The Ballad of Natalie Ann Holt
Chapter 1
Longing For Home
It was a cool and clear afternoon as father and daughter strode around the lake on the Hogwarts grounds. A middle aged, cheerful looking man with thick-rimed glasses smiled as he took in the scenery around him. His daughter walked a few steps behind him with her hands in her jeans pockets and shuffling her feet sadly. Her thickly curled hair was the same shade of auburn as her balding fathers and her face had an oval shape to it with light brown freckles sprinkled all around it. She looked up at the sky with her bright lavender eyes and saw a brown-bodied Sparrow soaring overhead.
"Come on now," Her father called back. She looked away from the bird and back down at a small cage perched on top of her trunk that was floating behind and trotted briskly up next to her father.
"I'm so glad we came back home. Well, my home anyway." Mr. Holt said, "Believe me, Natalie. You'll like it much better here. No more of those nasty witch professors you were always complaining about. It was simply ridiculous how they were constantly talking about the terrible things they went threw during the witch burnings of the fourteenth century." Mr. Holt went on unaware that his daughter was only half listening. "I mean really, they enjoyed every minute of it. All they had to do was perform a simple Flame Freezing charm and enjoy the tickling sensation." Mr. Holt chuckled to himself "Anyway, there are far to many things wrong with Salem's Witches Institute." He said in a snooty way "I can't believe I ever persuaded myself into letting you go there. But then again it was on of the only witching schools around."
"I like it there." Natalie piped up "My friends are there."
Mr. Holt looked down at his daughter and frowned. "Yes, but this was my old school." He said gesturing to the large castle just up ahead "I had many memories here. And so will you. Many famous witches and wizards came out of this school. Some good, some…well." Mr. Holt scratched the back of his neck nervously and went on "I even heard rumor that a certain Mr. Harry Potter has just started. He's going to be in his first year, you know."
"So?" She muttered kicking a near by rock into the lake "I still cant see my friends anymore."
"Nat, I'm sure you'll make friends, and if you really want to talk to your old friends just sent them an owl. But be sure it's up for the trip of going over sea. Hate to see an owl go like that." Mr. Holt made a comical impression of an owl falling and landing with a 'splash'. Natalie laughed lightly while her father smiled and put an arm around his daughter.
"Now that's the Natalie Ann I know." He said, "But I'm warning you about one thing Natalie," Turning sternly towards her "Stay away from those boys. The hole lot of them."
"Oh Dad-" Natalie sighed
"Don't 'Oh Dad' me, young lady. You don't know what those boys are all thinking, but I certainly do, I was once their age." He said with a note of pride in his voice. "But that was quite along time ago. Ah, here we are."
They stopped in front of two large iron gates. On each side of the gate were statues of winged boar. Natalie grimaced at the bronze boars and it's ugly tusks. When suddenly, it spoke: "Give me another look like that, and you'll be lookin' like me, little girl."
"Alright now. The letter says to send up a signal and someone should be down to get you." Mr. Holt said taking a crumpled letter out of his cloak pocket, and apparently not fazed by the speaking boars "Expecto Patronum"
He waved his wand and an immense silver owl erupted out of the tip and streaked out into the clear afternoon sky. A few minutes past of starring at the scenery around them.
"Wonder what's taking them so long?" Mr. Holt said checking his pocket watch. Natalie had knelt down next to the cage on top of the battered old trunk and was petting a custard-colored fur ball.
"There, there, Ziggy." Natalie said to the Puffskien. She reached in to her pocket and pulled out a peanut and set it in the cage. She watched happily as the ball of fur ate it and made a humming noise.
"Natalie, stop playing with that creature. Someone is coming." Mr. Holt said enthusiastically. Natalie stood up strait and walked over to her father. But soon took a few steps back. The man striding down the lawn did not look like a normal man. More like a pre mature giant. He was twice as tall as a normal man and at least five times as wide. His long black tangily hair and beard took up a great deal of his face.
"Hagrid!" Mr. Holt yelled with an enthusiastic wave
"Ah, Alistair Holt. Haven' seen yeh in a long time." Hagrid said, reaching the gates and unlocking the padlock with a large silver key. "An' yeh must be Natalie. Headmasters been waitin' fer yeh." He smiled at her. Natalie noticed his beetle black eyes as they crinkled when his smiled. He looked friendly, and her father apparently knew him. So why not be nice to him?
She gave a smile and said hello.
"Nice ter meet yeh." Hagrid said holding out a dustbin lid sized hand to shake. She took it and said politely "The same to you."
"I suppose this is were I leave you Nat'." Mr. Holt said with a warm smile "Send me an owl when you get the chance. Hagrid will show you were Professor Dumbledore's Office is." He pulled her into a bear hug and muttered, "Take care of yourself." Mr. Holt gave her a kiss on the fore head and let go.
"I'll see you during the holidays, all right?"
"Yes, Dad." Natalie said smiling
"'Bye then." He said
"'Bye."
He walked away a few feet and disappeared. Hagrid was standing behind Natalie and was looking with great enthusiasm at Ziggy, The Puffskein.
"Is tha' there a Puffskein?" He said smiling
"Yes, My dad bought it for me for my birthday a few months ago. His name is Ziggy."
"I love 'em." Hagrid said gesturing her to fallow him up the path and back up to the castle.
"Been thinkin' 'bout getting me a baby dragon." He said smiling "But I wouldn' know how ter hide it from everyone else."
