Leith Jones was not a particularly intelligent person. In later years it would not astonish him that he was not a Ravenclaw, any future success lay far more in his ability to gain the right friends than his own talent.
That said, on his second night at Hogwarts, it did not take him long to decide something was up.
He, Tom and Alfie were heading back from the Herbology greenhouse and Tom was laughing at a joke Alfie was telling.
"...And then the hag says to the house elf, 'don't forget to feed my Kneazle!'"
Tom chuckled, and Alfie smiled at Leith, who was looking confused.
"Wizard humour," Alfie shrugged, "You'll pick it up."
The boys had reached the castle and headed into the Great Hall, where dinner had been served, they took their seats and spooned generous servings of sausage casserole and mash onto their plates and tucked in, attempting conversation between mouthfuls.
"Hey guys,"
A lanky boy with large feet, a fair, close-cropped haircut and mischievous blue eyes fell into the seat next to Tom. He nodded politely to all of them and started helping himself to casserole.
"Alright Rob," they said in unison, as the Gryffindor began shovelling his, frankly enormous, meal into his mouth. It astonished Leith that anybody with an appetite like Robert Gibbons remained as skinny as he did. The night prior, Gibbons had provided something of a midnight feast of sweets as, unlike the girls, the new Gryffindor boys had remained awake well into the night introducing themselves.
"'Ere, you guys haven't seen that girl have you?"
"Girl?" asked Alfie.
"Yeah, posh, chubby blonde kid, they," he nodded at Ophelia, Hannah and Viveka, who were further down the long wooden table, "Were asking, said she'd gone up to change and hadn't come down,"
"Feeney," Leith nodded, but confirmed they saw her leave Herbology and had not noticed her since. Robert shrugged and went back to his expansive dinner.
"So what do you think of Hogwarts then muggle-born?" Tom asked, grinning at Leith, who chewed on a mushroom thoughtfully.
"Magic is not what I expected." He said finally, "But the food is excellent,".
The boys laughed, and Leith grinned. It was true, Hogwarts was strange and unexpected, but in the 24 hours since he had arrived, he had felt a rising emotion somewhere in his stomach, a feeling of satisfaction, as if he had just started a long-awaited meal. Leith Jones felt like he belonged.
oOo
Beatrice Feeney, on the other hand, was pacing the Gryffindor common room, all thought of dinner abandoned. She looked up with a start when the portrait door opened and a plump, black-haired girl walked through.
" Oh, hi Beatrice," she said, smiling, "Not going for dinner?"
Beatrice relaxed, it was Cornelia, the half-blooded witch who shared her dorm. "Oh, no," she said, "I'm not hungry, I'm waiting for someone,"
"Oh," Cornelia said, and sat down on a sofa next to the fire and pulled a Teen Witch magazine out of her bag.
"Is that the new issue?" Beatrice asked.
It was with a degree of confusion that Leith, Tom and Alfred (they had left Robert Gibbons eating his second dessert) opened the portrait door to be met with a rapturous round of giggles. Beatrice and Cornelia were poring over the Teen Witch.
"Now he really is gorgeous," Cornelia laughed, then, glancing up at the boys, attempted to pull a straight face, she coughed awkwardly.
"Don't mind us, ladies," Alfred laughed, and Beatrice looked up suddenly.
"Alfred, I... Uh, don't suppose I could borrow you for a minute?"
The boys glanced at each other, "Its about the colour-changing charm," she added hastily, seeing their expressions. Alfred gave a funny motion somewhere between a nod and a shrug.
"Sure, I guess. I'll be up later guys,"
The other two, looking decidedly put-out, shuffled up the stairs. Beatrice watched them leave.
oOo
It was over an hour before the weary Alfred Saxon yawned his way up the stairs, tripping through the dormitory door and sprawling, wand in hand, on his bed.
"What did Her Ladyship want?" Leith asked, flinching as he lay down a playing card onto a pile of what, judging by the singed carpet, was a pack of exploding snap cards, he glared at Tom, "You want to stop jostling me when I'm laying?" He asked, giving the other boy a poke, Tom apologised, running a hand through his too-short hair absent-mindedly. Leith looked up at Alfred, who was peering at their game over the corner of the bed.
