Chapter 2 The Sorting
Race could be found sometime later up in her room with her trunk packed and her nose in her potion textbook. It had always been by far her easiest subject, and since she was going to a new school, she wanted to be prepared and maybe even have a head start.
She had long since determined not to wait up for her mom and sister to show up. She wasn't mad at them, but she was annoyed that she had been forgotten. 'Oh well, it's not like it hasn't happened to Liz the same amount of times.'
She had gone exploring before and had made friends with some of the house elves, but so far she had decided that the one Zimby was her favorite.
She looked at her watch, which she never took off, and saw that it was 7 p.m. 'Wow, I wonder why I haven't been hungry yet. All I've had to eat so far today was that ice cream Draco bought me.' "Zimby!" she called.
Zimby came hurrying into sight. "Yes miss! What is it that misses wants from Zimby?"
"Hi Zimby, I was just wondering if you could get me some dinner. I'm a really bad cook, and I'm sure you're wonderful. So do you think you can get me something?"
Zimby beamed at her saying that he was surely a wonderful cook. "Oh yes miss! Zimby will go get your food right away misses! Won't miss take a seat?"
"Thank you Zimby."
Race barely had to wait 10 minutes before Zimby came back with a warm plate of stake baked potatoes and broccoli with a large glass of lemon iced tea on the side. "Thanks Zimby! These are all my favorite!"
"No problem miss, Zimby is happy to help and serve young miss. When miss is done, just leave your plate and I will come and take it away." He bowed to her and left.
Race was done eating when her mother and sister showed up. "God guys, what took you so long?"
"Well," said Race's mom crossly, "a certain someone never showed up with the list."
"Excuse me?!" Exclaimed Race, "but you were the one that didn't wait the whole two minutes for me to show up, I had to get all of the school supplies on my own!"
Her mother's face had been turning red with anger but now her features softened a bit. Race had stumped her so to speak, she wasn't accusing her of being a bad mother but her mother couldn't have argued with her being forgetful. "Don't worry about it mom," said Race, "it doesn't matter. I've already eaten, so I'm going to go back up to my room and make sure all of my stuff is packed." With that she turned and went back upstairs.
Twenty minutes later Liz came up with a silly grin on her face.
"What's with the dopey smile on your face Liz?"
"Oh, nothing really. Just the person we found to help us shop."
"Who?"
"No one really," said Liz grinning and knowing her sister would push it.
"Who? Who? Who?"
"Well. If you are going to insist on knowing. HARRY POTTER!"
"Ah! Are you serious?"
"Yup, since we didn't have the supply list we asked the first person we saw for help, and it was him Race! Really Him!"
"Wow. Please don't tell me you had that stupid smile on your face the whole time you were talking to him?"
"Oh come on, you know me better than that Race! I simply flirted my arse off to get his attention."
"And did it work?"
"Yeah, I think it did, he was definitely flirting back at some points."
"So what's the deal, are we going to sit by them tomorrow on the train?"
"Yeah, he invited us to."
"So you told him you had a twin?"
"Yeah, of course! He was trying to help us find you along the way."
"So, what took you guys so long?"
"Oh well, we took him out to lunch before we went shopping and then mom being who she is wanted to check out EVERY STORE! But it was ok, because you know; I had Harry to talk to!"
The two girls laughed for a few minutes until Liz asked, "So, how'd you do? It must have taken you forever to get all of your stuff, right?"
"No, not really. I had help too."
"Ooh! Spill!" Race told her about Draco and everything that they did. "So do you like him at all?"
"I don't know, unlike you, I don't just jump into love. Ha-ha, I'd like to get to know him better, but."
"But what?"
"Well," said Race beginning to grin, "he does have potential!" The girls than collapsed on their beds in fits of laughter.
They arrived at the train a half-hour before it was going to start rolling.
"Sorry we had to come so early girls, but both your father and I need to leave like now for our new jobs. Have a good term!" She hugged and kissed them both and then disappeared through the barrier back to the muggle world.
"Alright, guess we should get a seat then?"
"Yeah, come on."
