Chapter Two:
Hogwarts September 2008:
There are things one will remember for the rest of their lives, milestones that will stick out. For Delphi stepping of the train with her new friends, Martha Flint, Rosemary Jones and Eva Stone, the first sight of Hogwarts was one of those things. They had got off at the station which was now at the edge of the large town of Hogsmeade which housed ten thousand magical people in tall medieval looking townhomes. Then walked a paved yellow brick path lit with glow-globes down to the lake and a to the boats there. Hagrid, with a wave of his wand had them headed to the school and Delphi nearly wept at the beauty of the castle.
It had undergone major renovations after the war. There had been three of these in her long history as was only natural and this one was done to unite the houses. All houses were at the top of the school and each had a tower that housed their common room, not the students as had been the case in her parents days. They had dorm rooms that housed four people each and were decorated in the colors of the house. At meal times they would sit at smaller round tables scattered around the hall and only sit at the long tables during feasts such as the opening ceremony. Dwarves provided security once more (they had done so before but sometime in the 17thcentury they were removed) and lived in the spaces below the school that had been used for student space. Only the kitchens were still there with happy healthy house elves working there.
They came to the dock where the boats landed and headed up a long winding stair to the school above. Hagrid gave three knocks on the door and it was opened by a tall dark skinned women clad in a beautiful gown of emerald green. She bowed the children in and led them to a small chamber where this small class of only thirty five fit well. She spoke of the houses, how they would be like family but gave a warning to not turn their backs on the others houses, they were family too and though different they too deserved respect. They had to be united or they would fall as before. Delphi had read Hogwarts a Historyand A Guide to the Magical Worldalong with Politics and Youso she had an idea what to expect. She knew why first and second years were dressed differently, instead of the black skirts, kilts or trousers and black jumpers, they wore grey and were allowed grey or white tights or stockings for girls in skirts and boys in kilts (underwear not optional). They were the newest as magical users and were to be protected.
After a time they were lead into the great hall, which was as beautiful as anything Delphi could have dreamed of. She felt the castle embrace her and she smiled, the centuries of needless charms and such had been removed and the castle was awake once more. She looked up at the head table and saw the headmistress, her grey hair tied back in a bun clad in green much as Harry said she would. There was Sprout and Flitwick and Sinstra and dear uncle, er professor Longbottom up there as the heads of houses. Blaise Zabini was the potions master, Hooch still was the flying instructor, Hagrid was the care of magical creatures teacher and so on. She saw Lucius Malfoy here, clad in expensive robes but the collar he now wore showed his status as a man on probation for life. He was required to teach muggle studies and as part of that he had to go into the muggle world each summer and live as one. Failure to do so would result in his being executed and his family disgraced far more than they already were. The hat sang and Delphi listened her jaw dropped, that had to be professor Longbottom's doing, it just had to.
When Hogwarts' founders Snuffed It at the start of the millennium,
Their rivalries and foibles didn't cross the Lethe's banks with them;
For Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw and Slytherin and Gryffindor
Bequeathed me their authority to pick the House you're suited for.
"Let other schools set entry tests and quiz your personality,
ASorting Hatgets access to your innermost reality.
Your aptitudes and certitudes and psychoanalytical
Complexities will indicate which path will prove so critical.
"Now Gryffindors are fêted for persistent feats of bravery,
And Righting every Wrong from Third-World Debt to House-elf Slavery.
They'll throw you in the thick of fine adventures that should not missed
If you can stick their heartiness and aren't too individualist.
"The Hufflepuffs are loyal, fair, hardworking and meticulous,
Which makes up for the fact that Helga's surname was ridiculous.
You'd never cheat or take short cuts for laziness is criminal,
An excellent philosophy when praise you win is minimal.
"The wise Rowena Ravenclaw creamed off the intellectual,
The scholarly, the witty and profoundly ineffectual,
Whose credo"Cogitamus ergo sumus"makes the best hot air -
And if you didn't get all that, don't panic, I won't put you there.
"The virtues of the Serpent's house are swathed in deepest mystery,
But only slaves to simpleness would shun its chequered history,
With drive that sends you far in life and calculating brilliance-
A Slytherin, for good or ill, will make the greatest diff-er-ence.
"But now my tender audience I'm sure that you have heard enough
Of Slytherin and Ravenclaw and Gryffindor and Hufflepuff,
My job's to get you Sorted and I'll brook no bribes or threats or tears,
Just put me on and trust me – I've been doing this a thousand years.
Delphi wanted to laugh as did many of those here, she watched as her fellow students were sorted and finally it was her turn. She was sorted exactly where she knew she would get sorted and was cheered on by her new friends. Martha Flint, Eva Stone and Rosemary Jones followed her into Slytherin. They enjoyed the feast and the comradeship that would last them a life time. Finally full and happy they were lead by prefects up several flights of stairs, to a painting of Merlin, gave the password and were soon in ther own dorm room hung with Emerald curtains around the beds and Emerald blankets and sliver sheets. Delphi took a shower, got into night clothes and fell asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow. She dreamed of a tall man with red eyes stating she needed to take over the world, she told him know and when she woke the next morning she did not remember the dream.
The sorting song is most defiantly not mine. It belongs to Textualsphinx and a lovely fiction called A Decoding of the Heart - Severus' Sorting song. I could not have done this without her). As with her fiction the sorting hat did not write the song, Severus Snape did. In this story it was Neville who found it, never used and decided to have a bit of fun.
So do review please, it is how I get paid.