Midnight Grace

manic_panic

Story Summary:
Pansy Parkinson has watched and admired Draco for six years at Hogwarts, and despite Malfoy's continued refusals, she has decided once and for all to make him hers. Fueled by a fleeting glimpse of her dream (Draco escorting her to the Yule Ball their Fourth Year) and the fact Draco's mother still talks to her, she has renewed her resolve and her desire shall not be deterred. But, a new student at Hogwarts catches Draco Malfoy's eye and he wastes no time in claiming what he desires. How will she take the news that Draco is courting another?

Chapter 01 - The New Student

Chapter Summary:
Pansy Parkinson has watched and admired Draco for six years at Hogwarts, and despite Malfoy’s continued refusals, she has decided once and for all to make him hers. Fueled by a fleeting glimpse of her dream (Draco escorting her to the Yule Ball their Fourth Year) and the fact Draco’s mother still talks to her, she has renewed her resolve and her desire shall not be deterred. But, a new student at Hogwarts catches Draco Malfoy’s eye and he wastes no time in claiming what he desires. How will she take the news that Draco is courting another?
Posted:
02/21/2007
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262


Chapter One: The New Student

The bright red train sped along its tracks, a plume of smoke issuing from it and drifting into the sky. Inside, compartments were filled with teenagers gossiping, giggling, and making plans for the coming months. But in one compartment sat a thin girl dressed in a black robe, her long blonde hair falling over her shoulders and her light blue eyes gazing out the window at the passing scenery in silence. Except for a covered cage in the seat next to her, she was alone.

She wasn't alone physically. Just across from her sat three girls all attired in the same style of robes as her, chattering and giggling about their Summer Holidays, close enough to reach out and touch had the blonde wanted to - but she didn't.

"Iosifina Liliana Constantinescu," the girl thought to herself silently as trees flicked past the window. She often wondered why her parents had saddled her with such a ridiculous name, but she knew the answer already.

"That's a fine name, a Romanian name," her Grandmother had always said. Yes, Romanian. Romanian like her dad and her grandparents, but at her American school her friends had shortened the name to Jo.

It felt like forever since she'd been home though it had only been two days ago when she'd packed her trunk and headed back to England for school. The American school she'd attended in Massachusetts refused to accept her anymore, so her parents had packed her off to Hogwarts, a Wizarding school in the United Kingdom.

Last year had been her first year at the school. She'd started as a "sixth year" or Junior, depending on which country's terminology you wanted to use. The school was all right, she didn't hate it, but she missed a lot of things about St. Benidictus's school - like the central heating. For some reason European wizards completely rejected all Muggle inventions and ideas, no matter how comfortable, and Hogwarts got to be rather drafty in the winter.

She'd missed her friends at first, but then even if she'd stayed at home she would have missed them. Tizz and Ly had been her best friends, or so she'd thought, and then Drenkan had entered the picture.

For her sixteenth birthday the girls had snuck out of the school and gone to see Dark Despair, a wizard band. And while they were there in the crush of the crowd, screaming until they were hoarse, they'd met someone; a man named Drenkan.

After the concert they'd spent the night running around town with him, laughing, flirting and giggling, until he'd finally asked if he could see Jo again. She was flattered and stupid and said yes. After all, the boys in her school weren't really interested in her. There were rumors about her and always had been - rumors that she wasn't altogether normal.

And so it had begun with Drenkan and so it ended, fantastically and spectacularly. And now, here she was, permanently expelled from her school, sent overseas after spending all of last summer in Aldrions Magical Mental Facility.

A loud caw erupted from the cage next to her and Jo turned, flicking the cage. "Be quiet Naktis," she muttered. That crow was more of a nuisance than anything, but somehow she couldn't bear to be rid of it. Really, she felt sorry for the dumb bird. He'd been the pampered, spoiled pet of a Drenkan for many years and now found himself without a master or a home. Jo had tried to boot the crow out, but he'd whined so that in the end she'd let him stay.

Sometimes she thought this Crawespeech was more of a curse than anything. While others heard his screeching caws, she heard words, and rarely nice ones. She could talk back to him, just like a user of Parseltongue could, and just like Parseltongue it was a skill the world frowned on and considered a sign of evil.

