Chapter Four: Parting Words and Introductions
Sianna hated good-byes. The words themselves were awkward, leaving her mouth feeling empty and her ears unsatisfied, and yet there was invariably a lack of alternative expressions when the time to say the words arrived. When the moment came down to it, she could never remember any of the multiple parting conversations she had rehearsed beforehand and was always stuck with the same inadequate phrase.
In any less extreme case, Sianna would have left without saying anything at all to her friends, but she knew that they would never forgive her for disappearing for an entire year without a moment's notice. She was not really close to anyone, so she just called one or two friends and broke the news, then asked them to relay it to the rest of their little group.
Good-bye parties were definitely something to avoid, but Sianna knew she didn't need to worry about anyone trying to throw one for her. The people she hung out with were not exactly the type that would do the sort of thing, even if she had been close to them.
Sianna's parents had nullified the weeklong grounding that she had been sentenced to, which was thoughtful of them, so Sianna tried to be nice and follow the rules during her last four days at home. This made for a fairly dull two days, until her older sister, Elise, came home and she had someone to talk to. Sianna spent the last forty-eight hours playing tennis and talking with her sibling, and on Friday night she got permission to go to the beach with her and watch the sunset over the pacific for the last time.
The great red circle lowering into the sea had been a beautiful sight, but it left Sianna in an annoyingly pensive and melancholic state. Later, as she lay in bed fidgeting in the hot darkness and waiting for sleep to find her, the little voice that had first whispered of adventure crawled into a deep cave and could not be coaxed back out. It was only then that Sianna began to consider the negative side of running off to a foreign country by herself.
She flopped onto her stomach and sighed. "Shy" was not a word generally used to describe Sianna, but she had always felt uncomfortable meeting strangers, and she was suddenly very glad that there would be no students at Hogwarts when she arrived. Having the whole summer to get used to the culture and environment would definitely help her lose the anxiety that came with friendlessness.
I really want to go, I do, Sianna repeated to herself, refusing to let herself oscillate over her decision. A little loneliness never killed anyone, and it's not like it'll be forever.
As she sweated and tangled herself in the sheets, years-old memories of happy days with her family kept sleep away. Picnics on the beach and vacations floated by one after the other, and Sianna imagined what life would be like without parents and siblings. My friends will be like my family, Sianna assured herself, not as confidently as she would have liked. I'm not suddenly turning into and orphan just because my family is on the other side of the planet. They'll still be here when I get back.
Several hours of worrying later, as Sianna watched the moon rise in her window, her reckless and adventurous side crawled back out, and she knew that she was more than ready for something exciting, a change that would keep her on her toes. Sianna comforted her sentimental and clingy side with the thought that it would only be few years, and she could always visit. At that moment though, all Sianna could think was that fifteen years of the same certainly warranted a change. She began to relax into her pillow.
Her confidence in her decision was furthered when she remembered that strange, compelling feeling that had plagued her happiness as long as she could remember. It would creep up on her during one of her entirely unchallenging days at school, or while she sat outside at lunch, observing those students who she knew, yet didn't know. She would look out at the people around her and wonder why she felt so separated from them, contemplating the impalpable distance between her and them. Even when she was alone, sitting in her room reading or playing her guitar on the beach, she felt the shadow upon her and knew she didn't belong.
That shadow had come frequently, yet was so erratic and fleeting that for her entire life, Sianna had managed to disregard it as her own imagined folly. Never had she dreamed that it was not unfounded, that there was reason behind her madness, that her creativity had not simply run into a world free of logic and dragged her along. She had been wrong all this time—there was a reason, if not an entirely logical or scientific one, that she felt like she was supposed to be somewhere else.
The next morning at precisely ten o'clock, Sianna would be whisked away to that other place, the "somewhere else" where she was meant to be all along. She fell into a calm, still slumber.
* * * * * * * * * *
Eight in the morning was far too early to be awake, especially during summer vacation, but Sianna could not bring herself to fall back asleep two hours before leaving her stable life for the blank page that awaited her at Hogwarts. She tiredly swung her semi-rejuvenated body over the edge of the low bed, overestimated, and landed on the unforgiving hardwood floor with a resounding thud.
Cursing, she struggled to her feet and jammed her toes into the flimsy slippers she had worn since her feet had ceased to grow. The kitchen called to her stomach, which drove her to descend the stairs and rummage through the refrigerator for something edible.
