Here We Go Again.
Chapter Three: Hogwarts.
My alarm clock woke me up at 7:35 by playing the old but legendary Paramore song 'Misery Business'. I reached my hand out from under the covers and pressed the stop button on the clock. I pushed the covers back and sat up right, stretching my arms above my head. I then swung my legs over the side of the bed and stood up as I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes and yawned. I went over to the room's on-suite and had a shower and brushed my teeth.
After drying my hair, I went over to the closet; it was a walk-in with rows and stacks of clothes and shoes. I picked out one of my newest and most favourite outfits that Hannah had gone out and bought for me (the woman had style, I had to admit); lacy sunny yellow pumps, grey skinny jeans, and a black waistcoat with a sunny yellow shirt underneath. I quickly pulled on my clothes and exited the closet, closing the doors behind me.
I sat down on the cushioned stool that belonged to my vanity and put on my makeup, which was made up of foundation, black eyeliner, glittery black eye shadow, black mascara, and the final touch, pale pink lipstick (I never wore lip-gloss). I then pulled my hair up into high ponytail and let my side fringe fall over my left eye. By the time I was all ready, it was 8:13. I smiled at my image before standing up and exiting the room.
On my way to the kitchen, I walked past the front door; my Hogwarts trunk sat by the side of it. I was finally going to Hogwarts and I really couldn't wait. With a small smile on my face, I entered the kitchen and found Hannah standing there, making us a full breakfast and me a cup of tea. Now I have to say, she was a great cook. I sat down on one of the stools that stood around the small island in the middle of the kitchen and waited silently.
Hannah put a plate on the table, along with my cup of tea, and my eyes lit up in hunger. I was absolutely starving (huge exaggeration) and dug into my breakfast, eating the bacon first. I finished my breakfast with the fried egg and stood up, holding my plate.
"No, no, you leave that to me," Hannah said, taking the plate from my hand as Neville came in. I grinned goofily at him and he shook his head, amused.
"I'm going to Hogwarts today!" I sang happily, bouncing around the kitchen. But then I stopped and my grin dropped when I realized that I had to go on the train with a lot of other people. I wanted to apparate to Hogsmeade and then walk my way up to Hogwarts with Neville, but he said it wasn't allowed.
Neville put a hand on my shoulder in a comforting gesture. "What's wrong, Nemesis?" he asked worriedly.
"The train," I muttered.
"Why don't you let her apparate with you, honey?" asked Hannah.
"You know I'm not aloud to do that; she must go on the train like everyone else," Neville replied. I grunted and began to sip my tea.
A few hours later, we were leaving the house for Kings Cross. Well, Hannah and I were – Neville had already apparated to Hogsmeade. We arrived at platforms nine and ten at 10 am, and I saw there was no 9¾. I glanced around the second time, but saw there was still no platform 9¾. Hannah turned to me as we stood in between the nine and ten signs.
"You must run at the wall in between platforms nine and ten," she told me.
My eyes widened, thinking she had gone bonkers. "No, thank you. I don't want to break my neck," I said.
She laughed in amusement. "Go on, you'll have a surprise!"
Taking a deep breath, I closed my eyes and made a runner towards the wall. I felt nothing but a tingling feeling run through my body. My eyes fluttered open and I saw a big, red train sitting on these metal tracks with a sign hanging above it reading, "Hogwarts Express, 9¾".
Suddenly, Hannah appeared besides me, making me jump in surprise.
"I told you so," she laughed.
Hannah led me to the luggage compartment where a man helped me store my trunk away (I kept my shoulder bag slung around my shoulder). I said goodbye to Hannah as the whistle of the train went off as a warning and I finally climbed aboard. Whilst looking down the length of the train, I saw, amongst the crowd of people, a flash of platinum blonde hair vanish into a compartment, and I guessed that it was Scorpius.
As I began to make my way down the train, a few people stopped to stare at me, but I took no notice and kept on walking. I soon came to the correct compartment and peered in. I was right; there sat Scorpius with a dark haired, tanned boy. I slid the door open and entered silently.
"Oh, hello, Nemesis," greeted Scorpius. The other boy nodded towards me as I sat down. "You look like you've been on holiday."
"That's because I didn't stay at the orphanage," I said. The unknown boy's head snapped upwards so as to look me with a sparkle of curiosity in his eyes. "I stayed with the Longbottom's in the spare room; they said I can stay there every summer instead of going back to that awful orphanage, and I agreed."
"That's awesome!" Scorpius commented. "Must have been good to get out of the uh, what did you call it?"
"The orphanage, and yes, it was." I looked towards the boy. "Hi, my names Nemesis Drew Riddle. What's yours?" I shared a look with Scorpius, who grinned in remembrance of the first time we met. "Oh, I'm an Orphan, by the way, so if you're going to ask me what heritage I'm of, I really don't know."
The unknown boy looked at Scorpius oddly before looking back at me. "Davlon Avelot, Half-blood," he said. I laughed at his extremely noticeable American accent, but I quickly covered up by a cough, which unfortunately was quite obviously fake.
