Chapter Two – Houses
For the 5th time in two minutes my mother smoothed down my hair, cupping my face with her other hand, and pouted pathetically.
"She'll be fine," my father kept saying, patting my shoulder, though mum was not satisfied. She laid in question after question, like, "Do you have enough money? Enough warm cloths for winter? Do you have all of your school supplies? Do you know how to reach us once you get there?"
Like the ringing of a sanctuary's bell, the train whistle blew its warning and I could wrestle my way from my mothers sticky grip on my life. I bounded up the stairs of the red and black train, waving merrily at my parents, my father ginning with some sort of fatherly pride, my mother with her mouth covered in worry. The train jerked, like it had been wakened from a long, bad dream, and started heaving its load of students down the tracks. A conductor came by and shut the door, blocking the last view of my parents.
The halls were strangely crowded with last minute kids trying to find a place to stay, pushing each other and climbing over fallen victims backs in the small isles. I peered into a window of a box nonchalantly as I passed by, and then took a double take. I knew that girl! I slammed the door open, the girl shot up like it had been gunfire.
"Raylee!" I squeezed inside. She was the only other one there, which surprised me. Why wouldn't the kids outside have wanted to come in here? But the thought was soon drowned out from memory by my own voice.
"Do you remember me? My name is Faelyn!" I formally extended my hand to her. At first she looked like she had seen a ghost – well, for the first time at least. Then a small grin appeared on her white face and she took my hand.
"I remember you. You bought me a dragon for my wand." I nodded fiercely, sitting down across from her.
"You like it, right?"
"Yes! Of course! But…" She thought for a while, as if not sure she should speak her mind. I prompted her and she went on, hesitantly. "You shouldn't have done that…"
"It was a token of friendship. Think of it that way." She looked at me straight in the eyes for once. She had the eyes I had always envied.
"Oh… I don't know…"
Talking about material objects always seemed to make me nervous, so I changed it to something more heart-felt. "Aren't you excited about Hogwarts? I mean, I've been waiting for it since I was three!"
"No… I mean, not with so much enthusiasm. I look at it like the only way out of my house. My dad never really talked about it so much."
"My father used to talk about it all the time. He used to tell me stories of adventures and getting into trouble. I think he was hoping some of his vigor would rub off on me. I guess, in his mind, I should be just like him." Raylee looked at me oddly. I guessed she knew who my father was, and so I said, "Nobody is ever perfect." She nodded.
"I have my shares of problems too. My father treats me like I'm 85 – but not since recently, since I was a baby. He wants me to uphold my honor to the family. I told him honor was something you earn individually, but he doesn't understand." She looked outside the window. There were light gray clouds lazily floating over the day's sky, procrastinating their heavy burden of rain. The sun that shone through hit Raylees face and made her look like she was a glowing piece of buried treasure.
I pulled my knees to my chest and rested my head against my jeans. Raylee just stared out into the nothingness. A silent lamb.
"My father was so proud of me when my wand had phoenix feathers in it; so does his. Another one of those, 'that's my girl!' kind of things." Raylee nodded but didn't turn her head. "What are you staring at?"
"Nothing…really… Just the scenery passing me by." I looked out the window, but all I could see were grassy hills and a few grazing cows. It failed to amuse me as much as it did Raylee and so I concentrated on her facial expressions.
"Do you know anyone else who's going to Hogwarts?"
"Just you."
"Yeah! I don't know anyone either!" Raylee surprised me by facing me again, grinning like a cheesier cat.
"We're loners together," she laughed. He laugh was high and merry, and I wondered why she didn't use it more often. "I'm really not this quiet, you know? It's just that everything makes me nervous. My stomach is really acting up." I nodded like I understood, but how someone could be frightened of something as trivial as school baffled me, and I had to try not to think about it.
"Don't be scared. We'll go through it together!" I proclaimed, raising a fist into the air and raging a battle cry. Raylee laughed, her head lifting till she slammed it roughly against the back wall, but continued to laugh.
The merriment continued throughout our journey. Like we were the only ones in a carnival we had a mini party, complete with mounds of food, daring games, and one eventful scene where we both saw cows doing it out in pasture. We laughed until we thought our sides were bleeding, and the party ended.
