The Trio

Rose, one of the last to be sorted, ended up in Ravenclaw, causing the trio that had greeted Nyssa to groan, while Albus frowned slightly. When the sorting of students finally did finish, the hat and stool were moved, and all attention went to the now standing Headmistress. She was a short, chubby woman, round-faced and bright eyed and wearing Hufflepuff-gold robes. "Welcome to Hogwarts, first years and welcome back to all the rest of you lot." There was a chuckle among the older students at this, and Nyssa thought that her choice of words made her seem quite relaxed. "As we start another school year, I want to say only these words," her eyes traveled around each of the tables, capturing the attention of all the students, "work hard, create long-lasting friendships, and have a jolly good time! Let the feast begin!" She clapped her hands twice and food appeared on the table.

Any sort of food imaginable popped up; roast beef, roast chicken, pork chops and lamb chops, sausages, bacon and steak, boiled potatoes, sweet potatoes, fries, peas, carrots, beans, gravy and biscuits, wheat bread, banana bread, and all sorts of condiments. There were a few food items she did not recognize, but she did not ask anyone what the unknown dishes were, knowing it would only make her stick out more. She looked to the left at the four chatting girls that would be her roommates for the next seven years, feeling slightly left out that they had not invited her to join their conversation.

Pouting, she harshly stuck her fork into a carrot, raised it to her mouth, bit off a piece, and chewed silently. Carrots were probably one of the most tolerable vegetables, in her opinion, especially when cooked. Uncooked, carrots were a bit like spinach, which did not taste good at all according to her taste buds. Her mom always did chide her to eat more vegetables and she thought to herself that her mom would be beaming down at her right now if she were here.

The three boys in front of her were being very loud at the moment, not that all the other groups of friends weren't. But they had particularly devilish smirks on their faces, glancing to the messy-haired Albus beside her and then back to a piece of parchment they kept pointing at. They probably thought they were hiding the parchment rather well, passing it quickly to each other and stuffing it into their robes, but anyone with seeing eyes could see it.

In a sudden motion, the three looked up at her, two pairs of brown one pair of blue eyes all penetrating hers. "So, Nyssa," the one in the middle spoke her name with a playful tone. He had a caramel complexion, dark brown hair and brown eyes, was taller than the black-haired boy next to him, and lanky. "We heard about you and Al."

Said boy looked up quickly from his plate, a grimace on his face. "Shut up, Fred," he hissed to the older boy.

"What's the problem, Albus? We're only greeting my future sister-in-law," this was the messy-haired black boy and he winked at her as he said this. Though she had no idea why he was implying she was going to marry Albus, she was able to infer that he was Albus' brother due to the fact that he had referred to her as 'his' sister-in-law specifically. His eyes, however, were not the same pretty green as Albus', but a bright brown.

"James," Albus groaned, and then turned to Nyssa with an apologetic expression. "I'm sorry. They're only messing with you because of me."

"We're not messing with her," cried the dirty blonde-haired boy on the far left indignantly. He had misty blue eyes and a charming aura about him, something that Nyssa had noticed when she first sat down and had found it hard to not look in his direction."Is it true that Albus tried to snog you?"

Nyssa quirked an eyebrow, while Albus went bright red in the cheeks, "Snog?" The term was unfamiliar to her.

"I did not!" Albus shouted, a little too loudly as it drew the attention of several other students nearby. This only made the three boys sitting across from him laugh.

"We were only joking, Al," James taunted, "no need to deny it so forcefully." With Albus still blushing and the two other boys smirking impishly, he faced Nyssa and stretched his hand across the table, offering her a handshake. "James Sirius Potter, this git's," he gestured towards Albus, "more charming and intelligent older brother." Nyssa shook his hand lightly and quickly, feeling that his last comment had been unnecessary.

Next the dark brown-haired boy introduced himself, "Fred Weasley. I'm their cousin." He looked to Albus and James when saying the last bit.

"And I'm Louis Weasley," the blonde-haired boy said proudly, "also their cousin."

Nyssa turned to Albus, "Do you have many cousins?"

"Yes," Albus started to speak, but was cut off quickly by the voice of James.

