Tilting Eve's Arm (girl Harry)
Jun. 11th, 2011 11:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
drownedinlight Two other boys, each easily twice the size of one of us lumbered behind the blonde boy, causing John and I to meet eyes and debate talking.
“Who’s asking?” John asked.
“Draco Malfoy,” said the blonde, holding out his hand. John might have reached for it, but Ron snickered, causing Malfoy to zoom in on him. “You think my name’s funny do you? No need to ask who you are, red hair, hand me down clothes. You’re a Weasley.”
“I think that was uncalled for,” I remarked.
“No one was talking to you,” Malfoy retorted.
“Do not talk to my sister like that,” John commanded. “Malfoy I like to give everyone a chance, but that’s two strikes against you already. I don’t like people who talk down to others, so if you’ve come here to plan any sort of alliance, I suggest you first apologize to Ron and Harriet and then leave.”
“Why would I apologize to them?” Malfoy scoffed.
“Well, for one thing,” John began, “Harriet is going to be the head of the Potter family one day. That means she pretty much inherits everything we have and will destroy you if she so wishes. For another thing, Ron’s prefect brother is standing behind you.” Draco whirled, and saw Percy Weasley standing behind him, Neville at his side.
“Well, Mr. Malfoy, you wouldn’t happen to be instigating fights before we even reach the station, would you?” Percy asked.
“No, sorry,” Malfoy stuttered. He turned back to us and very quickly said, “Sorry,” before he took off down the corridor.
“Neville!” I said cheerfully. “What kept you?”
“I had to wait for the prefects to finish their meeting,” Neville said. “And then Percy offered to walk me back so I wouldn’t get lost.”
“And it’s fortunate for you lot that I did,” Percy said. “I’m not saying you started it, but getting into a fight before we even get off the train is a bad way to start your first year. Just keep that in mind in case he comes back.” We all nodded, and Percy left again for the prefect’s compartment. Neville entered the compartment and took the seat on the other side of me, by the window, and took out a deck of cards.
“Snap, anyone?”
We played a few rounds of snap and looked up to see the sky darkening up above. A prefect dropped by to let us know that we would be arriving in an hour and that we needed to change. Hermione went with me when I got a robe and trotted off to the bathroom. For the rest of the hour, we played simple games, but we were all getting quite hyper and nervous. When the train finally began rolling to a stop, we were all out of our seats in an instant.
“Please leave all of your belongings on the train and exit carefully. Thank you, and have a pleasant evening,” announced a voice over the intercom. The five of us trotted out of the compartment only to be overwhelmed by the number of older students surging into the corridors. John grabbed my hand, and I reached out and grabbed Neville’s. We managed to reach the doors and make it out onto the platform by simply going with the flow of the crowd, though that isn’t to say that we weren’t trampled a few times.
“Firs’ years!” a giant man called off to one side of the platform. “Firs’ years to me!”
“That’s Hagrid,” Ron informed us. “My brothers told me about him.” He flushed a little and said, “You know, I think we can drop hands now.” Hermione scowled and took her hand back from him, stalking toward the boats. We all followed her, me trailing slowly behind John who was walking beside Ron. We stopped at the large crowd in front of Hagrid, who waited until he could count enough of us, before he turned and led us down a slope. John and Ron were rambling to each other now and I felt like I kept trying to get a word in, but couldn’t seem to make it.
I felt like shouting until we rounded a bend, and I saw the large castle lit up from within. Several people gasped, and I believe I was among them. It was beautiful this site. It was Hogwarts, the place that was going to be my home for most of the next seven years, or so I believed at the time. I was in such awe I had stopped moving, until I realized that the group had almost left me behind, and everyone had begun to climb into boats.
“No more’en four to a boat,” Hagrid told us. I looked around for John, but found him already in a boat with Neville, Ron and Hermione. For some reason that steamed me a little, and at the time I couldn’t figure it out. I looked for another boat, not yet full, and found a pair of girls waving at me.
“Need a place to sit?” asked a blonde girl, her hair braided into two braids that fell beside her ears. “I’m Susan, and this is Hannah,” she gestured to a red headed girl. “You can ride with us.”
“Thanks,” I said, climbing into the boat.
“Everyone in?” Hagrid asked, when it looked like everyone had been settled. When no one protested, he raised a bright pink umbrella in the air and said, “Right then, forward!”
