Pre-HBP!
Family Reunions
“Giselle,” her voice whispered softly.
“Sirius,” she whispered again, turning to Sirius who was looking dumbfounded into the woman’s luminous green eyes.
“Grandma Lily,” Giselle whispered in awe staring at the figure swirling in the night time mist.
* * *
Giselle reached forward with her hand and swept it through the woman in front of her. It passed straight through; the mist separated then flew back together forming a solid figure again.
Sirius still hadn’t moved an inch. His mouth was still open and he was gawking at the form of his grandmother. A smile came over his face after a nudge from his sister.
“It worked!” he said gleefully.
Lily smiled serenely at her two grandchildren. She clasped her hands together in front of herself and walked towards them. Her outline wavered and trembled as she did, and steadied as she came to a stop in front of the teens.
“Why have you called me here? Isn’t Harry doing his job as a father?” she asked sternly surveying their dirty clothes and smudged faces from the greenhouse.
“Oh! Yes, of course he is!” said Giselle, and she saw a slight smile in the corner of her grandmother’s mouth.
Lily chuckled appreciatively at her outburst, and lowered her hands to her sides.
“So,” she said, her voice echoing slightly, “Why have you called me here?”
Giselle stepped forward tentatively and stumbled as Sirius gave her a slight push. She turned around and glared at him for a second before turning back to Lily.
“What have you come to share with us, Grandma? Is there anything I should know? I gather you already know what my problem is,” she said to Lily.
“Of course I do, Giselle. Nothing gets past me and your Grandfather. We are always watching over you, protecting you. Did you know that you are not the only one to have been sorted into Slytherin?” she asked Giselle.
Giselle stood rooted to the ground. Another Gryffindor had been sorted into Slytherin?
“Who?” she asked. “Who was the one sorted into Slytherin?”
Lily sighed and corrected herself. “He wasn’t actually sorted into Slytherin, but the Sorting Hat thought that would be where he would flourish. Fortunately it was wrong.”
Giselle nodded impatiently. “Of course a Gryffindor wouldn’t belong in Slytherin,” she said rolling on her heels, “but who was it?”
Lily hesitated before answering, “Your father.”
Now both Giselle and Sirius stood open-mouthed
Their father was almost sorted into Slytherin?
“Unbelievable,” said Sirius, regaining his ability of speech. “Totally wrong. Dad could never be a Slytherin. Not in a million years,” he said derisively.
“Excuse me, young man,” said Lily, her eyes flashing dangerously. “I’m not joking. This is a very serious matter. Your sister isn’t feeling all that great about being sorted into Slytherin and you aren’t helping matters by denying what I am saying. He probably would have told Giselle later tonight, if I’m not mistaken.” She had floated about an inch off the ground, and Sirius was sure if she didn’t calm down soon she would be soaring over the Great Lake.
Sirius cowered under the glare of his Grandmother. She lowered back to the ground and, after a sharp glance Sirius’s way, turned back to Giselle who was bursting with questions.
“How? How could Dad have been in Slytherin, then, if he wasn’t actually sorted there? I thought you said he had been sorted into Slytherin?” she asked, impatiently.
Lily sighed and rubbed her temples. “I made a mistake in my wording. Your father wasn’t actually sorted into Slytherin, not aloud, of course. Once the Hat cries out the name that’s your House there’s no changing it. No, your father heard the Hat speak to him inside his head. Tell him that Slytherin would help him on the way to greatness. That’s when he decided to be in Gryffindor. The Sorting Hat saw the courage it took to stand up to him, to refuse his offer for Slytherin, and insist he had to be in Gryffindor. I’m so proud of my baby boy for standing up to the hat, deciding his own destiny,” she finished fondly.
Giselle was amazed. Her father had stood up to the Hogwarts Sorting Hat.
“But why did the Sorting Hat think Dad would belong in Slytherin? Our family’s been in Gryffindor as long as anyone can remember. We have no trace of Slytherin blood in our family,” she said, puzzled.
