Now, Harper is a firm believer in magic as well as the saying 'everything happens for a reason'. Her life is dull and boring, like that of a normal kid's. She knows that Witches and Wizards exist; as a young child, she had been saved by a witch, the one time anything exciting happened to her. When she told others about her encounter, they called her stupid and crazy and she was an outcast. Even her own mother (Harper believed) deemed her to be on the strange end of the spectrum. That is until the letter arrived.
"Come on down Harper, dinner's ready!" Her mother's mellow voice calls up. Harper hums in irritation, working carefully on a poor bird's broken wing.
"Hold on! I need to set this guy's wing first!" She shouts back. Returning to the task at hand, she finishes the set she was using to hold the bid's bones in place, which will make for a quicker recovery, and wraps the bird up in a towel. Placing the bird in a shoe-box (it's makeshift nest), Harper left her room and walked lazily down the stairs. Crossing over the living room and entering the dining room, she found her mother looking through the mail.
"You got a letter," Her mother says without looking up, tossing her an old-looking envelope. She gave her mom a smile.
"Thanks," She grabbed the letter-opener from the table and cut open the envelope. She read it, her eyes getting wider and wider. Her mother gives her a questioning glance when she gasps in excitement. Taking a breath, she read the letter out loud so her mother could hear.
"HOGWARTS SCHOOL of WITCHCRAFT and WIZARDRY
Headmaster: Albus Dumbledore
(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chf Warlock,
Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. of Wizards)
Dear Ms. Quin,
We are pleased to inform you that you've been accepted into Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment.
Term begins September 1. We await your owl by no later than July 31.
Yours sincerely,
Minerva McGonagall
Minerva McGonagall,
Deputy Headmistress"
Harper flails the letter about giddily.
"Can I go? Oh please, can I go?" She pleads. Her mother gives her a sad smile.
"Harper... it's about time you learned the truth."
"The truth? What are you-"
"I'm a Witch. Your father is a Wizard. As is the rest of our family. You're a pureblood witch Harper," Harper's mom says softly. Harper freezes, her sharp blue eyes trained onto her mother's pale blue ones.
"Why... Why didn't you tell me?" Harper asked hoarsely. How could her mother keep this from her? It was a part of her soul, darn it! A weary sigh from the blonde haired woman brought her back to reality. 'I've never heard her sound so... old...'
"I just wanted you to have a normal childhood. Since you come from a pureblood family, you would have been expected to do and say things that weren't always the right thing to do or say. I prayed that you wouldn't have magic but, when you first spoke parseltongue, I knew you would have no such luck. I tried to shelter you from the magic, but you loved it so much, that you were subconsciously practicing it. The magic world is so full of danger and sorrow and I never wanted you to feel the same pain I did. Emotionally or psychologically. I'm sorry I didn't tell you earlier... it's just that..." Her mother trails off, leaving a thick silence in the wake of her words. Harper gives her mother a warm smile after a few seconds of processing everything.
"It's ok! You only wanted to protect me! But I am going to Hogwarts. I think it would be safer for me to be able to properly use magic than not," Her mother agreed with her on this, "Anyway, what's parseltongue?" Harper asks, settling down into the chair next to her mom. She prods at her mildly warm bacon and eggs, watching her mom intently.
"Parseltongue is..." Her mother hesitates for a moment, "Parseltongue is the language of the snakes. The first time you spoke it was at that zoo. Remember? You were talking with a boy with glasses and the snake when a chubby kid came along. I'm not sure which one of you did it but, next thing we know, the glass is gone, the chubby kid's in the snake exhibit, and the snake was fleeing. Then the glass came back and the kid was stuck." 'Ah yes. I remember that. Hehehe. I think it might have been the boy. Harry. Harry Potter. If I got one of these letters, he had to have gotten one too!'
~Flashback~
Harper curiously watches a boy and a snake. Who are talking. Together. And she can understand them. She rubs her eyes to make sure she's not imagining this in her time of boredom. Nope. Still there. Harper walks over, smiling.
