A Young Girls Attempt at Change
The Hogwarts Express, Evening
Tania had heard many ridiculous fables across her two lives. She had grown up in a time when superstition was but a dying tradition, but a tradition nonetheless.
She, or rather, he had grown up surrounded by tales of the misfortune brought forth by disrespecting deities, of the courage and valour of men long past, and perhaps most importantly of all, he had grown up on the tales of revenants of the past who had come to the land of the living once more to enact the dream they had when they were alive.
Of course, the man Tania had once been had not truly believed in any of the old tales, in any of the ghost stories or that there were things that could not be explained using the scientific method, by performing and repeating tests to get a known result.
And then, the man died, and met a godlike being.
But that is not a tale for this day. On this day, Tania learned of the idiocy of Wizarding Society, of how magic could twist common sense and turn civic duty into something utterly twisted. On this day, Tania learned of the old wives tale that was ‘The Boy Who Lived’.
It was complete and utter hogwash. A dark sorcerer enters the abode of two extremely strong wizards and dies in the process, although only upon completing his goal. Somehow, the child of the two aforementioned wizards survived, albeit with a scar upon his brow that was a consequence of being so close to such a great magical battle.
And what does wizarding media do with this story? Completely ignore the sacrifice and great strength shown by the parents, and instead placed all of the glory of killing the dark wizard, some guy with a weird nonsense name called Voldemort, squarely on the shoulders of a baby barely a single year of age.
‘The Boy Who Lived’ my foot! Tania seethed internally at the great injustice done. She knew how it would feel having someone place upon you unearned glory. And she knew that such glory always came at a price. A price that hounded her till the very end of her days among the military.
She had not been ready to pay her dues when it had come to her as an officer of the military, she fully expected the little waif of a child before her, who looked smaller than even her, a girl whose claim to fame had in part been due to her petite body.
Her heart, set aflame by someone Tania did not much care to remember, went out to the poor boy, and somehow, before Tania could stop herself, she brought the bespectacled boy to her chest and hugged him tight, much to her own horror, the boy seemed to like it however, for some strange reason.
Of course, such a travesty should not spread beyond the cabin. If word spread through the school, Tania would not have cared much, but in the school, there was a dreaded existence that was her godfather, and by extension, the worse existence that was her mother.
Thus, she put a hand through her hair and scattered mites of fairy dust through the cabin. Not much, of course, but just enough to make everyone remember the previous fifteen or so minutes only hazily, as if they were recalling an old memory they do not think about in general.
Tania politely left the cabin containing her only acquaintances, who were, in order of how bearable they were to Tania, Neville, Ron, Hermione, Neville’s frog (the thing had a mouth worthy of a sailor, and absolutely loathed wells, for some reason. Something about being stuck in one?), the twins whose names slipped Tania’s mind, Harry himself and Ron’s rat.
Something about that rat was odd to Tania, but she could not really place a finger on it.
Sighing deeply, Tania went back to her cabin, where she found Antony missing, because he decided to be a cat and enjoy yet another of his feline adventures. He was, however, gracious enough to leave behind her pointy hat.
Tania put on the hat and fell asleep, waiting for the train to reach its destination. As she surrendered herself to the sweet nothingness of sleep, she thought about how strangely the people she interacted with looked at her face, and her ears for some reason.
Hogwarts Express, Dusk
Tania was shaken awake by one of the twins, who told her that, as a first year, she must be among the first to leave the train. In addition, all her luggage, with the inclusion of her pet, would be in the castle.
Once she got off the train, she was immediately greeted by a huge giant of a man, a man who directed her and everyone else her age, including her previous partners in conversation into boats for some contrived reason. The only children missing the boats were the twins she had first talked to in the train.
She got herself comfortable in the boat, admiring the scenery before her, a scenery present obviously for the sole purpose of increasing the wow factor for the kids. Tania had to admit, if only internally, that it worked.
If nothing else, Hogwarts, her (forcefully) chosen (among a grand total of one choice) school was grand in scale. Of course, she had quite a while to admire the scenery. She could feel calls from the lake beneath her too, singing songs of jubilation and welcome for their princess.
She smiled, her head hidden by an overly large hat which she was growing increasingly fond of by the minute. Perhaps she would like her stay within the castle after all.
The Great Hall, Hogwarts
Fred and George were doing what they did second best, along with their best mate Lee at the Gryffindor table. Laying bets on names and how many each House would get.
They did not know the name of the little girl they had met in the train, though, so they just made a bet of five knuts on her being Gryffindor, because she most definitely had a lot of spunk.
Of course, there was a token bet of a single knut on their brother being a Gryffindor. It had no return for some reason, but they were honorbound to make that bet. And then there was the big one, the moneypot, the one with a dividend of FOUR, the House of one rather notorious bespectacled boy with a scar on his forehead.
Fred and George both bet three sickles that he would be a Gryffindor. Of course, everybody knew of the ‘Boy Who Lived’ and his family history, but hope would make suckers out of everyone.
The bets were placed and Fred and George began wrapping it all up before the professors could see what they were actually doing. It was not exactly the most legal of things, after all.
They did not have to wait long. They were soon treated with the view of Mother Goose McGonagall along with several dozen little duckling eleven year old first-years. Even among them, the little heterochromatic girl was easily discernible, what with her larger-than-average pointy hat and all.
She was in the middle of the pack, looking like absolutely nothing was phasing her, although, from what Fred could see, she definitely appreciated the view granted by the Great Hall.
George wondered whatever her name was. She was clearly of magical blood, and old, powerful magical blood too. There was simply no other explanation for her features.
The twins had both seen her face, and both of them had been entranced within seconds, albeit only slightly. The girl had to have at least a bit of magical creature within her. And a very powerful one too, to have affected her so drastically.
Not that the twins cared all that much, beyond a passing curiosity on her strange appearance. They did not really have anything to do as the eleven year olds quickly shuffled down the hall. Only one of them was wearing a pointy hat, though, and thus made herself extremely easy to spot and maintain a vigil on.
The Mother Goo- sorry, Professor McGonagall separated herself from the not-so-little flock of little ducklings, stepping up onto what the twins could only describe as the thingy before the Sorting Hat, list of names in hand.
“Now,” said Professor McGonagall, instantly silencing the whole Great Hall. “Impressive power, that.” Fred muttered to Lee next to him, who snorted and replied snarkily under his breath, careful not to attract the wrathful professor’s gaze towards himself, “Impressive for what? Stopping parties? Fred, sometimes you really are bonkers. What would you want with a trick like that? It doesn’t suit ya at all, mate!”
George, who overheard the whole conversation, put his hand over Lee’s shoulder and laughed merrily in total agreement. His laughter grew in merriment when he saw the bummed out look on his twin’s face.
“Bu-but it would be so cool…” Fred muttered, to which George, suddenly flipping an unknown switch, wiped a tear from his eye and sadly patted his brother’s back. “Indeed it would be, brother, indeed it would be.”
In an act that would be utterly unexpected by anybody other than the duo he frequently aligned himself with, Fred stopped being bummed out by his own nonsense and laughed, “I would much rather make a room laugh louder than make it go silent!”
“Hear hear! Hear hear!” The whole table heard that declaration, and raised a toast to it. Immediately earning the displeasure of their own Head of House. It was certain to cost the third-years dearly in the future, but all three of them already had a standing appointment of an hour every thursday in her office anyway.
It had been that way for years.
Everyone descended into silence again as the headmaster of their beloved school began to speak.
“I have a few start of term notices I wish to announce,” he began, “First Years, please note that the dark, scary forest beyond the Grounds is strictly forbidden from entry to all students.”
He seemed to wish to end it there, but he continued, almost as an afterthought, “also, our Caretaker,” to whom he gestured towards, and who did not acknowledge him in any way whatsoever, “Mr. Filch has asked me to remind you that the fourth row corridor on the right-hand side is out of bounds to everyone who does not wish to die a most painful death.”
It was on that morbid note that he ended his speech with a ‘Thank You’.
It was then that the Sorting began. The first girl to be brought to the Hat was made Gryffindor, much to our joy, and everyone else’s consternation.
“That is a good omen if I do say so myself, Fred.”
“I must agree George, it is indee-”
“SLYTHERIN!”
Lee kicked both the twins in their shins, “Serves ya right for jinxing us like that.”
“That bloody hurt, man!” “I must agree, that hurt a lot!”
Both brothers, of course, immediately promised vengeance. The clouds were dark indeed in Lee’s future.
As they brooded together, they were jolted by Lee, to which they jointly exclaimed, “Hey, we are plotting a prank devious indeed here, so please keep- hey is that Ronnikins getting under the Hat?”