The train gasped for its last breath and finally quit at the train station. I could feel the air get ticker as Raylee tensed up. We had to push and shove down the thin isles and out the sliding doors. Outside the clouds were holding back their load with all their strength, as if they didn't want to make Raylees school adventure any worse. I thanked them.
Outside was a short, grayed goblin holding up a blue lantern so we could spot him well. He was dressed in a tuxedo, with his bushy mass of a beard neatly trimmed, so you would have thought he had done it with a ruler to ensure it was perfect.
"First years! This way!" His high-pitched voice was like nails slowly etching into a chalkboard. It made me shiver; or maybe it was the cold. The goblin huddled us up into boats by groups of four, his own lead the way with the bobbing blue light of the lantern like the north star on the horizon of the lake. Raylee sat next to me, trembling and rubbing her hands up and down her arms.
The boats miraculously never tipped in the water, which seemed to be trying to rise up to the black clouds, beckoning it to fall. We carefully stepped out and onto a flight of stairs, leading up to a small wooden door. Inside the polished, stone floors reflected the fires illuminating the small, round room. The shadows jumped, trying to reach the ceiling, but barely made it. It gave the room a kind of sad, cold feeling.
An old woman with frown wrinkles on her face walked into the room, black robes flailing behind her like the fires on the wall. Her gray hair was pulled into a perfect bun on the back of her head, and somehow I knew right away whom it was.
"Welcome to Hogwarts!" she proclaimed. I always remember my father telling me she was a strict old bat, but I immediately found her to be friendly and fair. "Behind me in the next room is the dining hall, where a feast is being held in the honor of the first day of the school year. When you arrive you will be sorted into your houses. Your houses are like your family away from home. You will do everything together; have classes together, sleep in the same building, and eat at the same table. I expect while you are here that you follow the rules as you are prompted to, for doing so will earn your house points, and breaking them will loose points. Does everyone understand?"
The students just stared, their minds still trying to take in the information. My brain was chanting, "Gryffindor! Gryffindor!" I was confused; was I wishing for that, or my father? Raylee trembled next to me…
… Miss McGonagall's speech made me quiver. I wondered, would the sorting hat know if I was nervous? Would that effect where I would be placed? I tried to assure myself that wasn't so, but the fact that it MIGHT be was more powerful and creped in from the cracks.
I didn't even hear the rest of what she was saying as my mind completely flat lined. The only thing that made my feet move as we filed into the dining hall was Faelyns over confidence, like it was radiating off of her and maybe, just maybe, a little of her magic caught onto me.
When we entered the room the school was silent. Hundreds of children watched me as I walked down the long hall to the head table at the very end. The walk was miles and I was naked, every person judging me along the way. At the end was a ragged and dusty hat sitting on a pillow on top of a stool. It was frayed, patched and covered in soot. One by one our names were called off in alphabetical order. The house shouted at the top of his lungs most of the time,
"Ravenclaw!"
"Hufflepuff!"
"Malphoy, Raylee." My muscles stood at attention. 'Walk, now. Just up to the stool, then sit down… Ahh… Good.' I talked myself through it. Just by making it up there without tripping and landing onto my face had made me feel much better. Faelyn stood out from the mass of students, all alike in their uniforms. Her face was full of concern, and I felt relived that at least someone cared. The sorting hat plopped onto my head, and then was quiet for a long time. I had just begun to worry if I had broken it when,
"Ahhh… A Malphoy. Draco's daughter, yes. I see that… Plenty of Slytherin blood inside of you, there is!" he whispered into my ear. "Many Slytherin traits… Sharp, quick witted, revengeful… But…" he paused, and peered deeper into my mind, searching for the one thing that made him uncertain. Pressed on time, he gave up, and announced to the school, "SLYTHERIN!"
My table clapped loudly, a welcome that was greatly appreciated. I laughed as I bounded down the stairs, more comfortable now that I had a place in the school, now that I knew who I was.
"You're next!" I cheerfully said to Faelyn as I passed her. Her eyes were still concerned though.
"Didn't you know about us?" she whispered, but I didn't have time to answer her. I found my place at my table, and was greeted by my new house members. I watched Faelyn, her back turned on me the whole time, as they kept going through the list.
