Dicsclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or The Hunger Games
I've seen many strange things since I left Panem, the breathing pictures, the strange red bird I now know to be Fawkes the phoenix and of course the strange but utterly brilliant Albus Dumbledore. But none of them prepared me for a talking hat.
Professor Dumbledore had told me all about Hogwarts just moments after I had arrived, via orange backpack, into his office. It was a historic school with four founders who each gave their name to a Hogwarts House. Godric Gryffindor, Helga Hufflepuff, Rowena Ravenclaw and Salazar Slytherin, he had told me that I would be sorted into one of the houses after he had explained more about what would happen at my time at Hogwarts. I would attend the school for seven years, at the end of each year I would return home to Panem, and during my stay the Professor would send house elves (whatever they were) with food, to District Twelve to sustain my mother and Prim while I was gone. This I was glad for, at least now I knew they wouldn't starve whilst I was away at Hogwarts. I was also presented with a wand made from cherry wood with a centre of unicorn hair, after this the Professor gave me the sorting hat. I placed the hat on my head and jumped when its voice travelled through my ear.
"Ah, you are the lucky one, Katniss Everdeen." It said. The lucky one? What could that mean? "You are one of the few who get to choose what house you will be sorted into." It then launched into a song about the four houses.
You might belong in Gryffindor, where dwell the brave at heart, their daring, nerve and chivalry set Gryffindors apart.
I have courage, I am sure of that. Without courage I wouldn't have ventured out into the woods every day to find food for my mother and Prim. I am pretty daring to and I do have courage, but Chivalry? Men don't really adore me, at least I think they don't. Never the less, Gryffindor sounds pretty cool.
You might belong in Hufflepuff where they are just as loyal, those daring Hufflepuffs are true and unafraid of toil.
I'd do just about anything for Prim and I do wish that I could live in a world where justice and fairness prevailed, not like the world I live in now. And I'm not afraid of toil if it involves hunting.
Or yet in wise old Ravenclaw if you've a ready mind where those of wit and learning will always find their kind.
I'd like to think I was smart, perhaps even slightly witty. I did come up with good comebacks when me and Prim used to bicker as kids. To be honest I could be in any of the houses the hat has mentioned so far, but maybe I am too scared or selfish or too uneducated for any of them. I just hope that I will fit into one house.
Or perhaps in Slytherin you'll make your real friends, those cunning folk use any means to achieve their ends.
The Slytherins sound a lot like the Capitol. But perhaps I need to get in with these people to make a difference to District Twelve, to save Panem, to save Prim.
So put me on! Don't be afraid! Don't get in a flap! You're in safe hands (though I have none) for I'm the thinking cap!
"You have many talents, Miss Everdeen. So you are one of the few who gets to choose their own destiny." Said the hat. "All you need is to declare and I shall shout and put you there." I ponder this for a moment. Slytherin. If I end up with people who are like the Capitol then I may just end up being like the Capitol in the end and I don't want that. I don't think I am smart enough to be a Ravenclaw, and I may not be so true to be put in Hufflepuff, so I say silently to the hat.
"Gryffindor. Put me in Gryffindor." I smile when the hats brim rips and it shouts Gryffindor to Professor Dumbledore. The Professor nods and takes me along to the Gryffindor tower. He tells me that this will be where the Gryffindors spend most of their time when not in their lessons. He also hands me a timetable which has my lessons set out on a two week schedule. We reached a painting of a rather large woman and Dumbledore stopped me. I looked up at the picture questioningly and she looked back at me.
"Password?" She said dryly. I looked over at Dumbledore because I certainly didn't know the password. He smiled at the fat lady before answering.
"Caput Draconis." The gold rimmed portrait swung open then and I was met with the noise of loads of students bustling about in the room. Dumbledore stepped through the portrait and I followed hesitantly. The silence was deafening when he entered and everyone in the room ceased what they had been doing moments before. I'm guessing this was probably because Gryffindor wasn't blessed with a visit from their headmaster every day. Lucky them. I snuck a peek around the Professor and my eyes wandered around the room. The Gryffindor common room was covered in red as far as my eyes could see and there were Lions scattered around the room. A sofa sat in front of the fire and other seated cushioned chairs were scattered around the room. I wasn't paying attention to what the Professor was saying until he stepped aside so I was in full view of everyone in the room. I was then met with a cheer and a round of applause. I found it strange, being applauded just for being somewhere never happened in District Twelve in fact the cheering was foreign in my ears. Dumbledore left then and a surge of people came forwards to greet me. Their names and faces blurred as I shook what seemed like hundreds of hands and already Hogwarts seemed like a better place than Panem.
