Something About That Girl

Something About That Girl

Sometime during the night Harry had awoken to screams. But then he turned over and told himself that they were only a product of his imagination. After all, bad dreams were, after the events which took place at the end of last year, much more usual than good ones.

He sat at the Gryffindor table between Hermione and Ron. In the morning, Harry's entire world revolved only around his bowl of porridge, so some time went by before he noticed the excited mutterings at all the tables in the Great Hall. He looked around to see if anything had changed. Perhaps Snape was off sick? He looked hopefully to the teachers' table. But Snape sat at his usual seat and looked just as pale and cross as always. It was then Harry noticed Dumbledore was gone - of course this wasn't really odd, perhaps he was just taking care of some business at the Ministry - but Harry couldn't find anything else that was unusual. Just this muttering! He turned to Ron, who looked just as tired as Harry felt, and asked, "What's going on? Why is everyone muttering?"

Ron answered wearily with his mouth full of toast, "Avout thsome girfl".

Harry thought to himself, "What girl?" But Ron didn't seem to bother with any more information, so he poked Hermione. She was reading a book called "Famous Wizarding Families for Five Centuries" and didn't look like she wanted to be disturbed.

"What?" she asked in a slightly annoyed voice.

"What's going on, Hermione? What's this about a girl? And where has Dumbledore gone?" She looked at him in surprise.

"You mean to tell me you don't know?" Harry was getting really irritated now. Was he the only one who didn't know what was going on?

"No, I bloody don't know, what is it?" he almost yelled while throwing his spoon in his porridge with a splash.

"Okay, okay, calm down!" she said while closing the book. She began to tell the story very quickly and almost without taking a breath: "Last night, nearly the whole castle was awoken by a terrible noise. A girl was screaming out and calling for help. Snape brought her to the hospital wing and Madam Pomfrey managed to calm her down. No one knows who she is; the rumour says that she doesn't even know herself. Dumbledore is probably in his office talking to her now. It's really weird, according to "Hogwarts - a History", this school is the most well hidden building in Great Britain! Didn't you hear her screams? I thought it was one of the mad ghosts, it really made my hair stand on end!" She concluded the story and put her nose back to her book after giving him a curious look.

Harry remembered that he had awoken because of screaming. Everyone else looked very tired though excited, and Harry assumed they had been woken too. He turned to Ron and asked why he hadn't woken him up.

"Well, Dean, Seamus, Neville and I ran to the Common Room, where other people had gathered. We thought the screams came from down there, you see, but they obviously didn't, so me and Hermione, as prefects, ran downstairs to find out what was going on. But McGonagall told all the prefects to go back to the common room and order people to their dormitories. It was the Ravenclaw prefects who told us they had seen Snape take the girl to the hospital wing. So we went back and told people. I didn't notice you weren't there until we came back to the dormitories and saw your curtains were still closed," Ron concluded with a suspicious look.

All day, the most discussed topic everywhere in the school, naturally, was the strange girl, and how she found Hogwarts. Not even the seventh year students knew Hogwarts' exact location. And the stories from the few eyewitnesses, became more and more elaborate as the hours went by, so that by noon, the girl had changed from a plain-looking blonde girl into a veela with exceptional powers, a great-granddaughter of Merlin himself, and she had been wearing only a thin, white satin night gown in the January cold and was of course near death when Snape found her.

Harry was as curious as all the others to know who she was, and his spirits rose a little when he learnt that most of the Slytherins hadn't heard anything either, because their dormitories where so far away from the main entrance. Harry noticed that Draco Malfoy seemed especially annoyed by not being the first to know, and it filled him with great pleasure to see Malfoy without that superior expression in his pale face.

The Trio agreed that Dumbledore probably would tell them all who she was at dinner.

