The train came to a halt and the doors automatically opened. The four guys got up, leaving their stuff. We just followed them since we had no idea what to do. There were horseless carriages that people were piling into. Drew lead the way to one and I followed him. When we arrived at the castle a stern looking lady herded Drew and I into an office.
"I am Professor McGonagull. I wanted to sort you privately, so not to embarrass you." She said.
"Sort us?" I asked. She nodded and pulled down an old shabby hat from the shelf.
"Yes, we have four different houses within the school. Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, Slytherin and Gryffindor. This hat will sort you into the houses that are closely matched with your personality traits." The Professor said.
"But we don't want to split up!" I said.
"Well, we have to sort you. Who knows, you may end up in the same house." She said. She slipped the hat onto my head. It covered my eyes and then I heard it speak.
"Your shy and very talented. But you are also very courageous. Gryffindor!" She pulled the hat off my head and handed it to Drew. He put it on and a few seconds later the hat yelled.
"Ravenclaw!" Both of our faces fell when we realized that we weren't together.
"Do we get to see each other at all?" I asked.
"Of course, you'll have classes together and you can eat together. And on the weekends you can do what you want!" The professor said. They looked at each other dubiously. She led them out and brought them into a huge dining hall. There were four different tables; each one was decorated in different colors. She said something to Drew and he gave my hand a reassuring squeeze. Then she pointed to a table decorated with gold and red.
"That's your table." She said and then she left again. I went toward the table. People near me were staring.
"Hey! Ashleigh over here!" I heard Sirius' voice. I spotted him near the middle. And I was suddenly relieved because I knew that I was not alone. At lease I knew one person who was in my house that I could talk to. He was making a place for me between him and another girl. I slowly walked up to him and gave him a slight smile. The girl looked at me with disdain and disgust on her face. She did not look happy to being pushed to the side.
"You guys were split up huh?" he asked when I sat down. We were really close together and I could feel the muscles under his robes as he bumped into me.
"Yeah." I glanced at Drew's table. He was sitting there not saying a word. He used to be the most popular guy in our old school. Now it was sad to see that he didn't have anyone to talk to. I sighed with relief when I saw some guy with bright green eyes talking to them. I turned my attention to the crowd of young people standing between the Ravenclaw table and the Gryffindor table. Remus was explaining to me that they were all the first years and they were now being sorted into the houses. I looked up at the teacher's table and recognized the elderly man with half moon glasses.
"Who is that?" I asked nodding toward the man. Remus took his eyes off of the first years and glanced up.
"Oh, that's Headmaster Dumbledore. He is in charge of everything here. He's a pretty decent guy." He said. I nodded. I remembered when I first met him, he helped me and Drew with everything, including contacting our Great grandfather that we never knew about. All of the first years were sorted and then the feast began. There were all types of food, mostly things that I had never heard of.
After the feast we were to follow the prefects to our dormitories. I had no idea where my luggage was and where I was going to be sleeping.
"Hey, do you guys know where I am sleeping? I hope I am not with the first years." I said and Remus laughed.
"You'll be sleeping with the fifth years. We always keep the years separated. Here is Lily." He said gesturing to a girl with long wavy hair that I envied and wished that I had done before I got here. Lily was walking beside us before I knew it and she was shaking my hand.
"Lily this is Ashleigh, she is new to Hogwarts. Could you show her where she's sleeping?" Remus asked. I waved at Lily and smiled.
"Of Course. Nice to you meet you, Ashleigh. You will love it here! So where are you coming from?" She asked me.
"America. I lived in California my whole life." I said. When we got into the common room she led me up the stairs to the girls dormitory. As soon as I walked in I saw my bed with my trunk at the foot of the bed. I plopped down on the bed and closed my eyes. I was exhausted. I fell asleep without changing.
The next morning I woke up to the slight light coming from the window. I checked my watch and it said it was 6:30. I got up and went to the bathroom to take a shower and brush my teeth. The warm water felt like heaven, I always loved taking showers. I got out and pulled my hair into my towel. I attacked my teeth next making sure that they were clean enough. Then I pulled on my jeans and an old t-shirt I had gotten from school last year. I did a pulled the towel off my head and brushed my hair. I let it air dry. When my hair air-dries it feels lighter and it is extremely wavy. I love it when it looks like that.
