Nova Black
Chapter 7
School starts in a week and Dora came over for the day to help pick out my wardrobe for school… *Being a girl has so many rules, it's ridiculous the amount of effort we have to put into just clothing. Let not even get into makeup and hair… It's not like I was lazy with my looks before, it's just much more complicated as a girl...* Tonks pulls a skirt from my hands and tosses it into the no pile. "Hey I like that one!" I say and she simply replies with "That length and color will have girls calling you a whore and boy grabbing up your skirt! Especially purebloods and being a halfblood they don't give a shit about manners with us!"
I point at one of my green skirts in the yes pile, "But that one it the same skirt but a different color! What wrong with the red one?" She frowns "It draws attention quicker…" I drop it after that. *Are things this bad for girls or is it just witches who have to deal with purebloods… It's not like the skirts are super short just a bit above the knee...*
After we finished with clothes we sat down in my sitting room, with me sitting on the floor and her on her knees behind me playing with my hair. *Everyone keep warning me about the purebloods. Because I am the Heiress of the Black family they will be watching me and I believe them. Dora thinks some might even try to court me even though I am a half blood…*
"So what house do you want to be in?" Tonks asks me and I say "Not Hufflepuff. Owch I was kidding don't pull." She loosens her grip, and I continue "But no I don't know, what house do you think I'll be in?" She hmmm'ed and said "Well Ravenclaw is my first guess your such a bookworm, but I guess you could be in Gryffindor."
"I hope not Slytherin though… It's dangerous there… not as much now that you known who is gone but… Listen what I'm saying about being a girl is dangerous, I'm not kidding! And Slytherin are the worse!" She whispers the last part.
Just then Kreacher decides to POP in. "Mistress, ungrateful Master wishes to see, filthy mudblood and Mistress down stairs." We both jump. "Kreacher! What have I said about that word!" I yell, he replies sadly "That it hurts Mistress, because Mistress is a Halfblood to." I nod and say "Apologise to Dora now! She is apart of the back family now since dad reinstated Aunty in to the Black family!" Kreacher looks at Dora with a frown but not hate, *Improvement kinda...* "Kreacher is sorry" not sounding sorry at all, then popped away. Me and Dora lock eye and roll them. Then head down stairs.
When we get to the sitting room dads looks upset and is sitting in his chair on the right side of the room next to the fireplace uncle Remus is in the chair next to him. Aunty and uncle Tonks are sitting in the chairs on the left side of the room and there are two love seats around a coffee table.
Harry is on the right one, and the left one is that same man from the trunk shop, he is glaring at my father *Lucius Malfoy* and next to him is a Woman is as tall, slim, pretty, and very pale, with blue eyes, long blonde hair. She glanced at me and Dora before settling on Aunty. *Narcissa Malfoy… Unlike aunty she gives off a cold feeling, like she emotions have been shut off… Occlumency and not to bad ether* There was a boy next to her Harry's age, he was a slender boy with sleek white-blond hair it was slicked tightly back, cold grey eyes, a pale complexion and rather sharp, pointed features. He strongly resemble his father. *Lastly Draco Malfoy, the whole gang wonder what they are up to* Draco is staring at Harry making him uncomfortable.
Dora stands between her parents and I take a seat next to Harry. There is silace for a moment before Lucius says bitter and irritably "Are you not going to introduce us to the knew company?" Just before my father can yell uncle Remus says "Dora, Nova this is the Malfoy family, Lord Lucius Malfoy, Lady Narcissa Malfoy and there son Heir Draco Malfoy. Narcissa is Andramidas sister. They wanted to… reconnect with lost family."
