The rest of their ride on the Hogwarts Express was relatively uneventful. Neville's toad Trevor eventually showed up while they were playing a game of exploding snap. They were just shoving leftover cauldron cakes and pumpkin pasties into their pockets when the train arrived at its destination. The timing was almost perfect.
"Harry!" Boomed a voice almost as soon as the three of them left the train. Both Ron and Persephone jumped a little. She was glad she hadn't been the only one startled by the large man's jovial greeting. Harry offered a cheerful wave and went over to introduce Ron and Persephone to who was obviously Hogwarts' grounds keeper, Hagrid.
"I told ye, Harry, you'd be makin' friends b'fore ye knew it, and if just that hasn' happened. Good on you, Harry. Good on you." Persephone was surprised to see tears shining in the great man's eyes and found herself liking him quite a lot more than she thought she would. Hagrid continued directing the other first years in the right direction after the three of them had passed. "Firs' years, single file, this way... Did somebody lose a toad?"
Soon enough they were presented with rows of little boats knocking lightly against each other on gently rippling water. The boats were lit by small candles and it was quite the sight to take in with the moon reflecting off the surface of the water the way it was.
"Four ter a boat, wouldn't want any of ye ter go overboard." Hagrid climbed into one of the boats, taking up most of it all by himself. It set off immediately toward the castle, automatically knowing its destination.
Persephone, Harry and Ron were quick to find a boat. It was about to start off toward the castle before the last straggling first years joined the other boats. Pansy Parkinson sat down in the empty spot next to Ron just as the boat started to move. To his merit, Ron greened visibly.
If the boat had had any sense at all, it would have ejected Pansy then and there and left her to be playmate to the giant squid. Persephone had heard such a creature lived in the lake. Instead, the boat started calmly on its journey to the castle as if it hadn't a care in the world. It truly didn't, for boats have very little to care about.
"Pansy." Persephone was no expert at social graces, but even she knew the smile she had pasted on her face just then didn't contain a touch of sincerity.
"Persephone." Pansy didn't try for a smile, not even a fake one. "Knocking about with blood traitors and half-bloods are you?" The other girl made a tutting sound. "My, my. Whatever would your father say?"
"Oh, I don't know." Persephone drawled. "I'd guess he'd be glad I'd found friends who have parents that don't owe him a vault's worth of gold in personal loans."
Pansy's mouth become a thin line and she crossed her arms across her chest. The giant squid took that moment to poke the tip of a tentacle past the surface of the water. The tentacle waved around dangerously close to Pansy's corner of the boat before slipping back into the chilly water. Persephone and Harry rocked the boat a little just as they were almost to the shore. Pansy shrieked while Ron gripped the sides of his seat fiercely, scowling. Persephone supposed they should have warned him. She'd apologize later.
Pansy took off like she was being chased by a particularly nasty hag when their boat landed. The boat's other occupants were more leisurely about coming ashore.
Just like that, they were at the grand front entrance of the castle.
They were greeted by a most severe looking witch at the entrance, Professor McGonagall. Her black hair was done up in a tight bun and she wore a dress in red tartan.
"This way, please." The professor said simply, leading them to a small antechamber.
"The sorting ceremony will begin shortly. You will be sorted into one of four houses: Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Slytherin, or Ravenclaw. While you are at Hogwarts, your house will be like a family to you. You will dorm together and have classes together. Exceptionally good behaviour will earn you house points while behaving badly will subtract house points from your house. The house the hat chooses for you is a final decision." She glanced around at all of their faces. "Please wait here, I'll return for you momentarily."
The lot of them huddled together nervously, chatting amongst themselves. Harry stood to Persephone's left. She had lost track of Ron. After looking around, she only just got a peek at his red hair across the group before she was bumped into rather sharply from behind. When she turned to see what had happened, Draco was pushing past her with Vincent and Gregory in tow. Pansy Parkinson giggled from somewhere nearby and Persephone was unable to resist the urge to stick her tongue out at the back of her brother's head. Harry echoed her by rolling his eyes.
McGonagall came back just then before Persephone had a chance to withdraw her tongue. The professor gave her a stern look and motioned for them to follow her into the Great Hall.
There were mystified gasps as they filed into the lavish and enchanted room, many sets of eyes glued to the ceiling which seemed to display the clear, star-filled night sky. While she had been around such displays of magic her entire life, Persephone still had to admit that it was an impressive sight.
Harry tugged lightly on the arm of her robes, bringing her gaze back away from the ceiling.
"What do we have to do?" He whispered nervously. "I don't know any magic at all..."
