Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. Entertainment purposes only.
A/N: Thanks for reading! The next couple chapters are pre-written, and I can't wait to post if you are interested. Sorry for any errors. Please review!
Chapter One: The Sort
Remus Lupin's senses were teasing him.
The mountains of food had yet to appear, but Remus could smell them under the stone floors, waiting to be magically transported from the kitchens to the five tables in the Great Hall. One sniff of the air and he knew all their wafting smokes and overflowing juices. It had been too long since he had eaten as well as he could tonight in this warm hall.
He could already taste the flaky pastries, the rich puddings. If he was lucky, there might be chocolate. He hoped it was only he who could hear the rumble of his eager stomach, paying his neighbor a small smile of apology just in case.
He could hear every word of the excited chatter of the students too alongside the soft lull of professor Dumbledore's voice assuring someone about something in the way only he could, in the very way Dumbledore had assured him they could protect Harry from Sirius, the same way the old man had assured Remus the placement he'd accepted was right for him. Teacher. Hogwarts Professor of Defense against the Dark Arts.
Remus Lupin's skin tingled with excitement. The suspended lights and night sky ceiling reminding him of his first time in that room, his small fingers tugging through his hair, wondering if anyone could see his secret.
It seemed to him the anticipation was thicker than usual, more like fear, real fear. The darkness and cold of dementors was closing in around them; somewhere outside Sirius Black stalked the night; and there was something else…beyond even his senses.
His long fingers involuntarily ran through his greying hair as the children entered.
They looked so small. Surely this was a new breed. He knew he was not so small when he was their age. How could the parents send away something so young and defenseless? He felt a wave of protective instinct flush through him. Dumbledore smiled over at him, as if he knew his prediction had come true. The wolf would surface for the good, the headmaster had said, but Remus had never dared hope that might actually work.
It was like they were all his to protect, like he'd easily kill for any one of them as they stumbled up to the stool and the musty old hat.
And then his senses teased him again. He caught a whiff of something else on the air through the heavy scent of the food. It was familiar, like Harry's scent, Severus', Arthur and Molly's kids. But he couldn't place it.
It was the child approaching the sorting hat. He searched her face for familiarity, recalled the name just announced, but he did not know her.
The girl walking up the steps was one of the smallest of her year, but she wasn't walking carefully as if afraid. She was, however, walking quietly. Then he noticed— she was barefoot. There was a small gasp and a few murmurs as other noticed. How could someone send their child to school with no shoes?
If she noticed the eyes on her or the whispers, she did not let on, but was focused instead on managing to climb onto the stool, and Remus felt a jerk behind stomach of instinct to go up and help her.
She managed it herself, though, the hat falling down to her jawline. Long waves of golden hair cascaded behind her. That and her dripping, black traveling cloak was all he could see of her while the hat decided.
Gryffindor, he guessed. Usually his acute senses told him which houses they had the best chance of getting. Usually.
But Remus Lupin's senses were teasing him.
"Ravenclaw!" The hat shouted with confidence.
Tiny toes reached down to the floor, and she plopped from the stool soundlessly. Again, he sensed something familiar, but there was nothing to grasp. She plodded her way to the table, crawling onto the bench and turning golden eyes to the front of the room.
They were too light brown to be truly brown, with a ring of darker hue in the center, flickered with bits of what looked like the metal itself, or so his senses perceived. The specks caught the light the same way as her hair, everything else about her small and non-descript.
The room seemed to have forgotten her shortly as the sorting ended and the feast appeared. The food was not the only thing to have finally arrived.
Again, his eyes seemed to trick him. Remus could see Harry Potter, a young boy at the Gryffindor table with his friends, but he kept thinking he was looking back in time, staring at James. The eyes, though, glancing up at the head table and at Remus, were Lily's, and Remus finally had to look away. Severus noticed. Severus always noticed.
He could smell Harry too, thanks to the wolf. The scent was a little like James a little like Lily and a little like the Leaky Cauldron too, he thought, for some reason. The boy was still clammy from his fainting spell with the dementors, but children were resilient, and they seemed to have already recovered.
He eyed the small girl several times during the feast, sitting quietly and devouring her food the same way he did-savoring each bite, careful, as if afraid it might disappear.
She was too small, he thought.
"I don't understand it, Albus." He could hear Minerva's anger. "Sending her without any shoes. Could she have lost them?"
"You needn't worry about Miss Green." Dumbledore said. And in the corners of his mouth, there was a slight smile.
She was looking at the headmaster, Miss Green, the one who smelled familiar. She looked down then, seemed to shrink to hide herself amongst her new housemates.
Remus thought he sensed something else too. He thought she looked as though she had a secret, but his senses were teasing him.
-000-
"Have you lost your shoes?" Luna asked the little first year who had yet to speak. She had fallen into the throng of people in black headed towards the tower and was jostled by the excited crowd into Luna Lovegood who wandered like it was all new to her as well.
The girl looked surprised someone was speaking to her, then shook her head.
"Well, let's see if we can't find them for you." She took her small hand. This too seemed to take the new student off guard, but she squeezed it a little and held on anyway.
As they caught up to the prefect and other first years, Luna whispered, "The password is always a riddle. Today it's what is: 'say my name and I disappear; what am I?'"
The girl made no reply. "Right! Silence."
And they were inside the tower, being swallowed in a sea of pillows and rugs and tapestries of the deepest blue. A spot of moonlight spilled down into the round room from the windows. Luna tugged the girl's warm, little hand through the masses surveying the room to go straight upstairs to the girls' first year dormitory.
"Which one's yours?" Luna asked as they looked at a row of identical beds. For a moment, it seemed too hard a riddle, but then she let go of the older girl's hand and approached a bed where there sat a book in rugged condition, a leather bookmark inside.
Rummaging through the unopened trunk and the never-before-worn garments, never opened books, Luna found a pair of black boots. "Here they are."
The girl tugged on some wool socks from the trunk, and the blonde pulled the boots on, lacing them. "Perfect fit. I suppose you're a princess now." She teased in a matter-of-fact voice.
Another girl setting photos by her bed looked at the older Ravenclaw as if she was raving.
"You are in castle. That makes it official." Luna laughed. "You know we have a choir, meetings nearby. Flitwick runs it; you'll like that. If you don't talk, maybe you will sing."
The other girl scoffed. "Are you mad?"
"What?" Luna asked, mystified. "Birds do."
The girl moved away to speak to someone else, the strangeness making her wary.
The child with long golden hair and warm eyes did not seem wary. She beamed up at Luna fully impressed, gratitude shining. She breathed in, about to say something it seemed, but then thought better of it.
"Night, little birdy. My name is Luna, not that you'll need that. I suppose you'll find me when you need me." Luna turned to go, other girls already whispering behind their hands, unsure which was stranger.
"Oh, I just realized." The third year spun back, hand on the doorknob. "How will you get in without the password?"
"Maybe," mumbled a very pretty first year with dark hair. "You can just leave a window open and the bird will fly in." The others giggled.
"Right." Said Luna. "Of course."
a/n: Thanks for reading! Love to know your thoughts. Lots of Lupin coming up next...