Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, nor do I make money off of this!
Ursa stepped off the train with Crabbe, Goyle, and Malfoy. The platform was dark, but it was illuminated by light from a torch held up by an enormous man. He was calling for the first years to follow him, so they pushed through the crowd of robed students towards him. She was separated from the three boys in the chaos of things, but managed to join the crowd of smaller students in front of the large man, who introduced himself as Hagrid.
He led them to a dock, which jutted out over a dark lake. The other students in front of her began stepping off the dock into small boats, which held three or four students each. She was a bit worried, because she couldn't swim, but stepped into a boat with a couple of other girls. Without any movement from the students, it began moving away from the dock.
She was thankful for the lamp at the prow of the boat that illuminated the area around them. She was sure that without it, it would be so dark that she wouldn't be able to see the other girls' faces. They didn't speak, probably because they were so awed by the sight that soon met their eyes.
A huge castle appeared before them, and it seemed as if all the windows were lit up in welcome. It was an amazing sight, and awoke a feeling in Ursa that she was sure she'd never experienced before. As the boats pulled closer and closer to the magnificent castle, she had to pinch herself to make sure she wasn't dreaming.
Soon, they were stepping out of the boats and onto dry land. Professor McGonagall had been there to meet them on the other side of the lake, bringing them into the castle. It was lit up by torches on the walls, providing the inside of the building with an eerie, flickering light. She stood with the rest of the students as the professor explained that they would be sorted into different houses.
The idea seemed familiar to her. She thought she'd heard Malfoy talking about it on the train, but she had been looking at her new Chocolate Frog Card. Professor McGonagall explained that they were to be sorted into one of four houses: Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, or Slytherin. She didn't, however, elaborate on how they would be sorted into houses, which made Ursa a bit nervous. What if she had to complete some sort of quiz in front of all the older students? The one time she'd had to do something like that she'd miserably failed at her elementary school's spelling bee.
Professor McGonagall then left, informing them that she would be back soon enough to bring them to be sorted. Ursa was just trying to calm herself down, when shouts from behind her made her jump. Transparent, floating people - she assumed they were ghosts - had just appeared by the wall. She wondered whether they'd actually traveled through it. She wished that someone had warned her about all these new things, since it was becoming hard to absorb all the new information.
Too soon, McGonagall returned to the room where they were waiting. The nervous murmurs that had been going through the crowd of students silenced, as the professor ordered them to make a line and follow her. The marched silently behind her, until they came to a large set of doors. These opened automatically, giving the new students a magnificent view of the Great Hall of Hogwarts.
It reminded Ursa of the inside of a church, only larger. The hall was illuminated by floating, flickering candles, showing four long tables where the students were sitting. The most amazing thing of all was the ceiling – it showed the dark, night sky above. She was marched up to the front of the hall with the other students, critically aware of the stares of the older students.
What happened next was so absurd that Ursa seriously considered the fact that she might be dreaming, for maybe the tenth time that day. The professor placed a stool, on top of which perched a hat, in front of the students. Then, music emanated from the hat. Or, specifically, a rip in the hat that kind of looked like a mouth. It sang a song about the different houses, which Ursa tried to catch. Apparently, Gryffindor was for brave people, Hufflepuffs were patient and loyal, Ravenclaw was for smart people, and Slytherin for cunning people. Ursa swallowed, realizing that none of these descriptions really fit her – what would happen if they decided she didn't belong anywhere?
Apparently the hat decided which house you went to. After the song was finished, Professor McGonagall called the first student's name.
"Abbott, Hannah!" The girl called Hannah was sorted into Hufflepuff. Ursa watched as each of the other children went up to the front to be sorted. Her legs felt like jelly when the professor called her name.
"Lestrange, Ursa!" She stumbled forwards and sat down on the stool as everyone else had, gingerly bringing the hat to her head.
The hat did not say anything to her. As soon as it made contact with her hair, it shouted, "SLYTHERIN". She felt a bit cheated, but she dutifully replaced the hat, and quickly went to the table with green ties. There were three girls who had already been sorted into Slytherin before her, as well as Crabbe and Goyle. She took her seat beside a freckled girl with scraggly blonde hair, and across from another girl, who was a bit heavy-set. In the background, there was laughter, and she realized that the boy who was looking for a toad on the train had forgotten to put the hat back after his sorting.
None of them spoke until all the students were sorted. There were ten students in total in Slytherin in their year – five girls and five boys. The headmaster of the school stood up after the school was done, and made a little speech. To end it, he exclaimed, "Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak!"
