Chapter 5 - First Day
You select an armchair and drag it into the darkest corner in the common room. Settling down you lose yourself into the textbook absorbing every word as if it was written by the gods. Time whizzes past you, unnoticed. You are shocked out of your trance as a quiet chatter fills your ears. You reluctantly look up from the new white pages. The once empty common room is now filled with passing students. All flowing like a colourful swarm of black and green fish. You notice that all the age groups appear together. You sit watching all the third years leaving first dressed identically in their black robes. About ten minutes later the common room falls back into its comfortable silence. However, the silence is broken just as quickly and sharply as a braking mirror. The clumsy second years tumbled through the room together with your year rushing to get to the hall as quickly as possible to get the best of the food. As they leave you sigh in relief at the peacefulness. Finally getting back to your book, the silence is broken once more the fourth, fifth, and six years drag themselves through the room reluctantly. You give up deciding just to watch the students passing. The girls pass in swarms, arms linked, chatting wildly catching up on what they have missed over the holidays. The boys also passed in groups but they where all either silent or talking in brief, short sentences or grunts. Eventually the crowds stopped. No more muffled footsteps or ear piercing squeals of laughter. Finally believing that all the students have already passed you to the hall, you start to head back to your bedroom to put the book away and finish getting ready for the coming day. Just as you manage to prise yourself from the seat and reach the doorway up to the dorms, through the door fell the seventh years. You sink back into the chair in the corner to watch the anomaly of a year. The most of them sat in the ring of sofas in the centre of the room with the few others gathering parchment, ink and quills and noting down everyone's orders. Intrigued at where the older students get their breakfast you quietly follow them out and into the brighter corridor.
You slam your eyelids shut as you enter the hallway. The stunning light stinging your eyes. You open them just in time to see the tail of a cloak sailing round a corner. You chase after it, as a cat would after seeing a mouse's tail. The older students lead you to a dead ended corridor. The walls where covered with a selection of various paintings. You watch as one of the group reaches up to a portrait of a bowl of fruit and starts to tickle a pear. The canvas swings back revealing a doorway the students climb through quickly, letting the painting close behind them. You start to approach the picture when you hear muffled sounds of goodbye coming from behind it. You turn and race back down the corridor so as not to be caught. You hear a slight creak and realising that the sound was coming from the hinges of the painting, you dive into a shadowy corner. Curling up as small as you could go and wrapping your cloak around you, you hear voices pass you. You lift your head just to see them disappear off. You stand stretching your legs simultaneously and dust yourself down. Ensuring there were no other students nearby you walk up to the portrait curiously. You stand on tiptoes and reach up to stroke the drip shaped fruit. You watch as it starts giggling. Smoothly the painting rotates allowing you access to the door behind. Your hand clutches the handle nervously, and telling yourself not to be such a wuss, you pull the door open.
A large kitchen is revealed before you. An overwhelming cloud of heat hangs overhead from the ovens. Rows of long metal counters stand in dead straight lines all leading away from you and only a meter or two between them. The surface leaves glowing dots on your eyelids as the light bounces around violently. You feel a couple of vicious tugs at the hem of your robe and you look down to investigate. There at your feet stood a little green person. You gasp silently at the sight of her unconsciously leaving your mouth hanging slightly open. She was just taller than your knee height, her pointed ears counting for at least the last inch. She had huge tennisball-like eyes in a smokey shade of green. Her nose was an awkward blob which was slightly upturned. You are broken out of your surprised trance by a gentle murmuring of 'Are you okay, Sir?' Yours eyes flicked to hers. Still slightly shocked at the fact this odd creature could talk, the words pass your lips without thinking about them. 'Errrm ... Yerr ... I'm ... I'm fine thanks errrr... What's your name?'
'Mitzi, Sir. What can we do for you?' Replied the way too polite little voice.
'Well... Nothing really. I was just following them and ended up well... Here!' You say nervously pointing over your shoulder towards the door. 'I will just be going then.'
'No no no. Don't go. It'd be no good to let Sir leave with no breakfast.'
'Your okay then?' You say as the elf drags you further into the room.
'What would Sir like?'
Stunned into silence at the fact you were now surrounded by these bizarre creatures you slowly find yourself saying 'What is there?'
The elves all start talking at once. Your eyes open wide as they all list what they could make. Almost every dish you had ever tasted was on the list and many you had never heard of was mentioned. In fact now you were thinking about it, most of these you hadn't heard of. When they finally stopped, you didn't have a clue what to say. 'Errrr well, what do you recommend?' At these words at least twenty creatures left. Sounds of every sort slowly started to fill your ears. Less than a minute later the elves reappeared between them holding a large plate of pancakes covered in some sort of sweet sticky sauce and a glass of something that looked like orange juice but smelt of something most defiantly not orangey. You ask what it is and they tell you its pumpkin juice. They also say that it is a popular choice with the students and it is almost traditional for the Hogwarts students to have a glass of pumpkin juice with their meals.
You just manage to get away, out of the elf filled kitchen, as the bell rings for your first lesson. You wipe the last traces of juice from your mouth and head back the way you had previously come from. As soon as you manage to leave the dim corridor you are dragged along by a thick stream of students. You find yourself completely surrounded and crushed. Crushed... No. You stop your thoughts just as the slightest trace of tears can be seen in the corners of your eyes. The claustrophobic thoughts slowly start getting at you. You start heading for anywhere you can get clean air. A small corridor finally manages to appear and you head towards it. You fall into the sudden clearing, straight into another student. The fragile arms grip you gently helping you to your feet. Once you had managed to stand by yourself once more you look up, following the shape of your saviours arms, up to their delicate face. A thin pale chin leads up into large dark eyes.
'Oh... Umm hi?' you say as you realise that those beautiful eyes belonged to the girl you met yesterday. Her name... Ummm... Oh yerh, Violet.
'Oh god... What are you?... Some sort of stalker?' She frowns at you and walks off quickly. Her groupies following after her at her heels.
You could still feel the ghost of Violets arms wrapped round your body. You feel salty tears starting to sting the corners of your eyes.
Another bell sounds, shattering the ghostly figure, you rush off. Following the path of the corridor which Violet had just rushed off down. Violet. The beautiful, wonderful Violet. The stunning girl. Who's scared of you. Doesn't want to ever see your face again. Violet. The prickeling in your eyes starts again. No. You won't just break over some girl.
You turn the final corner to see the last of your potions class disappearing into the dungeon.