Chapter 2
Professor ‘Dumbledore', the headmaster, later, after the sorting finished, had a speech after the feast, talking about what students called usual welcoming and rambling, he talked about the caretaker "Mr Filch'(which a first year whispered to me that he himself is an irritable aged guy and he has a peevish sees-it-all cat called Mrs Norris that sometimes, apparently, shows up behind students out of nowhere and report them to the caretaker, which he liked to personally punish them, and mostly to his like, first-years)
"-And so, this year I should warn you all, that the third-floor corridor on the right-hand side is out of bounds to everyone who does not wish to die a very painful death."
Then said the headmaster, tentatively, but in a calm voice after the feast, which then a looming sudden table changed and was widened up, filled with tons of different dishes and deserts, enough to unstarve the whole school, And then there was chatter all around the great hall, on the different colors of tables.
"I heard the ceiling reflects the real sky outside, and it changes a bit depending on a person's emotions.”
“Emotions? Yeah, I'd be lucky if it does not rain every time I'm here, Mom says I make a mess wherever I go.” Said a short chubby-cheeked girl.
“Mine too, my mother's a Muggle, she didn't almost agree for me to come to Hogwarts, it was such a difficulty convincing her otherwise.”
I continued on eating, but I wasn't so hungry. My attention was drawn to the Ravenclaw table, seeing Luna sitting at the end and eating, which pretended to not catch my gaze that made me feel slightly guilty.
The Gryffindor table was where the most sounds came from, there were the Weasley twins, which liked to banter about pranks they planned themselves and the quidditch team.
“Do you remember that one Slytherin smartie beater last year? What was the name again? Oh-”
“Chester.”
“Yeah- wait no, It wasn't Chester, I don't remember.”
“Whatever, he sucked at quidditch, pretended to know ‘everything’.”
“Glad I knocked the bludger into his head, poor bloke was bleeding his nose off.”
“Wasn't I the one who did that?”
“No?"
“What's a beater?” I asked, crossing my arms on the table. I have heard of quidditch, slightly, but never knew the rules, nor how it really worked.
“The Beater is a player who protects other players from Bludgers” Said George. (I think)
“-And gets the pleasure to hit them back. We've been on the team for years.”
“Hit them with what?” I asked.
“A bat, kind of like baseball, but instead you have to fly in the air and swing around as well, makes it harder.” Fred said, casually, leaning back in his chair, when a dusty black-and-white ghost appeared from the table, left the first-years startled.
There were four ghosts, as said, for every house, The Fat Friar for Hufflepuff, The Bloody Baron for Slytherin and The Grey Lady for Ravenclaw, and Nearly Headless Nick for Gryffindor, which was the most funny-looking of them all.
“Hello Sir Nicholas, had a nice summer?” Asked who I've heard to be Percy Weasley, the headboy, who seemed the oldest sitting at the start of the table, and had red hair(As some others, sitting next to him)
The goofy-looking girl on my left leaned forward, and talked coolly near my ear,
“Ever heard of the headless hunt?”
“No; what is it?”
“It's a group of ghosts, who creep around the pumpkin grounds, and they do Horseback Head-Juggling, what even is that?”
“No idea.”
“...Seems creepy to me,”
The girl looked at me, as if studying me, and flicked her lashes once to look me up and down, in a considerate way, holding her fork and tapping it on her plate, which made my ears itchy.
“I'm Valerie Avery.”
“Rafferty Price.” I greeted, but we didn't shake hands, because she seemed to notice my muggle lastname. By the way she frowned slightly and her eyebrows knitted together in the slightest. Valerie had eyes in a line like a cat, which made her unapproachable to those who met her. And people clearly noticed her eyes first, looking at her, and her so-murky pitch-black hair like a crows that hurts your eyes when you look at too much and how she seemed out of place, sitting at the Gryffindor table, but again, she didn't seem that preoccupied about the fact.
“I'm a pure-blood, if you're wondering. And I wasn't certainly planning on ending up in Gryffindor.” She said and shifted in her seat, her hands laying useless on her lap as well as the half-eaten chicken in her plate.
“Are you not gonna eat that?”
“Not hungry.”
When dinner was over the headmaster called us to our houses, and we followed Percy out of the hall to the grand staircase.
The castle had high yellow walls and the ground plaid-brick in shades of brown as well the shoes that followed it, and were quick. The headboy led us to what seemed to be large openings that were levels of stairs, surrounded around by bored portraits. and the stairs, which one my eye tricked me to move, got me curious until Valerie explained that they do move randomly, and that they were somehow magically bewitched. and so we walked up one path, which so here, me and Valerie had awkward introductions that she was so (casual) about.
“Big school.”
“Seriously, it's amazing, the armors talk. Even the portraits talk!!”
“Don't tell me you haven't seen pictures talk before,”
“You have!?”
“Duh, there are thousands of frames hanging at our manor, but they're boring.”
“So like, you can talk to them whenever you get bored.”
“They hate me.”
“...Wow. Portraits hate you.”
She scoffs, nodding her head. “Yes they do.”
We walked up a set of stairs, and stopped in front of a bigger portrait, of a large sitting woman and the headboy told us the password to our common room.
“So you live in a manor.”
“Yeah, it was our families for ages. It's so…big and cold. freezing.” She said reluctantly, talking and looking at walls instead of me.
“I'd like to see it.”
“You wouldn't, believe me. Anyway…”
“...I got the feeling that you're keeping secrets.” Valerie said observably, doing the usual thing that I figured out she had the habit of, leaning in and talking into your ear in a very uncomfortable way, and her mouth smelled like ground cinnamon.
“Everyone has secrets.”
“But you got more. I'll figure it out.”
“... Alright, I guess.”
Me and Valerie passed the common room, a high-ceiled room with brown patterns and a loud fireplace that cracked here and then, and the red and gold couches that had coarse cushions in the same color with ornate carpets. We finally got to the dorms and unpacked our bags around the beds that had the curtains around them and we could have a moment of silence to ourselves, and the other girls were too tired to join the silence.
”So…you're not from around here, huh?” She turned half-way to me as she placed her books by the burnt candles on the nightstand.
I turned my gaze to Valerie, trying to keep my expression unreadable.
”What gave you that idea?”
”Just a guess,” she replied. ”You seem a bit…different from everyone else here.”
That made me pause.
”Not to mention the accent. Don't get offended, but it's obvious,”
”How am i different?” I asked.
”You seem quiet.”
I switched my gaze for a bit, it wasn't insulting, but i didn't like hearing it.
”So?” I said, shortly, shaking my head softly in disagreement.
Valerie shrugged, ”Most people aren't this quiet.” She paused, and added,"I don't mind.”
I give her a confused look, sighing in the end and going back to unpacking.