The Sorting
Leah, Gwen and the rest of the first years followed Professor Thomas into the huge Great Hall. It was an enormous, impressive room with three long tables set up side by side to seat the students and another, shorter one set perpendicular to them at the front of the room to accommodate the staff. The ceiling was high and tall stone pillars lined the center of the room, engraved with pictures of three animals holding various poses: a giant dignified-looking elephant, an eagle with sharp pointed talons, and a regal stag with a broad chest and long antlers: the house symbols. These animals were also hung over their respective tables on a banner against a background of their house colour.
Leah recognized Professor McGonagall seated in the middle of the Head table; when she saw Professor Thomas leading the first years, she stood up, clapped her hands together, and silence immediately fell upon the Hall. She appraised the group through narrow eyes, nodded briefly to Thomas, and announced, “Let the Sorting Ceremony now begin!”
A three-legged stool was placed before everyone and a small clear jewel that looked very much like a huge diamond was set upon it. Thomas was given a scroll of parchment and he unfurled it carefully. “Now, when I call your name, please pick up the Sorting Stone and sit on the stool to be sorted. Allen, Ashley!” he called loudly.
A small girl with dimples and a mouth too big for her face stepped shyly out of the crowd and took a seat on the stool, picking up the stone so it sat on her open palm, visible to the whole school. Only a second passed before a stream of bright blue light shot towards the ceiling. There was a roar of applause from the Chiron table and she hopped off the stool and joined them under the banner with the stag.
Then, Professor Thomas called the second name from the list. “Andrews, Leah!” Leah cursed her last name silently and walked to the stool. She sat down, cupped the small stone lightly in her hand, and waited with baited breath. The Hall was silent. Leah glanced over at Gwen, still standing with the others that had yet to be sorted, and received a thumbs up in return. Then, a moments pause, and a vivid red light appeared. The Talos table, under the banner with the eagle, was applauding but Leah barely heard them as she sat on an end bench; she’d been so terrified that she wouldn’t be picked at all, that she would be sitting on the stool for hours and hours until McGonagall snatched the stone away from her and declared that there must have been a mistake and she should get back on the train before it left. It seemed as if this whole day must be a dream.
And now the clapping had quietened and started anew, and Leah realized that she’d missed another sorting while she’d been lost in her own thoughts. A black-haired girl with tight ringlets bouncing around her ears stumbled on her way over to the Chiron table. The girl sat next to Ashley Allen and they whispered together excitedly before returning their attention to the ceremony.
Professor Thomas read the next name. “Bones, Maria!”
“Bones, Maria” became the first to be sorted into Athos house when the stone gave off a cheerful yellow light, and she joined the table under the banner with the stately elephant on it.
“Bratwurst, Sean!” After a minute the light glowed red and the boy whom Cory Weasley had been talking with walking up to the castle joined Leah at the Talos table.
“Davis, Landon” was next and he joined the Athos table; and “Patil, Lata” waited hardly a second before the stone declared her a Chiron. Several more children who’s names Leah did not catch followed before, “Seward, Gwendolyn!”
Leah had noticed a strange thing throughout the sorting. Sometimes, the stone seemed to take next to no time at all in deciding where a person best belonged, shooting the colour into the air as soon as they touched it; but other times, the stone took much longer. Gwen took the greatest amount of time yet. The whole hall waited patiently through several minutes as she held the stone until, finally, just as people’s eyes were starting to drift, a deep red light came out of it and applause filled the silence. Leah clapped loudly along with everyone else as Gwen plopped down next to her and shook the outstretched hands of several classmates who had greeted her.
“Congratulations!” Leah grinned at her friend. She felt oddly buoyant and had an unexplainable feeling that at that moment, Gwen did too.
“Thanks!” said Gwen.
They turned their heads back to the front and watched as the line gradually dwindled until only a few students were left. “Weasley, Cornelius” was called to the stool and he walked steadily, glanced once nervously in the direction of the Head table, and Leah was sure that she saw McGonagall nod in response, before picking up the stone and sitting down. Many of the teachers, she noticed, were paying particular attention to Cory and while most of their expressions were merely mildly curious, a single dark-haired, muscular man with even darker eyes and an angry expression did not look only curious: he looked … ravenous, Leah thought.
