Now they were already six people sitting as a group on the Slytherin table and ate their breakfast. Ash talked a lot to Blaise and Tracy, who were sitting next to her, while Draco, Pansy and Daphne were having a conservation about a party that had been held in the previous summer holidays.
"How do you like Hogwarts so far? Is it better than your old school?" Tracy asked at one point.
"Better than my old school? I don't know really, I didn't see enough of Hogwarts yet to answer that question. I do miss my old friends! But we're still in contact so that's not too much of a problem. They won't let me go two days without the newest gossip! But my old school was very nice, it is located inside of a mountain in the Alps. OK I know that kind of sounds, um well, dark and gloomy but it wasn't at all! It was a very bright and cheerful place. Our common room actually reminds me of some places in it!" Ash smiled as she remembered.
"One of the best things there was that in the winter we were able to ski and snowboard down the mountain and go to the après-ski parties the muggles in the area organized. If nothing else, you can say muggles can party," she laughed.
"You hung out with muggles?" Blaise asked with a sneer.
"Get that sneer out of your tone, my friend," Ash laughed. "Yes, I partied with muggles and hung out with a few of them every now and then. Got a problem with that?" she continued turning serious.
Blaise looked at her intensely, silently battling it out. Blaise folded. "No, I don't. I just don't understand why a witch would hang out with muggles."
Ash shrugged, "Like I said they throw good parties."
"Blaise how about we show her around a bit? And tell her where everything is." Tracy asked. Ash looked at her excited.
"That would be great!" she exclaimed with a smile at Tracy and then turned to Blaise, joy jumping in her eyes.
"Sure why not. But let's finish eating first, I'm hungry," he said and went back eating his food. Quickly Ash followed suit and ate the rest of her waffles and a fruit salad.
Shortly before they finished there was a screech of an owl at the ceiling. Ash looked up confused. "The post is here," she heard someone in the Great Hall call. Ash looked out for her pitch black owl, Schneeball (German for Snowball).
After a minute or two she found her and at the same moment Schneeball as well as two other owls, one of them being the old and battered Weasley owl, Errol, falling into Daphne's bowl of cereals as it tried to land and another a gray mountain owl named Quelle (German for Water-spring), from her friend Kat.
"I'm so sorry about that Daphne!" Ash said trying to hold back her laughter as the owl jumped out of the bowl, shook itself and hopped over to her.
Daphne glared at her but didn't say anything, only started to swipe off the milk that splashed over her and her deep purple shirt and mini skirt. Quickly she tied the letters of the old owls leg and sent it off again with a thank you. Then she turned to Quelle and took down the package of letters that were tied to its legs and lastly the big package of Schneeball's leg. She stroked both of their backs once and then also sent them off to get some rest before flying again. Before Quelle started to fly she told it to wait with the other owls so that she could give her some letters in return.
With an answering hoot it flew away.
"Wow, you're popular," Tracy said as another owl suddenly flew over her head and let a German witch Magazine fall in front of her and shortly after wards also the Daily Prophet found its place on top of the pile of letters.
"Not as popular as you think," Ash said and took two letters out of the pile standing up. "If you would excuse me for a second," she smiled and went over to the Gryffindor table.
"Hey Ginny!" she called out as she reached the table and neared the red haired girl. All of the girls she sat with looked up and smiled at her and wished her a good morning. "Here, Errol only made it to me," Ash smiled as she passed one of the letters to her cousin.
"Ah, thanks Ash," she said a bit embarrassed. "It's time for us to get a new owl."
"Haha, don't say that! He might hear you!" she laughed. "Anyway, I wish you guys a nice day!"
"You too!" Ginny smiled looking up from the letter from her mother once again.
After delivering the letter to Ginny she went down the table a bit further to where Ron was sitting. "Hey Ron!" she called out like she did when she came to Ginny. But the reaction she got from his friends was different from the group of friends before.
Even Harry and Hermione eyed her warily, even though they knew her and she had thought of them as a friend. As soon as she came a bit nearer they all stopped talking to each other. "Hey guys," she said trying to ignore this change in attitude.
"Hey," they muttered in unison.
"Um... OK... well, here Ron," she said stretching out her hand to give him the letter of his mother. "Errol didn't quite make it here so he just came to me to deliver the letters. You should have seen it! He flew right into Daphne's cereals and splashe-" She stopped short as Ron broke her off.
