I don't own HP - I don't receive a profit from fanfiction about Harry or Aurora Potter. There isn't as much original content in this chapter as some of the others but this one did not lend itself well to adding things to it.
"The Sorting Hat" Lily read
Sirius yelled, "Bets on houses!"
"I think Aurora will be a Slytherin," Remus said, and Lily nodded in agreement.
Sirius looked for a moment as if he was going to argue, but smiled softly at Aurora and also nodded. "She would do really well in Slytherin."
"Draco is a Slytherin as well," Andromeda said.
"Neville is a Gryffindor," Alice stated, making the boy beam at his mother.
"He seems more Hufflepuff to me," Marlene argued, Frank agreeing with Marlene.
"He has many traits of a Hufflepuff, but did you hear how he moved Aurora behind him just for a couple of boys looking at her scar," Alice argued. Then she turned to Frank, "You wait and see, he'll be a Gryffindor."
"Well Hermione is definitely a Ravenclaw," Peter added.
"And Amice," Amos asked, watching everyone go back and forth with amusement.
"Hufflepuff," The Marauders and Frank said at the same time.
"What about us?" Ginny asked, pointing to herself and Luna. "We get sorted in the next book. Also don't forget Ron."
"I want to say that you and Ron will be Gryffindor's like everyone in your family, but that doesn't mean anything, just look at me," Sirius said. "But I honestly think you two will be Gryffindor's."
"Seer's always go to Ravenclaw," Flitwick said, looking at Luna. "They simply know things others do not, and seek to learn more."
this was not someone to cross.
"Any yet, Miss Potter," McGonagall said, lips thin, trying to prevent a smile, "I have a feeling that you cross me rather often."
Aurora looked down, embarrassed, before announcing, "They help," while pointing to Ron, Hermione and Neville.
"You are going to cause me more headaches than your father aren't you?"
empty chamber off the hall.
"The wait is the worst part," Sirius muttered, everyone nodded with him, agreeing.
rulebreaking will lose house points.
"Did you hear that Ro," Draco started laughing, "rule breaking will lose you house points."
"I don't know what you are talking about," Aurora replied, flipping her hair over her shoulder and sticking her nose up. "I would never break any rules."
Fred scoffed loudly, "No you would rather shatter them to smithereens so that it seems like the rule was pointless to begin with, and then get rewarded for it." He added that last part softly so that only she could hear.
"I'm thinking I would rather have her lose points for pranks than whatever she got up to at school," James muttered to Sirius and Lily.
"I was just thinking the same thing," Sirius agreed.
Aurora nervously tried to flatten her hair, and helped Neville fix his cloak, smoothing out any wrinkles that she saw, trying to calm her nerves.
"Mothering him already," Marlene laughed, "you are so much like your mother."
"The hair is never going to lay flat either," James added.
"I know, even with my metamorph abilities unlocked and when I started changing, I can't cover the scar, or change the way my hair lays."
whispering very fast about all the spells she'd learned and wondering which one she'd need.
"Oh yeah, she's a Ravenclaw," Peter said.
lead her to her doom.
Ron took the pillow that Hermione had used earlier, and started swatting Aurora with it, "Stop being so pessimistic."
"Forgive and forget, I say, we ought to give him a second chance —"
"Ah their yearly greeting to the firsties," Frank exclaimed. "It's always the same thing, they scare the first years, subtly warn them about Peeves, and then act surprised that there are people there, before welcoming them to the school." Everyone who had been a student of Hogwarts laughed at the accurate description of what was about to happen.
"Hope to see you in Hufflepuff!" said the Friar. "My old house, you know."
"He really is the most pleasant fellow," Amos said.
"He's okay," Ron admitted, before adding, "He's not really helpful to anyone outside of Hufflepuff, whereas if you need it Sir Nicholas, the Baron, and Helena help everyone who asks."
"Osgar can be very house insular," Amice agreed. "Aurora used to try to talk to him while she was with Cedric, and he just ignored her and spoke only to Cedric."
