Encantado

It was 10:30 when Loleta Tilev's mother, Isabella, dropped her off at the King's Cross station in London to catch her train. Isabella didn't stay long, as she had to get back to their hometown for a business engagement.

Loleta checked her watch again. 10:31. The unfamiliar feeling of a watch on her wrist was another little weight on the bundle of nerves building up. Her maternal grandmother had tried to soothe her nerves by sending her lots of letters, all of them about her school and how to get around, and Loleta had read a particular one repeatedly that morning. As she stopped her trolley at the barrier between platforms nine and ten, she pulled it out of her trouser pocket.

If anyone knew how to get through Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in grand style as a foreigner, it was her grandmother, a formidably powerful and extremely charismatic witch. She knew it too, and had sent the series of letters marked with messages on the envelope like 'Do Not Open Until In The London Station,' and 'Do Not Open Until Inside The Castle.' Her grandmother's example would be a hard act to follow, more than fifty years later in 1993. Loleta sat cross-legged on the ground and read the letter:

Dear Loleta,

I have some advice for adjusting to the Hogwarts culture that I had to learn the hard way. You are a lucky girl to get this inside information from a friendly source, especially since it will be harder to start at your age. Consider this your first lesson: Do not worry about which house you are being sorted into unless the Sorting Hat deigns to propose Hufflepuff. Avoid Hufflepuff at all costs. They would make you into a pushover. Hufflepuffs are useful, to be sure, but trust me; you wouldn't want to be one. Your remaining choices are then Ravenclaw, Gryffindor, and Slytherin. You know, of course, that I was a Slytherin, so I would be able to help you the most if you ended up there-

Here, Loleta smiled. Her grandmother was obviously dropping hints.

-but it won't be the end of the world if you aren't. The difference between the houses, querida, is what you are appreciated for. Hufflepuffs are appreciated for being nice. You can see the obvious problem with this. Gryffindors are appreciated for being brave, but there are not many opportunities to prove courage in the course of school, so that point is moot. Ravenclaws are noted for intelligence, and that is all very well, but Slytherins are appreciated (by other Slytherins at least) for power. All kinds of power; personal, magical, physical, and mental power are what make Slytherin the most unique and interesting house of them all. With that in mind, I will conclude this lesson by saying that the Sorting Hat is not solely influenced by your actual disposition. It is actually very dependent on a person's opinion. Here endeth the lesson.

Good Luck,

Tu abuela, Esperanza Corlito De L'Orage.

That is very informative, abuela, but you have not solved the problem of how to get on to train, thought Loleta. Her mother had not gone to Hogwarts, so she didn't know either. Loleta scanned the crowd for a sign of another witch or wizard. She checked her ticket again to see if she was late, but her mother, in a show of very odd behaviour, had gotten her there early. Where they lived, time was a very minor consideration in daily life. Loleta wouldn't have been at all surprised if her mother wrote to her later saying that she had forgotten her appointment and just sat on the warm, sun-baked roof with a book and some wine, but that was beside the point.

At the moment, Loleta's biggest problem was the mystery of the Hogwarts express. Luckily for her, the mystery was soon solved by watching a young boy with a trolley bearing an owl cage looked furtively around and ran towards the wall, after hugging his parents. Loleta was quite surprised when he disappeared through the wall. She sat up and pushed her trolley toward the barrier, at first walking, then at a jog. By the time she had gotten to the very solid looking wall, she was sprinting. She just hoped this worked; otherwise her pet would ignore her for weeks. As she rushed through the wall, she felt a brief rushing sensation. She stopped and opened her eyes, though she didn't remember at what point she had closed them.

The station was beautiful, but it didn't seem to embody her grandmother's descriptions at all. Maybe it looks different to everyone who looks at it, she thought. It made a strange sort of sense to her. After all, anything was possible at Hogwarts. The station, furnished in sun-bleached stone like her own house, had a few people wandering around, but not many. She was somewhere in between the extremely early people and the chronically late types. Loleta looked at the clock. 10:38. She pushed her trolley to a compartment near the middle of the train and lifted off her trunk and her familiar's vented box.

"Let me help you with that," said a mild voice. Loleta turned to see a man in very worn robes smiling good-naturedly at her. He took one end of her trunk and helped her pull it on the train and into an empty compartment. He held out his hand to Loleta.

