The five of us slowly headed to the Gryffindor common room after the welcoming feast. Lee had gawked at me the entire time stating that he couldn't believe how much I had eaten. I think I surpassed both him and the twins in the amount they had eaten which gave me a sense of satisfaction, especially since Fred even tried to keep up.

As we trudged up what felt like a countless amount of stairs, I saw a snip of red hair stop at a large portrait that featured a fairly large woman dressed in 18th century attire. We had been following the twin's brother Charlie since he's the Gryffindor prefect and obviously knew where we were going. Once the group of red-adorned students all stopped, I heard him say the word "Hippogriff" to the portrait lady just to see the large frame swing forward as if on a set of hinges. I didn't think I would ever get used to all the surprises that seemed to fill the castle.

We were all quite tired after having stuffed our faces, so I followed Angelina up to the first-year dorm in the girl's wing. When we opened the door we were greeted by two other girls who were already in the room sorting out their possessions. Somehow all of our things had already made their way up to the dorms. I think Remus told me that house elves were responsible for carrying up all the trunks. I frowned at realizing just how many trunks that would mean with everyone in the school.

I was interrupted in thought by one of the girls quickly approaching us with a large smile on her face. Before either I or Angelina could say anything the girl started to give us each a hug. I was taken aback by the obvious gesture of excitement and affection. I couldn't get over how friendly all of the Gryffindor's seemed to be. Maybe that was one of their main characteristics as well.

After the girl stepped back from us she introduced herself as Alicia Spinnet. I noticed the other girl roll her eyes in amusement which was telling that this is how Alicia had introduced herself to the other girl as well. We soon found out the other girls' name as we all introduced ourselves. Her name was Katie Bell and I thought she looked somewhat similar to Alicia. While Katie had darker hair than Alicia, they were both brunettes and similar in height. They also both appeared to also have more athletic builds, same as Angelina, whereas I was always more scrawny looking.

We were all settled shortly after, which left us all sitting at the ends of our beds and sharing stories about ourselves. I mentioned my father being a squib since we went around talking about our parents. I explained that my dad's brother had been in Hufflepuff but had died when I was a baby. He is also the reason my parents met since my mother and uncle ran in the same group of friends who would often all hang out at my father's childhood home during the summers. I also wanted to vet my new roommates since I didn't want to be sharing a room with anyone who reacted the same way as Marcus Flint had. I would have probably begged Dumbledore to have me re-sorted since the hat had almost put me in Hufflepuff. I was proud and protective of my dad and I refused to be friends with anyone who posed a threat to our happiness. However, the girls hadn't really reacted at all. I also told them that my dad was an editor for books written by witches and wizards.

My dad's business was run through an owl-delivery system which allowed my dad to work from home. I didn't mention however that my dad rarely left the house. Honestly, he probably left once a month to go to either Remus' or Mr. Lovegood's house. Sometimes he went into the small village about ten miles away if we needed something out of necessity. But often, Remus would just bring by groceries or the two of them would go into town while I was left with Luna and her father. I was never allowed to be at home alone. I also found out that all three of them were half-bloods which eased my anxiety about them judging my own family. Once we finished talking about our families Alicia jumped up off her bed and started rooting around her trunk.

"I have to show you guys something," Alicia said excitedly. "You've all got to try these!"

Alicia stood up from her trunk with a bag of candies in her hand. She randomly selected one for each of us before returning to sit down on her own bed with one for herself in her fingers.

"My brother gave me these before I boarded the train this morning and told me to share them with my new bunk mates," she explained while we all looked at her a little skeptically.

I had never seen these particular candies before and I looked around to see we all had different coloured ones. Mine was speckled gray with black dots while I noticed Angelina's was white with black stripes. Katie's was a solid brown colour and Alicia's was solid gray. As if sensing our hesitation Alicia put hers in her mouth first. After a couple seconds a loud trumpeting sound erupted from her mouth. She quickly brought her hands up to her face to try and stifle the loud noise which sounded more and more like an elephant. After about a minute the trumpet noise died down and Alicia's mouth finally closed. She kept her hands up as if uncertain of whether the noises would start up again. She also looked slightly embarrassed probably meaning she hadn't previously known the effects of the candies. However, the three of us just looked around at each other before breaking out into a hysterical laughter. Angelina then proceeded to put her candy into her mouth. Almost instantly she started emitting a ferocious growl which sounded like a hungry tiger. This caused us to further break into hysterics as we watched the ridiculous sight. Katie then put hers in her mouth right after Angelina piped down. She immediately started barking like a dog. I looked down at mine before deciding to join in. The sensation was automatic as it took hold. All of a sudden I had no control over my own mouth and I could hear a cackling emerge from my throat. I realized that it was a sort of continuous laughter, like a hyena. Once mine ended we all looked at each other and burst into laughter.