The two girls finally got their trunks onto the train and found a compartment near the back of the train. Put their luggage onto the racks and then their pets, race had an owl and Liz had a cat, on the seats. They where pets to both girls but their mom wanted to be able to contact them so they had to get at least one owl.
Once they had everything secure in their compartment they went back outside. "Look, Race, I'm going to go find a bathroom, do you want to come?"
"No, that's ok; I'll just wait here for you."
"Alright, I won't be but a minute." And she hurried off for the bathroom.
A minute later someone approached Race and started talking to her. She knew who it was by his scar, it was Harry Potter, and he seemed to think that she was Liz.
"Hey Liz! Wow, I've been calling you for like three minutes, you may want to get your hearing checked or something."
"Oh, hi. I don't need my hearing checked though," she said through giggles, "I'm Race, Liz's sister."
"Oh wow, I'm sorry. Hey, I'm Harry Potter."
"No biggie, I'm Race Landorn. Liz went to use the restroom a minute or so ago, so she should be back any second. And here's a hint on how to tell us apart, I've got misty gray eyes while she's got bright green eyes."
"Thanks that should come in handy."
"Hey Harry! I see you've met Race, good. So do you want help getting your stuff on the train? We've got a compartment in the back."
"Oh no, my friend Ron and I will find it when he shows up. But just some forewarning, he is probably going to be a bit moody. You see our friend Hermione moved to America this summer, her parents were afraid-you know, with everything that is going on. They figured they'd be safer. They kind of had a thing for each other so he's going to be kind of depressed."
"Alright." Said Race, "but she'll have fun there, Salem Institute is a great school, with a HUGE library."
"Oh then she'll love it. That's her thing, learning everything possible, memorizing textbooks, etcetera."
"Yeah, she'll fit right in than."
"Look, there's Ron. The tall kid with the red hair. Ron! Hey Ron!" Called Harry waving his arms in the air. The boy spotted them and came over. "Hey Ron, this," pointing to Liz, "is Liz and that is Race."
"Hey, I'm Ron." He turned to look at the steam engine behind him; "we better get our stuff on Harry."
"Good idea," stated Harry. And the four walked to the train.
During the ride they talked about their families, America and England, and their schools. They were just digging into cauldron cakes and pumpkin pasties when their compartment door slid open and in came the one person Race dreamed about last night. The tall, blonde muscular boy that sometime in her sleep, Race decided she was head over heels for.
He looked around spotted Race, and with a small smile said, "Hey Race."
"Hey Draco, what's up?"
"Nothing really, just figured I'd find you and maybe talk a bit."
"Well, than have a seat." Said Race, motioning to the seat across from her.
"What are you doing here Malfoy?" said Harry.
"Well that isn't your usual greeting Potter. It's usually 'Sod off Malfoy.' What's with the sudden change?"
Race looked at Liz and said "tension" then made the hand motions and imitated the sound of ripping paper.
Liz laughed at that and said, "I know! I wonder what their probs. are."
Their conversation seemed to have gone unnoticed as Draco and Potter were still staring daggers at each other. "Sorry to have to break up this little love fest," said Race.
"But why don't you two break eye contact and sit down. You don't even need to sit on the same sides. Draco-"
"Wait, wait," interrupted Ron, "since when is he 'Draco' to anyone?"
Ignoring his question Liz continued "Draco over there by Race and Harry back where you were."
"It's no biggie really, there is more than enough room for everyone and if you are really that set against it, you two don't even have to look at each other."
"So whatever the problem is, just cool it so we can have a nice ride, because I'm sure Race doesn't want Draco to leave anytime soon." Liz said with and evil glint in her eyes.
"LIZ!!!" exclaimed Race, "SHUT UP!"
"Well it's true!" said Liz through laughs.
Race could feel the warmth creeping up her face, and she willed herself not to look at Draco. "God I'm gonna kill you one of these days Liz." Mumbled Race, still not looking up.
At that Liz laughed and Race chanced a glance up at Draco. Surprisingly he had a shadow of a smile on his face and his eyes were looking gently at her. She too smiled slightly and sat back in her seat, looking around the small compartment, and was surprised to see everyone looking back at her. Harry and Ron had identical amazed looks on their faces.
