Harry Potter and the Face of Destiny

By Bronze Eagle

Chapter 7

A/N: Yes! Chapter titles! I finally took the time to think up names for those stupid things. Thanks to all reviewers!!

Disclaimer: Yadda yadda yadda. J. K. R. owns it all, I own nothing. (That gets sorta depressing to say after a while ...) The words to the school song were taken from the first book. I made up the bits of Sorting Hat song myself, though. ::sneers at pathetic rhyming skill:: I own that, I suppose, but no one else would want it anyway.

*****

Draco looked around as the doors to the Great Hall opened once again and the first years filed in. They all looked petrified, but none nearly as much as Puck. She looked around the Hall as if there were ghosts that were going to jump out at her from every shadowy corner ... Which there might be, he admitted, looking around to make sure that Peeves was nowhere in sight. I wonder why she looks so scared? he thought. She doesn't have a history of Slytherin-loving Malfoys behind her ... Where did that come from? And anyway, she doesn't know her real family, so for all I know, she could be from a family of Dark Wizards ... Draco sighed. She's not going to be in Slytherin, he told himself firmly. She'll be in Gryffindor with all her other friends, and I'm sure she'll be very happy ... And I will be happy for her ... I have to be. So why do I feel like punching something?

*****

Puck could barely keep from screaming of sheer nerves as the thin professor (Professor McGonagall, she reminded herself,) brought out a rickety old stool and an even older-looking hat. She, along with the rest of the hall, watched the hat as it sang a song in a rather out of tune voice. She only caught snatches of it, but the song seemed to be describing the different Houses.

"For Gryffindor, the brave and bold

were the ones he'd most likely teach ...."

"Slytherin, the snake, taught only

those that after his sly heart did take ...."

Great, she thought dully, Slytherin sounds like a great guy. I don't want to be in his House, but ... I have a very nasty feeling about this whole thing.

She watched without seeing as one by one the first years were sorted. She wasn't really surprised that they skipped over her when calling names; after all, she supposed, they probably wanted to introduce her specially, as she wasn't going to have classes with all of the other new students.

In what felt like no time at all, the line had melted away, and Professor McGonagall had taken a surprisingly strong grip on her arm and brought Puck up in front of the students. She gulped as she looked out across the sea of black pointy hats. She suddenly wished very strongly that she had a nice, quiet room all to herself for this, instead of having nearly a thousand people watching her as the ... hat ... decided her fate.

"This is Robyn Goodfellow," she heard the professor saying. "She was adopted this summer from an orphanage in America, and she will be a fifth year with us here. I hope you will all welcome her, whichever House she is in." McGonagall glared around the Hall impressively. "Now, Miss Goodfellow, if you will put on the hat and sit on the stool, you will be sorted into your House."

"Uh, okay," she said; and, taking a deep breath, walked up to the hat, took it, and jammed it on her head.

There was a silence. Then, "Ah, yes, another Goodfellow. I remember your father. Hmm, lets see ... Very interesting. Lots of courage; a sense of humor; a bit of disregard for rules, too ... yes. Very difficult." It hesitated. "You know who your grandfather is, don't you?"

*Yes,* she though. *My parents left me a letter ...*

"Yes, I see." It hesitated again, but Puck interrupted it.

*You're going to put me in his House, aren't you? I just wanted to tell you that on my mother's side ...*

"I know," the hat said. "That's part of what makes this choice so difficult. Your father's side is stronger, though, and I think you know that."

*Yeah,* she sighed. *Can you tell me one thing, though?*

"That depends entirely upon what it is."

What House was my dad in?

"The same you, actually."

*Then I suppose you're putting me in ...*

"Yes. All in all, I think you'll do fine in SLYTHERIN!"

*****

Draco watched, dumfounded, as Puck took off the hat and started walking calmly towards him. He then came to himself and started clapping loudly with the rest of his table. Puck in Slytherin? What had the hat been thinking? But she looked okay with it, so he was too. He couldn't help grinning as she sat down next to him. She grinned back, but couldn't quite bring herself to look over at the Gryffindor table.

