A/N: I only noticed way after, but for the sake of the story, Flitwick isn't the Head of Ravenclaw. Why? It will be explained in later chapters.

Chapter Six

The Sorting Bowler

~*~

It was night, and the stars shone high, like lanterns in the sky. The students were pouring into the school, and Amelia had joined the first years after their ride on the Hogwarts Express, nobody noticing her. But, she felt a bit of an outcast, as everybody had already made friends, while she couldn't because she didn't ride the train.

There were still black streaks in her hair from the costume party, as she hadn't been able to get the dye out before, and had grown attached to it. Naturally, Hermione had told her about the Sorting Hat, and Amelia was practically convinced she was going to be in Gryffindor, and she was pretty she wanted to be in Gryffindor too.

When they got in the boats, there was only three people left who hadn't gotten into groups of four. They were Amelia, a boy with practically white hair and steely gray eyes, and a pretty short girl. So, Amelia and him got into the last boat and paddled away. Luckily, the rain from last night had subsided and the sky was perfect.

"What's your name?" Amelia asked the boy.

"Drake," the boy said. "Surname's Malfoy."

Amelia knew she had heard that name somewhere, but she couldn't really remember . . .

"What's yours?"

"Oh," Amelia said. "Amelia Dursley."

Drake turned to the girl, "What's your name?"

"Melinda Wood," she said.

"Doesn't your father play for Britain?"

"Yeah, he used to play for Puddlemere," Melinda said.

"Who's your mum?" Drake asked Melinda.

"Ginny Weasely," she said. "She's Seeker for Britain, y' know."

"I have a Firebolt 2," Drake boasted. "Can you beat that?"

"My mum just sent me a prototype of the NimbusBolt," she said. "Nimbus and Firebolt are teaming up to make some decent brooms for professional teams. They're exclusive."

"How about you, Amelia?" Drake asked.

"I just got a Firebolt 7 prototype," Amelia said shyly.

"No way!" Drake and Melinda said at the same time. "Where'd you get that?"

"I got it from Ginny Weasely," Amelia said.

"You're related?" Melinda asked. "I've never met you before."

"Well actually, I'm not that related. I'm related to Harry Potter, whose good friends with Ron Weasely."

"Oh," Drake said. "What house do you want to be in?"

"I think I'm going to be in Gryffindor," Melinda said. "My whole family was in Gryffindor."

"I want to be in anything but Slytherin," Drake said. "My whole bloody family has been in that house, and my whole family is bloody horrible."

~*~

The first years filed into the Great Hall, and Hermione and Molly waved at Amelia.

"You know them?" Drake whispered into Amelia's ear.

"Of course I do," Amelia said back. "I'm somewhat related to them. Hermione - she's the potion teacher is with Ron, and yeah, she lives in the same house, and Molly, who's the little girl is Harry's kid."

"You know what I heard?" Melinda whispered back. "There's a curse on the Defense Against the Dark Arts teachers. None of them have lasted a year since like . . . forever. The Defense Against the Dark Art teacher broke it - this is her second year."

"Where is she?" Drake asked. "Which teacher?"

Amelia scanned the table; "She's not here. Probably in the bathroom." Then the doors burst open and Professor McGonagall came in, her hat askew.

"Who's that?" Drake whispered.

"Professor McGonagall, Transfiguration teacher," Amelia said. "Ask me about a teacher again, and I'll kill."

"The Sorting Hat is missing!" Professor McGonagall said, a red envelope in her hand. "And all that was left was this Howler . . ." then, the Howler burst open, even louder because it was left alone for so long.

"THE DARK LORD WILL RETURN, ALBUS, AND NOW THERE'S NO POTTER TO STOP HIM! JOIN THE DARK SIDE AND BE SPARED!"

Several murmurs swept the hall, and an owl flew in, dropping a letter on Amelia's head.

'Dear Amelia Potter,
The Ministry would like to inform you the Mr. Harry Potter has adopted you into the Potter family. Ministry of Magic'

Amelia must've had some look on her face, because Hermione rushed over, Molly trailing her. Hermione scanned the letter, then told Molly. "Yay!" Molly squealed. "I have a sister!"

