The lake crossing should've been an interesting scenic experience, but Matt was too busy trying to stay balanced on a rocking boat to appreciate it much. The 3 other midgets he was stuck with didn't seem to have the good sense to stay still and were acting like the hyperactive children they were. Any politely asking them to stop was ignored.

How immature would it be to just kick them into the lake?

He forced himself to remember that one of these kids might be a roommate in the future, and that there was no point setting himself up for a pointless grudge later. Though that worry was probably superfluous since kids did that shit to each other all the time now that he thought about it....

Maybe it is stranger if I don't get angry here?

He was starting to come up with some pretty good self-justification to put things into action when they suddenly stopped. Matt figured the thought must have appeared on his face, or maybe they finally found some awe in their thick skulls as the details of the castle came into better view. Probably the latter.

Matt knew that Alnwick Castle was the setting for Hogwarts and had seen pictures before, but it just wasn't the same. This Hogwarts had a cleaner and more fantastic feel to it, especially at night with all the lights. The rest of the ride passed in blissful silence as his erstwhile boatmates watched the castle wide-eyed.

Thankfully it hadn't rained, but it was still pretty chilly. Matt hoped they could get inside as soon as possible now that his appreciation of the castle was done. After the boats came to a stop, they all awkwardly assembled onto the gravel shore. Hagrid checked for any stragglers and then they all followed after his lamp as he led them up a stone passageway that ended in a stone landing before a large wooden door. He knocked on the door 3 times and it immediately opened to reveal an old lady he immediately recogniced as Professor Mcgonagall.

“The firs’ years, Professor McGonagall”

“Thank you, Hagrid. I will take them from here.”

She led them into a hall where the predictable schoolyard drama between Harry and Malfoy happened, but Matt had already decided to steer clear of that mess and just looked on disinterestedly. After Professor McGonagall came back and berated them and them all line up before leading them through a doorway into the hall. Matt belatedly realized a very big gap in his plan as an old patchy hat was brought out.

I don't know exactly how the Sorting Hat works, but if it reads my mind I'm in a very big trouble.

Trying to not look like he was panicking and internally yelling at himself for not thinking of something so obvious sooner and considered his options while the hat sung it's song. It was either gamble while doing his best to keep to keep focused on what he wanted to make himself harder to read, or pretend to faint right here and endure the embarassment later. The problem was that fainting probably wouldn't solve anything when they could just hit him with a spell to "wake" him up.

A gamble it is then.

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Matt could be decisive enough when backed into a corner, and right now he didn't see any other choice. Thankfully he was reasonably confident in his mental discipline to pull this off as long as it didn't see more than surface thoughts. He wanted to go to either Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff in his plan, and right now thoughts of books and wanting to learn seemed easier to imagine. It would even be genuine.

After the song ended, names started being called but nothing unexpected.

“Finch-Fletchley, Justin!" “HUFFLEPUFF!”

"Forrester, Matthew!"

He walked up to the stool with all the confidence he could project and put the dusty hat on his head while summoning as much memories as he could of hours spent enjoying reading.

"Now where should we put you? Loyal, but not particularly brave or hard working. A scholar then?" "RAVENCLAW!"

He was so relieved he almost pulled a Neville before remembering to take the hat off and put it back on the stool. His heart was still beating like it was trying to jump out of his chest as he took a seat at the Ravenclaw table with the other first-years.

That was a bit too close. Thankfully the Sorting Hat doesn't seem to pry too much to most students. I need to go over my notes again to make sure there's nothing else I'm forgetting.

Dinner passed in a rush of introductions with his new classmates between eating. He had heard horror stories about British food, but at least the things he recognized were pretty good. None of that liver shit though. He had always been a quick eater and finished in 5 minutes, and now he was just waiting on everyone else.

He decided to implement an unflattering hobby since he was bored; eavesdropping. He didn't really care about people talking about how their summer went, but Matt hated seeming ignorant on anything. This was a bad habit that he'd picked up in the high school social scene as a way to seem in the know and kept with him ever since, even though he was never even part of those circles and didn't want to be.

An interesting conversation between 2 seniors about Ravenclaw's near miss of the Quidditch Cup last year had been holding his attention when Dumbledore stood up and began his announcements.

No going into the death forest, no attacking each other in the corridors, and no going into the third floor right hand corridor if we didn't want to die. What a set of school rules, huh?

They sang the school anthem with Matt mumbling along since he had no clue to the lyrics, and then they were collectively dismissed to go to their House's rooms. What he presumed was the fifth-year pair of prefects called for them all to follow, and they scrambled to keep up through a maze-like labyrinth of staircases and corridors that led to a coiled staircase up one of the towers of the castle.

Oh, you've got to be kidding me. There must be at least a thousand steps to the top of this thing. Don't they have a magical escalator or something?

After a quick shattering of his confidence that he was in shape, they arrived at a wooden door with a bronze eagle-shaped knocker. The boy prefect stood out and rapped the ring 3 times.

"First-years, pay attention. You'll have to solve a riddle whenever you enter the common room from now on, or be forced to wait for others to let you in. Trust me, you don't want to do that as it's Ravenclaw's pride to answer them."

No sooner had he said that the eagle came to life and gave it's riddle.

"Flat as a leaf, round as a ring; Has two eyes, can't see a thing. What is it?"

"A button."

"Wisely spoken."

Impressive, he only took a few seconds for that one. Or maybe it was deliberately easy so as not to embarrass him?

The door swung open and they were admitted to a nice room decked out in vibrant blue and bronze surrounded by bookcases. The prefect pointed to a door that led to the wing for boys while the girl took the girls through a different one.

I want to get into those books I saw in the common room, but it's really been a long day. I need to get up an hour early to figure out that absolute mess of staircases too. Being late on the first day would be distinctly unimpressive.

With that thought he said the bare minimum for politeness to his roomates, the same kids he had sat with on the train, and went to sleep.