"Hey! The name's Harper Quin! Who are you two?" Harper asks energetically. The boy jumps about a foot in the air and whirls around to watch her, his eyes wide.
"Uh... err... I'm Harry. Harry Potter." The boy mumbles, his green orbs straying back to the talking snake. The boy's name was familiar. Racking her brain, Harper realized he had the same name of a magic prophecy in a book her mom owns. She smiles at the boy.
"That's funny! You have the same name as a boy from a book! He's a wizard and he's in a prophecy that says he'll save the magic world!" Harper says happily, giggling. Seconds later, she moves around Harry and stares at the snake.
"Hello, little snake!" Harper greets the serpent, "You must be very sad, being treated as a decoration. I, for one, think you're a magnificent creature and deserve our utmost respect." She spouts, turning to grin at the Potter, who was watching the exchange with fascination. Both had caught the blush-like spots on what the kids assumed to be the snake's cheeks as well as the nod of thanks. "Don't you agree, Mr. Potter?" Harper asks, sounding like she's asking an important, professional, press-conference question. Harry nods, grinning.
"I certainly do, Ms. Quin!" Harry replied professionally. Both burst into laughter seconds later before Harper sobered up enough to gain a semi-serious face. She turns to the snake.
"I do hope you escape from this cell of yours." Harper manages to say before a chubby kid rudely pushes her and Harry aside, pressing his face against the glass. Harper glares at him.
"Mum! Dad! Look at this!" The boy shouts. Harper glances at Harry, who had been pushed onto the ground. He is glaring so intently at the boy, she half expects him to fall through the glass. Which is exactly what happens. Harper burst into laughter and pretends not to see the snake escape from his cell. She walks over to Harry and helps him up before turning to the chubby boy. The glass was back. Harper twitches and she could swear she heard a voice hiss, "Thanks, amigos. Brazil, here I come!" Harper ignores the strange occurrence, playing it off on her imagination.
"Well... that happened, and it was hilarious! I wonder how he got in there." Harper says. Harry nods his agreement.
"It was pretty funny but I don't know how it happened either."
"Magic!" Harper cheers, eliciting a few strange looks from nearby people and laughter from Harry.
"You believe in magic?" Harry asks. Harper grins at her new black-haired, green-eyed friend.
"Yup! What about you?"
"Well, I guess it's hard not to, after what just happened. I mean, we just had a conversation with a snake. A snake. Then Dudley fell through the glass." Harry points out.
"Dudley?" Harper asks.
"The boy. He's my cousin." Harry explains. Harper grins. She procures a piece of paper and pencil out of what appears to be nowhere and jots down a couple things.
"Here. It's my address. Send a letter or something so we can keep in touch. When I reply, my letters will come by owl because my family's weird like that. I have to go now, I believe my mom wants me to come back." Harper says, pointing at the blonde woman impatiently waving her over. Harry smiles at her.
"I'll be sure to write. You're my friend after all!" Harry says. Harper nods and skips away. "Bye!" Harry calls after her.
~Flashback~
Harper smiles. The two had indeed kept in touch. They had switched to sending the owl (Yuri) back and forth to bring both kids' letters to the other as Harry's parents forbade him from sending any more letters.
"Yeah. I remember that. That was fun!" Harper says. Her mother returns the smile.
"So you can go to the school, as long as you don't get into too much trouble." Her mom says.
"Thanks!" Harper says, a close-eyed smile taking over her face.
~Timeskip brought to you by the boy-who-lived!~
Harper stares at the stone pillars. The closest is number 9. Then there's number 10. No number 9 3/4. Irritated, she decides to wait until she sees a wizard family. Seconds later, Harper sees Harry, of all people, talking to a conductor, who immediately sends him off. He looks just as confused as before he asked whatever he asked. Harper grins and lugs her trolley over as quietly as possible. Her Barn Owl, Lillian, is perched on her shoulder and seems to know exactly what Harper is doing. Anyone could tell the bird has a half-smug half-excited expression despite the fact that animals- owls in particular -should not be capable of facial expressions.
