A/N: I would like to thank Veronicafor betaing! (Yay, I have a beta!Does happy dance)
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, I don't even own Sally-Anne; she's mentioned once in the first book, at the sorting...
Behind the VEIL?
-Chapter 3:The sorting-
Draco woke up and realised he was lying on the floor. A woman with yellow hair was yelling at him, "Wake UP people, what doyou think this is, a hotel? Get out of my office and come back tomorrow so I can give you the rest of your papers!"
What the hell...? "Here's your school papers, you're going to have to tell the headmaster by the way, he's never going to believe that you went to a school in Indonesia, he knows when people lies, that one does, and I guess that means that you'll have to tell him your secret too, Sirius."
Now he remembered... Why me? Why couldn't Crabbe get stuck in an alternate reality with goody-goody-Mudblood? Said a little voice in his head, Cause he's not smart enough to become a prefect... . He answered it.
"Right... We'll see... Maybe I will..."
"I don't understand why you won't tell him Padfoot, he-"
Draco looked down at his school-papers, there was a picture, but it didn't look anything like him, in fact- No, she didn't? Did she? But he looked over at Granger and the little colour he had in his face drained away. When he spoke, there wasn't only his own voice he heard "Uh, could I have a mirror, ma'am?" Both he and Granger had asked at the same time.
Perenelle, the woman who had given them their papers conjured two mirrors and it was just as he feared; his hair, his hair, his beloved blonde and lovely hair, that horrible woman had turned it light baby-blue! Of all colours! Why me! The nasty little voice answered him; Well at least she didn't make it Gryffindor-red, like she did with the mudblood... He turned back to look at the mirror to see that his hair wasn't all she'd done, she had changed his eye-colour, from steel-gray to dark blue. She'd also coloured his eyebrows blue, it looked like his natural haircolour was blue! She'd done something to his nose too, he couldn't quite tell what, but, it was longer, or something, and his skin was darker; he didn't recognize himself, which, he supposed, was the whole point...
Hermione looked at her reflection, and almost dropped the mirror in shock. Her hair was a very bright Gryffindor-red, so was her eyebrows. Her eyes were changed, but not that much, they were now a darker shade of brown. Ahh… I look like a clown with this hair... Well at least it's not bushy anymore... The woman had done something to her chin and mouth too, but she couldn't quite tell what. Also, she noted, quite pleased, she seemed to have gotten a little taller.
"Right, well, I would never guess that Annie Green had any connection with Hermione Granger... But, honestly, it would be a lot better to have normal hair! It doesn't have to be my real hair colour, but you could have made me… black-haired, or blonde, even!"
Perenelle looked surprised at her. "What? You don't like the colour? I would have been thrilled if somebody had made my natural hair colour red!"
Harry's dad chuckled. "Well Perenelle, you always had a strange taste in haircolours…"
"I do not!"
"Do too!"
"Do not!"
"Do too!"
"What are you two? Twelve? Just change our hair to more normal colours!" Malfoy said irritably.
Perenelle looked at them, a little guilty. "I can't. I was so sure that you would like it that I used a spell that last for a couple of years…"
"Well…. I guess it's not so bad, guess I could colour it the muggle way…" Hermione mumbled.
"Not so bad?" Malfoy chocked out, looking mortified, "when my father hears this, he'll-"
"Your father won't hear about this, he's in another reality!" Hermione said, she shook her head, honestly, he's so dense!
"Do those two ever stop arguing?" James asked Sirius.
"Doesn't look like it… Hope we won't have to teach them both at the same time…"
"What are you waiting for? You said you'd get out of my office when I fixed you new identities, I did. So why are you still here!"
"Come on people, we should get back to the castle."
The next day…
Hermione walked down towards the Great Hall, this Hogwarts looked exactly the same as the one she came from, so it wasn't hard to find her way around. They had talked to Dumbledore, and after questioning under veritaserum, he'd believed them. Sirius had apparently not told Dumbledore that he was from another reality before, but he'd had to do so now. Why he hadn't was beyond Hermione…
As she arrived at the doors to the Great Hall, she noted that Malfoy hadn't gotten there yet. She took a deep breath. She was going to be sorted again, and so was Malfoy. She wondered briefly if she'd be in Gryffindor this time too, or if she was now a Ravenclaw, but shrugged it off, she would know soon enough. She heard footsteps behind her - it was Malfoy. She opened the doors and they walked in.
Dumbledore rose from his seat at the teachers' table. "I would like to introduce two new students who will be joining us here at Hogwarts for the rest of this year, and probably the next as well, they are transfer-students from Indonesia, we will now have a little sorting-ceremony just for them, but there will be no song, I'm afraid, as the hat has not had time to compose a new one. Severus, bring forth the sorting hat, please."
