Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. If you believed that I did…wow. You need some help.
Okay, I lied. I'm uploading a new chapter before getting five reviews. But I don't think anyone really minds.
"My, my," the Sorting Hat drawled. "You are quite the difficult one."
'What does it mean by that?' Adele thought. To her shock, the Hat answered.
"Well, you have certain, ahem, qualities, that would fit into each House. You have the intelligence of a Ravenclaw, obviously, but the cunning and subtlety of a Slytherin. You have the loyalty and fairness of a Hufflepuff, but the courage and bravery of a Gryffindor."
'Please,' Adele thought to the Hat. 'I want to be in Gryffindor with Harry, Ron, and Hermione.'
"You do, do you?" the Hat said. "I believe you can make friends wherever you are sorted."
'I hope so,' Adele thought. 'But they seem like the kind of people I would want to watch my back.'
"Yes," the Sorting admitted. "They certainly are loyal. But I'm still not convinced. There's that certain power of yours that sets you apart from the rest."
'You can see that?!' Adele cried in her mind.
"Of course," the rather annoying Hat replied easily. The Hat fell silent as it debated where to put her. Adele felt like hours were passing, and she could feel the curious stares of hundreds of students on her. Finally, to her immense relief, the Hat said, "Well, I do like to take the students' opinion into account. Are you sure then?"
'Yes,' Adele thought firmly.
"Very well, then. GRYFFINDOR!" The Sorting Hat shouted to the rest of the Great Hall.
The Gryffindor table burst into applause, but it was punctuated by whispered conversations throughout the Hall.
"I think that's the longest Sorting I've ever seen," Harry said quietly to Ron and Hermione.
"I know! Bloody hell, I'm starving," Ron moaned.
Hermione didn't even bother reprimanding Ron for his language. She was staring at Adele with a calculating expression on her face as she made her way over to them. Adele sat down between Hermione and Seamus Finnegan. The Irish wizard immediately straightened up and began introducing himself, to the envious stares of the rest of the males in the Hall.
Filch took the Sorting Hat and stool away as Professor Dumbledore stood up and clapped his hands. "Tuck in!" he announced.
Ron moaned again as hundreds of dishes appeared on the table. Adele thought she saw some drool before he grabbed a chicken leg from the nearest dish and tore into it with indecent enthusiasm.
After watching Ron disgustedly, Hermione turned to Adele and began engaging her in a discussion about classes. It turned out Adele had taken the same O.W.L. exams as the rest of the sixth years in order to be admitted to Hogwarts.
"So, how did you do?" Hermione asked, trying to conceal her curiosity.
"I just got my grades the other day. They were all circles," Adele replied. "I'm not quite sure what that means."
Hermione gasped and Harry felt his jaw drop. "You got all Outstanding's?" she asked in disbelief.
"Uh, yeah, I guess," Adele shrugged.
Harry was flabbergasted. Adele had gotten better grades than Hermione. Hermione! Now, he wasn't sure if Adele and Hermione would get along. He wasn't sure if Hermione could be friends with such competition.
Hermione fell silent and stared at her plate. Adele looked at her nervously before turning to Harry. She opened her mouth to say something, but before she could speak, the plates were cleared of desserts and Dumbledore stood up. The Great Hall fell silent as he began to speak.
"To our new students, welcome! And to our old students, welcome back!" he said. He began speaking about school rules, but everyone was distracted by his right hand. It was blackened and dead looking. Whispers broke out among the students but Dumbledore ignored them and shook his sleeve down over his hand. Adele, who had done the exact same thing hundreds of times to hide her scars, wondered what the Professor was hiding.
Dumbledore introduced new members of the staff (one teacher's new post caused Harry and several others to cry out in protest. Adele had no idea why.) He began speaking about Voldemort, whom Adele had heard of vaguely but, frankly, didn't care about. He then dismissed the students with a "pip pip!" and everyone got up from their respective tables.
"Come on, I'll show you to Gryffindor tower," Harry said to Adele.
Adele turned to him with a grateful look-she had no idea where she was going-but then a voice from behind her stopped her in her tracks.
"How chivalrous, Potter," a cold, snide voice said disdainfully. "But the Headmaster wishes to see Miss Evans."
Adele turned to see a professor she had seen at the top table. Professor Dumbledore had introduced him as the new Defense Against the Darks Arts teacher, Professor Snape. Harry had loudly protested this development, she had noticed.
"I will show you to his office," Snape said. Harry tried to control his anger before Snape found an excuse to dock points from Gryffindor before classes even started.
"Of course, sir," Adele said, waving goodbye to Harry as she followed Professor Snape out of the hall. They were both completely silent on the long walk to the Headmaster's office, but Adele swore Professor Snape was glancing at her out of the corner of his eye.
'I don't know why Harry hates him so much,' Adele thought. 'He doesn't seem that bad.'
They came to a statue of a gargoyle. Snape muttered "Marshmallow puff," to the statue, and it sprang aside to reveal a revolving spiral staircase.
"Go up this staircase and knock on the door at the top," he said coldly to Adele.
"Thank you, sir," she said politely, but he walked away without another word. She continued up the staircase until she came to a heavy wooden door with a brass knocker. She knocked three times and then waited.
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