Jemini Fallen: A Hogwarts Story

I sat on the edge of my seat, eagerly awaiting my school year to begin. I hadn’t packed until this morning, for I’m a terrible procrastinator. And because of this urgent necessity of packing trunks, the Hogwarts Express had long since left by the time we were ready to go. My Father came to pick me and my brother up, and my mum had decided to tag along for my first year at Hogwarts. The Knight Bus was flagged down and here we all sat, bumping and rolling and nearly falling over for each turn the Knight Bus took. My mum sat on one side of me, her legs folded neatly and her posture was perfect. She flipped idly through the Daily Prophet as Father sat on the other side, gazing steadily out of the window and clearly wishing to be anywhere but here. I smiled shyly up at him, wondering in a small place inside of me, if perhaps just maybe he would return the smile. He did not. He side glanced at me, and then turned to my brother Kobe, who was fiddling around with a pocket dragon, “Kobe, son, are you trying out for Quidditch this year?”

Kobe shrugged, looking down at the slight scorch mark in his palm, “I’m not really into Quidditch, Father. And if I’m not on the team, I can cheer for Slytherin more. You’d like that huh?”

Father seemed to contemplate this, “Yes I suppose I would rather have my son supporting Slytherin, then crying about losing the House Cup.” Father gave a small smile to Kobe and nudged his shoulder.

I looked between them, and then looked hopefully to my mum, “That’s a cool tattoo on your wrist mum! When did you get it?”

She looked down at her wrist and winced, “Not here, Jemini.” She hurriedly whispered as an old woman clutching a bag of rice looked over alarmed.

I frowned slightly and tried again to make conversation, “So what house do you think I should get placed into?”

Mum took to this topic with quite a relief, “I was in Gryffindor, Jemini. Can you believe it? I sat in the stool, my eyes covered by the hat. It had barely touched my head when it bellowed out that I was in Gryffindor,” Her eyes were far away, alit in a magical world back in the past, “At the table I had made friends with a nice girl named Lily Evans. She became my best friend, and it was through her that I met your Father over here,” Mum paused to smile awkwardly at my Father. He didn’t return it, “We also became somewhat close with the popular boys in our year. One of them Lily didn’t particularly get along with. Always fighting with him. Who knew that he would be the one she would marry… the one she would die with,” Mum wiped a tear with a lace handkerchief and sniffled. I knew too well the story of Harry Potter. Knew too well the terrors of Lord Voldemort. There was a pain in my side as I remembered something I so deeply wanted to forget. I looked down into my lap, wanting to prod my mum more and ask about teachers and classes and magical creatures and everything possible there was about Hogwarts, but I knew that once Lily was brought up, my mum was not to be questioned further.

So I then turned to Kobe, who was currently letting the small dragon climb up his arm, “Kobe? What’s Hogwarts like?”

“Hogwarts is amazing Jem. You just wait until you get inside. The Great Hall is amazing; the ceiling is bewitched to look like the night sky! And the gold platters and goblets refill themselves, and the ghosts are wandering around everywhere! Professor McGonagall is in charge of the Sorting. She’s the Transfiguration teacher and also the Head of Gryffindor House.”

“Sorting?”

“Oh come off it, Jem. You know about the Sorting. With all the first years sitting on the stool and the Sorting Hat calling out which house you’re in.”

“Who are the other teachers?”

“Professor Flitwick is a small man who teaches Charms. I’ve heard he has dwarf blood in him! Let’s see. Father teaches Potions down in the dungeons. Professor Binns teaches History of Magic. He’s a ghost! Have you heard how he died?”

“No! Tell me!”

“Apparently, he fell asleep in an armchair by the fire in the teachers’ lounge. He woke up the next day and walked out to teach his class, but he left his body behind. As far as I’ve heard, he never even noticed he was dead, not to this very day.”

“And he still teaches there?”

“Yes m’am. Along with Professor Grubbly-Plank, who teaches Care of Magical Creatures, Professor Quirrell, who is new this year teaching D.A.D.A, Professor Sprout, who teaches Herbology, Professor Sinistra, who teaches Astronomy, Professor Trawnley, who teaches Divinination, Madam Pomfry is the school Healer, Madam Pince is the librarian, and many, many more. Oh and Filch is the caretaker. By all means stay away from him and his cat, Mrs. Norris.”

“Tell me more about Quidditch, Kobe.”

“I’m probably not the best person to explain that to you. If you have any specific questions about it, you should ask someone on your house Quidditch team.”

“What if I get put into Slytherin, Father?” I look to my father, wanting to hear him assure me.

