A/N- you know what, I don't understand whether I should write this from Harry and Sky's points of view separately when I get to Hogwarts or not, I'll have to figure it out, now this is a chapter I was looking forward to, and the whole Sorting Hat song has to be off of the top of my head. Oh yeah, I was looking for a Latin or really cool way to say secret and guess what I found, A chapter title!
Chapter 7- Clandestine
The Sky outside of Sky's bedroom window thundered and howled. It was the stormiest day in August and also the day she had to leave Arabella Figg's house. She rolled over in bed moaning softly, not quite awake, but not quite sleep. She was drifting in and out of a dream.
In it, she was standing on a rail, hanging over the side of a cliff. Sky could see a vast city over the peak, some several hundred meters up. The wind was blowing her hair in all directions and for some reason she didn't even try to fix it, she just let it wander around. She could see Big Ben far in the distance; at least she thought it was Big Ben. Her aunt told her she used to live outside of London, England, but she couldn't remember any of it. Sky was still moving around in her interactive dream, it was as if she was controlling it instead of her subconscious, but then again she was her subconscious.
"Mmmhhh." She moaned again in her sleep, rolling over. Arabella had been standing over her young protégé for a while now. It was weird, hardcore Auror Arabella Figg taking to children. She had never been one for sentiments, or children, or people in general, the only reason she had taken on Sky were for Dumbledore's sake. Arabella Figg had learned long ago that friendship was easily destroyed, and love; even easier.
Arabella walked across Sky's room, looking out the window into the storm. The weather in America was less stormy than in England, so maybe that was why it held more depth for the weather to be as it were at that moment. Arabella hated stormy weather. The weather when she had ever gotten any bad news in her life was stormy. The day her father died, the day she failed her first Auror test, the day Lily and James were last alive. The only day that she had ever gotten real bad news when it wasn't stormy was the first of November. It was a sunny bright day, the day that her boyfriend, no her fiancée was convicted for murder. That was perhaps the worst two-day period in her life, her best friends died and her fiancée was jailed in Azkaban.
"He was innocent." She mumbled to herself. He had to be innocent; it was a bright day when he was sent to Azkaban, it had to count for something right? Arabella had left so much behind when she moved to America; she left so many emotions behind. Grief, regrets, and love, that's why she was the best Auror for the Cabinet, also known by many nicknames. She was the Man-Eater, the Hunter, and of course her personal favorite; the Hyena.
"Have you been in her all morning?" Sky's sleepy voice shocked Arabella out of her daydreaming. She shook her head slowly,
"No I came in here to tell you breakfast was ready, but got a little sidetracked. I guess it'll be cold by now, you wanna grab something from McDonald's on the way to the airport?" Arabella turned away from the window and sat down on the bed next to Sky. Sky pulled the covers off from the other side, revealing her underwear. Sky always slept in her underwear, they were in the pattern of a Sky to be exact, but except of light blue with clouds it was light purple. Purple was Sky's favorite color.
"C'mon Shortie, get up and get dressed and then we'll go to get something to eat before we go to London." She ruffled Sky's hair softly before standing up and walking out of the room.
* * * * *
Ginny Weasley half fell, half jumped down the remaining flight of stairs in the Burrow, landing with a large thud. Her heart was pounding quickly as she ran around the base of the case and into the Living Room. Harry was the only one left waiting for her at the fireplace. She wore her Birch White dress robes and her hair flowing down her back. She had gotten her hair cut for this occasion especially, though she was due for a cut anyway.
"Sorry I'm late, I was busy." She panted as she sat down on the chair for a moment, but he grabbed her arm and pulled her up.
"You don't have time, your mom was already pissed." He said, practically throwing into the fire. She took a deep breath and cried out, "Clearwater Manor!" before disappearing. They were going to a party at the Clearwater's place for an organization. Harry couldn't remember it completely, Friends of the Union for Cata-Kersey, it was for some type of animal. All he really knew was that the acronym wasn't very friendly and they should have thought it over a little better. He too threw some powder into the fireplace and called out he name Penelope's home.
