I woke up crying. Sobbing really. The kind of sobs that you cry in the shower while hoping that the sounds of water will cover it up. The kind of sobs that speak of heart break of the worst kind.
That's how I met my dorm mates.
Crying like a baby missing its mother and yet I had no fricken idea why I was crying. My past was a blank. My future was unknown. All I knew for fact was that that dream had done something to me. I was torn up inside to such a great degree that nothing made sense.
Girls surrounded me on all sides. I could see about five or six of them through tear blurred eyes. All wearing similar expressions of concern and confusion.
"Umm..." One girl, a dirty blond that was more brown than blond, started but sputtered to a stop when she realized she didn't know my name. I couldn't even help her out since I was still bawling like a newborn infant and barely breathing for the tears.
"Her name's Alexanderia, Suzy." another supplied as they read off the trunk at the foot of my bed.
"Are you ok?" I nodded trying to figure out who these girls were but couldn't place them from my vast Potter Knowledge... oh that's right. J.K. Rowling is such a half ass writer, even though her stories are beyond amazing, that she didn't make ANY details known about the majority of the upperclassmen.
"You are new, right? You haven't been here before..." A tall girl with light brown skin, almost the same shade as mine, and shoulder length black hair leaned over my bed to rub my back. I nodded wondering how she knew this. "I cried my first night too."
All the girls responded along the same lines. Claiming similar stories that usually ended with bonding with one of their dorm mates and becoming friends.
"I'm Angelina Johnson." the girl rubbing my back said. "I could show you around...If you want."
"Alexanderia De'amoure. I think Fred Weasley is going to do that..." Shocked gasps filled the room as girls stared at me with pitying eyes.
"Mates don't let mates hang with dip sticks!" Another brunette said.
"We're mates..." I whispered trying to figure out how those girls could form a connection with me that fast.
"Of course." Angelina said.
"We are Griffindors. We never leave a fellow Griffindor behind." laughed Suzy as she flung my curtains wide.
"But you better hurry up and get dressed so we can head to breakfast before we leave you behind." squealed another as she rummaged through my dresser and tossed clothes at me. I was tackled and stripped. Clothes ripped of my body faster than I could pin my arms close to my body. Soon I was shoved in the uniform by Angelina and Suzy.
Five minutes later, I was on my way down the stairs to stand in the common room. Fred was waiting at the bottom; searching the crowd of girls for me. My dorm mates tried to steer me away from him and shove me through the portrait hole but George was waiting on the other side to come to my rescue, as though they had known this would happen.
"Where are you going dearie? You said that you would eat breakfast with us today." I shook my head at his bold face lie even as I turned to the girls and said that he was right.
"But..." Angelina began. Fred scrambled over the portrait holes ledge with my bag in one hand.
"I know dipsticks but at least Fred's a sweet one..." I said cutting her off. The girls gave me beyond weird looks but left me in the care of the Weasley twins. Fred grinned at me. A happy smile that seemed like it might break his face in half with the happiness that was pouring off him.
"So I'm sweet?" He taunted as he walked backwards in front of me towards the Great Hall. I rolled my eyes as he tried to make my comment into something more than what it actually was.
"A sweet dipstick." I murmured before I pulled a really juvenile stunt and stuck out my tongue. That cracked them up. They didn't stop laughing until they were sitting at the table stuffing their mouths with food. They even piled my plate with sausages, porridge, and toast before I had even finished pouring myself a glass of orange juice.
The sky, well the ceiling actually, was an overcast, gray, forbidding kind of morning sky. A cold morning that made me wish for the warmth of the fourth year girl's dormitory.
The sound of fluttering wings filled the air above us. Startling me into looking up as owl after owl swooped down to land in front of the students. George looked at my startled and amazed expression and explained that it was the morning post.
"Look at that. Ron's got a Howler." Fred laughed. I stared down the table to where Ron, Harry, Hermione and the other second years sat. All looking slightly apprehensive as they stared at the red envelope. It was beginning to smoke at the corners. Light wispy smoke that was gradually beginning to darken until the envelope jumped out of Ron's hand and exploded.
"―STEALING THE CAR, I WOULDNT BE SURPRISED IF THEY'D EXPELLED YOU, YOU WAIL TILL I GET A HOLD OF YOU, I DON'T SUPPOSE YOU STOPPED TO THINK WHAT YOUR FATHER AND I WENT THOUGH WHEN WE SAW IT WAS GONE―"
Mrs Weasley's yells, a trillion times louder than what they seemed like watching the movie, echoed off the walls and crashed back with a deafening roar.
"―LETTER FROM DUMBLEDORE LAST NIGHT, I THOUGHT YOUR FATHER WOULD DIE OF SHAME, WE DIDN'T BRING YOU UP TO BEHAVE LIKE THIS YOU AND HARRY COULD BOTH HAVE DIED―"
I suddenly wished that I knew enough magic to stop the yells pounding through my scull. I was embarrassed for Ron and Harry. My eardrums were being cruelly murdered so theirs must have been in hell.
"―ABSOLUTELY DISGUSTED―YOUR FATHER'S FACING AN INQUIRY AT WORK, IT'S ENTIRELY YOUR FAULT AND IF YOU PUT ANOTHER TOE OUT OF LINE WE'LL BRING YOU STRAIGHT BACK HOME!"
It was weirdly quiet after the Howler's piercing scream ended. The only sound was that of breathing and the movements of a few students as they continued to calmly eat. Slowly the sound came back as the atmosphere became normal and every one stopped paying attention to the small boy with a face that was currently matching his hair in color.
There was no time to dwell on the Howler because Professor McGonagall was moving swiftly along the Griffindor table handing out schedules. My only thought: Oh shit.
George took one look at my panicked expression and quickly surmised that I didn't believe that I was going to in that pile.
"It's gonna be ok, Alexanderia. Dumbledore is most likely already onto you." My face crumpled as George's words crushed my hopes. I was close to tears. The only thing holding them back was Fred's hand resting against mine in an attempt to comfort me.
"Mr. Weasley what have you done to this young lady?" Professor McGonagall asked in her disturbingly proper and authoritarian voice. The twins looked between each other as if they were silently communicating. As if they were trying to figure out a secondary plan, just in case there was no schedule for me in that dwindling pile.
"Nothing Professor. Alexanderia, here, was just worrying over the thought of having double potions with the Slytherins first." Fred replied with a can you believe her smile and eye roll.
Professor McGonagall shook her head and handed over the schedules. Three schedules... I looked past her to where Dumbledore was sitting watching me intently. His eyes sparkled almost as if he was laughing at me. I smiled and mouthed thank you while he just nodded.
That's the good thing. Now the bad news was that we did in fact have double potions with the Slytherins first. Talk about your welcome back gift.
―_― ―_― ―_― ―_― ―_― Author's Note ―_― ―_― ―_― ―_― ―_―
I'm sorry it took me so long to write this chapter but I've had so much going on lately with the school play, Coffee House, volunteering, and so much other work that it would take another three pages just to surmise it all. Please review. Give me something to make this little bit of free time worthwhile because there is little else I live for. JK. But review!
