Chapter 3
Once the three were inside, they immediately took off their soaking wet cloaks and slung them over their arms, Vala had also taken off her sunglasses, since it was rather dark in the pub.
"You two get us a table so we can eat supper and I'll see if we can rent a room here, otherwise we're on the streets tonight." Zareh instructed. She handed her cloak and trunk over to Vala, who was carrying all the bags now, before heading over to the counter with a purple velvet purse in hand.
"Where?" Raelin questioned, impatiently tapping her fingers against the engravings on her walking stick.
Vala looked around quickly before setting eyes on a table to one side of the room.
"Seven steps forward, five to the right." The half vampire said in a quiet voice, following her own instructions to make sure they were correct for her blind sister.
Raelin counted each step under her breath before finally reaching her destination. "Thank you very much, dear sister of mine." She said sweetly, taking a seat opposite Vala with Ranger by her side.
"You owe me," Vala replied in her usual quiet, yet strongly accented voice.
Raelin rolled her sightless eyes before letting them wander aimlessly to each table, wanting to see what variety of people were present, until her eyes came to rest on one of the tables in the back, where a strange aura drew her attention.
"Well, it seems that Dumbledore was kind enough to reserve and pay for a room for us." Zareh stated happily, plopping down in the seat next to Vala.
"That's nice, can we get something to eat now?" Raelin questioned, tearing her eyes away from the strange aura.
"Eh, maybe in a bit." Zareh said, her nose already in a book.
The young werewolf shook her head, knowing that her sister was reading once again even though she couldn't see the book in her hands, before turning her gaze back over to the owner of the aura.
"Val," Raelin muttered, not wanting anyone else to hear her.
Vala looked up from the spot on the table she had been staring at and glanced at her sister.
"Over in the corner table, there's another werewolf." Raelin said in a very low whisper that wouldn't have been deciphered by a normal human being because of the loud voices in the place.
Vala flicked her gaze over to the corner table where there were four boys present, each looking about sixteen years old.
Ranger, having heard the word werewolf, lifted his head off of its resting-place on his paws and looked around the room. He had been trained to look after his master – as most important – and all other werewolves as a second job, so meeting a new part-time charge was always welcome in his mind. Once he pinpointed the source, the boy over in the corner Raelin had just been talking about, he stood up and began to walk merrily over to the table.
"Looks like Ranger's making a new friend." Zareh said, interrupting her two sisters as they continued to talk quietly, but still not taking her eyes off the page she was on. "I highly suggest in Vala going and retrieving him."
"Why not me?" Raelin whined. "He's my wolf."
"You own him, yes, but you still can't see him, so therefore, you would end up making a fool of yourself in one way or another." Zareh retorted, turning the page of her novel.
Raelin huffed and motioned for Vala to get her wolf.
The half vampire sighed as she swiftly got out of her seat and headed over to the group of boys Ranger was bugging at the moment.
"Looks like you've made a friend, Remus." One of the guys at the table with messy black hair and glasses stated.
The one supposedly called Remus was scratching Ranger behind the ear, chuckling a bit. One of the others with longer black hair and mischievous grey eyes, lifted his hand off the table and went to pet the wolf's head, but Ranger turned to him sharply and growled low in his throat, baring his teeth at the wizard.
"Ranger, come." Vala said quietly, snapping her fingers. Ranger whined and looked back and forth from Vala to Remus before slowly walking over to the half vampire.
"Sorry about that," Vala said once Ranger was by her side.
"Quite alright, I'm Sirius by the way." The teen said proudly before pointing to each of his friends while saying their names too; he was the one with unruly black hair and impish grey eyes. "That's James, Remus and Peter."
Vala's dark eyes scanned each of their features. All were quite well built, save for Peter, who was slightly larger and had rat-like qualities to him. James had been the tall one with messy black hair and hazel eyes hidden behind glasses with a mischievous look to them; Remus was the equally tall werewolf, with light brown hair and dark brown eyes. Peter was slightly rounded, and had a few rat-like qualities to him, thin brown hair and small, blue eyes.