*****

Harry, Hermione, and the Weasleys stared at Puck as she walked over to the Slytherin table with confusion written plainly all over their faces. Finally Ron said, "How ... But I thought ... Why ... The hat put her in Slytherin?!?!"

Dean and Seamus looked shocked as well. "She seemed so nice in the carriage," Harry heard Dean mutter.

They didn't have much time to ponder her fate, though, because McGonagall had taken away the stool and hat, and Dumbledore was now standing. A hush gradually fell over the Hall.

"Welcome, students, new and old. Another year has begun, and I would like to take this time before we eat to remember someone who was sitting here with us this time last year." Harry swallowed. "For those of you who did not know him, Cedric Diggory was a fine young man. He was the star of the Hufflepuff Quidditch team, a loyal friend, and a hard worker. As most of you know, he was one of the two Hogwarts champions to compete in the Triwizard Tournament last year." He paused. "Cedric was killed just after the Third Task by a servant of Lord Voldemort."

Hissing whispers broke out all over the room. Puck looked at Draco. "You were telling the truth about Him coming back when we were at the orphanage, weren't you?"

"Of course," he replied, grinning faintly. "Would I lie to you?"

"Ahem," Dumbledore said loudly over the not-so-soft whispers that were now springing up all over the Hall. Everyone quieted. "I will say what I said last year again; I do not think that your parents, or the Ministry of Magic, approve of me telling you about his return. However, I believe that you deserve to know the truth: Lord Voldemort has risen again, with all of his powers returned." After the very nasty silence that followed these words, he continued, "On a lighter note, I am glad to announce that the Yule Ball will once again take place this year."

The professor was once again interrupted by the voices of students, although these whispers and murmurs were quite different from those that had swept through the Hall earlier.

"Now, I'm happy to say that the House Elves have outdone themselves with this feast tonight, so I have just one more word to say: Enjoy." Dumbledore beamed around the at everyone once more, and sat down.

Puck gasped as the plates in front of her filled with every kind of food imaginable, from salad to sausage and potatoes to pie. Draco chuckled. "Hungry?" he asked. She nodded mutely, eyes wide. He lowered his voice. "Bet I can eat more slices of cantaloup than you can."

Her face lit up. "Cantaloup? I love cantaloup! You're on!" Chuckling, they both grabbed a slice of fruit and began eating fast enough to make the people on either side of them edge away in fear of being contaminated by such un-Slytherin-like behavior.

*****

At the Gryffindor table, they were also enjoying the feast. At least, everyone was eating heartily and joking loudly and generally being Gryffindors. However, they were all thinking to themselves, What did Puck do to deserve being put in Slytherin?

*****

Finally, the feast was over. Dumbledore got to his feet again and everyone looked up expectantly. "There are a few more announcements I would like to make before you all go off to your dormitories," he said in his reedy voice. "First, I would like to introduce Professor Lupin to all of you who do not know him. He will once again teach your Defense Against the Dark Arts classes ...."

The rest of this announcement was drowned out by cheers from every table except for Slytherin. Noticing the lack of enthusiasm from her fellow House-mates, Puck put her fingers up to her lips and let loose an ear-shattering whistle. This caused more than half the Hall to look over in amazement at her, the new Slytherin girl, cheering for Professor Lupin. Out of the corner of his eye, Draco saw several of the Slytherins (Crabbe and Goyle included) scowl and crack their knuckles. He gulped, but Puck looked very pleased with herself.

When the cheering had died down, Dumbledore continued, "Second, I would like to take the time to sing our old school song." Several of the teacher's smiles had faded, to be replaced by looks of dawning horror. However, most of the students (especially Fred and George Weasley) looked positively gleeful. Dumbledore took out his wand and flicked it, and a gold ribbon-like thing came out of it, forming words. Then he said, "Everyone pick your favorite tune, and here we go!" The entire Hall filled with a hideous noise that sounded vaguely like a school-ful of students and teachers had started singing:

"Hogwarts, Hogwarts, Hoggy Warty Hogwarts,

Teach us something please,

Whether we be old and bald

Or young with scabby knees,

Our heads could do with filling

With some interesting stuff,

For now they're bare and full of air,

Dead flies and bits of fluff,

So teach us things worth knowing,

Bring back what we've forgot,

Just do your best, we'll do the rest,

And learn till our brains all rot."

