Okay hands up, who missed me? LoL
Sorry about the wait but its here now; I would have it uploaded about a week ago but every time I tried FanFiction gave me a processing error saying 'the document is empty'. It wasn't until yesterday that i realised the document was .docx, which despite being one of the accepted formats, it wouldnt have it until i changed it to 2004 .doc. Oh well, its here now. Also, the Hellsing omake in the previous chapter, the only relevence it had with this story is the items mentioned that Dumbledore stole. The actual plot comes from a Harry Potter/Hellsing crossover I wrote a couple of chapters for a few years ago but never published.
Disclaimer: I don't own or claim ownership to any copyright material, anything you recognise from elsewhere is what probably inspired me. Also the scene on the lake isn't mine, however i can't remember the story or author i got it from. It's not the same word-for-word but if someone finds it please tell me and i'll add it into the disclaimer.
bold: excerpt from the book; spell names
Italics: memories
underlined: thoughts; mind speak
Kearia sighed from her vantage point of the barrier that separated Platform Nine and Three Quarters from the rest of the Muggle train station; Kings Cross. She had arrived Merlin knows how early in order to not only reserve her choice of carriage, but more importantly; so she could catch sight of a particular family. Or rather, a certain person from a particular family.
In the weeks since her meeting with Narcissa, several things worth noting had happened/been uncovered; some really good, some not so good, one just plain weird. One thing they unfortunately all had in common was that they had both good and bad sides to them.
First of all, the spell she had been looking for was indeed located in a tome in the Ravenclaw vault library. What the spell did was create a sort of clone of the user, complete with the users memories, view points and moral codes, genetic code, Magical Signature and core size; making it impossible for someone not in the know to find any evidence that the clone was false. The clone also shared a mind link with the creator and to prevent it from killing the creator and becoming the 'original' so to speak; the clone couldn't do anything without the originals direct, express permission. This was useful for Kearia as she could use the clones as proxies for her other seats during the Wizengamot meetings as well as her original purpose of bouncing ideas off of another mind that was as just knowledgeable as hers and had her moral view points in order to create/develop more spells.
Unfortunately, the spell was technically a Necromantic ritual; therefore making it impossible to use without either having a natural talent in Necromancy, or having studied and practised the Necromantic Arts for a considerable number of years. The only other way to use the ritual was to perform it during the midnight hour out in free nature on the day of a Blue Full Moon on Samhain night; something that only ever occurs once every twenty-four allignments of the planets and sun; and time between allignments varied in occurrence from two hundred years to nine hundred years. Thankfully, it just so happened that this Samhain night was a Blue Full Moon, so she wouldn't have to wait too long to perform it. Talk about lucky.
The next thing of note was the new project she had undertaken. She had gotten the idea after watching a Muggle show about a boy who thanks to this watch thing, turned into these weird alien creatures, much like the Animagus transformation. While most of the things on the show was impractical and un-achievable even with Magic, one thing she saw was a kind of snowboard that was able to fly; something that was already possible, albeit done differently in the form of broomsticks. To start off with, she had used the enchantments and runes from a broomstick as a reference template and the more she tested it and worked out the kinks, the more she changed the enchantments and runes on it until now they were nothing like the ones found on broomsticks. It wasn't quite ready yet as there were still some problems with the handling, but the acceleration, de-acceleration, stability and height control were all working fine so she expected to complete it in a few months. She would even go as far to say that the experience was much better than a broomstick and due to the foot straps, there was no chance of falling off it. Also while impractical in its use in the cartoon, the watch gave her interesting ideas in revolutionising the storage and transport of trunks, though she would wait a bit for her schedule to clear up before starting on that.
While those first two were mostly good, with a small bit of bad that simply delayed her progress on them, the next two were more bad with a bit of good yet if done correctly, would make the whole situation nothing but good for her and her plans, while bad for anyone going against her ideals and aims. The first was that Narcissa, once again a Black and currently living in Grimmauld place though she was currently away in Spain on holiday, had come back with her report on her sister. That, coupled with the marriage contract binding Bellatrix and Rodolphus Lestrange proved that Bellatrix wasn't actually a fanatical Pure-Blood bigot; she was simply that way due to a number of mind control clauses in the marriage contract and as soon the marriage is annulled, she would be her true self again. The problem though would be convincing the Wizengamot of that; they hated to admit they were wrong and even if she wasn't tried and questioned under Veritaserum, they were happy to pronounce her guilty as the mind control caused her to happily confess to the crimes. Kearia only hoped she could stop Bellatrix from drowning in guilt once the mind control had been lifted. Then there was Lady Longbottom to deal with, as if things weren't already bad enough. She would be difficult to convince after her son and daughter-in-law were left comatose. Luckily there was a handy, simple solution to it; though she didn't know whether Lady Longbottom would agree to the procedure seeing how it was considered dark under the newly revised Ministry guidelines.