Darkness was beginning to fall outside and Jo's eyes took in the flaming horizon, the sun burning itself out for the night in a pool of crimson and gold. The trees would be changing soon, taking on their mantle of autumn hues and filling the air with the spicy scent of death. She had to say it was her favorite time of year, and England's autumn was fantastic, as had been Connecticut's, where she'd grown up in the tiny Wizarding village of Nodknoll.

"Anything from the Trolley, dears?" a friendly voice cut through Jo's thoughts and she glanced up to see the witch with the snack trolley standing at the opened compartment door. The other three girls were digging Galleons from their pockets, buying anything that struck their fancy, and when they'd finished Jo got herself some chocolate frogs and other assorted goodies.

Settling back into her seat, she carefully unwrapped the first frog, catching it in her hand and staring into its beady chocolate eyes before snapping off its head, smiling as the warm chocolate melted on her tongue. Yes, Britain could do one thing better than America and that was chocolate.

The compartment door slid opened once more and Pansy Parkinson, Slytherin Prefect, stuck her head in, a smile lighting up her face as she saw the red headed girl sitting opposite of Jo.

"There you are Lana! Sorry, been doing all the prefect rubbish."

"You love it and you know it," Lana giggled.

Jo's teeth clenched at the sound of Lana's giggles, but she refrained from commenting. Parkinson and company weren't on her favorite list of peoples.

"Constantinescu, I see you're back again," Parkinson said coolly, her eyes flicking to Jo.

"It looks that way," the blonde answered, her voice equally cool.

"Just keep out of trouble this year," Pansy ordered. "Slytherin wants to win the House Cup for a change."

Jo snorted and bit back a retort. The only trouble she'd been in had been bashing a few skulls now and then when it had been necessary. Other than that she'd kept to herself, spending more time in the library than was normal for a Slytherin as she desperately researched a hideous truth she'd unwittingly discovered. Other than that she'd kept to herself, concerned about others discovering her secrets and hiding in the shadows.

That wasn't to say there weren't people she considered acquaintances, because there were. You couldn't go to a school, live in it, eat in it and sleep in it for ten months and not pick up someone to talk to, but she had no one she was close to. No best friends or boyfriends, no one she'd choose to confide in or felt a strong kinship with. And despite the fact she'd slowly tried to convince herself she was happy that way, deep down she longed for someone to talk to, someone to laugh with, to tell all the little ups and downs of teenagedom. Someone besides ghosts, a crow and a demon.

She'd become quite friendly with the ghosts of Hogwarts, being a naturally gifted Necroverser, and because of that she knew a lot of things she probably shouldn't. One would almost be surprised at the wealth of knowledge a ghost had, as people tended to ignore them a lot of the time and treat them as pieces of furniture. The trick, for your average witch or wizard, was getting them to tell you, but Jo could make them, whether they wanted to or not.

She really preferred not to have to use this unless it was necessary, since there was always the chance of being caught, and preferred instead to just wheedle the information from them, but once in awhile it had become necessary to use her talents on the school poltergeist, Peeves. Because of this the ghost hated her, though she'd forbidden him from ever disclosing WHY.

Pansy leaned against the compartment doorway and the four girls chattered while the train bumped along and Jo wished they'd all go away. Part of her bitterness towards them was most likely jealousy at their closeness, but she refused to acknowledge that, even to herself, and instead decided it was because they were flat out annoying - which they really were.

"So do you think you can finally rope Draco this year?" Lana asked Pansy as she unwrapped one of the sweets from her newly purchased collection.

"I don't see why not," the prefect answered. "We're both prefects, it only makes sense, doesn't it?"

"I don't know," a brunette by the name of Susan answered. "After all, you haven't yet."

"I have a plan this year." Pansy smiled and then glanced towards Jo once again. "But I don't think discussing it in front of the yank is the best idea."

"I'd rather be a yank than look like a pug dog," Jo smirked, drawing on one of Pansy's "pet" names around Slytherin house - Poochie.

The prefect scowled deeply. "Better than smelling like one!"

"You'd know." Jo shrugged, smacking the cage as Naktis let out a loud caw, intoning his opinion into the conversation.

"Can't you shut that bloody thing up?" Pansy demanded.

"He's just agreeing with me," the blonde girl said, shrugging and settling into her seat as Naktis let out another caw, clearly denying that he was agreeing with anyone.

"Oh, go flit around in your shadows and be quiet, Yankee reject!" Pansy snapped.

