Chapter 2
I arrived at the castle with my new friends after a breathtaking journey on horseless carriages from the nearby village of Hogsmeade. As we made our way towards a great hall, I became unsure of where I was supposed to go, perhaps I should have gone with the first years. Outside the hall however, I was approached by a tall woman who introduced herself as Professor McGonagall. The professor welcomed me and ushered me into a small room nearby where an old Merlin like character was standing beside a battered old hat on a stool.
"Good evening Miss Moran and welcome to Hogwarts. I am Albus Dumbledore, your headmaster. Now we are about to sort you into your house, could you take a seat please?" I smiled and nodded at the pleasant old wizard as I took a seat on the little stool that had been recently vacated by the tattered old hat.
"Now I'll just place this sorting hat on your head and we'll find out where you shall reside for your time with us." I nodded again, this time a bit more nervously, as the old wizards hat dropped onto my head. I jumped as I heard a voice coming from it.
"Ahh interesting, there's energy and willpower here and a dedication and loyalty to those close to you. I see you can quite happily work behind the scenes without getting much recognition, all strong hufflepuff qualities, but then again perhaps it's time to move on from these traits. I see a tremendous amount of stamina, courage, passion and wisdom. This is a time for a great change in your life, a gravitation towards the bright colours from the pastels, a time to be true to yourself and become a true house member of GRYFFINDOR!" I breathed a sigh of relief as the hat was lifted from my head to reveal a beaming headmaster and Professor McGonagall.
"Congratulations Jessica, Professor McGonagall is your new head of house, she will escort you to your table." Professor Dumbledore said before I thanked him and followed my new head of house to the Great Hall. As the doors opened I was so in awe at the beauty of the room, I didn't notice everyone staring at me. It appeared like the room was open to the night sky, there were hundreds of floating candles, four long tables where the students were seated and a table at the end of the hall for the teachers. I quicly realised I had stopped following the professor and had to quickly catch up with her as we made our way to the table I assumed was the Gryffindor table as I recognised my new friends seated there. Once they realised I was a Gryffindor, the whole table cheered and I felt my cheeks blush. Alicia jumped up and gave me a particularly big hug, as I guess this means she has a chance of leaving the team.
After a huge and spectacular meal in the Great Hall, we made our way back to Gryffindor house and sat around the fire as I quietly listened to stories of people's summers. I had met quite a few people since I had arrived including Katie Bell, the third chaser and Harry Potter who actually played seeker on the team!! For once in my life I felt quite at home in a school and as if maybe I could really be happy here. Alicia began to quietly tell the twins of her plans to leave the team and I felt myself blush as they stared at me then back at Alicia, then back at me. They talked together and after a minute or so one of them yelled across the room to a boy who was sitting on his own writing on some paper furiously.
"Oi Wood, get your arse over here!" Fred or George shouted. I looked around and caught the eye of Wood as he stood up and made his way towards us. He was actually quite tall and good looking, nice broad shoulders and athletic body, brown ruffled hair... I snapped out of it. This is their infamous scary quidditch captain I'd been told about, well here goes the drama then, good luck Alicia!
"Now Wood, you want to win the cup this year, yes?" One of the twins asked as they escorted him into a vacant armchair.
"Of course I do!" Wood exclaimed with a bit of a puzzled look on his face.
"Well what if we told you that you could have a professional player on your squad this year?" They other twin asked.
"What? How could I have a professional on the team? Do you know one? Could they play? Who are they? What about the current team?" He shot out all at once.
"Well Oliver you dont have to worry about these minor details, we've already figured it out!"
"Is this legal Fred?" Oliver asked worringly.
"Of course it is! You see, meet Jess here." The twins walked over to me and put their arms around me. Call me an idiot but I only realised then that they were talking about me.
"Jess has played for the top scoring team in Europe, the Bigonville Bombers." At this Oliver dropped his jaw to the floor, and once again I feel my face burning up.
"Not only that George, but she has also played underage and reserves for Ireland." Fred added.
"and now Oliver Wood, she has come to play for you." George finished, kneeling on the floor at Olivers feet.
"Wait, seriously, we can actually have a Bigonville Bombers player on our team? What position do you play?" Oliver demanded.
"Chaser." I said quietly and before I knew it he had jumped off his seat and was hugging me. Bloody hell, I'd only met him, surely this should be awkward, but I think it was masked by the current ecstatic nature of the captain. He let me go after what seemed like ages, not that I was complaining, and looked around at everyone who was laughing at him.
"Don't you get it? Bigonville Bombers are the best attacking team in the world, they have the best precision scorers in the world, aka, the best chasers in the world, and we have one!" He exclaimed as his voice got strangely high pitched and I began to feel like a big piece of quidditch meat!
"What's your surname, wait let me guess... you're what, 17ish? Well you're either Henry or Moran, they're the yougest members of the squad and you certainly aren't male, so that makes you Jessica Moran." He said delighted with himself. I, however was a little bit scared of him.
"Wait, we already have three chasers, we're going to have to change things around. There always has to be a glitch doesn't there!" He said as he retook his place in the armchair, head in his hands. At this Alicia came to his side.
"Nope, no glitch here, we've already decided that I'm going to step back to reserve. I have enough on my plate this year anyway, it will be great for my results and of course my sanity." Oliver looked at her in disbelief.
"Are you sure? You've been a great chaser for Gryffindor. How can you give up quidditch?" He whispered the last bit as if it was the most shocking thing in the world. I was really beginning to see that Oliver Wood was a complete mental case!
"It's already decided Wood, and I havent given up quidditch, it's just going to be a light hobbie rather than take over my life from now on. I can always play again when you and Jess have graduated anyway! I know the sleep ins will be tough at first, but I think I'll learn how to relax eventually!" Alicia explained, trying not to laugh.
Everyone soon settled back into their relaxed positions once that was taken care of and I congratulated the twins on how they went about telling Oliver about Alicia, they certainly seemed very pleased with themselves. Fred then leaned over and whispered to me,
"Perhaps you should get to bed before Wood completely accepts the good news and begins to interegate you." I laughed at him, but quickly realised he wasn't joking and that Wood was staring at me in an unusual manner, so I suggested that Alicia and Angelina show me to the dorm that I shared with my new 5th year friends, luckily there wasn't room for me in the 7th year dorm so I got to room with them!