I Hate This Part

I’ve never really been one for a big entrance. I like to get to parties early and hang back with Penny, watching everyone go by. Serena, however, has always loved the attention she gets by getting there just a bit after everyone else. The awestruck stares boys give her, the jealous glares from girls that follow. If it weren’t true, I wouldn’t be saying it, but Serena is one of those girls who can walk into a room and everyone stares. Penny and I blend into the background.

I have no idea how she did it. Seriously. Somehow, Serena convinced us it would be a great idea to go just a little bit late to Kings Cross, so that when we did get there, people would stare. And people are staring at us as we race to get to the train on time. The three of us, trailed behind by our parents, without hesitation, run straight at the wall between platforms 9 and 10, and arrive on the platform in time to see Harry, Ron, Ginny and Hermione slipping on the train.

“Harry!” I call out, waving my hand over my head. “Save us seats in your cabin! We’ll be on in a minute!” He nods at my words, and the four of them climb into the train. “This was an awesome idea, S. Just great.” I heave my larger trunk off the cart and hand it to the uniformed man ready to take them to the storage car.

“Hey! It’s not my fault the floo system was backed up!”

“Bridget! Ian! Lindsey! Timothy!” Molly, Moody, Tonks, and Sirius (in dog form) come running up to us. “Oh, good Merlin. I thought you three might miss the train!”

“We might if we don’t hurry!” Penny says with a laugh.

“You girls brought way too much,” my father starts, helping me pull the smaller trunk off, and Uncle Tim goes to help his daughters.

“We’re girls,” Serena says with a shrug. Before Dad can even roll his eyes, a warning whistle goes off, and Serena, Penny and I look at each other in shock.

“Looks like you three better go!” Uncle Tim pulls the last large trunk off, and gestures for his daughters to hug him. I look at my dad, and I feel my eyes swelling with tears as he pulls me into his arms.

“I want one too!” Tonks says over my dads shoulder. I laugh, and as soon as my dad kisses me on the head, I give my mother the same hug and then go for Tonks. “Don’t forget to write! I want to know what’s up with you! Just send Hedwig; Harry won’t mind.” As Tonks moves to hug Penny and Serena, Sirius’s head nudges my leg, and he blinks up at me with these big puppy dog eyes. I smile at him, and lean down to kiss his head.

“Thanks for everything. We’ll see you at Christmas.” I look at him again, and his eyes seem to have changed. And somehow, I know what he’s thinking. “Don’t worry. We’ll look after him. Everything will be okay.” He licks my face. No, really. He licks my face. I let out a disgusted sound and laugh, and Penny pulls at my jacket.

“Come on! We’re gonna miss the train!” I pull my small trunk by its handle, pick up my huge purse on my shoulder, and grab Roxy’s terrarium in time to see a large puff of smoke come off the stack of the train. The three of us all head for the stairs, and look back to wave at everyone standing on the side of the station. Serena climbs the rest of the way up, and heads to her left, where, once in the car, we see the rest of the group waving at the people outside of the train. As they get smaller and smaller, I feel a little pang inside my chest. The year is starting. It’s time for things to get crazy.

We all move to get a compartment, and find Neville along the way. The others had discovered that he was my cousin at our joined birthday party, but somehow, Ron forgot, because when Neville makes a move to hug me, he looks confused.

“Cousins, remember? His mom and my dad are sister and brother.” I reach on my tiptoes, because, somehow, he’s grown about two inches since the last time I’ve seen him. “Can’t you see the resemblance?”

Hermione and Ron long gone towards the prefects compartment, we trail towards the last of the train, where we know there’s bound to be an empty compartment, and Neville avoids one completely after seeing a skinny girl with long blonde hair sitting inside.

“Is that…Luna?” Penny asks quietly. I nod.

“I think so.”

“Ohmygosh, I love Luna,” Serena says just a little too loudly. Neville gives her one of those “shut up, now,” looks, and Ginny opens the door to the compartment.

“Hi Luna. Is it okay if we take these seats?” Ginny had gone over to the Lovegood's a few times over the summer, but we'd never met Luna, who seemed to keep to herself. She's in the corner of the compartment with an issue of the Quibbler in her lap, staring mindlessly out the window as if deep in thought. When she hears Ginny, she nods wordlessly, and everyone starts piling in. I, of course, am last, and by the time I’m about to walk in, most everyone else is seated.

The train lurches.

Let me fill you in on something. I am the clumsiest person on the face of this planet. No, really, I am. I could find the one rock on a football field and trip over it. Flat land does nothing to keep me from falling over my own two feet.

So when the train stalls, and everyone else lurches forward, I manage to step on the wheel of my trunk and fall backwards, flat on my ass, sprawling across the corridor. And nobody in my compartment even notices. The door slams shut with the stall, and I stare up at the red wallpaper covered ceiling, trying to remember what I did to deserve such bad karma. The door of the compartment to my left slides open, and I see a pair of dark Vans under skinny-ish jeans. I follow the jeans up to a light blue tee shirt, and the shirt to the face, and my eyes go wide.

“Are you alright?” the guy says, squatting down as I try to sit up. I make a groaning sound as my head pounds, and his eyes widen too. “Here, let me-

“No, I got it.” I push up into a sitting position with my hands, and almost fall again as the train hits a bump. “Okay, I don’t got it.” He laughs, of all things, and grabs my hand, pulling me up to a sitting position. “Thanks.”

“No problem. You sure you’re okay?” I look around me, trying to figure out where Roxy went. I see her cage, turned to its side.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” I say, hurriedly grabbing it and setting it upright, before I remember that there’s an antigravity charm on it, and no matter how hard or what way it falls, both the landscape and Roxy will stay the same direction.

“Whoa,” he says, poking the side of the glass box in my hands. “That’s wicked. What spell’d you put on it?” I shrug, trying not to fall under the spell of his distinctly Irish accent.

“No idea. It came that way, I think. My parents got it for me before I left…” I look up, done with my sentence, and notice that he’s not looking at the cage anymore; he’s looking at me.

“Are you new?” Hello, captain obvious. He stands up, not breaking his gaze, and offers me his hand which, after setting Roxy on the floor, I take, and he hoists me up, grabbing my forearm with his other hand.

“Yeah,” I say once I’m up, and I pull my lace tank top over my shorts to make sure that nothings tucked into anything awkward. “My cousins and I just transferred.” I gesture towards the cabin to my right, where, I notice, while everyone else is in an animate conversation with Neville about the odd plant he’s holding, Serena and Penny are staring at me.

“Cool,” the guy says, sticking out his hand again. “Seamus Finnigan.”

“Elle Fawley.” I shake his hand, which is callused and rough, but inviting and warm. “Nice to meet you.”

“Likewise.” He gives this little sideways smile, and it makes my heart melt. This guy is much cuter than I thought he’d be. Like, seriously. Jake Gilenhall cute. “So.” He leans against the doorway, ready to make conversation on a moving train. “You transfer from the Americas?”

“That obvious?” He nods, smiling. “Yeah. Just moved to London over the summer. We’re from here originally, but we were all raised in Louisiana.” What. The. Hell. Okay. I know, I know. I’m supposed to be all secretive. But why do I find myself spouting out information to this guy that I just met?

“We went to the states once when I was little, Los Angeles, I think it was?” He shakes his head, and I take the time to look over him. He’s taller than me; maybe 6’, 6’1 (I’m almost 5’10, as tall as Neville was before he grew). He’s got dark brown hair, a little bit long and choppy, long enough to be cute but not so long as to touch his eyebrows. He is, in a word, adorable. “Bloody crazy, if you ask me. And-

“Elle?” I turn around, and Penny stands in the doorway, which is now open. “You okay? I saw you fall…”

“Yeah. I’m good.” I glance back in the compartment, and see Neville holding the small plant in his hands really close to his face. “Uhhh. You might want to….” Before I can finish my sentence, Neville prods the plant with his quill. I pull Seamus out of the view of the door, and against the window next to it. There’s a small pop, and when I turn around, the entire cabin is completely covered in green slime.

Penny’s eyes widen, and then slowly close as she takes a deep breath, opening them and stepping out of the cabin, wordlessly turning to look at her back. When she did, I clearly see that almost all of her back, including her hair, is covered in the thick goo. I make a gagging noise and pull my wand out of my holster, and Neville mumbles something to the people in the room.