* * * * *
Harry really wanted to leave. He had been at the Clearwater's for about two hours that evening and had met about five people he didn't dislike. Most of the attendants were rich snobs who had no idea what Kersey was and why they were against it, but then again the Clearwater's were old money.
Old money was a term used to mean that a family is rich and has been rich for generations beforehand. The Clearwater's were one of the oldest lines of wizarding blood still out there, well one of the only three. The only other two were Weasley and Potter, but neither knew this. The Weasleys were all believed to come from two Muggleborns some 4000 years ago, but that's an entirely different story.
"God I wanna leave!" Ginny Weasley said, sneaking up behind Harry, she pulled him out onto the dance floor.
"I know, this is so boring, what do you think will happen first, I'll die of internal hemorrhaging or I'll bludgeon myself after listening to all these fake people?" Harry asked, Ginny laughed as he twirled her around. Suddenly a small chime echoed through the ballroom at the Clearwater's mansion. Every head looked up to the head of the room where Penelope, the youngest Clearwater girl, and Percy, the most pompous Weasley were standing atop a table.
"Excuse please, ladies and gentlemen, Penelope and I have an announcement to make!" Percy announced. The entire room stopped what they were doing and looked up at the couple. An eerie silence crept upon Harry as he knew exactly what they were about to say.
"Yes everyone, I would like to announce to you all that Percy and I are engaged." Penelope said with a huge grin. Harry smiled a little as the entire room filled with polite applause, though he knew half of the guests didn't have the faintest idea who either of them were.
He couldn't wait to get to Hogwarts.
Or could he?
* * * * *
Sky stepped in-between the platforms 9 and ten amidst the traffic of King's Cross Station. Again she looked down at the list she had gotten from Arabella just to make sure she had read it right, Platform 9 ¾. She stopped a passing guard, but didn't dare mention platform 9 ¾. The guard had never even heard of Hogwarts and when Sakyra couldn't even tell him what part of the country it was in, he started to get annoyed, as though Sky was being stupid on purpose. Getting desperate she asked for a train that left at eleven o'clock, but the guard said there wasn't one. In the end the guard strolled away muttering about time wasters.
Sky was now trying hard not to panic, According to the large clock over the arrivals board, she had ten minutes left to get on the train to Hogwarts and had no idea how to; she was stranded in the middle of a station with a trunk she could hardly lift, a pocket full of wizard money, and a petit owl named Violet. Maybe Arabella had forgotten to tell her to do something, like tap the third brick from the left or whatnot. Sky however, did not think it was a good idea to walk over to the ticket inspectors' booth and start randomly tapping bricks along the wall between platforms nine and ten. At that moment a group of people passed behind her, catching her attention with one phrase,
"—hope it's a muggle wedding because then –"
Sky turned around quickly getting a glimpse of the people, it was a tall very handsome looking redheaded boy with big muscles, a shorter brown haired girl, it was so bushy Sky wanted to snatch the comb out of her purse and run it through. The third was a short redhead that was skinny; she looked like Rachel Leigh Cook, a muggle actress from Minnesota. Sky happened to know Rachel Leigh Cook's father as a matter of fact, he was her English teacher; she had always wondered how someone so beautiful could come from a man so ugly. The last person was a dark haired boy with glasses, she only got a glimpse of his face but he seemed familiar.
"Excuse me!" Sky said quickly, not thinking of the repercussions of her actions until it was too late. What if they weren't wizards, had if she heard wrong?
"Yes?" The boy with glasses had turned to face her. She looked around apprehensively, was there any way out of this predicament. She didn't want to mention platform 9 ¾ because if they hadn't heard of it they easily may have found a way in through the grapevine or something.
"Oh, I get it, you don't know how to get through the platform?" The boy asked. Sky let out a huge sigh of relief and nodded.
