1st of September, 1976
Everything had happened super fast. One second, Elaine hat sat in her families' mansion in the outskirts of Paris, and the next she was in Albus Dumbledore's office in Great Britain.
The room was beautiful, that much was obvious. It must have been situated quite high up, in order to be offering the view Elaine was enjoying at the second. She had been told to wait for her new headmaster Albus Dumbledore so he could introduce her to the rest of the students before the start of the year banquet.
It was weird to think of the wizard as her new headmaster. She loved the headmistress of Beauxbatons, Madame Archambeault, with her whole heart, as she had known the kind woman for her whole life. Elaine knew that she would miss their discussions over a cup of coffee or the lessons she would share with the teacher sometimes.
She didn't even have the chance to say goodbye. Everything had happened so fast. It wasn't like her parents left her a choice what to do. If her father had decided something, there was nothing to be said against that. As soon as the three of them- her father, her brother and herself obviously- had arrived in the Sauveur' estate in Paris, she had been whisked away to her mother so the woman could tend to her wounds. As soon as she had finished, her father had initiated her to the plan that was supposed to protect and save her life.
And that was how she had ended up at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in the middle of the Scottish highlands.
It was a breathtaking castle, as much as Elaine could judge from the view that the window gave her. However, it was nothing compared to Beauxbatons. There were no white walls, no petite archways or romantic towers. Hogwarts was medieval where Beauxbatons was romantic, hard where her home had been soft.
With a sigh, the young girl turned away from the window, just to look right into the eyes of Albus Dumbledore.
She had met him before, quite a few times actually. Now, she jumped away in shock though.
"I am terribly sorry to have startled you, Miss Sauveur. Lemondrop?", the old man asked kindly, holding out a yellow candy in his hand.
That was certainly not how Elaine had expected her talk with her new headmaster to go.
"I- no, thank you Sir. I ate at home", she answered, realising a feeling of sorrow at her own words. Home. How was Hogwarts supposed to become her new home? She could already feel her tongue stumbling over the foreign English words, uncomfortable with speaking the different language. She was incredibly glad that she had gotten English lessons from the pure age of 5 on, as her father persisted on her being educated in multiple languages. Over the course of the last years, English had been put away into a far corner of her head though, as students at Beauxbatons were either French, Spanish, or partly German as well as Dutch or Belgian.
"I hope that you will feel at home here soon" Dumbledore's words pulled Elaine out of her thought spiral. It was as if the wizard knew exactly what she was thinking about. "All teachers have been informed about the circumstances that ushered you to come here. As we are speaking, they are preparing for the banquet in the Great Hall. Your fellow students should be arriving in this moment, so it is time for us to join them. Have your parents informed you about the Housing system at our school?"
Elaine tried to think of everything her far cousins had told her about the British school on the few occasions they had met up, always due to some lavish family party being thrown either in France or Britain. "I remember parts of it, yes. There are four houses, I believe? And one is sorted due to their abilities and attitudes?"
"That is very correct. There are four houses, one as noble as the other. You will be sorted the same way every other student to have graced this school was. During this ceremony the character of each house will reveal itself to you. Shall we?" The headmaster's eyes were sparkling with kindness, as he held out his arm to the slightly frightened girl. It wasn't that she was scared of being sorted into a particular house. Just the way Dumbledore had explained it, the ceremony sounded- almost dangerous?
No, it couldn't be too dangerous. If the youngest students at the school were 11, there couldn't be some complicated task.
Or could there?
Being deep into her thoughts, Elaine almost stopped paying attention to her surroundings completely. As she was looking out of the window in the headmaster's office, it had been obvious to her that they were quite high up, but the dozens of stairs that she was climbing down now seemed a bit too much for her taste.
What felt like half an hour later, Dumbledore stopped in front of a massive door. Waiting next to it was a tall woman, that reminded Elaine of a hawk as she mustered the girl carefully.
