Back in the station for the Hogwarts Express, everyone had crowded in around Lee in order to see the giant tarantula he'd brought along. The girls all screamed, the guys thought it was awesome, and I wasn't bothered at all. "Come on Mia, you're not even a little freaked out? Take a proper look at it, go on!" Lee encouraged so with a sigh, I looked up and peered into the box where giant, gangly legs were trying to crawl their way out to freedom.
"Terrifying. Satisfied?"
"So you're not afraid?"
"Not at all, there's no reason to be is there? It's not going to hurt anyone." I reasoned simply, getting a little annoyed with so many people trying to cram their way in. "Alright everyone, go find a place of your own! Get out or I'll start hexing people." With a fair warning, everyone quickly scarpered, some of the girls in our year giggling as they threw little looks over their shoulder at Lee. Can't say I blame them, even at thirteen he was starting to grow tall. If he was anything to judge by, I bet the twins had shot up too.
"I've decided. This year, I'm going to find out what you're afraid of." Giving him a wicked grin, I invited him to give it his best shot as the train started to move forwards. Soon after, Fred and George came rushing up to our compartment, out of breath from running and looking rather animated with gossip. I knew that look. Just as I had expected, they had grown taller and had completely overtaken me now, making me the shortest one of the group for the first time.
"You'll never guess who we met down the bottom of the train." George announced quickly, both of them hurrying inside. "Harry Potter!" Immediately they had my full attention, sitting upright and uncrossing my legs as my mouth dropped and Lee dropped his tarantula, releasing it onto the ground. At first there was a momentary panic from the three of them, the tarantula scuttling under their seat as they yelled and quickly picked up their legs until I lazily drew out my wand and gave it a flick, murmuring Wingardium Leviosa under my breath to make it hover in the air, trapped until Lee could snap the box around it once more to secure it.
"You really saw Harry Potter? The Harry Potter? What does he look like? Does he really have a scar? What's he like?" Bombarding them with questions, Fred grinned at me.
"Slow down now Mia, any more questions and we won't be able to answer anything. Besides, you can't be more interested in a simple Harry Potter boy than you are in me, right? I mean, the kid only defeated the darkest wizard of our time, nothing too special." Rolling my eyes at him, I didn't even bother to dignify his comment with an answer, waiting expectantly as Lee also showed an avid interest in the famous Harry Potter.
"He seemed alright, to be honest. Didn't even know it was him at first. Lanky, skinny, looks like he's been starved half his life, but it's true about the scar, it's right here." George began to describe helpfully, pushing back his hair with one hand in order to expose his brow and drew the shape of the scar on his right side so that I was facing the left, making the image of a lightning bolt. "Ron's sitting with him now. Do you think he'll be in Gryffindor?"
"Maybe, shall we place bets?" Eagerly placing wagers on which house Harry would go into. I bet on Gryffindor, partially because it would be exceedingly awesome to have a famous wizard amongst us, and also because his parents had been in Gryffindor. The odds were in his favour. Although I occasionally lamented the fact that I had not been placed in Hufflepuff, I had come to accept that this truly was the place for me. There was just so much liveliness and spirit, so much more so than the subdued, gentle nature of the Hufflepuff house that I truly felt myself whenever I came to Hogwarts. I guess the Sorting Hat really knew what he was doing after all.
This year when it came to the Sorting Ceremony, everyone was on edge and looking around, trying to spot Harry Potter amongst the first years. Everybody was curious, and when I finally saw him, I recognised him because George was right. Small, skinny, severely underfed, with messy black hair and round glasses, it was impossible not to recognise the famous Harry Potter even without his notable lightning bolt scar. Everybody whispered, however he seemed not to notice, too distracted by everything around him and I had to smile to myself. Everyone looked the same when they first walked into the Great Hall, with the enchanted ceiling and the floating candles, it was quite a sight. Nobody really knew what had happened to Harry Potter after he somehow defeated You-Know-Who when he was just a baby and I could tell everybody was just itching to ask him. He was probably the most famous name in the wizarding world.
The ceremony was the same as ever, McGonagall leading the way as Dumbledore presided over everything with that merry twinkle in his eye until finally, the names were called out. Our first Gryffindor of the year was a Lavender Brown, a rather mousy looking girl who scurried over to us as we all bellowed and cheered in greeting to make her feel welcome. We got several more Gryffindors, Seamus Finnigan and Hermione Granger being two of them, and then we also got someone called Neville Longbottom who not only tripped over on his way to the stool, but also forgot to take off the hat after it had shouted our house and had to go back to hand it over to the next boy. Blushing furiously, our eyes met and I gave him an encouraging smile as I clapped, gesturing him to hurry on over and take a seat which he did rather clumsily. When it finally came to Harry Potter, another round of whispers proceeded throughout the hall.
