Tough Love

“Welcome!” said Dumbledore, the candlelight shimmering on his beard. “Welcome to another year at Hogwarts! I have a few things to say to you all, and as one of them is very serious, I think it best to get it out of the way before you become to set on heading off to bed…”
Dumbledore cleared his throat and continued, “As you will all be aware after their search of the Hogwarts Express, our school is presently playing host to some of the dementors of Azkaban, who are here on Ministry of Magic business. They are stationed at every entrance to the grounds,” Dumbledore continued, “and while they are with us, I must make it plain that nobody is to leave the school without permission. Dementors are not to be fooled by tricks or disguises- or even Invisibility Cloaks. It is not in the nature of a dementor to understand pleading or excuses. I therefore warn each and every one of you to give them no reason to harm you. I look to the prefects, and our new head Boy and Girl, to make sure that no student runs afoul of the dementors,” he said.
Dumbledore paused again; he looked very seriously around the hall, and nobody moved or made a sound.
“On a happier note,” he continued, “I am pleased to welcome two new teachers to our ranks this year.”
“First, Professor Lupin, who has kindly consented to fill the post of Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher.”
These words were met by scattered, rather unenthusiastic applause. Professor Lupin looked rather shabby next to all the other teachers in their best robes.
“Look at Snape!” Fred whispered joyously, “He doesn’t look very happy at all, now does he?”
“No he doesn’t,” Anya whispered back, “now shush, Dumbledore’s talking again.”
“As our second new appointment,” Dumbledore continued as the scattered applause for Professor Lupin died away. “Well, I am sorry to tell you that Professor Kettleburn, our Care of Magical Creatures teacher, retired at the end of last year in order to enjoy his time with his remaining limbs. However, I am delighted to say that his place has been filled by none other than our own Rubeus Hagrid, who has agreed to take on this teaching job in addition to his gamekeeping duties.”
At hearing this, Anya, Fred, and George cheered along with the rest of the Gryffindor while Isabel looked slightly confused, but clapped along with them anyways.
“I’ll explain later,” Anya told her, laughing.
“Well, I think that’s everything of importance,” said Dumbledore, “Everyone off to bed.”
Needing no more encouragement than that, the students rose and began to noisily charge towards their common rooms, and more importantly, their comfortable four-poster beds.
“Come on Isabel, let’s go before everyone charges towards the stairs,” Anya said, hooking her arm through Isabel’s and heading towards the stairs, somehow avoiding the majority of the Gryffindor’s who had stopped to talk to their friends they hadn’t seen since last term.
“Okay,” Isabel replied, allowing herself to be towed towards the stairs, “um… I think we lost the twins back there somewhere…”
“They’ll catch up.”
“We heard that!!!” the twins yelled across the hall together.
“They are really starting to tick me off, and I just got here,” Isabel seethed.
Anya laughed at that, “Trust me on this one, they’ll do a lot that’ll tick you off.”
“I can believe that, but that whole talking at the same time is really aggravating.”
“Oh, sorry!” a boy who appeared to be about a year younger than them cried, after he tripped on the stairs and fell into the two girls.
“It’s all right, don’t worry about it,” Isabel told him, “Are you all right?”
“I’m ok…” the boy replied, looking embarrassed.
“Really, it’s ok Neville. We’re fine,” Anya told him, taking his arm and pulling him back to his feet, “Isabel, this is Neville, Neville this is my new friend Isabel.”
“Hi Neville, it’s nice to meet you,” Isabel told him, trying to keep him from becoming any more nervous.
“Hello,” Neville replied, looking relieved that neither one of them looked mad.
The three of them made their way up to the Gryffindor common room, laughing and talking about nothing important. Finally they got to the portrait of the Fat Lady, “This is the entrance to the common room,” Anya told Isabel, “as long as you know the password, you can get in.”
“Ok, so what’s the password?” Isabel asked.
“Fortuna Major,” Anya replied, answering Isabel’s question and opening the door at the same time. “See, nothing to it.”
“I can see that,” Isabel answered, following Anya and Neville into the room. The common room was very cozy, warm, and simply furnished; overall it had a very welcoming effect.
“What do you think?” Anya asked after she had had a chance to look around.
“It’s great,” she replied grinning, “So, where do we sleep?”
“Straight up those stairs over there,” Anya said pointing, “our rooms are up the staircase to the left and the boys are to the right.”
“Yep, so no worries, we won’t be bothering you in the middle of the night,” Fred said as he and his twin stepped into the room, “thanks for leaving us back there.”
“Not our fault you guys are slow,” Anya replied, sticking her tongue out at him.
“Who are you calling slow?” George asked, grinning evilly and stepping closer to her.
“Stay over there, Mr. Slowpoke,” Anya warned him, starting to back away.
“Nope,” George said, jumping forward and scooping her up holding her upside down by her legs, “Now who where you calling slow?”
“Still you,” she replied, poking him in his stomach.
“Would you put her down?” Isabel asked, looking annoyed and amused at the same time.
“And why would we do that?” the twins asked at the same time, which really got her mad.
“Would you two stop doing that!?!?!?! It’s so annoying and immature! Now put her down before I make you put her down!” Isabel yelled at them.
Fred and George looked at Isabel like she’d grown wings or something and seeing that she was serious, George quickly flipped Anya right side up and put her back on the ground.
“Thank you,” Anya said, laughing, “looks like you guys have finally met your match.”
That made Isabel laugh, “Maybe they finally have.”
“Maybe, anyways, it’s getting late and we have to actually be awake for class, contrary to some beliefs.”
“True. Good night Neville, Fred, and George.”
“Night, Anya, Isabel,” George replied.
“See you all tomorrow,” Fred responded.
“Sleep tight,” Anya told them, leading Isabel up to their room where they found that their beds where right next to each other. They quickly changed into their pajamas and then climbed into their four-poster beds, and slowly drifted off to sleep.
They where shortly followed by Fred, George and Neville who headed up to their rooms, and likewise fell asleep without any difficulty. All except George, who stayed awake longer than the rest, thinking about a certain fourth year that could always make him smile.