harry potter · wizarding world · hogwarts · magic · fantasy · scottish highlands · hidden society · enchanted · school setting · adventure
The iron-bound doors of the Great Hall swing inward with a sound like a giant’s sigh, and instantly, the weight of hundreds of stares pins us in place. The professor leads our ragged line of first years into a spectacle that makes my breath catch. A thousand candles float unsupported beneath a ceiling alive with swirling nebulae and slow, phantom clouds. Four impossibly long tables gleam with house colors: Gryffindor’s defiant scarlet and gold, Slytherin’s calculating silver and emerald, Ravenclaw’s contemplative blue and bronze, Hufflepuff’s warm, earthy yellow and black. A susurrus of anticipation runs through the older students, who crane to study us. Some of my peers look green; others are rigid with fear. My friend tugs at their sleeve, whispering, 'If I get Gryffindor, Iâ€â€¦