Professor McGonagall had made sure that Ace had gone to the right places and gotten the correct items and they made sure to get her a buggy for all this stuff.
"If you use magic, why not make a never-ending suitcase, that would seem the most practical and I'd only ever need one suitcase?"
"Well, of course, we have those, but you're not allowed those at Hogwarts." Says Professor McGonagall and Ace stops dead in her tracks.
"A school of magic and we can't have magical items?"
"When you are old enough, Ms Skotadi, you may enchant the suitcase if you so wish, but in the meantime, you will have no such thing. Now, come, we must visit ollivanders and get you your wand." She walks off, and Ace practically runs to catch up to her and makes sure nothing falls off the cart.
McGonagall stops short and waits for Ace to catch up; she's standing next to an oddly shaped little shop. It had two glass columns on either side and above the door was the shop's name 'Ollivanders Makers of fine wands since 382 BC'.
"There's no way anyone is that old." Ace breathes under her breath, taking in the site of the shop.
"Ms Skotadi, I am on a time schedule, if you will please hurry along." McGonagall says and holds out an arm into the doorway of Ollivanders, and Ace sets her cart outside the door and walks up the few steps and into the shop, with the Professor close behind.
"Ah! Professor McGonagall!" A man with pure white hair says coming from a back room. The side and backs of the walls contained wands reaching to the ceiling, and there was a ladder just a few feet shorter than the roof that was laid against the right wall.
"Wow." Ace says taking in the shop and all the wands it contained.
"And you brought a pureblood-" He stops what he was saying and walks closer to Ace, and Ace focuses her attention to him, he had glasses that he peered out over, and he was dressed rather fashionably, even muggle like. "No... not a pureblood, you're something different!" He lights up.
"I beg your pardon?" Ace asks.
"Never the matter," Says the Professor. "Ollivander if you'll please, I am on schedule." Ollivander looks to Minerva and nods.
"Of course, of course." He sets a wand box on the counter. "Tell me your name, child."
"Morana Acacia Skotadi, but everyone calls me Ace." Ollivander eyes her, Acacia was a type of wood, and not many people had acacia wood wands. The user required subtly more so than bangs-and-smells type magic, and because of their temperament, only the most gifted witch or wizard was worthy.
"Ace it is then," He opens the box and reveals a black chestnut wand, simple as can be. "Here we go, a black chestnut wand with a dragon-string core." He hands it to Ace, and she takes it gingerly in her hands. "Give it flick." She eyes him cautiously, why would she need to do that? It was a wand and it was fine, she saw no problems with it. "Come on, don't be shy." She flicks it, and the ladder starts going crazy, sliding itself up and down the walls and walls of wands. He quickly takes out his wand to stop the commotion. "No, not that, very wrong on that." He walks over to another shelf and pulling the ladder over to climb up on it, pulls a wand from one of the higher most shelves. He jumps down and pulls the wand out of the box. "Elmwood, fourteen and a half inches, with unicorn hair." He hands it to her, and this time she takes it and flicks it. Lights go out, and wands throw themselves to the floor. "No!" He says and takes the wand back.
"Perhaps something that will suit her name..." McGonagall suggests, and Ollivander looks to her.
"With all due respect, Professor McGonagall, the only one wand left of that wood is the rarest wand I've made, and no one has come close to suiting it yet." A breath. "Perhaps a hornbeam would be best suited." He says and pulls a wand out from underneath the desk in front of them. "Try it." She flicks it and the glass in the windows cracks and explodes around them. Ollivander looks to McGonagall and sighs. "We shall try the wand you suggest." He walks away. "Perhaps that will tell us if we're closer." He mumbles under his breath as he walks into the back.
"Have I done something wrong?" Ace asks the Professor.
"No, Ms Skotadi, we are trying to find the wand that fits you best."
"Fits me?" McGonagall's stare was one of business and facts, not a pleasant one of warmth or comfort.
"Haven't you heard that the wand chooses the wizard?" Ace looks back at her with shock. Wands aren't sentient; they can't be, they're just wooden sticks.
There's a loud crash, and Ollivander mumbles something inaudible, a swear perhaps, before he comes out with a golden box.
