Because I know someone's going to think it, I'm saying it again: Yes, this story is self-insertion. But. That does not means it contains Mary-Sues. Really. Ruth Ann couldn't save the world if her life depended on it. Seriously
Chapter 4
Still calming her nerves after her encounter with the blonde prefect, Ruth Ann barely noticed most of the boat ride that took her across the lake, or, for that matter, any of the rest of the trip to the castle. Suddenly she found herself standing in front of the large door of the castle. A tall witch was looking down her nose at Ruth Ann and the rest of the first years. Ruth Ann gulped and fervently hoped that Hermione had set the record straight and she was not about to be in trouble for bumping into the blonde prefect.
The woman who had met them at the platform step aside, and the tall witch introduced herself as Professor McGonagall, telling them that they were to follow her. Trailing along with the rest of the first years, Ruth Ann kept her eyes on her feet, intent on making sure she did not trip over anything or anyone.
Finally, they stopped in front of a small room. All of the first years crowded together, more than a few nervously wiping the palms of their hands on their robes. Professor McGonagall turned to them and began explaining about the four different houses, and how important your house would be to you while you went to Hogwarts.
Ruth Ann ignored the speech, choosing to instead play with a hangnail she had discovered on her left forefinger. She had just finished gnawing it off, and was in the process of using her tongue to thread it between her two front teeth, when Professor McGonagall's sharp instruction to form a line cut through her concentration. Grumbling to herself, Ruth Ann obediently got into line and followed the boy in front of her as they followed Professor McGonagall through the double doors that led into the Great Hall of Hogwarts.
Her first impression was that it was rather crowded, and she looked around nervously at the four long tables where the students sat in hopes of spotting her brother. But if Jonathan was there, she could not find him. Everyone in the hall was staring at her it seemed and she quickly turned her attention to what was right in front of her, which meant that she ended up staring with a great deal of concentration at a head of bushy black hair, but this did not bother her in the least.
Ruth Ann was a bit surprised, however, when the wizard's hat on the stool at the front of the room began to sing a rather catchy song through a rip near its brim. Fascinated, she listened to the hat's song. As she made out what the hat was singing, she had to clap her hands over her mouth to keep a snicker from escaping. The hat was refuting everything that Professor McGonagall had said earlier about house loyalty! And, from the glazed looks on the faces of the other first years, it did not seem that anyone else had noticed this -- though Ruth Ann did think that the girl with a long brown braid who was standing behind her might be silently laughing as well.
The song eventually came to an end, and Professor McGonagall told them that they were to wait until she had called their name, at which point they must then put the hat on and it would tell them what house they would be in.
"Abercrombie, Evan."
A boy who looked very scared stumbled to the front and pulled on the hat. There was a tense moment, and then the rip near the brim opened, and shouted "GRIFFYINDOR!" There was a tide of applause from one table as Evan took off the hat and walked over to what Ruth assumed was the table for Gryffindor house.
Other students were called forward, including the black boy in front of her, and then, all too soon, Professor McGonagall had reached the end of the H's.
"Hunter, Ruth Ann."
Fumbling slightly, Ruth Ann concentrated on her feet as she walked to the front of the room. Everyone was staring at her, and she was trying very hard not to shake. Yet again she wished she was at Golden Poppy, which did not have silly things like houses or public displays of humiliation. Lifting the hat, she jammed it down on her head as she sat down on the stool. It settled slightly, falling down over her eyes.
To her surprise, a small voice spoke into her ear. "What, another Yank?" it asked, though it did not seem very annoyed, to Ruth Ann's relief. Then she felt the strangest sensation, as if someone was sifting through her memories. "Hum. Not much bravery in you, is there? A bit, but most of that is hot-headedness. You procrastinate when you can, and aren't above skipping out on harder tasks. What cunning you possess is seriously hindered by general silliness. Your ambition is about average. Actually, you're a very average child overall -- did you know that?"
Ruth Ann snorted and rolled her eyes, and muttered to herself, "Tell that to my mom, and she'd have a hysteric fit!"
The hat continued to search with a somewhat disappointed air, until declared with a defeated tone, "Well, you're quiet intelligent and enjoy learning new things. I suppose you'll have to go to RAVENCLAW!"
