Chapter 5
Slytherin or Gryffindor?
Note to everyone !!!
So sorry it took so long, but I had heaps and heaps of homework and like tests and stuff!!! Like promised I will email you when I finish my next chapter so please leave your email so that I can contact you ! (Just leave your email when you review)
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE REVIEW!!!
Harry's jaw literally dropped. He couldn't believe what he just heard. Slytherin silenced practically at once. Many of them just stood there, gaping, but they weren't the only ones. All four houses were in total silence.
The teachers looked at each other in confusion and began to softly chat between themselves. Dumbledore looked slightly amused and smiled at no one is particular. After a few moments of silence, everyone recovered from their shock and the hall began to talk in a hush.
"Has the hat gone mad?" Ron whispered loudly, "She can't be in two houses!"
"The hat is old…" Harry replied uncertainly. He felt sorry for Mereline; it wasn't her fault this was happening. Or is it? Harry thought, but he pushed it away when he realized how stupid he sounded. Hermione remained silent and eyed Mereline suspiciously.
Some younger students looked extremely anxious to leave the hall. Once again, many were giving her scared and frightened looks. The first years were taking several steps away from her, as though she was some dangerous criminal. Hermione muttered something about being rude under her breath.
"Why is everyone so afraid of her?" Harry asked skeptically. Mereline looked normal to Harry, and she wasn't scary looking or anything like that. So what if she had some rare powers?
"Well, around 10 years ago," Hermione said in her matter of fact-y tone, "A large group of Tristones, created a lot of havoc and made heaps of trouble. They even started killing people…" Hermione looked a bit annoyed as though she thought that Harry should have known all this stuff by now.
"Were they with Vol- You-know-who?" Harry interrupted ignoring the fact that Hermione was acting a bit peculiar.
"No, they weren't, but anyway that's why people are so scared of her, they think she's going to be like that, killing people and stuff…"
Harry thought hard. Is this why Mereline might be in Slytherin? But why would she even be in Gryffindor? Harry looked over at Mereline who looked bewildered and was still standing where she was before. Her pale face was even more pale than usual and she looked extremely embarrassed and very lost. Harry somehow felt that he knew how she feeling right then. Wasn't it only a few years ago when Harry had to face loads of un-wanted attention?
The professors were busy discussing the current situation, and ignored the level of noise that was continuously rising. Harry could see Dumbledore talking quietly to Professor McGonagall and Snape amongst all the commotion. Snape and McGonagall appeared to be arguing with each other while Dumbledore slipped in a few words at a time. Snape looked as terrible as ever and while arguing he was no prettier. McGonagall tried to look calm but she was red in the face. They were obviously arguing over which house Mereline is going to be in. This argument continued for a long time.
Finally, Dumbledore rose from his seat and cleared his throat loudly. Everyone stopped their chatter almost right away.
"It is obvious that Mereline cannot be in two houses at the same time…," Dumbledore started cheerfully. Professor McGonagall glared at him, she obviously thought it wasn't the time to be cheerful, "The Hogwarts Sorting Hat is old, it is even older than myself, and due to certain rules, Mereline cannot be simply sorted again."
Harry listened intently and wondered what would happen to Mereline. Would she be in both houses? And switch every month or so?
"…therefore we might never know which house Mereline truly belongs in," Dumbledore said with slight amusement in his voice, "It is possible that the hat may of changed its mind, or that it made a mistake thinking that Mereline was two different people… but, the situation is, is that we must, ourselves, sort her into a house."
Dumbledore stopped for a moment, grinned at the solid attention he was getting, and carried on.
"Professor Snape, Professor McGonagall and I have been discussing this, and we shall let you know by the end of the Sorting Ceremony which house she will be in. May the ceremony continue…"
Dumbledore sat back down looking a bit exhausted from his long speech. He took a long sip from his golden goblet and laid back into his chair. Professor McGonagall rose from her seat to resume the Sorting Ceremony and took her place next to the hat. She unrolled her parchment again.
"This is going to take forever…" Ron muttered to Harry. Harry nodded in agreement. The Sorting Ceremony was important but Harry couldn't help but think it was getting boring now, especially now since he had seen it three times. Ron yawned loudly as Crisyth, Rupert was called. Hermione rolled her eyes. Everyone clapped politely at all the right times, but after a few names, people were barely able to muster a single cheer. The ceremony seemed to drone on.
