Professor Dumbledore still had an expression of upmost confusion on his face when the sorting finally ended. The stool and hat were removed with a flick of Professor McGonagall's wand and Professor Dumbledore rose to his feet to address the students.

"The time for words will come soon, but now is the time for food," said the old man, to tumultuous applause from the older students. The man raised his hands as if about to ask for a hug, but instead, all of the tables were suddenly groaning under the weight of hundreds of platters full of all kinds of food that a person could imagine.

In no time each of the students had loaded up their plates and they were beginning to stuff their faces on all sorts of different food types.

Anika herself had never seen such a wide variety of food. At Borgin and Burke's the food types were kept simple. She was provided three meals a day by the live-in maid, whom Mr Borgin and Mr Burke had employed to take care of Anika. Mrs Godfrey was not a bad cook, but she had never offered Anika anything like what was now before her. 

She found herself incredibly partial to the Yorkshire puddings, which were made even better when drowning in gravy. Mary launched into a conversation with Nearly-Headless-Nick, the ghost of Gryffindor house, who was sat opposite the two girls. He was drawing quite a lot of interest from the surrounding Gryffindor first years, which led to Mary being engaged in almost constant conversation. Anika spoke from time to time, when she was directly asked a question or had something to add to the conversation, but Mary was the one who held most people's attention as she questioned the ghost relentlessly.

Anika had eaten so much by the end of the feast that her stomach felt as though it was going to explode. She hoped that it didn't explode, however, as there were no more Yorkshire puddings left for her to fill it with. 

Very suddenly, once it appeared that everyone had finished eating, all of the plates were clean again. Everyone's attention turned to the front of the hall, where Dumbledore was getting to his feet to address the school. Anika had to stomp on Mary's toe to get her to stop asking the ghost questions and pay attention to the headmaster.

"Good evening to you all! To our new students welcome to Hogwarts, to our returning students, welcome back! Now that everyone is fed and watered, I would like to give a few start of term notices," said the old man, "Firstly I would like to remind everyone that the use of magic is strictly prohibited in corridors. We will not have a repeat of what happened at the end of last year." His eyes lingered momentarily on the Gryffindor table as there was a murmur from the older students and a few laughs as they recalled what must have been an amusing event, "Similarly I would like to reiterate the fact that the dark forest houses many dangerous magical creatures, and is therefore Forbidden to all students unless accompanied by a member of staff."

"A new addition has been made to the grounds this year, in the form of a whomping willow having been planted. This particular willow is rather violent, so I urge all students to keep their distance from it." He paused for a moment to clear his throat, "Long speeches have always been a bore to me, so I will waste no more of your time. Let us sing our school song!"

He waved his wand and out shot a ribbon, which began to form words which hovered several feet above Dumbledore's head. "Everyone pick your favourite tune, and off we go!"

The whole school began to chant together, all at different paces. It was one of the strangest songs that Anika had ever heard.

"Hogwarts, Hogwarts, Hoggy Warty Hogwarts,
Teach us something please,
Whether we be old and bald,
Or young with scabby knees,
Our heads could do with filling,
With some interesting stuff,
For now they're bare and full of air,
Dead flies and bits of fluff,
So teach us things worth knowing,
Bring back what we've forgot,
Just do your best, we'll do the rest,
And learn until our brains all rot."

Dumbledore was the last to finish, along with two older Hufflepuff girls.

"Beautiful!" Dumbledore commended the two girls, "but now, time for bed, you all must be well-rested for you first day of lessons." Dumbledore seated himself back down in his chair, as students began to get to their feet. 

"Gryffindor first years over here!" shouted a tall blonde girl, whose head Anika could see bobbing above the crowd of students moving towards the doors.

"Come on Anika," Mary was scrambling to her feet. Anika sent one last glance at the headmaster, who was once again staring directly at her, before turning her back on him and following Mary towards the prefect who was calling for their attention. 

The first years were lead up the many stairs of Hogwarts by two prefects, the tall girl and a short boy. The girl seemed to take the lead, pointing out different short cuts that could be taken to get to Gryffindor Tower. Mary asked Anika many questions about the moving paintings, it seemed that the girl was an artist herself and was eager to learn as much as possible about how to make her paintings move. Anika could not give her all of the answers that she wanted, so suggested that Mary go to the Hogwarts library where she could find a book on the topic.

It felt like they had climbed a million stairs before they reached a painting of a large woman in a pink silken dress. 

"Password?" The woman asked the prefect.

"Gillyweed," said the tall girl.

The portrait swung open, granting the first years access to the tower common room. They all shuffled in, taking in the crackling fire and the comfy armchairs scattered around the room.

"Welcome to Gryffindor tower," said the tall blonde girl, "the password to access the common room is currently Gillyweed, any password alterations will be displayed briefly on the notice board, along with any other important information," she gestured at a notice board up against one of the walls, "boy's dormitories are through this door," she gestured at a door, "and girl's are through this door. You will receive your timetables at breakfast tomorrow morning."

Continuing to their dormitories, Anika was pleased to find that she would be sharing a room with both Mary and Lily. There were just enough Gryffindor first-year girls to fill two rooms, however, so Marlene McKinnon (who Mary had made friends with at the feast) was separated from them. 

"This bed is so comfy!" Mary exclaimed as she snuggled down into her blankets.

"Goodnight Mary," Anika called across the room.

"Goodnight everyone!" Mary replied with a laugh.