Can I just say that I am Positively Enthused to share this story with anyone lovely enough to read this? This will probably be my longest story considering the first two chapters are a little over 13,000 words put together. I can't help how excited and into this story I am. Hopefully you all will be as well. Enjoy and tell me what you think.
Disclaimer: JKR owns all of the characters that are recognizable. Everyone else is a creation of my own.
"Charlie, you have to make friends on your own." A male voice came from outside of my compartment before the door opened to reveal two ginger haired boys.
"Hello, did you need somewhere to sit?" I asked with a smile as I tilted my head slightly which made my brown bangs fall into my eyes. With a frown I straightened my head and pushed the annoying pieces of hair out of my face.
"Actually, my little brother does. Bye Charlie, have fun." The older boy said with a grin before he disappeared down the hall. The younger boy looked slightly uncomfortable and kept standing there in the doorway looking at his feet.
"Come on Charlie. Sit with me." I said getting up from my seat and pulling him into the compartment and closed the door behind him. I nudged him over to the seat across from me so we could talk.
"I, um, didn't get your name." he said softly from his seat, still not looking at me which made me frown. I moved my hands to his face and gently lifted up his chin so he would look at me.
"I'll tell you my name but please look at me. There's no reason to be shy." I said with a smile that grew larger when he nodded and smiled back at me. "My name is Mariella De Luca."
"Is that a foreign name?" he asked me and I nodded with a smile.
"My family and I are Italian wizards. We moved to England recently because my parents travel a lot for their job." I replied and he made an 'oh' face.
"That's cool. My dad works for the ministry." He said with a smile but dropped it when the door opened.
"Mariella, what do you think you are doing? Associating yourself with a Weasley. How disgracing." A deep male voice said from the doorway and I glared at him.
"Go dig yourself a hole Marcel." I snarled viciously making him glare darkly at me and he made a move toward Charlie but I stood up and pushed him out of our compartment.
"Why are you standing up for that blood traitor?" he snarled, his auburn hair getting messed up when he ran his fingers through it. His grey eyes were sharp and held no mercy within them. Though I expected no less from him.
"Better a blood traitor than a murderer." I snarled back as my grey eyes narrowed at him.
"I'm trying to help you." Marcel growled as he started to approach me.
"What's going on out here?" a voice ordered and my head whipped around to see and older boy standing down the hall. A badge was on the outside of his robes.
"Nothing, Finch. Just talking to my cousin." Marcel said drawing my attention back to him and I saw him putting his wand away. I hadn't even noticed that he had pulled it out. He was going to curse me.
"Then I suggest you return to your cabin, Corrin." The boy with the badge said.
"Goodbye cousin." Marcel said as he gave me a warning look before walking past the boy who had interrupted our fight.
"Are you okay first year?" the boy asked and I glared at him.
"My name is Mariella, not first year." I said hotly but the boy only laughed at me.
"My apologies Mariella. I'm Bentley Finch, a fifth year." He introduced and I smiled lightly at him. Then I remembered that Charlie was still in the cabin behind me.
"Apology accepted. Now if you will excuse me, I have a friend to return to." I said as I walked back into the cabin and closed the door before he could reply.
"Are you okay?" Charlie asked me with worry shining in his eyes.
"I am positively peachy, Charlie." I said with a grin and he laughed at my little phrase.
"Peachy?" he asked as he kept laughing.
"Is there a problem with how I speak?" I asked with my famous puppy dog pout and he started to shake his head quickly.
"No. Of course not!" he said as he turned his head away from me. I was about to say something but someone opening the door distracted me.
"Charlie, grab your robes so you can get changed. We'll let your lovely friend here get changed in your cabin." Charlie's older brother said as he leaned against the doorframe.
"Coming Bill." Charlie said as he quickly grabbed his robes from his trunk before scurrying out of the cabin. Bill shot me a questioning look before leaving and closing the door behind him.
I frowned as I stared at the door that they had left through for a good minute. With a sigh I turned and started pulling my robes out from my trunk. It was weird to change clothes in such a public place but I guess there was no helping it. Quickly I changed my clothes and then waited for Charlie to return.
"Sorry, Bill wanted to talk to me." Charlie said from the doorway and I looked over at him to see his face was flushed.
"Are you feeling okay? Your face is flushed." I asked him slightly concerned because I didn't want him to be sick before we even started school.
"Yeah. I'm positively peachy!" he said as he began laughing again causing me to pout.
"So mean." I pout and he just grinned at me.
"Never, Elle." He said dropping his grin to give me a serious look but that didn't last long when the train stopped and I fell on top of him. We looked at each other before bursting out laughing.
"Come on. Let's go before they leave us." I said as I crawled off of him and started booking it off of the train.
"Cheater!" I heard Charlie call from behind me. Turning my head I looked back at him and stuck my tongue out at him. As I turned my head back around I ran into something really hard and fell right on my bum. I looked up to see what I had run into, to see a giant man looking down at me.
"I am so sorry." I said apologizing to the large man who laughed a deep laugh.
