(Green Pig:- this has got to be my FAVOURITE chapter for any story I've ever written!! I am so happy to post it on ffnet! ^_^ Please, please I hope you enjoy it, please don't forget to review, this chapter's about 8 pages long… roughly, so make sure you have enough time spared to read it, thank you again, goodbye!!!)
Thank you to:
zippy bug
(my very nice friend)
Liz
(hope you come back someday)
Jeanne
(calm down, you think chapter 2 was exciting…? You ain't seen nothing)
tana
(hope you enjoy this)
Marie Goos
(m000f!!!!! m00f to you my very weird friend!!!)
JudgeDP
(Thank you for caring ::sheds a tear:: I really appreciate knowing I exist out there.)
HermioneG89
(I'll keep writing for you!!! For everyone!!!)
Spawn-of-Piccolo
(This chapter weirder…er… wait, that's the next one, next one VERY weird…brace yourself)
I.C. Fire
(As ever, my very faithful friend, keep writing!!! Me too!!! Harry Potter must never die!!!)
Mariella
(You are ABSOLUTELY CORRECT!!! Yes you guessed right, though don't set your heart too much on a romantic based storyline, I'm intending to scare the pants off everyone with this fic, or at least slightly disturb, as always I'm writing for my own pleasure so I'm sorry if you no agree with my ideas…I like lotsa blood….and lotsa….dementia @_@)
DISCLAIMER: Harry Potter is not mine. 'nuff said.
Chapter Four
Sinking and Sorting
The following few days passed quickly, on September 3rd Draco was ready with his sisters to travel to Platform 9 ¾ via a Portkey. Lucius was coming with them this year – to keep an eye on Draco as long as he could.
"Goodbye mother."
"Goodbye Draco, be well." Draco and Narcissa hugged briefly.
"Farewell mother, we will miss you dearly." Cecelia said with a kiss.
"Yes, we will." Darklis also kissed her mother but was in fact really excited about leaving as soon as possible – she couldn't wait to get away.
"Be back soon, dear." Lucius said and they left with their trunks through a Portkey in the middle of the hallway, Cecelia and Darklis dressed in their new black robes, they also had a cat each, that they received just yesterday from their father. They were two ruddy-coated Abyssinian cats only just come out of kitten-hood, and they sat in Cecelia and Darklis' arms with contented faces.
At the station Cecelia and Darklis were so amazed that they forgot to say a proper goodbye to their father who disapparated soon enough. Their two cats leapt down and decided to hop and skip round by their legs, playing with each other. Draco took them to the train, found a compartment for them all and once his sisters were settled in their own place he went out back onto the platform to find Crabbe and Goyle. They were waiting for him and quickly shuffled into position following behind him as if he'd stopped briefly and strapped leads to his back. They carried their own luggage to the same compartment Cecelia and Darklis were in waiting with their cats exploring the seats and running about.
"Hello." Cecelia said nervously to Crabbe and Goyle.
"Hello." Crabbe grunted.
"Alright." Goyle muttered.
"Yes these are my sisters, treat them with the same amount of respect you give me, if you will." Draco drawled to them. On one side of the compartment Draco sat with his sisters and on the other Crabbe and Goyle sat with folded arms across their chests, they didn't talk because Draco had told them not to years ago.
"Tongo," Cecelia called and her Abyssinian cat leapt up onto her lap washing its paws and purring.
"Grim, come here Grim," And Darklis' cat slipped up to her and scratched its ears on her lap while she stroked him.
"Cats are useless." Draco sneered.
"Leave them alone, where's your owl anyway? I thought everyone had to have something to look after." Darklis muttered back.
"I don't need to keep a pet, my owl flies to Hogwarts and waits for me there. Those two are too energetic for you, you should have lap cats." Tongo and Grim both looked up at him and hissed, leaping down from their owners laps to sit over on the other seat next to Crabbe and Goyle who didn't stroke them because they belonged to the Malfoys and not them.
"What's up with them? See, cats are a waste of time, bunch of grumpy animals. Quit hissing at me!"
"They don't like you." Cecelia commented.
"Obviously, they're yours tell them to stop."
"Tongo, stop it!"