"Nutters!" Ursa heard Draco Malfoy mutter from down the table. And then there was suddenly the most food she'd ever seen in her life. Platters with mountains of vegetables, all different types of meat and fish, and steaming bowls of pasta; you name it, it was there. The blonde girl passed her a plate of potatoes. She could still see the butter melting on top. It seemed like all they'd ever served at her foster home were grilled cheese and tomato pasta, so she dug into her food happily.
Malfoy seemed to notice this, commenting, "Never seen food before, Lestrange?" But his teasing wasn't bad, not like the teasing at her old school, so she just smiled and waved it off.
After they'd all eaten about a plate of food, the dark-haired girl addressed the other first year students. "So," she said. Ursa could tell from one word that she had the same sneering tone that many of the students at her old school had used with her. "Hopefully no Mudbloods in our year, then?" That word again! Ursa still didn't know what it meant, though she was now sure that it was offensive.
A girl with mousy brown hair and glasses turned scarlet. The dark-haired girl, whom Ursa thought was named Pansy, smirked. "Thought so." Ursa wanted to stand up for this other girl, but she didn't want to draw that kind of attention to herself. She'd spent the last five years being shoved and teased in the hallways, and she didn't want a reprise.
"Must be awful, growing up with Muggles," Malfoy drawled. "I wouldn't stand for it." So that's what it meant, Ursa realized. Someone who'd been raised by Muggles! They obviously didn't like Mudbloods, so there was no way she was letting on that she was one herself! "Personally," Malfoy continued. "I grew up in Wiltshire, with my parents. How about you guys?"
The heavy-set girl across from her snorted. "Not all of us grew up in a mansion with peacocks roaming the grounds, Malfoy." She shook her head. "I live with my dad in London. He works for Ludo Bagman. Oh! By the way, I'm Millie." Everyone except for the girl with glasses and Ursa seemed to know who this was, nodding.
The next person to speak, the blonde girl, who was named Daphne, explained that she lived with her parents, both magical, and her little sister. Pansy, the girl who'd been mean to the mousy girl with glasses, boasted about how her mother designed robes for Twilfitt & Tatting's, and how she was pureblood (obviously). Crabbe and Goyle talked about their fathers' Quidditch careers, and then a boy called Blaise explained that lived with his mother and fifth stepfather, who were both magical.
That left a boy with a thin face, the mousy girl and Ursa. There was a brief silence before Pansy, who Ursa was beginning to think was obnoxious, said, "Well we all know you live with your dad, Theodore." The thin faced boy stared at her. "I hope his mental state has improved." There was another period of silence. Ursa was horrified. Had this girl just made fun of the fact Theodore's father was unstable?
But then she turned to Ursa. They had a brief moment of eye contact, and she felt the familiar sinking feeling she associated with school. So much for being anonymous at her new school, she thought. "And we all know who your mother is!" Daphne and Pansy snickered, as if they found this funny, but it seemed everyone else had gone rather white. The girl with glasses stared at her, bewildered.
"Leave her alone, Pansy," Malfoy said. Pansy blushed, and abruptly turned to the mousy girl, clearly embarrassed that Malfoy had told her off. She began speaking to the Mudblood girl, probably saying something mean.
But Ursa had toned everything out. Pansy had said something about her mother – Ursa's mother! But Ursa had never known her mother. Her foster mother had told her that she'd been found in a box on the doorstep of a police station, her name pinned to the blanket, with her old stuffed rabbit tucked in beside her. How did everyone know who her mother was, when Ursa herself didn't even know?
She was in a daze for the rest of the meal, her emotions about the subject too conflicted for her to enjoy the sweets. She had always wondered about her mother, and Pansy had said is. She'd said "we all know who your mother is", not was. Was would have meant that Ursa's mother was dead, but is meant she was alive. But where was she? Why hadn't she taken care of her?
These thoughts plagued her for the rest of the meal, until it was time for them to go to their new living quarters. The first years followed one of the prefects through the stone corridors of Hogwarts, down so many flights of stairs, and around so many corridors towards the dungeons, where the Slytherins apparently lived. She was quite worried that she would never be able to find her way back to the Great Hall.
The Slytherin common room was a large room with torches for light. Large stained glass-windows with fish that actually moved across them covered the back wall, and a huge fireplace bordered by little skulls dominated the other wall. Lots of chairs and couches littered the room, with dark carpets covering the floors. Ursa thought it was quite neat.