"That would be a great pet, I suppose. If you know how to take care of it. Is that your favorite animal?" Natalie asked
"Its one o' 'em." Hagrid "I love all sorts o' creatures."
The conversation of magical creatures dragged on until they reached the castle steps. Hagrid opened double Oak front doors and entered the entrance hall. Natalie could feel her jaw drop as Hagrid held the door to let her in. The hall was enormous; with a ceiling that was so high it could barely be seen. There were torches lit every few feet and shining armor stood next to the front doors. Her trunk landed with a thump beside her as she looked up at the ceiling.
"This is amazing." She told Hagrid in an awed tone
"Tha was my exac' expression, when I firs' came." Hagrid said smiling "But I was o'ly eleven. Yer-…?"
"Fifteen," She said happily walking over to a portrait of a bespectacled old man with a smug look on his face. Natalie looked at the frames dweller with a curious look and smiled. She looked back at Hagrid and smiled.
"Well…I suppose it wont be that bad staying here." She said
The smug old man behind her walked out of his bronze frame as though insulted by her happiness. "Now, where's Professor Dumbledores office? I'm supposed to report there at noon."
"Well, the Headmaster's office is way up in the seventh floor tower." He said, "Jus' up them there stairs. Someone'll come an' get yeh're trunk later."
They began their journey up the marble staircase and around the first twist. Natalie looked curiously at the paintings of witches and wizards that lined the stairs.
There was one painting that reminded Natalie of her uncle Basil back in Salem, with his untidy long blond beard, his grumpy expression and his jet black cloak buttoned up to the neck. This reminded her of how much she didn't miss him. Some of the other paintings that didn't look like her miserable relatives, were looking cheerful and going about there merrily way; cleaning there canvas and animatedly talking to one another. But one painting, a little ways up the third staircase was looking not so typical. The witch was standing beside a tree and looking deranged. Her canvas was filthy and she was muttering wildly to herself. What was most peculiar about this painting was, not her babbling or her uncleanliness, but that she was dressed a bright yellow dress with feathers protruding from her head. This attire made the witch look more like a duck then someone who could perform spells. Natalie wasn't the only one aware of the duck-dressed witch; the resident next to her was sitting in the far corner of her portrait, giving a frightened look at the jabbering witch.
"At Salem's there wasn't much on the walls. Nothing but torches." She told Hagrid "There were one or two paintings of the Witches that founded the school. But that's all. It wasn't very exciting, but all my friends are still there."
"Tha's all right. Yeh'll make friends here. Hogwarts is a nice place an' Dumbldores a great man. "
After that neither of them spoke for a while. Natalie's legs were beginning to ace from climbing, and she was stupidly hoping the seventh floor was coming up soon. They past many more portraits of witches and wizards, some looking at Natalie and Hagrid and a very curious way. Some left their paintings to mutter something in another portraits ear.
"I'm sure Professer Dumbledore will tell yeh, but these stairs move o bit."
"Move? What do you mean they move?" Natalie asked looking at the stairs under her feet
"Well, they like to change. Lead ter differen' floors, yeh see? Ah, here we are then. The Seventh floor." He said happily reaching the top step. It was either due to Hagrids giant size or that he had already climbed these stairs many times before, because he obviously didn't seem to be out of breath. Taking these stairs all at once gave Natalie a stitch in side and shortness of breath.
"How much farther is Professor Dumbledores office?" Natalie asked irritably reaching the last step and looking around the corridor.
"Right 'round the corner." Hagrid said
Natalie looked around the stone corridor. There was a statue to the right of the stairs with a plaque under it that read Lachlan the Lanky. The statue was that of gangling young man with an armored helmet that looked far to big for his small head and an ambitious appearance as though ready to fight off a seven nation army. Next to Determined-Lachlan was a large portrait of a fat lady in a pink silk dress. She was giving Natalie a look of most curiosity. The fat lady turned her head and beckoned for another witch to join her whom was jabbering on with a tired looking old man who obviously wasn't paying much attention. Feeling that the Fat Lady and her partner were about to interrogate her, Natalie turned back to Hagrid and noticed that he had already turned the corner on the far end of the corridor.
She jogged down the hall, skidded around the corner and found Hagrid standing before a stone gargoyle and flipping threw many little scraps of paper.
"Does this one talk to?" Natalie asked looking suspiciously at the gargoyle
"No, I don' think so. 'ust the one at the entrance." Hagrid said not looking up from his notes "Ah, here we are, Custard tarts."
The stone gargoyle sprang to life and moved aside; the wall behind it split in two to reveal another stone staircase but this one moved continuously upward like spiral escalator.
"Go on now." Hagrid said "Jus' knock on his door. He'll be expecten' yeh."
Natalie gave an anxious look back at Hagrid and stepped onto the moving stairs; the gargoyle concealed the passage way behind her with a thud. Her stomach felt sick. She was nervous of what was to come. But why? There was nothing to be afraid of. I've been threw this before Natalie thought to herself, Back home. Thinking back to when she was eleven and she was sorted into 2 different houses at her old school. Remember how nervous she was then; how nervous she was now. She realized the stairs had stopped moving and she was standing in front of a highly polished oak door with a brass knocker in the shape of a griffin.
Hoping for an excuse to return down the spiral stairs, she listened for any noises of company in the headmaster's office. But, to her great displeasure, all she heard were the ruffling of papers. Natalie lifted a shaking hand, her bangles slid down her arm, and she rapped the griffin knocker twice. Immediately a calm voice came from behind the door.
"Enter." It called.