Bonjour – It's us again! Here to annoy you with yet
another story to read and review. Well – just another chapter of the same
story.
Disclaimer: J.K.R – Us. Can you see the difference?
Chapter Four
"How odd," Dumbledore mused aloud before taking the battered
old hat from Ilana's head and placing it on his own. Ilana, who had had her
eyes closed, opened them suddenly and looked at Roz quizzically. Roz's only
response was a shrug. Both girls watched what they could see of Dumbledore's
face. He was wearing a shrewd look upon it. "Ah, indeed." He spoke aloud;
neither girl was quite sure whom to – them or the hat.
Removing the hat from his head and placing again on
the desk he addressed the girls. "It seems Miss Flamel is a perfect mix of all
four houses. The Sorting Hat cannot place her." Far from being worried at this,
as Ilana was, Dumbledore looked simply delighted. "This has not happened at
Hogwarts for many years. The other professors and myself will look into way of
resolving this matter but in the interim I think it would be best for Miss
Flamel to stay in Gryffindor with you, Miss Gregson. Do either of you have any
objections to this?"
As both girls turned to look at each other and grin,
they nodded. "Excellent. Well, since this has taken longer than expected, I
suggest you stay here to eat instead of attending the final seconds of the
start of year feast." So saying, he conjured a small, but fantastic all the
same, spread for the pair to eat together. "I shall leave you two in peace," he
smiled. "I have little doubt you still need to get to know each other. Someone
will be sent to show you both to Miss Gregson's new Common Room. I suppose I
shall see you again soon."
Neither girl was about to ask why, but even if they
had wanted to, he had left before the chance was given. Outside the door the
sounds of the girls, laughing could be heard and Dumbledore shook his head,
smiling. "One of Flamel's descendants; I should have known."
~~~
"Cayenne." The lady whose portrait they were all
looking expectantly at smiled as the picture and frame swung open to reveal a
glimpse into the common room. At first sight the room looked warm and friendly
and the people in it seemed no different. The scene they saw was restricted by
the edges of the small hole that was presumed to be the only entrance. As the
girls clambered through they noticed some students smiling at them with
interest and others too engrossed in what they were doing to notice the two
strangers entering with the Head Girl. Roz and Ilana turned to grin at each
other before looking around the room in awe.
"Roz!" It was only as Alex called her that Roz
realized the Head Girl had gone to talk to her friends and that Roz and Ilana
were standing at the entrance of the room. She grinned at Alex as she rushed to
greet them along with Luke, Shadow and Tim.
"You made in into Gryffindor! Congratulations!"
"Yeah, now I won't be the only girl here!"
"You thought I wouldn't make it into Gryffindor?"
"No, he didn't,
but … Congratulations."
Ilana, knowing
none of the group, stood back as they greeted Roz. It took some time for the Alex, Tim, Shadow and Luke to realize
that Roz hadn't introduced her.
"Hi," Tim
smiled at Ilana causing Roz to remember she was there.
"Oh, yeah," Roz smiled apologetically at Ilana.
"Sorry, this is Ilana. Ilana, meet Alex, Tim Luke and Shadow." She indicated
each person respectively.
"Another new fourth year Gryffindor?" Luke looked
surprised at the strange non-occurrence.
"Not exactly." Ilana replied. She smiled as Alex
pointed to the stairs that would lead to their dormitory. "I'm a new fourth
year, you got that bit right. Were you the only Gryffindor girl, Alex?"
"Not exactly." Alex grinned, repeating Ilana's
response. "There's Jessica and Yvonne, but they're a pair. You don't get one
without the other and Yvonne never was that friendly with Tim." She lowered her
voice secretively. "She's a Slytherin in disguise."
Roz grinned along with Alex although she didn't
entirely understand the joke, unless all Slytherins were like Matt, but surely
there weren't enough people like that.
"What do you mean?" Ilana asked. Ilana knew little
about Hogwarts, as has already been mentioned, she didn't know Matt either.
That was lucky for her, in Roz's opinion.
"Slytherins aren't, well, they aren't that nice." Tim
said delicately. "For some reason, there has been a strong rivalry between
Gryffindor and Slytherin for many years."
