1Chapter 6: Girls and Gryffindors

Draco Malfoy was the white-haired kid Squall saw Seifer next to during the sorting. Now that Squall was closer to him he could definitely see the Seifer-Draco resemblance, especially since they were now standing right next to each other. Both had blonde, close-cropped hair that made them look professional (Professional Assholes, Squall thought with a slight smirk), pointed yet attractive features, a muscular build, and an arrogant sneer. No wonder that hat put Seifer in the same house as that guy, thought Squall.

The girl Hermione, on the other hand, reminded him a lot of Quistis. Squall could tell she was intelligent just by the way she looked at them, and that she was friendly. He wondered who decided to put this pair together. They seemed completely opposite.

"Hello," Hermione greeted with a pretty smile. "Welcome to Hogwarts."

"Hello," everyone responded at the same time, making the whole meeting seem more like a first day of pre-school then anything else.

"Malfoy and I will be taking you to your respective towers," she continued, giving a polite nod to Malfoy.

"Correction, Granger will be taking you," Malfoy said. "I have some important business to attend to. Almasy can come if he wants."

"I'll take you up on that, Malfoy," Seifer said, giving a quick smirk to everyone else.

"Excuse me, Malfoy," Hermione suddenly interrupted as he and Seifer turned to walk away. She happened to say this at the same time Rinoa whined, "But, Seifer..."

"What, mudblood?"

Hermione looked like she was at great difficulty to hold something back. She shook it off and said, "You're Head Boy. You need to listen to McGonagall's orders. And she told us to take the visitors to their towers."

"Whatever, Granger. If McGonagall gives me shit, I've got connections. I can do whatever I fucking want."

He and Seifer left, leaving a red-faced Hermione, a teary-eyed Rinoa, and a lost bunch of people behind. "What's that kid's problem?" Zell asked, his mouth open as he watched them leave.

"Malfoy's always like that," Hermione said, puffing up. "His dad's a Deatheater, and with Voldemort back in power he think he can do whatever he wants."

"What?" Selphie asked. "What's a Deatheater? And who's Voldemort?" Squall noticed Quistis getting her tape recorder out.

"Oh, that's right... you guys have no idea what I'm talking about," Hermione laughed. "It's okay. I didn't even know I was a witch until I got my Hogwarts letter. I only know so much because I read a lot and one of my best friends is the famous Harry Potter."

As they started walking, Hermione explained everything, from Voldemort and Harry's first encounter to Pettigrew's deception, to Sirius dying in their fifth year. Selphie, Irvine, Quistis, and Zell were all enthralled in the story. It all sounded like the adults on Charlie Brown to Squall. He could tell Rinoa wasn't listening very hard either, the way she stared at the ground and her cheeks were flushed. He turned away. Although it hurt him to know she was upset, she had brought it upon herself. If she wanted him again, she'd have to seek him out on her own and apologize. A lot. Squall hated feeling like such a girl, and he honestly did still care about Rinoa, as that mirror had pointed out. But he wasn't about to go begging back to her.

Hermione took them first to the Hufflepuff "tower".

"What? This is just a portrait of some lady about to get her head chopped off," Zell said, squinting his eyes. "Hey! The people in the background are moving. And she's crying!"

"That's Lady Astrid of Grimlock. She's getting her head cut off because she betrayed a close friend of her's and slept with her husband, Lord Pinkle. Hufflepuff's are supposed to have loyalty traits or something like that," Hermione said. Irvine laughed.

"Lord Pinkle? God, I would never get any if that were my name. That guy must've had a huge-"

"Irvine! Stop being dirty!" Selphie nudged him playfully. "As you were saying, Hermy."

Hermione looked as though she suppressed a small smile at being called this. "Anyway, and the people are moving because everything's bewitched. And your tower's hidden behind the painting."

Zell suddenly reached out and tried moving the painting to one side. All the people in it suddenly started screaming. "Zell! Stop!" Hermione said, and Quistis grabbed his arm and took it off the frame.

"What? Then how am I supposed to get in?"

"By giving Lady Astrid the password," Hermione quickly explained. She leaned in towards Zell and whispered something in his ear.

"Pilates?" he said, looking at her like she was crazy. Suddenly the portrait swung open. "Hey, cool," he said. "So, like, I just go in?"

Hermione nodded. "I'm sure you'll find lots of people in there who'll want to help you out. Good day, Zell!"

"See you, guys!"

"Bye!" Everyone called after him as the portrait closed. Hermione turned to all of them. "Please don't tell anyone the password, okay? It's supposed to be kept secret from people in other houses."

"You can count on us!" Quistis said cheerfully. She was dropped off next, but Hermione didn't have to tell her the password as a couple of other seventh years came around the same time and they gladly took care of Quistis. Squall could hear them chatting her up excitedly as they went into the portrait hole. Lastly was Gryffindor. Hermione obviously knew the way well.

"Gryffindor is my house," she said. "But I don't stay in the tower anymore. The Head Boy and Girl get their own tower. Yeah. I have to share living space with Malfoy..."

"So, does that little prick have any friends around here?" Irvine asked, giving his smile to another girl halfway through his question. Squall kept wondering, if Irvine and Selphie were going out, why wasn't Selphie doing anything about his womanizing? Was she so naive as to not be aware of it?

"Well, he's quite popular actually. It's really more that people are scared of him and his family. And, yeah...," Hermione trailed off, turning pink and glancing at Irvine.

"Yeah, what?"

"He gets a lot of girls too."

