If it was something Arthur was happy about it was the fact it was a calm evening, because it turned out all the first-years were supposed to travel across the great lake by a fleet of small boats. The gigantic man, who Arthur finally found out was named Hagrid, called out for them to take a seat in the boats with no more than four of them in each. Arthur thought he saw Harry and Ron sit down in one of them, but couldn't be sure since the darkness made it hard to see. Just a minute later he and Hermione found Neville again, which was a good thing for Neville. Arthur was just barely able to save Neville in time from falling into the lake when the unlucky boy once again slipped while he tried to climb into the little boat. Just to be on the safe side it was therefore decided Neville would sit in the middle, while Hermione took the seat in the front and Arthur sat down on the seat behind Neville.
"Excuse me, but is this seat taken?"
They all turned around to face a short girl with brown eyes and light brown, on the border to dark blonde, hair to her shoulders.
"No, it isn't," Arthur answered her. "You're welcome to sit with us if you want to."
The girl seemed to take a breath in relief. "Thank you!"
She quickly climbed inside and took the seat behind Arthur and barely had the time to sit down before Hagrid began to shout from his own boat.
"Everyone in? Right then, FORWARD!"
Immediately Arthur felt the small boat make a barely noticeable jerk before it began to glide across the lake. It didn't take long until the boat reached the middle of the lake, and Arthur noticed how Neville nervously clutched both sides of the boat to make sure he didn't fall into the lake. Wait, both sides? Then how did he hold…?
"Neville," Arthur began warily. "Where is your toad?"
They were told to leave their luggage on the train since it would be taken to the school separately, but Arthur doubted Neville owned a cage or something similar for his toad, which meant he would have been forced to take the toad with him anyway. So when Neville's head snapped back to look at him with widened eyes Arthur already knew the answer to his question.
"Not again…" Neville whimpered and began to frantically look around the boat. "Why does he keep disappearing?"
"I'm sure he will show up," Hermione reassured Neville gently.
"Yes, but what if he doesn't?" Neville wailed. "Oh, I wish I had asked for a turtle instead of a toad. At least it wouldn't have been able to run away from me all the time!"
Somehow Arthur seriously doubted it, but wisely kept his mouth shut.
"Heads down!" Hagrid suddenly yelled, and Arthur realized their boat already reached the cliff the castle stood on.
However Neville didn't seem to have heard Hagrid, or seen the low cliff, since he was too busy with the search after his toad, so with a curse Arthur quickly moved forward and pressed down Neville's head just in time before it painfully would have made contact with the stone. After many stuttering thanks from Neville the boats got past the low cliff and continued to carry them through a curtain of ivy, which hid a wide opening in the cliff-face. The boats then slowly glided over the water in silence and only took them deeper into a dark tunnel, which eventually led them to what looked like underground harbor. Arthur guessed they currently must be right underneath the castle. Once the boats stopped everyone carefully climbed out from the boats again, and Arthur made sure to keep an eye on Neville in case the boy slipped again. Like the gentleman he was Arthur also made sure to offer both Hermione and the unknown girl who sat behind him a hand to climb out from the boat, but in the end the only one who needed any help turned out to be Neville.
"T-Thank you," Neville stuttered nervously.
"Don't worry about it," Arthur muttered back and began to walk over to where the rest of the students and Hermione were waiting for them.
"Oy, you there! Is this your toad?" Hagrid suddenly loudly asked Neville and held up…
"Trevor!" Neville cried out in happiness and held out his hands to once again have his toad back.
After everyone finally were out from the boats they followed Hagrid and his lamp up for a passage in the rock and came out on a lawn of damp grass in the shadow of the castle. They walked up for some stone stairs and then found themselves crowded around a massive front door of oak.
"Are everyone here? Good."
Hagrid knocked three times on the door of the castle with his gigantic hand, which was opened at once by a stern-looking, tall witch with black hair and emerald-green robes. Arthur's immediately understood this was not a woman you wanted to anger.
"The firs'-years, Professor McGonagall," Hagrid presented them.
"Thank you, Hagrid. I will take them from here," she replied with a nod and opened the door wide before she began to lead them into the Entrance Hall.
