Soooo... To the few readers that I have, I hope you enjoy :) and to the TONS that are about to follow the 'It Won't Be Long' train, I hope you love it just as much =]
Please review! Cause I only have zero of those pieces of heaven... and that isn't very many lol
story time:
Chapter Two: Success
"Hello, are you… Jacqueline Marshall?" a teenage guy's voice says as I smack my face across the brown stone wall in shock.
"Oh, shit!" My face feels as if it is on fire while I try to calm my now red with pain face down. "Sorry," I mutter, opening my eyes and getting back off the hallway's ground. "Yes, I'm Jackie. Who are you?"
"James Potter." He has his hand out so I shake it. "Nice shirt."
"Wha-" I turn my head to glance down at my Yellow Submarine t-shirt. "Oh yeah. Thanks. People like them here, right?" I ask while I look at him in detail.
He seems to be my age and he is very tall. Compared to me, at least, but I am only five feet. Maybe he is six feet… five inches? That is still really tall.
James Potter has a very handsome face and his bright red hair is sexily messy and as long as the Beatles' mop top in their early years. He has wire rimmed glasses, making him look sophisticated and smart, although I can tell that he is anything but sophisticated, from his provocative light milk chocolate eyes that are surrounded by a field of long black eyelashes.
James Potter is officially the hottest guy I have ever met. He wears long, black, and billowing robes, fitting and forming onto his muscular back and shoulders perfectly while his dark pink plump lips are fixed into a smirk to show that he knows he looks good. Hmmm… wonder if guys are like this all over Hogwarts?
"Sort of… not everyone knows who the Beatles are-"
"What? How can people not know who they are? That is impossible! They changed everyone's life through art!" I freak out as we walk through the hallways.
"Wow obsessive much…" he tells me quietly.
I look at him. "Am I supposed to even be following you?" I ask as I realize that he never told me why he is in the hall.
"Yeah. I was the first volunteer to show you around." He smiles crookedly while my face flushes.
"Oh alright. Well, thank you I guess…" I mutter, looking down at the ground.
"Oh, no problem." This conversation is going no where…
"So… ummm… I know nothing about Hogwarts. Would you like to –errr- explain something about –umm- life to me?" I ask as we turn the corner of the hallway and enter a larger and even colder one.
"You know nothing about it?" He just stares at me while he slows down walking. I look back at him and realize that he is a red-head without many freckles. How does this keep happening? First my mother, and now him?
Oh great, he wants me to say something…
"Well actually, I know nothing about anything that has to do with… magic." God! I am sounding so pathetic and worthless right now, but it isn't my fault that no one will explain anything to me!
"Ummm… what do you want to know about it?" James drags his masculine hands through his brilliantly untidy hair.
"The history of everything, I guess. Professor Longbottom mentioned a name that 'everyone fears' or something while we were walking to the castle earlier. I can't remember what it was though-"
"Voldemort," he cuts me off. "Right?" I nod. What an idiotic name to be called… I wonder if he had been born with that name. Either way though, it is kind of a creepy one… "Yeah, he was scary, I guess. I wasn't alive then. He died a couple years before my birth, but my dad tells me a ton of stories about it all."
"But are they all real plots?" I feel that most people exaggerate the life of bad people, and witches and wizards must not be that different… "Like, what did Voldemort do to the community?"
James looks at me again, but now it is in an annoyed way. "He-he tried to murder every muggleand magical person with muggle parents in the… the world. Muggles are non-magic people, if you don't know already." His voice catches when he says 'murder' while shivers run along my spine.
"So basically… my family, friends, and I?" James' eyes are soft when he nods. "He really did aim when he shot then, didn't he?"
"Umm… sure, yeah… He just wanted to get rid of anyone who wasn't 'pure blood' or everyone who didn't have a mom and dad who were witches or wizards, which is pathetic and useless, especially because even he wasn't pureblood. Voldemort makes me sick. I'm glad we didn't haveto live around him. Cause it wasn't just Voldemortwho killed. He had supporters (they are still around, mind you, but they are lessening as the days go by) called death-eaters. Both he and they killed 'traitors', 'mudbloods', and 'dirt'."
"Traitors are the ones supporting… muggles, mudbloods are the ones without magical parents, and –err- dirt is a muggle? That is disgusting." I really do feel sick to my stomach.
"Pretty much…"
"Where was he most powerful?"
"All around Europe, but really, he affected the entire world. Even climate wise!" he tells me excitedly as we keep walking through deserted halls.
"So who finally finished him off, James?" I ask while we walk single file up a staircase.