"Oh, nothing, just wanted pointers on that colour charm, she managed a mid-blue before I came up, I was saying she was flourishing too much and she should try gripping tighter to create a more forceful-"
"Alfie, fascinating as that is..." Leith began.
"Do be quiet," Tom finished, tossing his card onto the deck. The corners of Alfie's mouth twitched as he watched the card's progress and he dissolved into a fit of laughter as the pack, with a bang and a cloud of purplish smoke, exploded, showering Tom in ash and sending Leith leaping away from the game in surprise.
After attempting to cover up the burn marks on the carpet, the boys clambered into bed, exhausted by the day work and the excitement. However, an hour later, Leith was still awake, thinking.
Suddenly, he leapt out of bed and, as silently as he could, drew back Tom's curtain, and shook his shoulders, the boy grumbled blearily.
"Leith? What's wrong?"
"It's Feeney," he whispered frantically, "Come on, we have to go,"
"What?"
"She's trying to get into the Ravenclaw common room,"
"How in the name of Merl-?"
"Never mind that," Leith hissed, "We have to stop her,"
Tom stared at the shadowy Leith as if he had sprouted an extra head. "Why?"
"Because..." Leith hesitated. Why did he want to help Beatrice? She wasn't particularly nice, she didn't seem to like the Gryffindors and treated them accordingly.
"Because we'll lose house points if she gets caught," he whispered finally.
Tom lay in silence for a second. "Fair point," he said, sliding out of bed and seizing his robes from the heap on the floor. "What if we get caught?" He asked.
"Don't," Leith muttered darkly, and the two boys hurried silently down the staircase to the common room. The room was, mercifully, empty. The only movement was the dying flickers of the fire. With hearts hammering in their throats they pushed open the portrait of the Fat Lady and stepped through. They froze as a rasping sound tore through the still air, but it was only the Fat Lady, snoozing against her frame.
Every shadow seemed to be a ghost or a teacher as the boys crept as quickly as they dared through the still castle, freezing at strange noises and dodging into the shadows. But, despite their terror, they saw nobody as they made their way to Ravenclaw tower.
"Quick," whispered Tom urgently, and the pair of them hurried up the stairs, but as the reached the door, darkened by shadow, they froze once more.
"Shh," Leigh three out an arm to stop Tom in his tracks, the boys fell silent, "What's that sound?"
A snuffling sound was coming from beside the door.
"Lumos," The tip of Tom's wand ignited, shining light into the dark corner and there, in a heap of cloak and robes, lay a person.
"Feeney," Leith whispered in disbelief.
"Beatrice," said Tom, he crouched down beside her, she started and looked at him, her eyes were red and her face puffy.
"Tom?" She looked shocked, then she noticed Leith, "What are you two doing here?"
"Shh," Tom hissed, "Leith realised what you were doing, we came to find you before you lost Gryffindor house points," Beatrice rose, her eyes filled with tears.
"I c-couldn't get past the door," she said, sniffling, "The r-riddle w-w-was too h-hard,"
"Of course it was you moron," Leith growled, "You're not a Ravenclaw, you're a Gryffindor, there's a reason we don't have riddles on our door,"
Beatrice opened her mouth to speak, but only managed a sob, she was still partially in shock at seeing the two Gryffindor boys.
"Come on," Tom tugged impatiently at Leith's sleeve, "if we aren't quick we'll all be caught,"
Beatrice nodded miserably and stumbled after the boys as they headed down the stairs, still sobbing silently, she clutched at the hood of Tom's robes to guide her through the dark, obscured by tears.
They were less than two corridors away from the portrait of the Fat Lady as, turning a corner, Leith froze, throwing an arm out to stop Tom, Beatrice, now dry-eyed and ahead of them, froze too.
"What the devil?!" Shouted a voice down the corridor, "You two, stop right there!"
Leith's heart was in his throat, whoever this was had only seen two of them. Beatrice had already rounded the corner. Seized by inspiration and a desire to lose as few points as possible, he hissed around the corner at the terrified Beatrice, "Run, now!"
Beatrice did not need telling twice, blood hammering in her ears, she sprinted the length of the corridor, terrified of hearing a call behind her, and finally careering around the next bend and coming to a halt before the Fat Lady.
"Craneflies," she panted, the Fat Lady looked concerned, but did not question her.
