Standing outside of the massive doors was one of hardest and most nerve racking moments of her life. She couldn't say that it was the hardest moment, but it came fairly close. Smoothing her hands down the sides of the black robe she wore and reaching up to make sure her mahogany hair was in place the young woman shifted from foot to foot as she waited for someone to tell her what to do.
From her place to the left of the doors, she watched as the one closest to her opened slightly and the dignified woman that had brought her to the doors earlier came out.
"Oh there you are. Are you ready to come in?"
Searching her mind for the name of the teacher before her, the girl nodded her head and softly said, "Yes Professor McGonagall."
With a brief nod, McGonagall watched the young woman walk towards her, sighing softly at the events that had brought this girl to Hogwarts.
"It will be a little overwhelming I'm sure, but just follow me down to the head table and we'll go from there, alright?"
Nodding again the girl looked up at the Professor before her and squared her shoulders. Following the older woman towards the doors, she took a deep breath to steady herself for what was coming next. Both doors were pulled open and the great hall came into view. The four massive tables stretching down more than half the length of the huge room, the thousands of candles hanging over head with the clear night sky taking the place of the ceiling. After taking in the sights of the room, not to mention all of the students that occupied the tables laid out before her, the girl followed behind the quick strides of Professor McGonagall.
Whispers followed her as she made her way to the main table that faced the four tables of students. Looking to the center of the table, she could see a very old man standing next to a stool with an odd hat on it. Clear sparkling eyes gazed back at her out of a face lined with age. A faint smile touched the mouth above a long beard that lay against light blue robes. Looking into the face of the man suddenly gave the girl a sense of confidence and calm. Professor McGonagall stopped before the man and gestured for the girl to move around and stand next to him.
Suddenly confronted with many curious faces shook the girls calm slightly, but with a deep breath she stood tall and waited to see what would happen next. When she heard the man beside her clear his throat, she looked up at him and waited for him to speak.
"I see that I have everyone's attention so I will skip over that part. As you can see next to me stands a young lady that has not been seen at Hogwarts before. She is clearly not a first year, but comes to us from a Salem School of Magic in America. Through circumstances outside of her control, she finds herself in England and has joined us here at Hogwarts to finish her education. I would like to introduce Victoria Griffiths." Pausing to let the information sink in,
Dumbledore turned slightly to the young lady beside him and smiled faintly. Turning back to the students he continued, "Because this will be her first year with us, she is in need of a sorting which we will take care of presently. Once she is sorted into her house, she will join the sixth year students and begin her stay with us. To the Prefects of the house she is sorted into; please show her around the castle and the way to where she will be staying. Now Ms. Griffiths if you will please place the hat on your head and sit on the stool we will begin."
Moving to the stool, Victoria picked the hat up and sat on the stool facing the four tables. Taking a moment to gather herself, she set the hat on top of her head and waited for what would happen next.
"Well this is an unexpected surprise, a Griffiths at Hogwarts again." The sorting hat said as Victoria wondered at the fact that obviously members of her family have been to this school before. "Hmm this is interesting; you have the brains of a Ravenclaw but at the same time would fit in well with the loyal Hufflepuffs. Yes very interesting indeed. However, this same issue came about with your grandfather; it seems that you are very similar to him in that you have all the qualities of a brave GRYFFINDOR!"
Applause erupted from the table directly to her left as the last word of the monologue in her head was said out loud. With a silent thank you to the hat, she pulled it off of her head and sat it down on the stool again. Nodding to the man who was apparently the headmaster, Victoria made her way to the table that seemed to hold the Gryffindor's. Looking for a place to sit, she saw that a number of girls roughly her again were waving at her and making a space for her to sit. Grateful for the invitation, she moved down to almost the center of the table and sat between a caramel skinned girl with long black hair and a girl with dark red hair.
"Hi! Welcome to Gryffindor. My name is Lavender Brown and this is Parvati Patil." The red head said.
"Hello. Thank you for waving me over, it was a little awkward wondering where to sit. I'm Victoria Griffiths, but please call me Tory." She said looking from one girl to the other.
"It's nice to see a new face that's our age. You know this is the first time since we've been here that this has happened. I think it has happened a few times before but I don't remember when the last time was." At the questioning look Parvati explained, "We've never seen a student come in after the beginning of the year, especially someone that isn't a first year."
At the expectant looks from both girls, Tory stalled for time by filling a plate with food she knew she wouldn't be able to eat. Glancing at the people sitting around her, she saw that they were all waiting for her answer while trying to make it seem like they weren't. Seeing there was no way around it, Tory heaved a silent sigh and gave an abbreviated version.
"I grew up in Boston Massachusetts and come from a wizarding family. Over the summer my parents died in an accident." She paused at this, even though it was becoming easier to accept that they were gone it still hurt, "I'm staying with my godparents in England. I didn't start at the beginning of the year because, well I wasn't ready. I decided that I didn't want to let too much time pass since I would get behind, so I figured after two weeks it was time. And so here I am"
Looking back up at the people around her, Tory saw sympathy in the faces around her. She breathed a sigh of relief when the girls left it at that and instead started talking about the different teachers and students in the house.
O
After a rather amusing hour filled with stories about the students and things that have happened, Tory found herself standing in front of a girl with bushy hair and a friendly smile.
"Hi, my name is Hermione Granger. I'm a Prefect for Gryffindor so I guess I'll be showing you around." With a small wave of her hand she motioned for Tory to follow her out of the great hall.
"So would you like to have a tour of some of the castle or straight to Gryffindor tower, Victoria?"
"Just Tory will be fine. If it's ok with you I think I'd like to save the tour for another time. This looks like a pretty big place and I'm sure it will take some time to go through it all."
"Yes it can be slightly overwhelming. Well we'll head up then. Since you're a sixth year I'm fairly sure you'll be in our dorm. If you need any help catching up with classes and everything I'll be happy to help." Hermione said as they waited for the moving staircase to stop at their hall.
"I would appreciate that. I'm still somewhat out of it so any help would be great."
"Well if you need help with anything at all, or just someone to talk to I'm here. I'm sure my friends would help as well." With a slight chuckle Hermione lead the way to the Fat Lady portrait, "I know that my two male friends would love to meet you." To the Fat Lady she said "Lemon Drops"
Moving into the now open entry way, the girls moved through the common room with Hermione pointing out a few things on the way to the staircase. "The stairs to the girls' dorms are hexed so that no boys can go up. Each year has its own floor with two rooms on each floor." Opening the door to one of the rooms on the sixth floor, Hermione stepped in, "It looks like they did put you in with me. Lavender and Parvati are in here too, I saw you talking to them so there will at least be girls here that you somewhat know. Get yourself comfortable and if you want
come down to the common room and you can hang out. We do have some homework to do but you don't have to worry about that for tonight."
Walking to the bed with the red and gold scarves and ties on it, Tory did a slow turn taking in her surroundings. Looking back at Hermione she said, "Thanks again for the help, but I think I'll stay here and relax a little before going to bed. It's been a long day."
"I can imagine. Well you'll be having a lot of classes with the other sixth years so we'll be able to show you the way tomorrow. In case you're asleep when I come back up, good night and see you in the morning." Moving to the door Hermione looked back at the girl sitting on the bed looking tired and somewhat lost.
"Thank you Hermione. I'll see you in the morning" With that Hermione made her way out of the room, closing the door on the way out and making her way down to the common room.
With a long drawn out sigh, Tory looked at the top of her canopy bed.
'That was the smoothest introduction I could have hoped for.'
Deciding that a good night's sleep would be the best thing, she moved to her trunk and changed into pajamas. Tomorrow would be soon enough to worry about….everything.