Post by Hobbes on Mar 12, 2007 20:04:20 GMT -5
I took the liberty of editing and revising this, so look at it but continue the story on the other thread.
Chapter 1 The New Comers
It was in Seventh year. It started like any other day. They woke up, got dressed, and went to breakfast. But it was far from normal when the Headmaster stood up. A group of four boys, who had been eating their breakfast in silence, suddenly looked up.
"I wonder what's happening..." said a boy with dark, messy hair.
"Who cares?" replied one of his companions, "It probably doesn't have anything to do with us." But little did he know, it had everything to do with them...
One of his friends was about to speak, but stopped when Dumbledore started to address the students gathered in the hall, "I have an announcement to make. We are going to have four new students. They will arrive in the afternoon. Their school, Salem, has been destroyed and will be here until it has been repaired. Please, help make their stay here comfortable. That is all." He then sat down as the students began talking once again, but only about a new subject.
As everyone filed into the Great Hall for lunch, Dumbledore made another announcement, “The new students have arrived and we will be calling them up to the front of the hall to introduce them.” All the students clapped as he finished.
A young girl of seventeen walked through, her brown hair up in a messy bun. She wore simple robes, had tan skin and a soft grin on her face. Her blue eyes scanned the crowds looking for anyone with massive amounts of books.
"This is Jenny Bichetti." Jenny nodded before turning to her friend, who stepped in
Another girl of about seventeen walked in. This one had long dark brown hair with barely visible red streaks. She had one Chocolate brown eye and an Emerald green one. She was wearing a Happy Bunny(TM) shirt that said the voices in your head aren't real, on the front and But they still have really great ideas, on the back. She had on plain blue jeans and flip flops. She also had a few freckles, and a red tint to her cheek. One of the four from the group we were watching earlier stared at her.
"Melissa Blade." Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore announced with a small smile.
She smiled at everyone and nodded to another one of the girls who stepped forward...
A tall, slender girl of eighteen walked gracefully between the double doors of the great hall. Her skin was very pale and she kept her silky, dark brown hair loose around her shoulders. She had had piercing gray eyes and there was a hint of pink in her cheeks. She wore a pair of long, jet black robes that fit tight around her waist and high-heeled black boots. Her feet made no sound as she glided up to Albus Dumbledore, where her fellow new students waited for her.
As she walked she noticed a pair of eyes that stared at her more intensely than any other. The eyes belonged to one of the boys from the group of four, a handsome boy with scruffy, raven-black hair. He was tall like her, perhaps taller than her….
"Gladys Darkstripe, daughter of Keiseir Mooneyes, son of Roskellar Dunewalker," The headmaster said. Gladys's family had requested that she be introduced this way.
She smiled and announced, “Sorry, but Emerald couldn't arrive today.
The doors flew open once more and a girl stumbled in, yelling "I'm here! I'm here!"
She straightened slightly and brushed some dirt off of her loose, camouflage-styled pants, her black combat-style boots glinting in the light. She wore simple black robes, but they hung off her strong but slender shoulders carelessly and exposed a black t-shirt with a green trim that stated in big, bold, emerald-green letters: EASILY DISTRACTED.
The girl finally looked up. She had short, stylishly layered boy-cut jet black hair with some blood red streaks in random places. Her long bangs were pushed to one side stylishly, exposing a pale complexion and piercing blue-green eyes that are intensified with black eyeliner.
The girl walked nonchalantly to where Dumbledore and her friends were waiting. "Sorry 'bout that", she muttered.
Dumbledore waved off her apology and turned to the students. "It is my pleasure to introduce Emerald Ribelle."
Dumbledore clapped his hands twice and said, "Now we will proceed to the sorting," Professor McGonagall came into the Great Hall with a stool and the battered, frayed sorting hat that had been used for centuries past to sort the witches and wizards into their proper house. McGonagall then took out a short piece of parchment.
"Darkstripe, Gladys," she called. The tall girl, who had entered third walked up to the stool and sat down upon it. The professor placed the hat upon her head.
"GRYFFINDOR!" the hat shouted. A great cheer arose from the Gryffindor table as Gladys took off the hat and sat down with her fellow students. The boy whom she had noticed earlier looked at her while everybody else was staring at the sorting hat.
"Hello," he said.
"Hey," Gladys responded shyly. She played with the long, loose sleeves of her robe.
"What was Salem like?" asked the boy.
"It was ok, but it was nowhere near as nice as this one. The others went there with me too," she said.
They both looked up at Professor McGonagall who was about to read another name from the list.
"Ribelle, Emerald!" McGonagall called.
The girl who had stumbled in a few moments earlier perked up at the sound of her name, and plopped down on the sorting stool. She allowed McGonagall to place the old hat on her head.
Emerald blinked as a sly, irritated voice muttered in her ear "Old, you say? I'm not old!"
Emerald rolled her eyes and concentrated on thinking back "Forget about that, just sort me already!"