The Entrance Hall was of such impressive size Arthur was sure they could fit a house inside of it if they wanted to, and like in Gringotts the walls of stone were only lit up by the fire from the torches. The ceiling was so high Arthur couldn't even see where it ended, and facing them was also a beautiful staircase of white marble which led to the many floors above. However despite everyone's awe they didn't have the time to stand still and take a look for long, because Professor McGonagall never stopped to walk and they were forced to hurry after her to even keep up with her speed. Thankfully they didn't have to walk very far and it didn't take long until Professor McGonagall led them past a doorway to their right, from where Arthur could hear hundreds of muffled voices behind, (Arthur suspected the rest of the school were already there), and into a small, empty chamber. The chamber became a little cramped and everyone were forced to stand much closer to each other than what Arthur normally was comfortable with, but he consoled himself they most likely wouldn't need to stand here for very long. At least Arthur hoped so, because he didn't have the heart to do anything about the fact Neville currently stood on his left foot. Once everyone were inside the chamber Professor McGonagall cleared her throat to speak.
"Welcome to Hogwarts. The start-of-term banquet will shortly begin, but before you take your seats in the Great Hall you will need to be sorted into your houses.
During your time here at Hogwarts your house will be something like a family. You will have your classes together and then also sleep together in your house dormitory."
Arthur nodded to himself. He already knew about most of this from his books, but it was good to be reminded of everything, because Arthur was pretty sure his nervousness had been given a life of it's own in his head and deleted everything he knew.
"For those who don't already know the four houses are called Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin," Professor McGonagall continued.
"Each house has their own noble history and all of them have produced many great witches and wizards throughout history. During your stay at Hogwarts your achievements will earn you points for your house, while any breaking of the rules will instead make you lose them. The house with the most points at the end of the year is then awarded by the great honour of the House Cup, and I expect each one of you to do your best to make your respective house proud."
She took a brief pause here and looked out over the sea of students in front of her.
"The Sorting Ceremony will take place in a few minutes in front of the rest of the school, so I suggest all of you try to smarten up as much as you can while you wait."
This time her eyes came to rest on Ron, who stood together with Harry in front of Arthur. When Professor McGonagall's gaze left them Arthur saw how Harry tried in vain to flatten his hair a little while Professor McGonagall continued to talk.
"I will return when we are ready for you. Please wait here quietly."
She then left the chamber and from Arthur's right side Hermione discreetly leaned over to Arthur.
"Do you happen to know how they will sort us? I couldn't find anything about it in my books," Hermione asked quietly with a hint of nervousness in her voice.
"No, I have no idea," Arthur admitted in a whisper.
His brothers never went to Hogwarts, but because of their work in the Government and the Ministry they knew everything which was going on anyway. No matter how many times Arthur asked about the sorting they would just smirk and refuse to tell Arthur anything about it though. Sometimes Arthur wasn't sure if it was a blessing or a curse to have older brothers. Then Arthur heard Ron answer the same question to Harry, and Arthur began to become even more nervous at the mention of having to do a test.
Sure, Arthur more or less learnt his books by heart during the summer, but he had never been allowed to practice the spells. Would it be enough to only know the spells in theory? Hermione seemed to hope so, because she quickly began to whisper all the spells she knew and sort them by how useful they might be. Arthur was almost about to do the same, but when several people behind him suddenly screamed Arthur instead snapped around with a yelp of surprise to see what was going on. It turned out about twenty pearly-white and slightly transparent ghosts glided through the wall into the chamber, and with a whimper of fear Neville jumped behind Arthur and clutched his robes tightly. Apparently the ghosts were in the middle of a heated discussion though, because they didn't even seem to notice the shocked first-years below them.
"I say we forgive and forget," a ghost who looked like a fat little monk said. "We ought to give him a second chance-"
"My dear Friar, haven't we already given Peeves all the chances he deserves? Peeves gives all of us a bad name, and he is not even a real ghost, you know. I say- Hm, what are you doing here?" The ghost with ruff and tights suddenly cut off and looked down at them.
Nobody answered.
"New students!" the Fat Friar smiled down at them. "I suppose you're about to be sorted?"
