A/N: Thanks so much to everyone who has followed, favorite, or reviewed! *Hands out chocolate mousse.* Also, I plan on creating covers for all of my fanfics, so for those interested my cover for A Sorting to Remember is now up and shows what Astoria looks like in this fic. Also, this chapter flashes back once again, to the spring of second year.
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any of the characters used in this fanfic, except for my OC Arla Paxton.
Chapter 11: Choices
The majority of the second year students were excited though some were nervous at the same time. They were in the process of choosing their elective classes for next year. For some students the decision was simple: Others had more difficulty deciding. Such as a certain trio of Slytherin girls. Daphne, Arla, and Tracey were all having trouble deciding what classes to take next year. There were five options: Ancient Runes, Arithmancy, Care of Magical Creatures, Divination, and Muggle Studies.
Arla personally found all of these subjects fascinating, sans Divination.
"How do you not find the idea of seeing the future interesting?" Daphne gaped when Arla shared this point of view. They were sitting on their beds in the Girls' Dormitory along with Millicent and Pansy, all in their pajamas.
"It sounds like a very woolly subject to me," Arla explained. "Very few true Seers actually exist to begin with, so there's not much point in taking the class unless on the off chance you actually do turn out to be a Seer, there's not much you can actually learn that will be of use to you. Besides, my father took the subject when he was in school, and apparently the teacher, Professor Trelawney is, according to him , a total hoax, and an incredibly annoying one at that. She wasn't his teacher, but he knew her in school- they were students together at one point- and she would go around, bragging about supposedly possessing the Inner Eye, even though she obviously didn't, and he says to this day as far as he knows, she still doesn't. How she became a teacher here is beyond me…"
"So what you're saying in a nutshell is that essentially there's not much actual learning and therefore not much actual work you can really do in the class is there?" Pansy clarified.
"More or less." Arla confirmed.
"In that case, I'm doing it!" Pansy declared. "If I don't learn anything and my parents harass me about it, I'll just tell them what you said. But I think I can pass the class if I just fake everything, being as there's not much I can actually do. She probably doesn't expect much from us anyway. It sounds like a wonderful opportunity to hang out during class, sort of like how you can do anything in History of Magic and the teacher won't notice, that is, if you can stay awake long enough. I bet it's going to be so easy. We can just talk all we want or pass notes during class. I'm definitely doing it. What about you, Millicent?"
"Ditto," Millicent agreed.
"I think I might like to take Divination too," Tracey said thoughtfully. "Considering how much trouble school is for me already, it would be nice to take an easy subject."
"Even though I might not be able to use what I learn," Daphne jumped in." I still think it would be interesting to learn about it anyway, I mean the subject does sound intriguing to me. Besides, this class might teach me how to tell a real Seer from a fake, which could be useful. Better yet, if the teacher is as much as a fake as you say she is, I could learn acting lessons from this! Two things for the price of one: Divination and acting!"
"I really don't think you need acting lessons Daphne," Arla stated darkly, remembering the bee stunt she had pulled last year.
"It would help me improve at any rate," Daphne insisted. "It would broaden my imagination too, and improve my creative writing as well."
"Since when do you even do creative writing?" Arla interjected. "And I think your imagination's broad enough as it is." Arla shuddered at the thought of Daphne imagining more ways to get into trouble.
"Well, I do creative writing," Said Tracey. "And now that I think about it, this class could help strengthen my creativity. I'm signing up!"
"Besides, maybe I actually do possess the Inner Eye," Daphne continued. "How cool would that be? I could save your lives and you would all owe me!"
"Daphne, even if you did turn out to possess the Inner Eye, would you really want to use it?" Arla questioned skeptically. "I mean, where's the fun in knowing what's going to happen?"
"Fair point, Arla," Daphne mused. "However being a Seer doesn't mean I know everything that's going to happen. And there definitely have been times in the past when I could have used having an Inner Eye."
"Such as?" Arla asked before she could stop herself.
"There was this one time when I was younger," Daphne began as a sinking feeling formed in Arla's stomach. "When my father had recently brewed a Headache Potion. It was a pretty pink liquid and I knew Headache Potions tasted delicious, but what I didn't know at the time-I was only seven years old- was that you were only supposed to take it if you had a headache, and even then you were only supposed to take it in certain doses. All I was thinking of at the time was: Ooooh, tasty! And…I drank the whole thing all at once."
Gasps rang out everywhere in the room.
"Astoria was the one who found me. Somehow, even at the age of five, she knew something was wrong and told our parents, who rushed me to St. Mungo's Hospital. I was okay, but all that trouble never would have happened if I had Saw what was going to happen."
"There was also the time when my parents were taking me shopping with them in Diagon Alley- I was five at the time- and I wandered out of their sight while they were busy talking to their friends to go exploring, and I went into Knockturn Alley by myself. I ran into Borgin and Burkes through the back way so no one saw me, and found this Death Eater mask hanging on one of the shelves complete with a set of robes. I tried them on but the mask wouldn't come off. I decided I should find my parents and see if they could get it off, and, still wearing the stolen mask and robes, ran out of the shop to find my parents.
"People kept staring at me, wondering if I was some miniature Death Eater. When I got to Diagon Alley, people were told to stay indoors and weren't allowed to leave the stores because people were assuming I was some short Death Eater. Other countries were informed about the situation as well. A bunch of Aurors found me and had their wands raised at me when I waved hello to them, and finally someone realized that I was just a kid in a Death Eater costume, and they took me to my parents- who were still with their friends and hadn't even noticed I was gone- with me still in my current attire, asking 'Is this your child?'
