~Chapter Two- First Looks at Hogwarts~
As the line of students walked into the Great Hall Cari's eyes widened and Lindsey all but died. The room was huge- no, that's a gross understatement. And it was absolutely full to bursting with tables upon tables of hungry students. At the far end was a raised platform where they assumed the professors of the school were sitting. And in front of that was a single stool and a tattered, sad looking, old hat.
Lindsey stared quizzically at the hat and tried to catch Cari's eye. She wished she had paid a lot more attention during her "lessons" in the summer. Still, Lindsey did not have much time to puzzle, for the Sorting Ceremony began.
* * *
Cari stood up as straight as she could and looked around the room avidly. The building excitement was finally getting to her, and she no longer felt nervous, but ready to take on the world. Or at least the school. As the strange, musty Sorting Hat went dutifully through the A's, she studied the Great Hall. The first thing she noticed was the ceiling. Well, at first she thought there wasn't one, but then realized it was just enchanted to mirror the sky outside, which was dark and blank. She then turned her eyes towards the people filling the vast hall.
After a few moments of steady gazing she had picked out which tables were of which houses; the Gryffindors, Slytherins, Ravenclaws, and Hufflepuffs. Then she looked at them more closely, at specific people sitting there. She caught sight of the white-blonde hair and cool expression of one Draco Malfoy, and her pulse instantly increased. Oh stop being stupid, she chastised herself, There's no way you'll ever get to be with him… it's just not possible.
Cari shook her head to clear her mind of these thoughts, at least for now, and looked towards the platform where the teachers were seated. She saw Albus Dumbledore: most impressive, she had to admit. She really didn't know the other professors; when her family had first found out that her father was being sent to England to work for the Ministry of Magic, Cari had been in denial. Then the summer months came and they moved to New York temporarily, and it finally sunk in: she was moving to England. So although just to be difficult she blatantly refused to remember most of what her father told her of the school, she did remember Dumbledore. And then of course she had had to learn more so she could seem knowledgeable to Lindsey. But Lindsey was a whole other story…
Cari stole a glance back at her a ways down the line. She was slouching and staring at her shoes, no doubt wishing she could blend in with the wall. Although Cari didn't know as much about Lindsey as Lindsey knew about her, (she had an uncanny ability to read people. It was downright scary sometimes) Cari could still tell a few things about her enigmatic amigo. Right now, as Cari had guessed, she was being "invisible". Cari didn't know how she could do it, or why she would want to, but her friend had a way of becoming just plain enough and just ordinary enough that any onlooker's eye, unless specifically searching for her, would pass her right by. Cari was slightly envious of this bizarre talent; she could never do anything but stand out.
* * *
As the ceremony droned on, Lindsey focused most of her energy on trying to be invisible. She had sensed right away the many curious stares of the other students at Cari and herself, and who could blame them? It still made Lindsey terribly uncomfortable though.
She had looked around the Great Hall quite a bit at first, brushing over most of the students. Then she caught sight of Draco Malfoy and instantly thought of Cari. Subconsciously she glanced over at her friend.
Coincidentally that was when Cari first saw Draco too, and although no one else saw, Lindsey smiled knowingly as Cari's cheeks filled with rosy color. She shook her head, still smiling, then looked up at the teachers' tables on the high platform. Albus Dumbledore was quite a striking figure, that was her first thought. She did actually remember who he was, but really only because she had gotten his card in a Chocolate Frog on the train. Her eyes breezed over the other teachers, thinking idly how she wished she could sit down, when her gaze happened upon a teacher looking quite different from the rest.
He was dark and brooding, seeming to have a shadow around him. If Lindsey could do only one thing perfectly, that was to read people and situations. It was like a gift. She had known Cari about two and a half months and already knew more about her than she may have known about herself. That's the kind of teacher I can relate to, Lindsey thought, then shook her head inwardly. Not going to happen, she told herself. You're just going to pass through everything unnoticed, all the attention on Cari, and you're going to like it, as usual. She could even read herself, which ironically most people cannot.
As she gazed through her hair at the teachers' table, the eyes of the professor in question happened on hers. She promptly looked down. Eye contact really wasn't her thing. Luckily, the first name was then called, and she simply studied the floor and risked secret glances around the room as name after name was read off, and house after house was assigned.