"Bad boy Grim!" The two cats had their ears flat against their heads, backs were arched and fur standing up on end staring angrily at Draco, who suddenly felt a sharp pain run up back and into his head. He clutched his temples and groaned.
"Are you okay Draco?" Cecelia the-constant-caring-worrier asked.
"Fine." He grunted. "Come on you two," He indicated Crabbe and Goyle. "Let's get out of here for a while."
"You can't leave us alone now Draco!" Cecelia pleaded when he was out of the door. "Dark! He left us!"
"Okay." She shrugged and continued watching out of the window.
"You're turning just as boring as him!" Cecelia huffed folding her arms across her chest. Tongo and Grim were both growling warily and creeping down from the seat to where their owners were, now that they were alone they could settle down and snuggle up to them. Though quite energetic cats they thought it best to relax for this journey.
The train began to move and rolled out of platform 9 ¾, puffing smoke as it went along through the countryside.
"Firs'-years! Firs'-years over here!" Cecelia and Darklis turned and looked up, a giant of a man beamed down at them with a big wide smile. It was dark now.
"Hello! Firs'-year?" They nodded warily as one and their cats hopped up onto their shoulders. "Follow me. Firs'-years! Over here!" He went through the crowd like a steam liner in the sea and the twins followed closely behind so as not to get stuck behind someone else. Tongo and Grim clutching onto their shoulders like owls.
They didn't know where Draco had gone but they were hardly thinking about him at all, as Hagrid gathered them with a large number of children their age, someone started talking to them.
"Hello, I'm Matthew, what's your names?" A small boy with black spiky hair said suddenly appearing at their sides.
"We are Malfoys and we do not talk to you." Darklis said haughtily, the boy frowned at them and moved away.
"What did you have to say that for? He was only asking our names, being polite."
"Father says we have to live up to the name of Malfoy, that means we have to show everyone else that we are above them." Cecelia fumed at her.
"You are as bad as Draco!" Then she stopped talking to her completely. Tongo followed her example and also looked angry with Darklis.
Then they followed the giant down a long steep path, following the light of his lantern against his immense black silhouette until it suddenly opened out onto a great black lake. On a mountain the other side of the water Hogwarts stood proud and shimmering with each window sparkling with light. The crowd of first years gasped with awe and all noticed the little array of boats lined up at the bank.
"Yeh'll have ter go over the water in them. No more'n four to a boat!" They clambered in to the boats quickly, Cecelia and Darklis were the only two left, so they clambered in reluctantly hitching up their robes and sat in their boat.
"Can I come in with you?" Cecelia beamed widely and opened her mouth to say 'yes' but Darklis snapped round and said: "No." to the little girl in a quick snap.
"Darklis!"
"Be quiet, honestly Cecelia you're forgetting yourself. We are Malfoys. And as Malfoys we must act in a certain way, not like these simple folk." She spat grabbing an oar and pushing themselves off the bank easily and into the water.
"How do you know what to do? We've never been in a rowing boat before in our lives!"
"It's just a little boat, honestly use some sense Cecie. There are oars and you use them to row." They drifted out following the rest of the little boats across the lake, silver with moonshine. Tongo and Grim were not the only cats in a boat, owls always flew to the castle while their cages and the rest of everybody's luggage was taken to Hogwarts and toads went into their owner's pockets. The two cats climbed down from the twins' shoulders and got to the front of the boat peering curiously into the water swishing their tails. Darklis pushed an oar into Cecelia's hands and ordered her to row, which she did, finding it quite easy really and rather fun.
The two cats shot back suddenly and yelped into Cecelia and Darklis' arms. Before they could ask themselves what had happened something breathed through the surface of the water, like a whale, and great ripples rocked the group of boats. Then about ten fat slimy brown tentacles rose and wavered around them. The twins screamed with the rest of the first years while Hagrid in his single boat was knocked hard with the largest tentacle, the giant man was tipped right over into the water gulping and glugging trying to stay afloat, but something took him under. No one saw that happen though because already most of the boats were upside down and children cried, calling out in fear swimming back to their boats.
The twins were holding each other around their waists and screamed watching the rising water as another tentacle pulled their boat down, front tipping forward so that they rose up and started feeling themselves slip forward. Tongo and Grim hissed and gripped on with their claws uselessly.
