Four

The next morning, many students knew, would prove to be testing. This was the day they began having the British kids follow them around by leashes. Or that was how April thought of it. She naturally stalled as long as she could.

"April! Would you hurry up?" July hollered to her twin in their dormitory.

"I'm working on it!" April yelled back. She wasn't exactly looking forward to spending time with some guy she didn't know. She grudgingly looked at herself in the mirror and mentally approved of her jean Capri's and white blouse. Her silver hair was tied back in a loose, messy ponytail. She wanted to look good but not look as if she cared overly much that she was a 'buddy' to some foreigner.

At last she stepped out of the girls dorm and into the hallway of the Howelin dormitories. July sighed exasperated.

"About time, honestly. Let's go."

April grudgingly agreed and walked with her sister downstairs to the second floor and then down another to the main level. They walked into the Vestibule Room where they were supposed to find their buddy and start the tour.

"What the heck. How are we supposed to find them in this crowd?" July frowned. Even though most of the students from Mayflower were not assigned a buddy, they all wanted to meet and talk with the Hogwarts students.

April grinned and stood up on a table against the wall, steadying herself by holding her arms out. Once she was balanced she held a hand across her eyebrows to shield her eyes against the light that was not there. She scanned the room several times before zeroing in on both July's and her own buddy standing near each other.

"Found it! …Them!" She corrected, grinning sheepishly when July laughed.

"Good let's go then." April led her sister through the throng of people. Most, if not all, of the Hogwarts students had decided to wear their uniforms; probably to better distinguish each other in a large crowd such as this. April thought it was idiotic. July thought it was endearing… almost.

Finally the twins were able to push their way through to where the James stood, looking rather bored.

James noticed his 'buddy' when she came over and immediately paused, noticing she was quite beautiful. On closer inspection of her flawless features, and the fact that his parents were Ministry officials and knew these sort of things, he decided that his buddy was a half-breed. There was nothing wrong with that of course.

He beamed and stuck out his hand. "James Potter."

April slapped him a high-five. "April Merriwether."

July stared at her twin sadly. "You're weird. I'll meet up with you later." She blinked once again before walking over a few feet and introducing herself to her buddy.

"Right so I'm supposed to show you around and you're supposed to follow me for six months. I still don't know how Mr. Healey got the idea around the Agency."

"The what?" James asked, clearly confused.

April frowned. "You know… The Agency."

"No. I don't know. Care to explain?"

"What do you Brits run yourselves?" She looked shocked at the barbaric idea. "The Agency is where all the Wizarding officials work. Different branches and such."

"Oh like the Ministry!" James nodded, understanding now.

"Sure." April said shortly, shrugging. April pulled out a piece of paper from her purse and scanned the sheet for a moment. James watched, getting bored and wondering what in bloody hell she was doing, reading some torn notebook paper in the middle of a bustling room of overanxious teenagers.

April read from the paper she and July had made last night. "What do you like to do in your spare time?" She kept her eyes glued to the paper as she asked the question, saying each word slowly and precisely as if reading it for the first time. When she finished the question her gaze snapped to his and she beamed.

James burst out into a roaring fit of laughter that had a select few around them staring at them.

April blushed bright red and shoved the paper in her purse again. She glared at James. "My God! You people expect too much of me. Let's get out of here." She snapped her fingers at James and started walking towards the large doors that led to the Mahogany Room. It was surprisingly quiet in the vast room but that was because everyone was still in the Vestibule Room.

James followed her in and noticed at once why his small map, given to him that morning, had labeled this room the Mahogany Room. The floors were a deep, shining mahogany wood. Matching paneled walls surrounded the room, various moldings carved into it. The ceiling was a soft peach color, complementing the walls and floor, and also adding light to the dark area. As he surveyed the space, he counted about seven or so couches in the same soft peach color as the ceiling and cream marble side tables and coffee tables around those seats. A warm, inviting, and extremely large, Oriental carpet adorned the center of the floor. In the middle of that carpet was a large glass case, almost ten feet long and tall.

"What's that in the middle?" James asked, pointing to the glass case.

"That's our trophy cabinet." April walked over to the glass case and immediately frowned. "We need to win the Tournament this year if it kills me."

"Oh you play Quidditch?"

April barked out a short laugh. "Ha! From grade one to three.."

James raised an eyebrow, not sure if he was insulted or not. "You got rid of the sport?"

"No, we have Quidditch here."

"Oh so you didn't make the team after that then. Well you know you can always practice and get better playing with friends," James offered, shrugging.