"Minerva, lovely to see you! I take it that the first years are already shaking in excitement?" Dumbledore seemed to be full of glee as he addressed the woman. "Elaine, let me apologise for my rudeness. This is Professor McGonagall, head of the house Gryffindor and teacher for transformation. She will lead you into the hall in a few minutes, as I have to welcome the rest of the school. I wish you the best of luck in the sorting"
With these words, Albus Dumbledore disappeared behind the massive wooden door. Elaine had to be honest, it was slightly uncomfortable to be left under the scrutinising stare of Professor McGonagall. She made a mental note to never be late to Transformations and remember her homework at all times. She did not want to be on the bad side of the woman.
"Good evening, Miss Sauveur. If you would please follow me? You will be sorted after the first years." Elaine already felt weird being addressed by her surname the whole time. In Beauxbatons, every teacher called their students by their first names, and if you were well acquainted with them, they usually gave you a pet name after a few weeks.
Then she realised the next thing: If she were to be sorted after the first years, the attention of the whole school would be on her. Great. If Elaine was honest, she knew that she could actually be quite glad. If the school year in Hogwarts were to start at the 31st of August as well, there would have been a lot more attention on the student that appeared a day late. Now she was just a transfer student, coming from France to Scotland.
Just a student being the daughter of the French minister for magic, responsible for an attack on her school. Blimey.
Professor McGonagall led the young girl through a smaller door next two the one presumedly leading into the great hall, where Elaine was met with nothing but silence.
"I will get you in a few minutes, you can calm your nerves until then", the professor told her, before disappearing again.
Duh. 'calm your nerves' How in Merlin's name was she supposed to calm her nerves if she didn't have the slightest clue what was going to happen to her? In her head, she tried to do the math. her father had told her that Hogwarts was quite a bit smaller than Beauxbatons, only having around a 1000 students. If there were 7 school years to be completed, that would make around 140 students per year.
How long would it take to sort 140 students into four houses?
Apparently not too long. Professor McGonagall stayed true to her word, and appeared back into the room a few minutes later.
"If you would please follow me now, Miss Sauveur? We are ready for you."
Elaine swallowed harshly, before nodding and following the woman out of the small room. The moment the doors to the hall were opened, as he forgot all of her nerves.
The Great Hall of Hogwarts definitely deserved its name. Again, the difference to Beauxbatons could not have been bigger. The dining hall of her old school had been playful, with forest nymphs flying around and flowers adorning the columns on the side.
The Great Hall was quite the opposite. It mirrored the medieval feeling of the outside of the castle, but was lit up by a million candles floating over four massive, long tables. And that was not even the most fascinating thing.
It wasn't like Elaine had never seen a magic ceiling before. Her own at home was the same, painted in beautiful colours transforming all of the time. But this was different. To her, it looked like the hall didn't even have a roof. Instead, it was opened to the clear night sky of Scotland.
As Elaine started to pick up the quiet murmuring around her, she blushed a deep shade of red as she realised she must look just like an eleven year old seeing magic for the first time. As she looked straight again, she met eyes with Dumbledore, who was- as every time the girl had locked eyes with him before- smiling.
"Dear students, I want you to meet a new addition to our school. This is Elaine Maëlys Sauveur, who will be joining in on the sixth year. As she has just arrived from France, I ask you all to not overwhelm her with our language, as she undoubtedly has to adapt a bit." As soon as Dumbledore had mentioned her surname, Elaine felt even more eyes on her. Every student that had the slightest clue of the Magical World knew who her father was. The chattering picked up in volume, until Professor McGonagall sent a warning glare through the hall.
Maybe there was one positive thing about the students picking up on her surname: They would not remember Dumbledore calling out her second name as well.
Trying to focus again, Elaine searched for any sign of how she was to be sorted into a house. All that was lying at the top of the hall however, was a tattered hat that looked like it could have belonged to Merlin.
"Sit down, please", was all that the Transformations professor told the girl before picking up the hat and standing aside. As soon as she sat down, the Scottish woman put the hat over her hair.
Her shock as the hat suddenly began to talk was definitely obvious.
"What a pleasure! A French girl! And a Sauveur at that! You know, I have had a few of you before. Always very complicated. But I assume you know everything about that, eh? And your mothers' side of the family as well. Great witches, especially. A shame that you French people are always so adamant about going to that Baguette-school of yours-" At those words, Elaine wasn't too sure whether she was dreaming or not. A decades old hat telling her that Beauxbatons was a 'baguette-school'?
