Disclaimer: I only own my OCs. Everything else is J.K Rowling's
As Bianca left the Charms classroom after 2 solid hours, which primarily consisted of lectures about the importance of Charms in everyday life and the basic principles of Charmwork , she decided that Charms – well the theory at least- was rather uninteresting.
She was just hoping that she would enjoy the practical aspects of the subject more. But then again she didn't suppose that the theoretical parts of any of her subjects would be anywhere near as interesting as the practical side to the class.
With that thought in mind she reminded herself to keep an open mind about Charms before passing judgment.
By the time that lunch came around, Bianca had found that her Transfiguration lesson had passed in an almost identical way to that of Charms.
When she entered the great hall with the steady stream of students returning from lessons alongside her, she went over to the Slytherin table once more – joining Moria and Jacquelyn where they sat.
"Hey guys, sorry I missed you after class. I was just trying to catch up with Neal but I couldn't find him. I think I'll walk to Herbology with him after lunch though. Hope you guys don't mind?" said Bianca.
"Na, it's okay Bianca. Don't worry about it." Moria said. She winked and said "I suppose it was due to that fan club of yours that you didn't manage to talk to Neal."
Bianca blushed slightly and purposely ignored Moria's words by turning her attention to her food instead.
"That's a yes then. You know I think I lost count Moria, how many boys have offered to accompany dear Bianca to her classes or show her around the castle now?" Jacquelyn said grinning at both of the girls.
"Hmm, I'm not sure but about a dozen or so I believe. And in under a day too, boy you sure do make an impression. Fast work there, darling" Moria teased light-heartedly, as Lavina and Nina entered the hall and sat down with them.
"Well I must say that the constant droning on and on about the importance of hard work etc. wasn't as exciting as I imagined our first lessons to be." Nina said, looking disappointed.
All of the girls agreed with that, and Bianca was keen to keep the conversation away from the subject of her 'fanclub' – as the girls put it – and so began saying how she wished the practical lessons would be more interesting.
Noticing that lunch was over half way through and that they only had about 15 minutes before their Herbology lesson, Bianca said goodbye to her house mates and went over to the Hufflepuff table to find Neal.
He was sitting with two other boys who she recognized as being in the same year as her and Neal from their shared Transfiguration lesson previously.
When she had seated herself down opposite to Neal, she was receiving a number of confused and surprised looks from the other students around her. Bianca supposed that a Slytherin coming and sitting at the Hufflepuff table wasn't a frequent occurrence in the castle, not with the still present house rivalry. The fact that lots of Slytherins were being shunned and targeted by some of the other houses – due to their house's involvement in the war - didn't help the rivalry.
Bianca hoped and suspected that Albus' presence in Slytherin house would help their reputation, as the son of the Boy-Who-Lived, Saviour of the Wizarding world couldn't be evil or dark. In terms of house unity the Weasley/Potter family had people who either were or are currently in every house of Hogwarts – which is a good sign for a possible resolution of the rivalries.
"Hi Neal, what lesson did you guys have first this morning?" Said Bianca, appearing to take no notice of the other's surprise.
"Hey Bianca, it was quite good. We had double Defence against the Dark Arts, which was interesting even if we didn't really get to do very much today." Neal replied
The boys sitting either side of Neal turned towards hi in shock that he clearly knew Bianca.
"Oh yeah, sorry guys. Bianca this is Phillip and Nicholas – they are two of my dorm mates." He said as he indicated the two brunette boys in turn. "And guys, this is Bianca. She's an old family friend."
Both of the boys half smiled at her, and too nervous to look up at her properly, simply muttered greetings in her direction.
"Hello, it's nice to meet you both." Said Bianca, she turned to Neal and said "And Neal I know what you mean, I had double Charms first and there wasn't really much we were allowed to do. I suppose all the teachers are afraid we will end up blowing up a classroom or something."
"Ha yeah, that could be it. Well hopefully we'll avoid that. I don't particularly want to be blown up." Neal remarked.
Bianca said "Wouldn't really be that fun, now would it. Anyway as lunch is almost over, do you want to walk to Herbology together? As I haven't really had a chance to talk to since the train ride yesterday. I do hope you didn't mind me not joining you in Transfiguration by the way; I had promised to sit with my housemates after I sat with Liam in Charms instead of them."
"I'd be happy to walk with you and of course I didn't mind. It makes sense to get to know the people you are going to be living with and sharing classes with for the next 7 years."
And with this reassuring statement Neal and Bianca got up and grabbed their bags headed out of the great hall outside toward the greenhouses after saying goodbyes to Neal's roommates.
AN: Reached 1,000 views! Thanks so much for bothering to read this.
