"Okay, this is odd," she heard her victim struggle to say. "You mum sent me back here to make sure you were okay, you took awhile to get back."
"That would be because the Floo Powder was missing. I had to go find some." She told him and released her death-grip on his neck.
He rubbed his neck, wincing slightly, "Remind me never to get into a fight with you," the tall, burly seventh year laughed hoarsely.
They walked down the steps back to the original fireplace. The pot of Floo Powder had been replaced.
"That was odd," Sian admitted. "So which twin are you?" She asked keeping the vial handy.
"George."
"Now is there a difference that I will be able to tell later on?"
"I'm the nice one? Or maybe the better looking?"
"How 'bout the one that doesn't fight back?"
"No, we both do that."
"Hmm, do you maybe look different?"
"I'm taller, older, Fred has more freckles."
"I can remember that."
"You had better, we switch around a lot."
"Okay."
The two people traveled back to the Leaky Cauldron. George went immediately in the opposite direction that Sian was headed. At the table where she had left her friends she found them all patiently waiting.
"I'll be right back," she told them, her eyes a grey-blue. She was still flustered about the Floo Powder. They waved her on and she ran up to her room where her mom was waiting.
"Wow, her eyes are wicked cool, I wonder how she does that," Harry commented when Sian had left.
"I read somewhere that you could have your eyes reflect how you are feeling, like a mood ring," Hermione told the table matter-of-factly.
"That's not it exactly," Hazel grinned.
"Yeah, if you really want to know you have to ask her when she gets back we aren't at liberty to say," Alicia added.
Sian met her mother in her room.
"So what are these?" Her mother motioned to the brooms.
"This is the Cygnus 2000, the first broom Dad gave me."
"And is it tested?"
"Yeah, powerful brakes, turns nice, reaches speeds of over 100 mph." "And this?"
"The Lupus Racer, got it for Christmas, second broom."
"Tested?"
"Goes about 200mph, but you don't want any one to hit you."
Her mother smiled grimly, "The other two?"
"The Corvus Speed Demon-hasn't been tested. And the Columba Angel-hasn't been tested either."
"You test them before you use them."
"Mum!"
"I know you will, but don't forget."
Sian went back to the table where her friends were and Alicia told her about their questions.
"So how do your eyes change color like that?" Hermione asked, positive her answer was right.
"Really? I don't know, I developed the color changing as I grew up, a more expansive color variety for the moods I develop." Sian told her audience.
"What colors do they turn depending on the mood?" Ron asked.
"That'd ruin all the fun," Sian laughed.
"Do they turn outrageous colors like orange and red and stuff?" Fred wondered aloud.
"Only on Halloween," She told him.
Fred didn't believe her.
She had dinner with her friends while their parents chatted. After their meal Sian went to bed, and dreamed.
Wormtail sulked back to his master, the tall and ultimately scary, Lord
Voldemort.
"So?" Voldemort attempted a growling voice. He succeeded in a high pitched growl, not what he had hoped but it was menacing all the same.
"Master, you are still very weak," Wormtail squeaked afraid of this man. "You did not get her?"
"She was surrounded by friends, we would have been found out." "Friends?" Voldemort asked, suddenly interested.
"Harry Potter, the Weasley boys and girl, Hermione Granger, Alicia Spinnet, and Hazel Bastow."
"Hmmm," Voldemort thought aloud a plan was already forming. I will have her though."
The next morning Sian, already packed, woke up late and went for breakfast. Dressed in her normal carpenter pants and skateboarding t-shirt, she descended the staircase. Her blonde hair pulled back into a ponytail and her face shadowed by her favorite skateboarding hat she ate her blueberry pancake breakfast.
Alicia, Hazel, and the twins soon joined her. After going over basic stuff Sian was warned to stay away from Slytherin, and more importantly, Draco Malfoy. Draco, she was informed as Hazel crawled in beside her in the cab they were taking to the train station, was a snobby, stuck-up boy with a very large ego.
"How tall is he?" She asked George as he crawled in beside Hazel.
"About six foot?" George guessed.
"Nice," she commented.
"Why?" He questioned curiously.
"If he's taller than her and she totals him; it makes him look like more of a loser," Hazel told him.
The six foot, four inch Weasley sulked in his seat.
"What's that for?" Hazel asked.
"Nothing," they chorused instantaneously.
Alicia and Fred took the cab after them. Ginny, Ron, Harry, and Hermione squeezed into another cab, followed by the Weasley's parents and Sinead, Sian's mom, in the last cab. At King's Cross the wizard group made their way to Platform 9 3/4.
"Where is it?" Sian asked her mother.
"Right here," her mother replied.