"This will tell us if we're warm." He says setting the box on the table. The long golden box with black lettering on it, the case that held the wand was special. Perhaps this was one of his best. He pulls the wand out of the case and reveals it to not only Ace but Professor McGonagall too.
The minute McGonagall laid eyes on the wand he knew just what he meant by rare.
The wand was long, at least fourteen and a half inches if not more, and was a warm brown colour. The base of the wand was intricate, wrapped around the base of the wand was more wood, except it was curved and black and white, and at the very base of the wand sat an emerald.
"This, my dear is as rare as they come. Fifteen inches, very flexible, made mostly of acacia wood. The base is twirled in Ebony and Holly Tree wood with a core of an Occamy egg." He says and hands it with the utmost care to her. "There is no other like this." She takes it in her hand and flicks it.
The ladder is put back in place along with the wands and the rest of the room, and the glass reverses itself, creating the windows once more. The lights around them glow and then calms down to normal.
"A sensitive wand for a sensitive wizard, indeed. Take care of this wand, it will be fierce with you at first, but will warm up to you once you've begun to use it." He says placing the wand back in the box. "Let no one else use it; it will only due ill for them." He hands the box to her, and she takes it, a grin spreading on her face.
"How much do we owe you?" Asks the Professor, but Ollivander holds a hand up and shakes his hand.
"Nothing, I've been meaning to get rid of this wand for years." McGonagall nods and escorts Ace out of the room.
Ace sets the golden box on top of her cart, and they begin to walk down Diagon alley.
"Are wands sentient?" Ace inquires.
"Somewhat." Says McGonagall, passing of the young girl as she spots the Weasley family just in front of her.
"William cut that out!" Screams an older woman who was with her husband and her bunch of children, every single one of them was ginger.
"Mrs Weasley!" Shouts McGonagall, grabbing the woman's attention, who instantly shifted from mother to friend as she saw Professor McGonagall.
"Professor McGonagall! A pleasure!" She says walking up to the two of them, her children and husband in tow.
"Yes, indeed." Ace spots the so-called William and instantly is attracted to his looks, his long shaggy hair, his hazel blue eyes, and clear pale complexion. He was gorgeous.
"Hi, my name is Ace." She says, holding out her hand to William, and grabbing his attention.
"The name is William, but I go by Bill." He says and shakes her hand.
"Ms Skotadi, I have to get going, but the Weasley's will show you the rest of the way." Says McGonagall, who promptly turns to Bill. "And I expect for you to make a good impression on Ms Skotadi, Mr Weasley." She turns and walks away disappearing into the crowd.
"Does she always address everyone by their last name?" Ace asks Bill.
"Yeah, you get used to it."
"Hello dear, I'm Bills mum." She says pulling Ace into a warm embrace. "Professor McGonagall explained your situation to us, so you'll be tagging along the rest of the way with us if you don't mind.
"None at all, I think I'd end up lost anyways without a guide." Mrs Weasley grins. She had her hair pulled back and was wearing some rather shabby robes, but she was pretty nonetheless.
"Right then, off to the platform we go, time to get you to the train or you'll be walkin' ta Hogwarts." She says pushing everyone, even Ace, who, by Mrs Weasley's standards, was now part of the red-haired family.
"Morana do you have everything you need?" She asks, making sure her kids had everything they needed before getting on the train.
Bill mouths her first name and looks to her curiously.
"Yes, ma'am, and it's just Ace, please."
"Of course." Mrs Weasley nods, as she shoves everyone further on.
They had reached kings cross station and were practically running to get there in time, and when they had arrived, everyone was out of breath.
They slowed to a stop in front of a wall.
"Alright now, Charlie and Bill you go first." Said their mother, and the two brothers lined up and ran at the wall.
Ace filled with dread as she watched the two brothers run at the wall, and just as she was about to yell and stop them, the carts vanished along with them.
"Alright, now you go, Ace." Ace looked to Mrs Weasley and then back at the wall. "Best run at it if you're the slightest bit nervous."
"This is terrifying."