Arthur was one of the few students who mutely nodded in answer.
"I hope to see you in Hufflepuff, my old house," the Fat Friar smiled kindly.
They were saved from answering the ghost when a sharp voice interrupted.
"Move along now! The sorting ceremony is about to start."
Professor McGonagall had returned, and her words seemed to be the only thing the ghosts needed to know, because one after one they floated away through the opposite wall and disappeared while Professor McGonagall told all the first-years to form a line and follow her. As Arthur got into the line behind Hermione and Neville (it felt easier to keep an eye on the poor boy that way) he almost wished the ghosts were back so he wouldn't have to follow Professor McGonagall out from the chamber and back across the hall. From the corner of his eyes Arthur could see how Harry nervously looked around and how Ron's face almost looked white in the dim light, but Arthur brought back his attention to what was in front of him when they walked through the doors into the Great Hall.
Until now Arthur had never seen such strange and impressive place. Thousands of candles were lit and floated in the middle of the air over four long tables, where Arthur saw the rest of the students sitting. The tables were laid with golden plates and goblets which glittered in the light. At the top of the Hall there was an additional long table where the teachers sat. This was also where Professor McGonagall led them, so they soon came to a halt in a line facing the rest of the students with the teachers behind them. Hundreds of faces stared up at them and Arthur couldn't help but to feel the knot in his stomach tighten. In an attempt to distract himself he tried to listen while Hermione whispered an explanation to Neville how the star-dressed ceiling was bewitched to look like the sky outside.
Once all of the first-years stood in a line Professor McGonagall shortly left them and then came back with a four-legged stool, which she silently placed in front of the first-years with a pointed wizard's hat on top. The hat was frayed, dirty and looked like it had been used for a very long time. Arthur briefly wondered if they were supposed to summon a rabbit or something from it, like the "muggle-wizards" sometimes did in their TV-shows, but dismissed the idea when his brain remembered summoning spells like that were classed as very difficult spells. At the same time everyone else in the Hall still seemed to be staring at the hat, so it was obvious something was supposed to happen with it. With a calming breath Arthur therefore decided to wait and see what would happen. The next few seconds in the Hall was completely silent, and Arthur was almost beginning to wonder if something had went wrong when the hat suddenly twitched. A rip opened up like a mouth close to the brim of the hat, and then the hat began to sing.
The hat first began to sing about itself, but then continued to sing about the four houses and their founders. It didn't take long for Arthur to realize the only "test" they would need to do was to try the hat on their heads, and Arthur took a deep breath of relief when the hat finished his(?) song to great applauses from the whole Hall. When the hat had bowed to the four tables it once again became still and Arthur almost wanted to laugh when he heard Ron furiously whisper to Harry about how he was going to kill someone called Fred, who Arthur assumed to either be a friend or brother, for telling him they would need to wrestle a troll. They were still forced to do this in front of the rest of the school, but at least they would only need to try a hat. Nevertheless Arthur would be lying if he didn't admit he was still nervous when Professor McGonagall stepped forward with a long roll of parchment in her hands.
"When I call your name I want you to put on the hat and sit down on the stool to be sorted," she said and then immediately called the first name on the list.
"Abbott, Hannah!"
A pink-faced girl with blonde pigtails nervously stumbled out from the line, put on the hat - which was too big and fell down over her eyes - and sat down on the stool.
There was only a short pause before the hat shouted out:
"HUFFLEPUFF!"
The table on the right broke out in cheers and clapped loudly while the girl, Hannah, went and became greeted by her new peers as she sat down. Arthur even saw one of the ghosts they met in the chamber earlier, the Fat Friar, happily wave to her.
"Bones, Susan!" Professor McGonagall continued, and another girl came forward to try on the hat.
Once again the hat shouted "HUFFLEPUFF!" and Susan hurried off to sit next to Hannah. However the next two students were sorted into Ravenclaw while "Brown, Lavender" soon became the first new Gryffindor. At the hat's announcement the table to the far left exploded in loud cheers, and Arthur almost wanted to cover his ears at the volume. Afterwards "Bulstrode, Millicent" became the first Slytherin, and this time it was the table between Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff which exploded in cheers.