"You look awfully confused, are you a new student? I am your new Defence Against The Dark Arts professor, by the way. Remus Lupin is my name." Loleta shook his hand in a rather ladylike fashion, much like her grandmother would have.

"Yes, I'm new here. Loleta Tilev, glad to meet you, sir." Lupin looked bemused at her speech.

"I see, Dumbledore said something about a late student coming in. Where are you from?"

Loleta groaned inwardly. Here was a nice, decent, rather good-looking British man, and she could tell he was terribly confused by the way she talked. She felt like Napoleon Bonaparte must have felt being from Corsica and in a high-class French military academy; like a backward outsider.

"My mother and I live in Èze, sir," she replied. "That's near Monaco," she added helpfully, at his blank expression. Not many people got out to Èze, mostly because the main road in was hard to navigate and the foot trail was less than fun.

"That's interesting. Well, I hope you will find Hogwarts to your liking. I will see you in class." He left with his shabby briefcase to find his own compartment. Loleta sprawled on the seat. She lifted up one of her hands and examined it, to see if it was shaking from how nervous she was. It wasn't. She sighed with relief and took off her watch. She was on time, after all, and she hated wristwatches. She supposed she would need it again soon, but it was more like home to have it off. She would miss home, the cobblestone streets and the relaxed attitude toward everything but good food were wonderful, but going to Hogwarts, home to one of the most comprehensive wizarding libraries in Europe, was a chance to make herself great. She mused on this vein for a while, until a timid little voice interrupted her.

"Excuse me, but can I sit here?" asked a little red-haired girl. Loleta smiled at her and nodded. The girl sat down nervously. There was a silence for a while; Loleta was a little embarrassed about her accent. The girl spoke again. "I've never seen you around Hogwarts. Are you new?"

"Yeah. But I'm going to be in fifth year. I'm Loleta Tilev, pleased to meet you."

"Ginny Weasley. I'm a second year Gryffindor. Actually, I have two brothers in the same year as you, Fred and George. Might want to watch out for them, they can be horrible." Loleta grimaced.

"I'll watch my back. Are they in Gryffindor too?" she asked.

Ginny nodded. "Yeah, it's a nightmare sometimes. Why are you starting so late?"

"My grandmother wouldn't let mama send me until she thought the Defence program was worth anything. That didn't happen until this year, apparently. Is it true, though? Was it really Gilderoy Lockhart last year?"

"Yes, and he was a complete idiot. So, what house do you reckon you'll be in?"

Loleta shrugged, "If my grandmother has her way, Slytherin." Ginny blanched, and Loleta sat up, alarmed. "What's wrong?"

Ginny took a few deep breaths, then calmed down enough to speak. "You know that Slytherin is...bad, right?"

Loleta sighed; her grandmother had informed her about the Slytherin house stigma. "Depends. If you judge an entire house by a few people from it, then yes, I suppose it is. But my grandmother was there fifty years ago, and she is no dark witch."

Ginny's eyes widened. "She was there the first time the Chamber of Secrets opened?" she whispered.

"Ginny, don't be scared. I know it happened again last year, but she has been in touch with Dumbledore and they freed the poor girl who was...it was you, wasn't it?" asked Loleta. Ginny nodded and lowered her head. "Oh, you poor thing. It wasn't your fault. Don't judge yourself, and don't judge Slytherin because of all that." She tilted Ginny's head up. "In fact, I'll get Sorted there and prove to you that Slytherins are not all bad."

"You mean, you won't ignore me once you make friends somewhere else?" asked Ginny hopefully.

"Gods, no. With two older brothers, you must get ignored quite a lot of the time, so I won't."

"Six older brothers," corrected Ginny. "All Gryffindor."

Loleta stared at her. "Your mother must be an amazing lady," she said reverently. Ginny laughed, and the compartment door slid open to reveal one older brother out of six, with red hair just like Ginny and a shiny badge proclaiming him as 'bigHead Boy.'

"Hello, Percy," said Ginny. "This is Loleta, she's new here." Loleta looked at Percy and blinked. He was an uptight-looking, lanky redhead with freckles all over his skin, a thin face, and thick-framed glasses. Loleta was thunderstruck. He was pricelessly cute in his own way. She cast about for something to say.

