Clothes shopping was not an activity I ever derived much joy from. In my first life I had purchased quality items that needed replacing infrequently with traditional cuts that would not go out of fashion quickly. During my second life, I wore uniforms and while for a time that meant I needed to have them tailored due to being very small, eventually I was able to just purchase standard uniform items. Even after leaving the military, I found myself regularly employed in positions with specific requirements that made my choices simple with little consideration to looks.
For the first years of this life, I had little choice in my outfit due to the limits of the orphanage's funds and the generosity of donated clothing. For the first time in multiple lives, I was given a chance to build my wardrobe to my preferences and I found the experience exhausting. Asking Professor Burbage why there was no standardized sizing to the clothes that would help me find clothes appropriately sized, she explained that most of the magic users had spells for minor alterations and that most clothing made in the Magical World was made to order.
Which meant I had to try on every article of clothing that caught my eye. Thankfully my day uniform for classes was already included with the robes we would be wearing, but for casual wear outside is classes and the weekends I was left to my own devices with only a few general guidelines from the Professor. Reasonable restrictions like not being too short or showing too much skin. Restrictions that I was comfortable following because I did not have to conform to gender outfits.
Was it too much for clothes designed for women to include pockets? To include a place to hold house keys, a wallet, maybe a bag of candy coated chocolates. While bags, purses, and satchels have their uses, a casual exertion to get a coffee at the corner shop or a regular day at a job should not require such a bulky object to hold a few items. Especially with how easy such bags were to steal or lose somewhere.
While I did not know how much I would need pockets during the weekends, it was better to have and not need than need and have a bulky bag getting in my way. To that end, I needed to go back to Diagon Alley to see if a few items were available. Briefly looking through my schoolbooks, it was clear wand work was a major part of most of the lessons. While the foci was different and the methods unusual, the analogue to the orbs from my second life was an apt comparison. Magic could be performed without an intermediary, but the output was significantly lessened to the point certain spells were rendered unusable. As such, my wand was an important equipment item that needed care and maintenance. Care and maintenance that I did not have supplies or training for. Perhaps these items would be provided and plentiful at the school, but I did not survive my second life by being unprepared and with equipment in poor shape. I would not let it occur in this life either.
Asking for permission to leave because some items were forgotten was a simple endeavor. Particularly as I was left with the remainder of my first year orphan funds, the point was simplified that I would not require any funds from donations and my meals for the day could go to the other children who would not be able to purchase a meal out of their own pocket. I was made to promise that I would be careful, but a smile and some assurances that I would be fine saw to it that the Head Matriarch aloud me to leave on my own.
The trip over was just as uneventful, though I had to walk as I did not have a pass this time for the underground and had no pounds to purchase one. I would see to it that a few galleons were exchanged just in case something turned up while I was in the 'Muggle' world as Professor Burbage called it.
After a quick meal at the Leaky Cauldron, I began wandering my way through Diagon Alley, looking for a shop that might have the items I was looking for. Spotting a household cleaning supply shop, I decided to check in there first. At the very least, one cleaning shop would likely be able to point me towards a different one that has the goods I needed.
"Hello Deary," the elderly lady running the counter greeted me as I stepped in. "Did your mother send you in to get her some supplies?"
"Mom is dead," I answered crisply, correcting an incorrect assumption. "I was actually just coming in to see if you could direct me to where I might find a kit or supplies to take care of the wand I just got."
I ignored the expression on the lady's face and the apology she gave. Not having a mother was nothing new for me. After her apology was made she gave me the directions I needed and I thanked her.
Following the instructions, I found the shop and was able to procure a wand servicing kit, which amounted to items to clean and polish the wand as if was just a fancy wooden decoration, but was surely more useful than just keeping the wand looking pretty. They also had a few holsters marketed as a way to not blow a buttock off in case of misfiring while in a back pocket. A sensible reason for purchasing one. The salesperson tried up selling me on all sorts charms that could be included for only minimal fees, but I was able to avoid all that by explaining I was only looking for a basic model for my time at school and whatever was cheapest would be fine. I did make mention of returning at a later time when I was prepared for an upgrade, which seemed to perk the man up some.
Having achieved my shopping goal, and spotting a cafe, I decided that I could afford a treat before returning to the Orphanage and preparing for my trip to school. The nuns don't need to know about one little cup of coffee.
—-
On September 1st, bright and early, the Head Matriarch drove me to King's Cross Station where I followed Professor Burbage's instructions for locating Platform 9 3/4, where a large red train was waiting.