Sianna downed a cold glass of orange juice and retrieved a banana, which she toted back up the stairs. On her way up, she peeked into the rooms of her parents, who were still abed, and her sister Elise, who had returned from camp two days before and was also sleeping soundly.
Sianna knew that everything she could possibly need at Hogwarts that she could bring from home was safely packed away in the trunk that sat beside her closet, but she checked it again just to calm her nerves. As she rummaged through the stacks of clothing and books, she recognized the familiar anxiousness that she felt whenever she prepared to go somewhere by herself. Before leaving, Sianna was always nervous and fidgety, even to the point of nausea. But she knew that the moment the house disappeared, any sign of nerves or sickness would vanish entirely.
She had never entirely understood this, but had always attributed it to her fear and hatred of saying good-bye.
Finished with her final bag-check, she attempted to take her mind off the impending departure by uncasing and tuning her acoustic guitar. She idly strummed a few chords, but felt lonely without her guitar-buddies, as she liked to refer to them. Restlessness returned quickly with the lack of distraction, so Sianna wandered into the bathroom to begin her usual morning routine.
A look at herself in the mirror caught her eye, though, and made the useless and annoying self-analysis begin once again. She carefully studied her features, the same ones she had worn and looked at every day. She did not really resemble her parents, but several of her traits were obviously inherited.
Thinking about her parents saddened her. Since seventh grade, she had grown steadily further from them, and she no longer felt even a little of the bonds they had shared when Sianna was younger. Middle school had been hard for Sianna, and as her interests diverged from those of her old friends, she fell into a habit of solidarity. She became introverted, cynical, and sarcastic, but not nearly to the degree that she was now.
School had gradually ceased to be exciting or challenging, even in the most advanced classes, and as she moved into high school, Sianna's boredom drove her to more exciting, less reputable pastimes. As her parents were forced to act as the disciplinarians more often, Sianna resented them more, and broke more rules to spite them. It turned into a vicious cycle that had never been righted.
Now, though, regret filled Sianna, and she wished she had been able to swallow her pride sooner.
The sounds of her family stirring jerked Sianna out of her reverie, and she quickly finished applying her extremely sparse make-up. After dressing in a worn pair of black cargo pants and a plain black tank, she headed to the kitchen for the second time that morning.
Her family broke off their conversation as she entered, and Helena greeted her daughter cheerfully, "Hey honey. How long have you been up?"
"I haven't seen you in clothes this early since school ended," Elise joked.
"Yeah, it's practically against the laws of summer vacation to get out of your pajamas before eleven, right?" Sianna joked back. "I woke up at eight. I couldn't fall back asleep," she explained.
"Did you eat already?" Sianna's father asked.
"A bit. I'm not really hungry."
"Well, I made eggs if you want them."
"No, thanks."
Sianna sat down at the oval kitchen table and shared one last morning with the people she had lived with all her life. They spoke of the news, plans for the week, the weather, and other idle but comforting subjects. Sianna wondered what breakfasts at Hogwarts would be like.
They had been chatting for quite a while when Sianna checked the clock on the wall. It told her that in five minutes it would be ten, the time that Professor Snape was supposed to come to take her to Hogwarts. Those strange nerves flared at the thought that this was the last five minutes she would spend here for a year, that in five minutes she would have to leave for a completely new home. She didn't say anything about the time to her family.
Sure enough, three hundred dragging seconds later there was a small pop and Snape appeared just outside the kitchen door and knocked. Unfortunately, Elise had been looking right out the window in the door at that moment, and she nearly fell out of her chair with shock. They had, of course, related the story of the previous Monday night to her many times, but although some of Sianna's accidental magic had proven the verity of the tale, she was still surprised to find that her family had not exaggerated any of the details.
Sianna's parents froze, knowing that the time had come, and Sianna was left to answer the door herself.
"Uh, hello," Sianna said nervously to the imposing man on her doorstep.
"Good morning, Miss Castell," Snape greeted formally as he stepped through the open door.
Sianna turned to see that her parents her parents had stood to shake hands with Snape.
"I'll go get my stuff," Sianna offered, and she was halfway up the stairs before anyone could protest. She lugged her laden trunk from her room to the top of the stairs, where she saw her father waiting to take it down stairs. "One sec, I need to get my guitar," she told him, disappearing back into her room.
When she returned to the kitchen, she set the guitar on the tile floor and turned to face her family, who stood staring at her, apparently wondering exactly what to do.
Helena's eyes watered, and she rushed up and enfolded her daughter in a suffocating hug. She mumbled incoherently about "my baby going away to the big world" and sniffed into Sianna's shoulder. Helena eventually managed to pry herself off her daughter, only to be replaced by her husband.
