I don't own Harry Potter, or anything from that universe, the AMAZING Joanne Rowling does. I cannot claim ownership of any of it :'(
It was the middle of the afternoon, and the sorting ceremony was about to begin. I was sure that there were more students than usual, which would explain how full the train was, because there were normally spare seats on the train, or at least there were the previous year. It was odd. It was like it was a peak year for Wizarding Children.
As always, McGonagall lead in the many first years, filling most of the space in the Hall.
I didn't really pay much attention to what was happening, after all, I'd already been through it once, and I would have to sit through it another 4 times before I graduated, so ignoring the ceremony wasn't going to make a big difference.
The sorting ceremony took a fairly long time, and I was sure that it was much longer than the previous one, but it was basically just the same as the previous one, the choir sang a song, different than before, as did the sorting hat. Then all the fun of the sorting began, lasting around 2 hours.
I was sat on the Gryffindor table, with Bella, Hermione, Ron, Harry, Ginny, Fred and George, with some people I recognised from our Quidditch team nearby. Not that I didn't love when we got new students, but we were all hungry. We didn't really get a chance to have lunch on the days when we were on the train, and sweets couldn't really be classified as lunch, so we were all fairly hungry.
Then, Dumbledore began to speak, "Welcome! Welcome to another year at Hogwarts. Now, I have a few start of term announcements, before our wonderful feast begins. Now, before I announce our two changes in staffing, I thought that you should all be reminded that once more, the school term has been shortened to end in June. If you don't already know, the past few years we have been experimenting with a longer term, to see if it benefits the students, and after careful discussions, we have gone back to the standard term length. More information about this, and my other notices, acan be found on your common room notice boards. Now, without further ado, I'm pleased to welcome Professor R.J. Lupin, who's kindly consented to fill the post of Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. Good luck, professor."
Most of the hall began to clap for Moony, hopeful that he would be better than the last few teachers.
"He'll need it..." I heard Ron whisper.
"Of course! That's why he knew to give you two the chocolate!" Hermione said.
"Hey! Potter and... ginger Potter!" Draco whispered from behind us.
"What?" I asked, after I had turned around. My sister was sat next to him, talking to all of her slytherin friends. She looked even more... slytherin-like than before, and I almost didn't recognise her, but deep down I knew it was her.
"Is it true you fainted?" He asked.
No-one replied.
"I mean, you actually fainted?" He laughed, "I mean, it was even ridiculous that Chris..." He was cut off by her hitting him.
Hermione gave him the evil eye, and we all turned back around.
"How did he find out?" Harry asked.
"Just forget it..." Hermione said.
"Yes, so now I have announced your notice, Mister Filch, I'll be getting back to what I was saying. As I was saying, Professor Kettleburn, our Care of Magical Creatures teacher, has decided to retire to spend more time with his remaining limbs, and I am delighted to announce that our own Rubeus Hagrid has kindly accepted the position."
At that point, Hagrid stood up, practically tipping over the teacher's table.
So many of us students were clapping and cheering for him, mainly Gryffindor, and with the exception of many slytherin students.
"My next announcement, is something rather different to Hogwarts. In the previous years, we have arrived at school, and gone straight into lessons, but this year, our faculty has decided that would be a good idea to begin the term with a school wide camping trip."
The whole hall was full of excited murmurs, and it was going to be a good thing. We all knew that.
