"Miss Herald?"
"The Cruciatus curse"
"Correct Miss Herald. Now, what does the Cruciatus curse do, Mr. Periwinkle?"
Rosalie tuned out the voice of Umbridge and looked at the parchment in front of her. Her notes for the lesson were pretty slack that morning but she was a bit too nervous to concentrate anyway. The only thing she could think about was the dozens of pairs of eyes belonging to her fellow fifth years that periodically looked at her. She had gotten to class early that morning with a purpose, to not have to talk to anybody besides the professor before she had anything to keep herself busy with.
Something from her right nudged her elbow and hesitantly, she peeked through her curtain of hair to see the blurry outline of some girl. She shook her hair over her shoulder and saw the girl was, well, for lack of better words, menacing. She flinched and immediately looked back to the front of the room, but was brought back with a rather loud whisper. "Do you have an extra ink well? Mine's dry."
Rosalie looked back to the girl, only to see she wasn't even looking at her, but the whisper had come from behind her. It was a girl, middle eastern looking, who had spoken. Relieved, Rosalie nodded, and handed her the extra ink well Rosalie had brought incase the one she was using suddenly became useless for whatever purpose. Then she noticed the seat next to the girl was empty. "Do you mind?" Rosalie asked quietly, pointing to the seat next to the girl. The girl shook her head and scooted over to allow Rosalie a quicker move to the empty seat.
When Rosalie sat down, she checked to make sure the professor hadn't seen her move. She had a feeling Umbrigde wouldn't have understood Rosalie's desperate need to make friends. Then she looked at the girl who was placing Rosalie's ink well at the top of her parchment. The girl in few words was a Ravenclaw and didn't seem to mind the fact that Rosalie was a Slytherin (and many of the Gryffindors did mind).
"Padma Patil," the girl said with a smile when she saw Rosalie looking at her. Rosalie smiled back, "Rosalie Herald." Both girls looked back to the front of the room when the professor began to speak again. Rosalie was better able to concentrate what with having made somewhat of a friend. Class seemed to pass quickly and Rosalie stood with her classmates as they all packed up their quills and parchment.
Before Rosalie could leave, Padma started to talk again. "I've never seen you at Hogwarts before, are you new or something?" she said it with some politeness Rosalie hadn't really expected from anyone at Hogwarts. She nodded. "Yeah, I transferred from Beauxbaton Academy over the summer." Padma smiled and started walking with Rosalie out of the class room. "Must be horrible starting somewhere new in your fifth year. Actually, you're the first transfer that I've known of in my years. I didn't know you could."
Rosalie shrugged not knowing what to say. "I honestly don't know why my parents wanted me to transfer." The girl came to a stop at the grand staircase. "What do you have next?" Padma asked. Rosalie pulled out her map and schedule in a hurry. "Um... Charms with Flitwick," she answered. Just then, she saw Draco over Padma's shoulder. "You?" she asked with a sly grin.
Snape had made Draco help Rosalie around the school to her classes and she knew Draco was in a hurry to go.
--
Draco stood in the midst of a few friends, watching Rosalie out of the corner of his eye. She was still talking to that Ravenclaw girl when Blaise tugged at his sleeve. "Come on Draco, we're going to be late for class." Draco shook his head, looking over at Rosalie. "You guys go on, I'll catch up later," he said, the annoyance showing in his tone.
When Blaise was gone up the staircase, Crabbe, Goyle, Nott, Greengrass, and Pansy with him, he marched over to Rosalie and her Ravenclaw friend. Just as Draco was three feet away from them, the Ravenclaw girl left, disappearing down to the dungeons, probably for potions. Rosalie turned, her eyebrows arched to see Draco. He stopped in front of her, arms crossed over his chest, annoyed all over.
"What's your problem?" she asked, turning around and walking down a hall. "Are you trying to make us late for class? What kind of a perfect little student are you?!" he asked, catching up with her. She turned around rolling her eyes. "No, I was just making friends, now come on, like you said, we'll be late."
