The Importance of Being Daina

THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING DAINA

PROLOGUE

the girl sat under the sorting hat, the brim covering her eyes. "Well, well," said the hat in her ear. "Extraordinary mind. I daresay you'll do very well in Ravenclaw..."

No, thought the girl fiercely. I can't be in Ravenclaw. I need to be in Slytherin!

"Are you sure?" replied the hat. "I really don't think Slytherin's the right house for you."

I know it isn't. But there's something coming, something really bad, and I really, really need to be in Slytherin to stop him.

"Him? Now, really. We should leave the law enforcement to the Ministry. They know how to handle these things."

But it's not at all like the things they're used to. I'm the only one who can stop him. I need to be in Slytherin! Don't you know who I am?

The Sorting hat was silent for a moment, and then it said, "Oh. Oh my. This is most irregular. But, all things considering, I suppose I have to let you do this."

Good.

"SLYTHERIN!" yelled the sorting hat. The girl put it back on the stool and strode over to the Slytherin table.

"Good," she muttered under her breath. "Now all I have to do is wait..."

ONE YEAR LATER

"Ack! WAIT!"

The bright red train was just pulling out of the station when I hurried through the barrier to Platform Nine and Three Quarters. Grabbing my suitcase in both hands, I dashed towards it as fast as I could manage on my tired legs. One by one the cars began to slide out of the station and out of my reach.

Great, I thought, pumping my legs still harder with the vague hope of catching up to one of the last few. Just great. Daina Catrima Loyd missing the Hogwarts Express and her pivotal first day of school...

Just as I was about to give up hope entirely and collapse onto the tracks feeling sorry for myself, a boy flung open the door to the last compartment. "Over here!" he yelled. "Quick!" I put on a last burst of speed and leaped inside. The boy, with surprising ease, pulled my suitcase in after me and as the ground beneath us became a blur we both took hold of the door and slammed it.

"Whew!" I shut the door and brushed my long, black hair out of my eyes. "Thanks!"

"No problem," said the boy, moving the suitcase under a row of empty seats. Apparently we were alone in the compartment.

I sized him up. He was a first year, like me, but very tall and graceful for one. He had black hair like mine and startling baby blue eyes that seemed to change shade subtly with his every thought, and was wearing dark green non-school robes, suggesting that he came from a wizard family. He stared back at me and an awkward silence ensued, prompting me to say something more.

"Well," I improvised. "Knew I should have called that taxi earlier."

"Muggle-born?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah." I sat down, and he followed fluidly. "I mean, a few weeks ago, I didn't even know there was such a word. The Loyds - Muggle-est family this side of the Atlantic."

"I somehow doubt that." The boy's face clouded for a moment and he looked away. "Me, I'm a half-blood, and let me tell you my father's side is as Muggle as you get. Complete jerks, the lot of them. Sometimes..." He turned his head back towards me, and continued in a jokingly conspiratorial tone, "Sometimes I pretend I can kill them."

"Fun for all!" I quipped, and we both laughed. "Yeah, that sounds pretty bad. My family's mainly just stodgy. Everybody spells our name wrong. We're no relation to anybody with two Ls, really."

He nodded. "Names can be annoying. Mine's Riddle, and I get grown-ups asking me what side of the road the chicken's on every day. Or worse - making Gollum voices." He tilted his head back and his voice went high and squeaky. "'What has it got in its pocketses?'"

I grinned. Riddle was pretty cool.

We chatted for a while longer, as the landscape outside the train changed rapidly from forests, to fields, to hills. It turned out that Riddle's first name was Tom.

As we passed a small lake, there was a loud hooting noise and the compartment door flew open, pushed by an irately terrified little owl. A short, frizzy-haired girl followed it, waving her arms and yelling, "Stupid thing! Come HERE!"

At this last word, she jumped up and grabbed the owl by the legs, making it hoot even louder. "Sorry about that," she said very fast, pulling the owl down into a position where she could hold him properly. Molly and me were playing Exploding Snap and of course you know how that is, the entire discard pile went off right next to his cage and he went berserk. Stupid of us really, next time we'll put it -" She paused, noticing the blank looks on our faces. "And I see that you don't see. Muggle-borns?"

