Hadriana Potter and Mother Magic: Betrayals Chapter 1

Chapter 6

McGonagall returned shortly after departing, her lips turned up in a barely visible smile, “We’re ready for you now,”

Hadriana inhaled deeply and steeled herself for the oncoming storm that she was undoubtedly going to have to weather. Draco was a solid presence by her side, and she made sure to keep her head held high and expression schooled into a neutral mask.

The beauty of the great hall and its enchanted ceiling had always made Hadriana's breath catch. But the last time she’d seen the great hall, it had been ravaged by war and housed the bodies of the dead. She swallowed thickly. She wouldn’t allow that to happen again.

“It’s charmed to look like the night sky,” Granger whispered loudly.

Hadriana ignored her and lined up with the other first years. Draco squeezed her hand briefly as they looked up at the teacher’s tables. Dumbledore sat with a benevolent expression on his face despite the hard glint in his blue eyes as he gazed upon her from his ostentatious, golden throne-like chair.

Gods, had she been so blinded and dumb to not see the man for what he truly was? He held the façade of a benevolent grandfather well, she had to admit. But he truly was a dictator, wasn’t he? What kind of headmaster sat upon a golden throne?

Hadriana was snapped from her thoughts as McGonagall spoke, “When I call your name, you will place the hat on your head and be sorted. Abbott, Hannah!”

The sorting went the same way as it had in Hadriana's past. She watched as her fellow year mates were sorted, Neville being sorted into Gryffindor, her gaze somehow drawn back to Dumbledore. She then caught the calculating and thoughtful gaze of Professor Quirrell and swallowed hard. He wasn’t wearing a turban. His pale, bald head was on open display.

“Potter, Harry!”

Hadriana narrowed her eyes as she was wrenched from her thoughts. Clearly Dumbledore was trying to pull a power play of some kind. It was awfully sloppy. But she would play along. For now.

Hadriana climbed the stairs to the stool and sat down, back straight and hands folded on her lap. McGonagall placed the hat on her head.

“Well, well, well. Aren’t you just full of surprises, Heiress Potter-Black?” The hat whispered to her mind.

“I aim to please, hat,” she replied dryly.

The hat chuckled, “And indeed you do. Hm. So much anger, dear heir, and a thirst to prove yourself. Plenty of bravery. But you did not come back in time because you’re brave, did you? No, my dear, you did not. You came back because your sense of self-preservation persevered. Oh, yes, I agree with my past self. Slytherin will help you on your way to greatness.”

“I made a mistake in my last life. I won’t make it again,” Hadriana thought firmly.

“Very well. Better be…SLYTHERIN!” The hat shouted to the hall.

The hat was removed from Hadriana's head, and she stood and walked to the Slytherin table. She sat next to Draco, valiantly ignoring the deathly silence that had followed her sorting. She chanced a glance up at Dumbledore and had to clamp down viciously on the urge to cackle at his dumbfounded expression.

Hadriana observed all the teacher’s reactions. Professor Sprout seemed indifferent and had begun clapping along with Neville's timid applause.  Severus looked amused, though only if one knew what to look for. Hagrid, the poor man, was gaping. McGonagall, however, looked terribly shaken.

“I knew you’d be a Slytherin,” Draco all nut crowed once Blaise had been sorted to the house of snakes, too. Her cousin looked incredibly smug, “Father owes me five galleons,”