Two.
I slowly made my way out of the carriage and off of the train, my trunk and Sacha, my tawny owl, in my hands. I stepped out onto the platform, waiting behind for a moment for my two best friends to appear. 'Aurelia!' I heard Kate's thick Irish accent call. I turned my head to try to locate the sound of her voice, my almost platinum blonde hair swishing and tickling my back. After a couple of seconds of searching, I could see her running towards me, Nat in tow. 'You two took your time!' I laughed, the three of us walking towards the carriages behind a crowd of Ravenclaw Fourth Years. 'Yeah, well.. If you hadn't been in such a bloody rush to get off the train, then you wouldn't have had to wait, would you?' Nat replied cheekily. I shot her a mock-offended look, laughing even more.
Nat, Kate and I had been best friends since we were First Years, and I didn't regret a single moment of the magical, hilarious five years that I'd spent with them both. All three of us were sixteen now, just starting our sixth year at Hogwarts. Appearance and background-wise, we were all strikingly different, but we had so much in common with regards to our personalities. I was very tall, with waist length blonde hair and chocolate brown eyes, and I was Muggle-born. Kate was at least a head shorter than me, with bright red hair (when I say red, I mean the colour red, not ginger.. How the hell she'd got away with dying it that colour I didn't even know!) and almond shaped green eyes. She was a half-blood, her mum was a witch and her dad a Muggle. Finally, Nat was around the same height, if not slightly taller, than Kate. She had thick, glossy dark brown hair that just touched her shoulders and piercing blue eyes. She too was a half-blood, except her mum was a Muggle and her dad was a Wizard. The three of us all had a slightly strange sense of humour, and we all tended to be quite loud when we wanted to be.
The three of us piled into a carriage, placing our trunks down on the floor and keeping our animals on our laps. 'That Dementor attack was terrible, wasn't it?' I said, absent-mindedly playing with my yellow and black striped tie. 'Yeah, it was..' Kate replied, stiffening slightly where she was sat. Nat didn't say anything, just shuddered and looked down at her feet. 'I heard that Harry Potter fainted!' Kate exclaimed, sounding slightly worried. 'Really? I would've thought that he was the one scaring them off,' I raised my eyebrows, surprised. Nat looked up again, squirming uncomfortably. She was never one to talk about things like that, so Kate and I decided to end the conversation there. 'So, who d'you think the new DADA teacher is, then?' Nat asked, her voice wavering slightly. 'Dunno,' I shrugged. 'It'd better be someone decent this year, Lockheart was crap!' 'Oi! No he wasn't!' Nat protested, folding her arms defensively. 'You would say that, cause you fancied the pants off of him!' I glanced at Kate, to find that she was smirking, quite clearly trying incredibly hard not to laugh. Much to our delight, Nat's face turned the colour of Kate's hair. A devilish look appeared in Kate's eye and she grinned, putting on a high pitched voice. 'Ooh, Professor Lockheart! I still don't know what's going to come up in the OWL, can I have some extra lessons with you?' Nat's face turned an even brighter shade of red and Kate and I began to howl with laughter, tears streaming down our faces. 'I hate you two,' Nat grumbled, making Kate and I laugh even more. 'Y-Yeah, you say that..' I giggled.
Just as we'd managed to stop laughing, the carriages stopped outside the castle. Nat still had a bit of a scowl on her face, but overall the three of us were in very good moods. We left our pets and trunks in the carriages as usual, ready for them to be taken up to our dormitory whilst we were at the Welcoming Feast. I smiled happily to myself as we walked inside the castle, school felt like my second home to me. I loved my proper home back in London and my parents were always incredibly loving and welcoming towards me, but there was something about Hogwarts that filled my heart with happiness simply at the thought of it. We slowly made our way down the corridors and through into the foyer, chatting about what we'd been doing over the summer in an awful lot more detail than we had on the train. Eventually, we reached the double doors to the Great Hall. We stopped talking for a moment and Nat pushed the doors open, the three of us quickly walking inside. We walked over to the Hufflepuff table and sat down, waiting for everyone else who was on the train (aside from the First Years, of course) to hurry up. Thankfully, the hall soon filled up within a few minutes and the Sorting started.