The lake was filled with crying girls and boys splashing about and trying to hold onto the upturned boats, some couldn't swim and spluttered for help weakly sinking down. Cats yowled and dragged their heavy soaked fur up onto the boats shivering and shaking.
The boat tipped.
They held on tight to each other and went in holding their breaths, Tongo and Grim leapt and splashed into the water nearby immediately swimming for another boat to get onto.
It was bone chillingly cold under the water and every sound was muffled in the bubbles. Cecelia wasn't holding her breath anymore, and she struggled to hold on or keep calm. Darklis wasn't any calmer but she was holding her breath well, and risked opening her eyes to quickly see the many legs kicking under the surface. She saw tentacles sweeping past them and whimpered. Cecelia opened her eyes and mouth at the same time and spluttered gripping harder to Darklis' neck and hung onto her for life, Darklis looked up to the slipping light and pushed her legs back hard to rise but her sister's weight was too much for her and she lost her strength, let the last of her air go and screamed, or tried to as they sunk quickly feeling deep throbbing pain in their heads and lungs, she was about to die in this freezing water a little girl with her sister and other first years on their first day at Hogwarts.
Something strong gripped her dress and she felt herself being dragged up, still Cecelia was holding her waist and she felt both their weight dragging down just the same. Then they broke the surface and the noise of screaming and wailing washed over them as they coughed and breathed in thankfully, the pressure on her head and chest were quickly gone and she felt life holding her firmly again. But they were still being held on by something and it dragged them both away from the panic in the middle of the lake. Darklis opened her eyes and saw what it was that had saved them; the green slimy face with murky yellow eyes looked round at her and smiled, well smiled the best it could, its face obviously wasn't evolved enough to master that expression just yet. It was holding onto her sister's dress from the back and Darklis realised that there were two of them with her, one holding onto her and one for Cecelia. She couldn't tell immediately their sexes but she didn't care, in a matter of seconds from being dragged up from the lake they were rested on the banks and left, panting for air and just lying back relishing in the delight of life.
Others were also coming up, some were unconscious and some came still struggling and calling, but all taken to the banks and left by the green water beings who turned back and went to rescue more. Darklis helped Cecelia sit up and they watched, still coughing weakly, as the green people gathered at the centre of the boats and turned them up the right way again, pushing and pulling them to the banks as they had done with the children. They could see Hagrid wringing out his shaggy black hair nearby, at least these people were intelligent enough to put everyone on the same bank together.
But what had happened?
The water was soon calm and a large number of green heads bobbed up and down cheering, screeching a strange language, like dolphins they screeched and waved at Hagrid cheering, who waved back and watched them flip back under to be gone completely, disappearing as quickly and silently as they had arrived.
"Had a little mis'ap M'Gonagall!" Hagrid said at the entrance to Hogwarts puffing and wheezing. "We nee' stretchers quick, the 'ole lot's got turned upside down in the water." McGonagall took in his waterlogged clothes and knew that if Hagrid was in such a state then it must be something bad.
"I'll get Dumbledore immediately, you go back quick, how many are okay?"
"The Merpeople gottus out. Saved the 'ole lot of us they did! Some'r not wakin' though. I told 'em to stay where they were."
"Good, okay. I'll get as much staff as possible as quickly as I can!" She turned and ran out through the doors into the great hall up to the staff table, causing the pupils present waiting for the sorting to bring up a loud discussion about what was wrong. She stood beyond the table from Dumbledore and what she said to him made him and other teachers immediately jump up, pushing back their chairs that squeaked on the floor. Even Snape got up and looked seemingly very worried or shocked.
"Sit calm, the sorting will have to be delayed!" Dumbledore said to the school as he lead the procession of teachers out of the hall.
"You two alrigh'? nothin' broken, can you walk?"
"Yes, we're okay…just shocked thank you." Darklis answered for them both stepping back and still holding onto Cecelia who was whimpering and muttering to herself.
"What are you saying?"
"Where's Tongo? And Grim?" Darklis looked around, where were they?
