Chapter 2 - The First Day of School
The next morning, we were woken up by the Prefects at, what I assume was around, six or six-thirty. They told us that we had an hour before breakfast and right after we'd be off to classes. The first class we had today was transfiguration. I pulled my books out of my bag and set them on my neatly made bed. I grabbed my toiletries and robes for the day then ran off to the bathroom on the other side of the hallway. The boys and girls had one group bathroom for each side. The boy's, as I can't speak for the girls, had five sinks with a large mirror going from wall to wall, three toilets, and five showers. Two of the showers were free when I entered, so I took the one closest to the far wall. My hair was crusted from the gel, so that was priority number one.
After I got cleaned up, I worked my way back up all of the stairs to get to the Great Hall. The tables were still rather bare when I got there. I was walking towards the front end of my house table when a cat jumped on my shoulder.
"Avri!" I pulled her down from my arm and hugged her. She hissed and crawled back up around my neck, pawing me in the back of the head. "Can we eat together? Is that allowed?" I sat on the Slytherin bench facing the Ravenclaw table. She sat in my lap and curled up. One of the Prefects for Hufflepuff walked by so I figured I'd ask her. She said we could for breakfast and lunch but not dinner because of the house points announcements. I smiled down at Avri. "Hear that? Now we just need to decide which table to sit at," I smiled and pet her head. She hopped off of my lap to decide. She looked around, looking like an adorable kitty, and decided that where we were sitting was fine. I nodded, but switched to the other side of the bench so I was near the wall. She changed back into her human form and sat across from me.
As the others came filing in, we talked about what had happened the previous night, how there were too many stairs, the layouts of the common rooms, and she filled me in on what happened during dinner. She laughed uncontrollably, "And this one girl over at the other table said, 'where are the vegan dishes' and I was like 'That's why you're in Hufflepuff!'"
I chuckled. "That's a very me thing to say," I pointed out as food suddenly appeared on the table. It wasn't as grand as dinner, but there were jams, toast, butter, milk, and a few rolls. "Oh, yes, what I've been waiting for," I licked my lips and began to fill my plate.
"Well, I have been around you for almost eight years now," she said. "You're bound to have some kind of influence," she smiled, making me smile, as she threw a roll on her plate and finickily picked out fruit from the platter to her left.
"Mind if I sit here?" the Slytherin boy that rolls his eyes too much towered over us. He was taller than both of us, dark-skinned, and lanky. We both shrugged, and he sat down, crossing his arms on the table.
I looked around, noticing that our side of the table was the only side lacking people. The other tables were evenly dispersed with friend groups huddled near each other, but ours had a decent stretch between the rest of the Slytherins and the three of us. "Why is everyone over there?" I asked, not really caring, but thinking it was strange.
"You forgot your gel this morning," she said, shoving a piece of her roll in her mouth.
I ran a hand through my hair nervously, noticing it slid through a bit too easily. "Oh, no," I muttered, pulling a strand in front of my face to see my hair change from blue to green. "I should go," I began freaking out and stood up after removing the serviette from my lap.
"Morris! Sit your butt back down," Avri grabbed my hand from across the table. "You will sit, you will eat, and you will calm down," she ordered. I sat, but I didn't calm down.
"Wait, you must be one of those magi-things, right?" the kid next to us asked with an I-could-care-less tone.
"Metamorphmagi," Avri corrected him, glaring him down with her arm still pinned on me from across the table. I nodded.
"Do you not like your abilities or something?" he asked bluntly, resting his head on his hand like it was too heavy for his skinny body.
Different shades of green paraded through my hair. "It's not like that," I started, staring down at my plate as my eggs starting to run into my bread. "It's just that I get treated differently because of it."
"Why?" he asked blankly.
"Because it's weird, I guess," I answered, looking up at him.
"Why?" he asked again, still not animating his emotions in any way.
"I don't know," I snapped, frustrated by his lameness.
"Oh, that's cool," he sat up and his voice cracked with fascination as the green turned orange for a split second. I blushed and tried to force it back to brown, but it only flickered before staying adamantly green. "Stop trying to change it. It looks cool," he said, staring at my hair. He leaned back on his hand, facing me still. "I'm Matthew, by the way," he was back to his monotone self.
"Hi," I said, still flustered.
"His name is James. Mine's Avri," she spoke for me, withdrawing her hand to finish her food.
"Nice to meet you," he started filling up his plate with toast. Nothing but toast.