—-
Harry Potter *
Having made it to the platform, Harry Potter began to make his way down looking for an empty seat. Getting towards the back, he spotted a cabin that only had a single girl that looked to be his age in it.
"Um, excuse me, would it be ok if I took one of those seats?" Harry asked the girl.
A pair of bright blue eyes stared down at him. Harry felt like a mouse in front of a snake, the hairs on the back of his neck raising. With a nod of her head, the tension broke.
"You going to need some help getting your trunk up?" She asked.
Harry gave her a smile. "Yes. Thank you."
The girl stood and met him at the back of the carriage. With her help the trunk was put up into the storage rack and Hedwig was safely secured.
"Thank you. I am Harry."
"Tanya," the girl said as she took up her seat again. Harry did not feel she was simply looking out the window, her gaze seeming to sweep the platform. "We should be leaving shortly."
"Are your family full of wizards?" Harry asked, curious about his traveling companion.
"Don't know. Dead as far as I know. You?"
Harry looked at his hands, his cheeks reddening as he knew how hard it could be dealing with dead parents. "My parents are dead. Both were apparently magical, but my aunt and uncle are not."
A sardonic smile appeared on Tanya's face. "A pair of orphans, huh? I take it you live with your relatives though?"
Harry frowned as he thought about his relatives, and the mutual dislike they all shared. "I wish I didn't. They are horrible."
Tanya looked at Harry again, the hairs on his neck raising again. Looking back, Harry refused to break eye contact.
"Perhaps we should drop this topic," Tanya said.
"Yes," Harry agreed after a moment.
The staring match was broken when the train started moving.
"Do you know how long the ride will be?" Tanya asked.
Harry shook his head, trying to think of Hagrid had mentioned anything.
"We should probably go ahead and put on our uniforms then. Best to make a good first impression with the faculty."
Tanya got up and began to dig through her trunk, quickly grabbing her clothes. As she was closing her trunk, the door opened up.
A young redheaded boy, the youngest boy of the family that helped Harry into the platform, was looking in. "Is anyone sitting there? Everywhere else is full."
"You can have it, but first the two of you need to wait outside while I change."
Harry's face flushed red as he pushed the other boy out and closed the door behind himself.
"Hey Ron," an older redhead, one of the twins of the family, called out.
"Listen, we're going down the middle of the train," the other said.
"Lee Jordan's got a giant tarantula down there."
"Right," Ron mumbled.
Harry kept his head down, staying close to the door.
"What are the two of you doing outside that cabin?" One of the twins asked.
"A girl is changing in there, so we are waiting until she is done," Harry said, his cheeks flushed. The twins looked at each other with grins beginning to grow. As one was about to open his mouth, the door slid open and Tanya wearing her black school robes strode out, her hat sitting neatly in her spot.
"Your turn," she said as she traded places with Harry.
"I'll need to get my uniform," Ron said with a blush.
Tanya rolled her eyes. "Go." Her voice came out like an order. Full of confidence that she will be obeyed without question.
"You heard the little lady little Ronnikens," One of the twins said, putting an arm around his brother.
The other did the same and began dragging the young boy away. "Indeed. We have to get you all dressed up right."
With the redheads heading off, Harry went into the cabin alone, dug out his uniform, and got dressed. Opening the door, he let Tanya back into the cabin. Following her gaze, he saw that they were out of London now and beginning to pass through the hillside of the country.
"This is my first train ride. Did you get much chance?" Harry asked, breaking the silence.
Tanya's hand balled into a fist that she placed on the window. Harry did not think she didn't hear him, but the silence dragged on for a moment before she turned to look at him.
"I've been on a few trains. It was always the best part of the trip."
"Really? Why?"
Tanya looked out the window again, her eyes looking unfocused. "Peace."
Harry could understand why someone would enjoy a bit of peace. His family rarely gave him any, but those quiet moments where they left him alone was better than when they gave him a lot of attention. A little depressing at times, but still better in a way.
Harry joined her in watching the scenery pass by until the door opened again and the Ron came back. His eyes were a bit watery.
"Are you alright?" Tanya asked, her eyes focused again. Harry's arm hairs closest to Ron raising.
"I don't like spiders," Ron answered with a shiver. Shaking his head, Ron snapped himself out of his funk. "Anyways, I'm Ron. Ron Weasley."
"Tanya Degurechaff."
