Maggie sat quietly in the hall, trying not to cause a scene or be noticed by anything or anyone magical.
, she had heard a couple of people nearby mention her name, or at least she thought she had. This place was huge and the noise of all the excited students around her was overwhelming. Her eyes hurt from holding back the tears and if she wished to just place something over her head and drown it all out. There was a precession, one after another of children taken up to that chair and subjected to a talking hat, there must be another way of deciding which dorms they would stay in, Maggie didn't know enough to care about who she would be immured with. She watched as several other children seemed so happy, she tried to tell herself that it meant it couldn't be all bad, but she wasn't listening.

She also wasn't listening when her name was finally called, or the second time, until one of her table mates nudged her and she made her way to her fate. She kept her eyes down and her mouth shut until she reached the chair, worn smooth in places by many many students and flanked by black clad guardians. As she turned, she felt the iron grip of one of the Professors on her wrist pulling her into place while another made sure she was in position, would the small metal flower clip in her hair make it more painful? she didnt know. The professor lowered that brown leathery cap onto her skull and she felt its brim cutting into her, the poor girl's heart was racing so fast as she awaited her judgement.

One of the adults whispered something softly in her ear but her mind was too overwhelmed to properly process it as a tear ran down her face and she felt the chair getting hot under her hand.

"Describe yourself in three words."
”I don't know… i'm sorry”
Wicked? lonely? scared? they were the only things she could think of, how to put three words on to a girl who had caused her family so much pain.

"Would you rather be able to change into an animal, change your appearance, or see the future?"
”Erm… an animal?”
She wished she could see the future, see a day where she could walk out of this place and everything would be OK, she could see her family again. But that vision was so far away right now.

"If you could invent a potion, what would it do?"
”I don't know… I don’t know”
Right now she would take a potion that would turn her into a muggle, maybe one that could undo time and save her little brother from the injuries that she caused. She glanced around, she needed to give an answer as everyone was cross with her.
”A potion to make people happy”

"Imagine you see someone cheat in class. What do you do?"
”I’d tell the teacher, I promise.” she nervously replied as acrid smoke from the sparks spells she didn't know she had cast wafted from a bunch of flowers on the Professors table. With so many Wizards here it was undoubtedly caught and extinguished immediately, but she recognised that smell and her eyes widened. If she caught someone cheating? She wouldn't tell a soul and would pray that they never saw her catch them, if she could hurt people accidently, she would not want to incur the deliberate wrath of any of the other children here.

"Who is your enemy and how will you defeat them?”
”I don't have any enemies, I'm sorry.”
That man at the ministry who took her family away? The wizard who sired one of her ancestors and put this curse into her family line that she now must be punished for? Herself? How could she ever hope to defeat any of them with what she had, the little flicker of anger at her situation as she remembered those that had caused it helped to at least dilute her fear just a little. Her heart raced and she hoped there would be no further questions for her