"Hey." I heard Lily say from the doorway. She was dressed in dark green cotton pajamas, which made her eyes look even greener. And her hair fiery red. I smiled. She seemed really cool; I hoped we would be friends.
"Hey, where do we go for breakfast?" I asked her. My stomach was yearning for food.
"Same place we had dinner. If you wait I'll walk with you." She said.
"Ok, thanks, I'll wait in the common room. Don't take too long though, I'm starving." I said holding my stomach. She laughed.
"Ok, if I'm not down there in 10 minutes go ahead and leave without me." She said. I smiled and left. She was pretty cool.
I entered the common room at 7 and barely anyone was there. Sirius came down alone screaming at James to hurry up. I had already been waiting about 10 minutes for Lily and I was desperately hungry. Sirius turned around and ran right into me.
"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't see you. Are you heading to breakfast?" He asked her.
"Yeah, I'm waiting for Lily to come down but she is taking so long." I said and he laughed.
"May I have the pleasure of walking you to breakfast?" Sirius asked extending out his arm as he did a graceful bow. I laughed and he grinned at me as I looped my arm through his.
"I would love that." I said as we walked through the portrait hole and down the corridors.
"So, so you have a boyfriend?" He asked me and I smiled. I had had tons of boyfriends in the past but not one at the moment. I never even told half of the guys that I used to see that I would not be returning for the new school year.
"I had tons of boyfriends in school but always broke it off with them whenever vacation had started." I said hating how the words came out of my mouth. I chanced a glance at him and he actually looked impressed.
"Impressive, I wouldn't have though of you as that type of girl." He said grinning at me. It was the grin that made me want to jump into his arms. I mentally shook myself. I could not and would not let him see me swoon over him.
"I'm not anymore… Do you have a girlfriend? I have seen so many girls swoon over you since I arrived. And it hasn't even been 24 hours yet." I said laughing as soon as I saw the look on his face.
"I do not think it would be fair to the women of this school if I were tied down. So as you see, I am actually doing a service by being single. Really its all about me being selfless here." He said pretending as if he was some kind of saint, which made me laugh twice as hard.
"Oh really? I am sure that every girl who has a broken heart from you is happy for your service to other women." I said joking with him, while reminding myself to keep a distance. I did not need to go through a broken heart when my heart wasn't even fully pumping again.
"Jealous?" He asked with his head cocked to the side and a small smile playing on his lips.
"Hardly." I said smiling as we entered the Great Hall. It was pretty much deserted, except for a few of the staff and a few other early rising students. Sirius brushed his fingers against my palm getting my attention. I glanced up at him and he was smiling down at me. I wanted to return the smile but I tried to cover it up.
"Sirius! Darling! Sit next to me!" The girl from last night said patting the seat beside her. Sirius suddenly grabbed my hand in his and dragged me over. I tried to fight but he was too strong. He pulled me along as if I had never resisted. I saw that her eyes had narrowed at the sight of our joined hands. And my heart soared because I wasn't the jealous one. She was jealous of me.
"Hey Amber. I promised Ashleigh that I would show her around the grounds today. Ashleigh, you remember Amber… from last night." Sirius said not letting go of my hand. I tried to pull it away and he played it off as if we were swinging out hands together.
"Uh, yeah. I remember." I said pathetically. She glared at me when Sirius glanced around the Hall in search of an excuse to leave. Honestly, if looks could kill then I would be a pile of Ash right now.
"Well Amber, we have to start the tour. See you around." He said dragging me out of the Hall and out the big front doors to towards the lake. As soon as we were a safe distance away from everyone, I pulled my hand out of his.
"I would appreciate it if you didn't try to pass me off as your girlfriend." I was suddenly angry because I did not have friends here and that was not a good first impression. That girl would never like me now and I could not afford to make enemies so soon.
"I'm sorry… it's just that she will not leave me alone." He said nervously running his fingers through his hair.
"Sirius, I don't have any friends here. Especially in the same house as me. And it's going to be hard to make friends when people hate me." I sighed. For some reason I felt as if I could share this concern with him.
