The Sorting Hat Series: Sylvia Noventa

That summer, not long after the letter from Beauxbatons had arrived, there had been a rather unsettling meeting in Sylvia Noventa's home. Her grandfather had welcomed several people to their small villa outside of Marseilles, and they had spoken behind closed doors for several hours. Finally, and much to her surprise, she had been asked to join the meeting. Her grandfather had sat in his large armchair glowering and saying nothing. But it had been the kindly old wizard with the half-moon spectacles who had asked her how she felt about the opportunity to go to school at Hogwarts, in England.

She hadn't thought about it, really. Oh, she'd considered asking to go to the Scoula Famiglia in Sicily, but her aunt had forbid it as soon nearly as she'd brought it up. And the idea of going to school with Dorothy Catalonia, who was almost certainly going to join her friend Fleur at Beuxbatons was completely unappealing. So she had said that she'd love the opportunity to broaden her horizons. The old wizard with the spectacles had smiled quite genuinely, and told her that a place was being made for her at the school.

And now she was at the school, in this cold, damp and dark country, making her way to the stool, and letting the hat settle on her head. And on top of everything else, Dorothy was at Hogwarts anyway.

My, my, the hat said, you've definitely got an aptitude for charms. And you tend to think things through very carefully I see.

Er, yes. Thank you, she said. She wasn't at all sure what was expected of her.

There's some power here, but you'll never be one for earth shattering displays of magic I'm afraid. No, you're much more suited to smaller, more fiddly tasks. And you've a good dose of curiosity, so you'd better be in "Ravenclaw!"

And that was all. She stood almost too quickly, and made her way over to the table decked in blue. She took a seat next to another of the first years, a Chinese boy with glasses who greeted her in polite but accented English, "It is nice to meet you. I'm Wufei Chang."

She smiled, "I'm Sylvia Noventa. It is a pleasure."