Imani and Dioleh continued to stick together as they walked along the Great Hall, their eyes surveilling the long tables, benches, and the gleaming golden plates and dishes along said tables. Once they reached the end, they found that they were facing another table at which sat the teachers. Before them, Professor McGonagall placed a stool and an old hat. Dioleh could feel the buzz of magic from the hat. Before she could begin to wonder what it was for, the hat began to sing.
"Oh, you may not think I'm pretty,
But don't judge on what you see,
I'll eat myself if you can find
A smarter hat than me.
You can keep your black,
Your sleek and tall,
For I'm the Hogwarts Sorting Hat
And I can cap them all.
There's nothing hidden in your head
The Sorting Hat can't see,
So try me on and I will tell you
Where you ought to be.
You might belong in Gryffindor,
Where dwell the brave at heart,
Their daring, nerve, and chivalry
Set Gryffindors apart;
You might belong in Hufflepuff,
Where they are just and loyal,
Those patient Hufflepuffs are true
And unafraid of toil;
Or yet in wise old Ravenclaw,
if you've a ready mind,
Where those of wit and learning,
Will always find their kind;
Or perhaps in Slytherin
You'll make your real friends,
Those cunning folks use any means
To achieve their ends.
So put me on! Don't be afraid!
And don't get in a flap!
You're in safe hands (though I have none)
For I'm a Thinking Cap!"
The hall broke into applause as the hat finished and Professor McGonagall stepped forward with a scroll. "When I call your name, you will put on the hat and sit on the stool to be sorted. Abbot, Hannah."
"HUFFLEPUFF!"
"Boot, Terry!"
"RAVENCLAW!"
"Brocklehurst, Mandy!"
"RAVENCLAW!"
"Brown, Lavander!"
"GRYFFINDOR!"
"Bulstrode, Millicent!"
"SLYTHERIN!" The list when on and on. Only a few names stood out to Dioleh.
"Hirabayashi, Aki!"
"SLYTHERIN!"
"Kanumba, Imani!" Dioleh gave her hand a quick squeeze and smiled at her as she went up to the stool and placed the hat on her head.
After it had thought a moment, it pronounced, "SLYTHERIN!"
More names passed by until she came to, "Malfoy, Draco!"
Before the hat had even touched his head, it cried, "SLYTHERIN!"
"Marlow, Dioleh!" Dioleh moved from the crowd and grabbed the hat. Her fingers prickled with the magic flowing through it. She placed the hat on her head and instantly heard a voice in her ear.
"Hm, a siren, yes?" the hat whispered. Dioleh's heart stopped in her chest. "You need not worry. I won't tell anyone what you are. Did you know that once sirens performed magic just like wizards and witches. Their magic was some of the most beautiful and the most dangerous. You have great ambition, Young Siren. You want something, desperately. What is that, I wonder? Ah, yes. To liberate your people and go back to the sea. You miss it. You crave it. You want nothing from this place apart from its knowledge."
"S-So?" Dioleh countered quietly.
"Question is where to put you," the Sorting Hat said. "Any preference? No? Then better be...SLYTHERIN!" Taking off the hat, Dioleh could see and hear the table at the far end explode in cheers. Heading towards it, she saw Draco with a confident smirk. Passing by him, she sat with Imani who was smiling widely.
"Rodriguez, Andre!" Looking up, Dioleh saw a young boy with golden-bronze skin. His hair was starkly white and his eyes a golden-brown.
"RAVENCLAW!" They ran through several more names, but Dioleh was getting so hungry, she didn't notice. Soon there was a whole group of first years around them. On the other side of Imani sat a boy with dark skin and eyes named Blaise Zabini. Draco Malfoy sat on the other side of him. Across from Draco sat Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle, his lackeys.
Next to those two and across from Dioleh were Pansy Parkinson, Millicent Bulstrode, and Daphne Greengrass.
⥖✦✧⦽✧✦⥗
When the girls were settling into their dorms, Imani and Dioleh got two beds next to each other. Parkinson and Bulstrode were on the other side of the room while Daphne and the other Slytherin girl, Aki, took the beds between the two pairs of friends. Once she had settled in, Dioleh decided to go and look around the common room more. It was empty when she got there, but she was struck with how terribly cold the atmosphere of the room was.
It was dark, grand, and cold. However, there was one part of the common room that caught Dioleh's attention. In a small nook of the common room, bookshelves extended in a near circle from the floor to the ceiling, shutting it off from the rest of the room. It was large enough for two, maybe three, people to sit on the couch there.
As she was looking at the book titles, a voice behind her said, "So, Dioleh, is it?" Smirking, she turned, facing Draco.
"You seem to have some kind of obsession with me, Malfoy," she said dismissively, moving past him.
"Or perhaps it is you who has an obsession, love," he replied. This caused Dioleh to break out in laughter as she turned back to face him. Giving him an amused look, she left the common room and headed back up to her dorm. However, before she got there, the buzz of magic stopped her in her tracks. Turning her head, she saw a doorway.
Glancing back to make sure no one else was coming, she stepped toward the door. Opening it, she found she was in a dark room, lit only by the glow of a wide pillar of water in the corner of the room. Drawing in a harsh breath, Dioleh moved to look at the pillar. Drawing in a deep breath, she ran toward it, diving into the water.
Instantly, her body transformed into her siren form. She smiled and drew in a deep breath in the water. It wasn't ocean water, she could tell, but it was water. Shifting her powerful tail, she sped through the water all the way around the large lake. After an hour or so of swimming, she went at full speed back to the pillar and came tumbling out of it to the ground, back in human form. Her face stretched into a wide smile as she got up and slipped carefully back out and, finally, to bed.