Sorted
They filed off the train in completely in silence, or the first years did. The older years talked loudly and greeted friends who they hadn't met on the train. It was a highly intimidating position to be in as Caly was nearly a head shorter than all the other first years who were all small to begin with. Being pushed around by a load of older students was actually quite scary. She was separated from her friends and could hear someone familiar shouting.
"First years o'er here." She was pushed to the ground and people stood on her without noticing her. She curled into a ball and waited for it all to end. The frequency off people tripping on her was decreasing. Then she felt someone out a hand on her shoulder and then lift her onto her feet. She dusted herself off and examined her hands. They were red and sore but they seemed to be not badly damaged. She looked up and saw the black haired boy who had interrupted Victorie on the platform. He looked even more similar to Albus up close, though he had brown eyes, black hair that had a reddish tint in the light and a couple of freckles on his nose meaning he looked quite a lot like Rose.
"Er.. Thanks, James, for saving me back there."
"No problem." They stood awkwardly and Caly was glad that this was happening in relative darkness because she found her self blushing. She knew it was because she had basically made a fool of herself in front of, undoubtedly, one of the most popular kids in school. She'd seen the stares that had been given to Rose and Al, but mainly Al. Caly had drawn the logical conclusion that the Potters must be really rich, famous or popular, possibly all three.
"Come on." James said eventually. "I'd best take you to Hagrid before he leaves without you and the carriages leave without me." James guided her by the elbow. Caly had to admit that she was still feeling a little fuzzy so only one thing registered in the sentence.
"Hagrid? The giant bloke?"
"Yeah, you know him?"
"He gave me my letter."
"Ah. That's what happened to my dad." Caly nodded. "I'm guessing that's how you know my name." He through this out casually but Caly knew enough to know that James was genuinely interest as how a muggle born knew his name.
"What? Er….no, actually I saw you on the platform. Your cousin got her boyfriend to lift my trunk onto the train after you disturbed them and then Al and Rose came to sit with us and I recognised the similarities between you, and Rose too I guess."
"Oh." They paused as they reached the shore and saw a little fleet of boats departing into the distance.
"Sh-oot."
"Wh-What's wrong?"
"All the first years cross the lake to school in the boats and if the boats have left it means the carriages have left too. Come on! We need to get into the grounds before they close the gates!" James grabbed Caly's elbow again and they ran back across the station and up towards the gates. To both their horror the gates were closing, albeit slowly but they were definitely closing. They ran across the paved path up to the gates.
They were gap was shrinking and Caly wondered it they'd actually make it. James roughly pushed her in front of him muttering how 'your part of the feast is more important.' She made it through and James squeezed through the gap sideways just afterwards. They stood there panting, breathing heavily, hands on knees. The adrenaline was coursing through them and they were grinning manically at each other. They couldn't believe they had made it through the gates. The gap had seemed so small. It had been fun and she knew James had enjoyed it too.
Eventually they recovered and began walking briskly towards the school. Hogwarts was a huge castle. The sheer scale was pretty mind blowing. The windows glittered like citrine quartz (a precious stone). She couldn't understand the peculiar feeling she got looking at it. She would have passed it off as some peculiar feeling to do with being in a place full of magic but she knew it had something to do with that this would be home for most of the year. She was planning on spending Christmas and Easter here.
"Are we going to be in trouble?"
"What?" James seemed to have been in a world of his own but then frowned as she repeated what she said "I can't see old McGonagall given us detention for missing the boat and carriages. You'll have to tell her, though, she'll probably think I'm making it up. I have a bit of a reputation as a pranking jokester." He said in answer to her questioning gaze.
"Oh."
They trudged on in silence. Caly found it unnerving; the noises from the forest, the creeping shadows that seemed to grow and move and, for some reason, James' silence. She had always pegged James as being loud by what she had seen on the platform and his confession about being a jokester and prankster. She found his silence weird. He had proven himself to be a confident, head-strong person. He probably had other things on his mind. What an uproar there would be when James Potter went missing. Though she didn't understand really what had happened. He understood that their father must be very famous. She turned back to the creepy, seemingly, moving shadows.
Caly blinked. She stared into the shadows by the edge of the forest. There was a shadow moving out there. She couldn't tell whether it was an animal or human but it seemed to be coming their way and she was pretty sure James hadn't noticed. Caly squinted at the moving shadow, focusing on it as best she could whilst moving at the brisk pace James had set. She thought it was a human, it shadow seemed to match theirs but just taller. She felt around for James' wrist and squeezed it to attract his attention. He jumped slightly.
"What?" he said at normal volume.
"Shhh. I think there's a person over there." Caly whispered this whilst she pointed in the direction of the figure. He squinted and then went a little pale.
"Yeah it looks like a person but who?"
"No idea. What do we do?"
"Keep walking casually. Try to make them think that they are safe." They continued walking in a very tense silence. Each twig being touched by the breeze was the soft footfall of a kidnapper. The soft crunch as the bird landed on the branch made her look over her shoulder. They were both furtively throwing glances at the persons shadow. They were still moving along, almost parallel to them but just half a step behind. Then James hit himself.
"James!"
"Sorry. I just remembered." James dug around in his pocket and pulled out a crumbled, very old piece of paper.
"Wha-"
"No time." He muttered so quietly that she barely caught his words. "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good." The map became covered in neat ink lines and tiny dots. She peered closer and saw it was a map!