I smiled as I watched him spread his jam and cram his face one bite at a time. "Do you eat like that all the time?" He nodded while biting into his fourth piece. "How are you so skinny?" I asked.
"There's something about wizarding families and stairs," he said after swallowing his mouthful. There was something off about his voice. It was rather deep for our age, but there was something else.
"I knew I wasn't the only one that thought that!" I glanced at Avri, who was partially choking on her roll from laughing. "And why do they move? It's so annoying!"
Avri's hand connected with the table with a loud pop. When she swallowed her food, she said, "No! What's really annoying is the Ravenclaw password!" We both stared at her blankly. We were forbidden to give away the passwords. "It's not a real password, so calm down." She put her roll down and stared into my soul with those eyes of hers. "It's a riddle!" she whispered. "Any riddle! It changes! All the time!" I could see the irritation in her eyes and laughed. "It's not funny! It's frustrating! What if my answer isn't the one he's looking for?" I couldn't stop myself from laughing harder. I knew it would drive me crazy, too.
"And they say Slytherins are creative," Matthew chimed in.
"It's a pretty creative form of torture," she hissed. We both laughed, but Avri didn't find it funny. She glared at me until I tried to stop, alas I failed miserably and nearly choked myself. That got her to smile.
"You're American!" I snapped to myself and pointed at him, satisfied with myself.
He looked cynically towards me. "Nothing gets past you, does it?"
I stuck my tongue out with a playful sneer. I had a habit of saying things as they popped into my mind, and I'll admit that my parents weren't at the top of their game when teaching me social cues. "Whatever, I was just trying to figure out why you're so strange. Now it all makes sense," I said bluntly, shoving a forkful of egg into my mouth. Avri rolled her eyes with a smirk.
We were enjoying ourselves so much that time flew by. We only got up when we were about to be late to class. When we stood to leave, Avri jumped on my shoulder, as per usual.
"Wait, what?" Matthew stared at her and squinted as if he'd seen it wrong.
"Oh, yeah, she's a cat," I pointed at her. She nodded before cosying up to my neck.
"What?" he repeated. I smiled and walked passed him, feeling superior for some reason.
All of the first years had Transfiguration together, since there were so few of us this year. Only about thirty kids total. All of the houses were stuck in the same small classroom. The Gryffindors had claimed the entire left-hand side of the class, the Ravenclaws were front and centre, the Hufflepuffs were in the front right, and the Slytherins took up the back of the right and middle rows. I sat close to the Ravenclaws, so I could be right behind Avri, and Matthew sat to my right. We pulled out our books and quills and waited patiently for the Professor to join us. Five minutes of mindless chatter went by before Avri raised her hand, which silenced the room. No-one knew who she was waiting for and the whispers started.
Finally, she said, "Are you waiting for us to notice you, Professor?" Everyone looked around, bewildered. I peeked over her head and spotted the cat on the floor by the desk.
"Oh, I see," I whispered before sitting back down.
The cat took two steps forward before becoming the nice older woman that had shown us into the Great Hall the night before. The class was in awe. "Very astute, Ms. Austin," she adjusted her narrow glasses. Her hair was pulled back into a tight ball on the back of her head. She looked gentler without her hat casting such a dark shadow over her eyes. "Forgive me for not introducing myself last night upon your arrival. For those of you who were distracted during the feast, I am Professor Minerva McGonagall and I am the head of the Gryffindor house, as well as your Transfigurations professor," she walked around the room accessing her students. She stopped close to Avri and stared between the two of us for a long while before saying, "I would like to speak with both of you before the end of class," in the nicest yet scariest voice I'd ever heard, reminding me quite a bit of my gran.
The first class was merely an introduction to the course. She had us write a page on what we thought the class would entail and any prior knowledge we had of the skill. She reprimanded the ginger twins twice with a warning that the third time would be the last. The rest of the lesson passed silently. Near the end, the rest of the students began to finish up their papers and hand them in, but Avri and I were called out to the hallway before we could hand in ours. It wasn't anything bad, thank goodness. She told us that with the skills that we had, we had to be careful about how and when we used them. With great power comes great responsibility and all that. She was impressed that Avri had learned the Animagi skill so early in life.
Before we went back into the classroom to get our belongings, she stopped me to tell me that my talents were nothing to be ashamed of. I blushed, and my hair went green, making me want to cover it, but she assured me that everything was alright with a smile, just as my gran always did.