The more names who were called out, the more nervous Arthur became. He dimly noticed how the hat sometimes took shorter or longer time to sort someone, depending on the person, but otherwise found himself too occupied by his own nervousness to really listen where the other first-years were sorted. That is, until Goyle, one of the boys on the train with Malfoy, was sorted into Slytherin and Professor McGonagall called out…
"Granger, Hermione!"
Arthur tried to give her a reassuring smile when Hermione left the line with a glint in her eyes, almost ran over to the stool and then eagerly jammed down the hat on her head. It took almost four whole minutes, but eventually the hat loudly shouted out "GRYFFINDOR!" and Hermione happily jogged towards her house.
The next girl, "Greengrass, Daphne", was then quickly sorted into Slytherin before "Hopkins, Wayne" and "Jones, Megan" became new members of Hufflepuff.
It couldn't be many more names before…
"Kirkland, Arthur!"
… it was his turn now. Arthur tried to swallow the lump of nervousness and left the line. The walk towards the stool suddenly seemed endlessly long, and the whole Hall broke into excited whispers while they all stared at him.
"Did she say Kirkland?"
"A Kirkland? Here?"
"Does that mean he's related to-"
"He must be the first Kirkland at Hogwarts for centuries!"
Maybe it was only his imagination, but even Professor McGonagall seemed to look at him with great interest. The only thing Arthur found pleasure in about this was when he caught sight of Malfoy's flabbergasted face from the corner of his eyes, but otherwise it was almost a relief when he finally reached the stool and the hat went down over his eyes so he no longer saw everyone else in the Hall.
'Hm, interesting', a voice quietly said in his ear without warning. 'You will be difficult to place.'
Arthur held his breath while the hat continued.
'You have a lot of courage and pride yourself as a gentleman, but also a great mind with a thirst for knowledge. There is plenty of talent hiding in you as well, just waiting to be unleashed. You're loyal too, oh yes, but not blindly so - and only to those you deem worthy of your loyalty. A lot of pride too, I see, and plenty of ambition. So where should I place you?'
The hat continued to hum in deep thoughts for a long time, which made Arthur even more nervous than he already was. What was taking so long?
Surely he couldn't be that difficult? Arthur wasn't even sure how long he had been sitting here by now, but it sure felt longer than he watched Hermione sit with the hat.
'What houses are you considering?' he finally decided to ask the hat.
'Well, all of them really', came the quiet answer. 'I did say you were a difficult one to place after all. You have traits suited for all of the houses, but I'm unsure what part of you I should base your sorting on.'
Arthur had no idea what that was supposed to mean, but maybe he wasn't supposed to.
'Hm, I think I know where you belong now.' The hat then finally told him quietly. 'It better be…'
"SLYTHERIN!"
The last word was shouted out loudly for the whole Hall to hear and the resulting explosion of cheers from the table between Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff was so loud Arthur almost thought he would go deaf. With a shaky breath of relief of finally being sorted Arthur took off the hat and began the walk down to his new House. In the midst of all cheering Arthur thought he heard someone yell what sounded suspiciously like "Hell yes, we got Kirkland!" just before he sat down at the table a good distance away from Crabbe and Goyle.
"Congratulations!"
Arthur barely had the time to sit down before he received a hard clap on his back and only barely managed to stop himself from face-planting the table in time.
"Be careful, Jack!" someone scolded the one who Arthur assumed was the one who clapped him on the back.
Arthur looked up to see a cheerful-looking boy perhaps two or three years older than himself with a somewhat short and light brown/dark blonde hair, tanned skin and brown eyes now sitting next to him.
"Don't worry, Kirkland is one of us now – he can take it!" the boy, who apparently was called Jack, cheerfully answered a girl with light blue eyes and long, brown hair pushed back into two braids.
"Jack White, to your service!" Jack then presented himself as he turned back towards Arthur and happily shook his hand.
The girl gave away an exasperated sigh and looked past Jack to Arthur. "I apologize for Jack. He's an idiot."
"Hey, that's cruel JJ," Jack chuckled, not seeming to take it too seriously.
