A/N: Thank you to all my reviewers, and to dyu123 for threatening me with a fate worse than death if I didn't update!
Disclaimer:
I do not own Harry Potter, as much as I would like to, and all my
characters are mine. Except for two of them. They are real. Guess
which ones.
Lawyer #1:
Hmmm, there must be a loophole somewhere…
Me: hits
over head with frying pan
Lawyers
2-1,000,000,000: whacked by frying pans
Me: I like
standing on piles of dead/unconscious lawyers :D
Chapter 5- The Sorting Hat's Song
Five score and seven years ago
Four wizards they did meet
Plans had they, for a wonderful school
Though this was no easy feat
A school for teaching magic spells
To students short and tall
For teaching them the magic arts
Aye, teach them one and all
Four founders each with their own house
Each with a plan they'd see
Right to the end and then, oh then
They decided to make me!
So come up here and lend your ear
I'll tell you where you'll be
Gryffindor brave or Ravenclaw smart
Hufflepuff sweet or Slytherin tart
It all depends on me!
The creepy old lady (who they learned was Professor McGonagall), stood up and clapped along with the rest of the people in the hall. After a minute or so she pulled out a long roll of parchment and began reading out names. When the student would go up, the Sorting Hat would be silent for a length of time, and then shout out a House for the student.
"Abilock, Dorrine!" RAVENCLAW!
"Adams, John!" RAVENCLAW!
"Babble, Lauren!" HUFFLEPUFF!
"Barnes, Geoffrey!" SLYTHERIN!
"Carson, Jordan!" GRYFFINDOR!
"Dyck, Marcella!" GRYFFINDOR!
"Evans, Jack!" HUFFLEPUFF!
"Fernandez, Adam!" SLYTHERIN!
"Finch, Deborah!" RAVENCLAW!
"Garcia, Miguel!" GRYFFINDOR!
"I knew it!" cried Kyle excitedly to Tessa through the clapping.
"Gevers, Genelle!" GRYFFINDOR!
Genelle waved happily at her remaining friends, and went to sit beside Miguel.
"Haiart, Alexandre!" HUFFLEPUFF!
"Jordan, Devin!" SLYTHERIN!
"Kopp, Jeremiah!" RAVENCLAW!
"Lear, Tessa!"
Tessa's legs shook as she stood to walk towards the stool. The hat was very large, and slid over her ears to rest on her shoulders. As she stared into blackness, a voice spoke into her ear and she stifled a small scream.
"Hmm, very difficult to place you are, very difficult. Smart yes, and brave too. A cunning mind… well, do you have a preference?"
"I-if you please…sir," she said timidly, not sure how to address a hat, "C-could I be in Gryffindor?"
"Of course, dearie. Have fun with your friends in… GRYFFINDOR!"
Kyle and Ronnie cheered as she went past, and took her place at the Gryffindor table with Nellie on her right and an older boy with black hair and green eyes on her left. Before she could say anything, the Hat was calling up another person.
"Lupin, Kyle!" GRYFFINDOR!
Tessa cheered along with her friends as Kyle came up to join them. The black-haired boy moved so Kyle could sit down beside Tessa. "Just Ronnie to go and we'll all be here in Gryffindor!" he said happily.
"Mark, Jeanine!" HUFFLEPUFF!
"Narrandez, Zhandir!" RAVENCLAW!
"Ritchie, Christina!" GRYFFINDOR!
"Rusnack, Quin!" SLYTHERIN!
"Smith, Veronica!" GRYFFINDOR!
"Great! Now we're all together!" exclaimed Ronnie when she got to the Gryffindor table. "Hey, Nellie, Tessa! Maybe we'll share a dorm! Wouldn't that be awesome?"
But Tessa wasn't listening anymore. She was busy thinking. Who was the strange black-haired boy? He seemed like more of an adult than a teenager. But maybe this was how it was in the magical world – you grew up faster.
"Turner, Will!" GRYFFINDOR! (A/N: hehe, couldn't resist.)