"Oh, impatient, are we? Well then, let's see... you are ambitious, oh yes... extremely loyal, stubborn, sly, cunning, sarcastic, intelligent... lazy... a pessimist.... and a bit of courage here and there... ah, but still.... Well, then it better be SLY--"
Emerald quickly cut the hat off. "No! Put me in somewhere else, they'll all hate me if I go to Slytherin! Put me with my friends! Or else I'll...I'll burn you and feed you to the giant squid!"
"Are you sure...? You could do well in Slytherin."
"Giant...Squid."
That did the trick, "GRYFFINDOR!!"
Emerald breathed a sigh of relief, and immediately pulled the hat off of her head, thrusting it to wards McGonagall. The Gryffindor table had a roaring applause, but it was a bit hesitant. I mean, come ON, the girl was up there for at least four minutes, muttering to herself. And then the hat had started to say something, stopped abruptly, and then announced Gryffindor a few moments later. Isn't that just a bit odd?
Emerald strode quickly down to the Gryffindor table and plopped down unceremoniously into a seat next to Gladys. She gave a small smile. "Hullo, all."
Gladys gave Emerald a high five, glad she had chosen to be in Gryffindor.
McGonagall cleared her throat and called the next person up...
"Blade, Melissa" Said McGonagall.
Before Melissa walked up to the stool, she muttered to Jenny, "Seeing as you're probably going to be in Ravenclaw, I'll keep you company," Then she cautiously walked up to the Sorting Hat and placed it upon her head.
"If you put me in Slytherin, you'll suffer." was her first thought.
"Why are you all set against Slytherin? But if not Slytherin,"
"RAVENCLAW!" was the house that was announced.
The Ravenclaw table clapped hard, but not as hard as the Gryffindor table did…for Gladys, anyway. She happily took off the hat, and went to the Ravenclaw table.
Emerald breathed a sigh of relief. Thank god all of them were smart enough to avoid Slytherin, even though most of their number fit under that category. It would've been hell there...
Gladys had not had any worries that she would be going into Slytherin. All her family had been in Gryffindor. Now there was only one more student left to be sorted...
Jenny sighed and rocked back and forth on her heals as Albus called her name- her full name.
"Jennifer Alexandra Caterina Lyla Margaret Bichetti," he said. She strode up, her hair swishing on her back. Her shirt, which she spelled to say, 'You’re just jealous ‘cause the voices only talk to me.' flashed with a bright, blue color.
“Hello,” said a coy voice in her ear.
She scowled and said through her mind, 'Hello hat of goodness.'
“Crafty, shy and smart,”
“Thank you,”
“How about…” it said before bellowing-
"RAVENCLAW!"
Chapter 2 Enter, Gryffindors
Gladys and Emerald walked together up the stairs to the gryffindor tower. She had desperately wished her other friends had chosen to be in Gryffindor, but that was their choice. When they got to the portrait of the fat lady, a prefect said the password and they went inside. A great fire was burning in the fireplace and the rest of the students walked drowsily to their dorms.
A prefect came up to Gladys and said, "If you want, there's a spare dormitory for you and your friend," She showed them up the stairs to their future quarters at Hogwarts, "I hope you like our school," said the prefect.
Gladys found her trunk there waiting for her on her bed. Too tired to unpack her things into the ebony dresser next to her bed stand, she simply kicked off her uncomfortable shoes and changed out of her black robes into a pair of red, flannel PJ pants with little, black, scotty dogs on them and a plain, black spaghetti-strap shirt.
"I am just so tired," she said to Emerald whose trunk had been dumped off her bed and onto the floor in order to make room for her
Emerald tilted her head to the side and raised an eyebrow at Gladys. "Figures you'd have pajamas like that" she muttered.
Em shrugged off her robes that were practically falling off anyway, and slipped out of her favorite boots, then proceeded to throw open her trunk and start chucking stuff out in search of pajamas. Suddenly the flurry of clothing and books stopped, and Em straightened with a triumphant "Ha!"
She changed into an old pair of green and black striped pajama pants with lots of paint splatters and rips, and slipped on a loose white t-shirt with the lettering, I can read your mind, and there's nothing there.
Emerald looked around the room and grimaced. "Ugh. There’s too much red…it’s too bright."
She pulled out a black wand and changed her curtains to a darker blood red and her bedding to black with silver designs. The walls changed to a soothing cream color, and the plush rug by her bed turned pitch black. She lowered her wand, satisfied. That ought to do for now.
She glanced at Gladys' end of the room, and made a face. "Hey, d'you want me to change anything over there? It's too... red."
Gladys looked at her half of the room. She liked the red since it was her favorite color, but she didn't like just plain red. With a flick of her wand, the curtains of her window and her bed covers were covered in black, clan symbols.
"If you don't like red you should have been in another house, but then I would have been lonely with the others in Ravenclaw,"
Gladys flopped down on her bed and promptly fell asleep without getting under the covers.
Emerald frowned at Gladys, who was by now snoring loudly.
