Chimaera of Judgement



CHAPTER NINETEEN: The Re-Sorting

It seemed to Albus that no time at all passed between Christmas Night at the Burrow and the day after New Year's, but there he was, all packed and again standing before the fireplace in Number Twelve, preparing to hop the Floo into Hogwarts. He found himself in a funny sort of way - not quite ready to leave, but at the same time anxious to get back.

"Don't forget to keep us up on your news," his mother said, kissing Lily on the cheek while tousling his hair. "And make sure you knock the stuffing out of Hufflepuff for us!"

"Will do," James laughed. "The Potter Brothers shan't be defeated!"

Her cheeks glowed with pride. "That's what I like to hear!"

"Be good," Father said, giving Albus a meaningful look. He winked, preferring not to say anything for fear of letting on there was a secret shared between them.

"After you, Al," said James, smirking.

"Fine. See you in the Summer!" Tossing a pinch of powder under the mantle, he walked into the green flames and, taking a last look at his parents, said clearly, "Professor Longbottom's Office at Hogwarts!"

An eternity passed as he spun through time and space to arrive on the floor of Professor Longbottom's office, his stomach feeling as if he'd left it in his other cloak. Brushing soot from his knees, he looked up to see Rose standing next to the professor, and had to do a double-take.

"Rose, your- oh, not again!"

"Nice to see you, too," she said flatly. "What's nibbling at your nose, mate?"

"Purple this time, eh?" he asked, batting at the exact same bit of fringe she had magically dyed before. "Can't you settle to anything?"

Her eyebrows knitted angrily. "If you don't leave off fussing about my hair, I'll give you a purple-"

"If you two could move it along," hissed Longbottom, indicating the two or three other Gryffindors trying to get around where they were blocking the exit. They both whispered apologies before hurrying into the corridor beyond.

"Will you ever stop taking the mickey out of me for stuff like this?" she growled as soon as they were a goodly distance from the door. "Like the bathing costume - what does it matter if it's the most horrid thing in creation?"

"It doesn't," he sighed, knowing early on that he wasn't going to win this one. "Sorry, okay? You don't have to cry about it."

"I am not cry-"

"Shh, wait!"

"Don't tell m-"

"Listen!"

When she fell silent, they heard two hushed voices come into sharp relief against the quiet hallway. Holding his finger to his lips needlessly, he led her over to another door a short way along, straining to pick up as many words as possible.

"Not as easy... there's no way... like that; it's far... a thing to do, and I... anything... hope for."

"But really, you can't expect... notice! This... for many... not likely to... again!"

"Hang on," Rose breathed, reaching into her schoolbag for the somewhat-trusty Extendable Ears, but at the very same moment the voices got much, much louder.

"We are agreed, then?" said the first voice.

"I suppose so," said the second grudgingly. "I've no more objections."

Changing tack entirely, Rose fished out the Invisibility Cloak and threw it over both of them scant seconds before the door burst open, revealing Professors Dryden and Flitwick. Both teachers glanced nervously up and down the corridor before setting off in the same direction, which turned out to be downstairs. When they had disappeared from view, Rose pulled the Cloak off and replaced it in her bag, looking over at him curiously.

"What do you reckon that was about?"

"Search me - could have been the price of newt's eyes in Norway, for all we heard. Blimey, what a note to start the term on, eh?"

"Yeah," she gusted as they moved off toward the staircase that would take them up toward Gryffindor Tower. "Bugger it all, don't we have enough to worry about, what with the Slytherins and the ghosts and Peele and Dryden, that now Dryden is conspiring with Flitwick about something? And we've got O.W.L.s coming up!"

They reached the purchase of their common room, where a goodly number of students were already swapping tales of their holidays. They lingered for a short while, chatting with Martin Finnigan and Aqua Rankin about the miserable amount of homework they had to do over break and why the Kenmare Kestrels hadn't the remotest chance of winning the league this year before heading up to get settled back into their bunks.

"Oi, Bulbous Potter!" Ryan Macmillan barked at him from across their room. "The word about the castle is that you and Professor Longbottom caught Scorpius Malfoy and tortured some big confession out of him. That true?"

"Sure, it's true. Want to make something of it?"

"Not at all, not at all. Wanted to be the first to congratulate you if it was, actually. So, did you and the Potties have a happy Christmas?"

"It was spectacular, Ryan." Albus grimaced as he stowed the gifts he'd brought with him and left his schoolbag on the nightstand; he was in too pleasant a mood to dally with this very long. "Two weeks without looking at your dial - everybody should know what that feels like, might bring peace to all shores."

He laughed. "Get up on the wrong side of the bed this morning? Unless you were in Rose's, of which every side has got to be-"

"Yeah, yeah, what a master of the funny you are. If you'll excuse me, I've got other places to be where the hostility isn't so open."