At least their school did not produce the darkest wizard of all time.
"Feisty! I love her. So, where should we put you?"
"If I knew that, I wouldn't be sitting here", Elaine muttered under her breath.
The hat laughed. "Oh yes, feisty indeed. Definitely not Hufflepuff for you, I just know you wouldn't appreciate their kindness and love. We don't want you to make the poor first-years cry"
Fair enough, Elaine thought. So Hufflepuff seemed to be the house for the kind and loving.
Yeah, definitely not her cup of coffee.
"What about Ravenclaw, eh? Are you determined? Clever? Agile in the face of adversity? I can sense some ounce of intelligence in you-"
-Well thank Merlin-
"-but Ravenclaw is not where you will thrive to your excellence. That leaves just two houses, does it? As one of the purest witches of all time, it seems like Slytherin would be quite the match for you."
This hat sorts people based on their blood status? That was some new kind of fucked up.
"Oh, if you see it that way- well, let me think. You are very courageous, outspoken and probably dumb enough to always run face first into a challenge. Yes, I am convinced I know where you will reach your limits and grow to the witch you will need to be."
The hat paused dramatically, before exclaiming through the whole hall: "GRYFFINDOR!"
Before Elaine was able to realise everything that had just happened, Professor McGonagall- her new head of house, wasn't she?- had pulled the hat out of Elaine's face. Still slightly shaken up, she looked to the woman, who gave her a tight-lipped smile and gestured to the table that had erupted into cheers as soon as their house had been exclaimed.
Elaine made her way to the section of the table that held a red-haired girl waving to her, her eyes full of kindness. As she came closer, the girl stood up and revealed a figure every student at Beauxbatons, female or not, would have been jealous of.
"Hi Elaine, my name is Lily Evans and I am prefect of Gryffindor. We will probably share a dorm, as I am in the same year as you. I did pronounce your name right, didn't I? Oh God, I am so sorry if not. You know, I actually went to France this summer! Is it true, that-" In the middle of the never-ending waterfall of words that came from Lily's mouth, she was stopped by a guy opposite to her. He seemed to be the polar opposite to her, with his wild black hair that looked like he had put his finger into an electric spell and his eyes that reminded Elaine of a stag. "Let her breath, Evans, Merlin. Dumbledore just said she has trouble understanding English and you try to knock her out with your words. Good job, Darling"
Elaine smiled slightly and tried to thank the guy with her eyes. It was true, she was quite swamped by the mass of words, but at the same time she was just happy that the girl was so nice to her.
"Jesus, I am sorry Elaine. Do you want to sit down? Food will be served in a second." Lily was obviously trying to speak a bit slower, and Elaine realised that she was probably looking like a lost puppy standing next to the table.
"Oh, yeah, thank you. So- are all of you in Year 6?", she asked, the English words still feeling weird in her mouth. She was sure her accent must be as thick as the one of her Astrology teacher back at Beauxbatons, who had come from Germany to teach at the school and never got rid of his native accent.
If she was hard to understand, the students around her made no sign of it. Quite the opposite, actually. The electric-hair guy bluffed his chest and held out his hand. "James Potter, to your service. I'm your new favourite friend and your Quidditch captain, so if you don't like Quidditch, leave" Shaking it amusedly, Elaine smiled at him "I actually love Quidditch a lot, so if the team is any good, I would be delighted to try out"
"Any good? Padfoot, did you hear that?" James cried out, shaking the guy beside him. At that Elaine spared him a glance. He was definitely a pure blood, that much she could see from the first look. With his aristocratic face features and stormy grey eyes, she was sure girls all over the school were falling in front of his feet. Padfoot let out a chuckle following his friends' words, smiling suggestively at Elaine.
"I am sure you will want to try out for our team, as I am part of it" he said, voice extra raspy. his words were followed by a sly wink, as he leaned back on the bank.