She smiled. "Don't worry... You just have to put on a hat. I don't know what it does, though. Probably nothing too fancy, or they wouldn't do it while everyone's sitting around starving and waiting to eat."
Professor McGonagall placed a weathered, three-legged stool at the front of the room and placed a tattered hat atop it. Almost everyone in the room stared at the hat expectantly, so Persephone followed their lead.
I'm a shabby looking hat,
I don't look like much at all,
Let's play a game, just you and I,
Without a club or ball
I'll look inside your head,
To find out just what makes you tick
For such a task young ones, it's true:
I'm the only one that's fit!
If you wonder what this talking hat can tell you,
That you don't already know,
Sit down, relax, and put me on,
Let's all enjoy the show!
In Gryffindor, those that belong
Include the daring and the brave
They take the high road every time,
and it's their road to pave
In Hufflepuff they work quite hard
Forever loyal and true
If you're just and patient,
Hufflepuff's the house for you!
In Ravenclaw the wisest find
More of the same
If you're one for learning
Then they want your name.
Lastly, to a Slytherin
You might achieve your goals
You'll reach an end, I have no doubt
No matter what the tolls
If you want to see inside your mind,
Then place me on your head
There's not to lose and much to gain
Your fortune's to be read!
The rip above the hat's brim closed and the room was flooded with applause. Once it died down, Professor McGonagall withdrew a roll of parchment from her robes and started reading off names. Persephone was so nervous by that point that only half of her attention was on the names being called. She only caught them here and there.
Millicent and Vincent were of the first to join Slytherin, of course. There was no surprise there. A couple names later Finch-Fletchley, Justin became a Hufflepuff to a round of excited cheers. It seemed like no time at all until it was time.
"Malfoy, Draco." They was a clamor of noise at the Slytherin table. The sorting hat had just barely touched her brother's head before it yelled out boisterously. "Slytherin!"
Well, this was it. Persephone sat down on the stool and watched her brother join the rest of Slytherin house before pulling the hat over her head.
The sudden voice in her ear was somewhat disconcerting. "Ah, another Malfoy, is it? Not a very hard decision, then. I've been putting your lot in the same place for centuries, you know."
Persephone's mind was spinning. When she was finally able to focus on something, it was her brother and how he acted.
She channeled all of her nervous energy into telling the hat how very much she didn't want to have to be like him, always being so guarded and manipulative.
"If you're sure, dear..." She was. "There are no second chances, you're aware..." She wished the darned hat would just hurry it up already. "Well then, better be... GRYFFINDOR!"
As Persephone stumbled away from the stool after replacing the hat, everyone was quiet as if they weren't really sure what had happened. Then, because they had missed their cue, the Gryffindor table roared happily. She plopped down at the nearest end of the table and was shortly joined by one of the Patil twins on one side. She was so relieved to be done with the ceremony that she didn't even have the energy to turn around and see her brother's usually cool face staring at her with a purely shocked expression.
The room grew quiet as soon as Professor McGonagall called out the name everyone had apparently been waiting for. "Potter, Harry."
It seemed to take even longer than it had with Persephone to decide, but eventually it declared Harry a Gryffindor. Minutes later, Ron also joined the Gryffindor table and Persephone was that much more happy.
There was chatter amongst the students as McGonagall took the stool and hat away. Dumbledore stood up at the head of the room and cleared his throat, effectively silencing the room by gaining everyone's attention.
"I would like to say a few words, and now I have. I hope you all enjoy your meals." He clapped his hands together with a smile, and the tables were no longer barren but covered from one end to the other with some of the most delicious looking food Persephone had ever seen. She helped herself to a little bit of everything, chatting with Harry as she ate. Ron was pointedly ignoring them.
Soon enough their plates were cleared and it was time for pudding. Dumbledore had given the start of term speech he'd spared them from before their meal. Persephone hadn't really paid too much attention. Stay out of the forest surrounding the castle, something about a third floor corridor. She was feeling satiated and content as she followed a Percy Weasley, one of the Gryffindor prefects, to the entrance of their house common room. She and Harry were tailing at the end of the line, she noticed he seemed to be marveling at the paintings.
"Careful." She smiled. "I hear some of them get offended if you stare at them too much."
There was a sudden creak to their left and they both turned. A suit of armor had raised one arm, startling Draco who had been standing in its shadow. Persephone raised her eyebrows as her brother stumbled forward, a decidedly pink tinge coming to his cheeks as he put himself directly between them and the rest of the Gryffindor group. While she simply stared at her brother, Harry pulled out his wand. She held up a hand to stop him even though she knew he didn't know any spells.