"Wow!" James nodded. He began scanning the map. Caly soon caught on and pointed to the two ink dots labelled 'James Sirius Potter' and 'Catalina Hautly'. Then she heard James gasp. She tried to look at the name of the black dot that was almost parallel with them but James had already murmured
"Mischief managed." and the map went blank. "Come on" James was half running. The castle was much closer. They were speeding up but so was the figure. He was also cutting across the grass.
"James!" she cried as the distance between them became slighter and slighter. For the second time she found herself running full pelt towards a set of doors. But it was no use. The person was bigger and faster. They had reached the steps the man threw himself at her.
Caly crashed into the steps. She felt her head collide painfully with the top front step of Hogwarts. She let out a scream of pain and then another of fear. He was pressing his wand to her neck, painfully. He was pulling her hair and she screaming in pain as each prod from his wand sent a painful spasm through her body. James was trapped beneath her. Her wand was out of reach and even if she could what would be the point? She couldn't do any magic. The best thing she could with a wand would be to poke him in the eye, actually that wasn't such a bad idea. No!, don't get distracted.
"Give it to me!" The man was shouting in her face.
"What?" Caly could feel herself nearly sobbing.
"Give it to me or you die! And then I can kill Potter's son! Things are getting so much better!"
"Give you what? I don't have a clue what you're talking about!"
"Liar!" A particularly painful spasm shot through her.
"I swear." she sobbed. "Please don't hurt me or James! Don't you think I'd give it to you if I knew what it was! What is more important than my and my fiends lives?"
"Ha!" The man spat. "You really don't have a clue! If you had you would never have that attitude."
"So now will you let me go?" Caly was pretty sure she knew what the answer would be and why.
"NO! I can't let you go. Trust me you'll be glad you died this way, no pain."
"But I don't know who you are!"
"Ahh, you're relatively smart, well that's all well and good but the Potter boy certainly does." Caly's hand had been groping the ground to find something to hit him with and she was pretty sure she had found something. The trouble was she thought that she was lying on part of it so the best she could do was move up a bit and swing at him.
"Who'll go first?"
"Me." Caly said defiantly. "I'm not afraid of death." That was lie but she hoped the man wouldn't see that. She was trying to catch him off guard. It did the job perfectly. He released the pressure a bit in the shock and she took her moment because it was the only chance she had. She brought the solid something up and heard James give a cry of 'Arrgh' moments before it slammed into the mans face. She realised in those seconds she had used James' foot. She shoved him off her and pulled James to his feet. She stamped once on his wand and heard it crack before darting in.
They leaned against the door trying to comprehend what had just happened. They had been attacked in Hogwarts. She had thought Hogwarts a really safe place, maybe because it was a castle but she had assumed there had been rules in place to stop psychopathic maniacs murdering students. She felt a hand on her shoulder. She turned to see James.
"You okay?" Caly shrugged and then looked around.
"What now?"
"Well I think we're going to have to go to the feast, you need to be sorted."
"Oh." James led her across to a set of giant oak doors. They both leaned against them for a moment before they pushed them open.
Silence descended when they entered the hall. This was probably to be expected it was James Sirius Potter who had been missing (Caly knew of his middle name from the map.). Quite a lot of people were giving her curious stares. Then she remembered she had been rolling around on the front steps. Her robes were filthy and ripped. Her hair was a complete mess and the right side of her head hurt more than she could believe. There was also some blood from her fall. James was just dirty, dishevelled and limping because of how she'd grabbed his ankle.
Professor McGonagall was the first to recover from their state. "Filius." She said to a tiny man with a very white beard. "Fetch the stool and the hat, please, we have one student left to sort." The man hurried out of the hall muttering and wiping his wrinkled face with a handkerchief. "Mr Potter kindly take your seat at Gryffindor. Miss Hautly kindly wait up here, Professor Flitwick will return with the sorting hat and stool soon.
It was easily some of the most awkward moments ever in her life. The teachers all settled down quickly and resumed their conversations. However they kept looking at her. Only Hagrid made eye contact and she swiftly gave him the thumbs up to say she was okay. The students were worse. Many did not resume their meal but opted to stare at her. The ones eating kept throwing her glancing but much less subtle than the ones the teachers gave.
Flitwick arrived holding the hat and stool and everyone stopped eating. They were given a chance to stare and they took full advantage of it. Flitwick placed the stool down and she sat on it. She glanced at the Gryffindor table, they all gave her the thumbs up; Rose, Albus, James, some people that were cousins and Scorpius, it seemed he'd got the best and worst deal. Then the hat went on her head and Scorpius flew from her head by what the hat was doing.
'Hmmm' a voice said.
"Are you the hat?"
"Mmmhmm. Now about you. Not Slytherin you don't fit. I could never put a muggle born there. Besides you aren't cunning, ambitious yes but cunning no. Ravenclaw could take you far, for you have brains in great amounts. Yes a thirst for knowledge, Ravenclaw would do you good. Your mind thinks in a way have seen many Ravenclaws' work. You value everything Hufflepuff holds dear. Your loyalty extends to any who do you a kindness. Receive a little and you will pay back a lot more. Compassionate, too I see. Your up bringing has taught that. But how you have courage, a strong Gryffindor you would make. Yes just now, out in the grounds. You showed more courage than many would have, more than you think. Your statement was as far from the truth as you may think. You would readily die had he held a friend. I guess….it's your choice."
"My choice?"
"Yes pick a house."
"Fine Gryffindor with my friends,."
"Very well."
"GRYFFINDOR!" The hat bellowed and Caly jumped up and ran across to her friends. They squeezed up and she ended up opposite James.
"How does it feel being a Gryffindor?"
"Fantastic!" Then she collapsed.