The days passed and turned into weeks. Karen had lessons almost every day and a lot of her free time went into homework. The time that didn't go into that went into more exploration of the castle and grounds (she finished her map of all the places open to her at last after three weeks, although she was sure she was missing some things), visiting Hagrid or Kenan and practicing spells. Kenan was a great help with the spells portion, he had been a student so he had learnt most of the spells she was supposed to learn and gave her helpful hints so that soon Karen knew a lot of her charms despite not having had a single lesson from an actual teacher.
Karen also discovered to her delight that the Room of Requirements was still around and she used it as a place to practice spells she had been afraid to try elsewhere, such as incendio. She visited the school library as well and was amazed by the size of it. She found hundreds of books filled with interesting things about magic and couldn't help but to start reading through some of them, despite having plenty of schoolbooks to read. Despite most of the books being filled with information the ones that interested Karen the most at first were the fiction novels. Karen had never thought much about wizard fiction but she found there were plenty of those in the library as well. There was even a section dedicated to muggle fiction where she found some old friends, although most of the books were classics there were many she had read.
After two months at the school Karen had gotten used to life at Hogwarts, even though she knew it was all about to change soon. It first dawned on her that September was drawing nearer when McGonagall called her to her office to choose her electives. McGonagall told her that since electives began on the third year she would join her classmates in those classes at least. She would take flying lessons with the first years and Potions and Astronomy as well but she would continue special lessons in the other subjects instead of joining the classes except for certain lessons and the hope was that she would have at least finished first year by Christmas.
Karen chose Care of Magical Creatures and Divination. Care of Magical Creatures was an obvious choice but she went with Divination in the hope of learning some more about her seer abilities. Maybe she'd even be good at it due to that. At the very least it would be interesting, and it sounded a lot better than Arithmancy or Ancient Runes (she didn't even consider Muggle Studies as an option).
Karen was glad of it when September 1st came closer, as amazing as it was to have the castle mostly to herself it was getting quite dull not to have anyone but her teachers, Hagrid, Kenan and some other ghosts to talk to. She sent her parents letters all the time but it wasn't the same, she would be glad for more company. And at last it came.
On the morning of September 1st Karen woke up as early as she did when she had classes, although of course she had none that day. Excitement woke her and time passed far too slowly for her liking. She tried to focus on studying a bit more, she had already covered a whole term in most of her classes, but focusing was difficult. She went to the secret painting room, as she called it, and spent some time talking to Kenan, worrying about her sorting and how the other students would receive her. She had a knot in her stomach both from excitement and worry. She would finally get to see the Great Hall and at last know which house she belonged to, but she would also be awkwardly standing with a bunch of eleven year olds and then join third years in the dormitory. She was glad she would have Kenan as her friend no matter what but that alone wasn't enough to make the knot go away.
Finally Karen took to wandering impatiently up and down the stairs for something to do, amusing herself by the fact that Loki seemed to enjoy running after her. At last the sky darkened and Flitton came to fetch her.
Heart racing, Karen followed Flitton to a small room close to the doors of the Great Hall. He told her to wait there, that the students would be arriving soon and he would give her further instructions when he arrived with the first years. Then he left.
It probably wasn't more than ten minutes before Flitton came back, a bunch of nervous looking eleven year olds following close behind him, but to Karen it felt like an eternity. She listened to her own heartbeat grow louder as she watched what she could see of the students filing towards the school and then heard the chatter as the older students entered the Great Hall. When Flitton was there at last he held a little speech over the first years, pretty much the same one McGonagall had given when Harry came to the school. Then he said;
"Due to some highly unusual circumstances this young woman could not enter the school until now and will therefore be sorted with you. Please be polite. I shall be back in a little while to bring you all into the Great Hall for the Sorting Ceremony." Flitton left again and Karen shifted uncomfortably under the gaze of the curious eleven year olds.
Some of them whispered quietly to each other, Karen heard that three boys next to her were wondering what the sorting would be like, but one of them piped up; "Why couldn't you enter Hogwarts till now?"
Karen looked into cold grey eyes and was for a moment reminded of Draco Malfoy. But the child who had asked was a girl with chestnut brown hair. The only resemblance was the eyes and a smug I'm-better-than-you look. Most likely just a coincidence with the eyes and the look just a pureblood thing, Karen decided as she answered. "Um… there was a warding spell on me that stopped the school from finding me." She figured an honest answer was best.
"Why? Didn't your parents want you to go to school?"
"Um…" Karen felt highly uncomfortable being questioned like this but she knew everyone else would most likely ask the same questions so she clenched her jaw and decided that this way she would at least have covered all the first years. "My parents died in the war, they put up the ward to protect me and left me with a muggle family."
