"GOT YOUR CONK!"
Emily sat up as something grabbed her nose and shouted in her ear. A floating man, in a strange, colorful, yet almost transparent, outfit cackled at her surprise and zoomed away.
Emily yawned and checked her watch. She had fallen asleep waiting in the common room. Going to her new dormitory, she saw there was a single bed in the corner that had been made and had her bags lying on it. She collapsed onto her four-poster and sat up looking around.
The other girls in this dorm must've come from very different backgrounds. One of them had a lacrosse poster hanging beside her bed. Another had a picture frame holding a photograph of a smiling, black woman and man hugging their two daughters. One of them looked about Emily's age. Yet another bed had a heavy book about dragons lying on it. The final bed caressed a beat-up, pillow that was so used that there were clumps of stuffing in it, instead of one big mass. Next to it was a stuffed Dalmatian toy that had seen many years of love, and hugs. It was a bit odd for a 14 year old, but Emily herself knew of a few others in her school at home who slept with stuffed animals.
A sudden worry swept Emily. She had actually left home. This wasn't a game. 'What a creepy thought!' she decided.
As if on cue, two chatting girls entered the room. They stopped when they saw Emily.
"Who are you?" one of them asked. It wasn't mean, it was just kindly curious.
Emily smiled and stood up. "Hi! I'm Emily. I just switched to this school, with my friend Jon."
The girl who hadn't spoken earlier looked at the other girl and smirked.
The first girl rolled her eyes. "Fine, you were right." She turned to Emily and explained, "Luciana here had told me a rumour about a boy switching to Hogwarts. I said there were so much gossip around this school that it was impossible to tell truth from fantasy. Apparently that one was truth. Fine, I owe you candy, Lucy. Here, take it." She stuffed a bag of jellybeans into Luciana's hands. The Argentinean-looking girl stuffed her prize into her pockets and smiled at Emily.
"Gabrielle was wrong. We bet on the rumour."
Emily laughed. Her new roommates didn't seem so bad. Lucy the her books onto the bed with the stuffed dog and beat-up pillow. Gabrielle sat on the bed with the picture of what must have been her family. She was there in the picture, smiling foolishly with who must have been her sister. The poster with the lacrosse team on it must belong to another girl in the dormitory who was a muggleborn. Lacrosse was definitely not a wizarding sport.
The girls began a long discussion on everything from rumours to pets to how amazing Hogwarts was.
"You get used to it after a while," shrugged Gabrielle. "Then it's not so overwhelming."
Luciana shook her head. "I don't think you ever really get used to it. The ghosts always make me shiver, and the moving doors and knights can be really confusing. There's so much going on in this castle that it's impossible to know it all!"
Emily smiled a bit. Her mother had once told her the same thing about life. "There's so much going on in it that it's impossible to know it all. Or to keep up with it," Leila had said sourly after receiving a letter from the electricity company how her bills were late. She had been busy recently and had forgotten all about the electricity bill.
Suddenly Luciana's stomach rumbled. "God, I'm hungry. Wanna go own for dinner?"
Three of the four Hufflepuff fourth years walked to the Great Hall, stopping only for Emily to introduce Luciana and Gabrielle to Jon, who had come down with Hermione.
"How's your house?" whispered Emily as they entered the Hall.
Jon looked away. "It's okay, I guess. I don't know anybody though besides Hermione, and she's been doing homework the whole time. I almost think I should've stayed at Durmstrang. I wish you were in my house."
Emily poked him. "Too late for that. See you later," she said as they walked to their separate houses tables.
The Hall grew noisy as the remaining students entered. Once McGonagall stood up, students began shushing their friends and the noise fell to a light whisper.
"Good evening, students. I would just like to welcome two new students to our school and remind certain 7th years NOT TO LIGHT WEASLEY'S WILDFIRE WHIZ-BANGS IN THE DIVINATION TOWER!"
Two boys, who Luciana later identified as Dean Thomas and Seamus Finnegan covered their mouths, laughing. 'Troublemakers,' thought Emily, inwardly sighing. In every school there were those who liked to fool around. When she pointed this out to Gabrielle, the reply was, "You should've been here when the Weasley twins were here. Now they were real troublemakers!"
Emily thought back. "Isn't there another Weasley at the school? A red-headed boy who's friends with Harry Potter and Hermione Granger?"
Luciana and Gabrielle giggled (Emily was beginning to notice that they did this quite a lot). "Yeah, that would be Ron Weasley. He's the Gryffindor quidditch team's amazing keeper," explained Gabrielle.
"Yeah, and Gabby here thinks he's gorgeous!" Luciana joked.
"I do not!" retorted Gabrielle, still smiling guiltily.
"I've never played quidditch before." Emily yearned to play the popular wizard sport, but she had never had a broom, a field, or any wizard friends to play with.
"You haven't?" asked Gabrielle, dropping the turkey she had speared with her fork.
Emily shook her head sadly.
"Well, then where's a broom? We'll teach you."
As the meal went on, Emily's gaze began to wander. She saw Hermione in a deep conversation with Harry and Ron at the Gryffindor table, and Jon picking at his food. Poor guy- he hadn't found friends like Emily had yet. Emily's eyes wandered up to the teachers table. An incredibly large man was sitting at one side of the table drinking some wine from an expensive looking glass. Next to him was another large man, who was freakishly tall and hairy. A few seats down was a female teacher with huge glasses that magnified her eyes. She looked uncomfortable like she didn't sit in the Hall very often. Next to her was the goblin-like wizard, Professor Flitwick, who had brought Emily and Jon up to the school. Emily's eyes kept wandering, but one man stood out to her more then any other. She wasn't sure why. His robes looked a little more old and worn then the other teachers, and perhaps he did look a bit pale, but nothing about him really seemed to stick out. But there was something in Emily's mind that was saying: "Look here! Look here!" 'What's so special about him?' Emily asked herself. He should've been just another teacher, but there was something about him that was…familiar.
Her train of thought was instantly cut off by Luciana pulling her into a conversation about cute boys in Hogwarts and how there didn't seem to be very many, especially in their year. Emily glanced one last time at the teacher and then was grabbed back into the gossip with her new friends.