More Than Quidditch - Chapter 2
Disclaimer: I don't own anything about Harry Potter.
Upon her arrival to Hogwarts, Catriona was herded like a cow into a front hall room. It really was like a cattle call, it was so squishy. There were many, many students gathered around and she felt so out of place. She was wearing plain clothing while they had something else on. Robes, it looked like. People were staring, and for any other person it would be quite embarrassing.
However, for Catriona, it wasn't. She was pretty used to people staring at her, if she wasn't, she'd have been in a lot of trouble by now. In her own school, people stared. It was as if people knew there was something a bit odd about her, even if they had never seen any of the small incidents, as she called them, that had happened at home as she grew up. She hadn't had many friends, and often felt lonely. She hoped to the high heavens that these students here didn't think she was odd as well. This was supposed to be her new start.
A girl with a mass of black, curly hair came towards Catriona, squirming through the crowd of people.
"Here," the girl said, out of breath, holding out a package, "I'm Penelope, the prefect. These are your robes. Put them on now. Also, I'm supposed to tell you that you are going through the sorting next. You'll find out which house you're in. And that you're not to be afraid of the hat." With that, she nodded and took off again.
Catriona ripped the package apart and hurriedly put on her robes, "Don't be afraid of the hat?" The thought already made her nervous. What in the world would make a hat scary?
After a bit of a wait, something was called out and the students came forth. As she entered a large banquet hall, Catriona gasped in awe. It was huge, fantastically huge, and was missing a ceiling; instead, the night sky was shown. Yet, there wasn't a breeze and it wasn't cold. But, the most amazing thing of all? Candles--floating in mid-air! She couldn't believe her eyes. As she looked around, she noticed many students already seated at different tables. Some were eyeing her, making Catriona nervous. Her ears strained to hear any bit of what the whispers behind the hands were about.
"…too old for a first year…", "Who…?", "Do you know..?"
Catriona bit her lip. She couldn't be worried, she knew this would be a bit different. Straightening her shoulders and removing her lip from her teeth, she took a deep breath and looked directly ahead. All the children around her were being called up one by one, and they put on what looked to be a dirty old hat. The first time the hat had shouted out a word, she'd jumped up in her spot. Catriona felt like a big-time dork. As far as she could tell, the hat wiggled around and then yelled out what she figured to be the house names. Her logical mind niggled at her, trying to tell her that hats simply do not talk but she had to push it aside for an open mind. Most of the time, the other students in the particular house that was called out would shout and make a general ruckus.
Finally, her name was called. As she walked up to the front, everything seemed to go in slow-motion. Her eyes took in everything around her: the impossible-yet-somehow-possible floating candles, the funny looking hat, the students staring blankly. Catriona sat up on the wooden stool and the hat was placed on her head. She braced herself for the hat to move but instead the hat did something that nearly made her fall from her blasted seat--it spoke in full sentences to her quietly. The hat had a brain for heaven's sake! It could talk--a lot! As soon as she thought this, it laughed aloud. Her eyes widened as she let out a slow, shaky breath. She couldn't completely remember what it had said later, all she knew was it said something about her being weak now but having a brave spirit.
It then yelled "Gryffindor!" in her ear and to everyone. The silence was almost deafening. McGonagall let out a brief clap, which prompted the other Gryffindors to do the same. Catriona's face heated up, and she came down from the stool, shaking, and took a seat at the table. She decided she was destined to become a loser in this school too, and kept her head down in disappointment.
Soon, all the new students had been sorted. The headmaster said a few words, literally, and then a feast fit for a king appeared in front of her eyes. Everyone gasped but Catriona suspected hers was a different sort of gasp. Everything was coming at a little bit less of a shock to her, but still, its not every day piles of food just show up in front of one's face! She timidly took a small bit of roast beef and a potato. She was too nervous to eat, though. That was…until the desert showed up. She had such a sweet tooth, she couldn't help but to take a piece of apple pie. She stared at it first, unsure that she should eat it. How could she trust something like this? Something that just appears? Well, she did make it through platform 9 3/4….she trusted that, didn't she?