April snorted. "No. No, I made the team quick enough. I simply was good enough to be moved off the kids team and onto the Quodpot team when I was in fourth grade."

"Kids team?" James looked baffled now.

April frowned. "Yeah, the junior team here is Quidditch. Once you're good enough, and there's a spot open, you get moved up to the Quodpot team. That's the team that competes around the country."

"That's horrible! Quodpot isn't harder to play than Quidditch!"

April's eyes widened. "Excuse me, but have you ever played Quodpot?"

"Well no but it can't be harder!" James looked horrified. April guessed why.

"Oh I get it. Your school only has Quidditch. That's a true shame right there."

"Can we talk about something else? I think I may be sick."

"Sure." April moved away from the trophy case and sank into one of the peach couches. "All right, I'll explain this little room here." She gestured to the far, diagonal wall. "This whole room is where everyone hangs out and plays games when it's raining."

"You don't have Houses? I thought you did from what I heard last night."

"No we do. Oh well I might as well explain that first. Okay so we have three houses. Howelins, Talonaires, and Hissdores."

James noticed she said the Hissdores name with a hint of disgust and assumed it was that house which was equal to Slytherins.

"Right so we have those three houses. We have one Quodpot team and one junior Quidditch team." She predicted what he would ask and was ready for it. "Yes all three houses play on the same team."

James decided to take a seat across from his buddy. She looked relaxed, talking about her school, why shouldn't he try to be? "Doesn't that make it difficult to play better?"

"Didn't you see my near miss last night at dinner?"

"Yes," James grinned. "You probably could have taken her. Was she a," he remembered the name, "Hissdore?"

"Naturally. We've never gotten along and when I was made captain two years ago, this is my second year, she was not very happy at all." April shrugged and moved on. "Enough of that thought, I may get mad all over again."

James managed to laugh, producing a smile from April. Maybe they would get along okay after all.

"Okay so throughout the year each house's goal is to earn the most merits. Those are points we earn for being well behaved, answering questions, or winning Quodpot games. But if we're bad, which unfortunately for me is often, you get a demerit. That takes away however many points the teacher wants. And at the end of the year we see who wins at the Tri-House Tournament."

"Yeah we have the same idea at Hogwarts," James said thoughtfully.

"Good so you should catch on quick then. Let me see," April said as she tried to think of something else.

"What classes do you guys have?"

"Good topic choice," April pointed, grinning. "We have Potions, Shielding, Enchantments, Transformations, Muggle Relations, and History of Magic. Those are the core courses. Then each year we get to choose one elective. Like this year I'm taking Advanced Wandless Magic. That's what I want to specialize in as an Auror in the Agency."

James nodded. "I plan on being an Auror also. But we don't specialize in anything at home."

"We don't either. I just want to be the first one."

"I like your thinking." James commented, laughing.

As they had been talking, students and their buddies had been trickling in and out of the Mahogany Room. At that moment, Kevin walked in with his buddy Sirius Black. The two had gotten along famously so far, exchanging stories about what trouble each had caused at home.

Sirius still naturally knew nothing about Mayflower.

Kevin spotted April and grinned. "Oy! April!" He motioned for Sirius to follow him over and he plopped on the couch next to April. Sirius leaned against the trophy case.

"All right so seeing as April and I are both Howelins and you two know each other," he had been told as much by Sirius earlier, "you both should be introduced to. I decided just now when I saw you sitting here."

James stood up and shook Kevin's hand. At least Kevin did not high-five him this time, but actually shook it firmly. "James Potter."

"Kevin Jennings. How do you like it so far?"

"It's very different but then again not so much."

While each of them spoke, April looked over to Kevin's buddy…

Her eyes widened in disgust when she noticed it was same rude person who had whistled at her when she and July had walked by the previous night. As if she was going to be nice. Now that was something to laugh about.

"Sirius Black, and you are?"

April raised a brow at the arrogant guy in front of her. "April Merriwether."

Kevin blinked and tried to get some conversation going between the two. James looked on, curious. "Why don't you share some interests?"

"I like cats," April said simply.

"I like dogs."

"Quodpot."

"Quidditch."

"I like men."

"Girls."

"Well it looks like we have absolutely nothing in common. Goodbye." She turned a genuine smile upon Kevin. "See you at lunch this afternoon?"

Kevin was still replaying the dialogue just played between the two. "Uh sure..."

James laughed and followed April out as she left the Mahogany Room.

Sirius frowned at the smile she flashed his "buddy." What in bloody hell did he do so wrong? He decided at that moment that he did not like April Merriwether all that much.