{{Again, names: Anika = Belgium, Sunan = Thailand, Yekaterina = Ukraine in addition to official names.}}
Chapter 4
Arthur's sleep was if anything quite good the first night of that semester. The rooms, like usual, got a bit bigger each year. Even with morning breaking, not that it really mattered down in the Slytherin dungeons, the bed felt warmer than usual. Perhaps it was the fuzzy warmth of his anticipation, he had been looking forwards to Care of Magical Creatures that year, having heard there would be unicorns involved. Beautiful unicorns, yes, they had filled his dreams too. Their long, soft waving manes, warm breath, hairy legs...
Arthur's eyes snapped open, quickly pulling one hand away from the blonde's hair in front of him, jerking back in his bed, clutching the covers.
"Frog, you have ten seconds to explain why you are in my bed before you'll really be croaking." He already reached for his wand on his nightstand, jutting it against Francis' forehead.
The other merely grinned a little lazily, evidently already awake, musing softly. "Who's Charlie?~"
"An un- None of your business! Eight, seven, si-"
"My bed was occupied." He replied, an amused tilt in his tone.
Arthur frowned, growling a little. "Already? Dammit Francis, we're hardly back one day."
"Besides, your bed looked so lonely, thought I'd-"
Francis didn't get to finish his sentence, as he got quite unceremoniously kicked out of the bed by Arthur.
"Bugger off, frog. It's too early for this." Arthur growled, rolling over in his bed.
The other sighed, leaning his arms on the bed, laying his head on top of it. "Don't you want to give the new kids some initiation?"
Arthur still didn't look back, growling a little. "What new kids? The Gryffindorks got most of the brats."
The other smirked a bit slyly with that, voice growing a little excited. "My point."
"Can't this wait?" Arthur groaned, though he had grown a little intrigued about the other's plan.
"You'll have to get out of bed sooner or later, Artie."
"Fine." Arthur, sighed, sitting up a bit grumpily, mutteringly adding. "Frog."
"Good boy." Francis replied, leaning in to peck his forehead, promptly getting smacked by Arthur, giggling softly as he backs off again. "See you at breakfast."
Arthur glared at Francis as the other left the room, clutching his sheets, heart beating a bit too fast.
"Can't you two lovebirds keep it down for once?" A groggy, but amused voice snickered from the other side of the room.
"Bugger off, Gilbo." Arthur growled, accompanying his words with a pillow in the direction of the albino.
Matthew opened his eyes to the sharp sound of an alarm clock. He rubbed his eyes, one of the other boys in his room were already getting dressed. The evening prior, he was offered to stay in a room with the second years, an offer he didn't refuse seeing he was the only first year guy in Hufflepuff. He yawned, casting a quick glance at his own clock.
4 AM?
He blinked a bit at the owner of the alarm clock. "Ludwig? Isn't it a little early?"
A grumble from the bed next to him agreed before giving Ludwig the time to reply. "Yeah... bastard." The boy was covered under the blanket, only a curl sticking out, bobbing up and down grumpily.
"I apologize for waking you up, Matthew, I'm going for a morning run." Ludwig replied.
Matthew nodded sleepily, blinking a bit at the hazy silhouette, turning his face back to his pillow then. "Good luck."
Luckily it didn't take all to long for him to fall asleep again, awaking by another alarm, a more gentle sound this time, a kind of melody. He sat up, picking up his glasses and casting another glance at his clock. 7 AM. That sounded more reasonable. Taking a short moment to say goodbye to the comfort of his bed, he finally swung his legs over the edge, stretching a little.
"Good morning, Matthew," he got greeted by a smile.
"Morning Toris." He nodded at the brown haired boy.
"Hope you managed to sleep a bit after Ludwig went out. He always takes his morning runs quite early."
"The bastard." Sounded from the bed next to him again, still not showing any sign of the boy underneath the blankets.
"It was alright," Matthew shook his head. "The bed is quite comfy." It was something that could be said for all of the Hufflepuff dorms. The surroundings were all together quite cozy, decorated with warm yellow against black. It did remind one of a badger hole, with perfectly circular doors leading up to the rooms and little underground tunnels.
"So what time exactly does breakfast start?" He asked, getting dressed.
"Seven thirty, lessons start at nine." A bespectacled dark haired boy replied. Sunan, Matthew thought he was called.
Somewhere it was good to know that the school was not only comprised off tall blondes, as his first impressions had been.
Once dressed, he had turned to Sunan and Toris, ready for breakfast.
"Shouldn't we wake Romano up?" Matthew asked, casting a glance at the boy that was still hidden under the blankets. The other two smiled a bit sheepishly.
"No." The heap of blankets grumbled, heaving once before laying silently on the bed again.
Toris patted Matthew's shoulder. "It's alright, he'll get up, otherwise Antonio will make sure of that."
The blankets muttered something angrily, but too inaudible to make out
The three Hufflepuff boys had joined Anika and Yekaterina on the way out. The fact the Hufflepuff common room was located next to the kitchens meant they were treated to the delicious breakfast scent throughout their whole trip towards the Great Hall.
"It's a pity they don't let us cut through the kitchens." Anika had remarked, even though she was quickly corrected that the kitchens were located underneath the Great Hall not next to them by Sunan.
She had shrugged it off. "The castle has so many secret passages, I'd be more surprised if they didn't have some simple stairs leading up from the kitchen."
