Upon Dumbledore's
visit, Harry Potter felt the need to argue most avidly with his most
trusted teacher. Dumbledore had come not only to stop Lupin and Tonks
from carting him to Hogwarts, but to change his mind about coming
there altogether. Harry was confused suddenly as to why he was not
allowed to go, and to what arrangement made it a bad thing for him to
want to see Alina? Dumbledore sat listening in the comfort of Fred
and George's kitchen, letting Harry fume as much as possible. When
he was finished, and had put his hands down upon the table's
surface, Dumbledore began to speak.
"Harry, I do not expect you
to understand my methods, and I apologize for giving you prior
permission and most absurdly taking it away, but I would like you to
understand that this is not only my opinion, as much as Alina's."
Harry's mouth fell slack a bit, and he had to remember to pull it
back up.
"But why sir? Why doesn't she want…" Dumbledore
put up a finger to silence him.
"Yes Harry, she does want
friends and to get to know the boy her father loved, but you must
understand. Alina feels that she has created a very large and out of
order situation for the Weasley family as well as yourself, and at
her most audible wishes to do anything but put anyone in harm's way
again. Therefore, she does not wish for your accompaniment to
Hogwarts at this time." He finished and Harry was still slightly
off his mental balance.
"She never put anyone in more danger
than I have." He said without meaning too, but it was the
truth.
"Although that may be true Harry, imagine if you had
never had a friend, or the chance of making friends, and suddenly
you've endangered all of that because of your name…but of
course," he gave Harry a knowing look, "All of these things are
similar to what you have gone through. So I am sure, that you can
sympathize with her dilemma." He nodded once bleakly.
"I
understand sir…just tell her she's not alone." He added
watching Dumbledore rise in his long blue silken robes.
"I
shall bid you the best of the summer Harry." He nodded to him, and
with a loud obnoxious CRACK, was gone.
Harry found it hard to
believe that he knew exactly where Alina was coming from. She'd
been alone her entire life, much as he had, and put everyone that
meant something to her in immediate danger. He also kicked around the
idea that he didn't really know her yet, but maybe that was more of
her defensiveness as well, she wanted to separate herself in his mind
from Sirius to Alina. In fact he was almost sure that was a major
reason, that being Alina in his eyes was far more important than him
seeing her as something of Sirius. Hermione and Ron came trudging up
the stairs after Dumbledore had left and found his side almost
instantly.
"What's wrong mate? You were pretty loud." Ron
said slapping him on the back, which almost made his glasses fall
from his nose and smash onto the floor. Hermione righted Harry's
balance and smoothed out his shirt where Ron had hit him.
"He
doesn't have to tell us." She said crossly shooting Ron a dirty
look.
"No, no it's fine." Harry said waving them off of
him. Once they had given him space he continued, leaning back against
the kitchen counter. "Nothing really. He just said Alina didn't
want me to leave early, she'd up at Hogwarts already, she wanted me
to stay here and leave with everyone else on the normal day." Ron
looked baffled.
"We didn't know you were fixin' to leave
early." He mumbled looking a bit hurt. Hermione seemed to have the
same expression, but covered it up more hastily.
"Well, I
didn't know I was either…Lupin just said I could…and…I felt
bad for her after saving us you know…" he felt the words leave
his lips, but that they were reaching deaf ears. Despite the tense
situation Hermione fixed the bent air as she always did.
"We
understand Harry. It's all right." She took his hand
apologetically, and Ron looked burnt red, with fire in his eyes.
Harry didn't fail to notice that.
*** A few months later, at the start of the term…The Great Feast!!!***
Ron
and Hermione were watching for Harry anxiously, awaiting his arrival,
which had yet to come. Although they had no idea where he was, the
sorting was about to begin, and the first years looked tinier than
the last. There was a short bustle of new robes and jittering from
the mass of new faces, and Hermione took time to note that they were
a fair bit shorter than last years lot. Ron was focusing on Alina
Black, who stood out like a sore thumb, and he couldn't help but
notice the whispers circulating her. In fact, he decided it reminded
him of the whispers and mumbling from his very first year, when Harry
Potter had been called to be sorted. He wanted to know where she
would be put, and as he watched Dumbledore stand, everyone fell
silent.