"Sorry, again." Vala replied before turning around to go back to her table.
"Hey, I didn't catch your name." Sirius stated, causing the half vampire to stop.
"I didn't give it." She replied smoothly, continuing to walk towards her sisters.
"You know what?" Zareh said, closing her book with a snap.
"Mmm?" was the reply of Raelin as she lifted her heavy head off the table.
"I think we should skip dinner tonight and get a good nights rest, we've got to go to Diagon Alley tomorrow morning and I don't want to fall asleep on the street. I've got jetlag." Zareh stated, picking up her things. "Val, either you help me with the bags, or carry Rae."
"I don't need carrying." Raelin snapped, standing up quickly. Ranger growled at Zareh and stood next to his master.
The sorceress sighed in frustration as she started walking towards the stairs. "Follow me or you're going to get lost."
"Follow me our you're going to get lost." Raelin mimicked in a high pitched voice, making a face at her oldest sister.
Vala tried her best not to laugh and show her slightly longer teeth, not wanting to rouse suspicion. She picked up the two remaining trunks and cloaks before following her two other sisters up the stairs and along a small hallway.
Raelin tapped her cane cautiously along the floor, not wanting to trip on anything and make a fool of herself the first day being back in England.
"Here we are, number 12." Zareh said, stopping suddenly in front of a wooden door. Raelin skidded to a halt, centimeters away from bumping into the sorceress.
"As if that actually means anything to me, but okay." The werewolf muttered as Zareh opened the door with the key Tom had given her beforehand.
Home sweet home. Thought Vala as her eyes gazed around the small room. It had only one bed, a dresser and a bathroom, with a few other knickknacks scattered around the room.
Zareh set her trunk onto the bed and hung her cloak up on a peg near the door before looking around the room with a misty look to her eyes. She waved her hand to the bed, which then split into two smaller ones.
"You don't mind sleeping on the floor, do you Vala?" Zareh questioned, opening her trunk and starting to take a few shrunken items out before enlarging them once more.
The half vampire shook her head, setting the two other trunks onto the floor and looking up to the rafters, when a small smile crept onto her face.
"No," Zareh said, cutting into Vala's train of thought. "I know what you were going to do, sleeping in the rafters, no!"
"Oh come off it, Zar." Raelin said sleepily from her spot on the bed. "It's not like anyone's going to walk into the room and run a stake through her heart."
Vala chuckled, although she wanted to burst out laughing at the look on Zareh's face. She looked up again and quickly took off the tight strap holding her wings in place, stretching her large feathered wings as far as they would go.
"I'm going to have to look up a potion to make your wings disappear, Val." Zareh said as she took out another small key from a hidden pocked in her trunk. Vala looked at her sister in horror as she reached behind her to stroke her feathered wings. "They're going to grow too big to keep hidden under your clothes soon."
The half vampire scowled as she began to walk up the far wall. She suddenly stopped, though, because there was a tapping sound coming from the window.
"Get down!" Zareh hissed. She was walking towards the closed shutters of the window with her Bo-staff held out in front of her.
Vala quickly dropped gracefully to the ground with a small whooshing sound and a slight thud from her high boots, while letting her fingers turn into claws and her teeth grow longer.
Raelin leapt off her bed and held her cane out in front of her like a sword.
With a deep breath, Zareh flung open the shutters, and then sighed in relief when she saw it was only a bird.
"What is it?" Raelin demanded, not being able to see it.
"It's a bird." Zareh replied, opening up the window to let it in.
"It's a phoenix." Vala breathed, bringing her teeth and claws back in.
"Is it pretty?" Raelin asked timidly, feeling slightly foolish at her question.
The phoenix flew into the room and landed on the headboard, dropping a ratty old hat and four pieces of parchment onto Raelin's bed.
