Chapter Three:
"So you guys hungry?" asks Harry after they had reached the hallway once again.
"Yes, I'm starving!" says Dusk energetically.
"Yeah, I'll have something," Jade replies, somewhat less enthusiastically.
"Right well, I guess it's off to the kitchens then," says Harry, turning and leading them down the hall.
"You just always have to take charge, don't you Potter?" snaps Draco, hurrying along to get ahead of his nemesis.
Jade and Dusk exchange glances, rolling their eyes.
They walk along a bit that way, each competing to lead the group. Finally, Draco tires of this, and falls back level with the two girls. Jade, seeing how obviously interested Dusk is, quickens her pace and walks along next to Harry.
"So what's the deal with that awful girl from the train?" asks Dusk, curiously. She had sort of wanted to ask what the deal was between the girl and him, but that seemed too forward.
"Nothing really," Draco says, shrugging. "She's in my house, so we hang around together in classes and stuff. She's not really so bad. She just has very strong opinions on your friend there and her sort." He nods ahead to Jade.
"There's nothing wrong with Jade," Dusk says, defending her new found friend.
"Yes, well, I'm afraid I've been taught differently," Draco says coldly.
"Well, did you ever think that you could have been taught wrong?" Dusk asks him, hopefully.
Draco doesn't answer.
Ahead of them, Harry and Jade walk along somewhat awkwardly, neither of them really sure what to say.
Finally, Harry breaks the ice. "So, how was Dublin school?" he asks.
"Well, I got a good start there and everything, but socially, I didn't do so well. There were a lot of wizarding families who didn't appreciate or respect my, um…parentage." She sighs, remembering how she had often been excluded from activities and cliques because she had muggle parents.
"Yeah, I'm afraid you're likely to encounter a few of that sort around here too," Harry answers, nodding his head in Draco Malfoy's direction.
"I take it you and he don't get along well?" Jade asks, even though it was pretty obvious.
"Yeah, we've been feuding since first year. There's a lot in it though, and it's kind of hard to explain."
"Oh. That's okay."
By that time they had gone down several flights of stairs, fortunately without incident. Harry and Jade turned and waited for Draco and Dusk, who caught up eventually. They both looked a little tense.
"Come on you two, I'm hungry!" Harry urges them.
Dusk glares at him. "Did you forget that I am afraid of the stair cases?"
Harry shrugs sheepishly. "Yeah, sort of. Sorry."
"God, Potter," chimes in Draco, a smirk on his face. "Could you maybe be more considerate?"
The two cast dirty looks at one another.
"Okay, if you are all going to fight, just give me the password and I'll find the kitchens on my own," says Jade, annoyed at the whole lot of them.
They all look at her. "You're right," Dusk says. "Come on, let's go eat."
The group continues down the hallway until they reach a large painting of a bowl of fruit.
"Is this it?" asks Dusk, gazing at the painting intently.
"Yep," answers Harry, nodding. As though on queue, his stomach growls.
"Guess we ought to go in then," Jade urges.
"Apple pie," Harry says.
They all watch as the pear in the painting twists and contorts into a door knob. Harry reaches out and turns it, opening the door. He let's the girls in, and then goes in himself, nearly locking Draco out.
Jade and Dusk stare at the kitchens. They were large and seemingly extensive, and filled with bustling house elves.
"Wow," Jade exclaims, taking in all the commotion and activity that seemed to be going on.
"So they make all the food?" asks Dusk, nodding to the house elves.
"Yes," answers Draco, eyeing the food hungrily.
Jade snorts and makes a face. They all turn to her.
"Is there a problem?" asks Harry.
"Well…yes…I don't want a diner prepared by slaves!"
Draco smacks his forehead. "They're house elves, now can we please just eat already!"
"You're welcome to eat whenever you want to, Malfoy!" says Harry, taking up the opportunity to argue with Draco. "Preferably not with me!"
Draco sneers and shakes his head.
Harry turns back to Jade. He smiles.
"What?" she asks, hoping that he isn't laughing at her.
"Nothing. It's just…you have got to meet my friend, Hermionie!"
Jade nods. "Hopefully I will sometime. It's just that, we, my family that is, didn't have house elves or anything. Neither does my aunt, who I live with. And…well, I don't know. Some of this stuff just seems totally foreign to me!"
Harry nods. "It's really okay. Trust me, they only get mad at you if you try to relieve them of their servitude. Ask Hermionie, when you meet her. The only exception to the rule is Dobby, a house elf who used to belong to the Malfoy family."
Draco, overhearing this, sneers once again. "Yes, and he was a perfectly good house elf until you tricked my father into freeing him!"
Harry shakes his head, but chooses not to reply. Instead, he looks at Jade and Dusk. "You guys ready to eat or what?"
They nod and follow the two boys to a small square table with four chairs around it. They all sit down.
