Seira Rose de Ravin

BOOM!

The first thing she did when standing on vast ground again was to fix her hair. Her long fingers wandered through her black curls and placed every lock in the right position. It needed to be perfect. First impressions were everything and she would be the last one to shame the family name. No thanks. So her hair, her clothes and her posture: everything needed to be perfect.

Her eyes fell on the three young men which had travelled with the same portkey as her; her three older brothers. The youngest of them was a handsome fellow with blond curls and sharp cheekbones. His dark eyes looked rather bothered as they studied their surroundings. Without a doubt he was looking for something he could wreck. Just as she was used to from Mecurio.

Standing next to him was a taller, even more attractive guy who was fixing his black coat. His pale skin stood out thanks to his long, black hair which fell lightly on his shoulders. A shimmer of haste could be found in his gaze. His teeth were clenched together as he checked whether or not everyone had arrived. Protective, yet cold. That was the Jonathan she knew.

The last brother, and the oldest, seemed out of place next to the other three siblings. One of the reasons was because he noticeably seemed less attractive. The young man wasn't grotesque or anything like that, but with his chubby posture and round face he clearly missed the beauty that the other three possessed. But his appearance wasn't the only thing that made him stand out from the rest of his family. Fredrick seemed to radiate a certain warmth and kindness which the others could never achieve.

The young girl smirked as she watched her eldest brother. There was gossip circulating between old, noble ladies that when the oldest Ravin brother was born, he took all the kindness and there was nothing left for the siblings that would follow.

It was the sort of kindness which the girl would call weak if they weren't talking about her own brother. But the fact was that he was a Ravin and therefore alone he was greater than most people. She would never talk bad about any of her family. Pride and honour was all the Ravins were about and this little girl followed the family tradition perfectly.

"And how are we supposed to cross this worthless lake? Are we supposed to swim or something?" Mecurio raged. It was clear that he was used to a more luxurious welcome.

"If you used your eyes, you could see that a boat is coming this way to pick us up," Jonathan sneered back at his younger brother.

The girl didn't seem to react to the bickering between the brothers. She had grown used to it. Instead she focussed her stare on the little boat coming their way. Inside the boat she could see a small figure and immediately she straightened her back a bit more. Her chin went up a few centimeters and she pouted her lips just a little bit.

First impressions were everything.

As the boat reached the shore it became clear what the small figure sitting in it was. The girl gasped with a sense of feeling offended. "Really? They send a house-elf to pick us up? We are far too important to travel with a house-elf!"

"Seira," the voice of her middle brother sounded reproachful, "be kind."

She knew Jonathan didn't actually mean that she had to be kind; he meant that she had to act like she was kind. Kind, charming; all by the all the perfect daughter. Sneering at servants, in spite of the creatures being less than servants, wasn't a part of that perfect image.

With a displeased expression spreading across her face she took Fredrick's hand as he helped her step into the small boat. She sat down on the wooden bench behind Mecurio and Jonathan who were sitting on the bench in front of her.

Her eldest brother still held her hand and squeezed it gently. In reaction her gaze switched from the back of her brothers to him. "Seira, maybe you should -," Fredrick stopped talking when she gave him an angry stare which warned him he better not say anything about the house-elf. "- smile. You look prettier when you do."

Seira turned her head away from him not feeling like smiling at all. Suddenly she had her doubts with this whole undertaking. Being forced to travel with a house-elf, even if it was just for a few minutes, was ridiculous! The only luck they had was that the house-elf stayed silent; the idea of being forced to talk to such a creature was even more disgusting.

The rest of the boat-travel was spent in silence. At last they reached the other shore and found themselves standing before the enormous castle. For once in her life Seira found herself lost for words. The castle was not only huge but also beautiful. She could feel the magic hiding in those walls from here.

"Please, follow me, young masters," the house-elf beckoned the siblings.

As they entered the castle Seira watched how Mecurio's dark eyes studied the different paintings covering the walls. The girl knew he was toying with the knife in his pocket right now. It would only be a matter of time before he would decide to slice through the canvases, just to see what would happen. Just to destroy something he found beautiful. It was typical Mecurio behaviour.

It would have to wait for now as the four entered a big hall. Seira saw they weren't the first to arrive and was happy that she had chosen to wear her dark red dress which complimented her pale skin. Sitting in front of her were some of the children from the most well-known pureblood families.

Her dark-brown eyes recognized the youngest son of the Croach family. His hay coloured hair was braided and he looked rather nervous. Seira was a bit surprised to see that neither his older sister nor brother was with him.