"I don't know, maybe they'll find their own way to us soon." Just as she said that two wet and shivering Abyssinian cats mewed and ran up to them purring and rubbing against their legs. The twins both looked round and saw other people hugging their pets and each other, some laughing or crying trying to cope with what happened. They bent down and hugged their cats in their arms walking over to others grouped away from the rest looking less worried about what had just happened to them.
"It was the squid!" Someone said.
"Those were Merpeople, I thought I was dead but they saved all our lives!" A blonde girl sighed.
"I so wanted to thank them but they didn't stay…"
"That was amazing."
"Where's Roger?"
"Is Helen around?"
"I lost my toad!" Darklis and Cecelia listened and realised how close they had been to death, the thought sent terrible cold chills up their spines and they hugged their cats closer.
They could see other figures striding towards them and realised they were teachers.
"Rubeus!" Dumbledore's strong voice called out in the dark and he came into view. Cecelia gasped.
"Wow, he looks really old!" She said, Darklis elbowed her in the ribs.
"That's rude!" She hissed.
"Sorry." Only seven people were finding it hard to breathe, one person was blue with coughing and wheezing, curled up in the grass convulsing. It was that boy the teachers first went up to, one red haired lady tried to move him but instead started searching his pockets on his robes. She found a strange looking object and held it up, Dumbledore and a few of the teachers nodded understandably but Snape and others obviously had not understood what Pomfrey was trying to tell them. A stretcher was made for the boy and as his eyes rolled up into his head and his breathing dwindled away Pomfrey flicked her wand at the boy's chest and at once his wheezing stopped, he silenced and went deathly still.
"They haven't killed him have they?!" Cecelia whispered trembling into Darklis' ear.
"I don't know…" Darklis was watching and waiting…
Snape fished into his robes and pulled out a bottle, shook it and looked at the label in the glow of his wand light and took out another similar sized bottle from another pocket, shook it and took the cork out. He poured a drop from that into the first bottle and shook it quickly; the teachers and Pomfrey were silently urging him on. He patted his pockets and produced a needle and filled it with the mixture, then handed it to the nurse and slapped his hands behind his back and waited, looking relieved to have the pressure of making potions instantaneously before the patient died before him, off of him. Pomfrey pushed back the boy's right sleeve and thumbed for a vein on the underside of his elbow, put the needle and potion into his body.
It was a tense moment, for the teachers and all the children standing around watching with worry.
The boy suddenly took a deep breath and twisted his legs. The teachers all sighed and clapped happily, except for Snape who just sighed and looked relieved to have that trouble behind them, he flicked his wand and produced a large beam of light across the ground.
"Follow Professor McGonagall and Hagrid to the school." He ordered, the people obeyed with no questions. He didn't snap or say it in a menacing way, it was just clear to them that this was a man who knew what he was doing and had large amount of authority about him. Cecelia and Darklis followed, Tongo and Grim skipping along beside them and poking playfully at the other cats as they went on up to the doors and into the entrance hall where they could hear the loud incessant murmur from the rest of the school in the Great Hall.
They didn't have to wait long until everyone was back, all the teachers and the boy who was walking along by the nurse happily and healthily. Cecelia and Darklis still didn't understand what had been wrong with him.
"Welcome to Hogwarts." McGonagall started catching her breath and nodding to the rest of the staff as they went back into the hall, everybody got a quick glimpse of the inside and of the other pupils talking to each other before the doors shut again. "You will be sorted and placed into a house each, when you are sorted you will sit down at your house table and stay in that house for the rest of your time here. Now, let's get you in a line of two's and walk in to be sorted. Follow me, try and look…" She thought desperately for the word with them all standing dripping and bedraggled in front of her with eyes like beaten dogs. "…Happy. And I'm afraid your cats will have to go elsewhere for now. Toads can be kept in your pockets. But cats would just get in the way here." She sighed and stretched her neck high to look more presentable and swooped round, thrust open the wide doors and began walking, everyone followed her in a line, Darklis and Cecelia near the back and that boy first in front behind McGonagall.
The hall was the most brilliant place they'd ever been, candles hanging above the four tables lit brightly, students lined on benches watching as they walked past them all dripping and robes sagging with water, shoes squelching, noses dripping with drops falling from their hair, brand new pointy school hats flopped back over. It was one of the saddest sights ever seen on the first day of term.
