We got out of the train and I went over to Upton. I would have to ask her about her conversation with Hermione. We were currently standing outside of the Hogsmeade station and I still stared at it in awe. It was in the middle of a lake, so we would have to take a boat there. I couldn't believe that I was at the real Hogwarts. Well it wasn't real, but it was real in the world that I was in. It was the greatest wizard school in the world and I couldn't believe that I was there, well almost there. I still wondered why the two of us were girls, but I was too in awe to focus on that at the moment.
"The way you're looking at it, you'd think you've never been here before." Upton joked. I blushed and realized that we were supposed to third-year students. She seemed to be adjusting to things better.
At that point, we headed out to our boats. Like with a train, I had never been on a boat before. I assumed that they were magically enhanced so people wouldn't get seasick. Maybe wizards just didn't get seasick. I wasn't sure how many students were on the train, but it must have taken some time to get everyone onto boats.
Once we got to the island, I stared at the school some more. It was so much bigger than I thought it would be. I understood that it was a castle, but I was also pretty sure that most castles weren't that big. Being there was like a dream come true. Maybe I was dreaming. I hadn't thought of it, but it seemed so real and vivid. It would explain why I was a young girl. I didn't think it was possible to dream about something in such detail, especially when they were things that I wasn't even sure about.
Once we were at the school, I decided to go with Upton. We had a little bit of time before we needed to go to The Great Hall for the feast. We would probably need help finding our room. I wasn't even entirely sure how to get to the Ravenclaw tower.
"So, Hermione is your sister." I stated. "You're lucky. I don't really know anything about my brother."
"Are you sure that we should be talking about this here?" Upton asked. "And also shouldn't we be focusing less on that and how we were transformed?"
"We have to be able to talk about it." I declared. "I don't know what will happen if we don't. Anyway, tell me what happened with you and Hermione."
"She basically told me something that I already knew. Death Eaters attacked the Quidditch World Cup, but no one got killed." She explained. "Also she has a major crush on Viktor Krum. I don't know if it was always like that, or if it's a direct result of us being here."
"It's hard to say." I replied. "God, I can't believe that we're thirteen. There's so many hormones running through my body right now and I feel really weird."
"I don't think mine have even come in yet." Upton replied. "I'm still wearing a training bra. I wonder if we're going to have one of those things where we sit in our room talking about boys."
"I don't think so. Remember this is a story written by a woman." I pointed out. Granted it was a pretty vile woman, but I still didn't think that we would have to do that.
"I guess that's good." She agreed. "So, I wonder who we're going to be rooming with. I remember Harry having five people in his room."
"To be honest, we can't be sure if it's the same for girls." I pointed out. I wasn't sure why it would be, but I really didn't know anything about how boarding school in England worked. I did know that the socks felt strangely comfortable and I couldn't help but wonder why I didn't wear knee socks more often. There had knee socks for guys, but they were mostly worn by athletes. Well, I would be wearing them often since they were part of my uniform now.
"We need to try to keep talking." I stated. "It'll help us keep track of what's going on. And to answer your question, I'm pretty sure that we'll be staying with Luna and a girl named Mandy."
"That should still leave someone else." She remarked. She hadn't met Mandy. I hoped that she would like her.
"I don't know. I only met those two on the train." I explained. I had a feeling that we would meet the last one by the time we got to our room. "Well Ginny was there too, but she already said that she's still in Gryffindor, so we're not staying with her. I suppose the only way to find out is to go to the dorm room and see if anyone is in there."
The two of us then headed to the Ravenclaw dorm. I then realized that we had no idea how to get in. We went to the painting and I hoped that someone else would be able to give the password to let us into the room.
Unfortunately, no one showed up. I couldn't help but wonder if the universe was testing us. I found a picture of a little girl. Well that was different. I wasn't sure if that was always there. You know for someone whose house was Ravenclaw, I didn't know a lot about the house. It was probably because there wasn't a lot of information about it in the books.
"To enter, you must prove your intelligence with a riddle." She declared. "If a tree falls in the forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?"
I blinked. That was it? I was expecting something a little harder than that? Would the riddle always be the same or would there be a different one each time.
"Yes." I replied. "Sound still exists even if it can't be heard."
At that point, the door opened. The common room was starting to fill up and as I should have expected there was a large bookcase in the common room, along with a couch and it appeared that there was a house cat for Ravenclaw. I wondered if I could still get a cat. Did they sell cats at Hogsmeade? Then again, I also didn't really know how to take care of a cat.
"Welcome back you two." A familiar Asian girl greeted us. However, there was something on her robe that was different than ours and that was when it hit me.
"Cho? You're a prefect this year?" I questioned. I still wished that she had a better name, but that was another one of Rowling's many problems.
"Yes, we needed a new one since Penelope is now Head Girl." Cho explained. I thought that Penelope would have graduated already. I also had no idea what she looked like. "So, is there anything that I can do for you?"
"I think we just want to go to our dorm rooms and put our bags away." Upton stated. Hopefully, she would be able to take us there.
"Okay, I can do that for you." Cho replied. She then led us to the staircase. "Follow me."
We went up the stairs to the third-year dorm and then headed to the girls' side. I was amazed by the size of everything. At first I wondered how they managed to fit everyone inside, but then I remembered that the castle was enchanted. Basically, everything that happens at Hogwarts really could be explained with the phrase a wizard did it.