Elise was next, giving her little sister a short, tight embrace before facing her and warning solemnly, "Don't do anything I would do because you'll probably just get detention for it, and don't screw up and get sent home because then I'll kill you, and make lots of friends so that so that I don't have to read any lonely, whiny letters...oh yeah, and don't date more than five guys at once, believe me, it never works."
At this, Sianna let out a nervous chuckle and was even more amused to see that Snape was staring strangely at Elise, presumably because of her rather unexpected parting speech. He stood absolutely still with a sneer frozen on his face, but when he saw that Sianna had noticed him, he said, "Are you ready, then?"
"Where's my trunk?" Sianna asked confusedly, not seeing it anywhere.
"I shrank it and put it in my pocket," he said quite seriously, producing the miniature version in his hand, then slipping it back into his robes. "Are you ready to leave?" he repeated.
Sianna nodded and gave her parents one last hug before approaching Snape, who pulled another object out of his pocket. It was a feather quill that had been turned into a Portkey, and Snape explained how it would transport them directly to Hogwarts.
"It has been programmed to take us there when you touch it. Just one finger is enough," Snape instructed.
Sianna took a last look at her teary-eyed family and said weakly, "See you next summer." She touched the quill, and both she and the professor were gone.
* * * * * * * * * *
The moment her finger made contact with the feather, the world began to spin and colors blurred into a hazy tie-dye. She felt a tug behind her belly button that made her spin along with her surroundings. Then the feeling suddenly stopped, and she was left staring dizzily at the road under her feet, fighting to stay upright.
'Well now I know what somebody on acid means when they say "pretty colors,"' Sianna said sarcastically to herself, thinking correctly that Snape would probably not appreciate the observation.
When she finally got her senses under control, she looked up at the professor, who gazed smugly down at her. "You'll get used to it," he said, silently laughing scornfully at her. Sianna ignored him.
Then she noticed the massive stone castle that lay through the gates in front of her, and froze in awe at the sheer size of it.
"Shall we proceed?" Snape asked rhetorically. He marched ahead, and she trotted to catch up with the professor.
Sianna had trouble keeping her eyes ahead of her as she crossed the expansive grounds to the two-story front entryway. The path skirted the edges of a clearly unpolluted lake and led her past a series of enormous greenhouses and a small hut that was scaled for a very large person. 'And they say that America is the land of the huge,' Sianna mused, noting the irony of the scenery.
The two climbed the stone steps leading to a wooden door the height of a house, and with surprisingly little effort, Snape let them in.
Sianna wondered again at the size of everything as she stared up at the immensely high ceiling. "How many students did you say come here?" she asked Snape, amazed.
"I didn't. Currently about three hundred are enrolled, possibly a few more," Snape replied.
"All this for just three hundred kids? My old school was about the size of your front yard and there were twelve hundred of us."
Snape make no remark at that. He led Sianna toward the staircases, and when the girl heard a low rumble, she looked up and gasped. "Why are they moving?" she asked, staring up at the mobile staircases.
"Because they like to and they can. You should also beware of trick steps and such, and some of the stairways tend to disappear on certain days," he warned, sounding like her was hoping to scare the girl.
He was disappointed when all that came out of her mouth was an awed, "Cool."
Snape headed for the headmaster's office, and Sianna followed wordlessly. When he reached the familiar gargoyle, he spat, "Ton-Tongue Toffees" and watched it move aside to reveal another staircase. Sianna followed him up the winding steps to another door, where Snape stopped and knocked.
"Ah, here they are. Come in, come in," she heard from the other side. They entered, and Sianna was taken aback to find a small array of adults, probably faculty, seated and facing the door expectantly. She hoped that they weren't all there just to talk to her, but considering the circumstance, she knew that they probably were.
Snape took a seat among his colleagues, leaving Sianna standing awkwardly before them. "Uh, hello," she said with a barely perceivable and slightly nervous smile.
Dumbledore noticed her discomfort and approached her, saying amiably, "It's wonderful to finally meet you, Sianna Castell. I am Professor Dumbledore, headmaster of Hogwarts," he introduced.
Sianna shook his hand and could see that the old man was surprised at her firm grip. She had learned years ago that a firm grip tended to give the impression that she was confident and mature. "It's nice to meet you, sir," she said politely.