"Potter, Faelyn." I gasped a little. Could they have said what I thought they did? My hands gripped onto the table as I watched Faelyn climb up the stairs. Even her hair swayed with a bit of sass in it. The sorting hat sat properly on her head…
…The sorting had sat lop sided on my head. I grunted but no one took care to fix it. I stared at the school through one eye as the sorting hat whispered into my ear.
"Ooooh… A Potter! Harry's daughter! Faelyn, hu? I've been wanting another Potter, easy to sort out, you are. GRYFFINDOR!"
At the same time I was happy and sad… I had gotten what I wanted, I thought. I had kind of wished the sorting hat would talk about me more, take longer, and make me look like an interesting and complex person. I sat next to my cheering Gryffindor friends. Just over the crowd I could make out Raylee's pale, moonbeam face and I knew she understood. She caught my eye, glared for just a second, and then looked down at her plate.
The sorting had ended, and the food had arrived. Oh how the food had arrived! Mountains and rolling hills of food had covered the naked tables, and the starving students, once quiet with courtesy and curiosity, had now shed their costumes to become loud and boisterous starving beasts. But I wasn't hungry. I wanted to talk.
" Soooo…" I tried my best to make it come out as naturally as possible as I picked at a piece of bread. "Someone once told me that Gryffindors don't get on well with Slytherins. Is that true?"
"Oh yes," said a girl named Samantha who sat next to me. She was a year older, with strawberry blonde hair and big brown eyes, like a doe. "They're more like our arch enemies, really."
"Why is that?"
"I don't know. That's just the way it's always been. We don't get along well, we have nothing in common."
"Nothing? We could never be friends?"
"Faelyn, what are you thinking? No! Never. Don't even think it."
That night, as I lay in my red and gold, queen sized bed, I thought deeply about what Samantha had told me, and I was outraged. The way she said it made us sound like a different species than the other houses, and something about it just wasn't right. I rolled onto my back and closed my eyes. The rain had given up its struggles and was pouring onto the windowpane, in a way that said, 'Acknowledge my struggles, and inevitable defeat!' But I thought back to it, 'No. I never will.'
For the 5th time in two minutes my mother smoothed down my hair, cupping my face with her other hand, and pouted pathetically.
"She'll be fine," my father kept saying, patting my shoulder, though mum was not satisfied. She laid in question after question, like, "Do you have enough money? Enough warm cloths for winter? Do you have all of your school supplies? Do you know how to reach us once you get there?"
Like the ringing of a sanctuary's bell, the train whistle blew its warning and I could wrestle my way from my mothers sticky grip on my life. I bounded up the stairs of the red and black train, waving merrily at my parents, my father ginning with some sort of fatherly pride, my mother with her mouth covered in worry. The train jerked, like it had been wakened from a long, bad dream, and started heaving its load of students down the tracks. A conductor came by and shut the door, blocking the last view of my parents.
The halls were strangely crowded with last minute kids trying to find a place to stay, pushing each other and climbing over fallen victims backs in the small isles. I peered into a window of a box nonchalantly as I passed by, and then took a double take. I knew that girl! I slammed the door open, the girl shot up like it had been gunfire.
"Raylee!" I squeezed inside. She was the only other one there, which surprised me. Why wouldn't the kids outside have wanted to come in here? But the thought was soon drowned out from memory by my own voice.
"Do you remember me? My name is Faelyn!" I formally extended my hand to her. At first she looked like she had seen a ghost – well, for the first time at least. Then a small grin appeared on her white face and she took my hand.
"I remember you. You bought me a dragon for my wand." I nodded fiercely, sitting down across from her.
"You like it, right?"
"Yes! Of course! But…" She thought for a while, as if not sure she should speak her mind. I prompted her and she went on, hesitantly. "You shouldn't have done that…"
"It was a token of friendship. Think of it that way." She looked at me straight in the eyes for once. She had the eyes I had always envied.
"Oh… I don't know…"
Talking about material objects always seemed to make me nervous, so I changed it to something more heart-felt. "Aren't you excited about Hogwarts? I mean, I've been waiting for it since I was three!"
"No… I mean, not with so much enthusiasm. I look at it like the only way out of my house. My dad never really talked about it so much."
