The door swings open and standing there is Minerva McGonagall wearing emerald robes. She has on a very stern face but her lips twitch in a small smile when the twins wave at her. She thanks Hagrid for leading the first years to this point before pulling the door wide open. Selena and Harry take in the large entrance hall, stone walls lit by torches, high ceiling, and marble staircase that leads to the upper floors before following Professor McGonagall across the stone floor. They pass by a doorway to the right where hundreds of voices can be heard and walk into a small, empty chamber.
"Welcome to Hogwarts. Before the start-of-term banquet begins you will be sorted into your houses. The sorting is important because while you are here your house will be like your family within Hogwarts. You will have classes with your house, sleep in your house dormitory, and spend free time in your house common room. The four houses are Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. Each house has its own noble traits, history, and has produced outstanding witches and wizards. While you are at Hogwarts your triumphs will earn you house points, any rule-breaking will cost you house points. At the end of the year, the house with the most points is awarded the house cup. I hope each of you will be a credit to whichever house becomes yours.
The Sorting Ceremony will take place in a few minutes in front of the rest of the school. I suggest you all smarten yourselves up as much as you can while you are waiting. I shall return when we are ready for you, please wait quietly." Minerva's eyes linger on Neville's incorrectly fastened cloak before leaving.
Selena takes the hint and quickly fastens it correctly before casting scourgify on Neville's robes. With a pink face he thanks her. She notices that Harry is attempting to flatten his hair and snorts at him. He shoots her a glare. "How exactly do they sort us into the house?" Harry asks Ron.
"Some sort of test, I think. Fred said it hurts a lot but I think he was joking."
"I highly doubt it's a magical test, calm down Prince Harry. Professor McGonagall said that each house has its own noble traits so it probably has something to do with your personality."
Harry's nerves calm down quickly due to his sister's logic, deftly ignoring Hermione Granger's whispers of all the spells she learned and that she's not sure which one she needs. Nevertheless, he kept holding on to his sister's hand who was also keeping Ron's nerves calm by holding his hand. The three are feeling relatively cool and collected until people start screaming, causing all three of them to jump about one foot in the air. They gasp when they see about twenty ghosts glide through a brick wall. In all their pearl and transparent beauty they are arguing. The fat monk-looking one says something about second chances when he is interrupted.
The second ghost wearing ruff and tights tells the Friar, the first ghost, that they have given Peeves, presumably another ghost, many chances. The Fat Friar finally notices them, "New students! About to be sorted I suppose? Hope to see you in my old house, Hufflepuff!"
Professor McGonagall comes back and tells the ghosts to run off into the Great Hall. She turns to the first years and tells them to form a line. Selena gets in line with Harry and Ron behind her. In formation they walk out of the chamber, through a pair of double doors, and into the Great Hall. The Great Hall is lit by thousands of floating candles, there are four long table where the other students are sitting that are covered in golden plates and goblets. Minerva leads the first years to the top of the hall where the teachers are sitting. They are facing the other students and few ghosts with the teachers behind them. To avoid the staring eyes Harry looks up into the black ceiling dotted with stars. Hermione whispers she read in Hogwarts: A History that it's bewitched to look like the sky outside. Selena looks positively horrified that her and Hermione have read the same book.
Minerva places a stool in front of the first years. On top of the stool is a pointed, dirty, and old hat. There is nothing but silence until the brim of the hat opens wide and the hat begins to sing:
"Oh, you may not think I'm pretty,
But don't judge on what you see,
I'll eat myself if you can find
A smarter hat than me.
You can keep your bowlers black,
Your top hats sleek and tall,
For I'm the Hogwarts Sorting Hat
And I can cap them all.
There's nothing hidden in your head
The Sorting Hat can't see,
So try me on and I will tell you
Where you ought to be.
You might belong in Gryffindor,
Where dwell the brave at heart,
Their daring, nerve, and chivalry set Gryffindors apart;
You might belong in Hufflepuff,
Where they are just and loyal,
Those patient Hufflepuffs are true and unafraid of toil;
Or yet in wise old Ravenclaw,
if you've a ready mind,
Where those of wit and learning,
Will always find their kind;
Or perhaps in Slytherin
You'll make your real friends,
Those cunning folk use any means
To achieve their ends.
So put me on! Don't be afraid!
And don't get in a flap!
You're in safe hands (though I have none)
For I'm a Thinking Cap!"
Ron curses at his twin brothers and Harry offers him a weak smile, it seems like he is fighting nerves again. Selena squeezes both of their hands that she's been holding almost the entire time. They face her and she gives them a sincere smile. The kind that lifts her cheeks high enough to enunciate her laugh lines and her dimples. Harry feels instantly better, it's not often his sister smiles like that. Ron's cheeks flush and he squeezes back her hand gratefully.
Professor McGonagall steps forward holding a roll of parchment. "When I call your name, you will put on the hat and sit on the stool to be sorted. Abbott, Hannah!"
A girl with blonde pigtails stumbles out of the line and puts the hat on. "Hufflepuff!" Shouts the hat. The table to the right claps for her, even the Fat Friar is waving happily at her.