“Whatever house he’s in, I hope it’s not this one,” whispered Gwen. “He was weird on the train.”
Leah was still wondering about the Headmistress’s familiar nod and the dark teacher’s glare, and she shifted in her seat so she could see better. “I didn’t find him so bad.”
“Oh, he’s probably really nice and all, but you watch, he’ll be one of those annoying little suck-ups whom all the teachers simply praise and adore, who cares more about himself than anything else! And if he’s somehow not, I’ll … I’ll do a million cartwheels through the common room in my bathrobe “ and that’s a promise!”
A second later, another red light came out of the stone, and Gwen groaned audibly and slumped low in her seat. Leah greeted Cory as he sat down opposite them, then laughed and smiled at Gwen. “Well, I hope you’re good at cartwheels. Don’t worry, I’ll be there to help you to the Hospital Wing once your arms fall off.”
“He hasn’t proven himself yet,” she grumbled.
“Wolff, Brian” was sorted into Athos and then the ceremony was over. Professor Thomas rolled up the scroll of names and waved his wand over it and the stool, which promptly vanished, and took his seat at the Staff table. McGonagall stood up again and said to the entire school, her face stony.
“And that commences this year’s Sorting Ceremony. Welcome students, new and old, to another year at Kootenay Academy of Magic. I am sure you are all exceedingly famished right now, so I will withhold the announcements until after the feast. Tuck in!”
With a clap of McGonagall’s hands, food more delicious and mouth-watering than Leah had ever seen in a single room together at one time appeared. There were steaming bowls of stew with diced vegetables and noodles. Pitcher after overflowing pitcher of pumpkin juice. Large potatoes, and pies, and chicken, and everything that Leah and Gwen could ever have imagined was before them. They took some of everything and enjoyed it all.
But try as she might to persuade it otherwise, Leah’s mind could not help but keep on drifting to what she had noticed during Cory’s sorting. She watched the Headmistress making her way through her dinner, chatting solemnly with Professor Thomas, and it would not have held her attention so if the strange dark-haired professor did not also keep his eyes fixed upon the pair, an almost feral look in them as he took a swig from his hip flask.
Gwen had followed her gaze across the Hall, her eyes focusing on the man. “Creeps you out, doesn’t it?”
“I wonder what his deal is,” Leah replied.
Sean Bratwurst looked up from his slice of apple pie. “Don’t know. Maybe Scott, my brother, does. He’s a third year, he can tell us what’s up with him.” He nodded discreetly in the professor’s direction.
Sean called over a tall boy with a stocky build and the same sandy-coloured hair and freckles as himself to where they sat. But Scott didn’t have any more clue as to what the professor in question was like than they did, and he just shrugged his shoulders helplessly.
“I’ve never seen him before,” he said, frowning. “Must be the new DADA teacher though; we’ll need a new one now that Professor Cassidy’s left to go have her baby.”
“DADA?” asked Leah.
“Defence Against the Dark Arts,” said Scott. “You know … defensive spells, counter jinxes, dangerous creatures … all that kinda stuff.”
“Do you think he’ll be any good?” said Gwen.
Across the table, Cory’s head shot up and he answered furiously, although the question had not been directed toward him. “Well, he can’t possibly be worse than some of the ones my parents got. What’s it matter anyways? He’s only here because McGonagall was desperate, and it was either him or get rid of the subject all together for an entire year.” The rest of the small group stared at him in shock, their mouths hanging open. “What?” he snapped, and he turned back to his supper without another word, ears tinged red with embarrassment.
Gwen whispered to Leah, “What’s got his wand in a twist?” and reached across the table to claim some more chocolate ice cream.
Soon enough, the conversation switched to their families, and Leah only listened half-heartedly as the people around her swapped stories. According to Sean “ Scott had left to rejoin his own friends “ he and his brother were Muggle-borns like her and this made her feel slightly better, because despite Gwen’s earlier reassurances on the train, she still felt nervous about her lack of magical background. It was good to know that she wouldn’t be much farther behind the rest of the class because of it.
“I’m half and half,” Gwen was saying. “My dad’s a wizard, mom’s not. He told her all about it when they were dating, but she didn’t take it very well at first. As far as the story goes, my mom was convinced he was a loony on the run and started hollering at the top of her lungs for the whole street to hear! He had to Obliviate her until he could tell her again privately. But she’s cool with it now.”
