Hello!
Welcome to Non Omnis Moriar!
This took me the better part of my Nanowrimo journey and I have had this idea for a while. Hope you enjoy it!
Disclaimer: All canon content belongs to JK Rowling. Original content, characters, depictions, belong to me.
I stood at the foot of the stairs, leading up to the small dais on which sat the four legged stool. Atop it, was the ratty, heavy looking Sorting Hat that Mum had told me about. It looked as tattered as she had mentioned while helping me pack.
So, this was what was going to decide my fate in here? I thought; looking about to see if anybody else looked as worried as I felt.
Next to me stood a black haired boy, thick black hair falling into his eyes, glasses resting loosely on his nose. The thin line of his pursed lips reassured me.
"So, we just have to try it on! I'll kill Fred; he was going on about wrestling a troll!" The redhead boy next to him exclaimed. I peered at him; he'd definitely be a Weasley.
I noticed the other boy looking relieved. Typical, that hat was still worrying to me. What if it sorted me into Slytherin?
Weren't people worried about that?
My thoughts were interrupted once Professor McGonagall strode forward, her thin figure stoic as she held up a long parchment in her bony hands.
"Abbott, Hannah," she called.
A chubby girl with pigtails moved forward, looking pale. The hat was placed on top of her head.
HUFFLEPUFF!
I jumped, even as the table to the far right broke into applause. The hat was lifted to reveal Hannah looking distinctly pink as she rushed to the table. I saw the people come up to introduce themselves when –
"Alton, Roselle,"
I gulped, my head turning to look at McGonagall looking into the mass of students. I slowly took a step forward, my eyes fixed on the hat that hung from her fingers.
Shifting onto the stool, my eyes met the black haired boy's, an awkward smiling gracing my lips. His own twitched, returning the slight grimace in brief camaraderie before the hat flopped on my own head.
It was too big, coming down to cover the top of my head, stopping at the bridge of my nose.
So then, an Alton is it?
I didn't move.
Curious, I'm curious as to where I should put you…your mother was a Hufflepuff…yet, you…you seem mighty…unpredictable…should I say?
I remained frozen.
"You have a distinct air in you but should I risk it…? Might as well…you'll be…
GRYFFINDOR!
I sat where I was, eyes wide and gaping, feeling the hat be removed from me. My eyes met the anticipating students, specifically the table in the center that was clapping.
Shakily getting to my feet, I stumbled towards them, passing the mass of waiting students. "Best of luck," I whispered, feeling some of them nod.
The smooth bench felt comforting when I sat down, next to a noble looking ghost who smiled kindly at me. I smiled in turn, accepting the congratulations and welcomes that were thrown my way. Taking a deep, calming breath, I turned to look back at the Sorting. People joined various tables, Hermione Granger coming to sit in front of you. I shook her hand with fervor, she would be a good friend to have, I decided. We were later joined by Seamus Finnigan and Neville Longbottom.
It took a while to get to the black haired boy who'd gotten me curious…and rightly so.
"That's Harry Potter?" I asked out loud, joining the crowds that looked round for a better look at the Boy Who Lived. There was silence, more than a few moments passing before -
GRYFFINDOR
Of course he would be…
I applauded with everyone, Harry stumbling to the table just as I had and collapsing into the space I scooted over to make for him. Shouting erupted from the table, "WE GOT POTTER!" clearly heard in the hall.
The ghost next to me reached down, patting him on the shoulder. I caught him shivering while Ron Weasley joined us too.
The boy beamed at his friend before turning to me. "Hello," he said. I looked up with a smile. "Hi, I'm Roselle Alton." I introduced.
"Harry Potter," he nodded, looking sheepish when I laughed, an 'I know,' falling from my lips accidentally.
"I'm Ron Weasley," the other boy introduced, looking away from – his brother – sticking his own large palm out for me to shake.
"Roselle Alton," I shook it.
The door to the Room of Requirement swung open, my companion pressing on with arms wrapped tightly around my now sore body. I caught people getting to their feet as we staggered in.
"Blimey, Ro, what happened to you?" A voice questioned.
"Got in the way of Amycus," I heard Anthony Goldstein mumble. Oh, so it was him who managed to drag me in.
There were sighs soon to follow.
"Rose, hey, can you hear me?" I felt a weight press on my head. Hands cupped my ears and a wand tapped against my temple.
"Yes, yeah, I'm good." I shook my head; the haze of whatever spell, Carrow had shot me with slowly disappearing. I got to my feet. "Just you wait till I get my wand aimed at Amycus Carrow."
Neville, my healer, looked worried. "You can't go back out now, Ro. You're still a little concussed and you probably would stupefy yourself."
"You sound like Hermione."
"That is exactly what she would say. Just wait till we're all good enough to attend classes for a while again." He began.