They came to a halt at the staff table and McGonagall placed a three-legged stool in front of them with an old stitched hat in her right hand, and a scroll of names in her left hand. The floor where they'd walked through was covered with puddles and sloppy muddy footprints.
"Sit and be chosen when I call out your name." McGonagall said. "Andrews, Oliver." A wet drippy looking boy, not just because of being dunked in the lake, with short blond hair slipped and slapped across the floor; his robes were perhaps a little too long for him and they dragged behind. He sat down with a 'flump' and waited only a few short seconds to be sorted into Gryffindor.
"Axix, Simon."
"Gryffindor!" The hat squealed happily. Already two Gryffindors, their table was clapping and cheering as the second boy joined them.
"Beth, Alicia."
"Ravenclaw!" More cheering from the other side of the hall.
"Bonnod, Gennus."
"Hufflepuff!" So the list went on, by the time 's' came up five people were in Gryffindor, four in Slytherin, two in Ravenclaw and six in Hufflepuff.
"Snape, Robert." The hall gasped as one and instantly shot round to the dark looking teacher seated near Dumbledore. He blinked realising that all eyes were on him and he sat up from his half slouch that he had been accustomed to for the past years.
"No relation at all." He said quickly and waved his hand. "There are many Snapes around the world, it's not as popular as Smith but you'd be stupid to think there was ever one Snape family in existence." The hall slowly turned their eyes back to the sorting.
"Do continue Professor." Snape smiled courteously at her.
"Yes. Robert…" The new Snape stepped forward seemingly quite embarrassed with discovering that one of the teachers was also called Snape, and now the rest of the school would remember and recognise him forever. How embarrassing.
"Gryffindor!" The school rumbled with quiet, but audible laughs. Robert didn't understand why until someone told him at the Gryffindor table that the Professor who shared his surname was the head of Slytherin and quite a mean guy at times, most of the time, all the time, and that the Gryffindors and Slytherins as a rule, never got on well. His presence may cause some confusion at Hogwarts.
"Timber, Sarah-Grace."
"Slytherin!" Soon it was down to the 'm's' and Draco on the Slytherin table watched unconcernedly at his sisters preparing themselves. It was only Cecelia, Darklis, the boy who was saved by the lake and three other boys left waiting.
"Malfoy- " Some Gryffindors and Slytherins began muttering. " -Cecelia." Cecelia bubbled and walked in a dignified way to the stool, sat and closed her eyes smiling as McGonagall lay the hat over her head.
They waited.
Nothing for almost a minute.
Then…
"Hufflepuff!" The Slytherins all roared with disgust and Draco with some other others rose from their seats to glare evilly at the hat and its occupier, the other houses were laughing, non more so than Gryffindor.
"Do sit down." McGonagall drawled tiresomely after she got the hall to silence. "This is a matter you, nor anyone else can have a say in. Sit down, Slytherins." They slowly obeyed and Draco too, still glaring in disgust and anger all mixed into one boiling emotion.
"Go to the Hufflepuff table now, miss Malfoy." She took the hat off the girl and pointed with the hand holding the scroll to the table in front of them all with older, sceptical faces. Cecelia went to protest but seeing the expression on McGonagall's face and already immensely embarrassed, she walked to the Hufflepuff table and sat down between two second years who were kind enough to draw her a stool and hand her a tissue since a waterfall of silent tears were rushing down her cheeks already.
"Malfoy, Darklis." Attention was switched to the other twin and Darklis sat on the stool feeling apprehensive; if her sister had been chosen for Hufflepuff material then would she too be a Hufflepuff? The thought disgusted her and after only a few seconds under the hat when she thought how much she hated the Hufflepuffs like a true Slytherin the hat sent her to the same house as her brother. There was no applause from the Slytherins, instead she got just as many bad looks from her new house as Cecelia got, except these looks were of suspicion and confusion; the Slytherins were looking at a complete double of Cecelia with Darklis and her both wearing neat black gloves and having the same blonde-white curls, the Slytherins really were not sure who they should trust more.
