That night, I sat at the Hufflepuff table in the Great Hall for the first time, and whispers flew around me before Hannah Abbott and Ernie Macmillan took pity on me, and came to sit with me.
"You guys don't have to sit with me." I muttered, embarrassed.
"Nonsense. Why are we Hufflepuffs if we don't make an effort to be kind to people?" Ernie proclaimed, then held out his hand. "I'm Ernie, by the way. Ernie Macmillan." I took his hand, thinking it might sound weird if I said 'I know'.
"And I'm Hannah Abbott." Hannah smiled at me.
"My name is May Green." I smiled back, and continued eating my mashed potatoes with more enthusiasm.
Soon, groups of people started trickling out of the hall, and when all three of us were done, I left for the common room with Ernie and Hannah.
We chatted as we moved towards the hallway leading to the kitchens. Ernie and Hannah were very curious about how I got here and what it was like in my world. I told them the short version before reaching the painting of a bowl of fruit that lead to the kitchens. We stopped on the other side of the corridor, where there was a stone recess with a pile of barrels stacked in it.
I reached down expertly and tapped the barrel in the middle of the second row in the rhythm of 'Helga Hufflepuff'. The barrels moved apart to reveal a sloping, earthy passage, which I climbed excitedly into the Hufflepuff common room. I looked around, awe-struck. It was even better than I had imagined, and I had a pretty good imagination.
The room was circular with a low ceiling and round doors leading to the dormitories, reminding me of a badger's home. Polished wooden tables and comfortable-looking chairs filled the floor space, and an uncountable number of plants sat on shelves, on tables, and hung from the ceiling, tickling my hair as I moved under them. The whole room was decorated in bright yellow and black, Hufflepuff's house colours, and the fire in the fireplace was roaring. Round windows level with the ground showed the darkening grass, and I knew that despite this small source of light, during the day, the room would feel sunny.
I pushed open the door to my dormitory, and felt a tug at my heart. This was truly where I belonged. There were six beds, the frames polished honey-coloured wood, the cover a patchwork quilt. I saw my trunk by the first bed on the right, and knew Dumbledore must have gotten it from my house. Knight was curled up in a ball at the foot of my bed.
I turned around to come face to face with Ernie and Hannah. I had completely forgotten they were there.
"Do you like it?" Hannah asked, sounding a little anxious. I laughed.
"I love it!" I gazed around the common room again, buzzing with joy. This was my new home.
Well, I thought, just for a couple days. I pushed that sad thought away and tried to enjoy myself completely for the time being.
I went to sleep late that night feeling happy. The other fifth-year girls and I had stayed up talking; they were really interested in my story, and I was interested in theirs. I loved my couple-day home and the people I'd met even though I felt like I knew them already. I was excited for my classes the next day.
I woke to the sound of chatter and thuds as the five other girls in my house and year pulled on their robes and prepared themselves for the day.
"Morning, guys!" I sat up in bed, stretching my arms far above my head.
"Good morning, May!" Adel smiled, fastening her Prefect badge onto her chest. I got out of bed, and looked around; I couldn't stop doing that.
Clementine finished curling her hair with her wand and skipped over to me, her newly curled blonde hair bouncing around her shoulders.
"I can do your hair for your first day, if you'd like."
"Thank you, Clementine." I stammered. "But I think I'll leave it."
I put on my new Hogwarts robes, the Hufflepuff crest shining brightly from the left side of my chest, right above my heart.
Honora made her bed with a wave of her wand, Isla was already ready and was waiting for Adel, and Eden was still asleep. Honora marched over to Eden's bed, and with another wave of her wand, Eden's covers flew off her body and she whimpered, curling into a tighter ball.
"Get up!" Yelled Honora. The other girls giggled.
When nothing happened, Isla went over and attempted to pull Eden's limbs out of bed. Finally, Adel and Clementine joined the fight, and Adel called over her shoulder to me.
"This happens every day. We have a routine."