"Potter." She says in a creepy voice when she's directly behind Harry. The boy jumps about a foot in the air, just like the first time they met, and whirls around. Harper sniggers.
"Harper!" Harry says gleefully when he recognizes her. Lillian coos softly, catching the attention of Harry's Snowy.
"What's her name?" Harper asks, pointing to the beautiful Snowy on Harry's Hogwarts trolley. "This girl here is Lillian. Lil', Lilly, or Lilith for short." Harry turns to his owl, who looks very put out that she's in a cage while Lillian is not.
"Ah, this is Hedwig!" Harry then jolts, "Look!" He says disbelievingly, pointing at something. Harper turns just in time to see someone finish running through a pillar. The two kids share an excited, and astonished, glance.
"Magic." They say together. Harper starts up first, rushing over to the family with Harry right behind.
"Excuse me, but could you help my friend and I run through the pillar? It's our first time." Harper asks the eldest looking of the family who also appears to be the mother. The witch turns to them, smiling.
"Why of course! It's Ron's first time too." The woman says while the aforementioned boy gave Harper and Harry a nervous smile. "All you have to do is run straight into the wall." The witch continues, "Fred it's your turn, dear."
"I'm not Fred, I'm George!"
"And you call yourself our mother!" A pair of twins says indignantly. The woman sighs.
"Oh, I'm sorry George." She apologizes. One twin walks up to stand beside her. Right before running towards the wall, he says,
"Just kidding, I am Fred!" He takes off, with the other twin (George supposedly) right behind him. The woman urges Harper to go next. The young girl obliges willingly, though she admits it is a bit disconcerting to run through a solid brick wall. However, once on the other side, she is awed by the huge train and stops right in front of the pillar. Harper doesn't move in time and is crashed into by Harry. Both kids tumble to the ground, owls squawking indignantly as they are thrown around. Lillian takes off to avoid most of the stuff but Hedwig's in a cage so she just vainly pulls at the bars of her cage. When everything finally stops moving, there's quite the mess behind. Harper leaps to her feet, scattering several books that landed on her.
"Hehe... nothing to see here folks! Just two newbies crossing through the brick wall!" Harper announces, beginning to look for her fellow newbie. She found him buried under a pile of books with Hedwig and his cage perched precariously on top. A twitching arm stuck out comically. Harper helped Harry out and the two quickly put their stuff back into their respective trolleys and boarded the train. They put their stuff away and found an empty compartment to settle down in.
"I'm sorry for running into you," Harry says as soon as they sat down.
"Eh. It's ok. I was the one who didn't move in time. I wonder if that boy - Ron - got through ok." Harper replies, smoothly changing the subject. Harry nodded.
"Yeah... he seemed like a nice boy. They all seemed nice but I'm not sure I'd want to spend very much time with the twins, they looked like pranksters." Harry murmurs the last part and Harper found herself agreeing, even if it wasn't sincere. She loves pranks, but isn't very could at setting them up. After a moment of silence, Harper restarts the conversation.
"They stood out from the crowds. I mean, they practically made a sea of ginger hair! They all are probably closely related. The woman being the mother and rest being siblings. The father probably has bright ginger hair too." Harper points out. Harry makes a strange face at her.
"You're strange." He says.
"You're strange." Harper shoots back.
"You."
"You." The midnight black haired girl repeats.
"Copycat."
"Copycat."
"Um... am I interrupting something?" A new voice asks. Harry and Harper immediately team up on the newcomer, apparently that Ron fella from earlier.
"Um... am I interrupting something?"
"Um... am I interrupting something?" Harper's the last to repeat. Ron glares at them playfully.
"Stop copying me."
"Stop copying me."
"Stop copying - LILITH!" Harper screeches. The bird had flown into the compartment, eliciting the scolding shout from her master. The boys exchanged glances before bursting into laughter. Ron fully enters the compartment and takes a seat across from Harry Potter. Harper waited for the boys to stop laughing, smiling happily with her bird perched on her shoulder.
