AN: Check the first chapter for disclaimers.
Edited by 1saaa.
The doors opened and a stern looking woman, dressed in traditional witches robes came out. "Thank you Hagrid, I'll take it from here" Hagrid gave a shaky bow and shuffled off.
"Follow me." The woman commanded as she took the students towards another set of imposing doors. "Soon you all will be sorted into the houses of Hogwarts. These are Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin. Each house values different traits and characteristics the most, however, that does not mean that they exclusively value those characteristics. Once you are sorted into a house, you'll stay there till the time of your graduation. The house will be like your family and will compete with other houses for the house cup. Your triumphs will earn you points, your failures will lose you points. At the end of the academic year the house with the most points will win the prestigious Hogwarts house cup."
She paused and looked over the gathered students, "I'll be back in a few moments and you'll be taken into the great hall. I suggest you utilize that time to sharpen up!" She said looking pointedly at a chubby boy holding a toad and left. Soon she was back and led the students into the Great hall. It was the same as it was fifty years ago in Tom's memories, with the enchanted ceiling, floating candles and five long tables, four parallel to each other for the houses and one staff table positioned at the far end of the hall. The double doors opened in between the Hufflepuff and the Ravenclaw tables with the Gryffindors on the extreme left and the Slytherins at the extreme right.
The group came to a stop in front of a three legged stool on top of which rested the sorting hat. After instructing the new students on what to do McGonagall started calling out the names. Hannah and Susan both went to Hufflepuff just as they predicted. Tracey and Daphne went to Slytherin. However, Granger and Longbottom surprisingly landed in Gryffindor. Malfoy's spawn along with his bookends Crabbe and Goyle ended up in Slytherin.
Soon, Helen's name was called and the whole hall filled with excited chatter, even the staff looked interested. Helen calmly walked up to the stool and primly sat up on it taking the offered hat from McGonagall and put it on her head.
A voice filled her head as soon as the hat was resting over head, 'Welcome to Hogwarts, Helen Potter. Let's see what we have here.'
Helen put all her strength in strengthening the mental shields, but it was to no avail. The hat spoke in her mind, 'I'm afraid that wouldn't work on me, though you do have commendable defense here. Now, let's see where to put you.'
'Oh well, well, well, aren't you full of surprises. Tom Riddle really went that far, huh, surprising but not unexpected, that boy had an acute fear of death. His loss, your gain I suppose. This will turn out to be a very interesting sorting afterall, as I haven't ever sorted anyone who had the memories of a full life before.'
At Helen rising panic the hat reassured her, 'Don't worry, what happens between you and me will remain between you and me. Not even the Headmaster has the privilege to know the details of the sortings, no matter how much he wants them.'
As Helen relaxed, the hat started sifting through her memories and experiences, leaving Voldemort's memories aside, which she guessed was because of the design of the enhancements on the hat that allowed it to only use the student's memories and experiences to help find a house for them. After a few minutes it spoke, 'We can rule out Hufflepuff, as despite being hard-working, you have loyalty to only yourself. Similarly, Gryffindor is not for you as you are a planner and a schemer and don't rush into an action without a thought. That leaves Ravenclaw and Slytherin, both of which are suitable for you. You are extremely ambitious, based on what you want to achieve while your cunning streak will make even Salazar proud, making you a perfect Slytherin. On the other hand, you are extremely sharp and intelligent, enough to have correctly deduced why I didn't sift through Tom Riddle's memories in your head.'
They discussed back and forth between the two choices before Slytherin was also rejected as going there would be detrimental to her ambition and counterproductive to being in the house of ambition. Furthermore, it will put her on a pedestal, so to speak, which would undermine her efforts to remain low key for now. Taking a few more seconds to finalize, the hat came to the decision and announced it to the world, "RAVENCLAW".
The Blue and Bronze clad table erupted into an ecstasy of cheering and clapping. Upon the staff table a tiny professor's face had lit up into a wide grin, he was beaming and clapping enthusiastically. Helen passed the hat back to McGonagall, who she amusingly noticed appeared to be a bit sad, and walked towards the excited table with a charming smile. Helen sat between Mandy Brocklehurst and Padma Patil. They were soon joined by Lisa Turpin who took a seat opposite them with Morag MacDougal and Sue Li. Terry Boot, Micheal Corner and Anthony Goldstein completed the group.