"Yes, how exciting. Now, all of your parents have been informed, so that will not be an issue, and as this has been a rather last minute decision, everyone has been provided with appropriate equipment, free of charge. Provided that this trip is a success, every year shall begin this way. The aim of the trip is to get you all nice and reacquainted, ready for the school term to begin without a hitch. It will also be an opportunity for some of you to experience muggle culture. Yes, the equipment you will be using is the same as the things which muggles would use, or incredibly similar to them, with only a few minor charms for your safety. You will be finding out more as you go along, but here are just a few details you should know now, school uniforms will not be required at all tomorrow, or throughout the trip. We will return after lunch on Monday, and school uniforms will not be required then either. Your uniforms will be required beginning on Tuesday, the day your lessons begin. During our stay, we will be residing in large muggle tents, each tent will fit ten people in it. For obvious reasons, girls and boys will not be sharing the same tents, but other than that, you are welcome to share with who you wish, and ten people will be in every tent, with the exception of a tent of the tents containing the remaining students, the one's left after you subtract every possible multiple of ten. We will be walking to the campsite at 11:30 am tomorrow; giving you enough time to double check your already packed items and do anything that needs to be done. We will be having lunch when we arrive. You should pack your things tonight, packing the things you will need in the large rucksacks provided, warm clothes, wands, toiletries, items to keep you occupied in your free time, books to study, etcetera. A sleeping bag is provided, but you do need to bring pillows and other things which you require for sleep. We will be participating in various activities throughout the stay, and remember, the most important thing is to have fun, and get to know your classmates. Now that I've said all that I can think to say on that matter, I must move on to a more disquieting note. At the request of the Ministry of Magic, Hogwarts will, until further notice, play host to the dementors of Azkaban until such a time as Sirius Black is captured. The dementors will be stationed at every entrance to the grounds. Now whilst I've been assured that their presence will not disrupt our day-to-day activities a word of caution. Dementors are vicious creatures, who cannot distinguish between the one they hunt and the one who gets in their way. Therefore, I must warn each and every one of you to give them no reason to harm you; it is not in the nature of a dementor to be forgiving." He paused, just for a few seconds, and waved his hand, extinguishing the flame of one of the candles there, and continued, "But you know, happiness can be found even in the darkest of times if one only remembers to turn on the light." He waved his hand over the candle again, relighting the flame, obviously in an attempt to lift the spirits of the students, and once more, he continued, "The feast will begin shortly, I can assure you all that. In fact, I can hear many rumbling bellies out there, one of which being my own. Before we sing our school song, I have one last notice to give out, for two girls, who know who they are; Professor McGonagall and I wish to see you immediately after the feast in my office, to do with your third year subject choices. Now, on with our school song!" Dumbledore took his wand, and began waving it in the air like those batons held by people conducting choirs and orchestras, signalling us to begin.
I enjoyed the school song. It was just another chance that good old bumblebee gave us for self expression. We could sing it to whichever tune we pleased, at whatever tempo, pitch, key. I knew I would miss that once I left Hogwarts, but I had a few years to wait for that. For that, I was grateful.
There were many versions of the School Song being sung at once, some fast, some slow, some at a fairly... average speed. The most noticeable of all the versions was Fred and George's. Their version was by far the slowest, a slow funeral march. It was also the most amusing, with Fred and George both making a huge show of it, and at one point, they were singing it as a serenade. It was all rather ridiculous, but it was a good laugh.
When Fred and George finally finished, Dumbledore sat down, and hundreds of plates of freshly cooked food appeared before us, on each of the house tables. I knew, of course, that food could not be created by magic, meaning that there was a kitchen somewhere, of course, I didn't actually know where it was, but it was the only logical explanation.
I quickly scanned the table, looking at all of the scrumptious food. I only took a few seconds, but by the time I looked up, Ron was already stuffing his face, and I looked at him in disgust.
"You know, Ron, there's this amazing new invention I just heard about. It's called a plate. You put food on it, and eat off of it; you might want to try it sometime. I've even heard about things you use to pick up and eat your food with, called forks and spoons, and you can cut it up with something called a knife. I'm sure even you could learn to do that." I said. Hungry as I was, I wasn't going to show myself up in front of the entire school.
"Sorry for having a stomach, and not getting any lunch." He said, sarcastically.
By this time, I was putting some food on my plate, glad to see that there was a lot of it which I could eat.
"Honestly Ronald, you'd think that by now you wouldn't need your mother to be feeding you. Look at you! You've already stained your uniform. Well, I can tell you that I'm not going to cast the right spell on that for you, and I'm sure Rory won't either. Have fun being laughed at."
We sat, talked, laughed, and ate for a while before the food disappeared, and we were all sent on to our common rooms with our prefects. Well, with the exception of me and Hermione. We had to see Dumbledore and/or McGonagall about our time turners.
We snuck off together when no-one was looking, and went to the entrance of Dumbledore's office.
On the way, we discussed the fact that I had been learning French, and was continuing it for as long as possible, for a rainy day. Or another visit to France. Or in case I met anyone French. She agreed that it was a good idea. Besides, it was another good hobby for me to have.
Thankfully, Dumbledore was awaiting us in front of his statue, and as we arrived next to him, he used his new password on the statue, and we silently went up to his office. In the end, McGonagall wasn't there, something else came up which she needed to do, which was more important.
We sat down, signed some forms, got large insturuction books, and received our time turners. I was relieved that they were, in fact, just small hourglasses on chains. Similarly to watches, they had small knobs on the side, which you turned. If you turned them backwards one turn, you went back an hour, if you turned it forward, you could go further an hour.
"Now," Dumbledore said, "Before you go, you should know that I'm supposed to warn you that these should only be used for school. But I won't. Be sensible, girls, and I advise that you keep them safe, and know where they are at all times. If you lose them, you will not be getting replacements."
I nodded, as did Hermione. In my opinion, the safest place for it to be was around my neck at all times, just in case of emergencies. Hermione agreed, it was the only place that other people couldn't get to it.
