The girl with golden hair (Harry Potter fanfic)

Chapter 1.3 (The Sorting of qualities)

(Cintia Dicker as Victoria Valeria Dunbar)

The picture on the side is how I imagine her freckles to be...placed...spread...I'm trying to find the right word right now but nothing.

You get what I'm trying to say.

♡♡♡♡

The bravest people are the ones who don't mind looking like cowards. -T. H. White

The Hogwarts castle
Scotland, Great Britain
September 1 1991

"Where were you? I thought I had told you to stay with me once you...." Draco started but let out a girly squeal a few seconds later.

"What the...."

Artemis gasped. So did the people around her. About twenty ghosts had just streamed through the back wall. Pearly-white and slightly transparant, they glided across the room talking to one another and hardly glancing at the first years. They seemed to be arguing. What looked like a fat little monk was saying: "Forgive and forget, I say, we ought to give him a second chance..."

"My dear Friar, haven't we given Peeves all the chances he deserves? He gives us all a bad name and you know, he is not really even a ghost... I say, what are you all doing here?" A ghost wearing a ruff and tights had suddenly noticed the first years.

Nobody answered.

"New students!" Said the Fat Friar, smiling around at them. "About to be Sorted, I suppose?" A few people nodded mutely. "Hope to see you in Hufflepuff!" Said the Fat Friar. "My old House, you know."

"Move along now." Said a sharp voice. "The Sorting Ceremony is about to start." Professor McGonagall had returned. One by one, the ghosts floated away through the opposite wall. "Now, form a line." She told the first years. "And follow me."

They walked out of the chamber, back across the hall and through a pair of double doors into the Great Hall.

It was lit by thousands of candles that were floating in midair over the four long tables, where the rest of the students were sitting. These tables were laid with glittering golden plates and goblets. At the top of the hall was another long table where the adults were smiling at them.

There were teachers in all shapes and sizes. Artemis could see Hagrid sitting next to an elderly lady who looked like she was going to drop dead at any moment. Just as Artemis's eyes landed on her, her teeth fell out of her mouth and on her plate. She hastily pushed them back in and Artemis shuddered.

Next to her was a young man wearing a turban. He was literally trembling in his chair as he watched the children enter. Sweat shining on his forehead.

On the other side of the table was a woman who reminded Artemis of a bug. She wore poisonous green robes, huge glasses that made her eyes look at least six times bigger and her mousy hair was braided with a lot of pearls, bells, flowers and...gum?

Interesting.

Professor McGonagall led the first years to the teachers' table, so that they came to a halt in a line facing the other students, with the teachers behind them.

To avoid the hundreds of staring eyes, Artemis looked up. There was a velvety black ceiling dotted with stars. Hermione whispered in her ear. "It's bewitched to look like the sky outside. I read about it in Hogwarts, A History." Artemis nodded, her father had told her many things about Hogwarts before she went to bed. They used to be his bed-time stories.

She had always been particularly close to her father. He was her hero. He was the one she went to when she was scared or when something was bothering her. He had a way of always saying the right thing.