"Harry. Uh, Harry Potter." Ron's eyes grew wide at hearing Harry's name. Tanya's eyes narrowed at Ron's reaction.
"No way. You're him? Do you, do you have the…?" Ron trailed off as he indicated his forehead. Harry lifted the bangs of his hair, showing the lightning bolt scar on his forehead.
"Pardon me for interrupting whatever this is, but how do you know Harry and that he has a scar if you have never met before?" Tanya asked, her glare at Ron causing all of Harry's hairs to stand on end.
"You don't know who Harry Potter is?" Ron asked with glee in his voice.
"I am an orphan and have not exactly had a chance to keep up with the news in the Magical World."
"Oh." All the excitement left Ron as he realized he seemed to have made a mistake. Looking over at Harry he flinched slightly as he seemed to piece together he was the only one in the compartment with a family. "Well, Harry defeated You-Know-Who."
"Who?"
"Voldemort," Harry answered Tanya's question.
"And who is Voldemort?"
Harry could see Ron was gaping and was not ready to answer. "A dark wizard who killed my parents when I was a baby. Apparently I defeated him when he tried to kill me and got left this scar."
Tanya scoffed at Harry's story. "More likely your parents and this Voldemort person killed each other and you got hit by shrapnel."
Harry raised his hands, acknowledging the point. "You are probably right. I don't remember anything of it other than a green light."
After a moment of silence Ron spoke up. "You two said his name."
"I'm not trying to be brave saying Vold- You-Know-Who's name. I just never know you shouldn't," Harry explained, shifting in mid-sentence at Ron's gasp.
"Why shouldn't we say Voldemort's name?"
Ron flinched at the use of the name. "It is bad luck."
Tanya took on a thoughtful pose. "Normally I would write such superstitions off as an illogical flight of fancy, but considering our textbooks not only mention, but will teach us curses, I suppose there could be a curse tied to the name." Tanya looked at Harry and the hairs on the back of good neck raised again. "It would be wise of us to take caution and follow the social norms until such time we are certain about the validity of such superstitions."
Harry nodded in agreement as he adjusted himself in the seat.
The three children took a moment to sit in silence until Harry started asking about Ron's family, the conversation beginning to meander around various topics as Tanya asked a few questions about various things Ron brought up.
At a bit past noon, the clattering of a cart coming down the corridor heralded the arrival of an elderly lady pushing a food cart. "Anything off the cart dears?"
Ron's ears went pink and he muttered he had sandwiches. Harry had not had breakfast and leapt to his feet. Tanya stood up and looked over the options briefly before asking about coffee, getting a shake off the head.
Harry was not used to having any pocket money and not seeing any candies he recognized, decided to buy some of each. Harry dumped the lot onto an empty seat as Ron pulled out a lumpy bag that had several sandwiches and Tanya pulled out a wrapped sandwich of her own.
"She always forgets I don't like corned beef." Ron complained.
"How do you feel about turkey?" Tanya asked showing her sandwich off.
"I like it better. You want to trade?"
"Yes."
"I'll trade for one too," Harry said, offering a pasty he had just bought.
"You sure?" Ron seemed skeptical. Harry has never had anything to share or anyone to share with and was enjoying the feeling.
"Yeah, take one. You too," Harry tossed both of his traveling companions pasties as he bit into one of his own.
"Thank you," Tanya said. Her eyes watching Harry carefully as she bit into the pasty. Again, her focus raised the hairs on the back of Harry's neck as he was being studied.
Harry waved the thanks off and the three of them got to work eating Harry's pile of snacks, Ron explaining what all the different snacks were.
After some time and a large dent made into the pile of treats, a round faced boy opened the compartment door.
"Sorry, but have you seen a toad at all?" He asked.
When the three shook their heads, he wailed, "I've lost him! He keeps getting away from me!"
"Didn't you say your brother is a perfect?" Tanya asked Ron.
"Uh, yeah. Why?"
"Come along, your brother should be able to help. It is one of his responsibilities," Tanya said, bringing the two other boys along with her, leaving Harry alone in the compartment.
He looked out a window, watching the scenery that was forests and rivers now. A smile appeared on his lips as he thought that he had made his first two friends and there was no Dudley around to scare them away.
As he was thinking on that, a bushy haired girl opened the compartment door. "Have you seen a toad? Neville has lost one."
"No, but Tanya and Ron went with him to find Ron's brother. He's a prefect and should be able to help."
The girl bit her lip with her slightly oversized teeth. "I should have thought of that," she said angrily to herself as she closed the door and wandered off.
