Disclaimer: All characters but Nyxa Gorovna (oh yes, and her parents) are creations of the great J.K. Rowling. That's why, if you look closely, you might find that they're better characters. Nyxa isn't intended to bear any resemblance to any living person. Etcetera, etcetera. The plot, such as it is, is my own.
I smiled shyly at Harry Potter and his two companions as I joined the line of first-years, trying to ignore the little fires of whispering beginning around the immense Hall. It had happened, too, on the platform and on the train when I had known nobody... oh no, I didn't blame them, of course, it was surely unheard of that a girl of fifteen would be new to Hogwarts! But Viktor Krum - and how my heart stung as I thought of my erstwhile boyfriend! - had told me what Dumbledore had told them all at the end of the year before. Any guest in this hall will be welcomed back here at any time. I hadn't been there, but I had wished so much to leave Durmstrang that it seemed little problem. So I had written to Professor Dumbledore and he - much to my surprise - had agreed to allow me to come to Hogwarts School.
That had left only the problem of my parents. I knew that my mother would support me, she of the deep desire for the England and Light Arts of her birth, but my father...! Once, fifteen years ago, he had been the leader of the Death Eaters in Russia. Now he was secret in his sympathies and hidden in his actions, but no less a friend of Voldemort's for that. Even now, as he had been then, he was most important at Durmstrang, an influential governor and writing much of its curriculum. Now, as Voldemort's power waxed once more, I knew that he would force Professor Karkarov to teach more black things than ever at Durmstrang - and that he would make me learn them. He could not be defied... he was rich, full of ambition and wielding terrible power. He had authority and mastery, for at forty he was still coldly handsome, his hair still burnished black, his eyes icy and bitingly blue, and he struck fear into all. Even me.
But I had managed it, and now I was here. In Hogwarts at last, safe from Durmstrang, but alone and afraid, awaiting the verdict of the Sorting Hat.
"Gorovna, Nyxa!" she cried, and I came. Oh, the terror that filled me as I sat on the stool, too short for my years, and put that too-large hat on my head! I just hoped - hoped for luck as it searched my mind.
Your knowledge and heredity are best suited to Slytherin, said the hat into my head, but I wouldn't take it. I knew about Slytherin. When I had told my mother that I would be leaving for Hogwarts, she had warned me. Slytherin, she had said, was little better than Durmstrang. I'd only just escaped from the Dark Arts - and this Hat was trying to force me back into them? No, I said aloud and blushed scarlet as I realised that it must have been heard, and then again I thought it. No!
All right, all right, it said snappishly, I heard you without that. But you don't lack bravery, at any rate! That means Gryffindor...
I felt, rather than heard, the storm of clapping from the east of the hall. My eyes blurring with relief, I followed the sound to its source - one of the four long tables that I'd noticed when I'd come in. I sat down where someone, a girl with long brown hair, made a space for me and looked around. I'd done it. I'd arrived. I'd escaped the Dark Side.
A/N - oh dear, this does sound a little like Harry's Sorting, doesn't it? But what else could I have done with a Durmstrang-trained gal when I want Harry et al in it as well? Parallels will get less later... I promise... and all right, you'll get your conflict! (Teaser - Nyxa's father knows Lucius Malfoy...)