"I can't do that. Pamela is still out there." I scorned. The very idea of my little sister being in the eye line of the freaking Death Eaters made me want to punch something in muggle fashion.
"It would be better to let Pamela go about alone. If they see you around with her they might think she's involved with us. For now, the best thing for Pam is for you to stay here and stay down." Seamus finally spoke up.
I spun around to my other friend, halting a bit at the sight of his badly cut face. Gashes ran across his unchanged shirt, flecks of blood dotting the fabric. With the fact that we could be attacked anytime if we stayed in our dorms, going to and fro was out of the question. The room of requirement could only help us smuggle so much…and there were so many people. At this point, food and water was more important than clothes.
"So, what did you do?" Parvati Patil asked, a little timidly.
I glanced at her. Her hair was coming down from her plait, hanging uncombed as she huddled against her Ravenclaw twin. "They caught me; well…trying to sneak some third years out of detention."
"Oh, Rose…" She groaned immediately.
"What else was I supposed to do? They were taking them to the Forbidden Forest; dangling them at the Acromantulas…I could've hardly sat back and done nothing!"
"It's fine. You were doing what you thought was right." Neville soothed, wrapping an arm around my shoulders to pull me away from the prying ears and eyes. He motioned over my shoulder for something, setting me down near the back on a squashy armchair.
"We need to fix you up. You have a bad cut and I'm not that great a healer."
"I can do muggle bandaging." Seamus offered his hands full of muggle medical supplies. "Unless, you want to go to Madame Pomfrey," he added hesitantly.
"No, no, I'll take it. I can't risk Madame Pomfrey getting in trouble if I get caught." I rubbed at the flaky skin at my forehead, the slow sear of the curse making it known now.
Seamus nodded, dropping the rolls of gauzy fabric in my lap and grabbing one. He unrolled it before starting to wrap it around my head, tongue caught between his teeth.
"Hey, Seamus?" I called.
"Yeah,"
"You think what I did was right? I should've thought about what I did a little more?"
Seamus paused, using his wand to tighten the bandage around my head. He gazed down at me with a soft kindness that was rare, even here.
"No, Ro, you did well. You did what Harry would do. Without him here, we're looking at you and Neville to do what they would, you know."
I nodded glumly, not quite satisfied as to his consolation. My eyes were drawn to my scuffed shoes, Seamus leaving to give me some space. I pulled my wand out, rapping it against my head again, concentrating hard on making the pain go away.
Unfortunately, I was worse than Neville. The pain remained.
"If I get my hands on Harry bloody Potter, I am going to choke the life out of him." I blurted out.
There was a lull in the crowds in the room of requirement. Most students had healed enough from previous injuries to attend classes, to try and get an ear in on what was happening. Others were on missions to get basic sustenance. The ones on the recent hit list – me, Neville, Seamus, Terry Boot stayed in.
"That would make you a right sight better in the eyes of the Death Eaters." Terry mumbled from his hammock, eyes still closed. I glared at his unconcerned position.
"Aren't you the least bit concerned? Those three are alone, doing reckless things that have been just getting them more and more attention." I snapped.
"Doesn't matter, as long as they are safe and alive," Neville reminded me.
"Yeah, you can be sure You-know-who would be banging his drums if Harry was found."
I fell silent before huffing, scrambling to my feet. Neville and Seamus both frowned, watching me pull my tattered robes on. "Where are you going?" Neville asked.
"Outside, I am going to have a word with someone." I said.
"It's dangerous, Ro. Stop," Neville began to get to his feet but the door had already materialized, allowing me to slip out as it swung shut again, closing my friends in safely.
The corridor was dead silent. Taking a wild look around just in case Filch was lurking about or one of the Carrows, I slipped away in to the shadows, taking a well rehearsed path down to the back courtyard. If it was one thing the Carrows seemed to fear, it was open confrontation – and if they were feeling particularly brave, I could still run away.
My hand tightened around my wand in my pocket – just in case.
The heels of my shoes tapped against the cobbled stones, pillars passing in my vision until I neared the stone carved archway.
Peering outwards, I managed to catch the barest of movements in the tree line. Was it Firenze? Was he still wandering about the grounds, apart from his hoard, looking out for danger?
"Helena," I called softly instead, turning my head back, looking for any signs of silver mist.
Nope, nothing…
The Grey Lady stayed absent even as I waited. Helena had been an unlikely ally, finding me crouching behind a statue of her own mother, desperate to get back to safety while Alecto Carrow prowled about, looking to maybe finish me off. She had been as kind as one could expect a ghost to be, bringing me to Professor McGonagall who allowed me to hide in her office and patched me up. The scabs had vanished just a week ago.
I had tried to find her again, to thank her, only to notice that she was lonely. Maybe, as lonely as I felt now…
It was pure coincidence that friendship had kindled and Luna Lovegood had been one of our mutual connections, her being taken by the death eaters a common source of anger to both of us.