Serena’s face is priceless, I note as I glance at their side of the cabin. A mixture of shock and disgust, her blonde hair is matted with the stuff (that’s what she gets for sitting next to Neville!) and her green top (hey, wait a second….that’s mine!) is covered in it too. “Scourgify,” I mumble as I point my wand at Penny, and she shakes once all of the green is off, almost bumping into someone coming down the hallway. I glance at the person and almost flip out. She’s already dressed in her blue lined robes, and when she speaks, her accent is distinctly Scottish.

“Oh, hello Harry. Bad time?” Harry looks up, and his eyes go wide. Penny glances back at me and lets out a little guaff, trying not to laugh. Harry looks pretty damn funny at the moment, and the fact that Cho Chang, of all people, have to walk in at this exact time, just made it so much better.

“Oh…hi.”

“Um…Well…” Cho stands awkwardly in the doorway, one hand on her hip. “…just thought I’d say hello…bye then…” She gives us a small glance as she walks passed, and I cover half my face with my hand, trying as hard as Penny is not to laugh.

“Nevermind,” Ginny says quickly. “Look, we can get rid of all of this easily.” She pulls her wand out and points it around the cabin. “Scourgify.” All of the goo disappears, like it did on Penny, and I turn back to Seamus just as Neville apologizes.

“How did you know that was going to happen?” he asks with a laugh. I shrug, trying to play it cool.

“Figured it was bound to happen sooner or later. Neville pokes everything.”

“I thought you just transferred here though. How do you know everyone already?”

“Neville is Elle’s cousin, as am I. And we stayed at the Weasley’s over the summer,” Penny interjects, and holds her hand out. “Penny McAllister. The blonde in there is my sister Serena.” She gestures to me. “We’ve known people at Hogwarts for years.”

“Seamus, come’ere!” The three of us all turn to look at the source of the voice, a built dark skinned boy sitting in the cabin Seamus had come out of.

“That’s Dean. He’s my best mate. And I better get going before he gets riled up. I’ll see you later?” He raises his eyebrows at me, and I give a hesitant nod before he smiles. “Nice meeting you both.” He slips back into his compartment, and Dean gives us a wave as Seamus sits down next to him. We both wave back, and I look at Penny before I turn around to walk into our compartment, and notice that every single person in it is staring at us. Serena is grinning, but everyone else stares at us with raised eyebrows and tilted heads. Really, guys?

“What? Am I not allowed to talk to people of the male persuasion out of this group?”

Ron and Hermione don’t come back for at least an hour. When the food trolley comes by, Penny, Serena, Harry and I pool and get a bunch of random stuff - mostly chocolate frogs - for everyone to share. When they walk in, I’m holding Roxy in my lap and letting her nibble at a grass flavored Bertie Bott’s Every Flavor Bean.

“That’s sanitary,” Ron cracks as he throws a screaming Pig onto the shelf next to Hedwig.

“I saw you feed Pig two bites of your sandwich last week, Ron,” I say without looking up. I pick up what looks like a liver flavored one and throw it to Penny, and she holds it out for Paige, the small jaguar sitting in her lap.

“So?” Ron counters, taking the Chocolate Frog Harry holds out and crashing in the seat next to him.

“I saw you take the next bite, too.” Everyone in the cabin makes a face, and Hermione plops down next to me, Crookshanks in her lap. I hold Roxy tighter in my hand, and Crookshanks edges his face closer to her, as if trying to figure out what she is. The entire cabin goes silent, watching. He sniffs a few times, and then, with wiggle of his nose, licks Roxy’s face and then stands up out of Hermione’s lap, turning around and crawling to the empty corner of the bench. She offhandedly bats at his tail, but struggles to get out of my hand and crawls over Hermione’s lap to get to him, where she snuggles into his side, almost completely covered by fur.

Every girl in the compartment lets out a little awwww. Ron, Harry and Neville glance at each other, unsure of what to do.

Hermione goes off into a tangent about the prefects, and how horrible it was that Malfoy had made prefect. Serena makes a “what did you expect?” comment, and Penny and I both give her cautioning glances; we aren’t supposed to know about Malfoy, really, and we don’t “know” anyone else in the grade. By the time the compartment door slides open again, Luna is sitting firmly planted in the corner, glowering at Harry over her upside down issue of the Quibbler, and Neville is half asleep on Penny’s shoulder. I know, I know. He’s my cousin. But he’s more like our brother. The three of us are generally inseparable, so it’s only natural that he spent almost as much time with them as he did with me growing up.

“What?” Harry says with a snarl once the doors open. Neville snaps awake, and Crookshanks hisses in Malfoy’s general direction, rousing a sleeping Roxy. She lets out a small snarl, and I fight a laugh.

“Manners, Potter, or I’ll have to give you a detention,” the tall, built blonde says. My eyes widen, and I look at Serena across from me. Her eyes are as wide as mine and her sisters; Malfoy. Is. Hot.

Going into this, I’d never really expected any of the actors in the Harry Potter movies to do justice of the characters. I mean, really? I knew from day one that the directors had messed up with Neville; he was blonde until about two years ago, and it’d always been said in the books that he’d been blonde. Seamus was definitely a LOT better than I’d expected. And Hermione. Oh gosh, Hermione. Despite the fact that she was a lot prettier than Emma Watson, her hair was still a total mess. And she was not, in fact, blonde. And sweet baby Jesus. The Weasley twins? Don’t even get me started on them. No offence to the Phelps twins, but they didn’t do crap for the boys. I guess Quidditch players come with this natural built body frame, because, shirtless (and yes, I’ve seen them shirtless-it’s called sharing a house with them), they belong on the cover of GQ.

And so does Draco. With (almost) bleach blonde hair, not quite as white as I’d expected, he stands just a little bit taller than me. I notice, without really meaning to, that his eyes are a dark shade of grey. I remember reading that his eyes were cold; hard. And I see that, kind of. But when he glances in my general direction, there’s more anger and frustration than anything in them. “You see, I, unlike you, have been made a prefect, which means that I, unlike you, have the power to hand out punishments.”

“Yeah,” Harry starts with a raise of his eyebrows. “But you, unlike me, are a git, so get out and leave us alone.” Everyone in the compartment laughs, and Malfoy sneers.

“Tell me, how does it feel being second-best to Weasley, Potter?” Malfoy says with a smirk.

“Shut it, Malfoy.”

“Shut up, Malfoy.” Serena and Hermione speak at the same time, and my hand moves to cover half my face, peeking between my hands and Penny, who’s making an almost identical gesture.

“I seem to have touched a nerve…in quite a few people. And who is this?” Draco glances around at the three of us, and smirks. “New students, eh?” He catches my eye, and grins, and then looks at Harry. “Well, just watch yourself, Potter, because I’ll be dogging your footsteps in case you step out of line.” Hermione stands up, obviously offended at Draco’s comment about Sirius.

“Get out!” she snarls, and with a final malicious look at all of us, Malfoy leaves, Crab and Goyle (who, I might add, the movie does do justice for-both are equally as ugly as their portrayers) following not far behind.

It’s a good few hours later when Hermione stands up, announcing we should change. Penny, Serena and I have our uniforms already stuck in our small trunks above us, and I pull the bag holding everything out and follow Hermione, Ginny and Luna to the girls’ changing compartments in the back. A few giggling Hufflepuffs come out of one, and I begin to think of what type of charms must be set on them to keep the boys out.

“What are those?” Hermione says as I finish buttoning my white shirt. In one hand, I’m holding a pair of black tights.

“My tights?”

“I meant those.” She points to the small white hearts on the tights, and I raise my eyebrows.

“They’re hearts. What about them?”

“Is that dress code?” Ginny asks with a questioning glance. I shrug.

“The dress code Dumbledore gave me just said ‘black tights or charcoal grey socks.’ I just went with it.” I begin to pull them on when Luna speaks.

“I think they’re lovely,” she says with a smile, and then proceeds to pull out a pair of worn black high top converse spackled with black sparkles all over them. I reach over and she gives me a silent high five.

“None of us like plain uniforms very well-we all went to private school in elementary, and we never went completely by the rules there either.” As she speaks, Penny pulls out a pair of black flats with large black flowers on the toes. Luna giggles.

“But won’t you get in trouble?” Hermione asks, clutching her own black flats to her chest. I laugh.

