Astrophile [J.P]

Chapter 3

~ Truth hits everybody, truth hits everyone.

I thought about it and my dream was broken. ~

***

The whole of the Great Hall was full of students seated at their respective house tables. It was quite a lovely sight, the tables all adorned specific house colors; scarlet and gold for Gryffindor, green and silver for Slytherin, yellow and black for Hufflepuff and blue and bronze for Ravenclaw.

A line of first years was waiting in the center for the Sorting Ceremony to begun. The old Sorting Hat had just finished its song and the cheers and claps from the students were almost dying down. Professor McGonagall unrolled a scroll of parchment and began calling out the names as first years came one by one to get sorted.

At the Ravenclaw table, Felicity was staring absentmindedly at the Hat recalling the time when she had been standing in that very line of students to be sorted. She could still feel how her legs had turned to jelly when she sat on the stool for her sorting and how really nervous she was when the Hat fell over her head blocking her view of the masses of students in front of her.

It was about five years ago when Felicity had been introduced to the concept of magic and brought to Hogwarts among people that were like her. Witches and Wizards. At first, the thought seemed ridiculous and as she had grown up in a very normal household with no extra-ordinariness akin to the wizarding world, hence she had been more than just fascinated.

Though the Sorting Ceremony had proved to be the most difficult for her. Constant questions of being rejected and sent back to the ordinary world had kept her occupied the whole of her first train ride and throughout the time before the hat was placed on her head.

Just like the kid who was sitting on the stool biting his lip in anticipation and holding his hand tightly in his lap, she too had been full of suspense and apprehension.

"Ravenclaw!" The Hat gave the verdict and the timid boy joined their table among warm applause, looking much relieved than before.

There were just a few more students left to be sorted and after that the start of term feast would proceed. But as Felicity waited for the rest of them to be sorted, she couldn't help but think about what the Hat had said to her at her Sorting.

"I see a good mind and a ferocious nature. Where to put you, I wonder? Not Gryffindor, you may be impulsive but not reckless, not Hufflepuff for I see you lack softness though it's not a bad thing entirely. Now that leaves us with Ravenclaw and Slytherin. Your father did excellent in Slytherin. But I see traits in you that reflect him and others that are complete opposite. Better be... Ravenclaw!"

To that day the statement had always managed to confuse her, especially the part which said that her father did excellent in Slytherin. As far as she had been told, she was the only witch in the family. None of the Latvias had ever exhibited such freakish behavior.

They were all Muggles and only she had magic in her veins. Then what had the Hat meant when it said the her father was sorted in Slytherin?

She had asked her mother once but she had denied it and said that Stefan was as normal as she was and had never attended any wizarding school. But that was the point; Stefan was a Muggle. Yet her father was not.

It wasn't something so easy to go and ask from one's mother, Felicity had an idea on that. She knew her mother didn't like to talk about it and yet she knew the Hat wasn't wrong either. If it hadn't been for the sadness in Esther's eyes when she had voiced out the questions prying on her mind, she would never have given the Hat's statement a second thought.

And as the years passed, she grew more and more certain of her doubts. Her parent's arguments regarding her, Esther's distressed condition at times and the way sometimes Stefan ignored her completely. At first she had thought it was due to her being a witch.

But later she had realized that wasn't the case. 

And odd though it may seem, by now she had come to terms with it. She became a little more reclusive than before and allowed things to fall back into place. She never brought the questions up in front of her mother.

But deep down in her heart, there was a desire of knowing a little bit about who was her father really. A desire of meeting the man she never knew yet who should have played a very important part in her life. The man who was just invisible as of current circumstances.

"I know you all have been waiting to dig in the feast, so let's not keep you waiting any longer," the Headmaster's voice echoed through the hall, shaking Felicity out of her thoughts, "all the best for the term ahead. Let the feast begin!"

Food magically appeared in the dishes set at the table and each goblet was filled with pumpkin juice. Felicity took some sausages and mashed potatoes then started to eat in silence. The good thing about the feast was that it was delicious enough to distract anyone from any kind of thoughts no matter how perturbed the mind could be.

And for someone like Felicity Latvia, it were those tiny distractions which had helped her in going on with her life and had kept her sane. She always hated to be alone with her thoughts because only she was aware how dangerous that could be for her.

Out of all those tiny distractions, that year something bigger was in store for her. Little did she know, that the upcoming year she would have to deal with the greatest distraction of them all. A distraction that was capable enough to make her forget about all her thoughts cluttering in her mind.

And that ultimate distraction was none other than James Fleamont Potter.

***