Friends at Hogwarts
2nd September 1989. Not my best birthday ever.
You see, Hogwarts has an outstanding tradition for gossip. Once it starts there's simply no way to stop it. I hadn't even left the feast before I heard rumours flying up and down the Slytherin table about how I supported muggle-borns. I even heard the words 'blood traitor' uttered a few times.
I should explain. Slytherin house has somewhat of a reputation. They say that more dark wizards have come out of that house than any other, and a surprising number of those dark wizards have the idea that anyone muggle-born – or mudblood as they like to put it – don't deserve to be taught magic, that it should be something kept entirely within wizarding families. It's well-known that Salazar Slytherin himself supported these views. A ridiculous idea if you ask me. If we did that then soon the wizard population would die out altogether. There simply aren't enough of us left. But members of Slytherin house still appear to take this idea as compulsory for anyone within it. Anyone who doesn't is just, well, odd. And Slytherins aren't known for being the most accepting people on the planet.
So there I was – a plump hen in the midst of a horde of hungry foxes. A nice way to start the school year if ever I've heard of one.
It was a surprisingly warm day for September. After being subjected to the taunts and snubs of my fellow Slytherins for the entire length of the previous evening and hearing several not-so-polite comments as I came down to the common room this morning, I quickly decided to skip breakfast – something that would soon become a reoccurring habit of mine. As it was a Saturday and lessons wouldn't start until the following Monday I deemed it necessary to escape from the Slytherins for a while and instead explore the castle. My plans were altered though when I had left the dungeons and reached the Entrance Hall. The sunshine streaming through the open doors was just too enticing to resist.
As I wandered down the stone steps out of the front doors, I got my first glimpse of the Hogwarts grounds in daylight. The golden sunlight glimmered down as it crested the high surrounding mountaintops, reflections shimmering off of the giant lake before me. The dew on the grass shone and the rolling forest stretched for what seemed like miles into the distance. I walked a bit around the shore of the lake, marvelling at the many high turrets of the castle and casting tentative glances into the darkness of the thick forest, wondering what creatures lived inside. After a good thirty minutes walk I plonked myself down under the boughs of an old apple tree and stared at the wondrous sight before me.
It had been less than five minutes before I heard the sound of wings and a soft hooting making its way towards me. I immediately recognised the small screech owl that landed beside me; it was Granma Sue's. I stroked the top of Horron's head as I quickly untied the small parcel he was carrying from his outstretched leg. The simple note attached read 'Happy 12th birthday. Hope you're having a nice time at school.' Yeah, I was having such a fun time with my house ignoring me.
Horron jumped up onto my shoulder where he sat and affectionately nibbled at my ear. I eagerly ripped open the small parcel. Granma Sue's birthday presents were always extremely thoughtful, even if she couldn't afford anything grand. The paper fell away to reveal a small red book, its title written in spindly gold letters across the front – Why I didn't die when the Augurey cried by Gulliver Pokeby. Thoughtful, indeed. It had been less than two months since I had asked Granma Sue what the man on the radio meant when he said someone's fame was like the Augurey's song. She had explained how the Augurey used to be thought of as a death omen, but was now known simply to foretell the falling of rain. She had also told me that I should read the book written by the man who discovered this, as it followed his patient research into the myth and I would surely be interested in what he had to say. It surprised me that Granma still remembered the conversation. I made a mental note to write to her saying thank you that evening.
I flipped open the book and started reading the elegant print. I had reached the end of chapter two, 'The Storm', when I heard voices approaching. I looked up and spotted a familiar head of brown hair amidst a pool of others, all talking cheerfully as they wandered around the lake. I closed the book and stood up.
"Cedric!" The boy turned at his name as I jogged up to meet the group of students. Cedric looked at the others nervously, said something to them that I couldn't hear, and then walked towards me. I smiled as we both stopped opposite each other. "Hey," I greeted.
"Oh, um, hi Cassie." He replied looking increasing nervous. The smile left my face.
"What's wrong?"
A small smile appeared at his mouth, but I noticed it stopped several inches short of his eyes. "Nothing. So what did you want?"
I was getting uncomfortable at this point. "I just wanted to say hello, see how you are, you know."
"Oh, yeah, of course," it looked to me as if he was finding it increasingly hard to think of what to say. "I'm good." There was an unsettling silence after this as I waited for him to ask me how I was in return. He didn't, instead choosing to shuffle on the spot and refuse to meet my eyes. He swiftly looked over his shoulder again at his new friends, all of whom I noticed were wearing cloaks with the Hufflepuff emblem. He turned back to me. "Listen, um, well, we were just on our way back to the common room, so I guess, err, yeah, I'll see you around sometime or something."
"Oh," I bit back the emotions I was feeling at the blatant snub and forced my lips to curl upwards, "ok, see you, then."
I made a half hearted wave as I backed away, making it look as if I was on my way somewhere too and not in the least bit upset that he had other places to be. He looked guilty for a second before returning to his friends and they made their way up towards the castle. I turned and started marching resolutely off around the edge of the forest, wanting to get as far away from Cedric as possible.
