Disclaimer: Lets hear it for JKR, for she is truly the best of all. Sia, however, is all mine.
The train journey passed uneventfully, if it could be called that, considering Hermione had a terrible time shut up in the Heads compartment with Draco, who did nothing more than let out a chuckle from time to time. Harry whiled away some time discussing Gryffindor team's chances this year, after all, he was the captain. Dean and Seamus both seemed enthusiastic, and even Neville felt that Harry would give the Gryffindors the perfect gift of a third straight Quidditch Cup in their last year. Luna, of course, was more interested in the reasons behind vampire Scrimgeour's recent order to have crumple-horned snorkacks rounded up and killed.
Ron and Ginny came back sometime after the food trolley had gone, and enthusiastically gorged on the sweets and pasties Harry had saved for them. Ginny kept throwing glances at Harry, trying to gauge what he was thinking, but Harry, as usual, seemed preoccupied, this time with the boys. Ginny sighed.
As everyone disembarked from their carriages, a collective sigh went up from all the seventh years…their last time here. But several young people with empty stomachs cannot remain sentimental for long, so they all went inside to the Great Hall, to their respective House tables, greeting their old friends, waiting for the Sorting to begin.
Hermione settled down beside Harry, across from Ron, so she could look at him freely without needing any excuse. She was thoroughly depressed after having to look at that ferret the entire journey, she tried to tell herself. Almost automatically, her glance slipped over to the Slytherin table, and over to a platinum-blonde head. Draco Malfoy seemed to be holding court, with almost every Slytherin craning their necks to hear what he had to say. Pansy Parkinson was right beside him, batting her eyelashes at him, hanging on to his every word. Disgusting, Hermione thought. The brief conversation she had had with him on the train flashed through her mind, and she blushed. The question was, had he really changed that much over the summer that he would think of muggleborn girls as "girls", and even pay them half-hearted compliments! Hermione chewed it over in her head till Harry spoke up.
"So, Hermione, who's the Head Boy?" he looked at her with mild interest.
Hermione swallowed and bowed her head, but then, looked up straight into Harry's green eyes and said with a clear voice, "its Malfoy."
Harry's eyebrows shot up in shock and amazement, and disappeared under his messy black hair. It was Ron, however, who gave the most telling reaction.
"WHAT!!" he yelled, "ARE YOU SERIOUS? ARE YOU TELLING ME THAT SLIMY, STINKING, SLYTHERIN GIT IS THE HEAD BOY?"
"Hush Ron, please…", Hermione almost whispered to the angry boy opposite her, who was slowly turning red. Hermione looked around worriedly, more than a bit embarrassed, as Ron's voice had carried.
Sure enough, the hall was almost silent, everyone staring at them. She snuck a glance at the Slytherin table, where everyone was staring daggers at them, well all except one. Malfoy was sitting erect, almost haughtily, and a most amusing smirk was rapidly spreading across his face. When their eyes met, the look on his face was a knowing one, commenting silently on their earlier conversation. Damn him, she fumed silently, and damn Ron, for giving him a reason to think that he was right.
She looked away and fixed her eyes on Ron, who looked more like an over-ripe tomato now. Or like he had been in the sun too long…wait! She seriously cant be thinking what that arrogant idiot had to say about Ron. Cut it out, she told herself angrily.
Focusing on Ron, she began, "Ron, I am not exactly overjoyed either, but please, lets not make a spectacle of us. It's exactly what he expects of us. Lets handle this with maturity and…dignity. Lets behave as though this means nothing to us at all, it doesn't bother us in the slightest. That will steal his moment of glory…he gets half his kicks in annoying us, and if we deprive him of the reaction he wants, he will stew." She finally stopped hissing at him from under her breath.
Ron goggled at her. Slightly embarrassed as he was at his sudden outburst, he thought Hermione was being really dense.
"Hermione", he began in a lower voice, speaking as though to a particularly stupid child. "You don't realize what you are saying. You have to spend the whole year with that git…shut up in a separate dorm and everything. I know, because Bill and Percy had told me. It will be just you and him…and you don't know him. He could get plenty of opportunities to try a whole lot of things…and you would be all alone…"
"Ronald Weasley! I can look after myself perfectly well, thank you very much. I can hex him faster than he could raise his wand, and I definitely know a whole lot of spells more than him." Hermione cut across him, slightly peeved.
