As Alec’s breaths began to steady, the train began to slow. Zelie sighed, shoulders relaxing. About time! The train had arrived at Hogwarts. Cali, Jace, and Zelie quickly grabbed their things and carried Alec into the Great Hall, where they were met by Professor Ferngull. He immediately ran him to the hospital wing, and Madam Pemlare took him into her care. 

Then Professor Ferngull lined up the first years so they could get sorted into their Houses. “Colin Richards!” he called. A tall boy with shabby brown hair walked up on the stool.

“GRYFFINDOR!” called the Sorting Hat. 

“Lilly Bunns!” A small red-haired girl with freckles came up and sat on the stool.

“SLYTHERIN!” announced the Sorting Hat. One by one, the students were sorted into their Houses.

“Calira Shacklevolt!” called Professor Ferngull. Cali walked up to the stool, chin unbowed, and sat down.

“Hmmm, difficult. Your mind is clouded, so clouded. Oh, but what is this? Jealousy, a great amount of jealousy of someone close to you. Oh, dear child.” Cali squirmed, not meeting her sister’s eyes. “Oh, here is something. Ah, interesting indeed. Well then, let’s see here. Hmmm, better be… HUFFLEPUFF!” the Hufflepuff table cheered as Calira stormed over to find a seat at the table, fists clenched in anger. 

“Zelie Shacklevolt!” Professor Ferngull called. Zelie strode up to Sorting Hat and sat on the stool, full lips slightly upturned; excited. 

“Ah, plenty of courage, lots of kindness, and, yes, shrewd and ambitious. Oh, and here’s something. An intelligent and creative mind. But where to put you?” Zelie sat predatorily still, awaiting her fate. “Hmmm. Difficult, difficult. You could fit in anywhere; how rare that is, to have such a well-balanced mind and soul. How to sort you?” Zelie saw Professor Ferngull and the Headmaster exchange puzzled looks. Did this not happen often? 

The Sorting Hat whispered to her, so quietly that only Zelie could hear its words; “Where do you wish to be, Zelie?” Zelie thought. Slytherin, perhaps? Or Ravenclaw? She didn’t know. The Sorting Hat stayed silent, letting her think. 

Finally, Zelie spoke. “I don’t know.” 

The Sorting Hat nodded before looking into her mind once more. “So difficult, so difficult. You could thrive in any House. I haven’t seen this in so, so long. Where to put you?” The Sorting Hat let out a long sigh before speaking again, soft and slow, once again, for only Zel’s ears. “One thing is for certain, however. You will do great things, child. Many, many great things.” 

Zelie was silent for a moment before responding. “Doing great things is only a state of mind. It’s nothing but an opinion, and a flimsy one at that. Your opinion means a great deal to me, but I will be the judge of my fate.” 

She could feel the Sorting Hat smile, pleased with her response. “Well spoken, child. Well spoken.” The Sorting Hat grinned. “RAVENCLAW!” Zelie smiled as she gently set down the Hat on the stool. 

“Thank you,” she whispered. The Sorting Hat smiled. 

“I did nothing, child. You were the judge of your fate, and will be always.” The Sorting Hat winked at the young student before going still once again. 

Zelie bounced over to where the applauding Ravenclaws sat, nestling between two girls about her age. One of them looked particularly nice; with blonde hair and green eyes. 

“That was incredible!”

“No one’s ever stumped the Sorting Hat before!” 

The surrounding Ravenclaws fawned over Zelie, telling her how special she must be, how rare she was. Zelie wished she could melt into the bench on which she currently sat. Zelie never liked being the center of attention, and this time was worse than anything else. She at least wished her sister could be by her side. From the look on Cali’s face, Zelie knew she felt the same way. 

“Jace Thornwood!” Professor Ferngull called. Calira perked up immediately, earning a knowing look from her sister from across the Great Hall. Jace walked up to get sorted.

“A very courageous spirit. Plenty of bravery. Perhaps a small amount of foolishness…” The Sorting Hat chuckled slightly. “Hmmm, better be… GRYFFINDOR!” The Gryffindor table cheered as Jace found a seat right behind Zelie. 

“I wonder how they will sort Alec,” he wondered aloud. Zelie shrugged. But when they looked up again, the Sorting Hat wasn’t there. From the direction of the Hospital Wing, they heard a booming voice:

“SLYTHERIN!” 

“Well, that answers that question,” Zelie replied, chuckling. 

As Jace talked with his fellow Gryffindors, Zelie lost herself in thought, smiling softly. Finally, she was where she belonged. No more hiding from the world. Zelie could be who she was, not what Muggles wanted her to be. For the first time, Zelie felt that she was home.

Meanwhile, Alec was not having fun. “He was moaning and twitching non-stop. I started to get freaked out, so I came back here. I couldn’t bear to see him like that,” Jace told Zelie while they waited for Hargold to speak. Jace had snuck out of the Great Hall right after the Sorting Ceremony to check on Alec. “It was awful, just awful. And his gashes are all swollen and puffy. They’re gross. But if you want to go and visit him, you’re going to have to talk with Madam Pemlare.” Zelie decided to visit him with Jace after she finished eating. That way, she could bring him some food. 

Soon, Professor Ferngull tapped her spoon against her glass, grasping the students’ attention. Once the students were silent, Headmaster Raymond Hargold rose to speak. 

“Welcome, welcome, to another year at Hogwarts. I would like to acknowledge all of you who have made it through the year alive. I suppose homework doesn’t kill everyone.” That got a laugh from the students and staff. 

