Chapter Three: The End's Wave
The doors to the Great Hall opened ominously, as if they were trying to foreshadow something...like how terrible my upcoming years at Hogwarts would be. A cold tingling shiver of apprehension slipped down my spine, and then I walked in with the other first years and my sisters, Bellatrix and Andromeda.
A sea of faces greeted me—blue from the Ravenclaw table, yellow from the Hufflepuff table, red from the Gryffindor table—dear God, please don't let me be in Gryffindor!—and green from the Slytherin table. I could see Azalea, Zephyr, Amycus, and Alecto reigning at the head of the Slytherin table*, looking as proud as queens. They eyed me coolly, and I looked away, embarrassed that I had been caught looking at them. For some reason, I felt dreadfully unworthy.
However, that wasn't all I saw. Up in the air above everybody's heads were hundreds of umbrellas, and the reason for this was soon apparent—it was raining, inside of Hogwarts.
"The enchanted ceiling must be broken," whispered a first-year girl by my elbow. "I read about it in 'Hogwarts, a History.'"
We walked to the very end of the hall, past all of the tables, and stopped in front of a very old, ancient, and decrepit ragged hat that was sitting on the top of a stool in the middle of the hall. Everybody grew silent. My body tensed with nerves, and it felt like something more acidic than bile was lapping at my insides. I had heard stories about this hat—how it taunted you about a person's fears and desires, and then, when it was done having its fun...it sorted you into a house.
"Black, Andromeda" Professor McGonagall said sternly. I shivered again, because I knew what this meant—my sister was going to be the first person to be sorted. The list must be in alphabetical order. Which meant...I would be third. The acid in my stomach turned into poison, and gasping, I suddenly leaned heavily against Bellatrix. She started and gave me a strange look, as if to say "Why are you so nervous?" The truth was, I had no idea why I was so nervous. I only knew that I was terrified beyond all belief that it would all be a mistake, that the hat would announce to the entire hall that I wasn't magical enough for Hogwarts—I would have to go back home by myself and watch as my sisters grew up, graduated and got their magical degrees, and finally married some rich pureblood fop and be happy forever together—meanwhile, I would always be alone and uneducated.
As these horrific thoughts caroused through my heads, I was so distracted that I almost missed Andromeda getting sorted. In case you were curious, she was sorted into Slytherin. Two minutes later, so was Bellatrix. I felt relieved for them, that they had gotten sorted into the best house at Hogwarts—the house of our ancestors. Then, I suddenly felt a little more optimistic—maybe they would let me come to Hogwarts to visit my sisters occasionally...maybe they would even let me stay at Hogwarts and be a servant!
As these hopeful thoughts galloped through my mind, my name suddenly got called and my heart stopped. Don't worry...not literary.
I very very very reluctantly started walking over to the hat, so reluctantly that I was walking backwards. I would have got away with it, too, because Bellatrix was no longer standing nearby to push me around. Except then, I suddenly saw...my angel! He was sitting with the Death Eaters at the Slytherin table, and he was also looking at me. For some reason, his wondrous gaze filled me with resolve. Whatever the sorting hat decided for me, I knew it would look better in his eyes than running away. I started to walk back to the hat.
Suddenly, I started having flashbacks of my life. I was two, and Bellatrix was flinging rice pudding at me. Then there was a flash of green light, and I was five, and running around in the backyard with Regulus**. Then the scene changed again. I was at the cabin and swimming in Lake Horseshoe, when I suddenly got a cramp and started to drown. Anyway, I had all these movies going through my mind of different moments from my life. It was kinda scary, because I had heard that that only happened when someone was about to die. I opened my eyes and saw that...I was almost at the hat. The suspense was literarily killing me. I fainted.
I woke up in the infirmary. Opening my eyes, I looked around and noticed how white everything was. White walls, white curtains, white sheets. It was all very blah, and kind of reminded me of Charlie and the Chocolate factory when they were in the TV room.
Suddenly, I heard someone whisper loudly "She's awake! Grab the hat!"
It was a plump grey-haired woman in a nurse outfit that said this, and right afterward, an old man with a long white beard ran out from the shadowy corner of the room that was right next to the bed I was in. He was wearing a tall pointed hat with stars and moons on it, and a dark blue flowing robe that also had different constellations on it, and he was carrying under his arm...the sorting hat! I screamed and tried to escape, but my feet did not seem to be working, and so I got all tangled in the sheets, tripped, and fell on the ground. That kind of hurt, but not as badly as it hurt when the crazy old man jumped on me and forced the hat on my head. I screamed loudly again and tried to take the hat off...but it seemed like it was glued to my head.
And then...I could hear it talking to me. The hat, not the old man. It was saying stuff like "Oh, not a bad mind. And there's plenty of courage here too, along with a very friendly and loyal demeanor." Then, (I could feel it digging through my memories), it pulled up the memory of my stormy-eyed, golden-haired angel, and my feelings for him. "Whoa, you have a megaton of hopeless ambition...Slytherin!" And then, it released its suckers from my head, and I was able to take it off.
Slytherin. I was so relieved that I gave that strange man a hug. He boxed my ears and said "That's for all the trouble you put me through." Then he turned and said "Amycus, could you show Miss Black to the Slytherin common room?"
Amycus slithered out of another dark corner, and then he took my arm and made me go with him. I noticed a shiny badge on his chest with a capital P on it.
"Amycus, are you a prefect?" I asked him curiously.
Without turning to look at me, he told me "Yes." He said this perfectly without any emotion. I started to think that he was a little weird.