I see him smiling boyishly in front of me as he answers. "Oh, you know… everyone tried to weaken him," James says nonchalantly. "There was a group, the Order of the Phoenix, whose job was to weaken him, but when Voldemort took over the Ministry of Magic, it kind of ended. Voldemort some how split his soul into seven and hid them all across the world. The only way to have ended him was to destroy all seven horcruxe, and then actually kill Voldemorthimself with man-to-man combat. The old headmaster found out about this and destroyed one of the horcruxe, but he died before finding any more."
"Oh wow! My principal is so weak compared to your old one! He even gave in to having pizza two times a week in the cafeteria, last year!" I look around for him, but James is no where in sight. "James? Ummm… I've never been here before and this castle is big, remember. I might die if I try to find my way to the Gryffindor hangout area alone…-"
"I'm right here." His head pops out from behind a curtain while laughing. James grabs my hand, dragging me through what I thought to be a tapestry, not a hidden room. "But as I was saying… my father, Harry Potter, was supposed to be murdered when he was about one year old, by Voldemort."
"Oh that is horrible! What happened?" The magical world is pretty intense… and I thought that Americanmuggles were dangerous.
"Some how the curse that Voldemorthit Dad with backfired, making Voldemort weak and Dad gain some of Voldemort's powers. Voldemort had a ton of power, but he vanished when his powers died (when he hit Dad with the killing curse). He gained power again when Dad was in fourth year here, and kept building up more and more as my dad learned more and more about Voldemort's past."
"Wow!" I tell him with wide eyes as we walk side by side, our feet moving slower and slower while I listen to the amazing story.
"Yeah! So anyway, Dumbledore, the old headmaster, was very close to my dad because Dad did not have a father or mother figure to look up to (my grandparents were murdered by Voldemort the night he tried to kill my dad), and he knew that my dad was supposed to either get murdered by Voldemort, or be the murderer and get rid of Voldemort once and for all. Dumbledorerather wanted Dad to stay alive, and really wanted our magical world to not be taken over by Voldemort, so he trained Dad. Also, he explained about the split souls, also called horcruxes."
"Oh my god! But wasn't he just a teenager?" I have my black nail-polished hands to my mouth as I look at him, shocked.
"So one time my sixteen year old dad went on a mission with Dumbledore because Dumbledore thought he knew where one of the horcruxes was hidden (Only one had been destroyed so far). They went into a stormy cave, across a bewitched corpse filled lake type thingy. Dumbledore drank a pitcher full of poison so that they could get the horcruxe, ending up making his whole body week. The corpse (also called inferi) came alive and started attacking Dad, but Dumbledore used all of his energy to rescue him. That night, in the castle, Dumbledore was murdered by one of our potions masters that used to work here. My brother got his middle name from the guy!"
"What?" I say in astonishment while we sit down facing each other on a stone bench that is near by. Just like every other hall that I have been in, it is empty.
"Dumbledoreis dead, and my dad is left to saveall of the magical community, alongsidemy Aunt Hermione and Uncle Ron (both of which are not blood related to Dad, by the way). In seventhyear they decideto not show up at Hogwarts because it is taken over by a type of death-eaters, and instead, they search for all of the horcruxe. Many, many, many people died as they slowly but surely found each and every single horcruxe before Dad's eighteenth birthday, while Voldemort and all of his supporters try to find, whip, and kill my dad, the mudblood, and the blood-traitor."
I stare at him in shock. "Ummm-"
"Well in the spring of 1997, students, teachers, order members, and death-eaters risked their lives, fighting in this very hallway, but Dad and Voldemortwere the only ones to ever decideeveryone's future. So many from each side were murdered (including my Uncle Fred, Aunt Tonks, and Uncle Lupin), but surprisingly enough, the one person Voldemort really wanted to die survived all three killing curses that hit him. And in the end, Harry and Voldemort preformed the final battle in front of all Hogwarts. Voldemortwas so weak now that it wasn't even funny, and Dad ended up finishing him off with a simple 'expellereomis'," James finishes, coughing slightly as I look at him in terror.
"Are you serious?" I ask in astonishment.
"Yes," James says simply, smiling at me.
"Wow, I feel that I just walked in to a very unsafe world today…" I mutter.
"It feels like that sometimes, but don't worry. That happened way before we were born, and that was considered a war, not every day life." James gets off the stone bench and grabs my hand, tugging me up. "So I told McGonagall that I'd have you settled in before the feast, and that requires going to the common room."
"I thought you were leading me there though…" I say in confusion.
"What? Oh yeah… I was, but I got so caught up in the excitement that I forgot about where we were supposed to go…"
"Well do you know where we are?" I ask hysterically while I looked around us. This hallway looks exactly the same as every other one I've been through. Great…
"Its fine, Jackie. I have a map." He reaches his hand inside his robe pocket and tugs out a yellowish brown piece of paper.
