AU: Oliver Wood has fallen for his new neighbor, who happens to be an American witch. Romantic fluffy fic taking place during CoS, but from theP.O.V. of Oliver's love interest, Laura. Please R&R
Oh, and J.K. Rowling owns everything in the wizarding world, I've just set my character, Laura, into it. So please let her stay for a little while, she (and the author) mean no harm.
Chapter 8
Hogwarts' Little Surprises
I followed Professor McGonagall back the way I had just come. I watched as the rest of the school tromped through, talking excitedly with their friends. Thankfully I was pretty much ignored as I stood between Professor McGonagall and a suit of armor. Not sure what else to do, I let my eyes take in the beauty of the entrance hall. Straying to the suit of armor next to me, I was just wondering what century it was from when, with a squeak of rusty metal, it turned its head and looked back at me. I nearly jumped out of my skin!
Professor McGonagall must have noticed my heavy breathing and my hand jump to my chest because she looked over at me, still with a stern expression, but said quite kindly, "You'll get used to Hogwarts' little surprises in a few days."
The last of the returning students had straggled in, and the noise of hundreds of voices echoed from the room beyond. The great wooden doors were shut, and for several minutes we just stood there. A man emerged from the room where all the students had congregated and he walked up to Professor McGonagall, his black robes billowing behind him. He gave me a suspicious glance before turning and whispering something in Professor McGonagall's ear that I could not make out.
She turned pale at whatever his news, and replied loud enough for me to hear, "Notify Dumbledore and myself when you find them. I shall deal with their reprimands."
He stalked off toward a smaller staircase that led down, which I hadn't noticed before, next to the grand marble one. I had barely had time to wonder who this greasy haired, pointy nosed man was when there came three great booming knocks on the front doors.
Professor McGonagall immediately swung the door open to reveal the large man I had seen on the platform, and behind him the group of still frightened looking first years.
"The firs' years, Professor McGonagall," said Hagrid in a very ceremonial voice.
"Thank you, Hagrid. I will take them from here."
Hagrid entered and made his way into the floating candle room. Professor McGonagall led the rest of us past the doors to the room where the rest of the school was waiting and into a small, empty chamber off the main hall. I was amused by a small, mousy boy who was gripping a camera tightly and taking pictures of everything he set eyes on.
"Welcome to Hogwarts," said Professor McGonagall. "The start of term banquet will begin shortly, but before you take your seats in the Great Hall," so that's what the room was called, I thought silently, "you will be sorted in your houses. The Sorting is a very important ceremony because, while you are here you house will be something like your family within Hogwarts. You will have classes with the rest of your house, sleep in your house dormitory, and spend free time in your house common room."
"The four houses are called Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. Each house has its own noble history and each had produced outstanding witches and wizards. While you are at Hogwarts, your triumphs will earn your house points, while any rule-breaking will lose house points. At the end of the year, the house with the most points is awarded the house cup, a great honor. I hope each of you will be a credit to whichever house becomes yours."
"The Sorting Ceremony will take place in a few minutes in front of the rest of the school. I suggest you all smarten yourselves up as much as you can while you are waiting. I shall return when we are ready for you. Please wait quietly."
She left the chamber and closed the door behind her. I leaned against a wall, uncomfortably knowing how odd I looked next to a gang of first years.
"You're awful big to be a first year," said a lanky girl with blond hair scathingly. "What, did you flunk the primary grades a lot?"
"Don't be stupid," Ginny shot back, "She's the American everyone was talking about on the train."
"Really?" asked the boy with the camera. When I nodded an affirmative he gasped and asked, "Can I take your picture? I've never met anyone from America before."
Before I could even reply I had been blinded by his flash.
"Move along now," said Professor McGonagall, returning to the room. "The Sorting Ceremony is about to start. Now form a line and follow me."
I got into line about the middle, right behind the boy who had taken my picture and in front of Ginny. It was comical how much I towered over them, and I knew I must stick out like a sore thumb. We marched out of the room and into the Great Hall, where there were four huge tables filled with students, and one perpendicular to the others on the far side that was filled with teachers. We were led up between the two middle tables. I saw Oliver to my far left, sitting on one side of the Weasley twins, while the place on his left was still open. He gave me a reasurring smile as I passed and I didn't feel so much like fainting anymore. We lined up parallel to the staff table, facing our peers, while Professor McGonagall set a stool and an old tattered wizard's hat in front of us.
The hall fell instantly silent and just as suddenly the hat shuttered and a tear opened at its brim, and shockingly, it began to sing. It sang of the Hogwarts founders and their houses and gave the qualifications for each house. It was quite good actually, being a hat; it wrote better poetry than I could. After the last note faded, the hall erupted with applause, and I joined in. It was just hitting me that I was inside a truly magical building. Salem Institute was made of brick and stone, but Hogwarts seemed to be made of magic itself.
The applause petered out and Professor McGonagall stepped forward again, clutching a scroll of parchment. "When I call your name, you will come forward, sit on the stool, put on the hat, and be sorted."
When students were called up and the hat placed on their heads it would sit there for a few seconds before yelling out the name of the house that person now belonged to. I watched as the boy with the camera was called forward. The hat was placed on his head, where it slipped down over his eyes, almost covering his nose as well. After about half a minute the hat called out "Gryffindor," and hooting and hollering rang from Oliver's table. This is how it went, which ever house was chosen, that table broke into instant noise. I was just wondering whether I was lucky to have a last name near the front of the alphabet as "Jeter, Sarah," was called forward and put into Ravenclaw. I still hadn't made up my mind when Professor McGonagall read out, "Keaton, Laura."
I staggered forward, wishing I could explain to everyone that I was not a first year, but rather a transfer student. I could hear the buzzing of people whispering as I walked up to the stool. I sat down and Professor McGonagall gently placed the Sorting Hat on my head, where it slipped down past my eyes as well. Gazing into darkness I waited for the hat to yell out my house, but to my shock, I heard a tiny voice in my ear instead.
"Ahh, a transfer student," said the hat. "I must say we don't get many of those. Now where to put you…" I want to be with Oliver I thought fervently, please let me be with Oliver. "Ahh, you've made friends with Oliver Wood already, have you, ahh, yes, it's all here in your head." I wasn't sure if I liked this hat knowing all my thoughts. "You could do well in any house, but since you want to stay with your friend, it had better be GRYFFINDOR!"
I heard the hat yell Gryffindor out loud, and once Professor McGonagall had pulled it off my head, I rushed to join Oliver at the table full of clapping and cheering people.
Taking my seat beside him, he whispered, "I told you that you were a Gryffindor." He squeezed by hand under the table and held it where no one could see. We turned to watch the rest of the sorting.
I was quite amused to find that the lanky girl who had asked me if I had failed many grades was sorted into Slytherin, with the rest of the "bad eggs," as Oliver had put it. Last to be sorted was Ginny Weasley, who had barely had the hat touch her head before she was being sent to the cheering Gryffindor table. Her brothers patted her on the back as she joined the other first years that had been sorted into Gryffindor.
Professor McGonagall rolled the scroll up and took the Sorting Hat and stool away. She joined the other teachers at the table. A man with a long silver beard, who was sitting at the center of the table, stood up and cleared his throat, as if he was about to make a speech. Instead all he said was, "The long winded words of an old man can wait. For now, enjoy the feast."
Magically the golden plates in front of us filled with more food than I had ever seen in my life.
"That was Dumbledore," explained Oliver, passing me a plate of boiled potatoes, "the Headmaster."
As I ate and talked with Oliver and the other people sitting around me at the table I also watched the staff table. Only a few minutes into the feast, the greasy haired professor I had seen earlier returned. He again whispered something to Professor McGonagall and Professor Dumbledore. Both looked grim and rose quietly without drawing attention to themselves and exited the hall.
"Who was that?" I asked of the creepy man with the large nose.
"Professor Snape," said Oliver with a growl, "Potions master and head of Slytherin House, not very friendly to Gryffindors, don't cross him."
"I wonder why Dumbledore left?" mused Hermione, who was sitting across and two chairs down from me.
"When I was waiting for the first years to arrive with Professor McGonagall, Professor Snape came and whispered something to her. I don't know what he said, but she replied that when he finds them he should come tell her and Dumbledore," I informed her.
"Oh, maybe it's about Harry and Ron," suggested Hermione hopefully. "I hope nothing has happened to them."
Just then a handsome owl flew in from one of the high windows. Looking up for the first time I noticed that the ceiling was almost indistinguishable from the sky outside, except for the odd support beam that you could spot every once in a while.
"It's enchanted," explained Hermione. "Since you are new here you should check out a copy of 'Hogwarts: A History' from the library and read it. I'm Muggle born and I found it very interesting and informative to read before I came last year."
The owl had landed in front of Percy Weasley, who was sitting several chairs up from Fred and George. He scanned over the letter it had carried, got up, and strolled over to his siblings.
