Thank you Dragonslayer101, reena and also the anonymous guest for your reviews! I'm glad you like the story so far!
I also want to apologize for all the typos and grammatical mistakes I make – sometimes I find time to re-read the chapters I've already posted and I do see the mistakes…I just don't have time to check all the chapters over and over before I post them – that would mean you'd have to wait twice as long for updates :D …so I hope you don't mind a little typo here and there…and I'll try my best to write correctly :)
Another chapter – enjoy!
Jade woke up early in the morning. Blue light shining through the windows, which meant the sun wasn't up yet but it would soon rise over the horizon.
She couldn't remember any bad dreams and she felt well rested which meant that nightmares were gone for now.
After three full nights of sleep Jade felt more rested than ever and full of energy for the day. There was no way she would fall back asleep so she decided to take morning shower to start her school year correctly.
She sat up on her huge bed and pulled the cover away, chilly morning air felt extremely fresh after the warmth of the comfy bed but the sky was blue so it was going to be sunny later that day.
She hopped out of bed, her bare feet hit the hard wood floor with light tap.
After taking her towel and clean set of clothes Jade silently tip-toed across the room. It seemed like no one else was up yet and the corridors were empty.
She took quick hot shower and washed her hair before drying off and putting on her school uniform.
Jade looked into the mirror and smiled, tying her red-yellow Gryffindor tie which changed color magically during the night.
She let her hair dry freely in the air because she assumed there was plenty of time before breakfast.
On her way back to the bedroom she noticed that the staircase ended after few more steps, leading to the huge window with wide stone window seat. Their room was really on top of the tower.
She smiled at the view, first rays of sunshine warmed up her face.
Jade went back to her room, spreading the wet towel on the back of her chair, she put away the small toiletry bag and made her bed. The bed didn't stand next to the wall, there was a space on each side but Jade decided she's move it a little bit, so there would be wall from one side, she always felt safer sleeping next to the wall, maybe when girls wake up they could help her push it.
Jade packed the messenger bag she'd be using as school bag. It wasn't new, just a hand me down from one of the boys but Jade loved it. It had some history of it's own.
She made sure there was a bottle full of ink, two quills, enough parchment rolls and her wand.
There was nothing else she could check or pack but it didn't seem like girls were going to get up any time soon. Jade decided to walk down to the common room and look at the clock which she noticed hanging on the wall over the fireplace.
It was half past six, so she walked back upstairs and sat on her bed.
She wanted to wait for her new friends and go down to the great hall together with them. It was their first day and she wanted to be good friend and wait anyway.
Sue woke up first, looking on her wrist watch, she groaned and climbed out of the bed.
"Good morning." Said Jade cheerfully but the only response was Sue's half asleep half startled expression.
The girl pulled her school uniform out of the closet and grabbed her cosmetic bag and towel.
"Sorry, not a morning person… I'll be right back." She mumbled and walked out of the room.
Jade pulled out an empty sheet of parchment and ink with quill.
There was still a little bit of time before her friends would be ready to go down and eat so she decided to start writing the letter home. Molly asked them on several occasions to write as often as they'd have time to, and there would be no better time than now.
Jade was so concentrated on writing the letter that she didn't realize girls got up, and were dressed and ready for the day.
"Jade, are you coming?" asked Maddie fifth time.
"Oh, sure! Sorry I got distracted writing the letter" explained Jade, stuffing the unfinished letter into her bag and running to the door.
"Writing home already?" asked Katie, surprised. "How are you going to send it?" asked the muggle-born girl.
"I'm not sure yet, I'll have to ask George and Fred, I think the school has owls somewhere." Said Jade adjusting the strap of her bag.
"Cool!" commented Katie. "When you find out could you let me know, I'd like to write to my parents some time."
"Ok, ok, it's all really cool, but can we please hurry? I'm starving." Interrupted them Joyce and walked over to the portrait hole which served like the exit from the common room.
"Yeah girls, let's go, it's 7:20 already." Rushed them Sue and followed Joyce out of the common room which was now lit by the sunlight, looking much bigger than last night.
The group of five girls wandered around corridors, trying to get to the Great Hall in time for breakfast. They finally managed to find their way by following a group of Hufflepuf students, assuming they too, were going for breakfast.
They got to the table in time and just as they sat down the food appeared.
Jade noticed twins weren't here yet but Percy was already seated in his usual spot, reading thick book and eating a slice of toast. He smiled and wished her good morning but then returned to his reading.
"So, what do you think we'll do today?" asked Sue, now much more awake and friendly than before. She really was not a morning person and couldn't keep conversation very well before her morning shower and some breakfast.
"I hope we won't have many lessons on Friday, it'd be nice to have free afternoons and longer week-ends sort-of." Mused Maddie while she filed her bowl with cereal and milk.
"We should have a girls night some time! You know, magazines, nail polish, scented candles and gossip." Squeaked Katie, happy about her great idea.
"I have all we need from home. So what do you think? Maybe on Sunday so we could look pretty for school next week." Sue and Maddie joined her and giggled uncontrollably while Joyce looked at Jade a little bit scared. They both laughed at each-other's terrified faces.
"Well, why not, we could get to know each-other better, it could be fun." Said Jade unsure if she could ever find something like nail-polish "fun" but she wanted to have friends and she liked her roommates so far so she assumed it would be ok. Joyce nodded and shrugged "Yeah, should be fun."
The conversation was interrupted by McGonagall who came to the Gryffindor table and started to hand out sheets of white paper to all the older students.
Then she moved to the side where most first years were sitting.
"Alright students, here are your timetables. The first lesson today – flying will be replaced by our class conference where we'll go over the school rules and I'll explain where different classrooms are. I'll also answer any questions you might have. Then you will continue your day with two and a half hours of History of magic. Then lunch break and one and a half hour of herbiology.
