The moment had finally come. Now, there would never be a doubt in her mind. She wouldn't have to worry that she skewed a quiz or that maybe Pottermore wasn't correct. Sutton sat in frozen anticipation as the sorting hat proclaimed the house that would be irrecoverably and undeniably hers.
"HUFFLEPUFF."
"WHAT."
Sutton almost fell over onto her side as the announcement sank in.
"No, no, no! Are you sure? Are you sure not Gryffindor? Not Ravenclaw? Are you sure? I mean, I might not be the bravest, but-"
"HUFFLEPUFF," the hat insisted.
Sutton yanked the hat off her head, despite its cry of 'careful!', and sat it back on its stool.
"Hufflepuff," she complained. "I got Hufflepuff? Do you know what I've been through," she demanded. "I have dealt with being teleported for life into another dimension, I stood up to Loki the god of mischief, I have survived being pulled through time and space twice now!"
But the hat almost seemed smug in its choice.
"Hufflepuff through and through,
Sincere in spirit and loyal too,
A heart for justice and friendly disposition,
Made it easy to make my decision."
Sutton frowned at the hat and sniffed haughtily.
"Now you're just trying to show off."
But the hat quieted then and said no more and Sutton knew she couldn't convince it to change its mind. Even if she could, wouldn't that be like cheating on a "What House Are You In" quiz?
Finished with the sorting hat now, both literally and emotionally, Sutton shuffled back to the door, listened, peeked out, and started back down the stairs.
"Hufflepuff, flippin' Hufflepuff," she complained the entire way down. "Tony can't find out. He'd never let me live it down. Steve gets Gryffindor; Bruce gets Ravenclaw, I bet. But, nooo! Sutton stands up to Loki, makes it out of the Death Star alive,and gets Hufflepuff."
She hopped on the balls of her feet down the last few steps and thanked the gargoyle for moving out of the way as she passed it. In the hall she froze, looked back, and rolled her eyes.
"Ugh, that's why you're a 'Puff," she said to herself.
But she had to shake off whatever disappointment she was feeling, because it wouldn't do to dwell on it. Besides, hadn't Rowling said she liked the canary yellow house best? That had to count for something. Still, Sutton pouted a bit as she tried to find her way back downstairs.
"Loyalty is a good trait. And there's nothing wrong with a sense of justice! 'Puffs aren't dumb! I'm not dumb!"
Sutton couldn't quite remember which direction she had come from as she wandered down floor after floor. All she could say for sure was that she was going down. But it was also getting later, and exhaustion was setting in, as well as hunger. She couldn't quite remember the last meal she'd eaten with certainty. Sooner rather than later she'd have to find some sort of corner to curl up in. Because heaven knew she wasn't going to tough it out outdoors. Not with dangerous magical creatures and bugs running about!
Sutton rounded another corner and blinked blankly at the hall she found herself in. It was the same as any other hall in this castle and she didn't recognize it at all.
"Ok, I must have come from the...lef-right?"
Neither corridor was spiking any memories, so Sutton tentatively continued on towards the right.
"Right-handed, right direction, right?"
But she may have made a few wrong turns before this moment, honestly. It wasn't as warm or as well lit were she was now. And none of the doors she passed even resembled the grand doors that opened to the Great Hall.
But surely she couldn't run into too much trouble; not in a school. Not with the Dark Lord vanquished?
Oh gosh, she couldn't even think that with a straight face!
Sutton didn't think she could continue on much further in her current state. She was shivering in her Tatooine clothes, horribly hungry, and physically and emotionally drained. Just for a bit, she decided to rest against the stone wall to her back. She tilted her head back, closed her eyes, and sighed.
"Wonderfully smart," she admonished herself. "Just think you can run around a magical castle, that's probably bigger on the inside, and not end up dying in some dark corner."
She was just considering settling down for the night and trying to escape the next morning when she heard a 'pop' and startled into a standing position.
"What?"