“I hope you all grow to be successful witches and wizards. Now, this year, we’ve made a few changes to the class schedules. Gryffindor and Ravenclaw will be taking classes together. Hufflepuff and Slytherin will do the same.” Outraged cries echoed around the room, Zel assumed because change was not a common occurrence at Hogwarts. The Headmaster raised his hands and the cries quieted. “These changes came about with reason, let me assure you. I think that you, as young students, will benefit from change. 

“Now, hear these words,” every student perked up. “No student may contradict this change or future ones under any circumstances. Violators will be punished accordingly.” The Headmaster’s lips tightened, and Zelie immediately knew that something wasn’t right. Professor Hargold was hiding something from them.

But then his voice turned to a less warm, more dark tone. “Now, those of you in compartments five, seven, eighteen, and twenty-two on the Hogwarts Express may have witnessed a creature cloaked in blue floating about your compartment.” We were in compartment eighteen, Zelie thought to herself. The Headmaster continued. “This creature is called a Karna. They will be guarding every entrance to the grounds until further notice, due to a man named Damian Xaris.” Students murmured to each other. 

“Damian Xaris?”     

“I’ve never heard of him before.”

“He sounds bad.”

“Do you think he would come to Hogwarts?”

“Now, now. Damian Xaris is far from here. I don’t expect to see him any time soon,” Hargold assured the students. Then suddenly, Zelie realized something. Hargold had died in their mother’s fourth year at Hogwarts. Yet here he was, standing right in front of them, there, solid, and very much alive. It didn’t make any sense. He died. Zelie knew he did, Mother would never lie to her. And yet here Hargold was, speaking to them, enfleshed, and alive as ever. 

Mother had told us that Hargold died in her fourth year here. Hargold died because there was a rouge student who killed him, but here he is in front of me! How is that possible? Zelie thought to herself, conversing with no one but her thoughts. 

What if they found a reviving spell! Or someone used a Time-Turner to bring him back! Or maybe he never really died! There are so many possibilities. I’ll have to narrow it down to one. But how? Then Zelie looked up at Calira, finding her older sister staring right back at her. Zelie knew that Cali had come to the same conclusion she had. 

“Damian Xaris,” Zelie whispered. “He has to be part of this.” She glimpsed the last words of Hargold’s speech, and before she knew it, all the empty plates and goblets before them were piled with food and drinks. Pies, steaks, fruits, cakes, wings, pumpkin juice, water, butterbeer, anything they could’ve ever imagined. It was overwhelming to see all of this wonderful food in front of them when Calira and Zelie only got one bowl of porridge per day from the orphanage. 

Zelie piled her plate sky-high with all those amazing treats. Jace devoured his five very large pieces of steak in—at most—ten minutes. Zelie chuckled. Jace looked over at her and winked, before returning to his meal. Zelie blushed and turned around, hoping he didn’t see. 

But Calira did. From across the Great Hall, anger and jealousy boiled inside of her, and it took a great amount of restraint to keep it there. 

From where she was sitting, Zelie’s plate looked licked clean, but Cali expected nothing less of her little sister who was currently trying to steal her crush from her. Cali scowled. 

Jace finished his meal and, wanting to get to know his new friend better, decided to talk with Zelie rather than his fellow Gryffindors. He and Calira’s little sister talked so freely, so easily, it made Cali’s heart ache. Over the past day, Cali had developed a small (or so she told herself) crush on the handsome Gryffindor. Seeing him with her sister created a fracture in her heart, one that would soon spread much farther. 

“What are you most excited to see?” Jace asked Zelie. 

Without missing a beat, Zelie responded, “the library.” 

Jace laughed. “Spoken like a true Ravenclaw.” 

Zelie flipped her hair, careful not to whack any of her fellow Ravenclaws in the face. “That’s me.” Zelie smiled. 

Jace grinned at her. “I bet I’m smarter than you.” 

“I bet you’re not.” 

“Try me. I can answer any question” Jace puffed out his chest. 

Zelie smirked. “But that doesn’t mean you will answer them. How will I know you’re smarter? I would have to assume that you just don’t know the answer, so you’re trying to cover it up.” 

Jace frowned. “Fine. I can answer any question, and I will answer any question.”

Zelie smiled, amused. He fell right into her trap. “You’ll regret saying that, Thornwood.” 

“No, I won’t. You just know I’ll win.” Jace smirked at her. Zelie returned it. 

“You’ve already lost.” Jace frowned, but Zelie spoke before he could. “What about you? What are you most excited to see?” Unlike Zelie, Jace had to consider his answer for a little while. After what felt like an eternity of feeling awkward while Jace thought, he answered. 

“The Forbidden Forest.” 

Zelie frowned. “We aren’t allowed into the Forest.” 

Jace smirked. “I know.” 

“Then why are you planning to go there?”

“I never said I was.”

“Yes, you did.” 

“No, I didn’t. Tell me when I said that.” Zelie didn’t answer. “Ha! I told you! I was right!” 

Zelie ignored him. “You never answered my question.”

“And what was this question?”

“Why are you planning to go into the Forbidden Forest?”

Jace smiled. “I’m not going to answer that.”

Zelie smirked. “But I thought you could answer any question.” Jace’s cheeks began to color. “Actually, I thought you could answer any question, and would. What a shame.” Jace’s mouth began to drop. Zelie smirked. “I guess we know who’s smarter, now.” Zelie lips curved upward, strange golden eyes holding Jace’s stormy blue ones. Jace’s mouth hung open for a moment before melting into a smile. 

“I guess so.” Jace turned back around and continued his meal as Zelie began talking to her fellow Ravenclaws, beaming and radiant. She was finally home.