Chapter 5- Getting Ready for the Sorting
Soon, the school year would start. Natalie, still moving restlessly in her room, gazing at herself in the mirror. It was not in her nature to obsess about appearance but considering the significance of the occasion, she could not help scrutinizing herself. To Natalie's relief, she resembled more closely her father than her mother. Her father, who she had several photographs of as a result of Kalissa's meticulous searching, had been a short, mousy haired Muggle with muddy brown eyes. His name was David Claggerton, hard working and ordinary. Natalie had adopted those deep, murky brown eyes, his round face and according to Kalissa, his nervous and twitchy manners. Fortunately, Natalie had only received from Bellatrix long, wiry dark black hair and a slender, narrow body. Her mother's notorious heavily lidded eyes, high cheekbones and haughty looking face had not been passed on. Natalie did possess, to her intense dismay, Bellatrix's fiery temper and at times, uncontrollable aggression. But throughout her life, Kalissa had instilled in her a calm, well calculated approach to life and its problems. Bellatrix's personality had been to Natalie's relief somewhat eradicated or at least suppressed.
Natalie studied her face more closely. Her features were well proportioned but there was nothing extraordinary or detestable. She held neither the girlish softness or daring confidence that characterized attractive women. The lines and creases were clearly defined, the eyes wearisome and the mouth locked in a slight frown. Likely due to her worries about her mother. She looked older than a girl of sixteen. But she lacked the feminine curves and grace of a woman. Like most girls her age, Natalie found herself in the transition stage between the shallowness of childhood and the depth of adulthood. Natalie knew that she could not cross this threshold in a few easy strides; rather her path followed a complicated, rambling zigzag. And this zigzag always traced back to her mother, the woman who had wanted her dead.
Loneliness and despair once again attacked Natalie at the slightest implication of her mother's hatred for her. Natalie always conceded that Bellatrix did give birth to her. However, she refused to let herself be trapped in the childish hope of that occurrence being a product of motherly love. She knew her birth attributed more to Bellatrix's belief of the child being fathered by Bellatrix's pureblood husband. Once the humiliating truth was realized, her mother had set out to destroy the very thing she had let grow and develop within her body. Natalie shuddered. If not for Kalissa, Bellatrix would have succeeded. Apparently, Kalissa had lived in the same neighbourhood as David Claggerton, knowing him fairly well. She had learnt about his affair with Bellatrix and then strived to save him and his child from the maniac's wrath. Unfortunately, he had not been spared but Kalissa had rescued Natalie who Bellatrix had left to die in a terrible fire. Kalissa had raised Natalie like she was her own child. They were emotionally mother and daughter, sisters and best friends all at once.
Natalie's heart gave a lurch at the thought of Kalissa. She had recently received a letter from her guardian. The letter had been short and succinct, not revealing much except Kalissa's state and questions for Natalie about Hogwarts as well as a heartfelt "Good Luck". Natalie wondered how strong an aversion Kalissa had for Britain in order for her to leave Hogwarts. After the First War had concluded abruptly with the defeat of Voldemort at the tiny hands of baby Harry Potter, Kalissa had decidedly left Britain and Hogwarts to go teach at Durmstrang. She had witnessed too many horrors during Voldemort's reign. She had been in his year at Hogwarts and even then, had been exposed to the monster. Best friends, comrades, pleasant relatives and distant acquaintances had been destroyed at his order. In Britain, all she knew was devastation, heartbreak and brutal loss. Durmstrang offered an escape route, no matter how dreary a place , from the bombardment of such memories.
The distant rumble of a train interrupted Natalie's musings. The Hogwarts Express had arrived. Her school year would begin in a few hours. She could not contain the heavy nervousness at the bottom of her stomach which was now twisting itself into tight knots. She desperately hoped she would not be placed into Slytherin. Not the same house that had given birth to Voldemort and her mother. Dumbledore had said that the Sorting Hat took into consideration a person's choices so she decided Slytherin would definitely not be an option. Any of the other three houses would be acceptable though being in Hufflepuff would be slightly embarrassing.
She constantly wondered as to how the other students would react to her. These ponderings gave rise to more surges of dread and fear. Kalissa's family, the Malkaes, were known as a very dark, conservative family. Kalissa's uncle had been an accomplice of the evil wizard, Grindelwald, killing and torturing hundreds in Britain. Despite Kalissa's reputation as one of Voldemort's strongest opposers, the Malkae name still generated considerable distrust in the magical community, especially in Britain. So Natalie grimly supposed the Slytherins would attempt to befriend her, something she was determined to not let happen. The other students would likely just leave her alone and regard her with a mixture of curiosity and apprehension. She was destined for loneliness. This time without Kalissa.
She heard the swift, staccato clicking of shoes outside her door. Professor McGonagall had come to take her to the Opening Feast. Natalie breathed in deeply and after one last look at her former bedroom, left to begin a new journey in her life.