"Half," Riddle corrected her. "My dad doesn't 'approve' of wizards. Kept me very un-blissfully ignorant until the last possible second."

"Aw." A look of genuine pity crossed the girl's face, which quickly disappeared as she launched into a long and detailed explanation of the game of Exploding Snap. Apparently her name was Maggie. She certainly talked a lot, but there was an earnestness and friendliness about her that I found appealing. Eventually she was taken away to play another round of the exploding game with her friend and Riddle and I were left to talk some more.

--

At one o'clock an elderly witch came around with a candy trolley. Between the two of us, we bought a little bit of everything.

"Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans," I read off of the label of one box. "Hmm." I opened the box and pulled out a small pinkish jellybean, popping it into my mouth. "Hey, strawberry! Not bad!"

Riddle tried one too, but after a moment of chewing he gagged and spat it out with such force that it ricocheted halfway across the compartment.

"What was it?" I asked.

"You don't want to know," he replied fervently, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand.

I rooted around through the box and drew out a green bean. "This one looks like mint," I said, handing it to Tom. He studied it carefully, gingerly bit off a small piece, then grimaced and swallowed.

"Grass," he informed me.

"At least it wasn't broccoli." I faked a shudder.

"'You can't have your pudding if you don't eat your broccoli...'"

"Okay," I laughed, "that sounded scarily like my dad!"

I ended up getting caramel, bread, cheese, hot sauce, mud, grape, and something foamy that I thought was beer. Riddle had vanilla, wood, raspberry, black olive, pizza, and a rainbow one that neither of us could identify. By this time the train had begun to slow down, and I quickly slipped my school robes on over my clothes. Riddle gave me a strange look and walked off to an adjoining compartment to change privately, leaving me alone.

As soon as the train stopped I clambered out of the train onto the platform, which was crowded with students of all ages and appearances. It was hard to distinguish one from the other in the darkness.

"First years over here," came the voice of a tired-looking young man with a lantern. "First years." I hurried towards him, bumping into Riddle again on the way. I noticed without surprise that besides the tired man himself he was the tallest person in the group. He smiled and nodded at me, but there was no time to chat.

"Welcome to your first year at the wonderful place known as Hogwarts," said the tired man. "I'm Ogg, your groundskeeper." A few people snickered at his strange name. "I'll be taking you across the lake to the Sorting," he continued. "Follow me."

"What's the Sorting?" I whispered to Riddle through the confusion, bustle, and general profusion of elbows that followed.

"Got me," he whispered back.

Ogg started off, holding his lantern high in the air so everyone could see. Tom, me, and the rest of the first years followed him down a narrow path.

All of a sudden, there was a loud "Oooh!" from the people in front of us. "What's going on?" I asked a silvery-haired girl standing right in front of me.

She silently pointed ahead of her, at something I couldn't quite see. "Come along, everyone," came Ogg's voice. The group moved forwards a bit, and a gigantic castle came into view on the other side of a huge, black lake.

"Oh, wow," I breathed.

"Very wow," said Tom, looking awestruck.

"Isn't it, though?" said a voice directly behind us.

Tom spun around. "Hey, it's Maggie!"

"Hi, guys," she said. "Mind if I join you?"

"Of course not," I said, indicating for her to come stand next to me.

"So, what house do you think you'll be in?" Maggie asked. Then, off our blank looks, "Oh, sorry, forgot. Well, there's four houses - Gryffendor, Ravenclaw, Slytherin, and Hufflepuff. You get sorted into the different houses according to your personality. Gryffindors are brave, Ravenclaws are smart, Hufflepuffs are hard working and loyal, and Slytherins are 'sly and cunning'. Everyone thinks they're evil, though."

"I dunno," I said thoughtfully. "Possibly Ravenclaw. Maybe Slytherin... not 'cause I'm evil, though," I added.

"I really have no idea," Tom said. "I'm sort of a little bit of all of them, I guess."

Ogg reached the edge of the lake and motioned at a line of small boats at the shore. "Everyone get in. No more than four to a boat please."

