It is said that Garnet signals new beginnings.

Chapter One: Garnet (new beginnings)

The Welcome Feast was slightly changed this year. Headmistress McGonagall sat in her center chair, whispering urgently into Filius’ ear while the teachers strained their heads to look out the windows at the thundering sky outside. The students were whispering amongst themselves, discussing the latest gossip and events. Though the two new teachers were a part of it, the main source of the gossip was centered on two other things. Hagrid’s chair was empty. And so was the space in front of the Sorting Hat and its stool.

The group of first years was missing. Hagrid had sent a message nearly half an hour ago, saying that Centaurs had kept him in the forest and Grawp had, in softer terms, gotten mad about that. When he had arrived at the station to get the first years, they were gone. He was searching for them now, but in five minutes, Minerva would send out an alert to the ministry and the teachers would set out for the search as well.

A particularly loud boom of thunder shook the hall, causing a few second years to scream in fright, but it was drowned out in the quiet that followed as one of the Great Hall doors was pushed open.

Splat, splat, splat were the distinguishable sounds as the bedraggled shape trudged quickly down the middle of the Hall, stopping halfway to the teacher’s table. Her ebony hair was plastered to the sopping fabric of her school robes, her tiny frame barely high enough to see above the table. When she looks up, everyone sees a deeply tanned face and the shinning glow erupting from her blue eyes. Her voice is slightly high-pitched, but even and confident.

“Excuse me, but where do the first years go to get sorted?” Headmistress McGonagall stands and hurries to stand in front of the girl.

“Here, my dear. Where are the others?” The girl stops listening after her first word and hurries back to the door. Those nearest the door see her beckoning with her hands and the entire Hall hears as she yells out, “In here guys! Come on!”

Both doors now open up to reveal a mass of thirty or more first years, just as soaked as the first girl, shivering with excitement and cold. They follow the girl back up to Headmistress McGonagall, who is staring with slight shock.

“We’re here for the Sorting, ma’am. Sorry we are late. Might have gotten lost.” The girl pipes up. She stands tall, staring up at the teacher with the air of an equal. One of the new professors clears his throat and McGonagall jumps into action.

“Very well. This is a bit out of order, but we’ll just go with it, shall we? You are all about to be sorted by sitting on this stool and placing the Sorting Hat upon your head. There are four houses, Hufflepuff, Slytherin, Gryffindor, and Ravenclaw. Your house is your family. Good behavior will earn your house points, any rule breaking and those points shall be lost. At the end of the year, the House Cup is awarded to the House with the most points.” She pulls a roll of parchment from her robes.

“When I call your name, go up to the stool.” She unrolls it and the hall seems to take a breath.

“Patricia Acertine” A small girl with little blonde curls trips her way to the stool and sits down.

“Hufflepuff!” Of course, the table beneath the badger banner erupts with cheers.

“Jonathon Allerby” Not a few seconds pass before, “Ravenclaw!” The table boasting the eagle banner claps thunderously.

“Nathan Bortswren” after a time is sorted into Slytherin.

“Peregrine Kendance” becomes the first Gryffindor. Twenty others become sorted, the line dwindling. Six more join the lions. Five go to the snakes. Five to the eagles and four to the badgers. At last, there are only four students left. The two new professors are watching anxiously, suddenly finding it irksome to have last names that begin so late in the alphabet.

“Albus Potter” The hall erupts into furious and excited whispers. His brother cranes his neck to watch as Albus puts one trembling foot in front of the other. He looks up to catch his father’s eye as he sits, finding slight reassurance in the round glasses and the smiling face. He sits upon the stool and tugs on the hat.

“Another Potter? Didn’t think I’d get another of this brood. Fear is in your mind, boy, as rightly expected, yes most expected. The need to not be a disappointment is in here also, but where to put you to not disappoint?” Albus screws up his eyes and begs the hat for the right house.

“You will do best in the house of your greatest fear, Potter. I have never been wrong. Ask Longbottom about that. Very well, I have decided. Slytherin!” The entire hall quiets. Professor Potter smiles broadly and stands up to clap for his son, having suspected he would go into that house. James gets clapped on the back by his best friend, Geoffrey Jordan, and comes to his senses, joining in the cheer for his newly housed bro. Albus sits with a slightly stunned face at the green and silver clad table, looking around his new housemates and receiving warm and mischievous smiles and handshakes. He gives a tentative smile and relaxes to watch his cousin.

Rose Weasley is already on the stool, her shoulders up with confidence and her red hair as flamboyant as her fathers, though she had her mother’s doe brown eyes. She had been named for a flower because it was tradition on her mother’s side of the family. She listens to the hat as it gave its usual complaints about Weasleys and then grins and jumps off the stool as it proclaims “Gryffindor!” She waves to her uncle at the teacher’s table before sitting down.

McGonagall purses her lips as she notices a slight error to the list. A name had been put out of order, but nothing that would cause the end of the world.

“Scorpius Malfoy” The blonde boy with deep brown eyes smiled, slightly frightened, and hops onto the stool, giving his mother a wave before his eyes disappeared beneath the hat.

“What have we here? A Malfoy; but not just any Malfoy, a halfblood Malfoy. My, my, my your ancestors must be horrified. Not that you care, you are distinctly confident, and not a bad mind. No thirst for proving yourself; again back to that confidence, but a thirst for acceptance. Yes, definitely a desire for that. Well, there’s no doubt where you will be best accepted. Slytherin!” He relaxed and ambled off to sit next to his best friend, Albus, and waved at his mother once more. Hermione breathes out a sigh of relief, turning to Harry with a smile. Harry chuckles at his worrying best friend and new Transfiguration teacher while patting her back. Life after the war had been hard and had caused many changes, Hermione and Draco coming together being one of them. Of course, Lavender and Ron had been foretold, seeing as the first thing she had done when they had gone back for their eighth year had been to tackle him to the ground and snog him senseless.

The professors turn their attention back to the center of the hall, where the original first year still stood, shoulders erect and her gaze unwavering as McGonagall scanned the list.

“What is your name, child?” Minerva questions, a bit puzzled as to why there was not another name on the list. The girl slightly fidgeted but held her head high.

“Savannah, Headmistress.” Minerva looks up sharply. The atmosphere becomes tense in the hall as a direct sense of mystery pervades into the air.

“Last name?” Savannah hesitates, her blue eyes shining more clearly as a purple than blue at that moment.

“Savannah Merlin”

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A Word: This, my lovelies, is the beginning. Of a new book, a new journey, and a new life. I would truly appreciate all your thoughts in the comments below. Your loves and hates, what you think is going on, and any questions you have. Your feedback is dearly received and much happily so.

In a moment of sorrow, I would also like to take this chapter to remember my loving sister, who passed away a year ago today. Even when the memory of her becomes too heavy to bear, words from (of course) Harry Potter float through my mind. “The pain we all feel from this terrible loss reminds me, reminds us; that while we may come from different places and speak in different tongues, our hearts beat. As One.” – Albus Dumbledore. She was a bright and determined woman, full of fierce courage and never-ending loyalty. A hard choice between a Gryffindor and a Hufflepuff, and though she was never a Harry Potter fan, she still smiled when I first told her this several years ago. So, to my warrior sister, *~Lumos Always~*.