A Warm Heart Turned Cold

She fell face first into Professor Snape's office, slid into a pile of potions, and hit her head on his desk. Snape looked down at her and rolled his dark eyes.

"Owe." This was her third attempt at floo powder and let's just say, three is not the charm!

"I warned you to calm down, but did you listen? No." She had been in Hogwarts only for an hour, and her excitement level was already through the roof. She stood up and brushed off her robes. Snape stood up and looked at his daughter.

"Let's go get you put into Slytherin." There was no doubt in their minds as to what house she was going to be in They both made their way to the gargoyle statue that led to Headmaster Dumbledore's office.

"Why is it that I have to be sorted in Professor Dumbledore's office?" Siaka looked at her father as they stepped onto the stair case leading upstairs.

"It is because you are not a first year so you are not required to be sorted in the Great Hall. You only need to be in the company of a few assorted teachers." They both grabbed onto the railing as the stairs jerked right and they were moved away from where they were headed. Snape frowned and groaned but Siaka looked down in amazement.

They finally made it to the entrance of Dumbledore's office to find Professor McGonagall waiting there for them.

"You two are late! I just got back from searching for you. Do you have an explanation?" Professor McGonagall looked sternly at Snape and Siaka.

"She," Snape said pointing to Siaka, "was late and the stupid stairs kept moving. We really need to find a way to keep Peeves out of the cranks for the stairwells." McGonagall rolled her eyes and waited for all three of them to be between toe wings before muttering, "Chocolate Raisons."

They spiraled up to see Headmaster Dumbledore at his desk, the head of Hufflepuff Professor Sprout, the head of Ravenclaw Filius Flitwick, Filch with Mrs. Norris, Professor Binns floating up by a bookshelf, and Professor Vector all waiting for them. Albus Dumbledore stood up and the others took their seats. He got the Sorting Hat off of its shelf and ushered Siaka to sit in the stool in front of his desk. Then he graciously gave the hat to McGonagall and sat back down at his desk. Professor McGonagall placed the hat on Siaka's head.

"Well, well, well. What have we here?" the hat said right away. "There is no doubt in your mind that you have the drive to succeed and to prove yourself." Siaka nodded in agreement while rolling her eyes knowing all this already. All she needed to hear was 'Slytherin'.

"You are going to be great one day and you have your father's insensitivity. You also are trying to suppress one of you greatest qualities: your kindness for others which comes from you mother, Lily Evans."

By this time all the teachers were staring off into space wondering what was taking so long. Binns had completely forgotten why he was there and was floating in and out of the railings.

"Like your half brother you could do great things in Slytherin, no doubt there. You have no need to prove yourself there; you do however need to embrace your greater qualities. Should you be in Slytherin? Yes? No?" Siaka was crossing all her fingers desperately wanting to go into Slytherin. "Ah, yes, I see now...Gryffindor!"

At that instant when the Sorting Hat shouted the unexpected, Gryffindor, Siaka fainted out of shock. Snape fell completely out of his chair, very unprofessional of him. Dumbledore actually looked surprised, almost. McGonagall picked up the Sorting Hat and started claiming it was broken, that the 1,000 years had finally gotten to it. Professor Sprout's cuteness wore off her face and she just stared at Siaka. Flitwick dropped his wand and claimed the hat must have a charm on it. Filch dropped, yes, dropped Mrs. Norris out of surprise. Binns looked at them all wondering why they were acting so weird. Professor Vector shook her head feeling very sorry for Minerva. Very sorry indeed.