Lily sighed again, and reached forward and touched her grandchildren on the shoulders. Giselle felt shocked to feel Lily’s caress was warm, so unlike the chilling touch of the Gryffindor House ghost, Nearly Headless Nick.
“Sirius, Giselle, you have to understand. The blood of Salazar Slytherin runs in your veins. The night Lord Voldemort murdered James and I and cursed Harry, he put a bit of himself into Harry without even realising it, and gave him powers that will, without a doubt, stop Lord Voldemort one day,” she said, her mouth hardening at the last sentence.
“Lord Voldemort, with the help of you, Halle and Millie, will one day fall at the hands of my son, there is no doubt about that,” she said vehemently.
“But that still doesn’t answer why I’m in Slytherin. Why would I be? He only touched Dad, putting himself into Dad, not me,” said Giselle.
“You are your father’s child, in many more ways than one,” she added, laughing. “So naturally whatever traits he had have been passed on to you, Sirius and Callie.”
Sirius looked shocked at this and started to clutch his arm painfully.
“Lord Voldemort’s blood is inside of me?” he croaked looking at Lily.
“Snap out of it Sirius! You take after you dear namesake a little too much. Ooh, Sirius Black used to make me laugh, all right. Your grandfather and Sirius were quite the double act! Moony was always a touch more reserved, mind you ... Prefect in his day. Don’t know how your grandfather ever got the Head Boy badge. And you can let go of your arm now, Sirius. I don’t want you joining me here,” Lily remarked and smirked at Sirius.
“Uncle Sirius, aye? Who would’ve thought?” Giselle laughed at the look on Sirius’s face. Arrogantly, he swept his misbehaving lock of hair out of his eyes and looked heavenward, his green eyes glinting proudly.
“Good on you, mate,” he said to his namesake in the sky.
Giselle was almost doubled over in laughter now, and looked back at Lily who was trying hard not to burst into a fit of laughter herself. Giselle swept tears of laughter out of her eyes and spoke to her grandmother.
“How am I going to survive in Slytherin?” she asked piteously.
Lily paused and looked over her shoulder at the rolling hills, which were stained a horrible blood red. The sun was rising higher and higher by the second. She reached forward and grabbed Giselle’s arm, and her fingers sinking in a few inches. Giselle turned her eyes to her grandmother who was getting fainter and fainter, and distinctly heard her say, “You truly belong in Gryffindor. Don’t ever doubt that,” before she faded away completely, leaving behind only the distinct smell of lilies as the sun broke over the summit of the North Tower.
Giselle stood still, breathing in the fresh morning air. Sirius was already packing away the stubs of the candles and sweeping the circle clear of ash. They weren’t going to let anyone know of what happened down by Hagrid’s Hut. It was their little secret.
Millie sat alone at one end of the Hufflepuff table. She could hear the whispers of the other fifth years and buried her head in the Daily Prophet as their stools screeched against the stone floor and they came over to talk to her
Someone’s hand was thrust in front of the article she was reading about Madame Malkin’s robes, and after they gave a small imposing cough, she could no longer pretend she was interested in the paper and looked up to see who it was
Renée Bentley and Stacey Hopkins were standing above her, and Stacey’s hand was now waving obviously in her face.
Millie looked up annoyed and found Stacey’s face inches from her own.
“Hello!” Stacey said to Millie’s left nostril.
Renée was standing further back and was looking at Millie with a smile on her face.
“Welcome to Hufflepuff,” she said quietly, stepping forward to Millie. She pushed Stacey out of the way and sat down next to Millie.
Millie gave Stacey a sideways glance, fuming. Who were these people?
“I’m Renée Bentley. Professor Abbot told us you would be coming,” she said thrusting her hand forward for Millie to shake. Millie grabbed her hand and shook it, but when Stacey slapped Renée’s hand out of her own, she turned to Stacey with an incredulous look on her face
Renée might be normal, but this Stacey chick is a tad weird, she thought to herself.
