Chapter 3

The next morning, Albus woke up and happily remembered it was Saturday. This meant that he didn't have any classes. Albus then frowned because he didn't know what he was going to do that day. Looking over at Garrett's bed he found Garrett snoring, so Albus slipped on a pair of Muggle jeans and a loose blue t-shirt. Albus walked down to the Gryffindor Common Room to see that Rose and Cecilia were talking about something animatedly, both were wearing Muggle clothing, jeans and a t-shirt.

"Albus, what a pleasant surprise. I never knew that you and Rose practically live with each other's family," Cecilia said, standing up.

As Albus was walking to sit down by the girls, he noticed that Cecilia had a horrible gash on her right hand. Cecilia had apparently saw Albus looking at her injury because she hid her hand in the right pocket of her jeans. Albus tried not to worry about it because Rose started snapping her fingers in his face.

"Hello, I was talking to you, you know," Rose said.

Albus shook his head. Albus opened his mouth to say something but stopped when he heard a groggy voice whine, "Albus, why did you wake up at seven in the morning?"

Albus turned around to see a zombie-looking Garrett stumbling down the staircase leading from the boys' bedrooms. Albus smiled and heard Rose and Cecilia giggling.

"Well," Rose said while covering her mouth with her right hand, "We do have to wake up by six thirty in the morning. Not even including getting dressed and cleansed."

Garret groaned and quiet laughter filled the room.

"I'm going to go and see if they're serving breakfast yet," Cecilia said, skipping out of the Common Room.

Garrett dropped himself into a red velveteen chair and started to nod back to sleep as Albus and Rose discussed their plans for the day.

About fifteen minutes later, Cecilia skipped back in and said, "They just started to serve breakfast. Wanna go?"

Albus and Rose still hadn't decided what to do other than finding out where their classes were.

Albus looked up as Cecilia asked her questioned and replied, "Uh…sure, Cecilia."

Cecilia excitedly clapped her hands (which woke Garrett up from his nap) and jumped up and down.

"Great! I'll see if Bryce and Mathieu are up!" Cecilia said excitedly.

Albus watched Cecilia scamper the stairs up to the boys' dormitories, praying that Cecilia wouldn't wake up Leonard or Scorpius. Albus looked over to his abruptly woken friend. Garrett looked met Albus's gaze and asked, almost whining, "Why are we friends with that girl?"

Albus and Rose glanced at each other and laughed quietly. A few seconds later, Cecilia was dragging Mathieu and Bryce by each of their hands, both boys having the look of just-got-woken-up-by-a-crazy-tween-girl. "Alright," Cecilia said exuberantly while Mathieu and Bryce sank into the velveteen sofa Rose was sitting on, "let's go and have breakfast!"

Albus watched as Garrett gave Mathieu and Bryce looks of empathy. Albus chuckled and stood up. Albus stretched his limbs and followed Cecilia to the door while Garrett slowly stood up, yawning. Mathieu, Bryce, and Rose quickly followed Albus to the door while Garrett shuffled slowly. When everyone arrived at the door, Cecilia gently opened it then skipped out the door. Albus and the others walked out of the door and all of them formed into little groups. Albus walked next to Garrett at the end of the large group, Mathieu and Bryce in the middle, and Rose and Cecilia quietly giggled at the front of the procession.

When the group of acquaintances arrived in the Great Hall, the hall was almost completely empty other than a few students at each table. At closer inspection, Albus noticed that Cecilia's other three friends from Gryffindor were already at the table, each of them eating scrambled eggs and toast. Cecilia sat down next to her other friends and Rose sat down next to Cecilia. Albus sat down between Garrett and Cecilia, who was across from Bryce and Mathieu. Albus has a small breakfast of a flapjack, a glass of orange juice, and a piece of toast. Garrett and Cecilia, on the other hand, had very large breakfasts. Cecilia had two omelets, a glass of apple juice, and fourteen strips of bacon. Garrett had two flapjacks, two pieces of toast, a glass of orange juice, three sausage patties, and the last strip of Cecilia's original fifteen strips. Rose had a small breakfast of a bowl of oatmeal with some brown sugar sprinkled on top and a glass of apple juice. Mathieu, Bryce, Rebecca, Brittany, and Nichole had mirroring breakfasts of a slice of toast, a glass of orange juice, and plain oatmeal. After breakfast, Albus looked at Cecilia, a smile across her face when she met Albus's eyes. "Are you ready to go look for our professors?" Cecilia asked while reaching her hand over towards Albus.