"Excuse me miss, would you like anything?" A kind voice asks. Harper looks towards the door, a snack trolley and a woman resting there. A quick glance at Ron and Harry still laughing their butts off left Harper to order for them as well.
"Since I've never had any of that before and I don't know what those two like, we'll take the lot of it!" Harper says cheerfully. The woman's eyes nearly bulge out from her head but she tells Harper the price (who pays for it with a little more than half her money left) and gives the trio the snacks. The two boys had stopped laughing sometime during this transaction and thanked Harper profusely the moment the woman left with her empty trolley.
"Eh. It's ok. Simply an act of kindness. Plus, Potter looks like he's never eaten a piece of candy in his life, going by his expression alone. I, of course, have had a little candy - not much - but I've never had wizard candy. And you were laughing and I didn't know what you wanted so I bought all of it!" Harper explains to Ron cheerfully. The ginger returns Harper's smile before frowning.
"I just realized that we haven't been properly introduced! I'm Ron Weasley, a pleasure to meet you!" Ron greets. Harper grins.
"I'm Harper Quin and this is my freaky friend, Harry Potter," Harper says, introducing both of them. Ron's eyes widen to the size of moons.
"Harry Potter? The Harry Potter?" Ron asks incredulously. Harper blinks, turning to Harry with a confused expression.
"You're famous?" She asks.
"Apparently. I got a lot of similar greetings in Diagon Alley but I'm not even sure what I'm famous for," Harry Potter replied, sighing, "It's quite troublesome." Ron gaped at them.
"You don't know - Harry Potter's the only one who've survived an encounter with you-know-who! He's the boy-who-lived." Ron explained indignantly.
"No, I don't know who." Harper huffed. Ron blinked in confusion before realization dawned on his face.
"You don't know who-" Ron was cut off when their compartment door slid open. All three stare owlishly at the intruder, a girl with bushy brunette hair. The girl shifted uneasily under the combined weight of the trio's stares.
"Uh... well... can I sit here? I think all the other compartments are full." The girl asks. Harper's the first to break out of her stupor. She gave a warm smile.
"Why of course! There are no rules against it. I'm Harper Quin. My two idiotic associates here are Ron Weasley and Harry Potter." Harper replies cheerfully. The girl slides into the seat next to Ron.
"I'm Hermione Granger." The girl holds her hand out to shake and Harper takes it without hesitance. She shakes and then Hermione turns to the boys who appear to be amusing themselves with a contest of who can eat more candy. It's hard to tell who's winning, both are stuffing food into their mouths full speed. Harper snickers and Hermione sighs. Harper snatches a few handfuls of candy and shoves them into her small magic pack.
"I suggest you save some candy for later," Harper says, much like a scolding parent who tell off her children for being irresponsible. The girl snatches another handful and stuffs half of it into her pocket, eating the other half. She pauses when she comes to a chocolate frog.
"Why do I have the feeling this chocolate frog's gonna be alive?" The question wasn't directed at anybody but Ron answers anyway.
"Well, that's because they are in a way. They only have one or two good jumps and you get cards with famous wizards on them." The ginger explains. Harper grins.
"Cool!" She carefully opens the package and the frog leaps out, hitting Ron square in the face. "Hehe... you can keep that... ooh... I got Salazar Slytherin." Ron, having bitten into the frog, nearly chokes on his chocolate when he hears who Harper got.
"Seriously?! Salazar Slytherin in one of the rarest cards! He's one of the founders of Hogwarts, I think. Made Slytherin house. I have Helga Hufflepuff, but I really want Godric Gryffindor." Ron says. Harper blinks.
"Huh. I got lucky." She replied simply.