* * *
Giselle looked up from her solitary position at the Slytherin table. The others were laughing, jeering and pointing at her, wide smiles on their pallid, gruesome faces. She was sitting down the same end as Millie, and even though her back was turned and her body language closed her off from the others, her mind was readily open. The empty Gryffindor table provided as a small reminder they were divided physically, just not mentally.
I agree completely, Mils. They do seem a touch strange. The Slytherins aren’t much more fun, I can tell you that.
She reached behind her back and found Millie’s. She gave it a reassuring squeeze and went back to the paper she was reading. She flicked the page and thought absently to herself.
“An urgent investigation in Cauldron Bottom Thickness, investigated by Percival Weasley.”
“Hmm… that’s interesting,” she mused.
* * *
Halle looked past the sea of faces surrounding her. She saw past the empty Gryffindor table, past the Hufflepuff table where Stacey Hopkins and Renée Bentley were now squabbling openly, and into the awaiting mischievous eyes of her cousin Giselle.
Help me! she pleaded with her eyes to Giselle across the Hall.
Sorry mate, no can do. I’m a Slytherin now, and we don’t get up from our seat to help Ravenclaws. You’ll have to deal with your Fan Club on your own, Giselle smirked back.
Halle stuck out her tongue at Giselle, which Millie intercepted.
Hey! she smiled. What was that for?
Pass it on to Giselle, Halle smiled back.
Millie poked Giselle playfully in the ribs and Giselle turned around, oblivious to the many Slytherins surrounding her, and saucily blew a kiss to Halle across the Hall. The Slytherins jeered and laughed raucously at her.
“Who you blowing a kiss to, Potter? Your girlfriend?” one of them said, doubled over laughing.
Halle, who had just touched her cheek in response to Giselle’s air born kiss, blushed profusely. The many Ravenclaws surrounding her mumbled about the change of coloring on her face.
“Maybe we’d better give her some air, shall we?” said Harry’s voice from above.
Halle whipped her head around and saw a tired Harry standing in his morning robes, his hands clasped protectively over a mug of decaf coffee.
“Follow me,” he said, turning and pushing a few of the Ravenclaws away.
He nodded towards Halle and saw with some surprise that the Gryffindor table wasn’t the only empty one in the Great Hall. The Slytherins, including Giselle, were gone.
He looked towards the High Table where he had been sitting moments before and looked for Dumbledore. He looked madly around, spilling his coffee all down his robes, and saw Dumbledore striding towards him, a grave expression on his face.
“Hazing, Harry.”
Giselle was being pushed down, down, down into the depths of Hogwarts. The dungeon walls around her were stony and foreboding, the jet-black tapers giving off a creepy feel. But most of all, she couldn’t get those devastating words out of her head.
“Who you blowing a kiss to, Potter? Your girlfriend?”
“We don’t like people like that in Slytherin.”
“Come to think of it, we don’t like Gryffindors in Slytherin either.”
“You know what? I think it’s time for a little good old-fashioned hazing. What do you say?”
A roar had gone up from the Slytherin table. Giselle had looked desperately into their faces, then to the face of Dumbledore who was watching her intently.
“Help,” she had mouthed to him.
When had she got nothing but a grave nod in return, she had turned to the Slytherins and screamed in their faces.
“What do you mean, hazing? What are you going to do to me --?”
A hand had been forced over her mouth, and she had been thrust out the doors of the Hall, down, down into the dungeons below.
A/N: Okay… maybe it’s not exciting, but I had to do something to fill the time and get me inspired again! Do you think I should cut down on the Authors Notes, or put a sneak peek of the next chapter in?
I apologise for any missing punctuation at the end of sentences - I had to delete < b r > < / b r > tags, and it seems to have run off with some of my full stops.
- Lurid.