"Yeah, I just didn't know how to ask you, you know I didn't know if you went to Hogwarts or anything."
"Yeah, I remember the feeling." The boy wit the glasses said, then he turned toward the wall, "You just walk through the wall like this, most people say it's easier to run, but you can just casually lean against it and plunge through."
"Oh yeah, thanks." Sky said, turning cautiously toward the wall. She looked over at the handsome redhead boy for a moment and then backed away to her trunk.
"Well, aren't you going to go?" The redhead girl asked, but Sky mentally digressed, she didn't really want to try and mess up or anything. She did feel the need to prove herself though. She pulled her trunk toward her and walked toward the wall, not stopping as she moved through it. She expected her skin to feel slimy, but it wasn't, the pass didn't even affect her at all. Now all she had to do was get on the train and wait it out until she got to Hogwarts.
* * * * *
"Who was that? She looked a lot bigger than a first year." Ron said as he watched a pretty girl with long purple hair pass through to the platform 9 ¾.
"Yeah, and she was filled out a little more, bigger than any first year I know." Hermione said, rolling her cart around and facing the platform entrance. Ron huffed loudly,
"See Hermione, that's not fair. If I would have pointed that out I would have been marked as a chauvinistic male and a pervert!" Ron said in mock anger. Hermione stared at him with a blank face.
"Yes, yes you would have." She said, and then ran past him and through the barrier,
"Wait, what was that supposed to mean!" Ron said, grabbing his trunk and running through after her. Harry looked over at Ginny and shook his head slowly, grabbing his trunk and rolling toward the platform a couple of steps behind Ginny.
"Hey Ron, remember last year when that girl stopped her little sister from going in here?" Harry asked, lying down on one of the seats in the last compartment. The Hogwarts Express was already on its way to a castle a little ways outside of River Wangt.
"Yeah, she said it was Harry Potter and the Weasley's compartment." Ron laughed, and scooted a little closer to Hermione, looking over her shoulder at the book she was reading. It was entitled, Gods and Myth: Fact or Fiction. Ron looked back over at Harry,
"Yeah, remember that one time when Fleur tried your Firebolt and it flew up her robes, carrying her arou-" Ron cut off mid-sentence. He didn't mean to be so stupid, it just happened.
"No, it's okay Ron, really, remember the time I was messing with that snake."
"And she ran away screaming."
"Yeah." Harry said with a glazed over look in his eyes. He hoped this wouldn't be a year of flashbacks.
* * * * *
Sky stood in a long line of little kids, watching them all get sorted into houses. Arabella had already explained what houses were and everything, but Sky was betting she'd get Ravenclaw or Slytherin. Ravenclaw because she studied hard and applied herself in school, to prove she knew what she was doing. And Slytherin because she was very ambitious, she always had to prove something. She watched one by one as the kids got sorted and realized that she wasn't the only person there who seemed bigger. There was another boy and girl, who were standing back that seemed older than eleven. Suddenly Dumbledore stood up,
"Ladies and gentlemen, I'd like to continue to sort these three students, but I would like to introduce them myself, first is Tanaya Carter," The girl stepped out, she had black hair that was sleek and ran down to her shoulders, she put on the sorting hat and it immediately bellowed out "Gryffindor!" Sky wondered who was next, "The second is Marcus Carter." The boy stepped up and put it on. The hat wavered a while before calling "Ravenclaw". "Last but not least," Dumbledore continued, Sky knew he was talking about her, so she stepped up to the hat, "Sakyra." She put the hat on and expected some sort of magic energy to flow through her veins, but it didn't.
* * * * *
Harry sat back at the table watching Sky intently; she seemed to be having the same battle with the hat as he did back in his first year. Suddenly the hat nearly leapt up and yelled,
"Clandestine!"
McGonagall gasped.
A/N- really mysterious, now Sky doesn't have a house. Well it will all work out soon, don't worry.