Soon, the sorting was over and the dinner was served after a few weird words by the Headmaster. During the dinner, the group started to enter into the typical timid conversation expected of children who had just met each other, it mostly revolved around asking Helen about her 'adventures' or her 'training'. She quickly corrected the misconceptions and cleared that the books were just fiction and explained that she didn't know much about the magical world except for what her aunt told her.
While eating she thought of what she knew and had learned about her house mates. Surprisingly, not even a single muggleborn was a first year Ravenclaw. Terry Boot was a pureblood from the minor house of Boot. He had brown hair and light blue eyes with glasses and seemed like a typical Raven. Micheal Corner was halfblood and had black hair with blue eyes. He was also quite attractive. Anthony Goldstein was a half-blooded blonde boy with grey eyes. But, his house was represented on the Wizengamot. Goldstein and Boot would certainly carry some influence in future. All three boys already seemed to be friendly with each other, which Helen thought was a good thing. She wouldn't have to waste time and effort to get them on the same page.
The girls were similar to the boys with them engaging in conversation without any undercutting hostility or disdain. Padma Patil was one of the twin daughters of Lord Anil Patil, of the British branch of Ancient House of Patil from India. Her twin, Parvati, was sorted in Gryffindor and both had beautiful features with rose beige coloured skin, dark brown eyes and long dark hair. Unlike her twin, who was talking excitedly with a blonde girl, Padma seemed a bit shy and was fairly reserved.
Fortunately, Helen's pre-established relationship with her on the train helped smooth things along. Sue Li had the honor of being the quietest person in the group as she had barely spoken more than a few quick words at a time. The Chinese witch had porcelain like skin with dark eyes and hair which she had cut short. Helen knew that Li could trace her lineage back to the Tang Dynasty of China and her family was once important in their homeland.
Mandy Brocklehurst had wavy blonde hair, green eyes and was a halfblood with no house connections. However, she seemed to be a social butterfly, rubbing up with everyone nearby with quick-witted conversation. Morag MacDougal was a pureblood but had no major house connection to speak of. She had a long face with pale skin, dark eyes and straight black hair. She also seemed to be the most interested in Quidditch among her group. The last member of her group was Lisa Turpin who had dark brown eyes and straight brown hair. She seemed to be the most intelligent of the group. Helen liked her the most at this point.
Overall, Helen was satisfied with her group and thought that they had some potential to be influential in the future, with her guiding them along every step of the way obviously. If Helen played her cards right almost all of her year mates would look up to her and her alone by the end of the year.
Soon, the students finished dessert and the Headmaster rose once more to deliver his start-of-term speech. "Now that we're all fed and watered, I just have a few notices to give you and then you can retire to your common rooms. First-years should note that the Forbidden Forest is forbidden to all students. A few of our older students would do well to remember that." Helen noted that Dumbledore's twinkling eyes flashed towards the Gryffindor table where red-headed twins, likely Weasleys, were sitting.
"I have also been asked by Mr. Filch, the caretaker, to remind you all that no magic should be used between classes in the corridors. Quidditch tryouts will be held in the second week of term. Anyone interested in playing for their house teams should contact Madam Hooch." Morag seemed pretty excited over this, though Helen thought it was unlikely she would get in this year, especially with no first years being able to own brooms.
Dumbledore continued, "And finally, I must tell you that this year, the third-floor corridor on the right-hand side is out of bounds to everyone who does not wish to die a very painful death." A few students chuckled at this but Helen was intrigued, it was worth looking into for sure.
"Now, please follow your house prefects back to your common rooms, first-years should pay attention to where they are going to avoid getting lost in the future. The castle has a way of doing that to people." He finished with a chuckle. "Good night."
Everybody in the great hall stood up and the fifth year prefects rounded up their respective first years to guide them through the maze like corridors to their common rooms. The Ravenclaw students climbed all the way up to the seventh floor where the entrance was guarded by a bronze eagle door knocker that seemed to come alive as the students approached. The prefects explained that to enter the common room one had to answer correctly the riddle posed by the knocker.