Rosalie turned and began walking when Draco caught her shoulder. "Charms," he said, turning to point back at the staircase, "is up there." Rosalie turned red, "Oh," and began walking towards the stairs, following Draco. They climbed two flights of stairs, and the third flight, much to Rosalie's surprise and fright, began to move. She yelped, and clutched the railing. Draco laughed, smirking, "Calm down Herald. Stop acting like a pathetic little first year." Rosalie rolled her eyes, still a bit surprised. When the staircase stopped moving, Draco led the way to a landing and down a corridor, only to stop outside a door. "You go on in," he said, nodding toward the door, "I'll catch up in a minute."
--
Rosalie paused, unsure if this might not fold out to be some horrible practical joke. But looking over her shoulder one last time, she took a breath and opened the door, only to let it out slowly. She was way too paranoid. It was just a normal classroom, with normal students, and a normal professor sitting behind the desk. Rosalie grinned to herself. Class hadn't started.
She made her way down the center isle only to have a few more curious glances her way. They were all Gryffindors and Slytherins.
The professor, Rosalie soon realized, was not all that normal. In fact, when Rosalie got a better look, she discovered her was rather short in fact, with a very squeaky voice. Of course, he was nice enough and Rosalie smiled, nodding every now and then when he would pause to ask her if she understood so far. After only a minute, which to Rosalie had felt like hours because of the curious stares at her back, did the professor, Flitwick, tell her she should see him after class. He had questions for her about testing or something at Beauxbatons she had done.
Finally, Rosalie had to turn to face the stares only to find a place to sit. There was a place in the back right corner, next to another Slytherin. Perfect. She started there when a startlingly familiar honey colored blonde shook her head, smirking, before placing her loaded school bag in the empty seat. She had seen her somewhere… though she wasn't sure where.
The only seat left was in the exact center of the room. Cursing her parents thoroughly in her mind, Rosalie sat down in a chair next to the same bulky girl from Defense Against the Dark Arts. Rosalie grimaced, doing a face plant into her own palms.
"Attention! Ahem! I say, quiet! Mr. Malfoy, tardy. That will be five points from Slytherin." I looked up, first at Flitwick, then back at the door, where everyone else was looking. Draco shrugged, before sliding into the seat next to the honey blonde. The girls smirked at nothing as she scooted her chair closer to Draco's. Of course! Rosalie suddenly remembered the Pansy from the nightmare she had been blocking so well… up until recently.
Gritting her teeth, Rosalie looked back up to the front of the class room where words were writing themselves across the board. There were snickers coming from the back of the class room. Happy Dad? She wondered. And she bit the bullet all through charms. As she was packing up her bag, once more, Rosalie heard snickering. It was coming from a few girls in Gryffindor. "You see her hair? Those high lights? They are beautiful. I wonder how she did it…"
Rosalie grinned, before realizing someone was standing beside her, across the isle, but still angled toward her. "Blaise Zabini," he said, and that was when Rosalie looked up, getting the picture. It was a guy, no duh, trying to be nice. With a new found confidence, Rosalie tossed her hair back as she pulled the bag over her shoulder. "Rosalie, Herald," she replied, shaking his hand. He smiled. "Would you like me to walk you to the Great Hall? It's just, well, your obviously new and it would be dreadful, me knowing you got lost and I could have prevented it."
Rosalie couldn't help but giggle. She had just been complimented (not to her face) and some nice looking guy was trying to disguise a move for a good deed. "Sorry, but I am supposed to stay and tell Flitwick about my education at Beauxbatons. I'm not so sure how long that will take." Zabini's eyebrows raised. "Wow, Beauxbatons. Didn't see that one coming."
Rosalie flashed him the famous, innocent yet alluring smile that had gotten her out of three detentions once, five punishments for staying out past curfew, and a whole lard of mess when she had nearly crashed a muggle car in a muggle street when going on a joy ride with Joule. It was diabolical. "Yeah, well, I better go talk to Flitwick if I want lunch anytime soon." He nodded understandingly. "Hey, why don't I save you a spot today at lunch?" Rosalie smiled at his offer. She nodded her head, he smiled, she smiled, he waved and was out the door. Rosalie turned around to face professor Flitwick.