That night I left for my dorm early and began writing a letter to Prim and my mother. I had to let them know I was okay and tell them I would be home soon.
Prim,
I'm just writing to let you know I'm fine and I'm safe. Although I can't tell you where I am, just know I'll be home soon. This place, it's nothing like Panem its better and what I'm doing is keeping you and Mom fed and safe. Eventually when you are old enough, I hope to bring you here so we can all be safe. I'll be home in the summer, Prim. Don't go to the Hob or stray outside the fence, someone will bring you food. Look after Mom, I know she'll need it and please understand that I haven't left you. I will never leave you. Until I see you again, which shouldn't be long. Stay strong. Stay safe.
Katniss.
I fold the letter. I'll send it by owl tomorrow morning before class starts. Hopefully Prim will understand what I am doing and wont resent me for it.
"Who's Prim?" I turn from the nightstand and standing behind me is a bushy haired girl about my size. I stand and shuffle uneasily on my feet.
"My little sister." I say. I push the letter under my pillow and sit down on the bed. I place my hand on the soft surface. It is nothing like the beds in Panem, it is soft, comfortable, nothing like home. I think about my mother and Prim then, how they will be splayed out on the rough canvas, Buttercup watching over them no longer hissing, possibly happy because I am gone and my heart aches. "I left her."
"I'm sure she'll understand." Said the girl. She sat on the bed opposite me and smiled. "I'm Hermione Granger." I look over at Hermione, she seems nice, friendly, innocent, she seems many things but I don't really know her. But then again I never really knew anyone in District Twelve except my family, Madge and Greasy Sae. I wonder then, did Greasy Sae deliver the bread to Prim or did she sell it? Perhaps I will never know, I will pay Prim back for the birthday I will miss. Bring her something from Hogwarts something she will treasure.
"I'm Katniss Everdeen." I reply kicking off my boots and lying down on the bed, caressing the soft fabric beneath me. So this is what comfort is like.
Over the next few weeks I settle into Hogwarts life, I learn so many new things, spells, charms, hexes, curses and potions, but that is my least favourite part. I wish I had a bow and arrow that I could shoot Snape with, that potions teacher is enough to make anyone's skin crawl and I absolutely hated him. There was one speck of news however that had me excited. Quidditch try-outs. At first I had absolutely no idea what Quidditch was, but a boy called Ronald Weasley was kind enough to explain to me. I was glad because that would take my mind off Panem and what was going on in the Games. A burly sixth year boy, Oliver Wood, had announced that because someone had an injury they would be looking for chasers on the Quidditch team too. At first I thought that Quidditch might have been like the Hunger Games. Ron's brothers, Fred and George had been kind enough to show me how it was played. So that morning I walked down to the Quidditch pitch. It was huge, except it looked nothing like an arena used in the Hunger Games there was no Cornucopia, no weapons, no means of shelter or anything like that. I stood in the centre of the pitch, there were six rather large hoops, three at each end. Maybe they were means of shelter. Maybe this was a worse version of the games and I felt instantly sickened. Fred and George emerged then, being twins they were exactly the same in every way, the same fiery red hair and blue eyes, the same amount of freckles dotted across their faces, every way the same. They dragged behind them a large casket. Possibly full of weapons, I thought to myself. Three brooms and two very large bats. I shrank away as the twins came closer, and one twins shot a glance at the other.
"You alright, Katniss?" Said the twin on the left. I think it is Fred. I eyed the bats they held in their hands, then the concerned looks on their faces.
"You're not going to hit me with that are you?" I asked, feeling stupid when both twins erupted into a fit of laughter. I looked down at the ground and shuffled uncomfortably. What else was I supposed to think? I had grown up with this violence being portrayed on T.V screens, twenty three inhumane deaths every year and for what? The Capitol's enjoyment. I mentally scolded myself for thinking such a thing. Hogwarts was not like the Capitol, Hogwarts is like a home. It is safe, and I am safe.
"Why would you think we were going to hit you with it?" Said George through laughter.
"I just grew up with it I guess." I say before thinking and the twins cease their laughter.
"You're beaten at home?" Asked Fred. He shared a glance with his twin and then looked back at me.
"No, I'm not." I say quickly. "My parents never beat me."
"Then why did you say that?" Said George. I glance at the ground and shuffle uncomfortably, like I do when I am nervous. I don't see the harm in telling the twins about the Hunger Games. They will never go to Panem. They will never see the Games so why not? It gets it off my chest as well.
"It's what happens in Panem." I say. Pausing for a moment and sitting down on the grass. The twins follow and they place the bats down at their side. "There is this competition, called the Hunger Games."
