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FOR ELONITA JONES, it was never a question as to what house she would be inducted into. The girl, who had experienced so much little-minded hate in such a short amount of time, knew immediately that she had to build thick skin and develop a razor sharp tongue. People were so quick to judge for her accented words, her dark hair, her everything. She was incredulously able to deal with it sometimes.
And then, as she was standing below prying eyes, the sea of students, all older than her, who watched her every movement, she realized they didn't judge her. They understood, because all of them came from somewhere else; they were all different. And Elonita wondered how no-majs could be filled with so much hate for someone that they did not even know.
It was with a shaking breath that she moved to the center of the knot on the stone floor, and looked around at the four creatures: pukwudgie, wampus, horned serpent, and thunderbird. Moments passed, and she began to quiver. Her confidence wavered, and she thought that none of them would take her. Accept her. And then something amazing happened. The wampus roared. The horned serpent's jewel glowed upon its forehead, and the thunderbird's winged beat together. She couldn't breathe, and the entire school seemed to be holding a breath too.
And then she remembered how she belonged to wampus. How hard she fought to get here. How much her father sacrificed so that she would be able to go to the prestigious school. It was only right that she was in that house, the only one that truly suited her.
"I—I choose wampus," she said, with a barren assurance in her voice. One side of the squared balcony surrounding her erupted into cheers so loud her ears hurt. Her face grew red and a smile wider than she thought manageable spread across her dimpled cheeks.
She was brought into a wide, mahogany room with a long table set in the middle. Various colored wands were sprawled across the length of the table, and her heart skipped a beat at the thought of actually getting her first wand. Her lips tugged a smile.
She stood nervously in the middle of the room with the rest of the students who had already chosen. They all looked pleased with themselves to some degree, except a particularly humble looking girl with curly blonde hair and alabaster skin. Elonita stared at her as the duration of the sorting passed, until the headmistress had entered and announced that they were to start choosing their wands and the girl looked around and made eye contact with Elonita. She offered a warm smile that Elonita could not replicate. Instead, she gavea weak smile that made her blush deeply thinking of how stupid she must look.
Until, the girl moved towards Elonita and she thought she was going to melt, because this girl was very pretty and she just smiled at her and Elonita didn't like talking especially to pretty people and they were about to get their wands and Elonita wasn't breathing and she had to remind herself to do so every so often. In, out.
The girl craned her neck and giggled softly. "You think a lot."
And Elonita wanted to die. This was not like the time when her father caught her taking Skeletal Sweets in that one candy emporium back at home, no. This made her want to lose her insides all at once and run back home into her fathers welcoming arms. She was inexplicably stuck in a very awkward position.
The girl must have noticed her discomfort, for she added, "Oh, I'm sorry. It happens sometime and I can't always control it. It's usually when someone has a really strong personality or they think fast. Or loud. I'll try not to do it again. I'm Queenie, by the way. Queenie Goldstein."
Elonita couldn't speak, not even if she wanted to, but something forced the words out of her throat and she managed, "El-on-ita."
Queenie giggled again, said it was nice to meet her, and went off to join a girl with short brown hair who loosely resembled her. She seemed to be talking in a hushed voice and smiling gleefully.
The headmistress continued with the ceremony, and when she got to Elonita she thought her legs were actually made of jelly. She walked to the table quickly, and closed her eyes. In, out. The headmistress offered Elonita a comforting smile, and Elonita instantly felt at home.
"Elonita, is it?" she paused, and waited for Elonita to give an answer, "Very well. I want you to close your eyes, and think about the qualities you possess, and what is most important to you, as a witch," she said. Elonita closed her eyes, and thought of everything that made her who she was. She thought of her strength, her ambition, her resilience. And then she could see a glow coming from behind her eyelids. She opened them instantly, and saw one of the wands, about six or seven down the table, was glowing a soft red. The headmistress hummed approvingly, and cooed, "That one, is made of mayhaw wood and has rougarous-hair core. It is all yours."
Elonita grinned widely, and went to pick it up. It hummed powerfully in her hand when she held it and she could feel the magic course through her peacefully. It was amazing. Queenie's wand was made of rosewood, which had a mother-of-pearl shell at the bottom with a wampus hair core.
When the wand ceremony finished, the students went to dinner, and as Elonita sat down at the table, she finally felt at home. A girl next to her introduced herself as Evelyn, and she had dark curly hair and caramel colored skin. She had a rich voice and was so confident it almost frightened Elonita. She also met a pair of twins, whose names were Dena and Dichali, whom had been bickering about if one of them had left something at home. The girl, Dena, who had short cut black hair and a quick mind, was obviously winning the argument. The brother, Dichali, was falling behind but not giving up so easily. It was funny to watch them quarrel and Elonita knew she wanted to be friends with the two immediately.
Later that night, as she lay awake in the dormitories (which were, by the way, as amazing as she had anticipated; it was a sort of outside training area, but had treehouses split amongst the years and genders for sleeping, as well as one meant for studying, and one that served as a common room. The treehouses were surprisingly comfortable, and not at all warm as they lay in their beds. They were bewitched to retain a perfect temperature and keep bugs out at all times. It was almost as though they were just inside.) that she really thought of Ilvermorny, and the sorting, and her new friends, and she knew at once that the school was something long and well fought for.