Narcissa turns to Dora "It's nice to finally meet you Nymphadora. Such a lovely name Andromeda I'm glad you keep to tradition, despite…" she looks at her husband but he is looking between Harry and I, "Despite us abandoning you…" she finished and I noticed Lucius's eye twitch. Aunty just says "Yes well, whats done, is done and it's in the past, but I do wonder why you want to reconnect… If bella was here…"
Narcissa replies "Well she's not... She gone now, locked up…" I speak up, "What does that matter? You think she will be in there forever?" *Time to attract some death eater interests… Some things I can't change and I assume Riddle coming back is one of them. Maybe I am a gryffindor...* "Do you think he is dead?" I look at Lucius arm where I know the mark is. *You come into my home trying to get close to Harry and learn something to use against him! I'll distract you, using myself as bait*
"He's not…" I say and aunty specks up because everyone is stunned, "Nova! Hush child. Do not speak of him." I just snort at that. Lucius looks down his nose at me and says "What do you known of the Dark Lord child!" Remus says "Oh no…" knowing I hate when people say that to me, and I give Lucius my coldest glare, "I know a lot of things!" is all I say and Remus stands up " I think we should call it a day, Thank you for stopping by Malfoys"
My father follows them out and takes a bit longer then he should have then the door slams. As he walks back in Aunty asks "Nova what were you thinking?" I glare at her for the first time ever, "What were you thinking?! Why would you let that man anywhere near Harry?!" Harry looks confused and everyone is concerned as to how I know so much. Aunty looks sad, I've never spoken to her like that. My dad specks up "I knew this was a bad idea!"
"I just missed my sister… They said they wanted to meet Nova and Nymphadora to." Aunty said sadly. I stand up and go to my room and slam the door. *A bit hash… I must be going through puberty… Or something. I kind of feel like my emotions ran out of my control...*
About two hours later I hear a knock on my door. "Come in!" my dad comes in and sits in the chair across from me. "You ok kitten?" he asks *He's been calling me kitten since they saw my animagus form* "Yeah, I'll write to Aunty and apologize for yelling at her. It's just I want to keep Harry safe. He's like a little brother to me." he smiles at me, "Don't worry I wouldn't let anything happen to either of you. But now a change in subject Hogwarts! Boys are all evil creatures you should never talk to them!"
I roll my eyes "Yeah, yeah dad I know." he laughed then says "You known you can't let anyone find out about your animagus form right? And don't go anywhere near the forest!" I nod.
~Time skip September 1st~
*I've triple checked my trunk and Sev. is in his cage.* I call him Sev. because I don't want to explain/fight about the name so fair no one has questioned me about it. *I think I have everything...* I shrink my trunk and put it in my shoulder bag with my two reading books and my journal which is filled with everything I known about this world and my "Plains" to fix it. *I've taken to writing in old elven a very dead language, that I don't think the house elves could understand. Maybe a word or two it is a magical language only elves can speak.*
The other two book are from the family vault and once in old eleven witch is how I knew I could read and write any language to *Thank you Allen* as fair as I've gotten it's a journal from an eleven Mage describing what he calls a Ruba Stone but kinda translates to stone of power… *He has the worse handwriting!* The second is also in an old language but not a dead one. Well not really anyway, it's Draconic the language of the dragons. Kinda… From what I can tell it was written by a man who could speak with the dragons and recorded the knowledge he learned from them. He describes Draconic as being similar to Parseltongue. Parseltongue is, when spoken, a hissing sound, similar to that of a snake, Draconic is an obscure tongue and is made up of husky syllables and has a growling sounds. But some Parselmouths can understand bits of Draconic and someone who knows Draconic would understand bits of Parseltongue even though they don't sound anything alike.
After I'm ready I walk down stars we are all flooing to the station. Once we arrive Dora runs up to me with yellow hair "Yay you're here, are you ready" I nod and hug my dad and Remus and Harry though he half complains. After waving to Aunty and Uncle me and Dora hop on the train and find a compartment. As soon as we get Dora's trunk up we sit down and the door opens. It's the Weasley gang! Hey guy though we never find you Charley said and sits next to Dora, the twins sit on either side of me, and Percy is next to Charley. "Yeah though we," one twin said and the other finished "would never find you."