He side-glanced at my mum, clearly feeling awkward about being with his ex-wife, “Well, Jemmi if you get into Slytherin, then your common room will be in the dungeons. You’re Head of House will be me, and you’ll have a serpent on a green and silver background for your emblem.”

“No Father, I meant how would you feel if I got placed into Slytherin?”

“You would be one of a kind. The only one besides myself to get placed into there. Whatever you get placed into will be fine. It’s not myself that has to live in the house, so it’s up to how you feel about being placed there.” I thought about this. I would like to get placed into either of the houses my parents were in. It would show that I did too belong in this family. And if I was in Slytherin, the only child of my Father’s to get placed there, he might love me as much as he loved Kobe.

The Knight Bus arrived at a street named Hogsmeade. My Father lifted up our trunks and cages by magic and we ran to the tall gate. There was a small man there, no taller than my waist. This must be Professor Flitwick, “Fillius, my apologizes for being late. I had some unpredicted…business to take care of.” My Father cast a meaningful glance in my and Kobe’s direction.

Mum kissed me on the cheek goodbye and kissed Kobe’s head, “Okay now you too have fun and make new friends! Don’t get into trouble! I don’t want any reports sent home with bad marks Jemini! Make good choices! Stand up to bullies!” We got the run-down on everything and anything mumlike related in which she felt obligated to repeat to us. She straightened my Hogwarts tie and slowly walked back to where the Knight Bus was waiting very impatiently. Stan Stunpike(?) was standing by the doors tapping his foot and trying to hustle her along.

“Of course Severus, of course. Argus here will take your trunks,” Flitwick said as a scruffy old man came wobbling down towards us. Kobe jabbed his elbow into my ribs as a shaggy brown cat with red eyes sauntered up alongside the man. Lucifer, my new black kitten, jumped out of my arms and strutted around Mrs. Norris, sniffing and rubbing against her. Lucifer sneezed then jumped back into my arms, clawing at my forearms to keep herself from falling.

“Bloody cat,” I mutter sizing up the scratches on my arms. Lucifer was my present for getting into Hogwarts, and let’s just say he wasn’t named after the devil for nothing. This little black fur ball was quite a handful and we didn’t get along very well. Father and Kobe walked into the castle, leaving me to run to catch up as Lucifer jostled around unnecessarily.

I dropped my wand and had walked several paces before I realized that it was missing. I ran back and found it; it had rolled to a stop by a wall. I got it and shoved it into my pocket. By the time I found my way into the Entrance Hall, my father and my brother were nowhere to be seen. I walked up those big marble staircases, trying to find my way into the Great Hall. I looked back and forth, jogging halfway through a corridor, then turning around and running the other way. My nerves were building. I had to be in the Great Hall, and in line with those other first year students before the feast was over. I had to be Sorted. I had to stay here at Hogwarts to learn magic. It would bring shame to Father, his youngest daughter was so challenged that she managed to not even be Sorted at Hogwarts. I surprised even myself when I opened a set of Oak doors to reveal thousands of pointy hats. And all the little pointy hats had little people under them!

A gasp escaped my lips as I stood in sheer shock, taking in the floating candles and the golden platters and goblets. My eyes slowly drifted up to the ceiling where I saw the cloudy night sky I had seen mere minutes before entering. A half moon lazily drifted in and out of the dark clouds, barely seen as the clouds began to sprinkle water. I shut my eyes bracing for the raindrop to hit my up turned face, but I was wrong. There was no water hitting anyone sitting below in the Hall. No water even sliding down the side of the wall. The only evidence of any water was hitting the windows from the outside. There were five long tables, four of them were parallel with each other and were all crammed with students. The last one ran the width of the other four tables and had some very important-looking people on it; they were all old.

Father sat at the important- people table. I waved to him, but he just kept staring off at some first year, clearly unaware that someone was trying to talk to him. There was an old hag-I mean lady reading off names-the Sorting! I inched along the wall, begging to not be noticed as I made my way to the cluster of terrified first years. I pushed past them, making my way to the front, “Sorry. Sorry. So sorry. Cool toad!” I stopped in front of a boy who looked like he was about to throw up. “Hiya! I’m Jemini! What’s your name?” His brown eyes looked up at me, filled with fear.

Surprisingly, he was able to reply, “N-N-Neville. What h-house are you wishing to g-get p-p-placed into?”

I paused. In my rush to get here on time, I didn’t even think about that, “I suppose I don’t care, you know? As long as I do get placed. I mean, I’d prefer to be in either Gryffindor or Slytherin I guess. Those seem like the power houses here,” I trail off, noting that the Hall is silent and everyone is looking around and whispering.

“Fallen, Jemini.”

