December, 2015
Harry pulls out her phone during one of their rehearsal breaks and sees that she has an email notification. She goes ahead and clicks on it, though she's sure it's just going to be another spam email that she'll have to delete.
But then she sees that it's from Hogwarts University, and her heart drops. This must be her admission decision. She opens the email with hands that she has to force not to shake.
And then nearly drops her phone in her excitement.
"I got in!" She exclaims.
"You what?" Ginny asks absently, clearly still absorbed in her own phone.
"I got into Hogwarts University! I just got the email, I'm in!" Harry says.
Ginny looks up from her phone and says, "Oh my god, we need to celebrate! Fuck, where did Ron go–"
Whatever she was going to add is cut off by a loud screech from one of the other groups of dancers.
"Was that–" Harry starts to say.
"Parkinson?" Ginny finishes.
"Yeah, I think it was." There, Harry finally spots Parkinson standing over by Malfoy and looking horrified.
"I'd say that I wonder what's wrong with her," Ginny says, "but honestly she probably just found out something stupid, and I'm way more focused on celebrating you."
Harry smiles at Ginny. Trying to put together a response. Before she can manage it though, her thoughts are scattered by Parkinson practically shouting, "You cannot go to Hogwarts University, Draco! I'll never get to see you again!"
"Oh no," Harry mouths. This cannot be happening. She's picked up on the implications of Malfoy getting into Hogwarts immediately– only the early admission decisions are out, now. And Hogwarts has binding early decision applications. That means that both Harry and Malfoy are committed to go to Hogwarts. Together.
Harry looks over at Ginny with panic in her eyes. "Please tell me I heard that wrong," she asks quietly, trying to deny it.
Ginny just shakes her head slowly.
"Pansy, I got in early decision, so I have to go now," Malfoy says, sounding annoyed.
Oh no. This is not happening.
"This is not happening," Harry says, too loudly, disbelievingly. Then she groans when she sees Malfoy turn slowly to face her. Fuck. Fuck.
"Did you have something to say, Potter?" Malfoy says. "Or are you just jealous that I'll be going to Hogwarts and you won't?"
Immediately, Harry takes great pleasure in saying, "Actually, I also just got into Hogwarts."
"You didn't." Malfoy says flatly.
This makes Harry smile. "I did," she confirms. It's a bit of a consolation that Malfoy is also going to be miserable because of this disaster.
"Why the hell did you apply to Hogwarts, anyways?" Malfoy says. "I've been talking about how I'm going there for months now." She glances over at Parkinson, then says, "Though I guess even my friends didn't manage to pick up on that…"
Harry rolls her eyes. A moment of silence passes; Malfoy is still standing in front of Harry with her arms crossed. Harry says dryly, "Did you want something? Because we're gonna be seeing an awful lot of each other for the next four years, you know."
At this, Malfoy huffs angrily, turns on her heel, then stalks off. Parkinson follows closely after her, saying something about how Malfoy shouldn't go to Hogwarts.
Harry wholeheartedly agrees with Parkinson, for once.
"Well, that does put a damper on the celebrations," Ginny says brightly. She looks around the room and says, "And where on Earth did Ron go?"
Harry runs her hand through her ponytail as she surveys the room. "That is a good question. And it really does." After a pause, she adds, "Fuck Malfoy."
Ginny sits back down on the ground. "So, I'm assuming you really didn't know Malfoy was applying to Hogwarts?"
After one last look around the room for Ron, Harry joins Ginny on the ground. "Yeah, I had no idea. I probably wouldn't have applied if I'd known– or at least, I wouldn't have done a binding application." Harry groans. "God, four more years of Malfoy…"
"It could be worse," Ginny says bracingly.
Harry blinks. After a moment of considering this and trying to see what could possibly be worse than four more years of seeing Malfoy, Harry says, "How."
"I hadn't thought that far," Ginny says with a shrug. "And besides, you'll have four whole years to figure it out!"
July, 2016
"Hey mom," Harry says, swinging into the kitchen.
"Hey Harry," Mom mimics.
Harry rolls her eyes at her mom's back. Then she walks the rest of the way into the kitchen and plops down into a chair at the table. "Guess what," she says.