"It's a shame YOU don't spend more time in them," Jo drawled. "Then we wouldn't have to look at you."

The other girls looked shocked, and Pansy growled, but had no suitable reply, so Jo leaned back and closed her eyes, smiling to herself. Yep, she really was back at Hogwarts again.

Just as Jo closed her eyes, a tall handsome boy with dark brown tousled hair and even darker midnight-blue eyes walked by the compartment. Adorned in black robes that were hastily thrown on, he stopped in the corridor just outside of the compartment window when he caught sight of the beautiful blonde sitting inside. She was in the same year as he and he was more than excited to find her on the train again this year. An American by birth, Jo Constantinescu had caught the eye of Thane Stellan Purefoy, III the moment she had been introduced during the reception dinner last year. But, for an almost inexplicable reason, he had not put on his normal airs with her. No, in fact he had done quite the opposite by choosing to admire her from a distance, only speaking to her on a rare occasion when their respective circle of friends crossed paths - and then there was that one incident in Dragonology when he had accidentally prompted a dragon to burn her clothes off, for which he had purchased her a rather expensive and stylish winter cloak in apology.

"Not Constantinescu again," drawled a white-haired boy standing next to Thane in the corridor.

"But, look at her, Cousin," answered Thane, somewhat reminiscent of a love-struck fool. He wasn't actually Draco Malfoy's cousin, but the two were as good as brothers. The two Slytherin boys had taken to calling each other "cousin" after a family lesson in ancestry. Because there were so few wizarding families that claimed Pure-blood status in Europe and along with the fact that the Purefoys and Malfoys had been close for literally centuries, the two figured they had to be related somehow. Thane, born only seven months before Draco, had been the best friend and sole confidant of the Slytherin Prefect since they were mere toddlers. "She's absolutely beautiful."

"Yes, so we've heard," said Draco, rolling his eyes as he turned to his two buffoon-like companions, Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle, who were nearly always at his side. "And what I still can't understand is why you insisted on having a go at that scrubber, Marianna, instead of pursuing her."

"Come now, Draco," said Thane, turning to his friend with a crooked grin and midnight eyes shimmering. "She may have been a bit of a gold-digger but she wasn't all that bad."

"Gold was the least of your worries, mate." Draco snickered, raising an eyebrow at his friend. "She wanted to bear your children and inherit the Purefoy Compound. If she could have, she would have hexed that poor Hufflepuff you took the Ball last year."

"Who, Cynthia?" asked Thane, a brow raised. "She was a sweet girl. Harmless."

"Until you had your way with her, I'm sure." Draco smirked, glancing back at the oversized lugs behind him. His smirk quickly fell into a disappointed scowl. "Hello?" He waved his hand in front of their faces, to which he only received two blank stares. "I swear," said Draco, again speaking to Thane, "we have to find a way to make sure these two don't breed."

Thane laughed and turned back to peer inside the compartment window once again. It was like the girl had put a spell on him, one for which he had no defense. He let his eyes linger on her form, again imagining the figure he briefly caught a glimpse of that fateful snowy day in Dragonology. She was the picture of beauty, albeit covered in soot at the time, but that made no matter at all to the Slytherin playboy admiring her. Too quickly had her roommate, Elizabeth Crane, jumped in to cover her with her own cloak, nastily eyeing all the boys who were glaring at Jo's blackened body so beautifully silhouetted against a blanket of white snow.

"Bloody hell!" yelled Thane, jumping back and almost knocking over Draco. Pansy's face was full in the window of the compartment door, flashing a horrible toothy grin in Draco's direction. This was quite an awful way to be brought out of his reverie, staring into the pug-face of the other Slytherin Prefect.

"Get off of me," Draco scowled, pushing the taller boy away from him and brushing off his robes. As he looked up, he caught Pansy's smile and let out a small yelp as he shrank back defensively, crinkling his nose.

"Don't look at me," Thane defended, straightening his own robes as he quickly waved his hand over the door-latch. "It's your former lover that did it" The dark-haired boy smirked.

"She was not my lover!" Draco protested, his pale skin taking on a shade of pink. "I took her to the Yule Ball fourth year!" Pansy had never rightly been his girlfriend, though she did spend an inordinate amount of time at Malfoy Mansion the summer following that year. He nearly had to beg his mother to find reasons for him to be away when Pansy wanted to visit. After that, he spent most of his time at Hogwarts trying to avoid her. But, being a fellow Prefect, it wasn't always easy to rid himself of her presence.

