A/N: As always THANKYOU. Please review and enjoy :)
It took Cara a long time to wake up the next morning, her body not used to the exquisite comfort of the four poster beds. When she did finally tear open her heavy lids, she thought for a heartbeat she was in a dream before the memories of the day before rushed back to her. On her left, Connie was already dressed in her robes, sitting infront of the mirror and plaiting her silver hair. Cara yawned widely as she swung out of bed. After she had showered – another experience she could chalk up as one of the best she'd ever had – she sat infront of her own mirror, scowling dejectedly at her messy curls.
"Wow, your hair is so long," Connie noticed, her tone admiring.
"Annoying more like," Cara replied, wincing as she pulled apart a particularly knotted part close to the bottom near her elbow.
"I could sort if for you if you like," Connie offered kindly. Cara didn't really want her to, but she also knew she couldn't walk through school with a birds nest so agreed. Connie used her own brush to smooth out Cara's hair. Cara was convinced it was enchanted with something, because she barely felt it, but it eased out her knots in seconds. She then plaited Cara's brunette locks similarly to her own, only to the side, and draped it over her shoulder.
"There! It looks fab now!" Cara couldn't disagree; it certainly did look a lot better than usual.
"Thanks Connie," she said sincerely.
"Try having hair like mine," Valerie commented, as the girls made their way to the Great Hall for breakfast. "Dreadlocks are about the only thing I can do that don't take me half a year. And mum refuses to let me just shave it all off."
When they reached their house table, they all sat down beside the first year boys who were already eating. Including Naveen and Andrew, there were seven Hufflepuff boys in the first year. Cara knew the Welsh boy was called Tom Griffin and there was another with a strong Northern accent called Luke Robertson. She couldn't really remember the names of the other three boys, who were all tucking into their breakfast with enthusiasm. Breakfast was the one meal Cara had had properly, as the charity food places for the homeless always provided a large spread for the 'most important' meal of the day and for the past couple of years Cara had been close enough to them to eat. She was munching her way through her second piece of toast when Professor Bones walked up to the group of first years, parchments in his hands.
"Morning students," he said, nodding at them, "I am the head of Hufflepuff house. I hope you all enjoy yourselves a lot and work hard this year, who knows, maybe we could even win the House cup!" He chuckled to himself, like he'd just make a great joke, though the students just stared at him blankly. He looked down at their faces and cleared his throat, "Anyway, here are your timetables," he handed them out, "Be on time please, tardiness is a poor start to any lesson. I teach Transfiguration, so obviously, you'll do fantastically in that." He smiled and Cara got the feeling he would not be best pleased with anyone who didn't do fantastically in his lesson. She looked through her timetable, noting that Transfiguration was their first lesson. Naveen was checking his watch opposite her and caught her eye when he looked up.
"Pretty sure Bones just said to be on time," he said quickly, and the Hufflepuffs all sprang up from the table almost simultaneously, rushing out the Hall.
"Second floor," Andrew told them, consulting his timetable and Cara led the way up the moving staircases, in what she hoped was the right direction. She was just beginning to panic slightly about the fact that she had no idea where she was going and everyone was following her when she spotted someone she recognised just ahead of her.
"Hey, Alice!" she shouted out and the third year turned around, frowning at her.
"Erm, I'm Cara, from the train?" she added, when Alice still looked confused. The Gryffindor's expression cleared.
"Oh of course yeah, how's things? Made some friends?" She eyed Connie, who was beside her.
"Great, yeah, listen, do you know where the Transfiguration class is?" Alice nodded, pointing them in the right direction. Cara thanked her, then hurried off, trying her best not to be rude. The Hufflepuffs all piled into the classroom bang on nine. The Ravenclaws, who they shared the lesson with, were already there, and stared at them as they all hurriedly found seats. Professor Bones raised a single eyebrow.
"I was wondering where half my class had got to."
"The food was good sir," Minette quipped, causing some of the others to titter.
"Well, work hard today, and you won't have to miss lunch," Bones replied, a half smile on his face. Cara was sitting next to Naveen and she was glad to see that he looked about as terrified about the prospect of doing actual magic as she felt.