"At first we thought it was because I'm female and the time period he came from," Aurora continued, but then we saw it happen with others. "And despite his appearance, Cuthberht, is one of the nicest ghosts there is."
"You know all their names!" James, Sirius and Alice exclaimed.
"All you have to do is ask," Luna explained. "Helena is a little shy about telling you, but if you really seem interested she will."
Everyone looked astonished, as if it had never occurred to them to ask the ghosts their names.
Dotted here and there among the students, the ghosts shone misty silver.
"It does seem rather intimidating when you put it that way," Hermione said.
It was hard to believe there was a ceiling there at all, and that the Great Hall didn't simply open on to the heavens.
"That sounds lovely," Pandora and Columba both said.
"It really is," Fred agreed. "Ray found a book that had a similar enchantment that she's trying to do in our bedroom at Gri…"
"At home," Aurora said, slapping her hand over Fred's mouth.
"You are living together?" Sirius asked, seriously, a frown on his face.
"Yea," Aurora replied, looking at her godfather confused, while removing her hand.
"And you're not married," James continued the line of questioning, with a glare at Fred.
"We've talked about it," Aurora said softly, her hands twitching, she was resisting the urge to grab her necklace again.
"The war was hard on us all," Fred said. "It's taken a while to adjust to everything again. But Ray knows that when she's ready, I'm ready to become Lord Consort Potter."
Sirius and James continued to frown, but noticing the tears Aurora was trying to hold back, stopped themselves from saying any more. It was obviously a difficult topic for her.
Maybe they had to try and get a rabbit out of it,
"Why would you have to get a rabbit out of it," Xenophilius asked.
"It's a muggle illusion that some people do, and call it magic," Ted explained.
the hat began to sing:
Lily singing the song in a melodic, soprano voice.
For I'm a Thinking Cap!"
"That was beautiful," James sighed, while Severus stared at Lily with longing. Her voice was angelic.
Sirius willfully misunderstanding him, replied, "It was a rather nice song, ours haven't been anywhere near as pleasant."
"We weren't at war yet," Draco sighed.
"I'll kill Fred, he was going on about wrestling a troll."
Ron and Hermione burst out laughing, while Aurora stared at Fred for a moment before looking at Luna, and said, "Neville, switch spots with Fred, Luna has things to teach him." She pushed Fred out of his seat, and Neville laughingly moved over to the now open space next to Aurora, while Fred went to sit in Neville's spot next to Luna, who patted him on the shoulder sympathetically.
The Weasley parents, the Marauders, and Lily look worriedly at the trio all wondering the same thing, 'where on earth did they see a troll'.
a house for people who felt a bit queasy, that would have been the one for her.
"I think that would be the one for everyone," Remus said softly, he remembered how nervous he was for his sorting, afraid that the hat wouldn't sort him because he was a werewolf.
A pink-faced girl with blonde pigtails, that Aurora saw on the boat with Amice, stumbled out of line, put on the hat, which fell right down over her eyes, and sat down. A moments pause —
"HUFFLEPUFF!" shouted the hat.
...
"Bones, Susan!"
"This is my niece, I take it," Amelia asked, receiving several nods in reply.
...
Aurora could see Ron's twin brothers catcalling.
"Boys," Molly lightly scolded.
"Oh it's not just the girls they do it for Mrs. Weasley," Neville said with a blush.
Slytherin, but she thought they looked like an unpleasant lot.
"We are not unpleasant just because we do not behave like hooligans," Lucius drawled.
"And yet we have such a bad reputation because we seem unapproachable because of the masks we all wear," Draco countered his father smoothly, cutting off any idea of debate about Slytherins being unpleasant.
"Diggory, Amice!"
"HUFFLEPUFF!"
"Knew it!" The Marauders yelled. Amice laughed at them.
Aurora worried about what would happen between herself and her new friends if they didn't end up in the same house. Would they still want to be friends with her?
"Oh Ro," Amice sighed.