"Congratulations," Hermione said, "Welcome to the family."

"Attention!" Dumbledore said. "We have lost track of the Sorting Hat, but with some quick thinking, we have found a special replacement, the Sorting Bowler!" and he pulled out a bright green and blue polka-dotted hat with several mismatched feathers in it. Nobody knew what to say, the first years looked horrified, and practically everybody else was laughing their heads off.

But, besides the snickers, they put the bowler on the stool and Professor McGonagall unfolded the scroll with all the names. "Allenston, Ellen," and a little pudgy girl walked up and put the bowler on her head.

"Huff - Huff- Hufflepuff!" the bowler spat, who seemed to be having a giggling fit.

After a while, Professor McGonagall said, "Malfoy, Drake," Melinda and Amelia gave Drake a push forward and a thumb up. He was looking nervous, and it looked like he was about to faint.

"Gryffindor!" the bowler said, laughing some more. Drake grinned, and gave Melinda and Amelia waves as he sat down at the Gryffindor table.

A little while after that, Professor McGonagall said, "Potter, Amelia," and Amelia went up, putting the bowler on her head. She was glad Professor McGonagall had gotten the memo. 'Gryffindor', Amelia kept thinking. 'Please, please Gryffindor'.

'No way,' a giggling voice said in her head. 'I may look stupid, but the Sorting Hat has given me words of wisdom, and one of those was never, ever put a Potter in Gryffindor. Ooh, Dumbledore's fuming, that's something you don't see very often. You're going to have a tough time, kiddo. Very, very smart I see, good brain . . ."

'Please not Slytherin', Amelia was now thinking. 'Not Slytherin, please no Slytherin . . .'

'Of course I'm not that dumb!' the bowler said. Amelia saw out of the corner of her eye Professor McGonagall checking her watch. 'Another rule: Never put the adopted kid of the person who killed You-Know-Who in a house full of Death Eater kids. So, I guess your smart enough, and yellow really isn't your color. Ah, blue is your favorite color, so I guess you might as well be in RAVENCLAW!"

Amelia got up, walking to the Ravenclaw table. She didn't know where to sit, but some girls pulled her over before she could decide, and Amelia took note she was sitting back to back with Drake. Near the end, Melinda came and her face turned a very sick green, as if the bowler had just mentioned Slytherin. Then her face lit up when the bowler probably said Gryffindor, but in the end it was neither. "HUFFLEPUFF!" the bowler yelled. After two more people, the Sorting was over, and Dumbledore stood up to make a tiny speech.

"After tonight's events, I am very sad to say our Defense Against Dark Arts professor has seemed to have vanished, but our Potions teacher - Professor Granger - has already found several candidates, and one will be arriving tomorrow morning. Quidditch practices will be held in two weeks, in the following order. Hufflepuff will have the field for them after dinner on Monday, then Gryffindor, the Slytherin, then Ravenclaw.

"Also, the Forbidden Forest is of course, forbidden. Only third years and above with parental permission may go to Hogsmeade visits, and a few professors - he gestured at Hermione, a petite professor with silvery hair, and Professor Flitwick - have arranged a Christmas and summer dance, third years and their guests are invited. Skiving Snackboxes are not allowed in the premises of anywhere but your room, and I only have two words to say to you: Babushka Flobberworms! And may Amelia Potter please come to my office after dinner." Dumbledore sat down, and Amelia felt her face redden.

Suddenly, the Ravenclaw table seemed to be focused around Amelia, or somewhat related to her. "Are you really related to Harry Potter?" "Why does Dumbledore want to talk to you later?" "Did you actually set giant crabs on Muggles?" "Dumbledore's in for you . . . " "You must've taken the longest time to get sorted ever, what were you doing in there, having a theory talk?" "Attention! Does anybody here have a good broom they want to lend me? A Firebolt'll do fine . . . " "My parents went to your costume party, they said you were a devil, is that true?" All in all, Amelia wasn't very happy with her meeting (with Dumbledore) afterwards.