After Gerathy, Dorothy was sorted into Slytherin, Harry was almost half asleep. He was suddenly woken up again when something shone in Harry's eye. He looked around for what caused it, and saw a silvery badge, neatly pinned on Hermione's cloak…
"You're a prefect?" Ron whispered in disbelief. His eyes were wide in shock.
"And you didn't tell us?" Harry added. Hermione went red.
"I meant to tell you, but I was sort of embarrassed…." Hermione whispered back, touching her shiny badge, "I just pinned it on…" It was an oval silvery badge with red words engraved deeply in it. Harry thought that Hermione must have polished the badge at least a thousand times to get it shining like that. It was so shiny that it had nearly blinded him. He congratulated Hermione but Ron just glared at her in anger. Ron hated it when someone left him out on something. Hermione turned her head back to the ceremony, but Harry saw her look down proudly at her Prefect Badge.
There was a lot of tension between Gryffindor and Slytherin. Harry had never seen so much rivalry and spite from each house before. Each house glared at each other, and Harry found himself returning all the dirty looks Malfoy was giving him. But by the middle of the list, even Slytherin were piping down their behavior. Harry didn't know why, but the ceremony seemed much longer than usual, even though there was around the same number of first years at the start of every year. Slowly the whole hall began to twitch and fidget in frustration and impatience. By Newmene, Oliver, Ron couldn't take it any more.
"Why does there have to be so many damn first years?!" Ron literally spat. Even Hermione was beginning to look frustrated. She was absently tearing her napkin into several tiny bits. Fred and George were twiddling their thumbs and yawning. Harry found that he had been polishing his glasses several time without noticing. Everyone desperately wanted the ceremony to end.
Finally, as Wilson, Davies was sorted into Hufflepuff, Dumbledore stood up once again.
In one motion, everyone sat up straight and gave their full attention to Dumbledore. He grinned broadly at the response.
"After much debate, Mereline has been sorted into a house by Professor McGonagall and Professor Snape. They have argued upon this topic and have settled upon a simple decision." Snape gave everyone a cold look, while Professor McGonagall looked around in triumph.
"Mereline will be in…GRYFFINDOR!!"
A humongous cheer went around the Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, and Hufflepuff tables. Harry stood up and applauded loudly. The table rocked dangerously as Gryffindor celebrated. The Slytherins hissed and booed, but they were drowned out by the level of noise.
During the deafening applause, Mereline began to make her way down to the Gryffindor table. Everyone either shook Mereline's hands or patted her on the back as she went past them. She smiled shyly but didn't speak. Mereline still looked extremely embarrassed and didn't seem to enjoy all this attention she was receiving. As Mereline walked past, Harry congratulated her and Hermione yelled out a few words of encouragement. Ron just sort of grinned at Mereline. She smiled warily and stopped at the empty seat next to Harry.
"You don't mind, do you?" Mereline asked. It was the first time anyone heard her speak. She had a heavy accent Harry didn't recognize.
"No, not at all!" Harry said quickly. Mereline sat down and looked down at her empty plate. Harry saw that she was still shaking a bit. Hermione looked over at her worriedly, but before she could say anything, Dumbledore, who was still standing at the front of the hall, motioned for silence. The noise slowly died down and Dumbledore started to speak.
"Welcome to another year at Hogwarts. As you might have read, we have many new rules here, you must follow them and I suggest you read them over carefully…," Dumbledore said with a smile. He looked over at the Weasley Twins who were grinning at him innocently, "And a big welcome to Mereline Adrensle who will begin Hogwarts in her 5th year, I hope you make her feel very welcome. The new Defense against the Arts Teacher will be arriving tomorrow, I won't tell you who she is, but most of you will already know her…"
Harry, Ron, and Hermione looked at each other and exchanged confused looks. Who could it be? Harry wondered. And what did Dumbledore mean when he said that we might already know her? Harry looked over at the front table and noticed for the first time, an empty seat next to Snape. Snape looked nastier than ever, who knows how long it would be before he would get that job at last?
"Before we start the feast," Dumbledore continued, "I have a few more words to say… Snap, Crackle, Pop!"
Harry laughed and suddenly the empty golden plates in front of them was filled with the most delicious and wonderful food.
