Chapter 3: Get Sorted
Acora blinked at the bright light, and stumbled after the others. She and her cousin were both at the back of the pack of students, but that was okay. They were led to the Great Hall, and the tanned girl had to stare for several moments.
The four tables were insanely long- and there were hundreds of students, so many more than the book talked about or mentioned. The tables were covered with giant table clothes in the colors of their respective Houses, and Acora was fascinated with the ceiling. She loved watching the stars. While she hadn't memorized the name of every constellation, one of the things on her bucket list was that, which would hopefully be completed this year, along with pranking the Weasley twins.
Susan was fidgeting beside her, and had gripped her hand tightly, but Acora didn't mind. Her cousin wanted to get into Hufflepuff, and be like the rest of their family. The brunette girl could care less. She just wanted to get Sorted, any House would be great. They all had their pros and cons.
The Sorting started with a cool song from the Hat, and Acora was now shaking with excitement while Susan quivered with nerves. A very few names were called before her, and she recognized a few, whether they were from Susan's parties, her aunt telling her about them, or from her past life.
"Bones, Acora!"
Taking a deep breath after receiving a scared smile from her cousin, Acora walked through the crowd, trying hard not to get last minutes nerves. Oops, too late.
She broke free of the crowd, and wished that she was back in it when she saw all of the eyes on her and the amount of barrier-free space that she would have to walk. She kept her back straight, and sped up just a little. Or a lot.
McGonagall stood at a podium beside the hat, a scroll of names in her hands. The Hat sat on a stool just slightly in front and to the side of the Deputy Headmistress, and without realizing it, Acora's feet had brought her there, and she sat down, bringing the Hat to her head in the same motion. The brim fell low over her eyes, and her sight was enveloped in darkness.
"…Well, this is interesting. I've meet people that had past lives before, but never have I seen one that lived in an alternate universe. I must say, you're handling this all much better than most."
Huh? You can see that? Of course you can. Magic.
"Hmm, you've suppressed quite a bit of memories, which is why you're as sane as you are. Most reincarnations, if they do remember, are not right. You're just sad though. You don't even remember the faces of your family from your past life, do you?"
Acora didn't respond, and felt her hands clench. Can we please just get on with the Sorting?
"Of course."
"RAVENCLAW!" shouted the Hat, and Acora was brought back to reality. She tripped and fell when she jumped off the stool, and quickly put the Hat back on the stool before rushing towards the blue table. Laughter sounded in her ears. Some of it was friendly, from the Gryffindors, Hufflepuffs, and Ravenclaws. Hufflepuff was the only one she was certain was totally friendly laughter and applause.
She collapsed in a seat, beside a pretty Asian girl who gave her a sympathetic smile. If every girl Acora met was going to be this pretty, then she might trip more on purpose to be smiled at like that.
"Hello, I'm Cho Chang," she introduced herself, and Acora automatically took her hand and shook it, though her grip was very weak.
"Acora Bones," she responded, and managed a small smile.
"Don't be too nervous. Everyone has their clumsy moments, and you'll find that most Ravenclaws won't judge you for it," Cho told her, patting her head like she was a pet. Acora had a strange feeling that this wasn't going to be a one-time situation.
Losing herself in her thoughts, she only returned to the real world once everything had become completely silent, the only sound hundreds of people breathing at the same time, waiting. Her eyes found the Sorting Hat, and Harry underneath it. She couldn't remember the exact conversation that was going on, but she knew the gist. In Slytherin, you could be great.
The silence stretched on and on, and Acora couldn't help but hope that her very presence in this world hadn't already changed things that drastically. Then, as the Sorting Hat shouted out, "GRYFFINDOR," she snorted to herself. How self-centered she must seem to think that things had been changed already, especially something as big as this.
She barely paid attention to the rest of the ceremony, simply looked at everyone at every table, trying to figure out who was who, and when she recognized a name called out by McGonagall, looked at the face and memorized it with the name. Most names she didn't recognize, but she expected that. She had missed over half the ceremony, and a bunch of the people left were never mentioned in the series.
Finally, the sorting ending with Blaise Zabini, and then everyone stood up, following after their own prefects. It was a struggle to keep up with the crowd. Everyone was trying squeeze out the doors of the Great Hall at the same time, but luckily for Acora, Cho had already grabbed her and was tugging her along to make sure she didn't get lost. Their hands were gripped together and Acora couldn't help but think that Cedric was going to have some tough competition in the future.
A rainbow of ties surrounded her, and even with Cho's hand she felt as though she still might be separated, and she couldn't remember what the Ravenclaw common room looked like. Was it in the dungeons, like Slytherin's or was it hidden by a portrait, like Gryffindor's?
She was wrong on both counts as they climbed higher and higher on a very interesting stairway that had some paths leading to doors in the wall that appeared to lead to nowhere, since there were windows right beside them. There were other paths that lead to blank walls and even others that suddenly twisted to go down and around. Some even were upside down. They had separated from two Houses at the staircase, the Slytherins going down one hall and Hufflepuffs another. The Gryffindors followed them until they marched up the opposite way, and Acora could see them in the distance, following a spiraling stairway to a hall, which soon was out of her view.
Cho squeezed her hand, and then shouted above the other voices, "This is the way we take every Monday and Friday, so make sure you're with an older student on the other days until you have each day's path memorize. Sometimes it does crazy things for holidays, and don't even get me started on Friday the 13th."
Acora nodded her head, watching as a staircase choose that instant to move. The upperclassmen all groaned at the same time, and then turned towards a stair way that twisted until it was upside down. The prefect walked up it, somehow ignoring gravity while she was at it. Her hair was the only thing that apparently followed physics, and the blonde mane hung like a curtain.
Most of the first years were staring, and then questions started being fired off by every single one of them, including Acora.
"How is she doing that? How is she sticking to the stairs? Why is only her hair following gravity? Is magic creating a boundary of like, reverse gravity, and it ends before her head?"
Cho laughed. "Yes, to the last question. The stairs have an attractive force that only goes to about the waist. People with glasses and bags regularly lose them here, so hold on to them."
Acora nodded and clutched her bag to her body as she stepped onto the stairway. It went up quite a bit until it finally twisted back to a normal staircase. Then they were on a staircase spiraling up until they reached the top, which opened to a large circular hallway that appeared to go around the single room in the center of it that was given away by the door right in front of them. Comfortable looking blue and brown chairs were in the hallway as well.
"We have chairs, just in case we all get locked out of the tower," Cho stated, gesturing towards the furniture. "It doesn't happen often, but every so often there is a riddle that gets us all. Usually if we all put our heads together, we'll figure it out within the hour, but sometimes we have to get Professor Flitwick or Professor McGonagall. My first year, I ended up sleeping outside the Common Room because of that."
Acora nodded, but she still wasn't quite understanding how they would get locked out of the Common Room. Or how to even get in, since there wasn't a doorknob or handle, just a brass eagle knocker.
The prefect, a willowy girl with blonde hair, used the knocker, and then it opened its mouth, and asked, "What comes once in a minute, twice in a moment, but never in a thousand years?"
"The letter 'm'," she answered promptly, and the oak door swung open.
