The four of us followed Tralawney into the Great Hall. The process was slow, but finally we stepped through the arching, stone doorway. We were greeted by the sight of a swarm of burning candles hovering above the four long, wooden tables and a starry night sky that loomed overhead in place of a ceiling.
The table farthest from the doors contained Gryffindor house where Potter and his friends were already seated. Gryffindors were a loud, rambunctious group, proud of their title as the "brave and daring" house. Most had a habit of jinxing Slytherins on sight.
Next was the Hufflepuff table. Hannah Abbott, sitting amongst her housemates. We met our first year when Flitwick had paired us based on seating arrangement. It'd taken a couple months for her to warm up to me, but our friendship had developed into me interfering in her love life and her helping me pass Charms class. From the table, she caught sight of me and waved. A few of her Hufflepuff friends frowned at me.
The next table belonged to Ravenclaw house, I recognized Cho Chang, the sixth-year Ravenclaw seeker, surrounded by her posse of girls. Evie, Morgana and I always disliked Chang…though that had more to do with the fact that she always bullied and less to do with thatI tried to spot my two Ravenclaw friends, but they were lost amongst the crowd of black-robed students.
I had been sorted into a house the day before it was Ravenclaw, so we split off and joined our houses tables and sitting down. It would have been a great evening full of mashed potatoes, haggis, and treacle tart if Pansy hadn't appeared at that moment, dragging Draco Malfoy behind her, I could see the irritation in Draco's jaw as he sat down next to Pansy with Crabbe and Goyle opposite them.
"Try not to stab his eyes out with a fork," muttered Cho smirking at me.
I smiled, though it came out more of a grimace. "Why ever would I do that?"
Our conversation came to an end when Professor Ronen appeared, leading a line of small, fidgeting first years. I smirked at the sight of them, I surveyed the first years who now stood in the center of the Great Hall, their faces a strange shade of pale orange in the light of the floating candles. Some of them stared in awe up at the vast, starry sky overhead. That was the usual reaction to the Great Hall. Some people even said that there was no ceiling, only a passage to the heavens. I call hippogriff shite on all those people though; we lived in the wizarding world—things like this were possible.
Professor McGonagall rose from her seat at the professors' table, and with a wave of her wand, a dingy hat appeared on a little, wooden stool at the front of the hall. All eyes were fixated on the Sorting Hat as we waited for it to burst into song.
Ah, the Sorting Hat's song. One of the highlights or lowlights, if you can't stand that the Hat sings off-key of the arrival feast. I placed my hands over my ears and scowled at the Hat until it was done. I noticed that some of the choir members did as well. Some tried to smile and act as though their ears weren't bleeding.
"So," Evie said, removing my hands when the song was over, "same old rubbish? Ravenclaws are smart, Gryffindors are brave, Slytherins are evil, and Hufflepuffs are boring?"
"Actually," said Cho, "the Hat's decided to sing a different tune."
"Is it always that bad?" I asked.
"No. Still as painful to listen to as ever," said Evie. "The hat's going for school unity this year."
"It sang about school unity?" I asked. "The Hat—which divides us into four separate houses that we live with, eat with, have classes with—wants us to have school unity?"
"It did mention something about regret," said Evie thoughtfully.
"So why does it want us to unite?" I asked.
"Against 'external, deadly foes'." Morgana left it to me to interpret what sort of foes the hat might be referring to.
From what I'd heard, the Hat spent its time, when it wasn't sorting students, in Mcgonagall's office, so it probably heard a lot of confidential information. That's probably where the Hat came up with the lyrics to its songs. Actually, when I thought about it, the Sorting Hat probably had a very sad and boring existence, sitting on a shelf and coming up with lyrics, waiting for the one night a year when it was needed to sort the first-year students… Eavesdropping on the conversations in Mcgonagall's office was probably one of the few highlights of the Hat's existence. I suddenly felt a bit guilty about covering up my ears when the Hat sang.
"You'd think they'd get rid of that ratty old thing eventually," sneered Katie as Euan Abercrombie was sorted into Gryffindor.
"I know," cried Chelsea, who could never bring herself to disagree with Katie. "I was disgusted when I had to put it on. What if it had lice?"
Cho's mouth twitched into a smile. "I'm sure there are spells on the Hat that prevent it from getting lice."
"That's actually a good question though," I said. "I mean, Godric Gryffindor wasn't known for his intelligence. He might not have thought about lice when he decided to use the hat."
"I've never heard of anyone getting lice from the hat," said Isabella, "so I reckon we're safe."
"Maybe we just haven't had anyone with lice get sorted yet," said Evie.
Katie scowled. "Imagine some grubby mudblood spreading lice among the first years."
McGonagall had taken away the Sorting Hat for another year. The new students whispered among themselves, while the rest of the hall remained silent. We all knew what was coming.
Mcgonagall smiled fondly at the student body and then said, "To our newcomers, welcome! To our old hands, welcome back! There is time for speech making, but this is not it. Tuck in!"
On cue, food materialized on the tables. Turkey, pork, haggis, potatoes, turnips, salads, roast vegetables—all manner of food appeared in large, decorative portions. After we'd cleared our plates of dinner, the leftovers vanished and were replaced by trays of desserts, and that glorious, glorious treacle tart appeared before me. When Terry reached for the serving spoon first, I hissed at him, causing him to drop the spoon in surprise.
