Chapter VIII
Alone Again
The owls flew busily through the hall, dropping letters and parcels all around him. Sirius was thankful to receive one in James' hand, it had been three days since they had left and he was getting worried that they hadn't made it. He read the letter eagerly;
Padfoot,
It's great here in France, they live in a palace! All marble tiled and fountains and stuff, as well as a load of nymphs running round with not much on, ha, bet you wish you were here now?
Besides that, it is just like being at home, I mean there are a lot more people here and stuff but- and we get to do new lessons too. Don't sound shocked and will explain in the next letter, but me and Remus have signed up for Dark Arts lessons. Will tell you more when we have had the class, but that's what they do in Durmstrang.
There is also a vampire teacher here. Well, she is from Durmstrang but still. Apparently there is a half-giant in our school. The lower years or something. I never noticed before but just thought I'd tell you because there is this girl here who is like ten feet tall. She looks real funny next to all the others.
Remus will be fine with his furry little problem, because Dumbledore got him this really strong sleeping draught. They have loads of ingredients over here that we can't get and he is going to get sedated at the full moon. I'm not sure Georgina knows yet, but it's getting close so maybe he will say soon.
We had our first lessons today, I had charms with this weird French woman called Garrot or something and we did the same stuff as we were back home. By the way, how is Wormtail?
We can drink wine here too, and the school is amazing. Loads of secret passageways and stuff I bet, which reminds me of something. I think we should make a map of our school, saves carrying all those bits of paper about with the passwords and stuff on them. But we can talk more about that when we get back, what I wanted to say is that I hope your not too lonely back there with wormy. Try and be nicer to people maybe, ha, fat chance. Anyway, bye for now and will write more when I have had lessons and when the Tournament starts. Can't wait.
From, Prongs
Sirius smiled at it, and read it through again. He could see that others must have sent home letters to their friends too, as groups had begun to form around the hall. He felt the emptiness around him, as the spaces were left for his two friends. After his argument with Wormtail the day before, he had not seen him.
He knew that they would be back soon, back with a Triwizard Cup for Hogwarts. He smiled at the thought, and read the letter again. He searched the room for the half giant. Haggard or something he was called. Then he found him, at the end of the Gryffindor table was someone who looked like a rather wide man. The fact that he was sitting with the First Years showed him he was right. Maybe he would make friends with him?
But why should he? His friends were coming back soon. They wouldn't leave him for long. In the mean time he had the luxury of being away from Wormtail, always annoying him and pestering him. It was nice and quiet. Well, quiet anyway.