As we wondered back into the classroom, the other students were leaving. We got a few nasty stares in our direction, but most of them kept their heads down.
"Oh, I'm sorry," a really short Gryffindor girl said after running into Avri. "I'm a clutz," she laughed nervously, picking up her quill from the floor.
"Avri," I nudged her when I noticed she wasn't moving. I turned to the girl, who was raising her eyebrow. "Sorry about her. She's weird," I laughed then my eyes caught hers. I froze. She was adorable. Her shoulder length brown hair framed her pale cheeks, falling slightly over one eye. She smiled sincerely, and it was the warmest smile I'd ever seen.
"Um, it was nice meeting you two," she gave a little wave and left us staring behind her. I could have sworn she winked at me.
"Ah! Avri! Class, let's go," I said, snapping out of it and pushing her to her desk to pick up her things.
She shook her head and lightly slapped herself on the cheek. "Right," she agreed and picked up her books, her eyes lingering on the doorway as the brunette girl skipped out of the room and around the corner.
We rushed off down the hall towards the next class; potions. I was so very excited to start Potions class. I loved to cook and making potions wasn't far off. My mum was brilliant at potions, so I'd watched her at home. Avri loved blowing things up and making weird concoctions, but she wasn't half bad at making actual potions. I mean, she's an Animagus; she had to be good at potions.
We sat down in the only seats available… the second row. It could have been worse. It could have been the front row, where all eyes would be on us, but luckily the overachievers already took their places. The second row was still noticeable, but not as bad as first row. I also made a note that the second row and the last row had the majority of the hooligans.
We had just pulled out our text books and tried to mimic what everyone else was doing when the door slammed open. The Potions Professor was my head of house. He was a bit scary, but I kind of liked the vibe he gave off.
"There will be no foolish wand waving," he started, barely through the door, "or silly incantations in this class, so put your wands away." He strode to the front of the classroom, fingers interlocking gracefully, yet strictly, in front of his chest. His long black robes dragged the ground behind him and his cuffs came down well over his fingers. "I don't expect many of you to appreciate the subtlety of potion making, as it is an exact art, except for those… select few," he paused and looked at a few students in the room, "who possess the… predisposition." He walked across the floor, fixing his robe as it dragged beneath his feet. It was a very majestic robe, but I could see its impracticality. "I can teach you how to bewitch the mind, ensnare the senses," he stared dramatically at all of us, "bottle fame, brew glory, and even put a stopper in death." The class was silent. We may have been kids, but we understood the greatness of his words… or at least I did… "Can anyone tell me what I would get by mixing powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?"
I looked around, seeing if anyone put their hand up. I raised mine slowly when no-one else did. He looked over me and chose the one of the stupid ginger twins, both of whom were cracking jokes in the back of the classroom. I frowned and looked towards Avri, who I noticed was also putting her arm down in defeat.
"Neither of you knows?" he added quickly, seeing that they clearly weren't paying attention. "No, some of you have come to Hogwarts in possession of abilities so formidable that you're confident enough to not pay attention," he huffed sarcastically. I smirked. I was really going to like this professor. "So, I ask this: where would you look if I asked you to find me a bezoar?" We both knew he wasn't talking to anyone else but the twins at this point, so we didn't bother raising our hands, but the temptation remained. The twins stared blankly back at him, kicking each other in order to keep a straight face. "What is the difference between monkshood and wolfbane?" he asked another question they couldn't answer. "Pity. It's all well and good to have a nice laugh, but humour will not get you far in life, so I suggest you start learning to take things seriously," he leaned on his podium. The twins stared at him in shock, like they'd never been told to calm down before. "For the information of the class, Asphodel and Wormwood make a sleeping potion so powerful it is known as the Draught of Living Death. A Bezoar is a stone taken from the stomach of a goat and it will save you from most poisons. As for Monkshood and Wolfbane, they are the same plant, which goes by the name of Aconite," he looked around the classroom. "Well, why aren't you all copying this down? I don't make a habit of repeating myself."
We snatched up our quills and scribbled down everything he said for the rest of class. He staggered his words with an eloquent suspense, so it really wasn't hard to keep up. Spelling was a bit of an issue, but at least I had time to draw pictures on the sides of my papers, good for both note taking and an artistic outlet. Avri and I smiled at each other through the whole class, excited for what was to come.
