Heyo! Guess who finally got a new, working laptop? This girl! Wooooo! So here is the next chapter, finally the start of the new year at Hogwarts. I'm trying to integrate Emma's housemates into the story more and more because as I have been writing them, I've found that I really like them. So Emma will switch between hanging out with her housemates, the golden trio, and also now Tessa and Callie. Anyway, I hope you enjoy reading this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it.
Chapter 7- And so it Begins
"We've missed the sorting!" Hermione said softly as we walked into the great hall. I looked around the hall and noticed all of the first years sitting at different house tables. Harry, Hermione, and I made our way to the Gryffindor table as quietly as we could and took our seats next to Ron and Ginny. I looked up and down the table to see if I could find Callie, but she wasn't there.
Ginny caught me looking and said, "She got sorted into Ravenclaw with Tessa. The two of them are sitting together. Callie said she's going to come see you later. But what was that all about?"
I started to explain in a low voice about just how annoying and overprotective all the teachers at Hogwarts were, but Dumbledore stood up and the entire hall fell into a hushed silence.
"Welcome!" Dumbledore said, beaming down at us all. Albus Dumbledore was one of those people who just radiated calmness. He made everyone feel at peace, no matter the circumstances. I took a deep breath and allowed that calmness to wash over me for the first time since the dream and dementor attack on the train. "Welcome to another year at Hogwarts! I have a few things to say to you all, and as one of them is very serious, I think it best to get it out of the way before you all become befuddled by our excellent feast." Muttering broke out in the hall. With one stern glance from Dumbledore, the hall fell silent again. "As you will all be aware after their search of the Hogwarts Express," he continued, "our school is presently playing host to some of the dementors of Azkaban, who are here on Ministry of Magic business." There were once again mutters through the entire hall, but this time one thing could be heard over and over; Sirius Black. Dumbledore cleared his throat, once again causing the entire hall to fall silent. "They are stationed at every entrance to the grounds and while they are with us, I must make it plain that nobody is to leave school without permission. Dementors are not to be fooled by tricks or disguises- or even Invisibility cloaks." Dumbledore said the last part blandly, but it seemed as if he glanced towards our section of the table. Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, and I exchanged looks as discreetly as we could. And if you know anything about the six of us, the glances were probably the least discrete looks ever.
"It is not in the nature of a dementor to understand pleading or excuses. I therefore warn each of you to give them no reason to harm you. I look to the prefects, and our new Head Boy and Girl, to make sure that no student runs afoul of the dementors. On a happier note," Dumbledore continued, as he looked around at the silent hall, "I am pleased to welcome two new teachers to our ranks this year.
"First Professor Lupin, who has kindly consented to fill the post of Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher." There were some scattered and pretty unenthusiastic applause around the hall. No one knew who he was, so no one clapped to loudly, other than those in the compartment. Next to every other teacher, Professor Lupin looked homeless, what with his shabby robes and scruffy look.
"Look at Snape!" Ron hissed to our little group. The five of us looked up towards the large teacher's table and found the potions master, Snape, glaring daggers at Lupin.
"He looks like he wants to kill him," Ginny said, sounding nervous.
"He always looks like that," I replied, glaring at the professor. I had never particularly liked Snape. He seemed to despise Harry more than me, but took any chance he had to make some nasty or snide comment about my family. The look he was giving Lupin right now was the one that was specially reserved for anyone with the last name Potter.
"Our second new appointment," Dumbledore continued after the scattered applause died down, "is one that I have to unfortunately inform you will be replacing one of our beloved staff. Professor Kettleburn, our wonderful Care of Magical Creatures professor, has retired, deciding he wanted to enjoy more time with his remaining limbs. But I am happy to inform you that our very own Rubeus Hagrid will be taking his place." This statement was followed by tremendous applause. Harry, Ron, and Hermione looked stunned but pleased. Ginny and I had never been very close with Hagrid, but we clapped nonetheless, knowing how close he was to our siblings. Hagrid grin spread his entire face, lighting it up like a christmas tree.
"We should've known!" Ron yelled over the applause. "Who else would have assigned us a biting book?"
The clapping started to die down, ending when Harry, Ron, and Hermione decided to stop, and Dumbledore started to speak again. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Hagrid wiping his eyes on a large handkerchief.
"Well that's everything of importance," Dumbledore said, also grinning. "Let the feast begin!"
The start of year feast was just as amazing as it was last year. I piled my plate high with everything that looked good and started to eat, going between the second year conversations on my left and the third year ones on my right.
"How was your summer?" Jake Lowy asked the group of 7 Gryffindor second years. I was always friendly with my house mates, but I wasn't as close with them as I was with Astoria, Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny. I guess almost dieing brings you closer together.
"Denis spent the whole summer asking about Hogwarts," Colin Creevey said. He had calmed down significantly with his obsession of Harry and I over the summer. "He's my little brother and entered his first year this year," Colin explained to me since I missed the sorting. "When he got his letter, he was so excited that he almost passed out."
"I didn't do much," Alex Simmons said. His sandy blond hair almost matched that of Seamus Finnigan, one of Harry's friends. "I pretty much just hung out at the beach." Alex was from Australia, but his mother was from England, so she wanted him to go to Hogwarts instead of one of the schools for wizards in Australia.