The last item, while not nearly as bad was more strange than anything. After the enchantments that Dumbledore had placed on her was uncovered and steps taken to correct it, the Goblins conducted an in-depth audit of all her accounts and records. There wasn't much to discover apart from the already discovered illegal withdrawals, more than first expected, in the early days when he was still her Magical guardian, but the weird thing they found was a marriage contract signed by both Dumbledore, who was her Magical Guardian at the time, and the girls parents. While that wasn't so weird, what was weird was that while same sex marriage wasn't illegal due to conception being possible thanks to Magic, it was frowned upon by certain families; her betrothed family being one of them. What really caused it to be weird though was that the contract wouldn't have been legal unless her true, full name was used; which it was, or if either party didn't know exactly what they were signing so that meant that the girls family; a Pure-Blood house of which were traditionally avid protesters to same sex relationships, knew of and approved a same sex marriage for their only daughter. Luckily since Magic recognised Dumbledore having gained Guardianship illegally, he could only approve the contract as proxy to the head of Potter family, not cement the clauses. While the contract was still legally binding due to him being both her Guardian and head of the Wizengamot at the time, as the head of house she could tweak and change the contract to her liking so long as neither of them were swapped out of the contract in exchange for someone else.
With a sigh, Kearia stood up from her seat and went back to her carriage, pulling down the presence repelling wards as she entered; there was only twenty minutes until the train left and if the Weasley family hadn't arrived by now, it was highly likely they would miss the train and Apparate or Floo there directly instead.
"Hey Kia!" A voice said, pulling her from her musing, "enjoy the last of your Summer?"
As she looked up, Kearia wasn't surprised to see her best friend, confident and investment advisor sitting in the carriage as if she owned it; regardless of the wards she had placed to hide it from everyone else. What Kearia was surprised about however was the three other girls sat inside, two she recognised as the eldest daughters from the Greengrass and Davis families and one she didn't that seemed to be a Muggle-Born considering the look of open excitement of seeing something new clearly displayed on her face.
"Lizzy," she sighed exasperated in reply, "I had hoped you'd have got over that ridiculous nickname you gave me."
Lizzy simply giggled, "You know, I almost had. But then I got an owl from you and I suddenly remembered why I gave you that nickname in the first place. Not very nice of you to do that to me by the way." Her tone turned chastising at the end, but the other four could still detect humour in her voice.
"I'm sorry but it was necessary, beside its not just you who was effected by it, and I did remind you straight away. Anyway, where are my manners," Kearia said, directing her attention to the newcomers, "Miss Greengrass, Miss Davies, a pleasure to formally meet you, you may call me Hailey." She nodded at each, then turned her attention to the last girl in the carriage, "my apologies but I assume you're a Muggle-Born as I don't recognise you, your name is?"
"Of course, my name's Hermione Granger and yes, I'm a Muggle-Born. I was so excited when I found out I'm a witch, I mean it explained so many things. I've already memorised my course books by heart and I can't wait until classes start but I wish we could do Magic out of school in order to practice, I hope I'm not behind in all this." The now identified Hermione blurted out in an excited rush, appearing to not having life's pesky requirement of breathing. Kearia, as well as the other two new girls merely blinked when she said that.
"Wow," Daphne said, "definitely a Ravenclaw you; and don't worry about being behind, its actually harmful to practice too many wand based spells outside of a magically rich environment like a school until magical maturity."
"Really you think so?" Hermione replied sounding pleased, "I was hoping for Gryffindor as they say that's supposed to be the best house, after all Headmaster Dumbledore was sorted there, but I think that Ravenclaw would suit me better."
"I wouldn't say its the best," Kearia interjected, "its actually the worst quality wise, and second worst overall."
"Really? And what would you say was the worst, Slytherin?" Tracy asked in a huff.
"Yes actually, but not for the reasons your thinking of." Kearia replied, confusing them. Meanwhile, Lizzy who already knew what Kearia was like and having expected this to happen, simply sat on the side-lines watching in amusement. She only wished she had some pop-corn
"First of all, while cunning and ambition are good traits to have, its not a very good idea to broadcast that you have high levels of them as people won't trust you, never mind the fact Slytherins never make friends; only acquaintances who will back-stab you at the first opportune moment they get. Secondly, ever since the Dark Lord revealed he had been sorted in Slytherin, three fourths of the population automatically assume any and all Slytherins are Pure-Blood bigot Death Eaters in training. The best place for a true Slytherin to be sorted is actually Hufflepuff; everybody underestimates them so you can work behind the scenes, they will be loyal friends to you simply for being sorted in their house and they also nearly always get jobs in highly influential and well connected places such as the head of the DMLE, director of St. Mungos and so on, and are actually good at their job due to their hard working nature."
"You know, that actually makes sense. But why shouldn't a Slytherin get placed in Ravenclaw or Gryffindor?" Daphne asked, a calculating expression on her face.
