was unhappy to see that the Trewarthas were there too. Newman had been given a crystal ball and he had it in his pocket. When everyone had a broom, professor Hitchy told everyone to hold their broom with their opposite hand and a club with the other. “On the count of three, you will kick off of the ground, and come down again by pushing down with your hands. One,” But Newman being nervous, kicked off and flew high in the air. He was thirty feet from the ground when he fell off the broom. He landed hard and professor Hitchy ran over to him. “Broken wrists, and broken spine unfortunately. I’ll take him to the sick-bay. NO ONE touch a broom or you’ll be out of the school before you can say a noble statement!” She carried Newman out of sight and the Trewarthas started laughing! “Look, Newman dropped his crystal ball.” Nausae said picking it up. “Give it here Nausae.” Hewitt said. “How about I leave it some where for him? Like up a tree?” he grabbed a broom and took off. He could fly well, as he told everyone. Hewitt grabbed a broom and kicked off from the ground, ignoring everyone’s warnings. He had a bat in his hand and he flew up level with Nausae. “Give that back or I’ll knock you off that broom.” Hewitt warned. Nausae sneered but he looked worried. Hewitt charged at him. Nausae just got out of the way. Hewitt turned around sharply. “Catch it if you can then.” Nausae said, before throwing it in the air and speeding down to the ground, himself. Hewitt analysed the situation. He was terrible at catching, so he’d have to get the crystal ball somewhere secure. He raced at the crystal ball (It was falling surprisingly slowly) and swung the bat at it trying to get it in a tree. It hit sweetly and went and got stuck in a tree. “HEWITT PARKINSON!” a voice yelled as Hewitt grabbed the crystal ball out of the tree. He floated down to the ground looking very sorry for himself. Professor Thorny took Hewitt into the class room and took him to the Enchantments room. Professor Thorny stuck her head through the door (she opened it first of course) and asked professor Mitchit “Could you lend me Cood please? Get it? Could, you lend me Cood.” Professor Thorny fell over in gales of laughter. A surly looking boy came out the classroom. Professor Thorny led them both to a room where she closed the door behind her. “Cood,” Professor Thorny said, “I have found you a centre.” Cood gave her a triumphant look before dancing round the room several times and then pretended he did no such thing. Later that day, at dinner, Hewitt told Roger all about it what had happened. “Centre? But first years aren’t aloud to. You’d be the youngest player in about a millennia.” Roger cried. “I know. But apparently I’m really good. I’ll have my first practice pretty soon.” Hewitt replied promptly. Just after this prompt statement, a thin parcel fell on Hewitt’s plate followed by a letter. Hewitt opened the letter hastily. It read, Dear Mr Parkinson, This is your new broom. It is a Backlash 600. Andrew Cood will see you at training at six o’clock on Monday. Professor Thorny. Hewitt picked up his broom just as Nausae came over. “Having one last meal are you Parkinson?” he said, flanked by Fishe and Gargy. “A lot tougher on the ground with your friends aren’t you?” Hewitt sneered back. “I can take you any time I want. Tonight, midnight just you and Williams versus the Oversized Crustations. OK?” Nausae replied. “Sure thing. See you at the trophy cabinet.” Roger replied. “You know, I couldn’t help overhearing that fickle conversation you know, and you shouldn’t walk around at night. You’ll lose house points.” Hayley said. “It’s none of your business. Oh by the way, where is Newman?” Hewitt asked. “Oh, he’ll probably turn up next chapter, don’t worry.” Roger replied. The two friends went to bed.