Enchanted by freckles - short stories

Story 23 - Metamorphmagus

Sebbi's point of view ( 4th grade):

Eddie and I got along splendidly again and every now and then I accompanied him and Venia on an exploration tour. Shortly after the summer holidays, they both revealed their relationship with each other, which made me very happy, because Venia was actually nice.

After breaking up with Mary, she had immediately started dating a Hufflepuff guy. I, however, didn't want to jump straight into the next relationship, so I waited. There was one girl who piqued my interest, but we had not been in contact with each other and had only spoken a few words.

I caught myself being too shy to talk to her.

After the Christmas holidays, I decided to attend a Saturday choir rehearsal. I wanted to have a hobby where I didn't just stick my nose in books.

Eddie played Quidditch, and had a permanent place on the team secured, but he refused it because he didn't fancy the constant practices, so he only filled in sometimes when someone else was off.

I wasn't bad either, but like Eddie, I didn't want to go to training all the time. Sammy was different from us in that way. He and Tessy had applied directly this year, and both made it into the team. Tessy as a chaser, and Sammy as a seeker, which made Grandpa Edvin especially proud.

But while Eddie was now concentrating more on Venia, brewing and the animal creatures, I continued to look for a proper hobby.

I went to the room Aunt Matilda had told me about and knocked shyly on the door.

"Come in." said a feminine voice. I opened the door and saw that the choir didn't seem to be led by a teacher at all, but by a Hufflepuff prefect.

"Ah, the new arrival. Why don't you introduce yourself?" she said kindly and waved me into the room.

I turned bright red, and stood next to her. "Hi, I'm Sebastian Weasley-Sallow, Gryffindor and in the 4th year," I said, a little embarrassed. I really hated rounds of introductions like that. Especially because even after the years I'd been at Hogwarts now, students would always raise their eyes a little at the mention of my name, asking the same questions over and over again.

I wasn't ashamed, for my family, or for Papa himself. Quite the opposite. He was a brilliant person, teacher and father, but these questions became annoying at some point, but I guess that's how he felt at the time too.

But the reaction now, was different than I expected. The few students who were here just smiled kindly and welcomed me into their group. Presumably they would just ask the questions later.

"I'm Stacy Diggory, and prefect student. I'm directing the choir this year.", Stacy said with a smile, "Oh, and we'll dispense with those formal speeches here. I'm just being Stacy. So Sebastian, you'd best watch and join in once you have a rough understanding of the rhythm, then we can work on the rest," she said with a smile and floated a chair over to me.

She led the small, well-balanced group in singing. I looked around at the people. There was also the cute Ravenclaw girl from my year standing on the side. But she looked different from what I knew her to be. Her hair was normally quite dark, but right now it was dyed a pink that reminded me of papa's strawberry cream candies.

The group was surprisingly well-balanced. There were many young students, and many who seemed to be about to graduate, and almost equal numbers of girls and boys.

I listened to them and began to worry that I was singing too badly. However, Uncle Ominis, who had a very sensitive hearing, said that my voice was absolutely fine and that I should give it a try.