Mrs. Weasley brushed herself off and ran down to the kitchen to start Rylee's birthday cake and Harry ran upstairs with Ron to their room shutting the door behind them.
"So… Happy birthday Rylee." said Ginny, as she watched the boys disappear from view.
"Its fine I'm used to it, my mom used to make me wait until after dinner to open presents or till she'd say Happy birthday."
"I remember that, the night before, auntie would call us and tell us not to say Happy birthday until after dinner and to act like it was a completely normal visit." Rylee nodded.
"Wow! That is completely different from my mom."
"I noticed." Ginny started laughing but stopped, as they heard the boys galloping down the stairs and stopping right in front of Rylee holding boxes for her to open making all of the girls start laughing. The boys glanced at each other before looking at the girls confused. "Sorry it was just funny the way you…never mind. You guys didn't have to get me presents!"
"Yes we did, it's mandatory now that we met you, right Harry?" Harry nodded. "Besides if I didn't get you a present my mum would kill me" Ginny elbowed Ron in the ribs making him drop the gift but before it hit the ground Rylee caught it with one hand and got ready to open it.
"Nice catch!" Harry's eyes changed from confusion to wonder in a blink. "Did you ever play Quidditch over in Romania?"
"No, but I've always wanted to! I love the idea of flying on a broom and playing the game in midair!"
"You should try out at school in sure you'd make it on a team!" Rylee smiled at Harry and open her present from Ron.
"Wow! Completely on topic Ron!" She pulled a book out of the box. "A complete guide to Quidditch and all its wonders." she smiled and hugged Ron for her gift.
"All right, now its time for the long awaited gift from Harry!" Harry glared at Hermione, as she giggled. Rylee gently took the box, which had many holes in the top and sides, from Harry and stuck her finger in one of the holes. She looked up at Harry with wide eyes and quickly opened the box to find a kitten purring like a maniac hoping for attention.
"Oh my god! Thank you Harry it's adorable!" Rylee took the kitten out of the box and inspected its gender while it complained a little. "Sorry, I meant she's adorable!" She gave the kitten to Hermione and hugged Harry for the wonderful gift. Once she let go of Harry she took the kitten back from Hermione and hugged her, petting her gently.
"What are you going to name her?" Ginny looked at the beautiful kitten with interest.
"Evan!" Harry looked up at her with curiosity. "I have always liked it and I've wanted to name something that ever since I can remember."
"AH! It seems that you have returned!" Everyone turned to see Dumbledore standing there hiding something behind his back. "What I have is nothing compared to a book of Quidditch or a lovely kitten, which looks to be part Kneazle and part Maine Coon" Rylee glanced at the cat and nodded. "But what I do have has a lot to do with your future" Dumbledore took his hand out from behind his back to reveal a old frayed hat "This is the sorting hat it will sort you into your correct house at Hogwarts there is Gryffindor for the brave, Hufflepuff for the loyal, Ravenclaw for the wise, and Slytherin for the sly and cunning" Ron coughed sounding a lot like 'and evil'. Dumbledore glanced at him for a moment and returned his attention to Rylee. As she sat on the arm of the largest sofa in the room, with Evan in her lap rubbing her fingers with affection, Dumbledore placed the old hat on to her head.
"Your wise and very observant," Said the hat as it talk to her mind "You watch the parade from above noticing any turn fate may take which makes me think Ravenclaw, but you have been exposed to danger where you showed nothing but bravery so that brings me to me conclusion." Saying aloud to the room "GRYFFINDOR!" Rylee looked around at the others who were all sighing with relief.
"That's the house all of us are in."
"Really?" They all nodded looking at her with smiling faces. "Wow and I thought that my lucky strike during this week had ended."
"Who would let it stop?" Harry said trying to reassure Rylee.
"Well certainly not you guys." Rylee replied as she sent Evan on the ground where she walk on to Rylee's foot and sat down as everyone laughed. "Well now how am I going to walk? You silly little kitten." Evan looked up at Rylee and replied with a tiny meow and getting up off of Rylee's foot, but then she jumped, with difficulty, onto the sofa and on to the arm climbing onto Rylee's shoulder. Evan's journey ended with rubbing her head against Rylee's cheek making Hermione and Ginny 'Awwww'.
"I guess I made the right choice in picking a suitable companion for you." Harry said as he smiled.
"Yes you did and I'm sure if we placed the hat on her then she would be either placed in Hufflepuff or Ravenclaw." She said looking at Dumbledore with a mischievous grin on her face.