They all laughed, even Cory produced a small chuckle, and Sean asked, “What about you, Leah?”
“Oh, um, I’m Muggle-born too,” she replied nervously. “Well, I think. My mom died when I was six, but my dad says that if she was magical, she never told him, and he never saw any signs. I always wondered why I was able to vanish the vegetables I didn’t want from my plate, or to throw my toys around the room when I was angry, but I had no idea that I was actually a witch until Professor McGonagall came to give me my letter.”
Sean nodded in understanding. “Yeah, yeah it was like that for me and my brother also. Scared the heck out of our parents, but it all made sense when Scott got his letter two years ago. After that, I always knew that I was a wizard and would one day come here too.”
Leah was just about to ask Cory about himself when all the food promptly disappeared from in front of them and McGonagall stood up, calling the school to attention.
“Ahem “ quiet now, please. Just a few more words now that we are all satisfied before we turn in. I have a few start of term announcements to give you.
“First off, Mr Tolman, the caretaker, has asked me to remind you that no magic should be used outside of classrooms in the corridors. Plus, all Weasley Wizarding Wheezes products are yes, still on the list of banned substances, which is available for viewing in his office for any student who wishes to see it.”
The Headmistress paused and amidst the disappointed moans, she seemed to struggle for the words with which to continue. She hastily cleared her throat and moved on.
“Quidditch trials will be held the second week of term. Any students second year and above wishing to try out for their house team should speak to Madam Hooch or to their team’s captain for the sign-up sheet.”
“What’s Quidditch?” asked Leah in a low undertone to Gwen.
“Most famous sport in the Wizarding world; played up in the air on broomsticks. The rules are a bit complicated “ I’ll explain later.”
“As always, the black lake on the outskirts of the grounds is firmly off limits to all. It is host to a number of dangerous and mirthless creatures, none of which would think twice before attacking any unsuspecting fool.
“And finally,” said McGonagall, “as all older students will be aware, our dear Professor Cassidy has left us this year on maternity leave. We wish her all the best and she should be back for next September, but in the meantime, please let me introduce to you Professor Masen, who has agreed to fill the Defence Against the Dark Arts post until then.”
A smattering of applause greeted this and the dark-haired, mean-looking professor nodded so slightly, and so stiffly, that Leah wasn’t even sure that he did it. He did not stand up, nor show any sort of friendlier acknowledgement, and she got the funny feeling that he didn’t really want to be here, although she couldn’t have said why she thought that. He looked uncomfortable at being singled out.
“And now, as I am sure that we all wish to be well rested for classes tomorrow “,” some light-hearted chuckles and groans at this, “ “ off to bed with you all!”
Benches were scraped back and a loud chattering started. The Talos first years followed one of their extremely bossy prefects through the thickly forming crowds, out of the Great Hall and up a winding stone staircase. Full and sated after the huge feast, Leah’s feet dragged and her stomach felt like it weighed a ton; she was even almost too tired to notice how all of the portraits that they passed whispered and pointed at the walking students. The prefect led them through tapestries hiding hidden pathways behind them, and up more and more “ an endless amount, it seemed “ of staircases. And finally, when it seemed as if they would still be walking once the sun came up and brightened the darkness visible outside the windows, they were stopped before the statue of a tall old man at the end of an otherwise empty corridor.
The statue was of white marble and would have looked quite out of place in any other school besides this one, where everything out of the ordinary was always in excess. The man wore layers of great flowing robes and had a long, sweeping silver beard, so long that it could easily have been tucked into his belt buckle. Perched upon his crooked nose were a pair of half-moon spectacles that framed eyes which, even though they were white and carved in stone, seemed to twinkle with indistinguishable life.
“It’s Albus Dumbledore!” gasped a girl behind them, and people covered their mouths and looked on at the statue with newly found awe. Leah remembered the name from the back of McGonagall’s Famous Witch card, but she couldn’t yet see what was so amazing about this man that he deserved his own statue.
The statue’s lips twitched upwards in what may have been an amused smile. “And good evening to you, children,” he said.
The girl blushed but her gaze held steady with the statue.
