As the Leaves Change Color So Does Your Love

That day, I visited the Ravenclaw tower once more so I could write a letter to mum so I could send it to her later when I found the owlery. I wrote:

Dear mum,

Everything about Hogwarts is brilliant! Apart from the fact that I was knocked out on the train ride and for two days afterwards. I am doing fine now and I was sorted into Ravenclaw. The Sorting Hat said I was a true Ravenclaw. One it hadn’t seen in a thousand years. What is that supposed to mean? I’ve made a new friend named Eve Weasley. Tell me about the Weasleys if you know them. The girl seems awfully nice. How is father doing? I hope everything is well at home and don’t worry about me. I’m doing absolutely great on my first day.

Love,
Rahenna

When I was finished with the letter, I stuffed it into a pocket in my dress (how cool is that?!). As Eve met up with me later, I told her what I had seen.

“Oh. My. God. That is disgusting.”

“Tell me about it.”

“Hey, here comes the Golden Trio! I mean… HEY GUYS!” Eve ushered two guys and a girl over. One guy had black hair and green eyes, the other orange hair and green eyes while the girl had a crazy brown mane and warm brown eyes. “This is Harry, Ron, Hermione… you guys, this is Rahenna. She’s new. Just transferred from some Rendazzle What?”

“Rendaizel Wey. It’s a wizarding school in Austria,” I filled in for her. “And you’re Harry Potter? Nice to meet you!”

“I’m Ron,” the boy with the red hair coughed. He was quite tall, well over six feet. I looked at him and he turned red. Suddenly, I was hyperaware of how rude I had just been, completely ignoring the other two and just talking to Harry, which was probably not unfamiliar to him.

“Oh hey,” I added, “Sorry, I got caught up. Nice to meet you, too. So you’re… Eve’s cousin, I’m guessing?”

“Y-yeah,” he stuttered. “How’d you know?”

“She told me her cousins were in Gryffindor and you two look alike,” I stated simply, while remembering I hadn’t said anything to the girl so I added, ”And you are?”

She looked taken aback. “Hermione,” she said politely.

We all chattered and walked out into the courtyard, finding a grassy area to sit on under a tree. Ron quickly sat down next to me and we made small talk. He cracked a joke and I snorted, making everyone around me burst into fits of laughter.

“Ron, that was a stupid joke!” I mused.

“You’re stupid!”

I gasped, taken aback. As he blushed slightly, I started laughing. Then I remembered he had just insulted me.

“Way to contradict yourself, Weasley,” I sneered sarcastically.

“How?”

“I’m a Ravenclaw. How can I be stupid?”

That shut him up.

“Anyways, guys, I think I should be heading back now,” I declared, “I have to go send a letter to mum; can someone help me find the owlery?”

Eve eventually decided to come along since the other three had plans to visit some half giant named Hagrid. We walked, chattering occasionally, to the owlery.

Once I found my little white owl, I pulled the letter I had written earlier out of my pocket and tied to Ferte. With some feeding and drinking, Ferte was off to deliver my letter.

Because I wanted to sit by the owlery window and stare out and just think about life, I told Eve she could leave and we’d meet up later.

I watched the mountains, one after another, darkening as the sun slowly set behind them. Down below, at the bottom of the tower, students were gathered in bunches around the courtyard. Dinner would probably be served soon.

As I thought about my first day, my thoughts wandered back to the Malfoy boy and his little blow job incident. I had seen a pale girl with a short brown pixie hair cut. She must have been even worse than him to actually be doing that to a guy like Malfoy.

Out of nowhere, I heard footsteps approaching the corridor off the owlery and I jumped a foot in the air, scared for a second. A tall guy, I’m guessing appeared but since it had grown quite dark, I couldn’t see his face. Realizing I was staring like an idiot, I quickly turned my gaze back out to the view, ignoring this newcomer.

A minute or two passed and suddenly, a hand wrapped around my arm. I shrieked, pulling out my wand with my free hand and turning to face the stranger. His face was still in the dark but I could tell it was a boy. That brought back the thought of two tall boys I had met, but one, I liked. I hoped it was him.

“Lumos,” I whispered. Again, I shrieked.

It was Draco Malfoy.

“Easy there,” he whispered, covering my mouth, “I just came to send a letter and saw you here.”

“And you grabbed my arm.”

“Because,” he started. I waited for him to finish but he didn’t, trailing off leaving me to finish his thought in my head.