“GRYFFINDOR!”
All past insults forgotten, the twins hugged their best friend tight as they jumped up from sheer joy, “That’s our Ronnikins! That’s a true Weasley, right there!”
The little redhead boy came in with a flaming blush on his cheeks, asking his brother softly to stop it, only for their antics to increase in severity, at least until McGonagall spoke her next words, which instantly silenced the whole hall.
“Harry Potter?” she asked.
A little boy with raven-black shaggy hair answered, going to the Hat. The silence that permeated the Hall was so pregnant, nobody would have been surprised if a newborn Magical Creature popped out of nowhere.
The tension could have been cut by a knife, the Hall was so high-strung.
“GRYFFINDOR” exclaimed the Hat.
The whole table burst into cheers, from the first years to the seventh years. Every other Table was noticeably quiet in comparison.
The twins were comfortable in the rambunctious party being thrown for the famous Boy Who Lived as one little kid after another was sorted. Until the last one remaining, that is.
It was the girl they had been interested in, the one that triggered their Prank Sense. Her name silenced the whole Great Hall, for nobody could believe their own ears.
“Titania… Titania Dumbledore”, said the Head of Gryffindor, seemingly disbelieving her own words as she said so.
In the absolute silence of the room, Tania quickly reached the Sorting Hat, plopped herself down on the seat, took off her hat, which she quite liked, and put on the Sorting Hat.
She fully expected the Sorting to take a while.
“Hmm, what do we have here, a little elf with a connection to- Your High-highness?! What are you doing here? Does the Queen- yes, yes she does.”
The Hat seemed to need a moment to calm himself down. Tania fully obliged. She knows fully well that sometimes, a moment is needed for shocks to properly settle.
He seemed to regain his vigour after a short rest and continued, implicitly acknowledging her full status and everything that entailed. “Your Highness, forgive me, but you must know that none else but you will ever know of the details of this conversation.”
Tania nodded, almost jostling the Hat off of her head as she did so. She waited then, for him to begin asking her questions for her Sorting to begin.
It took a while, almost half a minute, before the Hat spoke again. “Your Highness, forgive me for saying this, but you have certainly lived a most… interesting life. Please rest assured that Her Majesty the Queene never harmed you in any way. The Ritual you took part in was the Taking of The Names, and is different for every participant, although you are only the fourth.”
“Please take note that your former self has only been temporarily pushed down by your new self. Already you are retaining aspects of your old self. But please rest assured that you will remain yourself. Think of it as a period of deep introspection. Only the ‘you’ that you best prefer would remain.”
The Hat awkwardly continued, as if ashamed that it had even spoken so much, “please be aware that I only said so much because you were very deeply worried, and I wished for you to stop. Now, about the Sorting itself.”
The Hat cleared its non-existent throat, and spoke, “You, Titania Dumbledore, are compatible with every House to a ridiculous degree.”
Titania did not know whether to be offended or to blush at that. Unfortunately, her subconscious chose for her, and she felt a furious heat spread all the way up from her chest. This did not impede the Hat in the slightest of course.
“You are as cunning and ambitious as every good Slytherin should be, and perhaps a bit more. You are braver than any Gryffindor has any right to be. You are more loyal and protective of yours as any Hufflepuff before you ever was, and your thirst for knowledge feels endless.”
“What do you wish to become, Tania? A brave frontline fighter, an orator pulling the strings from behind the scenes, a loyal supporter of a cause you truly believe in, or a path not yet walked on?”
Sensing her decision already made, the Hat tried to persuade her to take another House, something concerning what she already knew, something she would feel comfort in.
But Tania did not wish to feel the comfort of the past. She wished to grow, to change. And the first step to growth was to admit that she had shortcomings. Which she did a long time ago.
The second step was to fix those shortcomings, which she fully intended to do. Much to the exasperation of her Hat.
“Are you sure? No take backs!”
She nodded fiercely, and this time, the Hat did fall off. But as it did, it made an announcement that nearly split Tania’s head in half with how loud it was.
“RAVENCLAW!”
She had made her choice, and now she only had to make sure that she had made the right one. As she left the Hat on its stool and headed to her table, she could feel the sights of those she had failed and caused hurt to in the past behind her.
The first step to change, to growth, was always understanding that one was imperfect and that there was a way to grow beyond those imperfections.