"What?"
"I got my dorm assignment!"
Mom sets down the dishes she'd been washing and dries her hands off. She turns to face Harry and says, "Alright, you've got my full attention now. Tell me all about it, did you get Gryffindor?"
On her way down to the kitchen, Harry had thought about saying she'd gotten assigned to Slytherin– the worst dorm on campus, according to her dad and godfather, at least– but she'd decided to at least tell her mom straight out. Accordingly, she says, "I'm in Gryffindor! I'm on the second floor and my roommate's name is Lavender."
"Sirius is going to be so relieved," Mom says, with a bit of a smirk.
"Are the other dorms really that bad?" Harry asks. She's glad that her dad is working late today, because as much fun as it would be to poke fun at his still-ridiculously strong vendetta against a freshman dorm at his alma mater, it'll be a lot simpler to just get a straight answer from her mom.
Mom leans back against the counter. "I mean, really, they all have advantages and disadvantages. Like, uh, let me see. If it's the same as when I went there, one of them has air conditioning, one of them is right next to the dining hall, one of them has bigger rooms, and so on.
"And during orientation, your orientation aides will encourage some rivalry between the different dorms– to encourage bonding with your own hallmates."
"So," Harry says, "did your orientation aide do too good of a job, then?"
Mom barks out a laugh that makes Harry think her mom has been spending too much time with Sirius. "They certainly did," Mom says. "Twenty years later, and my husband and his best friend are still keeping the rivalry alive."
Harry nods her head solemnly. "Oh, I can tell." She pauses, then adds thoughtfully, "What do you think, should I tell Dad that I was put in Slytherin? I mean it's entirely possible, given that freshmen housing is randomly assigned…"
"God yes, please do. He could use the shock," Mom says with a laugh. "So tell me, does this mean you know where all your friends are living, too?"
"Yeah! Ron's also in Gryffindor– you remember, she applied regular decision and got in– with some girl named Hermione. Apparently, Hermione texted Ron mere seconds after they got the assignment or something like that, Ron might have been exaggerating a bit. Anyways, Ron's worried about what rooming with her is gonna be like. And I'm excited to see the fireworks."
"What about your other little friend?" Mom says.
Another friend going to Hogwarts… Harry draws a blank when she tries to think of someone. "Uh, who?"
"You know, Draco, she's going to Hogwarts too. You've certainly talked about it enough."
"She's not a friend though!" Harry protests.
Mom waves her hand through the air as if waving Harry's protest away. "Details, details. What dorm is she in?"
Harry huffs. "What makes you think I know what dorm she's in?"
Mom just raises an eyebrow and stares at Harry expectantly. Harry does her best to match the stare, but is the first to break when she says, "Fine, fine, she's in Slytherin."
Harry didn't even want to know, but Harry and Malfoy are both in the dance team group chat, despite graduating, and they'd all been announcing their news there.
A grin breaks out across Mom's face. "James is going to get an absolute kick out of this!" she says.
Groaning, Harry plants her face on the kitchen table.
"Oh, oh, I've got it! Tell James you're rooming with Draco in Slytherin! He'll have a coronary– and then try to go pick a fistfight with Lucius!"
With her face still planted in the table, Harry says, "So you want to murder Dad?"
Harry hears her mom hum thoughtfully for a moment. "I suppose I do! And what a way for him to go," Mom says wistfully.
"Anyways," Harry says bluntly, "I move in on August 19th, so be ready for that. I'm going to go talk to Ron or something, see you." Then she rushes out of the kitchen before her mom can say anything else.
Harry rushes up the stairs to her room and into the safety of her room. She flops dramatically onto her bed and pulls out her phone to text Ron about how crazy her mom is. She pulls up their chat only to see that Ron has already texted her about how crazy her own mom is.
After responding to Ron, Harry flings her arm out and sighs. Only one more month till she's out of here.
August 19th, 2016
"Why did you have to have a room on the second floor?" Dad says with a grunt.
"Didn't– choose–" Harry gasps out. Her dad knows damn well that freshmen don't get to choose their rooms.
Currently, Harry and her dad are lugging Harry's mini fridge up the stairs to her dorm room, and the narrow staircase is not easy to navigate. On top of that, Harry has somehow ended up as the second one up the stairs, meaning she is bearing most of the fridge's weight.
Finally, they reach the landing for the second floor and Harry gratefully releases her end of the fridge. After a moment to catch her breath, she says, "Why the hell did you go first? That thing was heavy!"
Dad grins. "Age before beauty, my dear, and you're the one who's an athlete!"
Harry groans, then gently bangs her head onto the top of the minifridge.
"Oh– we gotta move, there's someone coming up the stairs," Dad says.
Harry reaches her arms down to lift the fridge, but then her dad nudges her out of the way.
"I've got it from here," he says. Then he lifts the minifridge– all on his own– and carries it down the hall.
Harry spares a moment to scoff in disbelief before she hurries after him, then past him, so that she'll be able to open the door for him. They've already made several trips back and forth from the car, unloading Harry's things and carrying them all the way up the stairs.
Harry's mom had gone off to drop in on one of her old favorite professors, so it's just Harry and her dad unloading on their own. Lavender still has yet to show up.
That is, until now. Because as Harry opens the door to her dorm so her dad can get into the room, she sees that there's someone sitting on the previously-unclaimed bed. Mid-length, spiraled hair frames a dark brown, heart-shaped face. It only takes Harry seconds to confirm that this is her roommate, Lavender, a confirmation Harry is able to make thanks to her preparatory Facebook stalking.
"Hi, I'm Harry," Harry says, still holding the door open for her dad. "And this is my dad."
"I'm James," Dad says, after he sets the fridge down.
At Harry's greeting, Lavender looks up from where she had been browsing her phone.
"And I'm Lavender!" she says. "My parents dropped me off, like, across campus because we couldn't find the dorm, and, you know, the traffic is so bad that they figured I'd make it here faster on foot than they would in the car. And I did!"
"Are they still lost?" Dad asks. "Because I can give them directions if they need them." He puffs out his chest, and Harry knows he's about to either do or say something embarrassing, so she elbows him in the side.
"No, that's alright," Lavender says. "They got directions from someone else! They're on their way now. Thank you, though!"
"We still have more things to bring in. Let's go get them, Dad," Harry says firmly, hoping he'll take the hint and get the hell out of here with her. The potential for her dad to embarrass Harry seems to have passed, but it's best not to give him any opportunities.
Her dad gives her a knowing look. Harry throws a pleading one right back at him. The last thing she wants is to be embarrassed by her dad in front of the person she has to live with for the next year. Thankfully, her dad just winks at her then saunters out of the room.
Harry resists the urge to facepalm as she follows him out of the room.
Several trips later, all of Harry's belongings have been transferred to her room. During their final trip inside, they're stopped by someone in a highlighter-yellow t-shirt.
"Welcome to Hogwarts! How's moving in going!?" says the newcomer, too enthusiastically.
Harry blinks for a moment, then says, "Uh, it's going well. This is our last load."
"So, what's your name?" Dad asks.
"I'm Cedric and I'm the Orientation Aide for Gryffindor!" Cedric says, still intensely enthusiastic, and emphasizing the words "orientation aide" in such a way that Harry can tell that he means for them to be capitalized.
"Nice to meet you Cedric," says Dad. "I'm James, and I'd shake your hand, but." He jiggles the box he is holding.
Harry mutters, "God," under her breath. Her dad is just– such a dad.
"Well, James, if you're almost done moving– wait, sorry, what's your name?" Cedric asks Harry.
"It's Harry."
"It's awesome to meet you, Harry! So, if you're almost done moving Harry in, James, I'm going to have to ask you to start moving on out! You'll get a chance to say your final goodbyes after the Headmaster's welcome this evening, and until then, there's lots of activities planned for to keep the parents busy while we work on getting your kids' orientation going!"
Harry stands in silence for a moment, a little awed at how fast he'd gotten all that out.
Then Cedric makes little shooing motions with his hands. "Go on, get her all unpacked!" he says. "It's almost time to go! Go! Go!"
Harry quickly turns and resumes her hike up the stairs. She thinks back to the schedule she received when she checked in, and realizes that this is one of the people she's going to be spending an awful lot of time with over the next couple of days.
She reaches the relative safety of her dorm room and is relieved to see that her dad has followed her in rather than hang back to chat with Cedric. It had definitely been a risk, because Cedric seems like the kind of guy her dad would vibe with.
"Boisterous guy, isn't he?" Dad asks.
Lavender looks up from where she's carefully placing her clothes into her dresser. Harry assumes that Lavender's family must have shown up at some point and unloaded all of her things. It must have been while Harry and her dad had been out, because although Harry hadn't seen any of Lavender's family members, all of Lavender's things now seem to be here.
"I take it you met Cedric," Lavender says.
Harry nods. "Oh, we definitely met Cedric."
"He was not that bad," Dad says. "Orientation aides, back in my day, were ten times as bad! My father thought one of my aides was going to explode because she was vibrating so fast."
"Sure," Harry says, her tone clearly stating that she knows her dad is exaggerating.
"It's true!" he says, with a wide grin spread across his face.
This doesn't deserve a response, so Harry stays silent as she's rearranging the boxes on her bed so everything will fit. Her dad has already set his load down and is still standing in the doorway once she finishes this task, so she says, "Don't you have somewhere to be…"
Dad doesn't look at her. Instead, he's looking anywhere but at her.
"C'mon, getting to see the parent side of Hogwarts orientation was all you could talk about for weeks," Harry says.
Her dad clears his throat. "Yes, well, it's different now that it's here."
Harry rolls her eyes. "Do I need to call mom? You know she's with Flitwick now, probably deep in that nerdy shit."
Dad jumps a little at this threat, making Harry grin with satisfaction. He says, "No, no, there's no need, I'll go. But first!" He opens his arms wide.
Harry gets to her feet and steps into the hug. Her dad's arms crush around her tighter than normal, and it finally sinks in how hard this must be for him.
She's an only child; for years and years, she's been her parents' pride and joy. But now they're going to be 'empty nesters'. And Harry is going to be on her own. So Harry wraps her arms around her dad and pretends not to notice the tears she feels dropping onto her head. And if he's pretending not to notice the tears soaking into his shirt, well, what about it.
After a long moment, they break apart. Harry discretely dashes her tears away. She clears her throat at the same time that her dad does, and this drags an identical chuckle out of both of them.
"Well," Harry says, before they can dissolve into hysterical laughter.
"I guess I should go," Dad says.
Harry nods. "We'll be seeing each other this afternoon anyways."
"Right."
They stand and stare at each other for a moment before Dad finally turns and leaves. Harry stays, staring at where he'd disappeared down the hallway. Eventually, she returns to unpacking her belongings.
"That was sweet," Lavender says.
Right. Harry has a roommate. A roommate who had just witnessed the entire exchange between Harry and her dad. Harry realizes, with a small amount of horror, that she might be in for a difficult transition from being an only child, one with privacy whenever she wanted it, to sharing her living space 24/7.
"Thanks," Harry says awkwardly. To change the subject and distract Lavender, Harry says, "So, do you know anyone going here?" She grabs a box of clothes and starts to hang them up in her closet so she has something to do with her hands.
"Yeah! My best friend Parvati and her twin Padma are both here! Parvati's actually down on the first floor," she says.
Harry nods.
"So, do you know anyone?" Lavender asks.
Harry smiles, though she knows Lavender won't see it, as both Harry's face and her entire upper half are currently lodged inside her closet. "Yeah, my best friend Ron is here on the third floor," she says. "Her roommate's name is Hermione, and I've heard so much about her that I swear I know her too."
She could mention Malfoy, but then again, Malfoy doesn't deserve the mention, asshole that she is.
Lavender laughs . "I know what you mean! Padma's roommate is a horse girl. Like, full-on, insanely-stereotypical horse girl. It's all her roommate talks about, and so her roommate being a horse girl is all Padma can talk about. I think they're going to get along great."
"So, when you say 'horse girl'?" Harry asks.
"I mean she's been riding horses since she was, like, three. Here, let me show you her side of the room. Padma sent a picture in our group chat hours ago. Apparently she got here like, at the crack of dawn or something."