"'S alright. Now follow meh firs' years." The large man bellowed out before turning and walking away from us. Charlie took the larger man's place in front of me and held out a hand to help me up from the ground. I took his hand and he pulled me up to my feet before leading me to where the large man was taking us.
We followed the man, who introduced himself as Hagrid, to a boat dock and at the dock were boats that appeared to only fit four people to a boat. Hagrid ushered us to get in the boats and I looked over at Charlie with a wide grin before getting into the boat closest to me. He matched my grin before following right behind me. Two more boys followed in after Charlie and I shot them a grin which they luckily returned.
"Hello, I'm Eric Donnelly at your service." One of the boys introduced. He had this dark black hair and brown eyes. His skin was very pale, well compared to my tanner skin tone that is.
"I swear. The idiot will do anything to charm a pretty girl. My name is Westley Brown." The other boy said rolling his eyes which made me laugh. Westley had golden blonde hair and hazel eyes. His skin tone was slightly tan but not as much as my natural Italian tan as I like to call it.
"Nice to meet you boys. I am Mariella De Luca and this is Charlie Weasley. Welcome to our boat of wonders." I said as I stood up and gave them a mock bow.
See me being the smart person I am would know that by standing up in a boat, even a magical one, would result with me ending up in the lake. Also since I am such a smart person I would never do anything that would involve me being in water where I can't stand because of the fact that I can't swim. I am only human and humans make mistakes.
The next thing I knew I was in the water, struggling to stay afloat. I could hear people yelling out my name but everything was so foggy that I couldn't tell who the voices belonged to. As I felt myself begin to sink something wrapped around my body and pulled me from the water. I looked down to see a tentacle wrapped around me. The tentacle placed me back in the boat with Charlie before releasing me and disappearing back into the lake.
"Elle, don't ever scare me like that again." Charlie mumbled as he pulled me into his chest hugging me.
"But then how would I keep you on your toes?" I joked smiling up at him and he just shook his head as he sighed at me.
"What have we gotten ourselves into boys?" Charlie asked the other two who laughed and I pouted at them. For the rest of the boat ride I sat leaned against Charlie while he talked to the boys. It was very relaxing to lay there listening to the boys talk while my eyes watched as the castle came into view.
When the boat stopped at another dock I moved to get out of the boat only to be pulled back by Charlie. He sat me back down before getting out of the boat himself and holding out his hand for me so he could help me out of the boat. Rolling my eyes I took his hand so I could get out of the boat. Once we were all out of the boat we were led with the other first years to the castle. We didn't stop walking until we came to an older lady standing in front of a pair of large doors.
"The firs' years, Professor McGonagall." Hagrid said to the witch who stood in front of us.
"Thank you Hagrid. I shall take it from here." The woman said before opening the doors and leading us down the hall to another set of large doors. She stopped in front of them and began explaining how we would be sorted but I tuned her out. Lectures and I didn't mix very well. My poor, poor teachers.
So as she talked I decided to entertain myself by sneaking off since everybody seemed preoccupied with listening to the lady. How lame! Somehow I managed to hide behind a suit of armor without being seen and I grinned to myself. Silently I watched as the group moved through the doors and waited for the last person to go through before I made my way to the doors. I peeked in to see four long tables filled with students leading up to another long table that was running horizontally and noticed that only adults sat there.
While everybody's eyes were trained on Professor McGonagall I crawled underneath the table that had the students wearing gold and red colored crests. Carefully I made my way to the other end of the table while tying all of the students' shoelaces together. God pranking will be so much easier once I knew more magic. Finally I got to the end of the table and merged into the crowd of first years until I found Charlie.
"Where were you?" he hissed at me and I pouted at him.
"I had to tie my shoelaces and got stuck in the back of the group." I lied with a shrug. Before he could interrogate me any further my name was called.
"De Luca, Mariella."
"That's my cue." I told him with a wink before making my way through the group of students. When I finally cleared them all, I made my way to the stool and sat down. As I sat down a rather old looking hat was placed on my head.
"Another De Luca, hm?" the thing said in my head and I just sat there scanning the crowds for people I might recognize. "Nothing like the others. So you shall go in GRYFFINDOR!"
A thundering applaud came from the students whose table I just crawled under. When they stood up however, they all lost their balance and started falling over. I burst out laughing and made my way over to them. This year was going to be a blast. I could just tell.
I took my seat at the table after everybody had regained their composure. The best part was that nobody knew what I had done. It was bloody brilliant and listening to everybody talk about it made pride swell in my chest.
"Nice trick Mariella." A voice rang from my right and I looked over to see Bentley smirking at me.
"I haven't the foggiest to what you are going on about." I said looking at him with a smile which caused him to laugh.
"As a prefect it is my duty to put a stop to nonsense like that but you seem to be growing on me." He said with a smile and I blushed lightly at that.
"How did you know anyways?" I asked him tilting my head slightly.
"I saw you sneak under the table." He said with a grin and I grinned back at him. For a fifth year he was being pretty nice to little first year me. Not to mention he was gorgeous with his messy, dirty blonde hair and bright ocean blue eyes. Basically he was out of my league.