"Gosh, Black, can you stop flirting for one second? Elaine just arrived here, give her some time to breath" Lily exclaimed, throwing her hands up in the air. That action was interrupted by tons of food suddenly appearing on the table, which made Elaine nearly jump up in shock.
"Food!" the girl next to Elaine cried out, starting to pull every bowl in her reach to her plate. Due to that, Elaine was pulled out of her thoughts that came up at the mention of the name 'Black'. There was no way, that the guy opposite to her was a Black, she was sure. If the hat was truthful, there was a house destined for those of pure bloodlines, and it wasn't Gryffindor. Other than that, Padfoot could have been a Black for sure. His face features were those of a pure blood, as she had realised before, and she knew that the two Black sons were around her age.
Now was not the time to dwell on that though, as everybody around Elaine started heaving food on their plates. She opted for some pasta, before looking up again. The Black-guy was still staring at her, and understandably she stared back.
"So Elaine, to follow up on the introductions. The girl next to you, who is not going to talk until she has eaten at least half of her body weight, is Luana. Don't try to talk to her about Quidditch, or she will be in a foul mood for ages. Do talk to her if have problems with runes homework or need somebody to braid your hair." At Lily's words, Elaine was interrupted from her staring duel with Black, and smiled at the girl next to her, who was indeed not smiling back as she had her mouth stuffed full with something that looked a lot like pie. She was quite gorgeous, with dark blond hair pulled into a messy ponytail and doe-like brown eyes.
"Next to dearest Luana sits our lovely Mary, who can be the sweetest girl on earth, as long as you don't pull he from sleep before 12 in the morning." At those words, a petite blond girl smiled at Elaine, her skin as pure as the one of a porcelain doll. "If you need help with Charms, she is the one to tend too. Flitwick bloody adores her." Mary just laughed at that, giving a smile to Elaine.
"It's lovely to meet you, Elaine. It has become quite boring in our dorm since Lily is a prefect" "Excuse me? I am not boring.", Lily screeched, clearly scandalised.
"Lily-flower, I love you, but you are so boring", the girl on the right of James threw in. Next to the buff Quidditch player she seemed like a child, blond like Mary. "Oh, and I will take over from here, don't want you to spill all of the beans."
"Sorry, spill what?" Elaine looked at the Blonde with big eyes. There was no juice sitting in fron of Lily, so how was she supposed to spill anything? or did she understand something wrongly? It might have been due to the girl's thick Scottish accent, that was harder to understand than the one of Professor McGonagall.
The students around her looked at Elaine confused, until Black let out a chuckle. "Spill the beans. It's an English idiom. Basically means saying everything, Sauveur", he explained to the clueless French in front of him.
"Oooh" Elaine felt downright dumb if she were to be honest.
The blonde gave Elaine a big smile, leaning towards her. "Don't worry about it babes, we will make sure your English is perfect by the winter holidays. I'm Marlene McKinnon, your new dorm mate and the better chaser between James and I, though he will never admit that" It seemed like James needed a few seconds to register her words, before throwing himself at the girl.
"Marlene, that is not true. If you are the better chaser, why didn't Gonni make you Captain, huh?" he screeched, and as funny as it was, Elaine had to admit that his tone came close to that of her former Charms teacher, who was a 60 year old woman that loved to scream at her students.
By now, the group was a whole mess. James was still trying to convince everyone around him that he was the best Quidditch player Gryffindor had seen in decades, while Lily was fuming from being called boring. Mary and Black seemed to enjoy the whole commotion, and Luana was still peacefully eating. Feeling quite a bit overwhelmed, Elaine looked around. Soon, she catched the eyes of the guy sitting next to Black, who was already staring at her deep in thought. If Elaine wasn't quite toughened up by the looks of the auror friends of her brother, she would probably have jumped in shock at the sight of the guy's face. A long, deep scar made its way from his left eye to the tip of his mouth, and a couple smaller one littered his neck and cheeks. Other than that, he was quite handsome, with dark blond hair and brown eyes.
As soon as he realised her catching his gaze, he reddened and looked down, just to stretch out his hand a few seconds later.