~Timeskip brought to you by the noseless Voldemort!~
The train slid to a stop. Harper looked nervously between her three friends. They had all put on their robes a while ago, so they were completely ready for the stop. Hermione and her had hit off well and became fast friends even though Hermione is a smart aleck and Harper is just obsessed with fairy tales and the sort. Harry and Ron weren't as open to making friends with the girl but after Harper got her to open up, Harry made easy friends with her and Ron soon followed. "Firs' years o'er here!" Someone yelled. Harper turns towards the voice and spots a towering, giant of a man standing a ways away by the lake.
"Harry! Ron! Hermione! Over there!" Harper squeals, grabbing the closest friend (Ron) by the wrist and dragging him towards the giant. Ron followed without much resistance and Harry and Hermione quickly followed. When they reach the man who had called, he turned to them. A bright smile is just barely visible through the man's wild beard and Harper almost couldn't see his eyes.
"Ah! Harry! It looks like yeh made sum frends!" The large man says happily.
"Hello, Hagrid," Harry says politely. Harper looks blankly at the supposedly famous boy and the giant.
"Uh... I feel left out..." The eccentric girl pouts. Hagrid gives a hearty laugh and pats her head. Harper's pout deepens when he messes up her hair. "Hey!" She squawks, batting the large hand away and fixing her hair.
"I'm Hagrid. Who're yeh?" Hagrid introduces. Harper's expression flips and she's grinning broadly at the man.
"I'm Harper and these are Hermione and Ron!" The girl says. Hagrid smiles at her and looks around at the first years. After apparently deciding that all of them are here, he makes an announcement.
"E'eryone fallow me down to teh lake!" Hagrid says loudly. Some of the first years nod, Harper included, and follow closely behind the giant. Harper stays by his side, chatting animatedly with him while the rest of her group lags a little ways behind. Before Harper notices, they end up in a boat on the lake, staring at the giant castle that appears to almost be floating on the water. The scene is beautiful and calm. Large, stark gray towers reach for the sky and fluffy clouds add splashes of white in the bright blue above. The clear lake reflects everything perfectly as if it were a mirror, marred only by the occasional ripple. Harper takes in a sharp breath and stares at the castle she'll be staying at until summer. She'll be living there with only her house and friends as company. She'll be learning magic. She'll be away from home. There'll be no-one there to protect her if something goes wrong. She'll be helpless and in danger- 'No! There'll be teachers and the headmaster and- and Harry! The prophecy in the book I read! It's real! Voldemort will attack for revenge and then nobody will survive!' Harper was faintly aware that she had begun to hyperventilate but she couldn't bring herself to care. A hand landed on her shoulder and she yelped, bristling in fear. After calming her erratic breathing, she glares at Harry.
"What was that for?!" Harper whines. Harry frowns worriedly at her.
"You had begun to hyperventilate, I was wondering if you were ok?" Harry says, concern lacing his words. Harper gives him a small, half-hearted smile.
"Ah, don't worry about- nevermind. Don't worry about me. Worry about the thing I was worrying about because that's worth worrying about and you should be worry-free with any that concerns me because I'm the least worrying person ever. Also- you're in a prophecy." Harper says quickly. Harry stares at her for a second with furrowed brows.
"What?" He asks, confused. Harper waves him off.
"Nevermind. Worrying worries me because my friends shouldn't be worrying about me since I'm worry-free." She says cheerfully. Harry looks at her blankly for a moment, snapping out of his stupor when a shadow falls over the boat. Harper looks around the cave-like-basement-like area that they had entered in slight awe. Harper stands when Harry tugs on her arm and steps out of the boat inattentively. Her eyes flicker restlessly around the room, the nervousness of her stage fright coming in short bursts. She studies the students around her for the first time. Beyond the small group Harper had amassed, there are at least a hundred other kids. A few people away is shortish, brown haired boy who looks immensely nervous. Several feet away is a group of three. One is a self-important looking boy with gelled platinum blonde hair. The other two are acting as bodyguards, so Harper pays them no mind. Her sky blue eyes meet the blonde's stormy grey ones. Harper grins at him and the boy gives a slight smirk back.
