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completely paled at her last words. "Thestrals." Her friend said in a whisper. "Of course you can see them, Alexandra."
"Why?"
"The only persons who can see Thestrals, are the ones who have seen death." Answered Hermione, distinctly ill-at-ease. "There was a chapter about them in Hogwarts: A History." The bushy-haired Gryffindor justified as the two others turned their head to observe her.
Alexandra grimaced. Well, at least she was not crazy. Alas, she was not certain having the confirmation she had already seen too much death to be better. The troll and Sykes at Halloween. Devkins at the end of the year. The goblins of Brise-Roc during the holidays. In one year, she had had a lot of occasions to see persons leaving this world. Usually in very violent circumstances.
Ten minutes passed, until their carriage like the others passed two great wrought-iron gates with large columns and winged boars on top of them, looking a bit ridiculous by the posture they were represented. The coach accelerated, as the towers, walls and turrets of Hogwarts grew more and more imposing from the tiny window available. When it came to a halt, they came out and found themselves directly in front of the entrance. Hermione led the group, climbing up first the stairs which guided them into the castle itself and when they passed the huge oak front doors, the cold disappeared in an instant, proof of the magic existing in the school.
They did not stay long in the Entrance Hall, as the crowd of incoming students was growing without sign of interruption. Entering the Great Hall, she noted the enchanted ceiling was fully black tonight, without any stars to illuminate it. The hundreds of torches, the great four tables, the flatware, the gold-coloured plates and the rest of decorations had not changed, though.
"See you tomorrow." Alexandra said to Hermione and Nigel, before they marched in the direction of the Gryffindor table. If the Professors had literally ignored the two Gryffindors eating and dining with her a good part of the last year, there was no way the teachers would tolerate this at the Sorting Feast.
She turned and began to walk at a rapid pace towards her usual place at the Ravenclaw table. On her way, she noticed many people looking at her with a lot of attention that wasn't there before, pointing fingers at her, not in fear or terror, but for the first time in interest and calculation. Great. There still students glancing at her and then avoiding her attention, frightened and scared, but not a majority anymore. What had happened in the holidays to dissipate her status of Dark Lady?
Sitting on her seat, she looked towards the teacher's table. Not many new faces present this year. Sure enough, Lockhart was here, and he had a middle-aged brown-haired witch on his right who looked to be a fan-girl given the looks of adoration she sent him. They looked to be the only addition to the staff. The rest of the teachers had been already present last year.
Turning her attention to the Gryffindor table, she realised that Neville Longbottom and his two lieutenants were nowhere to be found. Had the Boy-Who-Lived really left Hogwarts for good?
As a very long column of new students entered the Hall, Alexandra stopped her musings. Like her one year ago, the young wizards and witches saw with stupefaction Professor McGonagall posing the Sorting Hat on a three-leg stool and listen the artefact sing the qualities of each of the four Houses existing at Hogwarts: bravery and nobility for Gryffindor, hard-work and solidarity for Hufflepuff, intelligence and wisdom for Ravenclaw, ambition and cunning for Slytherin.
Alexandra applauded politely with the rest of the school when the song finished, although inside she wondered if the hat shouldn't have dropped a few qualities for practicality's sake. Too many Gryffindors had nothing noble in them, and were only proving courageous with overwhelming odds on their side. Hufflepuff were loyal, but only to their House and no one else. Ravenclaws were usually intelligent, but extremely individualists and prone to attack whoever challenged their way of thinking. And for Slytherin...some of its members had nothing ambitious or cunning in them. One look at Crabbe and Goyle was enough to see that.
The Sorting hat having finished his musical performance, the Sorting thus began, with Professor McGonagall calling the students in the alphabetical order.
"Angela, Jade!"
"GRYFFINDOR!"
The table of the Lions suddenly burst in cheers to welcome the new addition to their ranks.
"Baddock, Bridget!"
"SLYTHERIN!"
Alexandra didn't follow every name of the Sorting after the first ones. First, because she was now rather hungry, and secondly there were too many young students waiting to be sorted. Her own promotion had numbered only forty-five, but this year there was a lot more students, closer to ninety she thought. Post-war baby boom, maybe?
Gryffindor received Abigail Nicola, Edith Newton, Rosalyn Ewhirst, a photograph addict named Colin Creevey, Remy Olivier, Riley Frazer and Kieran Muirhead amongst others. Heather Dodworth, Trudy Galston, Haruka Endoh, Gabriel Tate, Darrel Turner were kids who went to Hufflepuff.
A strange girl with messy blond hair named Luna Lovegood was sent to Ravenclaw, along with Margaret Ettington, Joan Kerridge, Ophelia Rushden, Nathaniel Douglass, Godfrey Midhurst and Austen Guthrie.
Then there were Slytherin, and this time Alexandra remarked more than once the looks and whispers when some boys and girls were sent into the Snakes' Den. That it happened when the boy or the girl marched arrogantly to the Sorting Hat was purely a coincidence of course. Names like Gertrude Meads, Archana Shetty, Sylvia Melville or Byron Miller were totally unknown to her, but they were some she recognised from rumours in the corridors or old issues from the Daily Prophet. William Rosier, Damon Harper, Priscilla Mulciber. Ancient, Noble, or Ancient and Noble families that had a major proportion of their numbers killed under the Death Eaters banners. And of course, both being quite recognisable with their almost platinum blonde hair, Astoria Greengrass and Lyre de Male-Foi.