Annie woke up early the next morning, accompanied by the light snuffles and snores of her dorm mates, and after pulling the drapes of her bed back, she glanced at the sunrise starting to peep through the latticed windows.
She got out of bed soundlessly, tiptoeing over to her trunk to grab her leotard, leg warmers and ballet shoes before slipping into the bathroom to change quietly.
Niamh had sneaked her away from the others last night to show her the room of requirement that she could use for her training sessions.
Annie had been astounded when Niamh had shown her how the room would adapt for your needs, as they entered a modern and fully functioning ballet studio, which felt quite out of place in the ancient stone walls of the Hogwarts Castle.
As she made her way softly out of the girls dormitories and out of the common room towards the Room of Requirement, she went over the events of last night.
After she and Niamh snuck back into the Common room and joined the others without too many questions asked about where they had been, Annie had settled down to sitting on the arm of the squashy red sofa, which was placed comfortably around the fireplace, listening to the general chit chat surrounding her.
She noticed that Fred was missing but no one seem that bothered so she joined in the with general conversation.
"Puddlemere hands down trumped the Arrows in the last match Charlie, no point in trying to make excuses for your teams loss." Fin said calmy, a slight smile tugging at the corners of his lips as Charlie got redder with indignation.
"No it was only a bad match for us because our Beater was off and we had to the stupid reserve who apparently couldn't even see the bloody bludger even when it him the face." Charlie replied heatedly, with many hand gestures that accidentally made contact with a sniggering Niamh, causing her to topple towards Annie who swiftly lept out of harms way as Niamh plummeted to the floor.
"Well cheers Ann nice to know you got my back" Niamh said, wincing as she got up to her feet, but smiling at Annie all the same to let her know that she was joking.
Niamh's smile turned into a grimace however, as she turned round to face a shell-shocked Charlie, before leaping at him, swirling her arms, trying to attack any part of him that she could reach before he ran away around the common room with Niamh in hot pursuit. Fin sat on the sofa chuckling, whilst Annie gazed in amazement at Charlie's miracle escape route from the usually inescapable Niamh-on-revenge machine. Whilst all this was going on, Dom appeared apparently bored, still reading her magazine, huffing slightly as she turned the page, obviously used to this behaviour.
At that point, Fred entered the common room, and Annie found herself catching his eye by accident. He looked thoughtful, but that changed as they locked eyes. He looked her with what she thought to be a look of anger mixed with regret, leaving a sad look in his eyes as he brushed past her and, shaking his head started in on the chase, laughing, heading in to protect Charlie from the unstoppable force that was Niamh.
Annie had reached the Room of Requirement now, and swiftly turning on her music and starting to warm up, she was very aware of her limited time, she started to mull over her first night at Hogwarts. After the whole Fred entrance shenanigans, he seemed to come back to life that evening, admittedly still not looking at her but at least he appeared to be happy… or happier. After they had all tired out from laughing and catching up; the girls led Annie up to their dormitory, where Annie had met her other roommate: Lou McClaggen which had been... interesting.
Lou McClaggen admittedly was gorgeous. She had dead straight, brunette hair that framed her face in a stylish pixie cut with grey eyes that Annie had a feeling could cut right through you if you got on the wrong side of her. Lou was slightly smaller than Annie but with a figure any girl would be jealous of. Well, maybe not Dom of course.
Just before Annie had entered the Dormitory, Dom had shot her warning look that had clearly said "watch out, you're new to this" before entering the dormitory. Annie had followed her, confused as to what she meant, before she had spotted Lou.
"Oh hi Dom how are you, good summer?" Lou said in a sugary voice looking at Dom from a bed she was leaning against, obviously hers.
"Yeah it was fine thanks, Mum and Vic took me too-"
"Awh isn't that lovely" Lou cut in, clearly not interested in what Dom had to say.
"Well it would've been if you'd let me speak you bloody banshee" Dom muttered under her breath before turning away heading to a bed with her trunk next to it, starting to unpack all her stuff, flinging it all over the bed.