Mcgonagall smiled affectionately at the Gryffindor table, and I bit back a comment about how any other student besides Potter would've been punished for going into the Forbidden Forest so many times. Duke shot me a knowing grin from her table.
Apparently unaware of her own blatant favoritism, Mcgonagall continued. "We have had two changes in staffing this year. We're very please to welcome Mr Moon who will taking over from Flitch as caretaker. We're also delighted to introduce Professor Umbridge, will be Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher until Professor Hecat arrives. Tryouts for house Quidditch teams will take place—"
Mcgonagall broke off mid-sentence and turned to stare at the stout, pink woman who sat to her left. At first, I couldn't understand why Mcgonagall had stopped, but then, Umbridge made a little clearing noise in her throat and got to her feet. A look of surprise flashed across Mcgonagall's face, but she quickly recovered. As she sat down again, her blue eyes fixed on Umbridge, as if she was the most fascinating thing in the Great Hall right then and this was a Great Hall with floating candles and an enchanted ceiling.
Students exchanged can-you-believe-this-is-happening glances.
"Thank you, Headmistress , for those kind words."
My liking for Umbridge decreased a little. She had one of those sugary voices that made her sound like she was trying too hard to be pleasant. I didn't have any problem with people faking niceness, but they needed to learn how to do so convincingly.
"Well, it's lovely to be back at Hogwarts, I must say," she continued. "And to see such happy little faces looking up at me."
I glanced around at my fellow Ravenclaws. Evie looked as though she might regurgitate her dessert, Katie had scrunched up her nose in disgust, Amut seemed to be restraining himself from throwing something, Cho looked amused, I looked over and saw that Potter looked momentarily stunned.
Leaning over, Cho muttered to me, "As long as Hecat's a good at Defense Against the Dark Arts, none of this matters."
"Please let her be competent," I said, hands clasped together beneath the table.
Umbridge had launched into a long speech about the Ministry's plans for Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, using phrases such as "treasure trove of magical knowledge" and "without progress there will be stagnation and decay".
Within the first two minutes of Umbridge's speech, I zoned out. And I wasn't the only one. All around the hall, students started to drift away from the sound of her simpering voice. After fifteen minutes, only a few people, besides the professors, remained attentive to Umbridge's words. One of those people was, of course, Hermione Granger, who had probably never ignored a professor in her life. At the Hufflepuff table, Ernie Macmillan was staring at Umbridge, but his eyes were glazed over. Even Draco Malfoy, who loved the Ministry interfering with Hogwarts, was now having a conversation with Pansy, Crabbe, and Goyle.
I glanced over my shoulder and saw that both Evie and Cho were still listening to Umbridge. The disgust on Evie's face had only gotten worse throughout the speech, and Cho no longer looked amused. I decided to wait until Umbridge had finished her speech before asking them for the abridged version.
Ginny had managed to last a good while before even she gave up and admitted defeat to boredom.
I leaned forward and, in a whisper, asked, "What's she on about?"
Evie shook her head and muttered, "Some old habits will be retained, and rightly so, whereas others, outmoded and outworn, must be abandoned. Let us move forward, then, into a new era of openness, effectiveness and accountability, intent on preserving what ought to be preserved, perfecting what needs to be perfected, and pruning wherever we find practices that ought to be prohibited."
When she finished speaking, Umbridge gave the Great Hall another simpering smile before taking her clapped, and the rest of the staff followed her lead. The sound snapped the student body out of its slumber, and we applauded the most boring speech in the history of Hogwarts and we had all taken Professor Binns' History of Magic class, so that's saying something.
As Mcgonagall continued her announcements, I turned to Cho and asked, "So, what was all that shite about?"
"You need to pay attention," said Cho.
"No one was paying attention," I muttered. "That woman could put the dead to sleep."
" Maybe we should zip your moth" Evie giggled.
Cho ran her fingers through her messy, brown hair before saying, "Basically, the Ministry is rebuilding Hogwarts. They've already placed Umbridge here as the deputy Headmistress and temporary Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, but in her speech, she mentioned getting rid of professors and practices that weren't required."
"So maybe they have sacked Hagrid," said Evie thoughtfully.
"Finally," said Katie, "what kind of nutter made that clumsy oaf a professor?" She glanced in the direction of the portrait of Dumbledore. "Oh right."
When the announcements had finished, we headed to our dormitory. I got the answer from Cho, who was busy bossing the first years around, and we headed down to the Ravenclaw common room which, was located on the 7th floor in the central tower.
When we reached the stone that marked the entrance to the common room, Cho gave the answer, "Phoenix feathers," and the door opened to permit us into the Ravenclaw Common room. We stepped trough a painting and walked into a room of arching, white ceilings, blue stained windows, blue carpet floors, golden lamps, blue sofas, and a fireplace that was currently unlit in the centre of the room. Tapestries of Ravenclaw hung from the walls and a statue of Rowena Ravenclaw But the entrance, the common room was separated into two, in the centre were two archways, one leading to the girls' dorms and one leading to the boys'.
A wide grin slipped onto my face as I sat down in one the armchairs. I faced my friends and said, in my best croaky voice, "I solemnly swear that i am up to no good."
Evie sighed. "Someone's going to overhear you one day and actually believe you."
"My reputation is already bad," I said. "What more can I do? "
"You know…we could zip your mouth shut."
" At leads then I won't have to listen to you "
"Bloody hell!" I cried. "My friends are all evil."
A wicked grin spread across Cho's face.
" You two should have been sorted into Slytherin " I said defeated.