Once the first years were more or less settled in their line to the stool where the hat was sitting, an elderly woman in long black robes and a formal-looking pointy black hat welcomed everyone to the school, made a few announcements, and introduced a new member of the faculty named Charlie Weasley before signalling the beginning of the Sorting Ceremony. With a last name beginning with the letter C, Dani was sure to be up sooner than she wished.

While she waited for her name to be called, Dani couldn't help but look at everything around. The ceiling was obscured by a few wisps of what appeared to be clouds here and there, with a brilliant white orb that was probably supposed to be the moon shining through every so often. All in all, it wouldn't have been anymore spectacular than any other wonderfully-designed ceiling, but the wisps themselves seemed to move as if pushed by an invisible wind.

The other things she paid explicit attention to was the Sorting Hat itself. Though it sounded rather jovial when it had sung earlier that evening and when it was shouting out the House the current student would go into, it had a distinctly grumpy look about it that unnerved her, even though her logic told her that it was probably just due to age, and that it was nothing to be concerned about.

All too soon, Dani heard her name called, and, after a moment of hesitation, began walking to the stool. Though she wasn't that far from where the Hat rested, the walk seemed to take forever, and she felt as though every single eye in the room was focused on her as she took a moment to climb up onto the stool, her legs being too short to allow her to just sit down. The Hat was then placed onto her head, the felt covering all the way down past her nose.

As the Hat touched her head, it seemed to come to life, squirming a bit as if situating itself more comfortably. "Well, aren't you a little thing?" the Hat said jovially. "Perhaps a trait well-suited to Slytherin, though it doesn't seem you have the cunning or ambition necessary to pull it off, especially not without any background knowledge about magic. T'would be like dropping you off into the pirahna pond."

Dani felt a momentary spark of hope rise being being dashed out. Being in the same House as Acacia was sure to have been nice. "Now, now, don't you worry, girl," the Hat continued, chuckling softly. "You'll make plenty of friends in your House. After all, you have a big heart, even if it is hard for you to show it through words. No, I'm certain that its... Hufflepuff!" At that, the hat was removed from her head and she slipped off the stool, heading towards the table where students were currently cheering loudly.

Once she was seated at the table, a few of the Hufflepuff members introduced themselves, including the prefects. Dani nodded along, not bothering at the moment to pull out her whiteboard and respond. They seemed to take it as nerves, not seeming to find it rude that she didn't respond in kind. Whatever it was, Dani was glad that they let it pass. She really didn't want to have to explain that she was mute a million different times if she could avoid it.

After that was out of the way, however, they all went back to watching the Sorting Ceremony, just in time for Dani witness Acacia getting sorted into Slytherin as expected. Several more students were called and sorted before the next Hufflepuff was sorted, a girl named Pearleane Pompaque. The older girls around greeted her with compliments on her fashion and hair as she arrived and sat down, ending up next to Dani by coincidence. Dani waved, but didn't otherwise try to communicate as the Sorting Ceremony continued.

Devin wouldn't have hid his relief if he could after Jake came over to the same table and joined the Griffendor house with him. He felt like he was in the right group as they quickly all joined together in excited voices. It wasn't hard for the people around Devin to figure out he was a little more removed from magic then the normal first year, but without missing a beat whomever was closest or noticed the first year sporting a confused or quizzical look would lean over and explain whatever was going on.

Devin enjoyed having Jake sit next to him. He was the one often explaining something. His voice rang true through the noise and more often than not would express excitement which was quickly infecting Devin even more then the excitement Devin got from witnessing magic first hand. He loved watching the sorting hat do its tricks and every time the hat was put on another student he would lean over to try and hear what the hat said. Unfortunately, he could never hear the voice he heard when the hat was on is head. Still as he watched the hat distribute the first years to their respected houses he couldn't see any sort of pattern other then the fact that no single person was completely disappointed by their assignment. The worst case was some looks of confusion by other non-magic born like Devin.

"Has anyone ever moved houses?" Devin asked Jake. "I mean what if someone didn't want to be in a house. People seem to sometimes want to join a specific house so what if they don't get assigned to the one they want? Is there a legacy program or something for families like yours?"

Jake watched the sorting hat do its thing. The hat seemed to almost enjoy this process. His brothers had told him that the hat would sometimes sing when it wanted to get a point across. Usually the point was that everybody needed to be friends and hug it out or something. The message was usually ignored rather quickly. Yet the hat the hat kept on singing and being way too power mad. Jake always thought that the hat liked ruling the destinies of the young wizards. He kept this thought to himself.

Jake watched the sorting for a bit before he noticed Devlin asking him some questions. Jake thought on the answer for a bit. "Uhh no. No one has ever switched houses. It's not allowed. The Hat looks at your best traits and then sends you to the one that will be the best fit. Like how the hat said I had ambition in my heart to be more than my brothers. It told me that Slytherin might be the best even with my legacy. My uncle Ralph got put in Ravenclaw because he was so smart and he wanted Gryffindor. Use to tell me it was a great fit and said he loved his house. That happens sometimes. " He said looking at his friend smiling.

" There isn't a program but it usually is a bloodline thing. An ancestor with brave deeds to their name means Gryffindor. Family legend says Godric Gryffindor chose my ancestor for his house. Pure blood and ambition to Slytherin. The other two are not so easy to pin down. If the Hat thought you were right here then this is where you belong. Muggle borns are lucky there. No family pressure with the Houses. " He said hoping the ceremony would be over soon. "The Feast should be soon. Best food you'll ever have or so my brothers say. " Jake said trying to stop Devlin from worrying.