"Well who's this?" curiosity laced Lou's voice and as Annie turned away from watching Dom and simultaneously trying to figure out where her stuff is, so she could see which was her bed, before turning to face Lou.
Lou appeared to be looking Annie up and down with a suspicious look, and Annie felt like she was being put under a spotlight, a feeling she hated.
"Hi, I'm Annie, I'm a transfer student for my final year." Annie said quietly.
"Well I know all that, it was said at dinner, what a song and dance they made over you." said Lou as she turned away, seemingly bored with Annie and ignored the rest of the girls before swiftly flopping down on her bed and pulling the curtain hangings closed with a dramatic tug, and then falling silent. Dom, Niamh and Alice gave each other a pointed look before, giving Annie a sympathetic glance and quietly resuming their chit chat together.
Apparently lost in her thoughts on her perception of Lou and her strange and unwelcoming introduction, Annie had lost track of time, and had zoned out of the music, just following a routine, lost in thoughts. She hurriedly picked up her stuff before turning the speakers off and rushing back to the Gryffindor common room, desperately wanting a shower. The castle was starting to come awake around her, with the occasional early rising student hurrying past her in the hallway, giving her strange looks as they walked past on their way to breakfast. Annie ignored them and slipped through the portrait hole relatively unnoticed apart from the Fat Lady's squawks of protest that she hoped this early start wouldn't be happening every morning. Annie gave a wry smile in response to the Fat Lady as she leapt up the girls staircase two at a time, thoroughly aware that she definitely wouldn't be popular with that her after at least two weeks. She rushed into the Dorm and slipped past a groggy Alice who was literally pulling open the bathroom door before Annie darted in front of her apologising as she went, as Alice's mumbled complaints followed her, only quieting after she'd closed the bathroom door for her shower.
As Annie appeared to be hogging the shower, Alice grumbled but took it as her duty to stir Niamh and Dom, noting as she did so that this was her least favourite job in their friendship, as it often turned into a bit of a health-hazard.
They would always apologise and she knew they didn't mean it, but that didn't mean that she enjoyed it any more just because she knew it was an accident, it still tended to hurt.
Sure enough Dom actually growled when Alice tried to rouse her, before Alice backed off and tried her luck with Niamh, who started to kick out. As Alice backed away from them both, Annie appeared from the bathroom, looking fresh and awake; wrapped in a towel, chuckling at Niamh and Dom's antics.
"Leave them to me" Annie smiled grimly as Alice let out a grateful smile before making her way to bathroom, snatching up her towel and clothes as she went.
Annie smiled at Alice's retreating back, rushing into the bathroom, clearly desperate for the warm shower and the relief that she didn't have the responsibility of dealing with Dom and Niamh solely alone anymore.
Annie shrugged on her school robes and after drying her hair tied it up on her head in a messy knot, before applying a light layer of makeup.
After she was finished, she turned to face the still sleeping Dom and Niamh and pulled up her sleeves, pulling out her wand as she did so.
"Levicorpus" she muttered quietly, sweeping her wand across the two culprits beds, which were conveniently next to each other.
Both Niamh and Dom flew into the air, Dom screeching as she went, and Niamhs arms had apparently turned into windmills at the sudden lack of mattress beneath her, as they dangled upside down in the air by their ankles.
Dom was livid and was practically spitting with fury accompanied by Niamh's growingly beetroot face but just before they could start ranting at her, Annie cut in.
"I know this is a harsh wake up call you two but you had a nice one from Alice at least 10 minutes ago and I don't think she should have to ask twice. So this is how it will work, either you get up when lovely Alice wakes you, or you deal with my wake up style which won't be as pretty" Annie said sternly, desperately trying to not break into fits of giggles at the looks of indignation and shock plastered over there faces.
"Do we have a deal?" Annie persisted.
Dom and Niamh did their best to nod from upside down, both looking mutinous.
"Good" Annie said, casually waving her wand, causing the two to flop ungraciously back down onto their beds, before turning round to smile at Alice who had seen the whole spectacle from the bathroom doorway and who was grinning from ear to ear.
"You will suffer Thomas" Dom said threateningly to Annie as she stormed into the bathroom.
