Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, all characters except Allella belong to J K Rowling

The beginning of a new year usually filled Harry with excitement to be away from the Dursley's and back where he felt he belonged. However, this year was different. Voldemort was back. Nothing could chase this from his mind. The order of the phoenix had helped ease his worries a little; they had shown him what Voldemort was doing and kept his faith up. But, then there was this new mystery. They had been talking about something hidden. He had a feeling this year wasn't going to be as simple as he would have liked. Just as he was going through all this in his mind, Professor McGonagall threw open the doors of the Great Hall and led the group of trembling, nervous first years through the middle of the four tables. Harry managed to forget his worries for a bit and focused on the sorting hats song. It was interesting this year. Never before had the hat tried to give advice. Unity it asked for. Ron's face looked as though he was about to throw up at the thought of having to be friends with the Slytherins. This look could be seen on most of the school's faces by the end of the song and there was a slightly less than usual smattering of polite applause. The sorting began. It went along quite smoothly but then just as McGonagall lifted the hat and stool to move it away, Dumbledore stood up.

"Not quite yet, Professor McGonagall. We haven't quite finished. There is still one more student waiting to be sorted", he said. The look of surprise flickered on McGonagall's face before she regained her composure and sat the stool back on the ground. Dumbledore continued, this time addressing the entire school, "This student will be starting in the fifth year, she has had no schooling up until now and I expect every one of you to welcome her into the year and to whatever house she will be put in. She may be behind in classes and I expect you all to make extra effort to help her catch up. There will also be no questioning as to her unusual circumstances and no one is to ask her about her time before Hogwarts and I'm sure she would appreciate to be allowed to move on and would prefer not to remember. Thank you". He sat down and waved his hand at the door. The entire hall turned quickly to face the opening doors. Disappointment shone on a number of faces as they saw the girl who was standing there. She was entirely unimpressive. She was short and had wavy light brown hair down to the middle of her back. She was pretty but not extraordinarily so. Then she began to walk through the hall and everyone sat up a little more. She walked with such grace and superiority. Her hair bounced against the small of her back and seemed to shimmer. Her eyes were fixed entirely on Professor Dumbledore who she gave a small smile. Everything about her oozed confidence and brilliance. Her eyes were different. They were grey and dark as though something was hidden inside.

She glided up the steps to the stool and sat down. McGonagall was still in slight shock but after a moment slowly lowered the hat onto her head. Everyone in the hall was silent waiting for the hat's verdict. They kept waiting; the time went on and on. A murmur started as students muttered to each other about what was happening. Then suddenly, the hat widened at the brim and shouted out to the hall, "Gryffindor!"

The applause started around the hall, louder from the three other tables as though they were relieved that she had not been put with them. She stood up and walked slowly back down the stairs to the Gryffindor table. She walked up to Harry and Hermione and whispered sweetly to them,

"Do you mind if I sit here, you're fifth years too right?"

"Of course not", Hermione muttered not knowing quite what to say to her or how to act around her yet. She moved up to allow her room between her and Harry.

"My name's Allella, what's yours?" she asked them.

"I'm Harry and this is Ron and Hermione" said Harry speaking up as he could see Ron and Hermione weren't quite sure about her yet. Dumbledore had told them to welcome her and even though he hadn't spoken to him all summer and had avoided him during the trial, he still deserved Harry's respect and Harry knew that he would always continue to do what Dumbledore asked of him, wherever it took him. He trusted no man more. Allella opened her mouth to continue the conversation but just then food appeared on the plates in front of them. Her mouth dropped open.

"This is all for us?" she asked.

"I've never seen this much food before, I don't normally have much to eat at home"

Harry held in the temptation to ask her more about her home life and simply said "Yeah I know, I remember how I felt during my first feast here." They ate quickly and Allella continued to ask questions throughout:

"What's that, What's a ghost, How many are there, Are they friendly, Why does the ceiling look like the sky, How long have you been at Hogwarts, What are lessons like, What are the houses like, Why do you think the hat spent so long deciding where I should go?" The three friends tried to answer these as best as they could, feeling more at ease all the time. She just seemed normal. It was probably just that she had come to the school during fifth year that everyone was a bit wary of her in the beginning. She seemed completely normal.

Dumbledore stood up to say a few words. Halfway through his speech however, another woman stood up, one who had not yet been noticed by a number of people in the hall. She was short and wearing nothing but bubblegum pink. She waddled to the front of the table and thanked Dumbledore for welcoming everybody. She then began to speak. Students pretended to listen as she gabbled on about some ministry rubbish and applauded politely when she had finished before standing up and walking off to their dormitories. Hermione however, had paid full attention to everything that was being said and was murmuring to Harry and Ron about what it could all have meant. Allella ran after them,

"Sorry, I don't know where I'm going could you show me?"

"Ron, that reminds me, we've got to show the first years where to go" Hermione said and she and Ron ran off.

"I'll show you, come on" said Harry and together they walked out of the great hall towards the Gryffindor common room.