Chapter One: Tilting Axis

Hogwarts Castle stood resolute; a structure undefeatable even when an army of darkness marched upon it wands drawn and intent malignant. Lights burned bright behind the old windows and the melodious cries of laughter filtered out into the night air from where its front doors stood open. Quiet sentries they granted Sable Haines entry into their sacred castle, requiring fealty to all that was kept safe inside. A new year, a new student unlike all the rest. Taking the stone steps, cool under bare feet, one at a time, as slowly as she could, Sable let the hum of magical energy seep into her bones. It was a balm to her frayed nerves, which hadn't begun to heal since the – incident – despite her assurances to her Aunt Eleanor.

"Keep me safe." She whispered to the doors as they swung shut at her back, locking her inside her new home. "Keep me whole."

No one wandered the halls, their emptiness causing the slap of her feet to reverberate over the sounds of the other students. Even with the Great Halls door closed, Sable could hear her fellow classmates celebrating the start of a new term and feel the excited energy that let off like a pungent musk. Her senses had always been heightened; a result of her family having lycanthropic ancestors. Though she'd never change, certain aspects of her personality and physiology had been – affected – by her contaminated bloodline. Full moons were particularly tough, but Sable wasn't about to share that with even the walls and statues that surrounded her with a crushing, suffocating, force.

Lithe fingers pressed against the vibrating wood of the Great Hall doors and with some effort, Sable made the entrance of her lifetime. She highly doubted Hogwarts had ever had an American transfer; let alone one who came at the start of their fifth year with a backstory as grim as her own. Maybe nothing had been said of her background or her arrival. Maybe she could sneak in without being noticed by the hundreds of eyes waiting behind the doors. Sucking in a deep breathe, Sable didn't release it until she'd shoved the doors open and the light in the room seemed to train on her like an over-done spotlight. Every eye turned. Sable's breathing hitched and then came in quick draws that never seemed to fill her lungs enough. Curling her hands into fists, she used the painful cut of her fingernails slicing through skin to distract her mind from the panic attack drowning her body in overwhelming sensations.

Round faces, square faces, every race and age – it didn't matter who sat before her so long as they stopped staring, some out of pity – the ones who knew – and some out of confusion. The tables they occupied stretched across the entire room ending just before a great platform where robed men and women sat supervising the night's celebration. At the center most seat of the staff table sat an older man, not yet growing into his elder years, but not young enough to be disqualified from holding the position of Headmaster. Dimitri Whitmore, sixteenth Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. He was handsome, ageless almost despite the streaks of grey in his black hair, and something in the twinkle of his green eyes stirred a distant memory in Sables mind. One she couldn't quite grasp as he stood and opened his arms, a bright smile creasing his face and exposing laugh lines made out of years of happiness.

"Teachers, students, please welcome our newest student." His voice boomed over the crowd, the only sound in the entire hall as everyone continued to stare. "Sable Haines is joining us from our American sister school the Salem Witches Institute. Miss Haines, please come in."

Sable's cheeks were red hot and burned her fingers when they touched the skin to make sure she truly wasn't on fire. Keeping her chin up and her shoulders squared, Sable took her first steps into the Great Hall and didn't stop until she reached the teachers platform. Her back was on fire from all the stares, but Sable didn't give them the satisfaction seeing her nerves which screamed at her to glance back – see who was judging her.

"Miss Haines, could you please step up onto the platform for your sorting?" Headmaster Whitmore beckoned her forward with a soft wave of his hand. "Sable?"

Heart pounding a furious beat in her chest, Sable stepped up once, twice, and stood before the Headmaster. A flick of his wand and the sorting hat, much like Salem's orb which told each student their place, appeared before her on a short stool. Headmaster Whitmore came around the great table and lifted the hat from its place, allowing Sable to sit with a nervous exhale of breathe. She wasn't sure her legs would hold her up much longer if he hadn't produced the stool.

"Miss Haines will be joining us for the remainder of her schooling, I expect – no matter her sorting – that you will all treat her with respect and the kindness she deserves during these troubling times in America." Glancing up at him, Sable received a knowing smile and a quick wink. As if he were assuring her everything would be fine. "Let the sorting continue."

Closing her eyes, Sable didn't shy away as the pressure of the hat being placed on her head weighed down on her neck and shoulders. At first nothing happened. Sable wasn't sure where she'd be sorted. Back at the Salem Institute she'd spent her years in the Strenuo dorm, which was the equivalent of Gryffindor here at Hogwarts. Lauded for its courageous witches and wizards who knew no fear and found professions that played to their love of danger and adrenaline. Back then she'd been that kind of girl. The one who jumped into the fray without a seconds thought, uncaring if her life ended or her body came out a little more broken then it already had been.

She hadn't been that girl for nearly four months. Since the events of the previous year, Sable had been a shadow of that girl rebuilding herself from the ashes into someone who didn't resemble the honorable characteristics of her previous house. Her world had tilted off its axis and nothing from Heaven or Hell seemed enough to pull it back into place.

"Your mind is dark, young one." The Sorting Hat spoke inside her mind, a terrible invasion that made her knees clack together. "And such fear, such terrible suffocating fear, but I see behind such walls to a heart ready to fight and to run."

"Please, get on with it." She begged the Hat, her plea soft enough for only it to hear. "I'm nothing more than the darkness, I can assure you of that."

"Interesting, very interesting. Why do you think this Sable Haines?"

"Because it is all I feel inside." She answered honestly, sensing the Hat would never betray her words to another.

A chuckle from the inhuman object. "Darkness can be destroyed with a single touch of light, my dear. A spark if you will; such a tiny inconsequential thing at first. While you may not see the truth behind the shadows, I do." And with that final proclamation, the Hat sorted her. "Gryffindor!"

Cheering erupted in the hall, loud enough to drown out her cries to the Hat pleading with it to tell her what it saw. Tell her anything to prove that she was not as lost as she felt, but in the passing of a second it was gone, removed from her head, and she was left staring at the mob of students cheering her on to her new home. "Gryffindor; a brave new world." She whispered; a flicker of hope sparking to life inside of her. A light to fight the darkness.