"That's our cousin Roxanne, Fred's sister," James butted in, pointing towards a curly brown-haired girl sitting at the Hufflepuff table, "And there's Molly," he pointed towards a pretty red-haired girl sitting beside Rose at the Ravenclaw table, "her sister Lucy," towards the right end of the Gryffindor sat another red-haired girl wearing horn-rimmed glasses and intently reading a book, "Dominique, Louis' sister" a beautiful blonde-haired girl sitting at the Hufflepuff table, "and Victoire, also Louis' sister." The last one was an older version of Dominique, except that she was sitting at the Ravenclaw table, chatting with a bunch of other girls; several boys, Nyssa noticed, were fawning over her. For some reason, she thought Victoire looked familiar, but couldn't quite pinpoint where she might have seen her.

"Very many, then," she commented to Albus, who'd been unfairly spoken over by James. For some reason, the quiet resignation of Albus told her that this happened often. It wasn't hard to guess why; James was louder and more sociable, whereas Albus was quiet and shy, like a caterpillar in its cocoon.

"What about you?" Fred prodded her arm with the end of his fork to gain her attention, willing her to talk to the trio as well. "Do you have many cousins?"

"Four. Leon, Nolan, Lacerta, and Corvus."

"Those last two are weird names," commented Louis, munching slowly on a sausage. He had not eaten much, especially for a boy, Nyssa thought. Her brothers ate plenty, all the time, but Louis had eaten very small portions. Perhaps that was why the girl sitting beside him had also eaten so little and looked very hungry at the moment.

Though normally a person would have been a bit upset to have someone tell her that her family members had odd names, Nyssa was not, because she quite agreed. "They are. My grandmother named her sons after constellations. Her name's Asterope, a star."

"Don't the Malfoys do that?" Fred looked pointedly towards Scorpius when he said this, attracting James, Louis, and even Albus to do the same. Nyssa also looked towards Scorpius, but only because she hoped that she could catch his eye, send him a small smile maybe, if she could manage it. But he was talking to some older boys, smiling, obviously content to not be sharing the same house as Nyssa. She quickly turned around, angry that he was doing so well without her. It wasn't right to feel that way, she knew, but Scorpius was the only person she really knew well and she thought they'd hit off well in the last few weeks, yet he was doing fine without her while she was not.

"The Blacks do," Albus said, surprising Nyssa, because he had barely spoken this whole time. "We've seen the tapestry, haven't we, James?" James nodded at his younger brother. "And the Malfoys are related to the Blacks. Dad said all the pure-blood families are related."

"Mostly," Nyssa responded.

"You're pure-blood then?" Louis asked, the other three boys giving her a look that her they were clearly interested to know her blood status themselves. It was foreign to her. She'd grown up around pure-bloods, sometimes been around half-bloods, knew only one muggle-born wizard, and hardly ever seen muggles. The subject of blood status only came up when her grandmother went on one of her long spiels about pure-bloods being better witches and wizards, or had Nyssa and her cousins recite all the pure-bloods off the family tapestry. It was never a question back home, because everyone knew her and what family she came from.

"My great-grandfather was Regulus Black, son of Sirius Black –" she did not finish her sentence, as Albus' voice spoke over hers.

"And Hesper Gamp." He was staring at her, but quickly realizing that he had just interrupted her mid-sentence, began to apologize, "Sorry, it's just, I've seen the names on the tapestry. My dad's godfather was a Black as well."

"Why aren't you on the Black family tapestry then?" This was James, now digging into a whole chocolate pie. Dessert had arrived, Nyssa supposed, sometime during their conversation. There were now many pies, puddings, and chocolates in front of her, but she already felt full and had to regretfully stop herself from reaching for a piece of strawberry pie.

"My great-grandfather only had one child, a daughter, and that was my grandmother, Asterope. She married my grandfather, Thane Valentine. I think we're not on the tree, because the Black line ended with my great-grandfather in my family." At least, that was her explanation. They certainly had not been burned off the tree, as her grandmother was not a squib, blood-traitor, or anything disgraceful according to the laws of the family. That her grandfather had been without an heir, she knew, was something that had made her grandmother's life more difficult than it would have been. Because she had no brother, it was necessary that she marry into an equally respectable pure-blood family. It was a random twist of fate that she had gone to Salem Witches' Institute, being a British-born witch, and then later met her future husband at one of the annual school dances.

The four boys seemed to accept her explanation, all eating desserts that Nyssa wished she'd saved room for now. It was at this moment that the girl with black hair sitting next to her turned and spoke, "Hello, my name's Eleanor Northwood."

Surprised that the girl was speaking to her, Nyssa had to reign in her overwhelming urge to hug the girl and simply smiled back instead, "Nyssa Valentine."

