Hello my good old friends, you thought this story was dead? well never fear, there is still more things to be turned upside down in the wizarding world! We are only just getting started. Well, Onwards we go...

The door opened to reveal Professor McGonagall, looking as strict and professional as ever. She would have surely been an intimidating sight had she not been standing near Hagrid. He still dwarfed her despite her standing two steps above him.

"Thank you Hagrid, I will take it from here"

"yer, 'course Professor" Hagrid replied as he moved away to let us inside the castle.

"Follow me now and don't dawdle" Professor McGonagall strode through the hall and Harry along with the rest of his year-mates followed hurriedly.

Harry couldn't contain his excitement, he was finally finally at Hogwarts, the legendary school that had always been the highlight of his grandparent's stories. Harry was coming to realize that his grandparents had glossed over the horrifying side of the wizarding world but he was a bit preoccupied to care about that now! He was only walking along a narrow corridor of the great castle and yet it held his fascination more than all the other things he had seen, Talking portraits of all manners of wizards and witches lined the walls of the corridor. One portrait had two full wizards in armor fighting what looked like the cross between a horse and an eagle, and another witch in a portrait was pulling out a tent from a small purse.

Professor McGonagall took them through a lot of twists and turns that seemed quite complex. Harry was almost certain that all these turns were quite unnecessary because it seemed like for every right turn they took, they turned a left and for every staircase they ascended they descended another. At long last Professor McGonagall finally came to stop in a small circular room that had a door leading out of it.

"Welcome to Hogwarts," said Professor McGonagall. "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 Sorting is a very important ceremony because, while you are here, your house will be something like your family within Hogwarts. You will have classes with the rest of your house, sleep in your house dormitory, and spend free time in your house common room.
"The four houses are called Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. Each house has its own noble history and each has produced outstanding witches and wizards. While you are at Hogwarts, your triumphs will earn your house points, while any rule-breaking will lose house points. At the end of the year, the house with the most points is awarded the house cup, a great honor. I hope each of you will be a credit to whichever house becomes yours.

"The Sorting Ceremony will take place in a few minutes in front of the rest of the school. I suggest you all smarten yourselves up as much as you can while you are waiting."

Harry looked around trying to see if anyone had taken the advice and was "smartening up". Ron looked as moody as ever while Hermione was busy spouting off about how she wished she had learnt this spell or that. Harry hadn't learnt half of what she was saying, but he was not that worried, He had learnt from the few books he had bought that wandless magic was a very rare art, one that almost no wizard or witch could do expertly. Harry had been fascinated about this because wandless magic sounded eerily similar to what he had done with controlling emotions. If he could do something that most wizards could not, then he wouldn't be that bad off. Moving on with his observation, Harry noticed that as time passed more and more of them were getting nervous, Neville had started shivering after a while, hearing hermoine go on about what she knew. The only other group that seemed comfortable in their surroundings were draco and his squabble of friends.

Then something happened that made several people scream - twenty ghosts had just streamed through the back wall. Pearly-white and slightly transparent, they glided across the room talking to one another and hardly glancing at the first years. They seemed to be arguing.

What looked like a fat little monk was saying: "Forgive and forget, I say, we ought to give him a second chance -"

"My dear Friar, haven't we given Peeves all the chances he deserves? He gives us all a bad name and you know, he's not really even a ghost - I say, what are you all doing here?"

A ghost wearing a ruff and tights had suddenly noticed the first years.

Harry had read about ghosts being real but actually seeing one was breathtaking. He had so many questions to ask, about death and the afterlife. He was just about to, when he had a sudden thought. Did making the ghosts aware of their deaths destroy them? Was it a case where when you became conscious of it, you could never do it. Harry didn't want to find out if that was true in practice!So he held his breath.

"Move along now, the sorting is about to begin" Professor McGonagall had returned and shooed them all in. "In a straight file,now Follow me" she led them through the door across a hall and in through a pair of double doors into the Great Hall.

The Great Hall was indeed befitting to its name. It was lit by thousands and thousands of floating candles levitating over four long tables where the rest of the students were sitting. Across the double doors situated another long horizontal table where the other teachers were sitting. Harry's eyes went to the ceiling which opened up to the heavens, they wouldn't have not build a ceiling would they? His suspicion was confirmed by Hermoine. He really ought to ask her where she learnt so much from in such a short time.

Harry let his eyes wander over the Great Hall watching the rest of the students chatting and mingling around at ease, at the teachers who were murmuring with each other. His eyes fell on the most bizarre wizard he had seen of yet, an old man with flowing white hair and beard which he had tucked into his belt. He like the others was wearing wizard robes but it was a shocking bright blue that stood out among the see of black. But Harry could not but feel that this wizard was the most powerful one he had seen.