The next order of business was lunch. We were excited to eat together again. We sat in the same spot as breakfast, still sectioned off, but less so because of how many more students there were for lunch than breakfast. As it turned out, the upperclassmen didn't have the requirement to attend breakfast, as they had different class schedules. The tables were filled with small sandwiches, potatoes, pumpkins, sweet rolls, and fruit dishes. We dug in, expecting our lunch to be peaceful, but halfway through a barrage of owls flew through the windows and began dive bombing and throwing packages at student's heads.
"Oh, Merlin!" I shouted as Matthew's box nearly hit me in the face. "Watch it!" I yelled at the rusty brown owl that flew off as fast as it had come in. Avri laughed at me, but stopped when my mother's grey owl, Gemma, dropped a few letters for me by my hand and perched on the table. "Hi, Gemma," I rubbed just above her nose. She hooted at me and stared at my plate. I picked a piece of bread and held it in my hand. I shooed her off after she picked up the treat. "Go on, then." She flew with grace through the chandeliers and out of the highest window.
"It's so weird that you have her trained," Avri laughed.
"It's better than all these buffoons," I gestured to the scattered mess of owls littering the ceiling before opening my first letter. It was from my little brother. It had a picture of him at his birthday party, which I had missed to get on the train. The second was from my parents, wishing me luck in my endeavours. The third was from my grandmother, telling me how proud she was that I made it into the easiest school to get into. All you really had to do was be a bit magical and they let you in. It didn't take much.
"Anything good?" Avri asked from across the table. I showed her Roscoe's picture. She smiled sympathetically at me, knowing I would have loved to have been there.
"What about you? Where's Artimus?" I asked. Just as his name left my throat, the Austin owl came soring down and landed directly on Avri's head. He was a horned owl with a tall stature, making him look like a crown on Avri's short blonde hair.
"Get off of me, you stupid bird!" she swatted at him, but he didn't move. She hissed. He dropped her letter next to her plate and proceeded to prune his wing. Avri transformed, freaking Artimus out for only a few seconds before he landed casually on the table. Her hackles went up as her back arched. She let out a long angry hiss, but he was less than phased. He cocked his head at her, not feeling the least bit threatened by the tiny cat. She attacked his talon the way a puppy would attack a new toy, a good swing that never connected. Matthew and I erupted into laughter.
"Go on, Artimus," I waved him off. He flew up and out of the Great Hall's window. Avri paced back and forth on the bench, whining and glaring at me. "I can't help it! It's funny!" I tried to say through tears. She let out a few more angry meows. "Change back. You need to eat," I said more seriously, trying to keep a straight face.
"I can eat in cat form," she said, sitting properly on her side of the table, as a human. "I'm not even hungry anyway," she bit into her sweet roll with a huff.
"What did you get," I glanced over at the letter by her plate, trying to identify the handwriting.
She opened it, skimmed it quickly, then folded it back up and threw it on the table. "Dad's being weird," she shook her head then returned to her food. I assumed she meant he'd sent her a letter about how proud he was of her and how upset he was about missing the train. He may have been a rough and tough Auror, but he was a big softy.
"I guess that means you aren't writing them back?" I asked. She shook her head again. I sighed. It looked like I'd have to write them back for her. I was replying to my letters that night anyway, so it's not like it would be a hassle. I'd been around her so long that I could mimic her personality and it only took a bit of practice to get her handwriting down.
I stopped eating when I saw a girl entre the Hall, grabbing my attention. Her hair was hot pink and her robes were traced in yellow around the cuffs and hood. She sped over to her group of friends, hugging them immediately. She was an older girl. Maybe a fourth or fifth year? My eyes widened as I saw her hair change from pink to orange for a split second when her friends teased her. I blinked a few times, thinking I must have been seeing things.
"What are you gawking at?" Avri turned and immediately saw her. It wasn't like she was hard to miss. She spun back around quickly. "Is she?"
"I think so," I said as I stared.
"I don't know if you can tell, but your hair is red," Matthew said between bites of his sandwich. I pulled a strand down in front of my face as it changed from red to green. I was starting to hate green because of how often it showed up… "So, is she one of you?" he looked down at me, "A metamorphma-thing?"
"Metamorphmagus," Avri corrected him in an instant. I nodded. She turned back towards me and said, "Go talk to her," while her eyes burned holes in my skull. I shook my head vigorously. "Why not?" she demanded.
