‘Weasley, Hugo,’ Called Professor Longbottom which caused a ripple of silence to spread throughout the great hall. Hugo nervously made his way up to the stool and waited for Professor Longbottom to place the old hat on his head. The last view Hugo had before the hat fell over his eyes was every face in the great hall watching in great anticipation to hear which house Hugo would be in.
“Aha!” whispered a voice in Hugo’s head, which he assumed was coming from the hat. “Yes, this is my voice.” Confirmed the hat “You’re a quick one, many first years fear that they’re going crazy!” Hugo smiled, he decided he liked this hat.
“I see much bravery in you, young Hugo Weasley; you are very much like your father’s side of the family.”
Hugo’s heart sank. That was the last thing he wanted. Too long had he been compared to Rose, his cousins and, his father. He wanted to be himself, not another Weasley in Gryffindor. He wanted to be different.
“You have ambition I see,” Continued the hat “That would be much to your advantage in Slytherin .. but don’t worry!” The hat exclaimed as Hugo’s heart jumped in fear “Your knowledge and intellect surpasses that of many students who I have sorted over the years. You have a thirst I rarely see with a wit that will have you well liked and respected in … RAVENCLAW!”
The blue and bronze table went wild as the hat was pulled off of Hugo’s head. He stumbled down towards his house’s table and took a seat, dumbfounded at the hat’s decision. Briefly he looked over to the Gryffindor table where his family sat looking shocked and angered. His cousin Lily scowled at him while his sister shook her head disappointedly. Although his family did not appear to believe that Hugo belonged with the eagles, he knew in his heart he was home.
September 1st 2020:
“Porter, Rowena” Called Professor Longbottom, reading the next name off the list of new first years who were to be sorted.
“Did he say Potter?” Someone whispered loudly, a rippled of laughter spread across the hall. Rowena shakily made her way up to the stool.
“No you dumbass, Porter!” The hall laughed even louder at this, which only caused Rowena to shake even more as she placed herself on the edge of the stool. A raggedy, old hat fell in front of her eyes and all of a sudden a voice spoke in her head.
“A muggleborn I see.” The voice whispered.
“Who are you?” Thought Rowena, her heart pounding violently at this strange voice.
“Oh do not worry my dear, I am the sorting hat. It is my job to look into your thoughts, mind and personality to determine which house you would be best placed in.”
Rowena smiled.
“Which house are you considering?” She asked politely.
There was a pause before the voice answered “Really, there is only one house for you. You read far beyond your age and understand much more than many of the older students at this school, although you do not realise this. You seem keen to learn and eager to unravel this world which is so new to you which is why it is fitting to place you in… RAVENCLAW!”
The table second from the right all cheered as the hat was removed from Rowena’s head. Rowena skipped down to where her house was sat and took a seat next to a timid looking girl who had been sorted not long before herself. Rowena looked up and down the table and beamed, this was where she belonged.
“No sooner spoken than broken. What is it?” The bronze knocker asked the young girl stood in front of the entrance to the Ravenclaw Tower. Rowena Porter ran her hands through her thick, dark hair whilst her brain ticked furiously, trying to assemble the answer.
If Rowena had to pick on one thing she did not like about being part of Ravenclaw it would be the ridiculous system of having to answer a question to enter the tower. Too many times had she forgotten something in her dorm room, attempted to get back in to retrieve it, failed and subsequently arrived late to which ever lesson she had. This often resulted in Ravenclaw losing much needed house points, which meant that Rowena’s popularity had dropped quite significantly throughout her year group members in Ravenclaw.
After a good few minutes of trying to work out the answer to the riddle Rowena gave up and decided to sit in the alcove opposite and wait for someone to come along and answer it quickly and correctly.
She pulled her itchy, grey, woollen socks back up to her knee and smoothed out her skirt which she had tucked the unflattering blouse into in an attempt to make it more feminine. Her hair flowed down her back aside from the bow which was tied on top of her head to stop her main falling across her face while she tried to work.
Rowena fished out the book she was reading from her bag, Birdsong, adjusted her position in the alcove to continue from where she had left off.
Rowena was not like other Ravenclaw students. She did not have a thirst for wizarding knowledge and instead would rather sit and read muggle fiction novels for hours. Reading was the greatest escape she found when avoiding the other children in the muggle orphanage. Rowena loved to indulge herself in tales of princes and princesses, wars, tragedies, love, laughter, fantasy and crime. She anticipated each page turn with ever increasing excitement as a story flowed effortlessly through her imagination.
