I turn over for the fifteenth time in three minutes, rolling around to find the coldest place on the mattress. As far as I can tell from their snores, everyone else in the dormitory is asleep, but it's been a long day and I'm far too tired to sleep. The stuffy room makes me crave cool air and after weighing out the pros and cons I quietly creep out of bed and tiptoe out of the room, before stepping gently down the stairs into the common room. I plan to curl up in one of the arm chairs by the fire that I had my eye on earlier, but I stop in my tracks when I see Teddy gazing out of the window. He's deep in thought and I'm tempted to run back to my dorm and pretend I was never here, suddenly scared to be caught out of bed when he turns around like he sensed my presence.
"Vic!" he exclaims, if you can exclaim in a whisper.
"What are you doing here?" he quickly adds.
"The dorm was far too stuffy, I couldn't sleep." I tell him, hoping he will understand, "What about you?"
"Oh," he replies, "I was just, you know, thinking." He continues in a sad tone.
I can tell he was thinking about his parents and I don't know what to say next, but I needn't worry because he speaks.
"Hey, do you want to sit down?" he asks me, "We could talk about something really boring to get you sleepy!"
I nod, wanting to do something, but finding it unlikely that Teddy will find something really boring to talk about. We go and sit down on the armchairs by the now burnt embers.
"So," he starts, "What do you think of Hogwarts?"
"It's brilliant," I say, "But it's not..."
"Quite what you were expecting?" he says, managing like always, to find the words I lost.
"Yeah, I mean, its great and everything it really is and I'm glad to have been sorted into Gryffindor, but I just thought, no it's stupid." I tell him.
"You just thought it would be perfect."
"Yeah," I say with a smile.
"Nothing's perfect," he tells me, "But don't worry, Hogwarts gets a lot better than the first night. Once you get in the swing of lessons and you start making friends you will be able to sleep every night and time will fly so quickly because you'll just be so busy and having so much fun."
"I hope so," I tell him and then think of something."
"Teddy?"
"Yes, Victoire?"
"Do you think I would, even though I'm only a first year and I'm not very good… do you think I would be able to try out for quidditch?" I ask him quickly, voicing my stupid little dream.
"Not very good?" Teddy laughs, "Victoire, your bloody brilliant!"
"Do you really think so?"
"Are you kidding me? I know so." He tells me, filling my heart with hope.
"Who's been kicking my sorry ass all my life?"
I give a small laugh, "That would be me."
"Exactly," he agrees, "If you're not good enough to make the team then I don't know who is. What position were you thinking of?"
"Seeker," I tell him quickly, hoping he doesn't laugh.
"Why did I even ask?"
"Teddy?" I ask him, thinking of another question.
"Yes?"
"How hard are lessons, do you think I can manage?"
"The teachers are really good," he tells me, "They teach you everything from scratch because they know its everyone's first time doing proper magic."
I breathe a sigh of relief. The clock chimes midnight and we both jump.
"I think we both need to get to bed," he tells me, "Are you feeling tired now,"
"I'm starting to," I yawn.
"Well, if I don't see you at breakfast good luck," he tells me.
"You too! I can't believe your starting divination." I laugh.
"Oh come on, it can't be that bad." He jokes and I giggle,
"Goodnight Teddy," I tell him,
"Goodnight Victoire," he tells me before we both head up the steps to bed and somehow, my bed feels colder now and thank god, my new classmates have stopped snoring. Maybe Hogwarts is perfect.