"Annie I love you and all but I swear to Merlin that if you ever wake me like that again, I will hunt you down and throw Pygmy Puffs at you till you are buried alive" Niamh groaned as she fell out of bed.
Annie chuckled, used to Niamhs bizarre threats, before sitting down with Alice on her bed and waiting for the others to get dressed.
Surprisingly, once they were awake, Niamh and Dom moved pretty fast. After ten minutes they were all heading down to the Great Hall for breakfast, all showered and dressed correctly. However that was only after Annie had reminded Niamh in the common room that she might need shoes, which had caused much laughter as Niamh raced back up the staircase, tripping over her feet as she went.
Once they reached the Great Hall they spotted the boys and headed over to sit with them shortly before the post owls arrived. All the boys seemed in good sorts this morning which was a relief to Annie as it meant that hopefully she would not be receiving death stares from Fred all day that made her want to melt into the floor.
As the post owls arrived, she spotted a familiar Barn Owl swooping towards her and landing neatly next to her plate, as all the others received parcels or the Daily Prophet around her.
"Hello Hercules" she said gently, stroking the owls soft plumage before starting to untie the letter attached to his leg.
As she was doing this a rolled up paper was unceremoniously dropped on her head and as she looked up she saw her parents owl flapping away.
She decided to look at the paper first, curious to see why they had sent her a paper. It was a copy of 'Transfiguration Today' and as Annie looked closer one of the headings on the front cover was 'Exclusive Interview with our new Editor: Katie Thomas'. Annie smiled with pride at her mother's new job and immediately knew she had to respond.
But by this time, Hercules was getting impatient, nipping her bowl causing it to tinkle. She carefully untied the letter and feeding him a cheerio as a thank you, before he flew off to the Owlery for a much needed rest stop.
Annie unfurled the parchment and started to read, her heart beating unnecessarily fast.
"Dear Annie,
Sorry for the lack of contact, but you know how it is with summer; family, friends and dancing, dancing and more dancing. School seems lonelier without you, I miss our regular dance rehearsals but partly because it's harder to take Madame DuBois shouting at me alone, without a partner to laugh with.
Nothing much has really been happening here. Marcus and Belle are finally dating as we knew they would, I'm just sad you're not here to tease them with me.
I miss you everyday you know, you're smile, your laughter, all the things that I'm learning to appreciate more as you're now so far away.
I hope we can write letters more often and remember we will see each other soon for preparation for our exam… no pressure there haha.
Love you, miss you and hope to hear from you soon,
Pierre xxx
P.S. Belle insisted that I send her a letter as well hence the extra piece of paper, I wish I had your patience Annie. Much love."
Annie smiled softly, tears lining her eyes as she placed the letter on the table as a wave of homesickness for her old friends washed over her.
She picked up the tightly folded second letter from her friend Belle and began to read:
" Annie. I miss you.
Annieeeeeeeeee I'm so alone and we need some serious gossip, as in SERIOUS! Look it's that serious that I'm using capitals. I know. Me using capitals, who would've thought right. Except you would've done… anyway I'm blabbering sorry.
I won't divulge all of my gossip to you now as I'm writing a longer letter currently, noting how things develop buuuuuttttt… I'M DATING MARCUS! Yup, he asked me!
He's ever so sweet and we're very happy but we both miss you loads!
Plus Pierre looks all mopey without you!
Anyway we will talk soon my lovely ditsy chum.
Much love from the girl on Cloud 9!
Belle xxxxxxxxx"
Annie chuckled, wiping the tears that had now fallen to her cheeks in laughter and sadness, only to look up to find most of her friends watching her curiously.
"Just friends from France" she said with a small smile. She went to pick up the letters from the table to head up to the dormitory to start writing her responses before class started but Niamh was quicker and snatched the letters from under her hand from across the table, nearly knocking the pumpkin juice jug as she went.
"Niamh!" Annie protested, trying to reach for her letters.
"Ha! I knew one would be from Pierre" she said quickly scanning the letter "Awh that's actually quite sweet" she said, before moving onto the next letter and demanding in an accusatory tone "Who's Belle?".