"Hey-"

But Albus swept from the room, nostrils flaring. Why couldn't that irksome dimwit let him have just a few moments to breathe before he started in on him? However, what he saw when he reached the bottom of the stairs soon made yet another encounter with Ryan a distant memory.

Everyone was talking at once, in all corners and areas of the common room. He scanned the faces; Elizabeth Larkins was nearly in tears, Caspian Lewis looked perplexed, and Lily, Kayla Sylvanus and Tanith Moon were whispering so feverishly at each other a second-year at a nearby table started scanning the floor for wild snakes. Albus picked his way over to where James and Olivia Wood were standing together, shaking their heads at it all.

"What's up?"

"Not really sure," said James slowly. "Longbottom's told us he's got something to say, and that we're supposed to hang around the common room until he comes back and says it. Hope he's not long."

"What's all this?" Rose had appeared behind them.

"Wait for the memo," James snapped.

"Apparently, we've been told Longbottom's going to make a big announcement," Olivia told her more kindly.

Minutes crawled by, nearly building into half an hour before the portrait swung open and the round face of their Head of House poked itself in, flashing a nervous smile at the impatient students. Albus couldn't help but think he would rather not tell them anything, but that duty kept him from backing out.

"All right, everyone, settle down," he called, and it didn't take long for the room to become more or less quiet. "This really shouldn't take long, and then you can commence to gossiping about what I've just said for a while before supper. Now-"

"Is it the ghosts?!" Brunhilda shouted into the room, as if she were unable to restrain herself.

"No, Miss Vane," he replied patiently. "Actually, they have been acting rather strangely, but there've been no more harmful incidents, if that's what you mean."

"Has Peeves attacked the Headmast-"

"Not twice in one year, no, Creevey. Now, if I might be allowed to speak, as I am the teacher, here?" There was a moment's pause as he glared around at them, torn between outrage and amusement. "Right, then. Firstly, I ought to tell you the new password, as you'll be needing it from tomorrow - it's 'Trevor'. The Head Boy's known about it for a week now, so if you happen to forget you can always ask him."

Barty waved importantly from near the fireplace.

"Secondly, most of you may not have heard yet, but Headmistress Sprout has returned."

"All right!" a sixth-year shouted, and everyone else laughed and clapped.

"My sentiments exactly," said Longbottom, beaming. "They'll be making a formal announcement during supper, of course, but I thought I'd just as soon tell you all while I've got you. Professor Weasley has agreed to stay on for a few more weeks to help tutor the O.W.L. students in Charms, and after that Professor Flitwick will be at the reins again."

"You could use some tutoring," Ryan muttered from behind them. Albus aimed an elbow at his midsection, which he sidestepped with a quiet chuckle.

"And thirdly," Longbottom sighed, the lines at the corners of his eyes somehow becoming more pronounced, "though it's practically never been done, we have ourselves a transfer." Though the room immediately broke out into murmurs, he spoke over them. "Yes, yes, I know it's uncommon, especially partly through the year like this. However, there's something that must be made explicitly clear to you, because if I hear of anyone disregarding what I am about to say, they may just find themselves on the first train home."

Everyone was now deathly still.

"You are to welcome this transfer with the warmth and openness I've come to expect from my Gryffindors - treat them decently, respectfully, help with the transition. And just in case one of you thinks themselves smart, no, I wasn't at all codding you before about expulsion - make things harder on our new student, and I'll bodily remove you from the castle myself."

Nodding in Albus's direction, then in Barty's, he turned and headed out of the portrait hole without so much as a "farewell".

"A new student?!" Hugo squealed from nearby at the exact same time as at least a dozen other Gryffindors. "But- but that's absurd, Hogwarts doesn't let children waltz right in, halfway through the year!"

"It is dodgy," James concurred. "I don't remember ever hearing about someone coming to school who wasn't Sorted as a first-year. What are they playing at?"

Rose's hair was at her lips again. "D'you think they're from another school? Y'know, like Beauxbatons? Aunt Fleur went there."

"Maybe," said Albus thoughtfully. "Could be interesting to have a foreign exchange student, I suppose."

"Wait, do Uncle Lamont and Aunt Gabrielle have any part-veelas of their own?" Lily mused. "They could be school-age - what if they're moving here?"

The hypotheses flew hard and heavy between everyone who had been privy to this meeting for several hours, but eventually the majority seemed to decide they didn't know anything and let it drop. Albus, for his part, was heartened that there had been no further hauntings or attacks.

"Nobody was here over Christmas, though," said Rose. "Even Professor Longbottom left for the bonfire."

"But some students stayed behind, didn't they? Personally, I'd rather think the perpetrator has given up his life of phantom-controlling."

"That's not realistic, though - why give up when nobody's caught you at it?"

"Must you be devil's advocate all the time?" he shot at her as they at last tromped into the Great Hall, nodding at Wendelyne Moore as she flashed him a somewhat toothier smile than usual. "Are my hunches so far-fetched that you can't accept one at face-val- val... you have got to be kidding."

"Eh?"

Just a few students were already seated at the Gryffindor House table, but one of them appeared to be of a rather small stature, for only the very top of their black hair was visible above the tabletop. What they could see of it was shivering.

"We haven't got a goblin coming to Hogwarts," said Rose in disbelief. "I mean, d'you think that's why Longbottom wanted to make sure we didn't badger him too much? Cos he'd get all his goblin mates to come and rough up-"

"Rose," he whispered as they came to the table. Scraping the bench across the floor and making enough noise to cause the other students to cover their ears, Albus squatted down to look under and across at who the scalp belonged to. "That's no goblin... that's a banshee."

She joined him in crouching and gasped when she recognised Jezabel Skirrow, sitting as low in her seat as possible without sliding completely under the table. Unfortunately, she did just that when she spotted them watching her, landing with a thump and a quiet, "Ouch!"

"Er, Jezzy," Rose began tentatively, "why, er, that is... have you gone mental?"

"Translating from the cretin," said Albus through clenched teeth, "I think sweet Rosie means something like 'why are you hiding under here'?"

"I can't... I can't... I can't..."

He sighed, inching further under. "C'mon, let's get you back up onto the-"

Jezabel's mantra gained speed as she began rocking back and forth, bottom lip trembling. "I can't I can't I can't I c-"

"What's the matter with you?" Rose demanded. "They don't force you to eat if you don't want, you can always-"

"Merlin's mouldy pants, d'you see this?"

"All I see is a wacko," she hissed in his ear.

"Her robes, you prat!"

Before that moment, he had overlooked the crest on her threadbare robes because it was so familiar to him by now. This, as it turned out, was the very thing that was so strange - for where he had been expecting to see the silver serpent against a green background of Slytherin House, he saw the very same golden lion set in red that was on the front of his own uniform.

"That's not..." Rose glanced from her uniform to Albus, then to what was visible of Jezabel's face, then back to her robes. "Where'd you get that?"

"F... from Professor Longbottom," she whispered fearfully.

"But why would you want it? Honestly, it's not like wearing it's going to fool people into-"

"Oh, hurry up and put two and two together, will you?" Albus snapped impatiently. "Can't you see she's the transfer?"

"She's the- what? But she's already been here for five years, it's not- oh, wait... oh. Oh!"

Rose slapped a hand over her mouth, pulling herself right under the table and sitting down cross-legged. "But... but forget transferring, this is changing your House! Your House is- that's never been done before, ever! Once the Hat decides, you are where you are and that's that, end of story!"

"I guess there were a few pages left to this one," said Albus dully.

"Please, I'm begging you, keep it down," Jezabel gasped. "As soon as they find out they'll come for me, I don't want them to come, don't want them to lynch me like that, don't- I'll go back to Slytherin, I promise I'll be good there, just don't let them chuck me out!"

"Jezabel, let's get out of here."

She was silent for a moment, apparently shocked at this idea. "I- they'll see me, and I don't want to be seen, I- I- and supper's already started, and I was told to be here, they said I had to be here or-"

"Hey, Rose - I don't suppose you have the Cloak with you?"

"Sorry, mate," she said with a shaky shrug. "Left it up in my dorm."

"We'll have to run for the doors, then," he said resignedly. "Unless you feel up to that Disillusioner thingy again?"

"What are you talking about?" said Jezabel, quaking with fear. "There's no escape, they already know I'm under here! I'll bet they're waiting, waiting for-"

"She's right, Al. We drew too much attention to ourselves when we - you - pulled out that bench, the Disillusionment Charm wouldn't help us much."

"Yeah, wish I hadn't done that, now. A mad dash on three, then? One-"

Jezabel was already breathing hard. "No, no, don't, I'll just stay here, I-"

"Two-"

"-sort of nice under here when you stop to enjoy-"

"Three!"

Each of the cousins grasping one of her thin, grimy hands, they bolted from their sanctuary, past the other House tables and gaping faces and out of the Great Hall, causing Belvina Hitchens to leap backward and land spread-eagled on the Slytherin table, sending food flying everywhere. Thinking quickly as he noticed the Entrance Hall was nearly clear, he jerked the other two across and down a hallway, at last reaching another of the hundreds of always-empty classrooms in Hogwarts. Not even bothering to see if it was already unlocked, he waved his wand at it, muttering, "Alohomora!" and threw himself on it, clawing it open and holding it for the other two, then racing inside and slamming it shut behind them.

There was a lot of heavy panting for the next minute or so as they all attempted to keep their hearts from rupturing. Then, with a plaintive wail, Jezabel rounded on them, pale cheeks flushed with as much colour as he'd ever seen in them.