Dumbledore led to a seat around the table (thankfully a solitary chair and not a space on the couch), then began to name the others in the room. Sianna greeted them all with a small nod. Along with Professor Snape, who she already knew, there were Professors McGonagall, Sprout, Flitwick, and Lupin. After the necessary introductions, Sianna sat in the only remaining chair, which happened to be a sanguine, over-stuffed armchair with wooden legs. She sank into it rather farther than she would have liked.
"Well, Miss Castell, as you can see, this is really a very interesting situation," Dumbledore began, opting to get straight down to business. "Nothing of the sort has ever occurred before, and while we have had transfer students and the like, none of them have ever had so much catching up to do. You realize of course, that we brought you here so early because you have missed four years of school already, and it would be in your best interests to begin your studies as soon as possible."
"Yes, sir. Professor Snape mentioned that several times," Sianna said when it seemed that he required a response. Dumbledore seemed amused by her statement.
Professor McGonagall then spoke up. "For the summer," she told Sianna, "we have devised a plan so that you will spend a certain amount of time each week on all of your major classes. You will not take any of the extra classes that students your age normally take, only because you will progress faster without the extra work."
"Um, what exactly are these major classes?" Sianna asked, genuinely curious. "I'm guessing you don't teach algebra and English here."
At Sianna's inquiry, Dumbledore suggested that the teachers each briefly explain their own subject.
Professor McGonagall began, "I teach Transfiguration, the art of changing objects into other objects. It gets much more complicated than that, but you understand the general idea."
Her short speech was followed by Professor Flitwick's explanation of Charms. Sianna was particularly intrigued by Snape's Potions class, and was also interested in Defense Against the Dark Arts, which Professor Lupin taught. As she listened to Professor Lupin speaking, she thought of the war that had just begun again and hoped that she would excel in that class. Herbology sounded rather boring to Sianna, as she had never been fond of gardening, but she decided that Professor Sprout was nice enough to make up for it.
When the teachers finished answering Sianna's question, Dumbledore began again, "We really have not decided how to continue your education when the other students return, as the teachers will be busy with class and for the most part unable to tutor you. But that is not entirely relevant yet," he said, brushing past the subject.
"I am curious, though," Professor Sprout interjected, "about how quickly you will progress. What if we house you with students your own age, but you do not graduate with them because you are not finished? Then you would be all by yourself, poor dear," she said pityingly.
Sianna was amused that this professor cared so much about her social happiness. She assured her, "I'm a fast learner, I doubt it will be a problem."
Before any of the teachers could reply to that, Dumbledore said excitedly, "Oh, that reminds me, I am very curious about Muggle schools. Would you care to tell us about them?" he asked.
Sianna explained that Muggles were schooled far longer than wizards were, and the teachers were surprised to learn that she had just completed her tenth year at school, not her fourth. She refrained from sharing anything about her actual school record other than her grades, which were impeccable. Despite the fact that she had rarely studied, she had remained at the top of her class throughout her schooling. It had always been her saving grace: no matter how much she misbehaved, her parents could never use falling grades as an excuse to punish her.
"That is just fascinating. I've always wanted to study Muggles, but I've just never has the—"Dumbledore started, but Professor Snape cleared his throat suggestively, and he returned to the topic. "Well then, for the summer, we have prepared a room in the guest wing for you. The house dormitories are much too spacious for just one girl—"
"Sorry, you said house dormitories? What exactly do you mean by "house?'"
That prompted a short relation of the founding of Hogwarts, followed by an explanation of the four houses and their heads. "There is a magical hat, the Sorting Hat, that each new student wears for a moment when they first arrive, and it tells them which house they would fit in best according to their personalities," Professor McGonagall told Sianna. "I suppose we should Sort you now, shouldn't we?"
"Actually," Sianna interjected before they could do anything further, "I would rather wait a bit. Is that okay?"
"I suppose that would be fine," McGonagall admitted. "I don't think it will make much of a difference..."
"I dunno. It's a gut feeling, I guess. Maybe I'd just rather keep the suspense on a bit longer," she joked, also not quite sure about her reasoning behind the request.
There was a pause that signaled a lack of further topics to discuss, then professor Lupin said, "If that's all, I'd like to get down to dinner soon—"
"That's right, it's dinnertime here, isn't it? Strange," Sianna interrupted, not noticing her tactlessness. "Well, I second the motion. I haven't eaten since...well not that long ago, but still, I'm a growing girl, I get hungry easily."
The professors laughed as they rose from their seats, Sianna's uninhibited comment having effectively ended the meeting. They all filed out of the headmaster's office and trekked to the dining hall together.