Zareh quickly snatched the five items off the bed and began to read the letter, while Vala led her younger sister over to the phoenix.
The half vampire took Raelin's hand in her own and dragged it over the soft feathers of the phoenix's head, which squawked in return, startling Raelin slightly.
"This is the sorting hat, guys." Zareh's voice cut through the air.
Vala turned to her older sister, where as Raelin continued to stroke the phoenix's head.
"Professor Dumbledore wants us to get ourselves sorted here, and write them down on the back of the letter." The sorceress continued. "He'll get our uniforms for us when we get there, but we have to get the robes in Diagon Alley. These are the lists of things we need to get tomorrow in order to survive our year pretty much."
Do they have anti-Death Eater charms on them or something? Vala questioned inside her head, snorting out loud.
"You go first, White." Raelin said, turning to the aura of her oldest sister.
Zareh took a deep breath as she set the parchments onto the desk and placed the old hat upon her head, which immediately fell over her eyes.
Ah, a new student I see, a Romanian Knight for that matter. Zareh jumped as she heard the voice inside her head. Jumpy little thing aren't you? She could hear it laughing and scowled. Let's see… a wandless witch? Oh my, very interesting. Loyal, like a Hufflepuff, a nice house, yet more so intellectual and wise like a Ravenclaw, very tough.
Please not a Hufflepuff! Zareh shouted inside her head.
The hat chuckled again. No, that is not the house for you. I know… (This it shouted out loud) RAVENCLAW!
"Why am I not surprised?" Raelin muttered sarcastically, rolling her eyes.
Zareh took off the hat with a broad grin on her face. "Who's next?"
Vala looked expectantly at Raelin, who sighed in return.
"I'll go next." The werewolf said, holding out her hand to take the hat.
Zareh placed the sorting-hat into her sister's hand. Who, in turn, set it onto her curly head of blond hair, slipping down over her sightless eyes.
Another new Knight student? Raelin also jumped at the voice inside her head. A werewolf too? The second one in six years, you're blind as well? Interesting, very interesting… you can be brave at times, like a Gryffindor, smart, like a Ravenclaw, kind and loyal at times, like a Hufflepuff.
You put me in the Hufflepuff house and I will rip you to shreds in a second with no regrets. Raelin growled, having read about the houses.
A violent one, aren't we? Hufflepuff isn't the house for you anyway, no. You are sly and cunning, a little trickster. I have just the house for you… "SLYTHERIN!"
Raelin rubbed her ears after taking the hat off, but smirked.
"I should have known." Zareh muttered with an eye roll. "Your turn, Val, then we can get some sleep."
Raelin held the hat out in the general direction of her vampiric sister, who took it timidly.
Taking a deep breath, Vala put the ratty old hat onto her dark head of hair, allowing it to slip over her eyes.
Three Knights? The hat questioned, but Vala didn't jump or flinch at all.
Hard to scare, aren't you. Seems like all Knights have special gifts or secrets, vampiric are you? Seen your mother's killer?
Vala growled low in her throat as a warning.
Don't be hasty child. Let's see, very loyal and keeps promises, like a Hufflepuff, but that is most certainly not the house for you – or is it? Hmm… smart, yet lacking the strive for knowledge for the Ravenclaw house, not like your sister. Cunning, like your other sister in the Slytherin house. Yet very brave and daring as a Gryffindor should be. Very tricky, but I think you would do best in…
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Hehehe… I don't update for a while, and then I give you a bit of a cliffie. Which house do you think she's going to be in? Tell me! Well, up next: Diagon Alley, Knockturn Alley, a small fight, and much, much more!
SilverLight05: Trouble hasn't even started yet my friend. Here's your long awaited chapter. Hope you like it! REVIEW!
Please review people, I want to know if you guys like it or not. PLEASE! I'll try and update ASAP. Tootles!