I pulled my arm out of his grip and started to walk away when he slid an arm out and caught me by the waist, pulling me back to face him.

“Because I wanted to tell you that whatever you saw earlier wasn’t true.”

“And you think I care because?”

“I just didn’t want you to get the wrong impression of me.”

“You jinxed me. You’re rude, harmful and a man whore.”

He winced slightly, but a guarded looked appeared on his face, as well as a sneer.

“Shove off, Cresendor.” He pushed past me and out before I could take another step. Wait. Back up. I had never told him my name. News spread fast at Hogwarts. And he told me to shove off? He was the one who forcing himself upon me. Angry, I followed suit and walked out the owlery to the Great Hall.

On the way in, I ran into Ron. His eyes shined and he grinned at me. I smiled back.

“Want to sit at the Gryffindor table with me and Harry? Hermione must be at the library.”

“If Eve doesn’t drag me to the Ravenclaw table,” I joked. He dragged me with him to the Gryffindor table and we plopped down between Harry and a dark haired boy with an innocent look on his face.

“Oh this is Neville Longbottom,” Ron introduced him to me.

“Hi, I’m Rahenna Cresendor,” I said happily since he seemed like such a nice person. He stuttered at first but caught himself before it got worse. Once he was comfortable talking to me, I realized I was right. He was awfully nice.

I dug into the turkey and mashed potatoes, piling it high onto my plate. I had skipped lunch and was starving. My stomach was growling like a lion’s, now that I paid attention to it.

“How was your first official day at Hogwarts?” Harry asked, looking past Ron.

“Very good, apart from that Malfoy git,” I said, bitterly.

“Bloody hell, so you already met,” Harry nodded, “Who hasn’t had a bad experience with that Slytherin moron?”

Ron snorted into his food and I looked at him, disgusted. He shot me an apologetic look. Suddenly, a girl appeared behind me and tapped me lightly on the shoulder. I turned around and was handed a neat but elegant envelope. With that, the girl walked off without a single word to me.

“Oh, no, poor you,” Harry said as he looked at the envelope.

“What?”

“What is that?” Ron questioned.

Harry said, “One of Slughorn’s special invitation letters”, as I ripped open the envelope and read:

Ms. Rahenna Cresendor,

I am please to inform you that you are chosen to attend a meeting of the Slug Club, an exclusive club for students with important backgrounds or traits that stand out in the student body. At this club, they can get together and connect, share their experiences. The next meeting is next Thursday at eight in the evening. Hope to see you there.

H. E. F. Slughorn

While Harry was shaking his head, Ron had a sullen look on his face. He didn’t seem in the mood to talk anymore and without another word, he just left his food midway and walked off and out of the Great Hall.

“What was that?” I wondered aloud.

“He wants to be invited,” Harry explained, “I hated the first one and he wants to be invited to them!”

“Great. What’s so special about me?”

“Meaning you don’t know?”

“Not exactly.”

“Then we’ll see.”

After finishing our food, I said my goodbyes to Neville and Harry, leaving them to go back to the Ravenclaw common room.

In the entrance hall, someone pushed past me and I fell, cursing the stupid person.

“Hey, watch it!”

The guy kept walking. He had black hair and he was average height. A hand appeared to help me up and I took it, only to see Ron. I thanked him.

“Want to take a stroll in the courtyard?” he asked politely, not in the depression he was in only some time ago.

I nodded. We linked our arms and together, we walked outside into the cool night air. The breeze touched my face lightly, yet it was enough to make chills go through me.

“How do you like Hogwarts?” Ron asked.

I shrugged, not knowing what to say since I had had good and bad moments. “So far so good.”

We kept strolling for another couple of minutes and stopped as we got to the Black Lake. The water rippled and I leaned over to run a hand in it.

“No! The giant squid…” Ron started.

Laughing, I looked at Ron. “A squid won’t hurt us.”

“It’s huge.” His eyes were probably bigger than the giant squid right now. Cracking up, I ran my hand once again through the water to tick him off a little more.

“You’re a horrible listener,” he sighed.

Ron and I traipsed back inside the castle after some quality time and at the top of the stairs, we said our goodbyes and headed off to our own common rooms.

When I got to the common room, it was crowded and I pushed past into the girls dormitory. It was empty. Tired as I was, I pulled on my pajamas. I snuggled into the four poster bed, asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow.