Disclaimer: I do not own the Harry Potter series.
Chapter 1
The Anonymous Package
King's Cross station bustled with energy, Londoners of different ages hurrying about in similar fashion. Through the thick smoky air, a teenage girl walked briskly amongst the busy atmosphere with a trolley that carried a bulky blue trunk. She was wrapped in a beige trench coat and donned an old fashioned flat cap over her brown locks of hair, clumsily making her way towards a particular platform in the station. Unbeknownst to the crowd surrounding her, she seemingly disappeared through a firm block of concrete. The station continued to buzz on without a foot out of place.
Meanwhile, the other side of the wall was not much different. The same girl appeared, brown eyes twinkling with recognition and excitement. People rushed and huddled in groups, lively chatter filling the atmosphere. In the previous station, she was nobody, but facing the all too familiar Hogwarts Express and feeling the magic mixed with the smoke in the air, she was Effie Greengrass, Hogwarts' resident head journalist.
Effie ran the Owl's Post, the school's one and only newspaper. After pitching the idea of creating a club for aspiring journalists and starting Hogwarts' own school paper in her fourth year, Headmistress McGonagall approved of it in her fifth year. Since then, Effie dedicated much of her time and effort to developing the club and recruiting the best students for the jobs.
During two long years of operation, Hogwarts did not possess the same enthusiastic reaction as Effie did at the establishment of the new club. Each release was either thrown out by students or used as cleaning materials by Mr. Filch. Nevertheless, Effie was not the type to give up and continued on with the project, attempting to print the most interesting stories Hogwarts could offer every month.
Yet despite her determination, Effie could admit that she was tired of Potions class cauldron leaks and Professor Hagrid's Bowtruckle procreation column making it into her front page. As much as she tried, she could never get anything remotely interesting and dramatic out of Hogwarts. How dull could a school of magic get?
Still, watching the Hogwarts Express fill with jovial students before her lifted a bit of the weight off her shoulders and somehow gave her hope. Perhaps this year, something fascinating enough would beat the Bowtruckle column to the front-page space.
The seventeen year-old Ravenclaw approached the train and loaded her things in, leaving the empty trolley. It was hard to believe that this was the last time she was hopping on the Hogwarts Express as a Hogwarts student, but a sudden collision and a pair of muscular arms lifting her up in a tight hug gave Effie no time to get sentimental.
"You're getting heavy!"
Her feet met solid ground and Effie wasted no time in shooting him a glare. Best friend and fellow Ravenclaw, Andy Jefferson, grinned cheekily back.
"Thanks," Effie said irately. "So are you."
"I'm just playing you, Ef," Andy laughed. "You're as bloody skinny as ever. I can see the outline of your veins from two miles away."
Effie rolled her eyes. "That's an exaggeration and you are annoying."
He laughed again. Effie did not believe he could go through a conversation with anyone without laughing at least twice. Andy was the type to have a permanent smile on his face with his blue eyes sparkling in delight and his dark hair in constant disarray.
Then his face twisted into a pointed look directed at her.
"By the way, I heard Miranda Goldstein had a fling with Albus Potter over the summer," he gossiped unabashedly.
"And I needed to know this, why?" Effie huffed, crossing her arms.
"Publish it on your paper! Beats Hagrid's Bowtruckles."
Effie was unimpressed. "Andy, I don't publish gossip on my paper and you know that. Anyway McGonagall would kill me if I ever mentioned any of her students converging in sexual intercourse on the school newspaper."
"And sexual intercourse amongst Bowtruckles get her approval?" Andy said ghastly.
"Literally only you two would have a conversation with the words sexual intercourse and Bowtruckles in the same sentence whilst standing the middle of a hallway."
Tall, blonde, and beautiful Dominique Weasley approached the duo with a sullen look. Effie felt her chest contract at the sight of her two best friends and engulfed them in a tight hug. She had missed Andy's lighthearted humor and Dominique's blunt annotations. Summer was terribly lonely without them. Effie lived with her father and stepmother, both incredibly uptight and rarely ever allowed her to do anything outside the borders of her household. They detested Andy because he treated everything as a joke and they could hardly stand Dominique's attitude.
"Missed you too, Effie," Andy said lovingly into the hug.
Dominique rolled her eyes nevertheless with a smile on her face. Effie giggled as she released them both and decided to move down the hall to find an empty compartment. The Hogwarts Express just began to move and they were finally off to another year in Hogwarts. Effie did not believe the coming year could get any duller than her previous ones.
The train ride was uneventful and rather draining. Rain harshly poured against the windows, making it especially hard for Effie to catch some sleep. Dominique and Andy however slept like babies. By the time the Hogwarts Express slowed to a stop, Effie was irate from fatigue and hunger while her friends were chirpier than ever. All she wanted to do was to begin her first Owl's Post issue and have dinner. The storm hardly wavered, Effie's soaking robes hanging heavily over her ankles as she stepped in the Entrance Hall with the rest of the dripping students.
Sprightly chatter filled the chamber and Effie's head began to throb. A bit disoriented and even losing her friends in the crowd, she dipped her head down to look for the wand in her robes in order to dry herself before she passed out. In the process, she felt someone ram against her shoulder and fell hard on her backside. She blinked tears of pain away as she tried to concentrate on the frantic voice surrounding her.
"Bloody hell! I'm so sorry! Are you alright?"
Blinking twice, Effie's line of sight focused and met a pair of worried eyes staring directly at her. His name was at the tip of her tongue.
"Hold on, this'll help," he said comfortingly. He pulled out his wand, and with a nonverbal wave, Effie felt her robes engulf her in warmth, her hair less heavily over her shoulders as it dried, and the throb in her head disappear.
She finally got a good look at him with her head back in place. Effie took in the messy tuft of jet-black hair, the hazel eyes, and the lopsided pair of glasses resting on his sharp nose. A gleaming Quidditch Captain badge was pinned crookedly on his Gryffindor robes. James Potter.
"T-Thanks," Effie stammered awkwardly, getting up on both feet.
He cleared his throat and gave her a soft smile before briskly walking away, presumably to find his Gryffindor friends. Effie felt her face heat up at the encounter and began walking towards the Great Hall as well. She spotted Andy and Dominique by the end of the Ravenclaw table and quickly sat on the empty space across them.
"Someone's edgy," Dominique commented, raising an eyebrow at her female companion. "You alright?"
"Yeah, we lost you back there," Andy chuckled. "Thought they mixed you up with the first years."
"Oh, shut up," Effie muttered. "I just had a weird encounter with James Potter."
"My cousin?"
Effie shrugged, avoiding her eye. "He just ran into me then apologized and dried me off with his wand."
"My cousin dried you off with his wand?"
"Sounds like regular manners to me," Andy scoffed. "What's weird about that?"
"I've just never had a proper encounter with him, okay?" Effie laughed, despite herself. "It felt so… weird."
"Isn't it ironic how we're best friends and you've never had an actual conversation with any of my cousins outside of Ravenclaw?" Dominique remarked matter-of-factly.
"When has Effie had an actual conversation with anyone outside this circle?"
Dominique guffawed. Effie uttered a sound of disbelief.
"Sorry to disappoint but I have talked to other people, thank you very much," Effie said hotly.
"Interviewing Professor Hagrid on Bowtruckle reproduction doesn't count," Andy replied pointedly.
Effie growled. "I know it doesn't!"
"Effie, I say this with much love," Dominique began, lowering her voice to a whisper as the sorting began. "You really need to get out of your comfort zone. It's your last year at Hogwarts and you've only had real conversations with me, Andy, and Professor Hagrid!"
"I would like to remind you that I have a whole crew of students under Owl's Post, and I have spoken to each and every one of them!" Effie said to her heatedly.
