"An Introduction"
Hogwarts Castle
September 3rd
1996
All Julia Morgan really wanted was some quiet, alone time to complete her already sky-high pile of homework. The only problem was: where could she do it? It seemed the start of their sixth year was going to be extremely busy. It didn't help that the N.E.W.T homework was way harder than her old homework, so it took twice as long.
Julia walked through the halls, clutching her homework binder and quill to her chest. She was walking slowly, looking through the halls to find a place to work. The library was her usual spot; but some annoying third years were practicing their spells their quite noisily. The Ravenclaw common room wasn't much better; there, it didn't matter how quiet you were. You could be as loud as you pleased.
Her dormitory also wasn't quiet, as her roommates were redecorating their dorm, lead by Julia's dorm mate Monica Petite.
Someone ran up to her from behind. It was Julia's best friend, Serenity Constantine.
Serenity was a Slytherin student who could be mean at sometimes, but Julia was helping her grow out of that. Serenity was making good progress, but that didn't mean that her old ways didn't lash out randomnly.
"Hey Jules!" Serenity said happily, running up to Julia and walking beside her. Julia looked at Serenity wearily. "Why are you so happy?" Julia asked.
Serenity shrugged. "Honestly, not sure. It just feels like a happy day today." Serenity looked around. "Why are you just wandering around Hogwarts?"
Just when she said this, Mira Sharma of Gryffindor ran by, carrying another prank device that was probably supplied by Weasley's Wizard Wheezes, as Mira was friends with the troublesome twins.
"Hey, hey!" Julia called after Mira. Mira stopped in annoyance. "What?" Mira asked, annoyed.
"It's only the second day of school, you can't set off a prank already!" Julia said sternly. Mira rolled her eyes. "Sure, Mom. I'm just having some fun, it's a harmless prank." Mira eyed the homework in Julia's arms and chuckled. "Julia, you're already completing that stuff?"
"I like to get ahead." Julia said defensively. Serenity was watching the conversation with the greatest interest.
Mira merely shrugged and walked away, the prank device still in her hands. Julia sighed.
Serenity shook her head. "Jules, you gotta let go. Pranks are awesome! Just let Mira do her thing." She paused. "She promised it was harmless."
Julia eyed a bench in a small alcove. "Perfect! A nice, quiet space to get some work done."
"Hey Serenity!" A voice said.
Serenity looked up and saw Amara Sani, a Slytherin girl in her year, wearing her Quidditch robes and motioning for Serenity to follow. Serenity waved goodbye to Julia, who barely noticed, and followed Amara.
"What's up?" Serenity asked.
"Didn't you hear?" Amara said. "Urquhart wants to see us to talk about Quidditch."
Serenity perked up even more and she and Amara ran out of the corridor.
"Ha, look. It's Charles Cheshire, that Hufflepuff dweeb." Amara snickered, pointing to Charles, who was sitting on a bench, talking to Quinnlyn Sloan, another Hufflepuff.
"Yeah." Serenity agreed, but then remembered Julia's attempts to help her stop being mean to kids and said, "Lets just go, Urquhart wants to see us, right?"
"Did you hear about Weasleys Wizard Wheezes?" Serenity asked, trying to make conversation on their way to the pitch.
Amara snorted. "That crap shop? The one run by Fred and George Weasley?"
Serenity nodded.
"Co-owned by that mud blood Elisa Granger?"
Serenity gasped. "Amara!"
Amara scrunched up her nose. "Why do you care?" She waved that away. "Who cares. I'll see you at practice."
Amara walked away, and Serenity watched as Charles Cheshire and Quinnlyn Sloane chatted away, unaware that Amara had just been making fun of them.
Julia Morgan had finally finished her Charms homework, and she leaned back in relief. She sat back up to find Elizabeth Garsen, a fourth year Ravenclaw, looking at her.
"Um, Julia?" Elizabeth said. "We have a bit of a problem in the common room."
Julia groaned, gathered her stuff and asked, "What happened?"
Elizabeth hurried up to Julia as they made their way to the Ravenclaw common room. "Luna Lovegood brought some exploding berries to test out, but they exploded all over the common room and everyone within twenty feet of the berries got coated in red jam." Elizabeth explained.
Julia and Elizabeth hurried up to the Ravenclaw common room entrance. "I follow you all the time and copy your every move, but you can't touch me or catch me. What am I?" The doorknocker asked.
"A shadow." Both Julia and Elizabeth said immediately, and the entrance to the common room opened. Julia stepped in to find Ravenclaw students of every age standing around, some covered in jam, which was slowly crystallizing, some laughing, some trying to clean up, and some shouting at Luna Lovegood.
Leyna White, a quiet Ravenclaw sixth year like Julia, was standing around, doing a non-verbal cleaning charm. Patches of jam were disappearing into thin air.
"Good job, Leyna." Julia complimented, and Leyna feebly smiled. Julia took out her wand, and together, her and Leyna finished cleaning the common room. The kids covered in jam, however, had to go take a shower, so half the common room cleared out.
It was now dinner, and Serenity Constantine was sitting at the Slytherin table, looking around the Great Hall. She saw Julia on the other side of the common room at the Ravenclaw table, sitting alone with her head in a book. Ansel Wu, a seventh year Ravenclaw, was pestering her with questions while she tried to ignore him. Draco Malfoy, another sixth year Slytherin, was sitting with his half-sister Lina. Everyone at Hogwarts knew the story of Lina Malfoy.
The table next to theirs was the Hufflepuff table, the house that Slytherins hated and made fun of. Elizabeth Scamander was recounting more creature tales to her fellow Hufflepuffs, as Quinnlyn Sloane, Seri Taylor and Logan Stewart listened intently.
Then Serenity found herself looking at the Gryffindor table, Slytherin's rival for who knew how long. Mathilda Starson was talking to Bella Lilley, who was a Slytherin. What was Bella doing talking to Mathilda, a Gryffindor? It was pretty well known that Bella was considered a blood traitor in her family.
Sitting across from the famous Harry Potter was Brial Losarn, looking as miserable as ever, which was quite strange, seeing as she was usually very happy and nice to everybody. Sitting next to Brial was Katherine Briar, who was trying to make conversation with the miserable Brial Losarn.
Back to the Harry Potter, he was now being called 'The Chosen One,', because now everyone believed him that You-Know-Who was back, ever since the Battle at the Ministry. Serenity had taken a large interest in the battle herself.
Serenity's gaze went back to the Slytherin table, where Anya Mishra was telling her Slytherin pals a funny story about something that had happened to her during the summer.
Long story short, it was just another normal Hogwarts day.
Hey guys! Hope you like this chapter, it was very easy and quick to write, seeing as its just the introduction. This chapter was meant to introduce you to all the OCs, and get a feel of how this book is going to be written.
Thanks!!
- g-lil-ginny