I was like, 'Hi Mummy, hi Daddy!' They figured out how to get the mask off me, and the Ministry of Magic was contacted to let everyone know it was a false alarm, the Dark Lord had not returned and it was just some child dressed up as a Death Eater by mistake. If I were able to See into the future, I would not have caused an international crisis for an hour."
"That was you?" Arla gaped. "I had heard about that when I was little in Ireland; my parents' jobs required them to go back to work that day to make sure everything was okay instead of answering a very important question I had at the time. I can't believe you caused an international crisis when you were five years old!"
"For some reason, I'm not as surprised to hear this as I probably should be." Pansy muttered, despite shock being evident on her face. "Just goes to show what I've grown accustomed to…"
"What question were you going to ask them anyway?" Millicent enquired.
"I was right in the middle of asking them how babies were born." Arla replied. "But they were saved from answering by an international crisis caused by a certain someone." Here she glared at Daphne.
"Well, they answered your question eventually, right?" Daphne prompted. "Because if they neglected to, I'll be happy to tell you-"
"Yes," Arla assured her hurriedly, not wanting to receive that kind of talk from her friend. "They told me! They told me! Holy mother of God, don't start trying to give me a talk about that!"
"I can think of other instances I can think of when I could have saved myself as well as other people a lot of trouble if I just had the Inner Eye. For instance that time when –"Daphne was cut off by Arla once more.
"Okay, take Divination! It is amazing you have survived this long in life, and maybe you're right that you need to open your Inner Eye if you have one. So please, for the love of God, take Divination! I suspect that millions of lives will be saved if you do!" Arla interrupted.
"Okay then." Daphne shrugged as she turned off the lights.
S~S~S~S~S~S~S~S~S~S
Tracey was stumped as she stared at the forms for elective classes next year she needed to fill out. She knew she would be taking Divination and Care of Magical Creatures, but she was stumped as to whether or not she should take Muggle Studies, Arithmancy, or Ancient Runes. The minimum amount of subjects she had to choose from was two. She could just take Care of Magical Creatures and Divination and be done with it; she could always use the extra gap in her schedule for extra studying, or working on her writing or drawing. However, she was also interested in two other subjects: Muggle Studies and the Study of Ancient Runes.
But she could only choose one without having to apply for a Time Turner, and she seriously doubted the school would allow her one. Besides, she was sure she would be overworked even if she could take both. Tracey's mother was an Ancient Runes Specialist. She worked with runes every day and though Tracey could not understand them, she was fascinated by them. Her mother had told her about them, and Tracey had a strong desire to learn more about them. There was another reason she wanted to take Ancient Runes though.
Tracey, Daphne, and Arla all tried to keep their Muggle loving tendencies on the down low from their classmates, being as several students in their House and year were prejudiced against Muggles and Muggleborns and if they expressed their interests in Muggles too much in front of them, it might upset them. She had heard about how Draco, Crabbe, and Goyle bullied Muggle-Borns and Blood Traitors, and didn't want to be in that position. Pansy was a blood purist too and while she had not outright become a bully (yet) Tracey had noticed her getting slightly and steadily meaner over time, and suspected she wouldn't hold back when people did things that annoyed her in a year or two, and the person on the receiving end of her rage would be very sorry indeed. Daphne and Arla, however, were both planning on taking Muggle Studies. Surely they had the same worries she had concerning that class. Yet they were still taking it. So why shouldn't she?
The answer was because, Tracey knew, they could both stick up for themselves if people gave them grief over taking Muggle Studies. And if they stood up for themselves, people were almost guaranteed to back off. Why? Tracey personally did not think it was so much because of their bravery(although she suspected that was part of it)but more so because of their connections. Daphne came from an elite pureblood family that was respectable in Slytherin House due to the fact that her blood was probably more pure than most members of Slytherin, and her family was also richer than most members of Slytherin with connections to the Ministry of Magic. Although Tracey knew Daphne would never do this, Daphne could always threaten to have harassers' parents get in trouble with the ministry. Most people who would harass her over something like taking Muggle Studies were the children of Death Eaters from the war all those years ago. Daphne could get their parents thrown in Azkaban if she happened to overhear any juicy news about them or pretended she knew they were up to something.(Which they most likely were.)
Arla was the daughter of a well-known Irish reporter and her father was secretary to the Minister for Magic in Ireland. She was only half-blood, but she too had the same connections. They knew how to protect themselves. But Tracey didn't have the same connections for her. Her parents held no connection whatsoever to people high up in the Ministry of Magic. She didn't think she was brave enough to even stand up for herself. What would prevent people from giving her trouble if she chose that class? In her mind, nothing. Absolutely nothing.
So she chose Ancient Runes over Muggle Studies; it was self-preservation on her part. Besides, she honestly was quite interested in Ancient Runes, and she bet her mother would be proud of her for choosing the course. (She also knew her parents still would have been proud even if she had chosen Muggle Studies.)
So she chose Ancient Runes over Muggle Studies, knowing her interest in the course was only half the reason for taking it.
This is the last of the flashbacks for now, and next chapter will flash forward to right after Astoria's Sorting. The flashbacks contain necessary information for next chapter.
Questions: If you went to Hogwarts, what classes would you have chosen? Did Tracey make the right choice? What would you have done in her situation? Do you think Tracey's worries over taking Muggle Studies are really rational? Why or why not?
Please review! :D