"Bones, Susan!"
"Hufflepuff!"
"Boot, Terry!"
"Ravenclaw!" The second table from the left clap for him.
"Brocklehurt, Mandy!"
"Ravenclaw!"
"Brown, Lavender!"
"Gryffindor!" The table on the far left explodes with cheers and the three can see Ron's twin brothers hooting.
"Bulstrode, Millicent!"
"Slytherin!" The table from the far right clap for her. It might just be Harry's imagination but he thinks they do look rather unpleasant.
"Finch-Fletchley, Justin!"
"Hufflepuff!"
"Finnigan, Seamus!"
"Gryffindor!"
The twins notice that sometimes it takes the hat seconds to decide and others a minute or so.
"Granger, Hermione!" Hermione almost runs to the stool and jams the hat on her head. Selena does not resist rolling her eyes, the display is just so telling.
"Gryffindor!" The hat yells and when Ron groans Selena sniggers.
"Shut up Selena," he grumbles to her. This causes the twins to laugh quietly to themselves.
"Longbottom, Neville!"
The hat takes a while to decide before shouting, "Gryffindor!"
Selena whoops loudly, "Go Neville!" He turns gaping at her with surprise, almost all of the Great Hall has their eyes on her. "Can't I just cheer on a mate?" She says cheekily. Whispers start going throughout the hall questioning who the girl is. Hagrid catches her eyes and he gives her a large thumbs up which she heartily returns. While sending Hagrid back a thumbs up she notices another teacher, who reminds her of Dracula, staring at her with the same look she sometimes sees in her Aunt Petunia's eyes- grief.
She would have missed Malfoy's sorting completely if he didn't bump into her as he was walking up to the stool. "Slytherin!" The hats yells barely even touching his head. Draco goes to join his friends Crabbe and Goyle. The sorting goes from Moon, Nott, Parkinson, double the Patil, to Perks until "Potter, Harry!" Whispers spread through the Great Hall again, even more so when they connect Selena from her outburst earlier to Harry. It's obvious to everyone now, that Harry Potter is here and not only that but he has a twin!
"Difficult, very difficult," a small voice says in Harry's ear. "There's talent, not a bad mind either. A thirst to prove yourself but not to the world, to your sister. To prove that you can can stand on your own. And at the same time so courageous...This is interesting. Better be-"
"Gryffindor!" The sorting hat yells out to the Great Hall.
Harry walks toward the Gryffindor table, hardly noticing that he is getting the loudest cheer yet as he waits eagerly for his sister to be called. Percy Weasley the Prefect gets up to shake his hand while the twins are yelling, "We got a Potter! We got a Potter!" Harry sits down next to the ghost from earlier, the one with the ruff and tights, who pats his arm giving Harry a terrible wave of cold. But his lack of heat is ignored when, "Potter, Selena!"
Selena walks to the hat in no rush and gently places it on her head. "Oh! How very interesting!" A small voice which she presumes is the hat says to her. "So much knowledge, it's been quite a while since I've sorted someone with eidetic memory. The last one was a Ravenclaw but you are quite different. You're not learning for the enjoyment but in case you'll ever need it. And you remember! I see...How tragic for you young Potter. Nonetheless, with your mind there is only one place for you to go-"
"Slytherin!"
The whole hall is quiet, all of them were expecting for her to join her brother in Gryffindor or maybe she would have been sorted into Hufflepuff, but the twin sister of Harry Potter in Slytherin? Selena doesn't mind the lack of applause instead she turns to her brother and shoots him a salute in see you later. Her brothers gives her a salute back so she turns around to walk to the Slytherin table. She sits at the very end of the table, the side facing the left.
McGonagall clears her throat to continue the sorting. A tall black boy named Dean Thomas is sorted into Gryffindor. Lisa Turnip is sorted in Ravenclaw and finally it's Ron's turn. He seems a bit paler now, his eyes are shifting from the Gryffindor table to the Slytherin table and Selena is rather curious about what can possibly be on his mind. The hat lays on Ron's head for a second before yelling, "Gryffindor!"
Harry claps loudly and notices that his sister is also clapping loudly. The rest of her house is looking at her strangely and the youngest Potter feels a lurch of worry for his sister. Her house doesn't seem very friendly toward her. The last person on the list, Blaise Zabini, is sorted into Slytherin and Harry's thoughts about his sister are wiped away when he realizes how hungry he is.
Blaise sits next to Selena which she find strange, the rest of the Slytherin have been treating her like if she has a disease. She decides to ignore him when she notices a man standing up from the center of the High Table. She recognizes him instantly as Albus Dumbledore from Harry's chocolate card. He beams at all of the students, "Welcome! Welcome to a new year at Hogwarts! Before we begin our banquet I would like to say a few words. And here they are: Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak!"
Selena snorts, unimpressed, while getting out her copy of Hogwarts: A History. "He's off his bloody rocker," she mutters. Blaise snorts at Selena's comment and offers her a small smirk when she looks at him with a questioning eyebrow, maybe Zabini isn't so bad.