"I still say you sold yourself short on that one, Cousin," he said, glancing at Pansy from the corner of his eyes as the door began to make a clicking noise as she tried to exit the compartment, only to find that the door would not open. Thane gave the girl a perplexed look and shrugged, indicating he had no idea what was wrong. He even went so far as to try to open it. But, unfortunately for Pansy, his efforts were in vain.

"Draco!" she called from behind the pane of glass. "How was your summer holiday?" She yelled out in a desperate attempt to be heard.

Draco shook his head and pointed to his ears, letting Pansy know he could not hear her, even though he heard every word clearly. "Good one, Cousin," he muttered to Thane, urging him forward. "Come on, let's get out of here," he said through clenched teeth so Pansy didn't know what he was saying. He was not entirely convinced that the girl hadn't gone completely wonky after he turned away her advances.

Thane offered a pout followed by a consoling grin as he waved goodbye to the pug-faced prefect. As he walked on, he offered one more glance at Jo and caught her gaze. He turned, taking a few steps backward in his retreat as he looked back at her. He smiled a crooked smile and winked before turning around again and met Draco's stride as they walked away.

"You know your father will pick her apart if she ever decides to return your affection," said Draco abruptly. There were many secrets in the Purefoy family, and only a rare few had been permitted access to the Compound where Thane had grown up and still lived. Nearly all of his extended family lived there, and if need be, the place could sustain itself entirely without help from the outside wizarding world for a lifetime, if necessary. Draco had commented many times on how it was run more like a small country than a home.

"It's not Father I'm worried about," Thane commented, leaving Draco's last statement hanging in the air.

As he opened his mouth to respond, Draco stopped dead in the corridor, the often forgotten Crabbe and Goyle plowing into him from behind. "You idiots!" he said, sneering at the boys who were now fumbling over themselves while backing away. Everyone knew Draco didn't like to be touched, especially by those whom he felt were beneath him, which both Crabbe and Goyle decidedly were. "Who is that?" he asked, his voice a whisper.

A girl dressed in champagne robes glided across the corridor in front of them, pausing to look at the boys. He had only caught a glimpse of red hair and brilliant green eyes. She had offered him a small smile before disappearing into her compartment.

"I have no idea, but you can be sure I'll find out," said Thane, a wicked twinkle in his eyes.

"Can't you leave any girl untainted in this school?" asked Draco, his tone flat and his grey eyes narrowed.

"Not if I can help it, Cousin," the dark-haired boy said, smirking.

"Just get in there and sit down," Draco snorted, pushing Thane across the threshold of their compartment door. "At least give her a chance to get sorted before you sink your teeth into her."

"Yes, Sir, Mr. Prefect," said Thane jokingly, raising a brow at his fair-haired friend's sudden rush of compassion. "It's always more fun to give the prey a head start."

In the compartment at the opposite end of the train car, Jo was watching Pansy struggling with the door still. Finally, unable to keep her comments to herself she said loudly, "You have to be smarter than the door Parkinson."

"Shut up Constantinescu," Pansy hissed, her voice filled with venom.

Jo snickered and leaned back into her seat once again, closing her eyes and trying to drown out the noise of Pansy, Naktis and the other idiots in the compartment. Why could there never be peace and quiet around here!?!

Ignoring them, her mind unwittingly slid to Thane Purefoy, ah yes, Slytherin house's most eligible bachelor. A good looking playboy who was gifted not only with the ability to smooth his way into any girl's bed, but also with enough galleons to make him a very sought after catch.

Jo smirked to herself. Liz, one of her roommates, had once suggested that Thane was "after" her, and the entire idea had made for quite a good joke for days. The idea that a popular, rich, good-looking boy would even consider her for anything - even one of his famous rolls in the hay - was amusing. She was a middle-class American transfer student with a strange reputation. He'd only bought her that winter cloak because it had been HIS fault she'd lost her original one.

Just thinking about the incident in Dragonology class made her blush. They'd had their first real, live dragon and Thane had done something to it and whoosh! It had sent out a ball of flame, burning all of Jo's clothes to a crisp and leaving her standing in the snow naked except for a covering of black soot. Thank God Liz had been thinking and had covered her before she'd stood there too long, naked and smoking. There had been another casualty though, some Hufflepuff girl had had her hair burnt off as well, but Madam Pomfrey, brilliant as she was, had soon restored it. No, Jo was sure she'd gotten the short end of it.