Dishes of all sorts were scattered in front of them. Endless rows of plates began to mound with food as everyone dug in hungrily. Harry, who had eaten only an hour ago, filled his plate with juicy roast chicken and potatoes. What he was given to eat at the Dursley's was nothing compared to what he ate at Hogwarts. What the Dursely's gave him to eat was practically nothing anyway. An old piece of cheese here and there, Harry could hardly survive without the rations that Hermione and Ron sent him. Dudley would have treated Harry nicely for a whole year just to see and eat this much food.
"Hello, I'm Hermione Granger," Hermione said over the top of Harry as she was reaching for the bread. Mereline smiled and shook Hermione's offered hand.
"I'm very pleased to meet you." Mereline replied with a smile.
Hermione pointed at Ron and Harry. "This is Harry Potter and Ron Weasley."
Mereline did a double take and nearly choked on her chicken.
"Harry Potter?" Mereline gasped but eyed Harry suspiciously, "Are you sure?"
Harry smiled warily, "Well, the last time I checked I was."
Mereline went red.
"I'm sorry," she apologized, "I'm just a bit… you know… a bit fidgety and nervous at the moment."
Harry saw that Mereline was trying to look for the scar on his forehead. He flattened down his hair a little. Ron looked pale and he didn't say anything at all. Mereline gave him a worried look.
"Don't worry about him, he's always like this when he likes…um… never mind…" Harry said leaving the sentence to hang in the air. It was obvious that Ron liked Mereline but he wasn't too sure that Ron would appreciate it if Harry told her.
"So where are you from?" Hermione said quickly trying to cover up the almost embarrassing situation.
"I'm from Ireland," Mereline answered while taking a few pies from a glittery golden plate, "But my dad is English." Mereline had an unusual but pretty appearance. She had long black hair, and green eyes that much resembled Harry's own green eyes.
She sighed.
"All of this is such a big step for me… I knew that my parents were a witch and wizard of course, but I never expected that I would be one too…"
Hermione nodded. "I know how you feel, only that I had muggle parents, not magical ones, I had such a shock when I found out that these magical things really exist."
Before anyone could say anything a loud voice interrupted.
"Well, well, well…" drawled a familiar voice, "What do we have here?"
Slytherin or Gryffindor?
Note to everyone !!!
So sorry it took so long, but I had heaps and heaps of homework and like tests and stuff!!! Like promised I will email you when I finish my next chapter so please leave your email so that I can contact you ! (Just leave your email when you review)
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE REVIEW!!!
Harry's jaw literally dropped. He couldn't believe what he just heard. Slytherin silenced practically at once. Many of them just stood there, gaping, but they weren't the only ones. All four houses were in total silence.
The teachers looked at each other in confusion and began to softly chat between themselves. Dumbledore looked slightly amused and smiled at no one is particular. After a few moments of silence, everyone recovered from their shock and the hall began to talk in a hush.
"Has the hat gone mad?" Ron whispered loudly, "She can't be in two houses!"
"The hat is old…" Harry replied uncertainly. He felt sorry for Mereline; it wasn't her fault this was happening. Or is it? Harry thought, but he pushed it away when he realized how stupid he sounded. Hermione remained silent and eyed Mereline suspiciously.
Some younger students looked extremely anxious to leave the hall. Once again, many were giving her scared and frightened looks. The first years were taking several steps away from her, as though she was some dangerous criminal. Hermione muttered something about being rude under her breath.
"Why is everyone so afraid of her?" Harry asked skeptically. Mereline looked normal to Harry, and she wasn't scary looking or anything like that. So what if she had some rare powers?
"Well, around 10 years ago," Hermione said in her matter of fact-y tone, "A large group of Tristones, created a lot of havoc and made heaps of trouble. They even started killing people…" Hermione looked a bit annoyed as though she thought that Harry should have known all this stuff by now.
"Were they with Vol- You-know-who?" Harry interrupted ignoring the fact that Hermione was acting a bit peculiar.
"No, they weren't, but anyway that's why people are so scared of her, they think she's going to be like that, killing people and stuff…"
Harry thought hard. Is this why Mereline might be in Slytherin? But why would she even be in Gryffindor? Harry looked over at Mereline who looked bewildered and was still standing where she was before. Her pale face was even more pale than usual and she looked extremely embarrassed and very lost. Harry somehow felt that he knew how she feeling right then. Wasn't it only a few years ago when Harry had to face loads of un-wanted attention?
