Ella walked along the train once again prepared for another year at Hogwarts. Draco walked behind her, Ella had just heard that he was a prefect this year and she was not happy about it.
"Come on love their's nothing bad about it" Draco says
"Except for the fact that your paired with Pansy" Ella pouts
"You're acting like I chose my partner" Draco says with a hint of amusement in his voice
"You're happy about this?" Ella looks at him
"I find your jealously adorable" Draco smirks
"I-I'm not jealous" Ella crosses her arms and looks away
Draco suddenly slams his hand beside her head pinning her to the compartment wall. Ella blushes immensely and shrinks under Draco's gaze. He chuckles before leaning down and kissing her.
"...the legendary wall slam.." Ella mutters
"Really" Draco laughs
"What, it was hot" Ella states
Draco chuckles before taking her hand and leading her into their compartment.
"You read too much manga" Draco says as he sits down
"You're not going to sit in the prefect compartment?" Ella asks
"Of course not" Draco shutters at the thought of sitting with only Pansy for an entire train ride "I'm rather sit with my girlfriend"
Ella giggles and sits on his lap
"I like this seat better" Ella lays her head on his shoulder
"I'm sure you do" Draco chuckles
-
The Entrance Hall was ablaze with torches and echoing with footsteps as the students crossed the flagged stone floor for the double doors to the right, leading to the Great Hall and the start-of-term feast.
The four long house tables in the Great Hall were filling up under the starless black ceiling, which was just like the sky they could glimpse through the high windows. Candles floated in midair all along the tables, illuminating the silvery ghosts who were dotted about the Hall and the faces of the students talking eagerly, exchanging summer news, shouting greetings at friends from other houses, eyeing one another’s new haircuts and robes.
Ella saw her brother in the crowd and split off from Draco to go see him.
"Harryyyyyyy" Ella jumps on his back
"Ah!" Harry looks at the face beside him "Ella, you scared me"
"Hehehe" Ella laughs "what's up big brother?"
"You haven't heard?" Hermione asks
"Heard what?" Ella questions as she gets off Harry's back, standing beside him
"Harry went under trail for using magic outside school" Ron tells her
"Oh my gosh, really?" Ella looks at Harry "I'm sorry, I didn't know"
"It's ok, I wouldn't have wanted you at the hearing anyway" Harry admits "not that I'm saying it's a bad thing or anything.. I just.. well.. I don't want you put in dangerous situations anymore. So just stay out of trouble, we've fought too much over the years that I thought you wouldn't even talk to me this year"
"Your my brother, of course I'll talk to you" Ella smiles "We're twins after all"
"But I'm still older" Harry jokes
"Watch it" Ella pouts
“Hey who’s that?” Hermione suddently asks, pointing towards the middle of the staff table
Harry and Ella's eyes followed hers. They lit first upon Professor Dumbledore, sitting in his high-backed golden chair at the center of the long staff table, wearing deep-purple robes scattered with silvery stars and a matching hat. Dumbledore’s head was inclined towards the woman sitting next to him, who was talking into his ear. She looked, Harry thought, like somebody’s maiden aunt: squat, with short, curly, mouse-brown hair in which she had placed a horrible pink Alice band
that matched the fluffy pink cardigan she wore over her robes.
Then she turned her face slightly
to take a sip from her goblet and he saw, with a shock of recognition, a pallid, toadlike face and a pair of prominent, pouchy eyes.
“It’s that Umbridge woman!” Harry recognizes her
"Who?" Ella asks
“She was at my hearing, she works for Fudge!” Harry explains
“Nice cardigan,” said Ron, smirking.
“She works for Fudge!” Hermione repeated, frowning. “What on earth’s she doing here, then?”
“Dunno…” Harry shakes his head
"Hagrid's gone too" Ella says
Hermione scanned the staff table, her eyes narrowed.
“No,” she muttered, “no, surely not…”
Harry did not understand what she was talking about but did not ask; his attention had been caught by Professor Grubbly-Plank who had just appeared behind the staff table; she worked her
way along to the very end and took the seat that ought to have been Hagrids. That meant the first-years must have crossed the lake and reached the castle, and sure enough, a few seconds
later, the doors from the Entrance Hall opened.
Ella waved bye to the group and hurried back to the Slytherin table where she sat at the empty seat next to Draco. A long line of scared-looking first-years entered, led by Professor McGonagall, who was carrying a stool on which sat an ancient wizard’s hat, heavily patched and darned with a wide rip near the frayed brim.
The buzz of talk in the Great Hall faded away. The first-years lined up in front of the staff table facing the rest of the students, and Professor McGonagall placed the stool carefully in front of
them, then stood back.