Magnus had widened his eyes and smiled brightly as he saw the girls hair morph right in front of him. He had seen himself in the mirror do it a hundred times but seeing someone else do it in front of his own eyes was something entirely different. "Wow!" he said kinda loud as he realized others looking at him his hair changed white. "Oh sorry it is just I haven't seen anyone like me and the whole magic thing period is new so seeing that just kinda set me in reality. I love your curls." He said as he blushed lightly. " Umm so I haven't introduced myself." He said quickly, wiping at his face as if he could wipe away the redness of his cheeks. "The name is Magnus Cromwell and it is very nice to meet you." He said as he smiled.

As the ceremony finished Headmistress McGonagall stood up once again. "Before we begin the feast I would like to say congratulations to all of our first years." Applause rang out in the dining hall. "Also this is our biggest group of first years in quite some time so we hope that we can bring you all the knowledge you have came to seek. Lastly I want to explain the house cup. Each house will be given points throughout the year based on merit and based on their house qualities. If you are true to your house and the school the house with the most points at the end of the year is awarded the house cup trophy. Last years winners were the Hufflepuff house." Applause and whistling came from the Hufflepuff table." This year will prove to be and interesting one with some many new students so I wish you all the best of luck and..." She paused and looked at each table" ....Let the feast begin!!" She said with a smile and a clap of her hands. Food appeared in front of everyone. Goblets filled with whatever the drinker liked and empty plates were soon filled with all types of foods as people grabbed things off the main dish platters in from of them.

Magnus who had never seen this much food in his life kinda just sat there slack jawed until one of the upper year Ravenclaws waved his hand in front of Magnus' face. "Hey its Magnus right?" The boy questioned as Magnus came out of his trance. "Oh umm yeah sorry just haven't seen this much food before so I kinda went into shock." He said as he grabbed his plate and took some of the roasted pig meat and potatoes onto his plate. "Yeah glad to meet you Magnus I am the prefect for Ravenclaw house. The name is Jason, Jason Prite. I will be show you and the rest of the Ravenclaw first years around tomorrow and helping you choose your classes. Also if you need anything just ask." He held his hand out for Magnus to take and Magnus did. Shaking his hand firmly and smiling at him Jason got up and moved to another first year and gave the speech to them. Magnus smiled and his hair shifted to a brown color as he began to eat.

Rozalia's cheeks followed suit by blushing crimson as he complimented her curls, but she smiled on at him anyway as Magnus introduced himself.
"It's very nice to meet you too." She replied, but was silent for a few minutes after that - considering the Headmaster's speech and the appearance of plates upon plates of food, she was both too hungry and dumbfounded to talk much. Jason -the Prefect - had shook her hand too and relayed any of the information she might have missed, and she was happy to return to her food. As if the plates had known what she liked, a stack of steaks - cooked to her own opinion of perfection (Blue, that is; the perfect balance between raw and rare) had appeared in front of her, and she had dragged a large piece onto her plate in no time, swiftly followed by a hefty amount of caesar salad and garlic bread.
"So, Magnus, you said you're new to the whole magic thing?" She asked, cutting into her steak with a content smile, her hair still a happy blonde. "Did you grow up with Muggles? My Dad's one - my Mam had all the magic stuff, but she told him practically everything that went on." She said, then couldn't help but giggle. "It was probably wrong of her, but she didn't care." She added, still amused at her late Mother's rebellious streak - rather risky, for an Auror, but her Dad knew how to keep a secret. A tinge of pink appeared at the root of her honey-coloured hair, some of it streaking down to the tips.

Magnus swallowed some mashed potatoes that he had been shoveling into his mouth as fast as he could. He hadn't eaten before he left on the train as most moving things made him sick if he had food in his stomach. "Umm well you see I new to it because my parents died when I was really young and then I went into the system for child care. I pretty much freaked out anyone that was in the home with me so I was branded the freak and trouble child, therefore no adoption for me. Until recently I was always in...muggle homes, I guess is what most of you call it. Now I am in a home that the person who is my guardian is a witch, and thankfully not in a bad way. She is awesome, taught me some stuff before I left so I wouldn't be completely in the dark." He thought for a second about how Agnes must be kind lonely right now with out him there. In the few weeks they had gotten to know each other quite well and were meant for each other....in a family way. He was suddenly brought out of his thoughts and screeching pierced the dining hall's noise. Merlin was flying straight towards him and a house elf was right behind him, apologizing as he went for the disruption. The tiny owl zoomed to Magnus straight away when he spotted him and landed on the other side of his shoulder away from the house elf. The owl peeked out from behind Magnus' head to look at the house elf. Eyes narrowed at each other as the comic scene ended.

"Pardon me young master but would you allow me to escort your owl to your quarters?" The house elf politely asked. "I umm well is it fine if he stays? He doesn't really like to be away from me and I am sorry for the trouble he has cause you." The house elf sighed and let his shoulders drop. "Yes yes fine young master but please be sure to clean up after him." The house elf snapped his fingers and poofed into thin air. Magnus just sat their stunned. He had never scene a house elf, but Agnes had told him about them. "Well then...that was new." He said as he turned back to the conversation he was having. "This is Merlin my separation anxious owl." The bird had perked up when he realized he was being introduced but glared at Magnus for calling him out on his separation anxiety. The owl hopped onto the table and suddenly seed appeared in front of him and he began to nibble on it.