The professors were busy discussing the current situation, and ignored the level of noise that was continuously rising. Harry could see Dumbledore talking quietly to Professor McGonagall and Snape amongst all the commotion. Snape and McGonagall appeared to be arguing with each other while Dumbledore slipped in a few words at a time. Snape looked as terrible as ever and while arguing he was no prettier. McGonagall tried to look calm but she was red in the face. They were obviously arguing over which house Mereline is going to be in. This argument continued for a long time.
Finally, Dumbledore rose from his seat and cleared his throat loudly. Everyone stopped their chatter almost right away.
"It is obvious that Mereline cannot be in two houses at the same time…," Dumbledore started cheerfully. Professor McGonagall glared at him, she obviously thought it wasn't the time to be cheerful, "The Hogwarts Sorting Hat is old, it is even older than myself, and due to certain rules, Mereline cannot be simply sorted again."
Harry listened intently and wondered what would happen to Mereline. Would she be in both houses? And switch every month or so?
"…therefore we might never know which house Mereline truly belongs in," Dumbledore said with slight amusement in his voice, "It is possible that the hat may of changed its mind, or that it made a mistake thinking that Mereline was two different people… but, the situation is, is that we must, ourselves, sort her into a house."
Dumbledore stopped for a moment, grinned at the solid attention he was getting, and carried on.
"Professor Snape, Professor McGonagall and I have been discussing this, and we shall let you know by the end of the Sorting Ceremony which house she will be in. May the ceremony continue…"
Dumbledore sat back down looking a bit exhausted from his long speech. He took a long sip from his golden goblet and laid back into his chair. Professor McGonagall rose from her seat to resume the Sorting Ceremony and took her place next to the hat. She unrolled her parchment again.
"This is going to take forever…" Ron muttered to Harry. Harry nodded in agreement. The Sorting Ceremony was important but Harry couldn't help but think it was getting boring now, especially now since he had seen it three times. Ron yawned loudly as Crisyth, Rupert was called. Hermione rolled her eyes. Everyone clapped politely at all the right times, but after a few names, people were barely able to muster a single cheer. The ceremony seemed to drone on.
After Gerathy, Dorothy was sorted into Slytherin, Harry was almost half asleep. He was suddenly woken up again when something shone in Harry's eye. He looked around for what caused it, and saw a silvery badge, neatly pinned on Hermione's cloak…
"You're a prefect?" Ron whispered in disbelief. His eyes were wide in shock.
"And you didn't tell us?" Harry added. Hermione went red.
"I meant to tell you, but I was sort of embarrassed…." Hermione whispered back, touching her shiny badge, "I just pinned it on…" It was an oval silvery badge with red words engraved deeply in it. Harry thought that Hermione must have polished the badge at least a thousand times to get it shining like that. It was so shiny that it had nearly blinded him. He congratulated Hermione but Ron just glared at her in anger. Ron hated it when someone left him out on something. Hermione turned her head back to the ceremony, but Harry saw her look down proudly at her Prefect Badge.
There was a lot of tension between Gryffindor and Slytherin. Harry had never seen so much rivalry and spite from each house before. Each house glared at each other, and Harry found himself returning all the dirty looks Malfoy was giving him. But by the middle of the list, even Slytherin were piping down their behavior. Harry didn't know why, but the ceremony seemed much longer than usual, even though there was around the same number of first years at the start of every year. Slowly the whole hall began to twitch and fidget in frustration and impatience. By Newmene, Oliver, Ron couldn't take it any more.
"Why does there have to be so many damn first years?!" Ron literally spat. Even Hermione was beginning to look frustrated. She was absently tearing her napkin into several tiny bits. Fred and George were twiddling their thumbs and yawning. Harry found that he had been polishing his glasses several time without noticing. Everyone desperately wanted the ceremony to end.
Finally, as Wilson, Davies was sorted into Hufflepuff, Dumbledore stood up once again.
In one motion, everyone sat up straight and gave their full attention to Dumbledore. He grinned broadly at the response.
"After much debate, Mereline has been sorted into a house by Professor McGonagall and Professor Snape. They have argued upon this topic and have settled upon a simple decision." Snape gave everyone a cold look, while Professor McGonagall looked around in triumph.