And so the sorting went on. In the end the house that got more new first years was Ravenclaw, then second with the most new students was Gryffindor, Slytherin and then Hufflepuff. Cecelia sobbed and watched the rest of the Hufflepuffs on her table generously passing plates and bowls full of food across in front of her, already the hall was awash with the soft murmuring of hundreds of voices laughing and exchanging gossip between each other, but she just shook her head politely at those who offered her some food and thought about how much she had disgraced her family by sitting with these Hufflepuffs.
"You're a Malfoy?" The boy on her right casually asked with a little disbelief at his own words. She nodded and looked down at her plate for the first time; it was filled with warm food, appetising and tempting. "Dunno what's worse, a true-born Slytherin in Hufflepuff or a true-born Hufflepuff in Slytherin." Cecelia slowly turned an irritated eye on the boy and he smiled anime style with a happy wave, (A/N: well if Cecelia knew about anime she would have best described his smile like that à ;D).
"Hi, I'm Max!" He held up a bread roll and broke off a bit for her. "You're gonna be in trouble I can see it. Ain't no good that'll come of being half Slytherin and half Hufflepuff."
"But I am a Slytherin, the stupid hat put me in the wrong house."
"Nah, the hat always chooses what's true. You're like a rare specimen, a Malfoy in Hufflepuff! People'll be talking about it for years!" Cecelia broke down with another rush of tears and she buried her face in the tissue the girl on her left had given to her when she first sat down.
"Max, shut up." A girl opposite, and maybe in fourth or fifth year, said. "Don't pay any attention to the little sod, he just likes being a pain, don't you Max? And his name's not really Max, it's Markus."
"But I hate the name Markus, Max is so much cooler!" The boy retaliated. "Besides, everyone calls me Max, why'd you have to tell her my real name was Markus anyway? Why'd she care; She's just a Malfoy." At those words Cecelia felt such a large swelling of anger inside her that she threw down the tissue at her side and stamped on the boy's left foot under the table, he satisfyingly squealed like a girl and went to rub his sore foot but knocked his head on the table whilst bending down. Suddenly someone was laughing and it was her. The fifth year girl was laughing too and soon the next six people on both sides of the table to her left and right heard what had happened and started to laugh as well. Max looked up red-faced and decided that he might as well just join in with the rest of them.
Darklis and Draco, seated side by side at the head of the table sneered across at the Hufflepuff table watching their little sister weeping pathetically on the other side of the hall. They both shared the same thought and if they had a conversation it would have gone like this:
"What's she doing over there? She's a pure-blooded Malfoy and a Slytherin through and through!" That would have been Darklis.
"Father will not like to hear of this; I shall tell him immediately, after the feast, by owl and then we shall see her in Slytherin before tomorrow morning." Darklis had a doubt despite how much she knew her father would rant and rave using all his money as bribes, she knew as well as any other first year that the sorting hat of Hogwarts chose what was true and couldn't be changed after it had made a decision. She was deeply disappointed in her little sister and greatly disgusted by the way she suddenly allowed herself to start the whole Hufflepuff house off in happy laughter at some joke she had made, but she was also very sad inside. Hurt. The first time they had ever been separated, and it made her heart feel sore from thinking of all the time in their life they had shared being the same, being one person split into two and both pleasing their parents with their angelic beauty and good behaviour, but above all it hurt how she knew they had both kept up their firm beliefs that the Hufflepuffs and the Gryffindors were adversaries or something to walk over. At least, that's what she had always believed. Now she was a Hufflepuff? Did Darklis really know her sister after all?
Coming back to what really was happening, Darklis rested her head onto her right palm and sighed, watching her sister laugh and finally accept the Hufflepuffs offering her food and she started making conversation with them. Darklis was worrying that maybe some Malfoy secret would be let loose by her…like how they knew all too well that their father had been a Death Eater before they were born, how Voldemort was alive again and how their father was still under his command… it was one subject the whole family knew that they had to keep quiet about and pretend that they weren't involved in the slightest.
Darklis and Cecelia already knew more dark magic than anyone in the fifth year.
Draco was taught it too, but they never showed that they did know some of the most forbidden spells known to wizards to anyone, all the countless times Draco could have cursed Harry, Ron and Hermione with the worst spells and he kept his cool because he knew the price if ever the Ministry or Lord Voldemort should find out. However, in truth the twins were too young and un-experienced to perform any of the spells and Draco had never tried so they posed no threat to anyone. Yet.
The feasting continued, new first years were getting to know each other and find their places in the social backgrounds of their houses. Cecelia enjoyed talking to Max, because he was funny and cute with that scruffy black hair and devilish grin. The fifth year girl was called Harriet Friday and was very interested in brewing potions and the Dark Arts, so unusual for a Hufflepuff who most people naturally assumed they'd enjoy Herbology and Charms above everything else, Cecelia was eager to find out what lessons she would most enjoy so that she could fit in more with some of the conversations on the table which were mainly about boyfriends and girlfriends, plants and herbs, cooking, favourite dishes and what so-and-so did over the holidays. She liked these people; they were talkative and kind, careful not to offend and worry, so polite when offering food and a friendly handshake. She liked the Hufflepuffs and felt glad that she had had the chance to meet them all, after glancing once to the Slytherin table that was quiet and well ordered, demanding to be passed the grub and get things over as quickly as possible so that they could go back to their dungeons. Cecelia smiled and relaxed at last.
"Malfoy having sisters. Biggest shock in my life I think." Ron was muttering to the nodding of his friends over on the Gryffindor table.
"Well, it isn't unusual, there's a lot of people who have younger brothers and sisters so young that they don't come to Hogwarts until their older sibling's left or in their last year." Hermione said matter-of-factly.
"Well yeah, but Malfoy? He's never mentioned anything-"
"Oh Ron, you can't go on with this silly game all the time. Yes he is an arse but he's still human so let him have some sisters and call it an end. Isn't that right Harry?" She turned to Harry who since returning to the familiar settings of Hogwarts, had cheered up an awful lot in the past few hours.
"Surprising but not very disturbing." He stated popping some trifle into his mouth and looking over to the Hufflepuff table laughing away; the main surprise was that one of them had gone into Hufflepuff, which Ron emphasised by grinning a lot and nudging Hermione to look at the sour faces on the Slytherin table.
"Anyway, as Head Girl I have been given the duty to inform the prefects of the new Gryffindor common room password. Harry, it's Chocolate froggies."
"Thanks Head Girl." Of course Harry had been made a prefect the year before and now it was his job to take all the new first years to the common room and explain about the school, just like Percy had done many years ago. There was another prefect as well, it was Neville and he seemed most nervous about it all, but in the last few years he'd grown in confidence so much that Professor Sprout had persuaded Professor McGonagall to make him the only other prefect to team with Harry.
Two prefects for each house and one Head Girl from Gryffindor, one Head Boy from Ravenclaw by the name of Simon Tarrot who Hermione was quite infatuated briefly back in her fifth year. Now though she couldn't stand his stuck-up attitude believing he knew so much more than her, Hermione couldn't care less if he really did know so much more than her but it was the way he kept on at it that made him so dislikeable.
Dumbledore stood up after the feasting had ended and told the Prefects to take all the new years to their new houses promptly so that everyone could have a nice rest before lessons would begin again the next day.
Hermione had been given instructions before the start of term through her annual Hogwarts letter that she and Simon would have to go with the staff and be told what to do. Harry and Neville organised the first years; all quivering with apprehension and all very clearly exhausted from the day, then walked out of the Great hall up the stairs to the Gryffindor common room. Harry told them all how they had to stay alert in order to work out where corridors led to after a staircase might decide to move – other routes e.t.c – and introduced them to sir Cadogan the knight, resting below a tree next to his horse that was grazing on the grass nearby, he prompted Neville to explain about Peeves the Poltergeist and how to avoid him or get rid of him, the names of all the ghosts he could remember and then by that time the common room was before them, hidden by the painting of the Fat Lady smiling in her pink dress.
"Password dear?" She said.
"Chocolate froggies." Harry said clearly so that the rest could hear and the portrait swung open revealing the hole they had to climb through to get into their common room.
Harry and Neville exchanged satisfied glances; their first task of being prefects was completed.
"And here is Madam Angel. Over one hundred and fifty-seven years old." The Hufflepuff first years waved or smiled politely at the young woman with white wings wrapped around herself concealing how naked she was. She nodded regally and acknowledged them happily.