Sianna hated good-byes. The words themselves were awkward, leaving her mouth feeling empty and her ears unsatisfied, and yet there was invariably a lack of alternative expressions when the time to say the words arrived. When the moment came down to it, she could never remember any of the multiple parting conversations she had rehearsed beforehand and was always stuck with the same inadequate phrase.
In any less extreme case, Sianna would have left without saying anything at all to her friends, but she knew that they would never forgive her for disappearing for an entire year without a moment's notice. She was not really close to anyone, so she just called one or two friends and broke the news, then asked them to relay it to the rest of their little group.
Good-bye parties were definitely something to avoid, but Sianna knew she didn't need to worry about anyone trying to throw one for her. The people she hung out with were not exactly the type that would do the sort of thing, even if she had been close to them.
Sianna's parents had nullified the weeklong grounding that she had been sentenced to, which was thoughtful of them, so Sianna tried to be nice and follow the rules during her last four days at home. This made for a fairly dull two days, until her older sister, Elise, came home and she had someone to talk to. Sianna spent the last forty-eight hours playing tennis and talking with her sibling, and on Friday night she got permission to go to the beach with her and watch the sunset over the pacific for the last time.
The great red circle lowering into the sea had been a beautiful sight, but it left Sianna in an annoyingly pensive and melancholic state. Later, as she lay in bed fidgeting in the hot darkness and waiting for sleep to find her, the little voice that had first whispered of adventure crawled into a deep cave and could not be coaxed back out. It was only then that Sianna began to consider the negative side of running off to a foreign country by herself.
She flopped onto her stomach and sighed. "Shy" was not a word generally used to describe Sianna, but she had always felt uncomfortable meeting strangers, and she was suddenly very glad that there would be no students at Hogwarts when she arrived. Having the whole summer to get used to the culture and environment would definitely help her lose the anxiety that came with friendlessness.
I really want to go, I do, Sianna repeated to herself, refusing to let herself oscillate over her decision. A little loneliness never killed anyone, and it's not like it'll be forever.
As she sweated and tangled herself in the sheets, years-old memories of happy days with her family kept sleep away. Picnics on the beach and vacations floated by one after the other, and Sianna imagined what life would be like without parents and siblings. My friends will be like my family, Sianna assured herself, not as confidently as she would have liked. I'm not suddenly turning into and orphan just because my family is on the other side of the planet. They'll still be here when I get back.
Several hours of worrying later, as Sianna watched the moon rise in her window, her reckless and adventurous side crawled back out, and she knew that she was more than ready for something exciting, a change that would keep her on her toes. Sianna comforted her sentimental and clingy side with the thought that it would only be few years, and she could always visit. At that moment though, all Sianna could think was that fifteen years of the same certainly warranted a change. She began to relax into her pillow.
Her confidence in her decision was furthered when she remembered that strange, compelling feeling that had plagued her happiness as long as she could remember. It would creep up on her during one of her entirely unchallenging days at school, or while she sat outside at lunch, observing those students who she knew, yet didn't know. She would look out at the people around her and wonder why she felt so separated from them, contemplating the impalpable distance between her and them. Even when she was alone, sitting in her room reading or playing her guitar on the beach, she felt the shadow upon her and knew she didn't belong.
That shadow had come frequently, yet was so erratic and fleeting that for her entire life, Sianna had managed to disregard it as her own imagined folly. Never had she dreamed that it was not unfounded, that there was reason behind her madness, that her creativity had not simply run into a world free of logic and dragged her along. She had been wrong all this time—there was a reason, if not an entirely logical or scientific one, that she felt like she was supposed to be somewhere else.
The next morning at precisely ten o'clock, Sianna would be whisked away to that other place, the "somewhere else" where she was meant to be all along. She fell into a calm, still slumber.
* * * * * * * * * *
Eight in the morning was far too early to be awake, especially during summer vacation, but Sianna could not bring herself to fall back asleep two hours before leaving her stable life for the blank page that awaited her at Hogwarts. She tiredly swung her semi-rejuvenated body over the edge of the low bed, overestimated, and landed on the unforgiving hardwood floor with a resounding thud.
Cursing, she struggled to her feet and jammed her toes into the flimsy slippers she had worn since her feet had ceased to grow. The kitchen called to her stomach, which drove her to descend the stairs and rummage through the refrigerator for something edible.
Sianna downed a cold glass of orange juice and retrieved a banana, which she toted back up the stairs. On her way up, she peeked into the rooms of her parents, who were still abed, and her sister Elise, who had returned from camp two days before and was also sleeping soundly.
