Beta read by LadyHallows
The Great Hall was a beautiful room, Valyn thought, but she could not appreciate it for the nerves vibrating throughout her body. It was a chilly, rainy day, and while the inside of the castle was warm, the enchantment on the ceiling that showed the night sky above tricked her brain into feeling cold and melancholy. She sat on a tiny stool, her long, slender 17 year old body perched atop it like a bird on a tree branch. She hugged herself, thin thumbs rubbing the goosebumps that covered her olive arms, the small, thin, white hairs standing straight up. She closed her eyes and exhaled slowly, softly, as the old man dropped the tattered brown hat upon her head gently.
Hm… I wonder… The strange voice sounded in her head made her uneasy, and she shifted uncomfortably. You're quite bold, but still, Gryffindor wouldn't be good for you, no… Kind and fair, but also very hot headed… You wouldn't be out of place in Hufflepuff, but that temper… I think we'll put that option on the back burner, yes? Ravenclaw… You're creative, and you crave knowledge, you're quite witty… But you're also quite ambitious, and very cunning indeed. Not particularly shrewd, but resourceful and clever, very strong sense of self-preservation… Yes, that's it- "SLYTHERIN!"
Valyn exhaled, brow furrowed, very unsure of what just happened. Slytherin… That was the House Lucius and Uncle Abraxas were in. Valyn stood, taking off the hat, and handed it back to Dumbledore, who smiled her way,
"Congratulations, Valyn. I'm sure you will feel very at home in your new House," he started walking, swaying gracefully along with a small, content smile on his face, eyes twinkling behind half-moon glasses. He put a hand behind her arm to move her along, and she tentatively walked forward, mind all but completely blank.
"Normally, I'd call a prefect to escort you, but I'm sure Lucius would be more than happy to show you to your dorm," Dumbledore opened the large door as they approached it with a flick of his wrist. Valyn tentatively smiled at Lucius, who nodded, warmth in his silver eyes. She felt her shoulders relax at the sight of her cousin, and looped her arm with his as her and the Headmaster closed the distance between him and her family.
"Well?" Lucius asked the girl brightly.
"Slytherin," Valyn found a surprising bit of pride in her voice as she spoke, despite hardly understanding her House. Lucius smiled at her and she beamed back at him.
"Good," Abraxas said, nodding. Valyn smiled his way, as well.
"Abraxas," Dumbledore said, and the man glanced at the Gryffindor as if he were a lion acknowledging a fly. "I'll need a few more words with you, if you would, in my office."
Abraxas nodded cordially. "Very well, then."
"And Lucius, would you like to show Valyn to the Slytherin dungeons?" Dumbledore asked.
"I'd be more than happy to," Lucius obliged, beginning to escort Valyn away.
On the walk, her relief at seeing her cousin quickly faded as the worry about the new school, her disdain for missing out on a final year at Ilvermorny, and- the thing she'd least want to deal with- grief consumed her once more.
"Everything will be alright," Lucius said a time later. Valyn looked at him, his soft expression. "I know you miss Ilvermorny, and I know you miss your father, and believe me when I say I'm quite sorry about all that. But you'll have a good time here; you'll learn what you need to in order to succeed; and you'll have ample opportunity to do with your life as you will. Try to focus on that instead of dwelling on what you're unable to change."
Valyn thought on that a moment. She knew, logically, that he was right, of course. Not only was it unhealthy, but her father wouldn't want her to throw her life away. And she knew she would move on and heal- she already had been, for six whole months- but she, apparently, needed a bit more time.
He was her father, after all, and the only thing she'd had.
Lucius did a strange order of knocks on the wall, and it tentatively faded into invisibility. Several students were in the common room, but not enough to be a cause for nerves. At the sight of Lucius, however, a well-known man, respected, and recently graduated Slytherin, a girl probably Valyn's age rushed to open the door.
"Dolores," Lucius said, somehow cordial and cruel all at once. The girl said nothing. "You're in your seventh year, yes?"
"Yes," she said. Valyn looked at her; a short, round woman whose face most closely resembled a toad wore a loose, open robe that shone a too-pink outfit beneath it.
"This is my cousin, Valyn. She's just transferred to Hogwarts from Ilvermorny and has been Sorted into Slytherin- of course. Do show her to the girl's dormitory." He looked down the bridge of his nose at her, and she nodded. Valyn embraced her cousin, arms around his abdomen, and he gently hugged her back.
