Nat Sue
Chapter One
A small girl stood surveying herself in a large ornate
mirror before she entered the Great Hall. She brushed her short blonde curls
off her brow, trying to find a way to wear the wizard's hat without it flattening
her hair too badly. Her eyes sparkled a greenish-gold; her fair skin glowed
from just being washed. She had a light sprinkling of freckles across the
bridge of her nose, and when she smiled she showed off her straight white
teeth. She straightened her robe; black looked good on her, too bad the robe
was a bit long; she'd have to hem it up later. Then she turned and faced the
professor.
"I'm ready, Professor." She told McGonagall, who had been
waiting while she readied herself. "Alright, let me see if the headmaster is
ready for you to come in, I'll be right back." Professor McGonagall strode out
of the small room adjoining the great hall with the dignified air someone who
had done this many times before. The girl stood waiting for McGonagall to return,
she was the perfect picture of calm, her face would never have given away her
nervousness, or her intentions.
A few moments later, Professor McGonagall returned and led
the girl to the door. The girl could hear the headmaster announcing her arrival
to the filled hall. "I'm happy to inform you all that we have a new transfer
student from America who will be spending the rest of the school year with us.
Please join me in welcoming Nat Himitsu to Hogwarts!" Nat knew this was her
cue, and began to walk into the Great Hall. She glanced at the many students on
both sides of her as she walked up to the head table alongside Professor
McGonagall. At the head table, she stopped and shook hands with Dumbledore, and
exchanged all the usual formalities. Dumbledore introduced her to the other
professors, including Hagrid, a big, hulking, giant of a man, who had what Nat
considered an annoying accent, and Snape, who Nat thought would be an
interesting professor, and perhaps an interesting person in general, if one could
get to know him. And if he turned out to be boring, well, that's what she had
spray paint for.
Then Dumbledore called for the sorting hat. At first the
hat seemed a bit upset to be awoken, after all, it had only been a month since
it sorted the first year students, but after some coaxing from Dumbledore, Nat
was placed on a stool and the hat placed atop her head. The hat slid down,
until it reached the tip of Nat's nose, where it rested. "Well, well, what have
we got here?" the hat mused. "Well, you could go in Ravenclaw, I can tell right
off you're going to be excellent at subjects that bore most students to tears,
The History of Magic, Ancient Runes, anything with a lot of reading and writing
involved. But oh, no, no, you can't be in Ravenclaw after all. I can tell now
that you're going to flunk anything that's hands-on. You'll have trouble with
Potions and Transfiguration for sure. Maybe you could get by in those classes
by writing reports, but I seriously doubt you're going to be able to get good enough
grades for Ravenclaw. Of course, I can't very well put you in Hufflepuff either
as you will excel in some classes… My, my, well that leaves Slytherin and
Gryffindor. Do you have any say in the matter? You're being very quiet you
know, most students have a ton they want to blurt out as if I really give a… So
do you have any preference?" The hat waited for what seemed like a long time
before Nat thought to the hat, "Wait." The hat was taken aback a bit by this.
Wait? Wait for what? But the hat didn't have long to ponder this before Nat
thought to it again.
"Okay! So what are we doin' again? I was sleep-a-fying! I
love sleeping! Do you?"
"Well, yes… Now which house would you like to be in?"
"Aren't you supposed to decide that? Silly hat!"
"Well, you seem to be a bit hard to place… That's why I
was wondering if you had a preference?"
"Well, tell me what qualities I have that would be good
for the houses!"
"Well, Gryffindor students are brave, and generally easy
to get along with. Slytherin students are ambitious but not the nicest people
in the world. You seem to be fairly brave, and you certainly are talkative now.
Perhaps Gryffindor would be a good choice… But wait, what's this? I can see
that you're extremely ambitious and will do anything to get to the top… Yes, in
fact you're very cold blooded and cruel… I can see that one time you posted a
sign on the back of your friend's car that said 'honk if you want to fuck'… My,
my… And you stole your friend's boyfriend, only to dump him two days later? Why
did you do that?"
"He ran out of money!"
"My, my, you really are a mean little child aren't you?
Let's see what else you've done…"
"Hey! Stop it! I don't like you reading my mind! That's an
invasion of my privacy!"
"Sure, sure, if I didn't read your mind how would I know
where to put you? Oh, this looks interesting… Whipped cream huh?"
"HEY! Stop it now! Why don't you go fuck yourself you damn
talking piece of shit!"
"What a mood swing… You're going to be a great addition to
Hogwarts, I hope Dumbledore knows what he's getting himself into. Now, you
don't really want me to fuck myself, do you? I am on top of your head, you
know."
Nat promptly yanked off the hat, screaming every curse
word she knew as she flung it against the wall, the entire student body
watching on in shock. Nat realized everyone was watching her, and quickly put a
look of dismay and hurt on her face as she turned to face Dumbledore.
Dumbledore was looking at her with an expression on his
face she couldn't quite place, his icy blue gaze felt piercing. Nat met his
eyes, her gaze equally piercing, yet at the same time she worked her face to
look like she was about to cry. It seemed like an eternity, during which time
Nat was able to notice that McGonagall and the other professors she had met
were staring at her in shock, before Dumbledore spoke, his voice low and
questioning. "Why did you do that?" Nat pouted a bit before answering, in a
voice that was not loud, but carried very clearly through the unusually silent
Great Hall. "The hat said he wanted to fuck himself while he was on my head."
she stated, sounding so innocent even the sorting hat might have fallen for it.
There were twitters in the hall, which quickly turned to peals of laughter
coming from all tables. Nat noticed that although McGonagall was sitting
stiffly, her lips pressed into a thin line, and Snape was looking indifferent
to the whole thing, a few of the professors looked as if they were attempting
to conceal smiles as well. "I'm sure you simply misunderstood…" Dumbledore
replied, "Perhaps the hat said something and because you're not used to English
accents you thought you heard something else?" Nat glared at him, giving him a
look that clearly said "As if I'd ever make a mistake?!" Dumbledore sighed, and
leaned back in his chair. Why don't you put the hat back on, and we'll try it
again?" Nat quickly changed her face to look like she was going to cry again,
before saying, "But what if it… if it… I don't want it fucking itself while
it's on my head!" The hall erupted in laughter once again, and this time Nat
thought she saw the corner of Professor Snape's mouth twitch slightly upward.
Dumbledore rubbed his temples, and Nat had to force herself not to smirk at the
fact that she was successfully annoying him. "Well, if you won't put the hat
back on, perhaps one of the heads of house will volunteer to accept you."
Dumbledore looked pointedly at McGonagall, who continued to purse her lips, but
said nothing. "I'll take her," a man's voice spoke up. Nat glanced at the
speaker, Professor Snape, and forced herself to remain looking upset over the
hat. "Thank you Severus." Dumbledore said turning slightly to look at Snape.
Then he turned back to Nat, "Take a seat at that table," he gestured to the
Slytherin's table, "and mind you don't upset them." Nat flashed a smile at the
headmaster, and then skipped off to join her new housemates.