"You'll be fine, Bill and Charlie will be waiting for you right on the other side, come on, or you'll be even later." She takes a deep breath and starts to run at the wall, and even though she saw the two boys go through it, she still was fearful that it might be real, and she would just run into the wall.
Instead, she ran through it and about hit Bill and his cart, lucky for her she had quick reflexes.
"Atta girl!" Bill practically shouts and smiles at her. She had made it through her first real magical thing, and if she was honest with herself, she was proud even though it was quite a small accomplishment.
The conductor walks up to them and helps them load their items onto the train. They take their seats just as the train departs.
"Are you a pureblood?" Bill asks Ace, who just stares back at him like he had spoken a different language.
"A what?"
"Pureblood. Someone who has had no muggle-borns in their family." Charlie chimes in.
"What's a muggle?" She asks.
"People with no magic, the rest of the world really." Bill says giving her a soft smile, hopefully as to not overload her with information or possibly frighten her off.
"I don't know; I was adopted." Ace says, and she turns her head to look out the window. "I suppose anything is possible really."
"Well, just a forewarning, there's a pureblood family by the name of Malfoy, ugly people, they have hair just like yours, except more blonde than white." Bill says, and Ace looks to him and smiles.
"Thanks for the warning then." She turns to look back out the window and then a question forms. "Is it always like that with your family?"
"Like what?" Bill returns.
"Frantic, almost missing the train?" Bill and Charlie look at each other and start laughing.
"Yeah, going on five years and nothing has changed." Bill says through his laughing, which in turn cause her to laugh with them.
The train was one of the smoothest she's been on, and it was filled with students wearing different coloured ties, and a few whispers were mentioning cursed vaults and Jacob, whatever that meant.
"What about you?" Asks Charlie.
"How d'ya mean?"
"Did you have a frantic life back in the muggles world?" She chuckles lightly and shakes her head.
"No, my adoptive parents were always on my case about being ready thirty minutes before the time we needed to leave. I don't think I've ever been late to school."
"Quite the sticklers then." Bill says grinning.
"So what's with all the different coloured ties and capes?"
"Each of the colours represents one of the four houses at Hogwarts. Red for Gryffindor, yellow for Hufflepuff, blue for Ravenclaw, and green for Slytherin. You'll be sorted into one of them yourself." Says bill. "Hopefully you'll get Gryffindor and then I'll be in charge of the new students and can help show you around," He winks at her, and she gives a small smile as she can feel her cheeks flush.
"What's it like living with muggles, then?" Charlie asks. How would she know any different.e
"Dunno, what's it like living with magic folk?" Charlie's grin fades away, realisation written all over his face, and Bill snorts at his brother.
"Another Question if ya don't mind..." Ace trails off and looks pointedly at Bill.
"Yeah, go ahead."
"I've been hearing whispers about cursed vaults and a man named Jacob." Bill and Charlie look to each other.
"We're not really allowed to talk about that," Charlie says.
"He's right, it's kind of a forbidden subject, but you'll find out eventually, especially if you meet Riona." Bill says, completely ignoring Charlie.
"Riona?" Ace asks tilting her head.
"Jacob was her brother, and he was searching for some alleged vaults that contained some priceless artefacts." Bill says and shifts, so he's more comfortable, and wraps his scarf around his neck, it was quite chilly, and Ace herself was wishing she had dressed warmer.
"So, what's she to play in this all, then?"
"She's following in her brother footsteps, searching for the lost vaults, it's her second year here. But she's not gotten anywhere. They seem to be myth still." Ace nods. "You should change into your robes, Ace; we've not much longer."
"Sounds good." She stands up and grabs a set of the uniforms out of her suitcase and then walks out of the compartment to find the loo.
"Why didn't you tell her?" Charlie asks, looking to brother with his head half-cocked.
"Tell her I was one of the people who found the first vaults, she's a first year she doesn't need to go getting into trouble." Charlie raises his eyebrows at his older brother. "What?!"
"If she gets put into Gryffindor she's going to join you, you know?"
"Not if I can help it."
"Yeah? And how you gonna do that, she obviously fancies you." Bill turns his head sharply towards Charlie.
"You think so?" He beams at his brother, who just rolls his eyes in return.