It's short day and you'll finish your lessons at two." Smiled professor McGonagall, well aware that students loved free Friday afternoons.
"We'll go over the rest of your timetables later. Your flying lessons will normally start at eight and last for hour and a half but I'll give you some time to get settled so we'll meet in front of the History of magic classroom at half past eight.
It's on the second floor, west end, on the right side of the corridor with red tiles on the floor. I'm sure you'll find it or some of the older students will be happy to help you.
I'll see you soon then." She finished her speech and turned around lightly slapping Fred and George on their heads with the last two timetables she had left. She handed them the schedules and scolded: "Late, like always, you're lucky that second years have one free period on Friday mornings." And then she left.
"Good morning sis, slept well?" asked George pushing Jade to one side so he could reach for the toast.
"Yeah I…" started Jade but Fred pushed her from the other side and she was suddenly squished between her brothers.
"Get off of me." Laughed Jade as they poked and tickled her from each side.
"Wanting to get rid of us?" asked George pretending he was offended.
"That won't be easy, you're stuck with us." Announced Fred and they squished her even more from each side, high-fiving over her head.
"See you later, remember, we're going to show you around." Said Fred and snatched the timetable from Jade's hand, comparing it to his own schedule.
"Yup, that's right, you'll finish at two, we finish twenty minutes later. Do you wanna wait for us outside by the greenhouses if it's still sunny by then?" asked George.
"Yeah, why not…" started Jade, but twins interrupted her again:
"Ok, see you later."
"See ya!" called Jade as Fred and George grabbed a handful of toasts and walked out of the great Hall with their friends.
"Do you want to go back to our room? We still have forty minutes before the first lesson." Asked Maddie looking at her timetable.
"Why don't we just go outside and hang out by the lake? The common room is a long way from here and what if we get lost again?" suggested Sue and they all agreed.
The castle was standing in the middle of huge field surrounded by dark forest and huge lake which looked really deep and black in the middle but there was nice little beach on the shallow end – closest to the school. The beach was filled with little round stones and there were already groups of students sitting around on the grass or walking alongside the lake.
Let's go sit down on the grass!" exclaimed Maddie and pulled Joyce with her, running towards the lake.
Katie, Sue and Jade followed, still looking on their timetables.
"It's a shame we won't have flying lesson today." Commented Jade a little disappointed. It felt like she didn't sit on the broom for such a long time.
"I can't fly very well, I've never really practiced that much. We live on the coast so I've spent most of my free time swimming in the sea." Said Katie, smiling as she remembered the endless hours spent swimming and diving in the sea.
"Yeah, me neither, dad always tried to get me into kids' quidditch team at home but I wasn't very good at it, it's kind of scary going too fast." Added Sue when they sat down next to Maddie and Joyce and pulled out pink high-lighting marker and circled different subjects.
Jade relaxed and leaned back, looking at the lake. It was still pretty warm, surely one of the last warm days of the summer, but the wind was still pleasantly warm, blowing little waves on the water surface.
"Do you think we could swim in the lake some time?" asked Jade thinking about the pond they had home at the Burrow. Home – it still sounded strange to her, strange but somehow right.
"Josh, my brother, said it's too cold. The water is deep in the middle and it can never get warm enough to be good for swimming, besides there's giant squid living in the deep end." Said Katie and shuddered.
"Well, I'm sure they wouldn't keep it here if it was dangerous right?" asked Jade but she wasn't completely sure.
"Hmm, probably not, but I wouldn't risk it anyway." Said Sue.
They stayed outside for a while before it was time to get back.
"So, the classroom is supposed to be on second floor,…" said Maddie, reading the notes she scribbled into her notebook covered in pink glitter.
They found the classroom easily, half of their classmates were already inside waiting for the professor to come in.
Maddie sat down with Joyce, and Katie with Sue took the desk next to them, so Jade decided to sit in front of them and be closer to all four girls so they could talk easily until their professor arrived.
The seat next to Jade stayed empty, as well as all first row of desks, everyone tried to catch the seat at the back of the room because History of Magic followed and it was a well known fact that students had a tendency to fall asleep during the lecture.
The class conference like professor McGonagall called it was boring, she went over list of rules they had to follow.
Be in time for every lesson.
If any accident, injury or damage happens during the lesson they were to immediately alert their professor.
They had to follow instructions and practice magic only in classrooms.
Never go inside or near the forbidden forest unless they were accompanied by adults and had permission from professor….
After half an hour of rules which seemed absolutely stupid to Jade, professor explained the way everything works at school.
They were supposed to leave their dirty laundry in the laundry baskets, which were placed by the bathroom door and the laundry will be washed and returned to their rooms every Saturday morning.
Breakfast will start at 6:30 during school days and at 7:00 on week-ends, lunch break was marked on their schedules.
After the hour of unimportant information and useless directions – for how they get to different classrooms – which no one really remembered, McGonagall let them have a five minutes long pause and then after introducing professor Binns she left.
The Gryffindors were joined by Rawenclaw students (a boy named Arnold sat next to Jade but fell asleep shamelessly after only a couple of minutes) and suffered through full lecture on History of magic, because somehow professor Binns didn't realize today was the first day of school.
They even got a homework, two parchments long essay on History of magic as the subject. No one really knew what they were supposed to write in there but none of the students dared to ask.
They were happy to leave the classroom for lunch.
"Now, that was fun. Not." Yawned Sue, trying to rub off the ink smudge from Katie's chin – she fell asleep on her notes and woke up with right side of her face sporting nice copy of the history timeline.
The great hall was much busier now when all school had lunch around the same time and food was already on tables when Jade threw herself on the empty place next to Fred, totally exhausted and not yet completely awake.