"Well Ravenclaw wouldn't be too bad for a Slytherin, but everyone expects them to achieve high so you can't exactly work from behind the scenes. Plus you don't get the same loyalty from 'Claws as you do the 'Puffs; And Gryffindor, are you mad? That's the worst place to be sorted in full stop, while the official trait is bravery, the traits that cause the level of bravery required for Gryffindor are recklessness, brashness and pig-headedness. The only decent job a hard liner Gryffindor can get is an Auror or Hit-Wizard, and the Gryffindor Aurors/Hit-Wizards usually get killed in the most horrendous ways or seriously injured the most frequent; take Mad-Eye Moody and the Prewitt twins for example. That and everyone expects you to be brash and foolish, always being in the limelight if your Gryffindor."
"So Kia," Lizzy said, knowing her friends rant was finished due to experience, "you still hoping for Ravenclaw or Gryffindor?"
Kearia smirked at this; thanks to the previous conversation she knew her answer would make the newbies splutter. "Yes actually, though Gryffindor would be preferable. How did you guess?" Out of the corners of their eyes they saw the other three going slack-jawed as they tried to speak their questions.
"Girl, you know I don't guess. I'm just that good." Lizzy exclaimed as she pompously flipped her hair over her shoulder.
"Hold on a minute," Daphne screeched, being the first to regain control of her mouth shortly followed by the other two, "you just gave that speech like a true Slytherin and yet your hoping for Gryffindor, the house that you yourself pointed out was the worst house to be in for various reasons, Slytherin at heart or not. Are you mad?"
"He he, no I'm not mad. Unfortunately, due to who I am and current misconceptions surrounding me then the best place for me to 'hide behind the scenes' as it were is to go to Gryffindor; it would actually be more subtle for me to be brash in the limelight."
"And who are you?" Hermione asked, matching the curious expression on the faces of Daphne and Tracy, though they knew enough of political manoeuvring to not bother asking.
"Now, now" Kearia tutted humorously, wagging her index finger, "I've only just met you, you don't expect me to confess all my secrets do you?" Seeing how Hermione had adopted an ashamed, apologetic expression Kearia chuckled before speaking up again, "don't worry about it; everything will be revealed at the sorting ceremony. I just want to see the surprise on everyones' faces when it does."
Before they could carry one with their conversation they were interrupted by the carriage door opening as a gangly red haired boy about their age stepped in with a sneer upon his face and upon seeing that the carriage was occupied solely by girls, made a face and walked out again not even bothering to shut the door behind him.
"Well that was rude" Lizzy huffed as she shut the door, only for it to open again as soon as she sat back down, this time three boys walking in; a blonde haired ponce of a boy followed by two seemingly gorillas in clothes, both wearing a dazed expression.
"Greengrass, Davis," the blonde said, nodding slightly to them with a barely suppressed sneer. As he turned to the remaining three he openly sneered at them, thinking them to be 'Mud-Bloods' or Half-Bloods due to not recognising them; completely missing the higher than normal cheekbones prominent on all Pure-Blood nobility; the Ancient and Noble houses, that showed on the three despite the baby fat they still had. It was actually something that had made Kearia stop and think for a minute as Hermione was supposed to be a Muggle-Born, yet she had the physical traits of an ancient and noble house. Feeling he had sufficiently shown his superiority, Malfoy turned back to the two he knew before asking what he came in for, "I heard Harry Potter was on the train, have you seen him?"
"Why?" Kearia asked, causing his attention to snap to her, "he a friend of yours or something?"
If he was sneering at her before, it was nothing compared to now as he let out a scathing remark, "you must be a Mud-Blood then, not even knowing about Harry Potter."
"I'd watch your tone if I was you Malfoy," she spat out in reply, causing his cheeks and ears to turn pink, "it doesn't pay to insult the heirs to ancient and noble families; especially if said family is older and has more prestige and wealth." It was at this point he turned pale as he realised just what could happen. Before he could stammer out an apology she spoke up again, "and yes I do know about the Potter heir, quite intimately in fact; I was merely asking to see why you were looking for him, you don't exactly run in the same circles as him do you."
Malfoy just stood there, his mouth opening and closing several times like a fish before he swivelled on his heel and in the most effeminate way possible, stalked away. The two gorillas just blinked stupidly before running off to catch up with him.
"You know Harry Potter?" Hermione asked as Lizzy once again shut the carriage door in a huff, "I've read all about him of course, I got a few extra books for background reading; he's in 'Modern Magical History', 'The Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts' and 'Great Wizarding Events of the Twentieth Century'."
"We know," Kearia said with an amused smile on her face, "and trust me, most of its a load of bull."
"Wha, bu, how can you say that! The authors assured everyone they had researched their facts thoroughly before publishing their books."
