Chapter 5

Enemies Everywhere

"GRYFFINDOR!"

Ursella thought she might die. In the smallest of moments, she became aware of many things all at once. Her stomach felt as if it had dropped through a trapdoor. The hairs on the back of her neck were standing on end. Then she thought of her mother and Uncle Lucius and Aunt Narcissa and their reactions to having a blood traitor Gryffindor in the family and the panic threatened to swallow her whole. The last thing she noticed was that no one was clapping.

When McGonagall finally plucked the hat off of her head, Ella blinked in the light and found herself staring at the whole of the student body. The entire Slytherin table looked somewhere between disgustedly shocked and furious, but at her. Draco was staring with his mouth open and gave no sign of speaking on her behalf. After all, there must be some way to debate her way into her proper house. She stood and stepped over to Professor McGonagall who had just raised her scroll o parchment to call the next name.

"Professor? I'm sorry, but there must be some sort of mistake." Ursella whispered, although it was quite possible that everyone would hear her as no one in the hall was talking. Professor McGonagall only glared, so Ella continued. "You see, my whole family is from Slytherin house. My cousin, Draco, is a second year there now and m parents—"

"I am very aware of who you are related to, Miss Lestrange." The Professor interrupted her with an exasperated sigh. It was clear that she had no intention of listening to Ella's appeal. "What the hat says, goes. No switching. No exceptions."

"I realize that, but—"

"Miss Lestrange." Said McGonagall sternly pursing her lips. "I it will make you sit down, I will put the Sorting Hat on you again but you will have to sit wherever it sends you." She didn't wait for a reply an jammed the magical hat on Ella's head again. There was no hesitation and again the hat screamed:

"GRYFFINDOR!"

Ursella thought she might cry. With the infernal hat removed, she slowly shuffled her way to the Gryfindor table on the opposite side of the Hall from where she should be. Ella found Draco amongst the purebloods, hoping for some sign of sympathy that he was on her side. But he crossed his arms an only made eye contact with her for a moment before he turned away, shaking his head. She felt the hole she was falling into get deeper and darker and the weight of all the silent stares was crushing her.

And then mercifully, when she had gotten halfway to the Gryffindor house, she looked up and two identical redheads stood and started an ovation of two.

"Whoo!"

"Yeah, Gryffindor!" Fred and George slapped the people sitting nearest them. "Stand up, you tossers!" By the time Ursella reached the table, most of the House was clapping, half were standing, but only the Weasley's were even trying to be genuine. She took a seat next to a dough-faced boy who was both not clapping and giving her the cold shoulder. Fred and George shot her a wink and a thumbs up before turning their attention back o McGonagall as she called Luna up to be sorted.

"Hey, " came a whisper from across the table. Ursella looked up to see the mousy girl with the bushy brown hair and large front teeth smiling at her from across the table. She couldn't think of her first name but knew Draco called her Granger. "I'm sorry you didn't get to be in the house you wanted. You and Malfoy must be very close."

"RAVENCLAW!" Luna took her seat with uproarious applause. Ursella enviously watched the new Ravenclaw serenely take her seat as she shook hands in warm welcome. She turnde back to face Granger, who still seemed set on talking.

"You'll learn that being a Gryffindor is really great. And I know you feel like you don't belong—"

"GRYFFINDOR!"

"—But I saw how ou pulled Ginny and Malfoy out of Flourish and Blotts and Ginny told me about how you pulled her on the train. Ron's still upset over being bested by you."

"SLYTHERIN!" The word was like being stabbed in the chest.

"Look," Ursella stopped Granger's next pity speech before it could get started. "I can see what you're trying to do here. But it doesn't really matter whether or not I fit in or what your thoughts are on the matter. I've let my whole family down. My life is over." She crossed her arms to punctuate that she was done talking. Granger let her smile drop and gave her a polite nod.

"Well, I'm Hermione if you ever need help with homework or something."

Ursella ignored her, although it was no longer a mystery why she hadn't remembered the girl's first name. She spent the rest of the sorting glaring at her empty placemat. How could this have happened? She was supposed to be this star of the Slytherin house. She was supposed to make her parents proud, so proud that it would give her father enough to live or that he'd start talking again. She knew Draco was embarrassed of her, ashamed that he was related to her. The thought of what her Uncle would do made her want to be sick. They all said that she was to be in Slytherin. But now she was stuck, surrounded on all sides by enemies to her family and pretty much everyone she had ever met. Merlin knows what they would do to her out of the sight of the staff. They were probably cooking up plans for the Death Eater spawn this very second. Let them try, she thought. I'll show them that I will not be trifled with.