Sitting next to him was a handsome young man with light blond hair and grey eyes. On his lap sat a slightly younger girl with long, fire red hair and enchanting big, green eyes. Her fingers played with the coat of her friend and seemed not in the least interested in her surroundings. The young man however met Seira's stare and nodded as a greeting.

So, Circinus Malfoy and Zahn Mortier were invited as well. How interesting.

The girl ignored the rest of the students in the hall. If she didn't know them then they probably weren't worth knowing. Instead she looked at the four figures sitting in front of the pupils; the four people who were going to teach her magic this coming year.

On the far right sat a man she knew: Salazar Slytherin. He personally had visited their family and invited the four of them to join his school. Of course Seira's parents had said yes. It was a great honour for the De Ravin family.

Sitting on the left side of the man were three more figures. Seira recognized only one other. The knight dressed in dark red, velvet clothes. Godric Gryffindor was of a noble, pureblood family much like herself, but the girl had a hard time respecting him. Especially after his recent riot for the rights of muggle-borns and mudbloods. It was always so disappointing when a wizard from such an excellent bloodline used his powers for something so unimportant.

The two women sitting between the two men Seira had never met, but she knew the names. Helga Hufflepuff and, the far more interesting one, Rowena Ravenclaw. The girl had read the book Ravenclaw had written. Her view on spells and her usage of them were simply fascinating.

She took place on one of the remaining chairs and counted the still empty seats. Just one more person had to arrive and the group would be complete. Fourteen people. As she looked at the faces she didn't know, she wondered why they were chosen. It wasn't for their famous bloodline that was for sure.

Suddenly she heard some footsteps behind her and glanced over her shoulder. The last student had arrived. It was a young girl, she had to be around the same age as Seira herself, and she seemed to have more hair than body. The long, un-brushed hair reached all the way to the girl's hips and hid her face.

With her clothes, which seemed old and showed different holes, she was the exact opposite of the sophisticated pureblood girl. She watched how the girl sat down on the remaining chair and shook her head slightly. Distasteful.

"Now that we are complete, I want to welcome you all to Hogwarts," Godric stood up and spread his arms in a welcoming gesture.

"This is the place where we shall teach you and hopefully we will learn a lot from you as well. As you all know this isn't an official school year yet and we are still planning the lessons and the level of difficulty. That is why we have chosen all different kinds of students; different in ages and upbringing. As we hope that one day we can open our doors to every wizard and witch who wish to be taught in the ways of magic," Helga added as the red knight sat down again.

"But there is one thing we have decided on," the witch continued, "and that is that we will divide this group into four parts. In the morning you will have lessons together but in the afternoon you will get taught in the smaller groups. You will also have a common room and bedrooms to share with these smaller groups. Each one of us will be the mentor of a group and those groups will be called houses."

Seira glanced at her brothers. This information was new and a slight feeling of panic formed in her heart. She didn't want to be split from her brothers. They were a team. The idea of facing this new group of people without them terrified her.

"I will perform a short session of legilimency on each of you, just to see which mentor would suit you the best." At last Salazar had spoken. A grin toyed with his small lips. Legilimency was considered a dark art and he clearly looked forward to using his powers.

"We go in alphabetical order," Rowena explained as she opened the parchment that was resting on her lap. "Adamson, Vanilla."

A petite girl sitting next to Circinus Malfoy and Zahn Mortier stood up. Her appearance was notable to say the least. The girl had even paler skin than Seira and white hair. It was as if she hadn't any colour in her body at all.

The girl looked rather nervous and stared at Zahn, upon which the red haired girl started to giggle and got up. She took the hands of the white girl in her own. "Come on, Vani. They don't bite," she spoke as she slowly led the girl to Salazar.

How did Zahn know this colourless girl? Seira wondered as she watched the two. It surprised her. Both the Mortier and the Malfoy family were well known because of their bloodline; a close friend of the family should be rather famous as well.

The two girls were standing in front of Salazar Slytherin who looked rather displeased as he stared at the white girl. Just now Seira realized that the girl standing next to Zahn was wearing significantly less expensive clothes than her friend. It made her all the more curious about whom she could be.

Salazar gave away the answer. "Did you really think it was necessary to bring your servant with you, young lady Mortier?"

The girl laughed at his question and started to swing with her hand which was intertwined with that of the albino girl. "But she is a wizard too, Friend of Snakes. And Friend of Words over there," she pointed at Rowena, "gave permission to bring her."