"Oh," Irvine said. "Well, he's just going to have to deal with a little competition then."

Squall looked at Selphie. She just laughed. "You're so funny, Irvine."

He swatted her butt. "You know it."

She turned a little red but continued smiling. Squall decided to ask her later about it.

Finally they made it to a portrait of an extremely plump woman. Hermione said some kind of password (Squall didn't catch it; it sounded like something in Latin), and they all stepped in. They walked down a short hall before arriving in a circular, crimson room. "Welcome to the common room," Hermione said. Everyone who was in there, which wasn't a lot of people at the moment, suddenly crowded around the downsized group. "How'd you do it?" "What did McGonagall mean you can do magic?" "Are you guys actually going to take classes with us?" came from every direction. "Everyone! Calm down!" Hermione shouted over the noise. "We can ask them later. Why don't we show them the dormitories? I'm sure they're wondering where their things went."

Squall suddenly realized that he was indeed without the pack he had brought with him. Then he remembered. They'd left all their stuff (excluding weapons) in the infirmary! Well, if this girl knew where the stuff was then it probably wasn't there anymore.

"Here, I noticed they'd moved two extra beds into our dorm room," a kid with flaming red hair suddenly spoke up. He was tall and lanky with a sprinkling of freckles across his face. Next to him was a shorter, dark haired guy with green eyes and round glasses. Squall noticed an interesting scar on his forehead. Hadn't Hermione said something about that kid Harry who had a scar?

"Hey, you're Harry Potter!" Selphie shrieked, pointing at him. He looked taken back.

"Geesh, they even know who I am," Harry said to the red haired kid. "Yeah. Nice to meet you, Selphie."

He offered his hand to her. "And you know my name! I mean, I know they said it like a million times during lunch, but that's still cool," she said, shaking it. "Hermione told us all about your adventures. We know what its like to be famous too, don't we?"

Irvine and Squall nodded. Rinoa seemed to be in her own world. "For what?" Hermione asked. "Finding a portal to here?"

Selphie smiled. "No. We saved the world once or twice too. We defeated the sorceress Ultimecia. She was from the future, and like, really really powerful, but we beat her."

"Sorceress? So you guys really do have magic?" some other random kid asked. He looked younger then anyone else Squall had heard speak so far. Irvine nodded.

"Magic is everywhere where we live. Not like here, where I guess only certain people can do it."

After some more questions, Harry and Ron took Squall and Irvine up a staircase on one side of the room while a bunch of girls dolled over Selphie and Rinoa and took them up the other side. "Yeah, there's a lot of girls in this school," Ron said, referring to them.

"Good, good," Irvine said softly and slowly. Squall couldn't help but laugh a little, despite his demeanor. Harry laughed too.

"Yeah, lots of pretty girls," he said.

"Like… Ginny?" Ron asked teasingly. For whatever reason, he looked really happy at the thought of Harry and whoever Ginny was going out. Harry blushed.

"Either way, with everything going on, there hasn't been much time for either of us to have girlfriends," he explained to Squall. Irvine was starting to look excited.

"Hey, you guys know that red-head?" Irvine suddenly asked. It seemed as if it was his burning question.

"Yeah, why?" Ron's attitude changed. "Why? Think she's funny looking, do you?"

"No way, man," Irvine said, grinning. "She's the hottest girl I've seen in this place so far."

Ron's expression changed to utter loathing and he said in a voice much unlike his own, "Touch her and you die, yellow cowboy kid."

"What? What are you talking about?"

But Irvine didn't get his answer as Harry cut Ron off and said, "Here we are! And there's your beds and stuff."

Squall looked around the room, which was circular like the common one. Only this one had four-poster beds with hangings on them, and there was a trunk at the end of each bed, except for two off to the side. At the end of one was his pack, and the other was Irvine's tattered suitcase. Irvine, grateful that Ron had been interrupted, made his way over to his bed and plopped down, letting out a longer then necessary, "Ahhh."

Squall obviously noticed there were three other beds and said, "Who else stays in here?"

"Three other guys, Seamus, Dean, and Neville," Harry replied, going over to his own trunk and looking for something. "You'll have to watch yourself around Neville; he forgets things a lot, so don't be surprised if he knocks into you or something."

Harry laughed. Ron managed a weak smile. He was still fuming over Irvine. Squall nodded. "Will do."

There was an awkward silence as Irvine further relaxed, Ron shot daggers at Irvine (not literally, though he would've liked to), Harry continued searching for whatever, and Squall sat on his bed and put his face in his hands. He wasn't used to sharing a room with anybody since he had passed his SeeD exam, and now here were five complete strangers to do so with. What if he actually got out of his Rinoa slump and brought a girl back here? He assumed that's what Harry and Ron would've had to do, and that Irvine would have to follow suit. But he would be embarrassed to no end if someone came in and saw him doing that. He remembered he didn't even like kissing Rinoa in public. Their first kiss on the balcony at the celebration party last fall had Squall sweating for weeks over if maybe someone had saw. Of course they had done it, but Squall was pretty sure if he hadn't had a private dorm that wouldn't have happened.

Sometimes he wondered if he was still interested in Rinoa just because she was the only one he'd ever done that with. Yes, he had kissed girls before her, but never had it gone that far. He hated to think of her and Seifer... ugh, the thought grossed him out so much his face turned sour and Harry interrupted his thoughts with, "Uh, hey, are you feeling okay?"

"Yeah," Squall replied. "Yeah, I'm fine."