"You're so annoying; you know that?" Bill grins, content to hear that someone had a crush on him.
The train comes to a slow just as Ace turned back up to the compartment dressed in uniform, setting her muggle clothes in her suitcase.
"You ready?" Charlie asks beaming with joy.
"Absolutely terrified, if I'm quite honest." Bill and Charlie give a slight chuckle, and the train comes to a complete stop and releases a burst of gas along with it.
"Just leave your things on the train, they'll be awaiting you in your room after the feast, and just listen for Hagrid when he calls for the first years." She nods and follows after Bill and Charlie, and as soon as they step off the train, an eight-foot man starts to call for the first years.
From what the brothers told her that man had to be Hagrid, as what seemed to be the rest of the first years flocked towards him.
It was quite hard to see as it was night time and few people held lanterns, so she lost the Weasley brothers fairly easy, and she knew that she had to go with the rest of the first years, who were no crowding around the giant man.
"Alright first years, gather round!" Hagrid booms over the group. He had brown hair that, much like the Headmaster, got lost with his beard, and his brown eyes seemed warm and welcoming. He looked like a kind gentle type, someone who could potentially be an ally to her if the occasion arose. "All of you have to fit in these boats now, so don't be strangers and tuck in!" Hagrid says and motions to the boats behind him, and the first years blink back at him. "Don't just stand there; get a move on!" The kids scatter and rush to the boats, and Ace follows slowly after, cautious of the ships, worried that with all the weight they might sink. "Not terrified of water are you?" Hagrid asks who stood behind her.
"No sir, just worried that these boats won't hold all of us without sinking." Hagrid smiles and holds a hand out to help her into the nearest boat.
"Don't worry; these are magic boats." She takes his hand as she steps into the boat. There was no shaking or rocking just a smooth wooden floor that felt quite stable. "Atta girl." Hagrid grins. "Welcome to Hogwarts." He says as the boat departs.
The boats themselves were faster than she imagined them to be, and within seconds the school, or rather a castle, came into clear view.
"Wow." She says breathlessly as she looks up at the castle. "Can't have never-ending suitcases, but you can have a castle for a school and no one blinks an eye." She breathes and shakes her head.
Within minutes they had reached the castle and were being escorted inside and up to a staircase by a student.
He was dressed in blue accents, which was what house again? Ravenclaw?
"Everyone make sure you're on the staircase, they have a tendency of moving, so it's best if you stick close." He says as the staircase rumbles and then begins to swing itself to another platform. "My name is Dean, I'm head boy, and I'll be helping you first years out until you get sorted into your houses and settled in." The staircase stops and a clicking of heels can be heard coming down another flight of stairs, and then the clicking stops.
"Good evening, students," Ace looks up at the top of the staircase and sees Professor McGonagall. "I am Professor McGonagall, head of house, and I will be guiding you through our sorting ceremony tonight." Ceremony? "In just a few minutes, we will head through the doors and head into the great hall where you will be sorted into one of the four respective houses. Those houses are Gryffindor the brave, Hufflepuff the kind, Ravenclaw the Wise and, Slytherin the ambitious." She sees someone motion towards the door and nods. "One minute, while I get the names." She says and walks over to an ugly looking man who had a cat at his heels. He hands her a scroll, and she smiles at him, thanking him probably, and walks back to the group of first years. "Dean you're dismissed, go ahead to the feast." He nods and makes his way forward.
"First years..." She says and turns to walk towards the great hall doors. "Follow me!"
Ace is pushed along in the crowd with the rest of the first years as the file into great hall that had four long tables that the students sat at.
"File into one line!" McGonagall calls as She stops at the front of the room and with a wave of her wand a brown stool and brown witches hat that sat atop the stool, appeared next to her "Come up to the front, sit on the stool and I will place the sorting hat on your head accordingly, and once sorted you will go to your houses table." She unrolls the scroll and begins to read the names off.
Black, Evans, and Smith were sorted into Hufflepuff; with Abbot Reys and Voss in Ravenclaw; Rhodes, McCoy, Balker, Price and Ripley in Gryffindor; and Donahue sorted into Slytherin. She was the only Slytherin so far.