The train began to move as I pulled out a pack of playing cards. "Want to play?" I asked, waving the card pack in the air.
"Father taught me how to play muggle cards… hm, yeah, I'll play," said Scorpius. He then looked to Davlon. "Don't worry; we'll explain to you how to play."
And so that's what we did; we taught Davlon how to play cards, but to be honest, I kind of wished I hadn't. Davlon was beating Scorpius and me by miles and had already won half of the games we had played. He was really good. As we played, we talked about each other and ourselves.
Davlon was from a family of purebloods who all had the same view of blood traitors and liked dark magic, but of course he didn't believe it. He also told me he was the first ever Half-blood in his family, lived with his aunt and uncle as his parents died from betraying the evil side, and was a Ravenclaw. Scorpius was a Pureblooded Slytherin, and his father and mother didn't believe in blood traitors like they used to.
With one final defeat, I dropped down my stack of cards and looked at my wrist watch. It was three pm already. We had been playing cards for five hours. Five hours of defeat! I looked out the window and saw it was getting darker. How long did this train ride take? A woman with a trolley suddenly appeared, sliding open the compartment door with one hand.
"Anything from the trolley, dears?" she asked.
"Ooh! Yes, please!" I said, jumping up.
I walked over to the door and looked at the trolley. Most of these sweets I had seen in Neville's house. There were Liquorices Wands, Chocolate Frogs, Bertie Botts Every Flavoured Beans, Cauldron Cakes, Pumpkin Pasties, and Sugar Quills, and then there were others that I hadn't seen before. I rummaged around in my pocket for my money as I picked up a bag of Bertie Botts Every Flavoured Beans and a Sugar Quill.
"I'll pay for it," Davlon offered as he walked over to me.
"No, I got it, but thanks anyway," I said.
"Really, it's no worry," he insisted. "Besides, you taught me how to play cards, now I'm returning the favour."
He payed for my sweets and then we both sat back down. Scorpius was smirking like no tomorrow, but he also had a glint of jealousy hiding in the corner of his eyes, which I noticed very easily. He began teasing Davlon about paying for me and I just sat there watching, eating my Sugar Quill.
"Fruit cake!" Scorpius teased.
Davlon threw his pack of cards at Scorpius and a card fight broke out. Cards were flying in every direction of the compartment. I watched as they flew around, but once one hit me, I jumped up and joined in the fight. It was really fun, but when it was actually dark outside, we stopped.
"How long do we have left?" I asked.
"An hour and a half," replied Davlon. "We should change into our robes. Ladies first."
I shook my head. "I'm not going to change; I'm staying like this."
"But you have to change into your robes," Scorpius said.
"Can't be asked," I shrugged, and then I pulled the Harry Potter book out of my bag and began to read whilst the boys began to change.
"To Harry Potter- The Boy Who Lived." —Wizarding world toasting Harry Potter after Lord Voldemort's first downfall.
Harry James Potter (born July 31, 1980) is a half-bloodwizard, is the only child and son of James Potter and Lily Potter née Evans, and is one of the most famous wizards in modern times. He is also one of the most famous students to attend Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and is the only known survivor of the Killing Curse, with which Lord Voldemort attempted to murder him when he was an infant. This event led to Voldemort's first defeat as the he curse rebounded upon him and his body was destroyed and the end of the First Wizarding War, as well as to the orphaned Harry being taken in by his Muggle maternal relatives, Vernon and Petunia Dursley, who constantly bullied him, along with their son, Dudley.
Now Lord Voldemort, formerly known as Tom Riddle, was the most powerful Dark Wizard of all time. An exceedingly handsome, polite and popular orphan, Tom Riddle was once thought to be the most talented pupil to ever walk through the doors of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. To the school at large he presented the respectable face of a student like any other. In reality, however, Riddle was cruel, sadistic, manipulative, and power hungry. Having embraced the seductive Dark Arts he encountered in his travels, Voldemort raised an enormous army comprised of followers he recruited both at school and afterward, as well as many dark creatures. This army, known as the Death Eaters began a campaign of terror and violence never before seen in Britain. After hearing half of a prophecy referring to a single being with the power to destroy him, Voldemort then set off to kill Harry Potter, to whom he believed the prophecy referred.
In his first year at Hogwarts, Harry met his lifelong best friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger while riding the Hogwarts Express. Initially, the Sorting Hat considered putting Harry into Slytherin, but changed its mind at Harry's insistence. All three were sorted into Gryffindor House on their first evening at school. Harry discovered at his first broom-flying lesson that he was a natural—"
There was an attention catching cough and I looked up from my book. When I read, I got lost, and sometimes you couldn't snap me out of my reading for hours. I pushed my book back into my bag and looked at the boy's badges that were sewn on their robes.
"Tell me about those houses," I said abruptly.
