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I woke somewhat early the next morning because I needed to do some work. I read through some more chapters of Hogwarts: A History before my mother and I side-along apparated to Hogwarts. I headed to the dungeons to meet Penelope. I knew that I could attend a maximum of six houses today.
Penelope handed me my schedule. It read:
Order of the Phoenix
Slytherin
For a brief moment, I was disappointed at the loss of Hufflepuff. Nonetheless, I knew that I had two awesome houses to attend! Parvati owled to tell me that she would be visiting Hufflepuff, Order of the Phoenix, Ravenclaw and Slytherin; Ginny did the same to inform me that her schedule consisted of Slytherin and Hufflepuff.
My mom and I headed home, where I debriefed Narcissa (who was very excited for me…and also very focused on what she was going to wear that day. The girl has a one-track mind, have no doubt!) and performed the same set of beauty enchantments to get ready. I took another little bit of Felix Felicis for the road and threw some Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans* in my bag (which was enchanted to be bigger on the inside than it appears on the outside…so it's kind of a TARDIS bag, too!) and flooed back for some more parties!
*=BBEFB is a very real muggle product, manufactured by Jelly Belly. I've had them before. Hint: look at the flavor chart before eating! Rotten Egg is no joke.
I headed to Order of the Phoenix first. I must admit, I was somewhat nervous. I decided to make the most of it! It was pretty clear early on that this was not the place for me. I just didn't click with the girls. But whatever! It's still early in the sorting process, and I knew my mind could change at any moment.
Between parties, Ginny and I hung out. We had similar experiences at Order of the Phoenix/Hufflepuff: we just didn't quite feel it there. We were both nervous about Slytherin. We talked about meeting up after parties were over and before heading to the dungeons, perhaps to watch a muggle movie about the wizarding world (Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. I hear muggles love that one!) or just rest a little. I headed off to my party.
Slytherin. This is a story about why all young witches about to get sorted should keep an open mind. I had the most amazing time ever. The sorter kept saying things like, "I never thought I'd have this conversation during sorting!" and the like. When the party was over, I felt a little sad that I had to leave! The sorter hugged me and said, "I'm not going to forget this for a LONG time!"
Neither would I.
As I left, I found Ginny. I said, "you are going to have the best time, ok? Just owl when you're done. I know you'll love it." I gave Ginny a giant hug before heading out.
Ginny owled when the party was over. As I predicted, she loved Slytherin! It was then that she asked an interesting question, "Bella, what if we wind up sisters?" I thought about that for a second. Ginny and I had bonded so well from the get-go. Perhaps we could be sisters?
We never watched the movie-we were both exhausted and we each had a lot of other work we'd skived off in favor of sorting (and honestly, who doesn't wind up in that situation? Everyone I'd spoken to insisted that, one of these days, Snape was going to collect a potions essay and she would be the only girl without a foot of parchment*).
*Did I mention that Penelope and I have a class together? Just throwing that out there. It holds no significance to the story. But I thought it'd be interesting to mention.
I went to the dungeons and met with Penelope again. I told her that I owed her a big thank you-after all, I hadn't done half of what she'd done that day. If I was exhausted, I had to imagine how she felt!
I told her that my personal choice, were I to be ranking, would be:
Slytherin
Order of the Phoenix
But, alas, I was not ranking. I was simply telling Penelope what a great (albeit exhausting) day I'd had!
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