Tom, Maggie, and I climbed into the nearest boat. "Hey, wait a minute," I said, realizing something was missing. "Where's the oars?"

"Don't need 'em," Maggie said. "Watch." She pointed over to where Ogg was getting into the last boat. He looked around, apparently making sure everyone had a boat, and tapped on the edge of his boat three times.

Immediately, the boats slid smoothly into the water, driven by nothing except what had to be magic. "Cool!" I exclaimed.

The boats sailed through the water at the speed of an average motorboat. In just a few minutes, we were a quarter of the way to the castle.

All of a sudden, a huge tentacle burst from the water a few yards away. "Oh my God, what IS that?" Tom yelled.

"It's just the giant squid. He's very friendly. Look, he's just waving at us!"

I looked closely and saw that it was indeed waving. "Okay, so he's friendly. That still doesn't keep him from being extremely disturbing." I made sure I was sitting in the very centre of the boat. Maggie rolled her eyes, but said nothing.

Soon, the boats reached a large tunnel under the castle that led to small underground harbor. The boats stopped by a 'beach' of rocks and pebbles. Everyone climbed out, and followed Ogg out a passageway up to the grass in front of a huge oak door. The groundskeeper knocked loudly three times.

An old man in a purple cloak an half moon spectacles opened the door. "Thank you, Ogg," said the man, motioning for us to come in. "Follow me, everyone."

"That's Professor Dumbledore," Maggie told us in a whisper. "He's really cool - a lot of people say he's one of the most powerful wizards in the world!"

"Really?" Tom asked. "Is he Headmaster?"

"Not yet, but he will be, someday. I think Professor Dippet is Head right now."

Dumbledore led the group into a small empty chamber. Loud voices could be heard through a door in the front of the room. "Welcome to Hogwarts," he said. "I am Professor Dumbledore. The start of term banquet will begin shortly in the Great Hall, but first you must be sorted into your houses. The Sorting is a very important event because while you are here, your house will be somewhat like your family. You will have your classes with your housemates, sleep in your house dormitory, and spend free time in your house common room.

"There are four houses - Gryffendor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. Each house has its own history and each has produced outstanding witches and wizards."

A red-haired boy snickered. Dumbledore raised his eyebrows. "Do you have something to add?"

"No, sir."

"Very good." Dumbledore turned back to the rest of us. "While at Hogwarts, your accomplishments will earn your house points, while breaking the rules will cause house points to be taken away. At the end of the year, the house with the most points will earn the House Cup, a great honor. I hope each of you will be a credit to whichever house becomes yours."

Dumbledore tilted his head towards the door for a moment. "Ah, I believe they are ready for us now. Follow me, everyone." He opened the doors and strode out into what had to be the Great Hall.

Thousands of candles hung in the air over four very long tables laden with golden plates and goblets. Sitting at these tables were hundreds of students, all wearing identical black robes. At the front of the hall stood another table, apparently where the staff sat. And the ceiling -

"Where's the ceiling?" I whispered to Maggie. There was nothing above our heads but a black sky filled with stars.

"Oh, it's there," Maggie replied. "They enchanted it to like the outside."

Dumbledore led us up to the staff table and had us stand facing the other students. Then he walked around to the back of the staff table and picked up a three-legged stool with an old wizard hat on it. All the students sitting at the tables watched as Dumbledore placed the hat in front of us. There was silence for a few moments, then, all of a sudden, a rip in the brim of the hat opened like a mouth and it began to speak.

"Hello, First Years!" A few people in the front of the group jumped backwards, startled. "I am the Sorting Hat. I once belonged to Godric Gryffendor himself, and now I am the one in charge of the Sorting Ceremony. Just put me on, and I can tell you where you belong."

Dumbledore took out a piece of parchment. "When I call your name, put on the hat and sit on the stool to be sorted. Adams, Lena."

A short black-haired girl ran up to the stool and placed the hat on her head. There was a moment of silence; then-

"RAVENCLAW!" yelled the hat. Lena jogged over to the second table from the left, which was covered with a blue tablecloth.