"Do write often, Val," he said quietly into her ear. She nodded.
"Of course," she whispered, before reluctantly pulling away, "send your father my goodbyes,"
"I will," Lucius said, glanced over Dolores once more, and then gracefully left the common room. Without a word, Dolores led Valyn to a winding staircase, walking slowly up it. Valyn glanced around the room; it was mainly stone, with emerald and grey furnishings, windows peering out to the bottom of the lake, which was so very dark, living true to its name.
It was a beautiful room, she thought, just as she left it. Dolores motioned to the door before turning back, returning to the common room, and Valyn walked in.
Five beautiful beds stood tall in the room, three of which had the drapes drawn and were presumably occupied. Two House Elves were cleaning up the floor. Two empty beds were left, one apparently belonging to Dolores, much to Valyn's annoyance, and the other to Valyn. Her pet pygmy dragon, Attor, whom Valyn had been surprised was allowed in, stood proudly and contently on the suitcase that sat on her bed. Valyn stroked his head affectionately before easing him off the suitcase to quietly unpack. Once the Elves had left, she changed into her pajamas, laying thoughtlessly on the bed. Attor curled up on her chest, and she pet him absentmindedly.
She was very tired, but she couldn't muster up the will to close her eyes, instead staring up at the top of her drapes. Eventually, she found it in her to flick her wrist, causing the curtains to fall closed around her. She turned and cuddled the small dragon in her arms, who nuzzled her gently with his long, smooth snout.
Seventeen years old.
Valyn was an adult.
In fact, she was almost eighteen- almost an adult by No-Maj (or Muggle, as they called it here in Britain) standards.
She was an adult, but she hardly felt like one.
She'd been told all her life how mature she was for her age, by her father and then by her teachers, but right then, Valyn felt like she was eleven years old again. In an unfamiliar place, a new bed, all alone, not a friend to her name, her father gone… Only now, her father wasn't simply at home a few states away. Her father was dead.
Tears stung her eyes and she closed them, but they fell anyway.
She knew she wouldn't be able to avoid thinking about him for long, but she'd hoped to. Everytime she thought of him, her heart throbbed and her head ached and her whole body went numb. He'd been a wonderful father, a wonderful man, and a wonderful friend. He'd been the only thing, the only person, the only anything Valyn had ever had, had ever been important to.
They'd grown up poor, after her father had been all but formally disowned, in a glorified shack her father had built himself. Her mother had died in childbirth, and it had been just them for so long. Her dad got a job cleaning up dragon dung at a dragon reserve and slowly worked his way up the ranks to be the world famous dragon tamer he was when he died.
He was everything to Valyn, what everyone should aspire to be like. And he was so kind, and understanding, well-read, good at teaching people things without being condescending. He was patient, understanding, gentle… Valyn fought to keep her crying silent.
She felt Attor struggling to twist towards her so she loosed her arms, realising she'd perhaps tightened her grip, and he tried to comfort her. She smiled sadly at him.
She'd gotten him when she was eleven, before she started school. Her father had brought Valyn along to New Zealand to help tame an Antipodean Opaleye that wasn't particularly fond of avoiding the No-Majes.
It turned out that someone had stolen an egg of hers, and when she found this out after her father had found the egg, she swooped in to attack. Luckily, the hermit who'd stolen it was far from any civilization and her father was able to restrain the dragon and call for help, taking her to captivity in New Zealand. The egg, pygmied due to lack of heat after the No-Maj had stolen it, wasn't accepted by the reserve in New Zealand, as pygmies rarely survive, especially when born from full-sized dragons, so her father let her keep the dragon. A week later, back at home in Michigan, the egg hatched, and a slightly deformed baby Attor was born.
The long trail of spikes that lined the species' spine was too long for Attor's small, cat-sized body, and while Attor had adapted to them for the most part, he'd been born with one that had been the same length of his newborn body. He'd had to have surgery to remove it, and as a Christmas gift, her father had had the tendril made into the wand Valyn had still; a rather short, eight inch wand, unyielding flexibility, made of hawthorn wood. Her father had paid Thiago Quintana a lot of money to custom make the wand, which was very unlike his usual wands. She absentmindedly rubbed the wand that was always strapped to her thigh, feeling the smooth wood. It was barely longer than her hand, and it curved into a crescent shape. The wood was tan and beautiful against her fingers.
Valyn wiped her eyes and pet Attor some more, finally finding herself being pulled into sleep.
Beta read by LadyHallows