Chapter Three
Tara closed her trunk. It was nearly time for her sorting. She lay on her bed and started to think about the different houses. What if she were to get into Severus' house. Dealing with Malfoy every day wouldn't exactly be fun – but maybe his opinion of her would change if she got into his house? Somehow she doubted it.
I'd love to be in the same house as Sevi, she thought. If only he weren't a Slytherin...
But that wouldn't do either… If he weren't in Slytherin then he wouldn't be the same man he was.
There was a knock on the door and she opened it to a smiling Severus.
"Ready to go?" he asked holding his arm out for her to hold.
"Yes, but I just want to give you your present now, in case we don't see each other. To be opened Christmas morning, no sooner. And it's charmed so that you can't cheat!" She handed him the little package.
He examined it for a moment, shook it and slipped it into his pocket.
They walked for a little while and Tara felt a question rise into her head.
"What's the Sorting like?" she asked.
Severus gave her a reassuring smile. "I can't tell you, but if you've heard anything about wrestling a troll from Sirius Black then it isn't true."
Tara gave him a half smile. "So, what house do you think I'll be in?"
"Ravenclaw," Severus said quickly, sounding sure of himself. "I'd bet my life savings on it! In fact, I'll bet all my family's savings on it."
"Really?"
"Tara, you'd be right at home with them. I think if you could, you'd spend all your time in the library and nowhere else," he replied with a smile.
"I'm not that bad!" she protested. "Am I?"
Severus chuckled. "Well, maybe not quite that bad, but close."
Tara swatted him on the arm as they entered the Great Hall.
As soon as they entered the room, Professor McGonagall made her way over to them. "Hello Tara," she said. "Looking forward to being sorted?"
Tara gave her a nervous smile. "I suppose."
"I'll see you after dinner," said Severus, giving her a reassuring smile. "You'll see, Ravenclaw."
Tara wished she could be as sure as Severus. At that moment she felt more like a Hufflepuff. She saw Professor Dumbledore stand up at the head table and wave Professor McGonagall, who left Tara's side so she could set out a stool and what looked like an old hat, placing them both in front of the house tables.
"I am sure that all of you are aware," said Professor Dumbledore, "that for the past two weeks, we have had a guest staying with us and taking classes with the seventh year students. Tonight she will be sorted into a house, where she will remain for the rest of the year." He indicated for Tara to sit on the stool in front of the Professor's table.
Professor McGonagall placed the old hat on her head.
Hello.
Who said that? Tara asked herself
Me, said the voice. The hat. Now let me see, what house should I put you in?
Wait, that's impossible she said to the hat.
And yet you can hear my voice. How do explain that? the hat asked.
Then how? she asked.
A thousand years ago there were four great sorcerers, Godric Gryffindor, Salazar Slytherin, Rowena Ravenclaw and Helga Hufflepuff the hat explained, sounding a little exasperated. They set up this school, but they wanted a fair way to determine which house students were sorted in to. Godric took off his hat and gave me life and they all put a little part of themselves into me. I have all their memories, and I am able to probe the conscious and the subconscious of every person that I sit on, so I can sort them.
As Tara sat on the stool and tried to absorb all this, the hat continued.
So, you're a time traveller, eh?
How did you know that? she asked the hat.
I just told you. Now on with the Sorting.
You want to be a Slytherin? You're not Slytherin material. You might want to be put there, but a boy isn't a good enough reason for me to put you in there, what if you fall out? You feel like a Hufflepuff? You're very loyal and hardworking, but you're not Hufflepuff material either. Keen mind, very keen, and an unquenchable thirst for learning. Very Ravenclaw. Very Ravenclaw indeed. Hmmmm… I know… GRYFFINDOR!
"GRYFFINDOR!" shouted the indifferent voice of the Sorting Hat.
GRYFFINDOR? GRYFFINDOR? At that moment Severus wanted to tear the blasted Sorting Hat to pieces with a nice little charm that he'd learnt from one of the books in the Restricted Section at the end of the previous year. He only wished that the hat would be able to feel it.
He watched her sitting on the stool, smiling happily. Then it occurred to him. It only put her in the house she'd wanted to go in, if she'd objected it wouldn't have put her there, she'd have been put in Ravenclaw.
Suddenly he felt angry. She wanted to be put there, he thought. With her Gryffindor pal Lily.
"So… Severus, "friends" with a Mudblood Gryffindor, eh?" said Lucius Malfoy.
He felt anger surge through his body. "She isn't my friend," he hissed at Malfoy.
Tara felt Professor McGonagall take the Sorting Hat off her head, and she found herself facing the Gryffindors, who were all standing, stomping their feet and cheering madly. She felt a small smile form on her lips. Well who wouldn't be happy at that reception? she thought to herself.
She slowly walked over to Lily, scanning the gaps in the crowd, trying to catch a glimpse of Severus, but she couldn't spot him through the small, shifting gaps between the bodies of the Gryffindors or over their heads.
She approached Lily and Sirius, who both made the others shift a little so that she would have a space to sit, and a new plate materialised shifting all the other ones into place on front the others at the table.
Sirius indicated for her to sit down next to him. But Tara was far more interested in something else.
Finally she could see the Slytherin table.
And Severus did not look happy.
