A Sorting Hat's Opinion on Unicorns

Odder 'pop'ed away and Ostara turned to look at those in the room. She recognized the first woman as Sinistra and smiled brightly at her. "Sinistra."

The woman took a deep sigh of relief. "Ostara, you're back. How are you?"

"I'm fine." Than Ostara saw the two men in the room, and her forgotten headache returned. With a growl she put her forehead to the stone below her. "Please..." She begged "Please get rid of this headache." But her home, the castle, could only apologize and explain that it could do nothing.

"Ostara?"

"It's this headache! It's killing me!"

"Ostara? You are Ostara right?" Pomfrey suddenly asked.

Ostara turned to the woman and frowned. "Of course I am Ostara. That's why you keep seeming to forget."

"I am sorry... for a moment you sounded like..."

"Like who?" Ostara bit back, angry that there seemed to be a never-ending conversation about this.

"You sounded more like Willow." McGonagall said.

At this Ostara froze. It felt like there was something scratching right outside of her memory. Something that she was forgetting. It was a sensations she was used to by now, but it was still frustrating.

Just than Odder was back, the Sorting Hat held in his arms. "Ostara, why do you want the hat?" McGonagall asked, as Ostara carefully pulled the hat from Odder.

"When I was sorted, the hat said... well I just want to talk to the hat again."

"Does this have anything to do about why you got mad at it when it sorted you?" Sinistra asked, as she sat on the ground.

"A bit..." Slowly the other four occupants sat down, and Ostara couldn't help but find it amusing. But the pain didn't allow her to chuckle, so she just allowed her eyes to show it. "Ok. Odder while I am talking to the hat, make sure that none of these four, she gestured to the two men, McGonagall, and Madam Pomfrey, get anywhere near me. No matter what."

"Yes Miss. And Professor Sinistra."

Ostara turned to the woman, wincing as her headache felt like a fresh wound at the movements. "Sinistra, I trust you, more than I do these four. But please do not interfere unless you feel it is absolutely necessary." The woman nodded.

Taking a deep breath, Ostara nodded at the group before pulling the hat on.

The moment the hat was on her head, the headache disappeared. "Nasty side effect that." The hat told her.

"Thank you for taking it away."

"Well it will return once you take me off."

"Even if you give me back my memories?"

"Perhaps. You are already fighting to receive your memories though. It's why you have that headache. Those unicorns can be frightfully immoral when it comes down to it."

"Unicorns?"

"Yes, the Unicorns did this to you. Well, you agreed to it at the time. That's part of unicorn magic, they can't cast on anything that isn't willing."

"And I agreed to lose the memories."

"I don't know if that's quite it. I would have to see your memory of the event first to understand, but for me to see it, you would have to see it."

"Is there anyway for me to see it, but not remember it?"

The hat paused. "I don't see why not. But why would you want that?"

"If there is a good reason for me not to remember everything, I think I would trust myself. But I would like to see the agreement before I decide. What if I didn't want to lose the memories?"

"Fair point. All right. One moment. Just got to... ah there."

Ostara saw herself floating in a meadow. Shaking her head, she realized that she wasn't just floating. She was a ghost. That didn't make any sense. How could she have been a ghost. There were also two ghost snakes on her. That was even weirder. She noticed a unicorn sitting in the gold tinted meadow. The voice rang throughout the meadow. "Welcome. You have made a long journey to be here today." Ostara watched as this ghost form of herself froze, before it filled with fury and hissed something.

'Ah, hold on." The hat muttered, pausing the scene before them. When she blinked, the scene started again, except this time she understood what her ghost form said. "Parseltongue. Can't believe they locked that away too. You are gonna have to keep that one now. Sorry. Alright, now let's see about this agreement."

Minerva watched as Sinistra took Willow's... well Ostara's hand. The girl herself was held perfectly still. Minerva was worried also. But Odder had made it so that none of them could leave their current positions unless they were going to leave the room. She couldn't believe that the house-elf would listen to the student before the headmistress. But she had be wondering about Ostara's strange connection to the castle since she had first returned. She had some theories, but she wanted to check.

"Odder?"

"Yes Headmistress."

"Why does Ostara have such a strong connection to the castle?"

Odder froze, as if he didn't want to answer, but he hadn't been given an order about not to share so he said. "It's because of the Miss' three companions."

"Her snakes?"

"Yes Headmistress."