The first-years’ faces glowed palely in the candlelight. A small boy right in the middle of the row looked as though he was trembling. The whole school waited with bated breath. Then the rip near the hat’s brim opened wide like a mouth and the Sorting Hat burst into song:
In times of old when I was new,
And Hogwarts barely started,
The founders of our noble school,
Thought never to be parted,
United by a common goal,
They had the selfsame yearning,
To make the world’s best magic school,
And pass along their learning.
“Together we will build and teach!”
The four good friends decided,
And never did they dream,
That they might some day be divided,
For were there such friends anywhere,
As Slytherin and Gryffindor?
Unless it was the second pair
Of Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw?
So how could it have gone so wrong?
How could such friendships fail?
Why, I was there and so can tell,
The whole sad, sorry tale.
Said Slytherin, “We’ll teach just those whose Ancestry is purest.”
Said Ravenclaw, “We’ll teach those whose Intelligence is surest.”
Said Gryffindor, “We’ll teach all those
With brave deeds to their name.”
Said Hufflepuff, “I’ll teach the lot,
And treat them just the same.”
These differences caused little strife,
When first they came to light,
For each of the four founders had
A house in which they might
Take only those they wanted,
So, for instance, Slytherin
Took only pure-blood wizards
Of great cunning, just like him,
And only those of sharpest mind
Were taught by Ravenclaw
While the bravest and the boldest
Went to daring Gryffindor.
Good Hufflepuff, she took the rest,
And taught them all she knew,
Thus the houses and their founders
Retained friendships firm and true.
So Hogwarts worked in harmony
For several happy years,
But then discord crept among us
Feeding on our faults and fears.
The houses that, like pillars four,
Had once held up our school,
Now turned upon each other and,
Divided, sought to rule.
And for a while it seemed the school
Must meet an early end,
What with dueling and with fighting
And the clash of friend on friend
And at last there came a morning
When old Slytherin departed
And though the fighting then died out
He left us quite downhearted.
And never since the founders four
Were whittled down to three
Have the houses been united
As they once were meant to be.
And now the Sorting Hat is here
And you all know the score:
I sort you into houses
Because that is what I’m for,
But this year I’ll go further,
Listen closely to my song:
Though condemned I am to split you
Still I worry that it’s wrong,
Though I must fulfill my duty
And must quarter every year
Still I wonder whether Sorting
May not bring the end I fear.
Oh, know the perils, read the signs,
The warning history shows,
For our Hogwarts is in danger
From external, deadly foes
And we must unite inside her
Or we’ll crumble from within
I have told you, I have warned you…
Let the Sorting now begin.
The Hat became motionless once more; applause broke out, though it was punctured.
"That was odd" Ella whispered to Draco "It's like he was trying to tell us something"
"It's just a hat's song dear, don't think too much about it" Draco whispers back "everything's fine"
"Hm" Ella stares at the hat
Professor McGonagall, who was waiting to read out the list of first-years’ names, was giving the whispering students the sort of look that scorches. Nearly Headless Nick placed a see-through finger to his lips and sat primly upright again as the muttering came to an abrupt end. With a last frowning look that swept the four house tables, Professor McGonagall lowered her eyes to her long piece of parchment and called out the first name.
Slowly, the long line of first-years thinned. In the pauses between the names and the Sorting Hat’s decisions, Harry could hear Ron’s stomach rumbling loudly. Finally, “Zeller, Rose” was Sorted into Hufflepuff, and Professor McGonagall picked up the Hat and stool and marched them away as Professor Dumbledore rose to his feet.
Whatever his recent bitter feelings had been towards his Headmaster, Harry was somehow soothed to see Dumbledore standing before them all. Between the absence of Hagrid and the
presence of those dragonish horses, he had felt that his return to Hogwarts, so long anticipated, was full of unexpected surprises, like jarring notes in a familiar song. But this, at least, was how
it was supposed to be: their Headmaster rising to greet them all before the start-of-term feast.
“To our newcomers,” said Dumbledore in a ringing voice, his arms stretched wide and a beaming smile on his lips, “welcome! To our old hands - welcome back! There is a time for speechmaking, but this is not it. Tuck in!”
There was an appreciative laugh and an outbreak of applause as Dumbledore sat down neatly and threw his long beard over his shoulder so as to keep it out of the way of his plate - for food had
appeared out of nowhere, so that the five long tables were groaning under joints and pies and dishes of vegetables, bread and sauces and flagons of pumpkin juice.
Ella cheers happily "yay, food!"