Annie blushed at Niamhs comment about Pierre, before snatching the letters back protectively. "Belle is my best friend in France, you can't have expected for me to not make any friends… beside you shouldn't snoop Nim" Annie said resentfully.
"Ann you know we have no secrets" Niamh said matter of factly before starting her food once again, her curiosity apparently satisfied.
"Hang on!" Dom burst out, "Who's Pierre?!" she said indignantly.
"My boyfriend" Annie said quietly, muffling herself behind her juice glass.
"Your what?"
"HER BOYFRIEND" Niamh shouted at Dom, causing Annie to turn the same shade as a tomato, as the others turned to stare.
"Thanks a lot Nim for your subtlety, much appreciated" Annie said sarcastically before putting her head in her hands as Dom bombarded her with questions.
"What so does this mean I don't stand a chance?" Charlie interrupted, feigning a heart broken expression and looking at Annie, his eyes twinkling mischievously as he did.
"Nope she's taken I'm afraid" Niamh responded whilst shoving toast into her mouth ravenously.
"Besides Charles you never stood a chance anyway" Niamh added as an after thought, before continuing with her toast ignoring Charlie's loud protests.
Annie hid her head in her mother's interview in 'Transfiguration Today' trying to blank out the others discussion over her boyfriend as Niamh dished out all the information that Annie was too embarrassed to listen too.
Neville was slowly making his way down the Gryffindor table handing out timetables to all the students, many of them groaning as they looked to find that their first subject of the term was not what they wanted. She had to remember to call him Professor Longbottom, she mentally lectured herself as he was her Head of House, not just one of her dads best friends.
As Professor Longbottom drew nearer the group around her seemed to quieten down, as if in preparation for receiving their timetables, all hoping for a good day of lessons.
"Ah right now it's you lot then" sighed Professor Longbottom as he reached their group, starting to tap the pieces of parchment in front of him, before handing out the timetables individually to the group.
"Oh come on Neville you don't find us that annoying do you?" James asked a little too innocently as he received his timetable.
"James I have asked you more than a hundred times; in school you call me Professor Longbottom and out of school you can call me Neville, and if you can't follow that simple rule then; in school, you'll get detention, and out of school… I'll let your mother deal with you." Professor Longbottom said with a stern tone, although Annie noticed a glint of humour dancing in his eyes as James squirmed in front of him at the thought of his Mother's anger. To be fair Ginny Potter's temper was almost as legendary as her Bat Bogey hex.
As Professor Longbottom reached Annie he gave her a welcoming smile as he handed over her new timetable.
"If you have any questions Annie, feel free to come to my office or find me in the Greenhouses and I'm sure we can sort things out. But for now it seems you're alright and it appears that you'll have at least one of these clowns in every lesson with you so you won't be alone." Professor Longbottom smiled encouragingly at her, as the rest of the group let out protests at being called clowns, before they were shushed by the Professor and given their timetables.
As he made his way away further down the table, Annie started to examine the piece of parchment that lay in front of her.
She sighed in relief when she saw she had a relatively easy day in terms of lessons and thankfully no Arithmancy to make her brain hurt or History of Magic to bore her senseless. Just double Defense, Transfiguration, Double charms and then Herbology. She heard Dom moan next to her as she spotted Herbology on her timetable, and James and Fred grumbled to each other about having charms.
"I don't know why you guy's don't like Charms, it's such a chilled lesson so we can all relax" Niamh retorted whilst still eating her breakfast.
"We don't like it because you always set fire to something every single lesson, and because we sit near you we always end up getting singed eyebrows or something" Fred pointed out whilst putting as much food as possible into his mouth.
Annie smiled at her friend who merely shrugged, accepting her pyromaniac tendencies which she had inherited from her dad, and continued eating.
"Hurry up eating you guys so we can go back up and get our books before first lesson, and I am not starting the first day with being late" Alice lectured the others as they were finishing their food.
Annie gathered up her letters and tugging Niamh out of her seat as she was trying to sneak in some extra food, all the girls headed back up to their dorm. The boys all stayed cramming more food into their mouths, and as usual leaving everything till the last minute.