'Ah, this was nice… Waking up my first morning in Slytherin, the sun shining in streaks through the windows, casting a warm glow across my comforter, and… Wait. Slytherin? Slytherin? I didn't think I was evil! Well, this has got to be another sugar-induced haze.'
I sat up cautiously, feeling around me to realize that, no, everything was quite real.
"Wow," I whispered.
A girl next to me groaned and rolled onto her side, her eyes squeezed shut. I giggled at the drastic difference between her pale skin and the black robe she'd thrown over the comforter in the middle of the night to keep her warm.
What was her name again? Did I even know her?
I shrugged and leaned over, still half-way in bed, to gently nudge her awake.
Her eyes flashed open and she shot up straight in bed with a nasty-looking expression on her face. She turned to glare daggers at me. The corners of her thin lips curled up into an evil grin.
I swallowed.
In a flash, she had jumped onto my bed and picked up her pillow and mine, both now positioned to swing down and whack me in the face. She stared. She frowned. And suddenly, she was laughing hysterically at my terrified expression. She plopped down on the end of my bed, sitting cross-legged and sending a ripple through the thin mattress. She tossed me the pillow.
"Hey, newbie. How's the first day goin' for ya?" she asked cheerfully.
"Um..." I began, still staring at her in disbelief.
"Oh, that bad is it?" she inquired, leaning over and poking my ribs.
"Not - ow! - Not really. I just woke up, right?"
"Oh, yeah," she said merrily, "it'll be that bad by the end of the day. Did ya hear? New defense against the dark arts teacher! Sounds like a real nut if ya ask me - he's all my parents talk about these days. Say he just got outta Azkaban - doesn't sound like a great resume, right? But that's just a rumor 'been spread around." she laughed loudly, annoying some of our room-mates awake.
"Geez, Nickie!" a blonde girl yelled across the room, twisting her face around to glare at us, "I just got to sleep maybe" - she glanced at the clock - "three hours ago! So could ya knock it off, some of us actually want to pass this year!"
The hall was filled with mumbles of agreement.
I glanced around. All of these girls seemed to know each other, even though a bunch of them were clearly first-years, like me.
The girl on my bed - who I guessed was Nickie - laughed and jumped over to the blonde's cot, talking about some show I didn't watch and getting assaulted by the pillows of other laughing room-mates.
"Aw, c'mon, Neko-chan!" Nickie whined, baring a grin and poking the blonde.
"Stop calling me that!" barked the girl, who buried her face into her pillow. Nickie grinned and launched herself off of the bed, tackling a third-year and falling to the ground in hysterics.
I sat silently, watching the Nickie-induced chaos around me, and occasionally catching a flying feather from a burst pillow.
I fell back onto my bed and pulled my comforter up over my head, hoping I was dreaming not only the green and silver banners that hung around the room, but the whole mistake of coming to this weird, weird, weird school instead of staying at St. Peters'.
My wishing was cut short by another ripple flying through my mattress, and I peeked up over the sheets to see if Nickie had come back to torture my brain. I instead saw another blonde girl, this one with slightly paler hair and pinkish purple streaks, crouching at the foot of my bed as if ready to attack.
"Hi!' she said cheerfully, turning her head towards me for a brief second before jumping on a redhead with a cry that mixed screams and laughter.
Weird.
I stepped slowly through the stone halls, feeling uncomfortable in my heavy black cloak during the heavier August humidity.
I nervously loosened my silver and green tie, and slipped my arms out of the cloak, until I was only feeling burnt, not broiling.
"Howdy!" exclaimed a voice that made me jump. I spun around quickly to glare at Nickie and the blonde with purple streaks. I gasped loudly.
"Don't! Do. That." I snarled angrily, catching my breath. I hate getting scared so easily.
The girl with purple streaks tilted her head and pouted. "Well that's not very nice," she said with mock-sadness. "We were only trying to say hi." She giggled and shoved her hands into her pockets. "Here ya go!" she said, cheerful again, "We like to give all the newbies a li'l something before the teachers ruin their lives, you silly munster!"
As I was waiting for her to finish ruffling my already messed-up hair, I examined the object she'd shoved in my hands.
"What the heck is this?" I asked, gesturing to the box.
"Gah! That's just the package, ya gotta look inside," Nickie said, not looking at me but over my shoulder, "Psst, Nickie," the other girl said, "What're you looking at?"
"Hmm..." Nickie said. A grin was slowly forming on her face, "Diane, look. Gryffindors!"
"Ooh! Let's go torment them!"
I looked at them. "Are you sure you should do that?"
The girl who was named Diane nodded very quickly with a grin on her face. "They know we're just joking! Right, ya Gryffindor mudbloods?!" she called over my shoulder. I glanced behind me to see several kids with red and gold scarves run off crying.