"Be at peace." She said in her soft calming voice and the Hufflepuffs went on with their prefect giggling and smiling happily, greeting each portrait they passed with a wave and a friendly hello despite a few that were bad tempered portraits barking foul language at them as they scurried quickly past.
"Where do the Slytherins go?" Cecelia asked the girl by her side – her name was Lucy Bassinroar and had curly black hair.
"To the dungeons," Lucy said disgustedly. "They're so mean and they fit the dungeons so well." Cecelia didn't like people always referring to the Slytherins as 'mean' and 'snobs' because all her life she'd lived with Slytherins and always thought she was one. But she let the insults pass because now she was here in Hufflepuff and had to make do with it.
"Here is Officer Charlie, how are you Charlie?" The prefect asked merrily as the old officer astride his horse turned to salute.
"Spiffing my good boy, just spiffing." He was an old officer painted in uniform of the late eighteenth century and was a gentleman always polite and willing to spark up conversations with anyone who walked past. It was generally believed that he was romancing a water fairy inside her painted pool up on the fifth floor, corridor two.
"These new first years, young Adam?"
"Yes, they are Charlie. I'm just showing them to their new house common room." The prefect known as Adam confessed.
"Ahh, then welcome, young children of the world, enjoy yourself at Hogwarts; it is truly the best place to grow up." They thanked him for the kind words and went off again finally making it to their common room.
It was a brick wall.
"No passwords, just a kindly touch and the room opens to you." Adam said pointing to a tiny indent on a stone in the wall that appeared to be an animal's footprint. Of course – the Hufflepuff symbol was a Badger and it was the mark of a Badger's paw – unnoticeable unless you were looking for it. Adam stroked it gently with his index finger and suddenly to the right of it a door arched open to his height and it was just a simple archway in the wall revealing three steps up to a door painted yellow with the Hufflepuff house shield. They followed Adam up and went inside, behind them, Cecelia noticed the other trailing Hufflepuff prefect – a girl – shut the door behind by stroking another badger's paw on the inside of the archway and the wall closed in on them.
The door to the Hufflepuff common room opened and Cecelia fell in love immediately with the idyllic warm fire and the soft looking couches and knitted rugs spread out over the floor. The walls were painted calm colours of meadow fresh yellow and drapes of the Hufflepuff shield hung from the ceiling.
"We're in the direct centre of the castle. Some could say that the centre of Hogwarts is love and kindness which the Hufflepuffs are commonly known to be." Adam seemed so natural in saying all this that Cecelia knew he was one of these true-born-Hufflepuffs who dearly loved his house and his friends. She wasn't disgusted. Strangely.
"One the right are the girl's dormitories, boys on the left, find your rooms labelled 'first years' and you're luggage will be there for you along with your four poster beds all heated nicely. Someone will be in to wake you up in the morning so have pleasant dreams all of you!" He spread out his arms as a sign that he had finished his job and that they should go. Cecelia followed the girls to her dorm and joined in their sighing at the serenity of their new bedrooms and leapt into their beds, changing into nightdresses and saying goodnight to each other.
"Y'know Cecelia Malfoy," Lucy said when they were all about to drop off. "For a Malfoy, you ain't bad at all. Goodnight." The other girls responded with the same kindness and Cecelia felt at home. When she fell asleep, it was the first night ever away from her sister and she didn't even think about her or Draco.
In the chilly dampness of the dungeons, a wall stirred and someone in black swept out. He held a dagger in his hands and was briefly visible before he concealed it away.
"Just keep going up the stairs and you shall find yourself far…far away…up you go, good boy…good boy…see the entrance hall before you…now keep walking, keep going…that's right, that's right, you know the way…and now…let me…take over…"
Presently, it began to rain.
(Green Pig:- Woooooo….. I am writing chapter 5, it will be a two-part chapter so chapter six will be chapter 5 part two ^_^ I decided after a long struggle to get writing chapter 5 that a two part chapter was the only way to get what I really wanted…which I'm not too sure what that was…exactly… ::looks confused:: er, well anyway please don't forget to review, I really love to get reviews! If there is anyone out there who would like to beta read for me, I'm only too happy for you to email me and ask:
eleri_nuvios@hotmail.com
Thanks!! Goodbye!!!!)