Harry Potter and the Sorceress of the Stars

"SLYTHERIN!"

With the Sorting Hat having rendered its judgment, the Slytherin table erupted into applause and cheers.

"Well, that didn't take long," Pansy commented, affectionately squeezing a distracted Draco's hand. "Remember how quickly the Hat sorted you, Draco? Almost feels like it was yesterday, doesn't it?"

Wearing a somewhat conflicted expression her rotund face, Professor Sprout retrieved the Sorting Hat from Mai's head, before sending her off on her merry way.

"She's coming our way," remarked Daphne.

"Certainly looks like it," Oleandra replied glumly.

Mai was making a beeline for the Greengrass sisters, or more specifically, Tracey's empty seat across the table from them— but the instant Mai swung her leg over the wooden bench, making it clear that she intended to sit there, Pansy leaned across Theodore Nott, who usually sat between her and Tracey, and she began grilling the first-year girl on her magical heritage.

"Dulac, was it?" Pansy asked suspiciously. "I've never heard of that family name— French, I suppose? Draco, your family's originally from France, isn't it? Have you heard of any Dulacs?"

"Can't say that I have," said Malfoy, sounding bored.

Malfoy's lack of enthusiasm threw a spanner in Pansy's plan to derive some form of entertainment by outing Mai as a Muggleborn, as if she were some sort of spy hiding among them, the pure-blooded elite.

How little did Pansy know how right she was, Oleandra ruefully thought to herself. There was nothing more alien to this table than the two Great Fairies among them masquerading as humans…

"I wouldn't expect anyone to know about my family," said Mai politely. "They're all Muggles, you see— which would make me Muggleborn, I suppose."

The atmosphere at the Slytherin table immediately grew chilly. Slytherins usually valued blood purity above all else— Mai's blood status was even worse than Mafalda Prewett's, who was considered a half-blood, even though her only magical parent was a Squib!

"Not a single word out of you," said Oleandra pre-emptively, glowering at Pansy before she could even open her mouth to formulate an insult. "Don't make me give you detention before the first day's even finished."

Pansy looked back and forth between Oleandra and Malfoy in outrage, as if she were trying to incite her man into defending her wounded honour.

"Thank you, Oleandra," said Mai sweetly. "It's been a while, hasn't it, sister?"

In truth, Oleandra had stopped Pansy from calling Mai a Mudblood for Pansy's own benefit.

Like Oleandra, Mai was an incarnation of a Great Fairy. In a past life, she had been Viviane's sister, Morgan le Fay— a Dark Witch of immense and terrifying power. Remarkably, she had been strong enough to duel Merlin to a standstill… though, in the end, it had been Viviane who got the best of him.

Although Mai wasn't Morgan, just as Oleandra wasn't Viviane, Great Fairy incarnations never tended to differ very much from one generation to the next— and Mai's past lives had been incredibly fearsome.

Morgan le Fay had wielded the Elder Wand to murder Viviane, and she had also orchestrated King Arthur's downfall at Salisbury, destroying everything the two had held dear in their lives. And judging from the many history books she'd been forced to read, Oleandra had a sneaking suspicion that the evil Morrigan had been one of Mai's past incarnations…

"You know each other?" Daphne suddenly asked Mai.

"We met last summer in France," Mai responded obliviously, before Oleandra could stop her. "She spent a few weeks with me and my family— oh, what fun we all had together!"

Daphne threw Oleandra a withering look.

"That's what you've been keeping secret all this time?" said Daphne coldly. "While we were mourning you, you were off having fun on vacation on the Côte d'Azur?"

"Can we not talk about this in front of— you know?" said Oleandra desperately, trying to hush both her blood and soul sisters. "People are listening!"

Mai pretended not to hear Oleandra's objections.

"Britanny, actually— not quite as sunny as the Midi de la France," said Mai. "It's—"

Mai's geographical explanations were suddenly interrupted by the distant sound of screeching tyres, followed by a loud bang— the distinct sound of someone having a car accident, but how could that possibly be the case? No highways led to Hogwarts, so how could there be any cars for one to crash into things?

The loud noise was so surprising that Professor Sprout dropped the Sorting Hat on Zhang, Liu's head. The poor boy's head was much too small for the large floppy Wizard's hat, and its freefall was only stopped by the boy's shoulders.

"RAVENCLAW!"

Flustered, Professor Sprout yanked the Sorting Hat off the boy, who clearly hadn't enjoyed having his entire head immersed in the stink of centuries' worth of unwashed leather impregnated with the scent of nervous sweat.

Over at the staff table at the front of the Great Hall, Professor Snape suddenly stood up from his seat and approached Professor Dumbledore, whispering something in his ear. A response was whispered back to him, and Professor Snape briskly walked out of the Great Hall, exiting it through its oaken double doors.

And with the final first-year sorted into his House, the Sorting Ceremony finally concluded, and Professor Dumbledore began making his speech, emphasizing the need for all students to come together and join hands against the greatest threat the British magical world had ever seen…

But Oleandra was much too distracted by Malfoy's antics to pay any attention.

"I thought I'd seen something, but I needed to make sure," Malfoy was telling Pansy, Theo, Crabbe and Goyle. "And sure enough, Potter slipped up, and I saw his foot under that Invisibility Cloak of his— so I decided to let him squirm, let him think I'd say something he could use… And just like that—" Malfoy mimed drawing his wand, spinning on the spot and firing a spell, "— I nailed him with a Full Body-Bind Curse."

Before Malfoy could begin miming breaking Harry's nose, the Start-of-Term Feast magically appeared on the tables, allowing him to continue his demonstration to great effect, armed with a goose leg in one hand and a glass of redcurrant juice in the other.