AN- okay, I'm not sure how the format's going to look, but I hope that it will look okay. I've been super busy lately with school and everything, so please bear with me here. I wanted to do a double post, but I haven't the time. I'll post really, really soon! I promise!!

ANYWAY- I want to thank all of my loyal readers and reviewers… so read, review, and enjoy chapter three!

White Walls

Chapter Three: Sorting

James thought the following two weeks past as slowly as molasses pours from the bottle on a cold brittle winter morning. However, Van occasionally helped relieve him of his incredible boredom when her and her parents stopped by. Mainly his time was spent lying there, doing the homework he neglected to do during the beginning of the summer.

A nervous feeling swept through him. Today was the day they went to back to Hogwarts. At a quarter to ten Van and her parents arrived. He heard his mother great them happily. "Arreiel! Dan! Vanessa! Welcome!" James got off of the couch slowly and walked to the other side of the house to the foyer where Van, his Aunt Arreiel, and his Uncle Dan stood.

His Aunt Arreiel was beautiful with white blonde hair even longer than Van's and craggy blue eyes. She stood tall and wore a pink scarf over her head and ears. His Uncle Dan was an athletically built six foot three swordsman. He always told the most interesting stories about past matches he had had with renowned wizards. Van was an interesting mix of the both of them. At the moment, she greeted her cousin and paced the room nervously.

"Perhaps she should help you get your things, James." His mother suggested. James directed Van up the grand staircase that led to his room. He was very excited. Van was going to meet Remus and Peter today along with his crush since before he even liked girls, Lily Evans. He sighed. No matter how much he liked her, she hated him. She had something against pranking random people, no matter how many times he told her he was getting revenge in advance.

"You're going to meet Remus and Peter today." He said as he opened a highly polished mahogany door, revealing his room.

"Wow…" She said, gawking at the size of it. "I can't get over how big your house is!"

"Yeah, it used to be a house of some Lord, but it got passed down to my family." He said, explaining the sheer size of the estate.

((.*.))((.*.))((.*.))((.*.))((.*.))

About thirty minutes Van found herself staring at the wall between platforms nine and ten nervously. "You just run at it." Her Aunt Susan supposed sweetly.

Her stomach filling with knots, she ran at the platform, and waited for the eventual impact. Realization that this impact would not occur came when she saw she was standing in another platform.

Platform 93/4 was the basic city train platform. She hated the noise and the crowds. Smoke filled her lungs as she hugged and kissed her parents good bye. Van sighed. The city seemed to zap the energy out of her for some reason. It was the oddest thing. Perhaps it was part of her elfish heritage; she did grow up in the Russian taiga. But she focused her mind on other things and boarded the train while James was chatting up a few sixth year girls. Out of the corner of her eye he saw Sirius join him. She released a painful sigh. So that was the kind of girl he was interested in, the girly, peppy, gorgeous socialite. In other words, they were the opposite of her. She tugged her unbelievably heavy pine trunk up the train steps slowly and sat in an abandoned compartment, deciding this was the best time for a nap.

She slowly fell asleep; however, her nap was ruined when two girls walked into the compartment, chatting loudly. She looked up. "Hello." She said thickly, her voice revealing her American accent, which, she was now very conscious of.

"Can we sit here? The train's full." The willowy one with skin the color of smooth milk chocolate and ebony dread locks said. "By the way, I'm Amaya DeAvangi.

"And I'm Alice Dockett." The second girl said. She was rather shorter and of an average weight also. She had mysterious brown eyes with coffee hair to rival her light complexion. She gave Van a hopeful toothy smile that lit up her rounded face.

"Sure." Van said politely. Alice sat next to her and Amaya sat across from Alice. Van watched the English countryside roll past at what seemed a hundred miles an hour.

They seemed nice enough; she wasn't sure how to act, resulting in an uncomfortable silence on her part. There weren't many girls at her old school, namely because of how much the school focused on dueling. Hogwarts also had a dueling class that she would be taking this year. Her father had filled her to the brim of stories of his days at Hogwarts and his experiences.

"I know you!" Amaya suddenly said, her dark eyes suddenly lighting up with acknowledgement. "You're the girl that beat Malfoy!" She proceeded to grin widely.

"Yeah- I am."
"He needed a beating!" Ana proceeded to gush.

"I'm Van." She said, beginning to like the pair.

"So what year are you?" Asked Alice.

"I'm going to be a fifth year." She said nervously. "In America we would call it tenth grade."

"Really? We're fifth years!" Amaya said happily. "We're in Gryffindor." This statement brought a vague memory of her father's rants of Hogwarts. He had been in Ravenclaw, and he told her, hoped she would do the same.

"My father told me about the houses, but could you refresh my memory, he really only told me about Ravenclaw."

The girls proceeded to tell her all about Hogwarts. It was much more interesting than her father's long, boring discussions. She loved him, but he wasn't the most interesting man in the world. The discussion took several turns, and by the late afternoon they were friends. Van looked out the window to see heavy black clouds rolling in over the medium grey ones that currently resided there.

"I got to go to the bathroom." She said suddenly, her claustrophobic side taking over her.

"Okay." They chimed.

She walked down the slightly shaking hallway of the train. This was one of the first times she had been on a train. The hallway was rather large and well lit with red carpeting and wood paneling.

She turned into the bathroom and opened the window wide enough to stick her head out and breathe the fresh air of the passing country. She could see the land for miles, and almost everything was a gorgeous emerald color that contrasted perfectly with the darkened sky. It started to rain, it had been threatening to all day, and so she put her head back in the train along with the rest of her body.

When she walked out of the bathroom, she found someone waiting for her. Her stomach leapt with surprise. It was Lucious Malfoy.

"So it's you, half breed." He said scathingly.

"It's me butter fingers." She said her voice full of sarcasm.

"What did you say?" His quiet voice exploding with rage.

"You heard what I said." Van said with a sweet smile. His handsome face contorted into the ugliest look she could have ever seen. He shoved her against a random door, making pain explode up and down her spine.

"Never insult me, half breed. That match was a fluke. You know damn well that you could have never won. I bet you used some weird elfish thing to prevent you from loosing."

"What are you talking about?!" Van asked rather angrily. Was he accusing her of CHEATING? This guy was the sorest looser she had ever seen…

"I'm obviously superior to you-" He continued, now able to control his rage.

Now she was getting mad. He knew exactly how to push her buttons. "Why? Is it because you're a pure blood?"

"Exactly. You finally got it." He said coldly. She tried to escape but he put his hands on her shoulders, preventing her from any escape. "You'll never be one of us, She-Elf."

"Fírima." ((Mortal)) She said, laughing. "I'm not a She-Elf." It's what she told herself, because deep down, she wanted to fit in with everybody else. She wanted to be one of them. Why did her father have to marry an elf? She thought holding back bitter tears.

"Liar." He replied. She then elbowed him in the stomach, and attempted a get away. It worked. He was doubled over. She ran down the hallway, without really paying attention to where she was going. She suddenly stopped. Something was blocking her way. She tried to continue going, but tripped over that same something that gave a resounding "Ow."

She found herself face down in shoe stained burgundy carpet. She slowly got up and saw what broke her fall. It was a boy about her height with soft brown eyes and soft light brown hair that had a few early strands of grey showing.

"I'm so sorry!" Van said, offering a hand for him to get up. "I was a bit… preoccupied." He took her hand and helped her up.

"It's okay, I was too." He said, laughing warmly. He picked his book up off of the floor and showed it to her. "I need to finish summer reading. I'm Remus Lupin." They continued talking for about five minutes as they walked up and down the train, shouting that they would be at the school in five minutes. It was then that she left to change into her robes.

((.*.))((.*.))((.*.))((.*.))((.*.))

They soon arrived at the station. The only view Van saw was of students rushing around, trying to avoid the inevitable rain that the black clouds above then threatened.. She saw a huge figure with a large black shaggy beard. He was sort of scary and twice the size of a normal man.

"Um… excuse me, sir, where do I go?" Van asked, tugging on his heavy overcoat.

"Are you the new exchange student? Yer goin' ter Hogwarts in the boats." He said in a heavily accented voice that she did not understand.

"BOATS!" He shouted over the noise. "Firs' Years over here!" He started to yell, until a group of ten and eleven-year-olds was surrounded around her. She felt self conscious and easily noticeable, but she couldn't hear anything but the roar of the huge man's voice over the excited students.

Soon they boarded the boats. She got stuck with two giggly girls (who weren't that bad) and a blonde boy with a huge white smile that kept asking her if she wanted his autograph.

"I promise you I'll be famous one day!"

"That's quite alright." Van said. It was the first words she had spoken since "Hello".

"You're the yank!" Exclaimed a girl with hair the color and texture of hey and freckles sprinkled across her heart shaped face.

"You're the one that beat Lucious!" The other girl assumed. She had short rich brown hair and deep brown eyes along with a year round tan that Van envied.

"It depends… is that good or bad?" Van asked hesitantly.

"Very bad!" The boy stated rather opinionatedly. "Girls don't belong on the fencing floor! It's an outrage!"

"No one asked YOU Lockhart!" The brunette snapped.

"What do I have cooties?" He asked.

The girls looked at him with looks on their faces that plainly said 'you don't want us to answer that, do you?' Van grinned proceeding to chuckle. "We think it's very honorable." The blonde one stated.

"Yeah, I even started to take fencing lessons!" The second one added joyfully. 'Wow… I'm really influencing them. This is kind of cool…' Van thought, her smile getting wider.

"How long have you been fencing?" The brunette added curiously.

"Well… I've been fencing ever since I could hold a sword properly…" Van paused, thinking rather deeply, and counting years on her fingers. "It will be… eleven years next… uh… February I think"

Upon that statement, both girls and the Lockhart boy stared at her in awe.

For the rest of the boat ride Van stared at the magnificent castle she would be spending the next three years at. It looked like it belonged in her childhood fantasies of kings and brave knights fighting dragons with explosive tempers. She remembered the tales the storytellers would tell all of the children in the clan. It gave her a nostalgic feeling.

Just then, lightning flashed and thunder rolled; causing Van's nostalgia to end. The boats finally reached land and the group proceeded to run into the school. The downpour started just after the last of the first years walked through the threshold to stare at a cross woman with chestnut hair tied tightly in a bun.

"I am Professor McGonagall." She said rather severely. "And welcome to the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry."

"The start of term banquet, along with the sorting, will begin shortly. There are four houses, Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. Each house is very proud. You will be spending all of your time there, from sleeping in your dormitories to spending your free time in. I will be back shortly, until then, stay here and be quiet.

A few minutes later, Professor McGonagall came back. "We are going to enter a bit differently this year. Ms. Chase, you are going to go first. After Ms. Chase is sorted, Mr. Filch will lead you into the Great Hall.

'Oh God.' She thought quickly. 'The whole school is going to see me.' She couldn't help her stage fright. She always had it, but she was able to break out of it when she was dueling.

"Take that thing out of your hair!" The Professor scolded, motioning to her scrunchie. She took it off, her dark blond hair falling out of its ponytail in a sheet. She sighed, straitened her robes and tie, opened the door, and didn't look back. To see the Professor following her with a roll of parchment in her hand.

The silence was unnerving. Every single pair of eyes in the great hall were boring down on her, making her feel very self-conscious. Falling down would be the worst thing to do now, she told herself. 'Right foot up, over, down, Left Foot, up, over, down' her brain commanded her feet, which felt somewhat detached from the rest of her body. When she approached a stool with a hat on it, she stood next to it. She saw all of the first years gathered around the door.

"This is our first transfer student in fifty years." Said McGonagall, who was on the other side of the stool. "She's a fifth year and transferred from The Savannah School of Sorcery. First years, come up." The first years obeyed and toddled up the hall and lining up next to her when they reached the stool.

Just then, the hat burst into song. Van was so astonished, she didn't listen to half of it, and she just stared at it, somewhat surprised. This was perfectly understandable of a reaction for those not accustomed to inanimate objects bursting into song. She had heard enough in Amaya and Alice's discussion to know about the houses. Gryffindor was for the brave. Hufflepuff was for the good hearted, Ravenclaw was for those full of wit, Slytherin was for the cunning.

"Vanessa Chase" She said, peering down at her parchment unnecessarily.

Van then took the hat sat down on the stool, and placed it over her head. It whispered in her head. 'Hm… you have a keen mind and a good heart, but I think the best place to put you is…' The had paused, for dramatic effect perhaps. Her heart raced none the less. Wait… Can hats pause for dramatic effect?

The hat shouting "GRYFFINDOR" ignored her train of thought! She took the hat off of her head and sauntered to the roaring Gryffindor table. Amaya and Alice made a space for her, she then sat down and watched the rest of the sorting ceremony.