"I'm Remus Lupin, it's nice to meet you. Don't mind the other guys, they are always a mess like this, but I'm sure you will get used to their antics" His voice was kind and warm, and made Elaine feel like he was definitely the mom of the group.
"Excuse me, Moony? Are you calling me a mess?" If Elaine wasn't still a bit intimidated by the possibility of a Black sitting in front of her, she would have probably laughed at the outraged tone of Black's voice.
"Sorry if that is a weird question, but what do those names mean? Like 'padfoot'? Is that an actual thing?" Elaine asked, careful to not make it seem like she was a dumb child who didn't know one English word. Remus, James, and Black all looked at her as soon as she asked, before scrambling together a few words.
"So.. you see, in front of you are the four marauders. We are- let's just call us the troublemakers of the school, eh?" James began to explain, looking to Remus for confirmation. "The fourth of us, who you haven't met so far, is Peter", Remus gestured to the boy sitting next to him. He didn't seem to fit in with the other three guys completely, being a whole lot smaller and more scrawny. As Elaine observed him, he turned beet red and muttered something that sounded like "hello".
"Just so you know, they named themselves as the marauders and came up with those nicknames" whispered Lily from next to her. Picking up in volume, she added: "Since Remus is a prefect, you might think they would stop being childish idiots. Spoiler: they haven't so far"
"you wound me, Lily-flower" answered James dramatically, pretending to have been hit in the heart. At that point, it became obvious he wasn't very well accustomed to the human anatomy.
"Uh- James?" Elaine asked, trying to hold back her laugh. "Yes?" "Your heart is on the left side of your chest, not the right" she told him, receiving a laugh from the people around her. Black gave James a strong pat on the shoulder. "Prongs, when will you learn?", he asked, his laughter in between sounding almost like a dog barking.
They were interrupted by a platinum blonde barbie putting her perfectly manicured hand on Black's shoulder. Seeing Elaine sitting opposite to him, she gave her a glare that could probably kill as fast as the Avada. "Sirius, baby, I missed you so much during the holidays", she proclaimed. Elaine had to control her face to not break out into a laugh. The girl's voice sounded like she had a tampon too high up in her body and was now trying to not let anybody realise it.
Her appearance did have a positive effect though: Now, Elaine could be sure that it was actually the heir of the Black family sitting in front of her. Said heir did not appear to be too happy to see his- girlfriend?
"Lin, I'll come to see you later, okay?" he told her, not giving her a glance. Lin did not seem to mind his dismissive answer. Instead, she smiled satisfied and tottered away from the table.
"Pads, seriously, Andrews? I thought that was done with" James groaned.
"What? She's hot", Sirius exclaimed defensively. At that, James just pulled up his eyebrows. Next to Elaine, Luana stifled a laugh.
"Got anything to say to that, Dolohow?" Sirius snapped at the girl. Elaine nearly choked at that.
Was the Sorting Hat sure that it did not put her in the house with all of the pure bloods?
"Nothing at all, Black. Just surprised over your taste, as usual" Luana snapped back, the two of them now glaring at each other.
"Guys, can you maybe try not to beat your heads in on the first day of us being back? Besides, there are innocent ears at this table!" James proclaimed, clearly trying to stop a fight from happening. With a sparkling smile, he turned back to Elaine.
"Now, you haven't told us much about yourself, Sauveur" he said invitingly, but all that Elaine could focus on was the horrible pronunciation of her name. The way he said it, it sounded more like sofa than anything else.
Trying to hold back her laugh, she answered: "Well, what do you want to know? I'm Elaine, I have been visiting the Beauxbatons Academy of Magic for the past five years and arrived in Scotland a mere hour ago"
"Why did you transfer to Hogwarts?" Marlene asked, piping back into the conversation. Elaine froze up at that. Of course, she had prepared a lie, but she felt as if the students around her would be able to see right through it.
"My father thought it would be good for me to experience multiple schooling systems in order to receive the best education possible", was the answer she tried to bring across as seriously as possible. Lily must have picked up on her discomfort, as she turned the topic slightly.
"So your father is Antonio Sauveur, the Minister for Magic in France, right?"
