Chapter Four
James comes over to congratulate me on making it to Gryffindor during the feast, and then throws a dark look at his brother. I swat lightly at his shoulder.
"Don't you dare go giving Al a hard time about it," I say sternly, "Ravenclaw's a great house, and Al will do really well there." James pretends to look intimidated, and gives me a little salute.
"Yes, sir!" he says. I try to hit him again, but he dodges out of the way, grinning, and heads back to his friends. I just hope he'll take me a little more seriously than he's pretending to. Al's going to find it hard enough to be in a different house, without James making it worse.
I glance over towards the Slytherin table, and find Scorpius very quickly. He's eating quietly, not talking to anyone and looking very nervous. I find myself wondering why he's in Slytherin. Not that I think all Slytherins are the same, but from my experience of Dominique and her friends, they all seem to have bags of confidence, or at least the ability to pretend they do. Scorpius just doesn't seem like a Slytherin to me. I think back to what Al told us earlier. Perhaps Scorpius asked the Hat to put him in Slytherin. To please his dad maybe? Or to live up to expectations?
I turn away, reminding myself that it's none of my business. I've only known the boy for a couple of hours. I should be getting to know my own housemates, not worrying about the fact that Scorpius isn't talking to his.
"My mum was in Ravenclaw when she was here," a girl is saying to some of the others, "Penelope Clearwater. I know she was kind of hoping I'd go there too, but I like Gryffindor."
"What about your dad?" a boy asks, "Did he want you to go somewhere particular?" The girl shakes her head.
"I've never met my dad," she says, "It's just me and mum. Mum says he was a muggle though. They didn't go out for very long. Mum didn't even get a chance to tell him she was a witch before they broke up, so he never knew anything about Hogwarts."
"Sorry, I didn't catch everyone's names earlier during the Sorting," another girl says, "Could we all introduce ourselves?"
"I'm Jessica Clearwater," says the first girl.
"Annette Stevenson," says the second girl, the one who wanted us all to introduce ourselves, "My parents are both … muggles? Is that the right word? So I don't really know much about all this stuff. Just what I read in my school textbooks. Will that make a difference?" She looks worried, and it suddenly strikes me just how terrifying this must be for someone who hasn't been hearing about Hogwarts from the age of five, and who didn't even know magic exists.
"Don't worry," Jessica says firmly, "We'll keep you right. You'll pick it up in no time."
"Yeah," I agree, "My mum's a muggleborn, and everyone always says she was the brightest witch of her age. You'll settle in fine."
"I'm Aaron Davies," says one of the boys, bringing the conversation back to introductions, "My dad was in Slytherin, my mum was in Gryffindor and my uncle was in Ravenclaw. My uncle doesn't have any kids so they all wanted me to end up in their old house. Mum'll be thrilled."
"I still think it would've been brilliant if you'd ended up in Hufflepuff," says the boy next to him, "I'm Danny Jordan, by the way. Me and Aaron have been friends for years, cos our parents know each other from school."
"Yep, I've been putting up with this git since we were about five," Aaron says, elbowing him, "And now we're even in the same house! No getting away from him." He sighs dramatically, and Danny rolls his eyes.
"Good thing too," he says good-naturedly, "If we'd gone into different houses, you'd have lasted all of five minutes before you'd have been begging for a transfer. You know you can't manage without me."
Jessica laughs, then turns to a quiet, blonde-haired girl who has been listening to the conversation, but without joining in.
"And what's your name?" she asks kindly.
"Beth Urquhart," the girl replies, her voice so soft it's almost a whisper. She doesn't volunteer any other information, and nobody asks.
"We're Steve and Tyler Newman," says a dark-haired boy, gesturing to himself and a similarly dark-haired boy sitting beside him, "I'm Steve and he's Tyler, but don't worry about getting us the right way round. No one ever does, and we both answer to both."
"We're twins," Tyler adds, as if we might not have figured it out.
"Our dad's a muggle," Steve continues, "So obviously he doesn't know anything about houses. And our mom went to school in America, not Hogwarts. We grew up in America, actually. But Gran went to Hogwarts, and she's always wanted us to go. We just moved to Britain last year, so it's still kinda weird. Wizarding Britain is really different to Wizarding America."
Well that explains the American accents, I think. I'd noticed that from the moment they started to speak. I plan to ask them lots and lots of questions about America. I've always wanted to go.
"I'm Andreas Black," says the last first-year boy.
"Andreas!" Steve snorts, "What a name!"
"We're calling you Andy," Tyler says firmly. Jessica glares at them, then turns back to Andreas, seeming more interested in his surname, "So you're one of the Black family? I thought they were extinct after Sirius Black?"
Andreas grimaces.
"I was kind of hoping people wouldn't pick up on that," he says, "My great-great-grandfather was Marius Black. He was disowned for being a squib. So technically I'm a muggleborn, but yeah, I'm part of the Black family."
"That's awesome," Jessica says, "So did you know all about magic already? You must have, if you know about your ancestry."
"Yeah," Andreas says reluctantly, clearly unwilling to talk about this too much, "Marius refused to live in the muggle world, so my family have always lived in the wizarding world, doing jobs that don't need magic. My parents were really excited when they found out I was a wizard. But I'm not really very proud of being part of the Black family. They all sounded horrible."
Jessica finally seems to take the hint and drops the subject. She looks expectantly at me, and I realise I'm the last one not to have introduced myself.
"Rose Weasley," I say with a sigh, and watch their faces change as they take it in. Jessica merely nods, as if it confirms what she already suspected. Beth gasps and stares at me. Annette looks blank, but Aaron looks slightly awed and Steve and Tyler look as though they're considering asking me for my autograph. Andreas shoots me a sympathetic look.
"Rose Weasley?" Steve repeats, "As in the Rose Weasley?"
"Your parents are in all my sister's celebrity magazines," Tyler says, "And they did a massive feature on the fact that you and Albus are starting Hogwarts this year." I roll me eyes.
"That's stupid," I say, "Me and Al aren't even that interesting. Who cares that we're starting Hogwarts?"
"Our eight-year-old sister, for one," says Steve.
"And anyone else who reads Witch Weekly," Tyler adds.
"So who here plays Quidditch?" I ask, abruptly changing the subject. It's fairly obvious what I'm doing, but in my experience the mention of Quidditch never fails to distract people, no matter how obvious a ploy it is.
It works. Within thirty seconds Steve and Tyler are debating the merits of American brooms compared to British ones with Danny, and Aaron and Jessica are explaining the finer points of the game to Annette. I can't help but grin. They're such typical Gryffindors: chatty, enthusiastic and obsessed with Quidditch.
But I guess I'm one of them now.