I laughed, and watched as Clementine started tickling Eden's feet, Isla tickled Eden's stomach, Adel tickled Eden's side, and Honora tickled Eden's nose.
"Come here!" Isla told me. "We need someone to tickle her palms!" Obligingly, I went over to the other side of the room, and started tracing light patterns on Eden's palm. Suddenly, she jerked awake, screaming and batting us away.
"Guys!"
"Eden, you should be expecting that by now, you sleep in too late every day." Honora told her.
As soon as Eden groaned and sat up, the other girls went back to getting ready.
I picked up my new wand and tried to recreate the spell Honora had used to make her bed, but the covers flew off my bed completely.
"Here." Honora came over to me, and showed me how to correctly use the spell, then watched me try it for myself. The covers did place themselves on the bed, but it wasn't very tidy, and I hastily straightened them by hand.
"Not bad for your first spell!" Adel looked on, impressed.
"Thank you!" I smiled, putting on my brown lace-up boots under my school robes.
Once everyone was ready, we trooped out of the dormitories together and up to the Great Hall for breakfast. I saw Ernie and Hannah a little way down the table with their friends, so I waved and they waved back. Taking this to mean I wasn't hurting their feelings by sitting with my new friends, I sat down in between Honora and Eden. Since Eden was dozing off again with her head in her hand, I had only one person to talk to.
Honora poured herself some pumpkin juice with one hand, while casually reaching across me and flicking Eden's bowl of porridge out from under her face as she collapsed onto the table, snoring. I laughed and helped myself to some toast, bacon, and eggs.
Two tables over, I could see Harry, Ron, and Hermione having a joyful breakfast. There was after all, very little school left, and the excitement of the Triwizard Tournament still hadn't faded. Harry suddenly lifted his gaze and his eyes caught mine. I blushed deeply against my will, and raised my hand in a shy wave. To my relief, Harry grinned, and waved back.
"Do you like him?" Clementine asked, startling me out of my reverie. If possible, I blushed even deeper.
"Oh… Um, yeah, I - I guess." I mumbled, gazing down at my plate, which was still mostly full. Clementine didn't seem to notice my awkwardness, but plowed on. Adel, Isla, and Honora were now listening, too.
"Well, of course you do, he's the Boy Who Lived, and he's really good-looking. Oh, but so is Cedric Diggory, and he's in our house…" She giggled and glanced up the table at Cedric, who was having a relaxed conversation with a couple other seventh-year boys. "And they're both Triwizard champions, how will I choose?" She gazed longingly at Cedric for a moment, before adding, "Oh, but of course! You like Harry, so that makes my life easier, doesn't it? Maybe I'll go talk to Cedric at break today… I'll have to convince him to get rid of Chang, though." She cast a dirty look over at the Ravenclaw table, where Cho Chang was talking animatedly with her red-haired friend Marietta.
I glanced over at Adel and Isla, who both rolled their eyes at Clementine, and decided I should start eating if I didn't want to be late for my first class. I almost choked on my bacon when Clementine screeched.
"Ooh, Honora, here she comes!" Clementine was looking at Susan Bones, who had finished her breakfast and was making her way back towards the Entrance Hall. Seemingly against her will, Honora looked up, a faint tinge of pink staining her cheeks. Her eyes followed Susan for a moment before she wrenched them away towards Clementine.
"I'd rather you not proclaim it to the whole Hall." She told her, and returned to her kippers, keeping her head low, as Clementine turned again to me.
"Honora likes her." Clementine immediately covered her mouth with her hands, looking worried, and I turned to Honora. She gave a swift nod, still eating her kippers, which relaxed Clementine, and gave me confirmation. I was a little surprised.
"Oh… cool! I mean, that's great!" I wasn't sure what to say. There was an awkward pause while Clementine tried to put some porridge into Eden's open mouth, and Adel and Isla carried on their conversation. This must be old news to them.
