The woman with the cat-eye glasses sprinted, almost, through the windy halls while Regina struggled to keep up. Regina appreciated the tall hallways and somewhat medieval-styled decorations, and the moving paintings as she speeded across hallways and hallways.
The woman finally stopped in front of a gargoyle, and Regina caught up holding a stitch in her chest, though the woman seemed perfectly comfortable. "I am Minerva McGonagall, your new Transfiguration Teacher. Just go up these steps, and you will go up to Dumbledore's office." Professor McGonagall smiled and muttered "Lemon drops," then left Regina standing in front of a set of moving stairs where the Gargoyle had just been.
Regina carefully made her way up the stairway and knocked on the door at the top.
"Come in, Miss Welmore, come in." She heard from the inside, so she slowly turned the knob and stepped inside.
"Hello, Professor." She bowed her head and noticed he was holding an old, patched up hat in his left hand.
"Good evening." He smiled and ten gestured to the hat. "This is the Sorting Hat. I just set it on your head, and it determines which house you will be in: Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Slytherin or Ravenclaw." Dumbledore held the hat out, "If you will."
Regina took the hat and set it gently on her head and gasped when another voice sounded in the room: "Ah… Regina Welmore. Very nice thing to be woken up to… Let's see… Very kind… a Hufflepuff Quality, but very dark ancestry… Powerful, but still dark… And she's very determined… Slytherin… Ah you're a tough one, Miss. But she's very smart! Oh how smart she is, and for that reason she would be in Ravenclaw, but, of course, she's brave. And noble… If those were her only two qualities, I'd say Gryffindor. Hmm... But I find the Slytherin characteristics most bold-print. SLYTHERIN!" And then it was silent.
Regina slowly slipped the hat off of her head, and handed it back to Dumbledore. "Slytherin." Dumbledore smiled happily. "Slytherin has produced many great wizards, Miss Welmore." He sighed and turned back to his desk. "Here" He handed her a bundle of robes. "This is your uniform. Now go squeeze in with the rest of your house at the table." He smiled and then added "I really must get down to the feast." He opened the door for Regina, and they walked down the stairs together, parting in the hallway.
"Goodnight, Regina." He tilted his pointed wizard hat and walked down the hall. Regina shrugged her jacket off and slipped her new robes over here shoulders. They were warm and soft. She found her way to the great hall and slipped in with the rest of the Slytherins, smiling to herself.
"… It is also my painful duty to inform you that the Inter-House Quidditch Cup will not take place this year." Almost the whole congregation groaned in protest, but Dumbledore went on: "This is due to an event that will be starting in October, and continuing throughout the school year, taking up much of the teachers' time and energy – but I am sure you will all enjoy it immensely. I have the pleasure to announce that this year at Hogwarts –"
Dumbledore was cut off by a bang of thunder and the double-doors at the end of the room slammed open, revealing an old man with dark grey hair and a scarred up face. He walked up to the staff table, sat down, and started eating.
"May I introduce our new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher? Professor Moody." Dumbledore clapped, but the students were silent. Dumbledore continued "As I was saying, we are to have the honor of hosting a very exciting event over the coming months, and event that has not been held for over a century. It is my very great pleasure to inform you that the Triwizard Tournament will be taking place at Hogwarts this year." And the room erupted with applause. The rest of the speech was much happier, due to the fact that they had just found out such good news.
***
Regina talked with a sixth year Slytherin all the way down to the dungeons where a pile of students were gathered around a door.
"What's the new password?" Kids were whispering things like this through the crowd when a slim man with a hooked nose and greasy hair parted the crowd easily.
"Pureblood." He announced and the door swung open to reveal a huge common room decorated with green and silver. Regina looked up to see a green ceiling that looked to be underwater. She gasped. This place was truly magical.
"Welmore." She heard a long drawling voice behind her.
She turned to see Draco Malfoy smirking. "So you did end up being a Slytherin. Mm." He smirked again and stalked up a staircase.
Pansy Parkinson came over, glaring at Regina once again. "Oh… It's you… you're fourteen, right? Well then, come on, the dorms are up here." She gestured to a set of staircases on the other side of the room. Regina followed her up and stepped inside the dorm after her.
"Oh." She knew ahead of time she would have to share, but it just never really seemed real until now. At Hawkins she had her own private sanctum and showers. Here, she would have to dress, eat, sleep and shower with hundreds of other people. She sighed and sat down on the four poster where all her bags were sitting along with Almanor. She stroked its fur and glanced around at the other girls who were giggling and hugging each other after a summer away.
Pansy stood up in the middle of them and announced to the whole room that Regina was new. The girls giggled a little as they looked at her, Regina, therefore had to answer a set of questions that seemed more like a personality evaluation than innocent curiosity.
Finally it was time to sleep and Regina was thankful. Perhaps the girls would like her better tomorrow.
***
"Wake up, girls!" She was shoved awake by a seventh year prefect and she was told it was the first day of lessons.
She got dressed quickly, slapped some foundation and blush on and ran to the great hall for her first breakfast at the school. It wasn't anything special, but it was different from Hawkins.
They passed out schedules and she saw that her first class was History of Magic with professor Binns.
Once again, she caught herself thinking of Hawkins Academy. She'd never had many friends, none, really to speak of, actually, except for a few muggles and a few of her mom's friend's kids. But she'd been so close to achieving some at Hawkins, and now she'd have to restart.
She just hoped they'd give her enough homework to last the night so she wouldn't look too lonely.