Harry went back to watching the scenery go by until Ron and Tanya returned, having successfully helped Neville get his toad back through Ron's brother. They went back to talking, mostly Ron explaining things about the Wizarding World with Tanya and Harry mostly just asking questions about things Ron mentioned.
The sun was nearly set when the announcement they were five minutes from arriving came into the intercom system and that all students should leave their belongings on the train. With that warning, the three students began putting away Harry's leftover snacks into pockets.
* Read the first book up to Harry arrives at the platform. I am not recapping all of that when nothing important changes.
1592Tanya Degurechaff
It was dark by the time we arrived at the station and shuffled our way out of the train. As we were beginning to try to figure out where to go, a loud voice called out for first year students. A loud voice belonging to what looked like a large bear dressed in human clothes. One of the acquaintances I had made on the train ride, a nice young boy named Harry, apparently knew the half bear man.
Following him, we were lead down a dark and slightly slippery path to boats that would take us to Hogwarts. I could not see what was propelling the boats, but chose not to concern myself overly much with the detail. This was supposedly a prestigious learning institute, there was no way they would put the students in unnecessary danger, especially untrained first years.
When the castle we would be learning and living in came to view, I felt my confidence in our safety was validated. While evaluating the security of the castle would be difficult in the dark of the night, I could see it had large walls that would be difficult for a grounded force to scale and the construction appeared to be out of sturdy, thick stone. I could better evaluate the defensibility at a later time when the light was better, but castles were a standard military structure for hundreds of years. While the reasons for their phasing out were still valid concerns, for a learning institute it would be perfectly adequate for a non-militarized defense against local fauna and perhaps the occasional drunken fool.
Passing into a grotto we arrived at what I assumed to be some form of servant's entrance as it was clearly not the primary entrance. Likely it was the entrance that shipments were taken to, or that was its primary function when this castle was used for actual military purposes.
Regardless, the humanoid bear gave the door a knock that was swiftly answered by an older woman in green. A Professor McGonagall going by what our guide here said. This was supposedly our Deputy Headmistress according to the acceptance letter I was given. She had an appropriately stern expression on her face and carried her age with dignity befitting our superior.
She lead us down a short path to a large set of doors that had a lot of chattering coming from it. The primary hall if I was to make a guess where all the students were gathered for opening ceremonies.
"Welcome to Hogwarts," said Professor McGonagall. "The start-of-term banquet will begin shortly, but before you take your seats in the Great Hall, you will be sorted into your houses."
Taking care of formalities before eating was reasonable. Hopefully it was not overly involved and would go swiftly.
"The Sorting is a very important ceremony because, while you are here, your house will be something like your family within Hogwarts. You will have classes with the rest of your house, sleep in your house dormitory, and spend free time in your house common room."
Build a camaraderie among the students and a sense of unit cohesion. It almost took me back to my time in office school.
"The four houses are called Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. Each house has its own noble history and each has produced outstanding witches and wizards. While you are at Hogwarts, your triumphs will earn your house points, while any rulebreaking will lose house points. At the end of the year, the house with the most points is awarded the house cup, a great honor. I hope each of you will be a credit to whichever house becomes yours."
Ah, group punishment. Potentially effective method of using peer pressure to keep the more troublesome students in line. Elegant method of encouraging the students in each house to work together. And if each individual student's triumph earns house points, that is excellent motivation for the best students to help the ones in their house who are struggling the most.
"The Sorting Ceremony will take place in a few minutes in front of the rest of the school. I suggest you all smarten yourselves up as much as you can while you are waiting."
It was a reasonable request considering the state a few of my fellow first years were in.
"I shall return when we are ready for you," said Professor McGonagall. "Please wait quietly."
As soon as the professor was through the door, my fellow students showed how they were all still immature children that I would need to help by beginning to chatter and speculate what the sorting was going to be like.
Tests? Challenges? How foolish. The staff would obviously want the students divided evenly between the houses and would clearly use some form of lottery system. Random chance would be the deciding factor of where everyone went. Considering Ron's earlier statement that his whole family was sorted into Gryffindor, the random chance might be rigged slightly, but that was the purview of the faculty.
A gasp broke me from my thoughts as several silver figures came through the wall above our heads. Illusion? Projection? One mentioned something about an annoyance not be a ghost. Was that what these were? Spirits of the dead trapped here?