The boats moved on their own towards the castle. It was impressive in its own right, though I was not nearly as excited as some of the muggleborns who were gasping and awing, and a few like Hermione who were clinging to the boat.
“Do you know what house you’ll be in?” Hannah asked me.
“John, my brother, things I’ll fit into Ravenclaw,” I said. “I’m not sure though.”
“Ravenclaw isn’t so bad, at least then you don’t get the brunt of the feud,” Susan said. “Personally, I’m hoping to be in Hufflepuff. Auntie said it was the best, and you always had someone you could count on.”
“Every house has its good traits,” Hannah added.
“Bravery, knowledge, cunning,” Susan listed.
“But! You can always depend on a Hufflepuff,” Hannah ended. “Plus, no one ever suspects you of anything.”
“You two have been friends for a while, haven’t you?” I asked.
“How did you guess?” Susan asked, wrinkling her nose.
“You seem like it,” I replied. “The finishing each other’s sentences. And you’ve been holding hands since we started going across the lake.”
“Do you have any friends starting the year with you?” Hannah asked.
“Not apart from John, but…” I looked at the boat ahead of us. “I’m not so sure about that anymore.”
“Don’t worry,” Susan said. “Auntie says that people always make new friends during their first year. And, if you get into Hufflepuff, everyone will be your friend.” Looking back on this conversation, I wonder how long Susan and Hannah were trained to be recruiters for Hufflepuff, because in the ensuing conversation up to the castle, Hufflepuff at least fifty times in about twenty sentences. I tried to join the conversation, but I just didn’t feel into it. I kept wondering how I had missed getting into the boat with John and replaying the scenario in my head to try and figure out what I could have done to get a seat beside my brother.
Writing this now, I realize how obsessive I sound, but I remember this pit in the bottom of my stomach growing and growing as we went to the castle. And I know what you’re thinking and it wasn’t just nerves. I felt like I was losing my brother and I wasn’t going to get him back for a long time. I was right.
We got up to the castle, everyone nervously led in by a Scottish woman, also known as Professor McGonagall who would be my transfiguration professor. She left us in the Entrance Hall while she prepared for our arrival. Personally, I always thought that there was no grand preparation, and in the years following, I always watched and waited to see some sort of grand announcement preparing us for the first year students. There’s nothing. They do this to scare us.
McGonagall returned not five minutes later and had all of us walk into the great hall in a mob which was supposed to be a single file line. She set down a stool with a hat, and instructed us to put on the hat when our names were called. Hannah was the first person called up, and she was made the first Hufflepuff. The Susan was called and then a girl named Lavender Brown. It was a fairly long list, and Potter was toward the bottom alphabetically.
I’ll tell you a truth. I wanted to be in Gryffindor very badly because I wanted to be with my brother, and that knot in my stomach twisted tightly with each name called, because I knew it wouldn’t be so.
I really don’t want to talk about this. I don’t. But I promised you a whole accounting of myself. So, I’ll tell it to you terribly, and it will still be there.
My name was called. People whispered, and pointed, and wondered who Harriet Potter was because no one mentioned the boy-who-lived having a sister, much less a twin. No one knew I existed. I went to the stool and put the hat on my head. I asked it to please consider putting me into Gryffindor, because I knew that’s where John would end up, and I wanted to be with my brother. The hat actually cackled at me and said,
“Oh, you have plenty of courage, but I think you’ll know how to use it rightly. Especially since you are so vastly loyal. Yes, you’d do well in HUFFLEPUFF.” It called that last part out to the whole school, and the Hufflepuff table broke into cheers. There was even polite applause from the other tables as I went to sit with my new house mates. Then John’s name was called. He put on the hat, and he sat for a long time. There were more whispers. But these were all about the boy-who-lived. I wonder if he’s super powerful? He won’t even have to try, he’s that good. I wonder if he eats his greens? I wonder if he’d be my friend? But no one needed to know John existed.
Finally the hat called, “GRYFFINDOR!” The table decked in scarlet and gold went wild with applause, people cheering and the red headed twins even got up on the table to dance.
I don’t recollect what was said to me that night as I had dinner with my house mates for the first time. I think a few people asked me questions about John before they realized it was a bad idea. I remember Susan rubbed my back, and a few people thought I was homesick and upset and I really missed my brother. The good thing about Hufflepuff is they understand when you need your space, and they understand when and how you want comfort. The bad thing is they do not take perceived betrayals well. But, that comes later.