"Er, hello. Someone seems to have altered your badge," she said, all the while mentally slapping her forehead. Smooth, you idiot, she thought derisively, and smiled nervously as Percy swore softly.

"Bloody Fred and George. Anyway, Ginny, mum wanted me to look after you, so I just wanted to check where you are. And, Loleta, was it?" he asked. Loleta nodded politely with a hint of a smile. "You haven't been sorted yet, have you?"

"No. Can you recommend a house?" she asked smoothly, finally recovered. Ginny looked bewildered for a moment, then caught on and looked very amused.

"Well, I'm a Gryffindor myself," said Percy proudly, "but Ravenclaw is a wonderful house too."

"Thanks, I'll keep that in mind," she said, with the twinge of annoyance that she hadn't met one person yet who recommended Slytherin. "Since you're Head Boy, maybe you could show me around sometime?" she asked, letting a piece of hair fall in front of her eye, the one that her mother dubbed 'the innocent lock' because if one looked mournfully up at someone while it was in place, one looked sweet and innocent. Loleta had taken this to heart and had practiced her lock placement and the slight pout that accompanied this expression. Percy turned a bit pink around the ears, muttered something and fled the compartment briskly.

Ginny giggled. "That was a dirty trick, with your hair," she said mischievously. "He has a girlfriend, though."

Loleta covered her mouth. "He doesn't," she said in disbelief. Ginny nodded. "So I have just made a bit of a hussy of myself in front of a taken man."

Ginny nodded again. "So it seems. Better luck with the rest of your day."

Loleta shrugged in the signature French fashion. "Ah well, that's my luck. At least you now have knowledge of one of the powerful hair tricks." The train had gained speed, and they were now moving through green countryside. "I will teach you more someday, you have very distinctive hair for it. Redheads are completely impossible to ignore." Ginny snorted.

"Not with my family. Everyone's a ginger nob, so we have to fight to be seen. Good thing I'm a girl, it makes me a little more distinctive."

"Hmm, I'll bet. What do you reckon that cloud looks like?" she asked. The game lasted until the puffy clouds were replaced by grey ones that heralded a storm. The refreshment cart came by a while later, accompanied by the good-natured, plump witch who was more than happy to help Ginny give recommendations on British magical sweets.

"Are there any that taste or look like mice?" Loleta asked.

"Well, there are some Every-Flavour Beans that probably taste like mouse. Here, get a sample bag..." said the trolley witch. "And Ice Mice are good for the squeaking effect, the Chocolate Frogs move, so that's good for a laugh." Loleta paid for all three and the witch moved on to the compartment ahead of them. Loleta set the bags down and took the vented box off the seat next to her.

Ginny looked at her oddly. "That your cup of tea, then? Mice?" Loleta rolled her eyes.

"Oh yes, Ginny. Down south we have discontinued truffles and frog's legs in favour of mice," she said sarcastically. "My familiar, she loves anything mouse-related."

"What is it?" asked Ginny excitedly. "Lee Jordan, Fred and George's friend, he had a tarantula for a while."

Loleta smirked. "Prepare to be amazed."

She pulled the lid off the box, and Ginny gasped. "You have a snake?!" Loleta nodded. "And it's pink?" Another nod. "How?"

"Well, my grandmother decided to plant yet another subliminal message to go for Slytherin. At first she could only be green or silver, but my mama and I worked together on charming her into other colours every time she shed her skin. Her name's Viola, and she's a boa."

Ginny looked thoughtful. "By first impression, I would say that keeping a snake is a little on the dodgy side, but she's so...pink. Pink things just aren't that evil." Loleta chuckled and petted the snake's head.

"True enough. Here, lovey, look in there. There might be a mousy thing in there for you." Viola slithered to the open bag of Every-Flavour Beans and stuck her head inside, rustling around. Viola didn't use her sense of smell to find mouse flavoured beans, she just ate anyone she fancied and left only the sardine and vomit flavoured ones.

"Eurgh, that's just weird," said Ginny. Viola was constricting a hapless chocolate frog when the train started slowing down. The train eventually stopped, and Ginny looked out the window. "We aren't there yet. Why have we stopped?"