"I know, Hermione. But you don't know him. He is a potential deatheater. I mean, his father is one, and he is evil enough. And you don't know his reputation in this school as far as girls are concerned. He is…" but then, Ron stopped and almost blushed. He had never talked with Hermione on such a sensitive topic before, and seemed lost for words.
Hermione, however, had already seen red. Ron was talking to her in such a condescending tone, as though she was a babe-in-woods, with no idea about deatheaters or big bad wolfs.
"Ron", she began grounding out. "I am not exactly a child. And for your kind information, I have spent as much time in this school as you have, and know as much about people around as you. Also, although this might shock you, I happen to know that Lucius Malfoy is a deatheater, and you don't need to remind me how evil or twisted Malfoy is, because I am the one who has been called a "mudblood" ever since I got here. Do you really think I am going to shake his hand and join his evil Slytherin gang? Or are you actually scared I am going to jump into bed with him?" Hermione was red in the face as well, her hair nearly crackling with electricity, and starting to resemble their earlier incarnation.
Ron turned an even deeper shade of red. But he was pleased that Hermione had understood all of his concerns. However, he was not going to let her have the last word.
"I only…" he began, but was cut off again, by Harry this time, who had so far been entirely silent.
"Shut it, Ron. Hermione is right. She can take care of herself, and we have to trust her instincts. Besides,", he said, overriding Ron's incredulous look, "she has always got us." Then he turned to a grateful looking Hermione. "If anything happens, anything at all, you will tell us, right? Ron is right in a way too, I would put nothing past that git." He told her seriously.
Hermione smiled at him and gave his hand a light squeeze in affirmation. Ron looked slightly mollified as well, what with Harry's tactful handling of the situation. Harry was getting really good at this, what with his two best friends at each other's throats ever so often. He was getting quite good at knowing to say the right things too, and doing the right things. Both Ron and Hermione had terrible tempers, and Harry was getting adept at soothing egos and lending a shoulder to cry on.
Just then, Professor McGonagall came into the hall carrying a stool and the Sorting hat, followed by a crooked line of first years, all looking rather frightened. The hat then had its say, singing a new song again, and yet again warning against divisions from within and the need for a united front in face of the enemy outside. And then the sorting began.
Just as Alderwood, Ivana became a Ravenclaw, Harry leaned across the table towards Ron, turning his head slightly to look at Hermione as well, and said with a twinkle in his eyes, "Lucky McGonagall didn't witness your passionate outburst, Ron, or we would have lost house points already." Ron looked slightly abashed, and looked almost shyly at Hermione, who blushed and hung her head. Now that she thought about what she had said to Ron in her outburst, she could hardly look him in the eye. Harry laughed; he enjoyed putting them both in a spot, knowing full well what each felt for the other. And yet, a part of him worried for them. They both had such volatile tempers; if they became a couple, would their friendship survive a really passionate outburst? Harry mulled over it silently as the sorting continued. Meanwhile, three seats away from Ron, Ginny sat with her friend, seemingly interested in what she had to say about latest muggle fashions while watching Harry covertly. She didn't know why she was getting so negative, but it felt to her as though Harry was slipping away from her.
McGonagall was through with the sorting, it seemed, and everyone looked up at the staff table expectantly, waiting for Dumbledore to welcome them officially and the feast to start. But evidently, something was up, because Dumbledore continued to look at McGonagall, who had still not left with the sorting hat and stool. Then, she spoke up again, and all eyes snapped to her.
"There is to be one more sorting. A new student will be joining us this year for our NEWT classes. She has, er, chosen to come here from the Beauxbatons Academy, and will complete her final year at Hogwarts. Please step forward to be sorted, Miss Raisingh."
At these words, a tall girl stepped forward from the shadows near the doors, and came to stand directly in front of McGonagall. She was quite tall, over 5 feet 8, and her hair were pulled rather severely away from her face in a ponytail, making her hazel eyes stand out quite prominently on her impassive face. Her black robe was tied very tightly around her throat, and buttoned down all the way, making her look like a cloistered nun.
