At Hogwarts
Angela eagerly showed Courtney around Hogwarts. She knew her way around as well as any student because she had lived there on and off since she was four. Courtney, however, was certain that she would never be able to figure out all the passages and stairs-especially the ones that changed.
As they were walking up one flight, Courtney's leg went through a step. Angela, hearing her indignant yells, turned around and started laughing, "Sorry, I forgot to warn you about the trick stair. You have to learn how to jump it. Here, let me help you." Angela succeeded in pulling Courtney out of the stair. After that, when they got up to the landing, Courtney almost fell when it started moving. "These stairs are dangerous!" she exclaimed, huffily as Angela was sent into another fit of giggles, "I happened to inherit my mother's clumsiness! My dad is very graceful, but my mother can't even wear high-heels because she trips so easily."
The two of them continued exploring, Angela telling her about the portraits (they had conversations with a few) and the rooms etc. that they passed. They also met a number of the ghost residents, Nearly Headless Nick, The Grey Lady, the Fat Friar and unfortunately, Peeves.
As they descended the stairs to tour the dungeons and Angela pointed out the Potions classroom a man, resembling an overgrown vulture, came swooping down the hallway from a nearby office.
When he saw them he let out a bark, "What are you doing here?" he demanded.
"Professor Snape, the Headmaster asked me to give Courtney a tour. She is a muggle-born first year," Angela said respectfully.
Professor Snape snorted and stalked on down the hallway.
"What was that?" Courtney asked giggling.
"That was Professor Snape, he teaches potions. He's really famous for it. Anyway, Mum and Dad say that you should never get on his bad side. He used to hate everyone who wasn't in his house, Slytherin, but Dumbledore mellowed him some and now he only makes you miserable after you melt your first cauldron."
"And you know this how?"
"My cousins. I have six cousins who already go here and five that have already graduated; my dad is the sixth of seven children. Luckily, none of my uncles seems to be into large families so far. In fact, my family has the most children. My cousin Caleb, his father is Uncle Fred, will be starting here this year too."
They continued exploring and ran into a number of other teachers—all of whom were much more pleasant that Snape had been, Courtney thought. Angela introduced her to the Deputy Headmistress and Transfiguration teacher, Professor McGonagall, the Flying instructor Ginny Finch-Fletchley (Angela's aunt), Professor Weasley, the charms teacher, and Professor Longbottom who taught Herbology. As they were making their way towards Angela's mother's rooms they ran into Professor Black and someone Courtney hadn't met yet.
He was introduced as Remus Lupin, the care of magical creatures teacher, which Courtney found out, she wouldn't be able to take until third year.
"What other choices are there for electives?" Courtney asked as Sirius invited them all for a small lunch.
"Well," Angela said cutting off the professors replies, "there's Care of magical creatures, Arithmancy, Divination, Ancient Runes, and then there are one or two that get taught according to interest, like Music and Magic, or Magical Theory, or one year they even had Wandless Magic as a course. Muggle Studies used to be an elective, but for the past ten years it has been mandatory for all first-year purebloods to take it. Muggleborns get an extra History of Magic course instead."
"You mean I have to take twice the normal amount of history?"
"Not exactly," Sirius said, "your regular class with Professor Granger will be like a normal history class, your other class with your fellow muggleborns will not be as demanding, or have as much work, it will be more like an… introduction to wizarding culture. It is so you can learn what most purebloods grew up knowing. The same is true for the purebloods taking Muggle Studies—they will be learning what the world you know is like."
"Oh, that makes sense." Courtney said.
Late in the evening Hermione found the two of them and hurried them to the Entrance. As the upper year students began filing into the Great Hall, Courtney and Angela waited with Professor McGonagall for the first years to arrive after their voyage across the lake.
When they had arrived, they all followed the deputy headmistress into the Great Hall for the Sorting. Angela had explained how the sorting worked to Courtney and told her a little bit about the houses. Courtney privately thought that Ravenclaw suited her.
The sorting hat was placed on the stool and began to sing—which surprised Courtney, even though Angela had already told her it would. Singing hats were not a part of everyday life for her, yet.
After the hat had finished singing and the applause died down, Professor McGonagall pulled out a roll of parchment and started calling out names.
"Barnes, Courtney!" was the first. I guess there are no A's Courtney thought to herself as she sat down on the stool and put the hat on.
Hello there, now which house would be best for you? A small voice said in her ear.
Maybe Ravenclaw? She answered back.
Well, there is no denying you'd do well there, you have quite a good mind in here, but I'm not sure the hat mused, You're also a very determined young lady. You might do well in Slytherin, you even have…oh my, I haven't seen that in years.
Seen what? Courtney asked, confused.
You just have a rather rare talent that I haven't seen since…well, never mind. You might do well in Slytherin.
Really? Courtney thought rather doubtfully.
Hmmm, maybe you're right, you aren't much good at anything requiring subtlety, are you.
Courtney blushed, no.
I think you'd do best in Gryffindor, my dear, you are very determined and you have the courage to seize this opportunity, despite your father's attitude towards the situation. Yes, I think you should be in GRYFFINDOR!" The last word was shouted out for all to hear and one of the tables, presumably Gryffindor, started clapping enthusiastically.
Courtney rushed to join them and ended up sitting next to a brown-haired fifth-year who introduced herself as Monica Weasley.
"Weasley? Are you one of Angela's cousins?"
"Yes, My father is Percy Weasley."
Courtney frowned, "Percy Weasley? Haven't I heard that name before?"
Monica gave a small nod, "Most likely, he's the Minister of Magic."
"Oh, right! That was in one of the books I read."