Professor McGonagall returning and shooing the spectres away and the ghosts obeying readily was suspicious. This was theater and a lesson. The castle was haunted, but we were not to be concerned about the spirits wandering the halls and not everything we would be taught would be in the classroom.
Lining up in the manner of the Professor's instructions and following her out of the waiting area into the Great Hall, a large space with several long tables the older students were at and a table the staff was sitting at that was easily visible to and had good line of sight over all the students. The floating candles above the tables was a lovely touch that added to the magical charm of the room, but the real star of the decor was the ceiling, decorated to look like the night sky. I suspected some form of illusion work as I could see a few clouds moving across and the constellations appeared right for this time of year.
My mind began trying to crunch the numbers on how I would recreate such an effect, but the sticking point was how to keep it going. One of the limiting factors of my previous life's magic was the need for active casting for any effect. I had made rooms appear a different size, hiding behind an illusionary wall, in my last life tricking people into believing I was not there, but to keep the illusion going required me to be in the room the entire time casting the spell. While it was conceivable that one of the staff members, or someone hidden from view, was casting the sky illusion, the practicality of doing some seemed wasteful. No, it would seem that in addition to using a form of magic my last life has dropped as inefficient and illogical, they had ways to create permanent effects.
If I was to make an analogy, I might compare my previous life's computation orb based system to the early mechanical computers, able to calculate and produce results quickly and far more robust and sturdy. This wand waving spell speaking method might be more equivalent to transistor based, digital computing, able to achieve a wider arrange of effects with increased longevity at the cost of being slower initially to get the spells going. Or perhaps the computation orb is the digital analogue. The analogy is not perfect, but the point was that they were two methods to the same end result with pros and cons and this world chose to stick with the more traditional magic system for reasons they found valid.
A hat beginning to sing brought me out of my thoughts. A ratty old pointed hat was singing. Singing about the virtues of the different houses. So not entirely random, but based upon vague personality values then. That would explain Ron's family as values are often taught down generations, so a family tradition of teaching their sons to be chivalrous would result in the sons tending to go to the same house. His parents must be excellent in their parental role to instill values across so many children so consistently.
Each of the personality values listed for each house were admirable in their own ways and none of them would be particularly distasteful to me should I need to signal to my fellows that I fit in appropriately. Though I was curious how our personalities would be judged. We have not been here long enough for any of the faculty to get an understanding of who we are.
The first to be sorted was up, a Hannah Abbot. Looking like we will be sorted alphabetically by last name. The hat was placed on Ms Abbot's head and after a moment the hat called out that she was to be sorted to Hufflepuff.
So the hat was some sort of personality test or gave one when placed on the head. Would it ask the questions? Was it going to invade the privacy of my mind? It looked really old, how do we know it was still functioning as intended and didn't need replacing?
Ms Abbot a was apparently the only A name as we went straight into B names. After five students were sorted, C was skipped and it was suddenly my turn. Sitting onto a stool and having the hat placed onto my head, I could almost feel the way the magic of the hat tried entering my mind.
'I am Tanya von Degurechaff. My mind is my own and my privacy will not be violated.' I thought as I instinctively attempted to stop the incursion. Being X violating the privacy of my mind was bad enough, I refused to let that happen again if I could avoid it.
"Oh, a secretive one?" The hat muttered into my ear. "Relax, I'm just going to take a quick peak into your head and sort you. I am bound to not share anything I find. Though whatever it is that makes you reluctant to show, you should probably tell someone about."
The hat is not an enemy. I can loosen my hold. It is not Being X and it is bound not to share. I just needed to relax.
'I find out you did share anything, I will burn you and piss on your ashes.'
"Sheesh. No need to get violent, I can't even if I wanted to. Now open up."
I relaxed myself and felt the haze of magic come into my head. Subtle even with me expecting something it felt like the buzz after a few sips of hard liquor beginning to settle in.
"Well, well, an old one I see. Not too often someone who has lived a full life, make that a life and a half, puts me on to get sorted. Normally I would just look at potential personality traits and place you somewhere appropriate, but you have a lot of experience to judge who are with. Now let's see. Well read, with a willingness to follow your scholarly passions. A bit of practicality in what you choose to learn about, but still a good head for learning. A very good work ethic and while you might lie to yourself, you do care about the men you had under your command. A good mind for politics and you know how to navigate situations to gain favor with others in an attempt to reach a goal. But no, I believe there is one house that fits you best. You may lie to yourself about why you kept going back, tried to pass out off as someone else's fault, but your bravery and warrior spirit truly makes you a GRYFFINDOR!*"
The hat didn't have to yell in my ear. Placing the hat back on the stool, I went to the table giving me polite applause for being sorted into their house. Sitting down at an empty place I watched the sorting go on, clapping politely along with the rest of the table wherever someone was sorted into Gryffindor. Along with Ms Brown who was already sorted, all the Gryffindor first years were grouped together near the middle of the table, the older students scooting over to make room as each new Gryffindor was sorted.