"If you say so dear," she said, swinging forwards. The common room was still empty so, with a sigh as she caught her breath, Beatrice flopped onto one of the armchairs and stared sightlessly into the fire.
oOo
It could have been thirty seconds later, maybe it was an hour, for all Beatrice knew she had been staring at the fire for a week, when suddenly a sound made her start. It was a House Elf, a female clearly, and very young, as it was wearing a tea towel dress with the Hogwarts crest stamped on the chest.
Beatrice cleared her throat loudly, the Elf leapt into the air, dropping the vase she had been dusting, it smashed loudly and the Elf, clearly flustered, dropped to the floor to gather the pieces.
"Wennie is sorry," she squeaked as she scrambled for the pieces, "Wennie is not seeing you, Wennie's deepest apologies,"
"It's okay," Beatrice shrugged, "Can you not fix it with magic?"
Wennie looked as if she might burst into tears, "Yes, yes, Wennie is forgetting, it is only Wennie's third day," The little Elf snapped her fingers, most of the pot flew together with a gentle whooshing sound, though a few pieces remained on the floor.
Wennie snapped her fingers again, the pieces did not move, frustrated, the little Elf snapped three more times, finally, the pieces flew back to their place.
"Wennie is sorry miss," the Elf flung herself to the floor, "Wennie is not being very good at magic,"
Beatrice knelt down, and patted the little Elf's back, "It's okay, I'm not very good at magic either, we'll learn,"
Wennie looked up, she opened her mouth as if to say something, but froze, her large ears quivering. The portrait door swung open and Beatrice heard a loud crack as the Elf disappeared.
Tom Fitch stepped through the portrait hole, and if Beatrice thought he looked disgruntled, it was nothing compared to Leith, who followed him, looking murderous. He strode towards where Beatrice was crouching.
Tom lunged to grab Leith's arm, "Leith, leave it," he murmured warningly. Leith pulled his arm free and rounded on Beatrice.
"What the hell are you playing at Feeney!?" He spat at her, "We have detention now because of you,"
Beatrice felt a wave of anger rise up inside her, she rose to face him.
"What am I playing at!? What are you two playing at!? I didn't ask either of you to come after me!"
Leith looked furious, "No, but when you were discovered because you were too stupid to open the door, you'd have lost our house dozens of points,"
"I don't care! I don't care about stupid Gryffindor and your precious house points..."
Leith cut her off there, his voice cold and angry. "You will, when your Mummy and Daddy find out you're not a Ravenclaw," he mixed viciously, "And your Ravenclaw buddies don't want you because you're stupid, you'll wish you cared about Gryffindor,"
Beatrice was silent, a mixture of fury and fear churning unpleasantly in her stomach. She felt a pricking in the corners of her eyes and, without saying another word, she turned on her heel and rushed up the stairs to the girls' dormitory.
Leith gave an impatient huff and turned to Tom, who looked forlornly back at him. His friend's baleful expression did nothing to calm his rage.
"Don't look at me like that, she needed to hear it, she can't go round losing us points and getting us into trouble without expecting us to get mad,"
Tom said nothing, he merely shrugged and began walking up the stairs to bed. Leith hesitated, but followed closely behind. In the boys' dormitory, the three other occupants were sound asleep as the boys entered, and without another word, Leith and Tom climbed into bed and drew the curtains noiselessly.
Beatrice, however, did not sleep well. She lay awake until dawn began to paint the black sky purple, a terrible knot tightening in her stomach as she imagined Kjal swooping through the top floor window of her house, a letter tied to his scaly leg...
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Wowza! I have impressed myself by keeping this up. Apologies that chapters take way longer than I estimate but I get carried away.
Yay! I like Wennie, she's sweet, we'll be seeing more of her later. And Robbie Gibbons the champion eater who makes me laugh and is thoroughly inspired by a real person, but we'll keep that on the shush in case he ends up reading this ;)
I wish to thank every single person who has read or reviewed this story, you are all so immensely kind to a new writer! It makes me want to write better to keep you all impressed :P
Also, I realise that having five of each gender in the year might imply five couples at the end of seventh year, but that is not nearly my intention. Mwahaha!
In the next chapter. Broomsticks, grumpy Alfie and maybe some Fitch action.