"I just got a reply from Dad, he said that Harry and Ron weren't there when they got off the platform, but neither was the car."
Fred and George exchanged looks. "They wouldn't?" said Fred, getting excited.
"They must have, and without us," sulked George. "Pity we never thought of it."
"What are you talking about?" inquired Oliver fiercely. "Where is my Seeker?"
"Err, well, my father has a bewitched car that can fly as well as drive, and so I'm inclined to believe that Ron and Harry decided to take it for a joy ride to Hogwarts," answered Percy in a very disapproving way.
"There is no rule against arriving at Hogwarts in transportation other than the train, is there?" asked Hermione.
"No," replied Percy gravely, "but there are laws against bewitching Muggle objects. And Dad mentioned that he was going to have to go into work because he had been informed that the Ministry was receiving reports of Muggles having seen a flying Ford Anglia."
Half an hour later, the three missing teachers reappeared at the staff table, but there was still no sign of the two missing students. Apparently, other tables had overheard Percy telling us about the flying car, and soon there was whispering all throughout the Great Hall. As the feast ended and we were dismissed, I heard several people discussing it.
"They were expelled for sure," drawled a slim blond boy from Slytherin House, laughing gleefully at the prospect to two of his friends.
I followed Oliver out into the entrance way and up the marble staircase. From there we went down a corridor to another set of staircases, which were moving. This should have surprised me also, but apparently I was becoming acclimated to the magical mysteries of Hogwarts. Oliver led me through a door hidden behind a tapestry and down a corridor. At the end was a very large portrait of a very obese woman.
"Password?" she inquired.
"We need to know a password to enter the common room," explained Oliver. "Right now it is 'wattlebird'."
The portrait swung open to reveal the entrance to the Gryffindor common room, which was filled with cushy chairs and sofas, and lit by a cheery fire.
"The girls' dormitories are up those stairs," Oliver said, pointing to a winding staircase on the right side of the room. The guys' dormitory is on the left."
However, no one was going up to their dorms, instead they were all milling around the common room, waiting for the appearance of Hogwarts' two newest heroes. Apparently, flying a car onto the grounds was a good way to get admiration. When the portrait hole finally opened the crowd of people pulled the two adventurers inside. A tall boy with red hair and another with glasses and messy black hair emerged to clapping and cheering.
"The one with glasses is Harry Potter," yelled Oliver, "and the other is Ron Weasley."
"Brilliant! Inspired! What an entrance! Flying a car right into the Whomping Willow, people'll be talking about that one for years…" I heard someone shout to the two boys, who were fighting their way through the crowd.
Across the room I could see Percy sulking; obviously he did not agree that it was a brilliant entrance. Fred and George on the other hand, marched right up to Harry and Ron and demanded to know what they hadn't been allowed to come with them in the car.
Finally the two boys succeeded in getting across the room and up the stairs to their dormitory. Closely following them were the other boys in their year.
With the heroes gone to bed, everyone else meandered up to their own rooms as well. I said goodnight to Oliver, though in the crowded room I knew I would not get another kiss, and joined the other girls going up the spiral staircase. I climbed about two thirds of the way up until I reached the door that read 'Sixth Year Girls Dormitory'. Pushing open the door, I found myself in round room with six four-post beds. At the foot of each bed was a trunk, and mine was stationed at the bed closest to the door on the left.
There were already three girls in the room who were busy unpacking their trunks.
"Hi, you must be the transfer student," said a girl with very curly brown hair cheerfully. "I'm Kitty."
"Hi, I'm Laura," I responded.
"And I'm Chloe," said the girl with the bed next to mine. She was very tall with waist long dirty blond hair.
"Audrey," said the third girl, who had a very tom boyish appearance and short cut, light brown hair.
I started unpacking my things from my trunk. I noticed that my robes had now been magically imprinted with the Gryffindor crest. I pulled out my enchanted scroll. It was blank, as I had told Jenn and Chelsea that I would contact them when I had time. I was too tired to write to them that night, but I still placed it on the nightstand next to my bed for the next day.
Two more girls walked into the room at that time.
"Laura, this is Brianna and Danielle," said Chloe. "This is the transfer student from the United States guys."
Brianna was short and sort of pudgy, with a very round face and bouncy strawberry blonde hair. Danielle was a tall dark girl with her long black hair braided tightly. They smiled and nodded to me before starting their own unpacking.
Half an hour later we were all unpacked and had crawled into bed. It was strange to lie in a bed with curtains pulled around it, though it added a lot of privacy to an otherwise rather public room. Before I knew it, I had fallen into a deep sleep.