I guess the infirmary must have been at the top of a tower or something, because we walked down a lot of stairs to get to the common room. As we walked, we passed lots of strange sights, like walking suits of armor, talking portraits, floating translucent ghosts, and students that were staring and pointing at me. If I'm going to be honest, the ghosts kind of freaked me out. I had never seen a real live ghost before, and they were almost as scary as Sarah Brightman's eyes.
Finally, we entered the dungeons. The walls were made of stone-covered moss, and paintings of people getting tortured and swallowed by snakes were all over the walls. In the distance was always the sound of water dripping. Drip...drip...drip. I could think of several things in the world that were more cheerful than this dungeon, like following the Savage across the lake in the pouring moisture, or wrestling with Professor Dumbledore over that obtuse hat.
Amycus took me along several winding passages. There were many forks in the path, and it twisted around like the beginning tract of a cow's digestive system. Finally, when I feared that I was going to get completely lost and never find my way out again, we reached the entrance to the Slytherin common room.
The entrance was so impressive that I took my breath away. It was a huge blank grey stretch of wall that glittered slightly as if it had diamonds embedded in the surface.
"Password?"
I looked around me for whoever had uttered that word, then I realized with amazement that the wall had said it.
"Make sure you remember this, Narcissa," Amycus told me. Then he recited:
"Wizards whisper of the woman from the stars.
When the cracked flames show the gate of snake.
Worlds weep with the touch of night,
Brought on by the serpents of the sword.
Listen closely, for the shadows of dreams shall be her destiny."
Once finished, a door appeared in the wall, which swiftly opened when Amycus put his hand up to.
"That was a nice little poem you just said. Are the passwords always that long?" I was just trying to make conversation.
Amycus scowled at me. "Our head of house, Professor Slughorn, decides what the passwords will be. They change weekly. Some weeks, they will only be one word, while other weeks, they can be as long as an entire Shakespearean aside. What you just heard me say was a segment from the Legend of the Dragoness Arcana. It is an ancient prophecy from before the time of Salazar Slytherin.
"Oh, what's it about?"
"No one knows for certain, but it is believed to be predicting a time of greatness and glory for Slytherin house...not so much for the rest of the world." He laughed cruelly.
By this time, we had entered the Slytherin common room. I was confronted with the sight of a vast majestic room that was filled with armchairs and tables and what I could probably assume were other Slytherin students. Green lanturns were on all the tables and walls, giving the entire room an eerie green tinge. But that wasn't all.
SPOILER ALERT! Don't read the next two sentences if you don't want Pottermore spoiled for you!
The far wall was made of sheer glass. It was see-through, so it gave everyone a perfect view of...the underwater version of the lake. This brought back horrible memories, which made me want to kill myself again.
Now that Amycus had finished escorting me to the common room, he seemed to decide that he really didn't want to spend any more time in my company, so he raced away. I really didn't blame him. I looked around and spotted Bellatrix and Andromeda at a nearby table, so I walked over to them.
"Hey guys. Guess what? I'm in Slytherin too!"
They looked back at me with horrified expressions on their faces. "Narcissa, go away! Stop embarrassing us with your presence!" Then Andromeda looked away and said in a sing-song voice, "We don't know her!"
This made me really sad. Now that we were in school, even my own sisters were embarrassed to be seen with me. Why o why was I so uncool? Sadly, I started walking away with my head hanging down. I wasn't sure what to do, but then I saw that greasy-haired kid from the bus*** sitting alone in an armchair. I realized that sitting by him would be better than sitting alone, so I walked over to him.
"Hi. You're Severus, right?"
He slowly looked up from his book to look at me with light black eyes. "What's it to you?...Oh...you're Narcissa, aren't you." He blushed as he said this last bit. I couldn't imagine why.
I sat in the armchair next to his, and we started talking. But his mind seemed to be pretty boring and unoriginal—remember, I was only talking to him because I had no one else to talk to. Then suddenly... ... ...I saw him—The beautifully gorgeous and handsome angel from the train. I took a chance to observe him without being observed by him as Severus talked obliviously on about himself. How can I describe it? He was so...perfect, in every single way. His blonde hair practically glowed in the light cast by the glowing green globes on the wall, and even from this distance, I could see how fantastically wondrous his turbulent eyes were. I was so stupendously happy that he was also in Slytherin with me, because for my next three years, I would be able to stare at him like this every day! Unless—he were one or two years older than me, in which case he would graduate before me. At this thought, I became really depressed. I didn't know how I would go through life without him****. I suddenly became suicidal again.
Severus stopped talking for a second to take a breath. I took the opportunity to speak.
"Sev?—You don't mind if I call you Sev, do you?"
He blushed again, and shook his head to indicate that he did not mind. Weirdo.
"Well, who's that guy with the blonde hair over there whose handsome chiseled profile is currently being outlined by the green light like an angel's?"
His face fell when I asked this. "Oh him? That's no one important."
"Come on, tell me. It's not like I'm obsessively infatuated with him or anything; I just want to know."
I looked at Severus pleadingly, and before my look, his resolve broke. "All right. That's Lucius Malfoy. He's mean, extremely arrogant, and his father certainly is not one of the richest men in the world."
Lucius Malfoy. The name was beautiful...perfect. So was Narcissa Malfoy. But I had to wake up and stop dreaming.
Suddenly, I heard a cracking noise. At first I thought it was my heart. Then I realized that the noise wasn't coming from me...it was coming from...the glass wall! It was breaking! And outside, trying to get in, was...the Giant Squid!
*I knew they would be in Slytherin. From the brief meeting I had had with them on the train, I had realized they were too godlike to be in any other house
**We were playing cowboys and Indians.
***If you don't know who that is, go back and read chapter 2 you haddock!
****If you thought I was describing Severus in this paragraph, get the hell out of here!