"Hermione," Kearia interjected before she could go any further in her rant, "if your going to go into Ravenclaw then one thing you need to realise is that a humans view point will always be bias; no matter what a book says is true or is impossible, there will always be another side or currently undiscovered method. Secondly, where would they have gone for this so called 'research'? James and Lilly Potter died that night, the Dark Lord vanished and hasn't been seen or heard from since and the Potter heir was only a little over a year old; even if they used Legillimancy on the child they wouldn't have gotten much information."
"But what about Magical Scans? Surely they would tell what happened, and what's Legillimancy?"
"Legillimancy is the art of reading minds, the only protection for this is Occlumency." Lizzy replied instead before Kearia took over.
"Also when what ever the Dark Lord tried backfired, the backlash caused a form of Magical Radiation contained within the ten metre radius of the wards that made it unsafe to use Magic within the area. When the Radiation finally dissipated half an hour later, it took with it any and all Magical Trace including the wards. Albus Dumbledore, who arrived ten minutes after that, couldn't even get information on the wards from his Scans even though he erected some of them himself."
"Wait," Daphne interrupted, "your telling me that the Boy-Who-Lived might not have survived the killing curse after all?"
"Yeah, Dumbledore only assumed he survived it because that was the Dark Lords favourite curse and the 'famous scar'," she said making air quotes, "contained dark Magic that should have been removed by healers rather than left alone like he did. After that Albus dumped the Potter heir with Lilly's Muggle, Magic hating sister and left it at that."
The three girls, Lizzy not included, were gobsmacked for a good half hour before they finally started to recover.
"So assuming what you say is true," Hermione said tentatively, "how do you know? That's the sort of thing anyone in a position of power would do anything to keep secret."
"Like I said, I know the Potter heir quite well. Trust me when I say that by the end of breakfast tomorrow, the entirety of Magical Britain will have had the lies behind the 'Boy-Who-Lived' ripped away as the truth is explained. Expect a lot of howlers to visit Dumbledore during meal times for the first few days."
Seeing that further conversation was over, Kearia got out the runes notes and diagrams on the hover-board project she was working on before checking it over; making minor changes here and there. A few hours later, not that Kearia noticed so engrossed as she was by her work, she was brought back to attention by Hermione shaking her shoulder. As she looked around, she had noticed the other girls had left the compartment and had started to mingle with the ever growing crowd of people. Sighing as she put her work away, she got up and followed Hermione off the train, pulling her cloak tight and shivering violently as she stepped into the cold air. That had to be one of the only downsides to her Fire-Demon Animagus form; while she enjoyed the heat and could stand high temperatures much easier, the cold effected her much more negatively than normal.
They had just made it to the others when a loud, booming voice echoed over the crowd,
"Firs' years! Firs' years over here!" A big hairy face beamed over the sea of heads, calling out for first years as children detached themselves from the crowd; all considerably smaller than the majority that remained behind. "C'mon, follow me — any more firs' years? Mind yer step, now! Firs' years follow me!" Slipping and stumbling, they followed the giant of a man down what seemed to be a steep, narrow path, his head swinging back and forth as he watched out for anyone tripping, falling or wandering off.
"You ther', stop!" He suddenly cried out in horror as everyone stopped dead in surprise, looking at Malfoy who had frozen mid-step as the giant came rushing over to him, shoving him backwards forcibly. The childrens' Vision of the giant's front was obscured when he crouched down in front of the spot Malfoy was about to stand on. Upon standing back up, many were dumbfounded by the sight of him cradling a rat in his hand, stroking it with a single, oversized finger as it lay limp in sleep .
"Oy, Scabbers!" A voice shouted as the gangly, red haired boy from earlier on the train ran forwards and snatched the rat before shoving it none to gently in his pocket.
"Mighty fine rat y'got ther'," the giant exclaimed with an almost fanatic gleam in his eyes, "right now, onwards again." And with that he continued walking as if nothing had happened, shortly followed by the first years bar Malfoy who was sat on the ground in shock. All through it only Lizzy noticed Kearia's clenched fists and tight eyes as she gazed at the rat. Calmly she took her hand, sufficiently distracting her and allowing her to calm down.
"The odds of bringing him before the Wizengamot and revealing the truth by Valentine's next year is nine in ten" Kearia let out a small smile at that before following the crowd once more, though she didn't let go of Lizzy's hand and the silent comfort it provided her.
As Daphne walked past with the other four girls, she couldn't help but take a parting shot at Malfoy and crouched down to whisper in his ear,
"Careful Malfoy, keep following orders like that and one might think your a lowly servant. Especially when said person giving the orders is an expelled Half-Blood made Game-Keeper." As she stood and caught up with her friends she chuckled at the strange mix of horror and anger plastered on his face before he jumped up and made a hasty run back to the front of the crowd.
Yell get yer firs' sight o' Hogwarts in a sec," the giant called over his shoulder, "jus' round this bend here." There was a loud "Oooooh!" That arose from the first years as they saw the castle for the first time, though later the Slytherins would deny publicly deny reacting in such a way. The narrow path had opened suddenly onto the edge of a great black lake. Perched atop a high mountain on the other side, its windows sparkling in the starry sky, was a vast castle with many turrets and towers. Before long the group had arrived at the edge of the lake and in front of them were a hoard of small, rickety looking boats.