"It's a bit different from accidently fixing a broken bone when you're five isn't it," he said to her in a low voice, "Doing proper spells." After Bones had told them all about exactly how difficult Transfiguration was, he handed out matchsticks and told them to try to turn it into a needle, using what he told them was "an exceedingly simple spell."
Cara determinedly tried the spell for half the lesson, feeling increasingly ridiculous when nothing happened. Eventually she gave up and jabbed her wand at the match, which made it explode, like the lamp in Ollivander's shop, a splinter landing in the hand of the Ravenclaw girl at the desk beside her, who yelped and scowled furiously. By the end of the lesson, only three students had managed to successfully change the match and all of them were Ravenclaw's, much to Bones' obvious disappointment.
"Well, perhaps next lesson," he said as they left. Cara's mood wasn't improved when she found out they also shared the next lesson, History of Magic, with the same Ravenclaws. Professor Binns may have been a ghost, but that was where any interest the students may have had in him ended as he proceeded to lull them into a deep stupor. Cara snapped her head up when the bell for the end of the lesson rang out, blinking to clear the sleep from her eyes. She prodded Luke Robertson in the arm when he continued to snore beside her and he murmured a bleary "Five more minutes mum," at her. She shrugged and set off out of the classroom with Naveen and Andrew in tow.
"On the bright side," Andrew commented, as he munched his way through a tuna sandwich, "At least nothing else today will be that awful."
"Don't speak too soon," Naveen said darkly. They shared their next lesson, Charms with the Gryffindors. Cara's fellow Hufflepuffs paired off without her, so she sat down next to a Gryffindor girl with messy short black hair. Professor Song was a whispy thin Chinese witch, with a strong accent who wrapped her wand sharply across the desk of two chatty Gryffindor boys near the front of the class, causing their desk to promptly do a little jig. She showed them how to levitate a feather, "Swish and flick," she said sharply, then set them off to try on their own. It was only now, when Cara turned towards her, that Cara recognised who the girl was. She was Ariana Potter, the one who'd got a louder-than-usual cheer at the Sorting Ceremony.
"Hi, I'm Ariana," Ariana said, sticking out a hand.
"Cara," she shook it. She was itching to ask Ariana about this great hero she'd heard about, but then she noticed the way Ariana rolled her eyes at the two boys who kept shouting "Hey Potter," at her, accompanied with various suggestions about how she could help them out, and decided to hold back, deciding the girl probably wouldn't appreciate it.
Cara pulled out her wand and pointed it at the feather.
"Hey, nice wand," Ariana noted, looking at the white wood and Cara smiled.
"Thanks," she said, then cleared her throat a little.
"Wingardium Leviosa," she said, moving her wand as instructed. The feather stayed put. "Well, that was exciting," she remarked, "Your turn."
"Wingardium Leviosa," this time, the feather rose a few inches of the table, before it floated back down.
"Well done!"
Ariana smiled, "Thanks, didn't think I'd be able to do it."
"I'm guessing you come from a wizarding family then?" Cara asked slyly, feigning ignorance. Ariana looked surprised.
"You don't know? Muggleborn?"
"Yeah, my parents are Muggles. Don't know what?"
Ariana shrugged, like the topic bored her. "My granddad was err, there was this massive Wizarding War nearly a century ago and my granddad was like the big hero that helped end it. I'm really proud of him," she added, like she had realised her tone was a little downbeat. "But he's just really famous because of it, on chocolate frog cards and everything. So everyone gets a little excited when they hear my surname. I just feel like that want to be friends for some kind of imaginary status boosting as opposed to actually knowing me you know."
Cara didn't know. She'd spent her life in complete obscurity, where absolutely no one knew her, or cared about what became of her. She nodded anyway, guessing that was what Ariana wanted.
"My dad told me it probably wouldn't be as bad for us as it was for him and my aunt and uncle, but I don't know. Atleast then the story was a little more truthful. Now it has become legend. Someone actually asked me whether my granddad could turn into a dragon." She scoffed, though Cara felt it was a legitimate question. Harry Potter sounded like a powerful wizard, it was entirely plausible to her that he could do a Transfiguration spell as powerful that. She didn't mention this though and as they exited the classroom together, felt as if she'd made a tentative new friend. This was confirmed when, a little further down the corridor, someone went barrelling straight into her, sending her stumbling into the wall, the contents of her bag emptying onto the ground.