"Yeah, has been for six years I think" Elaine did not feel too comfortable talking about her father, but everything was better than to think of the events of the past day.
"Aren't the Sauveurs quite proud of their position on top of the French Wizarding world?" The question came from Sirius, which surprised Elaine slightly. Instead of answering, she fired right back: "I believe that nobody is quite as proud of their position in the Wizarding world as the Blacks are, don't you think?"
James froze up slightly at her words, as did Luana next to Elaine.
"They are, yes. However, I believe I asked you something first" Sirius voice had become cold enough to cut through wood. It didn't face Elaine much, as she had spent a lot of time around alpha males in her life.
"The Sauveurs are proud of being a family that has stayed true to themselves through the centuries, yes. However, as far as I am concerned, the positions of pure blood families in Britain are quite different than those of our kind." Elaine did not want to start a fight right on her first evening, especially not while sitting around people she believed to be very kind. She couldn't have been more glad when Marlene piped in on the conversation.
"Elaine, Sirius did not mean it in a bad way. You see, we are quite the exception in Hogwarts" Marlene gestured to the tables around them. "How much do you know about the housing system here?"
Elaine felt slightly embarrassed as she answered "Not too much"
"Well, let me explain. You might know that Hufflepuff-", she gestured to a table filled with students wearing a yellow badge on their robes, "-is the house of the kind and loyal. They don't care about your family situation at all, neither do the Ravenclaws-", now she pointed to the students that had blue badges adorning their robes, "- as they find having wit, a love for learning, and shared wisdom as qualities worth mentioning. The Slytherin House, however, has a history of being the house taking in wizards from pure blood families" The last table that was left did indeed have a lot of students sharing the same aristocratic features, Elaine realised. "It's not like every student in Slytherin is a pure blood. However, as a member of a pure blood family, especially one of the 'Sacred 28', it is expected to follow in your ancestors footsteps and be sorted into Slytherin" Marlene seemed to choose her next words careful. "My Family, the McKinnons, are not part of the Sacred 28, as some of my far family members have married muggle-borns. The Potters-" , she pointed to James, "were excluded because of their Muggle-friendly views. The Dolohows-", at this point it was obvious that Marlene wasn't too sure if she should complete her explanation. Luana must have picked up on her discomfort, as she took over.
"I am a Dolohow. All of my family, including every aunt I know of, has been a member of the Slytherin House. As soon as I was sorted into Gryffindor, they treated me as an outcast, a traitor", Luana snorted, "As if being courageous and ambitious is a bad thing. You're right, Elaine, in assuming a lot of pure-blood families in Britain are muggle-haters and just general snobs. But today is your lucky day, and you are sitting with us, the scum of the pure-blood families!" Her laugh seemed to be a bit forced.
Elaine figured now was not the right time to ask what exactly 'scum' meant. She could just guess it to be something negative.
It was painfully obvious that Sirius Black opposite to her was not too fond of his family, even though his situation had not been explained by the others. Elaine didn't even dare to think what happened to the heir of the Black family as soon as he had been sorted into a house believed to be housing blood-traitors.
"Dessert!" James suddenly exclaimed, clearly trying to lift the sorrow mood the group had found itself in. It wasn't a failed try. The masses of pudding, cakes, small muffins and fruit jelly appearing on the tables were enough to feed a whole nation- or just enough to feed Luana and Mary.
The two of them collectively filled their plates with as many sweets as the rest of the group together, and Elaine wondered how such small figures could be filled with so much food.
"Jeez, girls, leave some for the rest of us" James proclaimed, receiving only hostile glares in return.
However, with their cheeks stuffed with food and Luana having a ring of chocolate around her mouth, their glares looked more like ones originated from a hamster.
Marlene was the first one to break into a laugh, nearly receiving a muffin in the face in return. As Luana's aim was slightly off, said muffin hit a surprised James Potter in the face instead, who looked like a deer caught in the headlights.
There was no holding back now, as a collective laugh-flash caught the group.
As Elaine looked around the group, all nearly crying of laughter, she thought to herself: Maybe finding a new home here would not be as hard as I thought.
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any comment? things I spelled wrong? Tips?
ok lol bye