Louella woke up that morning at the crack of dawn with the sun hitting her in her face. She tossed around in her bed before reluctantly getting up and looking around the room, all the other girls were still sleeping except for Noa Sinistra, who was already dressed and currently making her bed. The dark-skinned girl looked at Louella, "Good morning," she said, giving a curt nod, "Yeah, good morning," Louella said looking away and out the window. It was a beautiful sight, being so high up gave them the advantage of being able to see most of the grounds at Hogwarts, the forest, the lake, a tree that seemed to want to kill every bird that flew by.
"I'm going downstairs to get breakfast," Noa announced as she walked towards the door, "At this hour?" Louella questioned, "Classes start early, if I go now I'll have time to eat, get my class schedule and get a headstart on finding our first class," she stopped right in front of the door, "I suggest you do the same, by the way," and with that she walked out of the room. Louella let out a sigh and dragged herself out of bed, fishing around her trunk for her robes. It took her a few moments to realize that there was a Gryffindor emblem sewn onto her robes and that all her ties were now red and gold.
"How did that happen?" Murmured Louella tiredly, "Magic," Maya answered, covering her head with her pillow. Louella gave her a weird look, "How do you know what I'm talking about?" She questioned, "Whatever it is you were wondering about probably has something to do with magic," said Maya, still refusing to get up. Louella began tying her tie, "You should start getting ready," she said, thinking about what Noa said, "Ugh, give me a few more minutes, I'm tired," Maya complained. Louella sighed and went and stood in front of the full-length mirror to brush her hair, she decided to tie it up into a low pony-tail, she grabbed her brown schoolbag and opened her trunk, rummaging around for her school books, "What classes do you think we're going to take today?" She asked Maya, "No idea," Maya mumbled in response. Louella shrugged and stuffed all her books in her school bag, she carefully added her parchment, quills, and ink, so that nothing would tear or spill. She stood up and grabbed her wand from her nightstand, Hawthorn wood, unicorn hair core, and 31 centimeters long, she had been rather proud of herself when she had first gotten that wand, albeit she had no idea what that combination meant she did remember Mr. Ollivander saying that if used right, that could be a very powerful wand, she smiled at her wand before stuffing it in her wand pocket. She shrugged on her bag and turned to walk out when Maya stopped her, "See you in the great hall in... whenever minutes," she said and Louella just smiled and waved goodbye, although she was sure that Maya couldn't see her.
Louella walked down the spiral staircase and out into the common room that was peacefully empty and quiet. Someone had put the fire out sometime during the night so it was currently a little bit chilly and since the sun had just come out a few minutes ago there was a nice atmosphere about the common room. She walked out of the common room, through the portrait hole and it was at that moment that she realized that she had absolutely no idea where the great hall was because she hadn't been paying any attention to where they were walking last night. She let out an exasperated sigh and turned around and banged her head against the wall. She felt a pair of eyes watching her and that's when she remembered that paintings moved here, she turned around and looked at the Fat Lady awkwardly and opened her mouth to ask for directions but instead what came out was, "F-f-fortitudo." The portrait swung forward to reveal the hole in the wall. "I-I'm sorry. I didn't mean that I-uh... bye!" Louella stuttered out, running away, only looking back to make sure that the portrait was closed.
She kept on running until she came upon a stairwell, pausing there to take a few deep breaths. Gryffindor is supposed to be the house of the brave and for whatever reason, that stupid hat thought that a girl that couldn't even talk to a goddamn painting was perfectly suited for that house. She shook her head and rolled her eyes, she looked around for any of the older students so that she could ask them for directions to the great hall but apparently everyone Hogwarts hated waking up early because there was absolutely no one walking around, not even a staff member. She sighed again(she had been doing a lot of that this morning) and began walking down the stairs, briefly wondering if she was going to regret walking down a bunch of strange stairs.
After a few wrong turns, many moving stairs, and a lot of talking portraits, Louella finally found herself in front of the great hall. It was still very early by the time Louella got to the great hall, so it was still mostly early, in fact, there were only two students at the Gryffindor table, Noa Sinistra and some older boy that looked about 14. She made her way over to her table and sat down. People were slowly piling in and going to their respective houses and Louella was in the middle of eating her cereal when she heard the scraping noise of a bench being moved and saw Maya sitting down next to her, "I hate Ann Sunstar," she declared, running her hand through her huge curls. Louella gave her a disappointed look, "How can you say that?" She demanded, "You barely know her!"
