Chapter Text
The way to the Gryffindor Common room was long, complicated, and Sophie was sure she would never find it again on her own, ever.
Climbing through the portrait hole, she blinked tiredly and looked around. It seemed that either the common room hadn’t suffered any damage, or that it had been rebuilt already. It was a big, open space kept warm by a big fire. There were comfortable-looking chairs in front of the fire, but they were all occupied. She heard a gasp from behind her. That’s Harry Potter and his fiends. And there is Neville Longbottom. They defeated You-know-who! Sophie could hear the whispers coming from her fellow first years and dared to take a closer look at the people occupying the best seats in the entire common room area.
They were indeed Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger and Neville Longbottom. Just as Sophie was about to turn away, the girl that had steadied her in the Great Hall joined them and sat down in Harry Potter’s lap. So she must be Ginny Weasley… Lydia had told Sophie all about the on-off relationship these two had, and about the relationship of Ron and Hermione, and basically any other gossip there was.
Sophie’s attention was called away from the war heroes by the Perfect that had lead them to the common room. “Listen up, little ones.” The boy had a clear and calm voice - Sophie really loved listening to him talking, which was maybe, just maybe, the main reason why she would be unable to find her way to breakfast tomorrow. “Get a little closer so I don’t need to shout. That’s it. This year is a little different from most years at Hogwarts.
"First of all is of course the fact that the school is still under reconstruction. A big part of the castle is currently inhabitable, and you really should do your best to avoid these sections. Additionally we have some change of staff, which we all have to get used to - again.
"Last but not least, there is the fact that we have an 8th grade this year. Many students were unable to attend school last year and therefore have to repeat their exams. Please try not to pester them too much, if you can.”, he concluded his speech and smiled. Sophie kept staring at him, until he turned his gaze on her and she quickly looked away, turning a bright pink. Oops...
“You all should best go to your dormitory and sleep. Friday is usually not the toughest day, but you are probably all tired from all the excitement. Go, hush!” Sophie was quite disappointed to be dismissed like that, however, the boy made sense. She was very tired and she had lectures tomorrow. She followed the other first year girls up into their dormitory. Her mouth dropped open.
The beds were so big! And she would have one for herself. No more bunk sharing beds for her! Sophie smiled satisfied and searched for her trunk. It lay at the bottom of one of the corner beds. The big cupboards were labelled and despite being tired she started unpacking, placing her neatly folded clothes on the shelves.
“God, how do you have the energy to do that now?”, asked one of the other girls. Sophie turned around. Most of the girls had just pulled their pyjamas from their trunks and strewn their robes all over the place when putting on the sleeping clothes. Sophie shrugged. “I live in a very small apartment, you get used to being a bit of a neat-freak.” Sarah, a brown-haired girl laughed, and forced herself up from the bed to do some unpacking of her own.
She had the bed beside Sophie, which meant she also had the cupboard beside Sophie’s. “You’ll guilt-trip us all to become tidy and study hard.”, she said with a grin and put some shirts on the top shelve. Sophie shrugged again. It wasn’t as if the other girls had to follow her example…
When the alarm went off the next morning, Sophie was already awake. Just like the day before, she was far too excited to stay asleep too long . She grabbed fresh clothes and headed for the bath, and was back out before most of the other girls even managed to get out of bed. Sarah offered her a disbelieving frown for a greeting. “You really are going to gilt-trip us into being little perfect students. Bet you’ll be a Perfect once you get to the fifth year.”
Sophie blushed. “I don’t really think that far.” “Oh? ”
“Well, right now, my top priority is a hot cacao, and maybe talk to one of the House Ghosts.”, Sophie smiled shyly: “I always wanted to meet the ghosts.” Sarah laughed, and shaking her head, she disappeared into the bathroom.
When they climbed out of the portrait hole half an hour later, Lydia was waiting for them. “Hey there, little one.” “Lydia!” Sophie hugged her sister and smiled up at her. “Everything ok in Gryffindor?” Sophie nodded. “Lydia, this is Sarah. Sarah, that’s my big sister Lydia.”, she jumped up and down a little, too excited on her first day to stay still. “I thought I’ll check up on you, and help you find the way to the Great Hall. You guys are worst off, really.”
Lydia led the two first years through various corridors and around corners, over moving stair (“Oh my gosh, Lydia, they really do move!”), down the big (and thankfully static) stair to the Great Hall. It was a lot quieter this morning compared to the evening before, everyone was still too tired. Lydia said her goodbye, and made her way over to the Ravenclaw table. Sophie dropped on the bench, Sarah right beside her, and grabbed for the cacao pot.
Only after she had started to load food onto her plate did Sophie notice beside whom she was sitting. She blushed, and concentrated hard on her scrambled eggs. The Gryffindor Perfect didn’t even seem to notice her, which was a relieve since she was bright pink, on the other hand it was depressing, because he obviously didn’t take notice of her mere existence. Sophie sighed inwardly - well, she was a first year after all.
She bit off a piece of bread, and started looking around the Great Hall, chewing. She still couldn’t quite believe she was here now. Everything was still so new, and odd and exciting and - “Sophie, we need to go or we will be late for Potions!”
Sophie immediately dreaded the lesson until she remembered that Severus Snape was no longer teaching the subject. She got up and followed Sarah out of the Great Hall. As soon as they got out of the room, the two girls got stuck. How were you supposed to find your classroom, when you had never been there before? They looked at each other.
“They are supposed to be in the dungeons, right?”, Sophie asked. Sarah nodded hesitantly. This would be a nightmare…