Upon reaching the castle, [[Muggles' Guide to Harry Potter/Characters/Rubeus Hagrid|Hagrid]] hands the new students over to [[Muggles' Guide to Harry Potter/Characters/Minerva McGonagall|Professor McGonagall]]. In an anteroom, the students nervously wait to be sorted into school Houses. The [[Muggles' Guide to Harry Potter/Magic/Ghost|Ghosts]] passing through the anteroom makemakes themHarry even more nervous. Professor McGonagall then leads them into the Great Hall, and in turn, the [[Muggles' Guide to Harry Potter/Characters/Sorting Hat|Sorting Hat]] calls out which House each student is assigned to. There are four Houses, each with specific characteristics. [[Muggles' Guide to Harry Potter/Places/Slytherin House|Slytherin]] is filled with ambitious, cunning witches and wizards. [[Muggles' Guide to Harry Potter/Places/Ravenclaw House|Ravenclaw]] is home to the most intelligent. [[Muggles' Guide to Harry Potter/Places/Gryffindor House|Gryffindor]] houses only the brave, and [[Muggles' Guide to Harry Potter/Places/Hufflepuff House|Hufflepuff]] is where the most fair and honest go. It is Harry's turn, and he sits on the stool and the Sorting Hat is placed on his head; the Hat suggests quietly that Harry's intelligence, talent, and his urge to prove himself could make him great. But Harry balks when the Hat suggests Slytherin, so it instead places him in Gryffindor House. [[Muggles' Guide to Harry Potter/Characters/Ron Weasley|Ron]] and [[Muggles' Guide to Harry Potter/Characters/Hermione Granger|Hermione]] also are Sorted into Gryffindor, as well as: [[Muggles' Guide to Harry Potter/Characters/Neville Longbottom|Neville]], the boy who lost his toad; [[Muggles' Guide to Harry Potter/Characters/Seamus Finnigan|Seamus Finnigan]]; and [[Muggles' Guide to Harry Potter/Characters/Dean Thomas|Dean Thomas]], who is mentioned in the US editions as being a "tall, black boy," but is not described in the book's British editions. [[Muggles' Guide to Harry Potter/Characters/Draco Malfoy|Draco Malfoy]] is sorted into Slytherin. Neville later tells Harry that his family had believed he had no magical power at all until he was able to survive being dropped out of a window.
[[Muggles' Guide to Harry Potter/Characters/Albus Dumbledore|Professor Dumbledore]] then makes a few eccentric prefatory remarks, and the feast begins. During the feast the Gryffindor House ghost, [[Muggles' Guide to Harry Potter/Characters/Nearly Headless Nick|Sir Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington]], appears. The older students know him better as Nearly Headless Nick, due to his partially severed neck that barely tethers his head to his body. As Harry scans the teacher's table, his scar throbs with pain when he sees [[Muggles' Guide to Harry Potter/Characters/Severus Snape|Professor Snape]], the [[Muggles' Guide to Harry Potter/Magic/Potions|Potions]] teacher, scrutinizing him. One additional Dumbledore announcement catches Harry's ear: ''"this year, the third floor corridor on the right-hand side is out of bounds to everyone who does not wish to die a very painful death."'' Harry asks [[Muggles' Guide to Harry Potter/Characters/Percy Weasley|Percy]] if Dumbledore is serious, and Percy replies that he must be.