Wizards, in the opinion of Rowena, did not have a plethora of notable fiction. Yes, some of their children’s stories were renowned throughout the wizarding world for their portrayal of morality but that was nothing compared to stories and plays written by muggles for hundreds of years.
If Rowena had to be labelled in Ravenclaw she would be considered to have a “ready mind”, she thoroughly loved learning magic as much as she loved reading, but if she had to choose Rowena would rather be a muggle with fiction books than a wizard without them.
On the opposite side of the castle walking up from a leisurely breakfast was the seventh year: Hugo Weasley, son of Ron and Hermione Weasley. Hugo prided himself for his intelligence, as quidditch was not a talent he possessed. His family enjoyed playing matches against each other during the summer which Hugo was forced into but he would much rather sit to the side of the pitch and read a book. His reading occurred in the evenings much to his mother’s delight, and although his cousins found it strange that he enjoyed reading, they not once considered him to be a Ravenclaw.
It is safe to say that Hugo’s sorting shocked his whole family as they all considered him to be much more like his father than his mother yet, all that changed once he had settled into Ravenclaw. Hugo excelled in all of his lessons, astonishing all of his teachers, much to his older sister Rose’s annoyance. He was well liked throughout the castle and never failed to cheer someone up if they were feeling down.
Hugo walked slowly up the spiral staircase to the fifth floor, his mind wandering to the essay he had to write before transfiguration, which was lesson three of the day. Essays weren’t a laborious task for Hugo, on the contrary he much enjoyed challenging the opinions of books and teachers once he had started writing them, it was just the motivation to start the essays which Hugo struggled with.
The corridors were silent as most students were in lessons. One of the benefits about being a seventh year was the free periods that were supposed to be for studying, although Hugo didn’t need all of them anyway.
Finally, Hugo reached the top of the staircase and walked along the corridor to the eagle shaped knocker. He knocked it three times and waited for the question, praying it would be something he knew.
“No sooner spoken than broken. What is it?” asked the eagle for the second time that morning.
Hugo opened his mouth to answer, for he had known it immediately, but a shout from behind distracted him.
Leaping out of the alcove Rowena ran towards the knocker.
“Silence, the answer is silence!” She exclaimed gleefully, jumping up and down.
“No?” questioned Hugo while the girl in front of danced on the spot “The answer is: A secret.”
Rowena stopped dancing and turned to glare at Hugo.
“I think you’ll find its silence. Which you broke when you knocked the eagle as loudly as you could! Some of us were trying to read up here.”
Hugo grinned at her moody expression.
“Why were you reading outside the tower then … I’m sorry I didn’t catch your name?”
“It’s Rowena, and I was … it’s … fine, it took be forever to think of the answer!”
Hugo laughed as Rowena admitted defeated. She blushed furiously and looked down at her tightly laced shoes.
“I think they could both me right. I’m Hugo, by the way,” He said, breaking the silence that had fallen between them “What were you reading anyway?”
Rowena made her way back over to the alcove and picked up her bag and book. Making her way back over to the entrance to the common room she stood still with Birdsong balanced delicately on the palm of her hand. Hugo lifted it off her hand. A jovial grin spread across his face as he thumbed through the well-worn pages of the book. Having slowly and carefully examined the book he handed it back to the brown haired girl in front of him.
“This book was one of the most haunting novels I have read, wouldn’t you agree?”
Rowena’s mouth fell open in a comical fashion as she looked at Hugo’s face. He read? He read muggle novels?
“Um, ye – yes, it is rather haunting isn’t it?” She said still shocked.
“You looked surprised,” commented Hugo, running both of his hands through his hair “I found it on a bookcase at home about two years ago, my Granddad is really into muggles and bought it for 50 pence (I think) from a muggle charity shop.”
There was a brief silence between the two students as they waited for the other to speak. Rowena tucked a lock of hair behind her ear before turning to face the eagle.
“So … silence or secret?” She asked it hopefully.
“You are both wise and humorous to listen to” Commented the eagle, “You may enter”
Rowena turned, beamed at Hugo and then clambered through the hole in the wall. He followed with a small smile playing on his lips, wondering why he had never noticed this girl before.
A/N: I don't own 'Birdsong' that belongs to the legend Sebastian Faulks. I don't own Harry Potter either, or anything you recognise for that matter! :D
I hope you enjoyed this, it is the first of five chapters the next one up is called: The Study Room
Please take the time to leave a little review, I do enjoy reading and responding to them :)
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