“No more than you, Ron or Harry will,” Serena say with a head shake. “You really think Dumbledore will let any of us get in trouble over dress code-which we’re not really breaking?” I silently glance at Luna, and she’s no longer paying attention-she’s lacing up her shoes.

“Besides,” I start. “You’re our prefect. And you’re not going to chastise us, now are you?” Hermione bites her lip, and Ginny shakes her head, snorting.

“You three are insane,” she says, and I clip on my plain skinny tie, pulling on my grey sweater vest and black penny loafers.

“Certifiably,” Serena says with a nod, and all six of us find ourselves glancing in the large mirror on the wall. Penny leans forward, running her fingers under her eyes to make sure there’s no eyeliner there. Luna adjusts the blue butterfly clip in her hair, which matches her house tie. Serena glosses her lips and smacks them. Ginny tightens her tie. Hermione straightens her prefect badge on her chest. I fluff my hair and re-place the small purple bow headband behind my ears. This was it. Less than an hour and we’d be at Hogwarts.

When the train finally begins to slow down, the window is so thickly covered in grime and fog and rain that I can’t see through it. We all pile out of the compartment, Hermione and Ron disappearing into the crowds already outside. I hear Hermione’s voice yelling on the platform “First years, first years please find the nearest professor and follow them to the boats-they will take you to the castle.” Ginny pulls Crookshanks from my arms, and Luna takes Pig from Harry, who’s juggling the two animals and his small bag behind him. The excitement in the hall is kind of like exiting an airplane, only uniformed. When we finally get out, Ginny is the first to disappear, followed by Luna. The three of us stand with Harry and Neville, completely astonished. The mass chaos on the platform is like nothing I’ve ever seen before. A tall, thin woman with a startling hair cut is calling out for the first years in unison with Hermione, and I see Ron standing to her side, giving a small first year boy a chastising look and pointing to the growing line of his classmates behind the woman.

“We’re supposed to go with everyone else, right? Not the first years?” Penny and I nod silently at Serena’s question. Dumbledore had told us to go ahead and take the carriages with our friends, and to meet up with Professor McGonagall at the doors of the Great Hall for sorting. We follow Neville and Harry towards the carriages, and I’m talking to Serena about changing the colors of our tights (hers were polka dotted) once we got sorted, when suddenly the entire group halts. I look up, and Penny lets out a gasp. Standing in front of us is a large, black beast slightly resembling a horse. Resting at its side are boney wings, almost bat like, and it kicks its leg, nodding its pointy head and making a grunting noise. Harry is nose to nose with one, examining it closely.

“Are those…thesterals?” Penny speaks only loud enough to where I can hear her, and I nod as Ron comes up. He asks where Pig is, and Harry and I explain that Luna has him. They mention something about Hagrid, and for the first time I realize what’s missing from the Platform. Maybe it’s because the first time I’d read Sorcerer’s Stone, I’d always imagined Hagrid coming to find me and whisking me away to Hogwarts, but when I realize he’s not here, my heart immediately pangs a little bit.

Hermione finally appears, and seconds later so does Ginny, and she hands off Crookshanks. I follow Hermione and Ginny with Serena, but Penny stays, still staring at the large beast in front of her. From a distance, I watch Ron come face to face with one, and give Harry a look that plainly questions his sanity. After Serena, Hermione and Ginny pile into the carriage, I wait for the others. Ron goes in first, and Luna, in that dreamy voice of hers, explains to Harry that she can see them too. After she climbs the stairs, I do too, followed by Harry, and we’re off to the castle.

In the ten minutes it takes to ride there, I feel my heart begin to race. Everyone is kind of off in their own little worlds. Luna is, of course, reading an issue of the Quibbler after a small squabble with Ron, so I take this as my time to speak up.

“Guys?” Serena and Penny turn towards me, and I say it again. “Guys!” Ginny, Ron, Hermione, Neville and Harry all look towards me, and I sit back in my seat, kind of surprised at all the eyes looking at me. I take a second, trying to gather my thoughts. “Listen, I just wanted to say…” Penny raises her eyebrows at me. “I just wanted to say that whatever happens, we stick together.” Luna, over her issue of the Quibbler, raises her own eyebrows at me. “This includes you too, Luna.” I look down at my hands. “I want to make sure that no matter what the outcome of the sorting ceremony, we’re all still together. Nothing can change that - not even being in separate houses.”

“Is there something you’re not telling us?” Ginny asks with a very Luna-esque tilt of the head. I shake my head.

“Of course not! I just mean…there’s a 25 percent chance we’ll end up in Gryffindor with all of you, no offence, Luna.”

“None taken.”

“And even less of a chance of all of us being in there with y’all.”

“Y’all.” Ron snickers, and Hermione hits him on the leg.

“It’s gonna be okay, Elle,” Ginny says, putting her arm around my shoulder. “I’m not even in the same year as these three, and I still manage to get annoyed with how much I see them.” She gestures to the three across from us, and we all laugh. “It doesn’t matter what house you end up in-we all intermingle. Right Luna?” She pulls her magazine further down and gives us all a (rather creepy) smile.

When we arrive, my breath is quite literally taken away. I fall out of the compartment going down the stairs and land chest first on the grass.

“Oh Merlin!” Neville races down the stairs and kneels next to me. “Are you okay?”

“No…” I moan, pushing up with my arms. Ginny, following closely behind him, helps me get into a sitting position, and brushes some dirt off my knees. “I think my boobs deflated a cup size.” She lets out a laugh, Neville makes a face, and I work my way to standing position as Ron and Harry unload our stuff into the growing pile by the front doors. One by one, house elves apparate to the pile, grab something, and apparate back out. We followed everyone into the castle, which looked dark and brooding in the gloomy weather, and while everyone else headed into the Great Hall, the three of us stood outside of the doors, waiting for Professor McGonagall.

“I can’t believe it,” Penny says, taking in her surroundings. “We’re at Hogwarts.”

“We’re at Hogwarts,” Serena echoes. I look inside the Great Hall again, and see that Harry and everyone are sitting down at the table, but they leave a couple seats between them and the fourth years sitting down, and I see Fred and George force Lee to move down one seat so they could too. Ginny and Hermione both look our way and give us thumbs up, which only I return. Because only I know my fate. Penny and Serena are left to the gods. I scan the staff table with everyone sitting at the Gryffindor table-I spot Snape and scowl, Dumbledore sitting in his chair in the middle, smiling at everyone. And then my eyes settle on a bit, fluffy ball of pink.

“Holy shit.” I turn back around, my back square to the door, and cover my face with my hand. “How could we have forgotten?”

“Forgotten what?” Penny asks, and leans into the doorway to look where I just had. Her eyes go wide, and she steps back. “Oh.”

“Oh what?” Serena mimics our footsteps, and when she looks at the staff table, her eyes widen too. “HOLY HELL IS THAT-

Penny manages to get her hand around Serena’s mouth and get her out of the doorway in time for half of the people at the backs of the table, mostly what look like seventh years, to look in our direction. I’m still in the doorway, and give an awkward smile and wave. I see a few girls give my legs weird looks, and before any of them can make comments I slowly make my way out of their view.

“This way, first years, this way!” I hear a woman’s voice with a heavy Scottish accent, and turn to see a large group of eleven year olds being escorted to the door by a woman in a tall, pointed hat and dark green robes. She turns at the doorway, and the group behind her comes to a halt, some of the kids in the back smashing into each other. “Are you…” she looks down at her list, “Eleanor, Penny and Serena?”

“That’s us!” Serena says with a smile. Professor McGonagall gives us a small smile back and picks up the stool sitting next to us. The sorting hat is in her hand, and I let out a deep breath.

“Albus told me about you three. Come on then. You’ll be sorted first.” First?! My mind screams. But we follow her into the Great Hall, and the chatter in the room dies down. As we make our way down the middle of the room, Neville, Hermione, Harry, Ron and Ginny all stick their hands out, and we each give them high fives as we pass. When I glance back, Fred and George give me matching winks, and I let out a little giggle. McGonagall sets the stool down on the little stage, and then puts the sorting hat on top of it. And it starts to sing. Yeah, sing. I completely forgot that it does that. I dose in and out during the song, swaying back and forth on my feet with my arms crossed. I see Serena lean into Penny and fake a snoring noise, and think that all of us are equally as bored. Until the very end.

Oh, know the perils, read the signs,
the warning history shows,
for our Hogwarts is in danger
from external, deadly foes

And we must unite inside her
or we'll crumble from within
I have told you, I have warned you...
let the Sorting now begin.