"Hello first years!" A welcoming and friendly but stern voice calls. Harper turns forward to look at the speaker. "And welcome to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. In a few minutes, I'll bring you out to the Great Hall to be sorted into one of the four houses." And with that, the grave looking woman disappeared back through the doorway in which she had entered. Harper hums in thought.
"What is it Harper?" Ron asks. Harper grins at the redhead.
"I was just thinking how much she looked like a cat!" She giggles happily. Ron rolls his eyes and snorts. He was about to respond when someone else spoke up.
"You must be Harry Potter." A stranger says. This comment elicits murmurs from the crowd- or at least from those that knew of the prophecy and Harry's fame. Harper whips around, her eyes narrowed. The platinum blonde is standing there, in front of Harry. A smirk is sitting proudly on his pale lips. Harper cocks an eyebrow and hooks her arm around Harry's shoulders, which is easy because he's standing directly to her right.
"Hola, self-righteous prick. I feel an obligation to tell you this now. Anybody who attempts to use any of my friends - including Harry - to their advantage, will live through the most gruesome experience they can image because of me and then I will shove their eyes down their throat so that they can watch and I tear them apart." Harper says cheerfully. "Also! I would love to make friends with you. You seem nice... once we can get through the whole selfish prick cover. Now, continue on with what you were saying. Please." By the end of her small speech, those closest to her had inched away, barring Ron, Harry, and Hermione of course. The blonde looks torn between looking offended or scared. His pride won out.
"And who might you be?" He sneers. Harper smiles brightly.
"The name's Harper Quin!" She replies cheerfully. The boy's eyes widen in surprise.
"Father said that the Quins all died out!" He exclaims. Harper rolls her eyes.
"Well he's wrong. Mom and I and perfectly alive." She huffs and turns to Hermione, who's on Harry's other side. "Ne, 'Mione! I'm not dead am I?" She asks, her voice serious but her grin betraying her joke. Hermione glances at her, a smirk displayed proudly on her face.
"No... No I don't think you are." The bushy haired girl says thoughtfully. Harper gasps, putting a hand to her chest.
"You- you mean I'm a ghost?! Cool!" Harper giggles. The boy they had been talking to sighs in what only could be exasperation and storms away.
"Ehem." Harper's gaze snaps up and rests on cat-lady, as Harper's dubbed her. "I'll be leading you out now, so please get into a line." In several seconds where Harper is bumped back and forth like a pinball, the line is made. Harper ends up between Ron and the blonde girl she had noted earlier. The line shuffles out into the Great Hall to stand nervously between the Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw. The professors stayed silent as the students in the hall quieted and the cat-lady put a wizard's hat on a stool in the front of the hall, right before the teacher's table. After everyone was pretty quiet (not completely, as the first years are whispering among themself in worry), the rip in the hat, located near the brim, opened like a gaping maw and the words to a made up sung filled the air.
Singing hats... magic.
A minute or so later the hat finished and the teachers and older students give applause (Some reluctantly, as is the case with the Slytherins). The cat-lady caught the students' attention with an 'ehem' and took out a scroll. The grave looking woman opened her mouth and started to say something that sounded suspiciously like a name before Harper zoned out. As Harper's mind drifted, she thought of what house she might be put in. Ravenclaw was out for sure; she never has been and never will be any form of studious or booksmart. She is, however, cunning and streetsmart, as she was told by her nonmagical - apparently called 'muggle' - friends she had had in normal school. Those attributes fit in well with Slytherin, especially when paired with her past and ability to speak parseltongue. She probably wouldn't get into Hufflepuff, since she only has one of their defining traits, and not even that much of it. Loyalty. She is loyal only to her best of friends and her mother- which so far amounts to two trustworthy persons. Gryffindor would probably also be likely to take her in. She's always been brave to the point of foolish - in her mother's words - and she could never stand any form of bullying. She's also quite nosy. Weighing the possibilities in her mind, she came to the conclusion she would most likely be place in Slytherin. She's cunning, resourceful, ambitious, parseltongued, and pureblooded. Harper's snapped out of her reveries when a familiar name is called.