Sianna knew that everything she could possibly need at Hogwarts that she could bring from home was safely packed away in the trunk that sat beside her closet, but she checked it again just to calm her nerves. As she rummaged through the stacks of clothing and books, she recognized the familiar anxiousness that she felt whenever she prepared to go somewhere by herself. Before leaving, Sianna was always nervous and fidgety, even to the point of nausea. But she knew that the moment the house disappeared, any sign of nerves or sickness would vanish entirely.
She had never entirely understood this, but had always attributed it to her fear and hatred of saying good-bye.
Finished with her final bag-check, she attempted to take her mind off the impending departure by uncasing and tuning her acoustic guitar. She idly strummed a few chords, but felt lonely without her guitar-buddies, as she liked to refer to them. Restlessness returned quickly with the lack of distraction, so Sianna wandered into the bathroom to begin her usual morning routine.
A look at herself in the mirror caught her eye, though, and made the useless and annoying self-analysis begin once again. She carefully studied her features, the same ones she had worn and looked at every day. She did not really resemble her parents, but several of her traits were obviously inherited.
Thinking about her parents saddened her. Since seventh grade, she had grown steadily further from them, and she no longer felt even a little of the bonds they had shared when Sianna was younger. Middle school had been hard for Sianna, and as her interests diverged from those of her old friends, she fell into a habit of solidarity. She became introverted, cynical, and sarcastic, but not nearly to the degree that she was now.
School had gradually ceased to be exciting or challenging, even in the most advanced classes, and as she moved into high school, Sianna's boredom drove her to more exciting, less reputable pastimes. As her parents were forced to act as the disciplinarians more often, Sianna resented them more, and broke more rules to spite them. It turned into a vicious cycle that had never been righted.
Now, though, regret filled Sianna, and she wished she had been able to swallow her pride sooner.
The sounds of her family stirring jerked Sianna out of her reverie, and she quickly finished applying her extremely sparse make-up. After dressing in a worn pair of black cargo pants and a plain black tank, she headed to the kitchen for the second time that morning.
Her family broke off their conversation as she entered, and Helena greeted her daughter cheerfully, "Hey honey. How long have you been up?"
"I haven't seen you in clothes this early since school ended," Elise joked.
"Yeah, it's practically against the laws of summer vacation to get out of your pajamas before eleven, right?" Sianna joked back. "I woke up at eight. I couldn't fall back asleep," she explained.
"Did you eat already?" Sianna's father asked.
"A bit. I'm not really hungry."
"Well, I made eggs if you want them."
"No, thanks."
Sianna sat down at the oval kitchen table and shared one last morning with the people she had lived with all her life. They spoke of the news, plans for the week, the weather, and other idle but comforting subjects. Sianna wondered what breakfasts at Hogwarts would be like.
They had been chatting for quite a while when Sianna checked the clock on the wall. It told her that in five minutes it would be ten, the time that Professor Snape was supposed to come to take her to Hogwarts. Those strange nerves flared at the thought that this was the last five minutes she would spend here for a year, that in five minutes she would have to leave for a completely new home. She didn't say anything about the time to her family.
Sure enough, three hundred dragging seconds later there was a small pop and Snape appeared just outside the kitchen door and knocked. Unfortunately, Elise had been looking right out the window in the door at that moment, and she nearly fell out of her chair with shock. They had, of course, related the story of the previous Monday night to her many times, but although some of Sianna's accidental magic had proven the verity of the tale, she was still surprised to find that her family had not exaggerated any of the details.
Sianna's parents froze, knowing that the time had come, and Sianna was left to answer the door herself.
"Uh, hello," Sianna said nervously to the imposing man on her doorstep.
"Good morning, Miss Castell," Snape greeted formally as he stepped through the open door.
Sianna turned to see that her parents her parents had stood to shake hands with Snape.
"I'll go get my stuff," Sianna offered, and she was halfway up the stairs before anyone could protest. She lugged her laden trunk from her room to the top of the stairs, where she saw her father waiting to take it down stairs. "One sec, I need to get my guitar," she told him, disappearing back into her room.
When she returned to the kitchen, she set the guitar on the tile floor and turned to face her family, who stood staring at her, apparently wondering exactly what to do.
Helena's eyes watered, and she rushed up and enfolded her daughter in a suffocating hug. She mumbled incoherently about "my baby going away to the big world" and sniffed into Sianna's shoulder. Helena eventually managed to pry herself off her daughter, only to be replaced by her husband.
