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the students' arrival to hogwarts castle consisted of extremely bad weather. rainy, thundering skies clouded them but that didn't stop ricky and his friends' comforting feeling of being back where they belonged.
"i'd definitely dread having to cross the black lake in this weather." seb shivered as they walked into the great hall. he had been gazing at the ceiling which had been bewitched to look exactly like the sky outside, imitating it's conditions.
"what are you talking about?? it'd be brilliant!" ricky exclaimed with a smirk as they took their seats at the gryffindor table.
"how you're this positive and confident with everything, i'll never know." ashlyn sighed with a chuckle
"a true gryffindor!" ricky exclaimed in triumph
"well, let's just hope the sorting's quick this year. i'm starving." big red groaned, looking around the hall to see all the students taking their seats and chatting amongst themselves as they awaited the first year students to enter.
"hey, look there's the new defense against the dark arts teacher." ashlyn pointed out, nodding towards the teacher's table at the end of the hall.
"think he'll be better than last year's?" ricky asked interested, analyzing the older man who was talking with professor flitwick
"hopefully." seb hummed with a shrug before noticing a pair of eyes on them from the slytherin table "hey, ash...isn't that your cousin?"
the red-haired girl stiffened at the question and slowly shifted her gaze behind her to see the raven-haired boy glaring at her - from what she'd assumed. but when she followed to where he was looking, she glanced at ricky.
"yes, but...surprisingly it's not me he's focused on."
"what do you mean?" ricky asked
"he's giving the death stare to you." she whispered at the boy
he raised an eyebrow, moving his eyes to get a look at the slytherin table for a split second before he returned his focus to his friends "me?? whats his problem with me?? what did i do??"
before he could say anything, the two large doors of the entrance to the hall opened up and the group of first year students followed professor mcgonagall towards the end. they all had their faces filled with awe and excitement as they took in their surroundings before finally reaching the sorting hat that was resting on a stool.
as the sorting went on and each house received their new additions of students, dumbledore stood up to his stand to welcome the new students as usual, telling them about how the forbidden forest was - unless obvious - forbidden and that the whomping willow was off limits as well.
ashlyn gave ricky a warning look when saying these things. she knew how reckless he was when it came to rules. and to her disappointment, the curly-haired boy smiled back innocently. to which she knew for sure that this year wasn't going to be a peaceful one