"I know, but I had never had friends before."
Hermione almost ran to the stool and jammed the hat eagerly on her head.
"GRYFFINDOR!" shouted the hat. Ron groaned.
Peter looked at the girl questioningly, "Gryffindor?"
"The hat didn't even consider me for Ravenclaw actually," Hermione said softly, everyone leaned forward, she had never told anyone about her sorting, not even Ron or Aurora. "It said I think too critically for Ravenclaw. My ambition in learning all my course material before school even started however was a great trait for Slytherin. But my bravery in coming to a new world, and trying to make friends that I never had before were the traits of a true Gryffindor."
Ron and Aurora just hugged her tightly, and both whispered in her ears, not that they heard each other, "It considered Slytherin for me too."
When Neville Longbottom, her new brother, was called, he fell over on his way to the stool. The hat took a long time to decide with Neville. When it finally shouted,
"GRYFFINDOR," Neville ran off still wearing it, and had to jog back
"The same thing happened to me," Alice said.
Malfoy swaggered
"I do not swagger," Draco complained, annoyed.
"You swagger," all the time travelers but Aurora announced. While Aurora said, sarcastically, "And my dad doesn't strut."
"Oh he struts all right," Lily, Alice, Marlene and Severus all said.
"Potter, Aurora!"
She almost didn't step forward, hadn't she just been told a month ago that her legal name was Potter-Black, shouldn't the school have her name correct, Aurora wondered. She eventually decided that it didn't really matter. As Aurora stepped forward, whispers suddenly broke out like little hissing fires all over the hall.
...
Not Slytherin, not Slytherin. Please don't put me with Malfoy.
Draco looked very offended, and ashamed. "I'm the reason you fought against Slytherin. Not their reputation, despite what everyone so far has told you about the house, but because of what I said on the train to you."
Aurora shrugged, he wasn't wrong.
better be GRYFFINDOR!"
The Marauders all cheered, while Lily beamed. She would have been fine no matter what house Aurora was sorted into, but to hear that her daughter would be in the same house as she was filled her with such joy.
Sirius was so happy that his goddaughter was a Gryffindor, but at the same time, he agreed with the hat, Slytherin would have been a great house for her to be in having grown up as a muggle but the heir to two very powerful families. Plus the abuse that she had been through, there were several families that would have helped her out, even the Malfoy's for all that Draco appeared to be a prat when he was younger.
she'd just plunged it into a bucket of ice-cold water.
"Why must they do that," Fabian and Gideon complained.
He was looking very peculiar in a large purple turban.
Alastor took note of the observation.
Aurora crossed her fingers under the table and a few seconds later the hat had shouted, "GRYFFINDOR!"
Aurora clapped loudly with the rest as Ron collapsed into the chair next to her, he was the only person who had been sorted into Gryffindor that the twins did not catcall.
"Well we didn't catcall you either," Fred said.
"She got her own cheer," Amice said. "I think that's actually worse."
The pumpkin pasties seemed ages ago.
"You need to eat better on the train," Andromeda scolded gently, her tone motherly.
"Yes Andi," Aurora sighed, a soft smile on her face, before she realized what she had called her, and her face morphing to one of horror.
Seeing the look on Aurora's face, Andromeda was quick to reassure her, "It's fine dear, you can call me Andi. All my family does."
Potatoes, Aurora?"
"All the best wizards and witches are a bit mad," Luma said, "it allows them to think of ways to use spells that normal people wouldn't dream of."
The Dursleys had never exactly starved Aurora, but she'd never been allowed to eat as much as she liked.
"I beg to differ," Molly and Andromeda said, shocked that she didn't consider what they did to be starving. "It most certainly is starvation," Andromeda continued.
"I never really thought about it before," Aurora said. "It had to be pointed out to me that what they did was abuse before I thought that there was anything wrong with the way they treated me, so I didn't think that withholding meals from me was starving me."
you're Nearly Headless Nick!"
"Oh, don't make him do it," Alice groaned.
as if their little chat wasn't going at all the way he wanted.