Penny, Serena and I look at each other. I’d forgotten about that, too. The warning the sorting hat gave. When the room breaks into applause, the three of us clap too, but we lean in.

“Do you think everyone will catch on…about the danger bit?” Serena asks with a raised eyebrow.

“Let’s hope so!” Penny says with a shrug. The rest of the room chatters away, but we fall silent at the glance of Professor McGonagall, whose looks could kill. The rest of the room goes quiet, and she clears her throat.

“Before we begin sorting the first years, we have a few transfer students that need to be sorted first. Fifth years,” she starts, glancing around the room over the scroll she pulls open, “please prepare to make room for your fellow students.” She looks at the list, and speaks again. “Fawley, Eleanor.” With a petrified glance back at my friends, I walk up on the stage and sit down on the stool. I see Dumbledore sit up out of the corner of my eye. McGonagall puts the hat on my head, and almost at once, I hear it speak.

“Oh, it’s you.”

Yeah, it’s me?

“Dumbledore told me about you. He told me to make sure I put you in Gryffindor.” He lets out a little scoff. “I makesureof nothing. Now let’s see here…” He’s silent for a moment. “I see. I see.”

I get it, you see.

“Don’t get snappy with me.” I blink, surprised. I knew that it could get inside my head, but I didn’t think it would read all my thoughts. “Now, it looks like Dumbledore was spot on the galleon, however invasive in my job he may have been. Better be…GRYFFINDOR!” Despite the better of me, I breathe out a sigh of relief and follow the immediate cheers of most of the room (I note that a good percent of Slytherin looks completely bored) towards the Gryffindor table, sitting myself between, embarrassingly enough, George and Fred. I’m sandwiched between the two of them. Fred pulls me into a hug, and I blush as the people around me (Hermione, Ron, Harry, Neville and Ginny are across the table) high-five me. George gives me a grin, and I laugh.

“McAllister, Penny!” The room goes silent again, and I watch, slightly petrified. McGonogall puts the hat on her head, and it’s relatively silent for a few seconds. I see Penny’s eyebrows shoot up, and then the hat opens its mouth.

“SLYTHERIN!”

I feel my stomach lurch. Slytherin? Slytherin? For Penny?

Penny gives her sister a pained look, and then walks over towards the Slytherin table. They’re the only ones clapping aside from a few random Hufflepuffs, who look as confused as I am.I watch as two girls separate at the table, and Penny sits down, throwing me a glance. Malfoy sits only a few seats down from her, and he leans forward says something to the people across from them. Penny crosses her arms uncomfortably and leans down on the table, her head lowered. “McAllister, Serena.” I stare back at where Serena’s standing, and she looks like she’s about to cry. Before she sits, she throws a panicked glance at Dumbledore, which he returns with a knowing smile. I feel the urge to slap him at the moment. As she sits on the stool, I throw a look at Fred and George. Fred silently takes my hand below the table and holds it, and then gives me an assuring smile that says “everything is going to be all right.” I return the smile as best I can, and turn back to watch Serena. As soon as the hat touches her head, I see it move.

“GRYFFINDOR!” My eyes widen, and I look around the table and break into applause with everyone else. Serena grins, but throws a look at her sister across the room as she skips over to our table, sitting between Ron and Ginny. Ginny pulls her into a hug, and we all high five her. When the celebration is done, Serena looks over her shoulder. I look over and see that while Penny still looks extremely uncomfortable, she and the girl next to her, with short, blonde hair and wide eyes, are already in what looks to be a pretty good conversation. The sorting continues, finally finishing with Rose Zellar, who runs to Hufflepuff so quickly she almost trips on her robes. Dumbledore, grasping the table, stands up and looks around the room.

“To our newcomers-welcome! To our old hands-welcome back!” He smiles. “There is a time for speech making, but this is not it. Tuck in!” Just as we look back at the table, food seems to materialize out of nowhere, and Serena and I give each other satisfied looks over the table as we both reach for the spoon to the mashed potatoes. When we started eating, I notice for the first time that seated on the other side of George is what looks to be a ghost. I’m momentarily stunned; it’s not every day you see something you’ve thought for years was just an old wives tale to scare the shit out of little kids. Then again, look where I am.

“WELL.” Fred slams his drink on the table, wiping is mouth with the sleeve of his robe. “I’m quite full, if I do say so myself.”

“Haven’t felt this ready to pop in ages,” George mimics is brother, setting his cup down with equal vigor.

“I feel ready to pop at every single one of your mother’s meals,” I say with a raise of my eyebrows.

“I don’t!” I give a cursory glance at Serena from across the table.

“That’s because you and your sister are both black holes-everything edible around you disappears, never to be seen again.” Serena blushes as Ron claps her on the back, just as the room begins to go slightly silent. I notice for the first time that Dumbledore is standing, and I gesture up to the table for the remaining people still talking.

“Well,” Dumbledore starts. “Now that we are all digesting another magnificent feast, I beg a few moments of your attention for the usual start-of-term notices. First year students aught to know that the forest in the grounds is out of bounds to students.” He gives a playfull smile at our table. “And a few of our older students aught to know by now too.”

Hermione, Ron and Harry all smirk at each other, and though I hide it from them, Serena and I exchange a knowing glance across the table. Dumbledore continues his speech, introducing the two new members of the staff, Grubbly-Plank as the new Care of Magical Creatures teacher, and then, to my utter horror, as well as everyone else’s at the table, the pink fluffball as the new DADA teacher. I think that’s a sheer sign of irony if I’ve ever seen one. He goes straight from staff into Quidditch try outs, and I perk up - Serena and I have both been interested in seeing a real game played, not just the Weasley vs. Weasley game’s we’ve witnessed all summer.

It’s not until there’s a small little throaty laugh (I’m avoiding using the Hem-hem phrase Rowling’s so fond of) that Dumbledore stops, momentarily shocked, realizing that Umbridge wants to make a speech. She stands up, quite carefully, and comes around the table, her eyes sweeping across the room.

“Well, it is lovely to be back at Hogwarts, I must say. And to have such happy little faces looking up at me.” Our group kind of looks at each other, and then around the room. No one looks very happy. “I am very much looking forward to getting to know you all and I’m sure we’ll be very good friends!”

“That’s likely.” My eyes widen, and I look back and forth at the male twins. Instead of the three of us girls speaking at once, the Weasley twins and I, without really planning it, have said the same thing. The immediate area around us stares-Serena especially-and I let out a strangled laugh.

“I’ll be her friend as long as I don’t have to borrow that cardigan!” a dark skinned girl further down the table giggles, and her friends follow. I lean over the table to talk to Hermione.

“Who are they?” I ask with a nod at the two girls who were still laughing. She rolls her eyes, and I know what she’s going to say.

“Our roommates.” I close my eyes, momentarily disturbed, as Umbridge speak again. This time, though, her voice sounds different. There’s something…heavier about it. Like she’s caught her breath or something.

“The Ministry of Magic has always considered the education of young witches and wizards to be of vital importance. The rare gifts with which you were born may come to nothing if not nurtured and honored by careful instruction. The ancient skills unique to the wizarding community must be passed down the generations lest we lose them forever. The treasure trove of magical knowledge amassed by our ancestors must be guarded, replenished and polished by those who have been called to the noble profession of teaching.” She makes a little gesture towards the table behind her, and I look at McGonagall. She is quite scary looking, if I do say so myself. “Every headmaster and headmistress of Hogwarts has brought something new to the weight task of governing this historic school. And that is as it should be, for without progress there will be stagnation and decay. There again, progress for the sake of progress must be discouraged, for our tried and tested traditions often require no tinkering. A balance, then, between old and new, between permanence and change, between tradition and innovation….”

I look at Serena across the table, and she’s in almost the exact same position as me; head leaning on her hand, trying not to fall asleep. I know, I know. Most of this stuff is important to us; we should be listening and alert at all times. But can you blame a girl for falling asleep when this toad is talking? She throws me a look that says “Can you believe her?” I give a half hearted shrug, and glance around the table. Most people look just as bored as us. Ron is staring at a small piece of sausage on the table as if contemplating whether he should eat it or not. Harry is staring over to the Ravenclaw table. Hermione, it seems, is the only one really paying attention. And she does not look happy.