"What in God's name do you think you're doing?! They're going to hate me, I can see it already, the looks in their eyes, I'm not welcome - and now they've seen us running away, and you've associated yourselves - they'll think we're all traitors, or spies, or-"

"Breathe!" Albus commanded, and she obeyed, lapsing into silence as she fought to master herself. "Now, it might be nice if we could have a relaxed, easy conversation in which we're not running at top speed or hanging around a depressing tomb, wouldn't it? Let's take a minute here and... and work this all out."

"But- but Professor Longbottom said he was going to ask someone to help me get acquainted with being a G-G-G-Gryffindor." Albus noted that she spoke the name of their House as if it were a great and powerful beast worthy of both fear and respect. "And I had to be at your House table, but now we've gone, and I won't know anything, I'll be so lost for-"

"No, you won't," Albus cut across her. "The password's going to be 'Trevor' this term, and we'll show you where you have to say it later. Don't lose your head so easily."

"I... I don't know-"

"We'll get you through this," said Rose, even though Albus could tell her conviction was not as strong. "But you have to tell us - how'd you end up changing Houses? I mean to say, that's never-"

"Right," she sighed, finally seeming to calm down the barest amount. "I- I suppose if we're to be H-Housemates now, you should probably know that much." Clutching at the neck of her new Gryffindor robes, she glanced up and down the room, finally picking a desk to perch on; Albus and Rose followed suit, both taking seats facing her.

"Well, I- well, we all went home for Christmas, and- and I spent the whole time worrying, worrying that I'd get an owl asking me not to return, or-"

"We tried to get you to see reason," Rose butted in. "We waited for you the morning everybody went home, but you left before we got the chance to talk about it."

"You... you did?"

"Yeah," said Albus.

"Oh..." She stared at her tatty shoes for a moment before clearing her throat. "Er, anyway, so I returned this morning, and Professor Dryden was there, of course, and he asks me to wait in his office. When the other Slytherins had all shown up, he called for Headmistress Sprout and Professor Flitwick, and they... they brought in the Sorting Hat."

She had their full attention now; Rose had begun unwrapping a Peppermint Toad, but it now sat forgotten in her hand, struggling feebly.

"Flitwick, he charmed it so they could hear everything it was saying, even what it normally keeps between the wearer and itself, and... and they heard what I'd done when I was Sorted. They all heard." Tears of shame began silently rolling down her face, and Albus offered her a handkerchief, which she regarded with the same trepidation she'd shown his hand on two occasions before.

"Go on," Albus urged softly. "Please?"

Glancing between he and Rose, she took it and wiped her eyes - Albus wondered at how she managed this without disturbing her curtain of messy hair. "Y-you see," she whispered, even though there was noone who could possibly overhear her, "when I first boarded the Hogwarts Express, I came to sit in the same compartment with Lysandra Rosier, Ursula Marrow, and Patricia Montague, and they were friends already - Lysandra's my age and was just starting as well, but she and Patricia's families are sort of close. Any- anyway, they didn't know me, and I didn't say much, but they kept going on about how great Slytherin was, how all the best witches and wizards were in Slytherin, and how they hoped Lysandra would get in. Then, they asked me who my parents were, and I told them their names, and they said they didn't recognise them but that I'd better get into Slytherin, or else I wasn't worth anything. Th- they never asked if my parents were magical or not, or else they might- no. No, they would definitely have told me to leave, looking back I'm sure of it."

Albus squirmed, not wanting to halt her momentum now that she was finally really talking about herself, but needing to ask something. "So... what was it you did? To the Hat, I mean."

"Asked it to change its mind." She drew her knees up to her chest, rocking back and forth on the surface of the desk, nearly pitching into the floor. "I begged it to put me in Slytherin, because if I went there I'd be- that is, I thought I'd be accepted, that I might belong there. The Hat t-tried to tell me I was making a mistake, that it saw my path lay in Ravenclaw, thought I had the mind for it, but... but I just kept pleading for it do me this favour, that it put me where the girls on the train had told me I wanted to be. So it did."

There was an echo within Albus's mind as the penny dropped into place and he received understanding; this girl was never meant to be a Slytherin. She hadn't behaved much like one, not a single time he'd spoken to her had she shown any signs of belonging to her House. It was only because she had listened to the other Slytherins, because she had trusted them, that she wound up there.

"But that's- there's still one thing that stumps me," Rose said, gnawing at her hair so hard Albus was sure she'd get it stuck in her teeth. "If you were supposed to be a Ravenclaw, then wangled yourself into Slytherin... what are you doing in Gryffindor?"

"Yes," she breathed, looking between the two of them as if afraid they would draw their wands on her when she told them the next part. "I don't know, either."

END Chapter Nineteen