"Not because her body is in the castle?"

Odder's face grew angry, and Minerva blinked, surprised, she had never seen a house-elf angry before. "Miss' body is right here. When she was in transition, the castle gave her back her body, healing it of the injuries that had been on it before she had been a ghost."

"But what does her snakes have to do with anything?"

"When Miss was in transition, the companions gave up their souls to replace the void left by the Miss' body. But the companions, even in soul form, were made up of so much of the Miss' magic, that she will forever be connected to the castle. She is one with the castle, as she ever was as a ghost." Odder said before closing his mouth, very clearly ending the conversation. Minerva wanted to push him, to understand more. But even she was not so cruel.

"Who is Tsikinie?" Ostara asked once the memory had faded.

The hat grumbled a bit before answering. "A companion." There was silence for a moment. The hat was obviously thinking something, and Ostara should have been thinking of whether she wanted the memories back or not, but she heard Odder's voice from outside the hat.

"...the companions gave up their souls to replace the void left by the Miss' body. But the companions, even in soul form, were made up so much of the Miss' magic, that she will forever be connected to the castle..."

"I suppose you didn't make the deal to lose the memories, but you did make a deal to lose something precious. One could say you already have, but you just don't remember." The hat paused again, and Ostara strained to listen, but Odder had stopped talking. "Well the Unicorn did say you have a choice. It said that you can chose the price. This right now is your current price, if I were to remove it, who is to say that the next price is not more painful."

"More painful than the headache plaguing me because I can't remember anything?"

"I suppose there is that. Well Miss, it's your choice. Do you want to remain as you are, or do you want those memories back?"

"I..." Ostara paused and opened her eyes. The five other humans in the room were all thinking their own thoughts, but as Ostara looked at the two men, she felt some sort of pang, something was missing. "I want my memories back."

"Very well. Brace yourself." Than the headache was back, but it was so much worse then before. She wanted to faint, but she couldn't do it. She had to stay there and feel the pain, so much pain, a moan slipped out of her lips.

Minerva jolted when gold strands of magic rose from the floor and connected with the hat. Moment's later Ostara let out a moan of pain. Poppy moved to help her, but found she still couldn't move from her position.

"Odder, release me now. I need to assist her." Odder bit his lip and pulled on his ears.

"Odder can't Madam Pomfrey. Odder has the Miss' order."

"It's fine Poppy." Sinistra spoke up. Poppy froze. "She knew this would happen, it's why she made the order like she did."

Poppy didn't know what to say to that obviously because she sulked where she was sitting. Silence, except for the occasional moan from Ostara kept them all company for a few minutes. That is until two students ran into the room. Minerva looked over the two boys, and wasn't surprised to see that they had been fighting. Potters and Malfoys always fought.

"Dad!" Malfoy Jr. said as he spotted his father. It was obviously that neither of them thought they would see anyone here."

"Uncle George?' Albus Potter said, a tone of distrust in his voice. Confused, Minerva thought about it for a moment, and recalled when the boy's girlfriend had turned into the embrace of George Weasley. She closed her eyes and vowed to stay out of it.

"Why are all of you guys here? Is that... Ostara?" Malfoy Jr. said.

"Shut up and sit down son." Draco Malfoy barked at the boy. Minerva turned to reprimand him, but then saw Draco staring at the girl with a hat. His face was pale, and she was surprised to see real worry in his eyes. His son did as he was told immediately, it was almost amusing, if it weren't for the tense atmosphere around them.

"Uncle George, what's going on." George Weasley heaved a sigh, and MInerva realized that he looked just as worried as Draco Malfoy. She turned away from the conversation and took in the girl before her once more. She remembered very little about Willow Spenkin as a student. She supposed that was her own fault. She had been so worried about Harry Potter and all of the dangers that surrounded him, she had failed to see the person behind the shy girl she remembered from her first year. But now that she thought on it, Willow Spenkin was probably just as amazing as Harry Potter, albeit in a different way. She had a Weasley and a Malfoy in love with her. She was connected to the castle in a way no one had ever been. She was the Daughter of Lord Voldemort. She had died, become the only ghost from the battle at Hogwarts, and then somehow returned to life. Minerva felt her stomach drop. If she wasn't careful, this girl could take her father's place in history.

A gasp filled the room, drawing all the occupants attention to the girl they had all gathered for. Her eyes opened for a moment, before they rolled to the back of her head and she fainted.