"No more'n four to a boat!" He called, pointing to the fleet of little boats sitting in the water by the shore
Kearia gingerly stepped into the boat followed by Daphne and Tracy; her Animagus form may have gave her a strong dislike to the cold but she had always hated large bodies of water due to a couple of near drowning experiences when she was younger. Now she was faced with both rolled into one cold, deep package. Back on shore Hermione was looking around nervously for a boat while Lizzy just looked at her amused.
"Are you not getting in Hermione?"
"What? But don't you want to sit with your friend?" She asked. Lizzy just sighed and shook her head as she took Hermione's hand and dragged her into the boat with her.
"Hey! What are you doing!" Hermione whisper-shouted furiously, fear lacing her voice, "he said no more than four to a boat."
"Relax" Lizzy replied as the boats began their journey, "the odds of the boat tipping over, or one of us falling out without being pushed is one in a thousand."
"Huh?"
"She means that its impossible to fall out due to the boats being charmed to automatically expand to fit the number of occupants and always stay upright no matter how bad the weather is or how rough the waves on the lake are." Kearia explained upon seeing the confused faces of the other three. The others noticed however that Kearia's tight grip on the sides never loosened despite her confidence in the boats.
"Heads down!" Their guide yelled out as the first line of boats reached the cave entrance in the cliff-face. Most of them complied, bending low to pass under the low hanging ivy that covered the entrance; most being all but Malfoy who was already sitting backwards in order to be able sneer at Daphne unhindered, sat up straight and twisted his head around as he sneered and called out haughtily
"Don't tell me what to do you stupid serv-urk!"
Everyone in the back two rows had been periodically looking at Malfoy as he had been sitting backwards on the back of the boat, almost as if he was begging for an accident; but when he started his rant he brought the attention of all the first years on him so they were all able to witness his head catch on the ivy and drag him of the boat as it moved forward. After a few seconds of swinging there, the vine snapped and he dropped into the lake causing quite a number of the observers to worry, though none more so than their guide who would no doubt be held responsible if the Malfoy heir came to harm under his watch. Suddenly, surprising all of them, a large tentacle rose from the lake ensuing panic as one girl screamed 'Kraken!'. Thankfully, before for anyone could tip their boats or push someone/fall overboard in their panic, the tentacle reached over the boats and a sucker cup released its suction; dropping a soaked and dazed Malfoy onto their guide's lap.
"Don' worry 'bout that, tis only the Giant Squid. He's a kinda Guardian fer th' Lake."
The boats arrived at the converted harbour with out any further incident after that, though it certainly helped that the journey only lasted a further two minutes. Before long everyone had piled out of the boats, Malfoy over their guides shoulder as he still wasn't all that with it, while their guide was doing a last minute check of the boats.
"Oy ther'" he called over the crowd, "who's is th' toad?"
"Trevor!" A pudgy, round faced boy cried in relief, rushing up to Hagrid, "thank you sir."
"Hagrid, jus' call meh Hagrid." He replied waving him off. After handing over the toad, Hagrid then led them up a passageway that had been cut into the rock, coming out into a small room with a large, oak double doors that Hagrid firmly knocked three times with his monster of a fist before stepping back. After a few tense seconds the doors began opening slowly outwards, reminding all the Muggle-Born/raised of a horror film. Well, one without the smoke coming from the doorway that is, or the creepy door knocker and the creaking hinges. As soon as the doors had opened completely, the open doorway revealed a stern looking woman in emerald green robes standing in the doorway before she walked out and stood in front of the first years, gazing at each of them for several seconds. The first thought that ran through the minds of most of them about her was that she was not a woman you wanted to cross; her whole demeaner screamed that she wouldn't stand for any nonsense, from her dark grey hair tied tightly back in a bun, to her welcoming yet stern gaze to her rigid posture.
"The firs' years, Professor McGonagall," Hagrid spoke up, diverting her attention to him.
"Thank you Hagrid, you may go join the feast. I will take them from here." She replied, shutting the doors behind him with a flick of her wand. "Welcome to Hogwarts," said Professor McGonagall. "The start-of-term banquet will begin shortly, but before you take your seats in the Great Hall, you will be sorted into your houses. The Sorting is a very important ceremony because, while you are here, your house will be something like your family within Hogwarts. You will have classes with the rest of your house, sleep in your house dormitory, and spend free time in your house common room.
"The four houses are called Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. Each house has its own noble history and each has produced outstanding witches and wizards. While you are at Hogwarts, your triumphs will earn your house points, while any rule breaking will lose house points. At the end of the year, the house with the most points is awarded the house cup, a great honour. 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." Her eyes flickered to the boy with a toad, who's cloak was fastened under his ear, and the rude red-haired boy from earlier who had a smudged nose and what appeared to be meat around his lips. She had turned and was about to open the doors before she spotted the still soaked Malfoy, propped against the wall with a dazed expression still on his face,
"Goodness, what on Earth happened to him?" She exclaimed in surprise
"He fell overboard Mam," a girl spoke up, "bin the same since."