"You're going ahead with it, then? Herding up to the tower with the rest of this lot." Her brother wrinkled his nose, looking disgusted. "I should think you'd be doing your best to get out of here. Honestly, a Malfoy in Gryffindor. Our whole family must be turning in their graves."
"Oh, really, Draco... It's not as bad as all that!" Was this really her brother? She'd seen that venomous look in his eyes before, but it had never been directed at her. She didn't know if it was for Harry's benefit or if he really meant it.
Draco softened an almost imperceptible amount. She doubted anyone other than her would have noticed at all.
"We can owl mother and father in the morning." His cold eyes were searching hers. She could almost swear he was pleading with her, as much as he would allow himself to do so. "They can have you off to Beauxbatons in less than a day. Mother didn't want me at Durmstrang because it was so far away, but considering the circumstances... Anything would be better than being one of... them." His eyes scoured Harry for a moment.
"You're just worried about what people think of you, aren't you?" She could feel the tears stinging at her eyes, but didn't want to let them fall. "You'd rather I was in France than in a different house. We've never been apart, Draco! I'm still your sister, Gryffindor or not... and I'm staying."
Draco's eyes were once again completely blank, even to her. It was one of those disheartening moments that had been few and far between where she couldn't fathom what he was thinking.
"You're a disgrace." He spat. His words stung like nothing else ever had. "I have no sister."
Persephone stared after him as he left, only turning away when he had rounded a corner.
All she could think to do then was run in the opposite direction, the way the other Gryffindor students had been taken. Harry didn't follow her. She waited until she'd made her way up a couple flights of stairs before she let the first tears slide down her cheeks.
"Nobody told me the password..." Persephone explained to the woman in the portrait that guarded the entrance to the Gryffindor common room. She slouched against the wall next to the portrait feeling sorry for herself. Not only was she feeling miserable because of Draco, but she looked a right mess as well. To top things off, she couldn't even go to bed.
This was how Harry found her. Luckily he had run into Ron's brother Percy after getting lost trying to find his own way to the tower. Percy the prefect had scolded him slightly and sent him on his way with the password.
"Altera Mundus." Harry said to the portrait. It swung open without a word from its occupant.
The room that was revealed to them couldn't have been any different than what she was used to. While things at her family's home were of the highest quality, everything always seemed so harsh and dark. She was used to being surrounded by grays, greens, and obsidian black. While the palette of reds that had been used to decorate the common room was still on the dark side, they had a rich, earthy quality that Persephone found enchanting. The dark-wooded tables and squashy-looking chairs and sofas basked in the light of a merry fire. The cheerful atmosphere of the room brightened her mood a fraction.
"There's Ron." Harry drew her attention to the corner of the room by the staircase to the boys' dormitories. Ron was having a chat with a pair of boys, one with sandy-coloured hair, Seamus she thought it was, and another, shorter boy that she couldn't really remember.
Harry walked over to them and she followed, suddenly feeling the shyness that often came about when she was about to try and be social. While Harry seemed fine with her, she didn't know if the other Gryffindor students would be any more accepting than the children that she'd grown up around.
The three boys were laughing about something as they approached.
"Ron..." Harry started quietly, looking shy. "Er... We, that is, Persephone and I..." He looked to her as if for confirmation and she nodded. "We wanted to apologize, for earlier in the boat. We only meant to frighten Pansy, she was being right horrible." Harry was looking down at his shoes, almost mumbling now.
To her surprise, Ron smiled. "Don't worry, I figured that after a bit. Harry, have you met Chris and Seamus? They're the other boys in our dorm besides Neville."
The two boys greeted Harry, and Seamus offered her a polite wave. The boys started talking. Persephone was just beginning to feel awkward when Ron's brother walked through the portrait.
"Bedtime, everyone up to your rooms!" The boys started up the stairs, only Harry turning around to bid Persephone goodnight. A staircase on the other side of the common room took her to her own dormitory. All of the other girls in her year were already there.
Her trunk was at the end of the fourposter nearest the window. Closest to her bed was that of Constance Prewett, a quiet girl with large-framed glasses. Her red hair was nearly the exact same shade as Ron's. After her were Lavender Brown and Parvati Patil, chatting animatedly with each other as they got ready for bed. On the opposite side of the room was Celia Puckle, propped up in what looked like an awkward position on her bed reading a magazine.
Thoroughly exhausted from her day, Persephone promptly changed into her pajamas, crawled into bed and went to sleep.