Too Honest ~ James Potter

Chapter 16

*7th Year*

Mariya moved about the rest of her day as if in a daze. She couldn't get her mind off what Professor McGonagall had said about the sorting hat and decided that it was time to visit the hat and fulfil it's desire to sort her again. Having determined to do this she found Remus to ask him how to get to Dumbledore's office, which she knew was where the hat was kept throughout the year.

"Why do you need to go there? What's happened?" He had asked, clearly presuming something bad had happened.

"Nothing's wrong, Remus. I just need to ask him something." Remus gave her a doubtful look but told her anyway.

"You will need a password for the griffin to move and I don't know it but at least you now know where to go." He shrugged, turning back to his homework.

"Thanks, Remus, you're the best." She called back to him as she left the library, ignoring the irate look the librarian sent her way. She followed the route Remus had told her until she stood in front of the griffin statue, she looked him in the eye for a moment before narrowing her eyes.

"I very much doubt that you will only move when given the passcode, there must be something you want and I just have to work out what it is." To many people viewing this scene Mariya may have seemed completely insane for talking to a statue, but she knew that the statues at Hogwarts were special. Like the paintings they contained memories and one simply had to speak to them for them to understand and respond.

"I suppose I will start by telling you who I am and why I am here. My name is Mariya Seratova daughter of Jacinta Seratova and Petro Seratov. I am going to turn seventeen in three weeks and I like to tell people the truth. I have come here to talk to the sorting hat as he requested I do during my sorting in first year. I am Head Girl and a Slytherin - I love my house but the people in it are so twisted by what others think of them that they have forgotten who they are. If you wouldn't mind I would thoroughly appreciate it if you would allow me safe passage. Please."

Mariya was surprised as the door began to move at her final word, twisting upwards to reveal a spiralling staircase which she quickly stepped onto. It did not move very far before she found herself facing a wooden door with a brass knocker, she lifted the knocker and rapped it against the door three times in quick succession. She heard a voice call from inside.

"Come in!"

She opened the door to see Professor Dumbledore sitting at a desk in the centre of the room, he gestured for her to enter the room and she quickly crossed it but didn't take a seat on the chair in front of his desk.

"I am sorry to bother you, Professor, but I have come to speak to the sorting hat."

The old man smiled and nodded, "Yes, of course. He said that you would come one day, though I must confess I had become unsure if he was correct."

Mariya could see the sorting hat sitting on the stool they always used for the sorting. She crossed the room to them and was about to speak when Dumbledore answered the question she had been about to ask, "If you wish you may take it to your meeting with Professor McGonagall this evening, I cannot see what damage it would cause James Potter to speak to him again either. Professor McGonagall will return them to me if you leave them with her."

Mariya nodded gratefully, not questioning how the man knew what she had been about to say. She picked up both objects and strode over to the door, nudging it open with her foot. She stepped back onto the staircase and the door closed itself behind her, the stairs began to move downwards until she was standing back where she had been to begin with.

"Gracias." She whispered to the griffin statue and could have sworn it blinked at her in acknowledgement as she swivelled to walk back down the corridor towards Professor McGonagall's room, reckoning that it was best to drop the items off there before heading to her next class.