Drake didn't seem to be having a good time either, and it sounded like the Gryffindors weren't crazy about the name Malfoy. Several of them were shooting extremely nasty comments at him, and poor Drake looked like he was about to explode.

"Excuse me," a girl said, tapping Amelia on the back.

"Yeah?" Amelia asked.

"Can you pass the mashed potatoes?"

"Oh yeah, of course," Amelia said, and passed her the bowl.

"My name is Penny," she said.

"Amelia," Amelia said back.

"Are you actually related to the Potter guy?" she asked.

Amelia shrugged, "I guess."

Penny tossed her long, white blonde hair over her shoulder; "I'm in third year."

"I'm in first - you might've noticed that though," Amelia said, she could feel her face turning red. How could she be so stupid?

"That's Alex," Penny said, pointing at a boy who was staring at the two from the other end of the Ravenclaw table. "He's in the third year too, and a Chaser with me on the Quidditch team. Serena is the Keeper, Blake and Kevin are the Beaters, Peter is the Seeker, Miranda is the reserve, and we've got an open position for the last Chaser. You should try out, but then we'd have to get you a decent broom - "

"Oh, I've got one," Amelia said.

"Well, that's good," Penny remarked, not even asking what kind of broom it was. "As long as it's over a Nimbus, we've got no problem. And the school hasn't even bothered to buy knew brooms, the newest ones they have are the Cleansweeps from about fifteen years ago."

"Um, Penny?" Amelia said. "Can I ask a question?"

"Of course," Penny said. "Shoot for it."

"What's Quidditch?" Penny rolled her eyes, and she called the entire Quidditch team over to explain, which took the rest of dinner.

~*~

"Good luck!" Penny called, waving as Amelia parted from the crowd to head to Professor Dumbledore's office. Amelia started walking, when she remembered that she didn't know where it was. It was already past ten o' clock and she was lost in the school, hoping that someone would find her soon.

"Ms. Potter!" Professor McGonagall's sharp voice said. Amelia turned around, to see a very angry Professor, her hands on her hips and fuming. Obviously, Dumbledore seemed to have spread some of the hate around. "What are you doing at this time? Curfew for first years is at eight o' clock, sharp!"

"Professor Dumbledore - wanted to see me - don't know where his - office," Amelia babbled so fast Professor McGonagall only heard bits.

Sighing, she grabbed Amelia by the arm and pulled her down the staircase. "You Potters seem to get dimmer and dimmer by the generation I say . . . someday a Potter will come to this school and have no brains at all . . ." Professor McGonagall scowled, as Amelia put her leg through an invisible step, and Professor McGonagall pulled her out. " . . . I suspect you'll be trying out for Quidditch . . . that was the biggest mistake I ever made . . . making Potter Seeker . . . Skiving Snackboxes," she said at a statue, and it opened. "There, and I believe that Professor Chang is making her rounds, she'll escort you back to your dormitory, I'll tell her," and she walked out.

Cautiously, Amelia opened the door. Professor Dumbledore was sitting next to the fire, in a plush red chair. He didn't seem to notice Amelia entering, but was absorbed in reading a piece of parchment, and then began to scrawl an answer. Throwing in a bit of powder into the fire, he said, "Professor Weasely's office!" he roared, and threw the letter into the fire. Amelia stood in the doorway, waiting there.

"Hello, Ms. Potter," Professor Dumbledore said, he said the word 'Potter' with a sharp tongue that made Amelia feel very hurt, although he put no anger in his speech. She noted a magical picture of Cassidy on his desk. "Sit down." Amelia obeyed, sitting on a chair opposite of him. "You don't have to be so straight," he said, and Amelia loosened up, if only a bit. "It has come to my attention that you are taking wandless magic training. The Ministry has sent me a letter - " he waved his wand and a piece of parchment flew over. " - and they said that there would be an inspector every month, to manage your training. Therefor, we've taken your first class of the morning - Transfiguration - and have replaced it with wandless training with Professor Weasely, whom you might recognize as Hermione."

"Uh, Professor, I was wondering," Amelia said. "Then when do I take Transfiguration?"