"Well, I would've gone to Slytherin, but since they're so discriminated against... I really want to come out of this place alive…and with a social status." She muttered, even though she knew Gladys wouldn't hear her.
She glanced around the room. "Well, at least the colors are decent enough..."
Emerald sighed and crawled under her black sheets. She forcefully pushed all thoughts of Slytherin, sorting, and status out of her mind in preparation of sleep. She only had one lingering thought as the darkness finally pulled her into the land of dreams.
Why must everyone wear masks...?
*****************************
Gladys awoke the next morning groggy and tired. Emerald was still fast asleep and snoring gently. Gladys got up and slowly shuffled to the window. The sun was just peaking up over the tree tops in the forbidden forest. She checked her watch and found that it was 6 o'clock in the morning. Gladys considered going back to bed, but she did not feel at all tired, so she went downstairs into the gryffindor common room with a book to catch up on reading.
"Hello, I don't believe you got my name last night,"
Gladys jumped and turned around to see that it was the long-haired boy seated quite comfortably in one of the plushy, scarlet chairs.
"No, I didn't," Gladys replied nervously.
"Sirius Black," The boy said.
*****************************
Emerald dodged another jet of pink light, and ducked under a table. The Things were gaining on her! She let out a small "eek!" as she heard them draw closer, and then jumped up from under the table and started running as fast as she could. And then... she was losing them... but wait.... She turned a corner, and found that the floor was... gone. In place of it was a dark abyss. There was a sudden flash of green light and the world tipped... and suddenly she felt herself falling, falling, falling.....
Then she woke up with a start.
"Aaahh!" Emerald yelped as she rolled off of her bed and hit the hardwood floor with a thump.
Emerald just lay there for a minute, before she came to her senses a bit. She glanced over at her room mate's bed and found it... empty.
"Where the hell is Gladys? She's never up this early..." Emerald muttered to herself as she sluggishly got up from the floor.
She frowned. Gladys hadn't made her bed, nor had she gotten dressed... then she wouldn't have gone down to breakfast yet, because according to the clock it was only 6:15.
She's probably skulking around in the common room or something..., Emerald thought as she plopped down on her bed.
She glanced once more around the room. Something felt out of place. She scanned the room, and it clicked. Aries was missing!
Aries was her beloved cat. She had received him as a gift two years ago; he was like her familiar. He was a lean black cat with white on his underside and tip of his tail. Aries had blue-green eyes, wore a small silver collar, and was quite menacing when he wanted to be, despite his smallish size. He was quite intelligent, and he also had a knack for getting into trouble.
Emerald jumped up. She had to find Aries before he found a way to spike the kitchen’s food or something. She sprinted downstairs, her hair flying everywhere, and jumped the last couple steps. She came face-to-face with Gladys, and hurridly explained, "Aries is missing!"
It was only then that she noticed the handsome boy sitting in the armchair.
"...Hi there...."
Gladys jumped in surprise.
"Emerald, you're never up this early! Go back to bed," Gladys said angrily.
Sirius looked away from Gladys to look at Emerald, "Hey there. You're another one of the new girls. Nice to meet you. I'm Sirius Black," he said getting up out the armchair.
Before Emerald had a chance to reply, Gladys said, “No I don't know where Aries is. He's probably playing with Hobbes,"
Hobbes was Gladys's pet tiger and her familiar. He had an enchantment on him so that he would never grow to be an adult, therefore, never maturing enough to hurt the humans he lived with, or anyone else for that matter. Hobbes was like an ordinary house cat, only he played and pounced a lot more and he was a tiger cub. Gladys had had him since she was very little and she had received him as a gift when she was seriously ill.
At that moment Aries and Hobbes bounded into the room. The two had become fast friends ever since Gladys and Emerald had first met.
Emerald's eye twitched and she bent down and quickly scooped Aries in her arms, ignoring the cat's protesting meows.
She looked Aries directly in the eye. "Aries, where were you? I hope you didn't cause anyone any trouble."
Emerald paid no mind to the fact that she was talking to an animal who couldn't talk back, or that she was attracting stares from the young man standing over there by the plush red armchair.
Aries looked away innocently, the only thing betraying him being a slight twitch of his left ear.
"Meow."
Emerald sighed in exasperation. "Really, Aries..." She let Aries down, and he immediately pounced on Hobbes. The two started brawling with each other playfully.
Ignoring the two pets, she turned back to Gladys and Sirius. "Sorry 'bout that... he tends to get into trouble easier than you would believe."
Sirius offered her a slight, wary smile. "Uhh...nice to meet you,"
"Nice to meet you too Sirius,"
Emerald glanced down at herself. She was still in pajamas, and it was getting a bit lighter outside.
"I'm going to go change." without another word, she trooped back upstairs nonchalantly to go get ready.
Gladys turned back to Sirius
"Sorry 'bout that. She's my roommate and can be volatile at times," she said
"That's alright," said the handsome boy, "Be seeing you," Sirius walked casually to the boys' dorms. Gladys stared after him, and then followed Emerald back to her dorm. Months earlier, both she and Emerald had picked their classes and she would have Defense against the Dark Arts after breakfast.
