Assumptions & Judging Glares
Danica Lestrange has learned to live with that.
Everyone she has met has assumed the worst of her, that she was a cold-blooded death eater just like her mother: the infamous Bellatrix Lestrange. Danica has learned every...
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The tall witch introduced herself as Professor McGonagall and led the first-year students into an empty chamber off the entrance hall. Danica could hear the drone of hundreds of voices coming from a doorway to the right and concluded that the rest of the school must be in there.
"Welcome to Hogwarts," said Professor McGonagall. "The start-of-term banquet will begin shortly, but before you take your seats in the Great Hall, you will be sorted into your houses. The Sorting is a very important ceremony because, while you are here, your house will be something like your family within Hogwarts. You will have classes with the rest of your house, sleep in your house dormitory, and spend free time in your house common room."
"The four houses are called Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. Each house has its own noble history and each has produced outstanding witches and wizards. The Sorting Ceremony will take place in a few minutes in front of the whole school. I suggest that you smarten yourselves and I will return when we are ready for you." The professor left the chamber and all of the kids started to whisper quietly amongst each other.
Danica smoothed down her hair and straightened her plain black robes when Pansy said to her, "I'm nervous, should I be?"
Danica chuckled to herself and replied with, "I wouldn't be; It's not like a test or anything."
Professor McGonagall came back into the chamber to place the first years in a straight line. Danica somehow got separated by her friends and was behind some boy who was shaking so much from his nerves. Danica rolled her eyes at how he was behaving in front of everybody.
The line started moving and the first years made their way into the Great Hall. Thousands of candles were suspended midair above four long tables, where the rest of the students were sitting. At the top of the hall was another long table, where the teachers were seated. Professor McGonagall led the first years up there so that they came to a halt facing the rest of the students with the teachers behind them. Danica, among many other students, looked up at the ceiling to see that it was velvety black and dotted with stars. She heard a girl behind her in line whisper, "It's bewitched to look like the sky outside. I read about it in Hogwarts, A History."
At that time, Professor McGonagall placed a four-legged stool in front of the line of first-years. On top of the stool was a frayed and extremely old wizard's hat. Danica knew what that was: the Sorting Hat. It would determine her fate for the next seven years. The hat twitched and a line near the brim opened wide like a mouth and the hat began to sing a song.
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After it's rather interesting song, everyone in the hall burst into applause, then it got silent. Professor McGonagall stepped forward, now holding a long roll of parchment.
"When I call your name, you will put on the hat and sit on the stool to be sorted," she said. "Abbot, Hannah!"
A pink-faced girl with blonde pigtails stumbled out of line and put on the hat. There was a moment's pause -