"Ugh, you still need a map, and you've been here for at least six years!" I close my eyes and inhale deeply. I bet I'll get lost by tomorrow…
"Okay Jackie, you are just going to have to calm down. I've probably been here before, but not in a while. There are some main halls that all of the students take, so when I'm in one that I haven't been in for a long time, I forget where I am," he says evenly while I look at him.
His face is covered by the map and his fingers keep tapping on the paper impatiently. I can see the top of his smooth forehead, which has some freckles but no trace of scars.
I'm going to have to ask him why all of the older witches and wizards look so beat up. Was it all from Voldemort?
"We are right here." James holds out the map to show me.
"What is this? Wow! It has my name on it!" I say, completely forgetting what I am going to ask as I take it from him and pace across the room, searching for Gryffindor tower on the piece of paper. "How does it know that I'm here- Hey!" I stare at the dot on the map labeled 'Jacqueline (Jackie) Marshall', which paces back and forththrough a hallway on the ninth floor. "This is amazing! How does it do that?"
James walks towards me and captures the thick map. "I have no idea really… but my grandpa made it when he was in school, along with his friends."
"Is that considered genius? Cause the stories that I have so far heard are coming from you and they are all about your family. So this means that all magical families have crazy stories too…"
"Not really. The Potter family is just kind of blessed with the 'going down in history' boat. We are all very smart and very brave. It is in our nature…" James shrugs as I look at him.
"Ummm I don't know what to say to that…" I tell him uncomfortably.
"That I'm modest, right?" he jokes, laughing while he takes my hand in his large one and leading us through a door and up a flight of stairs.
We walk for a while in silence, making me focus in to the surroundings. "So… you are in my grade, right?"
"Yeah, sixth year for you too, I'm pretty sure…"
I nod my head. "Are the classes har-" I stop talking when James forces us to a halt. "Why are we not walking?"
"Okay, so I feel this is the best view of the inside of Hogwarts. It is amazing, but in a freaky way."
I bite my lip and exhale slowly. "Oh great, now I'm scared, James…" I walk forward to where 'the great view' is, but he stops me again.
"Jackie, you just need to take a deep breath and relax. Are you always this tense?" James asks as he turns me around to look at him. Why does he think it is okay to touch me and complain about my personality? I've only just met him!
I shrug out from his firm grip. "You do not know what I've been through this past month. And no, James, I am not always this tense. I used to act perfectly normal, but then I found out about my 'new life', and now I'm on edge… Sorry if I am not acting according to your plans, okay? I will just stop talking if that is alright with you!" I cross my arms as I walk to the thick light brown stone banister that is a couple of feet away, where the supposed great view is. An arch blocks everything else next to the banister.
I ignore James' complaints while I go through the arc.
I gasp. I had put both hands on the railing, and now I am looking down. Way down. The floor is maybe ten stories down, and with each level having high ceilings.
The wall across from me is filled with all types of portraits, and just like in the headmistress's office, the paintings in them are moving and talking. Every painting has a different shaped and sized frame, but they all are golden and thick.
As I look down again, I can see many staircases with students of all ages walking and laughing and talking to each other. They all have on the black uniform, but just like at any other school with forced consistency each student has their own tweaks to the outfit.
To each side of me are huge windows. They are gigantic! They start all the way at the bottom of the castle, and end way up there, higher than I can see. "James, come over here! Look at this!" I tell him, momentarily forgetting my anger towards him.
I hear his footsteps get louder and louder, until he leans next to me on the balcony. James looks at me for a second before rolling his eyes. "What ever… forget it."
I stare back at him dejectedly. "Stop! I didn't mean to snap or anything and now you are making me feel bad! I feel like I don't really have a home right now and you are acting like I'm retarded, which I already think I am!"
He smiles. "It's fine. Just wanted you to realize how random you are today… although, I shouldn't say anything because I've only just met you."
I roll my eyes. "Ummm yeah, exactly-"
We look back at the building in front of us, leaning closely together as we concentrate.
"My favorite part is how we can see out to both sides of Hogwarts. Through one window are the Black Lake and the beach. Threw the other is the huge Forbidden Forest."
Until this moment I had been focused on just the window. Now that he mentions it, I block out the wooden frame and cracks, and focus solely on all types of sceneries that can be seen through the glass. I sigh. "Wow that's beautiful! I can't believeI live here now!"
"Yeah! And it shows all sorts in this entry way sort of thing. There are all of the obnoxious students down below. Random bits of history are on the walls in front of us. And to the side, we just get to see the good-looking plant life."