The impromptu party after the feast went on for most of the night, James Potter's Wizarding Radio blaring loudly, until Professor McGonagall had come up into the common room at midnight to tell them all to go to bed. They did have a lot to celebrate. One, there was a new member in Gryffindor House, and two, it was the start of the holidays and they wouldn't have classes for two weeks. There was Butterbeer, Pumpkin juice and loads of snacks from the kitchens. Tara found out that there were a few others staying over for the holidays, including herself and Remus, Lily, James and Sirius some first-years, a second-year and a couple of fifth-years. But Tara didn't really take part in the festivities much until they were nearly finished. Sirius kept on talking to her and pulling her out to dance, but she was too busy thinking of Severus' reaction to her new house.
The next morning, Tara tried to put Severus out of her head. She got up, took a shower, got dressed. And she almost succeeded. But not for long. Every time she managed to do it, she would feel an ache in her heart and she would start to think of him again.
At 10am she was dragged down to the Great Hall for breakfast by two very overenthusiastic Gryffindor boys, Lily laughing all the way at something Remus was whispering to her and Peter pulling his trunk to the Entrance Hall.
Half way through breakfast she saw Severus leaving the Great Hall, alone.
She got up, and walked quickly over to him, determined to find out what going on. She hadn't been able to see him the previous night as she'd been dragged up to Gryffindor Tower as soon as dinner had been finished, and after that she hadn't been able to get out.
"Severus," she called.
He ignored her.
"Severus," she called again, a little louder.
He continued walking.
Tara picked up her pace and jogged to close the gap between them.
"Sev," she said, blocking him from going any further.
"What," he said coldly, his stare icy at best.
"What's the matter?" she asked, feeling anxious at the look Severus was giving her.
"Nothing that concerns you. Now get out of my sight, Mudblood."
Tara slapped him, hard, then moved out of his way, tears spilling down her cheeks. She'd never heard him speak like that to anyone. She'd never thought she'd hear him call her that. Ever.
She turned to go back to the Great Hall, wiping her cheeks with the back of hand. Suddenly she didn't feel like eating anymore. Instead she raced up to Gryffindor Tower, somehow managing to avoid all the trick steps, and remembering to tickle some doors, and give others courteous hello's. She muttered the password "Christmas Crackers" to the portrait of the Fat Lady and headed to her own dormitory, flinging herself on to her bed, still crying.
After what seemed like ages in the dormitory, Tara's tears had dried up and she just lay there, not doing anything, not even thinking about anything, which was unusual because her head was normally filled with activity.
Tara heard the door to the dormitory open quietly, and footsteps approach her bed. She felt the side of her bed sag a little as someone sat down and started rubbing her back soothingly.
"Hello," the person said. It was Lily.
Tara didn't reply. She just lay there as if she hadn't heard Lily talk.
"What's the matter?" Lily asked.
Tara lifted her head up and looked at Lily. "He called me a Mudblood, and told me to get out of his sight."
Lily seemed to think for a moment before she answered. "He was just shocked that you got put in here," she said in a soothing voice. "It just didn't occur to him that you might be sorted into Gryffindor. Gryffindor and Slytherin are enemy houses, you know. He'll get over it." She seemed to think for a little while longer. "You know, James and Sirius had a betting pool on what house you'd be put into. Ravenclaw was the favourite. Hardly anyone put any money on Gryffindor."
Tara gave her a weak smile and sat up.
"Sev said that he would have bet all the gold in his family vault that I would be put in Ravenclaw," she said with another weak smile.
"Good thing he didn't place that bet," said Lily with a wink.
This time Tara giggled and for the first time she notice that Sirius, James Remus were standing nervously at the door.
"You coming in or are you just gonna stand there till the holidays are over?" Lily asked, and they moved further in to the room.
Tara looked around the room and spotted her trunk at the end of her bed. "I'd better unpack, if I'm going to be living here," she said with a sigh as she opened her trunk. She took out the top layer of bags from Hogsmeade and put them on her bed sorting out the presents and putting them into the chest of drawers, leaving the sweet and joke bags on her bed.
Lily started taking books out of the trunk. "Where do you want these?"
"Er… in the second drawer," she replied, taking out some of the clothes she had bought the previous day.
"Take a sweet if you want," said Tara to the boys who were standing at the door, and rifled through her trunk and took out her school robes and put them into the drawer with her other clothes.
"Wait, how the heck did you get up here? There are charms to prevent that!"
"There's a password," said James, jumping onto Lily's bed. "We overheard McGonagall."
Sirius rifled through the bags and found a toffee and then offered the bag around, James taking a biscuit and Remus a hardboiled sweet. Lily took a Sugar Quill from another bag and started sucking on it.
Tara finished to in time to see Remus turn bright red.
"What's the matter, Remus?" she asked looking at his face.
"You're… turning purple…" said James taking a bite of his biscuit, then suddenly turning into a small yellow canary.
Sirius and Remus laughed.
"Nice one," said Sirius, before his tongue started to grow. "What the…" though his words were muffled by his rapidly growing tongue.
Tara and Lily tried to stifle their giggles, but were unsuccessful.
"Well," said Tara in between laughs. "At least now I know what's in that bag."
James turned back into his normal self.
"Great," said Remus. "Now how do we get back to normal?"
"I don't know," she realised, "but we can try Finite Incantatum."
Lily took out her wand and cast the spell on Sirius' tongue, which had stopped growing when it reached five foot. It slowly shrunk back to its normal size.
Tara tried the same charm on Remus, but this time it didn't work. He was now a nice shade of green.
"Let me try," said Sirius, pulling out his wand. "Finite Incantatum." But it still didn't work.
James picked the wrapper up off the bed and read the small print on the clear plastic. "Rainbow drops. It says that it lasts ten minutes."