"W what?" asked Race nervously.
"You fancy Malfoy?" asked Ron in an amazed and disgusted voice.
Race merely turned bright red again and concentrated at the ceiling as if she'd never seen one before.
Luckily Harry came to her rescue (though surely it wasn't his intent) by saying, "so Malfoy, where are your two body guards?"
"Crabbe and Goyle you mean? Their parents sent them to Durmstrang."
"And why are you still here, isn't your family into the Dark Arts?" asked Ron harshly.
"Yes Weasley, they are, but I'm not. I don't even live with those so called parents if you must know. I live with my grandparents now. I haven't even talked to that man since last Christmas."
"Ok, why don't we change the subject," said Race, "how about them Yankees?"
"Yankees?" asked everyone but Liz.
Sigh "Nevermind, how about Quidditch?"
After that the journey to Hogwarts went pretty smoothly. There was still some hostility between the three boys but it was tolerable. And sooner than anyone would have suspected they were at Hogwarts and traveling through the double doors into the most splendid room Race had ever seen.
Race suddenly stopped and grabbed Liz's arm. "What are we going to do? Are we going to go with the first years or are we going to sit at one of the tables and wait to be called?"
No sooner had she said this than the answer became clear from the mouth of a tall elderly man with a long graybeard and gentle eyes. "Ah! Amy, Elizabeth, welcome to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. I would ask that you kindly stand by the teacher's table and we will introduce you and call you up to be sorted when the first years are through. Please make your way into the dining area now and wait patiently." He said this and smiled down on the two girls and disappeared in the throng of students filing into the dining area.
"Amy?" Said a voice behind Race. She didn't need to turn around to know whom that wonderful voice belonged to.
"Yea," she said with a small laugh, "Amy is my real name, but no one really calls me that. My mother even calls me Race. She could of course call me Amy, but I don't let many other people."
"Well, do you think I could?" he replied.
Race could feel his warm breath on her neck, and his hands resting on her waist and she almost shivered at the thought of being that close to him. "I don't know," she started with a grin, "we'll see though." And with that she walked into the magnificent dining room and stood with her sister at the teacher's table.
"Hey, what held you?" asked Liz once she was standing next to her.
"Draco, literally!" she said knowing her cheeks were flushing.
"Wow Race, here a day and already you've got a boy wrapped around your finger. I bow down to your greatness."
The first year students started filing into the room, all looking nervous. And one by one the queue of students was diminished. A stern looking professor announced that there would be two new students transferring into the sixth year.
"I hope we get into the same house!"
"We are so alike, how could we not?"
"Point."
"Elizabeth Landorn."
"Good luck," whispered Race.
"Yeah you too."
Liz walked up, sat on the stool, and placed the hat on her head. The hat hesitated but a second before yelling out "GRYFFINDOR!" She hopped off of the stool and walked to the table and sat next to Harry, who gave her a tremendous smile.
"Amy Landorn."
Race walked confidently to the stool and sat down. She put the hat on her head and waited. A voice suddenly spoke into her ear. "Hmm, that was just your sister; I expect you two would like to be together. You have so much smarts and loyalty though, you have a sense of justice and nobility but you also have the power and want to prove yourself. Oh, this will be a tough one won't it? Hmm. Well this house's characteristics seem to out weigh all the rest. So I'll have to say, GRYFFINDOR!"
Race let out a sigh of relief and hurried to sit with her sister, giving Draco a smile on the way over. He however looked as if someone had cancelled Christmas, she sent a questioning look his way when she saw his obvious disappointment, but didn't have time to think about it while she was being patted on the back by her fellow Gryffindors.
The night passed by in a blur and Race didn't even notice the way to the common room or all of the people introducing them selves to her. She was tired and anxious to start school the next day. She didn't even notice how she and her sister were the only two people in their dorm (apparently, Hermione wasn't the only one to move to America over the summer.) once she had changed into her pajamas and said goodnight to her sister she laid down and was asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow.
