Chapter 6

After An hour of Basic Academics with the rest of the Ravenclaws and then their first Charms lesson with the Slytherins, Rose and Louise made their way down to the Great Hall. To their surprise, the four long house tables had been replaced with hundreds of small, circular tables. Professor McGonagall was standing in front of the teacher's table, her wand on her throat, and when she spoke her voice was greatly magnified.

"Attention Students!" She called sternly. Silence fell at once and she continued, "I'm sure that you all know what happened in this very hall 19 years ago. Inter-house rivalries destroyed the school from the inside out, and students turned against one another. I thought, mistakenly, might I add, that all house would then get along better and we would be united. Alas, I was obviously incorrect. Though it is true may more students have developed inter-house relationships, I fear that these friendships are weak and almost meaningless. Therefore, I have decided that instead of the traditional house tables, students shall be encouraged to mingle among one another. Feel free to sit wherever, with whomever, though I do suggest sitting with your own year. That is all." Stepping down off the platform, the older women swept over to tell two 4th year boys having a very loud argument about Hippogriffs to be quite.

"Rose! Louise!" called a voice. The two girls turned to see Albus standing at one of the tables waving them over. They made their way through the chattering students to the table. It had 5 chairs and placemats set, but no plates, cutlery, or food.

"Hey Lou!" Cameron beamed, obviously glad to see his sister had survived her first 3 classes.

"Hey," Louise said, looking equally happy.

"Where's the food?" Albus interrupted. Rose grinned.

"Over there I think, where the big purple letters say 'food'" Rose guessed, pointing over to where the four letters hung in midair over a giant buffet table.

"Good!" said Albus. "Come on, Cameron, lets go get food! You two watch the table," he added to the girls.

Rose rolled her eyes. "Thanks." She said as the boys walked away. Turning to Louise, she said, "We should probably go back to the dorm after we eat – we have a free period, right? Then we can dump our Herboligy and charms textbooks, and the Math and English workbooks. What do we have after break?"

"Potions," Louise recited. "With the… Gryffindor! Finally!" She cheered. "A class with Albus and Cameron!"

Rose nodded with a half grin. "As long as they don't get us in trouble," she allowed. "I don't know about Cameron, but the Potters have a knack for attracting attention – and trouble!"

"Who's in trouble?" Albus asked, returning with a plate loaded with mashed potatoes, chicken pie, gravy, and Yorkshire puddings.

"You," Rose said immediately. Albus choose to ignore this and sat down and began attacking his plate. Cameron appeared a few minutes later and plopped down between Louise and Albus. Rose stood.

"Come on Louise, let's go get food," she suggested. Louise stood and followed the Auburn haired girl to the long buffet table. Rose scooped Shepherd's Pie onto her plate and glanced at Louise, who was carefully examining the dishes in front of her. Since they had waited for Albus and Cameron to get their food first, the crowd had mostly moved on, so they weren't pushed or shoved.

"What's this?" Louise asked, pointing to a dish.

"Lasagna," Rose said, looking at the Cheesy pasta.

"And this?" She asked, pointing to another plate.

"Ravioli. This one is Beef," she said, pointing to a dish covered in a rich red sauce, "and this has a couple of different types of cheeses."She said, pointing at the next one over. Since Ron had such a 'healthy' appetite, Rose was very well accustomed to the many different dishes her mother and Grandmother were expected to provide.

Louise choose the cheese Ravioli. "Do you know any other dishes – ones without meat?" she asked.

"Yeah, there's salads over there at the end of the table and pizza down here. There's some soup and sandwiches down to the very left, but some of those will have mean or poultry. Why? Are you a vegetarian or a vegan or something?"

"Vegetarian," Louise confirmed. "Cameron and I both." She moved down to get some salad. Half an hour later, the girls hurried down from their dorm to meet Albus and Cameron in the entrance hall. When they arrived, the boys were talking to a group of boys wearing gold and red ties – other Gryffindors. They were all crowed around leaflets – one of Vibrant Purple that Rose instantly recognized from Uncle George's joke shop. Rolling her eyes, she turned to Louise.

"Typical guys – looking at a joke shop leaflet from a shop that Argus Filch, the care taker, banned the merchandise of. " Louise laughed, watching the group, trying to get Camerons attention, but not wanting to embarrass her brother in front of his peers by going up and getting him.

Rose looked around. Most first years were there – the Slytherin girls were huddled in a corner whispering to each other, but other than that, all the houses seemed to be merging (Rose could spot some Hufflepuff and Raven claw ties in the mix of joke-store onlookers. However, she couldn't see any of the Sylerthrin males. She was automatically suspicious – though she knew a lot had changed since her parents had been at Hogwarts (after all, there were not even house tables anymore, and she, a Weasley, was in Ravenclaw!), but she was still sure that Slytherins were up to something. 'Then again,' she reminded herself, 'Albus is named after a Slytherin…and Aunt Ginny wouldn't let her son be named after someone evil.' So she shrugged of the feeling, and went over to Albus and Cameron and, ignoring Louise's attempts not to embarrass them, dragged them down the stairs to potions.

However, just before they got there, there was a load bang, and next thing she knew, Rose was thrown against the wall. Purple smoke filled the hallway. Rose clumsily hurried to her feet, but her head throbbed from where it had met the wall. 'Oh come ON!' she thought furiously. 'Can't I have a normal life?' She raised her wand, but knew it was pointless; she knew no spells yet. 'Where are the others?' she thought suddenly. She couldn't see anyone; the smoke was too thick. She opened her mouth to call out to them, but immediately closed it. If someone was attacking them, she'd give away where she was, which wouldn't do any of them any good. Instead, she stayed still, trying to remain unnoticeable. But just as this plan came into her head, another spell hit her directly in the chest, and she fell forward, unconscious.