"Its because we always beat them at quidditch!" Luke
said proudly.
"Quidditch?" Roz asked totally confused.
"It'll take too long to explain now." Alex assured
her. "Just don't ask. If Luke has found someone he can talk quidditch to he'll
be at it all night." Roz giggled.
"Sounds like football. Boys and football, they mix a
little too well. Never liked it that much myself."
"Football?"
"It'll take too long to explain now." It was Roz's
turn to copy a phrase of Alex's.
"Is that the one where you throw the ball in a hoop or
is it the one with the racket and the yellow ball?" Ilana asked Roz in a hushed
voice. "And is the other one Baskins, or Tenballs?"
"Are you two coming?" Alex looked exasperated standing
at the bottom of the tower stairs.
"Coming?" Roz replied as she got up. "Coming where?"
"To the dorm, you really are impossible!" Alex was
definitely frustrated. "Honestly, I've known you for half a day and already
you're getting on my nerves."
"I'm good at that." Roz could be heard saying as the
girls climbed the stairs to their dorm.
"What?"
"Annoying people."
~~~
"Those are the
greenhouses," Tim continued giving his guided tour, "You'll have Herbology
there."
"I never noticed that in the lesson yesterday!"
"I'm sure the professor mentioned something about us
being in the greenhouse." The girls had giggled all the way through the
exploration. Although Tim had been promising the girls a tour since they had
joined they had all been so busy that he had only just gotten around to it.
Considering it was the middle of December they knew their way around pretty
well by now. Well, a certain hidden passage confused Ilana totally and Roz
could never understand why the subjects of the paintings she passed would not
stay in their own frames just to help her find her way.
"… Best to avoid the Whomping Willow as much as you
can. Finally, we come to the forest. Or should I say the Forbidden Forest."
"Forbidden? Why?" Ilana managed to say without
giggling. She had been helping Roz catch up by teaching her a cheering charm.
The Sorting Hat had been right, Roz did pick things up quickly, and Charms was
clearly her best subject. Ilana was still overly cheery from the charm Roz had
placed on her this morning.
"Well, there are many endangered species in there, not
to mention the just plain dangerous ones"
"Such as?" She enquired further.
"Such as Acromantulas." Tim answered. "They're
oversized spiders. We're talking very oversized." Tim attempted to explain upon
seeing the plain look of confusion on Roz's face.
"I've heard of them." Ilana added. "They're huge, the
size of houses."
"Very oversized," Roz looked at the dense trees what
were all that could be seen of the forest.
"Heya!" Meg called to them. "Has Tim bored you all to
death yet?" she grinned at the Ilana, Roz and Tim.
"Almost," Roz forgot about the oversized spiders
immediately. "Say, Meg, you ever been into the forest?"
"They put me in detention there once, never again."
"Was it that bad?" Ilana sounded concerned.
"No, the forest was never the same again." Tim
answered.
"Don't be nasty!"
"He's serious. They were never as senseless as to let
me in the forest again, for punishment or not. Hagrid took me in there, he
didn't have to put with me for long though, I got 'lost'."
"So is the forest good at night?" Roz's inquisitive
nature was taking over, plus her sense of adventure was kicking in, and no
giant spiders could stop this girl's determination.
"I'll have to take you in there one time," Meg joked.
"Great, we have Astronomy tonight, so, what are you
doing Friday night? Up for it, Ilana? Tim?"
~~~
"The Acromantula," Roz read aloud from her Care Of
Magical Creatures textbook. "Maybe we'll see some of these on Friday, Skye."
"Roz, you weren't serious?" Ilana asked half-shocked,
she had sort of expected it all along.
"What do you
mean?" Charlotte asked from her place, next to Ilana on the bench in front of
Roz and Skye. "Where would you see an Acromantula?"
"You'd be surprised where these things turn up." Roz
responded casually. Charlotte never displayed her distaste for Roz openly, but
the dislike between then was not hidden completely.
"Oh," Understanding suddenly dawned on Skye's face.