Elise was next, giving her little sister a short, tight embrace before facing her and warning solemnly, "Don't do anything I would do because you'll probably just get detention for it, and don't screw up and get sent home because then I'll kill you, and make lots of friends so that so that I don't have to read any lonely, whiny letters...oh yeah, and don't date more than five guys at once, believe me, it never works."
At this, Sianna let out a nervous chuckle and was even more amused to see that Snape was staring strangely at Elise, presumably because of her rather unexpected parting speech. He stood absolutely still with a sneer frozen on his face, but when he saw that Sianna had noticed him, he said, "Are you ready, then?"
"Where's my trunk?" Sianna asked confusedly, not seeing it anywhere.
"I shrank it and put it in my pocket," he said quite seriously, producing the miniature version in his hand, then slipping it back into his robes. "Are you ready to leave?" he repeated.
Sianna nodded and gave her parents one last hug before approaching Snape, who pulled another object out of his pocket. It was a feather quill that had been turned into a Portkey, and Snape explained how it would transport them directly to Hogwarts.
"It has been programmed to take us there when you touch it. Just one finger is enough," Snape instructed.
Sianna took a last look at her teary-eyed family and said weakly, "See you next summer." She touched the quill, and both she and the professor were gone.
* * * * * * * * * *
The moment her finger made contact with the feather, the world began to spin and colors blurred into a hazy tie-dye. She felt a tug behind her belly button that made her spin along with her surroundings. Then the feeling suddenly stopped, and she was left staring dizzily at the road under her feet, fighting to stay upright.
'Well now I know what somebody on acid means when they say "pretty colors,"' Sianna said sarcastically to herself, thinking correctly that Snape would probably not appreciate the observation.
When she finally got her senses under control, she looked up at the professor, who gazed smugly down at her. "You'll get used to it," he said, silently laughing scornfully at her. Sianna ignored him.
Then she noticed the massive stone castle that lay through the gates in front of her, and froze in awe at the sheer size of it.
"Shall we proceed?" Snape asked rhetorically. He marched ahead, and she trotted to catch up with the professor.
Sianna had trouble keeping her eyes ahead of her as she crossed the expansive grounds to the two-story front entryway. The path skirted the edges of a clearly unpolluted lake and led her past a series of enormous greenhouses and a small hut that was scaled for a very large person. 'And they say that America is the land of the huge,' Sianna mused, noting the irony of the scenery.
The two climbed the stone steps leading to a wooden door the height of a house, and with surprisingly little effort, Snape let them in.
Sianna wondered again at the size of everything as she stared up at the immensely high ceiling. "How many students did you say come here?" she asked Snape, amazed.
"I didn't. Currently about three hundred are enrolled, possibly a few more," Snape replied.
"All this for just three hundred kids? My old school was about the size of your front yard and there were twelve hundred of us."
Snape make no remark at that. He led Sianna toward the staircases, and when the girl heard a low rumble, she looked up and gasped. "Why are they moving?" she asked, staring up at the mobile staircases.
"Because they like to and they can. You should also beware of trick steps and such, and some of the stairways tend to disappear on certain days," he warned, sounding like her was hoping to scare the girl.
He was disappointed when all that came out of her mouth was an awed, "Cool."
Snape headed for the headmaster's office, and Sianna followed wordlessly. When he reached the familiar gargoyle, he spat, "Ton-Tongue Toffees" and watched it move aside to reveal another staircase. Sianna followed him up the winding steps to another door, where Snape stopped and knocked.
"Ah, here they are. Come in, come in," she heard from the other side. They entered, and Sianna was taken aback to find a small array of adults, probably faculty, seated and facing the door expectantly. She hoped that they weren't all there just to talk to her, but considering the circumstance, she knew that they probably were.
Snape took a seat among his colleagues, leaving Sianna standing awkwardly before them. "Uh, hello," she said with a barely perceivable and slightly nervous smile.
Dumbledore noticed her discomfort and approached her, saying amiably, "It's wonderful to finally meet you, Sianna Castell. I am Professor Dumbledore, headmaster of Hogwarts," he introduced.
Sianna shook his hand and could see that the old man was surprised at her firm grip. She had learned years ago that a firm grip tended to give the impression that she was confident and mature. "It's nice to meet you, sir," she said politely.