“Password?” he asked to the group at large.
The prefect stepped forward and pronounced, “Essence of dittany.” Albus Dumbledore’s statue nodded and replied, “Exactly,” before stepping aside and letting them through into the room beyond.
The Talos House common room was round and cosy, with red-velvet plush armchairs and a roaring fire already blazing in the grate. All around, the windows looked down on the grounds in a widespread panoramic view, only interrupted periodically where there were sections of stone wall. In the distance, the black lake was barely discernable from the rest of the land, it blended in so well, and the line of the Canadian Rocky Mountains guarded it. Crickets chirped and the stars twinkled, and it felt so much like home “ even more so than her house in Toronto with her father did “ that there was just no other name for it. Leah truly felt, for the first time since receiving her letter to Kootenay, that she would honestly come to love this place and everything it had the potential to stand for.
The prefect directed the girls through one door to their dormitory and the boys through another. At the top of a thin spiralling staircase and through a door marked “First Years”, they found their beds at last. They were in a small room with a double bathroom joined to one side, with four neat four-poster beds surrounded in soft, dark red hangings. Their trunks had already been brought up and were sitting to the side of each of the girls’ respective beds.
Two more girls followed behind Leah and Gwen into the room and they quickly introduced themselves as Sarah Baker, who was very pretty with large green eyes and a pale complexion, and Nia Lane, an athletic African-American with a long plait of dark hair that hung down the middle of her back. Sarah and Nia quickly secured the bathroom for themselves first and left in the midst of a cloud of their own giggling.
Gwen was surveying the room with interest and Leah watched her. “What is so important about Albus Dumbledore?”
“Oh, he was only about the greatest wizard ever before he died,” she replied in a falsely casual voice. “He used to be a headmaster at Hogwarts. Legend has it, he was really close to Harry Potter, too. Of course, this was all before You-Know-Who took over in England and everything went to Hell.”
“Harry who?”
She sighed and rolled her eyes. “Never mind.”
Just then, Leah saw a dangerous spark enter her eyes, and before Leah could do anything to stop her, Gwen had stood up on her bed that had been so neatly made a moment before, and started jumping up and down. Leah eyed her amusedly before deciding to join her. The two friends hopped in circles around their beds, laughing hysterically in their joy of being there, like the chocolate frog that had taken so much pleasure in escaping out of their train window that morning. They were giddy with happiness; so much so that they didn’t even notice that their roommates had joined them again until one of them “ Leah couldn’t see which, for her back was turned “ cleared her throat loudly.
Sarah and Nia eyed them strangely, took one look at each other, and then stifled another round of giggles behind their hands. Gwen and Leah got off the beds, their faces as scarlet as the furniture, and went to take their own turn in the bathroom. As soon as they were refreshed, they all changed into pyjamas, drew the curtains around their beds and, too exhausted to do anything other than wish each other a mumbled goodnight, they closed their eyes and drifted off into a peaceful slumber, waiting for what the next day would bring.
However, not everybody in the castle was experiencing such a pleasant time. Deep in the dungeons, in a small single-bedroom chamber, one man was, in fact, having a very restless night indeed.
That’s not to say that it had been an unpleasant day, of course; just that it had been good in a different respect “ it was satisfying, and detesting, and interesting, all rolled into one. It was a necessary step though, to have to live amongst this filth, for what he desired to happen to be able to grow into fruition; and he could survive, the man told himself, he had survived in far worse before.
The room that he was in, if tiny, was otherwise quite to his liking: it had deep green hangings lined with silver, mahogany furnishings, and little light. On the floor, curled up on a long suede pillow was his pet snake, looking quite content beneath the single lit oil lamp. He moved over to her and ran one thin, bony finger over her body.
She stretched her neck up so he could reach her better and hissed in pleasure. She was special to him, he mused, like nobody had ever been before. McGonagall and Thomas could definitely not be permitted to see her “ that would ruin everything, and he could not bear that. And the Weasley boy, too, as a precaution. The chance could not be taken that that worthless father of his hadn’t already given him a multitude of tall tales by now.
At that thought, he felt another of his all too frequent migraines coming on again, but he pushed the nuisance back impatiently and distracted himself by envisioning the turmoil when all of his so carefully laid plans finally came through.