Book 2 - Year 1
The castle was beautiful in the moonlight, the lights from the window reflecting blurrily on the dark waters of the lake. They were moving swiftly toward the castle crossing the giant body of water in small rickety boats. She was excited, so so excited. Amazed by the simple fact that she would be living in a castle, learning magic there in ancient classrooms. She felt like a princess, carried to her grand home in a floating carriage.
She was nervous, everyone was slowly but surely moving toward one of the long tables. The crowd of eleven-year-olds thinning. When they got to the L nearly everyone was already sorted.
Her name was called.
She took a deep breath and walked forward, climbing up the stairs and trying to ignore the stares.
The talking hat was lowered on her head. “Hmm, a good head on your shoulders, and creative too!” She startled, it was talking in her head! It felt weird. “Oh, what a nice reaction. Observant are you?”
“I don’t think it’s that special.” She mumbled. Her parents mentioned it and she liked it when they did. The compliments were nice, but it was best to be modest. She didn’t want to be arrogant.
“You don’t have to be modest. You are very brave.” No, she wasn’t. She was shy and scared to talk to people. She rarely did anything she was uncomfortable with.
“You are selling yourself short. Yes, better be GRYFFINDOR!”
The hat was pulled from her head and she was ushered toward her new house, surrounded by cheers.
Someone was petrified. It had happened on the periphery of her social life, so she was mostly unaware. Her head was stuck in a book most of the time and her friends were surprised she was passing her classes with how much she drew during the lectures. She herself was barely aware of anything happening around her.
Her friends didn’t want to leave her alone anymore, worried that the ‘baby’ of the group would be the next victim on her way to the library or something.
At least she didn’t have to deal with their mothering in the common room, glad to be left alone most of the time. She couldn’t deal with her housemates' continuous rowdiness, wondering how they could stand it. If she didn’t get some time for herself at least once a day she would burst. She knew that from experience.
There was murmuring around her, Potter was walking past. The black-haired boy’s shoulders were hunched, trying to make himself smaller. His friends, Granger and Weasly were walking protectively next to him, pressed up against his side as if shielding the boy from all the hate and the accusations hurled in his direction.
She didn’t really get her schoolmates’ resentment, not understanding why Potter was blamed for the petrifications. But she also wasn’t willing to defend him openly, keeping her reservations for the corners of the common room, behind the tight confines of her friends’ outgoing and confident personalities. She was scared of getting the same slurs shouted toward her as her housemate was getting. Always frightened to the point of tears when someone was angry at her, she wouldn’t be able to take it.
Her respect for Potter rose, seeing him take people's anger without flinching, without resenting them, without snapping. Just as soon as the whispering started, it was gone. The trio of friends walking into a corridor, disappearing from sight.
She was walking toward the common room when Potter and Weasely sped past. Running down the corridor in the direction of the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom. Their faces were a mask of frightened determination, Potter holding a piece of ripped paper in his hands.
The next thing she knew the petrifications stopped, the cloud of fear hanging over the castle vanishing. Rumors were floating around the school, Potter had vanquished the monster, Potter saved Ginny, Potter was seen covered in blood, holding a long silver sword.
She didn’t know what to think but was so relieved Ginny was safe. Scared that something horrible had happened to her. At least, more horrible than being kidnapped to the darkest bowels of the castle they lived in.
The train was leaving, and she turned around, taking one last look at the incredible castle she got to know the last year, hoping to return to a calm and uneventful year.