As soon as she saw the girl, Hermione knew she would end up in Slytherin. She couldn't quite say what made her think that, maybe it was the way she held herself, all proud and erect, or it was the cold, haughty way she looked around herself. Or maybe it was the barely-there sneer which came upon her face as she took a look at the patched and frayed sorting hat. All the signs of a stuck-up pureblood, who thought she was too good for things around her. It strongly reminded Hermione of Fleur, who had acted very similar when she had first come to Hogwarts for the Triwizard tournament. What was it with the Beauxbaton girls, Hermione thought angrily.
The new girl looked McGonagall straight in the eye, which no new student, and very few older students, dared to do. McGonagall then called out, "Raisingh, Sia Maria." The girl gave a light shrug and picked up the hat, looking at it with a slight distaste before sitting down on the stool and putting it on rather gingerly. All this snootiness was not lost on the people sitting at the four tables. None of this, of course, endeared her to Hermione.
"Just look at her", she fumed. "She looks like Malfoy's long lost sister."
"What! How can you say that, Hermione? Her hair are all dark, and her skin is kind of tanned. She doesn't resemble him in the slightest." Ron of course.
"Ron, I was talking about her attitude. She is all cocky and arrogant like him. I wouldn't be surprised at all if it turns out that Lucius Malfoy had taken it up with an Indian woman, and she is the result. I bet she ends up in Slytherin." Harry was rather astounded at the venom in Hermione's voice.
However, no sooner were the words out of her mouth, than the hat screamed, "GRYFFINDOR!"
The entire hall seemed to be taken aback at this, and belatedly, a few of the Gryffindors clapped in a half-hearted sort of way. The new girl, Sia Maria Raisingh, made her way over to the Gryffindor table, and to her horror, sat down next to Hermione. There was an awkward sort of silence, as nobody ventured to speak to the new girl, and neither did she meet anyone's eyes, preferring to look around the hall and up at the staff table instead. But then Dumbledore got up and twinkling down at everyone said, "Welcome to a new year. Before anything else, tuck in." and then he sat down, and immediately the tables filled up with food.
"Brilliant!" Ron cried, and immediately started piling up his plate and wolfing down the food at an alarming speed.
The girl beside Hermione picked up her fork delicately, and started putting tiny morsels of food in her mouth rather sophisticatedly. Hermione frowned, and tried to glare at Ron and tell him with her eyes to behave, but her look seemed lost on him. Instead, to her disgust, Ron started talking to Harry in his usual manner.
"Watchoothinboudkiddichanseofarouse?"
Hermione froze with horror. The girl beside her froze with disapproval. She raised her hazel eyes slowly towards Ron, and stared hard. Ron, who had seemed oblivious to Hermione's glare earlier, suddenly felt the stare, and looked at her. The girl's eyes narrowed and fixed Ron with a rather hard, cold, haughty stare. Ron gulped involuntarily and seemed slightly put out. Then he started taking slightly smaller pieces of food and kept his mouth shut.
Harry noticed this, and covered his snigger. Hermione noticed this, and felt red-hot tongues of anger licking her insides. She, who had felt disgusted everytime Ron did the same thing around her, felt her blood boil at the girl. First Malfoy, then this girl…why is everyone picking on Ron today, she seethed inwardly. And why did Ron have to react to her! He could have chosen to ignore her, the way he always does with me!
Hermione ate her entire meal with blood pumping in her head, not registering what she was eating and what was going on around her. She did not pay the slightest bit of attention when Dumbledore got to his feet and addressed them. She, however, felt several pairs of eyes on her rather suddenly, and snapped out of her reverie. She looked up to find Harry and Ron looking at her in amazement, and utter stillness in the hall. Then she saw Malfoy, standing up and bowing gracefully to the hall in general, and great applause from Slytherins. Evidently, Dumbledore had just announced the names of the Heads. Hermione stood up rather hurriedly, and the Gryffindor table erupted in claps, catcalls and cheers, with Harry and Ron pounding the table. She smiled gratefully, happiness flooding her, and waved to everyone in the hall. Malfoy waved back, and she sat down rather suddenly, her smile wiped away. He smirked at her. The jerk, she thought.
"Well, well, what a strange coincidence." A voice beside her said, and Hermione turned slowly to face a pair of hazel eyes looking into her chocolate brown ones.
