Chapter 4 - "The Place Where you Belong."
"So…? What do you think?" Hannah asked, chewing a licorice wand.
The girls had pooled their resources and bought some of the stuff Susan and Hannah recommended from the sweets trolley and from then on both girls had been watching curiously as Rose taste tested the wizarding candies.
Rose shrugged, her attention focused on the card in her hand.
"It's chocolate, so it's good." Rose answered, but grimaced as she felt the little legs still fight for freedom in her mouth. "It feels a little icky though. How alive it seems."
Susan giggled at her expression "I know how you feel, I always feel a little bad for the frogs. Oh, what card did you get?" She asked curiously.
"It says Albus Dumbledore… But there's no one on it." She said, showing the girls the empty frame with the name of the famous wizard under it. "Wasn't he my magic master? The one who was helping me catch dark wizards in Rumania?"
"Ugh, you are mixing them up. You were catching dark lords in America, get it right." Hannah jokingly grumbled before taking Rose's card. "Ah, that's weird. Dumbledore is a rare one, he should be on the frame most times." The blonde girl smirked, seemingly amused with Rose's confusion. "All cards share the same picture, so he goes around them. You can't expect him to be there all the time."
Rose was about to comment on how weird it was that you could collect cards with no one on them when their compartment door opened. The girls turned around, this time looking more wary at the intrusion.
"Hello, I'm looking for a toad, have you seen one?" Rose hadn't ever thought she'd find someone with wilder hair than her after waking up but this girl came close, with her bushy brown hair. "A boy named Neville lost his."
The three girls looked at each other and shrugged.
"Nope, sorry." Said Hannah and Susan added her mm-hmm, agreeing with her. "Haven't been outside the compartment since London."
"Oh, that's too bad. This is one of the last compartments. Neville will be terribly disappointed." The girl slumped, looking genuinely contrite that she couldn't help her friend.
"Have you tried asking a prefect?" Asked Rose, "Miss Penny, a prefect from Ravenclaw, showed me a summoning charm she used to attract stuff. Maybe it works on toads." She shrugged again, but smiled when the bushy haired girl perked up.
"Oh! Why didn't I think of that? I read all about the summoning charm! Of course, I haven't tried it myself, not wanting to break the Restriction of Underage Sorcery, but surely it will work! Thank you so much! Ah! You should pack up your stuff, I talked with the conductor and he said it will not be long until we are there!" She was talking so fast that Rose was worried she would pass out before she could look for any prefect.
And then she left, leaving the three girls flummoxed after the hurricane of words.
"What?" It didn't matter who said it, all three were left confused at the encounter.
As much as the meeting with the bushy haired girl had been weird, Rose had to admit that the girl had been right. It wasn't even half an hour later, just when the sun started going down, that the train started to slow to a stop.
Rose shivered a little when she got down the train, and reached for the robes she had put in her bag. It had gotten a lot colder with the sun gone.
She hoped Hedwig was alright, she had released her and sent her to the Hogwarts Owlery when the train stopped, but she was wondering if it was too cold for her owl to be flying.
"Come on, Rose! We're getting left behind!" Hannah yelled over the sound of hundreds of wizards and witches talking, and grabbed her hand, her other one already holding Susan's.
"They're not leaving us behind, Hannah." Susan answered, an indulgent small smile on her face. "Look, that man is calling for us."
Over the noise of the other students getting down the train, a loud voice could be heard.
"Firs' years! Firs' years over here! Mind yer steps and follow me!"
The largest man Rose had ever seen was calling them, swinging a lamp over his head. Is he a giant? She wondered.
The girls joined the group of first years following the man. Rose was glad Hannah was holding her hand because otherwise she might have lost them in the darkness of the path.
After some minutes of walking, the dark forbidding path ended in front of a lake, the reflection of the moon shining on its surface. Rose ignored the sight, however, as her attention was grabbed by the shape in the distance. A great castle, with countless shining windows sparkling in the night.
Hogwarts.
"No more'n four to a boat!" The large man called, pointing to a group of little boats parked at the shore of the lake.
Rose, Hannah and Susan were joined by a small asian girl that introduced herself as Su Li, but did not get to talk much as the boats started moving over the lake following the large man's "FORWARD!"
"Hannah! What are you doing?" Rose exclaimed at seeing the short girl sticking her head out of the boat.
"I read there was a giant squid in the Black Lake! I wanna see it!" The clearly crazy girl answered.
"What? There's a castle over there!" Pointed out Rose.
"Who cares about the castle? We'll see it everyday from now on! This might be my only chance to befriend a squid!" Rose looked at Susan, trying to get her to help convince Hannah, but the girl looked back at her and shook her head, resigned.
"Leave her be, Rose. You can't stop Hannah once she gets like this." She sighed.
Rose shrugged, accepting her words.
She'd keep an eye on the short blonde, however. Rose didn't believe for a second that Hannah was above trying to take a dip into the lake to meet her giant squid.
The boat trip was over a few minutes later, and they found themselves in front of a great closed gate made of wood and iron. The large man's fist shook the whole thing when he knocked on it.
"The firs' years, Professor McGonagall." Said the man, once a stern looking woman opened the gates.
"Thank you, Hagrid." said Professor McGonagall, glancing for a moment at them with a critical look behind her half moon glasses. Rose could swear that when the woman met her eyes, her expression had softened. "Follow me, children, let's get out of the cold. You are still not made for Scottish weather."
Rose couldn't agree more.
All the students scurried after the teacher, the big man waving at them cheerfully.
Rose felt like she was back in Diagon Alley, she couldn't keep her eyes from wandering to everything around her. From the bronze lamps that were hung on the walls, blue fire blazing merrily in them, to the genuine metal armors that stood on parade every few metres, wicked glaives held in their arms. And the paintings! A multitude of paintings filled the walls, and Rose could swear that the eyes of the people in them were following their movements.
Are these the moving portraits that I've read about? She wondered, remembering mentions of them in her charms books.
The only reason she hadn't been left behind was because she was still holding Hannah's hand, otherwise she would have spent hours checking everything around her.
"First of all, let me welcome you to Hogwarts Castle, My name is Minerva McGonagall, I am the Deputy Headmistress and the transfiguration teacher." The stern witch leading them introduced herself without breaking her stride.
"In a few minutes you will enter the Great Hall, and will proceed to be sorted." Professor McGonagall said, "Ravenclaw, Slytherin, Gryffindor and Hufflepuff, each of them has a noble history and have produced great wizards and witches. These Houses will become your new home and its members, your families. You will share timetables with your housemates, sleep in the same room and spend your free time in the same common room."
Rose perked up, if there was something she'd wanted for as long as she remembered, was a family. Not like the Dursleys that barely seemed to care for her, aside from some rare moments. A real family. Maybe she'd find that here.
She glanced at Hannah and Susan. Maybe we'll be in the same house, we could be like sisters.
She'd like that, more than anything.
The group passed a big room with four huge hourglasses, each holding a different coloured gem: red, blue, green and yellow.
"These are the House Points Hourglasses. Whenever you do something worth commending, you'll earn House points, adding a grain to your hourglass," McGonagall's eyes grew even more hard then, "and whenever you do something deserving of a punishment, you'll lose them. At the end of term the house with more points will win the House Cup, a great honour. Make sure to work towards it."
They stopped in front of a tall double door, Professor McGonagall turned around and fixed her witch hat - although it had been already perfectly placed, in Rose's opinion-, before opening the door, letting hundreds of voices leak out from it.
Rose's hand felt clammy all of a sudden.
"Stay here until I call you in. Don't wander away, you don't want to start your stay in Hogwarts by earning a detention." For some reason the older witch seemed to focus on Rose when she said that. Rude.
Rose left out a shuddering breath when Professor McGonagall finally left.
"Nervous?" She heard Hannah ask, from beside her. "I know I am. I tried to ask mum about what we have to do to be sorted but she always changed the subject."
"Ah, maybe?" Rose admitted. "I'm not really worried about what we'll do in the sorting, but about which House I'll end up in." Worried about being separated from you two, she thought but not said out loud.
"Ah, right, me too! I just hope to be a Hufflepuff like dad, he said that the kitchens are really close to the Common Room. Sue wants to go there too, right?" Susan agreed with her little mm-hmm before turning to Rose.
"Well, you don't have to worry much about that." Said Susan, looking at Rose. "You'll most likely be a Gryffindor like your parents, right? That's what everyone says." The way she said it hurt Rose a little, like she didn't really care about not being in the same house as hers.
"What?!" Exclaimed Hannah, "What do you mean? Rose is coming with us to Hufflepuff, right? We're not getting separated!" She said, grabbing her hands with both of her own, looking at her pleadingly.
Rose looked down at Hannah's hazel eyes and smiled. "Yeah, " she said. "I hope to be in the same house as you too." Hannah's blinding smile told her that she had said the right thing.
"That would be nice, " said Susan from the side, a little smile on her face. "Hannah and I don't have any more friends other than each other, I'd be glad if we three stayed together."
Any answer Rose might have given was interrupted by Professor McGonagall coming back to the room. "Now, follow me in line."
The hall they entered- that was aptly named the Great Hall- was filled to the brim with other students, all sitting on four different long tables. The room was illuminated by countless candles floating in the air and multiple sconces lit with the strange blue fire. On the other side of the room was another table, up on a dais. Adult wizards and witches sat on the other side of it, looking down on the room, and in the middle of it was a throne-like chair, occupied by a white bearded man. The teacher's table, Rose guessed.
"The ceiling is bewitched to look like the sky outside, I read about it in Hogwarts: A history." she heard someone say behind her. Rose looked up, and indeed, the whole ceiling was a velvety black colour, small white pinpricks of light shining on it. She could even see some clouds floating on it.
Will I be able to do that too, someday? Make my room shine with the light of the stars? Rose wondered, mystified at the sight, at the possibilities of Magic.
She was broken out of her thoughts when she saw Professor McGonagall place a ratty wizard's hat on a three legged stool in front of them and then take a rolled-up scroll from her robes.
"When I call out your name" she began, looking at the first-years. "you will put on the hat and sit on the stool to be sorted."
Rose could hear Hannah let out a relieved sigh and she had to wonder, what was the shorter girl thinking she'd have to do? Of course, whatever relief Hannah felt instantly evaporated when the teacher's voice rang out. "Abbott, Hannah!"
The girl almost shot up in surprise, and sent an anxious look to Rose and Susan, only to be met with commiserating smiles. She let out a little miserable whine and advanced to the dais, wringing her hands in nervousness.
The ratty hat was put on her head, covering the top of her slightly pink face. Rose could see that Hannah perked up a little in surprise and then, after a little while, she muttered something. A second later the hat twitched, and a rip near the brim opened up like a mouth.
"HUFFLEPUFF!" It screamed, and a fourth of the students in the hall shot up with applause and cheers. Professor McGonagall removed the hat and Hannah stood up from the stool, a bright smile on her face, and then rushed to the Hufflepuff table, smiling at Rose and Susan on the way.
"Bones, Susan!" The curly redhead, her face as red as her hair, also approached the stool and after a few seconds the hat also screamed "HUFFLEPUFF!"
Rose felt a little envious at the sight of the two friends meeting with a hug on the table, she'd have to wait the whole sorting to get her turn!
Why did you have to be named Potter, dad? She whined unfairly in her mind.
The sorting continued, each name making the tension Rose felt rise up a notch. The whole thing seemed to pass as a blur. She dimly took note of a couple of other Hufflepuff students, hoping that she would end up with them.
She noticed that the bushy haired girl -apparently named Hermione Granger- sat on the stool a little longer than the others before being named "RAVENCLAW!", and that Draco Malfoy only took a second to be sorted into "SLYTHERIN!"
When Parkinson went to Slytherin and then the Patil twins were sorted into different houses, Rose knew that it soon would be her turn. It finally came after Perks, Sally Anne.
"Potter, Rose!" Her legs, usually so sure in ballet class, suddenly felt like jelly. It became worse when the voices started.
"Potter? Is she…?"
"The Girl Who Lived!"
"Potter…" "Rose" "Gryffindor, for sure"
All the hall seemed to be talking about her and she never felt more insecure about the fame the events of her childhood brought her than in that moment.
Rose sat down and met what she felt was like a thousand stares before the ratty hat was brought down her head.
"Oh? Interesting…" A gravelly voice said. The hat, she realised. It felt like it was whispering to her ear. "Hmm… Not Ravenclaw, you would not fit in there, I think. The kind of knowledge you seek, the magic you so desire, you will not find it solely in a book. Hufflepuff would suit you, you are not afraid of hard work, you even appreciate it. You dislike when things are too easy right, young one?"
Rose agreed, as much as she'd disliked being put on the spot in class, there was some part of her that had loved the challenges Missus Cawthorne, her ballet teacher, put her through.
"Hufflepuff would be nice…" She whispered, wanting to join Hannah and Susan.
"You'd enjoy it, I'm sure." the hat agreed, "But what else? There's some bravery in you, I can feel it. It might not be a great part of you, but what are embers, if not a great fire waiting to be lit? Gryffindor would fan them."
Not Gryffindor, she wanted to say but she was frozen, thinking on how her parents would be proud of her if she joined their house.
"And that ambition! That desire to prove yourself, the thirst you feel to be the best, to delve deep into magic and learn it all. You could be great, you know? You could be free. Slytherin would help you. Of that, I have no doubt. Now, where shall I put you…?" The hat seemed to fall into thought.
And Rose didn't know what to do, there was a war within herself. The words the hat had said resonated with her. From the first moment she had learned about magic, she felt a thirst for it. Some of it had been about learning about the world her parents had lived in, but she knew that most of it was about breaking free from the Dursleys. From Aunt Petunia and her demands and expectations. To be a witch, free of all chains. She hesitated.
Bright hazel eyes appeared on her mind, a bright smile, and warm hands that led her away from the darkness.
"I want to be with my friends…" she whispered, any hesitation disappearing. If there was something Rose desired above anything else, it was friendship. And there was only one place that had that.
"And that just broke the stalemate. Yes, loyalty. It burns brightly inside of you, any that earns it, any that threatens it, will soon learn how deeply loyal you are. Yes, the only place for you is HUFFLEPUFF!" The Sorting Hat screamed the last word, almost deafening her.
The hat was removed and she met the world with a bright smile on her face.
It was silent.
She stood up from the stool, smiled up at Professor McGonagall, who returned it with a tight smile of her own and warm eyes, and rushed down the hall.
It was still silent.
Until it wasn't.
The yellow and black house exploded in cheers, louder than any that came before. All the students in the Hufflepuff table smiled at her, and welcomed her with warm words.
She soon reached the place where her friends were sitting, and Hannah, turning around on her seat, not even standing up, hugged her around the waist."I knew you were going to come with us! I never doubted it, not even a second. Not even when your sorting went on and on and it took forever to end!" The short girl babbled, rubbing her head on Rose's stomach.
Rose smiled brightly and patted her head a little. "Hannah I'm really happy too but… I want to sit down…" She said, a little embarrassed at the eyes of the other students watching her. She looked at Susan, who was smiling at them warmly, and asked her for help with her eyes.
"Hannah, you are making a scene. Let Rose sit down, you can hug her whenever you want later." And with that she was finally let go from the blonde's grasp.
Rose took a seat in the free place next to Susan, who then grabbed her hand and smiled at her. "I'm glad, it would have been a little harder to be friends if you had ended up in another house. I'm happy you joined us in Hufflepuff." The redhead said and Rose felt a little warmth in her chest.
I did the right thing. I'm sorry, Dad, Mum, but this is where I want to be. The place I belong to.
Rose was sure that if her parents were still here, they'd be smiling at her.
The sorting continued, though there weren't many students left after her. Soon enough, the last student, Blaise Zabini, a tall dark-skinned boy, walked down the hall confidently, joining the students from Slytherin.
Albus Dumbledore, her rumoured master in all things magical, stood up from his seat and opened his arms. He looked at them, an almost admiring smile on his face.
"Ah, the sorting. It's always a treat to see how each of the new students are welcomed in their houses. It fills this old man's heart with warmth, to see your happiness at finding your new home." His bright blue eyes were twinkling merrily behind his glasses. "But let's not waste time with my ramblings. I'm sure you are feeling as famished as me, so let me start the feast with these words. Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak!"
Rose clapped alongside her housemates, an odd smile on her face. She didn't really understand what the man had said at the end, but he was supposed to be a great wizard, so he could be excused for a little strangeness, right?
Those thoughts faded from her mind when food appeared on the plates in front of her. Roast beef, grilled chicken, mashed potatoes, salads of all kinds. More food than she had ever seen in her life appearing from thin air, like it was…magic.
Rose honestly wanted to fill her plate with everything she saw, it all looked delicious!
However, she controlled herself. There was a reason she followed her diet, not because of Aunt Petunia's threats about her figure, but because she had to keep her body in shape to be able to do her best at dancing.
Eating excessively? Not a great way of doing it.
So she ignored the students near her who were rushing to fill their plates, and she just chose whatever would be filling and healthy.
She settled for some roasted meat and steamed vegetables, and even added a boiled egg for more protein. She had eaten a lot of sweets today, so she had to compensate with a lighter dinner now.
Rose exchanged some easy chatter with her friends but they were mostly focused on filling their stomachs with food after such a long day.
She finished first, so she decided to look around and see if something caught her eye. She was curious about her teachers, so she focused her attention on the head table up in the dais.
The large man stood out first, his big frame almost swallowing the small, glasses-wearing witch beside him. She looked a little uncomfortable but she was smiling and chatting to the dark-skinned woman on her other side. I wonder what class does the giant teach…
Next there was a pale man with black hair. He had a long hooked nose and his dark eyes were looking at… Rose?
The man was staring at her, a sour expression on his face. His eyes widened a little when they met her green eyes behind her glasses. Rose smiled awkwardly and waved a little, only for the man's eyes to narrow.
His attention was taken from her when a wizard wearing a purple turban started talking to him, but she could see him glancing at her every so often.
She decided to let it go, and looked to the other side of the table, where she could see Mr Flitwick talking to a plump witch, both smiling warmly. She regretted a little not being able to join his house, but she hoped the man would still talk to her about her parents nonetheless.
Professor McGonagall was talking with Albus Dumbledore, the stern witch looking out of place next to the flamboyantly dressed old man.
Twinkling blue eyes met her own, and Rose found herself curious about the man.
She had read a lot of stuff about him. He had apparently beat a dark lord in single combat and ended what was essentially Wizarding World War II. Instead of using his popularity to take control of the country to steer it in the direction he wanted, the book had said, the man decided to come back to Hogwarts and continue teaching transfiguration.
It was only later in life that he had become interested in politics and joined the governing body of the country, and, some time later, he was voted to be the leader -Supreme Mugwump- of the International Confederation of Wizards.
He was also one of the only wizards that had faced the Dark Lord Voldemort in combat and made him retreat. Some even said that Voldemort feared him.
The old wizard was, essentially, what the world thought she was, a hero. A true one, that actually earned his accolades.
She felt her face get a little warm when she noticed she had been blankly staring at the man for a while, lost in thought. The wizard didn't seem to care as he winked at her and raised his goblet in greeting, she smiled back and decided to turn her attention back to her table.
Just in time, as the food on the table faded away, only to be replaced with cakes and desserts of all kinds.
She hesitated for a moment, she had already eaten a lot more sweet stuff than she should have…
The sight of a treacle tart was too tempting, however.
I promise I'll eat properly again tomorrow… Just one slice.
A few minutes later, she was made a liar when Susan offered her a second slice with a smile.
Damn you, Susan, and your sweet smile. Rose thought, slowly reaching for it.
Rose snuggled into her pillow, fighting to keep her eyes open.
The room she was in now was more spacious than the whole ballet studio back in Little Whinging, and her bed was a hundred times more comfortable than her own at home. And bigger! She'd never been able to stretch her whole body in her little bed, but in this one three Roses could fit in there would be space leftover.
She tried to focus on how she got to her bed but it was all fuzzy. Headmaster Dumbledore had given them some weird warnings after the feast, and let them go after singing an awful song about warts or something.
The path to the Common Room, with the nice sixth-year prefect guiding them, was short. Just a flight of stairs and a few minutes walk and they were there, the teacher in charge of them waiting for them inside the cosy-looking room.
Pomona Sprout, the head of house, was nice. She had welcomed them with a warm smile and gave some short words, likely knowing that half of the students were almost asleep on their feet.
"It sure would be nice to be able to win the House Cup, but what I want the most from these seven years is for you to give your all. I won't mind if you are not the first to answer a question or to perform a spell, but you have to try. That's all I ask." she'd said.
The woman then led them to their rooms, and Rose, Susan, Hannah and another girl named Megan Jones, were sharing the same room. The girls were surprised that their trunks were already in the room. Even Hedwig's cage was hanging from a stand near a bed!
Rose had changed into her nightgown, already half-asleep, and rushed to her bed to escape the cold. There was a fireplace in the corner, but the fire in it was not enough to warm the room. She covered herself with the soft covers and sighed in relief.
"You comfy?" She heard Hannah whisper from her own bed, right beside hers. The room was dark but she could see the outline of her friend, eyes reflecting the light from the barely lit fireplace. "Sue's already conked out." she snickered.
"I'm about to fall asleep too…" Rose answered, her stomach was full, the bed felt like a cloud and it was warm. She wanted to stay up talking with Hannah, but she could feel herself slipping away to her dreams. To be honest, part of her was thinking that the whole day had been a dream. To think that she had friends now… "Wanna have breakfast tomorrow with me? All three of us?" She mumbled, her eyes finally closing.
"Of course! We're a group now, you don't need to ask! You're stuck with us." Hannah answered, and Rose felt a smile settle on her face. "Sweet dreams, Rose. I'll see you in the morning."
"G'night, Hannah…" She said, finally surrendering to her sleep.
That night, Rose dreamt of her bedroom, back in Little Whinging, she was lying on a cloud looking at the sky on her ceiling. A warm hand found her own, and when she turned, she met hazel eyes, under curly red hair. She smiled, glad that her friend was with her. Both of them stayed silent, looking at the glittering stars.
Author's note:
There we go, chapter 4!
This one fought me a little, it was a struggle as I wanted the sorting to happen, but the chapter ended up being a little too close to canon, I even ended up using some of the dialogue verbatim from the book. It galls me a little that it ended up being too short, but I couldn't reasonably add anything else, or it would end needlessly bloated.
I promise that next chapter is only new stuff, nothing copied.
So! Changes: Obviously, Rose entering Hufflepuff, but I kinda butterflied Hermione into Ravenclaw - she met Penny in the train and they talked for a while after getting Trevor the toad, tipping the hat stall to Ravenclaw's side.
Thanks a lot for the follows and favourites. And thanks Miyu Kokomi, Kazuki King, MissPotter97 and bookwormgirl88 for the Reviews!
See you next time on Chapter 5: "The Magic in You."