"Alright if you two are going to sit on either side of me I'm going to have to forbid you from ending each other's sentences. Got it" they laughed and agree for now. "So is the fristy nevies?" Fred asked. "A little but not really" I pull out my journal *I've got nothing to go on the year before Harry starts but I should be a smooth year. As long as I haven't fuck up the timeline up to bad...* "Wow what kind of language is that?"George asks
"Elvish." I say and put it away. The rest of the train ride was fun and long but we made it to Hogwarts. The train slowed right down and finally stopped. People pushed their way toward the door and out onto a tiny, dark platform. I lost the gang somewhere along the way but I figured I would see them inside. Then a lamp came bobbing over the heads of the students, and I heard a booming voice: "Firs' years! Firs' years over here!" Looking up the platform I saw a huge man. He was at least twice the size of a normal man and at least three times as wide. The man had wild, bushy black hair and beard. *Must be Hagrid* I start walking towards him. "C'mon, follow me - any more firs' years. Mind yer step, now! Firs' years follow me!" Slipping and stumbling, we followed the giant of a man down what seemed to be a steep, narrow path. It was so dark on either side of them that I thought there must be thick trees there.
Nobody spoke much. "Ye' all get yer firs' sight o' Hogwarts in a sec," the giant called over his shoulder, "jus' round this bend here." There was a loud "Oooooh!" The narrow path had opened suddenly onto the edge of a great black lake. Perched atop a high mountain on the other side, its windows sparkling in the starry sky, was a vast castle with many turrets and towers. *It's beautiful* "No more'n four to a boat!" The giant called, pointing to a fleet of little boats sitting in the water, by the shore. I hop in a boat and 3 other girls join me. The first is a simpal girl with brown hair and brown eyes, the second extremely pretty girl with long, shiny dark hair, a freckled nose, and shorter then most of us. The last girl has curly, reddish-blonde hair.
"Everyone in?" shouted the giant, who had a boat to himself. "Right then - FORWARD!" And the fleet of little boats moved off all at once, gliding across the lake, which was as smooth as glass. Everyone was silent, staring up at the great castle overhead. It towered over us as we sailed closer and closer to the cliff on which it stood.
"Heads down!" yelled Hagrid as the first boats reached the cliff, we all bent our heads, and the little boats carried us through a curtain of ivy that hid a wide opening in the cliff face. We are carried along a dark tunnel, which seemed to be taking us right underneath the castle, until we reached a kind of underground harbor, where we all clambered out onto rocks and pebbles.
Then we clambered up a passageway in the rock after Hagrid's lamp, coming out at last onto smooth, damp grass right in the shadow of the castle. We walked up a flight of stone steps and crowded around the huge, Oak door. "Everyone 'ere. Did we lose any one?... Good." The giant raised a gigantic fist and knocked three times on the castle door.
The door swung open at once. A tall, black-haired witch in emerald-green robes stood their, she had a very stern face, *Professor McGonagall!* "The firs' years, Professor McGonagall," said the giant. "Thank you, Hagrid. I will take them from here." McGonagall pulled the door wide.
The entrance hall was so big, the stone walls were lit with flaming torches like the ones at Gringott's, the ceiling was too high to make out, and a magnificent marble staircase facing them led to the upper floors. We followed Professor McGonagall across the flagged stone floor. Then we could hear the drone of hundreds of voices from a doorway to the right but Professor McGonagall walk right past it and brought us first years into a small, empty chamber off the hall. We all crowded in, standing rather closer together, more than we would usually have done, but we had no choice because the room was a tight squeeze. Everyone was peering about nervously.
"Welcome to Hogwarts," said Professor McGonagall. "The start-of-term banquet will begin shortly, but before you take your seats in the Great Hall, you will be sorted into your houses. The Sorting is a very important ceremony because, while you are here, your house will be something like your family within Hogwarts. You will have classes with the rest of your house, sleep in your house dormitory, and spend free time in your house common room. The four houses are called Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. Each house has its own noble history and each has produced outstanding witches and wizards. While you are at Hogwarts, your triumphs will earn your house points, while any rule breaking will lose house points and gane detentions. At the end of the year, the house with the most points is awarded the house cup, a great honor. I hope each of you will be a credit to whichever house becomes yours."
