A/N: Yeah...so the story was almost abandoned, but ta-da! It's not! Thank you for any lurkers, follows, favorites, or reviews!
Disclaimer: I still don't own the Harry Potter world or any of it's characters. Surprise!
Chapter Four
"Remember, class, I want you to take notes on what you see today and write a foot of parchment explaining the unique qualities of each plant! It can be found in your books on page 17.."
Adeline scowled as the listened to the peppy professor, positive she was just acting as such to get on her nerves.
It was working.
Reluctantly she walked over to a family of dancing daisies, observing them with nothing short of pure loathing etched upon her face. Why were they so happy? They were plants! Nobody cared if plants were happy! Yet here the first year witches and wizards were, studying them like they were something important, something that actually had meaning in the world...
Adeline thought her friendship with Maia had a lot of meaning. Adeline was happy when Maia was there.
That was over a week ago.
"Pssst, hey! Blondie! Helloooo- no, not you, the Slytherin!"
Adeline wondered what Maia was doing now. She was probably lazing about, making fun of a poorly written book with her other friends. Since when did she even have other friends? The fact that Adel didn't even know that much hurt a lot more than it should have. And now?
"Um, person near the dancing flowers? Miss? Can you hear me?"
Now Adeline was absolutely miserable.
"Hey! Girl with the long hair, hey-"
"What do you want?!" Adeline snapped, turning on the Hufflepuff with her brother's trademark Scowl-of-Doom #27, bearing a very close resemblance to the You-Shouldn't-Have-Done-That-Scowl #14- but she hadn't perfected that one. Yet.
Apparently she still had to work on #27, if the ginger's grin was anything to go by. "Hey, do you wanna work together? I mean, that way we'll get done quicker and she said we could explore the rest of the greenhouse if we were with somebody else! I heard that there's a bunch of tress with edible leaves towards the back that I really want to visit, and-"
"Is that all?" Adeline asked, cutting him short.
The boy blushed, yet the grin remained firmly stuck in place. "Yeah!"
Adeline rolled her eyes, bending down to get a closer look at the plants. The boy rambled on some more, but eventually fell quiet when he realized she wasn't going to respond. Still he stayed, loudly scribbling down hurried notes beside her.
It wasn't too bad, once he shut up. Though neither of them said anything she recognized him from the boat, and remembered him telling his friend about a sister. She didn't recognize him from any of the parties she'd attended, so she ranked him as a low half blood in her mind- somewhat dirty, but not the worst of the lot.
It was almost even peaceful, and she was optimistic for the rest of the class period if it all played out the same way.
It didn't.
"LUCAS!"
The boy jumped next to her, accidentally elbowing her as he turned around at the sound of his name. Adeline jerked, and her fingernail sliced through one of the smaller flower's leaves. She dimly heard her partner talking to someone behind her, too focused on the trembling baby flower and the fact that the rest had stopped dancing.
They had mouths. They were able to sing once they were more mature. Didn't that mean they could..?
She yanked the ginger's arm, hissing at him in barely concealed panic. "They're about to scream!"
Lucas looked at her with wide eyes, confused before he saw the shaking plants. "Oh crud- Cooper, pass me the water!"
"What do you need the-"
"Wait, no-!"
Before anyone could stop him he dashed forward, grabbing the bucket and throwing it against the flowers.
Adeline couldn't believe. She, was he-
"Are you an idiot?!"
"What?! You said you didn't want them to scream, so now with the water they can't-"
"THAT'S NOT WATER-"
BOOM!
A few seconds of silence. And then came the screams, from flowers and children alike.
"FIRE!"
And the best part...
"MISS AVERY AND MISTER WHITE! DETENTION-"
~.~
"-for the rest of the week and thirty points! Can you believe that?! It wasn't even my fault, I swear, and now they'll probably send a letter home to boot! You'll write to them, won't you, and explain what's going on? Aidrik?"
"Where's Maia, Adeline?"
Adel pulled a face. "Does it matter?"
Aidrik rolled his eyes at his younger sister before checking his watch, then peering down the turn. Adeline huffed.
"What are you waiting for?"
"Have you talked to her since your argument about the sorting?"
"I asked first!"
"I was born first." He smirked when she made another face, but his eyes kept darting to and fro- just watching made it made Adel dizzy. He cut her off before she even said anything, gesturing for her to shoo since he was "busy". Adeline asked him not so kindly if he mistook the water for firewhiskey again, and was now fuming at his response as she marched a path into the Great Hall. Honestly, how could her brother be so uncivilized?
That wasn't even mentioning how he asked about Maia before herself, his own sister- not that she didn't constantly fill him in anyways, but it was still rude!
All that to say, she wasn't happy as she made her way across the hall, and wasn't watching when somebody idiotically got in her way, forcing her backwards. Adeline's eyes flashed, and she was ready to unleash a torrent of the soon to be famous Avery Wrath when the person rushed over, hands gesturing wildly at her as if she were some animal to be tamed.
"I'm so sorry! I- wait, you're the girl I've been looking for! I found you! You're friends with that one Ravenclaw, aren't you? From the boat?"
"Who in Merlin's name are you?! Give me one reason not to hex you, you dingbat, these robes were brand new!"
The gryffindor scowled back, switching from startled to angry and confused in a heartbeat. "I said sorry, what's your problem?! Your robes are fine!"
Adeline scoffed, backing away and pointedly dusting her robes off. "Yes, they were fine until you got your filthy hands on them! I might as well have rolled in mud, with how they are now."
The other boy twitched, face turning an ugly puce red as he glared with all the might of an angry kitten. "Seems like it'd only be an improvement, if you ask me."