Either way, buying someone a replacement cloak and offering up an apology was hardly an attempt at a date, despite Liz's insistence. And shortly after that he'd taken up with Marianna the Spanish fly, as Jo liked to call her behind her back.

Still smirking to herself she drifted off into sleep, the swaying of the train rocking her gently into dreams of quieter places.

The train pulled into Hogsmeade station sometime later and Jo opened her eyes, relieved to see that Pansy had managed to get out of the compartment at some point. She couldn't understand why the pug-faced girl insisted in trailing after Draco Malfoy when the white-haired boy clearly didn't want her. It was pathetic and made her the laughing stock of the entire school.

Jo stood from her seat, picking up Naktis's cage and straightening her robes before filing out into the press of students filling the tiny train corridor. Holding the cage of the squawking crow in front of her, like a shield, she made her way through the iron beast and out into the early evening air, her shoes making clicking noises as she crossed the stone platform.

She'd made it almost to the carriages, her eyes taking in the thestrals that pulled them and wondering at those who couldn't see the creatures, when a familiar voice called her name.

"Iosifina!"

Jo cringed at Liz's use of her full first name and sighed heavily. Liz was all right, there was nothing WRONG with her, but she sometimes drained the sprit.

Turning around she forced a smile, "Hello, Liz! Did you have a nice holiday?"

"Of course!" the girl replied, catching up to the blonde and smiling. "Though I don't think Marianna had a good time."

"What a shame," Jo muttered. There was no love lost between the two roommates, and everyone knew it. They could be civil when forced, but in Jo's opinion Marianna was a spoiled, self centered, pampered pain-in-the-ass-princess-wanna-be.

"Wait 'til you hear about it - and you KNOW you will." Liz smirked, catching up her small travel bag and hanging it back on her shoulder where it belonged.

"The whole damn school will, I'm sure," Jo muttered.

"It's Marianna, she'll have to complain loudly," Liz answered, laughing and pushing back a strand of dark brown hair from her face. "Pity me, pity me."

"After all the bragging she did about it, it serves her right," Jo responded as they started once again for the carriages. "I've never been so sick of anything in my life as her travel brochures lying all over the common room!"

"Don't look now," Liz whispered, "but here she comes!"

Jo groaned to herself and sighed resignedly. Yep, she was back at Hogwarts.

An hour later the student population was settling into their house tables, Liz seated between Jo and Marianna, the Spanish girl moaning loudly still.

"...And then it rained! And I mean it rained for days! We were so flooded out that everyone was using these disgusting little boats to get around! Can you imagine ME in a boat!?!"

"Pity you didn't drown," Jo muttered, poking at her empty plate with a fork.

"What?" Marianna's head snapped towards the blonde.

"Not a thing," she answered nonchalantly.

"Look, there's Malfoy, King of Hogwarts," Liz remarked as the white-haired boy and his entourage entered, taking their customary places at the end of the table.

"I don't know WHY he lets Crabbe and Goyle follow him around," Marianna intoned. "They're nothing but a pair of dumplings."

"Dumplings who double as henchmen." Jo pointed out. "Who wouldn't like a pair of henchmen?"

"I would! But not any that look like that!" The Spanish girl giggled. "Give me Thane Purefoy any day!"

"Haven't you already been there?" Liz asked, smirking.

"Yes, and if he's smart I'll be there again," she replied, her dark eyes dancing.

"If he's smart he'll run," Jo commented.

Back in the Headmistress's office, Laelonatia Gaia Volusia sat waiting to sign the acknowledgement that she had arrived safely at Hogwart's School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Her mother had insisted that the Headmistress herself receive her to insure that nothing happened to her precious daughter. She found it odd that any head of any school would agree so quickly to oblige her mother's wishes and found herself wondering about the soundness of the school her mother had fought tooth and nail over for her to attend in her last year of schooling.