"Thanks for delivering the letter, anything else?" she noticed the dark atmosphere that had spread around the group of friends since she stood there.
"Um, no... I guess I'll be going then..." she said looking down at the ground.
"Yes, do that." And with that he turned his back on her and started talking to his friends again.
Hurt Ash turned around and made her way back to the Slytherin table. She knew when she wasn't wanted somewhere. But it especially hurt her that her cousin had been so cold to her although she thought of him as something like a brother and even as one of her best friends...
When she was back in her seat between Tracy and Blaise she let her head fall on the table and wrapped her arms over it.
"Ash, are you OK?" Blaise asked concerned, placing a hand in between her shoulder blades.
"Yes, yes I'm fine," she answered with a sigh and looked up again to see, all of them looking at her concerned.
"You know that fine means: Fucked Up, Insecure, Neurotic and Emotional; right?" Malfoy said.
Ash chuckled. "It's nothing. Just Ron behaving like an ass."
"Tell us something new," Blaise muttered. Ash couldn't help but laugh softly.
"Well, I guess I should start reading these letters, or I'll never finish," she said while reaching for the first letter.
"Ash, how about we show you around the castle first and then we can go to the common room and focus on the letters before going to the BBQ. Sound good?" Tracy asked while placing a hand over the letters.
"Oh, yeah sure. Sounds good." Blaise and Tracy stood up and Ash piled up the letters and picked them up following suit. "Bye guys, see you later," she said while life seemed to flood back at her. "So, where do we start?"
"Well you already know the common room and the Great Hall; so how about we start of by showing you where some of the classrooms are and where the library is. Then we can show you the grounds and lake as well as the Quidditch patch," Tracy planned out. "Oh, by the way do you play Quidditch?"
"Yeah I do, in my old school I was part of the Quidditch team."
"What position do you play?" Blaise wanted to know.
"I'm a Beater," she said.
"A Beater? I thought you'd be a Chaser or Seeker."
Ash laughed, "yeah I get that a lot. It's an advantage on the pitch though. Everyone underestimates me there. They don't think I can hit the Bludgers hard enough. I love their confused expression when it suddenly hits them - literally. I'm actually quite strong, you know. How is the Slytherin team? Draco's the Captain, right?"
"Yeah he is. How'd you know?"
"Ron and Harry told me all about Quidditch in Hogwarts," she answered.
"Oh OK."
"Here's our first destination, the potions room. Here, Professor Snape our Head of the House, teaches potions." Tracy told Ash as they stood in front of a heavy door in the dungeons. Next Ash got introduced to the moving stairs, which fascinated her as well as made her scream when one of them started moving while they were on it.
Next they went to the Transfiguration's and History classrooms and then many more. After about two hours of wandering through the castle we came to the last room, the Astronomy tower. From up here one could see almost all of the Castle's grounds.
The lake was glittering in the sunshine, many students were sitting at its edge or under the trees of the forbidden forest together laughing and chatting. In the far end of her view she could see the Quidditch ground and a little wooden hut where she guessed Hagrid lived.
"Wow, this is beautiful" she exclaimed fascinated by the sight. Tracy leaned against the banister of the balcony next to her.
"You should see it at night," she smiled to the other girl.
"I have a question, its been bothering me quite a bit... how come everyone here walks around normally? Is there a rule against flying inside the school building or something?"
"Of course there is... Did you fly around in your old school?" Tracy asked confused
"Yeah, but our school was set up differently. I just guessed that it was normal for witches and wizards to fly brooms and get to classes that way. But apparently that was only in my school because it was essential for us - we wouldn't have reached some classrooms without one."
"Why is that?"
"Well, that's because our school was a big hollow mountain. And although it had stairs hammered inside of the wall that led up to most of the classrooms there were some classrooms that were like caves in the wall, into which the stairway was unusable any more so we just flew up there with your brooms. Also the dorms where located in those types of caves."
"That sounds extremely weird," Blaise commented.
"Yeah, doesn't it? But it was a lot of fun being there," Ash smile up at him and then looked at the sun. "Guys do you know what time it is?"
"No, sorry don't have a watch on me," Tracy said and Blaise shook his head no.
"It's time to go for a swim!"
"What do you mean?" They started but where interrupted by Ash who jumped and grabbed onto Tracy's and Blaise's hands and started to run. Down the corridors they just came through and out of the building.