"I spent my time at camp," I said, twiddling my wand. None of them but Ginny knew exactly what I did at my camp, but they all knew I spent my summers in America.
"Lisa came home for the summer," Anthony White said. He had an older sister who had graduated last year from Hogwarts. "She started a career in wandlore and got an apartment in Brighton, but it's under construction so she came home."
"I visited Bill in Egypt," Ginny said.
"I heard about that!" Michael Grace said. "You're family won that galleon thing at the ministry, right?"
"How do you know that?" Anthony asked while Alex muttered nerd under his breath. Michael didn't seem to mind the name, for good reason. He was one of the top in our year
"It was in the prophet," Michael said, rolling his eyes. "Not like any of you lot read that."
"Oi," I said. "Not true."
"Did you just say 'oi'?" Ginny said, laughing. "Wow. We're rubbing off on you."
"That's what happens when I'm forced to spend 10 of my 12 months in a year with you lot," I said, following Michael and rolling my eyes.
"I can't believe we're second years," Alex said, always the sentimental one.
"We were never that small, were we?" Colin asked.
"Colin, you're still that small," Anthony said with a smirk. And he wasn't wrong. Colin was easily the smallest of us all, probably not even five foot yet.
Suddenly, the golden plates and cups changed from holding dozens of different foods to holding dozens of different desserts. The first year's down the table all let out small gasps. Their eyes were easily the size of the plates on the table. I couldn't help but laugh, happy to finally be back at Hogwarts.
"Just a few more announcements before I let you all leave!" Dumbledore said, having the entire hall go quiet again. "First off, the forbidden forest is, as the name implies, forbidden. I really don't see what part of that you all don't understand" He glanced over to where Harry, Ron, Ginny, Hermione, and I were sitting and the five of us sent each other amused glances. It was common knowledge among the teachers (and some students) that the five of us had an… adventure… in the forbidden forest earlier this year. "Mr. Filch wants me to remind you that no magic is allowed in the corridors, along with multiple items from Zonko's joke shop. For the complete list, please see Mr. Filch's office. With that," Dumbledore said, his eyes twinkling, "I invite you all to go to bed. You have a long day of classes tomorrow."
Groaning and grumbling, everyone started to get up made their way towards the entrance hall.
"We're going to congratulate Hagrid," Harry said. "Wanna come?"
"I'm heading up to bed," I replied. Ginny said the same so we bid the three of them goodnight and followed the rest of the flow of students up to Gryffindor Tower.
"Password?" The fat lady said, wearing a pink dress and looking annoyed at the herd of students.
"Coming through!" Percy Weasley called. "Coming through! The password is Fortuna Major!"
Ginny and I, being the only two female Gryffindor second years, had a dormitory all to ourselves. We both took our usual beds and collapsed without a word.
O
Deciding to try and keep training over the school year, I dragged myself out of bed earlier than I ever wanted to get up and changed into an old camp t-shirt and shorts.
"What are you doing, Em?" Ginny mumbled in her sleep.
"Running," I replied, all too cheerful. "Wanna come?"
In response, I got a pillow chucked at my face. What else is new? I rolled my eyes, chucked the pillow back, then made my way to the lake.
Running was one of the more relaxing things I got to do with my life. The steady sounds of my feet hitting the ground and the wind rushing past kept me calm. Lizzy refers to it as a 'runner's high', when someone runs to the point where nothing matters. She also says I'm crazy for liking running, but I get that a lot.
I smiled at the thought of Lizzy. She had been one of the only people who had talked to me when I got back to camp. Being claimed as a daughter of Zeus had its perks, but because there hadn't been a child of the big three in decades, people tended to be slightly wary towards me. It took them probably till mid July to open back up. Then there was the issue of being a wizard. Only the other head counselors knew but everyone who was a year rounder knew that something was up when I had left camp, seeing as I always was there.
Then there was the issue of Ouranos. Chiron still refused to do anything about it, as did, apparently, all of the gods. Olympus had practically shut down. Chiron used to take some of the senior campers and some of the head counselors to Olympus for the large meetings together, but lately Chiron told us we couldn't go.
Camp was restless. Everyone knew what was going on, but everyone was forbade from talking about it. Even the younger campers, while they may not have understood, knew something was going on. All the older campers wanted to go out and do something, but Chiron would actually murder us if we did.
I was jerked out of my thoughts by a head of brown hair popping into view. I jerked out of my sprint I was currently in so fast that I nearly fell over. My vision went white and I bent over, feeling nauseous. I started to walk, taking heavy breaths,until my vision cleared and my headache ceased. I straightened and turned back towards the tree where the brown haired girl was standing. She let out a small squeak when she caught my eye contact and sprinted back towards the castle. Utterly confused, I followed but made my way towards Gryffindor tower instead of wherever she went.
"How was the run?" Ginny said when I went back into our dorm.
"Fine," I replied. "There was some weird girl watching me, though."
"Like a stalker?" Ginny asked. "Do you know who it was?"
