The Third Orphan

Chapter 10

Author's note: for those of you joining from IG- I'm not sure if I made this clear, but there is new material in chapter 9 even though it starts out with stuff that was already posted. No one's said anything about it, but I thought I'd make sure everyone knew. Thanks for reading!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Briella and Emma arrived at the entrance to their common room after what had seemed like hours of walking and taking wrong turns only to find a large group of Ravenclaws huddled outside the door and talking amongst themselves.

A short, blonde girl near the front of the group cried above the clamor, "I don't have time for this, we're gonna be late for class!"

"Guess you should have remembered your books then," the boy standing to the right of her responded harshly, but looking just as annoyed.

"What's going on?" Emma asked Briella.

Briella shrugged. "I know just as much as you do."

The girls were about to make their way to the front of the group when the boy who had sat next to Briella at lunch pushed past them. "Move aside!" he called, and the students parted to make space for him to pass.

"Good luck guessing, I've been waiting for ten minutes!" a redhead called after him.

The boy jeered. "How hard can a stupid riddle be?" He reached out his hand and banged roughly on the locker.

The eagle opened its beak and asked, "What do you keep when you give away?"

A momentary hush fell over the group as they watched the boy to see if he could answer the riddle and open the door. Briella watched as the boy's arrogance was replaced with uncertainty. The sneer quickly returned to his face, however. "You idiots don't know this one? Too easy. I'm not telling you if you can't figure it out." With a forced laugh he walked away.

"Wow, brilliant response Gavin!" someone called after him and the crowd snickered.

Emma giggled. "He got what was coming to him," she whispered to Briella.

Briella gave an appreciative laugh, trying to suppress feelings of glee at the boy's humiliation. "And it wasn't even that hard a question!"

"It wasn't? I have no idea what the answer is," replied Emma, looking crestfallen. "So you know the answer?"

Realizing that she had sounded almost as arrogant as Gavin, Briella tried to backpedal. "Well, I mean, I might, I'm not sure though, it's probably wrong."

"It's worth a try," said Emma, giving Briella a small shove. "I don't want to waste my entire free period standing in the corridor.

"Okay," sighed Briella, and began trying to push through the students in front of her.

Suddenly the entire group was staring at her. "Think you know the answer, firsty?" someone taunted.

"Yes, I do," answered Briella, struggling to sound more confident than she felt.

"Come on guys," said a voice from the front. A tall brunette girl stepped forward, a prefect badge sparkling on her chest. "I know you're all worried about being late to class, but that's no reason to be mean." She glared at them all so intensely that several took a step back. "Go on, Briella. Give it a try," she added.

"How do you know my name?" asked Briella.

The girl gave a light laugh. "You took over fifteen minutes to be sorted. The entire school knows your name."

Briella gave a stiff nod and walked up to the knocker. Her hand shaking slightly, she pulled back the ring and let it drop.

"What do you keep when you give away?" the eagle repeated.

"A promise," replied Briella as strongly as she could, afraid of being wrong and receiving the same treatment as Gavin.

"Nice job," said the eagle, and the door swung open.

Briella entered, followed by a stream of muttering older students. Once she was safely out of the way of the entrance, she turned to wait for Emma. As she stood there, the girl with the prefect badge walked up to her.

"Congrats," she said, giving Briella a quick hug. "How'd you come up with the answer so fast?"

"I think I'd heard it before," lied Briella, trying to divert the attention away from herself.

"Oh," said the girl, looking slightly doubtful.

Briella was saved from further questioning as Emma appeared beside her. "Nice job!" she cried, giving Briella a high five.

"Thanks," said Briella, averting her gaze.

"Now what's your name?" asked the prefect.

"I'm Emma."

"Well, Briella and Emma, I'm Avery and you can ask me if you need anything. You had a good first day so far?"

"Yeah!" exclaimed Emma. "It's amazing here!"

Briella decided to let Emma's answer suffice for both of them rather than lie. Her silence was not unnoticed by Avery, however.

"Are you okay Briella?" she asked. "You seemed rather upset last night."

"I'm fine now," lied Briella for what must have been the hundredth time that day. Quickly changing the subject she asked, "Why does everyone look so mad at me? I got them into the common room."

"They're just upset about being shown up by a first year," Avery laughed. "They'll get over it." She glanced up at the clock on the wall. "Oh man I've got to get going. Flitwick gave me so much homework and it's only the first day! And I already wasted so much time in the hall!" She took a couple of steps backwards. "I'll see you two later, find me if anyone gives you any trouble!" she called over her shoulder. She was up the stairs before Briella and Emma had a chance to say a word.

"She sure has a lot of energy," commented Emma, looking slightly awestruck.

"Yeah," replied Briella absentmindedly, still feeling uncomfortable from the stares following her from all over the room. "Let's head up to our dormitory and see if Holly and Charlotte are there," she said in an attempt to get away.

"Alright," Emma shrugged. "Whatever you want to do."

The two headed up to their dormitory, but Briella regretted the decision to go there almost the moment she opened the door, because there, sitting on her bed, was one of the last people she wanted to see at the moment.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Okay, I know this is pretty short, but I wanted to get something up because I don't think I'm gonna be able to post until after break. Plus it's 12:30 am, so I'm too tired to write any more.

I apologize in advance for all the riddles that will appear in this story. I'm incapable of writing them and I'm having trouble finding good ones online.

So I just went on babynames.com and guess what the name of the day is! Briella! I guess it means "God is my Strength." Anyways, I thought that was pretty cool.

If you like this chapter press the vote button! It only takes a second and I really appreciate it.

Thanks everyone who's reading! And thanks for all the sweet comments :)

P.S. this is unedited so sorry for any mistakes