Disclaimer: Again, everything you recognize is J.K. Rowling's, of course, and all the things that are new to you are mine. Since the whole point of writing a fan fiction is for it to be about something already created, you should know the deal.
AN: Even though I only got one little review - *Sniffle* - I'm going to put up this second chapter anyway. Hopefully it will motivate you all to REVIEW! Haha, that's basically all I have to say this time. If anyone has any suggestions about plot and stuff, put it in your review. Thanks!
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Chapter 2- Getting Settled In … and Where are the Boys?
The Great Hall erupted into a low roar of clapping as Dumbledore seated himself. When this had died down, Carissa and Laney turned around in their seats so that they were positioned facing the table. To their total surprise, it was currently lined with silver platters, bowls, and dishes containing every type of cuisine that they could imagine.
"Wow! I wasn't expecting this much!" Carissa exclaimed.
"Same here, this is beyond a feast," Laney agreed, flinging a few spoonfuls of mashed potatoes onto her plate and passing the bowl to Jamie.
Carissa loaded up on chicken, gravy, buttered noodles, and a few other random side dishes that she scooped up when she was nearly finished. She took a sip of pumpkin juice, a drink she now learned she didn't like very much, and sprayed it all over the boy who was sitting across the table from her's face.
"Oh my gosh!" she exclaimed, thoroughly embarrassed with herself, "I'm so sorry!"
Meanwhile, though, Laney, Jamie, and Darrell hand their hands clapped over their mouths trying to refrain from bursting into laughter- although the attempt was in vain, of course. Spurts of giggles escaped from the girls, and Darrell tried to distract himself by looking across the hall at the Ravenclaw table. When he turned back to the scene Carissa had caused, he saw that the victim of her pumpkin-juice spraying was showing the same response- an amused smile spread across his face.
"Real nice," he complimented Carissa, who flushed light pink, "but anyway, you're Carissa Leighton I heard? I'm Travis Donahue."
Laney, nearing the final stages of her extended giggling fit, looked up from her plate and gave a, "Hey, I'm Laney Hudson as you probably know since you took the time to listen to Caris's name."
"Thanks," Carissa added in response to her compliment on her spraying-pumpkin juice performance, "and, yeah, I'm Carissa. Nice to meetcha." Pulling out her 12-inch, redwood wand she magicked the pumpkin juice out of her goblet and replaced it with some plain spring water- much better.
***
"Gryffindor first years, over here!" Nick Beech, one of the two Gryffindor prefects, called out. In about two minutes all of the first years had made their way over to him and formed a pack behind him, disregarding the mention of a single-file line. Packed in the center were Jamie, Laney, Carissa, Travis, Darrell and another first year boy they had met, Emmet Jenkins.
"Hey, watch out!" Laney said, pounding on some intruding foot that had stepped on her new white sneakers.
"You watch out!" he responded, elbowing her in the ribs.
"ARGH!" Carissa wailed as her left foot met the same fate as Laney's had only seconds earlier. She fell back onto Darrell, who caught her just in time.
"Thanks," she said, straightening her stance and waiting until everyone had passed, leaving herself and her friends at the back of the line where it was pretty safe.
"That was a bad idea," Travis said bluntly, watching as Nick attempted to get everyone to quiet down and form a straight line. After they had come to a complete stop in the middle of the hallway for a few idle minutes, the rambunctious Gryffindor first years finally got smacked in the face with realization (not literally, just an expression) and simmered down a bit, slipping into a close-to-perfect line.
Nick continued and in a few minutes they were standing outside the portrait of the Fat Lady. "Fairy dust!" he said, and the portrait swung open. Everyone walked in, and a cozy sight met their eyes:
A crackling fire with merrily flickering flames that tickled the bricks was roaring and a seating area was set up behind it, complete with scarlet armchairs and golden trim. Towards the back were two staircases, which Nick explained as the one on the left leading to the Boys' Dorms and the right one leading to the Girls'.
"Your trunks have been sent into your dorms," Nick Beech explained to the eager first years, "which is where you'll find it. See you guys around!" With one more gleam of his shiny prefect badge, he had exited through the portrait hole and was gone.
Carissa shrugged and followed Laney and Jamie up the stairs and into the Girls' Dorm, where a ton of luggage and trunks met their eyes. "Hmph," she huffed, looking at each of them in turn, "Now where's mine …"
Jamie's black-haired head popped up from the side of one bed, a triumphant look upon her face. "Found mine!" she announced, pulling a trunk over to the opposite end of the room and setting it against the wall- she had chosen the bed right at the end.
"And mine too!" Laney called out, following Jamie's example and taking the bed to the left of hers. She fell back onto the springy mattress, bouncing up once and then laying still upon the comforter. She let out a long yawn and rubbed a bit of sleepiness out of her eyes. "I won't fall asleep … I won't fall asleep …," she murmured under her breath
"About time," Carissa said, after yet another long five minutes of searching, with a heavy sigh as she hauled her trunk over to the bed left of Laney's. She looked at Jamie and Laney and suppressed a laugh- both were fast asleep, laying fully-clothed on their beds with their heads tilted to the side and their eyelids clamped shut.
