Chapter Six

Scathing

Garreth awoke earlier than usual. He rushed through his morning routine then hurried to the Great Hall. He was hoping to be able to talk with Charlemaine during breakfast. But he had a feeling of letdown when he did not spot her anywhere. So he slumped over away from the rest of the Slytherins. He then helped himself to breakfast. Every once and a while he would look around to see if she had arrived, but unfortunately only got some odd stares which turned into whispers. More people left and entered the Great Hall. Then, with her face glowing, Charlemaine entered the hall. She positively smiled her heart away when she spotted him; she took the seat next to him. Whispers erupted all around.

"Hogwarts is so much more beautiful than I could imagine." Charlemaine started in a rush. "The Gryffindor common room is amazing. Oh and Hermione, one of my roommates, says she knows you." She looked at Garreth expectantly.

"Oh yeah. She helped me buy you your clothes and stuff that onetime in Hogsmeade." He said this more to himself than to Charlemaine.

"Hey what do you think your doing here?" said a large boy with a raspy voice. "Get lost Gryffindor." Charlemaine stared at him blankly then glared and reluctantly left the table. Garreth sat there flabbergasted. He then chased after her.

"Charlemaine wait!" Said Garreth in low tones. She turned around almost at once. "Don't listen to them, you can sit where ever you want. Look there's even some Ravenclaws over there now."

"No, I don't think I want to sit with people who behave like idiots." She said this obviously offended. "No offense to you of course. I'm sure there are some Slytherins that don't act that way." She looked at Garreth brightly again.

"So what classes do you have?" He asked when she took her seat at the Gryffindor table.

"Actually I don't have any at the moment. Professor McGonagall has to test me on my magical abilities in order to know what classes I should take." She looked suddenly nervous.

"Don't worry you'll do fine." After all the reading she had done and once she got a wand Garreth was sure she could do every spell she had read about. Plus she was eager to learn and please. With a fleeting good bye he left for his first class of the day. Unfortunately Arthimancy was rather difficult which proved to take all of his efforts. So he was distracted for most of that class. But Charms was quite boring, Professor Flitwick was giving them a rather boring lecture on transforming objects into other counterparts. Bored as he was it was surprising that he caught the tail end of a conversation behind him.

"And did you hear about Garreth Stone?" A girl whispered. "Everyone says that the new girl was staying in his room. Lord knows what they were doing in there."

"Shhh!" said her friend. "He could hear you!"

"I don't care. That's just sick. Sick!"

"Shhh!" Both girls snickered behind him. Garreth had a sinking feeling. Is this why everyone was whispering in the corridors when I walked by? Now Garreth could not wait until lunch, which was only minutes away. Finally the end of class bell rang and Garreth once again hurried to the Great Hall. He spotted her at the table at once; she was the only one whose hair went past the bench. Which gave him the humorous thought of someone accidentally sitting on it.

"So? How did the tests go?" Asked Garreth when he reached her.

"Oh I think I did terrible!" she replied turning into hysterics. "I accidentally hit Professor McGonagall with a shield charm. She said that it was often with wandless that it was harder to aim, but I still feel terrible. She is going to take me to Diagon Alley next week to get a wand."

"So you don't have any of your schedule?"

"Oh yes!" she said pulling out a piece of paper. Garreth took it instinctively.

"Look." He said smiling. "We have Care of Magical Creatures together. And Defense Against the Dark Arts. And of course Potions." "Care of Magical Creatures is next Class you're coming right?"

"No I have the rest of the day off. But I'll see you at dinner. Then you could show me around Hogwarts." This last statement seemed to be more of a question.

"So, other than this morning, how has everyone been treating you?"

"Oh wonderful, especially all of the Gryffindors."

"Good. Good." If she didn't know what people were saying about them then he felt that they didn't need to talk about it. "Well I'll see you later then."

"Yes see you later." Garreth walked back to the Slytherin table to eat his lunch.

A.N. Hey everyone. Sorry it took me so long to post a chapter, and in my opinion a slightly boring one. Well I just got back from Florida. Me and my sis played in the softball world series. So that kinda got in the way of writing. Well thank you to all my readers.