A/N: Here is chapter four! I'm so sorry it took so long! I've been really busy but I have been getting plenty of writing done, so I'll be posting a lot and frequently for the next two or three months. For those of you following Anomaly, thanks a lot for sticking with it! I'm always open to suggestions or ideas!
~Maya
Anomaly
Chapter Four
Hogwarts was, there was no other way to put it, amazing. Melanie's eyes bugged out upon seeing the huge castle atop the black cliffs, and her jaw literally dropped when she entered through the giant stone doors. It was truly a vision at night, when she came, with all the candles burning brightly and the fires emitting a different, wonderful kind of warmth. Immediately, Melanie shed her heavy jacket.
"They're enchanted fires, you know," said Mr. Evengle, his eyes twinkling. "It gets especially cold up on these cliffs at night, so the fires are enchanted to burn warmer than regular fires."
"Why not just install a heating system?" asked Mrs. Daniels, perplexed.
With a tinkling laugh, Mr. Evengle replied, "Magic and electricity don't go hand-in-hand. There's too much magic in these lovely walls. It'll make the currents go all wonky."
"Did you see the castle, mum?" Melanie whispered excitedly.
Sadly, her mother shook her head. "It was a weird, run down building, with a bunch of "Danger" signs all around it."
"Oh yes," said Mr. Evengle, "Hogwarts, to the Muggle eye, is a ruin. Usually, the castle is completely surrounded by Muggle-repelling charms, but the headmistress ordered them to be lax tonight, for your mother to enter."
Just when he finished speaking, an old woman with a tight smile and a pointy, witch's hat approached them. Her black robes, lined with red and gold, billowed behind her as she walked toward them in a manner that Melanie would describe tersely as assertive.
"Hello," she said, offering her hand to Melanie. Taken aback by her voice, which was full of age and a touch of grief, Melanie stood unmoving.
"Melanie," reproached her mother in hushed tones. "I'm sorry," she said to the witch, shaking her hand in the place of her daughter. "Melanie is exhausted from the travel. It's quite the complicated trip up to this school, you know."
The woman nodded, extending her smile by the tiniest amount. "Yes. I am Minerva McGonagall, Headmistress of Hogwarts. We welcome you very warmly to our school, and I do hope you'll work hard this summer to catch up to your year."
Nodding, Melanie asked, "What sort of work do I need to do?"
"Oh, there's plenty." Minerva McGonagall turned on her heel and led them down the hall, and Melanie found it extremely difficult to pay attention to her words as the castle danced before her eyes. Some parts, paintings and statues, were literally dancing. After walking up several flights of moving stairs, dodging a couple of suits of armor playing 'tag,' and desperately trying not to hear one of the paintings shout wild obscenities, they approached a large stone gargoyle. The headmistress stopped her explanation for a brief moment to mutter, "Licorice Wand" at the gargoyle, which then jumped aside to reveal a staircase, and then she continued talking to Melanie's deaf ears.
"And," concluded the headmistress, coming to a stop before a large desk, and then wheeling around to face them, "our Transfiguration professor is unavailable during the summer, despite the number of times we have tried to contact her—" she pursed her lips—"so I will be teaching you basic Transfiguration."
"Er, yeah," bluffed Melanie. Whatever happened, she would just have to go along with it.
"Headmistress?" said Mrs. Daniels.
"I like to be called Professor."
"Professor," said Mrs. Daniels, smiling. "I don't know if you know, but I'm going to move to a nearby location so that I can see Melanie from time to time. Mr. Evengle is taking me to meet with someone from your, er, Ministry tomorrow. Until I manage to sell my house and buy a new one, though, I'll need to stay at Hogwarts."
"Yes?" prompted Professor McGonagall, raising one eyebrow.
"Well, I was just wondering…it is very late and we are both so exhausted…I don't mean to be rude but where and when can we sleep?"
"Well, before we settle anything, there's the matter of House," said Professor McGonagall. "Hogwarts does things by tradition, and as long as I am around that isn't going to change. Melanie will need to be Sorted into one of the four Houses. I trust Mr. Evengle has explained these to you?" She turned to Mr. Evengle, who reached for his collar and immediately averted his eyes from Professor McGonagall's gaze.
"Ahem," he began, looking fixedly at Melanie, "Hogwarts students are Sorted at the beginning of their first years into one of four Houses, Ravenclaw, Gryffindor, Slytherin, and Hufflepuff."
Melanie couldn't help but let out a snort of laughter, to which Mr. Evengle gave a reproaching look.
"Anyway," he continued, "each House has its own dormitories, or quarters where its students sleep and spend time."
"So, because you are not a first year student, we are giving you the option of being Sorted or choosing your own House. Personally, I'd like to have the hat Sort you but…"
An old man in the large portrait behind Professor McGonagall's desk coughed a little too pointedly. Professor McGonagall pursed her lips again, something Melanie was beginning to understand as her irritated face, quite similar to her regular face. The man in the portrait smiled ever so slightly and his eyes twinkled just a little more than they already did.
"Hmm," said Melanie with mock thoughtfulness, "which funny-sounding name should I choose?" She glanced at Professor McGonagall, expecting her irritated face, and smirked slightly when she saw it there. Then, she turned to Mr. Evengle. "What House were you in, Evengle?" she asked.
He puffed up his chest and straightened his tie. "I was in Ravenclaw. Wit beyond measure is man's greatest treasure," he recited proudly. She stared at him, eyebrows raised. "It's where the intelligent students are Sorted," he said impatiently.
Melanie wrinkled her nose. "Sounds pretentious. So, Professor," she said, clapping her hands together, "you say some hat can Sort me?"
She nodded, and an oddly triumphant glint shone in her eyes.
"I think I'll do that," she said. "Leaving it up to chance. Sounds like an adventure."
Professor McGonagall had Melanie sit down in front of her desk, drew an old, tattered hat from a shelf, and placed it on the girl's head. Within one second, Melanie tore it off her head.
"What the hell?!" she yelled.
"Melanie!" her mother admonished.
"Mum, it talked to me!"
"Calm down, Melanie," said Professor McGonagall. "That's how it Sorts you. Please put the hat back on your head."
Sighing, Melanie resumed her position. The hat murmured creepily in her head for a few more moments, asking her which House she belonged in, to which she replied she didn't bloody well know, and finally it yelled (she was pretty sure it spoke out this time), "GRYFFINDOR!"
"Where dwell the brave at heart," said one of the portraits on the wall.
After her mother was long asleep, Melanie sat awake in her bed, twirling her wand in her hand and reading a book Mr. Evengle had recommended she buy, Hogwarts, A History. Her House had been created by Godric Gryffindor, and bore the crest of a lion and the symbol of bravery. Somehow, she felt the hat had been mistaken. She didn't feel very brave. As she tried to go to sleep, dread for the next day consumed her. Would she be mildly terrible at magic, or really terrible? Would her professors yell at her? Would they look down at her and give up on her? Worse, when term actually started, would all the students look at her like she was a freak? Would they shun her or pity her? Would they simply ignore her and treat her like she was doomed to be a failure?
Finally, just to shut her mind up so she could sleep, Melanie decided that there was absolutely no hope for a girl like her in this new world. She would just have to use what she had to make it work.
A/N: Chapter five is done, and only needs some editing work. It should be up in less than three days!
~Maya