"My father used to talk about it all the time. He used to tell me stories of adventures and getting into trouble. I think he was hoping some of his vigor would rub off on me. I guess, in his mind, I should be just like him." Raylee looked at me oddly. I guessed she knew who my father was, and so I said, "Nobody is ever perfect." She nodded.
"I have my shares of problems too. My father treats me like I'm 85 – but not since recently, since I was a baby. He wants me to uphold my honor to the family. I told him honor was something you earn individually, but he doesn't understand." She looked outside the window. There were light gray clouds lazily floating over the day's sky, procrastinating their heavy burden of rain. The sun that shone through hit Raylees face and made her look like she was a glowing piece of buried treasure.
I pulled my knees to my chest and rested my head against my jeans. Raylee just stared out into the nothingness. A silent lamb.
"My father was so proud of me when my wand had phoenix feathers in it; so does his. Another one of those, 'that's my girl!' kind of things." Raylee nodded but didn't turn her head. "What are you staring at?"
"Nothing…really… Just the scenery passing me by." I looked out the window, but all I could see were grassy hills and a few grazing cows. It failed to amuse me as much as it did Raylee and so I concentrated on her facial expressions.
"Do you know anyone else who's going to Hogwarts?"
"Just you."
"Yeah! I don't know anyone either!" Raylee surprised me by facing me again, grinning like a cheesier cat.
"We're loners together," she laughed. He laugh was high and merry, and I wondered why she didn't use it more often. "I'm really not this quiet, you know? It's just that everything makes me nervous. My stomach is really acting up." I nodded like I understood, but how someone could be frightened of something as trivial as school baffled me, and I had to try not to think about it.
"Don't be scared. We'll go through it together!" I proclaimed, raising a fist into the air and raging a battle cry. Raylee laughed, her head lifting till she slammed it roughly against the back wall, but continued to laugh.
The merriment continued throughout our journey. Like we were the only ones in a carnival we had a mini party, complete with mounds of food, daring games, and one eventful scene where we both saw cows doing it out in pasture. We laughed until we thought our sides were bleeding, and the party ended.
The train gasped for its last breath and finally quit at the train station. I could feel the air get ticker as Raylee tensed up. We had to push and shove down the thin isles and out the sliding doors. Outside the clouds were holding back their load with all their strength, as if they didn't want to make Raylees school adventure any worse. I thanked them.
Outside was a short, grayed goblin holding up a blue lantern so we could spot him well. He was dressed in a tuxedo, with his bushy mass of a beard neatly trimmed, so you would have thought he had done it with a ruler to ensure it was perfect.
"First years! This way!" His high-pitched voice was like nails slowly etching into a chalkboard. It made me shiver; or maybe it was the cold. The goblin huddled us up into boats by groups of four, his own lead the way with the bobbing blue light of the lantern like the north star on the horizon of the lake. Raylee sat next to me, trembling and rubbing her hands up and down her arms.
The boats miraculously never tipped in the water, which seemed to be trying to rise up to the black clouds, beckoning it to fall. We carefully stepped out and onto a flight of stairs, leading up to a small wooden door. Inside the polished, stone floors reflected the fires illuminating the small, round room. The shadows jumped, trying to reach the ceiling, but barely made it. It gave the room a kind of sad, cold feeling.
An old woman with frown wrinkles on her face walked into the room, black robes flailing behind her like the fires on the wall. Her gray hair was pulled into a perfect bun on the back of her head, and somehow I knew right away whom it was.
"Welcome to Hogwarts!" she proclaimed. I always remember my father telling me she was a strict old bat, but I immediately found her to be friendly and fair. "Behind me in the next room is the dining hall, where a feast is being held in the honor of the first day of the school year. When you arrive you will be sorted into your houses. Your houses are like your family away from home. You will do everything together; have classes together, sleep in the same building, and eat at the same table. I expect while you are here that you follow the rules as you are prompted to, for doing so will earn your house points, and breaking them will loose points. Does everyone understand?"
The students just stared, their minds still trying to take in the information. My brain was chanting, "Gryffindor! Gryffindor!" I was confused; was I wishing for that, or my father? Raylee trembled next to me…
… Miss McGonagall's speech made me quiver. I wondered, would the sorting hat know if I was nervous? Would that effect where I would be placed? I tried to assure myself that wasn't so, but the fact that it MIGHT be was more powerful and creped in from the cracks.