Jumping at the pure volume of the last word, Ruth Ann carefully pulled off the hat and put it on the stool as she hopped down. Glancing around the hall, she jogged off to the table that seemed to be clapping the hardest -- surely this had to be where the Ravenclaws sat.
Walking past the open places that people had cleared for her, she slipped into a seat at the far end of the table next the double doors. She twiddled with the fork in front of her, pointedly ignoring what was going on in the front of the hall. Her tablemates' attentions were focused on the Sorting, which suited her fine -- it meant that no one was looking at her anymore, and Ruth Ann found this to be a nice relief.
She was in the middle of attempting the construction of a tower formed solely of silverware and a napkin, when suddenly the entire table broke into applause. Surprised, Ruth Ann nearly fell off the bench onto the floor. She glanced around wildly, trying to figure out what had happened, when it suddenly occurred to her that another person must have just been sorted into Ravenclaw house. Rolling her eyes, she went back to playing with her silverware.
It was not until the name "Young, Sojin," cut through her concentration that Ruth Ann actually looked up at the front of the hall. She smiled as she spotted the girl who had nearly been run down earlier in the day by her trunk. It occurred to Ruth Ann that if Sojin was sorted into Ravenclaw as well then she would know at least one other person in her house. But it was not to be. The hat shouted "GRYFFINDOR!" before Sojin had even worn it for half a second.
Ruth Ann sighed and turned back to her partially constructed tower. Only one more name called after Sojin's, after which an old man stood up behind the teachers' table and spoke. She paid no mind to the words that he spoke, however. Instead she stared at the plates that ran up and down the table. Where before they had lain empty, they now stood full of food. Ruth Ann came to the conclusion that this was a truly wondrous thing, as her stomach was telling her that she was rather late with lunch today.
As soon as she saw the other students begin to eat, Ruth Ann set to work on filling her own stomach. She was a bit shy when it came to asking for platters to be passed -- something that she had to do a lot, sitting at the very end of the table like she was -- but she did manage to eventually satisfy her aching hunger.
Sighing contentedly, Ruth Ann looked up the table she was sitting at, about to try and figure out who else was a fellow first year, when she noticed that a hush had fallen across the hall. Confused, she glanced about in an attempt to determine the cause of the silence. At last her eyes lit upon the table in the front of the hall, where she saw that the old man, whom she presumed was the headmaster, had risen again. Ruth Ann groaned, not at all looking forward to more speeches.
This time, however, Ruth Ann made sure to listen closely to the rules concerning the Forbidden Forest and the use of magic in the corridors. She wanted to make sure that she did not unintentionally break any of them. Her earlier confrontation with the blonde prefect had served to scare her out of any intention she might have had of trying to slip past the rules.
When another professor, this one introduced as Professor Umbridge, began her own little speech, Ruth Ann nearly buried her head in her arms. Obviously the woman had never taught a day in her life. "I'm sure we'll be very good friends," indeed! Ruth Ann snorted to herself with amusement. Her own mother taught in a Muggle elementary school, and Ruth Ann had been to Mrs. Hunter's classroom enough times to know that no teacher ever said anything like that to their students at anytime past first grade. If nothing else, it was a sure way to get on the wrong side of the students, who would inevitably resent being treated like small children.
What followed, however, surprised her even more. Though she had trouble understanding more than half of what was being said, she was able to apprehend the basic gist of what Professor Umbridge said. To her horror, Ruth Ann was shocked by the realization that Professor Umbridge was not so much a teacher as a politician. A politician who seemed to feel that progress and innovation were bad things.
Hyperventilating slighting, Ruth Ann glanced down at her lap to see that she was desperately clenching at her robes in fear. No innovation? Lord, she was going to be tragic in Defense Against the Dark Arts, if that was true! More than once in elementary school, Ruth Ann had been chastised for choosing to go about assignments in her own way. Often "her own way" meant some roundabout manner completely different from the traditional way that took less time and gave the same results. Hopefully Defense Against the Dark Arts was nothing like math!
Ruth Ann was still trying to come up with any number of ways to persuade her parents to let her return home, when a Ravenclaw prefect tapped her shoulder. When the girl saw Ruth Ann's scared face, she smiled kindly.
"Hi, I'm Padma Patil. Come on, I'm to show you where our common room is."
Ruth Ann nodded and rose to join the group of eleven year olds that were following Padma and another prefect. They left the Great Hall and immediately turned towards the west side of the castle.