I look up at Father. He’s looking around like everyone else. I skip up the stairs and say a little louder than necessary, “I’m right here, what’d I do this time?”

The old witch in the emerald cloak looks down on me with a small, but fierce smile on her thin lips, “That is the third time I called your name.” she whispers. This is clearly McGonagall. She takes the big wizard hat once I’m seated and places it on my head. It fell down to around my shoulders, since I’m not particularly tall in the slightest. Everyone’s staring at me, I love the attention.

“Hmmm…Curious.”A mysterious voice fills my head.

“What’s curious?”I ask the voice.

“Well, you had cold pizza for breakfast, I never knew a student who had that before.”

“Yeah, I’m one of a kind. So which table do I get to sit at? Personally I don’t want to be in Hufflepuff, because they’re shy and pretty much for the people who didn’t fit the qualifications to be in the other houses. And Ravenclaws have to answer a riddle to into their common rooms and they’re all smarty pants and that would piss me off. A lot,” I say, my self confidence boosting as I began my rant.

“So you want to be in either Slytherin, or Gryffindor, I take it? But which one out of those two? Both fine, fine houses. One for the brave, one for the cunning. I believe you fit both of those descriptions. Let’s look at your family. Severus Snape and Beatrice Fallen? I do believe I sorted your father into the house he is now Head of! And Beatrice, she’s an Healer at Saint Mungos isn’t she? Very bright student, charming, and cunning too! She was a Gryffindor, did you know that? Yes, a close friend of Lily Evans.”

“Another Gryffindor, yippee,” I had a small hope that I would be in Slytherin, just to make my father proud of me for once.

“Let’s look at your siblings, too. Ah, Arabella, the sweet but sometimes lost Ravenclaw. When she walked up here, she asked if I wanted some pumpkin pasties that she had stashed in her robes. The second eldest, Stevie, talk about a know-it-all. She was in Gryffindor, but she could have passed for a Ravenclaw with her brains, the polar opposite of her twin Nicoletta. She was always sneaking around the castle with boys. And last but not least, Kobe. Kobe the Hufflepuff; your sweet brother with the golden hair. How he changed come puberty!”

I laughed. Kobe had died his beautiful gold hair a deep black color, put gages in his ears and had several piercings in his eyebrow and ear. He had a gorgeous and large Norwegian Ridgeback tattoo literally crawling up his arm. He used girlfriends as if they were napkins and was always care-free. I sighed, “I don’t want to end up like him, no matter how loving and protective he is of me.”

“How about, GRYFFINDOR!”

“Yeah, I can work with that, I guess.” I say mentally over the large applause, “Thanks.” I slide off the uncomfortable stool and smile grandly up at Father. He sighs and gives me a wink. That makes me sigh. Once again, I’m not good enough for him. Once again, I’ve disappointed him. Once again, he smiles at Kobe across the room as if he’s an angel. Darn it. I’ll never be good enough. I tear my eyes away from Dad and look at all the people cheering. So what, I tell myself, I don’t need him. He may be my dad, but he stopped being a part of my life as soon as he left us.

I hold my head high and skip to the table with all the red-heads. Red was one of Gryffindor’s colors wasn’t it? That must mean that there would be red-heads. I made a secret prediction, looking back at my father and the red-head now sitting on the stool, I would make my dad proud, even if it killed me.

***

The feast was great; I’d never seen so many piles of food in my life. I sat by my two new best friends: Neville and Lolli. Neville was so unconfident but he was sweet, and when you got to know him, funny too. Lolli on the other hand was the craziest little thing that you ever saw. She had bright blue hair and a big black bow on top of her head. She had eyes the color of Galleons and freckles sprinkled across her cheeks. She sucked repeatedly on a straw she stuck in her gold goblet. Then she stood up. I looked over at her, “What are you doing? Dumbledore hasn’t excused us yet!”

She sticks her tongue out at me and whispers, “I put sugar in my pumpkin juice! I can’t sit down!” She got up and did cartwheels out of the Great Hall, ignoring everyone’s laughter. I mouthed sorry to Father and ran after her, Neville staring wide-eyed after us. I prayed that Lolli had a plan, for if she didn’t, we were sure to be caught by a teacher or Filch.

“Lolli, wait up!” I finally catch up and stare at her exhausted, “How can you cartwheel so fast?!”

She just grins and jabs her thumb behind her. The staircase is about to move and she jumps onto it. I quickly follow in suit. “This leads to the third floor corridor! We ‘will meet a most terrible end’. Woooh!” Lolli makes ghost noises and opens the big, oak door with a spell.

