Chapter Eight: Second Sorting and New Friends
When the day finally arrived, Magistra Whitehawk and I took the bus to Kings' Cross Station, and thence to Platform Nine and Three-Quarters. The train ride up was memorable, mostly because I'd never been anywhere on a train; I'd never been anywhere except Nebraska, in my current memory. I've always looked younger than my real age, so no one questioned that I was too old. I did get a few strange looks from people, but people are always curious about new students. Magistra and I sat in a car full of apparently third and fourth years from different Houses, but I don't remember being that loud when I was thirteen. I mostly read the entire trip, when I wasn't looking out the window amazed. I did rise out of my stupor when the trolley came, and bought a few items, but then I delved right back into my book.
Magistra tapped my elbow when the train stopped at the station and the other students were getting off; I hadn't felt the movement cease, but I quickly swept up my belongings and followed them. I whispered to her, "I suppose I should follow the first years, since it's my first time to the castle." She nodded, and followed the other students to the horseless carriages. I was now truly alone without anyone I knew for the first time in my life, and I was scared stiff. I was swept along in the wave of first years, looking quite out of place. I don't remember the trip across the lake, but I must have taken it, for the next thing I knew we were assembled on some stairs, and the woman from my fourth birthday party was speaking to us.
She looked exactly the same as she had almost fourteen years ago. As she spoke to the assembled first years, her eyes roamed over us, but she did not give any sign that she knew me. She then led us into the Great Hall, lining us up in alphabetical order, and the Hogwarts Sorting Hat sang. Tears sprang into my eyes as I remembered my first sorting of eight years previous, and I wondered where the Hat would place me. I only hoped that the parchment scroll the Professor (I would learn her name was McGonagall) was holding did not say "Potter" on it, or my life would be over. Thankfully, it did not, although the Hat recognized me, whispering in my head, "Hmmm… another Potter, eh. And older? My, my, how times have changed. Used to be the elder family member arrived at school first. Ah, well, let's see where we need you. I could put you in Hufflepuff… but with your blood, you have to be GRYFFINDOR" It shouted the last word to the rafters, and I handed back the Hat, blushing to the roots of my flame-colored hair.
I sat at the Gryffindor table next to a pair of twin boys abouta year younger than I, with hair almost as red as my own in places. One of them joked, "Hey, miss, are you sure you aren't our long-lost sister, or at least our cousin?" The other simply winked at me as I applied myself to eating a Feast even greater than the yearly Holiday Bash at Songsmith. "I… ah… I'm quite sure. I don't believe that I have any family here," I said softly into my plate with my strong Texan twang, "and if I did, I wouldn't know who they were." The twins and other students near me blinked with surprise at my accent, but did not comment. "Well," said the second twin with a chuckle, "we're Fred and George Weasley, but don't try to tell us apart, even our family gets confused. We're the Beaters on the House Quidditch team. You seem older than our normal first years, so did you play on another team?"
I warmed up to the friendly twins, and spoke louder, "Yes, I did. I came from the Kansas Prairie Songsmith Acadame. I just finished my third year of magic lessons after five rigorous years of music lessons, and I was the Seeker for the Radcliffe College Team. I suppose they'll have to use Emile Jorgens as Seeker now, though he was never as fast as I. You say you're the Beaters? My best friends back home are twins as well, and the Beaters for Radcliffe to boot! Catlyn and Tryna Barns, plus me, the Three Musketeers; we got into so much trouble our first year, I was sure the three of us would be expelled, especially after that stunt with Park Pingui's Quidditch robes!" My laughter pealed like bells as I remembered the good times with Cat and Try.
Fred and George then begged me to tell them some of the stunts the three of us had pulled off, as "research for future annoyances to Filch" as one twin put it. So I told them how Try had somehow snuck into Prescott Pointe's dormitory and "borrowed" Park's Keeper robes, then smuggled them down to the Quidditch pitch under the dead of night to meet Cat, who had somehow conjured up some sugar cubes and royal icing, and they created a huge penguin wearing the robes. "It was the only stunt they every pulled that I wasn't in on," I mused with a smile, "but I got in trouble for it anyway."
By the end of the Feast, we were fast friends. Although we had to sit through that horrible Professor Umbridge's speech, we suffered through it, and then went to the Gryffindor dormitories. I had to endure a shower of questions from the fourth-years I roomed with (which included Ginny the younger sister of the twins), but it was actually much more pleasant that I had imagined. For once, I was the one being looked up to as an older sister, and I think I let a bit of it go to my head the first month or so.
