A/N: A bit of sciencey stuff in this one. Hopefully I got it all right, but I am taking biology right now, so that should have helped. Other than that, I think I have nothing else to say (It's all at the end...). Enjoy!
The next morning at breakfast, Professor Runewood had an announcement for them all.
"The ministry has informed me that a very special student will be attending Hogwarts, starting next week. Her name is Sillahya Queen; she's eleven years old, a first year, and, the ministry tells me, quite talented with magic. Now, what's so unusual about Miss Queen, is that she is not only muggle-born, but completely muggle herself."
There were gasps throughout the hall, and quite a lot of whispers from most of the Slytherins, who clearly disapproved of this.
"But sir," someone called out, "If she's magical, then how is she a muggle?"
"A very good question," Professor Runewood answered, "It has to do with the 'Trace'. Do you all know what that is?" he asked. Most people nodded, but there were still quite a few who did not, so Professor Runewood explained. "The 'Trace' is a charm designed to track any magic cast by an underage witch or wizard. It's how the ministry can tell if someone does magic outside of school before they turn seventeen. The important thing is, it appears automatically on anyone who has magic. Everyone, that is, except our friend Sillahya. She doesn't register on any of the Ministry trackers or have the Trace on her. However, the magic she casts is, indeed, very real.
She is, as you can tell, a rather extraordinary girl, and we should all be proud to welcome her into our school. I know all of you will give her a warm welcome, when she comes."
Breakfast proceeded as usual after this, but with much discussion among the students about Sillahya. When the post came, and James got his copy of The Daily Prophet; she was even there, on the front page, with an article all about how the Ministry came to see her at her house in Edinburgh and her experiences so far, then there was an interview with a woman named Rita Skeeter. Funny, the name sounded particularly familiar somehow, James just couldn't remember from where. There was even a sort of scientific explanation for her special 'condition', you might call it. The article read:
The Muggle Witch
"Sillahya Queen, age eleven, has become known in the wizarding world as the 'Muggle Witch'. A lot of people would say that this phrase is contradictory to itself, but there is logic behind it. She is most certainly not a muggle since she can do magic. However, the Trace was not automatically placed on her and most magical objects do not register her as being a witch. For example, she is unable to use a wand, and, luckily for her, she doesn't seem to need one. The wandmaker, Olivander, claims he must have had her try at least a hundred different wands and not a single one was right. Also, enchantments put in place meant to keep out muggles work on her as well. Magic-wise, this gives her the appearance of being completely muggle. Yet, it would seem that this isn't true.
For all our existence, we have never quite understood how it is determined whether a child is born with magic or not. Some witches and wizards have investigated the muggle science of genetics and wonder if perhaps it is in our DNA. Their theory is that the ability to do magic comes from a recessive trait, meaning that both parents must give the correct gene in order for the ability to be expressed.
Others believe that there is such a thing as 'magical blood', and that there must be enough magic in the family history in order for the magic to continue. It is also possible that these two ideas could be interrelated, with genetics being the cause of the so called magical blood. There are many speculations as to what might have happened in the case of Sillahya Queen, but all we know for sure is what we can see, and that is a girl with an extreme talent for magic, who cannot use a wand, or be detected as a witch by most magical objects; It is a rather curious situation, indeed.
The Wizarding world has never had much use for muggle sciences, like genetics, but this might just change that. Parents of muggle-born witches and wizards with experience in the field of genetics are already being contacted by ministries around the world. It would seem that there is a kind of scientific 'race', if you will, happening, something entirely unheard of by the magical folk. We can only wait to see what will happen next."
James and Lani regarded this carefully, and imagined there would be some discussion about it in the classes as well. Perhaps even a homework assignment. Either way, it was quite interesting. "It's a bit like with my dad," James said, "How he came to the Wizarding world not knowing anything at all about it, and yet everyone knew his name because he was famous."
It was about noon when Sillahya stepped off the train onto the smoky platform. The Hogwarts Express started to pull away behind her. Excitement was bubbling in her like one of the potions she'd soon be brewing. The ride to the school had been long and lonely, seeing as she had been the only student on the train. But she'd had so many unreal and incredible experiences already; for example, just getting on the train, when she'd walked right through the solid brick wall. And before that, when she'd visited the Ministry of Magic, all those witches and wizards, and most of the world didn't even know they were there. It made her wonder how much was hidden from people like her, muggles they called them. The Minister of Magic himself had spoken to her and told her that, although she was, what they called a 'muggle', meaning that she had no magical blood, she was still able to do magic somehow. He also said that nothing like this had ever been seen before. All kinds of people had come to see her; a woman named Rita Skeeter even wrote an article about her in the wizarding newspaper, The Daily Prophet. She'd said it would for sure be on the front page. They'd sent a copy to her family, by an owl no less, and Sillahya was amazed to see that the picture the photographer had taken of her, standing in front of her piano, was moving, like a video on paper. She knew that all of these things were just the beginning, and now she was going to a school of magic, where they'd teach her all about spells and potions and magical creatures. There was so much she had to learn and she was positively thrilled by the thought of it all.
