Chapter Two. Viridus.
I half expected the girl, Crocus, to stick with me for as long as she had. But I guess it was alright. But what I didn't expect was the hat to actually consider me for Ravenclaw. It shocked me enough to actually think about it for a second. But no, I was confident I would do alright in Slytherin. Just like Flora said.
I tried to control myself as best as I could when I stood up from the stool and went to go sit at the Slytherin table. I didn't expect a lot of people to start clapping, but everyone was polite about it. Except for Gryffindor. I didn't expect much from them honestly.
When I took my place at the end of the table, I let my eyes scan the crowd of kids left to be sorted. I didn't know whether I hoped Crocus would be in my house or not. From what I gathered so far, she didn't seem like a good candidate for the house of snakes. I really hope she isn't a Gryffindor. I found myself wishing desperately.
There wasn't a lot to pay attention to until the hat got to someone I knew. So I let my eyes wander to the staff table. One of them had to be my head of the house. I vaguely remember Jacob telling me he was the Potion's master.
"Davis, Tracey." the hat shouted, but it got to my ears like I was underwater, "Slytherin!"
I continued to study the teachers. One of them was the burly man from the boats. And another one was the tall strict professor from the room before we got sorted. And I could tell one of them was the headmaster, his long white beard and the fact he was sitting in the middle of the whole table gave it all away.
Suddenly, the Davis girl was sitting down right next to me, interrupting my train of thought. Her hair that barely touched her shoulders was pulled back by a black headband. Her blue eyes were framed by thin glasses. She didn't talk to me, which I was glad, but instead continued to watch the line of students.
"Granger, Hermione!"
This next one had the girl with the bushy hair walk up and put the sorting hat upon her head. This was probably the longest one so far until the sorting hat opened the rip representing his mouth again to shout, "Gryffindor!"
"Hmm. I assumed she'd be in Ravenclaw the way she was reciting those spells earlier." I thought, remembering the room from before. The sorting continued as I looked at each of the teachers really quickly. I came to a conclusion right before another name was called.
"Malfoy, Draco!"
"He's getting into Slytherin, no doubt about it," I said to myself. The only one who noticed it was the girl who was sitting next to me, Greengrass.
"Slytherin!" The hat shouted instantly.
I knew what half the room was thinking: I knew it.
But I knew something exciting was going to happen soon, all the students were called by their last names, so the famous Harry Potter was about to get sorted soon. He was going to get into Gryffindor, everyone knew that, but it was still exciting to watch. Soon the hat called out the name everyone knew.
"Potter, Harry."
The whole room went silent with anticipation. Although the Slytherins kept whispering a little, along with a small group at the Ravenclaw and Gryffindor table. I watched until the hat roared, "Gryffindor!"
The whole Gryffindor table erupted into cheering. But I focused on the line of students while the Slytherins at my table groaned softly. Crocus had to be soon! Her last name did start with a 'T' after all.
"Reveles, Rufus!"
A boy with a mop of dark brown hair walked up the stool and put the hat on before plopping down. The hat touched his head, three seconds passed, and the hat yelled, "Gryffindor!"
"Tutella, Crocus!"
I crossed my fingers.
"Hufflepuff!"
I was relieved somewhat, I didn't have to worry about someone in Slytherin getting on my tail for being friends with a Hufflepuff. But, it would've been better is she was a Ravenclaw. "Oh well." I thought. I then waited for the red-head boy I knew was a Weasley to put the sorting hat on.
"Weasley, Ronald." Followed up by, "Gryffindor."
It was hard not to laugh, while the whole Malfoy line followed Slytherin, the whole Weasley line followed Gryffindor.
"Wren, Cyaneus!" I watched as a short youngish looking girl walked up to the stool. Unlike Malfoy's white blonde hair, this one had golden blonde hair. But something about her seemed off. She looked younger than everyone else being sorted.
"Ravenclaw!"
The hat shouted finally. I felt so worn out from all of today. I wish I had my Magical Drafts and Potions book with me to read. But unfortunately, it was in my trunk. And then food appeared in front of us. I listened to Dumbledore announce something about the Forbidden Forest. And the third floor. It didn't really interest me but I kept a note in my head just in case.
When all the food appeared in front of us, I couldn't help but feel not as hungry as I used to be. When Jacob and Flora cooked for me their food was always fresh and good. But now I didn't feel like eating.