"You will be taking one-hour classes after dinner on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays," Dumbledore said. "And also, the Ministry, as well as the staff wants you to keep this in a secret, or at least only confide in a few people," Dumbledore finished, and a letter shot through the fire, which Dumbledore read. "Well, I think that's it, I believe Professor Chang is outside the door to escort you back."

Amelia got up, and was about to leave, then she stopped. "Professor Dumbledore?"

"Yes?" Professor Dumbledore asked.

"Are you my . . . er . . ." Amelia tried to find out in her head how she was somewhat related to him. 'Cassidy is his grandniece, Harry married Cassidy and I'm Harry's cousin - no wait, daughter - so I'm his granddaughter . . .' she thought. "Nevermind," Amelia concluded.

Dumbledore simply shrugged, "Well then, goodnight, I believe you know your way out," again, he had that somewhat sharp tone. ~*~

Amelia walked to the Ravenclaw dormitory with Professor Chang, who was the head of the Ravenclaw house. Her silvery hair hung down to her waist in a long braid, and if Amelia wasn't mistaken, there was . . . confetti in her hair.

"Quidditch," Professor Chang said to a statue, and it opened up to an archway, which they walked through.

The Ravenclaw dormitory was packed with kids, there were drinks and sweets scattered on the tables, and what looked like a giant trampoline on the blue plush ground. People were jumping around, juggling empty bottles, and having a good time. Occasionally, one could hear a few bangs, which were probably fireworks being set off, or a game of Exploding Snap. And Professor Chang didn't even care. Amelia looked at the clock on the mantelpiece, which read 10:30.

"Hey, Amelia!" Alex, one of the Chasers on the Quidditch team called. The team was hanging around, doing flips on the trampoline. They all waved her over then gave her a butterbeer.

"What did Dumbledore want?" Penny asked.

"I can't really tell you, not here," Amelia said.

"Oh, that's cool," Penny said. "If you told Peter over there, he'd blab it to everybody," Penny snorted; Peter was the Seeker of the Ravenclaw Quidditch team.

Before the party had started, it seemed although it had ended. Right when the clock chimed twelve, Professor Chang waved her wand, and immediately every thing disappeared with a pop. None of the older students seemed sad or disappointed; in fact, they just started heading upstairs. Amelia headed began to head up the stairs, when Professor Chang grabbed her arm.

"Don't forget your lessons. Oh, and say hi to Harry for me," she smiled and ushered Amelia upstairs. Amelia changed into her pajamas, then climbed into bed. Again, she started having funny dreams. (A/N: The dreaded dreams)

It was a sunny day . . . people were running . . . screaming . . . Then, the clouds were covered . . . lightning . . . fog . . . cloaked figures . . . falling . . . somebody was falling! Running . . . in the castle . . . to the forest . . . hiding in the bushes . . . blast of light . . . shrieking . . . stopped . . . roaring engine . . .

"Hey!" somebody was looming over Amelia. "Wake up!"

"Wh-what?" Amelia asked. "Huh?"

"Did you see what was happening?" the girl asked.

"Uh, n-no, I was sleeping," Amelia said.

"Your eyes were wide open," the girl said. She sounded extremely rude; "Nobody sleeps with their eyes open."

"No, they were closed," Amelia said. "You were hallucinating."

"Everything was flying around the room, crashing and banging," the girl said.

Amelia looked around. Everything was the same, there was nothing there. "There's nothing different."

The girl looked around. "But . . . but . . . I saw something! It was like a wasteland!"

"There's nothing there," Amelia said. "Go back to bed."

The girl went back to her bed across from Amelia's and Amelia noted the name on her trunk. It looked like it was made out of gold, entire gold and carved into it was the name: Serafina. Amelia couldn't get to sleep that night; she didn't want to go back to that dream.

It was hell what she was seeing. Complete chaos, and just the thought of it sent shivers down her spine. And what the girl - Serafina - had said that she had seen things. Amelia took a glance at the rest of her roommates; they were all sleeping, even Serafina. So Amelia just lay down, doing nothing, staring at the cloud-painted ceiling, hoping the day would come.

~*~ End of Chapter Six ~*~