"Thank you all, and Welcome all, to the Start of the
Term. May we all feast to the challenges of the New Year, and laugh
at our mistakes along the way. I must note, however, that security
around the castle has been changed and highly strengthen. There are
to be NO children out of their dorms past dark. With that being said,
congratulations on the new year, and may it begin brightly!" he
looked out over the edge of his half moon spectacles, and gave a
small nod in his and Hermione's direction smiling. He sat, and as
he sat Ron noticed the chatter and whispers begin again. McGonagall
stood with her wide brimmed maroon hat, a bright green feather
sticking out from it's edge, and waved the first years' over to
the sorting hat. Hermione leaned forward a bit watching as the first
few were called, their order being sorted into Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff,
Gryffindor, Gryffindor…and then they heard
it.
"Alina Black." McGonagall called through the chatter and
whispers. Everything fell as silent as it had when Dumbledore had
spoken. Ron watched Alina push her way past a few of the younger
children, and slid onto the stool with an annoyed look on her face,
he also saw Malfoy sit up as straight as a board. The shocked look on
his pale features was as if you'd stretched a white sheet over a
lumpy log. The hat was placed upon her head, and it shouted angrily
making most of the tables jump.
"A BLACK EH!?" it bellowed,
loud enough for all to hear. Alina cringed gripping the stole beneath
her until her hands were white. "Another Black…well, well,
well…it has been so very long since I have seen your blood here."
Since Ron and Hermione were sitting closely up front, they could
barely hear, but enough to understand the brown talking mass.
"Great…" Hermione heard Alina mumble.
"Hmmm….Sirius's
daughter I see…the temper of Bellatrix…you have a strong family
line…" Alina whispered back.
"Most of my family are horrible
people." She shut her eyes.
"Most intelligent…elusive…but
where to put you?" it looked out over the tables in the hall. Ron
thought vaguely he remembered those words all to well.
"Where…"
it murmured thoughtfully, "Perhaps you are daring as your
father…no…you have a dark past…SLYTHERIN!" it called out
triumphantly as if placing her there had been it's best choice of
all. Alina's face was that of mock horror, and then it
slid downward into a cold distant and blank expression, that neither
Ron nor Hermione liked. She made her way over to their table, Malfoy
clearing Pravati aside for her to sit, made a wide grinning smile.
Ron watched as Alina glanced towards the open seat, then sat far away
from him at the front end of the table. He laughed, while Hermione
smiled.
"She's a good egg at least." She said somewhat
confidently. "Though I do hope she'll be alright there by
herself." Ron watched the food appear.
"At the moment, I
think she'll be fine." He said digging in.
No later than
pudding had arrived Harry burst through the front doors, Snape in
view behind him, and strode across the Great Hall towards the
Gryffindor table. The Slytherine's were all cackling, Alina
watching Malfoy mocking some event in which she was sure the blood on
Harry's face had come to be, and Harry took his seat beside Ron.
"Bloody Hell, what happened?" he asked. Harry had altogether
forgotten what had happened, and looked at his face in the back of
Ron's spoon.
"Here I'll get that." Hermione said and put
her wand to his face to siphon the blood from it. Harry thanked her
and then glanced around.
"Where's…"
"Slytherine
mate. Bad luck." Harry's eye shot towards the Slytherine table,
and he spotted Alina immediately. She was picking at something on her
plate, refusing to eat, and seemed not very at home in the house
she'd been placed in. He felt a sudden pang of guilt, that she'd
have been awaiting this day with horrible fear of being put in
Slytherine, and no one had been there to comfort her. He sighed,
forgetting the fact that he hadn't had any dinner, and watched her
again. Malfoy was eyeing her carefully, trying to figure out how to
get to her Harry assumed, but she kept herself smartly placed between
two fourth years and out of his conversation reach. She glanced up,
towards Harry's direction, gave a half smile, and looked down
again. He felt his stomach tighten a great deal, because he knew what
it felt like to be alone too.