Once the Sorting ceremony had ended and everyone was seated, Professor Dumbledore stood up and began to speak to us about how Dementors would be guarding the school. I felt Nat grab onto my arm and squeeze it hard until Dumbledore eventually stopped talking. However, the terrified looks on everyone's faces turned into curiosity as we knew that the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher was about to be announced to us. After a comfortable pause, Dumbledore spoke again. 'On a happier note, I am pleased to welcome two new teachers to our ranks this year.' He smiled. 'Firstly, Professor Lupin, who has kindly consented to fill the post of Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher.' A tallish man who was wearing shabby-looking robes stood up slightly and smiled, looking around the hall at all of us. I wasn't sat too far away from the staff table, so I could clearly see that he looked very young, but his brown hair was streaked with grey. He looked quite tired too, and I noticed that he had several scars on his face. I wasn't quite sure how, but I found him quite attractive looking. However, as soon as I'd thought about this I mentally gave myself a shake. No, he's your teacher.. Nothing would come out of it anyway, it's wrong, I thought to myself and I turned back to Nat and Kate, who were busy clapping along with the rest of the school to the news that Hagrid was now the Care of Magical Creatures teacher as well as the school's gamekeeper.
As soon as dinner appeared, I put all of my energy into eating and chatting to Kate and Nat between mouthfuls. I was right in the middle of chewing on a mouthful of chicken, when Kate elbowed me hard in the ribs. I shot her a look and swallowed my food. 'Ow! What was that for?' I asked, slightly annoyed. 'Lupin keeps sneaking looks at you..' She smirked, waggling her eyebrows. I almost choked on my drink, putting my goblet back down again. 'Shut up,' I laughed. 'You're kidding, right?' Kate shot me a look, and I felt my heart quicken at the thought of Lupin actually looking at me. I lifted my eyes away from my plate and up towards the staff table. Surely enough, it was clear that Lupin wasn't only looking at me, he was staring. I felt my stomach fill with butterflies, blushing furiously. He caught my eye and smiled awkwardly at me, making me blush even more. I grinned shyly back at him, neither of us looking away. I was positive that I could feel something there between us, but I wasn't quite sure what to do. I was brought back to reality with a bump by Kate nudging me in the ribs again. I had to look away now, so I turned around to find her sat there with a smug grin plastered to her face. 'You fancy him, don't you?' She whispered. 'No, what could possibly have given you that idea?' I mumbled, looking back down at my food. 'Come on, it's pretty obvious..' Kate replied, still grinning at me. 'Anyway, I might have the slightest feeling that he fancies you, too..' 'Oh, come off it!' I laughed nervously, twirling my fork in my hands. 'What would make him fancy me of all the girls in here?' 'Don't ask me!' Kate laughed too. 'But he clearly does, considering the fact that he still hasn't taken his eyes off of you just yet, and he's got a pretty dreamy look on his face for a bloke while he's at it!' I turned back around again for a moment purely to see if Kate was right, and he was in fact still staring at me. I glanced at the look on his face and I couldn't thinking to myself that he looked pretty damn adorable. 'Okay, so maybe you're right..' I sighed, giving in. 'But what am I supposed to do now? It's not exactly approved of if a teacher and their pupil start having a relationship, is it?'
'Well, no.. But I'm not saying I'll tell anyone if anything does happen..' Kate smirked, winking at me. I rolled my eyes and laughed. 'Nothing's gonna happen anyway, it's still wrong even if we do fancy each other!' I exclaimed. 'Yeah, you say that now, but just you wait until our first DADA lesson..' Kate grinned, the same devilish look appearing in her eyes.