Their last lesson was Potions. As always it was a very slow and painful experience, but something about Snape was different. He didn't speak a cross word at all that lesson. Nor did he pull Neville forward as a bad example as he usually did; not even when Neville's cauldron exploded, forcing the pupils to hide under the tables. Snape just cleared the mess up with a single, tired movement of his wand and sneered at Neville that he should pay more attention. Harry wondered what might have caused this transformation; in his six, almost seven years at Hogwarts he had never seen Snape look so unfocused. He whispered his thoughts to Ron, who agreed and suggested, "Perhaps his lost a bet or something?" Hermione whispered that she was sure it had something to do with the mysterious girl.

"But how? What's the link?" Harry asked her.

"I don't know," she answered, and seemed to be appalled by the thought that there was something she actually didn't know.

At dinner that evening, the Great Hall was no longer full of mutterings: now people didn't bother to keep their voices down. But when Dumbledore rose from his seat, there was total silence. He looked at the four tables of students with his sparkling blue eyes behind half-moon glasses and said with a gentle smile:

"Well, Gryffindors, Hufflepuffs, Ravenclaws, and Slytherins; today, something that happens extremely rarely, is about to take place."

For a minute he sensed the total silence, then he turned to the teachers' table and said;

"Minerva, if you will be so kind?" She rose swiftly from her seat and marched out of the Great Hall to return a few moments later with a chair and the Sorting Hat. Behind her a tall, pale and blonde girl followed. A great exclamation of surprise went through the Great Hall and the girl gave a start and trembled a little. Then she proudly raised her head and walked on. Everybody started whispering and pointing at her and even Hermione murmured:

"So that's the girl."

As the girl walked up the floor between the Gryffindor and Ravenclaw tables, Harry noticed something familiar about her eyes and about the way she walked, but he couldn't decide what. He kept watching her closely. Where had he seen her before?

More than 900 pairs of eyes curiously followed every movement of the girl; from walk up the stairs to the chair McGonagall had placed there, to she sat down and bravely met their eyes. Dumbledore cleared his throat and silence fell again.

"The one who comes to Hogwarts seeking earnest help shall never walk away without being satisfied." He surveyed them all. "That is one of Hogwarts' oldest mottoes. You all know that Lord Voldemort" - several students started when they heard his name - "has returned and is desperately trying to gain power. But when you are residential at Hogwarts, one of the most well protected places in the country, believing that danger is near can be difficult. We sometimes forget that people outside Hogwarts are not as well protected. Right now, the Wizarding community all over the world is fighting a war. Even the Muggle leaders are informed of the situation. Both sides are seeking followers but the dark side has much more persuasive methods. Families who will not give in and join the dark side risk destruction. Before you stands an excellent example. This is Elizabeth Parker. She has been accepted as a new student to Hogwarts and will now be sorted into a house." The students immediately gave another exclamation of surprise, but Dumbledore raised his hand and silence again fell over the Great Hall. Then he turned to Professor McGonagall who was waiting with the Sorting Hat in her hands. They nodded to each other and McGonagall placed the hat on Elizabeth Parker's head. Everyone was watching Elizabeth as the hat silently made its decision. It seemed forever for it to make up its mind, but finally the Sorting Hat cried with a voice of importance; "GRYFFINDOR!"

The Gryffindor table crushed the electric silence with a loud, surprised round of applause. The Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff tables politely joined in, but to no-one's surprise, the Slytherin table didn't show much excitement. Elizabeth Parker smiled with relief and seemed overwhelmed by the enthusiasm as she sat down next to Harry at the Gryffindor table. He smiled at her and when she smiled back, he noticed that she was quite pretty. Not in that cute-little-girl way like a certain girl he had once admired; he found Elizabeth much more exiting. Her eyes were very blue; her hair was long and shone like gold in the candlelight. Although her nose was a bit large, her features were all in all very handsome. In addition to that, Harry couldn't escape the feeling of having seen her before.

Ron disturbed Harry's thoughts by elbowing him and whispering in his ear, "Well she's quite pretty, just a shame with that big nose." Hermione looked mildly interested but gave Ron an indignant look at his last words.

Dumbledore cleared his throat. "You will, of course, all help Miss Parker learn our rules and to find her way through the complexity of our school corridors. This, I daresay, has been enough ceremony for one day. Let the feast begin!"