Her eyes roved around the corridor until they landed on a small figure by her feet. Sutton could feel her own eyes bulging as she realized that she was looking upon a small house-elf. Her mouth hung open as she stared down at the creature, taking it in. It was a small thing, hardly reaching her knee, which was really saying something because Sutton's knees weren't high off the ground as it was. It had what looked like an old hand towel wrapped around itself like a toga, and a strand of twine to cinch it in at its waist. Besides the typical large ears on the sides of its head, it also had large doe-like eyes and small tufts of hair on its head that made it appear more feminine.
"Um, hello," Sutton finally managed to say.
The house-elf blinked owlishly up at her.
"Hello indeed." Its voice was high and squeaky, almost youthful sounding. "Flipsy heard a voice and came out to see who it was. Young Miss is out past curfew!"
It thought she was a student! And it was going to tattle on her!
She was not going to be obliviated tonight!
Sutton sucked in a worried breath and dropped down to one knee in order to be more at eye level with the tiny thing.
"Oh yes, about that, you see, it's actually an accident. I got separated and a bit lost, I'm afraid!"
The house-elf gave an 'ah' of understanding and nodded her head. Her ears flopped back and forth as she did so.
"Flipsy will go fetch a professor!"
Sutton threw out both hands, palms out in a placating gesture, as the house-elf moved to snap her fingers.
"No, no, no, no! Hey, Flipsy is it? Flipsy, it's my first day here and I don't want to cause a fuss. It's hard enough making friends transferring so late in my education, you know? It would be wonderful if you could maybe just show me how to get back to the Great Hall? You seem like the kind, understanding sort, aren't you?"
Flipsy didn't quite know what to do with that statement, if her blinking and hand-wringing were any indication.
"My name is Sutton," she offered.
She was about to speak again when her stomach let out a loud gurgling that had Flipsy jumping back again.
"Did-did Miss get lost before dinner?"
"Um...yes, I did, but-"
But the house-elf interrupted her with a little hop and a wave of the hand.
"Come along then! Flipsy will do her job and get Miss something to eat!"
There wasn't time to protest, and Sutton hadn't been planning on it even if she could have. Her eating habits had become far too irregular lately for her liking.
She followed Flipsy down one more set of stairs and around a couple corners until Sutton found herself before a painting of a bowl of fruit. Flipsy reached up and wiggled her long, thin fingers to tickle the pear in the bowl. Sutton watched in fascination as it began to shift and move and then laugh before transforming into a green doorknob.
Inside, it was an immense space with a large fireplace and long tables that matched those in the Great Hall. Besides that, there seemed to be an endless supply of brass pots and kettles and iron pans and all sorts of kitchen supplies. Flipsy led her over to the fireplace and snapped her fingers. Instantly a small fire crackled and popped inside it.
Sutton settled near the warmth of the fire and watched as Flipsy quickly made up a small plate for her. It could have been leftovers, could even have been throw out from the top of the trash, Sutton didn't care. It was warm and delicious. She was given roast chicken, boiled potatoes, peas, carrots, and Yorkshire pudding and it was heaven for her empty stomach. Sutton had never actually had Yorkshire pudding, so she had to ask about it, and she was a bit confused to find that it actually wasn't anything like pudding at all. It was like a bread bowl with meat and gravy inside and Sutton felt very lied to.
"Huh," she mused as she ate. "You know, I always thought this was a dessert."
Flipsy looked at her oddly.
"No Miss, not a sweet, no! Never!"
Sutton shrugged and continued to cleaned off the entire plate, licking the gravy off her fork and sighing in contentment as Flipsy snapped the plate clean and back to its shelf.
"Thank you very much," she said. "That was wonderful. Wonderful earth, not Tatooine food," she muttered under her breath.
Flipsy bowed a bit while wringing her hands.
"Miss is welcome," she said. "But Miss must now get to bed! Miss will get in trouble if Miss is found up! Flipsy must get a professor if Miss is lost."
"Actually," Sutton cut in, "I think I can find my way now!" She pointed to herself sheepishly. "Hufflepuff. Just around the corner!"