One of the female prefects indicated for them to take a seat in front of the fireplace, while the older students made their way up to the dormitories. These were up sets of stairs on the right and left hand sides of the room.
It wasn't until she sat down that she realized how tired she was. Her body felt heavy, and her eyes threatened to close. However, just as her eyes slipped shut, she was jerked awake by the sudden presence of an adult.
"First years," greeted a professor, who was all dressed in black. "Welcome to Slytherin House. I am Professor Snape, and I will be your head of house. Any concerns, whether it be academic or personal," he said this as if it pained him, "can be brought to me. You are expected to obey the Hogwarts rules, and there will be dire consequences if you bring shame to this house. I repeat Headmaster Dumbledore's warning: do not access the third floor corridor. In addition, if I find you out of bed after curfew, you will be in detention with Filch before you can say Mrs. Scower's Magical Mess Remover. Am I understood?"
The first years nodded silently. Professor Snape left abruptly. Ursa had always wondered why certain people worked with children, when they were clearly so uncomfortable around them. Her foster mother had been the same.
Her first glimpse of the dormitory thrilled her. She had never seen such luxurious beds. They were so unlike the uncomfortable cots they'd slept on at her last home. She took the farthest bed from the door, which already had her trunk placed at the end. Exhausted, and ready for bed, she quickly went through her nightly routine.
Just as she was climbing into bed, listening to a few of the other girls whisper to each other, she noticed that Daphne was setting up a stuffed bear (much nicer than her stuffed rabbit) on her bed. Pleased, she went to grab her rabbit from her trunk. For fear that she would be teased, she'd been hiding it for the past year.
Then something amazing happened. When she placed her rabbit against the pillow of her bed, it went from being a raggedy, limp thing, to being good as new. Just like that! She stroked its velvety fur in amazement. Her rabbit was magical. After all, she'd had it since she'd been abandoned at the police station, so if her mother gave it to her, it could mean her mother might be a witch! She inspected the shiny ribbon around its neck – she thought it may have had one when she was very young as well. Written in cursive on the ribbon, in black writing, was the phrase: remember me always. What could it mean?
She dreamt of terrible things that night. Flashes of red light and yelling plagued her, and she woke up just as she was torn from somebody's arms. It was a miserable thing to wake up from, her forehead sweaty, clutching her repaired rabbit.
But the excitement of the first day of classes soon swept the dream away. They had most of their classes with the Gryffindors, which was the house with the red ties. Their first class was Herbology, which was actually with the Ravenclaws. Professor Sprout, a short woman with robes that looked like they were made out of gardening gloves, spent the first class explaining about how to care for plants. It seemed quite straightforward to Ursa, which she was glad of, as she'd never been particularly good in school. Millie, sitting beside her, seemed a little annoyed.
"I thought we were going to learn about exciting things," she complained, under her breath to Ursa. "Like the Whomping Willow. My dad told me about that."
Millie, whose full name was Millicent Bulstrode, seemed really nice. Ursa ended up walking with her from Herbology, which had taken place in one of the greenhouses outside the castle, to History of Magic. Millie seemed to really like sports, as she talked about Quidditch quite a bit. At one point, as they were entering the doors to the castle, she asked Ursa about which team she supported.
"Um," Ursa managed to stammer out, her face heating up, "I don't really know much about sports."
"I thought so!" laughed Millie. "Since you didn't say anything all the way from the greenhouses! I hope I'm not boring you."
"No, no," Ursa assured her. "It's actually interesting, but I've always been rubbish at sports."
Millie laughed again, receiving a glare from a prefect who was passing them in the hallway. Ursa was glad that someone seemed to like being in her company. "It's because you have no muscle," she explained. "You must worry about getting blown away when you ride a broom."
A broom? Ursa needed to find the library after classes so she could read up on Quidditch, and everything else she didn't know about the wizarding world. She also needed to see where she could get information about her mother, since the other Slytherins seemed to know who she was. The dilemma, she thought, as she sat down next to Millie in the History of Magic classroom, was that if she asked anyone, they would know that she was a Mudblood. After all, she had been raised by Muggles.
History of Magic ended up being quite boring, but Ursa realized that this might be a very important class for her to pay attention to. She would reveal herself as a Mudblood if she didn't have critical knowledge about the wizarding world. The teacher of this class ended up being a ghost. She was still getting used to the idea of ghosts, because her foster mother had always dismissed the ghost stories that the older children told as fake. She had always believe that there could be no such thing.