"Skotadi, Morana" McGonagall calls, and the group stays silent looking to each other to see who was going to move, to see this 'Morana'.
Her hands become clammy, and her heartbeat quickens, dread fills her. What if the sorting hat couldn't find a place for her in one of the houses, what if he said that she didn't belong and needed to be sent home. That was how school was for her; she was always the oddball out, last to be picked.
"Come on, don't be shy." McGonagall says trying to coax her up to the front.
Ace takes a deep breath, filling her lungs with the smell of the school, parchment and faint food smells like it was just waiting to be served.
She takes a rigid step forward, and then another, and she's the most rigid person there.
She makes it to the stool, to McGonagall, to the hat, and McGonagall places the hat upon her head.
"Difficult mind, I haven't seen the likes of one of you in years." The hat says. "No magic family either, and yet not a muggle-born. Interesting mind indeed." That hat rocks on her head slightly. "Brave as a Gryffindor, Wise as a Ravenclaw, Loyal like a Hufflepuff, and Ambitious like a Slytherin. Though perhaps not as kind as a Hufflepuff ay?" The hat chuckles and Ace only tightens up more. "Are you brave like a Gryffindor, or brave like a Slytherin?"
"What's the difference?" The hat gives a smirk.
"You've got all the courage you need, but how you use it is the true question, not to mention that you're wise beyond your years."
"I don't want to be known for being brave, it could be seen as not thinking before acting, and I don't want to look stupid." She whispers to the hat, and the hat nods, or at least she thinks she does with the way it moves on her head.
"That's been ten minutes, the longest yet!" A kid from the Gryffindor table whispers.
"This is the first hat stall in ages!" A Ravenclaw whispers and many more whispers broke, and it sounded almost like a tea kettle boiling,
"Not to brave, but brave enough, and smart enough to achieve anything, but even more ambitious to prove yourself worthy without hurting anyone in the process." She sighs, this is where she would be cast out and expelled, the hat not being able to decide, and he would say in a few more seconds that she wasn't fit to come to Hogwarts and to leave. "I deem you…" He breaks, and waits for a few seconds, finalising his decision. "Slytherin!"
The hat is pulled off her head, and she can see the Slytherin table proud to have another member.
"Goodluck, Ms Skotadi." McGonagall says and then calls the next name up.
During the Slytherins pride and uproar, the rest of the tables, the rest of the houses, are either quiet, or a few students are silently boo'ing.
"Welcome to Slytherin house, Morana." A girl with blonde hair and hazel eyes, with winged eyeliner on that, could kill, says and holds out her hand for Ace to shake.
"It's just Ace if you will." The blonde girl nods with a huge grin on her face.
"The name's Aurora, I'm a prefect, and I'll be making sure that you have everything you need, and any questions you have you can ask me!" She beams, and Ace nods in her direction, watching the rest of the students get sorted and watching the houses cheer for each other, except for Slytherin it seemed.
"Why don't people cheer for our house?" Ace asks Aurora, who just looks to someone else across from here and then down to the table.
"We've got a bad history of producing the worst wizards possible; they think we're evil." Aurora says, practically defeated.
"Just because we've got a few bad ones doesn't mean all of us are evil." Ace says, and venom stirs in her stomach.
"Yeah, well the rest of them, they don't see that." Ace just narrows her eyes.
She's been the oddball out for as long as she can remember, and now she's joined a group who has been singled out, where people single them out and seem them as bad, or evil.
Ace wouldn't stand for this; if she couldn't change her past, she would most definitely try and change the schools view on Slytherin.
She looked to the Gryffindor table, trying to find Charlie and Bill, and she found them with no difficulty, they sat at the table smiling and chatting away with their new additions to their house. Bill looked up and saw her staring at him.
He smiled at her, it wasn't one of the ones from earlier on the train that he had given her, it was more solemn, more of a sad smile, but it still touched his eyes. A smile that he was happy she found a place that suited her, but sadly it wasn't with him.
Charlie nudges him in the side, and his attention is brought back to the table, and he only half smiles at the jokes and new people.