Waiting for her on the platform was the tallest and broadest man she'd ever seen. He introduced himself as 'Hagrid'. He took her over to where a fleet of wooden boats were docked and they climbed into the largest one, which Hagrid apparently usually took on his own. Luckily, Sillahya was fairly small, even for her age. The castle was also quite extensive, even larger than the ones you saw in the muggle world, and Sillahya had a feeling there was even more to it than met the eye. Eventually, they crossed the lake and Hagrid helped her out of the boat back onto land. As they walked towards the castle Hagrid explained that when she went into the Great Hall, she would be sorted into one of the four houses. He talked about each of them and Sillahya supposed she'd be placed in Ravenclaw; she'd always gotten top marks in her muggle school. But any of the houses sounded alright to her. Although she did notice that Hagrid seemed to say 'Slytherin' with a bit of disdain. Perhaps he'd had a particularly bad experience with one at some point…
They were now in front of some huge double doors, behind which, Sillahya suspected, was the Great Hall. She was getting more and more nervous by the second. She was going to have to walk into that room, full of who knows how many people, walk all the way up to the front and be 'sorted', all by herself. Well, may as well get it over with, she thought. Taking a deep breath, she stepped through the slightly ajar door. Several people near the back heard her come in and turned around, whispering to their friends and pointing. The first thing, besides this, that Sillahya noticed about the hall was the ceiling, which seemed to have been enchanted so that it resembled the sky outside. There were very long tables in the hall, which she guessed were for each of the houses.
The Headmaster, Professor Runewood, saw her come in as well, "Ah, Sillahya, we were wondering when you would be arriving." Now everyone in the hall was staring at her. She started to walk uneasily up to the front, where they had already set up the wobbly looking stool, which had a rather ordinary, but very old looking hat perched on top of it. It didn't look particularly special to Sillahya, but it was things like that that fascinated her, everyday objects, that even muggles could see, that had magical uses, if you knew how to use them. She thought of the hour-necklace, which she still hadn't figured out how to use, but now was more than convinced that is was enchanted.
As she sat on the stool, another professor placed the hat gently on her head. It didn't move. Sillahya was sure something was meant to be happening, but no one was saying anything; until Professor Runewood spoke up, "Yes, we expected something like this could happen. Sillahya, if you wouldn't mind performing a bit of magic? That might get the hat to work."
"What shall I do?" Sillahya asked nervously. Doing magic while standing in front of every student in the school? This was not what she had hoped for on her first day.
"Anything you'd like," Runewood answered. His reply was immediately followed by shouts from the students, recommending various things for her to try, none of which, she thought, were a good idea.
"Set something on fire!" screamed a small Gryffindor boy.
"Could you transfigure me into a cat?" asked a Ravenclaw girl eagerly.
"Make the ceiling rain," offered one of the Hufflepuff students. The fourth table, the Slytherins, Sillahya thought, was staying relatively quiet.
Despite all the clamor around her, Sillahya focused herself and said, "Extollo" which caused a handful of random students at each table to go floating up several feet above their seats. Among these were Rose Weasley and Scorpius Malfoy, although Sillahya had no idea who either of these two were at the time. Sillahya spoke another spell, and returned them to their seats. Applause broke out, especially from the ones who had been lifted. Apparently that was an unusual spell. Smiling and distracted by the clapping, Sillahya nearly fell of her stool when the Sorting Hat began to speak inside her head; she knew only she could hear it, because the rest of the people in the room were still clapping.
"This is a very unusual mind you have here," the hat said to her.
"People seem to be telling me that a lot lately," Sillaya said to it, in her mind.
"Hm," said the hat, "well, let's skip the idle chit chat and get right started, shall we?" he continued on without her assent one way or the other. "You're clearly intelligent, which makes you right for Ravenclaw, but then there's a large amount of courage there too. Loyalty, good, good. And the ambitions, my! You'd do well in any house; it's all a matter of what you want most…"
"I don't know what I want. Nor do I know much anything about the houses," Sillahya replied to it.
"But you must choose!" proclaimed the hat. "This is the house you will remain in for the next seven years. It has to be right, you know."
"That isn't making it any easier…" Sillahya thought. She looked around the hall at each of the tables, scrutinizing the students, trying to make her decision based on at least something. However she had always known herself to be very indecisive, and that wasn't helping matters.
Eventually though, the hat said something to her, very quietly, "I think… that I've found the right place for you…"
"I thought I was supposed to decide." Sillahya replied. "Now you're changing your mind because I took too long?"
"No, it isn't that… But, there is something here, specifically, which points you in a certain way. I can't tell you what it is, but I will say this," the hat paused, possibly for dramatic effect, although Sillahya wasn't sure how a hat could even think like that, and then, "GRIFFINDOR!" bellowed the hat, and the Gryffindor table began to cheer especially loud, while the others clapped politely, but it was somewhat obvious they were disappointed she had not been sorted into their own house. Sillahya leapt up from the stool and, grinning, went to sit down at the table.
A/N: Ohhh, I'd really like to see reviews for this chapter, you know? Really. Like what you thought about Sillahya's perspective and how the story's going so far. Hopefully my scientific explanation thing was alright (I'm still kinda worried about that; not sure why...). Still, it was really fun to write about someone coming into the magical world for the first time, with all the references to things and such. You'll be seeing a lot more of it, for sure.