"Aren't you going to eat something?" Daphne Greengrass asked me kindly as she scooped some salad into a golden dish that had magically appeared in front of the students.
"I don't know." I shrugged as I took a roll from a nearby pile and bite into it. It was okay. I started nibbling on it until I finished the whole roll. Davis looked at me too, "Hey, have I seen you before?"
"I don't know, is your family pureblood?"
"Yeah?"
"Have you ever been to one of Malfoy's parties before?" I asked.
She nodded.
"Well, then we probably have met. All of the purebloods have. The Malfoys always host huge parties and it's a pain in my neck." I muttered. The other two girls with me nodded in agreement. I took another roll and some water from the goblet. After I downed two cups and ate five rolls, the food disappeared.
I felt so sleepy, when everyone broke out into a song it disturbed me.
"Hogwarts, Hogwarts, Hoggy Warty Hogwarts."
I groaned and put my head down until everyone stopped singing. Once it was done, all the Slytherin students got up from the table and we were lead by our prefect who said her name was Gemma Farley. She indicated to the first years all the signs to get down to the dungeons. There were little snake arrows leading us down lower until we got to our room.
"Sub mari is our password. It will change every few months and is written on a chalkboard inside the common room. Do not speak of it to anyone else outside of this house." Our prefect commanded as the stone wall opened up and everyone walked inside. The room itself was a long narrow one, with two huge windows on the far side flanking a magically fueled fireplace seeing as right outside the window was the Great Lake. There were green velvet sofas, silver embroidered pillows, and house colored wallpaper. From the ceiling, orange flamed lamps were hanging from chains to light up the whole room. Everyone inside was already in the common room, doing one thing or another. Reading, playing wizard chess, or chattering about.
"The motto of Slytherin house is very simple, treat each other like family. If there is a problem with someone else in the house, you deal with it here. Don't put out a bad image for the other houses. Understand?
Girl dorms are to the left and boys are to the right. Questions can be answered by Gavin Winter or I. Have a good night." Gamma left and soon we first years made our way to our designated dorms. I stumbled inside and found my bed with my name carved into the base with my trunk underneath it. I flopped down on it and welcomed the familiar feeling of satin sheets.
"I like the Slytherin dorms, don't you?" Tracey asked as she took the bed right next to mine. I nodded sleepily. It was cozy, the oil lanterns lighting up the doors with four poster beds filling the room of the first year girls dorm. The floor was made out of a fuzzy black carpet.
"I don't know how people can misunderstand this house for being bad. I guess that's why we have to treat each other like family huh? Because it's us Slytherins against the world." Daphne muttered as she took the bed on the opposite side of mine. Two other girls were on the opposite side of the room. I really didn't care.
I was already out.
. . . . .
The next morning I woke up before all the other girls. My body clock ticks me off sometimes when I cast the 'time' spell and saw I only got 6 hours of sleep. Curse it. I moved my curtains and went to the bathroom to brush my teeth. My bare feet touched the cold tile when I stood in front of the mirror. Taking out my brush, I wet it and ran it through my hair.
I groaned as I tugged harder when the brush came into contact with knots in my hair. "Arg! MONDAY YOU TROLL!" I shouted quietly as I finally got it through the knot. Sometimes I hated my thick hair. I set down my brush and picked up my other brush (tooth brush) and ran it through my teeth.
Once I was done with my teeth I looked down at the clothes I slept in. Looks like I didn't to change. I returned to my bed and dug out my potions book. I really hope I have potions today. I thought to myself. My fingers found the potion ingredients tab and I glazed over it because I had read it yesterday.
Flipping over I got up from my bed and walked outside into the common room. It was a peaceful place, the buzz of everyday life had not touched its graceful face yet. The squid floated by the window and I gave it a slight nod. Feeling silly, I sat down on a comfy chair.
I sighed and looked throughout the common room. My eyes landed on the only other occupant that sat in a chair a few seats away from mine. His sleeping face was slack, youngish compared to the other professors, his sleek feathery hair framed his face like curtains. He was obviously older. I knew right there I was looking at her Head of House.
I studied him, looking for anything to give away his teaching style. He wore a long black cloak that apparently billowed when he walked if the students had anything to say about it. It was clipped to his collar and underneath it was a dark gray shirt. Everything else he wore was black or very dark gray. His face showed nothing as he was asleep.
