GOLDEN PLATES AND GOBLETS GLITTERED in the light of hundreds and hundreds floating candles. The four long house tables were filled with chattering students who didn't seem to mind being wet from the heavy rain. They appeared to be excitedly catching up with their classmates who they hadn't seen over the summer.
In the Slytherin table there was a group of pupils who's catching up didn't consist of hugs or friendly smiles. It would've been very uncharacteristic as they had a reputation for their dark glamour. Seated in the middle of the group was a fourteen-year-old girl, disinterested in socialising with the rest of them and appearing as though there was something far more important on her mind. The girl was beautiful. She had light brown skin, full lips and her black hair was carefully braided. Her cheekbones were high and her face defined, yet the Alatea Vipera wasn't known for her beauty.
Alatea Vipera was known for her incredible talents. She was able to learn things faster than any student any of the professors at Hogwarts had taught and she could perform very advanced magic for someone her age. Her only competition were the records of the achievements of their Headmaster, Albus Dumbledore, from when he had been in school and some Slytherin student named Tom Riddle.
This type of rare talent would've in any normal situation gained admiration from other students, but Alta was deeply disliked by the members of the other three houses. She was disliked and held accountable for the actions of her mother, Rosalie Vipera, who was responsible for the deaths of many relatives of Alta's classmates. Rosalie Vipera had been one of Lord Voldemort's most loyal and favourite Death Eaters.
Her loyalty to the Dark Lord was also the only reason Alatea had been born. The Dark lord had requested his followers to make sure he would have continuing line of pure-blooded Death Eaters and Rosalie had wanted to fulfil her lord's wishes by creating an heir so pure and powerful she had resulted to do something which deeply disturbed Alatea. Rosalie Vipera had infiltrated a prison island where a very powerful, dark wizard by the name of Gellert Grindewald had been kept in. Rosalie had forced him to drink a strong love potion and she had managed to get impregnated by him.
A year after the birth of Alatea, Rosalie Vipera had been caught with other Death Eaters by the Ministry of Magic and instead of pleading innocence she had proudly claimed her loyalty to the Dark Lord. This act of loyalty had given her a life sentence in Azkaban. This act was the reason Alatea had grown up abused in a muggle orphanage, no idea why she was able to hurt people she didn't like, open locked doors, control animals and sense if someone was lying. It wasn't until three-years ago in October, on her eleventh birthday, when she had a visitor come to the orphanage and inform Alatea she was a witch, that it all made sense. This visitor had been Professor Snape, who would end up being her Head of the House as almost a year later she finally got to attend Hogwarts and was sorted into Slytherin.
Alta cast her different coloured eyes, one a light shade of brown and one grey, at the group of people gathered around her. They were the only ones who knew who her father was since their parents had been Death Eaters as well. Unlike Rosalie Vipera, they had claimed innocence on the grounds of being bewitched or seeing the errors in their ways after the Dark Lord had been defeated and stayed with their families. This of course was shameful compared to what Rosalie had done. This and the fact they assumed Alta would one day grow to be as powerful as Gellert Grindewald was the reason why the former Death Eaters and their children treated Alatea with the respect reserved for a person of authority. They were intimidated by her.
Alatea didn't really care for them the way friends would for one another. She regarded them more as associates than friends. Except for Coral Avery, as she was the only person out of the children of Death Eaters in Hogwarts who didn't seek Alatea's company because of her mother's status among the Death Eaters or her magical skills. Coral, who sometimes seemed too kind and naive for her own good, only had ever wanted to be Alatea's friend.
Evan Rosier, Xander Avery, Thane Travers, Draco Malfoy, Theodore Nott, Ewing Macnair and Ackley Mulciber were all part of the group of Death Eater children. Some of the boys did have younger siblings or sisters who didn't seem to care to sit with them as they would become uninterested and were often rather with their friends from their own year, Coral being the exception as she was friends with Alta. Crabbe and Goyle were not part of their group mostly because nobody else than Malfoy could stand their brainless behaviour.
Alatea didn't mind being included in their little group during meal times since sometimes they offered interesting anecdotes as most of their parents were well connected in the Ministry. However, she wasn't bothered by the whole pureblood mania. Alatea thought she could spend her time a lot more valuably than listen to the rest of them complain or bully Muggleborns.
"I can't wait to eat. I'm starving." Coral said, looking hopefully at her empty golden plate.
"I can't see a new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher." Alta said, her eyes traveling the staff table. There was an extra empty seat on the table which didn't belong to either Hagrid or Professor McGonagall who were busy be helping the first years.
"Hopefully they got someone." Coral said, looking worried.
"I'm sure they did." Alatea said nonchalantly.
Alatea was occupied by her thoughts as the Sorting went on. She would absentmindedly clap when she noticed Coral next to her clapping as new Slytherins joined their table. It was only when Professor Dumbledore got to his feet and everyone grew silent that Alatea returned from her thoughts.
"I have only two words to say to you." Dumbledore said, his voice echoing in the hall. "Tuck in."
The empty dishes before them magically filled. After eating bland food for the majority of the summer, Alatea was quite excited for the feast. She felt she perhaps appreciated the luxurious food more than her classmates would.