Professor Snape got up and disappeared for a few moments into the room behind the teachers' table. When he reappeared he was carrying an old hat on a small three-legged chair. He put it so that everybody could see it. "Green, Annie (A/N: That's Hermione if you don't remember), you first."
Hermione stepped up and put the hat on. She heard the small voice in her head just as she had the first time she put it on. Well, well, what have we here? A great mind, Ravenclaw, perhaps? hmm… but no, you are very brave, I sorted you into Gryffindor last time, did I? Interesting, another reality, you say? And you still want to be in Gryffindor? Well, I can't argue with that…Better be… GRYFFINDOR!
She let out a breath she didn't know she had been holding and walked over to the Gryffindor table and took an available seat.
"They don't usually take in transfers in the middle of the year, do they?" A boy next to her asked. He was a little taller than she was, quite handsome, with unruly black hair, and- Green eyes? Harry? Oh my, would he have looked differently if he hadn't lived with the Dursleys or what?…
"Well, if you don't know, then how should I? I'm the one who's new to this school, not you. Right?"
"No, I'm not new…Forget I even asked." He reached out his hand, "I'm Harry Potter."
She took it. "Her- err… Annie Green, nice to meet you."
"Well, nice to meet you too, Her-annie." He grinned. "This is Ron Weasley, that's Dean Thomas and that's Seamus Finnigan. The bookworm sitting on your left is Hermione Granger, if you need any help with your homework, go ask her. The girls beside her are Parvati Patil and…"
Hermione blocked out the rest of his speech, as he started introducing her to the whole of Gryffindor. She was being introduced to people she had known for five years, Great, even more boring than Quidditch…oh well… She suddenly noticed that Harry had stopped talking and had apparently asked her a question.
"Oh, sorry, was lost in my own little world for a while there… could you repeat that?"
"I asked you, who's the guy you came with? Your boyfriend?"
Malfoy was still sitting on the three-legged chair, the sorting-hat still hadn't placed him. Strange, last time it took, like a second before it yelled Slytherin, maybe it wants to put him in Ravenclaw, like the Malfoy from this reality… "M-Pear? Are you kidding? He's a complete and utter prat. He's my next-door neighbour, it's because of him that I didn't go to Hogwarts in the first place, I'm muggle-born, you see, and he's- well, not. His mother recommended the school in Indonesia - we live just outside of London, you see, that's why I haven't got an accent - and my parents sent me there instead." All this came in her usual manner, very, very fast… "And before you ask, this is my natural haircolour."
Harry just gaped at her.
"Bloody hell," Ron said from behind Harry, "You talk just like Granger! Bet you two'll be friends… What's up with the other guy, Pear, was it? The sorting hat has taken like ten minutes to sort him! "
Hermione turned around to look at Malfoy. Just as Ron said that, the sorting hat yelled out: "RAVENCLAW!"
Hermione stared at the hat. That idiot got into Ravenclaw? How did that happen? The idiot who almost beat you at the OWL's? I wonder…A nasty little voice in her head said. Yeah, but still… She answered it. You're doing it again Hermione, talking to your own head, honestly! A second voice said.
Draco couldn't believe his luck; he'd tried to argue with the hat, said he wanted to be in Slytherin, that was where he belonged, but nooo, Stupid hat… Grumbling he sat down at the Ravenclaw table, beside a girl with long dark hair, he thought she played something on the Ravenclaw quidditch team... She looked a bit sad…
"Hi, I'm Cho Chang, this is Marietta Edgecomb, and this is…" she continued to introduce him to all the people who were sitting around him Oh great, he thought. This is going to be wonderful, a whole year, maybe two, with the bookworms, and rude one's at too, she didn't even ask for my name…
Harry turned away to talk with Ron, and Hermione concentrated on her food. That's strange. It doesn't look like this Hermione is friends with Harry and Ron, wonder why not…
Oh, she was so tired. She'd barely slept the night before with everything that had happened…A moment later, she realized that she must have dozed off, because the next thing she knew, she was staring into a pair of honey coloured eyes.
The Hermione from this reality shook her gently "I said, are you alright?" It was just like looking into a mirror!
"Yes, I'm fine. I just dozed off; it's quite a long flight from Indonesia, you know, we had to take a plane, and I didn't sleep any at all…"
"So you started the term at the other school then? I didn't know you could do that…"
"Um, well, no, actually, you can't, but Dumbledore made an exeption in our case… I'd really rather not talk about it. Okay?"
"Oh, right, okay then. How was school in Indonesia, what did you say it was called again?"
"Oh, I didn't, but it's called…" Think Hermione, think! What did the school-papers say? name: Annie Green, School: …Oh, what was it?…Secret, no... Secrét, yes, that's it! "It's called Secrét."