Finally, the last name was called.

"Weasley, Ginevra." The redhead gratefully approached the stool and sat obediently for McGonagall to place that stupid hat on her. It had barely grazed her curly locks when it screamed its decision.

"GRYFFINDOR!"

All of the students around Ursella jumped out of their seats, applauding and screaming for Ginny as she made her way down the table. Her brothers were singing some inane song that made her blush as she took her seat next to Ursella. The youngest Weasley beamed at her but Ella just turned her attention back to the table top. At the staff table, the oldest man Ursella had ever seen stood and addressed the students.

"Well done!" Albus Dumbledore beamed down at all of them like they were his own newborn children. Ursella noticed that the greasy haired potion's master quietly but suddenly stood and exited the Hall looking very put off. The headmaster pretended not to notice and continued in his address. "Another year of young witches and wizards successfully added to the ranks. Now that we're all sorted, I have a few announcements, the first of which being that the third floor corridor is no longer off limits. However, the Forbidden Forest remains out-of-bounds for all students." The wizard seemed to stare longer at the Weasley twins at this point. "Moving on, our caretaker, Argus Filch, has a short list of items that are banned from use in the corridors between classes."

A man with fraying robes and a crooked nose handed a roll of parchment up to the headmaster. Dumbledore unrolled the list and it hit the table and continued on until it was hanging over the side a little. The collective groaned at seeing the length of the list. "This list will be posted out in the Entrance Hall for you to refer to." Professor Dumbledore rolled up the list amongst scattered applause. "Now, we have a new addition to our staff in the Defense Against the Dark Arts. Please help me welcome Professor Gilderoy Lockhart."

The preening peacock from the bookstore stood, bowing and waving to the applauding masses. Ursella noticed that the females seemed to have far more enthusiastic claps that any of the males. After a few moments he sat down again and Dumbledore continued with his speech. Ursella stewed in her own self-loathing and pity until the headmaster finished and clapped his hands. The empty trays that lined every table filled suddenly with mountains of food. The hall broke into excited chatter as the students filled their plates and mouths with all they could reach. But Ursella didn't feel hungry and she couldn't begin to appreciate the spells that must have been involved to make this feeding process work. As soon as everyone was otherwise distracted, she stood and snuck over to her cousin at the Slytherin table.

Draco was poking at a serving of meat idly with his fork and grimacing in disgust at the speed in which Crabbe and Goyle consumed food. No one saw her approach until she tugged on her cousin's sleeve.

"Draco?" she whispered in his ear.

"AAH!" the second year jumped in his seat before turning his shocked white face towards her. "Really Ella. A bit more warning before you sneak up on me like that."

"Apologies your highness," Ursella drawled as Draco straightened his robes. "But I have a little more to worry about right now than whether or not you are going to be jumpy today. I'm in a crisis here!"

"Alright, ssh." Draco looked up at the staff table to see they weren't being watched. The professors weren't paying attention to them but some of the upper classmen of Slytherin were. A boy with a rather unfortunate set of teeth sneered in their direction.

"Fraternizing Malfoy?" The boy said.

"Your dad still work for mine, Flint?" Draco shot back. "Mind your business if you know what's good for you." Flint rolled his eyes but returned his attentions to his plate.

"Draco," Ursella was tugging on his sleeve again, "what am I going to do? You know I'm not one of them. They can't be trusted."

"You're right," Draco turned on his bench to look straight at her. "but regardless, you are supposed to be over there now, not here."

"But…" Ursella couldn't feel her face and what was left of her stomach dropped all the way through the pit that had grown there. "You can't just leave me—"

"Look," Draco interrupted. "I'll write father in the morning and maybe he can do something but until then you have to be a Gryffindor." He glared at the table as he said the word. Pansy was sitting next to him and had been quietly grinning to herself. She turned to Ursella with that horrid smile and made a dismissive motion with her hand.

"Run along now, Lestrange." She giggled as if she was the funniest person ever and the sound of it filled Ursella's ears as she slunk back to sit between Ginny and the dough faced boy.