"What? Of course you do. You have me, James, Remus, and Peter. I am offended." He said mocking hurt. I rolled my eyes at him and started to turn away.
"Wait. I'm sorry Ashleigh. I don't mean to make anything harder on you. I mean going to a new school is tough. Forgive me?" He asked pulling me back to him. I sighed and nodded. There was no way that I could talk around the big lump in my throat. When he talked to me, he reminded me of my parents and reason we were here to begin with. I just wanted to go home and lay in my own bed with my mom in the kitchen making us dinner.
"We are your friends you know. I like you, Ashleigh. I would love to be your friend." Even though he said what I wanted, I couldn't help but feel disappointed. I wanted him to be more than a friend because he was so unbelievably sexy.
"We should actually go to breakfast." I said leaving to go back to the castle. I wanted to see how Drew was doing and see a familiar face. Right now I needed some familiarity. When we reached the Great Hall again, Sirius saw James and headed toward him. I glanced around and spotted Drew with the same guy from last night. I plopped onto the seat next to Drew and bumped his shoulder with mine.
"Hey, how was your first night?" I asked him as I stole a piece of his bacon.
"Pretty good. Hey Ash, this is Derek… Derek, this is my twin sister Ashleigh." Drew said. Derek held out his hand and I went to shake it but when our hands touched, he turned mine over and kissed the top.
"Pleasure to meet you." He said smiling at me. It was no Sirius smile but it was attractive none-the-less.
"Wow, quite the gentlemen. And they said chivalry was dead." I said flirting. I could tell Drew was dying to roll his eyes because of his body language.
"No, it is not dead. It was just hiding." He grinned at me. I giggled and then started to get up.
"Well, I guess I better get back to my table." I said walking away. When I approached my table, I felt a kind of anxiety because I didn't know where to sit. Glancing around the rapidly filling table, I saw an empty seat in between Lily and Sirius.
"Hey, is this seat taken?" I asked. Lily looked up and smiled, shaking her head no. I sat down and Sirius glanced at me from the corner of his eye.
"Do you play Quidditch?" Lily asked me, forcing my attention to her rather than Sirius and his small smile.
"Yeah, I was a pretty good player." I said thinking about Drew and I in our old school. We were amazing on the Quidditch pitch. We had been playing since we were children with our dad. He was the captain of his team when he was a student. I was one of the best Chasers that I knew and Drew was a highly skilled Keeper.
"They are having try-outs for the Gryffindor team tonight if you are interested." Lily said passing a flyer to me. I looked down at the picture of a snitch and wondered if trying out would be a wise decision. Somehow, it didn't feel right to be playing so soon. My dad's passion was Quidditch and he could no longer play, why should I?
"I'll think about it." I said folding the flyer into fourths and tucking it into my pocket. James' face was suddenly right in the middle of my and Lily's.
"Did someone say the word Quidditch?" He asked looking back and forth between Lily and myself. I laughed at the expression on his face. Lily just rolled her eyes.
"I was thinking about trying out." I said after my laughter died down.
"What position do you play?" Sirius asked putting his full attention on me. Having him stare into my eyes made me feel tingly.
"Chaser. Are you on the team?" I asked, suddenly wanting to know if he would be there for the try outs. Then I cursed myself just as quickly because I could not let his presence influence whether or not I would try out for the team.
"Yes. I am by far the best beater and James-y here is the best Chaser…especially after the girls." He said grinning as he slapped James on the back, causing him to lose balance and fall right into Lily. Who, by the way, was drinking tea when that happened.
"James! You idiot!" She yelled jumping up. Her lap was covered in tea. James pulled out his wand and tried to clean the mess up but screwed it up even more. Her robes turned a gross green color and she screamed. Her face turned the same color as her flaming red hair. I tried to push James out of the way before he could do any damage but he was insistent.
"James! Stop!" I said freezing him with my wand. I quickly fixed the color of her robes and made sure that they were dry. Everyone in the entire hall was staring. No one dared to move, let alone breathe. And then Lily started to laugh. Once everyone saw that she was not cursing James into next year, everyone joined in with the laugher. James shot me a grateful look and I just smiled at him.