She met a few other people and then they all turned their attention back to the sorting as "Jones, Benjamin!" was sorted into Ravenclaw.
The sorting continued and a pair of fraternal twins, Megan and Timothy, were both sorted into Gryffindor. "Marks, Tiffany," was sorted into Hufflepuff, while Courtney tried to calm her rumbling stomach—the lunch with the professors had been a long time ago. Finally, the list ended with Angela and Caleb both being sorted into Gryffindor.
Professor Dumbledore stood, "Welcome, all of you, to a brand new year at Hogwarts. Eat up!"
Food galore appeared and Courtney quickly dug in to some chicken cordon bleu. Angela, sitting to her left, was exclaiming excitedly about the fact that they would be in the same room.
Then they got into a conversation with the two other girls that would be sharing the room with them, Megan Stratford and Katie Corcoran. Katie was a muggle-born, like Courtney and Megan was a halfblood—her mother was a witch and her father was a muggle. This situation brought up a question for Courtney, which she asked to everyone around her in general, "Which class do halfbloods take? Muggle studies or the intro to the wizarding world class?"
Monica answered saying, "It depends on how they were raised. Take Caleb for example, his mother is a muggle, but he was raised mostly in the wizarding world so he'll be taking Muggle studies. There have been cases where the opposite is true. If a student is equally knowledgeable about both worlds, he or she is put into Muggle studies by default. Sometimes though, if that is the case, the parents request the student to be put into some of the other classes offered on request like biology, chemistry, physics, algebra, or something like that."
When dinner ended and the first-years were lead to the entrance of Gryffindor tower, most were dead-tired. Angela and Courtney, however, were not, so instead of joining their new housemates and going to sleep, they sat in the common room for a little while talking.
"The sorting hat was kind of strange," Courtney commented.
"What do you mean by that?"
"Well it said something like I had a special talent that it hadn't seen in a long time. I just wonder what it is talking about."
"Huh, I don't know. Maybe you'll find out in one of our classes. I thought you were going to write a letter to your family."
"That's what I was about to do," it took Courtney a few minutes to figure out how to use a quill and ink without getting blotches on her parchment. She finally got the hang of it and wrote her letter.
Dear Mum, Dad and Michael,
Wow, these past two days have been amazing. Yesterday, shopping in Diagon Alley, was really fun. I got an owl, I named him Rex—he's the one I'm sending this with. I bought all my books and supplies (the supplies for potions are really strange) and I got a wand. It is elm, ten inches with a phoenix feather for a core. Can you believe phoenixes really exist? Anyway, the wand maker said that my wand core came from the headmaster's pet phoenix and that two other wands had the same core—a dark wizard and a man named Harry Potter.
Hogwarts is amazing—it is a castle, just like a fairy tale. All the portraits move around and can talk. I was sorted in Gryffindor house—Gryffindor is known for bravery. The other houses are Hufflepuff-known for loyalty- Ravenclaw-known for wisdom- and Slytherin-known for ambition. The hat (there is this really old hat that you put on and it tells you which house you belong in) said I'd have done well in Slytherin. Then it said something strange-that I had a special talent that it hadn't seen in a long time. Maybe it is something related to my wand-since everyone seems to think it is special too. Did any of you ever notice I had a strange talent?
Now, I'm getting tired and classes start tomorrow.
Goodbye, I love you!
Courtney
She sent it off with Rex and then went up to her bed, promptly falling asleep.
~~****~~
Two days after the Barnes family-minus Courtney- returned to their London suburb home Courtney's letter arrived. Kathryn, who had gotten around to speaking to her husband again after his refusal to meet the woman who was taking Courtney to shop for school supplies and then to the school, excitedly opened the letter and started reading it out loud, when David left the room. He didn't want to hear the letter.
Kathryn was furious once again, but decided to wait until Michael had gone to school to confront him, by that time however, David had gone to work. After Michael had gone to bed that night Kathryn did confront him.
"Now, you're refusing to communicate with her?" she said angrily.
"I don't want to know anything about her school, Kathryn. I never wanted her to go there, and I don't think I ever will. You can tell me if she is alright, and that is all I need to know," then he turned over in bed and went to sleep. Kathryn managed to fall asleep too, soon afterwards.
As David heard his wife settle into sleep, he quietly got up. He knew Kathryn would not wake—she was a very deep sleeper. He walked into the living room and turned on a lamp and sat on the couch, holding the letter I his hand. It wasn't true that he just needed to know how she was. He needed to know every detail about everything that happened, but he couldn't tell Kathryn that. She wouldn't understand his need to keep himself away from wizards as much as possible, yet at the same time his need to follow his child's every move in the wizarding world—he didn't fully understand it all himself. He opened the letter and read it through twice.
"A special talent," he whispered to himself and remembered something that had happened when she was five.
The three of them were at the London Zoo and Kathryn, who was very pregnant at the time, had gone to the bathroom, while David and Courtney entered the reptile house. They were looking at a brightly colored copperhead, when it moved closer to the glass to look at them.
Courtney had giggled and then waved at the snake and said, "Hello."
David froze as he heard the hiss come out of her mouth. No! She could not have inherited that, he thought to himself. The snake answered back to Courtney, "Hello, little one." Courtney had giggled again, before David picked her up and hurried out of the reptile house.
David shook himself and replaced the letter on the kitchen table. He refilled the water bowl for Rex and then went to sleep.
A/N: Hehe! Sorry I couldn't get this out sooner. Yesterday night I went to a Reader's theatre production for my German class, and then I went to a friends house and hung out there with my sister and her husband and a few other friends until Voyager ended (last night's was a really good episode!—sorry, I love Star Trek).
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