𝐈𝐍 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐒𝐇𝐀𝐃𝐎𝐖 𝐎𝐅 𝐇𝐄𝐑 || 𝐒𝐞𝐛𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐚𝐧 𝐒𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐨𝐰

Chapter Five: The first day

Chapter Five

The next morning when Matty awoke, the dorm room was still empty. She assumed her dormmates had already gotten up and gotten ready for their day. She yawned and got up, walking over to the mirror. "I've looked worse before." She said to herself upon seeing her appearance. Her hair was wild from the adventures of the previous day and from sleeping on it. So, she just fixed it up a bit and said it was good enough.

After freshening up a bit, she walked outside of her dorm room to see several students in the common room. "Perhaps I should go and introduce myself to a few of them." She said, walking down the stairs. She wanted to make a good impression on her first day, so maybe this was the right choice.

Coming down the stairs, Matty looked around the common room. She heard a few people whispering about her and how it was weird to start as a fifth-year, but she just ignored them and continued her way down. The first thing that caught her eye was a girl near the corner of the room who seemed to be struggling with a spell.

"I don't know what I'm doing wrong! It's not a complicated spell. I should be able to do it non-verbally! Why is this not working?" The girl grumbled. Matty walked over to her.

The girl quickly noticed Matty. "Oh, hello there! Welcome to Gryffindor. I'm Cressida."

Matty smiled; Cressida seemed nice. "Pleasure to meet you, Cressida. I'm Matty." She said with a smile.

"Splendidly theatrical arrival to the Sorting Ceremony last evening. Made it in by the skin of your teeth!" Cressida said. Matty let out a nervous chuckle, it seemed many more people recognized that she was late than she thought. "Is it true that you are Professor Fig's protégé?" She asked with a hopeful smile.

This caught Matty a bit off guard. What was she to Professor Fig? A student? A protégé? She had no idea; she just knew he had been her mentor for a month. "I'm not really sure honestly. I did study quite a bit with him before arriving here. But I'm not sure if I'd classify myself as a protégé." She chuckled lightly.

"Blast! I was hoping he might've given you some advice on nonverbal casting." Cressida said with a sigh.

"Oh. Is that what you were trying to do just a moment ago?" Matty asked, pointing to the hat that Cressida was trying to cast a spell on earlier.

Cressida nodded her head with a solemn sigh. "Yes. Having a spot of trouble. I've mastered the charm using incantation, but this is proving a bit trickier." She said, looking disappointedly at the hat she was using.

Matty gave a cheerful smile to Cressida. "I'm sure Professor Fig would love to give you some tips on nonverbal casting. And I'm sure you'll get it in the end."

"Oh. I hope so!" Cressida said. "Professor Ronen's sure to be very impressed." She spoke. Matty had no idea who Professor Ronen was but because Cressida had mentioned charms earlier, she assumed that Professor Ronen was the charms professor.

"Good luck with it! It was nice meeting you Cressida!"

Matty walked away from where Cressida was and immediately another girl caught her eye. This girl was standing on the fireplace-several feet above the ground. Everyone around her was telling her to get down before she fell. Matty grinned to herself, she knew she had to speak to this girl. She was the kind of person Matty was hoping to meet at school.

The moment Matty walked over to the fireplace, the girl jumped down right in front of her with a big grin on her face, looking around at the students around them. "Why is everyone so highly strung? It's perfectly safe!" She spoke, and she looked up at Matty. "Well, hello!"