Hat-Crossed Lovers
(Disclaimer: I have no business connection with HARRY POTTER. My only purpose in writing this story is to have fun and maybe share it)
CHAPTER I
Ivan first saw the vision at the Ravenclaw table in Hogwarts' main dining hall.
He nudged his roommate Paul, who was sitting beside him. "Who is that girl at the Ravenclaw table? Dark-haired, dressed in blue?"
Paul looked. "That's Becky Issacson. She was in my Potions class last year. Why?"
The true answer was that Ivan thought she was very pretty, and wanted to get to know her. But it would be embarrassing to say that, and might get Ivan much teasing. As a new student at Hogwarts, he didn't want to attract attention that early, so he lied. "She looks like a girl in my home town, Annie Lowell, and I was surprised to see her here. But now I see I've made a mistake."
Paul nodded and went back to eating. Meanwhile Ivan found himself feeling a bit guilty over the white lie. He was a Hufflepuff, and Hufflepuffs were supposed to be honest. It was not a rule imposed on Hufflepuffs from outside; rather, the Sorting Hat was supposed to take inner traits into account when assigning students to Houses, so it must have detected Ivan's honest streak and selected his House on that basis.
He knew what his grandfather would say to that. "Boy, don't let a stupid hat tell you how to live your life. YOU choose your life's path. Our family always has."
Grandpa was a Muggle, one who had married a witch without knowing her background until after marriage. His own family manufactured custom-made leather goods, and he and his wife discovered how, through her magical powers, the products could be made more cheaply. Their "secret process" enabled them to earn millions of pounds each year, making them quite rich by Muggle standards. And since they were able to exchange some of the pounds into Galleons at Gringotts, they were rich by wizard standards as well. That gave Grandpa a certain respect for wizardry, but it didn't mean that he approved of every feature of wizard culture. Grandma, in turn, got fascinated by Muggle ways learnt through her husband.
When their first child, Ivan's mother, first received the acceptance letter from Hogwarts, Grandpa was not happy with the idea of her going to the wizard school. He knew the course of study from his wife, and he worried that it would not expose her to information she would need to inherit the family business – modern communications, financial practices and so on. Grandma saw the point of his objections, and agreed that going to the school was not obligatory, but she also observed that keeping her out of the school would make her a virtual outsider in wizard society. Eventually they reached a compromise: for the next 3 years the girl would go to a Muggle school, and her parents would hire a wizard to tutor her in basic spells. After that she would enter Hogwarts, as a Fourth Year, and stay with the school until the final Year. It worked out, so the younger siblings were treated the same way, and so was Ivan in the next generation.
The unusual course of study had consequences, however. Living among Muggles, Ivan had to be careful not get too friendly with his neighbors, for fear of giving away the family secret. (The honest streak again) Those friendships he did make got abruptly interrupted when Ivan got sent to Hogwarts at age 14. The cover story, that he was being sent to the States to learn American customs so that the family business could expand there, failed to explain why he could not reply to letters or answer phone calls in his new home, and he knew that his casual friends would lose interest in him.
Going to Hogwarts involved different social problems. The vast majority of Hogwarts students had arrived at age 11, and had built up a web of acquaintances over three years. The acquaintances were not always positive – it was difficult to get along with a Slytherin – but at least the typical student knew who they were or where they stood. Ivan did not. Perhaps it was fortunate that he had landed in Hufflepuff, whose tradition of fair play prevented the formation of cliques. People like Paul accepted him rather quickly and were willing to teach him the ropes.
But now there was a girl. Becky Isaacson was her name, according to Paul. She was not a member of Hufflepuff, where he could easily strike up a conversation with her in the common room, but in Ravenclaw. The Hufflepuffs lived in a comfortable suite of rooms underground; they reminded Kevin of Tolkien's "a hobbit hole, and that means comfort". The Ravenclaws lived in a tower and retreated there every evening. You were supposed to stick to your own House after dinner, and the expectation was reinforced by various security measures and code words that locked you out of Houses not your own. It was almost symbolic: the girl whom he wanted to see lived in an unapproachable tower, like Rapunzel.
How could they possibly even have a decent conversation?
(TO BE CONTINUED)