"So…what's on the menu?" asks Draco, addressing a small house-elf with particularly large ears who had approached them.
"Appetizers, sirs and misses?" it asks them.
"Yes, please," answers Dusk.
The elf scurries away and returns quickly with a giant bowl of salad. Another elf followed with a large bowl of fruit. The two elves sit the bowls down on the table, along with some plates and bowls for the four students, and hurry off in the direction they came from.
"Thanks a bunch!" Jade calls awkwardly after them. She was quite uncomfortable with being served, as she was quite used to taking care of herself. Her aunt, who worked a lot of overtime at the Ministry of Magic, had not been around a lot, which had given Jade the gift of independence.
As the company of four served themselves some salad and ate, they conversed about Hogwarts and the year to come. Most of the talking was done by the two girls, both anxious to break out of their shells at a new school, while the two boys mostly listened, occasionally casting angry glances at one another.
"I am so glad I met some people!" Dusk exclaims excitedly. "I was just terrified when I found out I was going to have to transfer, scared I would be all alone, you know? But then I met Jade and you two, and I really don't feel as nervous anymore!"
"Except on moving stair cases," Jade points out matter-of-factly.
They all laugh.
"Yeah, you know, I felt the same way," Jade informs them. "I was afraid I would just be the new girl forever and end up a loner or something. I was afraid it would be just like Dublin." She shoots a look at Draco. "Fortunately, however, it appears some people don't base everything on one's parentage."
"Was it really that bad there?" asks Dusk, curiously.
"Yeah. Actually, a lot of the girls there sort of wished they could be 'normal.' They practically wanted to be muggles."
"Wow," says Dusk, hardly believing such a thing.
"Yeah," Jade continues. "They acted like we were all defective or something. And the fact that everything had to do with your class only added to it. I was pretty glad to be leaving. And my aunt went here, so I had grown up listening to her go on and on, telling all these stories about how wonderful Hogwarts and how much she had loved it."
"A few of the girls in Salem were like that, but it was a fairly small school with only a hundred or so students. Because of that, I had some muggle friends, people I had met wandering in town and such. We would go out and hang out, and even though they didn't know what I really was, I got on better with them than with any of the girls at school. I had a lot of friends in Hawaii as well." A smile forms on her lips. "I even played muggle soccer, or football, I think you call it. Do any of you play any sports?"
Draco and Harry give one another knowing looks. "Quidditch," they say, simultaneously. Surprisingly, a third voice had also spoke with them.
They look at Jade. "You play quid ditch?" asks Harry.
Jade grins for the first time since they had left the train. "I was keeper for a couple of years, and seeker my third year. Only then we lost a beater, and there was a younger girl wanting to be seeker, so I switched over to beater. I've been playing that ever since. I was sort of like my team's wild card player. I knew a lot because my aunt works in the Department of Magical Sports, and she was Quidditch captain and all, so she taught me from the time I was a little kid."
"That's awesome!" says Harry, a look of extreme admiration on his face. "Hey, Gryffindor has tryouts coming up, you should definitely try!"
"Are there any openings?" she asks, hopefully.
"Yeah," says Harry, now looking slightly downcast. "A couple of beaters, my friend's twin brothers, dropped out last year, so there's openings there."
Jade nods, sensing that the two beaters did not leave on necessarily good terms with the school. "I'll be sure to check it out," she says.
"Too bad wizarding schools don't have soccer," says Dusk, sighing.
They all give her a questioning look.
"Sorry," she says, chuckling. "I know it's a muggle sport and all, but I really like it."
"Yes, I tried football, er, soccer once," Jade says. "However, I greatly lack coordination when I'm not on a broom, so it was really quite hopeless. My aunt gave me my broom when I was a first year because that was the first year I played on a real team." She grins once again.
"You played first year?" asks Harry, surprised.
"Yeah, but they only let me because they knew I had been taught by my aunt, and because I tried out about fifteen times, determined to make the team." She laughs at the image of her first year self that forms in her head.
"You must have been pretty good," says Draco, his smirk reforming. "I'll look forward to beating you in the Slytherin Gryffindor match."
"Who says I'm even trying out?" counters Jade, even though she has every intention of doing so.
"You should," says Harry. "We need beaters, like I said."
"Yes, but even more than that, they need someone to help out Weasley, otherwise known as Slytherin's king!" says Draco, confidently.
"Funny, because the king beat your asses last year!" Harry retorts.
The girls heads turn from one boy to the next as their continuous arguing persists.
"Well, I'm going back to Slytherin," says Draco, rising.
"Yeah, I think everyone is done," says Dusk, rising as well. "You two ready to go?"
Jade and Harry nod and get up. Jade begins gathering plates, as though to clear the table, and they all give her a questioning look. A small house elf wanders over and takes the plates away from her.
"Right well, I guess I'll let them handle that," says Jade, once again somewhat uncomfortable.