"I don't want to know her!" Maya exclaimed, "She's awful and annoying- and she's here."
"What?"
"She's here, in the great hall, at the doorway with that poor girl, Charlotte Mikaelson, I feel so bad for her, having to deal with Ann Sunstar spewing about how amazing her mansion is and how rich her parents are."
"Come on, I'm sure she's not that bad."
"Hi, I'm Ann Ryanne Sunstar, very nice to meet you," Ann said as she sat down in front of the two blondes, Charlotte Mikaelson timidly following her. Louella had to take a moment to grasp just how ridiculous that name was. Ann was a nice name to have, and so was Ryanne, but together it just sounded stupid- not to mention just how ridiculous the surname Sunstar was. She braved a glance at Maya who seemed to be holding back a few snickers, she looked back at Ann with a worried expression, hoping that she hadn't noticed. Luckily, she didn't and if she did, she didn't make a big deal out of it.
"So, Louella, are your parents rich? Mine are," Ann said snobbishly and Maya glared at her. Louella looked at her with absolutely no emotions on her face and said, "I don't have parents." This revelation caused Maya to glare harder at Ann who didn't seem at all fazed by Louella's words, "Oh I'm so sorry, but do you think that they were rich when they were alive?" "No, I don't think that I know that they weren't rich." This time Ann truly did look sorry, "Oh, that's so horrible!" She suddenly gasped, "Do you think that's the reason they died? They couldn't take being poor anymore so they went and offed themselves, oh how sad!" Maya looked just about ready to hit Ann but Louella didn't really care about what Ann had been saying, "Yeah, I know it's just so so sad." She turned back to Maya so that she could talk to what she considered her new friend but it seemed that Ann wasn't taking that.
"Right, right, so, how does it feel to be poor?" Ann asked, and they heard a scoff. They turned around and saw that it was Noa Sinistra who scoffed, "Yes?" Ann demanded, "Nothing, I just think you're rude is all," Noa said, getting up and sitting all the way down the table, far away from Ann. Ann scoffed, "How rude," she said before turning back to Louella, "Anyway-" "Hold that thought," Maya interrupted, "Professor McGonagall's handing out the timetables," she pointed out. It was true, making her way down the red and gold table was the emerald robe wearing witch handing out the timetables for the year. She stopped right behind Louella and gave the four girls their timetables before walking away.
Louella looked down at her timetable, today she had Herbology with the Ravenclaws, Charms with the Ravenclaws, lunch, History of Magic with the Hufflepuffs, and Transfiguration with the Hufflepuffs. Ann groaned, causing Louella to look up, "What is it?" She asked, "We have Defense Against the Dark Arts with the Slytherins tomorrow," Ann answered looking at her timetable with distaste, "What's wrong with Slytherin?" Lou asked, "I have a friend there," Ann began laughing, "Really?" She asked, "What'd they do? Bribe you with money?" Louella turned red, "No, she was just nice to me, that's all," Maya wanted to hit Ann again but she was suddenly distracted by the flock of owls as they swooped in with a bunch of packages and letters, dropping them in front of their respective owners.
A screech owl dropped a letter in front of Maya, nipped a little bit on her ear and flew away. Maya looked the letter over and then put it away in her bag, "Ann and her big mouth are preoccupied with that package from home, this is our moment to get away," Maya whispered to Louella, "What about your letter?" Louella whispered back, "I'll read after classes or at lunch, I don't care as long as we can get out of here before Ann's big mouth opens up again." And with that she stood up, dragging Louella up with her and out of the great hall. "I told you Ann Ryanne Sunstar was horrible," Maya was saying as she dragged Maya up the grand staircase, "She's mean but I still don't hate her," said Lou before stopping and ripping her arm away Maya's so that she would stop as well, "Maya, where are we going?" "To our first class," Maya answered an obvious tone laced in her voice. Louella stared at Maya for a few seconds before answering, "Maya... our first class is Herbology, which should be outside," Louella pointed out, "...To the outside then!" And she grabbed Lou's arm and began dragging her down the staircase.