“…because some changes will be for the better, while others will come, in the fullness of time, to be recognized as errors of judgment. Meanwhile, some old habits will be retained, and rightly so, whereas others, outmoded and outworn, must be abandoned. Let us move forward, then, into a new era of openness, effectiveness, and accountability, intent on preserving what ought to be preserved, perfecting what needs to be perfected, and pruning wherever we find practices that ought to be prohibited.” She finishes with a tiny little giggle that makes my blood boil, and as she sits down only Dumbledore, a few of the staff members and a scattering of students clap.

“Thank you very much, Professor Umbridge, that was most illuminating.” He makes a little gesture to her. “Now - as I was saying, Quidditch tryouts will be held…”

“Yes, it certainly was illuminating,” Hermione says.

“You’re not telling me you enjoyed it,” Ron replies quietly. “That was about the dullest speech I’ve ever heard, and I grew up with Percy.”

“She said illuminating.” Serena spoke with her hand still cradling her head. “Not enjoyable.”

“It explained a lot.” Harry, Ron and Ginny all give Hermione a look. Fred and George are in an animate conversation with the people on either side of them (Angelina and Lee, I presume), but Serena, Hermione and I all glance at each other-she knows we understand.

“Did it?” Harry says with a laugh. “Sounded like a load of waffle to me.”

“Waffle?” Serena repeats, just as confused as I am.

“Horseshit,” George whispers out of nowhere, and I laugh. Hermione sends him a scolding look, but continues with her explanation.

“There was some important stuff hidden in the waffle,” she says.

“Was there?” Ron looks blank.

“How about ‘progress for the sake of progress must be discouraged’? How about ‘pruning wherever we find practices that ought to be prohibited’?”

“Well what does that mean?” Ron and Harry look even more confused, but Ginny seems to be catching on.

“I’ll tell you what it means,” Hermione says, resting her hands on the table. “It means the Ministry’s interfering at Hogwarts.”

“Of course,” I start. “The year we get here and things go to the crapper. Mark my words, this year is going to suck.” That’s all I say, not giving away too much, as the room erupts in sounds of chairs moving back and silverwear clattering. Realizing that we were dismissed, Hermione jumps up, flustered.

“Ron! We’re supposed to show the first years where to go….”

Serena and I follow Fred, George and Lee back to the common room. Ginny splits off with her fourth year friends, and since Ron and Hermione have to lead the first years, and Harry had since disappeared to avoid all the chatter about him, we walk along with the three boys as they reminisce on some of the finer pranks and jokes they’ve pulled in different parts of the castle. The common room, as we remembered, is all the way up on the seventh floor, so as we change staircase after staircase, I watch each picture wave at us, and even wave back a few times at the better looking ones that don’t portray some stingy old man. When I look below, I’m momentarily amazed. Just as I’d imagined, far beneath me the staircases move back and forth.

“Here we are,” George says with a gesture at the painting. “The Fat Lady.”

“Oh Merlin,” the woman in the picture laughs, taking a sip of her drink. “You three are still here? Figured you’d be gone this year.”

“Nope,” Fred says with a grin. “Still here.” She shakes her head and rolls her eyes, and then seems to see us.

“Who are these two? I’ve never seen them before, and they look far too old to be first years.”

“New students, from the Americas. Elle and Serena.” He gestures to the two of us.

“Welcome to Hogwarts, ladies.” She nods at us, and I smile, giving a little half wave. “Now, I would assume one of you knows the password?”

“I do!” Serena says, jumping excitedly. The four of us turn to look at her, and she crosses her arms. “What? Hermione told us on the train while you were busy talking to Mr. Muscle outside. It’s Neville’s plant. Mimbulus mimbletonia.” The Fat Lady smiles for the first time, and then her portrait swings open. Serena and I look at each other. This is it. First time in our common room. When we follow the guys in, I hear Serena gasp next to me. The room is huge; with tall ceilings draped in a deep red, all the portraits hang in gold frames. Large, cushy looking chairs and couches are everywhere (most are already occupied by groups of people). The room is full of students, a lot of them already dressed in their pajamas and sweat pants.

“Eyyyyy!” Fred and George call out simultaneously, and the entire room responds with rousing calls, bringing them into the group. “Your room is up there!” Fred calls over someone’s head. He points to the staircase behind him. “Fifth door up!” I look at Serena, and then, grinning, run towards the stairs. We make it up the five floors (though it feels like a lot shorter…possibly the whole wizard space thing?) and stand outside the door that says “Fifth Years” on it. We can hear Lavender and Parvati giggling inside. With a moment’s hesitation, I push the door open. The two girls stand at beds on the far left side of the backwall, right next to each other. Parvati is picking clothes up out of her trunk and laying them out on her bed. Lavender is putting up posters of a bunch of wizarding boy bands on the wall behind her bed.

I’m momentarily shocked by the sheer size of the room compared to how the tower looks from the outside; two large tables sit on the far left side of the room, dark, comfy looking chairs placed around them. The back wall, curved as it is, is lined with five double beds, each with white sheets and dark red comforters (I thank Jesus that the two of us brought our bedding from home). On my right, between the door of what looks to be the bathroom, five huge, dark wood wardrobes sit against the wall. Two are already open, clothes hanging about and drawers pulled out. Serena seems just as marveled as I am. When I knock on the door quietly, both girls in the room turn around.

“Oh!” Parvati says, stepping away from her bed. “You two must be the new girls!” She smiles, and both of them come towards us. “We saw you at dinner but didn’t have a chance to chat."

“I’m Lavender Brown,” the lighter skinned girl says. She looks kind of like I’d imagined. Her light, curly hair is twisted into a loose braid on one side of her head, pulled back from her face with a gold headband, the end tied with a red ribbon. It’s very modern looking and in style; good to know we weren’t the only ones who kept up with Muggle fashions. “And this is Parvati Patil.”

“It’s great to meet you both,” Serena says, giving a warm smile. “I’m Serena McAllister, and this is Elle Fawley.” Both of them smile, and Parvati and then turns around a bit.

“Your things were brought up with ours, I think. Hermione’s on the far right, and then…who’s trunk is the purple one?” I raise my hand slightly. “Yours is right next to Hermione, and then I guess Serena’s is in the middle.” They walk back to their beds. “I’m at this one, and Lav has the one on the far left.” Lavender gestures across the room.

“Each of us has a wardrobe over there. And then we each have a vanity in the bathroom. You guys came in a good year, though. They just added charging stations to the girl’s rooms before fourth year.” My eyes widen. I hadn’t thought about that. I’d packed my curling and straightening irons, and my phone and laptop not even thinking about the electrics issue Hogwarts has had.

“I thought electronics didn’t work at Hogwarts?” Serena asks, walking towards her trunk. I nod.

“They didn’t for a while,” Lavender says. “I think it’s been that way since they first came around. But last year, with us hosting the Triwizard, Dumbledore thought it might be a good idea to have some added to the rooms. Proper grooming and all.” She rolled her eyes. “Most of us still use charms for drying and straightening hair, but it’s fun to have for iPod’s and stuff, which I got Vati into last year.” She gives Parvati a grin. “There’s no internet or phone service, but we can still use computers sometimes. They have one in the library now for weekend use. And the charging stations are great. There’s no outlets or anything.” She pulls the curtain away by her bed to reveal a small black box stuck to the wall. “Dumbledore’s idea. You just touch the end of the chord to it and it charges. It lasts for a while too. Works on phones, even if we can’t use them.”

“There are some in the bathroom as well, if you use Muggle straightners or anything.” Parvati pointed to the restroom. “It’s pretty cool in here. Things have gotten a lot better in the last couple of years.”

“Sounds like it,” Serena says, crossing her arms and giving me an amazed look. I return the look, walking over to my bed and pulling my trunk open. The four of us continue to unpack, putting our clothes in the wardrobes, accessories hanging on the nails inside the small cabinet on the sides, shoes in the caddies under the bed, beauty products in drawers and baskets under each vanity in the bathroom, all lined up adjacent to the showers. I notice as time goes on, that in the small spots on the top of our wardrobes and vanities in the bathroom, our initials began to carve themselves into the wood. At first I think it’s something weird going on, but Lavender explains that it happened every year; mostly so the house elves could tell where to put the clean clothes and toiletries when they came to restock during classes. “This is so different from what I imagined,” Serena sighs, folding a pair of jeans and stuffing them into one of the drawers.