"Do you mind," she shouted, whirling on the person, and discovered with surprise that she recognised her. It was the redheaded girl from Diagon Alley, this time surrounded by a group of three girls, all with skirts hitched a little higher than allowed behind their robes.
"Oops," the girl said, wicked smile on her face, "I guess I just didn't notice you, the colours of your tie blended in so well with the wall."
"That doesn't even make sense," Cara remarked, taking the books from Ariana and stuffing them into her bag.
"Well, let's just say that Hufflepuff is where you belong honey," the girl said, her tone insulting.
"Oh back off Felicity. Go redo your foundation or something," Ariana looked exasperated, like the older girl was a pet of hers that often got out of hand. Felicity's eyebrow's shot up behind her sideswept fringe.
"Merlin Ariana, I get that you're trying to hide behind obscurity, but I'm pretty sure there's a limit. Homeless tramps like her are that limit."
Cara froze at her words, wondering how on earth this random girl could have found out about her. Then she realised that Felicity was making a jab at her appearance, which only served to annoy her more. She took a few steps closer to her.
"I may not be that good at spells," she said, eyes narrowed, "but I could still punch you in the face."
"Ooh, well I'm terrified," Felicity laughed scathingly, joined by her girlfriends, but walked away all the same.
"What is her problem? I've done nothing to her."
Ariana shrugged.
"Well, either way, she's a bitch."
Ariana laughed at that. "Yeah, that's probably true. She's also my cousin unfortunately."
Cara cringed a little. "Oh er, no offence."
"Oh it's fine. My family's pretty big; she's not a first cousin or anything. Still, we're related and she'll make sure that information is spread far and wide."
"No family is perfect I guess."
"True words sister!" Two more redheads bounded up towards them, though these ones seemed considerably friendlier. Cara recognised them as the Weasley twins from the sorting. "Unfortunately people assume ours is because, where can a Weasley go wrong! So we've already had a whole bunch of second years glare at our hair in anger."
"They weren't glaring at your hair stupid," the sister prodded her brother's cheek, "They were glaring at your ridiculous face."
"More like you're ridiculous nose."
"We have the same nose dumbass."
"Nope, I measured them once, yours is definitely bigger. Also, uglier."
"You measured my nose? Your life is so boring."
"Yeah, because I spend it with you."
This whole exchange happened in rapid fire between the pair, as Cara looked on feeling slightly bemused and trying not to laugh. Ariana quickly took hold of both of them by the shoulders. "Right! Lunch guys, c'mon." And she marched them away, shooting a smile back at Cara who raised her hand in a wave, grinning.
The rest of the week passed by much more quickly than Cara had thought it would, as she settled into a comfortable routine along with her fellow students. She didn't get much better at Transfiguration over the week, but to Bones' obvious pleasure her housemates did improve. Luckily, Cara's rubbish Transfiguration skills were more than made up for by her considerably improved work in Charms. She didn't like Potions much; the classroom felt too stuffy with all the bubbling potions and she felt she wouldn't be good at remembering exactly how to make a successful potion, though to her surprise didn't do too terribly. In Defence Against the Dark Arts, she found herself wondering more about the spells they were supposed to be learning how to defend against and quickly pushed those thoughts away, thanking the heavens that mind reading wasn't a wizarding trick. Her clear favourite lesson of the week was Herbology, which they shared with the Gryffindors and which she discovered with a pleasant surprise was taught by Professor Longbottom. He smiled when he saw her and came over to ask her how she was, congratulate her on her sorting -"I'm head of Gryffindor, but Hufflepuff is next best I suppose," he said jokingly - and make sure she was settling in fine.
"Come to me if you ever need a chat, I promise I don't bite. My plant's might though." Cara laughed and made her way over to stand between Naveen and Andrew. The Weasley twins were directly opposite her and Cara spent a pleasant lesson watching them engage in a vicious mud fight which instead of reprimanding, Professor Longbottom scored and gave them tips on how to improve their aim; which placed him in all of the students immediate good books.