"Ambrosia, Grace."

"GRIFFENDOR!"

It continued like this for a little while. I began to get a bit nervous. What if no one in my house liked me? I had never been very popular at my old school - granted, only the people in the higher grades could ever truly be considered popular at my old school, but still...

"Ival, Narika."

"SLYTHERIN!"

"Kallen, Margaret."

"See ya later!" With a smile and a wave, Maggie stepped up to the stool and placed the hat over her head. I waved back, feeling even more nervous.

"SLYTHERIN!"

Maggie ran over to the green table, grinning.

"Leblanc, Circe." The pretty silver haired girl who had pointed out the castle earlier walked up to the stool. I noticed several boys watching her very closely.

"SLYTHERIN!"

"Loyd, Daina."

"Well, wish me luck."

"Large friendly letters: Don't Panic!" Tom said in a reassuring tone of voice.

I slowly made my way through the group and sat under the hat. "Hmm, let's see here... Very difficult choice. Let's see... I think your main trait is your intelligence." I felt a twinge of pride. "Ravenclaw or Slytherin, though... this may take a minute..." There was silence for a few seconds, which seemed to stretch on for hours. Then...

"SLYTHERIN!"

I saw Maggie clapping and cheering near the front of the table and headed over. "This is so amazingly cool!"

"I know," Maggie replied, beaming. "I was so sure I wasn't going to know anybody in my house!"

"Malfoy, Freya."

A tall, thin boy with white blond hair stepped up to the stool.

"Freya's kind of a weird name for a boy, isn't it?"

Maggie squinted at the boy for a moment, and then giggled, "I don't think that's a guy."

I looked closer. Sure enough, Freya was a girl. "Oh my god, she looks like Sailor Uranus!" Maggie looked at me blankly. "It's from a TV show."

"Oh. I don't watch too many TV shows, except for Monty Python and the occasional anime."

"SLYTHERIN!" yelled the sorting hat.

"Well, Sailor Moon's an anime show."

"Yeah, I've seen that, but there wasn't any Sailor Uranus, just Moon, Jupiter, Mars, and a few other people I can't remember."

"Uranus is in a later season. You've probably been watching the first ones."

"Ooh, look!" Maggie said suddenly. "Tom's getting sorted!"

Tom was indeed sitting under the gigantic hat. We waited in excited silence for a moment, then -

"SLYTHERIN!"

"YES!" Maggie and I jumped up and cheered. Tom ran over to us, grinning widely.

'Shelby, Guenevere' and 'Zatoar, Earl' became Hufflepuffs, and then Dumbledore took the stool away again. An old man who I suspected was Professor Dippet stood up, said "Bon Appetite!" and sat down again.

This was apparently some sort of signal, because as soon as he said this, the empty platters, bowls, and serving trays were instantly filled with all manner of food - potatoes, bread, salad, roast beef, chicken, eggs, soup, stew, sausage, rice, chips, fruits, vegetables, too many things to count.

"Oh, wow." I had never seen so much food in one place in my entire life.

"I have suddenly discovered why my mom loved it so much here," Maggie said, loading her plate with just about everything.

"I believe I have died and gone to heaven," said Tom, simply staring at the vast quantities of food.

"Don't worry, you'll get used to it." Maggie stuffed a large spoonful of mashed potatoes into her mouth.

"Good food should never be taken for granted," Tom replied fervently, dipping a drumstick into the gravy and taking a huge bite out of it.

I looked up suddenly from serving myself some roast beef to see a large apple heading straight for my head. "Augh!"

Suddenly, the apple stopped in midair, as if it had hit an invisible wall, and fell into the soup bowl. Looking down the table, I saw a black-haired girl tucking her wand back into her pocket.

"Hey, uh, thanks."

"No prob," she replied.

"Where d'you think that thing come from?"

She jerked her thumb over her shoulder at the red table. "The Gryffendors. They think we're all lower than scum."

"That's not really fair," Tom objected. "Just because we happen to be in Slytherin doesn't mean they can throw stuff at us."