“Well what did you expect?” Lavender laughs. “Cobwebs and dingy curtains and old rusty beds?” She gives me a silent “well, kind of” nod, and I smile as I hang up one of my button ups on the rod in my wardrobe.

“I don’t know. Just…it’s weird being here. Being away from home. And we’ve been imagining Hogwarts for…” She stops short, as I give her a cautioning glance. “For months now. And this certainly isn’t how we expected it.”

“It’s going to get worse with that cow Umbridge running the show.” The four of us turn around to see Hermione standing in the doorway, one hand on her hip, the other pushing her hair away from her face. “I just saw her in the hallway, and she was practically growling at a pair of third years holding hands.” I roll my eyes with Serena. “I mean, I can understand no PDA, but really?”

“Well if she’s from the ministry I’m not really that surprised,” Serena says, shoving her drawer closed. The two of us go back to our trunks and pull out the last remaining things. Hermione starts unpacking, and Serena and I are stacking books (mostly mine) into the bookshelf between our beds when there’s a loud pop, and the five of us turn around to see a house elf with large ears standing in the middle of the room with his eyes covered by his hand.

“Missus Hermione?” He turns his body around aimlessly, and Hermione’s eyes widen.

“Dobby!” she calls with a laugh. “It’s safe to look. We’re all decent.” He gives a relieved sigh and uncovers his eyes, which go wide at the sight of Hermione.

“Missus Hermione! It is so good to see you! Dobby has missed you and Misters Potter and Weasley very much over the summer.” Hermione smiles, walking towards him and pulling him into a small hug. Serena and I exchange shocked glances.

“It’s good to see you too!” She looks at him. “What can we do you for?” He gives a wide grin.

“Professor Dumbledore sent Dobby on an important job. He says…he says for Dobby to fetch a Missus McAllister and a Missus Fawley.” He looks around the room, and spotting us, smiles. “You must be the Missus he was talking about.” I smile back, and the two of us set our remaining books down on the bed and walk up to him.

“We are. I’m Elle Fawley, and this is Serena McAllister.”

“I am Dobby, Missus. Dobby, the house elf.” He gives a small bow, and a giggle escapes my lips. “Professor Dumbledore requests to see you in his office.” He gestures for us to come closer, and the two of us lean down. “He also asks that you bring your…” He pauses, looking like he’s thinking. “Your bell phones?” The two of us look at Hermione, confused.

“Cell phones?” she offers quietly with a shrug. The two of us nod in understanding, and ask Dobby to take us to Professor Dumbledore’s office, since we didn’t know the way. We grabbed our phones out of our side drawers, and with a questioning look from Hermione, followed Dobby down the ever changing stairs and into a long corridor, at the end of which was a large stone gargoyle. Dobby ushers us into the sides of the statue, and then, without stepping onto the small platform with us, mutters “Lemon Drops” under his breath. He waves as the platform rotates down, and we both give him small smiles before looking at each other. I can see worry wrinkles creasing Serena’s forehead, and lay a hand on her arm as we arrive in the office. It’s huge, as I expected. Moving portraits stuff the walls, and taxidermy of all shapes and sizes sit on shelves lined with books covering everything from Babbity Rabbity and Her Cackling Stump to the History of the Telephone. I blink, taking in my surroundings, before I hear a voice from the far side of the room.

“But I just don’t get it,” the voice sniffles. Serena and I look at each other in shock. It’s Penny! “I’m not evil! I don’t have a mean bone in my body!”

“My dear,” Dumbledore’s voice sooths. As we walk up, I see the beginnings of the sleeves of Penny’s robes; unlike ours, hers have already been changed to a dark, deep green for her house, and the emblem on her chest made me squirm; snakes scare the crap out of me. “Being sorted into Slytherin doesn’t mean your evil! It just means you’re more cunning than anything else.”

“Penny!” Serena calls, and she turns around, shocked, before standing up and pulling her sister into a hug. I hear both of them let out sobs before they pull apart, and my own eyes sting with tears. They stand, talking to each other for a moment, before Dumbledore clears his throat. After a few minutes of settling down, Serena starts in on Dumbledore. “How the heck could you let her get sorted into Slytherin? After what we’re doing for you; for all of you. She’s going to be away from all of us for the next three years. We’ll be living separate lives and-

“Dear, dear,” Dumbledore interrupts. “I have no control over where the Sorting Hat puts students. He makes the decisions, not I.” I catch the glance he throws in my direction and fight an eye roll. “But I can assure you that you three will be seeing each other a lot more than you think over the next three years.” He stands up, and holds out a tin to us. “Lemon drops?” I take one cautiously and pop it in my mouth as the others do the same. “I want you three to have time to meet up and talk about everything going on in a safe environment.”

“You mean where Umbridge won’t be watching our every move?” He smiles quizzically.

“Something tells me you three strongly dislike her for reasons other than her fondness of the color pink.” I cut the other two off before they can respond.

“I don’t think it’d be right to tell you-it’s definitely something that kind of needs to happen.” The girls look at me curiously, and I raise my eyebrows back. “What? It is. The locket?” For a second, they consider what I’m saying, and then they both make silent “o” faces. Comprehension, at last. I turn back to Dumbledore. “I say meetings at least once every couple of weeks here with you, and then possibly more on our own to talk about stuff we see and hear.” He doesn’t seem to object. In fact, he leans back in his seat, nodding.

“Sounds like a plan to me.”

It takes a while for Dumbledore to finish his explanations of things around the castle; schedules, Hogsmeade weekends, the sort of things First Years would learn from Prefects or brothers and sisters that weren’t necessarily in the books. “And now for your cell phones.” He holds out his hand and I reach into my inside pocket of my robe, pulling mine out. Penny and Serena do the same and we each hand them to him. The three extremely similar cases stacked on top of each other look like a rainbow; blue, pink and purple all lined up. He sets them on the table in front of each of us and then pulls out his wand, silently tapping each one with the tip for a few seconds. “This will allow the three of you to communicate with each other in the castle. Other students will not be able to see that they work, but you three can, I believe the correct phrase is, text each other when need be and make calls-but do so sparingly, please. I don’t want students questioning why you’re walking around holding a phone that isn’t even supposed to work in the castle.” The three of us pick up our phones, and I immediately find my text messaging button and send a quick hello to Penny. Sure enough, three seconds later, her phone gives a little ping, and I grin. Awesome.

As the planning of future meetings finishes, the three of us are heading out when Dumbledore calls “Ms. Fawley, can I speak to you for one moment alone?” I give an assuring nod to the girls as they head into the annex, ready to leave, and sigh before turning around. “Just one quick thing. Wednesday night I’ll need you here as soon as you finish dinner.” I silently raise an eyebrow, but nod, turning around to leave. “Elle?” I swivel back on my heels, waiting for him to finish his sentence. But when I do, he looks different; his face is less…teacher, more parent. More “I care” than “I need to know.” “You know I’m not doing any of this to inconvenience you, correct? That this wasn’t all some master plan to uproot your lives and make you start all over?” I lean against the back of the chair, subconsciously rubbing my temples.

“I know. I’m not trying to be a b…” I pause momentarily, rethinking my words. “A brat. It’s just…starting over, like you said. It wasn’t in my plans; in any of ours.” I look at him, sitting back in his chair, a serene look on his face. I wonder, momentarily, if he has any idea what’s going to happen to him. Any at all. But I don’t think dying; I don’t think being slowly killed by a cursed ring or being thrown off a tower by an Aveda Kedevra cast by one of your best friends is really in his plans either.

“High school was supposed to be a breeze for us. The three of us, with our friends. We were all going to get the hell out of Louisiana the second we graduated; head some place like London or Paris and start a boutique or restaurant.” I look down at the plush, purple apholstry on the chair and note that it matches his robe. “And sure, now we’re living in London. With ourparents.” I pause again, gathering my thoughts. “We’re planners, the three of us are. Me mostly. And after having everything planned out for so long, it’s weird not knowing what’s going to happen next. We have this roadmap in front of us; the books gave us that. But what happens inbetween those scenes we read? What moments did we not get to hear about? Those are what I’m scared for. Those are why I’m freaking out.”