What to say about the school year? Ignotus was right, it was painfully boring. I got everything right though, always had my essays in on time and earned my house loads of points. And plenty of people, students and professors alike made the remark that, “you should have been in Ravenclaw.” The other ‘puffs were descent though. It’s just it seems like we did everything together, which could be a little trying, because one way or another, each of them had someone they knew, or had made friends with the first night there. And as the only one without a best friend, I spent quite some time alone, both because I did not want to feel like a third wheel and because I was simply not invited to do things. It was not so bad most of the time, because I do like my space, but at the same time I did not want to be alone.
It did mean that I had plenty of chances to sneak off and go to Potter compound. Usually I could only do this on the weekends, because that’s when I would have enough time to actually do something useful. I began, with Ignotus’ help, to engage one or two of the ancestors as my teachers per weekend. Most of the time, at least one of these was Charlotte, and she was useful and did not blame me for my reaction to Callum’s nastiness. The others were not so kind at first, but when you are a shade locked in a portrait, I suppose you don’t have much of a choice. In any case they always gave me extra to do during the week, so I was not completely bored at school.
As for John, I only heard whisper and rumor of his exploits and things that happened. Nothing directly from him. I wrote updates to my parents and Sirius and Remus, and to this day, I have no idea how much extra work Hedwig had to do because we didn’t communicate.
It was just over a month into school when John sat down at my study table in the library and asked,
“Is Snape terrible to you too?” I barely looked up from my book as I said,
“Excuse me do I know you?”
“What?” John inquired. “Of course you know me!”
“Really? Because people you know don’t generally ignore you for a month,” I said. “Especially not brothers.”
“Well, it’s not like you’ve been lighting fires trying to get my attention,” John retorted.
“Well, I had to stop trying after the first week,” I told him. “Not only did you ignore me, but people kept pushing me out of the way to walk beside you or get a good look at you.”
“I can’t help that I’m famous,” John said. He deflated a little in his seat. “You’ve always understood that.”
“Well, it’s not like I’ve had to deal with it before,” I told him, deflating myself. “And no, Snape’s not very nasty to me, no more than he is to anyone else.” Severus Snape was the potion’s professor. Other than the occasional snip, he never took too many shots at me.
“Who’s asking?” John asked.
“Draco Malfoy,” said the blonde, holding out his hand. John might have reached for it, but Ron snickered, causing Malfoy to zoom in on him. “You think my name’s funny do you? No need to ask who you are, red hair, hand me down clothes. You’re a Weasley.”
“I think that was uncalled for,” I remarked.
“No one was talking to you,” Malfoy retorted.
“Do not talk to my sister like that,” John commanded. “Malfoy I like to give everyone a chance, but that’s two strikes against you already. I don’t like people who talk down to others, so if you’ve come here to plan any sort of alliance, I suggest you first apologize to Ron and Harriet and then leave.”
“Why would I apologize to them?” Malfoy scoffed.
“Well, for one thing,” John began, “Harriet is going to be the head of the Potter family one day. That means she pretty much inherits everything we have and will destroy you if she so wishes. For another thing, Ron’s prefect brother is standing behind you.” Draco whirled, and saw Percy Weasley standing behind him, Neville at his side.
“Well, Mr. Malfoy, you wouldn’t happen to be instigating fights before we even reach the station, would you?” Percy asked.
“No, sorry,” Malfoy stuttered. He turned back to us and very quickly said, “Sorry,” before he took off down the corridor.
“Neville!” I said cheerfully. “What kept you?”
“I had to wait for the prefects to finish their meeting,” Neville said. “And then Percy offered to walk me back so I wouldn’t get lost.”
“And it’s fortunate for you lot that I did,” Percy said. “I’m not saying you started it, but getting into a fight before we even get off the train is a bad way to start your first year. Just keep that in mind in case he comes back.” We all nodded, and Percy left again for the prefect’s compartment. Neville entered the compartment and took the seat on the other side of me, by the window, and took out a deck of cards.
“Snap, anyone?”
We played a few rounds of snap and looked up to see the sky darkening up above. A prefect dropped by to let us know that we would be arriving in an hour and that we needed to change. Hermione went with me when I got a robe and trotted off to the bathroom. For the rest of the hour, we played simple games, but we were all getting quite hyper and nervous. When the train finally began rolling to a stop, we were all out of our seats in an instant.
