Talking to the Head

Amity stood outside the door, a little scared. This room had her new headmaster in it. It didn't help that she'd never actually gone to school before but a situation with her...ah...powers had caused her to miss the start of the school year.

Now she was standing outside the Headmaster's office, scared out of her witts and hoping she'll still be allowed to attend the school. She had been keeping up with the work...sort of. She had read all her textbooks about a million times. They were probably memorized by now. The last thing she needed to do was knock and be told which house she would be in. She raised her shaking hand towards the great wooden door.

"Knock," she told herself quietly. "Just knock."

She rapped her knuckles three times and winced at how the sliced through the silence and echoed off the walls. Now she was seriously regretting knocking.

Moments like these were the moments he regretted leaving to deal with family business. Mycroft had piles of scrolls left on his table, one after another with business that honestly could have been fixed without him. He sighed as he signed off another one and threw it down the shoot for owls to take it as necessary. His personal owl wouldn't be doing this, Fortus was specifically for his personal letters not business. Looking to his left he saw the bird fast asleep not even bothering to open his eyes at the fact that his master was working. Mycroft chuckled and shook his head, going back to the work he dreaded.

As he signed another one, he heard a knock on the door and looked up surprise. He didn't have an appointment did he? Nevertheless, he moved his hand, signaling for the door to open automatically. Before him was a young girl, a young girl that looked nervous. He let out a polite smile, something that was out of character, but he wanted her to feel comforted.

"Come on, make yourself comfortable"

Amity carefully made her way to the chair in front of the Headmaster's desk. Scrolls piled on top of it made it seem as if he had either been swamped with business all at once or had neglected it until it got out of hand. She sat down and smiled nervously back to the Head.

"I'm Amity Gray," she introduced and felt bad because of the lie her parents were making her tell. "I was ill right when term started and I've only gotten to come to the school now. I'm sorry if I've caused any trouble."

He could tell the student was shy just by the way she approached his desk. He waved his hand closing the door behind them to ensure privacy. He wanted to give her his undivided attention and muttered a spell to remove all scrolls from his desk to show he cared about whatever she wanted to talk about. What did pop on his desk was her file that he kept organized.

Opening the file, he began to look at her history assessing it as she began to speak. Quickly absorbing the information, he closed it and smiled briefly at her.

"Do not worry Miss Gray, you're no trouble at all. I see that you are behind by half a year, now my question is, are you comfortable in your current academic status and the environment of the school in general?"

Amity smiled at Professor Holmes' reply and relaxed. He was a lot nicer than she thought a Headteacher would be.

"Well, I've never attended school before so I can't really compare, but it does seem like a nice place. I'm quite satisfied with the theory of my classes but I understand that I have a lot of catching up to do with the practical work," she replied to answer his question. Then a question of her own popped into her head. "I was wondering, what house am I in?"

As Mycroft saw that she had relaxed, he was glad that he was at least helpful when it came to relaxing her. Looking back she noticed that the girl was so young, and while she liked it was obviously confused at how things worked in Hogwarts.

"Well, I've never attended school before so I can't really compare, but it does seem like a nice place. I'm quite satisfied with the theory of my classes but I understand that I have a lot of catching up to do with the practical work,"

Looking through his files he wondered if he could have Tess look over her and explain things to her and how they worked so she could get used to it faster. He wasn't sure if Amity knew about how it all worked.

[i]"I was wondering, what house am I in?"[i]

That was when he realized that in no way had anyone made the effort of sorting her. Getting up, he signaled her to follow, and he walked towards the glass case that held the sorting hat. It mumbled things of being woken up but he simply shushed it.

"Very well, please try to calm down, as the sorting hat will begin to choose what house suits you better." he explained as he placed it on her head and waited.

Amity followed the Headteacher to a giant glass case with some sort of old hat in it. They had a muffled argument, which Professor Holmes ended immediately, and he reached in to bring the grubby looking hat out of it's setting.

"Very well, please try to calm down, as the sorting hat will begin to choose what house suits you better."

Amity tensed as the hat was placed over her eyes and jumped when she heard it whisper in her ear.

"Well, look at that mind!"

"What?" she whispered back, unaware that she was, in fact, talking to a hat.

"You know the whole first year course!"

"What else was I supposed to do for half a year?" Amity replied indignantly. She honestly didn't see a problem in knowing what was coming up in classes.

"Of course you don't dear. Well then, Ravenclaw!"

Mycroft waited patiently for the hat to sort, knowing that it could be a quick one, or it could last a long while. For him, it had been debating between Ravenclaw and Slytherin, but the way his mind worked and how he dealt with situations had made the hat sort him into Slytherin. Interestingly enough, his sister had been on the same boat, with her heart being a Hufflepuff, her loyalty being a Gryffindor, her mind a Ravenclaw, but her quick wit and ambition had sealed her fate, He remembered her telling him what the hat had said about her and he and smiled.

As he heard the hat say ravenclaw, he clapped out of politeness. He suspected the girl would have gone there of Hufflepuff. And he smiled happy for her.

"Ah Ravenclaw, congratulations, a good house." he said as he removed the hat. "Any questions about your house? About the school? I have to suggest that you should approach the Head of schools for help adjusting."

"Where do I go now? Is there a special place for Ravenclaws or something?" Amity asked, tryig to be polite. She had honestly not expected to be in Ravenclaw. She didn't know where she would go but Ravenclaw wasn't it. Her home education had never been satisfactory to her parents, she was never brave enough to stand up to them, she never had friends to be loyal to and she wasn't cunning or ambitious. So she assumed she was only put in Ravenclaw because she spent half a year off and studied before she was sorted. This made her kind of gloomy, what would have happened if she had come at the start of the year? Would she have been sent home? Would they have said there was a mistake.

Amity shook her head, now was not the time to think of 'what ifs'. "Also, who is the head of schools?"

He bit back a curse, thinking of how the deputy head teacher did nothing to help the situation. It seemed like his time away, things weren't really in order. He bit back a sigh, instead smiling kindly to her and taking out the crest of Ravenclaw from his desk and handed it over to her along with her tie.

"Ravenclaw is the house characterised by their wit, learning, and wisdom. Your colors are blue and bronze, and its symbol is the eagle. The element is air, and it is represented by its symbol. You will fit well in there" he explained as he handed the things to her.

At her next round of questions he cleared his throat.

"You are assigned the fifth floor housing for your school. One wing is assigned to girls your year, and there you will find your fellow classmates. Luckily for you, on the same floor, on another side of the tower is the Head's room. There are the Heads of the school, yours is Rosalinda Reese, she is a competent teacher and mentor. But if you want people your age you can talk to the Head Boy or Head girl. Those are two students in the older years that show advance knowledge in academics. Our current heads are Benjamin Watson, and my sister Tess Holmes. Both can help you in any way."