"What do you mean?" Ron asked obviously confused.
"I mean that this affection most likely means she's incredibly loyal, therefore Hufflepuff, and the fact that she understood what I was saying to her and figured out a way to let me walk while having her still sit on me makes her surprisingly wise for her age, so therefore Ravenclaw."
"Mate you just used hat logic." Ron said with his jaw dropping slightly.
"Well 'mate' its that same logic that totally kicked your arse at wizard's chess yesterday." Ron's face immediately turned from shock at Rylee to a glare at Harry. Seeing this reaction Harry roared in laughter causing everyone else to struggle keeping their giggles from surfacing. At that moment Mrs. Weasley walked into the room looking expectantly at Dumbledore.
"If you'll excuse me I must go, congratulations on your entry into Gryffindor." Dumbledore followed Mrs. Weasley into the kitchen as Rylee sat on the floor and played with Evan.
"He left the hat." Ron pointed out, "We should see if Rylee is correct."
"Ron, I don't think the Sorting Hat will work on animals." Hermione stated as Ron went over and pick up the hat.
"Just let him try Hermione, it will be funny to see his reaction when nothing happens."
"I don't know, Ginny" Rylee said taking the hat from Ron, "I think it will work." Rylee put the hat on Evan and everyone waited patiently.
"RAVENCLAW!" The hat shouted causing everyone to jump and the cat to sprint out from under the hat up to Rylee's shoulder to hide under her hair.
"Evan, it's okay it's just a hat that talks, it won't hurt you." Rylee explained to the cat, but it seemed Evan was content where she was because she didn't move.
"GINNY, HERMIONE, RYLEE! HURRY UP OR WE'LL MISS THE TRAIN!" Ron shouted
"Ronald, don't be silly we have two hours to get to the station." Mrs. Weasley informed him.
"RON, YOU STILL HAVEN'T FULLY PACKED YET EITHER SO SHUT UP!" Came Ginny's voice from upstairs followed by bursts of giggles. Ron rolled his eyes and made his way up the stairs and to his room where Harry was just putting one last item in his trunk.
"How you could have a crush on that girl and her maniac with fur is beyond me." Ron stated as he gathered his things and shoved them into his trunk.
"I don't have a crush on Evan, Ron." Harry said as he sat down on his bed. "You only don't like her because she always beats you at wizards chess."
"You have a crush on Evan?" both boys looked up to see Rylee in the doorway looking curiously at Ron with Evan sitting on her shoulder.
"Oh yeah sure! I definitely have a crush on her it's at the point where I can't stop thinking about her night and day and when she's in the room… oh it's just so wonderful!" Ron said overdramatically yet secretly mocking Harry. He walked over and picked Evan off of Rylee's shoulder and spun around. "Evan, let's get married!"
"See Hermione, I told you my brother was insane." Ginny and Hermione giggled as they ran down the stairs with Ron not too far behind.
"He was joking right?" Harry nodded. "Okay good because I don't think their children would look very pretty." Harry smiled and rolled his eyes at her.
"Come on, lets go downstairs to rescue your cat from the dangerous clutches of Ronald Weasley." Rylee laughed as Harry dragged her down the stairs. Once they were downstairs Mrs. Weasley opened the door and ushered them outside into a car as well as summoning all of the trunks into the trunk of the car.
"Ron, you might want to let go of Evan before you get bit." Ron looked at her then looked down at Evan who started to growl at Ron. At that he instantly let go of Evan, who ran over everyone's laps and into Rylee's grasp. "So Harry, do you know when Quidditch tryouts are?"
"No idea, that's actually up to the Gryffindor Quidditch captain who has yet to be decided by Dumbledore." Harry said looking out the window.
"And hopefully the captain of our team will be Harry." Ron said patting Harry on the back.
Soon they pulled into the station and got all their stuff on separate trolleys. Rylee picked up Evan and looked at her for a moment, then put her on the ground while turning to her cousin.
"Do you think it would be alright if Evan just stayed on my shoulder? I have a feeling she won't like being put in a cage." Rylee asked Hermione.
"I think I would be alright as long as she stays with you." With that Evan jumped on to the trolley and then climbed onto Rylee's shoulder. They walked to the platform and ran through the portal and boarded the train finding an empty compartment. Once they got all settled they sat in the seats waiting for their journey to Hogwarts to begin. Ron, Hermione, and Ginny left soon after to go to their Prefect meeting leaving Harry and Rylee alone.
"So, do you want to play Wizard's Chess or something?" Harry asked Rylee nervously. Rylee looked at him for a moment with a frown on her face, which made him feel that she could sense his nervousness.