Her friends had the terrible habit of exaggerating the state of her social life. Effie could talk to people if she bloody wanted to. She just preferred writing to talking and her friends never seemed to understand that.
"I'm not just referring to social stuff," Dominique sighed. "I mean like with your paper too."
Here we go, Effie thought exasperatingly.
"If you're going to try and convince me to publish gossip on my paper–"
"Effie, that's what people would read and you know it!"
"I refuse to succumb to publishing insignificant rumors about other people's personal lives for the sake of getting readers!" Effie shot Dominique a frustrated look.
Andy's wide eyes went back and forth between the girls who glared determinedly at each other. A first year was sorted into Ravenclaw and their table burst into cheers. Effie's glare did not waver and as did Dominique's.
The rest of the night came and went. Effie eventually gave up on arguing with Dominique and decided to stay silent throughout dinner. It was something that Effie never had a problem with, staying silent. Growing up, she never had much of a say in anything and developed the habit of pouring her feelings out about her situation through writing. She would write about her parents and non-existent friends at the time. She would write about her house elves who seemed to care a lot more about her than her parents did.
Effie owed much to Hogwarts for giving her the freedom she never had as a child. However, the same silence and awkwardness around people that she developed in her home was brought into Hogwarts as well. Andy and Dominique seemed to appreciate this part of her as a quirk, but nobody else really bothered to get close to her. Effie liked to believe that she did not mind this at all, as she preferred smaller crowds and keeping to herself. Unfortunately there were still those times wherein she did wish she could be as daring as Dominique or as lively as Andy. Sometimes she would imagine how different things would be if she could actually hold a conversation with someone without becoming a spluttering mess.
After dinner, Effie, Andy, and Dominique walked straight up to Ravenclaw Tower, Andy solving the entrance riddle with ease. The two girls bid Andy good night and walked into their respective dormitories. Just as Dominique readied herself for bed, she pulled Effie aside.
"Try to think about the whole comfort zone thing, okay?" she said. "Make the most out of your last year."
Effie sighed and merely nodded, not in the mood for an argument right before she slept. Her limbs were sore and her eyes drooped heavily in exhaustion. Her legs dragged themselves to her bed after she changed into pajamas. Just as she lifted her curtains up and before she could collapse on the mattress, her eyes settled on a small brown box neatly placed on her blue sheets.
Wide-eyed, she turned to check if Dominique had seen it, only to realize she was in the washroom. The rest of her dorm mates were yet to come up. Something tugged at the bottom of her stomach as she stared at the little brown box. Hastily, Effie climbed into bed and drew her curtains. Heart pounding against her chest, she took the box in her hands. It was surprisingly feather light. Effie frowned, wondering if there was actually anything inside.
Her fingers readied to open the box but she hesitated, wondering if she should open it with Andy and Dominique instead. After a short thought, her fingers lifted the lid at her final mental decision. Effie tilted her head in confusion at first glance of the package's content. She curiously lifted the stack of what she presumed were parchment. She squinted at the writing on parchment, attempting to read it through the dark.
Gryffindor's Golden Boy: A Dirty Cheat?
Effie's fingers slightly shook, unable to lift the parchment up to see what was under it. Somehow she already knew what awaited her, so she was not very surprised when she moved the top parchment aside and watched a moving picture of James Potter in the Slytherin common room. The next one on the pile was another picture of him entering a Slytherin dormitory. The following picture was another of him searching through one of the beds. The last was a picture of him looking delightedly into the pages of a notebook filled of what seemed to be Quidditch plans. A messy scrawl was apparent below it.
Publish me
Author's Note:
Hello! So yes, I have returned with a new story and it will be my only story for now. I really hope I'll be able to finish this and it would be very encouraging if you could give me your thoughts on the first chapter through a review. This is more of an introduction obviously and just a bit of insight on Effie's overall character. There's going to be a lot of development involved as the story goes on so hopefully ya'll will stick around for that.
-Finner
