THROUGH THE GATES, flanked with statues of winged boars, and up the sweeping drive the carriages trundled, swaying dangerously in what was fast becoming a gale. Leaning against the window, Astra could see Hogwarts coming nearer, its many lighted windows blurred and shimmering behind the thick curtain of rain. Lightning flashed across the sky as their carriage came to a halt before the great oak front doors, which stood at the top of a flight of stone steps. People who had occupied the carriages in front were already hurrying up the stone steps into the castle. The group jumped down from their carriage and dashed up the steps too, looking up only when they were safely inside the cavernous, torch-lit entrance hall, with its magnificent marble staircase.
"Blimey," said Ron, shaking his head and sending water everywhere, "if that keeps up the lake's going to overflow. I'm soak - ARRGH!"
A large, red, water-filled balloon had dropped from out of the ceiling onto Ron's head and exploded. Drenched and sputtering, Ron staggered sideways into Harry, just as a second water bomb dropped - narrowly missing Hermione, it burst at Harry's feet. People all around them shrieked and started pushing one another in their efforts to get out of the line of fire, though Astra just chuckled. She made sure the coat was still above them and moved inside, only laughing when Peeves through a balloon straight at her.
"Oops, sorry Black!" he cackled, and Astra gave him a thumbs-up. She rather liked his mischief, and had earned his respect due to her father and her own antics. Some people looked at her in confusion, but quickly returned to the task at hand: getting into the Great Hall.
"PEEVES!" yelled an angry voice. "Peeves, come down here at ONCE!"
Minnie came dashing out of the Great Hall, nearly pulling down Hermione as she stopped herself from falling.
"Peeves, get down here NOW!" barked Professor McGonagall, straightening her pointed hat and glaring upward through her square-rimmed spectacles.
"Not doing nothing!" cackled Peeves, lobbing a water bomb at several fifth-year girls, who screamed and dived into the Great Hall. "Already wet, aren't they? Little squirts! Wheeeeeeeeee!" And he aimed another bomb at a group of second years who had just arrived.
"I shall call the headmaster!" shouted Professor McGonagall. "I'm warning you, Peeves -"
Peeves stuck out his tongue, threw the last of his water bombs into the air, and zoomed off up the marble staircase, cackling insanely.
"Well, move along, then!" said Professor McGonagall sharply to the bedraggled crowd. "Into the Great Hall, come on!"
Astra and Luna were some of the first to get inside as Peeves hadn't targeted Astra, so they split up as Luna made her way to the Ravenclaw table. Astra took her usual seat at the end of the Gryffindor table, and this time, wasn't surprised when Hermione sat next to her. It actually made her feel happy, after her first few years of hiding in the kitchens and sitting alone, she finally had friends to chat and laugh with.
The Great Hall looked its usual splendid self, decorated for the start-of-term feast. Golden plates and goblets gleamed by the light of hundreds and hundreds of candles, floating over the tables in midair. The four long House tables were packed with chattering students; at the top of the Hall, the staff sat along one side of a fifth table, facing their pupils.
"Good evening," came the voice of Nearly Headless Nick.
"Says who?" said Harry, taking off his sneakers and emptying them of water. "Hope they hurry up with the Sorting. I'm starving."
Astra chuckled, she waved cheerfully at Nick, who tipped his head in return, while the rest of the trio were wondering how she could be in such good spirits after the attack outside.
Just then, a highly excited, breathless voice called down the table.
"Hiya, Harry!" said Colin Creevey, Harry's fanboy.
"Hi, Colin," said Harry warily. Astra smirked at his response as Colin continued to try to get Harry's attention.
"Harry, guess what? Guess what, Harry? My brother's starting! My brother Dennis!"
"Er - good," said Harry.
"He's really excited!" said Colin, practically bouncing up and down in his seat. "I just hope he's in Gryffindor! Keep your fingers crossed, eh, Harry?"
"Er - yeah, all right," said Harry. He turned back to Hermione, Ron, Astra, and Nearly Headless Nick. "Brothers and sisters usually go in the same Houses, don't they?" he asked.
"Oh no, not necessarily," said Hermione. "Parvati Patil's twin's in Ravenclaw, and they're identical. You'd think they'd be together, wouldn't you?"
"Where's the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher?" said Hermione, who was now looking at the staff table.
Astra shrugged, wishing for the millionth time that Moony had just returned to teach, but no, his Gryffindor moral said he had to resign. She wondered whether if she had told him that James and Lily wanted to him to stay, then he would, but it seemed like his mind was made up already anyway.
"Wish Moony were back," Astra sighed. Harry looked at her strangely; for only knowing him as a professor, she knew an awful lot about him and acted as if she had known him her whole life.
"Maybe they couldn't get anyone!" said Hermione, looking anxious.
"Oh hurry up," Ron moaned, beside Harry, "I could eat a hippogriff."