“Please leave all of your belongings on the train and exit carefully. Thank you, and have a pleasant evening,” announced a voice over the intercom. The five of us trotted out of the compartment only to be overwhelmed by the number of older students surging into the corridors. John grabbed my hand, and I reached out and grabbed Neville’s. We managed to reach the doors and make it out onto the platform by simply going with the flow of the crowd, though that isn’t to say that we weren’t trampled a few times.
“Firs’ years!” a giant man called off to one side of the platform. “Firs’ years to me!”
“That’s Hagrid,” Ron informed us. “My brothers told me about him.” He flushed a little and said, “You know, I think we can drop hands now.” Hermione scowled and took her hand back from him, stalking toward the boats. We all followed her, me trailing slowly behind John who was walking beside Ron. We stopped at the large crowd in front of Hagrid, who waited until he could count enough of us, before he turned and led us down a slope. John and Ron were rambling to each other now and I felt like I kept trying to get a word in, but couldn’t seem to make it.
I felt like shouting until we rounded a bend, and I saw the large castle lit up from within. Several people gasped, and I believe I was among them. It was beautiful this site. It was Hogwarts, the place that was going to be my home for most of the next seven years, or so I believed at the time. I was in such awe I had stopped moving, until I realized that the group had almost left me behind, and everyone had begun to climb into boats.
“No more’en four to a boat,” Hagrid told us. I looked around for John, but found him already in a boat with Neville, Ron and Hermione. For some reason that steamed me a little, and at the time I couldn’t figure it out. I looked for another boat, not yet full, and found a pair of girls waving at me.
“Need a place to sit?” asked a blonde girl, her hair braided into two braids that fell beside her ears. “I’m Susan, and this is Hannah,” she gestured to a red headed girl. “You can ride with us.”
“Thanks,” I said, climbing into the boat.
“Everyone in?” Hagrid asked, when it looked like everyone had been settled. When no one protested, he raised a bright pink umbrella in the air and said, “Right then, forward!”
The boats moved on their own towards the castle. It was impressive in its own right, though I was not nearly as excited as some of the muggleborns who were gasping and awing, and a few like Hermione who were clinging to the boat.
“Do you know what house you’ll be in?” Hannah asked me.
“John, my brother, things I’ll fit into Ravenclaw,” I said. “I’m not sure though.”
“Ravenclaw isn’t so bad, at least then you don’t get the brunt of the feud,” Susan said. “Personally, I’m hoping to be in Hufflepuff. Auntie said it was the best, and you always had someone you could count on.”
“Every house has its good traits,” Hannah added.
“Bravery, knowledge, cunning,” Susan listed.
“But! You can always depend on a Hufflepuff,” Hannah ended. “Plus, no one ever suspects you of anything.”
“You two have been friends for a while, haven’t you?” I asked.
“How did you guess?” Susan asked, wrinkling her nose.
“You seem like it,” I replied. “The finishing each other’s sentences. And you’ve been holding hands since we started going across the lake.”
“Do you have any friends starting the year with you?” Hannah asked.
“Not apart from John, but…” I looked at the boat ahead of us. “I’m not so sure about that anymore.”
“Don’t worry,” Susan said. “Auntie says that people always make new friends during their first year. And, if you get into Hufflepuff, everyone will be your friend.” Looking back on this conversation, I wonder how long Susan and Hannah were trained to be recruiters for Hufflepuff, because in the ensuing conversation up to the castle, Hufflepuff at least fifty times in about twenty sentences. I tried to join the conversation, but I just didn’t feel into it. I kept wondering how I had missed getting into the boat with John and replaying the scenario in my head to try and figure out what I could have done to get a seat beside my brother.
Writing this now, I realize how obsessive I sound, but I remember this pit in the bottom of my stomach growing and growing as we went to the castle. And I know what you’re thinking and it wasn’t just nerves. I felt like I was losing my brother and I wasn’t going to get him back for a long time. I was right.
We got up to the castle, everyone nervously led in by a Scottish woman, also known as Professor McGonagall who would be my transfiguration professor. She left us in the Entrance Hall while she prepared for our arrival. Personally, I always thought that there was no grand preparation, and in the years following, I always watched and waited to see some sort of grand announcement preparing us for the first year students. There’s nothing. They do this to scare us.