Seira always thought that Zahn was a rather unusual girl. She always seemed to move when she was supposed to sit still, talked whenever everybody else was quiet and she had this terrible habit of never calling anyone by their name. Instead she came up with these really annoying nicknames.

Meanwhile Salazar gave Rowena a dark look. Clearly she hadn't told the lord that she had invited a servant to their school. Looking at the students still sitting down, there were much lower peasants than servants between them.

"Alright, no point in sending her away now," Salazar muttered as he focussed his eyes on the little girl. Seira noticed how the girl was trembling even more than before.

A few minutes passed in silence; everyone looked rather tense waiting wondering what would happen. At last Salazar turned his head away. He growled something that was close to 'and a muggle-born on top of that'.

It was Helga who spoke first. "Vanilla Adamson I happy to welcome you into my house. You will be my first student."

Vanilla was followed by Solomon Croach who was, after some really angry looks between Salazar and Rowena, placed into Rowena's house. Noah Granger, the girl with the messy hair and who was the last to enter the hall, was also placed with Rowena. Same for Miotas Lovegood: a tall boy with a bored expression on his face.

Circinus Malfoy was the first to be placed in the house of Salazar and Kishée Moreno, a boy with dark skin and big eyebrows, was the second pupil of Helga.

"And Zahn Mortier, you are, of course, welcome in my house," Salazar spoke with a content smirk on his face. It was really close on which students he had his eyes on; the ones with a famous bloodline.

"No."

All the eyes fell upon the little girl with the fire coloured hair. Her face which normally shone as bright as the sun, now showed an expression of pure stubbornness. Her arms were folded in front of her, her lips pouted a bit.

"You decided to look down on Vani. So now I will look down on you, Friend of Snakes," she continued her protest. A soft snickering from Circinus was heard as the rest, even the teacher, stared at the girl quite dumbfounded.

"I want to be in the same house as Vani." She at last finished and pointed this time at Helga.

Helga, who was just as surprised as the rest of them, smiled a little. "I always said I would welcome every student. So welcome to my house, Zahn Mortier."

The girl skipped, did she even know how to walk normally?, back to her chair as she grinned from ear to ear. Seira's former thought was confirmed once more; Zahn was a very unusual kind of girl.

After that followed another red-haired girl who answered to the name of Raion Murtex. She became the first student of Godric. Now it was time for the De Ravins. Fredrick, Jonathan and Mecurio were all placed in Salazar's house. All within a matter of seconds.

"De Ravin, Seira."

The girl stood up when she heard her name. With a proud smile she walked towards the dark lord and made a little bow when she stood in front of him. Her eyes fixated on his as she waited.

Suddenly she felt something in her mind. Something which forced her to recall all of her memories. The long nights she had stayed up, studying from her books, practicing her walking and dancing. The horrors of when her parents had thrown another party and she had to leave her books behind. The fake smiles, the fake gestures. The talks she had had with her older brothers.

As soon as the sensation had come it was gone again. She waited for Salazar to say 'welcome to my house' but his words didn't follow. Instead Rowena and Salazar were staring at each other again.

"Salazar, no! You saw how much she values her books and how much she seeks knowledge. She belongs with me and you know it," the fair lady suddenly blabbed.

"She is a Ravin, she should be placed in my house," the lord snarled back at her.

Seira couldn't help but to feel proud. The two people she most looked up to were fighting over her. Of course they were. She was a Ravin. She should have expected nothing less.

"Why don't you ask the girl herself in which house she wants to be placed?" It was Helga, her warm voice ending the discussion before it could turn into a fight.

Rowena and Salazar sent each other some hate-filled stares before they focussed their attention back on Seira. It was Salazar who reacted first. "So, Seira, which house do you choose?"

The girl stayed silent for a little while. She respected Rowena Ravenclaw and thought the world of her, but all of her brothers were in the house of Salazar Slytherin. And Ravins sticked together.

"Your house, Salazar Slytherin," she at last decided. Family would always be most important to her.

After her, only two siblings remained. Lancelot and Guinevere Weasely who were both placed in the house of Godric. The knight stood up after welcoming his final two students and looked at all the young faces sitting in front of him.

"Once more we welcome you to Hogwarts. Tomorrow the first lessons will start and we would like to see in this hall again. For now, please follow your mentors to the common rooms. We hope you will all enjoy your stay here."

I want to say thanks to my lovely beta-reader whitetiger91 for her advice and enthusiasm!