McGonagall just sighed before shooting an Enervate and drying charm at him, quickly walking back inside before he awoke.
Five minutes later, Malfoy had been informed by his two pet gorillas about what had happened since his 'accident' just in time for Professor McGonagall's return where she ushered them through the door, shutting it behind them. Not even a minute after they left, a bunch of milky-see through figures floated through a side wall, speaking in a loud, over-dramatic voice as they did,
"Forgive and forget, I say," a fat monk-like ghost was saying, "we ought to, hang on! Where's the new first years?"
As the first years walked in Kearia was amused by her fellow first years tales of what they heard from friends and relatives about how they were sorted. She squeezed Hermione's hand in comfort though when she heard her nervous whispers of spells she had memorised during the summer. There was a sudden gasp of shock from a girl at the front that drew the attention of the rest of the first years and upon seeing the direction of the girl's gaze, everyone looked up at the ceiling.
"Its bewitched to look like the outside sky, I read it in 'Hogwarts: A History'" Hermione said in wonder; and it was indeed impressive for such a powerful enchantment to hold up without renewal since the castle's construction. Sure the ministry had things similar but the charms had to be renewed bi-monthly and were much smaller and in less detail. Kearia looked back to Professor McGonagall when she put an old, patched and frayed hat on top of a three legged stool that seemed to have had seen better days. The entire hall had turned their attention to the hat and there was complete silence for several long seconds before a rip appeared above the brim, forming a mouth and to the shock of all the first years, it began 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!"
The hall erupted in applause while many first years sighed in relief; the red-haired boy from earlier could clearly be heard as he admitted to believing his brothers obvious lies of fighting a Troll. Professor McGonagall had opened her mouth speak and was about to start the sorting when she was interrupted by the sorting hat speaking up, something that shocked everyone as nowhere in recorded history had it done so before. Though the shock levels were nothing compared to the actual words it said.
"Now," the hat called out, "before I sort you could I please ask Miss Potter to please come up?"
Hailey briefly glanced around, noting the various reactions; the most common of the reactions belonged to the majority of staff and students and was that of shock and confusion. Understandable as the world was told of the only Potter child being Harry, the Boy-Who-Lived. Next was the shock, disbelief and the hint of rage on Professor McGonagall's face as she turned to glare at the Headmaster, who's face was showing fear as he shot the hat a betrayed look. The last notable reaction, minus Lizzie's smug look, was from Kearia's new friends as they thought back on their earlier conversation; "Trust me when I say that by the end of breakfast tomorrow, the entirety of Magical Britain will have had the lies behind the 'Boy-Who-Lived' ripped away as the truth is explained." After her brief assessment Kearia stepped forward with a small smirk and although the expressions of the most of the hall didn't change, Dumbledore's eyes tightened slightly and her new friends shock heightened as they saw her move before at different stages, they gained looks of realisation. As soon as Kearia sat down and placed the hat on her head, the brim covering her eyes, the hall erupted in whispers as theories and bets flew back and forth at a rapid pace.
"Well hello there Miss Potter, I must say it's a pleasure to metaphorically meet you." Kearia heard in her head.
"Thank you, it's pleasure to meet you too. I'm guessing this is about my status as heads of the houses for three of the founders?"
"Indeed. Within the week you will need to go to the room of requirements to speak with Madame Hogwarts; she will instruct you fully on your duties but I have been asked to give a brief overview. First, until you find Hufflepuffs heir, and by that I mean he or she takes up mantle as Head of House, everything you do/undo can be undone/redone by the Headmaster. Anything obvious will be noticed immediately and probably clue him in that he's in danger of losing his power in Hogwarts and he'll likely raise a fuss so be careful. Once you have found the Hufflepuff heir and the houses are reunited then any minor changes can only be contested by a founders heir; any big changes will need a majority vote to do/undo, something that won't be a problem for you. There will be some big decisions however that will need the agreement of all four houses."
"My thanks, but what and where is the room of requirement? I don't think I've ever read or heard about it before."
"You won't have, it's not widely known but if you call upon a House Elf and ask for the 'come and go room', Helga and Rowenna the dirty minxes. Anyway, ask a House Elf and they'll take you; as for what it is, it is as the name suggests: room of requirement, what ever it is you require it to be; it will be. Now that's out of the way, it better be..."
"GRYFINDOR!" The hat shouted, prompting the Gryffindor house to start clapping and cheering. "Thank you professor, you can resume the sorting now." That hat said
"Err yes, huh-hmm" Professor McGonagall muttered, clearing her throat, "Abbot, Hannah," she called out to the students, one of them moving forwards and sat down.