((**))((**))((**))((**))((**))((**))((**))((**))((**))

The feast was jovial and lasted long into the night. Lily was happy she got to see all of her old and new friends. There was something the magical world satisfied in her that the muggle world could not. She wasn't sure exactly what attracted her; it was like it itched a spot that the muggle world couldn't even reach. She enjoyed the company of the transfer student, Van. She was a tomboy, but fit perfectly into the odd fifth year group.

Vanessa Chase had come to England from America and had competed in the dueling championships held over the summer right before she moved. Lily had smiled when she heard this. She had thought the American looked familiar and suddenly remembered their encounter at the competitions. Van looked at things from an entire different perspective than Lily did, and that fascinated her. Van was also related to James Potter, which amazed her because Van was in no way big headed. But that was beside the point.

Soon the start of term feast came to a close. Professor Dumbledore stood up to make his usual start of term announcements. Lily wanted desperately to just go to the dorms and sleep, but the shining prefect badge on her chest made sit up strait and pay attention.

"I have only a few announcements." He said, stroking is light grey beard in his usual raspy voice. "First of all, the Forbidden Forest is, of course, forbidden." He directed his attention to the Marauders upon saying this.

"Congratulations to the new prefects, Filch has added some new items to the restricted list. It contains 120 items in all, and Quiddich tryouts are on September 12th." Everybody took that as a dismissal. "First years over here!" She saw Remus Lupin rise from the table, and walk towards him, all of the other marauders in toe. She wondered why they did this, but the answer came to her when she saw a gleaming prefect badge on his chest.

Remus wasn't all that bad. In fact, he was the only Marauder that she actually liked. Peter was kind of shy and creepy. He was rather short with blonde hair cut in a bowl shape and watery blue eyes. Sirius Black was funny, but he flirted with everything in sight that was female. He was quite handsome. He had big, brown eyes and hair was so dark black when it shined in the dark it was blue ((an- like the color of Elvis's hair!)). James Potter seemed to be the leader, along with Sirius. He had windblown hair he was constantly making messier and expressionate hazel eyes hidden behind glasses. Her fingers itched to correct it, but she did not, reminding herself that he had the biggest head of anybody in their year.

"Hello." Remus said as first years gathered around them. She realized Van was standing beside her.

"Should I go with y'all?" She asked after greeting her cousin.

"I suppose." Lily said with a smile.

"So did you think about what I asked you last June?" James asked her.

"What did you ask me?" Lily asked him, confused.

"You don't remember?" He asked, clutching his heart in his melodramatics. "I'm so hurt!" He exclaimed, then covering his face pretending to sob.

Realization struck Lily. "Oh, you mean when you asked me out? I thought it was a joke…" She said seriously.

"I was," He said coolly. "Anyway, I gotta go…. See you later Moony."

"Moony?" Lily asked, puzzled. James was a conundrum in himself. Remus shrugged. They then lead all ten first years (and Van) to the Gryffindor common room. The school was as splendorous as it always had been. She never got used to the beauty of the school, the paintings, sculptures, architectural details. Every year when she returned it was like she was seeing it for the first time all over again. Van was just staring at everything in awe as if she were in a museum. "My old school wasn't this nice." She said, not taking her eyes off of the scenery. "I'll never get used to this place—it's huge!"

"So how was your old school?" Lily asked as they ascended the girl's staircase, the first years following them, talking and giggling quietly most likely about boys.

"Well… it specialized in all types of dueling. You went to morning practices about five AM and then we hit the showers and eat breakfast at eight, then you go to school all day. You have study hall from four to six, at six you eat dinner, then from six forty five to nine there's practice. After that you have a bit of extra time to do work, and then you go to bed."
"Wow…" Lily said in awe, "sounds hard.:"

"Well… I really love dueling." Van said with a smile as they reached the first year dormitories.

"These are your dormitories." Lily said kindly to the first years. The ankle biters slowly filed in the open door, taking in every single detail. Of the round room.

Lily shut the door after the five girls, remembering her first year fondly. It had been a time of innocence. (even the marauders had been slightly more innocent then they were now) Everything had been so easy. She sighed. This year would be exactly the opposite. This was the OWL year.

They continued up the staircase and stopped at the last door on the right. There was a window on the left wall, uncovering the grounds of Hogwarts, cloaked in darkness.

Okay, you like? Really? Cool. I'll send my usual review thank yous with the next chapter… which, hopefully will be up by Wednesday…

LOVE-

MOE23