Professor Binns turned out to be pretty interesting. He took no notice of the class, being a ghost, so he never got interrupted by the sudden enchanted paper air plane flying through the classroom or students note-passing. Regina appreciated that.
Next was Potions. Her house leader, Professor Snape, taught it, and, though he was rude to the Gryffindors, he got down to business and had a no-bull-shit kind of attitude, and Regina was glad he wasn't one of those soft, airy fairy kind of teachers who would take anything from anyone.
The rest of the day, Regina picked out reasons why she liked teachers. Professor Flittwick seemed easily persuaded, and could, most likely, be talked out of any assignment, or, at least to be given an extension. McGonagall was very proud, and very tough. Professor Trelawney was so gullible it was almost pitiful. And Hagrid, to disagree with most of Regina's house, was very warm and trusting. Someone that would be fun to talk to outside of school.
At dinner, Regina had her legs tucked into her stomach, while she sat with her chin on her knee, reading a book, and occasionally scooping some mashed potatoes into her mouth. She was one of the first to leave, and she left to the library, just for something to do. A Gryffindor whom Regina remembered to be named Hermione Granger was already there, scanning books in the biography section.
Regina sighed as she remembered she promised her mom to try and make friends, and Granger seemed one of the nicest here.
"Hello, there." Regina smiled at her as she approached. "I'm Regina Welmore. You're Hermione Granger, right?"
Hermione seemed taken aback. "Oh! Yes, I'm Hermione." She cleared her throat and stuck her hand out. "Sorry, I was just a little shocked… Usually Slytherins aren't that nice to me." She smiled a tiny bit. "Nice to meet you, Regina."
It was Regina's time to be shocked. "Why aren't they nice to you?"
"I'm Muggle born." Her lips drooped down a little.
"Oh! Well I love Muggles personally. I grew up with them, and I love technology, and we had a very strong Muggle studies course at my old school."
"Oh! Well now I'm sorry for being so stereotypical. You're not nearly as rude as most of them."
Regina grinned. "Well, thank you!" They started talking, and a few hours later, they were found by a black haired boy with glasses and a tall, lanky red head.
"Hermione! There you are! We need help with our Herbology homework." The raven haired one glanced at Regina and glared. "Who's your friend?"
"Whoa! Regina Welmore?" The redhead exclaimed.
"Weasley?" Regina's mouth formed a small 'O' and then she smiled. "I didn't know you went to Hogwarts." She smiled.
"Yeah! Wow, I haven't seen you in years!" He hugged her tightly. "How's your mum?"
"She's good, and your family?"
"Really good, thank you. I'll have to tell mum and dad that you started going to Hog—"
Ron was cut off by Hermione: "You two know each other?"
Ron grinned. "Yeah, our families have been friends forever! Harry, this is Regina Welmore."
"Hello." He said stiffly.
Regina took his hand and shook it lightly, then turned back to Ron. "Tell your mom 'hi' for me, will ya?" and then looked to Harry again. "Nice meeting you, Harry."
He grunted in response.
Hermione sighed and looked at Harry. "Just because she's Slytherin doesn't mean she's bad, Harry."
Harry blushed and muttered "Well, that's not… I wasn't thinking… I'm sorry."
Regina giggled. "No problem. Well it was nice talking to you, Hermione, but I have to go to my Herbology homework, myself. Nice seeing you again, too, Ronald." She waved and shuffled out of the library to the common room.
***
The next day was almost exactly like the first, except the teachers weren't shy about handing out eight page essays.
After lessons were over, she met up with Hermione again and went outside and talked on the grass for about an hour until dinner.
Regina barely thought about Hawkins all day, and when she did, it wasn't a longing thought, but more of an appreciative thought. If it weren't for Hawkins and how much they loved muggles, Regina would never have become friends with Hermione, and the next four years would be awful.
She went straight to the common room after dinner to get a head start on the week's homework. She finally slammed her book and sighed. She had been counting on the homework taking up her whole night, but it was only eight; way too early to retire.
She saw Crabbe, whom she'd met on the train, sitting on the couch in front of the fire, fussing with the hem of his robes with such a bored look. She drifted over to him and plopped down next to him.
"Hi, Vincent." She said happily. "Remember me? I sat in your compartment on the train? Regina Welmore."
"Yeah." He grunted, clearly surprised that she'd come and talked to him. "I remember you."
Regina pursed her lips. Crabbe was harder than Hermione, because he wouldn't make conversation. That had never been Regina's strong point. "So what do you have there?" She pointed to his robe pocket where a gold sphere was just visible.
Crabbe blushed and took out a golden snitch. "It's a snitch. I played some Quidditch with my brothers this summer, and won it." He grunted.
Regina smiled. "So you like Quidditch?" She asked, her eyes wide, urging him to go on. "Who's your favorite team?" She pressed.
"The Chudley Cannons. I like their captain…" He started to talk so fast, Regina could hardly keep up, but she was happy she'd made him comfortable around her.
"… I do love to play, but I never got a chance to try out here, because Malfoy told me not to, and the brooms here don't support my weight too well –" Crabbe was cut off by Draco Malfoy.
"Crabbe. It's ten; go up to the dorm and go to sleep." He ordered him, and Crabbe waved goodbye, and limped up the set of stairs to the boys' dormitory. "Goodnight, Regina." He glared and swept off after his friend.
Regina stared after them for a few minutes and shrugged as she went upstairs to get ready for bed.
Long, italicized passages are from the real books. I hate to use work that I didn't write (Ironic, considering I'm writing FAN FICTION) but Dumbledore's speech is The Amazing JKR's work.