The Weasley twins could be heard above all the racket singing a strange duet which, Ron told Harry later, was the tune to the new official song of Weasley's Wizard Wheezes.

"And now, off to bed with you all!" called Dumbledore. "Classes start tomorrow!" And the whole school began slowly filing out the door.

*****

Puck walked with Draco and the other Slytherins down into the dungeons. She felt contented, full, and tired, so she hardly noticed all the secret passageways they were going through, or the fact that the dungeons seemed to be much colder than the rest of the castle. Finally, they reached a section of blank wall. Puck was just wondering why they had stopped when someone said "Serpentosis!" and the wall moved to reveal a room behind it.

The room was rather gloomy, with greenish lamps hanging from the low ceiling, but there was a fire roaring in the grate with big armchairs arrayed in front of it. Puck stumbled up the staircase Draco pointed to, opened a door with a sign that read "Fifth Years," found the bed with her trunk at the foot, and fell asleep almost at once.

*****

Draco wasn't having nearly as much luck falling asleep. He was afraid that at any moment, Voldemort would pop into his head with a sneering 'Hello, Draco,' and he'd have no chance to warn Harry .... It was strange, he reflected, that he was actually worried that Voldemort would do something to Harry. A year ago, he wouldn't have thought twice about doing something to help the Dark Side and at the same time hurt his worst enemy, Harry Potter. But this year, things were different. He'd met the Dark Lord for the first time in his life, and found out that he wasn't really sure that he wanted to help him take over the world, or any of that other stuff. If he treated all of his followers the way he treated Draco, then what kind of a world would that be, if everyone lived in fear of an evil maniac?

'Potter? Are you still awake?'

'Yup.'

'Can't sleep?'

'No. What's keeping you up?'

Draco sighed, although he knew Harry couldn't hear it. 'Voldemort.'

Harry hesitated. 'He's keeping me up to, but for ...... different reasons.'

Draco blinked. 'You're still thinking about Diggory, aren't you?'

'Well ...... yeah.'

'Look, it wasn't you're fault.'

'I told him to take the cup with me.'

'So? Were you the one who turned the cup into a portkey? Did you point a wand at him and say "Avada Kedavra"?' Harry was silent. 'See? You did what you thought was right.'

'But it turned out wrong - horribly wrong. It cost Cedric his *life.*'

'Do you think no one else has made mistakes? No one expects you to be perfect, you know.'

'No one else I know has ever made a mistake that ended up with someone else dead.'

Draco had to admit that he didn't have an argument for that.

*****

Dumbledore turned to the man sitting in his office. "Did you hear that?"

He nodded glumly. Harry would barely have recognized the man sitting there as Sirius Black. He had gotten his hair cut, was clean-shaven, and looked as though he got regular meals. "He's still blaming himself."

Dumbledore nodded. "Will you go see him soon?"

Sirius nodded. "As soon as I get half a chance."

*****

A/N: Wow. Okay, I am really sorry about that. I know I promised to get the rest of this chapter up by, uh, last Wednesday, but I was doing battle with the evil writer's block and had to figure out what to write before I could post it. Someone pointed out to me that for a while I had the text of Chapter 6 up as Chapter 1, and I'm really sorry about that too. I hope it didn't cause too many inconveniences, or convince any would-be readers that I was a complete idiot. (What's with this girl? Why the heck does she have "Chapter 6" written on the top of Chapter 1?) Please review, even if you've reviewed every single other chapter, it means a lot to me to know that you're still reading this excuse for a fanfiction. (I have no idea if that's supposed to be one word or two.) Chapter 8 may be a bit slow in coming, but bear with me. Oh, and please look at my poems, you can find them on my profile. Even if you hate them, I'd like to know what you think. ~Bronze Eagle