Hobbes bounded after her followed by Aries.
*****************************
Defense against the Dark Arts was taught by a wrinkly old wizard named Professor Drilp. He droned on for hours about different subjects, each more tedious than the first. Gladys was bored almost to tears and started flicking notes to Emerald who sat in the desk next to her. Her first note read,
What class do you have next?
Emerald was just dozing off when a small paper ball hit her smack in the middle of the forehead. She blinked, slowly, and looked down at the piece of paper on her desk. Emerald raised an eyebrow at Gladys, and proceeded to cautiously open the wad.
Smirking slightly, she wrote back:
I have potions next. Time to blow things up....
This class is DEAD BORING. And to think i used to like Defence....
What about you?
Emerald placed the note in her hand and blew on it softly, watching it float over to Gladys where it proceeded to land on the tip of her nose.
Gladys sneezed, sending the note floating gently down to the floor. Gladys quickly grabbed before the teacher's slow eyes could see the wad of paper. Unfolding the crumpled sheet, she silently replied to Emerald's note,
I got Transfig with Prof. McGonagall. She's supposed to be fun and I like Transfig besides.
Before Emerald could answer the note, the bell rang, signaling the end of class. Many students gave long sigh of relief at being freed from their prison of monotony. Gladys said goodbye to Emerald and continued in her way to Transfiguration...
Gladys entered Transfiguration with a light heart. It had always been her favorite subject, which was why at Salem, she had secretly trained to be an illegal wolf animagus. Nobody knew of that, except her three dearest friends, who were also illegal animagi.
Gladys took her seat in an empty desk next to a short, brown-skinned, girl with fair hair. The girl greeted Gladys with a “hi,” and Gladys returned the salutation, but nothing else passed between them.
Professor McGonagall was worlds more interesting than Professor Drilp in her lesson. The students had fun, turning their desks into various animals. Gladys worked with the blond girl who was a lot of fun to be with. By the middle of class the two had become good friends. Claire (That was the other girl’s name as Gladys found out) was smart, friendly and easy to get along with, just like Emerald. Except that Claire lacked that familiar, lovable, eccentric touch that Emerald had.
To Gladys’s delight, she noticed that Sirius was also in her transfiguration class. He was near the front of the room with another boy. Both talked and laughed together and Gladys felt a pang of jealousy that she could not join the duo.
The boy talking to Sirius had also sat next to him in the sorting ceremony, Gladys noted. He was short, had scruffy black hair like Sirius’s but not nearly as long, and glasses. When the bell rang, he and Sirius left the classroom together, still chatting away. Gladys packed her own things up and carried them to the door of the classroom.
There was a great commotion outside the door; a fight seemed to be going on. When Gladys stepped out of the room, she saw what was happening down the hall. The glasses boy and another sinister, pale-skinned, slytherin boy were facing each other, wands drawn. They seemed ready to kill each other.
“Break it up! Break it up!” called a near-bye teacher, “No magic in the hall ways, or detention for both of you!”
The slytherin put away his wand and shot a glance filled with pure hatred at Sirius and his friends. Gladys had noticed that two other Gryffindor boys had joined him. One was tallish and had light brown hair. The other was shortish and shy-looking. He reminded Gladys of a mouse.
Gladys raced up to Sirius and tapped him on the shoulder as, he too, walked away.
“Hey,” he said grinning down at Gladys, “What’s up?”
“Who was that?” asked Gladys, jerking her thumb at the retreating figure of the slytherin.
“Snape,” replied Sirius. He seemed to spit the word out as if he loathed to say it, “He’s mine and James’s archrival.”
“Why do you hate him so much?” Gladys asked getting more and more interested.
“He has a prejudice against muggle-borns and half-bloods,” Sirius replied flatly.
“Oh…well…bye!” Gladys called as she raced down the hall to meet up with Emerald. They had their next class together and she had so much to tell Em…
*****************************
Emerald made her way down to her next class, which was Charms, humming absentmindedly to herself. She really did enjoy potions, especially when something or the other blew up. And when she meant 'something', she meant other idiots' potions (which she might have possibly sabotaged... but they didn't need to know that...)
Just as Em turned a corner, something solid came barreling into her, successfully knocking the wind out of her and sending her sprawling.
Coughing slightly, Emerald blinked over at the figure that was likewise sprawled on the ground and sighed.
"Hello, Gladys. How may I help you today?"
Gladys rubbed her sore head and groaned.
"S-sorry Emerald...didn't see y-you there," she said weakly. She tried to stand up and had to use the wall for support. Using a hand, she helped pull Emerald up, who was still half-dazed. The two of them walked hastily to Charms. No words passed between them as they were both sore from the run-in.
When they got to Charms they quickly sat down, knowing they were late, but Professor Flitwick took no notice of their delayed arrival. He continued teaching the students about a charm that would make inanimate objects explode.
*****************************
Chapter 3 Enter, Ravenclaws
Chapter 1 The New Comers
It was in Seventh year. It started like any other day. They woke up, got dressed, and went to breakfast. But it was far from normal when the Headmaster stood up. A group of four boys, who had been eating their breakfast in silence, suddenly looked up.
"I wonder what's happening..." said a boy with dark, messy hair.
"Who cares?" replied one of his companions, "It probably doesn't have anything to do with us." But little did he know, it had everything to do with them...
One of his friends was about to speak, but stopped when Dumbledore started to address the students gathered in the hall, "I have an announcement to make. We are going to have four new students. They will arrive in the afternoon. Their school, Salem, has been destroyed and will be here until it has been repaired. Please, help make their stay here comfortable. That is all." He then sat down as the students began talking once again, but only about a new subject.
As everyone filed into the Great Hall for lunch, Dumbledore made another announcement, “The new students have arrived and we will be calling them up to the front of the hall to introduce them.” All the students clapped as he finished.
A young girl of seventeen walked through, her brown hair up in a messy bun. She wore simple robes, had tan skin and a soft grin on her face. Her blue eyes scanned the crowds looking for anyone with massive amounts of books.
"This is Jenny Bichetti." Jenny nodded before turning to her friend, who stepped in
Another girl of about seventeen walked in. This one had long dark brown hair with barely visible red streaks. She had one Chocolate brown eye and an Emerald green one. She was wearing a Happy Bunny(TM) shirt that said the voices in your head aren't real, on the front and But they still have really great ideas, on the back. She had on plain blue jeans and flip flops. She also had a few freckles, and a red tint to her cheek. One of the four from the group we were watching earlier stared at her.
"Melissa Blade." Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore announced with a small smile.
She smiled at everyone and nodded to another one of the girls who stepped forward...
A tall, slender girl of eighteen walked gracefully between the double doors of the great hall. Her skin was very pale and she kept her silky, dark brown hair loose around her shoulders. She had had piercing gray eyes and there was a hint of pink in her cheeks. She wore a pair of long, jet black robes that fit tight around her waist and high-heeled black boots. Her feet made no sound as she glided up to Albus Dumbledore, where her fellow new students waited for her.
As she walked she noticed a pair of eyes that stared at her more intensely than any other. The eyes belonged to one of the boys from the group of four, a handsome boy with scruffy, raven-black hair. He was tall like her, perhaps taller than her….
"Gladys Darkstripe, daughter of Keiseir Mooneyes, son of Roskellar Dunewalker," The headmaster said. Gladys's family had requested that she be introduced this way.
She smiled and announced, “Sorry, but Emerald couldn't arrive today.
The doors flew open once more and a girl stumbled in, yelling "I'm here! I'm here!"
She straightened slightly and brushed some dirt off of her loose, camouflage-styled pants, her black combat-style boots glinting in the light. She wore simple black robes, but they hung off her strong but slender shoulders carelessly and exposed a black t-shirt with a green trim that stated in big, bold, emerald-green letters: EASILY DISTRACTED.
The girl finally looked up. She had short, stylishly layered boy-cut jet black hair with some blood red streaks in random places. Her long bangs were pushed to one side stylishly, exposing a pale complexion and piercing blue-green eyes that are intensified with black eyeliner.
The girl walked nonchalantly to where Dumbledore and her friends were waiting. "Sorry 'bout that", she muttered.
Dumbledore waved off her apology and turned to the students. "It is my pleasure to introduce Emerald Ribelle."
Dumbledore clapped his hands twice and said, "Now we will proceed to the sorting," Professor McGonagall came into the Great Hall with a stool and the battered, frayed sorting hat that had been used for centuries past to sort the witches and wizards into their proper house. McGonagall then took out a short piece of parchment.
"Darkstripe, Gladys," she called. The tall girl, who had entered third walked up to the stool and sat down upon it. The professor placed the hat upon her head.
"GRYFFINDOR!" the hat shouted. A great cheer arose from the Gryffindor table as Gladys took off the hat and sat down with her fellow students. The boy whom she had noticed earlier looked at her while everybody else was staring at the sorting hat.
"Hello," he said.
"Hey," Gladys responded shyly. She played with the long, loose sleeves of her robe.
"What was Salem like?" asked the boy.
"It was ok, but it was nowhere near as nice as this one. The others went there with me too," she said.
They both looked up at Professor McGonagall who was about to read another name from the list.
"Ribelle, Emerald!" McGonagall called.
The girl who had stumbled in a few moments earlier perked up at the sound of her name, and plopped down on the sorting stool. She allowed McGonagall to place the old hat on her head.
Emerald blinked as a sly, irritated voice muttered in her ear "Old, you say? I'm not old!"
Emerald rolled her eyes and concentrated on thinking back "Forget about that, just sort me already!"
"Oh, impatient, are we? Well then, let's see... you are ambitious, oh yes... extremely loyal, stubborn, sly, cunning, sarcastic, intelligent... lazy... a pessimist.... and a bit of courage here and there... ah, but still.... Well, then it better be SLY--"
Emerald quickly cut the hat off. "No! Put me in somewhere else, they'll all hate me if I go to Slytherin! Put me with my friends! Or else I'll...I'll burn you and feed you to the giant squid!"
"Are you sure...? You could do well in Slytherin."
"Giant...Squid."
That did the trick, "GRYFFINDOR!!"
Emerald breathed a sigh of relief, and immediately pulled the hat off of her head, thrusting it to wards McGonagall. The Gryffindor table had a roaring applause, but it was a bit hesitant. I mean, come ON, the girl was up there for at least four minutes, muttering to herself. And then the hat had started to say something, stopped abruptly, and then announced Gryffindor a few moments later. Isn't that just a bit odd?
Emerald strode quickly down to the Gryffindor table and plopped down unceremoniously into a seat next to Gladys. She gave a small smile. "Hullo, all."
Gladys gave Emerald a high five, glad she had chosen to be in Gryffindor.
McGonagall cleared her throat and called the next person up...
"Blade, Melissa" Said McGonagall.
Before Melissa walked up to the stool, she muttered to Jenny, "Seeing as you're probably going to be in Ravenclaw, I'll keep you company," Then she cautiously walked up to the Sorting Hat and placed it upon her head.
"If you put me in Slytherin, you'll suffer." was her first thought.
"Why are you all set against Slytherin? But if not Slytherin,"
"RAVENCLAW!" was the house that was announced.
The Ravenclaw table clapped hard, but not as hard as the Gryffindor table did…for Gladys, anyway. She happily took off the hat, and went to the Ravenclaw table.
Emerald breathed a sigh of relief. Thank god all of them were smart enough to avoid Slytherin, even though most of their number fit under that category. It would've been hell there...
Gladys had not had any worries that she would be going into Slytherin. All her family had been in Gryffindor. Now there was only one more student left to be sorted...
Jenny sighed and rocked back and forth on her heals as Albus called her name- her full name.
"Jennifer Alexandra Caterina Lyla Margaret Bichetti," he said. She strode up, her hair swishing on her back. Her shirt, which she spelled to say, 'You’re just jealous ‘cause the voices only talk to me.' flashed with a bright, blue color.
“Hello,” said a coy voice in her ear.
She scowled and said through her mind, 'Hello hat of goodness.'
“Crafty, shy and smart,”
“Thank you,”
“How about…” it said before bellowing-
"RAVENCLAW!"
Chapter 2 Enter, Gryffindors
Gladys and Emerald walked together up the stairs to the gryffindor tower. She had desperately wished her other friends had chosen to be in Gryffindor, but that was their choice. When they got to the portrait of the fat lady, a prefect said the password and they went inside. A great fire was burning in the fireplace and the rest of the students walked drowsily to their dorms.
A prefect came up to Gladys and said, "If you want, there's a spare dormitory for you and your friend," She showed them up the stairs to their future quarters at Hogwarts, "I hope you like our school," said the prefect.
Gladys found her trunk there waiting for her on her bed. Too tired to unpack her things into the ebony dresser next to her bed stand, she simply kicked off her uncomfortable shoes and changed out of her black robes into a pair of red, flannel PJ pants with little, black, scotty dogs on them and a plain, black spaghetti-strap shirt.
"I am just so tired," she said to Emerald whose trunk had been dumped off her bed and onto the floor in order to make room for her
Emerald tilted her head to the side and raised an eyebrow at Gladys. "Figures you'd have pajamas like that" she muttered.
Em shrugged off her robes that were practically falling off anyway, and slipped out of her favorite boots, then proceeded to throw open her trunk and start chucking stuff out in search of pajamas. Suddenly the flurry of clothing and books stopped, and Em straightened with a triumphant "Ha!"
She changed into an old pair of green and black striped pajama pants with lots of paint splatters and rips, and slipped on a loose white t-shirt with the lettering, I can read your mind, and there's nothing there.
Emerald looked around the room and grimaced. "Ugh. There’s too much red…it’s too bright."
She pulled out a black wand and changed her curtains to a darker blood red and her bedding to black with silver designs. The walls changed to a soothing cream color, and the plush rug by her bed turned pitch black. She lowered her wand, satisfied. That ought to do for now.
She glanced at Gladys' end of the room, and made a face. "Hey, d'you want me to change anything over there? It's too... red."
Gladys looked at her half of the room. She liked the red since it was her favorite color, but she didn't like just plain red. With a flick of her wand, the curtains of her window and her bed covers were covered in black, clan symbols.
"If you don't like red you should have been in another house, but then I would have been lonely with the others in Ravenclaw,"
Gladys flopped down on her bed and promptly fell asleep without getting under the covers.
Emerald frowned at Gladys, who was by now snoring loudly.
"Well, I would've gone to Slytherin, but since they're so discriminated against... I really want to come out of this place alive…and with a social status." She muttered, even though she knew Gladys wouldn't hear her.
She glanced around the room. "Well, at least the colors are decent enough..."
Emerald sighed and crawled under her black sheets. She forcefully pushed all thoughts of Slytherin, sorting, and status out of her mind in preparation of sleep. She only had one lingering thought as the darkness finally pulled her into the land of dreams.
Why must everyone wear masks...?
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Gladys awoke the next morning groggy and tired. Emerald was still fast asleep and snoring gently. Gladys got up and slowly shuffled to the window. The sun was just peaking up over the tree tops in the forbidden forest. She checked her watch and found that it was 6 o'clock in the morning. Gladys considered going back to bed, but she did not feel at all tired, so she went downstairs into the gryffindor common room with a book to catch up on reading.
"Hello, I don't believe you got my name last night,"
Gladys jumped and turned around to see that it was the long-haired boy seated quite comfortably in one of the plushy, scarlet chairs.
"No, I didn't," Gladys replied nervously.
"Sirius Black," The boy said.
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Emerald dodged another jet of pink light, and ducked under a table. The Things were gaining on her! She let out a small "eek!" as she heard them draw closer, and then jumped up from under the table and started running as fast as she could. And then... she was losing them... but wait.... She turned a corner, and found that the floor was... gone. In place of it was a dark abyss. There was a sudden flash of green light and the world tipped... and suddenly she felt herself falling, falling, falling.....
Then she woke up with a start.
"Aaahh!" Emerald yelped as she rolled off of her bed and hit the hardwood floor with a thump.
Emerald just lay there for a minute, before she came to her senses a bit. She glanced over at her room mate's bed and found it... empty.
"Where the hell is Gladys? She's never up this early..." Emerald muttered to herself as she sluggishly got up from the floor.
She frowned. Gladys hadn't made her bed, nor had she gotten dressed... then she wouldn't have gone down to breakfast yet, because according to the clock it was only 6:15.
She's probably skulking around in the common room or something..., Emerald thought as she plopped down on her bed.
She glanced once more around the room. Something felt out of place. She scanned the room, and it clicked. Aries was missing!
Aries was her beloved cat. She had received him as a gift two years ago; he was like her familiar. He was a lean black cat with white on his underside and tip of his tail. Aries had blue-green eyes, wore a small silver collar, and was quite menacing when he wanted to be, despite his smallish size. He was quite intelligent, and he also had a knack for getting into trouble.
Emerald jumped up. She had to find Aries before he found a way to spike the kitchen’s food or something. She sprinted downstairs, her hair flying everywhere, and jumped the last couple steps. She came face-to-face with Gladys, and hurridly explained, "Aries is missing!"
It was only then that she noticed the handsome boy sitting in the armchair.
"...Hi there...."
Gladys jumped in surprise.
"Emerald, you're never up this early! Go back to bed," Gladys said angrily.
Sirius looked away from Gladys to look at Emerald, "Hey there. You're another one of the new girls. Nice to meet you. I'm Sirius Black," he said getting up out the armchair.
Before Emerald had a chance to reply, Gladys said, “No I don't know where Aries is. He's probably playing with Hobbes,"
Hobbes was Gladys's pet tiger and her familiar. He had an enchantment on him so that he would never grow to be an adult, therefore, never maturing enough to hurt the humans he lived with, or anyone else for that matter. Hobbes was like an ordinary house cat, only he played and pounced a lot more and he was a tiger cub. Gladys had had him since she was very little and she had received him as a gift when she was seriously ill.
At that moment Aries and Hobbes bounded into the room. The two had become fast friends ever since Gladys and Emerald had first met.
Emerald's eye twitched and she bent down and quickly scooped Aries in her arms, ignoring the cat's protesting meows.
She looked Aries directly in the eye. "Aries, where were you? I hope you didn't cause anyone any trouble."
Emerald paid no mind to the fact that she was talking to an animal who couldn't talk back, or that she was attracting stares from the young man standing over there by the plush red armchair.
Aries looked away innocently, the only thing betraying him being a slight twitch of his left ear.
"Meow."
Emerald sighed in exasperation. "Really, Aries..." She let Aries down, and he immediately pounced on Hobbes. The two started brawling with each other playfully.
Ignoring the two pets, she turned back to Gladys and Sirius. "Sorry 'bout that... he tends to get into trouble easier than you would believe."
Sirius offered her a slight, wary smile. "Uhh...nice to meet you,"
"Nice to meet you too Sirius,"
Emerald glanced down at herself. She was still in pajamas, and it was getting a bit lighter outside.
"I'm going to go change." without another word, she trooped back upstairs nonchalantly to go get ready.
Gladys turned back to Sirius
"Sorry 'bout that. She's my roommate and can be volatile at times," she said
"That's alright," said the handsome boy, "Be seeing you," Sirius walked casually to the boys' dorms. Gladys stared after him, and then followed Emerald back to her dorm. Months earlier, both she and Emerald had picked their classes and she would have Defense against the Dark Arts after breakfast.