McGonagall returned not five minutes later and had all of us walk into the great hall in a mob which was supposed to be a single file line. She set down a stool with a hat, and instructed us to put on the hat when our names were called. Hannah was the first person called up, and she was made the first Hufflepuff. The Susan was called and then a girl named Lavender Brown. It was a fairly long list, and Potter was toward the bottom alphabetically.
I’ll tell you a truth. I wanted to be in Gryffindor very badly because I wanted to be with my brother, and that knot in my stomach twisted tightly with each name called, because I knew it wouldn’t be so.
I really don’t want to talk about this. I don’t. But I promised you a whole accounting of myself. So, I’ll tell it to you terribly, and it will still be there.
My name was called. People whispered, and pointed, and wondered who Harriet Potter was because no one mentioned the boy-who-lived having a sister, much less a twin. No one knew I existed. I went to the stool and put the hat on my head. I asked it to please consider putting me into Gryffindor, because I knew that’s where John would end up, and I wanted to be with my brother. The hat actually cackled at me and said,
“Oh, you have plenty of courage, but I think you’ll know how to use it rightly. Especially since you are so vastly loyal. Yes, you’d do well in HUFFLEPUFF.” It called that last part out to the whole school, and the Hufflepuff table broke into cheers. There was even polite applause from the other tables as I went to sit with my new house mates. Then John’s name was called. He put on the hat, and he sat for a long time. There were more whispers. But these were all about the boy-who-lived. I wonder if he’s super powerful? He won’t even have to try, he’s that good. I wonder if he eats his greens? I wonder if he’d be my friend? But no one needed to know John existed.
Finally the hat called, “GRYFFINDOR!” The table decked in scarlet and gold went wild with applause, people cheering and the red headed twins even got up on the table to dance.
I don’t recollect what was said to me that night as I had dinner with my house mates for the first time. I think a few people asked me questions about John before they realized it was a bad idea. I remember Susan rubbed my back, and a few people thought I was homesick and upset and I really missed my brother. The good thing about Hufflepuff is they understand when you need your space, and they understand when and how you want comfort. The bad thing is they do not take perceived betrayals well. But, that comes later.
What to say about the school year? Ignotus was right, it was painfully boring. I got everything right though, always had my essays in on time and earned my house loads of points. And plenty of people, students and professors alike made the remark that, “you should have been in Ravenclaw.” The other ‘puffs were descent though. It’s just it seems like we did everything together, which could be a little trying, because one way or another, each of them had someone they knew, or had made friends with the first night there. And as the only one without a best friend, I spent quite some time alone, both because I did not want to feel like a third wheel and because I was simply not invited to do things. It was not so bad most of the time, because I do like my space, but at the same time I did not want to be alone.
It did mean that I had plenty of chances to sneak off and go to Potter compound. Usually I could only do this on the weekends, because that’s when I would have enough time to actually do something useful. I began, with Ignotus’ help, to engage one or two of the ancestors as my teachers per weekend. Most of the time, at least one of these was Charlotte, and she was useful and did not blame me for my reaction to Callum’s nastiness. The others were not so kind at first, but when you are a shade locked in a portrait, I suppose you don’t have much of a choice. In any case they always gave me extra to do during the week, so I was not completely bored at school.
As for John, I only heard whisper and rumor of his exploits and things that happened. Nothing directly from him. I wrote updates to my parents and Sirius and Remus, and to this day, I have no idea how much extra work Hedwig had to do because we didn’t communicate.
It was just over a month into school when John sat down at my study table in the library and asked,
“Is Snape terrible to you too?” I barely looked up from my book as I said,
“Excuse me do I know you?”
“What?” John inquired. “Of course you know me!”
“Really? Because people you know don’t generally ignore you for a month,” I said. “Especially not brothers.”
“Well, it’s not like you’ve been lighting fires trying to get my attention,” John retorted.
“Well, I had to stop trying after the first week,” I told him. “Not only did you ignore me, but people kept pushing me out of the way to walk beside you or get a good look at you.”
“I can’t help that I’m famous,” John said. He deflated a little in his seat. “You’ve always understood that.”
“Well, it’s not like I’ve had to deal with it before,” I told him, deflating myself. “And no, Snape’s not very nasty to me, no more than he is to anyone else.” Severus Snape was the potion’s professor. Other than the occasional snip, he never took too many shots at me.
