Moonlight ~ Hermione Granger

enchanted

~ 1996 sixth year ~

The great hall was filled with hyperactive students noisily nattering amongst their house tables, awaiting the arrival of the first year students; it seemed as magnificent as ever, it's vastness and enchanting nature always managed to astonish Rhea. Thousands of flickering candles hovered overhead, above them the ceiling reflected the velvety, black starry night. The bewitched ceiling was perhaps Rhea's favourite feature, often she'd find herself captivated by it's image for long periods of time, in which her food would go untouched while others around her finished and would be beginning to leave. Silvery ghosts circled over the four long tables that were laden with golden goblets and plates, occasionally swooping down to talk with the eldest students and teachers.

Rhea sat between her fellow sixth year ravenclaws, opposite her sat Padma Patil - the two girls were friends but were not particularly close. Regularly, the pair would sneak off together to the Gryffindoor common room where Padma would spend time with her twin Parvati, while Rhea would hang out with neville. The girls shared a passion for the stars and the expanding universe, throughout their first two years at Hogwarts they spent many hours together atop of the astrology tower late into the night, staring peacefully at the sky. For a while they thought there could be something more between the two of them but it hadn't exactly worked out as they hoped...since the start of their third year the pair had grown apart but were civil.

The bustling of the great hall was brought to a halt as the large entrance doors creaked open and the new first years filed in, completely in awe.

~ 1991 first year~

Rhea stood alongside her apprehensive peers, they all huddled together on the stairs as they had been instructed. A snarky conversation had broken out at the front of the group; a pale boy with platinum hair was mocking a smaller, ginger freckled boy, seemingly for the state of his robes. Rhea pitied the boy, though she was fortunate enough to be sent guilty money from her parents in order to purchase everything she needed, she didn't see how this made her any better than anyone else like the icy boy seemed to think. Really she believed this was rather ignorant of the boy; she made a mental note to avoid him as much as possible.

The mutterings were silenced by the re-entrance of the tall, severe-looking Professor. "Welcome to Hogwarts," she announced "before the banquet begins you will be sorted into your houses. The four houses are called Gryffindoor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and slytherin. Now follow me the ceremony is about to begin."

Rhea shifted nervously on the spot, she was very much unprepared for any test they'd throw at her, worst of all Rhea was terrified of failure - constantly feeling insignificant when she didn't achieve high scores. A small girl with bushy brown hair, a few feet away from Rhea, was whispering to herself spells. Rhea was intrigued by the girls evident knowledge, 'perhaps she has magic parents' Rhea thought, trying to convince herself that she wasn't too stupid to be there already. But something about the girl drew Rhea in, her pace quickened, appearing by the girls side.

The group was lead by Professor McGonagall towards an immense wooden door, which swung open with a swish of the professors wand, opening up to a monumental room packed with young witches and wizards perched down four long tables that stretched to the far end of the hall.

"wow" Rhea whispered under her breath, she was taken aback by the elaborate dining hall. A chorus of gasps escaped the mouths of many others in the group as they continued down the centre of the room between the rows of tables. Glancing up Rhea was shocked, it appeared as though there was no roof, instead stars shimmered brightly amid a pane of darkness.

The brunette beside her began to speak, "its not real the ceiling, it's just bewitched to look like the night sky. I read about it in Hogwarts: a history"

"it's wonderful isn't it" Rhea replied, the girl beside her simply nodded with a smile. Rhea admired the knowledge the girl had retained, she too liked to read unfortunately though she hadn't thought to read her textbook before her arrival at Hogwarts.

The group came to a stop in front of the raised stage the professors sat upon.

"now when i call your name please proceed onto the stage and seat yourself upon the stool, where i whole place the hat onto your head to be sorted" the professor announced in a thick Scottish accent.

Rhea gave a sigh of relief, 'how difficult could this be,' she thought to herself 'much easier than a written test'. She sensed many other of her peers ease slightly at the announcement.

"Susan Bones"

A mousy ginger girls wondered up on stage and took her seat. Within seconds the hat bellowed "HUFFLEPUFF!" and so the girl took off towards the table of clapping students, all wearing their yellow robes.

"Rhea Barnes". She gulped, a wave of nerves shuddered through her body- it was her turn. She dragged her feet towards the old wooden stool, sitting quickly hoping this would be easy. She felt the hat being placed on her head and a wise sounding voice began to speak to her - it was coming from the hat.

"mhm.. well it's clear you seek academic validation..yes... well that'd make a good fit for ravenclaw. Ahh but you hold lots of ambition for yourself oh but you tend to help others before helping yourself. Tricky one you are."

Rhea sat uneasily, shifting slightly, the eyes of the packed hall stabbed directly onto her. 'why didn't it take this long for Susan' Rhea stated agitated.

"You do pride yourself on your time management" the hat chuckled, "very much to gain the approval of others though. But you don't seem to allow that to diminish your uniqueness.... RAVENCLAW" the hat yelled out to the hall.

With a quickened pace Rhea scurried over to join the sea of ravenclaws and sat at the end of  the table, relieved it was finally over.

~ 1996 sixth year ~

The sorting took place as usual, Rhea cheering extra loudly when a student was placed in the eagles house.

As the feast began, Rhea glimpsed over at the griffindoor table, spotting Hermione intently querying Harry, who had shuffled in late with a bloody nose. He'd caught Rhea's - and pretty much the rest of the halls - attention when he entered through the great wooden doors long after the rest of the school. Even rapt with irritation, Hermione looked breathtakingly stunning.

Rhea's eyes tore away from the curly haired girl and towards the ancient professor who began his notices.

"Please welcome our new potions professor Horace Slughorn" he spoke out to the hall.

"What!" Padma uttered in a harsh tone "But Snape's still here?"

"oh god..." Rhea breathed begrudgingly.

"Professor Snape will be taking the position as Defence Against The Dark Arts teacher. Now off to bed everyone." Dumbledore concluded.

The students rose with mumbled conversations, only the Slytherins seemed pleased by the change in staffing.

"oh i really liked Defence aswell," Padma grumbled as the stumbled out, "slimy Snape's just gunna ruin it"

"can it really be as bad as that hag Umbridge?" Rhea spoke. Instinctively the two caressed the backs of their hands where silvery scared embellished their once smooth skin.

"i suppose so.." Padma sighed.

"this year will be interesting" sighed Rhea.

They continued towards their common room, discussing their ideas for how this year may pan out.

A/N: Right so this one is a little longer than usual but i like it and i'm excited to actually start the story properly. I finally have a plot i wanna stick to and i think i'll enjoy writing. and to summarise : Rhea was in the DA, her and hermione aren't like close but obviously since they were in the DA they know each other, Rhea's a ravenclaw but the hat stalled for a while and Padma is in ravenclaw like in the books! let me know how you like the story!