Harry pulls her head out of her closet and walks over. Lavender is still sitting on the floor by her dresser and going through her phone.
"Here!" Lavender says, thrusting her phone screen towards Harry.
Harry grabs the phone and takes in the sheer number of horse-themed decorations that are crowding precisely one half of the room. "Wow."
"Keep scrolling forward," Lavender says encouragingly.
Harry glances skeptically at her, then swipes to the next picture. She stares at it for a long moment, trying to make sense of what she sees. "This isn't real," Harry says bluntly.
"Oh, it is," Lavender says, grinning broadly.
This picture shows the middle of Padma's dorm. Right smack dab in the middle of the floor is a large, padded, rocking horse. It's taken up most of the floor space in the room, and the backdrop of the roommate's horse decorations only adds to the surreality of the image.
Before Harry can further express her disbelief, Ron comes storming into their room.
"I have had enough!" Ron says, without preamble.
Harry hands Lavender's phone back and turns to face Ron. "You've had enough of– what?" she asks.
"Hermione! It's only been an hour and she's already driving me up the fucking wall!"
"Right, right, what's she done?" Harry asks.
Ron sits down on the one clear spot on Harry's bed. "So, she got there first, right? And she was already like, entirely unpacked by the time I got there, just sitting at her desk reading. And I was like, awesome! She's busy, I'll be able to unpack in peace!"
Harry nods.
"I was so wrong! I started hanging my t-shirts in my closet, because you know I only have a hoodie or two to hang up and no dress shirts or dresses, so I figured may as well, and she tells me that's a dumb place to put my shirts! Then I'm hanging up my Chudley Cannons football poster, and she keeps telling me it's positioned badly!"
"Uh huh," Harry says absently. She's decided to start putting some of her other things in her desk while Ron's been talking.
"It's enough to drive a girl mad! Hermione's a nightmare, honestly," Ron says passionately.
Harry jumps when a new voice says, "I'm a what?"
Standing in the doorway is a girl– Hermione, Harry thinks– with wild curls floating around her head like a halo. Her hands are planted on her hips, and she's glaring at Ron angrily.
Harry quickly glances between the two, then exchanges a worried glance with Lavender. Harry hopes Lavender won't blame her for this exchange happening in their room.
"Uh–" Ron says, sounding panicked.
As she should be, Harry thinks.
"Well? Did you have something you wanted to say to my face, or were you just going to keep talking about me behind my back?" Hermione demands.
Ron started to say, "I'm sorry–"
"Are you? Or are you just sorry you got caught?" Hermione says, cutting her off.
"I didn't know you'd hear me," Ron says petulantly.
Hermione throws her arms out and says, "Really! Really? Wow, I never could have guessed that! Good thing I had to go to the bathroom, or I'd never have known what you think about me."
Ron mumbles something that Harry doesn't catch.
"What was that?" Hermione snaps.
"Look, I really am sorry. I didn't mean to hurt your feelings or anything. It's just– you can be a bit overbearing," Ron says.
Hermione is giving Ron a suspicious look. After a moment, she says, "Whatever, we'll have plenty of time to talk this out when we're not trespassing in this room."
Ron gulps nervously and glances at Harry. "Right, uh, Hermione, meet my best friend, Harry. Harry, meet my roommate Hermione."
Harry gets up from her desk and holds out her hand for Hermione to shake.
"Oh, that's where you two are," someone else says.
Harry and Hermione drop their handshake and Harry glances over at the door. The person who'd spoken is wearing a highlighter-yellow t-shirt that clearly marks her as an orientation aide.
"I'm gathering everyone for an icebreaker– right, introductions. Hi, I'm Gemma Farley, I'm your other orientation aide. You haven't seen me yet because I was off directing traffic, but I'm here now!"
"Nice to meet you," Harry mumbles, the same time that the others mumble their own greetings.
"Right, well, it's time for us to go, so," Gemma says, turning and gesturing into the hallway.
Harry sighs and glances at all the things she still has to unpack.
Gemma must see this, because then she says, "Don't worry, you'll have plenty of time to unpack later."
At this, Ron starts to head out of the room, and the others quickly follow suit. It seems it's time for a round of icebreakers. Fun.