"And being in Gryffendor doesn't mean that you're the best of the best. But you'll have a hard time convincing them that. My name's Turez, by the way."

"Neat name! I'm Daina."

"Tom," said Tom.

"And you?" Turez directed this at Maggie, who had been rather silent due to the large amounts of mashed potatoes she was eating.

Maggie swallowed. "Maggie Kallen. What year are you in?"

"Just the second. You guys are gonna love it here."

"Amen to that," said a brown-haired boy across from me. He flashed perfect white teeth in my direction. "Please try to restrain yourselves, ladies. If you want to go out with me, there's a two month waiting list."

I raised an eyebrow. This guy was definitely some kind of weirdo.

"Daina, Tom, Maggie, this is James Patil. He's on the Quiddich team." Turez suddenly smiled very widely.

"What is it?" asked James, very cautiously.

"Oh, nothing. It's just that in roughly twenty seconds, a large object will hit you in the head."

"Ack!" yelled James. "Help!"

"Don't try to avoid it, there's no escaping fate."

"Where is it? Where is it?" James looked around wildly.

"No, don't look around, it'll just hit you in the face. The only thing I suggest you do is -"

WHACK!

"-duck. But it seems a little too late for that now."

James held a hand over his forehead, where the thing had struck him. "Why didn't you do something? Why didn't you freeze it like you did that apple? It could have been something dangerous! It could have cracked my head open!"

"Oh, stop fussing," Turez told him. "And anyway, it's not like your skull's got anything in it that might need protecting, so why bother? Besides," she continued, picking something up off the floor, "it was just an apple." She held it up, and then took a large bite out of it.

"Hey, how did you know that apple was going to hit him?" Tom asked. "I mean, if one of the Gryffendors had thrown it, it wouldn't have taken twenty seconds to get over here. And besides, you weren't even looking in that direction."

"Oh, that." Turez shrugged. "Little things come to me sometimes. I think it's some form of the Sight. I can usually only tell little things, like who the apple's gonna hit. However..." Turez' eyes misted over. "Sometimes I can tell much more than that."

Her pupils suddenly dilated so that the irises couldn't be seen. They seemed like twin lakes of swirling darkness.

"Blood."

I stared. "Say what?"

Turez continued in a distant and slightly echo-y voice. "I see it. It's all over the ground, my clothes, everything. I'm too late. She's dead. She's dead!"

Her eyes suddenly turned back to normal. "Oh, frig, it happened again!"

"Um, you were faking, right?" Maggie asked nervously.

"No, I wasn't. What did I say?"

"Erm, something about blood..."

"I think you said you were late for something."

"And someone was dead."

Turez looked slightly ill. "Damn." She stood up. "I think I'll go down to the dorm. Not feeling very good."

"But you haven't even had your pudding yet!" Maggie protested.

"I'm not hungry. Really." Turez started to go away, then stopped. "Oh, a word of advice - be really, really careful not to damage the plants in Herbology. Professor Telluna'll kill you. She loves her plants. Kinda wacko."

"Well, however weird the teachers are, they can't be as weird as she is," Tom muttered.

Turez, now a table away, turned around and yelled, "I heard that!"

"She is rather strange, you know," James whispered, leaning over the table. "Gets these little 'premonitions all the time... once she had one during flying lessons. Nearly fell off her broom!"

"We get flying lessons?" I asked, excited.

"Well, yes. Turez is actually pretty good on a broomstick. The old captain of the Quiddich team graduated last year, and there's been rumors they're going to make Turez the new one."

"What's Quiddich?" Tom and I asked.

"You haven't heard about Quiddich?" James said, astonished. "It's only the best game in the entire world! I'm trying out for the team when the tryouts start." He then proceeded to tell us everything he knew about the sport, with a few enthusiastic comments thrown in by Maggie.

A little while after he finished, the remaining food vanished off the plates and the pudding appeared instead - ice cream, cake, éclairs, apple pie, strawberries, doughnuts, and more.

"Sugary goodness!" Maggie exclaimed, grabbing a doughnut and a piece of cake.

"I think I'll just have some strawberries," said Tom. "I ate too much."