"If you can't beat 'em," she said softly under her breath, "then join 'em." And Carissa did just that, lying down on the bed with her head slumping over and her hands placed on her stomach, one over the other. By the time she had drifted off into Dreamland, she had curled up into a ball and was breathing lightly, unaware of what was going on in the Boys' Dorms.
**
As the girls took a nap, adjacent to their dorms Darrell, Travis, and Emmett were claiming their castles- in other words, arguing over who got which bed.
"That one's mine," Darrell staked his claim on the one nearest the wall.
"No, my stuff is already there," Emmett countered.
"Where?" Darrell responded, his eyes boring at the position where "his bed" was, "I don't see any trunk there."
Emmett quickly hauled his trunk to the foot of the bed through Darrell's protests and pointed at it.
"Now you do," he said with a sly grin.
"And now you don't," Darrell opposed, shimmying it away and abandoning it in the center of the floor.
"Oh come on," Travis complained, "just shut up already!" He slid his own trunk towards the other end of the room and left it there, heading down into the common room. Emmett and Darrell glanced at each other, pointing at the bed by Travis's and calling out in unison, "MINE!"
Finally the two settled it, and stalked down the stairs into the common room where Travis was plopped down in an armchair, staring into the fireplace. "We're done now," Emmett announced, sitting down as well.
Travis sighed in relief, mumbling something that both Emmett and Darrell translated into, "About time," or something similar to that phrase.
The boys sat in silence for a little while, thinking to themselves and disregarding each other's company as they took it all in- moving into Hogwarts, the castle, the sorting, their new friends, and a thousand and one other things that were new experiences to them. The fire warmed their faces and, even though it wasn't admitted, if they hadn't fought the urge to fall asleep, the warmth would have lulled them anyway.
"Where are the girls?" Darrell finally asked, his voice cutting through the silence like a dagger through one's heart, as he shifted restlessly in his chair.
"Right here," Jamie said, stifling a yawn as she trudged down the stairs from the Girls' Dorm with her hair twisted around and immediately revealing the fact that she had been sleeping, even if only for about a half hour. Behind her came Carissa and Laney, both in the same state of appearance- ruffled hair and sleepy eyes.
"Taking a little nap?" Travis assumed, pointing out the obvious.
Laney nodded and defended, "If you had to practically go on a treasure hunt to find your trunk, you'd be tired too." Carissa agreed, as did Jamie, who was currently on a mission to comb through her hairs with only her fingers as her brush. She somewhat succeeded, straightening out most of the kinks.
"So, anyone up for a round of Wizard's Chess?" Travis suggested.
"Sure," Jamie said quickly, watching as Travis pried himself off of the armchair and sprinted up the stairs two at a time, and disappearing into the Boys' Dorms. He reappeared fairly rapidly, bounding down the stairs with his chess board. He set it up on the table and Jamie kneeled down on one end, Travis on the other.
"Let's make this a girls verse boys sort of thing," Laney said competitively, situating herself behind Jamie, and pulling Carissa over in the process. The two girls kneeled on the side of the table, as did Emmett and Darrell, watching as the two began their match.
It went back and forth, back and forth, until the two were neck-in-neck and neither looked as if they were going to just give up.
"Hah!" Jamie screeched victoriously as she beat Travis at a now or never play. Laney and Carissa grinned and hugged their successful friend, and a defeated look reigned on Travis's expression- obviously, he, like most Gryffindors, wasn't used to losing. Especially to a girl.
***
The next morning, the girls woke up bright and early at 7:00 A.M. thanks to the alarm clock that Laney forgot to shut off. "Hey, I forgot, okay?" she protested sleepily as she threw a stuffed animal at it and knocked it off the nightstand. It landed on the floor and unplugged it effectively. All the girls rolled over, shut their eyes, and were asleep in a wink.
Later, at the more reasonable time of 9:00, Jamie groggily made her way out of bed and woke up the other two. Since she was first awake, she claimed the shower as hers and washed her hair to a silky deep black. "Next," she called as she came out with a towel wrapped on her head.
Carissa went next, followed by a still-sleepy Laney. By 10:00 all three were washed and ready and made their way into the Great Hall, where plenty of the students were already gathered and eating breakfast. They sat down at the Gryffindor table and looked around, but the boys weren't in sight- speaking of which, they hadn't been in the common room either.
"Looking for your friends?" Alexander Adelmonte called out, a smug smile on his face that couldn't mean anything good.
Carissa bit her lip, and looked around, disregarding Alexander's words.
"I SAID," he repeated louder, "are you going to play Princess and rescue them or not?"
"Not with your help!" Laney shouted back, grabbing a stack of toast and walking out of the Hall with Jamie and Carissa hurrying after her, wondering what she had up her sleeve.
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AN: That's all for now. Again, review please!