"Granger, Hermione!" Hermione walked forward quite nervously and sat on the stool. The sorting hat is placed on her head and, after a few seconds of silence the sorting hat called out, very loudly (Harper wonders how she wasn't snapped from her thoughts from the hat before Hermione was called);
"RAVENCLAW!" Hermione hopped off the stool after the cat-lady had taken the sorting hat. The brunette trotts over to the Ravenclaw table.
"Greengrass-" Harper zones out again, to wait for another name that she time, she reviews the wizarding information that she recently garnered from her mother. Besides knowledge on Hogwarts and it's houses, she had also been very open with information regarding two other wizarding school: Durmstrang and Beauxbatons. Durmstrang is a much more... laid back school in what they teach. Harper's mother, after explaining light and dark magic, told her the Durmstrang often teaches their students dark magic. She also said that the school is known to be very cold. Beauxbatons is an all girls school. They teach in a similar way as Hogwarts, minus the four houses (obviously) and a few other key differences that hadn't been spoken off. She didn't know too much about either school, but it sufficed. Her mother also told her of any prophecies that ended out to be true over the past fifty years or so. Apparently Harper had stumbled upon one of her mother's 'Prophecy Books' and that's how she learned of Harry's prophecy.
"GRYFFINDOR!" Harper blinks and pulls herself out of her thoughts in time to see Harry walking over to the Gryffindor table. She grins- Harry got into the house of the brave, what else would one expect of Wizarding Britain's savior?
"Q-" The cat-lady does a double take for the name, "Quin, Harper!" Harper blinks at her owlishly before sighing and making her way to the stool. Even though she knew she is most likely going to go to the house of the snake, excitement twinkles in her eyes and a wide grin is showcased on her face. Harper sits on the edge of the stool and lets the sorting hat be place on her head. The hat slides down, almost covering her eyes, but not quite.
'Ah, another Quin! Not only that, but you're the first Parcelmouth in you're family line since the late Jack Wintergreen, who is you Great Grandfather, I think.' A voice says jovially. Harper recognizes it as the hat.
'Really? After the ceremony is there anyway I could speak with you to learn more about him?' Harper asks. A heartbeat of silence follows her question.
'I'm... not 'll have to ask the Headmaster. Anyway, onto the sorting. Hmm... I can see you're cunning a resourceful but foolishly brave. You would do well in either Syltherin or Gryffindor. Or perhaps even Ravenclaw, you seem to have worked out the most likely end to you're sorting.'
'If I may add my preference?' Harper asks politely.
'Of course!'
'Well, I would like to be sorted into Slytherin please.'
'Hmm, opposite of Potter. Well, ought to be-
"SLYTHERIN!" The hat is pulled off her head and Harper leaps to her feet, skipping over to the snake's table. She slid into the seat next to the platinum blonde she had met (Read: Threatened) earlier. The hall was oddly quiet, but the murmured conversations returned the moment the cat-lady read off the next name.
"Hey! You know my name but I don't believe you've bestowed upon me the honour of learning what clearly must be a pureblood, rich family name." Harper greets with her usual joyfull grin.
"Draco. Draco Malfoy." The boy introduces coldly. Harper tilts her head.
"You're an interesting fella, Drake!" She says.
"My name is Draco, not-"
"Shh!" Harper shushes, pointing at the ceremony, where the cat-lady had just called up the last of her new friends. The hat had barely touched his brow when the hat called out it's choice.
"HUFFLEPUFF!" Harper claps happily for her friend but can't help but notice that each person of her group of friends ended up in a different house. Harry in Gryffindor, Hermione in Ravenclaw, Ron in Hufflepuff, and herself in Slytherin. She wonders if their short lived friendships (in all cases except Harper and Harry's) could make it through seven years. Especially with the animosity and house rivalries. Harper is particularily worried about Harry and her's friendship as he's the second of her trustworthy person and he's in the opposing house as her, which means they'll be competing in almost everything. Harper sighs. She'll just have to fight to keep her friendships going.