Serena and I are the first ready in the morning (possibly because Hermione was at the first Prefects meeting with Ron until around midnight, and Lavender and Parvati were up well into the night gabbing about God knows what), and take the time to observe everything as we make our way to the Great Hall for breakfast. Seamus and Dean are the only ones down yet, and as we head to sit down across from them they both look up from the sports section of the Daily Prophet they’re both reading. Must be yesterdays copy, because from what Hermione told me and from what I know, the owls don’t arrive till most people are already here. “Morning!” Serena says in her usual chipper tone. Dean gives her a smile back but Seamus just grunts, pouring more coffee into the mug in front of him.

“Rough night?” I ask.

“It is when you have a wand pointed at you,” Seamus says in a gravely voice. I raise my eyebrows, and Dean rolls his eyes. “Oh, come on,” he continued, looking from Dean to the two of us. “You can’t say you haven’t had your doubts about both of their sanities.” We’re both thoroughly confused, until Dean, who’s picked the sports page back up, looks at Seamus.

“I think Harry’s perfectly sane, mate. Dumbledore too. But that’s just my opinion.” Serena and I look at each other as it dawns on us.

The fight. The fight between Seamus and Harry that causes all that tension first term; about his mother and Dumbledore and the night in the graveyard. Lavender, in similar fashion, had loudly announced she didn’t believe Harry either last night. But when the three of us plainly told her to shut up (Serena in not such nice words), she promptly did so.

“Of course Harry’s sane,” Serena says, grabbing piece of toast and swiping some butter on it. “Dumbledore, however, is questionable.” Dean and Serena share a small smile, but I hit her under the table. Not. Helping.

“I just don’t see how fighting about it helps anything.” I shrug and look up at Seamus. He’s avoiding eye contact with me, and I wonder if this is because he’s mad that I don’t agree with him or mad I’m right.

When Professor McGonnogal hands out the schedules as we continue breakfast (I completely avoid the kippers, which Ron tries to thrust at me the second he sits down), I groan out load. “Look at the amount of classes,” Serena says, thrusting her time table at me. Comparatively to our six classes a day schedule (two less than the normal students, because we, as mostly AP kids, only needed six more credits between last year and this year) I compare the two and see that we have almost all the same classes but instead of the two Divination spots in her week, I’ve got Ancient Runes and Arithmancy. I inwardly remind myself to ask Dumbledore about this on Wednesday and pull Hermione’s from her hands in the middle of her examiniation of it.

“Hey!” she calls, and I roll my eyes, comparing them like I did mine and Serena’s.

“We have all the same classes.” Her eyes widen and she pulls both sheets out of my hands as Ron and Harry look on in amazement.

“I guess it makes sense you’re taking Arithmancy-you were in Muggle school like I was.” I have a momentary sense of panic as she says this, then remember why she knows we had muggle schooling. I told her we spent our elementary days in regular school after Penny mentioned learning American history. According to our cover up, our parents wanted us to “learn the history of the country we were living in.” She looks up at Serena. “Why aren’t you?” Serena holds one hand up, the other shoveling eggs onto her plate.

“Math and me do not mix.” Hermione laughs and hands me back my schedule in time for me to hear Ron clearing his throat and pointing behind us. We both turn to see Penny attempting to get our attention. I look at Serena, and with a simple nod, we both stand, walking with our arms linked towards the Slytherin table. There’s an odd mix of both quizzical looks (from confused passer-bys as to who we were), confused stares (mostly at our outfits), and just plane glares (you can guess which table those were from). But when we reached where Penny sat between two people-the girl she’d been talking to at the table the night before, with short blonde hair, who was now sporting a large black bow headband (that looked extremely similar to the white one I was now wearing), and a dark boy who was, in a word, stunning. Perfect skin, pouty lips. And these chocolate brown eyes that seemed more warm than harsh-a stark contradiction to the grey eyes of his supposed best friend, the blonde sitting across the table from him.

“Morning!” Penny says, standing up and giving us both hugs. I can see quite easily that most of the Slytherins have no idea what we’re doing-why we’re talking to one of their people. I give a glance at the table and try to place a name with most of the faces around the ones I already know for sure. Penny glances down at the girl next to her and then back at us. “This is Tracey, she’s one of my housemates.” The word housemates rings in my ears. Housemates. Like a reality show turned horribly wrong. Tracey smiles and stands up as Penny ushers us a few feet away from the table, and then Tracey nods to my headband.

“I love your headband,” she says, and then smiles. “Topshop?” I laugh, nodding back to hers. I knew it looked familiar. “Great minds think alike. You must be Elle.” She looks to the blonde next to me. “And you must be Serena, Penny’s sister.” Serena nods, and without warning Tracey pulls both of us into hugs. “I’ll look after her, don’t worry,” she whispers hurredly. And for some reason, the words reassure me, like I’d hoped my own would for Sirius on the platform. When she pulls back, Penny gestures to the dark boy who was seated next to her at the table as we head back a few steps.

“Elle, Serena, this is-

“Blaise Zabini,” I cut her off, smiling. He looks a bit startled, and gives a quiet nod.

“My reputation precedes me?” I shrug, smiling at everyone. Serena speaks for me.

“Most of yours do. We’ve known people at Hogwarts for years. It’s almost like we’ve read about you.” Without warning, I stomp silently down on her foot, and she doesn’t continue.

“And who the hell are you, might we ask?” A snide, black haired girl looks us up and down. I tilt my head, smiling slightly as I speak.

“Let me guess, Pansy Parkinson?” She looks just as startled as Blaise did. “I’m Elle Fawley, and this is Serena McAllister, Penny’s sister.” There’s a small coughing sound, and I notice that Malfoy is about to spew pumpkin juice across the table. Pansy, who’s seated next to him, hits him on the back, and he sends her a glare before looking back up at us.

“D-did you s-say Fawley?” I’m genuinely confused by this. Why should my last name mean anything? I give a silent nod and wait for him to respond, but he doesn’t. He just wipes his mouth and watches as Serena and Penny exchange schedules excitedly, comparing the two.

“We have second class together!” Penny says, and keeps looking on the schedule. “All our Potions, Care of Magical Creatures and Defense Against the Dark Arts classes, as well as Astronomy.” I take back my schedule and note that that’s at least one class each day. “And no classes on Fridays means we’ll be seeing tons of each other on weekends!”

“Tons is right,” Pansy says with a small snicker, and the two girls sitting to her right cackle. I choose to ignore the comment and move on.

“Plus breaks.” I point to the small outline of the schedule at the bottom of the page, and Penny nods. “And Hogsmeade weekends once they start up again.”

“And you know what that means,” Serena says with a sly smile. Penny raises her eyebrows, but after a minute her eyes widen and she grins almost from ear to ear.

“When you three are done with your little gab session,” Pansy interjects. “Some of us are actually trying to eat here.” Serena makes a face when she turns back to her food and I let out a small laugh, rolling my eyes.

“We’re on our way out,” I say, and I look at Penny, smiling and pulling her into a hug before turning to walk away with Serena.

“Merlin,” I hear Pansy say, and not quietly either. “The blonde’s legs, their like ham hocks. I wonder where they got a pig that big to donate that much meat!” Serena stops after a few feet, and after a second of thought wheels around, a smile on her face, like always.

“It obviously wasn’t big enough, because it looks like they had to stretch its ass to fit your face.” That’s my girl. My hand flies to my mouth, covering the snort (ha!) that comes out of my mouth, and I see Blaise, Penny, Tracey and Malfoy all trying not to laugh, though Penny and Tracey are failing miserably. I get the feeling I’m going to like this girl.

First class is uneventful; we’re listening to Professor Binns drone on about the Giant Wars while Neville, who I’d elected to sit by so Serena could copy some of Hermione’s previous notes from the class, snores quietly next to me, when a small paper plane wizzes past my head, landing smack in the middle of Hermione’s hair. I feel my eyes widen and turn around, looking for the person who threw it. On my right side, two rows to the back behind some Ravenclaws, Seamus is trying to get my attention. He waves his hand and then points at the plane stuck in Hermione’s hair, and I raise my eyebrows. “Read it!” he mouths. I give him a confused look but lean forward, quietly snatching the letter out of its nest, and unfolded the rough creases. How this thing aimed this well, I’ll never know.

Elle

Sorry for being such an ass at breakfast. I wasn’t trying to be rude. I’m just a dick without my morning coffee. (:

Seamus

I fight the laugh at the back of my throat; I definitely appreciate his use of language (most guys are too afraid to cuss around girls, because they think it’ll scare us off, but in reality, I cuss like a truck driver around Serena and Penny, despite my demure nature 99% of the time), and turn back with a grin and a thumbs up. He smiles back, and Dean, who’s seated next to him, gives us both an extremely confused look before just rolling his eyes and going back to staring off into space like most of the other people in the class.