"Mmmhmmm…" I say as I lye my head on his shoulder tiredly. "Yeah it is perfect here."
James nods and puts his arm on my waist uncomfortably.
"James! James! JAMES, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" A high pitched squeal says from below.
James quickly lets go of me as I snap my head off his shoulder, causing a huge kink in my neck.
"Oh hi, Lizzie!" He smiles cockily down to what I am guessing is a female student from the stairs below us, while I vigorously massage my neck in pain. As soon as it came, it goes away though.
I lean my body forward on the railing, looking down to find a blondecurly haired girl glaring at me with her hands on her hips, surrounded by many students as she says to James, "What is that, and what are you doing with it?"
"Hey, don't be mean, Liz-" James shouts down to her.
"Ummm hi? I'm Jackie!" I yell down to her while the students surrounding 'Lizzie' slowly grow silent and still, beginning to watch the scene that she, I, and James are making. "I'm –err- new here…"
"Oh? Well that guy you were leaning on earlier is my boyfriend, just to tell you!" she yells, although I am not positive that she does this because we are far away from each other…
"We're just dating," James mutters so that only I can hear.
"Ummm… yeah I'm sorry –err-, Lizzie. I –umm- didn't know." I smile at her apologetically. "He was just showing me to the Gryffindor common room…"
"The common room isn't even over here…" A red haired girl who looks to be twelve or thirteen tells me. "And I am pretty sure James knows that." She glares at him from below as he smiles to her, Lizzie, and me guiltily.
"Uhhh… yeah must have forgotten, Lils…"
"Hey, I'll show you to the common room. My ass of a cousin is probably just trying to get into your pants," says another red headed girl, although this one looks to be in fifth or fourth year and she has a bushy mess of hair in a huge tide up confusion.
I cough and scoot farther away from James. "Err… James I think I am going to –err- do that. Thanks for –umm- showing me around?"
I start walking down the staircase to the left of me as he lifts his hands in annoyance. "Oh come on, Jackie! That's just Rose talking, the most uptight person at school, and I'm counting McGonagall in the picture! I was just having fun with you. I'll really show you to the Gryffindor tower now."
"Ummm… errr bye James…" I mutter as my face turns red and the crowd a couple floors down begin to move and make noise once more.
I feel dizzy while I go around and around what I guess is a tower, following the staircase until I reach the flaming haired girl leaning on the huge window.
"Hi, I'm Rose Weasley, a Gryffindor prefect. You are the new student Jackie Marshall, right?" she asks me brightly, holding up a perfectly manicured hand towards me.
"Yeah, yeah I am!" I say, feeling much more comfortable talking to her than apparently her cousin.
"I'm sorry that James had to be the person to show you around… I am pretty sure that their first period professor, Professor Trelawney took the earliest volunteer to show you around. She's brain dead…" Rose shutters. "I was about to take divination last year, but my mum told me that that was the wrong way to go." She smiles and tucks a strand of frizzy hair behind her ear. "So everyone has a theory as to why you are here, but I don't think you are really a spy from Durmstrang, are you?"
"Uhhh… I don't really know where that is…" I bite my lip and smile as we walk back up the stairs and pass James' pissed-off face.
"Bye James," she says, waving and sticking out her tongue to him.
"Oh, whatever, Rose. See you at team practice after dinner then. Thanks for deserting me by the way, Jackie," he says while I look at him apologetically and go through the hallway I was in minutes before.
"Just ignore him. James isn't really upset," Rose tells me as I laugh.
"So you're in Gryffindor?"
"Yeah, but isn't it obvious?" She drags her small hand through the long and frizzy red hair, smiling.
"Ummm… oh yeah! You have the badge on your robes. It was covered by your book-bag when I asked," I say embarrassedly.
"No, what I meant was that I have red hair…?" I look at her quizzically. What is she talking about? "Ummm…" she starts pathetically. "I am a Weasley, and all Weasleys have had flaming red hair and been in Gryffindor. It's been like that ever since there were Weasleys, so people just put two and two together…"
I nod my head. "I thought I was a muggleuntil last month, so I know nothing about the generations of witches and wizards, sorry!" I smile again as we go up two flights of stairs and across a hall withmore golden frames filled with portraits.
Rose stops suddenly and grabs my hand because I am still walking. "This is the portrait hole. It is hidden because the professors do not want other houses to sneak inside our house. We have a password, also. Right now, it is 'Ipocrase'."
"Ummm… isn't that a medieval drink?" I ask her, laughing slightly. "I only know that because my mom thought it would be fun to go to a medieval festival, but…" My face blushes.