Flipsy was suddenly nodding again, her large bat-like ears almost heavy enough to knock her over.
"Oh yes! Miss is right, just around the corner they are! Two from the bottom, middle of the second row! Best not tap wrong though, or Miss will be sorry!"
Sutton stood up and dusted off her tunic then kneeled down and opened her arms.
"Well, thank you very much again, Flipsy! You are very kind."
But the house-elf just stared blankly at her.
"What is Miss doing?"
Blinking, Sutton looked down at her own arms and then back up.
"Well I was going to give you a hug to say thanks, but if you're not a hugger, I totally get that. Not everyone is, you know. I just thought-"
"A hug!" Flipsy's voice was suddenly higher pitched than before. If that were possible. "Miss wants to give Flipsy a hug! A house-elf!"
Sutton blinked a few more times in confusion, and then she remembered how sensitive house-elves tended to be and tried not to grimace.
"Well, yes," she said calmly. "I just wanted to say thank you, and this is really all I can offer to show my thanks. Um, I can just shake your hand if you'd like? Or...maybe not?"
"Miss is so kind to house elves," Flipsy declared. "Flipsy does not work for thanks! Her mother works in Hogwart's kitchen and her mother and back and back! It is an honor to work for Hogwarts, Flipsy is happy here!"
Sutton tried not to groan as the little elf went off on a tangent. Lord help her if she'd offered the poor thing something like a sock.
"Well I'm so glad you're treated well here." She finally stood up, feeling like the moment was over and wanting to avoid sending the poor thing into hysterics. "Thank you very much, once again. You are a very kind, very good house-elf, I can see that."
"Miss flatters Flipsy!'
With a few more calming and parting words Sutton was able to break away from the emotional house-elf and made her way down the hall. It hadn't been her intention to rile the poor thing up, and she'd had to reassure her several times that she was quite capable of finding her way now without a professors help. She actually had no intention of going to the Hufflepuff common room. First of all, she knew it was the only house with an actual defense against intruders, and she wasn't exactly sure how the knock was supposed to go.
Was it, Hel-ga-Huff-le-puff? Or more like, Helga-Huffle-puff. Morse code maybe?
She didn't want to risk it. Secondly, she was bound to be seen and turned in if she just tried to curl up on one of the couches. Her internal clock wasn't reliable enough to wake her up before everyone else went off to class.
Instead, she traveled until she found the very spot that hid the Hufflepuff house and studied the stack of barrels. She made a tapping motion at the middle barrel at her level without actually touching it, just in case that counted as trying to get in.
As if she didn't smell bad enough already, she didn't need to add vinegar to it.
After using the barrels as an anchor point, Sutton was able to find a small dusty corridor that looked as though it had gone unused for a long while. With an exhausted sigh, she sank down onto her side and lay still. It felt as though her muscles were pulsing under her skin and her eyes felt heavy, like they were about to fall off her face. She wasn't comfortable on the hard, cold stone floor by any means, but her need for sleep out-weighed anything else at the moment and she was able to let herself slip away for a few hours.
[][][][][][][][][][]
"We've got another one!"
There was a commotion in Stark's lab as the three scientists rushed in a frenzy around the room. Tony was throwing data from several different holographic charts as Reed rushed to add the new incoming information to their working theories. Jane was a whirlwind of activity as well, her face betraying her sense of excitement at the new discoveries they were privy to.
"The report from the VLA came in, they picked it up too!"
"Cross reference it with the data from the last burst," Tony called out. "Start sorting the corresponding frequencies and isolating the differences."
Even Axel, who was still there, was helping. Having worked in Tony's IT department for the latter part of a year and being a S.H.I.E.L.D agent, he knew his way around the software programs and other systems and could input data with the rest of them.
The data was very similar to the previous energy pulse that Sutton had unleashed. There were some differences in its sequencing, but they fully expected this as it supported their current theory. If they could just fully isolate the pattern of energy waves that Sutton emitted during travel, then they might be able to use the information Tony had acquired from their very universal jump and pull her home.
