Ryland may have read about the Great Hall, but to actually see it was another thing entirely. Now that she was actually in the castle and it wasn't just an oncoming looming mass being approached far too quickly by boat, it was quite pretty! The old look was pretty in right now, according to their dad's interior designer, and that's exactly what this school went for. Though, being a centuries old castle with tons of history didn't exactly hurt either. Biting her lip and picking a stray bit of candy pink off of her thumb so her nails looked cleaner, the blue eyed girl waited. Luckily her name was pretty close to the beginning of the alphabet, and that's what they seemed to be doing, so there was a likelihood that she would get whatever this ceremony was out of the way quickly. Not that she wasn't excited for it all, she was, excited and hungry. However, not knowing what was happening was freaking her out a bit. Or more than a bit.

“Ryland Elizabeth Crowlin.” Upon hearing her name, the brunette closed her eyes for a second and took a deep breath before opening them again and heading up to be sorted. This was it. There was no more scanning the students to see if she recognized any of them from school or looking at the professors to see if any of them looked like the type to be mean. The eleven year old was about to be officially sorted, housed and starting her new education as a wizarding person of the world. And that was kind of what propelled her forward.

Something was placed on her head, and her first instinct was to reach up and try to touch it. Her hands began to shake when she moved them however, making her look more nervous than she was and she put them down again.

“Ah, Ryland Elizabeth. They Ray to your sister's Jay. The jam to her peanut butter and the toothpaste to her mouthwash. Question is, who are you without her?” The talking was coming from above the young student, and to make sure she wasn't missing some fabulous show with a man swinging down from above, the blue eyed girl looked up, seeing nothing but the brim of a wide hat. Oh cool, she was going to start her year off with head lice.

“I'm Ryland. Without Jay, I'm still Ryland.” She refused to let her voice quake. She refused to let a hat scare her, a piece of felt that was probably as old as the castle.

“Who is Ryland? What does Ryland like? What do you offer to the world?” She didn't have lip balm with her at the moment, but she wished she did, because the kid was sure she was biting her bottom lip off.

“I'm funny, or I believe I'm funny, I love my friends, hanging out, shopping, watching dad run his business.” She trailed off, not sure if any of this was needed. Apparently it was not, as the hat continued making observations that she didn't know it was possible to make after being plopped on her head.

“No, not important. What is importat is that you have a thirst for knowledge that's going to get you far, and your book skills aren't shabby. Ravenclaw!” Wait, did the hat just call her mean or dumb? Was it rude to argue with the hat? Because Ryland honestly felt like she needed to at that point. She couldn't have been that smart right? There was the Ryland that managed to set a corn chip on fire with a magnifying glass and some time. There was the Ryland who managed to make a scary human body out of macaroni and Ketchup for Halloween that had her Kindergarten teacher scrambling for mom and dad. Smart kids didn't do that.

The hat was taken off of her head and the only thought she dared to think while she walked over to the table with her new house was, that was weird.