The Great Hall by day was a far less intimidating affair. The early morning sun hadn't quite broken through yet and bathed the ceiling in a reddish cloudy glow. Going for breakfast early also meant that there weren't as many people. Only small groups of students had started to cluster at the tables, some excited first years, some that looked like they were hardly awake at all.
They were greeted by Ludwig, who had nearly finished his breakfast already, he didn't stick around very long, getting up to take a shower after his workout.
The food itself wasn't that remarkable, except for the fact it would simply appear on the plates. Sometime that shouldn't have surprised Matthew at this point, but nevertheless made him smile slightly. He felt a little warm when owls flocked in to hand him and the other first year students their schedule, looking with a bit of eager anticipation at the subjects. Smiling a little more when after a bit of comparison he was in most of his classes together with Yekaterina.
Some of them looked logical, though he wasn't sure what to expect from all of them.
Transfiguration? Sounds a bit odd. Will we really need Defense against the Dark Arts? Sounds a bit eerie. And no... normal subjects at all, well I guess this is normal for wizards, but will I not need what I've learned before at all? Seems like a bit of a waste, but I guess it should still be fun. I hope the rest won't be too much ahead, is there even something like elementary wizard sch-
"Matty! Matty!"
Matthew choked a little on his drink when his over excited brother half tackled him from behind. He was still coughing and sputtering a little as Alfred continued talking.
"I'm sorry you got in the lame house, but have you seen the timetable? No Maths! There's some boring history, but see that?" Alfred waved his timetable close to his eyes, poking at one spot, fluttering the paper more, meaning Matthew did anything but seeing what he was pointing at, but Matthew was quite sure he'd tell him anyway.
"No, you're-"
"Flying! We're flying!" Alfred interrupted him.
Matthew blinked at his schedule, nodding. "Yeah, we a-"
"You're in my class!" Alfred grinned, swooping in to pick up Matthew's paper, taking a better look. "Most classes actually!"
In other words, he'll want to copy homework again.
"So have you talked a bit with the others in your House?" Alfred continued.
"Yeah," Matthew nodded a little at the rest of the table, smiling. "That's To-"
"Great! You know, I was thinking it's such a shame you're not with my House, you know, there's so many first years in Gryffindor. They're cool, except this one kid, he's weird. You should've probably taken his place, Matty." He grinned. "But I'll see you in Charms, alright?"
Matthew tugged on his sleeve before he left. "My timetable?"
"Oh, oh yeah." Alfred tossed the paper back at him. "There you go. See ya!"
Matthew sighed, putting the timetable away in the pocket. "I'm sorry for my brother, he doesn't realize he insulted the House all several times." At least I hope he doesn't.
"Brother's can be difficult." Yekaterina said, trying to reassure him again.
"You're telling me?" Anika chuckled, smiling at Matthew. "At least yours didn't get high on the way here."
"I hope mine is faring well... I know he has trouble making friends." Yekaterina added, looking a bit worried.
"He's in Gryffindor too right?" Toris said. "Enough first years, I'm sure he'll find someone to get along with."
"Yeah," Matthew nodded, looking at Toris and Sunan. "Do you two have brothers?"
"Two younger brothers." Toris nodded. "One is in my year, but the other isn't in school yet."
"A younger and an older step brother in my case." Sunan smiled, taking a slow sip of his tea. "The younger one should be in your year."
Matthew smiled, nodding. Somewhere he felt a little warm, he could get used to Hufflepuff, most of his new friends had something calming, something friendly. If anything, Matthew thought he was starting to feel at home.
"Matthew?"
Matthew blinked at Yekaterina.
"You were out of it for a moment, are you alright?"
Matthew smiled, "Y-yeah, I'm great even." He looked around the table. "Everybody finished breakfast?"
"Yep," Anika nodded. "You two better get ready for your first lesson. Charms your brother mentioned right? Third floor." She chuckled. "Try not to get lost."
"Normally I'd help you two find the way." Toris smiled apologetically. "But we've got herbology first thing, so we'll be heading outside."
Matthew looked at his timetable for a moment. "2E... " He smiled. "I'm sure we'll manage, thank you." How hard could it be to find a classroom after all?
After some searching, Matthew was about ready to swallow those words. They had left in time, following Anika's advice. Around thirty minutes prior. Thirty minutes, you'd think thirty minutes would be enough to find one classroom. You'd think going to the third floor and finding a room is well, pretty straight forward. That's what you'd think. His progress ended up greatly impeded by stairs that kept changing direction and floor at their own fancy, almost as if they purposefully tried to bring them anywhere but the classroom.
When they somehow had ended up on the seventh floor, they had resorted to asking one of the wandering ghosts. Their reactions were mixed, some snickered, some ignored them, some only gave directions that got them more lost.
So when Matthew finally faced the door reading 2E, a full ten minutes after the bell rang, he had to blink a few times to make sure it was there. He smiled tiredly at Yekaterina, then reached out to door knob, taking a short breath.
Instants after, he felt a small shock course through his hand, jerking it back instantly.
"O-ouch!"
The door slowly opened, accompanied by a somewhat melodious female voice.
"You're late, Mr. Williams, Ms. Braginskaya."
{{And nearly through all the existing chaps now. Not a single review yet :(. I guess people are waiting for something new.}}