"I know, I heard you talking, we all did," Eleanor turned her head to the other three girls sitting alongside her, all staring intently at Nyssa. "This is Deidra Griffin," said Eleanor, pointing to the girl right beside her with blue eyes and blonde hair, "Olivia Browne," the girl with black hair and brown eyes sitting beside Deidra waved at Nyssa, "and Holly Connolly," a girl with a light brown mess of curls and grey eyes waved vigorously, leaning around Olivia so that she could better see Nyssa.

"I'm a half-blood myself," said Holly, very enthusiastically, giving Nyssa the impression that she was a happy-go-lucky type of person. "My dad's a wizard and my mum's a muggle."

"Muggle-born," Deidra said silently, making Nyssa wonder if Deidra thought she was prejudice towards muggle-borns. "My mum and dad were shocked. They never believed in magic, until recently."

"Half-blood," Olivia said with a shrug when Nyssa looked at her, "My dad was a half-blood and my mum's muggle-born."

"And I'm muggle-born like Deidra, though my uncle was a muggle-born too, so there was already magic in the family. It wasn't much of a shock, really, though I think my younger brother will be very disappointed if he doesn't get a letter." Eleanor's expression, however, said that she would not be disappointed. Her brother was annoying and she didn't treasure the thought of seeing him almost every day at Hogwarts when she'd already done so for the past eleven years.

Tapping her spoon against her now empty plate – she'd just eaten three slices of apple pie – Holly's twitching lips told the other girls that she was itching to speak. "I'm so excited to start learning spells! It's not like that muggle garbage hocus pocus stuff, mind you, Deidra. Real magic is much more exciting!" At the comment directed towards her, Deidra rolled her eyes and turned away from Holly, obviously displeased that the girl thought she had not already learned a bit about how real magic worked.

A sudden shout from Olivia garnered looks from other nearby students, heads whipping around wildly as other similar shouts came from around the hall. Ghosts had popped up at each of the four tables, frightening the students they either appeared beside or went through. Nyssa shivered at the thought of having a ghost go through you, knowing from what Tristan had said that they were as cold as Siberia. The ghost beside Olivia was pearly white and semi-transparent, dressed in a doublet with a large ruff, tights, and a pair of breeches; he had long curly hair, a moustache and goatee, and was wearing an extravagant hat bearing a feather atop his head.

"Hello, there, Nick," Fred called to the ghost, still chuckling over the reaction from the first years to the ghosts, along with several of the older students.

Nick, the ghost, bowed to Fred. "And hello to you, young Mr. Weasley." He moved to the other side of the table, causing the girl that had been sitting beside Louis to shove the people next to her down in an effort to get as far as possible from the ghost. "I am Sir Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington, the ghost of Gryffindor tower."

"Or Nearly Headless Nick," added James.

"I prefer Sir Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington," said Nick stiffly, sending a frown to the young Potter.

"Nearly headless?" A chubby boy on the other side of Albus asked. He looked quickly to his empty plate when Nick turned to him.

"Yes," answered the airy voice from Nick, as the ghost pulled on his left ear, his whole head falling onto his shoulders, not falling completely off due to a thin piece of skin and tissue still attached on the left side of his head. There were squeaks from the girls, all quickly covering their eyes, and mumbled awes from the boys, while most of the older students chose to simply ignore the event. Nick flipped his head back over, seemingly pleased with the reactions, cleared his throat, and said, "I do hope you'll all work hard this year. The Ravenclaws won the house cup last year and the Grey Lady's become rather haughtier than usual."

"Don't worry, Nick," said James proudly, "we're sure to win this year!"

"Do try," Nick said and then floated away, going through Fred and the chubby boy next to Albus, who yelped loudly when it happened. With Nick gone, Nyssa delved into a conversation on future lessons with her newly acquainted roommates ("I'm dreading potions," said Olivia; "Charms should be interesting", Holly shouted enthusiastically, Nyssa and Eleanor agreeing with head nods).

When the desserts had finally disappeared, the Headmistress stood up once again. The hall fell quiet much the same as it was during the sorting. "Before I let you all head to bed, I have a few notices to deliver. First years should remember and older students need be reminded that the forest on the grounds is forbidden to all." Her eyes circled the room, and Nyssa noted that a few – notably the trio in front of her – averted their eyes. "Mr. Filch requested that I stress the rule against performing magic in the corridors. Quidditch trials will, as always, be held in the second week of the term. If you are interested in playing for your house, you may speak to Madam Hooch," she held out a hand towards an elderly witch with spiky hair, "and she will inform you of the requirements."

