17-year old Cora Stern sat, stiff as a board, perched on the very corner of a stool in Albus Dumbledore, headmaster of Hogwarts School Of Witchcraft & Wizardry's office, looking emotionless. Beyond emotionless. Numb.
"I understand this may come as a shock to you Cora..." Professor Dumbledore's voice emanated power, but also sympathy.
Cora grunted something under her breath.
"But," Dumbledore continued, pausing to push his half-moon glasses further up the slant of his large nose, "it is of inexplicable importance that you continue your training as a witch, despite the death of your aunt and uncle..."
"I don't want anything to do with being a witch!" Cora suddenly found herself saying, in her lilting Scottish accent. "My aunt and uncle could not have done more to..."
"...Put you off?" Dumbledore interjected, almost impassively. "Yes, that is rather unfortunate." He sighed. "However, you have a purpose..."
"You keep saying that!" Cora snapped, immediately regretting her tone of voice, as the headmaster's bright blue eyes inquisitively bored into her. She took a deep breath. "This 'purpose' of mine...?" Her voice trailed off.
Dumbledore waved his hand dismissively. "All in good time, all in good time..." He glanced at the large grandfather clock in the corner of his office. "Now I do believe we are about to miss the opening ceremony of the new academic year. Having never experience one before, I would hate for you to miss your first, and simultaneously your penultimate one." He picked up a tattered old hat from the corner of his desk. "But first, we need to sort you." He slowly stood up and seemed to glide across around his desk to Cora's side.
PLOP! Cora jumped slightly as the hat's floppy brim slipped over her eyes.
"SLYTHERIN!" The hat roared, causing Cora to shriek in surprise so great that she slipped backwards off of her stool and landed with a thud on the wooden floor, the sorting hat lying next to her, having fallen from her head.
"Well, that settles that then," said Dumbledore cheerfully. "Professor Snape, your head of house will escort you down to the Great Hall. I'm sure he will make you feel welcome..." He clapped his hands and one panel of the wall in his office seemed to dematerialise, revealing a rather moody-looking man, whose black hair hung limply around his shiny face, emphasising the presence of his abnormally-large, hooked nose.
Cora tried to hide her distaste. Professor Snape did not look like the kind of person capable of welcoming somebody to his or her own funeral, let alone to a new school. She swallowed her nerves and walked towards the unfriendly face, not daring to look back at Dumbledore in case her legs to charge and caused her to run behind him and hide.
As the wall panel appeared back in its place, Dumbledore continued to smile, preparing to head down to the Great Hall himself.
"Slytherin..." He cast the Sorting Hat an interested look as he picked it up, ready to present to Professor McGonagall, head of Gryffindor house, to sort the fresh intake of first years. "Curious... Very curious indeed."