"Well, she's older so she probably doesn't want some kid coming over there and bugging her," I thought up at least three excuses. Of course I wanted to talk to her. I wanted to ask her about her ability. I'd never met anyone else like me before. "What if she doesn't notice me?" I asked without thinking.
"That's likely," she said sarcastically. "With all the emotion you're putting off, you'd just have to get somewhere near her field of vision and I'm positive she'd notice you."
I looked down at my watch, which was apparently strange to have at this school, and said with nervous enthusiasm, "Oh, would you look at the time. We'd better be getting to class soon. Don't want to miss that lesson we're having." I stood quickly, gathering my things and putting our letters into my robe pocket.
"Wait!" Avri yelled after me as I started towards the door, shoving the last of her roll into her mouth.
I tried to stay near the walls, so I wouldn't be seen. Avri pawed at my ankle when she caught up to me. I lowered my hand, so she could crawl up on my shoulder. She didn't like jumping after eating. I kept my head low and ducked passed the large doors and into the hallway. Avri shook her head. "Shut up! I know!" I blushed and walked hastily towards the field for our flying lesson.
Avri jumped off and landed gracefully on the floor when we reached the archway at the end of the corridor. She changed back before any of the teachers could see her, since she'd been scolded a few times already. "You're lucky we're about to fly, because I have a few words for you," she said, straightening her robes.
"Yeah, yeah," I muttered, waiting for her before I turned the corner.
She pushed me towards the grass. "Come on, go," she said impatiently. We walked out to the field and sat down next to a few other students that were waiting for the professor to arrive.
The students flooded the field, one after the other. Matthew stood next to me silently, crossing his arms like the whole thing was overrated. Avri and I stood up as the rest of the first years joined us. The Gryffindor girl we'd run into during Transfiguration was directly across from us with the other Gryffindor girls, giggling at the twins as they messed around next to them. I wasn't sure if they wanted attention or if they were just loony. Avri and I rolled our eyes at the same time. I would have said Matthew did, too, but he rolled his eyes at everything, so I wasn't even sure if we were looking at the same thing.
Several brooms were lined up in the grass in two rows, facing each other. The first years stood in a cluster by the row closest to the wall until the professor walked in between the two lines.
"Good afternoon, class," she said, her voice booming over us, filled with excitement. "I am Rolanda Hooch and I am your flying instructor," she stated, her golden eyes piercing each one of us. "You may call me Madam Hooch." Her hair was short, grey, and wild like she'd just finished doing corkscrews on her own broom. She ushered for us to get in line with the school's brooms. Avri and I stood next to each other, in between the rest of our two houses, on the side closest to the wall of the castle. Gryffindor and Hufflepuff had their backs to the field.
"Good afternoon, Madam Hooch," we all greeted, trying to figure out where to stand.
She stood tall at the end of the rows. "Welcome to your first flying lesson," she smiled. "Well, what are you waiting for? Everyone step up to the left side of your brooms," she put her hands on her hips. We did as we were told, hastily taking a step forward at her commanding tone. "Stick your right hand over the broom and say "up"," she demonstrated.
"Up," I said, barely above a whisper. The broom came straight to me. I'd flown before, so it wasn't difficult. I rather loved flying. There was something so freeing about it. Avri liked riding with her parents because it helped her clear her head. I glanced over at her, already holding her broom confidently as a few of the first years struggled to perform. Matthew's came to him after the second try. His first attempt was lazy and barely moved it, but the second held irritation, like he might kick it if it didn't mind. The broom launched into his hand, making him smirk. "Say it with feeling," Madam Hooch instructed. Most of the Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws had theirs ready to go, but a few of the Slytherins struggled, screaming at the twitching sticks on the ground. The Gryffindors seemed capable enough after the first few tries, but the small brunette girl had to say "please" for her broom to respond. My lips twitched, trying not to laugh. The twins successfully hit themselves in the face the first time before they got it. That I did laugh at.
Once everyone had successfully collected their brooms, Madam Hooch began to pace through the aisle. "Now, once you've got hold of your broom, I want you to mount it," she spoke slowly, but sternly, making sure everyone heard her, "and grip it tight. I don't need any of you falling off." She raised her hand, showing off a silver whistle. "When I blow my whistle, I want each of you to kick off from the ground, hard. Keep your broom steady, hover for a moment, lean forward slightly, and touch back down." She eyed everyone to make sure they were paying attention. We all mounted our brooms. I held mine loosely, since I already knew my broom was delicate. If I wanted it to be kind to me, I had to be kind to it. Brooms were stubborn things. "On my whistle," she said. "Three, two," she blew the whistle, piercing my ears with an unfortunate sound. Avri and I kicked off, levitated for a moment, and came back down, just as she told us to. Matthew kicked off rather hard and almost lost his balance, but regained composure like nothing had happened.