"The Fat Lady had her annual 'welcome back' party last month." Rose laughs, making her whole face light up and her blue eyes to sparkle.
"Who's the Fat Lady?"
"Password?" asks an annoyed middle aged women in a portrait, to the wall in front of us. She has on a long bright green gown and her golden hair is up in a loose bun. Although, the only thing I'm pretty sure people see in this woman's portrait is her plumpness.
"So is there a… door behind here?" I ask Rose while trying to unglue the picture from the wall and get to the door.
"No. This is the entrance to the common room," Rose tells me, moving my hand away from the frame. "Ipocrase," she says as the portrait winks and swings herself and the golden frame towards us. "Watch your step. There's a bit of a slope right here."
"Oh," I say in surprise. I step over and into the hole in the wall, entering a dimly lit hall. "What is with Hogwarts and their hallways? I thought we were heading to the common room?"
"We are… Come on. It's just over there."
"Yeah, I see it now," I mutter when I see a door to the end of the tunnel.
Rose opens the door when we reach it and my eyes go in to immediate shock.
A warm light issues from the circular room as I enter. Students of all ages surround it, immersed in different activities, all laughing, chatting, or just plain smiling. A huge and homey rock fireplace is to the right of us as students lounge on the couch surrounding it.
The main theme to the room is red, gold, and brown, I notice, while I look around again. A huge maroon rug lies on top of an expensive looking dark hardwood floor.
The room is lit by only candle light, but everything is surprisingly bright and cheerful, like a spell has been cast along the room but the candles are just there for effect.
Lots of the older students stare as Rose leads me across the small and toasty room, smiling kindly. What looks to be the 6th and 7th year boys are leaning against walls and studying me creepily.
"Okewww…" Rose states. "I'm sorry the boys are acting disgusting, but they haven't seen a woman who they haven't practically grown up with in a while now. They'll get used to you soon enough…"
"So are magical men always this good looking, or is it just in Britain?" I whisper while we go up a curved staircase.
"What do you mean?" she asks, her hair flying around her happily.
"Well…" I can't really tell why they look so different, but there is definitely something better about these teenagers than the guys at my old home. "Oh! Well none of them have any blemishes! And they look as if they've actually bathed in the last day or two! They look like Calvin Klein models!"
Rose stops walking and turns to face me, smiling. "Those are all the great things about this magical world. The acne medications work. The hair products work. And the cleansing spells always work. I haveno idea what I would do if I had to live like a muggle!" She quickly looks me up and down as I feel my face start to blush. "Well you're alright though. I guess it's just the guys who would really need to work on their hygiene."
"Yes, yes they definitely do," I state.
"Alright, this is your dormitory door. You'll live at this room until you leave Hogwarts in the end of 7th year." Rose is looking at the short door in front of her, so I do the same. "The only one's who can open it are you, your dorm mates, and the professors, although you will be able to open it for others if they want to come in."
"Oh! I'm so close to seeing my living quarters! Ahhh!" I squeal while I inch closer and closer to the door. "On the count of three, I guess…"
She laughs airily while we count "One… Two… Threeee…!"
I throw the door open excitedly. "Oh…" I say softly. "Ummm…"
An about five foot eight inch dirty-blond wavy haired girl has her body leaning into a very tall and messy black haired male, both kissing lovingly as Rose and I stare.
"Oi!" Rose yells, walking into the room with as much loud thumps as she can make with her small feet.
The couple jump apart and look at Rose, flushing brightly. "Shit…" the teenage boy mutters.
"That is disgusting, Al. This is the second time this week that I've walked in on you and Clara snogging!" Rose tells the dark, dark brown and untidy haired boy disgustedly. "He's James' brother, in case you wondering, Jackie."
He grins boyishly down at me as I look at his tall and lanky frame. He pushes his wire-rimmed glasses up his nose, slightly annoyed at the metal. They are the same type of glasses that James has.
I direct my self at the blondehaired Clara as she wipes her mouth and fixes her 60's styled blouse, turning to face us when she is done. "That was a bit embarrassing… and I'm sorry that you had to witness it, Rose- Jackie! Jacqueline Marshall? My new roommate? Hi! I'm Clara Finnegan! It's nice to meet you!" she squeals and skips over to me, holding out her arms.
I hold out my hand to shake hers, but instead she hugs me. "Oh! Hi! It's nice to meet you too, Clara!" I say once she releases me.
"Oh yes thank you!"
"And I'm Al Potter," says the guy she had been making out with earlier. "Her boyfriend and Rose's cousin." He shakes my hand and smiles.
I smile at them all, although I just look at Al at first. He has crazy gem like green eyes, like emeralds. Al's dimples show as he smiles, and he looks to be the exact height as James'. "Wow! You look exactly like James, besides the lack of red hair and freckles…" I muse, more to myself than anyone around me.
"Oh, I know! They are so similar!" Clara agrees happily. "And he is just gorgeous looking, isn't he?" She hugs Al and kisses his lips lightly. "I think it is in the Potter blood!" Rose rolls her eyes. "Oh, it's in the Weasley blood also, Rose! You have such great bone structure and you're not crazy tall, I'm jealous!"
"Honey, you're beautiful," Al says, just like any boyfriend should as Rose smiles, but looks annoyed as Clara laughs happily.
"I'm gonna go cause I want to finish my weekend homework, but it was nice meeting you, Jackie. See you at the feast."
"Oh, yeah, bye Rose," I say sadly as she waves and walks through the door, heading up more stairs to what I am sure to be her dorm room.
"Hi, Jackie! I'm just so excited to have you as my roommate!" Clara says to me while she bounces onto a four-poster bed.
I look around and see four of the same looking beds, although three of them have a ton of different and colorful blouses, skirts, and khakis.
The same hardwood floor is in the dormitory as it is in the common room, and there is a medium sized window that looks out to the Black Lake.
"I'm so glad to have a cheerful roommate! I thought that I would get stuck with an evil one who automatically hated me," I say to them.
"Thanks! And your other two roommates are super sweet, so don't worry about them either."
"Oh alright! What's their names?"
"Tillie and Beatrice. They're really nice and really smart, so you'll get along with them easily." Clara grabs her wand, magicingher toenails to a different shade of purple. "Hey, honey?"
"Yeah?" asks Al awkwardly.
"You can go if you want. I feel I'm about to bond with, Jackie, and I don't want you to get bored."
"Oh, sure right. Bye, Clara." He kisses her lightly on the cheek. "Bye Jackie!" Al waves and walks through the exit, shutting the door behind him.
"So how do you like Hogwarts?" Clara asks.
"Oh you know, it's really nice. I'm gonna have to get used to it though…"
"Yeah, I know what you mean." She scratches her head. "Everything is so… grand. Almost like a real king and queen could live here." I nod my head in agreement. "You'll get used to it soon though. I didn't really hang out in the Wizard Community when I was younger, so I was freaking out when I went here at first. Now though, I like it even more than my house with my mum and dad!"
"Really? I'm so relieved 'cause everyone is telling me how they love the place! I hope I get used to it quickly though!"
"Oh, you will," Clara says with confidents. "Your shirt is amazing, by the way. I have the same Beatles t-shirt at my flat in England."
I laugh. "Thanks! It's kind of awkward walking around school in it though… I didn't realize we were supposed to wear our uniform on the weekends!" I blush.
"Oh it's no big deal. Everyone is probably jealous 'cause you didn't get into trouble wearing your outfit. If you want though, you can change into the uniform. Your stuff arrived here about a half hour ago."
"Really?" I look to the neatly made bed next to the door opposite me which has my three boxes, owl cage, and duffle bag on top of it. Oh, thank God McGonagall let me keep all of the stuff! "Yeah, I'll do that."
I walk across the room, stepping over uniforms and books and underwear, trying not to cringe. I am a bit of a neat freak, but I guess I'll just have to get used to it…
By my green duffle bag there is a light yellow ripped piece of paper with a small and scribbley paragraph on it.
"Oh yeah, James stopped by and gave me that note to give you. He's such a sweetheart. You are lucky to already be friends with him!" Clara says, noticing where my stare leads.
I blush. "We aren't really friends… I mean, I've only just met him…"
"Don't worry. I didn't read it. Well actually, he put a spell on it so only you can read it, but still! I didn't read it." Clara smiles as I pick up the paper.
"Hey wait a sec. How did he give this to you before I got here? Rose and I never stopped walking, heading here… and we passed James!"
"Oh, James is the king prankster. He knows every single secret passageway, so that when the prank goes too far, he can hide and pretend he never did it… it's been going on for centuries in his family. Al is exactly the same, when it comes to Hogwarts."
"James had a map when he showed me around," I tell her.
She laughs. "I knew that they had to have something!"
I nod and begin to read James' messy handwriting. Only one boy has written a note to me before.
Jackie,
I'm sorry that I made you feel so uncomfortable when we were talking to Lizzie! I was a bit of a jerk, and shouldn't have been leading you on when we were walking together. I had momentarily forgotten I had a girlfriend type thing in the picture. My sister and cousin really did not help me much by making me sound like a complete rapist (that was just Lily and Rose talking... who'd rather love my life to be a living hell. I don't think I'm that bad)… Again, I am sorry. See you in the Great Hall for the feast, and maybe we can go to Hogsmeade the next visit?