"I'm trying out this year," declared James.

"And now," continued the Headmistress, "let's sing the school song!" One of the professor's at the table, a very short man, stood and flicked his wand upwards, little streams of green, red, blue, and gold shooting out, forming words above their heads. All the older students started to sing and, after the first few lines, Nyssa and all the other first years joined in:

Hogwarts, Hogwarts, Hoggy Warty Hogwarts,

Teach us something, please,

Whether we be old and bald

Or young with scabby knees,

Our heads could do with filling

With some interesting stuff,

For now they're bare and full of air,

Dead flies and bits of fluff,

So teach us things worth knowing,

Bring back what we've forgot,

Just do your best, we'll do the rest,

And learn until our brains all rot.

Everyone finished the songs at different times; some went through it very quickly, others slowly, some shouting instead of singing, friends swaying together as they sung it to a Christmas tune. A few of the professors clapped as the last few students finished, though Nyssa thought that from the expression on their faces it was more out of joy that the song was finished than for the fact that the students had sung the school song well.

"That was lovely," the headmistress beamed at them all, "Off to bed with you then."

The red-haired girl James had pointed out as Lucy, their cousin, came walking towards all the first years, calling loudly, "First years, line up and follow me!" There was a brown-haired boy behind her, a shiny gold 'P' on his chest, the same as Lucy.

"Lucy's a Prefect," James muttered to Nyssa as they stood, "she's a bit bossy."

Nyssa had no idea what a prefect was, but figured it must've been some high position among the students, giving her the power to keep the younger students in check. James, Louis, and Fred snickered at the first years as they followed Lucy and the boy out of the Great Hall and up a marble staircase to the left. As they climbed the stairs, that one boy that had sat beside Albus kept tripping on his robes, forcing the group to stop more than once. Nyssa didn't mind as it gave her time to stare at all the portraits whispering around them.

Twice they had to go through doorways hidden behind hanging tapestries and sliding panels, climbing and climbing several flights of stairs. Many students were now yawning, just barely able to lift their feet onto step after step due to the tired feeling that had come over all of them. Finally, they stopped climbing stairs, reaching a long corridor.

"It's just ahead," the brown-haired prefect called back reassuringly to them, pointing towards the end of the corridor, where a portrait of a very fat woman in a pink dress hung.

"Password?" She asked, looking down upon Lucy.

"Nargles," she responded and the portrait swung open, revealing a hole in the wall. They all had to climb through, the shortest students needing help climbing up by the brown-haired prefect (Nyssa was one of them). Crawling out on the other side of the hole, they found themselves in the Gryffindor common room, which was round and full of old squashy armchairs.

Lucy turned around to face them all, raising right arm and pointing up to a wooden door that was on everyone else' left, "Take the stairs to reach the boy's dormitories. The first year dormitory will be clearly marked with a sign." Similarly, she raised her left arm and pointed to the opposite wooden door, "The girl's dormitories are up this staircase and as with the boy's dormitories the first year dormitory is marked with a sign. No boys are allowed into the girl's dormitories."

The brown-haired prefect led the boys off to their dormitory, while Lucy led the girls through the wooden door. Olivia gave out an exasperated sigh at the sight of more staircases. At the top of the spiral staircase, there were seven different ones in the room and they had taken the first, they found their dorm, gold letters reading: 'First-Year Girl's Dormitory'. Inside the room were five four-poster beds with deep red, velvet curtains.

Nyssa was surprised to find her trunk already in the room, having wondering briefly before they entered the boats and on their way up to the common room where it could possibly be. She also did not know where Artemas was, but having already been assured in a letter from the school that she would be allowed to bring him and they had someone to take care of him, she did not let it bother her. Feeling very drowsy, she dug through her trunk for a nightgown, slipped it on in the bathroom, washed her face, and curled up in her bed for a nice long sleep.

As her eyes closed and blackness enveloped her, she wondered briefly where the Ravenclaw dorm was and how Scorpius was doing right now. She hoped to see him the next day, having forgotten her pettiness over him being chummy with his housemates at dinner. Her roommates all silent, she fell off into sleep, dreaming of a werewolf running towards the train as she sat watching with a blue-haired boy. A blaze of green light shot out, killing the werewolf, and she cried.