Witchgirl: Thank you, sorry for the delay, I've been kind of busy lately - sigh - I hope you like the new chapter :)
Chapter Two: Coming to Hogwarts
Dithea shared a carriage, with Neville and an odd-looking girl, to the castle. The girl turned out to be a certain Luna Lovegood and she asked her the weirdest questions, such as:
"Don't you find it hard to fly on ladders instead of broomsticks?" and "Was it nice to live in a tree?"
Dithea of course had no idea what she was talking about and when she later mentioned it to Hermione, she told her that Luna Lovegood was as famous for her odd ways as Harry Potter was for his scar, not that she knew what that meant.
Neville on the other hand talked a great deal about plants. His whole demeanour seemed to radiate enthusiasm when he spoke about that subject. Dithea, who had thought him rather slow in the beginning, found that she had to change her opinion of him. As herbology hadn't exactly been her favourite subject back home, she was unfortunately unable to satisfy his curiosity on the subject of strange plants from her homeland.
"Why aren't you blond?" Luna suddenly interrupted, while she looked at Dithea with her strange eyes, which never seemed to blink.
"Excuse me?" said Dithea, rather taken aback.
"Blond!" Luna exclaimed and pointed at Dithea's hair with an accusing finger. "You're a Scandinavian, aren't you?"
"Well, yes..." she said hesitatingly and began to play with a lock of her hair.
It had the same colour as mahogany, just like her eyes.
"But you see, that doesn't necessarily mean that I have to be blond or have blue eyes, for that matter. A lot has happened since the Viking age, you know, and we're quite a mixed lot now, just as you yourselves are." She pointed out.
Here Neville chose to break in: "But Luna is right, I mean, you've got dark hair and brown eyes. You look more like an Italian than a Dane."
She sighed impatiently. After all, she had heard this so many times before. Every time she was on holiday somewhere in southern Europe, people would come up to her and start talking to her in their own language, assuming that she was one of them and when she had kindly explained to them that she was in fact Danish, they had thought she was joking. A bit annoying really. She pushed the recollection away and smiled at the two in front of her.
There was a distinct twinkle in her eye when she said: "I suppose it must be the gypsy blood in me."
When Diane finally got to see Hogwarts, she was absolutely speechless. It was much much larger and considerably more impressive than the sixteen-century manor on Taageöen. She stood in front of it, gaping, for several minutes, before Neville saw fit to push her in the direction of the entrance. Here she was received by a strict looking witch, who introduced herself as professor McGonagall.
"We have just got time to sort you before the first-years arrive, so if you'll follow me..."
The professor lead her up some stairs and into a small room, which only contained a chair with an old hat on top of it. Professor McGonagall lifted the hat from the chair and said:
"If you will sit down, I will place the sorting hat on your head and it will sort you into the house to which you belong. I expect you have heard of them?"
Diane nodded "Yes, professor." Hermione had told her about them on the train.
As soon as the hat touched her head, she heard a strange, raspy voice.
"Ah! Miss Lund! Let me see now...Intelligent? Yes, good, good...and ambitious too. Slytherin would be a possibility, but there's courage there to consider as well...Hm..."
Diane held her breath as she heard the dreaded word Slytherin. She closed her eyes.
Put me in Gryffindor, she thought.
"Gryffindor? Well..." The hat seemed to think it over.
Please!
"Why are you all so keen on becoming Gryffindors?"
The hat seemed a bit annoyed.
Gryffindor, Gryffindor, Gryffindor, she chanted.
"Oh, alright!" it gave in. "GRYFFINDOR!"
She opened her eyes, with a sigh of relief, and looked up into the face of a very pleased professor.
When she was finally ushered into the Great Hall, the noise nearly overturned her. Most of the students had already found their seats, and were talking animatedly with their friends about what had happened during the holiday. Nevertheless, she still managed to bump into someone, on her way to the Gryffindor table.
"Look where you're going!" that someone hissed.
"Sorry," she mumbled and looked up into a face, she would have called handsome, if it hadn't been for the fact that it was dominated by a malicious sneer.
An involuntary blush crept over her face. The cold grey eyes looked her over for a moment. The sneer transformed itself into a smirk and the guy tuned towards two largely build figures by his side.
"See! They can't keep their hands off me," the boy said smugly and sighed theatrically "sometimes it's such a burden, being this good-looking."
Dithea, who found this kind of self-importance ridiculously funny, burst out into a fit of laughter and hurried on towards the Gryffindor table.
Good Lord! It isn't as if he's bloody Adonis or anything!
She was still giggling when she reached the trio. Ron, who had his mouth full of candy, he had bought on the train, managed to ask:
"Wha' sho fummy?"
"Ew, Ron! That's disgusting! Really! You're going to make yourself sick!" Hermione expostulated.
"Mo, I'm mot!"
"Yes you are! We'll be having dinner in only a few moments!"
"Sho wha'?"
Hermione shook her head. "I give up..."
Harry, who had padded Ron on the back, turned towards Dithea and repeated Ron's question.
"So, what's so funny?"
She waved a hand in the direction of the Slytherin table.
"I just ran into the most conceited, self-important, stuck up guy, I've ever meet in my life."
Hermione raised her eyebrows and shared significant looks with the two others.
"Sounds like Malfoy," Harry said.
The others nodded.
"Malfoy? As in Draco Malfoy?" Dithea started laughing again. "How can you possibly take that guy serious?"
At that moment the doors to the great hall opened, all the first-years entered and the sorting started.
"I totally forgot," Hermione whispered "I assume you got sorted into Gryffindor? Congratulations!"
Dithea nodded and smiled, while Harry and Ron gave her thumbs-up.
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"Is Harry famous for his scar?" Dithea asked rather puzzled
"Whatever for? I mean, I have a scar. Right here, under my left eyebrow, see?" she tilted her head to the right, but Hermione didn't look at it.
"You don't know?"
Hermione looked as if an alien from some distant solar system had suddenly descended upon her. Well, to tell the truth, she would probably have looked more composed if that had, indeed, been the case.
"No"
The new Gryffindor studied Hermione's dumbstruck expression with a great deal of amusement in her eyes, but when she was told about the Dark Lord and his attack on Harry, her smile faded.
"But that's terrible!" she exclaimed.
"Did you really never hear of this before?" Hermione looked as if she still found it hard to believe.
Dithea shook her head. No, she had never heard of it before. Then she began to wonder if her parents knew.
Dad is bound to know. Now that he works at the consulate... I'll write and ask him.
Please please review!! I need to know what you think, to make it better :)