Race could be found sometime later up in her room with her trunk packed and her nose in her potion textbook. It had always been by far her easiest subject, and since she was going to a new school, she wanted to be prepared and maybe even have a head start.
She had long since determined not to wait up for her mom and sister to show up. She wasn't mad at them, but she was annoyed that she had been forgotten. 'Oh well, it's not like it hasn't happened to Liz the same amount of times.'
She had gone exploring before and had made friends with some of the house elves, but so far she had decided that the one Zimby was her favorite.
She looked at her watch, which she never took off, and saw that it was 7 p.m. 'Wow, I wonder why I haven't been hungry yet. All I've had to eat so far today was that ice cream Draco bought me.' "Zimby!" she called.
Zimby came hurrying into sight. "Yes miss! What is it that misses wants from Zimby?"
"Hi Zimby, I was just wondering if you could get me some dinner. I'm a really bad cook, and I'm sure you're wonderful. So do you think you can get me something?"
Zimby beamed at her saying that he was surely a wonderful cook. "Oh yes miss! Zimby will go get your food right away misses! Won't miss take a seat?"
"Thank you Zimby."
Race barely had to wait 10 minutes before Zimby came back with a warm plate of stake baked potatoes and broccoli with a large glass of lemon iced tea on the side. "Thanks Zimby! These are all my favorite!"
"No problem miss, Zimby is happy to help and serve young miss. When miss is done, just leave your plate and I will come and take it away." He bowed to her and left.
Race was done eating when her mother and sister showed up. "God guys, what took you so long?"
"Well," said Race's mom crossly, "a certain someone never showed up with the list."
"Excuse me?!" Exclaimed Race, "but you were the one that didn't wait the whole two minutes for me to show up, I had to get all of the school supplies on my own!"
Her mother's face had been turning red with anger but now her features softened a bit. Race had stumped her so to speak, she wasn't accusing her of being a bad mother but her mother couldn't have argued with her being forgetful. "Don't worry about it mom," said Race, "it doesn't matter. I've already eaten, so I'm going to go back up to my room and make sure all of my stuff is packed." With that she turned and went back upstairs.
Twenty minutes later Liz came up with a silly grin on her face.
"What's with the dopey smile on your face Liz?"
"Oh, nothing really. Just the person we found to help us shop."
"Who?"
"No one really," said Liz grinning and knowing her sister would push it.
"Who? Who? Who?"
"Well. If you are going to insist on knowing. HARRY POTTER!"
"Ah! Are you serious?"
"Yup, since we didn't have the supply list we asked the first person we saw for help, and it was him Race! Really Him!"
"Wow. Please don't tell me you had that stupid smile on your face the whole time you were talking to him?"
"Oh come on, you know me better than that Race! I simply flirted my arse off to get his attention."
"And did it work?"
"Yeah, I think it did, he was definitely flirting back at some points."
"So what's the deal, are we going to sit by them tomorrow on the train?"
"Yeah, he invited us to."
"So you told him you had a twin?"
"Yeah, of course! He was trying to help us find you along the way."
"So, what took you guys so long?"
"Oh well, we took him out to lunch before we went shopping and then mom being who she is wanted to check out EVERY STORE! But it was ok, because you know; I had Harry to talk to!"
The two girls laughed for a few minutes until Liz asked, "So, how'd you do? It must have taken you forever to get all of your stuff, right?"
"No, not really. I had help too."
"Ooh! Spill!" Race told her about Draco and everything that they did. "So do you like him at all?"
"I don't know, unlike you, I don't just jump into love. Ha-ha, I'd like to get to know him better, but."
"But what?"
"Well," said Race beginning to grin, "he does have potential!" The girls than collapsed on their beds in fits of laughter.
They arrived at the train a half-hour before it was going to start rolling.
"Sorry we had to come so early girls, but both your father and I need to leave like now for our new jobs. Have a good term!" She hugged and kissed them both and then disappeared through the barrier back to the muggle world.
"Alright, guess we should get a seat then?"
"Yeah, come on."