"Your brother must have wanted to sabotage your first impression if he didn't tell you what they did," Katie said as she continued to laugh along with the rest of us.

"Well, it didn't work now did it?" Angelina asked with a smile on her face.

She turned slowly to face me with a devilish grin on her face. "Oh, I have the perfect idea for who should get the rest of these" she exclaimed as I returned a knowing smile.

"Oh, yeah. I feel some of our fellow Gryffindor's need to experience these first-hand," I said gleefully before adding, "but I think it would be better if they were unbeknownst to the effects."

Angelina nodded in approval as she then explained our meeting with Lee and the twins on the train and how a good prank may be what the start to this year needed. And this friendship. The other girls eagerly consented to the plan before deciding to call it a night.

I pulled back the blankets and closed the red curtains that covered the four-poster bed. I lay down in the sheets and went over the events of the day in my head. I felt a smile form over my face, as if uncontrollably. I couldn't have pictured a better outcome to this day; a day I had been anticipating my entire life. And this was only the beginning.

XXX
The next night our group of first year Gryffindor's sat in a circle in the common room. Angelina and I had introduced Katie and Alicia to the boys when we had sat down for breakfast that morning. We were now all discussing our first classes which had been Herbology and Charms. Both classes seemed incredibly interesting but I had a hunch I was one of the only few who thoroughly enjoyed Herbology. But we realized that by being first year Gryffindor's together, we had all the same classes, especially since we couldn't take electives yet.

At this point in the evening, the group fell into an easy silence. This acted as a cue for the four girls to all give each other a knowing look.

"Hey guys, I have some candy here that my brother gave me, I thought we could all have one?" Alicia asked in a pretty innocent sounding voice.

I could see Katie turning away briefly to stifle a smile while Angelina and I held passive looks on our faces. Alicia handed one candy out respectively to everyone like she had done the previous night. The three boys looked far less suspicious than we had and each immediately tossed a candy into their mouths. Simultaneously the boys each started making animal-like sounds. George, who was sitting directly to my right ate an orange looking candy and was now making orangutan-sounding hollers. Fred, who was sitting at the end of the group, beside George, had eaten a dark brown looking candy and was whinnying like a horse. Lee, who was on Fred's other side, across from me ate a green candy and now had small puffs of smoke coming out of his mouth every time he made a deep roaring noise. I think he must have eaten a dragon one. All at once, after the four of us girls collected ourselves from our laughter, we all stood up and bolted for the stairs to our dormitory. The boys followed suit moments later, after the candies had fizzled out. However, we were already in our dorm when the boys started running up the staircase only to have it turn into a slide under their feet. I had read this fact in the many times I read Hogwarts: A History which made it part of our prank plan in the first place. It was also easy to execute since the first-year dorm was the first door up the staircase. Plus, we knew the boys would be mistakenly trusting of us girls.

We all looked out our dorm door to see the boys fall and slide down. They were now hollering out in confusion as we laughed down at them. I could hear Lee and George cursing as they stood up at the bottom of the staircase.

"This round goes to you," Fred yelled begrudgingly. "But don't think we won't pay you back tenfold." He shouted determinedly before I heard their three sets of feet finally shuffle away from the stairs.

The four of us were still laughing and giving each other high fives. The Gryffindor girls were seeming to be a force to be reckoned with. Plus, we couldn't let the boys' confidence get too big as they had been going on about their prankster feats. I thought of all the stories Uncle Remus told me about his time at Hogwarts with his fellow Gryffindor rebels. It made me smile, despite the half-hearted warning Remus had given me on the platform. Maybe I was a little like James under all my characteristics derived from my mother.