"Don't listen to his ridiculous nicknames either, I'm Jade Jackson," Jade directed towards Arthur with a small smile. "Welcome to Slytherin."
Arthur nodded and got out a hoarse "nice to meet you both", still trying to catch his breath, while the hat sorted the next student into Ravenclaw (Arthur didn't catch her name though) and Neville was called forward. Thankfully this caught the attention of Jack and he let go of Arthur's hand, allowing them both to focus on the sorting again. Unfortunately it didn't look like Neville's bad luck had ended and Arthur winced in sympathy when the unlucky boy tripped on his way to the stool. As if that wasn't enough Neville also forgot to take off the hat in his rush to get away when he after a long time finally was sorted into Gryffindor. Poor Neville was forced to jog back with the hat in the middle of the laughter from the rest of the students before he could go and join his new comrades in Gryffindor.
When it was Malfoy's turn the boy confidently swaggered forward and the hat barely had the time to land on his head before it, to Arthur's exasperation, placed him in Slytherin. Malfoy looked extremely pleased with himself as he joined his friends Crabbe and Goyle, but Arthur wasn't sure he liked the calculating look he saw on Malfoy's face once their gazes met over the table. Soon Arthur looked away to follow the rest of the sorting instead, not wanting to deal with that at the moment. There weren't many people left to be sorted now either, which Arthur was thankful for. He didn't realize it earlier, but now when the nervousness was disappearing he could feel how hungry he was.
"Potter, Harry!"
If Arthur thought there were a lot of whispering when his name was called out it was nothing compared to the ones which broke out at Harry's name. While the black-haired boy from the train walked forward Arthur couldn't help but to feel sympathy for him. Arthur knew how felt to be exposed like that, although he at least didn't have to deal with the majority of the hall craning their necks to get a good look at him. Once again it took a while, and even from this distance Arthur could see how Harry pinched his face together, as if he focused very hard on something.
The cheers when the hat finally shouted out "GRYFFINDOR!" were deafening and never seemed like they would end. The red-haired twins Arthur saw chase a tarantula on the train were yelling "We got Potter! We got Potter!" and didn't calm down until Professor McGonagall called out the next student. It didn't take long until they then reached "Ratchford, Briana", who was placed in Hufflepuff, and suddenly there were only four persons left to be sorted. Ron was soon sorted into Gryffindor, the shy girl from the train - who Arthur now learnt was Katlyn Westner - became a Slytherin and happily sat down on Arthur's left side while Tina Willson became a Ravenclaw. The last one, Blaise Zabini, then also became a member of Slytherin before the sorting was finally over. Professor McGonagall took away the stool and the sorting hat at the same time as Headmaster Professor Dumbledore stood up to speak. The man beamed down to them with open arms, as if nothing could have pleased him more than seeing them all.
"Welcome to yet another year at Hogwarts," he said. "Before we begin the banquet I would like to say a few carefully chosen words, which are: Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak! Thank you."
Professor Dumbledore sat down again and everyone began to clap and cheer. Arthur wasn't sure how to react, and apparently he wasn't the only one.
"Is this normal?" Katlyn Westner questioned, sounding a little unsure.
"Define normal," Jack countered with a laugh from Arthur's right side. "Don't worry though, this is pretty normal for him. Chicken?"
To Arthur's surprise the dishes in front of them were suddenly filled with all kinds of food, which seemed to amuse Jack greatly. Everything from roast beef, chicken, pork and lamb chops, sausages, bacon and steak to Yorkshire pudding, vegetables, boiled and roasted potatoes were on the table, and Arthur felt his mouth quickly water in anticipation as he piled his plate with food.
"So what's your story?" Jack asked without warning.
"I beg your pardon?" Arthur questioned, a tad confused.
"Everyone who has even a tiny bit of magic among their relatives know the Kirkland family hasn't gone to Hogwarts for centuries. So how come you're here at Hogwarts?" Jack asked with curiosity and ate another potato.
Arthur shrugged. He hadn't really thought about it himself. "The day before I received the letter my brothers asked me if I wanted to go, and I said yes."
The answer seemed to satisfy Jack, because he began to grin happily.