"The Quidditch World Cup was rather entertaining. Father got us seats in the Top Box with Fudge." Draco, who was seated on Alatea's right, told the rest of them self-importantly.
"Yeah, the match was great, was it not?" Xander Avery smirked, pushing his light brown hair out of his face. Xander was Coral's older brother entering his fifth-year at Hogwarts. He often disregarded Coral and her opinions on anything, saying her thinking was clouded by her she too sensitive emotions.
"I wish we could've gone." Evan Rosier, a fifth-year as well, said bitterly. His father, Evan Rosier Senior, had died in the service of Lord Voldemort as he had preferred to fight rather than go quietly when he had been caught by an Auror, leaving behind his two children and wife. Evan's mother who had ever since grown a great mistrust to the Ministry was very protective over her sons and didn't want them in places which would be occupied by Aurors. It seemed she thought they would want to finish them off and could easily cover it up as she claimed they had covered her husband's murder.
"As a fellow seeker I must say Viktor Krum's performance was superb, too bad his teammates weren't as good. I saw him up close when they came to the Top Box. I would've spoken to him if he wasn't so surly." Draco told disappointedly.
"Fortunately for us the after party activities were rather entertaining too." Ewing Macnair said knowingly. He was on the same year as Alatea and Coral.
Most of them sniggered at this. Ewing was of course referring to the the event where their parents had levitated and humiliated a Muggle family, causing quite terror to everyone else attending the Cup. Alatea hadn't obviously been present to witness this, however she had read everything about it from the Daily Prophet.
"Served them right. The anti-muggle security was a disgrace from the Ministry. Because of one muggle family thousands of wizards are expected to not perform magic at the Cup and live like muggles?" Draco scoffed in disgust while cutting his steak.
"It was unwise for the Ministry to assume people wouldn't perform magic but I told Daddy it wasn't the Muggles' fault because obviously they didn't decide that. I thought it was a bit unnecessary." Coral said sadly.
"Shut up, Dani." Xander spat in frustration. "Who cares? They're Muggles."
"Their memories were wiped anyway. Doesn't matter. It was just a bit of fun." Ewing stated calmly.
"So, if it was just a bit fun who cast the Dark Mark?" Alatea asked darkly with a knowing smirk. It was the only thing which actually interested her about the subject. "More importantly, why did your parents scatter at the sight of it?"
Everyone quieted and their faces dropped. It confirmed to Alatea she had been right to think it was the only actually interesting fact about the event. They cowered slightly, appearing to feel rather uncomfortable by the fact their parents had been scared to see the Dark Mark. It made sense to Alatea why they would be scared. If Lord Voldermort was back she bet he wouldn't be beaming to see his followers who had denied they'd been with him. Alatea knew they wouldn't reply to her latter question.
"Father told me they don't know who cast the Mark..." Draco said finally, which was met with agreeing muttering from the others.
It seemed everyone wanted to change the subject. For the rest of the feast, Alatea remained silent as none of the conversation topics particularly interested her. She kept thinking about who had casted the Dark Mark and why. Had it been someone who had wanted to show their support to the Death Eaters or had it been someone who knew they would scare away?
When the dessert had been demolished and the golden plates returned to their sparkling clean appearance, Dumbledore got to his feet again, gaining everyone's attention and making silence fill the Hall at once.
He requested the students' attention even though he already had it and informed them of the list of forbidden items by the caretaker, Filch. Then Dumbledore moved to other matters,
"It is also my painful duty to inform you that the inter-house Quidditch Cup will not take place this year. 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 -"
There was a defining sound of thunder rumbling and the door of the Great Hall flew wide open.
A man was standing in the doorway, leaning against a long staff while under the gaze of every student. He began to approach the staff table with a limp, a dull clunk sound echoing with his every other step. As he finally reached Dumbledore, a flash of lightning crossed the ceiling, shining light on his scarred and carved face. One of his eyes was small and dark. The other one was a colourful blue and it moved about unnaturally, pointing to the back of his head one moment so all they saw was white.
An inaudible, short conversation was exchanged between Dumbledore and the man which Alta followed intensely. He was then gestured to take his seat on the staff table.
"May introduce our new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher." Dumbledore said brightly. "Professor Moody."
Nobody else seemed to regain themselves enough to clap at this announcement apart from Dumbledore and Hagrid. Everyone, even the rest of the staff, appeared too transfixed by Moody's odd appearance.
Alatea noticed Evan, sitting opposite her, had grown very white in the face and he had his fingers clenched into fists. She knew exactly why. Moody was the Auror who had been responsible for killing his father.
"Poor Evan." Coral whispered.
Alta looked around at the rest of their group. Everyone's expressions had darkened. Moody had been involved in capturing many Death Eaters, most likely many of their parents even if they had ended up walking free.
Dumbledore continued with his announcement, informing Hogwarts would be hosting the Triwizard Tournament which Alta was already made aware of by Draco in the Hogwarts Express.
She listened to their Headmaster half-heartedly. Her thoughts were occupied by the man with the magical blue eye at the top table which kept eyeing the students. Had he been among the Aurors who captured her mother?