Ella didn't know that you could be so empty inside and still feel such crushing sadness that you thought you might explode. She thought back on her life and things she'd done, trying to pin down what exactly it was that made her unworthy to be where she truly belonged. Her whole life she had lived with Slytherins and socialized with Slytherins, she had even been born of two of the most ruthless Death Eaters there ever were. She always looked out for herself and her family and only stuck her neck out if the benefits for herself outweighed the cost. She never leapt before she looked and she was the strongest witch her age.

It would be one thing if she was in Ravenclaw, but Gryffindor…? Ella couldn't see how she could ever be mistaken for a Gryffindor. The hat was wrong. It's spell must be wearing off and it's putting people in the wrong houses. Ella hated that stupid hat. And the professors won't listen. McGonagall refused to listen to reason. She hated Ella because of her family name. Ella would hate her back just to be fair. Ella hated Draco for not being the good brotherly cousin he had sworn he would be. She hated Pansy for laughing at her and the ogre twins for being stupid. She hated her aunt and uncle for not knowing she needed them and her parents for never being there. Ella hated the ministry for putting her in this position in the first place and all of the placid sheep that follow along. She hated Harry Potter for bringing on the fall of the Dark Lord. She even hated the Dark Lord himself for leaving them when they were just starting to win.

Ursella could feel her anger burning inside her. She could feel her face getting hot and angry tears starting to form in the corners of her eyes thinking about all of the injustice done to her. The energy inside her was growing o a dangerous level but Ursella did little to control it, hoping she would explode and take some of the world burning with her. It was then that she heard her name.

"Ella?" She turned her head to see Ginny's big bright brown eyes looking at her in concern. The pure caring she saw in the red head made her loose much of her steam. "Are you okay?"

"Fine," Ursella sighed a little less than cheery. "Why do you ask?"

"Well, your silverware has melted together."

Ella looked down to the right of her placemat and saw that Ginny was right. Her knife, fork, and spoon were now one gray pool of molten metal that had just caught her napkin on fire.

"Oh goodness!" Granger gasped from across the table before whipping out her wand and extinguishing the flame, freezing the cutlery forever into a gray glob. Ursella mumbled a thank you as Granger handed her a new set from the empty seat next to her. "Don't mention it." The Mudblood put away her wand. "Between Ron and that one," she jerked her thumb at a sandy haired boy down the bench scratching his back with his wand, "I've had to learn helpful anti-disaster spells."

"Hey!" The sandy haired boy exclaimed. "I heard that Hermione."

"You were meant to Seamus." She retorted without looking at him. "And do you really think that with your track record, you should be pointing your wand willy nilly at your own backside?" Seamus had nothing to say to that and put his wand down on the table.

"Speaking of Ron," Ginny was saying as she started filling Ursella's plate with food. "Did either of you see him on the train?"

"No," Granger joined in, suddenly very worried. "I didn't see Harry either and I looked everywhere for them. Did you see them Ella?"

"It's Ursella." She corrected. "Stop giving me food. I'm not even remotely hungry and no, I didn't see them." She just wanted to go back to the time when she would never want to or have to talk to Gryffindors. "I never even saw them on the platform."

"Those boys," Granger rolled her eyes in exasperation. "They probably got turned around in the station and rammed their trolleys into the wrong barrier. I bet they missed the train."

"Typical." Ginny remarked. "And you really should eat something. Whenever I'm upset, my Mum makes me whatever I'd want and I always feel—"

But Ursella didn't find out how Ginny felt because the side of her that was still lonely and angry didn't let her finish.

"Well, Weasley." Ursella rounded on the girl, keeping her voice low but dripping acid in every word. "Not all of us have Mums around to make every boo-boo better with some num-nums. And don't try to equate whatever sorry problems you've ever had with the hippogriff dung heap my life has turned into. You don't know me. You don't know anything. Stop trying to help me and stop talking to me."

The candles floating above Ursella and Ginny melted into nothing as Ursella's rage flared the flames into a brief white-hot existence. She could see the hurt in Ginny's eyes and the judgement on Granger's face and decided that she wasn't going to sit through that a second longer. Ursella grabbed a warm roll of her plate before standing and storming out of the Great Hall, torches roaring bright in her wake.