"You made the right decision! Some of the classes are boring like hell, but I wouldn't change my time on Hogwarts for anything in the world."
"I think I look forward to Potions and Charms the most," Katlyn smiled brightly, and Arthur was surprised this was the same girl as the one on the train who shyly wished him good luck in his search for Neville's toad.
"Potions is great, but Professor Snape is a biased little git with greasy hair. It's not too bad since it's usually us he favors, but it doesn't make it easier for us to become friendlier with Gryffindor, since they're often the ones who have to take the shit instead," Jack commented thoughtfully in reply, but then laughed.
"However since Gryffindor and Slytherin always have Potions together you can be sure something always will happen. JJ and I are in the same year as the Weasley-twins, so you can count on them always coming up with something fun!"
"What do they do?" Katlyn questioned.
"They're the prank-masters of this school, always up to something new," Jack chuckled and turned to point at the two red-haired twins Arthur saw chase the tarantula on the train.
"Do you see those two? That's Fred and George Weasley. Professor Snape has probably given them more detentions than what he has given the rest of the school combined, which really should say something, but that never stopped them."
So that must be the Fred who Ron wanted to kill earlier, Arthur realized. It looked like Ron also knew the curse of older brothers.
After everyone had eaten everything they could the leftovers vanished into thin air and left the plates just as clean as before they had eaten, only for the desserts to appear a moment later. Puddings, blocks of ice cream in all the flavours you could imagine and all kinds of pies appeared together with treacle tarts, jam doughnuts, trifle, strawberries, chocolate and cream cakes. To Arthur's delight he even found a plate of scones, which he immediately helped himself to. At the same time Arthur also ended up in a discussion with Katlyn about her family.
"My parents always knew I was special, but it was still a big surprise when I got my letter," Katlyn told Arthur happily.
"At first they thought it was a joke when Professor McGonagall arrived with the letter and told us I was accepted into a school for magic, but they quickly changed their mind when she turned our dinner table into a pig and back."
Jake, who must have been listening, choked on his water in laughter.
"How did they react?" Arthur asked in curiosity while he tried to keep his laughter inside.
Katlyn laughed. "Much better than I thought they would. Dad was overjoyed and mum furiously began to scold Professor McGonagall for letting a pig inside when she just had cleaned the floor."
Both Arthur and Jack laughed loudly this time and even Jade seemed to be amused. Katlyn's mother must have nerves of steel if she dared to scold Professor McGonagall after just being told their daughter was a witch and then been showed a demonstration of what magic could do.
"I like your mum already," Jack proclaimed, still laughing.
When everyone were full and satisfied the desserts disappeared and the Hall once again fell silent as Professor Dumbledore rose to his feet to speak.
"Now when we're all fed and watered I have a few things to mention. First off, all of our new students should note it's forbidden for all students to enter the forest on the grounds - and a few of our older students should try to remember this as well."
Dumbledore's twinkling eyes flashed in the direction of the Weasley-twins for a few seconds before he continued.
"I have also been asked by our caretaker, , to remind everyone no magic should be used between classes in the corridors. It should also be noted the Quidditch trials will be held in the second week of the term and if anyone wants to play for their house team they should contact Madam Hooch."
Then Professor Dumbledore's voice without warning became much more serious.
"Lastly I must tell you the right side of the third floor is out of bounds this year to everyone who does not want to die a most painful death."
Even Jake and Jade looked surprised, which quickly told Arthur this was something new even to them.
"Hey JJ, do you know something about this?" Arthur heard Jake whisper to Jade. "Your mum works at the ministry, doesn't she?"
"No, I haven't heard anything about something like this," Jade whispered back while she watched Professor Dumbledore with a thoughtful frown.
However they were all soon distracted when Dumbledore declared it was time to sing the school-song, and everyone hurried to pick their favorite tune to use for the song. Arthur was pretty sure Jack sang the whole school-song to the tune of 'We Will Rock You' by Queen, but the Weasley-twins were the ones who finished their singing last. They sang the whole school-song along to a very, very slow funeral march.
"Ah, music!" Dumbledore said after they finished and everyone clapped. "A magic beyond everything we do here! Now, time to sleep. Off to bed with you!"