-James
I fold the note carefully in to fourths and cautiously slide it in my duffle bag, my blush crawling down below the neck of my yellow shirt. Smiling slightly before reminding myself that James is different than every other boy I have met. He probably does this to every girl who is older than fourteen.
"Ooooh what did it say?" Clara asks, speeding over to where the duffle bag is and helping me unzip it without making it explode, helpfully.
"It really wasn't anything special…" I mumble while pulling out the first set of clothes I can see in-between the zipper of my bag.
"Well that's good. He does have a girlfriend…" she muses (and giggles, although she has been doing that almost every time she speaks). "This is the first time he's dated someone older than him, and he doesn't seem to like it much… I'll bet they'll be done by the end of the week."
I snort. "That's tomorrow, Clara…" I don't bother zipping up my duffle bag again, knowing that I will unpack soon enough. Quickly, I throw off my baggy t-shirt and reach for my new white blouse that goes with the school uniform.
"What a cute bra! Did you get it at 'Elizabeth's Underground'?" She asks me. "God, I want everything from that store!"
I laugh. "Is that like 'Victoria's Secret'? No, I didn't get it there, but thanks."
"Oh, I've heard of Victoria's Secret, but they don't have any of those over here. That's funny that they have the same sort of name! Maybe they're owned by the same people!" she says to me chirpily as I dive my hands through the sleeves of the blouse and start buttoning up the small white buttons. "Oh no, no one buttons it up that high on top and that low on the bottom. Here, I'll show and teach you everything about Hogwart's fashion!"
Clara looks as if she's wanted to say this for a while, at the same time as I feel my whole body shrinking with embarrassment.
"Alright, sure, Clara."
"Okay good! Makeover!" she squeals. "Everyone is going to want to be, or date you when I'm finished! Although, I am pretty sure all the girls and boys want to do that already, but I think we still need to teach you the ins and outs of Hogwarts anyway."
"I understand." I smile as she points her wand at my grey plaid skirt that I had pulled out of my bag, turning it into a mini skirt in one instant. "Is this allowed?"
"Nope!" She laughs while I look at her in horror. "Don't worry! Every girl at school does it. Even 1st years!"
I gulp down and think about what kinds of consequences I can get myself in to. "Ummm well I guess this is like at my old school. For P.E., we would always roll up our black shorts and tie up our P.E. shirts…?"
"Exactly, but we just need to make sure you don't look easy or anything. You just need to look cute."
"Oh, alright, you've convinced me," I say as her eyes go back to their normal self, and away from the pleading puppy-dog stare she was giving me earlier.
"Thank you! Okay, put this on." Clara hands my the grayish blue plaid and pleated mini skirt which now has three black buttons on the right side of it. "I thought it needed something more to it… and your other roommate, Beatrice, found them lying in the library yesterday. We might as well use them!"
I just shake my head in amusement while I tug off my tight black stretch pants and fold them neatly onto my red comforter-ed bed. It's freezing as the cold air hits my bare legs, the temperature not changing, even as I shove my legs into the mini skirt.
"I forgot that I brought my stockings!" I say relieved, searching feverishly through my bag and finally feeling a thick and stretchy material in between my fingers. "Oh thank god!"
I pull them over my left leg, and then my right leg, underneath my skirt as fast as possible before my body freezes up, and only getting tangled up in them once. Proudly, I flatten where the thick grey stalking wrinkles up, on my knees and ankles, and look for my adorable shiny black Mary Jane high heeled shoes.
"Oh my god, you are going to look gorgeous in those!" Clara tells me once I have pulled the shoes out from my duffle bag. "And I though you were a tomboy!" she says, eyeing the shoes jealously.
"Nope!" I take my time as I slide my grey clothed foot into the shining shoe and buckle it up with the single black strap.
"God, I am so jealous of those! I've just got these old ones, but they're –well- old." She smiles. "Okay, finish up how you think you should look or whatever, while I get changed for dinner. It starts in about…" Clara looks at the pink old fashioned alarm clock on her bedside table, where the hour hand sits very close to the huge black number six. "fifteen minutes!"
"I feel I might be sick…" I tell her while I quickly and carelessly put my left foot into the other shoe and shakily close the buckle of the strap.
"Remember to fix the shirt buttons! And put the tie on loosely…" Clara says from behind a sweater that she pulls on. "I'll fix your face in a sec."