Unlike the students around her, Ruth Ann was quite lucid when they finally reached the entrance to the Ravenclaw common room, a bookcase leaning against the wall to the west tower. She watched in interest as the other prefect, Anthony Goldstein according to what had been said among the first years as they walked, came up next to the bookcase and spoke what she assumed to be the password. The bookcase to slide sideways along the wall to reveal an opening.
The first year girls were led off to their dormitory by Padma, and a few of them exclaimed in surprise when they saw that their trunks waiting for them there. Leaning against the door frame, Padma smiled. "This room will be where you will all sleep for the next seven years. You don't have to go to sleep right away, but you're probably all very tired, and besides, classes start tomorrow morning, so you should get to bed as soon as possible."
Silence descended upon the room momentarily once the prefect had left. Then two girls began chatting with each other as they rummaged through their trunks for their pajamas. Apparently, they had both met on the train ride over, and were excited that they were now in the same house. The silence broken, the rest of the girls turned to begin their own preparations.
Ruth Ann sat down on her own bed, staring at the brilliant blue curtains that hung about it. She was not the slightest bit tired despite the fact that it was well past ten o'clock. Her body was still on Pacific Standard time and firmly believed it to be mid afternoon. As a result of this mix-up, sleep was the farthest thing from her mind. She gently bounced herself up and down on the blue bedspread, kicking her heels against the bed frame as she tried to decide what to do.
Ruth Ann recognized the girl with bed next to her own as the girl who had been equally amused by the Sorting Hat's song earlier in the evening. Still bouncing slightly, she watched as the other girl took a nightshirt out of her trunk and exchanged it for her robes.
Bored, Ruth Ann sighed and fell back on her bed. How long was it going to take her to adjust to this stupid time difference, anyway?
"Um... you're Ruth Ann, right?" a quiet voice asked her.
Ruth Ann pushed herself up into a sitting position and was surprised to see that the girl from the next bed over standing right beside to her. "Yeah, I'm Ruth Ann. Why?"
"I was just wondering why you're not getting ready for bed like everyone else. I mean, Padma did say that we have class tomorrow, so wouldn't it be in your best interests to get some sleep now?"
"I slept on the train," said Ruth Ann. She began examining her hair for split ends, pulling them apart when she found them. "Besides, I'm going to be out of it tomorrow morning anyway. Jet lag and all that good stuff, you know."
"Jet... lag? What's that?" The girl sat down on her own bed, drawing her legs up underneath herself.
"Not Muggle-born, are you? Jet lag is what happens when you travel across a whole bunch of time zones. See, I'm from California, over in America, and I haven't gotten used to the seven hour time difference yet -- my brother and I flew here day before yesterday. For me it's the middle of the afternoon," Ruth Ann explained. "Say, would you mind waking me up for breakfast in the morning? I don't want to sleep through it, but I know I'm going to if someone doesn't wake me up."
The other girl laughed. "I'm the last person you should ask if you want to get up early -- I usually stay up until two and then wake up at noon the next day. I wouldn't worry about it, though. Someone'll probably notice that you're not in class before lunch rolls around." She yawned and rubbed her eyes sleepily. "Gods, I'm tired. See you in the morning -- or afternoon -- g'night..." She crawled under the covers of her bed, quickly falling fast asleep.
Ruth Ann was suddenly struck by how quiet it was in the room. She glanced at the other beds and saw that their occupants were asleep as well. As she turned this fact over in her mind, the candles that sat in wall sconces about the room flickered once, twice, then went out. They did not come back on. It appeared that this was an obvious and not-so-subtle hint that they should all be in bed, if not asleep. Grumbling, Ruth Ann got up off the bed and changed into her pajamas, draping the robe she had been wearing across the top of her trunk. She left her Muggle clothing in a pile on the floor, after having ascertained that the room contained no dirty laundry hamper.
Grabbing Harry the Wonder Bear from her trunk, she lifted her covers and curled up beneath them. She stared into the darkness of the dormitory, listening to the soft murmurs made by the other girls. A long time passed before she fell asleep.
I don't get along very well with most math teachers. I have yet to understand why I have to do it their way when my way not only works just as well, but is also faster and easier to understand. Prediction: Ruth Ann is doomed ::nods::.
Next chapter: a change in POV; you don't think it might be catching, do you?; the building blocks of magic.