Kearia phased out then, unconsciously memorising names and faces while clapping during the sortings, only really paying attention to her friends. Tracy, following Kearia's advice, was sorted in Hufflepuff as well as Daphne. Hermione surprised all four of the other girls by being sorted in Gryffindor where she sat next to Kearia.
"What?" She said upon seeing Kearia's raised eyebrow, "I can still keep up with my studies and be top of the year without being in Ravenclaw. Besides, I couldn't leave you alone now could I? I don't know Lizzy very well but I'm sure she's not Gryffindor material." Kearia just laughed and shook her head as she turned her attention back to the sorting.
Then, with a stuttered call of "Myrddin, Elizabeth" the majority of the school let out gasps of shock and surprise as Lizzy walked to the hat; everyone thought that Merlin died childless, all reports and tales suggested so. Yet here was a child with his surname making it obvious the line had survived, unannounced for all these centuries. For Hermione, Daphne and Tracy it was almost to much to handle however; first they found out their new friend was actually the girl everyone thought to be 'The-Boy-Who-Lived', and now they find out their other new friend was of the line of Merlin.
There weren't many people left now. "Moon"…, "Nott"…, "Parkinson"…, then a pair of twin girls, "Patil" and "Patil"…, then "Perks, Sally-Anne" Finally, Professor McGonagall came to the name everyone was waiting for since the hat called Kearia up earlier. She stared at the parchment in her hands for several seconds before sighing and called out "Potter, Harry." There was silence for several seconds as people looked around when no-one stepped forwards. With another sigh, Professor McGonagall, realising that no-one was about to step forwards, just carried on with the sorting.
Eventually, all the new students had been sorted and Professor McGonagall had rolled up the parchment, picked up both the stool and hat and had made her way back to the staff table, depositing the hat and stool behind it. After a few minutes of everyone staring at him expectantly, Albus Dumbledore stood up sombrely, looking as if someone had stolen his sherbert lemons (something not far from the truth since his bowl that gave him free sherbert lessons was taken back and he wouldn't bring himself as low as to buy some more), and spoke to the hall, magic lacing his voice so everyone could hear clearly. "Welcome," he said. "Welcome to a new year at Hogwarts! Enjoy the feast." And with that, promptly sat down as food began appearing on the platters on the tables. While all the first years looked at the food in shock, the majority of the older years and staff were sitting in confusion; the Headmaster had always said something completely stupid and insane before the feast, and he looked crazily happy during it as well. Tonight for some reason he neglected from his usual routine; though a few of the staff members and some of the smarter Slytherins and Ravenclaws suspected it was due to the Potter heir being revealed to be female, rather than the male he assured everyone he was.
At the Gryffindor table, Kearia was only half paying attention to the conversations going on around her as she ate. She mostly focussed her half attention on Hermione as she spoke to a prefect, a Weasley judging by his hair colour, about their classes; though at one point Seamus Finnagan caught her attention,
"I'm half and half, mam's a witch, dad's a Muggle. She didn't tell him she was a witch till after they were married; bit of a nasty shock for him when he found out!"
Internally she cringed; Seamus and his mum were lucky that the dad/husband took it so well as Muggles for famous for persecuting things they deemed as 'abnormal to them'. Finishing her meal she swept her eyes around the hall, noticing that apart from a couple of 'pigs in human skin', everyone else had finished as well. Looking to the staff table she saw the Headmasters eyes on her, unseen to everyone else, and she briefly caught a calculating gleam in his eyes before he stood up catching everyones' attention, obviously in a better mood.
"Ahem — just a few more words now that we are all fed and watered. I have a few start-of-term notices to give you.
"First years should note that the forest on the grounds is forbidden to all pupils. And a few of our older students would do well to remember that as well." Dumbledore's twinkling eyes flashed in the direction of the Weasley twins. "I have also been asked by Mr. Filch, the caretaker, to remind you all that no magic should be used between classes in the corridors.
"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."
While a few students laughed, obviously not believing him and thinking that this was his 'crazy speak', Kearia frowned as she felt the stirring of her magic as she recognised the headmaster's wording for a magical contract. It wasn't long before she deciphered the meaning and her frown deepened; it sounded like he was going ahead with his previous attempts and plans to manipulate her as this seemed far too organised and thought out to have been thought up since she sent her reply to the Hogwarts letter come kidnapping attempt during the Summer.
"He's not serious?" Hermione muttered to Percy worriedly.
"Must be," said Percy, frowning at Dumbledore. "It's odd, because he usually gives us a reason why we're not allowed to go somewhere — the forest's full of dangerous beasts, everyone knows that. I do think he might have told us prefects, at least."
"And now, before we go to bed, let us sing the school song!" cried Dumbledore. Kearia noticed that the other teachers' smiles had become rather fixed. One teacher with pale skinned and cold; black eyes, sitting on the Headmasters left, openly glared at him.