Tia, as her family and friends called her, was an only child of a very controlling British mother who had recently moved her family back to England only two short months ago. She had lived in a small wizarding town outside of Toronto, Canada since she was eight years old and barely remembered anything of life in Britain, save her grandparents whom she missed desperately. They were the only bright spot in this whole drama her mother had created. So many times she had begged her mother to wait until she had finished her last year of schooling before moving, but Atia Volusia would hear none of it. The matriarch of the family insisted that the move be done straight away after the death of Tia's great-grandmother who had willed the sole-propriety of the family's estate to her. Strangely, on her mother's side of the family, the women had controlled everything. So, it really was a surprise to no one that Atia had been charged with the duty of managing the family fortune and everything that went with it.

"Miss Volusia," a stern voice said from behind her, giving her a start. Headmistress, Minerva McGonagall, had entered the room with little more than a whisper and Tia had been completely unaware. "I'm sorry if I startled you," she said sincerely, rounding the corner of her desk and taking a seat behind it. "I trust your journey was a good one?" she asked with dark eyes peering over her spectacles. "And now, I believe we have one thing to take care of before I escort you down to our reception feast," she said, pulling out a small piece of parchment. The woman was stern, but not entirely cold. However, there was something to her that made Tia unnerved, like the Headmistress didn't particularly care for students of her status. Looking at the parchment, she recognized the script immediately.

"Yes, my mother's letter," Tia sighed heavily. Why did her mother insist on always embarrassing her this way? Treating her like she was a five-year-old.

"It really isn't that awful," the black-haired witch said. Tia tried not to stare at her inordinate amount of wrinkles.

"What isn't, Ma'am?" asked Tia, not really sure how to take the Headmistress's comment.

"Having a mother that cares so deeply for her child that she is willing to go to great lengths to see that she is taken care of properly isn't something you should turn away," said McGonagall, pushing the parchment across his desk.

"No, Ma'am. I suppose it could be worse," she answered in a slightly watered-down British accent, offering the Headmistress a weak smile. She knew it had little to do with how much her mother cared for her and was much more likely to have to do with getting her own way. Her parents had argued for years over exactly how and where she should receive her magical education, and Atia had finally won her way. Her daughter was now going to graduate from the most esteemed school for witchcraft, despite the fact that she would attend said school for only a year while the bulk of her education had been learnt at the Canadian Academy for Gifted Witches. One thing was looking up though, at least she was now attending a school with boys. Perhaps without her mother hovering over her every moment of every day, it would be possible to actually date one of them.

After signing her name to the parchment, she slid the letter back to McGonagall who had been patiently waiting. "Well then, shall we go?" she asked, rising from her chair. "The other students are already gathered in the Great Hall. The reception feast will began after your sorting," she smiled.

"Yes, Ma'am," said Tia quietly and followed the Headmistress from the office.

Tia raised the hood of her cloak over her head again as they entered the corridor, preferring that no one see her until it was absolutely necessary. She was left in the antechamber to the Great Hall where she could hear cheers abound as the First Years were sorted and took their seats at their respective house tables. McGonagall had been kind enough to explain the sorting process to her on their walk from her office. It was going to be more than embarrassing to be seventeen and sitting up there in front of everyone who had been sorted when they were only eleven. Horrifying, actually, seemed to be a better word to describe it. The Canadian's had nothing similar, preferring one school uniform to make the school just that, uniform.

It seemed a lifetime before Professor McGonagall entered the antechamber again. She recapped what would happen once they were in front of the mass of students, and then led Tia out into the Great Hall. As she took her place on a stool set next to the High Table where all of the Hogwart's teachers were seated, she removed her hood and exposed her long auburn hair. Her emerald eyes scanned the students sitting silently before her as McGonagall made a brief announcement of who she was and why she was there. Evidently, a new student entering the school in her seventh year was not a common occurrence based on the reaction of the students who were all turning to one another and whispering. "Great," she thought to herself as Professor McGonagall approached with an old, ratty-looking brown leather hat. She surveyed the sea of students watching her, and just as McGonagall raised the hat over her head, she caught the gaze of a boy with white-blonde hair sitting at the table furthest from her. It was the boy she had seen on the train and her heart skipped at the thought of being sorted into his house.

"Slytherin!" the sorting hat proclaimed, Tia completely unaware that it had even spoken. It wasn't until she saw the students surrounding the blonde boy erupting in applause that she realized something had indeed happened. Confused, she looked back at the Professor who had just removed the ratty old hat from her head.

"You can take your seat now, my dear," said McGonagall, nodding toward the cheering table. "That is Slytherin House over there. Take a seat anywhere," she said with a smile.