Dumbledore led to a seat around the table (thankfully a solitary chair and not a space on the couch), then began to name the others in the room. Sianna greeted them all with a small nod. Along with Professor Snape, who she already knew, there were Professors McGonagall, Sprout, Flitwick, and Lupin. After the necessary introductions, Sianna sat in the only remaining chair, which happened to be a sanguine, over-stuffed armchair with wooden legs. She sank into it rather farther than she would have liked.
"Well, Miss Castell, as you can see, this is really a very interesting situation," Dumbledore began, opting to get straight down to business. "Nothing of the sort has ever occurred before, and while we have had transfer students and the like, none of them have ever had so much catching up to do. You realize of course, that we brought you here so early because you have missed four years of school already, and it would be in your best interests to begin your studies as soon as possible."
"Yes, sir. Professor Snape mentioned that several times," Sianna said when it seemed that he required a response. Dumbledore seemed amused by her statement.
Professor McGonagall then spoke up. "For the summer," she told Sianna, "we have devised a plan so that you will spend a certain amount of time each week on all of your major classes. You will not take any of the extra classes that students your age normally take, only because you will progress faster without the extra work."
"Um, what exactly are these major classes?" Sianna asked, genuinely curious. "I'm guessing you don't teach algebra and English here."
At Sianna's inquiry, Dumbledore suggested that the teachers each briefly explain their own subject.
Professor McGonagall began, "I teach Transfiguration, the art of changing objects into other objects. It gets much more complicated than that, but you understand the general idea."
Her short speech was followed by Professor Flitwick's explanation of Charms. Sianna was particularly intrigued by Snape's Potions class, and was also interested in Defense Against the Dark Arts, which Professor Lupin taught. As she listened to Professor Lupin speaking, she thought of the war that had just begun again and hoped that she would excel in that class. Herbology sounded rather boring to Sianna, as she had never been fond of gardening, but she decided that Professor Sprout was nice enough to make up for it.
When the teachers finished answering Sianna's question, Dumbledore began again, "We really have not decided how to continue your education when the other students return, as the teachers will be busy with class and for the most part unable to tutor you. But that is not entirely relevant yet," he said, brushing past the subject.
"I am curious, though," Professor Sprout interjected, "about how quickly you will progress. What if we house you with students your own age, but you do not graduate with them because you are not finished? Then you would be all by yourself, poor dear," she said pityingly.
Sianna was amused that this professor cared so much about her social happiness. She assured her, "I'm a fast learner, I doubt it will be a problem."
Before any of the teachers could reply to that, Dumbledore said excitedly, "Oh, that reminds me, I am very curious about Muggle schools. Would you care to tell us about them?" he asked.
Sianna explained that Muggles were schooled far longer than wizards were, and the teachers were surprised to learn that she had just completed her tenth year at school, not her fourth. She refrained from sharing anything about her actual school record other than her grades, which were impeccable. Despite the fact that she had rarely studied, she had remained at the top of her class throughout her schooling. It had always been her saving grace: no matter how much she misbehaved, her parents could never use falling grades as an excuse to punish her.
"That is just fascinating. I've always wanted to study Muggles, but I've just never has the—"Dumbledore started, but Professor Snape cleared his throat suggestively, and he returned to the topic. "Well then, for the summer, we have prepared a room in the guest wing for you. The house dormitories are much too spacious for just one girl—"
"Sorry, you said house dormitories? What exactly do you mean by "house?'"
That prompted a short relation of the founding of Hogwarts, followed by an explanation of the four houses and their heads. "There is a magical hat, the Sorting Hat, that each new student wears for a moment when they first arrive, and it tells them which house they would fit in best according to their personalities," Professor McGonagall told Sianna. "I suppose we should Sort you now, shouldn't we?"
"Actually," Sianna interjected before they could do anything further, "I would rather wait a bit. Is that okay?"
"I suppose that would be fine," McGonagall admitted. "I don't think it will make much of a difference..."
"I dunno. It's a gut feeling, I guess. Maybe I'd just rather keep the suspense on a bit longer," she joked, also not quite sure about her reasoning behind the request.
There was a pause that signaled a lack of further topics to discuss, then professor Lupin said, "If that's all, I'd like to get down to dinner soon—"
"That's right, it's dinnertime here, isn't it? Strange," Sianna interrupted, not noticing her tactlessness. "Well, I second the motion. I haven't eaten since...well not that long ago, but still, I'm a growing girl, I get hungry easily."
The professors laughed as they rose from their seats, Sianna's uninhibited comment having effectively ended the meeting. They all filed out of the headmaster's office and trekked to the dining hall together.