Harry

I stared at the new guy. He reminded me of my father, but his features seemed distorted. Noting his friendly tone, I lowered my wand and composed myself.
"Yes, we are," I answered, smiling back at him. "I wasn't aware there were going to be more, or that we'd have to share…" I looked behind him at the group of eight or nine students who, I assumed, had come to find a place to sleep. The leader, Jim, nodded.
"We didn't expect that either."

I turned to look at Hermione and the rest of the group, shrugging my shoulders. She approached the door and with a polite nod of her head said:
"We're done here," she said, "I think we're going to move to our rooms," with a pointed look back at our group. As if commanded, everyone jumped to their feet. I nodded to each of them as they left, mumbling goodbyes and placing a hand on Neville's arm, who seemed to be sweating with anxiety.

Looking back at Jim, I finally have a chance to look at the people standing behind him. Hermione, who was still standing beside me, looked closely at them as well. I knew that she was sizing them up, considering if they were threats or not.
"So Jim, I'm Harry," I began placing my hand on my chest, resting lightly over my wand – the feeling of the wood comforting me. "Nice to meet you. We'll give you the room, and some space. I guess we'll be seeing you later," with a polite nod, we left.

We walked to the rooms, I said goodbye to Hermione as she continued up the staircase. Seconds later she came back down, looking shaken.
"Harry! They've put all the girls in one room. Including the others." I quickly looked back at my door, I had not thought to before. I read the plaque and noticed that it had changed, adding one more name. Hugo Garcia. Confused, I entered to find Ron and Neville sitting on their beds, looking at another bed.
"Harry!" Ron said as I walked in, "It just appeared while we were gone."
"Does that mean we're sharing with one of the others?" Neville's voice trembled as he said it.
"It's not half as bad as the girls, they have to share one room with three of them. Six in one room," I explained. The others nodded, still looking nervous.
"Who do you think they are?" Neville asked, cutting the silence.
"I don't know, but they look familiar, don't they?" I mused. We all looked up as there was a knock on the door. It creaked open to reveal Hermione, her eyes wide – a look she only gets when she's figured something out and dying to tell someone.
"Ronald! Come, now!" She insisted. I looked to Ron and he frowned but followed her instructions.

They whispered in the doorway, Hermione sounded intense and Ron looked at me quickly before looking back at Hermione. I glanced at Neville, who looked about as confused as I felt. Ron looked at me one more time and his eyes widened.
"Oh my –" he tried to keep his voice to a whisper.
"Shh!" She hissed.
"Merlin's pants! We need to tell him!" Ron's voice was lower but still clear enough for me to just make out. What do they need to tell who?! They nodded to each other, then Ron turned to me, walking across the room. Hermione came in and closed the door. They both sat down on Ron's bed looking at me. Before either of them could speak, another knock sounded at the door.

"Come in!" I called. The door creaked open once more, revealing a bushy, brown-haired boy.
"You must be…" He looks at the plaque quickly, "Harry, Neville, Ron and…" His eyes move to Hermione. "Um, Hermione from before, right?" He smiled at us. In the pit of my stomach something felt off about him, but I couldn't pick what it was.

"That's right," Hermione said politely, "and you're Hugo? That means 'intelligent' in Latin, right?" She smiled. For Hermione, this was being friendly. The new guy – Hugo, just smiled, there seemed like another emotion behind his grin that I did not understand.
"Yes, my mother didn't want to be too forthcoming with her hopes for me," he laughed. Everything about him – the laugh, his mannerisms, his eyes, reminded me of someone. Why does this keep happening? Hermione awkwardly said a goodbye and practically skidded out of the room, leaving us to sit in silence with Hugo Garcia.

I looked at the 'Hugo' guy for a few seconds, my eye brows pressing together as my mind circled around his appearance and mannerisms, unable to quench the feeling that I knew him. It wasn't until our eyes connected, did I realise that I had been staring at him. With a small awkward smile, my eyes move from him to Ron, who was staring like a mad man at me.

"What?" I mouthed, he just continued to stare at me. I shook my head slightly and turned back to Hugo.
"So, where are you from?" I asked, trying to get rid of the awkward silence. Hugo looked back at me, a slight frown forming on his face.
"A place very much like this," he nodded, glancing around the room. "My family and I spent a year at Beauxbatons but it wasn't for us. Then we travelled and I guess our parents wanted us back in school. I mean, Dom and Louis loved it at Beauxbatons, but their mum went there, so you would assume they'd fit right in. But me…" he seemed to realise that he was rambling and stopped himself. "Sorry, what about you?"

With a smile I quickly plucked a lie out of thin air. On the over side of the room, Neville looked increasingly nervous and Ron looked curiously at Hugo, his gaze finally moving from my face.
"Same kind of story. Parents thought it would be neat to move their kids to a new school… in Salem," I lied, looking to Neville with a smile. "Mine and Neville's parents are friends and so when we moved to America, they put us in together." I really hope that everyone else only made up backstories for themselves, I thought. Hugo nodded with a smile, then looked to Ron who jumped as he realised that he was supposed to come up with a lie.
"Um, we were home schooled…" he then smiled in a 'yeah, I know' way. I looked at Ron, surprised at how easy that seemed to him.

There was an awkward lull before one more knock sounded at the door. Hugo walked to the door, swinging it open to reveal the 'Jim' guy from before. As they talked I quickly moved over to Ron.
"How did you come up with that?" I asked, but before he could reply I continued, "And what if the others contradict you!?" He just smiled.
"Mum always said, if we didn't have enough money to send us all to Hogwarts, we'd be home schooled. So if everyone doesn't say it as well, I'd be bloody surprised," He winked at me, then his eyes widened like he just remembered something. "I have to tell you someth-" he was cut off by Hugo, who called out from the door.

"If you gentlemen haven't noticed; it's time for class." He smiled and walked out the door. Utterly confused, Neville, Ron and I followed him down to the couches. Everyone else was waiting there; including the group which I assumed was all the others.
"How do you know what classes we have, or that we even have any classes?" My voice sounded around the room and everyone's eyes turned to me. Jim was the one to answer.
"My guess came from this class registry and time table. I assumed they wanted us to pick our classes and start going to them," he explained calmly.

Everyone quickly chose their classes. Those from my time generally chose the same classes from before. Except Ginny, who decided to drop the harder electives because she believed it did not matter in this time.
"What's the point of studying Ancient Runes now, when they will still be there when we get back," She whispered so only I could hear. I chuckled and whispered back:
"If we get back." Her face fell as I said this and I instantly felt bad.

Once this was all sorted, we split up into our year groups and headed off to our classes. First one, Potions.

A/N: I do not own anything you recognise.