I didn't even hear the rest of what she was saying as my mind completely flat lined. The only thing that made my feet move as we filed into the dining hall was Faelyns over confidence, like it was radiating off of her and maybe, just maybe, a little of her magic caught onto me.
When we entered the room the school was silent. Hundreds of children watched me as I walked down the long hall to the head table at the very end. The walk was miles and I was naked, every person judging me along the way. At the end was a ragged and dusty hat sitting on a pillow on top of a stool. It was frayed, patched and covered in soot. One by one our names were called off in alphabetical order. The house shouted at the top of his lungs most of the time,
"Ravenclaw!"
"Hufflepuff!"
"Malphoy, Raylee." My muscles stood at attention. 'Walk, now. Just up to the stool, then sit down… Ahh… Good.' I talked myself through it. Just by making it up there without tripping and landing onto my face had made me feel much better. Faelyn stood out from the mass of students, all alike in their uniforms. Her face was full of concern, and I felt relived that at least someone cared. The sorting hat plopped onto my head, and then was quiet for a long time. I had just begun to worry if I had broken it when,
"Ahhh… A Malphoy. Draco's daughter, yes. I see that… Plenty of Slytherin blood inside of you, there is!" he whispered into my ear. "Many Slytherin traits… Sharp, quick witted, revengeful… But…" he paused, and peered deeper into my mind, searching for the one thing that made him uncertain. Pressed on time, he gave up, and announced to the school, "SLYTHERIN!"
My table clapped loudly, a welcome that was greatly appreciated. I laughed as I bounded down the stairs, more comfortable now that I had a place in the school, now that I knew who I was.
"You're next!" I cheerfully said to Faelyn as I passed her. Her eyes were still concerned though.
"Didn't you know about us?" she whispered, but I didn't have time to answer her. I found my place at my table, and was greeted by my new house members. I watched Faelyn, her back turned on me the whole time, as they kept going through the list.
"Potter, Faelyn." I gasped a little. Could they have said what I thought they did? My hands gripped onto the table as I watched Faelyn climb up the stairs. Even her hair swayed with a bit of sass in it. The sorting hat sat properly on her head…
…The sorting had sat lop sided on my head. I grunted but no one took care to fix it. I stared at the school through one eye as the sorting hat whispered into my ear.
"Ooooh… A Potter! Harry's daughter! Faelyn, hu? I've been wanting another Potter, easy to sort out, you are. GRYFFINDOR!"
At the same time I was happy and sad… I had gotten what I wanted, I thought. I had kind of wished the sorting hat would talk about me more, take longer, and make me look like an interesting and complex person. I sat next to my cheering Gryffindor friends. Just over the crowd I could make out Raylee's pale, moonbeam face and I knew she understood. She caught my eye, glared for just a second, and then looked down at her plate.
The sorting had ended, and the food had arrived. Oh how the food had arrived! Mountains and rolling hills of food had covered the naked tables, and the starving students, once quiet with courtesy and curiosity, had now shed their costumes to become loud and boisterous starving beasts. But I wasn't hungry. I wanted to talk.
" Soooo…" I tried my best to make it come out as naturally as possible as I picked at a piece of bread. "Someone once told me that Gryffindors don't get on well with Slytherins. Is that true?"
"Oh yes," said a girl named Samantha who sat next to me. She was a year older, with strawberry blonde hair and big brown eyes, like a doe. "They're more like our arch enemies, really."
"Why is that?"
"I don't know. That's just the way it's always been. We don't get along well, we have nothing in common."
"Nothing? We could never be friends?"
"Faelyn, what are you thinking? No! Never. Don't even think it."
That night, as I lay in my red and gold, queen sized bed, I thought deeply about what Samantha had told me, and I was outraged. The way she said it made us sound like a different species than the other houses, and something about it just wasn't right. I rolled onto my back and closed my eyes. The rain had given up its struggles and was pouring onto the windowpane, in a way that said, 'Acknowledge my struggles, and inevitable defeat!' But I thought back to it, 'No. I never will.'