"Probably for potions I thought." When I noticed that it was almost all black he wore. And strangely there was a potions vial in his hands.
Sighing, I got up from the seat and made my way out from the great hall to see if anyone else was up. It must've been really early for the castle if the Potions Master himself was asleep. I walked along the stone floor, hearing my own footsteps resound around me. Eventually, I made my way up the stairs, around four corners, took a right, left, right, and thrust open the doors to the Great Hall. BANG! No one.
"I wonder where Crocus is," I grumbled aloud as I took a seat at the Slytherin table. I always had craved company first thing in the morning. I don't know where the habit came from because my parents had most of the times been away or sleeping when I got up in the mornings. It was always Flora or Jacob and me in the kitchen. And then they'd leave me for the rest of the day to do their duties too.
I sighed. Something rustled.
"Hello?" I called out.
"Yes, my dear?"
I jumped, turning my body around, and seeing the Headmaster right behind me. His blue eyes stared into my icy ones over half-moon spectacles. He was wearing white robes. But that was the only thing normal. For his bottoms, he sported black with little twinkling that went the same for his shirt.
"Hello, Headmaster. Good morning." I greeted politely. Just like I had been taught.
"Hello. I assume you are a first year. Mighty early for you to be up." He said, looking down at me.
I looked up, "I went to sleep early. Do you know what time it is?"
He looked at some weird watch with spinning planets, "Eight o'clock child. Maybe you'd like to start breakfast early? Your head of house should be up here my now. He's usually up before everyone else."
"Yeah." I murmured remembering the man who slept on the couch in the common room. I wondered what he was doing there instead of sleeping in his quarters. I shrugged as Professor Dumbledore snapped his fingers and food appeared in my vicinity. I gave him a tiny smile and he returned it with a glimmer in his eyes.
I reached over for some eggs, rice, and sausage. Another reason I didn't like eating a lot in front of kids was because of my eating habits. I often stored food in my pockets, a roll or apple here or there. And sometimes my parents would criticize what I ate. So what if I liked trying out new stuff. I picked up a gold fork and started shoveling food in my mouth.
I heard a voice and picked up my head, praying it wasn't some obnoxious Gryffies. Nope, it was a pair of teachers accompanying my head of house. One had flowing blue hair like the ocean, it went all the way down to her waist. Her eyes were aquamarine green and on the other side of her was a girl of equal height, this time with amethyst purple hair. It was pristine and straight, going down just past her shoulder blades.
They both wore a silver cloak, the same white and black pants. The one with blue hair had splotches of paint all over her and the one with purple hair was holding a book in her hands.
"Severus, I keep telling you to get your own series. My Warriors books are all falling apart!" The one with purple hair complained quite quietly. But since no one was there I could hear perfectly fine.
"Yeah, but you've got the master's edition of the first one. And your series is much more preferable to the store bought ones." The tall lanky professor said as they made their way to the staff table and continued talking.
"It's the same thing."
"So you say. But is my Potions book the same as all the others? No, it isn't." Snape shot back. The one with ocean blue hair snickered and her other two acquaintances glared at her. This just made her burst into further laughter.
"Say, Sora, what's Regulus been doing lately?" Severus asked after the girl with paint all over finished laughing her spleen out. She smiled with glee, "I think he's in Australia now helping with an investigation. Do you want to do stuff with him?"
"So what if I do?"
"I do too," the two others said at the same time, "but we have to plan it out. And he keeps complaining that he is quite busy."
They nodded and continued eating. By then I was done eating and wondered if they had noticed my presence. My eyes tilted up and I locked eyes with the purple haired one. She smirked slightly and I tensed. She flicked her eyes to the door.
I got up from my seat and walked out of the door quick enough to hear, "Novella, how's the curriculum going?"
I started walking.
Author's Note: Hello! Looks like we're in a new fandom. Not really, my crossover must count for something. Anyways, when I finished this chapter I didn't actually realize how long it was. This is seriously longer than my normal chapters are. I think it's due to my growth as a writer. Do you think?
I read someone (I think it was someone else's fanfiction) that there comes a point in your writing where you just feel the other characters. I don't know how to explain it; I don't remember which story it was. But I think that's happening now. I hope you guys are ready for a long ride.
I plan to go to book seven and I don't plan to story any time soon.
I hope everyone's having a good day!
~Aqua