She didn't seem to be in a mood to converse today, it seemed. After all, she was a ghost. And a temperamental one at that…
I slid off the parapet, turning on my heel to slink back to the room of requirement. Hoping one of the people managed to bring in some decent food, I turned a corner lazily, passing by the Bloody Baron.
His unseeing eye turned carelessly at me, the chains around his neck moving with him. If they were really there, I could almost hear the eerie jangle they would've made.
His eyes stayed on me, surprisingly focused as I ducked my head, trying to pass by without making too much of a fuss. The Bloody Baron rarely gave a damn about the students, but he was a Slytherin in a Slytherin reign school. Maybe his inner evil had awoken…
So busy I had been to walk away unnoticed that I ruined just that, slamming into someone who rounded the same corner as me.
Head crashing against something solid, pain erupted in the side of my temple, ravaging my consciousness. I gasped, grasping at the walls for support, blinking away the spots in my vision.
This was it. They had found me…I was dead. Neville had said it was too dangerous.
"Miss Alton, May I ask what you are doing, skulking around the castle? Do you not have a class right now? And pray, what has happened to you?"
Through tears of pain gathered at my eyes, I caught sight of a sweep of emerald robes, a silver brooch glinting at a stern collar before the wizened face of Minerva McGonagall was clear to me.
"Hurt…Amycus, he cursed me yesterday…" I panted, still clutching my head, trying to physically push the pain away.
There was a pause in which McGonagall stared at me before hands clasped my shoulders, ushering me in the other direction. I heard a muffled mutter of the disillusionment charm being cast over me, the cold egg-drop feeling soothing some of the pain in my head.
There was brief period of black after that, right until I was pushed into McGonagall's office. Collapsing into one of her chairs, I heard her start up her fire, coming to sit in the chair behind her desk. She observed me, taking deep breaths to control the shooting pangs, lessened into a slow flame that was ignited against my skin.
She raised her wand, the bandages that were clumsily wrapped around my forehead simply falling off. I took my hand away, gritting my teeth to keep from grimacing as she keenly gazed at the open wound.
"That is one nasty curse you were hit with, Miss Alton." Finally my head of house sighed.
"I can tell, Professor." I replied drily, meeting her sharp eyes with my lowered ones.
"There is not much I can do for an injury like that. You're going to need a trained healer for the effects of the curse to go away completely. I can however, make a better work of bandaging you than your classmates."
Were my eyes deceiving me or did McGonagall twinkle at me?
She got to her feet, coming to my side to gently tip my head back, tutting at the sight of my head before placing her wand at my temple. At once there was a lift, the pounding in my head lessened just so, allowing me to focus. She nodded to herself, before tapping my head gently with her wand, murmuring "Ferula."
A tight strap wrapped around my head, bandages springing forth from the tip of her wand to grip at my skull. McGonagall seemed pleased with her handiwork before regaining her seat…and her strictness.
"Now then, Miss Alton…what is it that you were up to?"
"Professor, I…"
"I know very well why you are not attending classes…as like some of your friends. What I would like to know is why Amycus Carrow cursed you."
"You see Professor," I glanced at the green fire blazing in her grate, heat relaxing my tense muscles. I narrated the whole incident with the third years to her where she sighed again, reminiscent of Parvati.
"Miss Alton, need I remind you that you are simply a seventeen year old? You cannot keep defying the Carrows and hope to get away with it."
"What would you have me do?"
"Nothing, Miss Alton; you are specifically on the Carrows list of victims. What with your marked closeness to Potter, Weasley and Granger, they feel that you know more that you let on. There is a reason why they persecute you and your fellow Gryffindor so keenly."
"But professor,"
"We have had students taken for less, Miss Alton. You must recognize the severity of the danger you're in. If there is even a sliver of suspicion, you could be taken to He Who Must Not Be Named himself."
I fell silent, a shiver of dread chilling down my back.
McGonagall was leaning across her mahogany desk, eyes urgent and voice low, trying to convey just how badly I was stuck. With my mother in hiding and my little sister here…there was nowhere I could go.
"Professor…Pamela,"
"She's being watched closely. Rest assured; Professor Flitwick takes care to have her be safe from the Carrows. As of now, she is under no real threat. You, however, need to be extremely cautious as to where you tread."
I nodded.
McGonagall stared at me, glasses glinting green in her firelight.
"I would suggest you to return to where you hid before…and not to come out for quite some time. Have Longbottom and Finnigan join you. When you do come out, I want you to be calmer and more careful in dealing with the Death Eaters. Am I understood?"
I nodded again.
There was a pause as McGonagall pushed her usual tin of ginger salamanders at me. I dug in happily, munching on the biscuits as McGonagall opened her mouth to say something when a loud scream interrupted us.
And that's it!
The beginning and introduction to Roselle Alton!
Please let me know your thoughts!