Mannequins: Heroes and Prodigies

It didn't really take me too terribly long to find my long friend. He did nicely blend into the crowd, not sticking out particularily and not doing anything that could be seen as really eye catching. He was basically just doing what most other people were doing. And to make matters worse, he was small for his age, and looked just like another first year. Once I found his mousey brown hair, in a careless, medium length cut chopping his forhead into small fragments, his smart looking, rectangular wire framed glasses perched on his nose hiding his hazel green eyes, and light dusting of freckles over his nose and pale complexion my face tore into a smile.
I'm not sure there had ever been a time, actually, when I was happier to see Shaine, but at the moment I was enjoying my ecstatic mood. It was cute, he was dressed in a pressed, white oxford shirt, black dress pants (also pressed), a black leather belt, black dress shoes, and business type jacket hanging over one arm, and he looked like a little kid playing dress up in his father's work clothes. Of course, this was a much more accurate annalogy for his appearance when I'd first met him in his first term, my second. Then again, I do suppose that everyone that came from Merlin's looked a lot like an out of place business worker, or a child playing dress up.
I caught Shaine's eye and we walked to the dock together, dispositing our luggage in the proper location. After a frivilant banter with Pyro to get inside his cage for only a short time, Shaine and I made our way the rest of the distance to an empty boat. Dully, under all the conversations being had, you could hear the click of the heels against the wood, worn only by the females having attended Merlin's, like myself. I personally loved this sound, to me it gave off an air of professionalism to walk in clicking heels, a sharp outfit and a high head.
As Shaine and I carefully climbed into our boat, we were left alone for the ride. People seemed to stick to themselves out of fear and nerves so far, but would learn quickly that they would need to build some fast social skills. Shaine had agreed that we would talk about what he had seen a few weeks prior to now, later when there were fewer people around and we could be slightly more at ease. So, to keep unnecessary tension at bay, we kept a light, lively and fluid conversation about our summer's events, our ideals for the comming year, who we figured our fellow transfer students would be, how we thought our friends Scarletti and Dustin were coping, and other common topics. It was easy with Shaine. There was no needed silence. Since the quiet. determined young boy I'd met a few years ago, he'd grown and evolved, as had our friendship and he was now, more of a younger brother to me than a friend. Just as I kept a special place in my heart for Dustin who was more of a twin-like sibling than anything, or anyone else I'd ever known. And Scarletti could never be described like that, because she was almost like an extension of myself. We were never always together, nor did we feel the need to be. We weren't always on the same page, but wrote the same last chapter. We were two completely different formulas that came from opposite ends of the spectrum, but met in the middle somewhere with identical answers.
Once the boat started slowly moving forward, I passes our lantern to Shaine for a moment, and tied my long, wavy hair back into a neat pony tail with a hair tie I'd kept around my wrist. A few tendrals fell out of the mass and framed my face, but I quickly tucked them behind my ears. My warm honeysuckle brown eyes shone behind the light coat of mascara and eyeliner that I'd applied to my face daily in the morning, and seemed to almost have a mystical feel to them.
I offered to take the lantern back for the remainder of the ride, but Shaine would have no part in it. He was very old fashioned himself, and believed that a woman should never do the work when a man is fully capable to do it himself. I simply rolled my eyes at the thought and looked ahead. Fireflies danced in the air, and minows swam through the water around us. I had the urge to transform into my animagus, but knew that nothing good would come of it, especially as I was unregistered and had no intentions of ever registering. I crossed my ankles and waited impatiently for the sensation to pass.
A while later, once the sky was completely black, save for the moon and dusting of stars across the sky, we all exited the small boats. Hagrid then led us up to the castle in a large mass, not bothering with the niceties of a single file line. Then again, I do suppose there were much too many of us, and many of us were much too immature for that to have been successful. We were greated at the castle by an elderly woman who looked to be a few decades older than Mother, garbed in green witch's robes and hat. She too, like Hagrid, had a very strong accent, as her commanding voice ordered us into two smaller groups. In front, she had all the first year students to be called up and sorted. Behind them was the transfer students. Then the transfer students were further separated by number of terms we'd attended schooling. Second term, then third term, then fourth term, then fifth term. There were no first term students from Merlin's because it was counted by how many years you'd attended, plus this coming year. I'd attended three years prior to this, and with this year made me a fourth term. Shaine however was a third term, meaning we could no longer stand around and converse about nearly nothing while we waited for whatever was going to happen next.
Instead, while Prof. McGonagall sorted the first years, I idly, and quietly made conversation with another girl in my term who had been sent here for the remained of her years. Her name was Rose Lavieen, and she had light brown hair, hazel eyes, and a pale complexion. She was pretty in her own way, but no one could match Scarletti's beauty. Scar had crimson red hair that she teased into perfect ringlets, deep green eyes that reminded you of a forrest tree, light dusting of freckles across her nose, bright, plump lips and a skin tone that could only be described as porcelain. She looked like she was bewitched out of a magazine, but had a heart of gold.
Not quite soon enough Prof. McGonagall was finished sorting the first year students, and headmaster Prof. Dumbledor was making a speach, accepting all the transfer students into his school. When he was finished, the doors fling open, and row by row, the small, very small number of us walked into the room. There were about three of us in every term, the odd one having four. And one by one, she qould introduce the term, and then call out our names. First went the second term students. Then was the third term. Shaine was sorted into Hufflepuff, shockingly. I was sure he'd be a Ravenclaw because of his being a seer.
Finally, she came to the fourth terms. I was sorted first, being the first in alphabetical order.
"Estika Lynn Tonks" she called, looking me in the eyes, searching down into my soul as if she was trying to predict where I would be placed.
I took a seat on the stool and she placed the talking hat on my head. I heard a strange, deep voice muttering about. I could feel the hat wiggling a little bit, and listened more to what was being said. "... but even so, you are so much like Sirius. I wonder how your dear mother might like you in Gryffindor? Or maybe Slytherin, to compliment your parsletongue abilities." the hat chuckled.
As an instinct of being so close with my Uncle, I whispered back, "Please, place me where you put my Uncle Sirius. I think I would do well to follow in his shoes."
The hat seemed to mull over what I'd suggested for a fraction of a second, still wiggling. Out of no where he stopped, and the hat shouted for all to hear, "Gryffindor!"
A smile crept onto my face as I began a new journey, learning more about Sirius' child hood, taking after him more and more each day, and having the adventures that would last me many lifetimes.
I walked over to the red and gold clad table, and took a seat where I saw an empty place. I wasn't sure which house Harry, Hermione, Ron, Ginny, Fred or George were in, so I didn't bother looking for them here. I would find them soon enough. But now I would have much less time with Shaine than I would have liked. Oh well, with change comes sacrifice and gain. So by sacrificing some time with Shaine, I know that something good would come to me.