~.~
"Here are your books back. Thank you for letting me borrow them."
"No problem!" Leia took the books back with an excited smile, humming as she putting them back in their bookshelf. "How did you like them?"
"I didn't."
"Then why do you keep reading them?" Leia laughed as she looked back to her quietest roommate, crooning as she swooped over and very tempted to pull her into a hug. She was just so adorable! "Black, you're blushing-"
"I am not!"
"Are too!"
Leia was happy to see the girl that was finally starting to break out of her shell after a month of staying. She didn't take much offense to what she said, because after the first couple of weeks she realized there was no offense intended. The girl was just crazily socially inept. So she patiently waited for her roommate to begin listing off reasons why she didn't like the books, pointing out all the illogical things and questioning their motives- she didn't seem to understand the concept of love-at-first-sight, thinking it was a joke when Leia first tried to explain.
Leia, whose bookshelf was full of epic romance adventures and fairytales in three different languages, had resolved to fix this by the end of the year. What really took her by surprise was the fact that the other girl actually went along with it. Leia knew her gossip, and wondered what kind of supposedly evil, stiff, and proper pureblood read so many fictional fables for fun, even offering to translate some from the library. She put fifteen galleons in the house betting pool that she turned out more like her Gryffindor brother by Christmas.
Their banter was cut short, however, when their door opened up to two snickering girls, who sneered once they saw them. More specifically, their fourth roommate.
"Black."
"Harpers, Valentine."
Leia took a few steps back, drawing attention from all three girls. Leia opened her mouth, trying to think of an excuse when her new friend sniffed, grabbing her bag from the wooden floor. "Class is in twenty, I'm going to the library."
She spared Leia another look before sweeping past, strolling through the opening Amelia and Lisa made for her without stopping once. Leia watched her go, wondering if she was brave or just didn't think highly enough of the two witches for them to be considered a threat. The way they glared after her, hands twitching toward their wands, Leia wasn't so sure.
After a few seconds Amelia scoffed, strutting to the mirror to fix her make-up. That was another thing Leia didn't understand. Weren't they too young for make-up?
"I don't know why you keep talking to her, Leia. I bet she laughs at you with the rest of the Slytherins, gossiping about with your mixed dirty blood and messy hair."
"We told you it's best to stay away from her! Why do you still hang out with her? Do you not believe us?"
Leia fiddled with her necklace, self consciously running a hand through her hair. "It's not- I mean, she's not that bad. Or, well, she hasn't been that mean and she's translating some books for me, and, well-"
Lisa rolled her eyes. "What, so you're using her, is that it?"
Leia hesitated. No, no, no! But what was she to say? She knew who'd win in a fight, and with Lisa playing with her wand she really didn't have much of a choice. She looked to the side, and regretted it immediately when muddy brown eyes met sky blue.
"Eat with us from now on."
Leia gulped. "I, uh, yeah. That works.."
~.~
"Lucas!"
The redhead quickly hid his arm behind his back, looking up at the brunette calling him. "Henry?"
"Hey! What are you doing? Do you want to play Quidditch later? My brother is getting together a bunch of people, and there's still a spot open for chaser and seeker!"
Lucas grimaced, shifting his feet at his friend's excitement. "I might've, but I have detention later. And even if I didn't, the last time I flied I got stuck upside down- not fun."
Henry snorted. "How'd you manage that? Were you trying to do a roll? How'd you get detention?"
"I, uh, accidentally helped set the greenhouse on fire...it wasn't my fault, though! And anyways, I'm kind of busy, so-"
"Is that a dungbomb?"
"...no?"
~.~
"Maia!"
Maia paused on her way out of the library, holding her books protectively to her chest when she heard the familiar voice. The blonde stopped just a few feet in front of her, gasping for breath. When she was done she looked up, and they stared at each other before Adel quickly looked away, glancing at her books before becoming interested in her green striped nails. "They have Dragon Soup in the Great Hall."
"Is that all?"
"Aidrik wanted to know how you were doing."
"Fine."
"I have detention."
Maia blinked. "What?"
Adeline looked over again, frowning. "Remember that half-blood from the boat? He's crazy! He just threw a bucket of flammable juices at these innocent baby flowers and blew up part of the greenhouse! We're really lucky we didn't get burned, and then I got in trouble for standing next to him! And that other one, the Potter kid? I think he's stalking you! He just rammed into me, asking about you, and when I didn't answer he got all mad and started sprouting all this nonsense!"
Maia stared, trying to process all the information. Someone blew up part of the greenhouse? Henry was stalking her? Adeline cleared her throat, and Maia only just realized how bad the other girl looked- messy hair, bags under her eyes and flushed cheeks. She began fiddling with the pendant she kept tucked under her robes, quieting down to normal voice levels instead of her usual loud tones. "Anyways, I just thought you should know."
She spun on her heel, walking away, and after a pause Maia ran to keep pace. "Dragon Soup, then?"
Adeline jumped, and Maia took that time to catch her own breath. A moment later, she smirked. "Yeah, but you may want to fly a few laps before eating anything else if that makes you tired. Doesn't Ravenclaw have flying tomorrow?"
"Rather that than bonding over destruction of property with your new friend. Have fun wiping mucus and feces from cauldrons, Del."
A/N: Fun fact- This chapter was almost a lot of things. Maia almost became a squib that cheated her way into Hogwarts, Henry almost began to temporarily hate Maia, Maia was almost put into the cliché bullied in the bathroom scene, and there was almost a huge, violent confrontation with the marauders. Two of the four might still happen.