When they reached the lake Ash let go of their arms and took of her shoes and socks and jumped into the green blue lake. When she came out of the water again she looked up at the two still standing at the edge of the lake, looking at her as if she had grow three different heads.
"What are you waiting for?" she laughed and threw some water into their direction.
"Are you insane?" Blaise asked still in shock at her just randomly jumping into the lake.
"Nope, I'm spontaneous," she grinned. "Now come on in! It's nice and warm!"
"But we don't have a bathing suit or anything," Tracy answered.
"So? I don't have one either! Come on! It's fun! And don't forget we're witches! We can always magic ourselves dry again!" Ash argued.
"No sorry, I won't go in that lake. I'm not that crazy."
Ash sighed an defeated sigh and started to come out of the water and climbed up the little levitation they stood on.
"I guess I'll have to force you guys to your luck," she said and pushed then into the lake before they could register what she said. Then she jumped in right after them. When she came out of the water again she laughed at her two soaked friends, who in turn glared at her, murder in their eyes. If looks could kill she'd already be long dead and buried.
The two of them looked at each other and started to run through the water towards Ash, who in turn started to swim away from them in order to get safely away from them.
"You are so dead," she heard Tracy shriek.
"Come on look at the bright side of life! You where allowed to do something new and exciting," she laughed back at her when the two of them caught her.
"We're soaked!" Tracy screamed.
"So? You're a witch use magic to dry up again!" Ash still laughed. "Just look at it as a new experience and an awesome new memory!"
Blaise let go of her and Tracy stepped back. "A memory we will definitely remember..."
"Yes exactly," Ash smiled.
"You know what would make this memory even better?" Tracy asked and nodded at Blaise who continued. "Us dunking you under water for revenge." Ash became wide eyed and started to run away again but the two of them where faster and started to push her under water laughing.
When they let go of her Ash quickly looked at them and smiled. They were enjoying it, and she enjoyed it as well. It was nearly like it was with her friends from Germany.
After about half an hour of splashing around in the water together and a few odd stares by their fellow peers they got out of the water. Laughing, joking and pushing each other around. When they were on the ledge again Ash looked for her wand and found it inside her left shoe. Quickly they dried themselves up with a quick spell and made their way to the common room once again.
"That was fun, wasn't it?" Ash asked with a small smirk on her lips.
"It wasn't as bad as I imagined it to be," Tracy reluctantly admitted.
Blaise just shook his head and said, "Your crazy, did you know that?"
"Yeah I heard that one quite often," she admitted while laughing. Her hair was still wet, so as she shook her head the two people beside her cringed away.
"Merlin! Watch out where you spray your water, I just dried up!" Blaise swore and chuckled, pushing her away from him a bit.
"Pssh, touchy now, aren't we?" Ash giggled.
All of a sudden they heard a voice call Ash's name. The three of them turned around to look at who was calling her. Behind them stood the Golden Trio.
"Um hey," Ash said, unsure of how to react to them after this morning.
Ron looked at her then asked, "Could we talk to you? Under..." he looked at the other two, "Under 8 eyes?"
"Weasley, what you have to say to her you can also say in front of us," Blaise growled.
Ash looked at him and smiled. Ron looked at her in surprise. "So, you really turned into a Slytherin," he said.
"Ron what do you mean by that? If I wasn't an Slytherin before that hat would not have put me into Slytherin now, would he?" she reasoned.
"I always thought we were friends, not only family."
"We are! How can you say that?"
"No, no friend of mine would have befriended Malfoy and his clique after what I already told you about them."
"Weasley now your going to - " Tracy started but was cut of by Ash who raised her hand.
"Ron that's not fair. What you know is one side of the clique. But you know just like me that there are always two sides of the story. And as you also know I don't judge people by just hearing about them but by what I experience with them myself. You know that. I agree Draco can be an ass. I can't yet agree or disagree about many others and I don't agree that Tracy and Blaise are. They're witches and wizards like you and I are. Sure they've got a flaw or two, but so do you. And I don't understand why you can't see that."
Ron opened his mouth to say something, but Ash cut him of before he could start talking.
"No, Ron. I saw your attitude today. I don't know why you behaved like you did and to be honest it would be a lie if I said I don't care. I do, and do you know why? Because you are not just my cousin but brother as well as friend. I thought that even if I could count on nobody else I could always count on you. But this shows once again how easily one can be wrong. You hurt me this morning and now you want to accuse me of hurting you by getting friends? Wow. Just wow."