The two girls finally got their trunks onto the train and found a compartment near the back of the train. Put their luggage onto the racks and then their pets, race had an owl and Liz had a cat, on the seats. They where pets to both girls but their mom wanted to be able to contact them so they had to get at least one owl.
Once they had everything secure in their compartment they went back outside. "Look, Race, I'm going to go find a bathroom, do you want to come?"
"No, that's ok; I'll just wait here for you."
"Alright, I won't be but a minute." And she hurried off for the bathroom.
A minute later someone approached Race and started talking to her. She knew who it was by his scar, it was Harry Potter, and he seemed to think that she was Liz.
"Hey Liz! Wow, I've been calling you for like three minutes, you may want to get your hearing checked or something."
"Oh, hi. I don't need my hearing checked though," she said through giggles, "I'm Race, Liz's sister."
"Oh wow, I'm sorry. Hey, I'm Harry Potter."
"No biggie, I'm Race Landorn. Liz went to use the restroom a minute or so ago, so she should be back any second. And here's a hint on how to tell us apart, I've got misty gray eyes while she's got bright green eyes."
"Thanks that should come in handy."
"Hey Harry! I see you've met Race, good. So do you want help getting your stuff on the train? We've got a compartment in the back."
"Oh no, my friend Ron and I will find it when he shows up. But just some forewarning, he is probably going to be a bit moody. You see our friend Hermione moved to America this summer, her parents were afraid-you know, with everything that is going on. They figured they'd be safer. They kind of had a thing for each other so he's going to be kind of depressed."
"Alright." Said Race, "but she'll have fun there, Salem Institute is a great school, with a HUGE library."
"Oh then she'll love it. That's her thing, learning everything possible, memorizing textbooks, etcetera."
"Yeah, she'll fit right in than."
"Look, there's Ron. The tall kid with the red hair. Ron! Hey Ron!" Called Harry waving his arms in the air. The boy spotted them and came over. "Hey Ron, this," pointing to Liz, "is Liz and that is Race."
"Hey, I'm Ron." He turned to look at the steam engine behind him; "we better get our stuff on Harry."
"Good idea," stated Harry. And the four walked to the train.
During the ride they talked about their families, America and England, and their schools. They were just digging into cauldron cakes and pumpkin pasties when their compartment door slid open and in came the one person Race dreamed about last night. The tall, blonde muscular boy that sometime in her sleep, Race decided she was head over heels for.
He looked around spotted Race, and with a small smile said, "Hey Race."
"Hey Draco, what's up?"
"Nothing really, just figured I'd find you and maybe talk a bit."
"Well, than have a seat." Said Race, motioning to the seat across from her.
"What are you doing here Malfoy?" said Harry.
"Well that isn't your usual greeting Potter. It's usually 'Sod off Malfoy.' What's with the sudden change?"
Race looked at Liz and said "tension" then made the hand motions and imitated the sound of ripping paper.
Liz laughed at that and said, "I know! I wonder what their probs. are."
Their conversation seemed to have gone unnoticed as Draco and Potter were still staring daggers at each other. "Sorry to have to break up this little love fest," said Race.
"But why don't you two break eye contact and sit down. You don't even need to sit on the same sides. Draco-"
"Wait, wait," interrupted Ron, "since when is he 'Draco' to anyone?"
Ignoring his question Liz continued "Draco over there by Race and Harry back where you were."
"It's no biggie really, there is more than enough room for everyone and if you are really that set against it, you two don't even have to look at each other."
"So whatever the problem is, just cool it so we can have a nice ride, because I'm sure Race doesn't want Draco to leave anytime soon." Liz said with and evil glint in her eyes.
"LIZ!!!" exclaimed Race, "SHUT UP!"
"Well it's true!" said Liz through laughs.
Race could feel the warmth creeping up her face, and she willed herself not to look at Draco. "God I'm gonna kill you one of these days Liz." Mumbled Race, still not looking up.
At that Liz laughed and Race chanced a glance up at Draco. Surprisingly he had a shadow of a smile on his face and his eyes were looking gently at her. She too smiled slightly and sat back in her seat, looking around the small compartment, and was surprised to see everyone looking back at her. Harry and Ron had identical amazed looks on their faces.
