Chapter 1 - Changed Forever

"Did you ever imagine your life turning out like, well this?" The reporter asked Mae.

She was in thought, "My life…" she seemed in thought again. "To tell you the truth I always knew it was going to change my life drastically the minute I walked into Hogwarts' doors… I remember my first day…"

Flashback

I looked around; this isn't like my other school at all. This was so much different. It was a grand castle, my other school had just been a building charmed to look like a beaten up abandoned warehouse to the muggle eye, but inside it looked just like a regular school in the states. But this, this was truly magical. The ivy crept up the stone, unnoticed, but I seem to always look for the unnoticeable. Things that people might not see until their second glance I noticed right away, I had always been this way but it didn't bother me. I was me nobody needed to accept me I would end up being myself either way in the end.

I was never the easiest of children to handle. I was left on the streets as a toddler; it seems someone put a memory charm on me. I had been in 9 magical foster homes before I finally found a family that could put up with me, I grew to love them. They moved here with me when my teachers suggested I switch schools, this was an honor since I was one of the first allowed to do this at Hogwarts.

The wind swept up my warm brown hair up and around as if it was doing an elegant dance. I stared at what stood before me, this was my future, Hogwarts the finest school of witchcraft and wizardry, and this seemed as if it was all a dream that happened so fast I've wanted to come here as long as I can remember. As I stood on the ground I felt a cold hand touch my shoulder, startled I quickly jumped around to find a Professor Dumbledore giving me a kind smile. He had been making the process of switching schools much smoother.

Dumbledore informed me that the other students had started a week earlier. He led me through a maze of confusing halls. We finally arrived at a great statue; it was no surprise when he said the password and the statue began turning to reveal a spiral staircase. Over the summer I had visited the school many times to get to know the teachers and work out the details, although I had always come through tunnels and this was the very first time I had seen the grounds.

I walked into his grand office and took a seat in the overstuffed chair across from his desk without waiting for an invitation.

"So, I assume you know why you were switched to Hogwarts?" Dumbledore asked staring at me with a kind look. I could see through his look he seemed nervous of something, but what?

"No. Well, not exactly. My teachers said I should come, that's all I know." I said in an uninterested tone of voice.

"Yes your teachers and I seem to have reason to believe you are special..."

"No way!" I said as sarcastically as I could manage, "I mean I'm only witch." I'd had just about enough of this professor's mumbo jumbo, when was he going to get to the point?

"Enough with that," Dumbledore's smile was fading quickly, "as I was saying we have reason to believe that you are special, now tell me, have you ever met your birth parents?" He caught my attention with the last part.

I opened my mouth to say something, but nothing came out. I looked down; acting like I had suddenly became very interested in my shoes. I closed my eyes tightly and shook my head 'no'.

He kept staring trying to break through my invisible barrier that I had built around my emotions so long ago. I stared back, blankly. He gave a defeated sigh and finally looked away. He trusted his instincts and said, "I see you know nothing of the situation that has come to hand. I will speak to your foster parents and see what they can tell me. I will let you know when I learn anything new."

I was getting bored quickly with the topic and rolled my eyes at his last sentence. I silently wondered if I was the only one who gave Dumbledore such a hard time. I guessed so since he was very clueless as how to respond to my less-than-perfect behavior.

I started looking at the room; I was marveled by all the old artifacts. Dumbledore seemed to notice my wondering eyes and decided it best to move on.

"You will be staying the heads dorm, due to lack of space in other dorms. There are 3 other heads this year, you will be joining them and sharing in their duties. We can talk about that later, but now we will need to get you sorted into your house for scheduling purposes." He stood up and moved over to an old, weathered looking hat slouched over on a high shelf. He carefully tapped the hat a few times, and where the creases of the hat used to be formed into a face.

"I thought we were done for this year." The old hat yawned.

"We seemed to have forgotten one." His eyes seemed to get their twinkle back and he had a small smile set on his face once again. "Here put this hat on. It's the sorting hat it will look at all your talents and attributes to see what house would fit you best."

I raised my eyebrows hoping to give off the impression that I was utterly confused, first a talking hat, now he was going to search my brain? I reluctantly took the hat and placed it on my head, hoping whatever it was going to do that it wouldn't hurt.

"Well, well what do we have here? Miss. Runey is it?"

Little did I know that it was a rhetorical question and he laughed when I said, "Yes, Mae Runey is the name." He seemed especially ticked by the last part.

"Heh, yes well I can see that. Okay lets see, hmm yes but where would suit you best? You're defiantly not afraid to stand up for yourself and others you would do well in Gryffindor. You have the comebacks of a Slytherin, sly and cunning you are. Your also very smart and a bookworm as most of the Ravenclaws are. And Hufflepuff doesn't suit you at all." The hat seemed deep in thought. I almost felt him searching though my thoughts and all my memories that I possessed.

No, I've never let anyone do this before why start now. I squeezed my eyes down tight and tried to shut him out, out of my head, out of my thoughts, out of my past. "No need to try miss, I'm not going anywhere." I tried with all my might but the hat had far too much power. I gave up with a loud sigh, mad at myself for being weaker than a stupid old hat.

"Ahh… now here's something." The old hat seemed satisfied with itself for winning their struggle earlier. What ever the hat had found it put an unsettling feeling in my stomach. "And… you're ancestry. Very, very interesting." I seemed to have a dry lump caught in my throat I tried to swallow it but was unsuccessful. My foster parents knew more about my past than I did. I asked them often but they had only told me that it was an unhappy one and I was better off not knowing.

"What is it doc? C'mon you can tell me. I'll take it like a man." I joked with a serious look on my face the whole time. I assumed it was bad news since it had to do with my past, although I didn't know much about the houses at all.

"It seems you belong in…" Dumbledore was twiddling his thumbs and I was holding my breath, waiting.