"Its ok, its just a pie, you know?" a male voice spoke to her. Catriona looked up, startled. It was the handsome--ok, hot--guy with the kind, chocolate brown eyes from the train station.
"--or are you afraid you'd throw up again?" he grinned, joking with her.
Catriona blushed slightly. "Oh great," she thought. "He remembers."
Then she let out a nervous giggle, "Uh no, I'm just not very hungry." She didn't want to stick out by letting everyone around her know she wasn't used to magic in the slightest.
"Aww, come on now…its delicious!"
"Alright…if I must," she smiled a little and took a piece on her fork. Then she brought it to her mouth and…"Uhhmmm!" she moaned in appreciation, her eyes closing in delight. The pie was so delicious, it seemed as if the apples were bursting in her mouth and the crust was so moist and buttery, it just melted away.
"Told you." He grinned, and turned back to his own food.
Catriona finished her pie off and then it was announced that everyone would be shown to their rooms.
Again, everyone was herded like cattle and were told to follow a prefect to the rooms. She looked directly up and saw tons of staircases, some of which were moving. They started up a set of stairs, and Catriona looked around. It was quite nice here. There seemed to be a lot of art also. She looked at a painting of a knight and a maiden, it was quite nice. And then---they moved? She halted in her place, as students continued to move past her.
"Hello, welcome to Hogwarts!" the maiden said.
Catriona's head snapped back in surprise, she squinted her eyes at it and then walked away. She didn't even want to think about it. She couldn't think about it, it'd be too much.
She continued up the stairs with the rest of the students until they stopped at one room where the Hufflepuffs were staying.
Catriona found herself standing next to a statue, a creepy statue. In fact, all statues were creepy to Catriona. There was just something not right about them. She was considering this, glancing over at the statue timidly, when the statue moved. It took its top hat off and bowed to her.
" 'Allo, welcome to Hogwarts, milady."
It spoke. It did the most horrible thing known to man, it spoke. Catriona let out a shrill scream. Everyone stopped chattering and stared, including the statue. Then, the vision around her went blurry and she knew what had to come next.
"Help," she whispered as her world went black.
Oliver Wood saw the girl start to get a bit woozy on her feet and ran into action, chuckling to himself on the inside.
"How does this girl get into these predicaments?" he wondered, and grabbed her just inches before she hit the floor.
"Well, that saved her a lot of pain in the morning." He said, and carried her to Professor McGonagall who had already been making her way through the crowd of students.
"Oliver, good." McGonagall peered at the girl carefully. "She will be just fine. She's just had a fright," she announced to everyone. "Move along now," she said, nodding her head in dismissal.
The statue looked terribly worried and almost as if he would start to cry, "I'm quite sorry, would you tell the little miss? I didn't mean to frighten her. She will be ok, won't she?"
It was somewhat humorous to hear the short statue of a little man call a girl of seventeen years, who was most certainly taller than himself, a little miss. However, McGonagall took him seriously and leaned down to look him the eye, "I'm sure she will be quite alright. I will have a talk with her once she wakes. Don't worry."
The statue was visibly relieved, and went back to his normal pose of a goofy grin on his face. McGonagall nodded and turned.
"Oliver, could you carry her to the Gryffindor girl dormitories? I think we'll place her in the first year's room for now. I will add ten points to Gryffindor for your help."
Oliver smiled at this, but was confused as to why the girl would be in the first year's room. He followed McGonagall's orders nonetheless. Oliver looked down at the girl and had the fleeting thought that she looked pretty, but there was something a bit odd with her, that was for sure.
Catriona was put into a four-poster bed in the first year Gryffindor girls' dormitories and there she slept for days, having bizarre dreams all the while.
That's the end of this chapter. Ended kinda crappy, I know! :P The plot will become more developed…I promise! In the meantime, drop me a review and thanks to the one person that reviewed my last chapter. I hope to have more this time, please? :D Thanks for reading and I will try to get my next chapter out soon!
P.S. No reviews, no story! Sorry to say, but I don't like writing for an empty audience LOL :P