"The Sorting Ceremony will take place in a few minutes in front of the rest of the school. I suggest you all smarten yourselves up as much as you can while you are waiting." Her eyes roamed over us finding all the children with their uniforms out of place. "I shall return when we are ready for you," said Professor McGonagall. "Please wait quietly." She then turned around and left the chamber.
"How exactly do they sort us into houses." he heard someone ask. "Some sort of test, I think." I looked around and saw that everyone else looked terrified, No one was talking much. I tried viciously squashed my own nervousness excitement. I kept his eyes fixed on the door. Any second now, Professor McGonagall would be coming back in to lead them to the sorting.
"The Sorting Ceremony is about to start." Professor McGonagall had returned. "Now, form a line," Professor McGonagall told the first years, "and follow me." I got into line. We walked out of the chamber, back across the hall, and through a pair of double doors into the Great Hall.
I had never even imagined it too be this wonderful! It was lit by thousands and thousands of candles that were floating in midair over four long tables, where the rest of the students were sitting. *Just like in the books!* These tables were laid with glittering golden plates and goblets. At the top of the hall was another long table where the teachers were sitting. Their is hundreds of faces staring at us walking in. I looked upward and saw a velvety black ceiling dotted with stars… It was hard to believe there was a ceiling there at all, and that the Great Hall didn't simply open on to the heaven. Professor McGonagall led the first years cross the front of the hall, so that they came to a halt in a line. I glance at my father and smile and he nods.
I looked upward, at the stars once more before I quickly looked down again as Professor McGonagall silently placed a four-legged stool in front of the first years. On top of the stool she put a pointed wizard's hat. This hat was patched and frayed and extremely dirty. *Here we go!* I raised an eyebrow silently but otherwise gave no other reaction. For a few seconds, there was complete silence. Then the hat twitched. A rip near the brim opened wide like a mouth and the hat began to sing:
"Oh you may not think me pretty,
But don't judge on what you see,
I'll eat myself if you can find
A smarter hat than me.
You can keep your bowlers black,
Your top hats sleek and tall,
For I'm the Hogwarts Sorting Hat
And I can cap them all.
There's nothing hidden in your head
The Sorting Hat can't see,
So try me on and I will tell you
Where you ought to be.
You might belong in Gryffindor,
Where dwell the brave at heart,
Their daring, nerve, and chivalry
Set Gryffindor's apart;
You might belong in Hufflepuff,
Where they are just and loyal,
Those patient Hufflepuff's are true
And unafraid of toil;
Or yet in wise old Ravenclaw,
if you've a ready mind,
Where those of wit and learning,
Will always find their kind;
Or perhaps in Slytherin
You'll make your real friends,
Those cunning folks use any means
To achieve their ends.
So put me on! Don't be afraid!
And don't get in a flap!
You're in safe hands (though I have none)
For I'm a Thinking Cap!"
As the hat finished the students and teachers all clapped, with the red and gold table being the loudest and more annoying. Once Professor Mcgonagall calmed down her table she began calling names and the hat began sorting them into houses. I found out the 3 girls I sat with were Katie Bell, Cho Chang, and Marietta Edgecombe. *If I remember Marietta was the traitor to Dumbledore's Army who got cursed with the boils curse, and Katie was curse by Droca's necklaces*
"Nova Black!" the hall was silent and everyone was waiting but I can hear Dora at her table saying Hufflepuff over and over. I walk up to the stool and sit down and Professor Mcgonagall drops the hat on my head. *Hmm Interesting I can't seem to read you child… You are a true Occlumency Master!* I hear a voice inside my head. *Oh I'm sorry, I'll let you in as long as you don't tell anyone what you see! Especially the headmaster.*
*I can not if I wanted to, magic bines me!*
*Very well* I close my eyes and let my shields down a moment then put them right back up.
*Ahh I see now why you do not want others to know. But I do known right where you belong* "Gryffindor!"
The Gryffindor table erupt! *Ah another gryffindor Black father will be so proud, I'll never hear the end of it...*