Before Jack and Jade disappeared in the sea of the students with a "See you tomorrow!" Jack pointed out the Slytherin's Prefect to Arthur and Katlyn.
Together Arthur and Katlyn then made their way over to their fellow first-years, followed their Prefect out from the Great Hall and down the stairs to the dungeon.
"Why does it seem like our common room is in the dungeons?" Katlyn questioned Arthur quietly with a yawn.
The yawn was contagious, and Arthur had to fight to not give in to it.
"Someone probably thought it was a great idea," he whispered back.
Everyone was too tired to talk much while they walked through the dimly lit corridors, but from time to time their Prefect would tell them small bits of information, like "Jump over this stone, it's fake", to "this corridor is a shortcut to the Great Hall on Fridays", or something similar. Eventually, after what felt like hours but couldn't have been more than a few minutes, their Prefect stopped them in front of a bare and damp stone wall.
"Snakeskins," she said, and a concealed stone door in the wall slid open.
If Arthur wasn't so tired he would probably have appreciated the first sight of the common room he would have for the next seven years a little more, but at the moment Arthur was just too tired to care. Instead of taking in the low underground room with rough stone walls and ceiling he stood in, the greenish lamps which hanged down from chains or the carefully detailed, carved mantelpiece and chairs Arthur only tried his best to stay awake long enough to hear the information their Prefect gave them.
"As you probably have understood by now the current password into our common room is 'Snakeskins', but remember to keep an eye on the bulletin board for the new password since it will be changed every fortnight. The girls' dormitory is down the stairs on the left while the boys are down the stairs on the right side. Breakfast can be eaten between seven and nine o'clock in the Great Hall, and it's also during breakfast tomorrow where you will be handed your schedule for the year."
She smiled down at them. "Before I send you off to bed I only have one last thing to say. Welcome to Hogwarts."
With that they were directed towards their dormitories and with a big yawn Katlyn followed their Prefect down the stairs to the left while Arthur and the rest of the boys took the stairs down to the right. Once they were down the stairs they finally found the room with one four-poster bed with green silk hangings for each one of them, and to Arthur's happiness their trunks and belongings were already brought down. Cassie was already outside her traveling cage and had made herself comfortable near the feet of the bed in the basket he brought for her, and Arthur crouched down to his now almost seven months old cat to scratch her behind the ears. Cassie purred sleepily and then immediately went back to sleep when Arthur rose to his feet. He was just about to prepare himself for bed when he saw Malfoy walk over towards him from the corner of his eyes.
"What do you want?" Arthur asked tiredly, not really caring if he came across as rude at this point, before he turned around to face the other boy.
Malfoy stopped just a meter in front of him, and Arthur still didn't like the calculating look on Malfoy's face.
"I think we got off on the wrong foot earlier, Kirkland. I suggest we start over and forget our earlier misunderstanding - what do you say?"
Malfoy held forward his hand to shake and Arthur was aware how the rest of the boys in the dormitory was listening to every word. It was very tempting to ignore Malfoy's offer of peace, because Arthur knew the incident on the train hardly was just a "misunderstanding", but he wasn't stupid. From now on they would be forced to share a dormitory for the next seven years, and it wouldn't help either of them if they spent those years on each other's throats all the time. With his mind made up he gave a mental sigh and stepped forward to take Malfoy's hand.
"Deal."
They shook hands once, let go and then nodded to each other before Malfoy turned around and returned to his bed. Arthur finally got to change into his pyjamas and sink down underneath the blanket. Maybe this wouldn't hold for very long, Arthur didn't know, but at least for now he and Malfoy had reached a truce. For now.
o.o.o.( End of Chapter 06 ).o.o.o
Author Note:
Well, this was chapter 06, so I hope you like it. I would also like to take this opportunity to remind you I currently only have 08 chapters uploaded on my account on Deviantart, so once my ff account is caught up with the chapters the updates will take a little longer.
I promise to do my best to make sure you don't have to wait for too long though, so please be patient once that time comes. :)
Again, thank you so much for the reviews and for reading my fanfiction! It makes me happy to know people actually like something I wrote!
/./Jezzica