First Morning

Emma woke the next morning the sound of rummaging. Sitting up in her bed she saw a figure dressed in black flying across the room.

'Janine, what ARE you doing?' Emma smiled.

The stressed looking girl faced her, her red cheeks standing out from her pale complexion. 'My tie!' she cried, 'I can't find my tie!'

At Emma's side, Lorna watched with mild interest, still under her covers. Catching Emma's gaze Lorna winked and pulled a black and red tie out from underneath her pillow. She quickly stuffed it back in again to stop Janine seeing it. Emma chuckled. She got out of bed and started to get dressed. Rachel was still fast asleep and Kirsty could be heard in the bathroom. Lorna stepped over to Rachel's bed.

'Hey, Rach, time to get up,' she whispered, 'Rachel,' she whispered louder. She grinned, 'RACHEL, WAKE UP!'

Emma blocked out the next five minutes. Surely Rachel's screams woke nearby floors up. As Lorna laughed her head off and Rachel fumed back and fourth, Janine was still looking under each bed for her tie.

Kirsty strolled out of the bathroom a few minutes later. 'Morning Emma, morning Rachel.'

'That's nice,' Lorna said, 'don't mention me,'

Kirsty was facing the mirror, brushing away non-existent dust from her robes, 'I've never met you,'

Lorna rolled her eyes and began dressing. 'For the benefit of everyone in this room I am Lorna, I expect a greeting every morning and a pat on the back when I say or do anything right!'

Janine jumped up. 'I DON'T CARE! I WANT MY TIE!'

As the five girls went down to the common room, Emma saw quite a few people waiting for her. Hermione was with a group of boys, two of which Emma knew. Ron and Harry stood with three other boys. One boy was dark, another had sandy hair and the last had chubby cheeks.

'Morning! Emma, this is Dean, Seamus and Neville, they're in our year. They said they'll help you out if help is needed.' Hermione said.

'Oh, thanks,' Emma replied, 'but why would I need help?'

Hermione's eyes widened slightly, 'oh just getting around, you know, in case you get lost…Oh, are these your dorm mates?'

She politely shook hands with Emma's four friends before stating it was breakfast time.

The now huge group left the Common Room. Kirsty began talking to Rachel, who quickly added Seamus and Dean into the conversation. Janine spoke rapidly to Neville who stared in wonder at the girl who did not stop to take breaths during her rant.

'I've heard Hogwarts is so large it takes the full seven years to get used to it but I don't think it'll be too difficult since I have a rather large home, my dads a lawyer you see and my mum works for a popular estate agent, I'm a muggle born, if you didn't know and I think I already know more than some purebloods here, ha-ha!'

Neville blinked. He blinked again.

Lorna had asked the question 'When do flying lessons start?' to no-one in particular but Ron was suddenly deep in discussion with her about quidditch skills. Hermione was ahead of the group, obviously wanting to find out what classes she had. Emma walked awkwardly with Harry. As they walked through the corridors of which Emma and Kirsty had explored only hours ago, they were silent. After five minutes Emma finally plucked up the courage to talk.

'So…what are the teachers like?'

Harry seemed relieved she had spoken. 'Well, most of them are fine, Professor McGonagall is strict, she teaches Transfiguration, and Binns, of History of Magic, has this amazing talent to make you sleep with your eyes open, just don't tell him he's a ghost cause I'm not sure if he's noticed…' Emma laughed. Harry went on, 'Plus there's Professor Flitwick, he's great, he teaches Charms. I think the only teacher worth worrying about is Snape.'

'Snape?' Emma asked, surprised. 'What's wrong with him? He's always been great to me.'

Ron, who had caught the last part, stopped dead in his tracts. This caused Harry to walk straight into him. 'Nice move, Ron…' Harry snarled, rubbing his injured head.

Ron wasn't listening.

'You like Snape? And your in Gryiffindor!'

'Severus visits my home a lot. All my life he's always been a fun uncle figure to me.' Emma said quietly. She got on well with Hermione and Harry and she desperately did not want Ron to hold a grudge.

Ron gave her a dark look before running ahead to Hermione.

'Please ignore him,' Harry said, rubbing the back of his neck nervously, 'Hermione gave him an earful last night about his 'behaviour', it's only to be expected that he'll be like this…'

'Shame…' Lorna sighed, 'we were having such an interesting conversation…'

'So the owls just…fly in?'

'Yes.'

'Don't they hit each other?'

'I don't know, why don't you ask them…'

'Ask the owls?'

'Yeah'

'Now THAT'S an idea…'

Emma rolled her eyes. She knew Lorna was pretending to be stupid. The mail had just arrived in the Great Hall and most first years were in awe of it. Emma wasn't, Draco had explained a lot about Hogwarts. Draco. Emma raised her head towards the Slytherin table.

Draco sat staring blankly at his empty plate. At his left was Pansy Parkinson. Emma knew the arrangements the Parkinson and Malfoy family had. At sixteen Draco and Pansy would begin planning their wedding.

'Two strong, pureblood families, uniting as one. It is a splendid thing!' Lucious had once said.

Not everyone agreed. Emma hated the Parkinson's with a passion. Mr Parkinson was very big-headed, boasting of the family history, claiming to be a descendent of Salazar Slytherin himself, which was simply not true. His black moustache seemed very suspicious when put next to his wisps of grey hairs on the top of his shiny head.

His wife was very snotty. One of the ugliest things you have ever seen. Her greying hair was very badly dyed red, her teeth were a disgusting shade of yellow and her nose took up most of her face. Not many people could beat that, but their daughter could.

Pansy was a lot like her mother. She had a large; spread out nose and small beady eyes, her hair was a greasy blonde which she tended to flick when around Emma's brother. Pansy's face was practically plastered with make up. A thick foundation made her face yellow (which looked stupid with her white neck).Her ruby red lip stick made her lips look twice as big as they should be which was sickening to look at. Her lashes were stuck together with mascara and her eyes looked beaten at the amount of eye shadow she used. All in all, Draco was not getting a good deal.

Mrs Malfoy was forever begging her husband to stop the arranged marriage, but it never made a difference. Emma had found Draco near to tears when the topic came up. Why would he marry a pig? It wasn't fair.

Emma turned her attention to Draco's right and almost fell off her chair with fright. Blaise Zabini was staring right back at her with an evil grin on his face. He wriggled his eyebrows, making Emma look away in disgust.

Kirsty noticed her expression. 'You ok?'

Emma nodded. 'Fine,' she lied.

AN. Ok, what I was trying to do is give background info on Emma's family and how her room mates might not get along for long. Tell me what you think!