The words were no sooner out of his mouth than the doors of the Great Hall opened and silence fell. Professor McGonagall was leading a long line of first years up to the top of the Hall. If Harry, Ron, and Hermione were wet, it was nothing to how these first years looked. They appeared to have swum across the lake rather than sailed. All of them were shivering with a combination of cold and nerves as they filed along the staff table and came to a halt in a line facing the rest of the school - all of them except the smallest of the lot, a boy with mousy hair, who was wrapped in what Astra recognized as Hagrid's moleskin overcoat. The coat was so big for him that it hooked as though he were draped in a furry black circus tent. His small face protruded from over the collar, looking almost painfully excited. When he had lined up with his terrified-looking peers, he caught Colin Creevey's eye, gave a double thumbs-up, and mouthed, 'I fell in the lake!' He looked positively delighted about it.
Professor McGonagall now placed a three-legged stool on the ground before the first years and, on top of it, an extremely old, dirty patched wizard's hat. The first years stared at it. So did everyone else. For a moment, there was silence. Then a long tear near the brim opened wide like a mouth, and the hat broke into song, like every year.
The Great Hall rang with applause as the Sorting Hat finished.
"That's not the song it sang when it Sorted us," said Harry, clapping along with everyone else.
"Sings a different one every year," said Astra.
"It's got to be a pretty boring life, hasn't it, being a hat? I suppose it spends all year making up the next one," added Ron.
Professor McGonagall was now unrolling a large scroll of parchment.
"When I call out your name, you will put on the hat and sit on the stool," she told the first years. "When the hat announces your House, you will go and sit at the appropriate table.
"Ackerley, Stewart!"
A boy walked forward, visibly trembling from head to foot, picked up the Sorting Hat, put it on, and sat down on the stool.
"RAVENCLAW!" shouted the hat.
Stewart Ackerley took off the hat and hurried into a seat at the Ravenclaw table, where everyone was applauding him.
"Baddock, Malcolm!"
"SLYTHERIN!"
The table on the other side of the hall erupted with cheers; Harry could see Malfoy clapping as Baddock joined the Slytherins, while Fred and George hissed Malcolm Baddock as he sat down. Astra rolled her eyes; she wondered when people would realize that not all Slytherins were bad. Maybe when they heard the stories of Andromeda and Regulus Black, they would change their opinions, but then again, those were only two people.
"Branstone, Eleanor!"
"HUFFLEPUFF!"
"Cauldwell, Owen!"
"HUFFLEPUFF!"
"Creevey, Dennis!"
Tiny Dennis Creevey staggered forward, tripping over Hagrid's moleskin, just as Hagrid himself sidled into the Hall through a door behind the teachers' table. Hagrid winked at the four Gryffindors as he sat down at the end of the staff table and watched Dennis Creevey putting on the Sorting Hat. The rip at the brim opened wide -
"GRYFFINDOR!" the hat shouted.
Hagrid clapped along with the Gryffindors as Dennis Creevey, beaming widely, took off the hat, placed it back on the stool, and hurried over to join his brother.
"Colin, I fell in!" he said shrilly, throwing himself into an empty seat. "It was brilliant! And something in the water grabbed me and pushed me back in the boat!"
"Cool!" said Colin, just as excitedly. "It was probably the giant squid, Dennis!"
"Wow!" said Dennis, as though nobody in their wildest dreams could hope for more than being thrown into a storm-tossed, fathoms-deep lake, and pushed out of it again by a giant sea monster.
"Dennis! Dennis! See that boy down there? The one with the black hair and glasses? See him? Know who he is, Dennis?"
Harry looked away, staring very hard at the Sorting Hat, now Sorting Emma Dobbs. Astra had to stifle a laugh, even though she knew if someone called her out like that, she would feel the same way.
The Sorting continued; boys and girls with varying degrees of fright on their faces moving one by one to the three-legged stool, the line dwindling slowly as Professor McGonagall passed the L's.
"Oh hurry up," Ron moaned, massaging his stomach.
"Now, Ron, the Sorting's much more important than food," said Nearly Headless Nick as "Madley, Laura!" became a Hufflepuff.
"Course it is, if you're dead," snapped Ron.
"I do hope this year's batch of Gryffindors are up to scratch," said Nearly Headless Nick, applauding as "McDonald, Natalie!" joined the Gryffindor table. "We don't want to break our winning streak, do we?"
Astra nodded, even though she felt the past few years (with the exception of third year) were a bit unfair to the other houses; Gryffindor had gotten an absurd amount of points at the very ending of the year.
"Pritchard, Graham!"
"SLYTHERIN!"
"Quirke, Orla!"
"RAVENCLAW!"
And finally, with "Whitby, Kevin!" ("HUFFLEPUFF!"), the Sorting ended. Professor McGonagall picked up the hat and the stool and carried them away.
"About time," said Ron, seizing his knife and fork and looking expectantly at his golden plate.
Professor Dumbledore had gotten to his feet. He was smiling around at the students, his arms opened wide in welcome.
"I have only two words to say to you," he told them, his deep voice echoing around the Hall. "Tuck in."
"Hear, hear!" said Harry and Ron loudly as the empty dishes filled magically before their eyes.