"Mereline will be in…GRYFFINDOR!!"
A humongous cheer went around the Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, and Hufflepuff tables. Harry stood up and applauded loudly. The table rocked dangerously as Gryffindor celebrated. The Slytherins hissed and booed, but they were drowned out by the level of noise.
During the deafening applause, Mereline began to make her way down to the Gryffindor table. Everyone either shook Mereline's hands or patted her on the back as she went past them. She smiled shyly but didn't speak. Mereline still looked extremely embarrassed and didn't seem to enjoy all this attention she was receiving. As Mereline walked past, Harry congratulated her and Hermione yelled out a few words of encouragement. Ron just sort of grinned at Mereline. She smiled warily and stopped at the empty seat next to Harry.
"You don't mind, do you?" Mereline asked. It was the first time anyone heard her speak. She had a heavy accent Harry didn't recognize.
"No, not at all!" Harry said quickly. Mereline sat down and looked down at her empty plate. Harry saw that she was still shaking a bit. Hermione looked over at her worriedly, but before she could say anything, Dumbledore, who was still standing at the front of the hall, motioned for silence. The noise slowly died down and Dumbledore started to speak.
"Welcome to another year at Hogwarts. As you might have read, we have many new rules here, you must follow them and I suggest you read them over carefully…," Dumbledore said with a smile. He looked over at the Weasley Twins who were grinning at him innocently, "And a big welcome to Mereline Adrensle who will begin Hogwarts in her 5th year, I hope you make her feel very welcome. The new Defense against the Arts Teacher will be arriving tomorrow, I won't tell you who she is, but most of you will already know her…"
Harry, Ron, and Hermione looked at each other and exchanged confused looks. Who could it be? Harry wondered. And what did Dumbledore mean when he said that we might already know her? Harry looked over at the front table and noticed for the first time, an empty seat next to Snape. Snape looked nastier than ever, who knows how long it would be before he would get that job at last?
"Before we start the feast," Dumbledore continued, "I have a few more words to say… Snap, Crackle, Pop!"
Harry laughed and suddenly the empty golden plates in front of them was filled with the most delicious and wonderful food.
Dishes of all sorts were scattered in front of them. Endless rows of plates began to mound with food as everyone dug in hungrily. Harry, who had eaten only an hour ago, filled his plate with juicy roast chicken and potatoes. What he was given to eat at the Dursley's was nothing compared to what he ate at Hogwarts. What the Dursely's gave him to eat was practically nothing anyway. An old piece of cheese here and there, Harry could hardly survive without the rations that Hermione and Ron sent him. Dudley would have treated Harry nicely for a whole year just to see and eat this much food.
"Hello, I'm Hermione Granger," Hermione said over the top of Harry as she was reaching for the bread. Mereline smiled and shook Hermione's offered hand.
"I'm very pleased to meet you." Mereline replied with a smile.
Hermione pointed at Ron and Harry. "This is Harry Potter and Ron Weasley."
Mereline did a double take and nearly choked on her chicken.
"Harry Potter?" Mereline gasped but eyed Harry suspiciously, "Are you sure?"
Harry smiled warily, "Well, the last time I checked I was."
Mereline went red.
"I'm sorry," she apologized, "I'm just a bit… you know… a bit fidgety and nervous at the moment."
Harry saw that Mereline was trying to look for the scar on his forehead. He flattened down his hair a little. Ron looked pale and he didn't say anything at all. Mereline gave him a worried look.
"Don't worry about him, he's always like this when he likes…um… never mind…" Harry said leaving the sentence to hang in the air. It was obvious that Ron liked Mereline but he wasn't too sure that Ron would appreciate it if Harry told her.
"So where are you from?" Hermione said quickly trying to cover up the almost embarrassing situation.
"I'm from Ireland," Mereline answered while taking a few pies from a glittery golden plate, "But my dad is English." Mereline had an unusual but pretty appearance. She had long black hair, and green eyes that much resembled Harry's own green eyes.
She sighed.
"All of this is such a big step for me… I knew that my parents were a witch and wizard of course, but I never expected that I would be one too…"
Hermione nodded. "I know how you feel, only that I had muggle parents, not magical ones, I had such a shock when I found out that these magical things really exist."
Before anyone could say anything a loud voice interrupted.
"Well, well, well…" drawled a familiar voice, "What do we have here?"