Yet, here she sat, in a dusty classroom, listening to a ghost lecture on the curriculum for the upcoming schoolyear. Apparently they were going to begin with the founding of Hogwarts. This seemed like an interesting concept, but after an hour of listening to the ghost, Professor Binns, most of the class was asleep. Still Ursa had tried to stay awake, and had been rewarded with the knowledge that Hogwarts had been a sanctuary for students who had been persecuted because they had magic. That being said, it seemed that Professor Binns had talked endlessly about where Godric Gryffindor grew up, and his life in general. It seemed weird because he was supposed to be talking to a class of Ravenclaws and Slytherins.
When the class was over, Ursa had to poke Millie awake. The class proceeded down to the Great Hall for lunch, where a delicious spread of food was waiting for them. Unfortunately, the conversation did not prove as good as the food. Malfoy and Pansy Parkinson took the opportunity to have another go at the mousy girl, who they'd determined to be a Mudblood. Ursa had learned that morning at breakfast that her name was Lisa.
"I think they shouldn't let anyone other than the old pureblood families into Hogwarts," Malfoy drawled. Ursa watched Lisa's face go red across the table from her. She sympathized, since she had felt the same way Lisa must feel at her old school. But she wasn't about to jeopardize the first real friend she'd ever had. After all, Millie was starting to feel like a friend.
"Who asked you, Malfoy," muttered Lisa, still blushing.
Pansy Parkinson giggled. "So, the Mudblood talks!" Ursa clenched her fists under the table. She wished Parkinson and Malfoy weren't at Hogwarts with them, seeing as all the other Slytherins seemed to be quiet and respectful of others.
"They're not a part of our culture," Malfoy went on, ignoring Lisa. "They don't understand our traditions."
There was a silence that seemed to stretch over the table. No one seemed to know what to say. Finally, it became unbearable, and Ursa found herself speaking, even though she was usually a very quiet person.
"Do you collect Chocolate Frog Cards?" she blurted out. The group of first years stared at her like she'd gone insane. This was something the wizarding children did, she reminded herself. She knew for sure that Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle did, so it wasn't as if they could discover her ignorance of the wizarding world from her question.
The thin-faced boy, Theodore, grinned a bit. "Sure I do," he said, spreading jam on a piece of bread. "I've got a whole box of them at home."
Parkinson looked irritated. Ursa was sure she was mad because she wanted to continue to make fun of Lisa, but Ursa had moved to conversation away. Millie, thankfully, joined the conversation as well.
"I have a lot too, doesn't everyone? Who's your favorite?" she asked Ursa.
She was relieved that she'd looked over the card she'd gotten from her Chocolate Frog box on the train. "Circe," she said.
"Mine's Merlin," Millie said, but before she could explain further, Parkinson laughed.
"Of course you like Circe," she said. "Got hair like your mum's, doesn't she?" The woman on the Circe card had thick black hair. Ursa, too, had masses of black hair, held back now by a hairband.
The table went silent. "I told you to shut up about that, Pansy!" Malfoy said, clearly annoyed. Parkinson sniffed.
"Well, it's true!" she protested.
Millie, Ursa and Theodore left soon after, heading to Transfiguration, which would be with Professor McGonagall. Millie and Theodore chatted about Quidditch as they made their way along the twisting hallways of Hogwarts, but Ursa had her mind on what Parkinson had said.
How did the other girl know what her mother looked like? There were so many questions Ursa needed answering, but she didn't know who she could ask without revealing that she was a Mudblood. It was annoying that someone like Parkinson knew her mother somehow, when Ursa had never known any of her family. Until her mother had been mentioned the day before, she'd basically given up on the idea that she could have a family out there. Now, though, she needed to know more. It had always bothered her greatly that she'd been abandoned, but now she had the chance to find out why.
They had Transfiguration with the Gryffindors. Ursa's first impression of Professor McGonagall was confirmed – she was very strict. And with the Gryffindors, this seemed needed. They whispered constantly through the class, and the professor was always telling them off. On the other side of the room, the Slytherins quietly took notes.
Ursa's heart sank when she saw the complicated notes appear on the board. The professor had waved her wand, and suddenly the blackboard was filled with complicated numbers and diagrams. She was terrible at maths, and she realized she was probably going to be very bad at this too. Near the end of class, Professor McGonagall distributed matches, which they were supposed to try to turn into needles.