"There's four of them; Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, Slytherin, and Gryffindor," Davlon began. "Gryffindor was founded by Godric Gryffindor and its student's traits are chivalry and courage—" Scorpius scoffed there. "—and their colours are red and gold and their emblematic animal is the lion. Ravenclaw was founded by Rowena Ravenclaw and its student's traits are intelligence, beauty and wit. Their colours are blue and bronze, and their emblematic animal is the raven."
"Yeah, and Hufflepuff was founded by Helga Hufflepuff and its student's traits are fair play, patience, and friendship, and their colours are yellow and black and their emblematic animal is the badger. Slytherin was founded by Salazar Slytherin and its student's traits are ambition and cunning, and their colours are green and silver and their emblematic animal is the serpent," Scorpius finished.
I thought through the houses, a finger on my lips. "I think I'd either be in Ravenclaw or Slytherin, slight chance for Gryffindor."
"I think you'd be a Slytherin," said Scorpius. Davlon rolled his eyes.
A violent hiss suddenly came from my pocket, making the two boys jump. I laughed as I pulled Kazan out of my pocket. I forgot she was there.
"Sorry, Kazan, I forgot about you," I apologized, speaking in snake language.
"You can speak Parseltongue?" asked Davlon, eyes wide with shock.
"What? - Oh, snake language? Yeah, but so what? I bet loads of people can do it."
Scorpius shook his head in disagreement. "No, they can't. It's not that common and few people can actually speak it," he said.
And so leaving the snake language subject behind, the three of us chatted on until the train stopped at Hogsmeade station. Neville had told me a little about the village and Hannah had a few pictures. I slung my shoulder bag around my shoulder and then Scorpius, Davlon, and I exited the train. It was quite a challenge exiting the train as the isle was jam-packed with others. Once I was off, Scorpius and Davlon departed without me as I had to wait for a professor to come while they went to the carriages with the others. The first years went in a different direction towards a giant man who was calling them.
"Miss Riddle?" asked a familiar voice.
I spun around to find Neville standing there, arms folded across his chest. "You!" I gasped, pointing at him.
"Surprise, surprise," he laughed. "Come on then, let's go."
Neville took my arm and we apparated to the main apparating point of Hogwarts, and then we went through a big, medieval looking gate. I followed Neville to a carriage with no horse attached and he helped me up onto it. I expected someone to come and attach a horse to the carriage but instead, the carriage began to move on its own. I looked to Neville to see he was looking down at me, an amused expression plastered to his face.
"What's making the carriage move?" I asked curiously.
"A horse," he replied shortly.
"Don't joke. I see no horse."
He laughed. "No, no, it's a horse of the dead and is called a Thestral, visible only to those who have witnessed death."
"Oh, that explains it," I said with a short nod.
He eyed me and then asked, "Where's your robes, Miss Riddle?"
"Well, sir, by the time I remembered to change into my robes, we were already at the station, so I didn't have time," I lied, looking apologetic.
He nodded in understanding and just left it at that. Soon the carriage had stopped in font of these olden, double doors and they swung open as we climbed out of the carriage. Once entering the castle, we walked up a flight of stairs and entered an empty room with three leather black couches placed in a circle. Neville opened another door and I heard clouds of clapping and cheering erupt from inside the room it led to. Neville entered the room, closing the door behind himself, and left me waiting for my cue.
I listened carefully for my name and once it was called, the door swung open. I exited the room through that door and entered a room with four long tables accompanied by different aged students. There was also another table that was accompanied by what I guessed were teachers.
Looking around the large hall for Scorpius and Davlon, I spotted Davlon at one table and Scorpius at another. I also noticed most of the Slytherins were staring at me. An elderly lady wearing dark green robes and a tall, pointy black hat on her head, also holding an old, patched, and pointy hat, motioned me over. I walked over to her and she nodded at a small, circular stool, so I sat down on it and felt the old hat being placed on my head.
Ah, an orphan...I jumped as an old, croaky voice echoed through my head. Why, I haven't met an orphan like you since he was in school.
I didn't know how to reply but it was like the voice heard me when I was wondering who he was.
No one, no one at all, my dear. I frowned because the voice of the hat wouldn't tell me. Hm, you are well suited for Slytherin; you are cunning and have ambition. You are also suited for Ravenclaw, having beauty and intelligence. Hufflepuff, too! You can hold friendships for a long period of time and you are also hard working. But Gryffindor sounds more you as you are daring and brave. You are very talented, too, and would be great in all four houses, but what to chose?
Erm, I don't really know which house I prefer, but I kind of like the sound of Ravenclaw and Slytherin… although, the other two don't really sound so bad.
Well, I have made my choice. You will be put into— "GRYFFINDOR!" the hat bellowed.
One of the tables began to erupt into cheers and claps. I guessed it was the Gryffindor table so I skipped over there and bounced onto the bench next to a boy with circular glasses, hazel eyes, and gingery brown hair. He smiled at me and I smiled back.
I was a Gryffindor!
