A/N: This chapter is super short. Some of the chapters will be longer, some will be more drabble-y. I'm hoping that now that stuff in my real life has calmed down a bit I'll have more regular updates.

Chapter 3

September 12, 1992

Hogwarts Castle, Somewhere, Scotland

Addie spent the first week at Hogwarts astonished; every time she entered a classroom or tried to hurry through the hallways some new strange sight grabbed her attention. First there was the fact that the pictures on the walls moved they often left their frames to visit one another and were usually eager to pass along bits of gossip and rumors. Then there was the fact that History of Magic was taught by an actually ghost and the moment in her first Transfiguration class when the cat perched primly on the edge of the professor's desk morphed into Professor McGonagall herself. And then there was the castle itself; there were a hundred and forty-two staircases: wide, sweeping ones; narrow, rickety ones; some that led somewhere different on a Tuesday.

The Saturday after the first full week of classes dawned clear and crisp. Addie found herself, for the first time she could remember, struggling with classes. She was the only one in her year who still had yet to successfully levitate a feather in Charms and in Transfiguration her needle still looked decidedly needle-like and not at all like a match. Addie trudged glumly into The Great Hall and slumped down next to Bash. He was studying worn copy of Quidditch Monthly intently. Lucy sat on his other side a copy of Professor Lockhart's book Magical Me propped up against a jug of pumpkin juice. Lucy glanced up brushed her dark curls away out of her eyes and smiled at Addie before returning to her book. Addie sighed heavily and dropped her head on the table.

"What's wrong?" Bash asked looking up.

"I think I should go home," she answered glumly

"It's only been a week," Lucy inserted into the conversation, "And you've never done any magic before…well not intentionally."

"I know, but I can't even…"

"It's really not that bad, Ads" Bash gently knocked her shoulder with his.

"Not that bad," a voice from the next table over drawled. All three of them turned to see Draco Malfoy sitting with his cronies Crabbe and Goyle. Bash's brother, Blaise, sat further down the table and was watching with interest. "She's worse than sodding Longbottom," Draco laughed.

"Sod off, Malfoy." Bash hissed. He grabbed the nearest thing in reach, the glass of pumpkin juice he'd been drinking and threw it in Malfoy's general direction and missing by a wide margin.

"Sebastian!" Addie grabbed his wrist and yanked his arm.

"You need to work on your aim," Draco taunted.

"I missed on purpose Malfoy," Bash seethed resting his arm away from Addie and reaching for a bowl of hard boiled eggs. He lobbed the first one at Malfoy and hit him squarely in the chest. Addie's eyes went wide and she looked at Lucy desperately who just shrugged. Draco's face was pink with anger and Addie though he looked like smoke was about to pour from his ears. Crabbe and Goyle both moved towards them as Malfoy launched himself across the table.

"That. Is. Enough." A cool voice drawled stopping all of them in their tracks.

"Professor Snape!" Lucy chirped.

"20 points from Ravenclaw," Snape drawled. Malfoy smirked from behind Snape. "Move along," he told them. Addie, Lucy, and Bash gathered their things and scampered out of The Great Hall; Addie looked back as they left the hall and noticed Blaise had approached Draco and neither of them looked pleased. They ran practically the entire way to Ravenclaw Tower and it took them each a try before they could successfully answer the riddle. Addie and Lucy collapsed onto one of the wide window seats. Bash threw himself on the floor beneath them.

"Thanks," Addie smiled as she peered down at Bash, "For sticking up for me."

"Malfoy's an arse," Bash rolled he eyes.

Addie leaned back against the edge of the window seat. It was wide enough that she and Lucy could both sit legs extended and still have room for a large stack of books between them. The first time they'd sat together that way, Bash tried to weasel himself in the middle, but quickly decided the floor was more comfortable. Lucy already had her nose buried in Lockhart's book again.

"Isn't that like the third time you've read that?" Addie asked.

"Yeah, this week," Bash muttered under his breath.