"Mum, that's the stone barrier between Platforms 9 and 10."
"I know Sian, watch."
Sian watched Fred and George casually lean up against the barrier with their trunks-and disappear.
Ron and Harry took the barrier at a run while the rest of the people casually walked into it.
Soon, Sian and Hazel were the only ones left.
They leaned up against the barrier and felt the weirdest falling sensation, like when you feel like you are about to fall, but you are standing on solid ground, and landed right-side-up below a sign reading Platform 9 3/4.
The girls hi-fived and made sure their stuff was loaded onto the train, the Hogwarts Express. Only then did they board, after hugging Sinead good-bye. They met up with Alicia who led them into a predominately Gryffindor train car. Sian made herself comfortable and pulled out her book Building Brooms and What Works Best.
Hazel sat down next to her and Alicia sat across from them. Just as the train was about to pull out of the station a tapping on the window got the girls' attention. A large Barn Owl was trying to get in.
Hazel opened the window and with a soft thwup the bird landed in Sian's lap. She laughed and looked down, the letter was from Hogwarts.
Dear Ms. MacDonal, Because you are starting at Hogwarts later than most students you are required to be Sorted with the first years, please join Hagrid and the other first years when you reach Hogwarts. Thank you, Professor McGonagall P.S. Keep the bird with you please.
Sian's friends looked at her curiously, "I get to be Sorted," she told them, "whatever that is."
"You put on this hat that sings a song telling you the traits of the members in each of the four Houses. You'll be in Gryffindor, I think," Alicia informed her.
"I hope so," Sian commented.
Alicia went to the bathroom and the twins filled in the empty seats across from Sian and Hazel. Both of the girls were listening to CD players.
George, realizing he hadn't disturbed them (that had been their original goal) snatched Sian's book away.
"Hey-"
"You read?"
"Only the good stuff."
"Good stuff, huh?" George used this as an opportunity to look at the cover of the book. "Like brooms?" He asked.
"Just a smidgen," she remarked.
"Do you build them?"
"I own a book on them don't I?"
"Doesn't mean you build them."
"No, but I'm aiming to, just need to get the right equipment."
"What do you have?" Fred asked.
"All of them?" They nodded.
"A Cleansweep Seven, a Cygnus 2000, a Lupus Racer, a Corvus Speed Demon, and a Columba Angel."
"Uh, huh."
"What?"
"Did you say Nimbus 2000?" Hazel asked.
"No, Cygnus, starts with C-ends with a -gnus sound." Sian answered.
"Are those American-made brooms, those last four?" George asked.
"You could say that."
"But you have a Cleansweep?" Fred interrupted.
"Yeah."
"What do you play?" Fred asked.
"Keeper," was Hazel's immediate answer.
"Oh-really-" George thought aloud.
"But a lot of times I use my Lupus, it's wicked fast," Sian told them.
"How fast?" Fred questioned.
"At least 200mph, I clocked it," Sian grinned, they didn't need to know she had built the brooms just yet. "When's Quidditch start for you?"
"End of October," George replied quickly.
"End of October," Sian echoed. That was good, her birthday was October third, and her dad could send her another broom kit and she'd have it made by Quidditch season-hmm this was a good idea, Sian told herself.
Hazel told her that they had to wear robes at school so they went to the baggage car and pulled on a robe. This time the pockets were bigger and her CD player fit inside it.
The twins had vacated Alicia's area and the girls rode in peace to Hogwarts. At school Sian went over to Hagrid with the other first years and they climbed into large rowboats that carried them across a glass-like lake, unmanned.
At the entrance to the school Hagrid turned them over to a tall, older woman with greying hair held in a tight bun who introduced herself as Professor McGonagall, she was very strict- looking. She told Sian and the first years the basic procedure for the Sorting and was led into the Dining Hall.
The Sorting Hat, a battered, felling apart hat cheerfully sang its song and Professor McGonagall stood up with a long piece of parchment in her hand and began reading off names. The letters passed slowly, Allen ...Archibald ...Baron ..Carmel ...Donahue ..Fairfield. .. The hat would pause or immediately shout out the House names, either Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, or Slytherin. Sian phased in and out.
They were now at the L's. Lance was in Hufflepuff, Lawrence was in Ravenclaw, Leonard was Slytherin, London was in Gryffindor.
There were a few more and then on to the M's. MacDonal, Sian was the first one up. Slowly, with legs like lead Sian made her way to the stool with the Sorting Hat on top of it. She placed the Hat on her head and waited.
"Hmm," it mumbled, "you've got quite a clash here...Slytherin and Gryffindor, all the traits are the same...hmm...it's Gryffindor you want?"