Rumours may spread fast at Hogwarts, but it seemed as if some didn't have the magical house-jumping quality that I had hoped they had. For all his efforts at coming up with an excuse, it was obvious that Cedric simply didn't want to be around me, and the reason was even more so – my house. News that I wasn't a stuck-up, muggle-born hating, twisted, foul, evil, member of Slytherin hadn't reached his ears yet, and I seriously doubted that it ever would. While the Slytherins wanted nothing to do with me, I was certain they would not be generous enough to tell the rest of the school this. The other houses were all sure to treat me just like any other serpent. Even those who I had considered friends only half a day previously.
I was in such a blind mix of anger, rejection, loneliness, and hatred that I barely noticed where I was going until I walked straight into something very large and solid, sending me ricocheting backwards onto the grass. My downfall made a small 'umpf' noise. I quickly looked up to see what, or who, it was.
"Watch it!" I mumbled an apology under my breath. The huge groundskeeper that had led the first-years across the lake last night sighed and extended a dustbin lid sized hand. I took it and was lifted almost a foot off the ground before being plonked back on my feet again. The giant looked at me and I noticed worry in his eyes. He raised a sausage finger and pointed at my face. "Yeh alrigh' there?"
I raised a hand to see what he meant. For the first time I noticed that my cheeks were damp with the stains of tears. I quickly wiped at them and nodded, not wanting anyone to see me cry over something so stupid.
"Come on then, I've got a brew on anyway, why don' yeh come have a cup of tea inside?" Startled, I looked around and realised we were standing outside a small wooden hut with smoke billowing out of the chimney.
"Oh, I shouldn't, I mean-"
"Codswallop. Inside with yeh." I wiped my face again to make sure all the tears were gone and nodded. The man stepped up to the door of the cottage. "I'd stand back if I were yeh." I didn't understand what he meant and in the second I spent trying to work it out he had opened the door and a huge black boarhound was leaping out, bounding straight towards me. The dog jumped up and knocked me back to the ground, and immediately started to assault my face with a slobbery tongue. "Down with yeh, Fang!"
After the initial shock of what had happened, I realised I was in no great danger from the affectionate creature and burst out laughing. I stroked the dog at the same time as manoeuvring it off of me and standing up. The dog licked my fingers lovingly. The groundskeeper scratched the back of his head.
"Sorry about tha'."
For the first time since arriving at Hogwarts, my smile was genuine.
I left Hagrid's cabin an hour later feeling completely myself again. We had talked about many things, from what lessons I was looking forward to most to the proper way of handling Horklumps, but not once did Hagrid ask me why I had been crying. I was grateful for this. I wasn't particularly in the mood for explaining to him about my rejection from fellow students and that previously thought of friends now wanted nothing to do with me. The conversation twisted and turned, but somehow kept arriving back at the same topic – magical creatures of all varieties. Hagrid was bordering on obsessive about some of the more dangerous beasts, but I was equally eager to hear about the kinds of animals that lived within the grounds of Hogwarts – including, I was delighted to hear, thriving populations of unicorns and centaurs. He had been right, of course; a strong cup of tea and pleasant conversation was exactly the thing to make me forget about my friendship troubles. Even more so, it was one step closer to solving them. I could now safely say I had at least one friend here, two if you included Fang the boarhound. Sure, it would have been nicer if it had been a student, but Hagrid was among the nicest of people I had ever met. It would be a crime to dislike him.
I had safely returned to the sanctuary of my dormitory, which I shared with the four other Slytherin girls in my year, in order to put the book Granma Sue had given me in my trunk before heading off to lunch, when my good mood was faltered. Opening my trunk, I almost shrieked in shock at the sight before me. Everything inside was completely unrecognisable from what it had been before. Instead of the brand new, creaseless robes was a crumpled mess. Instead of the neat crisp books was a pile of dog-eared papers. All of which were covered in what looked like blue ink. I started rummaging through the remains, inspecting the damage while still in disbelief.
"Oh, no!" I whipped my head around at the shrill voice coming from the open doorway. A mousy-looking girl with freckles was standing there, an expression of mock horror on her face. I vaguely remembered her name being Francis somethingorother. The three other girls I shared my dormitory with were standing behind her, smirking slightly. "Dear me, what happened to all your lovely things?"
I stood upright suddenly. The main girl gave a jolt of surprise. "You wouldn't happen to know anything about this would you?" I practically shouted in their direction. Mouse put a hand over her mouth feigning ignorance.
"Us? Why would we waste our time touching filthy blood-traitor possessions?" She looked off thoughtfully. "Maybe it was a rat?"
"A rat?" Now I was yelling.
"Yeah, you know sometimes they can get quite large and-"
"Get out!" I screamed, pulling my wand out of my pocket. All four pairs of eyes widened, but turned and exited the room nevertheless.
I sighed and started trying to remember the spell to remove ink stains. My good mood had suddenly vanished.
That was the day I first learnt to lock my things away when I wasn't around them, something that would come in handy over the next seven years. It hadn't yet been an entire day since I arrived, and I was already starting to regret letting the Sorting Hat choose for me.
Still, I guess things could have been worse.