Nearly Headless Nick watched mournfully as Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Astra loaded their own plates.
"Aaah, 'at's be'er," said Ron, with his mouth full of mashed potato. Hermione looked at him in disgust, while Astra nearly chuckled.
"You're lucky there's a feast at all tonight, you know," said Nearly Headless Nick. "There was trouble in the kitchens earlier."
"Really? Honey was complaining about something yesterday, what was it?" Astra asked, hoping that the house-elves who had grown to be her friends were alright.
"Peeves, of course," said Nearly Headless Nick, shaking his head, which wobbled dangerously. He pulled his ruff a little higher up on his neck. "The usual argument, you know. He wanted to attend the feast - well, it's quite out of the question, you know what he's like, utterly uncivilized, can't see a plate of food without throwing it. We held a ghost's council - the Fat Friar was all for giving him the chance - but most wisely, in my opinion, the Bloody Baron put his foot down."
"Yeah, we thought Peeves seemed hacked off about something," said Ron darkly. "So what did he do in the kitchens?"
"Oh the usual," said Nearly Headless Nick, shrugging. "Wreaked havoc and mayhem. Pots and pans everywhere. Place swimming in soup. Terrified the house-elves out of their wits -"
Clang.
Hermione had knocked over her golden goblet. Pumpkin juice spread steadily over the tablecloth, staining several feet of white linen orange, but Hermione paid no attention.
"There are house-elves here?" she said, staring, horror-struck, at Nearly Headless Nick. "Here at Hogwarts?"
"You knew that already, Hermione," said Astra. She didn't know why Hermione was making such a big deal.
"Yes, b-but they get paid?" she said. "They get holidays, don't they? And - and sick leave, and pensions, and everything?"
Astra snorted as well as Nick. "Sick leave and pensions?" she asked. "House-elves don't want sick leave and pensions!"
Hermione looked down at her hardly touched plate of food, then put her knife and fork down upon it and pushed it away from her.
"Oh c'mon, 'Er-my-knee," said Ron, accidentally spraying Harry and Astra with bits of Yorkshire pudding. "Oops - sorry, 'Arry -" He swallowed. "You won't get them sick leave by starving yourself!"
"Slave labor," said Hermione, breathing hard through her nose. "That's what made this dinner. Slave labor."
"It's not slave labor," Astra tried to reason with her, but she refused to eat another bite. "They like to work. You should see Winky, she's miserable-"
"You knew?!" Hermione demanded, glaring angrily at her friend. Astra gulped. "Of course, but you should see them. They're really happy while working, and miserable when getting freed. Of course, there's Dobby-"
"Dobby?" Harry asked, suddenly interested.
"Oh yes, you freed him, didn't you? He always goes on and on about Harry Potter. He's one of those rare elves that actually likes being free. But if you look at Winky-"
"Winky?" Hermione asked faintly.
"Yes, she works at Hogwarts now. You saw her getting freed by Barty Crouch, but she's miserable now. I tried getting Dobby to uplift her, you know, maybe I could get some information from her," she muttered the last bit but the others still heard. "But she's still loyal to Crouch. She's constantly drinking and hates not working for her family. That's how most house-elves would act when getting freed," she finished.
Hermione still refused to eat, while Astra rolled her eyes and decided to let her be.
The rain was still drumming heavily against the high, dark glass. Another clap of thunder shook the windows, and the stormy ceiling flashed, illuminating the golden plates as the remains of the first course vanished and were replaced, instantly, with puddings. When the puddings too had been demolished, and the last crumbs had faded off the plates, leaving them sparkling clean, Albus Dumbledore got to his feet again. The buzz of chatter filling the Hall ceased almost at once, so that only the howling wind and pounding rain could be heard.
"So!" said Dumbledore, smiling around at them all. "Now that we are all fed and watered," ("Hmph!" said Hermione) "I must once more ask for your attention, while I give out a few notices. Mr. Filch, the caretaker, has asked me to tell you that the list of objects forbidden inside the castle has this year been extended to include Screaming Yo-yos, Fanged Frisbees, and Ever-Bashing Boomerangs. The full list comprises some four hundred and thirty-seven items, I believe, and can be viewed in Mr. Filch's office, if anybody would like to check it."
Astra yawned. As if anyone would actually look at that list; well, maybe the Weasley twins would just so they could get anything on it.
Dumbledore continued, "As ever, I would like to remind you all that the forest on the grounds is out-of-bounds to students, as is the village of Hogsmeade to all below third year. It is also my painful duty to inform you that the Inter-House Quidditch Cup will not take place this year."
There were gasps from all around, while Astra looked a bit grumpy. She knew that it was going to happen, but she was also finally happy with her role as Quidditch commentator.
Dumbledore went on, "This is due to an event that will be starting in October, and continuing throughout the school year, taking up much of the teachers' time and energy - but I am sure you will all enjoy it immensely. I have great pleasure in announcing that this year at Hogwarts -"
But at that moment, there was a deafening rumble of thunder and the doors of the Great Hall banged open.