"I don't know," said Loleta. The lights hummed and flickered out. "But by the standard laws of existence, when the train stops and the lights are out, we have a problem." She put her ear to the door and listened, hearing faint screams getting closer.

"Should we go out there?" asked Ginny timidly.

"I wouldn't. Get your wand out, though. Whatever it is, it's here very soon." The air around them seemed to prickle and stand at attention. Everything went oddly quiet, and the door opened. Loleta recognized the thing that entered the compartment for the moment it was there before her vision clouded. Just outside her own consciousness, she could hear Ginny whimpering for a while until the voices echoing in Loleta's head drowned her out. The first one belonged to her father.

"I suppose it is too much to hope that you will stop filling her head with this witchcraft nonsense and let her be normal," he had said to her mother, his voice more distant and forbidding than it usually was.

"It is natural, you fool! She has magic, and so do I, and so does my entire family. You're just upset because she can be so much better than you and you wanted a nice demure thing that you could boss around," her mother had shot back.

"Maybe that's how it should be!"

"You pig. You look at her as if she were beneath you just because she has something that you don't."

"This isn't just about her, Isabella! You married me without even telling me the tiny detail that you are some unnatural creature! And don't even get me started on your mother, that manipulative old bag!"

"I left my mother's people to marry you, doesn't that tell you anything? Besides, the reason I couldn't tell you about being a witch is because I knew you'd react like this. I thought I could live without magic, but it's like losing a leg. Don't you understand the sacrifices I've made here?"

"What about our daughter? Why can't she give up magic? Why can't she just be normal? I can't live like this, with you two making potions or whatnot."

"Don't be stupid. My daughter will go to Hogwarts when she turns eleven, and you don't need to be there. If the fact that me and my daughter have power bothers you so much, just leave," Isabella said boldly.

"Fine. I'll let you and the girl turn things into frogs if you like. Don't come crying to me when she turns out to be a stubborn pill just like you." At this point, her father had stormed out of the kitchen, finally noticing that an eight-year-old Loleta had been listening from around the corner. He just sighed, made no apologies, and left.

Back in the present, Loleta opened her eyes and saw that the dementor was gone. Ginny's face was tearstained and she was sobbing. Loleta shivered. She had locked that particular moment in her life away for a long time, and it didn't feel good to think about it again. She shoved the image of her father's exasperated face down again and shook Ginny.

"Hey, Ginny. Should we be changing into school robes yet?"

Ginny snapped back to reality and nodded. "Yeah. Robes are good." Loleta put the black robe over her jeans and shirt, noticing that Ginny's had a crest embroidered on them. She supposed that she would get her own when she was sorted. The train slowed down into Hogsmeade station, and Loleta pulled out the appropriate letter.

Dear Loleta,

Now is the time to think more about being Sorted. You know about the houses, so one doesn't need to worry about giving you more information there. I'm not sure how they will sort you when you are sixteen, but try not to be nervous, or at least don't show it. Now that you're in Hogsmeade, get a good look around while you can. If you can see past the candy shop and all that, you have a chance of finding a really interesting place. One very important thing to know is that you will want a place to go to be alone. You can use it to avoid people or keep things away from prying eyes. Hogsmeade is a good place to look if you are willing to chance being caught out of bounds or good enough to never be caught. And yes, I am encouraging you to break the rules. You'll find that all the successful and interesting types didn't click their heels together and play nice all the time. This is yet another reason that Slytherins become truly great as a rule.

Tu abuela, Esperanza Corlito De L'Orage

Loleta looked around her. All she could see were people, and they all seemed to know where they were going. "What do I do now?" she asked Ginny.

"Just follow me. We can get a car with my brothers, probably." Ginny looked around and caught sight of red hair near one carriage and went to it. It turned out to belong to a pair of twins. "Fred, George, mind if we join you?" she asked. One of the twins, Loleta couldn't tell which, spoke up.

"Not at all, our kid. Who's your friend, and why have we not seen her around?"

Loleta smiled at them both. "Loleta Tilev, fifth year, house undecided." The twins both shook her hands.

"Here's hoping you're in Gryffindor," said the other one. Ginny smiled slyly at Loleta and rolled her eyes. They got in the carriage and it started trundling up to the lighted castle.