"Is it an eating contest?" Said George. He earned a jab in the ribs from Fred and he muttered something about being insensitive before I continued.
"No, but I can see why you said that. Maybe it would be better if it was an eating contest." So I explained about the Districts and the uprising eventually leading up to the Games. The twins listened in silence while I talked, it might have been through shock but I don't know. "And this year, because I have to look after my little sister I was put in four times, and its accumulative so next year I will be entered five times plus however many tesserae I choose to receive. In the end though, only one person comes out alive each year. The others are killed and this goes on every year, possibly still going on now."
"Bloody hell." Said Fred. "How can they do that? It's just barbaric. I'm sorry, Katniss." I shook my head at them.
"Don't be sorry, hopefully when Prim, my sister is old enough she can come here too and she won't have to be in the games." I smile and think of Prim. She would love it here, she would love the Care of Magical Creatures classes and Herbology and she'd love the History of the castle too. I could picture her playing with pixies and dancing with fairies, she would love it here. She's too fragile for Panem, it would crush her. Everything here is so much better. "Now come on. You're meant to be teaching me how to play Quidditch."
Quidditch was brilliant. I loved the feeling of being on a broom and according to Fred and George I was a natural chaser. I was glad that I had signed up for try-outs because it was fun playing in a team. I had never played in a team before, I'd heard of teams of course. There would always be a team of tributes in the Hunger Games called the Careers who would hunt down the others, eventually turning on one another. I loved Quidditch and even if I didn't get on the team I would still play, it was the best fun I have ever had.
I ran into the common room that Saturday afternoon filled with glee. Hermione, Ron and their friend Harry Potter were sitting on the sofa. Hermione of course, had her head buried in a book. The two boys were hunched over a chess board. Ron cheered as his knight successfully decapitated Harry's bishop and I ran over beaming. Hermione looked up from her book.
"So did you get it?" She asked. Meaning the Quidditch position. Hermione knew how much I loved Quidditch but it would always come in at a second to Hunting. I nodded excitedly and she squealed with delight. Hermione wasn't really a Quidditch fan. She went and watched the games because Harry played seeker but other than that I don't think it interested her much. I high fived Harry and Ron and they sunk back into their game, Harry groaning as Ron's queen checked his king.
Christmas came fast. I was so caught up with Quidditch practices and homework that I had completely forgotten the time of year. Snow was falling exceedingly fast upon the ground each day a new layer of snow covered up footprints from the previous day and snowball fights became a daily occurrence with the twins. On Christmas day I received a package from someone in Panem. A bow and sheath of arrows. I don't know who sent it me but the packaging was definitely from District Twelve. I had been pondering the strange present all night. Who could have sent it me? Definitely not Prim, nor mother, and I doubt Greasy Sae would leave her stall to carve it. So the mystery went on. In fact I had been pondering the present so much that I found it impossible to sleep, so I headed back down to the common room.
The common room was empty, of course. Most people were probably asleep seen as it was nearly two o'clock in the morning. I settled down on the sofa in front of the fire, the dull embers were still flickering feebly in the grate. I curled my legs up on the sofa and I had only been sitting there a few minutes when I heard someone coming down the stairs from the boys tower. I couldn't see who it was in the dim light of the fire but he threw a shimmering cloak over himself and disappeared. I supressed a gasp as the portrait door opened by itself. I couldn't stay away after what I'd just seen. As silently as I can I sneak out of the portrait hole and I go after the invisible person. I traipsed down the corridor and towards the stairs following the distant echo of invisible footsteps. There was a flash of light in front of me for a moment and then it had gone, and a small snippet of trainer before it disappeared back into the gloom again. I follow the sounds and the odd flash of light and trainer until I reach the library. The library? Who would be visiting the library at two o'clock in the morning? I would have guessed Hermione but she is at home for the holidays. I go to follow the person into the library but another noise catches my attention. The dull wheezing breath and scampering feet of Argus Filch and his demon cat Mrs Norris. I scamper in the other direction, my trainers making dull thuds as the soles hit the floor. I have never been down this corridor before and in the dull gloom everything looks so much creepier. I finally come across a door and try my luck, besides anything would be better than a run in with Filch and Norris. I close my hand around the handle and sneak in closing it behind me. Upon closing the door and turning around my eyes grace a beautiful ornate mirror in the centre of the room. I walk closer to it and look up at the inscription carved deep within the stone. Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi.
"Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi? What the bloody hell does that mean?" I say to myself. I step closer to the mirror expecting to see my reflection but I see is what I least expect and it makes me yelp and turn for fear I have gone mad. But no I am the only person in the room but what the mirror reflects is not me. It's Prim.
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