Everyone craned their necks to get a good look at him, watching as he rather nervously sat down and put the hat over his head and everyone waited with baited breath. The hat seemed to be taking his time, deliberating almost as if he knew that extending the silence was only increasing the tension in the air until finally, all at once, the hat shouted. "GRYFFINDOR!" Leaping up with thunderous applause, everyone in our house celebrated the fact that we had got Harry Potter, Fred and George yelling it at the top of their lungs whilst Percy eagerly shook Harry's hand once the boy had stumbled over, the prefect badge shining on his chest as he swelled with pride.
"We got Potter! We got Potter!" Unable to help it, I shot some sparks into the air from my wand and several people copied, red and gold bursting upwards as we celebrated Harry Potter becoming a member of Gryffindor house, something we were going to gloat over for…oh I don't know. Probably forever. Meanwhile, Harry just looked bewildered and a little lost, as if uncertain as to what to do next and just sat there as we all continued to cheer until McGonagall called for silence, eventually forcing us to settle down.
Everything after that was of no interest, except for watching Ron's sorting where of course, he joined us in Gryffindor. He had looked like he was going to throw up all the way up to the stool and didn't look much better now as he dropped down into the seat next to Harry Potter and I leaned over the table to grin and congratulate him, making his ears turn pink as the last boy was sorted into Slytherin, then Dumbledore stood up in order to give his opening speech. "Welcome! Welcome to a new year at Hogwarts! Before we begin our banquet, I would like to say a few words, and here they are; nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak! Thank you." Then with that, the feast appeared as Dumbledore sat down and I immediately helped myself to the food that now adorned our tables.
"Is he…a bit mad?" Harry asked nervously with a look up at Dumbledore, making Percy also look up.
"Mad? He's a genius! Best wizard in the world, but he is a bit mad, yes. Potatoes Harry?" The boy's jaw went slack and I had to laugh. From the looks of him, he probably hadn't see so much food in his entire life combined.
"Help yourself Harry, don't be shy, only make sure you leave room for pudding. There's always something to tickle your fancy." I said to him before introducing myself. "I'm Euphemia Black, third year. I'm a close friend of the Weasley family, so if Ron ever gives you any grief, or you need something, don't be afraid to find me. Only, avoid these two." I said, jerking my thumbs to Fred and George who sat either side of me. "They're idiots they are."
"Oy! We protest!" They both grumbled with their mouths full of food so I grinned, winked at Harry then proceeded to eat. Nearly Headless Nick, the Gryffindor ghost, always sighed whenever he saw us stuffing our faces with the delicious food our friends in the kitchens had cooked up for us, and the first years took interest in him since they had never met a ghost before. He did his usual trick of explaining exactly why he was Nearly Headless Nick by slinging his head to the side, revealing it was attached only by a bare thread of skin and flesh. A little disturbing, but oddly cool at the same time.
When dessert rolled around, the first years once again had wide, starry eyed stares which made us older students laugh as if we had never worn the very same expressions our first time here. Further down the table, I could hear the newcomers discussing their families and their blood status, which was a common thing around here but I paid it no attention as George was currently trying to see how many profiteroles he could fit into his mouth all at once, Fred and Lee cheering him on. The fact that we now had Harry Potter in our house was a hot topic amongst the other students, most of them constantly standing up and craning their necks to try and get a good look at him.
Once dessert was over, Dumbledore stood up to give his usual announcement, though this year there was a new one, that the third corridor on the right hand side was out of bounds to all students who did not want to die a horrible death, which only made me frown. "What's he on about now?"
"Who knows? We should take a look." The twins immediately decided so I rolled my eyes.
"Did you not hear him mention the death part? Don't be idiots and just follow the rules on that one. If you die I refuse to cry over your graves, just so you know. I'll dance over them instead." I told them warningly, hoping that they would at least have some sense not to go near the third floor if Dumbledore was serious about the possibility of death. We liked our jokes, but we also liked to be alive afterwards.
"Now that just hurts, Mia. That hurts us very deeply, you wouldn't shed one tear for us should we perish due to some unspeakable horror?" I thought for a moment as everyone began to get up and sing as Dumbledore led the entire school in a sing along as everyone sang their favourite tune, the words appearing in the air.
"Well, depending on exactly how you guys died, I might shed a tear of laughter. Maybe two, if you're lucky." Feigning shock and hurt for a moment, Fred, George and I then all took the slowest version of the song everyone was singing just to be arses, but after everyone had finished singing Dumbledore continued to conduct us with his wand until we were finished, drawing out the last note until everybody clapped, our headmaster notably applauding the loudest as he beamed with true delight.
"Ah! Music, a magic beyond all we do here! And now, bedtime. Off you trot!" And just like that, we were dismissed to bed. Percy rather proudly lead the first years in order to show them the common room and the way to Gryffindor tower before the rest of us could show up and start pestering them. In a jovial mood, both twins tackled me with their arms in order to rub their fists into my head, roughhousing with me like I was one of their brothers back home as we all grinned with laughter and slowly sauntered up to bed, feeling fit to burst from the feast and knowing we had a great deal of work to look forward to tomorrow. Joy.