Honora continued eating, her blush deepening the longer the silence became. "I'm sorry, I don't really know what to say." I started, then, thinking she might take that the wrong way, I continued hastily. "I mean, I'm not against it or anything. It's just… if someone told me they liked a certain boy, I could look over and be like 'yeah, he's cute', but I can't really do that with girls because I'm not attracted to them… Do you know what I mean?" Honora stopped eating and looked at me.
"Yeah, I get it. It's the other way around for me. And your reaction was better than some people's." She smiled. "It's still sort of new for me, so would you mind not mentioning it to anyone?"
"Of course!" I exclaimed. "Wow, I've never, um…" I trailed off, a little unsure of what I was about to say. Honora's blush had vanished.
"What?" She asked, waiting patiently for me to go on.
"Well, I've never exactly… had any friends to keep secrets for." I said, looking away. "Or any friends to do anything with, for that matter."
"What? How did you survive without any friends?" Honora's tone had turned teasing, and we both ate while we talked.
"Well, I had my books. I love to read, you know." Honora smiled and was about to say something else when Isla stood up suddenly.
"We have to get going if we're going to make our first class on time, everyone. We have History of Magic, and I believe you have Potions." Isla added, nodding at me.
"She's always like this." Honora whispered to me as the five girls marched off, Clementine having successfully awakened Eden.
"Bye!" I called after them, remaining in my seat and pulling my own timetable out of my messenger bag. My first class was indeed Potions, which I was excited for, despite the unpleasant fact that Snape taught it. Even though there were still ten minutes before classes started, I left the Great Hall and headed down to the dungeons to wait. After about five minutes of waiting, some Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw first-years began to trickle in.
"Are you teaching us today, madam?" Asked a little boy hopefully.
"Oh, no, I'm learning with you! Today's my first day at Hogwarts, you see, so I'm probably going to be in many of your classes this week."
"Oh." Said the little boy, disappointed. His friend's lip actually started to tremble.
"Oh, don't cry!" I tried to comfort him. "What's your name?"
"Jasper." He sniffled.
"Well, Jasper, why don't I sit with you and your friend today?" I asked, looking at the first boy who had approached me.
"Okay." He mumbled.
By that time, there were about two dozen eleven-year-old girls and boys surrounding me, and when I glanced at my watch, it was precisely 9:45 am. Just as I was wondering why the class hadn't started yet, the door to the dungeon opened and Snape appeared, his black hair as greasy as it had been described in the books.
"Enter." He said, and stood aside so we could all pass into the classroom.
Snape's eyes followed me a little longer than was necessary, but I pretended to take no notice and sat at a desk beside Jasper.
"Today, we will make the potion that we've been leading up to all year; the forgetfulness potion. Take out your cauldrons." Snape walked around the room watching as we all took out our cauldrons. "Instructions," he waved his wand, "are on the board, and ingredients are in the cupboard. You have one hour. You may begin."
I quickly read the list of ingredients on the board, which included Lethe river water, Valerian sprigs, and mistletoe berries, and hauled everything I needed back to my desk. I started cutting and stirring and squeezing and pinching and adding, and Jasper looked on wistfully as my potion turned the exact shade of orange the book described.
"Wow, you're so good at that! Isn't it your first time?"
"Yeah, it is." I said, as surprised as Jasper that my potion turned out perfectly.
Snape walked by as I finished stirring my potion. He looked down at it, then looked away and continued walking to give Jasper a hard time about his bright yellow potion. When Snape didn't say anything, that was a high compliment.
The bell rang at the end of class and I made my way out into the hallway, consoling Jasper. Not watching where I was going, I bumped into someone, and we both turned around. It was Harry. That seemed to be happening a lot lately. I wondered if Harry wanted it to.
"Oh, er, sorry." Harry said awkwardly before his cheeks turned pink and he turned away.
"Sorry!" I called after him, staring at his back. I felt some heat rise into my cheeks and smiled to myself.
I shook my head suddenly. Snap out of it. I told myself. You're only here for a week.
I still couldn't stop smiling.