"What is so fragile that when you speak its name you break it?" The eagle asked. The prefects seemed to wait for the first years to answer so Helen jumped in with her answer."Silence" The Ravenclaw girl said.
"You may enter." The knocker replied, the door swinging open..
The common room, which was in one of the tallest towers, was a beautifully decorated and spacious room, with a domed ceiling and arched windows, providing plenty of daylight during the morning and afternoon. The windows were framed with blue curtains and a midnight-blue carpet covered the floor, matching well with the bronze displays across the common room. The room was circular in shape, with a single set of stairs leading up to the student dorms, a statue of Rowena Ravenclaw near the entrance and even a small library to supplement the house of the wise.
One of the prefects turned and addressed the first years. "This is our common room where you may interact with students of different years or access the Ravenclaw library. Please note that books from the Ravenclaw library are for everyone, they are not to be taken out of the common room, not to your rooms and definitely not out of the house. We are the only house that has its own library and we'd like to keep it that way. Now follow us."
They took the group up the circular stairs which branched off into separate landings at every quarter turn. They entered the top landing entering into an oval room that had multiple cozy rugs, sofas and armchairs distributed throughout . They entered through the door at one end of the oval. One of the flatter sides of the room had a fireplace with a merry fire already burning and the other side had several closed doors, which Helen presumed were their rooms. The far end of the room had a wide floor to ceiling window, through which they could make out the outline of mountains starkly illuminated by the moonlight. Some desks were scattered next to the fireplace, obviously designed to allow students to study next to the prefects once again addressed the group, "This is your floor and will remain so for your entire time at Hogwarts. Think of this as a smaller more private common room for you and your yearmates. In Ravenclaw we give each of you personal rooms and a relatively private atmosphere. This is to help with studying but I think it needs to be said that this personal space is a privilege, not a right and abusing it will lead to serious consequences." The prefect said warningly, his eyes scanning the assembled students. "You can find the entrance to the toilets and showers next to the window on the far end of the oval." Be in the common room by 7:15 in the morning. Our Head of the house, Prof. Flitwick will address you and then we will take you to the great hall for breakfast. Now, enjoy your evening."
The group stood awkwardly after being left alone for the first time with the knowledge that they would be sharing this space for the next seven years. Helen took charge, sitting on the sofa in the center of the room and initiated conversation. "Shall we discuss the living conditions and the room selection?" The group awkwardly moved forward and joined her. Padma and Lisa joined Helen on the sofa and rest pulled forward various pieces of furniture forming a semi-circle around Helen.
Soon, the group came to a decision. The boys were to take the first three rooms from the entrance. Micheal Corner took the corner room amusingly, Terry the second and Anthony the third. Lisa took the fourth, Helen was in the centre with the fifth room, followed by Padma, Morag, Mandy and Sue with her being closest to the window. After some basic conversation that broke some ice, the group got up to explore their common space. The toilets were first. The entrance for toilets were on the right of the window and once through the door, the lavs were on the right and the showers were on the left, in the shower room there was also a single bathtub that many of the girls eyed hungrily. Next they explored the rooms. They weren't especially large but the oval more than made up for it. The rooms were all the same, with a bed along one wall, a wardrobe on the opposite wall with a mirror inside of it, some shelves next to the door and a window on the far wall opposite to the door. Everything was in blue and bronze colours. They found that their rooms now had their initials on the door with their trunks and belongings in the correct rooms.
Soon, they entered their rooms and changed for bed. Helen decided to do a bit of reading before sleeping so she took her book and went back into the oval. She was joined by Sue who looked oddly at her clothing of purple and black spaghetti and shorts. The boys too came out to go to the toilets and all did their absolute best to look at anything but Helen's bare legs. After reading for a few hours Sue got up and went to sleep, allowing Helen to unwind after a long day. All things considered, that could not have gone better. The girl-who-lived let a small smile flicker across her lips, her well worn mask cracking slightly showing only a glimpse of the demon hiding underneath. Helen stood up and glided towards her room, she already knew that tomorrow would be just as successful.