They leave the kitchens and walk up several flights of stairs. Finally, they reach Draco's dormitory, and he says his goodbyes, not forgetting to mention to Dusk that he will "see her around," to which she replies, "definitely."
Harry leads them to a portrait of a rather large woman, whom Harry refers to as "the fat lady."
"This is the door to our dormitory. Only Gryffindors know it, and only Gryffindors know the password, and we would all like to keep it that way, okay?" He looks mostly to Dusk as he says this.
"Your secret's safe with me," says Dusk, shrugging.
"Yes, well, just keep in mind that it's your secret as well," Harry reminds her. Then he turns to the portrait to recite the password. "Moonbeams," he says. Then he turns to the girls once again. "That's the password for now. It changes periodically, but word always travels fast through houses when the password changes."
The girls nod, showing that they understand. Harry leads the way through the open portrait and down a few stairs to another door, which he opens and enters.
"This is the common room," he explains, gesturing to the room, which is decorated in deep red and gold. Then, to the entire room this time, he announces, "We've got two new Gryffindor sixth years!"
Several students merely look up, while others cheer appreciatively, which, Jade and Dusk imagine, is probably out of sheer joy at having not allowed Slytherin to gain any more students. Several students wander up and introduce themselves to Jade and Dusk, who, rather awkwardly, introduce themselves as well. Finally, once the commotion has died down, two Gryffindors, a ginger haired boy and a girl with rather frizzy, bushy brown hair wander over.
"Hey, Harry!" they both say, hurrying over to greet their friend.
"I hated you not being at dinner," admit's the girl. "It completely broke with tradition."
Jade feels her cheeks flush slightly with guilt at having kept another student away from their traditional dinner and friends.
The girl turns to Dusk and Jade. "Oh, sorry!" she exclaims. "My name's Hermionie Granger, and this is Ron Weasley. We're friends of Harry's."
"I'm Jade McGillan," Jade says. "I think Harry may have mentioned you. Something about books and house elves."
Harry laughs. He looks at Hermionie. "You two have to hang out sometime!" he says. "You have a lot in common."
Hermionie nods, and Jade can't tell whether she thinks that having a new girl with a lot in common with her is a good thing or not.
"I'm Dusk Hammons," Dusk interjects. "Glad to meet you."
"Harry," says Ron, after acknowledging the girls with a brief nod. "Mum got us all up early this morning. She was bustling about like a mad woman, yelling that she didn't think we'd have enough jumpers for school! She must have ten sets of knitting needles going at once! And to think it's Ginny and me this year!"
Harry shakes his head sympathetically, even though he really doesn't look like he feels that sorry.
"Anyway," Ron continues. "I think I'm going to go ahead up to bed. I mean, first day classes tomorrow and all. It'll be even worse than normal if I'm sleeping through it all! Imagine Snape if I fell asleep in class!"
Harry and Hermionie laugh at this, and Jade and Dusk simply smile, feeling somewhat out of the loop.
"I think I'll go to bed too," Harry says, turning to follow Ron. "Night you guys."
The two boys disappear up a second staircase off to one side of the room. Hermionie turns to Jade and Dusk.
"I suppose we ought to go to bed as well," she says. "Though I wouldn't pay too much attention to those two. I always found first day classes somewhat enjoyable."
The girls follow Hermionie up a staircase opposite the ones that the boys had taken, and into the girls' dormitory. They walk to a row of three beds on the left side of the room. Hermionie takes the one closest to the door, leaving the other two empty beds for Jade and Dusk. Dusk hurries to the one farthest from the door, leaving Jade to the middle bed, which she sits down on.
They prepare for bed and climb underneath their covers, even though they aren't in the least bit sleepy. As soon as they can hear the quiet breathing of their sleeping roommates, both Jade and Dusk get out of bed and hurry over to the windowsill, where they sit next to one another.
"So?" says Jade, pulling her knees up to her chest. "What do you think?"
"Of what in particular?" asks Dusk.
"Just the school and everything," Jade clarifies.
"I think that Draco guy was pretty cool," she admits.
Jade makes a face. "You think so?" She still hadn't gotten over his arrogant comments on the train.
"Yeah," Dusk answers softly. "I think maybe I could like him…"
Jade sighed. This wasn't anything she hadn't guessed already. One thing that she had quickly learned about Dusk was that she wasn't very good at hiding her feelings.
"Well," she says. "I just think we're lucky…we seem to have come to a wonderful school, and I am actually really looking forward to classes tomorrow."
"You're sort of the academic type, aren't you?" asks Dusk, remembering that Jade had bought a copy of Hogwarts: A History.
"Yes, I suppose so," Jade answers, shrugging. "I enjoy learning is all."
"Well, I'm just glad I met you, so at least I won't be all alone," Dusk replies.
The girls continued talking for some time, and finally, having gotten most of their worries out of their system, they both retired to bed and braced for their first day of school at Hogwarts.