So far, it looked promising. That in itself, though, wasn't saying too terribly much because they still had a long way to go in actually pinpointing her location in the first place. And, even once they did, she might pop away before they could even get a machine up and running and set on her coordinates.
"I'm not exactly sure what I'm looking at," Axel complained. "It's like you're asking me to find what similar between a race horse and a soup spoon. Um, there's a few fours in both sequences?"
"Yeah, please don't try with the quirky analogies. You're not very good at them. Jane?"
"I'm on it."
Jane pulled the running sequences onto her own data pad and began scanning through them. Her sharp eyes darted from number to number and once in awhile she would highlight a certain segment as if saving it to examine more thoroughly later. Instantly, Axel was forgotten as she was absorbed in her own little world of science and new unexplored knowledge.
"All right." Axel leaned back on one foot, hands on his hips and lips skewed downwards. "Have at it then, why don't you."
His words fell on deaf ears.
"You're just talking to yourself, you know," Reed pointed out mockingly. "After all this time spent in the lab, you'd think you would've caught on by now."
"As a S.H.I.E.L.D agent, I was trained to be able to focus on the mission and be aware of what was happening around me."
"As a S.H.I.E.L.D agent, you were trained to be annoying," Tony jabbed.
Reed laughed lightly at the jesting while still scanning through their new data and tinkering with some machinery.
Jane was pulled out of her intense scrutiny of their data, though whether it was from their chatter or her own revelations no one knew.
"Hey, I think we need to look more into trying to decrypt this energy burst using the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle. Tony, you'd said when we first started that Sutton was the energy blast. And I think you may have been more spot on than you realized."
Tony leaned back against one of the many tables set up through out the room and pulled out a bag of jelly beans from seemingly nowhere. He popped a few in his mouth before speaking.
"Go on."
"Well, the principle states that photons exist as particles and waves, and can change each time you observe them because your observation affects them. Obviously Sutton isn't photons, but if we applied this same idea-"
"Then it would explain how Sutton is actually traveling from universe to universe," Tony cut in while snapping his fingers.
The three scientists stood in awe of such a revelation, but Axel frowned, arms crossed.
"I don't get it. What is that supposed to mean?"
Reed explained the theory in different terms.
"Basically, if this theory is correct, then we aren't just studying information from the blast Sutton is giving off. Sutton is the sequence. Her body is changing forms, becoming this...this raw energy."
They all sat in a contemplative silence as that idea sunk in.
"Wow," Axel finally blurted out. "That's...crazy. Still have no idea how that's supposed to help us."
Tony threw up his hands in frustration, turning and the heel of his foot and taking his jelly beans with him as moved across the room. Even Reed lifted and eyebrow sardonically, as if confused as to how any of this could be considered complex at all. Jane's eyes were back on her data pad, but she rambled more explanations to Axel as if his statement had invited them.
"Well, you see, if we're studying the molecular structure of two different versions of the same..."
Axel was getting a bit tired of working with a team of super geniuses.
[][][][][][][][][][]
Sutton stretched awake slowly. Her limbs were stiff and frozen and she winced as she tried to get blood rushing in them once again. It took great effort, but she managed to push herself up to her feet even while shivering, and she peered out a small window a bit down the hall. The sun was still pale in the sky and there was a layer of fog hanging over the ground. Sutton groaned, trying to massage a biting strain in her neck.
She was hungry again. And in desperate need of a bath. Also, just maybe a touch bit grouchy now after such a horrid nights sleep. With heavy footsteps Sutton trudged down the hall, one hand on the stone wall to keep her upright. Past the kitchen she shuffled upstairs until she proudly found herself back on the same floor as the Great Hall. There was a low murmuring from all sides as she stood still that suddenly exploded into noise as students came pouring down stairs and around corridors to gather for breakfast.
That woke Sutton up a bit.
Ducking behind another wall, she tried to remain mostly out of sight. It was a bit difficult, though, when the dorms were located all around the castle. She was chewing on her bottom lip when the revelation that everyone would be at breakfast and so the common rooms would be empty struck her. Suddenly hopeful, Sutton trekked back down towards the kitchens and waited until no one had exited the Hufflepuff common room for almost half an hour. And then she decided to just go for it.
