Chapter 7: The Prophesy
The train had arrived at Hogwarts and we hurried to get off. Pushing through the crowd outside, I struggled to stay with Celeste and Lauran. Spencer followed right behind me.
"First years come this way. First years over here," a loud, booming voice said. "No pushing the younger kids now Wesley you'll all get to the castle."
I saw a tall, strong looking boy shoving some first years out of his way. I assumed the voice was directed to him. We followed the sound of the voice as best as possible through the crowd. Winding our way back and forth, back and forth we finally reached the far end of the platform where the first years were gathering.
"Now you'll want four to a boat. Go ahead and start getting in. Are there any more first years?" The voice belonged to a tall, skinny man with thick glasses on. His voice didn't suit his appearance. We soon found out why. His voice had been magically modified so he could be heard over the other students.
"Okay, four to a boat now. All of you pile in. Go ahead, no need to be scared," the man said in his normal voice.
"Scared of what?" I asked Spencer quietly, "Falling in the lake? What's to be scared of?"
Spencer stifled a laugh as the man walked by us. We climbed into the boat that Celeste and Lauran were already in. Soon the boats magically started across the water. We rounded a bend and saw none other than Hogwarts castle towering over the water.
"Oooh," Celeste said awed, "It's really big. And it looks so, well, for lack of a better word, magical."
We pulled into an underground cave. Leading from it was a tall, sweeping staircase. We stumbled up the stairs and were greeted at the top by a beautiful lady. She looked to be part vela. She had long hair that hung halfway down her back.
"Good evening students," she spoke with a French sounding accent. "We are pleased to welcome you to Hogwarts. I am Professor Delacour, the Defense against the Dark Arts teacher. Follow me please."
We followed Professor Delacour through the double doors and down the hall into a room.
"Remember where we are now," I hissed to Celeste, "Those boats could be quite fun later on."
She nodded and passed the message to Lauran. We then looked around the room. It was kind of on the small side and reflected the occupants' general feeling of being small, lost, and, if it was possible, scared.
"Students if you will please follow me it is time for you to be sorted into your houses," Professor Delacour said coming back into the room. "Fix yourselves so you look presentable. Get in two straight lines please. Let's go, follow me."
We left the room and walked down the hall towards the growing noise of the Great Hall. We passed through the doors to the Great Hall and it instantly silenced. Then the whispers broke out. Glancing at Spencer beside me I rolled my eyes. We were both use to whispers because of our famous parents. Lauran shifted nervously in front of me though.
"Students, quiet down now," I noticed the voice belonged to a wise looking wizard in the middle of a large table at the front of the room. "We would like to welcome our students, old and new, back to school."
Watching the wizard I knew immediately he was the headmaster of Hogwarts.
"Now we will have Sorting and then, dig in!" the Headmaster continued.
Professor Delacour brought a three-legged stool and an old hat to the front and center of the hall. She set the hat on the stool and stepped back. The hat sat there for a minute and then it started to sing.
A warning like this has not been heard
Since the last Potter was here
And now, I fear it must be made
Before this year goes by
For in this new first year class
Two descendents lie
Of that famous hero boy
About their family a prophesy was made
After the Great Lord died
A set of twins
One good one bad
Would fall upon the time
The Protector would be the stronger one
The Great Evil, the favored child
And hate would grow between the two
Stronger than we could imagine
The wand of one we shall not name
Would save this troubled land
Used for the greatest good
We could imagine
The only way to save the world
From this Great Evil
Would be to train the right one
And leave the other one in despair
But choose wrong and you will suffer
More pain than ever known
Destruction would spread
And doom you would bring
Throughout the troubled land
So choose you right
Or you choose wrong
Or do not choose at all
Hats off to those
Who make the choice
I do not fancy you
For the fate of our lives
Rests in your hands
You, the strongest in the land
The hat fell silent and the hall was the quietest it had ever been. People were staring at Lily and me. I looked at Spencer and he shifted uneasily. He looked questionably at me as if asking if it was true. I just shrugged and looked away. Then the Headmaster cleared his throat and the sorting began.
Chapter 8: Head over Heels for Spencer
"Patel, Patria" Professor Delacour called.
After a period of quiet a shout came from the hat, "Ravenclaw!"
Professor Delacour continued to call names as Spencer started whispering to me. I ignored it for a while then turned and just stared at him.
"What was that about?" he asked, "It was like it was talking about you."
"Yeah, I must be the Great…" I started to reply. I broke off when I heard my sister's name called. Whirling around, I met her evil little gaze without blinking. She then put on a precious angel sort of smile and sat on the stool as the hat was placed o her head. My stomach did a little flip as I waited to find out her house. I had a sinking feeling she would be in-
"Slythrin," the hat called out.
"Oh, crap, she is going to be so dead when dad finds out about this one!" I whispered to Spencer hopefully.