Second class, however, does not go as smoothly. Potions should be a breeze for me; it’s what I spent most of my summer break doing. And after the fourty minute break spent out on the lawn enjoying the few hours before the storms in the afternoon started and talking about the likelihood of mounds of homework due within the next few days, we tramp down to the dungeons intermingled with people I quickly realize are Slytherins. I quickly spot Penny’s dark head next to Tracey’s and follow them into class as people are already piling into seats. Hermione, who lets Penny sit with Serena this class, takes the seat I’d been looking at next to Neville, leaving Tracey to sit with a girl I believe is Daphne Greengrass (the prettier out of the two girls left unnamed - and Millicent was never exactly called beautiful in the books) and me to sit…well, nowhere. I look around, trying to find an empty seat, and spot one three rows back. I see out of the corner of my eye that Seamus, in seeing my discomfort, has stood from his seat next to Dean, grabbing his bag from the back of his seat and starting to make his way over to me. But as I smile and throw my bag next to one of the seats, sitting down, it’s not Seamus’ skater hair and thick eyebrows I see sliding into the seat next to me. It’s a head of white-blonde hair and chiseled cheekbones. Malfoy. Seamus reaches the table just as I’m giving Malfoy a what the fuck look, and Malfoy glances up at him, waving a hand.

“Get lost, Finnigan. I’m already sitting here.” Seamus stops mid-stride and immediately narrows his eyes, but the door swings open in the front of the room and my eyes widen. I look up at Seamus, feverently shaking my head and gesturing for him to go back to his seat near Dean before Snape deducts any points from Gryffindor. I stay silent while Snape lectures us about NEWTs and OWLs, until he announces what potion we’ll be making; Draught of Peace. Both Serena and Penny, who’ve previously not even bothered to look back at me, turn around to where I sit and give me a knowing smile. Then they see who I was sitting with, and identical looks of complete and utter shock comes over both their faces. I playfully glare at both of them, and then roll my eyes as they snicker silently. The second Snape dismisses us to get our supplies, I stand and turn to Malfoy, crossing my arms.

“Can I help you?” I ask in my most snarky voice. He raises his eyebrows as he stands too and tilts his head to the side.

“Such an attitude!” he says sarcastically. I roll my eyes. “Is it such a crime to sit with a new student? To give her pointers on how to create a proper Draught of Peace under Professor Snapes…watchful eye?” I raise my eyebrows. Understatement.

“It is when you keep her from sitting with her friends.” I turn glance at Seamus, who’s now gathering enough supplies for both himself and Dean, and when he turns around and sees me looking, he smiles.

“What’s keeping us from being friends?” Malfoy’s breath on my neck sends an unexpected tingle down my spine and I fight the shiver that threatens to take over my body. What the hell was that? Malfoy is an ass; a complete and utter butthead that should be taught a lesson via some sort of hex (again). But his voice, both rough but somehow smooth at the same time, sends me into a tizzy. To play along with his game, I turn my head slightly, and realize that Ron, Hermione and Harry, who are standing by the supply closet waiting to get their ingredients, are all looking at us.

“Your pompous attitude and my personal policy not to associate myself with dicks.” On that note, I walk over to meet the three standing by the closet, leaving Malfoy standing there with his mouth slightly agape at the fact that I was so brash. It takes a total of fifteen minutes for me to get everything and set up the table in an organized manner (with a playlist of Adele and Ke$ha blaring from my phone into my earbuds), but I’m almost done with the potion as Snape’s walking around checking on everyone’s progress.

“A silver vapor should now be rising from your potion,” Snape says as he walked around, finally stopping at Harry’s cauldron with a disgusted look. “Potter, what is this supposed to be?” Malfoy, who’s working silently next to me, attempting not to blow anything up, looks around to see what’s going on. From what Tracey had told us as she and Penny came to sit with us during break, he’s horrid at potions but great at charms and transfiguration; the only reason he’s in OWL Potions is because he’s Snape’s pet.

“The Draught of Peace,” Harry responds.

“Tell me, Potter, can you read?” Malfoy laughs, and I throw a bit of Valerian root at him, for which he glares at me. Harry, I see, clenches his hands, which are in his pocket.

“Yes, I can.”

“Read the third line of the instructions for me, Potter.” Harry looks up at the blackboard where the instructions are scribbled in a nearly illegible handwriting. I’m just glad I didn’t have to use them.

“’Add powdered moonstone, stir three times counter-clockwise, allow to simmer for seven minutes and then add two drops of syrup of hellebore.” As he finishes, his face falls, and I realize what he’d done; he’d forgotten to add the Hellbore.

“Did you do everything on the third line, Potter?”

“No.”

“I beg your pardon?” I narrow my eyes at Snape’s back. I could hear him just fine, even in the back of the classroom.

“No,” Harry repeats. “I forgot to add the hellebore.”

“I know you did, Potter, which means that this mess is utterly useless. Evanesce.” There was a puff and then Snape, looking annoyed, continued to walk towards us, only peering into Malfoy’s cauldron for a second before rolling his eyes and continuing to mine. I glance back at my potion in time to see the liquid in it turn a bright turquoise color, and smile to myself as Snape walks up, peering in. For a moment, he looks utterly shocked. As if he expected me to fail. “Potter, maybe Ms. Granger and Ms. Fawley should make a joint effort to tutor you this year,” he says, prodding the potion with the tip of his wand. He glances at me, and then to Malfoy, speaking more quietly this time. “You could do well to get some help from your new table partner too, Draco. I can’t overlook this forever.” Malfoy actually seems a bit ashamed, but just looks inside my cauldron with the same shocked look Snape initially had. As Snape walks away, Malfoy looks at me.

“How’d you know how to make it? You didn’t look up at the board once.” I shrug, and start to bottle my potion into one of the flasks sitting on our table as Snape announces that we need to do just that.

“I stayed with the Weasley’s over the summer,” I start, and he pulls a face which I roll my eyes at. “We had a few incidences where we needed to use this stuff. Evanesce.” The liquid disappears, and I smile to myself, gathering my leftover ingredients to put away.

“You’re a mystery, you are.” Malfoy shakes his head. “The whole lot of you new girls. Pansy said your friend…Penny, right? Pansy said she was so amazed by the dorms last night; didn’t know we had the chargers or anything.” I stay silent on that note, though my mind thinks Neither did I.

“Aren’t all girls a mystery?” I question, and then, with a small smile over my shoulder, walk away, putting my leftover hellebore in the supply cabinet and following my friends towards the Great Hall for lunch. As soon as Ancient Runes is over, I look at my schedule and realize what’s next. But it takes actually sitting through it know it’s real. And as I watch Harry stand up for himself, being publicly humiliated and punished for the truth that only four of us absolutely know is true, I catch Ron and Hermione both blush as Harry leaves the room, and shake my head, rubbing my temples and looking at the piece of crap book in front of me.

As the five of us (Serena and I, plus the trio) walked back to the dorms early from dinner, avoiding the odd glances from portraits as we went, Harry, Ron and Hermione discussed the gossip in school about Dumbledore and why people didn’t believe Harry was telling the truth. The three of them settled into well-worn chairs in the common room, Serena and I tramped up the stairs, throwing our things on our beds, hurredly changing into comfy clothes and walking back down with Tiffie, Serena’s Scottie, and Roxy tucked under our bed robes, homework in hand. The trio was in the middle of a heated debate about why Umbridge was teaching that ended when we got downstairs, Hermione pulling out Snape’s assignment written on the top of a roll of parchment. That’s the one thing I findreallyweird about Hogwarts. Why can’t we just use notebooks?

Harry goes up to bed around ten, and near minutes later Seamus and Dean arrive in the now-packed common room, occupying the couch Harry had moved too in the time since dinner had ended.

“You four missed it!” Dean says as he sits down, an excited tone to his voice. “Lavender and Parvati gave us all these! Said they’re leaving yours on your beds.” Seamus digs around in his bag as Dean speaks and produces a small, bright pink slip of paper. Why am I not surprised of the color choice? “They’re invitations!”

“To what?” Seamus answers my question with a large grin on his face.

“A party. Friday night. In here.”