Ash turned around and started to walk away, followed by Blaise and Tracy.
"Ash I -" Ron started once again.
"No Ron, I don't want to hear it," Ash called back and the three of them let the Golden Trio stand rooted to place.
"I'm sorry about that Ash," Tracy said, putting an arm around her.
"It's alright."
"No it isn't, he's your cousin and behaved like an ass towards you only because your in a different house then he is."
"Nah, it's not that I'm in a different house then he is, its because I'm in Slytherin."
"Well, you get what I mean..."
"How about we just forget about that for now and get to the common room, I mean we still have to get ready for the BBQ and I would like to answer at least one of the letters that I got today." And with that they stopped talking about the earlier incident and walked a bit faster to get to the common room as soon as possible.
*******
Dear Ash,
How are you, girl? School's about to start and I can just feel the bordum creeping up on me already. In the morning we're off to board the train. Without you there it will be so different and weirdly quiet, I just know it. Can you still remember the times we sat in class together and couldn't stop laughing because we managed to stick a kick me sign on Professor Dandelions back without him noticing?
I wish you'd come back and I'll see you like always in the train station, but I understand that you can't after what happened...
Anyroad, how's Hogwarts? Is it as nice as your cousin always described it? What house did you get sorted into? Gryffindor like you wanted? Talking of your cousins, how are they?
Write me soon!
Kat
Ash smiled at the letter. Kat had been her best friend in her old wizarding school. They had known each other for years. Quickly she got out a quill and jotted down her reply.
Hey Kat,
I'm doing alright over here. How about you? Is everyone alright? I miss you guys so much as well, but I was able to find some nice friends here as well.
Hogwarts not to bad actually, but totally different from our school. No ones flying around with their brooms and there a huge lake with a giant squid inside! Yeah, Ron described it pretty well, but he forgot to tell about the moving stairs cases and just how big all of this is!
I got sorted into Slytherin. A house where I found some good friends but sadly, Ron and all his friends distaste it, so we're having a small quarrel right now. But that will soon come to an end, I hope.
But as far as I see both of them are good.
Thank you for the letter, greet and hug everyone for me!
Oh and before I forget, THANK YOU FOR THE COOKIES!
with LOADS of love
Ash
Ash re-read her answering letter and sealed it with wax. Then she put it with the other 10 letters she had already written.
Now, only Aunt Molly's letter needed to be read and answered.
Hello Dear,
Congratulations for being sorted into Slytherin. We are very proud of you. I hope you will find some good friends there and learn well!
Just ignore Ron, I know that he's behaving like an ass, but you know him. Just don't take him serious, dear.
I wish you all the best and a lot of success!
Work hard,
Greetings from Author, Fred and George!
Molly
Ash laughed as she read the letter. Aunt Molly knew her son oh so well.
Hello Aunt Molly,
Thank you very much! You congratulating me means more to me than you might think. In the time I was already here I already had the possibility to befriend two awesome people! One of them is Tracy Davis and the other is Blaise Zabini. Their a lot of fun to hang around with! Although they will need a bit of training for spontaneous activities! But I'll have them up for no good in no time at all.
How did you know that Ron and I are fighting right now? Anyway, I already know that I cant take him serious right now, he'll get over it eventually. But it still hurts.
See you soon again!
Greet everyone from me!
Love,
Ash
With this the last letter was written and waiting for the delivery. Quickly she put on some clothes and asked Tracy to show her the way to the owlary. Together they quickly went there and sent of the two owls, Quelle to the Alps with the letters to her friends and Schneeball to the Weasley's.
While watching the two owls fly away into the distance, Ash suddenly felt a drop of water hit her face. Confused she looked up at the sky to see a gigantic black cloud floating above the castle. Turning to Tracy she quickly said "run" and grabbed her hand as they ran towards cover.
A few minutes and buckets of water soaking into their clothes later they finally reached the castle and got under cover.
"I don't know about you, but a BBQ in the rain, doesn't quite fit into my description of an successful evening," Ash said panting once they stopped for air.
"Yeah, I guess we'll just have to stick to the emergency plan now."
"And what's that?"
"Drown our sorrows at a party in the common room," she grinned and started pulling Ash back towards the Slytherin dungeons.