"W what?" asked Race nervously.
"You fancy Malfoy?" asked Ron in an amazed and disgusted voice.
Race merely turned bright red again and concentrated at the ceiling as if she'd never seen one before.
Luckily Harry came to her rescue (though surely it wasn't his intent) by saying, "so Malfoy, where are your two body guards?"
"Crabbe and Goyle you mean? Their parents sent them to Durmstrang."
"And why are you still here, isn't your family into the Dark Arts?" asked Ron harshly.
"Yes Weasley, they are, but I'm not. I don't even live with those so called parents if you must know. I live with my grandparents now. I haven't even talked to that man since last Christmas."
"Ok, why don't we change the subject," said Race, "how about them Yankees?"
"Yankees?" asked everyone but Liz.
Sigh "Nevermind, how about Quidditch?"
After that the journey to Hogwarts went pretty smoothly. There was still some hostility between the three boys but it was tolerable. And sooner than anyone would have suspected they were at Hogwarts and traveling through the double doors into the most splendid room Race had ever seen.
Race suddenly stopped and grabbed Liz's arm. "What are we going to do? Are we going to go with the first years or are we going to sit at one of the tables and wait to be called?"
No sooner had she said this than the answer became clear from the mouth of a tall elderly man with a long graybeard and gentle eyes. "Ah! Amy, Elizabeth, welcome to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. I would ask that you kindly stand by the teacher's table and we will introduce you and call you up to be sorted when the first years are through. Please make your way into the dining area now and wait patiently." He said this and smiled down on the two girls and disappeared in the throng of students filing into the dining area.
"Amy?" Said a voice behind Race. She didn't need to turn around to know whom that wonderful voice belonged to.
"Yea," she said with a small laugh, "Amy is my real name, but no one really calls me that. My mother even calls me Race. She could of course call me Amy, but I don't let many other people."
"Well, do you think I could?" he replied.
Race could feel his warm breath on her neck, and his hands resting on her waist and she almost shivered at the thought of being that close to him. "I don't know," she started with a grin, "we'll see though." And with that she walked into the magnificent dining room and stood with her sister at the teacher's table.
"Hey, what held you?" asked Liz once she was standing next to her.
"Draco, literally!" she said knowing her cheeks were flushing.
"Wow Race, here a day and already you've got a boy wrapped around your finger. I bow down to your greatness."
The first year students started filing into the room, all looking nervous. And one by one the queue of students was diminished. A stern looking professor announced that there would be two new students transferring into the sixth year.
"I hope we get into the same house!"
"We are so alike, how could we not?"
"Point."
"Elizabeth Landorn."
"Good luck," whispered Race.
"Yeah you too."
Liz walked up, sat on the stool, and placed the hat on her head. The hat hesitated but a second before yelling out "GRYFFINDOR!" She hopped off of the stool and walked to the table and sat next to Harry, who gave her a tremendous smile.
"Amy Landorn."
Race walked confidently to the stool and sat down. She put the hat on her head and waited. A voice suddenly spoke into her ear. "Hmm, that was just your sister; I expect you two would like to be together. You have so much smarts and loyalty though, you have a sense of justice and nobility but you also have the power and want to prove yourself. Oh, this will be a tough one won't it? Hmm. Well this house's characteristics seem to out weigh all the rest. So I'll have to say, GRYFFINDOR!"
Race let out a sigh of relief and hurried to sit with her sister, giving Draco a smile on the way over. He however looked as if someone had cancelled Christmas, she sent a questioning look his way when she saw his obvious disappointment, but didn't have time to think about it while she was being patted on the back by her fellow Gryffindors.
The night passed by in a blur and Race didn't even notice the way to the common room or all of the people introducing them selves to her. She was tired and anxious to start school the next day. She didn't even notice how she and her sister were the only two people in their dorm (apparently, Hermione wasn't the only one to move to America over the summer.) once she had changed into her pajamas and said goodnight to her sister she laid down and was asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow.