‘You know what, even though I chose Ryan at the tryouts, I’m still a little unsure. Perhaps I should have gone with Hodden.’
Beside me, Murray scratched out a name for the fifth time, muttering to himself. Apparently it was some Beater- related thing, but whatever it was, it was distracting me from the Charms homework we were supposed to be doing.
‘Murray,’ I hissed for the fifth time, ‘will you be quiet? I’m trying to concentrate!’
‘Clariss, I’ve got drastic Quidditch problems, I can’t hush it up,’ he said, and then added to himself, ‘Perhaps I should give Ryan a chance against Hufflepuff, but if he plays like he did in our last practice then we’ve got about as much chance of winning as a Flobberworm has of outrunning a Bowtruckle.’
I put my quill down and glared at him. He was really trying my patience.
‘What?’ he asked as he looked at me. ‘It’s a serious problem!’
‘Not for the library! I’m trying to do this essay. Where’s yours?’ I added, looking around for his essay and notes. ‘We were supposed to be doing this together.’
‘In my bag,’ he replied, turning back to his parchment. ‘I gave up on it when you started muttering to yourself. That’s always a sign it’s hard. I’ll do it at the weekend; I’ve got more important things to think about. Do you think I should drop Ryan?’
‘Who’s Ryan?’ I thought hard to put a face to the name, but I had no luck.
‘Fifth year. Quite tall. Great mess of blonde hair,’ he said. ‘I think I’ll give him another chance,’ he added to himself. Evidently he didn’t want my opinion anymore. ‘After all, he did out-fly Hodden in tryouts.’
‘Right, well,’ I said, putting down my quill and sighing. ‘I’m not going to get anything done with you muttering away.’
‘Occupational hazard,’ he replied, ‘being friends with a Quidditch Captain.’
I grunted in agreement as I packed away the things from my essay; quills, ink, notes, and the essay itself. My life had been full of essays for the past few weeks. I was like a constant cycle: essays, lessons, eating, sleeping, and then back to essays again. Occasionally there was a weekend thrown in, but that was mostly devoted to homework as well. Everything was boring, even in Divination we were confined to the classroom, making notes on various states of mind required for trances and the like. I’d had no more strange experiences, but everything was so monotonous now that I almost wished that something would happen.
‘See you,’ I said to Murray, and walked off towards the door. A boy was holding it open for me.
‘Thanks,’ I grunted, not really looking at him, my mind was engaged elsewhere.
‘It was Clariss, wasn’t it?’
I looked up at the boy who had spoken. I stared at him for a moment, feeling incredibly silly that I had no idea who he was when he apparently knew me. Then it clicked.
‘Oh, hi!’ I gushed eventually and he smiled, guessing what I had just done. ‘You’re Will, aren’t you? Albus’s friend? The one with the green dreads.’
‘Yup, that’s me,’ he said. ‘But without the dreads. How are the non-verbal spells going?’
‘Getting there,’ I said as we began to walk down the corridor towards the staircase. ‘Pulled a few off, but always after a lot of practice.’
‘They say practice makes perfect,’ he said. ‘It gets easier, I promise. Unlike memorising moon charts, that never gets easier.’
‘You do Astronomy?’ I asked.
He nodded. ‘Wish I hadn’t sometimes. Anyway, enough of that dull stuff. First Quidditch game of the season soon!’
I pulled a face, remembering the conversation I’d just had with Murray.
‘Not a fan?’ he asked with a laugh, seeing my face.
‘It’s not my favourite pastime,’ I told him.
‘That’s a surprise, considering the sister you’ve got.’
He was right; my sister, Aeron, was the Slytherin Quidditch Captain. My other sister, Amentia, had also played for her house a few times while she was at school.
‘I guess I’m just odd like that. I get it from my Mum, she hates it. But my Uncle Percival had a big influence on Aeron,’ I said.
‘Percival?’ he asked with a frown. ‘Not Percival Flint? The one who writes for Which Broomstick?’
I nodded in confirmation.
‘You are an oddball!’ he said, though he seemed rather impressed. ‘You’ll be watching though?’ he asked. ‘It’s always good to support the team even if you don’t actually like it.’
‘Oh, I’ll have to be there,’ I said. ‘Not only would my sister be angry but my friend, Murray, is Gryffindor Captain. He’d murder me if I missed it.’
‘The bloke you were with just now?’ he asked and I nodded. ‘It should be a good match. Both Gryffindor and Hufflepuff have lost star players. It’ll be interesting to see who replaces them.’
‘It will,’ I said, but privately I disagreed. Listening to Murray rambling on about who to include in his team was definitely not interesting in the slightest.
‘Anyway,’ Will said, slowing down at the entrance to a small corridor. ‘I’ve got to go down here. Hand something in. I’ll see you around.’
‘Yeah, see you,’ I said as he disappeared down the passage.
He was a nice guy, I thought. Easy to talk to and genuine. He had nice eyes as well, sort of a deep brown colour. It was a shame he hadn’t been with Hero, though, I thought as I ducked behind a tapestry depicting some Creaothceann players. Behind it was a set of spiral staircases that would get me to Gryffindor Tower twice as fast as the main staircase.
As I climbed I let my mind wander to Hero Van Millen. I’d liked him for years now, though my crush was probably not as strong as it had been in previous years when he just had to enter a room and I’d go the colour of a tomato, but I still thought he was the best looking guy in the school. Despite his good looks, he was a nice person, or so I’d heard, having hardly ever spoken to him before. He’d never really had any girlfriends or craved attention to feed his ego, in fact I could only remember him having one girlfriend, a girl called Florence Astrova, a Gryffindor in the year above. I remembered glaring at her every time I saw her for the three months they went out with each other and was incredibly happy when I heard they’d broken up.
As I climbed in tighter and tighter circles, my head began to spin with the circles and my ears began to ring. That was odd, I never usually got this dizzy walking up this staircase. I shook my head to clear it, and finally the corridor it lead to came into sight. I hitched my skirts a little higher so that I wouldn’t trip over them.
‘Ara?’
As I reached the top step I heard someone call my name from the end of the passage, and I raised my candle a little higher so I could see the speaker. It was Professor Marcher, the witch who taught the girls household spellwork, and behind her was a short girl with dark hair that I had not seen before.
‘Ara, this is Annie Prankerd,’ Professor Marcher said, pushing the girl forward a little. ‘She has just been Sorted into Gryffindor. Would you show her the way to the Tower? I have some business I need to attend to.’
‘Of course, Professor Marcher,’ I said, curtsying.
Professor Marcher swept out of the corridor, her robes billowing behind her, leave the new girl and I alone. I smiled hesitantly, I’d never been comfortable with strangers, but this girl seemed friendly. She had a pretty face and a wide smile that lit up her light blue eyes. She had fairly tanned skin and her hair was brown, but looked like it had been bleached by the sun in places and she had rosy cheeks that were scattered with freckles. She looked like she spent a lot of time out of doors.
‘I’m Ara Grey,’ I said, breaking the silence, aware that the girl was taking me in just as much as I was her. ‘Your name was Annie?’
‘Yes,’ the girl said with another smile. ‘Annie Prankerd.’
‘Follow me then, Annie. I shall escort you to Gryffindor Tower.’
We walked on in silence for a bit, along corridors and passages until we reached the main staircase, where Annie’s eyes widened to the size of dinner platters as she took in the carved wood and marble and large, ornate paintings and their frames.
‘Very grand place this, isn’t it?’ she asked me. She had a strange accent that I couldn’t place, though her voice was soft and clear. ‘There’s nothing this grand at home, though the castle must have been once. But that was destroyed in the war years ago and is naught but a crumbling wreck now. Is everything this grand?’
‘Yes, I suppose so,’ I replied. Coming from the background I did, I had not really considered the grandeur of Hogwarts. ‘I had not thought on it before, but I suppose it is.’
‘I was ever so excited when Father said that I could finally come,’ Annie told me as we began to climb the stairs. ‘I wanted to start at the beginning of the year when everyone else would have been, but I was needed at home for the harvest. I’ve known I was a witch for years; Ganis, the old warlock who lived by the river told me when I was little, but I didn’t know there was a school for magic until I received a letter when I was eleven. Mother and Father said I could not attend though.’
‘How so?’ I asked. She was a very talkative girl and had such a lively way of expressing herself that I felt myself warming to her.
‘They said I was still needed at home,’ she said. ‘I am the oldest girl and my brothers and sisters were still young you see, and Mother could not have coped on her own. How long have you been here?’
‘Since I was eleven,’ I said, and I laughed as her eyes widened. ‘Though I am one of few. Many are like you; they start when their families can spare them, or they have found husbands. Others leave because their families need them at home or they get married.’
‘That’s a long time,’ Annie said. ‘I bet you know loads of magic. I don’t think I could be here that long; I’d miss my family too much. Don’t you miss yours?’
I shook my head. ‘It’s only me and my father now,’ I told her, ‘and I don’t miss him very much. You get used to it after a while.’
Annie looked as if she wanted to pursue the subject further, but something, perhaps the etiquette she’d been taught, held her back.
‘I cannot wait to begin lessons,’ she said instead as we ascended to the sixth floor. ‘I do hope I don’t find myself too behind.’
‘I am sure you will not,’ I told her reassuringly. ‘We take our lessons with a variety of ages and abilities. Plenty of students start their education late so you certainly are not the only beginner.’
I saw her look a little relieved and I could tell that this was something that had been worrying her, despite her outward show of excitement and ease.
‘Well, here we are,’ I said, stopping in front of a painting of a pious looking nun. ‘This is the entrance to the Gryffindor Common Room. You have to speak a password to gain entry.’
As I spoke these words, a great dizziness came over me, and I put out a hand to steady myself as the room slid out of focus.
As suddenly as it had come, the dizziness stopped, and everything came back into view. Breathing hard, I looked down at myself. The elaborate black gown I had been wearing only seconds ago had vanished, replaced with my normal plain robes. The painting of the nun had also gone, and in her stead was the Fat Lady, and she was looking at me quizzically. I didn’t blame her, I was trembling like an Aspen leaf and I must have looked terrified.
‘Are you all right, my dear?’ the Fat Lady was saying.
‘I- I’m fine,’ I stammered, taking a few tentative steps towards her.
‘You were just standing there, staring at the wall, and when I asked for the password you didn’t say anything.’
‘I’m fine,’ I repeated. ‘I’m okay.’
‘Are you sure, dear?’ she asked concernedly. ‘You’re as white as a sheet, should I send for someone?’
‘No, no. I’m fine. I was just thinking, that’s all. Can you let me in?’
‘Are you absolutely certain you don’t want me to send for the matron?’
‘Yes! I’m perfectly fine! Maleficent! Can you just let me in, please?’
With one last doubting look, she swung forward to admit me, and I climbed, still trembling, through the portrait hole.
‘Clariss!’
I turned around, still slightly dazed, to where someone was calling my name. It was Lily; she was sat on the sofas by the fire with Conor, Tristan and Murray. I had hoped just to go straight to my dormitory to collapse on my bed, but now Lily had noticed me, I couldn’t ignore her. I wandered over to them, acutely aware that I was still trembling. I hoped they wouldn’t notice. I don’t think I could find an excuse in this state.
‘Where did you go?’ Murray asked as I reached the sofa. I was feeling slightly unsteady so I gripped the back of it, my knuckles turning white. ‘I left only a couple of minutes after you did but I couldn’t see you anywhere.’
‘Oh,’ I said. ‘I – I was talking to someone.’
‘Who?’ Lily asked and I saw her raise an eyebrow as she looked me over.
‘That Will guy,’ I said vaguely. I really wanted to go upstairs. ‘Your brother’s friend.’
‘Must have been some conversation,’ Tristan snorted. ‘Murray came back ages ago.’
‘Yeah,’ I said. ‘Look, I’m really tired, I’m going to bed. Night.’
Before they could say anything else, I had turned away from them and made my way dazedly to the staircases that led to the dormitories. I was still trembling head to foot, and must have looked a state, judging by the looks they were giving me. As I walked away I heard Murray mutter, ‘Is she all right?’ I ignored him.
Five minutes later I was lying on my bed, staring at the overhead curtain. What had happened to me? My heart was still racing and even though I was wrapped up in my covers, I was shivering and shivering as if I would never be warm again.
Shine a Light by Sapphire at Dawn
Chapter Notes: Once again, major thanks to Gina/gene24 and her suggestions for the end of this chapter.
Chapter Endnotes: So there we go! I'd love to hear any opinions... ;)