"Shadow told me about this. Is this about you going…" At the sight of the
shushing signals Ilana was sending her Skye dropped her voice, "Going into the
forest on Friday."
"You're going into the forest! The Forbidden
Forest?" Charlotte exclaimed quietly.
"Yes," Roz answered calmly after checking Hagrid was
out of earshot. "Meg's going to give us the grand tour. Would you like to
come?" Before Skye had a chance to voice her enthusiastic agreement and prior
to Charlotte's resigned assent, Ilana spoke up.
"Roz, I'm sure Meg didn't think you were serious." She
informed her. "I doubt she'll refuse to take you but I don't think she'll be
expecting to do so."
"All the same, as long as I get to go into the
forest."
~~~
There was immense
tension evident between Charlotte and Roz as they waited together for the
others. Ilana and Luke had returned to fetch Alex and Tim from the Gryffindor
Commons while Shadow went to get his sister. Meg was around somewhere; she had
mentioned something about 'checking on Hagrid' before she had disappeared. Not
to be put off by Charlotte's complete lack of enthusiasm, Roz was looking
forward to exploring the forest.
"Wow, I'm having fun already." Charlotte's cynical
voice reminded Roz of he presence.
"Why don't you make the expedition nicer?" Roz
suggested. "I'm sure there's someone who needs putting down in the Ravenclaw
Common Room."
"Have they made it back yet?" Meg interrupted the
imminent dispute. "No doubt Alex has met someone on the way and is starting one
of her lengthy conversations and Shadow will be having trouble getting into the
Hufflepuff Commons." Meg's good humor calmed the uneasy atmosphere instantly.
One last glare from Charlotte and the idea of an argument was gone.
"You underestimate me, Meg." Shadow's voice cam from
behind them, turning to see him and Skye a few paces away from the rest of the
group and Ilana, Luke and Tim heading towards them, obviously still trying to
convince Tim they weren't breaking any rules. "It wasn't too hard to find the
Hufflepuff Common Rooms." He added with an air of pride.
"It shouldn't be the number of times I've told you
where it is." Skye spoilt the moment perfectly. "I mean, it's not too hard to
follow a student to their commons either. They don't tend to notice you until
they're about to mutter their password. I know where all four common rooms
are."
"The passwords too?" Ilana's group had finally caught
up.
"No, like I
said, that's when people notice you and tell you to buzz off." Laughing the
group followed Meg's lead into the forest. It looked more dangerous than usual
of a night.
~~~
"Look, its that idiotic
Ravenclaw again. The insolent girl is there too, the one that found us out.
Look, the whole gang is there." Matt began to sneer, upon closer inspection of
the group he stopped. "Who's that?"
"Who?" Came the simple reply
from Aaron, one of Matt's simple friends.
"The one I don't know, you
moron." Matt replied, as nice to his friends as he was to his enemies, as
usual. "The one with the purple cloak."
"I know her." Jack responded.
"There's a lot of mystery surrounding her. No-one knows her house, although she
spends most of her time in Gryffindor she insists she's not a Gryffindor."
"Don't be ridiculous, she
wouldn't be in there if she wasn't a Gryffindor."
"Well she is. She came at the
same time as that Roz, they say that's why she spends most of her time in
Gryffindor, that's Roz's house."
"They're going!" Aaron's voice
warned. "Into the Forest, you won't be able to see them soon."
"Into the Forest?" Matt's voice
sounded thoughtful and devious before it became commanding. "You two, go to
Professor Snape's office, inform him of the students wandering around late at
night, and be sure to tell him they're in the Forest. Mention also that I have
gone after them to notify them of their rule-breaking."
~~~
See this
little form below this? Fill it in.
We'd better take the opportunity now to thank Jess and
Marci who's characters' we have used in this fan-fic (Meg and Alex,
respectively). They gave us their permission to use their characters and we
waited until they had both read it before posting.
Disclaimer: As you probably know, most of the
environment this story takes place in was created by J.K. Rowling and therefore
belongs to her. The characters and the plot and a few other features are the
only things in this story that belong to us, plus some of the ideas (and a lot
of the creative grammar).