The gaggle of first years suddenly fell silent and Harry looked back at Professor McGonagall who had placed a four-legged stool in front of them. On top of the stool she put a pointed wizard's hat. This hat was patched and frayed and extremely dirty. He noticed that the whole hall had fallen silent and was staring intently at the hat.

For a few seconds, there was complete silence. Then the hat twitched. A rip near the brim opened wide like a mouth - and the hat began to sing.[the usual song]

A singing hat that could see into his head and determine his virtues! The magical world was getting crazier and crazier. He couldn't wait to try it on. Did the hat have a conscious? Could it tell him the secrets of the castle? Or did it forget everything as soon as it was removed from someone's head? So many questions but again Harry was reminded of his predicament. He really didn't want to mess with magic until he got more information. He was tempted to ask Hermoine if she knew but held back not wanting to sound ignorant in front of her.

Professor McGonagall now stepped forward holding a long roll of parchment.

"When I call your name, you will put on the hat and sit on the stool to be sorted," she said. "Abbott, Hannah!"

A pink-faced girl with blonde pigtails stumbled out of line, put on the hat, which fell right down over her eyes, and sat down. A moments pause -
"HUFFLEPUFF!" shouted the table on the right cheered and clapped as Hannah went to sit down at the Hufflepuff table.

"Bones,Susan" went to HUFFLEPUFF"

"Boot, Terry!"

"RAVENCLAW!"

The table second from the left clapped this time; several Ravenclaws stood up to shake hands with Terry as he joined them.

"Brocklehurst, Mandy" went to Ravenclaw too, but "Brown, Lavender" became the first new Gryffindor, and the table on the far left exploded with cheers;

So the tables were arranged Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff and Slytherin from the far left to the right. Harry had read that house rivalries were pretty common and it was intense with Gryffindor and Slytherin. Was that why those two were kept as far as possible? Harry could see why those two houses would butt heads from the sorting Hat's explanation. The traits of Gryffindor who valued courage and bravery was in direct contrast to Slytherin's Cunning and sneaky approach. It was a classic scenario, but Harry couldn't understand how the hat decided who belonged where? Not all these 11 year olds had such distinct traits,did they?He could not imagine him being too brave or too sneaky at any point in his life.

The names trickled by and Harry noticed that the hat was not consistent with its approach. Sometimes the hat shouted the name at once but with others it took had to sit through a whole 5 minutes and had finally been sorted to "RAVENCLAW". She looked thoughtful as she walked along to the Ravenclaw table and Harry had a sudden feeling that she would fit right in. Neville took twice as long to be sorted into "GRYFFINDOR" while the hat took just a second to put Malfoy in "SLYTHERIN".

There weren't many people left now. "Moon" "Nott" "Parkinson" then a pair of twin girls, "Patil" and "Patil" then "Perks, Sally-Anne" and then, at last - "Potter, Harry!"

As Harry stepped forward, whispers suddenly broke out like little hissing fires all over the hall.

"Potter, did she say?"

The Harry Potter?"

Harry frowned, he thought he would just be another student here but it seemed to be diagon alley all over again. He quickly walked over to the last thing Harry saw before the hat dropped over his eyes was the hall full of people craning to get a good look at him. Next second he was looking at the black inside of the hat. He waited.

"ha, a curious mind, a very curious one indeed " a voice whispered in his ear or was it inside his head?

"well, what do you think? Am i inside your head or whispering in youe ear"

"you have a rip that acts as a mouth but you can also read minds, but when you were sorting the other students your "mouth" opened only to shout the House name, so i am guessing its inside my head"

"very astute, you would do well in Ravenclaw" the hat thought? to him.

"So you read only what i think not my entire mind, how do you sort then? You let the students think themselves over until you find their most prevalent trait?"

"Not quite, but concluding so much from what you observed, you are quite the specimen, I can 'read' your subconscious mind and from what i have seen from you, Bravery and courage suit you as well ,just like your parents. Gryffindor would be good for you."

"Read my subconscious? So you know about the self-awareness thought?" Harry inquired.

"Quite right, but i am already self-aware, its been quite fun but now ,just where to put you?Well Better be..."

And thats chapter 5, where will Harry go? Gryffindor or Ravenclaw? I haven't quite decided, I can see it go both ways. If you have any suggestions, Please Review.

Thanks for reading, as always Enjoy!