"Don't you think we've played enough Wizard's Chess to last us a while?" She asked him with a raised eyebrow.
"Yeah, I don't know where Ron's board is either." Rylee just looked at him in wonderment, "What? I couldn't think of anything else we could do." Rylee just shook her head at him. As the trip continued Harry made more and more a fool of himself causing Rylee to laugh at his expense, and when Hermione, Ron, and Ginny re-enter the compartment they found a hysterically laughing Rylee and a blushing Harry.
"What happened?" Ginny asked Rylee.
"Well the cart lady came by and…" She broke out laughing again and couldn't even utter a word.
"Alright Harry since Rylee is obviously not able to tell us what happened let alone utter a word it's up to you." Hermione said looking worriedly at Rylee.
"Well I um…" Harry looked down for a second, "Rylee said something and the milk that I had ordered from the cart lady blew out of my nose onto Evan, who is now hiding with our luggage away from me." Everyone was silence for a moment (except for Rylee who was still laughing up a storm) letting the story sink in and then they all started laughing including Harry. After a while Rylee got Evan down from the luggage and went to the bathroom with her uniform to wash Evan up and change.
"Rylee come on we need to get to the carriages!" Hermione yelled.
"What about our luggage?" She asked.
"That will be taken care of for us. Now, come on!" Hermione grabbed Rylee's arm and pulled her to the carriages. Rylee froze as she saw the Thestrals and frowned. Harry notice what she was looking at.
"You can see them?" Rylee nodded and sniffed rubbing her eye and she climbed into the carriage. They rode up to the castle in silence as everyone tried not to watch Rylee silently cry knowing she didn't want it to be acknowledged quite yet. Evan notice the tears has they fell onto her head. She looked up at her mistress and climbed onto her shoulder nuzzling and licking her cheek to rid the tears. Rylee giggled as Evan's tongue tickled her face making everyone glad to see her smiling. They arrived at the castle and Professor McGonagall approached Rylee.
"Ms. Rylee, I am Professor McGonagall, head of Gryffindor house and Transfiguration teacher." Rylee shook her hand in reply. "I wanted to tell you that Headmaster Dumbledore would like to speak to you and Mr. Potter after the feast if you would so kindly tell him. Mr. Potter will lead you to his office but the password to get in is Sherbet Lemon. And since you will miss your prefects telling you the password to your common room that is Mimbulus mimbletonia." Rylee nodded and ran to catch up with the others.
"Harry!" Rylee whispered when she was finally next to him. He turned to her with a questioning gaze. "Dumbledore wants to talk to you and I after the feast in his office I have the password for it as well as the one for the Gryffindor portrait." Harry nodded and sat down at the table with Ginny, Hermione, and Ron bidding Rylee to do the same, which she did. Evan climbed down from her shoulder on to Rylee's lap peeking her head over the table top, which caused Hermione and Ginny to giggle quietly as the double doors opened revealing the first years to be sorted.
Once the feast was over Harry led Rylee away from Ginny telling her that they had to go see Dumbledore. They walked in silence as Rylee and Evan were looked around at the scenery and Harry was wondering what Dumbledore could want. Rylee gave the password to the statue once they had arrived and they climbed up the long staircase. Harry knock on the door and after hearing a distant 'come in' he opened the door to reveal Dumbledore's office to Rylee.
"Oh good Minerva spoke to you." Dumbledore said, "Please sit." He gestured to two comfy looking armchairs in front of his desk. "I'm sure you two are wondering why I asked you to come here." They both nodded. "Well this will effect you both greatly, but more so you Rylee." Rylee looked confused. "Your parents never told you this but you were adopted when you were less then a year old."
" But then… Wait what?" Rylee said as she was very confused.
"Your name as you know it is Rylee Oceanus Young, am I correct." Rylee nodded and Dumbledore smile. "Well, not only is that not your real name but your appearance was transfigure to be different."
"Sir, could you cancel the transfigurations and tell me my real name." She said as she cast a glance at Harry thinking she knew what was coming.
"Certainly." Dumbledore waved his wand at her and her appearance immediately started changing. Her hair changed from a light golden blonde to a deep red brown (still very curly, her eyes change from a deep sapphire blue to an ocean blue, that you could literally drown in, her freckles got darker and some of her facial features changed making Harry double take. The last thing to appear on her was a Crescent moon on her right temple. Dumbledore handed her a mirror and she gasp. " Your real name is Oceanus Rylee Potter."