She stared at the blackboard, confused. She could not see the connection between the diagrams on the blackboard and the match. In the end, only the Gryffindor girl who had helped the boy find his toad on the train succeeded in changing her match.
Her head hurt as she trailed behind the other Slytherins on their way to Defense Against the Dark Arts. Malfoy was complaining loudly about the injustice of Professor McGonagall only awarding points to "that Mudblood Gryffindor!" even though none of the Slytherins had turned their match into a needle.
Professor Quirrell taught Defense, which is what everyone seemed to call Defense Against the Dark Arts. He was the oddest adult Ursa had ever met. He had a large purple turban, which was weird enough, but even odder was the smell the permeated the classroom. She'd watched Malfoy's face when he'd step in the classroom, and it had been almost comical as he'd wrinkled his nose.
She took the seat beside Malfoy at the front of the class, which was a bad idea, in retrospect. Quirrell stuttered through the lesson, but his eyes seemed to be fixed on the Slytherin side of the classroom. His eyes seemed to bore into her, so she kept her eyes focused on her lap. It was a relief to get out of the strange-smelling classroom, but when they got back to their common room, a prefect notified the group of first-years that they would be having mandatory study group until dinner.
Apparently this was mandated by Professor Snape, so there was no getting out of it. It was too bad, because she had wanted to go to the library. By the time they left for dinner, her neck ached from pouring over her Transfiguration notes, although they made no more sense than they had two hours ago.
After dinner, she nervously approached a prefect while the other first-years played Exploding Snap in the corner of the common room. The prefect indicated that it was fine if she went to the library, but she should be careful to be back by curfew. She listened to the directions the prefect gave her, feeling lost already.
However, she was determined to find out who her mother had been, so she set off towards the library, trying to remember the directions the best she could. Fortunately, she made it, although it probably took her a lot longer than it should have. Hogwarts had long and winding corridors, each one was indistinguishable from the next.
The bushy-haired Mudblood girl, who she was pretty sure was called Hermione, was already sitting at one of the tables at the front of the library. That was surprising, since the older Slytherins had been saying that the Gryffindors were the least studious of all the houses. Ursa was not looking to study, however, and she felt too intimidated to approach the librarian, who looked like a very severe woman. Instead, she wandered about the library, thinking that there must be an archive section somewhere. Sure enough, after getting lost among the bookcases a couple of times, she found a circular room at the very end of the library. It had floor to ceiling drawers, each one labelled with a year.
There was a tall ladder that allowed students to reach to older years at the very top, but she only needed to climb a few rungs to reach 1979. She knew that she'd been born on December 24, 1979, because it had been written on the card with her name, which had been pinned to her blanket when she had been abandoned. Ursa figured that there might have been a birth announcement in the paper, maybe on Christmas Day. The inside of the drawer marked 1979 was much larger than it looked. She was still amazed by things like this.
She pulled out the newspaper for December 25th. It appeared to be in pristine condition, and amazingly, the pictures on the front page were moving. She supposed she shouldn't be surprised – why wouldn't magic be able to do this? The headline read Bones Family Massacred in Home, which she stared at for a bit. She thought there might be a girl called Susan Bones in her year. The story was very terrible. She hadn't known that the Wizarding World had this much violence. For some reason, she'd thought it might have had less than the Muggle World.
She moved onto the birth section. Sure enough, right above the obituary for the Bones family, was a short notice announcing the birth of Lestrange, Ursa A., who had been born the evening before. It stated that her parents' names were Rodolphus Lestrange and Bellatrix Black Lestrange, and that she had been born in London. That was it, but at least she now knew her parents' names.
She figured there would probably be nothing else about them in the newspaper. After all, why would a newspaper report about two random people? Still, she had always wondered why she'd been abandoned, left on the steps of a police station when she was only a baby. Out of curiosity, she pulled open the drawer for 1981, after replacing the newspaper for Christmas 1979. She had been abandoned on November 5, 1981, which she'd learned about when she'd snuck into her elementry school's office to read her file.
She almost fainted when she saw the headline: "Attack on Longbottom Family: Crouch, Lestranges Implicated". She tried to swallow, and found she couldn't. She'd been secretly hoping to find some nice, distant relative, but it seemed that her parents had – she skimmed the first few lines of the article – tortured people.
Ursa studied the picture on the front of the newspaper. Sure enough, the woman leering out of the prison photograph was clearly related to her – they had the same mass of black hair, and dark eyes.
Thank you for reading :)