"Potter, Riley," Professor Delacour called out.
Walking up to the stool I sat down and the hat was put onto my head. It smelled musty and old, just like a library does.
"Hmm, where should I put you? You are more talented than your sister, that's for sure. A thirst to prove yourself, just like your father had. But you have your Grandmother's heart of gold. You would bring glory wherever you went. Hmm, I can tell that you, however, are not at all like your sister. Sure, you're both talented, but she wants power and you only want to protect those you care for, even those you don't yet know. You will do great in…."
"GRYFFINDOR" it yelled to the whole school.
The Gryffindors started screaming and cheering as I walked over and took a seat near the end of the table. I hoped that Spencer, Celeste, and Lauran would get into Gryffindor too. I shot a look at my sister of pure malice and smiled evilly at her. She returned the look and leaned over to whisper to her crony next to her, Logan Malfoy.
Another wave of clapping erupted as Spencer became the next new Gryffindor. I hugged him as he came to sit down. My sister, for some odd reason, turned the reddest I had ever seen her and looked especially mad. This I pointed out to Spencer as another wave of clapping shook the table and Celeste joined our number. Crossing my fingers, I prayed for the love of all that is holy, that Lauran be in Gryffindor too. She didn't do too well by herself.
It seemed like forever between the time she called Weasley, Lauran and the time the sorting hat made its decision…
"Gryffindor!" the roar came from the hat. Screaming loudly I hugged Lauran and then Celeste hugged her. And, laughing, we sat down to our feast.
"That was some good food. It's better than I've had in a long time. Mum isn't exactly the best cook in the world," I said after we'd all finished our feast.
We got up to leave with our house. As we got up I tripped, flipping over Spencer and landing on the floor on his other side. Laughing he helped me up. I was laughing so hard I was crying. Sure, my back hurt, but I would have paid a million pounds to have seen the look of shock on my face. It must have been downright hilarious. Celeste and Lauran were practically rolling on the floor with laughter.
On the way to wherever it was we were going, Celeste, in particular, wouldn't shut up about it. She was grinning from ear to ear as she kept poking fun at me and my klutziness.
"Oh, Spencer you should have seen the last guy she liked enough to trip over. She broke her arm. They had to change schools after it decided to fix itself. The look on that kid's face was priceless, wasn't it Lauran?" Celeste went on and on as I grew increasingly madder and madder.
Finally I lost it and whirled around to face her after she said something about it being lucky Spencer liked me so much or he'd of left after I tripped over him without even walking anywhere.
"Oh shut up already would you?" I lapsed into my extremely British accent I managed to stifle except when I was very mad, usually it was reserved for my dad. "You really should shut up if you know what's good for you."
We frequently threatened each other with more and more absurd things we would do to the other one. Especially Celeste and me, it was sort of a running competition with us.
"Yeah, what would you do this time?" Celeste teased. "You can't easily beat my last one, can you?"
"It would be spectacular. I might tell you real worms were only gummy worms I had bewitched to wriggle. Oh, but I already did that to Lily one time. Got in a lot of trouble for that one I did. She, like an idiot, fell for it multiple times. Mum wasn't too happy…" I trailed off. Celeste had fallen to the floor in fits of laughter. Any story about what I had done to Lily was worth ten threats on our scale. I had won again.
"Oh… you are mean to that sister of yours. But it's worth it. Remember when she first tried to fly. What a precious memory. That helicopter came awfully close to hitting her." Celeste said laughing.
"Wow. Look at that. How are we supposed to get through that crowd?" Lauran asked pointing to the blocked hallway ahead.
"It's impossible." I replied, "Oh wait, no were there. It's the Gryffindor Common Room entrance."
We went through the portrait hole entrance and into the room beyond.
"For all you that didn't already hear, the password is Caputs Draconus." A voice started, "Now, boys up the stair case on your left. Girls, it's the same on your right. Off you go to bed now."
Saying goodnight to Spencer we went up our staircase and into our dormitory. I, being very tired, didn't pay close attention to the room and collapsed on my bed. Had I paid closer attention I would have seen big blue eyes looking through the window. We had no idea, as we went to sleep, that we were being watched.
Chapter 9: Under Watchful Eyes I Live
What with classes starting and then trying to convince my dad to send my broom, which my sister apparently tried to steal before we left and I didn't notice it was missing from my trunk, Things were pretty busy. We had a small bit of homework. And by small I mean it could be larger, if we had more classes. I was very busy.
One night, shortly after finishing my homework in the common room I looked out the window. What I saw sent me into near fits of hysteria. For a second there had been a pair of large, bulbous, blue eyes peering in the window. Spencer tried to convince me I had fallen asleep for a minute and had a short nightmare. I just laughed at him. I knew I hadn't imagined those eyes. I had felt like I was being watched ever since we had reached Hogwarts about a week ago. It was un-nerving.
