PART 1: ACT 6

PART 1: ACT 6

"How do I look?"

Delphi twirled around in a circle in the middle of the sitting room coquettishly, then put her index finger on her cheek with her mouth pouting in a playful pastiche of a sexy schoolgirl pose. She had skilfully transfigured some old Muggle clothing into a plain replica late-1930's Hogwarts uniform. It had been easy for Severus to access some old school photographs from that era in order for her to get the detailing right. With a glamour charm on her hair, turning her usual bluish-silver ponytail to dark brown curtains framing her face, he had to admit she made a convincing student. Watching her laughing and posing with her different hairstyle, Severus once more couldn't shake the feeling that she reminded him of someone.

"You look passable," Severus admitted, looking her up and down. "But your uniform needs House colours."

"And what House do you think I should be Sorted into?" Delphi's dark eyes flashed mischievously as she ran her hands slowly down her front. "Do you think the Head of Slytherin House can handle me?"

A flash of excitement flooded through Severus at Delphi's flirtation, but he soon stamped that out. "Which House were you in at Hogwarts?" he asked matter-of-factly.

Delphi's seductive countenance dropped immediately. "Well, it's a long story and one I have promised to tell you all about another time, but I was actually home-schooled. I never got the chance to be Sorted. I feel like I missed out there, everyone makes such a big deal out of it." She looked down sadly.

Severus raised his eyebrows at this. It wasn't completely unknown for children to be home-schooled, especially those who were very rich, or Pure Bloods who didn't want their offspring mixing with Mudblood riff-raff. But still, it was uncommon enough to single her out as being different. He could see why it could seem isolating, not having had the experience of being Sorted; Houses were what defined most of Wizarding society, for good or for ill, and nearly every adult had some good memories of Hogwarts. Even him.

As Severus pondered on this, Delphi pointed her wand at a tatty cushion and Transfigured it into a crude oversized representation of the Sorting Hat. "I'm going to Sort myself," she said by way of explanation. And with that, she plopped the enormous hat on her head, which slipped past her eyes.

"Hmmm... Where to put you?" Delphi mimicked the Sorting Hat, putting on a croaky voice. "You're loyal alright, and there's a smattering of bravery too. But I can see lofty ambition and underrated intelligence in you. Better be... SLYTHERCLAW!" she yelled, tearing off the hat.

"That isn't a House," Severus admonished, secretly amused at her display.

"I know. But I do feel like I belong in either Slytherin or Ravenclaw, I just don't know which. Perhaps I'm just a weird hybrid of the two. What do you think?" She suddenly looked very young and vulnerable, like a child in need of reassurance.

Severus watched the young woman closely. From her expression, it was clear that the answer to this question meant a lot to her, having never had the experience of being Sorted for real. He would need to be careful with his answer. "I agree that you have traits of both Houses," he replied evenly. "But it's your choice to decide to which you have the most affiliation. I believe the Sorting Hat does take people's wishes into account when Sorting them."

Delphi toyed with her grey tie, currently absent of any House colour, as she considered this. The obvious choice would be to put her in Slytherin without any thought at all. Obvious, given her bloodline, which stretched all the way back to Salazar Slytherin himself. She could not deny that she could be cunning, manipulative, ruthless and ambitious when needed. But then she thought back to all the times that people had made assumptions about her purely because of her lineage, and how she had been saddled with her parent's mistakes and prejudices her whole life without a chance to have her own identity. She thought of how she wanted to break free from the stigma of blood status, and how she had fought so hard using her limited resources to right the many wrongs her parents had inflicted on the world. She thought of how she was an outsider and a misfit from the start, a mistake of a child who shouldn't have been born in the first place. And then she thought of poor Myrtle Warren, the girl caught in the wrong place at the wrong time and who became Tom Riddle's first victim on his grotesque path to immortality.

"I'm going to be in Ravenclaw," she announced suddenly, and with a wave of her wand the tie turned blue, as did the trim on her jumper as the Ravenclaw crest appeared proudly on the front of her robes.

"Very well," Severus replied, trying to ignore the small surge of disappointment swelling inside him from her choosing Ravenclaw over Slytherin. "Are you ready?"

"I am. Do you have the spell?"

Severus nodded. "The parchment is in my pocket."

Delphi broke into her Marlene Dietrich voice. "And I thought you were just pleased to see me."

Severus' face was as usual like stone but the small glimmer of amusement that registered in his eyes did not escape her.

Delphi held out both hands in front of her, the impish smile now back on her face. Severus stepped forwards and held them firmly. Delphi couldn't resist squeezing them and swinging them lightly from side to side. She noted how they were cool to the touch, even in the warm summer evening.

"Do not wriggle, I do not wish to repair a Splinching accident." He glared down his nose sternly at her, and she mock-pouted back at being chastised but stood stock-still nonetheless.

After a few moments, they had disappeared together in a blur of Apparation. Their destination: just outside the grounds of Hogwarts.