Dumbledore gave his wand a little flick, as if he was trying to get a fly off the end, and a long golden ribbon flew out of it, which rose high above the tables and twisted itself, snakelike, into words.
"Everyone pick their favourite tune," said Dumbledore, "and off we go!"
And the school bellowed:
"Hogwarts, Hogwarts, Hoggy Warty Hogwarts,
Teach us something please,
Whether we be old and bald
Or young with scabby knees,
Our heads could do with filling
With some interesting stuff,
For now they're bare and full of air,
Dead flies and bits of fluff,
So teach us things worth knowing,
Bring back what we've forgot,
just do your best, we'll do the rest,
And learn until our brains all rot."
Everybody finished the song at different times. At last, only the Weasley twins were left singing along to a very slow funeral march. Dumbledore conducted their last few lines with his wand and when they had finished, he was one of those who clapped loudest.
"Ah, music," he said, wiping his eyes. "A magic beyond all we do here! And now, bedtime. Off you trot!"
The Gryffindor first years all followed Percy as he led them up some stairs, down others and through different tapestries and portraits. From Kearia's newly gained connection to the castle she could tell that the route Percy was taking them was overly complicated and long; it would be a miracle if none of the first years got lost tomorrow morning. At one T-junction he stopped dead, holding his arms out to stop the students as a ghost floated past, focusing intently on a box he was somehow able to hold.
"Peeves, a Poltergeist," Percy announced shortly after the ghost had floated away, "it's best to avoid him whenever possible; only the Bloody Baron can control him, he won't even listen to us Prefects."
Another ten minutes of of following a maze's path, one corridor full of portraits that Kearia was sure she recognised the frames from half an hour earlier, Percy stopped in front of a larger than normal portrait containing an over weight lady in a pink dress, holding a wine glass and sitting in a setting that was typical of the wealthy Romans during Emperor Caesar's reign.
"This is the 'Fat Lady', the entrance to the Gryffindor Common Room."
"Password dears," the portrait said in a loud, snobbish tone; obviously a wealthy noble from some era.
"Caput Draconis," he said loud enough for the first years to hear, "the common room is protected by a password, it changes bi-weekly so make sure you check the notice board every two Saturdays. Make sure you don't reveal the password to the other houses." With that, he walked through the doorway revealed by the portrait swinging open, followed by the first years who had to clamber up the ledge; some needing help from those behind and before. By the time everyone had made it into the common room most of them were just about dead on their feet and running on fumes.
"Boys are on the left, girls on the right. As first years your dormitory will be on the first floor, next year as second years it will be on the second floor and so on." Percy told them before he walked up the boys staircase, causing the group to disperse as they went up their respective staircases. Kearia, being last in the group of girls, watched on in amusement as the four other girls she was sharing a dorm with stumbled half asleep to the beds with their respective trunks, dug out their sleeping attire and clambered into bed, closing the curtains. Kearia just sat on her bed as clothes were pushed out from the curtains and there was a chorus of "Goodnight". Five minutes later Kearia, satisfied the others were fast asleep, took the shrunken green trunk from out her pocket and placed it on her bed. Pointing her wand at the trunk, she traced a circle in an anti-clockwise motion and muttered "Engorgio". When the trunk had regained its normal size she opened the first compartment, the only one currently unlocked, and walked down the stairs. As she touched the third drawer, she smiled in satisfaction as the lock clicked open after the magic had finished scanning her, revealing a single memory sphere when she opened the drawer, immediately she picked it up and pushed magic into her hands to activate it; appearing in the same lavish living room that she always did, accompanied by the smiling form of her mother as they embraced in a 'welcome back' hug.
Trelawney giggled in happiness as she inhaled the smoke from her 'special future vision tube', or to anyone else: a bong. As soon as the feast had let out, Dumbledore had dismissed the staff and rushed off; thereby cancelling the customary 'start of term staff meeting'. So high that she was, she completely missed the sight of a beetle turning into a woman, who then wnet about documenting everything in order to showcase Dumbledore in an even worse light than he would soon be for her new client. She was shocked though when Trelawney stopped mid-giggle and with her eyes wide and vacant, spoke and a slow, ominous voice.
"The Grey Queen has arrived, born to light and dark she will be neither; but use both to return true balance to the world. Marked by the swirl of 'Dalbergia latifolia and Taxus' she will take the Wizarding world by storm as she destroys the bigotry and corruption between magicals. Work with her to ensure your place in the world but be warned those who try to use her; she will not be controlled and will destroy everything you have. The grey queen has arrived."
When she had finished, Trelawney simply carried on giggling. Rita however had been writing rappidly so she could get it all down, before she transformed and flew out the window; inwardly thanking the heavens for air purifying charms.
So like it? Hate it? Reviews and constructive critism are always welcome but like always, pointless flames will be ignored. Also, thanks to everyone who reviewed and/or added this fic and/or me to their favourites and/or alert list.