Wandering over to the window I opened it and peered out. Muttering the incantation I watched as my wand tip lit up. I saw something shrink from my sight. Seeing an owl flying my way with a large package I stepped aside.
The owl flying through the window was my own, Zandra. I got the name out of an old school book of mum's. It means defender of mankind. Anyway, she was carrying a package from dad that was suspiciously shaped like a broom.
"Yes, it's my broom. I think." I cried as I ripped the wrappings off the package, "Thank you dad." A note tumbled out of the paper. I picked it up and read it.
Dear Riley,
I suggest you don't mention this to your mum. She won't be too happy with us for this conspiracy. I suggest you don't advertise my sending it to you, seeing as how you aren't supposed to have it there. You may try out for Quidditch if you want. You would make an excellent Seeker. I expect the school has raised quite a concern over your being a Parseltongue. You watch what you say and what tongue you speak. It caused me a lot of trouble my second year. Have fun and don't be late to any classes or I won't let you play Quidditch. And if I find you've been taunting your sister I'll get you good.
Good Luck,
Dad
P.S. Why didn't you tell me your sister got put in Gryffindor? And, furthermore, that you were in Slytherin? We will have nice long discussion about that next time I write. You told me that wand wouldn't be used for evil. You keep your word.
Reading that last part my mouth fell open. I spluttered for a minute then nearly exploded.
"That lying, sniveling, cheating, suck up of a sister, she's in for it this time. Retarded good for nothing, I'll get her, believe me," I muttered, but loud enough that everyone could hear me. The British accent being pronounced when I was angry made me sound more menacing.
"What did she do this time?" Celeste asked sighing. She didn't sound too interested. I swore I'd 'get my sister' at least five times a day.
"She told my dad she was in Gryffindor and I was in Slytherin! That low-down, dirty, rotten," And I called my sister some more, well, not very pretty names. "Now I'm in trouble for 'not telling him'. She's the lying scum!"
"Wow, Lily has stooped to a new low. That's um…" Lauran trailed off.
"It's horrendous of her." I filled in the blank for her.
"No, it's something you would do to save your own butt. You've lied to them before, haven't you?" Lauran pointed out.
"I most certainly have not!" All three of them shot me looks, "Okay, not lied, exactly. I prefer the term exaggerated the truth. And only that one time when I let Lily ride my broom and she almost hit the helicopter. But that was to save her butt as well as mine. This is crossing the line!"
"Okay we agree with you there. But what will you do to her? We want to help!" Celeste said eagerly.
"Okay here's the plan…" I started then looking over at the window saw the eyes again. Leaning closer to everyone else I muttered, "Don't look now but the eyes are back. We need to catch that thing… whatever it is. I'll stun it, Celeste you catch it. Spencer, Lauran, be ready to disarm it if need be. Ready, on three. One… two… three…"
I shot it with a beam of light and Celeste sent another spell to catch it. We all looked at what we had caught.
It appeared to be a House Elf. It appeared to have mismatched socks and multiple hats. I realized who it was immediately. It was Dobby, a friend of my dad's. He was a unique sort of House Elf. The only one I'd met that wanted paid. I saw him frequently as he helped Mum clean once a week. He was quite fond of my dad.
"Um… Riley, yeah, I don't think we can disarm a House Elf. When will he wake up? And why did you stun him anyway?" Spencer asked pointedly.
"He'll wake up when I wake him up. It's just Dobby. He will think it's an honor to have been stunned by Harry Potter's daughter. Shut up now, I have to remember the spell." I said slightly angrily.
"It's um… Rousenow. That's the one!" I exclaimed as Dobby sat up rubbing his head.
"Why did Riley Potter stun me like that? Riley Potter has good aim, I am proud." Dobby sputtered.
"Sorry Dobby. I got carried away. Why are you here anyway?" I asked the disgruntled elf.
"Riley Potter's dad sent me to find out what was going on. I am forever in his debt. He will be interested muchly in the hat's song, I think, and how Riley Potter's sister lied to him. He might not like it though. I am keeping a closely eye on Riley Potter all year long. He told me so." Dobby replied like it was obvious.
"Um… right. So dad doesn't trust me. I'm not overly surprised. What did he say about Quidditch?" I asked trying to sound off hand.
"Only that yous be a muchly good player and would try out no matters what he says. He likes that defianceness insidely you."
Trying not to look overly pleased I told Dobby to go do whatever he was going to do and report to my dad. He left right away to do just that.
"That's one odd House Elf," Spencer commented. "Is he yours?"
"Not exactly, he's not really anyone's. He wants paying, that one does." I replied, relieved that it had just been Dobby watching me, "It looks like we'll be living under watchful eyes this year."