"Is that Indonesian? I think it sounds more like French… Not that I speak French, but… But you didn't answer my other question. How is the Indonesian school?"
"Oh, it's… okay, I guess… It's not like I have any other schools of witchcraft to compare it to. How's Hogwarts then?"
The other Hermione blushed, "I see what you mean… It's okay. It is the best wizarding school, you know. " She looked at her watch and her eyebrows shot up, "The feast is over in two minutes! Can't believe we've talked that long!"
Around them, people were rising from their seats. "Come on," The other Hermione said, "I know all the shortcuts, I'll show you the quickest way to the Gryffindor common room. What year are you in?"
"Uh, sixth year" Something suddenly occurred to her, what if this place didn't have the same year as her reality?
"So am I! We'll be sharing dormitory then." Hermione let out a relieved breath, it was still the same year, apparently, if she hadn't been born later in this reality… but no, that was impossible, she decided.
Draco was utterly bored, Marietta Edgecomb was chattering exitedly about some new dress she had seen at Madam Malkin's. Suddenly a boy sat down beside Edgecomb, Draco stared. It was Cedric Diggory, but he quickly recovered from the shock and looked around to see if anyone had noticed him staring. They hadn't, everyone around him was staring at Diggory. The whole table was quiet, if the Gryffindors hadn't been right beside them, you could have heard a needle fall.
Suddenly, Chang rose from the table and ran out of the Hall.
"What was that about?" He asked a girl sitting next to him.
"You mean Cho running off? Well, apparently, she and Diggory were dating last year, and then, suddenly, he breaks up with her. Next day, she finds him outside the transfiguration classroom, snogging Marietta. Now she breaks out in tears or runs out of the room every time she sees him…"
Draco frowned and went back to his food. The desserts had now appeared, and he helped himself to some ice cream. That wasn't how the Cedric from his reality had behaved, but Draco hadn't known him very well, not at all, really. To him he'd always seemed annoyingly righteous.
"So, what's your name? I'm Sally-Anne Perks, but call me Sal, everyone does." The girl he'd asked said. She had obviously seen that he'd not paid any attention to what Chang had been saying.
"Drac- John Pear, nice to meet you." She smiled at him.
Sal rose from her seat and looked at her pocket-watch Geez, those went out of fashion, at least fifty years ago! What is this girl thinking? "Hm… the feast is over now, d'you want me to show you the way to our common-room?" When he didn't move or say anything, she continued, "I'm leaving now, so if you want me to show you the way, you'll have to come. Now." Draco looked at her, confused. Nobody ever commanded him. Well, exept my father, I should yell at her. But I don't know where the common room is, so maybe I should just…
"Right, let's go then," he finally said.
Sal arrived into the Great Hall and sat down at the Ravenclaw table, none of the seats beside her friends were available, so she sat down at one of the last empty chairs. It was not far from where Cho Chang was sitting. She glared at the girl. Great, just great, why did I have to sit down beside that crybaby, she always makes a scene when Diggory comes along, I don't see why she's still friends with that Marietta, if somebody stole my boyfriend…
Suddenly the doors to the Hall opened again. Huh? I thought everybody was here, why were they closed anyway? They always leave them open at breakfast!
A boy and a girl emerged into the Great Hall, she had to stiffle a giggle when she saw their hair, his was baby-blue,hers was a violent scarlet, not unlike the colors of Gryffindor.They were both wearing Hogwarts robes, but she'd never seen either of them before, when she looked closer, she saw that none of them had any house colours on their ties.
Dumbledore rose and began to speak, she never really listened to speeches - they were always so boring. Instead, she listened to the conversations around her while she waited for the food to appear.
Suddenly, the potions master brought out the sorting hat, and the red haired girl put on the hat, after a cuple of seconds, the hat yelled "GRYFFINDOR!" Of course, with that hair… She suppressed another giggle.
The other boy took longer to place, almost ten minutes, she waited impatiently for the hat to finish. When it finally decided on Ravenclaw, the boy took the hat off and looked immensely disappointed. Sal frowned. Maybe he wanted to be in the same house as his friend there…
The boy sat down beside her and began talking with Cho, or rather, Cho talked to him, he didn't even get a word in as she began introducing him to the whole table.
Right then, Diggory sat down beside his girlfriend, Marietta Edgecomb, and Cho got up and left, as usual.
The boy asked her about why Cho left, and she told him. Sal and the boy talked for a while, and she learned that his name was John Pear, when the feast was over, she offered to show him the way to the Ravenclaw common-room. He just sat there.
"I'm leaving now, so if you want me to show you the way, you'll have to come. Now."
"Right then, let's go."
A/N:
Thanks to everyone who rewieved, It made my day : )
Now go rewiev this chapter!