When would that woman stop? Tessa's head hurt. Her world spun, she was falling…
No, flying. Flying again over the treetops, her wings almost grazing the top leaves of the thick canopy. She saw the School, and again felt the pull. She was close, so close that she could almost taste it, feel it's power surge through her like new life, like her own blood. A distant beat, as though of drums… her heart! Wait… wings? Tessa felt confusion cloud the glory of flight. She didn't have wings… and now she was falling, the trees grabbed at her, she fell into…
"Tessa! The Sorting's over! Come on, let's eat!" Kyle was shaking her, offering her some roast beef, some mashed potatoes, shovelling food onto her plate. "Come on, Tess, you'll love it!"
Tessa didn't feel hungry, but she ate a couple of bites at her friends' urgings, and even tried some pumpkin juice, finding that she loved it.
After the dessert, she found herself being jostled along down the hallway, towards a painting of a portly sleeping lady. When she woke up and stretched, Tessa gave a shout of surprise that made the other students laugh.
"A muggle-born, hm?" came a friendly voice on her right. She turned to face the black-haired boy she had noticed at supper, and his hand was extended to her in greeting.
"Yeah…" said Tessa, taking his hand shyly.
"The name's Harry. Harry Potter. An American, from your accent, then?" asked the boy.
"Canadian." Tessa responded automatically.
"Ah. The great white north?" said the boy
"Yes, it's pretty great, and North from here, but it's only white in winter… i.e. about six months of the year."
The boy laughed, and then waved. "See you around then, Tessa."
"See you, Harry!" she called back, and watched as he went over to his two friends – a red-haired, freckled boy and a girl with a mass of bushy brown hair. 'Even wilder than Nellie's!' she remembered thinking, but then she was pushed up to the portrait, right beside Kyle.
"Tess! There you are, I've been looking all over. The password's Grindylow, okay? Remember that, so you can get inside. You okay?" he asked, looking at his friend with concern.
"No, I'm fine. Just tired, is all."
"Well, you get some sleep. The girls' dorm is just over there."
Following Kyle's directions, she found that she was indeed in the same room as her friends. Her luggage was on a bed, and Moonface in her cage was balanced precariously on top. Laughing at the almost indignant expression on her owl's face, Tessa pulled down the cage, opened the door and let Moonface sit on her lap.
"You'd better let her go out and hunt," said Ronnie, looking up. "She's get pretty hungry otherwise."
"Won't she escape?" asked Tessa, a little fearful
"No, they're trained not to. Your owl is beautiful, by the way. What's her name?"
"Her name's Moonface." Said Tessa, stroking her owl, who hooted contentedly. Tessa walked over to the window and opened it, and Moonface soared out.
"She'll be back by morning." Said Nellie, in the way of comfort. "So, seen any cute guys yet?"
"Well, I did get to talk to this one guy, who was really nice. I think he was about 16 or 17, and he black hair and green eyes. He was really sweet."
Nellie and Ronnie exchanged significant glances. "Did you happen to get his name?" asked Ronnie curiously.
"Yeah… his name's Harry. Harry Potter." Said Tessa, wondering what the problem was.
"Harry
Potter?" squealed Nellie. "Tessa, you just made friends with the
most famous guy in the wizarding world!"
Confused, Tessa asked
the first question that came to mind. "What?"
Ronnie looked at Nellie as if to say, 'she isn't from a wizarding family! How do you expect her to know this kind of stuff?' and launched into an explanation. "Well, a while back, maybe fifteen years, there was this guy called…" she gulped, "Voldemort." She and Nellie shuddered at the name, and Tessa just stared blankly. The room seemed to have gone cold. After a minute or two, Ronnie continued. "He was the darkest of dark wizards, Tessa, he scared everybody. He killed a lot of people. One night, he went to kill the Potters – Harry's family. He killed everyone – except Harry, that is. He tried to kill him, but the spell backfired and You-Know-Who hasn't been seen since. That's why he's famous: because nobody's ever fought Him and lived. What's more," Ronnie lowered her voice to a whisper, and Tessa had to strain to hear, "He's fought You-Know-Who at least three times since then. And won too! He's so cool." Sighed Ronnie happily.
"Aww, will you shut up? I'm trying to sleep here!" grumbled Genelle, and Tessa laughed. As she curled up under the covers of her bed and closed the curtains, she sensed that she would have a great year.