"Yeah, me too." I spooned some of the red fruits onto my plate and handed the dish to Tom.

"Man, do you ever stop eating?" James asked, as Maggie took another doughnut and some ice cream.

"Nope," she replied cheerfully. "I'm a bottomless pit. And the great thing is, it doesn't make me fat!"

"Man, some people have all the luck," James grumbled.

After a few minutes, the pudding was finished and people began to get up and file out of the doors. A large boy of about 15 stood up and called out, "Slytherin first years! Come with me, everyone!"

A small crowd formed around him. He made sure everyone was there, then marched off out the double doors and down a set of stone steps. Down the stairs was a set of almost labyrinthine passageways, with doors leading off to the sides every so often.

The boy stopped in front of a large, bare patch of wall. "This is the entrance to your common room," he told us. "Just speak the password and you'll be able to get in. Eye of newt," he said to the wall. The stones rearranged themselves to form an arched passageway, large enough for us to pass through without bumping our heads.

We emerged in a large room with a slightly low ceiling, from which small lamps were hanging. A large fireplace with an ornately carved mantelpiece stood in the far wall, and several carved armchairs were scattered about the room. Two staircases on either sides of the room descended down too far to see properly from our location.

"Welcome to the Slytherin House. Your dormitories are down those two staircases - girls on the left, boys on the right - in the rooms marked with the number one. I suggest you get to bed soon, as your classes start tomorrow and it's getting rather late." The boy disappeared down the right staircase.

"He's right, you know," I said, stifling a yawn. "I hadn't realized before, but I'm getting really tired."

"Well, see you tomorrow, then," Tom said, starting towards the right staircase.

"G'night!" we called to his retreating back, then turned to the left and walked down the stairs.

We soon found the room marked with the one, and pushed open the door. Six four-poster beds were set up against the walls. Next to the beds there were small closets with names carved into the doors.

"Oh, look, here's my bed. Cool, we're right beside each other!" Maggie opened her closet, rummaged around a bit, and pulled out purple pajamas with little rabbits on them.

"What's with the rabbits?"

Maggie stuck her nose in the air. "They're vorpal bunnies. If you make fun of them, they will jump out of the fabric and bite your head off. Several times." She disappeared behind the curtains on her bed.

I got out my own pajamas, which looked rather plain compared to Maggie's 'vorpal bunnies'. I had just finished putting them on when the door opened and two girls walked in. One had blond hair and glasses, the other was a brunette.

"Hi!" said the blond, smiling. "Your name's Daina, right?" I nodded. "I'm Adria. I saw you hanging around that Tom Riddle guy. Isn't he hot?"

"Um... maybe?"

"What's he like?"

"He's a... guy. And... he's a guy, basically. He's pretty nice."

"But isn't he hot?"

"No, actually, he's a perfectly normal temperature," said Maggie. "Roughly 37°C."

"Don't you think he's hot, Narika?" Adria asked the brown-haired girl.

"I dunno. He's okay." Narika headed towards her closet.

"You people obviously can't recognize a perfect guy." Adria stalked to her closet.

The door opened again. "For God's sake, he's just a guy!" exclaimed a voice. I looked around. Freya, the girl who looked like a guy, and Circe had just walked in. They both looked rather annoyed at each other.

"He is not 'just a guy'!" exclaimed Circe angrily. "Tom is the greatest guy in the entire world!"

"Oh my gosh! A kindred spirit!" Adria jumped up and ran over to the silver haired girl.

"More like competition," said Circe pompously, looking down her nose. There was a pause. Then she said, in an entirely different tone, "We can still be friends if you want."

"Cool!"

Freya snorted and disappeared into her bed.

"G'night, Daina!" said Maggie, poking her head out of the curtains.

"G'night." I lay down and was asleep in a few minutes.

That night, I had a rather strange dream. I wanted to talk to Tom, but all these girls in little pink dresses surrounded him. I pushed them aside and went up to Tom, but then, instead of talking to him, I socked him in the face. He fell down and his nose started to bleed. Then I helped him up and said I was sorry, and his nose got better, and he told me it was okay, he knew I didn't mean it.