She stunk to high heaven and she was desperate. Besides, how many tunes to "Helga Hufflepuff" could there possibly be?
Cautiously, Sutton found the barrel that was two from the bottom, middle of the second row and went with her gut instincts.
Knock-knock, knock-knock-knock.
And then she cringed and waited.
Let it open, let it open! She had to have done it right!
A miracle happened, or perhaps her own belief, and it opened without fuss! Sutton gave a high pitched giggle and crawled through the barrel and followed it down. At the other end of the tunnel it opened into a large, round room decorated in yellows and blacks. Plants coated the walls and hung in pots from the ceiling. Wondrous plants, ones she'd never seen before and ones that wouldn't exist anywhere but this world. She knew she was underground, but it was still warm and cozy and reminded her quite a bit of what a Hobbit hole might look like, if they had magic.
Not wasting any time, just in case someone came back, Sutton ran to find the girls bathroom. The first round door she opened revealed a hall that led to bedrooms, and the next after and after, but finally she found it!
Now she just had to hope that one of these 'Puffs were too terribly trusting and left shower supplies out. Normally, Sutton wasn't one for stealing, but at the moment she was at the end of her rope. Her skin and scalp were starting to itch horridly, and she could still smell where the water from the garbage compactor on the Death Star had splashed on her clothes.
"Sorry," she said when she found a shampoo bottle left on the counter. "I owe you one, house sister."
She was able to find a few other items to help her get clean. One girl had left out a brush, and Sutton put the poor thing to work as she attempted to regain control of her hair. She really did feel bad that a few of the bristles broke in the struggle.
When she was finally washed as well as she was able considering the circumstances, Sutton regretfully redressed in her dirty tunic and breeches and crawled back out of the common room out into the hall.
The moment Sutton had stepped from the barrel entrance and had both feet planted firmly planted on the floor she felt a chill go up her back. If her hair hadn't still been wet it would have bristled on the back of her neck. Turning around slowly, a small shape close to the ground caught her eye and every muscle in her body tensed.
It was a cat.
It was a thin cat,its fur a bland brown color, like dust, and it had huge eyes that were currently staring up at her unblinkingly. Sutton sucked in a harsh breath and felt her heart speed up.
"Mrs. Norris."
At hearing her own name, the cat tilted her head as if curious and then turned and dashed out of the hall. Sutton's feet flew in the opposite direction.
Filch stays after the war! Dang it! Dang it, dang it, dang it!
Just a few steps in the wrong direction, and Sutton had no idea where she was again. She hadn't even done well finding her way around her own high school her freshman year. She didn't stand a chance with this place. Despite that fact, she kept running. Because she knew that when Mrs. Norris scampered off, Argus Filch wasn't far behind, war over or no.
Another wrong turn and Sutton found herself at a dead end corridor. Running her hands through her still wet hair, she frantically gazed at the wall before her.
"No, no, no, no, no."
With shaking hands, she felt around desperately at the stones hoping there'd be something. But nothing gave and now she knew she could hear pounding footsteps coming closer to her. They were actually quite irregular and offbeat.
Filch really needed to develop some correct running techniques.
Sutton could suddenly hear haggard breath along with the staggering footsteps and she scrunched up her face in anxious anticipation. It was then, when she thought that this was it, she was busted, that she suddenly felt herself being yanked backwards. She opened her eyes only to find herself in a dimly lit, well, some sort of room. The dim light was coming from two glowing orbs on either side of her.
"What?"
"Well, well," came from her left. "So this is the mystery person running about Hogwarts."
"I have to admit, I was expecting someone a bit more," came from her right.
Sutton couldn't see much past the lights on either side of her, but she didn't really need to. She recognized those voices. And those voices meant that she had been very, very wrong in her estimation of her place in this timeline. Sutton cursed under her breath.
"Oh sweet baby Merlin."