"Sure," Albus replied happily while grabbing Cecilia's hand in his. They both stood up, looked down at their entwined hands, both blushed, and let go of each other's hands. Albus's and Cecilia's friends were, of course, completely oblivious of the scene because they had been talking to each other. Cecilia looked at the group of friends and acquaintances and said sarcastically, "Ok, I guess we won't be leaving now to look for our classes and meet our teachers."

This shook Rose, who looked at Cecilia and stood up while saying, "Ok, guys! Let's go and look for our classes!"

About three long hours of looking for their teachers and classes later, Albus and the others were now sitting on a bench in the middle of a corridor looking out towards the plot of grass in the middle of the castle. Other students, most of them older than Albus, milled around them. "So," Albus said to Cecilia who was sitting next to him, looking at the ceiling, trying to break into the silence, "how are you…"

Albus trailed off as he heard a girl's shrill scream and more shrill screams following. Albus watched as older students moved out of the middle of the corridor, boy holding back frightened girls. Albus then scooted back against the wall a little more as he saw what everyone was frightened of. A large King Cobra was slithering in the middle of the corridor. Albus looked towards Cecilia, who somehow stayed oblivious to the scene, and tugged on her right arm's sleeve like a small child. Cecilia looked at Albus and then past Albus with her dreamy gaze. The King Cobra then stopped in front of Cecilia. It looked at Cecilia and Albus watched with a confused look as the cobra wagged the tip of its tail, almost like a dog. Cecilia then looked at the cobra and her face became annoyed. "Severus Snake! I thought I told you to stay in the dormitory!" Cecilia snapped, while losing her dreamy voice that was replaced with a normal voice, at the cobra which recoiled like a beaten dog.

Albus watched as Cecilia kneeled by the snake and say, this time back in her regular dreamy voice, "People are easily frightened by you. Please try to stay in the room."

Albus, this time in amazement, watched as Cecilia held out her arm and the cobra started to coil around the length of her arm. Albus shook his head to shake out his surprise. Albus met Cecilia's gaze as Cecilia said, "Please excuse me, I need to take Severus back to the dormitory. I'll see you soon."

And with that, Cecilia spun around and skipped down the corridor in the direction of the Gryffindor Common Room, receiving weird or annoyed looks all the way down the hallway. Albus looked toward his friends to see that Rose and Garrett had shocked looks still on their faces and Cecilia's friends had apparently been able to be oblivious of what had happened. "Or," a little thought echoed through Albus's mind, "maybe they are used to Cecilia having a snake, and a poisonous one at that."

Albus shook his head, but decided that Cecilia must have been allowed to have a pet snake at Hogwarts, it might be trained not to bite or it might not have any poison.

An hour later of not doing anything other than talking to Rose, Garrett, and Cecilia's friends who apparently didn't like talking, Albus was now sitting at the Gryffindor table in the Great Hall. He, Rose, and Garrett were eating a slice of turkey breast, a baked potato, and a glass of water. Just then, Cecilia sat down next to Albus out of almost thin air. "Sorry I was gone so long, Albus," Cecilia said while putting two slices of turkey breast and a scoop of mashed potatoes on a plate, "Severus did NOT want to go back into his terrarium. I had to explain to him that people would be scared of him. The only thing that did was me having to stuff Severus in, very much to his protest!"

Rose cocked her head. "Explain to him?" Rose asked questioningly.

Cecilia gave Rose a look, that looked like a "really" look to Albus. "Yeah, explain to Severus. He's a really big ham, so I had to do my best not to make him even more obnoxious than he usually is. Ugh, it's so annoying!" Cecilia said to Rose.

"I thought when snakes," Garrett started to say with his mouth full of turkey.

"King Cobras, and, please, talk with your mouth closed," Rose interrupted, sounding very disgusted.

"Whatever, started to get annoying is when you get a new snake!" Garrett joked.

Albus and Rose laughed at Garrett's joke, but Cecilia gave Garrett a look of pure horror. "Replace…Severus," Cecilia said to Garrett, anger rising in her dreamy voice that caught the attention of Albus and Rose, "Severus is one of my best friends! How dare you, Garrett Smiles, say that I can just replace one of my best friends if they do something annoying! I'll have you know that I don't unfriend friends like on Facebook!"

Cecilia was glaring daggers at Garrett and Garrett, Albus, and Rose were taken aback. Albus thought that Cecilia looked so angry, her eyes flashed from regular human eyes to green dragon-like eyes. "Wait," Albus thought as Cecilia stormed away, "Did her eyes just flash for a second that looked like green dragon eyes?"

Albus shook the thought from his head before it could accumulate any more. Albus looked at Rose and Garrett before Albus stood up and went after Cecilia.