"Yes?" she asked a bit snappishly.
The girl did not flinch in the slightest. Instead, she smirked slightly, reminding Hermione even more of Malfoy. "Of course it is." She continued to smirk. "Not only do I get sorted into the house of Harry Potter, I also get a seat beside the Head Girl. Now how good is that?"
Hermione continued to fume inwards, but decided to ignore the girl. But just as she turned to her plate, the girl spoke again. "Congratulations on becoming the Head Girl. By the way, I am Sia."
Hermione clenched her teeth in frustration and ground out, "Thanks. I am Hermione Granger." She didn't know how to avoid the girl.
"Uhunh. HG. Okay." The girl infuriated her even more by the deliberate use of her initials. "Its not HG, its Hermione Granger!" she decided to make it clear then and there. But for all the notice the girl took of her, she might have been speaking to her fork. Sia's eyes had looked straight past Hermione, and were now fixed on Harry. And very suddenly, nearly knocking Hermione's fork out of her hand, and yet in a very fluid motion, she extended her hand towards Harry.
"Hello, Harry Potter. Its so nice to finally meet you. I have heard a lot about you, of course, from someone you know. The girls at Beauxbatons send their love." She said all of this with a smile on her face, and a sincerity she had not displayed till then. Hermione frowned. Harry took her hand, blushing a little, but smiling nonetheless. "Hello Sia. Welcome to Hogwarts, and Gryffindor." Sia smiled again. "You must have heard about Hogwarts from Fleur." He couldn't quite bring himself to say 'about me'.
Sia let go of his hand and returned to her food, shaking her head and smiling a bit mischievously this time. "No, no. Fleur was Beauxbaton's super-bitch in her time, and wouldn't speak with anyone below her year. No, I heard about you from Gabrielle. She is quite smitten with you, I am afraid." She rolled her eyes at that, and Harry smiled again.
Ginny, who was listening in to the conversation, suddenly stiffened. She had never felt fonder of Fleur than she suddenly did now. Ron had stopped eating and was eyeing Sia. "Fleur", announced Hermione rather loudly, and all eyes snapped to her, "is my friend Ron's sister-in-law. She is married to his eldest brother." She finished, gesturing towards Ron.
"Really?" Sia drawled and her eyes slowly turned to Ron's, who had a bit of spaghetti dangling from his mouth, and she looked at him with a very curious expression on her face, something like the cat that knows the cream is just round the corner. "And…is your brother anything like you…Ron?" she nearly leered.
Hermione bristled at the intended insult, and Ginny's eyes flashed fire. Ron, who took a moment longer to get the meaning, slowly started turning red. Harry frowned…talking about Fleur lightly when she obviously didn't know her relation to them was one thing, but deliberately insulting Ron and dragging Bill's name was quite another. He looked worriedly at the Weasleys, and felt his heart drop when he saw the look on Ginny's face. This could turn really ugly, because of all her brothers, Ginny probably idolized Bill the most. And she had a temper even worse than Ron's.
Sia looked at the people around her, and noticed Ginny about to pounce on her. One look at her hair and freckles, and she knew she was Ron's sister. Once she was certain that she had ruffled all the feathers around her, she turned to Ron and said rather sweetly, "Of course, I mean that in the nicest way possible."
Harry decided that he had to defuse the situation, otherwise the Gryffindors would be at each others throat right then and there. "Bill", he began gravely, "is a curse-breaker with Gringotts. He is a very nice man, and I like him." Then he looked pointedly at Sia.
Sia took the message and backed down. As she returned to her plate, however, Ginny decided to have a word. She could not let this newcomer insult Bill and get away with it, even if Harry's intervention on their behalf had mollified her slightly. "You said that Fleur was the super bitch at Beauxbatons while she was there…you didn't say who the super bitch is there now!" her allusion couldn't have been clearer.
Sia met her eyes squarely, and didn't break contact while she chewed her morsel. Then she gave a small smile and said, "Well, the position is up for grabs now…but, while I was there, I was." And she smiled again and went back to her food.
Ginny and Hermione were ready to bet she wasn't lying.
A/N: C'mon guys…don't just close this tab now….review, and let me know what you think. And please be gentle on Sia, she's my baby. :) R&R.