"Oh yeah. Forgot about that." I walk across the room, fixing what she said to fix as I go, where a dark wooden stand up mirror is, looking at my appearance. Neck down, I look (if I do say so myself) very attractive. My face is the only problem.
"Alright," Clara says, panting slightly while she hurries over to me, now wearing a skirt that matches mine (although hers doesn't have buttons), the Mary Janes she was talking about, a grey and maroon sweater over her white blouse, and her hair in a loose ponytail. "Okay, so I learned this one spell that made my whole complexion glow and look amazing, in my second year. I haven't had acne since. If you may have noticed, pretty much everyone at this school is beautiful, face-wise, and that is just because of these beautiful and magical face creams and spells. Would you like me to put the spell on your face?"
I smile, amazed. "Well if you insist." I laugh. Even my mom still complains about getting acne sometimes. I sigh, imagining a life without blemishes of any sorts.
"There are magical types of blemishes though, so don't get anyone angry with you. Otherwise, they'll probably jinks you and all your happiness will be gone," Clara warns.
I nod, trying to hide my smile as she points her wand carefully to my face. "Hold still!"
Warmth grows across my face and in the next instant she tells me to open my eyes. I never knew that I had closed them! When I look at the mirror in front of me, sure enough, my face is shining.
"Thank you, Clara! I have the sudden urge to hug you now!" I squeal, turning around and giving a huge hug to the tall and skinny, unfairly beautiful girl in front of me.
"Oh your welcome, Jackie! And I'll teach you how to do it yourself, but we are kind of running on a tight schedule right now."
"I understand!"
"Let me fix your hair, too. The Hogwarts wind probably made it crazy. It looks good, but it keeps getting into your eyes."
"Yeah, my annoyingly black hair does that all the time! No hairspray works…"
"You don't need a hairspray!" she says convincingly as she walks to the small trunk beside her huge bed and lifts it open, digging her hand and searching for something. "This is my secret weapon," Clara says in a very un-Clara like way (although I just met her, she seems to always have an energetic and perky voice, but this time she sounds secretive).
"Wow there, Clara. Is it a drug that you are hiding behind your back, or what?" I joke and walk over to my new bed, sitting beside my neatly piled clothes from ten minutes ago.
She laughs at me, twirling her hair in between her fingers. "No it is not. But it is very addicting. You see this strand of my hair?" Clara holds up the blond strand closer to my face as she walks over to where I sit.
"Yes?-"
"Watch." Clara twirls it around her finger again, although this time I notice what happens. The hair stays in the same exact cork-screw position it was in when it had been around her finger.
"Wow! Does it stay like that all night?"
"It stays like this until I take a shower. This bottle in my hand," Clara finally moves her left hand from behind her back, showing me a very small and very pink bottle, with lacey and loopy purple writing. It says 'Magnifique en cas de Catastrophe', "is magical, period."
"Why haven't you run out yet?" I ask in amazement while she squeezes a quarter coin sized glop of it into one of her hands and rubs it through both of them. She walks over to me and rubs it into my hair like a hair stylist would.
"Magic, remember?" She laughs while I gasp in amazement when my hair turns shinier, wavier, and neater (if that is possible…). "Oh, I love your hair! It's so black and silky and thick! Mine is blonde, so everyone can bring up the 'dumb blonde' joke all the time. It is so annoying!"
"Oh thanks! But I'm sure you would trade back with me instantly," I assure her. My hair feels lighter as I drag my finger through it in amazement. Every single knot is gone, and surprisingly enough it feels like I never put anything in it. I can tug on my thick mane of hair all I want, but the style just bounces right back to where it was a second ago. "This is so cool! Thank you!"
"Oh you're welcome! You can use the product, too. I have enough for about a life time. It was on sale, so I bought ten bottles of it (I'm a shopoholic, but I'm working on it…). I've been using this one bottle once a day for a year and still haven't run out…"
"That is amazing," I tell her in a daze, and then look at her alarm. "Oh, the feast that is starting in about two minutes!"
"Shit! Okay, do you feel comfortable in that?" Clara asks me quickly while walking to the door.
"Err- yeah, I guess…" I say, following her out through the door and entering the staircase wearing my new uniform, new hair, and new face, as a couple of late girls hurry to the Great Hall for the feast. Nervously I trail behind the blonde headed Clara, watching her hair swish back and forth slowly as we walk, and now knowing a big secret to her huge success in hair.
Okay, so I know that this chapter is very long, just like the other one... and I am sorry :)
But Oh well! hehehe
I hope you liked it... cause it is only just the beginning ;)
Review please review please review please review please review please (see? I'm using manners... so you should REVIEW!)
Have an amazing day please!
-Maia