Hobbes bounded after her followed by Aries.
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Defense against the Dark Arts was taught by a wrinkly old wizard named Professor Drilp. He droned on for hours about different subjects, each more tedious than the first. Gladys was bored almost to tears and started flicking notes to Emerald who sat in the desk next to her. Her first note read,
What class do you have next?
Emerald was just dozing off when a small paper ball hit her smack in the middle of the forehead. She blinked, slowly, and looked down at the piece of paper on her desk. Emerald raised an eyebrow at Gladys, and proceeded to cautiously open the wad.
Smirking slightly, she wrote back:
I have potions next. Time to blow things up....
This class is DEAD BORING. And to think i used to like Defence....
What about you?
Emerald placed the note in her hand and blew on it softly, watching it float over to Gladys where it proceeded to land on the tip of her nose.
Gladys sneezed, sending the note floating gently down to the floor. Gladys quickly grabbed before the teacher's slow eyes could see the wad of paper. Unfolding the crumpled sheet, she silently replied to Emerald's note,
I got Transfig with Prof. McGonagall. She's supposed to be fun and I like Transfig besides.
Before Emerald could answer the note, the bell rang, signaling the end of class. Many students gave long sigh of relief at being freed from their prison of monotony. Gladys said goodbye to Emerald and continued in her way to Transfiguration...
Gladys entered Transfiguration with a light heart. It had always been her favorite subject, which was why at Salem, she had secretly trained to be an illegal wolf animagus. Nobody knew of that, except her three dearest friends, who were also illegal animagi.
Gladys took her seat in an empty desk next to a short, brown-skinned, girl with fair hair. The girl greeted Gladys with a “hi,” and Gladys returned the salutation, but nothing else passed between them.
Professor McGonagall was worlds more interesting than Professor Drilp in her lesson. The students had fun, turning their desks into various animals. Gladys worked with the blond girl who was a lot of fun to be with. By the middle of class the two had become good friends. Claire (That was the other girl’s name as Gladys found out) was smart, friendly and easy to get along with, just like Emerald. Except that Claire lacked that familiar, lovable, eccentric touch that Emerald had.
To Gladys’s delight, she noticed that Sirius was also in her transfiguration class. He was near the front of the room with another boy. Both talked and laughed together and Gladys felt a pang of jealousy that she could not join the duo.
The boy talking to Sirius had also sat next to him in the sorting ceremony, Gladys noted. He was short, had scruffy black hair like Sirius’s but not nearly as long, and glasses. When the bell rang, he and Sirius left the classroom together, still chatting away. Gladys packed her own things up and carried them to the door of the classroom.
There was a great commotion outside the door; a fight seemed to be going on. When Gladys stepped out of the room, she saw what was happening down the hall. The glasses boy and another sinister, pale-skinned, slytherin boy were facing each other, wands drawn. They seemed ready to kill each other.
“Break it up! Break it up!” called a near-bye teacher, “No magic in the hall ways, or detention for both of you!”
The slytherin put away his wand and shot a glance filled with pure hatred at Sirius and his friends. Gladys had noticed that two other Gryffindor boys had joined him. One was tallish and had light brown hair. The other was shortish and shy-looking. He reminded Gladys of a mouse.
Gladys raced up to Sirius and tapped him on the shoulder as, he too, walked away.
“Hey,” he said grinning down at Gladys, “What’s up?”
“Who was that?” asked Gladys, jerking her thumb at the retreating figure of the slytherin.
“Snape,” replied Sirius. He seemed to spit the word out as if he loathed to say it, “He’s mine and James’s archrival.”
“Why do you hate him so much?” Gladys asked getting more and more interested.
“He has a prejudice against muggle-borns and half-bloods,” Sirius replied flatly.
“Oh…well…bye!” Gladys called as she raced down the hall to meet up with Emerald. They had their next class together and she had so much to tell Em…
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Emerald made her way down to her next class, which was Charms, humming absentmindedly to herself. She really did enjoy potions, especially when something or the other blew up. And when she meant 'something', she meant other idiots' potions (which she might have possibly sabotaged... but they didn't need to know that...)
Just as Em turned a corner, something solid came barreling into her, successfully knocking the wind out of her and sending her sprawling.
Coughing slightly, Emerald blinked over at the figure that was likewise sprawled on the ground and sighed.
"Hello, Gladys. How may I help you today?"
Gladys rubbed her sore head and groaned.
"S-sorry Emerald...didn't see y-you there," she said weakly. She tried to stand up and had to use the wall for support. Using a hand, she helped pull Emerald up, who was still half-dazed. The two of them walked hastily to Charms. No words passed between them as they were both sore from the run-in.
When they got to Charms they quickly sat down, knowing they were late, but Professor Flitwick took no notice of their delayed arrival. He continued teaching the students about a charm that would make inanimate objects explode.
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Chapter 3 Enter, Ravenclaws