"Elle! We're in the same house." I heard from my left and turned to see my three boys grinning at me. Charlie was the one who had drawn my attention away from Bentley. As much as I wanted to turn and keep talking to Bentley I ignored the feeling and grinned back at my boys.
"This year and the years to come are going to be bloody brilliant." I said to them and they nodded in agreement. Before anymore could be said food appeared on the table in front of us. I never realized how hungry I was until food was right in front of me and I dug in. The boys followed my lead and soon we were all eating to our hearts content.
Even though I've grown up with magic all my life I have never experience a meal like this. Mother doesn't let me eat half of this stuff. She doesn't want me to get fat so she only lets me eat the food she listed for me so I don't forget. I stopped eating immediately at the thought of my mother and the list. Sighing I pushed my plate away from myself and stared down at my fingers.
"Hey. What's wrong Elle?" I heard Charlie ask from beside me and I looked over at him while shaking my head.
"Nothing. I'm just full. Don't worry so much." I told him with a smile on the outside but on the inside I felt completely guilty for lying to him.
"Never going to happen. You're my best friend now." He told me with a grin on his face. That smile made me feel even guiltier for lying to him but I couldn't tell him the truth. He would think my mother is mental and force me to eat things that aren't on the list.
"I better be because you're my best friend too." I told him with a grin.
He was about to reply to me but got interrupted by a loud throat clearing. We looked up to see that Professor Dumbledore was standing again.
"I hope the meal was good but now it is time to head off to bead. Prefects please take the first years to your dormitories." The man said in a booming voice before returning to sit down.
"Ready to see our house dormitory, Mariella?" Bentley asked as he shot me a smile which I returned. After I nodded to him he got out of his seat and held out his hand to help me up from the table. I took his hand before getting up from the table and he started leading me to the doors of the Great Hall.
"This way first years. Keep up and don't stray unless you want to get lost." He called to the other first years who scrambled from the table to follow us. That felt good to say. Us. If only there could be an 'us'.
It was a silly and childish thought really. He was about four years older than me. Besides, how could a guy like him not have a girlfriend? Being friends with him was the most that would ever happen between us. Ah, the hardships of being eleven.
"Listen closely first years. This portrait is the doorway to our common room. The password is sugar quills." Bentley's voice rang out after he stopped in front of a portrait of a fat lady who was singing rather terribly. However, after he said the password the portrait swung open to reveal the Gryffindor common room.
Bentley led me and the other first years into the common room but I hardly paid attention to that. I was too amazed by the sight in front of me. The room was cozy-looking with a fire, couches, chairs and tables. Everything was clad in red and gold, and the symbol of Gryffindor was everywhere. It was amazing to me most of all because of the atmosphere. There was a sense of unity and family in the room and that wasn't something I was used to but I loved it.
"In love?" a voice asked me and it brought me out of my daze and back to reality.
"Just not used to the homey atmosphere. Home never felt like this." I told him lightly before looking at him.
"You're related to Corrin, right?" Bentley asked me and with a sigh I nodded my head.
"My family is known for dark magic and dark wizards. I have a lot of family here. Marcel is the least horrible out of all of them." I said as I looked down at my feet. A hand lifted my chin up and I saw Bentley smiling at me.
"I'll make you feel welcomed here and I swear I won't let anything happen to you." He said seriously and I shook my head.
"Do not make promises you will not be able to keep. Ciao Bentley and good night." I told him before slipping out of his grasp and going up the staircase for the girls dorm rooms. I entered the room for the first years and saw the other girls doing stuff on their beds. Quietly I made my way to my bed and stopped in front of my trunk.
I pulled on mypajamas quickly then left the room, none of the other girls paying attention to me. After leaving the room I made my way back to the common room and went up the staircase to the boys rooms. When I came to the first year boys' room I stopped and knocked on it. The door opened and Eric appeared before me, smiling when he saw it was me.
"Come on in cutie." He said moving so I could slip past him then closed the door once I was through.
"Hi guys." I greeted the boys with a smile and got tackled into a group hug. When we parted I noticed that there were two other boys in the room that I didn't know.
"Charlie? Who is this?" the very dark skinned boy asked while the other boy who was very pale nodded.
"Hello. My name is Mariella De Luca. It is a pleasure to meet your acquaintance." I greeted the two boys with a bright smile.
"Jacob Adams." The dark skinned boy introduced.
"And my name is Jason Carmichael." The pale boy told me and I smiled at the two.
"Elle. Not that I am not happy to see you or anything but why are you here?" Charlie asked me which caused me to bite my lip and look at my feet.
"The girls in my dorm do not like me but I do not know why." I told him and he sighed at my words before dragging me over to what I assumed was his bed,
"Go to sleep." He told me after I had sent him a confused look. A smile made its way to my face before I snuggled into his bed and under the blankets while being sure to leave enough room for him.
The boys all said good night to me and each other before getting into their beds. Charlie got in next to me, saying good night to me once again. I was lucky to have these boys as my friends. I was especially lucky to have Charlie as my best friend because he cared and lo0oked out for me.
With that last thought my mind became hazy as I let myself succumb to sleep.