"He actually loves it, don't let him fool you," Remus laughed.
"He loves all the reactions," Peter added.
Slytherins have got the cup six years in a row!
"Six years!" The Marauders yelled, while Severus, Lucius and Narcissa looked smug. The others in the room just looked confused, what about the other two houses, how did Slytherin manage to beat out three houses in points, for six years in a row.
The Bloody Baron's becoming almost unbearable — he's the Slytherin ghost."
"Actually he was quite offended on behalf of the other houses," Amice said.
"What's going on with the points system?" Flitwick asked.
Aurora cringed and said, "Can I explain in just a minute? It'll be easier that way." The Professors nodded, but none of them looked very happy.
"I'm half-and-half," said Seamus. "Me dad's a Muggle. Mom didn't tell him she was a witch 'til after they were married. Bit of a nasty shock for him."
The others laughed.
Aurora frowned, she didn't find that funny at all. She was picturing a witch marrying someone like Uncle Vernon, that situation would end very badly. She knew what someone who hated magic could do to a magical child.
Severus glared at the floor, while Lily and Aurora looked at him sadly.
Great Auntie Enid offered him a meringue and he accidentally let go.
"MOTHER!" Frank yelled looking at Augusta, while Alice looked at her son in horror, before running over to him.
"Were you okay?" she asked, checking him over, as if she could see evidence of something that happened to him over 12 years ago, his time.
"I'm fine mum," Neville reassured. "Gran kicked him out of the house and I haven't seen him since."
"I was a late bloomer too," Frank said, reminding his mother that he didn't show his first signs of accidental magic until he was almost 9.
"It wasn't even that," Neville stated. He couldn't stand anyone being mad at his Gran, she had done the best she could in her situation. "I was performing magic soon after being born, Gran told me later. But after the attack, they thought a stray cruciatus might have hit me, and because I was so young they thought that it affected my magic more than anything and that's why I never showed any magic between 15 months and 8 years old."
All three Longbottom's looked at Neville appraisingly. It did make sense.
greasy black hair, a hooked nose, and sallow skin.
"NO!" James, Sirius, and Severus all yelled.
"I would never become a teacher," Severus exclaimed.
"He will torture Ray," Sirius shouted.
Flitwick looked over to Aurora, "I take it you were waiting for his reveal to explain about the points situation."
"I don't know much, just rumors, but I know that Slytherin's themselves as a house were closer than ever once he took over as Head of House," Aurora started, which made Severus perk up a little, knowing that he helped foster the idea of unity within his house. "But with that came the issue that some Slytherin's thought the rules didn't apply to them." Here she shot a glare at Draco, who just whispered, "You're one to talk."
"This mostly happened because he thought that the amount of points taken from his house in other classes than Potions was not comparable to the amount taken from other classes. The problem was that the amount of points he would take from the other houses in potions was so much that the other professors were trying to balance the equation, which then made him take more from the others and give more to the Slytherins."
"It was a vicious cycle," Draco said, explaining a little more. "You guys tried to make it better, but the students of Slytherin didn't really help. We thought that any bit of point taking was discrimination based on our house, so he tried to offset it more. In the end he always managed to add just enough that Slytherin won the house cup, which just fueled the prejudice against us."
"So what you are saying is that I made a bad situation, worse, because I was teaching, something I swore I would never do." Severus drawled. "I have no patience to teach a bunch of dunderheaded children the delicate art of potion making."
"Wow Uncle Sev," Draco exclaimed, "You just sounded so much like your future self." All the time travelers laughed.
"Uncle?" Severus and Lucius questioned.
"You named him my godfather," Draco answered, drawing a rare smile from Severus and a contemplative look from Lucius and Narcissa.
"Ouch!" Aurora clapped a hand to her head.
"Severus," Lily said sternly.
"It wasn't him," Aurora defended. She didn't like the man, she never would. He was out for himself, and before her mother's death, Lily, but the man did die for her, and did his best to keep the Death Eaters from completely taking over the school at the end, so she had a modicum of respect for Severus Snape.
"Yes well I'm sure I will have to have a talk with him about his behavior to my child at some point." Lily pronounced.
"N-nothing."
"It was obviously not nothing," James scolded.
"She's banned from saying the phrase 'I'm fine'," Fred interrupted her, before she could say anything in her defense.
"She would say she was fine if she was missing a limb," Neville added.
Lily, James and Sirius all narrowed their eyes at Aurora.
Knows an awful lot about the Dark Arts, Snape."
Lily growled. She knew well how much about the dark arts Severus knew.
"I highly doubt that was true," Severus grumbled. "Everyone knows the position is cursed, no teacher has ever lasted a year. And if I am going to teach anything, it would be potions."
"You were forced to teach," Aurora said, once again not offering any explanations, but she did run her hand along her left forearm with a pointed look at Severus, who pretended not to notice.
'It seemed that the Potter girl knew that he was to be marked soon, and most likely that Lucius was already marked,' Severus thought to himself. It made him even more curious as to why they were there, although them being there as a favor for Draco, who seemed to be rather chummy with the girl might explain it too.
remember that as well."
"Unless of course you are assigned to the forest as detention," Amice grumbled. Remus and Sirius were the only ones who heard and shared a look of astonishment.
Dumbledore's twinkling eyes flashed in the direction of the Weasley twins.
"Ahh, I miss when we were the ones who got that look," Fred sighed dreamily.
"Yea after their second year it was always aimed at Ro, and Ron," Ginny laughed.
no magic should be used between classes in the corridors.
"Does anyone ever actually follow that rule?" Marlene asked.
contact Madam Hooch.
"Do you ever try out for the team?" James asked, trying to contain his enthusiasm. '
The time travelers laughed when Aurora said, "I can honestly say I never tried out for the quidditch team."
die a very painful death."
"What?" Amos and Molly demanded.
"It's in the book, and only for the year," Fred assured.
"He's not serious?" she muttered to Percy.
Marlene kissed Sirius quickly to prevent him from talking.
other teachers' smiles had become rather fixed.
Dumbledore looked at his fellow teacher's, "Do you not like the school song?"
"We would like it more if there was a set tune," McGonagall answered for the others.
only the Weasley twins were left singing along to a very slow funeral march.
"We always did the same," Fabian and Gideon exclaimed.
Aurora's legs were like lead again, but only because she was so tired and full of food. She was used to exercise, running away from Dudley's gang was no walk in the park. ... came to a sudden halt.
"Why is he taking you the long way," Alice asked. There are much faster ways to get to the tower.
"Percy never really explored the castle," Fred explained. "He found a route to and from his classes and the library and never bothered to learn more."
"Until next year," Ginny giggled.
"Peeves — show yourself."
The Marauder's shook their heads. Never demand things of Peeves.
"That was rather rude," Xenophilius said. "He might be a menace but you should still be nice to him."
The Weasley siblings just shrugged. Percy was who he was.
I mean it!" barked Percy.
"That'll just make it worse," Remus groaned.
Too tired to talk much, they pulled on their pajamas and fell into bed.
"It's really beautiful isn't it," Hermione asked, through the hangings. The other girls in the room, Lavender Brown, Parvati Patil and Lily Moon, all hummed in agreement.
...
Perhaps Aurora had eaten a bit too much, because she had a very strange dream. She was wearing Professor Quirrell's turban, which kept talking to her, telling her she must transfer to Slytherin at once, because it was her destiny.
"Maybe you need to go sit next to Luna," Neville whispered to Aurora, who looked shocked at this dream. She did not remember having it at all.
She rolled over and fell asleep again, and when she woke next day, she didn't remember the dream at all.
"Well that was a little creepy," James said.
"Yeah," all the time travelers agreed. It was a little creepy how accurate that dream was.
"Who would like to read next?" Lily asked.
"I will have a go, Miss Evans…"