A hush came across the Great Hall when Harry was called to be sorted. Did everyone here really believe he somehow defeated a powerful dark wizard as a babe? How foolish to think an unarmed, unprepared baby could defeat an adult that could have easily smothered the child to death with no fuss. It was obvious that his parents were the real heroes and he is little more than one of many war orphans that have been produced throughout history. After a while of him sitting under the hat he was finally sorted into Gryffindor where the table exploded in loud cheers. I gave a polite applaud and scooted over to make room for him.
"Seems our new house is happy to have you," I greeted him as he took the place next to me.
"Thanks. I'm just glad I'm in a house with a friendly face I already know."
With the pleasantries out of the way and trying to ignore the silly celebration going on, I went back to watching the sorting. It was a good way to learn my fellow first years' names, especially those in my house where we would be spending a lot of time together. Eventually Ron joined Harry and myself at the table to the celebration of his family and the rest of the house before the last student was sorted into Slytherin.
With Professor McGonagall putting away the hat, the archetypal wise old wizard that was our Headmaster, Professor Dumbledore stood up to give a speech.
"Welcome," he said. "Welcome to a new year at Hogwarts! Before we begin our banquet, I would like to say a few words. And here they are: Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak! Thank you."
I joined the polite clapping as the food appeared on the table. I heard Harry question the sanity of our Headmaster as I was reaching for some of the chicken.
"Isn't it obvious?" I found myself asking. "He is taking this moment to give us a lesson to think on while we eat. We are at a school after all and our days are suppose to be filled with education."
Ron's prefect brother gave me a smile, clearly having seen the lesson as well, and asked me to explain what the lesson was.
Leaning back a bit, I gave it some thought as I chewed on the piece of chicken I had grabbed. "Nitwit is obviously him calling us all fools, Fir we are here to learn and are this not the knowledgeable scholar our teachers are yet. A reminder that there is still more, even for the older students, to learn. Blubber is likely referring to someone blubbering and not whale fat. Oddment is an odd term for scraps. So he probably is telling us to talk about the odd scraps we learn with each other, the other nitwits."
"And Tweak?" Percy asked.
"That is the most obvious one. Take what we learn from each other and improve and modify on it. He is basically telling us that we have much to learn from each other, even outside what we learn in and for our classes."
"You sure you shouldn't be in Ravenclaw?" Ron asked me, a few of the other students around me nodding their agreement with his question.
I suppose I needed to prove myself as belonging to the house now that my personality has been questioned.
Giving Ron a playful smile, I told him, "I am very sure that the hat placed me appropriately, but I can always show you what I got later." That bit of bravado played well with those sitting nearby and I could return to my food, engaging in the conversation when asked a question. Most of the conversations were getting to know each other, family life, interests, the standard fair. I mentioned I was an orphan and that when given a chance I enjoyed reading, but the selection at the Orphanage was not great. I filed away what I learned about my house mates as best as I could. We would be living in close proximity for years, it would be best to be in good terms with all of them.
After dinner, dessert was laid out leading to a second round of excited eating before that too was magically cleared up and the Headmaster again stood to speak. A few rules and warnings were given along with several other notices. While the warning about the third floor corridor on the right hand side was dramatic, it was reasonable. The castle was old and repair work was dangerous. Renovating that area would likely take time and we would be informed when it was safe to use that section of the castle.
The singing of the school song was a chaotic mess, but following the lyrics as they appeared was easy enough. The somber way Ron's twin brothers sang the last few lines was rather touching and showed the pair to be a rather serious duo.
With the school song done, Ron's Prefect brother lead the first year Gryffindors away from the Great Hall to where we would be sleeping for the next seven years.
* As mentioned by the hat, Tanya would, in my opinion, fit into any of the houses and without any other influences on her choice she would find all of them reasonably acceptable. Depending on a few factors she might slightly prefer one over another, but I as an author needed her in Gryffindor so I made her completely neutral and have the hat be influenced by how Tanya is actually a battle junkie to place her in Gryffindor.