Moonchild

Chapter 16

Seleneo

"I won't be able to meet you for lunch," Seleneo said as he and Luna headed towards Flitwick's classroom. "I have a meeting with Professor McGonagall about my internship with Ollivander."

"You know when you're doing that?" Luna asked. Seleneo was pleased to see that she had decided to wear her headdress for the second day in a row.

"No, that's what this meeting is about," said Seleneo. "If I can get away with it I want to see if I can't finish out the year here at school and then start with Ollivander next fall."

"Well that'd be good," said Luna. "Then you'd have a whole year with the best wandmaker in Britain."

"That's what I'm thinking," said Seleneo. "Plus, you could write me the Hogsmeade weekends and I could transfer to the Hogsmeade branch those weeks."

"Sounds like you've got it all figured out," said Luna.

Not hardly, thought Seleneo.


"So," said Minerva McGonagall sharply, "I presume you know why you are here."

"To discuss my internship with Ollivander's, I hope," said Seleneo.

"Yes," she affirmed. "I have spoken with Mr. Ollivander and he is more than willing to accept you as an intern. My first question, then, is if you had a particular start date in mind? He said he could take you as soon as next term."

"I've thought about it," said Seleneo, "and I almost think it would be better to start in the fall. I mean, if I started in January, I'd only be there for one term and then I'd be going back home for two and a half months, so I'd have plenty of time to forget everything I'd have learned from working with him. If I come back and do it in the fall, at least I'd have a whole year with him without too much interruption."

"Good point," admitted McGonagall. "We'll take that into consideration. Now, my next question –"

"Professor!" called someone from behind Seleneo. He turned to see professor Slughorn in the doorway. "Professor, you need to come quick. We've got a situation that requires your attention. There's no time to explain!"

"Very well, Horace," said McGonagall, and she got up from her desk. "Mr. Moonchild, I trust I can leave you here alone without you breaking anything?"

"Of course," said Seleneo. "Go do whatever you need to do, Professor."

She hurried out of the office behind Slughorn, and so there was Seleneo alone in her office. He'd been in here before but had never really gotten to take it all in before. There were tables covered in bizarre silver instruments that whirred and smoked. There was an impossible number of books covering every inch of the walls, and on top of one of the bookshelves, there laid the Sorting Hat.

"I wonder…" Seleneo thought out loud. He got up and removed the Sorting Hat from its resting place. Then he sat back down and put it on.

"Well, well," said a small voice inside his head. "So you're the foreigner. Yes, I've heard of you. I've heard you talk, even. There isn't much that goes on in this school that I don't hear about, you know. So I imagine you're wondering, since you've put me on, what house you would've been in had I sorted you like everyone else."

"Yes, I was wondering that," Seleneo admitted.

"Of course you were, it's right here in your head…not the first time I've said that. Now let's take a look, shall we?" The hat went silent for a moment. Then it spoke again. "It appears they made a good choice by putting you in Ravenclaw. What a brain you've got! A very fine one, I must admit, and I couldn't tell you how many brains I've seen. Actually I could tell you if I thought about it, but who has the time, really? Yes, you'll definitely do well when academia is concerned. Ah, but while this all holds true, I see a serpent inside you, boy. Yes, a fine Slytherin you would've made, too. Hmm…I believe, for once, that I may be stumped. You seem to be straddling the line between Ravenclaw and Slytherin. I'll have to think about this…I'm not sure where I would've placed you if you had gone through the Sorting with the rest of the First Years."

"Fantastic," Seleneo sighed. "So essentially I'm an evil genius."

"I didn't say that," retorted the Hat. "Slytherin holds the ideals of cunning, resourcefulness, and self-preservation in high esteem. I can see you possess all those qualities. You also have a desire to prove yourself in some way, although why you would still wish this is beyond me. You have more than proved yourself to the staff and the members of your own house, as well as some from other houses. I think Ravenclaw is a good place for you, though. It will stimulate your mind in a way that Slytherin could not. Remember these words, though: Slytherin has his reputation, but he isn't always evil, and he is not always wrong*. Now, quickly, put me back. Minerva approaches."

Seleneo placed the Sorting Hat back where it was and sat back down just in time for McGonagall to walk through the door.

"Right, now that's settled," she said as she strode back over to her desk. "So, where were we?"


Seleneo sat with Luna that night at dinner just like he always did, but it was a struggle not to tell her straight away about his meeting with McGonagall, both the good and the bad.

"So what's Luna's day been like?" Seleneo asked as they tucked into smoked salmon.

"Luna's day has been uneventful," Luna replied. "Luna is ok with this."

"Good, good," Seleneo said, attempting to keep the conversation light. "Ok, I can't keep this up," he said finally. "I have something to tell you."

Luna looked up at this, worry full in her eyes. "What?" she asked.

"I had my meeting with McGonagall," he continued, "and it turns out…I'll be starting at Ollivander's next fall."

"That's good!" said Luna, clearly relieved.

"Yes," said Seleneo, and then his eyes darkened, "but there's something else, too. McGonagall had to leave her office at one point, so I was in there by myself. I put the Sorting Hat on while she was gone, and I think if I'd gone through the Sorting like a First Year it would've put me in Slytherin."

"Well," Luna said, only the faintest trace of apprehension in her eyes, "that's not awful. I mean, Slytherin isn't like it used to be."

"It's still enough like it was to be a bad thing," Seleneo sighed. "Thing is, it makes sense considering the things I've done in the past."

"The past is over," said Luna. "It's pointless to dwell on it."

"The hat said something else, too," Seleneo continued. "It said, 'Slytherin has his reputation, but he isn't always evil and he is not always wrong.' What do you suppose that means?"

"We'll see," she replied.


*From the song "The Stranger", by Billy Joel