A series of dishes appear on the table, she hides her surprise and elegantly serves herself a small portion of roast beef with fries, using the table manners she asked her Aunt to teach her after she learned she is heiress. Selena is use to small portions, taking away their food privileges is Vernon's favorite way of punishing them, so she doesn't stack her plate up high like her twin is doing across the hall.
As she eats her roast beef and looks at her book she begins to wonder why her Aunt allows her husband to treat them that way. Selena can remember the times when their Aunt Petunia wouldn't punish them for their accidental magic, if Uncle Vernon wasn't there to witness it, and they were all so clearly caused by magic- especially that incident with Harry and the sweater. She also ponders, not for the first time, if the abuse they suffered would have been as bad if there was only one of them. Being forced to raise one child is far different from being forced to raise two children. Sometimes these thoughts would make her want to run away but the obscurity of whether it would actually give Harry a better life or just make him their sole target forced her to stay.
It isn't until dessert gets served that she finally lifts her head from her book and notices the occasional looks being thrown at her. The most coming from the pug-faced girl she remembers as Pansy Parkinson and Draco. "I can get you a picture if you'd like," Selena drawls as she casually grabs a treacle tart and goes back to reading her book.
Across the hall, Harry is starting to feel warm and sleepy until a wave of emptiness hits him. This is the first time in his whole life he won't be sharing a bed with his sister. He shakes the feeling off when sees his twin hiding a smirk in her book while Blaise Zabini is giving her an amused one. It's just for the school year, they'll go home for the holidays and it will just be like how they always have been. Harry's eyes look all around the hall and pass Professor Quirrell's turban as he's talking to a teacher with greasy black hair, a hooked nose, and sallow skin. The same teacher who reminded Selena of Dracula earlier. A sharp, hot pain shoots through Harry's scar.
He cries a bit in pain and automatically his sister is on her feet looking at him with worry while clutching her own forehead. The pain leaves as soon as it comes but it's hard to shake off because it bewilders him that his sister felt it too. With a look Selena asks him if he needs her help or something. Harry shakes his head to tell her no so she sits back down. He gets a bad feeling from the teacher Quirrell had been talking to, it seems like he doesn't like Harry at all.
Selena sits back down with her brows scrunched up, not thinking about the table of snakes looking at her, but the pain that shot through her head yet did not feel like her own. "What was that?" Blaise asks her.
She turns to the dark-skinned boy with golden eyes, "I don't know. I think Harry's scar just burned. I felt it too though."
"Maybe it's that weird twin sense?"
"Yeah, our twin sense."
The desserts disappear and Professor Dumbledore stands on his feet again. "First years and older students should note that the forest on the grounds is forbidden to all pupils. I have also been asked by caretaker Mr. Filch to remind you all that no magic should be used between classes in the corridors," his eyes seem to be looking at the Weasley twins. "Quidditch trials will be held in the second week of the term. Anyone interested in playing for their house teams should contact Madam Hooch. And finally, I must tell you that this year, the third-floor corridor on the right-hand side is out of bounds to everyone who does not wish to die a very painful death."
Very few students laugh and Selena looks at Blaise, "He's freaking mad!"
Dumbledore encourages them to sing the school song that Selena and many other Slytherins refuse to do. She's positive that whoever thought of the lyrics were clearly drunk. Almost everybody finishes at different times, except for the twins who continue singing to a slow funeral march. Selena will admit to finding their antics funny. The Headmaster finally dismisses them and the first-year Slytherins are told to follow their Prefects. They walk to the lowest levels of the castle that Selena can only refer to as the dungeons. "Hungarian Horntail," a Prefect says to a wall that slides open to reveal the entrance to the common room. "The girls dorms are on the left and the boys are on the right. Your dorms have your name on a plaque and your things have been placed on the foot of the beds."
She tells Blaise goodnight and he bids her the same. She finds her dorm easily enough and is the first one there. She does note that her roommates are Millicent Bulstrode, Pansy Parkinson, and Daphne Greengrass. She sees her trunk set on the foot of the bed closest to the door. By the time the other girls come in Selena's curtains are pulled and she is attempting to go to sleep. Her bed seems far too cold.
In a tower elsewhere, Harry is having a nightmare where his sister is wrapped in Professor Quirrell's turban and it just keeps squeezing her tighter and tighter. Harry keeps desperately trying to pull the wrap apart as a raspy voice says, "She's one of us Harry. She will betray you Harry. It is in her nature Harry." Then Malfoy comes along with Snape. They cast a spell on him forcing Harry to raise his arm, with a wave a blinding green light shoots from the tip of Harry's wand. The turban finally unwraps from his twin but she falls over. Harry kneels down to his sister's body and sees that the same green eyes he has are dull. Harry wakes up sweating and shaking with tears rolling down his cheeks. He grabs his second pillow and after calming down he is able to fall asleep again. When he wakes up the next morning he isn't able to remember the dream at all.
Selena doesn't go to sleep that night instead she uses the moonlight coming from reflection of the Black Lake to write her brother a letter she will never send.