"Probably a first year," I said, taking my wand and running it over my body in a spell I had read about to make it seem like I just showered. It didn't work forever, but it was great for if I needed to get out quickly. "She seemed tiny and scared."
"Probably a first year, then," Ginny agreed. "Do you remember her name?"
"Nah," I said. "Remember, I missed the sorting. Poppy and Minnie were being overprotective again."
"Minnie?" Ginny said, laughing.
"Well 'Minerva' sounds to formal," I said, grabbing my bag after having changed.
"I dare you to call her that to her face," Ginny said, following me out of the dorm.
"And risk a detention?" I asked. "On second thought, I might take you up on that bet."
"I'd love to see that, Potter," Ginny said with a playful shove.
"Potter?" I asked.
"Emma seemed to formal for the circumstances," Ginny said with a laugh.
The two of us bickered back and forth until we finally reached the great hall.
"Emma! Ginny!" Colin gestured us over towards where the other second years were all sitting. Ginny and I walked over and took two of the vacant seats next to each other.
"What's up?" I asked.
"Did you hear the news?" Alex said excitedly. "We're getting an exchange student in second year."
"Please, please, please, please, please say it's a girl," Ginny said excitedly. "We need another girl. In case you haven't noticed, Emma and I are slightly outnumbered."
"How do you know they'll be in Gryffindor?" Colin said.
"And what? You're upset that you have to put up with our dashing good looks," Anthony said, flipping his brown hair.
"No, more that I have to put up with your arrogance," I said.
"Like you're one to talk," Ginny muttered. "You're the definition of arrogance."
"Have you met Anthony?" Jake asked.
"They can share the spot," Colin replied, laughing.
"Alright, are you all here?" McGonagall asked.
"All second years?" Michael asked. "I think so. There's only seven of us."
"Yes, our smallest year currently," McGonagall said. "With some of our biggest problems." She glanced briefly at Ginny and I. The five boys, being the childish idiots they were, in unison started to 'ooh'. Ginny rolled her eyes while I attempted to slap each boy. McGonagall pretended she didn't see any part of the exchange.
"Here are the schedules," McGonagall said, tapping seven pieces of parchment and passing them out.
I groaned when I saw mine. "Remind me again why I decided to take runes," I moaned.
Ginny took my schedule out of my hands and started to laugh.
"What's up?" Michael asked.
"Emma doesn't have any free blocks other than on Monday and Friday," Ginny said laughing. I groaned some more and put my head in my legs.
"We gotta go," Anthony said. "We can't be late for our first class."
"History can always wait," Colin said.
I jumped up and checked my schedule. "We have history first! I love history! Let's go."
O
"Good morning class," Professor Binns said, sounding as bored as ever. "Welcome back to History of Magic. I hope you all had a good summer, but now we are back for another year. So let's get down to work.
"This year we are first going to cover the series of Goblin Rebellions. These rebellions occurred within the fifteenth, sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries, happening a few at a time and becoming a large part of the Wizarding world between the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Many theories have been developed as to why these rebellions occurred. Representatives from the ministry have long denied the rights of many goblins, including the lack of representatives on the Wizengamot, the ban of using wands, attempts to enslave goblins as houselves, wizards attempt to control Gringotts, and the murdering of many goblins by Yardley Platt.
"Platt was thoroughly charged for his crimes in front of the Wizengamot, but the goblins didn't find this sufficient. They goblins allied themselves with the werewolves and successfully got rid of many ministers including Albert Boot, Basil Flack, and Hephaestus Gore."
"How do you pay attention to this?" Ginny asked while she doodled on her notes with my pens. I didn't like using quills, seeing as they're old fashioned and time consuming. Ginny had taken a liking to the multicolored writing implements and was known to take them out of my bag.
"How do you not?" I asked, scribbling down some more notes. We had this class with the Hufflepuffs, all who also seemed to be zoning out.
"Nerd," I heard Alex muttered from behind me where he was sitting with Anthony. I responded by chucking one of my eraser caps at him.
"What in Merlin's name is this used for?" Alex asked, amazed.I made a mental not to introduce them all to a pencil later.
"Yes, Mr. Lory?" came Binns's bored voice.
"I was wondering if you could tell us anything about the new student coming to Hogwarts, Professor," came Jake's voice.
"That is not History, Mr. Lory," Binns said.
"Well technically it's current History," Michael argued.
"Mr. Green, it has yet to happen so it isn't current History," Binns said, getting yet another name wrong.
"Can't you tell us anything professor?" Lila Jones, a Hufflepuff girl, said.
All ears were now on Binns, and it was obvious the professor wasn't used to having a class listen to him. He seemed slightly overwhelmed, and looked around.
"Oh alright," Binns sighed, placing his notes onto his desk. "All I know is that an American School called Glinslow's Academy for the gifted is sending one of their students to Hogwarts for at least this year. I don't know his name, I just know that he will be coming in mid october and will be sorted at the Halloween feast. He will also be entering his second year." I could hear Ginny groan at the words 'he'. If the new kid was in Gryffindor, Ginny and I would still be the only girls.
"Now that we are done with that," Binns said, his voice drawling. "Let us get back to the topic at hand, shall we?"