He wished that she would have joined them, but if the sorting hat places them, then that is where they are meant to be.
As soon as the ceremony was over, the feast begins, and food magically appears on the table.
She fills her plate with biscuits and pies and other savoury foods that looked delightful to eat and begins to shove her face with the food.
"So are you from a pureblood family?" A Slytherin boy asks, his brown hair slicked back, and piercing blue eyes, he looked fourteen.
"If I were, I wouldn't know, I was adopted."
"So no relations to the Malfoy's?" Ace shakes her head at the boy's second question. "Interesting."
The feast passes, and eventually, Aurora leads them all the dungeons, which were apparently underneath the grounds and stretched out into the lake. To Ace, that didn't sound pleasing, and some of her other "brother and sisters" exchanged some words about how gloomy and dismissal it seemed.
She leads them down several staircases, until there were two splits offs, and it was here she spoke.
"This is the fastest way to the common room, and be sure to always take the rightmost staircase. Otherwise you'll end up at Snape's office." She said and then took them down the staircase, which lead to a white marble wall.
"Quia in somno, nostrum vincemus somnia." Aurora said, and a wall slid open, revealing a very exquisite dungeon.
It was nothing like what the others, or even Ace, had thought it would be like.
It had a green hue to it, due to the glass windows that looked into the lake and the green globes that held a light in them, and the sitting area looked expensive with the furniture that was there, but it looked cosy.
"So we just say the password to get in?" Ace asks Aurora, and she nods.
"Yeah, but the passwords change every fortnight, to ensure that no one can get in here with an old password."
"And how will we know this new password?"
"No need to worry, you'll know." Ace squints her eyes at her prefect, feeling like she wasn't quite right in the head, but then again this was a magic school, so anything goes.
Ace hears faint footsteps nearing the entrance to the common room.
"Quia in somno, nostrum vincemus somnia." A males voice says in a monotone voice and in steps a man, probably a professor.
He was dressed completely in black, his cape, pants, and jacket were black, the only thing that differed in colour was light ruffle of white poking out from his wrists, signalling that he had a white shirt on underneath.
His hair was long and black, and his eyes were similar, they were such a dark colour of brown that they looked black.
"My name is Professor Snape; I am head of house for Slytherin and your potions master." He says, entering the room with all eyes on him. "As you may know, Slytherin is known for producing the worst wizards, but also the best, as Merlin was one of us." He drew out the words, making sure each new student understood what he was saying. "I expect all of you to strive for perfection, as we have yet to lose in anything, whether it be the house cup," His eyes land on Ace and she sees something in his eyes. There was no longer a burning hatred but something soft, a memory that he had been reminded of perhaps. "Or the quidditch games. I will have no silliness, no hazing, no bullying inside of our house. You are family; you will act like one, if you don't you will be punished, accordingly." He takes his gaze off of Ace and looks to the others. "If you do not get along, you will work it out between yourselves, and you will not come to me for help. You are wizards, and I expect you to act as such. Lastly, you represent this house, and in doing so, you represent me. Are, we, clear?" Everyone nods, not daring to say a word to the intimidating professor, but Ace verbally acknowledges him, and he turns his piercing glare to her for a few seconds before turning and walking out of the common room.
"Alright, you heard him." Aurora says breaking the tension in the room. "Girls your bunk is up to the staircase to the left, boys to the right. Everything has been brought up, so find your belongings and tuck in. Trust me when I say you don't want to miss your first classes or be late. Snape will know."
The first years nod and scatter to their bedrooms and Ace follows shortly behind.
She ended up with three girls, not the typical five in a room, which meant less chatter and more time to be alone and study independently.
The rooms were marvellous. Five bunks lined the right-most wall, and the left wall was made of glass that looked into the lake, giving the room a green hue.
The sheets were green and grey, and the wood of the bunks was enchanted to look silver.
All in all, everything seemed upscale and expensive.
"I'm Elara." A black haired girl says and holds her hand out for Ace to shake.
"Call me Ace." Elara grins at her, her smile reaching her brown eyes.
"We'll be great friends. I just know it!" Elara beams and Ace gives her a faint smile and nods in return.