"Here we are." Cho declared as she stopped in front of a door. "You two will be staying with your same roommates from the first two years. I also have some news. As third year students, in addition to being able to attend Hogsmeade village, you are no longer required to wear your uniforms at all times, so I hoped you both packed some comfortable clothes. I had no idea what I had packed.
I wanted to see what I had packed myself. I didn't know much about what the average teenage girl in 90s England wore and I definitely didn't know what teenage witches wore.
We opened the door and found that Luna was already in the room, sitting on one of the beds and reading the latest (or what I assumed to be the latest) issue of The Quibbler. I assumed that she hadn't broken out of her weird phase yet. I knew she was still weird at the end, but she was less weird. Though, the weirdness was what a lot of people liked about her.
"Oh hello, you two." She remarked before she looked at us. "I wasn't sure if anyone would be here before the feast. I was just catching up on some reading. Did you know that that Professor Dumbledore had an affair with Gellert Grindelwald many years ago?"
I did know that, but I also knew that we weren't supposed to talk about that. Grindelwald's casting anger me because she knew she knew that he was an abuser and went through with it anyway.
"You shouldn't go telling people about that." Upton declared. I didn't know how serious the professors took her. "Not only is probably not true, but some of the teachers might not like hearing about it and might take some points away from the house. So, did you want to do anything before the feast?"
I was already trying to pick which bed I wanted. I had never had to choose a bed before and I didn't know if one would be better than the other. There was one by the window, but I liked to sleep and I probably didn't want to be woken up by the sun. Of course, I didn't know what classes I would be taking so all of that might not matter.
At that time, the door opened. It wasn't Mandy that walked in, however, it was a girl with brown hair and brown eyes. I definitely had no idea who she was, even though I was supposed to. Maybe I could avoid talking to her until I figured out her name, eve though I didn't know how long that would take.
"Oh hi, Maria." Luna greeted her. That didn't take very long. "How was your summer?"
"Dreadful." Maria answered. Her accent was different. It definitely wasn't the normal British accent that I was used to, but there really a lot of British accents and I didn't even know what to call my own. "There weren't enough boys back home. How am I supposed to learn how to kiss someone if there's no one to kiss? There should be a law that there should the same number of boys and girls in every town."
I didn't think a law like that would ever be able to be passed. It would be easier in the wizard world, but I was pretty sure that the Ministry of Magic didn't believe in changing people's sexes with magic, especially without consent. Our hadn't been changed by a person but some sort of dimensional rift. It also would be very weird if we tried to becomes boys again. There was probably a reason to why I was a girl that I hadn't figured out
"We don't need to spend all of our time talking about boys." Upton remarked. It did make me feel pretty uncomfortable and I imagined that it made Upton feel that way too.
"What else would we talk about?" Maria challenged. I was pretty sure the answer was anything else. I could think of a lot of things.
"Well one of them could be about where Mandy is." Upton responded. She hadn't actually met Mandy.
"She was probably trying to find the room on her own." I stated.
By now, I was beginning to get the personalities of all of my roommates. Luna was the weird one, Maria was the boy-crazy one and Mandy was the one who liked to show off. I still wasn't sure where that left Upton and I. Would we have any particular personality traits that we didn't know about? I tried to think of what my main personality traits were. It was hard to define your personality without talking to other people.
I got nothing. It was hard to place a character type on yourself. I didn't even know what kind of person I was. Not to mention, I wasn't sure if anything that I knew even mattered, because my character could be completely different. I wondered how I was going to find out more about myself. Hopefully, I would be able to get that information from talking to people.
"Why do they make these dorms so hard to find?" Mandy asked as she entered the room. That confirmed my theory. "How many staircases do we really need?"
"Didn't Cho show you how to get to the dorm?" Upton questioned. I had a feeling that she was someone who didn't like other people's directions because she liked to do things herself, which seemed like it could get her in trouble.
"No, I told her that I would find it myself." Mandy remarked before she went over and gave Upton a hug. "It's good to see you, Love."
"What?" Upton asked with a blush. I was pretty sure that it was a British term of endearment. Klaus Mikaelson used to say it, even though he wasn't actually British.
"Don't tell me you've forgotten how we greet each other." Mandy stated. "It was your idea in first-year."
"No, I didn't forget." Upton lied. She then seemed to be struggling to find something else to say. "I just didn't think you'd still be doing it since we're teenagers now."
"What's wrong with showing affection towards your friends?" Mandy inquired. I supposed that there was nothing wrong with it, and I also knew that girls tended to be more affectionate with their friends than boys.
"I don't think there's anything wrong with that." Luna commented. "I'm glad that we're all together again."
"I missed you too Loony Luna." Mandy remarked before she gave the other blonde a hug. I would have thought that she didn't like being called that. Then again, I didn't think the books ever presented any evidence that she didn't like it. In fact, she seemed to not care about what other people called her.
At that time, I heard my stomach rumble and I blushed. I realized that I hadn't actually eaten since coming here, which was strange considering all of the time that I had spent in the dining car. I probably should have gotten something while we were there. I couldn't help but wonder how we were supposed to eat when they weren't serving food, but I remembered there was a sweet shop at Hogsmeade and also parents liked to send their kids care packages. I wondered if I would see my fake parents. I also didn't know what they looked like.
"It looks like all of this catching up has made me hungry." I remarked. "How about we go to the feast?"