We went to Gryffindor Tower together, after being informed of the new Gryffindor password. In my dormitory, all but one were there, Ginny, Hermione, Bella, myself, and the other girl, only just moving into our dorm, had yet to arrive. We assumed she was hanging with her friends elsewhere in the tower.
Whilst I was charming the large rucksack, in the same way I had my suitcase, Bella was telling me how my eldest sister wasn't able to take one of her choices in the end, due to Divination and Ancient Runes being in the same time slot, so she was now taking Ancient Runes and Arithmancy. Obviously, in the end she needed to get a different book, but that didn't matter.
After I had charmed my rucksack, I simply poured the entire contents of my trunk in there, leaving out the things I needed for the night and morning, and whatever I was taking with me to the boys'.
I changed into my pyjamas, a pair of fluffy bunny slippers and my dressing gown, with my time turner round my neck. No-one could see it however, because I kept it on below everything.
I spent around half an hour talking to girls before heading off to the boys', my cat following me, and my things and sweets in my arms. I had been invited anyway, but if Seamus or Dean complained, it wouldn't do much good anyway, there was a majority who would want me in there, my older brother, my best male friend, and my friend.
I knocked before entering, and Seamus and Dean were surprised to see me. Obviously Ron, Harry and Neville hadn't told them that I was invited too.
"What's she doing here?" Seamus asked.
"I was invited. Besides, my room was boring." I said, still no further in than the doorway.
"Well I'm not having no girls in my dorm room." Seamus said.
"Actually, Seamus, it's not no, it's any, otherwise you're basically saying that you want your room full of girls. Besides, what broom do I have, Seamus?"
"What does that matter?"
"You've forgotten already? I have a bloody Firebolt! And, when people are on my good side..."
"Oh, right. Come on in, then. Remind me why you have a Firebolt." I walked in and sat next to my brother, on a windowsill in-between the two beds the others were sat on.
"Okay, not that I really told you anyway, but it was just a Christmas present, but I do love to play Quidditch."
"Oh, what's your best position?" Harry asked.
"Seeker, but I'm also a fair Chaser, I'm okay at Beater, but not quite as good. I never tried keeper. I never got the chance. I do prefer Seeker though."
"We'll have to see how good you are sometime, won't we?" Ron sort of asked.
"Madame Hooch said I was really good last year, I'm sure of it. Of course, then I got the Firebolt, but, then again, it's how you play not the broom you play on. Now, before I bore you all to death, I want some sweets." I smiled.
Ron passed me a bowl full of sweets. I stopped him just before he could give me a sweet, and showed him my large bag of sweets.
"Let's dig in." I said smiling.
A few hours later, it was getting late, and we'd been having non-stop fun. I'd shown them a few fun things you can do with magic, we'd discussed various subjects, eaten almost all of our sweets, some of which had hilarious results, but it was getting really late. I couldn't think of much else to do, so I said goodnight to the buys, took my books and wand out with me, with Kitty following behind.
When I went to our dorm, I was surprised that the light was on, someone was still up. The new girl. When she heard me arrive, she put her book down, leaving on her glasses with blue frames. I looked at her, and noticed how she had hazel eyes; porcelain, slightly spotty skin; and auburn hair.
"Oh, hi, I'm Rory. Are you the new person in here?" I asked.
"Oh, don't mind me, I'm Maggie. New girl. Just transferred in today, actually. 5th Year dorms were full, so I got put in here with you third years" She spoke with a thick Irish accent, and paused, "Aren't you a little young to be in your third year?" She asked.
"Oh, cool, you're Irish. Um, yeah, I skipped a year, and, actually, there's a second year in here too. When did you get in here?" I asked.
"About half an hour ago. The only one left up was the blonde one, Bella. She seems nice."
I smiled, "She's my sister. I don't really know who she looks like in our family, other than her twin. I look nothing like mine, but I look like my mum." I said, referring to Lily.
I yawned.
"You're tired." She observed, "Get to bed, we can talk tomorrow." She was friendly.
I smiled at her, took my potion, and I was asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow.
It's half past midnight, I lost the old chapter, so I'm sorry this is late, and it made me annoyed so it took ages to re-write, I got a B in my science Gcse, so I'm rushing this so it's uploaded before the internet's shut off. Well, I really don't have any time, I finished this literally 2 minutes ago, and that was a quick A/N.
I don't have a clue when the next one will be up.
Please review. It'll make my B seem better :) I got a B because my 4 exams were all As but my coursework was a d :(
anyway, bye.
Kaisha :)
(For story updates check my new, short profile! :))