A fire flames up from a near-by pillar. “Cool special effects.” I remark, darting my hand through one of the flames. I snap my hand back and suck on it, “Blimey! That’s hot!”

I look to Lolli, but she is twirling in circles, humming some ridiculous show-tune. I start edging to the side of the wall once I see Mrs. Norris slinking our way. “Kitty!” Lolli reaches down and picks up the demon cat, Mrs. Norris, and strokes her fur. Surprisingly, the cat purrs contently. I look over her shoulder at yet another large door. It seems that Hogwarts has a lot of them.

I unlock it and step through, beckoning for Lolli to follow. She does, with the cat. Mrs. Norris starts to hiss uncontrollably, her fur standing on end. I whip around and see a gigantic dog. I mean big. Like if dogs had knees my head would be level with it. And it had three heads. Three drooling, barking, growling, ugly heads. I grab Mrs. Norris from Lolli and throw it at the dogs shouting, “Take the cat!”

The cat was too heavy, unfortunately, and landed several feet away from the dog. It shot out of that room faster than you could blink. I laughed as Lolli ran up to the dog. Pulling not one, but three chew toys from her robes, coaxing the dog away from us. Its paw lifted and I saw a trap-door. I smiled and walked closer, talking in soothing tones, too. “Good puppy. All you needed was some love. Yeah, what a good doggie.”

Lolli was on one of the dogs head, smiling and scratching behind its ear. “Can you get to the door?”

Lolli hopped of the beast as I got closer to the trap-door. She walked past me and was near the large door in case we needed to make a quick get-away. I opened the door gently and as silently as I could, but it still creaked. The dogs were on us like bears on honey and we flew through the door, slamming it behind us. We were hurled into three other first year students, one of them was, you guessed it, a red head. There was also a boy with black hair and a brunette girl. “Hiya!” I said chirpily, my green eyes dancing, “I’m Jemini!”

“What’s in there?” asked the kid with glasses and black hair.

“Oh, it’s the most-”

“-adorablest doggie in the world! You should see it!” Loud barking came from behind the door as I interrupted Lolli. I turned back to the door and kicked it, “Shut up…Fluffy!” Lolli looked at me, her eyebrows raised in bewilderment, and I shrugged.

“Hey, you’re the girl who cart wheeled out of the Great Hall! That was bloody brilliant! What’s your name?” The red-head asked, his ears turning a pink color.

Lolli poked his ear, mesmerized, “Do they always do that? Can you teach me to do that trick with my ears?!” Oh dear, she was excited. And his ears turned brighter.

“Her name is Lolli. Short for, I don’t know, Lollipop or something,” I roll my eyes. “Who are you people?”

“I’m Hermione Granger. And you are…?”

“I’ve already said. I’m Jemini Fallen.”

“Like as in Snape’s daughter?” This know-it-all was irritating.

I shifted my weight, trying to keep the poison from my words, “Yeah, well not everyone can have happy little cottage families.”

“Your Snape’s daughter!?” That was the kid with glasses.

“Look, Four-eyes, I don’t control who my parents are.”

Four-eyes looked affronted and I patted myself on the back, mentally of course, that would have looked ridiculous. “I’m Harry Potter…You really don’t know who I am?”

I rolled my eyes yet again, I was getting some good practice here, “Well I can’t assume that every kid with black hair and glasses is Harry Potter, can I?”

“Who are you?” Lolli asks looking at the ginger, but not really. Her head was tilted toward the ground, but her eyes were looking at him. Lolli was shy!? What?!

His ears went pink again and she giggled. Hermione rolled her eyes and the boy finally managed to half-whisper out his name, “I’m Ron Weasley.”

Lolli took his arm and started leading him back towards the staircases, “Well, I like you. You can do cool tricks with your ears.” He laughed and looked back at Harry, shrugging.

I sighed sadly and looked at Harry and Hermione, “I really wouldn’t want to go beyond that door. There’s a huge three-headed dog. He’s standing on some trap door. Just FYI.” I start to walk away, but Harry grabs my arm.

“Are you in Slytherin?”

I look at him startled, “What would give you that idea?”

He shrugged, “You’re Snape’s kid.”

I snapped, “None, of his kids have been in Slytherin; and never stereo-type me again. Ever.” I ripped away from his grip, gave Hermione a half-hearted smile, and skipped away to find Lolli and Ron.

Behind my back I heard his whisper to Hermione, “Mental, that one.” I smiled and turned a corner, following some hilarious third year Gryffindors. All the way to the common room, I was debating whether or not to tell other first years to try to befriend “Fluffy”, my new dog. I laughed picturing all the little children lined up outside the door straining their necks to see the magnificent three headed dog Fluffy. What a gag.