The girl who had asked the questions sneered. "So you were raised by muggles?" She asked, saying the word 'muggle' like it was a nasty thing she'd rather not mention. Karen heard one girl whisper to another, asking what a muggle was. Definitely a pureblood.
"Yes, I was raised by non-wizards. You have a problem with that?" She glared at the girl who just made a 'chi' sound.
"I guess you can't help where your parents left you. They should have found a better place though. At least you're among your own people now." Karen felt her face heat in anger and was about to snap something quite rude at the girl when Flitton came back.
"All right everyone, please follow me." Karen bit her tongue and followed the others out of the room and into the Great Hall. She was glad Flitton had arrived when he did or things might have ended badly.
The Great Hall was every bit as wonderful as Karen had imagined, and ten times more so. She didn't even notice the stares of the other students until later, the hall's beauty enchanted her so. Hundreds and hundreds of candles lit the entire hall and despite having gotten almost used to magic now Karen still couldn't help but want to wave her hands under and above them to make sure they were really floating. The night sky was clear and the stars shone brightly down on them. Karen could hardly believe there was a ceiling there at all.
She finally tore her eyes away from the ceiling and looked down at the Soring Hat, this old black thing sitting on a small wooden stool. It looked so ordinary compared to the rest of the things in the Great Hall Karen almost wanted to start looking around again but she knew what the hat was and so she looked at it closely and, a few moments later, it began its song.
I know I do not look the best
But judge me not on that,
For in the school of Hogwarts
I am the Sorting Hat.
I will look into your mind
To see where you belong
Within the Hogwarts houses,
For I am never wrong.
Perhaps in Hufflepuff you'll find
Your hard work will best show;
Or in the house of Ravenclaw
Where wits are never low;
In Gryffindor your kind may be
Where they are brave and bold;
Or yet in cunning Slytherin
your ambitions will unfold.
Those are the Hogwarts houses four
Now which of them is yours?
Try me on and I will open
All of your mind's doors.
Once the rip on the hat closed Karen felt the silence in the room. She glanced around and this time she properly noticed the eyes of students and staff on her. It was easy to stare at her, she supposed, she was after all a lot taller than the eleven year olds. Everyone was probably wondering about her too. She knew McGonagall had said something to the students about her before she came in, she just didn't know what. Karen took a deep breath and found Hagrid at the staff table, seeing his smile calmed her a bit.
The row of students who went before Karen slowly got shorter. She noticed the sneering pureblood girl, Claryssa Bole, was sorted into Slytherin without any hesitation. Finally Flitton called out; "Makarov, Karen."
Heart pounding and ears buzzing Karen walked up to the stool and put on the Sorting Hat.
"Well well, this is unusual. It's been a long time since I've been through the mind of someone above eleven years old. Let's see now…"
Karen's mind perked up at that. There had been other students who had joined before eleven?
The hat's whispering voice laughed in her ear, having, of course, heard the question. "There have been others, yes, but none since the system was established. Back when the school was new the rules were different. Now, you certainly have a curious mind and logical, very good for a Ravenclaw. There's also loyalty in you, some fierceness with it. And kindness, yes. Definitely a good match for Hufflepuff as well. But where to put you…"
Karen had known it would be a choice between those two but she had no idea which was a better fit. She knew she could ask the hat to place her in one and he would, but she liked both houses and didn't mind being in either so she remained quiet.
The hat continued its whispers of the features he found in her mind for what felt like an eternity until, at last, he shouted:
A/N: Cliffhanger! Sorryyyy, but I felt like this story needed some suspense at least xP I hope you all like this chapter, I'll try to get the next part finished soon (because I know waiting after a cliffie sucks). And I'm sorry about the shortness of the Sorting Hat song thing, poetry is really not my thing x.x
Also, in reply to The Cute One: I haven't really decided which subjects to make her good at yet (although I can tell you it won't be History of Magic XP). Hopefully I'll figure it out now that the school year is starting for real. As for the potions teacher, I'm going with Slughorn. I prefer going with as many original teachers as I can, although with how old many of them would be that's kind of impossible for some. I considered having a new potions teacher since Slughorn would be at least 88 when Karen went there (this is supposed to happen in 2008 btw, I wanted it to be long enough since the Battle of Hogwarts but also not have Teddy in yet) and he does seem like the type to retire to comfort in his old age but it's easier for me to keep him, at least for now. If I continue this over to the next school year though I very well might have Slughorn retire and bring in a new teacher.
Please feel free to ask me questions in the reviews, I'll answer all that I can. I also love just hearing what you thought about the chapters, all of you who review are awesome ^^ Anywho, I'm off to write some more. Until next time.