"It's a good book," Lucy defended, "And Professor Lockhart is so handsome. He won Witch Weekly's Most Charming Smile award like six times straight," she practically gushed.

"The guy's a nutter, Luce" Bash told her, "Half the stuff in there can't possibly be true."

"I don't think he's a particularly exceptional teacher, but I doubt he made his books up," Addie offered.

Bash rolled his eyes and stood, "I'm going down to watch Quidditch tryouts," he said. She knew Ravenclaw was having their house team tryouts today; Bash hadn't talked about anything else all week. He'd explained the positions, the balls, the rings, the pitch, she was fairly certain there wasn't a single aspect of the game he hadn't explained to her in minute detail during their first few days at Hogwarts. This week had been dedicated solely to the upcoming tryouts and who he thought would make the team. She was quite looking forward to seeing how the game was played. Unfortunately she had too much school work.

"I can't," Addie shrugged, "homework," she stated.

"Ads," Bash exclaimed, "This is your first chance to see quidditch! Your homework will be there tomorrow."

"How did you get into Ravenclaw again?" Lucy cracked looking up from her book.

"Oh stuff it, Luce!"

Addie just rolled her eyes as they continued to bicker; she'd decided during their first week of classes that they'd been sniping at each other for years and her interference wasn't going to change anything. She pulled her knees to her chest and looked out the window; part of the reason they'd manage to get a window seat to themselves was that it was on the "bad" side of the tower. The other windows in the large circular room all looked out over Black Lake or the Forbidden Forest. Addie and Lucy's window looked over the Herbology greenhouses, but Addie found it fascinating to look at the greenhouses and try to figure out what was growing inside.

"Ads!" Bash practically shouted.

"What?!" she jumped.

"We've been trying to get your attention for like five minutes," Lucy laughed.

"Why…what?" Addie blinked at them.

"Quidditch tryouts start in like five minutes," Bash stated. Addie stared at him blankly.

"Five minutes," he said more slowly, "on the quidditch pitch…"

"Oh," she shook her head slightly as if to shake a cobweb from her brain. "I can't," she told him again with a shrugged, "I have to finish all this homework and I want to read ahead for Potions."

"Uh," Bash grunted and clasped his hands over his heart dramatically before dropping to the floor, "You wound me," he croaked from the floor.

"You're such a drama queen." Lucy laughed.

"Come watch tryouts," he said still lying on the floor. "I'll spend all afternoon in the library with you tomorrow." Lucy raised an eyebrow in disbelief and Addie giggled. "I will…"

"I don't know…" Addie trailed off, "I really need to work on this Levitation Charm."

"You're probably saying it wrong," Lucy shrugged nonchalantly. She dug a quill out of her bag and set it on top of the large stack of books. "Try it again."

Addie looked apprehensively at the feather. Taking a deep breath she closed her eyes and pointed her wand, "Wingardium Leviosa!" she said forcefully with a swish and flick of her wand. There was a loud bang and Addie's eyes flew open. She saw the feather floating gracefully down from the ceiling and the stack of books lay scattered on the floor. "What happened?" she asked frantically.

"Uh…you levitated the whole stack of books for about 3 seconds," Bash told her eyes wide, "I'd say that's an improvement."

"Try the needles," Lucy suggested pulling out a small sewing kit. Addie nodded and took a deep breath. Concentrating on the idea of a match she said the incantation to turn the needle into a matchstick. For the first few moments nothing happened. Then the needle slowly morphed into a matchstick; Addie breathed a sigh of relief and smile over at Lucy.

"See you just need to practice," Lucy said.

"Uh..." Bash said from the floor.

"Thanks, Luce."

"GUYS!" Bash shouted. Lucy and Addie both looked at him. He was pointing towards the stack of books between them. The one perfectly formed matchstick had multiplies and a hundred were now piled between them and falling onto the floor.

"This is normal right?" she looked between Lucy and Bash.