"Woah!" I heard a shout as Gabe kicked off way too hard with one foot and fell off. A Ravenclaw girl struggled, inching forwards on accident before landing farther away than where she'd started. The Hufflepuffs were shaky, but good.
"Well, look at that," the Gryffindor girl said, getting my attention. She was beaming as she hovered over everyone's heads. She looked graceful with the clouds behind her and her robes rippling in the wind.
"Well done, now come back down, Ms. Andruli," Madam Hooch addressed her by name. She nodded and began her decent back to the grass, filled with glee.
"Show off," Avri muttered.
I snickered at her. "You can fly better than that. What are you talking about?" I asked.
"Nothing," she said, looking towards the tower at the far end of the field. I raised an eyebrow at her.
The rest of the lesson was repeating the same few steps over and over until the whole class had it under control. Avri and I were restless, doing something we were already proficient at. It wasn't at all what we expected. Most of the others had their take-off's and landings under control by the end of the class, but there were still a few stragglers, one of which being a Hufflepuff with, what seemed to me like no talent.
The next class was Charms with Professor Flitwick. He was a very short man, shorter than most of the first years, with a white beard hanging down to his knees. He stood on a pile of books in the centre of the far wall (in front of a huge window) to better observe the classroom. It was great that the Slytherins and Ravenclaws seemed to always be on the same side of the room. Avri and I bridged the gap by sitting next to each other every time. We had large white feathers in front of us on the desk. I had to try quite hard to not bother Avri with it, since I knew she'd slap me and make a scene, but boy oh boy was it tempting. We sat at the back of the risers against the wall. It was comfortably darker back there, but I thought it would be rather annoying to have everyone turn to stare at us like we had at the twins during Potions if we were to screw around.
"Great! Now that we've got that out of the way, let us begin with a simple flick of the wrist," Professor Flitwick finished introducing the course. "The first spell you are going to learn is used for levitation!" he said. I couldn't tell if his excitement was fake, but mine wasn't. I looked over at my best mate, who was already smiling back at me. We were probably going to use this for everything. "The movement for this is called the Swish and Flick," he demonstrated by dragging his wand in a half-moon shape then tapping the air swiftly like he was dotting an I.
Avri and I withdrew our wands from our robes and mimicked his movements. My slender, 8 1/2-inch ebony moved gracefully as an extension of my hand. I loved my wand. It was a fragile looking thing with trace amounts of silver inlayed in the handle. It slipped through the air like a tiny sparrow gliding through the clouds. Avri's wand was a 13-inch pale poplar that almost looked too big for her hands at our age. Its intricate handle was bound on the edges by thin ribbons of brown leather. Unlike my straight wand, hers curved with the shape of her hand and extended out with a natural wave, like she'd picked it straight from the branch of the tree.
"Good! Now you must enunciate! Wingardium Leviosa," he said, flicking his wand toward the feather placed at his feet. "Off you go then," he waved his hands wildly, telling us to try it out.
"Wingardium Leviosa," half the class chanted. The other half said, "Wengordian Liviosah," or something and looked like they were about to hurt themselves either in frustration or by accident.
I swished my wand like how we'd practiced and spoke softly, "Wingardium Leviosa." My feather hovered above the desk by only a few inches. I smiled and looked towards my best friend confidently.
She struggled to say it for a minute, but soon got it. "Wingardium Leviosa," she spoke, squinting at the feather as she concentrated. It twitched under her wand. She squinted harder, like she wanted to set it ablaze simply by glaring at it, and the feather flew out from under her gaze like a snitch and landed across the room. We both stared, wide-eyed, at the feather on the floor, then the desk where it had been merely seconds before, then at the wand in her hand.
"What was that?" I asked, still holding my feather a few inches from the desktop.
"I- I don't know," she frowned. "I did everything right, right?" she looked at me, almost more confused than I was.
"I think you did," I chuckled, "but I think you flicked too hard."
She scoffed at me. "Like you're any better!" she furrowed her eyebrows at me. It only took her a second after that to realise I'd been holding my feather in the air the whole time. She sighed, defeated.
"Oh, don't look so down," I tried to stop laughing, but it really was hilarious. I directed my feather towards her face and tickled her nose. She swatted at it and glared at me. I smiled back at her, unyielding, until both of us laughed.
Dinner in the Great Hall was a bit lonely without Avri, since we couldn't sit together, but we didn't make a big deal out of it since we'd spent practically the whole day together. We shared a smile and a few stares, but Matthew kept me in a conversation and it looked as if Avri had made a few acquaintances herself.
"I don't like either of them," Matthew complained about his roommates. "Adrian smells. I swear on my life he doesn't shower," he spoke about the large scary guy that I refused to room with. I nodded in agreement. "Tim is weird," he said. "Doesn't say anything. He just stared at me until I fell asleep," he shivered.
"We've got an extra bed. You're welcome to move in and save me from Gabby," I spat his new nickname and pointed my thumb to the tan guy a few students down from me. "He called me Jimmy," I wrinkled my nose up at the name. I was named after my grandfather, who went by Jim, but I never developed a taste for it.
"Oh, could I?" he sighed. "That would be a huge relief." I nodded.
Soon after, we were back in our common rooms. Matthew and I played some checkers in the lounge after he moved his things to the new room. I won, of course, since I am a checkers master, but the second game tied in a way that I'd never seen before. It was an exact mirror image on either side of the board. Neither of us could move anywhere. It was a solid stalemate.
"You just had to move, didn't you?" the prudish guy that slept in the front corner of our room spat towards Matthew. "Now I have to move," he hissed and stomped off down the hallway.
"What was that about?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.
Matthew rolled his eyes. "Don't ask me."
Gabe was already asleep when we got into the room. He'd had a rough day of failing, from falling off of his broom to having his dinner nabbed consistently by the girl that sat across from him at the table. I almost felt bad for him.
I sat down on my bed, pulling my bag out from underneath and searching through it for my night clothes. I pulled out many things my mother had packed for me, including extra blankets, before I found them.
"Holy cow, how much crap do you have in there?" Matthew asked, watching me the whole time from his new corner of the room.
I let out a long sigh. "Everything," I mumbled. "My mother used an extension charm so I wouldn't have to carry so much, but then she overpacked my bag with everything I probably won't even need," I said, pulling out cold medicine as an example before putting everything I'd pulled out back in.
"What's that?" he asked.
"Benylin," I said bluntly.
"And what's that?" he asked again. I stared up at him for a while before remembering, yet again, that pure-blood families didn't have to deal with a lot of the things muggles did.
"It's cold medicine. You take it when you have a runny nose and sore throat to make you feel better," I explained. "It's like pepper-up, but it doesn't make steam come out your ears and usually takes a few doses to really work."
He nodded in a sort of understanding. "I see," he muttered. "Wouldn't it be easier to just take pepper-up then?"
"I mean, yeah, but… my father isn't a wizard… so… Benylin," I held it up again as I said the name. As I started to put things back in my bag, a familiar sound caught my attention. I looked towards the door and saw a small greyish cat. "You!" I ran over to pick her up and held her over my shoulder. "I can't believe you made it in!" I whispered. I looked over at Matthew with a pleading look, hoping he wouldn't say anything to anyone.
"Secret's safe with me," he shrugged and laid down.
I sat back on my bed and let her down after she griped at me a few times. "You can't be here," I tried not to say her name, so I wouldn't attract unwanted attention. From Matthew's view, I must have been arguing with a cat, which I was… but I knew what she was saying to me. "I guess it's fine if you stay like that, but don't get caught!" She stared at me with her like-I-would expression. I sighed. "Ugh, I'm arguing with a cat," I pinched the bridge of my nose under my glasses. "I'm going to get dressed," I grabbed my clothes from the bed and left for the bathroom. "Don't wonder around, please," I called back over my shoulder.
When I got back to the room, Matthew and Avri were staring at each other on the floor. He was hunched down to almost be at eye level with her. They were glaring…
"Merlin's beard, what are you doing?" I stopped in the doorway. Neither of them broke eye contact. "Hello?" I walked towards them.
Matthew held his hand up towards me, but didn't look at me. "Wait," was all he said.
"It's a bloody staring contest," I sighed, shaking my head then running a hand through my hair. "Goodnight," I crawled into bed and faced the wall.
"UGH! Not fair!" he hit the floor and fell back towards his bed with a thud.
